Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A34724
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A Narration of the grievous visitation and dreadfull desertion of Mr. Peacock, in his last sicknesse together with the sweet and gracious issue, in his comfortable restauration, to the joy of Gods salvation, before his most blessed end and heavenly death, Decemb. 4, 1611.
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1641
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Wing C65; ESTC R14609
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24,472
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would have believed us Yes Why not now when your judgement is blinded Oh the judgement of God! Call it as He calleth it Correction Oh my miserable heart Oh death A dead man cannot perceive himselfe dead and God quickneth the dead Oh if he would inlarge my soul This desire is good But it is without savour God in mercy will yeeld you a comfortable rellish Consider I pray you whereas you may object the Lord is strong and terrible Exod. 34.6 it followeth Mercifull withall But I am backward in seeking it He is gracious more forward than you can be backward But I have provoked him Hee is slow to anger But my sins are great But he is abundant in goodnesse and truth The Lord hath promised that He on his part will be our God and we on our part shall be his people For a while he commended him to God shortly after returning he prayed with him Cast your burthen upon the Lord. He hath rejected me Who made you his counsellor Deut. 29.29 Secre◠things belong unto God but revealed things to us wil◠you make Almanacks He doth manifest it Oh my abominable bringing up of youth he withall groaned most deeply If you had done as the justest man you should stand need of Christs merits I or another may bring arguments but it belongs unto God to fasten them upon the soule I say to you as Noah said to Japhet Gen. 9.2 God shall enlarge Japhet c. What if your sinnes were as crimson God can make them as snow Isai 1.18 That is true of those that are capable Behold we make your estate our owne we have part of your sorrow who hath thus disposed our soules thinke you God And doe you thinke that he which causeth us to love you doth not love you himselfe I feare I did too much glory in matters of private service to God The nearer we come to God the more we see our owne vilenesse This is the use I make of it Blessed be God who hath not put our estate in the devils hands but kept it in his owne The devill hath now removed you and you thinke that all is gone out but God knows what and who is his An artificer can distinguish drosse from mettall and cannot God his from yours Well with Job lay your hand on your mouth Job 40.4 and hold your peace and so good rest have you Only consider your comfort though it be but small whence it comes from Gods word and servants no otherwise When he returned againe to give and take farewell he began to complaine Oh great and grievous The Lord knoweth what power he hath given you A father will put a greater burden on a stronger son but see the difference First when an earthly father or Master setteth his servant or son on worke they must doe it with their own strength but the Lord setteth on worke giveth strength too Be not discouraged you are now in your calling Oh my soule is miserable What then a father loveth his son as well when hee is sleeping as waking Ioh. 14.26 The holy Ghost calls to remembrance what you have heretofore taught and now heard and although I shall bee absent in body yet shall I be present in minde Be not covetous to seeke abundance by and by If Jacob could say to Esau Gen. 33.10 I have seen thy face as if I had seen the face of God much more should you thinke so of the children of God Christ come unto you I thanke God he hath begun to ease me He will in his good time God grant Thus hee tooke his last farewell Although we depart from our friends in the way yet we shall meet in the end One told Master Dod that he had uttered such words Now the Lord hath made me a spectacle Whereby he counselled one that attended him to be sparing in admitting commers in or speakers lest his braine should bee too much heated A friend of his comming to him asked him Dare you any more repine against God Why should I so God bee blessed It is a signe of grace But I have no means You have had them offered But not given with effect They shall I doubt not God grant but I feele it not He received a letter from a friend very respectively and much respected of them both wherin these words were written I heard I know not how true that our deare Christian friend Master Peacock is in great danger which hath much grieved and afflicted my soule and wrung from me very bitter teares if his extremities be such his tentations sure be like to be very sore Tell him from mee as one who did ever with dearest loving affection know and converse with him that I can assure him in the word of life and truth from a most just and holy God whose Minister I am that he is undoubtedly one of his Saints designed for immortality and those endlesse joyes in another world When it was read to him at these words I can assure him he said Oh take heed take heed Do you thinke that he would or durst assure you unlesse hee knew upon what grounds I deceived my selfe now God hath revealed more Another time one requested him that hee would make his friends partakers of the least comfort that the Lord had bestowed upon him as they had been partakers of his griefe If I had it I would gladly communicate it Search and take notice of the least How should I have any sense God denyeth the meanes Doe you thinke sense is a fruit of faith Yes At this season * For it was in the deepe of Winter Decemb. 4. 1611. although though the husbandman hath sowne much yet he sees nothing above groūd Applications doe not prove hold your peace my soule is broken Then the promise is yours I would gladly aske you one thing Now you will aske twenty Doe you seeke for grace in your soule I cannot How then can you know whether it be there or not It is dead The Lord in whose hands the disposing thereof is disposeth it for your good and his glory I thanke you What do you think of that place Joh. 20.23 Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them You know how far they may goe The bargaine howsoever is not now to be made betwixt God and you Shortly after came one whom he much esteemed Oh I love said he your company for the grace that is in you and much more to the same purpose Suddenly after he breakes out into this ejaculation Oh God reconcile me unto thee that I may taste one dram of grace by which my miserable soule may receive comfort One secretly willed that man to desire him to repeat it againe Doe not trouble me with repetitions There being a Sermon he bad them about him to goe thither After he called one and asked him Whether the preacher being acquainted with his course of preaching did use his
yea and almost no kinde of senses was left in him upon apprehension of some back-sliding hee was so perplexed that if he had been in the deepest pit of hell he could almost have despaired no more of his salvation But yet every one of these three last named was at length blessedly recovered and did rise most gloriously out of these desperate conflicts and extreamest spirituall misery before their end Heare part of Mistris Breterghs triumphant songs after the returne of her Well-beloved M. Bolton ibid. pag. 85 86. O Lord Iesu dost thou pray for me O blessed and sweet Saviour how wonderfull how wonderfull how wonderfull are thy mercies Lord I feele thy mercy and I am assured of thy love and so certaine am I thereof as thou art the God of truth even so sure doe I know my selfe to bee thine O Lord my God and this my soul knoweth right well c. 2. This following Narration witnesseth with what sweet tranquillity of minde Master Peacock recounted Gods love welcommed his presence when the storme was once over 3. Master Glover saith M. Foxe ibid. though he suffered many yeares so sharpe temptations and strong buffettings of Satan yet the Lord who graciously preserved him all the while not only at last did rid him out of all discomfort but also framed him thereby to such mortification of life as the like lightly hath not beene seene in such sort as he became like one placed in heaven already and dead in this world both in word and meditation led a life altogether celestiall abhorring in his minde all profane doings No arme of flesh or art of man can possibly heale or helpe in these extreamest horrours Heaven and earth men and angels friends and physicke gold and silver nay the utmost possibility of the whole Creation must let this alone (r) Psal 49.7 8. for ever An Almighty hand must take this in hand or else never any cure or recovery in this world or that to come Oh therefore let us take the stinges out of our sinnes betimes and prevent the incureablenesse of their horrible wound by an humble sincere and universall turning to the Lord while it is called To Day (ſ) Heb. 3.15 For assuredly all the sinnes wee have committed in thought word or deed at any time in any place with any company M. Bolton ibid. or to which we have been any waies accessary will one day be stings and scorpions to our naked soules they all are upon record before that high and everlasting Iudge written by the hand of divine Iustice in the booke of our conscience with a pen of Iron and there they lie like so many sleeping Lions gathering much enraged and desperate poison that whensoever our hearts are thorowly rouzed M. Bolton pag. 89. and finally awaked they will flie in our faces tormenting us most ragingly and tearing our wofull soules in pieces everlastingly when there is none to deliver (t) Psal 50.22 Therefore let us consider often in our saddest thoughts Consid 1. 1. Why we came into the world were fashioned in the wombe and drawne out thence 2. Why we were made men and women in the image of God reasonable creatures and not toads or serpents 3. Why we were borne and bred up Christians in the Sun-shine of the Gospel the glorious light of grace and not made Pagans Turkes Infidels or borne in the hellish darknesse of Popish Idolatry but in a Land of righteousnesse Where the eyes of the Lord and the Sunne of righteousnesse are upon us from the beginning of the yeare to the end of the yeare (u) Deut. 11.12 Doubtlesse this is an unspeakable mercy and was not therefore vouchsafed unto us that we should only live to our selves (w) 2 Cor. 5.15 carnally and sensually to eate and drink and get gaine but for more heavenly ends And therefore as ever we hope with comfort to looke the Lord Iesus in the face at that great day let us minde the things that concerne our everlasting peace (x) Luke 19.42 pursue the one (y) Luke 10.42 thing that is necessary and lay up in store for our selves a good foundation against the time to come (z) 1 Tim. 6.19 that we may lay hold on eternall life Consider that our dayes are but few (a) Iob 10 20. we have but a very little time to live here and upon this span-long life depends eternitie let us therefore walke with God (b) Gen. 6 9. and behave our selves here that we may hold out in the (c) Prov. 16.4 evill day It is another place we must all live in for ever The kingdome of heaven suffereth violence (d) Matt. 11.12 and the violent take it by force Many shall seeke to enter in (e) Luke 13.24 and shall not be able What comfort will it one day be to have wallowed in all sensuall pleasures or lien soaking in luxurie and lasciviousnesse when we must ere long lie on our deaths-bed like wilde (f) Isay 51.20 Buls in a net It is good to make hay while the Sunne shines to pray heare reade and repent betimes to store our selves with Oyle (g) Mat 25 10. before the Bride-groome comes lest we knock too late when the doore is shut As wee spend this life so will it bee with us in the life to come therefore live well here that it may be well with us at our latter end (h) Lam. 1.9 3. All the riches Consid 3. honors and pleasures under the Sun will not availe us (i) Prov. 11.4 in the day of wrath It will then no whit profit us to have gained the whole (k) Matt. 16.26 world if we lose our owne soules to have enjoyed the pleasures of sin (l) Heb. 11.25 for a season and to lie weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in hell for ever O that men were wise and would consider this (m) Deut. 32.29 and that they would remember their latter end The clearest Sun in the Hemispheare that shines most gloriously in the brightest summers day certainely may and who sees it not oftentimes overcast and muffled up in dark clouds ere it be night Who can say the weather shall not (n) Luke 12.56 change with him May not our sun goe downe (o) Ier. 15.9 Amos 8.9 at noone and set sadly under a cloud Nay we must look for changes and chances in this mortall life and therefore daily had need to pray as it is in our Liturgie and waite all the daies of our appointed time (p) Iob 14.14 untill our last solemne change shall come Our soules like a Ship at sea underfull saile are all bound for the faire havens (q) Acts 27.8 of the fortunate Islands I meane everlasting blessednesse who knowes but that he may be sore tost and rent and shattered not able to beare up * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 27.15 against the angry surges yea and may hardly