again endeavouring by his old way to carry on his former designs and as I have declared his fore-laying the way for the catching of poor sinners before sin committed I shall now speak a word or two of his methods and devices in the pursuing the servants of God after the Lord hath shewed great mercies and hath appeared unto them To the intent that I may further discover his wiles and temptations whose mallice is great against God and the Sons and Daughters of men but especially against the Saints and by reason of his great power being an Angel though of darkness he not only acts his own servants and slaves as he is the Prince of the air that ruleth in the Children of dissobedience but acteth upon Gods own Children and servants that fear the Lord. As I shall give you several instances as namely upon Jobes three friends though godly men how he did act them to have perswaded Job to confess himself an Hypocrite put it â—nto the heart of Judas to betray his Master â—eâ— and Peter 100 to perswade his Lord and Master that none of those things should beâ—â—ll him at Jerusalem which Christ himself had foretold should come to pass yea how did he prevail with the Scribes and pharisees to complot and agree with the Souldiers to say his Disciples came by night and stole him away endeavouring thereby to have concealed the Resurrection and so to have blasted the work of mans Redemption I shall now speak a word or two more of hingeneral practise upon the world for it is said the world lyeth in wickedness therefore must needs be acted by that wicked one who ruieth in the Children of disobedience that is upon the generality of the men of the world The gate of Heaven being strait and few of the Sons and Daughters of men go thither in comparison of the world God Almighty all along from the begining for the carrying on of his glory and building up his Church hath powred out his spirit upon the Sons of men making some Prophets and some Apostles and that upon the meanest of men as you see the Prophets Herdsmen and men of mean occupations and the Apostles Fisher men for you know it is said not many noble not many great nor many wise after the wisdome of the world for by such mean men the Lord doth make his glory and wisdom to be more conspicious when these that are illiterate and not bred up at the feat Gamaliel when such as these shall confound the wisdom of the world his glory shines more illusterously though without humanâ— learning for having received the wisdom of the spirit are made wise to salvation discoruing not only the misteries of mans redemption but their own particular salvation through Christ which the wisdom of the world knew not And so the Prophets and Apostles have had the honour of being Pen men of the Scripture by the holy Ghrist so that the words which they spake shall be the standing word by which the world shall be judged But such is the present condition of these times that the Lord hath given his spirit and excellent gifts to be improved for his glory O how duth the men of this world actâ—d by Satan being indeed his main master piece sets his own Instruments upon the servants of God by reproachful terms and all other ways of mischief and in a taunting deriding way of scorn crying our O you have the Spirit O you are Saints and you can preach Whereas surely it may be replyed unto them if they have not the spirit they are none of Christs and if none of his servants then you know what you are if not Saints then Davils and without holyness you shall never see the Kingdom of God And to others in a taunting manner you are Preachers surely if God hath given out such gifts though they do noâ— take upon them the ministry yet such gifts may be imployed to edification and to build up themselves and others in the faith of the Gospel why then should this be offensive doth not the Apostles say if any may hath a word of exhortation let him speak Suppose that God hath given such parts for from him cometh every good and perfect gift Will you reproach the spirit of the living God or obscure the graces of God O this indeed is a mighty Stratagem of Sathan whereby he doth much hinder the glory of God what if God hath given grace and gifts to mean Persons as mean as Fisher men I say to Glovers Shoomakers Taylors Weavers and other Tradesmen and why not as well as Fisher men Herds men and Tent-makers shall not their gifts be improved It is true the Prophets and Apostles had the spirit given them in great measure and shall not God give unto such as before mentioned in their measure Alas I would ask you by what spirit do these men act who are so industerous to improve all their knowledge and utmost endeavors to walk exactly in all the Commandments of God having respect thereunto shall such be reproached But it may be objected that these men have not humanâ— learning they have not been at the Universities well then It is grace that makes a man more excellent then his Neighbour I do not speak against humanâ— learning it may be a good handmaid to Divinity but grace must be in the Chayre she must be Mistriss grace is the glorious Ornament that makes the poor Saints shine in their conversations and glorifie their Father which is in Heaven when the men of great humanâ— learning oftentimes drown themselves in the ways of the world and make their condemnation to be the greater by it And by their scandelous lives bring dishonour to God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ but the day draweth near when the Dragon Beast and false Prophet with the Locusts of Hell shall be bound up together and cast into that fire which burneth with fire brimstone for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it when the feet of him shall be beautiful upon the mountains that publisheth peace and salvation saying unto Zyon thy God reigneth then shall the voice of thy watchmen be heard and lift up their voice and shout together for they shall see him eye to eye when the Lord shall give deliverance to Zyon I shall give you one instance more and that is of my self sines the Lord came into my soul witnessing he had given me eternal sife as I have declared and set forth in my blesphemous thoughts and when we shall take in hand the performance of the duties of Gods worship as singing of Psalms reading the word and in Prayer when we give the Lord his glorious titles he is ready to thrust the contrary unto our hearts and plays the Devil indeed to contradict what we say and by the assistance of that unregenerate proceeding lines He I say Sathan hath so endeavoured to do me all the mischief that possible he could not leaving a stone unturned
why say you my way is hidden from the Lord and my judgement passed over of my God know you not or have you not heard that the everlasting God the Lords of the ends of the Earth is neither weary nor fainteth but giveth strength to him that fainteth the young men shall faint and be weary but they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength and lift up their wings as the Eagle they shall run and not faint In that day when the Mountains of the Lords house shall be established above the Mountains of the Earth for which glorious day I shall not cease to pray for O thou eternal being of beings whose name is Jehovah the Lord of Hosts who hast made the Heavens the earth the great sea and all the Creatures therein for the manifesting of thy blessed self in thine excellency that so by the displaying of thy glorious attributes we might know thy power wisdom and goodness and fear thy great and glorious name and truly Lord thou hadst done a most sweet work in the day wherein thou beheldst the works of thy hands and said they were very good O the great engagements of love and obedience thou hast laid upon us in that day when thou hadst advanced us and made us not only Lords of the works of thine hands and for our use putting all things in subjection under our feet but making us after thine own Image in righteousness and holiness whereby thou didst enable us to the performance of worship and obedience thou requirest at our hands But O the great dishonour and Rebellion we acted against thee our Creator in breaking thy holy Law which thou gavest us to keep as the Tryal of our obedience and by giving more credit unto Sathan in believing him and what he said then the threatnings of thee our God and therefore O Lord how righteous wast thou in thy judgements upon them and us their posterity in delivering us into the hands of Satan so that we who came from their loins came so deformed with that cursed Image of Satan that we are born thine enemies children of wrath and heirs of vengeance and bringing upon our selves a woful necessity of sinning against thee O Lord how justly mightest thou laid upon our first Parents and we their posterity to have born thy righteous punishments for ever without Redemption But blessed Lord thou didst in judgement remember mercy in condescending to treat with our Parents letting out that gratious promise That the seed of the woman should break the serpents head revealing mercy by a second Adam to come and so entring into a new covenant not of works but of grace that believing in him we should have eternal Life O gratious Father how didst thou magnifie thy mercy over the works of thine hands and didst do a work more wonderful then the Creation in giving the eternal word the brightness of thy glory the express Image of thy self thine only begotten Son by an eternal generation to take upon him the nature of man and to be born of the blessed Virgin that so he might by an Hupostatical union joy the humanity to the diety that so he might be enabled to undergo the work of mans Redemption a work so wonderful that all the Angels could not have devised and into which they pry into with admiration that thereby he might make such an attonement that might satisfie for the sins of man to the utmost and that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Eternal Life And now dear Father thou hast given us the word of reconciliation the witness of thy truth wherein thou hast made known to us that thou hast given us eternal Life by Jesus Christ that immaculate Lamb of God who hath laid down his Life upon the Cross to answer thy justice and by his sufferings merits and Righteousness Resurrection from Death to Life hath cancelled the Law of condemnation taking down the wall of partition and making admission for sinners to come to the Throne of Grace with boldness And now hast given us pretious promises that what we ask in the name of thy son shall be done for us And now dear Father of Heaven what was I or my Fathers family but a sinful generation of men That thou shouldst choose me to salvation before the world was and in due time to call me to the knowledge of this mistery of mans Redemption and by the witness of thy word and blessed spirit should seal unto me the pardon of sin in the day when thou deliveredst me out of the hands of that roaring Lyon And after my seeking thy face for many years with doubtings and fears under many desertions and dreadful temptations and many various dispensations which thou most blessed God hast turned all to my advantage breaking into my Soul with so much love that I know not whom of the sons of men did ever receive a greater mercy And now Lord of thy goodness hast called me from the ways of the world to be of the number of those whom thou hast chosen to eternal Life and therefore having tasted so abundantly of thy strange Love a Love to admiration a Love we are not able to apprehend in the acknowledgement whereof and that I might declare what a God thou art according to mine engagement and that I might exalt thy glorious name and declare thy loving kindness to me to the ends of the earth have made bold to present these lines to the publick view for the magnifying of thy mercies to me the worst of the sons of men and the greatest of sinners if thou shouldest charge my sins upon me and be thou pleased to accept of what I have written in good part and let thy blessing so go along with it that the delusions methods devices and temptationt of Sathan that old cunning Serpent may be so discovered to poor souls that lye under his cruelty may receive advantage thereby When they shall read this small discourse of thy gratious actings with me O let thy blessing be upon iâ— that they may receive comfort thereby that thy goodness may be magnâ—fied which thou knowest Lord to be the only cause I have given it to the publick view who never thought my namâ— should have appeared in such a way And now dear Father I humbly beseech thee manifest thy glorious Gospel of thy Son to the ends of the Earth that all Nations may know thou art a God through Jesus Christ forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and to that end I humbly beseech thee fulfill thy word in pouring out thy indignation upon that whore of Babylon who hath dyed her garments red in the blood of the Saints that we may say Babylon Babylon is fallen and upon all the powers that oppose the righteous Scepter of thy Son the Gospel whom thou hast made King of Kings and Lord of Lords and hast given him the Heathen for his inheritance and the utmost ends of the earth for his possession who
tels you nay Luke 13.3 but except you repent you shall all likewise perish And moreover let me tell you that if gross grievous and scandalous open sinners or secret falsehearted hypocrites were the only sufferers in this kind the whole book of Job the 73. Psalm and other places of Scripture might have well been spared out of our Bibles Oh no! I for my own part must needs say my sins my unthankfulness my unprofitableness the great unsuitableness of my heart and life to the purity required by the Law and love of my blessed Redeemer are such as that I have had and still have abundant cause to lay my mouth in the dust and to cry out unclean unclean my spot in regard of these hath been very grievouâ— my grapes have had too too much sowerness in them to put my teeth an edge as indeed they have done but yet to the glory of the free-grace of God my spot hath not been the spot of the wicked Your Vine hath been the Vine of Sodom and your Grapes are Grapes of Gall their clusters are bitter Your drunkenness Whoredoms hellish Oaths Cursings and the like sins have been such as make it wonderful that the Almighty should spare you and punish such as mourn under their far lesser sins I do not justifie my self thereby though I must declare I know none of those things by my self Only I repeat the question to thee again Canst thou think God will always pass by thee unpunished seeing be hath not spared such as desire to fear his name oh no he will not be confident he will not If he distribute sorrows in anger if he puts his own willing people on the rack of an accusing tormenting Conscience Where oh where shall the ungodly and the sinners appear 5. Or do you think that it is not sin nor the Devil that are the cause of all those sad things that are here related but a meer mellancholly distemper of body do you think they are but the issue of a mellancholly brain and no more Briefly to this give me leave poor sinner to say 1. For my self if these two things speak any thing in the case then surely thou arâ— quite out in thy conjectures For. 1. When I had my troubles of mind growing upon me I often used the means appointed for prevention or correction of that distemper and yet my condition was the same still 2. When deliverance came it came suddenly Such changes as I have felt from midnight to mid-day without any interposal of twi-light demonstrates my distemper to have been occasioned by another hand and for other causes then that of mellancholly 2. For others I go not about to deny but that 't is possible and ordinary to meet with persons whom the hand of mellancholly hath marvellously dejected Learned experienced men have said so And to say otherwise in me may well pass for presumptions folly Only I would express my fears least it should prove in the ears of carnal men a Doctrine provoking to unwarrantable mirth and in the ears of weak troubled believers an impediment to faith I fear while good men ascribe so much of the troubles of our souls to the humours of our bodies the care of the body should exceed that of the soul and thereby the glory of God and quiet of our own hearts should at once be dangerously assaulted Sure it is not for nothing that a deep silence lyeth over all the holy Scriptures as to this matter that many are the troubles of righteous and that those troubles lye most about the heart one design of the Holy-Ghost in those writings is to set forth examples of which are abundant there but not the least hint at any time as if the black and bitter waters of a disturbed mind sprang from the jarring humours of the flesh Gods anger for sin either by way of dissertion of comfort or infliction of temptation by permission of Satan to tyranize over the soul are the only causes of every trouble the hiding of his face begets trouble Ps 30.7 the causing of that to shine again is the only remedy Job 34.29 This is all the wisdom of God hath thought fit to publish Ps 4 6 7. If we must needs say more le ts look to our inferences Whatever hand this gross and heavy humour may have in the troubles of the soul let the finner willing to hold fast his iniquity by refusing to entertain hard thoughts of it but plainly answer these things thou thinkest that melancholly is the cause of troubles 1. What is the cause why any man is thus troubled with melancholy is it not because of fin is it not the conceived anger of an all-powerful God or if the party troubled find no sense of divine displeasure within himself yet who but an Atheist will deny the wounds made upon the natural spirits or those made upon the spirit to be both of them a punishment for sin as nothing proves a Deity more plainly then the argument which prophane Atheists most urge against it so nothing more sets forth the deadly nature of sin or the dangerous condition of the sinner then that very thing which is so much in use for their extenuation Atheists tell us there had been no talk of a God in the world if it had not been for fear 't was fear say they that found out and founded the notion of a Deity whereas there had been to speak truly no such thing as fear if first there had not been a God In like manner argue poor sinful sinners there had been no talk of spiritual malladies had it not been for melancholly spirits no distress of the mind but by distemper of the humours and who begat this blackness of distempered humours is not the hand of sin in all this sure 't wil be granted and if so I 'le speak a word to thee anon 2. Thou thinkest a wounded Conscience is but a melancholly conceit sure thou dost not think that it is so in all Give me leave to enquire what do you think was that which troubled Adam in she day that he eat of the forbidden Fruit what was that which un-Paradiced him so soon he hastâ—es away to the thickets for an hiding-place Gen. 3.7 8. lays hold on the broadest Leaves he could meet with for a covering of his nakedness What aileth him now is he not in Paradice still as he was before what makes this suddain alteration why so fearful in the cool of the evening who in the dawning of the past morning knew not what did belong to such a state some mighty chance must needs be in him for there was none without him All things about him were the same but he himself was not No external abatement of the pleasures of sense was here as yet to be found The ear had the same melody of the Choristers of the Woods for delight as it had before The mouth the same rarity and variety of pleasant Fruits to feed upon as