Stocks or Roots conveying different fruit unto their branches As the new Adam Christ Jesus grace and life to all that are engraffed in him so the old Adam sin and death In Adam all dye 1 Cor. 15.22 in Christ shall all be made alive Sin is the seed of death And it is apparent an Infant is no sooner born but he hath in him these seeds I was shapen in iniquity Psal 51.5 and in sin did my mother conceive me I presently got the infection of sin and so a subjection unto death I was even warmed in sin in my mothers wombe Eâ lege nascimur Sence An Heathen called death Exitus communis And true it is death hath both young and old in bonds alike inviolable As a Genesis so an Exodus for all A time to be borne and a time to dye Hence a certaine Philosopher Sciome mortalem genuisse hearing that his only Son was dead makes answer I am very sensible I did but beget a mortall creature like to my selfe Lastly If Children be an holy seed within the Covenant their upon their decease consider even felicity Sooner shall Gods right hand forget his cunning than he will ever be unmindfull of any little one in Covenant with him Indeed if our Children should come to maturity and then dye unnaturall and murtherous Absaloms incestuous Amnons riotous and roaring Prodigals c. If this evill were concomitant with our Orbity it might be written a mourning in good earnest Planxit merito David super parricidâ filio cui perpetuo sciret obstructum exitum c. Bernard As Bernard speakes most fearefully of the case of Absalom and David lamenting his death But Children that are justified from originall sin by Christs bloud and cleansed by the Baptisme of the Holy Ghost are in Abrahams bosome They wish not themselves againe with their Parents as sometimes the murmuring Israelites Would to God we were in Aegypt againe but rather they say as the Disciples did on Mount Tabor Lord it is good for us to be here Vita hominum caepit esse miserabilis debuit dari finis malorum ut mors restituerit quod vita amiserat Ambr. Job 5.7 Indeed here they find sad entertainment being courted with calamities so soon as they enter the world Their very teares seeme to presage their sorrows Launching into such troubled seas where stormes will never cease till they arive in heaven It is their gaine therefore as well as ours to be freed from the burden of the body Neither let it trouble us that they are nipt in their tender yeares and taken away in their minority for those that dye in the state of grace dye in a full age Eph. 4.13 and are perfect men What they want in time is made out in happy eternity David tels us we shall go to them 2 Sam. 12.23 but they shall not returne to us And a very Heathen could say Praemittimus Scnec non amittimus we lose not our friends but send them before us Why then should we immoderately bewaile the death of those whom we must shortly follow There is great joy in the meeting of friends when Moses and Aaron met in the mount for joy they kissed one another Yet the joy of these meetings may be dashed and will have an end But O what joy will it be when we meet one another in the glorious Mount of heaven never to depart any more Let us then moderate our mourning and prepare for that meeting 1 Thes 4.17 When we shall meet Christ in the aire and ahide with him for ever But I adde further lest this griefe should overwhelme you do ye overwhelme it with the consideration of a greater Suppose your Children should live â—o be a griefe to you as Adam Emperour of the whole world had his heart sadned with one Son killing another and David In like manner Rebekah who had a double desire at once hath it imbittered with feare of a murderous emulation That she confesseth I am weary of my life Gen. 27.46 and what good shall my life do me Nay suppose ye should have brought forth to the sword Seen your little ones spitted upon Pikes Their tender limbs rent like kids by cruell hands Or pluckt from their mothers breasts and have their braines dasht against the wall Whilest the affrighted mother is halfe dead with astonishment Or to see your selves so straightned by famine as to devoure the fruit of your bodies your little Infants of a span-long Being forced against nature Parturire Deglutire to turne your tender kisses into cruell bitings and suck their bloud that sucked your breasts O tender hearted Fathers and Mothers who knoweth how far this fire which is kindâ—ed among us may burne before it be quenched Seeing it hath such combustible matter to feed upon and such bellows to blow it up All ye have hitherto seen may be only the beginning of sorrows Suppose ye should live to see women with child ript up your daughters ravished your Sons captivated slaves not knowing what destiny may befall them but most likely to live abused and dye without buriall Nay which is saddest of all have the Gospell taken from your Children Would you not much rather commit them to Christ in their Infancy and lay them up with him The Vse in the last place counselleth us to keep close unto him Use 4 the enjoyment of whom supplies every want and sweetens every Crosse The summe is if we cannot keepe our children yet let us have a care to keep our God Though you part with your own seed yet be sure you have the seed of God And this child in you will cause you at the full birth to forget all the sorrow Say to thy selfe I now see the worth of Grace and emptinesse of all things else Nay I foresee a time when nothing will stay by me but Grace Therefore if I can make nothing sure 2 Pet. 1.10 I le endeavour to make my Calling and Election sure This high piece of spirituall wisdome the good Spirit of God did dictate unto Job He could not keep his goods Oxen and Sheep Camels and Asses were gone He could not keep his Servants they were slaine He could not keepe his Children Sons and Daughters were dead But yet Job will have a care to keep his God Say to God as sometime that great wrestler Jacob Gen. 32.26 I will not let thee go He would hold his God though he lost his limbes his life We will be hold-fasts of our estates and money we will not let them go Oh that we could be so of our God It is said Sir Walter Rawley that when the Persians were defeated and fled one of the Grecian Commanders followed them to the Sea and tooke hold of one of their Galleys with his right hand which being cut off he laies hold with his left hand and being deprived of both with his teeth so
to sorrow Oh! Quis fando abstinet à lachrymis In these divisions of Reuben here are deep impressions of heart The seamelesse Coat of Christ is sadly rent Those polished and living stones of Zion lie scattered in the dust It is even the time of Jacobs trouble This is Zion whom no man seeketh after Her waies begin to mourne and her Gates to waxe desolate Her precious Sons comparable to fine Gold how are they esteemed as earthen Pitchers Mine eye affecteth mine heart Wo is me my mother that thou hast borne me Oh that mine head were waters and mine eyes a fountaine of teares that I might weep day and night My bowels my bowels I am pained at my very heart my heart maketh a noise in me I cannot hold my peace For these things I weepe and mine eye mine eye runneth downe with water Secondly if ye would moderate present sorrow meditate some moderating considerations This is a very effectuall meanes and much to this purpose may be couched under these three following particulars viz. First meditate and consider Gods Soveraignty There is nothing we have but God hath both the chiese interest in it and sole dispose of it 1 Cor. 4.7 What hast thou that thou didst not receive Surely neither wife child nor any thing else from a morsell of bread to a drop of water Nay from a thread to a shooe-latcher God may say of any of us here before him most justly as once Benhadad said most unjustly Thy Silver and thy Gold is mine 1 King 20. thy wives also and thy children even the goodliest are mine And every one of us must needs answer as â—â—d the King of Israel My Lord according to thy saying I am thine and all that I have Or in those words of Laban Gen. 31.43 These daughters are my daughters and these children are my children and all that thou seest is mine All we have is Gods You that this day mourne for your only Son and are in bitterness for your first-borne consider upon what termes God gave this child Even upon the same that Pharaoh's daughter delivered Moses to his own mother saying Take this child away Exod. 2.9 and nurse it for me Marke what God saith Nurse it for me Suppose any of you should put forth your child to nurse and at the expiration of the time should send for the child If then the Nurse should deny you your Child or grumble to part with it would it not highly displease you What an unworthy and irrationall woman is this would ye say that hath the face to detaine from me my own naturall child Parents in this case you are only your childrens nurses and you do but nurse them for God they are his children O grudge not God his own grumble not repine not when God sends death to your houses to fetch home any Son or Daughter of his from nurse And doth not this soveraignty and supremacy in God render him also the sole disposer of all we have Omnia ex nutu arbitrioque dei aguntur Yes surely either to give or take away either to kill or keepe alive O man who art thou that repliest against God Rom. 9.21 hath not the Potter power over the clay This did silence Job in all his losses Job 1.21 he was dumbe before the shearer when he was shorne to his naked skin stripped of all and why The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Thus Aaron when his Sons were so sadly slaine by fire from the Lord Aaron hold his peace Lev. 10.3 there was silence in his Spirit Thus Eli when the ruine of his house was reported It is the Lord 1 Sam. 3.18 Let him do what seemeth him good And afflicted David upon this consideration is as mute as a Fish I was dumbe saith he I opened not my mouth Psa 39.9 because thou didst it It was Gods Act and therefore he had not a word to say Thus Hezekiah What shall I say for God himselfe hath done it Isa 38.15 And the Church I will beare the indignation of the Lord. Mic. 7.9 O Parents it is God that takes away your Children therefore take heed of heart-tumuâ—ts or implicite murmurings God hath all the keyes hanging at his own girdle both the key of the wombe and of the tombe and he will let in and out as he pleaseth and who may say unto him what dost thou Job 9.12 Methinks by this time we should not make such Idols of our selves or ours as for their deaths to grow discontented at the Lords appointment But that Argument should ever sway with us Fiat domini voluntas The will of the Lord be done Act. 21.14 Againe Confider in the second place childrens frailty Look unto the Rock whence they were hewn and to the hole of the pit whence they are digged and we shall find them to be neither Rocks nor Adamants neither Pearles nor Diamonds but the off-spring of sinfull and weake Parents Adam begat a Son in his own likenesse Gen. 5.3 after his Image God by creation made man in his Image but man by procreation begets one in his own Image not only like himselfe in condition as a man but in corruption as a degenerate man Genere non vitio Adae Chrisius Tert. In this the man Christ Jesus is only free and singular Who can bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane not one Job 14.4 And who can bring a strong thing out of a weake not one That which is borne of the flesh is flesh Joh. 3.6 The effect must needs answer to the cause and the Product to the Principle So that although Infants should neither live to imitate nor approve the actions of their Parents yet their death is deserved For though they be truly called Innocents in respect of actuall sin yet they are so in respect of Original From the very wombe they carry a depraved nature which prepares them to act evill We our selves hate creatures that are hurtfull though they never did hurt because of their pernicious natures The Scorpion hath his sting within him though he do not alway strike and the Serpent his venemous poyson though he do not yet hisse it out and disperse it For their final estate we meddle not but leave secret judgements to God If then our Children be weake and fraile dying and withering fin is the cause Sin is the sally-port that lets death into the world Rom. 5.12 Impatientia est quodammodo in Infantibus in cunabula tunc quanta mox incrementa Tert. Sin entred into the world and death by sin Look at your childrens birth and ye need not admire their death birth-Birth-sin merits death-suffering Children have in them at first a bad stock and should they live there would be as bad an improvement This worme is bred in the Plant and this decay at the core of the most beautifull Apple Adam and Christ are as two
blubbering teares and bleared eyes bewaiâ—e it Imo â—rabens à pectore vocem Luk. 7.12 Yea with what huge and hollow sobs would you follow it unto its darke and solitary receptacle Even so and far more deeply is that soule affected which is with smitten the sense of sin Much also to this is imported in the expression Bitternesse which signifieth deepe sorrow and anguish of heart Thus is Hannahs sorrow expressed 1 Sam. 1.10 She was in bitternesse of soule And thus Solomon a great naturall Philosopher gives it out The heart knoweth his own bitternesse Pro. 14.10 And it holds well for 1. Bitter things are hated and avoided of nature so soone as we taste gall or woormewood we spit it out and what person taketh pleasure in sorrow 2. They make the taste bitter that it cannot at present reâ—ish sweet things So doth sorrow My soule refused to be comforted Psal 77.2 As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather saith Solomon So is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart Pro. 25.20 Performes a very unseasonable and unacceptable office And Israel in Egypt hearkeneth not to Moses comfortable message for anguish of spirit Exod. 6.9 But I have only to do with the first part The summe being this To be the Parent of a dead Child That whereas the Fathers eye was sometime entertained with beholding his own Image in a quick and sparkling eye comely countenance and well cast proportion now he seeth nothing but a dead Trunck frigid and benummed limbes a pale face closed eyes and grim countenance Whereas the Fathers eare was sometimes affected with its lisping Language and childish Rhetorick now he attendeth nothing but deep silence Altum silentium the mouth being mute and that little filme of flesh that made all the musick lying still And whereas the Fathers heart was sometime delighted and overjoyed with this acceptable enjoyment now it is overwhelmed with sorrow for the want of it Surely wormewood cannot be more bitter Our discourse therefore will center it selfe in this conclusion That The death of a child a Son an only Son Doctrine a first-borne especially must needs be matter of much sorrow and sadnesse unto naturall and tender-hearted Parents Sadnesse properly is a Passion of the Soule arising from some discontentment she receiveth from objects contrary to her inclination viz. either that is which she would not have to be or that is not which she would have or at least it is not so as she would have it And this sorrow is double either Dolere condolere 1. That of Passion for the evill we sustaine our selves or 2. That of Compassion for the evill of another Before sin there was no sorrow Adam whilest innocent tasted nothing that was nocent But sin and sorrow were contemporaries and have ever since like Mistris and Hand-maid continued inseparable Companions Insomuch that the second Adam Jesus Christ undertaking for sins was pressed with sorrows witnesse the Prophet Isa 53.3 A A man of sorrows and acquainted with griefe And his own words Mysoule is exceeding sorrowfull Mat. 26.38 even unto death But for proofe of the point Hence that is used as a Patheticall and Rhetoricall illustration of mourning Jer. 31.15 A voice was heard in Ramah lamentation and bitter weeping Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children because they were not In this place Rachel Jacobs beloved wife is brought in as raised out of her Sepulchre lamenting the losse of her children led away into captivity Mat. 2.18 The Evangelist reciting the same words applies them to the mothers of those children that Herod most barbarously caused to be slaughtered However both the Prophet and Evangelist do imply what Rachel would have done had shee been surviving at either of those calamities which her issue sustained Another place O daughter of my people Jer. 6.26 gird thee with sackcloth make thee mourning as for an onely Son most bitter lamentation Nebuchadnezzar his Forces being to come against them the Prophet useth these expressions as the fittest terms to describe such a lamentation as the grievousnesse of their calamities might be deemed to deserve I mention no more but that paralel place in Amos his Prophesie wherein the Prophet foretelling what dismall judgements should befall that people because of oppression he thus sets off the measure of their miseries Amos 8.10 I will make it as the mourning of an only Son and the end thereof as a bitter day But were there no Scripture-instances this is a truth written in naturall affections And we see it in experience this day here are some that mourne for an only Son and are in bitternesse for a first-borne And this sorrow is not irrationall For first of all Reason 1 Children are a pretious possession What is precious we are loath to part with Children are rich gifts Loe Psa 127.3 Children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the wombe is his reward And the more Children the more bleshngs Ver. 5. happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them Children that are begotten while their Parents are young may live to comfort them when they are old Some there are that account their Children burthens but Scripture you see puts them upon the account of blessings Many hug themselves in having few or no Children but surely this their way is their folly for Children are the greatest riches in the world And here in we come to receive a portion of that primitive benediction so long since pronounced upon mankind Be fruitfull and multiply Gen. 1.18 and replenish the earth Hence old father Jacob makes such gratefull mention of his children Gen. 33.5 These saith he are the children which God hath graciously given thy servant Children are blessings next unto our graces greater and better than all worldly things besides A wedg'd chest a full fraught house and shop a goodly Lordship Cabinets of Jewels and Copboards of Plate are nothing comparable to the worth of a Child In a word what more can be said To have a Child given is to have a soule yea so many Children so many soules Mat. 16.26 and our Saviour tells us one soule is more pretious and of more worth than a word Reason 2 Secondly Filius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab amore quod omnium constantissimus amor sit inter parentes filios Filius est aliquid patr is Aquin. children sit close unto Parents affections and therefore not parted withall but with great reluctancy Children are as so many pieces of our own selves and in that sense to part with a Child must needs be grievous as to have a member pluckt from our bodies is very painfull I speake of naturall Parents for some are without naturall affections Rom. 1.31 Being Ostrich-like regardlesse of their own products and leaving them to sinke or swim in the sea of the
word It is very probable the Allegory of the wretched Infant was grounded upon some known custome Ezek. 16. Nay experience hath spoken how many poore Infants have tasted death from the cruell hands of their Strumpet-mothers who have twice dipped their soules in sin making amends for uncleannesse by committing murder But Such is the affection of Parents in the flesh that Scripture useth it as some short measure and scantling of the love of him who is the Father of Spirits to his adopted ones Psa 103.13 Like as a father pittieth his children so the Lord pittieth them that feare him Mal. 3.13 And I will spare them as a man that spareth his own Son that serveth him Surely none except Parents know or can be sensible how deare a child is Nay further when God would give a full and affectionate answer to his peoples lamentable but groundlesse complaint he corrects their distrust by this fit similitude Isa 49.15 Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her wombe Yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee O sweet comfort to Saints Parents which are otherwise of perverse natures yet they will not neglect their Children and is it possible that the Lord the fountaine of mercy should empty himselfe of his fatherly affection and neglect his people Quantò mollior sexus tenerior affectus Ambr. Duplex est causa physica moralis Weemes Great is the love of a Father but far more tender is the affection of a mother Hence it is rendred by some as one cause why God hath placed the womans dug in her breast That she might impart her affection more to her child by giving it suck with her dug which is so neare her heart The love which she beareth to the little one that she nourisheth and suckleth at her breast is almost unutterable What care doth she use What restlesse nights doth she endure Nay love to her little one maketh her cleane forget her selfe So neare are Children to Parents that they are called Children of their loynes and are said to proceed out of their bowels So said David of his vip'rous Son Absalom 2 Sam. 16. Behold my son which came firth of my bowels seeketh my life So that we may call our spirituall children Philem. 12. as Paul doth his spirituall Son Onesimus nostra viscera our bowels I read that upon a turbulent sedition in Thessalonica Theodosius commanded that seven thousand should be put to death A Merchant there having two Sons put into the Calender of those that should be executed their good old Father put up a supplication for his two Sons The Souldiers pittying him told him they could not save both for then the Emperours number would not be fulfilled but they would spare one choose which he would The poore Father almost like a distracted man looking rufully on both could not tell which to choose So that while he delayed both were slaine Thus the naturall mother though an harlot seeing her Child in danger to be divided 1 Kin. 3.26 her bowels were hot and yearned upon her Son And David about Absalom after all his unnaturall villany yet Absalom is a Child 2 Sam. 18. Deale gently for my sake with the young man even with Absalom and againe Is the young man Absalom safe And it is very observable in Job that he sate still and did abide the boisterous blasts of all those lossefull tidings as being not very much moved untill he heard of the death of his children But O then Children dead So soone as the report of this touched his eare it struck him to the heart Ten children in the morning and now a child esse man Oh now he startles now he stirs now the poore pale father is brought to his knees Then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell downe upon the ground Other losses may go skin-deep but these go heart-deepe Children are unto Parents like unto Teeth painfull both in breeding and parting Reason 3 Thirdly Psal 49.11 It is most naturall to have an eye to the preservation of Posterity Although that ought not to take up our innermost thoughts This care we see not only in the reasonable creatures but in the unreasonable also yea even in birds of Prey and wild beasts who are yet carefull in this behalfe howsoever otherwise they be of cruell and animosious natures Psal 84.3 Thus the Sparrow finds her an house and the Swallow a nest for her selfe where she may lay her young Likewise the Eagle stirreth up her nest fluttereth over her young spreading abroad her wings taketh them and beareth them on her wings That is she carrieth them with such tendernesse and at such an height as none may reach them to do violence unto them Nay further see the force of natures instinct even the sea-monsters draw out the breast Lam. 4.3 they give suck to their young ones What piteous out-cries and cheating circuits makes the poore Lapwing And all is to divert the Passenger from her young So carefull are creatures to preserve the products of their own kind And this care must needs be more superlative in the reasonable Creature unlesse horribly degenerated Moreover God threatens this to a wicked man as a very great judgement to put out his light and expunge his name from among the living Job 18.16 17 19. As Bildad in Job very elegantly His roots shall be dried up beneath and above shall his branch be cut off His remembrance shall perish from the earth and he shall have no name in the street He shall neither have Son nor Nephew among his people nor any remaining among his dwellings And the Psalmist Psal 34.16 The face of the Lord is against them that do evill to out off the remembrance of them from the earth And againe Psa 109.13 Let his posterity be cut off and in the generation following let their name be blotted out And Solomon threatens him not with a rotten house or body but a rotten name Pro. 10.7 The name of the wicked shall rot Marke shall rot The rot we say is an evill disease where ever it lights whether amongst herds or flocks But never so ill as when it lighteth on mens names or memories that either they are mentioned with disgrace as a rotten thing or not remembred at all Also God promiseth this to his people as a grand favour and great incouragement to obedience that he will multiply and keepe alive their off-spring Abraham the friend of God is blessed with a numerous Posterity like to the Sand upon the Sea shore or Stars of heaven It was no small piece of King Davids happinesse that he saw his Son Solomon sit upon the Throne of Israel before his death And that promise made unto Christ is one of the glorious things of the Gospell He shall see his seed Isa 53.10 And
goeth Not only to Mount Tabor but Mount Calvary Not only to behold him when he is glorified but to stand by him when he is crucified It is expected we should love Christ with the Crosse as well as Christ with the Crown In matters of Religion we must put on resolution Ver. 16 17 18. God loves fixed Saints Intreat me not to leave thee or to returne from following after thee for whither thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge thy people shall be my people and thy God my God No sooner sets she foot in the City of Bethlehem but the report is carried abroad upon the swift wing of fame where all flock about to gaze upon her Ver. 19. with wonderment admiring her great change What a spectacle is this Is this Naomi As it were doubting whether it were she or not Note How strangely is she altered Great afflictions may deface our outward gooddness that men can scarce take cognizance of us We may be such altered Creatures as to become strange to our famiâ—iars Only here is our comfort if we have the marke of election upon our soules which Christ can never forget And never are men miserable till he say Depart from me I know you not From this doubting question of theirs she takes occasion to frame this answer Call me not Naomi call me Marah for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me And thus having brought her home to her City we are come home to our Text. Which we may digest into 1. A Doctrine 2. And Use The Doctrine is not the preaching of the word but the language of the Rod. Heare ye the rod Mic. 6.9 and who hath appointed it The Rod hath a mouth to speake if we have an eare to heare The Use is not only verball but vertuall and Practicall she heares the rod she accepts the punishment the rod is sanctified It is like Jonathans rod there is honey upon the end of it It is like Aarons rod it buds and yeelds fruit even the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse Heb. 12.11 The Doctrine speakes bitter and heavy affliction The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me The Use speakes humble submission and subjection she is sensible of it she submits to it Call me not Naomi call me Marah The first of these is for our present purpose and the later will be coincident in the discourse Let us first labour to give a little light into the words by way of Explication Call me not Naomi Naim civitas vel nomen oppidi ab amoenitate jueunditate situ Guich Minsh call me Marah Naomi signifieth sweet or pleasant and delectable and sometimes beautifull From this word the Hebrews did oft-times denominate Cities because of their beautifull buildings and sweet and pleasant scituation And Marah signifieth bitterness so we read of the waters of Marah Exo. 15.23 the Israelites could not drinke of the waters because they were bitter therefore the name of the place was called Marah or bitternesse Exod. 15.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amarus tum de sapore tum de odore dicitur The Greeks do use a very Emphaticall word signifying both such things as do disgust the taste and displease the sense of smelling The summe is she submits to Gods hand and desires to be called by a name suitable to her condition The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me I conceive these to be the words not of one murmuring though the best are apt to expresse impatiency under such a condition but of one sensible of Gods heavy hand and bemoaning her owne estate As if she should have said God hath given me a very bitter pill and disgustfull draught in depriving me of my husband and two Sons and bringing me into to this low posture of poverty for so it follows Ver. 21. I went forth full and the Lord hath brought me home againe empty and thus The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me Amongst the reft foure things are very bitter viz. Sin every act of sin is a declining of God whose glory is the chiefe marke we ought to levell at Jer. 2.19 and this is an evill thing and bitter Sin is like John's book sweet in the mouth but bitter in the belly As Abner faid of the Sword It will be bitternesse in the later end It is sweet in the committing but stingeth afterward Let a man offer us wormewood so soone as we taste it wespit it out of our mouths Sin is more bitter than wormewood therefore away with it Christians I say no more when once you come to taste the pangs of death you will say ah Sin is bitter The wrathfull displeasure of God O pray you may be preserved from tasting this Cup. Pray it may passe from you A dram a drop of divine wrath is soule-undoing lethall and mortiferous O wo to the damned that must suck the very dregs of Gods displeasure and drinke whole Vials of wrath in the darke and deep Cellar of hell for evermore Death is a bitter thing When Agag was spared by Saul and doubted not to receive good quarter from Samuel he said 1 Sam. 15.32 surely the bitternesse of death is past By tasting sicknesse the brim of this cup ye may guess what bitterness there is in the bottome And lastly grievous afflictions are very bitter Because they do render the life bitter and make the condition grievous Great afflictions may be called Waters of Marah In this sense it is that Naomi speaks And some among us may this day speake something out of the like experience The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me Now to the Point God Almighty sometimes de ales very bitterly with his beautifull and belovedones Doctr. Every true Saint of God is his Hephsibah and Beaula Vel Chephsibab Isa 62.4 God's delight is in them and he is married to them They are his Naomi's his beautifull pleasant and delectable ones And yet these polished and pleasant peeces may lye under very bitter dispensations God doth not alwaies entertaine his people with Apples and Flagons But sometimes feeds them with bread of affliction and with water of affliction Here is Naomi a pretious woman whose name and disposition both render her pleasant and amiable and yet speakes of bitter dealing from the Lord. Neither is she single or passeth alone in such sufferings for clouds of witnesses keep consort and joint-harmony with her in this water-musick And though it is most true Saints never drinke the cup of pure wrath which is the proper portion of the wicked yet many ingredients of sorrow may be mingled in their cup they may taste much bitterness from God Job a man whom Scripture seems to Canonize for an eminent Saint and patterne of patience ye have heard of the patience of Job yet Jam. 5.11 reads a decree against himself written with gall and wormewood Thou writest bitterthings against me Job
together for Good to them that love God Such is the admirable power and goodnesse of God that he can bring light out of darkenesse and good out of evill yea he can so over-rule the nature of things that what of themselves would contra-operate he will cause to co-operate and make them serve for much good He can sweeten bitter waters and make waters of Marah become waters of life But lest any soule should be sick about this question 1 Tim â— 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and say Why am I thus These following reasons may minister some satisfaction unto sober minds viz. Reason 1 The first Reason respects sin Sometimes God inflicts them as Castigatory stripes because of sin It is possible whilest they are in the flesh Saints may sin nay it is impossible they should not sin True He that is borne of God doth not commit sin that is 1 Joh. 3.9 as some do unpardonably or as the wicked do continually as one in his proper element he sinneth not wilfully presumptuously impenitently c. yet not so as if he could not Deut. 32.5 or did not sin Gods purest people have their spots Pro. 20.9 Possumus quod jure possumus Jam. 3.2 Solomon bids a challenge to all the world Who can say I am pure from my sin None justly In many things we offend all The greatest selfe-justifiers will prove the greatest selfe-deceivers Take it in the Apostles own words If we marke we Apostles and Saints say that we have no sin 1 Joh. 1.8 we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Euseb Eccl. hist l. 2. Clem. Hypotypos l. 7. James sirnamed for vertue the just reckons himselfe amongst offenders There is a Generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthinesse And I guesse none to be blacker in Gods eyes than those that are whitest in their own Nitre Sope and Snow-water will not wash off their blemishes Nay further it is plaine Saints do not only sin simply but transitively even in performing duty and doing good So saith Solomon There is not a just man that doth good Eccl. 7.20 and sinneth not It was once the perverse dispute of some Pelagians Whether by the absolute power of God a just man might not live on earth without sin But what have we to do with the absolute power of God Quid in bâc vitâ uisi Aurora sumus Greg when his pleasure is otherwise we have cause here to be humbled for the imperfection of our perfection being at best like the gray morning not cleare day Though we do some things that are of the light yet we do not want the reliques of darkenesse Sin hath some life in us still on earth our sanctification being not yet absolute which God suffers mainely for three reasons viz. 1. For the exercise of our faith patience and constancy He leaves some enemies against whom we may fight the good fight of faith as the Canaanites were left in the Land to prove the Israelites 2. For our instruction to make us know how deeply we are obliged to Gods mercy and how excellent is that deliverance we have by Christ Hereby we come to know the benefit we have by grace to which we must make our recourse Did we not feele how powerfull sin is to over-rule us we could never have known the vile servitude of sin under which we lay by nature nor the excellent grace of Christ whereby deliverance is procured We find that if the reliques of sin be so turbulent how would it trouble us tyrannize were it in its full vigour 3. For his own greater glory and Sathans greater confusion Like Conquerours that slay not all enemies but reserve some alive Captive for the day of Triumph to be put to death for their greater shame and the Conquerours greater glory Josh 10.23 c. Thus Joshuah dealt with the five Kings that made war against Gibeon So Jesus Christ the Captaine of our Salvation subdues all enemies our sins yet some remaine enclosed within us as in a Cave restrained by his power from their former liberty and when the battle is ended he will utterly spoile them of life This being so men shall smart for sin where ever it is found Saintship is no shelter The best child will deserve it at one time or other and an offending Son shall lick of the whip yea Gods own Son if he undertake for sinners So long as we have in us this bitter root we may expect some bitter fruit Psal 91.30 31 32. If Davids children in Covenant with God breake his Statutes and keep not my Commandements then will he visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes Saints themselves do never receive the full application of freedome from affliction till death Joh. 16.33 Yet these are castigatory not condemnatory They have the Cross but not the Curse Correction Rom. 8.1 but not Condemnation A good and a bad man may lye under a like calamity and yet here is the difference to the one it is a chastening to the other a punishment Sufferings may be alike in the nature and measure of them and yet differ in the acceptation A Merchant and Malefactor both crosse the Sea in one and the same Ship To the one it is the pursuit of his Calling and for gaine to the other exile and banishment Correction stands for a good caution Joh. 5.14 Piscu ictus sapit Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee The sins of Saints are more dishonourable unto God and cutting to the heart of Christ than others therefore a smarter rod may hang at their girdâ—es Greatnesse of mercy aggravates the greatnesse of sin Amos 3.2 and addes to misery You only have I known of all the Families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities Againe sometimes God dispenseth afflictions as medicinal Pils or Potions to procure the soules health Let no man ascribe to afflictions more than is their due they cannot worke of themselves yet being sanctified of God they have a threefold operation 1. For the prevention of sin They are those thornes with which God hedgeth up our way that we may not find our paths Hos 2.6 Naturally we are like unto beasts desirous to breakeforth into wrong walkes and pastures God will by these prevent our extravagancy and keepe us within compass If they go on they shal prick themselves to the bone Physicians open a veine not only to cure but many times to prevent a disease God knows our disposition how inclinable we are to this or that evill And that we should not fall into these he sends us sicknesse in body sadnesse in soule losses in our goods friends children c. And these by Gods blessing become golden bridles to curbe and restraine us from that which otherwise we should rush upon and commit When the people
saw Amasa wallowing in bloud 2 Sam. 20.12 every one that passed by stood still When we are in the hot pursuit of sin yea in the very chase bitter afflictions serve to give us a stand Psal 4.4 Stand in awe and sin not 2. They serve to awaken us out of sin How apt are we to take a sweet nap upon the Lap of our Delilah our beloved lusts And how unwilling to be disturbed Pro. 6.10 yet a little sleepe a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep How long did David sleep under the guilt of adultery and bloudshed before he was awaken by Nathan Sin hath a strong power to charme us into a deep sleep Pro. 23.34 Solomons Drunkard continues sleeping upon the top of a Mast Judg. 16. Sampson is dorming when enemies are upon his back Jonah 1.5 And Jonah hath his senses fast lockt up when there is but a poore planke or inch-boord betwixt him and death Who fallen into a lethargy can awake himselfe No more can men awake themselves out of this spirituall lethargy Secure sinners matter not though the house be on fire about their eares Now sanctified afflictions are meanes both to awake us and keep us wakefull Psal 77.4 Thou holdest mine eyes waking Both the eye of my body and mind How comes the Psalmist to be so wakefull Even by being plied with afflictions My sore ran I was troubled my spirit was overwhelmed I am so troubled that I cannot speake c. David in his heavy affliction of spirit could say My sin is ever before me Psa 51.3 and it was unto him as a Monster very horrid and formidable Whereas before in his jollity he was sensible of no such thing Looke up to God and beseech him in this glass to discover unto thee the thing that doth thee all the annoyance that sin may by little and little go out and grace drop in Many a soule had slept the sleepe of death if God had not sent some awakening affliction to shake them by the shoulder and shout aloud in their eares 3. They may be said to cure the soule of sin 1 Pet. 2.24 But what then becomes of the bloud of Christ by whose stripes we are healed Answer No great difficulty to unloose this knot take it in short chastisements may be said to cure the soule mediately but not immediately for they are meanes to bring to repentance which in its order and place leads us to the obtaining of pardon and God ever gives when he forgives Pardon of sin and power against sin are constant concomitants and a double portion from God given to the soule So then the bloud of Christ is the only foveraigne Medicine of souls and afflictions drive us to seeke the cure Meliores sunt ques ducit amor sed plures sunt quos corrigit timor Aug. To be wonne by love shews a spirit very Evangelicall and the love of Christ ought to constraine us yet many we see are brought home to Christ by the weeping crosse The Prodigall in prosperity had forgotten himselfe but having gone a season to the schoole of lad experience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at last he comes to himselfe The Dungeon preached to Manasses the doctrine of true Religion And fellowship with the beasts taught Nebuchadnezzar humility Afflictions and the Crosse are Gods file to take off our rust and make us bright Then let us not looke at present asperity but future profit At first Job something grudged the Lords visitations but in the issue of those great troubles he was of another mind No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous yet neverthelesse afterward it yeeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse No child takes pleasure in correction for the time it is unpleasant and irkesome he cries out O good Father good Master and thinkes he hath no worse enemies in the world But when he commeth to yeares of discretion he praiseth God he was not permitted to live as he listed Receiving of Pils and drinking of potions the cutting and lancing of a man and putting long tents into wounds Eadem est ratio disciplinae quae medicinae these are not joyous for the present And yet the health which is procured afterwards brings joy So afflictions though irkesome to the flesh yet they are wholesome to the Spirit In nature the body is most healthy when the spleen is smallest And the soule is at best when the body of sin that spirit in us that lusteth to envy is brought lowest Heavens designe in this dispensation is to kill that which would kill us The time is comming in which the soule shall say Psa 119.71 It is good that I was afflicted Blessed be those afflictions that helped to keepe me out of hell and to bring me to heaven I may say of sanctified afflictions as he said of vertue Amara radix dulcis fructus The beginning is as bitter as gall or wormewood But the end shall be sweeter than honey The second reason of the point doth respect grace Reason 2 God issueth out such bitter dispensations against his beloved ones To evidence grace To see if there be any sparke of a spirituall life in the soule We try whether instruments be in tune by smiting upon them our hearts are Gods Instruments and when he smites upon us they send forth either the sound of nature or grace God led Israel in the wildernesse to prove him and to know what was in his heart Deut. 8.2 Not that God is ignorant of our estate but to make us appeare what we are and give us a sight of our selves A Pilot is best known in a storme a Souldier in fight and a Saint in affliction This day will make us discerne betweene a tree and a man Some weeds being rubbed offend the sense whereas Pomander chafed yeelds a comfortable smell Afflictions discover the carrion-like corruptions of some but are as the breaking of a box of oyntment to others What is this man or that woman saith God Silver or Drosse Corne or Chaste Flesh or Spirit He shall no longer dissemble with the world and his own soule I le make him appeare in his colours Under the Crosse the godly pray the wicked often blaspheme To try grace We are commanded to prove all things yea our own selves 2 Cor. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To deale with our selves as the Goldsmith with his Gold bring our selves to the touchstone of triall the ballance of the Sanctuary to see if we be right metall and weight yea to pierce our selves thorough and see if we be sound at heart All is not Gold that glitters A varnished Paste-board or painted Post may shine till they come to scouring That may seeme to be grace which is not Jacob may mistake his Sons No flower in the garden but a weed may be found to resemble it in the wild wildernesse It is possible
off two extreames 1. We must not faint under them breaking forth into passionate or desperate speeches Never was any so afflicted as I oh this is greater than I can beare 2. Neither must we despise them or set light by them for it is God that chasteneth whatsoever the rod or instrument be which he useth In the second place be humbled under it Sad affliction ought to worke the heart unto serious humiliation Thus Peter 1 Pet. 5.6 Humble your selves therefore marke therefore under the mighty hand of God And David Psa 32.4 5. Thy hand is heavy upon me I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confesse my transgressions unto the Lord. O let the weight of Gods hand upon you or your Families bring you to your knees Let the force of it make you fall down before him in the confession of sin This is another bough to make sweet these bitter waters The Lyon of the Tribe of Judah spareth a poore prostrate creature There is no other way to breake the violence of a divine stroake from God but humbly to run under his hand They have humbled themselves 2 Chr. 12.7 therefore I will not destroy them Nay more this is the only meanes to get the breach repaired God himselfe will dwell in the humble heart he will take up his quarters there O happy exchange O rich supply O gainefull losse I have parted maiest thou say with an Estate a Child c. But I have a God in reserve Blessed are those afflictions which fit a soule to be Gods second heaven In the next place take revenge upon sin When Gods hand is upon us it is good our hand be upon sin When God falls upon us by bitter affliction we should fall upon sin by bitter sorrow repentance mortification c. God eyes most of all what effects afflictions do produce We ought in a special manner to consider the death of those which are neare and deare unto us Son or Daughter It may be God hath deprived us of them for the punishment of our sin it may be they are taken from us because we were unworthy of them or because we gloried too much in them or were not so thankfull for them as we ought Such use as this the widdow of Sarepta made upon the death of her only Child 1 King 17.18 Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my Son upon a due search you will find Sin is the Achan that hath caused all this trouble do execution upon it When Jesabel heard that Elijah had slaine all Baals Prophets she takes a profound yet profane oath So let the Gods do to me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them O say Sin hath opened the birter fountaine Sin hath brought this bitter griefe and if I suffer it will bring me more Sin hath bereaved me of my Children Sin hath wrought me all this mischiefe by the grace of God I will forth with labour the death of sin Pluck it out though it seeme a right eye cut it off though it seeme a right hand or foot spit it out though it be a sweet morsell out with it though it be a beloved Sin Constantine the Great hearing that nothing would cure his Leprosie but the bloud of an Infant ript out of its mothers wombe the good Emperour abhorred the very mentioning of it But sin is so cruell as it would have both the bloud of our Seed and of our Souls It is reported of the Bezor the creature which hath that cordiall stone being hunted and knowing by instinct the cause leaves the stone to the Pursuers to save his life Let the credit of that lye upon the affirmers But Brethren I le tell you afflictions are sent out from God and do pursue us to this end to get from us a stone And it is no precious but a most perniâ—ious stone the stone in the heart Ezek. 11.19 Surely it is not worth keeping O cast it away with your sins and lusts that these Beagles may not too sorely seize upon you Say O Lord discover unto me this sin which engageth thee against me and makes thee contend with me Tell me what it is and take it away that thou mayest withdraw thine hand and be at peace with thy poore Creature We must cast the head of this Sheba over the wall before ever bitter afflictions will make a retreat Againe Justifie God Sore afflictions do lay us open to strong temptations And as a learned man sheweth in his Exposition upon Job Anonymus it is the Devils defigne under such dispensations to provoke us to have hard thoughts of God and to be suspitious of his love and good will towards us How apt are men in affliction to say as that wretched Prince did Behold this evill is of the Lord It is a thing very connaturall with the Sons of Adam to lay their bastard-brats at other mens doores nay rather than faile to lay the fault upon God himselfe Gen. 3.12 The woman whom thou gavest to be with me she gave me of the tree and I did eate O Adam a neat evasion but this Sophistry will not serve your turne Know therefore by sad experience the fault was not mine in giving you the woman but your own in taking the fruit from her hand and eating it against the expresse prohibition you received from God And by this time where are you Adam Whose now is the fault Adam And thus mortall man would seeme more just than God Job 4.17 and more pure than his Maker O have a Care Get to be grounded in this Principle that God is essenally just justice and purity are his very nature he cannot be God and be unjust Therefore under the bitterest crosse give glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto him saying Jer. 12.1 Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee Psal 51 4. Be thou justified when thou speakest and clear when thou judgest And lastly Submit quietly to God Do not as Israel of old murmur at Marah When Sampson had burnt up the Philistines corne they asked Judg 15 6. Who hath done this Soule when thou art under affliction make inquiry not into the lower but higher causes Tolerare est patientia necessitatis amare tolerare patientia virtutis and thou wilt conclude God hath afflicted me God hath bereaved me of my Children the Almighty hath shewed me much bitternesse Let this quiet thine heart and silence thy spirit under Gods stroakes The snared bird the more she struggles the more she intangles her selfe God hath thee in a snare struggle not It will be but as one taking the Chaine from his leg and tying it to his neck It is no striving against the streame of divine appointment Art thou or thine under a mournfull estate Submit Cast up thine