Earth Prov. 8. 13. The fear of the Lord is 〈◊〉 â—vil Prov. 16. 6. By Prov. 8. 13. 16. 6. the fear of the Lord 〈…〉 from evil That man feareth the Lord 〈◊〉 â—â—th not only a reverence and dread of â—od upon his heart but in whom this dread worketh to make the person that hath it to take heed of every sin and to perform every duty to avoid all that the Lord forbiddeth and to do all that God commandeth This it is for a man or woman to fear Jehovah But you will say â—â— this be so where is that person to be found of whom this can be predicated or how shall any person satisfie himself that he is by the fear of the Lord distinguished from another This is a great question and the Holy Ghost having thought fit to express the whole of Grace and Godliness by this notion the resolution of it will exceedingly tend to the satisfaction of such souls as thirst after righteousness To which purpose now I shall lay down some few Conclusions which will open this thing to you 1. A true fear of God in what soul soever it is found is not only the product of sense but the operation of faith This is one great and material difference betwixt that fear and dread of God which may be found in a natural man and that which is sound in every true child of God There is a terrour and awe and dread of God which as I told you before sometimes seizeth the hearts of the greatest Atheists and most debaucht wretches in the Earth But this dread is ordinarily but the effect and product of sense the poor wretch seeth some terrible work of God and trembleth or feeleth something of the weight of Gods hand Hence as soon as the impression is off his sense the fear and dread of God is also off his heart And thus it will be with all that fear which is but the product of sense The natural mans fear is not at all caused from faith neither from the habit of faith which is within us nor from the object of saith which is without us I mean the Word of God he doth not fear God because of what the holy Scriptures tell him concerning God he believeth not that But now the fear of God in a gracious soul is the issue of saith A Christian knows the Scripture and what that revealeth concerning God and now the Lord having by his Spirit wrought up his soul to give a firm and stedfast assent to what is revealed in his Word he feareth the great God as much when he seeth or feeleth nothing of the greatness of his power in his works of Providence as when he is under the greatest demonstrations of sense It is the precept of Solomon Prov. 23. 17. Be thou in the fear of the Lord at all times Indeed he that is not in the fear of the Lord at all times doth truly fear the Lord at no time for where fear is the operation and fruit of saith the effect is as abiding and permanent as the cause now the cause of the fear of the Lord in that person is his firm assent to what is revealed in the holy Scriptures concerning God The Word of the Lord abiding the same for ever and the Propositions in it having an eternal verity and the seed of God also once cast in the soul abâ—ding at all timâ—s in it it is impossible but this soul should have a fear and dread of God upon his heart in health as well as in sickness in prosperity as well as in adversity in a time of the greatest liberty as well as in a time of the greatest straits when the Providence of God may propose the greatest objects of terrour unto him If the soul of any at all times dreadeth and reverenceth the great God of Heaven and Earth and that by reason of what the Word of God revealeth and it believeth concerning him this is an excellent sign that the true fear of God is in that soul Though it is true the various workings of Divine Providence may make this fear as to the servile part of it higher and greater at some one time than at another 2. Although the true fear of the Lord in any soul be not consistent with a course of deliberate sinning against God and defying the Divine Majesty yet it is confistent in the same soul with many sinnings both of ignorance and of infirmity If there were none feared God but such as were wholly free from sin there were no such excellent person in the world as I have been discoursing of For who liveth and sinneth not against God But I must open this General 1. I say the fear of God is not in any soul consistent with open defiances of the Divine Majesty or constant courses of deliberate sinning There are some in the world that live in an open defiance of Heaven the Atheistical blasphemer the prophane swearer and curser and such like eminent sinners Every one that cometh near them may say the fear of God is not in these persons No nor with any course of deliberate or presumptuous finning when a man is free and under no height of temptation to do this or that thing which he knoweth to be what God hath forbidden him to do and yet he will do it and doth do it and that not once only but again and again from one day to another making a course of it how dwelleth the fear of God in that soul God hath said he that doth these things shall die he shall be plagued in this life and he shall die eternally The poor wretch knoweth this and yet presumptuously doth these things how can the dread or fear of God be in any judgement of charity judged to dwell in this soul 2. But I say the fear of God is consistent in the soul with much sin either sins of ignorance or sins of infirmity Experience teacheth this 1. For sins of ignorance a servant may truly fear his master and a child his father and yet they may both do many things that their superiours would not have done if they do not persectly know their will It is so betwixt the child and servant of God and his Father and Master which is in Heaven 2. I say it is also consistent with much sinning of weakness and infirmity Sins of infirmities are of two sorts 1. Such as are of pure weakness and infirmity which are failures in such things as through our natural weakness and impotency we cannot perform 2. Such as are mixt with something of wilfulness but yet the great cause of our admission of them is some original weakness and infirmity in us Such now are those sins which we commit upon the prevalence of some affection or passion in us whether love or fear or anger c. Lust prevailed on David fear on Peter and truly it is hard to say what sin that is which upon this account a soul truly fearing
men fetch their breath shorter and shorter till at last it quite fails them so are the presumptuous hopes of hypocrites the nearer they come to death the shorter they fetch the breath of their hopes till at last they quite fail them and they die either stupid or despairing God makes a great trial of his Saints faith when he calls them to die in the strength of it 3. God may have a design in it to honour his Word If we wholly lived upon sight the Word of God would not be so precious to us the Promises would not be so dear to us Though I consess it is a very suspicious comfort which the Word brings not into our souls but yet consolatory dispensations are the more special and extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit in a more than ordinary improvement of the Word Gods Word appeareth and is made very precious to the soul when it hangs its whole weight upon it being not at all advantaged from sensible reflexions I had perished saith Psal 119. 92. David in my affliction if they Word had not been my delight What an honour there did holy David put upon the Word of God acknowledging that the whole weight of his perishing soul hung upon it and it sustained him Indeed there is a secret powerful influence of the Holy Ghost tcaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply this Word But in faith of adhereâ—â—e though the Spirit be the great Author and Finisher of it teaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply the Promise yet it is by a more secret and insensible act and the Word appeareth most in maintaining that Oh! faith the soul had it not been for such a Word such a Promise such a good word of God is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation In the reflex act of Faith which giveth the soul a plerophorous evidence or a full perswasion of its evidence in God the work of the Spirit appeareth more extraordinary and glorious the vertue of the Word doth not so much shew it self Now the Lord will sometimes honour his Word in the fight of his children letting them see that it is enough to support bear up and to uphold a soul though it should never see the face of God till it come in Heaven yet the Word is enough securely to carry it thither 4. God in such a dispensation may have a design to teach his people that salvation doth not depend upon sensible consolatory manifestations Not upon the sweet application of the Promises to the soul an act wherein we have no share it being the Lords work alone and marvelous in our eyes but upon the strong and steddy application of our souls to the Promise This latter is justifying faith the other is the faith of one already actually justified We are too prone to lay too much upon sensible comforts Some there are who will acknowledge no other notion of faith but a full perswasion of the love of God and so indeed confound faith and sight which the Apostle seemed so warily to distinguish when he told us We live by faith and not by fight And again that hope which is seen is no hope and indeed cut the throat of many a poor Christians comfort who it may be all his life cannot come to such a sensible evidence Indeed the most judicious Christians are prone to lay too much stress upon these consolatory manifestations and to think all nothing if they want them Now this is a great error which the Lord may aim at the correction of in his people by such dispensations letting the soul see there is vertue enough in his Word to bear it up through the deepest waters of affliction without the bladders of sensible manifestations Enough in that and the souls application of it self to that though until it come in Heaven it never sees the face of God It is believing that carries the soul to Heaven i. e. an hungring and relying upon Christ and his righteousness alone not that joy and peace which is the consequent of believing and that too inconsistent and uncertain And indeed I do not know any one truth that needs more rooting and confirmation in a gracious heart The life of sense is the life of the Saint triumphant The life of faith is the life of the militant Christian Though God sometimes condescends in such manifestations to the infirmities and desires of his people and is pleased to give them a glimpse of glory as the earnest penny of a future greater reward which he intendeth them yet these must not be lookt upon as the necessaries of a Christian but what God gives â—s ex abundanti a pledge of future glory Sometimes God gives his children to go to Heaven in the sight of Heaven As Stephen went to it seeing the Heavens opened and Christ Jesus stanidng at the right hand of God pleading for him and ready to receive him into the glorious mansions provided for him But as this is a note of singular and extraordinary favour which God is not bound to any particular soul by promise for so God will sometimes single out a child of his unto death that shall go to Heaven without this seal that living Christians may not run away with an erroneous apprehension that these influences are necessary to salvation and upon the death of such a child of God the Lord proclaims See here my friends you of little of faith here 's a child of mine coming alone to me without the staff of sense trusting me upon the credit of my bare word Here 's one that hath not seen and yet hath believed that hath dared to take my word for Heaven Now be not faithless but believing 5. Lastly I do not know but God may sometimes do it in Justice when one who hath been made partaker of Gods distinguishing love hath apostatized in his profession or run into some degrees of looseness of life by which Gods Name hath been dishonoured the Lord may thus far chastize his Apostacy I told you before that the Covenant runs with a notwithstanding sin as to eternal salvation the unfaithfulness of man cannot make God unfaithful he cannot alter the thing gone out Psal 89. 33. of his lips But the comforts of Gods people may fail and they may for ought I know dy although not despairingly yet doubting with an a king heart and with broken bones Divines question whether holy David though stiled the man after Gods own heart ever after his fall into those two great sins of murther and adultery recovered the fulness of his comfort again It is plain by all his penitential Psalms that he lost them and especially by that petition Psal 51. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation Though the Scripture plainly evidenceth that he died strong in the faith yet it speaketh nothing of sensible consolations You have his last words 2 Sam. 23. 1. These be the last words of
and think that the asserting of it derogateth from Christs plenary satisfaction which indeed would have something of truth in it had not God in that Covenant reserved himself this liberty If Psa 89. 31 32 33 34. they break my Statutes and keep not all my Commandments then will I visit their iniquity with a rod and their transgressions with stripes Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail My Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips By vertue of Gods Covenant with Christ for us their earnest salvation and the welfare of their souls for ever is secured Nay more afflictions as they are tokens of divine wrath and legal demands of satisfaction to Gods Justice cannot fall upon Gods people but he hath reserved to himself the liberty of a Father in love and kindness to chastise his people with rods The people of God therefore should not think it strange if they meet with these dark issues of divine providence nor should any entring into the waies of God promise himself a freedom from afflictions and trials of this nature Christ hath secured us eternal salvation and all necessary means and influences of grace in order to it but he hath not totally exempted us from the rod of affliction But this is not all The second Proposition speaketh yet more The Child of God may not only live but may 2 Prop. also die and fall asleep unsatisfied as to the likeness of God This is true both as to the likeness of God in them and the manifestations of God unto them 1. As to Gods Image in them this lies in the perfection of holiness and is so far true that it is hard to find a child of God whoever as to this died satisfied what Christian on his death-bed ever said he had faith enough or love enough or holiness enough David cryes out Although my house be not so with God And where is the soul that departing to eternity sees not reason to complain that his heart hath not been so with God as it ought to have been The best of men sinneth seven times in a day 2. But it is true also as to the apprehensions of divine love not being able when they die to say assuredly My Beloved is mine and I am his What shall we say to the great example of our Lord and Saviour It is true he knew he was the eternal Son of God that after his resurrection he should be glorified with that glory which he had with his Father from all eternity and in this respect might differ from some of his children who dying may want that certainty and only die with a good hope through grace yet in this dying hour he cryes out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Nor can we well understand how he should for us die under the curse and sensible feelings of divine wrath unless we grant that he died under the withdrawings of the sensible manifestations of divine love and certainly the Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord. Our own experience also proves it have not we known some persons of whom while they went in and out with us could say These are the anointed of the Lord we saw them walking closely with God fearing every sin making conscience of every duty serving the Lord so far as we could judge in spirit and truth and this not in a fit but constantly yet when they came to die their Candles went out in obscurity We have not seen them in that triumph of faith that fulness of joy and peace which it may be we did expect Not able to say with Job In Job 19. 26. Rom. 8 38. my flesh I shall see God nor with Paul I am perswaded that neither life nor death shall separate me from the love of God in Christ Nor is there any thing in spiritual reason to hinder it Sensible manifestations are none of our necessaries God hath no where promised that they shall not fail the soul in death Mr. Rutherford I remember propounds this to be observed Whether usually when in the time of their life the Saints of God have felt many reflexions of divine love many sensible consolations God hath not left them to die in the dark And on the contrary when any of his children have in the time of their life been full of fear and dejections c. God hath not usually in their sick and dying hours shined upon them with visions of peace It is not to be fixed as a standing Rule for the Almighty is neither to be limited nor tracked in his goings but it may be worthy of our observation Now this seemeth a very hard dispensation Gods people oft-times know not how to live without sensible manifestations of his love but they are much more at loss how to satisfie themselves to die without it May we therefore in any degree of humility guess at some reasons of so sad a divine dispensation 1. In the first place it is enough to a modest soul inquisitive in this particular to say Even so O Father because it pleaseth thee God will have us to know that the wind bloweth both where it listeth and when it listeth and that his Spirit is not less free We shall not know the hour when he will visit his peoples souls nor will he constantly come in at the same hour that he might assert his own liberty to us this may be one and indeed it is the great reason to be assigned of this dispensation 2. The Lord may have a design by it to make a trial of his servants faith It is a good faith that will long maintain a living Saint without sight but it must be a strong faith which will maintain a Christian in his dying hour without it This was the faith of Job Though he kills me yet I will trust in him This is a faith which holds out to the end and shall have the Crown of life which God hath promised It is the last act of faith to serve a departing soul Love goes with the soul into another world Faith parts with it at the gates of death the vision of faith is then changed for the beatifical vision What a man seeth how doth he hope for That faith that seeth Christ through a glass darkly hath its eyes in death quite out The soul comes with open face to behold the glory of God It argues a great spirit in a souldier to fight to his last breath And it speaks a couragious strong faith for a Christian to die believing dying hope is a good hope therefore it is given as the character of a righteous man that he hath hope in death And of the Hypocrite it is said Where is the hope of an Hypocrite when God takes away his soul Job saith that his hope shall be like the giving up of the Ghost Look as dying
with her Ladiship and perceiving the stone upon which she stumbled indeavoured her assistance partly remembring her 1. Of what Solomon saith That none can judge of love or hate by all that is before him Eccles 9. 1. For it may fall out alike to him that is spiritually wise and to him that is spiritually a fool 2. Partly by minding her of what the Apostle tells us That God chasteneth whom he Heb. 12. 6. loveth and scourgeth every one whom he receiveth 3. Partly arguing thus with her If afflictions be tokens of divine wrath then health and prosperity are signs of divine love which is evidently salfe 4. Parâ—ly by remembring her of the many examples of Gods children in Scripture to whom God had wrung out bitter waters in a full cup who yet at that time when they were so afflicted were undoubtedly beloved of God and exceeding precious in his eyes Such were Joseph David Job Daniel and many others recorded in Scripture With these and such like Arguments I had satisfied her sanctified reason and judgement and thought I should have heard no more of this temptation But soon after it was inforced Two things she had to say 1. The greatness of her affliction spake more than a chastisement with a rod she was scourged with Scorpions 2. The Lords multiplying afflictions and repeating sad Providences to her seemed to argue that he had a quarrel against her Why else should he return upon her body when he had served an execution upon all she had besides To this I replied 1. That the afflictions of Gods people are not called chaâ—â—isements because they are lâ—ght or little but because they come from the hand of a gracious Father not as legal demands of satisfaction to divine Justice offended because they flow from a principle of love not of wrath and are designed to a gracious end 2. That for the multitude of them Job had as many yet was a person singularly beloved of God and one of whom God gave testimony that there was not one like him in all the East 3. That as the afflictions of Job were of divers hands and exceeding heavy so the succession of them was much like to hers God first took away his children then his estate and last of all let loose Satan upon his person and gave him a liberty to tempt him With these and such like considerations I endeavoured to arm her against this fiery dart at last it pleased him who was therefore tempted that he might be able to succour those that were tempted by his mighty power to lift her over this stone of stumbling and she became fully satisfied that she could neither from the greatness nor multitude of her trials conclude any thing against the love of God to her 2. Tempt If during her afflictions she did not also want the inward consolations of the holy Spirit but alas saith she I have no inward assurance of Gods love no sensible consolations c. Perceiving that her adversary had betaken himself to a new battery I endeavoured to direct her in the use of the Armour of God for the repâ—lling of his darts thrown from hence by offering to her consideration 1. That even Gods dearest children have often wanted these influences of the Spirit What else made David cry out When wilt thou comfort me and vestorâ— unto me the joy of thy salvation What else made the Spouse Cant. 3 1. at such a loss for him whom her soul loved What else caused those sad complaints of the Psalmist Psal 77. To this she replied That it was true but surely if she indeed had any interest in God he would not hide himself from one so pressed with afflâ—ctions as she was God indeed might thus try his children in health and at liberty but would a tender Father so hide himself from so distressed and a dying child This was hard to imagine of God who is Love I replied to this purpose That sensible consolations were not the necessaries of salvation 2. That the love of God to his children is far more seen in giving the soul necessaries than accommodating it with superfluities 3. That God is no where in Scripture tyed by his promise to Saints for the comforts of assurance to be given them in at this or that hour 4. That it is a very great mistake in Christians to judge they want the manifestations of the Spirit because they want these consolatory reflections for the Spirit manifesteth it self in the soul as well by the influences of strengthening and quickening as comforting grace and the witnessings of it That David was become like a bottle in the smoke that his eyes failed for Gods Word saying When wilt thou comfort me Psal 119. 82 83. yet he was at that time Gods child yea the man according to his heart That Job also as might be gathered from several passages in his Book often wanted these sensible manifestations at last I commended a Sermon upon that subject to her after the reading of which her Spirit was more composed and she satisfied that if she could but find the strengthening and quickening influences of divine grace she had no reason for want of sensible consolations to conclude against her self 3 Tempt Satan perceiving this fiery dart well nigh quenched betakes him again to his quiver for another arrow his next device was to perswade her that she wanted also the strengthening grace of God soon after I heard her speaking to this sense 'T is true Sir if I could but find the grace of God strengthening me unto duty against sin I think I ought not to cast away my hope though I do want assurance that I am my Beloveds and my Beloved mine but alas I want this Sir I am now at such a pass I cannot pray c. God hath laid his hand upon my mouth and I cannot open it so much as to say unto him Abba Father Observing the subtilty of this crafty adversary to perswade her from some partial weaknesses and those also much occasioned from bodily distempers that she wholly wanted the workings of the Spirit of Grace I accordingly applied my self to her She tells me it was true she had learned from the Apostle Rom. 8. 11. That if she had the Spirit of Christ she was his which way soever the Spirit as the author of special and distinguishing grace pleased to work in her and she did believe That if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwelt in Rom. 8. 11. 15. Gal. 4. 6. Rom. 8. 26. her he that raised up Christ from the dead should also one day quicken her mortal body by his Spirit dwelling in her But Sir said she this spirit is a spirit of supplication a spirit of adoption teaching to cry Abba Father a spirit helping our infirmities in prayer To which I replied 1. That this was no more than the lot of Gods children Asaph or whoever was the author of that 77 Psalm complained
that he was so troubled he could not speak Psal 77. 4. 2. That the Lord had silenced her Ladiships tongue by his own hand laid upon it in a continual course of afflictions Now though God indeed requires of us the homage of our lips Let me hear thy voice saith Christ to his Spouse Cant. 2. 14. for it is comely And Take unto you words and say saith the Prophet yet he doth not expect this homage where by his providence he dischargeth our tongues of it 3. That there is a praying without the voice which also the Lord heareth Groaning Psa 102. 5. Psal 6. 8. hath a voice Psal 102. 5. and weeping a voice Psal 6. 8. Hezekiah chattered like a Crane yet the Lord heard him In short I besought her Ladiship to consider that the business of prayer was in Scripture expressed by wrestling with God by lifting up the eyes hands heart unto him by pouring out of the soul before him all which might be without the use of words Thus Hannah prayed and was 1 Sam. 1. answered yet spake not a word And I doubted not but her Ladiship thus could and did pray 4. Finally I desired her Ladiship to observe that in Gal. 4. 6. God is said to send his Gal. 4. 6. Spirit into our hearts teaching us to cry Abba Father And Rom. 8. 26. that the Spirit helpeth our infirmities with strong cryes and groans Rom. 8. 26. which could not be uttered Now groans at least are the language of the hearts There is indeed another assistance of the holy Spirit teaching us what to pray for but this floweth not from the Spirit in a way of special grace but as it is the author of spiritual gifts which those might have who had no true interest in God nor had received the Spirit of Christ as a spirit of Sanctification With these and such like considerations I endeavoured to satisfie her Ladiship who yet could hardly be satisfied because she could not pay so full and perfect an homage to God as formerly she had done but her unweariable adversary again reneweth his assault The next news which I heard was this 4 Tempt Sir I have seriously thought upon what you told me and am convinced that though I spake never a word yet if I could keep my heart lifted up to God if I could wrestle with him with my Spirit this were acceptable prayer but whatever you may think I cannot do this When at any time I compose my self to prayer I am tortured with pain that I cannot do it at other times through drewsiness I fall asleep c. By this time her Ladiships tormenting distemperatures prevailed upon her to a great degree so as night and day she had little rest beyond the influence of Anodines stupifying her sense As soon as she had taken these she used to compose her self to secret prayer by and by the operation of the medicine overtook her and inforced sleep when the operation of the Anodine ceased her pains returned and she awoke and then whenever she composed her self to it her pains disturbed her only this she added to her complaint to find out any cause of which for a while posed me That although at first when she composed her self to look up to God she found not much pain yet when she was entered once into her duty she was sure to be racked with the increase of her pain I know that the Devil is but a small friend to our communion with God and would in what he could hinder it I also knew he had a natural power God permitting the exercise of it by which he could disturb bodily humours and divert them to an affected part but not willing to impute it to a praeternatural cause unless quite at loss upon further deliberation I conceived there might be this natural cause of it This good Lady desired when she served the Lord to serve him with her spirit and when she addressed her self to God summoned up all her spirits to do it with the more intention of mind and fervour of spirit Now this I conceived might be a natural cause of the increase of her pain at such a time in regard that her spirits which were wont to serve her body in the supportation of her under her affliction were at this time drawn up to another imployment and the several parts of her body at present left destitute it might give a natural advantage to her infirmity but this was but my particular fancy I told her 1. That short ejaculations were most suitable to her present condition and were heard of God as well as longer prayers for we are not heard for our much speaking 2. I minded her of a speech of Mr. Rutherfords If I were in health I would desire but to cast one long look toward Heaven 3. I told her it was unreasonable for her Ladiship to conclude her self to want the strengthening influences of the holy Spirit because as to this or that act of duty possibly she might not discern such an influence of it It was likely that if her Ladiship examined as to many other duties she might find it and that with an evidence not to be denied 4. I further told her the influence of the spirit was most eminently seen in its workings in strengthening the soul to those exercises of grace which are most proper for our day the present condition and dispensation I meant under which we are and that Faith and Patience were those graces the exercise whereof God more peculiarly requires of his children in a day of affliction and if her Ladiship found the Spirit of God infusing or exerting these habits she need not doubt of the strengthening influences of the Spirit With these things her Ladâ—ship for a while seemed satisfied but her distempers still increased and during the violence of them put her into a great disorder Satan still followed his game and soon after she tells me 5 Tempt Ah Sir you told me that Faith and Patience are those graces the exercise of which is most proper to my condition and if I found the holy Spirit infusing or strengthening me to the exercise of these habits I might be assured that I was not without the strengthening influences of the Spirit though I did not find such an assistance as I desired to every particular duty But Sir you see I am very impatient restless in my self froward with every body about me I cannot be silent under the hand of God nor keep my self from roaring c. And for Faith Sâ—r you know I have told you I have no assurance sometimes indâ—ed I have had what I judged a flash of the light of Gods countenance Once I remember after you had been praying with me and in your prayer mentioned and pleaded many promises it pleased God as I thought to seal some of them to my soul and at some other times that first word which God was pleased to seal unto my
unweariable in her attendance upon Sermons such especially where the Truths of God were opened most lively and with least vanity and in fullest evidence of Scripture she ordinarily heard three or four Lecture Sermons in the week and three on the Lords day till her distempers so prevailed upon her that she could not attend them without that heaviness which she was loth to discover and which was her great affliction This her love to the Word argued that she had chosen the Promises in it for her portion and had cast her Soul upon them how else were they so precious to her She was indeed a Lady exercised with her doubts and fears and love-jealousies rather evidences for than against this adherence to her dear Lord. I have seen her in great agonies and conflicts and almost refusing to be satisfied but could never find that they argued more than an earnest thirsting after further evidences of divine love than it pleased God for some time to vouchsafe her She was possessed indeed of a Noble Estate and so had not that temptation as others to distrustfull cares for the things of this life yet so far as she could she exercised this act of faith never caring for to morrow nor considering what it might bring forth But freely spending her whole revenue in pious and charitable works that of it I mean which she could spare from the frugal expenses of her houshold prosessing she desired no more than to make her accounts of Receits and Disbursements even at the years end Her love to God was beyond the love of Women whether we view it in the more secret motions of her soul or in more imperate acts What sighs what heart-breaking sadness have I been a witness to from her when she lay at any time under apprehensions of any degrees of divine desertions or any suspicions of the truth of Grace in her own heart What tears in such dark hours have I seen flow from her eyes in her Closet more privately What groans have I heard from her while we have been praying more publickly On the other side if at any time she could have laid hold upon any good Word of God if she had found any more freedom of spirit or heart or felt what she judged an Efflux of divine love upon her Soul What a chearfulness did we all the day see in her countenance what freedom did we discern in her converse It was no hard matter for me from the observation of her converse and countenance in the day-time to judge how it had sared with her Ladyships spirit in her addresses to God that morning Her dread of God was exceeding great I have sometimes trembled to hear with what earnestness she would adjure me to be faithfull to her in the business of her Soul and not to suffer sin to rest upon her Her fear indeed was for some time too too servile favouring too much of the spirit of Bondage but it was afterward more constantly Filial in all things discovered by a reverential sense of the great and glorious Majesty of God and a fear of wilfull sinning against him Nor was this Excellent Lady's Religion such as to evince it to the World she was put to flee to the plea of a good heart as a Sanctuary Out of the abundance of Grace in her heart her mouth spake her whole outward man moved in a just conformity to her external profession She was exemplarily diligent and devout in all Religious performances Prayer was her great delight To that form are the first spiritual words which the Childe of God speaketh The first account we have of Saint Paul after his conversion was Behold he prayeth and this seemeth to have been the first study of this Excellent Lady In the external performance of which she found some difficulty to relieve her self in which she had furnished her Closet with most valuable English books which contained Forms of Prayer upon several occasions in none of which she could find a full satisfaction but ever and anon she was still at a loss for words fitted to the altering complexion of her spirit To help her self she procured her Pastor to draw up several Forms fitted to the frame of her Soul at several times And in this work when I was come into her Family she often imployed me but still she remained dissatisfied that she gave us so frequent troubles and that after some years owning her self to be Gods childe she should in any exigent be at a loss for words to take unto her self and to say Abba Father I humbly advised her to a praevious study of the more general matter and method of Prayer and of the Divine Promises which are the sacred Obligations which Prayer puts in suit As to the former I drew up for her Ladyship a Scheme which she kept hanging before her in her Closet to her dying day describing to her the plainer and more ordinary method and the more general matter of Prayer and commended to her some Books which gave the fullest account of the Promises After some small exercise of her self in both of them she needed her Prayer-books and Forms no longer but was able as occasion ministred it self to pour out her Soul to God according to her necessities without any further Monitor than the Spirit of Supplications in conjunction with the pious workings of her own breast And indeed after this she was no friend to Forms she judged that they could never be used with that warmth of affection which attends the words of a good Christian formed in his own heart That whoso limited himself by them would never from his performance in duty understand any thing of the frame of his heart And that no knowing person could have other need of them than as a Supplement for his own laziness neither studying the Scriptures nor his own Heart Whatever be determined as to her judgement in the ease her Ladyship for 15 or 16 years before her death would not allow her self the use of them She prayed much in her Closet Thrice each day in Communion with us in the Family She was as diligent in hearing the Word ordinarily hearing three Sermons on the Lords Day and more Lectures in the Week-day till her increasing distempers of late years more indisposed her Her Sabbath day service and the hearing of one weekly Lecture which her Ladyship at her own charge erected and maintained she continued while she was able to go down stairs yea and after that in her Bed-chamber to her dying-day Once every month she in Communion with us received the Lords Supper and that not without praevious preparation before she came and most ardent devotion when she was present at that sacred Institution Of her private Fastings and extraordinary times of Prayer I shall say nothing though in them she was not wanting Her love to the Ministers and servants of God was beyond comparison she had not only like the Shunamite prepared a Table a Bed
her is that she is the most excellent woman There are many others praise-worthy in their order and kind many to whom sua laus debetur but there is none like unto her she hath to speak in the Hebrew dialect ascended above them all Others may deserve some praise but she shall be praised she in the most eminent manner deserveth praise Two things then are said 1. She is the most excellent person 2. She deserveth most true and eminent praise The latter justly followeth upon the former That therefore is it alone which I shall insist upon and the general question is Quest 2. Wherein it doth or may appear that a woman fearing the Lord in this sense is the most excellent woman that person the most excellent person The commendation in the text being in the superlative degree the most natural way to demonstrate the truth of the Proposition is that which Solomon here directeth us to per modum comparationis comparing her with other women or persons to whom the world giveth praise or honour and shewing you the excellency of her and those perfections of which she is possessed above all other persons of her order whom the world admireth and doteth upon and above all those things for which the mistaken world so admireth others This therefore is the method which I shall follow having the Holy Ghost himself for my guide I will then 1. Enquire what those things are which a◠adjuncts to persons inhance their value either really or in the opinion of men weighing them all in the ballance of reason and Religion as I go along and shewing you what there is of excellency in them 2. Secondly I will shew you what there is in this supereminent quality The fear of the Lord which maketh it to out-shine all those other excellencies even before any abatement of their value and supposing them not subject to those accidents which indeed they are subjected to which will inforce a rebatement in any reasonable soul of what they are at first blush and appearance worth 3. Lastly I will consider both the one and the other in their due circumstances and so consider both the one and the other substracting what either Reason or Religion will shew reasonable to be substracted from the appearing value of those other things And then I hope it will be easie for us to cast up the total summ of each and by comparing them together to judge of the truth of the Proposition 1. As to the first set aside what is here comprehended under the notion of The fear of the Lord all things which either in reality or in opinion do inhance the value of any person may be reduced to three heads 1. The ornaments perfections and accomplishments of the body which is our outward man 2. The endowments of the mind 3. More external accidental forein advantages to our persons The first head is The ornaments perfections and accomplishments of our bodies There are strength and beauty both mentioned in the text in the terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a word of very large interpretation Primarily it signifieth natural strength and courage Thence in Scripture it is ordinarily used to express an Army which is ordinarily made up of strong men Men of strength as the Hebrew dialect is Thus Gen. 47. 6. If there be Gen. 47. 6. amongst them any men of strength or activity as we translate it for activity dependeth upon Judg. 11. 1. strength So Jephthah is called A mighty man of valour Where the same word is again used it is translated Army Exod. 14. 9. Jer. Exod. 14. 9. Jer. 37. 7. 37. 7. It is true that amongst us strength doth not ordinarily fall into the commendation of the female sex but you know of old Deborah and Joel were renowned for this Judg. 5. 2. Beauty is that bodily ornament which more ordinarily commendeth the woman it lieth in the perfection and proportion of bodily parts and in a due mixture of colours proper to flesh and blood But the indowments of the mind are things which yet further raise the value of any person These fall under three heads 1. Knowledge which is the furniture of the intellectual part of the soul the object of it is as large as Heaven and Earth and all things contained in it Without knowledge saith Solomon Prov. 19. the soul is not good without divine knowledge not spiritually good without natural knowledge not morally good Knowledge is a great ornament 2. Moral virtues Nobleness of spirit chastity temperance sobriety justice mercy and pity bounty and liberality meekness humility affability courtesie The woman indued with these and such like habits is far more excellent than her neighbour that is leud drunken intemperate ill-tongued morose immodest c. This kind of excellency is expressed in the text under the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which both in the text and vers 21. is translated virtue A third thing is activity of spirit when one is disposed and ready for business apt to manage affairs and agile in it Thus we translate this word Gen. 47. 6. If there be Gen. 47. 6. amongst them any men of activity It is used Exod. 18. 21. to express the fit qualifications Exod. 18. 21. of Magistrates we there translate it able able men where certainly it signifies knowledge prudence and almost all moral virtue together with activity of spirit The woman of an industrious active diligent spirit and temper is far more excellent than her who is of a slothful crazy idle temper and this also is comprehended in the text under the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you may see by comparing v. 10. of this chapter with the following verses the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned v. 20. is expounded by Solomon to be one that seeketh wooll and flax and worketh willingly with her hands that riseth while it is night and giveth meat to her houshold and a portion to her Maidens This now is a second sort of things which raise the value of a person in the world The third and last sort I call more external advantages such as are not inherent in our persons but forein to us and indeed alone signifie little or nothing to the commendation of a rational creature as such These are 1. Noble Parentage and Relations to be born atavis regibus of noble progenitors related to great persons or families these are some of those things which the Heathens called good things of fortune and the Poet knew not how to call Ours Vix ea nostra voco 2. Honours which are lookt upon highly by many but are things still without us having their original in the favour of others 3. The Affection and Favour of men which begetteth a good and honourable name 4. Riches a great estate in mony or lands c. the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 often signifieth Riches Jer. 17. 3.
soul 1 Col. 27. Christ in you the hope of Glory hath been returned to my soul and comforted me but I cannot call this assurance doubting quickly returned and now Satan would have me let go also my hold on Christ but I am resolved not to let it go until I die shall I not so resolve I beseech you Sir tell me should I not so resolve To this I replied 1. That I rejoyced to hear her Ladiship acknowledging that God had sometimes sealed promised unto her soul that those impressions did not abide constant was not to be wondred at it being rarely the lot of any child of God to walk in the constant light of his countenance but I humbly conceived her Ladiship had great ground to call these impressions of the Spirit of God upon a threefold account 1. They were made upon her soul after earnest prayer 2. They came to one in a dark sad and afflicted condition and to an awakened conscience and to one who had for some time desired to walk close with God and this after long and patient waiting for God 3. The return of that word in which the Lord had made her soul first to hope was a great evidence to me that the Author of the first was also the Author of the second impression 2. I rejoyced more to her Ladiships grant that her Faith of adherence was strengthened and so strengthened as she was resolved not to let it go until she died In which resolution I humbly besought her Ladiship to persist I intreated her Ladiship to consider that there are not two better marks of a strong Faith than 1. The resistance and repelling of temptations to doubt 2. The casting of our souls upon God and adhering to the promise though we want incouragement of sense with Abraham to believe in hope above hope This indeed is a strong faith and gives much glory to God And indeed I thought I never was a witness to the actings of a stronger faith than that of this noble person in the midst of her saddest torments of her darkest hours when she was even distracted through pain and terrours she would cry out to all our amazement It is my strong hold I will not let it go no I will not let it go I am resolved I will not let it go let Satan suggest what he will it is my strong hold I have committed my self unto Christ c. Thus she would cry out bitterly weeping while she spake in great Agonies of her spirit 3. As to Patience I desired her Ladiship to consider that the grace of patience was not a Roman fortitude carrying one out under an affliction without any expression of passion this an Heathen might do without any assistance of distinguishing grace and some distempeâ—atures were such as the best Christians could not so bear them David roared Job complained Christ himself cryed out My God My God Patience is a sacred influence of grace by which we are inabled in the hour of affliction to hope in God whom we see not and meekly to submit to him under his severer dispensations without any murmuring repining or any frowardness of behaviour I told her that although her Ladiship did sometimes roar out through extremity of pain and were restless through torments yet the grace of patience was evidently made manifest in her soul in her humble owning the Justice of God kissing his rod never repining nor murmuring at his dispensations only desiring strength to bear what he would please to lay upon her and her willingness to die or live as he should please to order for it was now patience in her to be content to live finally in her willingness in obedience to Gods command and ordinances though she earnestly desired death yet to use all means though she had no hope of cure to prolong a miserable life so long as God pleased 4. Finally I told her that although possibly sometimes in the height of her distempers some speeches might sound some impatience and unbelief when the extremity of her pain had almost totally deprived her of the use of her reason yet God would not impute this to her for he weighs our performances with our temptations So the Apostle saith You have heard of the patience of Job he that looks in the story will find much in Job which we should call impatience he cursed the day of his birth chap. 3. And we find in his story many other very passionate and distempered speeches yet the Apostle saith not you have heard of the passion and frowardness but you have heard of the patience of Job Though Job sometimes were very impatient yet the Lord considering Jobs patience with his temptations records him as a patient man and so patient as to be propounded to his Saints in following ages as an example of patience he saith not you have heard of the passion or frowardness but you have heard of the patience of Job In short I told her Ladiship that we who were spectators could not but judge her in the free use of her reason full both of faith and patience for her few distempered hours as they were not in number equal to the rest so neither would her tender Father judge her for them By these and other Arguments through Gods assistance she seemed at last satisfied that although she yet wanted the consolations of the Spirit yet she was not without the strengthening influences of it But yet her adversary would not leave her his next temptation was from her apprechended want of Gods quickening grace to which purpose she replies again 6. Tempt Sir I remember you told me that though I wanted the consolations of the Spirit yet if I found its quickening influences I had no reason to despond but Sir I want these my head and my heart is dull there is no life left in my spirit I lift up a lifeless soul to God in prayer never was any in so dull and dead a condition as I am To this I replied 1. That if her Ladiship found the strengthening influences of the holy Spirit they would evidence a state of justification and favour with God now those were evident in her Ladiship how else did her Ladiship in her dark condition commit her self unto God rest upon him and patiently wait for him 2. That as to quickening grace it was seen 1. In exciting the soul to duty 2. In inclining the soul in duty so as it performeth it with alacrity delight and vigour and for the latter it works in us by assisting us in the improvement of our natural parts and powers now this assistance might be wanting to her Ladiship through the indisposition of those Organs by and through the means of which the Spirit perfecteth these operations and her Ladiship must consider that her spirits were tired with succession of pain and stupified by anodines medicines which her learned Physician thought proper for her for the allevation of her pain which otherwise would soon have
my car I a little admired at her sudden joy and what she had to say inclining my head to her when she perceived her noble Sister had turned her back and was with the rest of the company out of hearing she tells me I think I may tell it you you will not speak of it I believe I am very near my Fathers house I resolved to keep her counsel till I saw the issue and the rather because she seemed to us further from death than at any time for some weeks before in this temper she continued the remaining part of that day it was the day when I was to preach my weekly Lecture so that I returned not to her until the evening when I found her as before very chearful and able to discourse with me about a private business as to which on the behalf of her friend she had improved her interest in a worthy Gentleman she had that night received a Latter from him letting her know it was dispatched and took her leave of me desiring me to draw up a Letter of thanks to him which she would as she told me the next day subscribe that it might be sent by the next Post But it so pleased God that by an inexpected turn of Providence before morning her spirits failed her and she in a great measure lost her speech and after spake very few words only made signs to us to pray for her Once she said I fear and by and by I hope I hope and so quietly without suffering any pain so sar as we could discern she yielded up her soul to God upon the 25th day of March 1652. about nine of the clock Thus she fought the good fight and kept the faith and hath now put on the Crown of Glory being entred into the actual possession and beatifical vision of those things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive even the things which God hath prepared for them that love him She was buried at Blicklin in the County of Norfolk March 27. 1652. With this Epitaph upon her grave-stone Here lyes one nobly born once blest With all the Riches of the East Then stript of all and in the place Receiv'd of God riches of grace These made her couetous to see The Mine whence came such Treasury Her soul for haste there to appear Clogg'd with the body dropt it here Engaging to it in the morn Of th' Resurrection to return And reassume its Vnion Reader weigh this and then pass on A Postscript THese Notes with this memorial of this excellent Lady were within some few months after her death drawn up and several Copies transcribed and presented to her noble relations the same for substance Reader as thou hast them here though they may be a little altered as to some words or phrases Nor had I any thoughts of makeing them publick till Anno 1664. God taking away her noble Sister whom I had the honour eighteen years to wait upon I thought it my duty to raise her up a monumeâ—t according to my ability though her honourable name needed no such little advantage as this Having taken up this resolution I resolved also to joyn these notes with them and accordingly sent them to a Stationer in whose hands they were Anno 1665. when the Plague hindered the printing of them and Anno 1666. till the Dreadful Fire consumed them I was for some times after divided in my thoughts whether to revive them or no but at last finding accidentally amongst my notes an imperfect Copy of them I set to the work and through Gods affistance have once more brought it to an issue and I cannot but in it something confider the Providence of God retarding my hand to an opportunity of doing a piece of service to the last mentioned Lady which I never thought her honourable name for Religion would have stood in need of Within these six months last past to justifie if it were possible the tremendous Apostacy of another I hear it commonly reported amongst the Papists that both this noble Lady and her Husband died Papists and that her only Son is also one For Mr. Courten he was wholly unknown to me I never saw his face it was his unhappiness to die in a Papish Country which might give an advantage to such a fiction But his Son William Courten Esquire yet living is a sufficient testimony against this fabulous report who both visited the place since his Fathers death and received the testimony from a friend which his dying Father left of his perseverance in the communion of the Protestant Church and abhorrence of the visits and superstitious vanities with which those Votaries use to trouble dying persons as also had a real testimony from the unhallowed burying place which alone the Papists would allow him This and much more I have had from his worthy Son which I have forgot as not thinking I should ever have had any cause of such a repetition But that worthy Gentleman yet lives and if any be unsatisfied and will take the pains to inquire of him he can satisfie them both that his Father died no Papist and that himself is none according to another part of their sabulous report who are pleased in making lyes their refuge he hath seen too much of the exceeding fondness the folly and superstitious vanities of that Pageantry in Religion to be ever proselited to it and is I think satisfied that it is justly to be abhorred by a sober person were it only for the little influence it hath upon the lives of those where it is most practised and the dispensation it gives to all manner of Luxury But he is of age and abilities sufficient to speak for himself For this Excellent Lady none living is a more competent witness than my self who had the opportunities of daily converse with her till the moment of her dissolution nor can there be a better testimony than these Papers containing the substance of her discourses with me to her very last gasp They understand little of the Popisâ— Faith that upon the reading of these discourses will not conclude that her Ladiship was at a sufficient distance from it and that these were not discourses formed for such a design as her Vindication There are four or five Honourable Persons in England her near relations can testifie who have had these notes fourteen years at least if not fifteen or sixteen by them the same as to the substance of them though possibly as I said before some phrases may be altered upon more mature deliberation These discourses do not sound like the language of one who believed the Doctrines of Popery about remission of sins assurance merit prayers to Saints and Augels c. But indeed a person is not ordinarily to be sound upon whom that tribe could with more disadvantage sasten such an imputation than upon upon this Excellent Lady Who so wisely câ—sts their eye upon