private interests and animosities and fall upon these great works as your respective stations give you advantage and opportunity that ye may have this Motto engraven on your tombes Here lie such and such who David-like served their own generations by the will of God And let me adde these two Corrolaries 1. That God hath assigned you your particular times for working Stat sua cuique dies 2. That when ye have lived up that time your working tooles must then be laid aside When David had served out his generation he fell asleep And therefore I shall shut up with the Preachers advice Eccl. 9. ver 10. Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do do it with all thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdome in the grave whether thou goest and though thou beest lately come from thence be not secure the winde may suddenly turn and waft thee back again Alas What is your life it is even a vapour which appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Jam. 4. ver 14. How easily can the great God disperse that vapour and melt that cloud into dew there is a great Arbitrer of all things that can thunder the proud Emperour under his bed and write the great King in three or four words into trembling that can send a fly to fetch the triple crown before his Tribunal make an hair or the kernil of a raison as mortal as Goliah's spear that can unspeak the world into nothing and blow down a great bubble with an easie breath that by drawing one nail can throw down the stateliest building and undress your soules by unpinning one pin c. I have read of a Persian Noble-man who lost his life by the loss of an hair plucked out of his bosome Mr. Vines Essex's Hearse in sport by his Minion 5. Get your hearts into an awfull frame get your spirits tinctured with an holy fear of God Rev. 15. vers 4. Surely they that have felt must needs fear him they that have found the power of his anger let out in soul terrours yea in breaking afflictions upon the body Read M. Jackson's Notes upon this place must needs fear him though indeed none but the damned in Hell experience the power of his anger Moses in Psalme 90. ver 11. put 's the question Who knoweth the power of thine anger implying that none knoweth it as none can take the dimensions of his love which passeth all knowledge so neither of his anger the reason is added because even according to thy fear so is thy wrath that is let a man fear thee never so much he is sure to feel thee much more if he fall into thy hands Paul knew this when he laid down this Position as a fence wall about Profession to keep men from starting out by Apostacy Heb. 10. vers 31. It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God surely if the burnt childe dread's the fire much more men of age and discretion who have been cast into the furnace of affliction have had their moisture dried up their skin writhled their flesh rosted and their very bones burnt with the scorching flames thereof have cause to fear that fire which so farre resembles everlasting burning that though it be not unquenchable yet it is not quenchable but by the bloud of Christ and the melting bowels of God's tender mercie Oh then Dear friends take forth this lesson from your late afflictions to fear that glorious and fearfull name THE LORD THY GOD Deut. 28. vers 58. Fear to offend God fear to do any thing which may displease him in this sence Blessed is the man that feareth alwayes Prov. 28. ver 14. The Hebrew Midwives lost nothing by it Exod. 1. vers 17.21 1. From the consideration of Gods power he is able not onely to call you to an account 1 Cor. 10. vers 22. Do we provoke the Lord to anger Are we stronger then he As Caligula that dared his Jove to a duel Are we the Lord's match can we outstrengthen an Almighty God Who hath hardened himself against him and prospered Job 9. ver 4. Jer. 5. ver 22. 2. Fear to offend him from the consideration of his goodness not onely that goodness which the Lord extends unto you in common with other men nor that speciall goodness which is the peculiar portion of his Elect in Christ but also that particular goodness which the Lord hath vouchsafed you in restoring health unto you when ye lay at the brinks of the grave and many other tumbled in Hos 3. vers 5. Oh Fear the Lord for his goodness 3. Fear an offended God though not provoked by you A tender spirited childe feares and trembles when his father is angry with others though himself hath done no fault God likes this tenderness of spirit in his children Psal 119. vers 120. David saith my flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy Judgments Samar horripilatio my hair stands upright as it doth sometimes in suddain and great frights Job 3. vers 15. The hair of my flesh stood up Amos 3. vers 8. The Lion hath roared Who will not fear Oh observe this Hab. 3. ver 16. When I heard my belly trembled c. Objection But why should the Saints fear the wrath of God who is in Covenant with them and hath promised to be a covering Cherub unto them Solution 1. They see the provoking nature of sinne they consider that sinne is a thing of greatest abhorrency with God and therefore when they observe the growth of sinne in a place or nation they are afraid that God will ere long break out in wrath against them Hence that Numb 17.12 13. read Ezek. 7. from vers 1. to the 16. and apply it upon a national account 2. They see the dreadfulness of Gods wrath they know the English of that Isa 27. vers 4. Who would set the briars and thornes in battail against me I would go thorow them I would burn them together They know what briars and thornes are and what their end shall be They see that themselves are not exempted persons they are not sure to have their door-posts sprinkled with the blood of the Pascal lamb Exod. 12. that the marking Angel Exod. 9. shall give them a signature of safety in their foreheads How was the Church affected Acts 5. ver 11 Ezek. 14. ver 14. Oh then labour to preserve an holy fear of God upon your spirits think often of what Christ speaks Luke 12. ver 4 5. Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have nothing they can do But fear him who after he hath killed hath power to throw into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Lastly Labour to make sure of heaven lay out for an Interest in the Lord Jesus let this be the teaching ye have received from the late sickness Call to minde your sick-bed fears and tears what pangs
executioner cometh in and taketh one after another leading them to a larger place Acts and Monuments fol. 859. where he cutteth their throats with his butchers knife untill he had slaughtered them all to the number of Eightie eight persons even as the butcher prepareth meat for the shambles 3. Hence then they are below the name at least have not the magnanimous the great mindes and gallantry of Christians who cast of Christ when the Cross appeareth that not onely throw off their cloaks but their coats also when the sun of persecution beginneth to scorch them and they also are blameworthy who discover a whining and pettish spirit under afflictions crying out with Baruch Jer. 43. ver 3. Wo is me now for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow I fainted in my sighing and finde no rest as though all was lost when the yoke presseth heavie upon them whereas that one Consideration Lam. 3. ver 39. may stop the mouth for ever Wherefore doth living man complain a poor clod of clay alive on this side the grave and Hell and complain and quarrel with God what equity is there in his complaints what reason hath man to murmur when as man is punished for his sinnes Man that complaineth is guilty of many sinnes the wages whereof is death nay afflicted man who eighteneth his sufferings was ever grief like mine did ever any meet with such Crosses disappointments hard speeches and hard dealings as I meet withall Oh! this man that complaineth now on earth might ere now have cryed out in Hell He that weepeth on earth might long since have wailed in hell and he that gnasheth his teeth against God for his present sufferings might have had gnashing of teeth in endless and easless torments Oh then Wherefore doth living man complain Oh! this is a quieting Consideration to keep down all impatient risings of heart against God in a day of distress and will lead out the spirit to submit unto and trust God in the greatest streights For as it followes in the second head of Doctrine The Saints of God do sometimes meet with such distresses Doctrine 2 that cut off all hopes of deliverance from man Reason is at a stand heart and flesh fail carnal policy is at a loss all proud helpers stoop in vain yea Faith it self beginneth to flagge Thus Gen. 21. vers 14 15 16. Hagar with her sonne are cast out of Abraham's family and are now in a wilderness a place inhabited onely by wilde beasts their stock of provision spent and no supplies to be had What then what courss will Hagar take why she layeth down her beloved boy under a bush And what then she goeth a distance from him not being able to bear his dying groanes and cryes and having emptyed her bottle of water she seeketh to emptie her moaning heart by teares seeing nothing but the death of her Sonne as knowing no way to prevent it a great distress a sad streight but not her case alone Many of the Saints of God have come to the emptying of their bottles to cases of utmost extremitie a parralel case was that of the poor widow 1 Kings 17. vers 12. her whole store was spent and markets shut up as to new supplies a handfull of meal in the barrel and a little oyl in the cruse was her whole livelihood and she is now gathering a handfull of sticks to bake one cake for her self and her Sonne and what will she do when that cake is eaten did she see relief coming some other way no these were her thoughts she and her sonne would eat that cake and die It were easie to multiply presidencies of this kinde upon both accounts temporall and spirituall streights of bodie and pressures of spirit have been matter of the Saints complaint 1. Oh then thou that art a servant of the Lord who hast not been brought into these streights upon whom such a day of distress hath not been but findest the incomes of the spirit dost take in comfort from the promises walkest in the light of God's countenance and hast the candle of the Lord shining upon thy Tabernacle as 1 Kings 1.6 That hast been the Lords Adonijah Oh! charge it home by the way of thankfulness upon thy heart that the Lord should lead thee unto the land of rest and not by the way of the wilderness 2. Let thy bowels yearn toward the distressed of the Lord pity them pray for them and administer seasonable supplies of comfort to them considering thy self as being in the body especially let thy heart go out in tender compassions towards the afflicted in spirit to those who are brought into soul streights whose case runneth parallel with that of Heman Psal 88. ver 3. My soul is full of troubles Heb. is satiated with evills hath its fill is brimm'd up yea running over and these so pressing that my life draweth nigh to the grave and then vers 8. I am shut up I am a prisoner under restraint I but it is libera custodia he may go forth with his keeper no I cannot go forth Oh! t is a sad thing to be a close Prisoner to be so shut up that he cannot steppe one foot beyond the grate to take any contentment in the creature any delight in outward enjoyments or any comforts in relations Ah but Heman's case is far sadder he is so shut up that his spirit cannot go forth in prayer to fetch in comfort from the Promises nor healing from the Spirit nor life from Jesus Christ nor pardoning mercy from the God and Father of mercies nor evidence of Electing love nor assurance of Redeeming grace nor demonstrations of Adopting grace nay nor satisfying and soul-quieting conclusions of truth of grace but free amongst the dead like the slain in the grave whom God remembreth no more Dead to duty dead in duty dead from duty spirit dead and heart dead affections dead desires dead comforts dead hope dead faith dead yea all dead Oh! this is sad above what words can express onely the heart knoweth its own bitterness yet this day of distress hath been upon many precious Saints Oh! then draw forth the breasts of consolation to such sad souls Stay them with flaggons comfort them with apples And let this give you incouraging hopes of success in all your applications that the appearances of God are eminent and immediate in the day of his peoples greatest distress which is the main point I pitch upon as being the chief scope of the Text. Doct. 3. The Lord comes in often with seasonable and suitable mercies in times of greatest miseries He loveth to be seen on the Mount to be a present help in the needful time of trouble to help when none else can help when refuge faileth and hope is now at the giving up the ghost See that Gen. 21. vers 17 18. When Hagars fears were highest and her faith lowest as too oft is seen that when fear is up then faith is down
dangerous condition of those persons who lye and dye in those sinful practices they shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven Thirdly The precious mercy of God unto them in recovering renewing pardoning and healing grace vers 9. Ye are washed ye are sanctified ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God Fourthly Their union with Christ and their engraffment into Christ vers 15. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid Fifthly The indwelling of the holy Spirit whereby their bodies are consecrated to be the temples of God Know ye not that your bodie is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you whom ye have of God Sixthly That these bodies of theirs should be raised up by the power of God at the last day vers 14. And now what is the answer of a gracious heart to these arguments It is true I have lived in uncleanness that sin unpardoned excludes from heaven but through free-grace I am redeemed by the Lord Jesus and incorporated into him as a member into the head my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and it shall be raised up at the last day fashioned like unto the glorious body of my dear Saviour And shall I soil my self again in the sink of my former uncleanness Shall I spot my robe again which hath been washed and made white in the blood of the Lambe Shall I prostitute a member of Christ and defile a temple of the holy and eternal Spirit of Grace Oh no! 〈…〉 abire sâ—let I will not I dare not Surely such arguings will bring forth such resolutions as to an hatred of sin and love to holiness if we rightly improve them If Scipro an heathen rejected the offer of an harlot with vellem si non essem Imperator I would if I were not a General A Saint may much better with à nolo Christianus sum I will not I am a Christian this is the first benefit you will receive from your keeping up a lively sense of grace received and surely you do then live best to your selves when you live freest from sin For 1. You will then be freest from the rod a towardly child is not often laid over the knee nor a close-walking Christian often under the rod sin usually bringeth forth sufferings Psal 89.30 If his children forsake my law then vers 32. I will visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquities with stripes 2. You will have quicker and safer returns of your prayers the dutiful child soonest speeds in his requests Psal 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not hear my prayers and the Apostle teacheth us that the way to draw nigh unto God with assurance and acceptance must be this To get our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with clean water Heb. 10.22 3. You will keep up closest and sweetest communion with God the obedient child lyes most in his fathers bosom 1 Joh. 1.6 If we say we have fellowship with God and walk in darkness we lye but verse 7. If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another God and we our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 4. You will have clearest and fullest evidences of your heavenly inheritance when the eldest son pleaded Luk. 15.29 That he never transgressed at any time the commandment of his father presently the reply of the father is All that I have is thine and when David feasted the wayfaring man with Vriahs Ew-lambe the joy of his salvation was lost as to the sense and comfort of it Psal 51.12 5. You will live in the nearest resemblance of heaven which consisteth in a perfection of holiness glorified souls are termed Spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 Hence he expressed himself thus Ansclme That if sin stood on the one hand and hell on the other he would choose hell rather if it might be without sin then heaven with sin 2. This serious reflection upon what the Lord hath done for you will be of excellent use to keep your souls close with God it will work your hearts into a steady frame and sure you will live best to your selves when your hearts are most fixed upon god and most fixed for God it is a singular mercy to be standing Christians in falling times this stability of spirit is much valued by God and receives much in way of spiritual incomes from God Apoc. 3.7 to the 13. the contrary is much disliked by the Lord Psal 78.8 the people of Israel are charged with this crime that they set not their heart aright and that their spirit was not stedfast with God and vers 9. The children of Ephraim being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battail bewraying their false-heartednoss to and faint-heartedness in the Lords quarrel Ah how is the Scripture sadly made good in our days We have hearts bent to back-sliding revolting spirits from the truths ways and cause of the Lord Jesus though the Lord hath opened his Gospel-Magazine amongst us given forth his spiritual armor in all the pieces of it furnished us with a gallant train of Artillery formed us into compleat bodies put us under the conducts of skilful leaders given us the advantage of winde and hill and the ark of his presence hath marched in the middest of us yet what dishonorable retreat have many of us made how have we flung down our Arms and forsooke our standard in the day of battel nay The swarm is up and setled in so many parts that it will be very hard to bring them again into one Hive Mr. Vines how have we been like a routed Army scattered here and there into small parties and all endeavors as yet prevail not to rally us again what a full comment is England upon and how parallel unto that Eze. 34.5 6. They were scattered and became meat to all the beasts of the field when they were scattered my sheep wandered upon every mountain and upon every high hill let us make a little stay and gather up some observations As 1. That the word of God is the walk of Christs sheep the Scriptures of truth set boundaries to their Pastures 2. Every departure from the word in judgement or practice is an aberration the sheep that seek pasture beyond the bound of Scripture are straglers 3. That the sheep of Christ especially the fat and lusty of them are apt to wander to go beyond their bounds and in somethings to depart from their flock and fold but I would not be mistaken as though I interpret the departure of conscientious Christians from the common road of carnal Gospeling or from the foot track of formal profession nor yet their declining communion with the whole rout of professors at
hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth See Mr. Baxter in loc crucified among you This onely would I learn of you received ye the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith c Oh did ye much and often read over the passages of divine love unto you and would be true to your own experiences it would antidote you against many errors of the times and keep your hearts close with God 3. This serious recognition and review of the Lords mercies brings most comfort unto the soul and sure he lives best to himself who lives most to his own comfort a life of comfort is the sweetness the desireableness and life of life What is life to the bitter in soul which long for death and dig for it more then for bid treasures which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they finde the grave Job 3.21 22 23. And what comfort have men in living upon a natural account when those dayes are come wherein they say we have no pleasure in them Eccl. 12. ver 1. and is it not so in a spirituall sense a wounded spirit who can bear but a good conscience is a continual feast and the Kingdome of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. vers 17. Then do we come nearest heaven and live in the suburbs of it when we are filled with peace and joy in our soules when we experience a sedateness and serenity of spirit rejoycing in hope of the glory of God now sence of grace received doth marvellously comfort the soul 1. In our addressments unto God by prayer when we have any request to make at the throne of grace this will work a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and holy boldness of spirit in us we may encourage our selves to hope that we shall speed in our desires and have acceptation in heaven when we consider that God hath manifested the love of a father and given the portion of a childe unto us how he sought us up when we were gone astray met us with a welcome home at our returne and clasped us in the embraces of his paternall affections when we have the robe and ring to shew the spirit of Adoption which cryeth Abba Father and therefore if parents that are evil know how to give good things to their children See Mr. Teat in Matth. 7. vers 11. much more will our heavenly father give the holy Ghost to us that ask him Luke 11. vers 13. even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good things yea all good things for the Holy Ghost is a comprehensive and superlative terme all good things and that which is more then all besides sure we should not have that listlesness and loathness unto prayer that heart-deadness in prayer and those dead hopes as to expectancy of comfort from prayer if we were much and often in the meditation of Gods love Oh t is an excellent heart preparatory unto prayer and the readiest way to find the returnes of our prayers Care his Plus cum Deo quam hominibus loquitur while prayer standeth still the trade of Godliness stands still also and soul-wants are great and many all good comes into the soul by this door and all true treasures by this Merchants ship And sure they who have their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and their bodies washed with pure water that have the sence of justifying and sanctifying grace have boldness and heart-willingness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus and may draw near to God with full assurance of faith Heb. 10. vers 19 22. in which the life of comfort doth much consist and by which it is much preserved in the soul 2. This heart-commanding will give you comfort in your attendance at the posts of wisdome O when you sit at the feet of Jesus in his teaching ordinances and your hearts are heated and heightened with a serious meditation upon the truth and work of grace you 'l taste comfort in every word and draw sweetness out of every dug if sin be roundly dealt withall and the arrowes of the Lord be keen to strike through the very heart of a lust you will rejoyce in it because 't is done against an enemy sin and you are now implacably fallen out and therefore you dare speak in the words of the Psalmist Psal 139. ver 21 22. Do not I hate them which hate thee and am not I grieved with them which rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect hatred I count them mine enemies Indeed in a sense we are to love our enemies but those that would draw off our hearts from the Lord and loosen our affections from holiness as sin would Oh they are enemies indeed and we shall bless God when the word wounds them deepest that they bleed and breath out their last Time was when we had secret heart-risings against the word when a reproof came too close and Ahab-like we have hated the Micaiah and have gone home to our houses heavy and displeased because of the word which hath been spoken unto us 1 Kings 21. vers 4. I but now we take pleasure in a sin-wounding Sermon a lust-laming discourse when the word gets a leg or an arm from the body of death so when impenitency is reproved and sentenced we shall be comforted when we find that God hath given us soft hearts and granted repentance unto life Acts 11. verse 18. If Gospel unbelief be threatened and the wrath of an eternal God denounced our hearts will be comforted by a reflection upon our faith of which Jesus Christ hath been the Author and will be the finisher Heb. 12. ver 2. nay if the bottomless pit be opened and a vision of that brimstone-lake belching forth smoke and sulphur be presented the sight whereof makes the sinners of Zion afraid and surpriseth the hippocrites with sinking fears crying out in the greatness of their distress who amongst us shall dwell with devouring fire who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings Isa 33. ver 14. our hearts will feed upon this sad truth with comfort when we know that with Noah we are in the ark and with Lot we are in Zoar waiting for our Jesus from heaven who hath delivered us from wrath to come 1 Thes 1. vers ult The Devil is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a roaring lion roaring after the prey but our comfort is that the Lord Jesus is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lion of the Tribe of Judah which rescueth us from the paws of this Lion Nay farther if Gospel priviledges be displayed Gospel-promises be applyed Gospel-treasures be opened and the name of Christ like oyntment be powred forth we may by an Act of believing grasp at all and say all is ours we are Christs 1 Cor. 3. ver ult yea Christ is ours Cant. 5. ver ult In a word if the state of after
O friends mind the annointings of the Spirit the sealings of the Spirit the witness of the spirit and draw up a fair Copy of all the gracious visits actings and workings of your blessed Redeemer by his Spirit unto and upon your hearts that your soules may often read therein that so when you come to die as needs you must and be as water spilt upon the ground which can be gathered up no more you may then be set down in the valley of Achor nay may finde the valley of the shadow of death as the valley of Baracha God hath pluckt out the sting of death and so death is given as a favour unto you O read your own blessedness in the light and print of the spirit Apoc. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord from * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e vestigio amodo ab ipso mortis articulo Mr. Trap. in locum henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them A Christian says one is here like quick-silver which hath in it a principle of motion not of rest never quiet like a ball upon the rackets a ship upon the waves but death brings him to his rest his body to the grave which is his bed of rest Isa 57.2 and his soul into Abrahams bosom That rest which remains to the people of God Heb. 4.9 And your works shall follow you mors privare potest â—pibus non operibus death doth strip a Saint of his wealth not of his works there shall be a resurrection of your prayers and piety yea honorable mention will be made of your charity to the poor Saints at the great day Mat. 25.35 I was an hungry and ye fed me c. Oh comfort your hearts with these considerations duly weighing what ye have read and you will find when you sive most in a lively sense of grace received and in the improvement of it you live best to your selves as to a greater freedom from sin a closer walking with God and living a life of greatest comfort 3. A sober and savourly collection of grace received will make you live best to others No man is born to himself says the heathen and no man liveth to himself says the holy Ghost Rom. 14.5 he is a monster in nature that centers onely upon himself and is fitter to dwell like an Anchoret in a Cell or like a leper apart then in a community with men and Christians as there is a circulation of the blood in natural bodies that every part may receive warmth and spirits to supply its want and to render it serviceable to the whole So ought there to be a circulation of gifts and graces in the body mistical upon spiritual accounts therefore says the Apostle We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak either bear with them or bear up the infirm and weak Christians as pillars do the poise of the whole house or parents bear their babes in their armes and not to please our selves that is not to live onely in a way of self-pleasing as men acted by principles of self-love but vers 2. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification for even Christ pleased not himself The end of Christs coming into the world was not to seek great things for himself upon a carnal and self-pleasing score nay though the cup and cross were displeasing unto him as man and he prayed against them yet when he considered that the will of his father was to bring many sons unto glory and that by making the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings he presently submitted and said not my will but thine be done Here 's our pattern in the pursuance of others good our lives should be as so many Sermons on the life of Christ as one saith this is to walk as Christ walked and this will give boldness in the day of Judgment Now we shall best seek our neighbours good to edification when we keep up a sence of our own wants and weaknesses supplies and succours we shall thereby be like the good Scribe Matth. 13. ver 52. which is instrutied to the kingdome of heaven who hath things new and old in his treasury to bring forth upon every occasion The Rabbins Proverb is Lilmed le-lammed Learn that ye may teach and the Scribe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extrudit copiose alacriter freely and fully gives forth his store to the needy hearer Christians as well as Ministers must be like full paps Mr. Trap. in Mat. 13.52 which pain the nurse with their fulness and therefore draw them out to their babes that they may be drawn or like Aromatical trees which sweat out their soveraign gummes and oyls But alas how few such sweating trees grow upon English ground how many dry breasts have we every where and those that are full have sore nibbles that will not give suck because of the painfulness in drawing Truely when I observed this great evil amongst the Christians of our age and Nation I was pressed in spirit to provoke unto love and good works and to publish my thoughts by way of brotherly advice unto them that a wise and faithful improvement of our own cases and graces would excellently advantage the good of our neighbours I shall instance in some Particulars 1. Your own experiences faithfully communicated will marveilously encourage young Converts they will be as a staff in the hand of the weak whereon to stay New beginners have many fears and pull-backs at their first setting forth for heaven many adversaries that do way-lay them and many enemies that do pursue them Egypt at the red sea and Amaleck in the wilderness Satan levies all his temptation to render the seed of grace abortive in their soules so that it would bring forth fruit to perfection at a slow rate if the Lord Jesus who planted it did not also water and preserve it and that every moment Isa 27. vers 3. Bendes when the Lord gives a converted sinner a vision of himself lets him see his own vileness the heaps of sin and lust the springs and falls of corruption in his nature how he lies under the guilt of black and horrid sins open to the wrath of an Almighty and sin-revenging God and ready to drop into the grave and hell out of which there is no recovery Oh the fears that are upon his spirit the dismal thoughts that roul up and down his mind the dreadfull sound that is in his ears but now if you that are Christians of some standing in the grace of God would impart your experiences and tell him what your fears and terrours and troubles were and how the Lord gave you in comfort and establishment sure this would mightily encourage a young convert and have a special influx to his peace quietness and consolation This was the Apostle Paul's way 1 Tim. 1. ver 15. This is a
The Art of Divine Improvement OR The Christian Instructed How to make a right use of Duties Dangers Deliverances Both as they concern himself and others Opened and applied in several SERMONS By NATHANIEL WHITING M.A. and Minister of the Gospel at Aldwinckle A work very suitable for all sorts of Christians and very seasonable for these times 1 Tim. 4.8 Exercise thy self unto Godliness LONDON Printed for R. T. and are to be sold by Dorman Newman at the Kings Arms next to Grocers-Alley in the Poultry 1662. To the Ransomed ones of the Lord with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Dear Friends WHen with my own people I thankfully owned before the Lord an eminent Deliverance from an imminent Danger I then entred uppon this Discourse which was suited to that Providence And having often reflected upon that signall mercy duely considering the opportunities of doing and receiving good which I have had since that gracious reprieve from death I have since drawn up my Meditations which then were short suddain and confused into a more enlarged orderly and methodicall Treatise I do not covet the applause of men nor court your Acceptance with strains of wit an affected Eloquence new lights put into a dark Lanthorne or Seraphicall Notions high and sublimate but present you with a plain and practical Discourss desiring to speak from the heart to the heart The Treatise is Tripartite thereby resembling the heart which is Triangular and 't is my single designe to endeavour that upon the points or corners of your hearts may be engraven your Dangers Deliverances and Duties that so the mercies of God which are Records of greatest Import may be preserved with greatest care and you may be provoked to act with greatest Conscience for God We cannot look back upon Adam in his lapsed Estate but we may see a deluge of wrath breaking in upon whole mankinde at the breach of the first Covenant we cannot read over our own Diaries but we may read our own Dangers drawn up in black Characters of our sins as provoking God unto displeasure against us nay the times that lately passed over us presented us with danger from the sword of men in the heat of warr and now are we in dayly hazards from the arrows of the Almighty in various and violent distempers Again we cannot seriously study the Gospel but our great Deliverance from wrath to come by the precious bloud of our Crucified Jesus presents it self unto our view nor can we considerately survey our own Soules but we may read the counterpane thereof transcribed by the Eternal Spirit nor own Experiences but we may meet with large Volumes of eminent Deliverances personall and Nationall wrought for us by the outstretched arme of an Almighty God Again if we turn over those holy leaves of the Scriptures of Truth if we consult the Experiences of Gods people in the Ages that are past or seriously advise with our own spirits when in a right frame we shall finde many Duties charged upon us as our returnes to God for our great Deliverances The great God will not be a loser by his mercies he exspecteth some incomes into the bank of his glory if he have it not from us he will have it out upon us If we do not give it he will take it Deliverances are a great Talent put into the hands of men to trade withal for God They that lap up this Talent in a napkin by forgetfulness or squander it away by unsuitable actings heap guilt upon their own soules and shall be sure at the reckoning day to finde this sin as the Israelites did an ounce of their golden calf in all the rebukes of God upon them The sad Consideration whereof hath been and is much upon my heart and hath been a principall inducement to thrust this Treatise into the world which is not Polemical in the main intention of it my Standard bearing this Motto Zech. 8.19 LOVE THE TRVTH AND PEACE nor is it provoking I hope to any Iames 3.17 being the product of that wisdome which is first pure then peaceable c. I have avoided all bitterness that I might not stirr up any prejudice my business is to be a Remembrancer from the Lord unto you and to provoke unto love and good works as the genuine improvement of grace and mercy received I have not exactly methodised this Treatise nor cast it into the mould of the Title Page but laid down all Sermon-wise handling the Saints Dangers and Deliverances in the Doctrinall and their Duties in the Applicatory part of it in which I have respect as well to Spiritual as to Temporal Dangers and Deliverances and with respect to all as they stand in a personall or Relative capacity I will not Cramben bis coctam dare by Epitomizing in the Epistle what is largely pressed in the body of the Discourse I shall therefore onely entreat you to bewail before the Lord that root which bringeth forth wormwood and gall amongst us that discontent and sullenness of spirit by means whereof God is not owned in nor honoured for those glorious vouchsafements of mercy which have been matter of envie and astonishment in all the Nations about us that land-flood of corrupt Principles and practises which like a swift and spreading Torrent hath laid a great part of the Nation under water that spirit of bitterness and enmity against Godliness in the power and Religion in the purity of it and those sad divisions about which sadly hinder the work of a thorough Gospel-Reformation c. all which are sowre grapes yea clusters of Gomorrah and not such a Vintage which the Lord might reasonably exspect from a people of such rich mercies such signal preservations and under the enjoyment of such encouraging advantages as ours have been O that your souls would mourn in secret places for these things O that you were so affected with them that you would refuse your pleasant bread O that you would so reprove a carnal and careless Generation of men by your lively acttings for God that many yea all who have experienced the goodness of the Lord in eminent preservations may glorifie the name of the Lord by an Evangelical conversation that so the presence of God may still give us rest that our English Zion may be made an Eternal Excellency a joy of many generations Isay 60.15 18. that our walls through the divine Custodiency may still be called Salvation and our gates praise But though this spiritual Lethargy be incurable in many yet be ye O ye Ransomed ones of the Lord awakened unto duty and let the sense of mercy in the eminent appearances of God to your help in the daies of your distress carry you like wind and tide full sail in your zeal for his Glory in order to which I shall humbly offer these hints unto you and I entreat the people of my own charge to take special notice of them as
being mainly intended for them 1. Be frequent in your reveiws of those feared dangers and fretting distempers those painful sicknesses and perplexing sorrows from which the good Hand of God has fetcht you gather up your dangers and deliverances your pressures and preservations how the Lord has granted you life and favour life with the comforts of it to make it sweet and desireable Iob 10.12 and his visitation has preserved your spirit has secured your lives in the midst of many dangers which surely have been many from infancy to gray hairs that so you may visite him in duty who hath so often visited you in mercy there are frequent visites past betwixt friends God is your best friend account that day lost wherein you do not visit him and keep up sweet communion with him It was a gallant speech of a brave man Marquess of Vico. accursed be that man who values the wealth of the world worth one daies communion with God Psal 34.2 4. and act up unto David's pattern I will bless the Lord at all times c. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me out of all my feares which were many and lay hard upon him when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech and acted the part of a mad man which so sober a person as David would not have done had not his fears been strong and his faith weak 2. Get your Spirits tinctured with a deep sense of that darkness which was upon you when day first broke upon your souls what desperate courses you were engaged in and out of what company the Lord pluckt you with whom ye were folded as thornes before conversion own the conduct of that providence whereby you have been led from Beth-haven to Beth-El from profane places and societies into such families such fellowships and Congregations where Religion has been owned family-duties carefully observed Sabbath-strictnes advanced the Word spiritually dispensed and holiness has been contended for whereby a saveving change has been brought forth in you or you have been more built up in faith and holiness Let the consideration of what you are compared with what you have been be much upon your spirits that you may with thankfulness adore the riches of that mercy by which you have been differenced as to present grace and hope of future glory from the profane world 3. Keep up your first love to Christ and your first hatred to sin Yonge converts have usually strong affections Those sinnes which have been Peccata in deliciis which have had most of the heart are most upon the conscience most in the confession most in the holy mournings and are most the abhorency of new Converts Again such is their sense of differencing mercy that they are all Love to God and all Zeal for his glory Apoc. 2.2 3. Mihi sane Auxentius nunquam aliud quam diabolus erit quia Arrianus Hilar. you may read this in the gallantrie of the Ephesians spirit I know thy works and thy labour and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil either passions in thy soul or persons in thy society c. a high strain of Love the stream must needs be strong that turns all these wheeles it argues a great force of affection to draw out the soul into all these noble actings for Christ but as a well-kindled fire abates in heat and light as the fuel wastes or as a passionate lover remits of that violent affection when the person beloved has been some time enjoyed So it fareth with these Ephesian Christians they left their first love the love of their Espousals and so became Aphesis Mr. Trap. n loc remiss and careless possest with a spirit of sloth and indevotion O let not this charg be drawn up against us that the candlestick may not be remooved from us What attempts have been made to un-church un-sabboth and un-gospel us and how signally the Lord has appeared for us you know O remember that strength of zeal that warmth of spirit that height of love to God his truth waies and people those sighings prayings fastings fightings c. that were amongst us when the yoak was loosned from our necks and when a doore was first opened unto us for Religion and Reformation in the long Parliament Labour therefore to keep up your first abhorency of sin and your first affection to Jesus Christ 4. Cherish an high esteem of Gospel-ordinances Remember how pretious the word was then unto you when visions were scarce how you blessed God for it and rejoyced in it when you ran to and fro to find it how your feet stood in the house of the Lord and you flew as Doves to their windows swiftly and in flocks when Pulpits began to be filled with zealous spiritual and conscientious Preachers O let not this Manna lose any of it's sweetness upon your tastes now that you have it in so much peace and plenty Bread if wanting is called for though the table be heaped with dishes The word is bread to all creature-comforts 't is that which makes them noble and nourishing O then be often in the galleries with the King Cant. 7.5 drink deep of his spiced wine feed freely of those dainties which are prepared and served out by the Eternal Spirit When you here a Sermon-bell think you hear a voice from heaven calling you in the words of Divine Herbert Come hither all whose taste Is your waste Save your cost and mend your fare God is here prepar'd and drest And the feast God in whom all dainties are You know and lament the negligence of some and the wantonness of others thin Congregations and empty seats is not the complaint of a simple Minister 1 Pet. 2.2 Still desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby Do not wean your selves from the breast whilst you are in a growing estate and never think you are past growth Ephes 4 13. until you be come to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ which state of perfection Scripture and your own experience duly consulted with will tell you is not attainable on this side Heaven 5. Maintain an evangelical brotherly love amongst your selves Love is the greate Gospel Soder and Cement a characteristical note of Christ's Disciples without which the highest pretence to piety and profession is under censure by the Holy Ghost Iac. 3.14 15 16. O how did Christians cling together in times of trouble What friendly entertainment did Saints find in the hearts and houses each of other when they were forced from their dwellings by an enraged enemy how did the old Primitive and puritane love begin to spring up and flourish in England And now that we have no enemy to quarrel with will you needs quarrel one with another What an unsuitable return is this unto the God of Peace for his astonishing mercies and preservations Ah friends well
place where he lives 206 The Saints are the best neighbours 207 1. In communicating to the outward wants of the poor ibid. 2. In procuring the blessings of God upon the Families and places where they live ibid. 3. In diverting or delaying of Judgements impending 208 4. In lengthening out the day of Gods Patience to the prophane world 209 5. In promoting the Conversion of their carnall neighbours 210 Considerations to stirr up Saints to endeavour the Conversion of sinners 211 112 213 214 Consid 1. It is a matter of great well-pleasingness unto God 215 Consid 2. It is an honour to Jesus Christ 216 Consid 3. The Providences of God which have gone over the Nation ib. 217 Consid 4. That we ought to do unto others what we would have others do unto us 218 219 Consid 5. That what your carnal neighbours are you were 220 Consid 6. That it is a piece of good friendship to your selves 221 1. It is an high point of spiritual good husbandry ibid. 2. It makes much for your personall safety ibid. 3. It makes much for your personall comfort 222 4. It layes a good foundation for posterity 223 224 5. It hath a tendency towards your everlasting comfort 225 Prov. 7.30 compared with Dan. 123. 126. Six positions laid down 127 Consid 7. That bad men are very active and industrious to gain over others to their bad Principles and worse Practises 229 Proverbs 1.10 11. opened in some particulars 129 230 231 The 4Vse by way of comfort and encouragement in 4 cases 1. When Church-affairs do meet with a dark and gloomy day 232 233 234 2. When the Saints are under sufferings for the name and in the cause of Christ. 235 236 Some further grounds of comfort offered 237 1. That God will stand by you in the day of your suffering because your sufferings are upon you for God ibid. 2. That the spirits of all the faithfull will be up in prayer for you 238 239 3. That God doth many times so moderate and allay the fury of men that it extends not to the taking away of life 241 242 4. That your death will be life from the dead to others in a spirituall sense 243 244 245 246 5. That 't is an honourable advancement to be singled out by Christ to suffer for him 247 248 3. When you are under sore and sharp temptations from the wicked one 249 250 1 Cor. 1.30 opened 251 252 253 254 4. When you are under castings down from a fear of your eternall welfare 255 256 The last Vse of Reproof 1. The profane and carnal world are reproved in 3 Particulars 257 1. For their uncharitable censuring of suffering Saints ibid. 2. For their unjust charge of hypocrisie upon them 258 Job 8.6 7. opened 259 260 3. For that definitive sentence which they pass upon suffering Saints as though they were cast of by God 261 Isa 49.14 opened 262 Jer. 37.20 opened 263 2. This reproves those who strengthen themselves with the arme of flesh and lean upon the creature when afflictions overtake them 264 265 3. This reprooves those who will not wait the Lords time but discover Impaciency if helps come not at their own time 266 The evil fruits of impaciency 267 1. Vnbelief 268 2. Discontented murmurings ibid. 3. Vse of unlawfull means 269 Psalme 78.41 opened ibid. 4. This drawes up a charge against those that retain not a remembrance of the great mercies of God toward them neither give him the glory of them 270 Hosea 13.5 6. opened 271 5. Those are reproved who do not live up to the signal preservation they have received from the Lord. 272 273 274. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OLD JACOB's ALTAR newly Repaired OR THE SAINTS TRIANGLE of Dangers Deliverances and Duties Text PSALM 94. vers 17. Vnless the Lord had been my help my soul had almost or quickly dwelt in silence THis Book of the Psalmes hath been honoured and that deservedly with high Commendations by the Antients being termed The Soul's Anatomy The Law 's Epitomie The Gospel's Index a little Bible The Summary of both the Testaments being alledged or aliuded to eighty four times or thereabouts in the New Testament as one observeth A sweet Field and Rosary of Promises Precepts Predictions Praises Soliloquies c. A Physick Garden richly furnished with all sorts of healing plants and Medicinal herbs suited to all the Spiritual distempers frail man is incident unto The holy Pen-man being a person of choice spirit and of large experiences meeteth with all the conditions of all the Saints in their state of militancy so that out of them as out of a Storehouse every Saint may meet with rich supply suting his respective condition and his addresses to God still finding much of his own estate in some Psalme or other as though the spirit of God spake de se in re sua of him and in his particular case As Athanasius observeth containing the Characters and Representations of his thoughts meditations affections and workings of spirit towards God towards man towards himself throughout all the changes of his Pilgrimage An Epitomy of the Bible or a little Bible as Luther calls it in this present world The Apostle James Chap. 5. ver 13. gives this general advice Is any afflicted let him pray Is any merry let him sing Psalmes Lo here is the bread of mourners for sad spirits and here is the oyl of gladness for merry hearts here are healing potions for all heart distempers and cordial waters for all sinking spirits yea choice experiences to strengthen fainting soules in the day of their distress more pleasant then the pooles of Heshbon more glorious then the Tower of Lebanon more redolent then the oyl of Aaron and more fructifying then the dew of Hermon as one expresseth it and amongst many Psalmes though this hath not the Title Michtam of David affixed to it to wit A golden Psalme or David's precious jewel yet it is as the first borne among many brethren from a very small Parcel whereof viz. vers 17. we may consider a double acknowledgment 1. Of imminent danger set forth 1. By the nearness of it 2. By the greatness of it 2. Of eminent Deliverance in two considerable Circumstances 1. The reasonableness of Help 2. The sufficiencie of Help Which Considerations will appear to be very genuine and to be the plain meaning of the Prophet if we take the Text in pieces and examine each word apart 1. Except the Lord or if the Lord had not stood by me and appeared in the very nick of time this implieth the seasonableness of help the Lord usually reserving his hand for a dead lift as that passage Psal 124. vers 1 2 3. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side now may Israel say if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us then they had swallowed us up quick the word is used Psal 119.
the earth with the knowledge of the Lord as the water covers the Sea Isa 11.9 that ye and we may go forth by the footsteps of the flocke that ye may feed your kids by the shepherds tents and all of us may know where the Lord Jesus feedeth and where be maketh his flock to rest at noon Cant. 1. vers 7 8. For why should any of you be as they that turn aside by the flocks of strangers 4. Quicken up that ancient zeal those burning affections and that fixedness of spirit in you for the Lord his truth his cause his Ministery and his people which once ye had O if ye find your present peace and pleasure honor and full estates dignity and dominion to begin raise unwholesome damps in your souls the sense of grace received and mercies received so eminent as yours have been and the Nation in you will excellently scatter them if well improved Oh then the Champions of Israel who have vanquished Christ and his Churches enemies in the field draw up gallantly against corruptions in your own hearts As ye have subdued Kingdomes so work righteousness As ye have bled for Christ in time of war so bow down to Christ in time of peace As ye have sealed the walls of the mighty so pull down the strong holds of sin within your own bosomes As ye have cast down the high ones of the earth from their seats so cast down imaginations and every high thought which exalteth it self against the knowledge of God As ye have captivated Nations and people to the obedience of your commands so bring all the thoughts the Nations and people of those little worlds your hearts into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ and his Gospel-commands 2 Cor. 10. vers 5. Your war is an In-land war now the weapons of your warfare are not now carnal but spiritual your enemies are not High-landers but In-landers not Cavaliers but Corruptions not the wilde Irish but the wilde Asses Colr principles of proud corrupt nature And now as your conflicts are harder so your conquests will be happier As your enemies are more dangerous so your victory will be more glorious Prov. 16. vers 32. he that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that scaleth a City Oh it would be very sad and much sadden the hearts of many of your Christian friends if any of you who Sampson-like have slain the Philistins should yourselves be slain by a Philistin Delilah that your locks should be cut and the strength of the Lord should depart from you Oh how would the Daughters of the Philistins rejoyce how would the Daughters of the uncircumcised triumph when this should be told in Gath and published in the streets in Askelon and how would the Daughters of Israel weep over you and say How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battel the spiritual warfare How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished 2 Sam. 1. vers 24.25 27. Oh then stand to your Armes make good your Sacramentum militare your military oath to be true to Christ and his cause there is not such a thing in a Gospel-sense belonging to your Christian warfare as an honorable retreat Mr. Gurnab part 1. of his Christian in Compleat Armour pag. 374. not such a word of command in all Christs military Discipline as fal back and lay down your arms till called off by death as a Reverend Divine saith Oh then now the war is ended and the Lord hath given us peace by your means attend that spiritual work and spiritual war and go to the Armoury of the great Captain of our salvation opened by St. Paul Eph. 6. vers 11 12 13. c. and take out such peeces as you want yea every peece of Armour that you finde in that spiritual Magazine that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand that so having fought the good fight of faith ye may hold on eternal life and receive that Coronam militarem that Crown of righteousness which the Lord will give to all those who love his appearing 2 Tim. vers 4.7 8. 4. Here is a word from the Lord to Mariners and Sea-trading men And O that our Sea-Commanders and Souldiers would rightly improve this truth If this poor Treatise shall come into any of your hands the good Lord set it upon your hearts If the appearances of God be eminent and immediate to any in a day of distress sure they have been so to you ye of all men do see much of the power and providence of God at least may see it if your eyes be opened and your mindes savingly inlightned The Psalmist tells us and though I be not a Seafaring man yet I beleeve it they that go down to the Seas in ships that do business in great waters these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep for he commandeth and raiseth up the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof they mount up to the heavens they go down again to the depths Psal 10. vers 23 24 25 26. Cannot ye comment upon this Text cannot ye seal to this truth their soul is melted because of trouble runs as thin as water they are ready to dye for fear of death Junius understands it of extreme vomiting as if they were casting up their very hearts One doubted whether he should reckon Mariners who were put to Sea amongst the living or the dead in the censure or Registry of a Nation Another sayes that a man will go to the Sea at first I wonder not but to go a second time it is madness They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man nutant nautae vacillant cerebro pedibus there is a great deal of elegancy in the phrase and it is very significant men that are full of drink that are loaden with liquor they go with a very unsteady and tottering gate reeling now against this wall and now against that if they walk in a narrow street so Mariners in a storm are thrown first on one side then on the other side of the ship A tempest is a sad Sea-quake which throws all on heaps nothing hardly keeps due order and its right place in the ship again a man that is down drunk as the phrase is is reason-struck his intellectuals are shattered he is fit for no head imployment so Mariners in a storm are at their wits end all their skill and strength fail them at once All their wisdom is swallowed up Heb. that is the art of Navigation is now of no use unto them Card and Compass and all laid aside and forced to let the ship run a drift hath not this been your case in great stress of weather Have ye not met with such a storm at sea which hath brought forth all these fears and terrors in you have ye not often thought ye should have been entombed within walls of water and
is past the summer is ended and we are not saved sickness and death have not removed their quarters neither is there any amongst us that knoweth how long their abode shall be Psal 74. vers 9. Their commission being under the Privy Seal of Heaven and if their hostilities be so great this winter season what wasting and desolation may we fear at the time when Kings go forth to battle 2 Sam. 11. ver 1. if winter agues be so violent what will the summer feavers be if these diseases sweep our Townes so much what will the besome of destruction do If we have run with the footmen and they have wearied us then how shall we contend with horses If we have been wearied in the land of Jordan O that the sence of our present sickness and the fear of an approaching mortality invading the land was set home upon all our hearts that we might improve the Lords counsel Hos 14.2 to take with us words and turn to the Lord and say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously that we might prepare to meet our God with an entreaty of peace before the decree come forth Oh that all especially the men of wisdome in the Nation would hear the rod and who hath appointed it Mic. 6. vers 9. and receive teaching from it My humble advice from the Lord to those who have been sick and now are west who are now in the land of the living when as many labouring under the said distempers are gone down to the chambers of death is this I. That you would own with thankfulness the healing mercies of God whereby you have been restored Let your thoughts often reflect upon your former weakness what pains and faintings seased upon you what the opinion of your Physicians and the fears of your Relations were when your pulses beat low and softly when you drew your breath short and painfully when paleness had covered your faces when the grashopper was a burden to you such was your weakness Job 16. vers 16. when the shadow of death was on your eye-lids and all the symptomes of death appeared in you and all this at such a time when graves were opened very many in most places when God himself was the preacher and that upon this text Isa 40. vers 6 7. All flesh is grass and the goodliness of it as the flower of the field the grass withereth and the flower fadeth because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it which was fully confirmed every passing bell being a proof of the point and every dead corps a reason of the doctrine so that if ever now it might safely be affirmed the people is grass and you as grass might have withered into dead hay and though flowers might have faded into loathsome Carcases if the Lord had not preserved a secret sap at the root Oh consider to receive a message of life from the Lord when you had received a message of death from man to be kept alive by his almighty power when you were within an hairs breadth of death is a mercy worth the owning at all times but calls for more abundant thankfulness at such a time as this was when so many some out of the same houses and many out of the same Towns have been carried forth unto the places of burial when many of those had the same advantages for life yea greater some from men and means then ye had yet they are dead and ye are alive Oh these considerations lay great ingagements of thankfulness upon you especially if you seriously take notice what your sickness was by which ye received an arrest from the Lord it was not an ordinary disease it hath been very much ludibrium medicorum few Physicians have found out the true cause and the right cure of it the distempers have so varied and the effects have been so different in several persons and places so that with the Egyptian Sorcerers all have been forced to confess it was no other then the finger of God The Lord having made good upon us that threatning Deut. 28. Verse 61. In bringing a sickness among us which is not written in the book of the Law a Scripture parralel whereof in every particular cannot be found I shall represent it to you under these Considerations 1. It was general no County no Town no Family scarcely escaped the rod nay almost all persons found some alterations in their bodies as tendencies to that disease having as large a Commission as to smiting as the destroying Angel had Ezek. 9. vers 5 6. Go ye through the City and smite let not your eye spare neither have ye pity slay utterly old and young both maids and little children and women 2. It was suddain Many Diseases have their Prodromio's their forerunners which bring news of their coming some dayes or weeks before they seize a man but when men were in their apprehensions perfectly well and at their labour perceiving no symptomes of a sickness they were suddenly surprised some in the Towns some in the fields and brought home sick As if a man should walk in a Corporation and suddenly should be snapt by the Sergeants and carried to the Jaile when he feared nothing less 1 Thes 5.3 3. It was violent It seized many strong men with that violence at the first onset as though it would strike but once many thinking at their first surprisall they had been dropping into the grave like that Job 16. v. 12 13 14. I was at ease Read Mr. Jakson's notes in loc but he hath broken me asunder he hath also taken me by the neck and shaken me to peices and set me up for his marke His archers compass me about he cleaveth my reins asunder and doth not spare he poureth out my gall upon the ground He breaketh me with breach upon breach he runneth upon me like a Giant 4. It was weakning the strength of the strong man was suddenly taken from him that he was either chained to his bed or like an old man walked with his staffe in his hand through age Zech. 8. ver 4. for Job 6. ver 4. the arrows of the Almighty are within me the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit And Psal 38.8 10. I am feeble and sore broken c. My heart panteth my strength faileth me by reason of inappetency Psal 107. ver 18. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat 5. It was languishing many diseases do their work in a few dayes either the distemper wears off and health returns or else sicknesse prevails and death comes In some cases the Malefactour is committed till the next Goal-delivery and then set free with a little scarre in his hand But in other cases a man is kept prisoner from Sessions to Assizes and from Assizes to Sessions and knows not when he shall have his freedome or whether his life will be spared at last So some diseases have their fixed periods of time after which health is restored but in
of conscience and woundings of spirit ye then were under what faintings of heart ye had when you found your evidences for heaven writ with so pale a hand that ye could not read them at least by that weak and wan light which then shined in your soules what a loss ye were at for the Lord Jesus weeping with Mary because they had taken away your Lord and ye knew not where they had laid him nor how to lay hold on him for peace and pardon nay perhaps your cases weremore desperate your sins were writ in so deep a crimson your Atheisme ignorance Gospel enmity your former scoffings at Religion your flouts and flings at godliness your contempt of Gospel-Ordinances and your rejection of Gospel-grace did so fly in your faces grate and gnaw so upon your spirits and filled you with such a sence of divine vengeance that conscience that bird in the bosome like the night-raven croaked many a sad and dismal note unto you and so presented you with the black side of the cloud that ye verily thought if ye should die at that lare ye should drop into Hell Remember what then your thoughts were how then ye resolved that if ye recovered health again ye would not leave heaven under such uncertainties hereafter ye would give diligence to make your calling and Election sure ye would not for all the world be harassed again with those dreadfull fears and terrours like unto an unwary Traveller who to save a little mony ventures upon the washes without a guide and suddainly lights upon a quick sand which threatens to swallow up him and his horse and whilest he is tugging and striving to get out he lifts up his eyes and sees the water appearing upon the levell and hears the tide roaring toward him Oh what are his thoughts now what his fears sure that he shall die Pharaoh's death and be overwhelmed with the sea if timely help come not and having by Providence had an escape how doth he resolve never to travail that way without a guide whatever it cost him nor plunge himself again into the same fears for his whole estate Was not this your case ye thought your sickness to have been but washes ye could easily have passed through it but suddenly you slipped into a quicksand such a deadly heart-sinking fit that ye saw the grave opened and the wrath of God rolling upon you what were your thoughts then what your fears did ye not think your passing bell was ready to ring and the prison-doors were opening to receive you did ye not then resolve if your life was spared ye would tugge hard for Heaven ye would never be at the same stay again did ye not finde sickness an ill time and a sick bed an ill place to take your first rise for heaven from did ye not see your folly to lay the greatest burthen upon your horse when he was weak and tired to set out for heaven when your sunne was now setting when as it is an whole dayes journey thither and he that begins late usually fall's short of it to carry the seed basket into the field when your neighbours are crying harvest home Oh then since the Lord hath restored health unto you and brought you off from those heart-melting fears act up to the Aposties advice Phil. 2. vers 12. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad finem asque opus perducite bring salvation-business to a good issue that ye may never be surprised with those fears and tremblings when surprised with diseases I come now to the second part of the exhortation Second part of Exhortation applying this Doctrine of Gods appearances in mercy and the Saints deliverances from danger to the generality of men and women who fear and know the Lord and to believers as they meet in Christ the common-head and in the Church the common body and I shall improve the truth proposed 1. In a mixt sence referring both to temporall and spirituall preservations 2. In a pure spirituall sence referring to recovering and Redeeming grace As to the first sence I shall interweave something of a spiritual nature it being usual with the Holy Ghost to mingle Gospel treasures with the lading of the world in the same bottome and this I shall do in two particulars First I do humbly entreat the servants of the Lord to keep up the memorial of the Lords mercies to keep Diaries of their great deliverances to preserve Records of their signall preservations And secondly as occasion serves to communicate and impart them to others for I shall twist these two together Oh let not God lose the glory of any mercy let not time wear off the remembrance of eminent preservations God expects that his works should be registred by us as well as our words are registred by him Mal. 3. vers 16. This was commanded by the Lord Deut. 7. vers 18 19. David was much in the practice of this duty read Psal 66. ver 12 c. He gives a royal summons as by the sound of a trumpet to all the Lords people to give their attendance whilest he discovereth over the gracious Administrations of the Lord he is no niggard no close-fifted Miser that hoards up all and keeps all close to himself but keeps open house and invites all the Lords people to his banquet of wine He would fain lift up the great name of God in the world and display his bounty that they which have hard thoughts of God may be convinced of their errour and make a recantation and that all dejected Saints may by his example and experience be encouraged to roul themselves upon God under assurance of comfort and support in an evil day which will appear to be his designe for ver 5. he gives a generall invitation to all people to see and admire the wonders which were wrought by God t is like in Egypt he is terrible in his doings towards the children of men implying probably the dreadfull execution of his vengeance upon the Egyptians in those ten Plagues he sent amongst them and in bringing in the waters of the red Sea upon their whole Host as appears Vers 6. He turned the sea into dry land they went through the flood on foot to wit the children of Israel there did we rejoice as Exod. 15. doth fully shew when Moses and the people celebrated the praises of God and by that song not onely kept up a lively sence of that glorious preservation in their own hearts but transmitted the memorial of it unto posteritie that the children then unborn might read in that the glorious appearances of God for his people Oh how few such songs are penned in our dayes what little care is taken to commemorate deliverances though they have been so great and many Is it not the shame of this Nation that the next age shall finde no Records and if any such Compendiums of those wonderful deliverances which we
they might get a name and repute among believers and be counted somebody would be forward enough in this work speaking lies in hypocrisie and pretending to great things which they never expe rienced like that Amalekite 2 Sam. 1.6 7 8 9. who told David a fair tale how he stood upon Saul and slew him and took the crown that was upon his head and the bracelet that was upon his arm c. and all this that he might win credit with David and gain his favour by slaying his enemy who stood betwixt him and the crown when as the whole story was false this would be the case of some false-hearted hypocrites Again some of the servants of the Lord who are real converts would be at a loss within themselves not being able to give an account when and how the Lord first wrought upon them who can onely say with the blind man Joh. 9.25 This one thing I know that whereas I was born blinde I now do see the work of grace upon the hearts of some as to the quando and quomodo time and manner is undiscernable by them The Lord spiritualizeth their morals sanctifies their principles of education and drops down his spirit upon the seed and his blessing upon the off-spring so that they spring up as among the grass as Spring Flowers which lye buried under ground the Winter season and sprout forth as the year ariseth Isa 44.3 4. To this the Lord Jesus speaketh Mark 4.26 27. So is the Kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the ground and should sleep and the seed grows up he knows not how God sows the seed by the hand of a godly Parent or Pastor and in due season when and how they know not neither Parent Pastor nor the Person himself it bringeth forth fruit the word works sometimes many years after as they say of the Elephant that she brings not forth till the thirteenth year after she hath conceived The first springs in the womb of grace are precious and carefully preserved by the spirit and when they put forth it may be without any noise For the Kingdom of heaven doth not always come with observation Thus Timothy knew the holy Scriptures from a child 2 Tim. 3.15 not onely the bare letter and form of words that 's but little but knew them so as to love them to read them with delight and look for salvation wisdom in them through faith which is in Christ Jesus and probably by the care of his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice sure gracious parents and godly education do contribute much though not infallibly to the seasoning of tender years and it was well if parents would make it much their care as blessed be God some do to furnish their children whilest children with Gospel-knowledge Mr. Trap. in 2 Tim. 3.15 It is reported That the Lady Wheatenhall so plyed her young Neece Mistris Elizabeth Wheatenhall that before she was nine years old she could say the New Testament by heart and was able to name the book and chapter where any word or passage was A singular president worthy of admiration Oh that Christian parents would take this hint The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Psal 19.7 That 's the genuine and native fruit of it at least through the blessing power of the spirit conversion is in it and from it and who knows whether the word being engraffed by godly parents may not bring forth early conversion in their children Sure we are there have been and are young Saints in the world who have rellished the ways of God and walked in them before they have travailed many years journey from their mothers wombs now to these I do not direct this particular advice but to those whose conversion hath been visible their change so signal that the whole Town ye Country hath rang of it some such there are who are able to say that at such a time under such means by such a word in such a way the Lord was pleased first to work upon them they can circumstantiate their conversion in all the occurrences of it Paul could tell the errand he went upon which was bad enough the company with whom the time of the day the manner how and the plat of ground as it were upon which he fell when the Lord fell in with him by converting grace as he discourseth at large Act. 22.6 7 8. compared with Chap. 26.12 13 c. Now then to such in a more peculiar manner I speak as thou dost observe and discourse over the passages of Gods providence toward thee in helping thee out of great straights and tellest thy friends what they were and how nigh unto death thou wast and how the Lord came in at such a time in such a manner and by such means and brought thee off with safety so be much in observing and shewing forth what God hath done for thy soul what providential passages were antecedent to thy conversion what awakening teaching and leading providences were in order to thy conversion whether God did not first awaken thee by such an affliction give a check to thy spirit in the high careers of sin by such an humbling providence or made way for the entertainment of Christ and Gospel by disappointing thee in such a worldly design or won upon thee by some notable deliverance as was the Jailors case Act. 16.28 or how the Lord was pleased to bring thee into such a family or into acquaintance with such godly Christians or under such a powerful and soul-searching Ministery these all through grace have had a sub-serviency to the great end of God in bringing sinners home unto him Then again consider those ways of God which were concomitant and as means were instrumental to thy conversion in what method the Lord was pleased first to work upon thee what measure of the spirit of bondage to fear thou wast under what sin thou wast first convinced of how long thou wast under conviction before conversion was brought forth in the fruits and evidences of it what lust the spirit first struck down in thy flesh what repentance and godly sorrow for sin was wrought in thee what attempts the divel made upon thee how forceable they were and with what success and how long thou didst ly under the sence of sin and wrath before thou hadst any quieting apprehensions of pardoning and accepting grace through the blood of Jesus let these and things of like nature be observed by thee and reports thereof seasonably made to others Nay Lastly take notice of the after-visits of the spirit of God and grace to thy soul what sweet and suitable returns the Lord gave thee in to thy prayers what seasonable succours thou receivedst in an hour of temptation what power from the spirit of holiness came in in thy contesting with some Lady-lust what measure of consolation was cast in after thy days of mourning how far thou hast been sealed with
many of the Gentile-Grecians here the hand of the Lord implyed the blessing power and concurrence of the spirit of Christ so Christ put in his hand by the key-hole that is sent in his spirit to awaken reprove and convince the spouse of her great unkindness toward him by the way take this note Note That the spirit can finde a passage into the heart though the doors be barred and bolted never so fast The key of David will open any lock Satan with all his skill and artifice cannot frame a lock of such cross and curious wards and work that this key cannot open the spirit acts with irresistibility in the saving communications of grace to the stoutest sinner Lord what wilt thou have me to do was Sauls question the lock was soon opened the spirit had quickly got into his heart So here the spirit was quickly within doors and what then her bowels were moved for Christ she had no rest in her spirit her bowels yearned after him There was a strange tumult raised within her Heb. the word carries that signification her heart aked and quaked being by the spirit convinced of her unkind and inconjugal carriage toward her dear Lord This brought her off from her bed now she could put on her coat and feared not the fouling of her feet she starts and stirs and hastens to open the door and as soon as she had taken the key in her hand Her hands dropt with myrrhe and her fingers with sweet smelling mirrhe that is she had new tokens of Christs good-will refreshing consolations from a comforting spirit which being added to her former experiences of love had such a force upon her heart that she breaks off all delay runs to the door and opens and not finding her beloved there she fails poor heart she sinks down and swouns the sence of Christs dear affection to her and her disloyal carriage to him did so seize upon her that she sinks under it And being come to her self she seeks and enquires after him suffers for him breaths out her soul in strongest affection towards him breaks forth into highest Eulogies and commendations of him and through the whole Song you never finde her under any of this heart-deadness any more but full of love and full of life Thus it was with the Church of Israel Hos 2. The Lord brings her in vers 5. speaking forth such resolutions as these I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and my water my wooll and my flax mine oyle and my drink as if she had said I am resolved to stick close to mine Idols who have recompenced my service with such plenty and abundance The allusion is to a man and his wife betwixt whom before there is a final divorce and departure there is usually some decay of conjugal affection some neglect of conjugal duties some eminent failing in conjugal offices and thereupon follows a strangeness and at length a parting asunder So heart-deadness damps of zeal flatness of spirit freezings of affection neglect of communion in the Gospel-duties and appointments formality in profession earthly-mindedness and some kind of liberty and boldness to sin are usually precedaneous to an Apostacy and departure from God Thus it was with Ephraim But how doth she recover her self Why verse 7. she argues her spirit into a returning frame Mr. Ier. Burroughs in loc I will go and return unto my first husband for then was it better with me then now Hence it is the note of a late godly Divine That the sight and sence of this how much better it was when the heart did cleave to Christ then it is now since its departure from Christ is an effectual means to cause the heart to return unto him He brings in a repenting backslider under these reasonings of heart Heretofore I was able through Gods mercy to look upon the face of God with joy when my heart did cleave to him when I did walk close with him then the glory of God did shine upon me and caused my heart to spring within me every time I thought of him But now now God knows though the world takes little notice of it the very thoughts of God are a terrour unto me the most terrible object in all the world is to behold the face of God Oh it was better with me then it is now Before this my Apostacy I had free access unto the throne of grace I could come with humble and holy boldness unto God and pour out my soul before him such a chamber such a closet can witness it but now I have no heart to pray ye I must be haled to it merely conscience pulleth me to it yea every time I go by that very closet where I was wont to have that access to the throne of Grace it strikes a terrour to my heart I can never come into Gods presence but it is out of slavish fear Oh it was better with me then then it is now Before Oh the sweet communion my soul enjoyed with Jesus Christ one dayes communion with him how much better was it then the enjoyment of all the world but now Jesus Christ is a stranger to me and I a stranger unto him Before Oh those sweet enlargements that my soul had in the Ordinances of God! when I came to the word my soul was refreshed was warmed my heart was enlightened when I came to the Sacrament oh the sweetness that was there and to prayer with the people of God it was even an heaven upon earth unto me but it is otherwise now the Ordinances of God are dead and emptie things to me Oh it was better with me then then it is now Before Oh the gracious visitations of Gods spirit that I was wont to have yea when I awaken'd in the night season oh the glimpses of Gods face that were upon my soul what quickening and enlivenings and refreshings did I find in them I would give a world but for one nights comfort I sometimes have had by the visitations of Gods spirit but now they are gone Oh it was better with me then then it is now Before Oh what peace of Conscience I had within whatsoever the world said though they railed and accused yet my conscience spake peace to me and was as a thousand witnesses for me but now I have a grating conscience within me Oh the black bosome that is in me it flyeth in my face every day after I come from such and such company I could come before from the society of Saints and my conscience smiled upon me now I go to wicked company and when I come home and in the night Oh the gnawings of that worm It was better with me then then it is now Before The graces of Gods spirit how were they sparkling in me active and lively I could exercise faith humility patience and the like now I am as one bereft of all unfit for any thing even as a dead log before
is me I am undone I am in a lost and perishing estate and indeed needs must it be thus with them those especially who have been brought out of a state of great profanenesse who have acted high and long against the Lord and there is great reason for it because they are brought home by a through conviction both of sin and wrath alas fools as they were formerly they made a sport of sin it was but childrens play with them to swear be drunk profane Sabbaths commit uncleannesse c. they went as nimbly away with all the load of sin upon their consciences as Sampson did with the gates of Gaza on his shoulders they wondred at the down exact-looks and scoffed at the whining complaints of mourning sinners I but now the case is altered when the spirit of bondage is upon them to fear now they find that guilt in sin feel those pangs of conscience and fear that indignation from a sin-revenging God that there is no rest in their bones the arrows of the Almighty stick fast and deep in their souls now they are pricked in their hearts they feel as those Jews did Act. 2. ver 37. the nails wherewith they had crucified the Lord Jesus sticking like so many goads yea stings of Scorpions fast in their hearts and cry out men and brethren what shall we do or like the Goaler brimmed up with tetrour and astonishment they call out for help Sirs what must we do to be saved Oh! what will become of us what will a righteous God do with us how shall we escape wrath to come What shall we do what course shall we take Oh! we shall be in hell in hell before help from the Lord will come unto us It was well replied by a reverend Divine to one that was under trouble of soul about his salvation I tell thee it is able to trouble the whole world how many can speak much to this the extremities that many awakened sinners have been brought unto have been very sad they have been struck down with Paul yea laid for dead brought into a despairing condition they have said and sigh'd yea sob'd it out also can such a wretch as I am hope for mercy did the Lord Jesus shed his precious bloud for such a vile sinner as I am Is it possible that my abominations should be pardoned that there should be any accepting grace for me for me who have been so great a sinner yea the chief of sinners a sile-leader in the black regiment of sin Oh much of this nature farre beyond what I felt or can expresse hath fallen from the lips and lain upon the Spirits of some of the Saints at their first awakening being in their own apprehensions irrecoverably undone hath this been any of your cases as sure it hath been Oh then how should your hearts be drawn out into thankfulnesse to the Lord when ye call to remembrance your fears and tears and terrours at your first conversion and then consider how welcome Consid 3 and unexpected grace mercy comfort and the good news of a Saviour were unto you in these bitter agonies O how welcome was Moses and his message of freedome from the Lord to the children of Israel when they were weary of their lives by reason of their hard bondage how welcome is a calme after a violent storm to the affrighted Mariner how pleasant is a bright morning after a black night to the wearied traveller and how doth the heart leap up to meet a message of mercy when 't is broken and even spent with misery when David said my foot slips then it follows thy mercy O Lord held me up and who can estimate the worth of succouring and supporting mercy at such a pinch the mothers eye is upon her child and her hand also to stay it from falling or to snatch it up so soon as down the child shall not cry long upon the ground in the mothers hearing and yet a mother may forget the son of her womb but God will not forget his children Isa 49. ver 15. So soon as ever Israel had cried our our bones are dried up and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts Ezek. 37. ver 12. The Lord replies Behold O my people I will open your graves and cause you to come forth of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel When the pangs of new birth are strong and violent even ad deliquium animae to the fainting of the soul then doth the comforter come in with his cordial spirits and stay 's up the sinking soul when the Jews laboured for life being stab'd to the very heart Peter presently applies the promise and brings forth the new birth in them Act. 2.38 when the Goaler was even sinking into hell Paul claps to him and stay 's him with this Gospel-assurance believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved Act. 16. ver 31. And what follow 's did the plaister stick had the word any saving work upon this desparate wretch yea ver 34. he rejoyced believing in God with all his house here 's a strange and sudden change a blessed turn of things he that just now was upon the borders of hell is now brought within the suburbs of heaven in the joyful apprehensions of pardoning and accepting grace through Jesus Christ The out-goings of God in comforting his drooping Saints and his returns unto them after his withdrawings from them are not lesse or lesse refreshing How did the Spirit of the Church fail within her Cant. 5. ver 6. when she could not find her dear Redeemer in his wonted presence of joy and comfort yet at the end of the chapter she find's and feel's Christ in her soul and in a full sense of her interest in and her union with him breaks out into these joyful acclamations this is my beloved O ye daughters of Jerusalem and this is my friend memorable is the story of Mr. William Cooper a Scotch Divine who was early brought into Christ even when he was a School-boy and approved himself before God and good men to be a pious painful and profitable Pastour of the Lords flock his usual course being to preach sive times aweek but this could not secure him from Sachans buffettings being exercised with inward temptations and great variety of spiritual combats a short account whereof with the gracious returns of God in mercy to his soul I shall give you in his own words reported by Mr. Clark in vita patrum Once sayes he Mr. Clark in vita Patrum in great extremity of horrour and anguish of spirit when I had utterly given over and looking for nothing but confusion suddenly there did shine in the very twinkling of an eye the bright and lightsome countenance of God proclaiming peace and confirming it with invincible reasons Oh what a change was here in a moment the silly soul that was even now at the brink of the pit was instantly raised
to heaven to have fellowship with God in Jesus Christ then was I touched with such a lively sense of a Divinity and power of a Godhead in mercy reconciled with man and with me in Christ as I trust my soul shall never forget Glory glory glory be to the joyful deliverer of my soul out of all her troubles forever How fully doth this president speak to the consideration proposed He that was under such an eclipse of light and comfort that his soul did almost dwell in silence now found such sweet and seasonable out-breakings of peace and joy from the presence of the Lord that were to him as life from the dead and gave him a blessed opportunity of praising God in the land of the living How many examples of the like nature may be gathered up and how many Saints now alive can bear witnesse to these things in their own experience how have the wounded in spirit found truth and healing in that passage Hos 16. ver 1 2 3. He hath torn and he will heal us he hath broken and he will bind us up after two dayes he will revive us and in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord that his going forth in relieving and refreshing mercy to his distressed ones is prepared Note nay decreed as the morning First suddenly second certainly third comfortably past all possibility of disappointment Sathan and his agents may as easily hinder the day from dawning and the Sun from rising when the appointed minute for each is come both which are fixed by the unrepealable ordinance of the great Creatour Jer. 33. ver 20. as prevent the dawnings of comfort or darken the irradiations of the Son of righteousnesse when he is pleased to shine into the souls of his drooping ones Nay farther He shall come unto us as the rain as the latter and the former rain to the earth both were certain in the land of Canaan unlesse held back in wrath the first at seed-time to soften the ground and the latter a little before harvest to plump and pumple the corn in the ear in like sort as renewing so reviving grace is certain as the former came unto us Mr. Burroughs Lecture in loc to convert us when we were sinful so the latter shall come to comfort us when we shall be sorrowfull O precious mercy read and enlarge this in your own thoughts and take these few hints as helps which are more insisted upon by Mr. Burroughs 1. The Time of Gods delivering his people is the morning he takes the first and fittest opportunity after a sad and dark night 2. T is Gods presence that makes morning to the Saints all naturall helps cannot do it 3. Gods mercies to his people are prepared and decreed mercies 4. The Saints in the night of affliction comfort themselves with this that the morning is a coming 5. The Church hath no afflictions upon her but there comes a morning after them 6. A little before the Saints deliverance out of their greatest disturbances of misery and trouble the darkness of their night is the greatest therefore be not dismayed although not a starre appears in your night of trouble for the morning is approaching that darknesse is the Prodromus it ushers in the Phosphorus the bright morning starre of joy and comfort neither let the scoffing Ismaels of the world take advantage from the drouping of Saints to reproach Religion for Psal 97. ver 11. Light is sown for the righteous and gladnesse for the upright in heart they have light and gladnesse insemine at their first conversion and at their first entrance into a distressed estate the husband man sets a harvest value upon his land when the seed is harrowed in because he trusts to the word of Gods Covenant with Noah So may a believer who hath had a seed time of grace passe over his soul comfort himself that he shall have his harvest time of joy also 't is sown and covenant dews will ripen it in due time and therefore you who think so basely of the Gospel and the professours of it because at present their peace and comfort is not come at least in any measure unto some but rather sorrow and mourning know it is on the way to them and comes to stay everlastingly with them where is your peace is going from you every moment and is sure to leave you without any hope of ever returning to you again Look not how the Christian begins but ends The Spirit of God by his convictions comes into the soul with some terrours Mr. Gurnall part 2. of his Christian in compleat armour pag. 396. but it closeth with peace and joy as we say of the moneth of March it enters like a Lion but goes out like a Lamb Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace O then ye servants of the Lord be much and serious in meditating upon recovering and relieving grace under those three particulars mentioned and you will find excellent advantages thereby you will live at the best rate of a spiritual and happy life which I shall evince in three considerations Consid I. You will live best to God 2. You will live best to your selves 3. You will live best to others I. You will live best to God and for God if you often remember how near to silence your souls have been upon a spirituall account if you often meditate in what dark and dangerous paths you once walked what a load of lust and sin you lay under how thwart your principles and practices were to God and godlinesse how you walked in time past according to the course of this world the mundaneity and worldlinesse of the world as the Syriack renders it which is wholly set upon wickednesse and lyes soak't in sin and according to the Prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience Ephes 2. ver 2. as a Smith worketh in his forge and an Artificer in his shop that ye were the devils journey-men your members as his working-tools your souls as his shop wherein and by which he carryed on that cursed trade of sin Oh! the sense of this will marvellously draw the soul after God and prevail with you to live unto God which is the great end of living Rom. 14. ver 8. the truth whereof is evidenced in three particulars 1. You will live most by faith upon God you will act faith in a more immediate and fiduciall dependency upon the Lord Try and then trust is the worlds motto now when you have a present sense upon your souls of what the Lord hath done for you how and in what methods of grace the Lord appeared to you when you walked upon the brink of hell and were ready every moment to drop into the pit this will work an holy boldnesse in
full assurance verse 38 39. I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Calvin Beza c. P scator Ambrose August Erasmus Dodate Great Annotations of the Assembly Mr. Baxtes Spirits witness to Christianity page 121. Expositors do much differ about the sence of these words some understand them as speaking of Christs love to us some of the sense and feeling of Christs love unto us others of our love to Christ or in a conjunct sense both of Christs love to us and our love unto Christ But surely the Apostle speaks at this rate what can unclasp those mutual embracements between Christ and his people or what can separate us from Christ by withdrawing or destroying our love to him and consequently turning his love from us we have many assaults but all in vain for when a Believer reflects upon what Christ hath done for him considers the death resurrection and intercession of Jesus Christ with the precious fruits of all unto his soul and that out of pure love who deserved to be an object of eternal hatred this makes the pulse beat quick and high in holy affections to the Lord Jesus And the want of this due reflection upon what by nature we were and what now by grace we are dasheth the rising flames of an holy affection in us to the Lord Jesus 3. You will live best unto God because You will live most in thankfulness unto God when you live in the sence of what God hath done for you it is the consideration of divine grace and mercie which drawes out the soul in praises unto God the thoughtfull Christian is the thankfull Christian he that pondereth most upon mercies prayeth God most for mercies Oh! when you take a serious review of that change which is upon your hearts of the drawings of your soules heaven-ward and holiness-ward and compare time with time state with state what you were with what you are how once you affected sinne but now abhor it how once you loathed Ordinances but now you love them how once the wayes and people of God were distastefull unto you but are now delightfull how little you had once to shew for heaven and how much you have now through grace to shew against Hell Oh! this will give the heart a notable vent and fill the cup of praise up to the brim Psal 103. ver 1 2 3. Bless the Lord O my soul sayes holy David but doth he stay here no and all that is within me bless his holy name every instrument must be put into tune every musical key must be touched every fret must be stopt and every string must be struck to sound forth the praises of God nay again Bless the Lord O my soul and why so what 's the reason of this thankfulness O soul thou hast great cause to be thankfull For 1. He forgiveth all thine iniquities thou hadest the the guilt of many and great sinnes upon thee which would have sunk thee down into Hell and Jehovah hath given thee pardon of them all nay farther 2. He healeth all thy diseases thou wast full of noisome and unclean distempers many running sores of filthy lusts and Jehovah hath vouchsafed healing grace unto thee Thou art now a justified and a sanctified person 3. Thou art now redeemed from Hell and destruction and wearest the loving-kindnesses and tender mercies of God as a royal Diadem upon thy head and therefore Oh my soul bless bless bless Jehovah Oh if ever we come to such a sence of pardoning healing redeeming crowning satisfying and renewing grace from the Lord as David we shall then take up David's harp and awake our glory to the praises of a good God could we but fasten this upon our spirits that distinguishing grace hath severed us from those heaps of rubbish that we were mingled with and cull'd us out from the rabble of the world that we were herded with our spirits would be turned to this evangelical duty and ditty and if so how like heaven it self would the Church look how would the militant resemble the triumphant Jerusalem and how would every nook of the Gospel-world ring with the praises of God Mr. Baxter Part 4 Saints Rest page 134. The liveliest embleme of heaven that I know upon earth is when the people of God in the deep sence of the excellency and bounty of God from hearts abounding with love and joy do joyn together both in hearts and voices in the cheerfull and melodious singing of his praises 4. You will live best unto God because You will live most to the glory of God sence of grace received will enflame you with a greater zeal for God and will put every wheel into motion We are naturally slow to action upon the best account the best drive on but heavily few drive at Jehu's rate very few there be whose soules make them as the chariots of Aminadab that make haste in Gods work like the roe or young hart upon the mountains of spices If ever Christians drove heavily the Christians of this age do if ever the elementary constitution of the Church was earth and water now it is little of fire appears unless in unhappy contentions and animosities or else in love to the world and thus most are red hot their affections all on a flame the Lord quench them But Oh! where is their zeal for God where is the courage activity and resolvedness for God where 's the minding of the things of God and holy contendings for God which the Puritans of old that were Puritans of the good old way have discovered there is too much of the Laodicean spirit too many Gallio's amongst us men are high indeed to enthrone their own opinions and perswasions whilest Religion in the main duties of it is neglected they are exact in rything mint and commin and annise whilest judgement mercy and faith the weightier matters of the Law are neglected Math. 23. vers 23. The great Zealots of the times are for the most part men of corrupt and Heterodox Judgments who are violent enough to impose their Errours and false conceptions the Lord take them off from their speed least they out run the Constable as they have done the Covenant He 's a stranger in Israel that knows not these things and he 's no true son of Zion that doth not bewail them but now would we have the water run in the right channel would we have our spirits up in a right zeal for God let our meditations be often and serious upon what God hath done for our soules Oh when a Saint fetcheth oyl from experienced loving kindnesses it makes the wheels run glib when he argues Hath God done thus and thus for me hath he left others of my kindred of my contemporaries of my
and lift up the shield of faith to receive and quench his fiery darts by considering 1. That the same afflictions that is temptations are accomplished in your brethren that dwell in the world you are not single in this temptation though that is much the thoughts of tempted ones Satan doth not fight you with a new weapon that lately past the forge 2. That you stand related to and are in covenant with that God who is the God of all grace who hath all weapons ready for war in his Armory and can supply a tempted Saint with those graces suddainly and fully which he stands in need of 3. That your relation to the God of all grace is founded upon Jesus Christ and evidenced by your effectual calling for you are called into his eternal glory by Jesus Christ not unto implying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that grace gives the soul an entrance into glory effectual vocation is a call from heaven into heaven the soul is taken up into heaven from the time of its new birth as to the certainty of it and safe keeping unto it 4. That your suffering condition will not be long it is the Lord not Satan who times your temptations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you shall suffer but a while sharpe they are and therefore termed sufferings yet but short therefore phrased awhile hence Rev. 2.10 You shall have tribulation ten dayes that is your imprisonment shall be short 5. That your temptations shall be in order to your establishment the God of all grace will make you perfect establish strengthen settle you your sufferings shall be in order to your setling your temptation in order to your consolation parallel to that 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory O then do but in the hour of temptation draw up the main body of your experiences and evidences of Gods love in Christ unto you and Satan cannot hurt you though his main battail be against you though he may pluck of some rath grapes he shall never destroy your Vintage though he may pick up some scattered ears he shall never carry away your harvest and though he may trouble you in your passage to heaven he shall never keep you out of heaven what a day of comfort is this unto the foul 3. Are you summoned by the King of terrors do his batteries play upon you are there breaches made in your mud-walls is there a mine sprung and your life in all likelihood to be blown up Why the lively sense and evidence of grace received will like a cordial water warm your hearts and stay up your spirits at such an hour as this is that light of life within you if heeded will clear up the counsels of God unto you as to your after and eternal well-being it will convince you of Gods soveraignty conquer your renitency and make you bow head and heart with much submission to the father of spirits this will ballance and ballast your souls too and poise them evenly between hope and fear that neither shall be inordinate and that in two particulars 1. Where grace sits at the helm of Government in the soul it brings the unruly passions into subjection to the divine pleasure and preserves the Saints from over-much hoping of life seeing their dayes are determined and their bounds set and antidotes them against overmuch fearing of death seeing the number of their mouths are with God Job 14.5 6. the indefinite is equivalent to an universal so that it was not Jobs single case but the common lot of all mankind and therefore you may safely argue that all the rare feasts which Paracelsus professed to do for the lengthening of mens lives the use of all remedies cannot make you out-live nor the missing of them cause you to fall short of those bounds which God in his secret and irreversible decrees hath set you This consideration will much quiet your hearts in God when you have the sentence of death within your selves it will excellently prevent that distemper which is an evil that I have seen even amongst the Saints of God viz. an over-eager desire of life and a greedy catching at any hopes thereof even to some neglect of that preparation and those precedaneous duties which the seriousness of death and eternity do call for at their hands not that I condemne a modest and humble desire of life or a sober use of means and medicines in order thereunto onely propound this as a cure of that heart-distemper mentioned and to perswade my self and others to say with David Here I am let the Lord do to me as seemeth good unto him 2 Sam. 15.26 2. Your gathering up your experiences of converting renewing adopting and accepting grace in Jesus Christ will fill your souls with ravishing comforts upon an everlasting account even then when your nearest friends fill your heads with weepings sighings and sad lamentings as seeing your dying breath draw faint and short and other symptomes of death report your change to be very near you will then gather up your spirits as old Jacob did his feet and not be afraid to speak with your enemy in the gate the gate of eternity Oh grace improved will shew you your names written in the Lambs book of life will give you some foretasts of those joys which are in the presence of God will lead you in a vision of the Spirit into your fathers house that you may see those mansion places of glory which are prepared for you and will open your eyes that you may see the Angels of God those blessed ministering spirits waiting at your pillows to waft your souls into the everlasting embraces of your dear Redeemer that you may say with the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.1 to still the sobbings of your sad relations We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building with God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Dr. Kendall in his answer to Mr. John Goodwin p. 53. That with Moses you may dye upon the mount of vision and with David full of riches and honor in a spiritual sense Oh this consideration will make death-tokens love-tokens and represent death as a messenger from your dear Jesus who brings the glad tidings of everlasting life if you fall by an arrow yet is that arrow shot by the hand of God in more love then Jonathans was to David if by a stroke of the pestilence yet that pestilence is no Plague but somewhat a harsher plaster of all miscries whatever be the fury of the disease it is but a chariot of fire to carry you to heaven None of the blessed Fathers ever complained of the untowardness of the way so happy are they in being seized of their inheritance among the Saints in light though they were hurried thither through the darkest valley of the shaddow of death Thus that learned Author
faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners That is the Doctrinal part which indeed flowes with much comfort into the heart of an humble believing sinner as Mr. Bilney Martyr found in a great conflict But now the Applicatory part gusheth out with streams of comfort and what 's that of whom I am chief howbeit I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting as if he had said One great reason next to the secret purpose of his own free grace why this grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was so exceeding abundant towards me even to a pleonasme of mercy was that I might be held forth as a pattern of free grace as a monument of pardoning and sparing mercy to all sin-laden and sin-loathing persons who are the true Penitents Oh how would a wounded spirit yet healing a broken heart binding and a drooping soul reviving from such discoveries of misery and mercy of guilt and grace sin and salvation there would no be such sinking of spirit neither would the wounds of many be so long raw and bleeding if experienced Christians would be free in communicating their conditions and comforts unto them and would like the good Samaritan pour in the wine and oyl of their experienced mercy 2. This would be a mighty support to weak believers the experiences of stronger Christians rightly imparted and improoved will exceeding buttress up their faith alas when God first opens their eyes they see men walking afar off as trees they have but imperfect apprehensions of Gospel depths Godliness is so great a Mystery the work of Redemption in all its causalities concurrences and qualifications is so mysterious wrapt up so much in the glory of divine wisdome held forth under such seeming impossibilities to carnal reason and contradictions to corrupt nature that they are ready to cry out Nunquam natura mutabit sic sua jura ut virgo pâ—reret nec vâ—rginitate careret as that Iew said How can these things be John 3. vers 4. And if these things be so who then can be saved Luke 18. vers 26. and are afraid to give assent unto those deep Mysteries as the truths of God but when the Lord hath helped them over these doubts and difficulties that they set their seal to the Gospel as spoken by the Lord and confirmed by them that heard him God also bearing them witness with signes and wonders and divers miracles and gifss of the Holy Ghost according to his own will Heb. 2.3 4. so that they do willingly embrace this so great salvation yet alas the greatest work of faith is behind and that is to live upon the promises to appropriate Jesus Christ to put on Christ to believe that he is made unto us of God wisdom righteousness holiness and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 Christus vivit Christ liveth was Luthers motto and Christ liveth in me loveth me and gave himself for me is the language of true faith Mr. Trap. in Gal. 2. v. 20. Gal. 2.20 true faith individuateth Christ and appropriateth him to a mans self this is the pith and power of particular faith But ah how long doth many a poor soul lye upon the bankes of Jordan before he can waft over to the land of Canaan Some of the Saints have many a hard pull for faith they are fain to tug hard with fears and doubtings sometimes faith is up and fear down sometimes fear is up and faith is down Why now if strong believers who have the work of faith fulfilled in their hearts with some power 2 Thess 1.11 who have passed through the several stages of fear and faith and have found those very fears and troubles in their own souls if such would receive the weak in faith affeciu charitatis into the bosome and embracement of Christian love not making them question-sick by doubtful disputations Rom. 14.1 but deal tenderly and gently with them and give them a free and full account of their former fears and present faith recounting their experiences how and in what methods the Lord hath given them an establishment in the faith sure it would much conduce through the grace and blessing of God to the quieting strengthening and confirming of weak believers suppose I should labor under a distemper which in its nature and to some is mortal and a friend tells me he hath had the same disease in the same height and accompanied with the same pains and that in the use of such and such means he had cure and now is a healthful man though I cannot be recovered by such a narrative yet I am perswaded to use those medicines and am raised up to an expectancy of cure in the right use of them So when a believer who hath been upon the rack of fears and diffidences comes to a doubting Christian that is torn in peices as it were with them and whose spirit even sinks within him and tells him that it was so with him that he wrestled long with discouragements and in a pet of unbelief was ready to throw up all crying out all men are lyars that notwithstanding what this Prophet and that Apostle this Preacher and that Preacher hath said I shall perish in my sins and be a cast-away to all Eternity and that then the Lord came in led him by the hand of his spirit to this and that Promise shewed him the sealed fountain open Zech. 13. vers 1. the bloud of Christ as a fountain therefore full and as open therefore free both to pardon sin and purge uncleanness and that now he is justified by faith and hath peace with God through Jesus Christ Rom. 5. vers 1. yea joy in God through Jesus Christ by whom he hath now received the attonement vers 10. Thou I say a believer cannot spare any oyl out of his own vessel to supply the want of another with nor work faith in his heart that being the peculiar work of the Lord Jesus Heb. 12. ver 2. yet such discoveries as these will mightily raise up the heart of a sinking Christian and beget in him a hopefull expectancy of faith in this evidence of it however he brings him up to the Conclusion To sear the Lord and obey the voice of his servant yea though he walk in darkness and sees no light yet to trust in the Lord and stay upon his God Isa 50. vers 10. And thus is his soul quieted in this recumbent act of Faith untill the day dawn and the day star arise in his heart You will live best to others when in the sense and evidence of Grace received you communicate your experiences by way of comfort unto others in these 4 particular cases 1. In the black day of Persecution 2. In the sad hour of Temptation 3. In the dark night of spirituall desertion 4. In the bewailed want of the
Spirits witness to Son-ship and salvation which cases the Saints of God do usually meet withal whilest they are at home in the body and in the Apostles sense absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5. ver 6. 1. You that are experienced Christians may much underprop a timorous and faint-hearted Professour in dayes of Persecution when his fears are great his dangers many and his courage low Have you not heard a servant of the Lord sadly speaking this Language I expect every hour an Apparitour or Pursevaunt to fetch me to the Court or Counsel But I fear I shall wrong the cause and Gospel of Jesus Christ in that I shall not be able to give an answer to them that ask me a reason of the hope that is in me 1 Pet. 3. ver 15. nor repel the subtil arguments which will be drawn up against the Truth and thereby shall bring shame upon my self reproach upon Religion and dishonour to the Lord Jesus Now if an experienced Christian shall reply Is this thy fear do such thoughts as these sadden thy spirit come cheer up man this is a path that I have troden I have been called out to bear witness to the truth before as learned subtil Inquisitours as these be and was under much trouble what to say and how to answer being then low in knowledg and weak in judgment but I found that promise made good unto me Luke 21. ver 15. I will give you a mouth and wisdome which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist I was supplyed from on high both with Invention and Elocution that I might say with Luther Nescio unde veniunt istae meditationes I know not whence those Arguments Answers and Objections came but sure it was the Spirit of my Father which spake in me and the Promise is universal to all the Saints when brought to a day of trial How bravely did Anne Ascue Alice Driver and other poor women answer the Doctours and put them to a nonplus Fear not then For it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak Matth. 10. vers 19. A Second Complaint of a poor Christian is this I have wife and children to take care for my heart goes out exceeding much unto them it goes very near me to bring them into an estate of want and povertie and therefore I much fear that I shall grudge exceedingly to suffer a confiscation of mine Estate for conscience sake I shall be loath to draw up mine own will in mine own bloud and give away all mine Estate from my dear relations that strangers shall inherit my labours and the children of mine own body shall be turned out of doors a sad tryal enough to dash those generous spirits of the Gospel in that heart where flesh and bloud are consulted with But now if an experienced believer shall take him to task and tell him in the word of faithfulness O friend this was my case I had a fair inheritance descended upon me had much improved it by my care and industry God gave me a fruitfull vine with many Olive branches round about my Table which made my heart full loath to forsake all and to follow Christ it cut me to the heart to think that for Religion and conscience sake I should be cruel to mine own flesh and make void their title to any who by the Law of nature and nations have a right unto all but through the good hand of my God when I was called to it I was crucified to the world and the world was crucified to me the Lord had so taken the world out of my heart and fill'd it so much with heaven and drawn up my relations to that height of self-denial that they spake to me the words of Origen to his Father Leonides who suffered in the fifth Persecution Cave tibi Mr. Fox Act. Mon. vol. 1. pag. 70. ne quid propter nos aliud quam martyrii constanter faciendi prospositum cogites Beware lest for our sakes and out of principles of love to us you take up any other resolution then what becomes a faithfull martyr and confessour of the Lord Jesus so that I was able to take joyfully the spoiling of my goods knowing that in heaven I had a better and more enduring substance Heb. 10. ver 34. and to trust my self and family in the hands of that Jesus Christ who hath given this assurance to every one Iulian the Apostate put Valentinian out of the Tribuneship for his Religion who afterwardhad the Empire cast upon him that hath forsaken houses or lands for his name sake that he shall receive an hundred fold and shall inherit eternal life Matth. 19. ver 29. and to take his word who hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13. vers 5. and blessed be his name I have found much of this made good by my own experience I have not lost by that which I lost for Christ Queen Elizabeth would not have wished her self a Milk-maid when imprisoned for the Gospel sake if she had foreknown what a happy Raign of four and fourty years the Lord had reserved her unto 3. But a third Complaint which as the great deep swallowes up the two first of a poor Christian is this though I should not have much to lose or the Lord should give me a heart willingly to lose it for the Gospel sake yet I am afraid I shall never burn for Christ but when I come to the stake I shall prove a wretched Apostate and shall be farre from the courage of that brave Martyr Bishop Hooper who being brought to the stake Mr. Clark in vita patrum at Glocester a box with a pardon in it was set before him which when he knew he cryed out If you love my soul away with it if you love my soul away with it Oh! great have been the fears of many in times of persecution But now when an experimental Christian shall say unto the fearfull Be strong Let not the sight of fire and faggot daunt thee Just thus it was with me I verily feared that the sight of a stake made ready with fire and faggot for me would have made me run out of my wits and Religion too and yielded to a base compliance to have saved this carkass But I bless the Lord when I was haled to the prison dragg'd to the dungeon and threatened with a tormenting death unless I would receive the mark of the beast and worship the whore I then found the incomes of the spirit so plentifully received such an Heroick faith in so high a measure and was so fraught with Christian magnanimity that I am humbly bold to perswade my self had I then been call'd to it I should have suffered Martyrdome with much cheerfulness and comfort I had that set upon my heart which was upon Mr. Bilney's who being told that fire was very hot replyed I know it having often tryed it by
tryed ones for surely such may much advance comfort and much advantage the recovery of tempted ones if they parallel their condition with their own and tell them thus and thus have we been tempted in all points like unto you and the Lord stood by us in the day of our tryal and hath now bruised Satan under our feet and hath with the temptation made a way to escape 1. Cor. 10.13 we have found that it is the common lot of all Saints to be tempted and that God is faithful in his supplies and succors when they are tempted and therefore the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of mercies and God of all comfort who hath comforted us in all our trioulation through temptation hath enabled us to comfort you in these your troubles by the comfort wherewith we our selves have been comforted of God 2 Cor. 1.3 4. for as the crosses so the comforts of Saints are parallel as the desease so the cure is the same which experienced grace and succour well applyed will much advance in the hearts of tempted ones 3. There is a third case wherein experiences imparted and improved would singularly tend to the comfort of others and that is in the dark night of spiritual desertion it is not always clear day with the Saints the Sun of righteousness is often clouded sometimes eclipsed to them and surely the voiage is very uncomfortable when for many days together neither Sun nor Moon nor Star appear unto them it is the presence of God that giveth light and life unto the soul and therefore when God hides his face they are troubled Psal 30.7 This cast the Spouse into a swooning fit you may finde her dead up the ground Cant. 5.6 My soul failed ceased all vital operation and if you inquire into her distemper what it was that came so near her heart she will tell you My beloved hath withdrawn himself and is gone he hath hid himself and I cannot finde him he hath broke up house and gone and if Christ be gone all is gone with her she had such panges of love such a Paroxisme of conjugal affection that the absence of her beloved struck cold to her very heart just as it was with Micha Judg. 18.23 24. When the Danites had plundered him of his Priest his Ephod and his Teraphim he runs crying after them and when they said unto him what ailest thou O says he you have taken away my God and my Priest and are gone away and what have I more Alas ye have undone me ye have left me God-less and Priest-less and what have I more All I have left is but lumber is but as empty caskes my estate my riches my comfort my happiness lay in these So it is with a gracious soul wife is nothing children nothing friends nothing honor nothing estate nothing all nothing when Christ is gone what have I more says a poor believer and if ever poor now is he so in his own apprehension Ah! Christ is so his all that when Christ is gone though indeed he is but stepped aside a little he loves his unto the end and therefore never leaves them all is gone with him peace gone joy gone comfort gone hope gone faith gone I and heaven too in his thoughts and what are all his enjoyments then but dorss dogs-meat but trash and lumber many sad stories may be told on this subject the bitterness of soul that the Saints have felt in the withdrawings of Christ hath been exceeding sad How at such a time as this if Ministers and Christian friends apply promise after promise speak comfort in the sweetest and most Evangelicat strain that can be yet no plaister will stick no cordial will stay no comfort will be taken he will tell you they are blessed who have a right to promises but I have none Gospel-priviledges are a precious portion But not to me they are blessed whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sin is covered but mine is charged there is fullness of joy in the presence of God but I am a cast-out they are happy indeed that shall spend eternity in heaven but I shall never come thither Many expressions of this nature speaking much distress of soul and much dispair have faln from the lips of Saints in times of great desertion If Israel make them a golden calf it is in the absence of Moses and if ever Satan gain upon the Saints it must be when Christ is withdrawn he knows that and therefore he presseth hard upon them at such a time now I am much perswaded that if an experienced Christian would make an humble and faithful narrative of his own condition to a deserted Saint and tell him such hath been my case time was when the Lord hid his face from me when the lovingkindnesses of God were shut up in displeasure against me when I had lost all communion with God all sense of pardoning and accepting grace with God when I could not poure forth my soul in prayer unto God and when I had no incomes by way of comfort from God though Ministers and Christians spake comfortably unto me spread the precious truths promises and priviledges of the Gospel before me and argued clearly and convincingly concerning my spirituall estate proving by evident demonstrations that I was in a state of grace a child of God an heir of life and under the peculiar love of God though at present the sence thereof was suspended for a little while yet such a damp had seized upon my spirit my soul was so filled with horrors and such sad apprehensions had I of sin and wrath that I lay at the very gates of hell nay so subtle a disputant was I being prompted by that old Sophister the devil that I could frame such arguments so full of fraud and fallacies that all my friends could not answer them and could with that readiness answer all their arguments that there was none could tell how to oppose me so that I triumphed as it were in that sad victory that I had baffled all my opponents and held up the cudgels against all comers But by the goodness of the Lord the mist is broke up the clouds are scattered the face of God appears again and I finde joy and peace and comfort in my soul yea the beams of Gods favor shine brighter and the streams of consolation run more fresh and freely then ever they did I found that precious promise made good to me Isa 54.7 8 9. For a little while have I forsaken thee but with great compassion will I gather thee for a moment in mine anger I hide my face from thee for a little season but with everlasting mercy have I had compassion on thee says the Lord thy Redeemer for this is unto me as the waters of Noah for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth so have I sworn that I would not be angry with thee nor rebuke
thee for the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee And therefore be comforted O thou deserted Saint the Lord Jesus stands at thy door and knocks open open then unto him and he will come in to thee and sup with thee and thou with him Rev. 3.20 There is a table spread his comforts are dished out the chairs are all ready set and I am sent as a messenger from the Lord to invite thee to this banquet and to assure thee in the name of thy dear Jesus that thou shalt eat many a meal at his table and thy countenance shall be no more sad Prov. 12.25 Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop but a good word maketh it glad Oh sure these experiments as to desertion and as to consolation as to the withdrawings and the returns of Gods favour would marvailously revive a drooping Saint and make his stooping heart glad my reasons are these 1. Because the methods of God in correcting and comforting his people are the same their tryals and their triumphs are alike as face answers face in a glass so the condition of one Saint answers another There is no new thing under the Sun that which is now hath been there is no temptation happeneth to any but what is common to man 1 Cor. 10.13 Yea the best of men 2. Because experiments gain much authority with us we are apt to expect good from a probatum est in order to natural so to a spiritual cure Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did is not this the Christ says the woman to the Samaritanes Joh. 4.29 and upon this they went out of the City and came unto him this was the method of Saint John in his first Epistle ch 1.1 3. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truely our fellowship is with the father and with his Son Jesus Christ 3. Because God will hereby set a greater mark of honor upon the Saints and make them with more affectionateness love one another when they find that the eye hath need of the hand and the head of the foot 1 Cor. 12.21 that they are mutually dependent upon and mutually serviceable one to another It is much my thoughts that in the way proposed the people of God would be more comforted one by another and their hearts would be more knit up in love one to another 4. You will live best to others when you draw forth the sense and experience which ye have found of the love of God by way of hope and helpfulness unto those that mourn under the want of the spirits witness to their Son-ship and salvation with what holy earnestness doth many a servant of the Lord press after assurance how would he accept of it as a good bargain indeed if purchased with the loss of all outward enjoyments and how is it with many as it was with Paul in another case 2 Cor. 2.13 I had not rest in my spirit because I found not Titus my brother Certainty of salvation is this Titus the absence whereof fills the soul with a strange unquietness breathing after it in every duty in every ordinance in every promise they are strangers to the prayers and practices tears and troubles of the Saints that are ignorant of this That certainty of salvation is attainable is a clear truth 1 Joh. 5.13 These things write I unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know ye have eternal life not with the certainty of hope onely as the Papists say but of faith also in the foretastes of after-blessedness Apoc. 2.17 To him that overcome will I give to eat of the hidden manna and will give him a white stone with a new name written in it which no man knoweth saving he that hath received it indeed this sealing of the holy Spirit of Promise is a certain divine impression of light a certain unexpressable assurance that we are the Sons of God a certain secret manifestation that God hath received us and put away our sins I say says worthy Dr. Preston t is such a thing which no man knows New Covenant p. 399. but he that hath received it it is a wondrous thing and if there were not some Christians that do feel it and know it you might believe that there was no such thing that it were but a fancy and Enthusiasme but it is certain that there are a generation of men which know what this seal of the Lord is now then if such as do experimentally know it and know how they attained unto it would be but free in their communications how might they be as faithful guides unto those Who ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward how might they set up way marks for them and led them by their ports within the view yea to the suburbes of heavenly Jerusalem telling them this course we steered we were much in prayer much in an humble attendance upon Gospel-appointments much in searching of the Holy Scriptures much in contesting against all corruptions much in a due and serious tryal of our own spiritual estate and gave much diligence to make our calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 We did not go to the university of election untill we had been at the Grammer-School of vocation as one saith we began below at our sanctification at the work and truth of grace in our hearts and so gradually ascended step by step unto the top-stone of our election we framed a Sillogisme of assurance from the witness of water and blood and the Lord at length superadded the witness of his spirit This we did and blessed be the Lord we are sealed with that holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance untill the redemption of the purchased possession Eph. 1.13 14. and therefore go you and do likewise pray in hope wait in hope and believe in hope under the perswasion that the vision is for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lye though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come and will not tarry Hab. 2.3 we can set our seal of experience to this truth though we waited long yet the vision hath spoken our souls have heard the speakings of God by his spirit in peace and joy and a rejoycing hope of glory to come and blessed be God it doth not lye it is not a presumptuous brag an opinionative boast which vanisheth into smoak and air in a time of tryal but a real evidence of divine love and demonstrative assurance of our eternal
and evidence of divine truth propugned and asserted it in these times of great opposition and also thankfully acknowledg the integrity and faithfulness of the Civil and Supream power which hath been as a covering Cherub to the godly Ministery notwithstanding the many temptations which have been upon them to the contrary so as a suitable return both to God and good men I make it my humble proposal to my reverend brethren of the Ministery that they would strengthen the hands of the Lords people and by encouraging Arguments quicken them up to lay out themselves in their several capacities and in a wise improvement in their several advantages to win over sinners unto God If Eldad and Medad prophesie in the camp why should Joshua dislike it my Lord Moses forbid them Numb 11. ver 25 26. If the Christians of our respective Congregations should keep up private communion amongst themselves at due times and in due order or if sober and experienced Christians should minister words of advice and exhortation to their carnal neighbours provided they do it out of right principles to right ends and in a a due manner would it not hear ill if we should cry to my Lord Mâ—ses to forbid them rather let us say Would God that all the Lords people were Prophets Ver. 29. and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them that they may receive abilities from God to minister unto others That God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 4. ver 12. O then my dear Christian brethren rise up in the name and might of our Lord Jesus Christ seek the eternal welfare of your carnall neighbours I will not enlarge upon directions for the right management of this great duty onely entreat you that with modesty and Christian sobriety you would observe the boundaries that the Lord himself hath set betwixt a called Ministery and a Christian Laity that in your undertaking of this great charge you would be much and earnest in your addresses unto God and be faithfull in discoursing over experienced mercies from God If you meet with sinners that are hardened in their wayes obstinate wilfull and sermon-proof tell them so it was with you I doubt not it hath been some of your cases but when the Lord came in upon you by the thorow convictions of his Spirit he awakened your consciences to such a sight of sin and sence of wrath filled your soules with such terrours from the Law and softened your hearts with such a shower of Gospel grace that you were immediately humbled broken and brought in you threw down your weapons begg'd a parly and submitted to the Lord Jesus You found such a strange and secret work upon your hearts that you cryed out with Saul Lord what wilt thou have me to do Acts 9. ver 6. and Ephraim-like Though you had been as a young bullock unaccustomed to the yoke yet now the Lord hath turned you and you are turned Jer. 31. ver 18. and tell them thus it will be with them if ever they have a conviction unto Conversion God will break their stomachs soften their iron sinews subdue their Gospel-enmity and give them a spirit of holy compliance with his blessed wayes and will and that God can bring forth this work in their hearts though obstinate and obdurate as well as he hath brought it forth upon yours and then they will be of another mind however at present they stand it out with that boldness and daringness of spirit against Law and Gospel If you meet with sinners whom the arrows of the Lord have wounded his Spirit hath throughly awakened and his Word hath filled with such sad apprehensions of sin and wrath that they cry out with them Acts 2. vers 37. Men and brethren what shall we do or with the Jaylour Acts 16. v. 30. Sirs what must I do to be saved tell them this was your case tell what methods of mercy the Lord used to the healing up of your wounds and to the quieting of your consciences that so they may be encouraged to the use of Gospel-means and to an hope of the same grace and goodness of the Lord towards them If you meet with as you will with many proud presumptuous Formalists that fill their sails with vain hopes of Salvation without any saving change wrought upon them without any inward principles of life light planted in them or without any lively Acts of Faith Repentance Self-denial Mortification c. put forth by them tell them this was your case you had the same perswasions you were such foolish Virgins and that then you thought your penny as good silver for heaven as the best deriding the precise Puritan and scoffing at the power of Godliness but when the Lord opened your eyes and shined into your soules with a beam of saving light you soon discovered your Errour how you had built upon the sand that your Infant-baptisme was but sand your outward Priviledges were but sand your Formal Profession was but sand yea all you built upon was but sand so that had death and Judgment like windes and waves forcibly beat upon your house it would certainly have fallen and you had been ruined to all eternity but now you have digged deep and laid your foundation sure upon a rock you have built upon a new foundation for heaven now you finde a new creation wrought in you now you mourn over those sins which formerly you made your selves merry with now you contest against those lusts which formerly you cherished now you are broken off from those lewd Companions with whom you were formerly bound up in wayes of sin now you act faith upon Jesus Christ for the pardon of sins rejoyce in him and have no confidence in the flesh Phil. 3. ver 3. Now you are convinced that grace is the onely way to glory and that without holiness no man shall see God Heb. 12. ver 14. you now owne Religion in all the duties of it love the Ordinances which formerly you loathed delight in the society of the Saints which formerly you derided maintain communion with God in the Spirit which formerly you mocked at and that now The God of hope hath filled you with peace and joy through believing Rom. 15. ver 13. and you find Christ in you the hope of glory Col. 1. ver 27. Pursue this method as the Lord puts opportunities into your hands and as you meet with new cases suit your experiences according to what you have been and now are and I doubt not you will finde encouraging success for though I honour the word I hope as much as any as having the greatest authority upon the consciences of men and as being the great instrument of new birth especially when it is faithfully dispensed by faithfull messengers Jesus Christ giving a clear proof of his speaking in them 2 Cor. 13. ver 3. yet certainly Christians as such though they do not invade the ministerial Office
nor loosen one stone in that partition wall which Christ hath raised up with his own hands betwixt a called Ministery and converted Layity may be instrumental to much spiritual good among their carnal relations It was much that the Church did towards the gaining over the daughters of Jerusalem by her commendatory oration of Jesus Christ Cant. Chap. 5. For. Chap. 6. they put the question Whether is thy beloved gone Oh thou fairest among women whether is thy beloved turned that we may seek him with thee The woman of Samariah did much in ripening those fields which began to be white unto the harvest John 4. ver 28 29. compared with ver 39. Surely when the experiences of believers do run in a paralel line with the words and as counterpains do bear a full testimony to the truth of it men give a more willing entertainment unto it when they hear Christians affirm what Ministers assert men listen more after it Oh then break your pitchers that your candles may shine and give lights to the world Phil. 2 ver 15 16. holding forth the word of eternal life unto others in your several standings and capacities relative and religious And give me leave to lay down these considerations by way of inducement unto you Consider Con. 1. That the conversion of a sinner is a matter of great well-pleasingnesse unto God Isa 53. ver 10. it is termed the pleasure of the Lord ve-caphets Leigh Crit. Sacr. the will of the Lord that which he wills with greatest pleasure and delight it notes the highest content that may be to wit delight which is the intention and strength of affection hence Isa 62. ver 4. the Church is called Hephêªibah that is my pleasure in her the parables of the lost sheep and lost son do fully evidence this Luke 15. you cannot do a work that will find greater acceptation with God then acts of mercy Hos 6. ver 6. I desired mercy and not sacrifice the word in the Original is the same with that in Isaiah forementioned implying to will and desire a thing with a greatdelight and complacency Mr Eurroughs in Hos ver 6. pag. 599. so that a reverend Expositour upon the place brings in God speaking thus mercy is a thing so pleasing to me that I desire it at my heart nothing in the world is so pleasing to me as mercy shews that God had rather have it then all instituted ordinances and worships which by sacrifice are synechdochically meant and then instancing in cases of mercy His fourth case is the case of souls and that is in Christs case Mat. 9.13 Pag. 605. Go and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice for I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance we are ready to think that all things must give way to instituted worship but certainly immortall souls are of more worth then ordinances O surely the greatest act of mercy which we receive from God is our reconcilement to him whereby we are translated from darknesse into the kingdome of his dear son that being justified by his grace we may be made heirs according to the hope of eternall life Tit. 3. ver 7. and so the highest piece of mercy which we can shew to sinners for God is to be instrumentall in the saving of them bowels of mercy in us evidence Gods electing grace unto us Col. 3. ver 12. Put on as the elect of God bowels of mercy and sure we cannot shew more bowells in any act of mercy to man then in endeavouring his salvation Consider Consid 2. There is a great honour to the Lord Jesus Christ when sinners are savingly brought in unto him it is a jewell added to the glorious diadem of King Jesus Psal 45.3 David speaking in the spirit unto ' King Jesus bids him gird his sword upon his thigh which was the Ensign of his prowesse and regal power and adds with thy glory and thy Majesty implying that when people fall under him i. e. are converted and submit unto him it tends to advance his glorious Majesty Prov. 14. ver 28. In the multitude of people is the kings honour Zion and Babylon are the two great Empires of the world that under Christ this under Belial now one great part of Christs honour as he is King of Zion consists in the multitude of converts who being brought over from the devils quarters become his subjects it is said 1 Sam. 31. ver 12. That all the valiant men of Jabesh-Gilead went all night and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his sons from the walls of Bethshan and came and brought them to Jabesh let me allude this how is the glory of Christ advanced when all the valiant men Ministers and Christians go forth in the strength of the spirit of Christ to fetch off not the bodies onely but the souls also of men and women from Bethshan and bring them to Jabesh from sin to sanctity from Beth-aven to Bethel Converted ones are as Trophees after victory living monuments of honour to a conquering Christ Phil. 1.20 2 Thes 1.11 12. in the places where they live how then should the sence of that honour which is gained for Christ in gaining sinners from Sathan unto Christ act and spirit the Saints in this great undertaking Consid 3. Consider that the providences of God which have gone over and through these Nations in the years last past do speak the Saints duty and their hope of successe in what is now proposed how many storms of warre have been upon the land how fierce and full of rage hath the enemy been how many plots and engines of policy have been contrived how have men of popish and prophane principles and spirits struck at the very root of profession how have they designed the extirpation of the godly Being confident and insolent they bear their noses high in the air uttering loud and lofty languages as Rabshekah did 2 King 18. to which times this Psalme is referred by some Mr. Trap. in loc They that hate thee have lift up their heads I do not say nor think that all they which lifted up their heads in the late warres under the royall banner were haters of God nor of his people as such though they were lifted up very high in their mistaken zeal for Kingly interest and in conscience of the oath of God which they judged lay'd such obligations upon them yet certainly without any breach of charity we may boldly affirm that there were a company of men not inconsiderable for number who took crafty councel against the Lord's people and consulted against his hidden ones ver 3. and spake out doubtlesse their very hearts and desires come let us cut them off from being a nation or from having any place of residency in the nation that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance was not this attempted at least against the godly party as
to the painfull endeavours of his faithfull Ministery and if you that are Christians act up with zeal to the course propounded how might the communion of Saints be maintained the Common-wealth of believers be enlarged and the places of our habitations be as the suburbs of heaven It layes a good foundation for posterity you are now sowing that seed the harvest whereof may be reaped by your children you are digging that well of which your Infants may fill their buckets Personall piety is profitable to posterity 2 Kings 10. ver 30. It was very much that was promised to Jehu for cutting off Ahab's wicked Family and destroying the temple and worshippers of Baal And the Lord said unto Jehu because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel And what a blessing doth the Lord entail upon the seed of the righteous Psal 112. ver 1 2. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his Commandements his seed shall be mighty upon the earth the generation of the upright shall be blessed But that Religion which you now advance may be of spiritual advantage to them when you are dead Psal 102. ver 18. This shall be written for the generation to come and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord even for your faithfull endeavours in raising Zion out of her dust and Religion out of the rubbish in the places where you live How would you have blessed God if you had found Religion in such a posture how would you have honoured the memory of your Predecessours if they had travailed to have brought that to pass which you are now encouraged unto nay more you may lend that word of saving advice to a carnal neighbour which may be paid you in again by the bringing home of a Prodigal childe Your covenants for money run to you and to your heirs the Debt is not lost if your heirs receive it so your heirs may receive in a spiritual sense the Principal with the loan when you are dead happy is he who makes such provision for his children one whom you have in the way proposed brought off from vile and vicious courses may see a childe of yours when you are at rest running in the same wayes and tell him ah friend just thus it was with me I was running headlong upon mine own destruction and your Father pittied me reproved instructed advised me brought me off from my desperate wayes and put me into a good way for heaven And now I desire to shew the kindness of the Lord to you by dealing as plainly and faithfully with you as I was dealt with by your father and who knowes but the same course may through grace produce the same good effects If David remembred and requited the kindness of Jonathan in shewing love to his lame Mephibosheth after Jonathan's death why not the spirit of David stirre up bowels in those whom you have helped heaven-ward to requite that kindness in your lame Mephibosheth there is ground of hope 5. It hath a tendency towards your everlasting comfort it beareth fruit unto eternity the savour of this ointment doth not spend it self in this life Apoc. 14. ver 13. Blessed are the dead that dy in the Lord their works follow them This work of mercy which you shew in converting a sinner from the errour of his way and saving a soul from death Jam. 5. ver 20. shall follow you to eternity it shall be had in everlasting remembrance it shall be registred in that book of Records which was writ before the Lord for those that feared the Lord and thought upon his name Mal. 3. ver 16. They shall be mine in the day that I make up my jewels The Prophet Daniel speaks fully to the Saints after recompence upon this accompt Dan. 12. ver 3. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament they that be teachingly wise of Mascil that do prudently instruct so it propperly referres to the teaching Ministery but may not unfitly be referred unto instructing Christians and I hope without any force to the Word or any violence offered to a called Ministery Now wherein doth the wisdom of the wise shew it self so as to entitle them to this firmamental brightness why the onely wise among the sonnes of men doth determine it Prov. 11. ver 30. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life the genuine fruit of the righteous is to bring forth life in those he converseth with Salvation wisdome is the highest wisdome and he that winneth soules is by the Holy Ghost stiled Chacam the wise man and indeed Daniel himself expoundeth it to the same sence and they that turn many unto righteousness as the starres for ever Though there be some difficulty in this Text and some difference among expositours about the sense of it yet sure I may with much safety offer these positions from it 1. That man by nature runs off from his primitive and created righteousness unto by-paths of sin and unrighteousness This is clearly supposed 2. That Conversion mainly consisteth in our turning from sin unto righteousness from the power of Sathan unto God 3. That men are instrumental in the conversion of men to wit in turning them from sin to righteousness 4. That this turning of men from sin to righteousness hath a sure promise of future honour 5. That the work of Conversion is not onely limitted to a teaching Ministery it is not so proper to them as that it is exclusive to all others to have any hand or instrumentality in it Read Mr. Baxter in his Gild. salv Page 469 470 471. It was much that the woman of Samaria did towards the gathering of those fields which our Saviour saw beginning to be white as they that read John 4. may observe an unlikely means to effect so great a matter but what 's that to the Almighty as Mr. Trap speaks and brings in Junius professing that the first thing that turned him from Atheisme was conference with a country-man of his not farre frrom Florence enquire into Acts and Monum Fol. 767. Experience doth very much confirme this many servants may bless God who brought them under godly acquaintance I hope none will think that by this I derogate ought from the office of a called Ministery if the seed be sown by others it is ripened by them If the first course of stones be laid by others the building is finished by them Eph. 4. v. 12. a called Ministery doth perfect the Saints and edifie or build up the body of Christ If others are instrumental to their spirituall birth yet the Ministery goes forth in the spirit and power of Elias to make them ready as a people prepared for the Lord Luke 1. ver 17. and that though men
Proteus like will the Jesuite cast himself how many hazzards of his neck will he run and how many hard journeys will he take to reconcile a poor Protestant to the Church of Rome neither do some others fall short of the Jesuites either pains or zeal to proselyte men to their opinions we have seen that made good in our dayes which our Saviour spake of the Scribes and Pharisees Matth. 23. ver 15. Ye compasse sea and land to make one proselyte What wanderers among the Nations have some of our Sect-Masters been what labours and hardships have some undergone what journeys tedious and dangerous by land and sea have some undertook what errand have they gone on what merchandizes have they exported but some old drugs and antiquated errours which the Saints in former ages and forreign parts have exploded but now being in-land commodities of the growth of our own Nation and being now put into a new dresse by men of English birth pretending hatred to the Romish Hierarchy are become vendible in most parts O what marts and markets have been kept by them in many of our towns to put off their stale and stollen wares and what sale have they had in some places who le towns almost in some places have come in to truck and barter with them the more is the pity that the spirit of delusion should gain so farre upon English ground O how should this provoke all that fear the Lord in truth to pursue salvation-work with utmost diligence to endeavour with much seriousnesse of spirit the winning over souls to God! How shall we answer the charge of our own consciences at a dying hour how shall we look our dear Redeemer in the face at the last day nay how shall we stand against the great accuser before the great tribunal when he shall charge this spirituall sloth and negligence upon us when he shall speak to the Judge of all the world and cry for justice against us urging that his servants have been more faithfull and serviceable to him then we have been to the Lord Jesus though he never bled to redeem them never underwent the wrath of a sin-revenging God for them never laid down his life to save them out of hell never gave them inward and heart consolations here neither prepared for nor ever promised unto them a state of everlasting blessednesse and fulnesse of joy in his presence forevermore hereafter and therefore shall call for sentence to be given out against us as being unworthy of that crown of glory O this is a consideration of great weight the Lord help us to take the right poise of it let us take shame unto our selves for our former negligence and be quickened up to more industriousnesse for the future Let not any of the devils drudges out-work us nor any of his merchants out-bid us much lesse any of his pedlers out-sell us for the time to come let not others do more to undo then we to save souls nor be more unwearied in their labours and travells to pervert then we are to convert men if there be a person that deserves as a badge of honour the name of that old Disciple trudge o're the world let not Jesuite and Heretick get it from us To shut up this I beseech you dear Christians into whose hands providence shall cast this treatise weigh these considerations laid down and let them with what others the spirit of the Lord shall suggest unto you or any of my learned brethren shall offer have an holy force upon your spirits to put you upon serious endeavours of doing good to your carnall neighbours if peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snares of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2. ver 25 26. and that you may be used by the Lord as instruments of their salvation listen not to flesh and blood which will be tampering with you to disswade you from it and will throw in an hundred objections and carnall cavils against it onely observe your stations invade not the ministery nor despise it be humble in all your applications to your ignorant neighbours and under any successe which the Lord shall answer your endeavours with and under all discouragements and deadnesse of heart to this duty improve grace received and temporall preservations as arguments to quicken you up to this duty and to other duties which are mentioned in this treatise that you may live best to God best to your selves and best to all others and alwayes wear this text as a sign upon your hands and as frontlets between your eyes to enmind you of the Lord's mercies unlesse the Lord had been my help my soul had almost dwelt in silence Vse 4. Are the appearances of God eminent an immediate to the help of his people in the day of their distresse have you experienced this truth have you seen the outgoings of the Lord in your personall safety and preservations why then fetch comfort and encouragement from hence and lift up your hearts and hands unto God in expectancy of help and succour in these following cases 1. When Church affairs do meet with dark and gloomy day when the Gospel is under some restraint as to liberty or under some corruption as to purity in word and worships reflect upon the outgoings of God unto you and consider that mercy that goodnesse that wisdome that power c. which were engaged for your rescue in an evil day then play the good Logicians and in a way of divine induction argue à minore ad majus from the lesse to the greater if the Lord extended help to me in such an eminent manner how much more shall the arm of the Lord be made bare in the rescue of many Saints if a single believer found the Lord so present in a day of trouble how shall a society of believers find him in such a day if a little sculler was brought safe to shore from off a stormy sea how will the Lord calm the raging waves when the ship of his Church is tempest-tost if his care was so great over one member sure the whole family shall not be neglected by him O there 's much sweetnesse and much truth in this way of arguing Thus did David Psal 30. ver 1 2. O Lord my God I cried unto thee and thou hast healed me O Lord thou hast brought up my life from the grave thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down into the pit here was a personal deliverance and what doth he inferre from hence namely that the Church and people of God shall receive the same measure of mercy from him in the day of their distresse therefore he saith ver 4. Sing unto the Lord O ye Saints of his I but may the Saints say we have little cause of mirth we may now hang our harps upon the willows the waters of
Babylon by which we are set down do call for weeping rather then rejoycing no sayes he I read your safety in mine own for ver 5. His anger endureth but for a moment ista nubecula cito evanescat as he said of Julians persecution weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning the Churches afflictions though they be sharp yet they shall be but short though they be violent they shall be transient this I assert sayes he as having been mine own case I have had many clear mornings after cloudy nights for the Lord hath brought my life from the grave he hath kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit Again Psal 31. ver 22. I said in mine hast so great were my fears and so small was my faith I am cut off from before thine eyes I am a lost a dead an undone man neverthelesse thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cryed unto thee what doth he conclude from hence why ver 23 24. O love the Lord all ye his Saints for the Lord preserveth the faithfull and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer repayeth abundantly or with surplussage in seipso aut semine suo either in himself or in his posterity God will be sure to be meet with him and therefore he bids them be of good courage bear up bravely be stout and stedfast in the faith under trialls did the Lord hear my prayers and will he not hear his praying Church did he appear to my help and will he refuse help to his beloved spouse was my trouble but as a racking cloud soon blown over by the wind of Gods favour and shall the Churches calamity be as a dark heaven set round with raine surely no though the nations do rush like the rushings of many waters yet God shall rebuke them the word signifies shall sharply and severely chide them or destroy them which implyed in the following words and they shall flee farre off and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind and like a thing rouling before the whirlwind and behold at even tide trouble and before the morning he is not this is the portion of them that spoil us and the lot of them that rob us Isa 17. ver 13 14. O then be encouraged to hope and pray and pray in hope when the Church is brought into greatest straits when the Armies of Gog and Magog do go up on the breadth of the earth the number of whom is as the sand of the sea and compasse the camp of the Saints about and the beloved city that fire shall come down from heaven and devour them Apoc. 20.19 Let Davids practice be your pattern argue the Churches deliverances from your own if a man bestirre himself to quench a fire that hath taken hold of a remote cottage how much more will he lay out himself to preserve his manner house If a King send out his troops to secure a petty village from the Rovers how much more will he draw up his whole Army to secure the Royall city If the death of one Saint be precious how much more precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of many precious Saints O! God will be seen upon the mount Caelar-like he will either finde or make a way for their escape the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of every temptation 2 Pet. 2. ver 9. to fetch a Lot out of Sodom and a Judah out of Babylon The Churches extremitie is Gods opportunity when the tale of bricks is doubled then Moses will come as one saies 2. Improve your providential preservations by way of comfort in all your sufferings for the name and in the cause of Christ the Lord tells you tribulation in this world must be your portion and it is a characteristical mark of a true believer to be hated by the world they that have the crown in their eye must bear the cross upon their backs Now in the greatest tryal of affliction for the Gospel ye may draw forth and drink the wine of consolation ye may comfort your spirits by a serious reflection upon your experiences when ye remember what incomes ye had what strength what support what revivings of soul whilest ye lay upon such a bed of sickness were exposed to such hazzards environed with such dangers hedged in with such calamities when ye consider how the Lord fetch'd you off how seasonably Providence stepp'd in to your relief and how wonderfully God appeared for your deliverance Thus the Apostle argues in his own case 2 Cor. 1. ver 8. He tells the Church a great trouble which befell him in Asia it may be that at Ephesus Acts 19. ver 23. or that mentioned 1 Cor. 15. ver 32. but probably some other which Saint Luke mentions not which trouble he aggravates by three notable circumstances 1. We mere pressed out of measure above strength 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the burthen of a strong man should be laid upon the shoulders of a weak childe their being no proportion betwixt weight and strength 2. We despaired even of life had doubtfull thoughts arising in our hearts that we should not come off with life Note The most holy men have in this life their fits of unbelief 3. We had the sentence of death within our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the answer of death or we passed the sentence of death upon our selves I but God that raiseth up the dead delivered us from so great a death and what Inference doth faith make from hence why it begat an holy affiance in him that God would yet deliver him as if he had said I am yet to live in the world I have not yet finished my course nor fulfilled my Ministery and I know that bands and imprisonments for the Gospel yea trouble and persecution wait for me I but here 's the benefit of experience that God who supported me when I was pressed out of measure and above strength revok'd that sentence of death which I had passed upon my self and delivered me from so great a death he will yet deliver me he will graciously come in with supplies and support unto me that the gates of hell shall not prevail against me and why so confident Paul what bottomes this assurance why the name and nature of that God in whom he trusts his name is Jehovah I am I was and I am to come or I will be Now if you say there was danger I reply there was a God If you say there is danger I answer there is a God and if you fear there will be danger I believe there will be a God Jehovah answers to all these and he that was Jehovah to me in my former is Jehovah to me in my present and will be Jehovah to me in all my future sufferings for the Gospel He is I am in his nature as being yesterday to day and the same for ever and he is I am
highest rank were by the Roman Law nailed to the Crosse hence Isa 53. ver 9. the Prophet tells us he made his grave with the wicked that is suffered the death of the wicked the word imports ungodly lewd and turbulent irreligious towards God debauch't in manners and turbulent in the Common-wealth which sort of men David by the word of the Lord doomes to destruction Psal 9. ver 17. The wicked shall be turned into hell And now though the man Christ Jesus who is God blessed for evermore the Lord of glory feared death and was put to that shamefull and tormenting death the death of Hell-birds yet he endured it and despised the shame of it having his eye upon the joy set before him and what was that joy Sure much of that joy consisted in his compleating the work of his Redemption in bringing home the Elect unto God as Isa 53. ver 11. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied Hebr. shall sit down with acquiescence of spirit shall dwell there he shall receive joy and satisfaction from the saving of sinners as a man doth that dwelleth in his own house scituated with the best advantage of profit and delightfulness It was the saturity and satisfaction of his soul and the reason thereof may be gathered from John 12. ver 32. where he sayes and I if I be lifted up will draw all men after me he knew there would be such a magnetick vertue in his death which would attract all men to wit multitudes of men and women to believe in him The Spirit being to be sent forth and the Gospel being to be universally preached after his death O then ye believing ones look unto this Jesus and look unto this joy which in some measure will be given in unto you by the attractiveness of your deaths to draw soules to Christ and settle this upon your hearts that though your bloud may be spilt as water upon the ground yet by the wise appointment of a gracious God it may be as seed instrumentally not meri-toriously for in this sense onely the bloud of Jesus is of life and grace to poor sinners and be not so streiten-ed in your bowels to the Lord Jesus or to your poor brethren as to deny an handfull of seed if called unto it to encrease the greatharvest I shall subjoin but one Consideration more namely 5. That t is an honorable advancement to be called out by Christ to suffer for him a vouchsafement of grace Magna est huâ—us verbi Emphasis ex quo intellimus omnia deberi gratuitae Dei Electioni and that in a way of speciall favour to die a Martyr a right Martyr The Apostles Acts 5. ver 41. rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in a way of grace they had this honour put upon them that they were reputed as persons worthy to wear an honourable scar in their flesh for Christ though they were onely scourged this made Paul and Silas so meray at midnight that they sung Psalmes probably of praise to God that they were counted worthy to be shut up in the inner prison and to have their feet made fast in the stocks for the testimony of Jesus Acts 16. v. 25. Hence he tells the Philippians Phil. 1. ver 29. to you it is given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is a grant of grace of rich grace in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him though that be an high honour but also to suffer for his sake as if he had said the Lord hath granted you this honour that ye shall believe on him when as he leaves thousands of your acquaintance country-men yea Betters upon a worldly score in unbelief This is worth your acceptation our admiration this calls for full returnes of praise and thankfulness but this is not all that this grant of grace conferres by way of honour upon you for ye ye that are believers shall also be sufferers be Martyrs for Christ and sure the crown of Martyrdome is a glorius crown and every soul won over to God by a dying Martyr will be as an Orient pearl and precious Diamond in his crown of far more value then that Adamant found about Charles Duke of Burgundy slain by the Switzers at the battel of Nantz sold for twenty thousand Duckets and placed as it is said in the Popes tripple crown Oh what foretastes of glory what ravishments of soul have many of the blessed Martyrs had in their suffering for Christ Hold Lord stay thine hand I can bear no more like weak eyes that cannot bear too great a light and oh what thankfulness and joy of heart have many express'd Act. and Mon. Fol. 1553. It is the greatest promotion God gives in this world to suffer saies Father Latimer I thank God most heartily for this hour Mr. Glover wept for joy of his imprisonment God forgive me my unthankfulness for this great exceedingmercy that among so many thousands he chuseth me to be one in whom he will suffer Martyr â—tiam in catenâ— gaudet August Act. Mon. Fol. 1361.1744 saies Mr. Bradford Martyr I am the unmeetest man for this high office that ever was appointed to it saies Mr. Sanders Such an honour is it saies John Carlisle Martyr as the greatest Angel in heaven is not permitted to have God forgive me my unthankfulness Oh then what the Apostle saies Heb. 12. ver 1. as the close and Epilogue of that Martyrology so say I Wherefore seing you are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets you and run with patience the race which is set before you Ye know not what times ye may be called unto what quaimes of fears may be upon your spirits and what temptations to self pitty from Sathan and the flesh may then seize upon you Therefore store up Provision afore hand lay up Promises lay up Presidences lay up Arguments and lay up these considerations by an unworthy hand offered unto you keep a fresh sense of former deliverances and improve them by way of comfort and support in persecuting times Argue with David Psal 9. ver 13. Have mercy on me O Lord consider my troubles which I suffer of them that hate me and probably in the cause of Religion thou that liftest me up from the gates of death ex praesentissimo en certissimo interitu from present and certain dangers which shewed me the grave gaping for me and therefore raise up your spirits and believingly say as vers 6 7 8 9. O thou enemy destructions are come to a perpetual end the date of thy commission against us is expired and shall never be renewed and thy destruction from the Lord is irrevocable and eternal but the Lord shall endure for ever vivit regnatque Christus Christ lives and raigns and shall judg the world in
righteousness and will be a refuge for the oppressed a refuge in times of trouble Read and enlarge these and the following Verses in your own thoughts 3. Improve the consideration of temporal mercies by way of support under all your saddest and sorest temptations from the wicked one If the manchilde Christ Jesus in the spirit be formed in you and any actings of grace be brought forth by you the great red Dragon will wait to devour you He is your adversary an inveterate enemy he owes you an old grudg and will be revenged on the heel for the bruising of his head and that by your head It is his Interest to bestirre himself If Christ gaineth he looseth There 's a wedge loose with him when the word findes a welcome in a sinners heart There 's not a soul brought home to Christ but is fetch'd out of the Devils quarters not a convert gained but is wonne by Christ in a set battel Sathan sadly speaks those words of John the Baptist John 3. ver 30. he must increase but I must decrease The sea is in continual revolution when it is high water in one place its low water in some other so when it is high tide in such a nation country or town its low water with Sathan Christs gain is Sathans loss He knows how Christs and his own affairs go on in the world who gains and who looses and that his loss is Christs gain and therefore he tries all his tricks improves every method and turns every stone to keep his own ground to man his own forts maintain his own principality and withall to gain soules to himself to fetch them off from the embraces of Christ nay he is so bold and daring that though he sees the actings of godliness from the Saints and findes a work of grace in them which he doth find by those strong repulses the heart gives to his secret temptations which are his spies sent forth to search the land by whom he learns what frame the heart is in Though he sees his strong holds beat down and defaced by a conquering spirit though he observes the stream running in another channell and that the soul is now in armes against him believing repenting mourning praying watching hearing and all against him yet he will play an after game and not be wanting in skill or will to reduce the soul And he ploughs in hope and sowes in hope for he cannot read the Lambs book of life he knowes not the decrees of God they are Secret to him untill death brings forth a discovery and the soul is taken up to God and therefore though he fears such or such a Saint that is gone off from his quarters is under electing grace yet he hopes the contrary Yee see how busie he was with Joshua the High Priest Zech. 3. ver 1. and how hard he pressed upon him probably not without some hopes to have got him or the day against him until Christ rebuked him and told him he was a brand plucked out of the fire singled out by the purpose of the eternal Father to be a vessel of grace then he sleared away and left him Yet as our Saviour probably but for a time Luke 4.13 nay though he should read their names writ in heaven though he knowes the immutability of Christs love that whom he loves once he loves to the end John 13. ver 1. and of Gods counsel that his gifts and calling are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without repentance irreversible Rom. 11. ver 29. yet such is his malice and so great is his rage against the Saints that if he cannot keep them out of Canaan hee 'l sting them and scratch them in the wilderness before they get thither though he cannot put out their light hee 'l be a thief in their candle to swail away much of their comfort though he cannot reach them in heaven he will reckon with them on earth if they must to heaven he will send them cripples thither he will have a leg or an arm out of joint or broken or he will want of his will some way or other he will vex them buffet and disquiet them many long stories and sad ones too may be told of his exploits against the Saints my own experience can witness something of his trains and treacheries of his malice and the Lords mercy of his black designs and of the Lords gracious support and disappointments blessed be his holy name and adored for ever be his goodness O then in the name of the Lord lift up your banners buckle on your armour stand with your weapons in your hands ready to receive and charge your adversary and that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day gather up your experiences of God and meditate upon the great things God hath done for you in the day of your outward troubles what that power that wisdome that goodness of the Lord hath been which hath appeared unto you and engaged for you in the time of your greatest streights and what those streights and distresses how sharp and how pressing from which the Lord hath wrought your deliverance And then go to your spiritual Logick frame such an argument as this The Lord gives help to his distressed Saints in their outward troubles therefore also will he help them in their inward temptations now if Sathan shall argue that God doth not give in succours to the Saints in their outward troubles it 's true they and it may be ye had help and deliverance but it came not from God when ye were cast upon such and such sick-beds that ye despaired of life and your friends gave you up for dead then the Physician came and by his great skill administred such physick which wrought your recovery or when ye were in such streights the liberality of your friends relieved you or in such exigencies the wisdome and potency of your allies brought you off God was not seen in all your deliverances what will you do now why your business is to secure this fort by summoning your experiences and placing them upon the works saying that ye beheld the face of God in such deliverances that your help was onely from on high that men and means stood off and came not in no not for a reserve or though men and means were seen upon the wall yet God acted by the instrumentality of them though Christians were consulted with yet the blessing of God upon the means brought forth the cure be sure ye own God in every preservation how visible and potent soever creature-helps are or have been entrench your faith in this perswasion that whatsoever secondary causes contributed the chief agency was from God If Sathan beat you out of this trench he will soon take your standard and rout your whole army but if ye make good this ground if ye have the advantage of the hill ye are out of gunshot all his murthering pieces will not reach you ye may then quiet your
For their unjust charge of Hypocrisie upon them who so envious as evil men who are so much the objects of their envy as the godly are and why is their malice so much against them surely it is upon the account of Religion of differencing Grace and holiness This was the seed of the first quarrel betwixt man and man this was that which made Cain a fratricide and wherefore slew he his brother because his own works were evil and his Brothers righteous 1 John 3.12 and now though the laws of men and the power of God restrain wicked men from murdering the godly yet they shed the bloud of their soules and slay their sincerity by charging Hypocrisie upon them which is the highest degree of murther and that which the seed of Cain shall one day pay dearly for But what makes them so bold to call the Saints Hypocrites what colour have they for such a charge or what ground have they thus to traduce the sincere servants of the Lord why the false gloss they put upon the humbling Providences of God they expound unsoundness of body in them to an infallible Evidence of an unsound spirit rottenness in their bones to be the proper fruit of a rotten heart and that the voyce of the Lord in their present sufferings doth fully speak all their professing praying watching waiting humility and holiness to be but mere dissembling what do the arguings and deportments of Job's three friends import and in special that passage of Bildad Job 8.6 7. to the end of the Chapter If thou wert pure and upright surely now he would awake for thee and make thy righteousness prosperous What doth this Hypothesis this uncharitable Supposition import but a secret charge of Hypocrisie may it not be sensed thus ah Job thou wantest that heart-purity and heart-uprightness which renders the Persons and services of Gods sincere ones acceptable in his sight thou hast had indeed a great deal of the name and form of godliness thou hast carried it fairly and plausibly before men and hast purchased to thy self the reputation of a godly person in the world but alas the heart-searching God whose eyes are as a flame of fire ten thousand times brighter then the light of the Sun hath scarched thy reins and weighed thy spirit and having followed the streams of thy devotion to the fountain hath found that Hypocrisie hath been the head and Self the spring of all thy services thou hast but serv'd thy self upon God thy Religion hath been but mercenary and thou hast been his servant onely because he gave thee good wages therefore hath this calamitous condition overtaken thee and the Lord doth not awake to thy help which he would certainly do if he found thy heart upright in his wayes This he confirmes by the observation of the fathers who were men of great age great wisdome and great experience in the world ver 8 9 10. and that by three elegant similitudes ver 11. from the rush which cannot grow up without mire 2. from the flag which cannot grow without water both which ver 12. being removed to a drie unwatered soil do die and wither at the root so ver 13. are the wayes of all that forget God and the hypporites hope shall perish being at a distance from the fountain of living water and having the root of his confidence in himself A third Similitude is laid down ver 16 17. He is green before the sun and his branch shooteth forth in his garden his roots are wrapped about the heap and seeth the place of stones Succosus ex Tremel There being in many gardens fountains of stone Other senses of this passage are given by Expositours however all conclude that Bildad chargeth Iob with hypocrisie which is the chief thing I aim at in this quotation comparing an Hypocrite to a green and sappy tree which growes up under the warm influences of the Sun and spreadeth his roots receiving secret moisture from the garden-springs yet the ax shall be brought and cut it up being like the Cyparit which bears small berries and bitter leaves that yeild an ill smell before God and therefore he cuts him up and casts him out of his garden this further appears to be that which Bildad drives at and wherewith he chargeth Job upon the account of his present sufferings because Ver. 20. he affirmes that God will not cast away a perfect man neither will he help the evil doers That the perfect man in Scripture language however otherwaies glossed upon by some in our dayes denotes a sincere servant of the Lord one whose heart is upright with the Lord is clear in many passages now what measure Job had from Bildad and his companions the same have many of the suffering Saints had from the censorious and carnal world and that upon the same grounds but be wise O ye snarling doggs be instructed ye blind Barbarians call not a suffering Saint because in distress an hypocrite for they are branches bearing fruit in Christ and the great vine-dresser doth but purge them by affliction cutting off their luxuriant branches that they may bring forth more fruit Joh. 15.2 Take heed ye sin not by such uncharitable censures against the generation of Gods children lest his wrath be kindled against you and ye perish in the way even in this your way of traducing and slandering the footsteps of Gods anointed ones and lest the Lord speak suddenly against you as he did against Aaron and Miriam in the quarrel of Moses Numb 12.8 and say How were you not afraid to speak against my suffering servants 3. For that definitive sentence which they pass upon the Saints when under suffering as though they were cast off by God and delivered over by Justice unto destruction indeed wicked men are very peremptory in their conclusions against the Lords people and when they see load laid upon them by the Lord in some calamitous estate they presently determine upon the question that they are forsaken of God Thus David in Psal 71.7 brings in his enemies encouraging themselves in their furious attempts against him under this assurance that God had cast him off Hear at what a rate they speak God hath forsaken him persecute and take him for there is none to deliver him But why so confident that David is now one of the forlorne hope that his condition is desperate and irreparable have you not seen what stormes he hath borne up under and sailed against have you forgot the formidable armies he hath broak through and broak why should you think that Absalom's Rebellion or Sheba's Mutiny for it is conceived the Psalm was penned upon one of those occasions should cast such an old and experienced Souldier into a lost condition O! God was wont to go out with him and his good presence was as a munition of Rocks unto him whereby he became not onely safe but successfull in all his enterprises but now the case is altered David stands alone