A DISCOVERY OF SOME Troublesome Thoughts WHEREWITH Many Godly precious Souls are burthened and extreamly pressed that like a Canker eats out all their Comforts and keeps their Souls under continuall fears and Distractions Together with a Compound of some Scripture and experimentall Cordials for the refreshing of those who are sick of such a disease and through the blessing of God may prove medicinall to the Cure of some and the Comforting of others By Daniel King Preacher of the Word Isa 54.11,12,13 Oh thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted behold I will lay thy stones with fair colours and lay thy foundations with Saphirs And I will make thy windows of Agats and thy gates of Carbuncles and all thy borders of pleasant stones And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD and great shall be the peace of thy children London Printed and are to be sold neer the Temple in Fleet-street 1651. To all poor souls who are troubled and tossed in Spirit Especially Zions members that are in such a Condition PRecious Saints and faithfull souls The Lord by his providence bringing me to London and haveing occasion to continue there a time I was solicited by some dear to me to set pen to Paper upon another subject which I was not willing to do at that present But yet I thought it my duty to imploy my self in the service of Christ and his people any way as might tend to the Glory of the one and the benefit of the other In diverse parts of the City and Suburbs thereof came news to me of some whose hearts were exceedingly shaken with doubts and scruples and fears concerning the condition of their Souls some of which are in Communion with the Churches of Christ nicknamed Anabaptists some hearing among them confessing the truth and acknowledging the way of worship practised by them to be of God desirous to be one with them But onely that scruples concerning their own condition wanting the assurance of their Justification and reconciliation to God keeps them off Whose condition divers brethren Question not but to be good and their souls dear to God onely they could not see it themselves Just like the Disciples here Christ was at hand and they thought it was some other apparition And so through mistake were exceedingly troubled And therefore I set upon this piece of work being moved thereto from three or four considerable reasons 1. Because he that is in affliction ought to be comforted of his neighbour Job 6.14 Prov. 18.14 And what Affliction like Affliction of spirit And who is my neighbour but he that shewes mercy to me And truly I cannot but pitty and tender those who are of the body of Christ in respect of Vnion with and in him And yet because of Affliction of Spirit dare not manifest their right to Communion It is an Argument of a dead member not to be sensible of the pain of others that suffer Weep with them that weep saith the Apostle And it is some comfort to a sad discouraged soul when God gives his people a heart to condole their Condition Lam. 1.12 When they are not forgotten of the Saints 2. Because after I had mentioned my Intention in this thing to those that moved me to the other task themselves and others were well satisfied and desirous that I should hasten in the work as fast as I could whereupon I perceived I had a Call to it by them 3. Because I saw I was bound to it as my duty laid upon me by God himself according to the Ability given me to draw it forth this way as well as otherwise Seeing God saith Isa 40.1.2 Comfort ye Comfort ye my people saith your God Speak to the heart of Jerusalem tell her her Iniquity it pardoned c. Shewing that Jerusalem questioned her pardon or was ignorant of it And that the servants of God which he had enabled for the work should declare it to her and speak to her heart that was troubled that she might be setled And saith the Apostle Comfort the feeble minded 2 Thes 5.14 And many other Scriptures to this purpose 4. To be a Testimoniall to Brethren and friends from whom I am absent that I have not spent my time idly about vain pleasures though I have not been with them but was willing to set forward the work of God in one kind or other that might be Vsefull And now to you poor troubled Souls whose hearts are heavy and whose souls bleed with sorrows and are full of fears who languish under terrors I know the objections and scruples of your hearts are numerous and of various shapes now appearing in one shape then in another Think not that I can speak to every thought or doubt that may trouble you I have only spoken to such as seem to me and that by some experience of my own also to be the ground-work or Foundation of most of your fears and shakings And indeed for the present neither time nor convenient opportunity would give me leave to adde any more I beseech you deal plainly with your hearts Read this Treatise it may be you may light of somewhat that may refresh your spirits Take heed of beleeving Satan or your own hearts but beleeve the Lord speaking in the Scripture the Words of God Do not dear friends refuse to be comforted when God tenders Comforts to you The more your hearts are lifted up with spirituall Joy the more cheerfully you will walk with God Look up to God for a blessing when you read It may be he may open your Vnderstandings to understand the Scriptures and the dealings of God with his People and to know them for your selves Luke 24. Despair not though you have been dead in your hearts not like Lazarus in body two dayes or four dayes but many dayes but remember Christ will have the glory in raising you Vp And I beseech you when God hath lifted up your heads or rather hearts remember me who am often to the grief of my heart troubled with captivating rebelling flesh Rom. 7. shewing it self present when I would and should do good Intreat that God that is the God of all consolation and comforts you to Quicken me and carry me through in his work 2 Cor. 1. But to those who pretend troublesome times because they would seem Saints that like Dissembling beggars make themselves sores where none are to maintain their Irregular life That delight in sin and evil courses and would have Gods Countenance shine upon them and assurance of Salvation be given to them that they might with the more freedom and boldness run on in the way of wickedness would have the Wages but cannot endure the work Desire the end but care not for the way or means that tends to that end cry Hosanna to Christ with their mouthes but crucifie him in heart and life Christ is lovely to them as a Priest to save them but tell them of his
souls All their offices are exercised for the effecting and carrying on of grace 3. It is against Gods Covenant For God undertakes our part of the Covenant for us where we are short Isa 48.17 I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit and leadeth thee in the way that thou shalt go Jerem. 32.40 I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Hebr. 8. I will write my law in their hearts and put it in their inward parts And I WILL be to them a God and they shall be to me a people And they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest for I WILL be merciful to your transgressions and your sins and iniquities I will remember no more 4. It is against Gods glory take things rightly He hath pronounced the glory of his justice against the unbelieving world already John 3.18 He that beleeveth not is condemned already And hath reserved the glory of his grace for his elect people he cannot have the glory of his grace from Reprobates It is the glory of his grace to save poor humbled sinners I came not to call the righteous but sinners to Repentance For righteous men grace cannot act upon them It is no grace to give a righteous man his wages Again to take a rebellious Sinner into grace and let him remain rebellious is not grace for Gods countenance cannot look upon iniquity to approve of it Hab. 1. But grace is to shew mercy to sinners That is poor humble repenting beleiving sinners such as stoop for mercy Now here it is grace So that God must either glorifie his grace in poor humbled sinners or have no glory of his grace Therefore it is against God 5. It is against the work of God his work of creation in thee and for thee Isa 65. But be you glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoycing and her people a joy Man God never gave thee a new heart that thou shouldest alwaies let it lie bleeding with distracting thoughts and discouragements but to rejoyce I create Jerusalem a rejoycing and her people a joy 2. Use of reproof of those that discourage themselves The 2. Vse is of Reproof And it is of those that discourage themselves by harbouring and entertaining discouraging heart-breaking thoughts as Christ disciples here why do thoughts arise in your hearts And herein I shall endeavour to propound cases that are troubles and discouragements to the hearts of many And to answer to them both by way of reproof and discovery of the mistakes which are the ground of such troubles and also to lay down some grounds of incouragement for troubled souls So that this use will be both of reproof of instruction and incouragement And herein I shall mention some of those thoughts that do distract and distemper the people of God for it is impossible to speak to them all particularly they are so various according to the various manner of Sathans working and laying his snares and engines to intangle poor souls This tree of discouraging complaints hath multitudes of branches and appearances which would be an endles work to go about to cut and prune them off one by one Therefore I shall speak to the root of them and endeavour to cut of those spurs that spreading into and fastning upon a poor soul feed all the branches of this bitter tree that makes the soul cry out there is death in the pot The first discouraging thought The first discouraging thought that troubleth a godly soul Oh saith the soul I am none of Christs none of Gods I have no interest in him am not in covenant with him cannot call him mine as others can do I cannot find the witness in me testifying to my heart as others have done God seals not to my spirit as he hath done to others I pray for it and long for it but cannot come by it Therefore how can my heart choose but be troubled and thoughts arise in it To this case let me speak a word or two Who told thee that thou wast none of Gods did God ever say so in his word or did the spirit of God ever witness such a thing to thee No thou canst not say so The Spirit of God witnesseth Adoption and not destruction And if Satan or thy own heart tell thee so they are both deceitfull And therefore A necessary observation First know that to know ye are Gods children or interested in him is not the first round in the Ladder of Christianity The Prodigals course was not first to know whether his father would receive him and entertain him as a Son or a servant but he resolves to go and confess his sin and unworthiness and cast himself upon his fathers mercy The Apostles in planting Churches first preached faith in Christ simply But to beleevers they prest them on to further assurance 2 Pet. 1. vers 10. Strive to make your calling and election sure A direction Therefore this do If you know not your selves to be Gods go and present your selves as objects of the grace of Christ 2 Cor. 1. For all the promises are in Christ as spokes fitted in the wheel Therefore saith the Apostle Rom. 8.32 If God have given us Christ how shall he not with him also freely give us all things I say present your selves before God as objects to be wrought upon that God would make you sensible of sin and give you a longing desire after Christ Rom. 8. For God hath his spirit of bondage to rough-hew you as well as his Spirit of Adoption to pollish you Now when God hath thus fitted thee go offer thy self to Christ and the promise with Assurance But what assurance Not of thy person as if thou wert already Gods for it may be thou hast not yet the Seal but assurance of the promise made to thy condition Mat. 5.6 Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled So that if thou canst not present thy self before God as a Son present thy self before the promise of God as a lost man And so presenting thy self before God with relation to the truth and sweetness of the Promise it may be thou shalt find Faith flow out of thy heart to imbrace the promise for when the heart is emptied it is best fitted to receive free grace for first God gives the Faith of the promise and then the good of the promise must be received by the faith of the promise I mean it redounds to a man by vertue of that To the point then You say you are none of Gods To be Gods and know it I answ The best state is for a man or Woman to be Gods and know it 2. The best next is to be Gods
my friend O daughters of Jerusalem See now how this takes upon their Spirits Chap. 6.1 Whether is thy beloved gone O thou fairest among women whither is thy beloved turned aside that we may seek him with thee Mark how his hiding himself from his spouse conduceth to the calling of other poor souls to the seeking after Christ When they see them mourning and grieving and complaining and cannot rest without him thinks the poor soul there is some excellency in him that we see not we will certainly go along to seek him with these poor souls he is worth seeking after And so it sets them a flame after him also The third thought is when the Soul complains it hath none of the Spirit Thirdly The third Thought that riseth in the heart to trouble the soul and perplex it is this I have none of the Spirit of God Now Christ commands John 4. To worship God in the spirit And Gal. 5.16 Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh and Jude 20. Praying in the holy ghost But how should I do this that have not the Spirit feel him not working nor quickening nor comforting me my heart is so dead and loose and weary in duty never carried up to heaven how can I but be troubled When you are carried with a fiery Chariot into heaven then you think you have the spirit But when a man moves in a lower Region he thinks he hath it not I shall speak to this 1. Generally 2. More Particularly Generall observations to this case Generally thus 1. That it is a very good thing to have the Spirit or to miss it As in hearing the word in prayer conference Meditation c. Either to feel a man hath it or to feel he wants it And the worst of these is better then to rest in a duty shaped out of your own Brain consisting in an empty sound of expressions and words For ye must take heed ye do not content your selves with shadowes and phrases without the Spirit For God doth not know the meaning of such duties Rom. 8. 2. Consider the spirit hath a manifold work in the hearts of the children of God Now a man cannot reason from the want of such a fruit of the Spirit as joy or peace c. that therefore he hath not the Spirit Ye cannot reason thus A man doth not Laugh Therefore he doth not Live Weeping is a sign of life as well as laughter So it is in this Case The sense of sin may argue the Spirit of God to be in you as well as the feeling of Joy Zach. 12 10. I will pour upon them the SPIRIT of grace and the Spirit of supplications And they shall look upon me whom they have peirced and shall MOVRN for him as one mourneth for his onely Son And be in BITTERNES c. The Spirit is a Spirit of variety 1 Cor. 12. Giving to one this gift to another that gift to one Humility Poverty of spirit Self deniall Godly sorrow to another Zeal and Courage and Joy c. And so it is oftentimes in the same man sometimes it is tuning his godly sorrow sometimes his joy sometimes his fear c. And this is one ground of the variety of conditions the Saints are in as David sometimes ye find him singing on the uppermost branch of the tree and sometimes hanging his wing in the bottome of the hedg Sometimes calling upon himself to praise the Lord seven times a day Psal 119.164 And sometimes crying out that he was cast out of Gods sight Psal 31.22 So Job sometimes professing though he kill me yet will I trust in him Job 13.15 And sometimes changing his note If I had called and he had answered me yet I would not believe that he had hearkned to my voice Job 9.16 The Church spoken of in the Lamentations Sometimes lamenting my strength and my HOPE is perished from the Lord Lam. 3.18.22 and sometimes again confessing I have HOPE Paul had the spirit as well in his buffetings as in his rejoycings And David when he prayed restore to me the joy of thy salvation as when he felt it Psal 51. The Spirit led Christ to be tempted as well as supported him and brought him back into Galilee Luke 4.1 c. A man may have the spirit in the Fight as well as in the Triumph He hath the spirit that soweth to the spirit in Tears as well as he that reaps in joy Psal 126.5.6 Therefore you may be mistaken in saying you have not the spirit seing it works so variously 3. This spirit may exercise it self in thee in duties one way though it be not felt but another way as in prayer sometimes tuning thy love sometimes thy hatred sometimes thy humility sometimes thy joy Therefore do not wrong the spirit of God and say it is from home because you feel not joy Do not say it is idle for it may be working in another room tuning another grace If a man should alwaies touch one key he should never play various tunes Now our hearts are Gods Harps Rev. 14.2 and 15.2 And therefore if God should not tune them variously there would be no melody And if the spirit be not setting up a candle in thee it may be scouring of a candle-stick I mean If it be not filling thy heart with joy it may be preparing thy heart for joy 4. There may be workings of the spirit in the heart and yet ye may not perceive it is the working of the spirit As in a peice of blunt money that ye can see no mark upon you will say by the bigness it should be such a piece six pence or a nine-pence but I can see nothing upon it So there may be workings of the spirit that are not seen for the present and yet afterward when the spirit worketh another way then thou maist perceive that this was of the spirit Luk. 24. The disciples that went to Emmaus knew not Christ while he was opening the Scriptures to them which was the likeliest time yet they knew him in breaking bread And then they could call to minde the burning of their hearts by the way Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us by the way and opened to us the Scriptures ver 32. just as it is in our businesses in the world many secret providences which a man doth not see to be a providence till after by some other issue he cals it to minde and sees it a providence So God hath his glory at last As Zaccheus climbing up into the figtree what could a man pick out of it till afterward that Christ tells him he must abide at his house then it appeared to be a providence So in the Disciples being so importunate with Christ to stay when he made as if he would have gone further they saw nothing in it for the present but afterward when Christ
God You that have been so intimate with Christ that have had so much experience of Christ did not I tell you that after three dayes I should rise again have not you formerly had sweet Communion with me strange Why are ye troubled But I take it to be a gentle reproof Again consider whence those thoughts arose from themselvs not from Christ from a principle of their own hearts for it was in their hearts that they rose and from their hearts Christ said peace be unto you but they arose from their own suppositions and mistakes as appeareth from vers 37. They were terrified and affrighted and supposed they had seen a spirit The words shew also the certainty of these beleevers or Disciples trouble of mind by the Ingemination of the Question Why are ye troubled and why do thoughts arise in your hearts he doth not say are ye troubled and do thoughts arise but why is it so Implying a certainty I hope the words are cleared up I come now to the observations Doctrinall observations And first from the Interrogation Why are ye troubled c. Whence observe a truth implicitely infolded in the words that is this That the Saints of God the Disciples of Christ even in Gospel times are subject to trouble of mind distemper of spirit 2. Why are ye troubled and why c. Christ asketh them the reason of it shewing it was not from him Whence observe again That it is not from Christ but principally from a beleever himself and his own heart that he is so much troubled as he is 3. From the ground of their trouble Thoughts or doubtings that arose in their hearts I observe again There is corruption enough in the heart of every beleever if it did but shew it self to trouble him and mightily distemper him Rom. 7. Paul telleth us sin dwelled in him and when he would do good evil was present and the Law in his members rebelled against the Law of his mind and now see how it troubled him vers 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Many wonder that beleevers should be troubled in Gospel times Why so Are beleevers free from the stirring and moving of corruption and so long as unbelief opposeth faith and the flesh lusteth against the spirit is it any wonder to see them troubled 4. From the Ingemination or doubling of the Question Why and why I note That it behoveth a Christian in trouble of spirit to observe the ground whence it riseth 5. Why are ye troubled Why see vers 37. It was a mistake for they had cause to have rejoyced because they were not acquainted with the manner of Christs appearance at that time they utterly mistake and make contrary constructions of his appearance Whence I note That many times the Saints and people of God are mightily troubled and perplexed in their hearts and spirits when they have cause to rejoyce and be comforted 6. From the generall That Christ reproveth them for it and laboureth to help them against it as appears ver 38.39.40 And he said unto them why are ye troubled and why do thoughts arise in your hearts Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self handle me and see me for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me to have And when he had thus spoken he shewed them his hands and his feet I observe again That Christ would not have his people tire themselves and burden themselves with lying under discouraging thoughts to trouble and affright their own hearts with doubtings and discouragements Or thus Christ would not have his people lie under discouragement of heart He reproves it here and helps them against it John 14.1 Saith Christ to his Disciples Let not your heart be troubled there was cause enough a man would think Christ â—elleth them he must suffer and they should all be scattered from him and Peter should deny him that night It was like to be a sad time yet saith he Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be affraid vers 27. So Mar 13.7 Be ye not troubled when you shall hear of this and this So also the Scripture is clear Isa 56.3 Neither let the Son of ihe stranger that hath joyned himself to the Lord speak saying the Lord hath utterly separated me from his people neither let the eunuch say Behold I am a dry tree Let them not say so saith God as if he should say Let them not say so saith God as if I had cast them off or had no mercy for them So in the 42. and 43. Psalmes Why art thou cast down Oh my soul and why art thou disquieted within me See how the Spirit of God guideth him to debate the business why there was such a hurry in his heart Christ would not have his people do so Hebr. 12.5 He would not have them forget that exhortation that speaketh unto them as to children My son despise not thou the correction of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him I shall a little follow and clear up this point for the incouragement of drouping souls whose hearts languish under terrours Reasons And I shall shew reasons for the confirmation of it and they are of two sorts That he would not have them discouraged 1. Reasons to shew that he would not have them discouraged 2. Why he would not First That he would not 1. It appeareth from the frequency of the promise you can hard ly read any part of the word but you light thick and threefold upon the promises Now if God would have had his people to lie languishing under sorrows and perplexing themselves with thoughts sinking under discouragements he would never have left such store of promises upon record for them as he hath done Consider what a promise there is John 14.18 I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you Methinks this should bear up the heart God will not leave you Orphans for so the word is in a destitute sad helpless condition as usually Orphans are and Isa 51.12 I even I am he that comforteth you who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die c. Mark I am he and who art thou As if he should say who art thou that thy heart should sink under such promises when not another but I am he that is thy comforter I beseech you poor souls do but consider how God doth inculcate and urge his promises to his people to chear them up Isa 41.9,10 Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called thee from the chief men thereof and said unto thee thou art my servant I have chosen thee and not cast thee away here is sweet incouragements But mark now Fear 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
which is first to banish a poor soul and then devise means to bring them back again to him So that if this be Gods discipline and Christ give thee up to languish under terrors and fears and so to hold thee under holiness Then thou concludest wrong that therefore God will cast thee off 4. Consider affliction of spirit may rise from other causes and not because I am cast off of God And God hath gracious ends in hiding himself from a soul and not the deserting or utter forsaking of a soul In what respect a man may say he hath no grace 1. Thou maist say thou hast no grace in comparison of other men because thou hast the same means and hast not so much grace as thou conceivest must thou therefore say thou hast no grace What if they have more need of it It may be they may be of a more perverse spirit more proud stubborn or selfish more apt to run aside from God And so have need of more Nay it may be they have more temptations in the way of their callings or more oppositions from carnal freinds or enemies then thou hast 2. Thou mayst say thou hast no grace in regard of sutableness to the means thou hast had as Hebr. 5,12 For whereas for the time you ought to have been teachers ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the Oracles of God And are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat When thou complainest I have had a great deal of means and am not grown under it sutable to the means I have had This is a good trouble for herein is thy spirit poor And spiritual poverty never casts thee off from God 3 Thou mayst complain thou hast no grace in respect of thy desires and purpose of heart Thou hast over bidden thy self man and that troubles thee I did hope to have gotten further in Gods waies by this time then I have done To have over-mastered such a lust To have had more self-denial To have glorified God better in my place I can get my heart to nothing I had hoped I should have been better content with crosses and born affliction with more patience then I do Now thus to be afflicted is acceptable to God Suppose a weak sickly child should sit weeping in the chimney corner and being asked what aild it it should answer why I had hoped by this time to have done my father better service and to have been more useful to him He is tender of me and I can do nothing in requital of his love again Now the father of this child seeing its affection takes it as kindly as if it did perform what it desires So it is with God 2. Cor. 8.12 If there be first a willing minde it is accepted according to what a man hath and not according to what he hath not So that now for this we must not judge our selves cast off of God God would not have us lye for his glory Rom. 3.7.8 nor our salvation much less for damnation Again consider what ends the Lord hath in keeping close his countenance and hiding his face sometimes from a soul that is dear to him Gods ends in hiding his face from a soul 1. To bring such a soul to self examination to look narrowly into their own hearts and to search out some corruption which it may be they do not see for the present And it is a great benefit to have discovery made of those traitors that lie lurking within that a man seeth not And this God usually brings the soul to by hiding his countenance Psal 77. When the spirit of the Psalmist was overwhelmed and the thought of God troubled him and his soul refused to be comforted Ard he cried unto God and still his sore ran in the night and ceased not and his eies were held waking and he was so troubled tha he could not speak as ver 1.2.3.4 Now saith he in the 6. vers I commune with mine own heart and my spirit made diligent SEARCH Now he falleth a Searching what the matter was And inquires will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy clean gone for ever and doth his promise fail for evermore hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies Selah Mark here upon serious search he durst not tax God nor his mercy nor promise But mark he finds it out now where it was ver 10. And I said This is my infirmity By this means he finds out some weakness in the soul which before he saw not So that this was beneficial to him for God would have no sin harbour and lurk in the souls of his Saints 2. By this means the Lord brings a man or woman to the confession of sin And we are all proud by nature and are loth to come to acknowledge our sins Now the Scripture saith He that hideth his sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy And if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness Now God in mercy to a soul when he sees they are willing to connive and wink at some beloved sin which they would favour and are ready to say as David deal gently with the yong man Absalom or as Naaman The Lord be merciful to thy servant concerning this thing withdraws his face to shew them his dislike against every sin and to bring them to a free and willing confession of it So it was with David Psal 32.3.4.5 While I kept silence that is from acknowledging my sin my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moysture was turned into the drought of summer Selah I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Selah So Hosea 5.15 I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face Till then saith God I will hide my face 3. God sometimes hides his face that his people might see that they are nothing in and of themselves But that all their sufficiency is of God That they may see their own emptiness that they can do nothing bear nothing mannage nothing to Gods glory without a special assistance from God That they may learn to deny themselves and live upon him alone Isa 57.17 I hid me and was wroth saith the Lord and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart When God hides himself then the frowardness of the heart appears So hereby the servants of God are kept humble from self glorying or boasting 4. Sometimes the Lord by the hiding of his countenance trieth the graces of his spirit in his servants that it may appear to
them that they are sound right works As sometimes he tries their faith by this means Isa 50.10.11 Is there any among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his servants that walketh in darkness and hath no light Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God To try if they will hold and hang upon him and follow him though he frown upon them as the woman of Canaan did That he may say to them at last as he did to her great is thy faith And this will be a sweet satisfaction to them when they come to see that though they saw not Gods face yet they found his grace to enable them to wait upon him in dark times It is a pretious thing to have faith tried 1 Pet. 1.7 and this way God trieth it Again hereby God trieth the sincerity of your love to him As Cant. 5.6.7.8 When Christ had withdrawn himself from his spouse she fals sick of love it works she could not be quiet nor satisfied without him her affection runs out after him though she wanted the discovery of him and this affection of hers puts her upon a constant seeking of him as Cant. 3.1.2 By night upon my bed I sought him whom my soul loved I sought him but I found him not I will rise now and go about the city and seek him whom my soul loveth c. It tryeth their sincerity whether they will stick close to his work though they see no reward as that place Isa 50.10.11 Whether they will fear the Lord and obey him though he hide himself 5. Sometimes the Lord doth it to bring thee to the sight of thy Negligence deadness dulness Security Sencelesness that you are apt to slip into And to make thee see thy unkind dealing with him that putst him off with idle excuses for self ends when he would have manifested himself So Cant. 5. When Christ had withdrawn himself then she comes to remember how unkind she was to let him call and beg for admittance and wait till his head was filled with the dew and his locks with the drops of the night She could make excuses when he was so neer her I have put off my coat how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them But when he was gone then she remembreth her slothfulness with sorrow and then she confesseth her Negligence my soul failed when he spake vers 6. As if she had said My heart smote me I knew it was he yet this sleepy spirit of mine overcame me and now I must smart for it 6. That the Soul might prize him the more when he manifests himself again to the soul that there might be the sweeter imbraces between him and the soul As it is with a perverse child the mother sometimes is fain to hide her self from it and call for the Bug-bear to take it that it may be quiet and more esteem of the mother when it hath her again The child cryes out as if she were quite gone but she stands neerer it then it is aware of she intends not to forsake it So the people of God in their dark times greatly mistake to say God hath utterly forsaken them Isa 49.13.14 Sion said the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me Here is the poor Discouraged souls conclusion But what saith the Answer of God to it Can a woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion upon the son of her womb Yea they may yet will not I forget thee saith the Lord. When we look upon the countenance of God as we do upon the Sun shining every day as a common thing then he clouds himself from us that we may learn to set an higher rate upon it and that there may be more endeared imbracings when we meet with the Lord again Cant 3.4 After she had sought for her beloved and mist of him at last saith she I found him Whom my soul loveth and how was she affected then Oh saith she I held him and would not let him go c. Then she Clings to him with more delight and affection then ever So the bowels of the Lord as I may so speak do more yearn upon a poor soul after his withdrawings then ever as Isa 54.6,7,8 The Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth when thou wast refused saith thy God This is a sad time But now mark how he makes up for this For a SMALL moment have I forsaken thee But with GREAT MERCYES I will gather thee In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer 7. The Lord hides himself sometimes from a poor soul for the regulating of the prayers and desires of his people Many times we are begging and crying for things of lesser consequence and our minds are much upon the serving of self Now God would have us to seek him his face and countenance as the chiefest thing Therefore sometimes withdrawes that he may draw up our prayers higher and put our affections into better order then they were Hos 5.15 I will go and return to my place till they seek my face In their affliction they will seek me early Now it is Gods command to seek his Face evermore Psal 105.4 8. That his Excellency Sweetness Beauty Loveliness might be set forth by those that want the manifestations of his countenance unto others that take notice of their distempered sad condition that they may be moved also to seek after his discoveries God is pleased by this means sometimes to sweeten himself to others that stand by and behold the agony poor souls are in for want of his love manifested to them And to stir up their Spirits to look after him He is pleased to help such distressed men to preach him forth sweetly for the winning of others to him This you may see at large Cant. 5. The spouse after she was raised from her drousiness and sees Christ was gone she is extreamly troubled Sick of love as vers 8. Whereupon the daughters of Jerusalem inquire what is thy beloved more then another beloved O thou fairest among women What is thy beloved more then another beloved that thou dost so charge us What is He a None-such may not another serve thy turn as well as he What is in him more then is in another See now what glorious apprehensions she had of him now in his absence And how she preacheth him unto them to the affecting of their hearts vers 10. c. My beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand his head is as the most fine gold c. And so she goes on in a glorious commendation of him to the end of the Chapter And vers ult saith she He is altogether lovely or all delights This is my beloved and this is
Kingdom to be set up within them and without them in heart and life and then he seems a Tyrant Let me tell thee whosoever thou art that art of this temper I have said nothing to thee nor for thee in this Treatise This comfortable Cordiall that I have endeavoured to compound for the comfort of Souls really sick shall become thy poyson if thou offer to meddle with it Taste not one sip of it I charge thee and if thou dost I am guiltless of thy bloud having given thee a fair warning I have written it for the use of those whose hearts God hath touched and are sick of love for him who is altogether Lovely Not for such as turn the grace of God into wantonness So I commit it to the blessing of God and the approbation of the Churches of Christ †As namely the Churches of Christ in London meeting usually at the glasse-house in Broad street The Church in Coventry The Church in Warwick The Church at Hook-Norton in Oxfordshire And the Church meeting neer Martin-Hinmarsh in Gloucestershire or any others to whom I am neer related and such in them as are most experienced in the dealings of God with troubled souls And desire to continue as by the grace of God I am A servant to Christ and the meanest of his Saints DANIEL KING From the Lime-kiln at Pickle-Hering in Southwark this 7 th of the 11 th Moneth A Discovery of some troublesome thoughts wherewith many Godly Precious Souls are burthened and extreamly pressed Together with a Compound of Scripture and experimentall Cordials for the refreshing of those who are sick of such a Disease c. Luke 24.38 And he said unto them Why are ye troubled and why do thoughts arise in your hearts THe words contain a reproof or reprehension of the Disciples of Christ by Christ himself laid down by way of Interrogation Why are ye troubled and why do thoughts arise in your hearts Like that of Mar. 4.40 Why are ye so fearfull and Matth. 21.25 Why then do you not beleeve on him and according to that Isa 40.27 Why sayest thou O Jacob and speakest O Israel my way is hid from the Lord and my Judgement is passed over from my God Division The words consist of two parts 1. The thing for which Christ reproveth them though in a loving sweet manner I confess for being so troubled 2. The ground of this their trouble Thoughts arising in their hearts And it appears it was a reproof of them because he laboureth to take them off from this distemper in the next words Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self for they were troubled through a mistake thinking they had seen a spirit and not Christ And therefore he did not appâ—ove of it but reproveth it Consider further 1. Who it was that speaketh here Christ himself 2. To whom he spake To his Disciples beleevers 3. At what time And that was when he himself came in among them and was present with them and saluted them with peace Vers 36. Meaning of the words For the meaning of the words I will be brief 1. Troubled Trouble This word is set out to us diversly in Scripture 1. Sometimes it signifieth povertie 1 Chron. 22.14 In my trouble or povertie saith David I have prepared for the house of the Lord. This is spoken Metonymically the cause for the effect 2. It signifieth to be shortened Job 21.4 Why should not my Spirit be troubled The Hebrew reading is shortened When a man is straightened and cannot be so enlarged as he would be It s a phrase taken from one that is overburthened and is so pressed down that he cannot look up nor go forward but falleth short of what he would reach or attain to And so is filled with perplexities and fears 3. It importeth weariness or to be tired under a burthen Nehem. 9.32 O our God let not all the trouble seem little before thee the Hebrew reading is Weariness It meaneth so to be burthened as not to be able to stand up under it Ps 38.6 I am troubled Hebr. Wryed I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day So that it is to be writhen or wryed aside and bowed down under some Burden into a mourning condition The word is sometimes joyned with anguish shewing the vexation of the heart Job 15.24 Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid sometimes with sorrow Psal 116.3 I found trouble and sorrow Now all these are ingredients into these thoughts and it is as if Christ should have said why are ye so poor that ye have no confidence nor no Joy in your hearts Why are so distempered and wearied and burthened in your selves Why are ye so straightened and so full of anguish and sorrow that ye cannot stretch out your hearts to beleeve and quiet your souls in God through Christ Again consider where the seat of this trouble was in the heart or spirit It was not upon the Body nor state nor name but upon the Soul Consider again whence this trouble arose from thoughts Some Translations read it doubtings It signifieth distracting thoughts turbulent thoughts or debatings and Reasonings whereby the heart is discouraged and begins to sink under its burthen and is tired with musings and tossings up and down through fear and doubt like that Mat. 6.25 Take no thought for your life that is distrustfull thought to be of doubtfull mind or to hang in carefull suspence * Luke Such thoughts Christ endeavoureth to Arm them against Mar. 13.11 And such thoughts David speaketh of Psal 94.19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my Soul Thoughts arising from a mixture of unbelief so this place sheweth they beleeved not that it was Christ and thereupon thoughts arose Contrary to that Matt. 21.21 If you have faith and doubt not But these were like Peters thoughts about the vision Act. 10.17 When he knew not what to pitch upon nor how to have his heart satisfied But sticks in doubts and fears and scruples and cannot get our And such kind of thoughts trouble the heart exceedingly Dan. 5.6 Then the Kings countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so verse 10. O King let not thy thoughts trouble thee So Mary Luke 1.29 It is said She was troubled at the Angels saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be It stuck in her mind and troubled her for the present Arise in your hearts It is a metaphor taken from the rising of clouds or mists whereby the shining face of the Sun is obscured from the Earth So by the rising of these thoughts and doubts the sweet presence of Christ that was among them now was obscured and not so pleasant to them Sometimes me thinks The Interrogation carrieth the face of an Admiration Why are YE troubled YE And why do thoughts arise in YOVR hearts What you my Disciples that are beleevers John 14.1 Ye beleeve in
right hand of my righteousness O but may some say I am a poor worm have nothing that is lovely nor desireable in me an unworthy wretch Why see vers 14. Fear not thou worm Jacob and yee men of Israel I will help thee saith the Lord and thy Redeemer the holy one of Israel And saith Peter 2. Pet. 1.4 There is given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you should be partakers of the Divine Nature Now the Divine Nature is not subject to these vexations and troubles Therefore from the frequency of the promises and the end of them we may well conclude God would not have his people lie under discouragments 2. Because he hath given them of his Spirit to cry Abba Father Now if he give them the spirit of adoption it argues clearly he would not have them discouraged Joh. 14.16 I will pray the father saith Christ and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the spirit c. Rom. 8.16 The spirit witnesseth with our spirits that we are the sons of God Now if he give his spirit to this end to comfort the Saints and witness their adoption then it must needs follow he would not have them discouraged 3. Because he cals for and requires that the ministry of consolation be performed Isa 40.1.2 Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith your God Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem tell her her iniquity is pardoned and her warfare is accomplished See what a strict charge here is to comfort the people of God Yea and God challengeth the false prophets for not performing this ministery but acting contrary to it Ezek. 13.22 Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad whom I not made sad therefore ye shall see no more vanity nor divine divination c. And Cap. 34 16.17.18 When the prophets neglected tending and tendring the sheep see what the Lord saith I will seek that which was lost and bring again that which was driven away and will bind up that which was broken and will strengthen that which was sick but I will destroy the fat and the strong and I will feed them with judgement Now then if God take such care that they may be comforted and undertake for them then he would not have them discouraged 4. Because God the Father hath givtn Commission to Christ to take special care of them that they be not overborn And Christ hath undertaken it A bruised reed shall he not break and smoaking flax will he not quench he will bring forth Judgement into victory Isa 42 3. This is the glory of Christs Kingdom that he shall support the weak and this Christ gives in charge to Peter if he love him to feed his Lambs John 21. And the Apostle gives speciall charge to the Churches to comfort one another 1 Thess 4.18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words And 5.14 I beseech you brethren support the weak comfort the feeble-minded Therefore he would not have them lie under discouragements 2. Reasons why God would not have his people troubled The 2. sort of Reasons are why he would not c. 1. Because he is very pitifull and tender A good body would have no body hurt no not so much as a prick with a pin nor a fillip with the finger a quiet meek spirit is so tender So is God of his people Jam. 5.11 The Lord is very pitifull consider the end the Lord maketh that he is very pitifull he delighteth in mercy Mic. 7. And not in oppressing thy soul Lam. 3.33 He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men He took it ill that his people should father and fasten their discouragements upon him Isa 40.27 Why sayest thou O Jacob and speakest O Israel my way is hid froâ— the Lord and my judgement is passed over from my God Why dost say so Israel there is no cause at all he is so far from slighting thee that he giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength therefore he would not have them sink into Anxiety and sadness 2. It appears to be so From the excellency of holy rejoycing and the acceptableness of it to God God delighteth more in this then in all services whatsoever for all other works of the spirit flow into this And therefore he that was to bring his sacrifice Deut. 26.34 among other things which he professed this was one I have not eaten thereof in my mourning Mal. 2.12.13.14 And this have ye done again covering the Altar of the Lord with tears with weeping and with crying out insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more nor receiveth it with good will at your hands Psal 100.2 Serve the Lord with gladness come before his presence with singing and Psal 2.10 Rejoyce with trembling Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alway and again I say rejoyce Rejoyce evermore c. Now if God be so well pleased with holy rejoycing then he would not have his people lie under sorrows wounding their hearts and breaking of them to pieces under terrors 3. Because discouragements drive from God and are contrary to Communion which God delights in therefore Christ knocketh at the door and calleth for opening Rev. 3. Cant. 5.2 Psal 14.8.9 and saith he would sup with the Soul And his father and he would make their abode there John 14. A man will never go to his judge and executioner one that will cut his throat till he be perswaded of favour Terrours drive Cain into the land of Nod from the presence of God Therefore saith the Lord I drew them with the cords of Love In Gods presence is fulness of Joy therefore the more oppressing sorrow the further from Gods presence Discouragement made Peter cry out Luke 5.3.9.10 Lord depart from me for I am a sinfull man for he was astonished and afraid as appears by Christs incouraging of him 4. Because this deadens the actings of all the works of the spirit in the heart God hath not the glory of his spirit in this way a sad sullen discouraged spirit deadens all 2 Cor. 7.10 The sorrow of the world worketh death It killeth the spirit not the body but death of duty it makes a man he cannot come off with any dexterity of duty death of care clearing of your selves indignation fear vehement desire zeal revenge it deadens these Nay it makes a man utterly unfit for some services of God as spirituall rejoycing This causeth crying not singing and rejoycing and singing is a piece of Gods service Isa 65.14 My servants shall sing for joy of heart Sorrow made Hemah unfit for the service of God 1 Sam. 1.7 And Solomon saith Prov. 12.25 Heaviness in the heart of man makes it stoop but a good word makes it glad The heart is down when it is heavy and not so fit for spirituall services 5. Because by this discouraged troubled frame of
spirit thou art made unfit for Gods consolations to receive them or rejoyce in him it is distastefull to thee As he that taketh away a garment in cold woather and as vinegar upon nitre so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart Prov. 25.20 It will not be born Therefore mark when God sends Moses with a message of mercy to Israel and he delivered it according to Gods Command yet they harkned not to him what was the matter Why for anguish of spirit and sore bondage That unfitted them for the beleeving the message of God and receiving mercy And the Psalmist in his overwhelmings of spirit Psal 77. saith My soul refused to be comforted 6. Because Christ took their troubles upon him and bare them Therefore was his soul troubled Joh. 12.27 and 13.21 Surely he took our infirmities and carryed our sorrows saith the Prophet Isa 53. Therefore he would have us to rejoyce yea he would have his joy remain in his Disciples John 15.11 Now then if God be so tender and pittiful If holy rejoycing be so acceptable to him If trouble of spirit drives from God I mean discouragement and be contrary to communion If it deadens the actings of the works of the spirit If it makes the soul unfit for Gods consolations If Christ have born our sorrows of purpose to ease us Then it must needs follow that Christ would not have his people discouraged But all these are true Therefore the other Objection But some may say The Apostle James 4.9 Biddeth Be afflicted mourn and weep And Christ saith Blessed are ye that mourn Therefore this cannot be so I answer that in James is his councel to those that had adulterated themselves with the world as appears by the former part of the Chapter and this mourning is nothing but repentance Godly sorrow which Paul was glad was in the Corinthians But the sorrow we speak of is doubting discouraging sorrow of which James speaks not And that of Christ is a mourning in regard of afflictions and persecutions of the Gospel which they were to suffer for Christs sake or Godly sorrow and therefore declares them blessed Not to mourn with a distrustful distracting mourning So that it makes nothing against the point that Christ would not have his people lie under discouragements Object 2 But some may say again This is a needless poynt for the people of God in Gospel times are not troubled in their hearts I Answer Yea but they be which appears by these considerations 1. Because sometimes they want that measure of comfort and joy that they should have and might have Col. 2.2 That their hearts might be comforted This was the end of Pauls conflict and Iohn 16.24 Aske and ye shall receive that your joy may be full This shews that their hearrs wanted comfort and their joy was not full Therefore their hearts are troubled in Gospel times 2. Because the Apostle took order that the people of God and Saints might be comforted Sometimes by sending men of purpose to them to comfort them which need not have been in case they had not wanted comfort Ephes 6.22 Paul declareth that he sent Tychicus of purpose to them among other things To comfort their hearts And the same man counselleth the Corinthians 2 Corin. 13.11 to be of good comfort And he sent Tychicus to the Collossians to comfort their hearts Col. 4.8 And he sent Timothy to the Thessalonians to comfort them concerning their faith 1 Thes 3.2 And exhorteth them Chap. 4.18 to comfort one another and. 5.14 comfort the feeble minded Somtimes by praying that they might be comforted 1 Thes 2.17 Now our Lord Jesus Christ and God even our Father comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work This labor and prayers might have been spared if saints wanted no comfort in Gospel times Uses of the point Now I come to Application 1. Of Information Is it so That Christ would not have his people lie under discouragements Then it informs us that we may boldly say and conclude that God is willing Christians should abound with the consolations of God It is the will of God you should have peace look up rejoyce and have consolation what I the Saints make a question whether it be not Gods will they should lie under sorrow and when terrors upon themselves and not take comfort of the good word of God when it is Gods minde they should beleive and be cheerful and rejoyce in God and not lie dejected but look up with Spiritual triumph in the Lord. But we cannot be perswaded of this lesson and hence we think we can never afflict our selves enough and rake into our hearts and study how to keep our selves from the consolations of God Take heed of this for this doth not please God that men should thus discourage themselves and be turned out of their right spiritual joy Lam. 3.31 The Lord will not cast off for ever But though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies for he doth not afflict willingly nor greive the children of men To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most high To subvert a man in his cause the Lord approveth not vers 32.33.34.35.36 All this is brought to this very scope to shew it doth not delight the Lord thou shouldst be oppressed and afflicted but rather rejoyce and take comfort the Lord approves not of thy subverting thy self in thy cause no more then of another subverting three It is against God that we should afflict our selves Let me tell thee It is utterly against God that we should afflict our selves and languish under terrors and affright our selves with the apprehensions of wrath All the reasons make it clear that God would have his people ioyful and chearful Nehemiah 8.10 The joy of the Lord is our strength So that this is against God in divers respects 1. It is against the nature of God which is filled up with Ingredients of goodness it is eight to one Exod. 34.6.7 I will make all my goodness pass before thee saith the Lord And he proclaimed The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gratious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity trangression and sin and that will by no meanes clear the guilty c. So that this argues that Gods nature in his dispensation towards us is mildness goodness sweetness However equal in himself yet towards us he hath magnified his word above all his Name Psal 138.2 Now his word declareth his attributes especially his attributes of grace 2. It is against his offices look into the order of the three persons and they all flow into this let poor-souls be comforted Here is the Father the fountain set open The sons merit that poor souls debt be paid The Spirits distribution for the supplying comforting of poor
and know that you are the Sons of God and heirs of God and Christ Which Spirit of testimony is gotten by faith in Christ by viewing eying and surveying Christ For because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts whereby you cry Abba Father Gal. 4.6 Whose office is to attest ye are Christs So that here the office of faith is to look upon Christ and eye Christ that so we may receive the seal For a man must be a beleever else he cannot be a son but being a beleever and so a Son then comes the Spirit and witnesseth the same Object But this witness you speak of now this immeditate testimony may deceive also It may be some false fire cast in by the Devil as well as the other Answ The witness of the Spirit of God as it is the Spirit of God will alwayes clear it self by this That in the witness it gives to a soul it alwayes advanceth God and Christ in the eye of the Soul and it alway ripens and nourisheth sanctifying graces in the soul and makes them go glib like oyl to the wheels It makes our Faith Love Patience Humility Hope Self-denyall Joy c. whereby we walk with God as green and flourishing as flowers in the spring or as corn fields after a sweet shower Note Bastard-illusions of the Devil do alwayes tend to bastardends and do alwayes bring forth bastard-effects such as lift up a man with pride or boulster them up to maintain errour either in Life or Doctrine But this knowledge of a mans self to be Gods reacheth forth to God and acteth his spirituall habits sweetly 2 Cor. 5.1 We know saith Paul that if this earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the heavens we know it saith he And what effect had this upon their Spirits Why see vers 9. Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him This is far from that opinion that a mans knowing himself to be Gods worketh security no this makes a mans heart obey God as a Son And be sure the Devill in his counterfeit workings and witnessings will never draw the soul to God to aim at him but still to center in himself or to turn aside to errour or sin And this is to fight against himself and overthrow his own Kingdom which he will never do A caveat But now take heed of thinking your selves to be Gods when you are not for there is the danger to conceit your selves to be Gods when you are not Now ye may go long in this by reason of some counterfeit workings by reason of some Convictions or joy or common receiving of Christ ye may take your selves to be Gods when you are not But here you may bewray your selves if you will but search For 1. you may perform duties meerly to maintain your signs for a man may keep a course in a form of godliness to maintain his reputation with himself to maintain his signs that the heart shall not easily tax them to be rotten When a man hath not his end to enjoy walk with God so to be Gods 2. He may bewray himself by his desires after the fruits of the Spirit they may be earnest and if these desires were not in him he could not maintain his signs To desire graces as they are beneficiall to me and not for the service of them that I may come neer to God and seek them for him rather then for my self this is deceitfull I fear the reason why God gives not assurance to many a man that seeks long and earnestly is because a man seeks for himself and not for God Like the Bee that goeth into the field to seek honey to eat but brings it not into the Masters hive A man may be Gods and not discern it Secondly A man may be Gods and not discern it for these are distinct Ephes 1.13 In whom also after that ye beleeved ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise Mark after ye beleeved ye were sealed 1 John 5.13 These things have I written to you that beleeve on the Name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternall life and that ye may beleeve on the name of the Son of God Mark the speech here I have written unto you that do beleeve that ye may beleeve What 's this Why you that beleeve with a faith of Adherence that ye may come to assurance which yet ye want that ye may KNOW that ye have eternall life Gal. 4.6 Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts whereby ye cry Abba Father First ye are Sons and afterwards cry Abba Father by the Spirit The being of a man in Christ goeth before his knowing he is so in order of nature for a thing must be before I can know it else I know a lie A Child must be the child of such a man before he knoweth he is so So it is in our spirituall relation Therefore ye cannot conclude ye are none of Gods because you want assurance for the present for ye may be Gods and know it not Object But some may say This is to preach liberty for every man may say so Answ I answer not so For this which is in such a child of God as doth not know it by clear evidence yet it is working and differeth him from all others in the world The seed of God hath a two-fold work in such a one 1. It maketh him an obedient man Isa 50.10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voyce of his servants that walketh in darkness and hath no light Mark A child of God though he be in the dark yet he fears the Lord and obeys That though he knows not himself to be Gods yet he would walk with God in every duty though he have chains and fetters oftentimes to hinder him yet in every duty there is a principle and tie of obedience yea and such as is mixt with Love For he seeth God lovely and that draws his affections to him and makes him willing to serve him though he be not sure of him 2. Though such a soul do not discern it self to be Gods yet it is acccompanied with earnest longings and earnest seekings of the manifestation of his face to him So that though he cannot yet make sure his Calling and Election yet he gives all diligence to make it sure as Peter speaks 2 Pet. 1. and that because he would be more usefull to God Herein a true Christian differs from all the idle and neuter professors in the world Why a man may be Gods and not know it Now a man may be Gods and not know it for these causes 1. Because he is in forming and fashioning for God for Gods Spirit that dwelleth in man makes ready the
was discovered to them then they saw it was of God These were works of the spirit as the event did shew But they saw them not for the present till the further work of the spirit did manifest them Then they saw all these to have been of the spirit So if a man have a work in his heart that he can make little of I would counsel that man to follow on to see what will come of it afterward for it may be after some other work of the spirit he shall perceive it though for the present he see it not Particulars how to discern the spirit in duties Now for particular discerning of the spirit in duty 1. Doest thou find thy heart fashioned or in fashioning to a personal love of Christ a personal union with Christ himself The Spirit of God is the Factor for Christ the Spokesman between Christ and the heart to treat the marriage So that herein the Spirit presents Christ as all fair the chiefest among ten thousand as Can. 5. His love and reign and Kingdome is presented to thee in a glorious shew Now with this dost thou find thy heart in fashioning to a desire of Union to consent to marry with such a Husband I say to a personal love not of his benefits but him first and then to all his benefits To take him as God gives him Rom. 8.32 If God have given us his son how shall he not also with him freely give us all things When he is such an object that thou canst leave Father Mother Wife Children Liberty Life and all for his sake At first there may be self-love but in time every spiritual man will rise to a personal love of Christ himself and not only his benefits 2. Doth thy heart and the word thy heart and thy petitions go together and comply so that thou art taken and much affected with the sweetnes of Christ And some sentence of Scripture or prayer that carries thee out of thy self when thy heart complies with it suddenly and strangely I mean art thou wonderfully ravished and carried out of thy self desires and ends to God and for God It argues the spirit 3. Are there any graces set a work evengelically in thy heart Love Humility Sincerity or the like That is If thy Faith or love be set a work by the love of God to thee Doth the fresh presentings of the love of Christ to thee in thy duties freshen thy love to him and thy graces in thy heart This is an Argument of the Spirit When our hearts give Eccho to Gods voice Psal 27.8 When thou saidest seek ye my face My heart answered Thy face Lord will I seek This was the Spirit of God that thus sets the heart a work to Answer to Gods voice 4. Are your hearts moved from the feeling of the experience of the love of Christ to give your selves to Christ again in duty This is the Spirit of God For the heart cannot be carried directly to Christ for Christ but by the Spirit of Christ 2 Cor. 12.9.10 And he said my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in mine infirmities that the power of Christ might rest upon me Therefore I take pleasure in Infirmities in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions in Distresses for Christs sake See here is doing or undergoing any thing for Christ And mark from what ground even from experience for when I am weak then am I strong 5. Observe the manner of the combat which the heart hath against the world or the flesh or any beloved sin There may be a Combat in wicked men between sin and shame Between conscience and fear of Hell between desire and fear Therefore mark when sin draws thee with what weapons thou fightest against sin Is it the love of God that makes thee thou wilt not sin Dost thou say I will not because I love God is thy heart drawn to God Evangelically Here is the Spirit lusting against the flesh not conscience against sin The manner of the fight shews whose the fight is For the Spirit of God causeth a man to set the love of God and the promise of God as the only Arrow against sin Here it is evidenced to be the Spirit 6. A man may know the Spirit by the discovery of sin for the Spirit may evidence it self in an humble discovery of sin as well as joy in working the heart to self loathing It discovers spiritual sins bye and base aims and ends secret and by respects when a man looks asquint from God secret and by turnings of the heart that never came into the eye of the world I say the discovery of sin is an excellent work of the Spirit Ezek. 36.31 I will pour upon them my Spirit saith the Lord And what then Then shall ye remember your waies and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations To discover sins so far as they are a detestation to the heart so far as they are a bar to the raigning of Christ The fourth troublesome thought is a mans questioning the truth of his conversion The fourth thought that riseth in the heart and troubleth it is this whether his translation into the state of grace be in truth or no whether he hath the sound work of regeneration or no For saith the heart there are many semblances and shaddowes of grace True faith and false True love and false like on another false Samuels ni Samuels mantle And if a man seriously weigh himself his good against his bad His sanctification against his corruptions His obedience against his rebellions and blemishes his faith with his distrust and his new work with the old man remaining If he weigh this he sticks and cannot tell which is the heavier in the ballance But as presumption and pride makes a man think the best of himself so many times when a Godly man is humbled especially when a grain of Melancholy is mixt with it it makes him think the worst of himself And hereupon a Godly man many-times questions himself and thinks all 's naught with him And so he questions whether his grace be grace or no And now his heart is troubled and doubts and discouragements rise in it Grounds of this thought Now the ground of these discouragements in this kind are such things as these 1. He saith He cannot say nor see That he was brought in to God at the first by any remarkable work of Humiliation or by any such conversion as will witness to it self by any hand of God as some others have been Therefore he begins to Question his graces 2. He finds some peculiar sins and corruptions that hath hung upon him long and hath haunted him a long time whither they be omissions loosness of heart c. that hath haunted him a long time And hence he is troubled and
in a Tyrant But the law of sin commanding obedience that is not in a man in whom Christ is And while the fight is maintained thou maist be said to conquer though thou beest conquered He that is born of God sinneth not 1 John 3.9 For sin hath not his will but committeth a rape upon him Thus while thy infirmities are caused by the Lord to work good in thy soul they may be counted a wholsome poyson †But take heed of sinning for this end that 's wickednes Rom. 6.1 And all these infirmities cannot be said to break Covenant with God while they do not force the heart to yeeld to them And though they be troublesome to thee yet God hath said Hebr. 10. He will remember them no more The third ground of this fear 3. Thou saist thou hast discovered new sins which thou never sawest before yea after a long time in the state of grace and thou knowest not but there may be more behind undiscovered And so thy state may be bad I Answer It may be so that thou hast discovered new sins that thou sawest not before but let me tell thee the sight and knowledge of sin is good though sin be not For it may be a sign that knowledge and light increaseth in thee and that softness of heart increaseth in thee It is not an argument that sin increaseth but that light and softeness of heart increaseth For if thou seest more sins then formerly thou sawest thou discoverest but what thou wouldst know And that doth not argue thy state is naught no more then it did Jobs Job 13.23 How many are mine iniquities and sins make me to know my transgression and my sin This proved not his state nought For its good for a man to discover one after another that he may deal with them singly as it were And it is good to see them single I though it be after a long while if it be but to keep a man out of love with his own heart and it may be occasion of new humblings Quest But was it ever so with the Saints of God Ans Yea there was passion discovered in Job after a long while in the state of grace Job 3. So Jeremiah Chap. 20.14 Cursed be the day wherein I was born c. Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my Father saying a man child is born unto thee c. yea and resisting God in his work in resolution at least ver 9. I said I will not make mention of him nor speak in his name c. And ambition was discovered in the Disciples of Christ after they had been long with him in a familiar way Matt. 18.1 They strove which should be the greatest a corruption that we see not breaking out before And Peter had self shewing it self in him in disswading Christ from his sufferings and his denying his Master a new sin that he fell not into before And his dissimulation for which Paul reproves him to his face Gal. 2. yea and Barnabas that son of consolation fell into that dissimulation that I never read was charged upon him before When Jonah said I do well to be angry to death was not this new with him did you ever read he did so before So Davids Adultery and plotting Vriahs death Who would have thought such corruptions should have ever started up in Jeremiah as we read of in Chap. 20. of his prophesy It doth not follow that because new sins shew themselves therefore your standing in the state of grace is not right A mistake cleared For 1. It appears the saints are in danger of falling into new sins by all those Scriptures and examples mentioned before and also by all those Caveats laid down in Scripture wherein they are bidden Take heed beware c. 2. The Saints have a subtle Adversary that will not cease to lay baits in their way with all the willines that may be And they may be overcome before they be aware as it were Gal. 6.1 If a man be OVERTAKEN with a fault c. And if new sins discover themselves then there is new occasion to go to Christ make that use of them 1 Joh. 2.1,2 These things write I unto you little children that you sin not but if any man sin we have an Advocate Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins c. 4th ground of fear 4. He findeth his heart many times loose in spiritual duties his thoughts roving and ranging abroad when they should be kept close to God by thoughts hanting him and coming thick upon him c. Therefore sure he was never right I Answ So it hath been with many of the Saints of God that find themselves in a state of grace Keep thy heart with all diligence what need such an Exhortation if the heart were not ready to be roving Rom. 7. Saith Paul I find THEN a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me THEN when Why when I would do good then Heb. 12. Ye have forgotten the exhortation c where were their thoughts then when they for gat it And so we are oftentimes commanded to remember shewing that thoughts are very apt to be roving The Apostle saith Col. 3.1,2 If ye be risen with Christ seek those things that are above c. Set your affections on things above not on things below Which shews the heart and mind and thoughts and affections had need be called together they will be stragling Rev. 3.3 Remember how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and Repent And truly God may suffer this to be to take off your trust from your duties and graces and hearts that you may plant your trust in God alone through Christ And to shew you the difference between the Spirits managing of your graces and your own managing of them that so you may plant your faith in Christ alone And therefore if you find your hearts deceitful and loose do not conclude presently that you have no work of grace in your hearts for those loose by-thoughts may rise from some other causes Causes As 1. For want of consideration what a Majesty the presence is that thou art in for if we did seriously consider that we are in the presence of the King of Kings the All-seeing God that searcheth the heart and tryeth the reyns it would make us more serious A man would be afraid of playing with a Feather while he is speaking to the King 2. It may be thy affections are very cold and chill when thou comost to duty and for want of Love being inflamed thy thoughts rove for be sure if thou take Christ as thy treasure thy heart will be upon him Mat. 6. Love will make you mind the thing loved as David Oh how do I love thy law It is my meditation all the day Mat. 6. Psal 119. 3. For want of watchfulness and vigilancy we are too apt to let the
world and creatures take up our thoughts at other times and then when we come to duty and would keep them in we cannot For our hearts are like unruly children if they use to have Liberty they will look for it When the heart hath got a custom of loosness it is hard to keep it in 4. For want of Considering the Excellency of Christ above all things For if thou didst taste and see the Excellency of him it would gather up thy spirits to him alone Thou wouldst like Paul forgo the things that are behind and press forward to the things that are before Phil. 3.7.8 c. And then thy thoughts would not so much rove after them The fifth ground of fear Fifth Objection A man complains he doth not find that growth in the Inward marrow of Religion which should be answerable to his time and means of knowledge Though he be grown in gifts yet he cannot find that he is grown in inward acquaintance and familiarity with Christ And hence he questions the truth of his conversion Tryals of growth I answer Thou mayst herein be deceived and therefore view over thy heart and life and try thy growth a little 1. By thy rooting Hast thou taken root into Christ A tree that spreads and lives at root we say growes though it appears not to man to grow And because thou art worse in thy own sight wilt thou say thou growest not Why man Trees and corn grow downward and die or seemdead before they grow upward Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. It may be God intends thy Humility and Self-deniall that thou mayest be kept low in thy own sight And Self-deniall is the best sign of growth spiritually And when the duties you perform do not so much please the soul as the Love of God in the duty it argues growth 2. Men try their growth by their reaching to some mark set as to the top of some bed or beam or pin in a wall c. So art thou more Heavenly minded canst reach neerer God in prayer and duty is thy affection more inlarged towards him though thou find not him manifesting himself to thee as thou desirest thou art grown 3. Men try their growth by their Ability to lift a waight or bear a burden So if thou Canst not see that thou art any higher in affection yet if thou Canst suffer more hast more Patience and contentedness art able to bear more with more constancy and less fear c. thou art grown 4. By their skill Though one may not be grown in height yet he may be grown in wisdom and manliness So hast thou more skill to use the spirituall weapons able to find out Sathans designs able to confute an errour and give thy soul satisfaction in a truth then heretofore Surely it is growth But if this satisfie thee not make use of some means in which the Lord may make thee grow Means of growth They are such as these 1. Cast off all manner of sin and corruption Mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live If the body be sick or diseased it cannot grow especially if it be in a waste Why such a disease is sin Therefore get sin purged out by the Blood of Christ and faith in him otherwise it will poyson the soul and then it cannot grow as Job 20.14 Speaking of a man hiding and favouring his sins saith he His meat in his bowels is turned it is the gall of Asps within him This corrupts that which should nourish him And therefore get this out 2. Eat thy meat And eat wholsome meat Feed upon Christ and sound doctrine wholsom truths Alas if a child eat not at all or eat nothing but trash Coals Ashes Earth c. how should he grow So if thou feed upon vanities and not upon the wholsome food of the word how canst thou grow Psal 1.1.2.3 Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the councell of the ungodly nor stood in the way of sinners nor sate in the seat of the scorners But his delight is in the LAW of the LORD and in that Law doth he MEDITATE day and night That he takes down and disgests Now mark how he grows And he shall be like a tree planted by the Rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season whose leaf shall not wither and whatsoever he doth shall prosper So 1 Pet. 2.2 As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the WORD that ye may grow THEREBY 3. Get as much experience of Christ as thou canst learn to taste Christ in his Merits and Offices and Spirit Labour so to grow into Christ that thou mayst not trust to swellings in stead of growth I mean to outward gifts 2 Pet. 3.18 But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Ephes 4.15 Grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ Col. 2.18.19 And not holding the HEAD saith he but mark the former vers Let no man beguiâ— you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly pufft up with his fleshly mind And now mark And not holding the head from which all the Body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God So that if thou wouldst grow thou must suck of the sap of life from Christ And because thou feelst not what thou wouldst feel in Christ thou canst not conclude thou art not grown The Apostle Ephes 3. prayeth for the Saints there that they might have a greater measure of Excellency and spiritual perfections That ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the length and bredth and depth and heighth And to know the Love of Christ that passeth knowledge that you may be filled with all the fulness of God 4. Be often praying to God to make thee grow and look up to him for help as Paul 1 Thes 3.12 The Lord make you to increase and abound in Love c. So the Disciples Luk. 17.5 Lord increase our Faith 5. Get a place in the House of God a station in the true Church Christian Society and fellowship of the Saints is a great help to growth There thou shalt hear of Christ and have the excellencies of the Spirit dispenced to thee Ps 92.13,14 Those that be planted in the HOVSE of the LORD shall FLOVRISH in the Courts of our God They shall still bring forth fruit in their old age they shall be fat and flourishing So Heb. 10.23,24,25 Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that hath promised And let us consider one another
find the Lord He lookt behind him before him on both hands but to no purpose And so the Church Cant. 3.1 2. By night on my bed I sought him whom my sould loveth I sought him but I found him not c. She 's industrious but finds him alone Causes why God keeps off What should be the reason may some say that the Lord should keep aloof off when a man sets himself so seriously about it I mean to find him 1. Because God would have the creature know that he is free in working He is not tied to come to preparations or qualifications of the creature but to his own preparations The preparations of the heart and the answer of the tougue is from the Lord saith Salomon Prov. 16.1 2. He would let his people know that he will be waited on to come in when he pleases yet the creature must do his duty Seek the Lord and his strength seek his face evermore Psal 105.5 Paul prayed thrice before he had an Answer of grace 2 Cor. 12. 3. Many times the people of God have too much self-ends in their duties and the Lord would have them to see it Zach. 7.5 Did you fast unto me even unto me saith the Lord. And did you not eat for your selves and drink for your selves It may be self-love may drive a man to it to obtain some blessing that he wants rather then to enjoy God himself And God would shew him this errour and take him off from it 4. That they may see their former Slothfulness and Negligence Cant. 5. When Christ had waited and called for admittance and could not have it he withdraws to let his Spouse see how he did distaste her Sloth and Neglect and Excuses 5. That he might be the sweeter to thee when he comes in again and that thou mightest stick the closer to him when thou hast found him again 6. To try thy Faith and Patience and Constancy whether thou wilt persevere in following him and wait upon him as the woman of Canaan did though thou have repulse after repulse and little hopes in reason yet to try if thy faith can conquer reason And that thy faith may be seen with the greater lustre when it is tried For God by delaying and putting off discovers to you the temper of your Spirits whether you will willingly wait the Lords leasure or whether you will fret and fume and wait no longer As we do sometimes by beggers put them off or give them no answer and if they be indeed in great wants and of meek spirits they will lament and weep and be thankful for a little when it comes But your stout sturdy beggers when they are not answered they will fall a reviling and cursing and give high words so that by delaying you may see their spirits So doth the Lord by this means shew you your spirits and temper of heart The ninth ground of fear 9. He complaines he hath hurt the cause of God when God hath brought him upon the stage to have done something for God perhaps to have suffered And so his Soul is wounded and he fears his condition And did not Peter do so Did not he fly off when all had forsaken Christ and break his word and resolution and shamefully deny his Master contrary to his former profession So Moses and Aaron Num. 20.12 Because ye believed me not to sanctify me in the eies of the children of Israel saith God Therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the Land c. These men hurt the cause of God and failed when they should have stuck to it and yet all real converts The 10. ground of fear 10. You cry out you have oftentimes relaps't into the same sins which formerly you have pursued with particular sorrow and grief and prayed and resolved against them and that makes you question the truth of your state This is indeed a sad condition But this doth not prove thy state naught for it hath been the case of the servants of God sometimes Therefore ye have this confession Our backslidings are many so that you see it was oftentimes again and again The Prophet Jonah relapsed into passion and discontent with God He was discontent with the work God set him about therefore he flieth to Tarshish Jonah 1.2.3 And sorrowes for it and confesseth Chap. 2.8 They that trust upon lying vanities forsake their own mercies yet see Chap. 3.1 When God had shewed mercy to Niniveh how discontent he was with the Lord again It displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry And when the Lord that might have confounded him reasons sweetly and mildly with him to take him off from his passion as appears Chap. 3.3.4 and provides for him what he wants yet upon a small occasion again the taking away of a gourd or shrub and the Lord had a gracious end in it too the convincing of him of his folly in being so waspish he breaks out again into the same passion or worse as if he had never seen the evill of i◠or been humbled for it Chap. 4.8.9 I am greatly angry Or I do well to be angry even unto death saith he See how often he relapsed into this sin and Peter denieth Christ not only once but again and again †And perhaps the prodigal sets out unto us a Christian relapst for he was a son before and with his Father and then went away from him and spent all And yet he was not quite undone but returned again And this comes to pass sometimes 1. To let you see your own weaknes that you can do nothing of your selves cannot withstand nor resist nor overcome that ye may be taken off of all false confidences and rest upon God and God alone for help That ye may resist stedfast in the faith 2. For the advancement of the praise and honour of the wisdome skill and goodness of God the Physitian of our souls that can and doth cure when the disease is more dangerous when thou art relaps't and it grows worse and worse as in curing the woman that had the bloody Issue that was worse and worse notwithstanding all the means she used till she came to Christ 3. This advanceth his Mercy the more that he doth not quite forsake thee when thou hast done what thou canst to drive him away as Micha 7.18.19 Who is a God like unto thee that pardons Iniquity that passeth by the trangression of the remnant of his heritage He retains not his anger for ever because he delights in mercy Oh but I have relaps't and driven him away saith the poor soul But mark now ver 19. He will turn again he will have compassion on us he will subdue our Iniquities and thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the Sea And the prodigal saw the compassion of his Father the greater in receiving him again after he had run away from him The eleventh ground of fear 11. He hath