penitently and resoluedly to bee reformed if Hee recover and yet His sorrow of minde but such onely as the terrours of an awaked guilty conscience produce and His resolution to cast away His sinnes onely such as a man hath in a storme to cast away His goods not because hee doth not love them but because hee feareth to loose his life if hee part not with them Or a meere civill Man or formall Professour may upon His Bed of death bee very confident and seeme to bee full of comfort and yet that confidence no other then the strong imaginary ioyfull conceit of a covetous man grasping a great deale of gold in his dreame but when Hee awaketh behold his hands are empty For a more full and cleare apprehension of my meaning and iudgement in the Point let us take a survay of the different and severall kinds of death which ordinarily befall the Godly and the wicked The death of Gods Children are divers 1. Some of their holy and zealous lives doe determine and expire sweetly fairely and gloriously even like a cleare Sunne in a Summers evening without any storme or cloud of temptation and discomfort The darkesome and painefull passages and pangs of death are illightened and sweetned with the shining beames of Gods glorious presence and fast embracement of Iesus Christ in the armes of their Faith So that to them the very ioyes of Heaven and exultations of everlasting rest mingle themselues with those last agonies and expirations of death Their heads are as it were crowned with immortality and endlesse peace upon their beds of death Luther that blessed Man of God died sweetly and triumphantly over Hell the Pope and the Divell My heavenly Father said Hee at his death eternall and mercifull God thou hast manifested unto me thy deare Son our Lord Iesus Christ. I have taught him I have knowne him I love him as my life my health and my redemption whom the wicked have persecâ—â—ed maligned and with iniury afflicted Draw my Soule to Thee After this Hee said as insued thrice I commend my spirit into thine hands thou hast redeemed mee O God of truth God so loved the world that hee gave his onely Sonne that all that beleeve in Him should have life everlasting Ioh. 3. Heare how another blessed Saint of God ended his dayes Having the day before hee died continued his meditation and exposition vpon Rom. 8. for the space of two houres or more on the sudden Hee said O stay your reading What brightnesse is this I see Have you light up any candles To which I answered No It is the Sun-shine for it was about five a clocke in a cleare Summers evening Sun-shine saith Hee nay my Saviour-shine Now farewell world welcome heaven The Day-starre from on high hath visited my heart O speake it when I am gone and preach it at my Funerall God dealeth familiarly with man I feele his mercy I see his Maiesty whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God hee knoweth but I see things that are un-utterable So ravished in spirit Hee roamed toward heaven with a chearefull looke and soft sweete voyce but what Hee said wee could not conceive With the Sunne in the morning following raising himselfe as Iacob did upon his staffe hee shut up his blessed life with these blessed words O what an happy change shall I make From night to day From darkenesse to light From death to life From sorrow to solace From a factious world to an heavenly beeing O my deare brethren sisters and friends It pittieth mee to leave you behind yet remember my death when I am gone and what I now feele I hope you shall finde ere you die that God doth and will deale familiarly with men And now thou fiery Chariot that came downe to feth up Eliah carry mee to my happy Hold And all yee blessed Angels who attended the Soule of Lazarus to bring it up to heaven beare mee O beare mee into the bosome of my Best beloved Amen Amen come Lord Iesus come quickly And so hee fell asleepe That this is true the reporter and By-stander that ancient learned reverend Minister of God Master Leygh addeth I say the truth my Brethren I lie not my conscience bearing mee witnesse in the holy Ghost c. 2. Others may end their dayes very uncomfortably in ravings impatiencies and other strange behaviours Nay the fiery distempers of their hot diseases may sometimes even in the Saints of God produce furlous carriages fearefull distractions and some despairefull speeches But these being the naturall effects and issues of melancholike excesses Phrensies and burning Fevers are sins of infirmity in sanctified men For which if they come againe to themselves they actually repent if not they are all undoubtedly by a generall habituall repentance and Gods gratious acceptation thereof pardoned by the Passion of Christ and buried for ever in his bloody death That last and unreversable doome at the dreadfull Tribunall of the ever-living God must passe upon us not according to the violent and unvoluntary distempers at our last houre but according to the former Passages of our life the sinfull or sanctified expense of the daies of health Heare that other great Artist in the Mysterie of dealing with trouble consciences The common opinion is that if a man die quietly and goe away like a Lambe which in some diseases as consumptions and such like any Man may doe then hee goes straight to heaven but if the violence of the disease stirre up impatience and cause franticke behaviours then men use to say there is a judgement of God serving either to discover an Hypocrite or to plague a wicked man But the truth is otherwise For indeede a man may die like a lambe and yet goe to Hell and one dying in exceeding torments and strange behauiours of the body may goe to heaven 3. The death of some others is mixt to wit of fearefull tempestuous stormes and almost if not altogether despairefull agonies in the beginning of their last sicknesse and a faire refreshing glorious calme and ioyfull triumphs over temptations and feare towards the conclusion of their life For some secret end and holy purpose seeming good to his heavenly wisedome God suffers sometimes even his dearest servants to taste as it were of the fire of Hell and for a while to feele in their consciences those damned flames as a preparative to drinke more sweetly of the Well of life and Rivers of endlesse pleasures So himselfe is most honoured by helping when all hope is past The heart of his Child more ravisht with the first sight of those un-utterable joyes beeing suddenly rais'd to the height of happinesse from the depth of horrour The enemies to the narrow way dasht and confounded by observing his deliverance whom out of prophane blindnesse they deemed an Hypocrite Godly Christians gratiously reviv'd when they see That tho the Lord hide His face from his Childe for a moment yet
cap. 8. Art Respondeo si admit teremus o Id. Ibid. p Argumentum rectè probat â—os qui timorem servilem habent inor dinatos malos esse c. Id. Ibid. Art Respondeo argumentum q I grant the Lord who is the most free Agent takes liberty and workes as it pleaseth Him and there is oddes and difference for time measure and such things But for the generall alwayes the same By humbling first then comforting c. Master Rogers of Dedham Of Faito cap. 2. pag. 67. r David Psal. 38. beeing put in minde by His sicknesse of Gods wrath against sinne was full sorely afflicted in Soule So that Hee cries There is no soundnesse in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sinne For mine iniquities are gone over mine head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for mee I am troubled I am bowed downe greatly I goe mourning all the day long I am seeble and sore broken I have roared by reason of the disquietnesse of my heart My sorrow is continually before mee s But how may this reâ—â—â—siâ—ation with as great if not greater 〈◊〉 than at first turâ—ing unto God 〈◊〉 which â— Rom. 8.15 〈…〉 received the 〈◊〉 it of Boâ—dage againe to â—â—arâ— which seemes to iâ—port thus much that Gods Childâ— receiâ—eâ— the spirit of bondage no more after Hee hath once received the spirit of adoption revealing and evidencing â—nto Him that Hee is a Sonne and that God is His Father In answer The same Spirit produceth these contrary effects By the 〈◊〉 feare and terrour By the Gospell peace and prayer â—acit duâ—s spiritus 〈…〉 adoptionis his contraria tribuit effecta ùon quò tâ—â—t 〈◊〉 Spirits 〈◊〉 â—â—quod â—iasâ—em spiritus diversa contraria sint effecta per Legem per Evangelium â—er Lege◠〈◊〉 Spiritus sanitus arguit mundum de peccaâ—o de iâ—â Dei malediâ—â—â—oce aterâ—â—â— c. Par. in â—oc Now at the first taking a Man in hand to turne Him unto the 〈◊〉 the spirit of bondage by the worke of the Law doth testifâ—e unto the Soule that it is in a wretched and lamnable state bound over in the guilt of it's owne sinne and Godâ—â—â—ry wrath to dâ—â—th and Hell and damnation for ever that so it may bee driven to Iesus Christ for release and pardon But after the plantation of Faith and presence of the 〈…〉 â— never testifies so againe because it would be an untruth It may afterward workâ— an apprehension that God is angry but not that He is not a Father The hiding of Gods face which may often befall His Childe the darknesse of our owne spirits 〈◊〉 which may revive all the old guilt againe and the Divels cruell pressing 〈…〉 â—pon such advantages raise these hideous mists of horror I have in hand 〈…〉 after-tempests which are so terrible Of which our Onely-wise and All-power 〈…〉 makes excellent use both for our selves and others and attaines thereby His owne most glorious secret and sacred end as appeares in the following Passage t 〈…〉 est â—word diâ—â—re 〈…〉 qui patâ—â—batur non ut puniretur sed ut â—robaretur August Tom. 9. p. 1. pag. 1487. a 1. Prima generalior causa afflictionum sunt peccata vel nostra vel aliena 2. Altera ut exerceamur probemur ne peccemus cauti reddamur 3. Tertia ut declaretur in nobis gloria potentiae ac bonitatic Dei Musc. in Ioan. cap. 9. Docet Christus ut maximè omnes homines peceatores sint non tamen omnes afflictiones propter peccatorum merita contingere Nam Deus habet in homines quos affligit diversos respectus alterum impeccata alterum in suam gloriam Si gloriam suam respiciat affligit non propter peccatum sed ad gloriam manifestandam Sic afflixit Iosephum Israelitas in Aegypto c. Brentius Ibid. b Now whether a MaÌ„ after Hee is in state of grace may feele this wound bleed afresh is a question with some through their weakenesse Tho if we consult with Scripture and experience the question is out of question Loe all these things saith Elihu truly worketh God oftentimes with a Man that Hee may turne backe His Soule from the Pit Examples are frequent c. Sclater in hâ—â— S.S.S. * 1. Cor. 2.12 c It is not unknowne in Lancashire what Horses and Cattell of her Husbands were killed upon His grounds in the night most barbarously at two severall times by Seminary Priests no question and Recusants that lurked there abouts And what a losse and hindrance it was unto Him being all the stocke He had on His grounds to any purpose In the story of the holy life and Christian death of Mistris Katherin Bretteâ—gh pag. 6. d Ibid. in Mast. Leyghs Postscript to Papists c Et sipeccatum in quibuscunque calamitatibus causae locum semper habeat nempe efficientis originalis tamen non semper peccati poena finis est is quem intuetur Deus c. f Si Deus peccata respiciat iniquitatis merita nullam est adeò ingens supplicium quo non merito affligamur omnes quotquot originâ—m nostram ex Adamo ducimus Si enim Deus iniquitatem observauerit quis sustinebit Psal. 130.3 Brent In Iohan. Cap. 9. 2. Chron. 33.11 g Gods Children are bruised Reeds befâ—re their conversion and often times after Before Conversion all except such as being bred up in the Church God hath delighted to shew himselfe gracious unto from their Child hood yet in different degrees as God seeth meet and as a difference is in regard of temper parts manner of life so Gods intendment of imployment for the time to come For usually hee empties such of themselves and makes them nothing before Hee will use them in any great services Doctor Sibbes Bruised Reed pag. 10. h Quan vis resipiscentia dolorem semper secum adferat de peccatu â—raeteritis praesentibus non tam proprie tamen aut â—ssentialiter consistit in dolore atque in aversatione odio peccati in firmo proposito hom prosequendi Amos 5.14.15 Odio habete malum amate bonum Amesius Medull Theol. lib. 1. cap. 26. Sect. 32. i Nâ—n nocent peccata praeâ—eâ—â—ta si non plaâ— câ—t prâ—sentia August De temper Serm. 1â—1 cap. 10. Peccata non nâ—cent si non placent Ideâ— k It thou be truly and unfainedly gâ—ievâ—d for this that thou canst not â—ee grieved thy humiliation shall bee accepted Perkins Case of Conscience 〈◊〉 cap. 5. Scit 2. Case Dulcat quâ— quia peccavit quia Deum offâ—ndit aut salâ—e doleat quia 〈…〉 doleâ—cisae 〈…〉 â—it ut Deo magis placeat homini utiliuâ— sit velle esse 〈…〉 sâ—atire contritionem aut deâ—otionem quta velle habere non habere general afflictunen â—oâ—dis Itaâ—â— dot trascere tibi ipsi atque damnabilem te iudica quò 〈…〉 non deleaâ— quanâ—â—â— debeas
and lead in the rocke for ever For I know that my Redeemer liveth c. chap. 13. Though he slay me yet will I trust in him did so strengthen and stay his spirit with a divine might that he bore valiantly and stood upright under the heaviest weight and greatest variety of extreame afflictions that ever were laid upon any meere man But now on the other side the tyth nay the tenne hundreth part of Iobs troubles caused graâ—elesse Achitophell to saddle his Asse get himselfe home put his houshold in order and hang himselfe So true is that which the blessed Prophet tels us Ier. 17.5 c. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For Hee shall be like the heath in the desert and shall not see when good commeth but shall inhabite the parched places in the Wildernesse in a saltland and not inhabited Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is For hee shall be as a tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out her rootes by the river and shall not see when heate commeth but her lease shall be greene and shall not be carefull in the yeere of drought neither shall cease from yeelding fruite This impregnable comfort springing from grace and a good conscience even in evill times did steele the spirit of blessed Luther with such spirituall stoutnesse and so hardened his fore head against a world nay an horrible hell of most reproachfull and raging oppositions that he became a Spectacle a Miracle of rarest Christian fortitude and invincible courage to the whole world and to all posterity I am perswaded that holy truth of God which hee so gloriously proâ—est and that power of godlinesse which hee so faithfully practised did infuse into the heart of that Man as much unconquerablenesse of resolution and fearelesnesse of the face of Man as ever dwelt in any mortal brest since the Apostles time Witnesse amongst the rest that one extraordinary expression of His imcomparable magnanimity when his friends were earnest and eager upon Him not to venture Himselfe amongst a number of Perfidious Papists and bloud-thirsty Tigers He replied thus As touching mee saith He since I am sent for I am resolved and certainly determined to enter Wormes in the name of the Lord Iesus Christ yea tho I knew there were as many Divells to resist me as there are tiles to cover the Houses in Wormes This Man of God did upon the two Pillars of His Heroicall heart courage and patience most nobly sustaine the malice and hatred almost of the whole world The Divell and the Pope did concurrently countermine with all their cruelty and cunning against this victorious Champion of Heaven and mighty underminer of their darke and damned kingdomes Almost all the Princes Priests and people of Christendome did breed breathe out nothing but thoughts of indignation and threats of Death against Him Millions of lasie and lustfull Monkes having like so many pestilent Locusts of the infernall Pit seizd upon the face of Europe with their envenomed swarmes and lying at ease encloistered in Sodomy and bloud gnashed their teeth at Him with Hellish fury and like true Frends spet fire in His face And yet for all this this holy Saint which I more admire and prize higher then the victories of a thousand Caesars or the most renowned valour of the greatest Alexander having so many incarnate Divels continually roaring about Him with open mouth ready every houre and enraged with implacable thirst to drinke up His bloud and swallow Him up quicke yet I say enioyed such a triumphant tranquillity of minde and unshaken presence of spirit that like a mightie Son of thunder by His constant and powerfull preaching for the space of nine and twenty yeares so shooke the pillars of Popery that I am perswaded the Beast will never stand upon His foure legs any more And writ eloquently and excellently almost if not as many volumes as Austin did that great glory of the Christian World in former times A petty crosse many times will so emasculate and weaken the elevations of the greatest Wit that His conceite invention stile will fall to a farre lower streine then ordinary which contentment calmnesse would raise to their highest pitch possibility But the terrible earthquake as it were of all Europe and contrary commotions of Christendome some did never a whit dis-animate or shake the heart of this heavenly man fitly honoured by the name of a third Elias But now Francis Spira on the other side having out of his inordinate love to the things of this life wofully wounded his conscience by that infamous 〈◊〉 of the blessed Truth which He formerly professed became a spectacle of such spirituall misery and woe to the whole world that there is not any thing left unto the memory of man more remarkeable Vpon the very first revise of his recantation and serâ—ouâ— consideration in cold bloud what he had done he acknowledged himselfe utterly undone and for ever His spirit suddenly smitten with the dreadfull sense of divine wrath for his Apostasie and split in pieces as it were with so grievous a bruise fainted fearefully faild him quite and fell a sunder in his brest like drops of water Heare some rufull expressions of his desperate state from his owne mouth Oh that I were gone from hence that some body would let out this weary Soule I tell you there was never such a Monster as I am never was man alive a spectacle of such exceeding misery I now feele Gods heavy wrath that burnes like the torments of hell within me and afflicts my soule with pangs un-utterable Verily desperation is Hell it selfe The gnawing worme of unquenchable fire horrour confusion and which is worst of all desperation it selfe continually tortures me And now I count my present estate worse then if my soule separated from my body were with Iudas and therefore I desire rather to be there then thus to live in my body The truth is never had mortall man such experience of Gods anger and hatred against him as I have If I could conceive but the â—east sparke oâ— hope in my heart of a better state hereafter I would not refuse to endure the most heavy wrath of the great God yea for 2000. yeeres so that at length I might attaine out of misery He professed that his pangs were such as that the damned wights in Hell indure not the like misery That his state was worse then that of Cain and Iudas and therefore desired to die O that God would let loose his hand from me and that it were with me now as in times past I would scorne the threats of the most cruell Tyrants beare torments with invincible resolution and glory in the outward profession of Christ till I were choaked in the flame and my body turned into ashes Vses 1. If it be so then that
unconquerablenesse in torment then affected with the raging paines of a most terrible execution 2. In others from a strong stirring perswasion and consciousnesse of the honesty and honour of some civill cause for which they suffer But fortitude in this case doth not arise from any inspired religious vigour or heavenly infusions but from the severer instigations of naturall conscience and acquired manhood of a meere morall Puritane Many such morall Martyrs have beene found amongst the more generous and well-bred heathen It is storied of a brave and valiant Captaine who had long manfully and with incredible courage with-stood Dionysius the elder in defence of a Citie that Hee sustained with strange patience and height of spirit the mercilesse fury of the Tyrant and all his barbarous cruelties most unworthy of Him that suffered them but most worthy him that inflicted the same First the Tyrant told him how the day before hee had caused his son and all his kinsfolkes to be drown'd To whom the Captaine stoutly out staring Him answered nothing but that they were more happy then himselfe by the space of one day Afterward hee caused him to be stripped and by his executioners to be taken and dragged through the Citty most ignominiously cruelly whipping Him and charging Him besides with outragious and contumelious speeches All which notwithstanding as One no whit dismaide Hee ever shewed a constant and resolute heart And witâ—â— cheerefull and bold countenance went on still lowdly recounting the honourable and glorious cause of His death which was that Hee would never consent to yeeld his Countrey into the hands of a cruell Tyrant With such stoutnesse did even meere morall vertue steele the antient Romane spirits that in worthy defense of their liberty for preservation of their Countrey or other such noble ends They indifferently contemned gold silver death torture and whatsoever else miserable worldlings hold deare or dismall 3. In some from an extreme hardnesse of heart which makes them senselesse and fearelesse of shame misery or any terrible thing This wee may sometimes obserue in notorious malefactours A long rebellious and remorselesse continuance and custome in sinne raging infections from their roaring companions a furious pursuite of outrages and blood Satans hoâ— iron searing their consciences and Gods iust curse upon their fearefull and forlorne courses so fill them with foole-hardinesse and with such a ferall disposition that they are desperately hardned against all affronts and dis-asters So that tho such savage-minded and marble-hearted men be to passe thorow the streetes as spectacles of abhorrednesse and scorne as hatefull monsters and the reproach of Mankind to be throwne into a Dungeon of darknesse and discomfort and there to be loaden with cold irons coldnes and want from thence to bee hurried to that loathed Place of execution and there to die a Dogs death as they say and finally to fall immediately and irrecoverably into a Lake of fire yet I say for all this out of a desperate hard-heartednesse they seeme still to bee in heart and to represent to the beholders a great deale of undauntednesse and neglect of danger in their carriage and countenances O the prodigious Rocke into which the stone in a gracelesse heart may grow both in respect of desperatenesse in sinning and sense-lesnesse in suffering 4. In others from an enraged thirst after humane praise and immortall fame as they call it Which may be so prevalent in them and transport them with such a vaine-glorious ambition this way that it may carry them with much seeming insensibility affected patience and artificiall courage thorow the terrors and tortures of a very violent and Martyr like death Heare what Austin saith to this Point Thinke yee there never were any Catholikes or that now there may not bee some that would suffer onely for the prayse of men If there were not such kind of men the Apostle would not haue said Though I give my body to be burned and have not charity I am nothing Hee did know right well that there might bee some which would doe it out of vaine-glory and selfe-love not for divine love and the glory of God O the bottomlesse depth of Hellish Hypocrisie which lyes hid in our corrupt hearts O the blind and perverse thoughts of foolish men O the murderous malice of that old red Dragon which exerciseth such horrible crueltie both upon our bodies and soules 5. In some from false grounds of a supposed good estate to Godward from an unsound perswasion of their present spirituall well-beeing and future wellfare Such Pharisies foolish Virgines and formall Professours are to bee found in all Ages of the Church especially in the fairest and most flourishing daies thereof and when the Gospell hath the freest passage who thus many times in the greate it of all earthly extremities even upon their Beds of death represent to all about them from a groundlesse presumption of being reconciled unto God a great deale of confidence resolution and many glorious expectations Vpon a partiall survay and perusall of their time past not stain'd perhaps with any great enormities notoriousnesse or infamous sinne out of a vaine-glorious consciousnesse unto themselues of their many good parts generall graces good deedes and plausiblenesse with the most by reason of a former obstinated distaste and prejudice against sincerity and the power of godlinesse as tho it were unnecessary singularity and peevishnesse and it may bee confirmed also unhappily in their spirituall selfe-cousenage by the unskilfull and unseasonable palliations I meane mis-applications of some abused promises unto their un-humbled Soules from some dawbing Ministers a generation of vilest men excellent Ideots in the mystery of Christ and mercifull Cut-throates of many miserable deluded Soules to whom they promise life and peace when there is no peace towards but terrible things even at hand tumbling of garments in blood noise of damned Soules and tormenting in Hell for ever I say from such false and failing grounds as these they many times in that last extremity the Lord not revealing unto them the unsoundnesse of their spirituall estate and rottennesse of their hopes demeane themselues chearefully and comfortably as tho they were presently to set foote into Heaven and to lay hold upon eternall life but God hee knowes without any iust cause or true ground For immediately upon the departure of the Soule from the Body shall they heare that wofull doome from Christs owne mouth as Himselfe hath told us before-hand Depart from mee I never knew you Such men as these having been formerly acquainted with and exercisde in the outward formes and complements of Religion are woont at such times to entertaine their visitants and By-standers with many goodly speeches and Scripture-Phrases representing their contempt of the World Willingnesse to dye readinesse to forgive all the World Hope to bee saved desire to bee dissolved and bee in Heaven c. They may cry aloude with much formall confidence Lord Lord open to
calmnesse of a good conscience is grounded upon a Rocke upon which tho the raine descends the floods come the windes blow the tempests beate yet it stands like Mount Zion sure sober strong lasting impregnable Nay it is of that heavenly metall and divine temper that it ordinarily gathers vigour and puissance from the worlds rage and growes in strength and resolution together with the encrease of all iniust oppositions Persecutions and resistance serue as a provocation and seasoning to it's sweetnesse It is not enforced formall artificiall affected furious desperate misgrounded ambitious upon an humour in the face onely onely in hot blood out of a vaine-glorious pang c. Such may bee found in Aliens and resolute reprobates It were nothing worthy if strangers might meddle with it If Men or Divels or the whole World could take it from us If it were sustained onely by any created power or arme of flesh This Pearle that I praise and perswade unto is of an higher price and more transcendent power then any unregenerate Man can possibly compasse or comprehend It hath for it's seate a sanctified Soule for the Fountaine of it's refreshing the Spirit of all comfort for it's foundation the favour of God for it's Warrant the promises of Amen the faithfull and true Witnesse for it's object an immortall Crowne for it's continuance the prayers of all the Saints for it's companions inward peace invincible courage an holy security of minde for it's end and perfection fulnesse of ioy and pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore In a word this couragious comfort and true noblenesse of spirit which dwells in the heart of the true-hearted Christian doth differ as much from and as farre surpasses all the groundlesse confidences of what carnall men or religious counterfeits soever as the reall possession of gold an imaginary dreame of gold as the true naturall lively Grape which glads the heart a painted juycelesse Grape which onely feedes the eye as a strong and mighty Oake rooted deepely in the earth which no storme or tempest can displant or overthrow a Stake in a dead hedge or Staffe stucke lightly into the ground which every hand may snatch away or blast of winde supplant and overthrow Secondly the trouble of a wounded conscience is further amplified by it's Attribute intolerablenesse But a wounded Spirit who can beare Whence note Doctr. That the torture of a troubled Conscience is intolerable Reas. 1. In all other afflictions onely the Arme of flesh is our adversary wee contend but with Creatures at most wee have to doe but with Man or at worst with Divels but in this transcendent misery wee conflict immediately with God Himselfe Fraile Man with Almighty God sinfull Man with that most holy God Whose eyes are purer then to behold evill and who cannot looke upon iniquity Who then can stand before his indignation Who can abide in the fiercenesse of his anger When his fury is powred out like fire and the Rocks are throwne downe by Him When hee comes against a man as a Beare that is bereaved of her Whelpes torent the very caule of His heart and to devoure him like a Lion No more then the driest stubble can resist the fierest flame the ripe Corne the Mowers sharpest sythe or a garment the Moath no more nay infinitely lesse can any power of Man or Angell withstand the mighty Lord of Heaven and Earth when Hee is angry for Sinne. When thou saith David with rebukes correctest man for iniquity thou as a Moath makest his beauty to consume Alas when a poore polluted wretch upon some speciall illumination by the Word or extraordinary stroke from the rod doth once begin to behold Gods frowning face against Him in the pure Glasse of His most holy Law and to feele divine iustice by an invisible hand taking secret vengeance upon his conscience His heavy heart immediately melts away in his brest and becomes as water Hee faints and failes both in the strength of his body and stoutnesse of his minde His bones the pillars and Master-timber of his earthly Tabernacle are presently broken in pieces and turn'd into rottennesse His spirit the eye and excellency of his Soule which should illighten and make lightsome the whole Man is quite put out and utterly overwhelm'd with excesse of horrour and flashes of despaire O this is it which would not onely crush the courage of the stoutest sonne of Adam that ever breath'd upon earth but even breake the backe of the most glorious Angell that did ever shine in Heaven should Hee lift up but one rebellious thought against his Creatour This alone is able to make the tallest Cedar in Lâ—banon the strongest Oake in Basan I meane the highest looke and the proudest heart the most boisterous Nimrod or swaggering Belshazzar to bow and bend to stoope and tremble as the leaves of the forrest that are shâ—ken with the winde 2. In all other adversities a man is still a friend unto himselfe favours himselfe and reaches out his best considerations to bring in comfort to his heavy heart But in this Hee is a scourge to Himselfe at warre with Himselfe an enemy to Himselfe Hee doth greedily and industriously fetch in as much matter as hee can possibly both imaginary and true to enlarge the rent and aggravate his horrour Hee gazes willingly in that false glasse which Satan is woont in such Cases to set before Him wherein by his Hellish malice Hee makes an infinite addition both to the already un-numbred multitude and to the too true hainousnesse of his sinnes and would faine if Hee will be lead by his lying cruelty mis-represent to his affrighted imagination every Gnat as a Camell every Moate as a Mole-hill every Mole-hill as a Mountaine every lustfull thought as a Sodomiticall villany every idle word as a desperate blasphemy every angry looke as an actuall bloody murder every intemperate passion as an inexpiable provocation every distraction in holy duties as a damnable rebellion every transgression against light of conscience as a sinne against the holy Ghost c. Nay in this amazednesse of spirit and disposition to despaire Hee is apt even of his owne accord and with great eagernesse to arme every severall sinne as it comes into his minde with a particular bloody sting that it may strike deepe enough and sticke fast enough in His already grieved Soule Hee imployes and improoves the excellency and utmost of His learning understanding wit memory to argue with all subtilty with much Sophistry against the pardonablenes of his sins and possibilitie of salvation Hee wounds even his wounds with a conceit they are incurable and vexes his very vexations with refusing to bee comforted Not onely crosses afflictions temptations and all matter of discontentment but even the most desirable things also in this life and those which minister most outward comfort Wife Children Friends Gold Goods Great mens favours Preferments Honours Offices even Pleasures themselves every
Debitors while they have any doings as they say and are in trading in policy let them alone and say nothing but if once downe the winde in sicknesse poverty disgrace c. Then comes Sergeant after Sergeant Arrest upon Arrest Action upon Action All their sinnes are set in order before them and fall full foule upon the now distressed Soule as Ravens upon the fallen Sheepe to picke out the very eyes and heart of it and to keepe it downe in the Dungeon of despaire for ever 5. Nor others because they cousen themselves with a formall false conceite of a comfortable spirituall state as did the Phariâ—ie Luk. 15.11 with a groundlesse presumption that they are in Gods favour as did those Matth. 7.22 And the five foolish Virgins Matth. 25. When as God knowes they are meere strangers to the Mysterie of Christ and farre enough from any sound Humiliation Thus the blindnesse security searednesse slumber Selfe-deceite or some other such distemper of the Conscience conceales and keepes in the stings of those sins in sensuall men which without turning unto the Lord in truth while it is called To Day will hereafter torment with intolerable and restlesse terrour thorow all eternity 3. A third reason why thy unlamented and unpardoned sinnes tho every one of them bee armed with a severall bloody and fiery sting and of their owne nature so heavy with horrour that they are able to sinke Thee into the bottome of Hell doe not as yet stirre nor presse upon thy Soule with the insupportable weight of divine vengeance is this They are in their native soyle where they were borne bred and brought up in their owne Element as they say I meane in a carnall heart soaking in sensualitie and not resolved to bee reformed Wee say in Philosophy An Element is not heavy in it's owne Place One Bucket full of water upon the Earth would bee burdensome to the Backe of that Man who were Hee in the bottome of the Sea would feele no weight at all from all the water there tho it were three miles high over His head A sensuall heart settled upon it's lees can beare without sense or complaint a world of wickednesse which out of it's Element and humour would bee crusht into Powder and tremble with horrour upon the sad apprehension of the least sinne especially set out by Gods just indignation While Belshazzar was in His Element revelling and rioting amongst His Lords His Wives and His Concubines drinking wine swaggeringly and contemptuously in the golden and silver Vessels of the Temple Hee felt no touch in point of conscience or terrour at all But put out of His humour by the hand-writing upon the plaister of the Wall His countenance was presently changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of His loynes were loosed and His knees smote one against another 4. Fourthly The never-dying worme that naturally breeds and growes bigge in every unregenerate conscience which beates backe still the searching power of the Word and secret warnings of the Spirit is like a Wolfe in the foot Feede it continually with fresh supply of raw flesh and it will let the Body alone but with-draw that and it devoures upward While the Sonnes and daughters of pleasure and all those who have their portion and Paradise in this life stoppe the mouth of this hellish worme with variety of carnall delights they doe well enough and finde pretty ease and exemption for a time from the rage and bitings thereof But they may assure themselves in evill times when the dayes are come upon them wherein there is no pleasure when the Play is done when all worldly comforts and comforters like run-away servants and drunken Serving-men are to seeke when they have most use and need of them I say that then the time and turne is come that the worme of conscience destitute now â—or ever of any further satisfaction from sensuall sweetnes will ragingly turne upon the Soule devoure like a Lion knaw like a Vulture vex eternally 5. Fifthly If the weight of the whole world were now laid upon any of these Bodies here lately buried it would not stirre or groane And why Because it is naturally dead Proportionably Tho the burthen of sinne farre heavier then a mountaine of Lead then this mighty and massie earth under our feete lyes upon every impenitent Soule ready every houre to presse and plunge it into the lowest Pit yet wretched and bewitched Thing it neither feeles any smart nor feares any hurt it is neither sensible of the present weight nor troubled for the future wrath And what is the reason It is spiritually dead It is starke dead in trespasses and sinnes The strong man is gone away with all And there is no stirring nor sense of this cursed Burden untill Either a stronger then Hee lay hands upon this Hellish Tyrant disarme Him and throw downe His Holds and a mightier voyce of the Sonne of God then that which made Lazarus come out of the Grave put life into it Or else that the dreadfull thunder of Gods fierce and finall wrath the Day of visitation beeing expired awake it to everlasting woe 6. Tho in the meane time thou bee extreamely miserable and if thou dyest in thine impenitent state this day thou must most certainely lodge this night in the Lake of fire and brimstone amongst the damned yet thy sinnes for the present doe not represent to the eye of thy conscience those formes of foulenesse and terrour of which they are naturally full and which without timely repentance thou wilt hereafter find and feele in them to thine endlesse griefe because thou lookest upon them in the false Glasse of vaine-glory ignorance selfe-love selfe-conceitednesse painted over by the Divels dawbing with whorish intising colours of pleasure profit preferment worldly applause and other such goodly and golden out-sides Whereas a true and effectuall beholding them in the cleare Christall of Gods pure Law hunted continually at the heeles with divine vengeance all the curses in this Booke and plagues innumerable internall externall eternall and in the bitter Passion of Iesus Christ without whose hearts-blood not the least sinne that ever was committed could ever have been remitted were able to â—right and fire a very Blackamore out of His blacke skinne and a Leopard from His spots And thou something easest thine heart also against the terrour of the Lord for thy sinnes by looking upon Gods mercy with false spectacles and so enlarging it beyond the limits of His Truth But heare what that excellent discoverer of the Depths of our Selfe-cousoning hearts tells thee in such a case As a man passing over a bridge saith Hee which his false spectacles make to seeme broader then in deed it is being thereby deceived goes besides the bridge and so is drowned so is it with those whose deceitfull hearts make the bridge of Gods mercy larger then it is they are in danger of falling beside it into
the clouds are the dust of His feete c. The Lord of hostes is his name whose power and punishments are so infinitely vnresistable that Hee is able with one word to turne all the creatures in the world into Hell nay even with the breath of His mouth to turne Heaven and Hell and Earth and all things into nothing How darest thou then so base and vile a wretch prouoke so great a God 8. Let the consideration and compassion upon the immortality and dearenesse of that pretious Soule that lies in thy bosome curbe thy corruptions at the very first sight of sinne and make thee step backe as though thou wert ready to treade upon a Serpent Not all the bloudy men upon earth or desperate Devils in Hell can possibly kill and extingvish the Soule of any man it must needs live as long as God Himself and run parallell with the longest line of eternity Onely sinne wounds mortally that immortal spirit brings it into that cursed case that it had infinitely better never have bin then be for ever For by this meanes going on impenitently to that last Tribunall it becomes immortally mortall and mortally immortall as one of the Ancients speakes It lives to death and dies to life never in state of life or death yet ever in the paines of death the perpetuity of life It 's death is ever-living it's end is ever in beginning Death without death End without end Ever in the pangs of death never dead not able to dye nor endure the paine Paine exceeding not only all patience but all resistance No strength to sustaine nor ability to beare that which heareafter whilst God is God for ever must bee borne What a prodigious Bedlam cruelty is it then for a maÌ„ by listning to the Syren-songs of this false world the lewd motions of His own treacherous heart or the Divels desperate counsel to embrew His hands in the bloud of His own everlasting soule to make it die eternally For a little paltry pleasure of some base rotten lust sleeting vanity which passeth away in the act as the tast of pleasant drink dieth in the draught to bring upon it in the other world torments whithout end and beyond all compasse of conceit And his madnesse is the more because besides it's immortality His Soule is incoÌ„parably more worth then the whole world The very sensitive Soule of a little slie saith Austin truly is more excellent then the Sun How ought wee then to prize and preserve from sinne our vnderstanding reasonable Soules which make us in that respect like unto the Angels of God 9. Ninthly What an horrible thing is sinne whose waight an Omnipotent strength which doth sustaine the whole Frame of the world is not able to beare Almighty God complaines Isa. 1.14 even of the Sacrifices and other services of his owne people when they were performed with polluted hearts and professes that He was weary to beare them And how vile is it that stirs up in the dearest and most compassionate bowells of the All-mercifull God such implacable anger that threw downe so many glorious Angelicall spirits who might have done Him so high honour for ever in the highest Heauens into the bottome of Hell there most iustly to continue Devils and in extremest torment everlastingly Cast all mankinde out of His fauour and from all felicity for Adams sin caused Him who delighteth in mercy to create all the afflicting miseries in Hell eternal flames streames of brimstone chaines of darknesse gnashing of teeth a Lake of fire the bottomlesse Pit and all those horrible torments there And that which doth argue and yet further amplifie the implacablenes and depth of divine indignation the infinitenesse of sinnes prouocation and desert Tophet is said to bee ordeined of old Everlasting fire to be prepared for the Devill and His Angells As if the All-powerfull wisedome did deliberate and as it were sit downe and devise all stâ—â—ging terrible ingredients a temper of greatest torture to make that dreadfull fiâ—e hellish paines most fierce and raging and a fit instrument for the iustice of so great and mighty a God to torment eternally all impenitent reprobate Rebels God is the Father of Spirits our Soules are the immediate Creation of His Almighty Hand and yet to every one that goeth on impenitently in his trespasses Hee hath appointed as it were a threefold Hell There are three things considerable in sinne 1. Aversion from an infinite soveraigne unchangeable good 2. Conversion to a finite mutable momentany good 3. Continuance in the same To these three severall things in sinne there are answering three singular stings of extremest punishment To aversion from the chiefest Good which is objectively infinite there answereth Paine of losse as they call it Privation of Gods glorious presence and separation from those endlesse joyes above which is an infinite losse To the inordinate conversion to transitory things there answereth Paine of sense which is intensively finite as is the pleasure of sinne And yet so extreme that none can conceive the bitternesse thereof but the Soule that suffers it nor that neither except it could comprehend the Almighty wisedome of Him that did create it To the eternity of sinne remaining for ever in staine and guilt answereth the eternity of punishment For wee must know that every impenitent sinner would sinne ever if he might live ever and casteth himselfe by sinning into an impossibility of ever ceasing to sinne of Himselfe as a Man that casteth himselfe into a deepe Pit can never of Himselâ—e rise out of it againe And therefore naturally eternity of punishment is due to sinne How prodigious a thing then is sinne and how infinitely to bee abhorred and avoided that by a malignant meritorious poyson and provocation doth violently wrest out of the hands of the Father of mercies and God of all comfort the full vials of that unquenchable wrath which brings caselesse endlesse and remedilesse torments upon His owne creatures and those originally most excellent 10. Tenthly The height and inestimablenesse of the price that was paid for the expiation of it doth clearely manifest nay infinitely aggravate the execrable misery of sinne and extreame madnesse of all that meddle with it I meane the hearts-blood of Iesus Christ blessed for ever which was of such pretiousnesse and power that beeing let out by a Speare it amazed the whole Frame of Nature darkened the Sunne miraculously for at that time it stood in direct opposition to the Moone shooke the Earth which shrunke and trembled under it opened the Graves clave the Stones rent the Vaile of the Temple from the bottome to the top c. Now it was this alone and nothing but this could possibly cleanse the filth of sinne Had all the dust of the earth been turned into silver and the stones into pearles Should the maine and boundlesse Ocean have streamed nothing but purest gold would the
was annointed to preach the Gospell to the poore to heale the broken hearted c. Ob. Many have believed who never grieved for their misery as Lidia c. Answ. Who can tell that these greeved not It followeth not that they had no greife because none is recorded All particular actions and circumstances of Actions are not recorded It is enough that the greefe of some as of the Iewes of the Iaylour of the woman that washed Christs feete with Her teares and of others is recorded Lidia might bee prepared before she heard Paul For shâ—e accompanied them which went out to pray and shee worshipped God Or else Her heart might be then touched when she heard Paul preach The like may bee said of those which heard Peter when Her preached to Cornelius And of others Certaine it is that a man must both see and feele Hiâ— wretchednesse and bee wounded in Soule for it before Faith can be wrought in Him Yet I deny not but there may be great difference in the manner and measure of greeving c. The heart is prepared for faith and not by faith Iustifiâ—ation beeing the worke of God is perfect in it selfe but our hearts are not fit to apply it untill God have humbled us brought us to despaire in our selves The whole preparation beeing legall wrought by the Spirits of bondage to bring us to the Spirit of Adoption leaves us in despaire of all helpe either of our selves or the whole world that so beeing in this wofull plight wee might now submit our selves to God who infusing a lively faith into our hearts gives us His Son and our iustification with Him None ever had conscience truly pacifyed that first felt not conscience wounded The preparation to repentance Hee meanes Evangelicall are those legall sits of feare and terrour which are both in nature and time too before Faith As there can bee no birth without the paines of the travell going before so neither no true repentance without some terrours of the Law and streights of Conscience The reason is plaine None can have repentance but such as Christ cals to Repentance Now Hee cals only sinners to Repentance Mat. 9.13 even sinners heavy laden with the sense of Gods wrath against sinne Mat. 11.28 Hee comes onely to save the lost sheepe that is such sheepe as feele themselves lost in themselves and know not how to finde the way to the fold It is said Rom. 8.15 Yee have not received the spirit of bondage againe to feare which shewes that once they did receive it namely in the very first preparation vnto conversion that then the spirit of God in the Law did so beare witnes unto theÌ„ of their bondage and miserable slavery that it made them to tremble Now there vnder the person of the Romans the Apostle speakes to all Beleevers and so shewes that it is every Christians common case the law hath His use to worke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 poenitentiam The Gospell His force to worke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resipiscentiam and both are needfull for Christians even at this Present as formerly they have ever bin Gods mercy may not bee such whereby His Truth in any sort should bee impeached As it should if it be prostituted indifferently and promiscuously to all as well the insolent and impenitent as the poore humble and broken hearted sinner For unto these latter onely is the promise of mercy made And if to others the gate of mercy should bee set open Gods mercies as Solomon saies of the wicked's that they are cruell mercies should be false and uniust mercies But God never yet learned so to bee mercifull as to make Himselfe false and unfaithfull The first thing that drawes unto Christ is to consider our miserable estate without Him Therefore wee see that the Law drives men to Christ And the Law doth it by shewing a Man His sin and the curse due unto the same Wee must know that nothing performed of us can give satisfaction in this matter of humiliation Yet it is such a thing without which wee cannot come to Christ. It is as much as if a man should say the Physitian is ready to heale Thee but then it is required that Thou must have a sense of the disease c No Man will come to Christ except He bee hungry Onely those that are troubled receive the Gospell No Man will take Christ for his Husband till Hee come to know feele the Waight of Satans yoke Till that time Hee will never come to take upon Him the yoke of Christ. To all you I speake that are humbled Others that minde not this Doctrine regard not the things of this nature But you that mourne in Zion that are broken-hearted you that know the bitternesse of sin to you is the salvation sent Vnder the causes I comprehend all that worke of God whereby Hee worketh Faith in any which standeth especially in these three things 1. That God by His word and Spirit first illightneth the understanding truly to conceive the Doctrine of Mans misery and of His full recovery by Christ. 2. Secondly by the same meanes Hee worketh in His heart both such sound sorrow for His misery and fervent desire after Christ the remedy that Hee can never bee at quiet till Hee enioy Christ 3. Thirdly God so manifesteth His love in freely offering Christ with all His benefits to Him a poore sinner that thereby hee drawes Him so to giue credit to God therein that Hee gladly accepts Christ offered vnto Him These three works of God whosoever findeth to have bin wrought in Himselfe Hee may thereby know certainly Hee hath Faith But without these what change of life soever may bee conceived there can bee no certainty of Faith The Law first breakes us and kills us with the sight and guilt of sin before Christ cures us and binds us up The holy Ghost worketh and maketh Faith effectuall by these three Acts 1. First it puts an efficacy into the Law and makes that powerfull to worke on the heart to make a man poore in spirit so that hee may bee fit to receive the Gospell The Spirit of bondage must make the Law effectuall as the Spirit of adoption doth the Gospell c. 2. The second worke is to reveale Christ when the heart is prepared by the spirit in the first worke then in the next place Hee shewes the unsearchable riches of Christ what is the hope of His calling and the glorious inheritance prepared for the Saints what is the exceeding greatnesse of His power in them that beleeve I say wee neede the Spirit to shew these things c. 3. The third Act of the Spirit is The testimony which hee gives to our spirit in telling us that these things are ours When the heart is prepared by the Law and when these things are so shewed unto us that wee prize them and long after them yet
there must bee a third thing To take them to our selves to beleeve they are ours and there needes a worke of the Spirit for this For tho the promises bee never so cleare yet having nothing but the promises you shall never bee able to apply them to your selves But when the holy Ghost shall say Christ is thine All these things belong to Thee and God is thy Father when that shall witnesse to our spirit by a worke of His owne Then shall wee beleeve c This is the order observed in our iustification 1. First There is a sight of our misery to which wee are brought by the Law 2. Secondly There is by the Gospell an holding forth of Christ as our redemption from sin and death 3. Thirdly there is a working of Faith in the heart to rest on Christ as the ransome from sinne and death Now when a man is come hither Hee is truly and really iust Wee teach that in trve conversion a man must bee wounded in his conscience by the sense of his sinnes His contrition must bee compungent and vehement bruising breaking renting the heart and feeling shee throwes as a woman labouring of Childe before the new-Creature bee brought forth or Christ truly formed in Him It is not done without bitternesse of the Soule without care indignation revenge 2. Cor. 7.11 But as some Infants are borne with lesse paine to the mother and some with more so may the new-man be regenerated in some with more in some with lesse anxiety of travell But surely grace is not infused into the heart of any sinner except there bee at least so great affliction of Spirit for sinne foregoing that He cannot but â—eele it c. This bruising is required before conversion 1. That so the Spirit may make way for it selfe into the heart by levelling all proud high thoughts c 2. To make vs set an high price upon Christs death This is the cause of relapses and Apostasies because men never smarted for sin at the first They were not long enough under the lash of the Law Hence this inferiour worke of the Spirit in bringing downe high thoughts is necessary before conversion By this time it doth most clearly and plentifully appeare what a foule and fearefull fault it is for men either in the managing of their Publike ministery or more private Passages of conference visitations of the sicke consultations about a good estate to Godward and other occasions of like nature to apply Iesus Christ and the promises to promise life and safety in the evill Day to Soules as yet not soundly illightned and afflicted with sight of sinne and sense of Gods wrath to consciences never truly wounded and awaked I insisted the longer upon this Point because I know it full well to bee a most universall and prevailing Policy of the Devill whereby hee keepes many thousands in His cursed slavery and from salvation To confirme as many Pastours as Hee can possibly willing enough to drive their Flocks before them to damnation in an ignorant or affected Preiudice and forbearance of that saving method of bringing Soules out of Hell mentioned before and made good with much variety of evidence And to nourish also in the hearts of naturall men a strong and sturdy disconceite opposition raging against downe-right dealing and those men of God able as they say but falsely and furiously against their owne Soules by their terrible teaching to drive their hearers to distraction Selfe-destruction or despaire who take the only right course to convert them and to bring them to Iesus Christ as Hee Himselfe invites them to wit labouring and heauy laden with their sinnes Matth. 11.28 Dawbers then who serue Satans craft in this kinde and all those who dispence their ministery without all spirituall discretion and good conscience of whom there are too many as great strangers to the right way of working grace in others as to the worke of grace in themselves I say they are a generation of dangerous men Old excellent as they say in an accursed Art of conducting poore blinded Soules merrily towards everlasting miserie and setting them downe in the very midst of Hell before they bee sensible of any danger or discovery of their damnable state Great men they are with the men of this world with al those wise fooles and sensuall great ones who are not willing to bee tormented before their time or rather who desire impossibly to live the life of pleasures in the meane time and yet at last to die the death of the righteous They have still ready at hand hand over head mercy and pardon Heaven and salvation for all commers and all they come neere without so much as a desire to put any difference or divide the pretious from the vile Which is a prodigâ—â—usly-arrogant folly pernicious in the highest degree both to their own soules and those they delude Heâ—â—e 〈◊〉 they are branded in the Booke of God calling them 〈◊〉 Sâ—wers under mens elboes Ezek. 1â— 1â— That 〈◊〉 laid soft and lockt fast in the Cradle of security thâ—â— may sinke suddenly into the Pit of destruction before they be aware Criers of peace peace when no peace is towards Ier. 6.14 but horrible stirs tumbling of garments in bloud burning and devouring of fire A â—â—n-pleasers â—alat 1.10 who chuse rather to tickle the itching eares of their carnall hearers with some fâ—othy Frier-like conceits out of Dung-hill 〈◊〉 And so smooth Great Ones in their humours by their cowardly flatteries especially if they any waies depend upon them for countenance rising and preferment rather then conscionably to discharge that trust 〈◊〉 upon them by their great Lord and Master in Heaven upon answerablenes for the bloud of those Soules which shal perish by their temporizing silence and flattering vnfaithfulnesse Healers of the hurt of their Hearers with 〈◊〉 words Ier. 6.14 while their Soules are 〈◊〉 by the wounds of sinne unto eternall death Preachers of smooth things Isa. 30.10 which kinde of Men the greatest part and all worldlings wonderfully affect and applaud tho to their owne everlasting vndoing They swell under such Teachers with a Pharisaicall conceite that they are as safe for salvation as the precisest of them all but alas their hope is but like a hollow wall which beeing put to any stresse when the tempest of Gods searching wrath begins to shake it in the time of a finall triall of it's truth and soundnesse it shatters into pieces and comes to naught Heare the Prophet Now go write it before them in a table and note it in a booke that it may bee for the time to come for ever and ever That this is a rebellious people lying children children that wil not heare the Law of the Lord which say to the Seers see not and to the Prophets prophesie not unto us right things speake unto us smooth things prophesie deceits Get you out of the way turne aside out
the spirit of a man saith Salomon will sustaine all His other infirmities but a wounded spiâ—rit who can beare Yet His soule though Hee was the Prince of glory and Lord of Heaven and earth upon the Crosse was even as a scorched Heath without so much as any drop of comfort either from heaven or earth The grievous weight of all the sinnes of all his Children the least of which had bin enough to have pressed them downe into the bottome of Hell lay now heavy upon him The powers of darkenesse were let loose to afflict Him Hee wrastled even with the fierce wrath of His Father and all the forces of the infernall kingdome with such anguish of heart that in the Garden it wrung out of his pretious Body a Sweat as it were great drops of blood falling downe to the ground with such agony of spirit that upon the Crosse Hee cryed My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee And the measure of all these sufferings and sorrowes were so past all measure that all the creatures save sinfull Men onely both in heaven and earth seemed to bee amazed and moved with them The Sun in the heavens drew in his beames unwilling as it were to see the spotlesse blood of the Son of God spilt as water upon the ground The Earth it selfe shrunk and trembled under it The very Rocks rent asunder as if they had sense and feeling of His intolerable and save by Himselfe vnconquerable paines The whole frame of Nature seemed astonished at the mournefull Complaint of the Lord of the Whole World These and farre more then these or then can bee exprest our blessed Saviour being Son of the most high God endured for no other end but to ransome us from the bondage of Sathan and of Hell in a thirsting desire of saving all Penitent sinners And to offer himselfe freely a most glorious and everlasting Husband to all those who with broken and beleeving hearts cast themselves into His bosome Such admirable and unutterable perfections beauties indowments sufferings and inflamed affections as these in the heavenly Suter unto our sinnefull Soules doth mightily aggravate the hainous and horrible sinne of refusing Him Thus and in this manner would I have the Men of God to magnifie inlarge and represent to the hearts of their Hearers all the excellencies of Iesus Christ with the worth merit and efficacy of His blood To set out to the utmost they can possibly the glory of the Gospell with all the riches of mercy goodnesse and free grace revealed and offered therein c. So that they tell them withall That Iesus Christ takes none but such as are willing to take upon them His yoke That hee gives himselâ—e to none but such as are ready to sell all in the sense I have said that they may enjoy his blessed selfe That the glorious grace of the Gospell shines savingly to none but such as deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and live soberly righteously and godlily in this present World That those whose Soules are cleansed by the blood of Iesus Christ from all sinne are onely such as walke in the light as God is in the light who make conscience of detesting and declining all sins and workes of darkenesse discovered to them by the light of Gods holy Booke and sincerely set their hearts and hands with love and carefull endeavour to every duty injoyned therein In a word That as that Fountaine opened to the house of David for sinne and for uncleanesse I meane the blood of that immaculate Lambe Iesus Christ the holy and the righteous doth turne all the sinnes even the very scarlet and crimson of a truly broken heart and every true Mourner in Zion into snow and wooll so it will never wash away the least sinfull staine from the proud heart of any unhumbled Pharisee That hereby no strangers unto the love and life of godlinesse may bee deceived by appropriating unto themselves any of these glorious things which are onely proper to the sealed Fountaine but onely conceive of them as excellent motives to cause them to come in I would have the Preaching of Christ fill the soule of every true harted Nathanael every time with unspeakeable and glorious joy with all those Euangelical pleasures which neither eye hath seene nor eare heard neither have entred into the heart of man But I would have it onely make every unregenerate Man sensible of what infinite blessednesse Hee bereaves Himselfe by continuing a Rebell that thereupon Hee may bee moved to make hast out of His present Hell into this new heaven so fairely opened and freely offered unto Him Besides pressing the law promising mercy proposing Christ c. to stirre men in their naturall states to make them entertaine thoughts of comming in to humble them in the sight of the Lord under the heavy burden of all their sinnes assure them also of pardon in case they will leave Sathans service and so prepare them for Christ Let Gods Ministers lay hold upon all warrantable wayes which they shall find and feele out of their Ministeriall experience and holy wisedome to be availeable and prevaile for that purpose So that the worke bee done in truth And that they doe not like the Divels dawbers deceive them to the eternall ruine and damnation of their Soules by telling them that they have Christ already and are safe enough for salvation whereas indeed as yet there is no such matter Such points as these are woont to make attentive naturall men to startle in their seates to looke about them something more then ordinarily To wit to divide the precious from the vile To distinguish that One true happy state of grace from all states of unregeneratnesse and all kinds of Hypocrisie to tell them out of the Booke of God How farre a Man may goe in generall graces and doing many things c. and yet come short of Heaven To deliver Markes of sincere Professours of a saving Faith of true repentance of a sound conversion c. But I would have this done with a great deale of spirituall wisedome and heavenly understanding with much godly discretion and caution least thereby either the formall Professour may bee incouraged or the weakest Christian disheartned To discourse of the fewnesse and scarcity of those which shall bee saved and that even under the light and within the sound of the Gospell See Math. 20.16 Many are called but few chosen Consider the Parable of the Sower Mat. 13. There is but one good soile upon which the seed of the word falls prosperously but three reprobate grounds as it were upon which it is lost as water upon the ground See my first Doctr. upon Gen. 6.8 c. Thus let the Men of God acquaint themselves with such Points as they conceive the likeliest and most pregnant to pierce their Hearers hearts and come closest to their Consciences that so by the helpe of God they may pull them out of Hell And there are some
empoysoner of mens soules which beeing the glorious issue of thine owne infinite understanding was purposely created as a most pretious Panacea an universall medicinall store-house for the cure of all spirituall maladies an inexhausted treasury of all sound comfort true joy peace and refreshing Now the Lord rebuke thee Satan and returne as dung upon thine owne face this villanous base and wicked slaunder which by thy gracelesse instruments thou labourest to cast upon the glorious face of Christianity the incomparable sweetnesse of the wayes of grace and that One necessary thing I have knowne when the onely wise God hath suffered for ends seene and seeming good to his heavenly wisedome the hideous and raging humour of melancholie to darken the native clearenes of the animall spirits in the braine requisite to a due discretion of things apprehended and to blunder and disorder the objects and operations of the phantasie in his dearest child even to distraction and breaking out into that inordinate passion against reason I say then the concurrent cry and clamour of the enemies to the power of Godlines to bee This it is now to bee so bookish to follow preachers so much to be more holy then their neighbours never to have done in serving of God Her so much reading the scriptures and such poring upon precise bookes so they call those which most pierce the conscience and guide the cleerliest in the holy path hath made her starke mad The Puritan is now besides her selfe c. Now I say againe the Lord rebuke thee Satan who sits with such extreme malice and soule-killing folly in the hearts heads of such miserable men whom thou so sottishly hood-winkes and hardens to the height for a most desperate downefal and horrible confusion at last Were now the glorified soule of that blessed Saint consulted with and asked Diddest thou ever receive hurt by reading Gods blessed book by searching sweetly into the great mystery of Christ crucified by meditation upon heavenly things Did the sacred sense of those divine Oracles dissettle thy noble faculties or ever make sad thy heart c. Oh! with what infinite indignation would it sly in the face of such cursed Cavillers and wranglers against the truth Is it possible for the sole and soveraigne Antidote sent from heaven by God himselfe against the sting and venome of all heart-griefe and horror the sacred Sun of saving truth which is onely able to ennoble and glorifie our understandings with wisedome from the brest of the everlasting counsell of Iesus Christ should become the cause of discomfort and dissettlement of the soule No no. There is such a quickening healing and mighty efficacy and vigour shed into it from the Father of lights and shining in it from the face of Christ that by the helpe of the blessed spirit it can turne darkenes into light death into life hell into heaven the deepest horrour into height of joy Tell mee of any misery upon the body soule outward state or good name any calamity felt or feared in this life or the life to come and if thou wilt bee converted and counselled I can send thee to some both Promise and Precedent in this book of God which may upon good ground fill thine heart as full with sound comfort as the Sun is of Light and the Sea of Waters Nay give mee a wounded spirit with all it 's inexplicable terrors and bitternesse which is the greatest misery extremest affliction of which an understanding Soule is capable in this life And let first all the physitians in the world even the Rose-knights as they call themselves lay all their heads skill and experience together for the cure Let all the highest Monarchs upon earth shine upon it with their Imperiall favours for comfort Let the depth of all humane wisedome and the height of the most excellent oratory bee improoued to perswade it peace Let all the creatures in heaven and earth contribute their severall abilities and utmost to still it 's rage And when all these have done and have done just nothing I will fetch a cordiall out of Gods owne booke which shall mollifie the anguish expell the venome and bind it up with everlasting peace which passeth all understanding that the broken bones may rejoyce and the poore soule groaning most grievously under the guilty horrour of many foule abominations and ready to sink into the gulph of despaire bee sweetly bathed and refreshed in the fountaine opened by the hand of mercy for sinne and for uncleannesse Christs dearest bloud the glorious wel-spring of all lightsomnesse and joy Heare how precisely for this purpose and how punctually against such pestilent cauillers some of the ancient Fathers doe Puritanize There is no malady saith Chrysostome either of body or soule but may receive a medicine out of Gods booke One comes oppressed with sadnesse and anxiety of businesses overwhelmed with griefe But presently hearing the Prophet saying Why art thou cast downe O my soule and why art thou so disquieted within mee Hope thou in God for I will yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God Hee receives abundance of comfort and abandons all heavines of heart Another is pinched with extreme poverty takes it heavily and grieves seeing others flowing in riches swelling with pride attended with great pompe and state But hee also heares the same Prophet saying Cast thy burden upon the Lord and hee shall sustaine thee And againe Be not afraide when one is made rich when the glory of his house is increased For when hee dieth hee shall carry nothing away His glory shall not descend after him There is another which assaulted with insidiations and calumnies is much troubled thinkes his life uncomfortable finding no helpe in man Hee is also taught by the same prophet that in such perplexities wee must not resort to the arme of flesh Heare what hee saies They slandered and I prayed The mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitfull are opened against mee They have spoken against mee with a lying tongue They compassed mee about also with words of hatred and fought against mee without a cause For my love they are my adversaries But I give my selfe to prayer Another is slighted and contemned by some base contemptible underlings and forsaken of his friends And that is it which most troubles his mind goes nearest to his heart But hee also if hee will come hither doth heare that blessed man saying My Lovers and my freinds stand aloofe from my sore and my kinsmen stand afarre off They also that seeke after my life lay snares for mee and they that seeke my hurt speake mischeivous things and imagine deceipts all the day long But I as a deafe man heard not and I was as a dumbe man that openeth not his mouth Thus I was as a man that heareth not and in whose mouth are no reproofes for in thee O Lord do I hope thou
undiscreet heaping a great deale of comfort there where as yet a good ground-worke of true humiliation is not soundly laid Many and lamentable are the spirituall miseries in those Places where such Dawbers with untempered morter domineere who never passed thorow the Pangs of the New-birth themselves were never feelingly acquainted with the wonderfull dealings of God in that great Miracle of a Mans conversion nor trained up experimentally in the Schoole of temptations painefull exercises of mortification and counter-minings against the Depths Wiles Devises and stratagems of the Divell The blessed Prophet paints them out to the life and denounces a dreadfull woe against such flattering and foolish Prophets Ezech. 13. A Ship-Master skilfull onely in Astronomy and other speculative Passages of the Art of Navigation is no body in conducting Men safely over some dangerous Sea to Him that besides sufficiencies of Art is furnisht also with experimentall skill in those Parts by passing formerly that way Himselfe and having discovered those dangers of ruine and hidden Rockes which the other Man might easily runne upon Give me a Man in whom variety and profoundnesse of best learning doth concurre in the highest degree of excellency yet if his owne heart bee not soundly wrought upon and seasoned with saving grace Himselfe experimentally seene into the Mystery of Christ and Secrets of sanctification as Hee shall bee hardly able to wound other mens consciences and pierce them to the quicke so Hee will bee found very unfit to manage aright the spirituall miseries of a troubled Soule and to transport it savingly thorow the tempestuous terrours and temptations incident to the New-creation into the Port of true peace and Paradise of the blessed Brother-hood A right dreadfull and tender Point it is to deale with distressed consciences so many depths of Satan and deceits of Mans heart mingle themselves with businesse of so great consequence Even a well-meaning Man without much heedfulnesse and good experience both in the Point and the Party may erre dangerously and bee much deceived herein I have heard from a Man of conscience and credit besides many and many in the same kind of a fearefull imposture to this purpose A man who for the world was well enough visited with some trouble of minde for his sinnes sent for a Minister to minister comfort Hee it seemes not sounding Him to the bottome or searching to the quicke heaped upon Him unseasonably and too soone mercies and hopes of spirituall safety Amongst other things Hee asked Him whether formerly Hee had ever felt testimonies and refreshings of Gods favour and love Yea answered the Party and here take notice of a notorious depth of the Divell Once riding alone upon the way in such a Place I grew upon the sudden very lightsome and light-hearted c. This was but a flash of Satans Angelicall glory cunningly to lighten and leade him the way to further confusion Why then replied the Minister you may build upon it God is constant in His favours and whom Hee loves once Hee loves for ever Hereupon the Patient was presently healed of his wounded heart and after fell unto his former courses and grew fully as prophane as Hee was before Amongst the many important Passages of our Ministeriall imployments I feare mee this waighty affaire of visiting the sicke is passed-over also more is the pitty with much ignorance slightnesse and neglect It is incredible to consider how fearefully many offend and what a deale of hurt they doe by observing one plodding generall forme and that a poore one too towards all Patients promiscuously without any judicious discretion in distingvishing the variety of spirituall states the different degrees of unregeneratenesse former courses of life c. Commonly their carriage in such Cases is the same to the notorious sinner the meere civill Man grosse Hypocrite carnall Gospeller formall Professor Back-slider the weake and strong the tempted and untempted Christian. If they but heare from the sicke Man a generall acknowledgement of his sinnes formall cries for mercy and pardon earnest desires to die the death of the righteous c. which may bee easily and ordinarily found in a Pharisie or foolish Virgine as you have heard before they will presently needs threape Him downe that He is as sure a saved Man as if Hee were in Heaven already Herein resembling saith Marbury a foolish Shepheard who wanting skill to helpe his poore sheepe out of the ditch is driven to play the miserable comforter and to take some other indirect course as many use to doe in such case to cut the sheepes throate in time to make him Mans meate left it should bee said Hee died in a ditch Many and many a time doe such fellowes as these empty and discharge their common-Place Bookes of all the Places of mercy and comforte collected curiously and industriously for that purpose upon those Men who were never acquainted with the waies of God in their life-time nor with the truth of humiliation or truly with the great worke of Repentance upon their Beds of death Those formall Church-men who stood about Marshall Biron that great Peere and Pillar of France at his death did in this respect very ill offices of Ghostly Fathers unto Him in his greatest neede and last extremitie For when Hee behaved himselfe more like a furious Divel already amongst the damned spirits in blasphemies impatiencies and most raging passions then a meeke and humble Saint of God ready to passe into everlasting Mansions of peace they notwithstanding out of their Popish divinity gave him this absolution assuring Him that His soule was ready to see God and to bee Partaker of his glory in Heaven When it had been farre fitter to have driven him to the sight of his sinnes sense of that dreadfull houre terrour of that strict Tribunall to which hee was ready to passe and fearefulnesse of that infernall fiery Lake from which no greatnesse can priviledge gracelesse Men. I feare me there are many Trencher-Chaplaines of the true Religion also who are ready to doe proportionable service to ungodly great Ones upon whom they depend by promising them life But many and dreadfull are the mistakings and miseries which fall upon the Soules of Men both Patients and By-standers by these flattering formall visitations and Funerall Panegyricks which ordinarily follow after Happy then and hopefull is that Man who in the troubles of His Soule meetes with that One of a thousand Iob 33.23 with those Sonnes both of Consolation and thunder who are as able ready and willing rightly to binde up a bruised spirit with the Baulme of mercy and promises of life as to breake in pieces a stubborne heart with the terrours of the Law Who as they labour in the first Place to fright and fire men out of their sinfull courses into penitent dejections of Conscience a needfull preparative to a saving conversion so they have learned both speculatively and experimentally to conduct them thorow the Pangs of the
affected and deale with thee in hearing helping and shewing mercy when all thy strength of praier is gone but onely groanes and sighes Nay with incomparably more affectionatenesse For looke how farre God is higher then Man in Majestie and greatnesse which is by an infinite distance and disproportion so far doth he passe him in tender-heartednesse and love See Isai. 55. 8.9 Or be it so That thou art able to speak unto God and in some measure to utter thy mind yet in thy conceit it is so weakly coldly and confusedly that thou thinkes As well never a whit as never the better c. Take notice here that Gods Child is able First sometimes to poure out his soule unto his God with life and power Secondly sometimes to say something but with much coldnesse deadnesse of heart and distractednesse as he complaines without his woonted feeling and freedome of spirit Thirdly At other times he can say just nothing but groane and sigh and only desire hee could pray For this last looke upon the last passage For the second to wit when the Christian is troubled that hee can say something and speake words unto God yet it is without that order efficacy fit phrase and comming-off so comfortably as he thinks is to bee found in other Professours c. I say in this Case consider that as a Father is more delighted with the stammering stuttering as it were with the in-articulate and imperfect talke of his owne little Childe when it first begins to speake then with the exactest eloquence of the most famous Oratour upon earth so assuredly our heavenly Father is infinitely better pleased with the broken interrupted passages and periods of prayer in an upright heart heartily grieved that hee can doe no better nor offer up a more lively hearty and orderly sacrifice then with the excellently-composed fine-phrased and most methodicall petitions of the learned'st Pharisee Nay his soule extremely loathes the one and graciously accepts the other in Iesus Christ. As concerning the complaint of coldnesse bee assured that tho thy prayers proceede out of thy mouth faint and feeble cold and uncomfortable yet springing from a syncere heart purified by Faith truly humbled under Gods mighty hand for sinne seconded with groanes and griefe with an holy anger and selfe-indignation that they be not more fervent and piercing and offered in obedience unto God are most certainely as it were by the way fortified and enlived with the pacifying perfections and intercessory spirit of Iesus Christ sweetly perfumed with the precious Odours of his fresh-bleeding Merits and blessed Mediation so that they strike the eares of the Almighty with farre greater strength and irresistable importunity then is ordinarily imagined And are as sweet-smelling sacrifices in his nostrils The very sight of whose crucified Sonne at his right hand tendering the suite can calme his most angry countenance and convert by a sacred meritorious attonement his displeasures and wrath into compassions and peace Now blessed bee God that the weake prayers and broken sighes of tempted and troubled spirits have this happy promise and prerogative That before they presse as it were into the presence of God the Father they are mingled in the meane time with the soveraigne and satisfactory incense in the golden censer whence evaporating out of the Angels hand I meane the Angel of the Covenant for so the truest Interpreters understand the place they ascend into the sight of our gracious Father incorporated and enwoven as it were into that pretious and pleasing fume And that it pleaseth the blessed Spirit in the needefull time of spirituall extremities to draw the petitions of our sometimes speechlesse heavy and distracted hearts Iesus Christ the great Angell of the Covenant to perfect perfume and present them Hee that by an excellency and title of highest honour is stiled the Hearer of praiers to receive them into his mercifull hand and bosome of compassionate acceptation Goe on then poore soule Thou that sorely â—roopes under the sensible waight of thy manifold weakenesses and unworthinesse this way and thereupon sometimes sinfully drawes back with some thoughts of giving-over quite which is that the Divel desires and would utterly undoe thee forever presse forward in the name of Christ unto the Throne of Grace with a lighter heart then thou art wont Shall the Lord Iesus call and cry for a Pardon for those who put him to death who were so farre from seeking unto him that like so may Evening Wolves they sought and suckt his blood and will hee shut his eares thinkes thou from thy complaints and groanes who values one drop of his blood to quench thy spirituall thirst at an higher price then the worth of many Worlds Comfort thy selfe invincibly It cannot bee 2. In the faintnesse of Faith and want of feeling Thou beholdest sometimes a Father holding a little Childe in his armes now whether dost thou thinke is the Child safe by it's owne or by the Fathers hold It claspes about the Father with it's little weake hands as well as it can but the strength of it's safety is in the Fathers arme Nay and the Father holds the faster when at any time hee perceives the Child to have left it's hold Thou art tied as it were unto Christ by a double bond first of the Spirit and secondly of Faith Thou layest hold on Christ by Faith and hee holds thee by his Spirit Now thy Infant Faith or after some good standing in Christianity weakened and sorely wounded in thy present feeling hath lost it's hold-fast And therefore thou thinkes all is gone and walkes dejectedly and uncomfortably as tho not any promise in Gods Booke or drop of Christs Blood were thine c. But assure thy selfe being sound at the heart roote and walking in the light as God is in the light thy heavenly Father in this Case holds thee so fast by his Spirit that no Man or Divell not all the powers of darkenesse or gates of hell can possibly plucke thee out of his hand Nay the excellency of his power is most gloriously improoved and made more illustrious in thy greatest extremities and extremest spirituall weakenesse And hee holds it his highest honour to hold thee the fastest when thy hold is gone Heere then and upon this ground thou hast a Calling and maâ—st comfortably for hee is ever most loving and tender hearted in times of temptation to all that are true of heart exercise that most excellent act of faith To beleeve without feeling To beleeve when the face of God doth shine upon thee with sensible refreshing and when thou enjoyest plentifull and pregnant proofes of his favour is no great matter no such maistery But then to beleeue when all sense of Gods love is gone and the light of his countenance hid from thee when all goe quite crosse and contrary in the apprehension of carnall reason then is the highest praise this is the perfection of faith The very dull senselesse
contentment in this vale of teares and a piece as it were of everlasting pleasures 5. In times of triall Thou seest sometimes a Father setting downe his little One upon it's feet to trie it's strength and whether it bee yet able to stand by it selfe or no But withall hee holds his armes on both sides to uphold it if he see it incline either way and to preserve it from hurt Assure thy selfe thy heavenly Father takes care of thee with infinitely more tendernesse in all thy trials either by outward Afflictions or inward temptations The thou shouldest fall yet shalt thou not bee utterly cast downe for the Lord upholdeth thee with his hand Psal. 37.24 Never did Gold-smith attend so curiously and punctually upon those pretious mettalls hee casts into the fire to observe the very first season and bee sure that they tarry no longer in the furnace then the drosse bâ—â— wasted they thorowly purified and fitted for some excellent use as our gratious God lovingly waits to take thee out of trouble and temptation when the rust 〈◊〉 removed from thy spirituall armour thy graces shiâ—â— out and thou heartily humbled and happily fitted to doe him more glorious service for the time to come I meane when hee hath attained the end which hee mercifully intended in love and for thy good 6. In conceits of our unworthinesse David commanded Ioab and the other Captaines to entreat the young man Absolom gently for his sake 2. Sam. 18.5 A rebellious traiterous Sonne up in armes against his owne Father gracelesly and unnaturally thirsting out of a furious ambitious humour to wâ—ing the Regall Scepter out of his hand and to set the Imperiall Crowne upon his owne head How dearely and tenderly then will the Father of mercies deale with a poore humbled soule that sighes and seekes for his favour infinitely more then any earthly treasure or the glory of a thousand worlds 7. I will suppose thou hast broke some speciall vow which were a grievous thing made before the Sacrament upon some day of humiliation or such other occasion and so forfeited thy selfe as it were and thy soule into the hands of Gods justice to bee disposed of to the dungeon of utter darkenesse if thou weâ—t served as thy sinne hath deserved And thereupon thou art much afflicted and sore troubled in minde to have suffered thy selfe to be so sottishly ensnared againe in such a dis-avowed sin against so strong a purpose But here consider whether thou being a Father would'st take the forfeiture of a bond and advantage of breaking day especially full sore against his will from thy dearest Childe intreating thee to intreat him kindely Much nay infinitely lesse will thy heavenly Father deale hardly with thee in such a Case if thou complaine at the Throne of Grace with a grieved spirit renew thy covenant and tell him truly that thou wilt by the help of the holy Ghost guard thy heart with a narrower watch and stronger resolution for the time to come If wee confesse our sinnes hee is faithfull and iust to forgive us our sinnes 1. Iohn 1.9 And in such a Case wee have ever a blessed Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous Cap. 2.1 8. A Father sometimes holds his Child over a Pond River or Well to fright him from it lest at some time or other he fall into it But the Child especially if of riper conceit and wiser thoughts laughes perhaps in the Fathers face dreads no danger dreames not of drowning And what 's the reason thinke yee Only because hee knowes hee that holds him is his Father So thy heavenly Father holdes thee as it were over Hell in some strong temptation upon purpose to terrifie thee from tampering so much with the Divels baites so that thou sees nothing about thee for the present but darknesse and discomforts the very horrors of eternall death ready to take hold on thee yet for all this upon the ground of this loving gracious resemblance thou maist be comforted and cry confidently with Iob Tho he slay me yet will I trust in him With David Tho I walke through the valley of the shadow of death I will feare no evill Who is among you saith the Prophet that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darkenesse and hath no light Let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God 9. A Son by the seducement of some dissolute and drunken Belials is drawne into lewd and licentious company and so plunges presently over head and eares into pestilent courses Falls unhappily to swaggering drinking gaming the mirth and madnesse of wine and pleasures And at length to expresse to the life an exact conformity to that compleat character of the professours of Good-fellowship as they call it and Epicurisme both for pursuite of sensuall delights and persecution of true professours Wisd. 2.6 c. 12 c. Whereby he wasts his Patrimony cuts the heart of his Parents wounds his conscience c. His Father mournes and grieves consults and casts about with all love and longing for his recovery and returne At length out of sense and conscience of his base and debosht behaviour vile company dishonouring God banishing good motions c. Hee comes to himselfe intreats his father upon his knees with many teares that hee would bee pleased to pardon what is past receive him into favour againe and hee will faithfully endeavour to displease him no more but redeeme the losse of the former with the improovement of the time to come How willingly and welcomely thinke you would such a Father receive such a son into the bosome of his fatherly affection and armes of dearest embracement And yet so and infinitely more is our heavenly Father mercifull and melting towards any of his relapsed children returning unto his gracious Throne with true remorse and hearty griefe for so going astray Which is an incomparable comfort in case of backe-sliding which yet God forbid 10. A Father indeede will lay heavier burdens upon his son now growne into yeares and strength and puts him to sorer labour and harder taskes But while hee is very young hee is woont to forbeare him with much tendernesse and compassion because he knowes hee is scarce able to carry himselfe out of the mire Even so but with infinite more affectionatenesse and care watchfullnesse and love doth our heavenly Father beare in his armes and forbeare a Babe in Christ. See Isai. 40.11 This may bee a very sweet and pretious cordiall to weake consciences ar their first conversion Who when they cast their eie upon the hainousnesse and number of their sinnes the fiery and furious darts of the Divell the frownes and angry foreheads of their carnall friends the worlds lowring and enmity the rebelliousnesse and untowardnesse of their own hearts pressing upon them all at once and so considering that refraining from evill they make themselves a prey are ready to sinke and faint and feare
confidence as it was woont So that for a time Thou mayst lie under the torture of an heavy heart uncheerfullnesse in all thy waies and some degree of horrour because thou canst get no better hold-fast But more is thy fault For never did dearest Father so lovingly entertaine into His greedy armes a penitent Sonne returning from going astray then our mercifull God upon thy renewed humiliation is willing to shine upon thee againe with the refreshing beames and blessings of his woonted favour Yet tell mee true deare Heart Tho for the present that precious and happy prayer of Paul for the Romanes The God of hope fill you with all ioy and peace in beleeving be not fulfilled upon thy Soule Tho thy former joyfull feelings bee turned into distrustfull feares yet doth not that heavy heart of thine desire farre more to bee re-comforted with the presence and pleased face of thy Beloved then crowned with the glory and pleasures of many worlds Wouldest thou not much rather feele the hand of thy Faith fastned againe with peace and full perswasion upon the Person Passion and promises of the Lord Iesus then graspe in thy bodily hand the richest Imperiall Crowne that ever sate upon any Caesars head If Satans spitefull craft taking a cruell advantage of thy present dejection of spirit doe not hinder thy trembling heart from telling the truth I know thou canst not deny this And then I must tell Thee These hearty longings and longing desires in the meane time untill God give more strength be right deare to that tender-hearted Father of thine which doth infinitely more esteeme one groane or sigh from a broken spirit then a thousand rammes or tenne thousand rivers of oyle and are most pretious and piercing to that compassionate heart that poured out it's warmest and dearest blood to purchase the salvation and refresh the sadnesse of every truly-humbled Soule Ground upon it then and bee of good cheere If thy troubled spirit fild with the sense of the want of it's former sweet and joyfull feelings finde in it selfe a true and hearty longing after the supply of that want a constant and conscionable pursuite of all holy meanes for the procurement of that supply I can assure Thee in the Word of life and truth in Gods season Thou shalt bee satisfyed Hee will fullfill the desires of them that feare Him Hee also will heare their cry and will save them And this blessed promise for the accomplishment of thy desire is as surely thine as the breath in thy Body Hee must sooner cease to bee God and deny Himselfe which is more then infinitely impossible and prodigious blasphemy to imagine then faile in the least circumstance or syllable of all His love and promises of life to any One that heartily loves Him All the sacred Sayings in His holy Booke and all those promises of salvation are signed with the hand of Truth it selfe and sealed with the blood of His beloved Sonne And so are farre surer then the Pillars of the Earth or Poles of Heaven For Heaven and Earth must passe away before any title of His Word fall unto the ground And therefore as Hee will most certainly poure upon the hairy Pate of every One which hates to bee reformed all the plagues and curses threatned there even to the least sparke of the flames of Hell and the last drop of the full vials of His infinite endlesse unquenchable wrath so will Hee abundantly make good to every upright Soule syncerely thirsting after Iesus Christ in the best time all the promised good in His blessed Booke and that aboue all expectation expression conceit 4. Fourthly Thou mayst bee diversly distressed upon thy Bed of death 1. Casting thine eye backe upon thy whole life all thy sinnes from Adam to that houre and willing as thou must now take thy farewell so to take thy fill of repentance They appeare to the eie of thy conscience farre moe in number and more ougly then ever before And no marvaile for beeing now sequestred for ever from all worldly comforts and company distractions and diversions and the cloudes of naturall feare raised by the dreadfull circumstances of approaching dissolution uniting as it were and collecting the sight of thy Soule which imploiments in the world commerce amongst men and Sunne-shine of outward prosperity did before too much disperse dazle and divert they are represented farre more to the life and in their true colours Whereupon comparing the poore weake nothingnesse as thou now apprehends of thy godly sorrow hatred and opposition against them with thy present apprehension of their hainousnesse hatefulnesse and horrible number Thou begins to bee dejected and knowest not well what to thinke of thy Selfe I say then for thy comfort consult with thy sanctified heart and thou shalt finde and feele an infinite hearty desire that thy repentance for them detestatiō of them and heart-rising against them had been and now were as thorow sound and resolute as ever was in any penitent Soule that breathed the life of grace upon earth 2. Secondly Revising now thy whole Christian conversation spending of Sabbaths pouring out prayers reading Scriptures hearing the Word love of the Brethren dayes of humiliation workes of mercy receiving the Sacrament godly conference living by Faith in all estates c. Thou mayst see them in this last impartiall cleare retired examination of thy conscience to have been pestered with so many failings imperfections deadnesse of spirit distractions distempers that thou begins to feare and conceive As well never a whit as never the better as they say c. In this case also reflect upon the holy habituall disposition of thy heart and thou shalt feele it thirsting and longing unfainedly that all the holy duties and good deeds that ever passed thorow thy heart and hands had been done in answerable exactnesse to the rules of divine Truth and if it had so pleased God with absolute freedome from all infirmities 3. Thirdly Thou mayst bee troubled at that time because beeing perhaps as yet but of little standing in Profession thou hast done God so little service and in that short time hast not stood on Gods side with that courage and life nor walked in his holy wayes with that watchfulnesse and Zeale as thou mightest And it cuts thy heart the more because thou spent so much of thy time in serving thy selfe and Satan and expectest now to enjoy immortall joyes and a Crowne of endlesse blisse But here is thy comfort It is the unfained desire and resolution of thine heart If the Lord would bee pleased to allow Thee a longer time in this life and adde many moe yeeres unto it Thou wouldest double thy diligence and improove all oportunities to doe thy God every way farre more glorious service then heretofore all the daies of thine appointed time Oh! then thou wouldest doe so and so c. Assure now thy selfe in these three cases and troubles upon thy last Bed this syncere desire of thine
stampt upon His Soule by an Almighty hand A worke for wonder and power answerable if not transcendent to the Creation of the World To the production whereof the infinite mercies of the Father of all mercy the warmest hearts-blood of His onely Sonne the mightiest Moouing of the blessed Spirit were required Now what an indignity and disparagement is offered unto so glorious a Workeman and blessed a worke to assent and subscribe unto the Divell a knowne Liar that there is no such Thing 4. To double and aggravate upon the Christian the grievous sinne of unbeliefe Not to believe the Promises as they lie in His Booke is an unworthy and wicked wrong unto the Truth of God But for a Man to draw backe and deny when they are all made good upon His Soule makes Him worse then Thomas the Apostle For when He had thrust His hand into Christs side Hee believed But in the present Case a Man is ready to renounce and disclaime Tho Hee have already graspt in the armes of His Faith the crucified bleeding Body of His blessed Redeemer The sacred and saving vertue whereof hath inspired into the whole Man a new spirituall sanctifying life and a sensible un-deniable change from what it was 5. To discontinue or detaine the heart lock't up as it were in a perpetuall barrennes from giving of thanks which is one of the noblest and most acceptable Sacrifice and service that is offered unto God Now what a mischiefe is this that an upright heart should bee laced up and His Tong tied by the Divels temptation from magnifying heartily the glory of Gods free grace for such a worke I meane the New-Creation at which Heaven and Earth Angels and Men and all Creatures may stand everlastingly amazed So sweet it is and admirable and makes an immortall Soule for ever But to keepe my selfe to the Point Those who complaine as I have said That because the pangs of their New-birth were not in that proportion they desire answerable to the hainousnesse of their former pestilent courses and abominablenesse of their beastly life before many times suspect themselves and are much troubled about the truth of their conversion may have their doubts and scruples encreased by taking notice of such propositions as these which Divines both ancient and moderne let fall sometimes in their Penitentiall Discourses Ordinarily men are wounded in their Consciences at their conversion answerably to the wickednesse of their former conversation Contrition in true Converts is for the most part proportionable to the hainousnesse of Their former courses The more wicked that thy former life hath been the more fervent and earnest let thy Repentance or returning bee Sorrow must bee proportionable to our sinnes The greater our sinne the fuller must bee our sorrow According to the waight of sinne upon the conscience ought penitent sorrow to bee waighty He that hath exceeded in sinne let Him exceede also in sorrow Looke how great our sinnes are let us so greatly lament them Let the minde of every One drinke up so much of the teares of penitent compunction as Hee remembers Himselfe to have withered from God by wickednesse Grievous sinnes require most grievous lamentations The measure of your mourning must bee agreeable and proportionable to the sinne And wee may see these rules represented unto us in the practise of Manasses who beeing a most grievous sinner 2. Chron. 33.6 Humbled Himselfe greatly before the God of His Fathers vers 12. In the Woman who is called a Sinner Luk. 7.37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they say by a kinde of singularity and therefore takes on extraordinarily vers 38. So that she wipes Christs feete with teares In the idolatrous Israelites upon their turning unto the Lord 1. Sam. 7.4.6 who drew water and poured it out before the Lord. In the Hearers of Peter who having their consciences all bloody with the horrible guilt of crucifying the Lord of life Act 2.33.36 were pricked in their hearts vers 37. with such horrour and raging angvish as tho so many empoisoned daggers and Scorpions stings stucke and were fastned in them punctually In Paul who having been an hainous offender a grievous Persecuter Act. 9. whereas the other Apostles as One sayes had been honest and sober fisher-men tasted deeper of this cup then they For Hee tells us Rom. 7.11 That the Law slew Him Hee was strangely amazed with a voyce from Heaven strucke downe to the earth and starke blinde He trembled and was astonished For three daies Hee did neither eate nor drink c. Act. 9. And there is good reason for it For ordinarily the newly-illightened eye of a fresh-bleeding Conscience is very sharpe and cleare piercing and sightfull greedy to discover every staine and spot of the Soule To dive even to the heart-roote to the blackest bottome and ougliest nooke of a Mans former Hellish courses to looke backe with a curious survay thorow the pure Perspective of Gods righteous Law over his whole life to His very Birth-sinne and Adams rebellion And in this sad and heavy search it is very inquisitive after and apprehensive of all circumstances which may adde to the hainousnesse of sin and horrour to his heart It is quick-sighted into all aggravating considerations and quickly learnes and lookes upon all those wayes degrees and circumstances by which sins are made more notorious and hatefull And what the spirit of bondage in a fearefull heart may inferre hereupon you may easily iudge Now to the Case proposed I say first 1. That betweene sinne and sorrow wee cannot expect a precise adequation not an Arithmeticall but a Geometricall proportion Great sinnes should bee greatly lamented yet no sinne can bee sufficiently sorrowed for Tho it may bee savingly When wee say the pangs of the New-birth must bee answerable to our former sinnefull provocations wee meane not that wee can mourne for sinne according to it's merit that is impossible But great sinnes require a great deale of sorrow Wee must not thinke that wee have sorrowed enough for any sinne tho wee can never sorrow sufficiently Before I proceede to a further and fuller satisfaction in the Point let mee tell you by the way how discomfortable and doubtfull the Popish doctrine is here about that the truth of our Tenet may appeare the more pretious and taste more sweet Their Attrition and Contrition as I take it differ as our Legall and Evangelicall repentance 1. In respect of the object Contrition as they say is sorrow for sinne as an offence to God Attrition is a griefe for sinne as liable to punishment 2. In respect of the cause Contrition ariseth from sonne-like Attrition from servile feare See Valent. Disp. 7. Q. 8. De contrit punct 2. This Contrition is the cause of the remission of sinnes Bellar. lib. 2. de poenit cap. 12. Arb. At Catholici alij passim Well then thou art a Papist and troubled inconscience Thou knowest well that without
deale and converse with for recovery and cure This secret and saving influence I speake of might bee evidently discerned in Master Peacocke even at the worst Some reverend Ministers standing by his bed of sorrow asked him if they should pray for him Marke well his answer Take not the Name of God in vaine said hee by praying for a Reprobate Which words well weighed seeme to imply and represent clearely to a spirituall discerning judgement some good measure even of the highest degree of divine love preferring the glory of God before the wellfare of his owne soule rather willing to have the meanes of his salvation neglected then the Lord dishonoured One asking another time whether hee loved such an One meaning a godly man Yes saith hee Why For his goodnesse Another comming to him upon the Lords day willed him to put his hand to a note of certaine debts This is not a day for that said hee And at the same time hee would hardly suffer any to stay with him from the Sermon Beeing told of suffering plaisters out of Gods Word to rest upon his wounded soule Hee brake out thus Oh! if I had Oh! if it would please God I had rather then any thing in this or other three thousand Worlds By these we may see and other passages to the same purpose that our blessed God had a secret working and saving influence upon his soule even in the depth and hideous darkenesse of his most grievous desertion Here is love first unto God in a high degree secondly deare affection unto his Children and that for his Image shining in them thirdly love unto his Sabbaths and salvation of others fourthly vehement desires after grace and Gods favour All which were undeniable demonstrations of an undamned state to every understanding eye Nay unquestionable arguments of spirituall life and designation to eternall blisse Whereupon my resolution was then and protestation upon good ground That if all the powerfull eloquence which rested with in the reverent bosome of mine owne deare Mother the famous Vniversity of Oxford managed by the Sâ—raphicall tongue of the highest and most glorious Angell in heaven had been industriously set on worke for that purpose except I had heard my blessed Redeemer say I will rend a member from my Body and throw it away The holy Spirit say I will pull my seale from that Soule which I have savingly sanctifyed my gracious and mercifull Father say I wil this once faile forsake One of mine I could never have been possibly perswaded that that soule of his so richly laden with heavenly treasure and gifts of God never to be repented of so syncerely exercised in the waies of God and opposition to the corruption of the times c. should possibly perish 2. Secondly suppose thou shouldest walke in darkenesse and have no light in the sense of the Prophet for the residue and remainder of thy few and evill dayes in this vale of teares nay and dye so before comfort comes yet be not discomforted For fearing God and being upright-hearted thy Soule shall most certainely bee preserved in spirituall and eternall safety by staying upon thy God tho thou bee without any sense of joy and peace in believing This life tho never so long is but a moment to the life to come But the kindnesse is everlasting with which hee will have mercy on thee Thy sufferings are but short whatsoever they bee But thou hast eternity of joyes in the World above purchased and prepared for thee by the hearts-blood of that blessed Saviour of thine upon whom thy soule relies It is the Divels policy say Divines to procure for his slaves all the favours honours and advancements all the prosperities and pleasures hee can possibly lest if hee should not follow and fullfill their humours this way they might thinke upon seeking after and serving a new Master Noâ— caring to vexe or molest them in this World because hee knowes full well hee shall have time enough hereafter to torment them in Hell And wilt not thou contrarily be content if God so please to passe thorow this vale of teares even with Hemans horrour Psal. 88.15 Sith Heaven is so neare at hand and thou hast a little before thee an everlasting time to row in the bottomlesse and boundlesse Ocean of all glory and blisse in an endlesse variety of new and fresh delights infinitely excellent and sweet aboue the largest created conceite 6. Let us suppose a Christian in these three states And it is no uncouth thing to those who obserue or feele Gods secret and unsearchable dealings with his Children 1. First in a faire and comfortable calme and Sun-shine after the tempestuous troubles and travaile in the pangs of the New-birth when the light of Gods countenance the first refreshing warmth of his sanctifying Spirit the fresh sweetnesse and vitall stirrings of grace the ravishing consciousnesse of his happy conversion doe fill his soule as with marrow and fatnesse and feede it with a kindly and more lively disposition to all good and godly dueties 2. Secondly in a spirituall Desertion when the sense of Gods favour love and woonted presence the comfortable vse and exercise of the Ordinances graces and spirituall affaires langvish and leave him for a time 3. Thirdly In the state of recovery and restitution from such a fearefull Dampe and deprivation of divine comfort unto former ioyfull feelings and re-enjoyment of his Beloved so that his revived soule may sweetly sing My Beloved is mine and I am his Now I doubt not But that the middle of these three estates being accompanied with hearty griefe and groanes for Christs absence restlesse pantings and longings after a new resurrection as it were of the sensible and fruitfull operations of grace renewed desires and endeavours for regainement of accustomed surer hold by the hand of Faith patient and praierfull waiting for the returne of Gods pleased face c. is as pleasing and deare if not more to our mercifull Father as either of the other two Doe you not thinke that the Fathers of our flesh are as lovingly affected and meltingly mooved to heare the obedient Child sigh and sob cry out and complaine because they looke not kindly upon him but for triall of his affection have hid for a time the much desired beames of their fatherly favour under some affected angry frownes as when things are carried more currently and comfortably betwixt them without any great distast and discontentment or occasion to discover the mutuall impatiency of their loves one unto another And shall not the Father of our Spirits who loves us with the same love with which he loves the Lord Iesus himselfe surpasse as farre in affectionate compassion towards us in the like Case as an Almighty God doth a mortall Man He cannot chuse because the word is already gone out of his mouth Like as a Father pittieth his Childe so the Lord pittieth them that feare him Psa. 103.13 I am
their beauty and magnitude which in their continuall and contrary motions are neither repugnant intermixt or confounded By these potent effects wee approach to the knowledge of the Omnipotent cause and by these motions their Almighty mover Whensoever therefore that most implacable and everlasting enemy to Gods glory and the good of his Children shal go about to pervert and crosse by his blasphemous injections these sober and sacred conceptions of the thrice glorious ever-blessed Deity planted in thy minde by his owne Word and this visible World bid him by the example of thy Lord and Master avoide and avant trample upon his hellish spite appeale unto Gods righteous Throne with protestation of thine innocency damning them unto the Pit of Hell in thy Iudgement and hating them not without horrour from the very heart-roote and so truly resisting them crying mightily unto God for pardon wherein soever thou shalt faile about them and for power against them and then possesse thy humble soule in patience and peace 8. Being humbled by them making an holy use of them perusing and applying the considerations and counsels in hand for comfort in them and conquest over them doe not by any meanes continue to afflict and torture thy spirit about them Let them now passe away and bee packing abandon them with an holy detestation contempt and slighting without any such dismayednesse and terrour as most unworthy of any longer taking to heart or notice of much lesse of that carking and trouble as to terrifie in-dispose dis-able thee for a chearefull discharge of either of thy Callings particular or generall Divines hold even godly sorrow unseasonable when it unfitteth the body or minde to good duties or to a good and chearefull manner of doing them how much more would they not have these hellish distractions and intrusions to dishearten thee in this kinde But least of all of that pestilent prevailing as to fill thine heart with extraordinary astonishment horrour and doubting whether such monstrous injections bee incident to sanctified soules a saving state and habitation of the holy-Ghost and so to put thee into a habit of heavy walking and secret sadnesse by reason of continuall questioning the soundnesse of thy conversion the constancy of Gods love unto thee former assurance of an immortall Crowne and whether it bee possible that Iesus Christ should dwell in a soule hanted with such horrible thoughts Procurement of which miseries molestations is the Adversaries only aime For so immesurably malicious is He that if he cannot plunge thee into the pit of hell and everlasting flames in the World to come yet will be labour might and maine to keep thee upon the Rack and in as much terrour as hee can possibly all thy life long in this vale of teares Suffer then this advise to sinke seriously into thy heart Being illightned rightly informed and directed about them let them no longer astonish thy spirit detaine thee in horrour hurt thy heart or hinder thee in any duty to God or man or in an humble comfortable and confident walking with thy God as thou art woont or of thy former sweet communion with Iesus Christ. And the rather because First It is the Tempters earnest end only out of pure spite to put this imposture and unnecessary vexing perplexities upon thee Secondly The more thou art troubled with them and takes them to heart for that is it hee would have the more violently and villanously will he presse them upon thee and terrifie Thirdly They are not thine but his fearefull sinnes Hee alone must answer for them at that great and last Day and thou goe free It is his malicious madnesse of such a prodigious nature and notoriousnesse as is beyond conceit and above all admiration onely fit for a Divell That Hee may trouble thee temporally Hee mightily aggravates his owne eternall torment In a second place let mee tender unto thee an Antidote which hath been found soveraigne and succesfull this way The summe of it is this Let the tempted Christian labour to worke and extract by the blessings of God some spirituall good out of the horrible hell of these most hatefull abominable blasphemous suggestions And if Satan once see that thou sâ—cks honey out of his poyson comfort out of his cruelty medicine out of his malice hee will have no heart or hope to goe on no courage or contentment to continue the temptation Take it in the sense if not in the same wordes without any variation or enlargement as it was applied and prosper'd Spitefull and malicious Fiend cursed enemie to heaven and earth by the mercies of God hough thy purpose be most pestilent yet thou shalt not hurt or have any advantage against mee hereby Thy base and dunghill injections tending to the dishonour of my God and my Christ c. shall make mee 1. More hate thine infinitely hatefull and revengefull malice against that thrice-glorious and ever-blessed Majesty above 2. With more feeling and dearenesse to adore and love the glory and sweetnesse of my God and my Redeemer For the more excessive and endlesse I feele thy spite against Him the more I know is his incomprehensible excellency and worth 3. To pray oftner and more fervently that my God would rebuke thee and cast this extreme malice of thine as dung upon thine owne face 4. To bee still more humbled under the hand of my mighty Lord because I cannot bee more humbled and with more resolution and abhorrence abominate and abandon such prodigiously-senselesse and hellish blasphemies of His for I am sure they are none of mine into the bottomlesse bottome of that darkest Dungeon In the blackest horrour whereof they were most maliciously and monstrously hatched 5. To take up a strong argument and answer against an other of thy cursed injections tending to Atheisme and the not Being of those endlesse joies above Because I most plainely and palpably feele thee an invisible spirit casting into my imagination such horrid absurd and ridiculously impious thoughts which cannot possibly spring ordinarily or naturally from any power or possibilitie of mine own soule I know thereby and assure my self that there is also an infinite most wise and glorious Spirit which created both me and thee And will in due time chaine Thee up for ever in the Pit of Hell and bring mee at length by the blessed merit of his only dearest Sonnes bloodshed into the bosome of his owne glory and everlasting blisse 6. To confirme mine owne heart with stronger assurance which is no meane benefit that I undoubtedly belong unto God and am in a gracious state For thou well knowest and so doth mine owne Soule that thou never troubledst me to any purpose with these ougly blasphemous thoughts while I yet lay starke dead in sinnes and trespasses and drown'd full deepe in vanity and lust in carnall loosenesse and sensuall courses Then thou being the strong Man possessedst mee wholly and all was quiet because all was