his deliverance or to obtain his mercy If he had never come to our relief till he saw something in us to invite him we had not yet been relieved No more did we contribute to our Restoration then we do to the rising of the Sun or the approach of day We were like those dry bones without motion and without strength Ezek 37.1 And we also said That we were cut off for our parts and our hope was gone and he caused breath to enter into us and we live Who is a God like to our God that pardoneth iniquity transgression and sin that retains not his anger for ever that is slow to wrath and delights in mercy That has been displeased with us for a moment but gives us hope of his Everlasting kindness Oh! what love is due from us to Christ that has pleaded for us when we our selves had nothing to say that has brought us out of a den of Lions and from the Iaws of the Roaring Lion To say as Mrs. Sarah Wight * See her Life written by Mr. Jesse pag 40. I have obtained mercy that thought my time of mercy past for ever I have hope of heaven that thought I was already damned by unbelief I said many a time there is no hope in thine end and I thought I saw it I was so desperate I cared not what became of me Oft was I at the very brink of death and hell even at the very Gates of both and then Christ shut them I was as Daniel in the Lions Den and he stopt the mouth of those Lions and delivered me The Goodness of God is unsearchable how great is the excellency of his Majesty that yet he would look upon such an one as I that he has given me peace that was full of terror and walked continually as amidst fire and brimstone 2. Let us walk humbly and be full of cautious fear that we offend not a God that is so terrible and that we grieve not a Benefactor that is so good Let us walk softly all our days remembring there was but a step between us and Hell Oh! let us put our mouths in the dust let us lothe and abhor our selves for the manifold iniquities that we were guilty of during the darkness of the Night and now the Morning is come and such a Morning as we never hoped to see let us walk as children of the day that so being come out of the Furnace we may be as Gold that is refined 3. Tho we do rejoice yet we must rejoice with trembling with trembling lest another Night so black so frightful and so dismal come upon us Let our obedience be more lively and as the tender grass springing out of the Earth by clear shining after rain but let us remember that our joy is not yet perfect tho it be as the light of the Morning when the Sun riseth It is not a Morning without clouds 2. Sam. 23.4 The Sun will be Clouded with many Fogs and Mists for 't is but yet a Morning-Sun it will shine with greater glory in its height when the Noon-day and our compleat Salvation comes The Devil that has tempted us will assault us again Let us watch that his designs may not take effect for it may be he has but left us for a season alas our unbelief and our other sins are not yet wholly dead Let us rejoice that the Face of God now shines on us but let us tremble to think what would become of us should it be hid again Let us rejoice that we have good hope through grace but let us tremble lest despair and the pains of Hell should again take hold upon us The fear that we have of future suffering does somewhat now diminish the brightness of our joy tho we ought not to live under the perpetual bondage of such fears but trust in God and hope that he will be our guide even unto death We are brought indeed out of the miry pit and the deep clay yet we cannot but tremble at our foregoing misery We are like a Person that after a Shipwreck has with great difficulty upon a Plank got safe to Land he finds himself in a place assured and rejoyces in it nevertheless the noise of the Waves and the great agitation that he was so lately in makes him tremble He remains a good while astonished at his former danger and his present safety Let us not have a trembling of distrust but of vigilance and of holy care not to doubt of the Promises of God but to keep down our own pride and carnal security Let us pray that as he has set our feet upon a rock so he would establish our goings remembring how low we have fallen into what depths and under what Calamities we have constant cause to be afraid Ps 149.6 Let the high praises of God be in our mouths and a two-edged Sword in our hands Let us be as those Soldiers who tho they have newly gotten the victory over their Enemies and rejoice for it yet amidst all their Acclamations stand upon their guard lest the remainder of those that are unsubdued should rally their scattered Forces and attacque them again to their disadvantage 3. We must be very active in the service of our good God We must begin to travel whilst the morning lasts and whilst we have day before us 4. Our mouths must be full of praise to him that has delivered us Shall we not praise him to whom we vowed praises when we were in trouble Shall we not praise him who alone has wrought salvation for us none but he could help us and he has done it Magnificently has he delivered us far above all our hopes Oh how much more pleasant is it to you and me to call him Father than to fear him as a Judge How much more pleasant to celebrate his praises than to mourn for his departure to tune our Harps after our Captivity than to have them hanging on the Willows Oh Let us praise him for he deserves our praise Let us praise him for he hath remembred us in our low estate Let us praise him for his Terrors his Rebukes and his Frowns are gone Psal 116.1 2 c Psal 37.6 The Lightning and Thunder the horror and the darkness of the tempestuous night is over and a chearful and a calm day now revives us Let us praise him for he is infinitely excellent Let us praise him for he expects our praise So David Psal 116 1 2 3 5. I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications because he hath inclined his ear to me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live the sorrows of death compassed me and the pains of hell gat hold upon me I found trouble and sorrow Gracious is the Lord and righteous yea our God is merciful And Ps 27.6 Now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemines round about me Therefore will I offer in his Tabernacle
present undisturbed Case and their seeming welfare for their happiness is not real but apparent and all the goods that are bestow'd upon them are but mean and low in themselves though our erroneous and blinder Judgments think them to be somewhat great and considerable Dr. Scots Christian life part 2. p. 255. For considering of what little moment the present goods and evils are which good men suffer and bad men enjoy they ought rather to be lookt on as an argument of God's Wisdom than as an objection against his Providence for he understands the just value of things and knows that the best of these worldly goods are bad enough to be thrown away upon the worst of men and so expresses his just scorn of these admired vanities by scattering them abroad with a careless hand for why should he partake of the error of vulgar opinion and express himself so very regardful of these trifles as to put them in Gold Scales and weigh them out to mankind by Grains and Scruples When we see therefore bad men to rejoice and the good to mourn let us not censure but adore that Providence that will assign to them both different portions in another world those that are healthful are not more beloved for that nor are the sick and weak more hateful to God for those outward troubles that they now suffer there are many who have their paradise in this world that shall have none hereafter and there is many an one torn and mangled with the thorns and bryers of the Wilderness to whom God does reserve a Throne above We see many a Vessel on whom the Sun shines and which sails with a fair gale that yet by splitting on a Rock or on the Sand never reaches the Port And others we see that meet with nothing but high waves and contrary winds and tho' they have an unpleasant voyage yet it is for all that very safe and attended with comfort in the latter end The wicked do not always prosper in this life God sometimes makes them examples of his Justice and if he do not usually do so to those that are very bad it affords us a certain ground for the belief which we have of a Judgment that is to come wherein punishments and rewards will be distributed after another manner than now they are This maxim of our Christian Divinity * Fragmens de Serm. de Mons Morus p. 74. That God sometimes afflicts very severely those whom he tenderly loves even then when they well perform their duty even then when he is well pleased with them was unknown to the ancient Isralites This was a Lesson above their understanding God did not afflict them but when they had provoked him by some particular transgression but when they did not so they always had a peaceable and happy life it is not so with us our afflictions are sometimes indeed not the marks of his Anger but of his Favour as when he calls his own out to the enduring of things very bitter and unpleasant for the tryal of their patience and faith there is none of the Prophets that does reckon suffering among the gifts of God but our Apostle does esteem them to be so Phil. 1. We hear none under the new Testament which gives us a clearer discovery of another world say as they did heretofore Why doth the way of the Wicked prosper but rather count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations CHAP. VI. Of the duty of such as never have been under a sense of God's Wrath and Terrors and what is the doleful condition of a Soul that apprehends it self to be under his hot displeasure 1. SEeing God is often angry with his own Servants what cause have those of you that fear him to bless him that he is not angry with you and that you do not feel his displeasure He sets up others as his mark against which he shoots his Arrows you hear others groaning for his departure and yet your hearts are not sadned as theirs are your eyes can look up towards Heaven with hope whilst theirs are clouded with a vail of sorrow He speaks roughly to them but comfortable words to you he seems to set himself against them as his enemies whilst he deals with you as a loving Friend you see a reviving-smile in his Face and they can discern nothing there but one continued and dreadful Frown Oh admire and for ever wonder at the Soveraign distinguishing Grace of God are you that are at ease better than many of his people that are now thrown into a fiery Furnace Have you less dross than they Have they sinned think you at an higher rate than you have ever done He is angry with them for their luke-warmness for their backsliding and have your hearts always burn'd with Love have your feet always kept his way and not declined have you never wandred have you never turned aside to the right hand or to the left surely you have and therefore what a mercy is it that he is not angry with you as well as them You see many whose Consciences for their sins are turned all into flame and horror and perplexity full of accusations full of guilty fears for their sinning their sinning against Light Knowledge Mercy and Love and have you never so sinned Have not your Consciences also been defil'd Have you never done what was evil when you knew it to be so Have you not been often kindly entertain'd of God after you have run away from him Have you not after great Transgressions met with joy and pleasure in the sense of his pardoning healing Grace whilst others that have been it may be more dutiful did not fare so well nor have ever had such a fatted calf killed for them nor such feasts to refresh their Souls as there have been prepared for you You can never sufficiently bless God for his mercy every day you deserve his Anger and yet you have not been under the terrible apprehensions of it for a moment Why are you sitting at his Table and honoured with his Presence in all your Duties in all your Sufferings whilst he is a stranger to them and as a wayfaring Man that tarries but for a night What is it that makes him to bless some Children of the Family with greater peace and comfort than he does the rest Nothing but his own Grace and Mercy Some are drawn with Cords of Love and some have their Iniquities constantly visited with Stripes Some are glad with the hopes of Heaven and some are afraid they shall never go thither and know not by experience what Joy and Pleasure means Some have their spirits overwhelm'd their whole Souls covered with thick darkness and their Bones broken whilst others are at ease and see the light of his Countenance and have an unchanged Health Some travel with weary steps and make their pilgrimage with their own sorrows to be a vale of tears whilst others run the way of his
dissipated and that dissipation causes fear when a soul has long had in it self the sentence of condemnation a pardon from God is very comfortable our former darkness does encrease our present comfort as shadows set off the light 2. Joy arises from the possession of a present good Thus is the presence of God unspeakably sweet to a soul from which he was once departed I. As it now thinks upon him as reconciled 2. As it has by faith possession of Christ by whom his favour is restored as our sadness came by unbelief so does our joy by faith When it was in anguish every thought of God was terrible and amazing but now nothing is so refreshing so desirable so satisfying as to think of him Psal 94.19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul Now the poor finner does not look upon him as an enemy but as a Father sees no more in his hand a flaming Sword but a Scepter of Grace hear 's no more his angry voice but his gentle comfortable Calls and Invitations according to that in Isa 66.13 As one whom his mother comforteth so will I comfort you and ye shall be comforted and when ye see this your heart shall rejoyce and your bones shall flourish like an herb Oh what a joy is it to the soul to find God with it to behold the wonders of his pardoning mercy to see that all its unbelief all its impatience all its murmurings in its wilderness-condition shall not finally obstruct its Journey to the Land of Promise to be pardoned when they thought themselves actually dying in their guilt does aggravate the mercy of escape 'T is true God loves his people even when he is angry with them he designs their good by the sharpest and severest strokes and when he withdraws 't is that they may give a better welcome to him at his return when our lower Region is most cloudy the Sun is still full of light but it is pleasant to us to see the clouds vanish and the sky clear and to be refreshed with his inlivening beams again God indeed is the same for ever our distresses our fears and our troubles do not alter his kindness these several variations in us make no change in him no more than the several alterations in the air infer a diversity in the Sun which is one and the same it self tho the changes be multiplied here below but yet even Paternal wrath is wrath still and his Love is what we ought earnestly to desire and at the manifestation of which we should greatly rejoyce It was once the saying of Mr. Peacock under great distress of Conscience Oh God reconcile me to thee that I may tast one dram of thy Grace by which my miserable soul may receive comfort Such was his longing after him and afterwards when the storm began to cease being put in mind of God's mercy to him he said Oh the Sea is not so full if water nor the Sun of light as God is of Goodness his Mercy is ten thousand times more The good man long'd but for a drop before and he had given him full draughts of Consolation so far are the ways of God above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts in our sore trials we think of God as a frowning Judge but when we are deliver'd we see him to be our best friend that he is really kind to us of whom we were so much afraid who can express the joy of having him at peace with us There is a Heaven in the smiles of a Reconciled God Figure to your selves as one expresses it De Lang-Treize Sermons pag. 850. a person that is condemned to death for his Crimes and who at the same time that he prepares to undergo it sees an Herald from the King bringing his pardon in his hand and stops the Execution by crying Mercy mercy to the miserable man with what transports of joy does the poor Malefactor see this Messenger and hear these tidings such and so pleasant is the joy that a deserted Christian finds after he heard the sentence of ruin and saw it near when the Law condemned him and his Conscience ecchoed to the voice of the Law to find that he is absolved that the Sentence is reversed and the sins that made him afraid are blotted out then it is that the mourning foul dares to look up to God as being no more at war with him nor afraid of the Thunder of his Power then it is refresht with his sweet and amiable Attributes and then the disorders and the pangs that it felt within are vanisht and all is quiet then it dwells not as in the shadow of death nor as on the borders of eternal grief Secondly As the deserted soul does by faith obtain a possession of Christ so it is full of joy and Christ is both the Object and the Author of it he has purchas'd it by his own blood and has born our griefs that we might not mourn for ever the having of him is a constant inexhaustible source of joy to the believer to be possessed of this Saviour who is the brightness of the glory and the express Image of the Father His Word his Wisdom his Love and his Good-will the Treasury of his Graces in whom his Fulness dwells this Divine Saviour is our Light that chases away the darkness of our night and who with his Gracious hand dries our eyes this is that Glorious Sun that arises with healing on his wings that not only chears our hearts but cures our wounds dispells the night and makes the voice of sighing to expire at the first dawning of the day this is the Tree of Life the Coelestial Manna that gives us Immortality * See Daille on Phil. IV. v. IV. This is our David that defeats our Enemies our Solomon that establishes among us a sweet and inviolable peace he expiates our Crimes and gives our minds rest he saves us from the wrath to come he delivers us from our sins from Hell from our slavish fears and causes us at length in our darkest and most tempestuous nights to hear his Voice saying It is I be not afraid We are first sadned by unbelief and faith doth first revive us and this faith is attended with joy and peace when the poor deserted soul begins to apprehend its Interest in Christ how are all its apprehensions changed saying Heretofore in my terrible anguish I thought that he was my certain enemy that I had no portion in his Blood nor any share in his Intercession That as I was under unbelief so I should be vastly more miserable than those that never heard of him than Heathens and Pagans and all the rest of men to whom the Gospel never came I then thought and was fully perswaded that I should not hear of him with comfort any more I then thought that I should see him coming in the Clouds to my terror that I should be placed at his