tempests raised by all the powers of Hell are presently calmed for ever doing him any deadly hurt All the creatures then pull in their hornes retire their stings bite in their poyson sâ—ib'd and awed by those divine impressions of their Creators blessed image stamped upon them by the Spirit of grace and dare no more offer any violence or vexation to him except upon particular dispensation for his spirituall good and quickening then to the Apple of Gods owne eye Heare the promise from Gods owne mouth And in that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowles of Heaven and with thâ— creeping things of the ground and I will breake the bow and the sword and the battell out of the earth and will make them to lye downe safely Hos. 2.18 Nay they are so farre from charging their seuerall stings upon the Saints that they will change their very natures to doe them service They will rather become an astonishment and horror to the whole Creation then they be hurt How often have they suspended and put off their native power and properties for the protection and good of Gods people The very Sea that most raging and roaring creature must stay his course and current to give passage and preservation to a true Israelite The Starres must fight and the Sunne stand still for the ayde and advantage of Gods armies The Lions must leave their savage rage and trade of blood and become Lambes and loving unto a Daniel The Crowes will feed an Elijah The flames of fire must hold in their heate from burning a Shadrach Meshach or Abednego The devouring belly of a dreadfull fish must be turned into a Sanctuary of safty to a Ionah A popish Furnace heated with the very malice of Hell shall become a bed of doune and Roses to a Martyr of Iesus The very dead lines of an ordinary Letter must represent to a Royall conceite a meaning quite contrary to the naturall sense and all Grammaticall construction before a blessed Parliament be blowne up with Popish Gun-Powder A brittle Glasse must rebound unbroken from the hardest stone to helpe to bind up a broken heart bleeding with griefe for absence of her Spouse and wanâ— of the assurance of his love c. Nay the divell himselfe though hee walkes about like a roaring Lion seeking with restlesse rage and desiring infinitely to devoure the Lords inheritance yet cannot possibly adde one linke to the chaine in which by the mercifull and mighty hand of God he is hampered nor goe an haires bredth beyond his commission Though it bee utterly impossible that that damned Angell should so farre change his divellish nature as to doe any of Gods chosen directly any true good yet he is everlastingly musled by an Almighty arme from ever doing them any deadly hurt He may be suffered sometimes to shake his chaine at them and roare upon them hideously to drive them nearer unto God and fright them from sinne But he shall never either in this world or the world to come have his full swinge at them or fasten his hellish fangs upon their redeemed soules 3. Besides all that other excellent compleate impenetrable armour of proofe mentioned Ephes. 6. which is able to beate backe victoriously all earthly oppositions and the very Ordnance of Hell every one of Gods Favourites is also blessedly furnished with a mighty spirituall Engine which is able to batter downe all the Bulwarkes of the Divell to shake the whole kingdome of darkenesse and all hellish powers nay to offer an holy violence to the very Throne of God himselfe witnesse His most mercifull intreating Moses To let him alone Exod. 32.10 As though the mediation of a man could binde as it were I speake it with lowliest reverence to that highest Maiestie the hands of his Omnipotency from doing his people any hurt and were able to extingvish that unquenchable wrath in the conception which once on foote would burne unto the lowest Hell and set on fire the foundations of the Mountainâ—s I meane that most pretious and almost if not altogether omnipotent Grace of Prayer This great Master of miracles hath wrought from time to time many and very remarkeable wonders both in Heaven and Earth It made the Sun that mighty creature the Prince of all the Lights in Heaven to stay and stand still upon the suddaine in the heat of his swiftest course It landed Ionah safely upon the shore out of the bellie of the Whale and bowels of the Sea It drew refreshing streames out of a dry bone for the saving of Samsons life It turned the Heaven into brasse for three yeeres and a halfe and afterward turned the selfe-same brasse into fruitefull clouds and fountaines of raine It killed an hundred fourescore and five thousand of the enemies of Gods people in one night For the freeing of Elisha from a straite and dangerous siege It filled a mountaine in a moment as it were full of Horsâ—s and Charets of â—ire It turned the swords of a mighty Army into the Bowells of one another when Iehoshaphat knew not which way to turne himselfe but was so helpelesse and hopelesse that he cryed unto the Lord wee know not what to doe only our eyes are upon thee It loosed Peter out of prison shoke his chaines off from his hands and made an Iron gate to open of its owne accord It eâ—raged and inlarged the English Seas to swallow up the Spanish invincible Armado And which is none of the least wonders It brought Prince Charles out of Spaine But you instance may some say in extraordinary examples of extraordinary men endowed with an extraordinary spirit Yet sure I am they are registred by the holy Ghost to represent unto us and to all generations of the Church to the Worlds end the Almighty and wonder-working power of Prayer And I am as sure that the Petitioners were men subiect to like passions as we are Perhaps if thou be a true-hearted Nathanael since thy new birth thou wast never so extraordinarily passionate as Ionah was when out of a pang of strange distemper hee thus answered the mighty Lord of Heaven and Earth I doe well to bee angry even unto death Fourthly Gods Favourite is further furnished with an other spirituall weapon of impregnable temper and incredible might I meane Faith the very Power and Arme of God for all true ioy sound comfort and light somnesse at the heart-roote in this life This crowned Emperesse of all those Heavenly graces that dwell in the Soule of a sanctified man and which in a right sense may be said vertually to comprehend all the beautie strength excellency and power of Christ himselfe is truely victorious and triumphant over all the World over the very gates of Hell and all the powers of darkenesse over the Divels fieriest darts over the devouring
ever the Obiect Now what a miraculous mercy was this that passing by such an un-numbred variety of incomparably inferiour creatures He should make Thee an everlasting Soule like an Angell of God capable of grace and immortality of incorporation into Christ and fruition of Iehova Himselfe blessed for ever Nay and yet further tho thou wast to haue the Being of a reasonable creature yet there was not an houre from the first moment of time unto the worlds end but God might have allotted that to Thee for thy comming into this world And therefore Thy time might have bin within the compasse of all those foure thousand yeares or there abouts from the Creation untill the Comming of Christ in the flesh when as all without the Pale and Partition-wall were without the Oracles and Ordinances of God and all ordinary meanes of salvation Or since the Gospell revealed under the raigne of Anti-Christ And then a thousand to One thou hadst beene choakt and for ever perisht in the damned mists of his Devillish Doctrines What an high honour was this to have thy birth and abode here upon earth appointed from all eternity in the very best and blesseddest time upon the fairest Day of peace and which is infinitely more in the most glorious Light of Grace that ever shone from Heaven upon the Children of men And so of the place Bee it so that Thou must needes bee in this golden Age of the Gospell and gracious Day yet thy lot of living in the world at this time might have lited for any part of the earth might have received Thee where Thou couldest have set but thy two feete amongst Turkes Pagans Infidels a whole world to Christendome Or if thine appearing upon Earth must necessarily bee within the confines of Christendome yet Thou mightest have sprung up in the Popish parts of it or in the scismaticall or persecuted Places of the true Church in it It was a very singular favour That thou shouldest be borne and bred and brought up in this little neglected Nooke of the world yet very illustrious by the presence of Christ in a mighty Ministry where Thou hast or mightest have enioyed in many Parts thereof the glorious Gospell of our blessed God and all saving Truth with much purity and power Now put all these together and tell me in cold bloud and after a sensible and serious ponderation thereupon Doest thou thinke that all this adoe was about Thee all this honour done unto Thee and when all is done Thou art to doe nothing but seeke Thy selfe serve Thine owne turne and live sensually Camest Thou out of Nothing into this world to doe iust nothing but eate and drinke and sleepe to game goe in the fashion and play the good fellow to laugh and be merry to grow rich and leave tokens of thy pleasure in every place c. If any after so much illightning bee so prodigiously mad as to continue in such a conceite I have nothing to say to Him but leave Him as an everlasting Bedlam abandon'd to that folly which wants a name to expresse it Turne then thy course for shame nay as Thou hast any care to be saved and to see the glory of the new Ierusalem as Thou desirest to looke the Lord Iesus in the face with comfort at that great Day as Thou fearest to receive thy portion in Hell-fire with the Devill and His Angells even most intolerable and bitter torments for ever and ever at least in this thy day in this heate and height of Thy spirituall Harvest awake out of thy sensuall sleepe come to thy selfe with the Prodigall strik◠upon thy thigh and for the poore remainder of a few and evill dayes addresse thy selfe with resolution and constancy to pursue the One necessary Thing and to treasure up much heavenly strength and store against thine ending houre Get thee under conscionable Meanes and quickning Ministery and there gather grace as greedily as the most gryping Vsurer graspeth gould contend with an holy ambition as earnestly for the keeping of Gods favour and an humble familiarity with His heavenly Highnesse by keeping faith and a good conscience as the proudest Haman for an high Place and pleased face of an earthly Prince And why not infinitely more This was the end for which thou wast sent into this World This onely is the way to endlesse blisse And this alone will helpe us and hold out in the Euill day 2. That upon the little ynch of time in this life depends the length and breadth of all eternity in the World to come As we behave our selves here we shall fare everlastingly hereafter And therefore how ought we to ply this moment and prize that eternity To decline all entanglement in those inordinate affections to the possessions and pleasures of the Present which hinder a fruitfull improovement of it to the best advantage for the spirituall good of our Soules Let us be mooved with such reasons as these which may be collected from the words of a worthy Writer which run thus with very little variation 1. If we could afford our selues but so much leasure as to consider That he which hath most in the world hath in respect of the world nothing in it and that he which hath the longest time lent him to live in it hath yet no proportion at all therein setting it either by that which is past when we were not or by that time in which we shall abide for ever I say if both to wit our proportion in the world and our time in the world differ not much from that which is nothing it is not out of any excellency of understanding saith Hee but out of depth of folly say I that we so much prize the one which hath in effect no being and so much neglect the other which hath no ending coveting the mortall things of the world as if our Soules were therein immortall and neglecting those things which are immortall as if our selues after the world were but mortall 2. Let adversity seeme what it will to happy men ridiculous who make themselves merry with other mens miseries and to those under the crosse grievous yet this is true That for all that is past to the very instant the portions remaining are equall to either For be it that we have lived many yeeres and according to Salomon in thē all we have reioyced or be it that we have measured the same length of time and therein have ever-more sorrowed yet looking backe from our present being we finde both the one and the other to wit the joy and the woe sayled out of sight and death which doth pursue us and hold us in chace from our infancy hath gathered it Whatsoever of our age is past death holds it So as whosoever he be to whom Prosperitie hath bin a servant and the Time a friend let him but take the accompt of his memory for we haue no other keeper of our pleasures past
of that comfortable provision and gracious strength which should support it in the day of sorrow and leaves it at last to the tempestuous winter-night of death and all those desperate terrours that attend it like a scorched heath-ground without so much as any drop of comfort either from Heaven or earth 2. A second sort worse then the former are such as are so farre from treasuring up in this time of light and mercifull visitation soundnesse of knowledge strength of saith purity of heart clearnesse of coÌ„science holinesse of life assurance of Gods favour contempt of the world many sanctified Sabbaths fervent prayers holy conferences heavenly meditations dayes of humiliation righteous dealings with their Brethren compassionate contributions to the necessities of the Saints workes of iustice mercy and truth a sincere respect to all Gods Commandements a carefull performance of all spirituall Duties a conscionable partaking of all Gods Ordinances a seasonable exercise of every grace hatred of all false wayes an hearty and invincible loue unto God and all things that He loues or any wayes belong unto Him His Word Sacraments Sabbaths Ministers Services Children Presence Corrections Comming c. which are the ordinary provision of Gods people against the evill Day I say they are so farre from prizing and preparing such spirituall store that they hoard up stings scourges and scorpions for their naked soules and guilty consciences against the Day of the Lords visitation I meane lies oathes blasphemies Adulteries whoredomes selfe-pollutions variety of strange fashions gaming 's revellings drunken matches good-fellow meetings wanton dancings usuries falshoods hypocrisies plurality of ill gotten goods Benefices Offices honours filthy iests much idle talke flanderous â—â—les scoffs raylings oppositions to the Holy way c. And that with a cursed greedinesse and delight For they cry One unto another out of a boysterous combination of good fellowship with much eagernesse and roaring Come on therefore Let us fill our selves with costly wine and ointments and let no flower of the Spring passe by us Let us crowne our selves with Rose buds before they be withered Let none of us goe without his part of our voluptuousnesse Let us leave tokens of our pleasure in every place For this is our portion and our lot is this Let us lie in waite for the righteous because hee is not for our turne and be is cleane contrary to our doings c. But alas what will bee the conclusion of all this or rather the horrible confusion Even all their ioviall revellings roaring Outrages and sinfull pleasures which are so sweete in their mouthes and they swallow downe so insatiably shall turne to gravell and the gall of Aspes in their bowels and to fiery enraged scorpions in their consciences Where lurking in the meane time in the mudde of sensuality and lust breede such a never dying worme which if God thinke fit to awake upon their last Bed is able to put them into Hell upon earth to damne them above ground to knaw upon their Soule and flesh with that unheard-of horrour which seizde upon Spir'as woefull heart Who protested being fully in his right minde that Hee would rather be in Cain's or Iudas his place in Hell then endure the present unspeakeable torment of His afflicted spirit To beate them from this bedlam desperate course of greedy hoarding up such horrible things unto themselves against their ending houre Let them consider 1. Besides the eternity of ioyes for the one and of torments to the other hereafter the vast and unvaluable difference in the meane time in respect of true sweetenesse and sound contentment betweene the life of a Saint and a Sensualist a Puritan as the World calls Him and a goodfellow as hee termes Himselfe Let us for the purpose peruse the different passages of one day as Chrysostome excellently delineats them and represents to the life Let us produce two men saith He the one drown'd in carnall loosenesse sensualities and riotous excesse the other crucified and starke dead to such sinfull courses and worldly delights Let us goe to their houses and behold their behaviour We shall find the One reading Scriptures and other good Bookes taking times for holy Duties and the service of God sober temperate abstemious diligent also in the necessary duties of His Calling having holy conference with God discoursing of Heavenly things bearing himselfe liker an Angell then a Man The other joviall a vassall of luxury and ease swaggering up and downe Ale-houses Tavernes or other such conventicles of good fellowship hunting after all the wayes meanes and men to passe the time merrily plying his pleasures with what variety hee can possibly all the day long rayling and roaring as tho He were enraged with a Devill tho He be starke dead while He is alive c. Which is accompanied with murmuring of the family discontent of the wife chiding of friends laughing to scorne of enemies c. Whether of these courses now doe you thinke were the more comfortable I know full well the former would bee cried downe by the greatest part as too precise and the latter would carry it by a world of men but heare the Puritane Fathers impartiall holy censure quite crosse to the common conceite and humour of flesh and blood It is excellent and emphaticall arguing His resolute abomination of the wayes of goodfellowship and infinite love and admiration of the holy Path. Having given to the Goodfellow His hearts desire all the day long in all kindes of voluptuousnesse and delight yet for all this Who is he saith He that is in his right minde and hath His braines in His head that would not chuse rather to die a thousand deaths then spend but one day so This peremptory passage would bee holden a strange Paradoxe from the mouth of any moderne Minister and so appeares to the carnall apprehension of all those miserable men who are blindfolded and baffled by the Devill to the eternal losse of their Soules But besides that it might bee made good many other wayes it is more then manifest by comparing that threefold sting that dogs every sinfull delight at the heeles c. See my Booke of Walking with God pag. 17â— with the comfortable contentment and secret sweetenesse which might and should attend all well-doing and every holy duty done with uprightnesse of heart The very Philosophers doe tell us of a congratulation a pleasing contentednesse and satisfaction in doing vertuously according to their morall Rules What true solid and singular comfort then doe you thinke may bee found in those godly actions which spring from faith are guided by Gods Word directed to his glory and whose bewailed defects and failings are most certainely pardoned by the bloud of his Son Now what an extreme madnesse is this for a Man to sell His salvation for a life of pleasures abhorring the wayes of Gods Childe as too precise and painefull whereas besides Hell for the one and Heaven for the
the Lord Iesus so sweetly offering himselfe in that pretious promise Matth. 11.28 resoluing to take him for an everlasting husband and ipso facto as they say it might be put into a very Heaven upon Earth For this glorious grace of Faith the Prince of all spirituall light and lightsomnesse in the truely humbled Soule thus shed into such a darke and grieved spirit doth enkindle and set on shining all those gracious heavenly Starres that are woont to beautifie the hearts of holy men hope love zeale son-like feare humility patience selfe-deniall vniversall obedience fruitfulnesse in all good workes c. Which make them light it selfe to walke in the light towards the infinite and unapproachable light And therefore they never neede to want lightsomnesse but have perpetuall pregnant matter of spirituall mirth and mightinesse of spirit The point appeares and is further prooved by manifest and manifold experience David having bin formerly wofully wasted with great varietie and extremitie of dangers and distresses was at last plunged into a most desperate perplexity 1. Sam. 30 6. Which had bin able to have swallowed up into despaire the manliest vigour of the greatest spirit upon earth not supported with grace The like or a lesse caused King Saul to fall upon his owne sword yet He blessed man by the power of his spirituall peace and the beames of Gods pleased face-shining upon his Soule did patiently and sweetly comfort Himselfe in the Lord His God and stood like an impregnable Rocke unshaken with the raging assaults of any tempestuous sourges He was at this time hunted by Saul like a Parâ—ridge in the Mountaines cashierd by the Princes of the Philistines as a fâ—llow of suspected fidelity robd by the Amalekites of His wiues His sonnes and His daughters The Towne to which He returned for safety was burnt with fire And to make his calamity compleate and most cutting even His owne men were ready to stone Him Now in this great distresse upon the first apprehension whereof He wept as the story saith untill He had no more power to weepe yet comming to Himselfe and recollecting His spirituall forces His heavy heart ready to sinke and fall asunder in His bosome did fetch by the hand of faith comfortably fortified by sense and experience of former fauours such heavenly strength from Iehova whom He had made His portion that thereupon His courage was revived and raised to that height that He presently pursued his enemies with extraordinary valour and resolution cut them off quite and recovered all And David saith the text was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning Him because the Soule of all the people was grieued every man for His sonnes and for His daughters but David encouraged Himselfe in the Lord his God c. What a bitter Sea of unmatched miseries did breake out upon blessed Iob which with a sudden unexpected violence bearing downe that Hedge of protection which God had set about Him the raines purposely let loose by divine dispensation to Sathans malice in the meane time did fearefully overflow him to that height and horrour that He stands registred in Gods Booke as an unparalled Instance of extraordinary sufferings and sorrowes calamities and conflicts to all succeeding ages no story being able to afford the like The naturall death of one deare childe strikes sometimes so heavy to a mans heart that for griefe he growes into a consumption but all Iobs children were suddenly taken away at once by a violent stroke some petty crosse upon his outward state and cutting off but part of his goods causes sometimes a couetous worldling to cut his oÌ„wne throate But Iob was robd of all so that it is a prove be to this day As poore as Iob Many wives are passionate and peevish in time of prosperity whose hâ—arts notwithstanding will melt in compassion and kindenesse over their husbands in any kinde of misery but Iobs wife tho dearely intreated by Her most distressed Husband even for their childrens sake the mutuall common pledges of sweetest loue yet would not come neare Him My breath saith He is strange to my wife though I entreated for the childrens sake of mine owne body Chap. 19.17 Satan I confesse is woont to roare and rage fiercely enough about Gods blessed Oâ—es to doe them all the mischiefe Hee can possibly but rarely hath hee so large a reach and his chaine so lengthned as he had against Iob. The painefull anguish of some one part would not onely deprive a Man of the pleasure of the worlds Monarchy if he had it in possession but also make Him weary of His life In what a taking then was Iob who from the sole of his foote unto his Crowne had no part free from â—ore bâ—les and horribly iâ—flâ—med ulcers exasperated and enraged with the stiâ—ging smart of Satans extremest malice who had power given Him to inflict them God himself frownes many times and withdrawes beames of His pleased face from the soules of His seruants to their great griefe tho for their spirituall good But seldome doth he set them up for His Marke hunt them as a fierce Lion set His terrours in array against them and command the poyson of his arrowes to drinke up their spirit as Iob complaines It is no strange thing neither should it much moove but only make us walke more watchfully to heare men of the world and drunken Belialls to belch out from their rotten hearts upon the Ale-bench such base slanders as these These Professors for all their faire shewes are certainely all of them notorious Hypocrites Tho they looke never so demurely they are not the men they are taken for c. But to have a Mans nearest familiar understanding Christian friends to charge Him with Hypocrisie is a most cruell cut to a troubled conscience And this was Iob. case So thus as â—ob was singular in the universality of His afflictions so there was a singularity of bitternesse above ordinary in eâ—very particular aâ—fliction And what of all this And yet for all this this holy man by the helpe of that pretious hoard of grace which his heavenly heart had treasured up in the time of prosperitie out of that spirituall strength which He had gotten into His soule by his former humble acquaintance and conversation with His God and knowing full well that tho all was gone yet He still possessed Iesus Christ as fully if not more feeliâ—gly as ever before He becomes hereupon as rare and admirâ—ble a Patterne of Patience to all posterity as He was an extraordinary astonishing speâ—â—acle of adversitie and woe Consciousnesse of His fore-spent righteous life which he peruseth Chap. 31. The clearenesse of a good conscience Chap. 16 19 Behold my witnesse 〈◊〉 in heaven and my record is on high And his invincible faith Chap. 19.23 24 25 Oh that mâ— words were now written Oh that they were priâ—ted in a hunke That they were graven with an Iron pen
in that sweetest well-spring of life and immortality then enjoy the riches pleasures and glory of the whole World everlastingly For a bitter-sweet taste of which for an ynch of time Hee villanously trampleth under-foote as it were that blessed blood by wilfully cleaving to His owne wayes and furious following the swinge of His owne sensuall heart even against the check and contradiction of His grumbling conscience 3. Of the most blissefull presence freedome and communication of the Holy Ghost and all those divine illuminations spirituall feastings sudden and secret glimpses and glances of heavenly light sweeter then sweetnesse it selfe wherewith that good Spirit is woont to visit and refresh the humbled hearts of holy men 4. Of the fatherly providence and protection of the blessed Trinity the glorious guard of Angels the comfortable communion with the people of God and all the happy consequents of safety deliverance and delight that floweth thence 5. Of the unknowne pleasures of an appeased conscience a Iewell of dearest price to which all humane glory is but dust in the balance Not the most exquisite extraction of all manner of Musicke Sets or Consorts vocall or Instrumentall can possibly conveigh so delicious a touch and taste to the outward eare of a Man as the sound and sense of a Certificate brought from the Throne of mercy by the blessed Spirit seal'd with Christs blood to the eare of the Soule even amidst the most desperate confusions in the evill Day when Comfort will bee worth a World and a good Conscience ten thousand earthly Crownes 6. Of all true contentment in this life of all Christian right and religious interest to any of the Creatures For never was any sound ioy or sanctified enjoyment of any thing in the world found in that Mans heart which gives allowance to any lust or lyes delightfully in any sinne 7. Of an immortall Crowne the un-speakeable ioyes of Heaven that immeasurable and endlesse comfort which there shall be fully and for ever enioyed with all the children of God Patriarkes Prophets Apostles Martyrs Christian friends yea with the Lord Himselfe and all His Angels with Christ our Saviour that Lambe slaine for us the Prince of glory the glory of Heaven and Earth the brightnesse of the everlasting Light c. In a word of all those inexplicable nay unconceiveable excellencies pleasures perfections felicities sweetnesses beauties glories eternities above 2. It doth every houre expose Him to all those evils which a Man destitute of grace divine may commit and unprotected from above endure It brings all plagues 1. Internall Blindnesse of minde Hardnesse of heart deadnesse of affection searednesse of conscience a reprobate sense strong delusions the spirit of slumber slavery to lust estrangednesse from God bondage under the Divell desperate thoughts horrour of heart confusion of spirit c. And spirituall mischiefes in this kind moe and more dreadfull then either Tongue can tell or heart can thinke Least of which is farre worse then all the plagues of Egypt 2. Externall See Deut. 28.15 c. 3. Eternall See my Sermon of the foure last things 3. By it 's pestilent damning Property and poyson it turnes Heaven into Hell Angels into Divels Life into death Light into darknesse sight into blindnesse Faith into distrust hope into despaire Loue into hate humility into pride mercy into cruelty security into feare liberty into bondage health into sicknesse plenty into scarcenesse a Garden of Eden into a desolate Wildernesse a fruitfull Land into barrennesse Peace into war quietnesse into contention Obedience into rebellion Order into confusion vertues into vices blessings into curses c. In a word all kind of temporall and eternall felicities and blisse into all kinds of miseries and woe 7. What heart except it bee all Adamant and turn'd into a Rocke of flint but possessing it selfe with feeling thoughts and a sensible apprehension of the incomprehensible greatnesse excellency and dreadfulnesse of the mighty Lord of Heaven and Earth would not tremble and bee strangely confounded to transgresse and breake any one branch of His blessed Lawes especially purposely and with pleasure or to sinne against Him willingly but in the least ungodly thought For alas Who art thou that liftest up thy proud heart or whettest thy prophane tongue or bendest thy rebellious course against such a Majesty Thou art the vilest wretch that ever God made next unto the Divell and His damned Angels A base and an unworthy Worme of the Earth not worthy to licke the dust that lyeth under His feete A most weake and fraile creature Earth ashes or any thing that is naught the dreame of a shadow the very Picture of change worse then vanity lesse then nothing Who when thy breath is gone which may fall out many times in a moment thou turnest into dust nay rottennesse and filth much more loathsome then the Dung of the Earth and all thy thoughts perish But now on the other side if thou cast thine eyes seriously and with intention upon that thrice glorious and highest Majesty the eyes of whose glory thou so provokest with thy filth and folly thou mayest most justly upon the commission of every sinne cry out with the Prophet O Heavens bee astonished at this bee afraid and utterly confounded Nay thou mightest marvaile and it is Gods unspeakeable mercy that the whole frame of Heauen and Earth is not for one sinne fearefully finally dissolued and brought to nought For He against whom thou sinnest inhabiteth eternity and unapprochable light The Heauen is His Throne and the earth his footstoole Hee is the euerlasting God mighty and terrible the Creatour of the ends of the earth â—c The infinite splendour of his glory and maiesty so dazles the eyes of the most glorious Seraphims that they are glad to adore Him with couered faces The Diuell and all the damned spirits those stubborne Feinds tremble at the terrour of His countenance All the Nations before Him are but as the drop of a bucket but as the small dust of the balance nay they are nothing to Him saith the Prophet yea lesse then nothing Hee fitteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grashoppers The Iudges and Princes when Hee blowes upon them are but as stubble before the Whirle-winde And Hee taketh vp the Iles as a very litle thing At His rebuke the Pillars of Heauen doe shake the Earth trembleth and the foundations of the hills are mooued His presence melts the mountaines His voice teares the Rocks in pieces The blast of the breath of His nostrils discouers the chanells of waters and foundations of the world when Hee is angry His Arrowes drinke bloud His sword deuoures flesh and the fire of his wrath burnes unto the lowest Hell The Heauen is but His span The Sea His handfull The wings of the wind His walke His garments are light His Pauilion darknes His way in the whirlewind and in the storme and
to take His own only deere Son especially sith thou takes with Him the excellency and variety of all blessings both of Heaven Earth a Discharge from every moment of the everlasting paines of Hell Deeds sealed with His own blood of thy Right to the glorious Inheritance of the Saints in light In a word even all things the most glorious Deity it self blessed for ever to bee enjoyed thorow Him with unspeakeable and endlesse pleasure thorow all eternity Prodigious madnesse cruelty to thine owne Soule or something at which Heaven and Earth Man and Angell and all Creatures may stand amazed That thou shouldest so wickedly and willfully forsake thine owne mercy and neglect so great salvation 6. Lastly lest He should let passe any meanes or be any waies wanting on His part to drive us to Christ and settle our Soules upon Him with sure and everlasting confidence He also o threatneth And to whom sware Hee that they should not enter into His rest but to them that believed not Heb. 3.18 Wherein Hee expresseth extremest anger unquenchable and implacable indignation Hee sweares in his wrath that no unbeleever shall ever enter into His rest In the Threats of the Morall Law there is no such Oath but a secret reservation of mercy upon the satisfaction of divine justice some other way But herein the Lord is peremptory and a third way shall never bee found or afforded to the Sonnes of Men. Neglect of such a gracious Offer of so great salvation must needes provoke and incense so great a God extraordinarily For with prodigious ingratitude folly it flings as it were Gods free grace in His face againe and sinnes against His mercy Suppose a mighty Prince passing by all the royall and noble blood in Christendome many brave and honorable Ladies should send to a poore maide bred in a base Cottage borne both of beggerly and wicked Parents offer her marriage to make Her a Princesse and shee then should foolishly refuse and reject so infinitely undeserved and unexpected advancement As shee might thereupon bee justly branded for a notorious Bedlam so would not so great a Prince thinke you bee mightily enraged at such a dunghill indignity and peevish affront The Prince of peace upon whosâ— thigh is written King of Kingâ— and Lord of Lords passing by more excellent and noble creatures sends unto Thee whose Father is corruption and the worme thy mother and thy sister and who in respect of thy spirituall state lies polluted in thine owne blood c. And offers to betroth Thee unto Himselfe in righteousnesse and in iudgement and in loving kindenesse and in mercies To Crowne Thee with all the riches both of His kingdome of grace and glory c. Now if thou shouldest stand off which God forbid as thereupon out of perfection of madnesse thou forsakest thine owne salvation so thou most justly enforcest that blessed Lord to sweare in his wrath that thou shalt never bee saved Thus thou hast heard how First Hee keepes open house to all such hungry and thirsty soules Rev. 22.17 Secondly Hee invites Mat. 11.28 Thirdly Invites with an awakening and rouzing compellation Isa. 55.1 Fourthly Intreats 2. Cor. 5 20. Fifthly Commands 1. Ioh. 3.23 Sixthly And threats Heb. 3.18 How cruell then iâ— that Man to His owne wounded conscience who in his extreme spirituall thirst will not bee drawne by this sixfold mercifull Cord to drinke His fill of the Fountaine of the water of life to cast Himselfe with confidence and comfort into the armes of the Lord Iesus Which is more then infinitely able to tie the most trembling heart and that which hangs-off most by reason of pretended doubts scruples and distrusts to that blessed Saviour of His with all full assurance and perfect peace How is it possible but that all or some of these should bring in every broken heart to believe and cause every one that is weary of his sinnes to relie upon the Lord of life for everlasting Wellfare But that which I desire principally to presse for my purpose in the Pâ—int at this time is this Thy conscience is now awaked terrifyed and troubled and therefore as I suppose tender and very sensible at least for a time of the least sinne â—very sinne lies now upon thy Soule as heavy as a mountaine of leade and therefore thou wouldest not willingly adde unto thy already insupportable burden any more waight All thy youthfull lusts and abominations stare in the face of thy conscience with griesly and horrible lookes and therefore for the present especially thou art notably scared from a willing provocation of Gods anger and wounding it afresh with any new sinne Well it beeing thus then If it appeare unto Thee that by thy standing off in the Case I have supposed thee from taking Christ as thine owne applying the promises as most certainely belonging unto â—hee and so putting to thy seale that God is true Thou dishonours Him extraordinarily in many respects Mee thinkes then thou shouldest bee mightily mooved without any more adoe to cast thy selfe presently upon the Lord Iesus with comfort and much assurance Especially sith thy so yeelding to the Law of faith is for thy infinite good And assure thy Selfe thou offendest in the meane time many waies 1. By a sowre and selfe-will'd unmanerlinesse towards Christ in not comming when Hee calls theo Mat. 11.28 It is pride and high pride saith a worthy Divine not to come when thou art called It is rudenesse and not good manners not to doe as thou art bidden to doe yea so often and earnestly charged to doe It would be a foule fault and unmannerly disobedience for any subject in this kingdom tho never so ragged tatter'd or pretending never so much His unfitnesse and unfinenesse to presse into so great a presence not to come unto the King if Hee should please earnestly to call upon Him Disobedience to the Law of faith and reiecting Gods gracious Offer of his Sonne freely is the greatest and an inexpiable sinne He hath sworne in his wrath that such a Refusant shall never enter into His rest 2. By a saucy prescribing unto Him upon what termes Hee shall take thee Ho sayes Hee every One that thirsteth come yee to the waters and Hee that hath no money Come yee buy and eate yea come buy wine and milke without money and without price Nay saist Thou I will either bring something in mine hand or I will none Whereas it appeares in the cited Place that Christ calls not onely those that are thirsty but also such as have no money 3. By undervalewing the unvalewable worth of his pretious blood As tho thy sinnes had exceeded the price that hath been paid for them Whereas it is called Act 20.28 Gods owne blood And therefore no want in it to wash away any sinne and for ever 4. By offering disparagement to all the promises in Gods blessed Booke Every one whereof doth now sweetly
perswaded Gods bowels of compassionate tender-heartednesse and love did yearne within him towards Iob with more dearenesse and delight at that cry Tho he slay mee yet will I trust in him then at any time else even in the Spring of his spirituall prosperity or fullest tide of most heavenly feelings Here then is comfort more then thy heart can hold if thou wilt bee counselled by the Prophets that thou maist prosper For when thou thinkest that all is gone that thou art a lost man and utterly forsaken even in the depth of thy spirituall darkenesse thou being so spiritually disposed as I have said and which thou canst not deny I say even then and thou oughtest so to apprehend and believe the love of God is as it were doubled towards thee much more endeared by reason of thy distresse and cannot hold but breakes out many times into extraordinary pangs and expressions thereof As wee may see Isa. 54.11 Oh! thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted c. And into profession of resolution and waiting to do us good which he will super-abundantly performe in the best time Behold I will lay thy stones with faire colours and lay thy foundations with Saphires Ibid. And therefore will the Lord waite that hee may bee gracious unto you and therefore will hee bee exalted that he may have mercy upon you For the LORD is a God of iudgment Blessed are all they that wait for him Isa. 30.18 Retiring the effects and exercise of our love from him whom wee love dearely makes it returne with redoubled fervour into our owne bosomes and there growes into a more vehement flame which never rests untill it breake out againe with dearer pangs upon the beloved Party Even as when the Sunne suffers an Eclipse and it's beames are driven backe and reflected from the face of the Moone interposed directly betweene it and our sight so that they shine not upon us then is the heate and light thereof multiplied and much intended toward the Fountaine which afterwards is shed downe upon us againe more amiably and acceptably when the darkenesse is done And let us further take notice that Christ our eldest Brother blessed for ever deales with us in such Cases as Ioseph a type of him in many respects dealt with his brethren hee frown'd upon them handled them roughly and frighted them extremely onely to humble them thorowly but in the meane time and midst of his menacing carriage his heart was so full of naturall affection that hee was enforced by the excesse thereof to turne aside and weepe and so returne to them againe And hee turned himselfe about from them and wept and returned to them again Gen. 42.24 So the Sonne of God as well as God the Father thorow him tho sometimes in a little wrath hee hide his face from us yet as hee will certainely after a small moment gather us with great mercies so in the meane time Hee is afflicted and most tenderly affected towards us in all our afflictions See Isa. 63.9 7. Seventhly Thinke it not strange that thou art fallen into this kinde of spirituall affliction as tho some strange thing or that which doth or may not befall the dearest servants of God had happened unto thee For herein thou becomes conformable to as holy Men as ever the world had Iob David Heman Luther c. Nay to the Sonne of God himselfe From whose example and precedency let the Christian even in the darkest horror of a spirituall desertion when hee is afraid lest God hath forsaken him fetch abundance of comfort and support out of such considerations as these 1. Christ himselfe was in the same Case Besides a numberlesse variety of most barbarous cruelties inflicted upon his blessed body by the mercilesse and implacable malice of the Iewes and by consequent sympathy upon his glorious soule Hee suffered also in soule immediately intolerable and save by himselfe unconquerable torments and paine Hee grapled with the fiercest wrath of his Father for our sins and sweat blood under the sense of his angry countenance Nay this Crosse upon his soule infinitely more waighty then that which hee carried upon his shoulders toward Calvarie did not onely cause streames of great bloody drops to fall downe to the ground but also prest from him that heavy groane Mat. 26.38 My soule is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death and that last rufull bitter cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee cap. 27.46 If Christ Iesus himselfe then blessed for ever the Son of the Fathers love the Prince of glory Nay the glory of heaven and earth the brightnesse of everlasting light c. In whom hee professeth himselfe to bee well-pleased and for whose sake onely hee loves all the sonnes of Men which shall be saved was thus plunged into a matchlesse Depth of unknowne sorrowes and most grievous desertion Let no Christian cry out in the like spirituall desolation but ever immeasurably short of his and in his feare of being forsaken that his Case is singular desperate irrecoverable For the onely deare innocent Sonne of God was farre worse in this respect and in greater extremity then hee is can or ever shall bee 2. Secondly Amongst other ends for which the Lord Iesus drunke so deepe and the very dregs of that bitterest Cup of his dearest Fathers heaviest indignation this was one That by a particular and personall passing thorow that infinite Sea those extremest dreadfull horrours of divine wrath for our sinnes which we all most justly deserved and would have caused any meere Creature to have sunke downe under it into the bottome of hell and by an experimentall feare and feeling of that bitter and bloody Agony which melted as it were his blessed soule into that mournefull Cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee The comfortable influence of the Deity being for the time in some sort restrained and retired from the humane nature that it might bee capable and sensible of that anger and angvish which would have holden both Men and Angels and all created Natures under everlasting calamity and woe I say that by his owne sense and experience of such painefull passages hee might learne and know with a more fellow-feeling and pittifull heart to commiserate his poore afflicted Ones in their spirituall desertions and with a softer and more compassionate hand to bind up their bleeding soules with his sweetest Balme of tender-heartednesse and love when in such horrible depths they shall thirst and long and gaspe for drops of mercy and his Fathers pleased face For in that hee himselfe hath suffered being tempted hee is able to succour them that are tempted Heb. 2.18 A woman which hath her selfe with extraordinary torture tasted the exquisite paines of Childe-birth is woont to bee a great deale more tenderly and mercifully affected to an other in like case then she that never tried what it is to be terrified with the suddennesse
un-avoidablenes and terrible pangs of a womans travaile and is more skilfull ready and forward to relieve in such distresse And so also all others who have been most afflicted either with outward troubles or inward terrours or both are ever most fit and feeling to speake unto the heart to put to their helping hand and make much of comfortlesse and miserable men troubled and tempted as they have been And such was the Case of our blessed Saviour in his sufferings for our sakes Hee was exercised all his life long with variety and extremitie of cruelties indignities and all manner of vexations beyond measure grievous bitter and intolerable Hee drunke full deepe of the Worlds disgrace the Divels malice the rage of great Ones the contempt and contumelies of the vilest the scornefull insultations of his enemies sorest sufferings from all things in Heaven Earth and Hell Of those pinching passions hunger thirst wearinesse of bodily tortures hideous temptations agonies of Spirit even of the full Cup of his Fathers fiery wrath and horrors of soule for our sinnes to the very last drop which went as farre beyond his other outward extremities as the Soule goes beyond the body Gods utmost anger the malice of men Whereby hee is now blessedly fitted and enabled excellently to succour them that are tempted Consciousnesse of his owne Case in the daies of his flesh is a keene incentive to his holy and heavenly soule more sensibly and soone to take pitty upon and ease the severall necessities troubles sorrowes and soule-afflictions of all his Children 3. Thirdly As this ever-blessed Redeemer of ours was in himselfe more then infinitely free and more then farre enough from all sinne so by consequent from any inherent cause of the least crosse or any shadow in the World of his dearest Fathers displeased countenance For originally He was of a most pure harmelesse and holy nature all his life long kinde sweet and gracious to every Creature offending none doing good unto all In his death incomparably patient brought as an innocent Lambe to that bloody slaughter not opening his mouth for all those base and barbarous provocations of the cruell and mercilesse Miscreants about him swimming in blood burning in zeale wrastling in prayer even for the salvation of his enemies So that his guiltlesse and unspotted soule had no neede at all of any passion or expiation All his sorrowes and sufferings were voluntarily under-gone onely for our sakes and sinnes Had not the pretious hearts-blood of the only deare naturall eternall Sonne of God been poured out as water upon the ground where at the whole Creation was astonished the Earth trembled and shooke her Rocks clave asunder her Graves opened the Heavens with-drew their light as not daring to behold this sad and fearefull spectacle never had the soule of any sonne or daughter of Adam been saved It was not the glory and treasures of the whole Earth not any streaming sacrifices of purest Gold not the life of Men and Angels no not the power and prostration of all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth or of ten thousand Worlds besides could have prevail'd satisfied and served the turne in this Case Either the Heire of all things must die or we had all been damned Is the heart then of any Mourner in Zion heavy and ready to breake for sorrow because hee hath lost the light of Gods face feeling of his love and consolations of grace So that the darknesse of his Spirit thereupon frights him with re-possession of his pardoned sinnes temptations to despaire and feares lest hee bee forsaken O then let him hie and have speedy recourse unto this heavenly Cordiall when our Lord and our Love felt the curse of our sinnes and his Fathers hottest wrath comming upon him in the Garden without any outward violence at all onely out of the paine of his owne thoughts bled thorow the flesh and skinne not some faint deaw but even solid drops of blood and afterwards in the bitternesse of his soule cried out upon the crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee And none of all this for himselfe For no staine at all did cleave to his sacred soule But all this the least of which wee can no more expresse then wee could undergoe for thy sake and salvation alone who loves our Lord Iesus Christ in syncerity And therefore ground upon it as upon the surest Rocke even in the height of thy heavie-heartednesse and depth of a spirituall desertion that those depths of sorrow whereof our conceits can finde no bottome thorow which hee waded in his bloody sweat cry upon the Crosse and painfull sufferings in soule did most certainly free thee everlastingly from the guilt venome and endlesse vengeance of all terrours of conscience Agonies of Spirit temptations to despaire and damnations of Hell The righteous Iudge of all the World will never expect or exact at the hands of any of his Creatures double paiment a double punishment Our dearest Saviour hath satisfied to the utmost with his owne blood the rigour and extremity of his Fathers Iustice in thy behalfe and therefore it is utterly impossible that thou shouldest ever finally perish Inward Afflictions and troubles of minde may for a time presse thee so sore that thou maist bee ready to sinke for 1 chastisement 2 triall 3 prevention of sinne 4 perfecting the pangs of the New-birth 5 example to others c. But in despite of the united rage and policy of all infernall Powers Thou shalt in due time be raised again by that victorious and triumphant hand which bruised the Serpents head and burst the heart of Hell even out of an horrible pit bee set upon a Rocke farre above the reach of all hellish hurt or sting of horrour In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindnesse wil I have mercy upon thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer Isa. 54.8 5. There is another terrible fierie dart dipt full deep in the very rankest poyson of the infernall pit which though it bee not much talked of abroad nor taken notice of by the World yet is secretly suggested and managed with extremest malice and cruelty in the silent bosomes of Gods blessed Ones The most holy hearts are many times most haunted with this foulest fiend Strangers to the wayes of God bee not much troubled in this kinde nor ordinarily vexed with such horrours Satan as I said before makes as much of his in this World as hee can possibly knowing that hee hath time enough even eternity to torment them in the World to come And therefore hee is not woont to weld this terrifying weapon against them save only at some dead lift or upon some speciall advantage as under some extraordinary misery or in excesse of melancholy to drive them thereby to distraction selfe-destruction or despaire Or it may bee God may suffer him to afflict thus hideously some grievous sinner which hee is
humorist an Hypocrite and all that naught is even as bad as the false tongues of the Devils Limbes can make a blessed Man He was a good-fellow will they say but hee is now quite gone a proper man and of good parts but his Puritanisme hath mar'd all While Paul humour'd the Pharises in persecuting and plaguing the disciples of the Lord Hee was a principall and much honoured Man amongst them but when hee turned on Christ's side He was holden a pestilent-fellow the very plague So that it is plaine and palpable whatsoever may bee pretended to the contrary that those cursed Cains dogged Doegs and scoffing â—â—maels that set themselues and spend their malice against the Ministers and people of God hare slander and persecute the very workes of Grace and graces of Gods Spirit in them Even their zâ—ale holinesse hatred of sinne reformation c. are an Eye-sore and heart-sore to such hatefull wretches and Owles of Hell â—ho cannot endure any heavenly light 8. As stigmaticall Rogues burnt in the hand curtal'd of their eares branded in the fore-head are in the Common wealth so are Persecutors in the Church By mutuall intelligence and information of Gods people or some more publike lasting record and Monunument of the Church they have many times such a Marke set upon them that they carry it to their graves yea to the iudgement Seate of God that it may bee knowne a sore-hand to that glorious Tribunall and all the triumphant Church what beastly men stinging Scorpions and pricking thorn's they have beene amongâ—t Gods Children and in the sides of the Saints Such a brand had Alexander the Copper smith set upon him by Paul 2. Tim. 4.14.15 And such a Brand was set upon Diotrephes that mâ—litious prating companion by Saint Iohn 3. Ioh 10. So are those bloud thirsty Tygers Gardiner Bonner and the rest of that cruell litter and persecuting packe branded that their names shall rot and their memories be hatefull to the Worlds end So too many in these times though they be very iolly fellowes in their owne conceits ador'd as Idols by their flattering Dependants applauded generally as the principall Patrones of revelling good-fellowship â—et in the censure of the Saints and by the doome of divine wisedome they are clearely knowne and iustly reputed enemies of all righteousnesse and Satans speciall Agents to doe mischiefe against the Ministery 9. And it is to be feared they will finde no mercy upon their Beds of death and in their last extremity cry they never so loude or promise they never so faire God in iust indignation is woont to deale so with those who drinke up iniquity like Water withâ—ut all sense or feare of a glorious dreadâ—ull Majesty above See Ezek 8.18 with those who refuse to stoupe to Gods Ordinance and submit to the Scepter of Christ when they are fairely invited by the Ministery See Prov. 1.24.28 Ier. 7.13.16 and 11.11 With great Ones who grinde the faces of the poore See Micah 3 4. with abusers of the riches of His goodnesse and long suffering See Rom. 2.4 5. How much more doe you thinke shall impenitent Persecutors bee paide home in this kinde See 2. Macchab. 9.13.17 There that great and cruell persecutor Antiochus being seizd upon by an horrible sickenesse promiseth very gloriously upon that his last Bed Besides many other strange reformations even that he also would become a Iew himselfe and goe thorough all the World that was inhabited and declare the power of God But for all this heare what the Writer of that story saith of his spirituall state and of Gods resolution towards Him vers 13. This wicked person prayed also unto the Lord who would now have no mercy on him 10 All their spitefull speeches scurrill scoâ—fes pestilent lyes insolent insultations c. are as so many Crownes of Glory and ioy unto the heads and hearts of all persecuted patient Professours 1. Pet. 4.14 Act. 5.41 Iob. 3.36 So that they infinitely misse the malicious Marke their revengefull humours would gladly hit the hurt and heart-breaking of those they so cruelly and cunningly hunt with much rancour and hate And not onely so but most certainely hereafter if they die not like drunken Nabal and their hearts become as stones in their brests upon their Beds of death they will all tho now passing from them with much bitternesse of Spirit and without all remorse turne into so many envenomed stings and byting scorpions unto their owne consciences and knaw upon their hearts with extreamest horrour 11. The whole body of the militant Church ioyne all as one man with a strong concurrent importunitie at the Throne of grace and with one heart and spirit constantly continue there such piercing prayers against all stubborne impenitent scorners all incurable implacable persecutours as the people of God have bin wont to poure out in such cases as Lament 3.59 c. O Lord thou hast seen my wrong judge thou my cause Thou hast seene all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me Thou hast heard their reproach O Lord and all their imaginations against me The lips of those that rose up against me their devise against me all the day Behold their sitting downe and their rising up I am their musicke Render unto them a recompence O Lord according to the worke of their hands Give them sorrow of heart thy curse unto them Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord. Now I would not be in that Mans case against whom Gods people complaine upon good ground at that iust and highest Tribunal one halfe houre for the imperiall crowne and command of all the kingdomes of the earth for who knowes whether iust at that time the righteous Lord for his children's sake and safety may raine upon such a mans head snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest 12. And the prayers of the Saints poured out in the bitternesse of their soules vexed continually with their malicious cruelties and cruell mockes are meanes many times to bring Persecutours to an untimely end to knocke them downe before their time Doe not you thinke that the faithfull Iewes at Ierusalem hearing of Antiochus marching towards them like an evening Wolfe to drinke up their bloud had presently recourse unto Gods righteous Throne with strong cries to stay his rage And doe you not thinke that those very praiers drew downe upon him that horrible and incurable plague whereupon Hee died a miserable death in a strange Countrey in the Mountaines Herod for any thing wee know might have lived many a faire Day longer if hee had dealt fairely with the Apostles of Christ. But putting One to the sword Act. 12.2 And another in prison vers 4. Hee put the Church to their prayers vers 5. Which prayers for there is a certaine omnipotency of prayer as Luther was woâ—t to say did create full soone those vermine that eate him up horribly in the height
with the Divels painting and false luster carries away captive all carnall men and detaines in a Fooles-Paradise indeed an hellish prison a world of deluded Ones Yet those few illightened Soules whose eyes have been happily opened by spirituâ—ll Eye-salve to turne from darkenesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God behold a double deformity and ouglines in so foule a monster deceitfully dressâ—d in the Divels counterfeite colours and guilded over garishly in His personated Angelical glory 3. It is most filthy Farre filthier then the most stinking confluence of all the most filthy fulsome nasty loathsome things in the world And it must needs bee so For whatsoever a Man can conceive to bee most contrary distant and opposite to the infinite clearenes purity sweetnesse beauty and goodnesse of God all that and much more is sinne in the highest degree Hence it is that in the Scriptures it is compared to the filthiest myre in which a Sow will lie downe to coole and cover her selfe To the loathsome vomite not of a man but of a Dog To the unsavoury poysonfull dampe which rotten Carkases exhale out of opened graves To menstruous filth To the dirt under the nailes or the stinking sweat of the Body or the putrified matter of some pestilent ulcer To the very excrements which Nature having severed froÌ„ the purer part of the meate thrusts out of the stomack casts into the draught To the filthinesse pollutions and impurities of the world so called by a singularity for sin is the transcendent filth of the world To all the uncleannesses for which the Purifications cleansings washings and sprinklings were appointed in the Leviticall Law To abomination it selfe c. Nay and yet further which makes for the further detestation of sinne Whereas all outward filth defiles onely the Body this of sinne by the strength and contagion of it's insinuating poyson soakes thorow the flesh and the bone and enters and eates into the very minde and conscience Tit. 1.15 defiles the pure and immortall Soule of Man How long might wee cast dirt into the Aire before wee were able to infect the bright shining beames of the Sunne Yet so filthy is sinne that at once with a touch it infects the Soule a clearer and purer essence then it and that with such a crimsin and double-â—â—ed staine that the Flood of Noah when all the World was water could not wash it off Neither at that last and dreadfull Day when this great Vniversall shall bee turned into a Ball of fire for the purifying and renewing of the Heaven and the Earth yet shall it have no power to purge or cleanse the least sinne out of the impenitent Soule Nay the fire of Hell which burnes night and day even thorow all eternity shall never bee able to raze it out 4 It is most infectious Spits venome on all sides farre and wide corrupts every thing it comes neare By reason whereof it is fitly resembled to Leaven to a Gangreene to the Leprosie which filthy disease quickly over spreads the whole Body Numb 12.10 Infects the clothes the very Walles of the House Levit. 14.37 c. Posterity 2 King 5.27 The first sinne that eveâ— the Sunne saw was so pregnant with Soule-killing poyson that it hath already damnably polluted all the Sonnes and Daughters of Adam that were ever since and will still by the un-resistable strength of the same contagion empoysâ—n all their natures to the Worlds end Nay at the very first breaking out it suddenly blasted as it were both Heaven and Earth And so stained the beauty of the one the brightnesse of the other and the originall orient newly burnisht glory of the whole Creation that from that houre it hath groaned under the burden of that vanity and deformity to which this first sinne hath made it subject and will travaile in paine under the bondage of the same corruption untill it bee purged by fire in the great Day of the Lord. It but one sinne bee doted upon delightfully and impenitently like a lumpe of Leaven it soures all the Soule defiles the whole Man and every thing that proceeds from Him His thoughts desires affections words actions and that of all sorts naturall civill recreative religious It doth not onely unhallow his meate drinke carriage His buying selling giving lending and all His other dealings in the world even His plowing The plowing of the wicked is sinne Prov. 21.4 But also turnes all his spirituall services and divinest duties His prayer hearing reading receiving the Sacrament c. into abomination If but one raging corruption in a Minister Magistrate Master of a Family as lying swearing filthy-talking scoffing at Religion opposition to godlinesse Sabbath-breaking an humour of Good-fellowship or the like represent it selfe to the eye of the World in His ordinary carriage and hang out as a rotten fruite in the sight of the Sunne it is woont fearefully to infect or offend by a contagious insinuation and ill example all about Him to diffuse it's venome to His Family amongst His Sonnes and Servants over the Parish where Hee lives all companies where hee comes the whole Country round about especially if Hee bee a Man of eminency and Place 5. It is extremely ill A farre greater ill then the eternall damnation of a Man For when Hee hath Ilen many millions of yeeres in the Lake of fire and under the dominion of the second death He is never the nearer to satisfaction for sinne Not all those Hellish â—lames thorow all eternitie can possibly expiate the staine or extingvish the sting of the least sinne Nay the very destruction of all the creatures in the world of Men and Angels Heaven and Earth is a great deale lesse ill then to offend God with the least transgression of His lawes For all the creatures of ten thousand worlds were they all extant come infinitely short in excellency of worth of the Hearts-blood of Iesus Christ. And yet without the effusion of it no sinne could ever have been pardoned nor any Soule saved A man would thinke it a lesser ill to tell a lie then to lie in Hell But heare Chrysostome Altho many thinke Hell to bee the supreame and sorest of all evils yet I thinke thus and thus wil I daily preach That it is farre bitterer and more grievous to offend Christ then to bee tormented with the paines of Hell 6. It is full of most fearefull effects 1. It deprives every Impenitent 1. Of the fauour and love of God the onely Fountaine of all comfort peace and happinesse which is incomparably the most invalue-able losse that can be imagined 2. Of his portion in Christs blood of which tho the drops waight and quantity bee numbred finite and measurable yet the Person that shed it hath stampt upon it such height of price excellency of merit un-value-ablenes of worth that hee had infinitely better have his portion
thou wert able to doe Him all the honour service and worship which all the Saints both militant and triumphant doe it would come infinitely short of the merit of the least of all His mercies unto Thee in Iesus Christ. 2. How unkindelylie God takes the neglect of His extraordinary kindenesses unto vs. 2. Sam. 12.7 c. 1. Sam. 27.28.31 Ezech. 16. 16. Marke well and be amaz'd of thine owne fearefull and desperate folly when thou fallest deliberately into any sinne Thou lajest as it were in the one scale of the Balance the glory of Almighty God the endles ioies of Heaven the losse of thine immortall Soule the pretious blood of Christ c. And in the other some rotten pleasure earthly pelf worldly preferment fleshly lust sensuall vanity And suffers this prodigious madnes Bee astonished O yee Heavens at this and bee horribly afraid to out-weigh all those 17. Vpon the first assault of every sinne say thus unto thy self If I now yeeld and commit this sin I shall either repent or not repent If I doe not repent I am vndone If I doe repent it will cost mee incomparably more hearts-greife then the pleasure of the sinne is worth 18. Consider that for that very sinne to which thou art now tempted suppose lying lust ouer-reaching thy Brother c. many millions are already damned and even now burning in Hell And when thy foote is upon the brinke stay and thinke upon the wages And know for a truth that if thou falelst into that sinne thou art fallen into Hell if God helpe not out 19. Never bee the bolder to giue way unto any wickednes to exercise thine heart with covetousnesse cruelty ambition revenge adulterjes speculative wantonnesse selfe-uncleannesse or any other solitary sinfulnesse because thou art alone and no mortall eie lookes upon Thee For if thine heart condemne thee God is greater then thine heart and knoweth all things and will condemne thee much more If thy conscience bee as a thousand witnesses God who is the Lord of thy conscience will be more then a million of witnesses And thou mayst bee assured Howsoever thou blessest thy selfe in thy secrecy that what sin soever is now acted in the very retyredst corner of thine heart or any waies most solitarily by thy Selfe tho in the meane time it bee concealed and lie hid in as great darknesse as it was committed untill that last and great Day yet then it must most certainly out with a witnesse and bee as a legible on thy forehead as if it were writ with the brightest Sun-beame upon a Wall of Christall Thou shalt then in the face of Heaven and Earth bee laide out in thy colours and without confessing and forsaking while it is called to Day bee before Angels Men and Diuels vtterly universally and everlastingly shamed and confounded 20. Consider the resolute resistance and mortifyed resolutions against sinne and all entisements thereunto of many upon whom the Sun of the Gospell did not shine with such beauty and fullnesse as it doth upon vs neither were so many heavenly discoveries in the kingdome of Christ made knowne unto them as our daies have seene For vpon our times which makes our sins a great deale more sinfull hath happily fallen an admirable Confluence of the saving light and learning experience and excellency of all former Ages besides the extraordinary additions of the present which with a glorious Noonetide of united illuminations doth abundantly serve our turne for a continued further and fuller illustration of the great mystery of godlinesse and Secrets of sanctification Heare Chrysostome But I thinke thus and this will I ever preach that it is much bitterer to offend Christ then to bee tormented in the paines of Hell Hee that writes the life of Anselme saith thus of Him Hee feared nothing in the world more then to sinne My conscience bearing mee witnesse I lie not For we haue often heard Him professe That if on the onâ— hand He should see corporally the horrour of sinne on the other the paines of Hell and might necessarily bee plunged into the one Hee would chuse Hell rather then sinne And an other thing also no lesse perhaps wonderfull to some Hee was woont to say To wit That Hee would rather haue Hell beeing innocent and free from sinne then polluted with the filth thereof possesse the kingdome of Heaven It is reported of an other ancient holy Man that He was woont to say Hee would rather bee torne in peeces with wilde horses then wittingly and willingly commit any sin Ierome also in one of His Epistles tells a story of a young Man of most invincible courage and constancy in the Profession of Christ under some of the bloody Persecuting Emperours to this sense They had little hope as it seemes to conqver Him by torture and therfore they take this course with Him They brought Him into most fragrant Gardens flowing with all pleasure and delight there they laid Him upon a Bed of Downe softly enwrapped in a net of silke amongst the Lillies and the Roses the delicious murmure of the streames and the sweet whistling of the leaves they all depart and in comes a beautifull strumpet and vseth all the abominable tricks of Her impure Art and whoâ—sh villanies to draw Him to her desire Whereupon the yong Man fearing that Hee should now bee conqvered by folly who was Conqverer over fury out of an infinite detestation of sinne bites off a peece of His Tong with His owne teeth and spits it in the face of the whore And so hinders the hurt of sinne by the smart of his wound I might haue begun with Ioseph who did so bravely and blessedly beate backe and trample under His feete the sensuall solicitations of His wanton and wicked Mistris Hee had pleasure and preferment in His eye which were strongly offered in the temptation but Hee well knew that not all the offices and honours in Egypt could take off the guilt of that filth and therefore Hee resolved rather to lie in the dust then rise by sinne How can I doe this great wickednesse and sinne against God I might passe along to the Mothâ—â— and seven brethren 2. Mac. 7. who chose rather to passe thorow horrible tortures and a most cruell death then to eate swines â—lesh against the Law And so come downe along to that noble Army of Martyrs in Q. Maries time who were contented with much patience and resolution to part with all wife children liberty livelihood life it selfe even to lay it downe in the flames rather then to submit to that Man of sinne or to subscribe to any one Point of His Devillish Doctrine Thus as you haue heard I haue tendred many reasons to restraine from sinne which by the helpe of God may serve to take off the edge of the most eager temptation to coole the heat of the most furious entisement to embitter the sweetest baite that drawes to any sensuall delight Now my most
some places also in the Book of God which being rightly handled and powerfully applied seeme to have a speciall keennesse to strike at and cut asunder the iron sinewes of the most obstinate heart And of more aptnesse to serve for the rowsing and awaking of meere civill men formall Professours Pharisies and foolish Virgins out of their desperat slumber of spirituall Selfe-deceit Such as these Deut. 29.19.20 And it come to passe when hee heareth the words of this curse that hee blesse Himselfe in His heart saying I shall have peace though I walke in the imagination of mine heart to adde drunkennesse to thirst The Lord will not spare Him but then the anger of the Lord and His jealousie shall smoke against that man and all the curses that are written in this Book shall lie upon Him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under Heaven Ps. 78.21 God shall wound the hairy Scalpe of such a One as goeth on still in his trespasses Pro. 1.24.28 Because I have called and yee refused I have stretched foorth my hand and no Man regarded c. Then shall they call upon mee but I will not answer they shall seeke me early but they shall not find mee Pro. 29.1 He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy Ezek. 24.13 In thy filthinesse is lewdnesse because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not bee purged from thy filthinesse any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee 1. Pet. 4.18 If the righteous scarcely bee saved Where shall the ungodly and the sinner appeare 1. Ioh. 3.9 Whosoever is borne of God doth not commit sinne 1. Pet. 2.17 Love the brotherhood Heb. 12.14 Without holinesse no man shall see the Lord. Iam. 2.19 The Divels also beleeue and tremble Luke 13.24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you will seeke to enter in and shall not bee able Math. 10.14.15 And whosoever shall not receive you c. Veriâ—y I say unto you it shall bee more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of judgement then for that city And. 11.12 And from the dayes of Iohn the Baptist untill now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force And 5.46 And if you salute your brethren onely what doe you more then others and vers 20. I say unto you That except your righteousnes shall exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdome of heaven These fellowes represented to the eye of the World a goodly and glorious shew of freedome from grosse sinnes I am not saith the Pharisee Luke 18. as other men are extortioners unjust adulterers c. Of workes First Of righteousnesse I give tithes of all that I possesse Secondly Of Piety Hee went up to pray Thirdly Of mercy Besides fasting and prayer they gave almes Mat. 6. c. And yet Christ speakes thus peremptorily to his hearers Except your righteousnesse exceede the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees c. ye shall in no case enter into the kingdome of heaven Hee saith not simply yee shall not enter But yee shall in no case enter And yet how many who come short of these will bee very angry if the ministers tell them that they shall certainely come short of the kingdome of heaven I have done with dawbing and plaistering over rotten hearts with plausible perswasions that they shall not bee damned I meane that most cruell and accursed trade of strengthening with lies the hands of the wicked that hee should not returne from his wicked way by promising him life Ezek. 13.22 Whereby thousands are sent hood-winckt to hell more is the pitty even in this blessed time of the Gospell And I come now to another errour about comforting afflicted Consciences Which is this 2. When the spirituall Physition promiseth comfort applies the promises assures of mercy acceptation and pardon 1. When the ground of griefe is not in truth trouble for sinne but some outward trouble Some in such a case may cast out by the way some faint and formall complaints of their sinnes and seeme to seeke direction and satisfaction about the state of their Soules when as the true root and principall Spring of their present heavinesse and hearts-griefe is some secret earthly discontentment the biâ—â—ng and bitternesse of some worldly sting It may bee the losse or desperate course of some over-loved child decay and going backward in their estate feare of falling into beggery some unexpected discontents and disappointments after marriage Some great disgrace and shame fallen upon them in the eye of the world Some long and tedious sicknesse pinching them extremely for want of peace with God and patience to passe thorow it Or the like In this case after the man of God by his best wisedome and searching experimentall tryals and Interrogatories fitted for that purpose whereby he may give a strong conjecture if not a peremptory censure hath discovered the Imposture Let his desire and endeavour be to turne the torrent of worldly teares and taking on for transitory things upon sinne When a veine is broken and bleeds inward or a man bleeds excessively at the Nose the physition is wont to open a veine in the arme so to divert the current of the blood that it may bee carried the right way for the safety and preservation of the party Doe proportionably in this point Let such know First That sorrow of the world worketh death It dries the bones consumes the marrow chils the blood wastes the Spirits eates up the heart shortneth life and cutteth off too soone from the day of gracious visitation It is a base thing for an immortall Soule to bee put thus out of tune and temper with mortall things most unworthy it 's heavenly birth breeding under the ministery and everlasting abode Secondly That sorrow spent upon the world is like a perfum'd precious water throwne into the channell or sinke-hole which would make a sweet sent in an humbled soule and helpe excellently against the noisome savour of sinne Fire put into the thatch would turne all into combustion Dung placed in your parlour would impoison all But lay the one upon the hearth and it would warme and comfort the other upon the land and it fatneth and makes fruitfull So sorrow misplaced upon earthly things fills a man with swarmes of carking confusions and brings many devouring Harpies into the heart but being turned upon sin and former sinfull courses which is the onely right proper profitable vse thereof it may procure a great deale of ease and enlargement to the heavy Spirit and helpe to bring foorth fruits meet for repentance Thirdly That the tithe perhaps of taking on trouble of mind vexation of Spirit sadnesse and sorrow about worldly things in respect of the bulke and quantity if sincere and
penitently and resoluedly to bee reformed if Hee recover and yet His sorrow of minde but such onely as the terrours of an awaked guilty conscience produce and His resolution to cast away His sinnes onely such as a man hath in a storme to cast away His goods not because hee doth not love them but because hee feareth to loose his life if hee part not with them Or a meere civill Man or formall Professour may upon His Bed of death bee very confident and seeme to bee full of comfort and yet that confidence no other then the strong imaginary ioyfull conceit of a covetous man grasping a great deale of gold in his dreame but when Hee awaketh behold his hands are empty For a more full and cleare apprehension of my meaning and iudgement in the Point let us take a survay of the different and severall kinds of death which ordinarily befall the Godly and the wicked The death of Gods Children are divers 1. Some of their holy and zealous lives doe determine and expire sweetly fairely and gloriously even like a cleare Sunne in a Summers evening without any storme or cloud of temptation and discomfort The darkesome and painefull passages and pangs of death are illightened and sweetned with the shining beames of Gods glorious presence and fast embracement of Iesus Christ in the armes of their Faith So that to them the very ioyes of Heaven and exultations of everlasting rest mingle themselues with those last agonies and expirations of death Their heads are as it were crowned with immortality and endlesse peace upon their beds of death Luther that blessed Man of God died sweetly and triumphantly over Hell the Pope and the Divell My heavenly Father said Hee at his death eternall and mercifull God thou hast manifested unto me thy deare Son our Lord Iesus Christ. I have taught him I have knowne him I love him as my life my health and my redemption whom the wicked have persecâ—â—ed maligned and with iniury afflicted Draw my Soule to Thee After this Hee said as insued thrice I commend my spirit into thine hands thou hast redeemed mee O God of truth God so loved the world that hee gave his onely Sonne that all that beleeve in Him should have life everlasting Ioh. 3. Heare how another blessed Saint of God ended his dayes Having the day before hee died continued his meditation and exposition vpon Rom. 8. for the space of two houres or more on the sudden Hee said O stay your reading What brightnesse is this I see Have you light up any candles To which I answered No It is the Sun-shine for it was about five a clocke in a cleare Summers evening Sun-shine saith Hee nay my Saviour-shine Now farewell world welcome heaven The Day-starre from on high hath visited my heart O speake it when I am gone and preach it at my Funerall God dealeth familiarly with man I feele his mercy I see his Maiesty whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God hee knoweth but I see things that are un-utterable So ravished in spirit Hee roamed toward heaven with a chearefull looke and soft sweete voyce but what Hee said wee could not conceive With the Sunne in the morning following raising himselfe as Iacob did upon his staffe hee shut up his blessed life with these blessed words O what an happy change shall I make From night to day From darkenesse to light From death to life From sorrow to solace From a factious world to an heavenly beeing O my deare brethren sisters and friends It pittieth mee to leave you behind yet remember my death when I am gone and what I now feele I hope you shall finde ere you die that God doth and will deale familiarly with men And now thou fiery Chariot that came downe to feth up Eliah carry mee to my happy Hold And all yee blessed Angels who attended the Soule of Lazarus to bring it up to heaven beare mee O beare mee into the bosome of my Best beloved Amen Amen come Lord Iesus come quickly And so hee fell asleepe That this is true the reporter and By-stander that ancient learned reverend Minister of God Master Leygh addeth I say the truth my Brethren I lie not my conscience bearing mee witnesse in the holy Ghost c. 2. Others may end their dayes very uncomfortably in ravings impatiencies and other strange behaviours Nay the fiery distempers of their hot diseases may sometimes even in the Saints of God produce furlous carriages fearefull distractions and some despairefull speeches But these being the naturall effects and issues of melancholike excesses Phrensies and burning Fevers are sins of infirmity in sanctified men For which if they come againe to themselves they actually repent if not they are all undoubtedly by a generall habituall repentance and Gods gratious acceptation thereof pardoned by the Passion of Christ and buried for ever in his bloody death That last and unreversable doome at the dreadfull Tribunall of the ever-living God must passe upon us not according to the violent and unvoluntary distempers at our last houre but according to the former Passages of our life the sinfull or sanctified expense of the daies of health Heare that other great Artist in the Mysterie of dealing with trouble consciences The common opinion is that if a man die quietly and goe away like a Lambe which in some diseases as consumptions and such like any Man may doe then hee goes straight to heaven but if the violence of the disease stirre up impatience and cause franticke behaviours then men use to say there is a judgement of God serving either to discover an Hypocrite or to plague a wicked man But the truth is otherwise For indeede a man may die like a lambe and yet goe to Hell and one dying in exceeding torments and strange behauiours of the body may goe to heaven 3. The death of some others is mixt to wit of fearefull tempestuous stormes and almost if not altogether despairefull agonies in the beginning of their last sicknesse and a faire refreshing glorious calme and ioyfull triumphs over temptations and feare towards the conclusion of their life For some secret end and holy purpose seeming good to his heavenly wisedome God suffers sometimes even his dearest servants to taste as it were of the fire of Hell and for a while to feele in their consciences those damned flames as a preparative to drinke more sweetly of the Well of life and Rivers of endlesse pleasures So himselfe is most honoured by helping when all hope is past The heart of his Child more ravisht with the first sight of those un-utterable joyes beeing suddenly rais'd to the height of happinesse from the depth of horrour The enemies to the narrow way dasht and confounded by observing his deliverance whom out of prophane blindnesse they deemed an Hypocrite Godly Christians gratiously reviv'd when they see That tho the Lord hide His face from his Childe for a moment
yet at last with everlasting kindnesse will Hee have mercy on Him And that Hee will never utterly and finally forsake any of His. Thus died those blessed Servants of God Mistris Bretergh Master Peacock c. Mistris Bretergh in the heate of temptatioÌ„ wished that she had never bin borne or that she had bin made any other creature rather then a woman But when that Hellish storme was over-blowne by the returne of the glorious beames of the Sun of righteousnesse into Her Soule She turnd her tune and triumphed thus Oh happy am I that ever I was borne to see this blessed Day I confesse before the Lord his loving kindnesse and his wonderfull workes before the sons of men For hee hath satisfied my Soule and filled my hungry Soule with goodnesse Master Peacocke in the height of His dreadfull Desertion told those about Him that hee converst with Hell-â—ounds That the Lord had cursed him That Hee had no grace That it was against the course of Gods proceeding to save Him c. But when that horrible tempest of spirituall terrours was happily disperst and the light of Gods comfortable countenance begun to shine againe upon His most heavy and afflicted spirit Hee dis-avowed all inconsiderate speeches as hee called them in his temptation and did humbly and heartily aske mercy of God for them all And did thus triumph What should I extoll the magnificence of God which is unspeakeable and more then any heart can conceive Nay rather let us with humble reverence acknowledge His great mercy What great cause have I to magnifie the great goodnesse of God that hath humbled Nay rather exalted such a wretched miscreant of so base condition to an estate so glorious and stately The Lord hath honored mee with his goodnesse I am sure hee hath provided a glorious Kingdome for mee The joy which I feele in my heart is uncredible 4. Some of Gods worthiest Champions and most zealous servants doe not answere the unreprooveable sanctity of their life and unspotted current of their former conversation with those proportionable extraordinary comforts and glorious Passages upon their beds of death which in ordinary congruity might be expected as a conuenient conclusion to the rare and remarkeable Christian cariages of such blessed Saints So bottomlesse and infinitely un-fathomable by the utmost of all created vnderstandings are the depths of Gods most holy waies and His inscrutable Counsells quite contrary many times to the probable conclusions of Man's best wisdome But every one of His sith he certainly passes thorow those pangs into pleasures and joyes endlesse and unspeakeable must be content to glorifie God to be seruiceable to His secret ends with what kinde of death Hee please whether it bee glorious and untempted or discomfortable because of Bodily distempers and consequently interpretable by undiscerning spirits or mingled of temptations and Triumphs or ordinary and without any great shew or remarkeable speeches after extraordinary singularities of an holy life which promised an end of speciall note and admiration Why may not some worthy heavenly-minded Christians sometimes by strong mortifying meditations and many conquering fore-conceits of death in their life time make it before-hand so familiar and easie unto them an by continuall conversing above and constant peace of conscience taste so deepely of spirituall ioyes that that dreadfull Passage out of this life as it may breede no great sense of alteration in themselves so no extraordinary matter of speciall observation to others Of the wicked and those who were ever strangers to the mystery of Christ and truth of godlinesse Some die desperately Tho thousands perish by presumption to One of these who despaire yet some there are to whom upon their beds of death all their sins are set in order before them and represented to the eie of their awaked consciences in such griesly formes and so terribly that at the very first and fearefull sight they are presently struck starke dead in soule and spirit utterly over-whelmed and quite swallowed up with guilty and desperate horrour So that afterward No counsell or comfort no consideration of the immeasurablenesse of Gods mercy of the unvaluablenesse and omnipotency that I may so speak of Christs bloud shed of the variety excellency of gracious promises of the losse of their owne immortall soules can possibly drive and divert from that infinitely false conceite and cursed Cry My sinnes are greater then can bee pardoned Whereupon most miserable and forlorne wretches they very wickedly and willfully throw themselves into Hell as it were upon earth and are damned above ground Thus the Lord sometimes for the terror of others glorifying his owne iustice bringing exemplary confusion upon impenitent obstinacy in sinne and willfull opposition to grace doth in greatest indignation by the hand of divine vengeance unclaspe unto them the Booke of their owne Conscience and of His owne holy Law In one of which they find now at length all their innumerable iniquities transgressions and sinnes engraven with the Point of a diamond enraged with Gods implacable wrath aggravated with the utmost malice of Satan And never to bee razed out or remitted but by the bloud of the Son of God in which they peremptorily professe themselves to have no part In the other they see the fiercenes and fulnesse of all the curses plagues and torments denounced there and due unto all impenitent sinners ready to bee poured upon their bodies and soules for ever And no possibility to prevent them no waies to decline them but by Gods infinite bounty thorow Iesus Christ in which they also utterly disclaime all right and interest And therefore they are now finally and desperately resolved to looke for no mercy But in their owne judgement and by their owne confession stand reprobates from Gods covenant and voide of all hope of His inheritance expecting with unspeakeable terrour and amazement of spirit the consummation of their miserie and fearefull sentence of eternall damnation They are commonly such as have been grosse Hypocrites like Iudas and lien in some secret abomination against the knowledge of their hearts all their life long that have followed still their owne sensuall wayes and course of the world against the light of the Ministry standing like an armed man in their consciences to the contrary who have been Scorners and Persecutours of the power of godlinesse and the good way who have abjured the Gospell of Iesus Christ and forsaken the Truth for honour wealth or worldly happinesse To whom the Lord in their life-time vouchsafed many mercies much prosperity great meanes of salvation long forbearance c. And yet they stood out still they still hated to bee reformed set as naught all His counsell and would 〈◊〉 of His â—â— proofe Wherefore the Day of gratious visitation beeing once expired a thousand Worlds will not purchase it againe Heaven and Earth cannot recall it No mercy no comfort no blessing can then bee had tho they seeke it with teares
and yelling They shall never more bee heard tho with much violence they throw their serikings into the Aire and cry with sighes and groanes as piercing as a sword Not but that the Gates of Heaven and armes of mercy may stand wide open untill their last breath But alas They have already so hardened their hearts that they cannot repent After thine hardnesse saith Paul and heart that cannot repent They now but howle upon their Beds they doe not cry unto God with their heart as the Prophet speakes Hos. 7.14 Their earnest and early crying in this last extremity is onely because Their feare is come upon them as desolution and their destruction as a whirlewinde When they cast out their considerations for comfort It is not the whole Creation can possibly help them for they must stand or fall to the Tribunall of the everlasting God mighty and terrible the Creator of the ends of the Earth If they looke up to God the Father that Prov. 1.24.26 comes presently into their heads with much horrour and quite kills their hearts Because Hee hath called all our life long and all that goodly time wee refused Hee will laugh now at our calamity and mocke when our feare is come Iesus Christ as they strongly conceive and un-mooveably conclude against themselves hath now to them for ever closed up His wounds as it were and will not afford them one drop of His blood because they have so often by comming unworthily spilt it in the Sacrament persecuted Him in His members and despised Him in the Ministry The blessed Spirit because in the Day of visitation they repelled all his inward warnings and holy motions preferring Satans impure suggestions before His sacred inspirations doth now in their own acknowledgement by the equity of a just proportion in this Day of vexation leave them to eat the fruit of their former wilfulnesse and reape the reward of their owne wayes Thus these forlorne wretches are disclaimed forsaken and abandoned of Heaven and Earth God and Man of all the comforts in this life and blessings of the World to come And so by finall despairing of Gods mercy the greatest of sinnes they most unhappily and cursedly follow Iudas the worst of men into the darkest and most damned nooke in Hell 2. Others die senselesly and blockishly They demeane themselues upon their dying Beds as tho there were no immortality of the Soule no Tribunall aboue no strict account to bee given up there for all things done in the flesh no everlasting estate in the world to come wherein every one must either lie in unspeakeable paines or live in un-utterable pleasures In their life time they were never woont to tremble at Gods judgments or rejoyce in his promises or much trouble themselves with the ministry of the Word or about the state of their soules All was one to them what Minister they had whether a Man taught to the kingdome of Christ or a generall Teacher or an ignorant Mangler of the word or a dissolute fellow or a Dawber with untempered morter or a dumbe Dog If they were neither Whores nor Thieves but well accounted of amongst their neighbours thriued in the world prospered in their outward state prouided for posterity slept in a whole skinne were not vexed on the Lords day with any of these precise Trouble-townes They were well enough and had all they looked for either in this world or in the world to come Wherefore at their death by reason of their former disacquaintance with spirituall things and God not opening their eies they are neither afflicted with any feare of Hell or affected with any hope of Heaven they are both un-apprehensive of their present danger and fearelesse of the fiery lake into which they are ready to fall In these regards they are utterly untouched die most quietly and without any trouble at all And it is their ordinary Answere when they are questioned about their spirituall state and How it stands with them betweene God and their owne Consciences I thanke God nothing troubles me Which tho they thinke it makes much for their owne credit yet alas It is small comfort to judicious By-standers and such as wish well to their Soules But rather a fearefull confirmation that they are finally giuen ouer to the spirit of slumber and sealed up by divine justice in the sottishnesse and security of their owne senselesse hearts for most deserved condemnation Thus these men as One speakes live like stocks and die like blocks And yet the ignorant people saith Greeneham will still commend such fearefull deaths saying He departed as meekely as a Lambe Hee went away as a bird in a shell when they might as well say but for their featherbed and their pillow hee dyed like a beast and perished like an Oxe in a ditch 3. Others die formally I meane they make very goodly shewes and representations of much confidence and comfort Having formerly beene formall Professours and so furnished with many formes of godly speeches and outward Christian behaviours And the spirit of delusion and spirituall Selfe-cousenage wich in their life time detained them in constancy of security and selfe-conceitednesse about the spirituall safty of their soules without any such doubts troubles feares temptations which are woont to haunt those who are true of heart for ordinarily such is the peace of unsound Professors continuing their imaginary groundlesse persvasion and presumption in the height and strength unto the end for their very last breath may bee spent in saying Lord Lord open unto us as wee see in the foolish Virgines and those Mat. 7. I say such men as these thus wofully deluded and fearefully deceiving others may cast out upon their last beds many glorious speeches intimating much seeming confidence of a good estate to God-ward contempt of the world willingnesse to die readinesse to forgiue all the world hope to bee saved desire to bee dissolved and goe to Heaven c. They may cry aloud with a great deale of formall confidence Lord Lord Mercy Mercy in the name of Christ Lord Iesus receive our spirits c. And yet all these goodly hopes and earnest eiaculations growing onely from a forme not from the power of godlines are but as I said somewhere before as so many catchings and scrablings of a Man over-head in water He strugles and strives for hold to save Himself but he graspes nothing but water it is still water which He catches and therefore sinkes and drownes They are all but as a spiders web Iob. 8. 14.15 Vpon which One falling from the top of an house laies hold by the way for stay and support Hee shall leaâ—e upon his house but it shall not stand Hâ—e shall hold it fast but it shall not endure O how many descend faitlâ— an ancient Father with this hope to eternall trauailes and torment How many saith an other worthy Doctour goe to Hell with a vaine hope of Heaven whose chiefest
to lift them up That none shall have mercy but such as confesse and forsake their sinnes That the meere ciuill man and luke-warme formall Professour without holinesse and zeale can never bee saved That all the wicked shal bee turned into Hell c. In a word if Hee take the right course to bring men from darkenesse to light from Satan to the living God by first wounding with the Law before Hee heale with the Gospell I say the most in this Case are ready to cry out and complaine that hee throwes wild-fire Brimstone and Gunpowder into the consciences of men Conceive therefore I pray you That there is in God first His justice and secondly His mercy both infinite and equall Onely in regard of Man there is an inequality For God may bee said to bee more mercifull unto them that are saved then just to them that are damned For of damnation the just cause is in Man but of salvation it is wholly from grace In Himselfe and originally they are both equal and so are all his Attributes But in respect of the exercise and expression upon His creatures and abroad in the world there is some difference But for my purpose and our Ministeriall emploiment and Commission take notice That as the revealed effects of Gods mercy are love tender-heartednesse compassion His owne deare Sons pretious hearts-blood pardon of sinnes peace of conscience unspeakeable and glorious joy thereupon Evangelicall pleasures comfortable presence of the Spirit even in this life and in the other World pleasures infinitely moe then the Starres of the firmament in number even for ever and ever And all these vpon all true Penitents So the revealed effects of His Iustice are indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish that Sword which will devoure flesh those arrowes that drinke blood that fiery anger which will burne unto the lowest Hell and set on fire the foundations of the Mountaines That comming against which is with fire and charets like a whirlewinde to render anger with fury and rebuke with flames of fire that meeting which is as of a Beare bereaved of her whelps to rent the cauâ—e of the heart and devoure like a Lyon c. All plagues with the extremity temporall spirituall eternall all the curses in this Booke of His all the torments in Hell to the utmost sparke of those infernall flames And all these upon all impenitent sinners Now God will bee glorified both waies and by them both Give us leave then to give them both their due Wee are most willing and ready as our great Master in Heaven would have us Isa. 40.1.2 and our blessed Saviour by his example doth teach us Luk. 4.18 To convey by our Ministry into every truly-broken heart and bleeding Soule the warmest bloud that ever heated Christs tender heart and to keepe backe from the true Penitent not any one graine of that immeasurable Mine of all the rich mercies purchased with that pretious blood Bee content therefore on the otherside that wee open the Armory of Gods justice and reveale his wrath from heaven against all ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse of Men That indignation and wrath Tribulation and anguish shal be upon every soule of man that doth evill c. As wee are ever ready to binde vp the bruised spirit with the softest oyle of Gods sweetest mercy So let us I pray you have leave in the equity of a just and holy proportion to wound with the Hammer of the Law the haâ—ry Pate of every One that goes on in His sinne Let us deale faithfully even with wicked men lest wee answere for the blood of their soules By telling them That as certainely as all the glorious comforts and blessed consequents of Gods infinite mercy shall crowne the heart and heade of every true-hearted Nathanael for ever so all the dreadfull effects of his angry Iustice will at length seize upon the Soules and confound the consciences of all un-holy men with extremest severity and terrour Let it bee thus then and let our Ministeriall dispensation bee in this manner If thou bee an impenitent Person I would tell Thee That the vtmost wrath of God vnquenchable and everlasting vengeance all earthly and infernall plagues are thy certaine Portion But I would mollify and sweeten the bitternesse of this sentence with assurance of mercy upon Repentance to prevent the assaults of despaire On the other side If the Ministry of the Word hath wrought upon Thee effectually and now thy truly-humbled soule thirsts after Christ with a syncere hatred and opposition against all sinne I would assure thy troubled and trembling heart in the Word of life and truth of all those most pretious blessings and sweetest comforts which the Booke of God doth promise and the blood of Christ hath bought But withall I would commend unto thee some Coolers and Counterpoisons against presumption and falling to Pharisaisme For which purpose and for prevention of danger and spirituall undoing by unskilfull and undiscreet dawbing in the Case proposed I come now to tender such Counsels and Caveats as these or the like which the faithfull Physition of the Soule according to occasions circumstances and present exigents may thinke fit to bee mingled with administration of mercy and wisely propounded to the afflicted Party It may not proove unseasonable to speake thus or in some such manner to thy spirituall Patient 1. If these things bee truly and soundly so If thou finde and feele indeed such a mollified and melting spirit such broken and bleeding affections in thy bosome Thou art certainely blessed If that sorrowfull soule of thine doth renounce from the very heart-roote with speciall distaste and detestation all manner of sinne insatiably thirst after righteousnesse unfainedly resolve for the short remainder of a few and evill dayes to bend it selfe towards heaven in all New-obedience I say if this bee syncerely the holy disposition and resolution of thine heavy heart notwithstanding all thy present terrour and trouble of minde Thou art truly and everlastingly happy Onely take notice lest my ministring of mercy bee mistaken or thy conceiving of comfort mis-carry that the heart of man is deceitfull above all things A bottomlesse depth it is of Falshoods dissemblings hypocrisies An endlesse Maze of windings turnings and hidden passages No eye can search and see it's center and secrets but that All-seeing One alone which is ten thousand times brighter then the Sun to which the darkest Nooke of Hell is as the Noone-day And therefore not I nor any man alive can promise pardon or apply the promises but conditionally upon supposition If these things bee so and so as thou hast said And the syncerity of thy heart and truth of these hopefull protestations which wee now heare from thee in this extremity and I must tell thee by the way such like may be enforced by the slavish sting of present terrour not fairely and freely flow from a true touch of conscience for sinne I say this may
hee was upon the earth called thy blessed Lord and Saviour Divell See Matth. 10.25 Ioh. 7.20 which passeth all I am perswaded that any drunken Belial ever yet fastned upon thee Contemne thou therefore for ever and trample upon with an humble and triumphant patience all their contumelies and contempts Passe-by nobly without touch or trouble without wound or passion the utmost malice of the most scurrill tongue the basest gibe of the impurest Drunkard Doth the World carnall men thine owne friends ormall Teachers suppose and censure thee to be a dissembler in thy Profession and will needes concurrently and confidently yet falsely fasten upon thee the imputation of hypocrisie An heavy charge Yet for all this Let thy truly-humble heart conscious to it selfe of it's owne syncerity in holy services like a strong pillar of brasse beate backe all their impoysoned arrowes of malice and mistake this way without any dejection or discouragement Onely take occasion hereby to search more thorowly and walke more warily Iob may bee a right noble patterne to thee in this point also He had against him not onely the Divell his enemy pushing at him with his poysoned weapons but even his owne friends scourging him with their tongues His owne wife a thorne pricking him in the eye yea his owne God running upon him like a Gyaâ—â— and his terrours setting themselves in aray against himâ— Powerfull motives to make him suspect himselfe of former halting and hollow-heartednesse in the wayes of God yet notwithstanding his good and honest heart having been long before acquainted with and knit unto his God â—â— truth makes him breake out boldly and resolutely protest Till I die I will not remove my integrity from mee My righteousnesse I hold fast and will not let it goe Chap. 27.5.6 Behold my Witnesse is in Heaven and my record is on high Cap. 16.19 Art thou a loving and tender-hearted mother unto thy children and hast thou lost the dearest The greatest outward crosse I confesse that ever the sonnes and daughters of Adam tasted and goeth nearest to the heart Yet thy sorrow is not singular but out-gone in this also For the blessed Mother of Christ stood by and saw her owne onely deare innocent sonne the Lord of life most cruelly and villanously murdred upon the Crosse before her eyes Ioh. 19.25 Hast thou lost thy goods or children Doth thy wife that lies in thy bosome set her selfe against thee Doe thy nearest friends charge thee falsely Art thou pained extremely from top to toe Doe the Arrowes of the Almighty sticke fast in thy soule Thy affliction is grievous enough if thou taste any of these severally But doe they all in greatest extremity concurre upon thee at once Hast thou lost all thy children and all thy goods Doth thy wife afflict thy afflictions c. If this bee not thy Case and rufull condition thou commest yet short of Iob a most just man and one of Gods dearest Iewels 4. The exceeding greatnesse and pretiousnesse of the promises In every one of which it is incredible to consider what abundant matter of unspeake-able and glorious joy lies wâ—rpâ— up Oh how sweet are they to a thirsty soule in the â—â—me of angvish and trouble They are like a cloud of raine that commeth in the time of a drought They are very glimpses of Heaven shed into a heart many times as darke as hell They are even rockes of eternity upon which every bruised reed may sweetly repose with impregnable safety A truly humbled spirit relishing spirituall things would not exchange any one of them for all the riches and sweetnesse of both the Indies Tell me deare heart thou that in thy unregenerate time though now happily changed lay soaking in sinnes of cruelty and blood whether that mercifull promise Isai. 1.18 Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord Though your sinnes bee as skâ—rlet they shall bee as white as snow though they bee red like crimson they shall bee as wooll bee not farre dearer unto thee then thousands of gold and silver Or thou who formerly pollutedst thy selfe villanously with such secret execrable lusts which now thou canst not remember without horrour tell mee if it were utterable by the Tongue of man with what dearest sweetnesse and blessed peace thy broken heart was bound up and revived when thou cast thine eye considerately and beleevingly upon that pretious place Ezech. 36.25 I will sprinkle water upon you and you shall bee cleane and from all your filthinesse and from all your Idols will I cleanse you c. There was beyond the Seas as my Author reports Christian Matrone of excellent parts and piety who langvishing long under the horrible pressure of most furious and fiery temptations wofully at length yeelded to despaire and attempted the destruction of her selfe After often and curious seeking occasion for that bloody fact at last having first put off her apparrell threw her self head-long from an high Promontory into the Sea But having received no hurt by her fall shee was there by a Miracle and extraordinary mercy strangely preserved for the space of two houres at the least though all the while shee laboured industriously to destroy her selfe Afterward drawne out with much adoe and recovered shee yet still did conflict with that extremest desperate horrour almost a whole yeere But by Gods good providence which sweetly and wisely ordereth all things listening on a time though very unwillingly at first to her husband reading amongst other places that Isa. 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones For I will not contend for ever neither will I bee alwaies wroth for the spirit should faile before mee and the soules which I have made I say listening to these words the Holy Ghost drawing her heart shee begun to reason thus within her selfe God doth here promise to revive and comfort the heart of the contrite and spirit of the humble and that hee will not contend for ever neither bâ— alwayes wroth But I have a very contrite heart and a spirit humbled 〈◊〉 to the dust one of the acknowledgement and sense of my sinnes and divine vengeance against them Therefore peradventure God will vouchsafe to revive and comfort my heart and spirit and not contend with 〈◊〉 for ever nor bee wroth against mee still c. Hereupon by little and little there flowed by Gods blessing into her darke and heavy heart abundance of life lightsomnesse spirituall strength and assurance In which she continued with constancy and comfort many a yeere after crowned those happy dayes and a blessed old age with a glorious and triumphant death and went to Heaven in the yeere 1595. What heart now but Hers that felt it can possibly conceive the depth of that extraordinary un-utterable
and feeling of his favour by cutting off as it were for a time those streames of comfort which were woont to distill upon his soule by use ordinary influence of the meanes Meditation Prayer Conference publike Ministry Sabbaths Sacraments Daies of humiliation such like doth mercifully force him to have recourse unto at length with much longing and thirst to repose upon with more reverence and acknowledgement the everlasting Fountaine and Founder of all graces comforts compassions and life even his owne glorious mercifull and Almighty self See this in the beginning of the third Chapter of the Canticles at the latter end of Cap. 2. The christian soule is sweetely crowned with a glorious over-flowing confluence of all spiriuall consolations rapt extraordinarily with un-utterable and joyfull ravishments of Spirit upoÌ„ the nearer embraceÌ„ment of her dearest Spouse and more sensible grasping of refreshing graces She lies so peacefully in His armes of mercy and under the Banner of His love that shee sweetly sings unto Her selfe My beloved is mine and I am His. But in the beginning of the third For the daies of Gods child after conversion are like the daies of the yeere Some faire and shining Some tempestuous and cloudy Some happy with heavenly Hony-dewes as it were of unspeakeable joy and unconceivable peace others more dismall and dis-astrous if I may so speake for want of an amiable aspect from the Throne of graces I say a little after the case is fearefully altred with Her For she lies strugling and distressed in the irkesome and comfortlesse desolations of a spirituall desertion Her Spouse is gone the very heart and life of all Her lightsomnesse in this World and the World to come No sense now of the Savour of His good ointments no feeling of the assurance of His favour Nothing left of all that former heaven but onely a sad and wofull heart which had been happy In this infull Case She casts about for recovery of Her woonted comfort Assaies those meanes which were accustomed to convey unto Her with joy fresh streames and strength from time to time out of the Wells of Salvation 1. First shee seekes her Spouse and former refreshings of Spirit by secret praier meditation experimentall considerations calling to Minde former assurances of his love reflecting upon the foot-steps of a saving worke unfained change and sweete communion with Him aforetime and other silent Selfe-inquisitions and inward exercises of the heart But shee found Him not vers 1. 2. Secondly She enquires abroad and hath recourse unto godly christians especially such as have been most exercised and best acquainted with trials temptations and mysteries of the holy way to see if Shee can get any comfort any new hold and hope by their counsell prayers instructions out of their owne experience For in such Cases Gods Children may and ought to confesse their sinnes and Gods dealing with them one unto another and pray one for another But shee finds none vers 2. 3. Thirdly She addresses Her selfe and resorts to faithfull Ministers Gods publike Agents in the Church about the affaires of Heaven and Salvation of Soules to receive from them some light and direction to regaine Her Love But it will not yet bee vers 3. No comfort comes by all or any of these meanes No feeling of Gods favour and former peace for all this various and sollicitous seeking and pursuite For God may sometimes upon purpose restraine His quickning influence from the meanes and recall as it were to the Well-head those refreshing Rivers of comfort which ordinarily flow thorow His owne holy Ordinances as so many blessed Conduits of grace into humble hearts That wee may fetch them more immediately from the Fountaine the boundlesse Sea of all heavenly treasures and true peace and so with more humility Sense of self-emptinesse reverence and praise-fulnesse acknowledge from whence wee have them It was but a little that I passed from them saith the deserted Soule But I found Him whom my soule loveth vers 4. When no meanes would bring Him but that Shee had past thorow the use and exercise of them all and Hee would not bee found Hee after at length comes upon his own compassionate accord and illighteneth Her darke and disconsolate state with the shining beames of His glorious presence and fills Her plentifully with ioy and believing againe That so no vse variety and excellency of meanes but His owne free mercy and goodnesse might bee crowned with the glory of it Let every christian by the way take notice of and treasure up this point it may steed him in some spirituall extremity hereafter God may sometimes withdraw and delay His comfort to draw His children thorow all the meanes which when they have passed without prevailing Hee after and immediately when Hee please puts to His helping hand that they may not attribute it to the meanes tho never so excellent but to the mercies of God the onely Well-spring both of the first plantation continuance and everlastingnesse of all spirituall graces and true comforts in all those happy Ones which shall bee saved Why doth the Lord let us use all the meanes and yet not finde Him in them That wee may know Hee only commeth when Hee will nothing mooving Him but His owne good pleasure 5. Fifthly The world sometimes that mighty enemy to the Kingdome of Christ aided under-hand by the covetous corruption of our false hearts and the Divels craft For ordinarily in all spirituall Assaults and overthrowes Satan is the Bellowes the World the Wild-fire our corruptions the Tinder and the pretious Soules of men those goodly Frames which are fearfully set on fire and blowne up doth wrastle so desperately even with some of Christs Champions that surprising their watch cooling the fervour of their first love and stealing away by little and little their spirituall strength it supplants them at length and throwes them upon the earth Whereon it labours might and maine to keepe them downe and doting that so they may roote in the mud and mire thereof with immoderation and carking to the great disgrace of divine pleasures their high and excellent Calling and so raising the spirit of railing in unregenerate men to cast unworthy aspersions upon the glory of profession for their sakes Nay too often by it's suttle insinuations and Sirens Songs it lulls them so long upon Her lap that they are cast into a heavy slumber even of carnall security And that so deepe and dangerously that tho the Lord Iesus the Beloved of their Soule cry aloud in their eares by the shrill and piercing sound of His spirituall Trumpetters and by the more immediate and inward motions of His holy Spirit intreate them fairely upon all loves for His owne deare passions sake and all those bloody sufferings to shake off that carnall drouzinesse and to delight againe in God to â—et the earth fall out of their mindes and againe to minde heavenly things Open to me my Sister my Love my
other affrighting and stinging temptations Hee deales with them in this Case as Absalom with Ioab when Hee would not come at Him by sending once and againe Hee causes his servants to set His field of barley on fire and then there was no neede to bid him hie When inferiour miseries and other meanes will not doe it God sets as it were their Soules on fire with slames of horrour in one kinde or other and then they looke about them indeede with much care and feare searching and syncerity They seeke Him then with a Witnesse earnestly and early For afflictions of Soule are very soveraigne and have singular efficacy to stirre and quicken extraordinarily to weane quite from the world and keepe a Man close and clinging unto God How many tho perhaps they thinke not so would grow proud worldly Luke-warme cold in the use of the Ordinances Selfe-confident or something that they should not bee if they were not sometimes exercised with iniections of terrible thoughts By this fiery dart the Divell desires and endeavours to destroy and undoe them quite But by the mercy of God it is turned to their greater spirituall good It is in this Case as it was with Him who thrusting his enemy into the Body with â—ull purpose to have killed Him lanceâ— the ulcer which no Physition was able to 〈◊〉 and let out that corrupt mâ—tter that would have cost Him his life By representation of such horrour out of Satans cruellest malice they are happily kept more humble watchfull earnest in praier eager after the Meanes weaned froÌ„ the World compassionate to others c. Hiding of Gods face from Him and leaving Him to the darknesse of His owne spirit did put and preserve Master Iohn Glover in a most zealous holy and heavenly life for ever after Heare the story This gentleman being called by the light of the holy Spirit to the knowledge of the Gospell and having received a wondrous sweet feeling of Christs heavenly Kingdome His minde after that falling a little to some cogitation of his former affaires belonging to His vocation began by and by to misdoubt himself upoÌ„ occasion of those words Heb. 7.4 For it is impossible c. Vpon considerations of which words Hee was so farre deserted as to bee perswaded that Hee had sinned against the holy Ghost even so much that if Hee had been in the deepest Pit of Hell Hee could almost have despaired no more of His salvation Beeing young saith Foxe I remember I was once or twice with Him whom partly by his talkâ— I perceived and partly by mine owne eies saw to be so wornâ— and consumed by the space of five yeares that neither almost any brooking of meate quietnesse of sleepe pleasure of life yea and almost no kinde of senses was left in Him Who in such intolerable griefes of minde altho Hee neither had nor could have any ioy of His meate yet was hee compelled to eate against His appetite to the end to deferre the time of his damnation so long as Hee might thinking with Himselfe no lesse but that Hee must needs bee throwne into Hell the breath being once out of the Body Albeit Christ hee thought did pitty his case and was sorry for Him yet hee could not as Hee imagined helpe because of the verity of the word which said It is impossible c. But what was the happy issue and effect of these extraordinary spirituall terrours and terrible desertion The same blessed Man of God who writes the Story and was himselfe with the Party tells us Albeit Hee suffered many yeares so sharpe temptations and strong buffetings of Satan yet the Lord who graciously preserved Him all the while not onely 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 been seene In such sort as Hee beeing like one placed in Heaven already and dead in this World both in word and meditation led a life altogether celestiall abhorâ—ing in His minde all prophane doings Thus a spirituall desertion or some other affliction of spirit doth that alone many times which variety and a long continued succession of ordinary outward crosses one upon the Necke of an other is not able to effect For troubles of Soule sooner take and are of a quicker and stronger operation then those which afflict the Body The spirit of a man will sustaine his infirmity But a wounded spirit who can â—eare Prov. 18.14 All other afflictions are nothing to this They are but flea-bitings to this fiery Scorpion The stoutnesse of a Mans spirit will stand under a world of outward miseries many times But if the eie which is the light of the Body bee in darkenesse how great is that darkenesse If the spirit it selfe bee crusht which should support the whole man how great is the confusion Hence it was that faithfull David waded thorow a world of troubles yet all that time no malice of Saul no hatred of the Philistines no rebellion of Absalom no treachery of Ahitophel no grapling with a Lion no fighting with a Beare no threatning of a vaunting Goliah could so much discourage Him But when at any time Hee suffered immediately in His soule under the wrath of God O! then his very bones the master-timber of His Body are broken in peeces Hee roares all the day and His moysture is turned into the drought of Summer Then Hee speakes thus unto God When thou with rebukes doest correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a Moath Thus having discovered the Cases and Causes of spirituall Desertion I come now to the comforts and the Cure 1. And let us first take notice of a double desertion first Passiue when God withdrawes Himselfe from us secondly Active when wee with-draw our selves from God And they are both two-fold first Temporary and secondly Finall 1. Passive desertion temporary As in David Psal. 77. Heman the Ezrahite Psal. 88. Iob. Both the Glovers See their story Acts and Monuments 1885. 1891. Mistris Brettergh Master Peacocke And many moe of Gods Children 2. Finall In many after a wofull and willfull abuse of many mercies meanes of salvation and generall graces As Saul Iudas c. Such as have out-stood all opportunities and seasons of grace and all those Prov. 1.24 1. Active desertion temporary As in Solomon c. 2. Finall as in those Heb. 10. Now in the present Point I understand onely a Passive temporary Desertion And therefore in that Man which is truly ingraffed into Christ by a justifying Faith and regenerated who can never possibly either forsake finally or be finally forsaken of God Of whom Hooker thus speakes Blessed for ever and ever be that Mothers Childe whose Faith hath made Him the Child of God The earth may shake the Pillars of the World may tremble under us The countenance of the Heaven may be appaled the Sunne may loose his light the Stars their glory But
about to bring in to prepare him thereby though the Divell himselfe meaneth not so for the pangs of the New-birth deeper humiliations and more vehement desires to get under the wings of Christ from that hellish Kyte Or hee may sometimes mingle these horrible stings with the terrours of spirituall travell upon purpose to hinder conversion by a diversion into By-wayes or frighting backe againe to folly and former courses But sure I am the ordinary object and speciall aime of Satans malice in this Point are only those who have happily escaped out of his clutches already and are fully and for ever freed from his damming fury and all-deadly hurt And I know not whether there bee any of these which doth not lesse or more at one time or other suffer under this horrour And yet every one of them thinks himselfe singular in this suffering and that it is not usuall for Gods Children to have such prodigiously foule and fearefull thoughts put into their heads which they dare not mention for their abhorred monstrousnesse neither remember without trembling Now by this dreadfull engine of the Divell which I thus talk of before I tell you what it is and no marvaile for what heart would not willingly retire or can chuse but tremble intreating upoÌ„ such a Theame I meane hideous iniections horrible thoughts blasphemous Suggestions monstrous conceits of the most holy pure and ever-glorious God His Word divine Truths the Lord Iesus blessed for ever or some way or other about spirituall and heavenly things framed immediately by Satan himselfe and with furious violence throwne into our minds infinitely against our wills at the grieselinesse whereof not only Religion but also reason Nay even corrupted nature and common sense stand astonisht shrug and shrink backe at the horrour and abhorre them extremely Some of Gods dearest Children and those that love him best Would you thinke it yet it is too true are sometimes so pestred with their irkesome intrusions that whatsoever they speake doe heare reade or think upon is wrested perverted and hellishly empoisoned with this temptation of blasphemy And they are ordinarily prest upon them with most importunity and impetuousnesse when they are best busied and exercised in the holiest duties as in praier hearing or reading the Word singing of Psalmes dayes of humiliation c. In the first place For a comfortable support in such a Case peruse ponder well upon and apply such considerations and counsels as these 1. In this terrible temptation also thou becomes but conformable to thy Lord and Master which bought thee with his dearest blood and to many of his blessed Saints Was there ever suggestion in conceit or word or any possibilitie of being like unto this in execrablenesse and horrour That the King of Saints in whom dwelleth all the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily should fall downe and worship the Prince of Hell and vilest of Creatures And yet this most horrible blasphemie was injected into the most holy imagination of Iesus Christ with which it was infinitely more impossible to be any waies tainted or stained then the fairest Sunne-beame with the foulest Dirt. But hee endured it and conquered And that for our sakes only and safety even for such excellent endes as these first That when wee are â—et upon by Satan in the same kinde and so hideously assaulted that upon the first sense we are ready to sinke under the suddaine fright and to thinke that none in the world are so but wee yet in cold blood wee may comfortably recover our selves and presently conceive that our Case is not singular and incompatible with a saving state for even the Sonne of God himselfe surpassed us in the same suffering Secondly That hee might take the venome sting and guilt from this hatefull and horrible temptation for all His to the Worlds end Thirdly That having himselfe tasted the Divels malice herein hee might out of His owne feeling and experience more tenderly take to heart our troubles and terrours that way more mightily fortifie and free our spirits against the invasion and surprise of all such prodigious injections and flashes of Hell 2. It is the concurrent judgement of learned and holy Divines that these monstrously blasphemous thoughts and satanicall suggestions resisted and not consented unto are not our sinnes but our crosses Or suppose there should be any tainture on our parts yet condemning them in our judgements and abhorring them with our heartes wee may bee most assured that the blood of Iesus Christ is infinitely more mighty and soveraigne to take away the venome and vilenesse of them then the Divell malicious and subtilâ— to inject I will imagine that some bloody Popish Powder-Traytor had prest upon thee at that time and suggested thus Wee are plotting and purpose to blow up the Parliament with Gun-powder To destroy at one blow the King Queene Prince Nobility c. And afterward to cut the throats of all the Protestants in the Kingdome to roote the Gospell out of it for ever c. And then to lay the fault upon the Puritanes These and the like were injections of much horrour and monstrous nature For thus men learned both in the mystery of Christ and depths of State spoke of that plot at that time Remember but the Powder-Treason the uttermost point of all villany beyond which it is terra incognita no man can devise what should bee betweene Hell and it Consider but this day the Birth-day as I may tearme it of our Countrey in which both Prince and People came as it were anew into the World delivered from the fearefull Powder-Vault the very belly of Hell and confusion as Ionah sometime did from the Belly of the Whale Behold that which so many millions of eies since those windowes were first opened in the head of man to behold the light of Heaven I say so many millions of eyes in their severall generations now sunke downe into their holes and consumed within their Tabernacles never saw never those glorious and constant Lights of the Firmament those cleare and Crystalline eies of nature which walke through the Whole World and give no rest to their temples the Sunne that wandereth by day and the Moone that waketh by night they never saw the like c. It was of such prodigious immanity that before now the tongue of Man never delivered the eare of Man never heard the heart of Man never conceited nor the malice of hellish or earthly Divell ever practised It is beyond all example whether in fact or fiction even of the tragicke Poets who did beat their wits to represent the most fearefull and horrible Murders The Plot whereof Livie speakes of dispatching the whole Senate of Rome in an houre the devise at Carthage to cut off one whole faction by one enterprise the conspiring of Brutus and Cassius to kill Caesar in the Senate the proiect of destroying in one Conclave the greatest part of
he watchfully apprehending and plying industriously workes a world of mischiefe upon afflicted soules in their spirituall miseries Idlenesse laies a man open to all hellish snares and temptations makes the heart like unmanured ground fit for nothing but the wildest and rankest weedes of lust luxury lewd company the universall inordinatenes of Originall corruption to domineere rage and doe what it will Like standing Pooles naturally prepared and pregnant to breed and feed the vermine and venome of vilest thoughts and un-naturall filth Like Thorow-faires for Satans most hideous and horrible injections to wander and walke up and downe in without restraint or remedy Solitarinesse besides it's native propertie and power to make sad increase melancholy and aggravate feares doth in this Case more then any bring an heavie Woe Woe to him that is alone For if the weake Christian fall hee hath not another to help him up He may there be surprised yeeld and foil'd before he get into such company which might happily have prevented it or supported him in the temptation Too much secrecy and concealement may cause the wound of a terrified conscience to bleed inward rankle fester and grow desperate whereas seasonable discovery might have cured and comforted it Horrour arising from the apprehension of such uncouth and monstrous thoughts kept close and dam'd up in the mans owne brest may swell so high that the poore soule may bee in great danger to bee wofully drowned and over-whelmed by it which had it had vent be time eased and emptied it selfe into some holy and faithfull bosome might by divine and discreete counsell by little and little dried up quite I have knowne him who did bite in and keepe close in his bosome this temptation of blasphemie the space of about twenty yeares All which while the Divell did tyrannize extremely and keep him almost in continuall terrour Hee thought there was never man had such vile and prodigious thoughts as hee And if the World knew what they were hee should bee abhorr'd as a monster of men and the loathsommest creature upon earth most worthy to bee utterly exterminated and rooted out of the society and confines of Mankinde And hereupon many and many a time when hee apprehended any opportunity or had any meanes offered to make himself a way he was tempted there unto principally upon this ground that it was pitty such an horrible Blasphemer for so he supposed should any longer breathe But at last hearing the nature manner and remedy of these hideous injections discovered by the Ministery afterward privately informing himselfe further and more fully from Gods Messenger was happily taken of the racke for the time to come and most wonderfully refreshed And therefore take heede of keeping the Divels counsell The tempted in this kinde may doe well to bee still conversant in religious duties honest workes of their lawfull Callings company of skillfull experienced Soule physitions or one or other comfortable imploiment 7. Settle in thy heart a peremptory impregnable resolution never to entertaine any conceit of that great Majesâ—y and glory above of the most holy and ever-blessed Trinity or any thing there-about but such onely as is revealed and represented unto thee in Gods Booke Whatsoever is objected by carnall reason to the contrary or injected by the Divell any wayes to deprave the divinenesse of that glorious Truth ought to bee rejected as cursed false and execrable And therefore when that hellish Nimrod shall at any time hunt and chase thine affrighted soule with these blasphemous Hell-hounds bee sure ever to take Sanctuary in the Oracles of God and keepe thee close and safe under this Covert Whatsoever is not comprehended within the Confines of that sacred Pale warranted by holy Writ the soveraigne Touch-stone of all heavenly Truth let it bee abhorred and retorted as dung upon the face of the Tempter That sense and apprehension of the Deity and divine things which is not suckt from the brests of the two Testaments is in this regard to bee reputed ranke poyson repelled and abominated with infinite indignation and disdaine And for further helpe herein when thou findest thy selfe thus followed with the violent and incessant incursions of this furious folly call often and seriously to minde that accursed brand which the Booke of God hath set upon the Adversary that hee is the Father of lies and let that still continue a more resolute rejection and contempt of whatsoever comes from him Suppose a raging Bedlam should follow thee up and downe all the day long and tell thee that thy father or speciall friend were a Stone a Bird a Tree a Toade or whatsoever is viler or more absurd would'st thou hereupon entertaine and harbour in thy minde any mis impression or monstrous perswasion of the party I trow not onely his senselesse clamour and restlesse raving would be very â—â—kesome troublesome and un-welcome especially sith thou art furnished with a cleare demonstrative light out of naturall Philosophy that hee is a reasonable Creature and thy selfe sees in him the face and favour the shape and proportion of a Man Proportionably Satan that bloody Bedlam of Hell out of that madnes at which Heaven and Earth may stand amazed solicites thee to admit such and such horrible and hideous conceits of thy dearest Lord his Sonne and sacred Word Ah cursed Fiend that ever thou shouldest discover such prodigious malice against thy glorious Maker Now God infinitely forbid that this should cause the least alteration or any diminution at all of thy lowliest most reverent adoring and divinest thoughts of so great a God For have but recourse to the holy Records of all sound supernaturall and saving knowledge I meane the Word of life with which thou oughtest to consult and to which onely thou art confind in this Case and thou shalt finde him to bee Onely one living and true God everlasting without body parts or passions of infinite power wisdome and goodnâ—sse the maker and preserver of all things both visible and invisible And in unitie of this Godhead there to bee three persons of one substance power and eternity the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost And besides thou mayst graspe as it were and feele betweene thy fingers as they say even in every Creature His greatnesse and goodnesse Majesty and might power and providence In the glorious Lights of heaven saith a noble Writer wee perceive a shaddow of his divine countenance in his provision for all that live his manifold goodnesse And lastly in creating and making existent the World universall by the absolute Art of his owne Word his power and Almightinessâ— which Power Light Vertue Wisdome and Goodnesse being alâ— but Attributes of one simple Essence and one God wee in all admire and in part discerne per speculum creaturarum that is in the disposition order and variety of Celestiall and Terrestriall bodies Terrestriall in their strange and manifold diversities Celestiall in