THE OYLE OF GLADNESSE OR Comfort for dejected sinners First preached in the Parish Church of Banbury in certaine Sermons And now published in this present Treatise By WILLIAM WHATELY Minister there LONDON Printed by G M. for George Edwards and are to he sold at his house in Greene-Arbour at the signe of the Angell 1637. To all wearied sinners all happinesse here and hereafter bee granted and this following Treatise be dedicated BEloved in our LORD You know it was one part of Iohn Baptists office Isa 40.4 Luk. 3.5 to fill valleys as was foretold of him Valleys are dejected sinners filling the valleys is comforting of such sinners This Worke is both necessary and difficult For to what purpose is it to beate downe a sinner if he be not raised up againe The demolishing of an old house doth not affoord habitation if a new building be not set up in its roome so neither doth the casting downe of mens high thoughts make them a fit dwelling for God if the faire pallace of spirituall comfort be not also erected in them Our soules are not united to God in hearty love nor subjected to him in sincere obedience by bare terrors nay that bitter anguish which floweth from the sight of sinne and death deserved by sin will rather increase our enmity against God and irritate our rebellious nature if it be not somewhat eased by hope It is the sweetnesse of God the taste whereof affordeth more content in him then any thing could give which would allure us from him that makes the heart to cleave to him and to his waies Worldly businesses are better dispatched after Sunne-rising then at midnight so men doe make best speede in a journey by day-light so doth the journey of a godly conversation and the whole work of righteousnesse goe forward most prosperously when the shining beames of spirituall gladnesse have inlightened the soule as it were a quiet and light morning after a darke and tempestuous night How hard a thing it is to quiet the troubled soule they can best tell that have beene most imployed in it The divell opposeth the successe of that labour with all his might and craft for hee findeth inexperience that the Lord hath none so faithfull and valiant souldiers in all his army as those whom he hath first deepely wounded and after soundly healed Terrors are the sores of the very conscience the tenderest part of the whole soule and therfore are not easily cured Carnall reason the false guide of man-kinde doth alwaies follow sence which in this case doth minister nothing but appearing arguments of never bing comforted and a world of labour it will prove to withdrawe a man from following this guide The truth is none can rebuke these waves and stormes saying to them peace and be still that a great calme may follow but alone our Lord Iesus Christ whom even the windes and the seas do obey Yet the Prophet Isaias telleth us Isa 57.19 that God createth the fruit of the lips to be peace peace Instructions exhortations directions comfortable spee- perswasions of the godly cheefely the Ministers of the Gospell that stand in Christs stead these be the fruit of the lips these are the meanes by which the Lord doth stablish the soules of his servants in assured quietnesse at last I have endeavoured to contribute something to the cheering up of spirituall weepers in this Treatise This I offer to you burdened soules as for others I know how little agreement such foode holdeth with their pallates But before you reade what I have here written and published take with you an advertisement or two The principall hinderances of comfort are unfitnesse for it and aversenesse from it Vnfitnesse springs either from want of sincerity in ones not being ready to see and acknowledge some sinne or sinnes which God would have him see but he hangs backe or else from want of humility in that a man doth not bring his heart to stoope so low to Gods justice as to yeeld himselfe into his hand without murmuring or quarreling Till God have wrought us to his own bent as it were in these two respects there is no hope of cōfort Make haste therfore to let the Lord have his will in these two points Now aversenesse from comfort is a kinde of spirituall pettishnesse or peevishnesse which was sometimes in the Psalmist Psal 77.2 who saith My soule refused comfort which makes men love to strive against their owne peace taking great paines to thrust comfort away from them giving over themselves either still to renew the old or multiply new objections against themselves to study to have something to say against all that may be alledged for them never considering nor observing how true and reasonable the things are which be spoken on their owne behalfe The divell a great wranglex that labours still to darken truths of this kinde and not to cleere them suggesteth these cavils to the minde and the dazelling eye is ready to fixe it selfe upon them as if they were matters of some weight and arguments or answers of good force Be warned to forbeare thus to abuse your wits to your owne hurt Study to be able to defend your selves and to learne how to doe it What madnesse is it to lay ones naked brest open to his enemies weapon Reject not the consolations of God neither let them seeme small unto you Know your selves tyed in conscience as to humble and to purge so likewise to comfort your selves without which the former is done in vaine and the latter cannot be done at all Be willing therefore to receive Gods goodnesse when it is made evident that you have interest thereunto This is all I have to say in this Epistle Now I leave you to the booke it selfe beseeching God to make you reade joy and gladnesse that your broken bones may rejoyce April 20. 1637. and so wilrest a well-wisher to you all WILLIAM WHATELY Perlegi hunc tractatum in quo nihilreperio quò minùs cum utilitate imprimatur THO WEEKES R. P. Episc Lond. Cap. Domest THE OYLE OF GLADNESSE OR Comfort for dejected Sinners 2 SAM 12 24 25. And David comforter Bathsheba his wife and went in unto her and lay with bar and she hare a onne and called his name Salomon and the Lord loved him And he ent by the band of Nathan the Prophet and be called his name Iedidiah because of the Lord. CHAP. I. WHen agood chyrurgion meeteth with a festered sore First hee applyeth corrasives and cleansing things to cate out the dead and proud flesh and to draw away the filth and putrifaction This done he layes healing playsters to perfect the cure So did the Lord proceed with David his wounds did stink and were putrified as himselfe speakes in the Psalme The Lord had used reproofe by Nathans mouth and correction by his own hand These sharper medicines had wrought excellent well upon him and brought him to a serious confession and
proveth saying Blessed is the man whose sinnes are covered whose iniquity is pardoned and to whom the Lord imputeth no sinne And againe having said Psal 51.8 Make mee to heare joy and gladnesse that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce hee adds immediately Hide thy face from my sinnes ver 9. The same our Saviour declareth plainly saying to the poore Palsy-man Sonne bee of good comfort thy sinnes be forgiven thee Mat. 9.2 and to that sorrowfull weeping woman in the Gospell who made her eyes as it were a yewre to wash his feet Daughter thy sinnes are forgiven There is nothing suffcient to beare up true comfort but a true and well grounded assurance of this unspeakeable goodnesse of God which is the foundation of all other benefits And as any mans soule hath a more solid and stedfast and well built perswasion of this mercy so is he the more comfortable at least more capeable of comfort as hee hath lesse firme or lesse true know-ledge of this so is hee lesse fit and able to receive consolation So then this conclusion must be written in the heart God hath pardoned my sinnes and received me gratiously in Christ afore it can bee duely comforted and so you see the ground of the comfort we seeke for § 7. Thirdly I will shew you by what degrees this comfort groweth in the heart usually When a mans sinnes lie most heavie upon his soule and that the law like a sword hath ripped up and launced his very heart that it runs and bleeds againe then he heareth the doctrine of the Gospell teaching remission of sins by Iesus Christ and doth assent to the truth of it as that it is an undoubted verity and then strives to apply it to himselfe and hath a secret perswasion that it shall be performed even to himselfe now this perswasion groweth up in three degrees First the promise makes him thinke with himselfe Assuredly my sinnes may be pardoned The righteousnesse of Christ is sufficient to justifie me and God can accept and forgive me This makes him runne crying and praying to God for pardon and affoords a little glimmering of comfort as when a sick man knowes his disease to be curable and that the Physitian can cure him this is one graine of faith Secondly having continued to pray to God for aspace he then conceiveth a little stronger hope and saith in himselfe I hope God will pardon me which makes him yet more warme in in his suit and bringeth a little more consolation this is an other graine of faith Lastly he begins to conclude God hath pardoned me at first making this conclusion fearefully not without admixture of many doubts which he resisteth and laboureth to reject and at length with more strength and lesse doubting till he attaine a very full assurance that scarce findeth any wavering and then hath his soule a strong consolation even a full weight of comfort Thus I have shewed you the third thing I intended that no man may bee discomforted utterly because he is not at first able perfectly to comfort himselfe as sometimes good people are thinking that they have no faith because they have not the highest degree thereof CHAP. V. § 1. NOw in the fourth place I will tell you by what meanes you must strengthen your faith that it may affoord you large and strong consolation for though no labour of man without the power of Gods Spirit can worke this comfort yet doth the Spirit of God beget it by meanes of such holy labours and endeavours as himselfe incites us to These meanes are chiefly foure Meditation Prayer Conference and a due information of judgement concerning this matter of remission of sins The first then is Meditation and that principally of foure things 1. Of the perfect merits of Iesus Christ 2. Of the infinite mercies of God 3. Of the large and unlimited promises of the Word 4. Of Gods gratiousnesse to other sinners out of all which sound consolation may be taken by the most broken heart that is or can be § 2. The first thing then to be seriously pondered upon is the perfection of Christs merits for upon this foundation doth comfort most depend For our selves it matters not what we have deserved or can deserve for it must be confessed that our deserts extend to nothing but ruine and destruction But our Lord and surety Iesus Christ hath made a full and perfect satisfaction to the justice of God and deserved full and perfect remission of sinnes for all that seeke unto him For of him the Scripture beareth witnesse Mat. 3. ult That in him God is well pleased and that by him all that beleeve Act. 13.38 39. are justified from all things from which they could not bee justified by the law of Moses And him hath God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his bloud Rom. 3.25 Hee hath redeemed us from the curse of the law Gal. 3 1 being made a curse for us 1 Cor. 1.30 Also He is our Wisedome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption And in Him wee have redemption through his bloud Ephes 1.7 the forgivenesse of sinnes And He hath taken away the sinnes of the world Joh. 1.29 And His bloud cleanseth us from all sinne 1 Ioh 1 7 And He is able to the uttermost Heb. 7.25 to save those that come unto God by him All these places doe testifie the fullnesse and absolute perfection of his righteousnesse and satisfaction that as by the sinne of one man the first Adam many have beene made sinners so by the righteousnesse of one man the second Adam Rom. 5.9 many be made righteous Now as it is in the case of a debtor and of his surety so it is betwixt God and us in this matter Though the debtor being a meere banquerupt cannot possibly discharge his owne debt yet if his surety have already made payment of all his debts or fully discharged them he is safe enough from danger So though we be utterly destitute of all ability to satisfie for our sinnes and to deserve pardon of them yet if our surety Iesus Christ have fully satisfied for them as he hath there is hope enough of our being pardoned For our Lord Iesus Christ was both God and man a person infinitely more excellent then all men and therefore his sufferings and obedience are of such infinite worth and valew that by him the wrath of God is fully appeased towards us For it was a great demonstration of Gods justice to punish him his onely begotten Sonne for our sinnes in such sort as he did as if he had punished us to all eternity Suppose divers debtors one owing 10000 lb. another 5000 another 1000 another 100 lb. some more some lesse but each one more then his substance could possibly satisfie yet if some able person had laid downe divers Iewels of farre greater valew then all their debts did amount unto then were their debts sufficiently answered
terrors drive thee from God or to God If from God let them do so no more and thou shalt have comfort if to God do so still and that will prove thy state good § 3. And so are those objections answered that arise from feelings Now the last sort spring from Satans temptations O J am laden and filled with temptations to despaire to hurt my selfe to blaspheme God to deny God and his Word and other most execrable things and J have long continued in this estate J answer Hast thou not sins of thine owne to answer for but that thou wilt also charge thy selfe with the divels sinnes understand therefore that this temptation is grounded upon a meere false position that hee who is pursued and molested with hellish temptations is not Gods child nor hath his sinnes pardoned And know that if Satan cast in the most vile temptations for hee can cast in temptations as it is said he put it into the heart of Iud. is to betray Christ so long as those temptations be rejected abhorred they be not the mans sins but his trialls and afflictions onely For tell me was not Christ forty daies in the wildernesse tempted of the divell Doubtlesse in all that space hee pursued him with all the most noysome temptations hee could invent we read indeed of three alone but we may be well assured that they were above 3000. even numberlesse It may seeme that those three are recorded because they were most crafty and subtill when the divell had spent all his skill paines before to no purpose he proceedeth to these as his last maine assaults for the two former were so subtilly conveighed that a man can scarce see that Christ had sinned if hee had yeelded to them for might not hee as well make bread of stones as wine of water and leape from the temple as walk on the sea But to worke a miracle at the divels suggestion either out of doubting because hee spake against him or of presuming because hee spake for him this had beene a fault in Christ And for the last it came so suddenly and violently that it would have even carried a man away before he was aware to give but one bow for such a reward Now sure if Christ might be thus tempted forty daies then any Christiā maybe likewise tempted as many moneths as many yeers Tell me therefore dost thou not oppose those temptations by the word of God and when thou canst too by prayers at least by secret groanes inward sighs Are they not most bitter to thy soule even more untastfull then gaule wormewood and wouldst thou not rather then any thing be rid of them Canst thou then bee so ill conceited of God as to feare that he will impute them to thee know that they be only thy miseries not thy sins and this will be a good meanes to rid thee of them For tell me hadst thou a child which some wicked fellow should locke into a roome that he could not get out and there should tell thy child thy father is a rascall a villaine a knave a theefe a miscreant curse him wish him hanged wish him damned cut his throat and the like but the childs heart and haire riseth at the hearing of these words he abhors them him that utters them and would if hee could cut out his tongue that useth them What now wouldst thou thinke of this child specially if thy selfe shouldst have put them both together meerely to trie how thy child would behave himselfe in such a case or for some other like purpose Surely thou wouldst not love thy child one jot the worse nay rather much more for this triall Now doe but conceive that God is as just mercifull as thy selfe wouldest be for this is thy case directly and none other or think that some filthy fellow had surprized thy wife in a roome by her selfe and there should solicite her with shamefull words gestures which shee did repell with disdaine crying out to thy selfe that wast within hearing to come and helpe her wouldest thou account thy wife lesse honest for this and not rather commend her honesty the more for this Even so it is betwixt thy selfe and Satan and therefore such and none other shall the Lords sentence bee of thee § 4. Yea but I have yeelded to some of these vile thoughts I have yeelded to them and how then shall I do I answer the multitude and violence of them did sometimes so tire thee and put thee out of breath and strength as it were that thou couldest not give a loud and earnest but alone a faint and whispering nay hereupon Satan hath made thee beleeve that thou didst yeeld but know that it is one thing to yeeld to a temptation an other thing to bee over-wearied and tyred with it that a man is not able to make such sensible resistance as he did once If a strong and sturdy fellow full of lewd desires meeting with an honest but weak woman should so long wrestle with her till she were quite out of breath and could scarce speake or stirre any longer and in that her wearinesse should use some unfit gesture to her were shee the lesse chast wife for that in the censure even of the most jealous husband So then that that thou callest yeelding was not yeelding but an inability through faintnesse to make resistance § 5. But say thou had styeelded to som evil even most loath some for a little time being over-tired with resisting Hast thou not now recalled recanted thine yeelding dost not thou now abhor thy selfe for yeelding crave pardon of it and resolve never to do it nor yeeld to it hereafter any more Sure if some varlet should by much importunity intice thy servant to let him into thine house that he might rob thee or do thee hurt and after many repulses at last should bee so overlaide by importunity that he should consent promise to do it but so soone as ever the fellow was gone should abhorre it and refuse to put it in practise and with teares in his eyes come tell thee what had passed craving pardon wouldst thou not forgive him wouldst thou cast him out of thine house There have been Princes so mercifull that when some have beene inveigled to conspire their death but after have repented of their own accord revealing the conspiracy have submitted to their mercy could and did shew them mercy and will not God bee more mercifull then ever man was or can be Bee not therefore disheartned because of thy long temptations and sometimes sodaine yeeldances This the Lord can and will passe by and much more then this § 6. So have I answered the chiefest of those temptations and objections which I could meete with that are used to hinder the Saints from comfort in perswasion of the remission of their sins It is your part that would be comforted to continue meditating praying conferring labouring to informe your judgement aright in these things which in doing you shall not loose your labour He that shall come will come and will not tarry The night shall passe and the day shll arise If any say J have long waited for comfort and finde it not I answer so did David as J said above but resolve to waite still on Christ and to continue striving for comfort though you perceive Little good effect for the time for the more slowly it commeth to you at the first the more fully it shall abound in you at thelast If faith cannot comfort you let hope If you cannot say God hath pardoned me yet say J hope he will and so sustaine your selves And that hope which purgeth your hearts driveth you to prayer sets you at defiance with all sinne and makes you esteeme highly of Christ that will support you and bring grounded and plentifull comfort in the end Those of you brethren therefore that have throwne themselves downe pulled down their proud hearts and tumbled their faces in the dust before the Lord Irequire them to yeeld unto God the glory of his mercy and to Christ the glory of his merits and to goe away comforted at least resolute to labour for comfort with assurance that they shall have it for hee that said will performe it Blessed bee they that mourne for they shall bee comforted FINIS