Relation to his Servants Whether he be corporally present or absent he knoweth his own and it is their care also that whether present or absent they may be accepted of him 2 Cor. 5.7 8 9. He is their Head while they are suffering on Earth and therefore he feeleth their sufferings and infirmities Heb. 4.15 And hence it is that he thus rebuketh a persecuting Zealot Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Act. 9 4. 3. He hath not laid by the least measure of his love he loveth us in Heaven as much as he did on Earth Having loved his own which were in the World to the end he loved them Joh. 13.1 And as Josephs love could not long permit him to conceal himself from his Brethren but broke out the more violently after a short restraint so that he fell on their Necks and wept so will not the more tender love of Christ permit him long to hide his face or estrange himself from the People of his Love And when he returneth it will be with redoubled expressions of endearment 4. His Covenant with his Servants is still in force his Promises are sure and shall never be broken though the performance be not so speedy as we desire Deut. 7.9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth Covenant and Mercy with them that love him and keep his Commandments to a thousand generations and repayeth them that hate him to their face to destroy them He will not be slack to him that hateth him he will repay him to his face 1 King 8.23 He keepeth Covenant and Mercy with his Servants that walk before him with all their heart So Dan. 9.4 Neh. 1.5 and 9.32 And it is the promise of Christ when he departed from his Servants That he will come again and take them to himself that where he is there they may be also Joh. 14.3 and 12.26 5. His own interest and honor and office and preparations do engage him to return to his disconsolate Flock His Jewels and peculiar Treasure are his interest Mal. 3.17 1 Pet. 2.9 Exod. 19.5 He that hath chosen but a little Flock Luk. 12.32 and confined his interest and treasure into such a narrow compass will not forsake that little Flock but secure them to his Kingdom He that hath made it his office to Redeem and Save them and hath so dearly bought them and gone so far in the work of their Salvation will lose none of all his cost and preparations but for his People and his Blood and his Honour and his Fathers Will and Love will certainly finish what he hath undertaken And therefore his withdrawings shall not be everlasting 6. It is for their sakes that he withdraweth for a time Though the bitter part be for their sin it is intended as Medicinal for their benefit sometimes he doth it to awake and humble them and stir them up to seek him and call after him To shew them what they have done in provoking him to withdraw and hide his face that renewed repentance may prepare them for the comforts of his return Sometimes he hath such work for them to do which is not so agreeable to his presence as fasting and mourning and confessing him in sufferings Math. 9.15 And sometimes he hath comforts of another kind to give them in his seeming absence Joh. 16.7 I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away For if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him to you As there were comforts which the Disciples were fittest for in Christs Bodily absence so when he will take away his ordinances or our prosperity or friends there are comforts of another sort in secret Communion with him and in suffering for him which his people may expect Not that any can expect it who on that pretence do reject these Ordinances and Mercies no more than the Disciples could have expected the Comforter if they had rejected the corporal presence of Christ But God hath such supplies for those that mourn for his departure Use 1. Misunderstand not then the departings of your Lord It is too bad to say with the evil servant My Lord delayeth his coming and worse to say he will never return 1. He will return at his appointed day to Judge the World to justifie his Saints whom the World condemned to answer the desires and satisfie all the expectations of Believers and to comfort and everlastingly reward the faithful that have patiently waited for his return And when he returneth with Salvation then shall we also return from our calamities and shall discern bâ—tween the righteous and the wicked between him that served God and him that served him not Mal. 3.18 Undoubtedly our Redeemer liveth and shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth and though after our Skin worms devour these Bodies yet in our Flesh we shall see God Job 19.25 26. Behold he cometh with Clouds and every Eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the Earth shall wail because of him even so Amen Rev. 1.7 Though unbelieving Scoffers shall say where is the promise of his coming 2 Pet. 3.4 Yet Believers consider that a day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years but as a day and that the Lord is not slack of his promise but long suffering v. 8.9 He will not leave us comfortless but will come unto us Joh. 14.18 The patient expectation of the Just shall not be forgotten nor in vain Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his Mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe in that day 2 Thes 1.6 to 11. 2. And he will return also to the seemingly forsaken Flocks of his Disciples He hath his times of trial when the Shepherds being smitten the Sheep are scattered and he hath his times of gathering the scattered ones again together and giving them Pastors after his own heart that shall feed them with knowledge and understanding Jer. 3.14 15. And shall say What is the Chaff unto the Wheat Jer. 23.28 When we cry Wo is me for my hurt my wound is grievous We must also say Truly this is a grief and I must bear it My Tabernacle is spoiled and all my Cords are broken My Children are gone forth of me and they are not there is none to stretch forth my Tent any more and to set up my Curtains for the Pastors are become bruitish and have not sought the Lord.
and the abatement of his graces in us And all the works of mortifying self-denyal and forbearing all forbidden pleasures which God doth call his servants to Though in the Primitive and Principal part of Holyness there is nothing but what is sweet and pleasant to a Soul so far as it is holy As the Love of God and the Love of others and worshipping God and doing good and joy and thanks and praise and obedience c. Yet the Medicinal parts of grace or holiness have something necessarily in them that is bitter even to nature as nature and not only as corrupt such as are contrition self-denyal mortification abstinence as aforesaid 7. There are Charitable sorrows for the dishonour of God and for the sin and hurt and miseries of others These also are our Duties and we must be Agents in them as well as Patients As we must first pray for the Hallowing of the name of God and the coming of his kingdom and the doing of his will on earth as it is done in heaven So we must most grieve for the abuse dishonor of Gods name the hindering of his Kingdom and the breaking of his Laws that so many Nations see not the Peril and know not God and have not the Gospel or will not receive it but live in rebellion against their maker and in blindness obstinacy and hardness of heart and are given up to commit uncleanness with greediness that so many nations which are called Christians are captivated in ignorance and superstition by the blindness pride carnality and covetousness of their usurping self-obtruding Guides That so many men professing Christianity have so little of the knowledge or power of what they generally and ignorantly profess and live to the shame of their profession the great dishonour and displeasure of their Lord and the grief or hardening of others that the Church of Christ is broken into so many sects and fractions possessed with such an uncharitable destroying zeal against each other and persecuting their Brethren as cruelly as Turks and Heathens do that the best of Christians are so few and yet so weak and lyable to miscarriages All these are the matter of that sorrow which God hath made our duty And all these sorts of sorrow do go before a Christians fullest joy Reas 1. God will have some conformity between the order of Nature and of Grace Non-entity was before created entity The evening before the morning Infancy before maturity of age weakness before strength The buried seed before the plant the flower and fruit And infants cry before they laugh weakness is soon hurt and very querulous No wonder then if our sorrows go before our joys 2. Sin goeth before grace and therefore our sorrows are before our joys The seed is first fruitful which was first sown Joy indeed hath the elder Parent in esse reali absoluto but not in esse causali relativo We are the Children of the first Adam before we are Children of the second we are born flesh of flesh before we are born Spiritual of the Spirit And where Satan goeth before Christ it is equal that sorrow be before joy 3. Our gracious Father and wise Physician doth see that this is the fittest method for our cure That we may deny our selves we must know how little we are beholden to our selves and must smart by the fruit of our sin and folly before we are eased by the fruit of Love grace It is the property of the flesh to judg by sense and therefore sense shall help to mortify it The frowns of the World shall be an antidote against its flatteries It killeth by Pleasing and therefore it may help our cure by displeasing us Loving it is mens undoing and hurting us is the way to keep us from overloving it These wholsom sorrows do greatly disable our most dangerous temptations and preserve us from the pernicious poyson of prosperity They rowze us up when we are lazy and ready to sit down They awake us when we are ready to fall asleep They drive us to God when we are ready to forget him and dote upon a deceiver They teach us part of the meaning of the Gospel without them we know not well what a Saviour a promise a pardon grace and many other Gospel terms do signify They teach us to pray and teach us to hear and read with understanding They tell us the value of all our Mercies and teach us the use of all the means of grace They are needful to fix our flashy light unconstant minds Which are apt to be gazing upon every baite and to be touching or tasting the forbidden fruit and to be taken with those things which we had lately cast behind our backs till medicinal sorrow doth awake our reason and make us see the folly of our dreams Yea if sorrow check us not and make us wise we are ready to lay by our grace and wit and to follow any goblin in the dark and like men bewitched to be deceived by we know not what and to go on as a bird to the fowlers snare as an ox to the slaughter and as a Fool to the correction of the stocks 4. Moreover precedent sorrows will raise the price of following Joys They will make us more desirous of the day of our deliverance and make it the welcomer to us when it comes Heaven will be seasonable after a life of so much trouble and they that come out of great tribulation will joyfully sing the Praises of their Redeemer 5. And God will have the members conformed to their Head This was Christs method and it must be ours We must take up the Cross and follow him if ever we will have the Crown and we must suffer with him if we will be glorifyed with him Though the will of God be the Reason which alone should satisfy his creatures yet these Reasons shew you the Equity and goodness of his waies use 1 Use 1. If sorrow before Joy be Gods ordinary Method of dealing with his most beloved servants learn hence to understand the importance of your Sorrows You say as Baruch Jer. 45.3 Wo is me now For the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow I fainted in my sighing and I find no rest You are ingenious in recounting and aggravating your afflictions But are you as ingenious in expounding them aright Do you not judge of them rather by your present sense than by their use and tendency You will not do so by the bitterness of a Medicine or the working of a Purge or Vomit You will like it best when it worketh in that way as usually it doth with them that it cureth And should you not be glad to find that God taketh that way with you which he most usually takes with those that he saveth Sure you do not set light by the Love of God! Why then do you complain so much against the signs products of it Is it not because you
Servants wrongfully is but short and therefore the sorrows of such affliction can be but short though it be foreign Churches of whom I speak I hope it is to such as take their case to be to them as their own While they are breathing out threatnings they are ready to breath out their guilty Souls If a man in a Dropsie or Consumption persecute us we would not be over fearful of him because we see he is a dying man And so little is the distance between the death of one man and another that we may well say all mens lives are in a Consumption and may bear their indignation as we would do the injuries of a dying man How short is the day of the Power of darkness Christ calleth it but an hour Luke 22.53 This is your hour and the power of darkness How quickly was Herod eaten of Worms and many another cut off in the height of their prosperity when they have been raging in the heat of persecution Little thought Ahab that he had been so near his woful day when he had given order that Michaiah should be fed with the Bread and Water of affliction till he returned in peace What persecutions have the death of a Licinius a Julian a Qu. Mary c. shortened While they are raging they are dying while they are condemning the Just they are going to be condemned by their most just avenger How quickly will their Corps be laid in dust and their condemned Souls be put under the Chains of darkness till the judgment of the great and dreadful day He is not only an Unbeliever but irrational or inconsiderate that cannot see their end in the greatest of their glory How easie is it to see these bubbles vanishing and to foresee the sad and speedy period of all their cruelties and triumphs Job 20.4 5 6 7 8. Knowest thou not this of old since man was placed upon Earth that the triumphing of the wiched is short and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment Though his excellency mount up to the Heavens and his Head reach unto the Clouds yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung They which have seen him shall say where is he He shall fly away as a Dream and shall not be found yea he shall be chased away as a Vision of the night The Eye also which saw him shall see him no more neither shall his place behold him Though pride do compass them about as a Chain and violence cover them as a Garment and they are corrupt and speak oppression or calumny wickedly they speak loftily or from on high Though they set their mouth against the Heavens and their tongue walketh through the Earth yet surely they are set in slippery places God doth cast them down into destruction How are they brought into desolation as in a moment They are utterly consumed with terrors as a Dream from one that awaketh so O Lord in awaking or raising up that is saith the Chaldee Paraphrase in thy day of judging or as all the other Translations in civitate tuâ in thy Kingdom or Government thou shalt despise their Image that is shew them and all the World how despicable that Image of greatness and power and felicity was which they were so proud of If such a bubble of vain glory such an Image of felicity such a Dream of power and greatness be all that the Church of God hath to be afraid of it may be well said as Isa 2.22 Cease ye from Man whose Breath is in his Nostrils For wherein is he to be accounted of Psal 146.4 His Breath goeth forth he returneth to his Earth in that very day his thoughts perish And Isa 50.9 Behold the Lord God will help me who is he that shall condemn me Lo they all shall wax old as a Garment the Moth shall eat them up And Isa 51.7 8. Hearken unto me ye that know righteousness the People in whose heart is my law Fear ye not the reproach of men neither be ye afraid of their revilings For the Moth shall eat them up like a Garment and the Worm shall eat them like Wool But my righteousness shall be for ever and my salvation from generation to generation The sorrows which so short-lived power can inflâ—ct can be but short You read of their Victories and Persecutions in the News-books one year and quickly after of their death Use Hence therefore you may learn how injudicious they are that think Religion is disparaged by such short and small afflictions of Believers and how unexcusable they are who yield unto temptation and venture upon sin and comply with the ungodly and forsake the truth through the fear of so short and momentary sorrows When there is none of them but would endure the prick of a Pin or the scratch of a Briar or the biting of a Flea to gain a Kingdom or the opening of a Vein or the griping of a Purge to save their Lives O how deservedly are ungodly men forsaken of God For how short a pleasure do they forsake him and the everlasting pleasures And how short a trouble do they avoid by running into everlasting trouble If sin had not first subdued reason men would never make it a matter of question whether to escape so small a suffering they should break the Laws of the most righteous God nor would they once put so short a pain or pleasure into the ballance against the endless pain and pleasure Nor would a temptation bring them to deliberate on a matter which should be past deliberation with a man that is in his Wits And yet alas how much do these short concernments prevail through all the World Unbelievers are short sighted they look only or chiefly to things near and present A lease of this empty World for a few years yea an uncertain tenure of it is preferred before the best security for eternal life It s present pleasures which they must have and its present sorrows which they take care to escape As Christ hath taught us to say about these worldly things so the Devil hath taught them to say about everlasting things Care not for to morrow the morrow shall take thought for the things of it self sufficient to the day is the evil thereof Math. 6.34 Therefore when the day of their calamity shall come a despairing Conscience will perpetually torment them and say This is but the sorrow which thou chosest to endure or the misery which thou wouldst venture on to escape a present inconsiderable pain If there be any of you that shall think that present sufferings are considerable things to be put into the scales against eternity or that are tempted to murmuring and impatience under such short afflictions I desire them but to consider 1. that your suffering will be no longer than your sin And if it endure but as long is it any matter of wonder or repining Can you expect to keep your sickness and yet
O Lord correct me but with judgment not in thine anger lest thou bring me to nothing Jer. 10.19 20 21.24 Many Pastors have destroyed my Vineyard they have trodden my Portion under foot they have made my pleasant Portion a desolate Wilderness and being desolate it mourneth to me the whole Land is made desolate because no man layeth it to heart Jer. 12.10 11. But wo be unto the Pastors that destroy and scatter the Sheep of my Pasture saith the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord against the Pastors that feed my People ye have scattered my Flock and driven them away and have not visited them Behold I will visit upon you the evil of your doings and I will gather the remnant of my Flock And I will set up Shepherds over them which shall feed them and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed neither shall they be lacking saith the Lord Ezek. 34. Wo to the Shepherds of Israel that feed themselves should not the Shepherds feed the Flocks Ye eat the fat and cloath you with the Wool ye kill them that are fed but ye feed not the Flocks The diseased have ye not strengthened neither have ye healed that which was sick neither have ye bound up that which was broken neither have ye brought again that which was driven away neither have ye sought that which was lost but with FORCE and with CRUELTY have ye ruled them Thus saith the Lord behold I am against the Shepherds and I will require my Flock at their hands and cause them to cease from feeding the Flock neither shall the Shepherds feed themselves any more for I will deliver my Flock from their mouth Behold I even I will both search my Sheep and seek them out and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the Cloudy and dark day And as for you O my Flocks behold I judge between Cattel and Cattel between the Rams and the Hee-Goats Is it a small thing to you to have eaten up the good Pasture but ye must tread down with your Feet the residue of your Pastures and to have drunk of the deep waters but ye must foul the residue with your Feet And as for my Flock they eat that which you have trodden with your Feet and they drink that which ye have fouled with your Feet Therefore thus saith the Lord God unto them behold I I will judge between the fat Cattel and the lean Because ye have thrust with Side and with Shoulder and push'd all the Diseased with your Horns till ye have scattered them abroad c. Read the rest Particular Churches may be scattered to dissolution but none of the faithful Members shall be lost 3. And Christ hath his returning time to the Souls of his Servants which seem to be forsaken by him Weeping may endure for a Night but Joy cometh in the Morning Psal 30.5 When he seemeth their Enemy and writeth bitter things against them he is their surest friend and will justify them himself from their accusers Though they may be troubled when they remember God and their Spirit be overwhelmed in them and their Souls refuse to be comforted and say will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more is his Mercy cleâ—n gone for ever doth his prâ—mise fail for evermore hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies yet must we rebuke this unbelief and say This is my infirmity I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old I will meditate of thy works and talk of thy doings Psal 77. The long Night that hath no day the long Winter that hath no Summer is the reward of the Ungodly But Light ariseth to the righteous in his darkness and Joy to them that are upright in heart Psal 112.4 Light is sown for them and in season will spring up Psal 97.11 The Righteousness which was hid from the World by false accusations and from our selves by the terrors and mistakes of darkness will God bring forth as light and our Judgment as the noon day Psal 37.6 Our Eclipse will vanish when the Sun returneth and our sins no longer interpose And though all our enquiries and complainings have not brought us out of the dark yet God is the Lord who sheweth us light Psal 118.27 And in his light we shall see light Psal 36.9 Say then O distrustful trembling Christian Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou thus disquieted within me Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my Countenance and my God Psal 42.5.11 and 43.5 Though now you go mourning because of the oppression of the Enemy God will send out his light and truth and they shall lead you and bring you to his holy Hill and Tabernacle And then you shall go with praise to the Altar of God even of God your exceeding joy Use 2. Learn then how to behave your selves in the absence of your Lord till his return If you ask me How Ans 1. Be not contented and pleased with his absence You must bear it but not desire it Else you are either Enemies or Children that have run themselves into such guilt and fears that they take their Father for their Enemy 2. Nay be not too indifferent and insensible of your Lords departure Love is not regardless of the company of our Beloved He may well take it ill when you can let him go and be as merry without him as if his absence were no loss to you If you care no more for him he will make you care before you shall feel the comforts of his presence Such contempt is the way to a worse forsaking Call after him till he return if he hide his face 3. Turn not aside to the creature for content and seek not to make up the loss of his presence with any of the deceitful comforts of the World Let him not see you take another in his stead as if Riches or Power or Worldly friends or fleshly pleasure would serve your turn instead of Christ If once you come to this he may justly leave you to your vain contents and let them serve your turn as long as they can and see how well they will supply his room O see that no Idol be admitted into his place till Christ return 4. Be not emboldened by his absence to sin Say not as the evil Servant in your Hearts My Lord delayeth his coming and so begin to smite your fellow Servants and to eat and drink with the drunken lest your Lord come in a day when you look not for him and cut you asunder and appoint your Portion with the Hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth Math. 24.48 to 51. Because Christ cometh not to judge the wicked as soon as they have sinned they are emboldened to sin more fearlesly And because Sentence against an evil work