that they shall never hold out For they may hence ground upon it being upright-hearted and believing that God who knowes their weakenesse full well will not suffer them to bee tempted above that they are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that they may bee able to beare it So that over all these adversaries and ungodly oppositions they shall most certainely bee more then conquerours 11. When thou art dejected in spirit and walkes more heavily because thou comes short of stronger Christians in all performances services duties and fruitfull walking and thereupon suffers slavish doubtes and distrusts least thy ground worke bee not well laid to beate back and barre out all spirituall joy and expected contentment in thy Christian course I say then and in such a Case Suppose a Father should call unto him in haste two of his children One of three yeares old the other of thirteene they both make all the hast they can but the elder makes much more speede and yet the little one comes on wadling as fast as it can and if it had more strength it would have macht the other Now would not the Father accept of the youngers utmost endeavour according to it's strength as well as of the elders faster gate being stronger I am sure hee would and that with more tendernesse too and taking it in his armes to encourage it And so certainely will thy heavenly Father deale with thee in the like Case about thy spirituall state being true-hearted and heartily grieving praying and indeavouring to do better 12. Suppose a Child to fall sicke in a family The Father presently sets the whole house on worke for the recovery of it's welfare Some runne for the Physitioâ— others for friends and neighbours Some tend it others watch with it All contribute their severall abilities endeavours and diligence to doe it good And thus they continue in motion affection and extraordinary imploiment about it farre more then about all the rest that are well untill it recover With the very same but incomparably more tender care and compassion will thy heavenly Father visite thee in all thy spirituall maladies and sicknesses of Soule The whole blessed Trinity is stirred as it were extraordinarily and takes to heart thy troubles at such a time Even as a Shepeheard takes more paines and exercises more pittie and tendernesse about his sheepe when they are out of tune See Isa. 40.11 Ezech. 34.16 upon which places heare the Paraphrase of a blessed Divine The Lord will not bee unfaithfull to thee if thy heart bee uprighâ— with him tho thou bee weake in thy carriage to him foâ— hee keepes his Covenant forever And therefore in 〈◊〉 40. the Lord expresseth it thus you shall know mee as sheepe know their Shepheard and I will make a covenant with you and thus and thus I will deale with you And how is that Why the covenant is not thus only as long as you keep within the boundes and keepe within the foâ—ld as long as you go along the pathes of righteousnesse and walke in them but this is the Covenant that I will make I will drive you according to that you are able to beare If any be great with young I will drive them softly If they bee lame that they are not able to goe saith hee I will take them up in my armes and carry them in my bosome If you compare this with Ezech. 34. You shall finde there Hee puts downe all the slips wee are subject unto speaking of the time of the Gospell when Christ should bee the Shepheard hee shewes the Covenant that hee will make with those that are his Saith hee if any thing bee lost if a sheepe loose it selfe this is my Covenant I will finde it If it be driven away by any violence of temptation I will bring it backe againe If there bee a breach made into their hearts by 〈◊〉 occasion through sinne and lust I will heale them and binde them up This the Lord will doe this is the Covenant that hee makes But I was telling you the whole blessed Trinity takes on if I may so speake after a speciall manner in all the spirituall troubles especially of all those who are true of heart God the Fathers bowells of mercy yerne compassionately over thee when hee sees thee spiritually sicke The distressed and disconsolate state of thy soule puts him into such melting and affectionate pangs as these Oh thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted behold I will lay thy stones with faire colours and lay thy foundations with Saphires c. Comfort yee comfort yee my people saith your God Speak ye comfortably to Ierusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accoÌ„plished that her iniquity is pardoned c. Iesus Christ out of his owne experience knoweth full well what it is to be grievously tempted what it is to have the most hideous thoughts and horrible injections throwne into the minde that can bee possibly imagined Nay that the Divell himselfe can devise See Mat. 4.6.9 What an hell it is to want the comfortable influence of the Fathers pleased face and favour See Mat. 27.46 And therefore hee cannot chuse but bee afflicted in our afflictions and very sensibly and sweetly tender-hearted in all our spirituall troubles They pitty us most in our sicknesses who have felt the same themselves In that hee himselfe suffered and was tempted hee is able to succour them that are tempted Heb. 2.18 As for the blessed Spirit it is his proper worke as it were To comfort them that mourne in Zion To give unto them beauty for ashes the oyle of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heavinesse And yet besides all this thy heavenly Father in the distresse of thy soule sets also on worke the Church of God about thee Faithfull Ministers to pray for and prepare seasonable and sound arguments reasons counsels and comforts out of Gods blessed Booke to support quicken revive and recover thee all they can Private Christians to commend thy Case unto the Throne of grace and mercy and that extraordinarily with mightinesse of prayer upon their more solemne daies of humiliation 13. A Father sometimes threatens and offers to throw his little-one out of his armes But upon purpose only to make him cling closer unto him Our heavenly Father may seeme to cast off his Childe and leave him for a while in the hands of Satan for inward temptation or to the rage of his bloody agents for outward persecution But it is onely to draw him nearer to himselfe by more serious seeking and sure dependance in the time of trouble and that with the hand of his faith hee may lay surer hold upon his All-sufficiency Thus and in the like manner peruse all the compassionate passages of the most tender-hearted parents to their best beloved children in all cases of danger and distresse And so and infinitely more tenderly will our
other affrighting and stinging temptations Hee deales with them in this Case as Absalom with Ioab when Hee would not come at Him by sending once and againe Hee causes his servants to set His field of barley on fire and then there was no neede to bid him hie When inferiour miseries and other meanes will not doe it God sets as it were their Soules on fire with slames of horrour in one kinde or other and then they looke about them indeede with much care and feare searching and syncerity They seeke Him then with a Witnesse earnestly and early For afflictions of Soule are very soveraigne and have singular efficacy to stirre and quicken extraordinarily to weane quite from the world and keepe a Man close and clinging unto God How many tho perhaps they thinke not so would grow proud worldly Luke-warme cold in the use of the Ordinances Selfe-confident or something that they should not bee if they were not sometimes exercised with iniections of terrible thoughts By this fiery dart the Divell desires and endeavours to destroy and undoe them quite But by the mercy of God it is turned to their greater spirituall good It is in this Case as it was with Him who thrusting his enemy into the Body with â—ull purpose to have killed Him lanceâ— the ulcer which no Physition was able to 〈◊〉 and let out that corrupt mâ—tter that would have cost Him his life By representation of such horrour out of Satans cruellest malice they are happily kept more humble watchfull earnest in praier eager after the Meanes weaned froÌ„ the World compassionate to others c. Hiding of Gods face from Him and leaving Him to the darknesse of His owne spirit did put and preserve Master Iohn Glover in a most zealous holy and heavenly life for ever after Heare the story This gentleman being called by the light of the holy Spirit to the knowledge of the Gospell and having received a wondrous sweet feeling of Christs heavenly Kingdome His minde after that falling a little to some cogitation of his former affaires belonging to His vocation began by and by to misdoubt himself upoÌ„ occasion of those words Heb. 7.4 For it is impossible c. Vpon considerations of which words Hee was so farre deserted as to bee perswaded that Hee had sinned against the holy Ghost even so much that if Hee had been in the deepest Pit of Hell Hee could almost have despaired no more of His salvation Beeing young saith Foxe I remember I was once or twice with Him whom partly by his talkâ— I perceived and partly by mine owne eies saw to be so wornâ— and consumed by the space of five yeares that neither almost any brooking of meate quietnesse of sleepe pleasure of life yea and almost no kinde of senses was left in Him Who in such intolerable griefes of minde altho Hee neither had nor could have any ioy of His meate yet was hee compelled to eate against His appetite to the end to deferre the time of his damnation so long as Hee might thinking with Himselfe no lesse but that Hee must needs bee throwne into Hell the breath being once out of the Body Albeit Christ hee thought did pitty his case and was sorry for Him yet hee could not as Hee imagined helpe because of the verity of the word which said It is impossible c. But what was the happy issue and effect of these extraordinary spirituall terrours and terrible desertion The same blessed Man of God who writes the Story and was himselfe with the Party tells us Albeit Hee suffered many yeares so sharpe temptations and strong buffetings of Satan yet the Lord who graciously preserved Him all the while not onely at last did rid Him out of all discomfort but also framed Him thereby to such mortification of life as the like lightly hath not been seene In such sort as Hee beeing like one placed in Heaven already and dead in this World both in word and meditation led a life altogether celestiall abhorâ—ing in His minde all prophane doings Thus a spirituall desertion or some other affliction of spirit doth that alone many times which variety and a long continued succession of ordinary outward crosses one upon the Necke of an other is not able to effect For troubles of Soule sooner take and are of a quicker and stronger operation then those which afflict the Body The spirit of a man will sustaine his infirmity But a wounded spirit who can â—eare Prov. 18.14 All other afflictions are nothing to this They are but flea-bitings to this fiery Scorpion The stoutnesse of a Mans spirit will stand under a world of outward miseries many times But if the eie which is the light of the Body bee in darkenesse how great is that darkenesse If the spirit it selfe bee crusht which should support the whole man how great is the confusion Hence it was that faithfull David waded thorow a world of troubles yet all that time no malice of Saul no hatred of the Philistines no rebellion of Absalom no treachery of Ahitophel no grapling with a Lion no fighting with a Beare no threatning of a vaunting Goliah could so much discourage Him But when at any time Hee suffered immediately in His soule under the wrath of God O! then his very bones the master-timber of His Body are broken in peeces Hee roares all the day and His moysture is turned into the drought of Summer Then Hee speakes thus unto God When thou with rebukes doest correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a Moath Thus having discovered the Cases and Causes of spirituall Desertion I come now to the comforts and the Cure 1. And let us first take notice of a double desertion first Passiue when God withdrawes Himselfe from us secondly Active when wee with-draw our selves from God And they are both two-fold first Temporary and secondly Finall 1. Passive desertion temporary As in David Psal. 77. Heman the Ezrahite Psal. 88. Iob. Both the Glovers See their story Acts and Monuments 1885. 1891. Mistris Brettergh Master Peacocke And many moe of Gods Children 2. Finall In many after a wofull and willfull abuse of many mercies meanes of salvation and generall graces As Saul Iudas c. Such as have out-stood all opportunities and seasons of grace and all those Prov. 1.24 1. Active desertion temporary As in Solomon c. 2. Finall as in those Heb. 10. Now in the present Point I understand onely a Passive temporary Desertion And therefore in that Man which is truly ingraffed into Christ by a justifying Faith and regenerated who can never possibly either forsake finally or be finally forsaken of God Of whom Hooker thus speakes Blessed for ever and ever be that Mothers Childe whose Faith hath made Him the Child of God The earth may shake the Pillars of the World may tremble under us The countenance of the Heaven may be appaled the Sunne may loose his light the Stars their glory But
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
enjoyed can procure or minister one jote of ease to a Soule afflicted in this kinde and thus trembling under the terrours of God In such an Agony and extremity haddest thou the utmost aide and an universall attendance from Angels and men couldest thou reach the top of the most aspiring humane ambition after the excellency and variety of all worldly felicities were thy possessions as large as East and West were thy meate continually Manna from Heaven every day like the day of Christs resurrection Were thy apparell as costly and orient as Aarons Ephod nay thy Body cloth'd with the beauty of the Sunne and crownde with Starres yet for all this and a thousand more thy heart within Thee would bee as cold as a stone and tremble infinitely above the heart of a woman entring into travell of Her first Childe For alas who can stand before the mighty Lord God Who dare pleade with Him when Hee is angry What spirit of man hath might to wrastle with His Maker Who is able to make an agreement with the Hells of Conscience or to put to silence the voyce of desperation Oh! in this conflict alone and wofull wound of conscience no Electuary of Pearle or pretious Baulme no Bezoars stone or Vnicornes horne Paracelsian quintessence or Potable Gold No new devise of the Knights of the Rosie-Crosse nor the most exquisite extraction which Alchymy or Art it selfe can create is able any whit or at all to revive ease or asswage It is onely the hand of the holy Ghost by the blood of that blessed Lambe Iesus Christ the holy and the righteous which can binde up such a bruise Vses 1. Counsell to the unconverted That they would take the stings out of their sinnes and prevent the desperatenesse and incurablenesse of this horrible wound by an humble sincere universall turning unto the Lord while it is called To Day For assuredly in the meane time all the sinnes they have heretofore committed in thought word or deede at any time in any place with any company or to which they have bin any wayes accessary are already upon record before the pure Eye of that high and everlasting Iudge written exactly by the hand of divine Iustice in the Book of their consciences with a pen of iron with the claw of an Adamant with the point of a Diamond or if you can name any thing which makes a stronger deeper and more lasting impression there they lye like so many Lions asleepe and Giants refreshing with wine gathering much desperate poyson and sâ—inging points that whensoever hereafter they shall bee effectually and finally awaked by Gods angry hand they may torment most ragingly and teare their wofull Soules in pieces everlastingly when there is none to helpe Now wee may see and observe many times one little sin at least in the worlds account and conceite of carnall men to plunge a guilty conscience into the depth of extremest horrour and a very Hell upon Earth As I have heard of and knowne in many One for a sudden unadvised imprecation against Her owne Soule in case She did so or so Another for a thought conceived of God unworthy so great a Majesty Another for covetously keeping a thing found and not restoring it or not inquiring after the Owner Another for an adulterous project without any actuall pollution Another by concurring with a company of scoffing Ishmaels onely once and ere Hee was aware by lifting up the hands and casting up the eyes in scorne of Gods people c. Yet afterwards they sadly revising these miscarriages in cold blood some of them some five or sixe yeeres after God beeing then pleased to represent them with terrour and their native stings were cast into that affliction of conscience and confusion of spirit that their very bones were broken their faces fill'd with ghastlinesse and feare their bodies possessed with strange tremblings and languishing distempers their very vitall moysture turned into the drought of Summer In which dreadfull perplexity they were in great danger of destroying themselves and of being swallowed up of despaire If the guilty sense then of one Sin when God sets it on and sayes unto it Torment drawes so many fiery points of stinging Scorpions after it charges upon the excellency of the understanding with such hideous darkenesse rents the heart in pieces with such desperate rage grindes into powder the arme and sinewes of all earthly succour melts like Dew before the Sunne all those delights and pleasures which the whole world offers or affords to comfort in such a Case In a word makes a man so extreamely miserable That Hee would make Himselfe away wishes with unspeakeable griefe that Hee had never been that Hee might returne into the abhorred state of annihilation that Hee were any other Creature that Hee might lye hid world without End under some everlasting Rocke from the face of God Nay that Hee were rather in Hell then in His present horrour I say it being thus what unquenchable wrath what streames of brimstone what restlesse anguish what gnashing of teeth what knawing of conscience what despairefull roarings what horrible torments what fiery Hells feeding upon His Soule and flesh for ever may every impenitent wretch expect when the whole blacke and bloudy Catalogue of all His sinnes shall bee marshold and mustered up together at once against Him every one beeing keened with as much torturing fury as the infinite anger of Almighty God can put into it after that Hee hath accursedly with much incorrigible stubbornnesse out-stood the day of His gracious visitation under this glorious Sun-shine of the Gospell wherein Hee either hath or if Hee had been as provident for His immortall Soule as carking for His rotten Carkasse might have enioyed very powerfull meanes all His life long And yet all the while neglected so great salvation forsooke his owne mercy and so iudged Himselfe unworthy of everlasting life If a lighter Sinne many times lite so heavy when the Conscience is illightened How will thy poore Soule tremble under the terrible and untolerable weight of all thy sinnes together When all thy lyes all thy oathes all thy rotten speeches and railings All thy bedlam passions and filthy thoughts All thy Good-fellow-meetings Ale-house-hauntings and scoffings of Gods people All the wrongs thou hast done all the goods thou hast got ill all the time thou hast mispent Thy prophanation of every Sabbath thy killing of Christ at every Sacrament thy Non-proficiency at every Sermon Thy ignorance thy unbeliefe thy worldlinesse thy covetousnesse thy pride thy malice thy lust thy luke-warmenesse impatiency discontentment vaine-glory Selfe-love The innumerable swarmes of vaine idle wandring and wicked imaginations In a word all the pollutions distempers and estrangednesse from God in thine heart all the villanies vanities and rebellions of thy whole life I say when all these shall bee charged upon thy gracelesse Soule by the implacable indignation of that highest Majesty whose mercy Ministry and long suffering thou
there must bee a third thing To take them to our selves to beleeve they are ours and there needes a worke of the Spirit for this For tho the promises bee never so cleare yet having nothing but the promises you shall never bee able to apply them to your selves But when the holy Ghost shall say Christ is thine All these things belong to Thee and God is thy Father when that shall witnesse to our spirit by a worke of His owne Then shall wee beleeve c This is the order observed in our iustification 1. First There is a sight of our misery to which wee are brought by the Law 2. Secondly There is by the Gospell an holding forth of Christ as our redemption from sin and death 3. Thirdly there is a working of Faith in the heart to rest on Christ as the ransome from sinne and death Now when a man is come hither Hee is truly and really iust Wee teach that in trve conversion a man must bee wounded in his conscience by the sense of his sinnes His contrition must bee compungent and vehement bruising breaking renting the heart and feeling shee throwes as a woman labouring of Childe before the new-Creature bee brought forth or Christ truly formed in Him It is not done without bitternesse of the Soule without care indignation revenge 2. Cor. 7.11 But as some Infants are borne with lesse paine to the mother and some with more so may the new-man be regenerated in some with more in some with lesse anxiety of travell But surely grace is not infused into the heart of any sinner except there bee at least so great affliction of Spirit for sinne foregoing that He cannot but â—eele it c. This bruising is required before conversion 1. That so the Spirit may make way for it selfe into the heart by levelling all proud high thoughts c 2. To make vs set an high price upon Christs death This is the cause of relapses and Apostasies because men never smarted for sin at the first They were not long enough under the lash of the Law Hence this inferiour worke of the Spirit in bringing downe high thoughts is necessary before conversion By this time it doth most clearly and plentifully appeare what a foule and fearefull fault it is for men either in the managing of their Publike ministery or more private Passages of conference visitations of the sicke consultations about a good estate to Godward and other occasions of like nature to apply Iesus Christ and the promises to promise life and safety in the evill Day to Soules as yet not soundly illightned and afflicted with sight of sinne and sense of Gods wrath to consciences never truly wounded and awaked I insisted the longer upon this Point because I know it full well to bee a most universall and prevailing Policy of the Devill whereby hee keepes many thousands in His cursed slavery and from salvation To confirme as many Pastours as Hee can possibly willing enough to drive their Flocks before them to damnation in an ignorant or affected Preiudice and forbearance of that saving method of bringing Soules out of Hell mentioned before and made good with much variety of evidence And to nourish also in the hearts of naturall men a strong and sturdy disconceite opposition raging against downe-right dealing and those men of God able as they say but falsely and furiously against their owne Soules by their terrible teaching to drive their hearers to distraction Selfe-destruction or despaire who take the only right course to convert them and to bring them to Iesus Christ as Hee Himselfe invites them to wit labouring and heauy laden with their sinnes Matth. 11.28 Dawbers then who serue Satans craft in this kinde and all those who dispence their ministery without all spirituall discretion and good conscience of whom there are too many as great strangers to the right way of working grace in others as to the worke of grace in themselves I say they are a generation of dangerous men Old excellent as they say in an accursed Art of conducting poore blinded Soules merrily towards everlasting miserie and setting them downe in the very midst of Hell before they bee sensible of any danger or discovery of their damnable state Great men they are with the men of this world with al those wise fooles and sensuall great ones who are not willing to bee tormented before their time or rather who desire impossibly to live the life of pleasures in the meane time and yet at last to die the death of the righteous They have still ready at hand hand over head mercy and pardon Heaven and salvation for all commers and all they come neere without so much as a desire to put any difference or divide the pretious from the vile Which is a prodigâ—â—usly-arrogant folly pernicious in the highest degree both to their own soules and those they delude Heâ—â—e 〈◊〉 they are branded in the Booke of God calling them 〈◊〉 Sâ—wers under mens elboes Ezek. 1â— 1â— That 〈◊〉 laid soft and lockt fast in the Cradle of security thâ—â— may sinke suddenly into the Pit of destruction before they be aware Criers of peace peace when no peace is towards Ier. 6.14 but horrible stirs tumbling of garments in bloud burning and devouring of fire A â—â—n-pleasers â—alat 1.10 who chuse rather to tickle the itching eares of their carnall hearers with some fâ—othy Frier-like conceits out of Dung-hill 〈◊〉 And so smooth Great Ones in their humours by their cowardly flatteries especially if they any waies depend upon them for countenance rising and preferment rather then conscionably to discharge that trust 〈◊〉 upon them by their great Lord and Master in Heaven upon answerablenes for the bloud of those Soules which shal perish by their temporizing silence and flattering vnfaithfulnesse Healers of the hurt of their Hearers with 〈◊〉 words Ier. 6.14 while their Soules are 〈◊〉 by the wounds of sinne unto eternall death Preachers of smooth things Isa. 30.10 which kinde of Men the greatest part and all worldlings wonderfully affect and applaud tho to their owne everlasting vndoing They swell under such Teachers with a Pharisaicall conceite that they are as safe for salvation as the precisest of them all but alas their hope is but like a hollow wall which beeing put to any stresse when the tempest of Gods searching wrath begins to shake it in the time of a finall triall of it's truth and soundnesse it shatters into pieces and comes to naught Heare the Prophet Now go write it before them in a table and note it in a booke that it may bee for the time to come for ever and ever That this is a rebellious people lying children children that wil not heare the Law of the Lord which say to the Seers see not and to the Prophets prophesie not unto us right things speake unto us smooth things prophesie deceits Get you out of the way turne aside out
wilt heare O Lord my God Hee concludes thus Thou hast seene how that any misery pressing our mortality a convenient Antâ—ote may be taken out of Scripture and all the carking of this life may bee cured neither need wee to bee greived for any thing which befals us Therefore I beseech you that henceforward you would come hither and listen diligently to the reading of divine writ And not onely when you come hither but also take the bible into your hands at home and receive with great affection the profit to bee found in it For from thence springs much gaine First that the tongue may bee reformed by it The soule also takes wings soares aloft and is gloriously illightened with the beames of the Sunne of righteousnesse and that while is freed from the entisements of impure thoughts enioying much calmenesse and contentment Furthermore that which corporall food doth for encreasing bodily strength the same doth reading performe to the soule All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable and writ by the spirit of God for this purpose saith great Basil that in it as a common Mart of soule-medicines every one of us may chuse a medicine proper and fit for his spirituall malady Jerome writing to many even of Her sexe whom as I told you before much reading of Scriptures and other good bookes made mad if the extremest malice of the most mortall enemies to the waies of God may bee credited doth stirre them up with extraordinary earnestnesse to a diligent industrious and fruitfull reading of Gods Booke in many Passages of His Epistles In that to Gaudentius about bringing up a young Maiden Hee would have Her at seaven years old and when she begins to blush learne the Psalmes of Dauid without Booke and untill twelue make the Books of Salomon the Gospels the Apostles and Prophets the treasure of Her heart To One Hee speakes thus This one thing about all others I would fore advise Thee and inculcating it I will admonish againe and againe That thou wouldest possesse thy minde with love of reading Scriptures To an other Let the Booke of God bee ever iâ— thy hands And after the holy Scriptures reade also the Treatises of learned men To another Let the sacred Scriptures bee ever in thine hands and revolved continually in thy minde Reading Scripture saith Origen daily prayers the word of Doctrine nourish the Soule even as the Body is strengthened by dainty fare The Spirit is nourished growes strong and is made victorious by such foode Which because you doe not ply doe not complaine of the infirmity of the flesh Doe not say wee would but cannot c Those reverend men that made the Homilies seeme to apprehend themselves and they commend to us the excellent sweetnesse which may bee suckt from the breasts of consolations in meditating upon the Scriptures by this their emphaticall and effectuall expression Let us ruminate say they and as it were chew the cudde that wee may have the sweet juyce spirituall effect marrow hony kernell tast comfort and consolation of them I have said all this upon purpose least melancholike men should be miss-led or disheartened by the cursed counsell of carnall freinds and wicked clamours of the world from turning their sadnesse into sorrow for sin and from plying Gods blessed booke and the powerfull ministry thereof the onely wellspring of all true lightsomnesse and ioy and able as I said before if they wil bee converted and counseled to dispell the very darkenesse of hell out of their hearts Mee thinkes they rather above others should bee encouraged hereunto 1. Because they have a passive advantage that I may so speake when it pleaseth God to sanctifie for that purpose and set on worke the spirit of bondage by reason of their sad dispositions and fearefull spirits to bee sooner affrighted and dejected by comminations of judgements against sinne more feelingly to take to heart the miseries and dangers of their naturall state more easily to tremble and stoope under the mighty hand of God and hammer of his Law Guiltinesse and horrour damnation and hell beget in their timerous natures stronger impressions of feare whereupon they are woont to tast deeplier of legall contrition and remorse and so proportionably to feel and acknowledge a greater necessity of Iesus Christ to thirst after him more greedily to prize him more highly and at length to throw their trembling soules into his blessed bosome with more eagernesse and importunity And having once entred into the holy path their native fearefulnesse beeing rectified and turned the right way they many times walke on afterward with more feare to offend and happy is the man that feareth alway more watchfulnesse over their wayes tendernesse of conscience impatiency of losing spirituall peace sensiblenesse of infirmities and failings awfulnes to Gods word c. 2. And because of all others such men have most neede of lightsomnesse and refreshing which when carnall counsellers flattering mountebanks of the Ministry labour to introduce into their darke heads and heavy hearts by the arme of flesh outward mirth and such other meanes they onely palliate and dawbe and are so farre from doing any true good that thereby they drowne them many times deeper and more desperately into the dungeon of melancholy afterward So that a melancholicke man let him turne him which way hee will is like without the light of grace to live a very miserable life upon earth and as it were in some part of hellish darkenesse to which also at length shal bee added the torment if hee dye impenitently But now let them addresse themselves to the booke of life and thence onely they may sucke and bee satisfied with the breasts of consolation Let them leane their sorrowfull soules improoving naturall sadnesse to mourne more heartily for sinne upon the promises there and every severall one will shine upon them with a particular heavenly and healing light with sound and lasting joy All those then are starke mad either with ignorant or learned malice who beare the world in hand that reading scriptures plying the powerfull ministry taking sinne to heart c. will make melancholike men mad If you desire to know before I passe out of the point the differences betweene the heavines of a melancholike humour and affliction of conscience for sinne take notice of such as these 1 Terrour for sinne springs out of the conscience and from the smart of a spirituall wound there Melancholy dwels and hath his chiefe residence in the phantasie uncomfortably ouercasts and darkens the splendour and lightsomnesse of the animall spirits in the braine 2 The melancholike man is extremely sad knowes not why Hee is full of feare doubts distrust and heavinesse without any true and just ground arising onely from the darkenesse and disorder of the phantasie the griesly fumes of that blacke humour in the braine But a broken heart a thousand to one
from sinking cast thine eie upon Aaron David Peter who returning with sound and hearty repentance were mercifully entertayned into as great favour as they were before But God forbid that any professour of religion should ever fall so fowly especially in this glorious mid-day of Evangelicall light Art thou langvishing under the heauy desolations of a spirituall desertion and deprived of thy former comfortable feelings of Gods favourable countenance Looke upon David Psal. 77. I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed I am so troubled that I can not speake My soule refused to bee comforted Nay upon Iesus Christ himselfe Mat. 27.46 crying My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee Art thou haunted with some of Satans most hatefull and horrible injections grissely to the eie even of corrupted nature Thoughts framed by himself immediately and put into thee perhaps tending to Atheisme or to the dishonour of God in the highest degree or of his blessed word to self-destruction or the like Thoughts which thou canst not remember without horrour and darest not reveale or name for their strange and prodigious monstrousnesse If it bee thus with thee consider how this malicious Feind dealt with the Sonne of God himselfe He offered to his most holy and unspotted imagination these propositions First Murder and make away thy selfe Matth. 4.6 Secondly Fall downe and worship the Divell Vers. 9. Then which a fouler thought I thinke was never injected that Iesus Christ blessed for ever in whom the God head dwelt bodily should fall downe and worship the Divell the vilest of Creatures And yet this was suggested to our blessed Saviour To which his purest heart infinitely uncapeable of sinne was as a brasse wall to an arrow beating it backe presently with infinite contempt And himselfe did utterly conquer and confound the tempter and that for thee and thy sake too And therefore if thy humbled soule doe abominate and abandon them from the heart-roote to the pit of Hell they shall never be laid to thy charge but set on Satans score Extremely then doe those wrong themselves and gratifie the Divell to the height who suffer such injections which they heartily hate and stand against with all their strength to hold their hearts still upon the racke of extraordinary astonishment and distraction whereby they are unnecessarily discouraged and disabled for a chearefull discharge of both their callings Which is the thing Satan specially aimes at in vexing so many of Gods dearest servants with this fieri'st dart It may bee that many yeares after thy new-birth when thou thinkest the worst is past thou maist bee revisited and afflicted afresh with perhaps sorer spirituall pangs and more horrour then at the first And what then Heare how David a man after Gods owne heart cries out My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long For day and night thy hand was heavie upon mee My moisture is turned into the drought of summer Selah And Iob. a God-fearing man and most upright Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest mee for thine enemie Wilt thou breake a leafe driven to and fro And wilt thou pursue the drie stubble For thou writest bitter things against mee and makest mee to possesse the iniquities of my youth The arrowes of the Almighty are within mee the poison thereof drinkes up my spirit The terrours of God doe set themselves in array against mee Hezekiah that walked before God in truth and with a perfect heart I reckoned till morning that as a Lion so will he breake all my bones from day even to night wilt thou make an end of mee Like a Crane or a Swallow so did I chatter I did mourne as a Dove mine eyes fayle with looking upward O Lord I am opprest undertake for mee Doest thou day after day poure out thy soule in prayer before The Throne of Grace with all the earnestnesse and instancy thy poore dead heart as thou callest it can possibly and do'st thou still rise up dull heavy-hearted and uncomfortable without any sensible answer from God or comfortable sense of his favour and love shed into thy heart Be it so yet for all this pray still in obedience unto thy God against all discouragements and oppositions whatsoever Presse hard unto still and ply Gods Mercy-Seate if it be but with sighes and groanings Assuredly at length and in the fittest time thou shalt bee gloriously refreshed and registred in the remembrance of God for a Christian of excellent Faith See a patterne of rare and extraordinary patience this way Mat. 15.23 There that Woman of Canaan having received many grievous repulses cuting discouragements the Solicited was silent the Disciples grumble she was not of the Fold she was a Dog yet for all this by her constancy in crying after Christ her petition at last was not only granted but her self also crowned with a singular and admirable Eulogie from the Lords owne mouth O Woman great is thy Faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt What an honour and comfort was this to bee thus commended by Iesus Christ and that with an admiration O Woman Hath thy Faith lost it's feeling Doest thou for the present feele nothing but anger wrath and great indignation Is Gods face and favour wherein is life turned away from thee and quite hid from thy sight Nay hath hee broken thee aâ—under taken thee by the necke and shaken thee to pieces and set thee up for his marke Yet for all this let thy truly humbled soule bee so farre from loosing or leaving it's hold-fast and sure repose upon the Person Passion and Promises of Iesus Christ that in such a Case it cleave and cling faster to that blessed Rocke and farre more immoveablely For therein specially is the strength and glory of Faith improved and made illustrious It is one of the most noble and heroicall acts of Faith to beleeve without feeling He who beleeveth most and feeleth least is hee who glorifieth God most It is nothing to swimme in a warme Bath but to endure the surges and tumbling billowes of the Sea that 's the man To beleeve when God doth fairely and sensibly shine upon the soule with the love and light of his countenance is no great matter But to rest invincibly upon his mercy thorow Christ when he grinds thee to powder that 's the Faith Thou hast before thee for this purpose a matchlesse precedent Thus cries holy Iob vexed not onely with an unparalleld variety and extremity of outward afflictions but also with the venome of the Almighties arrowes drinking up his spirit Thâ— hee slay mee yet will I trust in him Cap. 13.15 So Abraham Rom. 4.18 Hast thou given thy name stoutely to Religion and do'st thou stand on Gods side with resolution And art thou therefore villanously traduced with slanderous odious nick-names of Puritan Precisian Hypocrite Humorist Dissembler c Consider then for thy comfort that gracelesse wretches when
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
pith and marrow of some Scripture-text at another time wraflle with the difficulties and knotty distinctions of some Popish or Neo-pelagian controversie At another discusse and drive unto a resolution some perplexed and intricate Case of Conscience c. Well then for my purpose this supposed Vpon the very first Proposall of these monstrous and hideous thoughts presently divert and resort to the hardest of all those irons thou hast in the fire if I may so speake and that which hath neede of most hammering I meane to the most difficult and waighty Points of all those severall spirituall businesses thou hadst last in thy braine and single out that particular which did most puzzle and put thy understanding to it Where-abouts when the strength heat and intension of thy whole soule is spent and improoved not onely other impertinent wandrings and vagaries but these idle and irkesome injections also will more easily vanish and bee gone Let others also proportionably upon such occasions besides other helpes have recourse to the most troublesome and over-mastering part of their honest imploiments to the chiefest and needefullest affaire of their lawfull Callings 5. In temptations of this nature never set thy selfe to dispute with the Divell hee is an old Sophister of above five thousand yeares standing in the Schoole of hideous temptations and hellish policies and thou art but a Novice Hee hath many Methods Devices and Depths which thy shallow fore-cast cannot possibly fathome Direct opposition by reasons and replies stirreth up the out-ragious Blasphemour to grow more furious And hereby we give him greater advantage more matter of molestation and mischiefe and may so plunge our selves further into an intricate maze of horrour and confused distractions Our blessed Captaine Christ Iesus may bee a patterne for us in this Point When hee was tempted to fall downe and worship Satan hee reasoneth not the Case but repells him with vehement extraordinary detestation and disdaine Avoid Satan It will therefore bee our best wisedome at such a time to turne from him and as Hezekiah spread his blasphemous letter so to lay open his fury before the Lord crying mightily unto him and intreating him even for his owne honours sake to vindicate the purity of his great Majesty and excellency of his unspotted glory from this hellish filth and horrible villany of his damned vilest Creature That he would cast it as dung upon the Tempters face and in the Passion and Blood of Christ free fully and for ever our poore soules trembling under the hideousnesse of his malice and cruelty from the guilt staine terrour and assault of all such abhorred and pâ—â—odigeous blasphemie In that other terrible temptation also to Selfe-murther many much wrong themselves this way In managing this fierie dart the Adversary deales by way of argument too and presses reasons such as they are upon the temted sometimes extremely absurd especially if the party bee something more simple and ignorant sometimes exceedingly suttle if hee bee of better understanding and capacity As thus It is soone done and the paine quickely past Thou art like thus to languish and lie in misery all thy life long The longer thou livest the larger will bee the score of thy sinnes and so thy torments in hell more horrible hereafter If it be once done it will appeare to have bin Gods decree and I hope thou wilt not oppose the accomplishment of that Do what thou canst thou wilt bee damned when all is done c. Now in this Case if thou debate the matter with the Divell and begin to confer thou art like enough to be more and more confounded and intangled with inextricable astonishments and danger to bee utterly undone and suddenly blowne up by the mine of his soule-murdering sophistry But if according to the precedency and practise of thy Lord Master who hath begun unto thee in this bitter Cup is afflicted in all thy afflictions and ever stands by thee as a victorious commander and conquerour in all such assaults first abominate and beate backe this base and bloody motion with infinite indignation and loathing Avant Satan And then immediately lay hold on the sword of the Spirit and keepe him at the point of it and then assuredly all the Divells in Hell cannot hurt thee Tell him that against his vile and villanous suggestion and all the subtilties and sophistry with which hee seconds it this is thy onely answere even the precise holy and everlasting countermand of his and thy Creatour the mighty Lord of heaven and earth Thou shalt not kill Now if it bee a crimson and crying sinne the most deadly opposite and desperate cut-throate of charity to kill an other and fastneth such a deepe and inexpiable staine upon the face of a whole Kingdome that it cannot bee razed out but by the blood of him that shed it How execrable and hainous then is this and what depth of Hell and height of horrour doth that abhorred Miscreant deserve and may expect who makes away himselfe For the Rule of charity whereby wee love one another is proportioned by that charity whereby a man loues himselfe If the Divell bee able to dissolve and disanull the most absolute perfect and just Law of the most High who tho all other things besides are something in possibilitie which as yet they are not in act yet himselfe is actually and everlastingly whatsoever hee may bee and cannot hereafter be that which now hee is not and so by consequent is with out all variablenesse or shadow of turning I say if the Prince of darkenesse can reverse this Law of the Father of Lights Thou shalt not murder thou maist well say thou wilt then thinke of an other answer But till that bee which is more then infinitely impossible ever to come to passe thou wilt rather lie in the miseries of Hell upon earth which indeed were incomparably better then breaking Gods blessed Law goe downe into the grave in a bloody coffin made by thy owne hands onely at the Divels bidding Can this madnesse ever bee matched for a man besides Selfe-severing the soule from his body before the time by a more hainous and un-naturall villany then murthering of his owne father for every man is naturally next unto himself and sending it suddenly all goare-blood by becomming his owne Butcher and hangman unto the dreadfull Tribunall of the all-powerfull God the most certaine and severe Revenger of all bloodshed to bring also abundance of unnecessary shame griefe and hopelesse mourning upon Friends Kindred Husband ChildreÌ„ Parents a reproachfull staine and brand upon House Name Buriall Posterity c. And that meerely at the instance and upon the most absurd ridiculous and senselesse suggestion of the Arch-murtherer thy mortall and immortall enemy against sense reason nature religion Scripture Gods direct command to the contrary even Heathen Philosophy Heaven and Earth 6. Avoid idlenesse solitarinesse and too much secrecy three maine advantages for the adversary which
us mercy mercy in the name of Christ Lord Iesus receive our spirits c. which last eiaculations did they spring from a truly broken penitent and heavenly heart and were they the periods and conclusions of a well-spent life might blessedly breake open with unresistable power the gates of Heaven unlocke the rich treasures of immortality and fill the departing Soule with the shining beames of Gods glorious presence but unto them such goodly and glorious speeches are but as so many catchings and scrablings of a Man over head in water Hee struggles and strives for hold to save Himselfe but Hee graspes nothing but water it is still water which Hee catches and therefore sinkes and drownes 6. In others from a mis-guided head-strong Zeale in will-worship an impotent peremptory conceit that they suffer in the cause of God and for the glory of Religion This unhallowed fury possessed many Hereretikes of old Vpon this false ground the Donatists in the fourth Century after Christ offered themselues willingly and suffered death most couragiously And so did the Euphemites who for the multitude of their supposed Martyrs would needs be called Martyrians Stories also tell us that Turkes Tartars and Mores both fight and dye most bravely and resolutely for the blasphemous opinions of Mahomet And that the Assasins a company of bloody Villaines and desperate Cut-throates who would without all scruple or feare undertake to dispatch any Man whom their Generall commanded them to murther dyed oftentimes with great constancy and un-dismaiednesse And this they accounted a speciall point of Religion But especially at this Day the Popish Pseudo-martyrs indeed true Traytors are starke mad with this superstitious rage First they drinke full deepe of the golden cup of abominable fornication in the hand of the great Whore Immediately whereupon they grow into an unsatiable and outragious thirst after the blood of Soules empoysoning them with the doctrine of Divels And also after the blood of whomsoever withstands their accursed superstitions even tho they weare Imperiall Crownes upon their Heads by plotting and practising treasons parricides assasinates empoysonings ruines of whole Nations barbarous Massacres blowing up of Parliaments and a world of bloody mischiefes which cast an inexpiable staine and obloquy upon the innocency of Christian Religion At last they come to Tyburne or some other Place of iust execution and then they will needes beare the world in hand that they are going towards Heaven to receive a Crowne of Martyrdome They seeme there already to triumph extraordinarily and to contemne tortures with an affected bravery they trample upon the Tribunals of Iustice kisse the instruments of death in signe of happinesse at hand and throw many resolute and reioycing speeches amongst the people as tho they had one foote in Heaven already When alas poore blind mis-guided Soules while they thus wilfully and desperately abandon their lives upon a groundlesse and gracelesse conceite that they shall become crowned Martyrs they are like a Man who lying asleepe upon an high and steepe Rock dreames that Hee is created a King guarded with a goodly traine of ancient Nobles furnished with many princely Houses and stately Palaces enriched with the Revenewes Majesty and Magnificence of a mighty Kingdome attended with all the pleasures His heart could desire c. But starting up upon the sudden and leaping for ioy falls headlong and irrecoverably into the raging Sea and so in liew of that imaginary happinesse Hee vainely grasped in a dreame Hee destroies Himselfe and looseth that little reall comfort Hee had in this miserable life That damned paire of incarnate Divels the English Fawkes and French Ravillac the one after that in the Popes cause Hee had embrued His hands in the Royall blood of a mighty King and the greatest Warriour upon Earth The other having done His utmost to blow up at once the glory power wisedome the Religion peace and posterity of the most renowned State under the Heavens were both prodigiously bold confident peremptory But was this courage thinke you inspired into them by the Lyon of the Tribe of Iudah already triumphant in the Heavens or by that roaring Dragon of the bottomlesse Pit A man of an understanding impartiall discerning spirit would scarcely wish a clearer demonstration of the Truth and Orthodoxnes of our Religion then to marke the different Ends of our blessed Martyrs in Q. Maries time those Popish Traytors which are sometimes executed amongst us They both ordinarily at their Ends expresse a great deale of confidence But in the Pseudo-Catholicks Antichristian Martyrs it is so enforced artificiall ambitious affected Their speeches so cunning and composed upon purpose to seduce the simple Their last behaviour â—o plotted before-hand and formally acted Their prayers so unhearty plodding and perfunctory Their whole carriage so unspirituall and unlike the Saints of God discovering neither former acquaintances with the mysteries of true sanctification nor those present feeling elevations of spirit which are woont to fill the Soules which are ready to enter into the Ioyes of Heaven that to a spirituall eye to a man verst in the purity and power of godlinesse it is most cleare that their comfort in such cases is of no higher straine nor stronger temper then the morall resolution of an Heathen and head-strong conceit of Heresie can represent or reach unto It is otherwise with the true Martyrs of Iesus slaine most cruelly by that great Whore the MOTHER of HARLOTS drunken with a world of innocent blood as with sweet Wine As we may see and feele in that glorious Martyriology of our Saints in the mercilesse times of Queene Mary The constant profession and power of our most true and ever-blessed Religion did create such an holy and humble Maiesty in their carriages such a deale of Heaven and sober undantednesse in their countenances such ioyfull springings and spirituall ravishments in their hearts such grace and powerfull peircings in their speeches such zeale and hearty meltings in their prayers such triumphant and heavenly exultations amid the flames that it was more then manifest both to Heaven and Earth to Men and Angels that their Cause was the Cause of God their Murtherer that Man of sinne their blood the seede of the Church their Soules the Iewels of Heaven and their present passage the right and ready way to that unfading and most glorious Crowne of Martyrdome That which in fiction was fathered upon Father Campion was most true of every one of our true Martyrs That every one might say with heavy heart that stood Here speakes a Saint here dies a Lambe here flowes the guiltlesse blood Thus you haue heard upon what weake props and sandy foundations that confidence stands and is built which carnall men seeme to lay hold upon with great bravery in times of trouble and distresse But the comfort which sweetely springs from that spirit I speake of supported out of speciall favour and interest by the hand of God All-sufficient and the unconquerable
calmnesse of a good conscience is grounded upon a Rocke upon which tho the raine descends the floods come the windes blow the tempests beate yet it stands like Mount Zion sure sober strong lasting impregnable Nay it is of that heavenly metall and divine temper that it ordinarily gathers vigour and puissance from the worlds rage and growes in strength and resolution together with the encrease of all iniust oppositions Persecutions and resistance serue as a provocation and seasoning to it's sweetnesse It is not enforced formall artificiall affected furious desperate misgrounded ambitious upon an humour in the face onely onely in hot blood out of a vaine-glorious pang c. Such may bee found in Aliens and resolute reprobates It were nothing worthy if strangers might meddle with it If Men or Divels or the whole World could take it from us If it were sustained onely by any created power or arme of flesh This Pearle that I praise and perswade unto is of an higher price and more transcendent power then any unregenerate Man can possibly compasse or comprehend It hath for it's seate a sanctified Soule for the Fountaine of it's refreshing the Spirit of all comfort for it's foundation the favour of God for it's Warrant the promises of Amen the faithfull and true Witnesse for it's object an immortall Crowne for it's continuance the prayers of all the Saints for it's companions inward peace invincible courage an holy security of minde for it's end and perfection fulnesse of ioy and pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore In a word this couragious comfort and true noblenesse of spirit which dwells in the heart of the true-hearted Christian doth differ as much from and as farre surpasses all the groundlesse confidences of what carnall men or religious counterfeits soever as the reall possession of gold an imaginary dreame of gold as the true naturall lively Grape which glads the heart a painted juycelesse Grape which onely feedes the eye as a strong and mighty Oake rooted deepely in the earth which no storme or tempest can displant or overthrow a Stake in a dead hedge or Staffe stucke lightly into the ground which every hand may snatch away or blast of winde supplant and overthrow Secondly the trouble of a wounded conscience is further amplified by it's Attribute intolerablenesse But a wounded Spirit who can beare Whence note Doctr. That the torture of a troubled Conscience is intolerable Reas. 1. In all other afflictions onely the Arme of flesh is our adversary wee contend but with Creatures at most wee have to doe but with Man or at worst with Divels but in this transcendent misery wee conflict immediately with God Himselfe Fraile Man with Almighty God sinfull Man with that most holy God Whose eyes are purer then to behold evill and who cannot looke upon iniquity Who then can stand before his indignation Who can abide in the fiercenesse of his anger When his fury is powred out like fire and the Rocks are throwne downe by Him When hee comes against a man as a Beare that is bereaved of her Whelpes torent the very caule of His heart and to devoure him like a Lion No more then the driest stubble can resist the fierest flame the ripe Corne the Mowers sharpest sythe or a garment the Moath no more nay infinitely lesse can any power of Man or Angell withstand the mighty Lord of Heaven and Earth when Hee is angry for Sinne. When thou saith David with rebukes correctest man for iniquity thou as a Moath makest his beauty to consume Alas when a poore polluted wretch upon some speciall illumination by the Word or extraordinary stroke from the rod doth once begin to behold Gods frowning face against Him in the pure Glasse of His most holy Law and to feele divine iustice by an invisible hand taking secret vengeance upon his conscience His heavy heart immediately melts away in his brest and becomes as water Hee faints and failes both in the strength of his body and stoutnesse of his minde His bones the pillars and Master-timber of his earthly Tabernacle are presently broken in pieces and turn'd into rottennesse His spirit the eye and excellency of his Soule which should illighten and make lightsome the whole Man is quite put out and utterly overwhelm'd with excesse of horrour and flashes of despaire O this is it which would not onely crush the courage of the stoutest sonne of Adam that ever breath'd upon earth but even breake the backe of the most glorious Angell that did ever shine in Heaven should Hee lift up but one rebellious thought against his Creatour This alone is able to make the tallest Cedar in Lâ—banon the strongest Oake in Basan I meane the highest looke and the proudest heart the most boisterous Nimrod or swaggering Belshazzar to bow and bend to stoope and tremble as the leaves of the forrest that are shâ—ken with the winde 2. In all other adversities a man is still a friend unto himselfe favours himselfe and reaches out his best considerations to bring in comfort to his heavy heart But in this Hee is a scourge to Himselfe at warre with Himselfe an enemy to Himselfe Hee doth greedily and industriously fetch in as much matter as hee can possibly both imaginary and true to enlarge the rent and aggravate his horrour Hee gazes willingly in that false glasse which Satan is woont in such Cases to set before Him wherein by his Hellish malice Hee makes an infinite addition both to the already un-numbred multitude and to the too true hainousnesse of his sinnes and would faine if Hee will be lead by his lying cruelty mis-represent to his affrighted imagination every Gnat as a Camell every Moate as a Mole-hill every Mole-hill as a Mountaine every lustfull thought as a Sodomiticall villany every idle word as a desperate blasphemy every angry looke as an actuall bloody murder every intemperate passion as an inexpiable provocation every distraction in holy duties as a damnable rebellion every transgression against light of conscience as a sinne against the holy Ghost c. Nay in this amazednesse of spirit and disposition to despaire Hee is apt even of his owne accord and with great eagernesse to arme every severall sinne as it comes into his minde with a particular bloody sting that it may strike deepe enough and sticke fast enough in His already grieved Soule Hee imployes and improoves the excellency and utmost of His learning understanding wit memory to argue with all subtilty with much Sophistry against the pardonablenes of his sins and possibilitie of salvation Hee wounds even his wounds with a conceit they are incurable and vexes his very vexations with refusing to bee comforted Not onely crosses afflictions temptations and all matter of discontentment but even the most desirable things also in this life and those which minister most outward comfort Wife Children Friends Gold Goods Great mens favours Preferments Honours Offices even Pleasures themselves every
Iesus Christ c. But who doe you thinke now are the true and great fooles of the world And who are likeliest one day to groane for anguish of Spirit and say within themselves This was hee whom wee had sometimes in derision and a Proverbe of reproch Wee fooles accounted His life madnesse and His end to bee without honour Now is hee numbred among the Children of God and His Lot is among the Saints Therefore haue we erred from the way of truth and the light of righteousnesse hath not shined unto us and the Sun of righteousnesse hath not rose upon us wee wearied our selves in the way of wickednesse and destruction yea wee have gone through deserts where there lay no way But as for the way of the Lord wee have not knowne it What hath pride profited us Or what good hath riches with our vanting brought us All those things are passed away like a shadow and as a post that hasted by c. Nay and yet further besides the extraordinarinesse of the iniquity folly in refusing Christ freely offered it shall most certainely bee hereafter plagued with extremest tormenting fury and most desperate gnashing of teeth For with what infinite horrour and restlesse anguish will this conceit rent a Mans heart in pieces and gnaw upon His Conscience when Hee considers in Hell that Hee hath lost Heaven for a lust and whereas Hee might at every sermon had even the Son of God His husband for the very taking and have lived with Him for ever in unspeakeable Blisse yet neglecting so great salvation must now crying out therefore continually against Himselfe as the most raging Bedlam that ever breathed lie in unquenchable flames without remedy ease or end It is the highest honour that can be imagined and a Mystery of greatest amazement that ever was that the Sonne of God should make sute unto sinfull Soules to be their Husband And yet so it is Hee stands at the doore and knocks if you will give Him entrance Hee will bring Himselfe and Heaven into your hearts We are Christs Ambassadours as though God did beseech you by us Wee pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God Wee are Christs spokes-men that I may so speake to Wooe and Winne you unto Him Now what can you say for your selves that you stand out Why come you not in If the Divell would give you leave to speake out and in plaine termes One would say I had rather bee damned then leave my drunkennesse Another I love the world better then Iesus Christ A third I will not part with my easie and gainefull trade of Vsury for the treasure hid in the field And so on So that upon the matter you must needs all confesse that you hereby judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life that you are wilfull bloody Murderers of your owne Soules that you commit such a wickednesse that all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth cry shame upon you for it Nay and if you go on without repentance you may expect that the Hellish gnawing of Conscience for this one sinne of refusing Christ may perhaps hold scale with the Vnited horrors of all the rest What is the matter I marvell that you will not entertaine the Match If wee stand upon honour and noble family Hee that makes love and sute unto our soules hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords If upon beauty Heare how hee is described Cant. 5. My beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest of ten thousand His head is as the most fine gold his lockes are bushie and blacke as a Raven His eyes are as the eyes of Doves by the rivers of water washed with milke and fitly set His cheekes are as a bed of Spices as sweet flowers His lips like Lillies dropping sweet smelling myrrhe His hands are as the gold rings set with the Berill His belly is as bright Ivory overlaid with Saphires His legs are as pillars of marble set upon Sockets of fine gold His countenance is as Lebanon excellent as the Cedars His mouth is most sweet yea hee is altogether lovely Now you must understand that the Spirit of God by these outward beauties and braveries labours in some measure to shadow out and represent unto us the incomparable excellency of inward graces the dignity the glory the spirituall fairenesse of Iesus Christ that wee may know that Hee is wholly and altogether lovely delectable and precious If upoâ— ease and contentment Hee can lead us to fulnesse of joy and pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore If wee desire honorable Alliance Hee will bring us to an innumerable company of Angels to the generall assembly and Church of the first borne which are written in heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect If we stand upon wealth we shall haue all things with him which is a large Possession If we respect love Greater love hath no Man then this that a Man lay downe His life for his friends And hee being the brightnesse of His Fathers glory and the expresse image of his person came downe from his bosome the well-spring of immortality and blisse the fulnesse of joy and that unapprocheable light into an House of flesh upon this base and miserable earth Hee passed thorow a life full of all manner vexations miseries persecutions indignities slanders speaking against of Sinners c. He was so prodigiously slandered that they said Hee had a divell Whereas the fulnesse of the Godhead dwelled in him bodily Hee was cunningly hunted long and at last violently haled by a Packe of Hell-hounds to a cruell and bloody death which for the extremity and variety of paines for the enraged spight of the executioners for the innocency and excellency of the Person suffering the like never was shall or can bee endured His passions were such so bitter and unsupportable that they would have made any meere creature to have sunke downe under the burden of them to the bottome of Hell Hee was tortured extremely and suffered grievous things both in Body and Soule from Heaven Earth and Hell His blessed Body was given up as an Anvile to bee beaten upon by the violent and villanous hands of wretched Miscreants without all measure or mercy untill they had left no one part free from some particular and speciall torment His skin and flesh were â—ent with scourges His hands and feet pierced with nailes His head with thornes His very heart with the speare point All His senses all his parts indeed His whole sacred body was made a rufull spectacle to Angels and to Men of all the most base and barbarous vsage which malice could devise and cruelty execute But all this yet was but a shadow of His suffering the substance of His suffering was the Agony of His Soule Give mee any affliction save the affliction of the mind For
the spirit of a man saith Salomon will sustaine all His other infirmities but a wounded spiâ—rit who can beare Yet His soule though Hee was the Prince of glory and Lord of Heaven and earth upon the Crosse was even as a scorched Heath without so much as any drop of comfort either from heaven or earth The grievous weight of all the sinnes of all his Children the least of which had bin enough to have pressed them downe into the bottome of Hell lay now heavy upon him The powers of darkenesse were let loose to afflict Him Hee wrastled even with the fierce wrath of His Father and all the forces of the infernall kingdome with such anguish of heart that in the Garden it wrung out of his pretious Body a Sweat as it were great drops of blood falling downe to the ground with such agony of spirit that upon the Crosse Hee cryed My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee And the measure of all these sufferings and sorrowes were so past all measure that all the creatures save sinfull Men onely both in heaven and earth seemed to bee amazed and moved with them The Sun in the heavens drew in his beames unwilling as it were to see the spotlesse blood of the Son of God spilt as water upon the ground The Earth it selfe shrunk and trembled under it The very Rocks rent asunder as if they had sense and feeling of His intolerable and save by Himselfe vnconquerable paines The whole frame of Nature seemed astonished at the mournefull Complaint of the Lord of the Whole World These and farre more then these or then can bee exprest our blessed Saviour being Son of the most high God endured for no other end but to ransome us from the bondage of Sathan and of Hell in a thirsting desire of saving all Penitent sinners And to offer himselfe freely a most glorious and everlasting Husband to all those who with broken and beleeving hearts cast themselves into His bosome Such admirable and unutterable perfections beauties indowments sufferings and inflamed affections as these in the heavenly Suter unto our sinnefull Soules doth mightily aggravate the hainous and horrible sinne of refusing Him Thus and in this manner would I have the Men of God to magnifie inlarge and represent to the hearts of their Hearers all the excellencies of Iesus Christ with the worth merit and efficacy of His blood To set out to the utmost they can possibly the glory of the Gospell with all the riches of mercy goodnesse and free grace revealed and offered therein c. So that they tell them withall That Iesus Christ takes none but such as are willing to take upon them His yoke That hee gives himselâ—e to none but such as are ready to sell all in the sense I have said that they may enjoy his blessed selfe That the glorious grace of the Gospell shines savingly to none but such as deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and live soberly righteously and godlily in this present World That those whose Soules are cleansed by the blood of Iesus Christ from all sinne are onely such as walke in the light as God is in the light who make conscience of detesting and declining all sins and workes of darkenesse discovered to them by the light of Gods holy Booke and sincerely set their hearts and hands with love and carefull endeavour to every duty injoyned therein In a word That as that Fountaine opened to the house of David for sinne and for uncleanesse I meane the blood of that immaculate Lambe Iesus Christ the holy and the righteous doth turne all the sinnes even the very scarlet and crimson of a truly broken heart and every true Mourner in Zion into snow and wooll so it will never wash away the least sinfull staine from the proud heart of any unhumbled Pharisee That hereby no strangers unto the love and life of godlinesse may bee deceived by appropriating unto themselves any of these glorious things which are onely proper to the sealed Fountaine but onely conceive of them as excellent motives to cause them to come in I would have the Preaching of Christ fill the soule of every true harted Nathanael every time with unspeakeable and glorious joy with all those Euangelical pleasures which neither eye hath seene nor eare heard neither have entred into the heart of man But I would have it onely make every unregenerate Man sensible of what infinite blessednesse Hee bereaves Himselfe by continuing a Rebell that thereupon Hee may bee moved to make hast out of His present Hell into this new heaven so fairely opened and freely offered unto Him Besides pressing the law promising mercy proposing Christ c. to stirre men in their naturall states to make them entertaine thoughts of comming in to humble them in the sight of the Lord under the heavy burden of all their sinnes assure them also of pardon in case they will leave Sathans service and so prepare them for Christ Let Gods Ministers lay hold upon all warrantable wayes which they shall find and feele out of their Ministeriall experience and holy wisedome to be availeable and prevaile for that purpose So that the worke bee done in truth And that they doe not like the Divels dawbers deceive them to the eternall ruine and damnation of their Soules by telling them that they have Christ already and are safe enough for salvation whereas indeed as yet there is no such matter Such points as these are woont to make attentive naturall men to startle in their seates to looke about them something more then ordinarily To wit to divide the precious from the vile To distinguish that One true happy state of grace from all states of unregeneratnesse and all kinds of Hypocrisie to tell them out of the Booke of God How farre a Man may goe in generall graces and doing many things c. and yet come short of Heaven To deliver Markes of sincere Professours of a saving Faith of true repentance of a sound conversion c. But I would have this done with a great deale of spirituall wisedome and heavenly understanding with much godly discretion and caution least thereby either the formall Professour may bee incouraged or the weakest Christian disheartned To discourse of the fewnesse and scarcity of those which shall bee saved and that even under the light and within the sound of the Gospell See Math. 20.16 Many are called but few chosen Consider the Parable of the Sower Mat. 13. There is but one good soile upon which the seed of the word falls prosperously but three reprobate grounds as it were upon which it is lost as water upon the ground See my first Doctr. upon Gen. 6.8 c. Thus let the Men of God acquaint themselves with such Points as they conceive the likeliest and most pregnant to pierce their Hearers hearts and come closest to their Consciences that so by the helpe of God they may pull them out of Hell And there are some