studious to smooth that he leaves not a pebble in the way to offend them as if he were that tutelar Angel who hath a charge to look to them that they dash not their foot against a stone If they sigh he sings to them if they sleep he sits by them whispering to all troubles as the the Spouse to the daughters of Jerusalem I charge you O ye transgressions of his heart waken him not till he please Let there be no noise of fear no alarme of repentance no susurration of conscience to molest him peace peace lie down in peace with thy warme sinnes cleaving to thy bosome The Prophet gives you their character They lie upon beds of ivory and eat the lambs out of the flock and calves out of the stall they chant to the sound of viols and daunce to Instruments and drinke wine in bowls what should these men do with comforts Joy and nothing else but the voice of joy resounds in their habitations It is poor afflicted Joseph not they that needs comfort Consolation then is made for sorrow and not for every sorrow neither Some is produced by no other cause but temporall losses paines or injuries so Esau may mourn long enough without recovery of his Fathers blessing Worldly sorrow bringeth death not delight to the soul Many weep as Rachel did in Ramah for her children because they were not but they neither are nor ever will be comforted There are tears that got sinfull Esau nothing and there be tears that got sinfull Mary salvation If the sorrow that swells our bosome with sighes and is ready to burst our hearts be spent upon our sins it shall be sure of comforts Are we full of griefe within and find no vent but by the groanes and tears of repentance God may let us bleed for a while till we be throughly humbled but then like the woman the pangs of whose travell be over the sonne of joy shall be borne in our souls even that son which the blessed Virgin bore from her womb Filius dilectionis Filius delectationis Jesus Christ 2. Quota there is a plurality of them many Comforts What should encounter with sorrow but comfort Comfort therefore it is for the nature What should oppose a multitude but a multitude Many comforts therefore they are for their number Are we troubled with the wants and miseries of this life we have a comfort for that The Lord is my portion He is my shepherd I shall lack nothing Do we sinke under the burden of our transgressions we have a comfort for that Mary Magdalen heard it to quiet all her stormes Thy sinnes are forgiven thee Are we haunted with temptations hurried with persecutions we have a comfort for this I will be with thee in trouble saith the Lord Let your Christian experience supply here my defects of remonstance I will summe up these comforts in a word The Lord is gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great kindnesse and repenteth him of the evill We read of certain Fair havens neere Candie here be five fountains of comfort like those faire havens as welcome for harbour and rode of a sea-beaten conscience as ever the bosome of mother was to the tender Infant Drink at the first fountain The Lord is gracious free in his favours if your thirst be not satisfied go to the second He is mercifull he hath bowels of commiseration if not yet presse to the next He is slow to anger hard to conceive it not willing to retaine it wish we more Hee is of great kindnesse in the number and measure of his blessings There is yet another well of comfort behind Repenting him of the evill full often doth he turne aside his blowes and is easily intreated to have the rod pull'd out of his hands David to encounter with the Gyant took five smooth stones out of the brooke here is the brooke and these the five smooth stones let them not lie in the channel unused but put them in your vessels bear them in your hearts whensoever you are defied and assaulted by that monstrous Philistim Satan one of these comforts like Davids stone shall sink into his forehead and confound him How happily do these comforts meet with those sorrowes we are troubled with the sense of our sins and of Gods Judgment upon them how should his Justice acquit us yet there is comfort the Lord is gracious and cannot deny himself But we are unworthy of this grace because wee have turned it into wantonnesse yet there is comfort he is mercifull and sheweth most pity where is most need But we have multiplied offences and continued in our sins to our gray hairs yet there is comfort He is slow to anger evermore blessed for his long sufferance But our iniquities be not of an ordinary quality they are hainous and intolerable yet there is comfort for he is of great kindnesse our wickednesse cannot be so great as his kindnesse of that there is no comprehension But we are out of his favour because he hath smitten us our bodies with sore diseases our souls with agonies our families with privations yet their is comfort he will repent of the evil In the hour of death when the senses are past working the understanding asleep the body in a cold and benummed sweat these comforts never leave us Return unto thy rest O my soul Our comforts vie number with our sorrowes and win the game The mercies of God pass'd over in a grosse summe breed no admiration but cast up the particulars and then Arithmetick is too dull an art to number them As many dusts as a mans hand can hold is but his handfull of so many dusts but tell them one by one and they exceed all numeration It was but a crowne which King Solomon wore but weigh the gold tell the precious stones value the richnesse of it what was it then Jerusalem was but a city but goe round about it marke the towers tell the bulwarks observe the magnificent buildings so consider the infinite variety of these comforts Come and I will tell you what God hath done for my soul I never felt that sorrow for which hee gave me not a soveraign comfort Sennacherib invaded Israel with a mighty host yet the undaunted courage of Hezekiah found more with him then could be against him and Sennacherib found it so too to his cost when he lost almost two hundred thousand of his army in one night The Prophets servant rising early in the morning sees the City besieged with a fearfull host of foot horse chariots his eyes could meet with nothing but woods of pikes walls of harnesse and lustre of metalls and hee runs in with this affrighting newes to his Master Alas what shall wee doe Quiet Elisha sits in his chamber as secure as if all these had been the guard of Israel sent for his safe protection Fear not This was an hard precept as well
whilst it containes Truth that more lovely soul Truth brings downe heaven to us Peace bears us up to heaven Both are sisters the daughters of one Father God himself Do thou first recover truth by continuall labour seeke it with prayers and teares begg it with the expense of much sorrow buy it and then peace will come in to the bargaine Gods comfort shall again delight thy soul Another complaines I am cast out of doors I have no harbour but the hedges nor lodging but the fruitless ground Poverty hath sent out her excommunication against me all that have an estate are forewarned to shun my company Consider when had Jacob so sweet a nights rest as when the pillow he laid his head upon was a hard stone Then was that ladder set by him by which his soul might climbe up to heaven in a vision whereof before he had but the speculation The Angels were dancing those measures and singing those raptures about him which did in a manner angelifie him His body lay on the bare earth his soul with those spirituall wings of faith and love was mounted above the clouds above the orbs even conversant in the highest heavens When had Elias more excellent provision then when his breakfast was brought him in the morning and his supper in the evening by a raven The messenger was homely but the dyet was heavenly It came from the table of that great King whose hospitality feeds not only men but even the fouls of the air the beasts upon earth and the fishes in the sea The Prophets lodging was but a Field-bed yet even then and there the Lyons were a guard about him the tutelar Angels did round him and the Divine providence preserved him If we be destitute of other lodging and be driven to the common earth yet we have a house over our heads not made with hands but an eternall mansion in the heavens There is also a canopy for us a roof arched over with the two Poles and set with innumerable glistering starrs Yea there is an omnipotent love that protects us a materiall heaven encompassing us and a spirituall heaven within us the peace of a good conscience assuring us of our eternall salvation through Christ Jesus This is a softer lodging then the cabbins of merchants or the Hamachs of sea-farers yea then the most curious beds that the harbengers can provide for Princes O how sweetly doth the Christian rest when he hears that voice from the Oracle of goodnesse My grace is sufficient for thee My comforts shall delight thy soul But anothers complaint is I am perplexed with sicknesse I am a marke against which paine shoots his arrows I wast away with languishments as ice is dissolved by heat into water Rest patient this consumption shall be consumed Death that universall executioner of mankind shall be executed Time shall cut off Death and Eternity shall make an end of Time Death shall have no grave left for his monument or trophee of his victories and the Angel hath sworn that time shall be no more Thy sicknesse may outlast thy Physician but thy soul shall outlive thy sicknesse and nothing shall outlive thy soul But the pangs of my body are so violent that they assault me with distraction Fear not they may beleaguer thee with distrust but never overcome that faith which thou puttest in this God of consolation He is a most faithfull Creator and will servare depositum keep that soul safe with which the beleever hath instrusted him The breaches of the body are the souls windows and afford her a more clear prospect into heaven inkindling her with an ardent desire to be with God in glory Jobs abundant sores would have bred in him a continuity of sorrowes but for that antidote of faith and saving cordiall of hope that his eyes should see his Redeemer in blessednesse The smiling Sunne flatters the traveller out of his cloake whereas the robustious wind causeth him to wrap it the closer about him God forbid that Christian Religion should bee but a cloake yet the outward profession of it is somwhat loosned by wanton healths and sickness wins it more inwardly to the heart Experienced merchants tell us that in the hottest Countreys they find most comfort in the hottest drinks A wonder to us that live in the cold climates but that the Suns adventitions heat so sucks out the radicall moisture and spirits that it leaves the heart feeble and destitute of the naturall comforts It is a maxime in Philosophy that one heat avocates another the greater the lesse The heat of the Sun drawes forth the heat of the heart and leaves it fainting Poor Lazarus with his scraps and scabs was yet in a better condition then the rich man with his Princely Wardrobe and his costly Viands Continued health hath maintained wanton desires and delights upon earth but sicknesse hath sent many souls up to Heaven Yea Lord even with sicknesse afflict my body so that thy Heavenly Comforts do delight my soul It is a generall complaint Afflictions environ me In my short pilgrimage through the sharp wildernesse of this world on the one side the Thorns wound me the Briers and Brambles scratch me on the other This is not only the deserved penalty of sinfull nature Man is born to trouble as the sparks flie upwards But even a kind of fatality inseparable to militant grace All that will live godly in Christ shall suffer persecution That is a rare path upon earth which hath never a rub and a calm passage by water that escapes all molestation But more Be there not some Afflictions that conduce much to our preservation We have found that the falling into one grievous sin the worst of all dangers hath brought us to repentance one of the best preservatives I have heard some Seamen report by experience that in a tempest some raging billow hath swept a man from off the Decks into the maine Ocean yet another wave on the other side hath tossed him up into the ship again so that he was only drenched but not drowned The violent pressure of one Affliction hath sunk a man to distrust in God another with a more furious Storme hath left him destitute of all earthly succour He now resolves the world hath forsaken me I will never look for relief from it But my God hath not forsaken me he never will forsake them that trust in him through Jesus Christ To him I flie upon him I rely he will not suffer me to perish Still O Lord in all my extremities Thy comforts delight my soul Not offering to number mans grievances which be innumerable there is yet the last and it may prove the best complaint remaining I am perplexed with the wofull consideration of my sins those bitter things which God writes against me the irkesome recollection of my transgressions I can argue with Philosophers consult with Politicians hear the ingenious fancies of Poets reason in domestick concernments
enjoy the company of morall and harmless friends with delight I can pray with confidence to be heard and satisfied I do hope with some assurance of salvation I sleep upon a peacefull pillow Thus far I am in a calm and serene hemisphere and quiet be all my thoughts But after all this Sunshine there ariseth a tempest When I do recollect or be represented unto my conscience my innumerable incomparable intollerable sinnes the remembrance of them is so frightfull the burden of them is so unsupportable that I dare not even look up unto Heaven Faith lies fainting hope is in a swoon fear stands by the bed side despaire lies gaping at the chamber door my soul is in an extasie I am weary of all company but those that speak of mercy I sit mourning all the day long Sorrow and solitude are my associates I do shed some tears and would weep tears of blood for my sins I lament because my sorrows are not greater for offending my God Well yet hear the Physician of souls speaks to thee from Heaven Weep on bleed on this bleeding shall not be unto death Jesus Christ hath a Balsome that shall not onely stanch thy bleeding but fill the veins of thy soul with comfort His blood is an Antidote for thine One drop of that shall satisfie for more sins then ever thou hast committed Weep on for thy Transgressions Those flouds of tears shall not drown thee Yea rather like the waters of that universall Deluge in that saving Arke Christ Jesus they shall bear up thy soul higher towards Heaven They shall not drowne thee yea they shall rather save thee from being drowned This is that Secunda Tabula after shipwrack the main plank that shall preserve thee from perishing emergent repentance There be two most Valiant and Puissant souldiers that are the Souls Champions Faith and Repentance They fight not only against lust and sin those Gyants of the world but even against Principalities and Powers those infernall spirits of darknesse Faith hath her weapons and Forces but Repentance hath many disadvantages 1. Other Souldiers fight standing she kneeling They in a posture confronting their enemies she in humiliation though not tergiversation from her opposites They send forth their messengers of death in thundring ordnance all her thunder is sighs and groans sent up to Heaven for mercies They let flie their fiery Engines of destruction she hath only her ejaculations Her most piercing darts be broken hearts Their shafts are winged with fire her arrows are feathered with water her own soft tears They swallow up the hope of victory with insulation she in an humble prostration expects pity Yet the God of all power and mercy whom she beleaguers in Heaven yeilds her the conquest He comes from his inpregnable Throne by his most gracious favour and insteed of confounding her as a Rebel he useth her as a Friend or Daughter He takes her up from her knees he wipes away all her tears he folds her in his armes he seals her a pardon of all sins and assures her of an everlasting Kingdom in Heaven O victorious Repentance yea rather O triumphant Goodnesse O God Teipsum vincis thou even overcomest thy self that thy Comforts may delight our souls It is reported of Alexander that when he thought and did but think so he had conquered all this world he fell a weeping that there were no more worlds to conquer But there was remaining another world a better then ever Alexander discovered But this was not for an Alexander by force of Armes but for a Mary Magdalen by force of tears to overcome It is true that the Kingdome of Heaven suffers violence but the way of Conquest is not through the blood of bodies but through a floud of tears gushing out for our sins This is such a stratagem of war such a policy of Conquest as the great Monarchs of the world never understood Yet even this through faith overcomes the world Faith hath a plot which shee hath taught her daughter Repentance Concedendo superare to overcome by yeilding It is a stratagem among Wrastlers that if a man can get himself under his antagonist he lifts him up the sooner to cast him down yea to give him the greater fall Repentance stoops as low as she can she lies like Joshuah upon the bare earth yea wollowes in dust and ashes She holds her self not worthy to be Gods foot-stool let him trample upon her and tread her under his feet she still holds him by the feet washeth them with her tears and wipeth them with the hairs of her head and kisseth them though she be spurned by them Doth this humble prostration provoke fury No it rather invites mercy Parcere prostratis scit nobilis ira Leonis The Lyon of the Tribe of Judah will spare such Lambs of humiliation and in the pastures of consolation he will both feed and preserve them That thunder which dissolves the stubborn mettall yet spares the yeilding purse When power and policy have spent their spirits submission is found the only way of Conquest The feafull thunder of vengeance is resisted by the soft wool of repentance 2. Yet hath this blessed grace another disadvantage Faith the chief of all the Forces may be somtimes benighted through the conglomeration of the clouds condensed by our sins Hope may be eclipsed by the interposition of the earth our worldly imaginations betwixt us and that great luminary of heaven the Sun of righteousnesse The century of watchful conscience may be overcome with security Sin is a subtile enemy and his father the Divel wil shew him the opportunity Now is the time of invasion seise on them and cut all their throats What shal repentance now do when faith the great Lady general droops and Hope her Lieutenant general is fainting when the whole century is overcome with slumber Yes there is a watchman in the tower of the soul that doth seldom sleep holy Fear He wakens conscience conscience cals up faith faith rouzeth hope hope cryes aloud to repentance repentance troops all the spiritual forces the martial musick gives the alarm the souldiers are in battel-array the enemies flie the mind is at peace because Gods comforts have delighted the soul 3. One disadvantage more makes dangerous work for repentance The troops of faith are routed one wing of hope is cut off Yet this conquering Queen of the Viragines or maiden-graces alwayes bears up the Rear and never appeares till the day be almost lost When those great Commanders Innocency and Righteousnesse are foiled and beaten and have their Queen the soul in danger to bee taken and slain by sin and Satan her old adversaries Then this Virgo Virago that all this while lay in expectation of the event this martiall Maid victorious Repentance comes in with her Reserve sets upon the conquerors with her fresh forces rescues the Queen our soul puts the great generall Satan to flight and does impartial execution upon all his souldiers which be our