sacrifices of joy I will sing yea I will sing praises unto the Lord. Did we ever hope to see the Light of God again Did we ever hope to think of Heaven as our own portion and of Christ as our own Saviour Did we ever hope that we should be thus at ease and thus joyful as we now are God is our helper God is our refuge and our strong hold and blessed be the name of the Lord. 5. Let us call upon our Brethren and our Friends to help us to praise the Lord Psal 145.2 3 8 9 14. as to my self I make these requests Bless the Lord O house of Aaron and Levi Bless him ye Ministers of the Gospel that prayed for me in my trouble and have had your prayers granted Bless the Lord O House of Israel and all ye people every-where that sympathized and also kindly remembred me in my desolate condition Bless him ye Old men that you have got so far towards the haven without being thrown into the waves and so much endangered by the Rocks as I have been Bless him that you have not met with such violent tentations and great sorrows as I have met withal though I set out long after you Bless the Lord ye Young men that you have not been weakned in the way with sore affliction and with the terrors of the Lord which I long groaned under Bless him every one both small and great against whom he does not proceed in such smart and severe Providences and in such long and sharp Afflictions Bless him that you see before your eyes and to help your faith a person lately brought from the borders of the Grave and Hell one for whom you were concerned and for whom you prayed and one that still needs and beg your prayers that he may never come to such a sad and doleful night again It is a common Custom to congratulate our Friends recovery from sickness or when they return from some Foreign Land but nothing does more deserve our common thanks than when a Person is come from under the sense of God's displeasure to a sense of his favour and love again Thus it was with Job ch 42.11 Then came there to him all his brethren and all his sisters and all they that had been of his acquaintance before and did eat bread with him in his house and they bemoaned him and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him And with a design of exciting others to praise God with him is that Psal 66.16 Come and hear all ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my soul Or as the Father of the Prodigal to his obedient Son that repined at the kind usage that he gave to him that was less dutiful upon his returning home Luke 15.32 It was meet that we should make merry and be glad for this thy brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found It is the design of God that the great and eminent Deliverances which he gives to some of his Servants should be taken notice of by all the rest that as they usually bring along with them a common Benefit so he should have a common return of praise Ps 66.8 O bless our God ye people and make the voice of his praise to be heard which holdeth our soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be moved And the joining with others that have been in great distress and are escaped is to answer the Obligation we are under to that Precept To rejoice with them that do rejoice And an encouragement to those who are yet in trouble Ps 130.7 Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him there is plenteous redemption And to those that yet are at ease we may say as Paul to Foelix that we wish they were such as we in some respects that is excepting our bonds our anguish and tribulation that they also had such experiences of the goodness and the mercy of God 6. Let us always wait and hope for that eternal Felicity which will at length dawn upon all his people in the great morning of the Resurrection and at their entrance into Heaven there will be joy indeed There is no night there 't is a place that is continually blest with a bright and shining day It is true as one says that as in nature the nights are not equal those of the Winter are much longer than those of the Summer but how long soever they be they are always followed with the light of day so whatsoever diversity there is among the Afflictions of the faithful to one they are much longer than to another yet they shall have an end as Jacob wrastled all night but in the morning got the victory I confess that Sinners in this World have their pleasures but so beset with thorns so attended with fears and pains so short and so vanishing that they deserve not the name But in Heaven the Sun that rises in the morning of our new Glory will never set again those pleasures are not like those of Sin for a season but for evermore There our now imperfect Joy will be compleat and full It will be satisfying and eternal too We shall feel the love of God in so sweet and transporting a manner that we shall never doubt whether he loves us or not We shall always behold our Father's face he will look on us with delight and we shall look on him with praise and joy This world because of its lowness is subject to Inundations and Miseries and innumerable Vicissitudes of Pain and Grief but that high and glorious World is the place of Triumph and of Victory then we shall see our Sin that made us weep to be it self totally defeated then we shall see that Devil that tempted us to be trod under our feet and never to be able to tempt us any more Let us often remember that saying of our Lord John 16.21 22. A woman when she is in travel hath sorrow because her hour is come but as soon as she is delivered of the Child she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world And ye now therefore have sorrow but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy shall no man take from you Oh! what a glorious morning will that be that shall have no cloud to obscure its light and never be followed with a sad or gloomy night As our sufferings here did abound our Consolations then will much more abound We shall forget all our Labour and all our trouble when we see to what a glorious Kingdom we are born tho it was by pangs and torment our joy ' will be like the joy of Harvest of an Harvest that will requite us well for all our care and toil Our hopes here are like the first streaks of light in the Sky that shew the coming of the day but our possession of blessedness will be as the Sun in the fulness of his Glory That delight will indeed be the Sabbath of our thoughts and the sweet and perpetual calmness of our minds that will never be in horror and anguish any more Precious and admirable are those Tears that end so well and which prepare us for so good a state who would not chuse thus to weep that he may rejoyce for ever Lift up your eyes to the Jerusalem above the City of the Living God ye Mourners and Prisoners of hope for it is the City of Peace Rev. 21.3 4. Behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his People and God himself shall be with them and be their God and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away THE END
Divine Goodness on your behalf that he hath visited you with his own Presence tho he had his way in the whirlwind and in the storm when he came unto you I bless the unsearchable Riches of his Grace in our Lord Jesus Christ that he hath shed abroad any sense of his Love upon your Soul who had poured so much of his displeasure forth that you complain of his Anger in every stroke of the Rod of God upon you I rejoyce abundantly that he hath bowed his ear unto Prayer for you when you thought he had bent his Bow like an Enemy that he hath botled up your Tears when your Roarings were poured forth like the Waters that God hath form'd you into a Vessel of Mercy when you thought he had slung you away as a Vessel wherein is no Pleasure In a word I rejoyce with comfort and enlargements that the Lord hath given us so good hopes through Grace that you are Sealed up unto the Day of Redemption who did once mournfully express it in my own Hearing That you were Sealed up unto the Black Day of Wrath and should not see me until the Heavens were no more No more at present but my Hearty Requests at the Throne of Grace That He who hath been the Author of your Faith may become the finisher of the same and confirm you unto the End till an Abundant Entrance through the Broad Gate of Assurance be administred unto you into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I am SIR Your Affectionate Friend Servant and Brother in the Lord J. HUSSEY LETTER III. Dear Brother AS the tidings of your Distemper affected my Soul and drew out my heart to make request unto God for you so the tidings of your deliverance from trouble confirmed by so evident a demonstration of it as your appearance both in the Pulpit and Press hath much affected me with joy and thankfulness to the Lord. In your Book I read the Wisdom and Goodness of God in his severest dealings with his afflicted Servants and the accomplishing of what Job speaks That when he hath tried them he brings them forth at gold you have not been in the Furnace in vain but to humble and prove you and do you good in the end O how good is God! good in himself good and kind to all his Creatures but especially good to Israel You have had abundant experience of it he hath upheld you when falling and raised you up when you was bowed down and hath turned for you your mourning into dancing hath put off your sackcloth and girded you with gladness that your soul may sing praise unto him and not be silent and you have well done in making so publick an acknowledgement of your thankfulness to God that as deliverance hath been granted at the request of many so by the many who have been concerned for you thanks may be given unto the Lord on your behalf I am persuaded the Lord hath taught you the truth of that viz. That the School of the Cross is the School of Light You had not known so well either your own vanity or the Vanity of the Creature and of all humane help nor the marvellous loving-kindness of the Lord in stepping in betwixt the Bridge and the Water many times for your help had you not learned these things by being in the School of Affliction and I am encouraged to believe that the Lord hath reserved you and restored you that you may be through his Grace greatly instrumental for the glory of his Name in turning many to righteousness the most eminent Servants in the Lord's work have been prepared for it by manifold temptations our Blessed Redeemer himself was tempted that he might be able to succour those who are tempted and the Lord comforts his Servants in all their tribulations that they might comfort others with the same comfort wherewith they have been comforted of God the Lord hath brought you out of the depths of distress that you may be the more skilful Pilot to lead others through the Waves and Billows which they are afraid will swallow them up Now Dear Brother What doth the Lord require of you but what Paul sets before young Timothy 1 Tim. 4.12 Be you an example to Believers in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith in purity your sound speech holy converse servent love and spiritual mindedness rightly improving spiritual Gifts both in sincere professing and publishing of the truth and unspotted purity of life will be a speaking Rule to others and so adorn both your Person and Profession that it will appear you have been with Jesus and that the Life of Christ doth shine forth in you And that you may be long a shining and burning Light in this World and at last be abundantly recompenced with the Reward promised to the Wise and Faithful is the fervent desire and prayer of Your Vnworthy but Affectionate Brother in the service of the Gospel RALPH WARD York Nov. 6. 1690. LETTER IV. From Steeple in Dorsetshire May 1. 1691. My Dear Friend I Did hope when I was last in London to have had the satisfaction of a free and large Conversation with your self and to have discours'd some particular matters with you but I was unhappily defeated I am now at too great a distance to use so much freedom with you as some of my Circumstances would prompt me to if I were placed so near you as would admit of my waiting on you personally But tho I do not think it proper to desire satisfaction from you by Letter about some things which would be of great use to my self and about which I believe you can better resolve me than other of my Acquaintance yet if it be consistent with your conveniences I would be glad that you and I might maintain a correspondence sometimes by writing I heartily bless God for his gracious dealings with you and for the good I hope he hath done me by what you have published to the World I have found my self obliged frequently to peruse your Book and the oftner I do read it the more I am affected with it I heartily wish English People might become so sensible of their great concernment that you might have encouragement to publish what you intimate in your Preface you did design It is what I earnestly long to see and what I am persuaded would be of singular use if people were a little awakened out of their Lethargick Distemper Peradventure God will use it to rouze and awaken many who otherwise will sleep on and continue in their doleful regardlesness and formality It would greatly rejoice me to understand by a line or two from you that I have some ground to hope to see that Tract in Print The Lord preserve his faithful Messengers and arm them against Discouragements Remember Eccles 11.1 6. I am Your Affectionate Friend SA BOLD LETTER V. Dear Mr. Rogers SIR I thank you for your Discourses on
measure of Peace which God hath given you expect not more than you ought but patiently wait in holy walking and dependance upon God till he inlarge you with Joy and Peace in believing 't is a mercy that he allows us peaceable encouraging hopes all must not expect to be treated in his Banquetting-house with his Banner of Love over them 8. Live watchfully Lament daily sailings and so make up Peace with God daily expect it best you will have cause of complaint against your self but still consider God's merciful Promise to Pardon and that for common infirmities he will not be severe nor should we affright our selves with them consider these few things and endeavour to settle your mind upon them God that hath brought you up out of the horrible Pit will I hope preserve you from the like distress I am glad to hear your Brother is grown better in time he may be capable to do Service which I earnestly desire and shall pray for I am Newcastle Jan. 28. 89. Your assured Friend RICH. GILPIN LETTER V. Written to another Relation of the Author 's by an Old and Experiencad Christian My dear Friend I Would not have difference in Opinion or alterations in worldly Conditions to breed a distance between us The Lord pardon us for we are apt to grow cold in love And O that the ancient Spirit of Love among Christians might be revived which would more honour Christ than all our Conformity or Non-conformity For the Kingdom of Christ and the glory of Christianity lies not in Forms and Opinions but in Power and Holiness and Righteousness and Joy of the Holy Ghost and love to one another I have been under deep Melancholly and many Temptations and Buffetings of Satan and many have passed by me as the Levite did the wounded Man in the way to Jericho and have not only withdrawn from me but censured me also I hope I shall love and pardon all those who in the hour of temptation withdrew from me and stood afar off because of my sorrow nay those who added affliction to my affliction It were a shame for me to complain of any unkindness of my Friends when Christ hath been so kind to me he helped succoured me stood by me when all forsook me I looked on my right hand and on my left hand and there was none that cared for my Soul even then did the Lord appear a present help else the great waters of Unbelief and Despair had overwhelmed me for I have had greater Conflicts with Satan greater shakings of Spirit than I had at my first Conversion I have been ready to give up all for lost yet all hath been in order to clearer manifestations of Everlasting Love Christ hath carried me through several Graves several Chambers of Darkness and Fields of Temptation yet all in order to light and triumph and greater discoveries of his Power Wisdom Faithfulness Love to me I have exceedingly put Christ to it as much as ever any I would not believe unless I might put my Finger in his Wounds unless I had such and such clear manifestations and sealings given him O this unbelieving and proud temper of spirit hath cost me very dear though Christ hath wonderfully indulged me I have put him to take strange courses with me nay to throw me with Jonas into the Belly of the Whale and of Hell it self that he might further convince me of my disobedience and unbelief and of his mighty glorious power in preserving and delivering me out of the gulph of Temptations He hath shewed many Miracles of mercy and grace towards me too big for me to express Heaven only is fit sufficiently to declare those wonderful dealings of his If ever any was a pattern of rich grace I am You never so grieved and wounded and tempted Christ as I have done and therefore never was cast into those Hells scorched in those Fires scourged with those Rods exercised with those Temptations that I have been exercised with I cannot tell what God hath been doing to me As the Heavens are high above the Earth so are his thoughts above all my thoughts or words Sure I am I should have been in Hell and in Chains of darkness if I had had my desert But God hath stretched out his Arm of power and love and fetched me up out of the lowest Pit where I was sunk and displayed the banners of his Love over me and opened his heart and shewed me his Blood That thus he should deal with me the very worst piece of old Adam nay a piece of Hell Angels and Men may stand amazed at so great and so unexpected were the manifestations of his Love But what shall I say It is Christ it is Christ an Infinite Person 't is impossible for any other Men or Angels all put together to contain such his Love such strange Love to such an unworthy Wretch I write and speak what I do not fully comprehend If I did fully know it Mortality could not bear it it would immediately be swallowed up and sink under the weight of Infinite Love Ah but dear Friend I am not yet out of Gunshot I see a great Field of Enemies before me a Devil full of Policy and Malice a desperate wicked World a Heart in which is a World of evil nay an Hell of Wickedness all these I have to grapple with each of them stands armed with thousands of Temptations I must fight and overcome too else undone for ever I confess it is a good Fight a glorious Fight because I have such a good Captain but often I am sorely put to it when I take a view of my Enemies I think I shall never be able to stand against such Principalities and Powers The Enemy hath too dangerous Correspondence within me Spiritual Pride and Security Lord keep me humble and watchful and eying the Enemy and also eying my Captain Living out of my self and fighting in his strength and then my Soul shall tread down Strength daily and triumph always in Christ and in the power of his might I hear the Lord is pleased to keep you under the Rod and to exercise you with the Infirmities of a dying body as he doth me He hath worn as I may say his Rods upon me as a stubborn Child He hath tried his Axes and Hammers and Saws upon me you cannot imagine what a Rock I am under all his stroaks I hope Afflictions work more kindly with you than they do with me and that you are found better metal in the fire than I am I hear you are under Melancholly as well as I though not in so great a degree Satan can make use of it to raise strange storms and tempests and confusions and darknesses in the Soul as I have found by experience though Christ turned all to good Such Melancholly Persons had need be pitied and tendred Men usually do not pity them Christ will I could tell you many experiences of a Melancholly Condition but
Decree There are many people whom we are angry with and reprove whom notwithstanding we do in the mean time most sincerely love and Christ has told us Rev. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten 4. The Anger of God is but for a moment because he delights in Mercy Psalm 103.8 The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy He will not always chide neither will he keep his anger for ever It is long before he punishes and 't is with haste that he comes to our help when we repent and many times before In the midst of Wrath he remembers Mercy he does not always inflict what we have deserved but considers what is most proper for him to lay upon us and what we are able to bear and therefore he gives to us some mitigations with our most bitter Cup. He is called the Father of Mercies and the God of all Comfort and tho Punishment does proceed from him as well as Tenderness and Affection yet he is no where called the Father of Judgments Mercy ariseth from his own Nature and he delighteth in it Micah 7.18 He retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy His wrath is said to be reserv'd in Golden Viols Rev. 15.7 i. e. it doth not flow forth all at once but by degrees but his Mercy is compared to a River and a flowing Stream Isaiah 66.12 to the Oyl of gladness to the smell of Myrrh Aloes and Cassia It is a Glory to this God to relieve the miserable and to help his Servants when all their power and might is gone and he ends the Controversy with them when there is cause enough on their side that he should pursue the Quarrel further When he leads us into a Wilderness yet he provides some Water some refreshment for us there It is one of the great Wonders of his Providence that he supports those poor Souls that have no light of Evidence no sense of his Love no hope nothing but the fears of Wrath and Desolation and yet the matter of Fact and our own Experience plainly tells us that so it is his everlasting Arms are underneath and his Power does maintain our Life when we say that he has forgotten to be gracious He bottles our Tears when we weep and hears our Groans when we lament and proportions the Troubles that he sends that they shall not be too long nor too violent Jer. 30.11 I will not make a full end of thee I will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether unpunished And those Afflictions which his People suffer are not in all respects proper Punishments because his Anger is mixed with mildness and mitigated by the Intercessions of a Mediator Lam. 3.31 32. The Lord will not cast off for ever but tho he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his tender mercies 5. That his Anger is but for a moment is for his own Name sake His Nature is most inclinable to do us good therefore the Prophets to those Idolaters mentioned in 1 Kings 18.24 says The God that answers by sire let him be God and he chose that Element above the rest to signify how soon we shall have Mercy it comes as upon the wings of the Wind it is as swift as the rays of Light Hosca 11.9 I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim for I am God and not man A Man when he is greatly provoked by his Enemy is not satisfied with having once made him feel his Anger but carries on his Revenge to further degrees and only ceases the pursuit with the Death of him that he first assaulted But the Great God tho he is able to Conquer those that oppose him with a total Defeat and Ruin yet he suffers them to breathe and live that they may Repent and that he may cause his Goodness to shine with a greater Brightness to the World He could follow them with one Blow after another with a Succession of new and greater Miseries but he restrains his Anger for his own sâ—ke And it maybe a great Consolation to poor afflicted People to consider that they have to deal with God and not with Men when they have sinn'd they have not to deal with Men that are full of Rage and Cruelty but with a God that is gracious and full of Mercy not with Men that may Caress them to day and Hate them to morrow but with a God that is unchangeable and even when they are in the Fire or in the Water his Love is still to them the very same Men think it a dishonour to spare their interiors if they do not by the lowest Submissions testify their Sorrow for their Crimes but the Great God is so far above all his Creatures that he may when he will think them below his Indignation and magnify his Goodness in sparing and forgiving them when they most deserve to dye Isaiah 4.8 9. For my names sake will I defer mine anger and for my praise will I refrain for thee that I cut thee not off 'T is his Power that moderates his Anger Those Persons that have the least strength either of Reason or of Courage are the most passionate and inclinable to Revenge In Punishments he shews his Dominion over his Creatures but his Power over himself when he forgives great Injuries and is slow to punish great Affronts and his Power in those Acts of Grace is very great and illustrious He is God and not Man there is more Compassion and more real Pity in him than in the most compassionate or tender hearted Man that we ever knew He is God and not Man he whom we have offended and who can destroy us begins first to treat about a Reconciliation with us This is not the manner and way of Men who think that those who have offended them are to make the first advances towards a repairing of the Breach There is no Attribute in the displaying of which the Great God glories so much as in this of Mercy and 't is by this that he would be known Exod. 34.6 7. 6. That his Anger is but for a moment is because he would make a difference between the righteous and the wicked The Afflictions that he sends upon the Righteous are to prepare them for Heaven and Glory But those Scourges that he uses to the Wicked and Impenitent are but the beginning of their Sorrows the flashes of those Flames that will consume them for ever The distresses of the Righteous are short and so are the Prosperities of the Wicked The Righteous are weeping here but they shall rejoyce hereafter The Wicked have now their Heaven such as it is and hereafter they go to an Eternal Hell and there must they weep and wail when the Good and Holy shall have all their Tears wiped away The one shall find him to be a loving Father and to have been
more bitter and more violent and drawn out to a more formidable length but now because it is not so he hath visited in his anger yet he knoweth it not in great extremity Job 35.15 He has not stirr'd up all his wrath nor amaz'd us with all the Thunder of his Power let us not be like the Israelites Psal 106.7 who provoked him and remembred not the multitude of his Mercies 4. Consider that he uses no other methods with you when he is angry with you than what he has us'd with his dearest servants heretofore and this may tend to compose your Spirits under long and sore Tryals are you better than Moses than Job than Heman than David and Asaph and many other excellent and holy Men with whom he was displeased and who felt his Wrath though it was but for a moment Are we more dutiful and obedient than they were do we not merit the Chastisements of our Heavenly Father as much as they did yea and much more If we have the spirit and the priviledge of Children we ought not to murmur though we have our share in the discipline of the Family Would we have the Course of Providence inverted and changed for us Can we imagine that we shall be always spared when so many great Saints have smarted under the displeasure of God for their sin We are apt to think there is no sorrow like to our sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted us Lam. 1.12 but we do not wisely inquire in this matter for if we trace the steps of holy men of old we shall find that innumerable and very grievous Calamities were their portion as well as ours We have heard of the distresses and of the patience of Job of the pains of his Body and of the troubles of his Soul and when either our Bodies or our Souls are more afflicted than his was then it will be soon enough for us to begin to murmur and if we do it not till then we shall be as remarkable for our patience as he was Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing hapned to you 1 Pet. 4.12 1 Pet. 5.9 All these things are accomplished in your brethren which are in the world and this is duly to be thought upon for there is nothing of which Satan makes a greater use to perplex us in our hour of temptation than of the length and the sharpness of our trials as if therefore God were our Enemy because he does afflict or that we are no Children because we are afflicted so very long thus will the Evil Spirit suggest and say If thou wert a friend of God who is so compassionate and so flow to wrath would he follow thee with breach upon breach with one stroak after another and let his hand be heavy upon thee day and night He supports comforts and refreshes all his Servants but thou hast no refreshment nothing but anguish and vexation therefore thou art none of his but by Faith we must quench this fiery Dart and know that the fruit of our affliction may be very sweet though for the present 't is very bitter and that we are under the Conduct of that Wisdom which can order even this Cross for good and whatever mists that envious Spirit may raise before our eyes let us still remember that his anger is but for a moment that others whom we are sure he lov'd have undergone the like troubles and his own dear Son was still a Son when a man of sorrows and that his Afflictions were of a great length from the Manger to the Cross And if God will have us to be so far conformable to this blessed Person so that we have no rest from trial till we are quiet in the Grave we should not distrust his goodness nor murmur as it 5. Let us compare our present Sufferings and Afflictions with that Happiness which is to come His Anger is but for a moment but his love will be for ever He frowns for a moment but he will shew them his pleased Face for ever He corrects them and they weep for a moment but he will embrace them and they shall rejoice for ever Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning And do we not find our hearts begin to spring within us when we consider that we are in pain for a moment but we shall be at case for ever Is not this good news to those that fear God and yet are afflicted Lift up your heads ye Mourners ye Prisoners of hope 't is but for a little season Let not your hearts faint I know you will say Oh I could bear any thing but the wrath of God he is angry with my Soul he denies an answer to my Prayers he speaks not to me one comfortable word I look up to his Heavens and they are as Brass I run to his Ordinances and hear his Word in the Assemblies of his People but whilst others are wet with the dew of Heaven I remain dry and neglected as I was I seem to be as the mountains of Gilboa there is no dew nor rain falls upon me I seem to be under the Curse of God and because I have formerly not improv'd the means of Grace he seems to say of me as of the barren Figtree never let fruit grow upon thee more and can you tell me whither I shall go and what I shall do in such a case as this You must still in humble submission wait upon the Lord he stays from your present help upon a very gracious Design He bottles your tears and is acquainted with your griefs and that anger that now bows you to the ground shall in a little while be removed and your faith and your hope will not be in vain There are thousands of Joys prepared to meet you when you are a little more purified and prepared for them Isa 54. 7,8 For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will I gather thee In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer Nothing can be less than a moment 't is the least part of time and yet so small a thing as that is are all our troubles here to that endless Eternity which is to come So if your outward afflictions and your spiritual fears should last for Life as none can give you assurance to the contrary yet all this Life is but as a moment as nothing to that state of Blessedness that comes afterward Nor are the degrees of your sorrows here proportionable to the degrees of your approaching glory For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 This great Apostle calls his afflictions very light and yet there was never any that suffered more troubles from the malice of the world
Sense will tell us that our Troubles are tedious and very long but our Faith will rectify our Judgment and shew us that tho' we have been in heaviness yet it is but for a season our Sense makes us think our night of weeping very long but Faith sets the morning before our eyes And indeed when that comes the time of sorrow will appear to have been very short our Weeping will bear no proportion with our Joy nor our Groans with our Hallelujahs The luster of our Crown and the glories of our Triumph will make us to forget the Blood and Sweat and Labour of the Combat tho' whil'st here below we thought it hard Faith will wipe away our Tears and cause us to take a further prospect and to see where they now are that were mourners once as well as we Job is no more wondred at upon a Dunghil by his Friends but shining with glory in the Highest Heaven Heman is no more distracted with terrors but infinitely pleased with the sight and enjoyment of his God There is Asaph also singing praises to him tho' he thought and was afraid that his Mercies were clean gone and that he would be favourable no more Faith will solace your drooping spirits by causing you frequently to remember that tho' God is angry yet it is but for a moment and that tho' you have now four Grapes yet they are only to prepare you for a better relish of the Joys above it is this that sets our feet upon a Rock and produces in our fainting Souls a secret support and hope that tho' it be night with us for the present yet that it will not always be so Rev. 3.21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my father on his throne The dangers and distresses on the way will make us better to like our home All the years of our Life tho' spent in sore afflictions and anxieties will be but a very little space when we are Landed at our haven of Joy and Immortality CHAP. IX Of the direct Acts of Faith as the most suitable to a distressed Soul as also of waiting upon God With several considerations to enforce it And that a Person in great Affliction ought to hope that it may be better with him THird General Look forward to Jesus Christ when you find things perplex'd and troubled in your own souls and indeed in the direct Acts of Faith we have nobler objects to converse withal than when we look and pore upon our guilty selves when we look into our troubled hearts we can see nothing besides confusion and disorder there but we may at the same time discern an alsufficient fulness in God and Christ to relieve our wants It is a long and a tedious work to consider by the several steps by which we are to proceed in such a Case whether we have believed or not our Duty is at this very instant to believe i. e. under a penitent sense of what we have done amiss to look unto Christ for help We must carefully distinguish between Justification and Sanctification between those habits and those holy actions that are the effects of Faith and Faith it self Our Sanctification is full of imperfection but that Righteousness of Christ wherein alone we are to trust for acceptance with God is compleat and perfect These are things to be considered by people under spiritual distress but if you be under the disease of Melancholly to any great degree I am sensible that neither this nor any other direction will be altogether available It is such a stubborn and obstinate disease that it is not to be overcome by rational methods and perswasion no more than a broken Bone can be set again by words and talk 'T is only God that is fully acquainted with the Nature and Violence of this worst of Distempers 't is his Power and his Grace alone that can chase it away and all those things that depend upon consideration and that may succeed in other Cases have not the same tendency to good in this because it is our disease always to pore and think and it is our misery that we cannot think to any purpose I beseech you to remember that the foundation of all our Peace and Comfort is Christ alone and Faith in him Mortification Self-denial and other Graces are the superstructure that is laid upon it but truly all that we can do in great and deep affliction and sore distresses of Soul is only to look up to Christ as a poor wounded bleeding Man does look and cry to one that passes on the Road for help and our Saviour and our Physician is so compassionate that he will regard us tho' we are able to say little more than this Have mercy on us thou son of David Under the prospect of our great infirmities and of the manifold imperfections of our Duties and under the sense of our own nothingness and unworthiness let us humbly betake our selves to Christ he will not disdain nor slight our approaches to him nor leave them unattended with some manifestations of reviving Grace and Mercy IV. When you have done all this you must wait till the Lord appear to your relief and help Psal 123.2 Behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hands of their masters and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hands of her mistress so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that he have mercy upon us Tho' his stroaks be very smart yet we are sure that we have deserved them tho' his delays of help be tedious yet we have merited at his hands a much longer delay We are as so many poor Slaves indeed under the bondage of our fears and our troubles but alas we have brought our selves to that slavery and we must look unto God till he set us free again and tho' our Master be angry with us yet he is a Master still and that relation that we have to him that Interest which we have in his Covenant may be somewhat supporting and comfortable to us 't is a more easie thing to bear any trouble that continues for a Week or for a Month and then passes away but this will be the tryal of our Faith if we can maintain our dependance and trust in God when he afflicts us very sore for many Months or Years together If we see no sign of help no prospect of deliverance we are still to wait till the time even the set time to favour us be come and this must be done with patience with a silent and a quiet resignation to his Will it is the product of a calm and a quiet Soul that is satisfied in the Justice of Providence tho' it be severe only with this limitation that you have the freedom and the command of your natural spirits for if they be put into a hurry and confusion by a disease then indeed you can
the thoughts of life are frightful because t is with anguish and horror that we live nor can we bear the thoughts of death because we dare not die Seventhly 'T is a night of weeping to deserted souls because they find no heart to pray and no life in prayer they fall upon their knees and cover the Altar of the Lord with tears but he seems not to regard them they beg and he gives them no relief they cry and he does not answer and this fills them with shame and grief Lam. 3.7 8. the thoughts of such poor people are in a continual hurry and so are very full of wandrings in the performance of their duty Grief by saddening the spirits destroys the freedom of our speech for joy is the mother of Eloquence and fluency and when they would move up towards Heaven this sorrow damps their vigor and makes them that they cannot fly and finding they are still perplex'd even after prayer and still as uncomfortable as before they are apt to throw it off and say It is vain to pray as Saul 1 Sam. 28.15 God is departed from me and answers me no more And sorrow is naturally a very dull and sluggish thing a man has no heart to go about any work when he is very sad and this faintness occasions a new trouble we are vext when we do not pray and when we would we cannot Sorrows damp our faith our love and our hope and so spoil our duties for without these they are without life and without acceptance and sometimes our grief is so violent that it finds no vent it strangles us and we are overcome I am so troubled that I cannot speak Psal 77.4 It is with us in our desertions as with a man that gets a slight hurt at first he walks up and down but not looking betimes to prevent a growing mischief the neglected wound begins to fester or to gangrene and brings him to greater pain and loss so it is with us many times in our Spiritual sadness when we are first troubled we pray and pour out our souls before the Lord but afterwards the waters of our grief drown our crys and we are so overwhelmed that if we might have all the world we cannot pray or at least we can find no enlargement no life no pleasure in our prayers and God himself seems to take no delight in them and that makes us more sad Psal 22.1 Eighthly Such have no patience wherewith to bear their evils Oh who is he that can bear the wrath of God! one thought of him as a reconciled Father would sweeten the most heavy Cross but one view of him as an enemy causes all our strength to depart and melts our very souls In bodily evils the mind lends its assistance and furnishes the natural spirits with courage but when its self is weakned and troubled what is it able to do the wounded soul is most commonly fretful and impatient the sight of Heaven inspires our breasts with vital heat and makes us quiet and submissive under every dispensation but the daily sight and fear of Hell fills us with tumult and disorder the language of deserted people for the most part is in groans and in their prayers they chatter as a Crame or a Swallow or mourn as a Dove Isa 38.14 Job 13.20 21. Ninthly They usually see no prospect of relief or deliverance and that encreases the sorrows of their doleful Night they are covered in the deep pit and see no way to fly from it Job 9.27 28. they are wounded and carry their wounds with them where they go they are continually fixing their mournful eyes upon destruction and the Grave Job 7.7 8. they have indeed now and then some intermissions but they are like the small breathings and refreshments of a person that is newly taken off the Rack to be carried to the Rack again The Tears of these poor deserted people are not like the Tears of Mary in the Garden for as soon as she began to weep she beheld the Lord He quickly came to her help and changed her Sorrows into Consolations and his sweet Voice did in a moment run through all the powers of her soul and made her heart to leap with Joy and scattered light upon it But in this case he suffers his Servants to be tost for a long and doleful night ere he be pleased to speak and to calm the storms so that they are as persons straitly besieged and have no relief at hand as persons athirst and have no Water hungry and have no Bread Psal 113.4 I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me Tenthly This Night of weeping is the more sorrowful because it is the time of Satan's Cruelty When our Spirits are broken with long and painful afflictions then this Cowardly Spirit sets upon us he knows that he can easily perplex us when we are already thrown upon the Ground When the Sun sets then the Beasts of the Field creep abroad When God is departed then the Devil comes He comes and torments us with innumerable fears comes and Triumphs over us insults and says Where is now your God What think you now of Sin What is now become of all your Hearing your Reading and your many Prayers You thought to have escaped my Power and now I have you within my reach now remember that at such or such a time you sinned and therefore God has forsaken you you weep and your Tears are just for you are miserable and are like to be with me for ever He makes use of our sore Afflictions to represent God to us as Tyrannical and as one that will certainly destroy us and it is our grief and our misery that we have so little in our desertions to answer to him When we really believe that God is departed from us What can we say How does this Roaring Lion most cruelly molest us when our Glory and our Strength is gone though at other seasons we can oppose his malice and confidently say The Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee He is indeed a knowing and a subtile Spirit he knows our weakness sees our trouble and urges even the very Scriptures and Providences of God upon us to our disadvantage and that with a marvellous importunity and diligence He shoots at us with fiery Darts that are extreamly painful and comes to shoot them when we are under a sense of God's displeasure which is like thrusting of a Red Iron into a Wound that is already very sore It pleases the Devil to hear us groan and to see us sad and when we are already pressed down with our Evils he will be sure to throw upon us more weight our Groans are his Musick and when we wallow in Ashes drown our selves in Tears and spread our Hands for help and roar till our Throat is dry he gluts his cruel heart with looking on our woes it is the pleasantest sight