Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A40653
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The cause and cure of a vvounded conscience by Tho. Fuller ...
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Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661.
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1647
(1647)
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Wing F2414; ESTC R1315
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44,277
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188
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thought to sinke downe to hell hath presently beene countermanded by Gods goodnesse to eternall happinesse Tim. What you say herein no man alive can confirme or confute as being knowne to God alone and the soule of the party Only I must confesse that you have charity on your side Phil. I have more then charity namely Gods plain positive Promise * Blessed are such as mourne for they shall be comforted Now though the particular time when be not expressed yet the latest date that can be allowed must be in the world to come where such mourners who have not felt God in his comfort here shall see him in his glory in Heaven Tim. But some who have led pious and godly lives have departed pronouncing the sentence of condemnation upon themselves having one foot already in hell by their owne confession Phil. Such confessions are of no validity wherein their feare bears false witnesse against their faith The finenesse of the whole cloath of their life must not be thought the worse of for a little course list at the last And also their finall estate is not to be construed by what was dark doubtfull and desperate at their deaths but must be expounded by what was plaine cleare and comfortable in their lives Tim. You then are confident that a holy life must have a happy death Phil. Most confident The Logicians hold that although from false premises a true conclusion may somtimes follow yet from true propositions nothing but a * truth can be thence inferred so though sometimes a bad life may be attended with a good death namely by reason of repentance though slow sincere though late yet unfaigned being seasonably interposed but where a godly and gracious life hath gone before there a good death must of necessity follow which though sometimes dolefull for want of apparent comfort to their surviving friends can never be dangerous to the party deceased Remember what S. Paul saith * Our life is hid with Christ in God Tim. What makes that place to your purpose Phil. Exceeding much Five cordiall observations are couched therein First that God sets a high price and valuation on the soules of his servants in that he is pleased to hide them None will hide toyes and trifles but what is counted a treasure Secondly the word hide as a relative importeth that some seeke after our soules being none other then Sathan himself that roaring Lyon who goes about * SEEKING whom he may devour But the best is let him seeke and seeke and seeke till his malice be wearie if that be possible we cannot be hurt by him whilst we are hid in God Thirdly grant Satan find us there he cannot fetch us thence Our soules are bound in the bundle of life with the Lord our God So that be it spoken with reverence God first must be stormed with force or 〈◊〉 before the soule of a Saint-sinner hid in him can be surprized Fourthly we see the reason why so many are at a losse in the agony of a wounded conscience concerning their spirituall estate For they looke for their life in a wrong place namely to finde it in their owne piety purity and inherent righteousnesse But though they seeke and search and dig and dive never so deep all in vaine For though Adams life was hid in himselfe and he intrusted with the keeping his owne integrity yet since Christs coming all the originall evidences of our salvation are kept in a higher office namely hidden in God himselfe Lastly as our English proverb saith he that hath hid can finde so God to whom belongs the * issues from death can infallibly finde out that soule that is hidden in him though it may seeme when dying even to labour to lose it self in a fit of despaire Tim. It is pitty but that so comfortable a doctrine should be true Phil. It is most true Surely as * Joseph and Mary conceived that they had lost Christ in a crowd and sought him three dayes sorrowing till at last they found him beyond their expectation safe and sound sitting in the Temple So many pensive parents solicitous for the soules of their children have even given them for gone and lamented them lost because dying without visible comfort and yet in due time shall finde them to their joy and comfort safely possessed of honour and happinesse in the midst of the heavenly Temple and Church Triumphant in glory XVIII Dialogue Of the different time and manner of the comming of comfort to such who are healed of a wounded conscience Tim. HOw long may a servant of God lye under the burden of a wounded conscience Phil. * It is not for us to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in his owne power God alone knows whether their griefe shall be measured unto them by houres or dayes or weeks or moneths or many yeeres Tim. How then is it that Sainâ—… Paul saith that God will give us the * issue with the temptation if one may long be visited with this malady Phil. The Apostle is not so to be understood as if the temptation and issue were twins both borne at the same instant for then no affliction could last long but must be ended as soone as it is begun whereas we * read how Aeneas truly pious was bed-rid of the Palsie 8. yeeres the woman diseased with a * bloody issue 12. yeeres another woman bowed by infirmity * 18. yeers and the man * lame 38. yeeres at the poole of Bethesda Tim. What then is the meaning of the Apostle Phil. God will give the issue with the temptation that is the temptation and the issue bear both the same date in Gods decreeing them though not in his applying them At the same time wherein he resolved his servants shall be tempted he also concluded of the means and manner how the same persons should infallibly be delivered Or thus God will give the issue with the temptation that is as certainly though not as suddenly Though they goe not abreast yet they are joyned successively like two links in a chaine where one endeth the other doth begin Besides there is a two-fold issue one through a temptation another out of a temptation The former is but mediate not finall an issue to an issue onely supporting the person tempted for the present and preserving him for a future full deliverance Understand the Apostle thus and the issue is alwayes both given and applyed to Gods children with the temptation though the temptation may last long after before fully removed Tim. I perceive then that in some awounded conscience may continue many yeeres Phil. So it may I read of a poore widdow in the Land of * Limburgh who had nine children and for 13. yeares together was miserably afflicted in mind only because she had attended the dressing and feeding of her little ones before going to Masse At last it pleased God to
like manner at the sight of such a contradiction betwixt the words and deeds of one in the agony of a wounded Conscience we should chance to smile knew us not to jeere but joy perceiving the party in a better condition then he conceiveth himselfe Tim. This your observation may be comfortable to others but is impertinent to me For as I told you I I have by nature such dry eyes that they will afford no moisture to bemoan my sinnes Phil. Then it is a naturall defect and no morall default so by consequence a suffering and no sinne which God will punish God doth not expect the cock should runne water where he put none into the Cisterne Know also their hearts may be fountaines whose eyes are flints and may inwardly bleed who doe not outwardly weep Besides * Christ was sent to preach Comfort not to such only as weep but mourne in Zion Yea if thou canst squeeze out no liquor offer to God the empty bottles instead of tears tender and present thy eyes unto him And though thou beest water-bound be not wind-bound also sigh where thou canst not sob and let thy Lungs doe what thy eyes cannot performe Tim. You say something though I cannot weep in case I could soundly sorrow for my sinnes But alas for temporall losses and crosses I am like Râ—…chell â—…amenting for her children and would not be comforted But my sorrow for my sins is so small that it appeares none at all in proportion Phil. In the best Saints of God their sorrow for their sinnes being measured with the sorrow for their sufferings in one respect will fall short of it in another must equall it and in a third respect doth exceed and goe beyond it Sorrow for sins falleth short of sorrow for sufferings in loud lamenting or violent uttering it selfe in outward expressions thereof as in roaring wringing the hands rending their haire and the like Secondly both sorrowes are equall in their truth and sincerity both farre from hypocrisie free from dissimulation reall hearty cordiall uncounterfeited Lastly sorrow for sinne exceeds sorrow for suffering in the continuance and durablenesse thereof the other like a land-flood quickly come quickly gone this is a continuall dropping or running river keeping a constant stream My sins saith David are ever before me so also is the sorrow for sinne in the soule of a child of God morning evening day night when sicke when sound feasting fasting at home abroad ever within him This griefe beginneth at his conversion continueth all his life endeth only at his death Tim. Proceed I pray in this comfortable point Phil. It may still be made plainer by comparing two diseases together the tooth-ache and consumption Such as are troubled with the former shreek and cry out troublesome to themselves and others in the same and next roofe and no wonder the mouth it selfe being plaintiffe if setting forth its owne grievances to the full Yet the tooth-ache is knowne to be no mortall maladie having kept some from their beds seldome sent them to their graves hindred the sleep of many hastned the death of few On the other side he that hath an incurable consumption saith little cryes lesse but grieves most of all Alas he must be a good husband of the little breath left in his broken lungs not to spend it in fighing but in living he makes no noise is quiet and silent yea none will say but that his inward griefe is greater then the former Tim. How apply you this Comparison to my objection Phil. In corporall calamities thou complainest more like him in the tooch-ache but thy sorrow for thy sinne like a Consumption which lyes at thy heart hath more solid heavinesse therein Thou dost take in more griefe for thy sinnes though thou mayest take on more grievously for thy sufferings Tim. This were something if my sorrow for sinne were sincere but alas I am but a hypocriâ—…e There is * mention in the Prophâ—…t of Gods besome of destruction now the trust of a hypocrite Job 8. 14. is called a Spiders web here is my case when Gods besome meets with the cobwebs of my hypocriâ—…e I shall be swept into hel-fire Phil. I answer first in generall I am glad to heare this objection come from thee for selfe-suspition of hypocrisie is a hopefull symptome of sincerity It is a David that cryes out As for me I am poore and needy but luke-warme Laodicea that braggeth I am rich and want nothing Tim. Answer I pray the objection in particular Phil. Presently when I have premised the great difference betwixt a mans being a Hypocrite and having some hypocrisie in him Wicked men are like the Apples of * Sodome seemingly faire but nothing but ashes within the best of Gods Servants like sound Apples lying in a dusty loft living in a wicked world gathering much dust about them so that they must be rubb'd or pared before they can be eaten Such notwithstanding are sincere and by the following marks may examine themselves Tim. But some now adayes are utter enemies to all markes of sincerity counting it needlesse for Preachers to propound or people to apply them Phil. I know as much but it is the worst signe when men in this nature hate all signes But no wonder if the foundred horse cannot abide the Smiths pincers Tim. Proceed I pray in your signes of sincerity Phil. Art thou carefull to order thy very thoughts because the infinite searcher of the heart doth behold them Dost thou freely and fully confesse thy sinnes to God spreading them open in his presence without any desire or endeavour to deny dissemble defend excuse or extenuate them Dost thou delight in an universall obedience to all Gods Lawes not thinking with the superstitious Jewes by over-keeping the fourth Commandement to make reparation to God for breaking all the rest Dost thou love their persons and preaching best who most clearly discover thine owne faults and corruptions unto thee Dost thou strive against thy vindicative nature not only to forgive those who have offended thee but also to wait an occasion with humility to fasten a fitting favour upon them Dost thou love grace and goodnesse even in those who differ from thee in point of opinion and Civil controversies Canst thou be sorrowfull for the sinnes of others no whit relating unto thee meerly because the Glory of a good God suffers by their profanenesse Tim. Why doe you make these to be the signes of sincerity Phil. Because there are but two principles which act in mens hearts namely nature and grace or as Christ distinguisheth them Flesh and Bloud and our Father which is Heaven Now seeing these actions by us propounded are either against or above nature it doth necessarily follow that where they are found they flow from saving grace For what is higher then the roofe and very Pinnacle as I may say of nature cannot belower then the bottome and beginning of grace Tim. Perâ—…hance on serious search I may make