THE BALM OF GILEAD Or COMFORTS For the DISTRESSED Both Morall and Divine Most fit for these woful Times By Jos. HALL D. D. and B. N. London Printed by Thomas Newcomb and are to be sold by John Holden at the blue-Anchor in the New-Exchange 1650. To all the distressed Members of Jesus Christ wheresoever whose souls are wounded with the present sense of their sinnes or of their afflictions or with â—he fears OF Death Judgment The Author humbly recommends this Soveraign BALM which God hath been pleased to put into his hands for their benefit earnestly exhorting them to apply it carefully to their severall sores together with their faithfull prayers to God for a blessing upon the use thereof Not doubting but through Gods mercy they shal find thereby a sensible ease and comfort to their soules which shall be helpt on by the fervent devotions of the unworthiest servant of God and his Church J. H. B. N. The CONTENTS Comforts for the sick Bed 1 The Preface Sect. 1. AGgravation of the misery of sicknesse 2 Sect. 2. 1 Comfort from the freedom of the soul. 4 Sect. 3. 2 Comfort from the Author of sickness and the benefit of it 7 Sect. 4. 3 Comfort from the vicissitudes of health 12 Sect. 5. 4 Sickness better then sinfull health 14 Sect. 6. 5 Comfort from the greater sufferings of holyer men and the resolutions of Heathens 17 Sect. 7. 6 Our sufferings farr below our deservings 24 Sect. 8. 7 Comfort from the benefit of the exercise of our patience 27 Sect. 9. 8 The necessity of our expectation of sickness 29 Sect. 10. 9 Comfort from Gods most tender regard to us in sickness 31 Sect. 11. 10 Comfort from the comfortable end of our suffering 34 Sect. 12. 11 Comfort from the favor of a peaceable passage out of the world 36 Comforts for the sick soul 39 Sect. 1. The happiness of a deep sorrow for sinn 39 Sect. 2. Comfort from the wel-grounded declaration of pardon 41 Sect. 3. Aggravation of the grievous condition of the patient and the remedies from mercy applyed 43 Sect. 4. Complaint of unrepentance and unbelief satisfied 47 Sect. 5. Complaint of a misgrounded sorrow satisfied 49 Sect. 6. Complaint of the insufficient measure of sorrow for sin answered 52 Sect. 7. Complaint of the want of faith satisfied 57 Sect. 8. Complaint of the weaknesse of faith satisfied 63 Sect. 9. Complaint of inconstancy and desertions answered 66 Sect. 10. Complaint of unregeneration and deadnesse in sinn satisfied 72 Sect. 11. Complaint of the insensibleness of the time and meanes of conversion answered 87 Sect. 12. Complaint of irresolution and uncertainty in matter of our election answered 87 Comforts against Tentations 101 Sect. 1. Christ himself assaulted Our tryall is for our good 101 Sect. 2. The powerfull assistance of Gods Spirit and the example of S. Paul 106 Sect. 3. The restraint of our spirituall enemies and the infinite power of God over-matching them 109 Sect. 4. The advantage made to us by our Temptations and foyles 113 Sect. 5. Complaint of relapses into sinn with the remedy of it 118 Comforts against weakness of Grace 125 Sect. 1. Comfort from the common condition of all Saints 125 Sect. 2. Comfort from the improvement of weak graces and the free distribution of the Almighty 128 Sect. 3. Comfort from Gods acceptation of the truth of grace not the quantity 131 Sect. 4. Comfort from the variety of Gods gifts and the ages and statures of Grace 132 Sect. 5. Comfort from the safety of our condition even in leasurely progresses in Grace 134 Sect. 6. Comfort from our good desires and endevors 136 Sect. 7. Comfort from the happiness of an humble poverty in spirit 137 Sect. 8. An incitement to so much the more caution and faster adherence to God 139 Comforts against Infamy and Disgrace 142 Sect. 1. Comfort from the like suffering of the holyest men yea of Christ himself 142 Sect. 2. Comfort of our recourse to God 145 Sect. 3. Comfort from the clearnesse of our conscience 147 Sect. 4. From the improvement of our reason 148 Sect. 5. From the cause of our suffering 149 Sect. 6. From our envyed vertue 150 Sect. 7. From others sleighting of just reproaches 153 Sect. 8. From the narrow bounds of infamy 154 Sect. 9. From the short life of slander 155 Comforts against publick calamities 157 Sect. 1. Comfort from the inevitable necessity of changes 157 Sect. 2. From the sense and sympathie of common evils 159 Sect. 3. From the sure protection of the Almighty 161 Sect. 4. From the justice of Gods proceedings 165 Sect. 5. The remedy our particular repentance 167 Sect. 6. The unspeakable miseries of a Civil War 168 Sect. 7. The wofull miseries of Pestilence allaid by consideration of the hand that inflicts it 173 Comforts against the loss of Friends 180 Sect. 1. The true value of a friend and the fault of over-prizing him 180 Sect. 2. The true ground of an undefeisible enjoying our friends 183 Sect. 3. The rarity and tryall of true friends 185 Sect. 4. It is but a parting not a losse 187 Sect. 5. The losse of a vertuous wife mitigated 189 Sect. 6. The mitigation of the losse of a dear and hopefull Sonn 190 Comforts against poverty and losse of our estate 193 Sect. 1. Comfort from the fickle nature of these earthly goods 193 Sect. 2. They are not ours but lent us 196 Sect. 3. The estimation of our riches is in the minde 198 Sect. 4. It may be good for us to be held short 200 Sect. 5. The danger of abundance 201 Sect. 6. The cares that attend wealth 202 Sect. 7. The imperiousnesse of ill used wealth 203 Sect. 8. Consideration of the causes and meanes of impoverishing us 204 Sect. 9. Examples of those who have affected poverty 207 Comforts against Imprisonment 209 Sect. 1. Comfort from the nature and power of true liberty 209 Sect. 2. The sad objects of a free beholders eye 211 Sect. 3. Comfort from the invisible company that cannot be kept from us 213 Sect. 4. Comfort from the inward disposition of the Prisoner 215 Sect. 5. The willing choice of retiredness in some persons 217 Sect. 6. Comfort from the causes of Imprisonment 218 Sect. 7. Comfort from the good effects of retiredness 222 Sect. 8. The souls imprisonment in the body ibid. Comforts against banishment 224 Sect. 1. Comfort from the universality of a wise mans Country 224 Sect. 2. From the benefit of self-conversation 227 Sect. 3. From the examples of those holy ones that have abandoned society 228 Sect. 4. From the advantage that hath been made of removing 231 Sect. 5. From the right we have in any Countrey and in God 233 Sect. 6. From the practise of voluntary Travail 234 Sect. 7. All are Pilgrims 235 Comforts against the loss of our senses of seeing and hearing 236 Sect. 1. Comfort from the two inward lights of reasan and faith 236 Sect. 2. The supply of
for the benefit that he hath been pleased to make of thine offending him § 5. â—omplaint 〈◊〉 relapses 〈◊〉 to sin â—ith the â—â—medy â—ereof But alas thou sayst my case is far worse then it is conceived I have been more then once miscarried into the same sin Even after I have made profession of my repentance I have been transported into my former wickedness Having washed off my sin as I thought with my many tears yet I have suffered my soul to be defiled with it again I may not flatter thee my son this condition is dangerous Those diseases which upon their first seizure have without any great peril of the Patient received cure after a recidivation have threatned death Look upon the Saints of God thou shalt finde they have kept aloof from that fire wherewith they have been formerly burnt Thou shalt not finde Noah again uncovered through drunkenness in his tent thou shalt not finde Judah climbing up again to Tamars bed Thou shalt not take Peter again in the High-Priests hall denying his Master or after Pauls reproof halting in his dissimulation But tell me notwithstanding art thou truly serious with thy God hast thou doubled thine humiliation for the reduplication of thine offence hast thou sought God so much the more instantly with an unfained contrition of heart hast thou found thy soul wrought to so much greater detestation of thy sin as thine acquainâ—tance with it hath been more hast thou taken this occasion to lay better hold on thy Saviour and to reinforce the vows of thy more careful and strict obedience Be of good chear this unpurposed reiteration of thy sin shall be no prejudice to thy salvation It is one thing for a man to walk on willingly in a beaten path of sin another thing for a man to be justled out of the way of righteousness by the violence of a temptation which he soon recovers again by a sound repentance The best cannot but be overtaken with sin but he that is born of God doth not commit sin he may be transported whither he meant not but he makes not a trade of doing ill his heart is against that which his hand is drawn unto and if in this inward strife he be over-powered he lies not down in a willing yeeldance but struggles up again and in a resumed courage and indignation tramples on that which formerly supplanted him Didst thou give thy self over to a resolved course of sinning and betwixt whiles shouldst knock thy brest with a formal God forgive me I should have no comfort in store for thee but send thee rather to the Whipping-stock of the Almighty for due correction if possibly those seasonable stripes may prevent thine everlasting torments But now since what thou hatest that thou doest and thou doest that which thou wouldst not and it is no more thâ—u that doest it but sin that dwells in thee cry out as much as thou wilt on the sinfulness of thy sin bewail thy weakness with a better man then thy self O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death But know that thou hast found mercy with thy God thy repeated sin may grieve but cannot hurt thy soul. Had we to do with a finite compassion it might be abated by spending it self upon a frequent remission like as some great river may be drawn dry by many small out-lets But now that we deal with a God whose mercy is as himself infinite it is not the greatness or the number of our offences that can make a difference in his free remissions That God who hath charged our weak charity not to be overcome with evil but to overcome evil with good justly scorneth that we should think his infinite and incomprehensible goodness can be checked with our evil It was not without a singular providence that Peter came to our Saviour with that question in his mouth Lord how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times that it might fetch from that blessed Son of God that gracious answer for our perpetual direction and comfort I say not unto thee Until seven times but until seventy times seven Lord if thou wouldst have us sinful men thus indulgent to one another in the case of our mutual offences what limits can be set to thy mercies in our sins against thee Be we penitent thou canst not but be gracious Comforts against weakness of grace §. 1. Comfort from the common condition of all Saints THou complainest of the weakness of grace some little stirrings thou feelest of Gods Spirit within thee but so feeble that thou canst not finde any solid comfort in them Thou seest others thou sayst whose brests are full of milk and their bones moistned with marrow whiles thou languishest under a spiritual leanness and imbecillity Thou wantest that vigorous heat of holy affections and that alacrity in the performance of holy duties which thou observest in other Christians I love this complaint of thine my son and tell thee that without this thou couldst not be in the way of being happie Thinkst thou that those whom thou esteemest more eminent in grace make not the same moan that thou dost Certainly they never had any grace if they did not complain to have too little Every man best feels his own wants and is ready to pass secret censures upon himself for that wherein he is applauded by others Even the man after Gods own heart can say But I am poor and sorrowful He was a great King when he said so it was not meanness in outward estate that troubled him but a spiritual neediness for he had before in the same heavenly Ditty professed O God thou knowest my foolishnesse and my guiltinesse is not hid from thee It was an old observation of wise Solomon There is that maketh himselfe rich and hath nothing there is that maketh himselfe poore yet hath great riches In this latter rank are many gracious soules and thine I hope for one who certainly had never been so wealthy in grace if they had been conceited of greater store Even in this sense many a Saint may say with Saint Paul When I am weak then I am strong Since the very complaint of weaknesse argues strength and on the contrary an opinion of sufficient grace is an evident conviction of meere emptinesse §. 2. Comfort from the improvement of weak graces and Gods free distribution But suppose thy selfe so poor as thou pretendest It is not so much what we have as how we improve it How many have we known that have grown rich out of a little whereas others out of a great stock have run into debt and beggery Had that servant in the Gospel who received but one talent imployed it to the gain of a second he had been proportionably as well rewarded as he that with five gained ten In our temporall estate we are warned by the wisest man
carried them thus corrected in their bosome for coolnesse and for the pleasure of their smoothnesse The sting of death is sinne Hee may hisse and winde about us but he cannot hurt us when that sting is pulled out Look up O thou beleeving soul to thy blessed Saviour who hath pluckt out this sting of death and happily triumphs over it both for himself and thee O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory §. 8. Death is but aparting to meet again Thy soul and body old companions are loth to part Why man it is but the forbearing their wonted society for a while they doe but take leave of each other till they meet againe in the day of Resurrection and in the mean time they are both safe and the better part happy It is commendable in the Jews otherwise the worst of men that they call their grave Beth Chajim the house of the living and when they return from the buriall of their neighbours they pluck up the grasse and cast it into the aire with those words of the Psalmist They shall flourish and put forth as the grasse upon the earth Did wee not beleeve a Resurrection of the one part and a re-uniting of the other wee had reason to be utterly daunted with the thought of a dissolution now wee have no cause to bee dismayed with a little intermission Is it an Heathen man or a Christian such I wish he had been whom I hear say The death which wee so fear and flee from doth but respite life for a while doth not take it away the day will come which shall restore us to the light again Settle thy soul my sonne in this assurance and thou canst not bee discomforted with a necessary parting § 9. Death is but a sleep Thou art afraid of death When thou art weary of thy dayes labour art thou afraid of rest Hear what thy Saviour who is the Lord of life esteems of death Iohn 11. 11. Our friend Lazarus sleepeth And of Jairus his daughter The maid is not dead but sleepeth Neither useth the Spirit of God any other language concerning his servants under the Old Testament Now shall I sleep in the dust saith holy Job And of David When thy days be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers Nor yet under the New For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep saith the Apostle Lo the Philosophers of old were wont to call sleep the brother of death but God says death is no other then sleep it self A sleep both sure and sweet When thou liest down at night to thy repose thou canst not be so certain to awake again in the morning as when thou layest thy self down in death thou art sure to wake in the morning of the Resurrection Out of this bodily sleep thou mayst be affrightedly startled with some noises of sudden horrour with some fearful dreams with tumults or alarms of War but here thou shalt rest quietly in the place of silence free from all inward and outward disturbances whiles in the mean time thy soul shall see none but visions of joy and blessedness But Oh the sweet and heavenly expression of our last rest and the issue of our happie resuscitation which our gracious Apostle hath laid forth for the consolation of his mournful Thessalonions For if we believe saith he that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him Lo our belief is antidote enough against the worst of death And why are we troubled with death when we believe that Jesus died And what a triumph is this over death that the same Jesus who died rose again And what a comfort it is that the same Jesus who arose shall both come again and bring all his with him in glory And lastly what a strong Cordial is this to all good hearts that all those which die well do sleep in Jesus Thou thoughtst perhaps of sleeping in the bed of the grave and there indeed is rest but he tells thee of sleeping in the bosome of Jesus and there is immortality and blessedness Oh blessed Jesu in thy presence is the fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore Who would desire to walk in the world when he may sleep with Jesus § 10. Death sweetned to us by Christ. Thou fearest death It is much on what terms and in what form death presents himself to thee If as an enemy as that is somewhere his style the last enemy death thy unpreparation shall make him dreadful thy readiness and fortitude shall take off his terrour If as a messenger of God to fetch thee to happiness what reason hast thou to be afraid of thine own bliss It is one thing what death is in himself a privation of life as such Nature cannot chuse but abhor him Another thing what he is by Christ made unto us an introduction to life an harbinger to glory Why would the Lord of Life have yeelded unto death and by yeelding vanquisht him but that he might alter and sweeten Death to us and of a fierce Tyrant make him a Friend and Benefactor And if we look upon him thus changed thus reconciled how can we chuse but bid him welcome § 11. The painfulness of Christs â—eath Thou art afraid of the pangs of death There are those that have died without any great sense of pain some we have known to have yeelded up their souls without so much as a groan And how knowest thou my son what measure God hath allotted to thee Our death is a Sea-voyage so the Apostle I desire to lanch forth wherein some finde a rough and tempestuous passage others calm and smoothe such thine may prove so as thy dissolution may be more easie then a fit of thy sickness But if thy God have determined otherwise Look unto Jesus the Authour and Finisher of our faith the Son of God the Lord of glory see with what agonies he conflicted what torments he endured in his death for thee Look upon his bloody sweat his bleeding temples his furrowed back his nailed hands and feet his racked joynts his pierced side Hear his strong cries consider the shame the pain the câ—rse of the Cross which he underwent for thy sake Say whether thy sufferings can be comparable to his He is a cowardly and unworthy Souldier that follows his General sighing Lo these are the steps wherein thy God and Saviour hath trod before thee Walk on courageously in this deep and bloody way after a few paces thou shalt overtake him in glory For if we suffer with him we shall also reign together with him §. 12. The vanity and miseries of life Thou shrinkest at the thought of death Is it not for that thou hast over-valued life and made thy home on earth Delicate persons that have pampered themselves at home are loth to stir abâ—â—ad especially
upon hard and unâ—â—uth voyages Perhaps it is so with thee wherein I cannot but much pity thy mistaking in placing thy contentment there where a greater and wiser man could finde nothing but vanity and vexation Alas what can be our exile if this be our home What woful entertainment is this to be enamoured on What canst thou meet with here but distempered humours hard usages violent passions bodily sicknesses sad complaints hopes disappointed frequent miscarriages wicked plots cruel menaces deadly executions momentany pleasures sauced with lasting sorrows lastly shadows of joy and real miseries Are these the things that so bewitch thee that when death calls at thy door thou art ready to say to it as the Devil said to our Saviour Art thou come to torment me before the time Are these those winning contentments that cause thee to say of the world as Peter said of Mount Tabor Master It is good for us to be here If thou have any faith in thee and what dost thou profess to be a Christian without it look up to the things of that other world whither thou art going and see whether that true life pure joy perfect felicity and thâ— eternity of all these may not be worthy to draw up thy heart to a loâ—ging desire of the fruition of them and a contemptuous disvaluation of all that earth can promise in comparison of this infinite blessedness It was one of the defects which our late Noble and learned Philosopher the Lord Virulam found in our Physitians that they do not studie those remedies that might procure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the easie passage of their Patients since they must needs die thorow the gates of death Such helps I must leave to the care of the skilful Sages of Nature the use whereof I suppose must be with much caution lest whiles they endeavour to sweeten death they shorten life But 〈◊〉 me prescribe and commend to thee my son this true spiritual means of thine happie Euthanasia which can be no other then this faithful disposition of the labouring soul that can truely say I know whom I have believed I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kâ—pt the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day § 13. Examples of courageous resolutions in others Thou startest back at the mention of death How canst thou but blush to read of that Heathen Martyr Socrates who when the message as death was brought to him could applaud the news of most joyful Or of a Cardinal of Rome who yet expected a tormenting Purgatory that received the intimation of his approaching death with Buâ—na nuova buona nuova O che buona nuova è questa Is not their confidence thy shame who believing that when our earthly house of this Tabernacle is dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens yet shrinkest at the motion of taking the possession of it Canst thou with dying Mithridates when he took his unwilling farewel of the world cry out oh light when thou art going to a light more glorious then this thou leavest then the Sun is more weak then a Rush-Candle It is our infidelity my son it is our meer inâ— idelity that makes us unwilling to die Did we think according to the cursed opinion of some fanatick persons that the soul sleeps as well as the body from the moment of the dissolution till the day of Resurrection Or did we doubt lest we should wander to unknown places where we cannot be certain of the entertainment or did we fear a scorching trial upon the emigration in flames little inferiour for the time to those of hell there were some cause for us to tremble at the approach of death But now that we can boldly say with the Wise man ` The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and there shall no torment touch them In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die and their departure is taken for misery and their going from us to be utter destruction but they are in peace Oh thou of little faith why fearest thou Why dost thou not chide thy self as that dying Saint did of old Go forth my soul go boldly forth what art thou afraid of Lo the Angels of God are ready to receive thee and to carry thee up to thy glory neither shalt thou sooner have left this wretched body then thou shalt be possessed of thy God after a momentany darkness cast upon nature thou shalt enjoy the beatifical vision of the glorious God Be not afraid to be happie but say out of faith that which Jonah said in anger It is better for me to die then to live § 14. The happy advantages of death I am afraid to die This is the voice of Nature but wilt thou hear what Grace saith To me to live is Christ and to die is gain If therefore meer Nature raign in thee thou canst not but be affrighted with death But if true grace be prevalent in thy soul that guest shall not be unwelcome Was ever any man afraid of profit and advantage Such is death to the faithful Whosoever he be that findes Christ to be his life shall be sure to finde Death his gain for that he is thereby brought to a more full and neer communion with Christ whereas before he enjoyed his Saviour onely by the dim apprehension of his Faith now he doth clearly and immediately enjoy that glorious presence which onely makes blessedness This is it which causeth death to change his Copie and renders him who is of himselfe formidable pleasing and beneficiall I desire to depart and to be with Christ saith the man who was rapt up to the third heaven Had it been onely departing surely he had had no such great edge to it but to depart and be with Christ is that which ravisheth his soule When the Heathen Socrates was to die for his Religion he comforted himselfe with this That hee should goe to the place where he should see Orphaeus Homer Musaeus and the other Worthies of the former ages Poor man could he have come to have knowne God manifested in the flesh and received up into glory and therein that glorified flesh sitting at the right hand of Majesty could he have attained to know the blessed order of the Cherubim and Seraphim Angels Archangels Principalities and Powers and the rest of the most glorious Hierarchy of heaven could he have been acquainted with that celestiall Chore of the Spirits of just men made perfect could he have reached to know the God and Father of Spirits the infinitely and incomprehensibly glorious Deity whose presence transfuses everlasting blessednesse into all those Citizens of glory and could he have known that he should have an undoubted Interest instantly upon his dissolution in that
of the tedious hours whiles he is fro licking with his jocund companions carousing his large healths sporting himself with his wanton mistress and bathing himself in all sensuall pleasures and tell me whether of the two thou thinkest in the happier condition Surely if thou be not shrunk into nothing but meeâ— Sense if thou hast not cast off all thoughts of another world thou shalt pity the misery of that godless jollity and gratulate to thy self the advantage of thine humble and faithful suffering as that which shall at last make thee an abundant amends by yeelding thee the peaceable fruit of righteousness § 6. 5 Comfort The greater sufferings of holâ—er men and the resolutions of heathens Thy pain is grievous I apprehend it such and pity thee with all my soul. But let me tell thee It is not such but that holier men have susfered more Dost thou not hear the great precedent of patience crying out from his dung â— hill Oh that my grief were thorowly weighed and my calamities laid in the balance together For now it would be heavier then the sand of the sea therefore my words are swallowed up For the arrows of the Almighty are within me the poison whereof drinketh up my spirits The terrours of God do set themselves in array against me Dost thou not hear the man after Gods own heart speak of the voice of his roaring Dost thou not see him that shrunk not from the Bear the Lion the Giant drenching his bed with his tears Dost thou not hear the Faithful crying out I am the man that hath suffered affliction by the rod of his wrath c. Surely against me is he turned he turneth his hand against me all the day My flesh and my skin hath he made old he hath broken my bones Might I not easily shew thee the Prophets Apostles Martyrs the great favourites of heaven some on the Gridirons others in boiling Cal drons some on the Spits others under the Sawes some in the Flames others crashed with the teeth of Wilde beasts some on the Racks others in fiery furnaces most of them in such torments as in comparison whereof thy pains are but sport Yea what speak I of these mortal and at the best sinful men when thou maist see the Son of God the Lord of life the King of glory God blessed for ever sweating drops of blood in his dreadful agony and maist hear him cry upon the tree of shame and curse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Alas what are we capable to suffer in proportion of these tortures Who are we that we should think much to share with the best of Gods Saints yea with the dear and eternal Son of his love our ever blessed Redeemer Had not God found this the way to their heaven they had not trod so deep in blood Why do we grudge to wet our feet where they waded Yea if from these holy ones thou shalt turn thine eyes to some meer Pagans let me shew thee the man whom we are wont to account infamous for voluptuousness Epicurus the Philosopher who on his dying day when he lay extremely tormented with the stone in the bladder and a tearing Collick in his bowels as it were gasping for life yet even then writing to his Idomeneus can out of the strength of his resolutions profess his chearfulness and can style even that day blessed It was the same mouth that could boast â—hat if he were frying in the brazen Bull of Phalaris he could there finde contentment What should I tell thee of a Mutius Scaevola who in a glorious revenge voluntarily burns off his own right hand not without the envie and pity of his enemies or of a Regulus that after so high a provocation offers himself to the worst of the merciless fury of his tormentors Why shouldst thou think it strange saith wise Seneca that some men should be well pleased to be scorcht to be wounded to be rackt to be kill'd Frugality is a pain to the riotous labour is a punishment to the lazie continence is a misery to the wanton studie is a torture to the slothful All these things are not in their own nature difficult but we are feeble and false-hearted Shall these Pagans attain to this height of magnanimity out of the bravery of their manly resolutions and shall we Christians droop and pule under gentler sufferings whiles we profess to have moreover the advantage of Faith to uphold and chear us Poor Heathen souls they never heard of any gracious Engagements of a merciful God to stand by them and to comfort them they never had met with those sweet messages from heaven Call upon me in the day of thy trouble and thou shalt glorifie me Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavie laden and I will give you rest Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees Say to them that are of a fearful heart Be strong fear not behold your God will come with vengeance even God with a recompence he will come and save you They had not the heart of a Job to say I know that my Redeemer livâ—th nor the eyes of a Steven to pierce the heaven and to see their Saviour standing at the right hand of God but meerly tugg'd it out in the strength of their natural courage heightened with a vain-glorious ambition of that fame which they did believe would survive them whereas we Christians know that we have a God the Father of all mercieâ— to stand by us a Redeemer to deliver us a Comforter to strengthen and refresh us sweet and unfail able promises to sustain us and at last a crown of eternal glory to recompense us § 7. 6 Comfort Our sufferings far below our deservings Thou art pained with Sickness Look not at what thou feelest but at what thou hast deserved to feel Why doth the living man complain Man suffereth for his sin Alas the wages of every sin is death a double death of body of soulâ— temporal eternal Any thing belowe this is mercy There is not the least of thy many thousand transgressions but hath merited the infinite wrath of a just God and thereby more torments then thou art capable to undergo What dost thou complain of ease Where thou owedst a thousand talents thou art bidden to take thy bill and sit down and write fifty wilâ— thou not magnifie the clemency of so favourable a creditor Surely were every twig wherewith thou smartest a scorpion and every breath that thon sendest forth a flame this were yet less then thy due Oh the infinite goodness of our indulgent Father that takes up with so gentle a correction Tell me thou nice delicate patient if thou canst not bear these stripes how wilt thou be able to endure those that are infinitely sorer Alas what are these to that hell which abides for the impatient There are exquisite pains without mitigation eternal pains without
with the expectation of that blessednesse which if thy torments were no lesse then those of hell would make more then abundant amends for all thy sufferings §. 12. 11. Comfort The favour of a peaceable passage out of the world Thou art sick to die having received the sentence of death in thy selfe thy Physitian hath given thee up to act this last part alone neither art thou like to rise any more till the generall resurrection How many thousands have died lately that would have thought it a great happinesse to die thus quietly in their beds whom the storme of warre hath hurried away furiously into another world snatching them suddenly out of this not suffering them to take leave of that life which they are forced to abandon whereas thou hast a fair leasure to prepare thy self for the entertainment of thy last guest to set both thine house in order and thy soule It is no small advantage my son thus to see death at a distance and to observe every of his paces towards thee that thou maist put thy selfe into a fit posture to meet this grim messenger of heaven who comes to fetch thee to immortality That dying thus by gentle degrees thou hast the leasure with the holy Patriarch Iacob to call thy children about thee to bequeath to each of them the dear legacy of thy last benediction and that being incompassed with thy sad friends now in thy long journey to a far country though thine and their home thou maist take a solemn farewell of them as going somewhat before them to the appointed happy meeting place of glory and blessednesse That one of thine own may close up those eyes which shall in their next opening see the face of thy most glorious Saviour and see this flesh now ready to lie down in corruption made like to his in unspeakable glory Comforts for the sick Soul § 1. The happiness of a deep sorrow for sin THy sin lies heavie upon thy soul Blessed be God that thou feel'st it so many a one hath more weight upon him and boasteth of ease There is musick in this complaint the Father of mercies delights to hear it as next to the melody of Saints and Angels Go on still and continue these sorrowful notes if ever thou look for sound comfort It is this godly sorrow that worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of Weep still and make not too much haste to dry up these tears for they are precious and held fit to be reserved in the bottle of the Almighty Over-speedy remedies may prove injurious to the Patient and as in the body so in the soul diseases and tumors must have their due maturation ere there can be a perfect cure The inwards of the Sacrifice must be three times rinsed with water One ablution will not serve the turn but when thou hast emptied thine eyes of tears and unloaded thy brest of leasurely sighs I shall then by full commission from him that hath the power of remission say to thee Son be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee § 2. Comfort from the welgrounded declaration of pardon Think not this word meerly formal and forceless He that hath the keys of hell and of death hath not said in vain Whose sins ye remit they are remitted The words of his faithful Ministers on earth are ratified in heaven Onely the Priest under the Law had power to pronounce the Leper clean had any other Israelite done it it had been as unprofitable as presumptuous It is a precious word that fell from Elihu When a mans soul draweth nigh to the grave and his life to the destroyer if there be a messenger of God with him an interpreter one among a thousand to shew unto that man his uprightness then he i. e. God is gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down into the pit I have found a ransom Behold this is thy case my son the life of thy soul is in danger of the Destroyer through his powerful temptations I am howsoever unworthy a messenger sent to thee from heaven and in the Name of that great God that sent me I do here upon the sight of thy serious repentance before Angels and men declare thy soul to stand right in the Court of heaven the invaluable ransom of thy dear Saviour is laid down and accepted for thee thou art delivered from going down into the pit of horrour and perdition § 3. Aggravation of the grievous condition of the Patient and remedies from mercy applied Oh happie message thou saist were it as sure as it is comfortable But alas my heart findes many and deep grounds of fear and diffidence which will not easily be removed That smites me whiles you offer to acquit me and tells me I am in a worse condition then a looker on can imagine my sins are beyond measure hainous such as my thoughts tremble at such as I dare not utter to the God that knows them and against whom onely they are committed there is horrour in their very remembrance what will there then be in their retribution They are bitter things that thou urgest against thy self my son no adversary could plead worse But I admit thy vileness be thou as bad as Satan can make thee It is not either his malice or thy wickedness that can shut thee out from mercy Be thou as foul as sin can make thee yet there is a fountain opened to the house of David a bloody fountain in the side of thy Saviour for sin and for uncleanness Be thou as leprous as that Syrian was of old if thou canst but wash seven times in the waters of this Jordan thou canst not but be clean thy flesh shall come again to thee like to the flesh of a little childe thou shalt be at once sound and innocent Be thou stung unto death with the fiery serpents of this wilderness yet if thou canst but cast thine eyes to that Brazen Serpent which is erected there thou canst not fail of cure Wherefore came the Son of God into the world but to save sinners Adde if thou wilt whereof I am chief thou canst say no worse by thy self then a better man did before thee who in the right of a sinner claimeth the benefit of a Saviour Were it not for our sin what use were there of a Redeemer Were not our sin hainous how should it have required such an expiation as the blood of the eternal Son of God Take comfort to thy self my son the greatness of thy sin serves but to magnifie the mercy of the Forgiver to remit the debt of some few farthings it were small thank but to strike off the scores of thousands of talents it is the height of bounâ—y Thus doth thy God to thee he hath suffered thee to run on in his books to so deep a sum that when thy conscious heart hath proclaimed thee bankrupt he may infinitly oblige thee
with the measure of that penitence which is accepted of thy God rather turn thine eies from thy sins and look up to heaven and fasten them there upon thine all-sufficient Mediator at the right hand of Majesty and see his face smiling upon thine humbled soul and perfectly reconciling thee to his eternall Father as being fully assured That being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom also wee have accesse by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God §. 7. Complaint of the want of faith satisfied Yea there there thou sayest is the very core of all my complaint I want that faith that should give me an interest in my Saviour and afford true comfort to my soule and boldnesse and accesse with confidence to the throne of grace I can sorrow but I cannot beleeve My griefe is not so great as my infidelity I see others full of joy and peace in beleeving but my earthen heart cannot raise it selfe up to a comfortable apprehension of my Saviour so as me thinks I dwell in a kinde of disconsolate darknesse and a sad lumpishnesse of unbeleef wanting that lightsome assurance which others professe to finde in themselves Take heed my son lest whiles thou art too querulous thou prove unthankfull and lest whiles thine humblenesse disparages thy self thou make God a loser Many a man may have a rich mine lying deep in his ground which he knowes not of There are shels that are inwardly furnished with pearles of great price and are not sensible of their worth This is thy condition thou hast that grace which thou complainest to want It is no measuring of thy selfe by sense especially in the time of temptation Thou couldst not so feelingly bemoan the want of faith if thou hadst it not Deny it if thou canst thou assentest to the truth of all the gracious promises of God thou acknowledgest he could not be himselfe if he were not a true God yea truth it self Thou canst not doubt but that he hath made sweet promises of free grace and mercy to all penitent sinners thou canst not but grant that thou art sinfull enough to need mercy and sorrowfull enough to desire and receive mercy Canst thou but love thy selfe so well as that when thou seest a pardon reached forth to thee to save thy soule from death thou shouldst doe any other then stretch forth thy hand to take it Lo this hand stretched forth is thy faith which so takes spirituall hold of thy Saviour that it cals not thy sense to witnesse As for that assurance thou speakest of they are happy that can truly feel maintain it and it must be our holy ambition what we may to aspire unto it but that is such an height of perfection as every traveller in this wretched pilgrimage cannot whiles he is in this perplexed and heavy way hope to attain unto It is an unsafe and perillous path which those men have walked in who have been wont to define all faith by assurance Should I lead thee that way it might cost thee a fall so sure a certainty of our constant and reflected apprehension of eternall life is both hard to get and not easie to hold unmovably considering the many and strong temptations that we are subject unto in this vale of misery and death Should faith be reduced to this triall it would be yet more rare then our Saviour hath foretold it For as many a one boasts of such an assurance who is yet failing of a true faith hugging a vain presumption in stead of it so many a one also hath true faith in the Lord Iesus who yet complaines to want this assurance Canst thou in a sense of thine owne misery close with thy Saviour canst thou throw thy self into the arms of his mercy canst thou trust him with thy soul and repose thy self upon him for forgivenesse and salvation canst thou lay thy self before him as a miserable object of his grace and mercy and when it is held forth to thee canst thou lay some though weak hold upon it Labour what thou mayst for further degrees of strength daily set not up thy rest in this pitch of grace but chear up thy self my son even thus much faith shall save thy soul Thou believest and he hath said it that is Truth it self He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life § 8. Complaint of the weakness of faith satisfied I know thou sayest that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners And that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life Neither can I deny but that in a sense of my own sinful condition I do cast my self in some measure upon my Saviour and lay some hold upon his All-sufficient Redemption But alas my apprehensions of him are so feeble as that they can afford no sound comfort to my soul. Courage my son were it that thou lookedst to be justified and saved by the power of the very act of thy faith thou hadst reason to be disheartened with the conscience of the weakness thereof but now that the vertue and efficacie of this happie work is in the object apprehended by thee which is the infinite merits and mercy of thy God and Saviour which cannot be abated by thine infirmities thou hast cause to take heart to thy self and chearfully to expect his salvation Understand thy case aright Here is a double hand that helps us up towards heaven our hand of Faith lays hold upon our Saviour our Saviours hand of mercy and plenteous redemption lays hold on us our hold of him is feeble and easily loosed his hold of us is strong and irresistible Comfort thy self therefore in this with the blessed Apostle When thou art weak then thou art strong when weak in thy self strong in thy Redeemer Shouldst thou boast of thy strength and say Tush I shall never be moved I should suspect the truth and safety of thy condition now thou bewailest thy weakness I cannot but encourage and congratulate the happie estate of thy soul. If work were stood upon a strength of hand were necessary but now that onely taking and receiving of a precious gift is required why may not a weak hand do that as well as a strong as well though not as forcibly Be not therefore dejected with the want of thine own power but comfort thy self in the rich mercies of thy blessed Redeemer § 9. Complaint of inconâ—tancy and desertion answered Now thou saist Sometimes I confess I finde my heart at ease in a comfortable reliance on my Saviour and being well resolved of the safety of my estate promise good days to my self and after the banishment of my former fears dare bid defiance to temptations But alas how soon is this fair weather over how suddenly is this clear skie over-clouded and spread over with a sad darkness and I return to my former heartlesness
judgements of God denounced against sinners and laid home to the conscience hast thou not found thy heart pierced with them hast thou not shrunk inward and secretly thought How shall I decline this dreadful damnation When thou hast heard the sweet mercies of God laid forth to penitent sinners hath not thy heart silently said Oh that I had my share in them When thou hast heard the Name of Christ blasphemed hast thou not felt a secret horrour in thy bosom All these argue a true spiritual life within thee Motion is the most perfect discoverer of life He that can stir his limbs is surely not dead The feet of the soul are the Affections Hast thou not found in thy self an hate and detestation of that sin whereinto thou hast been miscarried Hast thou not found in thy self a true grief of heart for thy wretched indisposition to all good things Hast thou not found a secret love to and complacency in those whom thou hast thought truly godly and conscionable Without a true life of grace these things could never have been Are not thine eyes and hands many times lifted up in an imploration of mercy Canst thou deny that thou hast a true though but weak appetite to the means and further degrees of grace What can this be but that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse to which our Saviour hath pronounced blessednesse Discomfort not thy selfe too much son with the present disappearance of grace during the hour of thy temptation it is no otherwise with thee then with a â—ree in winter-season whose sap is run down to the root wherein there is no more shew of the life of vegetation by any buds or blossomes that it might put forth then if it were stark dead yet when the Sun returnes and sends forth his comfortable beames in the spring it burgens out afresh and bewraies that vitall juyce which lay long hidden in the earth No otherwise then with the hearth of some good huswife which is towards night swept up and hideth the fire under the heap of her ashes a stranger would think it were quite out here is no appearance of light or heat or smoak but by that time she hath stirred it up a little the bright gleeds shew themselves and are soon raised to a flame Stay but till the spring when the Sun of righteousnesse shall call up thy moisture into thy branches stay but till the morning when the fire of grace which was raked up in the ashes shall bee drawne forth and quickned and thou shalt find cause to say of thy heart as Iacob said of his hard lodging Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not Onely doe thou not neglecting the meanes wait patiently upon Gods leasure stay quietly upon the bank of this Bethesda till the Angel descend and move the water §. 11. Complaint of the insensibleness of the time and meanes of conversion I could gladly thou saist attend with patience upon God in this great and happy work of the excitation of grace were I but sure I had it could I be but perswaded of the truth of my conversion but it is my great misery that here I am at a sad and uncomfortable losse for I have been taught that every true convert can designe the time the place the meanes the manner of his conversion and can shew how neare hee was brought to the gates of death how close to the very verge of hell when God by a mighty and out-stretched arme snacht him away in his own sensible apprehension from the pit and suddenly rescued him from that damnation and put him into a new state of spirituall life and undefaisible salvation All which I cannot do not finding in my selfe any such sudden and vehement concussion and heart-breaking any such forcible and irresistible operation of Gods Spirit within me not being able to design the Sermon that converted me or those particular approaches that my soule made towards an hardly-recovered desperation My son it is not safe for any man to take upon him to set limits to the wayes of the Almighty or to prescribe certain rules to the proceedings of that infinite Wisedome That most free and all-wise agent will not be tyed to walk alwaies in one path but varies his courses according to the pleasure of his own will One man hee cals suddenly another by leasure one by a kinde of holy violence as hee did S. Paul another by sweet solicitations as Philip Nathaniel Andrew Peter Matthew and the rest of the Apostles One man he drawes to heaven with gracious invitations another he drives thither by a strong hand we have known those who having mispent their yonger times in notoriously lewd and debauched courses living as without God yea against him have been suddenly heart-stricken with some powerfull denunciation of judgement which hath so wrought upon them that it hath brought them within sight of hell who after long and deep humiliation have been raised up through Gods mercy to a comfortable sense of the divine favour and have proceeded to a very high degree of regeneration and lived and died Saints But this is not every mans case Those who having from their infancy been brought up in the nurture and feare of the Lord and from their youth have been trained up under a godly and conscionable Ministery where they have been continually plyed with the essectuall means of grace Precept upon precept line upon line here a little and there a little and have by an insensible conveyance received the gracious inoperations of the Spirit of God though not without many inward strifes with temptations and sad fits of humiliation for their particular failings framing them to all holy obedience these cannot expect to finde so sensible alterations in themselves As well may the child know when he was naturally born as these may know the instant of their spirituall regeneration and as well may they see the grasse to grow as they can perceive their insensible increase of grace It is enough that the child attaining to the use of reason now knowes that he was born and that when wee see the grasse higher then we left it we know that it is growne Let it then suffice thee my son to know that the thing is done though thou canst not define the time and manner of doing it Be not curious in matter of particular perceptions whiles thou mayst be assured of the reality truth of the grace wrought in thee Thou seest the skilfull Chirurgion when hee will make a fontinell in the body of his patient he can do it either by a sudden incision or by a leasurely corrasive both sort to one end and equally tend towards health trust God with thy self and let him alone with his own work what is it to thee which way he thinks best to bring about thy salvation § 12. Complaint of irresolution and uncertainâ—y in matter of our election answered All were safe thou saist if onely
aim we shut one eye as rather an hinderance to an accurate information yet for ordinary use so do we esteem each of these lights that there is no wise man but would rather lose a limb then an eye Although I could tell thee of a certain man not less religious then witty who when his friends bewailed the loss of one of his eyes askt them Whether they wept for the eye which he had lost or the eye which remained Weep rather said he for the enemy that stays behinde then for the enemy that is gone Lo this man lookt upon his eyes with eyes different from other mens he saw them as enemies which others see as officious servants as good friends as dear favourites Indeed they are any or all of these according as they are used good servants if they go faithfully on the errands we send them and return us true intelligence Good friends if they advise and invite us to holy thoughts enemies if they suggest and allure us to evil If thine eyes have been employed in these evil offices to thy soul God hath done that for thee which he hath in a figurative sense enjoyned thee to do to thy self If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is better for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell § 5. Freedom from temptations by the eyes and from sorrows Thou hast lost thine eyes and together with them much earthly contentment But withal thou art hereby freed of many temptations those eyes were the in-lets of sin yea not onely the meer passages by which it entred but busie agents in the admission of it the very Pandars of lust for the debauching of the soul. How many thousands are there who on their death-beds upon the sad recalling of their guilty thoughts have wished they had been born blinde So as if now thou have less joy thou shalt sin less neither shall any vain objects call away thy thoughts from the serious and sad meditation of spiritual things Before it was no otherwise with thee then the Prophet Jeremich reports it to have been with the Jews That death is come up by the windows So it was with our great Grand-mother Eve she saw the tree was pleasant to the eyes and thereupon took of the fruit So it hath been ever since with all the fruit of her womb both in the old and later world The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they took them wives of all which they chose In so much as not filthy lusts onely but even adulteries take up their lodgings in the eye there the blessed Apostle findes them Having eyes saith he full of adultery and that can not cease from sin Whiles therefore thine heart walked after thine eyes as Job speaks it could do no other but carry thee down to the chambers of death thou art now delivered from that danger of so deadly a misguidance Hath not the loss of thine eyes withal freed thee of a world of sorrows The old word is What the eye views not the heart â—ues not Hadst thou but seen what others were forced to behold those fearful conflagrations those piles of murdered carcases those streams of Christian blood those savage violences those merciless rapines those sacrilegious outrages thine heart could not chuse but bleed within thee Now thou art affected with them onely aloof off as receiving them by the imperfect intelligence of thine ear from the unfeeling relation of others §. 6. The cheerfulness of some blind men Thine eies are lost what need thy heart to goe with them I have known a blinde man more chearfull then I could be with both mine eies Old Isaac was dark-sighted when he gave the blessing contrary to his own intentions to his sonne Jacob yet it seems he lived fourty yeers after and could be pleased then to have good chear made him with wine and vâ—nison our life doth not lye in our eyes The Spirit of man is that which upholds his infirmities Labour to raise that to a chearfull disposition even in thy bodily darknesse there shall bee light and joy to thy soul. §. 7. The supply which God gives in other faculties Hath God taken away thine eyes But hath he not given thee an abundant supply in other faculties Are not thine inward senses the more quick thy memory stronger thy phantasie more active thy understanding more apprehensive The wonders that we have heard and read of blinde mens memories were not easie to beleeve if it were not obvious to conceive that the removall of all distractions gives them an opportunity both of a carefull reposition of all desired objects and of a sure fixednesse of them where they are laid Hence have we seen it come to passe that some blinde men have attained to those perfections which their eies could never have feoffed them in It is very memorable that our Ecclesiasticall Story reports of Didymus of Alexandria who being blinde from his infancy through his prayers diligent indeavours reacht unto such an high pitch of knowledge in Logick Geometry Arithmetick Astronomy as was admired by the learned Masters of those Arts and for his rare insight into Divinity was by great Athanasius approved to be the Doctor of the Chaire in that famous Church What need we doubt of this truth when our own times have so cleerly seconded it having yeelded divers worthy Divines Gods Seers bereaved of bodily eyes amongst the rest there was one in my time very eminent in the University of Cambridge whom I had occasion to dispute with for his degree of great skill both in Tongues and Arts and of singular acutenesse of judgement It is somewhat strange that Suidas reports of Neoclldes that being a blinde man he could steal more cunningly then any that had use of eyes Sure I may say boldly of our Fisher that hee was more dextrous in picking the locks of difficult Authors and fetching forth the reasures of their hidden senses then those that had the sharpest eyes about him in so much as it was noted those were singular Proficients which imployed themselves in reading to him If they read Books to him he read Lectures the while to them and still taught more then he learned As for the other outward senses they are commonly more exquisite in the blinde We read of some who have been of so accurate a touch that by their very feeling they could distinguish betwixt black and white And for the eare as our Philosophers observe that sounds are sweeter to the blind then to the sighted so also that they are more curiously judged of by them the vertue of both those senses being now contracted into one But the most perfect recompence of these bodily eyes is in the exaltation of our spirituall so much more enlightned towards the beatisicall
know that Senators take their name from age That therefore which is the weakness of old mens eyes that their visual spirits not uniting till some distance they better discern things further off is the praise and strength of their mental eyes they see either judgements or advantages afar off and accordingly frame their determinations It is observed that old Lutes sound better then new and it was Rehoboam's folly and undoing that he would rather follow the counsel of his green heads that stood before him then of those grave Senators that had stood before his wiser father Not that meer Age is of it self thus rich in wisdom and knowledge but Age well cultured well improved There are old men that do but live or rather have a being upon earth so have stocks and stones as well as they who can give no proof of their many yeers but their gray hairs and infirmities There are those who like to Hermogenes are old men whiles they are boys and children when they are old men These the elder they grow are so much more stupid Time is an ill measure of age which should rather be meted by proficiency by ripeness of judgement by the monuments of our commendable and useful labours If we have thus bestowed our selves our Autumn will shew what our Spring was and the colour of our hair will yeeld us more cause to fear our pride then our dejection §. 6. Age in some is vigorous and well affected We accuse our Age of many weaknesses and indispositions But these imputations must not be universal Many of these are the faults of the person not of the age He said well As all Wine doth not turn sowre with age no more doth every Nature Old Oil is noted to be clearer and hotter in Medicinal use then new There are those who are pettish and crabbed in youth there are contrarily those who are milde gentle sociable in their decayed yeers There are those who are crazie in their prime and there are those who in their wane are vigorous There are those who ere the fulness of their age have lost their memory as Hermogenes Cornivus Antonius Caracalla Georgius Trapezuntiâ—s and Nizolius There are those whose intellectuals have so happily held out that they have been best at the last Plato in his last yeer which was fourscore and one died as it were with his Pen in his hand Isocrates wrote his best Piece at ninety four yeers And it is said of Demosthenes that when death summoned him at an hundred yeers and somewhat more he bemoaned himself that he must now die when he began to get some knowledge And as for spiritual graces and improvements Such as be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God They also shall bring forth more fruit in their age and shall be fat and well liking § 7. The fourth advantage of Age Neer approach to our end But the chief benefit of our Age is our neer approach to our journeys end for the end of all motion is rest which when we have once attained there remains nothing but fruition Now our Age brings us after a weary race within some breathings of our goal for if young men may die old men must A condition which a meer carnal heart bewails and abhors complaining of Nature as niggardly in her dispensations of the shortest time to her noblest creature and envying the Oaks which many generations of men must leave standing and growing No marvel for the worldling thinks himself here at home and looks upon death as a banishment he hath placed his heaven here belowe and can see nothing in his remove but either annihilation or torment But for us Christians who know that whiles we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord and do justly account our selves forraigners our life a pilgrimage heaven our home how can we but rejoyce that after a tedious and painful travel we do now draw neer to the threshold of our Fathers house wherein we know there are many mansions and all glorious I could blush to hear an heathen say If God would offer me the choice of renewing my age and returning to my first childhood I should heartily refuse it for I should be loth after I have passed so much of my race to be called back from the goal to the bars of my first setting out and to hear a Christian whining and puling at the thought of his dissolution Where is our faith of an heaven if having been so long sea-beaten we be loth to think of putting into the safe and blessed harbour of immortality Comforts against the fears and pains of death §. 1. The fear of Death natural THou fearest death Thou wert not a man if thou didst not so The holiest the wisest the strongest that ever were have done no less He is the King of fear and therefore may and must command it Thou mayst hear the man after Gods own heart say The sorrows of death compassed me And again My soul is full of troubles my life draweth nigh to the grave I am counted with them that go down to the pit as a man that hath no strength free among the dead Thou mayst hear good and great Hezekiah upon the message of his death chattering like a Crane or a Swallow and mourning as a Dove Thou fearest as a man I cannot blame thee But thou must overcome thy fear as a Christian which thou shalt do if from the terrible aspect of the messenger thou shalt cast thine eyes upon the gracious and amiable face of the God that sends him Holy David shews the way The snares of death prevented me In my distress I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God he heard my voice out of his Temple and my cry came before him even into his ears Lo he that is our God is the God of salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues of death Make him thy friend and Death shall be no other then advantage It is true as the Wise man saith that God made not Death but that through envie of the devil Death came into the world But it is as true that though God made him not yet he is pleased to employ him as his messenger to summon some souls to judgment to invite others to glory and for these later Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints And what reason hast thou to abominate that which God accounts precious §. 2. Remedy oâ— fear Acquaintance with death Thou art afraid of death Acquaint thy self with him more and thou shalt fear him less Even Bears and Lions which at the first sight afrighted us upon frequent viewing lose their terrour snure thine eyes to the sight of death and that face shall begin not to displease thee Thou must shortly dwell with him for a long time for the days of darkness are many do thou
counsel of the Wise man My son in thy sickness be not negligent but pray unto the Lord and he will make thee whole Art thou soul-sick pray So did holy David The sorrows of hell compassed me about and the snares of death prevented me In my distress I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God Art thou infested with importunate temptations Pray So did S. Paul when the messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him Thrice I besought the Lord that it might depart from me So did David Whiles I suffer thy terrours I am distracted thy fierce wrath goeth over me But unto thee have I cried O Lord and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee Art thou disheartned with the weakness of grace Pray so did David I am feeble and sore broken I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart Lord all my desire is before thee Art thou afflicted with the slanders of evil tongues Pray So did David The mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me they have spoken against me with a lying tongue Hold not thy peace O God of my praise Art thou grieved or affrighted with the Publike Calamities of War Famine Pestilence Pray So good Jehosaphat presseth God with his gracious promise made to Solomen If when evil cometh upon us as the sword judgement or pestilence or famine we stand before this house and in thy presence and cry unto thee in our affliction then thou wilt hear and help and shuts up his zealous supplication with Neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee Art thou afflicted with the loss of friends Pray and have recâ—urse to thy God as Ezekiel when Peletiah the son of Benaiah died Then fell I down upon my face and cried with a loud voice and said Ah Lord God! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel Art thou distressed with Poverty Pray So did David I am poor and needy and my heart is wounded within me I became also a reproach to them when they that looked upon me shaked their heads Help me O Lord my God Oh save me according to thy mercy Art thou imprisoned Pray So did Jonah when he was shut up within the living wals of the Whale I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord so did Asaph Let the sighing of the Prisoner come before thee according to the greatnesse of thy power preserve thou them that are appointed to die Art thou driven from thy Country pray This is the remedy prescribed by Solomon in his supplication to God If thy people be carried away into a Land far off or near yet if they bethink themselves in the Land whither they are carried and turn and pray to thee in the Land of their Captivity If they return to thee with all their hearts and pray towards the Land which thou gavest to their Fore-fathers c. then hear thou from heaven their prayer and their supplication Art thou bereaved of thy bodily senses Make thy addresse to him that said Who hath made mans mouth or who maketh the dumb and the deaf or the seeing or the blind have not I the Lord Cry aloud to him with Bartimeus Lord that I may receive my sight And if thou be hopelesse of thine outward sight yet pray with the Psalmist O Lord open thou mine eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law Art thou afflicted with sterility pray so did Isaac so did Hannah she was in bitternesse of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore and received a gracious answer Art thou troubled and weakned with want of rest pray so did Asaph I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed Thou holdest mine eyes waking I am so troubled that I cannot speak I cryed to God with my voice unto God with my voice and he gave ear unto me Dost thou droop under the grievances of old age pray so did David Oh cast me not off in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength faileth O God thou hast taught me from my youth Now also when I am old and gray-headed O God forsake me not Art thou troubled and dismayed with the feares of death pray so did David My soul is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the grave I am counted with them that goe down into the pit I am as a man that hath no strength Free among the dead thou hast laid me in the lowest pit in darknese in the deeps But unto thee have I cried O Lord and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee Dost thou tremble at the thought of judgement So did the man after Gods own heart My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements Look up with Jeremiah and say to thy Saviour O Lord thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul thou hast redeemed my life O Lord judge thou my cause Lastly art thou afraid of the power malice subtilty of thy spirituall enemies pray so did David Deliver me from mine enemies O my God defend me from them that rise up against me Oh hide me from the secret counsell of the wicked Consider mine enemies for they are many and they hate me with cruell hatred O keep my soul and deliver me So did S. Paul pray that he might be freed from the messenger of Satan whose buffets he felt and was answered with My Grace is sufficient for thee so he sues for all Gods Saints May the God of peace tread down Satan under your feet shortly Shortly what ever evill it be that presseth thy soul have speedy recourse to the throne of Grace pour out thy heart into the eares of the Father of all mercies and God of all comfort and be sure if not of redresse yet of ease We have his word for it that cannot not fail us Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie mee Fashionable suppliants may talk to God but be confident he that can truly pray can never be truly miserable Of our selves we lie open to all evils our rescue is from above aud what entercourse have we with heaven but by our prayers Our prayers are they that can deliver us from dangers avert judgements prevent mischiefs procure blessings that can obtain pardon for our sins furnish us with strength against temptations mitigate the extremity of our sufferings sustain our infirmities raise up our dejectednesse increase our graces abate our corruptions sanctifie all good things to us sweeten the bitternesse of our afflictions open the windows of heaven shut up the bars of death vanquish the powers of hell Pray and be both safe and happy FINIS Gen. 48. 16. a Ps. 32 3 Job 10 1. Job 7. 11