this World or the World to come But here bee tossed continually and torne in peeces like the raging Sea with restlesse distractions carking discontent And hereafter roare everlastingly in Hell with unknowne horrours and for the irrevocable exclusion from the supreme and soveraign Good the ever-springing Fountaine of all peace and pleasure and His glorious presence even for ever ever If the Soule of man saith Hooker did serve onely to give Him Beeing in this life then things appertaining unto this life would content Him as wee see they doe other Creatures Which Creatures inioying what they live by seeke no further but in this contentation doe shew a kinde of acknowledgement that there is no higher Good which doe any way belong unto them With us it is otherwise For altho the beauties riches honours sciences vertues and perfections of all men living were in the present possession of One yet somewhat beyond and above all this would still bee sought and earnestly thirsted for It is no marvell saith Greenâ—ham if riches fill not the Soule for they were all made for man His Soule for God Whatsoever is capable of God that can never bee satisfied with any thing else All riches all preferments can not satisfie one soule But when God is come it is full whatsoever is added more it runneth over These and the like are the mighty Works of Faith And even so let this Princely and victorious Grace attended with all Her heavenly traine tread down triumphantly before you still the painted Bables and Babels of al transitory glory and ungodly greatnesse hold still fresh and flourishing in your â—ie the immortality and blisse of a never-fading Crowne and shine faire and fruitfully in your Soule untill it set you downe safe in the midst of the most glorious and ever-during Kingdome of Heaven and having there finished her blessed Task resigne you up and leave you for ever to the Beatificall vision and full fruition of Iehovah everlastingly blessed and to the endlesse enioyment of fulnesse of ioy and pleasures at His right hand even thorow all eternity Your servant for the salvation of your Soule ROBERT BOLTON SOME INSTRVCTIONS FOR A RIGHT COMFORTING AFFLICTED Consciences with Antidotes against some speciall temptations PROV 18.14 The spirit of a man will sustaine his infirmitie but a wounded spirit who can beare MY Text lies as you see in a sacred Cabinet of richest Iewels I meane the most selected and wisest Aphorismes or Proverbs that ever issued out of mortall braine Every one of them for the most part especially from the tenth Chapter independant entire and absolute in themselues cleare and manifest by their owne native brightnesse not needing such reciprocall light and lustre for each others mutuall discouery and interpretation And therefore they are naturally not capable of any coherent Logicall Analysis and other circumstantiall expositions ordinarily incident to other parts of Scripture Whence it is that this Booke of Proverbs is compared to a great heape of gold rings rich and orient severally and every one shining with a distinct sense by it selfe but other contexts of holy Writ to gould chaines so interwoven and enlinked together that they must upon necessity for the rendring unto us aright and fully their severall senses be illightened and receive mutuall illustration one from another This present Proverbe doth represent unto us the extremest Hell upon earth the greatest misery and most un-supportable that can possibly befall a Man in this life I meane the horror of a guilty and enraged conscience Which is set out First by the excellency of it's opposite the invincible ability and mighty strength of that truly stoute and heroicall heart which is happily upholden with the heavenly refreshing influence of grace Gods favour and a good conscience The spirit of a man will sustaine his â—firmity Whence take this first note Doctr. The spirit of a man furnished with grace and fortified with the sense of Gods favour is able to passe thorow the pikes and conquer all commers Reas. 1. For what and why should that man feare or faint on whose side the mighty Lord of heaven and earth doth stand If God be for us who can be against us Whose mercy to his is without all stint and limit like himselfe infinite so immeasurable that it reacheth from everlasting to everlasting so tender that it suâ—passeth incomprehensibly the compassionate meltings of the lovingest mother and spared not the dearest blood of his onely Sonne Who hath ever in a readinesse for the recovery of his children out of the most desperate danger and to rescue them out of the hands of the deadliest enemy besides his owne omnipotent arme the least finger whereof can beate the greatest mountaine to powder and â—end the hardest rocke in peeces innumerable hosts of Angels one of which killed an hundred foure score and five thousand in one night charets of fire even a thousand charets in the whirlewind that faire glorious Giant which with incredible sâ—iftnesse runs post as it were thorow the skye to stand still or râ—tore the impetuous current of the raging Sea to recoyle the merciles slames of the hungry fire to become a soft and refreshing aire the â—â—placable fury of the most enraged Lions to couch at first word for his servants sake and safety Nay if need bee hee hath Caterpillers and Frogges Wormes and Lice even the most impotent and vilest vermiâ—e to fetch blood and take downe the heart of the proudest Tyrant upon earth carry he his head neveâ— so high to eate out the bowels of the bloodiest Nimâ—od or mightiest Monarch that weares a crowne upon his head if hee oppose his people He hath the very hands and consciences of all that rise up against them to bring their owne blood upon theâ—r owne heads and even Hell and extreamest horror upon their hearts in this life What then so dreadfull a face of present confusions or fore-imagined formes of future troubles aâ—e able or ought slavishly to deâ—ect and terrifie that holy heart which with a sweet and safe repose is happily and everlastingly hid under the wings of that mighty God who for the deliverance of his can worke 1. By weake meanes See Iud. 7. 1. Sam. 14. Genes 14. 1. Sam. 17. Iud. 4.21 and 9.53 2. Without meanes See 2. Chron. 20. Exod. 14. Iosu. 6. 2. Kings 19. 2. Chron. 14. 3. Contrary to meanes See Dan. 6.22 Ios. 3.16 Dan. 3.25.26 Ionah 2.6 Iosu. 10.12 13 14. 2. When the heavenly beames of Gods pleased countenance begin to breake out upon a man thorow the darke and Hellish mist of his manifold and hainous sinnes the unquenchable heate of His everlasting love thorow Christ dissolving them into nothing and fairely shine with a comfortable aspect upon His humbled Soule ipso facto as they say Heaven and Earth and all the Hosts of both are everlastingly reconciled unto him and become his friends the stormes and
life freely Revelat. Chap. 21. Vers. 6. And let him that is a thirst come whosoever will let him take the water of life freely Rom. 22.17 Wee must therefore by no meanes conceive of the forenamed preparatiue humiliations and precedent workes of the Law and Gospell as of any meritorious qualifications to draw on Christ for hee is given most freely but as of needfull predispositions to drive us unto Christ. For a Man must feele Himselfe in misery before Hee will goe about to find a remedy bee sicke before Hee will seeke the Physition bee in Prison before Hee will sue for a pardon bee wounded before Hee will prize a Plaster and pretious balsam A sinner must bee weary of His former wicked wayes and tired with legall terrour before Hee will haue recourse to Iesus Christ for refreshing and lay downe His bleeding Soule in his blessed Bosome Hee must bee sensible of His Spirituall poverty beggery and slavery under the Deuill before Hee thirst kindly for heavenly righteousnesse and willingly take up Christs sweet and easy yoke Hee must bee cast downe confounded condemned a cast away and lost in Himselfe before Hee will looke about for a Saviour Hee must cry heartily I am uncleane I am uncleane before Hee will long and labour to wash in that most soveraigne and Soule-saving Fountaine opened to the house of David and to the Inhabitants of Ierusalem for sin and for uncleannesse he must sell all before hee will be willing and eager to buy the Treasure hid in the field Now thus to prepare wound afflict and humble the Soule that it may bee fitted for Iesus Christ and so for comfort upon good ground let ministers or whosoever meddle in matters of this nature publickely or privatly vse all warrantable meanes faire and foule as they say let them presse the law promise mercy propose Christ c. Doe what they will seasonably and wisely Let them improve all their learning wisedome discretion mercifullnesse experience wit eloquence Sanctified unto them for that purpose So that the worke bee done In pressing the law besides other dexterities and directions for managing their ministry in this Point succesfully by Gods Blessing let them take notice of this Particular which may prove very availeable to begin this Legall worke It is a Principle attended upon with many a Probatum est Pressing upon Mens consciences with a zealous discreet powerfullnesse their speciall principall fresh-bleeding Sins is a notable meanes to breake their hearts and bring them to remorse That most hainous and bloudy sinne of killing Iesus Christ in which they had newly imbrued their hands pressed upon the Consciences of Peters hearers breakes and teares their hearts in pieces Act. 2.23.36.37 So Adultery secretly intimated by Christs words unto the woman of Samaria Ioh. 4.18 Seemes to have strucke her to the heart vers 19. So the Iewes having Idolatry pressed upon their consciences by Samuel 1. Sam. 7.6 The sin of asking a king ibid. 12.19 Vsury by Nehemiah 5.12 Strange wives by Ezra cap. 10.9 were therevpon mightily moved and much mollified in their hearts as appeares in the cited Places Consider for this purpose that worke upon Davids heart by Nathans Ministry And Felix trembling when Paul strucke Him on the right veine The reasons why this more particular discovery and denouncing of judgement against a Mans principall sinne is like God assisting with the Spirit of bondage to put such life into the worke of the Law are such as these 1. The Sword of the Spirit which is the word of God being welded by the hand of the holy Ghost and edged as it were with the speciall power of Gods blessing for the cutting asunder of the iron-Sinewes of a stubborne and stony heart doth crush and conquer strike through and breake in pieces with an unresistable puissance proportioned to the insolency or easinesse of resistance My meaning is this As Philosophers say of the Lightning that by reason of the easinesse of the passage weakenesse of resistance porosity of the parts it pierceth through the Purse Scabberd and Barke without any such scorching and visible hurt but melts the mony the sword rents and shivers the tree because their substance and solidity doth more exercise and improve its activenes and ability So this Spirituall Sword tho it strike at every sinne and passeth thorow even to the diuiding asunder of Soule and Spirit and of the joynts and marrow yet the hairy pate of the maine corruption and Master sinne it wounds with a witnesse it there tortures and teares in pieces with extraordinary anguish and smart Searching and sence for that opposeth with the most flinty iron-Sinew to blunt and rebate its edge if it were possible 2. In Consciences regularly and rightly wounded and awaked sinnes are wont to bite and sting proportionably to their hainousnesse and the exorbitancy of their former sensuall impressions Some like a Mastife some like a Scorpion some like a Wolfe in the Evening But vnderstand that spirituall anguish surpasseth immeasurably any corporall paine therefore conceiue of them with a vast dis-proportion Now the Minion delight or Captaine sinne frighting the heart with greatest horrour and stinging with extremity proportionable to its former vastation of Conscience doth by an accidentall power God blessing the businesse give a great stroke to drive a man to deepest detestation of Himselfe to throw Him downe to the lowest step of penitent dejection to eneager His thirsty greedinesse after pardon and grace and at length to fire Him out of His naturall estate 3. A Mans principall and most prevailing sinne is Sathans strongest Hold. When Hee is in danger to be dislodged and driven by the power of the word out of the other parts of the Soule as it were and from Possession of a Man by all other sinnes Hee retires Hither as to His Castle and most impregnable Fort. And therefore if this bee soundly beaten upon by the Hammer and Horrour of the Law and battered about His eares hee will bee quickly enforced to quit the Place quite It may bee good counsell then and often seasonable to say unto those Men of God who desire to drive the Devill out of Others in some sort as the King of Syria said to his Captaines Fight neither with small nor great save onely with the King of Israel My meaning is Let them addresse the sharpest edge of their spirituall Sword yet as well with an holy charitable discretion as with resolute downeright dealing against those sinnes which beare greatest sway in them they have to deale with Bee it their covetousnesse ambition Lust drunkennesse Lukewarmenesse monstrousnesse of the fashion sacriledge oppression vsury Back-sliding murder luxury Opposition to the good way Hatred of the Saints or what other sinne soever they discover in them to minister greatest advantage to Satan to keepe them fastest in his clutches No sinne must bee spared but let the raigning sin be paid home especially For opening of the most rich
from between the teeth of bloody persecuting Wolues 2. Tim. 4.17 Secondly Sometimes Hee takes away or lessens the sting and fury of the torment and torturers The fire had no force at all over the bodies of those blessed men Dan. 3.27 And no doubt in Queene Maries dayes of most abhorred memory Hee many times mollified and sweetned the rage and bitternesse of those mercilesse flames for our Martyrs sakes Thirdly Sometimes he supports and supplies them with supernaturall vigour and extraordinary courage over the smart and rigour of the most terrible and intolerable tortures The heart of that holy Proto-Martyr Steven was furnished and filled with those heavenly infusions of spirituall strength and ioy when the Heavens opening He saw the glory of God and Iesus standing on His right hand which were gloriously transcending and triumphant over the utmost of all corporall paine and Iewish cruelty And so graciously dealt He with many other Martyrs in succeeding ages as we may reade in Ecclesiasticall Stories Fourthly Hee may sometimes also out of His mercifull wisdome put into their hearts such a deale of Heaven before-hand and ravishing comforts of the World to come that the excesse thereof doth swallow up and devoure as it were the bitternesse of all bodily inflictions and sufferings of sense Thus mercifully dealt Hee with that worthy Martyr Master Robert Glover even when He was going towards the Stake He poured into His Soule upon the sudden such over-flowing Rivers of spirituall joyes that no doubt they mightily abated and quencht the ragefull fury of those Popish flames wherein Hee was sacrificed for the Profession of the Gospell of Christ and Gods everlasting truth And assuredly that comfortable Sun-shine of unexpresse-able joy which by the good hand of God was shed into Master Peacocks sorrowfull heart in the depth of His darkenesse and desertion a little before the resignation of His happy Soule into the hands of God did make the pangs of death and that dreadfull Passage a great deale lesse painefull and sensible if not very lightsome and pleasant Now in both these men of God a wofull spirituall dereliction was a fit introduction and immediate preparative to the effusion of such a sudden torrent of strange exultations and ravishments of spirit upon their sad and heavy hearts Conceive the Point then thus The Lord sometimes even in tendernesse and love to His owne deare Children whom Hee designes for extraordinary sufferings may purposely possesse them with such a Paradise of divine pleasures as a counter-comfort to the extremity of their paines that besides their owne private refreshing and support their couragious insensibility and victorious patience thereupon may bring a great deale of terrour to their tormentors glory to their Mercifull Maister credit unto the cause and confusion to the enemies of grace And that there may be an addition of more heart and life to such joyfull elevations of spirit and that He may make the excellency of that spirituall joy proportionable to the exquisitnes of their tortures and trouble He may in His unsearchable wisedome make way thereunto by a spirituall desertion As Hee did in the fore-named glorious Martyr Master Glover For want of the sense of the comforts of godlinesse for a season doth make our Soules a thousand times more sensible of their sweetnesse upon their re-infusion 8. Eighthly Thus may the Lord sometimes deale with His best and dearest Children even by withdrawing the light of His countenance leave them for a while to these inward conflicts and confusions of spirit that thereby they may bee fitted and informed with an holy experimentall skill to speake feelingly and fully to the hearts of their Christian Brethren which may afterward bee tempted and troubled as they have been For God is woont at all times in His Church so gracious is Hee purposely to raise up and single out some speciall men whom Hee instructs and enables in the Schoole of spirituall experiments and afflictions of Soule with extraordinary dexterity and Arte to comfort and recover other Mourners in Zion in their distresses of consciences stronger temptations spirituall desertions decaies of grace relapses Eclipses of Gods face and favour wants of former comfortable feelings in case of horrible thoughts and hideous injections darkenesse of their owne spirits and such other Soule-vexations And such a blessed Physition which is able to speake experimentally to a dejected sorrowfull heart out of practise and sense in His owne Soule is farre more worth both for a true search and discovery and sound recovery and cure of a wounded conscience then an hundred meere speculative Divines Such an One is that One of a thousand spoken of by Iob which can wisely and seasonably declare unto His Soule-sicke Patient the secret Tracks hidden Depths of Gods dealings with afflicted spirits Let us take instance in those experimentall abilities which David gained for such a purpose by His passing thorow that most grievous spirituall desertion Psal. 77. The Case of that Christian were most rufull both in His owne fearefull apprehension and to the un-judicious 〈◊〉 the Beholders who having spent a long time 〈◊〉 Zealous professiō of the Truth walking with God and secret communion with Iesus Christ should come to that passe and fall into those wofull straights of spirituall trouble First That Hee should feare not without extraordinary horrour lest the mercies of God were departed from Him for ever and that the Lord would never more bee intreated or ever shine againe with his favourable countenance upon His confounded Soule Secondly that the very remembrance of God which was woont to crowne his heart with a confluence of all desire-able contentments should even rent it asunder and make it fall to pieces in His bosome like drops of water Thirdly That the pouring out of His Soule with pittifull groanes and complaints in secret unto His God which heretofore did set wide open unto Him heavenly flood-gates of gracious refreshing should now quite overwhelme His spirit with much distracted amazement and feare Fourthly That that heart of His which had formerly full sweetly tasted those holy pleasures which farre passe the comprehension of any carnall conceit should now be so brim-full and damm'd up with excesse of griefe that no vent or passage should bee left unto His speech Fifthly And which Mee thinkes is the perfection of His misery in this kinde that amidst all these heavy discomforts His Soule should refuse to bee comforted That tho the Ministers and Men of God stand round about Him bring into His minde and presse upon Him the pregnant evidences and testimonies of His owne godly life the unchangeablenesse of Gods never-failing mercies to His the sweetnesse of His glorious Name the soveraigne power and mighty price of His Sonnes blood the infallible and inviolable pretiousnesse and truth of the promises of life c. Yet in the agony and angvish of His grieved spirit Hee puts them all away from 〈…〉 none of His nor as properly belonging to His
have parted with the magnificent state and pompe of Pharaohs Court where Hee might have wallowed in varietie of all worldly delights and to take part with His afflicted Brethren of a world of miseries in a vast and roaring Wildernesse There was never carnall man since the Creation but in such a Case would have followed the Court and forsaken Gods people Hester a weake Woman could never possibly have holden out against the fury of so mighty a Favourite the hazarding of Her high Place the favour of so great a King and even life it selfe had She not been upholden by an extraordinary strength from Heaven No great Woman in the World wanting Grace would ever have runne such an hazard but have suffered the servants of God to sinke or swimme so that She might swimme downe the Current of the times without crossing and enjoy the present without perill It was a 〈◊〉 temptation 〈◊〉 â—â—nathan and a very 〈…〉 Dilemma Either leave to adhere to David or resolve to lose a Kingdome But the hope of an earthly Crowne could not hire Him to hold His peace and betray the innocency of His heavenly Friend And Ionathan answered Saul his Father and said unto Him Wherefore shall Hee bee slaine What hath Hee done The dread of dis-countenance from two angry Kings whose indignation is as the roaring of a Lyon was a terrible Motive to have made Michajah temporize not a Server of the Times and His owne turne in the World but would in this Case have tuned His Pipe to Ahabs pleasure especially encouraged by the flattering concurrence of so many false prophets But the sight of the mighty Lord of Heaven and Earth sitting upon His Throne and all the Host of Heaven standing by Him infused such an holy fortitude into the spirit of this Man of God that no greatnesse terrour or Majesty of any crowned Potentate could possibly daunt His courage or dash Him out of countenance And therefore Hee answeres with a resolution as high as Heaven and out of a sacred pang of seraphicall zeale As the Lord liveth whatsoever the Lord saith unto mee that will I speake So that Hee may discharge a good conscience and doe as God would have Him Hee is at a Point That Message which thâ—â—lmighty had put into His mouth must 〈…〉 Him to a centur◠〈…〉 from so 〈…〉 owne Coate to a suspicion of dis-loyalty for crossing so peremptorily the Kings Plot to smiting both with the fist of wickednesse and taunts of the tongue from His fellow Seers Nay tho His faithfull dealing throw Him into a Dungeon there to bee fed with the Bread of affliction and Water of affliction untill the full wrath of an enraged prophane King fall upon Him to the uttermost Thus let the World say what it will whatever flesh and blood suggest to the contrary Howsoever unsanctified great Ones storme and disdaine yet assuredly every true Friend to Iesus Christ must bee content farre rather to bee dis-courted then desert a good cause or not to defend the innocency of a gracious Man tho in disgrace and to speake for Gods people tho Haman rage to roote them out quite as a company of singular exorbitant fellowes who serve God as they list and keepe not the Kings Lawes As is unanswerably evident by the precedency of these newly named noble and holy Saints I confesse this may seeme precise Doctrine and a divine Paradox to all the great Masters of pleasure and Minions of luxury and pride whose blood runnes fresh in their veines and marrow is yet strong in their bones Nay who having attained the height of their ambitious aimes sit now aloft in the very top of their un-blessed bravery and greatnesse drunke with the pleasant wine of worldly prosperitie and holding in scorne the holy preaching of the good way the syncerity of the servants of Christ and society of the Brotherhood Yet I can assure them in the Word of Life and Truth the now embracement and practise of precise walking will incomparably more comfort them upon their Dying-Beds in that great and last encounter with all infernall powers about the immortality blisse and glory or the endlesse and unsupportable paines and misery of their Soules then if they had been the sole and soveraigne Commanders of all the Kingdoms of the Earth all their life long But no marvell in the meane time that as the Spirit of truth tells us and punctually to my purpose Not many Wise men after the flesh nor many Mighty not many Noble are called Not for any impossibility For the irresistable might of the Spirit worketh upon whom it will and some Great Men are good but by reason of the difficulty Being beset with such variety and strength of temptations they are rarelier and hardlier wrought upon by the Word and woone out of Satans en-snarements High roomes temporary happines abilities above ordinary so puffe them up and transport them beyond themselves with such a deale of Selfe-love Selfe-opinion Self-prizing that their proud and obstinated spirits will by no meanes stoope to the simplicity of the Gospell â—â—gularitie of the Saints and the foolishnesse of preaching But if at any time they heare of a Nathan Ieremy Amos Chrysostome Latimer c. They are very loth to lend their attention lest thereby they should bee made Melancholike put in mind of the Evill day tormented before their time But if they have the patience They are ready to startle in their seates and whisper One to an Other You see now these preciser Fellowes would damne us all to Hell Let us breake their bonds asunder and cast away their Cordes from us Such adoe there is and a world of worke to bring such noble Bedlams into their right minds and to fright such Idolizers of their owne sufficiencies and wilfull graspers of their gilded Fetters from their admired follies and honorable servitude 3. Thirdly a gracious Man about a Royall Person is a goodly Sight full well worth even a Kings Ransome For never any except himself truly feare the great God of Heaven can possibly bee cordially and conscionably serviceable to any of our earthly Gods A Principle so cleare and unquestionable that no Man of understanding and Master of his owne Wits except himselfe be notoriously obnoxious can have the face to deny it Please they may bee politically plausible flatter extremely and represent themselves to ordinary observation as the onely Men for loyalty and love But if wee could search and see their hearts wee should find them then most laborious to serue themselves and advance their owne ends when they seeme most zealous for their Soveraignes service Ahitophel in the Sunne-shine of peace and calmenesse of the Kingdomes time did accommodate himselfe to the present both in Consultations of State and religious conformitie But no sooner had this hollow-hearted man espied a dangerous tempest raysed by Absoloms un-naturall treachery but Hee turned Traytor to his naturall Lord when Hee
and lead in the rocke for ever For I know that my Redeemer liveth c. chap. 13. Though he slay me yet will I trust in him did so strengthen and stay his spirit with a divine might that he bore valiantly and stood upright under the heaviest weight and greatest variety of extreame afflictions that ever were laid upon any meere man But now on the other side the tyth nay the tenne hundreth part of Iobs troubles caused graâ—elesse Achitophell to saddle his Asse get himselfe home put his houshold in order and hang himselfe So true is that which the blessed Prophet tels us Ier. 17.5 c. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For Hee shall be like the heath in the desert and shall not see when good commeth but shall inhabite the parched places in the Wildernesse in a saltland and not inhabited Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is For hee shall be as a tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out her rootes by the river and shall not see when heate commeth but her lease shall be greene and shall not be carefull in the yeere of drought neither shall cease from yeelding fruite This impregnable comfort springing from grace and a good conscience even in evill times did steele the spirit of blessed Luther with such spirituall stoutnesse and so hardened his fore head against a world nay an horrible hell of most reproachfull and raging oppositions that he became a Spectacle a Miracle of rarest Christian fortitude and invincible courage to the whole world and to all posterity I am perswaded that holy truth of God which hee so gloriously proâ—est and that power of godlinesse which hee so faithfully practised did infuse into the heart of that Man as much unconquerablenesse of resolution and fearelesnesse of the face of Man as ever dwelt in any mortal brest since the Apostles time Witnesse amongst the rest that one extraordinary expression of His imcomparable magnanimity when his friends were earnest and eager upon Him not to venture Himselfe amongst a number of Perfidious Papists and bloud-thirsty Tigers He replied thus As touching mee saith He since I am sent for I am resolved and certainly determined to enter Wormes in the name of the Lord Iesus Christ yea tho I knew there were as many Divells to resist me as there are tiles to cover the Houses in Wormes This Man of God did upon the two Pillars of His Heroicall heart courage and patience most nobly sustaine the malice and hatred almost of the whole world The Divell and the Pope did concurrently countermine with all their cruelty and cunning against this victorious Champion of Heaven and mighty underminer of their darke and damned kingdomes Almost all the Princes Priests and people of Christendome did breed breathe out nothing but thoughts of indignation and threats of Death against Him Millions of lasie and lustfull Monkes having like so many pestilent Locusts of the infernall Pit seizd upon the face of Europe with their envenomed swarmes and lying at ease encloistered in Sodomy and bloud gnashed their teeth at Him with Hellish fury and like true Frends spet fire in His face And yet for all this this holy Saint which I more admire and prize higher then the victories of a thousand Caesars or the most renowned valour of the greatest Alexander having so many incarnate Divels continually roaring about Him with open mouth ready every houre and enraged with implacable thirst to drinke up His bloud and swallow Him up quicke yet I say enioyed such a triumphant tranquillity of minde and unshaken presence of spirit that like a mightie Son of thunder by His constant and powerfull preaching for the space of nine and twenty yeares so shooke the pillars of Popery that I am perswaded the Beast will never stand upon His foure legs any more And writ eloquently and excellently almost if not as many volumes as Austin did that great glory of the Christian World in former times A petty crosse many times will so emasculate and weaken the elevations of the greatest Wit that His conceite invention stile will fall to a farre lower streine then ordinary which contentment calmnesse would raise to their highest pitch possibility But the terrible earthquake as it were of all Europe and contrary commotions of Christendome some did never a whit dis-animate or shake the heart of this heavenly man fitly honoured by the name of a third Elias But now Francis Spira on the other side having out of his inordinate love to the things of this life wofully wounded his conscience by that infamous 〈◊〉 of the blessed Truth which He formerly professed became a spectacle of such spirituall misery and woe to the whole world that there is not any thing left unto the memory of man more remarkeable Vpon the very first revise of his recantation and serâ—ouâ— consideration in cold bloud what he had done he acknowledged himselfe utterly undone and for ever His spirit suddenly smitten with the dreadfull sense of divine wrath for his Apostasie and split in pieces as it were with so grievous a bruise fainted fearefully faild him quite and fell a sunder in his brest like drops of water Heare some rufull expressions of his desperate state from his owne mouth Oh that I were gone from hence that some body would let out this weary Soule I tell you there was never such a Monster as I am never was man alive a spectacle of such exceeding misery I now feele Gods heavy wrath that burnes like the torments of hell within me and afflicts my soule with pangs un-utterable Verily desperation is Hell it selfe The gnawing worme of unquenchable fire horrour confusion and which is worst of all desperation it selfe continually tortures me And now I count my present estate worse then if my soule separated from my body were with Iudas and therefore I desire rather to be there then thus to live in my body The truth is never had mortall man such experience of Gods anger and hatred against him as I have If I could conceive but the â—east sparke oâ— hope in my heart of a better state hereafter I would not refuse to endure the most heavy wrath of the great God yea for 2000. yeeres so that at length I might attaine out of misery He professed that his pangs were such as that the damned wights in Hell indure not the like misery That his state was worse then that of Cain and Iudas and therefore desired to die O that God would let loose his hand from me and that it were with me now as in times past I would scorne the threats of the most cruell Tyrants beare torments with invincible resolution and glory in the outward profession of Christ till I were choaked in the flame and my body turned into ashes Vses 1. If it be so then that
thing whatsoever is within Him or without Him or about Him whatsoever He thinkes upon remembers heares sees turne all to his torment No marvaile then tho the terrour of a wounded conscience bee so intolerable 3. As the exultations of the Soule and spirituall refreshments doe incomparably surpasse both in excellency of Object and sweetnesse of apprehension all pleasures of seâ—se and bodily delights so afflictions of the Soule and spirituall pangs doe infinitely exceede both in bitternesse of sense and intension of sorrow the most exquisite tortures can possibly bee inflicted upon the Body For the Soule is a spirit very subtile quicke active stirring all life motion sense feeling and therefore farre more capable and apprehensive of all kinds of impressions whether passions of pleasure or inflictions of paâ—â—e 4. This extremest of miseries a wounded spirit is tempered with such strong and strange ingredients of extraordinary feares that it makes a man a terrour to himselfe and to all his friends To flee when none pursues at the sound of a shaken leafe To tremble at his owne shadow to bee in great feare where no feare is Besides the insupportable burthen of too many true and causefull terrours it fills His darke and dreadfull Fancy with a world of fained horrours gastly apparitions and imaginary Hells which notwithstanding have reall stings and impresse true tortures upon his trembling and wofull heart It is empoysoned with such restlesse anguish and desperate paine that tho life bee most sweete and Hell most horrible yet it makes a man wilfully to abandon the one and willingly to embrace the other that Hee may bee rid of it's rage Hence it was that Iudas preferred an Halter and Hell before his present horrour That Spira said often what heart quakes not to heare it that Hee envied Cain Saul and Iudas wishing rather any of their roomes in the Dungeon of the damned then to have his poore heart so rent in pieces with such raging terrors fiery desperations upon his Bed of death Whereupon at another time beeing asked Whether Hee feared more fearefull torments after this life Yes said Hee But I desire nothing more then to bee in that place where I shall expect no more Expectation as it seemes of future did infinitely aggravate and enrage His already intolerable torture 5. The Heathens who had no fuller sight of the foulenesse of sinne or more smarting sense of divine vengeance for it then the light of naturall conscience was able to afford and represent unto them yet were woont in fiction to shadow out in some sort and intimate unto us the insufferable extremities of a minde troubled in this kinde by hellish furies following malefactors with burning fire-brands and flames of torture What understanding then is able to conceive or tongue to report in what case that sinfull conscience must needs bee when it is once awakened which besides the notions of naturall light hath also the full Sun of Gods sacred Word and that pure Eye which is ten thousand times brighter then the Sunne and cannot looke upon iniquity to irradiate and enrage it to the height of guiltinesse and depth of horrour Both heart and tongue Man and Angell must let that alone for ever For none can take the true estimate of this immesurable spirituall misery but hee that can comprehend the length and breadth of that infinite unresistable wrath which once implacably enkindled in the bosome of God burnes to the very bottome of Hell and there creates the extremity and endlesnesse of all those un-expressable torments and fiery plagues which afflict the Diuels and damned Soules in that horrible Pit 6. Not onely the desperate cries of Cain Iudas Latomus and many other such miserable men of forlorne hope but also the wofull complaints even of Gods owne deare Children discover the truth of this Point to wit the terrours and intolerablenesse of a wounded Conscience Heare how rufully three ancient Worthies in their times wrastled with the wrath of God in this kinde I reckoned till morning saith Hezekiah that as a Lion so will hee breake all my bones Even as the weake and trembling limbes of some lesser neglected Beast are crusht and torne in pieces by the unresistable Paw of an unconquerable Lion so was His troubled Soule terrified and broken with the anger of the Almighty Hee could not speake for bitternesse of griefe and anguish of heart but chattered like a Crane or a Swallow and mourned like a Dove Thou writest bitter things against mee saith Iob and makest mee to possesse the iniquities of my youth The arrowes of the Almighty are within mee the poyson thereof drinketh up my spirit the terrours of God doe set themselves in aray against mee O that I might have my request And that God would grant mee the thing that I long for Even that it would please God to destroy mee that Hee would let loose his hand and cut mee off Nay yet worse Thou scarest mee with dreames and terrifiest mee through visious So that my Soule chuseth strangling and death rather then my life Tho God in mercy preserves his servants from the monstrous and most abhorred Act of selfe-murder yet in some melancholike moode horrour of minde and bitternesse of spirit they are not quite freed from all impatient wishes that way and sudden suggestions thereunto My bones waxed old saith David through my roaring all the day long Day and night thy hand was heavy upon mee my moysture is turned into the drought of Summer Thine arrowes sticke fast in mee and thy hand presseth mee sore There is no soundnesse in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sinne For mine iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for mee I am troubled I am bowed downe greatly I goe mourning all the day long I am feeble and sore broken I have roared by reason of the disqujâ—tnesse of my heart Heare also into what a depth of spirituall distresse three worthy servants of God in these later times were plung'd and pressed downe under the sense of Gods anger for sinne Blessed Mistris Brettergh upon Her last Bed was horribly hemmed in with the sorrowes of death the very griefe of Hell laid hold upon Her Soule a roaring Wildernesse of woe was within Her as She confessed of Her selfe She said her sinnes had made Her a prey to Satan And wished that she had never been borne or that shee had been made any other creature rather then a Woman Shee cryed out many times Woe woe woe c. A weake a wofull a wretched a forsaken woman with teares continually trickling from her eyes Master Peacock that man of God in that His dreadfull visitation and desertion recounting some smaller sinnes burst out into these words And for these saith Hee I feele now an Hell in my conscience Vpon other occasions Hee cryed out
many respects 1. In respect of Gods word and messages first not dividing it and dispensing them aright Secondly Dishonouring the Majesty and weakening the power of them many times with the vnprofitable mixture of humane allegations ostentations of wit fine frier-like conceits digged with much adoe out of Popish postills c. Even as wee may see at haruest time a land of good corne quite choaked up with red blew and yellow flowers As King Iames doth excellently allude in the forecited place Thirdly Fearefull prophaning them by mis-application against Gods will Making the heart of the righteous Sad whom God would not have made Sad and strengthening the hands of the wicked that hee should not returne from his wicked way by promising him life Fourthly Villanous perverting and abusing them to their owne advantage applause rising revenge and such other private ends 2. In respect of the flattering and unfaithfull Ministers themselves First Extreme vilenesse Isa. 9.15 Secondly Guiltinesse of spirituall bloudshed Ezech. 3.18 Thirdly Liablenesse to the fierce wrath of God in the Day of visitation Ier. 14.15 1. King 22.25 3. In respect of their hearers who delight in their lies in their smooth and silken sermons Suddaine horrible and unavoidable confusion Isa. 30.13.14 4. Burning both together in hell for euer without timely and true repentance banning there each other continually and crying with mutuall hideous yellings O thou bloody Butcher of our Soules hadst thou bin faithfull in thy Ministery wee had escaped these eternall flames O miserable man that I am Woe is mee that ever I was Minister for now besides the horrour due unto the guiltinesse of mine owne damned Soule I have drawen vpon mee by my unfaithfull dealing the cry of the bloud of all those soules who have perished under my Ministery to the everlasting enraging of my already intollerable torment Give mee leave to conclude this point with that patheticall and zealous passage of reuerend and learned Greenham against negligent pastors amongst whom I may justly ranke and reckon also all Dawbers for as well never a whit as never the better Men-pleasers For selfe preachers are for the most part seldom-preachers Heare His words Were there any love of God from their hearts in those who in stead of feeding to salvation starve many thousands to Destruction I dare Say and say it boldly that for all the promotions under Heaven they would not offer that iniury to one Soule that now they offer to many hundred Soules But Lord how doe they thinke to give up their reckoning to thee who in most strict account will take the answere of every Soule committed unto them one by one Or with what eares doe they often heare that vehemâ—nt speech of our Saviour Christ Feede Feede Feede with what eyes doe they so often readâ— that piercing speech of the Apostle Feede the slocke committed unto you But if none of these will move them then the Lord open their eyes to heare the grievous groanes of many Soules lying under the griefly altars of destruction and complaining against them O Lord the revenger of blood behold these men whom thou hast set over us to give us the bread of life but they have not given it us Our tongues and the tongues of our children have stucke to the roofe of our mouths for calling and crying and they would not take pitty on vs Wee have given them the tenths which thou appointedst us but they have not given us thy truth which thou hast commanded them Reward them O Lord as they have rewarded us Let the bread betweene their teeth turne to rottennesse in their bowells Let them be clothed with shame and confusion of face as with a garment Let their wealth as the Dung from the earth bee swept away by their executours And upon their gold silver which they have falsely treasured up let continually bee written the price of blood the price of blood For it is the value of our blood O Lord. If thou didst heare the blood of Abel being but one man forget not the blood of many when thou goest into judgement I now returne to rectify and tender a remedy against the first aberration Which I told you was this When mercy Christ the promises salvation heaven all are applied hand overhead and falsely appropriated to vnhumbled sinners whose Soules were never rightly illightened with sight of sinne and waight of Gods wrath nor afflicted to any purpose with any legall wound or hearty compunction by the Spirit of bondage In whose hearts sense of their spirituall misery and want hath not yet raised a restlesse and kindly thirst after Iesus Christ In this case mine advise is that all those who deale with others about their Spirituall states and undertake to direct in that high and waighty affaire of mens Salvation either publikly or privatly in their ministry visitations of the sicke or otherwise that they would follow that course of which I largely discoursed a little before taken by God himselfe his Prophets his Sonne the Apostles and all those men of God in all ages who have set themselves with Sincerity faithfulnesse and all good Conscience to seeke Gods glory in the salvation of mens Soules to discharge aright their dreadfull charge and to keepe themselues pure from the blood of all men To wit That they labour might and maine in the first Place by the knowledge power and application of the Law to illighten convince and terrify those that they have to doe with concerning conversion with a sensible particular apprehension and acknowledgement of their wretchednesse and miserable estate by reason of their sinfulnesse and cursednesse To breake their hearts bruise their Spirits humble their Soules wound and awake their Consciences c. To bring them by all meanes to that Legall astonishment trouble of minde and melting temper which the Ministry of Iohn Baptist Paul and Peter wrought upon the Hearts of their hearers Luk. 3.10.12.14 Act. 16.30 And 2.37 That they may come crying feelingly and from the heart to those Men of God who happily fastened those keene arrows of compunction and remorse in the sides of their Consciences and say Men and Brethren what shall wee do Sirs what must wee doe to bee saved c. As if they should have said Alas wee see now wee have bin in Hell all this while and if wee had gone on a litle longer wee had most certainely lien for ever in the fiery Lake The Devill and our owne lusts were carrying us hood-winkt and headlong towards endlesse perdition Who would have thought wee had bin such abominable beasts and abhorred Creatures as your Ministry hath made us and in so forlorne wofull estate Now you blessed Men of God helpe us out of this gulfe of spirituall confusion or wee are lost everlastingly By your discovery of our present sinfull and cursed estate wee â—eele our hearts torne in pieces with extreme and restles
all woe made partaker of all good at peace in himselfe and fitted and in tune to doe God some service This is to some sooner to some later according to the helpes and meanes they haue and wise handling they meet withall and as God gives power It is hard to say at what instant faith is wrought whether not till a man feeles that hee apprehends the promises or even in his earnest desires hungring and thirsting For even these are pronounced blessed But here for I desire and endevour as much as I can possibly in every passage to prevent all matter both of scruple in the upright hearted and of cavill in the contrary minded let no truly humbled sinner bee discouraged because Hee cannot finde in himselfe these severall workings or other graces in that degree and height which Hee desires and hath perhaps seene heard or read of in some others If hee have them in truth and truly thirsts and labours for their increase hee may goe on with comfort Neither let any bee disheartened though Hee did not observe so distinctly the order of the precedent acts nor could discerne so punctually their severall operations in His Soule yet if in substance and effect they have been wrought in Him and made way for Iesus Christ Hee needs not complaine As this man of God in experimentall divinity so our renowned and invincible Champions in their Polemicall discourses upon other occasion speake to the same purpose telling us also of some antecedent Acts humbling and preparing the soule for conversion There are say they certaine internall effects going before conversion or regeneration which by vertue of the word and Spirit are wrought in the hearts of those which are not yet iustified Such as Illumination of the mind and conscience with the knowledge of the word and will of God for that purpose Sense of sin feare of punishment or legall terror advising and casting about for enlargement from such a miserable estate some hope of pardon c. Let mee but adde one other and Hee also of excellent learning And then I have done Such is the nature of man Saith hee that before hee can receiue a true justifying faith hee must as it were bee broken in pieces by the law Ier. 23.29 Wee are to bee led from the feare of slaves through the feare of Penitents to the feare of sonnes And indeed one of these makes way for another and the perfect love thrusts out feare yet must feare bring in that perfect love as a needle or Bristle drawes in the threed after it or as the potion brings health In the preparation and fitting us for our being in Christ hee requireth two things First The cutting of us off as it were from the wild Olive-tree By which hee meaneth two things First A violent pulling of us out of the corruption of nature or a cutting as it were by the knife of the law of an unregenerate man from His security c. Secondly A violent atraction to Christ for ease man at the first plainely refusing it The hunted beast flies to his den the pursued malefactor to the hornes of the altar or city of refuge Pauls misery Rom. 7.24 Drives him to Gods mercy The Israelites are driven into their chambers by the destroying Angell Balaam is made to leane backe by the naked Sword Agur to runne to Ihiel and Veall that is Christ Pro. 30.1.2.3 When he is confounded with his owne brutishnesse God must let loose his Law Sinne Conscience and Satan to baite us and kindle hell fire in our Soules before wee will bee driven to seeke to Christ. Secondly A paring and trimming of us for our putting into Christ by our humiliation for sin which is thus wrought God giveth the sinner to see by the law his Sinne and the punishment of it The detection whereof drives Him to compunction and a pricking of heart which is greater or lesser and carries with it divers Symptomes and sensible passions of griefe And workes a Sequestration from his former courses and makes Him loath Himselfe c. And yet by the way once for all take this Caveat and forewarning If any should think of these precedent Acts these preparative workings of the Law and Gospell which make way for the infusion of faith as any meritorious meanes to draw on Christ it were a most false rotten foolish execrable popish absurd Luciferian misconceit and might justly merit never to obtaine mercy at Gods bountifull hands nor part in the merits of Christ I speake thus to fright every one for ever from any such abhorred thought God the father offers His Sonne most freely God so loved the world that hee gave His onely begotten Sonne that whosoever beleeveth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life Ioh. 3.16 Vnto us a child is borne unto us a Sonne is given Isa. 9.6 If thou knewest the gift of God saith Christ unto the woman of Samaria and who it is that saith to Thee Give mee to drinke Ioh. 4.10 Much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the Gift of righteousnesse c. Rom. 5.17 Christ calleth Himselfe a Gift And it is called the Gift of righteousnesse And nothing so free as Gift And therefore those Divines speake not unfitly who say It is given unto us as fathers give Lands and Inheritance to their children as kings grant pardons to their subjects having merited death They give them because they will out of the freenesse of their minds All those who would come unto Christ and desire to take him as their wisedome righteousnesse Sanctification and redemption must bee utterly unbottomed of themselves and built onely on the rich and free mercy of God revealed in the Gospell They must bee emptied First Of all conceit of any righteousnesse or worth in themselves at all Secondly Of all hope of any ability or possibility to helpe themselves Nay filled thirdly with sense of their owne unworthinesse naughtinesse nothingnesse Fourthly and with such a thirst after that water of life Ioh. 4.14 that they are most willing to sell all for it and cry heartily Giue mee drinke or else I die And then when they are thus most nothing in themselves doe so long for the rivers of living water they are certainely most welcome unto Iesus Christ and may take Him most freely Heare how sweetly Hee calls them Ho every one that thirsteth come yee to the waters and hee that hath no mony Come yee buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without mony and without price Isa. 55.1 In the last day that great day of the feast Iesus stood and cryed saying If any man thirst let him come unto mee and drinke Hee that beleeveth on mee as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water Ioh. 7.37.38 It is done I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End I will give unto him that is a thirst of the Fountaine of the water of
them truely that the true way to comfort is to Repent and Beleeve But for the first by reason of the sottish disacquaintance with themselves with their miserable sinfull naturall state and their grosse ignorance in the Law and Word of God they onely cry out in the generall they are very grievous sinners but to descend to any competent examination of the conscience search of their soules by the sight of the law particular survay of their sinnes and so to speciall repentance because of their spirituall blindenesse they are vtterly unable Nay many in this case are so destitute of matter of humiliation for sinne that they can scarce tell you what sinne is At the most they have not learned or thinke that there is any other breach of the seventh commandement but the grosse acts of uncleannesse that there is any sinne against the ninth but giuing in false witnes against their neighbours in open Court They looke no further into the sixth commandement but unto the actuall bloody murder of the hand into the third but to blasphemy and swearing And so proportionably in the other commandements For the other also although they have heard much of Iesus Christ and if hee bee talkt of pretend a very foolish and false presumption of having part in him yet to the knowledge of his person offices excellency sweetnesse effectuall ministry and of his whole mysterie they are meere strangers And so when they should now upon this occasion of trouble of mind bee brought by knowledge and application of the Law and Gospell through the pangs of the new-birth into the holy Path they are to begin to learne the very first principles of religion in which they have not so much skill I speake a reprochfull thing as I could teach a child of five or sixe yeares old in few daies Now when the old red Dragon hath drawne them into the Lists armed with all the power and policy of hell and furnished with all his fiery darts they are so farre from ability to put on and manage the whole spirituall armour with dexterity and wisedome that they are starke Ideots and Infants in the very speculative knowledge of the nature and vse of every piece thereof They have no skill at all at that excellent invincible weapon the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God by which Iesus Christ foyled that foule Fiend in the most hideous and horrible temptations that were ever suggested to the mind of man And therefore hee doth bring them too often thus blindfolded and baffled to perish themselves as they say in a most bloody and desperatâ— manner both temporally and eternally The Pharisies Papists and our ordinary Ignorants are all fouly faulty this way They love and labour to enquire and looke no further into Gods Law then to the grosse acts and greatest transgressions onely If they find themselves free from these they out of a most absurd and sottish selfe-conceitednesse justifie and applaud themselves as no such dangerous and damnable Delinquents Hence it was that Christ teaches and tells the Pharisies that not onely the grosse act of adultery was to be taken notice of but also that even a lascivious and lustfull looke after a woman was a transgression of that Law and to be taken to heart as adultery before God That not onely killing a man with a bloody hand but also rash anger in the heart railing and reviling speeches Nay even a frowning face a contemptuous gesture discovering inward rancour and rage kill the soule and cast into hell c. Hence it was that Bellarmine as the grand Impostor and Impoisoner so the great Pharisie of Christendome upon his bed of death could hardly finde what to confesse or any matter of absolution Prodigious Pharisaisme Of which heare some passages from the reporter of his death Such was the innocency of the man to wit Bellarmine that albeit hee was in his perfect sense yet could hee hardly finde what to confesse Insomuch as his ghostly Father was in some perplexity as wanting matter of absolution till by recourse to his life past hee found some small defects of which hee absolved him Now nothing troubles my conscience For God his goodnesse bee still thanked therefore hath so preserved mee hitherto as I doe not remember in the whole course of my life ever to have committed any scandalous action Pag. 355. How holy was his life not stained with mortal sinne How secure a conscience that had at his death no scruple But for the exchange of one good worke for another c. pag. 367. This holy man began his Prayers said the Pater noster and Aue Maria and began againe the Pater noster which beeing ended hee said distinctly the Psalme Miserere to the end and beeing warned to say also the Creed c. said it all through and with the end of the Creed ended his speech His last words were vitam aeternam Amen pag. 387. Hence it is that carnall men are well enough content to heare the Commandements read and perhaps will bee angry if at any time they bee omitted Would you know the reason They goe along with the Minister and applaud themselves pharisaically all the while saying secretly and securely to their owne soules Wee thanke God wee are no image-worshippers no murderers no adulterers c. And so depart home from time to time as highly conceited of themselves and yet more damnably deceived then that Pharisie Luk. 18.11.12 Of whose outward religious charitable and righteous performances they come farre short But they cannot possibly with any patience endure a particular unfolding and powerfull application of Gods Law after Christs manner Matth. 5. a punctuall survay of their sinfull states and speciall search into their lives and hearts This cutting yet conscionable course stirres up and raises in them the ill spirits of murmuring cavilling reviling and perhaps persecuting the faithfull Messengers of God as a generation of terrible Teachers To expositions exercises and considerations of this nature they are drawne with very ill will and much adoe even as a bankrout to his counting-booke a foule face to the looking-glasse and a Traytour to the racke By reason of this affected ignorance in the Law of God and lothnesse to descend to particulars it comes to passe that many in trouble of minde complaine in generall of sinne onely and confusedly And thereupon as though they were competently cast downe expect comfort and perhaps many draw it from some Dawbers Whereas particularizing of our sinnes is a necesary precedent and preparative to a sound humiliation And therefore in this case wee must deale with such as Surgeons are wont to doe with a tumour or swelling in the body Who first apply to the affected place drawing and ripening plaisters to bring the sore to an head that the corruption may have issue and then heale So a generall complaint of sinne and confused griefe must bee reduced to
confession and repentance Davids Petition O cleanse thou mee from my secret faults did assuredly prevaile with God for the forgivenesse of all His unknowne sinnes and shall bee powerfull for that end to the worlds end to all those that so pray with Davids spirit and sincerely Besides these two cases first want of knowledge and secondly want of remembrance in the sense I have said There is also a third and that is thirdly want of time which if truly so doth also sometimes excuse the omission of some particular sinnes As wee may see in the Thiefe upon the Crosse. For want of leisure Hee could not possibly punctually revise His vile abominable life nor peruse with remorse all the particulars of His former wicked and abhorred courses But He had infused into His Soule by Iesus Christ an habituall grace of true Repentance which if Hee had lived would have carried Him faithfully along over all the notorious Passages of His lewd and lothsome life with a truly contrite broken and bleeding Soule So that if Hee had had space I doubt not but Hee would have prooved a very eminent extraordinary and exemplary Penitent And therefore the Lord in mercy did gratiously accept the desire and purpose the inclination and preparation of His heart that way But to returne to the Point and give my advise in the Case proposed Let the Party who so takes on for some notorious sin only and there takes up His rest be told That tho He dwell with deepest sighes heaviest heart and saltest teares upon some of His greatest and most speciall sinnes yet the rest must by no meanes bee neglected That which is most crying and crimson must serve as a Cryer that I may so speake to summon the rest into the Court of Conscience and as a Remembrancer to bring them to minde and remorse As Davids murder and adultery brought even His Birth-sinne into His memory Psalm 51. And that sinne of strange wives many other sinnes to Ezra's minde Ezra 9. When a father beates His childe for some one speciall fault He is wont to remember unto Him and reckon with Him for many former mis-demeanours also When a Bankrout is once clapt up for one principall debt the rest of His Creditours ordinarily come thicke and threefold upon Him When once Thou begins to reckon with thy conscience for some one extraordinary rebellion never cease untill thou hast searcht thorowly and ransackt it to the bottome that it may smart soundly before Thou hast done with penitent anguish and true remorse for all thy other sinfull corruptions also When horror for some one hainous sinne hath seiz'd upon thy heart follow Gods blessed hand leading thee to conversion and thorow the Pangs of the New-birth to unspeakeable and glorious joy by giving way to all the rest to bring in their severall inditements against thy Soule And bee not afraid thus to arraigne cast and condemne thy Selfe as guilty of innumerable sinnes and worthy ten thousand Hells before Gods just Tribunall For then shalt thou there most certainely find a gracious Advocate at His right hand To whom if Thou make sute and seeke in truth Hee will by the plea and price of His owne pretious blood sue out a pardon for thine everlasting peace When the guilty rage of thy raigning corruption begins to presse upon thy conscience lay on loade and more weight still by a penitent addition and painefull apprehension of all thy other sinnes that growing very sensible of thy spirituall slavery weary of the Dungeon of lewdnesse and lust sensuality and death wherein the Divell hath kept Thee long and thine heart being happily broken and bruised to the bottome and scorch'd as it were in some measure with Hellish flames of guilty horrour Thou mayst see and feele the greater necessity of Iesus Christ set Him at an higher price with more eagernesse and impatiency thirst for His righteousnesse and blood long for spirituall enlargement more then for worlds of pleasures glory or wealth rellish the hidden Manna of the promises most kindlily and cast thy wounded and bleeding Soule with more delight and sweetnesse into His blessed armes of mercy and love For O how acceptable is the Fountaine of living waters saith a worthy Divine to the chased Hart panting and braying The blood of Christ to the weary and tired Soule To the thirsty conscience scorched with the sense of Gods wrath Hee that presents Him with it How welcome is Hee Even as a speciall choise man One of a thousand The deeper is the sense of misery the sweeter is the sense of mercy The Traytour laid downe upon the blocke is more sensible of His Soveraignes mercy in pardoning then Hee who is not yet attached In our dead security before conversion God is faine to let the Law Sinne Conscience Satan a deepe sense of our abominable and cursed state loose upon us and to kindle the very fire of Hell in our soules that so wee might bee rouzed and afterward more sweetly and soundly raised and refreshed For after the most toylesome labour is the sweetest sleepe after the greatest tempests the stillest calmes Sanctified troubles and terrours establish the surest peace And the shaking of these windes makes the trees of Gods Eden take the deeper roâ—ting I confesse that commonly true Converts at the first touch and turning and after too cry out most of and are extraordinarily troubled with some One capitall sin and that which in their dayes of darknesse and vanitie wasted their conscience most and detained them with strongest entisements and hold-fast in the Divels bondage Hence it was that Zacchaeus was so ready and willing to restore fourefold that so Hee might bee rid of the sting and horrour of His former raigning sinne Luk. 19.8 That blessed Paul as it seemes amongst other dreadfull apprehensions of His former unregenerate courses was so much vexed and wounded in heart for that Hee had been a Persecuter 1. Timoth. 1.13 1. Cor. 15.9 But yet should they take-on never so much houle and roare for that one sinne if besides they did not by the conduct of the blessed Spirit descend also to a more particular acknowledgement confession and repentance of all other knowne sinnes and they ought by clearing the eye of naturall conscience industrious inspection into the pure Cristall of Gods Law discover as many as they can possibly all were nothing Hee which is grieved say Divines for one sinne truly and unfainedly from His heart will proportionably bee grieved for all the sinnes that Hee knoweth to bee in Himselfe If wee favour any one sinne in our heart or life or calling wee cannot enjoy Gods favour If there bee any sensuall lust or secret corruption which a man purposely labours to cover and conceale from Gods pure eye the search of His Word and mortifying grace what hope can Hee have that it is covered with the blood of Christ from the wrath that is to come or warranted by any promise of grace from
for his soule untill his last sicknes should for that sin alone bee snatcht out of the world in great anger even suddenly so that there bee scarce a moment betwixt the height of His temporall happinesse and depth of his spirituall misery That His foolish hope may bee frustrated and His vaine purpose come to nothing Hee may bee cut off as the Top of an care of corne and put out like a candle when hee least thinkes of death and dreames of nothing lesse then departure from His earthly Paradise They are exalted for a little while saith Iob but are gone and brought low they are taken out of the way as all other and cut off as the tops of the eares of corne Fifthly a long continued custome is not woont to bee shaken off in an instant Is it like that a Blackamore should change his skinne and a Leopard his spots in three or foure dayes which they have contracted in forty or threescore yeeres Therefore I marvell that any should bee so blindfolded and baffeld by the Divell as to embolden Himselfe to drive off untill the last by that Place before Confession At what time soever a sinner doth repent him of his sinne from the bottome of his heart I will put all his wicked out of my remembrance saith the Lord Especially if Hee looke upon the Text from whence it is taken which Mee-thinkes beeing rightly understood and the conditions well considered is most punctuall and precise to fright any from that desperate folly The words runne thus Ezech. 18.21.22 But if the wicked will turne from all his sinnes which hee hath committed and keepe all my Statutes and doe that which is lawfull and right hee shall surely live hee shall not die All his transgressions c. Hence it appeares that if any man expect upon good ground any portion in this pretious promise of mercy and grace Hee must leave all his sinnes and keepe all Gods Statutes Now how performest thou the condition of leaving all thy sinnes when as in this last extremity having received the sentence of death against thy selfe Thy sinnes leave Thee and not Thou thy sinnes that I may speake in the Phrase of an ancient Father And what space is left to come to comfort by keeping all Gods Statutes when thou art presently to passe to that highest and dreadfull Tribunall to give an exact and strickt account for the continual breach of all Gods Lawes all thy life long Sixthly many seeme to bee passingly penitent and promise exceeding faire in the evill day and upon their sicke Beds who beeing recovered and restored to their former state are the very same they were before if not worse I never knew nor heard of any un-wrought upon under conscionable meanes who after recovery performed the vowes and promises of a new life which Hee made in his sicknesse and times of extremity For if Hee will not bee mooved with the Ministry God will never give that honour unto a crosse to doe the deede Nay Father Abraham saith the rich Glutton but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And hee said unto him If they heare not Moses and the Prophets neither will they bee perswaded the one rose from the dead Luke 16.30.31 It would amaze thee much if one of thy good-fellow companions should now rise from the dead and tell thee that Hee who was thy Brother in iniquity is now in Hell and if thou follow the same sensuall courses still thou must shortly most certainely follow Him to the Place of torment And yet even this would not worke at all if thou bee a despiser of the Word It may bee while the dead Man stood by Thee Thou wouldst be extraordinarily mooved and promise much but no sooner should He bee in His Grave but thou wouldst bee as gracelesse as thou wast before Seventhly what wise man seeing a fellow who never gave his name to religion in his life time now only troubled about sinne when hee is sure Hee must die will not suspect it to be wholly slavish and extorted for feare of Hell My sentence is saith Greenham that a man lying now at the Point of death having the snares of death upon him in that straite of feare and paine may have a sorrow for His life past but because the weakenesse of flesh and the bitternesse of death doth most commonly procure it wee ought to suspect c. Eighthly painefull distempers of body are wont to weaken much and hinder the activenes and freedome of the Soules operations nay sometimes to distract and utterly over-throw them Many even of much knowledge grace and good life by reason of the damp and deadnesse which at that time the extremity and anguish of their disease brings upon their spirits are able to doe no great matter if anything at all either in meditation or expression How then doest thou thinke to passe thorow the incomparably greatest worke that ever the Soule of Man was acquainted with in this life I meane the new-birth at the Point of death It is a wofull thing to have much worke to doe when the power of working is almost done When wee are come to the very last cast our strength is gone our spirits cleane spent our senses appalled and the powers of our Soules as numbe as our senses when there is a generall prostration of all our powers and the shadow of death upon our eyes then something wee would say or doe which should doe our Soules good But alas How should it then bee 3. When the spirituall Physition powres the baulme of mercy and oyle of comfort into a wounded conscience 1. Too soone The Surgeon that heales up a dangerous Sore and drawes a skinne over it before His corrosives have consumed the dead flesh before Hee hath opened it with his Tents ransackt it to the roote and rent out the Core is so farre from pleasuring that hee procures a great deale of misery to His Patient For the rotten matter that remaines behind will in the meane time rankle and fester underneath and at length breake out againe perhaps both with more extremity of anguish and difficulty of cure They are but Mountebankes as they call them Smatterers in Physicke and Surgery upon the matter but plaine Cheaters and Couseners who are so ready and resolute for extemporary and palliate Cures Sudden recoveries from rooted and old distempers are rarely sound If it be thus in bodily Cures what a deale doe you thinke of extraordinary discretion heavenly wisedome precise and punctuall ponderation of circumstances well-advised and seasonable leasure both speculative and experimentall skill heartiest ejaculations wrastlings with God by Prayer for a blessing is very convenient and needfull for a true and right methode in healing a wounded conscience Which doth passe immeasurably all other maladies both in exquisitenesse of paine tendernesse of touch deceitfulnesse of Depth and in highest and greatest consequence either for the
bee said Hee died in a Ditch They are Desolators not Consolators as Austin somewhere calls them Not sound Comforters but true Cut-throates Besides that which I have said before of the precedency of the working of the Law and of the spirit of bondage to make way for Christ let mee further tell you upon this occasion that it may appeare that much more is to bee done herein then is ordinarily imagined before comfort may upon good ground and seasonably bee applied to the Conscience awaked what an excellent Divine both for depth of learning and height of holinesse delivered somewhere in this Point to this purpose No man must thinke this strange that God dealeth with men after this strange manner as it were to kill them before Hee make them alive to let them passe through or by as it were the gates of Hell to Heaven to suffer the spirit of bondage to put them into a feare into a shaking and trembling c. For Hee suffers those that are his to bee terrified with this feare 1. First in respect of His owne glory For the magnifying both of His iustice and of His mercy 1. Hee glorifies His iustice when lessening or altogether for the time abstracting all fight of mercy Hee lets the Law Sinne Conscience and Satan loose upon a Man to have their course and severall comminations and sets the spirit of bondage on worke c. Thus as in the great worke of redemption Hee would have the glory of His iustice appeare so would Hee have it also in the application of our redemption that iustice should not bee swallowed up of mercy But even as the Woman 2. King 4. who had nothing to pay was threatned by Creditours to take away her two sonnes and put them in prison so wee having nothing to pay the Law is let loose upon us to threaten imprisonment and damnation to affright and terrifie and all this for the manifesting of His iustice Furthermore the Booke of God is full of terrible threatnings against sinners Now shall all these bee to no purpose The wicked are insensible of them to them therefore in that respect they are in vaine Some there must needs bee upon whom they must worke Shall the Lion roare saith the Prophet and no man bee affraide Sith then they who should will not Some there bee who must tremble This the Prophet excellently setteth â—orth Isai. 66.2 where the Lord sheweth whom Hee will regard But to this man will I looke even to Him that is poore and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my Word Neither is it without good cause that God dealeth thus with his owne in this manner tho it bee sharpe in the experience First wee must feare tremble and bee humbled and then wee shall receive a spirit not to feare againe 2. His mercy also is thereby mightily magnified Which would never bee so sweet nor relish so well nor bee so esteemed of us if the awfull terrour of iustice had not formerly made us smart A King sometimes doth not only suffer the Law to passe upon some grievous malefactor for high treason but also causeth him to bee brought to the place of execution yea and lay downe his head upon the blocke ere Hee pardon and then mercy is mercy indeed and melts the heart abundantly with amazâ—mâ—nt and admiration of it So God dealeth with us many times Le ts the Law loose against us puts us in feare casts us into Prison and threatneth condemnation in Hell for ever so that when mercy commeth to the Soulâ— beeing now lost in it selfe and at the Pits brinke it appeares to bee a wonderfull mercy the riches of exceeding mercy most seasonable most sweet most ravishing Why doe so many find no savour in the Gospell Is it because there is no matter of sweetnesse or delight in it No it is because they have not tasted of not been soundly toucht and terrified by the Law and the spirit of bondage They have not smarted nor as yet been afflicted with a sense of the bitternesse of sinne nor of iust punishment due unto the same God therefore sends into our hearts the spirit of feare and bondage to prepare us to rellish mercy And then the spirit of adoption not to feare againe And thus by this order the one is magnified and highly esteemed by the fore-going sense of the other 2. Secondly for our good and that two waies first in Iustification secondly and in Sanctification 1. For the first wee are such strangers unto God that wee will never come unto Him till wee see no other remedy being at the Pits brinke ready to starue hopelesse c. Wee see it in the prodigall Sonne He would never thinke of any returne unto his Father till all other helpes failed Him money friends acquaintance all sorts of food Nay if Hee might have fed upon huskes with the Swine Hee would not have thought of returning any more to his Father This beeing denied him the Text saith Hee came to Himselfe shewing us that when Men runne on in sinfull courses they are mad men out of themselves even as wee see thâ—se in Bedlam are beaten kept under denâ—ed comforts till they come to themselves And what faith Hee then I will arise and goe to my Father and will say unto Him Father I have sinned against heaven and against Thee c. So it is with us untill the Lord humble and bring us low in our owne eyes show us our misery and spirituall poverty and that in us there is no good thing that wee bee stript of all helpeâ— in and without our selves and see that wee must perish unlesse wee beg His mercy I say untill then wee will not seeke his face and favour nor have recourse to Iesus Christ the rocke of our salvation It is with us in this Case as it was with the Women whom Christ healed of the bloody issue How long was it ere shee came to Christ She had been sicke twelve yeeres She had spent all her living upon Physitions neither could she bee healed of any Now this extremity brought Her to Iesus Christ. This then is the meanes to bring to Christ To bring us upon our knees to drive us out of our selues hopelesse as low as may bee To shew us where helpe is onely to bee found and make us runne unto it The hunted Beast flies unto his Den The Israelites being stung by fiery Serpents made hast to the Brazen Serpent a Type of Christ for helpe The Man-killer under the Law chaced by the avenger of blood ranâ—e a pace to the City of refuge Ioab being pursued for his life fled to the Tabernacle of the Lord and laid fast hold upon the horneâ— of the Altar A wounded man hies unto the Surgeon Proportionably a poore Soule broken and bruised with the insupportable burden of all his abominations bleeding at heart-roote under sense of Divine wrath by the cutting edge of the Sword of the Spirit managed
way and walke in the holy Path To associate Himselfe to that sect which is so spoken against everywhere c. I say when it is thus with the afflicted Party and most happy is Hee when it is thus with Him yet notwithstanding because God alone is the Searcher of the heart and the heart of Man is deceitfull above all things wee can assure mercy and pardon but onely conditionally Tho by the mercy of God wee doe it many and many times with strong and undeceiving confidence Wee must ever adde either expressedly or impliedly such formes of speech as these If all this which you professe bee in truth If you bee thus resolved indeed If these things bee so as you have said c. Why then wee assure you in the word of life and truth your Case is comfortable you may sweetly repose your troubled and truly-humbled soule upon Iesus Christ as your wisedome righteousnes sanctification and redemption upon all the Promises of life Gods free grace c. as truly belonging unto you and certainely yours for ever Heare two Master Builders upon the matter confirming the present Point 1. To think that it lyeth in the power of any Priest truly to absolve a man froÌ„ his sins without implying the condition of his believing and repenting as he ought to doe is both presumption and madnesse in the highest degree 2. In the Pardon whereby a Priest pardoneth a sinner for an offence by Him committed against God there are two things to bee considered One that there is no pardon if the sinner doth not earnestly repent The other that hee himselfe which pardoneth hath need of pardon Of these two Points the first is the cause that the Priests pardon is conditionall because Hee knoweth not the heart The other is a cause that the Priest should consider of himselfe that hee is rather a Delinquet then a Iudge and to teach him to feare lest that after hee hath pardoned others Hee himselfe may not obtaine pardon It is a thing certaine that if a sinner seriously converting and beleeving in Iesus Christ cannot obtaine absolution of his Pastor which is passionate or badly informed of the truth God will pardon him On the contrary if a Pastor that is indulgent an winketh at vices or that is deceived by appearance of repentance absolveth an hypocriticall sinner and receiveth him into the communion of the faithfull that â—ypocriticall sinner remaineth bound before God and shall bee punished notwithstanding For God partaketh not with the errours of Pastors neither regardeth their passions nor can be hindred from doing iustice by their ignorance 3. Let mee adde Cyprian who at the first rising of the Novatian heresie wrote thus to Antonianus We doe not preiudice the Lord that is to iudge But that hee if Hee finde the repentance of the sinner to bee full and iust hee may then ratifie that which shall bee here ordained by us But if any one doe deceive us with the semblance of repentance God who is not mocked and who beholdeth the heart of man may iudge of those things which wee did not well discerne and the Lord may amend the sentence of his servants Neither let this Truth to wit that our assuring of mercy and pardon must bee conditionall upon such like termes as these If thou doest beleeve and repent as thou oughtest to doe If these things bee in truth as you promise and professe c. discourage or trouble any that are true of heart For it should not prejudice or hinder their application of the promises taking Christ as their owne assurance of mercy and comfort because they are conscious to themselves of the syncerity of their owne hearts And therefore Looke how the Prophet Esay was comforted when the Angell said unto Him Thine iniquity is taken away and thy sinne purged and the poore Woman in the Gospell when Iesus said unto Her Thy sinnes are forgiven The like consolation doth the distressed sinner receive from the mouth of the Minister when hee hath compared the truth of Gods Word faithfully delivered by Him with the worke of Gods grace in His owne heart According to that of Elibu If there bee an Angell or a Messenger with him an Interpreter One of a thousand to declare unto man his righteousnesse then will God have mercy upon Him and say Deliver him from going downe to the pit I have received a reconciliation 2. Too much A little Aqua vita may happily revive and refresh the fainting spirits of a swouning Man but too much would kill A spoone-full of Cinnamon-water mingled with twelve spoone-fulls of Spring-water and one spoonefull of Rose-water c. may bee soveraigne against the sinking of the heart But poure at once a Pint into the Stomack and it might unhappily choake the naturall heate waste the Radicall moysture and burne up a Mans Bowels Mercy being wisely administred in the right season and mingled with convenient Counsels and Caveats may by Gods blessing binde up a broken heart with a leasurable and kindly Cure It may mollifie in the meane time with an healing and heavenly heate the smarting anguish of a wounded conscience and at length seasonably close it up with sound and lasting comfort But poured out hand over head by an unsteady and in-discreet hand It may by accident dangerously dry up penitent teares too soone and stifle the worke of the spirit of Bondage in the beginning But here let none either out of ignorance or malice mistake or bee troubled with this Too much The same Phrase in the same sense is to be found in Master Perkins a great Master in the deepe mystery of dealing with afflicted consciences For wee must know that Too much is by no meanes to bee meant of any wayes restraining or confining the infinitenesse of Gods mercy It were execrable blasphemy to dis-roabe Gods most glorious Attribute of it's immensity but in respect of not mingling some Coolers and Caveats to keepe from presumption as shall appeare in the ensuing Counsells I shall commend for that purpose Vpon this ground I reason thus A man may presse and apply Gods justice and the terrours of the Law Too much therefore also mercy and the comforts of the Gospell too much The consequent is cleare For as the former may plunge into the Gulphe of despaire so the other may cast upon the Rocke of presumption Nay it is more then un-answerably strong Because wee are farre readier to apprehend and apply unto our selves mercy then judgement And thousands are endlesly overthrowne thorow presumption for one by despaire And the Antecedent who will deny It is rather so preposterously applauded and prest that most if a Minister even with his best discretion reveale the whole Counsell of God and tell them That none shal bee refreshed by Christ but onely those who labour and are heavy laden That they must humble themselves in the sight of the Lord if they would have him
hee was upon the earth called thy blessed Lord and Saviour Divell See Matth. 10.25 Ioh. 7.20 which passeth all I am perswaded that any drunken Belial ever yet fastned upon thee Contemne thou therefore for ever and trample upon with an humble and triumphant patience all their contumelies and contempts Passe-by nobly without touch or trouble without wound or passion the utmost malice of the most scurrill tongue the basest gibe of the impurest Drunkard Doth the World carnall men thine owne friends ormall Teachers suppose and censure thee to be a dissembler in thy Profession and will needes concurrently and confidently yet falsely fasten upon thee the imputation of hypocrisie An heavy charge Yet for all this Let thy truly-humble heart conscious to it selfe of it's owne syncerity in holy services like a strong pillar of brasse beate backe all their impoysoned arrowes of malice and mistake this way without any dejection or discouragement Onely take occasion hereby to search more thorowly and walke more warily Iob may bee a right noble patterne to thee in this point also He had against him not onely the Divell his enemy pushing at him with his poysoned weapons but even his owne friends scourging him with their tongues His owne wife a thorne pricking him in the eye yea his owne God running upon him like a Gyaâ—â— and his terrours setting themselves in aray against himâ— Powerfull motives to make him suspect himselfe of former halting and hollow-heartednesse in the wayes of God yet notwithstanding his good and honest heart having been long before acquainted with and knit unto his God â—â— truth makes him breake out boldly and resolutely protest Till I die I will not remove my integrity from mee My righteousnesse I hold fast and will not let it goe Chap. 27.5.6 Behold my Witnesse is in Heaven and my record is on high Cap. 16.19 Art thou a loving and tender-hearted mother unto thy children and hast thou lost the dearest The greatest outward crosse I confesse that ever the sonnes and daughters of Adam tasted and goeth nearest to the heart Yet thy sorrow is not singular but out-gone in this also For the blessed Mother of Christ stood by and saw her owne onely deare innocent sonne the Lord of life most cruelly and villanously murdred upon the Crosse before her eyes Ioh. 19.25 Hast thou lost thy goods or children Doth thy wife that lies in thy bosome set her selfe against thee Doe thy nearest friends charge thee falsely Art thou pained extremely from top to toe Doe the Arrowes of the Almighty sticke fast in thy soule Thy affliction is grievous enough if thou taste any of these severally But doe they all in greatest extremity concurre upon thee at once Hast thou lost all thy children and all thy goods Doth thy wife afflict thy afflictions c. If this bee not thy Case and rufull condition thou commest yet short of Iob a most just man and one of Gods dearest Iewels 4. The exceeding greatnesse and pretiousnesse of the promises In every one of which it is incredible to consider what abundant matter of unspeake-able and glorious joy lies wâ—rpâ— up Oh how sweet are they to a thirsty soule in the â—â—me of angvish and trouble They are like a cloud of raine that commeth in the time of a drought They are very glimpses of Heaven shed into a heart many times as darke as hell They are even rockes of eternity upon which every bruised reed may sweetly repose with impregnable safety A truly humbled spirit relishing spirituall things would not exchange any one of them for all the riches and sweetnesse of both the Indies Tell me deare heart thou that in thy unregenerate time though now happily changed lay soaking in sinnes of cruelty and blood whether that mercifull promise Isai. 1.18 Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord Though your sinnes bee as skâ—rlet they shall bee as white as snow though they bee red like crimson they shall bee as wooll bee not farre dearer unto thee then thousands of gold and silver Or thou who formerly pollutedst thy selfe villanously with such secret execrable lusts which now thou canst not remember without horrour tell mee if it were utterable by the Tongue of man with what dearest sweetnesse and blessed peace thy broken heart was bound up and revived when thou cast thine eye considerately and beleevingly upon that pretious place Ezech. 36.25 I will sprinkle water upon you and you shall bee cleane and from all your filthinesse and from all your Idols will I cleanse you c. There was beyond the Seas as my Author reports Christian Matrone of excellent parts and piety who langvishing long under the horrible pressure of most furious and fiery temptations wofully at length yeelded to despaire and attempted the destruction of her selfe After often and curious seeking occasion for that bloody fact at last having first put off her apparrell threw her self head-long from an high Promontory into the Sea But having received no hurt by her fall shee was there by a Miracle and extraordinary mercy strangely preserved for the space of two houres at the least though all the while shee laboured industriously to destroy her selfe Afterward drawne out with much adoe and recovered shee yet still did conflict with that extremest desperate horrour almost a whole yeere But by Gods good providence which sweetly and wisely ordereth all things listening on a time though very unwillingly at first to her husband reading amongst other places that Isa. 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones For I will not contend for ever neither will I bee alwaies wroth for the spirit should faile before mee and the soules which I have made I say listening to these words the Holy Ghost drawing her heart shee begun to reason thus within her selfe God doth here promise to revive and comfort the heart of the contrite and spirit of the humble and that hee will not contend for ever neither bâ— alwayes wroth But I have a very contrite heart and a spirit humbled 〈◊〉 to the dust one of the acknowledgement and sense of my sinnes and divine vengeance against them Therefore peradventure God will vouchsafe to revive and comfort my heart and spirit and not contend with 〈◊〉 for ever nor bee wroth against mee still c. Hereupon by little and little there flowed by Gods blessing into her darke and heavy heart abundance of life lightsomnesse spirituall strength and assurance In which she continued with constancy and comfort many a yeere after crowned those happy dayes and a blessed old age with a glorious and triumphant death and went to Heaven in the yeere 1595. What heart now but Hers that felt it can possibly conceive the depth of that extraordinary un-utterable
desert to what Christ hath done for thee and to the Almightinesse and All-mercifullnesse of him that promiseth consider with all that God is also abundant in truth Every promise in his Booke is as sure as Himselfe sealed with his Sons Blood and confirmed with his owne Oath Hee must sooner cease to bee God and deny himselfe which is more then infinitely impossible and prodigious blasphemie to imagine then faile in the least circumstance or syllable of his immeasurable love and promises of life to any one that heartily loves him and is true of heart And therefore when thy thirsty soule makes towards the Well of life by vertue of that promise Rev. 21.6 I will give to him that is athirst of the fountaine of the water of life freely And upon survey of the overflowing Rivers of pleasures and blisse which everlastingly spring thence begins to retire from it as too-good newes to bee true I say then steele thy Faith and comfort thy selfe gloriously by consideration of that abundant truth with which hee hath crowned every word of His stronger then a Rocke of brasse far surer then the Pillars of the Earth or Poles of Heaven Nay I speake an admirable thing and of unutterable consolation which cannot bee violated without Destruction of the Deity most blessed and glorious for evermore And let this ever banish and beat backe all scruples doubtes seares which at any time offer themselves and oppose thy unspeakeable joy and peace in believing 6. Well saith an other I easily acknowledge the incomprehensible goodnesse in this Name of God and hold them most blessed who have their part and portion therein But for my part I am affraid I come too late For I have observed the course of the Ministery amongst us and the dispensation of Gods mercy in it At first comming our Towne being full of Ignorance prophanesse and much superstitious follies having never before injoyed the Word with any life or power wee all stood amazed a good whle at the Majesty and Mysterie of this new heavenly Light The first messages of the Ministry sounded in our eares as the voyce of many waters mighty and great but confused not working in us either joy or terrour but onely an extraordinary wonder and secret acknowledgement of a strange force and more then humane power But afterwards when our Watchman was better acquainted with our waies and had more fully discovered the state of our soules the Word was unto us as a voice of a great thunder more distinct and particular breeding not only admiration but feare also not filling our eares onely with an uncouth sound but our hearts also with a terrible searching For the Sermons of every Sabbath came-home to our consciences singling out our severall reigning corruptions beating punctually upon our bosome-sinnes manifesting clearely our spirituall misery and certaine liablenesse to the extremest wrath of God and endlesse woe Whereupon wee were all at our wits end what to doe grew weary of our lives wished with all our hearts that such a Puritane-Preacher had never come amongst us told every man almost wee met that wee had a Fellow at our Towne would drive us all to despaire distraction selfe-destruction or some mischiefe or other That wee heard nothing from him but of damnation and hell and such horrible things c. Now in this second worke of the Word there was a good number even some out of that cursed crue and knot of Good-fellowship wherein I have been insnared so long wonne unto Iesus Christ. For beeing illightned convinced and terrified in conscience for their former sinfull courses the continued piercing of the Word and worke of the spirit of bondage keeping them upon the Racke under the dreadfull sense of divine wrath and their damnable state a good while at last they happily resolved without any more delay diversion by-path or plunging againe into worldly pleasures to passe on directly by the light and guidance of the Gospell into the holy path And so undertooke and hitherto have holden out in Profession and a blessed conformity to the better side But I and the greater part a great deale more was the pitty hating heartily to bee reformed and abhorring that precise way so much spoken against every where into which woe conceived such severe Ministeriall counsell would have conducted us I say wee wickedly wrested out of our vexed consciences those keene arrowes of truth and terrour with great indignation wee unhappily hardned our hearts and foreheads against the power of the Word which particularly pursued us every Sabbath Nay alas we persecuted the very meanes which should sanctifie us and men which would have saved us Here then is my Case and complaint neglecting that blessed season when I was first terrified and troubled in minde when the Angell from Heaven as it were troubled the water and when some even of mine owne Companions in iniquity were converted I am affraid I now come too late that the mercy of God to doe mee spirituall good is already expired and that the Ministry which I have so wretchedly opposed is the very same to mee that it was to the obstinate Iewes Isa. 6.9.10 Nay but yet say not so though it bee with thee as thou hast sayd For our gracious God keepeth mercy for thousands Here you must know that a finite number is put Synecdochecally for an infinite and an infinite indeed And therefore if thou now bee in earnest and willing to come-in in truth and those thine other brethren in Good fellowship and hundreds thousands millions moe or any whosoever to the worlds end God hath mercy in store for you all and being all weary of all your sinnes unfainedly thirsting for the Well of life resolving for the time to come upon new courses company and conversation you shall all be most welcome to Iesus Christ. Even the last man upon earth bringing a truly broken heart to the Throne of grace shall bee crowned as richly and with as large a portion of Gods infinite mercy and Christs un-valew able merit as Adam and Eve or whosoever layd first hold of that first promise The seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head 7. Yea but alas I have been no ordinary sinner My corruptions have carried mee beyond the villanies of the vilest you can name Not only variety but the notoriousnesse also and enormity of my wicked waies have set an infamous brand upon mee even in the sight of the world beside those secret pollutions and sinfull practices which no eie but that which is ten thousand times brighter then the Sun ever beheld Had I not been extremely outragious stayned with abominations of deepest die and gone on thus with a high hand I might have had some hope But now I know not what to say Take notice then to the end that nothing at all may possibly hinder or any way discourage any poore soule that syncerely seekes for mercy desires to turne truly on Gods side from assurance of
If any man thirst Let Him come unto mee and drinke And these are thine owne words Those who hunger and thirst after righteousnesse shall be filled I challenge thee Lord in this my extremest thirst after thine owne blessed Selfe and spirituall life in Thee by that Word and by that Promise which thou hast made that thou performe and make it good unto mee that lies groveling in the dust and trembling at thy feet Oh! Open now that promised Well of life For I must drinke or els I die Heare then and in a word is thy comfort In these hungrings and thirstings of the soule there is as it were the spawne of Faith semen fidei there is aliquid fidei in them as excellent Divines both for learning and holinesse doe affirme Howsoever or in what phrase soever it bee exprest sure I am such desires so qualified as before shall bee fulfilled satisfied accomplished possessed of the Well of life and that is abundant to put the thirsting Partie into a comfortable and saving-state as I said at first The words of Scripture are punctuall and down-right for this which I say Blessed are they which doe hunger and thirst after righteousnesse for they shall bee filled Mat. 5.6 If any man thirst let him come unto mee and drinke Ioh. 7.37 The Lord heareth the desire of the humble Psal. 10.17 Hee will fullfill the desire of them that feare Him Psal. 145.19 The Lord filleth the hungry with good things Luk. 1.53 Let Him that is athirst come And whosoever will let him take the water of life freely Rev. 22.17 Hâ— every One that thirsteth come yee to the waters c. Isa. 55.1 I will poure water upon him that is thirsty flouds upon the dry ground Cap. 44.3 These longings and desires this hunger and thirst before a sensible apprehension and enjoyment of Christ arise from a sense of the necessity and want of His blessed Person and pretious bloodshed which the afflicted Soule now prizeth before tenne thousand Worlds and for whose sake is most willing to sell all and to abandon wholly the Devils service for ever Those after a full entrance into the holy Path and joyfull grasping of the Lord Iesus in the armes of our Faith arise partly from the former taste of unutterable sweetnesse we found in Him partly from the want of a more full and further fruition of Him especially when He is departed in respect of present feeling as in times of desertion extraordinary temptation c. In the Passage that is past I understand the former in those that follow the latter 2. Secondly Concerning desertions I intend a larger and more particular discourse and therefore I passe by them here 3. Thirdly Wee may have recourse for comfort to this pretious Point in some speciall temptations of doubtfullnesse and feare about our spirituall state When spirituall life is runne as it were into the roote in some particulars and actuall abilities to exercise some graces and discharge some duties are returned to nothing for the present but groanes desires and longings to doe as God would have us For instance Thou art much afflicted because thou feeles the spirit of prayer not to stirre and worke in Thee with that life and vigour as it was woont but beginnes to langvish in the inward man for lacke of that vitall heate and feeling in the mutuall entercourse and commerce betweene God and thine owne Soule which heretofore hath many times warmed thine heart with many sweet refreshings springing from a comfortable correspondence between thy holy eiaculations and his heavenly inspirations betweene thine humble complaints at the Throne of Grace and his gracious answers Nay it may bee thou throwes downe thy selfe before His Seate of mercy in much bitternesse of spirit and for the time can say little or nothing the present dullnesse and indisposition of thine heart stopping all passage to thy woonted prayers and damming up as it were the ordinary course of thy most blessed heart-ravishing conference with thy God in secret But tell mee true poore Soule Tho at such a time and in such an uncomfortable Damqe and spiritual deadnesse thou feeles not thine heart enabled and enlarged for the present to poure out it selfe with accustomed fervency and freedome yet doth not that heart of thine with an unutterable thirst and desire long to offer up unto his Throne of Grace thy suites and Sacrifices of prayers and praises with that heartinesse and feeling with al those broken and bleeding affections which a grieved sense of sinne that hangs so fast on and an holy greedinesse after pardon grace and nearer communion with his heavenly Highnesse are wonâ— to beget in truly-humbled Soules If so Assure thy selâ—â— this very desire is a prayer of extraordinary strength dearenesse and acceptation with thy God I say with that thy mercifull Lord God who is as farre more compassionately and lovingly affected to his Childe then the kindest Father to his dearliest beloved Sonne as the infinite love of a tender-hearted God doth surpasse the faint affection of a fraile and mortall man Suppose thy dearest Childe were in great extremity and should at last grow so low and weake that it were not able to speake but onely groane and sigh and cast it's eye upon Thee as One from whom alone it look't for helpe Would not thine heart melt over thy Child a great deale more in that misery then ever before when it was able to expresse it's minde I am sure it would It is just so in the present Point For like as a Father pittieth his children so the Lord pittieth them that feare Him Nay and much more if wee consider the muchnesse and quantity For looke how farre God is higher then man in Majesty and greatnesse which is with an infinite distance and disproportion so farre doth Hee passe him in tender-heartednesse and mercy See Isa. 55.8.9 Thou mayst sometimes upon the awakening illumination and search of thy conscience after some drouzy repose and deeper sleep upon the bed of security some fouler ensâ—arement and longer abode in some knowne scandaloâ—s sinne after the Canker of earthly cares and teeth of worldly-mindednesse have ere thou bee well-aware with an insensible pleasing consumption eaten too farre into the heart of thy Zeale and other graces In the apprehension of some present terrour arising from a more serious and sensible survay of the now abhorred villanies and abominations of thine unregenerate time or from the grieved remembrance of thy falls and failings of thy sins and unservice-ablenes since thy conversion which I am perswaded trouble the Christian most and goe nearest to his heart c. I say in such Cases as these Thou maist feele such a fearefulnesse and faintnesse to have surprised the hand of thy Faith that it cannot so presently and easily recover it 's former hold nor claspe about the glorious justice and meritorious blood of Christ with that fastnesse and firmenesse of assent with that comfort and
confidence as it was woont So that for a time Thou mayst lie under the torture of an heavy heart uncheerfullnesse in all thy waies and some degree of horrour because thou canst get no better hold-fast But more is thy fault For never did dearest Father so lovingly entertaine into His greedy armes a penitent Sonne returning from going astray then our mercifull God upon thy renewed humiliation is willing to shine upon thee againe with the refreshing beames and blessings of his woonted favour Yet tell mee true deare Heart Tho for the present that precious and happy prayer of Paul for the Romanes The God of hope fill you with all ioy and peace in beleeving be not fulfilled upon thy Soule Tho thy former joyfull feelings bee turned into distrustfull feares yet doth not that heavy heart of thine desire farre more to bee re-comforted with the presence and pleased face of thy Beloved then crowned with the glory and pleasures of many worlds Wouldest thou not much rather feele the hand of thy Faith fastned againe with peace and full perswasion upon the Person Passion and promises of the Lord Iesus then graspe in thy bodily hand the richest Imperiall Crowne that ever sate upon any Caesars head If Satans spitefull craft taking a cruell advantage of thy present dejection of spirit doe not hinder thy trembling heart from telling the truth I know thou canst not deny this And then I must tell Thee These hearty longings and longing desires in the meane time untill God give more strength be right deare to that tender-hearted Father of thine which doth infinitely more esteeme one groane or sigh from a broken spirit then a thousand rammes or tenne thousand rivers of oyle and are most pretious and piercing to that compassionate heart that poured out it's warmest and dearest blood to purchase the salvation and refresh the sadnesse of every truly-humbled Soule Ground upon it then and bee of good cheere If thy troubled spirit fild with the sense of the want of it's former sweet and joyfull feelings finde in it selfe a true and hearty longing after the supply of that want a constant and conscionable pursuite of all holy meanes for the procurement of that supply I can assure Thee in the Word of life and truth in Gods season Thou shalt bee satisfyed Hee will fullfill the desires of them that feare Him Hee also will heare their cry and will save them And this blessed promise for the accomplishment of thy desire is as surely thine as the breath in thy Body Hee must sooner cease to bee God and deny Himselfe which is more then infinitely impossible and prodigious blasphemy to imagine then faile in the least circumstance or syllable of all His love and promises of life to any One that heartily loves Him All the sacred Sayings in His holy Booke and all those promises of salvation are signed with the hand of Truth it selfe and sealed with the blood of His beloved Sonne And so are farre surer then the Pillars of the Earth or Poles of Heaven For Heaven and Earth must passe away before any title of His Word fall unto the ground And therefore as Hee will most certainly poure upon the hairy Pate of every One which hates to bee reformed all the plagues and curses threatned there even to the least sparke of the flames of Hell and the last drop of the full vials of His infinite endlesse unquenchable wrath so will Hee abundantly make good to every upright Soule syncerely thirsting after Iesus Christ in the best time all the promised good in His blessed Booke and that aboue all expectation expression conceit 4. Fourthly Thou mayst bee diversly distressed upon thy Bed of death 1. Casting thine eye backe upon thy whole life all thy sinnes from Adam to that houre and willing as thou must now take thy farewell so to take thy fill of repentance They appeare to the eie of thy conscience farre moe in number and more ougly then ever before And no marvaile for beeing now sequestred for ever from all worldly comforts and company distractions and diversions and the cloudes of naturall feare raised by the dreadfull circumstances of approaching dissolution uniting as it were and collecting the sight of thy Soule which imploiments in the world commerce amongst men and Sunne-shine of outward prosperity did before too much disperse dazle and divert they are represented farre more to the life and in their true colours Whereupon comparing the poore weake nothingnesse as thou now apprehends of thy godly sorrow hatred and opposition against them with thy present apprehension of their hainousnesse hatefulnesse and horrible number Thou begins to bee dejected and knowest not well what to thinke of thy Selfe I say then for thy comfort consult with thy sanctified heart and thou shalt finde and feele an infinite hearty desire that thy repentance for them detestatiō of them and heart-rising against them had been and now were as thorow sound and resolute as ever was in any penitent Soule that breathed the life of grace upon earth 2. Secondly Revising now thy whole Christian conversation spending of Sabbaths pouring out prayers reading Scriptures hearing the Word love of the Brethren dayes of humiliation workes of mercy receiving the Sacrament godly conference living by Faith in all estates c. Thou mayst see them in this last impartiall cleare retired examination of thy conscience to have been pestered with so many failings imperfections deadnesse of spirit distractions distempers that thou begins to feare and conceive As well never a whit as never the better as they say c. In this case also reflect upon the holy habituall disposition of thy heart and thou shalt feele it thirsting and longing unfainedly that all the holy duties and good deeds that ever passed thorow thy heart and hands had been done in answerable exactnesse to the rules of divine Truth and if it had so pleased God with absolute freedome from all infirmities 3. Thirdly Thou mayst bee troubled at that time because beeing perhaps as yet but of little standing in Profession thou hast done God so little service and in that short time hast not stood on Gods side with that courage and life nor walked in his holy wayes with that watchfulnesse and Zeale as thou mightest And it cuts thy heart the more because thou spent so much of thy time in serving thy selfe and Satan and expectest now to enjoy immortall joyes and a Crowne of endlesse blisse But here is thy comfort It is the unfained desire and resolution of thine heart If the Lord would bee pleased to allow Thee a longer time in this life and adde many moe yeeres unto it Thou wouldest double thy diligence and improove all oportunities to doe thy God every way farre more glorious service then heretofore all the daies of thine appointed time Oh! then thou wouldest doe so and so c. Assure now thy selfe in these three cases and troubles upon thy last Bed this syncere desire of thine
Christ calls Him and set to His seale that God is true which not to doe shall ever bee an unmannerly madnesse and willfull cruelty to a mans owne conscience Hee is then quite gone out of His kingdome of darkenesse and an immortall Soule is pulld out of His Hellish Paw for ever This is the true reason why Hee so rageth when Hee sees a weary Soule make towards Iesus Christ for rest I have often foretold you of Satans methode and malice in managing His temptations in this kinde that beeing fore-warned yee may be fore-armed He plots first and prevailes with most amongst us to keepe them from terrour and trouble for sinne But if they bee once happily wounded that way then His next plot is to allay and take away the smart by outward mirth or dawbe and draw over a skinne onely with unsound and superficiall comfort But if Hee find that it bleeds still and will not bee stanched but onely by the blood of Christ and that no earthly pleasure can any whit asswage the paine then in a third Place doth Hee cast about and contend with all cruelty to keepe the poore Soule in a perpetuall sad slavish trembling that it may not dare to meddle with any comfort or apply the promises but cherishing the bruise against the counsell of the Prophets bleede inwardly still And this Point Hee plies with more eagernesse and fury because the very next step to wit but even reaching out of this spirituall Gulfe and griefe for sinne towards the mercifull hand of Christ holden out to helpe Him up is the next and immediate Act by which a man is quite and for ever puld out of His power and put into the Paradise of grace Or in a word and shorter thus Tho thou commest freshly out of an Hell of hainous sinnes and hitherto hast neither thought or spoke or done any thing but abominably yet if now with true remorse thou groans under them all as an heavy burden and syncerely longest for the Lord Iesus and newnesse of life thou art bound presently ipso facto as they say immediatly after that Act and unfained resolution of thy Soule to take Christ Himself and all the promises of life as thine own for ever All delaies demurres exceptions objections pretexts standing out scruples distrusts contradictions to the contrary are dishonourable to Gods mercy and free grace disparagement to the Promises derogatory to the Truth tender-heartednes of Iesus Christ an unnecessary detainement of the Soule in terrour and onely a gratification of that roaring Lion whose trade is to teare soules in peeces and torture them all Hee can For as soone as wee are poore in spirit we are presently blessed Mat. 5.3 As soone as we are weary of our sins the Hand of Christ is ready to take off the burden Mat. 11.28 As soone as wee thirst in the sense I have said the Fountaine of the water of life is set wide open unto us Rev. 21.6 As soone as we have got contrite and humble spirits wee become royall Thrones for the High and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity to dwell in for ever Isa. 57.15 And now come and take abundantly mighty Arguments and invincible motives which neither Man nor Divell nor natural distrust can ever any waies possibly disable Not to lie any longer being in the proposed and supposed state upon the racke of terror but to lay hold upon the Rock of eternity I meane to rest and establish thy trembling heart upon the Lord Iesus with everlasting peace and safty and after walke watchfully and fruitfully in the holy way untill thine ending houre 1. And first take notice that Iesus Christ God blessed for ever keeps an open house for all such hungry and thirsty soules Let him that is athirst come And whosoever will let him take the water of life freely Rev. 22.17 Whosoever will In whose heart soever the holy Ghost hath wrought an effectuall earnest hearty will that supernaturall syncere desire described before which prizeth the Well of life before the whole world and is ever accompanied with an unfained resolution to sell all for the Pearle of great price I say such an One may come and wellcome and that without bidding and drinke his fill of the Rivers of all spirituall pleasures If there were no more but this this is more then enough to bring Thee to Iesus Christ. If a Proclamation should bee made that such or such a great Man kept open house for all commers there need no more to bring-in all the poore hungry people in the Countrey without any further waiting or inviting But heere above all degrees of comparison the hunger is more importunate and important the Feast-maker more faithfull and sure of his word the fare more delicious and ravishing And why doest thou refuse Thou hast a warrant infinitely aboue all exception The Lord of life keepes open house for all that will come And thou knowest in thine owne Conscience and canst not deny but that Hee hath already honored Thee with that singular favour as to plant in thy Soule a will this way with a witnesse as they say For what wouldest thou not part with to have assurance of thy part in Iesus Christ What wouldest thou not give if it might be bought to heare Him speake peace unto thy Soule and say sweetly unto it I am thy salvation And therefore if thou come not in presently and take the comfort of this pretious Place and Promise setting to thy seale that God is true Consider by the premisses whether thy terrours and temptations bee not justly upon thee in the meane time 2. If this will not serve which God forbid then in a second Place Thou art invited solemnly by the Feast-Maker as it were Himselfe with his owne mouth which is an infinite mercy honour and comfort Come unto mee all yee that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Mat. 11.28 Here is no exception of sinnes times or Persons And if thou shouldest reply Yea but alas I am the unworthiest man in the world to draw neere unto so holy a God to presse into so pure a presence to expect upon the sudden such glorious spirituall and heavenly advancement most impure abominable and beastly wretch that I am readier farre and fitter to sinke into the bottome of Hell by the insupportable waight of my manifold hainous sins I say then the Text tells thee plainely that thou mightily mistakes For therefore onely art thou fit because thou feeles so sensibly thy unfitnesse unworthinesse vilenesse wretchednesse The sorer and heavier thy burden is the rather shouldest thou come In a word it appeares by thine owne words expressing such a penitent apprehension of thy spirituall poverty that thou art the onely man and such as thou alone which Christ here specially aimes-at invites and accepts 3. Thirdly Hee knowing our frame our sluggish dull and heavy disposition our spirituall lazinesse naturall neglect of our owne salvation
the disease is dangerously upon us for recovery There was given unto Paul a Thorne in the flesh c. If wee will take the interpretation of some learned Divines A wound in the spirit the sting of Conscience pressing Him downe to the nethermost Hell in His sense that was erst taken up to the highest Heaven upon purpose lest Hee should swell with spirituall pride bee puft up and exalted aboue measure with the abundance of revelations If wee well weigh the admirable story of that gracious and holy servant of Christ Mistris Bretâ—ergh wee may probably conceive that a principall end why those most grievous spirituall afflictions of Soule upon Her last Bed were laide upon Her was in Gods just judgement to blind yet more those bloody Papists about Her and because they wilfully shut their eies against that glorious Light of true religion which shee so blessedly and fruitfully exprest in her godly life to let them thereby sincke yet deepelier into strong delusion that they might sticke still more stiffely to Popish lies According to that Prophecy of the Antichristians a Thess. 2.10.11.12 Because they received not the love of the truth that they might bee saved For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie That they all might bee damned who believed not the truth c. Which wee see at this day verified with a witnesse in Popish Doctours even their greatest Schollers as Bellarmine and other Polemicall Writers And therefore let us never marvaile that tho they bee loaden with much learning yet that they should lie â—gregiously and defend with infinite obstinacy and clamour the Doctrine of Divels that accursed Hydra of Heresies in their voluminous Dunghils Now Gods judgement in hardning them hereby as I have said was the more iust because they were so farre from beeing wrought upon and wonne by Her heavenly conversation that they were extraordinarily enraged against Her goodnesse and Profession of the Gospell As appeares in that besides their continuall rayling and roaring against Her as an eminent Light like so many furious Bedlams they barbarously wreckt their malice and spite upon the dumbe and innocent creatures by killing at two severall times Her Husbands Horses and Cattell in the night That her fiery Triall thorow which shee passed as purest gold into Abrahams bosome did thus harden them is manifest by the Event For as the reverent Pen-man of that story reports Those of the Romish faction bragged as though an Oracle had come from Heaven to proove them Catholicks and us Hereticks Prodigious folly Damnable delusion It is so then that God in His inflicting of afflictions doth not ever aime at sinne as at the principall end And yet doe not mistake Tho Hee punishes sometimes and not for sinne yet never without sinne either inherent or imputed There is ever matter enough in our sinnefull Soules and Bodies and lives to afflict us infinitely The best of us brought with us into this world that corruption which might bring upon us all the plagues of this and the other life Every man hath in Himselfe sufficient fewell for the fire of Gods wrath to worke upon still if it pleased Him in justice to set it on flame As in the present Point of spirituall terrours and troubles of minde if God should out of His just and causefull indignation put the full sting but into the least sinne it were able to put a man into the very mouth of Hell But I speake of Gods more ordinary wayes and dealings with the Sonnes of men And so I say God may sometimes for some hidden and holy ends seene and seeming good to His heavenly wisedome bring a lesse hainous sinner thorow extraordinary horrour out of his naturall state into the good way 2. Aggravation of horrour is occasioned terrours and troubles may bee multiplyed and enlarged in our enlargement from the state of darkenesse and Chaines of the Divell by 1. Some precedents and preparatives which God sometimes in His unsearchable wisedome doth immediately premise or suffer to fall out As 1. Some heavy crosse and grievous affliction to make the power of the Law more passable and fall more heavily upon our stubborne and stony hearts This wee see in Manasses who was as it were fired out of His bloody and abomiable courses by the heavinesse and horrour of His chaines And so was humbled greatly before the God of His Fathers Gods extraordinary angry visitations make men many times cry with troubled and grieved hearts Come Let us turne unto the Lord Hee hath wounded us c. a. Strange terrours sometimes arising from externall Accidents yea hidden naturall causes uncouth visions and apparitions full of amazement and feare Bodily distempers horrible injections hideous thoughts c. Whereby they are mightily affrighted before hand and prepared to passe thorow the Pangs of the New-birth more terribly 3. Some hainous and crying sinne which He suffers some to fall into and immediately upon it awakes the Conscience That Almighty Physition who is able to bring health out of poison death out of life Light out of darkenesse Heaven out of Hell may by accident as they say prepare One to conversion by giving Him over to the height of some One or moe abhorred abominations and crimson sinnes As wee may see in Peters Hearers Act. 2. Paul Manasses the sinnefull Woman Publicans and Harlots left to the killing of Christ spilling the blood of the Saints those horrible out-rages extreme filth extorsions pollutions Physitions by ripening diseases make way to heale them For sicke matter is never more easily removed then when it exceedeth in ripenesse and quantity 4. Lying long in ignorance sensuality dissolute life without profitable and powerfull meanes In this Case upon the first awaking and affrighting the Conscience for sinne it may bee exposed to many terrible perplexities and longer continued terrours For the light of Naturall Conscience bred with them in their owne bosomes may in the meane time serve to enrage and torture as wee see in many guilty Heathens but there is no naturall light to leade us to Christ and Evangelicall comforts The commandements have ground in nature but the mysterie of the Gospell is wholly supernaturall Wee finde it by manifold experience what an hard and heavy Taske it is to undertake a poore ignorant Soule troubled in minde The Cure is many times very difficult dangerous and long The darkenesse of their ignorance beeing now distressed in Conscience is very fit and fearefull matter for Satan to worke in hideously and to play his pestilent prankes of most grosse impostures and much Hellish cruelty His malicious maine Plot against such ordinarily is and His utmost endeavour to drive them to Selfe-destruction if it bee possible before they get understanding in the waies of God of wee can get any competent light and comfort into their consciences 2. Some concurrent circumstances As 1. The melancholike and sad constitution of the Party That
the Christian for the present into a most dark and dis-cōfortable condition I meane when the most wise God for some holy ends seeming good unto Himself retires for a time with-holds from the heart of his Childe the light of His countenance the beames of His favour and sense of His love Whereupon tho the roote of spirituall life the Habite of Faith and fundamentall power of salvation and eternall safty remaine still and sure in His Soule never to bee shaken or prevailed against no not by the very gates of Hell or concurrent forces and fury of all the powers of darknesse yet for the time Hee findes and feeles in Himselfe a fearefull deprivation and dis-continuance of the feeling and fruition of Gods pleased face exercise of Faith pardon of sinne inward peace joy in the holy Ghost cheerefulnesse in wel-doing and godly duties confidence in praier assurance of beeing in a saving state c. So that Hee may judge Himselfe to have been formerly an Hypocrite and for the present can very hardly or not at all difference and distinguish His wofull condition from that of a Cast-away This secret and wonderfull work of spirituall desertion doth God much exercise and practise upon His Children in many Cases for many Causes 1. Sometimes upon a re-ensnarement in some secret bosome-lust which was their Darling and delight in the daies of their rebellion Relapse into which Satan labours industriously to procure with much adoe by all His Devises For Hee gaines greatly thereby For so the New-Convert considering in cold blood what Hee hath done may be cast upon such complaints as these Alas what have I done now This pestilent old pollution which so wofully wasted my conscience in time past hath fearefully re-infected my newly washed Soule I have againe Woe is mee fallen into the abhorred Sodome of this foule sinne I have grieved that good spirit which was lately come to dwell in me All the former horrours charge afresh upon my heart from which I was happily freed even by some glimpses of heavenly joy I have wretchedly let goe my hold lost my peace broke my vowes and blessed communion with my God c. Ah! wretch that I am what shall I now doe And thereupon may fall upon a temptation of returning to His dis-avowed sensuall Delights out of this conceit As well over bootes as over shoes Doe what I can I see I can never hold out c. Or Hee may plunge into this slavish perplexity I dare not goe to God I have used Him so villanously after such immeasurable kindenesse and provoked the eies of his glory with such prodigious impurity after I was purged I dare not fall againe to good-fellowship and former courses lest I draw some remarkeable vengeance upon mee in the meane time and bee certainely damned when I have done So that Hee can neither take pleasure upon the right hand or the left Or which is most for my purpose and that which the Divell specially desires God therefore may hide His face from Him and leave Him to the darknesse of His own spirit so that He may for a long time walke on heavily starke lame in respect of those comfortable supporters of the Soule affiance hope spirituall joy peace of Conscience sense of Gods favour boldnesse in His waies courage in good causes delight in the company of the Saints c. Such a dampe also and desertion may come upon the Soule especially after a Fall into some new open scandalous sinne whereby not onely their owne Consciences within are grievously wounded but also for their sakes and sinne the Profession of Gods truth abroad scandalized and disgraced the common state of goodnesse questioned and traduced the heart and glory of Christianity hurt and distained David was thus dealt with in Gods just judgement after His monstrous and matchlesse fall Gods good Spirit had richly crowned His royall heart with abundance of sanctification and purity and had graciously filled Him aforetime with the fruits and feeling thereof and thereupon many heavenly deawes no doubt of spirituall joyes had many times sweetly refreshed His blessed Soule But by the hainous scandalousnesse of His hatefull fall Hee so grieved that good Spirit and turned the face of God from Him that Hee had neither sense of the comforts of the one nor of the favour of the other The spirituall life of his Soule the eie of His judgement light of conscience lightsomnesse in the holy Ghost and the whole grace of sanctification were so wasted dazeled confounded weakened raked under the ashes as it were and runne into the roote that hee speakes as if He had utterly lost them and so stoode in neede of a new infusion and creation thereof Psal. 51.10 But by the way conceive aright of Davids spirituall condition at this time Tho in his owne feeling and present apprehension Hee so complaines and cries out for a New creation as tho all were gone yet even when Hee was at the lowest and worst the Soule and substance that I may so speake of saving grace and salvation did abide still rooted and resident in his heart Which once emplanted by Gods omnipotent mercifull hand in an humble Soule and taking roote it there sticks fast for ever far more un-mooveable then a thousand Mount Zyons The blossoms buds and fruits may sometimes bee fouly cankerd as it were by our owne corruptions shrewdly nipt by the frost of some earthly affections blasted by sharper tempests of Satans temptations But the foundation standeth sure grounded and founded upon the unchangeable Nature of God and immutability of His counsell and therefore mauger the malice of all both mortall and immortall rage there is still life in the roote which in due season will spring out againe and grow up unto everlasting life To the present Instance All purity and cleannesse of heart was not utterly extinguisht and abolisht in David For 1. Some little at least was left which descried and discovered those spots and pollutions of filthinesse and impurity which had lately over-growne it For grace discovers corruption not nature A sensible complaint of hardnesse of heart and an earnest desire after softnesse is a Signe that the heart is not wholly hard A syncere crying out against impurity and hearty endeavour after purity argues the presence of the purifying Spirit 2. And how was this holy ejaculation Create in mee a cleane heart O God and renew a right spirit within mee created but by the Spirit of grace and supplications Which blessed sanctifying Spirit was all the while rooted and resident in Davids heart by a saving existence there tho not so fully by an effectuall operation and exercise Divines about this Point consider First The infinite free and eternall love and favour towards His Childe with which whom Hee loves once Hee loves for ever The gifts and calling of God that is as best Interpreters affirme the Gifts of effectuall calling effects of His free
deale and converse with for recovery and cure This secret and saving influence I speake of might bee evidently discerned in Master Peacocke even at the worst Some reverend Ministers standing by his bed of sorrow asked him if they should pray for him Marke well his answer Take not the Name of God in vaine said hee by praying for a Reprobate Which words well weighed seeme to imply and represent clearely to a spirituall discerning judgement some good measure even of the highest degree of divine love preferring the glory of God before the wellfare of his owne soule rather willing to have the meanes of his salvation neglected then the Lord dishonoured One asking another time whether hee loved such an One meaning a godly man Yes saith hee Why For his goodnesse Another comming to him upon the Lords day willed him to put his hand to a note of certaine debts This is not a day for that said hee And at the same time hee would hardly suffer any to stay with him from the Sermon Beeing told of suffering plaisters out of Gods Word to rest upon his wounded soule Hee brake out thus Oh! if I had Oh! if it would please God I had rather then any thing in this or other three thousand Worlds By these we may see and other passages to the same purpose that our blessed God had a secret working and saving influence upon his soule even in the depth and hideous darkenesse of his most grievous desertion Here is love first unto God in a high degree secondly deare affection unto his Children and that for his Image shining in them thirdly love unto his Sabbaths and salvation of others fourthly vehement desires after grace and Gods favour All which were undeniable demonstrations of an undamned state to every understanding eye Nay unquestionable arguments of spirituall life and designation to eternall blisse Whereupon my resolution was then and protestation upon good ground That if all the powerfull eloquence which rested with in the reverent bosome of mine owne deare Mother the famous Vniversity of Oxford managed by the Sâ—raphicall tongue of the highest and most glorious Angell in heaven had been industriously set on worke for that purpose except I had heard my blessed Redeemer say I will rend a member from my Body and throw it away The holy Spirit say I will pull my seale from that Soule which I have savingly sanctifyed my gracious and mercifull Father say I wil this once faile forsake One of mine I could never have been possibly perswaded that that soule of his so richly laden with heavenly treasure and gifts of God never to be repented of so syncerely exercised in the waies of God and opposition to the corruption of the times c. should possibly perish 2. Secondly suppose thou shouldest walke in darkenesse and have no light in the sense of the Prophet for the residue and remainder of thy few and evill dayes in this vale of teares nay and dye so before comfort comes yet be not discomforted For fearing God and being upright-hearted thy Soule shall most certainely bee preserved in spirituall and eternall safety by staying upon thy God tho thou bee without any sense of joy and peace in believing This life tho never so long is but a moment to the life to come But the kindnesse is everlasting with which hee will have mercy on thee Thy sufferings are but short whatsoever they bee But thou hast eternity of joyes in the World above purchased and prepared for thee by the hearts-blood of that blessed Saviour of thine upon whom thy soule relies It is the Divels policy say Divines to procure for his slaves all the favours honours and advancements all the prosperities and pleasures hee can possibly lest if hee should not follow and fullfill their humours this way they might thinke upon seeking after and serving a new Master Noâ— caring to vexe or molest them in this World because hee knowes full well hee shall have time enough hereafter to torment them in Hell And wilt not thou contrarily be content if God so please to passe thorow this vale of teares even with Hemans horrour Psal. 88.15 Sith Heaven is so neare at hand and thou hast a little before thee an everlasting time to row in the bottomlesse and boundlesse Ocean of all glory and blisse in an endlesse variety of new and fresh delights infinitely excellent and sweet aboue the largest created conceite 6. Let us suppose a Christian in these three states And it is no uncouth thing to those who obserue or feele Gods secret and unsearchable dealings with his Children 1. First in a faire and comfortable calme and Sun-shine after the tempestuous troubles and travaile in the pangs of the New-birth when the light of Gods countenance the first refreshing warmth of his sanctifying Spirit the fresh sweetnesse and vitall stirrings of grace the ravishing consciousnesse of his happy conversion doe fill his soule as with marrow and fatnesse and feede it with a kindly and more lively disposition to all good and godly dueties 2. Secondly in a spirituall Desertion when the sense of Gods favour love and woonted presence the comfortable vse and exercise of the Ordinances graces and spirituall affaires langvish and leave him for a time 3. Thirdly In the state of recovery and restitution from such a fearefull Dampe and deprivation of divine comfort unto former ioyfull feelings and re-enjoyment of his Beloved so that his revived soule may sweetly sing My Beloved is mine and I am his Now I doubt not But that the middle of these three estates being accompanied with hearty griefe and groanes for Christs absence restlesse pantings and longings after a new resurrection as it were of the sensible and fruitfull operations of grace renewed desires and endeavours for regainement of accustomed surer hold by the hand of Faith patient and praierfull waiting for the returne of Gods pleased face c. is as pleasing and deare if not more to our mercifull Father as either of the other two Doe you not thinke that the Fathers of our flesh are as lovingly affected and meltingly mooved to heare the obedient Child sigh and sob cry out and complaine because they looke not kindly upon him but for triall of his affection have hid for a time the much desired beames of their fatherly favour under some affected angry frownes as when things are carried more currently and comfortably betwixt them without any great distast and discontentment or occasion to discover the mutuall impatiency of their loves one unto another And shall not the Father of our Spirits who loves us with the same love with which he loves the Lord Iesus himselfe surpasse as farre in affectionate compassion towards us in the like Case as an Almighty God doth a mortall Man He cannot chuse because the word is already gone out of his mouth Like as a Father pittieth his Childe so the Lord pittieth them that feare him Psa. 103.13 I am
turpissimarum cogitationum veluti in obsidione urbium vel castrorum fieri consuevit cum stercoribus cloacarum aut â—ùm terret repentino strepitu quempiam vel horrorem immittâ—t quasi inopinatè prout similitor Bombardarum toâ—â—â—ruo impugnatores munitionum agere consueverâ—nt quemadmodum ioculatores trâ—fatores pueris horrorem inusâ—â—at is suis gestibus incutere novêrunt Intendant inquam quòd talia non curent neque mulâ—um cum his litigent sed potiùs irrideant dicentes cum illo Patre in vitis Patrum in talibus experto Immunditia tua super te Daemon Dominus mihi adiâ—tor non te timâ—bo Quia enim immundus spiritus es immundiâ—ia opus tuum est Item terrores tuos non timeo quâ—a â—um qui venturâ—s est iudicare vivos mortuos seculumper ignem Defensorem habâ—o Gâ—rs Remed â—ontr pusill Si autem nec sic infernales tales musâ—ae pungitivae pacem permiserint optimum remedium est ut homo nihil de eis ampliùs curet sed sub divina confidenâ—iâ patieâ—â—iam habeat sit securus quòd non ei nocebunt Idem de modo se hâ—ben Cont. Mal. 〈…〉 Frequentèr hae cogitationes meliùs vincuntur si eas nihili pendimus aut cuâ—amus sed alijs in rebus occupamus animum quà m si eas vinitamur propellere Idem de diver Tentat p Est autem hâ—ec sors sanctorum ut noâ— is in singula momâ—nta tentattoâ—ibus exerceantâ—r neque illis iâ—ducias longâ—s permittit Satan qui ex nostra perditione maximum vulâ—ptatem capere â—â—nsuâ— vit Et quamvis non ignâ—râ—t â—â—cclorum finem omninò everti non pusse iucundum â—amen illi est si â—os aliquá ex parte tâ—rreri labascere videat Gvalt in Luc. cap. 8 hom 84. q If your Atheist will not believe his owne eyes beholding the strange judgements of God in others but will rather give his owne senses the lie then acknowledge the truth of the Godhead let him but by some injurious deed or contumelious word provoke some Witch of Endor that hath the temporary power over some Spirit upon condition that hee shall have eternall power over her and it is like enough hee being voyd of all faith and sense of God and so out of his protection that hee shall feele to his cost and confâ—sse to his shame that there is a power over and besides the ordinary course of nature Gent. Indeed these Atheists that deny God doe also deny that there is either Divell or Angell and I thinke will confosse them all as soone as any one Morton of the nature of God cap 1 pag. 34. I quote this onely to inferre that when Satan doth thus cleaâ—â—ly â—â—sâ—over himselfely accident and consequent hee banishes all thoughts of Atheisme or offers at least to any understanding Man an evident argument against it r Cum cogitatio huiusmodi mala horrenda grossa tâ—â—pis nefaria importune occurrerit non terreatur nec triftetur persona devota proptereà nimiùm neque credat se propter talem à Deo derelictum sed maiorem siduciam se pertinendi ad Deum inde accipiat Gers. de mod se habendi contr mal immis Quidam putant se esse desertos à Deo quia non dat eis quietem à tentationibus quùm potiùs tentatio signum divini amoris sit Multiplicatio tentationum signum est quòd aliquis de manibus Daemonum evaserit Dum aliquit est in carcere unicum habet custodem vel duos si verò evaserit omnes eum insequuntur Sic dum aliquis captus est à Diabolo non tantùm eum daemones per sequuntur quantùm quum ovaserit Gregor Quis pertinens ad Christum non varijs tentationibus agitatur quotidiè agit cum illo Diabolus Angeli eius ut pervertatur qualibet cupiditate qualibet suggestione aut promissione lucri vel terrore damni vel promissione vitae vel terrore mortiâ— aut alicuius Potentis inimicitijs aut alicuìus Potentis amicitijs Omnibus modis instat Diabolus quemadmodum deijciat August in Psal. 62. Hostis noster adhuc in hac vitâ nos positos quantò magis nos sibi rebellare conspicit tantò amplius expugnare contendit Eos enim pulsare negligit quos quieto iure possiderese sentit Contra nos verò eò vehementiùs incitatur quò ex corde nostro quâ—si exiure propriae habitationis expellitur Hoc enim Dominus sub quadam dispensatione sigâ—guravit qui Diabolum non nifi post Baptisma se tentare permisit ut signum nobis quoddam futurae conversionis innueret quòd mombra eius post quam ad Deum proficerent tunc à criores tentationuÌ„ insidias toleranent Post primaÌ„ igitur vicem moeroris atque laetitiae quam unusquisque per studium conversionis agnoscit haec secunda suboritur quia ne securitatis negligentiâ dissolvatur impulsu tentationis efficitur Et quidem quisque in ipso conversionis initâ—o magnâ plerùnque excipitur dulcedine consolationis sed durum laborem post modùm experitur probationis Gregor in cap. 33. Iob. Ex quâ re nobis factus est adversarius Diabolus nisi ex hac quia videt hiberos quos tenebat antè captivos quia videt sanos quos suis iaculis prostraverat valneratos qui videt vestiri dennò immortalitate quos nudaverat propinando iniquitatem quia Muscipulâ eius comminutâ nos eruti sumus August De symb ad Catechum lib. 2. cap. 1. Quod ad Sanctorum gloriam proficit malignis spiritibus crescit in damnationis augmentum De omni quidem malitia suâ Daemones in aternâ poenâ â—unientur In congressione quidem occulti certaminis quando electi vincunt mala quae repellunt suis hostibus tribuunt Quia isti tanquam aurum in fornace probantur illi verò pro reprobâ suggestione puniuntur Greg. in 1. Reg. cap. 9.