abundantly Bees do suck Honey out of sweet Flowers whatever it be that Spiders do extract Sixthly The very Essence of this Joy is holy Obedience And is not Obedience the Womb of Obedience as Sin is the Womb of Sin What carries to obey God more than obeying him doth Naturally Acts do strengthen Habits and institutively also God of admirable Love rewards Grace with Grace The Believer's Joy answering a known Precept prepares his Ear and Heart to answer all the Divine ones In a word how fruitful of Holiness is the Joy of Saints in Heaven Believers Joy is of the very same Nature and why should it not be their holy Strength also Seventhly The constant visible Concomitants of this Joy are extraordinarily holy Satan's Delusion it is and not divine Consolation which sheweth not out of an excelling Conversation its Works with Meekness of Wisdom Holy Joy hath these Jewels shining in the Crown of it High Esteem of Christ Jesus No Star leads to Christ more than Joy in him doth Profound Humility The most joyful Apostle stiled himself least of Saints chief of Sinners Spiritual Flame is herein like natural the higher it rises the more it trembles Sorrow for Sin after the most godly manner No where are so bitter Herbs eaten and so sweetly as in this joyful Feast of Passover Strictest Watchfulness against Sin The more Joy in a Treasure the stronger Guard is set upon it against the Robber Because Joy breeds Jealousies omnia tuta timet the Disciples for very Joy believed not Luke 24.41 and Jealousy suffers not to sleep or to slumber Thoughtfulness of Heaven The joyful Israelite had Canaan in his Mind all the while he was in the Desart True Contempt of this World's Gaudies What are Candles or Stars when the Sun appears When the Good of all the Land of Egypt was before Jacob and his Sons they regarded not their Stuff Exod. 45.20 The Joy of Paradise stains the Glory of a Paris Sweet Content in the most bitter worldly State The Joy of Faith finds Meat in the Eater and Sweetness in the Strong The God whom we serve is able and he will deliver us say the Hebrew Heroes And what follows Vpon their Bodies the Fire had no Power not a Hair of their Heads is singed they walk in the midst of the Fire and have no Hurt Lions Dens are quiet Rooms to Daniels Prisons are Musick-houses to such as Paul and Silas Exquisite Pleasure in all holy Services Being full of holy Joy St. Paul was well pleased to be kept out of Heaven for a time to serve Christ's Interest on Earth And joyful Luther professed he had rather honour God with his Service than be honoured by God with any Gifts which made great and noted in the World Mallem obedire quam miracula facere Lastly A real Indifferency towards this present Life It is only the joyful Christian that can possess this but the Heart of every one that is such doth say as his Lord Father not my Will but thy Will be done Concerning his stay in the Body it thus saith most sincerely To conclude Is God to be thought now a Loser and not a Gainer in his Glory by Believers Joy Or is it possible that Holiness should languish in a Joy wherein these Fruits do flourish In a Joy that so evidently maketh God to be the Centre of the rejoicing Heart the Centre toward which it moves and in which it rests There are many Inferences of most humbling instructing and comforting Truth which do here offer themselves and I presume will be darting in their Beams upon Minds not shut up against them Their Light is such as is ready for every prepared Eye It is therefore a tripartite Exhortation wherewith I conclude 1. To those who have not ever sang Triumph over Death 2. To those who have sung it but have lost that Voice of Joy and Gladness 3. To those that have for any time sung it and are still singing it I must have leave to think that all three Sorts are present among us Unto the first I first address my self §. 1. To such of you as have not yet sung Triumph over Death If now you believe the Truth which hath been irrefragably proved I exhort as follows First Acknowledg your selves to have no Saving-Faith if you have no stirring Desires to attain a joying Faith It hath been said by what Means a Child of God may be kept it may be all his Days from the Joy of Faith but it cannot be said whereby he should be so kept from desiring it and from pursuing it Nothing but a reigning and damning Presumption or Despair is able to keep a Soul from these Review my seven Arguments which I may not repeat and assure you it is no Child of Light that sits unconcernedly in the dark as if nothing ailed him and unto whom it is not as Death it self that he cannot triumph over Death who travels not from Ordinance to Ordinance for the Power and the Act and follows not Heaven with unutterable Sighs and Groans until he gains them Comfortless Believers are represented so doing Cant. 3.1 2 3. and Cant. 5.6 7. Secondly When you bestir your selves for the Joy of Faith be not impatient if it doth not presently become triumphant To be using the Means appointed for getting it is your unquestionable Duty but to fret against God as though he wronged you if he made you wait long for it is your certain Sin and Folly Doubt not but God will give it as soon as he sees you fit for it And nothing save Ignorance and Pride can make that wild Question Why should I wait on the Lord any longer In a word Let him not go till he bless you with it but let him take his own time to bless you with his richest Gift It is Unbelief that makes Haste and that Haste makes Woe Thirdly When you are waiting for the Joy of Faith be praising and blessing God for putting you upon the Pursuit of it and enabling of you to wait therein This Grace well deserveth your best Thanks Had you ever ran after it if Grace had not drawn you or had not you laid violent Hands on your selves as others have done under their Terrors if Grace had not restrained you Thanks are Sacrifices with which God is well pleased And who was ever known to be thankful for Twilight but he had e're long a shining Noon-day On the contrary from him who is unthankful Sun Moon and Star-light is full often removed and he is left as without Hope Fourthly When you are blessing God for drawing you to seek the Joy of Faith fail not to multiply the two first Acts of Faith That which prepareth for Union to Christ and that which uniteth unto him Plainly thus Night and Day tell your Souls that God propitiated by Christ will surely save them if they truly repent and believe on him Proceed also and perpetually be saying to your God that as far as
of his Door as one that would not go free from that blessed Yoke and Service and lays in Hope the whole Assistance hereof on his Grace and Help And how in so extraordinary a Case as is alone to my Lord I desire to witness and renew the same here with my humble and intire Reliance on him who is my Trust from my Youth to this day my Shield and exceeding great Reward To him I commit my Self my Ways my Work and Service which with my Soul's Desire I offer to my Lord In whose Hand I desire to secure my Credit for the Gospel's sake my Comfort and Enlargement in this Day of deep Trouble and Anguish together with my poor Children and the whole Interest of my Family and Concerns desiring to put my self with humble Confidence and all that is dear to me under his Care and Conduct O my Soul bless thou the Lord This I write the 1st of Jan. 1692. R. Fleming My Lord and my God 1694. It is in the first Day and Monday of this new Year 1694. that as I have formerly through most of my Life past so now do desire to renew my Dedication and Engagements to the Lord my God and to join in the same Witness with what herein hath been formerly with my whole Heart and Desire and to offer unto my dearest Lord Praise in remembrance of what he hath been through the Year past and in the whole of my Life whose gracious tender Conduct hath been so wonderful and well hast thou my Lord dealt with thy Servant according to thy Word in all hath befallen me And as my Soul does now move and betake my self alone to him as my own God my Father my Redeemer and blessed Comforter and my only All so do I hereby witness the settling of my Trust my Hope and Reliances alone upon him for this new Year or what Time of my Life may yet remain with earnest Desire to enter yet again and continue in his Service even in that delightful Service of my dearest Lord and Master And now I do again by a new Surrender witness my entire Commitment of my self my poor Children my Credit for the Gospel my Conduct and Comfort in so extraordinary a Juncture to my dearest Lord to his gracious and compassionate Care and Providence together with my Works and any small Design to serve him and my Generation And I do intreat new Supplies of his Grace and Strength to secure and make his poor Servant if it were his blessed Will yet more abundantly forth-coming to him And with hope of Acceptance I write this Jan. 1 1694. R. Fleming Post tenebras spero Lucem At another time thus floweth his sacred Pen O my Soul never forget this solemn Wednesday Night nor the last Monday Night what solemn Visits I had from my Lord after so serious a Work of Trial about the Warrant of my Hope and Petition for the heightning of my Faith and sealing Testimony of his Spirit In how marvellous a Way did my dearest Lord I hope bear Evidence to the great Assurance he had formerly given me c. O let my Soul bless and adore the Lord for this sweet and marvellous Visit this Monday Night which my dearest Lord I hope hath given his poor Servant when so near sinking and I hope said to my Soul Fear not I forget you not for I have graven you on the Palms of my Hands c. I look on thee with Delight and the Time is come when I will give thee an Account of thy Prayers and Tears of thy many Groans and long On-waiting Have I spoken and will I not do it c. O thou afflicted tossed with Tempests in an acceptable Time have I heard thee Trust thou in the Lord for I will make thee a Sign to this Generation c. I am leading thee right and thy Strength is to sit still Is the Lord's Hand shortned that it cannot save c. O how shall I entertain this marvellous Day and Appearance of my dearest Lord to his poor Servant O wonderful Condescension this Morning after so sweet an Evening before that he should please to give so near an Approach of himself O I hope it was his Voice I am come I am surely come my Servant in the fourth Watch of the Night to bring forth my Prisoner and set him at liberty who hath stay'd so long for me c. I embrace you as an Over-comer rejoice for great is your Reward in Heaven I am now entering thee on a Day of rejoycing Be not doubtful it is I who comforts thee c. And when I said O how shall I manage such a wonderful Enlargement how discernably was it returned I hope from himself I will manage it for thee Thou hast stayed for me but thou hast got the Victory and the Day shall be thine and thou shalt know what I have been doing with thee and for thee O let me never forget the 25th of Decemb. at Night when after 60 Years under the Lord 's special Conduct he gave me so sweet and remarkable a Visit never to be forgotten O what a Night was it when I went home pressed to sing the 103d Psalm c. But it were endless to name Passages of this nature since almost every Day was a Communion-day between God and him And how remarkably God hath answered his Prayers may easily be inferred from hence One Instance to this Purpose we may see in his Epistolary Discourse Page 68. of a Minister who had a violent Collick immediately taken off upon his praying to God for that End It is known to be himself he speaks of there though he expresses it Modestly in the Third Person I shall now present a few Things which he sets down in Writing by themselves under this Title A short Index of some of the great Appearances of the Lord in the Dispensations of his Providence to his poor Servant c. And although the Brevity and Obscurity of the Hints must needs leave us in the dark as to the full Meaning of most of them as being written only for his own Memory as the Title shews yet they will serve to shew us the particular Care of his Great Master over this his faithful and eminent Servant They are the Remarks which he calls the Appearances of the Lord towards him in his own Words 1. How near I was brought to Death in my Infancy given over yea and esteem'd a Burden to my Friends so as my Death was made desirable to them I being as the Refuse of my Father's Children yet even then I was God's Choice and in a most singular way restored 2. That remarkable Deliverance on receiving a Blow by a Club when a Child which was so near my Eye as endangered both my Sight and Life 3. That strange and extraordinary Impression I had of an audible Voice in the Church at Night when being a Child I had got up to the Pulpit calling to me to make haste
exalted to the glorious Joy that it promises Lazy Desires of Comfort on other Conditions will shame you much and profit you nothing Seventhly Ply all appointed Means for recovering your Loss Be much in the Ordinances wherein you first found Comfort Read much the Gospel which was written that Saints Joy might be full Hear it much as preached by Christ's Ministers who are given to be Helpers of your Joy Pray much our Saviour having said Ask and ye shall receive that your Joy may be full Look much to Christ in the Seals of the Covenant also until you are lightned Of all Ordinances they are the highest Restoratives Lastly Resolve to follow God though he never in this Life repair your Loss To follow him and persevere in his Service mournfully if you cannot comfortably Yea and labour to show all about you that you are so sensible of your Transgressions and of his punishing you less than they deserve that your Soul loves him and blesses him for his Essential Goodness and his Benignity even whilst he giveth you no Kid to make merry Thus Wait on the Lord and he shall renew your Strength He giveth Power to the Faint and to them that have no Might he increaseth Strength A few Words remain to be spoken §. 3. To those of you that are Singing O Death where is thy Sting c. First Forget not your envious Enemy Satan envies none so much as you who are mounted on the highest Pinacle of the Temple If he casts you down the Greatness of your Fall gives an Eminence to his Conquest And he will spare no Pains for his Glory in your Shame Secondly Remember your undoubted Duty i. e. Of doing more than others Walking more Holily Righteously and Soberly than other Saints even Saints more aged and more richly gifted For it is to you of all Saints on the Earth that much is given and from whom much is required Much more than was required from you before you were taken up into this third Heaven Thirdly Consider the Difficulty of kindling again the Fire that is easily quenched Your Joy is a holy Flame but it is extinguishable by one Sin of Presumption And then where are you That Measure of Repentance that fitted you for your first Consolation will not fit you for its Renovation Fourthly Bind the Gospel-Covenant about your Neck Write it on the Table of your Heart It hath been said He who understands this is a good Divine Sure I am he that shall not keep it as the Apple of his Eye is not like to be a joyful Christian very long Let the Terms hereof slip out of our Minds we are strait-way like the Waves of the Sea at the Mercy of the next Wind that blows Fifthly Fear Motes as truly as Beams Gnats as Camels Your greatest Danger is of incurring the Guilt of Sins comparatively least And Fear of falling into them is a Means of keeping free from them Bear it ever in your Minds then though Rapes do not violate Wedlock yet a wanton Glance which is a wilful Wickedness strikes at the heart of it And Bodkins do stab as mortally as broad Swords Sixthly Defer not to pay your Vows Few I suppose do come to the Joy of Faith without this natural Worship of Vowing to God But surely none that perfidiously break their Vows do long hold their Joys Jacob stiled usually the Father of Vows paid dear for his Unmindfulness of them Seventhly Be Eyes to the Blind Feet to the Lame and make the Hearts of your disconsolate Brethren to sing for Joy As much as in you lies this do For this End among others are you comforted that you might comfort others by the Comfort wherewith you are comforted of God If you neglect this Duty no wonder if your Sun be turned into Darkness and your Joy into Mourning No wonder if God withdraw from you and Sin and Satan getting advantage against you do again plunge you into the Pit where there is no Water He that withholdeth Corn the People shall curse him He that withholdeth spiritual Bread from the Poor and Needy his God will chastise him But the liberal Soul shall be made and kept fat he that watereth shall be watered also himself His Heart shall rejoice and his Joy no Man shall take from him To conclude Would you not lose the Sense of God's Love Would you not bear anew his hot Displeasure Would you not be loaded with oppressing Appresions of his temporal Judgments Would you not be scorched with Fears of being eternally rejected by him Would you not be perfectly dispirited unto Duty and be made to cry as David I am not able to look up These things then do and the God of Peace shall be with you God your Maker shall give you Songs in every Night Your Redeemer shall be a Prince of Peace as well as of Righteousness to you The Holy Ghost your Sanctifier shall make you to know him by his glorious Attribute the Comforter Wherefore be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the Work of the Lord for as much as ye know your Labour is not in vain in the Lord. Piety and Charity do require that somewhat be now said of the rare Servant of Christ whose Decease hath occasioned this Discourse Mr. ROBERT FLEMING a Name most worthy of precious and everlasting Memory A Saint in whose Life and Death the holy Triumph of my Text hath been admirably exemplified Piety I say requires it for Saints Characters are God's Praises more than theirs And Charity requires it for the Example of their Graces and Comforts more edifieth the Church than Doctrinal Arguments and Motives Very Sacrilege therefore it would be a Robbery of God and his Church to be silent of this Saint this One of a Thousand To cover his unexpressable Grace as Painters used to do Agamemnon's Grief with a Vail and to say nothing because the one half cannot be told would be but a proud Humility Panegyrick and Encomium indeed here needs not be any The Jews say true in this Just Men do find sufficient Stones for their Monuments All that is needed or intended is a plain Narrative what our FLEMING was and what he did What he was through the Grace of God and what he did or rather what the Grace of God did in him A copious Subject this is and lest the Multitude of things memorable overwhelm us in this Order they are presented His COUNTREY was Scotland Honoured by God the Fountain of Honour Honourable with Saints the next-best Judges of Honour And the more honourable for the Birth of this renowned Saint therein Which was An. 1630 at Bathens alias Easter the Seat of the Earls of Tweddale where his Reverend Father Mr. James Fleming was long a Minister of the Gospel Serpent's Hissings are despised if any thing less earthly stirs its Tongue against the Church of Scotland as sufficient to their Shame it is here told what is well known The most Learned Prince that ever