A HAND-KERCHEFFE FOR A DISCONSOLATE SOULE To wipe away his Sinne and to keep him from Despaire as though they had never been committed By Samuel Spinckes Minister of Gods Word So apply the Promises of God unto thy Soule that thou never despaire but make him thine owne by Faith in Jesus Christ and hope thou in the Lord Jehovah for by Hope we are saved Rom. 8.24 LONDON Printed by Thomas Harper 1651. TO THE Much Honoured and truely Vertuous THE LADY ANNE SCOTT Late the Spousesse of Sir EDWARD-SCOTT of Scotts Hall Knight and Baronet the Mirrour of Piety S. S. wisheth all the Prosperous Events of Health and Happynesses externall internall and eternall Madam THE Truth is most Divine though crossing humane sense spoken by the Father of truth but I will not heere stand blowing a Trumpet as it were either of your Worthinesse or my owne weakenesse As for your Vertues and Almes-deeds they shall and will follow you when you shall be gathered to your Fathers Revel 14.13 And for my imbecillity and weaknesse let the World laugh at it I care not onely my desire is that God may be glorified I have made bold to present a Hand-kercheffe for a Disconsolate Soule under your name assuring myselfe according to your wonted Piety of your loving acceptance my desire to doe good and that to the poore and meanest soule shall in part as I hope excuse me in all For we are all Debters with that blessed Saint Paul Rom. 1.14 both to the wise and unwise And as it must and ought be our wisdome chiefely to winne and gaine soules Prov. 11.30 So it behooveth all Gods children to receive from us with meekenesse his Statutes and Judgements Deut. 4.6 I have heard you are as patient as Job and like to Moses milde and altogether full of Vertue In a word although neither my person nor condition can any waies merrit at your Ladyships hands yet the benigne aspect you alwaies afford to those that labour in Gods Church hath thus far emboldned me in all humility to crave that this my endeavour may passe in Publique under your Ladyships name which favour being happily obtained the Worke and thing it selfe may of all sorts expect to be the rather embraced And so praying the Father of mercy to grant you much joy health and happinesses terrestriall with a glorified life coelestiall resteth Yours in all duty most bound Samuel Spinckes A Hand-kercheffe for a disconsolate Soule c. OH What shall I doe what shall I say Heerein observe the true Light of the World and he will direct thee Joh. 1.34 Even that Sonne of God whom as yet the Disciples knew not neither did they understand the mysteries of Redemption the which are wrought by Christs humiliation and exaltation by the one sayth Aquinas taking from us all evill and by the other giving us all good Oh why should any then dispayre of their salvation seeing Christ came not for the just but to call sinners to repentance for it is he that died for our sinnes and rose againe for our justification Rom. 4.25 Is it thus Why then should any despayre of everlasting life I dare say it is abusive much to thy Creator to say that the joyes of the Kingdome of Heaven belong not unto thee Wherfore take heed of thus abusing or mis-using of Gods mercies and Christs merits for Christ was betrayed mocked spitted on scourged and put to death and all for our sinnes I say truth it selfe was betrayed wisedome it selfe mocked glory it selfe spit upon innocency it selfe scourged life it selfe killed and all for us and our sinnes that we might not despayre What should a man doe to keep him from despayre Confesse his sinnes unto God and that not once or only in generall but often also and that in particular and be sure to make satisfaction and restitution to those thou hast wronged for the Law of God under the penalty of his curse requireth to restore whatsoever was wrongfully gained Levit. 6.2.3 c. Doe not thou then waver in thy fayth for a wavering minded man is unstable in all his wayes Jam. 1.8 For as the Painter at the first sayth Ponton on Luk. ch 19. drawes his picture with a Coal roughly and afterward with an accurate Pencil and Orient colours exactly so the Holy Ghost in the Prophets and Old Testament shadowed Christs passion obscurely but in the latter and New Testament points and sets it downe as it were perspicuously The two Testaments are two pence Luk. 10.35 bearing the same Kings Image sayth Theophylact on Luke 10. though not in the same stamp for all things being now finished and fulfilled that are written by the Prophets of the same man yet our Saviours picture engraven in the Gospel is more full and clear then that which was imprinted in the Law for now God hath shewed us the light of his countenance Psal 67.1 Let us not therefore despayre for all the hub-bubs and garboiles and warres or discontents that are in the world nay in this our Kingdome but put sure trust and confidence in God and wee shall see that the Lord in his good time will bring a period to those distractions Oh I say despayre not but search the Scriptures for they are the way unto Christ and Christ is the way to Heaven Altissiodorensis in his Golden Summe sayth that Fayth Hope and Charity are a created Trinity resembling the three Divine persons uncreated For the Son is begotten of the Father and the Holy Ghost proceeds from both so stedfast hope is bred of fayth and love doth issue from them both Whence observe that Bellarmine cites often out of his Works against S. Augustine that the foundation of Gods house in our soules is faith the walls hope and the roofe charity And the Prophet in a vision saw the transgressour against the transgressour and the destroyer against the destroyer So the Schoolemen oppose the Schoolemen and their Champion Bellarmine fights against Bellarmine in the points of faith and charity for if faith be the foundation of all other vertues in a Christian as himselfe writes in his first Booke of Romes Pontificals and 10. chapter then it is not as he disputes in the first Booke of his Justification and 4. chapter that is wrought by charity but contrariwise charity doth arise from faith It is then an idle dreame to suppose that charity is inclosed in faith as a Diamond is in a Ring for Christ is the precious Pearle saith Luther in Galla. 2.5 and Christ it is which gives life and lustre to the Ring for the just live not by love but by faith in the Lord Jesus Habak 2.4 It is an improper speech then as some of our Divines observe as Doctor Fulke in Gal. 5.6 to say that faith worketh by love as the body by the soule the matter by the forme for the soule rather worketh by the body than the body by the soule The matter is passive the forme active whence know ye that
there is no God as also to deny the providence and power of God harping that all things happen by fortune and chance sometimes againe I am ready to deny Christ the second Person in the Holy and Sacred Trinity and sometimes I am ready to lay violent hands upon my selfe and thus to sinne sometimes against the first Table and sometimes against the second Yea and although I pray to be free there from yet I cannot well I shall tell thee the reason of this Sathan is thy utter enemy and for that cause both he and the world and the flesh will not leave assaulting thee and therefore it is that thou doubtest and thinkest withall that thou oughtest not to apply the favour and mercy of God unto thy selfe Unto these I fully answer That these temptations and corruptions may sometimes be found even in the best of Gods children yea in those upon whom God hath bestowed an excellent measure of grace the which either ariseth from the corruptions of their owne natures from which they are not fully purged and in which there are the seeds of all these sinnes of Atheisme Infidelity and the like or else from the temptations of Sathan from which they neyther are nor can be free so long as they live in this vale of misery Paul the Apostle was often buffetted with Sathans temptations Peter had a shrewd fall when hee denied his Master Noah Lot and saythfull Abraham they had their resurrections from sinns as I may say and David though a man according to Gods own heart Acts 13.22 yet he was constrained to pray as Psa 51.10 for to have a new heart created in him c. And how terrible were Jobs temptations as we may read Job 6.4 if these men were not free then how canst thou looke to be priviledged But to satisfie thee further herein know that thou art yet a member of the Church militant and so long as thou art so thou art and shalt be subject to these fightings and warrings against the temptations of Sathan continually nor canst thou be free from these till thou be a member of the Church triumphant which shall be in the world to come for first our regeneration is not fully perfected in this life and therfore the seeds of sin and corruption remaining there is a feare and doubting even in Gods dearest children yea and sometimes a kind of despaire too Oh! but in this know for thy comfort that Christ thine and our sweet Saviour hath felt the terrors of Gods wrath and absence that so his faithfull ones might bee delivered from it yet know this also that there will bee a combate in thee if thou beest Gods even betweene the flesh and the spirit Againe Sathan is a perpetuall enemy and hee will never leave off to seek thy destruction howsoever thou mayst get the victory and be at peace for a time when upon true repentance thou art reconciled unto God yet thy enemies will adventure againe and thou shalt bee sure of many battels and skirmishes with them before thou canst passe thorow the wildernesse of this world to the Canaan of Heaven But yet take this againe for thy comfort that temptations are sure signes that they that are troubled and possessed therewith are the deare children of God And temptations are profitable for a Christian and therefore Saint James saith my deare brethren count it exceeding joy when ye fall into divers temptations knowing that c. Ja. 1.2.3 c. nay our Saviour himselfe was tempted and that to grievous sins too as ye may see Mat. 4. as to Idolatry distrust of Gods providence and to doubt whether he were the Sonne of God or not nay hee was also tempted to pride and vain-glory yea to lay violent hands upon himselfe and so to be the cause of his owne death and when the Devill left him saith the text Luk. 4.13 it was but for a season St. Paul was an excellent Christian and the deare child of God and yet he could not be free from assaults Rom. 7.23 for he had the seeds of sin in him and he had a Law in his members rebelling against the Law of his minde and often leading him into the Law of sin for hee had inward enemies and hee was not free from outward for he had the messenger of Sathan sent to buffet him 2 Cor. 12.7 8. that is Sathan still assaulted him with one temptation or other to move him forward and to provoke him to sinne And St. Paul prayed thrice that is often and earnestly to be freed therefrom and that he might have no more of these assaults and troubles and yet hee could not bee free and why did not God give and grant his desire and request if he would have given this freedome to any then why not to Saint Paul I answer the state of the Apostle required it being a member of the Church militant that he should not be free least he might grow secure leave off fighting and so cease to be a Souldier which we must not do in this life for we then breake our vowes and oaths made by our Sureties or Parents in our Baptisms wherfore we must I say fight manfully under Christs Crosse and Banner against the three deadly enemies of the soule the world the Devill and the flesh and be faithfull unto death and then thou shalt have a crown of life Revel 2.10 It is the property of the Devill saith Saint Bernard to suggest evill motions but it is our parts and duties not to consent unto them for as often as we resist so often we overcome the Devill and we thereby doe honour our God who visiteth us that we should fight who helpeth us that we may overcome and who strengtheneth us that we faint not in our combate to be tempted by Sathan is Sathans sinne not thine but to yield and consent to his temptations is sinne in thee And know this that seeing our Saviour as I shewed you a little before was so tempted to such grievous temptations therefore let none thinke to be free but yet comfort thy selfe with this that God who is thy loving Father in Christ hath the Devill in chaines and as he stayeth the waves of the Sea at his pleasure Job 38.8 So he holdeth Sathan as it were with bit and bridle that he can tempt thee no otherwise nor any longer then God sees for thy good as is evident by the example of Job Job 1.12 And if the children of God be tempted and overcome by any assault yet upon true repentance and comming unto Christ we have an Advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins 1. John 2.1 and in the first Epistle John 1.8.9 If we say that we have no sinne we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us but if we acknowledge our sinnes then he is fathfull according to his promise to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse We
patience and be content with Gods answer to Saint Paul 2. Cor. 12.9 My grace is sufficient for thee and my strength and power shall be made manifest in thy weakenesse and know that it is not for thy merits but for the merits and worthinesse of Christ that God freely accepts us And this is the very promise of God to those who are once his on whom he hath once bestowed those graces of the knowledge of Christ of fayth of repentance of regeneration and newnesse of life which thou canst not deny I thinke but at sometime to have beene in some measure in thee though hee suffers thee to fall into divers great and grievous temptations yea temptations of a very high nature yet hee will lay no more upon thee or them then he will make thee and them able to beare 1. Cor. 10.23 And though he suffer to be overcome for a time yet will he make a way to escape and will give grace of fayth and repentance by which they may bee reconciled and re-assured of the love of our heavenly Father Doubt not then to apply the promises of God in particular unto thy selfe upon repentance and comming unto Christ because there is no kinde of sinne which thou canst commit but the mercies of God in Christ are farre greater For that sinne against the holy Ghost thou canst not commit which is not any transgression of the Morrall Law eyther in generall or in particular eyther of ignorance or of infirmity or a sin committed wilfully or presumptuously and against a mans owne conscience though these be grievous sinnes but it is an universall and finall Apostacie or falling away from Christ I say it is a voluntary renouncing of the knowledge or known truth of the Gospel and a rebellious proceeding from the hatred of it being joyned with a tyrannicall sophisticall and hypocriticall oppugnation of the same when a man that hath beene enlightned with a true knowledge of Christ and is convinced in his conscience of the truth of it by the blessed Spirit and hath tasted of the good word of God Heb. 6.5 and of the powers of the world to come but it is only a taste for they that doe feede of these graces spiritually and doe digest them and are nourished by them to newnesse of life I dare say God will never suffer them to fall into this sinne when such an one I say shall afterwards universally and with a full consent fall from the truth deny Christ persecute him and though it be but in his members with reproaches despisings and taunts and so disdaine the sacrifice of his death and passion and continuing thus without repentance unto the end this is the sinne against the Holy Ghost Thus did Julian and other Apostats sinne and of these are that of the Apostle to be understood in Heb. 6.6.7.8 c. But to thy comfort whosoever thou art that art troubled with doubtings and so feares that heaven and the joyes thereof belong not unto thee This sinne I say thou canst not fall into being first ingrafted into Christ by fayth and for all other sinnes be they never so grievous yet remission is promised upon fayth and repentance and that freely not for the merit of thy faith or repentance but for the love and merits of Christ Why then shouldst thou not apply the generall promises of grace unto thy selfe in particular Come unto me sayth our blessed Saviour Matt. 11.28 all that are weary and heavy laden and I will refresh you This promise is generall But this thy owne conscience will tell thee that thou art weary and laden heavily with the burthen of thy sinnes and therefore thou mayest well conclude that comming unto Christ the promise of mercy belongs to thee Whosoever shall believe and be baptized shall be saved Mar. 16.16 this is a generall promise also But thy owne conscience will tell thee that thou art Baptized and that without our new fangled re-baptizings and that thou beleevest though it may be that thy faith is but weak but like a graine of mustard seed that is very small Matth. 7.20 yet if thou canst but say with the man in the Gospel I beleeve Lord helpe my unbeleefe Mar. 9.24 If thou canst but touch the hemme of Christs garment with the finger of fayth if thy hand of fayth by which thou mayst lay fast hold of him be wanting yet by this touch of Christ even but with the finger of fayth the vertue of Christ may flow foorth sufficiently to stop the bloudy issue of thy sinnes and to cure the maladies of thy soule and with this thou mayst truely apply the promises of grace unto thy soule Well then as you have seen since thou art and must be a Soldier whilest thou livest in the Camp or Field of the Church faint not at the sight of thine enemies though they be many and terrible but comfort thy selfe with this that as Elisha sayd to his servant in the 2. Kin. 6.16 there are more with thee then with them yea and though thou bee weake yet the stronger part is on thy side for thou hast God thy friend to send thee more ayd of grace if at any time thou art decayd in thy strength thou hast Christ a Conqueror thy Captaine under whose Banner thou doest fight thy friend and thou hast the blessed Spirit to encourage thee and though he may leave off to shew his favourable presence for a time yet will he not bee long absent from thee Though for a moment he hide his face yet with everlasting kindnesse will he have compassion on thee Esay 54.7.8 In a word thou hast being in Christ Myriads of Angels to accompany thee and the prayers of the Saints of the whole Church yea I say and of Christ himselfe at the right hand of his and our Father like the shouting of the Israelites to make the walles of Jericho the strength of their enemies to fayle Jos 6.20 And therfore faile nor but there goe on I advise thee with fayth and constancy to endure the combat and faint nor though thou hast many losses of grace many wounds by sinnes and by thy spirituall enemies for Christ being thy Captaine thou shalt certainely prove a Conqueror in the end But notwithstanding all this thou findest that thou art unable to apply the promises of mercy and free grace unto thy self or to doe it so weakely that feare is not altogether removed out of the heart Then as in the sicknesse of thy body thou art ready to seeke and to send to the Physitian for health of thy body that so he may apply somewhat unto thee for thy health and cure so must thou doe I say in the sicknesse of thy soule then thou must flie and seeke to Gods Minister for the Priests lips ought to preserve knowledge and thou must seeke the Law at his mouth saith the Lord by his Prophet Mal. 2.7 To him then thou must open the wounds of thy soule and all the