it shall be light in a season when it was not to be expected In all his works of Nature and of Grace he makes things that having a seeming contrariety to what he designs to further his design Thus some observe the Earth hangs upon nothing in the midst of the fluid Air though it be the most heavy of all the Elements he renders it fruitful for the Production of all necessary things though it be of it self cold and dry and so the Sea which by its scituation is above the Earth and does seem to threaten it with new deluges yet is kept in its own Channels for after it has been raised even to the Clouds in threatning Waves its fury dies again into a Calm and observes the bounds that God has set it Thus our Lord Jesus also works By being Tempted he Conquer'd the Tempter and by Dying he subdued Death and so at the sending of the Spirit first the House shook and trembled and then it was filled with the Glory of the Lord First deep Sorrows and then as mighty Joys First John Rev. 14.2 heard a voice as the voice of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder and then the voice of harpers harping with their harps and that sang a new song before the throne A due consideration of the Providences of God will keep us from the absurd Opinion of the Heathens That the Deity envied the felicity of Men and that he who was most prosperous was near to a sudden overthrow And even the Learned Men among them were so apprehensive of it that they durst not acknowledg their own tho but ordinary welfare without an excuse See instances of this in Dr. Casaubon's Original Cause of Temporal Evils Upon this account Augustus in whose days the Saviour of the World was born once in the year turned Beggar and received Alms of such of the Common people as would give him He mistrusted his own felicity and dreaded that so frightful in those days Invidiam Numinis The Heathens had but parcels of the Scripture and those too by Tradition much adulterated no wonder if they made a contrary use of it and by sad experience finding the effects of Adam's Fall and God's Curse and not well informed of all particulars the Devil also being busie with them as he was with Eve to promote a misapprehension of God as if he were envious * See Dr. Casaubon p. 27. whereas upon due consideration what in the Judgment of blind and corrupt nature seemed envy and malignity will appear Mercy being used by God as a profitable Medicine or Antidote against the greatest and most dangerous infection of the Soul for crosses and afflictions in this World are not effects of envy in the supreme dispenser of all things but Arguments of his Goodness and Providence All things shall work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8.28 Sickness and Health Poverty and Riches Anguish and Fear and Horror shall contribute to their Salvation and in the most fiery Furnaces and the most painful Troubles they shall find the refreshments of his Grace His Providences work together they are in Concert and are not to be taken apart like Composition of divers Ingredients for there are some that if taken alone might kill the patient but when they are joyned with others which by their contrary qualities temper their excess they do marvellous things being counterpoized †Fragmens de Morus p. 62. God many times lets our darkness stay long that we may know what a pleasant thing it is to see the light CHAP. IX Of the different ends that God hath in the Afflictions of the Good and the Wicked and what Reason we have to be reconciled to his Providence And that we must be satisfied that God carries us to Heaven in his own Way and Method Inf. 2. THis shews us the different ends that God has in the afflictions of the Good and of the Wicked To the one they are Medicinal to the other Penal to the one in Love to the other in Wrath to the one the shadows of an Eternal night and to the other the forerunners of the morning Often his people are thrown down by their Fears by Satan and the World but as often may they say Rejoyce not against me O my enemy c. They may be dejected but they may say with David O my soul hope still on God c. Afflictions as one says are common to the good and bad as the entrance into the bottom of the Sea was to the Israelites and to the Egyptians but the Israelites conducted by a Cloud and a Pillar of Fire were inlightned and assured and passed in safety and came out praising God but to the Egyptians this Cloud that separated them was full of darkness and they were drowned in the Waves whilest the others stood upon the dry Land so God comforts his people by the light of his Word and the support of hope from his holy Promises whereas the wicked are finally swallowed up of sadness and despair The Righteous fall and they rise again but the feet of the Wicked stumble on the dark Mountains and never rise again Tho indeed as the same person observes * Fautheur Sermons first part p. 132. Even as the Chaldeans formerly measured their natural day differently from the Israelites they put the day first and the night after but the Israelites on the contrary according to the order that was observed in the Creation for in the beginning darkness was upon the face of the deep and of every one of the six days it is said The evening and the morning made the first day So the times of the World and of the Church are differently disposed for the World begins hers by the day of temporal prosperity and finishes it by a night of darkness and anguish that is Eternal but the Church on the contrary begins hers by the night of Adversity which she suffers for a while and ends them by a day of Consolation which she shall have for ever The Prophet in this Psalm begins with the Anger of God but ends with his Favour as of old when they entred into the Tabernacle they did at first see unpleasant things as the Knives of the Sacrificers the Blood of Victims the Fire that burn'd upon the Altar which consumed the Offerings but when they passed a little further there was the Holy Place the Candlestick of Gold the Shew-bread bread and the Altar of Gold on which they offered Perfumes and in fine there was the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy-Seat and the Cherubims which was called the Face of God * Mussard Sermons sur divers Texes p. 30. Inf. 3. This may then reconcile you to his Providence The night of trouble makes you not to see the Beauty of the Church but tho she is black she is comely still he that makes his Sun to shine upon the unthankful and the
Decree There are many people whom we are angry with and reprove whom notwithstanding we do in the mean time most sincerely love and Christ has told us Rev. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten 4. The Anger of God is but for a moment because he delights in Mercy Psalm 103.8 The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy He will not always chide neither will he keep his anger for ever It is long before he punishes and 't is with haste that he comes to our help when we repent and many times before In the midst of Wrath he remembers Mercy he does not always inflict what we have deserved but considers what is most proper for him to lay upon us and what we are able to bear and therefore he gives to us some mitigations with our most bitter Cup. He is called the Father of Mercies and the God of all Comfort and tho Punishment does proceed from him as well as Tenderness and Affection yet he is no where called the Father of Judgments Mercy ariseth from his own Nature and he delighteth in it Micah 7.18 He retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy His wrath is said to be reserv'd in Golden Viols Rev. 15.7 i. e. it doth not flow forth all at once but by degrees but his Mercy is compared to a River and a flowing Stream Isaiah 66.12 to the Oyl of gladness to the smell of Myrrh Aloes and Cassia It is a Glory to this God to relieve the miserable and to help his Servants when all their power and might is gone and he ends the Controversy with them when there is cause enough on their side that he should pursue the Quarrel further When he leads us into a Wilderness yet he provides some Water some refreshment for us there It is one of the great Wonders of his Providence that he supports those poor Souls that have no light of Evidence no sense of his Love no hope nothing but the fears of Wrath and Desolation and yet the matter of Fact and our own Experience plainly tells us that so it is his everlasting Arms are underneath and his Power does maintain our Life when we say that he has forgotten to be gracious He bottles our Tears when we weep and hears our Groans when we lament and proportions the Troubles that he sends that they shall not be too long nor too violent Jer. 30.11 I will not make a full end of thee I will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether unpunished And those Afflictions which his People suffer are not in all respects proper Punishments because his Anger is mixed with mildness and mitigated by the Intercessions of a Mediator Lam. 3.31 32. The Lord will not cast off for ever but tho he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his tender mercies 5. That his Anger is but for a moment is for his own Name sake His Nature is most inclinable to do us good therefore the Prophets to those Idolaters mentioned in 1 Kings 18.24 says The God that answers by sire let him be God and he chose that Element above the rest to signify how soon we shall have Mercy it comes as upon the wings of the Wind it is as swift as the rays of Light Hosca 11.9 I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim for I am God and not man A Man when he is greatly provoked by his Enemy is not satisfied with having once made him feel his Anger but carries on his Revenge to further degrees and only ceases the pursuit with the Death of him that he first assaulted But the Great God tho he is able to Conquer those that oppose him with a total Defeat and Ruin yet he suffers them to breathe and live that they may Repent and that he may cause his Goodness to shine with a greater Brightness to the World He could follow them with one Blow after another with a Succession of new and greater Miseries but he restrains his Anger for his own sâ—ke And it maybe a great Consolation to poor afflicted People to consider that they have to deal with God and not with Men when they have sinn'd they have not to deal with Men that are full of Rage and Cruelty but with a God that is gracious and full of Mercy not with Men that may Caress them to day and Hate them to morrow but with a God that is unchangeable and even when they are in the Fire or in the Water his Love is still to them the very same Men think it a dishonour to spare their interiors if they do not by the lowest Submissions testify their Sorrow for their Crimes but the Great God is so far above all his Creatures that he may when he will think them below his Indignation and magnify his Goodness in sparing and forgiving them when they most deserve to dye Isaiah 4.8 9. For my names sake will I defer mine anger and for my praise will I refrain for thee that I cut thee not off 'T is his Power that moderates his Anger Those Persons that have the least strength either of Reason or of Courage are the most passionate and inclinable to Revenge In Punishments he shews his Dominion over his Creatures but his Power over himself when he forgives great Injuries and is slow to punish great Affronts and his Power in those Acts of Grace is very great and illustrious He is God and not Man there is more Compassion and more real Pity in him than in the most compassionate or tender hearted Man that we ever knew He is God and not Man he whom we have offended and who can destroy us begins first to treat about a Reconciliation with us This is not the manner and way of Men who think that those who have offended them are to make the first advances towards a repairing of the Breach There is no Attribute in the displaying of which the Great God glories so much as in this of Mercy and 't is by this that he would be known Exod. 34.6 7. 6. That his Anger is but for a moment is because he would make a difference between the righteous and the wicked The Afflictions that he sends upon the Righteous are to prepare them for Heaven and Glory But those Scourges that he uses to the Wicked and Impenitent are but the beginning of their Sorrows the flashes of those Flames that will consume them for ever The distresses of the Righteous are short and so are the Prosperities of the Wicked The Righteous are weeping here but they shall rejoyce hereafter The Wicked have now their Heaven such as it is and hereafter they go to an Eternal Hell and there must they weep and wail when the Good and Holy shall have all their Tears wiped away The one shall find him to be a loving Father and to have been
so he hath Bowels of Compassion What Mercy may we not expect from so gracious a Mediator that took our Nature on him that he might be Gracious Let us therefore go to God by Christ who has satisfied his Justice by his Death and who without him is to us Sinners as a consuming fire Let us go boldly to his Throne in the name of Jesus and we shall find that the God of whom we were afraid will become our Friend and we shall experience him to be better to us than we ever thought he would have been Our unbelieving hearts whilst they are such will be full of darkness and of trouble but upon our Faith the Storm will cease and the Morning will begin to dawn upon us and instead of that wrath which we feared and had deserved we shall find there is Mercy with the Lord and plenteous Redemption Psal 130. The first thing that a convinced awakened sinner thinks of is his own danger and how he may avoid the Wrath of God and what it is that he must do in order to it now it is not to be accomplished by pompous ceremonious Services not by external mortifications nor by offering the fruity of his Body for the sin of his own Soul but by Faith in Jesus Christ and his Death by the means of which God is become propitious and favourable to us And the first view that as one says an humble Soul is to take of Christ is of his being a Saviour as made a Sin and a Curse and obeying to the death And Christ must be considered not only with respect to the Excellencies of his person but as cloathed with his Garments of Blood and the Qualifications of a Mediator and a Reconciler and this renders him the fit object of a Sinners Faith If we think of God without thinking of Christ he is vastly terrible and amazing to us but in and through him those otherwise-overwhelming apprehensions become very pleasant and comfortable to us Let us honour the Love that he hath shewed in him with admiring thoughts and never have low nor mean apprehensions of his Grace Christ is near unto God and pitiful to us able to help us and most willing to do so for those that come unto him he will in no wise cast out He will not upbraid us for our former follies he will not encrease our grief but when he sees us once lying at his feet and washing them with the tears of an unfeigned humiliation he will raise us up and bid us be of good cheer V. Faith will remove the troubles that we have from the sense of God's displeasure by conveying to us that life and strength from Christ which will enable us to subdue all our spiritual Enemies Phil. 4.13 It will bring him to us and when he is in our Vessel let the Waves threaten us with never so formidable a noise we are sure not to be cast away And all the Spectres that afright us will vanish if we do but hear him once say as to his Disciples It is I be not afraid This Grace will unite us to Christ and communicate to us of his Power in the several measures that we need and without his assistance long and sore afflictions will tire our Spirits and destroy our Hope He is necessary for us for he has a perfect knowledg of our Enemies of their Force their Policies and their Designs He has by his own Combat learn'd to Fight and by his Experience can teach us to get the Victory neither the multitude nor violence nor obstinacy of our Enemies can hinder the Success and the glory of his Triumph Col. 1.11 He prayeth that they might be strengthned with all might because as we have to do with divers Enemies and are sick of divers Infirmities we have need to receive not one or two kinds of strength but many different ones * Vide Daille in loc For as in nature you see the strength of Bodies is different one resisting one thing and yielding to another one has the virtue to repulse the force of one Element but not to guard it self from another So in a manner is it in the Souls of Men such a Man will free himself from the temptation of one sin that will not be able to defend himself from another such a Man will resist the temptations of prosperity whom adversity will overthrow such an one will bear troubles for a while whom the length or tediousness of them will overcome and if one of our Spiritual Enemies succeed against us we are undone for ever Therefore as the Apostle says we have need to have recourse to Christ who can furnish us with skill and strength to defeat whatsoever stands in the way of our Peace or our Salvation To have one on our side that has returned from the Field of Battel as a Conqueror is a mighty encouragement and privilege Such is our Lord he is a Victorious and a Triumphant Saviour he will not leave his Conquests incompleat for he goes on Conquering and to Conquer and the glory of his enterprizes has not fill'd him with disdain or contempt of the poor and needy for he that is the King of Zion is as I said before a meek and lowly King By Faith in Christ we obtain his Spirit which by opening our eyes will shew us that Fountain of Living-waters where we may both quench our thirst and wash away our filth This Spirit will take away the sting of guilt and sweeten the Cross that was very bitter to us and when our Lord is come to help us when we know that he is afflicted in our affliction that yoak which gall'd us before will become as an Ornament about our Necks and when we have the pardon of our sins and the hope of God's acceptance that affliction that we thought a burthen too heavy for us to bear will become light and easie to us Out of the devourer shall come forth sweetness From those very fears that overwhelmed us shall spring glorious hopes and those hearts which a slavish fear of the Wrath had contracted shall be enlarged with a sense of his Goodness and his Love and we shall not look upon him as an Enemy but as a Friend not as a Judge but as a Father Isa 33.14 The inhabitants shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquities Alas when God leaves us the smallest danger terrifies us the least Dart of Satan makes an impression on our spirits the least trouble sinks such low such inconsiderable creatures are we But if the Lord be with us if Christ be on our side neither the Law nor Sin nor Death can hinder us from bidding a defiance to all that is against us 2 Cor. 15. 56 57. VI. Faith will give us relief under the apprehensions of God's displeasure or our Sin as it will shew us the period and conclusion of those miseries which we now are groaning under our
how great an height have I fallen How fair was I once for Heaven and for Salvation and now am like to come short of it I was once flourishing in the Courts of the Lord and now all my Fruit is blasted and withered away his dew laid all night upon my branches but now I am like the Mountains of Gilboa no Rain falls upon me Had I never heard of Heaven I could not have been so miserable as I now am Had I never known God the loss of him had not been so terrible as now it is like to be Job 29.2 3. Oh! that I were as in months past as in the days when God preserved me When his Candle shined upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkness These are some of the sorrows that deserted Souls often meet withal and indeed but a small part of what they feel in this dark and stormy night Before I proceed any further I will answer two Objections for I foresee that against what I have said some may object CHAP. V. Answering some Objections and of the further doleful state of a deserted Soul and whence it is that God is pleased to suffer a very Tempestuous and Stormy Night to come upon his Servants in this World Obj. 1. YOV make a great deal of noise and pother about desertions and God's forsaking of the soul and it is nothing in the world but Fancy or Imagination and the whimsies and the fumes of Melancholly Answ It is no new thing for us to hear such Language from Atheistical and Prophane People from men that are covered with ignorance and sloth With ignorance because they know not the ways of God and his dispensations and sloth because they will not search into the Methods of his Government To grant them for once that it is Imagination it is not the less tormenting because it is so for a Man that strongly imagines himself to be miscrable is truly miserable if a man think himself unhappy he is so whilest that thought remains But then they would do well could they but once obtain of themselves leave to consider a little they would find reason to suspect their own foolish Objections Who was a Man as appears by what we read of him more distressed with the sense of God's Anger than David yet he was of a Musical and a pleasant Temper of a Ruddy and a Sanguine Constitution Do they think that such a great Prince as Job was was led meerly by humour and by fancy when he complains so much of the Arrows of the Almighty Or that Heman Asaph and many others were men of no clear understandings It is their ignorant Pride that makes them to talk so boldly of the Judgments of God which they do not understand but if ever their Consciences be awakened with a sense of guilt they 'll find in what I have now discoursed something more terrible than Fancy or Imagination Obj. 2. You take a way to discourage men from all Religion If it be such a mournful business it is better to let it alone and to rejoyce and to be merry and to take our ease and our pleasure Go by your selves to Heaven if you will we 'll joyn our selves to more chearful Companions we see those that are gay and brisk that know no sorrow while they live and that dye in peace and to their Assembly we will unite our selves In Answer to this I desire such to consider That it is not our Religion that is the Cause of our sorrows but our wandrings and our deviation from it If we were always obedient we should have an Eternal day our heavenly Father chastises us because we are undutiful and he does not delight to grieve the Children of Men and even in these necessary Corrections he carries on a profitable design for our future and final good 'T is true this is nothing but anguish of Conscience that draws up a process against it self that presents it self as before the Tribunal of God without hope of pardon or escape and the weight of Mountains would not be a load so heavy as this it is a night wherein we are kept waking with our danger whether we will or not Wicked men tho they have as great a burden yet are not sensible they feel not the bitterness of sin they are like fishes bred in the Sea that tast not the saltness of the water they are like swine that find something agreeable to their meaner appetites even in that which is most nauseous to other Creatures When they sin they feel not the weight of it for it is their nature to do amiss their iniquities are like waters that are not heavy in their own Element as Intellectual joy is most refin'd pure and durable so is the trouble of the mind of all others most troublesome Job 6.2 3. Oh that my grief were throughly weighed and my calamity laid in the balance together for now it would be heavier than the sand of the Sea therefore my words are swallowed up 2. 'T is attended usually with great pain of body too and so a man is wounded and distrest in every part There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger says David The arrows of the Almighty are within me the poyson whereof drinketh up my spirit Job 6.4 Sorrow of heart contracts the natural spirits makes all their motions slow and feeble and the poor afflicted body does usually decline and wast away and therefore saith Heman My soul is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the grave In this inward distress we find our strength decay and melt even as wax before the fire for sorrow that is an ingrateful languor of the soul * Natural History of the Passions p. 152. darkneth the spirits obscures the judgment blinds the memory as to all pleasant things and beclouds the lucid part of the mind causes the lamp of life to burn weakly In this troubled condition the person cannot be without a countenance that is pale and wan and dejected like one that is seized with strong fear and consternation all his motions are sluggish and no sprightliness nor activity remains Prov. 17.22 A merry heart doth good like a Medicine but a broken spirit drieth the bones Hence come those frequent complaints in Scripture My moisture is turned into the drought of Summer I am like a bottle in the smoke wy soul cleaveth unto the dust my face is foul with weeping and on my eye-lids is the shadow of death Job 16.16 Job 30.17 18 19. My bones are pierced in me in the night season and my sinews take no rest by the great force of my disease is my garments changed He hath cast me into the mire and I am become like dust and ashes Many times indeed the trouble of the soul does begin from the weakness and indisposition of the body Long affliction without any prospect of remedy does in process of time begin to distress the soul