which is first to banish a poor soul and then devise means to bring them back again to him So that if this be Gods discipline and Christ give thee up to languish under terrors and fears and so to hold thee under holiness Then thou concludest wrong that therefore God will cast thee off 4. Consider affliction of spirit may rise from other causes and not because I am cast off of God And God hath gracious ends in hiding himself from a soul and not the deserting or utter forsaking of a soul In what respect a man may say he hath no grace 1. Thou maist say thou hast no grace in comparison of other men because thou hast the same means and hast not so much grace as thou conceivest must thou therefore say thou hast no grace What if they have more need of it It may be they may be of a more perverse spirit more proud stubborn or selfish more apt to run aside from God And so have need of more Nay it may be they have more temptations in the way of their callings or more oppositions from carnal freinds or enemies then thou hast 2. Thou mayst say thou hast no grace in regard of sutableness to the means thou hast had as Hebr. 5,12 For whereas for the time you ought to have been teachers ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the Oracles of God And are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat When thou complainest I have had a great deal of means and am not grown under it sutable to the means I have had This is a good trouble for herein is thy spirit poor And spiritual poverty never casts thee off from God 3 Thou mayst complain thou hast no grace in respect of thy desires and purpose of heart Thou hast over bidden thy self man and that troubles thee I did hope to have gotten further in Gods waies by this time then I have done To have over-mastered such a lust To have had more self-denial To have glorified God better in my place I can get my heart to nothing I had hoped I should have been better content with crosses and born affliction with more patience then I do Now thus to be afflicted is acceptable to God Suppose a weak sickly child should sit weeping in the chimney corner and being asked what aild it it should answer why I had hoped by this time to have done my father better service and to have been more useful to him He is tender of me and I can do nothing in requital of his love again Now the father of this child seeing its affection takes it as kindly as if it did perform what it desires So it is with God 2. Cor. 8.12 If there be first a willing minde it is accepted according to what a man hath and not according to what he hath not So that now for this we must not judge our selves cast off of God God would not have us lye for his glory Rom. 3.7.8 nor our salvation much less for damnation Again consider what ends the Lord hath in keeping close his countenance and hiding his face sometimes from a soul that is dear to him Gods ends in hiding his face from a soul 1. To bring such a soul to self examination to look narrowly into their own hearts and to search out some corruption which it may be they do not see for the present And it is a great benefit to have discovery made of those traitors that lie lurking within that a man seeth not And this God usually brings the soul to by hiding his countenance Psal 77. When the spirit of the Psalmist was overwhelmed and the thought of God troubled him and his soul refused to be comforted Ard he cried unto God and still his sore ran in the night and ceased not and his eies were held waking and he was so troubled tha he could not speak as ver 1.2.3.4 Now saith he in the 6. vers I commune with mine own heart and my spirit made diligent SEARCH Now he falleth a Searching what the matter was And inquires will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy clean gone for ever and doth his promise fail for evermore hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies Selah Mark here upon serious search he durst not tax God nor his mercy nor promise But mark he finds it out now where it was ver 10. And I said This is my infirmity By this means he finds out some weakness in the soul which before he saw not So that this was beneficial to him for God would have no sin harbour and lurk in the souls of his Saints 2. By this means the Lord brings a man or woman to the confession of sin And we are all proud by nature and are loth to come to acknowledge our sins Now the Scripture saith He that hideth his sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy And if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness Now God in mercy to a soul when he sees they are willing to connive and wink at some beloved sin which they would favour and are ready to say as David deal gently with the yong man Absalom or as Naaman The Lord be merciful to thy servant concerning this thing withdraws his face to shew them his dislike against every sin and to bring them to a free and willing confession of it So it was with David Psal 32.3.4.5 While I kept silence that is from acknowledging my sin my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moysture was turned into the drought of summer Selah I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Selah So Hosea 5.15 I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face Till then saith God I will hide my face 3. God sometimes hides his face that his people might see that they are nothing in and of themselves But that all their sufficiency is of God That they may see their own emptiness that they can do nothing bear nothing mannage nothing to Gods glory without a special assistance from God That they may learn to deny themselves and live upon him alone Isa 57.17 I hid me and was wroth saith the Lord and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart When God hides himself then the frowardness of the heart appears So hereby the servants of God are kept humble from self glorying or boasting 4. Sometimes the Lord by the hiding of his countenance trieth the graces of his spirit in his servants that it may appear to
them that they are sound right works As sometimes he tries their faith by this means Isa 50.10.11 Is there any among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his servants that walketh in darkness and hath no light Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God To try if they will hold and hang upon him and follow him though he frown upon them as the woman of Canaan did That he may say to them at last as he did to her great is thy faith And this will be a sweet satisfaction to them when they come to see that though they saw not Gods face yet they found his grace to enable them to wait upon him in dark times It is a pretious thing to have faith tried 1 Pet. 1.7 and this way God trieth it Again hereby God trieth the sincerity of your love to him As Cant. 5.6.7.8 When Christ had withdrawn himself from his spouse she fals sick of love it works she could not be quiet nor satisfied without him her affection runs out after him though she wanted the discovery of him and this affection of hers puts her upon a constant seeking of him as Cant. 3.1.2 By night upon my bed I sought him whom my soul loved I sought him but I found him not I will rise now and go about the city and seek him whom my soul loveth c. It tryeth their sincerity whether they will stick close to his work though they see no reward as that place Isa 50.10.11 Whether they will fear the Lord and obey him though he hide himself 5. Sometimes the Lord doth it to bring thee to the sight of thy Negligence deadness dulness Security Sencelesness that you are apt to slip into And to make thee see thy unkind dealing with him that putst him off with idle excuses for self ends when he would have manifested himself So Cant. 5. When Christ had withdrawn himself then she comes to remember how unkind she was to let him call and beg for admittance and wait till his head was filled with the dew and his locks with the drops of the night She could make excuses when he was so neer her I have put off my coat how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them But when he was gone then she remembreth her slothfulness with sorrow and then she confesseth her Negligence my soul failed when he spake vers 6. As if she had said My heart smote me I knew it was he yet this sleepy spirit of mine overcame me and now I must smart for it 6. That the Soul might prize him the more when he manifests himself again to the soul that there might be the sweeter imbraces between him and the soul As it is with a perverse child the mother sometimes is fain to hide her self from it and call for the Bug-bear to take it that it may be quiet and more esteem of the mother when it hath her again The child cryes out as if she were quite gone but she stands neerer it then it is aware of she intends not to forsake it So the people of God in their dark times greatly mistake to say God hath utterly forsaken them Isa 49.13.14 Sion said the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me Here is the poor Discouraged souls conclusion But what saith the Answer of God to it Can a woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion upon the son of her womb Yea they may yet will not I forget thee saith the Lord. When we look upon the countenance of God as we do upon the Sun shining every day as a common thing then he clouds himself from us that we may learn to set an higher rate upon it and that there may be more endeared imbracings when we meet with the Lord again Cant 3.4 After she had sought for her beloved and mist of him at last saith she I found him Whom my soul loveth and how was she affected then Oh saith she I held him and would not let him go c. Then she Clings to him with more delight and affection then ever So the bowels of the Lord as I may so speak do more yearn upon a poor soul after his withdrawings then ever as Isa 54.6,7,8 The Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth when thou wast refused saith thy God This is a sad time But now mark how he makes up for this For a SMALL moment have I forsaken thee But with GREAT MERCYES I will gather thee In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer 7. The Lord hides himself sometimes from a poor soul for the regulating of the prayers and desires of his people Many times we are begging and crying for things of lesser consequence and our minds are much upon the serving of self Now God would have us to seek him his face and countenance as the chiefest thing Therefore sometimes withdrawes that he may draw up our prayers higher and put our affections into better order then they were Hos 5.15 I will go and return to my place till they seek my face In their affliction they will seek me early Now it is Gods command to seek his Face evermore Psal 105.4 8. That his Excellency Sweetness Beauty Loveliness might be set forth by those that want the manifestations of his countenance unto others that take notice of their distempered sad condition that they may be moved also to seek after his discoveries God is pleased by this means sometimes to sweeten himself to others that stand by and behold the agony poor souls are in for want of his love manifested to them And to stir up their Spirits to look after him He is pleased to help such distressed men to preach him forth sweetly for the winning of others to him This you may see at large Cant. 5. The spouse after she was raised from her drousiness and sees Christ was gone she is extreamly troubled Sick of love as vers 8. Whereupon the daughters of Jerusalem inquire what is thy beloved more then another beloved O thou fairest among women What is thy beloved more then another beloved that thou dost so charge us What is He a None-such may not another serve thy turn as well as he What is in him more then is in another See now what glorious apprehensions she had of him now in his absence And how she preacheth him unto them to the affecting of their hearts vers 10. c. My beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand his head is as the most fine gold c. And so she goes on in a glorious commendation of him to the end of the Chapter And vers ult saith she He is altogether lovely or all delights This is my beloved and this is
A DISCOVERY OF SOME Troublesome Thoughts WHEREWITH Many Godly precious Souls are burthened and extreamly pressed that like a Canker eats out all their Comforts and keeps their Souls under continuall fears and Distractions Together with a Compound of some Scripture and experimentall Cordials for the refreshing of those who are sick of such a disease and through the blessing of God may prove medicinall to the Cure of some and the Comforting of others By Daniel King Preacher of the Word Isa 54.11,12,13 Oh thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted behold I will lay thy stones with fair colours and lay thy foundations with Saphirs And I will make thy windows of Agats and thy gates of Carbuncles and all thy borders of pleasant stones And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD and great shall be the peace of thy children London Printed and are to be sold neer the Temple in Fleet-street 1651. To all poor souls who are troubled and tossed in Spirit Especially Zions members that are in such a Condition PRecious Saints and faithfull souls The Lord by his providence bringing me to London and haveing occasion to continue there a time I was solicited by some dear to me to set pen to Paper upon another subject which I was not willing to do at that present But yet I thought it my duty to imploy my self in the service of Christ and his people any way as might tend to the Glory of the one and the benefit of the other In diverse parts of the City and Suburbs thereof came news to me of some whose hearts were exceedingly shaken with doubts and scruples and fears concerning the condition of their Souls some of which are in Communion with the Churches of Christ nicknamed Anabaptists some hearing among them confessing the truth and acknowledging the way of worship practised by them to be of God desirous to be one with them But onely that scruples concerning their own condition wanting the assurance of their Justification and reconciliation to God keeps them off Whose condition divers brethren Question not but to be good and their souls dear to God onely they could not see it themselves Just like the Disciples here Christ was at hand and they thought it was some other apparition And so through mistake were exceedingly troubled And therefore I set upon this piece of work being moved thereto from three or four considerable reasons 1. Because he that is in affliction ought to be comforted of his neighbour Job 6.14 Prov. 18.14 And what Affliction like Affliction of spirit And who is my neighbour but he that shewes mercy to me And truly I cannot but pitty and tender those who are of the body of Christ in respect of Vnion with and in him And yet because of Affliction of Spirit dare not manifest their right to Communion It is an Argument of a dead member not to be sensible of the pain of others that suffer Weep with them that weep saith the Apostle And it is some comfort to a sad discouraged soul when God gives his people a heart to condole their Condition Lam. 1.12 When they are not forgotten of the Saints 2. Because after I had mentioned my Intention in this thing to those that moved me to the other task themselves and others were well satisfied and desirous that I should hasten in the work as fast as I could whereupon I perceived I had a Call to it by them 3. Because I saw I was bound to it as my duty laid upon me by God himself according to the Ability given me to draw it forth this way as well as otherwise Seeing God saith Isa 40.1.2 Comfort ye Comfort ye my people saith your God Speak to the heart of Jerusalem tell her her Iniquity it pardoned c. Shewing that Jerusalem questioned her pardon or was ignorant of it And that the servants of God which he had enabled for the work should declare it to her and speak to her heart that was troubled that she might be setled And saith the Apostle Comfort the feeble minded 2 Thes 5.14 And many other Scriptures to this purpose 4. To be a Testimoniall to Brethren and friends from whom I am absent that I have not spent my time idly about vain pleasures though I have not been with them but was willing to set forward the work of God in one kind or other that might be Vsefull And now to you poor troubled Souls whose hearts are heavy and whose souls bleed with sorrows and are full of fears who languish under terrors I know the objections and scruples of your hearts are numerous and of various shapes now appearing in one shape then in another Think not that I can speak to every thought or doubt that may trouble you I have only spoken to such as seem to me and that by some experience of my own also to be the ground-work or Foundation of most of your fears and shakings And indeed for the present neither time nor convenient opportunity would give me leave to adde any more I beseech you deal plainly with your hearts Read this Treatise it may be you may light of somewhat that may refresh your spirits Take heed of beleeving Satan or your own hearts but beleeve the Lord speaking in the Scripture the Words of God Do not dear friends refuse to be comforted when God tenders Comforts to you The more your hearts are lifted up with spirituall Joy the more cheerfully you will walk with God Look up to God for a blessing when you read It may be he may open your Vnderstandings to understand the Scriptures and the dealings of God with his People and to know them for your selves Luke 24. Despair not though you have been dead in your hearts not like Lazarus in body two dayes or four dayes but many dayes but remember Christ will have the glory in raising you Vp And I beseech you when God hath lifted up your heads or rather hearts remember me who am often to the grief of my heart troubled with captivating rebelling flesh Rom. 7. shewing it self present when I would and should do good Intreat that God that is the God of all consolation and comforts you to Quicken me and carry me through in his work 2 Cor. 1. But to those who pretend troublesome times because they would seem Saints that like Dissembling beggars make themselves sores where none are to maintain their Irregular life That delight in sin and evil courses and would have Gods Countenance shine upon them and assurance of Salvation be given to them that they might with the more freedom and boldness run on in the way of wickedness would have the Wages but cannot endure the work Desire the end but care not for the way or means that tends to that end cry Hosanna to Christ with their mouthes but crucifie him in heart and life Christ is lovely to them as a Priest to save them but tell them of his
spirit thou art made unfit for Gods consolations to receive them or rejoyce in him it is distastefull to thee As he that taketh away a garment in cold woather and as vinegar upon nitre so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart Prov. 25.20 It will not be born Therefore mark when God sends Moses with a message of mercy to Israel and he delivered it according to Gods Command yet they harkned not to him what was the matter Why for anguish of spirit and sore bondage That unfitted them for the beleeving the message of God and receiving mercy And the Psalmist in his overwhelmings of spirit Psal 77. saith My soul refused to be comforted 6. Because Christ took their troubles upon him and bare them Therefore was his soul troubled Joh. 12.27 and 13.21 Surely he took our infirmities and carryed our sorrows saith the Prophet Isa 53. Therefore he would have us to rejoyce yea he would have his joy remain in his Disciples John 15.11 Now then if God be so tender and pittiful If holy rejoycing be so acceptable to him If trouble of spirit drives from God I mean discouragement and be contrary to communion If it deadens the actings of the works of the spirit If it makes the soul unfit for Gods consolations If Christ have born our sorrows of purpose to ease us Then it must needs follow that Christ would not have his people discouraged But all these are true Therefore the other Objection But some may say The Apostle James 4.9 Biddeth Be afflicted mourn and weep And Christ saith Blessed are ye that mourn Therefore this cannot be so I answer that in James is his councel to those that had adulterated themselves with the world as appears by the former part of the Chapter and this mourning is nothing but repentance Godly sorrow which Paul was glad was in the Corinthians But the sorrow we speak of is doubting discouraging sorrow of which James speaks not And that of Christ is a mourning in regard of afflictions and persecutions of the Gospel which they were to suffer for Christs sake or Godly sorrow and therefore declares them blessed Not to mourn with a distrustful distracting mourning So that it makes nothing against the point that Christ would not have his people lie under discouragements Object 2 But some may say again This is a needless poynt for the people of God in Gospel times are not troubled in their hearts I Answer Yea but they be which appears by these considerations 1. Because sometimes they want that measure of comfort and joy that they should have and might have Col. 2.2 That their hearts might be comforted This was the end of Pauls conflict and Iohn 16.24 Aske and ye shall receive that your joy may be full This shews that their hearrs wanted comfort and their joy was not full Therefore their hearts are troubled in Gospel times 2. Because the Apostle took order that the people of God and Saints might be comforted Sometimes by sending men of purpose to them to comfort them which need not have been in case they had not wanted comfort Ephes 6.22 Paul declareth that he sent Tychicus of purpose to them among other things To comfort their hearts And the same man counselleth the Corinthians 2 Corin. 13.11 to be of good comfort And he sent Tychicus to the Collossians to comfort their hearts Col. 4.8 And he sent Timothy to the Thessalonians to comfort them concerning their faith 1 Thes 3.2 And exhorteth them Chap. 4.18 to comfort one another and. 5.14 comfort the feeble minded Somtimes by praying that they might be comforted 1 Thes 2.17 Now our Lord Jesus Christ and God even our Father comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work This labor and prayers might have been spared if saints wanted no comfort in Gospel times Uses of the point Now I come to Application 1. Of Information Is it so That Christ would not have his people lie under discouragements Then it informs us that we may boldly say and conclude that God is willing Christians should abound with the consolations of God It is the will of God you should have peace look up rejoyce and have consolation what I the Saints make a question whether it be not Gods will they should lie under sorrow and when terrors upon themselves and not take comfort of the good word of God when it is Gods minde they should beleive and be cheerful and rejoyce in God and not lie dejected but look up with Spiritual triumph in the Lord. But we cannot be perswaded of this lesson and hence we think we can never afflict our selves enough and rake into our hearts and study how to keep our selves from the consolations of God Take heed of this for this doth not please God that men should thus discourage themselves and be turned out of their right spiritual joy Lam. 3.31 The Lord will not cast off for ever But though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies for he doth not afflict willingly nor greive the children of men To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most high To subvert a man in his cause the Lord approveth not vers 32.33.34.35.36 All this is brought to this very scope to shew it doth not delight the Lord thou shouldst be oppressed and afflicted but rather rejoyce and take comfort the Lord approves not of thy subverting thy self in thy cause no more then of another subverting three It is against God that we should afflict our selves Let me tell thee It is utterly against God that we should afflict our selves and languish under terrors and affright our selves with the apprehensions of wrath All the reasons make it clear that God would have his people ioyful and chearful Nehemiah 8.10 The joy of the Lord is our strength So that this is against God in divers respects 1. It is against the nature of God which is filled up with Ingredients of goodness it is eight to one Exod. 34.6.7 I will make all my goodness pass before thee saith the Lord And he proclaimed The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gratious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity trangression and sin and that will by no meanes clear the guilty c. So that this argues that Gods nature in his dispensation towards us is mildness goodness sweetness However equal in himself yet towards us he hath magnified his word above all his Name Psal 138.2 Now his word declareth his attributes especially his attributes of grace 2. It is against his offices look into the order of the three persons and they all flow into this let poor-souls be comforted Here is the Father the fountain set open The sons merit that poor souls debt be paid The Spirits distribution for the supplying comforting of poor
my friend O daughters of Jerusalem See now how this takes upon their Spirits Chap. 6.1 Whether is thy beloved gone O thou fairest among women whither is thy beloved turned aside that we may seek him with thee Mark how his hiding himself from his spouse conduceth to the calling of other poor souls to the seeking after Christ When they see them mourning and grieving and complaining and cannot rest without him thinks the poor soul there is some excellency in him that we see not we will certainly go along to seek him with these poor souls he is worth seeking after And so it sets them a flame after him also The third thought is when the Soul complains it hath none of the Spirit Thirdly The third Thought that riseth in the heart to trouble the soul and perplex it is this I have none of the Spirit of God Now Christ commands John 4. To worship God in the spirit And Gal. 5.16 Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh and Jude 20. Praying in the holy ghost But how should I do this that have not the Spirit feel him not working nor quickening nor comforting me my heart is so dead and loose and weary in duty never carried up to heaven how can I but be troubled When you are carried with a fiery Chariot into heaven then you think you have the spirit But when a man moves in a lower Region he thinks he hath it not I shall speak to this 1. Generally 2. More Particularly Generall observations to this case Generally thus 1. That it is a very good thing to have the Spirit or to miss it As in hearing the word in prayer conference Meditation c. Either to feel a man hath it or to feel he wants it And the worst of these is better then to rest in a duty shaped out of your own Brain consisting in an empty sound of expressions and words For ye must take heed ye do not content your selves with shadowes and phrases without the Spirit For God doth not know the meaning of such duties Rom. 8. 2. Consider the spirit hath a manifold work in the hearts of the children of God Now a man cannot reason from the want of such a fruit of the Spirit as joy or peace c. that therefore he hath not the Spirit Ye cannot reason thus A man doth not Laugh Therefore he doth not Live Weeping is a sign of life as well as laughter So it is in this Case The sense of sin may argue the Spirit of God to be in you as well as the feeling of Joy Zach. 12 10. I will pour upon them the SPIRIT of grace and the Spirit of supplications And they shall look upon me whom they have peirced and shall MOVRN for him as one mourneth for his onely Son And be in BITTERNES c. The Spirit is a Spirit of variety 1 Cor. 12. Giving to one this gift to another that gift to one Humility Poverty of spirit Self deniall Godly sorrow to another Zeal and Courage and Joy c. And so it is oftentimes in the same man sometimes it is tuning his godly sorrow sometimes his joy sometimes his fear c. And this is one ground of the variety of conditions the Saints are in as David sometimes ye find him singing on the uppermost branch of the tree and sometimes hanging his wing in the bottome of the hedg Sometimes calling upon himself to praise the Lord seven times a day Psal 119.164 And sometimes crying out that he was cast out of Gods sight Psal 31.22 So Job sometimes professing though he kill me yet will I trust in him Job 13.15 And sometimes changing his note If I had called and he had answered me yet I would not believe that he had hearkned to my voice Job 9.16 The Church spoken of in the Lamentations Sometimes lamenting my strength and my HOPE is perished from the Lord Lam. 3.18.22 and sometimes again confessing I have HOPE Paul had the spirit as well in his buffetings as in his rejoycings And David when he prayed restore to me the joy of thy salvation as when he felt it Psal 51. The Spirit led Christ to be tempted as well as supported him and brought him back into Galilee Luke 4.1 c. A man may have the spirit in the Fight as well as in the Triumph He hath the spirit that soweth to the spirit in Tears as well as he that reaps in joy Psal 126.5.6 Therefore you may be mistaken in saying you have not the spirit seing it works so variously 3. This spirit may exercise it self in thee in duties one way though it be not felt but another way as in prayer sometimes tuning thy love sometimes thy hatred sometimes thy humility sometimes thy joy Therefore do not wrong the spirit of God and say it is from home because you feel not joy Do not say it is idle for it may be working in another room tuning another grace If a man should alwaies touch one key he should never play various tunes Now our hearts are Gods Harps Rev. 14.2 and 15.2 And therefore if God should not tune them variously there would be no melody And if the spirit be not setting up a candle in thee it may be scouring of a candle-stick I mean If it be not filling thy heart with joy it may be preparing thy heart for joy 4. There may be workings of the spirit in the heart and yet ye may not perceive it is the working of the spirit As in a peice of blunt money that ye can see no mark upon you will say by the bigness it should be such a piece six pence or a nine-pence but I can see nothing upon it So there may be workings of the spirit that are not seen for the present and yet afterward when the spirit worketh another way then thou maist perceive that this was of the spirit Luk. 24. The disciples that went to Emmaus knew not Christ while he was opening the Scriptures to them which was the likeliest time yet they knew him in breaking bread And then they could call to minde the burning of their hearts by the way Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us by the way and opened to us the Scriptures ver 32. just as it is in our businesses in the world many secret providences which a man doth not see to be a providence till after by some other issue he cals it to minde and sees it a providence So God hath his glory at last As Zaccheus climbing up into the figtree what could a man pick out of it till afterward that Christ tells him he must abide at his house then it appeared to be a providence So in the Disciples being so importunate with Christ to stay when he made as if he would have gone further they saw nothing in it for the present but afterward when Christ
find the Lord He lookt behind him before him on both hands but to no purpose And so the Church Cant. 3.1 2. By night on my bed I sought him whom my sould loveth I sought him but I found him not c. She 's industrious but finds him alone Causes why God keeps off What should be the reason may some say that the Lord should keep aloof off when a man sets himself so seriously about it I mean to find him 1. Because God would have the creature know that he is free in working He is not tied to come to preparations or qualifications of the creature but to his own preparations The preparations of the heart and the answer of the tougue is from the Lord saith Salomon Prov. 16.1 2. He would let his people know that he will be waited on to come in when he pleases yet the creature must do his duty Seek the Lord and his strength seek his face evermore Psal 105.5 Paul prayed thrice before he had an Answer of grace 2 Cor. 12. 3. Many times the people of God have too much self-ends in their duties and the Lord would have them to see it Zach. 7.5 Did you fast unto me even unto me saith the Lord. And did you not eat for your selves and drink for your selves It may be self-love may drive a man to it to obtain some blessing that he wants rather then to enjoy God himself And God would shew him this errour and take him off from it 4. That they may see their former Slothfulness and Negligence Cant. 5. When Christ had waited and called for admittance and could not have it he withdraws to let his Spouse see how he did distaste her Sloth and Neglect and Excuses 5. That he might be the sweeter to thee when he comes in again and that thou mightest stick the closer to him when thou hast found him again 6. To try thy Faith and Patience and Constancy whether thou wilt persevere in following him and wait upon him as the woman of Canaan did though thou have repulse after repulse and little hopes in reason yet to try if thy faith can conquer reason And that thy faith may be seen with the greater lustre when it is tried For God by delaying and putting off discovers to you the temper of your Spirits whether you will willingly wait the Lords leasure or whether you will fret and fume and wait no longer As we do sometimes by beggers put them off or give them no answer and if they be indeed in great wants and of meek spirits they will lament and weep and be thankful for a little when it comes But your stout sturdy beggers when they are not answered they will fall a reviling and cursing and give high words so that by delaying you may see their spirits So doth the Lord by this means shew you your spirits and temper of heart The ninth ground of fear 9. He complaines he hath hurt the cause of God when God hath brought him upon the stage to have done something for God perhaps to have suffered And so his Soul is wounded and he fears his condition And did not Peter do so Did not he fly off when all had forsaken Christ and break his word and resolution and shamefully deny his Master contrary to his former profession So Moses and Aaron Num. 20.12 Because ye believed me not to sanctify me in the eies of the children of Israel saith God Therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the Land c. These men hurt the cause of God and failed when they should have stuck to it and yet all real converts The 10. ground of fear 10. You cry out you have oftentimes relaps't into the same sins which formerly you have pursued with particular sorrow and grief and prayed and resolved against them and that makes you question the truth of your state This is indeed a sad condition But this doth not prove thy state naught for it hath been the case of the servants of God sometimes Therefore ye have this confession Our backslidings are many so that you see it was oftentimes again and again The Prophet Jonah relapsed into passion and discontent with God He was discontent with the work God set him about therefore he flieth to Tarshish Jonah 1.2.3 And sorrowes for it and confesseth Chap. 2.8 They that trust upon lying vanities forsake their own mercies yet see Chap. 3.1 When God had shewed mercy to Niniveh how discontent he was with the Lord again It displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry And when the Lord that might have confounded him reasons sweetly and mildly with him to take him off from his passion as appears Chap. 3.3.4 and provides for him what he wants yet upon a small occasion again the taking away of a gourd or shrub and the Lord had a gracious end in it too the convincing of him of his folly in being so waspish he breaks out again into the same passion or worse as if he had never seen the evill of i◠or been humbled for it Chap. 4.8.9 I am greatly angry Or I do well to be angry even unto death saith he See how often he relapsed into this sin and Peter denieth Christ not only once but again and again †And perhaps the prodigal sets out unto us a Christian relapst for he was a son before and with his Father and then went away from him and spent all And yet he was not quite undone but returned again And this comes to pass sometimes 1. To let you see your own weaknes that you can do nothing of your selves cannot withstand nor resist nor overcome that ye may be taken off of all false confidences and rest upon God and God alone for help That ye may resist stedfast in the faith 2. For the advancement of the praise and honour of the wisdome skill and goodness of God the Physitian of our souls that can and doth cure when the disease is more dangerous when thou art relaps't and it grows worse and worse as in curing the woman that had the bloody Issue that was worse and worse notwithstanding all the means she used till she came to Christ 3. This advanceth his Mercy the more that he doth not quite forsake thee when thou hast done what thou canst to drive him away as Micha 7.18.19 Who is a God like unto thee that pardons Iniquity that passeth by the trangression of the remnant of his heritage He retains not his anger for ever because he delights in mercy Oh but I have relaps't and driven him away saith the poor soul But mark now ver 19. He will turn again he will have compassion on us he will subdue our Iniquities and thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the Sea And the prodigal saw the compassion of his Father the greater in receiving him again after he had run away from him The eleventh ground of fear 11. He hath