against all sad and doleful stories hasten from the sight of all such dismal objects as would make them grave and solid they will not rustle their thoughts with anticipations of evil and future trouble they are now at ease and they hope they shall be so very long and this false expectation has no other cause than their unwillingness and aversion to think of a coming change and because they seel no pain sickness or inconvenience they will not spoil their Musick with groans and sighs they will eat drink and be merry and hang sorrow and cast care away but as all the mirth of Sailors cannot hinder the winds and the storms so this insensibleness and jollity does not keep the evil day further off but rather swells the Clouds and lays in matter for a more durable and intollerable sorrow they may in their Jovial humours and with their full Bowls drown their own understandings but they cannot by this means overwhelm their miseries which after the fumes of the grateful Wine are past will have a Resurrection they may say indeed as Isa 57.11 Come we will fill our selves and to morrow shall he as this day and much more abundant but perhaps that morrow they may never see or if they do it may bring along with it some great or unavoidable calamity We know David said in his Prosperity I shall never be moved and yet as soon as God hid his face he was troubled Psal 30.6 7. so unreasonable is it to conclude from our present delight that we shall never grieve We may as well argue because we are now in health we shall never be sick or because we are now alive we shall never die Such false Conclusions and such vain hopes do but encrease our after-troubles and make them more heavy as it is said of Babylon the Great Rev. 18.7 How much she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her for she saith in her heart I sit a Queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow therefore shall her Plagues come in one day death and mourning and famine Our miseries are sure but our joys uncertain our pleasures endure but a moment but our sorrows last a long time our pleasures no sooner begin to live but they begin to die and when we would with art prolong their date their continuance occasions either torment or loathing Grief as one says Senault use of the Passions p. 475. is more familiar to man than pleasure for one vain contentment we meet with a thousand real sorrows these come uncalled and present themselves of their own proper motion they are linkt one to another but pleasures are sought for with pain and we are forced to pay more for them than they are worth Sorrows are sometimes entirely pure and touch us to the quick as they make us incapable of Consolation but pleasures are never without some mixture of sorrow they are always dipt in bitterness and we are much more sensible of pain than of pleasure for a flight disease troubleth all our most solid Contentments a Fever is able to make Conquerors forget their Victories and to blot out of their minds all the pomp of their Triumphs Tho in some cases we may make our sorrows greater in our imagination than they are in reality for we are more ingenious and more particular in the computation of our griefs than of our mercies And many a thorn that annoys us is of our own planting and for one Cross that God sends our uneasiness and impatience makes a thousand more We apprehend some things to be evil which are not truly so and sometimes we augment our real evils beyond their natural proportion and so add new weight to that burden which made us groan before yet for all that and abstracting from our Irregularities since the fall man is a very dolorous and mournful Creature and our being so should excite us to take heed that we do not wound our selves afresh when we are already wounded nor lay in matter of new griefs when our unavoidable ones may be great enough There are two ways by which we aggravate our own miseries 1. By putting an higher value upon things than they really deserve by loving them more than we ought and then the Separation that is made between them and us gives us a more weighty sorrow 2. By seeking out of our selves for many things to make us happy whereas we should labour that our souls be duly order'd and our desires kept within their just and lawful bounds Inf. IV. We have cause to admire the wisdom of the Divine Providence that seeing the life of man is so very miserable he has ordered it also to be very short Tho our days are evil yet they are but few And that as the day is for hard labour there is a succession of comfortable nights wherein we may go to rest We find it a long tedious while to be in sorrows for fifty or sixty years but how loud would our groans be were we condemned to this toyl and these weepings for many thousand years The greater our misery is as one says the less while it is like to last the sorrows of a man's spirit being like ponderous weights which by the greatness of their burthen make a swifter motion and descend into the Grave to rest and ease our wearied Limbs and to knock our fetters off that eat as to the very bones Thus I have shewed what sorrows are common to the sons and daughters of men I am in the next place to shew what peculiar occasions of weeping Christians have above other men CHAP. III. Of the peculiar Occasions of weeping that good Christians have more than other men 1. THE Christian weeps for his own sins He is convinced of his own folly and bewails it he has by the inlightning of the Spirit a more tender heart than others have a more distinct view of the odiousness and malignity of the poisonous nature and dangerous qualities of Sin and that which was pleasant in the commission he finds by dear experience to be bitas gall and Wormwood afterwards This weeping is not the effect of mere softness or weakness of temper or from a want of courage there is nothing more reasonable more just or honourable than to bewail our Offences that we are guilty of against the Law of God And to what purpose hath he given us Innocent Passions but that they should be moved when suitable Objects present themselves He says with David Psal 51.3 I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is ever before me and such a sight of an Object so disagrecable pierces and wounds his very Soul and makes it to dissolve in a genuine and kindly grief and trouble saying Oh! what have I done against my God and my Saviour and the Holy Spirit Oh! how basely have I forgot a gracious and a loving God a God that has remembred me all my days for good He has loved me
is in despair and horror and mourning now his Visage and his Language is changed and he is all dissolved in bitterness and tears and woe Oh how vain a thing is man how terrible is it to fall into the hands of the Living God! my poor Friend under a sense of Gods displeasure does never eat nor drink with pleasure he is covered with sadness whilst I rejoice in the Elessings of Providence I will by this Example learn to improve my own mercies and to have a great tenderness for such as are brought so very low If as Mr. Peacock in his distress said you did but feel their grief for one hour you would have great compassion on them every one of their tears and sighs has this Language in which the Poor afflicted Job spoke to his hard-hearted Visiters chap. 19.21 Have pity upon me have pity upon me O ye my friends for the hand of God hath touched me Thirdly Do not use harsh Speeches to your Friends when they are under the disease of Melancholly They may fret and perplex and enrage them more but they will never do them the least good Some indeed will advise you to chide and rebuke them upon all occasions but I dare confidently say such Advisers never felt this Disease for if they had they would know that by such a method they do but pour oyl into the flame and chafe and exasperate their wounds instead of healing them Mr. Dod by reason of his mild meek and merciful spirit was reckoned one of the fittest persons to deal with People thus afflicted Never was any Minister more tender and compassionate as those will find that read the Account of Mr. Peacock and Mrs. Drake who by his means were very much revived If you would be serviceable to such Persons you must not vex them with harsh and rigorous discourse it causes many poor Souls to cherish and conceal their troubles to their greater torment because they meet with very harsh entertainment from those to whom they have begun to explain their case Our Blessed Lord and Principal Physician was meek and lowly and would not break the bruised Reed nor quench the smoaking Flax. And the first Visit that the forementioned Mr. Dod made to Mr. Peacock in his Anguish was to put him in mind of God's kindness * See Mr. Peacock's Visitation p. 6. whereof he shewed to him four parts 1. To take small things in good part 2. To pass by Infirmities 3. To be easily entreated 4. To be entreated for the greatest You must use with such a great deal of prudence and gentleness not upon every occasion to thwart and contradict them with love you may do them much good but in anger none at all If you be severe in your speeches they 'll never be persuaded that it is in kindness and so not regard at all what you say nay your sharp words pierce as so many Daggers to their hearts and make that inward Fever that burns them to be more hot and scorching But of all Persons Ministers are especially to be blamed who when they find poor Sinners even overwhelmed with a sense of guilt with the terrors of God and slain by the Law do still set the Law more and more home upon them which is indeed to throw them down lower but not the way to raise them up it is to widen and enflame but not to remove and heal their wounds and to such that of the Prophet may be very justly applied Ezek. 34.4 The diseased have ye not strengthned neither have ye healed that which was sick neither have ye bound up that which was broken neither have ye brought again that which was driven away neither have ye sought that which was lost but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them And then the poor distressed Soul is more distressed by their harsh Language and is apt to conclude against it self and to say If the Ministers of Christ speak so severely to me what will Christ himself do and this is raking in the wounds that are already very sore and smarting Such a Minister is as an Angel that troubles the waters more that were before troubled but not an Angel of peace to bring glad tidings to a weary Soul They would not complain no more than you if they were not in violent anguish and perplexity For as Job says ch 6.5 Doth the wild Ass bray when he hath grass or loweth the Ox over his fodder And again to the sharp Expressions of his Friends he says Job 16.3 4 5. Miserable Comforters are ye all shall vain words have an end I also could speak as you do If your soul were in my soul's stead I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you But I would strengthen you with my mouth and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief When their Souls are already full of sorrow a little more will make them overflow When they are weakned with several assaults a small stroke will throw them to the ground and a Sore that is continually rubbed and chafed cannot be cured But of this I have spoken in the following Treatise p. 80. Fourthly You must be so kind to your Friends under this Disease as to believe what they say Or however that their apprehensions are such as they tell you they are do not you think that they are at ease when they say they are in pain It is a foolish course which some take with their melancholly Friends to answer all their Complaints and Moans with this That it 's nothing but Fancy nothing but Imagination and Whimsey It is a Real Disease a Real Misery that they are tormented with and if it be Fancy yet a diseased Fancy is as great a Disease as any other it fills them with anguish and tribulation But this so disordered Fancy is the consequent of a greater Evil and one of the sad effects that are produced by that black Humour that has vitiated all the natural spirits These afflicted persons can never possibly believe that you pity them or that you are heartily concerned for them if you do not credit what they say and truly it often falls out that because Melancholly persons do not always look very ill or have pretty good stomachs and do not at first very much decline in their Bodies other persons that know nothing of the Distemper are apt to think that they make themselves worse than they are whereas alas they are so grieved that they need not neither will they counterfeit any more grief In all other Evils people take for granted what others say and accordingly sympathise with them but in this they are apt to contradict and oppose such as are distressed and as long as they do so cannot pity them as they ought This makes the grief of such to overwhelm and strangle them within because when they disclose it they find it is to no purpose and do but in this case as you would have
of the World As also the Reason why good People are many times very willing to dye and of the inexcusableness and misery of those that are without God's Favour and whence it is that some grow in Grace more than others and are more earnest for a share in God's Love p. 207. CHAP. XIII Shewing that the Favour of God is diligently to be sought and what is to be done that we may obtain it p. 228. CHAP. IV. That we ought to take heed that we do not lose the Favour of God after we have once enjoyed it and what we are to do that we may not fall into a condition so miserable as this would be p. 241. CHAP. V. Of Assurance and of the false Grounds from which many are apt to conclude That they are God's Favourites when they are not so p. 263. CHAP. VI. Shewing by what means we may know whether we have God's favour or not And first by the Graces of his Spirit tho the acting of them is neither so strong nor so comfortable at one time as another And secondly by our hatred of sin and our being satisfied with all the Providences of God p. 275. CHAP. VII Of several other ways whereby a sense of God's favour may be preserved in our souls and how we may certainly know that we are in that happy state p. 294. CHAP. VIII Of the several Privileges that belong to those who have God's favour p. 309. The Contents of the Third Part. CHAP. I. OF the many miseries of this Mortal Life that are the usual occasions of sorrow to the sons of Men with respect both to their Bodies and their Souls p. 317. CHAP. II. Shewing that the Fall of Adam was the Cause of all our Miseries and in how excellent a condition the blessed Angels are and the folly of such as expect to meet with nothing in the World but what is easie and pleasant p. 331. CHAP. III. Of the Peculiar occasions of Weeping that good Christians have more than other Men. p. 338. CHAP. IV. Shewing what dreadful apprehensions a soul has that is under desertion and in several respects how very sad and doleful its Condition is from the Author 's own Experience p. 352. CHAP. V. Answering some Objections and of the further doleful state of a deserted soul and whence it is that God is pleased to suffer a very tempestuous and stormy night to come upon his Servants in this World p. 370. CHAP. VI. Shewing whence it is that Melancholly People love solitariness and whence it is that serious persons are not so light in their Conversations as others are with some Inferences deducible from the foregoing Doctrine as also some advices to those who have never been deserted and to such who are complaining that they are so p. 381. CHAP. VII Of the great joy that fills a soul when the sense of God's favour returns to it after having been long in darkness and that this is great in several respects as it was unexpected as it discovers God to be reconciled and gives the mourner an Interest in Christ by Faith through the Influence of the Holy Spirit It revives his Graces delivers him from the Insulting of the Devil and shews the soul irs right to the Promises p. 393. CHAP. VIII Of the further Properties of the Jâ—â—y that comes to a Soul after long desertion 'T is Irr sistible 't is usually Gradual it revives the Body and the Natural Spirits It fills the late Mourner with the hope of Glory and causes him to express his delight to others From all which we may justly admire the Wisdom of the Divine Providence p. 408. CHAP. IX Of the different ends that God hath in the Afflictions of the Good and the Wicked and what Reason we have to be reconciled to his Providence And that we must be satisfied that God carry us to Heaven in his oven Way and Method p. 421. CHAP. X. The Conclusion of the whole Treatise with Directions to such who have been formerly in the darkness of a sorrowful Night and now enjoy the Light of Day p. 427. A DISCOURSE Concerning TROUBLE of MIND AND THE DISEASE of MELANCHOLY PART I. PSAL. XXX 5. For his anger endureth but a moment in his favour is life weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning The INTRODUCTION THE Miseries under which the whole race of Men have now for a long time groaned and under which they still groan are owing to the Fall of Man The day on which our first Parents complied with the temptation of the Devil was a mournful day to them and in its effects no less sad to us It filled their once pure and quiet hearts with trouble and disorder and made them unable to think of their great Creator with delight It intercepted those chearful and comfortable beams of his Love which were more satisfying to them than all the glories of the lower Paradise For tho' it did after the Fall abound with all the same natural refreshments with the same Rivers Herbs Trees and Flowers yet it was to them no more a Paradise No Musick could delight their sense when they heard a terrible voice from God summoning them to answer for their Crime no objects could please their eyes when they saw the Clouds thickning over their heads and dreadful frowns in the face of their mighty-Judge All the Creatures could minister nothing to their ease or safety when the great Creator was against them From their Apostacy we may derive all our miseries both the pains and sicknesses that afflict our Bodies and the fears and terrors that overwhelm our Souls Our Bodies are liable to a Thousand calamities that may be both long and sharp but how long and how sharp soever they be they do not altogether give us such a sensible and such lively grief as we have when we are under distresses of Conscience and when we are under a sense of the Wrath of God that is due to us for Sin There are many persons who endeavour by all the Rules of Art to give relief and help against the mischiefs that attend our Bodies but which after all their Art will go into the Grave and there are as many that by the Duty of their Office and the Character they bear are obliged to imitate their Saviour To preach good tidings to the meek and to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound Isa 61.1 But they are many times at a loss to know what Remedies to apply to these inward and spiritual Diseases and always unable to make their applications successful unless God himself by his Almighty Power Create Peace and turn that Chaos and those Confusions under which a poor troubled Soul is buried into the joy and light of day It pleases the Wife God that may make us serve to what uses he thinks most convenient for the good of the Universe and the welfare
from him as we did but he designs not to raise them again they groan'd under the wrath of the mighty Judge and they must always groan under it no beam of chearful Light will shâ—ne into their Dungeon no Messenger will be dispatched to give them the glad-tidings of Salvation the anger of God threw them out of Heaven and the door is for ever shut they know this to be their woful Case and therefore they rage against him and against his Servants and his Interest in the world What could move Christ to take the nature of Man and not of Angels Heb. 2.16 to say to us Live and to suffer them to dye to visit our sinning World to set us at Liberty to set open the Prison-doors whilst he suffers them to roar in chains of wrath As they have greater Capacities and Natures more knowing than ours so they might have honoured their Creator more than we had they been redeemed but they must mourn for ever and never sing his Praise they must grieve whilst we rejoice whilst we look for our Lord they tremble in the fear of his coming whilst we have the sweetness of hope they are in anguish and vexation in despair and horror we have our Sabbaths but they have no days of rest we can through Jesus Christ call God our Father but they know him not by such a comfortable Name they feel his Power but they tast not his Love they tremble under his Vengeance but all comfort and Joy is fled away from them for ever why are we in the light and they in darkness Why is Christ a Phisician to us whilst he is a Judge to them truly nothing makes the difference but his own love and what manner of love is this 2. It was great love in Christ to bear the anger of God because now his poor tempted Servants have one to whom they may repair in all their straits Heb. 2.18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succor them that are tempted 'T is a great relief to the miserable and afflicted to be pitied by others as Job 19.21 Have pity upon me have pity upon me O ye my friends for the hand of God hath touched me It is some relief when others tho they cannot help us yet seem to be truly concerned for the sadness of our case when by the kindness of their words and of their actions they do a little smooth the wounds that they cannot heal but it is an unspeakable addition to the Cross when a man is brought low under the sense of God's displeasure to have men to mock at his Calamity or to revile him or to speak roughly this does enflame and exasperate the wound that was big enough before and it is an hard thing when one has a dreadful sound in his ears to have every friend to become a Son of Thunder It is a small matter for people that are at ease to deal severely with such as are afflicted but they little know how their severe speeches and their angry words pierce them to the very soul 'T is easie to blame others for complaining but if such had felt but for a little while what it is to be under the fear of God's Anger they would find they could not but complain It cannot but make any person very restless and uneasie when he apprehends that God is his Enemy It is no wonder if he makes every one that he sees and every place that he is in a witness of his grief but now it is a Comfort in our Temptations and in our Fears that we have so compassionate a Friend as Christ is to whom we may repair Heb. 4.15 For we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in every time of need Had it not been for his Mediation the absolute and pure Deity would have been too glorious and inaccessible to us but he is cloathed with our nature and though it has undergone several alterations since he is exalted yet we are sure that he retains a tender sence of our miseries And tho he be very high he does not think it below him to regard the most troubled and sorrowful Believer He was on earth acquainted with grief Isa 53.3 And has carryed to Heaven with him a remembrance of what he felt in his own Temptations and of what he felt when his Father frown'd upon him and his own experience renders him more capable of helping us and makes him full of pity when he sees us mourn well knowing what was his own Case As God has fashioned the hearts of all men and some who have naturally more mercy and pity than others and then the holy Spirit by its renewing grace carrying their good Dispositions to greater degrees and proceeding and working usually according to their tempers so it is certain he temper'd the heart of Christ and made it of a softer mould than all the tenderness of all the men in the world put together would have made it he had such a humane nature that might be more merciful than all Men and Angels together Goodwin Christ's Heart in Heaven p. 55. Our groans and our sighs teach his Heart above and tho he does not come with help just when we desire it yet he is providing for our welfare he sends us some inward supports when we have not an immediate deliverance he will not suffer us totally to sink tho he may leave us for a while to try our faith or to let us understand our own weakness we may think that our vessel will be covered with waves when he is guiding us to shore even when we think that he is asleep and has forgot us and cares not though we be cast away only let us never cease to say Master save us or else we perish CHAP. V. Shewing the unreasonableness of long-continued angers among good People as also that the temporary effects of God's displeasure are more elegible than the wrath of Men. Of the Excellency of Religion and that the Enemies of the Church have no cause to insult over it because of its certain deliverance and the dismal Conclusion of their own Wickedness upon which account Christians have no Reason to envy their Prosperity Inf. 2. SEeing God is angry but for a moment How unreasonable are long-continued Anger 's among good People Let not the sun go down upon your wrath Neither give place to the devil Eph. 4.26 27. i. e. he that has injured or provoked another must come to a Temper and sue for a Reconciliation speedily or else before the time of solemn praying to God which was constantly at Evening and so the Exhortation bears proportion with that Matth. 5.23 24. If thou bringest thy gift unto the altar and there remembrest that
our sins have made the Spirit that only can teach us how to pray to retire but there are some Considerations that may support us even in so sad a case as this 1. Our Distress teaches us the Folly of our Sin and causes us to hate that which has cost us so very dear and it is well for us that we see the odiousness of it tho it be smart and pain that opens our eyes 'T is better to be wounded in order to a cure than to dye at ease and so to perish for evermore 2. The Spirit is not so withdrawn but that he will return upon our-earnest addresses for his Grace He hovers still about us and tho we did ill to shut him out before yet this blessed Guest does but wait for a favourable opportunity to do us good again He is not quite gone that sense which we have of Sin is his own work 3. Our indisposition to the Duty of Prayer is no sign that we are void of Life A bed-rid Person lives as well as one that is in his firm and pleasant Health a groan is a sign of Life as well as laughter and a merry Song It is very undesirable indeed to have such a feeble and decaying life but the way to make it more strong is to keep our Souls in exercise and the weak and creeping motion wherewith we stirred at first being continued will enable us to tread with a more steady foot and we shall get several Paces further in a very little while By praying tho it be in a very poor manner we shall learn to pray Tho we do but sigh after God yet even a sigh may a little ease us and by frequent use be turned into a loud and prevailing Cry God is still your Creator and he that hears the Ravens and the young Lions when they roar for meat will not be deaf to you 4. 'T is a more excellent state of Soul to pray to God and to persevere in it when you have no Comfort than when you have Sensible Consolation is a very desirable thing 'T is as the Dew of Heaven as Manna coming thence like Honey or the Honey-Comb very pleasant to the taste But a Dependance and Trust in God when he is a withdrawing-God is one of the most glorious Acts of Faith and if it be not treated with Feasts and splendid Entertainments here I can assure you nay God himself has assur'd you That it shall fare very well in the next world Sensible Consolation may be in the inferior nature as the Mystical People call it it may be occasioned by the Temper of the Body by the Harmony of the Passions or the agreeable Dispositions of the Natural Spirits but those other less pleasant acts are seated in the highest Region of the Soul in the Understanding and the Will and upon that account are more truly Spiritual and more abiding 5. Those poor troubled people that complain of their deadness and incapacity to manage the Duty of Prayer ought to consider what an influence their fears have had upon their bodies fear does naturally contract and dull the heart the motions of it are weak and languid despairing thoughts and apprehensions about our Everlasting State dry up our moisture and by cutting off our hopes make every thing that was pleasant to us to wither away and 't is a very hard matter for the Soul to retain its heat and warmth when its dear Companion the body does not assist it as it used to do when the Spirits with which it serves it self in so many several actions are stagnated into a feeble and almost undiscerned motion Some great Saints there have been who by a sort of Holy Anteperistasis have glowed in their hearts with a quicker Flame to God when all has been cold and storm round about them Some there have been who have never had more inward Health than when their outward man decayed and whose souls seem'd manifestly to thrive when their bodies were mouldring away but generally speaking the Neighbourhood or the nearness of a sickly body proves a great clog and hindrance to the mind and there is no question but God will make allowances for our weakness and the groaning after him by one under the power of a Disease may be as grateful to him as a long continued Prayer by one in Heath Pray therefore to God tho it be with heaviness tho it be mingled with many a bitter sigh yet it will be a payment of that homage which you owe to God and you know not how soon you may meet with a gracious return You may kneel down in sorrow and he may lift you up with Joy and say Be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee And I know that would be very welcome and pleasant news to you the news of a Kingdom to be your own would not be half so refreshing Obj. 2. It is not for me to pray I am Sinner enough already God knows and would you have me aggravate my Guilt for I have wandring Thoughts and an unbelieving heart I am a wicked person and the prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord Prov. 28.9 And therefore to what purpose should I pray If any man indeed break with contempt the Laws of God and then think to make satisfaction by his Prayers and an outward or a pompous Devotion he offers an affront to the All-knowing God and his holy Eye cannot look upon an Action so criminal without the greatest disdain and scorn If a man will Swear and Curse and Damn himself with one breath and then desire God to bless him with the next this would be a ridiculous Pretence to Religion and such are like to find severe Punishment from that God whom they abuse with so shameless a Confidence and of whom they speak with so little Reverence If a man should desire of God to help him to rob to plunder or to wrong his Neighbours this were as far as he could to make the Holy One of Israel a partner in his Crimes If a man should kill another unjustly and glut himself with Revenge and then as some have exprest it say Grace over his bloody Banquet this were to commit a double Wickedness It was an abominable thing when so many harmless Protestants were so barbarously Butcher'd in France to sing Te Deum at Rome for the Massacring so many poor Creatures as if the God of Mercy had been Cruel as well as they as if the Rage that came from Hell had descended from the God of Love As if a man that lives at the Prince's Charge and is maintained at his Table should break the most Venerable Laws of his Kingdom and then thank the Prince for giving him a power to do that which he knows he detests and hates There is no question but it is the Duty of a wicked man to pray to God I suppose there is none thinks Simon Magus a very good man and yet he was exhorted
hang over your heads and fright you with its dreadful Presages whereever you went and on the contrary if all the people in the world were your Enemies and he your Friend his Love would sweeten all their Hatred his Voice would still all their Clamours his Arm would fence off all their Blows and under the Wings of his Providence you might lye down and sleep in peace He can save you when you have destroyed your selves when you have run to the very door and the gates of Hell he can pull you back When you are even dying he can strengthen and revive you 'T is with him that you have principally to do to him must you therefore pray because from him alone can your help come When Adam had committed sin he was afraid and took no pleasure even in Paradise tho as one says the Sun shined upon his head with as gentle and refreshing Beams the Rivers ran as clear as before the Birds sung with as Melodious a Voice the Flowers had as fragrant a smell the Herbs were cloathed with as fresh a Verdure and all the Fruits flourished as before but from the poor man Peace and Innocence was fled away all without was calm but he found a tempest rising in his own Breast which he knew not how to lay Those of us that have by woful experience felt the Terrors of the Lord know that all the advices of our Friends all their Arguings and Discourses all their Entreaties and their Prayers gave us no manner of ease till God Himself was pleased to command Salvation for us Job 34.29 When he giveth quietness who can make trouble and when he hideth his face who can then behold him whether it be done against a nation or a man only The greater are our Distresses the more fervent should our Prayers be and when the Winds are highest and the Storms encrease and threaten us with Shipwrack and with Ruine the nearness and the greatness of our danger must cause us with more speed to arise and call upon our God Therefore though you have the sense of his displeasure yet say there is none can help me but God himself there is none can heal my diseases or forgive my sins but he therefore as long as I live will I pray and call upon him till he have Mercy upon me Secondly Tho you are under the sense of God's Anger you have encouragement to pray from many Promises and from the Office and the Name of Christ That Mediator that well remembers what he felt when he groaned under his Father's Wrath knows also with what Flames your Souls are scorched With a most compassionate eye does he look upon you and will awake to promote your Safety if you do but say as the poor frighted Disciples Master save us or else we perish 'T is true he is attended with Illustrious Spirits some of which were never thus sick and others whom he has fully cured but in the Throng of his Admiring Courtiers in the midst of their Chearful and pleasant Hallelujahs his Heart is concerned for you and his Ears will be open to your Cry his Intercession gives you good ground of hope he ever lives to manage that glorious and honourable Work and having an unchangeable Priesthood he is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him Heb. 7.25 To the uttermost is as one observes Dr. Goodwin Triumph of Faith from Christ's Intercession p. 199. a good word and put in for our Comfort For says he let thy soul be set upon the highest mount that ever any creature was yet set upon and that it is inlarged to take in and view the most spacious Prospect both of Sin and Misery and difficulties of being saved that ever yet any poor humbled soul did cast within it self yea join to these all the objections and hindrances of thy Salvation that the heart of man can suppose or invent against it self lift up thy eyes and look to the utmost thou canst see and Christ by his Intercession is able to save thee beyond the Horizon and furthest compass of thy Thoughts even to the utmost and the worst case the heart of man can suppose Cry often to God Oh pity me a poor helpless sinner for the sake of Christ he bore thy wrath turn it away from me for I am not able to bear it The Name of Jesus carries Comfort and Salvation with it He is a perfect Saviour in every time of need The Name of Jesus Christ tells you that his Office is to do good to the miserable to heal the diseased to open the eyes of the blind to preach good tidings to the meek to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bounds Isa 61.1 You are to pray in that name which was celebrated by all the Patriarchs and Holy Men of old by the Prophets and by the Priests under the Law tho it was then wrapt up in obscure Types and Representations that Name in which God himself delights at which the Angels bow with Reverence and at which the Devils tremble that Name which is great in Heaven and Earth in which you were baptized and in which you must place all your hopes in this you may implore assistance in all your wants and this may furnish you with an holy confidence for 't is the Name of the Son of God of his entirely Beloved Son and it would be a Reproach to this Great and Venerable Name to pray with distrustful thoughts Oh let this be a support to you that you may have access to God by this Name which has been dear to all the Faithful and must be so to you and which has been the refuge of many a poor trembling Soul This is the Name which the Saints of God have mentioned in all their straits with great delight of which they were pleased frequently to hear and to speak and which was the Joy of their Hearts and for which they refused not to suffer Death Some have taken the pains to observe that it is mentioned in the Epistles of Paul 220 times and often in the Gospel of John so sweet so dear to them was the Name of Jesus This is the first General way of Relief that they who are under the sense of God's Anger ought to take viz. To Pray unto him So Jer. 10.24 O Lord correct me but with judgment not in thine anger lest thou bring me to nothing Psal 39.10 Remove thy stroke away from me for I am consumed by the blow of thine hand Psal 85.4 6 7. Psal 38.21 22. Psal 138.3 Psal 143.2 CHAP. VIII Of Faith in Christ as another Help under the sense of God's displeasure And the several tendencies it hath to calm an afflicted Soul under long and sore Tryals SEcond General When you are under the sense of God's Anger for your Sins act Faith upon God and Christ Faith I may well say is the Mother
neither perform this nor any other spiritual action with calmness and deliberation but in other Cases where the disorder of the spirits is not so great and violent He that believes makes not haste Isa 28.16 is not furious and precipitant and indeed it is our common fault that we would have the help of God to come just when we will to be eased as soon as ever we find our selves in pain to get to Heaven immediately when we find our selves no longer fit for service here on Earth and to have an unpainful and easie passage thither but God that is not so tender of our Flesh as of our Spirits will suffer us long to be in trouble that all may know by their own feeling how evil and how bitter a thing it is to sin and that by the methods that please us least he may do us the most good and by our temporal inconveniencies promote our eternal welfare We ought in patience in an humble and a quiet silence to possess our souls and to approve of all the dispensations and the works of God for how it is possible for us not to manifest our sense of grief even in doleful expressions I know not When a Man is under a burthen that he cannot bear or when he is in sharp pain 't is natural for him to groan and to sigh 't is a thing which he cannot help It would be as I have intimated before a needless labour to advise people under great affliction and spiritual distress not to complain for say what we will they cannot but complain Can a Man think God his Enemy and his Soul in danger and Hell like to be his portion Can he see his Comforts wither and his Hopes expire and others at ease while he is in wo and trouble and not be greatly concerned or be so and not express his concern for the sadness of his Case Blame not people that are under the Terrors of the Lord for complaining if your souls were embittered with Wormwood and Gall you would complain as much as they Can they be silent when they think that God is departed from them and as they fear departed for ever Can they be in so terrible calamity as quiet and as much unmoved as when they were at ease Our blessed Lord himself in the days of his flesh when his suffering encreased upon him offered up prayers with strong crying and tears Heb. 5.7 And in the pain of his inexpressible agonies on the Cross he cryed out with a loud voice My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matt. 27.46 And Psal 32.3 When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long And he assigns the Reason of it in Verse 4. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of summer Selah There are some natural unavoidable expressions of grief and sorrow which are consistent with that waiting and dependance upon God which I have mentioned before nor is it contrary to this waiting to desire a speedy and a quick deliverance you may lawfully pray for if For which we have several instances as Psal 22.19 Be not thou far from me O Lord O my strength haste thee to help me Psal 31.2 Bow down thine ear to me deliver me speedily Psal 69.17 Hide not thy face from thy servant for I am in trouble hear me speedily And so Psal 102.2 Psal 40.17 Make no tarrying O my God You may in imitation of so great examples frame your requests after this or the like manner but if when you have done so relief does not immediately come if your distress and your anguish remain you must be content still to wait and to justify your Maker in his delays and in his proceedings towards you tho' they be very terrible as in Psal 22.1 2 3. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring O my God I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and in the night season and am not silent But thou art holy O thou that inhabits the praises of Israel Those that aver Religion to be in all respects an easie thing know not what they say did they know what it were to be under the sense of God's displeasure and under violent painful distempers for many Months together and yet to wait and to be satisfied with that Providence that thinks fit to continue on them long pains and terrible fears they would find it is not such an easie matter to be truly Religious But that you that are exercised with severe and sharp Tryals may arrive to this excellent disposition of being able still to wait on God Cons I. How long has God waited upon you How long did he knock at your doors How did he entreat and beseech and call to you ere you let him in How did he follow you from day to day and from Sabbath to Sabbath How did he wait for your Repentance one year after another doubling and renewing his expostulations with you saying as to Jerusalem Jer. 13. last Wilt thou not be made clean When shall it once be And if you denied to hear the Calls of the Great God for so long a space Can you think it hard that he does not grant a present answer to your Prayers Would you have help on a sudden when you made the Eternal wait for your hearts so very long He waited on us to do us good when we ran from him when we spent our Thoughts our Strength our Lives and our Time in vain after all our rebellious our undutifulness and disobedience he moved upon our souls by his Spirit he excited us to mind our Interest and gave us space wherein to repent Let us remember these things to humble us and to encrease our patience and to keep us from thinking it strange if God even for a long time delay his help Cons II. The Soveraignty the Greatness and the Wisdom of God We are his own and he may do what he will with us being his creatures he may cause us to serve to whatsoever purposes he pleases and his Wisdom will guide even our miseries to make them useful to others tho' they be sharp and severe to us his ways are far above us his Greatness and his Glory being so far above our thoughts the most suitable temper of a creature towards so great a God is to be silent and to wait to see what a period Infinite Wisdom will at length put to those Dispensations of his Providence which are so dismal and so terrible to us If all our Comforts that we have in this world all that we most valued and esteemed be taken from us if our Afflictions be long and tedious and accompanied with such stinging particularities as have scarcely been mingled with the Crosses of others that have gone before us God may do what he will with us we can have nothing to
When the Affliction brings some special Sin to remembrance and when Sin it self deprives us of a Mercy when Intemperance brings Sickness Ambition Disgrace Covetousness and an over-eager Desire of Riches Poverty But then even great Crosses are in Mercy 1. When God does not afflict us only but teaches us at the same time And 2. When we can be thankful for that Comfort which we have lost that is if it be outward for I see not how any person can be thankful for Desertion while it remains upon him for that were to thank God that he is departed or that he has restrained the manifestations of his Love which no man is obliged to do 3. When all our Losses are made up in God and in the Graces of his Spirit CHAP. XI Shewing That present Distress of Conscience is no sign of Reprobation There may be too great Trouble for Sin And when it is excessive former Experiences may be helpful to Afflicted People And that God will not judge Persons that have been good according to what they are in the woful Disease of Melancholly XI JUdge not of your Eternal State by what you now feel you may by the Terrors of the Lord be in Anguish and Tribulation in the very Suburbs of Hell and yet never go thither God may be displeased and yet after a moments sorrow you may find him to be your Gracious and your Everlasting Friend You are now it may be thrown down but his hand and his promise can quickly raise you up again You may conclude your selves through the Power of your dismal thoughts to be Reprobates and yet God may bring you to Salvation at the last You may for many years lye in terror but you cannot you ought not to say that it will be so for ever I my self have been so afflicted in so great Anguish and Perplexity under such dreadful apprehensions of the Wrath of God and of his Power and Greatness as I thought employed against me that I thought my self in Hell knowing that it is not so much a Place as a State I thought that my Soul would be gathered with Sinners and that I should be found at the left hand of Christ I thought I was cut down for ever banished from the Courts and from the Presence of the Lord and should never see Light nor Comfort nor Refreshment any more and yet through the Grace of God you see I am revived and am not now without hope as I once was and from the very Gates of Death from the very door of Destruction I come to tell you That tho God be Just yet he is also Gracious There is mercy with him that he may be feared and that as the Night comes so will the Morning too for tho we have provoked him which was our Folly yet he will not contend for ever which is our Comfort Psal 31.21 22 23 24. Blessed be the Lord for he hath shewed me his marvellous loving-kindness c. For I said in my haste I am cut off from hefore thine eyes nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my Supplications when I cried unto thee O love the Lord all ye his saints Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your hearts all ye that hope in the Lord. When we are in deep and sore Affliction that smarts and makes us groan 't is hard indeed to believe that what makes us so sick will promote our health or what breaks us to pieces will joint our bones again But our sense and present feeling is not to guide our thoughts We feel our selves indeed miserable but we ought to believe that our present Misery may promote our Happiness tho by ways that we do not for the present see we are not to judge of God by the Darkness of his Providences but by the Light of his Word not by his afflicting Strokes only but by his Promise which obliges him to correct us for our Sin but yet not altogether to destroy us XII Remember that it is an evil thing to be over-much troubled even for Sin it self tho this advice does not concern the greatest part of men the most are secure they break the Laws of God and do not tremble they pollute themselves with manifold abominations and are not ashamed they sin with lofty looks and with hardned hearts and do evil with both hands earnestly They take the Name of God in vain they profane his Sabbaths they scorn his Word they defy his Threats they scorn his Messengers and yet few or none strikes upon his Thigh and says What have I done They are daring where they ought to fear and rejoice where they ought to mourn The greatest part of the world are in a deep slumber in misery and in danger but they are insensible they know not that the end of these things will be very bitter and vexatious But I now speak to such whose Consciences are awakened with a sense of the Greatness the Majesty the Justice of God and the Strictness and Holiness of his Law and have at the same time a deep sense of their own Gulit and liableness to Condemnation their thoughts in such troubles are too much apt to sink and to be over-whelmed and indeed the view of all their sins set in order before them is too terrible for them to look upon The burden and the weight of them is too heavy for any mortal men to bear But they should consider That God is not only severe but very good that he is not only angry but reconcilable and willing to be at Peace again This will represent his love to us and it is that and that alone that will melt our Hearts with a kindly grief and keep our sorrow from overflowing the due bounds as it is very prone to do And it does so in several Cases 1 When our sorrow for sin hinders our regular proceeding in the true judgments of things We know that in dark and cloudy seasons we cannot distinctly perceive the several Objects that we clearly discern in fair weather so when our sorrows have raised a mist before our eyes we dim our reason and weaken our faculties and see not things as they really are but as they do appear in a dark and confused manner When we are not able to apprehend things as they are in themselves but as our Afflictions represent them that is a false Medium whereby to form our Judgments when they do make us heighten our troubles and it may be make them greater than they really are and when they make us altogether inattentive to those directions methods and advices that are suggested for our help 2. When our sorrow for sin drives us away from God the sight of our Wounds should make us haste to the Great Physician for a speedy relief When I have throughly beheld my sin the next thought should be Oh what need have I of a God to forgive me of a Saviour to plead my Cause and of the Holy Spirit to renew me
the Spices to flow forth he excites and quickens our Graces when they begin to languish and when we are lukewarm and cold he makes us to be lively and fervent in the performance of our holy Duties for as one says what the Soul is to the Body to move it to natural things to breathe to eat to walk and the like the same is the Spirit of God in our Souls to move us to spiritual actions as the fear of God love to him and trust in him and all the works of Righteousness Charity Humility Patience and Sobriety that are the motions of the new creature so that we may say of this Spirit that he is the Soul of our Souls and take away this Spirit and the Soul resembles a dead Body it has no zeal for God no compunction no tenderness When we are disconsolate one kind look from God makes us to be of good chear When our hearts are benumb'd and our Eyes are dry he melts them into tears with his Love When we are unfruitful he sends his Dew upon our branches that makes us to flourish in his Courts and to look fresh and green and when we are under Spiritual decays he causes us to thrive when we backslide he heals our backslidings he brings us through the great Mediator into a nearness to and acquaintance with himself For as far as we are distant from him so far are we removed from true and real Life When we wander he recals us he sends us fresh influences and establishes our goings when our motions are like those of a wounded body very faint and tottering 3. Eternal Life is in his favour Hence it is said That Eternal life is the gift of God Rom. 6.23 Psal 16.11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence it fulness of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore It is there that they are said to see God for the sight of his face is that which makes it to be such a glorious and delightful place His Wrath is that which kindles Hell the withholding of his Favour makes it to be such a dark and gloomy Dungeon and the clear manifestation of it does make all the Glories of the Coelestial Paradise And therefore Jacob when he had a Vision of God's Favour to him said This place is no other than the gate of Heaven Gen. 29.17 Frame not to your selves a gross and a material Happiness 't is all in the Love and Favour of God To see him fills all the Souls above with ineffable delight to be deprived of this blessed privilege fills all the Souls in misery with Mourning and Lamentation To his Saints God will be all in all his Communications will be entire and full there Lettres de Monsieur Claude p. 10. †As the Creatures are of divers orders every one receives its portion of Divine Favour different from that of others He communicates himself otherwise to the Heavens than to the Earth otherwise to an Angel than to a Man The Earth hath an Image of his firmness the Sun hath an image of his beauty the Heaven an image of his immensity and so in others but there is no Creature that has assembled in it self all the beams of the Communications of God It shall be otherwise in Paradise God shall be all things in the Saints and they shall be filled with his Favour And as he further says God is not so all in all in the Faithful here the troubles of our Conscience the weakness of our Faith the languors of our Devotion the shadows of our Knowledge our Sins our Miseries our Sickness and our Death are the fruits of the Fall and of the Malice of the Devil But in that Felicity there shall be nothing of US in us nothing of the Impression of the Devil All shall be of God our Shadows shall be swallowed up by his Light and our Weakness by his power It is a state of Glory and Glory is a mixture of all the Blessings of God in a degree Sovereignly perfect That Country that is above is indeed the Land of the Living they Live and shall never Dye But this Earth is a Region and a place of Death For beside that which is Natural the most part of men are dead in Sin and truly even those that are alive have but a weak and a fainting Life There it is that that the Saints shall be admirers of the Grace and Favour of God That after various difficulties and innumerable temptations and overwhelming fears did at last bring them to that happy Place For the poor trembling Saint that thought himself cast off and forsaken of God to find himself in his Arms in his Presence in his Heaven how great will his joy and praise be How will he ascribe all his life there to the meer Favour and Grace of God that shall set him at liberty when by his many Sins he had deserved to be bound in Eternal Chains That shall cause him to sing Hallelujahs when others weep and wail for ever How will he admire that Grace that has placed him in Heaven when so many others are in Hell And the more admire when he shall consider that this distinction of States was freely made That that Crown which will adorn his Head was freely given How will every look on God fill his Soul with a wondring Joy because he freely gave his Son How will every view of Christ encrease his wonder When he shall consider that he freely undertook the kind work of his Redemption that he freely shed his Blood and paid the debt which the Sinner himself could never pay and that he freely gave the Spirit and offered that Salvation upon easy terms without money and without price which cost him very dear All the Saints above will continually adore the Riches of his Grace that admitted them to Glory when they deserved to be shut out as well as others That they were deformed till he put his comeliness upon them That they were liable to Death till he justified them and polluted in their Natures till he renewed them and dying till he made them to live That they learned nothing but what he taught them had nothing but what he gave them did nothing but what he enabled them to do So that all must be wonderful in their Eyes from the beginning of God's design for their Salvation to the conclusion of it And when it is all finished they must with loud Praises sing Grace Grace By Grace ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God Eph. 2.8 First No common Mercy yields any Comfort without the Favour and Love of God His loving-kindness is better than life Psal 63.3 If a man have all that he can wish every thing that is splendid and delightful every thing that may please his Eye or gratify his Appetite if he have not this with the Love of God he is a Miserable man For this will mingle
to get the Victory if Christ pray for us that our faith do not fail Luk. 22.31 VVhere can we go for shelter but unto God our Maker when this Lyon of the Forest does begin to roar how will he terrify and vex us till he that permits him for a while to trouble us be pleased to chain him up again 5. Gods Favour is Life even in Death it self He cures all the disorders of the Soul He weans it from the Body and makes the passage to another World sweet and easie He can take away the frightful ghastly aspect of Death and bestow upon it a pleasant and amiable look and hence it is that sick People are often heard to say Oh! If I had but the Favour and the Love of God I could he freely willing to dye even in this moment If I had but his Love I could bear all these pains and quietly submit though I have restless nights and weary days for then I should be sure of Eternal Rest It is our estrangedness from God that makes us live in bondage all our days and when our time to dye is come makes us so very loth to depart This sense of God's displeasure makes a Death-bed to be a Bed of sorrow and makes Death to be indeed the King of Terrors and who can but tremble when he finds himself leaving this World and knows not what will be his portion in the next That finds himself going to the Judgment-feat but knows not whether he shall be acquitted or condemned there how many times do the very thoughts of Death cut us in our Sickness to the very Soul because our spirits are clouded and our evidence for Salvation is departed even before we depart so that we stand trembling on the borders of Eternity and would fain stay on Earth though we cannot VVhat but the favour of God will help us When our heart and our flesh fails He will be the strength of our heart and our portion for ever Ps 73.26 VVhat but this will attend us through the shady Vale How can we part with our Friends if God be not our Friend How can we leave this Earthly Tabernacle if we have not an House not made with Hands How shall we look upon so vast a Change as that of Time into Eternity if we are not to change this Mortal for a better Life But one smile of the Face of God in that great and concluding-work will keep us that we shall not be afraid to dye one fore-taste of Heaven will make us with undaunted hearts to bid this sinful VVorld adieu we shall then like Moses undress our selves and dye we shall with the same chearfulness go down to the Grave which Jacob went with into Egypt because our Mediator and our elder Brother lives and has made good provision for us VVe shall not be amazed to lie down in the dust when once we have the hope of a blessed and a glorious Resurrection and the day of our death will be a comfortable day if our blessed Lord be then pleased to tell us that on the same day we shall be with him in Paradise CHAP. II. Of Heaven and Hell and of that spiritual death which hath seized the greatest part of the World As also the Reason why Good people are many times very willing to dye and of the inexcusableness and misery of those who are without Gods favour And whence it is that some grow in Grace more than others and are more earnest for a share in the Love of God WHat a blessed and glorious place is Heaven Inf. 1. that is full of God's favour The City bad no need of the sun neither of the moon to shine in it for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof Rev. 21.23 Rev. 22.2 3 4 5. It is the Land of the Living and 't is no wonder that death shall never enter thither here indeed he is a God that hides himself he is hid under the veil of the Creatures and under abundance of mysterious Providences for tho' his Throne be established in Righteousness yet Clouds and Darkness are round about it Psal 97.7 Beams of his Glory do every where break forth through every Creature Providence Law and Ordinance of his yet much of his Glory that shines in the Creation is hid by a train of second Causes through which few look to the first his work in the World is carried on in a mystery his Interest lives but is deprest they who are devoted to him are supported indeed by his invisible hand but are in the mean time low for the most part and afflicted But in that Eternal state Mr. How of delighting in God p. 353. the Veil shall be rent and he will in a brighter manner shew himself his Glory will shine out with direct and pleasant Beams to all the beholding and admiring eyes he will there give forth the full and satisfying Communications of his Love that will chear and satisfy and refresh a vast multitude of grateful and adoring spirits Here the Souls of good Men are deprest by the misrepresentations of Satan and by the frequent jealousies and suspitions of their own guilty souls but there they shall see him as he is and which will encrease their joy see him to be their own God for ever No storms shall there molest their Peace nothing shall interrupt their Eternal Calm Not a vain tumultuous repining or uneasie thought shall assault their peaceful and quiet hearts for ever No more shall they cry out Is his Mercy clean gone Has he forgotten to be gracious for they shall be with him in his own presence Here his Family is composed of several distressed mourning Children and when some praise him their praises are disturb'd by the groans of others or their own sins but there they shall all be clothed with praise and none shall be sick or dye If we did but know that there were a place in the World where the people never dye the love that all have of Life would put them upon many inquiries how they might get thither This Countrey is Heaven thence death and fear and consternation is banished for ever and thither should we lift up our eyes thither should we direct our hearts in Heaven the favour of God shines with an unclouded brightness they that are Inhabitants of that holy place are employed in an honourable attendance on their mighty King they need not they desire not any of those enjoyments which are here below no more than favourites of their Prince desire a meaner station or a poor Cottage or some obscure and forlorn retreat And alas what are all our pleasures and our most splendid entertainments to that Bread and to those spiritual and intellectual Joys which Angels and glorified souls feed on The first hour the first day of joy there is better than an Age of joys here below if one day spent in his Courts in his Love and Praises here
heed that you do not weaken your selves for the joy of the Lord is your strength Neh. 8.10 Is it not motive enough to say that his Favour is your Life and his Displeasure is your Death Let us but take as much pains for our spiritual as for our natural Life and all will be very well When we find the least decays of Nature we are very industrious to repair them when we find the least faintness or indisposition on our spirits we have recourse to Cordials or to something that is very comfortable and reviving to refresh them when we are sick we complain of our illness we make abundance of inquiries and use a great deal of care to know what it is that will do us good we have a great value for our dear Life and are afraid of every thing that may deprive us of it and when we are in Health What do we not attempt for our own preservation What Arts do we use What provisions do we make for Meat and Drink and Cloaths and Houses and Gardens and other accommodations that we may live at ease And my Friends is not our Soul of more worth than the Body Are not its decays and its death more painful and more intollerable than all the languishing and decays of our outward Man Let us therefore as we have a great horror of natural death have no less for that which is spiritual Let us keep with a greater care the Favour of God that is our Spiritual and Eternal Life And that we may not lose it 1. Let us not grieve his Holy Spirit Ephes 4.30 Tho' we are not so happy as to have a familiar Conversation with Christ as those had who enjoyed his presence here on Earth tho' he be withdrawn from our eyes and we see him not in his exalted and glorified state yet he has sent his Spirit to dwell in our hearts and we ought with all manner of obedience and respect to treat and entertain so Divine a Guest to do nothing that is unsuitable to so great a Presence not to pollute our selves nor to defile his Temple with any sort of sin lest we grieve and vex him The Divine Nature indeed is incapable of our passions 't is above our joys and our sorrows and as 't is said of those that are upon Mount Olympus they see the Clouds gather below their feet they see the Hail and the Thunder disturb and lighten on the Plain whilest they rejoice in the pure light of the Sun In such manner the Divine Essence sees all the troubles and agitations of the Creatures remaining always in its own peace and tranquility * Claude Serm. Sur. Eph. 4.30 p. 29. This expression is borrowed from humane affections and when the Holy Spirit does that in us which our nature does when it is seized with sorrow then he is said to be grieved And if we make him sad we cannot expect that he will make us to rejoyce if we affront and abuse him he will not be our comfort if he retire all our Evidences will be covered with darkness and we shall be plunged in the lowest depths Let us therefore obey all his suggestions whatever he bids us do let us do let our minds always be yielding to his good and profitable motions let us not slight the Revelation he hath made nor be unmindful to grow in all the Graces that are pleasing to him let us remember the kindness that he does us how he chases away our darkness and when we are fainting how seasonably he does apply the Promises and brings to our remembrance those Truths that are most suitable and refreshing to us let us not grieve him by neglecting to read or meditate upon the Word which he endited or by foolish Communications by rash Anger 's or Malice or Bitterness or Wrath or Contention Ephes 4.31 but let him be the absolute Master of our souls when we are afflicted let us not grieve him by our murmuring or impatient complaints in our afflictions nor by security and hardness of heart in our prosperity And when he would carry us towards Heaven on the wings of spiritual desire and love let us not suffer our selves to be seduced by the World the Devil or the Flesh and if we obey him he will maintain a sense of the Divine Favour on our souls and the Life that he will give us will not be like that of the sick the feeble and the dying but like the Life of the most strong and healthful 2. Let us beware of Spiritual pride The contrite and humble are those that he regards The proud he looks upon afar off Psal 138.6 Though the Lord be high yet hath he respect unto the lowly but the proud he knoweth afar off That is with disdain and scorn 'T is nothing but our ignorance that makes us Proud We are ignorant of God and of the multitude and greatness of our Sins were it possible for us to be Proud if we frequently considered the Great Majesty of God and our own Vileness His Holiness and our Pollution His Almighty Power and our Weakness His Glory and our Darkness His Eternity and our own fading being What comparison can be made between the Great Ruler of the World and us that dwell in houses of clay It was a mighty Condescention in our Blessed Lord and one of the chiefest parts of his Humiliation to be cloathed with our Nature that is in it self so mean and low And as one says The whole World from East to VVest lies very sick but to cure this very sick world there descends an Omnipotent Physician who humbled himself even to the assumption of a Mortal Body as if he had gone into the Bed of the diseased 'T is an Ignorance of our selves that is the cause of our Pride we remember not how often it is that we offend in Thought VVord and Deed How we are by Nature children of wrath And how we make our selves more so by repeated acts of Sin God resists the Proud but he hath a regard to the Contrite and Humble Soul Isa He fills the hungry with good things but the rich he sends empty away Luke 1.53 All on whom he bestows his Favour he first convinces of their own misery shews to them the Curse the Hell the Condemnation that they have deserved and when they are pardoned after such a sight that Pardon fills them with low and self-abasing thoughts and when he comes to embrace them he finds them in the posture of the poor Prodigal Luke 15.18 19. Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son One sight of the face of God will dash all our Confidence and lower all our Pride and the more this is revealed and discovered to the Souls of the Faithful the more they see cause to loath and abhor themselves in dust and ashes Hence it is that our Apostle that knew so much of God was so very
or some particular thing that is most precious which Expression calls us to meditate on the infinite tenderness of God's Love to men For a man does not love any thing so much as that which is his own he looks upon other things in which he has no propriety with an indifferent and unconcerned eye even the stately Glories of a Palace do not affect him with so great a joy as the Little Conveniences of his own unobserved Cottage because it is his own And further a Seal often carries the Arms of him whose Seal it is or the Image of some great Person so the work of the Spirit is to engrave in our hearts Faith Hope and Love these are the Ensigns of the New Covenant and form in us the Image of God which consists in Righteousness and Peace and Holiness God does not set this mark but upon those that are indeed his Favourites that by the tenderness and softness of their hearts are prepared to receive Impressions * Claude sur Eph. 4.30 p. 20. But in this matter we are in a great measure passive as the Wax receives the same marks that the Seal stamps upon it these are saving-works of the Spirit which I have mentioned whereas a great many common Gifts are bestowed upon those whom God abhors many a man may have Light enough to shew others the way to Heaven and yet never walk therein himself and he that was a Star in the Firmament of the Church on Earth may sit in darkness 1 Cor. 13.1 2 Thongh I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not charity I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing You must under this Head observe these two things 1. Not to expect to be alike strong in every Grace 2. Not to have at all times the same Comforts 1. You must not expect to be a like strong in every Grace We ought to strive to be compleat to have all the pieces of our Christian Armour polish'd and fit for action and well fitted and put upon us but those parts where is the most danger of a Wound those parts where is the seat of Life we are principally to secure and guard So those Graces we are first of all to look after and to cherish which produce and keep the rest in vigour such as Faith and Repentance and Humility Tho' most certain it is that all Men even of those that are God's Favourites are not of the same stature nor the same strength nor have they as much skill in every Duty as it may be they have in one or two it is so ordered by the Holy Providence of God that all in Christ shall have Tribulations but very different many times from one another that so the different Grace that they are to exercise under their several Tryals may shine with a brighter Glory Thus of old Abraham was peculiarly eminent for his Faith Moses for his Meekness Job for his Patience All Believers by the Privileges with which they are invested are Stars but yet even here one Star differs from another Star in Glory As there are several gifts of the same Spirit that are all useful to the whole so the Graces that are wrought by him do according to his Soveraign pleasure produce several effects according to the subjects in which they are and many times are very much advanced or obstructed by a good or ill temper of the body Hence those that have a cholerick temper the fieriness of their natural spirits that upon every small occasion are apt to be enflamed does very much hinder that meekness and calmness which is one of the Graces of the holy Spirit and so others that are naturally tenacious and close and narrow-soul'd do many times smell too much even of these ill qualities when they are converted but it ought not to be so for if there be any particular sin to which we are more enclined by our constitution than to another we ought more industriously to set our selves against that sin 2. You must not expect a continuance of the same comforts at all times for the Spirit blows where he listeth and when he will Joh 3.8 Tho' the new Creature be formed in you by the Grace of God yet you cannot perceive its motions with so distinct a sense at one time as at another tho' by the intercession of Christ his Favourites are secured from a total and final Apostacy yet they may fall now and then and their Life seem to decline and a spiritual faintness come upon it and a very deep sorrow may cover and as it were bury your hopes and your joys but yet there is that vital Principle that shall not see corruption that seed of Grace that will now and then flourish with acceptable fruit Your Faith may in violent temptations be like the weak and undiscernable stirring of the soul when the body is in a Swoon the soul does seem for a while to be departed but after the spirits are refreshed it animates the whole body and exercises all the functions and offices of Life as it used to do When the Ship was most violently tost with a Tempest yet our Lord was there tho' the poor trembling Disciples thought he did not care whether they were lost or saved Thus Mary was drowned with Tears after his Resurrection and not finding him where she expected nor as soon she gave way to sorrow They have taken away the Lord says she Joh. 20.13 and I know not where they have laid him when the very person that she had then in view was the same dear Saviour and Friend that she long'd to see And when with great tenderness and familiarity he discovered himself and called her Mary then she full well knew that it was her Master and her poor drooping heart was filled with joy and transport She fell at his feet and kissed them God does not equally manifest his favour no not even to the same person who sometimes triumphs and sometimes is very desolate as the same vessel that is sometimes lifted up even as to Heaven it self by the rising and the swelling Waves is the next minute sinking to the bottom of the Sea and ready to be swallowed in the formidable depths tho' if we were duly prepared the face of our God would appear with as amiable an aspect at one time as at another for if any frowns be there our sins are the cause and because we are sinful 't is necessary for us now and then to weep as well as always to rejoice The Clouds and the Showers are as needful to the Earth as is the constant shine and the fairer weather Our Graces yield no delight to us till the Spirit actuate and enliven them till he blow upon the garden Cant. 4.16 the spices
and I have hated him He has called me and I have disobeyed his Voice He has provided for me and I have rebelled He has been a Father but I have been undutiful and prodigal and disobedient and now his slighted his forgotten Love and Kindness wounds me to the very Soul Oh! what did I think of when I did not think of him What was it that my vain foolish heart loved when I loved not him that is altogether amiable What was it that I cared for or in what did I spend my time that I did not care for my Soul and the pleasing of my God who spared me and bore with me with an admirable patience I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men Job 7.20 I will put my mouth in the dust I will loath and abhor may self for mine Iniquities if so be there may be hope I have wandred but my wandrings have cost me dear I have been in a strange Land and with tears will I return home saying Bless me even me also O my Father And then the Love of Jesus constrains the poor Christian to be sorrowful saying Did he leave his Heaven for me and for me that many times would not leave a sin for him for me that was a lost Sheep a dying Malefactor an Enemy by my Evil Works Did he come to rescue me when I was in the very jaws of the Roaring Lyon and at the door of Hell and shall I not be grieved to think that I have requited him so ill for all his Love they were my sins that made him astonisht and troubled and exceeding sorrowful even unto death and yet alas I have done what I could to increase his Agonies by my new sins It was my sin that filled the bitter Cup that betrayed that whipt that exposed to so injurious usage the Son of God my sin that wounded his Breast and raked in his Sides and nailed him to the Tree and made him dye and can I look upon what I have done and not be troubled Can my eyes behold him hanging on the Cross and not affect my heart Never was there any Sorrow like to his Sorrow never was there any Love like to his Love Never was there Disobedience more inexcusable never was Sin more sinful than mine has been I have often made light of that that prest him down to the Grave I have rejoyced at that which made him mourn and weep but I will do so again no more for ever And then it troubles the good Christian to think how often he has refused the motions of the blessed Spirit and how when the Spirit has moved upon his heart with a design to do him good he hath sent him grieved and vexed away All this is occasion of grief tho it do not always express it self in tears for there is a rational sorrow as well as a sensitive one and tho this may be more passionate yet the other is more lasting and durable Those that are converted in their younger days the warmth and heat of their glowing and beginning zeal does more easily dissolve and melt them into tears and then the rivers flow more than they do afterwards but yet when the flood ceases the fruitfulness appears and when their tears are dried up yet their hatred of sin remains for these outward expressions of sorrow are very much influenced by the temper and constitution of the body 2 Cor. 7.10 11. As in the first so 't is in the second birth as soon as they are born they cry No sooner are they brought from darkness into marvellous light but they wonder at their folly and at the grace of God that saved them from it and that wonder does produce love and grief First their hearts are softned with his love and then they mourn for their Provocations tho this wherewith good Christians bewail their sins is not a lazy grief but attended with serious endeavours of new obedience as the Husbandman after the profitable showers of rain sets himself with a renewed industry to cultivate the Ground and it is but reasonable that our eyes that are too often the instruments of sin to us should by tears help us to bewail that sin Isa 38.15 I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my Soul 2 Those that are good Christians weep also for the sins of others The love they have to the name of God causes them to grieve for the reflections and dishonours that are thrown upon it by wicked men They cannot without sorrow behold or hear of the sins of men in general the sins of Kingdoms and Provinces and Towns the sins of Families the sins of their Fellow-citizens their Brethren and their Neighbours the tears that they shed are tears of compassion for the very sad and miserable condition of the World Whilst others make a mock at sin and through the blindness of their folly know not what they do good men lament their unconcernedness and insensibility whilst they see them sporting on the hole of Aspes and touching Firebrands and Death They cannot see men treat their heavenly Father with insolence and scorn but their hearts in a just zeal for his glory rise against them not with indecent passions for their ruine but in an hearty longing for their reformation Psal 119.138 Rivers of water run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law Thus saith the Prophet to his hearers Jer. 13.17 My soul shall weep in secrew places for your pride mine eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears Our love to our Neighbour and our zeal for God's glory does oblige us to this it must grieve us to think what men are doing when they sin how great a God they provoke to punish them how great a misery they are bringing on their own souls It must grieve us to think how unsafe a way they go and what a dismal end will be to that way Phil. 3.19 Jer. 9.1 The Prophet wishes Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people And yet as one observes when he pronounced these sad words Dubose Sermons pag. 1. the misery of the Jews was not arrived Jerusalem did as yet subsist in its Magnificence and splendor its Temple had not lost thatadmirable Beauty which made it the wonder of the world its Palaces had lost nothing of their Pomp its Walls and Fortresses were entire and the Daughter of Sion was Princess among the Provinces but he spoke thus foreseeing that their abounding sins and their hardness and obstinacy would certainly bring upon them the Judgments of God We must consider what we were our selves when in the house of bondage and serving divers lusts how enslaved and how miserable that so the remembrance we have of our former danger may quicken us to do others all the good we can that they may not fall into hell whilest we
enough Enter into thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee When it can reflect and think of him as its own portion then the sorrows and darkness of the Night are gone for it has God that is all light and with him is no darkness at all and to see the light and to possess it is the same thing There is as one observes a reflected and a direct Light I see Palaces and Mountains and Towns and Fields and Trees with a reflected Light and hence it is that I see them without possessing them but I see the light of the Sun and of the Stars by direct rays and in seeing them I possess for to rejoice in the light of the Sun and to possess it is the same thing We now see God indeed by a reflected light which comes to us from the Creatures and hence it is that all those that see him do not possess him but in Heaven God will be seen without Vails and Reflexions His light will be a direct light which will fill us throughout it was a comfort to the Patriarchs and holy men of old to have the hope of Christ's appearance they saw his day afar off and they rejoyced but how much more is it to that soul that has actually seen him come and not only spreading his beams to remove the general darkness of the world but shining with a peculiar light and heat into its self It is peculiarity that endears the most of things to us our own Friends our own Relations our own Joys are the most pleasant It is not from Christ's being singly considered as a Mediator that we derive this comfort but from the reflexion that we are able to make of our happiness in him it is that which creates the sweetest motions in our hearts Before this propriety there may be a calmness of spirit and lesser degrees of Complacency expressing themselves in love and hope and desire but 't is the actual possession of a good as our own that is the Parent of a real joy the Christian may find some comfort in beholding the Incarnation the Sufferings and the Promise of his second Coming but when the soul can say He died and rose again for me this touches it with a very lively satisfaction and makes it say as in Hab. 3.17 CHAP. VIII Of the further Properties of the Joy that comes to a Soul after long desertion 'T is Irresistible tho usually Gradual it revives the body and the natural spirits It fills the late mourner with the hope of Glory and causes him to express his delight to others From all which we may justly admire the Wisdom of the Divine Providence 7. THis Joy is Irresistible As all the darkness of the Night cannot hinder the approach of the welcome day so neither can all our doubts nor our fears nor all the horrors of the Night hinder the beams of God's favour when he is pleased to shine upon us Job 34.29 When he giveth quietness who then can make trouble Notwithstanding all the directions and the helps that our Ministers or our friends give us in our trouble we refuse to be comforted but when he speaks the word we must obey He creates the fruit of the lips peace peace and we can no more resist his Almighty power than the first Chaos could withstand his Command when in the Language of a God he spoke and said Let there be Light Our escape from our Spiritual troubles bears some proportion with the Resurrection of our Lord from the Dead as that was owing not to a power ordinary or created so neither is ours but to a power that is Coelestial and Divine It was not as * Claude Traite de Jesus Christ Liv. v. 12. one observes the effect of the Power of God in the ways of nature such as is the Rising of the Sun the Return of Seasons the Fruitfulness of the Earth but the effect of a power altogether Infinite and Supernatural it is not according to the usual Laws of Nature or the course of Ordinary Providence 8. This Joy is usually Gradual and not all at once I say usually for sometimes persons in great distress and agonies of soul have been suddenly relieved in their darkest Night and in the deepest Dungeon a great Light has shined upon them so that those that have one hour cried out they were damned and lost have the next triumphed in the hope of glory and from the fear of Hell have come to a glorious view of Heaven to their own exceeding comfort and the comfort of all that heard them But tho God may do what he pleases this is not his ordinary way as the Night comes and the Sun goes down by degrees so does the morning come and the Sun arise by the same degrees as it rarely happens that any fall into great distress of Conscience on a sudden some lesser afflictions make way for greater strokes so seldom are any comforted immediately but their comfort comes like the break of day there are some faint streaks of light some little supports and quiet hopes before the Sun arise And God in this accommodates himself to the weakness of our nature for a sudden passage from a great Affliction to a great Joy is a thing which our tender nature is hardly capable to bear and usually the Consciences of those that have been very long terrified and afflicted begin to be calm as the humours of the body that have been disordered return to their Ancient course for so long as the Spirits and the Blood are disordered so long the Soul will unavoidably be in some unpleasant agitation 9. This joy has a pleasant influence on the Body and revives that with the reviving mind they fall sick and droop and they recover and rejoyce together When God is our God it causes health in our Countenances as well as pleasure in our Hearts and though I know that abundance of poor people that have been long amazed with the fear of God's Wrath have very feeble sickly Bodies to the day of death yet this calmness and peace of mind does greatly mitigate their pains and pour Honey and Sweetness into the most bitter Cup For what is it that makes affliction in trouble of mind to be so intollerable but that the afflicted person looks upon it as the beginning of sorrows as a few drops before a more dreadful storm and as the introduction to hell and woe But when the sting of guilt is removed and sin is pardoned the yoak sits very easie on their shoulders that used to gall them before Prov. 15.13 A merry bea rt maketh a chearful countenance Joy as well as grief cannot be dissembled if it be real and very strong Joy in the Heart is like the Rain at the Root of the Grass it will after being moistned to the bottom appear much more green and flourishing Prov. 17.22 A merry heart doth good like a medicine Even that chearfulness which arises