his peace exceed his pain yeâ—… wee shall see both the torments present and the glory following Hope makes absent jales present wants plenitudeâ—… and beguiles calamity as good company does the way The poor traveller in thinking of his Inne goes on more cheerfully and the bond man in calling to mind the year of Jubilee When the Apprentice calls to â—…nd that his years of covenant will now shortly expire and then hee shall have his freedâ—… confirmed the very â—…emembrance thereof â—…eth many labour some works seem more light and less grievous unto him neither doth hee afterwards repent it Did it ever repent Jacob when hee came to inherit his Fathers blessing that hee had indured a long exile and tedious bondage Or Joseph when hee was once made Ruler in Egypt that he had formerly been sold thither and there imprisoned and hee had never been a Courtier if he had not fâ—…st been a prisoner Or did it repent the Israelites when they came to inherit the Land of promise that they had formerly been forty years passing through a forlorn wilderness Or which of Gods servants did ever repent that they had passed the apprentiship of their service here and were now gon to be made free in glory If so let us do and fuâ—…er cheerfully patiently couragiously what God imposeth upon us knowing that after wee have swet and smarted but fix days at the utmost then cometh our Sabbath of eternal rest which will make a mends for all knowing that death ends our misery and begins our glory and a few groans are well bestowed for a Preface to an immortall joy Let then our eyes hee continually on the joys which follow and not on the pain which is present the pain neglected and unregarded cannot bee very discomfortable But that there is reward promised to those which suffer in Christs cause is not all for our reward shall bee answerable to our sufferings the greater our sufferings are here the greater shall our reward â—…ee hereafter Matth. 16. 27. The deluge of calamities may assault us but they shall exalt us By our crosses sanctified weight is added to our Crown of Bliss for according to the measure of our afflictions God weigheth unto us of his graces that wee may be able to bear them and according to the measure of our graces hee proportioneth our glory and sature happiness Suffering for the Gospell is no inferiour good work and every one shall bee rewarded though not for yet according to his works Psal. 62. 12. Rom. 2. 6. Rev 22. ver 12. The Apostles tell Christ wee have left all and followed thee Mattâ—… 19. 27. Christ tels them when I sit on my Throne yee sâ—…ll sit on Thrones with mee ver 28. They that turn many unto righteousnesâ—… 〈◊〉 shine as the starrs in the Kingdom of heaven Dan. 12. 3. And they â—…t suffer Martyrdom shall bee cloathed with long white Robes and have Palms in their hands Rev. 6. 9 11. Now there bee three sorâ—… of Martyrs Re intentione intentione non re re non intentione in both deed and intention as was Saint Steven in intention not deed as was Saint John in deed not in intention as were the innocents But where the conflict is more hard the conquest obtained shall be more glorious for as Chrysostom speaks According to the tribulations laid upon and born by us shall our retribution of glory be proportioned And persecutors saith Bernard are but our Fathers Gold-smiths working to add pearls to the Crowns of the Saints Yea ever where more work is done there more wages is given and when the fight or conflict is sharper and the victory harder the glory of the triumph is greater and the Crown of reward more glorious Whence it was that those Saints in the Old Testament which were racked and tortured would not be delivered or accept of their enemies fair offers to the end they might receive a betâ—…er resurrection and a more glorious reward Heb. 11. 35. Neither would we wish our work easir or our burthen lighter if we looked up to the recompence of reward for it may be well applied here which was misapplied in the triall of that holy man Job We do not serve God for nothing Though we must not serve him meerly for reward as hirâ—…lings nor for fear as servants but as children for love O that when we suffer most we would but meditate and look upon with the eie of faith the fulnesse of those joies and sweetnesse of those pleasures which having once finished our course we shall enjoy at Gods righâ—… hand for evermore Psal. 16. 11. being such as eie hath not seen nor eaâ—… heard neither hath entered into the heart of man to conceive 1 Cor. 2. 9. Foâ—… certainly the remembrance thereof would even raise up our souls from ouâ—… selves and make us contemne and sleight what ever our enemies could do as it did our fore-fathers much more to sleight reproaches which are such hug-â—…ears to a great many And no marvel if that which haâ—… made so many contemne fire and saggot make us contemne the blasts of mens breath But I hope enough hath been said in shewing that our enemies in steaâ—… of robbing inrich us and in lieu of hurting pleasure us sith they greateâ—… our graces and augment our glory sith if the conflict be more sharp thâ—… Crown will be more glorious Wherefore if our trials be small let us bear them with patience which makes even great burthens easie if they bee great and grievous let us bear them patiently too since great is the weight of glory that ensueth them whereas no suffering no reward yea if wee be not chastned here we shall be condemned hereafter 1 Cor. 11. 32. And whether had you rather rejoice for one â—…it or alwaies you would do both which may not be you would be both Dives and Lazarus have happinesse both here and hereafter pardon me it is a fond covetousnâ—…sse aâ—… idle singularity to affect it What that you alone may fare better than 〈◊〉 Saints That God should strow Carpets for your feet onely to walk 〈◊〉 your Heaven and make that way smooth for you which all Patriarchs Prophets Evangelists Confessers and Christ himself have found rugged and bloody Away with this self-love and come down you ambitious sons of Zebedes and ere you think of sitting near the Throne be contented to be called unto the Cup. Now is your trial Let your Savioâ—…r see how much of his bitter potion you can pledge then shall you see hoâ—… much of his glory he can afford you In all Feasts the coursest meats are tasted first be content to drink of his Vineger and Gall and after you shall drink new wine with him in his Kingdome Besides without some kinde of suffering how shall your sincerity be approved Even nature is jâ—…d and cheerful whiles it prospereth but let God withdraw his hand no sight no trust The mother of Micha while her wealth lasteth can dedicate a good
that they may bee frustrate and when they are gone to the uttermost reach of their teather hee pulls them back to the stake with shame Again you have Senacherib let loose upon Hezekiah and his people who insults over them intolerably 2 Kings 18. Oh! the lamentable and in sight desperate condition of distressed Jerusalem wealth it had none strength it had but a little all the countrey round about was subdued unto the Assyrian that proud victor hath begirt the walls of it with an innumerable army scorning that such a shovell-full of earth should stand out but one day yet poor Jerusalem stands alone block'd up with a world of enemies helpless friendless comfortless looking for the worst of an hostile fury and on a sudden before an Arrow is shot into the City a hundred fourscore and five thousand of their enemies were slain and the rest run away 〈◊〉 Kings 19. 35 36. God laughs in heaven at the plots of Tyrants and befools them in their deepest projects If hee undertake to protect a people in vain shall earth and hell conspire against them Nothing can bee accomplished in the Lower House of this world but first it is decreed in the Upper Court of heaven as for example what did the Jews ever do to our Saviour Christ that was not first both decreed by the Father of Spirits and registred in the Scriptures for our notice and comfort They could not so much as throw the Dice for his Coat but it was prophesied Psal. 22. 18. and in Psal. 69. 21. It is fore-told that they should give him gall in his meat and in his thirst vinegar to drink the very quality and kind of his drink is prophesied yea his face could not be spit upon without a prophesie those filthy excrements of his enemies fell not upon his face without God's decree and the Prophets relation Isa. 50. 6. Yea let the Kings of the earth bee assembled and the Rulers come together Let Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel gather themselvs in one league against him it is in vain for they can do nothing but what the hand of God and his Counsell hath before determined to bee done as Peter and John affirmed to the rest of the Disciples for their better confirmation and comfort Act. 4. 26. to 29. No notwithstanding the Devill raged the Pharisees stormed Herod and Pilate vexed Caiaphas prophesied all combined and often sought to take him yet no man-laid hands on him untill his hour was come that God had appointed so that by all their plots they were never able to do him any more hurt than onely to shew their teeth Joh. 7. 30. If wee are in league with God wee need not fear the greatest of men Indeed it was Pilates brag to Christ knowest thou not that I have power to crucifie thee Joh. 19. 10. And Labans to Jacob Gen. 31. 29. I am able to do you hurt but they were vain cracks for doth not Pharaohs overthrow tell all boasting Champions that an Host is nothing without the God of Hosts Yea Satan himself was fain to say unto God in Job's case stretch out now thine hand c. Job 1. 11. and 2. 5. True as Themistocles once said of his son this boy can do more than any man in all Greece for the Athenians command the Grecians and I command the Athenians and my wife commands mee and my son commands my wife so the Churches adversaries in some places may boast what their Father the Devill can do for hee commands the Pope and the Pope commands the Jesuites and the Jesuites command such a King or Emperour Rev. 17. ver 12. 13. and that Emperour or King commands his Officers of State and they command the common people And yet to speak rightly even all these can do just nothing of themselvs for hee that sits in the heavens laughing them to scorn commands all Now it must needs comfort and support us exceedingly if in all cases wee do but duly consider that inequality is the ground of order that superiour causes guide the subordinate that this sublunary Globe depends on the celestiall as the lesser wheels in a Clock do on the great one which I finde thus expressed As in a Clock one motion doth convay And carry diverse wheels a severall way Yet altogether by the great wheels sarce Direct the hand unto his proper course Who is hee that saith and it cometh to pass when the Lordcommandeth it not Lamenta 3. 37. Suppose the Legions of hell should combine with the Potentates of the earth to do their worst they are all nothing without God as in Arithmetick put never so many Cyphers together one before another and they make nothing but let one figure bee added it makes them infinite So is it with men and Devills if God bee not with them they are all but Cyphers And yet for the praise of his glory and the good of his Church these enemies of his whether they rise or sit still shall by an insensible ordination performe that will of the Almighty which they least think of and most oppose The inhabitants of Jerusalem and their Rulers because they knew him not nor yet the words of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day have fulfilled them in condemning him Act. 13. 27. so that as Saint Austin speaks by resisting the will of God they do fulfill it and his will is done by and upon them even in that they do against his will That even Satan himself is limited and can go no further than his chain will reach wee may see Rev. 20. 2. More particularly hee could not touch so much as Job's body or substance no not one of his servants nor one limb of their bodies nor one hair of their heads nor one beast of their heards but hee must first beg leave of God Job 2. 6. Nay Satan is so far from having power over us living that hee cannot touch our bodies being dead yea hee cannot find them when God will conceal them witness the body of Moses and I doubt not but as the Angells did wait at the Sepuâ—…chre of their and our Lord so for his sake they also watch 〈◊〉 our graves he could not seduce a false prophet nor enter into a Hog without licence the whole Legion sue to Christ for a sufferance not daring other than to 〈◊〉 that without his permission they could not hurt a very Swine And when he hath leave from God what can hee do hee cannot go one hairs breadth beyond his commission being permitted hee could bring Christ himself and set him on the Pinacle of the Temple but hee could not throw him down which even a little child might have done with permission As the Lyon 1 King 13 killed the Prophet but neither touched the Ass whereon hee road noâ—… yet the dead carkas contrary to his nature True Satan could boast even to Christ himself that all the world was his and all
they are the lighter if sharper the shorter The sharp North-East wind saith the Astronomer never lasteth three days and thunder the more violent the less permanent Wherefore cheer up thou drooping soul if the Sun of comfort â—…ee for the present clouded it will ere long shine forth bright again if now with the Moon thou art in the wane stay but a little thou shalt as much increase for as days succeed nights Summer Winter and rest travell so undoubtedly joy shall succeed and exceed thy sorrow Thy grief shall dissolve or bee dissolved yea it is in some measure dissolved by hope for the present The Portugals wâ—…ll rejoyce in soul weather why because they know fair will follow and so may the believer in his greatest exigents because God will shortly tread Satan under our feet Rom. 16. 20. Here also the distressed soul may raise comfort to himself out of former experience who is hee that hath not been delivered out of some miserable exigent which if thou hast thou maist well say unto God with the Psalmist Thou hast shewed mee great troubles and adversities but thou will return and revive mee and wilt come again and take mee up from the depth of the earth and comfort mee Psal. 71. 20. 21. God's former actions are patterns of his future hee teacheth you what hee will do by what he hath done and nothing more raiseth up the heart in present affiaâ—…ce than the recognition of favours or wonders passed he that hath found God present in one extremity may trust him in the next every sensible favour of the Almighty invites both his gifts and our trust Objection But thou will say with the Psalmist thine eâ—…emies have long prevailed against thee and God seemeth altogether to â—…de his face and to have clean forgotten thee and so thou fearest hee will for ever Psal. 13. 1 2. Answer It is but so in thy apprehension as it was with him Gods deliverance may over-stay thy expectation it cannot the due period of his own counsels for know first that Gods works are not to bee judged of untill the fifth act The case deplorable and desperate in outward appearance may with one smile from heaven find a blessed issue Dotham is besieged and the Prophets servant distressed they are in a grievous case as they think yet a very apparition in the clouds shall secure them not a squadron shall bee raised and yet the enemie is surprised 2 Kings 6. here was no slackness The Midianites invade Israel and are suddainly confounded by a dream Judg. 7. Mistris Honywood that Religious Gentlewoman famous for her virtues after shee had been distressed in her mind thirty years without feeling the least comfort not being able to hold out any longer as a wounded spirit who can bear flung a Venice-glass against the ground and said to a grave Divine that sought to comfort her I am as sure to bee damned as this glass is to bee broken but what followed the glass was not broken but rebounded and stood upright at the sight whereof shee was so confirmed that ever after to her dying day shee lived most comfortably much like that of Apelles who striving to paint a drop of foam falling from a Horse mouth after long study how to express it even dispairing flung away his Pencill and that throw did it How opportunely doth God provide succours to our distresses It is his glory to help at a pinch to begin where wee have given over that our relief might bee so much the more welcome by how much it is less looked for superfluous aid can neither bee heartily desired nor earnestly looked for nor thankfully received from the hands of mercy Besides our infirmitie best sets off the glory of his strength 2 Cor. 12. 9. Spirituall consolations are commonly late and suddain long before they come and speedy when they do come even preventing expectation and our last conflicts have wont ever to be the forest as when after some dripping rain it powres down most vehemently wee think the weather is changing When hee means to ease us of our burthen hee seems to lay on heavier wherefore trust in God killing and lâ—…ve God chiding it is a good signe of our recovery Section 3. Again in the next place thou must know that man's extremity is Gods opportunity well may hee forbear so long as wee have have any thing else to rely upon but wee are sure to find him in our greatest exigents who loves to give comfort to those that are forsaken of their hopes as abundance of examples witness When had the Children of Israel the greatest victories but when they feared most to bee overcome 2 King 19. 35. Exod. 14. ver 28 29. When was Hagar comforted of the Angell but when her child was neer fanished and shee had east it under a Tree for dead Gen. 21. 15. to 20. When was Eliah comforted and relieved by an Angel with a Cake baked on the coals and a Cruise of Water but when hee was utterly forsaken of his hopes 1 Kings 19. 4. to 7. When was the Sareptan relieved it was high time for the Prophet to visit her poor soul shee was now making her last meal after one mean morsell shee was yielding her self over to death As long as Egypts flower lasted Manna was not rained When did God answer the hopes of Sarah Rebeccah Rachel the wife of Manoah and Elisabeth touching their long and much desired issues but when they were barren and past hope of children by reason of age Gen. 18. Judges 13 Luke 1. 6. 7. When did our Saviour heal the woman of her bloody issue but after the Physitians had given her over and shee becoming much worse had given them over when shee had spent all shee had upon them for to mend the matter poverty which is another disease was super-added to make her compleatly miserable When mans help fails then Gods begins When did Moses find succour but when his Mother could no longer hide him and hee was put into the River among the Bull-rushes shee would have given all shee was worth to save him and now shee hath wages to nurse him shee doth but change the name of mother into nurse and shee hath her son without fear not without great reward When Israel was in so hard a straight as either to bee drowned in the Sea or slain by the Sword how miraculously did God provide an evasion by dividing the waters When Rochel like Samaria had a strong enemy without and a sore famine within how miraculously did God provide an evasion by making the tyde their Purveyor to bring them in an Ocean of Shel-fish the like of which was never known before nor since Wee read how Merline during the Massacre at Paris was for a fortnight together nourished with one egge a day laid by a hen that came constantly to a hay-mow where hee lay hid in that danger When the English had lest Cales and the Spainard was again repossest of
enough withoâ—… him Luk. 1. 53. Matth. 15. 24. And yet it is strange yea a wonder to see how many truly humbled sinners who have so tender conscienceâ—… that they dare not yield to the least evill for the worlds goods and refuse no means of being made better turn every 〈◊〉 into reprobation every dejection into rejection and if they bee cast down they cry out they are cast away who may fitly bee compared to Arâ—…emon in Plutarch who when ever hee went abroad had his Iervants to carry a Canopy over his head least the heavens should fall and crush him or to a certain foolish melancholly Bird which as some tell stands always but upon one leg least her own weight should sink her into the Center of the Earth holding the other over her head least the Heavens should fall Yet bee not offended I cannot think the worse of thee for good is that fear which hinders us from evill acts and makes us the more circumspect And God hath his end in it who would have the sins to dye but the sinner to live Yea in some respect thou art the better to bee thought of or at least the less to bee feared for this thy fear for no man so truly loves as hee that fears to offend as Salvianus gloâ—…es upon those words Blossed is 〈◊〉 man that feareth alway And which is worth the observing this fear iâ—… a commendation often remembred in holy Scripture as a speciall and infallible mark of God's Children as for example Iob saith the holy Ghost was a just man and one that feared God Job 1. 1. Simeon a just many and one that feared God Luk 2. 25. Corneâ—…us a devout man and one that feared God Acts 10. 2. And so of Father Abraham a man that feared God Gen. 22. 12. Ioseph a man who feared God Gen. 42. 18. The Mid-wives in Egypt feared God Exod. 1. 17. So that evermore the fearing of God as being the beginning of wisdom is mentioned as the 〈◊〉 note which is as much as to say if the fearing of God once go before working of righteousness will instantly follow after according to that of the wise man Hee that feareth the Lord will do good And this for thy comfort when Mary Magdalen sorrowed and wept for her sins Luke 7 50. Christ tells her Thy faith hath made the whole intimating that this weeping this repenting saith is faith indeed And the like to the Woman with the bloody issue who presuming but to touch the hem of his garment fell down before him with fear and trembling Mark 5. 27 to 35. And that humble Canaaniâ—…e Matth 15. 22. to 29. And that importunate blind man Luke 18. 38. to 43. As if this humble this praying saith were onely the saving faith Neither can thy estate bee bad for as Saint Ambrose told Monica weeping for her seduced Son Fieri non potest ut filius istarum lachrymarum pereat It cannot bee that the son of those tears should ever perish Wherefore lift up thy self thou timorous fainting heart and do not suspect every spot for a plague token do not dye of a meer conceit for as the end of all motion is rest so the end of all thy troubles shall bee peace even where the days are perpetiall Sabbaths and the diet undisturbed feasts But as an empty vessell bung'd up close though you throw it in to the mid'st of the Sea will receive no water so all pleas are in vain to them that are deas'ned with their own fears for as Mary would not bee comforted with the â—…ight and speech of Angels no not with the sight and speech of Jesus himself till hee made her know that hee was Jesus so untill the holy Spirit sprinkleth the conscience with the blood of Christ and sheddeth his love into the heart nothing will do No creature can take off wrath from the conscience but hee that set it on Wherefore the God of peace give you the peace of God which passeth all understanding Yea O Lord speak thou Musick to the wounded conscience Thunder to the feared that thy justice may reclaim the one thy mercy relieve the other and thy favour comfort us all with peace and salvation in Jesus Christ. Section 8. But secondly if this will not satisfie call to thy remembrance the time past and how it hath been with thee formerly as David did in thy very case Psalm 77. 2. to 12. And likewise Joh Chapter 13. for as still waters represent any object in their bottome clearly so those that are troubled or agitated do it but dimly and imperfectly But if ever thou hadst true faith begotten in thy heart Joh. 1. 13. by the ministry of the Word Romans 10. 17. Jam. 1. 18. 21. and the Spirits powerfull working with it Joh. 3 3 5 8. whereby thine heart was drawn to take Christ and apply him a Saviour to thine own soul so that then wert forced to go out of thy self and rely wholly and onely on his merits and that it further manifested it self by working a hatred of sin and an apparent change in thy whole life by dying unto sin and living unto righteousness and that thou hast not since returned to thine old sins like the Dog to his vomit if it hath somtime brought forth in thee the sweet friat of heavenly and spirituall joy if it hath purified thine heart in some measure from noysome lusts and affections as secret pride self-love hypocrisie carnall confidence wrath malice and the like so that the spirit within thee fighteth against the flesh If thou canst now say I love the godly because they are godly 1 Joh. 3. 14. and hast an hungring after Christ and after a greater measure of heavenly and spirituall graces and more lively tokens of his love and favour communicated unto thee My soul for thine thou hast given false evidence against thy self for as in a gloomy day there is so much light whereby wee may know it to bee day and not â—…ight so there is something in a Christian under a cloud whereby hee may bee discerned to bee a true beleever and not an hypocrite But to make it manifest to thy self that thou art so Know first that where there is any one grace in truth there is every one in their measure If thou art sure thou hast love I am sure thou hast faith for they are as inseparable as fire and heat life and motion the root and the sap the Sun and its light and so of other graces Or dost thou feel that Christ is thy greatest joy sin thy greatest sorrow that when thou canst not feel the presence of the spirit in thy heart thou goest mourning notwithstanding all other comforts Assuredly as that holy Martyr said if thou were not a wedding Child thou couldest never so heartily mourn for the absence of the Bridegroom Thus I might go on but a few Grapes will shew that the Plant is a Vine and not a Thorn Take but notice of this