down his life for me voluntarily and meritoriously and laid himself down very low to be my Saviour therefore why O my soul shouldst thou be cast down excessively for sin It is true O my soul if thou hadst been to die and to have purchased thy own redemption to have been thy own Saviour and if the waight and the extreme burden of thy sins had been to be laid upon thy own shoulders and if thou hadst been to have made perfect satisfaction to divine justice in thy own person if thou hadst been obliged to have kept the whole Law perfectly and if thou hadst been for to make a full recompence for the wrong and evil that thou hast done and thou wast to offer the fruit of thy body for the sin of thy soul yet this would not doe nor procure the least satifaction nor make the least compensation and recompence for the evil thou hast done Now if this were thy case to be thy own mediator and thy own intercessor and to have thy blood spilt for thy sins if this was thy case thou hadst cause to be excessively cast down for sin A finite creature can never make satisfaction to infinite justice Could I give a thousand Rams ten thousand Rivers of Oyl yet I could not make an attonement or give a sufficient ransome for my redemption But it is far otherwise the quite contrary is thy portion not thy case Here O my soul is thy case which may abundantly administer thee comfort the blood the precious blood of Jesus Christ is laid down for sin that thou maist not excessively be cast down for sin and thou maist draw abundance of comfort satisfaction from this consideration First Consider with thy self O my soul Jesus Christ did not shed his precious blood for himself but for me he did like a good shepherd lay down his life for his sheep Joh. 10. 15. Secondly Consider that God the Father did accept of the laying down of his life in this behalf Joh. 10 17. The Father loves him because he laid down his life Thirdly Consider and reason with thy self O my soul What though there are great arguments to greaten sin and to heighten sin so there are many great arguments to greaten the mercy of God in Christ Are thy sins great the mercies of God are greater Doe thy sins deserve great punishments even eternal death the death of Jesus Christ and the merit of Christ are of infinite value to merit life even eternal life Are thy sins the sins of a man I but the satisfactions of Jesus Christ are the satisfactions of a God do thy sins merit the frowns of God O but Christs death doth merit and purchase the favour of God In a word as Christs Person doth excell thy person so doth his obedience infinitely exceed thy disobedience therefore said the Apostle Paul Rom. 5. 16. c. But the free gift is of many offences unto justification Here the Apostle intimates that though there is great guilt in sin yet there is greater mercy and merits in Christ for as by Adam there came sin and death so by Jesus Christ there came righteousness and life for as the wages of sin is death so the gift of God is eternall life through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6. 23. There is not so much guilt in sin as there is merit in Christ there is not so much guilt in sin to condemn as there is merit in Jesus Christ to save Therefore why shouldest thou be cast down O my soul Jesus Christ hath laid down his life for me and in laying down his life he hath made full satisfaction for sin unto his Father and though there are required more tears for sin by way of humiliation yet there wanteth no more blood for sin by way of satisfaction therefore be not thou excessively cast down for sin Thirdly Reason thus with thy own soul that thou maist not be too excessively cast down for sin O my soul consider excessive casting down may hinder thy soul from holy endeavours in suppressing and mortifying of sin It is the policy and subtilty of the Devil to draw men to run into extreams sometimes the Devil draweth men to possess them so with the reigning power of sin as that they shall never so much as think of the guilt of sin and sometimes to possess them so with the power of sin as not to be able so much as to look at the pardon of sin I may say to thee as God to Joshua chap. 7. 10. Get thee up why liest thou on thy face it was fit Joshua should be cast down at the disaster but not be taken off from pursuing the enemy Therefore reason and say O my soul it doth not become thee to be cast down excessively under the guilt of sin but to lift up thy self against it by resting upon God Fourthly Reason thus with thy soul O my soul consider are not these dejections of minde are not these excessive castings down for sin exceeding great disparagement to Gods free grace and mercy and to Christs merits if a man that is a thirsty shall come to the Sea the mighty Ocean to seek water and when he comes there to be cast down with the thoughts that all the water in the Sea cannot quench his thirst this would render the Sea to be but an empty thing so thou to be troubled and to be exceedingly and excessively cast down for sin and to think that the mercy in God and the merits of Christ cannot comfort and bear up thy dejected soul this doth exceedingly disparage the mighty Ocean of Gods mercies and Christs merits for thee to think that thy sins do out-vye mercy and out-strip free grace In the time of the Law the Mercy-seat did wholly cover the Ark where the Law was kept to shew that if a man doth violate not only one command but every command of the Law yet all that might be covered over with mercy and notwithstanding the violation of the Law they had a Mercy-Seat to go to though we do violate all the Law all the commands of God yet this Law is covered all over with mercy the mercy of God is far above thy dejections The red Sea did dround Pharaoh and all his Host with as much ease as it could dround one man so can the red Sea of Christs blood drown every sin though they were mountains of transgressions as well as the least sin In Psal 25. 11. For thy Name sake O Lord pardon my iniquity for it is great it is a word in the Hebrew emphaticall we reade it for it is great but it may be rèad though it be great for the sake of thy Name O Lord pardon thou my iniquities because they or although they are multiplied or therefore thou wilt pardon them because they are great Fifthly Reason thus with thy soul why wilt thou cast thy self down O my soul especially considering that the casting down of the soul doth cast down
grievously vext and disquieted under the guilt of sin I beseech you follow me a while There are six Consolatory rules to be laid down for to comfort a godly man that is disquieted in soul under the guilt of sin First Take this Rule for to comfort thee if the power of thy sin do not prevail over thee thou maiest be sure the guilt of thy sin shall never damn thee why then think if sin hath not a domineering power in the filth of it shall never have a damning power in the guilt of it O thou mortified Christian it may be thou art troubled at what thou hast doâ—e when thou wast a child but hast thou mortified those sins then my soul for thine those sins thou hast destroyed shall never damn thee it may be thou art troubled about the guilt when thou hast destroyed the power O lift up thy head the guilt shall never damn thee when the power doth not prevail over thee Secondly It is better for a Christian to have a soul troubled too much for sin then too little or nothing at all for sin It is better to have a troubled and a terrified conscience then to have a stupified conscience better to have a sore then a seared conscience better to have the conscience raw and gauled then to have it benumbed and no way sensible of the evil of sin Why beloved there is more hope of a soul in a spiritual Feaver that is in disquiet that is raging by reason of the accusation of conscience that is lying under trouble and disquietness of his own apprehension then of him that lies under a spiritual Lethargy sleeping and snorting in his sins which doth never trouble him a wound that hath raw and quick flesh in it it will easier be heal'd then a wound that hath proud and dead flesh in it if thy Conscience be dead flesh thou art not so neer healing as when thy Conscience is raw and gauled flesh it was one mark of Leprosie that was unclean if there was dead flesh in the sore noting a benumbed and a stupified Conscience argues an unclean Leper one in a state of nature It is better to have God's Officer conscience to be over busie to be too much checking and curbing thee then to have no office of Conscience stirring in thee This is another consideration for the comforting of an afflicted soul Thirdly Observe this Rule for the comforting of thy soul under trouble of mind consider that God's mercy and Christ's merits in the pardoning the guilt of thy sin thou hast committed is far greater then the greatnesse of thine own guilt Rom. 5. 15. But not as the offence so is the free gift for if through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded to many The meaning is That that gift Jesus Christ the value and worth of man did far exceed the guilt and evil of sin it is expressed in Psal 32. he that trusteth on the Lord mercy shall compasse him round about My own fault is very great but God's grace and mercy is far greater God when he is said to pardon sin in Micah 7. 18. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgressions of his people he retaineth not anger because be delighteth in mercy He is said to throw them into the bottom of the Sea the red Sea could as easily drown Pharaoh and his host as well as one single man Beloved the red Sea of Christ's blood can as well cover an Army an Host of sins as well as one single sin the Sea can as well cover the Whale as lesser fishes the Sea of Christ's blood can cover great sins as well as small David makes it an argument Psal 25. 11. For thy name sake O Lord pardon mine iniquity for it is great Pardon my sin for it is great That is although it is great and so you have often the particle used in Scripture the Lord would not punish man for the imaginations of his heart is evil that is though his heart be evil It is observed that the Ark wherein the moral Law was kept the mercy seat covered the whole Ark wherein the Law was kept to note Beloved that Jesus Christ the mercy of God and merits of Christ it provides a propitiation a covering of all the breach of the Law the mercy seat is broad and large enough to cover all therefore let this be of great comfort Fourthly Observe this That the more trouble of mind thou dost lie under for the present in the sense of sin the lesse trouble thou shalt have in the future God doth with his People as Land-Lords do with their Tenants if a Land-Lord take a great Fine at the first coming into the house he doth take the less yearly rent for the future God takes of you a great Fine at the first he maketh sin cost thee many a tear many a nights trouble many a days disquiet the greater Fine God taketh of thee the less yearly rent he expects of thee the more thou art troubled for the present the less fear and torment shall be thy portion hereafter am I troubled now it is that I might have more peace when I come to die that in the residue of my days I might have joy and peace in believing O think then if God upon thy first coming into Christ maketh thee pay dear for thy sin and maketh thee smart for it why there is less sorrow and trouble for thee in the time to come Fifthly Art thou troubled in soul for sin take this comfort that the more thou art troubled for sin why thou art the neerer getting out from the Divel when the Divel maketh Conscience howl it is an argument the Divel is thrown out sin is thrown out When the Divel had a long continuance in the Child the Divel did not trouble the Child so much Marke 9. 26. And the spirit cryed and rent him sore and came out of him and he was as one dead insomuch that many said He is dead It is said that when the Divel came out of the Child then the Divel rent him sore and laid him down for dead O Beloved when the Divel is in a man when the strong man hath a full possession of a man the Divel doth not trouble him then As Stella saith The Divel would not have him suffer one touch of Conscience then but when the Divel is going out and sin is thrown out then the Divel rends a man and lays a man for dead this is the property of the Divel Gregory in his Comment upon the Book of Job hath a notable saying saith he Therefore the Divel doth more vehemently stir up fears and doubts in the heart because sin is thrown out of the heart O let this comfort thee Doth the Divel trouble thee more then ordinarily doth thy Conscience terrifie thee that thou
is thy casting down for sin too much because there is no spiritual disease so dark to the soul but there is comfort enough in the Gospel to support the soul under it When God shall call to thee and say Come to me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you Mat. 11. 28. And you to refuse to come to Jesus Christ and refuse and put off comfort from you you are then too much cast down for sin Fifthly Then is a man cast down too much for sin under the waight and sense and sight of sin when that sorrow for sin shall be an occasion to wrong and hurt and to disturbe the body by diseases and thus melancholy men are subjected too much to this distemper and herein they are too much to blame Many there are who make their tears their meat and drink so fill'd with tears that they cannot eat their bread with comfort There are many godly souls so troubled with sorrow for sin that they have no comfort and joy of heart in Job 20. 25. It is drawn and commeth our of the body the glistering sword commeth cut of his gall terrours are upon him Many men lie in the bitterness of their souls that they cannot eat one morsell of bread with joy Job 21. 25. Now God doth not require so much sorrow for sin as to eat out the comforts of a mans life and to disturbe the comforts of thy daies as to be so troubled and disquieted that they cannot sleep by night and not to take comfort in the day As it is said concerning Asaph Psal 77. 4. Thou holdest mine eyes waking I am so troubled I cannot speak When it is thus with you that you are so sore troubled so over much cast down it is excessive The Lord hath bid thee mourn not to wrack and crucifie thy body but thy lusts he calls thee to weep out thy sins strength and life not thy bodies strength and life God doth never require nor expect that any man should kill his body to save his soul through humiliation and sorrow for sin Sixthly Men are then cast down for sin too much-when a man is so far and so much cast down under the sight and sense of sin that he hath no mind at all to follow his particular calling now this is a sinful sorrow Sorrow for sin is not only sinful when it taketh you off from duties of godliness and Religion but when it taketh you off from your calling in the world and the reason is this as all Divines say That God doth never require any duty which belongs to our general calling as Christians to be inconsistent with our particular callings as Men Therefore if so be that your trouble of mind for sin hath been such as that it doth make you not to regard your particular calling as men in the world this is not accounted in Scripture a sorrow of sin necessary but immoderate and too much casting down for sin Seventhly They are too much cast down for sin when the amiable and admirable and comforting attributes of God are formidable and terrible to such men when we so think of sin as not to think on the divine attributes of God of the mercy of God of the goodnesse of God of the patience of God of the long-suffering of God of the faithfulness of God when men shall think so of God as if he were all justice all wrath without mercy good men have been overtaken with this fault Job was so Job 23. 15. Therefore am I troubled at his presence when I consider I am afraid of him Here Job tells you of the trouble of mind that he lay under that it made him afraid of God to be troubled at his presence and when he thought of him he was troubled at him One would think that to think on God is a comfort for a man to think that God is merciful to pardon my slong in faithful to keep Covenant with his people bountiful in God to supply his people strength in power to defend his people He is able to save them to the utmost one would think it should comfort one to think so on God But that presence that Moses could not endure to be without that presence Job could not endure to see and the reason was because of his guilt and his fears and doubting within him which cast him down too much And this was Asaph his case I remembred God and I was troubled Psal 77. 3. What the thoughts of God to trouble Asaph yes I remembred God and I was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed He might reason thus with himself I think that this God is a glorious and a terrible God a sin-revenging God and he seeth me and he marketh all my steps and he knoweth all my waies and he will reward all my doings therefore when I thought on God I was troubled at him O but the thoughts of God comforted Davids soul when I thought on thy name I was comforted said holy David Psal 99. 14. I but said Asaph when I thought on God I was troubled and Job when I thought on God on the Almighty I was afraid of him When the attributes of God shall trouble men to think of them and not encourage them and comfort them then is this sorrow too much casting down for sin But then Eighthly When under this sorrow for sin thou canst not look to God and blesse God for common mercies or special grace God gives thee mercies great mercies that thou maiest be rich and follows thee with mercies and blessings and loving kindnesses daily and his faithfulnesse is towards thee every moment and gives thee the world at will and yet for all this God not to have glory from thee shews thou art too much cast down for sin Whereas trouble and humiliation for sin if it be moderate and right it administers occasions to serve God and it doth occasion thee to blesse God and to give him glory for common mercies and special grace it doth occasion thee to glorifie God and draweth out the heart to serve God and to blesse him for the receit of mercies and when mercies have not this effect upon thee and when sorrow for sin worketh not this way it is immoderate sorrow and too much casting down for sin When God gives thee grace to assist thee against manifold temptations and to keep thee from the committing of manifold sins and to help thee against thy corruptions and to give thee grace to establish thy heart and yet not to bring up thy heart under thy sorrow to bless God this is a sinful sorrow If a man be upon his knees he may see heaven above and the earth beneath but for a man to lie flat upon his face he cannot see neither the heaven above nor any creature but only the earth below him So when God brings thee to thy knees for sin then you can see a gracious God
thy cry he will hear it he will answer thee Here is Gods promise upon their humiliation then in ver 22. Ye shall defile also the covering of the graven Images of silver and the ornament of thy molten Images of gold thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth thou shalt say unto it Get thee hence God maketh his people to mourn for sin and to cast them down for sin and to humble them under the sight and sense of sin and to make them to have indignation against sin and then to cast sin from them as a menstruous cloth And as it is with nurses when they would wean their children they will put some bitter thing upon the brest as Wormwood or Gall thereby to make the child to forsake the brest So God he puts bitter things upon those things which we account sweet he puts bitter potions upon the brest of our sinful delights that so he might wean his people from sucking any more at those poysonous brests which we so highly esteem in our corrupt nature You read of the prodigal son in Luk. 15. 16. when he was brought to those great straights and trouble that he desired to feed of the husks with the swine after he came to himself he desired to eat bread and be as one of the hired servants in his fathers house When God doth make his people smart for sin as the prodigal did in his absence from his fathers house when they are laid low for sin under the sense and sight of their sins as the prodigal was when they come to themselves again then they would be glad with the prodigal to prize their fathers house So the soul when he comes to be brought very low for sin then they come to set a high esteem on Jesus Christ It is very observable where humiliation for sin is mentioned there it is joyned with a detestation and segregation from sin Jam. 4 8. Joel 2. 12. Thirdly God puts sinners under the sight and sense of sin because it puts the soul to cast themselves and to rely upon Jesus Christ it is our necessity that puts us first upon the persuit after and relying upon Jesus Christ because we see that we are undone without Jesus Christ It is with us as it was with the Leprous persons that we read of in 2 Kings 7. 3. And there were four Leprous persons at the entring in of the gate and they said one to another Why sit we here untill we die If we say We will enter into the City then the famine is in the City and we shall die there and if we sit still here we die also Now therefore come and let us fall into the hâ—st of the Syrians if they save us alive we shall live and if they kill us we can but die I apply this here to this case here is the case If I die in a Christless state I am gone forever and undone to eternity and if I rest in confidence in the world that can afford no safety I wil therefore run to Jesus Christ that there I may have relief and that there I may ease me of my burden by resting upon Jesus Christ in his promise Fourthly God doth cast his people down under the sense of sin That so he might suppresse the lifting up the pride of our own hearts in the sight and apprehension of our own gifs when the Lord doth see a man to be lifted up within himself with pride with his gifts then God will hide his gifts and shew him his sin and lay him low and make him humble So was it with Paul he was a man of exceeding great parts and great gifts above other men even above all other men but only Jesus Christ and yet for all that he was apt to be proud and to be too much lifted up within himself in the apprehension of his own gifts and for this he had a thorn in his flesh to keep him humble lest he should be exalted above measure 2 Cor. 12. 7. So you read likewise in Psal 9 20. Put them in fear O Lord that the nations may know themselves to be but men Men of the greatest gifts have the greatest fears to keep down pride The Swan that hath white feathers hath black feet So those that have the greatest excellency shall have some manifest infirmity to keep them down as Heman was a man of excellent gifts 1 Kings 4. 31. yet see how God humbled him Psal 88. 7 15. ver Now God to cure his people of this distemper of spiritual pride he layeth them low and casteth them down under the sight and sense of sin Fifthly That thereby he might bring the hearts of his people to a more cleer sight and sensible and lively feeling of pardoning grace and mercy the deeper God is pleased to cast his people under the sense and sight of sin and the lower he layeth them under humiliation the higher will they exalt God in his pardoning grace and mercy After men are tossed at Sea in a tempest they prize the harbour God doth take that course with his people as t is reported Astronomers do take they do not lie on the tops of high mountains when they would take a view of the skie but they lie in the lowest vallies not in places which are nearest the heavens but in low places most remote from the heavens So God he doth not lift up his people at all times as upon mountains but layeth them low in the valley of humiliation and casts them low under the sight and sense of sin that thereby their hearts by faith might take a more cleere view of and sensibly and lively feel the free mercy and pardoning grace of God God doth cast you into low pits of humiliation that by that you may see the more cleerly Gods mercy and grace God plungeth his people under humiliation as you may read in Psal 44. 25. Our soul is bowed down to the dust our belly cleaveth to the earth And in verse 26. Arise O Lord for our help and redeem us for thy mercies sake Here you see the Church complains of the deepness of her sorrow the greatness of her humiliation their soul was bowed down even to the dust a great degree of casting down But what was Gods end in this greatly humbling of them it was to put them upon a more sensible feeling of Gods pardoning mercy and grace as it appears in these words Redeem us for thy mercies sake Mercy was precious and pardoning grace was precious when that they lay low under affliction and were deeply humbled sense and sight of sin and misery under which they lay made them to prize and highly esteem pardoning grace and mercy and this is an other reason why God doth lay his people low under the sight and sense of sin that they might esteem pardoning grace Sixthly To make them confess that there is more evil in sin then ever there was
the soul into such a frame to be cast down for sin and to have the soul humbled under the sight and sense of it Now there are three wayes that the Lord doth use for to cast down the souls of sinners and to humble them under the sight and sense of sin The first is this God doth let in a light into the understanding and sets on worke that great Officer of God in man his conscience which doth so smite the heart and convince the whole soul of the evil of his doings and makes the man to single out sin yea to single his master sin his beloved Dalilah his bosome lust that hath made him most guilty of the breach of the righteous Law and laid him most liable to the wrath of God he singles out that sin that hath been his companion all his days God doth not only make him to look upon sin in general because a general view of sin in the soul doth work in the soul a general repentance for sin but God doth by the light that he puts in the understanding and conscience single out thy sin thy dearly beloved sin and as it were bring it to thy understanding that it may understand the guilt and weight of it Therefore you read of some in their first conversion Acts 2. 37. they were guilty of many sins that they had committed I but God by setting their consciences on work did single out one sin in a special manner the sin the iniquity that they were most guilty of and that was the crucifying of the Lord of life You have it laid down in the 36. verse Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Whom ye have crucified there was the sin that came home to them to their hearts as you may read in the 37 verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts here they were taken in the sin that they were most guilty of God made their consciences to bring that in a most special manner and this troubled and pricked them at the very heart though they stood guilty of many great sins yet God laid that one great sin to their hearts that they might be humbled for that most of all So when the woman of Samaria came to Jesus Christ when he was at the Well speaking concerning her husbands he told her what was her sin he whom thou hast now is not thy husband Christ told her what her sin was in plain terms he told her shee was a harlot and shee went and told it that he told her all things that ever shee had done Christ did not tell her shee was a sinner in general but he did single out what her great sin was for which shee was most guilty and that worked upon her heart and conscience her conscience told her she understood the truth of it and this made her to be cast down for it So now if God gives thee grace to be cast down for sin under the sight and sense of it he will put a light into thy understanding and set conscience on work for to single out thy beloved sin the greatest sins thou standst guilty of thy mastercorruption that so thou maiest be humbled for it The Second way that God takes to cast a man down under the sight and sense of sin it is this God doth stir up the affections of the soul in the remembrance of those aggravations and hainous circumstances with which that sin is clothed withall You read Job 36 9. He sheweth unto men their works and their transgressions that they have exceeded He sheweth unto men their iniquities and what follows and their transgressions which have been exceeding great God doth not only shew men their sins that their sins are great but also he sheweth to men the aggravations of their sins and it is not a Transient view of the greatness of their iniquities and transgressions but he causeth them to know it he causeth them to know that their sins are clothed with hainous circumstances as that they have sinned against means and sinned against mercies and sinned against love and sinned against light and sinned against the checks of conscience for thy sins and all this to make thee to be cast down and humbled for thy sins The Third and last way that God takes for to cast a man down for sin it is this God doth put conscience into office in men not only to single out one particular master sin but also to bring to remembrance those sins that thou standst guilty of before God and to set them in thy sight and in especial manner that master sin this beloved sin and to humble thee for it and abase thee before God until that sin be mortified in thee sin must not only be seen and the affections stirred up in remembrance of those hainous circumstances of it with which it is clothed and that they are exceeding great but also conscience must keep them in remembrance until they are mortified in thee untill that sin is subdued and mortified and these are the three steps that God doth take to cast men down in the sight and sense of sin And now all you that are strangers to this work that never yet knew what this casting down for sin meant in any measure Labour to find these three particulars wrought upon thy soul that so thou maiest be cast down under the sight and sense of sin and so I have done with this doctrine concerning casting down for sin SERMON IV. Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God NOw before I come to the Second branch of the words I shall consider the Text in the Dialect or form of speech which the Psalmist here useth and then draw out some Doctrine that the words will afford You see that the form of speech here is by way of a Soliloquie which is a form of speech to himself as between two friends Why art thou cast down O my soul From which expression or form of speech take this Observation Observation That such self-conferences or Soliloquies that the Psalmist here useth are duties that believers ought to be much conversant about and ought to busie themselves much in The Psalms are full fraught with these divine Soliloquies as you may read Psal 103. verse 1 and the last Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name And verse 22. Bless the Lord O my soul And Psal 104. 1. Bless the Lord O my soul So Psal 34. v. 1. I will bless the Lord at all times So likewise Psal 146. v. 6. Praise the Lord O my soul and many places in the Psalms of his praising God All those do intimate to us those
divine Soliloquies that the people and Saints and servants of God have had in themselves to bless God See not only the divine Soliloquies here mentioned but also the works of Augustin and Bernard Gerrard Dr. Hall and others that have had divine Soliloquies between God and their own souls in secret therefore let this be your care yea make conscience of to be much in these divine Soliloquies to have much conference between God and your own souls in secret it is a duty that Christians are bound to to confer with others and this God takes notice of So also it is a duty to confer with your own souls between God and your own souls David sometimes blesseth God and sometime he checketh himself sometimes he calls to his soul to bless God and raiseth up his soul to praise God and sometimes he chideth his soul for being cast down Why art thou cast down O my soul Are you at any time troubled in mind then use this holy reasoning of this holy man Why art thou cast down O my soul Are you at any time sluggish in duty then say to thy self it is better to be the servant of God then to be the Divels drudge so draw up thy soul again to a frame sutable to the duty thou goest about and the God thou servest it is better to live in peace with God and a good conscience then to live in the service of the Divel which will bring trouble of mind and horror of conscience to thee and say by conferring with thy self with thy soul What am I what is my condition am I an elected person or am I a reprobate am I an heir of glory or an heir of hell am I a child of God or a child of wrath am I in the state of grace or in the bonds of iniquity Such conferences as these with thy own heart will be a means to awaken thy heart from the sleep of securitie to consider of its own estate this is thy duty let this be your practice to enter into a discourse with your own hearts as David did But I shall not follow this particular There is something more in the words to be considered and that is the manner how David doth speak to his own soul and how he reasoneth with his own heart and saith Why art thou cast down O my soul from this manner of speech consider this doctrine Doctrine 2 That a child of God should check his soul for and use holy reasonings against excessive castings down for sin and this I draw from the manner of the Psalmists speech he checks his own heart and reasons with his own soul concerning this particular Why art thou cast down O my soul In the handling of this doctrine there are two particulars to be considered First A child of God should check his heart for and use holy reasonings against excessive sorrow and casting down for sin Secondly To shew you in what manner you are to use these holy reasonings against your excessive casting down for sin First Why a child of God should check his heart for and use holy reasonings against inordinate and excessive casting down for sin Because First he is the chief actor and principal agent of his own dejections and he being the chief agent of his sorrow he is to lay the fault and blame on his own self I told you though the words lie to be read passively Why art thou cast down O my soul yet they are to be read actively according to the original text Arias Montanus cur humiliasti te Lormus cur deprimes te anima mea Why or what dost thou cast down thy self O my soul Therefore if thou art cast down thou art the actor and agent of thy own dejection thou dost cast down thy self therefore check thy own heart for and use holy reasonings against immoderate and excessive dejections for sin God enjoynes his people to believe in him to keep up their souls to lift up their souls to God and yet sometimes they are subject to cast down themselves and cast down their souls by immoderate and excessive casting down for sin When the Divel by his temptations doth not cast them down yet will they cast down themselves Why dost thou cast down thy self O my soul Secondly This is the ready and most effectual way to recover himself out of that dejected condition by checking his own heart for being excessively cast down holy and religious arguments with a mans own soul are prevalent arguments to work the soul out from his dejected estate which if he should let himself alone in this dejected estate he would soon plunge himself into such a condition and excessive and immoderate casting down for sin into such a gulf of misery as that he would not be able to get out again As it is good for a man to reason with his heart when he is assured of salvation so why he doubts of it There is a Why am I cast down in sorrow as well as Why am I raised up in comfort Then Secondly After what manner are the people of God to use these holy reasonings against immoderate and excessive casting down of their souls for sin Answer There are seven waies how the children of God are to check their hearts for and to use holy reasonings against excessive sorrow and casting down for sin First The children of God should reason thus with themselves after this manner O my soul I am not cast off by God everlastingly by lying low before God therefore why should I be cast down excessively for sin In Psal 94. 14. For the Lord will not cast off his people neither will he forsake his inheritance Although God doth not say I will not cast down my people yet he doth say I will not cast them off So Romans 11. 1. the Apostle he repeats the words again God hath not cast off his people and he puts a God forbid upon it in the 1 verse Hath God cast off his people God forbid The Apostle brings it in as a strong negation God hath not cast off his people whom he foreknew Therefore seeing that God doth not cast off his people Why should I be too much cast down let wicked men let reprobates that shall be eternally cast off let them be excessively cast down but let not me be cast excessively down for sin seeing I shall never be cast off though I may be cast down for a little moment according to that expression in Isa 54. 7 8. For a small moment have I forsaken thee but in great mercies will I gather thee In a little wrath have I hid my face from thee in a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy upon thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer This casting down for sin is but momentary a small time a little season but he will not cast off for ever Secondly Reason thus with thy own soul against thy dejections and say Jesus Christ he laid
of justice and wrath for thou mayest want Gods face to comfort thee but thou shalt not want Gods hand to help thee God may lend thee his ear to thy prayers when he may deny thee the shines of his face it is the truth of grace and not the sense and sight of grace that brings the soul to heaven it is not the measure of grace nor the sense and sight of grace but the truth of grace that entitles the soul to glory though while you live you may be without your masters joy yet you shall be sure to come to your masters joy when you die though thou never hadst a heaven in thy soul while thou livest yet thy soul may come to heaven when thou diest 9. Consider and be not so cast down for want of comfort for when you come to heaven you shall have comfort enough God doth reserve the fulnesse of thy comfort untill the fulnesse of thy glory This is the time of thy travelling in this world and you must not expect your reward till you come to your journeys end Here you have joy and comfort for a time but there in heaven you shall have joy and comfort for evermore here in this world joy and comfort entreth into you but in the world to come you shall enter into joy and that is trascendently and infinitely more then to have joy to enter into you here in this world you have but the beginnings of comfort but there you shall have enduring lasting comforts here you have comforts by drops but there you shal come to enjoy and see an ocean of comfort and that for ever Object There is one Objection to be answered which is this and it is a practicall case of conscience Me thinks I hear some poor souls say It is true if I thought that God in his hiding his face from my soul in his withdrawing the comforts of his spirit from me if the absence of the light of his countenance were meerly an act of his Soveraignty and Power and to try my love to try the confidence of my heart in trusting in him and the strength of my love to him and the more to put me forward to look after Jesus Christ if this was so I should not be much troubled but alas what shall I do my conscience tels me that it is for sin that God doth withdraw the light of his countenance and the comforts of his Spirit and for this cause he deals with me and my conscience tells me that I have grieved the spirit of God and sent that sad to heaven and therefore it is just with God to let me live sadly upon earth and to live in a comfortlesse condition and I have committed great sins to take away my comforts and for the guilt of sin it is for which God doth hide his face and this is the sad objection and reasonings of many a poor soul Now there are four particulars why a child of God should not be thus dejected although he may be cast down under sin 1. If thou canst not retain the sense of Gods love yet if you retain the sense of your own sins for which thou hast lost the sense of Gods love to be much in the latter though thou hast little of the former to grow down ward in humiliation thou dost grow but little upward in consolation it is a great mercy Hosea 14. 5. I will be as a dew unto Israel he shall grow as a lilly or blossom or flourish and cast forth or strike forth his root as Lebanon you that do blossom like the lillies though you may not so much blossom in the enjoyment of comfort yet if you do grow downward strike your roots downward by the sense and sight of sin and grow downward in humiliation it is a great mercy it is better and safer for to strike thy roots of grace downward in growing in the sap of humiliation then to grow upward and flourish in the sense of pardoning-grace and the reason is this because the one is of absolute necessity and necessary to the saving of the soul but the other is necessary towards the comforts of the soul and therefore the one is more needful then the other if I were put to my choice I had rather want the sense of the pardon of sin then to want the sense of my own sinfulnesse the Lord had rather to see his people to be in mourning weeds then to be in garments of pleasantnesse if God doth not see thy face full of smiles yet if he sees thy eyes full of tears that is more acceptable to him though you may want the light of Gods countenance yet if you have the sense of your own sinfulnesse that doth eclipse the light of Gods favour to thy soul thou hast no cause to be too much cast down under sin 2. In case thou art cast down for sin yet if you can love Jesus Christ really you need not be discouraged when you do not know seriously that Jesus Christ doth love you yet though thou dost not know thou art beloved yet to love Christ in this time thou needest not to trouble thy self and though thou hast not seen Jesus Christ yet to believe in him and by faith to apply Jesus Christ to thy soul if this hath been thy work and thou canst say so you may be confident that Christ loves you truly though it may not be apparently and the reason is strong because that we can never love Jesus Christ until he first loveth us a man being in trouble of mind wanting the assurance of Gods love he said that he never knew what the testimony of the spirit of God meant and what it was to his soul but yet he could say that he did rest and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and though he knew not that Christ loved him yet he did desire to love Christ so I say to you although you cannot sensibly feel the love of Christ to thy soul yet if thou canst dearly love Jesus Christ be confident that Christ loveth thee 3. In case you want the quieting and comforting work of the spirit yet if you have the quick ning work of the spirit be not too much cast down thou that canst act grace although thou dost want comfort and although thou hast not the sight of thy graces sensibly to feel and find the comforts of them yet if thou canst live in the exercise of grace in this case thou needst not to be troubled cast down if it be with thy soul as with a Well that hath two buckets while one is down the other is still up so if one bucket of thy soul be down and thou be dejected for want of the sense of Gods favour and gratious love to thy soul yet if the other bucket be up in thy living and exercising of grace though thou wantest sensible comforts yet this is matter of joy and comfort to thy spirit if you are dejected for want of
and to have nothing for to trouble them all their days A second Reason is this It proceeds from that grosse ignorance that is in a wicked man's mind or understanding whereby he doth not see the evill nature of sin and the aggravation of it a blind mind and a dumb conscience they both go hand in hand together if the understanding of a man wants an eye to see the evill of a sin distinctly the conscience will want a hand to smite for sin effectually if sin were more in mens eyes sorrow for sin would be more in mens hearts It is worth your notice the comparing of two Scriptures together Psal 51. 3. I acknowledged my transgression and my sin is ever before me And Psal 38. 17. For I am ready to halt and my sorrow is ever before me How came the Psalmist to have sorrow for sin continually but by having the fight of sin continually he had the sight of sin continually before him he had then the sorrow of sin before him it is the sight of sin that is an inlet to sorrow and trouble of mind for sin What is the Reason that a man that seeth a Lion in the Wildernesse it maketh him affraid but if that man seeth a Lion painted on the wall he is not troubled the reason is because he knows the Lion in the Wildernesse is of a sierce and cruel nature therefore fears that but he knows no such evil in a painted Lion therefore he is not troubled at that Beloved if wicked men could look upon sin as a loose Lion in the Wildernesse that would fly in their faces why the sight of sin would make them affraid then but they look upon sin as a painted Lion they do not see sin to be so odious and aggravated this is the great cause why men are so little disquieted in soul under the guilt of sin Thirdly It proceeds from a judicial hardnesse in the heart and from a cauterizednesse to scarednesse in the conscience Rom. 2. 5. But after thy hard and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgements of God To let you know that it is from hardnesse of heart and scarednesse of conscience that a man cannot repent cannot confesse and be troubled for the evils he hath done and the guilt he lies under scared flesh is sensible of no touch with a Pin it is your raw flesh that is sensible mens consciences are cauterized and scared that makes that sin is not as a sword in the flesh Fourthly It proceeds from a continued custome in a course of sin Custome in sin doth harden the heart and doth fear the conscience it is in this case as with a man when he first comes to be an Apprentice to an Artificer or Handy-crafts-man he comes with a tender hand to the work and when he begins to work with hard Instruments he cannot work but he gauls his hand and blisters his hand but when he hath been many years at work by continual labour at the work his hand doth then harden that so he can use it and never blister his hand It is just thus with a sinner before a man be accustomed to an evil way conscience is tender and full of remorse I but a continued custome and making a trade of sin it doth make the conscience to be hard and brawny and to feel nothing as in a Smith's house a Dog that comes newly in cannot endure the fiery sparks to fly about his ears but when the Dog is used to it he sleeps quietly Let wicked men be long used to sin to the Divels work-house to be slaves and vassals to sin the sparks of Hell fire may fly about their ears and this never troubles them and all this ariseth from a continued custome in a course of evil The fifth Cause is that a wicked man is not disquieted for sin it ariseth from this From a wicked man's stifling the checks and ebukes of his own conscience as quenching the spirit in its holy motions to doe good doth cause God to withdraw the holy motions of his Spirit So stifling the conscience it provokes God that conscience shall not trouble thee more but shall be given up to a sottish stupidity and to a senseless stupidity of conscience Sixthly It ariseth from a mistake and a misapprehension that wicked men maintain that trouble of conscience for sin it is an utter enemy to all worldly joy and if a man comes once to be troubled in conscience for sin he shall never have a merry day more but must hang down his head in penfiveness and lead a melancholy sad life Beloved wicked mens vailing holy disquiet with these prejudices is a special reason why they are no more troubled for sin then they are this is hinted to us in the saying of Solomon Eccles 7. 4. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools in the house of mirth The wicked are affraid to be in the house of mourning to mourn and grieve for evils they have done lest they should never have glad and comfortable days in the World Thus the Papists did entertain this prejudice against the Protestant religion that spiritus Calvinianus est spiritus melancholicus Beloved the way to have a well composed and ordered joy and comfort in the World is to have a gracious sorrow and an Evangelical grief for the evils thou hast done in the World Seventhly It proceeds from a groundless and a presumptuous perswasion that wicked men have of pardoning grace tush saith a wicked man if I have hopes of Heaven when I die what need sin trouble me I hope it shall not damn my soul and therefore it shall not disquiet me I will not lay sin to my heart for God will not lay sin to my charge I shall go to Heaven when I die what need I break my peace while I live This was the great reason of those that were no more troubled for sin Deut. 29. 19. And it come to pass when he heard the words of this curse that he blessed himself in his heart and said I shall have peace though I walk in the imaginations of my heart God doth not bless them but they will bless themselves they presume of mercy and they presume of Heaven they will presume of blessing why this makes them that they are not troubled for adding drunkenness to thirst they can add sin to sin but not add sorrow to sorrow for sin The eight Cause is this Men contenting themselves under a daubing and a flattering Ministry Men that under pretence of preaching free-grace the love of God and the merits of Christ all their Sermons are comfortable strains when indeed they are but the making the Way to Heaven wider then God makes it This reason is given by God himself Isa 8. 11. For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand and instructed me that I should
art a burden to thy self Beloved it is an argument that the Divel is a casting off and sin is casting out O comfort thy self I hear the noise of Conscience every day I hear my Conscience suggest this guilt to me and that to me O blessed be God I hear my Conscience to roar and howl why the more hopes I have that the Divel is throwing out and sin is casting out that is a fifth Consideration Sixthly and lastly Take this for thy comfort that there are more promises of the Gospel made to men in this condition then to any other sort of men in the world I could give you multitudes of promises to men in this case Matth. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest So in Isa 54. 10 11. ch 35. 4. ch 57. 15. Many other Texts I could give you where God maketh abundant promises to men under disquiet of soul under the guilt of sin when Children are well they shall have it may be but pebble stones to play withal but if there be one sick Child in the house the Mother goeth to the Cabinet and looketh out fine things to quiet the Child O Beloved it may be healthful Christians shall go on comfortably and shall have now and then smiles of God's face towards them but God's rich Cabinet of promises are open to them when they are sick when a poor sinner suspects that he is not pardoned then God comes with a promise to comfort him that he is pardoned The well children in the house is beloved by the Parents but the sick Child is dandled on the knees the well Child may have bread and butter but the sick Child hath the comfortable things to comfort it Beloved God's sick Children that are sick with sin that are greatly troubled in Conscience God provides for them the promises to allay and pacifie the troubled spirit O let these words of comfort sinke into your hearts SERMON XVII Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God I Now come to give you some other Rules and they are to those who complain and say The Lord help me I am so far from being over disquieted that I do not find my heart disquieted at all I do not find my soul so much as troubled under the guilt of many evils that I am guilty of touching this I shall proceed to give you rules directory and consolatory First How a Child of God that doth not find his soul sensibly touch'd and evangelically disquieted under the sense of sin committed how that soul may come to have his soul evangelically troubled under the guilt of sin First Rest not satisfied with a general and a confused fight of sin but labour to single out the chiefest of thy corruptions to have a particular and distinct view thereof this is the course that God's people have taken Acts 2. 37. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do Peter doth not tell them that they were sinners in the general but of all sins he doth single out one Ye have crucified the Lord of glory and when they heard that they were pricked at the heart They singled out that sin to have their hearts brought to brokenness and to contrition When Christ would bring the Woman of Samaria to remorse and trouble for sin Christ did single out one sin of all and told her Thou art an Harlot and the Scripture gives you this hint that the singling out that one sin made her see all other sins for saith the woman Lo Behold the Man that hath told me of all that ever I have done and yet Christ told her only of her Adultery Do thou thus What is that Dallilah that thou playest withal in thy bosome single out that sin and that is the way to have a distinct view of all the evil general and confused apprehensions of sin doth but bring in a general humiliation it hath been the undoing of a great many souls to rest satisfied with general apprehensions of their guiltiness they have lived and died without any saving remorse on their Consciences He that writes of Bellarmine saith this of him That when he came to die saith he such was the innocency of that man that he could not tell one sin in him that he was to make confession for it did not arise from the innocency of the man but it arised from an indistinct sight and observation of his ways Beloved this makes a man hard-hearted when he comes to die that he hath not evangelical remorse in him because he hath but a confused and a general view of sin You read of Ahimaz that was running in post haste to bring news what was done David asked him What news saith Ahimaz I saw the battel and I heard a tumult and a great noise but I know not what it was a Sam. 18. 29. Thus many men do with their sins as he did with his intelligence they are troubled for sin but they know nothing but in the general they know not what the sin is just like Nebuchadnezzar he called his Magicians and Inchanters together saith he Tell me the Interpretation of my dream for I have dreamed and I know not what it is Some men say they have sinned but they do not know what sin they have committed what particular sin they have done The second Rule is this Look upon small sins cloathed with great aggravations Beloved this is the reason why men are not troubled they look on their small sins as small but do not look on them as cloathed with many hainous circumstances Suppose thy sin be a small sin invisible as to the world yet if thou wouldst cloath this sin with aggravated circumstances it may be a sin against conscience a sin against much mercy it may be it is a sin committed after many purposes and vows This course did Justin take in the second book of his Confessions chap. 4. about his robbing the Orchard I did it saith he compelled neither by hunger nor poverty but even through a cloyedness of well doing and a pamperedness of iniquity for I steal that of which I had enough of mine own and much better c. and so he goeth to aggravate his sin Beloved when you find your souls not troubled for sin cloath it with many hainous circumstances and this we read of one that he would aggravate his sin saith he It is true the Divels have sinned but they never sinned against a Saviour as I have done Adam sinned but he never sinned against a Christ as I have done Do thou thus aggravate a small sin and this will bring humiliation A third Rule live in the meditation of pardoning mercy it is true
wicked men make pardoning grace a means of presumption but pardoning grace rightly applied is the most genuine way for the breaking and troubling of the soul Beloved lay thy self in the arms of Christ on the bed of his love and that 's the way to break thy flinty and stony heart A child of God cannot choose but to bathe his sins in the tears of contrition that knoweth his sins to be bathed in Christ's blood in a way of satisfaction I now come to give you some consolatory Rules which are four Is there comfort to a man that doth find his heart hard that seldome or never findeth his soul disquieted under the sense of sin First Be comforted if what thou wantest in godly sorrow for sin thou makest up in holy care and watchfulness against sin if a child of God hath not a weeping eye for sin yet if he have a watchful heart against sin that is pleasing to God if tears be not in thine eye for sin yet if weapons of defence be in thine hand to contest and conflict with corruptions that is most pleasing to God The Captain of our salvation Jesus Christ he had rather see a fighting weapon against sin then a weeping eye for sin that is one comfort A second comfort is this That the want of trouble of soul for sin doth not always arise from a stupified conscience but from an ignorant mind if Conscience had an eye to see sin Conscience would have a hand to smite for sin Conscience doth therefore want a hand because man's judgement wanteth an eye to discern what is evil A third comfort is this That though a good man may not for some time be troubled for sin yet at that time and in that case there is a great difference between him and a wicked man he is not troubled but he would be troubled a wicked man is not disquieted and he would never be disquieted a godly man doth not mourn but he would mourn and would love that Minister that should pierce his heart a wicked man cannot endure him there is a great difference between the one and the other A good man dares not stitle the checks of Conscience a wicked man when Conscience begins to trouble him he doth what he can to still the crys of Conscience when Conscience doth arrest a wicked man for debt they run not unto God they make conscience drunk with sensual pleasures and vain delights that so they may run away from Consciences arrest but godly men dare not do thus but they cry to conscience excuse me when I do well and accuse me when I do ill this is the behaviour of a godly man Lastly Take this for comfort though thou hast not so much trouble for sin as thou dost desire yet thou hast so much as God doth accept this is a true rule in Divinity that the desire of any grace is the grace it self for to believe is faith and true desire to repent is repentance and true desire to mourn for sin is a mourning for sin if thou dost desire a troubled heart that is a holy trouble this is a great mercy that in Scripture account the desire of any grace is the grace it self It is worthy your observation you read of Nehemiah ch 1. 11. O Lord I beseech thee let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant and to the prayer of thy servants who desire to fear thy Name and prosper c. Compare that place with ch 5. 15. But the former Governours that were before me were chargable unto the people 7 c. but so did not I because of the fear of the Lord. To note that a desire to fear God is a fearing of God a desire to repent is a repenting a desire to be troubled is a holy trouble provided it be a solemn sincere and an insatiable desire after any grace this we read of Abraham when God comes to deal with Abraham What saith God to him Because thou hast done this deed I will do so and so to thee why he had not done this Divines gather that in God's account the desire and intent of doing a good thing is the doing of it therefore when Paul records Abraham's act it is said by faith he did it Beloved it should be a great discomfort to ungodly men that the Scripture should say thus to us that a desire to do a sin is the sin it is all one to God therefore Christ telleth you Mat. 5. 28. He that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery in his heart The desire and the act is all one to God though not to men God looks on the lust of the eye to be as the uncleanness of the act he that is angry with his brother 1 John 3. 15. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murtherer and no murtherer hath eternal life abiding in him God looketh on the desire for to kill a man as if thou hadst kill'd him now on the other hand it should be a great comfort to godly men that the desire of grace is grace it self I mention this to you that grieve because you cannot grieve that do not mourn but would mourn Thus much for the Consolatory Rules I shall only give you this Use Use and so I shall finish this doctrine about the disquietings of the soul and that is a use of caution to perswade you to take heed you do not run into false mistakes touching soul-disquiet for sin the Divel may paint that which is not grace and which is not trouble of Conscience and disquiet of mind for sin like it which is my caution to perswade you that you would not be mistaken in this matter Five Mistakes I shall give you Cautions to take heed of First Take heed you do not mistake a natural Melancholy and take that to be a godly sorrow and trouble of mind for sin many people whose tempers are sad heavy and dumpish they apprehend Melancholy to be a godly sorrow there is a great difference between natural Melancholy and between spiritual trouble First natural Melancholy hath many apprehensions in the fancy in the imaginations but spiritual trouble ariseth from the Conscience upon the sense of God's wrath and the frowns of the Almighty and the greatness of sin and the evil thereof Secondly Melancholy is cured by Physick Gallen is a proper help for a melancholy man but all the Physick in the world cannot allay the disquiet of a godly man's soul Thirdly Melancholy maketh a man sad but he cannot tell for what but a man under spiritual trouble saith thus It is this sin gauls my Conscience and such a failing grieves my soul which a Melancholy man cannot do he cannot tell that it is such a corruption I am guilty of Fourthly Melancholy is discerned by his natural complexion a heavy eye a grizly look but spiritual trouble on the Conscience may be in the man that is of a merry pleasant amiable Countenance therefore
an act of his power there is no such trouble nor cause of being cast down but you may take comfort under that state for that God may sometimes withdraw and suspend his love and favour meerly upon an act of his power In peace-offerings there was oyle mixt not so in sin offerings because there is no peace nor comfort in suffering for our faults as God to shew the goodnesse of his Will sometimes gives assurance so to shew the absolutenesse and liberty of his Will he sometimes withdraws it You read of the desertion of the Church in Cant. 5. 5 6. I rose up to open to my beloved but my beloved was gone he had withdrawn himself my soul failed when he spake I sought him but I could not find him I called him but he gave me no answer Now this was an act of Justice in Christ to withdraw himself Jesus Christ he knocked until his head was filled with the dew and his locks with the drops of the night and yet she would not open to him therefore Christ as an act of Justice might withdraw himself to punish them for sin because the Spouse would not let Christ come in when he knocked and then you read of the desertion of the Church not as an act of Justice for the punishment of sin but as an act of his meer power Cant. 3. 1. By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loved I sought him but I could not find him Now if thy conscience can tell thee that thou art careful in thy duties towards God and thy heart is upright and to labour to walk exactly and yet thou canst not see thy comforts appearing now thou mayest say peradventure yea thou mayest say without all peradventure it is not an act of Justice but an act of power that he withdraweth his favour and the light of his countenance from thy soul 2. God may withdraw his love and favour from the soul not for any displeasure that he hath to them but out of an act of love to try his own peoples love to him as a mother a tender-hearted mother many times runs behind the door from her child in a corner and hides her self but it is not because she is angry with her child but to try the strength of her childs love in seeking after the mother so God he may withdraw his love from the souls of his people but it is not from any anger but from love to his people for to try the strength of his peoples graces and to try their love in seeking of him God tryes your graces strength in going after Christ and your graces love in looking after Jesus Christ it was so in Joseph unto which I may allude Gen. 42. 7. it is said that Joseph he spake roughly to them or hard things with them that is to his brethren and he cast them into prison for three dayes ver 17. Now all this his dealing with his brethren was not for want of love to them but it was to try the affections of his brethren and to cause them to call to mind their former unkindnesse Thus God deals many times with his own people he doth withdraw his love and suspend his favour and with-hold the light of his countenance to try the strength of his peoples graces and the strength of his peoples love to him see Luke 24. 28. when the two Disciples were going to a Village and Christ came and walked with them and when they came nigh unto the Village whether they were going Christ seemed as though he would have gone further but this action of Christ it was to try the love of his two Disciples whether they would presse him to make him stay with them so God may withdraw the beams of his love he may suspend his divine favour to this end to try the love of his people how they will long after him and much desire his love to their souls 3. God may suspend his favour because there may be more of Gods fatherly love in withdrawing his love then in manifesting his love in some cases unto the souls of his people and that in these two particulars 1. When a man doth injoy the sense of Gods love and that injoyment makes him to be spiritually proud then it is in mercy to with-hold his love and favour when he cannot injoy the sense of Gods love without the sense of spiritual pride it is in this case great love Job 33. 17. That he may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride from man it is in the Hebrew That he removeth his works from man c. lest men should be proud of Gods grace and proud of comforts God will keep him from the comforts of his grace and in this case it is great mercy to have the love of God withdrawn when to have it continued Gods people would grow proud a little Boat cannot bear a great Sail without sinking nor a weak vessel strong liquor without breaking some of Gods people are like to little vessels you know that little boats are like to weak vessels Weak Christians they are not able to bear strong comforts to put strong liquor in weak bottles is the way to break them so to put strong manifestations strong comforts into weak souls would soon break them God sees that sometimes his people are not able to bear nor able to use comforts and divine manifestations well and in this case it is great mercy when you cannot bear them then to be without them for then the want of comfort doth make you more eager after Jesus Christ then when you do injoy it many times the injoyment of comfort makes you to grow secure and to grow carelesse whereas the want of comfort maketh you the more eager for to look after it Non-deserit ut deseratur deserit potius ne deseratur ideo videtur deserere quia non vult deseri God doth sometimes forsake that so he might not be forsaken and he doth seemingly forsake that his people might not forsake him As it is credulis misericordia cruel mercy for a wicked man to have hopes and presumption of heaven and yet go to hell so 't is misericors crudelitas merciful cruelty that a godly man should lie under fear of Hell and yet go to heaven 2. The suspension of Gods love and favour is in love when it doth make thee to prize Jesus Christ more in the want of him then thou didst in the enjoyment of him the Lord doth many times bring his own people into great wants and expose them to great exigencies and streights that they might the more prize mercy and be the more eager in the pursute after it and not to grow proud when they have it you read Deut. 32. 13. He made them to ride on the high places of the earth that he might eat the fruits of the field and he made him to suck honey out of the rocks and oyle out of the flinty rock
God did not give them water but God gave them honey it had been a mercy had God given them water to drink when they were ready to die for thirst but when Moses comes to speak of this he makes mention that God gave them honey to suck because they saw the want of a lesser mercy God gave them a greater mercy so it is in spiritual things when we in our straights see the want of mercy a spiritual want of mercy to the soul O then the soul would be glad of a little mercy the least crumb of comfort then would refresh the soul The want of spiritual mercies makes us for to see the spiritual worth of mercies the want of Gods favour the want of the light of Gods countenance makes the soul to prize the enjoyment of it the want of the love of Jesus Christ shining on the soul makes the soul to see and feel and know that the love of God in Christ is exceeding precious Now when the withdrawments of the light of Gods countenance from the soulworks these gratious effects it is in great love and mercy to the soul 4. That you may not be too much cast down consider That the people of God they have alwayes ground of comfort in their souls though they have not alwayes the sense of comfort though the souls of the children of God may be sometimes without the present sense of comfort yet the people of God are never without the cause of comfort in their souls as a man hath right to an inheritance though he cannot read the evidences for it so they have a real right to an inheritance with them that are sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ though you may not sensibly enjoy your inheritance as it was with Hagar so it is with many doubting Christians about Gen. 21. She flying into the wilderness of Bersheba her water was spent in the bottle she casts her child under one of the shrubs and sate down over against it and wept and there was a Well of water by her the Well was there before and she knew it not but when God opened her eyes then she saw the Will of water that was by her So it may be with many a poor soul salvation may be neer thee very nigh thy soul and yet the soul may not have a sensible knowledge of it but may be ready to think that he shall perish for want of salvation and for want of comfort and consolation from God in Christ it is very observable what is spoken concerning Josephs brethren they had so much love from their brother that they had a testimony of his love along with them they had the money in their sacks and yet they never knew it nor never knew him to be their Brother So a poor soul may have the testimony of Gods love in the soul and the sure pledge of Gods everlasting and eternal love to the soul and yet thou mayst not know this testimony and thou mayest not know and sensibly feel the loving kindnesse of thy God to thy soul 5. Remember this for thy support that none of Gods people do retain alwayes the like sense and manifestation of Gods love to their souls but it fares with the souls of Gods people in reference to comfort as it is with the Sea sometimes ebbing and sometimes flowing and as with the air sometimes cloudy and sometimes clear and so like the season of the year sometimes winter and sometimes summer as it is in nature so it is in grace nothing in nature doth alwayes retain and keep the same likenesse at all times to keep the like perfection so it is in grace no child of God under heaven doth alwayes at all times retain and keep the same measure of comforts in his own spirit As Sampson had not the same strength at all times so a Christian hath not alwayes the same comforts 6. If at any time God doth suspend his love and favour the light of his countenance yet consider that God never doth this but he seeth great reason need for it you read 1 Pet. 1. 6. Wherein you greatly rejoice though now for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations there it referreth to the sufferings for the Gospel so I may say to you If need be you shall be in heavinesse for want of the enjoyment of Gods love in Christ if you need heavinesse you shall have heavinesse if no need of sorrow you shall have no sorrow Philosophers say there is great need of wind and thunder as well as of shining of the Sun for thereby the air is kept clear so when God doth thunder into thy soul and sometimes bluster like wind into thy soul God doth see some need of that dealing with thee to sweep thy soul from sin and the love of the world and to quell thy pride and to subdue thy lusts and to purge away that slightnesse of spirit wherein thou art apt to slight others God many times doth suspend the light of his countenance and hold from thy soul the comforts of thy graces for this end that thou mightest not be proud of thy measure of grace and sometimes God may do it to stir up in thee a compassionate spirit towards others in affliction and that thou mightest exercise thy grace and God may let thee want the comforting work of the spirit that thou mightest have more of the sanctifying work of the spirit therefore comfort thy self for if God did not see need of this afflicting of thee he would never let thee lie under this sad condition 7. Consider this for thy comfort That Jesus Christ himself was under spiritual desertion as well as thou Christ himself cried My God my God why hast thou for saken me Mat. 27. 46. Here was substractio visionis though not unionis and thou dost no more but cry my God my God under the absence of the favour of God Jesus Christ did it to sanctifie thy death was buried to make thy grave a bed of roses to thee and was tempted to sanctifie thy temptations and deserted to sanctifie thy desertions he drank deep of the cup thou dost but sip of it Now he himself was under troubles and desertions and temptations that he might be able to succour them that are tempted he was able to succour them before I but now he is made experimentally able to succour his people in the like case 8. Consider this That the seeming loss of Gods favour it is not simply prejudicial to the state of grace for it doth not hinder thy having accesse to and having successe at the throne of grace neither can it hinder thee of glory thou mayest trust and wait upon God in the way of thy duties and though thou dost not enjoy the light of his countenance yet this will not hinder thee of successe at the throne of grace It is the want of Christ not of comfort that makes the throne of grace a throne
son but God gave him a better mercy in the room of that Bastard God gave him a Solomon that was a greater mercy to give him Solomon in the room of an Illegitimate child Psal 171. v. 21. Thou hast shewed me great and sore troubles but thou shalt bring me again c. As David telleth you here thou wilt encrease my greatness he means the troubles under Saul David that was to be a King on the Throne was to lie like a Hermite in a Cave I but though thou hast brought me to great and sore troubles it is but to encrease my greatness in a way of mercy O then if God doth let thee come to great wants of any outward mercies thou standest in need of think that God doth let it be thus that so thou mightest have greater mercies in the room of them this Consideration did greatly quiet the heart of Isaac You read of the death of Sarah that was his mother you read that God gave to him to wife Rebecca and he loved Rebecca and was comforted after his mothers death Isaac had his mother taken from him but he had a wife of Gods giving to him in the room of his mother If God doth let thee want a mother want thy children want thy estate why God will bring in some other mercy to comfort thee in the want and absence of them let this allay all disquiet and discontent of heart in thee Thirdly Consider that though thou dost want outward mercies that are desirable yet thou dost not want better mercies to wit spiritual mercies thou wantest crumbs yet thou dost not want a Christ thou wantest food it may be for thy belly thou dost not feed on such dainties and delicates as many Epicures of the world doe yet thou maiest feed by faith on Jesus Christ the bread of life it may be thou hast not such sumptuous apparel as some men have yet thou dost not want the long robe of Christs righteousness thou wantest an inheritance in this World but thou dost not want an inheritance among them that are sanctified in the World to come it may be thou wantest health but thou hast a healthy soul thy soul prospers as John said to Gâ—â—us Epist 3 3. You read in Pro. 14. 14. The back-sliders in heart shall be 〈◊〉 with their own waies and a good man shall be satâ—â—fied from himself It may be from without nothing can content thee thou dost take pains in the World thou dost rise early eat the bread of carefulness yet canst not get enough to feed thy belly and cloath thy back yet if thou beest a gracious man reflect thus on thy self Though I want these outward things yet blessed be God he is my portion though I have no portion in this life I am heir to the Kingdome of Heaven though I am not heir to one foot of Land this would allay thes disquiets that might arise in your minds Fourthly Consider that if God should give thee these outward goodthings thou wantest the giving of them would be a greate snare and a curse to thee then the want of them would be it may be thou wantest wealth it may be thou hast a barren wâ—mb and wantest issue if God should give thee the mercy thou wantest the giving of it would be a greater snare to thee then the want of it Tho or three plain instances 〈◊〉 is of a woman Rachel Genesis 30 5. who was exceeding impatient for the want of children Give me children or else I die This passionate desire of hers God did gratifie but â—ark how God did punish her for it she must die in childbed her soul departed from her when she was in labour Genesis 35. 18. And 〈◊〉 came to pass that as her soul was departing that she called his name Benoni but his father called him Benjamin He children were the instruments of death to kill her her child was Benoni was the son of her sorrows Beloved it should teach you to take heed of being passionately discontented and disquieted when you want a mercy Another instance you read in David he was passionately eaâ—er for the life of the child begotten by Bathsheba and he wept mourned and tasted that the child might not die now if the child had lived the life of that child had been a greater snare to Davia then the death of it could be for it would have been a lasting monument of David's shame for every one could have pointed and said yonder goeth David's bastard we see even harlots account uncleannesse a reproach and commit a greater wickedness to murder their children because they would not have their wickednesse known Thus in the case of Absalom he rose in Rebellion against his father and drew away by his courteous carriage and crying up the peoples liberty by which means he had almost took the Kingdome from his father they rose in Armes one against another but saith David Deal gently with my son Absalom But if David had had his request that Absalom should not have been killed why Absalom would have been a continual enemy to his father for he had almost thrown him out of his Throne it was a greater mercy to David that Absalom was killed then if he had lived Herein see the wisdome of God that the having of a mercy might not become a snare to us therefore God doth deny us it The children of Israel could not be contented with Manna that was called Angels food for commendation they loathed the Manna and they must have Quails from Heaven but it had been a thousand times better for them to have wanted it For whilst the meat was in their mouths the wrath of God went down with it that which they thought the want of to be their misery God made the having of to be their misery Fifthly Lay in thy scales thy mercies and thy afflictions and thy wants and see whether thy receits be not more then thy wants Suppose thou wantest a thousand things yet thou hast one thing that is of more worth then all the things thou wantest and that is thy life if thou shouldest want thy skin and be flead and have thy life it is a greater mercy to thee though God should strip thee of thy skin yet thou hast possest more mercies then thou hast afflictions that thou art on this side hell and the grave O Beloved dost thou want any mercy why think thy receits are more then thy wants and that will in some measure quiet thy discontents Lastly If thou wouldst allay disquiet of mind for thy wants then labour to make up all thy wants and losses in God consider that the having of one God is enough to make up all thy wants that thou hast in the World Thus the Church of God did Psal 73. 26. My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart He was likely to want a Kingdome but he did not want God God was his portion and that comforted
when he was under trouble of mind for to refuse comfort God intends trouble for sin to be an exercise of grace not to obliterate the evidence of our graces when trouble for sin proves an eclipse of grace not a spur to grace it is excessive Secondly When the amiable and glorious attributes of God are represented unto the soul of a godly man under a formidable and a dreadful notion this is laid down in v. 3. I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed The thoughts of God should comfort a soul in trouble of mind but when a man in trouble of mind shall make the Attributes of God to trouble him then it is excessive Job 23. 15. Therefore am I troubled at his presence when I consider I am affraid of him Adam after he fell What doth he do he went and hid himself from the presence of God Gen. 3. 8 10. And they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid themselves for they were affraid Beloved when thou canst not think of a God but the thoughts of a God troubles thee this is excessive trouble in a godly man Thirdly When a man is so disquieted in soul for sin that a man doth abridge himself in the use of those natural comforts that God doth allow him to enjoy when he cannot eat nor drink nor sleep this is laid down in the 4. v. of this Psalm Thou holdest mine eyes waking I am so troubled that I cannot sleep His meaning is I am so troubled in conscience under the guilt of my sin that I cannot sleep at night when I lie down in my bed I cannot eat nor sleep I cannot enjoy those natural comforts and sleep which the Lord allows me to enjoy as worldly care is described in covetous men Eccles 5. 12. The sleep of a labouring man is sweet whether be eat little or much but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep That is an argument of excessive worldly care and trouble in a man for the world when he is so puzzled and glutted with the world that he cannot take his rest at night A fourth discovery in this Psalm is When disquiet of soul under the guilt of sin doth either discourage a man or unfit a man for religious duties then they are excessive and inordinate this is laid down in the 4. v. I am so troubled I cannot speak He was so overwhelmed with fears and troubles in his spirit that it did either discourage him from praying or unfit him for the use of prayer now to make it appear put them together v. 10. I said this is ruine infirmity It follows that all those troubles that be so inordinate to make him refuse comfort and troubled at the thoughts of God and to make him likewise that he could not sleep and he could not pray all this was his infirmity These are the four discoveries taken from that one Psalm Fifthly It is then inordinate when a man is so disquieted under the sight of sin that he hath no mind to follow his particular calling where in God hath set him in in the world that he can take no comfort in Wife or Children estate or comforts when a man shall be so perplexed that he cannot follow his trade then it is sinful there is his reason for it because God injoyns no duty belonging to our general calling as Christians that should clash with or justle out our particular callings as Men and herein the Divels policy lies that if he in trouble of mind can keep a man out of his calling he hath the better way to work upon an idle man Sixthly When trouble and disquiet of soul for sin is prejudicial to the health of our bodies I hate robbery for a burnt offering so that 's not God's sacrifice that is prejudicial to bodily health God hates us not for a burnt offering this was an infirmity in Heman one troubled deeply in mind Psal 88. 3. My soul is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh to the grave Heman's trouble of soul was so great that it did weaken his body and bring him to nothing but skin and bones So you read of trouble Psal 31. 9 10. Have mercy upon me Lord for I am in trouble my eyes is consumed with grief c. For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing my strength faileth because of any iniquity Here was a mixture of weaknesse in this though it was for sin yet to consume the bones and to spend the strength God doth not require that Lastly When a man shall be so disquieted under the guilt of sin that he shall be uttenly discouraged from venturing to lay hold on Jesus Christ when they say doubtingly what the enemies say scoffingly where is no help for him in God when the kinde or degree of trouble of mind is so much that it shall impugn the end of it it is then excessive What is the end of trouble of mind for sin the end is to imbitter sin and to provoke a soul to look out after Jesus Christ And thus I have given you but the heads of this particular Question 6 Sixth Quaery You will ask me If it be so that godly men are so much disquieted in soul under the guilt of sin then what is the reason that wicked men can live so jocondly under such heavy loads of guilt yet never have a troubled thought nor disquieted heart all their days that they do not come into trouble as other men What is the reason of all this It is a very fruitful Question and well to be considered There are 10. General Causes First It proceeds partly from the malice and subtilty of the Divel that those souls that he hopes to damn when they die he will not disquiet them for sin whilst they are alive this is hinted to you Luke 11. 21. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace his goods are in peace The strong man is meant the Divel the pallace is meant the heart of a wicked man the goods to be at peace is meant that the thoughts of a wicked man is at peace and nothing troubles him when the Divel doth possesse a wicked man's heart he labours to keep all his thoughts quiet and calm and at peace with him Steila although a Popish Author yet hath a good note Unum est hic observandum we are to observe this one thing here the great cunning of the Divel that soul that he hath a possession of he would not have him trouble his conscience it is his labour saith he ut ne ullum conscientiae stimulum patiatur that he should not endure one prick of conscience the Divel doth with wicked men as the Babylonians did with the Jews in captivity they would make them sing songs when the Divel hath got wicked men captive the Divel would fain have them sing songs and be secure