as to fetch Christ from heaven and so bring him downe to suffer on the Crosse againe Where as if we beleeve in Christ wee are as sure to come to heaven as Christ is there Christ ascending and descending with all that he hath done is ours So that neither heighth nor depth can separate us from Gods love in Christ. But we must remember though the maine pillar of our comfort bee in the free forgivenesse of our sinnes yet if there be a neglect in growing in holinesse the soule will never be soundly quiet because it will be proane to question the truth of justification and it is as proper for sinne to raise doubts and feares in the conscience as for rotten flesh and wood to breed wormes And therefore we may well joyne this as a cause of disquietnesse the neglect of keeping a cleare conscience Sinne like Achan or Ionas in the ship is that which causeth stormes within and without where there is not a pure conscience there is not a pacified conscience and therefore though some thinking to salve themselves whole in justification neglect the cleansing of their natures and ordering of their lives yet in time of temptation they will finde it more troublesome then they thinke For a conscience guilty of many neglects and of allowing it selfe in any sin to lay claime to Gods mercy is to doe as we see mountebanks sometimes do who wound their flesh to try conclusions upon their owne bodies how soveraigne the salve is yet oftentimes they come to feele the smart of their presumption by long and desperate wounds So God will let us see what it is to make wounds to try the preciousnesse of his Balme such may goe mourning to their graves And though perhaps with much wrastling with God they may get assurance of the pardon of their sins yet their conscience will bee still trembling like as Davids though Nathan had pronounced unto him the forgivenesse of his sin till God at length speakes further peace even as the water of the sea after a storme is not presently still but moves and trembles a good while after the storm is over A Christian is a new creature and walketh by rule and so far as hee walketh according to his rule peace is upon him Loose walkers that regard not their way must thinke to meet with sorowes instead of peace Watchfulnesse is the preserver of peace It is a deep spirituall judgement to find peace in an ill way Some againe reap the fruit of their ignorance of Christian liberty by unnecessary scruples and doubts It is both unthankfulnesse to God and wrong to our selves to be ignorant of the extent of Christian liberty It makes melody to Satan to see Christians troubled with that they neither should or need Yet there is danger in stretching Christian liberty beyond the bounds For a man may condemne himself in that he approves as in not walking circumspectly in regard of circumstances and so breed his owne disquiet and give scandall to others Sometimes also God suffers men to be disquieted for want of imployment who in shunning labour procure trouble to themselves and by not doing that which is needfull they are troubled with that which is unnecessary An unimployed life is a burden to it selfe God is a pure Act alwayes working alwaies doing and the neerer our soule comes to God the more it is in action and the freer from disquiet Men experimentally feele that comfort in doing that which belongs unto them which before they longed for and went without a heart not exercised in some honest labour workes trouble out of it selfe Againe Omission of duties and offices of love often troubles the peace of good people for even in the time of death when they looke for peace and desire it most then looking backe upon their former failings and seeing opportunity of doing good wanting to their desire the parties perhaps being deceased to whom they owed more respect are hereupon much disquieted and so much the more because they see now hope of the like advantages cut off A Christian life is full of duties and the peace of it is not maintained without much fruitfulnesse and looking about us debt is a disquieting thing to an honest minde and duty is debt Hereupon the Apostle layeth the charge that we should owe nothing to any man but love Againe one speciall cause of too much disquiet is want of firme resolution in good things The soule cannot but bee disquieted when it knowes not what to cleave unto like a ship tossed with contrary windes Halting is a deformed and troublesome gesture so halting in religion is not onely troublesome to others and odious but also disquiets our selves If God be God cleave to him If the duties of religion be such as will bring peace of conscience at the length be religious to purpose practise them in the particular passages of life Wee should labour to have a cleare judgement and from thence a resolved purpose a wavering minded man is inconstant in all his wayes God will not speake peace to a staggering spirit that hath alwayes its religion and its way to choose Uncertaine men are alwayes unquiet men and giving too much way to passion maketh men in particular consultations unsetled This is the reason why in particular cases when the matter concernes our selves we cannot judge so clearely as in generall truths because Satan raiseth a mist between us and the matter in question Positive Causes May be 1. When men lay up their comfort too much on outward things which being subject to much inconstancy and change breed disquiet Vexation alwayes followes vanity when vanity is not apprehended to be where it is In that measure we are cast downe in the disappointing of our hopes as wee were too much lifted up in expectation of good from them Whence proceed these complaints such a friend hath failed mee I never thought to have fallen into this condition I had setled my joy in this childe in this friend c. but this is to build our comfort upon things that have no firm foundation to build castles in the aire as we use to say Therefore it is a good desire of the wiseman Agur to desire God to remove from us vanity and lies that is a vaine and a false apprehension pitching upon things that are vaine and lying promising a contentment to our selves from the creature which it cannot yeeld confidence in vaine things makes a vaine heart the heart becomming of the nature of the thing it relies on we may say of all earthly things as the Prophet speaketh Here is not our rest It is no wonder therefore that worldly men are oft cast downe and disquieted when they walke in a vaine shadow as likewise that men given much to recreations should be subject to passionate distempers because here things fall out otherwise then they lookt forâ—… recreations being
use of that sweet Relation of God in Christ becomming a Father to us Doubtlesse thou art our Father flesh would make a doubt of it and thou seemest to hide thy face from us yet doubtlesse thou art our Father and hast in former time shewed thy selfe to be so wee will not leave thee till we have a blessing from thee till we have a kinder looke from thee This wrastling will prevaile at length and we shall have such a sight of him as shall bee an encouragement for the time to come when we shall be able to comfort others with those comforts whereby we have been refreshed our selves With the Saints case remember the Saints course which is to trust in God So Christ the Head of the Church commits himselfe to that God whose favour for the present he felt not So Iob resolves upon trust though God should kill him But these holy persons were not troubled with the guilt of any particular sin but I feele the just displeasure of God kindled against me for many and great offences True it is that sinne is not so sweet in the committing as it is heavy and â—…itter in the reckoning When Adam had once offended God Paradise it selfe was not Paradise to him The presence of God which was most comfortable before was now his greatest terrour had not God out of his free infinite and preventing mercy come betwixt him and hell by the promise of the blessed seed This seed was made sin to satisfie for sinne sinne passive in himselfe to satisfie for sinne active in us When God once charges sinne upon the soule Alas who shall take it off When the great God shall frowne the smiles of the creature cannot refresh us Sinne makes us afraid of that which should be our greatest comfort it puts a sting into every other evill upon the seazing of any evill either of body soule or condition the guilty soule is imbittered and enraged for from that which it feeles it fore-speakes to it selfe worse to come It interprets all that befalls as the messengers of an angry God sent in displeasure to take revenge upon it This weakneth the courage wasteth the spirits and blasteth the beauty even of Gods dearest ones There is not the stoutest man breathing but if God sets his conscience against him it will pull him downe and lay him flat and fill him with such inward terrors as he shall be more afraid of himselfe then of all the world beside This were a dolefull case if God had not provided in Christ a remedy for this great evill of evills and if the holy Spirit were not above the conscience able as well to pacifie it by the sense of Gods love in Christ as to convince it of sinne and the just desert thereby But my sinnes are not the sinnes of an ordinary man my spots are not as the spots of the rest of Gods children Conceive of Gods mercy as no ordinary mercy and Christs obedience as no ordinary obedience There is something in the very greatnesse of sin that may encourage us to goe to God for the greater our sinnes are the greater the glory of his powerfull mercy in pardoning and his powerfull grace in healing will appeare The great God delights to shew his greatnesse in the greatest things Even men glory when they are put upon that which may set forth their worth in any kinde God delighteth in mercy it pleaseth him nothing so well as being his chiefe Name which then we take in vaine when we are not moved by it to come unto him That which Sathan would use as an argument to drive us from God wee should use as a strong plea with him Lord the greater my sins are the greater will be the glory of thy pardoning mercy David after his hainous sinnes cries not for mercy but for abundance of mercy according to the multitude of thy mercies doe away nine offences his mercy is not only above his own works but above ours too If we could sin more then he could pardon then wee might have some reason to despaire Despaire is a high point of Atheisme it takes away God and Christ both at once Iudas in betraying our Saviour was an occasion of his death as man but in despairing he did what lay in him to take away his life as God When therefore Conscience joyning with Sathan sets out thy sinne in its â—…ours labour thou by faith to set out God in his colours infinite in mercy and loving kindnesse Here lies the art of a Christian It is divine Rhetorick thus to perswade and set downe the soule Thy sinnes are great but Adams was greater who being so newly advanced above all the creatures and taken into so neare an acquaintance with God and having ability to persist in that condition if he would yet willingly overthrew himselfe and all his whole posterity by yeelding to a temptation which though high as being promised to bee like unto God yet such as hee should and might have resisted No sinne we can commit can be a sinne of so tainting and spreading a nature yet as he fell by distrust so he was recovered by trusting and so must we by relying on a second Adam whose obedience and righteousnesse from thence raignes to the taking away not only of that one sinne of Adam and ours in him but of all and not onely to the pardon of all sinne but to a right of everlasting life The Lord thinkes himself disparaged when wee have no higher thoughts of his mercy then of our sins when we bring God downe to our Model when as the heavens are not so much higher then the earth then his thoughts of love and goodnesse are above the thoughts of our unworthinesse It is a kinde of taking away the Almighty to limit his boundlesse mercy in Christ within the narrow scantling of our apprehension yet infidelity doth this which should stirre up in us a loathing of it above all other sinnes But this is Sathans fetch when once he hath brought us into sins against the Law then to bring us into sinnes of a higher nature and deeper danger even against the blessed Gospell that so there may be no remedy but that mercy it selfe might condemne us All the aggravations that conscience and Sathan helping it are able to raise sinne unto cannot rise to that degree of infinitenesse that Gods mercy in Christ is of If there be a spring of sin in us there is a spring of mercy in him and a fountaine opened daily to wash our selves in If we sin oft let us do as S. Paul who prayed oft against the prick of the flesh If it be a devill of long continuance yet fasting and prayer will drive him out at length Nothing keepes the soule more downe then sinnes of long continuance because corruption of nature hath gotten such strength in them as nature is added to nature and custome doth so
in himselfe out of his goodnesse would stoop low to us And we should delight in the meditation of him not onely as good to us but as good in himselfe because goodnesse of bounty springs from goodnesse of disposition he doth good because he is good A naturall man delights more in Gods gifts then in his grace If he desires grace it is to grace himselfe not as grace making him like unto God and issuing from the first grace the free favour of God by which meanes men come to have the gifts of God without God himselfe But alas what are all other goods without the chiefe good they are but as flowers which are long in planting in cherishing and growing but short in enjoying the sweetnesse of them David here joyes in God himselfe he cares for nothing in the world but what he may have with his favour and what ever else he desires hee desires onely that he may have the better ground from thence to praise his God §. 4. The summe of all is this The state of Gods deare children in this world is to bee cast into variety of conditions wherein they consisting of nature flesh and spirit every principle hath its owne and proper working They are sensible as flesh and blood they are sensible to discouragement as sinfull flesh and blood but they recover themselves as having a higher principle Gods spirit above flesh and blood in them In this conflicting state every principle labouring to maintaine it selfe at length by helpe of the spirit backing and strengthening his owne worke grace gets the better keeping nature within bounds and suppressing corruption And this the soule so farre as it is spirituall doth by gathering it selfe to it selfe and by reasoning the case so farre till it concludes and joynes upon this issue that the onely way to attaine sound peace is when all other meanes faile to trust in God And thereupon he layes a charge upon his soule so to doe is being a course grounded upon the highest reason even the unchangeable goodnesse of God who out of the riches of his mercy having chosen a people in this world which should be to the glory of his mercy will give them matter of setting forth his praise in shewing some token of good upon them as being those on whom he hath fixed his love and to whom hee will appeare not onely a Saviour but salvation it selfe Nothing but salvation as the Sunne is nothing but light so whatsoever proceeds from him to them tends to further salvation All his wayes towards them leade to that which wayes of his though for a time they are secret and not easily found out yet at length God will be wonderfull in them to the admiration of his enemies themselves who shall be forced to say God hath done great things for them and all from this ground that God is our God in covenant Which words are a stearne that rule and guide the whole text For why should we not be disquieted when we are disquieted Why should we not be cast downe when we are cast downe Why should we trust in God as a Saviour but that he is our God making himselfe so to us in his choisest favours doing that for us which none else can doe and which he doth to none else that are not his in a gracious maner This blessed interest and intercourse betwixt Gods spirit and our spirits is the hindge upon which all turns without this no comfort is comfortable with this no trouble can be very trouble some Without this assurance there is little comfort in Soliloquies unlesse when we speake to our selves wee can speake to God as ours For in desperate cases our soule can say nothing to it selfe to still it selfe unlesse it be suggested by God Discouragements will appeare greater to the soule then any comfort unlesse God comes in as ours See therefore Davids art hee demands of himselfe why hee was so cast downe The cause was apparant because there was troubles without and terrours within and none to comfort Well grant this saith the spirit of God in him as the worst must be granted yet saith the Spirit Trust in God So I have Why then waite in trusting Light is sowen for the righteous it comes not upon the suddaine we must not think to sowe and reape both at once If trouble be lengthened lengthen thy patience What good will come of this God will waite to doe thee that good for which thou shalt praise him he will deale so graciously with thee as he will deserve thy praise he will shew thee his salvation And new favours will stirre thee up to sing new songs every new recovery of our selves or friends is as it were a new life and ministers new matter of praise And upon offering this sacrifice of praise the heart is further enlarged to pray for fresh blessings Wee are never fitter to pray then after praise But in the meane time I hang down my head whilest mine enemies carie themselves highly and my friends stand aloofe God in his owne time which is best for thee will be the salvation of thy countenance he will compasse thee about with songs of deliverance and make it appeare at last that he hath care of thee But why then doth God appeare as a stranger to me That thou shouldst follow after him with the stronger faith and prayer hee withdrawes himself that thou shouldst bee the more earnest in seeking after him God speakes the sweetest comfort to the heart in the wildernesse Happily thou art not yet low enough nor purged enough Thy affections are not throughly crucified to the world and therefore it will not yet appeare that it is Gods good will to deliver thee Wert thou a fit subject of mercy God would bestow it on thee But what ground hast thou to build thy selfe so strongly upon God He hath offered and made himselfe to be My God and so hath shewed himselfe in former times And I have made him My God by yeelding him his Soveraignty in my heart Besides the present evidence of his blessed spirit clearing the same and many peculiar tokens of his love which I daily doe enjoy though sometimes the beams of his favour are eclipsed Those that are Gods besides their interest and right in him have oft a sense of the same even in this life as a fore-taste of that which is to come To the seale of grace stamped upon their hearts God super-adds a fresh seale of joy and comfort by the presence and witnesse of his Spirit And shewes likewise some outward token for good upon them whereby he makes it appeare that hee hath set a part him that is godly for himselfe as his owne Thus we see that discussing of objections in the consistory of the soule settles the soule at last Faith at length silencing all risings to the contrary All motion tends to rest and ends in it God is the center and resting place of the soule and here
about matters that are variable which especially fals ouâ—… in games of hazard wherein they ofâ—… spare not Divine Providence it selfe but break out into blasphemy Likewise men that graspe more businesses then they can discharge must needs beare both the blame and the griefe of losing or marring many businesses It being almost impossible to doe many things so well as to give content to Conscience Hence it is that covetous and busie men trouble both their hearts and their houses though some men from a largenesse of parts and a speciall dexterity in affaires may turne over much yet the most capacious heart hath its measure and when the cup is full a little drop may cause the rest to spill There is a spirituall surfet when the soule is over-charged with businesse it is fit the soule should have its meet burthen and no more As likewise those that depend too much upon the opinions of other men A very light matter will refresh and then againe discourage a minde that rests too much upon the liking of others Men that seeke themselves too much abroad finde themselves disquieted at home even good men many times are too much troubled with the unjust censures of other men specially in the day of their trouble It was Iobâ—… case and it is a heavy thing to have affliction added to affliction It was Hannahs case who being troubled in spirit was censured by Eli for distemper iâ—… braine but for vain men who live moâ—… to reputation then to conscience iâ—… cannot be that they should long enjoy setled quiet because those in whoâ—… good opinion they desire to dwell aâ—… ready often to take up contrary conceits upon slender grounds It is also a ground of overmuch trouble when we looke too much and too-long upon the ill in our selves and abroad we may fixe our eyes too long even upon sinne it selfe considering that we have not onely a remedy against the hurt by sinne but a commandement to rejoyce alwayes in the Lord Much more may we erre in poring too-much upon our afflictions wherein we may finde alwayes in our selves upon search a cause to justifie God and alwaies something left to comfort us Though we naturally minde more 〈◊〉 crosse then a hundred favours dwelling overlong upon the sore So likewise our mindes may be too much taken up in consideration of the miseries of the times at home and abroad as if Christ did not rule in the midst of his enemies and would not help all in due time or as if the condition of the Church in this world were not for the most part in an afflicted and conflicting condition Indeed there is a perfect rest both for the soules and bodies of Gods people but that is not in this world but is kept for hereafter here we are in a sea where what can wee look for but stormes To insist upon no more one cause is that wee doe usurpe upon God and take his office upon us by troubling our selves in forecasting the event of things whereas our worke is onely to doe our work and be quiet as children when they please their parents take no further thought our trouble is the fruit of our folly in this kinde That which we should observe from all that hath beene saâ—… is that wee bee not overhasty in consuring others when wee see their spirits out of temper for we see how many things there are that work strongly upon the weak nature of man Wee may sinne more by harsh censure then they by overmuch distemper as in Iobs case it was a matter rather of just griefe and pity then great wonder or heavy censure And for our selves If our estate be calme for the present yet wee should labour to prepare our hearts not onely for an alteration of estate but of spirit unlesse wee be marvellous carefull before hand that our spirits fall not down with our Condition And if it befalls us to find it otherwise with our soules then at other times we should so farre labour to beare it as that wee doe not judge it our owne case alone when we see here David thus to complaine of himselfe Why art thou cast downe ô my soule c. CAP. IV. Of casting downe our selves And specially by sorow Evills thereof TO returne againe to the words Why art thou cast downe ô my soule c. or why dost thou cast downe thy selfe or art cast downe by thy selfe Whence we may further observe That wee are prone to cast downe our selves wee are accessary to our owne trouble and weave the web of our owne sorow and hamper our selves in the coards of our owne twining God neither loves nor wills that we should be too much cast down Wee see our Saviour Christ how carefull hee was that his Disciples should not bee troubled and therefore hee labours to prevent that trouble which might arise by his suffering and departure from them by a heavenly sermon Let not your hearts bee troubled c. Hee was troubled himselfe that wee should not bee troubled The ground therefore of our disquiet is chiefly from our selves though Satan will have a hand in it We see many like sullen birds in a cage beate themselves to death This casting downe of our selves is not from humility but from Pride wee must have our will or God shall not have a good look from us but as pertish and peevish children we hang our heads in our bosome because our wâ—… are crost Therefore in all our troubles wee should looke first home to our owne hearts and stop the storme there for wee may thanke our owne selves not onely for our troubles but likewise for overmuch troubling ourselves in trouble It was not the troubled conditioâ—… that so disquieted Davids soule for if hee had had a quiet minde it would not have troubled him But Davis yeelded to the discouragements of the flesh and the flesh so farre as it is unsubdued is like the sea that is alwayes casting mire and dirt of doubts discouragements and murmurings in the soule let us therefore lay the blame where it is to be laid Againe wee see it is the nature of sorow to cast downe as of joy to lift up Griefe is like lead to the soule heavie and cold it sinks downwards and carries the soule with it The poore Publican to shew that his soule was cast downe under the sight of his sinnes hung downe his head the position of his body was sutable to the disposition of his minde his heart and head were cast downe alike And it is Satans practice to goe over the hedge where it is lowest he addes more weights to the soule by his tentations and vexations His sinne cast him out of heaven and by his temptations hee cast us out of our Paradice and ever since he labors to cast us deeper into sinne wherein his scope is to cast us either into too much trouble for sinne or presumption
downwards nor a streame in its running to the Sea because it 〈◊〉 naturall Hence it is that the old man 〈◊〉 never tyred in the works of the flesh 〈◊〉 never drawne dry When men cannot act sinne yet they will love sinne and act it over againe by pleasing thoughâ—… of it and by sinfull speculation suck out the delight of sinne and are grieved not for their sinne but because they want strength and opportunity to commit it If sinne would not leave them they would never leave sinne This corruption of our nature is not wrought in us by reason and perswasions for then it might be satisfied with reasons but it is in us by way of a naturall inclination as iron is caried to the Loadstone And till our natures be altered no reason will long prevaile but our sinful disposition as a streame stopt for a little while will breake out with greater violence 3. Being naturall it needs no help as the earth needs no tillage to bring forth weeds WheÌ„ our corrupt nature is carried contrary to that which is good it is caried of it selfe As when Sathan lyes or murthers it comes from his owne cursed nature and though Sathan joyneth with our corrupt nature yet the pronenesse to sinne and the consent unto it is of our selves §. 3. But how shall we know that Satan joynes with our nature in those actions unto which nature it selfe is proâ—… Then Satan addes his helpe when 〈◊〉 nature is carried more eagerly then ordinary to sinne as when a streame runnes violently wee may know tâ—… there is not onely the tide but the winde that carrieth it So in sudden and violent rebellious it is Satan that pusheth on nature 〈◊〉 to it selfe of God A stone falls downward by its owne weight but if it 〈◊〉 very swiftly wee know it is throâ—… downe by an outward mover Though there were no Devill yet our corrupt nature would act Satans part against 〈◊〉 selfe it would have a supply of wickednesse as a Serpent hath poyson from it selfe it hath a spring to feed 〈◊〉 But that man whilest he lives here 〈◊〉 not altogether excluded from hope 〈◊〉 happinesse and hath a nature not 〈◊〉 large and capable of sinne as Satâ—… whereupon hee is not so obstinate 〈◊〉 hating God and working mischiefe as hee c. Otherwise there is for kinde the same cursed disposition and malice of nature against true goodnes in man which is in the devils and damned spirits themselves It is no mitigation of sinne to plead it is naturall for naturall diseases as leprosies that are derived from Parents are most dangerous and least curable Neither is this any excuse for because as it is naturall so it is voluntary not onely in Adam in whose loines wee were and therefore sinned but likewise in regard of our selves who are so farre from stopping the course of sin either in our selves or others that wee feed and strengthen it or at least give more way to it and provide lesse against it then wee should untill wee come under the government of grace and by that meanes we justifie Adams sinne and that corrupt estate that followeth upon it and shew that if we had beene in Adams condition our selves wee would have made that ill choice which hee made And though this corruption of our nature be necessary to us yet it is no violent necessity from an outward cause but a necessity that we willingly pull upon our selves and therefore ought the more to humble us for the more necessarily we sin the more voluntarily and the more voluntarily the more necessarily the will putting it selfe voluntarilie into these fetters of sinne Necessity is no plea when the will is the immediate cause of any action Mens hearts tell them they might rule their desires if they would For tell a man of any dish which hee liketh that there is poyson in it and he will not meddle with it So tell him that death is in that sinne which hee is about to commit and he will abstaine if hee beleeve it be so if hee beleeve it not it is his voluntary unbeleefe and atheisme If the will would use that soveraigntie it should and could at the first wee should bee altogether freed from this necessity Men are not damned because they cannot do better but because they will do no better If there were no will there would be no hell For men willingly submit to the rule and law of sin they plead for it and like it so well as they hate nothing so much as that which any way withstandeth those lawlesse lawes Those that thinke it their happinesse to doe what they will that they might bee free crosse their owne desires for this is the way to make them most perfect slaves When our will is the next immediate cause of sinne and our consciences beare witnesse to us that it is so then conscience is ready to take Gods part in accusing our selves Our consciences tell us to our faces that we might doe more then wee doe to hinder sinne and that when wee sinne it is not through weaknesse but out of the wickednesse of our nature Our Consciences tell us that wee sinne not onely willingly but often with delight so farre forth as wee are not subdued by grace or awed by something above us and that wee esteeme any restraint to bee our misery And where by grace the will is strengthened so that it yeelds not a full consent yet a gracious soule is humbled even for the sudden risings of corruption that prevent deliberation As here David though he withstood the risings of his heart yet hee was troubled that hee had so vile a heart that would rise up against God and therefore takes it downe Who is there that hath not cause to be humbled not only for his corruption but that hee doâ—… not resist it with that strength nor labour to prevent it with that diligence which his heart tells him he might Wee cannot have too deepe apprehensions of this breeding sinne the â—…ther and nurse of all abominations for the more we consider the height the depth the breadth and length of it the more shall wee bee humbled in our selves and magnifie the height the depth the breadth and the length of Gods mercy in CHRIST The favourers of nature are alwayes the enemies of grace This which some think and speake so weakly and faintly of is a worse enemy to us then the devill himselfe a more neere a more restlesse a more traiterous enemy for by intelligence with it the Devill doth us all the hurt he doth and by it maintaines â—…orts in us against goodnesse This is that which either by discouragement or contrariety hinders us from good or else by deadnesse tediousnesse distractions or corrupt aimes hinders us in doing good this putteth us on to evill and abuseth what is good iâ—… us or from us to cover or colour sinne and furnishes us with reasons either
unto blasphemy they imagine good men to be led with vaine conceits but good men know them to bee so led Not onely St. Paul but CHRIST himselfe were counted besides themselves when they were earnest for God and the soules of his people But there is enough in Religion to beare up the soule against all imputations laid upon it the true children of wisedome are alwayes able to justifie their Mother and the conscionable practise of holy duties is founded upon such solid grounds as shall hold out when heaven and earth shall vanish 2. Wee must know that as there is great danger in false conceits of the way to heaven when we make it broader than it is for by this meanes wee are like men going over a bridge who thinke it broader then it is but being deceived by some shadow sinck downe and are suddenly drowned So men mistaking the strait way to life and trusting to the shadow of their owne imagination fall into the bottomlesse pit of hell before they are aware In like manner the danger is great in making the way to heaven narrower then indeed it is by weake and superstitious imaginations making more sinnes than God hath made The Wisemans counsell is that we should not make our selves over wicked nor bee foolisher than we are by devising more sinnes in our imagination than we are guilty of It is good in this respect to know our Christian liberty which being one of the fruits of Christs death we cannot neglect the same without much wrong not onely to our selves but to the rich bounty and goodnesse of God So that the due rules of limitation bee observed from authority piety sobriety needlesse offence of others c. we may with better leave use all those comforts which God hath given to refresh us in the way to heaven then refuse them the care of the outward man bindes conscience so farre as that wee should neglect nothing which may helpe us in a cheerefull serving of GOD in our places and tend to the due honour of our bodies which are the temples of the Holy Ghost and companions with our soules in all performances So that under this pretence wee take not too much liberty to satisfie the lusts of the body Intemperate use of the creatures is the nurse of all passions because our spirits which are the soules instruments are hereby inflamed and disturbed it is no wonder to see an intemperate man transported into any passion 3. Some out of their high and ayery imaginations and out of their iron and flintie Philosophy will needs thinke outward good and ill together with the affections of griefe and delight stirred up thereby to bee but opinions and conceits of good and evill onely not true and really so founded in nature but taken up of our selves But though our fancy be ready to conceit a greater hurt in outward evils then indeed there is as in poverty paine of body death of friends c. yet wee must not deny them to bee evills that wormewood is bitter it is not a conceit onely but the nature of the thing it selfe yet to abstaine from it altogether for the bitternesse thereof is a hurtfull conceit That honey is sweet it is not a conceit onely but the naturall quality of it is so yet out of a taste of the sweetnesse to think wee cannot take too much of it is a misâ—…ceit paid home with loathsome bitternesse Outward good and outward evill and the affections of delight and sorrâ—… rising thence are naturally so and depend not upon our opinion This were to offer violence to nature and to take man out of man as if hee were not flesh but steele Universall experience from the sensiblenesse of our nature in any outward grievance is sufficient to damâ—… this conceit The way to comfort a man in griefe is not to tell him that it is onely a conceit of evill and no evill indeed that he suffers this kinde of learning will not downe with him as being contrary to his present feeling but the way is to yeeld unto him that there is cause of grieving though not of ever-grieving and to shew him grounds of comfort stronger then the griefe he suffers We should weigh the degrees of evill in a right ballance and not suffer fancie to make them greater then they are So as that for obtaining the greatest outward good or avoiding the greatest outward ill of suffering wee should give way to the least evill of sinne This is but a policy of the flesh to take away the sensiblenesse of evill that so those cheeks of conscience and repentance for Sinne which is oft occasioned thereby might be taken away that so men may goe on enjoying a stupid happinesse never laying any thing to heart nor afflicting their soules untill their consciences awaken in the place of the damned and then they feele that griefe reâ—…ne upon them for ever which they laboured to put away when it might have beene seasonable to them §. 7. I have stood the longer upon this because Sathan and his instruments by bewitching the imagination with false appearances misleadeth not onely the world but troubleth the peace of men taken out of the world whose estate is laid up safe in Christ who notwithstanding passe their few dayes here in an uncomfortable wearisome and unnecessary sadnesse of spirit being kept in ignorance of their happy condition by Sathans jugling and their own mistakes and so come to heaven before they are aware Some againe passe their dayes in a golden dreame and drop into hell before they thinke of it but it is farre better to dreame of ill and when wee awake to finde it but a dreame then to dreame of some great good and when we awake to finde the contrary As the distemper of the fancie disturbing the act of reason oftentimes breeds madnesse in regard of civill conversation So it breeds likewise spirituall madnesse carrying men to those things which if they were in their right wits they would utterly abhorre therefore wee cannot have too much care upon what wee fixe our thoughts And what a glorious discovery is there of the excellencies of Religion that would even ravish an Angell which may raise up exercise fill our hearts We see our fancie hath so great a force in naturall conceptions that it oft sets a marke and impression upon that which is conceived in the wombe So likewise strong and holy conceits of things having a divine vertue accompanying of them transforme the soule and breed spirituall impressions answerable to our spirituall apprehensions It would prevent many crosses if we would conceive of things as they are When trouble of minde or sicknesse of body and death it selfe commeth what will remaine of all that greatnesse which filled our fancies before then we can judge soberly and speake gravely of things The best way of happinesse is not to multiply honours or riches c. but to cure our
is not above naturall conscience but a conscience sprinkled with the blood of Christ is not scared from God by its infirmities and failiags but as David here is rather stirred up to runne unto God by his distemper and it had beene a greater sinne then his distemper not to have gone unto God Those that have the spirit of sonnes in their hearts runne not further from God after they have a little strayed from him but though it be the nature of sinfull passions to breed griefe and shame yet they will repaire to God againe and their confidence overcomes their guilt So well are they acquainted with Gods gracious disposition Yet we see here David thinkes not of trusting in God till first he had done justice upon his owne soule in rebuking the unruly motions thereof Censure for sinne goeth before favour in pardoning sinne or boldnesse to aske pardon of God those that love God must hate ill If our consciences condemne us of allowing any sinne we cannot have boldnesse with God who is light and can abide no darknesse and greater then our consciences §. 7. 6. Moreover hence wee see it is no easie thing to bring God and the heart together David here as he often checkes his heart so hee doth often charge his heart Doubts and troubles are still gathering upon him and his faith still gathering upon them As one striving to get the haven is driven back by the waves but recovering himselfe againe gets forward still and after often beating back at length obtaines the wished haven and then is at rest So much adoe there is to bring the soule unto God the harbour of true comfort It were an easie thing to be a Christian if Religion stood onely in a few outward works and duties but to take the soule to taske and to deale roundly with our owne hearts and to let conscience have its full work and to bring the soule into spirituall subjection unto God this is not so easie a matter because the soule out of selfe-love is loath to enter into it selfe least it should have other thoughts of it selfe then it would have David must bid his soule trust and trust and trust againe before it will yeeld One maine ground of this difficulty is that contrariety which is in the soule by reason of contrary principles The soule so farre as it is gracious commands so farre as it is rebellious resists which drew holy Austen to a kinde of astonishment The soule commands the body and it yeelds saith he it commands it selfe and is resisted by it selfe it commands the hand to move and it moveth with such an unperceiveable quicknesse that you can discerne no distance betwixt the command and the motion Whence comes this but because the soule perfectly wills not and perfectly injoynes not that which is good and so farre forth as it fully wills not so far it holds backe There should bee no need of commanding the soule if it were perfect for then it would bee of it selfe what it now commandeth If David had gotten his soule at perfect freedome at the first hee needed not have repeated his charge so often upon it But the soule naturally sinks downward and therfore had need often to be wound up §. 8. 7. Wee should therefore labour to bring our soules as David doth here to a firme and peremptory resolution and not stand wavering and as it were equally ballanced betwixt God and other things but enforce our soules we shall get little ground of infidelity else drive your soules therefore to this issue either to rely upon God or else to yeeld up it selfe to the present grievance if by yeelding it resolves to be miserable there 's an end but if it desires rest then let it resolve upon this onely way to trust in God and well may the soule so resolve because in God there are grounds of quieting the soule above all that may unsettle it In him there is both worth to satisfie and strength to support the soule The best way to maintaine inward peace is to settle and fixe our thoughts upon that which will make us better till wee finde our hearts warmed and wrought upon thereby and then as the Prophet speaks God will keepe us in peace peace that is in perfect and abundant peace This resolution stayed Iob that though God should kill him yet hee resolved to trust in him Answerable to our resolution is our peace the more resolution the more peace Irresolution of it selfe without any grievance is full of disquiet It is an unsafe thing alwayes to begin to live to bee alwayes cheapning and paltering with God Come to this point once Trust God I ought therefore trust God I will come what may or will And it is good to renew our resolutions againe and againe for every new resolution brings the soule closer to God and gets further in him and brings fresh strength from him which if wee neglect our corruption joyning with outward hinderances will carry us further and further backward and this will double yea multiply our trouble and griefe to recover our selves againe wee have both winde and tide against us Wee are going up the hill and therefore had need to arme our selves with resolution Since the fall the motion of the soule upward as of heavy bodies is violent in regard of corruption which weighes it downeward and therefore all enforcement is little enough Oppose therefore with David an invincible resolution and then doubt not of prevailing If wee resolve in Gods power and not our owne and bee strong in the Lord and not in our selves then it matters not what our troubles or temptations bee either from within or without for trust in God at length will triumph Here is a great mercy that when David had a little let goe his hold of God yet God would not let goe his hold of him but by a spirit of faith drawes him back againe to himselfe God turnes us unto him and then wee returne Turne us againe saith the Psalmist cause thy face to shine upon us and wee shall be saved When the soule leaves God once it loses its way and it selfe and never returnes till God recalls it againe If morall principles cherished and strengthened by good education will enable the soule against vicious inclinations so that though some influence of the heavens worke upon the aire and the aire upon the spirits and the spirits upon the humors and these incline the temper and that inclines the soule of a man such and such wayes yet breeding in the refineder sort of civill persons will much prevaile to draw them another way What then may wee thinke of this powerfull grace of faith which is altogether supernaturall Will not this carry the soule above all naturall inclinations whatsoever though strengthened by outward occasions if wee resolve to put it to it David was a King of other men but here hee shewes that hee
are good but confidence in them is hurtfull and there is more of our owne in them for the most part to humble us then of Gods spirit to embolden us so farre as to trust in them Alas they have nothing from us but weaknesse and defilement and therefore since the fall GOD would have the object of our trust to be out of our selves in him and to that purpose he useth all meanes to take us out of our selves and from the creature that he only might be our trust Yea wee must not trust trust it selfe but God whom it relyes on who is therefore called our trust All the glorious things that are spoken of trust are onely made good by God in Christ who as trusted doth all for us God hath prescribed trust as the way to carry our soules to himselfe in whom we should only rely and not in our imperfect trust which hath its ebbing and flowing Neither will trust in God himselfe for the present suffice us for future strength and grace as if trusting in God to day would suffice to strengthen us for tomorrow but wee must renew our trust for fresh supply upon every fresh occasion So that wee see God alone must be the object of our trust There is still left in mans nature a desire of pleasure profit and of what ever the creature presents as good but the desire of gracious good is altogether lost the soule being wholy infected with a contrary taste Man hath a nature capable of excellency and desirous of it and the Spirit of God in and by the word reveales where true excellency is to bee had but corrupt nature leaving God seeketh it elsewhere and so crosseth its owne desires till the Spirit of God discovers where these things are to be had and so nature is brought to its right frame againe by turning the streame into the right current Grace and sinfull nature have the same generall object of comfort onely sinfull nature seekes it in broken Cisterns and grace in the fountain the beginning of our true happinesse is from the discovery of true and false objects so as the soule may cleerely see what is best and safest and then stedfastly rely upon it It were an happy way to make the soule better acquainted with trusting in God to labour to subdue at the first all unruly inclinations of the soule to earthly things and to take adâ—…antage of the first tendernesse of the soule to weede out that which is ill and to plant knowledge and love of the best things in it otherwise where affections to any thing below get much strength in the soule it will by little and little be so overgrowne that there will be no place left in it either for obiect or act God or trust God cannot come to take his place in the heart by trust but where the powers of the soule are brought under to regard him and those great things hee brings with him above all things else in the world beside In these glorious times wherein so great a light shineth whereby so great things are discovered what a shame is it to be so narrow hearted as to fixe upon present things Our aymes and affections should be sutable to the things themselves set before us Our hearts should be more and more inlarged as things are more and more revealed to â—…s Wee see in the things of this life as wisedome and experience increaseth so our aimes and desires increase likewise A young beginner thinkes it a great matter if hee have a little to begin withall but as he growes in trading and seeth further wayes of getting his thoughts and desires are raised higher Children thinke as Children but riper age puts away childishnesse when their understandings are inlarged to see what they did not see before we should never rest till our hearts according to the measure of revelation of those excellent things which God hath for us have answerable apprehension of the same Oh if we had but faith to answer those glorious truths which God hath revealed what manner of lives should we leade CHAP. XX. Of the method of trusting in God and the tryall of that trust LAstly to add no more our trusting in God should follow Gods order in promising The first promise is of forgivenesse of sinne to repentant beleevers next 2. of healing and sanctifying grace then 3. the inheritance of the Kingdome of Heaven to them that are sanctifyed 4. and then the promises of all things needfull in our way to the Kingdome c. Now answerably the soule being inlightned to see its danger should looke first to Gods mercy in Christ pardoning sinne because sinne onely divides betwixt God and the soule next to the promises of grace for the leading of a Christian life for true faith desires hea ling mercy as well as pardoning mercy and then to Heaven and all things that may bring us thither By all this wee see that it is not so easie a matter as the world takes it to bring God and the soule together by trusting on him It must be effected by the mighty power of God raising up the soule to himselfe to lay hold upon the glorious power goodnesse and other excellencies that are in him God is not onely the object but the working cause of our trust for such is our pronenesse to live by sense and naturall reason and such is the strangenesse and height of divine things such our inclination to a selfe sufficiency and contentment in the creature and so hard a matter is it to take off the soule from false bottomes by reason of our unacquaintance with God and his wayes besides such guilt still remaines upon our soules for our rebellion and unkindnesse towards God that it makes us afraid to entertaine serious thoughts of him and so great is the distance betwixt his infinite Majesty before whom the very Angels doe cover their faces and us by reason of the unspiritualnesse of our nature being opposite to his most absolute purity that we cannot be brought to any familiarity with the Lord so as to come into his holy presence with confidence to rely upon him or any comfort to have communion with him till our hearts be sanctified and lifted up by divine vigour infused into them Though there be some inclination by reason of the remainder of the image of God in us to an outward morall obedience of the Law yet alas we have not onely no seeds of Evangelicall truths and of faith to beleeve them but an utter contrariety in our natures as corrupted either to this or any other good When our conscience is once awaked we meditate nothing but feares and terrors and dare not so much as think of an angry God but rather how wee may escape and fly from him Therefore together with a deepe consideration of the grounds wee have of trusting God it is necessary wee should thinke of the indisposition of our hearts unto it especially
devices turned upon their owne heads will more torment them In this case it will much comfort to goe into the Sanctuary for there wee shall be able to say Yet God is good to 〈◊〉 God hath an Arke for his there is no condition so ill but there is Balme in Gilead comfort in Israel The depths â—…f misery are never beyond the depths of mercy God oft for this very end strips his Church of all helpes below that it may onely rely upon him and that it may appeare that the Church is ruled by an higher power then it is opposed by And then is the time when we may exâ—…ct great deliverances of the Church when there is a great faith in the great God From all that hath beene said wee see that the only way to quiet the soul is to lay a charge upon it to trust God â—…d that unquietnesse and impatiency me symtomes and discoveries of an unâ—… leeving heart CHAP. XXVI Of divine reasons in a beleever Of his minding to praise God more then to bee delivered TO goe on I shall yet praise him In these words David expresseth the reasons and grounds of his trust namely from the interest hee had in God by experience and speciall covenant wherein in generall we may observe that those who truly trust in God labour to back their faith with sound arguments faith is an understanding grace it knowes whom it trusts and for what and upon what grounds it trusts Reason of it selfe cannot finde what we should beleeve yet when God hath discovered the same faith tells us there is great reason to beleeve it faith useth reason though not as a ground yet as a sanctified instrument to finde out Gods grounds that it may rely upon them He beleeves best that knowes best why hee should beleeve Confidence and love and other affections of the soule though they have no reason grafted in them yet thus farre they are reasonable as that they are in a wise man raised up guided and laid downe with reason or else men were neither to be blamed nor praised for ordering their affections a right whereas not only civill vertue but grace it selfe is especially conversant in ruling the affections by sanctified reason The soule guides the will and affections otherwise then it doth the outward members of the body It swayes the affections of confidence love joy c. as a Prince doth his wiser subjects and as Counsellors doe a well ordered State 〈◊〉 ministring reasons to them but the â—…le governes the outward members by command as a master doth a slave â—…his will is enough The hand and foot â—…ve upon command without regarding any reason but wee will not trust 〈◊〉 rejoyce in God without reason or a 〈◊〉 of reason at the least Sinne it selfe never wanted a reason 〈◊〉 as it is but we call it unreasonable â—…use it hath no good reason for it for reason being a beame of God cannot strengthen any worke of darknesse God having made man an understanding creature guides him by a way sutable to such a condition and that is the reason why God in mercy yeelds so far to us in his word as to give us so many reasons of our affiance in him What is encouragement and comfort but a demonstration to us of greater reasons to raise us up then there are to cast us downe Davids reasons here are drawne partly from some promise of deliverance and partly from Gods nature and dealing with him whom as he had formerly found an healing a saving God so he expects to finde him still and partly from the covenant of grace hee is my God The chiefe of his reasons are fetched from God what he is in himselfe and what hee is and will be to his children and what to him in particular though godly men have reasons for their trst yet those reasons be divine and spirituall as faith it selfe is for as naturally as beames come from the Sunne and branches from the roote even so by divine discourse one truth issueth from another And as the beames and the Sunne as the roote and branches are all of one nature so the grounds of comfortable truths and reasons taken from those grounds are both of same divinity and authority though in time of temptation discourse is oft so troubled that it cannot see how one truth riseth from another this is one priviledge of heaven that our knowledge there shall not be so much discoursive proving one thing by another as definitive seeing things in their grounds with a more present view the soule being then raised and enlarged to a present conceiving of things and there being no flesh and blood in us to raise objections that must be satisfied with reasoning Sometimes in a clearer state of the soule faith hath not so much use of reasons but upon neere and sweet communion with God and by reason of some likenesse betweene the soule that hath a divine nature stamped upon it and God it presently without any long discourse runneth to God as it were by a supernaturall instinct as by a naturall instinct a childe runneth to his Father in any distresse Yea and from that common light of nature which discovereth there is a God even naturall men in extremities will runne to God and God as the Author of nature will sometimes heare them as he doth the yong Ravens that cry unto him but comfortably and with assurance onely those have a familiar recourse unto him that have a sanctified sutable disposition unto God as being well acquainted with him Sometimes againe faith is put to it to use reasons to strengthen it selfe and therefore the soule studieth arguments to help it selfe by either from inward store laid up in the soule or else it hearkeneth and yeelds to reasons suggested by others and there is no gracious heart but hath a frame sutable and agreeable to any holy and comfortable truth that shall be brought and enforced upon it there is something in his spirit that answers what ever comes from the spirit of God though perhaps it never heard of it before yet it presently claimes kindred of it as comming from the same blessed Spring the â—…ly Spirit and therefore a gracious heart sooner takes comfort then another as being prepared to close with it The reasons here brought by David are not so much arguments to convince his judgement as motives and inducements to encline his will to trust in God for trusting being a holy relying upon God carieth especially the will to him now the will is led with the goodnesse of things as the understanding is led with truth the heart must be sweetned with consideration of love and mercy in him whom we trust as well as convinced of his ability to doe us good the cords that draw the heart to trust are the cords of love and the cords of love are especially the love of him to us whom we love and therefore the most prevailing reasons that
put up all our desires for all things we stand in need of in this right wee have to God in Christ who hath brought God and us together hee can deny us nothing that hath not denied us himselfe If he be moved from hence to doe us good that wee are his Let us be moved to fetch all good from him on the same right that he is ours The perswasion of this will free us from all pusillanimity lowlinesse and narrownesse of spirit when wee shall think that nothing can hurt us but it must break through God first If God give quietnesse who shall make trouble If God be with us who can be against us This is that which puts comfort into all other comforts that maketh any burthen light This is alwayes ready for all purposes Our God is a present and a seasonable help All evills are at his command to be gone and all comforts at his command to come It is but goe comfort goe peace to such a mans heart cheere him raise him Go salvation rescue such and such a soul in distresse So said and so done presently Nay with reverence be it spoken so farre doth God passe over himselfe unto us that he is content himselfe to be commanded by us Concerning the worke of my hands command you me lay the care and charge of that upon mee He is content to be out-wrastled and over-powred by a spirit of saith as in Iacob and the woman of Canaan to be as it were at our service Hee would not have us want any thing wherein hee is able to help us And what is there wherein God cannot help us If Christians knew the power they have in heaven and earth what were able to stand against them What wonder is it if faith overcome the world if it overcomes him that made the world that faith should bee Almighty that hath the Almighty himselfe ready to use all his power for the good of them to whom he hath given the power of himselfe unto Having therefore such a living fountaine to draw from such a center to rest in having all in one and that one Ours why should we knocke at any other doore we may goe boldly to God now as made ours being bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh Wee may goe more comfortably to God then to any Angell or Saint God in the second person hath vouchsafed to take our nature upon him but not that of Angells Our God and our Man our God-Man is ascended into the high Court of heaven to his and our God cloathed with our nature Is there any more able and willing to plead our cause or to whom wee may trust businesses with then he who is in heaven for all things for us appertaining to God It should therefore be the chiefe care of a Christian upon knowledge of what he stands in need of to know where to supply all It should raise up a holy shame and indignation in us that there should be so much in God who is so neere unto us in Christ and wee make so little use of him What good can any thing doe us if we use it not God is ours to use and yet men will rather use shifts and unhallowed pollicies then be beholding to God who thinkes himselfe never more honoured by us then when we make use of him If we beleeve any thing will doe us good we naturally make out for the obtaining of it If we beleeve any thing will hurt us we study to decline it And certaine it is if wee beleeved that so much good were in God we would then apply our selves to him and him to our selves whatsoever vertue is in any thing it is conveyed by application and touching of it that whereby we touch God is our faith which never toucheth him but it drawes vertue from him upon the first touch of faith spirituall life is begun It s a bastard in nature to beleeve any thing can worke upon another without spirituall or bodily touch And it is a Monster in Religion to beleeve that any saving good will issue from God if we turne from him and shut him out and our hearts be unwilling Where unbeleefe is it bindes up his power Where faith is there it is between the soule and God as betwixt the iron and the Loadstone a present closing and drawing of one to the other This is the beginning of eternall life so to know God the Father and his Sonne Christ as thereby to embrace him with the armes of faith and love as Ours by the best title he can make us who is truth it selfe Since then our happinesse lies out of our selves in God we should goe out of our selves for it and first get into Christ and so unto God in him and then labour by the spirit of the Father and the Sonne to maintaine acquaintance with both that so God may be Ours not onely in covenant but in Com◅anion hearkning what he will say to us and opening our spirits disclosing our wants consulting and advising in all our distresses with him By keeping this acquaintance with God peace and all good is conveyed to us Thereafter as we maintain this communion further with him wee out of love study to please him by exact walking according to his commands then we shall feele encrease of peace as our care encreaseth then he will come and s◅p with us and be free in his refreshing of us Then he will shew himselfe more and more to us and manifest still a further degree of presence in joy and strength untill communion in grace ends in communion in glory But wee must remember as David doth here to desire and delight in God himselfe more then in any thing that is Gods It was a signe of S. Pauls pure love to the Corinthians when he said I seeke not yours but you We should seeke for no blessing of God so much as for himselfe What is there in the world of equall goodnes to draw us away frō our God If to preserve the dearest thing we have in the world we breake with God God will take away the comfort we look to have by it and it will prove but a dead contentment if not a torment to us Whereas if we care to preserve communion with God we shall bee sure to finde in him whatsoever we deny for him honor riches pleasures friends all so much the sweeter by how much wee have them more immediately from the spring head We shall never finde God to be our God more then when for making of him to be so we suffer any thing for his sake Wee enjoy never more of him then then At the first we may seeke to him as rich to supply our wants as a Physitian to cure our soules and bodies but here wee must not rest till wee come to rejoyce in him as our friend and from thence rise to an admiration of him for his owne excellencies that being so high
him matter of songs in the night For all this his unrulie griefe will not be calmed but renues assaults upon the returne of the reproach of his enemies Their words were as swords unto him and his heart being made very tender and sensible of griefe these sharp words enter too deepe and thereupon he hath recourse to his former remedie as being the most tryed to chide his soule and charge it to trust in God CAP. I. Generall Observations upon the Text. HEnce in generall wee may observe that Griefe gathered to a head will not be quieted at the first We see here passions intermingled with comforts and comforts with passions and what bustling there is before David can get the victorie over his owne heart You have some short spirited Christians that if they be not comforted at the first they thinke all labour with their hearts is in vaine and thereupon give way to their griefe But we see in David as distemper ariseth upon distemper so he gives check upon check and charge upon charge to his soule untill at length hee brought it to a quiet temper In Physick if one purge will not carry away the vicious humour then wee adde a second if that will not doe it we take a third So should wee deale with our soules perhaps one check one charge will not doe it then fall upon the soule againe send it to God againe and never give over untill our soules be possessed of our soules againe Againe In generall observe in Davids spirit that a gracious and living soule is most sensible of the want of spirituall meanes The reason is because spirituall life hath answerable taste and hunger and thirst after spirituall helps Wee see in nature that those things presse hardest upon it that touch upon the necessities of nature rather then those that touch upon delights for these further onely our comfortable being but necessities uphold our being it selfe we see how famine wrought upon the Patriarks to go into Aegypt Where we may see what to judge of those who willingly excommunicate themselves from the assemblies of Gods people where the Father Son and Holy Ghost are present where the prayers of holy men meete together in one and as it were binde God and pull downe Gods blessing No private devotion hath that report of acceptance from heaven A third generall point is that a godly soule by reason of the life of grace knowes when it is well with it and when it is ill when it is a good day with it and when a bad when God shines in the use of meanes then the soule is as it were in heaven when God withdrawes himself then it is in darknesse for a time Where there is but onely a principle of nature without sanctifying grace there men go plodding on and keep their rounds and are at the end where they were at the beginning not troubled with changes because there is nothing within to be troubled and therefore dead means quicke meanes or no meanes all is one with them an argument of a dead soul. And so we come more particularly and directly to the wordes Why art thou cast downe O my soule and why art thou disquieted within me c. The words imply 1 Davids state wherein he was and 2 expresse his carriage in that state His estate was such that in regard of outward condition he was in variety of troubles and that in regard of inward disposition of spirit he was first cast downe and then disquieted Now for his carriage of himselfe in this condition and disposition he dealeth roundly with himselfe David reasoneth the case with David and first checketh himselfe for being too much cast downe and then for being too much disquieted And then layeth a charge upon himselfe to trust in God wherein we have the duty he chargeth upon himselfe which is to trust in God and the grounds of the duty First from confidence of better times to come which would yeeld him matter of praising God And then by a representation of God unto him as a saving God in al troubles nay as salvation it selfe an open glorious Saviour in the view of all The salvation of my countenance and all this enforced from Davids interest in God He is my God Whence observe first from the state he was now in that since guilt and corruption hath been derived by the fall into the nature of man it hath been subjected to miserie and sorrow and that in all conditions from the King that sitteth on the Throne to him that grindeth on the Mill. None ever hath beene so good or so great as could raise themselves so high as to be above the reach of troubles And that choice part of mankind the first fruits and excellency of the rest which we call the Church more then others which appeares by consideration both of the Head the Body and members of the Church For the Head Christ he tooke our flesh as it was subject to miserie after the fall and was in regard of that which he endured both in life and death a man of sorrowes For the Body the Church It may say from the first to the last as it is Psal. 129. From my youth up they have afflicted me The Church beganne in blood hath growen up by blood and shall end in blood as it was redeemed by blood For the members they are all predestinate to a conformitie to Christ their Head as in grace and Glory so in abasement Rom. 8. 29. neither is it a wonder for those that are born soldiers to meet with conflicts for travailers to meete with hard usage for seamen to meete with storms for strangers in a strange country especially amongst their enemies to meete with strange entertainment A Christian is a man of another world and here from home which hee would forget if he were not exercised here and would take his passage for his country But though all Christians agree and meete in this that through many afflictions we must enter into heaven Yet according to the diversity of place parts and grace there is a different cup measured to every one And therefore it is but a plea of the flesh to except against the Crosse Never was poore creature distressed as I am this is but selfe-love for was it not the case both of Head Body and members as we see here in David a principall member When hee was brought to this case thus to reason the matter with himselfe Why art thou cast downe O my soule and why art thou disquieted within me From the frame of Davids spirit under these troubles wee may observe that as the case is thus with all Gods people to be exercised with troubles so They are sensible of them oftentimes even to casting downe and discouraging And the reason is they are flesh and blood subject to the same passions and made of the
same mould subject to the same impressions from without as other men And their nature is upheld with the same supports and refreshings as others the withdrawing and want of which affecteth them And besides those troubles they suffer in Common with other men by reason of their new advancement and their new disposition they have in and from Christ their Head they are more sensible in a peculiar maner of those troubles that any way touch upon that blessed condition from a new life they have in and from Christ which will better appeare if we come more particularly to a discovery of the more speciall causes of this distemper some of which are 1 Without us 2 Some within us CAP. II. Of discouragements from without 1. GOD himselfe who sometimes withdrawes the beames of his countenance from his children whereupon the soule even of the strongest Christian is disquieted when together with the crosse God himselfe seemes to be an enemie unto them The child of God when hee seeth that his troubles are mixed with Gods displeasure and perhaps his conscience tells him that God hath a just quarrell against him because he hath not renewed his peace with his God then this anger of God puts a sting into all other troubles and addes to the disquiet There were some ingredients of this divine temptation as wee call it in holy David at this time though most properly a divine temptation bee when God appeares unto us as an enemy without any speciall guilt of any particular sin as in Iobs case And no marvaile if Christians bee from hence disquieted when as the Sonne of God himselfe having alwayes before enjoyed the sweet communion with his Father and now feeling an estrangement that he might be a curse for us complained in all his torments of nothing else but My God My God why hast thou forsaken me It is with the godly in this case as with vapours drawne up by the Sunne which when the extracting force of the Sunne leaves them fall downe againe to the earth from whence they are drawn So when the soule raised up and upheld by the beames of his countenance is left of God it presently begins to sinke We see when the body of the Sun is partly hid from us for totally it cannot in an Eclipse by the body of the Moone that there is a drouping in the whole frame of nature so it is in the soule when there is any thing that comes between Gods gracious countenance and it Besides if we looke downe to inferiour causes the soule is oft cast down by Satan who is all for casting downe and for disquieting For being a cursed spirit cast and tumbled downe himself from heaven where hee is never to come againe is hereupon full of disquiet carying a hell about himselfe whereupon all that he labours for is to cast downe and disquiet others that they may bee as much as he can procure in the same cursed condition with himselfe He was not ashamed to set upon Christ himselfe with this tempration of casting downe and thinkeâ—… Christs members never low enough till he can bring them as low as himself By his envy and subtlety wee were driven out of Paradice at the first and now hee envies us the Paradice of a good conscience for that is our Paradice untill wee come to heaven into which no serpent shall ever creepe to tempt us When Satan seeth a man strongly and comfortably walke with God he cannot endure that a creature of meaner ranke by creation then himselfe should enjoy such happinesse Herein like some peevish men which are his instruments men too contentious and bred up therein as a Salamander in the fire who when they know the cause to be naught and their adversaries to have the better title yet out of malice they will follow them with suits and vexations though they be not able to disable their opposites title If their malice have not a vent in hurting some way they will burst for anger It is just so with the devill when he seeth men will to heaven and that they have good title to it then he followes them with all dejecting and uncomfortable tentations that he can it is his continuall trade and course to seek his rest in our disquiet he is by beaten practise and profession a temper in his kinde Againe what Satan cannot doe himselfe by immediate suggestions that he labours to work by his instruments who are all for casting down of those who stand in their light as those in the Psalme who cry downe with him downe with him even to the ground a character and stamp of which mens dispositions we have in the verse before this text Mine enemies saith David reproach me As sweet and as compassionate a man as hee was to pray and put on sackcleth for them yet he had enemies and such enemies as did not suffer their malice only to boile and concoct in their own breasts but out of the abundance of their hearts they reproached him in words There is nothing the nature of man is more impatient of then of reproaches for there is no man so meane but thinkes himselfe worthy of some regard and a reproachfull scorn shews an utter disrespect which issues from the very superfluity of malice Neither went they behind his back but were so impudent to say it to his face a malicious heart and a slandering tongue goe together and though shame might have suppressed the uttering of such words yet their insolent cariage spake as much in Davids heart We may see by the language of mens cariage what their heart saith and what their tongue would vent if they dared And this their malice was unwearied for they said daily unto him as if it had beene fed with a continuall spring malice is an unsatiable monster it will minister words as rage ministers weapons But what was that they said so reproachfully and said daily Where is now thy God they upbraid him with his singularity they say not now where is God but where is thy God that thou dost boast so much on as if thou hadst some speciall interest in Him Where we see that the scope of the devill and wicked men is to shake the godlies Faith and confidence in their God As Satan laboured to divide betwixt Christ and his Father If thou beest the Son of God command that these stones be made bread So hee labours to divide betwixt Father and Son and us they labour to bring God in jealousie with David as if God had neglected him bearing himselfe so much upon God They had some colour of this for God at this time had vailed himselfe from David as hee does oft from his best children for the better discovery of the malice of wicked men And doth not Satan tippe the tongues of the enemies of Religion now to insult over the Church now lying a bleeding What becomes of their
determine and sway the soule one way that men thinke it impossible to recover themselves they see one linke of sin draw on another all making a chain to fasten them to destruction they thinke of necessity they must be damned because custome hath bred a necessity of sinning in them and conceive of the promise of mercy as only made to such as turn from their sinfull courses in which they see themselves so hardened that they cannot repent Certaine it is the condition is most lamentable that yeelding unto sinne brings men unto Men are carefull to prevent dangerous sicknesses of body and the danger of law concerning their estates but seldome consider into what a miserable plight their sinnes which they so willingly give themselves up unto will bring them in If they doe not perish in their sins yet their yeelding will bring them into such a dolefull condition that they would give the whole world if they were possessours of it to have their spirits at freedome from this bondage and feare To such as blesse themselves in an ill way upon hope of mercy we dare not speake a word of comfort because God doth not but threatens his wrath shall burne to hell against them Yet because while life continues there may be as a space so a place and grace for repentance these must be dealt withall in such a maner as they may be stayed and stopped in their dangerous courses there must be a stop before a turne And when their consciences are throughly awaked with sense of their danger let them seriously consider whither sin and Sathan by sin is carying of them and lay to heart the justice of God standing before them as an Angell with a drawne sword ready to fall upon them if they post on still Yet to keep them from utter sinking let them consider withall the unlimited mercy of God as not limited to any person or any sin so not to any time there is no prescription of time can binde God his mercy hath no certaine date that will expire so as those that fly unto it shall have no benefit Invincible mercy will never be conquered and endlesse goodnesse never admits of bounds or end What kinde of people were those that followed Christ were they not such as had lived long in their sinfull courses He did not onely raise them that were newly dead but Lazarus that had lyen foure dayes in the grave They thought Christs power in raising the dead had reached to a short time onely but hee would let them know that hee could as well raise those that had been long as lately dead If Christ be the Physitian it is no matter of how long continuance the disease be He is good at all kinde of diseases and will not endure the reproach of disability to cure any Some diseases are the reproaches of other Physitians as being above their skill to helpe but no conceit more dangerous when we are to deale with Christ. The blessed Martyr Bilney was much offended when he heard an eloquent Preacher enveighing against sin saying thus Behold thou hast lyen rotten in thy owne lusts by the space of sixty yeares even as a beast in his owne dung and wilt thou presume in one year to goe forward towards heaven and that in thine olde age as much as thou wentest backward from heaven to hell in sixty yeares Is not this a goodly argument saith Bilney Is this preaching of repentance in the name of Jesus It is as if Christ had dyed in vaine for such a man and that hee must make satisfaction for himselfe If I had heard saith he such preaching of repentance in times past I had utterly despaired of mercy We must never thinke the doore of hope to bee shut against us if we have a purpose to ◅e unto God As there is nothing more injurious to Christ so nothing more foolish and groundlesse then to distrust it being the chiefe scope of God in his word to draw our trust to him in Christ in whom is alwayes open a breast of mercy for humbled sinners to flye unto But thus farre the consideration of our long time spent in the devils service should prevaile with us as to take more shame to our selves so to resolve more strongly for God and his wayes and to account it more then sufficient that wee have spent already so much precious time to so ill purposes and the lesse time we have to make the more ◅st to worke for God and bring all the honour wee can to Religion in so little a space Oh how doth it grieve those that have felt the gracious power of Christ in converting their soules that ever they should spend the strēgth of their parts in the worke of his and their enemie And might they live longer it is their full purpose for ever to renounce their former wayes There is bred in them an eternall desire of pleasing God as in the wicked there is an eternall desire of offending him which eternity of desires God lookes to in both of them and rewards them accordingly though hee cuts off the thred of their lives But God in wisdome will have the conversions of such as have gone on in a course of sinning especially after light revealed to be rare and difficult Birthes in those that are ancienter are with greater danger then in the younger sort God will take a course that his grace shall not be turned into wantonnesse He oft holds such upon the rack of a troubled conscience that they and others may feare to buy the pleasure of sinne at such a rate Indeed where sinne abounds there grace superabounds but then it is where sinne that abounded in the life abounds in the conscience in griefe and detestation of it as the greatest evill Christ groaned at the raising of Lazarus which he did not at others because that though to an Almighty power all things are alike easie yet hee will shew that there be degrees of difficulties in the things themselves and make it appeare to us that it is so Therefore those that have enjoyed long the sweet of sinne may expect the bitterest sorrow and repentance for sinne Yet never give place to thoughts of despaire as comming from him that would overturne the end of the Gospell which layes open the riches of Gods mercy in Christ which riches none set out more then those that have beene the greatest of sinners as we see in Paul We cannot exalt God more then by taking notice and making use of that great designe of infinite wisdome in reconciling justice and mercy together so as now he is not only mercifull but just in pardoning sinnes Our Saviour as he came towards the latter age of the world when all things seemed desperate so hee comes to some men in the latter part of their dayes The mercy shewed to Zacheus and the good theefe was personall but the comfort intended by Christ was publike therefore still still