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
is strained to the height and a man becomes more then himselfe to object against himselfe in a fit of despaire Tim. What is the other Reason Phil. Sathan himselfe that subtile sophister assisteth them He formes their Arguments frames their objections fits their distinctions shapes their evasions and this discomforter Aping Gods spirit the Comforter John 14. 26. bringeth all things to their remembrance which they have heard or read to dishearten them Need therefore have Ministers when they meddle with afflicted men to call to Heaven afore-hand to assist them being sure they shall have Hell it selfe to oppose them Tim. To come now to the objections which afflicted Consciences commonly make they may be reduced to three principall Heads Either drawne from the greatnesse and grievousnesse of their sinnes or from the slightnesse and lightnesse of their repentance or from thâ—… faintnesse feeblenesse of their faith I begin with the objections of the first forme Phil. I approve your method I pâ—…ay proceed Tim. First Sir even since my conversion I have beene guilty of many grievous sinnes and which is worse of the same sinne many times committed Happy * Judah who though once committing incest with Thamar yet the text saith that afterward he knew her again no more But I vile wretch have often re-fallen into the same offence Phil. All this is answered in Gods Promise in the * Prophet Though your sins be as scarlet I will make them as snow Consider how the Tyrian scarlet was dyed not overly dipt but throughly drencht in the liquor that coloured it as thy soul in custome of sinning Then was it taken out for a time and dryed put in againe soakt and sodden the second time in the Fatt called therefore {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} twice dyed as thou complainest thou hast been by relapsing into the same sin Yea the colour so incorporated into the cloath not drawne over but diving into the very heart of the wool that rub a scarlet rag on what is white and it will bestow a redish tincture upon it As perchance thy sinfull practice and president have also infected those which were formerly good by thy badnesse Yet such scarlet sins so solemnly and substantially coloured are easily washt white in the blood of our Saviour Tim. But Sir I have sinned against most serious resolutions yea against most solemne vowes which I have made to the contrary Phil. Vow-breaking though a grievous sinne is pardonable on unfaigned repentance If thou hast broken a Vow tâ—…e a knot on it to make it hold together againe It is spirituall thrift and no mis-becomming basenesse to piece and joynt thy neglected promises with fresh ones So shall thy vow in effect be not broken when new mended and remain the same though not by one intire continuation yet by a constant successive renovation thereof Thus * Jacob renewed his neglected vow of going to Bethel And this must thou doe re-inforce thy broken vowes if of moment and materiall Tim. What mean you by the addition of that clause if of moment and materiall Phil. To deale plainly I dislike many vowes men make as of reading just so much and praying so often every day of confining themselves to such a strict proportion of meate drinke sleepe recreation c. Many things may be well done which are ill vowed Such particular vowes men must be very sparing how they make First because they savour somewhat of will-worship Secondly small glory accrews to God thereby Thirdly The dignitie of vowes are disgraced by descending to too triviall particulars Fourthly Sathan hath ground given him to throw at us with a more steady aime Lastly such vowes instead of being cords to tie us faster to God prove knots to intangle our Consciences Hard to be kept but oh how heavy when broken Wherefore setting such vowes aside let us be carefull with David to keep that grand and generall vow * I have sworne and I will performe it that I will keep thy righteous judgements Tim. But Sir I have committed the sinne against the holy Ghost which the Saviour of mankind pronounceth unpardonable and therefore all your counsells and comforts unto me are in vaine Phil. The devill the father of lyes hath added this lye to those which he hath told before in perswading thee thou hast comitted the sinne against the holy Ghost For that sinne is ever attended with these two symptomes First the party guilty thereof never grieves for it nor conceives the least sorrow in his heart for the sinne he hath committed The second which followeth on the former he never wisheth or desireth any pardon but is delighted and pleased with his present condition Now if thou canst truely say that thy sinnes are a burden unto thee that thou dost desire forgivenesse and wouldest give any thing to compasse and obtaine it be of good comfort thou hast not as yet and by Gods Grace never shalt commit that unpardonable offence I will not define how neere thou hast beene unto it As David said to Jonathan there is not a haires breadth betwixt death and me So it may be thou hast mâ—…st it very narrowly but assure thy selfe thou art not as yet guilty thereof IX Dialogue Answers to the objections of a wounded Conscience drawne from the slightnesse of his Repentance Tim. I Beleeve my sinnes are pardonable in themselves but alas my stony Heart is such that it cannot relent and repent and therefore no hope of my Salvation Phil. Wouldest thou sincerely repent thou dost repent The women that came to embalme * Christ did carefully forecast with themselves Who shall role away the stone from the doore of the Sepulcher Alas their fraile faint feeble Arms were unable to remove such a weight But what followeth And when they looked they saw that the stone was rolled away for it was very great In like manner when a soule is truly troubled about the massie mighty burden of his stony heart interposed hindring him from comming to Christ I say when he is seriously and sincerely solicitous about that impediment such desiring is a doing such wishing is a working Doe thou but take care it may be removed and God will take order it shall be removed Tim. But Sir I cannot weep for my sinnes My eyes are like the pit wherein Joseph was put there is no water in them I cannot squeeze one teare out of them Phil. Before I come to answer your objection I must premise a profitable observation I have taken notice of a strange opposition betwixt the tongues and eyes of such as have troubled Consciences Their tongues some have known and I have heard complaine that they cannot weepe for their sinnes when at that instant their eyes have plentifully shed store of teares not that they speake out of dissimulation but distraction So somtimes have I smiled at the simplicity of a Child who being amased and demanded whether or no he could speake hath answered No If in