unseasonably in conference hearing fasting praying he cannot upon just ground expect Gods assisting presence and blessing in his way and so on the contrary Answ 3. Sometimes a man is above ordinary course called to some worke and here we finde the calling of a man to be of God 1. When he hath a particular word d Quilege privà ta ducitur publica non constringitur apud Episc Sarisb de justitia operum c. 42. so Abraham had a particular charge to leave his Countrey and to slay his son in Sacrifice So Peter also had a particular word to walk upon the water and God failed them not 2. A strong bent and inclination of heart so Paul was bound in his spirit to Ierusalem though dangers waited for him Acts 20.22 so it is judged of Ehud in killing Eglon of Phyneas in slaying Zimri and Cosbi 3. When God fits not onely with a disposition but with a spirit for the worke as when he called Saul to the Kingdome he gave him another spirit 4. When he gives peace of heart in their way and beares them out against all accusations from within or without so Paul and Silas had this testimony of their calling to their worke a spirit of glory resting upon them Quest Quest But evill men have sometimes a great flush of spirit courage ability peace and confidence have they this of God Answ 1. Ans 1 God may employ even wicked men and may for the service of himselfe and of his Church fill their sailes with a full gale of great gifts and carry them on with a strong hand so he helped Cyrus He saith of Cyrus hee is my Shepheard and shall performe all my pleasure Esay 44.28 and Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus whose right hand I have holden or strengthned c. Esay 45.1 2 There is a naturall strength which may doe much some have a naturall vigour and confidence which enables them to do and suffer much 3 Mens lusts and sinfull ends and respects may adde activity and vigour to their spirits in good actions e Vis Hug. Grot. de verit relig Christ l. 2. Iehu was zealous but that flame of zeale was inkindled by the love of the kingdome and many others do much but it is by the strength of their self-love and politique ends 4 There is a diabolicall power of that Prince of the ayre who worketh in the children of disobedience which makes his zelots as God hath his f Pertinacia haeretica est obduratio voluntatis ipsorum obligatio diabolica qua eos trahit quò vult sicut vult ut furiosi casustinent ex insania cordium quae vix sanitas sustineret Guilielm Parisiens de tentat resist Vid. eundem de virtutib cap. 21. as Pharaohs Magitians wrought like unto Moses so Satan transformes himselfe often into an Angel of light and in a way of seeming piety and devout zeale makes many to be valiant Champions But there is this difference of that common assistance of the spirit of God to evill men and of the strength from nature lusts or Satan from that which the holy Spirit gives to the godly in their wayes 1 That which is from naturall temper lusts or Satan is often found in an evill cause as Sauls Zeale before he was called of Christ was madnesse against the truth 2 Only the spirit of holinesse works by love to God others for other ends 3 Only the spirit of holinesse makes more holy by all assistance which it affordeth this only wins the heart so that the more God is with him in his way the more he loves him and loves to serve him and so hath this evidence that it is from God because it tends to him so Davids heart was silled with love when God appeared for him Blessed be the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplication the Lord is my strength and my shield my heart trusted in him and I am helped therefore my heart greatly rejoyceth and with my song will I praise him Psal 28.6 7. Let this suffice in this digression for briefe answer of these questions now let us returne to the direction be sure you keep in Gods way for you cannot finde God but in his own way when the arkâ— and pillar of fire the word moves before you walke after it and then yoâ— shall finde God pouring in himselfe and girding your Ioynes with strength 〈◊〉 Waite on the Lord and be of good courage and he shall streng then thine heart waite I say on the Lord. Psal 27.14 Feare thou not for I am with thee be not dismaid for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousnesse I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand saying unto thee feare not I will help thee feare not thou worm Iacob and ye men of Israel I will help thee saith the Lord and thy redeemer the holy one of Israel Esay 41.10 13 14. It is a precious promise a man may say and sigh in himselfe alasse the worke is great and I am weak but God saith I will strengthen thee and help thee and if the difficulty be too great for thee yet it is not too great for me But a man may say alas they that war against me are many and great and I cannot stand before them I finde mighty lusts strong disputes strong tentations but see what God saith ver 11 12. They that strive with thee shall perish they that war against thee shall be as nothing and as a thing of nought they may come against thee but thou shalt be above them they shall vanish they are no more then a shadow But a man may say I finde my heart shaking at the sight of these sons of Anah and I am ready to say in my selfe I shall one day fall by the hands of Saul to this God answereth 1. by a repulsion of feare in a word of encouragoment Feare not nor be dismaid which he repeates again and again 2. by â—teration of the promise I will help I will help I will strengthen thee I will hold thy right hand as if he said I will surely do it 3. by calling in his attributes as witnesses and assurances I am Iehovah one that is and will give being to all my words I am the holy one one that cannot deceive you 4. by pleading his relation and affection I am thy God I am Iehovah thy God thy Redeemer as if he had said I have given my selfe to you and have undertaken to save you and therefore feare not though thou art but a worme Iacob yet will I uphold thee oh then that we could now in our way rejoyce and say as the Prophet The Lord Iehovah will help me therefore shall I not be confounded Esay 50.7 CHAP. XXIV Sixth and Seaventh means Be doing and wisely and diligently use the meanes of grace BE doing many cry Lord help
is he building and preparing him to be a more excellent structure The gardiner digs up his garden pulls up his fences takes up his plants and to the eye seemes to make a pleasant place as a waste but wee know he is about to mend it not to mar to plant it better and not to destroy it So God is present even in desertions and though he seeme to annihilate or to reduce his new creation into a confused Chaos yet it is to repaire its ruines and to make it more beautifull and more strong The glory of the second temple was greater than the glory of the first Hag. 2.9 In the repairing of an house we see how they pull down part after part as if they intended to demolish it but the end is to make it better it may be some posts and pillars are removed but it is to put in stronger it may be some lights are stopped up but it is to make fairer lights So though God take away our props it is not that we may fall but that he may settle us in greater strength hee batters downe the life of sense to put us upon a life of faith and when he darkens our light that we cannot see it is but to bring in fuller light as when the starres shine not the Sunne appeares repairing our losse of an obscure light with her clear bright shining beams So then we see that though God doe forsake his people yet not totally not for ever not ceasing the affection of love but the acts and not those which concerne our being but such as concerne our well being As abundant quicknings and aid of grace victorious and triumphant power over sinne the cleare and satisfying testimony of his Spirit c. CHAP. III. Foure other considerations about desertions HAving premised these things in the generall I shall now come to the specialls to speake of these desertion in their severall kindes and first as they befall the godly Desertions as they befall the godly are of two sorts Withdrawing of 1 Influence of grace 2 Of comfort 1 Inward 2 Outward For all the complaints which the Saints doe make of Gods hiding and withdrawing himselfe arise from one of these three grounds or all 1. That God doth not carry on their spirituall life as he was wont 2. That he gives not that peace joy comfort assurance as he was wont A man may want Gods gracious presence in outward things yet enjoy his internall presence in the soule yea often there is most of God within when least without 3. That he brings them into outward straits and doth not deliver them Before I come to speake directly and particularly of these I will propose foure briefe observations about them 1. That a man may misse much of Gods externall presence in the sweet and comfortable way of his providence providing protecting and ordering all occurrents to contentment yet may enjoy inward communion with him his soule may be most abundantly animated and quickned with the Spirit when he hath most discouragements without yea God is wont when he gives least in the world 2 Cor. 1.4 5. to give most of himselfe and his people seldome have much of the fatnesse below and of the springs above at once as the sunne and the stars appeare not together But when hee shuts up all doores of hope and helpe in the world then he sets open the doores of heaven So Saint Stephen when hee saw nothing but death in the world Then saw heaven opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God Acts 7. Such mercy found Iacob when he was a poore pilgrim in a strange land then he saw that heavenly ladder and the Angels ascending and descending as a pledge of Gods care and their readinesse for his good Gen. 28.12 The abundance of the spirit both of grace and peace is usually powred forth in a day of sorrow as when the dough which the Israelites brought from Egypt was spent God gave them bread from heaven And there are 2. causes of it 1. Gods tender love which is such that he will not add affliction to his peoples sorrow Because Gods love is such that he wil not adde sorrow to sorrow When therfore he is pleased in his wisdome to put a cup of affliction into their hands he is wont to give them also the cup of consolation when he casts them into outward straits he doth recompence it with inward inlargements The Church never had such full predictions of Christ and precious promises of great mercy as when the most dreadfull evils hung over her head as appeares in the prophecies of all the Prophets And the faithfull usually finde their worst dayes their best dayes and when they meet with troubles they find most peace This the Apostle witnesseth As the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ 2 Cor. 1.4 And though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 die die ut Tertul. legit in li. de resur carn i. e. quotidie Vid. Esti com in lo. 2 Cor. 4.16 2. The capacity of the soul is widened The capacity of the soule is inlarged in affliction and enlarged in affliction heavenly communion with God is sweetest in an evill day and the soul longs after God that in him it may finde all supplyed which it wants in the world Now the more God stirs up desires of himselfe the more the soule is prepared to communion with him and the more it hath of him the hungry man eats most and hee that is most athirst drinks most When the life of nature and sense is cut off the soule seekes a life in God and is much in all endeavours of injoying God now she seekes him in prayer she enquires for him in the word and by all meanes reacheth hard after him So David when he was in the wildernesse panted and breathed after God hee prayeth hee cryeth his thoughts are with God all the day yea in the night he meditates upon him and saith he My soule followed hard after thee Psal 63.8 2. One may want the comforting presence of God yet have the quickning presence One may want inward comfort yet not be deserted in respect of the influence of grace the tenure of grace and peace is not the same a man may lose the sence of grace and yet retaine the life of it Though he be more happy that hath grace and peace yet hee may be as holy that hath grace without peace yea and as the clouded summers sunne yeelds more comfort to the earth than a bright shining winters sunne so when the soul is most clouded it may be most quickned when the light of Gods favour is hid the quickning heat of the spirit may most abound 3. He that loseth Gods quickning presence loseth also his comforting presence The comforting presence is never without the quickning presence
Though a man may have grace living and stirring without peace yet he cannot have peace without the life of Grace Peace and Comfort are fruits of the sanctifying Spirit and as there may be a root without fruit but there cannot be fruit without the root so though there may be the spirit quickning and sanctifying without comfort He that waÌ„ts Gods quickning presence is either in a lethargie yet there cannot be true comfort without the quickning spirit One of these two evils befall a man from whom God is departed g Aut furit aut patitur mirum gravitate soporem Ovid. met 15. and to whom the workings of the power of God is denyed Either he falls into a spirituall lethangie being as one asleepe whose spirits and senses are bound up so that he is in a shadow of death neither hearing nor seeing nor tasting the things of God and so is bereft of all spirituall joy and comfort When a man is in a state of deadnesse hee is dead to all things that are spirituall and they also are as dead things to him The promises that are fountaines of life to a living man are as dry and empty cisternes unto him yea Christ and heaven and the love of God though they are the food the strength the life of a man in a healthfull state are to the languishing soule as meat to a sick stomack the glorious things of the Gospell are to him as a withered flower or as a sealed book he hath no use of them 2. Or 〈◊〉 spirituall frenzy In the day of estrangednesse of God Or in a phrenzie a man is often much disquieted now the remembrance of his former blessed dayes torments his soule with griefe and the feares of utter Apostacie and irrecoverable declination from God doe vexe it with feares and horrors yea Conscience may pronounce sad judgement upon him and he may conclude himselfe an hypocrite and Apostate and one under wrath so that either through insensiblenesse or unquietnesse of spirit hee that hath not his former vivacity and vigour of grace cannot have comfort in such a state It is possible to be deserted of outward inward gracious presence in a great measure 4. All these may possibly befall a man at once hee may have outward straits and inward troubles at once and this is the lowest pitch of misery that a beleever can fall into CHAP. IV. Of the first sort of desertions the withholding of assisting grace THe first sort of desertion is in regard of spirituall life and grace And it is either Reall Or in appearance onely Concerning this maladie and sicknesse of the soule as it is reall I will treat in this order Handling 1 The state 2 The symptomes consequents 3 The causes 4 The cure First of the state which may be thus described The first kind of desertion is a suspension of the arbitrary and customary influence of the spirit of grace Then wee are deserted of God when he suspendeth or withholdeth the arbitrary and wonted influence of the spirit of Grace That I may more perspicuously expresse the thing I will take this description in pieces and explaine it in the parts of it In the description are two things that require opening 1 The Act. 2 The Object The Act is Gods suspending Here note 1 The act suspensioÌ„ a negative act not taking away but not giving c. it is a negative Act a not giving or putting forth that which was wont to be it is not the taking of any thing from a man which was inherent but a denying of somthing that was assistant it is not ataking out but a not putting â—n as when a cock is stopped or turned there is no diminution of water in the vessell under it but onely no addition the vessell is not made emptier but not fuller or as a child when he is set downe out of his Fathers armes is weaker yet not by any losse of his personall strength but by the withdrawing of his fathers help The Father takes not away any of his childes ability but denyeth his owne aide so God when hee deserts his servants withdraws himself and his Spirit yet so as that wee must conceive it not to be a spoiling them of what he had planted in them but a not conferring of that assisting Grace which he was wont to give this will be a little more cleare in the next thing The next thing in the description is the object or the thing which is withholden from a man in this case which is the Arbitrary or wonted influence of the Spirit of Grace here are three things in the object to be observed 1. 2 The object 1. not the presence but influence of the spirit It is the influence of the Spirit of Grace The presence of the Spirit is one thing and the influence is another there may be the former without the latter the influence may be abated but the presence never faileth As the soule in the body is ever equall in her habitation but not in operation her power not acting yet her presence continuing 2. 2 Not influence which is necessary to It is the Arbitrary influence of the spirit which is Suspended There is a twofold influence of the spirit First necessary and constant Secondly arbitrary and inconstant The necessary influence of the spirit is never denyed and it is that which God affoords his people to life growth 1. God is ever present to uphold his Saints in life Sustentation that though diseases may molest them yet their feet shall not bee moved they shall not sinke Psal 66.9 As that hand of power which wrought in the creation workes still in the preservation of all things Iohn 5.17 so the spirit workes still and by a Divine power supports the new creature so that it shal not fall back into its first nothing David found this hand of God staying him in the midst of all his weaknesses Neverthelesse I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by my right hand Psa 73.23 Psal 17.5 2. So that life being wrought by the spirit of life Augmentation never dyeth and as the spirit worketh alway to the conservation of spirituall life so it worketh ever to the growth of grace a Christian is ever growing he groweth when he seemes to himself and others to stand at a stay yea to decline hee groweth alway really though not apparently nor equally as there are seasons in nature so in grace Grace hath her springs and Autumnes but as nature is ever tending to perfection so grace is ever ripening and increasing yea even in tentations and desertitions when God seemes to leave his people he is about the worke of perfecting the new man as in the lopping of a tree there seemes to bee a kind of diminution and destruction yet the end and issue of it is better growth and as the weakning of the body by physicke seemes to tend to death yet it
with weeds and so turned from a garden to a desart so God leaves men that they may act themselves so it is said God left Hezekiah to try him that he might know all that was in his heart 2 Chro. 32.31 A man would not thinke that he is so bad as he is while he enjoyeth an abundant ayde of spirituall grace as while the soule is in the body that putrifying quality and the filthinesse of it doth not so much appeare but when the foul hath left it then it becomes a rotten unsavoury carkasse and a foule chanell while it is fed with the continued issues and streames of pure water from a clear fountaine sheweth not its filth but when the streames are cut off then the foulnesse of it discovers it selfe If God doe but take off his hand and cut off the influence of his spirit and slip the collar of our vile affections oh what monsters start up and what a cage of uncleane birds what a den of beasts what an habitation of devils doe our hearts appeare to be what a blacknesse of darknesse covers the earth when the Sun is gone yea the aire that now seems so lucid and cleare how fild with darkned stormes and fogges is it when the Sun withdrawes it self Herein is shame cast upon the soule and a man is made vile in his owne eyes when he seeth his owne Image and complexion and findeth himselfe overgrowne with botches and sores rising from abundance of filthy humours in his soule he that in the day and Sun-shine of quickning grace thought he had beene freed from his lusts shall wonder with shame and astonishment to see in the night of Desertion what darknesse will appeare and what fell and fierce lusts will shew themselves like the Lyons of the evening raging for their prey 2. Of weaknesse It discovers a mans weaknesse and emptinesse d Solutum et liberum Deo est suos sibi aliquando permittere dum sinit in iis extare humane infirmitatis argumenta utse noscant etsi sanctos esse esse tamen homines Camer defens de grat et lib. arb c. 9. now a man shall discerne by his deadnesse in disposednesse unmeetnesse to all good how great the insufficiency of nature is and how little he hath attained in grace a childe that is carryed in the armes seemes tall and when it is led by the hand of the Nurse and upheld it seemes to have more strength than it hath indeed but being left unto it selfe the great weaknesse and feeblenesse of it appeareth A Christian may have high thoughts of himself while he is sustayned in his way by a divine manutenency and carryed on with plentifull gales of auxiliary grace but if God be pleased that this wind that bloweth where it listeth Ioh. 3. turn from him he shall see that thought himselfe a pillar in the house of God that he is but a bruised reed and he that conceived himselfe rich Desertion gives a fuller knowledge of grace is poore and miserable blinde and naked Apoc. 3. 2. Gods withdrawing of himselfe gives a fuller knowledge of his grace 1. In the freenesse of it when a man seeth the depths and worlds of wickednesse in his nature Of its freenesse and discerneth what a loathsome Sepulchre and receptacle of rottennesse his soule is now he stands wondring that ever he should obtaine this mercy that the Spirit of eternall life should be given to him he wonders to see God take such a briar to plant in his owne house yea to graffe it into that true Vine his beloved Son that the waters of life should run in such a channell so full of filth that so great a God should come under so base a roofe and such a dunge on and den of devils should become the Temple of the Holy ghost 1 Cor. 6. 2. Needfulnesse The necessity of grace e Ideo quisque nostrum bonum opus sus cipere agere implere nunc scit nunc nescit nunc delectatur nunc non delectatur ut noverit non suae facultatis sed divini muneris esse vel quod scit vel quod delectatur c. ideo sanctis suis alicujus operu justitiam non tribuit vel certam scient am vel victricem delectationem ut cognoscant non a seipsis sed ab illo si esse lucem quâ c. Aug. de peccat merit et remis l. 2. c. 19. and of a continuall supply of ayde this is sure a Christian lives in a continuall dependance and hath not a sufficiency in himselfe all our stocke would be soone spent if we had not continuall supplies from heaven our fulnesse is not in our selves but in our head suppose a vessell cracked and apt to lose all it receiveth set to the conduit cock it hath now a fulnesse from the conduit and while that runs it cannot be empty but if the cock should cease to run the vessell would soone be emptyed those that are in Christ live but it is Christ that liveth in them Gal. 2.20 our life is not so much in our selves as in him our life is said to be hid in him yea he is called our life Col. 3.3 4. In the naturall body the members have life in themselves yet we know the life of every member is not so much in it selfe as in the heart and head and this appeares because if there be a failing of spirits either vitall or sensitive all the body sinkes and hereby we are taught the necessity of the grace of God because if that be withdrawne we wither as a blasted arme of a tree oh how wofully doth the goodly fabricke both of an enriched heart and an heavenly conversation come tumbling downe if God withdraw the props of supporting and assisting grace f Voluntas sine te quid agit nisi quo procul exulet a te praecipites semper calles devia motu ingressura suo nisi fessam tu bone aegram suscipias referas foveas tuearis honestes c. Prosper God by his spirit doth lead and draw the heart to him but when this bias is taken off by which the heart was wheeled up the hill it is carried with great swiftnesse downe ward to sinne and the world Davids fallings had taught him this lesson to see a need of a stronger support than his owne g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chiysost hom 12. ad Antioc therefore prayed Hold up my goings in thy paths that my foot-steps slip not Psal 17.5 yea and he acknowledgeth God to be his strength and stay and rocke and he that doth establish his way and carry him in it I am continually with thee but whence was it thou hast holden me by my right hand Psal 73.23 My soule followeth hard after thee what enabled him thy right hand upholdeth me Psal 63.8 Thus then God for this end sometimes suspends the workings of the spirit of power from us that we may see a necessity
Ship is easily born down the stream but it is hardly fetched up again the Philosophers tell us that the way from the habit to the privation is easier than the way from the privation to the habit as a man may easier make a seeing eye blinde then a blinde eye to see a man may soon put an instrument out of tune but not so soon put it in again a man may lose more strength in a dayes sicknesse i Corpora tarde augescunt at cito extingunntur citius templum à Romanis destructum quam à Iudaeis structum Savan then he can recover in many dayes of health Therefore when thou art mounted aloft by plentifull supplies of grace as upon Eagles wings take heed of falling for it is easier not to fal then to rise if thou provoke thy God to retire it may cost thee many prayers and teares to get him to return when thy lusts begin to stir and to be armed with a new strength these monsters will cost you labour and sweat to muzzle them subdue them it is easier to keep out an enemy then to expell him a man may better keep an estate then get it how did the Church seek Christ before she found him again Cant. 5. 3. It will be grievous The losse will be grievous it is most miserable to have been happy k Miserum est fuisse beatum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophyl ep 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Eurip. in Hec. acriores sunt morsus libortatis intermissae Cic. in Offic. when you have found the sweetnesse of Gods presence it will be a bitter thing to lose it 4. It s possible to keep it It is possible to be kept it is a comfort that care will keep it Object But few do maintain a constant communion with God but do at one time or other fall behinde hand Answ 1. This doth not argue it impossible but difficult 2. The more difficult the greater care is required and a wise man stirres the more when a case is difficult Object But God doth sometimes of his own pleasure shorten and diminish the influences of his Spirit l Animus fortis crescit inipsa rerū difficultate Bern. ep 256. even because he will and that for ends best knowne to himselfe Answ 1. If it be not for your default it is not lost by you though in such a cafe it be lost to you because you have it not yet you have not lost it so it is without sin to you as it is in bodily health if it depart but not by our default by want of due care of it we sin not it is our present affliction not our fault 2. Whom God hath so left he hath not left in that maner as he doth others as we may see in examples 1. He denyeth not a generall assistance but a spetiall that is he withdrawes not all those workings of his power by want of which an universall weaknesse and dcadnesse overspreads his servants but in some particular case only as in Peter Christ did not leave him to a generall declension but to a particular slip 2. He did sooner return to Peter and caused Peter to return to himself 3. He communicates more to them afterward so Peter gained by his losse 3. Wee are not so much to minde what God doth in the way of his free pleasure and absolute soveraignty as what he doth in ordinary nor so much what he will doe as what he will that we shall doe nor so much what the Issue of our work shall be as what our rule is This out of doubt we shall finde by an holy walking even more of God if not at this time in this thing in this kinde or in this measure yet in another for our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. 1 Cor. 15.58 It is possible and frequent to finde little strength in some case and much in another it may be thy lusts may be working but thy heart melting fearing mourning warring praying and abounding in much spirituall life it may be in afflictions thou maist have more sorrow and unquietnesse of heart being not so abundantly filled with spirituall comfort but this may be recompensed in much meeknesse humbleness hungring after God dependance upon him c. God will not be wanting to thee that failest not thy selfe if thy love be constant to him much more is his to thee we say love descends stronglier then it ascends the father loves the childe better than the childe loves the father Gods love begets ours therefore it is not only a preventing love before ours but an excelling love above ours 5. It is an excellent thing in respect of 1 the meanes 1 Christ Consider the excellency of enjoyment of God 1. In the meanes of it 1 the Son of God dyed to obtain it his blood was poured out that there might be a way for man to have Communion with God we are made neare and have accesse to God and favours from God at no lesse price then the blood of the onely begotten Son of God 2. The Spirit himself is imployed to poure in the treasures of divine grace 2 The Spirit 3. All the Prophets Apostles Preachers yea 3. All ordinances the Word and Sacraments are the instruments of conveyance of this high favour It must needs be of great worth and excellency In respect of the effects 1. Comfort and happy concord for the effecting of which such high persons and excellent means are employed 2. In the effects 1. It brings great peace and solace because it sets the soule in an harmonious state m Omne bonum concordiae cognatum est Spond in hom Ilia 2 1. A man carried on in a heavenly course by a divine hand hath concord betwixt Conscience and himselfe Conscience Betwixt conscience and himselfe as it is a tutor for instruction so is a task master for exaction as it shewes what we owe so it demands it now when a man hath his rent ready for his Lords Baily he is not molested Conscience will murmure and grumble if a man come short n Mens conscia verbere caedit occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum Juven de improb Sat. 13. but holy walking keepes peace 2. Concord betwixt the affection and condition that is when a man enjoyeth God Betwixt the affection and condition he hath what he would have now if a man have what he loves he is satisfied as if you give a poore man riches his heart is eased Whom doth the godly man love and desire in the world more then God Psal 73.25 he is his light life strength Joy all in all to him Col. 3.11 3. Betwixt inclination and action Concord betwixt inclination and action when a man hath a principle that disposeth him to holinesse and yet is hindered or perverted this is a sicknesse and paine to the soule as if you stop water in its
thee but if thou forsake him hee will cast thee off for ever 1 Chron. 28 9. 2 When you do lesse then you have done When lesse done then hath beene though the cause be the same the same necessity still urging conscience still pressing opportunity still serving this was the sin of that back-sliding people Apoc. 2.4 They fell from their first workes Therefore Christ threatned to forsake them 3 When you doe lesse then those that have like abilities Lesse then others occasions engagements opportunities but much more clearely you sin when others that have more streights d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Asia dixit Agesilaus in Plut. more encumbrances lesse abilities lesse meanes lesse advantages shall exceed you in fruitfulnesse and all the wayes of godlinesse and piety 4 When you live not by what you doe When you live not by what you doe but lusts grow strong and grace weak and all is worse and worse as in the regiment of bodily health when a man declines it is a signe he hath not a due care of his dyet or rest or exercise you must hold up life the Church of Ephesus doubtlesse was doing but shee was still a loser her spirit and strength decayed as it is with him that is in his trade but doth not follow it to purpose and so goeth back in his estate according to the wise mans speech He becommeth poore that dealeth with a slack hand but the hand of the diligent maketh rich Prov. 10.4 By much sloth fulnesse the building decayeth and through idlenesse of the hands the house droppeth through Eccles 10.18 5 When God accepts not what you do When God accepts not what you doe when he is pleased with our wayes he sheweth his liking of them sometimes by a secret testimony giving Joy Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you ward 2 Cor. 1.12 Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God Heb. 11.4.5 sometimes by rewarding as hee did Phineas Numb 24.11 12 13. sometimes by filling the heart with much spirituall life and vigour in the work but where God accepts not there is a damp upon the spirit the duty goeth forth like the Raven out of the Ark but returneth not as the dove with an Olive branch in the mouth a man is no way bettered by what he doth 6 Enquire into the reason why you do lesse then God cals for When the cause of defect is evill or insufficient and take a true account of thy selfe aske thy heart what moves and take a full answer from it for you may discerne by the reason that it gives whether all bee well or no no doubt but it will have somewhat to pretend but weigh all in the ballance if the reason be insufficient you are sinfully deficient as if you finde slothfulnesse loathnesse to bee at so much paines which was their fault none stirreth up himselfe to c. Esay 64.7 or if it be respects to thy lusts thy needlesse ease superfluous gaine unnecessary employment unseasonable delight these and such like robbing God of his due leave a great guilt upon the soule Quest 2. Quest How a man may know hee doth his duty when the heart is still pressed to more and more than is done Answ 1 Answ by Caution By way of Caution Answ By way of Proposition 1. Caution Be liberal be liberall keepe your hearts open and full for God though other things should be done yet the heart may and ought to hang most after God these paths are more noble more sweet more sutable to a holy heart a childe should be willing to doe what his father bids him though hee send him as David into the field to keep sheep but he had rather be in his fathers presence you should alwayes come to God with delight in him and go away w th desire after him as they say in meats it is good to leave with an appetite sanety is hurtful that friend is scarce welcome that is glad to be gone from us t is a signe you have little love to God when you come with unwillingnesse stay with wearinesse and goe out with gladnisse be ever bent towards him account your duties and converse with him your pleasant seasons let all other things be as your labour this as your meale bever think you do enough say as David I will yet praise him more and more Psal 71.14 Rationall else you may be oppressed 2 Caution be rationall Take heed of being bound with more lawes then are imposed by God and of adding to the yoke which he puts upon you there may be much deceit in this in having the heart engaged to more than God requires There are two things whild concurring with principles and dispoâ—tions that are good and holy Things oppressing may ven the soule with a kinde of spirituall oppression and extortion 1 An erroneous Conscience CoÌ„science erroneous as sometimes it erres by exacting lesse than â— should and giving acquittances when the debt is not fully discharged so sometimes it erres by going beyond its Commission and exacting above the bond A weak servant sent to gather up his masters debts may mistake his business by misjudging of the summes requiring an huÌ„dred pound where the boÌ„d is but for an hundred crownes The spirit of a maâ— is so apt to erre that like water which is hardly kept within its bounds if it transgresse not on the left hand by defect it often mistakes on the right had by excesse Thus superstitious spirits do more then they need and lye in the chaynes of their own making e Metum appellant Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. de superstit subjection themselves to ordinances and wayes which God made not Superstition is prodigall and there is this quality in men that in those things which indeed are enjoyned of GOD they are deficient but in their owne inventions abundant they are loath that God should carve for himselfe but if God will take it of their cuâ—ting they will goe farre So the Pharisees who in a way of religion were most irreligious neglected judgement and mercy Luke 11.42 but in traditions and rules of their owne coyning they were very free and liberall â—apistry offends more by addition and multiplication in religion then by substraction And as the superstitious so the melancholy and fearefull spirit are often ready to goe beyond the line and bring themselves into inhabitable and unsufferable wayes of religion where the sunne of piety in a mistaking and yeelding spirit is so hot that nothing can grow for it nature is parched strength wasted health impaired estate neglected I have knowne some that have thought themselves ill imployed in any thing but in the exercises of religion and when they have beene in their businesse
or at meat or in bed have beene forced to lay by all and to go to prayer or c. 2. Satan Satan puts men upon more as hee is sometimes an Angell of darknesse withholding men from good or drawing to evill so hee is sometimes as an angell of light exciting unto good For 1. It is his principle and constant rule as much as hee can to saile with the winde and to row with the tyde to joyne himselfe to the tempers and spirits of men in their owne way and if hee finde principles and dispositions not altogether so fit for his turne i◠hee cannot change them hee will rather use them as he findes them the◠crosse them So he found in the Iewis a great zeale for the Law of Moses and he makes this use of it to set them against the Gospel Saul also was one that made conscience as it seemeth of seeking God before he went to battle and hereupon Samuel not comming according to expectation Satan puts him to offer sacrifice himselfe and did it with that impetuousnesse and importunity that though Saul knew it was not his office yet the case standing as it did He forced himselfe and offered the burnt offering 1 Sam. 13.12 2 Satan hath in this way a great end he brings men by it into great straits what have the Iews lost by that misguided zeale and religious disposition and by this he wearieth and tyreth out the spirits of men in their way and breeds in them a dislike and wearinesse in religion riding the soule as it were out of breath so we have knowne many very forward and active for a time but now as wearied men they are laid down to rest and their life is gone By this also he works ill effects on others who by the rigorous courses of men religious looke upon religion as a tyrant who is able to summe up his treacheres what a plot was that which hee had at Corinth His device was to get advantage upon them 2 Cor. 2.11 and how he seeth a zeale in the Church against the offender and a mournfull spirit in the poore man and now he drives on the Chariot and works in the zealous spirit of the Church that they may hold on in a severe way against him that so He might be swallowed up of overmuch sorow 2 Cor. 2.7 Quest How a man may know when he is pressed to good that it is by Satan Answ Answ It is a sign Satan puts on to good The print of his foot will bee found where he hath been and though he put upon good yet it is ever in an ill way as for instance he may be discerned 1 When he divides piety from mercy When piety and mercy are separated and carieth the soule on without care of the body when God comes he comes with much goodnesse and as Iacob drave softly as the children and cattle were able Gen. 33.14 so he will not so put on the soul as to destroy the body grace and the law are for the perfection of nature not destruction the religion that Satan deviseth is hard and cruell how did the Priests of Baal cut and launce themselves even till the blood poured out 1 Kings 18.28 The Jewes learned of God to sacrifice beasts but of Satan to sacrifice their children They burned their sons and their daughters in the fire which I commanded them not neither came it into my heart Jer. 7.31 rather then his servants shall be oppressed he will lose his right I will have mercy and not sacrifice Mat. 12.7 Yet we must not presse this rule of mercy too far to an immoderate indulgence unto nature the soule must not be too much loser by the body nor God for man nor must this be extended to the base favouring and sparing of our selves in times of persecution For he that so saves himselfe shall lose himselfe Luke 9.24 If you send your servant upon businesse of great concernment and he fall sick and so do not what you expected you excuse him but if hee say as the sluggard Prov. 20.4 the winde blew and the ayre was stormy and wet and cold you will not take this well So when you cannot do him service through disproportion of your strength to your work he will beare with you but what ever it costs you from men and devils when you know his will as you are able you must obey 2 When he divides betwixt piety and charity When piety and charity separated as when the Jewes devoted so much to pious uses that they left nothing for their friends no not for their parents but when their father and father in necessity asked reliefe they said It is a gift by whatsoever thou maist be profited by me Mat. 15.5 that is to say that which thou askest for thy supply is given to another use and I have nothing for thee Again when men walk in such a way of religion that they provide not for their families which is so far from Christianity that the Apostle saith He is worse than an Infidel that provideth not for his family 1 Tim. 5.8 Again when servants bestow that time with God which belongs to man God never demands of you that which is not yours he never requires you to rob your masters to pay him 3 When without order and reason When without order as when you are put upon one duty in the season of another as when your calling refreshing occasions truly and necessarily call you one way and yet conscience driveth another or when you are hearing to be put upon reading Again when you are put upon extraordinary duties without extraordinary occasion or when put upon such actions as belong not to your place as Saul to offer sacrifice Vzziah to burne incense Let this suffice for the first way of answering the question The second way of answering is by Proposition 2 Answ to the main Quest by propositiō 1. Proposition There are bounds of duties of godlinesse Godliness hath bounds for the law is full of reason now reason requires no action without limits if it bid a man eat give labour c. it together with the matter includes the measure if a master bid his servant goe and say not whither and how far how can the servant obey whē he knoweth not his masters minde if I would have an house built or a garment made except I appoint the bounds and measure how can the artificer fit my desire Now there are bounds for extension of actions Now there are bounds for limitation of actions The bounds of extension shew how far you are to goe First for extension And I will in generall lay downe three rules to finde this out how much you must doe 1 Ability and opportunity Ability and opportunity Where much is given much is required and to whom men have given much of him they aske more Luke 12.48 Where God soweth much he will reap much that may be
case must beâ— right with confidence in the migâ—â— and mercy of God you have abundant cause of chearefulnesse in comming to him for besides this thâ—â— it is his glory to heare and that â—â— intercessor who hath taught us 〈◊〉 pray that we bee not ledde into temptation but to bee delivered from evilâ— and prayed for us himselfe is with him m Christus inter nos petitor cum patre dator non utique nos hortaretur ut peteremus nisi dare vellet Aug. Ser. â—9 de verb Dom. Erubescat humana pigritia plus vult ille dare quam nos accipere ib. and deare to him consider this is Gods glory that the life and strength of his people depends upon him he helped Iesus Christ our head Esay 42.6 and if he should not helpe you the work would not be perfected and so all that Christ hath done would come to nothing God hath called you to this way and hath appointed you by it to come to him so that his end should fayle if he help not for this cause you have but little in your selves that you might live dayly upon his almes God leaves in you necessity n Donum habitualis gratiae non ad hoc datur ut per ipsum non indigeamus ulteruis divino auxilio c. etiam in statu gloriae quando gratia erit omnino perfecta homo divino auxilio indigebit hic autem aliqualiter gratia imperfecta est in quaâ—tum hominem non totali or sanat Aquin. Sum. 12. q. 109. a. 9. that he may better shew his mercy he will uphold what his hand hath built you have experience of his presence if he had not beene with you you had not now beene with him his promise is with you Loe I am with you alwayes even to the end of the world Matth. 28.20 It is a full promise like a streame of living waters running in the Church for ever he saith not I will be with you but I am with you that we might be confident of his constant presence and he hath laid up much treasure in this promise and therefore bids us looke well into it exciting by thâ— word Lo which he sets as a Beacon oâ— a hill or as a speciall marke upon the head of this promise as having much in it Therefore come unto God in much assurance he hates suspitions and jealousies Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtaine mercy and finde grace to helpe in time if neede Heb. 4.16 This may be your comfort that what you have not is your selves you have in God and what you have in God is yours by promise goe then and sue God upon his owne bond God will be sought o Poterat nobis etiam non orantibus dare sed oratione nostra nos voluit admonere à quo accipiamus haec beneficia Aug de bon persev c. 7. prayer is the key of the promise Ezech. 36.36 37. Though God be our friend he may passe by us if he be not called in but when he is going from us prayer takes hold when Christ made as if he would have gone further being come to I maus The disciples constrained him saying abide with us and he went in to tarâ— with them Luke 24.28 29. David found God when he â—ought him In the do when I cryed thou answeredst me and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul Psal 138.3 When the angell sounded glory to God he proclaymed peace and expectation or hope to us as some reade it Luke 2.14 p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expecto unde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expectatio Lud. de Dieu 3. The end of your desire must bee observed for if your end be wrong you are not like to speed take heed of drawing downe the things of God to your ends for this is evill Looke to the end it is a making of God to serve you for the end rules and all that leads to it is beneath it the and is above the meanes and all the meanes as Iacobs sonnes sheases bow to Iosephs sheafe doe homage to the end they are all for the ends sake and what a thing is this to set God in a servility to our designes if the vessells of the temple might not be put to common use how much lesse the help of grace take heed therefore of seeking your selves and desiring assistance to advance your selves this is to desire God to lend his help against himselfe and to make his Spirit the ladder of our ambition it is as if a Pyrat should crave ayde of his Prince to rob his Country or as if a subject should pray his Soveraigne to help him to lift the Crowne from his head to set it upon his owne head you may seeke your selves your owne ends are allowed you but they must keep their place God must be your last end come then and say Lord help me that I may honour thee I owe all to thee but I can doe nothing without thee if I have life from thee I will live to thee what I receive from thee I will lay out for thee restore unto me the joy of thy salvation uphold me with thy free Spirit this is Davids prayer but what is his end Then will I teach transgressors thy wayes and sinners shall be converted unto thee Psal 51.12 13. As if he had said helpe me by thy hand and I will help others Draw me and I will bring company with me we will run after thee Cant 1.4 Againe the words following also shew the like spirit in him O Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shen forth thy praise Psal 51.15 as if he had said my tongue is like an instrument prepared if thy mercy may but touch the strings it shall sound forth thy name I will runne the way of thy Commandements when thou shalt enlarge my heart Psal 119.32 Hold thou me up and I shall be safe and I will have respect unto thy Statutes continually ver 117. Thus bee you faithfull with God and his helpe will not fayle you but while your eye is on him his hand is with you CHAP. XXII Fourth meanes keeping the favour of God with Directions how to doe it FOurthly keep his favour Direct 4. Keep Gods favour and you shall keep his presence love delights and dwels with love though the Lord have married you to himself in a covenant that is unchangeable yet you may have lesse of your husbands company except you keep his love it is not inevitable transgression but voluntary offences which separateth betwixt God and you q O pus est ut tu non recedas ab eo qui â—unquam recedit opus est ut non deseras non desereris noâ—cadere non tibi occidet si feceris casum ille tibi faciet occasum si autem tustas praesens est tibi Aug.
but little of his trade and art cannot make compleat worke but his worke will carry a print of the weaknesse of his skill A famous Painter comming to his friends house and not meeting with him would not leave his name but with his pencill drew a line and bad the servant shew his master the line and when he came home and saw it he knew whose hand it was The Apostle tooke care to raise up the bounty of the Corinthians to such a height that something might be done that might be excellent and honourable 2 Cor. 9.5 So that all that you do wil be more mature and excellent by how much the more grace you have and the more perfect your actions are the better will your reward be they shall have more praise with God and your desire should be that all be done exactly l Perfectum esse nolle delinquere est Hieron Epist 1. de vit solit laude 3. Lesse sweete The more grace is raysed in you the sweeter will your way be and that 1. Because there will be a greater agreement betweene your spirits and your worke and rule what is the cause of that wearinesse in duty m Lassitudo est deficientia virtutis moventis Scalig. de subtil exercit 76.4 and backwardnesse to it but a disproportion betweene you and it when your hearts are more prepared you will be as a smooth bowle in a smooth way which runneth with much ease and few rubbes 2. There is a sweetnesse in doing good and the more you are able to doe the more sweetnesse you have the deeper you digge the more treasure you shall finde every action spiritually performed casteth a reward upon the soule it is like the pressing of grapes his labour droppes in that which is better than wine the waies of God are as beds of spices the more you walk in them the more they requite you with sweet delights and inward refreshments all the waies of wisedome are waies of pleasantnesse Prov. 3.17 Here motion is rest as in the heavens their perfection is their motion Gods waies are large the soule is most free and at greatest liberty in them n Libertas voluntatis est amplitudo c. Gibieuf de libert Dei creaturae l. 1. c. 1. Iniquitas arcta est sola innocentia lata est Aug apud eund 4. The lesse grace the more corruptions this is the nature of contraries which admit no middle thing More corruptions to partake of either that where one is not there the other is and the losse of one the more of the other as the lesse light in the ayre the more darknesse now so farre you are miserable as you are sinfull it is not immunity from calamities but from sinne which makes happy and what calamity is not upon him that hath many and strong corruptions thinke of all evills in the world and you shall finde them meeting in such a one his lusts are all evills and containe all in their bowells feares sorrowes wants warres chaines wastings sicknesse c. 5. The greater measure of grace brings in more comfort Much grace brings much comfort little grace will bring but little joy 1. The soule is not so capable much grace makes capacious a little vessell cannot receive much It makes the soule capacious a small candle cannot give much light The same promises are sweetest to the heart that hath most of God the same food is sweeter to a healthfull strong man than to a sickly weake man the godly here have the same objective happinesse with the Saints in heaven but not the same subjective happinesse they are more happy in heaven because they are more capacious and take in more of God 2. The lesse grace the lesse evidence of truth and of Gods favour as a letter written in small and imperfect letters is not so legible as that which is written with more full characters It gives more evidence you will be troubled to spell Gods love out of weak and low graces what is grace but a seale and stamp of God upon a man the more visible the seale is the more assurance it yeelds when a plant is in the sprout you can hardly discern what it is but when it riseth up into a tree it sheweth it selfe fully gold in the Oare cannot be discerned by every eye but when the earth and drosse is taken away then it is apparent in a cloudy night the little starres are hid but the greater are more easily seene 3. Comfort is usually given as a reward they that are very holy Comfort is the reward of grace and walk much with God in much love and heavenly mindednesse do usually exceed others in comfort Acts 9.31 They being edified walked in the feare of the Lord and the comforts of the Holy Ghost Though sometimes the best and chiefe of the Saints come short in comforts yet I say that they have cause more than others and it is by accident that they rejoycenot either they mind not what they have received or they are under a darke cloud of unbeliefe which cuts off the light of joy from them but whose fault is it the promise lyeth faire for them and they have a greater advantage to beleeve than others because with the promise they have a pledge 6. That little which you have is for this end left defective The end of what you have is to put you to seek more that labouring with meekenesse you might seeke continually for more God hath so ordered the conditions of his people that he will have them live in a perpetuall dependance and come daily to the throne of grace for almes and more encourage your selves for God is on the giving hand the dayes of the gospell are dole-dayes he hath reserved better things for his people now than he gave in former daies the Church of the Iewes was a child in Minority and had lesse Gal. 4.1 But in these times hee promised to poure out his spirit more abundantly Ioel 3.28 Which though it was literally fulfilled and more eminently in the comming of the Holy-ghost upon them Acts 2.17 yet it extends it selfe unto all the Church unto the end Acts 2.39 So the Apostle acknowledgeth an abundance of grace upon the godly afterward 2 Cor. 8.7 Ephes 1.8 Tit. 3.6 These times are also times of affliction and trouble and God is wont in such times to give much of himselfe therefore seek to abound and to this end labour to recover your selves and to gaine the good presence of God with you which you have lost CHAP. XXVIII Two directions how to seek recovery NOw I come to the third thing propounded in the way of cure Directions to further your endeavours of recovering your losse Direct 1 First quicken your desires after God for desires will yeeld a twofold advantage Quicken desires after God For 1. they have a promise 1. The promise is full to such as 〈◊〉 sire much
disobedience when a man sinne against such strong and continued cals a friend takes it ill when he is often denyed and long put off in a thing much desired and strongly requested 3 Listen to conscience for that is Gods deputy and it will tell you what it is that God takes ill at your hands observe at what dore conscience layeth this sad birth this miserable plight of soule which you are in for that is like to bee the Father as God witnesseth with our spirits so usually he chides with them at least he never chides without them but when he will rebuke he sets conscience to doe it heare then its errands and receive its charge it may be it will say this is thy pride or thy slightnesse in duties thy neglect of God and Christ thy harboured lusts c. I deny not but Conscience may erre and doth often charging that as sin which is no sin or making sin greater then it is or accusing a man of that which he is not guilty of or judging and condemning when the sin is pardoned therefore I adde 4 Pray the Lord to shew you wherein you have offended it was Elihu his counsell to Iob in his sad case Surely it is meete to be said unto God I have borne chastisement I will not offend any more that which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will doe no more Job 34.31 32. And when you are convinced of the evill of your wayes then look on them mourn over them◠what a thing is this that I should provoke him to leave me in whose presence I have had such light such life such strength such liberty such peace such victories such treasures such joyes Heare oh ye heavens for I have committed two great evils I have forsaken the fountain of living waters an◠have digged to my selfe cisterns broken cisterns that hold no water Jer. 2.12 Oh wretch that I am that that precious communion which I had with my God was of no more esteem with me that those sweet streames of comfort which I now want but then had from the well of life those quickning beames from the Sun of righteousnesse those refreshing those ravishing sights and tasts of Jesus Christ those pleasant banquet◠which I had in the ordinances and i◠duties those blessed embraces of the everlasting armes of the Lord my God were of so low account with me that I should lose them by my folly I have been careful to keep my name my state my health yea my vanities but I have not been careful to keep my God that life and comfort of the Spirit which Christ purchased with his blood I like prophane Esau have sold for nought Woe is me that the Spirit of Jesus Christ should come in mercy to make his abode with me and yet hath no better entertainment I set the doores open that he might depart yea by entertainning lusts and vanities I have made him weary of his dwelling and he is gone in anger that came in love u Lysimachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. Apophth de sanitate tuendâ that which I begged with teares and enjoyed with comfort I have lost for sin oh what have I done against my God yea what against my selfe what madnesse was this to gain my lusts and lose my God like that great Commander who sold himselfe for a draught of water Thus break open the rountains within and adde sorrow to sorrow drink your teares like water and mourne and mourn again say oh my folly that have lost that for want of care which now◠would redeeme with my blood bu◠when once God is gone who can te◠me when he will returne againe he◠goeth from many and takes leave for ever and now if I goe long in heavinesse I may thanke my selfe if my soule be spoiled with long hostilities and tyrannies of the power of darknesse if my sins rage like the Sea if I walke a◠a shadow of death my owne hand hath brought all this upon me for God left not me till I left him x Tu me non deseris nisi prius ego te deseram Aug. in Solilo cap. 14. Yea further cause the waters of sorrow to rise yet higher look upon former times and say what was I then what am I now my silver is become drosse take up the lamentation of the Church and make it yours How is the gold become dimme how is the most fine gold changed the stones of the Sanctuary are poured out in the top of every streete the precious sons of Zion comparable to fine gold how are they as earthen pitchers the work of the hands of the potter they that fed delicately are desolate in the streetes they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghils her Nazarites were purer then snow they were whiter then milk they were more ruddy then Rubies their polishing was of Saphire but now their visage is darker then blacknesse their skin cleaveth to their bones it is withered it is become like a stick we are orphans and father lesse our necks are under persecution and we have no rest servants have ruled over us and there is none that doth deliver us out of their hands the joy of our heart is ceased our dancing is turned into mourning the crowne is fallen from our heads woe unto us that we have sinned for this our heart is faint for these things our eye is dimme Lament 4.1 2 5 7. Chap. 5.3 5 8 15 16 17. Look about you and gather matter of sorrow into your hearts cast your eyes upon your wayes and say how little good have I done how much evill how poore is my life my duties like things without life and my unfaithfulnesse appeares as the light in all my wayes I wonder how I could own such actions which stand all like the children of beggers clothed with ragges and full of vermine cast your eyes upon others and say such as had lesse engagements lesse encouragements then I are got far◠before me the last is first and the first last many are grieved and dulled by my deadnesse that should have been quickned by my life look up to God and say Oh foolish and unjust man have I thus requited the Lord my God look up to heaven and say I might by sowing much have made my harvest rich and full but now it is just I should reap little that have sowed little yea that having sowed vanity I should reap iniquitie Repentance is the way to make up your losses and to repaire your ruines God hath promised grace and mercy to the penitent y Qui delictis poenam per judicium destinavit idem veniam per poenitentiam spopondit Tertul. de poenit When thou art in tribulation all these things are come upon thee or have found thee if thou turne to the Lord thy God thou shalt finde him for the Lord thy God is a mercifull God he will not forsake thee
now it hath in enjoying God this sometimes rising high inclineth to thinke that God is gone it is the nature of a fearefull heart to fall from care to feare from feare to jealousies from jealous suspitions to sad conclusions as the mother out of the vehemency of affection to her childe if hee bee out of her sight first taketh care then is filled with feares and sad conjectures at last cryeth out where is my childe 2. Love is liberall and is never satisfied it would still doe better and be better and the more it is the lesse it seemes to it selfe and is so enlarged in dispositions and resolutions to doe good that as it knoweth it cannot doe enough so it is apt to thinke it doth almost nothing hence many complaints arise that it is not with them as in former dayes that which they did before seemed much then because love was not much and now all seemes little because love is great But you should consider that God is much there where he workes much and that this flame of love is blowne up by him for God is love 1 John 4.16 that is to say the fountaine and author of love as love is eminently and infinitely in him so it floweth from him And he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him CHAP. XXXI The false Rules of mens judging themselves causing mistake in this case IUdging by false Rules The first false rule Lesse vivacity is a third cause of mistakes as for instance 1. Men judge that they are deserted and feare they are in a state of declension because they have lesse quicknesse and vivacity as they conceive then they have had I confesse this is an ill signe Here 4. considerations about vivacity of spirit yet this may be where there is no just cause of such sad conclusions and to satisfie such let me propound foure things 1 Distinguish betwixt Gods working in gifts and his working in graces Distinguish betwixt Gods working in gifts graces God is sometimes pleased to carry up the gifts of men very high when their spirituall life hath not a proportionable elevation we see he is much this way sometimes in men that are not good gifts are given to the members for the body and for others sakes oftentimes he poureth out great measures and beareth them on with a full gale of assistance and when the work is done to which those gifts serve then God may withdraw I doubt not but many saithfull preachers may finde a weaknesse and dulnesse in their gifts in Judgement upon the people for the deafnesse of the hearers he smites the messengers dumb and so in sundry cases it may fall out it is said Christ could doe there in his owne countrey no mighty worke c. Mark 6.5 his hands were as it were tyed and bound his power was suspended because of their unbeliefe and where God had some great work to doe he opened the hearts of the Apostles and much enlarged their spirits wisely therefore distinguish betwixt gifts and graces though you be not able to doe as you have done yet see into the frame and disposition of your hearts towards God for that may continue when the other fadeth It may be you have not occasion for the use of gifts as heretofore and except they be used they grow dull inevitably as the most expert Musitian by disuse may lose his skill But note here that where there is occasion and use of gifts and they are not stirred up but suffered by idlenesse and carelesnesse to be quenched this is a sin against the Spirit and breeds a damp not only upon gifts but upon grace 2 God may and doth give sometimes more full assistance to the graces of his people then he will perpetually continue God in some cases gives more then hee will continue and the abatement of this is no just cause of concluding that God hath forsaken them 1 In times of seeking to him In times of actuall converse with him and of mediate converse in prayer and meditation and the like there is a fuller taste of him than at other times a godly man enjoyeth God in all things but especially in duties of piety there is an evident reason why a man hath more of God then because grace is now acting and feeding upon God duties are the meales of a Christian and other actions are his work he comes in duties to receive strength in other things be useth it as the body gets strength and refreshment by eating and draweth it out in working and then comes to repaire it againe by eating times of immediate approach to God are meeting times there is a mutuall visit betwixt God and the soule and this is the proper end of these things that God and the soule may meet together it were an happy thing if those impressions which the foul receiveth at such times were abiding but such is our condition here that wee must hunger and eate and when wee are filled we shall hunger again Heaven is the place of constant life there is a continuall feast but here we cannot have it so the minde is but finite and being of necessity to converse with other things besides God it cannot be expected that it should be so constantly filled with him so much a man enjoyeth him as he seriously mindes him therefore they that neglect duties or slightly perform them must needs lose much of God but it is not to be expected to carry such a spirit in other employments and in other actions as in conversing with God though the more a man hath in duties the better he will be in all things In times of great necessity and the fitter to meete God in his seasons 2 In times of great necessity God is wont to afford more of himselfe then at other times when tentations afflictions and dangers are many and great then as a father when his childe comes to a ditch or deepe way which hee cannot passe takes up the child into his armes but when hee is got over setteth him down againe so God in such hard cases ministreth more abundant ayde which he doth not continue alwayes Hence we see that even the weakest of the flock become Lions and those that seemed to be but little prove like mighty Champions victoriously conquering all difficulties and treading under feete the glory and terror of the world yea the feares of death it selfe These by the transcendent noblenesse and high courage of spirit so far above their ordinary pitch doe declare that there is another power with them than their owne which makes them so gloriously to exceed not others only but themselves also As the Spirit came upon Sampson when the Philistins came upon him so it is in this case but God is not alwayes at so much cost when the necessities of his people are lesse then he gives them their accustomed pension when Israel was in the desart a place barren of comforts
they come from Heaven yet like plants that are carried out of their native soyle and climat keepe not their sweetnesse in a constant height a man warmeth himselfe at the fire and is refreshed but this refreshment weares off againe 2. In times of great afflictions the greatest comforts are usually found in sufferings then God opens himselfe 2 Cor. 1.4 5. The Martyres did shine like starres in the night of persecution and abounded most in comfort when filled most with troubles 3. In the Ordinances lively administred here so much is found that a man saith as the Apostle it is good to be here yea as Iacob This is none other but the house of God this is the gate of Heaven Gen. 28.17 * Tertul. l. de fugat Putat Iacobum hic vidisse Christum apud Cornel a lap in loc 4 In times of abundant sorrow and melting of heart God often in such cases breaks in with sweet effusions of peace as to Ephraim Ier. 31.18 19 20. 5 At the time of Conversion God often comes with extraordinary comfort many as one observeth came to Christ in their sins and went away renewed afflicted and went away comforted coming with an hell in their soules and going away with Heaven having a fulnesse of joy instead of a fulnesse of feares I need not make farther instances the case is cleare that comfort may fule yet except a man lose that comfort which he ordinarily did enjoy hee is not deserted 3. It is an eminent losse 3. An eminent losse it is not every cloud that makes night but when the ayre is full of darknesse 4. Not a fit but a state of uncomfortablenesse when the Sun is set 4. It is not a fit of uncomfortablenesse but a state an eclipse of the Sun makes not night hee is not a poore man that hath a present want but hee that lives in want every cold blast makes not winter Secondly The Degrees the degrees of this uncomfortable state follow to be considered there are some nights darker than others and some winters colder than other and there are degrees of Gods withdrawing from the soule 1. Degree when his quieting presence is much abated When quickning is abated 1. Not so full as hath beene 1. Not so full God seemes not so friendly but lookes somewhat more strangely so that the soule complaines as Iacob I see your Father countenance that it is not towards me a before Gen. 31.5 When the soule come to God it findes not those enliveniâ— and refreshing visions and tasts the 〈◊〉 of consolation that was wont to bâ— filled is now but empty the heavens aâ—â— not so cleere his hopes are not so full his knowledge of his happinesse 〈◊〉 more obscured and feares begin to ovâ—â— flow the light of Gods face is darlened and the soule is troubled 2. Not so frequent 2. Not so frequent the visits of the comforting Spirit are more seldome God holds off as if hee were about to breake off from the soule it is a griefe when a friend goeth often by us and seldome owneth us so it is heavinesse when the soule complaines to use the words of Iob in another sense Lo hee goeth by me and I see him not he passeth on also but I perceive him not Iob. 9.11 Time was when the soule had good newes from Heaven every day but now she is like the wife who when her husband is gone far from her heares but seldome from him returnes are not so quick at a great distance God is so sparing in manifestations of kindnesse that the soule thinks it long How long wilt thou forget me oh Lord for ever how long wilt thou hide thy face from me Psal 13.1 Is his mercy cleane gone for ever doth his promise faile for evermore will the Lord cast off for ever and will hee be favourable no more Hath GOD forgotten to bee gracious hath hee in anger shut up his tender mercies Psal 77.7 8 9. My soule fainteth for thy salvation I hope in thy word mine eyes faile for thy word when wilt thou comfort me Ps 119.81 82. 3. Not so permanent 3. Not so permaneÌ„t God comes and goes the day of their peace is often overcast the comforts which did flow ebb againe the soule is grieved as much with Gods sudden departure as delighted in his gracious presence it hath not so constant health but is well onely by fits the soule that was as a dwelling-place to her friend is but as an Inne now Hee whom shee loves comes rather as a stranger and as a passenger than an inhabitant so that here you may heare the Prophets complaint Oh the hope of Israel the Saviour therof in the time of trouble why should 〈◊〉 thou be as a stranger in the land and 〈◊〉 way faring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night Jer. 14.8 Comfort come like thin clouds that yeeld sweet showers but are soone gone the gourd whose shade was sweet soone withers thâ— heart is become like a cracked vessel which though it receive much yet holds but little the waters of life run out as fast as they come in The second degree of desertion and uncomfortablenesse Degree Much quickness but no quietness is when there is much quicknesse but no quietnesse grace lives but peace dies the soule is so farre happie that it seekes what it hath lost but herein unhappie that it finds not what it seekes it thirsts but drinkes not it runnes but obtaines not holiness is in flourish but it is the winter of comfort David was full of holy affections even when he was empty of consolation when is the heart in better case then when it cals inquires runneth weepeth sigheth cryes after God yet in such a case a man may want all comfort the richest ships may wander in the darke and be tossed in the storme sometimes a father will frowne upon the best and dearest childe the most living Christian may lay himselfe out for dead Ps 88. Grace and peace are not linked in indissoluble society these lovers may shake hands and part And the more a man abounds in grace the more grievous it is to want the comfortable presence of God a fathers frowne and such a fathers frowne is bitter to so filiall a spirit strangenesse to strangers is not strange but to lovers it is grievous But it is a lesse evill in it selfe when God is with the soule quickning it though he doe not comfort it then when God leaveth it in uncomfortable deadnesse though it be more bitter to sense yet in reason it is worse when comfort ceaseth and grace sleepeth at once 3. Degree when both are gone Degree When neither comfort nor livelinesse but a night of darknesse and wofull deadnesse covers the soule when hope and love are both in a damp so that a man is as farre from a holy and living state of heart as from comfort neither joying nor desiring but being fallen from the
height of living and joyfull converse with God he is like the prodigall brought to another life to feed upon huskes with swine instead of bread in his Fathers house Many such there are who had reviving tasts of Iesus Christ and did rejoyce to see the streames of the well of Life sweetly flowing and with overflowing abundantly filling the Saints and themselves with comfort but now the tree in the midst of their paradise is to them like the withered fig-tree the shadow and fruit of it ceaseth and they are miserable in the losse of that which is the happinesse of those that have it and herein their misery is so much the greater by how much they count it less Is it not a sad thing to see a man so degenerated that he can live without his life and rest out of his place that place where hee hath had such peace and such contentment Oh here is an heavie spectacle a man hath lost his estate and he grieves hee hath lost his name or health or c. and he grieves but hee hath lost his God and yet hee mournes not he saith it is well alas hee is not himselfe when the day breakes and the Sun sends out her beames into this darke region when a spirit of truth and life shall brings this wandring creature home againe and cause him to bee himselfe then you shall see the man acting another part alas what amazement will ceaze upon him how will he melt that is now frozen how will hee bee afflicted to see himselfe and his case in which now he lieth as quiet as Peter in his chaines Acts 12. 4. Degree When not onely losse of comfort but affliction of soule Degree when God not onely suspends his comforts but afflicteth the soule not only not continuing the staffe of living bread but feeding them with the bread of sorrow and affliction which he doth diverse waies 1. 1. By rebukes of spirit 4. waies By rebukes of spirit the Spirit of God comes sometimes in a way of displeasure and chides and rebukes the soule this David found which maketh him often cry and mourne as the child whom his Father rebuketh this chiding is 1. A conviction of sin not onely of the fact but of the sinfulnesse God sometimes comes to set out a sin unto man and then it is very dreadful such a terror and astonishment ceazeth upon him by a full sight and sense of sinne as that if there bee not a supporting hand of grace and mercy extended to him he cannot stand under it Sin is a strange thing and if God should pull off the visage of this monster and discover fully the fearefull nature of it it would be a but then too heavie to be borne now then when God conceales his love and reveales guilt it must needs be bitter when a man seeth his inditement but hath not his pardon it must needs bee grievous 2. Opening the desert of sin and shewing a man into what a gulfe he hath cast himselfe that now in justice and in sentence of Law he stands condemned to eternall death when the grace of the promise is obscured and the justice of the Law lively presented it must needs cause a man to feare much Now saith God see what I may doe I may cause all thy welfare to passe away like a cloud and bring in a deluge of woes upon thee I might shut thee by a decreed banishment from my presence and cast thee as a stone that is hurled from a sling into hell for ever Such words as these are heavier than mountaines when the soule seeth that vastnesse of eternity filled with death and sufferings and seeth not the refuge in the Gospel this is a great shaking to the soule 3 By holding the eye upon these sad things so that whithersoever a man turnes his sinne is with him and hell before him the cry of sinne and the curse of the law is ever in his eares My sinne is ever before me Psal 51.3 It was also Iobs sad case that the sinnes which he thought he had beene rid of long agoe returned upon him and did so cleave to him as if they had been his possession Thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possesse the iniquities of my youth thou puttest my feete also into the stockes c. Job 13.26 27. this is an heavy thing when God continueth in this way of displeasure breaking the spirit with these grievous charges 4 By menacing outward or inward troubles as he did to David when hee had sinned greatly against him he told him what he would doe how he would follow him with evills for ever and that his posterity should rue his folly and when he had numbred the people what a severe way did God take now temporary evills especially spirituall are often very grievous when God shall say I will shut up my peace and my comforts from thee thou rebell and ungratefull wretch thou shalt no more see my face as thou hast done others shall drinke but thou shalt thirst others shall rejoyce but thou shalt mourne I will no more meete thee as I have done I will spare thy life but I will not shew thee my favour all thy dayes thou shalt live dubiously and dye anxiously I say when these words are heard what an heavy case is this how did David even wast himselfe with grieving when God did estrange himselfe Psal 32. Psal 51. But when God shall menace not onely this but hell and eternall death this is farre more grievous but this God doth even to his owne and sets it on so strongly that hee makes often their spirits to waste and their strength to consume David and Heman were drenched in these deepes and how grievous were their complaints 2. 2. By tradition of the soule 1. Into its own hands By tradition of the soule 1. Into its owne hands the heart of a man is the greatest tyrant and cruellest monster against it selfe it is more a divell than the divell he needs no furies to fulfill his troubles who is given up unto an accusing spirit e Nihil est miserius quam animus hominis conscius Plaut This is grievous it hath cries clamors stripes stings wounds deaths it will be law witnesse plaintife judge executioner chaines rackes gibbets what not hee hath a hell within him that is in such a case For consider 1. The temper and nature of the soule it is receptive of much evill and misery and very active and this activity is improved to selfe affliction 1. Byguilt which is as powder to the flames or as the windes to seas which makes them to rage and boyle 2. By the weapons which the heart disquieted hath against it selfe an eternall God and a just Law 3. By unbeleefe by which the soule is made naked to her owne blowes a guilty conscience strikes the promise out of a mans hand and drawes the sword and sheathes it in the soule it undermines
all forts and batters downe all comforts in former evidences as wals of paper it cuts off all reliefe and presents God unwilling to hearken to any reconcilement and it hath also many abettors which contribute strength to make this man more bloody as temper of body which powers in abundance of darke and black thoughts and passions and the Censures of others who by their cloudy aspects and rejecting carriages do sharpen the sword in the hands of an unbeleeving and accusing conscience that it may make more gastly wounds and draw out fuller streames of blood Thus the soule like the man that fell into the hands of Theeves is left halfe dead distracting and accusing thoughts are worse than robbers a man may say of them what David said of Goliahs sword There is none like that 1 Sam. 21.9 Here is a soare battell when the soule like Saul fals upon its owne sword 1 Sam. 31.4 2. The power of God God hath given to Conscience a commission to afflict God hath a hand in all things working and ordering hee can send Hornets into the soule even stinging thoughts and piercing feares He ruleth much in mens spirits and in these seas raiseth stormes at pleasure though hee worke not despairing thoughts in his yet he ordereth that unbeliefe which is in them and as he orders the finfulnesse of mens hearts this way or that way not being a cause of it so hee doth in this case yea hee doth present sin and wrath so that the heart being left to its owne darkenesse and unbeliefe cannot but be a cruell and active enemie against it selfe and now as the Prophet said in that case so it may be said to a man in this case Oh thou sword of the Lord how long will it be ere thou be quiet put up thy selfe into thy scabbard rest and be still how can it be quiet seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Askelon and against the sea shoare there hath he appointed it Jer. 47.6 7. 2. 2. Into Satans hands Into Satans hands God may leave his people much to the will of Satan as he did Iob and he out of envie at our happinesse enmity against God hatred of us is willing to improve all his skill and power to afflict the Saints so that a man may here take up that complaint His troupes come together and raise up their way against mee and encampe round about my Tabernacle Iob 19.12 5. Degree Degree When to all this other evils are added when to all this he adds an accumulation of other miseries as 1. the disfavour of the Saints this is a great cutting to an holy heart for hee construeth their favour and disfavour to be the reflexion of Gods and inded oftentimes God sets on his Children against such as hee is displeased with as a Master of a family saith to his houshold concerning a child which hee will correct for much stubbornnesse shew him no countenance eate not with him keepe not with him so here God saith with such a one have no amity no fellowship no familiarity it was a great griefe to Iob and he complaineth of it Hee hath put my brethren farre from me and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me my kinsfolke have failed and my familiar friends have forgotten me they that dwell in mine house and my maids count me for a stranger I am an aliant in their sight I called my servant and he gave mee no answer I intreated him with my mouth my breath is strange to my wife though I intreated for the childrens sake of mine owne body yea young children despised me I arose and they spake against me all my inward friends abhorred me and they whom I loved are turned against me c. Job 19.13.20 You see sometimes how even the nearest friends fall off with God and when divine grace is clouded nature it selfe is also clouded Heman also found this evill to all his evils Thou hast put away mine acquaintance farre from me thou hast made mee an abomination to them Psal 88.6 2. The losse of worldly comforts as peace liberty estate c. this was Iobs case Now when the soule is bereft of all comforts from heaven and from earth it is an heavie case 3. The losse of the meanes of grace God may remove his Candlestick and take away the Shew-bread the doores of his house may be shut or a man may bee imprisoned by sicknesse so that the clouds above and the springs beneath failing breed sore distresse 6. Degree Degree When all this is continued When all this is extended and continued so that a man complaines not of dayes but yeares of affliction a man may lie long in this miserable plight like Paul and his company to whom neither Sun nor Stars appeared for many daies a Nec mihi dant stellae lucem nec Cynthia lumen Causin aenigm 8. Acts 27.20 Hence come those mournefull sighings Lord how long will the Lord cast off for ever will he be favourable no more c. How many are the dayes of thy servant Psal 119.84 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up Psal 88.15 There may bee much praying that God would breake these darke clouds and shine upon the soule a man may cry with Iob Oh that I knew where I might finde him that I might come even to his seat cap. 23.3 and with the Church may call after him yet may complaine Behold I goe forward but he is not there and backward but I cannot not perceive him on the left hand but I cannot behold him he hideth himselfe on the right hand that I cannot see him Jobâ— 23.8 9. I sought him but I could not finde him I called him but hee gave me no answer Cant. 5.5 Thou hast covered thy selfe with a cloud that our prayer shall not passe through when I cry and shout hee shutteth out my prayer Lament 3.8.44 A man may seeke him in the Ordinances yet not finde him yea his sorrow may increase God may seem angry with his prayer Oh Lord God of hoast how long wilt thou be angry with the prayer of thy people Ps 80.4 And the Word may seeme to bee against him and may make his wounds sorer so that those words may well be taken uâ— by this afflicted soule If I goe into the field then behold the slain with the sworâ—â— and if I enter into the City then behold them that are sick with famine hast thâ—â— utterly rejected Iudah hath thy soule lâ—â—thed Zion why hast thou smitten us 〈◊〉 there is no healing for us wee looked foâ— peace and there is no good and for the tiâ— of healing and behold trouble Jor. 14.18.19 CHAP. XXXVI The effects and consequent of this sad condition IN the next place let us view the effects and consequents of Gods withdrawing and leaving the soule in this uncomfortable case The effects are various according to the quality of the persons thus deserted which are of two sorts
Lord and his goodnesse Hos 3.5 3. Slightnesse of heart there is a certaine wantonnesse and trifling disposition in the heart that men are apt to bee superficial and imperfect in their waies and this God visits upon them 1. Dallying with sinne they will be playing with snares and baits and allow a secret liberty in the heart to sin conniving and winking at many workings of it and not setting upon mortification with earnest indeavours though they be convinced yet they are not perswaded to arise with all their might against the Lords enemies but doe his worke negligently which is an accursed thing and for this cause God casteth them upon sore straits The Israelites should have done the worke perfectly when they were commanded to roote out the Canaanites but because they were slack and did it but by the halfes therefore God left them as a scourge and as briars and thornes to be alwaies an affliction to them When you are pressed to fight for Christ and have taken up armes against the rebels in your hearts if you fight not with all your strength and pursue the victory to the utmost till you finde your enemies dead before you God may give you into their hands to lead you into captivity and to hold you in chaines that will eate into your soules and may in this distresse stand afarre off as one that knoweth you not 2. Dallying with duties men doe them as if they did them not without heart in a loose lazy formall livelesse manner and when there is such idlenesse and negligence and indisposednesse God comes in a way of anger to whip up the slothfull and unfaithfull spirit Duties of godlinesse are not onely a debt to God but a reward to us therefore in slightnesse there is not onely unfaithfulnesse but unthankfulnesse also both the Majesty and the Mercy of God is despised and can God be well pleased with such things Remember the Wisemans counsell Whatsoever thine hand findeth to doe doe it with thy might Eccles 9.10 You are in an evill frame of heart when you can doe the weighty things of God with slightnesse and because you serve God so hee therefore comes with a kinde of expulsion and banishment and throweth you out of his sight that you see what it is to dallie with God 3 Dallying with Ordinances Slight and carelesse attendance upon them God comes in a way of gracious condiscension and stoopes downe with offers of grace and mercy to poore dust and sets before them Jesus Christ the most precious treasure of heaven and earth and calls them to a neare conjunction and communion with himself and holds forth precious promises of life but what is the carriage of the soule It neyther mindes these nor vouchsafeth God in all his goodnesse so much as a looke or if it be affected yet but little it makes no great haste nor useth much sollicitousnesse or pains about the matter but as if the things were of no great importance it is very moderate and easie in making towards them neither that high hand that holds them forth nor that bloud that bought them nor that worth that is in them workes much but all is slighted and therefore God comes in the quarrell of these high things to vindicate them from our contempt and teacheth the soule by the sense of misery to value mercy and by the feare of hell to prize Christ and to be more serious in the Ordinances as meanes of that good which they have learned to esteeme by the want of it The Apostles rule is to worke out our salvation with feare and trembling Phil. 2.12 Salvation is a tender businesse and of great concernment and therefore will not be dallyed with What thinke you Shall God set that before you which is better than the world for you to abuse you your selves take away the bread when the childe playeth with it and shall the bread of life be slighted shall God stand waiting upon you with calls and calls and with gracious offers and will you dally with him Hence is that black cloud which now darkens the heavens over you You are growne wanton and except the Gospel come in a dresse to please you you slight it therefore God puts you into straits and then you will come with a stomack b Num tibi cum sauces urit sitis aurea quaeris pocula Hor. Ser. l. 1. Sat. 2. and in earnest 4. Living too much upon the creature Quest When is that Ans 1. When it takes up so much of a mans time strength thoughts affections When a man lives too much on the creature spirits that he is unfitted for God when the soule is sicke with a surfet of the world drunk with cares feares delights so that the heart is stollen away and an indisposednesse groweth upon the soule towards God This was Solomons case till God fetched him by imbittering his waies to him The world is allowed for a way or Inne in our travells but not for our home to be a staffe in our hand but not to have a throne in our hearts For this cause God raines downe wrath and bitternesse upon our spirits to weane us from the world and thrusts out Hagar to give Sarah more full possession 2 When a man cannot be without the world When it gaines so much in our opinion and affection that we thinke there is no life or subsistence without it this is that for which God comes and takes off the soule with a storme and rescueth the poore captive with violence that was held in chaines and makes him to see of how little use these things are in an evill day When the soule falls to adulterous leagues with the world that they are so conjoyned that it lives and dieth with the world God brings his bill of divorce and turnes off as it were the disloyall soule to her miserable lovers that it may see the folly and wickednesse of its way 3 When a man can live without Christ the pleasantnesse and abundance of earthly contentments have so bewitched him that he becomes like a Prince that hath such fulnesse that hee can raigne without Christ and saith in his heart as those We are Lords we will come no more unto thee Jer. 2.31 Oh what unworthy carriage is this What is Christ shut out that the world may raigne Expect God saying and doing to you as he did to them Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire yet my people have forgotten me daies without number Thou shalt goe forth with thine hands upon thine head for the Lord hath rejected thy confidences and thou shalt not prosper in them Jer. 2.32 37. While the Sun shines and the Sea is calme you may sport your selves in the deepe but when the storme comes then the harbour will be precious God will teach you that your life is in Christ and in a day of feares and affrightments of soul you will say None but Christ none but Christ God
bee right or no But now wee see often times that even men that have much grace and quick sighted understandings are much in feares of their owne estates and have given themselves for hypocrites unsound yea dead yea damned men reade Psal 88. and there see Heman as a sad instance of such an heavy condition Grace lyeth often so hidden that they that seeke it cannot finde it in themselves p Habitus fidei est secundùm Theologos medium incognitum saepe enim non sentitur Baron apod ad Turneb Tetragon 4. Consult that text Rom. 8.16 The Spirit it selfe beareth witnesse with our spirits that wee are the children of God Besides the streame of Interpreters who give testimony to this testimony of the Spirit let the place it selfe be considered 1 The Text In which there are three things which come in as props to this truth 1 The Spirit witnesseth with our spirits q 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here are two distinct witnesses our spirits that is our conscience or understanding renewed and Gods Spirit God keepes the course which himselfe appointed that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every thing shall be confirmed 2 The Spirit himselfe r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non idem Spiritus qu. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut Erasm vis Estium sometimes the graces and gifts of the spirit are called the spirit as Iohn 1.15 Acts 6.5 1 Cor. 14.32 Gal. 3.2 But so it is not to be taken here ſ Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the spirit in this place is the Holy Ghost himselfe for so it is expressed not the Spirit but the Spirit himselfe t Non modo vox praestiti charismatis sed praestantis illius paracleti Chrys Non solius charismatis vox est sed donantis Spiritus Oecumen the graces of the Spirit are witnesses as every effect is a witnesse of its cause so God left not himselfe without witnesse to the heathen Acts 14.17 but by his workes did declare himselfe so Christ saith his works be are witnesse of him Iohn 5.36 But this is not all the testimony which the Spirit gives to the Saints but himselfe doth it saith the text 3 With our Spirits There is the particular application of the Spirit it is not thus the Spirit witnesseth that those that beleeve are sonnes as if it were onely a testification of the truth of the Gospell but it is thus the Spirit witnesseth with our our spirits that we even we are the Sonnes of God 2 Consider the Context the thing which the Apostle for their comfort would prove is that they shall live v. 13. but how doth he prove it because they are sonnes ver 14. and that they are sonnes he gives a twofold evidence 1 The Spirit of adoption by which they cry Abba Father But they might say may not men be deceived and claime a childs place with God when he is a stranger therefore he addes secondly the Testimony of the Spirit The Spirit himselfe beareth witnesse with our spirits that we are the sonnes of God As if hee had said you have a sure ground of assurance u Si homo Angelus Archangelus aliquid promiserit forte quis dubitaverit suprema vero essentia Spiritus Dei testimonium nobis intus perhibente quisnam dubitationi locus Chrys apud Par. for not onely your owne spirits but God with them joynes in testimony that ye are children But concerning this testimony note 1 That all the Saints have it not at least in such a measure as to settle the heart clearely in this perswasion that they beleeve and are children nor is the testimony of our owne spirits alike in all but as the graces are more evident and conspicuous so is the testimony clearer and herein differs the testimony of Gods Spirit and our spirit our spirits give testimony according to the measure workings and evidence of our graces but the Spirit of God gives often lesse testimony to the best Christians and all have it not at least not in a satisfactory degree 2 It is a testimony which for ought appeares in the word may cease they that have it may want it though it be true that when once the testimony is obtained though it abide not it selfe actually and alway yet the efficacy should so that it is weaknesse to doubt againe because it is the voyce of God a judiciall sentence 3 It may bee discerned from all phantasticall How this testimony is discernable from delusion or diabolicall Enthusiasmes 1 It discovers it selfe in those that have it as the light of the Sunne doth difference it selfe from all other lights so that he that hath a full testimony knoweth it to be of God Ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you John 14.17 And it must needs be so else the testimony should not be sufficient for the question would still remain undecided concerning a mans condition It is as much to be regarded who speaketh as what is spoken x Tam refert quis quam quid Though a man heard a voyce from heaven or a voyce within him declaring and pronouncing his reconciliation and adoption yet except he know it is of God it will not satisfie As if a condemned man should have newes of his pardon yet except he know it is the Kings act it cannot quiet him 2 It is ever according to the word the witnesse of the spirit and of the word is the same there are two voyces or determinations or testimonies of the word the one is concerning the way the other concerning the end that is the word saith They that beleeve shall bee saved but then the question is who beleeveth to this the word answereth by describing what that faith is which saveth and so as the rule gives sentence of that which is to be ruled by it when the word and faith in the heart are brought together by examination the word eytheraccepts or rejects approveth or disalloweth of faith as it is in it selfe true or false but as when the gold is brought to the touch-stone though the stone may give it for true gold yet the examiner may want skill to perceive this testimony so it is in this case the word is the Law by which all are judged but as in a Civill State there is need of a Judge to open and apply the Law to particular cases so there is need of the Spirit to joyne with the word to give out not another verdict but that of the word which is made more intelligible by the Spirit not varyed but opened Still the testimony is the same so that the Spirit never looseth where the word bindeth therefore those that live in pride idlenesse or any other way of sin and pretend assurance of salvation given by the Spirit are deceived for if a man be such as the word condemnes there is no absolution from God while he continueth such
3 This testimony is holy holy formally originally effectively it makes holy more humble more contrite more watchfull more zealous more thankfull c. That assurance which breeds vanity contempt of ordinances neglect of duties security in sinne is deceitfull and abominable Thus of the Efficient cause The matter of comfort now the matter of spirituall comfort followeth That which is comfortable must bee such as can in some measure satisfie and fill the desire and appetite of the soule for so long as desire is held from her object there is an unrest and unquietnesse in the heart there will be a whining and crying of spirit there is paine in hunger grief in want now as desire is an extension or reaching of the soule after something futable so it is not satisfied But 1 Eyther by possession of the thing 2 Or by hope and expectation So that the proper object of spirituall comfort is 1 Things spirituall given to us and received by us here as the light of Gods countenance the quicknings of his spirit subduing of lusts successe in our prayers tasts of heaven c. 2 Things promised as in the former desire is turned into joy and the accomplishment of desire becomes a tree of life Prov. 13.12 so here it becommeth hope and this hope giveth comfort it is the Anchor of the soule and the best cure of sorrow in the want of things future y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wee are saved by hope Rom. 8.24 The maine things of our life and happinesse for eternity are ours onely in the promise z Hoc ipsum quod Christiani sumus spei est Cypr. de boo pat Concerning these things note 1 That the promise gives as strong comfort to faith as things present to sense yea greater For 1 The things to come are greater 2 More permanent 1 Cor. 13. 3 Sure a Fidelis futura veluti praesentia possidet magis ea adesse putat quam praesentia Clem. Alex. so that faith makes them as present Heb. 11.1 2 The soule may have the comfort of hope yet lose that of sense it may finde the way sad when it beleeves the end will be sweet 3 If a man lose the life and comfort of hope hee loseth the comfort of sense his way will bee sad who is afflicted about his end 4 According to the strength of faith and hopes claime comfort is advanced when hope fluctuates and lookes for eternall life onely as possible or probable then comfort also is unstable and weake but when it lookes upon it as certainly future then the heart hath a full rest Now having seene the nature and Causes Comfort may bee lost let us come to the defectibility of Comfort It may be lost the tenure of grace and peace is not the same in point of Comfort we are but tenants at will and may in a moment be turned out of a heavē upon earth into a hell upon earth Comfort is not of the being but well being of the Saints it is rather a reward than grace and belongs rather to glorification than sanctification Not joy makes a Christian but grace as it is the light not the warmth of the sunne that makes day so that this may faile 1. God may suspend his testimony or 2. Hee may let in Satan to afflict or 3. Hide himselfe and not meet them in approches to him in combats for him c. I must cut my selfe short here for I see the booke swels bigger than I desire Let this therefore suffice for entrance into the businesse it selfe CHAP. XXXV Of the state and degrees of this sad condition NOw I come to the sad state of the soule wanting the comforts of the Holy Ghost God withdrawing himselfe in respect of that gracious effusion of his mercy and manifestation of his love to the soule shutting up those sweet streames of refreshment which were wont to flow Here I will speake of 1 The Case 2 The Cure The state of a deserted and disconsolate soule requires to consider of 1 The nature of it 2 Degrees of it 3 Effects of it 4 Cause of it First then let us see what it is It is an eminent and abiding uncomfortablenesse of heart towards God or a losse of that comfort which the soule was wont to have in God 1 It is a losse of comfort in God A man may have much unquietnesse It is a losse of comfort towards God and yet not be in this case we speake of discomfort except the object of it bee Gods displeasure or departure makes not a deserted case A man may be afflicted in his spirit many waies yet Gods wonted presence may continue As the conscience of some sinne may cause much sadnesse and mourning eyther some sinne stirring or some sinne acted may much afflict but trouble of reluctance or sorrow of repentance are there and will be there where God is most present Paul is a patterne in the first Romanes 7. and David in the other Psal 51. The sinnes of others may disquiet Rivers of teares runne downe mine eyes because men keepe not thy lawes Psal 119. Lot Ezra all that have most of God have most of these sorrowes and these sorrowes are no miseries but mercies there is much sweetnesse in this temper The troubles of the Churches may in a way of compassion and sympathy afflict yea outward afflictions may in a naturall way paine the spirit for a time and the soule may mourne because of its deficiencies and poverty wanting that compleatnesse of holinesse which it desireth b Non perfecte de aliquo gaudet cui non sufficit Aquin though present degrees of grace are sweet yea because sweete the soule is not contented being in a state of want it will be in motion till it attaine the fulnesse Philip. 3.12 but desertion imports a losse of comfort in God 2 It is a losse of usuall comfort as the former kinde of desertions is a losse of usuall quicknings A losse of usuall comfort so this is a losse of usuall quietnesse And as there are seasons in which God gives more of himselfe in way of quickning then he will constantly continue so he gives comfort sometimes in such fulnesse as shall not alwaies abide Not of extraordinary comfort every day is not a feasting day Paul was taken up into the third heavens but he came downe againe the Sunne doth not alwaies shine in an equall lustre God sometimes gives coruscations of glory but like lightnings they shut in againe As a father sometimes sends for his sonnes from schoole and makes merry with them at home but these play times come not every day they must to schoole againe and live under tutors and governours till they come to full age God opens himselfe much at some times 1 In speciall approaches of the soule to him then a man seeth and tasteth such things that hee is loth to depart but these comforts though