from him as we did but he designs not to raise them again they groan'd under the wrath of the mighty Judge and they must always groan under it no beam of chearful Light will shâ—ne into their Dungeon no Messenger will be dispatched to give them the glad-tidings of Salvation the anger of God threw them out of Heaven and the door is for ever shut they know this to be their woful Case and therefore they rage against him and against his Servants and his Interest in the world What could move Christ to take the nature of Man and not of Angels Heb. 2.16 to say to us Live and to suffer them to dye to visit our sinning World to set us at Liberty to set open the Prison-doors whilst he suffers them to roar in chains of wrath As they have greater Capacities and Natures more knowing than ours so they might have honoured their Creator more than we had they been redeemed but they must mourn for ever and never sing his Praise they must grieve whilst we rejoice whilst we look for our Lord they tremble in the fear of his coming whilst we have the sweetness of hope they are in anguish and vexation in despair and horror we have our Sabbaths but they have no days of rest we can through Jesus Christ call God our Father but they know him not by such a comfortable Name they feel his Power but they tast not his Love they tremble under his Vengeance but all comfort and Joy is fled away from them for ever why are we in the light and they in darkness Why is Christ a Phisician to us whilst he is a Judge to them truly nothing makes the difference but his own love and what manner of love is this 2. It was great love in Christ to bear the anger of God because now his poor tempted Servants have one to whom they may repair in all their straits Heb. 2.18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succor them that are tempted 'T is a great relief to the miserable and afflicted to be pitied by others as Job 19.21 Have pity upon me have pity upon me O ye my friends for the hand of God hath touched me It is some relief when others tho they cannot help us yet seem to be truly concerned for the sadness of our case when by the kindness of their words and of their actions they do a little smooth the wounds that they cannot heal but it is an unspeakable addition to the Cross when a man is brought low under the sense of God's displeasure to have men to mock at his Calamity or to revile him or to speak roughly this does enflame and exasperate the wound that was big enough before and it is an hard thing when one has a dreadful sound in his ears to have every friend to become a Son of Thunder It is a small matter for people that are at ease to deal severely with such as are afflicted but they little know how their severe speeches and their angry words pierce them to the very soul 'T is easie to blame others for complaining but if such had felt but for a little while what it is to be under the fear of God's Anger they would find they could not but complain It cannot but make any person very restless and uneasie when he apprehends that God is his Enemy It is no wonder if he makes every one that he sees and every place that he is in a witness of his grief but now it is a Comfort in our Temptations and in our Fears that we have so compassionate a Friend as Christ is to whom we may repair Heb. 4.15 For we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in every time of need Had it not been for his Mediation the absolute and pure Deity would have been too glorious and inaccessible to us but he is cloathed with our nature and though it has undergone several alterations since he is exalted yet we are sure that he retains a tender sence of our miseries And tho he be very high he does not think it below him to regard the most troubled and sorrowful Believer He was on earth acquainted with grief Isa 53.3 And has carryed to Heaven with him a remembrance of what he felt in his own Temptations and of what he felt when his Father frown'd upon him and his own experience renders him more capable of helping us and makes him full of pity when he sees us mourn well knowing what was his own Case As God has fashioned the hearts of all men and some who have naturally more mercy and pity than others and then the holy Spirit by its renewing grace carrying their good Dispositions to greater degrees and proceeding and working usually according to their tempers so it is certain he temper'd the heart of Christ and made it of a softer mould than all the tenderness of all the men in the world put together would have made it he had such a humane nature that might be more merciful than all Men and Angels together Goodwin Christ's Heart in Heaven p. 55. Our groans and our sighs teach his Heart above and tho he does not come with help just when we desire it yet he is providing for our welfare he sends us some inward supports when we have not an immediate deliverance he will not suffer us totally to sink tho he may leave us for a while to try our faith or to let us understand our own weakness we may think that our vessel will be covered with waves when he is guiding us to shore even when we think that he is asleep and has forgot us and cares not though we be cast away only let us never cease to say Master save us or else we perish CHAP. V. Shewing the unreasonableness of long-continued angers among good People as also that the temporary effects of God's displeasure are more elegible than the wrath of Men. Of the Excellency of Religion and that the Enemies of the Church have no cause to insult over it because of its certain deliverance and the dismal Conclusion of their own Wickedness upon which account Christians have no Reason to envy their Prosperity Inf. 2. SEeing God is angry but for a moment How unreasonable are long-continued Anger 's among good People Let not the sun go down upon your wrath Neither give place to the devil Eph. 4.26 27. i. e. he that has injured or provoked another must come to a Temper and sue for a Reconciliation speedily or else before the time of solemn praying to God which was constantly at Evening and so the Exhortation bears proportion with that Matth. 5.23 24. If thou bringest thy gift unto the altar and there remembrest that
others do to you suppose when you have the Toothach or Headach and people when you complain should tell you 't is nothing but Fancy would not you think their carriage to be full of cruelty and would it not vex you to find that you cannot be believed Fifthly Do not urge your Friends under the Disease of Melancholly to things which they cannot do They are as persons whose bones are broken and that are in great pain and anguish and consequently under an incapacity for action their Disease is full of perplexed tormenting thoughts if it were possible by any means innocently to divert them you would do them a great kindness but by no means press them to any thing that requires more intense thinking or that by fixing their minds will force them to muse and pore more by the doing of which they are already very miserable it puts them into a more anxious ferment when you are continually fretting them with the doing of this or that to which it may be they have no more power than a man that hath broke his Leg hath to run Be not noisy or clamorous with them but know that silence and quietness are most favourable to their desolate Condition You know that they are overwhelmed with sorrows and grief is a very unactive sluggish thing the vehemence of this weakens the natural spirits and blunts the Soul and renders its conceptions very languishing and confused But perhaps you will say Must we not urge them to hear the Word of God I answer If they are so far gone in the Disease as to be in continual unintermitting anguish they are not capable of hearing because of the many great pains which they most frequently have at the same time but if their Distemper is not yet come to such a terrible height you may indeed press them to hear but at the same time you must use a great of prudence and not persuade them with too much peremptoriness or vehemence strive to convince them of their duty by love and by good words In which case Jacob's pace with his Flocks with such is the best and safest way to drive them gently especially seeing they are big with fear and perplexity You may win much upon them by a mild a sweet and affable carriage and if you imitate the Friends of Mrs. Drake you will not do amiss and therefore I will mention their practise as I find it in her Life * See Mrs. Drake Revived p. 82. The burthen with which she had overloaded her self was so great that we never durst add any thereunto but fed her will all incouragements she being too apt to overcharge her self and to despair upon any addition of fewel unto that Fire which already was kindled in her And so wheresoever she went to hear notice was still given so to manage the business that the Minister might know that he had an Hearer thus qualified and by this means she received no discouragement in hearing of the Word Sixthly Do not attribute the effects of meer Disease to the Devil thought I deny not that the Devil has an hand in the causing of several Diseases The Envy and rage that he is filled with prompts him to disturb the health and peace of men and by God's permission no doubt he brings a great many sicknesses upon them As we know in the Case of Job he filled him all over with tormenting Sores which brought the poor man into a very great Melancholly and wofully by that means perplexed him with spiritual terror and amazement But notwithstanding all this it is a very overwhelming thing to attribute every action almost of a Melancholly man to the Devil when there are some unavoidable Expressions of sorrow which are purely natural and which he cannot help no more than any other sick man can forbear to groan and sigh Many persons will say to such Why do you so pore and muse and gratify the Devil whereas it is the very nature of the Disease to cause suck fixed Musings and they may as well say Why are you diseased why will you not be well Their so musing proceeds from a violent pressure on their spirits which they are not able to remove some think that Melancholly persons are pleased with their Distemper but I verily believe as little as a man that lies on thorns or bryars or as one that is thrown into a fiery Furnace It is vastly painful to them to be in this condition and they cannot be supposed so far to hate themselves as to be fond of pain The Devil is indeed very busie to work during the darkness of a Soul he throws in his Bombs and his fiery Darts to amaze us more when we are compassed with the Terrors of a dismal Night he is bold and undaunted in his Assaults and injects with a quick and sudden malice a thousand monstrous and abominable thoughts of God and which at the same time seem to be the motions of our own minds and so do most terribly grieve and trouble us And alas we too too often comply with his Designs we are usually then under great unbelief and too often we think of God and of our selves as he would have us think But yet if you be speaking in every Action of Melancholly Persons that it is from this Evil Spirit you will as it is easie to fix any sort of direful Impressions on such as are overcome with fear persuade them it may be at length that they are possest and that all that they do is from him when at the same time they are pained in every part and then finding themselves unable to get out of their distress your Discourses plunge them very low in misery I would not have you to bring a Railing Accusation against the Devil so as to attribute to him a thousand things wherein he has no hand at all neither must you falsly accuse your friends by saying that they gratify him when they do not so Consider how ill you would take it to be so used if you were in their Case or consider That to be without Temptation is the greatest Temptation Seventhly Do not much wonder at any thing that they say or do What will not people do that are in Despair What will they not say that think themselves lost for ever What strange extravagant Actions do you see those do that are under the power of fear And none are so much afraid as these poor people are they are afraid of God of Hell and of their own sorrows You need not much wonder at them when you know that even so great a Man as Job cursed his day and talked of God with much more freedom and boldness than he ought to have done and the Lord himself said that he darkned Counsel by words without knowledg Do not think it strange if they very much complain for their grief causes them to speak you know the Tongue will always be speaking of the Aking Tooth Their soul is
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
than he did as you may see 2 Cor. 11.25 26. What is a moment to a day and a day to a year And yet such and infinitely less are our longest afflictions here to that Eternity What is one grain of sand as one says Jurieu Balance du Sanctuaire p. 72. to all those vast heaps of sand that are in all the Sea What is one drop of Water to the vast Collections of it that are in the large Ocean What is a little gnat to the whole Universe So is all the affliction of this life which passes away when compared with the glory which is to come And yet a grain of sand is something in respect of the whole earth and a drop is not altogether nothing tho compared with the Ocean for by a continual heaping of grain upon grain it were possible to make a Globe as great as the Earth and the Ocean might be emptied of its Water but Eternity cannot be diminished it suffers no changes after Millions of Years in Happiness it will be as sweet arid as comfortable as it was the first moment It is the Length of our Troubles and our Pain that makes them more grievous And as when we do not sleep the night seems very long and the doleful hours of our sickness seem to move with a much slower pace than those of our pleasant health Thus Job discourses as if his time being clogg'd with miseries seem'd an Eternity Job 7 15 16. My soul chuseth strangling and death rather than life I loath it I would not live always let me alone for my days are vanity He was weary of being in so long pain and thought that his afflicted life would never have an end But yet all the afflictions of the present time are not worthy to be compared with that glory which shall be revealed Rom. 8.18 We are near to a Blessed Change and who would not undergo the dangers of a troublesome Voyage for a month if he knew that ho should return laden with great Treasures to his home and live in Splendor ever after What a pleasure is it to such as are besieged to know that they shall certainly be relieved in a little time It causes them tho press'd very close by their Enemies to resume a new Courage and to hearten one another So should it be with all Believers the day of their Lord's coming draws near and then he will put all their Enemies to the flight and reward their Diligence and Perseverance The Enemy of our Souls is full of Rage but that which fills him with fury may yield us comfort even because we know that his time is short The God of peace will bruise Satan under your feet shortly Rom. 16.20 Oh what comfortable words are these that enemy that fills us with vexation and whose malice is both great and constant shall in a little time not molest nor interrupt our satisfactions any more Your tears that you shed for your offences now are very just 't is what we owe to God for having sinned so much against him but shortly we shall be with him and never complain of his absence from us any more When a man is tost with storms and sees no prospect of the shore 't is very dismal but it is not so with us who have our Haven in our view What if our troubles should continue for Twenty or Thirty Years this would be very overwhelming to our sense and yet it is nothing when compared with an Eternity of Joys above How soon will this be over but how long will that remain It casts a great damp upon all things under the Sun that they are unsatisfying and that they are very short how pleasant soever they are to us they will depart Our Friends and all the Delight of their Conversation our Riches and all the Respect and Service they procure us will fade away Our beloved Bodies which we maintain with great Expence and Care will leave us and must go into the Grave but our Happiness will be for ever it is Eternal Happiness and what that is our thoughts cannot comprehend nor our words express we shall then know what it is when we are in actual Possession of it To be for ever with the Lord what an encouragement does this afford to Patience and Resignation To be with him who is our Portion and our all to be with him and to be without our sin that provoked him to wrath and made our spirits sad what an Heaven will this be As this life by its tedious afflictions seems to those that are in distress to be as an Eternity so the pleasures of that undecaying life will seem but a moment to us it will be so very pleasant and we are near to it Tho the pains that forerun our departure prove to be very sharp yet in a moment death whenever it comes will be past in a moment we shall see the face of God that was hid from us here we shall be changed as in the twinkling of an eye and when we are in that Eternity shall we then say that we cleansed our hearts in vain Shall we not then see that we had no cause to murmur or repine All our Faculties will be gratified with proper Objects and with suitable Employment and all overspread and swallowed up with a quick and a lively Joy Oh how blessed are the Tears that will lead us to such a Joy Blessed is the Cross that will yield us such fruit as this and blessed be that God who will bestow such a reward upon us When we come there we shall sing in the consideration of those very afflictions that while we were on earth made us sigh and groan It is good to be there and how freely should we suffer our thoughts always to dwell upon the pleasant Subject but that our worldly business and the necessary affairs of Life call us away from the Mountain of our Transfiguration However let us not forget that these things are the Truths of God which he hath shewed to his servants and which shall shortly come to pass and they are very near too and should have a suitable influence upon us How did the Martyrs of old rejoice when they saw the day wherein they were to suffer How did they embrace and encourage one another saying We want but an hour or two of Heaven We have but one combat more to finish and we shall be with Christ We dine upon bitter Herbs but we shall sup with him Ere the Crowd that came to see us dye be disperst we shall be with God and with innumerable Angels and the spirits of the Just With what calmness have the blessed Sufferers bid this world adieu saying Farewel Sun Moon and Stars and welcome better Lights Farewel Wives and Children Friends and Acquaintance Farewel ye deceiving Pleasures of the World and now welcome ye joys of Paradise welcome thou sweet Cross of Christ and welcome death that will convey us thither And thus their
souls were driven in Chariots of Fire to their Father's House Whether there be Musick in the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres as some of the Philosophers imagined we know not but 't is very likely that the separated soul of the Patient and Triumphant Christian will have those Angels that rejoiced at its Conversion that wait to carry it to its blessed Home to present it to the Throne of God with joyful Praises and united Hallelujahs Thus we should admire and imitate the Patience of the Saints whose Life was begun with darkness and sorrow but ended with Light and Pleasure began with a Combat but concluded with Victory And then shall the Soul that a few moments before was disconsolate have cause to say in that day Isa 12.1 2. O Lord I will praise thee tho thou wast angry with me thine anger if turned away and thou comfortest me Behold God is my salvation the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song he also is become my salvation CHAP. IV. Of the Great Love of Christ in suffering the wrath of God in his Soul which is the more to be admired in that he bore it for us and not for the fallen Angels and because now he is from his own experience more qualified to relieve us under all our temptations Inf. 3. HOW great cause have we to value Jesus Christ who by suffering the wrath of God in his own person has procured this priviledge for Believers That the Anger of God towards them shall be only for a moment Had it not been for his spotless satisfaction the Divine Justice would have perpetually flam'd out against us and he would not only have been angry with us now but for ever He has delivered us from the wrath to come That which is easy to us upon our Faith was purchased by him at a very dear Price he shed his own Blood to obtain Peace and Mercy for us Oh how great was the Burden of that heavy Cross which he bore for us how terrible and amazing was that wrath which he felt in his bitter and his doleful agonies when he saw not one Smile in his Father's face when it was with him an hour of thick darkness and when under the smart of what he felt and the view of what he was to feel he said My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death And when the agonies of his Soul did affect his Body and made it even in a cold Season to sweat as it were drops of Blood What a gloomy time was that when he fell upon his face and in a sorrowful posture with strong Cries and Tears prayed O my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me What flaming wrath was that which scorcht him when he uttered those dreadful words My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The Angel told Mary That a Sword should pierce through her Son Luk. 2.35 to see what injurious usage her Soul met withal but how much sharper was the Sword that pierc'd the Soul of Christ himself The wrath that he bore would have totally overwelm'd and destroyed Angels and Men had they joyned their strength together There was none but he that was able to sustain such a Combat and to bear such a Load Oh where had we guilty Creatures been had not he dyed for us God would have been our Enemy and Hell our Portion His Holiness would not allow him to be gracious to us without a Satisfaction and there was none that was able to make it but his own dearly beloved Son and this excellent Person freely did it And what cause have we to admire the breadth and length and depth and height of this Love which passes Knowledg Eph. 3.18 Angels in Heaven wonder at it it was so great in it self and accomplished in such a painful and a costly way and we may justly be fill'd with a wondring joy for we are more concern'd and our Sin and Guilt makes us to need it more than they do There was nothing in us to move him to begin or to finish the blessed work of our Redemption nothing but misery He saw us lost and he came to find us He saw us perishing his bowels earned within him and his own Pity and Compassion made him to come and save us What punishment had we deserved for our manifold transgressions And he came and bore the punishment that was our due and discharg'd that debt which we were never able to pay How kind was he that thought not his own Life nor his own Blood too much for us Who ever expos'd his Person and his Life for an Enemy and yet he dyed for us when we were so as marvellous an Act of Mercy as if a Prince's Son should lay his Head upon the block to save one that had rebell'd against the Crown and Government of his own Father What does he require from us for all that he has done he asks nothing but our Love and shall we not give him our best Affections our highest thoughts and our hearts which he has so dearly bought have even any of those things to which we give our love done so much for us as he has done He has the best Title and will prove our truest Friend in the latter end had it not been for him we could never have prayed to God with hope nor liv'd without a fearful expectation of Vengeance We were Children of wrath and must but for him have been the Heirs of wrath too Who would not love such a Benefactor Who would not give him all who gave himself for us It is by his death that God is appeas'd and that his Anger is but for a Moment to those who receive his Son God hath smelt a sweet favour in this Sacrifice and is highly pleased with it and is pleas'd with us upon this account He does not now follow us with wrath but invites us to himself in mercy he has sheath'd his flaming Sword and is ready to embrace us in his Arms and though he sees nothing in us to excite his goodness yet every time he looks upon our blessed Lord he sees one who has entirely pleased him who has done his will and who is the beloved of his Soul and it 's for his sake that his anger towards us is so long delayed and that when it comes it is but for a Moment Let us love this Redeemer with all our hearts remembring that terrible sentence of our Apostle If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha i. e. Cursed till he come again 1 Cor. 16.22 There are two things that should engage us to love him for his bearing the wrath of God 1. That he bore it for us and not for the fallen Angels 2. That from his own experience he is able to help us under all our temptations and when we are under the sense of God's displeasure 1. Christ bore not the wrath of God for the fallen Angels they fell
intentions to ruin and destroy but God with a design in all his Corrections to purify and reform and to do us good in the latter end 2 Sam 24.13 14. God came to David and told him Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy Land Or wilt thou flee three Months before thine enemies while they pursue thee or that there be three days pestilence in thy land Now advise and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me And David said unto Gad I am in a great strait let us fall now into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great and let me not fall into the hand of man Inf. 4. What a good Master is God whose anger is but for a moment other Masters may be hasty and froward and hard to please but he is patient and slow to wrath he is never angry till we disobey his voice and by our Laziness in his work force him to it and even then his nature enclines him to moderate our stripes and he adds no more than what are necessary to promote our good he treats us not as slaves but exercises toward us a mild and a favourable Government He threatens a long while before he punishes the clouds gather blackness to give us notice of a coming Storm and the Thunder of his wrath as well as that of nature doth roar before it falls he threatens and advises and perswades and uses several affectionate expostulations with us before we feel the Rod and when in vindicating his own right he seems to be very Just he ceases not at the same time to be very Good we frequently provoke him and he is most ready to forgive he seeks not advantages against us nor waits for our halting it grieves him when we sin and he is only angry that we may repent he delights in peace and not in war in the manifestations of his Mercy and Love more than in the terrible discoveries of his wrath He whets his Sword before he strikes that in the preparations of his Judgments we may see what we may expect and seek to prevent them He summons us to surrender our selves before he begins to make us by sharper methods to be sensible of our follies and whilst his Rod is in his hand he stays to see if we will even then return and he is unwilling to punish even when he is forced to do it as a tender Judge does with sorrow and regret pronounce Sentence upon a Malefactor Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up O Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel Psal 78.38 Many a time he turned his anger away He recall'd or order'd his anger to return as one expresses it as if he were unresolved what to do he recalled it as a man does his Servant several times when he is sending him upon an unwelcome Message or as a tender-hearted Prince trembles when he is to sign a Writ for the death of a Rebel that had been before his Favourite he blots out his name again and flings away the Pen He singles out here and there some of his Servants when he might punish all for their sins he makes one smart to be a warning to the rest and according to the Doctrine of the Schoolmen He recompences good works far above their merit but he punishes Crimes far below their demerit He makes his Mercy to triumph over Judgment he punishes with regret and he retains a great deal of his wrath when he corrects but he keeps no measure when he rewards and the miseries of the miserable are not greater than the joy and happiness of the blessed Oh! who would not serve so gracious and so good a Master as God is and who is long before he is angry and who is soon appeased again Are the cruel commands of Satan the slavery of the World the defilement of Sin to be preferred to the gentle and the pure Commands of God How many Curse their folly in adhearing to these but none repent that they have been employed in his service His most Aged Servants find the greatest Honour and delight in having served him very long and would not quit their experienced and kind Master for all the World They know that his Corrections are short but his Love is Everlasting his wrath is for a moment but their Heaven will be for ever Inf. 5. The Enemies of the Church of God have no Reason to insult over such as are afflicted in it for tho God for their sins is angry yet his anger is but for a moment Thus they treated David Psal 41.1 All that hate me whisper against me an evil disease say they cleaveth to him and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more And Psal 42.3 My tears have been my meat day and night while they say continually unto me Where is thy God They thought him entirely forsaken and abandon'd for ever putting these Questions to him What is now become of thy God in whom thou wast wont to boast Where is he now whom thou didst once call thy refuge and thy hiding-place Where is his power and his goodness that he leaves thee to such a deep and violent affliction In allusion to that of Shimei 2 Sam. 16.6 7 8 Thus said Shimei when he cursed Come out thou bloody man and thou man of Belial The Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul in whose stead thou hast reigned and the Lord hath delivered the Kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy Son Behold thou art taken in thy mischiefs because thou art a bloody man This bold Man put a wicked interpretation on the Providence of God and because David met with so many troubles and such interruption in his Affairs ere the Kingdom was well setled in his hand he thought that God was against him but he lived to sit with prosperity on the Throne for many years together and Shimei had leisure enough wherein to repent of his foolish and extravagant reproaches of so good a King Thus the Barbarians thought that Paul had been a Murderer because a Viper fixed upon his hand and that vengeance had pursued him for some great offence till he shook it off and taught them to see how ill-grounded their opinion was and that the God they thought his Enemy did assist him to work Miracles When you see any greatly afflicted and groaning under a sense of the wrath of God you ought rather to tremble than to rejoyce to weep than to laugh to consider how holy and how just God is seeing he will not spare even his own for all his Elect shall at one time or other taste the bitterness of sin You that were never serious have reason to humble your selves and to think what may you expect when his Children are Corrected after so severe a manner If his own Family suffer such afflictions what has he then in store for his open Enemies If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall
Lake of Fire O do not wound nor destroy nor torment your own Souls do not carry fuel to that Fire which will never be quenched do not run into the Furnace out of which there is no escape for the Lord's sake and for your own sake and for the sake of your friends that would fain see you to become Religious awake and call every one of you upon your God seek him while he may be found hear his voice while it is called to day lest the God that alone can help you laugh at your Calamity lest he that is now so merciful hereafter take pleasure in your Punishment if you will forget your danger and sleep on know when you are in Hell you will be then forced to open your eyes and they must never be closed again Oh what a dreadful and amazing light will you then see when you see the Great God to be your Enemy the Devil to be your Tormentor damned Souls to be your Companions and Everlasting Fire to be your own Portion God will not then repent of the evil he will not then send his Messengers with glad tidings any more What will you do in the day of the Lord Nahum 1.5 6. The mountains quake at him the hills melt and the earth is burnt at his presence yea the world and all that dwell therein who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger his fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him Have we not some representation of the Terror of the great day in some greater Thunders that make us tremble that with their Noise and Lightning make the Inhabitants of this Earth to be astonisht The voice of the Lord is powerful and full of majesty the voice of the Lord rends the air and sends out flames of fire Psal 29.4 But what a more terrible season will that be when we shall hear the Voice of the last Trumpet saying Arise ye dead and come to judgment When the Elements shall melt with fervent heat when the Sun shall be turned into Darkness and the Moon into Blood When the Stars shall fall from Heaven and this admired Earth shall be full of Convulsions and Violent Agitations when the Seas shall roar and the Graves open and the Judge appear in the Clouds when you shall hear the Cracks and the Groans of the dissolving world where will you sinners hide your heads what will you then think of the Wrath of God in that great and that terrible day You will then wish that you had never been born Oh how happy would you then reckon your selves might you but go into the Grave again Oh how happy if you could but dye but it will flye from you this is that Hell where the wicked must live and ever live tho it be in misery Oh little do you think what you do when you sin you are like a man that should be drinking at the edge of a Furnace into which he were to be thrown when he had drank a few glasses off Like a Malefactor that is jolly and merry over-night and is to be executed the next day Then you shall see that it shall be well with the Righteous tho it go ill with you Judge of things now as they will appear to be at that day join your selves to that Society among which you would then be found Judge of Religion as it will then appear Here it seems through the many afflictions and sorrows that attend it not to be such a lovely thing but then it will appear in its true Lustre and its fullest Beauty Here you see many times a true Servant of God brought very low complaining of his Iniquities now you hear his Groans but a moment hence you shall hear his Praises and his Hallelujahs It is night with him now but a Moment hence you shall see him Triumph in Eternal day He is now in a strange land but shortly he will be with his God at rest in Heaven and happy is he that gets to such a Blessedness though he go out with a sad Heart and weeping Eyes and meet with broken Bones and many a trembling dispensation in his way thither What course will you take Which pattern will you chuse Will you serve God or your own Lusts Will you have your portion here or in the World to come Will you be content with the present Afflictions of Religion in hope of Eternal Joy Consider that they are not to be judged the most happy men who fare well for a moment but those that do so for ever If you serve your Sin you will have pleasure it may be for a while but Bitterness and Sorrows in the latter end your farewell will be very terrible Will you please your selves for a moment and venture an eternal Wrath or will you not rather yield your selves to a Gracious and a Loving God and then you shall sow in tears but you shall reap in joy you may feel his anger for a moment but he will entertain you in his own Kingdom for ever Inf. 7. We have no cause to be offended with the prosperity of the Wicked 'T is true the Righteous are now sowing in tears but they shall reap in joy In a little while it shall be the portion of the Ungodly to Mourn and to be Sorrowful Would you envy a Malefactor that is jovial and pleasant over night When you know he is to be led to Execution the next day His approaching Punishment might justly spoil the relish of his own dainties but however it gives the Spectators no occasion of grudging him his Drunken joys seeing they are the last that the poor man is ever like to have and a little space obscures all the gaity of his looks with an Everlasting cloud It is no just objection against the wisdom of the Divine Providence That the good are afflicted whilst the Rod of God is not upon the bad For he gives to the one the Blessings of the right hand the knowledge of Himself and their own Duty whilst to the other he only gives the Blessings of the left hand Riches and Honour and the like goods which being only outward and for this present World they are not of so great a value as those which are Spiritual and relate to a life to come We think it fares well with the Wicked because we do not for the present see them shed so many Tears nor complain after so doleful a manner as the good are often forced to do But we see not in what chains they are held nor with how many stinging thoughts their minds are harass'd all the while they forget God We see not the perplexities to which they are reduced by the contrary commands of divers Lusts It we consider that God is angry with them every day and that we know not but in a day or two they may be cut off and perish we shall have no cause to murmur at their
say to him because we are the work of his own hands Our hearts in sore distresses are apt to say Why are we so much and so long afflicted Why are we compassed with such terrible Calamities when others are at ease that to appearance have sinned as much as we But these first risings of Murmuring and Disquiet are to be resisted by the considerations of the Majesty and the Greatness of God who may put his Creatures to what use he pleases and so as may tho with their own smart promote the good of others and their own final good Tho Job as Mr. Charnock observes Discourse on the Attributes pag. 781. were a pattern of Patience yet he had deep Tinctures of Impatience he often complains of God's usage of him as too hard and stands much upon his own Integrity but when God comes in the latter Chapters of that Book to justifie his carriage towards him he chargeth him not as a Criminal but considers him only as his Vassal he might have found flaw enough in Job's carriage and corruption enough in Job's Nature to have cleared the Equity of his Proceedings as a Judg but he useth no other medium to convince him but the Greatness of his Majesty the Unlimitedness of his Soveraignty which so appales the good man that he puts his finger on his mouth and stands mute with a self-abhorrency before him as a Sovereign rather than a Judge His Wisdom also that makes the Night to precede the Day and Storms to clear the Air and make way for a fairer Season ought to silence and pacifie our Souls Isa 30.18 And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of judgment blessed are all they that wait for him He knows the fittest times and seasons wherein to heal our Diseases to remove our Fears and to do us good Cons III. How great the Mercies are that we are to wait for 't is for Heaven and Glory and we have his Promise That our Faith and our Patience shall not be in vain Isa 35.3 4 5 6 7. And after all the dangers the snares and hindrances and temptations of this world to come to Salvation at the last is so great a Mercy that it is surely worth staying for Tho we labour Six days yet the rest of the Sabbath does refresh our Spirits and so will after the sufferings of this mortal Life that Eternal Sabbath that is to be kept above with God give us great Refreshment our time on earth is a season wherein by several Trials and Afflictions to prepare us for that Happiness and Glory As the Night does affright us the Morning will surely bring us Joy It is but a little while and our Lord will come and save us Let us not surrender our selves to our Spiritual Enemies tho we are straitly press'd for our Saviour is marching to our Relief Jam. 5.7 Behold the Husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and the latter Rain Be ye also patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh The Husbandman gives not his Grain for lost tho it be covered with Snow and Storm he expects to see it rise with the returning Spring so neither should we despair of finding Comfort tho the Prayers that we have made bring us no present satisfaction You know David had the promise of a Kingdom but what strange Difficulties did he meet withal And what a long time was it before he came to sit upon a Peaceful Throne We must have Conflicts before we get the Victory we must run our Race and strive hard ere we get the Reward but when it shall once be bestowed upon us it will abundantly recompence us for all our Tears and all our Heaviness we are to take up our Cross daily every day on earth will afford us cause of Patience we are to watch for all our time is but as a moment to Eternity Let not our Lord that will bless us with a long and unspeakable Felicity have cause to say to us as he did to his sorrowful Disciples Could ye not watch with me one hour Mat. 26.40 He looks on knows our weakness and will give us help he could immediately solace and refresh and save us if he would but seeing that he is not pleased so to do let us humbly be silent and acquiesce in the Wisdom of his Appointment and Decree for tho he delay he is not unmindful of our sorrows and in the very Minute that is most for his Glory and for our Good he will come and save us Isa 64.4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him V. Entertain a secret hope that it will not always be thus sad and dismal with you Tho you have made several Prayers that have not yet received a Gracious Answer of Peace yet pray still and be not discouraged but like blind Bartimaeus cry the more earnestly You know that the Woman of Canaan persevered in her attendance on our Lord tho the words he spake seemed to have in them a great deal of sharpness and severity yet she was resolved not to leave him nor be denied and at the last our Saviour commended highly that Faith of which he seem'd to take no notice before It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait to see the salvation of God Lam. 3 27. The reason whereof is alledged v. 31 32. For the Lord will not cast off for ever but tho he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies Tho every thing that you look upon within your own hearts terrifie and perplex your thoughts yet the vastness of that Mercy that is in God and which through his Son he is willing to communicate to you may afford you support and relief the very possibility of help tho never so remote may a little quiet and calm your souls for tho you see nothing for the present but Frowns and Anger in the Face of God yet you cannot you ought not to say that it will never shine again tho his strokes are increased and every day more painful than they were the day before yet you must not then conclude That he who chastens for your profit will not lay aside the Rod Tho you are sinking with your fears and you have no power left yet lay hold on the strength of God he will not strike off your trembling hand but encourage your dependance and your trust in him you are not everlastingly perisht you have not yet received your final doom it is possible that you may escape There is great comfort in a May be I shall be saved even tho by fire
tho more in this I fully believe I shall be so As Zeph. 2.3 It may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger Joel 2.13 14. Who knows but he will return and leave a Blessing Tho you are afflicted and tost with Tempests and not comforted yet there is a prospect of a quiet shore Christ is not far off with his pleasant and reviving Consolations Hold out a little longer and your expectation shall not be in vain length of pain and continuance of sorrow does tire and spend the natural spirits and long attendance upon God without any manifestation of his appearance for our help dulls our motions enervates our souls strikes off the Wheels of our Chariots and greatly tempts us to despair and to say Because he does not help us that he never will Jer. 8.18 When I would comfort my self against my sorrow my heart fainteth within me for the harvest is past and the summer is ended and we are not delivered But let us hope still for when we are at the lowest then is the proper season for God to work we are indeed altogether desolate but in him there is compleat and suitable Salvation it is an honour that we give to his promise when we believe it and rely upon it when all things seem flatly to oppose our Faith Isa 8.17 I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will look for him Psal 27.13 14. When we let our hope go we pull up the sluce we deluge our selves with Miseries and Calamities that are inexpressible tho that God that raises the dead does many times after long despair give our departed hopes a Resurrection and makes our broken bones to rejoice So very merciful and so good is he CHAP. X. Shewing that People under great Trouble and Anguish of Soul are not to look for Assurance or great Joy on a sudden but as far as they can to enquire into the Reasons of God's Displeasure towards them and to look up to him through the Great Mediator and not further to provoke him As also how they may know when Afflictions are sent in Wrath and when in Love VI. WHen you are under the sense of the Anger of God do not look for assurance and great triumphs of Soul on a sudden if you have supports 't is a great matter tho as Mr. Bayne used to say You do not know what Spiritual Festivities and Jubilation means If you have daily bread to maintain your Life 't is what you ought thankfully to acknowledge tho your Tables be not covered with Dainties and tho you do not fare deliciously every day They were but Three of the Disciples whom our Lord admitted to the sight of his Glorious Transfiguration he does not treat all his Followers with the same Dishes with the same Joys and Transports We are sufficiently priviledged if we are in the Verge of his Family if we are adopted ' tho there be several that are greater Favourites than we and whom he is pleased to set at his Right Hand and on his Left He may chuse whom he will to be his beloved Disciples to whom he will manifest more of his Presence and his Love and an extraordinary Care Do not think that because you have read of some that have had Heaven to meet them with Angelical Triumphs and Consolations that therefore you must drink as full draughts of the same Rivers of Pleasure or that they will follow you as much as them in this Wilderness Some of the Eminent Servants of Christ that have been very laborious and useful that have been remarkable for their Patience their Faith and their Self-denial have been blest with a nearer access to God and have seen more of the Lord of Hosts in his Glory but it is enough for such unprofitable Servants and such great Sinners as we have been that we look for the Promised Land Tho we have not many Clusters of the Grapes of Paradise to chear us on the way our Master uses us very well if he do not turn us out of doors tho we fare not so well as others do it is a Mercy that we have but the Crumbs that fall from his Table This advice is needful because if we look for extraordinary Joy and Delight and then find it not after long waiting we shall be ready to give over our work when we do not receive that Pay in the hope of which we flattered our selves a long time Because some in a Transport after long Desertion and sore Tryals and after long Absence of Christ have cryed out He is come he is come oh he is now come whom I longed to see Now Salvation is come to my house Now I am fully satisfied now I am content to dye Oh the Riches the Depths the Greatness of the Grace of God! Now I see that my Fears were too great my Thoughts of him too low I see that he that inhabits Eternity even the Great Jehovah will deal familiarly with the Sons of Men. I could not have thought that ever I that was so faint should be revived that I that was so full of Despair should be full of Hope that I who was so near Hell should be brought to the Gates of Heaven but my own experience now tells me that so it is Cant. 2.3 4. I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste he brought me to the banqueting house and his banner over me was love This is the language of those whom the King of Heaven delights to honour These are the Golden Vessels which he fills with the Oyl of Gladness These are the Elijahs to whom he sends his Chariots of Fire to convey them home But this is not the Lot of all his Subjects this is not what we are certainly to expect if we go to Heaven tho by Dispensations that have in them a great deal of Cloud and Darkness yet it will be very well for us if we believe we shall be safe tho some there be that with Simeon embrace their Saviour in their Arms and see his Salvation before they dye for the sight of which we must stay till after death the greatest part of Believers have a comfortable and reviving hope through Grace that they shall come to Heaven but few there are that are so well assured of it as to have no remaining doubts and fears But notwithstanding what I have said we must endeavour to work out our Salvation and by a diligence in good works and holy duties to strive that we may be among the blessed number of these excellent Saints whom God is pleased to clothe with the Garments of Praise and Joy The passionate feelings of Joy are not essential to Holiness tho when they are bestowed they do greatly quicken our obedience and inlarge our hearts If we resolvedly adhere to God he will give us what will be sufficient for us Our very fears shall
Wormwood and Gall with all his Entertainments to think the God is his Enemy that these common Blessings may conclude in Hell and that by all that he Eats and all that he Drinks he may be but Fatting for the day of Slaughter Whilst he is allowing himself in all the Carnal gratifications by a little consideration he may discern a Two-edged Sword that hangs over his head and see a Gulph below that is ready to swallow him and devour all his hopes and joys and that all his comforts depend upon the slender thread of Life and that here is but a shall partition between him and Everlasting Burnings How does this fill him with Amazement and Consternation With Fear and Horror And whilst he is most Jovial he may see a dreadful Hand writing on the Wall that may make his Knees of smite one against another and overthrow all his mirth and pleasure Alas What does it signify to a man if all the World smile upon him if he be under the Wrath and the Frowns of God They cannot shelter him from the coming storm nor screen him from the Consuming Fire What a small satisfaction is it to a Condemned Malefactor that the partakers of his Wickedness applaud and caress him when his Execution draws near and the day of his Death will put an end to all his Hopes What Peace can a Sinner have who has the Lord of Hosts against him How can he lye down with Comfort when he knows not but he may awake in Flames With what ease can he look upon any thing he enjoys when he knows not but the next moment he himself may be destroyed and lost for evermore And that his next remove may be to the Grave and to a place full of Torment What Comfort can he find from loud laughters from cheerful Company from vain Sports when it may be the next moment he may be in a place where there is weeping and wailling and gnashing of teeth Without the Favour of God and that is in the World all its Promises all its Pleasures all its Friendships all its Entertainments are meer Vanity and Vexation of Spirit If a man fare deliciously every day if he drink of the most sparkling VVine if he procure all the Spices of the East and all the Riches of the VVest those will not keep his heart from Sorrows nor these secure him from the Wrath to come These things are very grateful whilst he is embodied whilst he can Hear and Smell and Tast But what shall a man that is a stranger to God do when he is turned into a Spirit VVhat shall an Immortal Soul do when all these Corporal goods are past away VVhere will be his provision VVhat will be his entertainment when he is lodged in the Eternal world VVhen he shall no more hear the Musick that once charmd and gratified his Sense when he shall no more see those Beauties that he once admired and doted on How must his Soul that pursued nothing but a Temporal and a Carnal Happiness in that State of Separation be filled with Uneasiness and Regret with Anguish and Despair to see it self stript of all its ancient Comforts and to have nothing remaining that is Comfortable To be full of flaming desires and to have nothing wherewith to quench the raging Flame All that is present without the Favour of God is but like Grass upon the House tops it flatters us with a false opinion of its high station it looks fair and green but the mower has not wherewith to fill his hand it quickly fades and withers away but with God is the Fountain of Life Psal 36.9 a Fountain that supplies us with vital streams and ceases not to refresh till it mingle with the River of delight that makes glad the City of God Psal 46.4 The glories of this World are soon covered with night and darkness but he is a Sun that ever shines and from whence issues nothing but cheering and reviving Light Hence a little that a righteous man hath it better than the Revenue of many Wicked Prov. 15.16 Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith His little is given him with a Blessing and their multitude of things attended with a Curse His Temporal Mercies are the forerunners of Eternal he tasts a sweetness in what he has because he is sure that it flows from the Love of God He can eat his bread with joy and drink his wine with a chearful heart because his works are accepted Eccles 9.7 2. The Favour of God is Life in all temporal Wants and Afflictions No Affliction can be born if a man do not see his Fatherly Goodness orders and directs the most sharp and bitter Cup. How can a man hold out in trouble when he knows not but it may be to him the beginning of Sorrows With what grief must he weep that knows not that his tears shall ever be wiped away How deeply must he sigh that looks upon his stroke to be the stroke of an Enemy and the chastisement of a Cruel one Jer. 30.14 15. But now the Favour of God reconciles the Soul to his most severe and mysterious Dispensations and teaches it to be silent under his hand and to believe that though he is angry now yet he will not be so for ever When a poor Soul looks round about and sees vexation and trouble over all the World this Favour of God encourages him to look above where he finds a calm and rest When the men in whom he most confided prove deceitful and when from those from whom he expected the greatest kindness he meets with the greatest disappointments then he can have recourse to that God that will never change when he is left alone and forsaken the Divine Presence gives him Honey in the Wilderness and turns his Dungeon into a Paradise what he wants in the Creatures is plentifully supplied in his blessed and glorious Creator And though he be poor in the World yet he is rich in faith Jam. 2.5 Though he have nothing on Earth that he can call his own yet what a sweet support is it to think that God is his what need he care though he be cast off by all the World when God receives him What need he care if they condemn him when thâ— Sovereign Judge of all does acquit him and bids him be of good chear for his sins are forgiven He need not fear all their daring Threats their Insolence and Pride when he can look up with Stephen and see Jesus at the right hand of God to plead his Cause Though he lose his Friends and his Earthly Comforts yet he has an Almighty Friend that he can never lose Every Correction is grateful to a Soul thus priviledg'd for how unpleasant soever it be for the present he knows it shall promote his final good Rom. 8.28 He knows that his heavenly Father tutors him by so sharp a discipline for his own glorious
to get the Victory if Christ pray for us that our faith do not fail Luk. 22.31 VVhere can we go for shelter but unto God our Maker when this Lyon of the Forest does begin to roar how will he terrify and vex us till he that permits him for a while to trouble us be pleased to chain him up again 5. Gods Favour is Life even in Death it self He cures all the disorders of the Soul He weans it from the Body and makes the passage to another World sweet and easie He can take away the frightful ghastly aspect of Death and bestow upon it a pleasant and amiable look and hence it is that sick People are often heard to say Oh! If I had but the Favour and the Love of God I could he freely willing to dye even in this moment If I had but his Love I could bear all these pains and quietly submit though I have restless nights and weary days for then I should be sure of Eternal Rest It is our estrangedness from God that makes us live in bondage all our days and when our time to dye is come makes us so very loth to depart This sense of God's displeasure makes a Death-bed to be a Bed of sorrow and makes Death to be indeed the King of Terrors and who can but tremble when he finds himself leaving this World and knows not what will be his portion in the next That finds himself going to the Judgment-feat but knows not whether he shall be acquitted or condemned there how many times do the very thoughts of Death cut us in our Sickness to the very Soul because our spirits are clouded and our evidence for Salvation is departed even before we depart so that we stand trembling on the borders of Eternity and would fain stay on Earth though we cannot VVhat but the favour of God will help us When our heart and our flesh fails He will be the strength of our heart and our portion for ever Ps 73.26 VVhat but this will attend us through the shady Vale How can we part with our Friends if God be not our Friend How can we leave this Earthly Tabernacle if we have not an House not made with Hands How shall we look upon so vast a Change as that of Time into Eternity if we are not to change this Mortal for a better Life But one smile of the Face of God in that great and concluding-work will keep us that we shall not be afraid to dye one fore-taste of Heaven will make us with undaunted hearts to bid this sinful VVorld adieu we shall then like Moses undress our selves and dye we shall with the same chearfulness go down to the Grave which Jacob went with into Egypt because our Mediator and our elder Brother lives and has made good provision for us VVe shall not be amazed to lie down in the dust when once we have the hope of a blessed and a glorious Resurrection and the day of our death will be a comfortable day if our blessed Lord be then pleased to tell us that on the same day we shall be with him in Paradise CHAP. II. Of Heaven and Hell and of that spiritual death which hath seized the greatest part of the World As also the Reason why Good people are many times very willing to dye and of the inexcusableness and misery of those who are without Gods favour And whence it is that some grow in Grace more than others and are more earnest for a share in the Love of God WHat a blessed and glorious place is Heaven Inf. 1. that is full of God's favour The City bad no need of the sun neither of the moon to shine in it for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof Rev. 21.23 Rev. 22.2 3 4 5. It is the Land of the Living and 't is no wonder that death shall never enter thither here indeed he is a God that hides himself he is hid under the veil of the Creatures and under abundance of mysterious Providences for tho' his Throne be established in Righteousness yet Clouds and Darkness are round about it Psal 97.7 Beams of his Glory do every where break forth through every Creature Providence Law and Ordinance of his yet much of his Glory that shines in the Creation is hid by a train of second Causes through which few look to the first his work in the World is carried on in a mystery his Interest lives but is deprest they who are devoted to him are supported indeed by his invisible hand but are in the mean time low for the most part and afflicted But in that Eternal state Mr. How of delighting in God p. 353. the Veil shall be rent and he will in a brighter manner shew himself his Glory will shine out with direct and pleasant Beams to all the beholding and admiring eyes he will there give forth the full and satisfying Communications of his Love that will chear and satisfy and refresh a vast multitude of grateful and adoring spirits Here the Souls of good Men are deprest by the misrepresentations of Satan and by the frequent jealousies and suspitions of their own guilty souls but there they shall see him as he is and which will encrease their joy see him to be their own God for ever No storms shall there molest their Peace nothing shall interrupt their Eternal Calm Not a vain tumultuous repining or uneasie thought shall assault their peaceful and quiet hearts for ever No more shall they cry out Is his Mercy clean gone Has he forgotten to be gracious for they shall be with him in his own presence Here his Family is composed of several distressed mourning Children and when some praise him their praises are disturb'd by the groans of others or their own sins but there they shall all be clothed with praise and none shall be sick or dye If we did but know that there were a place in the World where the people never dye the love that all have of Life would put them upon many inquiries how they might get thither This Countrey is Heaven thence death and fear and consternation is banished for ever and thither should we lift up our eyes thither should we direct our hearts in Heaven the favour of God shines with an unclouded brightness they that are Inhabitants of that holy place are employed in an honourable attendance on their mighty King they need not they desire not any of those enjoyments which are here below no more than favourites of their Prince desire a meaner station or a poor Cottage or some obscure and forlorn retreat And alas what are all our pleasures and our most splendid entertainments to that Bread and to those spiritual and intellectual Joys which Angels and glorified souls feed on The first hour the first day of joy there is better than an Age of joys here below if one day spent in his Courts in his Love and Praises here
be better than a thousand elsewhere What will one day in Heaven be There we shall not live upon things meaner than our selves we shall there have no mean complacencies nor dishonourable cares in the favour and the sight of God we shall have a taste of all excellencies and delights without the least mixture of evil and what transports shall we have when we come to the full view of him the sight of whom even at this distance was so sweet and comfortable to us When after all our doubtings our fears and our sad thoughts we find that we have through many dangers gain'd our Port. Inf. 2. If the favour of God be life O! what a doleful place is hell where this favour never comes Job 10. last vers How black is their darkness and how long and tedious is their night that shall never have the dawn of day Oh! how terrible and how frightful is the second death A death that torments the separated soul A death that banishes it from the presence of the Lord A death that excludes it from all comfortable sight of God! There the Damned see him as a Judge feel his amazing terrors but they would gladly if they could wrap themselves in darkness and never see such a frowning and a dreadful God there is anguish and wo and tribulation and the continual groan and cry of that place God is gone away from us for ever His Face and his Light chears his Saints but it scorches us and puts us all into a flame This is the language of their misery That God will shew them no pity That he is deaf to their cries and has shut up his bowels that once earned over them in Eternal wrath That he once indeed would have been reconciled and they would not and now they shall never have an offer of his favour any more Oh! poor forsaken souls what shall they do that have no God to give them help no Mediator to plead their Cause no Physician to bind up their wounds no kind hand to give them the least comfort nothing but wrath and no love nothing but vengeance and destruction and no mercy with it The Servants of God never taste so much of Hell as when his face is hid it brings upon them desolation terror and the very pangs of death but they have now and then some support some little beams of light but in that doleful place there is nothing else but sorrow and despair Here in all the temptations of his Servants Christ is concerned sympathizes with them and in his due time sends them relief But he will never concern himself with the Damned nor cast one gracious eye upon them they are fallen and he will not raise them up they are perish'd and they must perish they thirst indeed but shall never have a drop of water to cool their tongues What will the poor creatures do when they are overwhelm'd with the wrath of one that is Almighty Oh! how loud will be their Cries and how dreadful their complaints when after millions of years are past they have still as many more to come When they have been long tost upon the lake of fire they will never be nearer to the shore never hear one comfortable word from the mouth of God! Oh! how glad would they be to have one smile of his face one days refreshment but it must not be the gulph is fix'd and the sentence is irrevocable Isa 27.11 He that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour Oh! what can be thought more desolate than to be forsaken of God! to be forsaken of God in whom alone is Life and to be cast into outer darkness And what will be the consternation of the great day when he shall say to the wicked Depart from me c. To hear that voice and that word Depart from me will be their Hell They shall not be able to turn their thoughts from the contemplation of their own miseries nor their eyes from the sight of those objects that will fill them with grief and horror and be themselves abominable for what a despicable deformed â—â—ing even now is an Apostate Angel that is stript of the Life of God! Inf. 3. If Life be in the favour of God then the greatest part of the World is dead for the most are alienated from him by their evil works the most are stupid and insensible in a dead slumber and are his enemies She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she lives 1 Tim. 5.6 And if this be a symptom and a mark of death How many dead have we among us How many that find time enough for their Games their Sports and their Recreations and find no time wherein to call upon the Lord and to seek his favour How many eat and drink and are merry even when their Souls are in the greatest danger and their Maker is their enemy 'T is a sign that when they are so little sensible of their greatest interest and have so little taste and liking of Divine Joys that they are spiritually dead How much greater is the number of the dead than of the living How many Families are there that are without Prayer without any sense of God at all and in which all the whole Family is dead And in those where there are some alive How many are there yet not quickned How many good Parents are mourning over their dying Children whom they cannot bring to life They see them stepping into the Grave and all their intreaties all their Tears all their Prayers cannot bring them thence And in our Congregations how many are there that have indeed a name to live but are dead Rev. 3.1 that have never yet been in earnest for their Salvation that suffer days and years unconcernedly to rowl over their heads and are never the nearer Heaven at the conclusion of the year than they were at the beginning of it They have indeed it may be risen early and sate up late but all their cares have been as much for the Body as if they had no Soul They are grown crooked with looking downward and are as earthly and as sensual as if they had no Heaven to mind And what an heartless thing is it to the Ministers to find that they spend their labour in speaking to the dead and who in a great measure remain dead still Tho' they do it not without hope that at some time or another their Master will say to them as to the Prophet Ezek. 37.2 3. 4 c. Oh! what a Plague is among us and we feel it not Gray hairs are here and there upon us and we discern it not How many Captives has the Prince of darkness that are no way grieved at their own Captivity How many are strangers to the favour of God that never saw his reconciled face never felt the quickning Influences of his Spirit to this very day And yet rejoyce as if all
were safe and well That sit down to eat and to drink and rise up to play and in the midst of those diversions Death seizes on their Bodies and when their Bodies dye their Souls dye and are past our help Oh! my Friends if you have any Life any Compassion put on the bowels of Christ and take up a lamentation for the dead Inf. IV. Why good Christians are so willing to depart from this World 'T is because the favour of God is their Life and when they are dead they live again because they cannot see God and live they are content to dye that they may enjoy the blessed sight They remember very well that they are strangers and pilgrims on earth that Affiction is as proper to this World as Heat in Summer and Storms and Snow in Winter they know how course soever their fare be how harsh soever the usage they meet withal that they are travelling to their dearest Countrey and every one of those Holy Pilgrims in the way to Sion is continually crying out as one says after this or the like manner As for thee Scituation of Paradise p. 95. O City of God how great and how transcendent is thy beauty Nothing but thee do I desire I think of nothing but thee I pant I thirst I long for thy felicity How do I long for thee thou sure reversion of never-fading pleasures O! Paradise thou art the recompence of my Travels and the sole aim of all my Hopes How fain would I leave these habitations of Clay to dwell in thy eternal and delightful Mansions What would I not give to enjoy the liberty of thy Citizens O! Jerusalem Jerusalem when shall I leave this ruinous and shaken House O that I had the Wings of a Dove for then would I fly away and be at rest O! when when shall I arrive there How long will it be ere I enter the Court of Heaven Oh! how have many on whom the face of God hath comfortably shined long'd to depart and to be with him They bear all disappointments and vexations in the hope of this and pain and sickness are welcome because they are as the wheels of their Chariots and drive them nearer to their home Such as these are like a Ship well fraighted that is ready to Sail and stays only till a favourable Wind present it self They dye not by surprise for these happy Travellers to Glory are always on the road that leads to the blessed place above Death is not frightful to them because they have often meditated what it is to dye and what is required for so vast a change There are indeed a great many formidable things in Death the separation of the Soul the many foregoing pains and an innumerable Army of Sorrows and Griefs that march before the King of Terrors all which by Faith these holy persons overcome they know that Christ hath taken from Death all its poysonous and hurtful qualities Their distance from God is the trouble of all good people and when he shews himself they rejoyce as when he hides himself they mourn And hence many a Religious Person when he came to dye has been heard to say I would not now for all the World be without an Interest in Christ I always found him to be a good Master and I still find him to be so he has taken away the sting of death and I am willing to go unto the House prepared for all living for my Lord hath been there before and has perfumed and sanctified the Grave Thou lookest O Grave with a dreadful aspect to Flesh and Blood but not so to Faith and I bid thee welcome as the way to Glory I commit my Body to thee to keep it safe till the Resurrection when my Soul that I now commit into the hands of my Saviour shall come and fetch it back again With the sense of this favour of God did the Martyrs so chearfully persevere and look upon their dying day as the day of their Coronation this Favour made them to scorn the threats and the frowns of Tyrants and all their rage and fury by this they went to the fiery furnace as to a bed of Roses because they knew God would be with them there In the hope of his acceptance old and young grave Matrons and tender Virgins have embraced the Stakes and kist the Flames and freely dyed and have rejoiced and look'd with an unmoved countenance on all the preparations of death whil'st those that were the spectators of their patience could not look upom them without flowing eyes To whom they have said Death would be frighful if we looked no further but it comforts us when we see the Crowns the Hallelujahs and the Glories that wait for us on the further side This will deliver us from an evil World from our corrupt hearts and from all those sins which we have long groaned under this will bring us to him whom all our days we have long'd to see Our Friends bewail us here but Angels are waiting for our Souls and will be glad to convey them to their Lord Christ and ours and conformably to this did those Forty Martyrs whom Basil and so many of the Fathers celebrate encourage one another when neither Promises nor Threats would prevail with them to forsake their God they were condemned to be exposed on Ice to be kill'd with Cold when they beheld the place casting away their Garments they ran to it with delight not as if they had been going to Death but to gather the spoils of Victory VVith our Garments said they we shall put off our old man our Sin and all the corruptions of our Nature VVhat great thing is it if the servant suffer that which his Lord endured before VVe were the cause that he was disrobed and afflicted the cold said these happy Souls is troublesome but Paradise is sweet This Ice afflicts us but the Rest there will delight us Let us endure this cold a litte while longer and the warmth of Abraham's Bosom will refresh us for ever VVe shall exchange this bitter and tempestuous Night for an Eternal Day Let us turn our backs upon the world and seeing we are once to dye Let us now Dye that we may Live And O Lord let us be acceptable to thee when we are offered to thee by this painful Death Thus they endured in the cold night rejoycing in the hope of Glory VVhat wonders of courage and of zeal have been produced by the sense of the Favour and the Love of God! Inf. 5. How inexcusable are they that refuse this Favour of God in which alone is Life Who would chuse to be a Beggar when he might be the King's Favourite Who would chuse to embrace a Dunghill when he might be treated with Plenty and all suitable accommodations Who would chuse to be Sick or Blind when he might receive his Sight And yet this is the sad case of Sinners God would be their friend and they
doth behold the upright Psalm 11.7 He encourages the weakness of that Soul that is tender and afraid of sin he will not treat you with the kindness that he shews to his honourable Subjects if you take part with his open enemies Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you Joh. 15.14 Obedience is the genuine effect of so excellent and so near an alliance and 't is the proof and evidence thereof Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and doth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him And vers 23. We will come unto him and make our abode with him A Promile full of Mercy Words that have in them all that is desirable that are big with consolation What can a soul wish for more than to have God the Father and the Son to have them for his Friends for his Guest and not only to tarry for a night or a day but for ever Not to comfort him with a transient visit which were a great privilege but to dwell with him Oh! blessed is the House that hath such Inhabitants and blessed is the Soul who is thus honoured and esteemed By obeying his Commands you shew your selves to be vessels of Honour and when you are so he will at one time or other fill you brim-full of Joy If you serve the Devil you can by no means have that satisfaction that flows from the hope of being a Son of God and an Heir of Heaven And tho' his Showers fall upon the Sands as well as on the manured and cultivated ground yet till you are fruitful you cannot expect to be refresh'd with his gentle and comfortable Dews There are peculiar influences of his Grace that fall upon his inclosed Gardens and not upon the Deserts If favour should be shewed to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness Isa 26.10 It shines like the Sun on a Rock he is no more fruitful no more tender-hearted than he was before if you embrace your ancient Sins if you hold on your correspondence with your former Lusts God will not pour the oyl of gladness into such old and depraved hearts if we go on in sin we violate our own serenity and raise within our breasts a multitude of storms whereas Psal 119.165 Great peace have they which love thy Law and nothing shall offend them And so Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy Isa 64.15 Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness By these means you shall obtain the favour of God and when you have so obtained it CHAP. IV. Shewing that we ought to take heed that we do not lose the favour of God after we have once enjoyed it and what we are to do that we may not fall into a condition so miserable at this would be 7. TAke great heed that you do not lose the favour of God again It is true indeed that those whom God once loves he loves to the end they are not suffered totally to be miserable but yet they may lose the sense of his favour and all the comfort that once flowed from the pleasant thought That he was their God Those that have sailed with a very prosperous gale may upon their negligence be tost with very many storms and may be terrified with a Thousand dangers and calamities whilest they do not see the Sun Moon and Stars for many days and nights together and tho' they do not at length fall short of Heaven yet they may travel as through a Wilderness in their way thither and not meet with those clusters of the promised Land with those joys and comforts that others meet withal The Spirit may suspend his influences and leave the Conscience in a very lamentable slate and take away the peace that he once gave so that the poor soul in that condition cannot but look upon it self with as sad an eye as if it were a reprobate and great difficulties and dangers there are ere the spirit return again to repair the breaches which our sin hath made The disorders of our souls afterwards remain a great while and it will cost us vast labour to remove them as when some River that is very muddy has overflowed the neighbouring Fields tho' it do return to its ordinary Channel yet it nevertheless leaves those places all covered with slime and dirt The least Eclipse of the Face of God is a very formidable thing 't will shake all the powers of your souls and put you into such terror as will seem to be like Hell it self If you be so foolish as upon slight temptations to forfeit his favour you ll dearly pay for that folly you may do that in a moment that may fill you with astonishment and sorrows all your days and make you go at last mourning to the Grave You may by a sudden fall have your Bones broken and it may be never again recover your former ease and strength do not therefore wound nor bruise your selves If you are not very careful that Candle of the Lord that shines upon your Tabernacle may be removed and then you I know by a sad experience that it is an evil and a bitter thing to sin against him Tho' you now do not question your title to Salvation yet you shall then be full of doubts and fears tho' you are now looking to God as to a Friend yet you shall then be forced to look upon him as an Enemy and think your afflictions not the rebukes of a Father but of an angry Judge He will be indeed the same God still as full of Goodness and of Love but to you he will be as a Fountain sealed up and your poor mourning souls like the Mountains of Gilboa curst and barren there will be no Dew nor Rain upon them Tho' you are never so flourishing now yet then the sharpness of the Winter will blast all your Fruit that the Fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall there be any fruit in the Vine and the labour of the Olive shall fail Consider how great was the sorrow of David when God was for a season departed from him How many were his Tears how heavy his Complaints and how sad his Thoughts Tho' he was as 't is usually judged of a sanguine and a merry temper and had a peculiar skill in Musick which is the usual allayer and charm of Grief yet in the sense of God's displeasure his Joy was turned into Lamentation his Harp and those Songs with which he had driven away the melancholly of Saul could not stifle or chase away trouble from his own soul the Storm was too loud to listen to those softer Airs the Wound was too deep to be Cured by those gentle and easie Methods Beware lest you lose the sense of the Favour and the Love of God lest you make your Heavenly Father to visit you with painful Rods and severe Afflictions Take
whom the Prophets and Apostles and Martyrs and all your Ministers and your Christian Friends have spoke so much to be at length your own Saviour how will you be at ease when you see his Excellencies to be yours and that you are among the joyful and adoring-throng that wait upon him To love him and to have his love shewed to you and to have these mutual Delights to increase but never to decay to possess one another for ever with renewed and repeated Extasies this is an Heaven begun that no thoughts can fully apprehend nor words declare in order to this you must give all diligence to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 Often you must try your hearts and your Actions by the Word of God and beg his Spirit and obey his motions and excite your Graces and watch against Sin and deny your selves The Trader endeavours all he can to get a plentiful Trade and would have a great deal of business and money flowing in upon him The Merchant strives to have all the plentiful Returns imaginable Oh! Let us strive that our Souls may not only be safe but that they may prosper too not only that we may pray but pray with boldness to God as Children to a Father and when we are able to look upon him as so related and as our Friend our Service will be more fervent and all our work done with greater life and heart our slavish fears and despondence will give way to Love and Hope and then every thing that concerns us will undergo a most comfortable change we shall be able to hear the Thunders and the Curses and the Threatnings of the Law without astonishment and terror because we shall dwell as in God's Pavilion We shall be able to think of Hell and not be overwhelmed because we shall look upon it as a Dungeon from which we are saved by the Grace of God We shall attend to the Messages of the Gospel for it will bring us glad tidings the blessed Angels will be your Guardians the Ministers of the Church your Directors and your Helpers the Malice of the Wicked and the Rage of Devils will fall below us and not reach our happiness 8. Take heed of concluding the special favour of God from the Common Mercies you enjoy 1. You must not conclude you have this Favour from any of your outward Privileges God may long dwell among a People by the outward Testimonies of his Presence by his Word and the means of Grace and yet leave them at last Who were once more happy than the Jews in his Protection and yet none are more miserable than they are by his departure Jerusalem where he had placed his Name and that was once the glory of all Cities is now no more remarkable for its glorious Temple and its stately Towers for its Riches Grandeur and Splendor wherewith it shined heretofore The Holy Land the Countrey of Judea which our Saviour blest with his presence which he instructed with his heavenly Sermons and honoured with his Miracles is now no more the same Judea that it once was it is now groaning under the cruel Dominion of the Turks and the Seven Churches have lost their Golden Candlesticks and the blessed Guest that one walkt in the midst of them The Stars that shone there are now eclips'd and their glory gone It is a great mercy indeed so have the Gospel but it will not in the issue be so to you unless it shine into your hearts If it do not prevail to the conversion of your Souls it will aggravate your ruine inasmuch as you will go from the clearest Light to the thickest Darkness from the brightest Day to the most dismal Night You cannot conclude that you have this Favour from any common gifts of knowledge or of understanding unless you be sanctified throughout When our Lord ascended he gave gifts to men * Du Monlin's Sermons XI Decade Serm. 2. Like those Liberalities which Kings scatter indifferently among their Subjects in the day of their Coronation without making a distinction between the good and bad and of those pieces of Gold and Silver several partake that least deserve them but their great Honours and the Principal Offices of the Crown they reserve for their peculiar Favourites and for those that belong to the Houshold and wait upon their Persons so Christ distributes many Favours to all that enjoy his Gospel but there are some that are peculiar to his own Family as distinguished from the rest of men such are the gifts of Faith of Regeneration and Adoption Happy was the Womb that bare him and happy were the Paps that gave him suck and yet more happy are those that keep his Words Luke 11.27 28. Neither circumcisim nor uncircimcision availeth any thing but a new creature Gal. 6.15 2. You cannot conclude from your outward Prosperity your Richer or abundance in the World that you have this Favour of God in which is Life Our Lord that by his own Example did intend to shew to men better things than the Goods of this World did first cause his Angels to appear to the poor Shepherds not to the Courts of Princes and the Schools of Philosophers He could have had Kings if he had pleased to wait upon him and to lay their Crowns and Scepters at his feet but he chose a Train of poor Followers whom he did enrich with Heavenly Treasures and not with those of this Earth though the whole Creation and all its glories were at his Command The Poor were they that received the Gospel and not many Noble are called c. 1 Cor. 1.27 The poor of the world are rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom Jam. 2.5 Tho as Riches are no sign of God's Election neither is Poverty a mark of Grace but yet with the Lower sort of People and those that are not many times very wise for this World God does often build his Church Afflictions and Crosses are no mark of his displeasure nor is a continued Prosperity the character of his Love for many times God lets his Sun shine upon the Wicked to their dying day their strength is firm the Rod is not upon them they fear no evil they know no sorrow there are no tears in their eyes no sadness in their hearts no complaining in their Families See Job 21. from the 7th to the 13th verse Riches are indeed of themselves great blessings with them a man may do abundance of good works which the poorer sort of People cannot by reason of those straits and difficulties that they are to wrastle with they are great Talents and serviceable to great purposes they do afford men great leisure for the affairs of their Souls and not being perplexed with anxious cares how to get a livelihood they may read and meditate and pray with more devotion but then these soft and easie Blessings meeting with the Corruptions that is in Humane Nature they prove frequently to be a
snare they frequently minister to Pride and Vanity and Luxury and Excess to Sensualities and worldly Lusts and for that reason it is that our Saviour says A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven Matt. 19.23 Few meet with Heaven here and an Heaven hereafter Luke 16.19 20 21. The Rich man had all manner of Accommodations a stately Dwelling a throng of Admirers soft Garments and curious Entertainments composed of every thing that could be fetch'd from the Land the Sea or the Air and in the midst of all this Plenty had the Curse of an Uncharitable Spirit the poor Lazarus was cloathed with Rags whilst he ruffled in his Silks the poor man whilst he had his excesses and his plenty had not what was necessary to life He was a modest Beggar he asked but for the Crumbs that fell from his Table the sweepings of his House and yet he was denied And to all this want there was added an increase of miseries by his painful Sores and the poor man had no Friends to visit him no Physician to bind up his Wounds no Cordial to support his Spirits in this sorrowful posture lay the poor Lazarus and his Carkass was even putrefying before he came to dye the Dogs were cue only kind Creatures they lickt his Sores and asswaged the vehemence of the pâ—iâ— with their healing Tongues ' They as one expresses it were Humane ' though then Master was a Brute and yet this poor man was very happy when his pains made him at length to dye Angels were sent to convey his newly-delivered Soul away to carry him that was starved on Earth to the Feast of Glory where he will never be in distress or trouble any more The poor Man had a very weary Journey but most sweet refreshment when he comes to his Journeys-end He was exposed to the injuries of the VVeather and the sharpness of the Cold but in Abraham's Bosome he was inexpressibly comforted plenty enough had he in his Father's House though he could not obtain here with all his begging so much as one Crumb and the Rich-man a little after had his polluted and unready Soul torn away and was condemned to greater destruction for having been so cruel to this poor man This proud and scornful VVretch whom with his flaming eyes he saw at rest whilst he was in his Torment and who was become the beggar then and fain would have had one drop to cool his burning Tongue but it was denied and he that shewed no mercy found none v. 23 24. and his Hell was hotter to him for having lived so much at ease here on Earth and it increased his Flames to remember how many were hasting to the same place by his ill Example and who when they come thither would encrease his torment So that we may say to Rich men what a good old Minister said to a Lord after he had shewed him his stately House his Gardens his Fish-ponds and his other Conveniences for a pleasant and easie Life My Lord said he you had need make sure of Heaven for it will be bad going to Hell from such a place as this Many People think that because their Endeavours succeed well their Trades flourish and their VVealth increases that surely they are loved of God and that these things are the marks of his peculiar Favour You may live in pleasures and yet be dead while you live Your Bodies may want nothing and yet your unregarded Souls suffer under miserable decays you may be lifted up to Heaven with outward enjoyments and yet they may only expose you to a greater fall and a more amazing danger You are healthful it may be while others are sick but your health is not any other than a greater Talent which is given to you and of which you must render a very strict Account Your ways it may be are smooth but do they not lead you to ruine and the Grave There is nothing more formidable than spiritual Judgments and of all spiritual Judgments none so great as for God to let you alone to chuse your own way to take your own course and to follow the devices of your own hearts And it is a mark of his Anger kindled at a more than ordinary rate when he says Hos 4.14 I will not punish their sons and daughters any more Rest not therefore in this but seek for sanctifying Grace and the pardon of your sins with your whole heart 3. Do not think that because your Consciences are not under trouble that for that very reason you have God's Favour The Ease that many Sinners have is distempered and will fade way 't is like the Ease of an Apoplexy that benumbs the sense and weakens life 't is like the slumbers of the sick that are caused with Opiates and stupifying Potions As many times true Believers fear where there is no cause of fear so do Sinners hope where there is no cause of hope at all Many a Saint weeps that is going to Jerusalem because he sees not the blessed place that is before him and many a secure soul is asleep at the very door of Hell because he does not perceive the danger that is underneath if he did it would terrify him to see that the flood is coming and his House is only built on the Sand to see that the Sword is drawn and his Adversary is on the way and he has not prepared to meet him Some indeed have questioned whether be the greater Sin Presumption or Despair It is no question but they are both very bad they are both Rocks and if a man be Shipwrackt it is no great matter on what Rock he splits when he is cast away Though God will make allowances even for the despairing Expressions and Thoughts of his Servants in great and long desertions he was gracious to David though he despairingly said I shatl one day fall by the hand of Saul And to Zion tho she said the Lord hath forgotten me My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord Lam. 3.18 But yet it is a sin that we ought to resist and strive against and no less against Presumption which flays its thousands every day Oh how many are there there are too many that eat and drink and are merry and yet know not whether God be their Friend or their Enemy Psal 55.19 They feel no changes and therefore they fear him not But if speedy and serious and hearty Repentance prevent not they will shortly feel a change that will spoil and blast all their hopes they 'l feel a change that will at the same time conclude their Life and send them to Judgment and lodge their Souls in misery and where will their hopes then be My Friends the way of Life is strait there are abundance of mistakes about it there are abundance of windings and turnings of labyrinths and dangers by the means of which you may be hindred in your Pilgrimage if you do not take great care
a quiet and a blessed soul was this How full of joy in a time of usual amazement and terror With what strength was he furnish'd to fight with his last Enemy God grant that you and I may have such strength and such comfort when it shall be our time to dye 2. That you may know whether you have the Favour of God in which is life you must examine whether you esteem him more than the world There are two Qualifications of this Esteem 1. That it be serious and deliberate 2. That it be prevalent 1. That it be serious It must be the product of many solemn repeated thoughts a viewing of him as invested with many glorious Perfections as he is represented in his Word and as he shines in the face of Jesus Christ a due considering both what he is in himself and what he will be to you This Esteem is not wrought by a hasty glance or a passant view but by deep thoughtfulness attended with calm and sedate reflections on our own guiltiness and his mercy on our own emptiness and miseries and his Alsufficiency and then a ballancing of all things that pretend to a share in our Affections and submitting at length to the juster claim of God Saying after this or the like manner Lord I yield up my self to Thee as Thine own I was a little while dazled with the gay Pleasures of a vain World but now I bid them all farewell that I may come and taste thy Joys I have served Sin and Satan but they have cheated and deceived me they have given me Vexation instead of Rest and Husks instead of Bread therefore now O my Father in Heaven poor Prodigal as I am I return to Thee to live in Thy Family to do Thy Work and never to wander or to be extravagant any more Oh! give me not all my portion in this World but let me have an Inherittance in that which is to come Let others pursue their several projects and obtain what they pursue let them succeed in their Affairs and bathe themselves in the softest pleasures It is God that I seek it is he that I will most value 'T is a sign that a beam of heavenly light hath shined upon your souls if this be your frame 2. Your esteem must be prevalent the worst of Men have some esteem of God as of a Glorious a Powerful a good and happy Being and they think those the safest and the most Honourable persons that enjoy his favour but then there are a thousand trifles that they more esteem and labour after as Riches or Ease or Gain or Applause But can you truly say I would not if I might have all the World without God himself I had rather have him tho in Poverty and Disgrace and trouble than to be compass'd with throngs of flowing joys without his Love If you have this Favour of God you will easily look through all the painted Varnish of the World and see its real vanity God and things Divine will not only gain your hearts but gain them in a Soveraign and a Powerful degree and till we thus prize and value him he is not our God nor is his favour our portion If you have this you will say with David Psal 4.6 Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me It is not outward prosperity or grandeur or the favour of Men or the ease of the flesh that I seek but thy self Thou art my Exaltation my Joy my every Good all that I wish for and all that I desrire 3. If you have this favour of God you will know it by the hatred that you have of sin Where-ever this comes it will banish that it will weaken and expel it and tho it do not altogether destroy it yet it will take away from it all its former amiableness and beauty you will not sin with such boldness as you used to do nay you will be so far from that that you will not dare to commit the least iniquity and if there be fixed in your souls a real and abiding hatred of Sin and if you use all good endeavours against it it 's a most certain mark that you are past from death to life you cannot but remember what bitterness the remembrance of your former iniquities filled your souls withal what consternation did then seize upon your poor spirits when you thought God your Enemy and Hell your Portion What would you then have given for the least beam of that Sun that now shines with his gentle beams upon your heads How welcome was the voice of that Messenger that brought you glad tidings and that assured you there was Mercy and Hope even for you Era you obtained this favour of God you have had many a restless night and many a weary day in a sollicitous enquiry what would become of your immortal souls for ever 4. If you have this favour of God in which is Life you will be satisfied with all his dispensations that will bring you nearer to himself It is an observation not without its Truth That where-ever God gives Grace he will send afflictions to exercise that Grace and those that have the strongest Grace must look for such conflicts such temptations and such assaults from the Devil in their way to Heaven as will put all their Grace to the utmost and the largest stretch None shall come to Heaven without suffering none can tell how many Millions of sufferings he may endure before the day of Salvation dawns upon him but he is a very happy person that is not overwhelmed with these innumerable calamities That whilest he swims as in a Sea of grief can lift up his head and exercise his Faith and say Lord let thy will be done It thou wilt be with me in the fiery Furnace and in the deep Waters I shall not fear tho those Flames be very hot and these Waves roul fast one upon another Tho it is our Duty to deprecate long and severe and heavy Tryals it is a common thing in our Prayers to say Lord if thou wilt save me at last bring any sort of affliction on me I will refuse nothing But alas alas we generally do not know what we say there are those Arrows in God's Quiver which if they should be shot against us would cut us to the very soul and make us quickly to change our language There is that unspeakable weight in his hand when he lays it much upon us that we cannot bear There are those Pains at his disposal and which our sins deserve that are in all things setting aside their duration as the very pains of Hell He is the good Man that does not desire affliction for he will be sure to have it whether he do or not but that can submit to it when it comes upon him that does not make to himself a Cross but takes it up when he finds it lying in the way that can say Lord if I must be poor in
be mingled with many failings The meanest Oblations that you lay upon his Altar shall be grateful while the more pompous and costly Sacrifices of others shall be disesteemed your inward groans shall move his tender heart sooner than their howlings and their loudest cries Prov. 15.8 He will cherish your feeblest breathings after him and add more strength to the bruised Reed and more slame to the smoaking Flax He will register your good Actions and not upbraid you with your evil ones There was some good thing in Abijah toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam 1 Kings 14.12 and he took peculiar notice of it and at the last day Our Lord mentions the Charities and the Bounties of his People which they themselves had forgot long ago He will not reject your Faith though there be many doubts mingled with it nor cast off your desires though they have a great deal of deadness and want many further degrees of life and fervour He will remember his Covenant tho' you forget your Duty Mal. 3.17 I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him 4. God will either preserve you from outward dangers or give you strength to bear them He will be afflicted in all your afflictions and tenderly regard you as the Apple of his Eye What can you fear whilst you have so great a Defender what may you not hope for when you have so good a Benefactor as he said to Abraham Gen. 14.2 Fear not I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward A Reward to quicken your service and a Shield to keep you from hurt in the day of battel Or as in Dan. 10.19 O man greatly beloved fear not peace be unto thee be strong yea be strong What safety must he needs have that had the Almighty for his Helper what honour must he have whom an Angel called greatly beloved 5. He will keep you in his favour that you shall not finally be cast away Though you be saved as by fire and by great difficulty yet you shall surely be saved He may suspend his Influences but he will not change his Covenant he may be angry but he will not be so for ever You may fall and bruise your selves but his gentle hand will heal your wounds Rom. 8. ult He that loved you when you were Prodigals will not shut you out when you return home again He that pitied you in your blood will not reject you when his Image is upon you though sullied with manifold defects Your Life is hid with him in Christ and though by various tentations and troubles it is weakned yet it shall spring forth again Christ is the Vine whereof you are the Branches though your Life is exposed to many storms yet in him 't is very safe and you shall not expire by a total death because Christ himself will never die the Faithfulness of God and the Life of Christ are both unchangeable Supports to you you need not fear the rage of your Enemies while your Saviour is your Guide for he will bring forth Judgment unto Victory Sixthly and Lastly God will be your God his Wisdom and his Power will direct and save you Could I tell the Tradesman that is setting up that I could help him to a plentiful Trade could I assure the Merchant of the succesful arrival of his Ships could I tell the Poor how to be rich and the Rich how to get all that they wish for I should be a very acceptable Messenger but to you that have the Favour of God here are better tidings the Lord of Heaven and Earth is yours and then if you can tell the Stars or the Sand of the Sea or the drops of Rain you may be able to number the Benefits that will accrue to you by such a Privilege whatsoever is truly useful to your spiritual welfare whatever in in all the large Dominions of God will do you good you shall be sure to receive God the Father will be your Reconciled Father God the Son your Mediator God the Holy Ghost your Sanctifier You shall in no distress want an Alsufficient and Almighty Friend you shall have all your holy Prayers heard and granted Life and Death shall be yours the Mercy of God will relieve you when you are in Misery 2 Cor. 6.18 I will be a father to you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty And he will say as in Jer. 32.41 I will rejoice over them to do them good with my whole heart and my whole soul To be a Child of a King sounds great and carries with it an high degree of honour but to be the Children of the King of kings is infinitely more honourable to have so great a Father is an unspeakable and a mighty Privilege All the Dignities that Ambitious Courtiers seek with all their Cringing Arts are but little Trifles when compared with this all the Renown that Soldiers purchase with their sweat and blood is but disgrace when compared with the glory of being a Son or Daughter of the most High God If the Queen of Sheba when she beheld Solomon that in the splendor of his Court and the wisdom of his Actions exceeded all the Report that she had heard before cried out with wonder 1 King 10.8 Happy are thy men and happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom How much more may we say Happy are the Servants of the Living God that serve him day and night that wait at his Temple and that sing his Praises that see with what wisdom he manages all the great Affairs of his vast and large Kingdom and that the same eye that is in the Wheels does watch for them and all is carried on with a peculiar respect to his Glory and to their Salvation the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is their Father the Angels are their Guard the Spirit is their Teacher Afflictions are their Physick 1 Cor. 3.21 All things are yours whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas the stars that are in the right hand of Christ shine to give them light The World is theirs so much of it as is necessary to promote their real welfare Life is theirs wherein to prepare for happiness and Death is theirs to convey them to it They are Christ's his Brethren and his Subjects and Christ is God's who is delighted with his Son and with them in him This is the privilege of a Favourite of God He is now it may be poor and low affronted and disgraced but the day draws near when the same person that is disesteem'd by the Sons of Pride shall be owned of his Great Lord clothed with Garments of Praise and led out in triumph and applauding-Angels say to the grief of the Wicked Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King of heaven delights to honour Thus you have set before you that which is Life indeed a Life that shall never
are looking on and do not all that is in our power to hinder their going thither To this compassionate sorrow we may be excited by the kind example of our Lord Luke 19.41 he wept for those that rejoyced he pityed them that had no pity for their own souls because their hearts were hardned his was very soft and tender It is matter of mourning and lamentation to consider how few there are that profess Religion in its strictness and among those few how many that are scandalous or backsliders or hypocrites It has been often observed that among the bitter Ingredients of our Lords passion this was none of the least to foresee that there would be so many who by their final impenitence and persevering in wickedness would receive no benefit by it * Norris's Discourse on the Beatitudes pag. 44. And if we may judg by proportion the Angels in Heaven who rejoice at the conversion of one sinner do also mourn and lament for the Irreclaimable wickedness of so many Millions in the world To a zealous Magistrate it is an occasion of sorrow to see in his Dominions the great King and Ruler of the world so little valued and his grief will stir him up to use all the wholsome methods he can by good Laws and a necessary severity to keep the Divine Laws and Authority from being scorned and trampled on by profane and blasphemous sinners To a good Parent it is an occasion of grief to see the undutifulness and miscarriages of his children and very cutting to think that he has brought forth such as shall be his torment and factors for the Devil To a Minister it is an occasion of grief when he meets with a careless Auditory or with an unfruitful people that he is like to see them perish under the means of safety and that he is like to be their accuser in the great day and that they are like to be separated for ever when the judgment comes it is with an heavy heart and many a tear that he thinks of their forlorn state Rom. 9.1 2. Ye know after what manner I have been with you at all seasons serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations Act. 20.19 For the space of three years I ceased not to warn every me night and day with tears ver 31. 3. They weep for the manifold tribulations and persecutions they meet withal When God is pleased for their chastisement to let loose the passions and the fury of wicked men whose tender mercles are cruelty Cant. 2.2 As the Lilly among the thorns so is my love among the daughters She is beautiful and glorious but surrounded with difficulties and tribulations Psal 84.6 Passing through the valley of Baca they make it a well the rain also filleth the pools They are satisfied indeed to endure in the hope of Heaven but yet their sorrows and torments make them go weeping thither They have sense as well as Religion and their sensible nature Whether they will or no will be affected they cannot be sick but they must groan and sigh as well as others they cannot feel tortures racks tedious Imprisonments and flames without shrinking a little at them even the Apostles those great and couragious believers were troubled and perplexed tho they were not overthrown 2 Cor. 4.8 In times of Persecution there is a general license of doing mischief a bold oppressing of the poor a scornful despising of the affilicted and the desolate as they complain Psal 123.4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt of the proud and the scorn of evil men is so base a thing that the most patient cannot but be somewhat concerned at it Psal 42.11 My tears have been my meat day and night while they continually say unto me Where it thy God when I remember these things I pour out my soul in me 'T is true the servants of Christ esteem it abundant matter of joy when they fall into divers tribulations their minds are quiet and very well satisfied they love their Master and they will never leave him they will follow him to the Cross and die with him there but inasmuch as they are composed of flesh and blood and have a nature that is tender and soft and averse to suffering as well as that of others and that has several things that engage it to the world several Relations and Friends to part withal they cannot with respect to these leave this Earth without some grief and sorrow as the Hearers of Paul wept that they should see his face no more and it was even like to break his heart that he was to leave friends so affectionate so loving and so kind And we must think they did not part at last without flowing eyes on either side Act. 21.13 4. Christians however easie in their own Circumstances have still occasion of sorrow from that sympathy that they have with their brethren that are in distress The spirit of our compassionate Lord dwells in their heart and as he is afflicted with all the afflictions of his people so are they they are all the members of the same body and one part of the body cannot rejoice whilest another part thereof is in pain Thus they weep with them that weep Rom. 12.15 To hear of the desolations of others is extremely grievous to them nor can they laugh and be merry whilest others sigh and groan see Jer. 4.31 Ch. 8.21 22. Jer. 14.17 to the 20. They cannot chear themselves with Musick when the Harps of others are hanging on the Willows Lam. 1.12 16. Ch. 2.11 12. And this Book of the Lamentations is so very lamentable that it very well deserves to be read and considered by us that so the miseries of our Neighbours may affect us as they ought to do Job 30.35 Did not I weep for him that was in trouble was not my soul grieved for the poor It must be a temper very Hellish that has no relentings for the sufferings of others even such a Diabolical temper as reigneth in France at this day where by the encouragement of a Cruel King and as Cruel a Clergy the poor Protestants have undergone barbarous and more than Heathen severities if they had any thing humane left they could not have used those poor Harmless and Innocent people as they have done But they have long since degenerated into Wolves and to this day retain their brutal and savage nature tearing to pieces the sheep of Christ without any provocation and tho some have had such a brazen impudence as to say they have all along used with them nothing but sweet and gentle methods yet there are Witnesses enough and too many if it pleased God in all parts of Europe that tell us Melancholy stories of their Hillish Cruelties had there been the lowest degrees of Christianity left in that Execrable Country they could not they durst not have proceeded to
think our Sighs better than Praises and Hallelujahs Let us hasten in our desires from this diseased World which by its low scituation is apt to suffer an inundation of innumerable miseries and prepare for that World where there is an Eternal Health and Joy CHAP. IV. Shewing what dreadful apprehensions a soul has that is under desertion and in several respects how very sad an doleful its condition is from the Author 's own Experience THE next thing I design to insist upon is To shew that the time of God's forsaking of a soul is a very dark and mournful time 't is not only night but a weeping stormy night and it may not be unuseful to you who have it may be hitherto lived in the beams and chearful light of day to know what passes in this forrowful and doleful night And in this matter I will not borrow Information from others but give you My own Experience 1. In this night the deserted soul it overwhelmed with continual thoughts of the Holiness and Majesty and Glory of the Lord nor does it think of him with any manner of delight according to that of Asaph Psal 77.3 I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed And in how deplorable a Case is such a Soul that cannot think of its God and its Creator but with grief and sorrow That fixes upon nothing in him but his terrible and severe Attributes In other Cases when a Man is distressed on Earth and beholds vexation and disquiet there he can lift up his eyes towards Heaven and see joy and comfort for him there but in this woful Case there is neither the light of the Sun the Moon or the Stars for many days the face of God is hid and covered with a dreadful Cloud Job 31.23 Destruction from God was a terror to me and because of his highness I could not endure Secondly The deserted soul in this mournful night does look upon God at its enemy and as intending its hurt and ruin by the sharpness of his dispensations and this makes it to be incapable of receiving any consolation from the Creatures for will it say to them Alas if God be mine enemy as I apprehend him to be which of you can be my friend I have a dreadful sound of his displeasure in my ears and which of you can bring me any glad tidings If his power his Irresistible power be against me who can keep off the killing-blow Job 19.6 Know now that God hath overthrown we and hath compassed me with his net he hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass and he hath set darkness in my paths And so v. 9 10 11. and Psal 88.7 Thy wrath lyeth hard upon me and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves If in such desertion God were apprehended to be upon a design of the future happiness and welfare of the soul it would bear up with courage or with hope but having no such belief it must needs sink and languish The stroke that wounds us in such a case is the more painful as edged with a sense of wrath Psal 102.9 10. I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with weeping because of thine indignation and thy wrath for thou hast lifted me up and cast me down Thus does the weeping person vent his sorrows God never gives to his people such a bitter Cup but he mingles love and mercy with it but alas I taste nothing but gall and wormwood nothing but misery and vexation He is with his people but he has forsaken me he has cast me into a fiery furnace where I am daily burnt and scorcht and he is not with me there He is unto me as a Roaring Lion and who can turn away his powerful wrath Ruth 1.20 The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me I have often heard that it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God and I now find it to be so all the wrath of men is nothing to his one frown of his is more intolerable than all their rage and persecution Job 16.12 13 14. I was at ease but he hath broken me asunder he hath also taken me by my neck and shaken me to pieces and set me up for his mark his Archers compass me round about he cleaveth my reins asunder and doth not spare he poureth out my gall upon the ground Job 10.16 17. Oh what anguish what desolation is caused in the soul by such thoughts as these I dare not says the mourning person look up to Heaven for there I see how great a God I have against me I dare not look into his word for there I see all his threats as so many barbed arrows to strike me to the heart I dare not look into the Grave because thence I am like to have a doleful Resurrection And what can a poor Creature do that apprehends the Almighty to be his enemy It is a common thing to say why do you so lament and mourn you have many mercies left many friends that pray for you and that pity you Alas what help is there in all this it God himself be gone nothing is then lookt upon as a mercy And as for the prayers of others will the distressed person say they can do me no good unless I have faith and I find I have none at all for that would purifie and cleanse my heart and I do nothing else but sin and God as he is holy must set himself against me his Enemy 3ly In this doleful night the soul hath no evidence at all of its former grace so that in this night the Sun is not only set but there is not one Star appears such an one looks upon himself as altogether void of the Grace of God he looks upon all his former duties to have been insincere or hypocritical he feels his heart hardned at present and concludes that it was never tender finds himself at present listless and indisposed and concludes that he never had any true life and motion and expresses his sorrows after this or the like manner I thought I had belong'd to God but now I find I am none of his I thought I had been upright but now I see I was mistaken the storm is come and that house that I built upon the sand is now washt away those that are Christ's he will enable to persevere to the end but I am fallen from grace I am an Apostate if I had any share in the Intercession of the Great Redeemer he would not leave me thus sad and desolate I thought that I had been planted in his Vineyard and brought forth fruit but now I am cut down as a barren tree Oh how greatly have I been deceived that imagined my self to be an Heir of Heaven and am now seizd with the pangs of Hell I now see that I was never right never born again never renewed by the Spirit never changed from death to life And Oh
his deliverance or to obtain his mercy If he had never come to our relief till he saw something in us to invite him we had not yet been relieved No more did we contribute to our Restoration then we do to the rising of the Sun or the approach of day We were like those dry bones without motion and without strength Ezek 37.1 And we also said That we were cut off for our parts and our hope was gone and he caused breath to enter into us and we live Who is a God like to our God that pardoneth iniquity transgression and sin that retains not his anger for ever that is slow to wrath and delights in mercy That has been displeased with us for a moment but gives us hope of his Everlasting kindness Oh! what love is due from us to Christ that has pleaded for us when we our selves had nothing to say that has brought us out of a den of Lions and from the Iaws of the Roaring Lion To say as Mrs. Sarah Wight * See her Life written by Mr. Jesse pag 40. I have obtained mercy that thought my time of mercy past for ever I have hope of heaven that thought I was already damned by unbelief I said many a time there is no hope in thine end and I thought I saw it I was so desperate I cared not what became of me Oft was I at the very brink of death and hell even at the very Gates of both and then Christ shut them I was as Daniel in the Lions Den and he stopt the mouth of those Lions and delivered me The Goodness of God is unsearchable how great is the excellency of his Majesty that yet he would look upon such an one as I that he has given me peace that was full of terror and walked continually as amidst fire and brimstone 2. Let us walk humbly and be full of cautious fear that we offend not a God that is so terrible and that we grieve not a Benefactor that is so good Let us walk softly all our days remembring there was but a step between us and Hell Oh! let us put our mouths in the dust let us lothe and abhor our selves for the manifold iniquities that we were guilty of during the darkness of the Night and now the Morning is come and such a Morning as we never hoped to see let us walk as children of the day that so being come out of the Furnace we may be as Gold that is refined 3. Tho we do rejoice yet we must rejoice with trembling with trembling lest another Night so black so frightful and so dismal come upon us Let our obedience be more lively and as the tender grass springing out of the Earth by clear shining after rain but let us remember that our joy is not yet perfect tho it be as the light of the Morning when the Sun riseth It is not a Morning without clouds 2. Sam. 23.4 The Sun will be Clouded with many Fogs and Mists for 't is but yet a Morning-Sun it will shine with greater glory in its height when the Noon-day and our compleat Salvation comes The Devil that has tempted us will assault us again Let us watch that his designs may not take effect for it may be he has but left us for a season alas our unbelief and our other sins are not yet wholly dead Let us rejoice that the Face of God now shines on us but let us tremble to think what would become of us should it be hid again Let us rejoice that we have good hope through grace but let us tremble lest despair and the pains of Hell should again take hold upon us The fear that we have of future suffering does somewhat now diminish the brightness of our joy tho we ought not to live under the perpetual bondage of such fears but trust in God and hope that he will be our guide even unto death We are brought indeed out of the miry pit and the deep clay yet we cannot but tremble at our foregoing misery We are like a Person that after a Shipwreck has with great difficulty upon a Plank got safe to Land he finds himself in a place assured and rejoyces in it nevertheless the noise of the Waves and the great agitation that he was so lately in makes him tremble He remains a good while astonished at his former danger and his present safety Let us not have a trembling of distrust but of vigilance and of holy care not to doubt of the Promises of God but to keep down our own pride and carnal security Let us pray that as he has set our feet upon a rock so he would establish our goings remembring how low we have fallen into what depths and under what Calamities we have constant cause to be afraid Ps 149.6 Let the high praises of God be in our mouths and a two-edged Sword in our hands Let us be as those Soldiers who tho they have newly gotten the victory over their Enemies and rejoice for it yet amidst all their Acclamations stand upon their guard lest the remainder of those that are unsubdued should rally their scattered Forces and attacque them again to their disadvantage 3. We must be very active in the service of our good God We must begin to travel whilst the morning lasts and whilst we have day before us 4. Our mouths must be full of praise to him that has delivered us Shall we not praise him to whom we vowed praises when we were in trouble Shall we not praise him who alone has wrought salvation for us none but he could help us and he has done it Magnificently has he delivered us far above all our hopes Oh how much more pleasant is it to you and me to call him Father than to fear him as a Judge How much more pleasant to celebrate his praises than to mourn for his departure to tune our Harps after our Captivity than to have them hanging on the Willows Oh Let us praise him for he deserves our praise Let us praise him for he hath remembred us in our low estate Let us praise him for his Terrors his Rebukes and his Frowns are gone Psal 116.1 2 c Psal 37.6 The Lightning and Thunder the horror and the darkness of the tempestuous night is over and a chearful and a calm day now revives us Let us praise him for he is infinitely excellent Let us praise him for he expects our praise So David Psal 116 1 2 3 5. I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications because he hath inclined his ear to me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live the sorrows of death compassed me and the pains of hell gat hold upon me I found trouble and sorrow Gracious is the Lord and righteous yea our God is merciful And Ps 27.6 Now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemines round about me Therefore will I offer in his Tabernacle