David Hezekiah Asaph Heman and of Christ himself in the Garden and on the Crosse and by reasons of sundry sorts R. 1. From God himself sometimes with-holding the light of his countenance from true believers Then it is with them as it is with the earth which would be covered with darknesse coldnesse and deadnesse if the light and influence of the Sun were with-drawn from it He is the God of all comfort 2 Cor. 1. 3. without him no true comfort can be had Sometimes he creates darknesse in the Soul then it is filled with fear and amazement and disquietment And thus he doth for holy and good ends 1. To conforme believers to Christ as members to their head Rom. 8. 29. 2. To informe them where their life is hid viz. with Christ in God Col. 3. 3. and that Christ the last Adam is made a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45. that thereby he may quicken his People in God who quickeneth the dead when themselves had not only a sentence of death in their bodies as Paul had 2. Cor. 1. 9. but also a sense of death in their soules as Heman had Psalme 88. 5. 3. To reforme them Partly for correction of their unthankfulnesse for former comforts received from him and for their not improveing them unto the ends for which he gave them As a father when he seeth his child doth but play with the candle which he afforded him to work by takes it from him and leave him in the dark Partly for prevention of spiritual pride 2 Cor. 12. 7. Of spiritual wantonnesse and self confidence Psal 30. 6 7. Of carnal security Cant. 5. 6. and sundry other distempers R. 2. From Satan that envious one who as in the beginning he sought to cast Adam out of Paradice and to bereave him of his happinesse in communion with God so now finding believers in the Kingdom of grace which consists in righteousnesse and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit when he cannot deprive them of their righteousnesse will endeavour to disturbe their peace and damp their joy knowing that when they performe duties uncomfortably they do them weakly and but by halves To this end 1. He strives to hide from them those promises that might comfort them when they have most need and use of them and he sometimes prevailes herein Heb. 12. 5. 2. He suggests any word that may terrefie them and presents to their memory and thoughts former sins to amaze them 3. He presents all thimgs unto them in false glasses the comforts of God in a diminishing glasse that God may seem to them lesse merciful lesse gracious then he is and the promises of God lesse free lesse general then they are that all the consolations of God may seem small things to them Iob 15. 11. but he presents to them their sins in a multiplying glasse that they may seem more and greater then they are their sins as impardonable their miseries as intollerable incurable their state as desperate 4. He useth his instruments to deal with them as the Philistims did with Izhack whose wells they stopped up to make unprofitable to them those wells of Salvation from whence believers might draw waters of consolation Thus he used Saul to banish David from the ordinances and wicked men to insult and reproach him saying VVhere is now thy God Psal 42. 3. So others to twit them with their Religion when they are in distresse saying where are now your prayers your hearing reading meditating conferring your conscientious and exact walking your confidence in God You live more dejectedly then others and are as fearful as others to die Thus they thrust as it were swords and daggers into their bones to kill their comforts as David there complained verse 10. R. 3. From themselves 1. Sin presseth down their spirits and hinders their cheerful progresse in a Christian course as weight doth runners in a race Heb. 12. 1. Sorrow in the heart brings it down especially when guilt of sin is added to it When the shoulder is out of joynt it cannot bear its own pain much lesse other burthens So it is with the soul a wounded spirit who can bear Prov. 18. 14. 2. Their spirit sometimes suffers from their bodies by sympathy as in melancholy which so darkens their imagination that every thing seems dark to them and so sowres their spirits that every thing seems bitter to them and so fills them with fears and suspitions that every thing affrights them 3. Sometimes passion so prevaileth in them that the higher faculties of the soul are subjected to the affections which so bemist the understanding that it cannot judge of things according to right reason The conscience becomes suspensive and wavering and the memory like a leaking vessel le ts the grounds of comfort run out and be forgotten 4. Sometimes spiritual gifts of grace are not exercised but as the body growes listless when some dull humour seizeth upon it so in the soul when faith is oppressed by unbelief hope with fears they do not put forth themselves to wrestle with God and stir up themselves to take hold on him but yield unto every temptation and discouragement Thus you see that it may be the case of believers to be greatly dejected for a time The second thing to be cleared is That though it be thus with true believers for a time yet then God will do two things for them 1. He will secretly support them so that they may say as Paul did in 2 Cor. 4. 8 9. VVe are troubled on every side yet not distressed we are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed God dealt with the basket of good figges in Captivity as Christ did with Peter who first let him see his own weaknesse in the water then quickned him to cry unto him for help and then stretched forth his hand and upheld him Mat. 14. 30 31. So the Lord left the Church so far that they complained my hope is perished from the Lord yet speedily raised them up in sight of his mercy to trust and hope in him In like manner he supports believers R. 1. From Gods unchangeablenesse in his love and unweariednesse in doing them good Isa 64. 5. and 40. 27 28 29 31. R. 2. From Gods faithfulnesse in his covenant and promises Isa 54. 8 9. Psal 37. 24. Heb. 13. 5. 2. He will quicken their faith to look unto himself for relief and comfort in such times 2 Chron. 20. 12. Psal 12â—1 1 2. Jon. 2. 2 4. for these reasons R. 1. From the efficacy of the spirit of faith in them As the needle in the Compasse being touched with the Load-stone though it may be moved and shaken this way and that for a time yet resteth not till it point to the North so the soul being touched with the spirit of faith though it may be forced by Temptation from its bent for a time yet it hath no rest till it stand God-ward
to keep themselves and their cattle in their houses to escape the storm which Moses fore-told would kill all that were in the field The more we are prepared by this fear for afflictions before they come the lesse we shall be oppressed with them when they come For thereby either afflictions shall be weakned and lesse able to hurt us or we shall be strengthened and more able to bear them Now this hope whereof we speak being rightly excercised will be of great efficacy to quicken good fear and to subdue sinful fear in us Therefore I shall endeavour to shew you how you may excercise this hope aright in four Directions 1. Lay a sure ground-work for this hope to be built upon This is then done when you know that your soul saith the Lord is your portion For 1. This will assure your interest in God himself who is an all-sufficient portion When you can say with David The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my Cup Psal 16. 5. you may comfortably adde as he did in ver 6. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage 2. This will cause you to cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart as Barnabas exhorted the Antiochians to do in Acts 11. 23. For where a mans treasure is there will his heart be also Mat. 6. 21. As the needle in the Compasse being touched with the Load-stone is in continual motion till it points to the North the reason whereof some conceive is because in the North are Rocks of Load-stone with which the needle so touched hath a sympathy so the soul being touched by the spirit of faith is in continual motion till it points unto God in Christ that living Rock and true Load-stone who draws believers to him by a spiritual sympathy which they have with him as he said in Ioh. 12. 32. I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me Then and not before they have true rest Then they may say with David Return unto thy rest O my soul Psal 116. 7. 3. This will settle and strengthen your hearts against all distracting discouraging distrustful fears about future evils For things to come are yours when you are Christs 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. The worst that can be-fall you shall not loose that blessed union that is between God in Christ and your souls Not sin past for that is already pardoned and therefore shall not condemn you hereafter Rom. 8. 1. nor shall sin to come have dominion over you Rom. 6. 14. For you are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. Nor death though it may separate two neer friends the soul and body yet it shall joyn together more fully and perfectly two better friends Christ and the soul which when it is absent from the body is present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 8. and in the Resurrection when both shall be reunited we shall be for ever with the Lord 1 Thess 4. 17. Nor temptations See how Paul triumphed over all principalities and powers over life and death over things present and to come in assurance that nothing should separate him or any true believer from the love of God in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 38 39. yea that all things should work for his their good Rom. 8. 28. A believer in Christ is as sure of the time to come as he is of the time presentor past For he can say with the Church in Ps 48. ult This God is our God and he will be our guid unto death and can look unto Christ as Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty Rev. 1. 8. and he hath the promises of God in Christ for the future Isa 46. 3 4. Joh. 10. 27 28 29. 2. This ground work being well laid build upon it for the future by excersing this hope 1. In its purging work 1 Joh. 3. 3. to purge out inordinate affection whereby the soul cleaves close and fast to present things and creatures whence they are as affraid to part with them as one is to have a piece of linnen cloth or plaister plucked off from an ulcerous sore whereunto it sticketh so fast that it can hardly be pulled away without great pain and without drawing the skin and part of the flesh with it whereas if that ulcerous matter were purged and the sore healed the plaister would fall off it self and the cloth might be taken away without any pain or difficulty Hoping in God being rightly excercised worketh this great cure by rectifying mens apprehensions concerning the creatures and ordering their affections aright towards God looking at both with the eye of faith by Scripture light which represents all things out of God in Christ when they become the objects of our hope as vain and sinful and hurtful The creatures are good as they come out of Gods hand but as they are abused by being idolized they become vain and degenerate into nothing For as an idol is nothing in the world 1 Cor. 8. 4. nothing which men account it to be not to be trusted in So creature are but vain and empty like those blasted eares of corn in Pharaohs dream unlesse God fils them with his blessing It is a common errour and delusion to think that if you had such friends such relations such estates c. you should live happily and comfortably For as David said of an horse in reference to getting the victory an horse is a vain thing So we may say of all creatures being separated from God in reference to happinesse and comfort they are vain things to be trusted in for which Christ called that rich man a fool Luke 12. 19 20. 2. It is a sin against the first Commandement to give the honour which is due to God alone unto any creature as men do that glory in them Jer. 9. 23 24. and set their hearts upon them Psal 62. 10 11. This is idolatry Col. 3. 5. It is Atheisme a denial of Gods all-sufficiency which is his peculiar glory and the foundation of upright walking in the Saints Gen. 17. 1. It s the cause of all sins The Schoolmen do rightly define sin to be an aversion of the soul from the immutable God and turning of it to the mutable creature For all sin implies an over-valuing of the creatures and an under-valuing of God See with what indignation God reproves this sin in Jer. 2. 13 14. 3. Thus to cleave unto present things and creatures is very hurtful to your selves For 1. It steals mens hearts from God as Absalom stole the hearts of the people from David unto things that cannot profit nor deliver for they are vain 1 Sam. 12. 25. 2. It provoketh God to with-draw and with-hold his concourse and blessing from the creatures without which you cannot have any good from them nor by them your own experience may convince
him Psal 119. 49. without former experiences In like manner he worketh in believers in dark times when they cannot recal former experiences and want present sense of Gods love God quickeneth his people by quickening their in-looking to the naked promise Psal 119. 50. and thereby their hope also Isa 8. 17. Hence Jacob became such a mighty wrastler with God Gen. 32. with Hos 12. 4. God is ever mindful of his Covenant Psal 111. 5. and faithful in his Promises 1 Thess 5. 24. Hope looks at the good of the Promise and the goodnesse of the Promiser for that part of the Promise which is not yet performed as faith looks at the truth of the promise and faithfulnesse of the Promiser Now that hope thus grounded is a right hope may be proved because when faith in the Promises quickeneth and strengtheneth hope in believers then Gods ends are attained for which he giveth Promises His ends are these and the like 1. To make known unto his people his good thoughts and purposes concerning them Jer. 29. 10. This he doth to incourage them to hope for a good end and to endeavour in the use of good means to attain it ver 11 12. 2. To draw the Elect unto Christ in whom all Gods Promises are Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20. 3. To shew what credit God hath in the hearts of his people Joh. 3. 33. 1 Joh. 5. 9. 10. 4. To let believers see that they are richer in their lowest estate than others are in their greatest worldly possession For they have God himself for their portion when others have but his gifts Psal 4. 7. They have Christ and unsearchable riches in him Eph. 3. 8. who became poor that by his poverty we might be made rich 2 Cor. 8. 9. They have spiritual riches Rev. 2. 9. they are rich in faith Iam. 2. 5. whereas others have onely their bellies filled Psal 17. 14. Believers have a large estate in Promises 1 Tim. 4. 8. which are Gods bills and bonds and deeds of gift for a great while to come 2 Sam. 7. 19. They have much in possession and much more in hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. so that when we hope in his word God attaineth his end in giving his word Therefore hope grounded on the word is a right hope 2. By the formal act of hope you may try whether it is right or not Expectation is the formal act of hope This expectation hath three properties 1. It 's earnest Phil. 1. 20. 2. It 's patient Rom. 8. 25. Patient 1. Of Labouring 2. Of Suffering 3. Of Waiting Because between hoping and having there is a want of the thing desired and promised till Gods time for performing comes This delay is troublesome Prov. 13. 12. Therefore we have need of patience Heb. 10. 35. The Husband-man soweth in hope and waits with patience for the precious fruits of the earth Iam. 5. 7. which the Apostle there applies to believers 3. With continuance Iob 14. 14. Such waiting on God gives him the glory of his independency all-sufficiency immutability goodnesse faithfulnesse and wisdom it hath great blessings annexed to it Prov. 8. 34 35. Isa 30. 18. Isa 40. 31. The contrary is a compound of many sins of pride and impatience Psal 78. 41. and and discontent 2 Kings 6. 33. and unbeliefe Isa 28. 16. 3. By the proper effect of this hope you may know it to be right love floweth from faith and hope 1 Cor. 13. ult especially to God in Christ in whom we hope Hence he that hath this hope purgeth himself as Christ is pure 1 Ioh. 3. 3. and is diligent in using all Gods means with avoiding the contrary Heb. 10. 22. to 26. with dependance on God and trusting in him alone not in our abilities 1 Sam. 2. 9. Prov. 3. 5 6 or graces which gave Peter two fals nor in our performances Psal 127. 1 2. nor in the means themselves Hest 4. 14 16. Thus you see what are the characters of hoping in God aright If upon tryal you find them to be in you in truth that hope will not make you ashamed but you shall have cause to say with the Church in Isa 25. 9. Lo this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us c. The third Instruction is How to exercise hope in God aright in sundry cases wherein you are called to practise it These cases are of two sorts 1. Such as concern mens private conditions 2. Such as concern the publike The first sort of cases which concern the private conditions of believers are either for the present or for the time past or for the time to come We shall shew how this hope is to be excercised in these concernments severally and distinctly with Gods assistance 1. For the time present when believers are under excessive grief whatever is the cause of it whether sin or affliction in your persons or relations Believers as well as others are subject to many afflictions in this life Psal 34. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous and not of some one kind onely but of divers kinds Job saith of every one his flesh upon him shall have pain and his soul within him shall mourn Iob 14. ult Herein two things are to be cleared 1. That it is our duty to grieve under affliction proportionately to the cause It is dedolency stupidity not to grieve for afflictions Jer. 5. 3. it is therefore our duty to grieve when God afflicteth us but more for Gods displeasure apprehended therein 2. It is our duty to grieve more for sin then for affliction 3. More for sin in our selves than in others And 4. For sin in our near relations more than in others more remote yet it is unlawful to let grief exceed the proportion allowed by the rules of Gods Word as all do who have not this hope 1 Thess 4. 13. The spirit of man is by corrupt nature unstable as water Gen. 49. 4. alwayes running forth unlesse as water is bounded by the bank or vessel into which it is put so our spirits be bounded and kept within Compasse by the Spirit of God VVould you know when grief exceeds or is immoderate You may know it by the effects 1. If it distempers and hurts the body Godly sorrow as such hurts no man it is healing to the soul and not hurtful to the body unlesse by accident the body being before under painful distemper which is apt to be increased by any grief Worldly sorrow causeth death 2 Cor. 7. 10. VVorldly sorrow is not onely that which is for worldly things but also that which is for sin upon worldly respects as the principal motives of it And that sorrow hurts the body and doth no good to the soul as David found when guile prevailed in his spirit Psal 32. 2 3 4. 2. If it hinders you from or in the performance of any duty 1. From it The good â—hief on the Crosse was in great grief yet that
call of God with the obedience of faith as David found in Psal 27. 8. Thou saidst seek ye my face my heart answered thy face Iehovah I do seek This answer is the voice of the whole soul unto God The understanding being illightned and fully convinced closeth with God in Christ as the first Truth and the will chooseth him as the chiefest good the affections rest satisfied with him alone and the whole soul placeth all its happinesse in its injoyment of him and conformity to him Hope waits for him desire longeth after him and joy delighteth in him above all things The Lord calleth the whole soul to come unto him that it may find true rest in voluntarily subjecting it self under his yoke Mat. 11. 28 29. and the whole soul in all its faculties and affections answereth as the Church did in Ier. 3. 22. Lo we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God With renouncing all other refuges as they did in ver 23. according to that promise in Hos 2. 23. I will say thou art my people and they shall say thou art my God R. 2. Because the souls saying the Lord is my portion argues unseigned love of God in Christ For all the affections depend on love What a man loveth as his portion he desireth to possesse and injoy and any impediment thereof stirs up his anger proportionately to his esteem and love of it As we see with what eagernesse and earnestnesse men endeavour to remove any thing that hinders their credits or estates c. Now if any love God above the world above themselves they will be more jealous of Gods honour then their own and against that which tends to Gods dishonour more then against what crosseth their own worldly honour Hence will arise hatred against sin because God hates it both in our selves Psal 97. 10. and in others Rev. 2. 6. Anger is against particulars but hatred is general Anger seeks revenge with moderation in proportion to the wrong done us but hatred seeks the destruction of its object Anger is placable but hatred is implacable And according to the degree of mens love to any thing will be their fear of being deprived of it and separated from it and of all causes and signes of alienation from it R. 3. Because the souls saying The Lord is my portion importeth the highest actings of the soul upon God When Iob said the things that my soul refused to touch Job 6. 7. he shewed the greatest detestation of them and when he said my soul chuseth death rather than life Iob 7. 15 he shewed a most vehement desire And when the Lord said I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul Ier. 32. 41. he shewed the firmnesse of his purpose So when the soul saith The Lord is my portion it argues the most full and firm cleaving of a believer unto God with purpose of heart as Barnabas exhorted them to do in Acts 11. 23. Else men do not return to him nor cleave to him as to the most High Hos 7. 16. unlesse they turn to him with all their heart Joel 2. 12. and love him with all their heart Deut. 30. 6. For it is by such a love that faith workes which is a believing with all the heart Acts 8. 37. and produceth obedience from the heart Rom. 6. 17. which is done when all the faculties and affections of the soul do open themselves and stand open to give entertainment unto God in Christ as the King of glory Psal 24. 7. When the Keyes of the whole house and every room in it are delivered up for the use and service of a King he is entertained like a King Inferiour guests are content one with one room another with another and sometimes two have but one room yea one bed for them both But the King must have all So it is in this case when the God of glory appeared unto Abraham and called him Abraham obeyed him without reservation Acts 7. 2 3. So must we yea so will all whose soules say the Lord is their portion Use 1. For instruction in four particulars 1. Hence learn how a man may know when afflictions are sanctified and blessed unto him i. e. when the eye of the soul is by them turned 1. Upward to look unto God for an interest in him as their portion 2. Inward to reflect upon the inward actings of the soul that they may know their interest in God as their portion Indeed afflictions of themselves work the contrary to estrange us from God and from our selves and Satan labours to foment and increase a separation of the soul from God and a division and distraction of the soul within it self Therefore it is by an over-ruling power and sanctifying efficacy of Gods spirit when they cause us to return unto the Lord Hos 6. 1. and to our selves Luke 15. 17 18. It is a sure rule of discerning ones self to be in the state of grace when he finds that every condition brings him neerer to God and every sanctifying gift of grace is quickned to its proper function to turn the faculty and affection of the soul in which it is planted unto God Rom. 8. 28 29. God is a pure act alwayes acting and every one the neerer he comes to God the more gracious frame of spirit he hath and the more spiritual affections and suitable actings of them sweetly issuing from thence 2. Learn hence a profitable use of spiritual soliloquies which are a mans speaking within himself to himself about spiritual things David prescribes communing with a mans own heart to further his repentance Psal 4. 4. and himself made use of it to quicken his faith Psal 42. 5. So the Church in my Text in times of affliction being driven out of their creature-comforts and expectations they communed and parlied with their own souls to cleer unto themselves their interest in God as their portion and to excite their faith and hope in him unto excercise 3. Learn hence not to rest in outward profession in words that the Lord is your portion Many hypocrites say so whose hearts cleave to some thing else as their portion some to their sinful wills and wayes They draw neer unto God with their lips but their hearts are removed far from him Such were those in Hos 8. 23. Israel will cry unto me my God we know thee when Israel hath cast off the thing that is good even God himself in whom and from whom is all good and the good word of God and the rules thereof though they thus departed from him yet in their distresse they were ready to claim an interest in him Others to their worldly objects They lay up treasures for themselves on the earth and there their hearts are Mat. 6. 19 21. Their belly is their God and portion that mind earthly things Phil. 3. 19. These steal away their hearts from God even while they are hearing the Word Ezek.