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of Satan and many have passed by me as the Levite did the wounded Man in the way to Jericho and have not only withdrawn from me but censured me also I hope I shall love and pardon all those who in the hour of temptation withdrew from me and stood afar off because of my sorrow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
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
so in all their Tryals and Calamities and the other shall find him to be an Enemy and to have been so tho they had many good things in the time of the present Life The Righteous have Sweetness and Mercy mingled with their Sorrows here but the Wicked shall have there pure and unmingled and intolerable Wrath. Here in the most heavy Strokes the Servants of God find now and then some little Comfort but his Enemies in that World must have no drop to cool their Tongues no refreshment nor support for ever The same Sun that will cherish the Righteous with his everlasting Beams will scorch the Wicked and fill them with an inexpressible Rage and Fury God will throw them from all their heights silence all their lofty Speeches and ruin all their vain-glorious Designs Dan. 4.17 The demand is by the word of the holy ones to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdoms of men that is by the petitions of Angels Charnock of Gods Dominion p. 767. who cannot endure that the Empire of God should be obscur'd by the Pride of Men. Besides the tender respect that he hath to his own Glory he is constantly presented with the Solicitations of the Angels to punish the Proud of the Earth that darken the Glory of his Majesty 'T is necessary for the rescue of his Honour and necessary for the Satisfaction of his Illustrious Attendants who would think it a shame to them to serve a Lord that were always unconcerned in the Rebellions of his Creatures and would tamely suffer those that spurn at his Throne His Wrath to his Servants is with Mercy and but for a moment but to his Enemies it will be severe and abiding Wrath. CHAP. III. Of the several Advantages that are designed by God to his Servants in his being Angry with them only for a moment toge her with the Obligations which they are under from so merciful a Dispensation of his Providence and the several Improvements we are to make of it Inf. 1. NONE of the People of God have Cause to conclude That because he is angry with them at present therefore they are in a state of Wrath. Our sense and feeling of things that are very bitter joyned with the knowledge that we have of our Guilt and our innumerable Sins does frequently corrupt our Reason and obscure our Faith And from the severity of his present Dispensations we are apt to say he has forgotten to be gracious If the Lord be with us as Gideon said why then is all this befallen us and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of Judges 6.13 he will be favourable no more But this is the Language of our mistaken unbelief Isaiah 49.14 15. Zion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me Can a woman forget her sucking child yea she may but I will not forget thee Isaiah 40.27 Why sayest thou O Jacob and speakest O Israel That my way is hid from the Lord and my judgment is passed over from my God Our Sins indeed may cause him to withdraw the manifestations of his Love so that we shall feel no comfort in our Prayers none in his Ordinances none in his Words Every threatning shall pierce us to the quick and no promise yield us quiet and yet for all this he may with his vital Influences return again and tho we have not seen either the Sun Moon or Stars for many Days and Nights yet a glorious Light may succeed afterwards In sore Afflictions our grieved sense and the fear that attends our Guilt and the malice of the Devil may put us upon desperate and unwarrantable Conclusions and the deserted Person may say I am abhorred of the Lord he counts me for his Enemy he is cruel to me he is departed from me Ho answers me not I go to his Ministers and they give me no relief I go to his Word and it is bitter to my taste it fills me with gall and wormwood I seek him in my Solitudes and in the Assemblies of his People but I find him not He has left me he has thrown me off The comforter that should relieve my Soul is far from me He hath built against me he hath hedged me about that I cannot get out he hath made my chain heavy Also when I cry and shout he shutteth out my prayer He is unto me as a Bear lying in wait and as a Lion in secret places Lam. 3.7 8 9 10. This is a sad and a doleful Case and yet one that suffers all this ought not to say that there is no future help for God may be gracious and his wrath tho very terrible and perplexing is but for a moment No Believer ought to conclude that because he is under the displeasure of God at present that therefore he is a Child of wrath nor ought he from his present feeling to dare to assert his Reprobation it is an usurping that Judgment which does not belong to Men and a positive Determination of that which we cannot know We may as well conclude that when the Sun sets it will never rise again or that when thick Clouds darken the Air it will never be fair weather any more We ought never to forget the Case of Job never was any Man covered with a greater heap of Miseries never was any Man more seemingly left of God and harass'd by by the Devil than he was never did any Man make more doleful complaints than what we hear from the poor Man in his heavy tryal as Job 10.16 Thou huntest me as a fierce Lyon and again thou shewest thy self marvellous upon me thou renewest thy witnesses against me and increasest thine indignation upon me Chap. 19.10 Know now that God hath overthrown me and compassed me with his net he hath destroyed me on every side and I am gone mine hope hath he removed like a tree he hath kindled his wrath against me and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies And yet what a glorious deliverance had the poor Man after all this We ought not to say that because we are miserable at the present we shall always be so or that because God is now angry he will never be pleased again no we ought rather to remember that it is but for a moment and tho' the kind hand of a Friend may put us to pain yet he does but search our wounds in order to a Cure he will not poison our Sores nor as an Enemy take pleasure in our Torments Inf. 2. We have great cause to be patient in all those sufferings that are the effects of God's displeasure seeing it is but for a moment Mic. 7.9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him till he plead my cause There is nothing to which we are more obnoxious under the sense of God's displeasure than to fretfulness and discontent as David Psal 31.22 I said in my
looked for some to take pity but there was none and for comforters but I found none they gave me also gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink Psal 69.20 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt of the proud Ps 123.4 But above all abhor the thought of the least inward delight from their miseries Obad. 12. Thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger neither should'st thou have rejoyced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction neither shouldst thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress Job 19.28 Ye should say why persecute we him seeing the root of the matter is in him Roughness and severity is not the way to help such as are troubled and cast down and he had need be learned that speaks a word in season to the weary Isa 50.4 The rarity of such a one is expressed Job 33.23 If there be an Interpreter one among a thousand to shew unto man his uprightness Those that under the Characters of Ambassadors of the Gospel of Peace do nothing but thunder out the Law to a wounded and a troubled Soul shew they are unlike to the Jesus whom they would seem to represent and they shew that they have in such matters very little skill and no experience at all neither do such do as they would be done by in the like case There is a sort of balsome in compassionate and gentle words tho' they do not fully perform a Cure upon our wounds yet they make the pain and the smart less whereas a rough and sour carriage does exasperate and heighten them and is but the pouring of oyl into the flame CHAP. VII Shewing what is to be done by those that think God is angry with them And first of Prayer as a principal help against their trouble And some Objections of tempted persons answered I Am now to make application to those who are under an apprehension of God's Anger There are no people in the World whose case does require a greater pity and to whose relief we should be more forward to contribute all that we are able While we are at liberty their poor Souls are under the bondage of an overwhelming fear That God whom we serve with hope is terrible to them in those Ordinances and that Sabbath which yield sweetness and refreshment to us they find no delight because the Comforter that should uphold their Souls is departed from them if on a journey we saw any person wounded and mourning under his bleeding wounds and crying out for help the compassion that is fixed in humane Nature would move us to assist him and not to pass by and suffer him to groan under the smart of so deplorable a condition and much more should we be ready to help our fellow creatures in a Case that is far more sad and dreadful such as is this now before us There are a great many at this very time who are complaining that they have no hope no prospect of deliverance from their present miseries and afflictions that tell us They are cast off by God that he has forsaken them that their Sins are set in order before them and that they are afraid the God whom they once thought their own God will be favourable no more Oh! how little do we know what we do when we sin It is easie for a moment it yields us a little uperticial transient delight but it leaves a woful sting and a lasting bitterness behind Oh! what would such poor creatures give that they had never sinned or that they had never finned so wilfully so frequently against that God whom they once experienced to be very good and gracious but whom they now find to be very severe and very terrible They cannot look below but they think that Hell is opening its mouth to swallow them up they cannot look above but they see the great Creator of Heaven and Earth to be as an Enemy to them And who can stand before thoughts so cutting and overwhelming as these are Now this being a condition which I was in my self not long ago and from which the Mighty Grace of God has been pleased to save me I desire to give all the help I can to such dejected and trembling Souls and none among us but perhaps may at one time or other fall into such depths as these therefore I hope the following directions may be of some use or other I beg of you that are at ease now to regard these things for if you fall so low the anguish and bitterness of your spirits will nor allow you to give such a distinct and careful attention to what shall be spoken to you then as you now may First If you are under the sense of God's Anger for your sin pray earnestly to him to turn his Wrath away We usually deprecate War and Famine and the Plague and those other mischiefs which by the evils they bring upon our bodies are very formidable to us but this sense of the Divine Displeasure has something in it that is more formidable for it brings an unspeakable load of trouble on the Soul and wounds that part of our selves which is capable of having either a very pure and noble joy or a very piercing grief and sadness A man that is sunk under a burthen that is too heavy for him to bear cannot but groan to be at ease Thus Psal 6.1 2 3. O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure have mercy upon me O Lord for I am weak O Lord heal me for my bones are vexed My soul is also sore vexed but thou O Lord how long Return O Lord deliver my soul O save me for thy mercies sake These are the breathings of one sensible of a great and a violent distress and tell us that even our weakness and our helpless condition is an argument that we may plead with God As here Have mercy upon me for I am weak q. d. Thy Goodness thy Glory and Power will be rendred more illustrious in giving some relief to one so desolate and lo low as I am But I know what poor trembling Souls will be ready to reply and Object 1. Alas I cannot pray the Spirit that should warm my Soul and kindle my Desires does not move upon me as he used to do I grieved and vexed him heretofore and now he has left me to grieve and to vex alone I am so troubled that I know not what to speak and when I endeavour to do it I find no Fervour no Life at all my Prayers are grown very troublesome and uneasie to me Answ I grant you this is a case sad enough it is sad for creatures so miserable and so full of wants as we are not to be able to pour out our Supplications before the Lord and it is more sad when
so he hath Bowels of Compassion What Mercy may we not expect from so gracious a Mediator that took our Nature on him that he might be Gracious Let us therefore go to God by Christ who has satisfied his Justice by his Death and who without him is to us Sinners as a consuming fire Let us go boldly to his Throne in the name of Jesus and we shall find that the God of whom we were afraid will become our Friend and we shall experience him to be better to us than we ever thought he would have been Our unbelieving hearts whilst they are such will be full of darkness and of trouble but upon our Faith the Storm will cease and the Morning will begin to dawn upon us and instead of that wrath which we feared and had deserved we shall find there is Mercy with the Lord and plenteous Redemption Psal 130. The first thing that a convinced awakened sinner thinks of is his own danger and how he may avoid the Wrath of God and what it is that he must do in order to it now it is not to be accomplished by pompous ceremonious Services not by external mortifications nor by offering the fruity of his Body for the sin of his own Soul but by Faith in Jesus Christ and his Death by the means of which God is become propitious and favourable to us And the first view that as one says an humble Soul is to take of Christ is of his being a Saviour as made a Sin and a Curse and obeying to the death And Christ must be considered not only with respect to the Excellencies of his person but as cloathed with his Garments of Blood and the Qualifications of a Mediator and a Reconciler and this renders him the fit object of a Sinners Faith If we think of God without thinking of Christ he is vastly terrible and amazing to us but in and through him those otherwise-overwhelming apprehensions become very pleasant and comfortable to us Let us honour the Love that he hath shewed in him with admiring thoughts and never have low nor mean apprehensions of his Grace Christ is near unto God and pitiful to us able to help us and most willing to do so for those that come unto him he will in no wise cast out He will not upbraid us for our former follies he will not encrease our grief but when he sees us once lying at his feet and washing them with the tears of an unfeigned humiliation he will raise us up and bid us be of good cheer V. Faith will remove the troubles that we have from the sense of God's displeasure by conveying to us that life and strength from Christ which will enable us to subdue all our spiritual Enemies Phil. 4.13 It will bring him to us and when he is in our Vessel let the Waves threaten us with never so formidable a noise we are sure not to be cast away And all the Spectres that afright us will vanish if we do but hear him once say as to his Disciples It is I be not afraid This Grace will unite us to Christ and communicate to us of his Power in the several measures that we need and without his assistance long and sore afflictions will tire our Spirits and destroy our Hope He is necessary for us for he has a perfect knowledg of our Enemies of their Force their Policies and their Designs He has by his own Combat learn'd to Fight and by his Experience can teach us to get the Victory neither the multitude nor violence nor obstinacy of our Enemies can hinder the Success and the glory of his Triumph Col. 1.11 He prayeth that they might be strengthned with all might because as we have to do with divers Enemies and are sick of divers Infirmities we have need to receive not one or two kinds of strength but many different ones * Vide Daille in loc For as in nature you see the strength of Bodies is different one resisting one thing and yielding to another one has the virtue to repulse the force of one Element but not to guard it self from another So in a manner is it in the Souls of Men such a Man will free himself from the temptation of one sin that will not be able to defend himself from another such a Man will resist the temptations of prosperity whom adversity will overthrow such an one will bear troubles for a while whom the length or tediousness of them will overcome and if one of our Spiritual Enemies succeed against us we are undone for ever Therefore as the Apostle says we have need to have recourse to Christ who can furnish us with skill and strength to defeat whatsoever stands in the way of our Peace or our Salvation To have one on our side that has returned from the Field of Battel as a Conqueror is a mighty encouragement and privilege Such is our Lord he is a Victorious and a Triumphant Saviour he will not leave his Conquests incompleat for he goes on Conquering and to Conquer and the glory of his enterprizes has not fill'd him with disdain or contempt of the poor and needy for he that is the King of Zion is as I said before a meek and lowly King By Faith in Christ we obtain his Spirit which by opening our eyes will shew us that Fountain of Living-waters where we may both quench our thirst and wash away our filth This Spirit will take away the sting of guilt and sweeten the Cross that was very bitter to us and when our Lord is come to help us when we know that he is afflicted in our affliction that yoak which gall'd us before will become as an Ornament about our Necks and when we have the pardon of our sins and the hope of God's acceptance that affliction that we thought a burthen too heavy for us to bear will become light and easie to us Out of the devourer shall come forth sweetness From those very fears that overwhelmed us shall spring glorious hopes and those hearts which a slavish fear of the Wrath had contracted shall be enlarged with a sense of his Goodness and his Love and we shall not look upon him as an Enemy but as a Friend not as a Judge but as a Father Isa 33.14 The inhabitants shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquities Alas when God leaves us the smallest danger terrifies us the least Dart of Satan makes an impression on our spirits the least trouble sinks such low such inconsiderable creatures are we But if the Lord be with us if Christ be on our side neither the Law nor Sin nor Death can hinder us from bidding a defiance to all that is against us 2 Cor. 15. 56 57. VI. Faith will give us relief under the apprehensions of God's displeasure or our Sin as it will shew us the period and conclusion of those miseries which we now are groaning under our
and to throw my self at his feet whom I have provoked in the submissive terms of the poor Prodigal saying Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son And not because I have once wandred still to wander in a strange Countrey far from my proper home Our grief for sin is too great when it causes us totally to despair to give our selves over as hopeless and lost for ever This we never ought to do we weep too much when we cannot see the Goodness and the Mercy of God as well as his Justice and Severity When we think that it is good to him that he should oppress and crush the works of his own hands and when we judge him to be Tyrannical and Cruel as if he intended nothing but our Ruin and when we peremptorily say that he will not hear our Prayers nor shew us any Favour When we have no suitable thoughts of his Amiable Nature his Covenant and his Promise When by the Painfulness of the Rod we call in question all that he has ever done for us and when because he frowns we say he has thrown us off When because he delays his help we say that he will be gracious and favourable no more for ever When we charge him foolishly and either deny his Providence or blame his Conduct because he uses not so gentle a method towards us as we would have him to take or when from our distress we make desperate Conclusions of him or of our selves And most of all when seeing that others whom we reckon as great sinners as our selves to be in health and peace whilst we groan and languish we are apt to say Psal 73 11. We have cleansed our hearts in vain That it is a vain thing to be Religious to fear such a God who suffers his Servants to be so very much afflicted and with such sort of sorrows that are more spiritual and consequently more bitter than the rest of the world is acquainted withal 3. We are then too much troubled for our sins when that trouble does not only indispose us for duty for if it be attended with pain and trouble if will be apt so to do but when it â—â—â—kes us altogether to omit our duty that we owe to God when our sorrows damp our affections which are the wings of our souls to carry us up to God When it causes us to mind nothing else but what is sad and grievous When our sorrow swells to so great a height that it covers with its imperious Waves all the foundations and grounds of Peace and Comfort it was not so as some have observed with our Blessed Lord for when he was upon the Cross he was in extreme in a mighty pain and violent agonies and yet did not these take away from him his care for his Mother So the Good Thief in the midst of his pangs laboured to gain his fellow and to save his own soul and to glorify Christ These were indeed extraordinary instances for our sickness may be such that all that we can perform to God is a quiet submission to his will and a desire of the Prayers of others thus our forrows for sin are excessive when they make us to give over Prayer or Hearing or the like Duties when they unstring our Harps and dull our Traises and make us unfit for our Calling 4. When our sorrow puts us upon indirect means for relief when we put that trust in men that should be placed in God when we expect that Cure from them which he alone is able to give when we seek it in vain Company in Recreations or the things of this World but if our fense of God's displeasure be very great we soon know that all these things are of no value XIII Call to mind those experiences that you have heretofore had of the goodness of God remember the years of the right hand of the most High you are now fearing his Wrath But can you not remember the time when his Love was your dayly solace and delight You are now complaining that he does not hear your cry But how many Prayers has he sent back with a gracious answer How many times have you laid at his feet in humiliation and tears and his hand has wiped your tears away How many times when you have been fainting has his Word revived your poor troubled souls And tho' his Word be now bitter to your taste and fill you with Gall and Wormwood yet it is still able to revive you Those places of Scripture that heretofore revived you are still able to refresh you those breasts are still as full of consolation as they ever were but only you are for the present under a decay of spirits and have lost your appetite that you cannot draw that consolation thence as you used to do Do not forget the many Mercies of your Infancy your Childhood your Youth and your Riper Age how seasonable how unexpected how necessary have your Mercies been both for your bodies and your souls and tho' I know it is your abuse of them that grieves and troubles you yet remember that he that once forgave you can forgive you still and that he that did you once so much good is still able to do you good Judg. 13.23 If the Lord had meant to destroy us he would not have received a sacrifice at our hands nor have done all this for us Shall we distrust shall we forsake shall we limit a God that has been heretofore so very mericful and so gracious And tho it is very true that it is no comfort to a poor man to think that he was once rich or to a sick man to think that he was once in health for the bitterness of his present evils takes away the relish of his former comforts and when a Man has lost God in his terrible apprehensions it makes it to be more intollerable than if he had never enjoyed him yet the having once had Communion with him by his Grace and by his Spirit may give us some reason to hope that the root of the matter is in us and that God will cause it to bud and spring forth again tho' it now lye under water and be covered with many storms and tribulations And I may add also with many sins and corruptions with which we were not troubled before XIV Remember that God will not judge you according to what you are in such a woful distemper as that of Melancholly but it will go with you as you were in the time of your health This is highly necessary to be considered for many good people when they are under the disease of Melancholly which can no more be prevented than a Consumption or a Fever they are very apt to express themselves after this or the like manner I thought I had once been serious but now I see that all was a deceit I see that I heard and prayed and received
that Favour of his that is so graciously bestowed and so dearly bought Be circumspect and walk closely with your God beware of every thing that may stir up your Father's Anger for though he will not throw off so kind a Relation yet his Wrath is very terrible I beseech you to be very fearful of all inward backslidings and of spiritual decays and lest the warmth of your first burning love to God wear away again take heed lest the death that is in his displeasure steal upon you by degrees and lest from a less degree of zeal there come a total indisposition on your hearts for when you once begin to slide the descent is easie as soon as ever you are sleepy rouse your selves by those powerful motives that you may fetch from the Word of God from his Promises and from his Threats slothful Servants will never have their Master's Approbation you have good encouragement manifold assistances and the prospect of a great reward Is your joy your Peace your present Consolation and your Hope nothing worth if it be then let no Dangers no Difficulties whatsoever make you to part with it as knowing that it may cost you dear before you obtain it if it once be lost Take heed that you do not begin to lose your awful sense of God that you do not grow bold with sin take heed that you comply not with the Devil who being forsaken of God would have you to be so and who being shut out of Heaven would hinder your arrival there or at least make you to go uncomfortably thither if he cannot hinder your walking towards that Jerusalem he will endeavour to make you halt and to go with pain thither But to prevent this and all other his malicious Designs be you fervent in the spirit serving the Lord And upon his first withdrawing be you restless till you find him whom your Souls love As you now flourish in the Courts of God take heed that you do not blast your own Fruit seeing you are fixed on the Rock of Ages take heed that you do not pull up your own Anchor and so your Vessel be driven on the Sands and your hope shipwrackt Make no excuses for your not working hard use no delays apply your selves to the most active and zealous endeavours that so you may prevent your own sorrow For the field of the sluggard will be all grown over with thorns and nettles will cover the face thereof and the stone-wall hereof will he broken down Prov. 24.31 These Thorns are evil desires that will spring up of their own accord without sowing they will encrease of themselves and then you will be exposed without defence to every Invader and to all the Birds of prey and consider That as one says * Symmond 's Deserted Soul p. 523. the Duties of godliness are not only a debt to God but a reward to us and in our sloth there is not unfaithfulness only but ingratitude both the Majesty and the Mercy of God is despised Remember what the Church saith Cant. 3.1 By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth I sought him but I found him not c. She did not find him for she sought amiss no wonder she was not blessed with his presence when she sought it in such a lazy manner and therefore tho' she took pains afterwards yet she did not meet with him He chastised her former negligence with a longer absence tho' there was no place which she did not frequent no person of whom she did not ask and yet heard no tidings of him He that suffered on the Cross for her might justly expect that she should leave her Bed and quit her ease for him Cant. 5. from v. 2 to 9. 5. That you may not lose the favour of God which is your Life take heed of an inordinate affection to this World and sensual Delights If the care and business the riches and projects of this World take up your hearts and the flower of your time you will have but few thoughts of him and consequently but a little Love the more you advance in the mortification of your Appetites and your dearest Lusts the more chearful influences you 'l find of his Grace Beware that you love not any thing in this World too much no Child no Relation no Creature-Comfort lest he tear away these Idols from you and the loss of an over-prized enjoyment vex your souls He will have your whole hearts and your must not think that he will show you his favour if you only give him one half and share the other amongst the several objects that your mistaken affections doat upon If you prize this favour of God as you ought you 'l not too vehemently desire any present good nor too sorrowfully bewail its departure from you your Life will be in God and not bound up in any of your Friends lest when they dye your peace and comfort dye at the same time If the World be set upon the Throne the disorder that is thereby offered to God will cause him to frown and to fetch the Rebel and Usurper thence tho with your smart and grief Sensual pleasures will clog and vitiate your appetite that you shall not so well taste nor apprehend the sweetness that there is in God if you have seen his face the beauties and the glories of it will make all the World appear to you as a mean and despicable thing as the Woman that was clothed with the Sun had the Moon under her feet You will see such an attractive excellence in Christ that you will esteem him as the chief of ten thousands and the tempting fair-spoken World will not be able to lead Captive that heart which you have already given to a better Lord and whilest others feed upon Husks you will be treated with the Bread of your Fathers House whilest others pursue the drossy short-liv'd pleasures of sense you will have the delights of Angels and of an Eternal Heaven to feed upon and your splendid satisfaction will keep you from envying them whose ignorance makes them to be content with lower fare and who when they might fly as with the Wings of Eagles chuse to grovel in the dust and as the Moon then is Eclipsed when the Earth shadows it and hinders its admission of the light of the Sun that makes it visible and as in such an Eclipse the nearer that Planet is to the Earth the more durable is its darkness so if we suffer an Eclipse of God's Favour it is when this Earth interposes between him and us when its false allurements and promises turn our Eyes downward which should be always lifted up to that glorious Sun by whose light we see This World is a more dangerous Enemy than we usually take it to be and therefore the Apostle says If any man love it the love of the father is not in him 1 Joh. 2.15 Its Joys are like those false Fires that wander up
Gods favour to a soul is matter of great joy to it or these words may denote the promptitude and readiness of Divine Consolations Three things are the usual occasions of joy all which are in this case 1. The remembrance of some danger that we have lately escaped 2. The possession of a present good 3. The solid expectation of some future happiness First The remembrance of a past danger does occasion a more lively sense of joy As past joys renew our grief and make our sorrows more sorrowful so the griefs that are part give us a sweeter and a better tast of joy after long sickness and acute pain 't is very pleasant to be at ease 't is pleasant to rest when we have been tired all the day with hard labour the Laurels of a Soldier flourish with a purer Green when they have been obtained with a mighty difficulty the danger of the Combat brightens the glory of the succeeding Triumph 'T is grateful to the Mariner to stand upon the firm Land and from thence to behold the waves in which he had like to have been thrown away one that has been long in chains rejoyces to find himself at liberty 't is pleasant after a man has been long athirst to be refresht with the fountain of Living waters it renders the joy more accomplished and more satisfying when refreshment comes after long and grievous miseries After long despair the least beam of hope is more reviving a man that has lost his way all night has cause to rejoice at the sight of day As to persons newly converted their faith is full of joy when they compare their former danger and their present safety their former darkness and the shining light that guides their paths so to souls that have been in great anguish and tribulation for sin that have apprehended themselves to be cast out of the presence of the Lord 't is very pleasant to behold his face again 't is pleasant to such as by reason of their sore affliction have been Companions to Owls and Dragons to come into Religious Assemblies and instead of solitary groans and tears to join with the multitudes of those that keep Holiday the soul is then like that of the Returning Prodigal finds it self in the Arms and Embraces of a Loving Father and well treated when it looked as it might justly for rebukes and wrath Thunder and Lightning and Storms make the calm and pleasant weather more grateful to us 't is pleasant after long absence to meet our friend again we find a joy sparkling in our eyes and in our breasts at the sight of them whom we have not seen for many sad and doleful years whom yet we longed to see and that which heightens our pleasure is when a blessing arrives to us that was unexpected that mercy docs fill us with the biggest joy which is extremely suitable to us and which yet we hoped not to receive The Crown sat the easier upon David's head after he had so often thought that he should have fallen by the hands of Saul As life tasts with a better relish when there has been but one step between us and death With what Transports doth a kind mother see her Son coming home whom she gave for lost and dead What a chearful Interview was that which Jacob had with his Son after he had so often thought that he had been torn to pieces as soon as he came near he fell upon his neck and there the revived soul of the poor old man was ready even with excess of pleasure to melt away he never thought to have seen his Joseph his dear Joseph any more he was even with sorrow for his apprehended death going down to the Grave and the news of his Son's welfare made him to be young and live again for at the hearing of it the spirit of Jacob revived and Israel said It is enough Joseph my Son is yet alive I will go and see him before I die Gen. 45.28 And so the Jews having liberty to return from Babylon were so surprized with the favour of their sudden deliverance and the greatness of the mercy that they could hardly think it true it seem'd to be the meer effect of Imagination which during the Interruption of our usual thoughts by sleep put several deceits upon us Psal 126.1 2. When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Zion we were like them that dreamed They were delivered in a manner illustrious and surprizing and it is thus exprest for three Reasons 1. A man does not foresee what he dreams of a man that is apt to be cherished with sound and refreshing sleep does not know whether he shall dream or not So this deliverance arrived to them when they thought not of it 2. As it arrived without any pain to them that were delivered as when we dream we are in repose and are at no trouble and this heightens the glory of a deliverance and the love of the deliverer when the person delivered takes no care about it 3. This deliverance was above all that they could hope for as if a man dreamed of something like it but which he saw not when he was awake for such are the Chymera's which the Imagination then forms and which fall not under the notice of our senses such a thing was never heard or seen before * Monsieu Charles in loc The return of comfort to a Soul that was even expiring in grief and sadness is like the raising of Lazarus to his mourning Sisters they thought that if the Lord had been there he had not died but they did not in the least think that he should be raised again The review of our former miseries does encrease the sense of present happiness the light which the Grace of the Gospel brought into the world and that dissipated the obscurities that compassed it about made the Apostles full of admiration and of wonder when they thought of their former ignorance and error and the light and knowledg that God had given them ever are they wondring at the Riches of his Grace that instead of the corruption in which they were plunged gave them Sanctification Joy and Hope What a surprize was it to the poor Shepherds that were in the field watching their flock by night Luk. 2.9 to see an Angel and the Glory of the Lord shining round about them To see such a Glory when they thought of nothing less nor did expect so great a Grace * Claude Traitte de la Composition d'un Sermon p. 267. but 't is usual with God to bestow the most eminent favours when men do not look for them as Christ came to seek Sinners when they thought not of him and when their minds were filled with other objects they were afraid for great objects when they present themselves suddenly to us usually give us much astonishment for our spirit on these occasions has not the liberty to use its forces and they are most frequently
from natural and ordinary Causes is very healthful and adds very much to the strength and vigour of the body much more then will that joy promote it which is founded on the Word of God and on the hope of his Acceptance And no question David had a respect to this when he said Psal 51.8 Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Ps 35.10 All my bones shall say Lord who is like to thee which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him and the needy from him that spoileth him No troubles wast our natural spirits more than our inward griefs and fears no joys refresh and make them more sprightly than the joys of our Souls See Job 33.19 to 26. God is gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down into the pit I have found a ransome his flesh shall be fresher than a childs he shall return to the days of his youth he shall pray unto God and he will be favourable to him and he shall see his face with joy Those that have writ of Long Life and the means to obtain it advise us to keep our minds always full of splendid and illustrious objects of Histories and the contemplations of Nature and the like but the best Medicine is a quiet Conscience And tho all our Religion will not indeed save us from sickness yet it will enable us to bear it not to be too much concerned and overwhelmed with the manifold and unavoidable Calamities of this mortal Life This is Joy indeed that will recreate our souls and our bodies too that will prepare the one for its passage to Glory and the other for its lying in the Grave Thus our soul which is our glory shall rejoyce and our flesh also shall rest in hope Psal 16.9 and both at length as they have mourn'd so rejoyce together and that for evermore For when God is pleased to speak and to help us both in our bodies and our souls 't is multiplied Salvation and many thousand Cures in one The third General is that Joy arises from the hope of some future Good and this good must be both very agreeable to the soul and very certain For if it be not so there cannot be any other than a weak and a trembling joy There is a great pleasure in expectation of what is to come if it be great and lasting and attainable now to one that hath the returning-sense of God's favour ' tis-very pleasant to look for that hour or day or rather for that chearful Eternity when he shall have the same reviving smiles of his heavenly Father in a more bright and conspicuous manner when not only the night of weeping is gone but that morning is come which shall shine more and more to a perfect day And thus will the comfortable person say If the tast that I have now of God be so sweet Oh! what will the full enjoyment of him be If in this strange Land I am entertained as with the Bread of Angels What Feasts will refresh me when I am at home when I am past the Storms and beyond the Grave and Sin and Tears shall give me no further molestation The first Fruits make them to long for the full Harvest thus says the Apostle We rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and this made the Church to say Make hast O my beloved and be thou like a Roe or a young Hart upon the mountains of spices Expectation of any main event as one says is a great advantage to a wise heart If the fiery Chariot had fetcht away Elias unlookt for we should have doubted of the favour of his Transportation 4. This Morning-Joy will express it self As our griefs cause us to groan and sigh so does this make us in an open pleasant way to manifest our gladness The reviving sense of God's favour does so fill our hearts that we cannot without dishonour to him and prejudice to our selves conceal or stifle it When we apprehend our selves to be happy we take a peculiar pleasure in communicating to others the notice of that happiness and are much more pleased by such a communication This Joy is always attended with an expression of the Mercies of our Deliverer that we cannot but say to our Brethren Come and behold what God has wrought for us Behold what Salvation his own Arm and Power has accomplished so Psal 51.12 Restore to me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit then will I teach transgressors and sinners shall be converted unto thee Then I shall be able to tell them That thy ways however rugged they seem to be for a while yet are at length even and pleasant ways That they lead to Life and Happiness and beholding the beams of thy Love that make me so pleasant and so chearful they shall by such a sight be incouraged also to Religion And to the same purpose Psal 16.9 My heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth His inward Joy was not able to contain it self We testify our pleasure on lower occasions even at the gratification of our senses when our Ear is filled with harmonious melody when our Eye is fixed upon admirable and beauteous objects when our Smell is recreated with agreeable odours and our tast is so by the delicacy and rareness of Provisions and much more will our soul shew its delight when its faculties that are of a more exquisite constitution meet with things that are in all respects agreeable and pleasant to them and in God they meet with all those with his Light our Understanding is refresh'd and so is our Will with his Goodness and his Love So in Psal 126.1 2. When the Lord turn'd again the captivity of Sion then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing It was a sign their hearts were very sull of joy seeing the mouth and the tongue poured it out in so great abundance nay their Neighbours could not but take notice of it They said among the heathen the Lord hath done great things for them far beyond the methods of an ordinary Providence Their Liberty was strange and miraculous that surpassed all Imaginable Reasons and behold as people take delight to go over and over again with a pleasant thing they Eccho to this saying of the Heathens saying Verse 3. The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad Others knew it only by report that God had been so good to them but they by sweet experience In the delivered people it was indeed an inward Jubilation with a loud Cry and Song of Triumph as when God is withdrawn we are forced to speak in the anguish and bitterness of our Souls so when he returns the return is so pleasant that we cannot hold our tongues In our troubles there is a latent grief so sinking and so very sad that no words can express so in the good hope of God's acceptance
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