even when he was in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity to pray if perhaps the thoughts of his heart might be forgiven him Acts 8.22 If you think your selves wicked there is nothing more your Duty than to beg the Grace of God to strive to knock to call upon him whilst he may be found but beware that you do not think that some failings even in some considerable Duties are a sign of your total Apostacy Unbelief is in the best but not indeed in its reigning Power Strive as much as you can and then bewall your weakness and implore the help of God and he will be favourable to you Obj. 3. 'T is true I know 't is my Duty to pray and I have prayed for several Months and for several Years and I have still the same Diseases and the same Fears that I ever had I have no less pain in my Body no less disquietness in my Soul than I had the first moment that I began to pray He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out he hath made my chain heavy also when I cry and shout he shutteth out my prayer Lam. 3.8 I am just like Saul when he enquired of the Lord 1 Sam. 28.6 The Lord answered him not neither by dreams nor by Vrim nor by Prophets He would have no Communication with him take no notice of what he did Even in such a case am I I enquire after him in his Ordinances but have no news of his Gracious Presence there In Tears I pour out my Soul day and night and pray but my Prayers that I send up to Heaven bring to my poor weary Soul no tidings of Comfort or of Peace back again mine eyes fail with looking up my heart faints and I can hold out no longer in a Duty wherein I find no delight and which brings me no advantage why should I wait upon the Lord any longer Answ This I think to be one of the greatest Temptations wherewith Satan does assault troubled Souls He knows well that if they once quit their hold of God they fall into his hands they lengthen out his Chain and whet his Malice and come within his reach And there is no Duty which the Devil hates more than Prayer for it has many a time defeated his Designs and made his Kingdom shake Therefore I earnestly desire you as you love your Souls as you would not dishonour God nor gratify the Devil that you would never give it over tho you do but chatter like a Crane yet 't is better than to be altogether silent tho you do but mourn after God 't is better than to resolve to let him go Tho you can but say Lord he Merciful to me a sinner Tho you can but smite upon your breast and look up to Heaven tho you can but creep in his ways 't is better than to leave them tho you can but speak a word or two in Prayer 't is much better than not to pray at all Oh what a terrible thing is it to leave calling upon God to give our selves for lost to say it is vain when nothing is too hard to do for Almighty Power and for Infinite Goodness and woe unto us when we quit the Rock of Ages and commit our selves unto the Waves what sorrows do we then meet withal and how low do we sink How intolerable is it to have the rebukes of our Conscience the upbraidings of Satan the guilt of Sin the fear of Hell and to have no God to whom we can go with hope do not suffer the greatness of your Evils to deprive you of that support which is to be found in the performance of this Duty tho you have not a present answer to what you desire yet it no way follows that your Prayers are not heard God knows better than you what will be the most proper season in which to bestow the Mercy that you think to be most necessary His delays in this kind are no sign of his abhorrence He may suffer us to fall into very great Agonies that so like our Lord in the Garden we may pray more earnestly and our Request are not vain tho we have no dawnings of a near and immediate deliverance The Prayers of the Primitive Church for Kings and all in Authority were answered many years afterwards when Constantine was converted to the Faith Beware of fainting under the hand of God and yet when we can look upon him only as an Enemy 't is almost impossible not to faint Under smart and sore troubles we must frequently look up to God and beg his strength and seeing in such a case we cannot perform any long or very regular duties we must often renew tho it be the very same desires Psal 142.4 5. Epb. 6.18 And to this purpose consider 1. There is none besides God himself can help you and this should cause you to persevere in Prayer His hand alone can heal the Wounds 'T is common for the troubled Soul to say Oh what would I give for one Beam of Hope I would give all the world if I had it for one pleasant Sight of the Face of God It is not so to be obtained not by bare wishes nor by the purchase of any thing that is so low and contemptible as is all that which is in the world When the Heavens are brass none can cause the Rain to fall when the Sun is set not all the artificial Fires which the skill of man can make will yield so large and so pleasant a light unto this Earth as he did his return chases the darkness and brings to us the welcome day In a distrust of your own weakness have recourse to this God and say with David Psal 51.12 17. It must be the Act of a Power that is Omnipotent to give you comfort not all the Angels in Heaven nor all the men on earth can help you unless he be pleased to do it As you contribute nothing to your first Regeneration as the thing created does nothing to bring it self into Being only receives from the Creator's Power and Goodness what he is pleased to give expect not overmuch from the most knowing Ministers or from your dearest friends they are but Cisterns which can yield no water to quench your thirst unless they be filled with Water by the Clouds of Heaven As to the satisfaction and the quiet of a Troubled soul all men are vanity and it is an uncommunicable Prerogative of the Divine Nature certainly and infallibly to relieve the miserable Isa 57.19 Other friends either know not your wants or by their own Poverty or their distance are not in a capacity to supply them But God is always near always full of Goodness and is acquainted with whatsoever we need or do expect If all the world were your Friends and he your Enemy the Gaiety of their Looks the Pleasure of their Smiles would not take away the Terror of his Frowns the threatning Cloud would
to get the Victory if Christ pray for us that our faith do not fail Luk. 22.31 VVhere can we go for shelter but unto God our Maker when this Lyon of the Forest does begin to roar how will he terrify and vex us till he that permits him for a while to trouble us be pleased to chain him up again 5. Gods Favour is Life even in Death it self He cures all the disorders of the Soul He weans it from the Body and makes the passage to another World sweet and easie He can take away the frightful ghastly aspect of Death and bestow upon it a pleasant and amiable look and hence it is that sick People are often heard to say Oh! If I had but the Favour and the Love of God I could he freely willing to dye even in this moment If I had but his Love I could bear all these pains and quietly submit though I have restless nights and weary days for then I should be sure of Eternal Rest It is our estrangedness from God that makes us live in bondage all our days and when our time to dye is come makes us so very loth to depart This sense of God's displeasure makes a Death-bed to be a Bed of sorrow and makes Death to be indeed the King of Terrors and who can but tremble when he finds himself leaving this World and knows not what will be his portion in the next That finds himself going to the Judgment-feat but knows not whether he shall be acquitted or condemned there how many times do the very thoughts of Death cut us in our Sickness to the very Soul because our spirits are clouded and our evidence for Salvation is departed even before we depart so that we stand trembling on the borders of Eternity and would fain stay on Earth though we cannot VVhat but the favour of God will help us When our heart and our flesh fails He will be the strength of our heart and our portion for ever Ps 73.26 VVhat but this will attend us through the shady Vale How can we part with our Friends if God be not our Friend How can we leave this Earthly Tabernacle if we have not an House not made with Hands How shall we look upon so vast a Change as that of Time into Eternity if we are not to change this Mortal for a better Life But one smile of the Face of God in that great and concluding-work will keep us that we shall not be afraid to dye one fore-taste of Heaven will make us with undaunted hearts to bid this sinful VVorld adieu we shall then like Moses undress our selves and dye we shall with the same chearfulness go down to the Grave which Jacob went with into Egypt because our Mediator and our elder Brother lives and has made good provision for us VVe shall not be amazed to lie down in the dust when once we have the hope of a blessed and a glorious Resurrection and the day of our death will be a comfortable day if our blessed Lord be then pleased to tell us that on the same day we shall be with him in Paradise CHAP. II. Of Heaven and Hell and of that spiritual death which hath seized the greatest part of the World As also the Reason why Good people are many times very willing to dye and of the inexcusableness and misery of those who are without Gods favour And whence it is that some grow in Grace more than others and are more earnest for a share in the Love of God WHat a blessed and glorious place is Heaven Inf. 1. that is full of God's favour The City bad no need of the sun neither of the moon to shine in it for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof Rev. 21.23 Rev. 22.2 3 4 5. It is the Land of the Living and 't is no wonder that death shall never enter thither here indeed he is a God that hides himself he is hid under the veil of the Creatures and under abundance of mysterious Providences for tho' his Throne be established in Righteousness yet Clouds and Darkness are round about it Psal 97.7 Beams of his Glory do every where break forth through every Creature Providence Law and Ordinance of his yet much of his Glory that shines in the Creation is hid by a train of second Causes through which few look to the first his work in the World is carried on in a mystery his Interest lives but is deprest they who are devoted to him are supported indeed by his invisible hand but are in the mean time low for the most part and afflicted But in that Eternal state Mr. How of delighting in God p. 353. the Veil shall be rent and he will in a brighter manner shew himself his Glory will shine out with direct and pleasant Beams to all the beholding and admiring eyes he will there give forth the full and satisfying Communications of his Love that will chear and satisfy and refresh a vast multitude of grateful and adoring spirits Here the Souls of good Men are deprest by the misrepresentations of Satan and by the frequent jealousies and suspitions of their own guilty souls but there they shall see him as he is and which will encrease their joy see him to be their own God for ever No storms shall there molest their Peace nothing shall interrupt their Eternal Calm Not a vain tumultuous repining or uneasie thought shall assault their peaceful and quiet hearts for ever No more shall they cry out Is his Mercy clean gone Has he forgotten to be gracious for they shall be with him in his own presence Here his Family is composed of several distressed mourning Children and when some praise him their praises are disturb'd by the groans of others or their own sins but there they shall all be clothed with praise and none shall be sick or dye If we did but know that there were a place in the World where the people never dye the love that all have of Life would put them upon many inquiries how they might get thither This Countrey is Heaven thence death and fear and consternation is banished for ever and thither should we lift up our eyes thither should we direct our hearts in Heaven the favour of God shines with an unclouded brightness they that are Inhabitants of that holy place are employed in an honourable attendance on their mighty King they need not they desire not any of those enjoyments which are here below no more than favourites of their Prince desire a meaner station or a poor Cottage or some obscure and forlorn retreat And alas what are all our pleasures and our most splendid entertainments to that Bread and to those spiritual and intellectual Joys which Angels and glorified souls feed on The first hour the first day of joy there is better than an Age of joys here below if one day spent in his Courts in his Love and Praises here
Edinburgh was Twenty years in terrors of Conscience and yet delivered afterwards You may also direct them to the Lives of Mrs. Brettergh Mrs. Drake Mr. Peacock and Mrs. Wight where they will see a very chearful day returning after a black and stormy night and that the Issue from their Afflictions was more glorious than their Conflict was troublesom They went forth weeping they sowed in Tears but they reaped an Harvest of wonderful Joys afterwards You have in the Book of Martyrs written by Mr. Fox an instance of Mr. Glover who was worn and consumed with inward trouble for the space of Five years that he neither had any comfort in his Meat nor any quietness of Sleep nor any pleasure of Life he was so perplexed as if he had been in the deepest Pit of Hell yet at last this good Servant of God after so sharp temptations and the strong buffetings of Satan was freed from all his trouble and was thereby framed to great Mortification and was like one already placed in Heaven and led a Life altogether Celestial abhorring in his mind all prophane things and you have a remarkable instance of mighty joy in Mr. Holland a Minister who having the day before he died meditated upon the 8th of the Romans he cried on a sudden Stay your Reading What brightness is it that I see They told him it was the Sun-shine Nay saith he my Saviour's shine Now farewell World and welcome Heaven the day-star from an high hath visited my heart O speak it when I am gone and let it be Preached at my Funeral God dealeth familiarly with Man I feel his Mercy I see his Majesty whether in the Body or out of the Body God he knoweth but I see things unutterable And in the Morning following he shut up his blessed Life with these blessed words O! what an happy change shall I make from Night to Day from Darkness to Light from Death to Life from Sorrow to Solace from a factious World to an Heavenly Being O! my dear Friends it pitieth me to leave you behind yet remember what I now feel I hope you shall find ere you dye That God doth and will deal familiarly with Men. And now thou fiery Chariot that came down to fetch up Eliah carry me to my happy hold and all the blessed Angels who attended the soul of Lazarus to bring it up to Heaven bear me O bear me into the bosome of my best Beloved Amen Amen Come Lord Jesus come quickly And so he fell asleep See this and several other instances in Mr. Robert Bolton's Instructions for afflicted Consciences p. 87. and 235 c. Eleventhly The next kindness you are to shew to your Melancholly Friends is heartily to pray for them Let your eyes weep for them in secret and there let your souls melt in fervent holy Prayers they are not able in a composed or a lively manner to recommend their own Case to God you may use many arguments in your Prayers their forlorn state and the greatness of their miseries may be a very powerful motive to your Supplications You know that none but God himself can help them For as Mr. Greenham says If our assistance were as an Host of Armed Soldiers if our Friends were the Princes and Governors of the Earth if our Possessions were as large as between the East and the West if our Meat were as Mannah from Heaven if our Apparel were as costly as the Ephod of Aaron if every day were as glorious as the day of Christ's Resurrection yet if our Minds are appalled with the Judgments of God all these things would not yield us any help or consolation * See Mr. Greenham's Comfort for an Afflicted Conscience p. â—27 And you must wrestle with him on their behalf you may plead with him That his Power and Goodness will be more illustrious if he save those whom none but he himself can save and that his Grace will be more remarkable if he please to create Peace for those troubled Souls in which none but he can make a Calm and you know not but that his Light on your request may begin to shine on those who have bewailed his absence with many dreadful groans And tho your eyes be even weary with looking upwards yet continue still to wait and pray for it shall not be in vain Thus you will do them a great kindness and perform your own Duty tho perhaps they may be ready to say to you as Mr. Peacock to his Friends Take not the Name of God in vain by praying for a Reprobate And as Mr. Dod said to him when he said he could not pray Tho saith he most sicknesses hinder Prayer and therefore the Apostle James says If any Man be sick let him send for the Elders c. Yet if God stir up your Friends to pray for you he will stir up himself to hear their Prayers And do you consider that nothing but Prayer can do them good It is an obstinate disease that nothing else will overcome for it is a very slight Melancholly and which is not deeply rooted that can be drowned in Wine or chased away with sociable divertisements Some indeed tell us When they find themselves troubled their way is to bid their thoughts Battel and to oppose Thoughts against Thoughts and with the dint of Reason to subdue this peevish Humour But such must give me leave to say That they are not under the disease of Melancholly for that will neither hear Faith nor Reason till God himself by his Almighty Power work Salvation for us XII Not only pray for them but get other serious Christians to pray for them also When many good people join their requests together the cry is more acceptable and prevalent When those in the Acts joined to remember Peter in his Chains he was after that very soon delivered and in the very time of their Prayers All believers have through Jesus Christ a great interest in Heaven and the Father is willing to grant what they beg in the Name of his dear Son I my self have been greatly helped by the prayers of others and I heartily thank all those that kept any particular days wherein more solemnly to remember my distressed condition blessed be God that has not cast off their prayer nor turned away his mercy from me Every day gives us several experiences of many that have been rescued from their diseases their temptations and their fears by the Prayers of others And I might also add you have very great cause to pray for your selves that God may give you strength to bear so heavy a Cross as you are afflicted with in the afflictions of your friends Their doleful complaints their repeated groans and their long and sore trials are enough to sink you too if God do not give you wonderful support You have need to beg strong faith and great patience that you may not be unhinged with their passionate or hasty speeches XIII Put your poor
Divine Goodness on your behalf that he hath visited you with his own Presence tho he had his way in the whirlwind and in the storm when he came unto you I bless the unsearchable Riches of his Grace in our Lord Jesus Christ that he hath shed abroad any sense of his Love upon your Soul who had poured so much of his displeasure forth that you complain of his Anger in every stroke of the Rod of God upon you I rejoyce abundantly that he hath bowed his ear unto Prayer for you when you thought he had bent his Bow like an Enemy that he hath botled up your Tears when your Roarings were poured forth like the Waters that God hath form'd you into a Vessel of Mercy when you thought he had slung you away as a Vessel wherein is no Pleasure In a word I rejoyce with comfort and enlargements that the Lord hath given us so good hopes through Grace that you are Sealed up unto the Day of Redemption who did once mournfully express it in my own Hearing That you were Sealed up unto the Black Day of Wrath and should not see me until the Heavens were no more No more at present but my Hearty Requests at the Throne of Grace That He who hath been the Author of your Faith may become the finisher of the same and confirm you unto the End till an Abundant Entrance through the Broad Gate of Assurance be administred unto you into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I am SIR Your Affectionate Friend Servant and Brother in the Lord J. HUSSEY LETTER III. Dear Brother AS the tidings of your Distemper affected my Soul and drew out my heart to make request unto God for you so the tidings of your deliverance from trouble confirmed by so evident a demonstration of it as your appearance both in the Pulpit and Press hath much affected me with joy and thankfulness to the Lord. In your Book I read the Wisdom and Goodness of God in his severest dealings with his afflicted Servants and the accomplishing of what Job speaks That when he hath tried them he brings them forth at gold you have not been in the Furnace in vain but to humble and prove you and do you good in the end O how good is God! good in himself good and kind to all his Creatures but especially good to Israel You have had abundant experience of it he hath upheld you when falling and raised you up when you was bowed down and hath turned for you your mourning into dancing hath put off your sackcloth and girded you with gladness that your soul may sing praise unto him and not be silent and you have well done in making so publick an acknowledgement of your thankfulness to God that as deliverance hath been granted at the request of many so by the many who have been concerned for you thanks may be given unto the Lord on your behalf I am persuaded the Lord hath taught you the truth of that viz. That the School of the Cross is the School of Light You had not known so well either your own vanity or the Vanity of the Creature and of all humane help nor the marvellous loving-kindness of the Lord in stepping in betwixt the Bridge and the Water many times for your help had you not learned these things by being in the School of Affliction and I am encouraged to believe that the Lord hath reserved you and restored you that you may be through his Grace greatly instrumental for the glory of his Name in turning many to righteousness the most eminent Servants in the Lord's work have been prepared for it by manifold temptations our Blessed Redeemer himself was tempted that he might be able to succour those who are tempted and the Lord comforts his Servants in all their tribulations that they might comfort others with the same comfort wherewith they have been comforted of God the Lord hath brought you out of the depths of distress that you may be the more skilful Pilot to lead others through the Waves and Billows which they are afraid will swallow them up Now Dear Brother What doth the Lord require of you but what Paul sets before young Timothy 1 Tim. 4.12 Be you an example to Believers in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith in purity your sound speech holy converse servent love and spiritual mindedness rightly improving spiritual Gifts both in sincere professing and publishing of the truth and unspotted purity of life will be a speaking Rule to others and so adorn both your Person and Profession that it will appear you have been with Jesus and that the Life of Christ doth shine forth in you And that you may be long a shining and burning Light in this World and at last be abundantly recompenced with the Reward promised to the Wise and Faithful is the fervent desire and prayer of Your Vnworthy but Affectionate Brother in the service of the Gospel RALPH WARD York Nov. 6. 1690. LETTER IV. From Steeple in Dorsetshire May 1. 1691. My Dear Friend I Did hope when I was last in London to have had the satisfaction of a free and large Conversation with your self and to have discours'd some particular matters with you but I was unhappily defeated I am now at too great a distance to use so much freedom with you as some of my Circumstances would prompt me to if I were placed so near you as would admit of my waiting on you personally But tho I do not think it proper to desire satisfaction from you by Letter about some things which would be of great use to my self and about which I believe you can better resolve me than other of my Acquaintance yet if it be consistent with your conveniences I would be glad that you and I might maintain a correspondence sometimes by writing I heartily bless God for his gracious dealings with you and for the good I hope he hath done me by what you have published to the World I have found my self obliged frequently to peruse your Book and the oftner I do read it the more I am affected with it I heartily wish English People might become so sensible of their great concernment that you might have encouragement to publish what you intimate in your Preface you did design It is what I earnestly long to see and what I am persuaded would be of singular use if people were a little awakened out of their Lethargick Distemper Peradventure God will use it to rouze and awaken many who otherwise will sleep on and continue in their doleful regardlesness and formality It would greatly rejoice me to understand by a line or two from you that I have some ground to hope to see that Tract in Print The Lord preserve his faithful Messengers and arm them against Discouragements Remember Eccles 11.1 6. I am Your Affectionate Friend SA BOLD LETTER V. Dear Mr. Rogers SIR I thank you for your Discourses on
of the World As also the Reason why good People are many times very willing to dye and of the inexcusableness and misery of those that are without God's Favour and whence it is that some grow in Grace more than others and are more earnest for a share in God's Love p. 207. CHAP. XIII Shewing that the Favour of God is diligently to be sought and what is to be done that we may obtain it p. 228. CHAP. IV. That we ought to take heed that we do not lose the Favour of God after we have once enjoyed it and what we are to do that we may not fall into a condition so miserable as this would be p. 241. CHAP. V. Of Assurance and of the false Grounds from which many are apt to conclude That they are God's Favourites when they are not so p. 263. CHAP. VI. Shewing by what means we may know whether we have God's favour or not And first by the Graces of his Spirit tho the acting of them is neither so strong nor so comfortable at one time as another And secondly by our hatred of sin and our being satisfied with all the Providences of God p. 275. CHAP. VII Of several other ways whereby a sense of God's favour may be preserved in our souls and how we may certainly know that we are in that happy state p. 294. CHAP. VIII Of the several Privileges that belong to those who have God's favour p. 309. The Contents of the Third Part. CHAP. I. OF the many miseries of this Mortal Life that are the usual occasions of sorrow to the sons of Men with respect both to their Bodies and their Souls p. 317. CHAP. II. Shewing that the Fall of Adam was the Cause of all our Miseries and in how excellent a condition the blessed Angels are and the folly of such as expect to meet with nothing in the World but what is easie and pleasant p. 331. CHAP. III. Of the Peculiar occasions of Weeping that good Christians have more than other Men. p. 338. CHAP. IV. Shewing what dreadful apprehensions a soul has that is under desertion and in several respects how very sad and doleful its Condition is from the Author 's own Experience p. 352. CHAP. V. Answering some Objections and of the further doleful state of a deserted soul and whence it is that God is pleased to suffer a very tempestuous and stormy night to come upon his Servants in this World p. 370. CHAP. VI. Shewing whence it is that Melancholly People love solitariness and whence it is that serious persons are not so light in their Conversations as others are with some Inferences deducible from the foregoing Doctrine as also some advices to those who have never been deserted and to such who are complaining that they are so p. 381. CHAP. VII Of the great joy that fills a soul when the sense of God's favour returns to it after having been long in darkness and that this is great in several respects as it was unexpected as it discovers God to be reconciled and gives the mourner an Interest in Christ by Faith through the Influence of the Holy Spirit It revives his Graces delivers him from the Insulting of the Devil and shews the soul irs right to the Promises p. 393. CHAP. VIII Of the further Properties of the Jâ—â—y that comes to a Soul after long desertion 'T is Irr sistible 't is usually Gradual it revives the Body and the Natural Spirits It fills the late Mourner with the hope of Glory and causes him to express his delight to others From all which we may justly admire the Wisdom of the Divine Providence p. 408. CHAP. IX Of the different ends that God hath in the Afflictions of the Good and the Wicked and what Reason we have to be reconciled to his Providence And that we must be satisfied that God carry us to Heaven in his oven Way and Method p. 421. CHAP. X. The Conclusion of the whole Treatise with Directions to such who have been formerly in the darkness of a sorrowful Night and now enjoy the Light of Day p. 427. A DISCOURSE Concerning TROUBLE of MIND AND THE DISEASE of MELANCHOLY PART I. PSAL. XXX 5. For his anger endureth but a moment in his favour is life weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning The INTRODUCTION THE Miseries under which the whole race of Men have now for a long time groaned and under which they still groan are owing to the Fall of Man The day on which our first Parents complied with the temptation of the Devil was a mournful day to them and in its effects no less sad to us It filled their once pure and quiet hearts with trouble and disorder and made them unable to think of their great Creator with delight It intercepted those chearful and comfortable beams of his Love which were more satisfying to them than all the glories of the lower Paradise For tho' it did after the Fall abound with all the same natural refreshments with the same Rivers Herbs Trees and Flowers yet it was to them no more a Paradise No Musick could delight their sense when they heard a terrible voice from God summoning them to answer for their Crime no objects could please their eyes when they saw the Clouds thickning over their heads and dreadful frowns in the face of their mighty-Judge All the Creatures could minister nothing to their ease or safety when the great Creator was against them From their Apostacy we may derive all our miseries both the pains and sicknesses that afflict our Bodies and the fears and terrors that overwhelm our Souls Our Bodies are liable to a Thousand calamities that may be both long and sharp but how long and how sharp soever they be they do not altogether give us such a sensible and such lively grief as we have when we are under distresses of Conscience and when we are under a sense of the Wrath of God that is due to us for Sin There are many persons who endeavour by all the Rules of Art to give relief and help against the mischiefs that attend our Bodies but which after all their Art will go into the Grave and there are as many that by the Duty of their Office and the Character they bear are obliged to imitate their Saviour To preach good tidings to the meek and to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound Isa 61.1 But they are many times at a loss to know what Remedies to apply to these inward and spiritual Diseases and always unable to make their applications successful unless God himself by his Almighty Power Create Peace and turn that Chaos and those Confusions under which a poor troubled Soul is buried into the joy and light of day It pleases the Wife God that may make us serve to what uses he thinks most convenient for the good of the Universe and the welfare
than he did as you may see 2 Cor. 11.25 26. What is a moment to a day and a day to a year And yet such and infinitely less are our longest afflictions here to that Eternity What is one grain of sand as one says Jurieu Balance du Sanctuaire p. 72. to all those vast heaps of sand that are in all the Sea What is one drop of Water to the vast Collections of it that are in the large Ocean What is a little gnat to the whole Universe So is all the affliction of this life which passes away when compared with the glory which is to come And yet a grain of sand is something in respect of the whole earth and a drop is not altogether nothing tho compared with the Ocean for by a continual heaping of grain upon grain it were possible to make a Globe as great as the Earth and the Ocean might be emptied of its Water but Eternity cannot be diminished it suffers no changes after Millions of Years in Happiness it will be as sweet arid as comfortable as it was the first moment It is the Length of our Troubles and our Pain that makes them more grievous And as when we do not sleep the night seems very long and the doleful hours of our sickness seem to move with a much slower pace than those of our pleasant health Thus Job discourses as if his time being clogg'd with miseries seem'd an Eternity Job 7 15 16. My soul chuseth strangling and death rather than life I loath it I would not live always let me alone for my days are vanity He was weary of being in so long pain and thought that his afflicted life would never have an end But yet all the afflictions of the present time are not worthy to be compared with that glory which shall be revealed Rom. 8.18 We are near to a Blessed Change and who would not undergo the dangers of a troublesome Voyage for a month if he knew that ho should return laden with great Treasures to his home and live in Splendor ever after What a pleasure is it to such as are besieged to know that they shall certainly be relieved in a little time It causes them tho press'd very close by their Enemies to resume a new Courage and to hearten one another So should it be with all Believers the day of their Lord's coming draws near and then he will put all their Enemies to the flight and reward their Diligence and Perseverance The Enemy of our Souls is full of Rage but that which fills him with fury may yield us comfort even because we know that his time is short The God of peace will bruise Satan under your feet shortly Rom. 16.20 Oh what comfortable words are these that enemy that fills us with vexation and whose malice is both great and constant shall in a little time not molest nor interrupt our satisfactions any more Your tears that you shed for your offences now are very just 't is what we owe to God for having sinned so much against him but shortly we shall be with him and never complain of his absence from us any more When a man is tost with storms and sees no prospect of the shore 't is very dismal but it is not so with us who have our Haven in our view What if our troubles should continue for Twenty or Thirty Years this would be very overwhelming to our sense and yet it is nothing when compared with an Eternity of Joys above How soon will this be over but how long will that remain It casts a great damp upon all things under the Sun that they are unsatisfying and that they are very short how pleasant soever they are to us they will depart Our Friends and all the Delight of their Conversation our Riches and all the Respect and Service they procure us will fade away Our beloved Bodies which we maintain with great Expence and Care will leave us and must go into the Grave but our Happiness will be for ever it is Eternal Happiness and what that is our thoughts cannot comprehend nor our words express we shall then know what it is when we are in actual Possession of it To be for ever with the Lord what an encouragement does this afford to Patience and Resignation To be with him who is our Portion and our all to be with him and to be without our sin that provoked him to wrath and made our spirits sad what an Heaven will this be As this life by its tedious afflictions seems to those that are in distress to be as an Eternity so the pleasures of that undecaying life will seem but a moment to us it will be so very pleasant and we are near to it Tho the pains that forerun our departure prove to be very sharp yet in a moment death whenever it comes will be past in a moment we shall see the face of God that was hid from us here we shall be changed as in the twinkling of an eye and when we are in that Eternity shall we then say that we cleansed our hearts in vain Shall we not then see that we had no cause to murmur or repine All our Faculties will be gratified with proper Objects and with suitable Employment and all overspread and swallowed up with a quick and a lively Joy Oh how blessed are the Tears that will lead us to such a Joy Blessed is the Cross that will yield us such fruit as this and blessed be that God who will bestow such a reward upon us When we come there we shall sing in the consideration of those very afflictions that while we were on earth made us sigh and groan It is good to be there and how freely should we suffer our thoughts always to dwell upon the pleasant Subject but that our worldly business and the necessary affairs of Life call us away from the Mountain of our Transfiguration However let us not forget that these things are the Truths of God which he hath shewed to his servants and which shall shortly come to pass and they are very near too and should have a suitable influence upon us How did the Martyrs of old rejoice when they saw the day wherein they were to suffer How did they embrace and encourage one another saying We want but an hour or two of Heaven We have but one combat more to finish and we shall be with Christ We dine upon bitter Herbs but we shall sup with him Ere the Crowd that came to see us dye be disperst we shall be with God and with innumerable Angels and the spirits of the Just With what calmness have the blessed Sufferers bid this world adieu saying Farewel Sun Moon and Stars and welcome better Lights Farewel Wives and Children Friends and Acquaintance Farewel ye deceiving Pleasures of the World and now welcome ye joys of Paradise welcome thou sweet Cross of Christ and welcome death that will convey us thither And thus their
Lake of Fire O do not wound nor destroy nor torment your own Souls do not carry fuel to that Fire which will never be quenched do not run into the Furnace out of which there is no escape for the Lord's sake and for your own sake and for the sake of your friends that would fain see you to become Religious awake and call every one of you upon your God seek him while he may be found hear his voice while it is called to day lest the God that alone can help you laugh at your Calamity lest he that is now so merciful hereafter take pleasure in your Punishment if you will forget your danger and sleep on know when you are in Hell you will be then forced to open your eyes and they must never be closed again Oh what a dreadful and amazing light will you then see when you see the Great God to be your Enemy the Devil to be your Tormentor damned Souls to be your Companions and Everlasting Fire to be your own Portion God will not then repent of the evil he will not then send his Messengers with glad tidings any more What will you do in the day of the Lord Nahum 1.5 6. The mountains quake at him the hills melt and the earth is burnt at his presence yea the world and all that dwell therein who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger his fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him Have we not some representation of the Terror of the great day in some greater Thunders that make us tremble that with their Noise and Lightning make the Inhabitants of this Earth to be astonisht The voice of the Lord is powerful and full of majesty the voice of the Lord rends the air and sends out flames of fire Psal 29.4 But what a more terrible season will that be when we shall hear the Voice of the last Trumpet saying Arise ye dead and come to judgment When the Elements shall melt with fervent heat when the Sun shall be turned into Darkness and the Moon into Blood When the Stars shall fall from Heaven and this admired Earth shall be full of Convulsions and Violent Agitations when the Seas shall roar and the Graves open and the Judge appear in the Clouds when you shall hear the Cracks and the Groans of the dissolving world where will you sinners hide your heads what will you then think of the Wrath of God in that great and that terrible day You will then wish that you had never been born Oh how happy would you then reckon your selves might you but go into the Grave again Oh how happy if you could but dye but it will flye from you this is that Hell where the wicked must live and ever live tho it be in misery Oh little do you think what you do when you sin you are like a man that should be drinking at the edge of a Furnace into which he were to be thrown when he had drank a few glasses off Like a Malefactor that is jolly and merry over-night and is to be executed the next day Then you shall see that it shall be well with the Righteous tho it go ill with you Judge of things now as they will appear to be at that day join your selves to that Society among which you would then be found Judge of Religion as it will then appear Here it seems through the many afflictions and sorrows that attend it not to be such a lovely thing but then it will appear in its true Lustre and its fullest Beauty Here you see many times a true Servant of God brought very low complaining of his Iniquities now you hear his Groans but a moment hence you shall hear his Praises and his Hallelujahs It is night with him now but a Moment hence you shall see him Triumph in Eternal day He is now in a strange land but shortly he will be with his God at rest in Heaven and happy is he that gets to such a Blessedness though he go out with a sad Heart and weeping Eyes and meet with broken Bones and many a trembling dispensation in his way thither What course will you take Which pattern will you chuse Will you serve God or your own Lusts Will you have your portion here or in the World to come Will you be content with the present Afflictions of Religion in hope of Eternal Joy Consider that they are not to be judged the most happy men who fare well for a moment but those that do so for ever If you serve your Sin you will have pleasure it may be for a while but Bitterness and Sorrows in the latter end your farewell will be very terrible Will you please your selves for a moment and venture an eternal Wrath or will you not rather yield your selves to a Gracious and a Loving God and then you shall sow in tears but you shall reap in joy you may feel his anger for a moment but he will entertain you in his own Kingdom for ever Inf. 7. We have no cause to be offended with the prosperity of the Wicked 'T is true the Righteous are now sowing in tears but they shall reap in joy In a little while it shall be the portion of the Ungodly to Mourn and to be Sorrowful Would you envy a Malefactor that is jovial and pleasant over night When you know he is to be led to Execution the next day His approaching Punishment might justly spoil the relish of his own dainties but however it gives the Spectators no occasion of grudging him his Drunken joys seeing they are the last that the poor man is ever like to have and a little space obscures all the gaity of his looks with an Everlasting cloud It is no just objection against the wisdom of the Divine Providence That the good are afflicted whilst the Rod of God is not upon the bad For he gives to the one the Blessings of the right hand the knowledge of Himself and their own Duty whilst to the other he only gives the Blessings of the left hand Riches and Honour and the like goods which being only outward and for this present World they are not of so great a value as those which are Spiritual and relate to a life to come We think it fares well with the Wicked because we do not for the present see them shed so many Tears nor complain after so doleful a manner as the good are often forced to do But we see not in what chains they are held nor with how many stinging thoughts their minds are harass'd all the while they forget God We see not the perplexities to which they are reduced by the contrary commands of divers Lusts It we consider that God is angry with them every day and that we know not but in a day or two they may be cut off and perish we shall have no cause to murmur at their
present undisturbed Case and their seeming welfare for their happiness is not real but apparent and all the goods that are bestow'd upon them are but mean and low in themselves though our erroneous and blinder Judgments think them to be somewhat great and considerable Dr. Scots Christian life part 2. p. 255. For considering of what little moment the present goods and evils are which good men suffer and bad men enjoy they ought rather to be lookt on as an argument of God's Wisdom than as an objection against his Providence for he understands the just value of things and knows that the best of these worldly goods are bad enough to be thrown away upon the worst of men and so expresses his just scorn of these admired vanities by scattering them abroad with a careless hand for why should he partake of the error of vulgar opinion and express himself so very regardful of these trifles as to put them in Gold Scales and weigh them out to mankind by Grains and Scruples When we see therefore bad men to rejoice and the good to mourn let us not censure but adore that Providence that will assign to them both different portions in another world those that are healthful are not more beloved for that nor are the sick and weak more hateful to God for those outward troubles that they now suffer there are many who have their paradise in this world that shall have none hereafter and there is many an one torn and mangled with the thorns and bryers of the Wilderness to whom God does reserve a Throne above We see many a Vessel on whom the Sun shines and which sails with a fair gale that yet by splitting on a Rock or on the Sand never reaches the Port And others we see that meet with nothing but high waves and contrary winds and tho' they have an unpleasant voyage yet it is for all that very safe and attended with comfort in the latter end The wicked do not always prosper in this life God sometimes makes them examples of his Justice and if he do not usually do so to those that are very bad it affords us a certain ground for the belief which we have of a Judgment that is to come wherein punishments and rewards will be distributed after another manner than now they are This maxim of our Christian Divinity * Fragmens de Serm. de Mons Morus p. 74. That God sometimes afflicts very severely those whom he tenderly loves even then when they well perform their duty even then when he is well pleased with them was unknown to the ancient Isralites This was a Lesson above their understanding God did not afflict them but when they had provoked him by some particular transgression but when they did not so they always had a peaceable and happy life it is not so with us our afflictions are sometimes indeed not the marks of his Anger but of his Favour as when he calls his own out to the enduring of things very bitter and unpleasant for the tryal of their patience and faith there is none of the Prophets that does reckon suffering among the gifts of God but our Apostle does esteem them to be so Phil. 1. We hear none under the new Testament which gives us a clearer discovery of another world say as they did heretofore Why doth the way of the Wicked prosper but rather count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations CHAP. VI. Of the duty of such as never have been under a sense of God's Wrath and Terrors and what is the doleful condition of a Soul that apprehends it self to be under his hot displeasure 1. SEeing God is often angry with his own Servants what cause have those of you that fear him to bless him that he is not angry with you and that you do not feel his displeasure He sets up others as his mark against which he shoots his Arrows you hear others groaning for his departure and yet your hearts are not sadned as theirs are your eyes can look up towards Heaven with hope whilst theirs are clouded with a vail of sorrow He speaks roughly to them but comfortable words to you he seems to set himself against them as his enemies whilst he deals with you as a loving Friend you see a reviving-smile in his Face and they can discern nothing there but one continued and dreadful Frown Oh admire and for ever wonder at the Soveraign distinguishing Grace of God are you that are at ease better than many of his people that are now thrown into a fiery Furnace Have you less dross than they Have they sinned think you at an higher rate than you have ever done He is angry with them for their luke-warmness for their backsliding and have your hearts always burn'd with Love have your feet always kept his way and not declined have you never wandred have you never turned aside to the right hand or to the left surely you have and therefore what a mercy is it that he is not angry with you as well as them You see many whose Consciences for their sins are turned all into flame and horror and perplexity full of accusations full of guilty fears for their sinning their sinning against Light Knowledge Mercy and Love and have you never so sinned Have not your Consciences also been defil'd Have you never done what was evil when you knew it to be so Have you not been often kindly entertain'd of God after you have run away from him Have you not after great Transgressions met with joy and pleasure in the sense of his pardoning healing Grace whilst others that have been it may be more dutiful did not fare so well nor have ever had such a fatted calf killed for them nor such feasts to refresh their Souls as there have been prepared for you You can never sufficiently bless God for his mercy every day you deserve his Anger and yet you have not been under the terrible apprehensions of it for a moment Why are you sitting at his Table and honoured with his Presence in all your Duties in all your Sufferings whilst he is a stranger to them and as a wayfaring Man that tarries but for a night What is it that makes him to bless some Children of the Family with greater peace and comfort than he does the rest Nothing but his own Grace and Mercy Some are drawn with Cords of Love and some have their Iniquities constantly visited with Stripes Some are glad with the hopes of Heaven and some are afraid they shall never go thither and know not by experience what Joy and Pleasure means Some have their spirits overwhelm'd their whole Souls covered with thick darkness and their Bones broken whilst others are at ease and see the light of his Countenance and have an unchanged Health Some travel with weary steps and make their pilgrimage with their own sorrows to be a vale of tears whilst others run the way of his
thoughts of God and therefore they may be earnestly but always with submission prayed against And tho if you be naturally melancholly all the Prayers in the World will not change your Temper yet by them that black Humour may be kept from tyrannizing over you as it hath done over many thousands pray against all such Diseases as are not common to Men and which being unknown cannot be relieved and which by affecting your natural Spirits may cause you continually to think and with tormented anxious thoughts so that you shall be a terror to your selves unable to follow your Calling and yet by not affecting you so visibly as other Diseases do expose you to the uncharitable Censures of your Friends and to the Reproach of thers as also may we pray against such Afflictions as do disturb our Reason that we cannot think nor exercise our Faculties as we used to do as it is lawful to pray for the removal of Afflictions Job 20.22 So also to desire That his stroaks may not be over-heavy upon us and that he would remember our frame and how we are but dust If we have been in Diseases that have overwhelmed us it is our duty to pray and to use all imaginable care that we do not fall into the like again and to pray for others that they may never fall into any such for of all other Distempers there is none so insupportable and so terrible When we beg new Favours of God for our selves we must remember others and wish that they may never feel what we have felt Beggars as one observes when they crave an Alms frequently use this for a Motive That the Person of whom they beg may be preserved from that misery whereof they themselves have had woful Experience If they be blind they say God bless your Eye-sight If Lame God bless your Limbs if undone by casual burning God bless you and yours from Fire So we may say to our Redeemer Lord mayst thou never be put to fresh Agonies by the deep Distresses and Agonies of thy poor bleeding Servants And to you that are good we may say The Lord preserve your peace The Lord bless you and make his face to shine upon you the Joy of your Lord be your strength the Lord give you the sweet hopes and foretaste of Heaven and we wish that you may never drink so much Wormwood and Gall as we have drunk that you may never see and know and feel such Terrors and so much of Hell as we have felt It is our duty as I have said to pray against such Diseases which have an influence for the most part upon the mind though it would be a thought very Atheistical to imagine that all inward horror of Conscience comes from bodily distress for God to whom all things are naked and open can make immediate impressions of his Wrath upon the Soul that shall fill it with sudden amazement and trouble yet I verily believe that of all the Christians that are under dreadful fears of Wrath and in long Terror there is not one in twenty but whose inward trouble comes either from a Melancholly Temper or from a multiplication of sharp and severe outward Afflictions and from these the Devil takes an opportunity to throw his fiery Darts and to put them all into a flame Those that know how great Temptations attend long-continued Afflictions will heartily pray against them to which I shall only add two Questions and so conclude this First Part. Quest If the Anger of God be but for a moment what shall we think of those with whom he is angry to their dying day and who dye in apprehension of his displeasure Answ It is very true his Servants may dye in these Circumstances And it is to their poor Souls a very uncomfortable Passage it is very sad to the Servants of God for of such I speak to go to Heaven speaking in one sense the Language of Hell 'T is a mysterious and a very deep transaction of Providence that is wise and good though it be not understood but many a Believer even at last in his dejected apprehensions thinks himself an Heir of the Curse that finds himself to be an Heir of Glory Many a time as one said once by a Person dying in trouble the Sun sets in a Cloud and yet arises in a marvellous Light or as Mr. Dod said once to a Minister that ask'd him what he could say to one going out of the World and had no Comfort What answered he will you say to the Son of God himself who when he was dying complained he was forsaken It is as I mentioned before sad to the Person himself and sad to his Relations whom he takes his leave of in such doleful Expressions His sorrowful departure may bring some of them also down to the grave in sorrow but yet they may after all their mourning meet with joy in the great day and their mutual sorrows at their parting may encrease their joy when they meet again many an one dyes with a dreadful sound in his ears as if he were a Reprobate and a Cast-away whom God will bless and who immediately after his dissolution shall hear a comfortable Sentence many an one does Satan pursue and hunt like a Bird upon the Mountains who shall arrive safely at his Eternal Home where neither his Malice nor his Spite shall ever enter Many an one wanders about here like Noah's Dove finding no rest whom God will take into his Ark And though he seem to be fallen into the very Belly of Hell yet shall rise again in a blessed Immortality And those Eyes which were closed with tears shall in peace see the Lord We must not judg such Persons whose Troubles continue to the last moment of their Lives for if they have been holy in their Conversation they shall enter into rest tho by a way that is very dark and frightful Moses by the Displeasure of God against him for his Provocation dyed and came short of that Canaan which he very much desired to possess but when he was in Heaven he was fully satisfied and in his God he met with all that he before could desire Q. 2. But suppose a person be distracted with the terrors of the Lord and dye in that woful condition the Anger of God towards such an one seems to be very great And how is it consistent with his Promise That all things shall work together for good to them that love him A distracted person can exercise no Grace cannot think of God aright cannot commit himself to Jesus Christ nor put his soul into any fit posture by Faith and Patience for his Lord 's coming Answ This has a relation to the former Question and what I then said may give some answer to this and indeed all terror long continued in a sense of God's displeasure is attended with distraction What Man can have his eyes opened to see God against him as he thinks and to see
Kingdom and relies upon his faithful Promise to bring him thither he knows when he is most pained he is under the Conduct of a tender and a skilful Physician that though he search his Sore will not fail to advance and compleat his Cure and therefore does encourage himself to trust in him whom he shall praise as the health of his countenance and his God He knows that when he is thrown down by Sickness the Everlasting Arms will be underneath and that he shall be strengthned with strength in his Soul when his Body begins to decay but now without the favour of God every little Cross proves a burthen too heavy for us to bear When a man thinks with himself thus These pains that I feel are the wounds of an Enemy when a man sees nothing but what is dismal dark and troublesome and has do prospect of a dawning or approaching Light how sad and how overwhelmed must he needs be how small a thing will sink us when the Comforter that should relieve our Souls is departed Lam. 1.16 3. This Fâ—â—â—â—â— of God is Life to us in the Troubles of our Conscience and there are no Troubles in the World like to these Psal 88.3 4. In all other Troubles our Friends by their kind Discourses and their pitiful Expressions may mitigate our Sorrow but how can they speak peace when God has declared a War against us Job 34.29 When he giveth quietness who then can make trouble and when he hideth his face who then can behold him When he in his just displeasure raises a Storm who can make the Warers smooth again When the Sun is once set can all the power of Nature make it to rise again Other Troubles make the Body droop but these make the Soul it self to languish and to pine away What but the Favour of God can revive us when our Hearts under the sense of Sin and Guilt begin to dye within us When our Sins are set in order before us who can free us from the formidable sight Who but he can teach our hands to fight and to get the Victory When we are awakened with the sense of Wrath with the fear of Hell and of Destruction who can close our eyes again When we are under these inward Wounds who can pour in Oyl who can bind them up or heal them but he alone When our Consciences accuse us for our former and our later Sins who then can plead our Cause who can be on our side when God himself has overthrown us When the spiritual and holy Law slays us who can give us Life When the Word pronounces a dreadful Sentence against us who is able to reverse it Who in Heaven or Earth can be our Helper if we find not help he God Who will give us any comfort when through the terrors of our Souls we are looking for the Wrath to come Who will give us rest when we lie down and rise again with a sense of the Fury and the Displeasure of the Lord Deut. 28.66 67. VVhen a Soul is continually venting its presaging Fears and saying Now I am troubled but I shall shortly be in much greater trouble now I am with my Friends but it may be shortly I shall be with Devils now I am on Earth but it may be shortly I shall be in Hell now the Favour of God brings life to the dying Soul one beam of his favour causes the disconsolate Mourner to lay aside his mourning Garments and to rejoice After long Terrors how sweet is the Voice of God that brings the news of a pardon how welcome are the Tidings of a Pardon to a Malefactor at the very place of Execution and when God has brought us out of the deep VVaters and the miry Pit our very Bones begin to rejoice it spreads a chearfulness over every part to think that one whom we had so highly offended will yet be reconciled again it raises us even to transport and wonder what will he be gracious and merciful to such as we are Is it not pleasant after a long war to be at peace after hard labour to rest after a long Journey to arrive at our home so it will be to see the Face of God after a long darkness to shine upon us again As a devout Lady once said I have found him whom I sought the Love of my Soul and the Joy of mine Heart My Lord and my God Now my Joys return I now behold the Face of God and feel his Comforts in the service and worship of him and therefore every hour seems five till the hour of Prayer comes till by Contemplations and Meditations I bring my God to my Soul I could wish every one of the days for the solemn worship of God to be a Joshua's day the longest is too short for me and my wonted hours of Devotion and Meditation are too narrow a confinement for them and when I am refresht with the Comforts of God my heart dilates it self further by looking on the Joys of Heaven for if there be such joy during the Seed time See Life of the Countess of Falkland p 22. now infinite is the soy Harvest VVhat can be more great more delicious and more comfortable than to find that the Sun of Righteousness will shine upon us with his healing beams assuring us of his Grace here and of his Glory in the VVorld to come To see that Hell and that Curse of the Law in which we thought our selves involved to be under our feet to see the Yoke of Sin broken and the power of Death abolisht to see the Heavenly Sanctuary open and Christ our Salvation on the Throne reaching out to us his hand and guarding us to that happiness which he hath purchased with his Blood Oh! how cold and how miserable are all the Delights of the VVorld to such a delightful sight as this and how happy are the People whose God is the Lord No Pleasures no Creature-comforts no merry Songs can give quiet to a troubled Soul without the Favour and the Love of God till he come all other methods do but make the Clouds more black and encrease our Sorrows 4. His Favour is Life in the vehement Assaults and Temptations of the Devil VVhen the strong man armed comes against us when he darts his fiery darts what can hurt us if he compass us about with his loving-kindness as with a shield Psal 5.12 He can disarm the Tempter and restrain his Malice and tread him under our feet If God be not with us if he do not give us sufficient Grace so subtle so powerful so politick an Enemy will be too hard for us how surely are we foild and get the worse when we pretend to grapple with him in our own strength How many falls and how many bruises by those falls have we got by relying too much on our own skill How often have we had the help of God when we have humbly ask'd it And how sure are we
be better than a thousand elsewhere What will one day in Heaven be There we shall not live upon things meaner than our selves we shall there have no mean complacencies nor dishonourable cares in the favour and the sight of God we shall have a taste of all excellencies and delights without the least mixture of evil and what transports shall we have when we come to the full view of him the sight of whom even at this distance was so sweet and comfortable to us When after all our doubtings our fears and our sad thoughts we find that we have through many dangers gain'd our Port. Inf. 2. If the favour of God be life O! what a doleful place is hell where this favour never comes Job 10. last vers How black is their darkness and how long and tedious is their night that shall never have the dawn of day Oh! how terrible and how frightful is the second death A death that torments the separated soul A death that banishes it from the presence of the Lord A death that excludes it from all comfortable sight of God! There the Damned see him as a Judge feel his amazing terrors but they would gladly if they could wrap themselves in darkness and never see such a frowning and a dreadful God there is anguish and wo and tribulation and the continual groan and cry of that place God is gone away from us for ever His Face and his Light chears his Saints but it scorches us and puts us all into a flame This is the language of their misery That God will shew them no pity That he is deaf to their cries and has shut up his bowels that once earned over them in Eternal wrath That he once indeed would have been reconciled and they would not and now they shall never have an offer of his favour any more Oh! poor forsaken souls what shall they do that have no God to give them help no Mediator to plead their Cause no Physician to bind up their wounds no kind hand to give them the least comfort nothing but wrath and no love nothing but vengeance and destruction and no mercy with it The Servants of God never taste so much of Hell as when his face is hid it brings upon them desolation terror and the very pangs of death but they have now and then some support some little beams of light but in that doleful place there is nothing else but sorrow and despair Here in all the temptations of his Servants Christ is concerned sympathizes with them and in his due time sends them relief But he will never concern himself with the Damned nor cast one gracious eye upon them they are fallen and he will not raise them up they are perish'd and they must perish they thirst indeed but shall never have a drop of water to cool their tongues What will the poor creatures do when they are overwhelm'd with the wrath of one that is Almighty Oh! how loud will be their Cries and how dreadful their complaints when after millions of years are past they have still as many more to come When they have been long tost upon the lake of fire they will never be nearer to the shore never hear one comfortable word from the mouth of God! Oh! how glad would they be to have one smile of his face one days refreshment but it must not be the gulph is fix'd and the sentence is irrevocable Isa 27.11 He that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour Oh! what can be thought more desolate than to be forsaken of God! to be forsaken of God in whom alone is Life and to be cast into outer darkness And what will be the consternation of the great day when he shall say to the wicked Depart from me c. To hear that voice and that word Depart from me will be their Hell They shall not be able to turn their thoughts from the contemplation of their own miseries nor their eyes from the sight of those objects that will fill them with grief and horror and be themselves abominable for what a despicable deformed â—â—ing even now is an Apostate Angel that is stript of the Life of God! Inf. 3. If Life be in the favour of God then the greatest part of the World is dead for the most are alienated from him by their evil works the most are stupid and insensible in a dead slumber and are his enemies She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she lives 1 Tim. 5.6 And if this be a symptom and a mark of death How many dead have we among us How many that find time enough for their Games their Sports and their Recreations and find no time wherein to call upon the Lord and to seek his favour How many eat and drink and are merry even when their Souls are in the greatest danger and their Maker is their enemy 'T is a sign that when they are so little sensible of their greatest interest and have so little taste and liking of Divine Joys that they are spiritually dead How much greater is the number of the dead than of the living How many Families are there that are without Prayer without any sense of God at all and in which all the whole Family is dead And in those where there are some alive How many are there yet not quickned How many good Parents are mourning over their dying Children whom they cannot bring to life They see them stepping into the Grave and all their intreaties all their Tears all their Prayers cannot bring them thence And in our Congregations how many are there that have indeed a name to live but are dead Rev. 3.1 that have never yet been in earnest for their Salvation that suffer days and years unconcernedly to rowl over their heads and are never the nearer Heaven at the conclusion of the year than they were at the beginning of it They have indeed it may be risen early and sate up late but all their cares have been as much for the Body as if they had no Soul They are grown crooked with looking downward and are as earthly and as sensual as if they had no Heaven to mind And what an heartless thing is it to the Ministers to find that they spend their labour in speaking to the dead and who in a great measure remain dead still Tho' they do it not without hope that at some time or another their Master will say to them as to the Prophet Ezek. 37.2 3. 4 c. Oh! what a Plague is among us and we feel it not Gray hairs are here and there upon us and we discern it not How many Captives has the Prince of darkness that are no way grieved at their own Captivity How many are strangers to the favour of God that never saw his reconciled face never felt the quickning Influences of his Spirit to this very day And yet rejoyce as if all
doth behold the upright Psalm 11.7 He encourages the weakness of that Soul that is tender and afraid of sin he will not treat you with the kindness that he shews to his honourable Subjects if you take part with his open enemies Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you Joh. 15.14 Obedience is the genuine effect of so excellent and so near an alliance and 't is the proof and evidence thereof Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and doth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him And vers 23. We will come unto him and make our abode with him A Promile full of Mercy Words that have in them all that is desirable that are big with consolation What can a soul wish for more than to have God the Father and the Son to have them for his Friends for his Guest and not only to tarry for a night or a day but for ever Not to comfort him with a transient visit which were a great privilege but to dwell with him Oh! blessed is the House that hath such Inhabitants and blessed is the Soul who is thus honoured and esteemed By obeying his Commands you shew your selves to be vessels of Honour and when you are so he will at one time or other fill you brim-full of Joy If you serve the Devil you can by no means have that satisfaction that flows from the hope of being a Son of God and an Heir of Heaven And tho' his Showers fall upon the Sands as well as on the manured and cultivated ground yet till you are fruitful you cannot expect to be refresh'd with his gentle and comfortable Dews There are peculiar influences of his Grace that fall upon his inclosed Gardens and not upon the Deserts If favour should be shewed to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness Isa 26.10 It shines like the Sun on a Rock he is no more fruitful no more tender-hearted than he was before if you embrace your ancient Sins if you hold on your correspondence with your former Lusts God will not pour the oyl of gladness into such old and depraved hearts if we go on in sin we violate our own serenity and raise within our breasts a multitude of storms whereas Psal 119.165 Great peace have they which love thy Law and nothing shall offend them And so Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy Isa 64.15 Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness By these means you shall obtain the favour of God and when you have so obtained it CHAP. IV. Shewing that we ought to take heed that we do not lose the favour of God after we have once enjoyed it and what we are to do that we may not fall into a condition so miserable at this would be 7. TAke great heed that you do not lose the favour of God again It is true indeed that those whom God once loves he loves to the end they are not suffered totally to be miserable but yet they may lose the sense of his favour and all the comfort that once flowed from the pleasant thought That he was their God Those that have sailed with a very prosperous gale may upon their negligence be tost with very many storms and may be terrified with a Thousand dangers and calamities whilest they do not see the Sun Moon and Stars for many days and nights together and tho' they do not at length fall short of Heaven yet they may travel as through a Wilderness in their way thither and not meet with those clusters of the promised Land with those joys and comforts that others meet withal The Spirit may suspend his influences and leave the Conscience in a very lamentable slate and take away the peace that he once gave so that the poor soul in that condition cannot but look upon it self with as sad an eye as if it were a reprobate and great difficulties and dangers there are ere the spirit return again to repair the breaches which our sin hath made The disorders of our souls afterwards remain a great while and it will cost us vast labour to remove them as when some River that is very muddy has overflowed the neighbouring Fields tho' it do return to its ordinary Channel yet it nevertheless leaves those places all covered with slime and dirt The least Eclipse of the Face of God is a very formidable thing 't will shake all the powers of your souls and put you into such terror as will seem to be like Hell it self If you be so foolish as upon slight temptations to forfeit his favour you ll dearly pay for that folly you may do that in a moment that may fill you with astonishment and sorrows all your days and make you go at last mourning to the Grave You may by a sudden fall have your Bones broken and it may be never again recover your former ease and strength do not therefore wound nor bruise your selves If you are not very careful that Candle of the Lord that shines upon your Tabernacle may be removed and then you I know by a sad experience that it is an evil and a bitter thing to sin against him Tho' you now do not question your title to Salvation yet you shall then be full of doubts and fears tho' you are now looking to God as to a Friend yet you shall then be forced to look upon him as an Enemy and think your afflictions not the rebukes of a Father but of an angry Judge He will be indeed the same God still as full of Goodness and of Love but to you he will be as a Fountain sealed up and your poor mourning souls like the Mountains of Gilboa curst and barren there will be no Dew nor Rain upon them Tho' you are never so flourishing now yet then the sharpness of the Winter will blast all your Fruit that the Fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall there be any fruit in the Vine and the labour of the Olive shall fail Consider how great was the sorrow of David when God was for a season departed from him How many were his Tears how heavy his Complaints and how sad his Thoughts Tho' he was as 't is usually judged of a sanguine and a merry temper and had a peculiar skill in Musick which is the usual allayer and charm of Grief yet in the sense of God's displeasure his Joy was turned into Lamentation his Harp and those Songs with which he had driven away the melancholly of Saul could not stifle or chase away trouble from his own soul the Storm was too loud to listen to those softer Airs the Wound was too deep to be Cured by those gentle and easie Methods Beware lest you lose the sense of the Favour and the Love of God lest you make your Heavenly Father to visit you with painful Rods and severe Afflictions Take
and down in a thick and foggy night and which lead the deceived Traveller into some Pit or Gulf but the Joys of God are like the brightness of a Summers day their clearness their comfortableness and their continuance render them worthy of our highest admiration The smiles of the World many times cover a designed mischief but the smiles of God are to make us happy Whether then shall we most prize the Fountain or the polluted Streams the rich Ocean or the smaller Brooks Why should we love the Creatures when we have a God to love Why should we doat upon a Bubble that every little Storm blows away and not embrace that Salvation that is offered and that is both suitable to our faculties and not liable to perish With Angels and with glorified Saints let us make God our all our portion and our hearts-desire for our great Creator is much more amiable than his own handy-work Let us leave the Men that know not God to fall down before their Idols of Clay and Dirt but let us with the highest reverence with the most cordial submission adore him from whose Favour we have life Let us leave them to dig in the Bowels of this Earth for a sordid happiness but let us arise and go hence Let us go and seek after God Let us go and seek till we find him and when we have found him let nothing in this World no pleasure no pain no promises no threats nor life nor death make us part with our dear God again Let us never cease to sigh and to long for him Let us never be weary of his work nor ever think that we call do too much for so good a Master Let us feast our selves with the chearful expectation of his Eternal Love and so take up the good resolution of the Church Cant. 4.6 Vntil the day breaks and the shadows flee away I will get me to the mountain of Myrrh and to the hill of Frankincense 6. That you may with more care seek and endeavour to obtain the Favour of God improve your experiences to this purpose Have you not found what a pleasant thing it is to be near to him to have access to his Throne and to see his Face And on the contrary Have you not known what a dismal and uncomfortable state it is to be without him And there are two sorts of Experiences that may be very seviceable to you in this great affair 1. Those Experiences that you have of all other things in common with the rest of Men Have you not found that the Promises and Friendships of this World have been very changeable Have you not embraced many a time a Cloud when you have promised your selves a real and a solid happiness Has the World given you that pleasant entertainment that cordial satisfaction that you proposed to your selves when you first let your minds run upon it Have you not a Thousand times called it a very vain World Have you not a Thousand times found it to be so Have you not prick'd your hands and vex'd your souls when you thought to have gathered the pleasant flower that you doated on Have you not seen that the most beautiful Rose is attended with a neighbouring Thorn Has it smelt so sweet and lasted so long as you once thought it would Has not all your Wine had some Wormwood and Gall mingled with it Has not every Comfort had a mixture of a Cross and where you hoped for the greatest pleasures have you not met with a sad allay of grief Have you not been eager and importunate and restless for this or that creature-good and when you have obtained it has it been so suitable so delightful so every way amiable as at a distance it did seem to be He must be a young Man indeed that hath not found this World to be a cheat and he must be a Fool that when he has been once cheated will suffer himself to be again impos'd upon A few years experience will make us all to say with the Wise Man That all is vanity and vexation of spirit and if we hope to extract more from it than so great an Observer of Nature as he did we shall be miserably deceived In our first and rash desires we flatter our selves with something here on Earth that is great and plausible and charming but in our more sedate and second thoughts we find that all that is under the Sun is but a shew and a meer appearance And when we find it to be so as a great many have already and all shall in a little time it becomes us to apply our selves to something that is more durable and satisfying and that is only the Favour and the Love of God 2. Improve not only your common but your Spiritual Experiences to this end and purpose I suppose there are a great many people here that have been under distress of soul and that in such distress have been brought very low Now What was it I pray you that gave you relief in so sad a Case Was it that you had many Friends and great Estates and a flourishing Trade and abundance of outward Accommodations I am sure you will answer No no none of these things gave us the least help Methinks I hear you saying We tried several methods for a Cure we tried several diversions and pleasures the Conversations of our Friends and whatever innocent Recreation it was that we thought might give us ease we heard Sermons we read good Books we enquired of our Ministers but we found them all to be Physicians of no value they did not open our Eyes nor heal our Wounds nor answer our Doubts nor refresh our tired and weary Souls till God himself was pleased to do it Nothing in all the World did avail us nor could all the means we used pull out the Sting that the sense of our guilt and condemnation pierced us with Abanah and Pharphar all the Rivers of Damascus and all the streams of sensual delights were not able to mitigate or quench our thirst All was desolation and terror and amazement till his Face was pleased to shine through the threatning cloud We lived in darkness and in the deepest sorrows till he became our light and joy we were sinking till he held us up and dying till he was pleased to revive us All the delight and mirth that ever the World gave us was but as a flash of Lightning to that clear and serene day that his Grace created in our hearts his Love did indeed mitigate our pains and remove our sores and one beam from him was as the dawn of Heaven He has fed us like John the Baptist with Honey in the Desert his Loving-kindness did indeed quench our thirst This I know is the sense of your Souls that have tasted how good the Lord is and having had so pleasant a relish of his Mercy I beseech you let not the remembrance of it wear away Oh! remember with delight
there are several ways like to this way that have a resemblance to it and yet vastly differ from it there is the Peace of God and there is the Peace of Satan it is the design of that malicious Spirit to let you be quiet in your Sins that you may not see their evil nor feel their bitterness and then you save him the labour to make you miserable for you make your selves so Suffer not him to blind your eyes nor to lead you to destruction whilst you never so much as make one halt nor startle at it You hear others complaining of their Sins and crying out that they are forsaken and undone and miserable and you thank God you have no trouble your Consciences are still and quiet I beseech you take heed that it be founded upon good Reasons that it prove not to be only a short slumber and not a lasting peace It may be you never doubted of God's love to you and it is very well if you have no cause to doubt You think it may be that such as are in Soul distresses are so because they have committed greater sins than other men and that Vengeance therefore like the Viper on Paul's Hand fastens on them because they have been guilty of some very great and monstrous Sin but you must know the Judgments of God are too great a deep for you to fathom he has wise Ends in those severe Dispensations though those that are at ease may have committed as great Sins as those that are in trouble many times a great Calm precedes an Earthquake many times the Sky is very clear just before the Clouds gather and the Lightning and Thunder comes Beware lest you be unsafe whilst you are most confident Beware lest you go down to the Grave as thousands do with a foolish and ungrounded hope Remember the foolish Virgins and that of the Apostle 1 Thess 5.3 CHAP. VI. Shewing by what means we may know whether we have God's Favour or not And first by the graces of his Spirit though the acting of them is neither so strong nor so comfortable at one time as at another And secondly by our hatred of Sin and our being satisfied with all his Providences THE next thing is to Examine and to try whether you have indeed this Favour of God in which is Life There are a great many people that think God to be their Friend when he is their Enemy and a great many troubled distressed Christians think that he is their Enemy when he is their Friend Let us I beseech you be very careful in a thing that so nearly concerns both our present and our future peace Let us take heed that neither the Devil nor our own hearts cheat us in a matter that is of so vast a consequence and we have need of the greater care because if we should flatter our selves with a foolish hope that we are God's Favourites when we are not truly so as our vain Expectations would leave us at the last so the Ruine that it would bring forth would come with a double weight upon us for to fall from great hopes is worse than never to have hoped at all to be miserable after we have thought our selves happy gives a more acute and bitter sting to that misery There is many an one in Hell now groaning under the Eternal Wrath of God that thought he should have seen the Smiles of his Face and not have been terrified with his Frowns that thought he should have walkt in the Streets of the New Jerusalem in liberty and light and peace whereas he is now in Chains of darkness and in anguish inexpressible With what tenderness with what caution and with what holy fear should we manage such an Affair as this with what solemnity ought I to proceed when I am enquiring whether I am a Favourite of God or not whether I belong to the Living or yet remain among the Dead whether I am an Heir of Heaven or an utter stranger to the blessed place and the God that makes it to be so blessed as it is And there is not one person that reads this but has cause to make such an Enquiry and to say with himself I feel by the warmth and vigorous motion of my spirits that I have a natural Life I eat and drink and sleep and take abundance of care and use a thousand projects to maintain this same dear and pleasant Life but whilst my Body is indulged and thrives is not my poor slighted Soul in a state of death and whilst men shew me favour and are friendly to me have I the favour of that God that is to be my Judge and who is either the best Friend or the worst Enemy Now in this matter we may proceed by such Rules as these 1. Have you those graces of the Spirit wrought in you which are the certain pledges and tokens of his Favour Are you rich in faith and yet poor in spirit Are you hungring and thirsting after Righteousness And when you find your own best Actions fall vastly short of the strict and pure demands of the Divine Law do you prize and seek the Righteousness that is in Christ Is that Sin now bitter to your taste and grievous to your thoughts which was once highly esteemed and prized Do you hate and bewail that with a relenting spirit that was once your dearly beloved and your joy Are you mortified to this World and do you walk humbly as wisely considering how weak you are and how liable to be surprized and to fall always considering that you are very sinful and very frail These Graces of Faith Mortification Humility and the like are certain tokens of the Love of God and in a Soul thus qualified he delights to fix his Habitation Isa 57.15 in such a Soul there is a Heaven begun and it not only lives but will attain new strength and proceed to further degrees of life though it now flourish in the Courts of the Lord yet his Light shining upon it will cause it to take the deeper root and to look with a more amiable freshness the Self-conceited shall miss abundance of refreshments that a Soul so lowly will meet withall as those showers of Rain that slide away from the tops of Mountains descend into the Valleys and make them more fruitful Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty He does not give this to remain for a small space only but to remain with his Servants till their work be done it is called the earnest of our Inheritance Ephes 1.14 An Earnest you know is part of the Payment not to be returned again and we are said to be sealed with this Spirit unto the day of Redemption Eph. 4.30 i. e. that is as one explains it God does by that distinguish Believers from other men as Seals are employed to make a difference from other things that are not so much to be regarded and as we seal our own Goods or Papers
do not flow forth nor do the sweetest of the flowers smell with such a perfume and such a fragrant scent as they then do If we would have a warm sense of the Love of Christ shed abroad in our hearts it must be done by the efficacy and influence of the Holy-Ghost he brings the most suitable Truths to remembrance and he seasonably applies those Promises that are most comfortable and reviving he raises in us holy courage and hope and he fills our Sails with his favourable blasts he banishes that fear and those perplexing doubts that enslave us and sets before us the Mercy and the Loving-kindness of God and pours into our smarting and bleeding Wounds the Consolations of the Gospel There are indeed some particular times when God is pleased to give to the soul the clear manifestations of his favour and they are usually by Divines said to be in such particular circumstances as these 1. He is pleased to condescend to New Converts that are suddenly cheared with mighty Joys and filled with an admiration of his Grace He considers the weakness of these tender Pilgrims and his joy becomes their strength he feeds them as with Angels food for he knows they have a great way to go and therefore he carries them in his Arms and leads them gently along and they meet not with those sharp and heavy Tryals that more experienced Christians meet withal The sudden change that such perceive when they go from gross darkness into a marvellous light when their Chains are struck off and their Prison-doors set open makes them to wonder and adore Hence it is that they have vigorous affections and are very active for the Glory of their Saviour hence it is that their Zeal is so fervent and the flame of their Love burns so clear and bright 2. Another season when God Communicates to his Servants peculiar manifestations of his favour is at the Lord's Supper when they see their Redeemer Crucified before their eyes when they see the torments of his Body and the Agonies of his Soul how pained how amazed he was and that all this pain was for them and for their Salvation and that as surely as they receive the Bread and the Wine so surely do they receive this Jesus and all his benefits Direction for the present and a title to everlasting Glory this carries them up to the top of the Mount this makes them to tast of the Tree of Life This sight of a dying Saviour and of the Heaven that he purchased makes them to worship him with praise and to think themselves even as already there where he is To this Table of the Lord the believing soul goes hungry and a thirst and from the same Table returns greatly pleased with so Divine a Banquet tho' not without the most earnest desires of that entertainment that is reserved for it above 3. God is pleased to give his Servants a clearer manifestation of his Love when he intends to employ them in some remarkable or extraordinary service and as he encouraged Joshua that met with great difficulties by saying Fear not but be of good courage I am with thee Josh 1.9 When he sets before them the Labours and Dangers of the Combat he displays at the same time the greatness of the Reward and the glory of the Victory Thus docs he animate his Soldiers to fight his Battels thus he prepares his Martyrs to witness to his Truth and with such a sense of his favour no Cup seems too bitter for them to drink no danger too great for them to Conquer Hence Moses said If thy presence go not with me carry us not up hence Exod. 33.15 But with that he was content to go to what place of difficulty soever he was called he would rather as one says * Culverwell's White Stone p. 125. be in a desolate and howling Wilderness than in a pleasant and a fruitful Land without the presence of his God he knew there was no sweetness in Canaan without him there is more Sting than Honey in the Land of Promise unless he be there and Canaan it self will prove a Wilderness if he withdraw himself Thus God as the same person says when he called Abraham to that great expression of obedience in the sacrificing of his Isaac he first warms his heart with his Love and seals up the Covenant of Grace to him he spreads before him ample and comprehensive Promises I am thy God alsufficient I am thy buckler and thine exceeding great reward and this will bear up and support Abraham though the staff of his old Age be taken away and by his own hands cast into the Fire Or 4. In Prayer God is many times pleased to shew his favour to the Soul giving it a secret assurance of his Mercy saying I am thy God and portion and so sends it away filled with good things Or 5. In great straits and pinching wants when there is least of the creature there is usually most of the Alsufficient Creator when all the Cisterns of Earthly Comforts are broken then this Fountain overflows and sends out his comfortable streams He carries his people into a Wilderness and there he speaks comfortably to them Hos 2.14 And is then most kind when the World will shew them no kindness Or 6. after they have got the victory over some Lusts and Corruptions that were both dishonourable to him and uneasie to them such a Conquest is attended with his approbation and that gives them a mighty joy like the joy that the poor Israelites had when they saw their Enemies drowned in the Red Sea Or 7. in the day of death When all the shine of Earthly delights is clouded and their Sun is just upon his setting they lift up their feeble and their longing eyes toward Heaven and he draws away the Vail and they see the Son of God standing at his Right hand as their Advocate and Mediator and then it is that a poor weary Soul says with Paul I desire to depart and to be with Christ As Mr. Flavel says of old Mr. Lyford that being desired a little before his death to let his Friends know in what condition his Soul was and what his thoughts were about that Eternity to which he seemed very near he answered with a cheerfulness suitable to a Believer and a Minister I will let you know how it is with me and then stretching out an hand that was withered and consumed with Age and Sickness Here is says he the Grave the Wrath of God and devouring Flames the just punishment of Sin on the one side and here am I a poor sinful soul on the other side but this is my comfort the Covenant of Grace which is established on so many sure Promises hath salved all There is an Act of Oblivion passed in Heaven I will forgive their iniquities and their sins will I remember no more This is the blessed Privilege of all within the Covenant among whom I am one What
think our Sighs better than Praises and Hallelujahs Let us hasten in our desires from this diseased World which by its low scituation is apt to suffer an inundation of innumerable miseries and prepare for that World where there is an Eternal Health and Joy CHAP. IV. Shewing what dreadful apprehensions a soul has that is under desertion and in several respects how very sad an doleful its condition is from the Author 's own Experience THE next thing I design to insist upon is To shew that the time of God's forsaking of a soul is a very dark and mournful time 't is not only night but a weeping stormy night and it may not be unuseful to you who have it may be hitherto lived in the beams and chearful light of day to know what passes in this forrowful and doleful night And in this matter I will not borrow Information from others but give you My own Experience 1. In this night the deserted soul it overwhelmed with continual thoughts of the Holiness and Majesty and Glory of the Lord nor does it think of him with any manner of delight according to that of Asaph Psal 77.3 I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed And in how deplorable a Case is such a Soul that cannot think of its God and its Creator but with grief and sorrow That fixes upon nothing in him but his terrible and severe Attributes In other Cases when a Man is distressed on Earth and beholds vexation and disquiet there he can lift up his eyes towards Heaven and see joy and comfort for him there but in this woful Case there is neither the light of the Sun the Moon or the Stars for many days the face of God is hid and covered with a dreadful Cloud Job 31.23 Destruction from God was a terror to me and because of his highness I could not endure Secondly The deserted soul in this mournful night does look upon God at its enemy and as intending its hurt and ruin by the sharpness of his dispensations and this makes it to be incapable of receiving any consolation from the Creatures for will it say to them Alas if God be mine enemy as I apprehend him to be which of you can be my friend I have a dreadful sound of his displeasure in my ears and which of you can bring me any glad tidings If his power his Irresistible power be against me who can keep off the killing-blow Job 19.6 Know now that God hath overthrown we and hath compassed me with his net he hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass and he hath set darkness in my paths And so v. 9 10 11. and Psal 88.7 Thy wrath lyeth hard upon me and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves If in such desertion God were apprehended to be upon a design of the future happiness and welfare of the soul it would bear up with courage or with hope but having no such belief it must needs sink and languish The stroke that wounds us in such a case is the more painful as edged with a sense of wrath Psal 102.9 10. I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with weeping because of thine indignation and thy wrath for thou hast lifted me up and cast me down Thus does the weeping person vent his sorrows God never gives to his people such a bitter Cup but he mingles love and mercy with it but alas I taste nothing but gall and wormwood nothing but misery and vexation He is with his people but he has forsaken me he has cast me into a fiery furnace where I am daily burnt and scorcht and he is not with me there He is unto me as a Roaring Lion and who can turn away his powerful wrath Ruth 1.20 The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me I have often heard that it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God and I now find it to be so all the wrath of men is nothing to his one frown of his is more intolerable than all their rage and persecution Job 16.12 13 14. I was at ease but he hath broken me asunder he hath also taken me by my neck and shaken me to pieces and set me up for his mark his Archers compass me round about he cleaveth my reins asunder and doth not spare he poureth out my gall upon the ground Job 10.16 17. Oh what anguish what desolation is caused in the soul by such thoughts as these I dare not says the mourning person look up to Heaven for there I see how great a God I have against me I dare not look into his word for there I see all his threats as so many barbed arrows to strike me to the heart I dare not look into the Grave because thence I am like to have a doleful Resurrection And what can a poor Creature do that apprehends the Almighty to be his enemy It is a common thing to say why do you so lament and mourn you have many mercies left many friends that pray for you and that pity you Alas what help is there in all this it God himself be gone nothing is then lookt upon as a mercy And as for the prayers of others will the distressed person say they can do me no good unless I have faith and I find I have none at all for that would purifie and cleanse my heart and I do nothing else but sin and God as he is holy must set himself against me his Enemy 3ly In this doleful night the soul hath no evidence at all of its former grace so that in this night the Sun is not only set but there is not one Star appears such an one looks upon himself as altogether void of the Grace of God he looks upon all his former duties to have been insincere or hypocritical he feels his heart hardned at present and concludes that it was never tender finds himself at present listless and indisposed and concludes that he never had any true life and motion and expresses his sorrows after this or the like manner I thought I had belong'd to God but now I find I am none of his I thought I had been upright but now I see I was mistaken the storm is come and that house that I built upon the sand is now washt away those that are Christ's he will enable to persevere to the end but I am fallen from grace I am an Apostate if I had any share in the Intercession of the Great Redeemer he would not leave me thus sad and desolate I thought that I had been planted in his Vineyard and brought forth fruit but now I am cut down as a barren tree Oh how greatly have I been deceived that imagined my self to be an Heir of Heaven and am now seizd with the pangs of Hell I now see that I was never right never born again never renewed by the Spirit never changed from death to life And Oh
to him to see God hiding himself from his Child and that Child broken with fears torn in pieces with Griefs made a Brother to Dragons a Companion to Owls under restless Anxieties perpetual Lamentations feeble and sore broken their Tongue cleaving to their Jaws their Bowels boyling their Bones burnt with heat and their flesh consumed * Dr. Gilpin on Satans Temptations Part 2. p. 281. He sets upon us after we have been long troubled and weary with our March in the doleful Night And which is the sorrow of our sorrows God may for a long while leave us in his hands and by his usage of Job we know what his temper is Luke 22.31 'T is the hour and the power of darkness Eleventhly Sometimes this Sorrow is mixed with deep Despair It is a Tempestuous and Stormy Night And as Paul said in another case All hope of their being saved is taken away I shall surely perish saith the mourning soul I am damned I am lost for ever I am already as in Hell under unexpressible insupportable pains and amazing fears the Lord will be favourable no more he hath shut up his Bowels and his Tender Mercies he is gone he is gone from me and he is for ever gone No more shall I call him Father no more shall I behold his shining face no more shall I hear his kind and loving Voice he is my Judge and my Enemy and I am afraid he will be so for ever He hath cast me off he hath forsaken me he hath condemned me and I am lost for ever I am now like to have my poor Soul gathered with Sinners and with Bloody Men I am now never like to see that Heaven where I once hoped to go I see nothing but ruin nothing but desolation nothing but blackness of darkness and these unbelieving despairing Conclusions produce hard and strange thoughts of God and an enmity to him in our minds Twelsthly Looking upon their present troubles as an Introduction to more and that these are but the beginning of sorrows Isa 38.13 I reckoned till morning that as a Lion so will he break all my bones from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me How often do we hear such saying Oh! what will become of me should I dye in such a state as I now am in in such horror and amazement where will my guilty soul then go Alas I am no way prepared to give up my accounts and yet am like every moment to be called away If I cannot bear these Pains and this Wrath what shall I do to bear an Eternal Hell If I tremble so now what shall I do when the blow is given and the final Sentence past I have but one change to make and it is like to be a sad and woful change God knows I dare neither live nor dye Oh! what shall I do whither shall I go Stay I must not and depart I dare not I am now sorely tormented and must I be for ever and for ever so and worse too I now see that the Gate is strait and the way is narrow and that there will be few indeed that will be saved The shadows of the Evening are stretched out upon me and what shall I do if it prove an Eternal night For as it is the glory of Faith to shew us future things as if actually present and to give us joy from them so considered So it is the torment of despair to make poor distressed Souls believe they are even as in Hell whilest they are on Earth and that they are actually scorched with that wrath that is to come in greater measures Thirteenthly From all these follow strange discourses and expressions of sorrow they are forced to complain to cry out and to weep bitterly Job 7.11 Therefore I will not refrain my mouth I will speak in the anguish of my spirit I will complain in the bitterness of my soul They speak without any manner of concern or fear things that both vex themselves and make others tremble they scarce care what they say of God or of themselves My soul is weary of my life I will leave my complaint upon my self I will speak in the bitterness of my soul Job 10.1 3. Nay they frequently proceed to wish they had never been born knowing it is better not to be than to be miserable Job 3. Job 10.16 17 18. Nay they may proceed so far as to wish even to be destroyed that they may know the worst Such is the sorrow of their hearts and so violent Job 6.26 Do ye imagine to reprove words and to reprove the speeches of one that is desperate which are as wind And there are two things that make their sorrows more sorrowful 1. As comparing their state with that of others 2. As with their own former state 1. It makes them more sad when they consider the case of others with what peace and joy they live with what hope and comfort whilest they are drowned in sorrows Others says the deserted Soul can sing the Praises of God with delight whilest I am overwhelmed and my Harp is hung upon the Willows others can go into the solemn Assemblies and hear his Word but I am confined in my thick darkness and dare not go thither others have the hope of Heaven and I have the dayly fear of Hell I am like to see others enter into Glory and my self shut out Oh! what have my sins done If I had not greatly sinned I might have had as much quietness and comfort and peace as they and I that am now cut down for my unfruitfulness might have been serving God with as much chearfulness and light and hope as they do 2. When the deserted soul compares its present with its former state To a person in misery it is a great increase of misery to have been once happy It was to David an occasion of new Tears when he remembred his former Joys Psal 42.3 4. Time was says the poor Soul when I thought of God with comfort and when I thought of him as my own God and to lose a God that I once enjoyed is the Loss of all my Losses and of all my Terrors the most Terrible Time was when I could go and pray to him and ease my self in Prayer but now I have no boldness no hope no success in Prayer I cannot call him my Father any more Time was when I could read the Bible and treasure up the Promises and survey the Land of Canaan as my own inheritance but now I dare not look into the Word lest I read my own Condemnation there The Sabbath was formerly to me as one of the days of Heaven but now it is also as well as the rest a sad and a mournful day I formerly rejoyced in the name of Christ I sat under his shadow Cant. 8.10 I was in his eyes as one that found favour but now my soul is like the deserts of Arabia I am scorched with burning heat From
enough Enter into thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee When it can reflect and think of him as its own portion then the sorrows and darkness of the Night are gone for it has God that is all light and with him is no darkness at all and to see the light and to possess it is the same thing There is as one observes a reflected and a direct Light I see Palaces and Mountains and Towns and Fields and Trees with a reflected Light and hence it is that I see them without possessing them but I see the light of the Sun and of the Stars by direct rays and in seeing them I possess for to rejoice in the light of the Sun and to possess it is the same thing We now see God indeed by a reflected light which comes to us from the Creatures and hence it is that all those that see him do not possess him but in Heaven God will be seen without Vails and Reflexions His light will be a direct light which will fill us throughout it was a comfort to the Patriarchs and holy men of old to have the hope of Christ's appearance they saw his day afar off and they rejoyced but how much more is it to that soul that has actually seen him come and not only spreading his beams to remove the general darkness of the world but shining with a peculiar light and heat into its self It is peculiarity that endears the most of things to us our own Friends our own Relations our own Joys are the most pleasant It is not from Christ's being singly considered as a Mediator that we derive this comfort but from the reflexion that we are able to make of our happiness in him it is that which creates the sweetest motions in our hearts Before this propriety there may be a calmness of spirit and lesser degrees of Complacency expressing themselves in love and hope and desire but 't is the actual possession of a good as our own that is the Parent of a real joy the Christian may find some comfort in beholding the Incarnation the Sufferings and the Promise of his second Coming but when the soul can say He died and rose again for me this touches it with a very lively satisfaction and makes it say as in Hab. 3.17 CHAP. VIII Of the further Properties of the Joy that comes to a Soul after long desertion 'T is Irresistible tho usually Gradual it revives the body and the natural spirits It fills the late mourner with the hope of Glory and causes him to express his delight to others From all which we may justly admire the Wisdom of the Divine Providence 7. THis Joy is Irresistible As all the darkness of the Night cannot hinder the approach of the welcome day so neither can all our doubts nor our fears nor all the horrors of the Night hinder the beams of God's favour when he is pleased to shine upon us Job 34.29 When he giveth quietness who then can make trouble Notwithstanding all the directions and the helps that our Ministers or our friends give us in our trouble we refuse to be comforted but when he speaks the word we must obey He creates the fruit of the lips peace peace and we can no more resist his Almighty power than the first Chaos could withstand his Command when in the Language of a God he spoke and said Let there be Light Our escape from our Spiritual troubles bears some proportion with the Resurrection of our Lord from the Dead as that was owing not to a power ordinary or created so neither is ours but to a power that is Coelestial and Divine It was not as * Claude Traite de Jesus Christ Liv. v. 12. one observes the effect of the Power of God in the ways of nature such as is the Rising of the Sun the Return of Seasons the Fruitfulness of the Earth but the effect of a power altogether Infinite and Supernatural it is not according to the usual Laws of Nature or the course of Ordinary Providence 8. This Joy is usually Gradual and not all at once I say usually for sometimes persons in great distress and agonies of soul have been suddenly relieved in their darkest Night and in the deepest Dungeon a great Light has shined upon them so that those that have one hour cried out they were damned and lost have the next triumphed in the hope of glory and from the fear of Hell have come to a glorious view of Heaven to their own exceeding comfort and the comfort of all that heard them But tho God may do what he pleases this is not his ordinary way as the Night comes and the Sun goes down by degrees so does the morning come and the Sun arise by the same degrees as it rarely happens that any fall into great distress of Conscience on a sudden some lesser afflictions make way for greater strokes so seldom are any comforted immediately but their comfort comes like the break of day there are some faint streaks of light some little supports and quiet hopes before the Sun arise And God in this accommodates himself to the weakness of our nature for a sudden passage from a great Affliction to a great Joy is a thing which our tender nature is hardly capable to bear and usually the Consciences of those that have been very long terrified and afflicted begin to be calm as the humours of the body that have been disordered return to their Ancient course for so long as the Spirits and the Blood are disordered so long the Soul will unavoidably be in some unpleasant agitation 9. This joy has a pleasant influence on the Body and revives that with the reviving mind they fall sick and droop and they recover and rejoyce together When God is our God it causes health in our Countenances as well as pleasure in our Hearts and though I know that abundance of poor people that have been long amazed with the fear of God's Wrath have very feeble sickly Bodies to the day of death yet this calmness and peace of mind does greatly mitigate their pains and pour Honey and Sweetness into the most bitter Cup For what is it that makes affliction in trouble of mind to be so intollerable but that the afflicted person looks upon it as the beginning of sorrows as a few drops before a more dreadful storm and as the introduction to hell and woe But when the sting of guilt is removed and sin is pardoned the yoak sits very easie on their shoulders that used to gall them before Prov. 15.13 A merry bea rt maketh a chearful countenance Joy as well as grief cannot be dissembled if it be real and very strong Joy in the Heart is like the Rain at the Root of the Grass it will after being moistned to the bottom appear much more green and flourishing Prov. 17.22 A merry heart doth good like a medicine Even that chearfulness which arises
Evil will not always cover himself with Clouds from his own People His common care has provided for the pleasure of his Creatures fruit to delight their Tasts and Flowers and various Colours their Eyes and their smell Rivers and Trees and Meadows and Groves and all the variety of Nature to recreate and entertain them and if all this Accommodation be made for Rebels he will not fail to entertain his Subjects with joys of a better kind Joy is sown for the Righteous and it will arise in the time of Harvest and that time will shortly come If God have done so much to gratify the senses of his Creatures with suitable satisfactions the Souls of his People that are more Noble shall not be disappointed of such as are Coelestial and Divine for joy is that which with a sweet violence does attract the heart of Man God regards the distressed and has a peculiar pity for those that are in the greatest trouble* as Mothers tend with a peculiar care the weakest Child The World indeed admires flatters waits upon those on whom the Sun shines and who are in a prosperous condition as Rivers run into the Sea where there is no need of Water so it heaps its friendships and kindnesses on those that least need them and forsakes the disgraced †Manton Serm. on 2 Thes 2.17 p. 432. the poor and those that are in want but God when his Servants are in the greatest troubles encouragâ—s them by his Name which is The Father of Mercies and the God of all Consolations he is most mindful of them and visits them most and gives them most of his comfortable presence when they are most afflicted 2 Cor. 1.4 He comforteth us in all our tribulations He will not give them a constant ease they shall not be excused from the common inconveniencies of the Fall from sickness or from death but himself is willing to be their own portion he is in all their own God They shall labour but they shall have rest they shall fight but he will Crown their heads with Victory they shall sow in tears but reap in joy The Waves and the Floods that now overwhelm them shall be turned into Rivers of pleasure for evermore The Vse of Exhortation is in these following Particulars 1. Be very well satisfied that God carry you to Heaven in the way that he thinks most proper It were indeed a thing very desirable to be at ease to travel with his light about us but if we must go through darkness and danger and calamity to Heaven let us be satisfied that his will is done tho we go weeping and groaning thither You 'l think perhaps that he deserves not the name of a Christian that will not suffer God to guide him any way so it be to Salvation but alas how few are there that are satisfied with his methods when his Candle shines upon our Tabernacle we are well enough pleased but when he begins to correct and chasten us for a long season then we murmur and repine and when we meet with difficulties and tears and troubles one upon another then we think he is an hard Master this is our common case and our common folly We can all make the Prayer of Jabez 1 Chron. 4.10 Oh that thou wouldst bless me indeed and inlarge my coast and that thine hand might be with me and that thou wouldst keep me from evil that it may not grieve me But how few can say heartily with our Blessed Lord If the Cup must not pass thy will be done He could bring you to Heaven without a tear or a sigh but if not who can resist his order or blame his Providence He led the Children of Israel forty years wandring to and fro in a great and a terrible Wilderness wherein were fiery Serpents and Scorpions and drought and no water Deut. 8.15 when he could have led them quickly to the Land of Canaan You must not think to come to Heaven without many a sad heart and many weeping eyes through the vally of Bacha must you travel to the Mount of God The Ark that had a Noah in it did not immediately rest it was not in one day that the great waters did abate or fall into their old Channels your passage to glory may be safe tho it be very troublesome and the rods that seem to be the most painful may be most necessary to you for tho the Israelites met with various troubles yet Psal 107.7 He led them forth by the right way that they might go to a City of habitation It may be you shall be shipwrackt into the Haven and tho you be saved yet it shall be so as by fire Through many a sharp Cross and many a bitter Tribulation and in the fire your Comforts and your Ease may suffer loss for a time but it shall be made up again Afflictions ruin none that belong to God and many a Christian shall say at last I had perished if I had not perished I had been undone for ever if I had not been afflicted Out of the ruins of the flesh God raises the glorious structure of the new Creature and from the destruction of our Earthly comforts he causes Heavenly joys to spring let us not find fault with God's Providence for it will turn our water into wine our tears of grief into the most pleasant joys And as at the Marriage of Cana we shall have the best at last Our Afflictions will encrease our Grace and we shall ere long mount up from the Wilderness of this world fraught with Myrrh and Frankincense and all the spices of the Merchants Let us not find fault if we meet with the waters of Marah in our Journey to the Land of Promise * Hall on the Marriage in Cana p. 162. Thirst and bitterness is the portion of Pilgrims 'T is enough for us that we shall have rest at last tho we must not expect that the Providence of God should go out of its ordinary course for us Let us confide in his Goodness his Faithfulness and Loving-kindness his Word and Promise this is the quiet harbour into which we must put our trembling souls these are the Consolations that will make our bitter waters sweet Submit therefore to God to him pour out your hearts tho you be long afflicted and with one wave upon another CHAP. X. The Conclusion of the whole Treatise With directions to such who have been formerly in the darkness of a sorrowful Night and now enjoy the light of day 2. LEt us with whom it was once Night improve that Morning-joy that now shines upon us and that briefly in these particulars 1. Let us be continual admirers of God's Grace and mercy to us He has prevented us with his Goodness when he saw nothing in us but impatience and unbelief when we were like Jonas in the belly of Hell his Bowels earned over us and his Power brought us safe to Land What did we to hasten