an act of his power there is no such trouble nor cause of being cast down but you may take comfort under that state for that God may sometimes withdraw and suspend his love and favour meerly upon an act of his power In peace-offerings there was oyle mixt not so in sin offerings because there is no peace nor comfort in suffering for our faults as God to shew the goodnesse of his Will sometimes gives assurance so to shew the absolutenesse and liberty of his Will he sometimes withdraws it You read of the desertion of the Church in Cant. 5. 5 6. I rose up to open to my beloved but my beloved was gone he had withdrawn himself my soul failed when he spake I sought him but I could not find him I called him but he gave me no answer Now this was an act of Justice in Christ to withdraw himself Jesus Christ he knocked until his head was filled with the dew and his locks with the drops of the night and yet she would not open to him therefore Christ as an act of Justice might withdraw himself to punish them for sin because the Spouse would not let Christ come in when he knocked and then you read of the desertion of the Church not as an act of Justice for the punishment of sin but as an act of his meer power Cant. 3. 1. By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loved I sought him but I could not find him Now if thy conscience can tell thee that thou art careful in thy duties towards God and thy heart is upright and to labour to walk exactly and yet thou canst not see thy comforts appearing now thou mayest say peradventure yea thou mayest say without all peradventure it is not an act of Justice but an act of power that he withdraweth his favour and the light of his countenance from thy soul 2. God may withdraw his love and favour from the soul not for any displeasure that he hath to them but out of an act of love to try his own peoples love to him as a mother a tender-hearted mother many times runs behind the door from her child in a corner and hides her self but it is not because she is angry with her child but to try the strength of her childs love in seeking after the mother so God he may withdraw his love from the souls of his people but it is not from any anger but from love to his people for to try the strength of his peoples graces and to try their love in seeking of him God tryes your graces strength in going after Christ and your graces love in looking after Jesus Christ it was so in Joseph unto which I may allude Gen. 42. 7. it is said that Joseph he spake roughly to them or hard things with them that is to his brethren and he cast them into prison for three dayes ver 17. Now all this his dealing with his brethren was not for want of love to them but it was to try the affections of his brethren and to cause them to call to mind their former unkindnesse Thus God deals many times with his own people he doth withdraw his love and suspend his favour and with-hold the light of his countenance to try the strength of his peoples graces and the strength of his peoples love to him see Luke 24. 28. when the two Disciples were going to a Village and Christ came and walked with them and when they came nigh unto the Village whether they were going Christ seemed as though he would have gone further but this action of Christ it was to try the love of his two Disciples whether they would presse him to make him stay with them so God may withdraw the beams of his love he may suspend his divine favour to this end to try the love of his people how they will long after him and much desire his love to their souls 3. God may suspend his favour because there may be more of Gods fatherly love in withdrawing his love then in manifesting his love in some cases unto the souls of his people and that in these two particulars 1. When a man doth injoy the sense of Gods love and that injoyment makes him to be spiritually proud then it is in mercy to with-hold his love and favour when he cannot injoy the sense of Gods love without the sense of spiritual pride it is in this case great love Job 33. 17. That he may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride from man it is in the Hebrew That he removeth his works from man c. lest men should be proud of Gods grace and proud of comforts God will keep him from the comforts of his grace and in this case it is great mercy to have the love of God withdrawn when to have it continued Gods people would grow proud a little Boat cannot bear a great Sail without sinking nor a weak vessel strong liquor without breaking some of Gods people are like to little vessels you know that little boats are like to weak vessels Weak Christians they are not able to bear strong comforts to put strong liquor in weak bottles is the way to break them so to put strong manifestations strong comforts into weak souls would soon break them God sees that sometimes his people are not able to bear nor able to use comforts and divine manifestations well and in this case it is great mercy when you cannot bear them then to be without them for then the want of comfort doth make you more eager after Jesus Christ then when you do injoy it many times the injoyment of comfort makes you to grow secure and to grow carelesse whereas the want of comfort maketh you the more eager for to look after it Non-deserit ut deseratur deserit potius ne deseratur ideo videtur deserere quia non vult deseri God doth sometimes forsake that so he might not be forsaken and he doth seemingly forsake that his people might not forsake him As it is credulis misericordia cruel mercy for a wicked man to have hopes and presumption of heaven and yet go to hell so 't is misericors crudelitas merciful cruelty that a godly man should lie under fear of Hell and yet go to heaven 2. The suspension of Gods love and favour is in love when it doth make thee to prize Jesus Christ more in the want of him then thou didst in the enjoyment of him the Lord doth many times bring his own people into great wants and expose them to great exigencies and streights that they might the more prize mercy and be the more eager in the pursute after it and not to grow proud when they have it you read Deut. 32. 13. He made them to ride on the high places of the earth that he might eat the fruits of the field and he made him to suck honey out of the rocks and oyle out of the flinty rock
92 Want of outward mercies 6 Considerations to quiet the heart under it 142 Wicked men go to sinful shifts 179. Wicked men sin and are not troubled 10 Causes 195 The godly why troubled for sin more then comforted with their graces 5 Reasons When they may be said to be too much disquieted for sin in 7. particulars 194. ERRATA PAge 2. line 32. dele from Reasonings to why art thou disquieted XVII SERMONS Preached by Mr. CHRISTOPHER LOVE out of Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God ALthough the Book of Psalmes is compiled into one Volume and called Acts 1. 20. the book of Psalms In the Hebrew there are five books of Psalms they are divided into five books The first book of Psalms according to the Hebrew is from the first Psalm to the end of Psalm 41. And it is concluded with Amen and Amen Secondly The Hebrews doe account the second Book of Psalms to begin at Psal 42. unto Psal 72. And that you find also to conclude with Amen and Amen And the end of Davids prayers The third book of Psalms doth begin at the end of Psal 72. to Psal 89 and there you find it doth conclude with Amen and Amen The fourth book of Psalms you have its beginning from Psal 89. unto Psal 106. and there also it is concluded with Amen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Halelu-jah or praise the Lord. The fifth or Last book of Psalms is from the 106. to Psal 150. the last Psalm in the book of Psalms And this also ended with Halelu-jah My Text it falleth under that Psalm that begins the second book and Interpreters do differ much about the occasion this Psalm was pen'd on Generally Interpreters agree in this that it was penned by David either when he was fleeing before Saul for then David was sore troubled and driven from his house and habitation and was by reason of his enemies driven from the worship of God from the place of Gods publike worship and was forced to hide himselfe in dens and caves of the earth now in that sad Condition that he was then in it may be supposed that he made this Psalm Or else it was made in that time when he was fain to flee for his life before his son Absolom when he was in danger of his life at one of these times do Interpreters conceive it was when David made this Psalm and most do agree that it was made when David was deprived of the publike worship of God But I now come to the words themselves Why art thou cast down O my soul c. My Text containes in it a pathetical Soliloquie that this Psalmist useth unto his own soul as it were two friends when he doth reason and confer with himself and that is when the more supernatural part of man the more excellent and more noble part of man doth confer and reason with the more inferiour part of man or the outward part of man Why art thou cast down and disquieted with u me As a man that should direct his speech to one that he desireth to reason withall So here David to commune with his own heart doth use such like reasonings as he should under all his afflictions and under all his troubles why he should be troubled and why his soul should be troubled and cast down and disquieted within him Why art thou disquieted c. These words I say they are a Soliloquie whereby he doth labour for to cheer him under all that trouble of soul that he found to be within himself These are exceeding usefull to your souls This course you find that David tooke in other places at other times Psal 103. 1. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within mee blesse his holy name See here how the Psalmist doth call to his soul to blesse the name of God and at another time when he would check his own soul for his negligence and for his miscariage before the Lord he saith I was as a beast before him and the Scripture tells us that the people of God have and do check their own hearts before God for any one sinne when they find the least miscarriage in themselves they then do check themselves for it Why art thou cast down O my soul c. Now in general I shall lay down these five particulars to be considered about the words First Why or what may be the reason that this text is three times used in this Psalm and in the next whereas you do not find two verses of the same length used in all the book of Psalms besides in the 5th verse of this 42. Psalm and in the text the 11th verse and in the 5th verse of Psal 43 there are the same words Why art thou cast down O my soul c. there is no Psalm that makes such a repetition of words but only Psalm 107. besides this in the whole book of Psalms there is often repeated O that men would praise the Lord c. Now what may this teach us that David doth so often make mention of his own soul why it should not be cast down and disquieted and troubled Now surely the frequent mention of this text and words doth argue and note unto us the waightinesse of the matter Now things of lesse moment are less spoken of and are but toucht on but things of greater moment are more thought and spoke of and oftner repeated with the more eagerness and earnestnesse as in these words Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me 2. When and on what occasion were these words spoken Was it at that time when David was persecuted by the hands of Saul when he was banished from his own house and from the publike and set-assemblies of the worship of God verse 2. and for this cause was it that his soul was cast down and disquieted within him When he had holy breathings after God in his publike worship O when shall I appear before God and when I remember those things my soul is troubled this surely was one thing that troubled his soul The David he was in affliction and trouble when affliction did come upon the Church of God some deep and great Calamitie one after another one deep of affliction comes after another Deepe calleth to deepe at the noise of the water-spouts ver 7. one after another trouble after trouble sorrow after sorrow affliction after affliction this was that which troubled his soul Tribulatio tribulationem parit Musculus as one Wave in the Sea follows another so did one trouble follow another as v. 7. Again when he made this Psalm it was at that time when deep sorrows and troubles of the Church lay upon him and that by reason of great enemies that he met withall as is recorded
v. 9. Why hast thou forgotten me why goe I mourning because of the oppession of the enemy And yet even then in this great and sad condition of trouble that was upon him did he breath out this sweet ejaculation or Soliloquie Why art thou troubled O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Therefore observe by the way that the people of God have many times to their great comfort cause in the midst of their greatest troubles and sorrows to have these divine meditations in their minds that their souls be not cast down too much under trouble Why said David notwithstanding he was in great trouble yet Why art thou cast down O my soul So you read that Paul that he did write most of his Epistles when he was under bonds in prison and trouble and yet even then was his heart filled with joy to his great comfort So David his heart was better within him at that time when he was in a Cave then at that time when he was in a Palace and though troubles were upon him yet he could then call to his soul not to be troubled within him Thirdly Davids troubles was from the Divel and from wicked men that did oppress him Wicked men opprest him and the Divel tempted him yet David chides his own heart and nothing else David did not chide at Saul nor chide at Absalom but he checks and chides his own heart Why art thou cast down O my soul Though the Divel and wicked men the one do tempt the other do oppresse as instruments of punishment for sin yet we with David are to chide our own hearts David had cause to chide at Absalom and to chide at Saul yet he doth not so but chiefly checks his own heart Why art thou east down O my soul c. Fourthly Consider what though in our translations the words are translated and rendered positively Why art thou cast down yet in the Original they are rendered actively we read it Why art thou cast down c. But in the Original it is read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why bowest or pressest thou down thy self my soul and why tumults thou against me As Arias Montanus Cur humiliasti te Cur deprimes te anima mea So Lorinus Pro. 12. 25. And the words so read they do intimate thus much that Gods own people may be cast down too much for the sense of sinne and they are most active in their own defection It is not God nor the Divel that cast thee down but Why dost thou cast down thy self to Create more trouble on thy self then either God doth inflict or the Divel tempt thee too In the words themselves there are three parrticulars to be considered First Here is a twofold distresse complained of differing gradually from each other disquiet being more then cast down cur tumultuaberis Secondly Here is a twofold duty to be performed hope in God and praise of God Thirdly Here is a twofold encouragement in these distesses he is the health of my countenance and my God Why art thou cast down O my soul Or if you read it in the active voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What dost thou cast down thy self my soul Believers are agents in their own sorrow and trouble neither God by inflicting nor the Divell in tempting doth so much trouble us as we our selves In Prov. 12. 25. Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop c. the sense of sin casteth him down in Gods presence First Casting down it is sometimes in a good sense that is when the soul is duly humbled before God for sin and for judgement as in 2 Cor. 7. 6. God that comforteth those that are cast down c. that is that are cast down in humiliation for sin under the sense of sin and miserie and in this sense David did never nor doth not here check his heart for he never checked his heart for the exercise of grace and doing his duty Secondly It is also sometimes taken in a bad sense where sorrow for sin is inordinate and more then is required and enjoyned where this is found it is not to be cherished but checked and so for this it was that David did check himself as in the text Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me These words in the explaining thereof treating on them will be of singular use to the people of God Therefore I intend to spend some time upon them I shall at this time make entrance into the first part of the text Why art thou cast down or why dest thou cast down thy self my soul Doctrine The Doctrine that I shall draw from these words is this That the Children of God though they cannot be cast off yet they may be cast down Why art thou cast down O my soul There are five particulars why Davids soul was cast down in this Psalm As first He mourneth because of his enforced absence from Gods publike worship that they could not gather together in the place where God was to be worshipped See the breathing of this good man in verse 2. of Psalm 42. my soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before him So in the 4th verse When I remember these things I poure out my soul in me for I had gone with the multitude I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise with a multitude that kept holy-day David was deprived of the publike worship of God and this made him mourn Secondly His soul was cast down under the sense of sinne that he had committed against God and the evil effects of sin to remember what he had done against God and he felt the sense of the wrath of God in the remembrance of sin Thirdly He lay under the eclipse and sad suspension of divine favour in the ninth verse I will say unto God My rock why hast thou forgotten me The apprehensions of the suspensions of Gods favour made Davids soul to be cast down within him because he lay under the loss of Gods love and favour and he wanted the light of Gods countenance this made him mourn Fourthly Because of the opprâ—sion and prevailing of the enemies over the people of God verse 4. Fifthly He was grieved more for sin then personal afflictions because of the reproach blasphemies and dishonour that was cast upon the name of God by other men which made him say As with a sword or with killing in my bones my enemies reproach me while they say daily to me where is thy God So likewise in the 3. verse My tears have been my meat day and night while they continually say unto me where is thy God All this sheweth that he was more troubled about spiritual troubles then outward afflictions of the body blasphemie against God is as a sword in his bones when troubles on himselfe was but as a scratch in
the flesh And this should teach you all that if you be at any time troubled and cast down be sure that you be with David cast down and troubled more for spiritual things then for outward personal sufferings The dishonour that was done to the name of God was as a sword in Davids bones In the handling of this Doctrine I shall shew you for what it is that the souls of the children of God that are not cast off may be cast down And that I shall lay down more generally and it shall be as the foundation of the following discourse and that is in these four particulars First Though they may not be cast off yet they may be cast down for the greatness and grievousness of sin that is the great cause why the souls of the people of God are cast down Secondly Because of the want of the love of God and the assurance of pardoning grace Thirdly Because of the afflictions and calamitous condition of the Church and people of God Fourthly Because of those outward and personal afflictions of the body these I shall only name because they are as the foundation of the following discourse First The souls of the children of God they may be cast down though they cannot be cast off under the sight and sense of sin the great reason why I treat upon this subject is that it may be as an appendix to that subject concerning the pardon of sin In the handling of this doctrine concerning the casting down of the soul for the sight and sense of the greatnesse and grievousnesse of his sin there are many particulars to be considered First I shall shew you what this casting down for sin is Secondly What sort of men they are that God doth cast down and humble in the sight and sense of sin Thirdly When may Gods people be said for to be too much cast down in the sight and sense of sin Fourthly How may we discern between the casting down for sin of the godly and the casting down for sin of wicked and reprobate men seeing that Gods people are cast down for sin and wicked men not cast down for sin at all Fifthly What reasons may be given that the souls of Gods people that shall not be cast off yet they may be cast down under the sight and sense of sin Sixthly What rules may be laid down unto the people of God that they may not be cast down too much under the burden and sight and sense of sin and so to run into dejection of mind by reason of sin I shall begin with the first of these namely What this casting down for sin is I told you in the beginning that there is a casting down For sin first When God casts down the soul by way of humiliation for sin And this I told you is a casting down for sin in a good sense when sorrow of sin is mixt with faith Then secondly There is a casting down for sin in a bad sense and that is when the soul is cast down so for sin as that it cannot at that time look towards Jesus Christ with an eye of faith for pardon of sin and to be fully perswaded of taking the forgivenesse of sin by Jesus Christ and this sort of humiliation is that you are to check your hearts for Secondly What sort of men they are that God doth most cast down for sin and this I shall lay down by nine or ten particulars There are nine or ten sorts of men which God doth most humble and cast down for sin First Those that have been most notorious for sin most infamous for sin and who have been most scandalous in their lives before conversion God doth usually bring them home with tempestuous alarms in their consciences Thus Manasseth he was high in sin and great in iniquity and abomination but low in the sight of his own sins and God useth more harsh and more rough means by bringing in grosse and notorious ill livers those that will set their faces against heaven enraged persecutors and exposers of God and his truth that goe on resolutely and stubornly and frowardly in the waies of sin God when he calls such home he layeth them low and humbleth them deeply under the sight and sense of past provocations So Paul he was a high and a great and a notorious sinner before his conversion he was a great persecutor of the Church and people of God he was an injurious person and he was a blasphemer he did not care what wrong and what havock he made of the Church of God he persecuted his people from one City to another and cast them into prison and laboured to put both Christians and Religion out of remembrance Now Paul he being such a notorious sinner and so abounding in sin when he is brought home by conversion God must use him more severely and deal more sharply with him and humble him greatly and lay him low in the sight and sense of his own vilenesse and under the greatnesse of his own sinfulnesse God must unhorse Paul in meeting him in the way he was riding to accomplish his evil designes and as he was going to vex the people of God I say God must cast him down to the ground and lay him upon his face and make him cry Lord what wilt thou have me to doe as you may read the story at large in Acts 9. And the great reason is this because as his cruelty was manifest so God would make his repentance and humiliation to be manifest as his sin was not only as his sins was against a great God so his humiliation and repentance should be manifested to be great but also as his sins was so great an offence to men that feared God so his humiliation and repentance should be great and manifested before them that were so offended by him at his course this humiliation and horror is his spiritual penance to the world makes repentance more visible And If I now speak to any of you here that have been or still are notorious in sin and wickednesse that have sinned greatly if ever God bring you home by effectual calling and conversion he will lay you low by humiliation and cast you down greatly under the sight and sense and sorrow for sin that as your sins have been great so your sorrow shall be great That instance spoken concerning Lydia is worthy your observation in Acts 16. v. 14. 29 c. there you read of two persons that were converted yet in a different way one from the other You read of Lydia in the 14th verse A certain woman named Lydia a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira which worshipped God heard as whose heart the Lord opened that shee attended to the things that were spoken of Paul This woman shee was Converted in a very easie way and manner in comming to hear Paul preach and at this time the Lord opened her heart Here was conversion
seeming pleasure in the committing of sin It is a notable instance that you read of in Eccles 7. 25. 26. I applied my heart to know and to search and to seek out wisdome and the reason of things and to know the wickedness of folly even of foolishness and madness And I find more bitter then death the woman whose heart is snares and nets and her hands as bands whoso pleaseth God or who so is good before God shall espape from her but the sinner shall be taken by her Here Solomon applied his heart to find out the deceits of sin as if he had said I have studied to know the secret snares and the private nets that sin laies for to catch sinners and in a special manner Ilaboured to know the secret mischief of that sin of adultery For you read that he had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines 1 Kings 11. 3. And when God made him see the evil of that sin and cast him down under the sense of that sin then he could say that I find a thing more bitter then death a harlot whose heart is snares and nets and then he could say that it was folly and wickedness and madness Now when God doth cast down his people under the sight and sense of sin he doth bring them to see and to make them to confesse with Solomon that sin is more bitter then death and to confesse that there is more evil in the least sin then there can be seeming pleasure and profit and contentment in the commission of it the hearts of the people of God have never tasted of the bitternesse of sin until that God doth lay them low and cast them down under the weight and sense of sin and by this means he makes them to see how bitter a thing sin is Seventhly God doth this to make wicked men afraid to commit sin and this is done in mercy to them did they but consider of it may not wicked men reason thus to themselves why if God doth use his own people so for sin what may I expect at Gods hands if God doth cast down his own people under the sense and under the sight of sin what may I expect from his hands who do so delight in sin which his own people suffer so for surely if God casteth down his own people under the sight and under the apprehension of sin then surely I may expect to be cast off for sin if they be cast down to the ground for sin I shall be cast into hell for sin doth he cast them down in the apprehension of Hell surely he may cast me down to the possession of Hell and have not I cause to be cast downe for sinne that shall be cast off for sin if his own people do shed tears for sin then surely I should shed blood for sin and if they be cast down for sin that shall never be wholly rejected shall not I be cast down for sin whose sins shall make me be rejected So that I say God in his casting down his own people he doth it out of mercy to wicked men that they thereby may beware and not venture to commit sin against God And thus I have in those seven particulars answered this fifth question why the people of God those who shall never be cast off may yet be cast down under the sight and sense of sin Question 6 The sixth and last question I am to handle is this What Theological rules may be laid down to the people of God that they may not be too much cast down for sin under the sight and sense and burden of it nor be too much dejected under it Now in answer to this query consider these particulars Rule 1 First Rule is this Do not expect so much sorrow and casting down for sin as some other men have had and the reason why I give you this Rule is this because that some of the people of God will thus reason I must be thus and thus cast down for sin and I must have such a degree and such a measure of humiliation because I see other men have so and I must have such a sight of sin and lie so low for sin because other men do so and what shall not I do so shall not I lie so low shall not I be so humbled for sin as I see others are I have as many sins as they and I have as great sins as they and my sins are accompanied with as hainous circumstances as theirs are and therefore why should not I be humbled as they are Now consider What and if others have been cast down more then thou hast been what is this to thy humiliation for sin for other mens degree and other mens manner and measure of humiliation is not to be a rule for thee to humble thy self by for it may be others that have had such a degree of humiliation and casting down for sin they have been more notorious in sin and they it may be have more rugged natures and are of a more stubborn temper then thou art of it may be thy temper is more flexible and more pliable and more yielding and more easily wrought upon then others have been therefore there is not required such a degree and measure of humiliation as they require it may be thou caust not bear that which others can that ballaste will but serve a Ship would overload a little Boat therefore do not reason thus with thy self to compare thy casting down for sin with others least thou dost cast thy selfe too low for sin other men it may be do contract more sin then thou dost and it may be thou hast not so stifled thy conscience as they have done and it may be thou hast not committed those sins that they have committed and it may be thou hast not laid waste thy conscience as they have done and thou it may be hast not been so ill a liver as they have been therefore thou dost not need so great a measure of humiliation for sin as they have had need of You have an expression therefore 1 Pet. 1. 6. if need be ye are in heavineinss through manifold temptations God in his wisdome sees some men that they stand in need yea in more need of a greater measure of affliction casting down for sin then others have need of It may be some men have more spiritual pride of parts and gifts and graces and more guilt lying upon them then thou hast Rule 2 The Second rule is this by way of direction Rest satisfied in thy conscience though thou maiest not find the measure of thy humiliation yet if thou find the end of thy humiliation rest satisfied in that if in thy humiliation thou dost desire to be truly humbled for sin and if thou dost desire to lay thy self low in the presence of God if thou dost desire to abhor thy self in regard of the sinfulness of thy nature and life and if
the body also there is such a sympathy between the body and the soul that the one cannot be troubled and cast down but the other is so also for when the body of Christ was troubled his soul was troubled also when the People of God have melancholy and troubled thoughts it doth trouble and disturb the body as well as the minde it weakeneth the body and lesseneth that joy that they should have in God and puts the whole man out of order and therefore it is very observable what David speaketh and I shall lay it down to those that are troubled under the dejections of minde for sin for those very men that cast down themselves for sin excessively this also doth disturb and trouble the body In Psal 32. 4. I kept silence and my moisture is turned into the drought of summer And it is more fully set forth in Psal 38. 3 4 5. There is no soundness in my flesh by reason of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones by reason of my sin for mine iniquities are gone over my head as a heavy burden they are too heavie for me and I go mourning all the day Here for too much dejection followeth a bodily disease and distemper as in ver 7. My loyns are filled with a lothsome disease and there is no soundness in my flesh And many Interpreters do hold that his trouble in minde his being cast down so much under his sin was the cause of his bodily disease So again in Psal 39. 8 9. Deliver me from my transgressions there was his inward deje ction his trouble for sin And in ver 10. Remove thy stroke away from me I am consumed by the blow or conflict of thy hand When God with rebukes for sin makes him see his wrath in the sight of sin that by this means he may not continue in sin and thou to cast down thy self excessively under the apprehensions of sin this doth not only disturb the minde but also destroy the body I mention this not that I would that any should cast off godly sorrow for sin provided that it be kept within its due bounds for sorrow for sin in a due measure it neither troubleth the minde nor distempereth nor afflicteth the body but it is excessive sorrow for sin that casteth down the soul and causeth distempers to arise in the body therefore reason with thy soul against it Sixthly Reason thus with thy own soul consider O my soul opposition against sin rather then excessive casting down for sin is that God accepteth and is more pleased withall Christians are very apt to think and believe that if they be thus and thus cast down for sin and so much humbled and cast down for sin they do great matters and yet in the mean time they do not conflict and contest with and against their lusts and constantly oppose their sin to be so far humbled to be so far dejected for sin as may encourage the soul to fight against sin this is that which is well-pleasing to God When the men of Israel did flee before the men of Ai in the seventh Chap. of Joshua Joshua fell upon his face and rent his clothes now said God to Joshua Get thee up wherefore fallest thou upon thy face ver 10. so saith God to you to thy soul that is dejected and excessively cast down for sin Wherefore fall ye down upon your faces on the ground in a dejected condition for sin get you up so say to thy soul why dost thou fall upon thy face why dost thou deject thy self why dost thou mourn excessively for sin get thee up God had rather see the soul to be up and to be fighting against corruption then to be down on thy face in too low a dejection for sin It is with thy soul as with a Souldier a Generall had rather see his Souldiers up and fighting against their common enemy then to lie upon the ground wounded and cast down crying by reason of their wounds so God had rather see the souls of his People to be up and to be fighting against their corruptions and lusts their common enemies to their salvation then to be down upon their faces on the ground under an excessive casting down for sin Seventhly Reason thus with thy self O my soul why art thou dejected under the sight and sense of sin consider it is not the measure of humiliation nor the degrees of it but the truth of humiliation that God accepts of and maketh promise of acceptance to Therefore do not lie so low under so sad a dejection the Lord doth make the greatest promises to the least measure and degree of faith though thy faith be little and thy graces small yet the least and the weakest measure and degree of grace God accepts Though there are many that go to Hell for want of truth of grace in the habit yet never any go to Hell for want of degrees of grace in the act if there be but the least beginnings of grace God accepts of that if it be but faith as a grain of Mustard-seed that is faith so a little Tree may be as truly called a Tree as the greatest though it wants that degree of greatness yet it is a Tree for all that so a little grace a little seed of faith as a grain of Mustard-seed may as truly and as properly be called true faith as the strongest faith though it want the degrees of it God hath his bottle for them that shed few tears as well as for them that make their heads a fountain of water though thy grace be but as a bruised reed and as smoking flax yet that bruised reed and that smoking flax shall not be quenched nor the bruised reed broken in Isa 42. 3. a bruised reed he shall not break and the smoking flax he shall not quench though grace be very weak and very little and small as a bruised reed and as smoking flax or dimly burning for so the word signifieth yet God will strengthen the one and kindle the other and will not reject these small beginnings of grace though they appear to be so dim as scarcely to be discerned Though God doth not make promises to sinners as in that state yet God doth make promises to sinners as they have grace though never so weak and small therefore why shouldst thou give way to too much trouble of minde Use The Use that I shall make is this to let you know that the Scripture doth in joyn you not only to check your hearts for and to use holy reasonings against your excessive dejection and casting down for sin but also you must reason your selves into a way of believing many Christians will reason why they should believe and why they should be comforted and why they should be cast down but why they are excessively cast down they have no reason at all but this because they must be so and that you must have the one as well as
the other Now what reason can those Christians give that make conscience of all their ways and labour to live usefull in all their relations and to live in the use of Ordinances and to walk close with God in all their ways what reason have they to be too much cast down for sin Therefore as you will reason for believing and comfort so also you must reason against excessive casting down for sin for to do this you have no reason you must shew reasons of your dejections as well as of your assurance and perswasions Wicked men come and ask them concerning Heaven they will tell you that they are sure of Heaven and then ask their reason wherefore they think so they can give you no reason at all therefore that is presumption So good men are apt under too much dejection of spirit to say that they shall goe to hell and be cast off from Heaven but ask them a good reason they can give none at all And this is a sin on the other side I would ask such doubting Christians upon serious thoughts because you are apt to think you shall goe to hell can you say that you have no more reason in you then wicked reprobates have And can you say that you are guilty of those actual sins that are impossible to stand with a principle of true grace and that there is that in you raigning that no child of God can have these are indeed some reasons but if these be not found you have no cause to be cast down Though you must check your own hearts for too much casting down for sin yet you must not cast off all dejection for sin for to be cast down for sin is a duty but to be overmuch and excessively cast down for sin that is a sin There is such duties that you are to put your hearts upon but not to deject your hearts excessively under And if you ask me how I shall know that these are duties I Answer in these Four particulars First You are not to check your hearts for dejection under sin when the measure of your dejection is subservient to the ends of dejection Now the end of dejection it is two-fold First It is to imbitter sin And Secondly To endear Jesus Christ And when thy dejection hath these two ends namely to make sin to be bitter to thy soul and to make Jesus Christ to be precious to thy soul then is thy dejection right thou not to check thy heart for it but to cherish it embrace it But when thy dejection doth not make sin bitter nor make Christ to be precious but trouble thy mind and cast down thy soul and drive thee away from Christ this is excessive and not subservient to those two ends and so becomes sinful Secondly You are to cherish this dejection when with this humiliation dejection for sin you do joyn with itthe sense of Gods love favour when thy heart is brought into this frame as to see sin with one eye and Gods love and free grace and pardoning mercy with an other but those that do so pore upon their corruptions and sinful miscariages as never to be able to see Gods love and free grace and pardoning mercy in the promises of the Gospel this is a sin and this you should check your hearts for Thirdly Thy dejections are not excessive when thy dejections are more for the evil of fact then for the danger of punishment when your dejection is more for sin committed then thy state thou hast endangered that is not excessive But when thy dejections are more in mourning for the state you have endangered then the sin you have committed that is excessive When a man shall commit a sin and he shall be dejected and say I shall goe to hell and lose my happy estate in Heaven and fear hell as punishment more then to mourn for sin as a sin this is excessive sorrow for sin When thou shalt mourn more for the fear of punishment of sin then for sin as it is a dishonour to God and that thou hast committed and aggravated evil it is excessive But when thy sorrow shall be more for sin and Gods dishonour then for fear of punishment if this be the trouble of thy soul thou art not to check thy heart for it Fourthly Those dejections and castings down for sin are to be entertained when they have this effect for to make thee to justifie God and to condemn thy self to justifie God in all this proceedings But when under dejections of mind thou shalt entertain hard thoughts of God to murmur and to repine and to be disquieted these thoughts are not to be cherished but thou art to check thy heart for them But when thou canst justifie God in all his dispensations towards thee these workings of spirit are not to be checked but cherished Job 40. 4 5. Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my band upon my mouth And verse 5. Once have I spoken but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further As if Job had said In my trouble of mind I have spoken often against God once and a second time against God but I will lay my hand upon my mouth and justifie God and condemn my self and acknowledge my self vile in my own eyes thus did Job learn to doe And so when you can under your casting down for sin justifie God and condemn your selves and acknowledge God to be just in all his dispensations and to acknowledge your selves vile in your own eyes then is your casting down for sin not excessive and you are to cherish it and not to check your hearts for it And thus I have finished the first ground why Gods people are cast down for sin SERMON V. Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God Question 2 THe second Question is For what are the people of God cast down and that is for the want of the apprehension of Gods love and favour and in the handling of this case I shall take this way First To shew you why God doth suffer his people to be cast down under the apprehensions of the want of Gods love and favour Secondly To shew you that though this be your condition yet there is no great cause of your dejection and trouble and casting down of soul under this condition Thirdly To lay down some Theological rules what a Christian is to doe what course to take that so he may gain the love and favour of God And Fourthly I shall lay down the use and application First Then I shall shew you why God doth suffer his people to be cast down under the apprehensions of the want of Gods love and favour that though God may love them yet they may not know that love and favour that
God doth bear to them I shall reduce the Reasons into these Four Heads First It ariseth from a mans own self Secondly It commeth from God Thirdly From the Divel Fourthly It commeth from other men These may be the Four general Causes why Gods people are cast down under the want of Gods love and favour to their souls First It ariseth from a mans own self and that in these Six regards First From the prevalency of natural melancholy in a mans body The prevalency of melancholy in a man doth darken the understanding and it troubles the fancy and it doth disturbe the reason and sadden the soul and cloaths it in mourning weeds and when these meet together it must needs cast the man down and suspend the sense of Gods favour from him Melancholy it is the mother of discomfort and discontent and it is the nurse of doubts Think of that story which you read of Daniel 4. concerning Nebuchad-nezzar He did eat grass like an Oxe he knew not whether he was a beast or a man But his fancy was troubled and his understanding was darkened and his reason was gone and thus natural melancholy maketh a child of God to think that he is a child of the Divel when he is a child of God and it makes him to think he is a brat of Babylon when indeed he is a son of Sion It is no more wonder saith Baxter for a melancholy man to doubt and fear despair then it is to see a sick man groan and a child crie when he is beaten the best way to cure this belongs rather to a Physitian then to a Divine There is a natural distemper in the body is the cause of melancholy yet trouble of conscience doubtings distresse of spirit are the companions of it You may silence a melancholy man when you cannot comfort him If you abate his sadnesse by convincing arguments yet when he retires alone through the prevalency of this humour all is forgotten his comforts are but a day or two old 2. The second cause of the suspension of the favour of God it is this spiritual security and indulging and harboring in the heart any known sin there is nothing in the world that will so much hinder him of and keep the soul from the assurance of the favour of God as the harbouring in the soul any known sin for all the while David did harbour in his heart and indulge and hide his sin from God he did lose the light of Gods countenance and he lost the shining of Gods face upon his soul insomuch that he prayeth to God to restore unto him the joy of his salvation It is true the salvation of David was not lost but the joyes of his salvation the comforts and consolation that he formerly enjoyed that was lost and for this he begs of God for to restore unto him Psal 51. 12. restore unto me the joyes of thy salvation Although that sin cannot make a child of God to lose salvation it self yet sin may cause God to suspend the comforts and the wonted joyes of his salvation I may say concerning this case as Philosophers say of Earth-quakes When the wind is in the Air spread abroad and diffused in the Air then it doth not throw down either hill or mountain but when the wind is gathered together and lies in the caverns of the Earth then it causeth Earth-quakes and over-turns all that is about it so while that sin is not kept close in the soul and while it is not indulged there and whiles it is not hid and concealed but confessed and repented of and prayed against it doth not much hurt but when that sin is indulged and kept close and not repented of nor prayed against but indulged in the soul this will make a heart-quake and a conscience-quake and will fill thy heart with horror and amazement Psal 32. 3. When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day When a man doth conceal his sin it troubles his soul and woundeth his heart and breaketh his peace if you will break Gods Law it is but just and righteous with God to break your peace God will not encourage any of his people by giving them peace and comforts and mercies in any sinful course and however the Antinomians hold us in hand and would make us believe that our comforts have no dependance on our sinful actions whereas God teacheth us no such thing saith the Prophet Isaiah The work of Righteousness that is peace and the end thereof is quietness and assurance for ever Here you see that comfort and consolation and joy and peace and assurance is annexed to the works of Righteousness when as discomforts and discouragements are annexed unto sin if you break Gods Law God will break your peace God will break your heart the same promises of peace cannot be made to the godly and wicked for they have promises of divine peace the other have not Ezek. 14. 4. Therefore speak unto them and say unto them Thus saith the Lord God Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquities before his face and cometh to the Prophet I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols When a man shall come to the Prophets to the Ministers of God and shall make great complaint of his inward trouble in his soul and much cast down within himself and yet in the mean time keep and harbour known sins upon his own heart God hath said he shall not answer that man that he might give him comfort but saith God in the 5. v. Thus saith the Lord repent and turn your selves from your idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations and then God will answer him but those that will not turn from their evil wayes God will answer such a man with rebuke and God will set his face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb and cut him off he that keeps sin in his heart and indulges sin there there shall be no peace in his conscience nor serenity nor quietness of soul he shall not in joy the smiles of Gods face the light of Gods countenance but the sense of his wrath much anguish and sorrow and perplexity of mind for his sin The third cause of the souls suspension and want of Gods favour it is the defectiveness of the people of God in the exercising of their graces little grace shall have but little evidence and if you are not abundant in the exercise of grace you will not have the comfort of grace but in a weak measure Ioh. 14. 21. He that hath my Commandements and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and will manifest my self unto him You know that all the stars in the Firmament
partly from bad men 1. It ariseth partly from good men i good men may slight the society and company of doubting and weak Christians when they shall consider thus with themselves I am a trouble to the company and society of good men and when good men shall stand at a distance and not care for the company of weak Christians it makes them say surely God will not have good thoughts of me and surely God will not think well of me and will Christ have fellowship with me and not contemn me These reasonings arise in the hearts and spirits of good men weake Christians occasioned by that strangenesse and slightness of spirit in good men towards those that are weak T is hard to pity much till we have felt much women that never was in travel cannot pity them so much that are in travel for Christians that never was tempted cannot pity those so much that lie under great and strong temptations those that have not been under strong doubts and fears cannot pity those that are under doubting and fears 2. It is to make them more experienced for to comfort tempted souls 2 Cor. 4 5 6. there the Apostle layeth down one end of their affliction whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation which is effectual in the enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer or whether we be comforted it is for your consolation and salvation who comforteth us in all our trihulation that we may be able to comfort those that are in trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God This was it that they who are under spiritual afflictions they may comfort them with the same comforts that they themselves have been comforted of God a Scholar may read much of sufferings yea he may read whole volumes of sufferings and of spiritual sufferings of doubts and fears that other Christians have lain under I but yet for all that reading he may not be so able to pitty distressed souls because he wanteth experience of it himself A Scholar may read books of the Art of Navigation and yet he may not be a good Mariner but it is experience that makes them to be good Mariners so a man may read books of sufferings yet not be able so kindly to pity those that are in sufferings because he wants that experience that others have that have been in the same case those that have been tempted those whose consciences have been troubled those are the fittest men to succour those that are in that condition God chuses broken vessels to poure comfort into that they may diffuse it unto others 2. It may arise from bad men bad men may occasion the trouble of soul to dejected souls though the Lord doth leave and suffer his people to be dejected and cast down yet the Lord doth it 1. To make wicked men to fear their eternal condition may not wicked men justly reason thus with themselves do I see such a man that doth follow the Ordinances of God and live and walk in the wayes of God with care and making conscience how he liveth in his calling and labours to keep his heart close to God and to maintain communion with him and will not nor dares not commit any known sin and prayes in his family and labours to mortifie sin and to keep under his body and to abound and grow fruitful in the wayes of God and in goodnesse and do I see such a man to lie under fears and under doubts and under troubles of mind and so cast down and even ready to fear all is in vain that he shall lose heaven at last O what then will become of me what may I think with my self whose wayes are nothing like his wayes he hath followed Ordinances but I have not he hath laboured to walk in Gods way with care and conscience whereas I never made conscience of any such thing he hath laboured to live conscientious in his calling which I never did he dares not commit known sins whereas alas I indulge sin and hug sin in my bosom he labours to mortifie sin whereas sin reigns over me as a Lord he labours to grow fruitful but I am unfruitful and I never watch my heart and do my duty and I never make conscience to walk holy and humbly with God as he doth and yet behold he is in trouble and cast down for want of Gods favour what then may I think of my self doth this man lie under the sense of wrath and may not I fear that I shall lie under the weight of Gods wrath Doth he fear hell and shall not I surely feel hell And when they see this it is only for this end to awaken them out of the sleep of security and to rouze him from those false presumptions and perswasions of his own salvation and in some sense it is a mercy to wicked men that good men are cast down and troubled that they may look into their own hearts and wayes to amend and repent 2. God doth it in a way of Judgement to wicked men that the Lord lets his own people be cast down under the absence of his Divine favour in Judgement to the world that it may be a stumbling-block to the world in their way to heaven when they shall say of themselves I and my company there is no such merry men in the world as we are we can be merry and we can over-reach and deceive in our trade and we can do this and that and yet not at all troubled in conscience all the year long and yet behold those that follow Ministers and go to Ordinances and hear Sermons love the Bible yet see how they hang down their heads are troubled in mind cast down and scarce have any comfort all their lives Now what may be the reason that they should go so after their own evil wayes and not be troubled and the people of God in their exact walking be so much cast down It was so in Calvins dayes Spiritus Calvinianus est Spiritus melancholicus Christians spirits were sad spirits and this was a stumbling-block to many Papists who would not follow a sad Religion SERMON VI. Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God I Now come to shew you Why the people of God should not be too much cast down when they have a comfortable assurance of Gods love Now in the resolution of this question consider these nine particulars 1. Consider that Gods withdrawing the sense of his love and favour from the soul is not alwayes an act of Justice for to punish them for sin but sometimes an act of Soveraignty when it is for sin as when thou dost grieve Gods Spirit This may make the soul sad it is neither comfortable nor thank-worthy but when you suffer from God as by
of justice and wrath for thou mayest want Gods face to comfort thee but thou shalt not want Gods hand to help thee God may lend thee his ear to thy prayers when he may deny thee the shines of his face it is the truth of grace and not the sense and sight of grace that brings the soul to heaven it is not the measure of grace nor the sense and sight of grace but the truth of grace that entitles the soul to glory though while you live you may be without your masters joy yet you shall be sure to come to your masters joy when you die though thou never hadst a heaven in thy soul while thou livest yet thy soul may come to heaven when thou diest 9. Consider and be not so cast down for want of comfort for when you come to heaven you shall have comfort enough God doth reserve the fulnesse of thy comfort untill the fulnesse of thy glory This is the time of thy travelling in this world and you must not expect your reward till you come to your journeys end Here you have joy and comfort for a time but there in heaven you shall have joy and comfort for evermore here in this world joy and comfort entreth into you but in the world to come you shall enter into joy and that is trascendently and infinitely more then to have joy to enter into you here in this world you have but the beginnings of comfort but there you shall have enduring lasting comforts here you have comforts by drops but there you shal come to enjoy and see an ocean of comfort and that for ever Object There is one Objection to be answered which is this and it is a practicall case of conscience Me thinks I hear some poor souls say It is true if I thought that God in his hiding his face from my soul in his withdrawing the comforts of his spirit from me if the absence of the light of his countenance were meerly an act of his Soveraignty and Power and to try my love to try the confidence of my heart in trusting in him and the strength of my love to him and the more to put me forward to look after Jesus Christ if this was so I should not be much troubled but alas what shall I do my conscience tels me that it is for sin that God doth withdraw the light of his countenance and the comforts of his Spirit and for this cause he deals with me and my conscience tells me that I have grieved the spirit of God and sent that sad to heaven and therefore it is just with God to let me live sadly upon earth and to live in a comfortlesse condition and I have committed great sins to take away my comforts and for the guilt of sin it is for which God doth hide his face and this is the sad objection and reasonings of many a poor soul Now there are four particulars why a child of God should not be thus dejected although he may be cast down under sin 1. If thou canst not retain the sense of Gods love yet if you retain the sense of your own sins for which thou hast lost the sense of Gods love to be much in the latter though thou hast little of the former to grow down ward in humiliation thou dost grow but little upward in consolation it is a great mercy Hosea 14. 5. I will be as a dew unto Israel he shall grow as a lilly or blossom or flourish and cast forth or strike forth his root as Lebanon you that do blossom like the lillies though you may not so much blossom in the enjoyment of comfort yet if you do grow downward strike your roots downward by the sense and sight of sin and grow downward in humiliation it is a great mercy it is better and safer for to strike thy roots of grace downward in growing in the sap of humiliation then to grow upward and flourish in the sense of pardoning-grace and the reason is this because the one is of absolute necessity and necessary to the saving of the soul but the other is necessary towards the comforts of the soul and therefore the one is more needful then the other if I were put to my choice I had rather want the sense of the pardon of sin then to want the sense of my own sinfulnesse the Lord had rather to see his people to be in mourning weeds then to be in garments of pleasantnesse if God doth not see thy face full of smiles yet if he sees thy eyes full of tears that is more acceptable to him though you may want the light of Gods countenance yet if you have the sense of your own sinfulnesse that doth eclipse the light of Gods favour to thy soul thou hast no cause to be too much cast down under sin 2. In case thou art cast down for sin yet if you can love Jesus Christ really you need not be discouraged when you do not know seriously that Jesus Christ doth love you yet though thou dost not know thou art beloved yet to love Christ in this time thou needest not to trouble thy self and though thou hast not seen Jesus Christ yet to believe in him and by faith to apply Jesus Christ to thy soul if this hath been thy work and thou canst say so you may be confident that Christ loves you truly though it may not be apparently and the reason is strong because that we can never love Jesus Christ until he first loveth us a man being in trouble of mind wanting the assurance of Gods love he said that he never knew what the testimony of the spirit of God meant and what it was to his soul but yet he could say that he did rest and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and though he knew not that Christ loved him yet he did desire to love Christ so I say to you although you cannot sensibly feel the love of Christ to thy soul yet if thou canst dearly love Jesus Christ be confident that Christ loveth thee 3. In case you want the quieting and comforting work of the spirit yet if you have the quick ning work of the spirit be not too much cast down thou that canst act grace although thou dost want comfort and although thou hast not the sight of thy graces sensibly to feel and find the comforts of them yet if thou canst live in the exercise of grace in this case thou needst not to be troubled cast down if it be with thy soul as with a Well that hath two buckets while one is down the other is still up so if one bucket of thy soul be down and thou be dejected for want of the sense of Gods favour and gratious love to thy soul yet if the other bucket be up in thy living and exercising of grace though thou wantest sensible comforts yet this is matter of joy and comfort to thy spirit if you are dejected for want of
comfort yet if you abound in grace it is matter of joy Do I speak to any this day that are clouded with sin in the want of the sense of the comforting work of the spirit and cannot see and cannot feel the sense and manifestations of Gods love as others do go and pray and mourn and be humbled for thy sin and act thy grace and though you do go without the manisestation of Gods love yet in this case thou art not to be too much cast down God had rather see and hear your graces then that you should see them your selves Cant. 8 13. 4. Though thou art cast down for sin yet be not troubled in case it hath this gratious effect upon thee as to make thee to be more watchful against sin for the time to come more then thou wast before so when thou shalt be afraid of sin and to hate sin in this case thou hast cause to blesse God said the Psalmist my heart is not turned back neither have we slipped again from thy wayes all this is come upon us and yet have we not forgotten thee nor deals falsely against thy Covenant cur hearts have not turned backward neither have our steppings swarved from thy path So when you can say although God hath covered me with the shadow of death and though there is a cloud between God and my soul yet I am afraid of sinning against him and I am afraid of offending him and I have not gone out of his paths for all this in this case you may be comforted though you do apprehend that Christ hath turned his back upon you and yet to say I will not for all the world leave living upon and to Jesus Christ in a way of love and obedience Obj. 2 If it be so That many souls may be cast down for sin and yet you say that it is their sin to be so much cast down but they are to labour against this trouble and casting down for sin Doth not this nourish a principle of presumption in many a mans breast for to presume of his salvation and to make him bold in sinning against God seeing you say they are not to be troubled Answ It is true if this doctrine be not well used and wisely handled it may for as it may comfort one soul it would cause a hundred to run into a presumptious condition for in some cases God doth suspend his favour and hide his face from the soul it being for sin you have cause of mourning in this particular and that in these five cases 1. Thou hast cause to hang down thy head with sorrow thou that wantest the sense and manifestations of Gods love in Christ to thy soul and yet at that time thou dost want the sense and sight of sin thou hast a troubled spirit and yet at that time thou hast not a troubled conscience thou wantest the sense of Christs love to thy soul and yet at that time thou wantest the sight and sense of thy sins against Jesus Christ Many men are in this case there are many men that will say that they do not know whether they shall go to heaven or hell whether they are the children of God or the children of wrath whether Christ loveth them or not and yet no sin troubleth them and no guilt disquieteth them but they presume of grace and presume of pardon when for any thing thou knowest there is but a step between thee and hell and in this case thy condition is very sad 2. You that say that you want the sense of Gods love and yet not at that time want the sense of the losse and absence of that love you say you once had that mans sad spectacle that grieves for the losse of an estate but not for the losse of God when a man shall not know whether God loveth him or not and yet at that time for all this to take no care though his state be a lost state to lose grace and to lose heaven this case is sad to be in such danger and yet not to be sensible of that danger 3. Your case is sad in case when you want a sense of Christs love to your souls and yet at that time you want acts of love and to expresse your love to Jesus Christ you would fain know whether Jesus Christ loveth you or not yet never labour to know and examine whether you love Jesus Christ or not in drawing out your souls in a way of love to him but instead of loving Jesus Christ you do draw forth reginings against God against Jesus Christ when you shall be so far from trusting in him as you shall repine against him and not say with Job Though be kill me yet will I trust in him and though I perish yet I will perish in trusting in him if under the sense of Gods love you also want love to Jesus Christ your case is sad 4. At that time when you want the comforting work of the spirit and yet at that time you want the quickning work of the spirit thy case is sad when you shall not only want comfort but want grace too this maketh thy condition to be sad to be disquieted for want of comfort and to be disquieted for want of grace O look into your own hearts you that want comfort do you want grace too have you no tendernesse of conscience no remorse of spirit no love to duties no zeal for God no faith to live by no hopes in Christ to hang upon no love to Christ in thy soul no repentance for sin in this case thy condition is very sad 5. When thou hast been a long time under the losse of comfort and in trouble of mind and perplexity of spirit and yet so to live without any enquiries how thou mayest get out of this sad condition and to get the comforts you wants when it may be your comforting-work and the quickning-work is gone too to want comfort and to want grace and yet to live and not to look after it but to do as Cain did to pursue the world to pursue the profits and pleasures of this world and all for this end to stifle his conscience for to take no pains to stir up grace in thy soul and to quicken thy heart that thou mightest have the joyes of heaven and the comforts of grace the love of God the shines of Christs face the manifestations of his love and assurance of thy salvation when you shall not look after any means either of grace or comfort this renders thy case to be very sad And thus I have done with this question That the people of God have no cause to doubt though they may be cast down for sin or for the absence of the favour of God to their souls SERMON VII Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God
to put upon holy endeavours after comforts Psal 30. 7. Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled it follows v. 8. I cryed to thee O Lord c. David doth not spend so much time in fruitlesse complaints as he doth in holy endeavours after duties Lastly Spend more time to strengthen evidences then to weaken evidences many men spend more time in questioning their evidences then in strengthning them as in trouble of mind a man will give himself to read dreadful threatnings to read such places of Scripture and such good books that carrie most dread and terror and will spurn at promises and at comforts this is to strengthen the devils hands and to weaken thine own Indeed when thou findest thy heart to presume and delude it self then it is good to make application of dread and terror to awaken thee but when a man is in trouble of mind then to shun promises and only to pore on threatnings of the Scripture I say this is a course rather to weaken thy comforts then strengthen them if thou canst not find thy affections up why run to thine inclinations why it may be thou sayest thou canst not mourn but thou wouldst mourn I cannot pray but I would pray I cannot hear profitably but I would hear better it is a rule that Divines give That when a believer cannot have comforts from the actings of grace he is bound then to look for comforts from his general inclination it may be thou canst not pray well but for what end thou dost pray is not thine end to get more communion with God and to get more power against sin When thou canst not find evidences strengthened by the actings of grace thou mayest find evidences by thy intention in duty Thus I have done with these two great causes of a Believers dejection or casting down to wit the greatness of sin then secondly The desertion or divine suspension of Gods love SERMON VIII Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God I Am now come to the second part of the Psalmists distress Why art thou disquieted within me Arius Montanus whom Ainsworth follows in his translation reads the words thus Cur tumultuaberis Why art thou all in a tumult a Metaphor drawn from the Sea to the tumults that are in a good man The manner of the Psalmists dialect it is in a way of expostulation From thence I shall draw this Observation Observation That godly men they ought to check their hearts for and to use holy reasoning against all inordinate disquietings of soul In the handling of which point in the general I shall shew you what those things are for which the soul of a child of God is disquieted That which disquiets the soul of a child of God either First It is the prosperity of the wicked or else Secondly The calamities of the Church 3. Outward afflictions on their bodies 4. Inward corruption in their hearts I shall spend this Sermon on the first of these to wit That godly men they should check their souls for all disquietings touching the prosperity of wicked men I do not know any one outward thing in the world that doth more disquiet the souls of good men then the prosperity of the wicked Touching this particular I shall handle it to you in this method First I shall shew you that Godly men are apt to be disquieted in soul for the wickeds prosperity 2. Shew you reasons why you should reason against check the soul for all disquietings because of their prosperity Thirdly and lastly Lay down some considerations whereby you may reason against disquietings of the soul because of the prosperity of wicked men First Godly men have had their souls greatly disquieted because of the prosperity of wicked men There are four or five instances of good men in this kind In David the father and Solomon the son you have a discovery of great disquietings of soul First In David the father Psal 73. 3. and in the 12 13. v. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked Behold these are the ungodly which prosper in the world they increase in riches verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency as if he should say It is in vain for me to be godly because I see wicked men do so prosper in the world It is a great stumbling block in good mens wayes to Heaven to see wicked men prosper good men have been overtaken with this discouraged and disquieted in soul to see wicked men prosper in the world Secondly Solomon was troubled for the very same thing Eccles 10. 6 7. Folly is set in great dignity and the rich sit in the low place I have seen servants on horses and Princes as servants walking upon the earth To see servants ride on horse-back c. that is to see wicked men advanced prosperous and successeful and to see the godly in an object despicable and low estate this disquieted Solomon Thirdly Look further into the Prophet Jeremiah he was greatly disquieted because of this Ier. 12. 1. Righteous art thou O Lord when I talk with thee let me talk with thee of judgements wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper c. He would reason with God what did he say to God let me talk with thee of thy judgements wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper Jeremiah would fain know a reason of God wherefore the way of wicked men should prosper Fourthly And thus likewise a fourth instance you have of Job ch 21. v. 7. Wherefore do the wicked live become old and mighty in power c. Thus you see four instances in four of the best men David Solomon Jeremiah and Job Fifthly I might give you in a holy Prophet Habakkuk chap. 1. v. 13. Thou art of purer eyes then to behold inquity or canst not look on grievance wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when he devoureth him that is more righteous then he Here the Prophet doth reason with God why God would do this that he that was of pure eyes would behold a wicked man prosper in his wicked way And thus you see briefly the first part That good men they are apt to be disquieted in soul in seeing the prosperity of wicked men 2. The next thing is to shew you the reasons why good men should not be disquieted and troubled in soul when they do see the wicked prosper in the world The Reasons are four First Do not be disquieted because of the prosperity of wicked men because God doth give them prosperity to be a snare to them Prov. 1. 32. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them It makes them secure it proves fuel to
of the omission was in a way of disgrace first because the tribe of Dan make a defection from the true worship of God and ran to Idolatry Judges 18. 30. the children of Dan set up the graven Image c. Another reason is because the tribe of Dan did not lay to heart the Calamities of Gods Church when the other tribes were jeoparding their lives in the highest places of the field the tribe of Dan it is said remained in Ships they would let the rest of the tribes shift for themselves they would follow their trade their merchandizing now Divines give that to be the reason because God would put a brand on that tribe the spirit of God would not reckon that tribe among the other tribes This is blame-worthy when the calamities of Gods Church shall be hastning towards and thou leavest that Church and art no way tributary to its help but like Dan remainest in thy ship at thy trade God hates neuters Sort. 2 A Second sort that deserves reproofe are those that are so far from being excessively troubled and disquieted to see things go ill with the Church that they do rather rejoice then are grieved and troubled at it Thus we read of Haman that Monster among men Esther 3. 15. Then went up the posts being hastned by the Kings commandment and the decree was given c. There while Esther and Mordecai and her handmaids and the poor Jews were fasting praying and mourning for their lives in this extremity the poor Church of God was then in the King and Haman must sit down to drink they would be merry and jovial when Gods Church was in great extremity Now the Scripture puts this as a brand to Haman and Ahasuerus They sate down to eat and drinke but the City Shushan was perplexed Thus you read of sensual Epicures Amos. 6. 7. Therefore shall they go captive with the first that go captive and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed Now by the afflictions of Joseph is meant here not the man Joseph but by Joseph here is meant the Tribe of Manasseh and the tribe is called Joseph because Manasseh was the son of Joseph Now the afflictions of Manasseh did not trouble the wicked men of the other tribes the wicked among them were jovial and merry they were not sensible of Gods hand Sort. 3 Thirdly A third sort that are so far from being disquieted at the Churches calamities that they are grieved and disquieted that the Church is in no worse a condition that are troubled that it is no worse with Religion and no worse with the Church of God there are many such men now a days Psal 37. 12. The wicked plots against the just and gnasheth upon him with his teeth Gnashing the teeth it is a gesture of revenge because they cannot have their will in their plots they gnash their teeth and fume and fret at good Ministers disquieted they are that it is no worse with good men and no worse with Religion this is vexation of heart to them A notable text Nehemiah 2. 10. When Sanballet the Horonite and Tobiah the servant the Ammorite heard of it it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel See what venome and rage is in these mens hearts that were but mungrel Jews they were exceedingly grieved that there was a man come that should seek the welfare of the children of Israel Many men gnash their teeth and grieve exceedingly to think that there should be any interest rising up for Religion and for the Church of God nothing in the World doth more grieve them I now come to the third thing for which Gods people are often disquiered and that is for outward afflictions Outward afflictions are oftentimes a great cause of disquiet and discontent in the people of God and that is the third grand cause of disquiet Now herein when I say afflictions are the great causes of disquiet I shall distinguish of the outward sufferings of Gods people into two sorts First there are privative sufferings that is some outward good things that the people of God do want and this greatly troubles them It may be they are poor and want estates it may be want friends it may be sick and want help and more pincht then other men are and this greatly disquiets them Or else Secondly there are some positive evils of sufferings they lie under I shall speak to the first that Gods people should not be disquieted though they do want outward good things to keep them that they might not be disquieted for outward wants I will leave Six considerations with you First Consider thou maiest be sure thou shalt want no outward thing the having of which God doth see good for thee If God saw that thing thou wantest should be good for thee to have thou maiest be sure thou shouldst not want it art thou poor and wantest a livelihood thou maiest be certain God doth see the want of wealth best for thee Psal 84. 11. No good thing will he withhold from c. If it be good for thee he will withhold nothing from thee for that God that doth not grudge to give thee his Son he will not grudge to give thee a little pelf of the World if he saw it good for thee Secondly Consider that God doth let his own people want some outward good things that he might give them better things in the room of them I will give you but a few instances in seeing Job when he was scraping himself on the dunghil and condoling the great loss he sustained or wants he was in you would have thought Job to have been a very wretched man read the Catalogue in the first Chapter of Job how God stripped him naked of all his substance which was Seven thousand Sheep three thousand Camels five hundred yoke of Oxen and five hundred shee-Asses and a very great houshold and his sons and his daughters slain and he himself sorely afflicted and troubled in the want of all outward comforts and accomodations that might make his life comfortable in this world now this was an exceeding great loss to him And yet for all that Job wanted and lost it was made up double to him Job lost a thousand sheep and God gave him fourteen thousand sheep he lost of his camels three thousand and God gave him six thousand camels he lost five hundred yoke of oxen and God gave him a thousand yoke of oxen God gave him double of his substance but not children double but for outward things God gave him double for what he lost If God doth take away a mercy from a man take away an estate God may make it double to that man before he dies Thus Beloved doth God do us wrong surely no. Thus we see it in David when likely to lose his son begotten of Bathsheba he was a sad man for the loss of his
him O look on this the interest in one God makes a compensation for a hundred wants you have a notable passage in Psalme 142. ver 6. 7. Attend unto my cry for I am brought very low deliver me from my persecutors for they are stronger then I. Bring my soul out of trouble that I may praise thy Name the righteous shall compass me about for thou shalt deal bountifully with me As if he should have said I have no friends I have no strength but am full of troubles I cried unto God and said thou art my portion his should allay a thousand discontents in thee if thy soul can plead an interest in God though thou wantest all It was no wonder for Esau to say when Jacob would have given him an offering saith Esau I have enough but Jacob could say I have all for he made all things up in his God he hath all things that hath God that hath all things Dost thou want health there is health in God dost thou want wealth there is riches in God dost thou want satisfaction there is abundance of contentation in God there is all things in God And thus I have done with the first part to allay disquietings of soul for all privative afflictions that is for the want of outward good things in the World I now come to give you some considerations to allay all positive discontent and disquiet which are five First of all to allay disquiet for worldly crosses in the world Consider there is no thing befalls thee no cross nor disaster in all thy life time but it is the will of a good and wise gracious God that that cross should befall thee if this were thought on and laid to heart it would allay all bublings of discontent Psal 39. 9. I was dumb and opened not my mouth because thou didst it 1 Sam. 3. 18. And Samuel told him every whit and hid nothing And he said It is the Lord Let him doe what seemeth good unto him Instead of all reasons it is the Lord. Beloved it will exasperate and provoke to passion to look only on Instruments but if thou seest it is the will of God it will allay discontents Observe one thing you shall find a strange and different carriage in David one while you shall find him a quiet-spirited man he could bear any injury without any disquiet at all another time you see him in a marvellous sury that he could not bear a small injury What was the reason that David was so passionate for Nabals injury and so patient for Shimei's cursing In Shimei's cursing he called to mind Gods hand in it therefore that allayed and quieted him And this did allay discontents in Job The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not The Messenger told Job The Sabeans have stolen thy Oxen and the Chaldeans have taken thy Camels and the Divel hath consumed thy Children I but Job saith the Lord hath taken them away the Lord gave me them and the Lord took them away therefore blessed be the Name of the Lord. Gen. 45. 5. Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with your selves that you sold me hither for God did send me before you to preserve life When Joseph did discover himself to his brethren that had done him wrong I am Joseph that you sold to the Ishmalites I am he and when his brethren heard this they were all troubled and amazed I but saith Joseph be not troubled for it was not you but it was God brought me here he saw Gods hand in it therefore was not angry with them O beloved if you saw all afflictions as stones in Gods hand you would never snarle nor never be disquieted nor never be troubled but you see the stone in a mans hand therefore you are troubled Secondly to allay disquietings in thee Consider that through the course of thy life thou hast had as many if not more mercies from God then thou hast had afflictions from God let that quiet thee This did quiet Job chap. 2. v. 10. But he said unto her Thou speakest as one of the foolish women shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil Eccles 7. 14. In the day of prosperity be joyful but in the day of adversity consider for God hath set one against the other Suppose thou beest in adversity Hath not God set prosperity over against it cannot I call to mind mercies as well as afflictions It may be I have many crosses in the World why I have many mercies in the World too this would allay disquiet but here is the misery of it we look upon our afflctions but never look on our mercies we remember the Wormwood and the Gall but never remember the Milk and the Honey Consider thy mercies they will over-balance and weigh down thy afflictions Thirdly Consider that afflictions that befall thee in this World they are never without cause and never above cause never without a cause God might afflict any of us as an act of his Soveraignty But beloved God doth not afflict any man in the World but there is a provocation a cause in man why he afflicts him Lament 3. 39. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Beloved couldst thou stand on terms with God and say I am just before thee I have not sinned against thee it were something but thou art a sinner before God and God never afflicts thee but there is cause for it it should stop all complaints and repinings against God Again it is never above cause neither not so much as the causes which thy sins deserves here we may justifie God as Ezra doth chap. 9. 13. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespasses seeing that thou art our God thou hast punished us lesse then our sins deserve And in Psal 103. v. 10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities Fourthly Consider that impatiency and disquiet of soul under sufferings and afflictions provokes God to afflict us more when a child is corrected by the father if the child kisseth the rod accepts the punishment acknowledgeth the fault he hath the less blows because the father seeth the end of his correction but it is the stout and stuborn-hearted child which hath most blows from the fathers hands but if God shall hear and see men fret and fume under a cross this doth not lighten your burdens but rather makes them heavier and lengthens them out longer in time and makes them heavier in weight and our bands stronger Fifthly Consider that discontent and disquiet of soul under outward crosses and afflictions it doth imbitter to thee the enjoyment of your present mercies an impatient man that is apt to be impatient for one cross he loseth the enjoyment of a hundred comforts
ver 2. From the end of the Earth will I cry unto thee when my heart is over whelmed lead me unto the rock that is higher then I. This is the carriage and behaviour of ungodly men Again Wicked men look more after comfort then after duty if God give them ease and peace they never care for grace but God's people look after duty more then comfort in disquiet of conscience when the Converts were troubled in mind they cry'd not after comfort but after duty they cry'd Men and Brethren What shall we doe what shall we doe to be saved Thus I have dispatched to you the third Querie the Differences in these fourteen Particulars between the disquiet of soul for sin that may be found in wicked men that Evangelical holy trouble of soul for sin which is found in the godly The fourth Querie is But why are God's people so much disquieted for sin that they are more troubled for sin then they are comforted in the sight of their graces sin shall damn their souls Why then doth sin so much disquiet their consciences There are five Reasons 1. It ariseth partly from that softness of heart that tenderness of Conscience that is implanted in God's people by God the eye it is troubled at a mote when the hand is not troubled at a greater thing the eye is the tenderest part of the body Why beloved God's people they have tender consciences sin on their consciences is as a mote in their eye that greatly troubles them It is worth your notice that as God doth make a promise that he will keep his people as the apple of his eye Deut. 32. 10. He found him in the desart land and in a waste bowling wilderness he led him about he instructed him he kept him as the Apple of his eye So Gods people are said to keep his law as the apple of their eye Prov. 7. 2. Keep my Commandements and live and my Law as the apple of thy eye Beloved a blow on the eye offends the eye you must keep the Law as the Apple of the eye the apple of the eye is the tenderest part of the eye one breach of the Law by sin will as much disquiet thee as a blow on thine eye if thou keepest the Law as the apple of thine eye A second cause or reason is this God's people are troubled for sin because God's people seeing themselves that they are more in sinning against God then they are in obeying God therefore sin troubles them and disquiets them more grace is as the gleaning of the Vintage and sin is as the full harvest Job 15. 16. How much more abominable filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water God's people see their sins like Mountains and their graces like Mole-hils my lusts burn like a flame but my graces like a glowing coal my sins at full tide but my graces at a low ebb that makes God's people to be so much troubled for sin disquiet of soul is more incident to the godly as the moth is ordinarily in the finest Cloth and the worm in the Rose sooner then the Briar A third Reason is this Because sin is more visible and manifest to the soul then their graces are therefore they are more troubled for sin You read in Galatians 5. 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred â—â—riance emulations wrath strife c. But when the Apostle gives you the list of the graces of the Spirit he doth not say that the fruits of the Spirit are manifest but the fruits of the flesh are manifest to shew as one observes well that a man may more easily discern and have a sight of his sin then a godly man can have in the sight of his grace A fourth Reason is drawn from a Consideration that Christ's soul was troubled for sin Christ's soul was troubled for sin as imputed to him though he had no sin inherent in him Now is my soul troubled saith Christ Christ did not only suffer in his body upon the Crosse but likewise in his soul in the Garden John 12. 9. His soul was not troubled for his own sin for there was no guile found in his mouth but it was for our sins he was troubled Now Beloved O! Christ was troubled for thy wounds for thy sins and this makes a godly man reflect shall Christ's soul be troubled for my sin that was imputed to him and shall not I be troubled for sin that is inherent in me A fifth Reason is this That the People of God might taste and see the evil and the bitternesse of sin the more in the course of their lives and may be more put in awe to commit sin for time to come this is a reason that Solomon gives why godly men are troubled in mind for sin Eccles 7. 25 26. I applied mine heart to know and to search and to seek out wisedom and the reason of things and to know the wickednesse of folly even of foolishness and madness And I find more bitter then death the woman whose heart is snares and nets That is to know the evil of sin folly and madnesse is meant sin in Solomon's Dialect and saith he I find it to be more bitter then death Solomon by experience speaks this I find sin to be worse to me then death Beloved this is God's end why he will make a man to find out the wickednesse of sin to be troubled in conscience for sin is that thou mightest find sin to be more bitter to thee then death that so thou mightest avoid those sins and shun them for which thou hast smarted so much And thus I have finished the fourth Quaery SERMON XV. Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God Question 5 A Fifth Quaery in order is this When may God's people be said to be excessively or too much disquieted in soul for sin There are seven particulars to resolve this four of them I shall gather from one Psalm Psal 77. 2 3 4. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ran in the night and ceased not my soul refused to be comforted I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed Thou holdest my eyes waking I am so troubled that I cannot speak Here are four discoveries laid down when a man's disquiet and trouble of soul for sin is immoderate and excessive First When a man is so disquieted under the guilt of sin that he is not only unable to receive comfort but he is unwilling to receive that comfort that belongs to him v. 2. my soul refused to be comforted This was his sin I prove it by the 10. v. And I said This is mine infirmity It was an infirmity in Asaph
and to have nothing for to trouble them all their days A second Reason is this It proceeds from that grosse ignorance that is in a wicked man's mind or understanding whereby he doth not see the evill nature of sin and the aggravation of it a blind mind and a dumb conscience they both go hand in hand together if the understanding of a man wants an eye to see the evill of a sin distinctly the conscience will want a hand to smite for sin effectually if sin were more in mens eyes sorrow for sin would be more in mens hearts It is worth your notice the comparing of two Scriptures together Psal 51. 3. I acknowledged my transgression and my sin is ever before me And Psal 38. 17. For I am ready to halt and my sorrow is ever before me How came the Psalmist to have sorrow for sin continually but by having the fight of sin continually he had the sight of sin continually before him he had then the sorrow of sin before him it is the sight of sin that is an inlet to sorrow and trouble of mind for sin What is the Reason that a man that seeth a Lion in the Wildernesse it maketh him affraid but if that man seeth a Lion painted on the wall he is not troubled the reason is because he knows the Lion in the Wildernesse is of a sierce and cruel nature therefore fears that but he knows no such evil in a painted Lion therefore he is not troubled at that Beloved if wicked men could look upon sin as a loose Lion in the Wildernesse that would fly in their faces why the sight of sin would make them affraid then but they look upon sin as a painted Lion they do not see sin to be so odious and aggravated this is the great cause why men are so little disquieted in soul under the guilt of sin Thirdly It proceeds from a judicial hardnesse in the heart and from a cauterizednesse to scarednesse in the conscience Rom. 2. 5. But after thy hard and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgements of God To let you know that it is from hardnesse of heart and scarednesse of conscience that a man cannot repent cannot confesse and be troubled for the evils he hath done and the guilt he lies under scared flesh is sensible of no touch with a Pin it is your raw flesh that is sensible mens consciences are cauterized and scared that makes that sin is not as a sword in the flesh Fourthly It proceeds from a continued custome in a course of sin Custome in sin doth harden the heart and doth fear the conscience it is in this case as with a man when he first comes to be an Apprentice to an Artificer or Handy-crafts-man he comes with a tender hand to the work and when he begins to work with hard Instruments he cannot work but he gauls his hand and blisters his hand but when he hath been many years at work by continual labour at the work his hand doth then harden that so he can use it and never blister his hand It is just thus with a sinner before a man be accustomed to an evil way conscience is tender and full of remorse I but a continued custome and making a trade of sin it doth make the conscience to be hard and brawny and to feel nothing as in a Smith's house a Dog that comes newly in cannot endure the fiery sparks to fly about his ears but when the Dog is used to it he sleeps quietly Let wicked men be long used to sin to the Divels work-house to be slaves and vassals to sin the sparks of Hell fire may fly about their ears and this never troubles them and all this ariseth from a continued custome in a course of evil The fifth Cause is that a wicked man is not disquieted for sin it ariseth from this From a wicked man's stifling the checks and ebukes of his own conscience as quenching the spirit in its holy motions to doe good doth cause God to withdraw the holy motions of his Spirit So stifling the conscience it provokes God that conscience shall not trouble thee more but shall be given up to a sottish stupidity and to a senseless stupidity of conscience Sixthly It ariseth from a mistake and a misapprehension that wicked men maintain that trouble of conscience for sin it is an utter enemy to all worldly joy and if a man comes once to be troubled in conscience for sin he shall never have a merry day more but must hang down his head in penfiveness and lead a melancholy sad life Beloved wicked mens vailing holy disquiet with these prejudices is a special reason why they are no more troubled for sin then they are this is hinted to us in the saying of Solomon Eccles 7. 4. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools in the house of mirth The wicked are affraid to be in the house of mourning to mourn and grieve for evils they have done lest they should never have glad and comfortable days in the World Thus the Papists did entertain this prejudice against the Protestant religion that spiritus Calvinianus est spiritus melancholicus Beloved the way to have a well composed and ordered joy and comfort in the World is to have a gracious sorrow and an Evangelical grief for the evils thou hast done in the World Seventhly It proceeds from a groundless and a presumptuous perswasion that wicked men have of pardoning grace tush saith a wicked man if I have hopes of Heaven when I die what need sin trouble me I hope it shall not damn my soul and therefore it shall not disquiet me I will not lay sin to my heart for God will not lay sin to my charge I shall go to Heaven when I die what need I break my peace while I live This was the great reason of those that were no more troubled for sin Deut. 29. 19. And it come to pass when he heard the words of this curse that he blessed himself in his heart and said I shall have peace though I walk in the imaginations of my heart God doth not bless them but they will bless themselves they presume of mercy and they presume of Heaven they will presume of blessing why this makes them that they are not troubled for adding drunkenness to thirst they can add sin to sin but not add sorrow to sorrow for sin The eight Cause is this Men contenting themselves under a daubing and a flattering Ministry Men that under pretence of preaching free-grace the love of God and the merits of Christ all their Sermons are comfortable strains when indeed they are but the making the Way to Heaven wider then God makes it This reason is given by God himself Isa 8. 11. For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand and instructed me that I should
who is in fault the messenger or the condemned man the parallel lies plain O how glad would the servants of Christ be that they might be alwaies pouring out the precious ointment of the Gospel oh how sweet a theme is the grace of God the love of Jesus Christ How sweet and delightfull would our Ministry be if we might alwaies walk among these sweet perfumes Doe ye think Ministers are delighted to heare the screeke and groans of soules when they are put to pain by sound and clear convictions Nay are they not rather astonished to converse every day with so many carcases that prick them cut them wound them burn them threaten doe what you will feel just nothing verily were it not out of faithfulness to God and souls they would not insist so much on such subjects Certainly as it is the glory of a Chirurgeon not to make wounds but heale them so it is the glory of Ministers to heale wounded consciences 3. A third thing observable is the sweet directions that here are scattered up and down how a Christian should behave himself in the vicissitudes of providence You are taught here your spirituall postures how to rise in thankfulnesse how to fall in humility when you must to your close when to your open order here is a straight rule by which you may measure your excesses and defects when you are too much when too little cast down for we are very prone either to over or to underdo it is so hard to hit upon the middle Here you may learn when you are active when you are passive in your own dejections It may be you may meet with some particulars twice but remember he that shoots the same arrow twice and both times hits the mark hath well shot Now concerning the other Treatise the Ministry of Angels as also that other of Gods Omnipresence they were not intended for a Philosophical but for a Christian auditory the former subject is high and there is room enough for speculation Too many in these daies have been wantonly busie to converse with Angels out of pride and curiosity but the good Angels wil not be spoken with upon those terms or if they do speak to be sure it will be no comfort to those persons for the Apostle by laying down a supposition hath given us a certainty that the Angels will speak no other doctrine then he did Therefore such spirits as are intruders into things not seen are vainly puft in their fleshly mind Col. 2. 18. how spiritual soever they seem to be As for that opinion that every man hath his particular Angel If any think it not sufficiently answered in this Treatise we shall add only this that when the maintainers of it are agreed among themselves about it whether every man have not two Angels a good and a bad Or if every man have but one whether that be a good one or a bad one If it be a bad one what comfort is there in that Doctrine If every man have a good one how can this stand with the text that limits their Ministery to the heirs of Salvation When these riddles are unfolded no question but a further answer will be given This Author doth practically handle that subject and with great sobriety To draw towards an end As God hath always in his Family some sick and weak children so he doth provide comforts and attendance for them For he will not leave them comfortlesse and certainly he will not leave them helpless Be of good comfort then there are more with us then against us While we have visible enemies warring against us we have invisible Angels taking our part And therefore the Psalmist after he had spoken of the Protection of Angels in the 34. Psal ver 7. he adds in the 8. v. O tast and see how good the Lord is Go therefore and chide thy self for thy unbelief for thy despondency of spirit Say to thy heart as David Why art thou cast down O my soul And as God to Jenah in another case Dost thou well in it Is it for Kings sons for God's children for those that have Angels to guard and serve them that have hidden Manna to walk so sadly and dejectly It is enough for those poor low spirits that dwel in the lower region of sense and reason to be dejected If these Treatises tend to thy comfort give God the glory Grace be with all that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity Amen So pray The servants of thy soul and thy faith in the work of the Gospel Edm. Calamy William Whitaker Simeon Ash Mat. Poole William Taylor Jos Church A Table of the chief Heads contained in this Book A ASsurance why the Saints want it Page 56. means to regain it Page 93. Afflictions of the Church do afflict the godly p. 124. 127. Afflictions on the outward man apt to disquiet the godly p. 141. B Back-sliders if they return must be deeply humbled p. 11. p. 14. p. 165. C Casting down God's children subject to it p. 6. What persons God doth most cast down p. 8. Why God casts down his own people p. 30. How God doth it p. 40. 41. Checking our own hearts a good means against fainting p. 45. Comforts against desertion when it is for sin p. 76. Comforts under affliction p. 146. D Dejections of spirit how to reason against them p. 46. Dejection when a sin p. 53 Desertion an act sometimes of soveraignty p. 61. and sometimes of justice p. 63 9 Comforts under desertion p. 68 Difference between trouble for sin in the godly and wicked 167. F Formality in duty p. 53. G Great sinners God uses to humble much p. 9. Grieving the spirit p. 9. L Love of God suspended by 8 things p. 89 P Promise made not to the measure but truth of humiliation p. 24. 37. 51. Pride of gifts p. 33. 90. Prosperity of the wicked a stumbling-block to the godly p. 101. No reason to be disquieted at it p. 102. Considerations against it p. 105. Prosperity not always a note of a good cause p. 112. 〈◊〉 Ends why God suffers the wicked to prosper p. 114. Why his own people want it p. 120. R Rules to keep from excessive sorrow for sin p. 36. Repentance begins at the bosome sin Rules to quiet the heart under outward afflictions p. 151. Rules for those that are greatly troubled p. 203. Rules to shew how the soul may be Evangelically troubled With rules of Comforts and Cautions 213. S Sorrow for sin when excessive 16. 17. Soliloquies p. 2. p. 43. Sympathy with suffering brethren and sinful disquiet how they differ p. 129. Sinful sorrow for the Church's Calamity how cured 132. Sorrow for personal sufferings when inordinate 156. T Trouble of heart for sin p. 161. Times when this trouble is most felt 162. V Unmercifulnesse p. 91. Use of tryal whether your trouble of soul for sin be right 200. W Wicked men why not troubled at sin p. 26. Worldlimindednesse