Selected quad for the lemma: evil_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A45113
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The balm of Gilead, or, Comforts for the distressed, both morall and divine most fit for these woful times / by Jos. Hall.
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Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.
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1650
(1650)
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Wing H366; ESTC R14503
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102,267
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428
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for the benefit that he hath been pleased to make of thine offending him § 5. â—omplaint 〈◊〉 relapses 〈◊〉 to sin â—ith the â—â—medy â—ereof But alas thou sayst my case is far worse then it is conceived I have been more then once miscarried into the same sin Even after I have made profession of my repentance I have been transported into my former wickedness Having washed off my sin as I thought with my many tears yet I have suffered my soul to be defiled with it again I may not flatter thee my son this condition is dangerous Those diseases which upon their first seizure have without any great peril of the Patient received cure after a recidivation have threatned death Look upon the Saints of God thou shalt finde they have kept aloof from that fire wherewith they have been formerly burnt Thou shalt not finde Noah again uncovered through drunkenness in his tent thou shalt not finde Judah climbing up again to Tamars bed Thou shalt not take Peter again in the High-Priests hall denying his Master or after Pauls reproof halting in his dissimulation But tell me notwithstanding art thou truly serious with thy God hast thou doubled thine humiliation for the reduplication of thine offence hast thou sought God so much the more instantly with an unfained contrition of heart hast thou found thy soul wrought to so much greater detestation of thy sin as thine acquainâ—tance with it hath been more hast thou taken this occasion to lay better hold on thy Saviour and to reinforce the vows of thy more careful and strict obedience Be of good chear this unpurposed reiteration of thy sin shall be no prejudice to thy salvation It is one thing for a man to walk on willingly in a beaten path of sin another thing for a man to be justled out of the way of righteousness by the violence of a temptation which he soon recovers again by a sound repentance The best cannot but be overtaken with sin but he that is born of God doth not commit sin he may be transported whither he meant not but he makes not a trade of doing ill his heart is against that which his hand is drawn unto and if in this inward strife he be over-powered he lies not down in a willing yeeldance but struggles up again and in a resumed courage and indignation tramples on that which formerly supplanted him Didst thou give thy self over to a resolved course of sinning and betwixt whiles shouldst knock thy brest with a formal God forgive me I should have no comfort in store for thee but send thee rather to the Whipping-stock of the Almighty for due correction if possibly those seasonable stripes may prevent thine everlasting torments But now since what thou hatest that thou doest and thou doest that which thou wouldst not and it is no more thâ—u that doest it but sin that dwells in thee cry out as much as thou wilt on the sinfulness of thy sin bewail thy weakness with a better man then thy self O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death But know that thou hast found mercy with thy God thy repeated sin may grieve but cannot hurt thy soul. Had we to do with a finite compassion it might be abated by spending it self upon a frequent remission like as some great river may be drawn dry by many small out-lets But now that we deal with a God whose mercy is as himself infinite it is not the greatness or the number of our offences that can make a difference in his free remissions That God who hath charged our weak charity not to be overcome with evil but to overcome evil with good justly scorneth that we should think his infinite and incomprehensible goodness can be checked with our evil It was not without a singular providence that Peter came to our Saviour with that question in his mouth Lord how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times that it might fetch from that blessed Son of God that gracious answer for our perpetual direction and comfort I say not unto thee Until seven times but until seventy times seven Lord if thou wouldst have us sinful men thus indulgent to one another in the case of our mutual offences what limits can be set to thy mercies in our sins against thee Be we penitent thou canst not but be gracious Comforts against weakness of grace §. 1. Comfort from the common condition of all Saints THou complainest of the weakness of grace some little stirrings thou feelest of Gods Spirit within thee but so feeble that thou canst not finde any solid comfort in them Thou seest others thou sayst whose brests are full of milk and their bones moistned with marrow whiles thou languishest under a spiritual leanness and imbecillity Thou wantest that vigorous heat of holy affections and that alacrity in the performance of holy duties which thou observest in other Christians I love this complaint of thine my son and tell thee that without this thou couldst not be in the way of being happie Thinkst thou that those whom thou esteemest more eminent in grace make not the same moan that thou dost Certainly they never had any grace if they did not complain to have too little Every man best feels his own wants and is ready to pass secret censures upon himself for that wherein he is applauded by others Even the man after Gods own heart can say But I am poor and sorrowful He was a great King when he said so it was not meanness in outward estate that troubled him but a spiritual neediness for he had before in the same heavenly Ditty professed O God thou knowest my foolishnesse and my guiltinesse is not hid from thee It was an old observation of wise Solomon There is that maketh himselfe rich and hath nothing there is that maketh himselfe poore yet hath great riches In this latter rank are many gracious soules and thine I hope for one who certainly had never been so wealthy in grace if they had been conceited of greater store Even in this sense many a Saint may say with Saint Paul When I am weak then I am strong Since the very complaint of weaknesse argues strength and on the contrary an opinion of sufficient grace is an evident conviction of meere emptinesse §. 2. Comfort from the improvement of weak graces and Gods free distribution But suppose thy selfe so poor as thou pretendest It is not so much what we have as how we improve it How many have we known that have grown rich out of a little whereas others out of a great stock have run into debt and beggery Had that servant in the Gospel who received but one talent imployed it to the gain of a second he had been proportionably as well rewarded as he that with five gained ten In our temporall estate we are warned by the wisest man
vision of God as they apprehend more darknesse in all earthly objects certainly thou shalt not misse these materiall eyes if thou maist finde thy soul thus happily enlightned §. 8. The benefit of the eies which once we had Thine eyes are lost It is a blessing that once thou hadst them hadst thou been born blinde what a stranger hadst thou in all likelihood been to God and the world hadst thou not once seen the face of this heaven and this earth and this Sea what expressions could have made thee sufficiently apprehensive of the wonderfull works of thy Creator What discourse could have made thee to understand what light is what the Sun the fountain of it what the heavens the glorious region of it and what the Moon and Starres illuminated by it How couldst thou have had thy thoughts raised so high as to give glory to that great God whose infinite power hath wrought all these marvellous things No doubt God hath his own waies of mercy even for those that are born dark not requiring what he hath not given graciously supplying by his spirit in the vessels of his election what is wanting in the outer-man so as even those that could never see the face of the world shall see the face of the God that made it But in an ordinary course of proceeding those which have been blinde from their birth must needs want those helps of knowing and glorifying God in his mighty works which lie open to the seeing These once filled thine eies and stay with thee still after thine eies have forsaken thee What shouldst thou doe but walk on in the strength of those fixed thoughts and be alwaies adoring the Majesty of that God whom that sight hath represented unto thee so glorious and in an humble submission to his good pleasure strive against all the discomforts of thy sufferings Our Story tels us of a valiant Souldier answerable to the name he bore Polyzelus who after his eyes were struck out in the Battel covering his face with his Target fought still laying about him as vehemently as if he had seen whom to smite So do thou my son with no less courage let not the loss of thine eyes hinder thee from a chearful resistance of those spiritual enemies which labor to draw thee into an impatient murmuring against the hand of thy God wait humbly upon that God who hath better eyes in store for thee then those thou hast lost § 9. The supply of one sense by another Thou hast lost thy hearing It is not easie to determine whether loss is the greater of the Eye or of the Ear both are grievous Now all the world is to thee as dumb since thou art deaf to it How small a matter hath made thee a meer cypher amongst men These two are the senses of instruction there is no other way for intelligence to be conveyed to the soul whether in secular or in spiritual affairs The eye is the window the ear is the door by which all knowledge enters In matter of observation by the eye in matter of faith by the ear Had it pleased God to shut up both these senses from thy birth thy estate had been utterly disconsolate neither had there been any possible access for comfort to thy soul and if he had so done to thee in thy riper age there Had been no way for thee but 1 to live on thy former store But now that he hath vouchsafed to leave thee one passage open it behâ—ves thee to supply the one sense by the other to let in those helps by the window which are denied entrance at the door And since that infinite goodness hath been pleased to lend thee thine ear so long as till thou hast laid the sure grounds of faith in thy heart now thou mayst work upon them in this silent opportunity with heavenly meditations and raise them up to no less height then thou mightst have done by the help of the quickest ear It is well for thee that in the fulness of thy senses thou wert careful to improve thy bosome as a Magazine of heavenly thoughts providing with the wise Patriarch for the seven yeers of dearth otherwise now that the passages are thus blocked up thou couldst not but have been in danger of affamishing Thou hast now abundant leasure to recal and ruminate upon those holy counsels which thy better times laid up in thy heart and to thy happie advantage findest the difference betwixt a wise providence and a careless neglect § 10. The better condition of the inward ear Thine outward hearing is gone But thou hast an inward and better ear whereby thou hearest the secret motions of Gods Spirit which shall never be lost How many thousands whom thou enviest are in a worse condition they have an outward and bodily ear whereby they hear the voice of men but they want that spiritual ear which perceives the least whisperings of the holy Ghost Ears they have but not hearing ears for fashion more then use Wise Solomon makes and observes the distinction The hearing ear and the seeing eye the Lord hath made even both of them And a greater then Solomon can say of his formal auditors Hearing they hear not If thou have an ear for God though deaf to men how much happier art thou then those millions of men that have au ear for men and are deaf to God § 11. The grief that arises from learâ—ing evil Thou hast lost thy hearing and therewith no small deal of sorrow How would it grieve thy soul to hear those woful ejulations those pitiful complaints those hideous blasphemies those mad paradoxes those hellish heresies wherewith thine ear would have been wounded if it had not been barred against their entrance It is thy just grief that thou missest the hearing of many good words it is thy happiness that thou art freed from the hearing of many evil It is an even lay betwixt the benefit of hearing good and the torment of hearing evil Comforts against Barrenness §. 1. The blessing of fruitfulness seasoned with sorrows THou complainest of dry loins a barren womb so did a better man before thee even the Father of the faithful What wilt thou give me seeing I go childless So did the wife of faithful Israel Give me children or else I die So desirous hath Nature been even in the holiest to propagate it self and so impatient of a denial Lo children and the fruit of the womb are an heritage and gift that cometh from the Lord. Happie is he that hath his quiver full of such shafts It is the blessing that David grudged to wicked ones They have children at their desire It was the curse which God inflicted upon the family of Abimelech King of Gerar that he closed up all the wombs in his house for Sarahs sake And the judgement threatned to Ephraim is a miscarrying womb and dry brests And Jechoniah's sad doom is