from the Kingdom It would fill a volume to set down the manifold afflictions which are recorded of GODS children I will therefore speak but of one or two moe which I cannot omit because their examples will tend much to our satisfaction if we will compare our tryals and afflictions with theirs and consider how farre theirs have exceeded ours One would think that if any upon earth should scape scot free as they say and be without afflictions the Virgin Mary the mother of our Lord might she being a woman so freely beloved of God Luke 1.28 and so neere unto Christ But if God would have the mother to be exercised because a sinner yet mee thinks her sonne being the onely begotten of the Father without sinne and one in whom the Father was well pleased Mat. 3.17 should go untouched No no it might not be both these drunk deep of afflictions as I shall make it evident unto you First concerning Mary let us consider what old Simeon said unto her Luk. 2.35 A sword shall pierce through thy Soul Shee under-went not onely out-ward and bodily afflictions but also in-ward and spirituall tryalls even such as pierced her very Soul A sorrowfull spirit drieth up the bones saith Solomon Pro. 17.22 And Prov. 18.14 the spirit of a man will sustaine his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear it It was not then any pinching poverty nor the rough handling of the Romane exactors who forced her being bigge with child to take a painefull journey to Bethlehem nor the poore entertainment which she and her tender babe found in the Inne nor Herods blood-thirsty rage which made her with her tender little one to flie into Egrpt where being a stranger no doubt she indured adversity her bellie full nor the fear of Archelaus after her return nor her long deferred hopes all the while that Christ lived a private life though Hope deferred bee the fainting of the heart Prov. 13.12 nor yet the malice or hatred of those bloody people the high Priests the Scribes and Pharisees who not only opposed her son but blasphemed his person and doctrine no nor the paines and torments of his bitter passion of which she was an eye witnesse and spectator none of all these were the sword that pierced her Soul though these were great burthens for a poore woman to bear and the last more grievous then all the rest How did Jacob take on when hee beheld but the bloody coat of his sonne Joseph Jacob rent his cloths and put on sack-cloth about his loynes and sorrowed for his son a long season Gen. 37.34 How did David lament the death of his trayterous son Absolom though hee heard but the report of his slaughter 2. Kings 18.33 O Absolom my son O my son Absolom would God I had died for thee O Absolom my sonne my sonne And reade wee not that Agar went aside at her childs fainting her mothers heart not enduring to behold the death of an Ismael Gen. 21.16 How then thinke we was Mary affected at the sight of so many and so great miseries which befell her son And yet all these as I take it were but the beginnings and occasions of greater internall heart-breakings and spirituall agonies with which her soul conflicted For what perplexed thoughts may we think did assault her soul nay what did not when she saw every thing directly to thwart and crosse her preconceived hopes grounded upon the warrant and truth of Divine Oracles Might not Mary have thus complained What is this he that should be the Saviour and Redeemer of Israel the horn of Salvation unto them to be thus maligned and crucified And yet while he lived there was some hope though no likelyhood that God might work miraculously for his advancement and by means unknown make good his promises but now that he is done to death that shamefull and accursed death of the crosse what hope is left I thought that he should have restored the Kingdom again to Israel But alas how can that bee he being now dead and laid in his grave Surely Mary had sunk under this burthen her faith her patience had failed her had she not with Abraham the father of the faithfull above hope beleeved under hope not regarding the outward miserable condition of her sonne but fastning the eye of her faith upon the Lord true of his Word and just of his promise yet for all her faith and patience behold and see if any sorrow were like unto Mary her sorrow The mourning of a mother for her sonne her only sonne the sonne of her hopes her hearts delight nay that son in whom shee expected that all the kindreds and nations of the world should be blessed and yet now dying dying a most ignominious shamefull accursed death now perishing without hope of recovery Loe here was the sword that pierced her soul thorow and thorow wherupon the Fathers dispute the case whether Mary were not a Martyr and they conclude that she was more then a martyr because in martyrs the more fervent their love is to Christ the more it lesseneth the paines of their sufferings but Maries love the more intense and the greater it was towards her son the more it augmented her sorrows But let us leave the mother and last of all take a view of her sonne his sufferings Who though he were the prince of our salvation yet was he consecrated by afflictions Heb. 2.10 Was he not in this world reputed as an abject amongst men lived he not in penurie in povertie Mat. 8.20 The foxes have holes and the birds of the heaven nests but he had not whereon to rest his head How was he reviled and rayled upon by those foul-mouth'dJewes who called him a Wine-bibber a Pot-companion a friend of Publicans and sinners a Conjurer one that wrought by the helpe of Belzebub was he not buffeted spit on whipped crowned with thornes last of all despitefully crucifyed Besides all these hee did inwardly sustaine farre more heavy crosses then that which was laid upon his shoulders though the weight of that made him to faint with wearinesse for he was all his life time assaulted by Satan and towards his end brought into such an agony as it wrung even drops of blood from his forehead before his death his soul was heavy unto the death through those feares and terrors which had seazed upon him conflicting with the wrath of God and undergoing the curse with greatest extremity all which made him as one rejected and given over of the Lord in a most heavy and dolefull manner to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matt. 27.46 If then Job an upright and just man one that feared God and eschewed evill If David a man after Gods own heart one that walked before the Lord in truth and righteousnes and uprightnesse of heart with God 1. King 3.6 If Mary the mother of our Lord a woman so freely beloved of God And to conclude if
The love of God and his truth and the hatred of every evill which tendeth to the dishonour of God or to the clouding or eclisping of his truth against which evils when the childe of GOD shall any way bestirre himself hee is said to be zealous for the Lord. So that to be zealous is to shew love to God and hatred of error and false wayes to be grieved at those things which may dishonour God or crosse his truth to oppose them with might and main and to the utmost of our power to resist them And amend or repent These words have relation to their Lukewarmnesse The Lord will have them to leave off their Lukewarmnesse to repent them of their sinfull temper being negligent and carelesse in good duties and promoting the glory of God Object But it may be demanded why the Lord doth here put zeal before repentance when as zeal is by Paul set down as a fruit and effect of repentance For writing unto the penitent Corinthians 2. Cor. 7.11 He saith Behold this thing that you have been godly sorry what care it hath wrought in you yea what zeal making zeal an effect of repentance Answ The meaning of the Lord in this place is to exhort the Laodiceans to the practice of that duty which they had altogether neglected being a lukewarme a remisse and carelesse people Therefore having before reproved them for their sinne of Lukewarmnesse he doth now exhort them to be zealous and not only so but to repent them of their former remisnesse The words of the verse may be thus metaphrased Those that are my dearest children my best beloved I do rebuke and convince of their sinnes yea as a loving father tendering their good I do in mercy correct and chastise them therefore see you be not so Lukewarme as heretofore you have been but shew more love to mee and my word and more hatred to error and evill wayes be grieved and sorry for your olde courses and amend your lives Come wee now to the raysing of some Instructions out of the words In that the Lord telleth the Laodiceans that he rebuketh and chasteneth as many as he loveth wee may in the first place from hence learn that None no not the best of Gods dear children are without their trials afflictions Man is born unto trouble as the sparkes flie upward Job 5.1 Affliction is the lot and portion of all Gods children It was a cup which Almighty God did temper and put into the hands of Christ his best beloved Sonne Shall I not drink of the cup which my father hath given me John 18.11 And in this cup Christ will have all his members to pledg him as appeareth Mat 20.23 Ye shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptisme that I am baptized with Hence it is that Tryals and afflictions are by Paul called the marks of the Lord Jesus Gal. 6.17 I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus The crosse is Christ his badge and cognizance If any man will be my follower let him denie himself and take up his crosse daily and follow me Luke 9.23 The way wherein Christ went to glory was affliction and in this path all that shall be glorified with him must foot it after him for Acts. 14.22 Thorow many afflictions wee must enter into tho Kingdom of God The way to heaven and happinesse is not strewed with rushes or set with violets and roses but with briars and thorns it is not a milky but a thorny way not a faire broad smooth and easie but a narrow cragged crooked and crosse way through many difficulties and troubles As the children of Israel were evill intreated in Egypt groaned under heavy burdens sighed and cried for their bondage before they could be possessed of that land which flowed with milk and hony so must we know what troubles and sorrows mean before we come at our place of rest our spirituall and Heavenly Canaan True it is that some have but a few tryals in comparison of others yet the most have many and the best yea all have some for all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution 2. Tim. 3.12 Do you desire examples for the better setling and confirming you in the trueth of this point Sooner may I find where to begin then where or how to make an end therefore out of an heap and a cloud of witnesses I will take but an handfull some few drops Job was a holy man as the Lord himself hath witnessed of him Job 1.8 An upright and just man one that feared God and eschewed evill Yet how great were his tryals how sharp and bitter were his afflictions Stript of all his outward means brought unto a morsell of bread bereaved at one time of all his children and that by sudden death yea whiles they were eating and drinking not having it may be breathing time to call and cry for mercy Wee should take it to be a heavy judgement and think that the Lord were highly displeased with us if out of ten children some two or three of them should be made away by an untimely and sudden death but to be at one blow bereaved of all our children to lose ten at one clap where is the man that would lay his hand upon his mouth in so great a tentation and not murmurre against the Lord Besides the Lord came neerer to Job fighting against him with many personall terrors afflicting his body with aches and botches vexing his soul in the day time either with the words of a foolish woman his wife or with the biting and taunting speeches of some which came to visit him whereas in truth like miserable comforters Job 16.2 they came to vex and gall him And in the night time how was he tumbled and tossed up and down Job 7.4 for when he said My couch shall relieve me and my bed shall bring mee comfort then was hee feared with dreams and astonished with visions Job 7.13.14 So that he was a burthen to himself grew weary of his life cursing the day wherein he was born wishing that he had died in his birth that he might not have lived to see and feel the miseries and sorrows which he sustained David also was a man after Gods own heart 1. Sam. 13.14 Yet how sorely did the Lord almost all his life time exercise and afflict him Hee was daily punished and chastned every morning Psal 73.14 So as he roared day and night through extremity of grief his bones were consumed with sorrow and his moysture was like the drought in summer Betrayed by his false-hearted friends persecuted and pursued from place to place by Saul 1. Sam. 26.20 As one would hunt a partridge in the mountains And which went neerer him then any other troubles his sins excepted what heart-breaking sorrows did he sustain through the wickednesse of his children defiling each other murdering each other yea and most unnaturally seeking to depose him
our trials when we know they be no other then our good God will make us able to beare And not onely so but he will give issue with the tentation 1. Cor. 10.13 We say all is well that endeth well then must it needs goe well with the afflicted children of God because all their trials end in peace and glory Marke the upright man and behold the just for the end of that man is peace Psal 37.37 And if wee suffer we shall also reigne and be glorified with Christ 2. Tim. 2.12 By which and and many moe places it appeares that howsoever afflictions bee painefull and grievous to our nature in the bearing of them yet the issue and end of them will be the most happy and comfortable The consideration whereof hath caused some to suffer with joy the spoile of their goods knowing that in heaven they have a better and more induring substance Heb. 10.34 This was that which put a song of praise and thanks giving in the mouthes of the blessed Mrrtyrs that the Lord would honor them so highly as to bring them to suffer for him And though they might have escaped yet would they not be delivered that they might receive a better Resurrection Heb. 11.35 Seeing then such a cloud of witnesses have gone before us whose trials and afflictions have been as smart and tart as ours can be let us become followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises Heb. 6.12 be not too much taken up with the sence and smart of thy present affliction But let thy thoughts be occupied about the good which thereby is like to accrue unto thee And assure thy self that all shall worke together for thy weale Rom. 8.28 Yea that the Lord takes much delight in thee in that he is ever and anon pruning of thee That man or woman which takes content in their orchard and garden will ever be plucking up of those weeds that grow in them cutting and pruning all superfluous branches or slips Whereas if it be a place hee takes no content in he careth not what rubbige or baggage do overgrow it If the Lord takes delight in thee there shall not a weed spring up in thee but with the pruning knife of affliction he will cut it off whereas if he regarded thee not he would lay the reines upon thy neck and let thee have thine own swinge to fill up the measure of thy sinne that so in justice he may mete unto thee a ful cup of his wrath and vengeance Vse 7 Seventhly if we be subject to so many afflictions in this life me thinks we should then be willing if the Lord see it good to remove out of this place of sorrow and trouble to lay down these our earthly Tabernacles and to be with the Lord that so there may be an end put to all our evils both sinne and punishment and the contrary good enjoyed of us For blessed are the dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their labors and their works follow them Revel 14.13 Desire we then to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all Phil. 1.23 Object But is it lawfull for any to wish for death Answ Yes if he wish it aright That is not out of an unwillingnesse to beare the yoke of God any longer as if he were weary of doing that which the Lord injoyneth him or suffering that which the Lord shall lay upon him For this was Jonah his fault who in an impatient mood would needs be gone being weary of his life Besides as we must be willing to abide the Lords pleasure so also to tarry his leisure which if we be we may desire death for these causes First to be freed from those evils which here we are pestered with And secondly to enjoy that good which can no where be had but in Heaven The evils which death will free us from are bodily and spirituall The bodily evils are divers to wit sicknesses diseases paines and aches of all which death will heale and cure us at once Death will also set us free from the rage and malice of all our enemies If death have once seized upon us we shall be out of their reach They shall be able to doe us no more mischiefe nor harme The righteous is taken away from the evill to come Peace shall come they shall rest in their beds Esa 57.1 2. Last of all death will free us from all troubles and afflictions for when sinne and corruption ceaseth then correction and affliction endeth But we should desire death especially that we may be freed from spiritual evils First that sinne and corruption may cease and be no more in us O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Rom. 7.24 Sinne is that which worketh us all woe Jerem. 30.15 Sinne is the make-bate betwixt the Lord and us Esa 64.5 Behold thou art angry for we have sinned Yet we are not to desire death that we may be rid of sinne in these respects only because it worketh our woe but rather because God is dishonored by it and it is displeasing unto his Majestie For the glory of God should be more deare unto us then our own lives Sin is that which clouds the glory of God And death is that which freeth us from sin Rom. 6.7 Secondly that we may be freed from the temptations and malice of the Devill Whiles we abide in the flesh he will never leave solliciting of us unto evill He goeth up and down like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devoure 1. Pet. 5.8 And the longer we live the more will his rage and malice against us increase because of the shortnesse of his and our time The neerer the childe of God is to heaven the more Satan and his accursed instruments will rage and the fiercer will their assaults be as it was with the children of Israel the neerer the time was that they should bee delivered out of Aegypt and go to Canaan the more cruell did their taskmasters grow and the heavier burdens were laid upon them And last of all we shall by death be freed from all inward vexations and griefes of mind and spirit So many sorrows and feares do compasse about many of Gods children that it makes them weary of their life at Rebekah said to Isaac Genes 27.46 But our desire of death must not bee so much for the avoyding of evill as for the injoying of good For there we shall have a crown of glory and immortality 1. Pet. 5.4 There we shall be like unto Christ Colos 3.4 There we shall have joy unspeakable 1. Pet. 1.8 Yea such joy as if we could but conceive the sweetnesse the greatnesse thereof we would despise the joyes and pleasures of the world in hope of assurance to enjoy them Yea there we shall for ever be with the Lord Christ 1. Thes 4.17 In whose presence is fullnesse of joy at whose
a load upon thine heart and conscience or keeps thee it may be upon the rack it is not because thou shouldst thinke or say hee hath cast thee off from being his child but that thou mayest be the better fitted for that good hee intendeth thee and that thou mayest make more account of his love when it is shed abroad in thine heart God will have those which shall hereafter partake of his light now and then to know what it is to fit in darknesse and to bee in the shadow of death Now because of all other tentations and tryals incident unto us there are none so grievous and unsupportable as are inward and spirituall afflictions let it not be accounted lost time if before I proceed any further I make here some little stand both to take a view of some inward afflictions and also to prescribe some remedies for the easing if not the curing of such malladies as are most obvious and oft times prove most dangerous for want of applying or improving of those helpes means which may be used Almighty God our most wise Physition who sees us inwardly and is better acquainted with our constitution and temper then wee our selves are knoweth how to strike every one in the right veine and because people full fed are oft full of grosse humors and bad blood and those that live idly live oft times unprofitably the Lord in great wisedome doth exercise some of his deare ones with fightings within that so the inward man may be the better able to withstand outward evills as souldiers in many places are trained that so they may bee the more skilfull and better able to resist a forraign enemie Somtimes the Lord is pleased to withdraw the sweet comforts of his spirit from the hearts of his deare children and to strike them with inward terrors and feares of his wrath and vengeance which condition of theirs although it be uncomfortable for the present yet it proves profitable in the end Of all afflictions incident to the soul of man there is none so grievous and intolerable as a wounded conscience this transcends all other malladies and miseries whatsoever and therefore Solomon asketh Who can be are it Prov. 18.14 An accusing conscience tortures the soul with hellish horror here and as it were plungeth a poore sinner into hell whiles he lives When that gnawing and biting worme begins to fasten its teeth upon a poore soul his anguish and vexation becomes unspeakable and unconceivable of any but those that have felt it No favor of man no love of friends no preferment of the world no outward honors nor abundance of riches will be able to quench the fire or alay the heat of a tormented conscience As may apeare by that memorable story of Francis Spira who being upon the rack of a guilty and accusing conscience oft wished himselfe as is reported in Cains case and in Judas his place and that his soul might exchange with theirs wishing and desiring rather to be in hell torments then to be racked and rent with such hellish horrors and raging feares as did continually affright his poore soul And being by one demanded If hee feared not greater tortures and torments after this life then hee now sustained hee answered Yes but yet he wished he were in hell that so his torturing fears might be at an end This mans condition no boubt was terrible and dredfull yet who can say that hee perished everlastingly What warrant have any as some have done to judge him to bee a desperate castaway They will say that God might condemne him out of his own mouth But is this sufficient evidence for any peremptorily to passe sentence upon him The words of a distempered person are of no validitie in any civill court whatsoever Is it not an usuall thing for brain-sick and distempered persons to belie themselves and others too Object But Spira despaired of mercie Answ And what of that Have not many of Gods deare children done so many yeeres together Did any thing befall him in the time of his desperation but that which is incident unto the childe of God hath not our age afforded us examples as deep in dispaire in outward appearance as ever Spira was whether wee consider the matter of his tentation which was Apostacie or the deepnesse of his desperation and yet through the goodnesse and mercie of God they received comfort in the end Hee that will avouch Spira to be a castaway must prove that he despaired both totally and finally which as I conceive they can hardly do seeing it is said That in the midst of his desperation hee complained of the hardnesse of his heart which as hee said lockt up his mouth and tyed up his tongue from prayer Hee felt the hardnesse of his heart complained of it and lamented it the Word of God may discover corruption in us but is it not grace that makes any to be waile corruption Who knowes what case and comfort he might find and feele within before his soul went out of his body albeit hee never made any expression of it nor any neere him could perceive it Object But doth God deale so sharply with any of his children as to exercise them with such horror of conscience Answ Yes very often The conscience of a deere child of God may a long time be vexed with feares and horrors lie a long time upon the rack of unquietnesse and torture so farre from apprehending or hoping for any comfort or mercie that hee may receive the sentence of death against himselfe and subscribe to his own damnation yea he may confidently avouch himselfe to have no grace no faith to be a very castaway And yet wee see these blustring stormes have in good time blowne over and God upon unfained humiliation hath pacified their accusing conscience stilled and quieted their troubled minde by the apprehension of his love in the pardon of their sinnes For after the soul is once kindly soaked in godly sorrow and the heart sufficiently humbled in the sight of our unworthinesse the Lord at length shewes us his loving countenance tells us by his Spirit that he is reconciled unto us and that through Christ wee are freed from the guilt and so from the punishment of all our sinnes For though wee have been polluted and stained with all manner of iniquitie and impietie even from top to toe though our sinnes have been of a crimson and skarlet hue as great and grievous as may be so as peradventure in our conceit there is no possibillity of being cleansed from them yet God is able to make them as white as snow and wool Isa 1.18 There is no sinner so abominable and loathsome whom true and sound repentance will not make as holy and as righteous as Adam was before his fall Mistake me not not that any penitent if his heart-strings should breake with sighing and sobbing or his eyes fall out of his head with weeping and mourning can of himselfe be