glutted with the creature to have your hearts filled with the world if you be thus you wil never enjoy a comfortable certainty of Gods love A man that is a worldly-minded man he can never be strong in assurance if you keep your eye at a due distance from the earth you can see far but if you put your eye to the ground you can see but little Beloved keep your hearts at a due distance from the world you may see far into the sense of Gods favour but let your eye I mean the soul be too neer the world you see nothing you will not perceive the sense of Gods love if you have worldly mindednesse predominant in you Put a candle above the ground and it will burn clear and bright but put the same candle under the ground and it burns but dim the damp of the ground hinders the light thereof Beloved keep you hearts above the ground and here your candle may burn bright but if you are buried in the world I mean your hearts your candle will burn dim you will not have so clear a light and sense of Gods love Philosophers say the reason the Sun is eclipsed is by the interposition or putting between of the Moon I may aptly apply it the Scripture makes the Moon to be an Emblem of the world Rev. 12. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in Heaven a woman clothed with the Sun and the Moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve Stars This Moon it doth eclipse the Sun Beloved if the world be at full between you and spiritual things that they are neerer to your hearts then Christ is then grace is then heaven is this Moon of the world will eclipse the shining beams of the Sun of Righteousnesse These are the eight particulars that must be removed in case you do expect to regain a comfortable certainty and assurance of the love of God The next thing is something to be done 2. There are eight or nine Rules What must be done by a Christian in case he would not be cast down under a continued suspension of Gods love 1. The first is this If so be you would regain a comfortable assurance of Gods love take this rule Keep a holy and a consciencious care to act grace throughout the course of your lives let it be the chiefest of your care to act grace and my soul for yours it will not be long before that you have comfort 2 Pet. 1. 5 c. And besides this giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness to brotherly kindness and charity for if these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ but he that lacketh these things is behind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins wherefore the rather Brethren give all diligence to make your calling and election sure for if you do these things you shall never fall All the verses tell you how to get assurance of election add grace to grace and that is the way to come to your assurance of caling and election let it be your care to act grace and it shall be Gods work to give you comfort God will multiply thy peace if thou dost increase thy grace you have Gods promise for it Isa 32. 17. And the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousnesse quietnesse and assurance for ever Here is the way to gain comfort do thou the work of righteousnesse and comfort shall follow after Psal 119. 165. Great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them or they shall have no stumbling block A notable clause which is worthy your notice Job 13. 18. Behold now I have ordered my cause I know that I shall be justified I have ordered my cause that is I have taken care to my life I have made conscience of my wayes I have laboured to act grace in all my whole cause what follows Now I know I shall be justified I have now an evidence and a sense of justification O beloved the actings of grace are the in-lets to inward peace many men say that we know we shall be justified but never make conscience of their wayes never order their cause some are as confident as confidence it self yet as ignorant as ignorance it self as prosane as profannesle it self as proud as pride it self O beloved if you will have a due sense of the knowledge of Justification order your cause well order your lives well To him that orders his Conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God Psal 50. 23. Beloved if God doth but incline your hearts to order your cause aright and your course aright then you may and you shall be justified It is a great fault of Christians that when they want assurance they spend more time in complaining they want comfort then they spend time in acting of grace 2. Keep conscience pure and clear and that is the way to keep conscience pacified guilt on the conscience conceal'd and indulged it contracts a horror and doth cause a hell to arise here this rule the Scripture gives if you would labour to have assurance Job 11. 15. If iniquity be in thy hand put it far away and let not wickednesse dwell in thy Tahernacle for then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot then you shall be stedfast and not fear That is if sin be on thy conscience put it far away what follows Thou shalt not then be under fear and under suspension of Gods love but shalt lift up thy face and be stedfast therefore if ever thou wouldst regain a comfortable certainty of Gods love keep thy conscience pure and clean that thou dost not indulge the guilt of any allowed sin within thee 3. Call to mind the former experiences in the days of old that thou hast had of Gods love the remembrance of past goodnesse is very helpful for present encouragement this rule David took Psal 42. 6. O my God my soul is cast down within me wherefore will I remember thee from the Land of Jordan c. It is remarkable what course the Psalmist took to regain comfort he would remember three experiments of his goodness the Land of Jordan the Land of the Hermonites and the Hill Missar First I will remember the Land Jordan that is I wil remember the great goodnesse of God in drying up the River Jordan that so the Tribes of Israel might pass over to the promised Land why God that hath been good will be good Then I will remember the Land of the Hermonites in that Land was Sihon King of the Amorites and Og King of Bashan defeated that you read of in Joshua 12. 1 2. Now
they shall be cast off for sin though they be cast into hell for sin yet they will not at all be cast down for sin and rather then they will cast off their sins by the dictates and the rebukes and checks of their consciences they will aggravate their sins and greaten their sins by stifling their consciences that it shall not doe its office And thus did Cain when he begins to be troubled for sin and conscience begins to rebuke him for the evils he had done what doth Cain doe now doth he let his conscience doe his office No he both heightens and greatens his sin and stifles his conscience Gen. 4. 13. My punishment is greater when I can bear or as it is in the Hebrew my iniquity is greater then may be forgiven And then he goeth to stifle his conscience ver 16. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the Land of Nod he went out from Gods presence and stifled his conscience by building of Cities And hence it comes to passe that men are not cast down for sin because they do stifle the rebukes and checks of conscience and so Divines do interpret that place in the 11th Verse of the Epistle of Jude Woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and that was when conscience did rebuke and trouble him for killing his brother and spilling of his blood and after to stifle and still his conscience he went to building of Cities And thus O man thou that walkest in waies of wickedness and thy conscience shall rebuke thee for thy evil course in telling thee that thy conversation is not good nor upright shall tell thee that thy waies are unjust and sinful and yet thou through thy accustoming thy self in an evil course shalt stiflle the checks and rebukes of thy conscience and delight to goe on in a way of wickednesse this is an other great reason why wicked men are not cast down in this world for sin Fifthly A fifth Reason why wicked men are not cast down for sin in this world it is this because of the abuse of the long-suffering and patience of God you have a notable place for this in Eccles 8. 11. Because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to doe evil Because God doth not punish wicked men for their wickedness speedily because a drunkard is not speedily punished for his drunkenness and because a swearer is not speedily punished for his swearing and because the adulterer is not speedily punished for his uncleanness c. therefore doe they fully set them selves to work wickedness When wicked men shall abuse the patience and long-suffering of God to presume the more to sin against him hence it comes to passe that they are not cast down for sin at all Sixthly A sixth Reason is this because of the slight thoughts that wicked men have of the Omnisciency of God though wicked men be not doctrinal Atheists to deny that God seeth all things they do but hold it as an opinion Yet most men are practical Atheists to live so loosly and wickedly and vainly as if God did not behold all things and know and see them in their sinful course You have an expression in Job 22. 13 14. And thou saiest How doth God know or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what knows God can be judge through the dark clouds Thick clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not It is as much as if they had said God doth not know and God doth not see their wicked and sinful waies as though the clouds were a covering between God and them that he could not see their evil waies and this was the cause why their sins troubled them not And thus I have done with the Fourth Question why wicked men are not cast down for sin at all The fifth Question is this Now seeing wicked men are not cast down for sin at all and yet shall be cast down into hell and that for these Reasons laid down Then what may be the reason that Godly men who shall never be cast off never be cast down into hell yet they may be cast down for sin in the sight and sense of it Now in the answering of this Question I shall lay down these Seven Reasons Reason 1 The First is drawn from the nature of sin and the justice of God considering of them together Now what is the the nature of sin now this is the nature of sin Sin it is in its own nature a resting and a striving and contending against God and striving to cast God down and to set it self up It is the nature of sin to pull God out of heaven from his Throne and to place it selfe there Now God will in justice strive and contend against sin shew himself to be too strong for sin sinners and to cast them down you may see that this is the nature of sin in Job 15. 25 26. For he stretcheth out his hand against God and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty He runneth upon him even on his neck upon the thick bosses of his bucklers Here Eliphaz describes a sinner in his wicked waies as a souldier comes against his enemie he strengheneth himself against him and he runs upon him with all his might that so he might overcome So doth a wicked man he strengthens himself and runneth against God as it were with all his might if it were possible to overcome cast him from his Throne where he is and therefore it is just with God to condemn sin and to humble the sinner The sinner would cast Gods law behind his back but it is the nature of sin to cast God behind his back now God will in justice cast away a sinner by condemnation or lay the sinner low by humiliation Secondly God doth cast down sinners under the sight and sense of sin that so the children of God might cast away sin with the more indignation and therefore God doth cast him down the more by the way of humiliation When a man shall take a knife in his hand and he fall with his knife in his hand and thereby cut himselfe with it away he presently flings the knife from him Now it is so in the waies of sin and wickedness when you take sin into your hands when you go into any unwarrantable course when you fall into sin you take knives into your hands and in falling so into sin you cut your selves God makes that knife of sin to cut your heart to cut your conscience and you wound your souls and seeing sin doth as knives wound you in your falling therein you should with the more indignation cast it from you You read in Isa 30. 19 22. of sorrow for sin The people shall dwell in Zion they shall weep no more he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of
these are the Kings of the Land which the children of Israel smote and passed the Land on the other side Jordan toward the rising of the Sun toward the River Arnon unto Mount Hermon Missar some think to be a little hill neer Mount Sinai where the Law was given I will remember Gods goodnesss in giving a Law to his people Here David would call to remembrance the goodness of God of old to regain to him comfort and quietness in in his mind Thus likewise Psal 77. 10 11. And I said this is my infirmity but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders Think of old mercies and old priviledges of loving kindnesses and that is the way to bear up the heart with present encouragement 4. Use arguments of faith against present sense and feeling Abraham had never believed Gods promise if he had not used arguments of faith against present sense and feeling Divines make that applicable of Isaac unto the case of desertion how came Isaac to mistake Jacob for Esau Divines apply that by sense and feeling Gods people think that they are Esaus and are rejected and hated by God when they are the beloved of the Lord though sense and feeling may tell thee My infirmities be many my corruptions are strong my heart is hard my affections are dead that God knows I cannot believe and I cannot have comfort why yet believe God is free God is gracious God accepts of will for work accepts imputed righteousness as if it were inherent righteousnesse use arguments of faith against present feelings If you play the Logicians the devil he will non-plus you though I have not the faith of evidence yet I will labour for the act of adherence relying upon Jesus Christ use arguments thus 5. Follow this rule Let your comforts be grounded upon an immutable Covenant rather then upon thy own feeling fading affections this is a rule of great use Beloved should Christians build their eternal comfors on their feeling affections their comforts would be up and down ebbing and flowing their affections are feeling sometimes hot as fire anon as cold as air the pulses of the body sometimes beat strongly and sometimes faintly so doth the affections Now if thou shouldst build thy comfort on thy affections thou wouldst never have stable comfort but still up and down but rather ground thy comforts upon a lasting and unchangeable Covenant on such a Covenant that accepts of will for works desires for deeds endeavours for performances Why now building thy comforts on an unchangeable Covenant rather then on fleeting affections it is a way to regain and attain everlasting comforts 6. Take this Rule In some cases especially of desertions and temptations it is more safe for thee to submit thy self to the judgement of other men about thy condition then to thine own judgement Am I deserted am I tempted am I troubled in mind why it is better for me if mine own judgement cannot suggest comfort to me it is my wisest course to submit my self to other men to those that are experienced Christians if they by observing my walking and manner of living do instill comfort into me this I am bound to submit to in case of desertion and temptation It was reported of a Minister of this Kingdom that he was for a long time troubled in mind and could not be comforted till he had the judgements of Godly Ministers and by their testimony he got comfort Mr. Bradford he could not be comforted but by the testimony of another Martyr John Carelesse assuring Mr. Bradford he must be a holy man and a good man the testimony of John Careless did mightily pacifie and quiet the conscience of Mr. Bradford Thus Nathans testimony did comfort David and Ananias testimony did comfort Paul Passions of grief and fear blind the judgement and makes it unable to judge 2 King 5. 12 13. When Naaman was under a prejudice and passion his servants could tell what was best for him to do Sometimes in cases of desertion or temptation it is a good and a safe rule rather to trust other mens judgements then our own 7. Take this rule Never go to wrong means and wayes to allay and pacifie the troubles of thy mind Cain when he was in trouble of mind for his sin and in horror of conscience why Cain went to allay this trouble by buildings therefore some Divines interpret that clause in the Epistle of Jude They followed the way of Cain that is To allay and stifle the trouble of conscience by sensual delights and worldly affairs some with Saul playing upon musick do not take this course to use sinful wrong means to allay trouble of mind as a man in Feaver lets down cold drink it cools a little for the present but after increases the more heat so when men are heated with Gods wrath why they run to sin which doth encrease the heat just as if men were stung with a Bee and they will run to a bunch of nettles and rub themselves therewith to allay the sting of the Bee beloved when men are stung by Gods wrath and then shall run to sin to heal them it is but like a man rubbing of himself with nettles to allay the sting of a Bee like a man that hath his house a falling and will take a firebrand to uphold his building O beloved when you are under trouble of mind to run to merry meetings to musick to building to buying and bargaining and not run to God on thy knees this is not the way to regain comfort it is the way to encrease thy sorrow and to cause more anger and anguish on thy conscience I may exemplifie it further by a disease which some women have in their breasts which they call the wolf the disease they say it is fed by flesh and if flesh be put upon the womans breast it feeds on that flesh and if that be consumed the womans breast is the more tortured and torn A merry meeting may allay trouble of mind for a while but it will recoil on thee with the more terror then ever it did therefore take heed of sinful means to regain quietness and peace of spirit 8. Be more industrious in doing duty then in getting comfort it is the fault of many Christians they spend more time in fruitlesse complaints that they want comfort then in holy endeavours to perform duties Now if the people of God would take but this rule to be more industrious and spend more time in performing duties then in gaining comfort their comforts might be sooner got and their duties better performed When a house is on fire it is not our work to enquire how the fire came but to labour to put out the fire so when men shall suspect their condition and complain of wanting comforts their work is not to rest in fruitlesse complaints but
have not power in their hand but when they come to be warm with the prosperity of the World then they will hurt and doe mischief Secondly God doth let wicked men prosper that so their mouths might be stopped and they may have nothing to say when God shall proceed in Judgement against them when God shall say to them I gave you mercies and you never performed your duty towards me I gave you prosperity and you returned me no glory and God shall say that such a man that had no riches no prosperity in the World which you had and yet he did his duty and had more grace and brought me more glory then ever you have done I have been bountiful towards you but you have not been humble before me you have had much from me and yet returned little to me this prosperity will be an Argument to stop their mouths that they shall not be able to speak a word against God Thirdly God doth let wicked men prosper to this end that so he might see whether his people will love God for himself love Christ for his own sake whether they can love a naked God a naked Christ and a naked truth for their own sakes God doth it to try his people whether they will love holinesse and love grace and love the ways of God when they are paved with thorns as well as when they are strewed with roses and to see if his people will love Religion when it is a persecuted Religion and to love holiness and exact walking when it is scorned and the professors thereof reproached and love Religion when it shall have neither power nor successe on its side rather then to love sin and the ways of vanity when prosperity and profit and pleasure and successe and all on that side and this is one and whereby he doth try his own servants by letting the men of the world prosper to see if they will love God for himself Fourthly That thereby it may hasten and aggravate the ruine of wicked men what is the main end of putting Oxen into fat pastures but to fatten them up against the day of slaughter So the Lord doth put wicked men into fat pastures of prosperity and riches in this world but it is for this end to fatten them up against the day of flaughter and to make them be a sweeter morsel not only for worms in the grave but Divels in hell God lets wicked men for to prosper and to let them have the world at will but it is that it might carry them with the more speed into the place of darknesse Psal 92. When the wicked spring up as grasse and all the workers of iniquity do flourish that they might saith he be destroyed for ever Fifthly That the prosperity of wicked men might be a shelter and desence to his own people What was the reason that Cyrus a wicked man should so prosper in strength and power in the world and to destory the Caldees and Baby lonians he was a Heathen and God did make use of him for his own peoples safety it was by the hand of Cyrus that deliverance came to the poor Jews out of captivity It was a question what might be the reason that Egypt must be the fruitful place in the seaven years of famine when all the Nations round about them had famine in them now Gods end was this that they might have provision to maintain his own people and Jacob and his Sons So the Cananites the Land of Canaan was never so fruitful as it was that very year that the Jews were to inherite it now what was the reason God did not love the Cananites But they build houses and Gods people come and live in them they shall plant Vineyards and Gods people come and eat the fruit of them it was for their sakes that he suffered them to do this God did not love Pharoah and God did not love the Cananites but God did love his own people and for their sakes he did all this to let them prosper and thrive and grow great in the world that his own people might enjoy the lands for their possession Now you shall find that there are three Texts more particularly that do intimate and set forth this more clearly the one is in Prov. 13. 22. A good man leaveth an inheritance to his childrens children but the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just It may be a wicked man will sell his conscience and ingage the soul and all to the Divel and all to get a little wealth in the world and God may suffer him to prosper in his ways and to get wealth by this sinful way but what then then the end will be it shall be laid up for the just they shall have it God so orders it many times that that which wicked men do get godly men enjoy So likewise in Job 27. 16 17. Though they heap up silver as the dust and prepare rayment as the clay v. 16. He may prepare it but the just shall put it on and the innocent shall divide the silver This is the portion of wicked men to heap up silver as dust and to prepare rayment as clay c. But this he may do but the just shall divide it and the innocent put it on God will not let good men be so far tempted to get the world but he lets wicked men imbrace that temptation but after they have done his own people shall enjoy it The third and last place for this purpose is in Prov. 28 8. He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance he shall gather it for him that will pitie the poor Therefore we see how that many men it may be go to hell for getting riches and leave it to them that are godly and liberal to injoy that substance and shall this trouble godly men it may be thou seest wicked men get riches he doth run the hazard of losing a soul to get it and thou injoy the benefit after him the child that shall see his fathers shepherd to have many sheep shall the child envy him he doth but keep them till his father dies So do wicked men get the world and run the hazard of a soul and do not know who shall injoy what they have gotten for godly men have a right to that which God suffers wicked men to injoy I do not say they have a civil right for that they have not but they have a religious right and a spiritual right to that and to all the World for all the World is given unto you for your good and though wicked men are suffered to prosper in the World be not disquieted at them Sixthly God doth it for the spiritual good of his own people when Gods people shall see that the wicked do prosper in the world and they themselves do not prosper in the world this doth administer an occasion to them to live the life of
see any likelihood to be delivered no visible means for their Restauration and to be brought out of captivity they were then overprest with sorrow they said Our hopes are cut off from God Ezek. 37. 11. When they were as dry bones in the valley and they thought that it was impossible for dry bones to have flesh and sinews to be brought upon them Again they thought they were utterly lost and they thought that they should never be brought out of troubles and this caused bitter complaints to arise from their spirits Thirdly Moderate sorrow it doth differ from immoderate sorrow in this True sorrow it doth stir up holy endeavours to act in thy place and calling for the deliverance of the Church Thus you read in Jeremiah 51. 50. You that have escaped the sword go away stand not still remember the Lord a far off and let Jerusalem come into your minds As if the Prophet had said Jerusalem is in trouble and under great and sore afflictions do what you can for her stand not still but improve all your interests you can in all places and conditions that it may be for her benefit Whereas a man that is possessed with a sinful care and a sinful sorrow he is so far from improving all his interest for Gods people in trouble that he is ready to sit down and say will doe no more for Religion and for the Cause of God and he is ready to think he hath done too much already and repenteth of all he hath done this is sinful trouble and sinful sorrow When they shall be ready to resolve to doe no more lend no more venture no more but if it shall go well with the Church then they will own the Church and people of God but if the Church is brought into troubles and if it lyeth under sorrows then they will desert it and will not improve any interest for it neither will they doe any thing for God and his Church and people but give all over as lost and gone without any endeavours to relieve them Fourthly Those that do thus mourn graciously they do mourn more for the Churches troubles and the people of Gods sorrows then they doe for their own particular sorrows and troubles David's sorrows and troubles that were to his own particular person they were no more to him then a little prick in his flesh I but the sorrows and troubles and sufferings of the Church they were to him as a sword in his bones Psal 42. As with a sword in my bones the enemies reproach me while they say unto me daily Where is thy God So likewise you read of Elijah in 1 Kings 19. 4 10. it is spoken concerning Elijah when he was sitting under the Juniper tree and he said O Lord I beseech thee now I pray thee take away my life for I am not better then my fathers And he said I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts For the children of Israel have for saken thy Covenant thrown down thine Altars and slain thy Prophets with the sword and I even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away Here you see that good man did mourn for Gods Church they have slain thy Prophets c. and this doth punish him and this doth greatly disquiet him and trouble his spirit I but immoderate sorrow is more let out after particular crosses and troubles and personal losses the loss of relations the loss of thy estate or any personal affliction upon thy body this doth more trouble thee then the great troubles that the Church of God are under now this is a sinful sorrow Now to allay this distemper that you may not sinfully and immoderately mourn for the calamities of the Church and people of God I shall name to you these five Considerations which is the fourth thing propounded as helps against dejected disquietings and discouragements First Do not immoderately grieve and mourn for the calamities of the Church of God on this ground because the Church of God doth grow more numerous by troubles and persecutions The Saints bloud that is shed by persecution is the seed of the Church and many encrease and grow from that seed Cyprian suffered Martyrdome many were converted by his Martyrdome and by his sufferings as well as by his preaching Souls persecuters that doe by the casting one into prison and by the putting of another to death and by banishment of another they do there by think within themselves to root out all the rest both Professors and Religion too but God by an over-ruling hand doth so order it that it is a means for to encrease multitudes of the people of God If a child comes into a Forrest and in there he sees a man cutting off of the top of a tree the child thereby thinks the man doth spoil the tree but it is otherwise for by that loping and pruning the tree doth grow more So wicked men may cut here one tree and there another and lop off the branches but God by this means doth make the Church of God to grow more in number and to grow better then before and the number of the people of God are more encreased as it was with the Church of the Jews they went down into Egypt but a small number but their being in bonds and captivity they did grow very great in number and grew more in number and multiplied more in Egypt then ever they did in their own Land For so you read in Exodus 1. 7. the Hebrews that is the Jews 't is said they filled the whole land of Egypt And the children of Israel were fruitful and multiplied and encreased abundantly and waxed exceeding mighty and the land was filled with them If you would find the Number that went down into Egypt they were Seventy souls but there came out 600 thousand O how is the goodness of God in the way of his providence appearing for the good and benefit of his own people that even in the times of persecution he should order it that then it should turn to the good of his own people to encrease and multiply them The Jews had the good land of Canaan given to them and afterward for their sins and misdoings they were carried captive into Babylon as you read in 2 Kings 24. 16. there you read of seven thousand that were carried away captive And in Zedechias reign there were four thousand six hundred and in all not above two thousand and all these were carried away captive into Babylon and one would think that in their captivity they should not encrease but decrease But it was so ordered by the Lords over-ruling power that they did exceedingly encrease to four times their number and they did return out of captivity forty two thousand three hundred and sixty thus they encreased in Seventy years this is the great providence of God to make the persecutions of his people to encrease their number And not
onely in those former times but in these latter ages the persecutions of the people of God have been so great and so hot and violent that they thought not to leave the Name of a Christian on the earth but he should be persecuted and yet the more that persecution did arise the more the people of God did encrease therefore why shouldest thou be overmuch cast down seeing that God doth make the sufferings of his people to be for their encrease and advantage 2ly Consider if that the number of Gods people do not encrease yet consider and be sure of it that the graces of Gods people shall encrease by persecution The children of Israel were better in the land of Egypt then they were in their own land and better in a Wildernesse then in the land of Canaan as it is said of the Church of Rome in the Primitive times Although they had wooden Chalices they had golden Priests but now they have golden Chalices and wooden Priests So when the Church of God is highest and most in outward prosperity when they have golden times in the World yet even then are they most apt to be lowest in their graces and most apt to grow secure and sleepy in the ways of God In Cant. 4. 16. Awake thou North wind and come thou South wind blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out c. Now you know that the North and the South winds are one against another and yet these two opposites make the fruit of the garden to grow This North and South wind are compared and signifie the troubles and the prosperity of the Church the North wind of affliction and the South wind of prosperity But it is the North wind the cold and the sharp persecutions and fiery trials that make the graces of the Church to grow most The Church of God was better as to the growth of their graces under the Pagan Emperors then under Constantine the Christian Emperor because though Constantine was a Christian Emperor and it was much for the comfort of the Church and for the good of Religion yet their security made them run into error and heresie when their bodies prospered their souls did not prosper Whereas when they were under the Pagan Emperors when they were under great and strong persecutions though their bodies were in trouble yet their graces did exceedingly prosper So likewise when Popery did so prevail though the people of God were exposed to great trials yet their graces did thrive and grow green and fresh As Mouliu saith Men were burnt for reading the Bible but we speaking of the French Protestants burn with zeal to be reading But now Bibles are like old Almanacks moulding in corners while Play-books the Divels cathechisms are worn out with often perusal Thirdly Consider this that the persecutions and troubles and trials of the Church of God at one time and in one place doth but make way for settlement and establishment of Gods Church and people in another time and another place this should comfort you Unius Ecclesiae destructio multarum suit aedificatio the destruction of one Church is but the building up of many Churches You may read for this purpose in Acts 8. 1. of great troubles and persecutions of the Church which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad now what fruit was by all the troubles and by all the persecutions that fell upon the Church of Jerusalem this was the fruit and benefit it set up a Church in Samaria that persecution caused the Gospel to go into those parts of the World and Samaria received the Gospel as in verse 4. They went abroad everywhere preaching the Gospel Many places which never before heard of the Gospel came to have it preached in their parts by reason of the hot persecution that was at Jerusalem So likewise some Kingdoms of the World The troubles and persecutions of Gods people here by the Prelates it was the great occasion of the transplanting the Gospel into other parts of the World as into New-England and America which places never heard of it before so the Seven Asian Churches were destroy'd by the Pogan persecution but by the destroying of them it was transplanted into Africa and all Europe and now since in America so that if God shall let the Church to be persecuted in one place it still doth gain by all troubles in going into another place and though it be persecuted in one Kingdome yet it doth by its transplantation settle and gain in another As Christ speaketh in Matthew 21. 43. I will take the Gospel from you and give it to a People and Nation that shall bring forth better fruit that is Christ would take it from the Jews and give it to the Gentiles and therefore said the Apostle when they would not receive the Gospel among them Lo we turn to the Gentiles this is the great wisdome of God that the Churches troubles and persecutions in one place shall by him be an occasion to get good in another Fourthly Consider that there are such infallible promises made to the Church of God for its preservation that it shall never be destroyed by all the rage and fury and persecution of wicked and ungodly men They may be persecuted as the Apostle speaketh but they cannot be destroyed they may be cast down but not forsaken they may be perplexed but not in despair the Church may be in sorrow but they cannot be annibillated The Church of God shall never be so persecuted as to be cast off and utterly forsaken and destroyed by wicked men but the Church of God shall continue to the end of the World therefore you read what Christ speaketh of Peter Thou art Peter and on this rock will I build my Church that is on Christ and then observe what follows The gates of hell shall not prevail against it the powers of hell and the policies of all the divels in hell shall not prevail against the Church of God then if hell cannot prevail against the Church then the earth and men by persecution shall not prevail to pull it down and to destroy it and to shake it off from the rock on which it is builded It is reported that in the year 1620. when the Wars began in Germany that a great brass Image of the Apostle Peter which had that pretended claim by which Rome would hold their Keys fairly embossed upon a roll that hang down upon the Image in these words Iues Petrus super hanc Petram aedificabo Ecclesiam tibi dabo claves c. Standing in St. Peter's Church at Rome there was a great Massie stone fell upon it and so shattered it to pieces that not a letter of all that sentence saving onely these three words Aedificabo Ecclesiam meant I will build my Church which was left fair and entire God hath not made any promises to any Kingdome or Nation of the World nor to any
and this will allay all unquietness and inordinate trouble in thy mind Tenthly and Lastly Consider that God in his wisdome will proportion all afflictions that befall thee in this World according to thy strength that thou art able to bear them 1 Cor. 10. 13. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able If the Lord laies heavy burdens on thee he will give thee strong shoulders Seneca saith Si gravis brevis si longa levis if afflictions be heavy they shall be short but if afflictions be long they shall be light heavy afflictions they shall be short afflictions and long afflictions shall be light afflictions God will proportion them Job 14 1. Man that is born of a Woman is but of few daies and full of trouble troublesome daies are made short daies Why now if they be full of trouble they are but few how sad would it be of perpetuity and misery a multitude of troubles and a multitude of daies met God will proportion thy afflictions according to thy strength Isa 28. 27. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin but the fitches beaten with a staff and the cummin with ard The meaning is that God will not exercise weak people with great afflictions there shall be afflictions proportionable to their strength this God hath promised Isa 27 8. In measure when it shooteth forth thou will debate with it he stayeth his rough winds in the day of his East wind If men be not able to bear a boisterous storm he will stay his rough wind he will abate the measure of his afflictions Let this quiet thy soul that God doth proportion all his dealings with thee according to thy strength thus you have laid down ten Rules how to bear afflictions without inordinate disquiet of soul Qu. But since we must not be stocks to be insensible of Gods afflicting hand and seeing some kind of trouble and sorrow for afflictions is allowed by God How shall we know whether we be inordinately 〈◊〉 for outward afflictions A. sw First When outward afflictions doth swallow up the comforts and enjoyments of present mercies then you are excessiv thus we see in Ahab Ahab had a flourishing Kingdone and statel Palaces yet could take no comfort in them all because he could not get poor Naboths yineyard from him that argued too much disquiet in him And thus we read of Rebecca Genesis 27. 46. And Rebecca said to Isaac I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. A very impatient speech that when a present affliction shall make thee say I have no joy in my life as many people when they are once crost of their wills Well say they I have no joy in my life though they have many mercies such speeches us these are but the issues of disquiet let not one crosse make thee flee off from all thy comforts in the World Thus we read of Jacob likewise he was too much disquieted in that one loss which made him he could not take joy in all his comfort in all his mercies Read the story in Genesis 37 35. And all his sons and his daughters rose up to comfort him but he would not be comforted Jacob had eleven sons living that he knew and many daughters and all came about him for to comfort him but he refused to be comforted Why beloved Men are so over-born and over-whelmed with troubles upon a cross that if they lose one child all the other children shall not affect them certainly this kind of sorrow is an excessive sorrow Secondly Then disquiet of soul for worldly afflictions are inordinate when afflictions in the World doth so disquiet a mans mind that it makes a man weary of life and maxes him wish for death meerly because of afflictions This was the failing of Jonah chap. 4. v. 8. It is better for me to die then to live because God took away the gourd The like you read of in Job chap. 7 15. So that my soul chuseth strangling and death rather then life Job was in a distemper and he wisht death rather then life this was a sin in him for afflictions so to disquiet a mans mind that to wish Would to God I were out of the World all these are but the flowings and impatiency of a disturbed heart And so again chap. 10. v. 1. My soul is weary of my life I will leave my complaint upon my self this was his trouble You that have drank deep of a bitter Cup either by crosses in children or in estates or reproach in your names and all this makes you inordinate and cryeth out I am weary of my life you are sinfully disquieted You have a passage in Isa 32. 2. And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind as rivers of water in a dry place as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land Speaking of Christ the Land cannot be weary but it refers to the inhabitants of the Land here is a rock a weary Land the inhabitants of the Land were weary to live in the Land because they were so scorched with the heat of afflictions when affliction shall oppresse so hard upon you that it shall make you unwilling to live this argues that disquiet of soul is very inordinate Thirdly When a man is disquieted for afflictions that lie upon him yet he is no whit troubled for all the afflictions that befall the Church of God and never laies them near his heart when disquiet for personal sufferings shall justle out all compassion for the sufferings of Gods Church this argues thy trouble is excessive Fourthly When a man is disquieted for outward afflictions that it doth indispose a man to duty then a man is too much disquieted Thus in Exodus chap. 6. 9. The poor Israelites they were so in anguish and trouble because they were held such vassals in Egypt that it is said they could not hearken to Gods word because of the grief and anguish of their spirits When afflictions make you unfit to hear Sermons and make you unfit to pray as in Psal 77. 3. I remembred God and I was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed This is a sinful disquiet Fifthly Disquiet under afflictions is then inordinate when a man dares venter on any sinful shifts or means to get rid of his afflictions Suppose thou beest poor and darest venture on cozenage and deceit to get an estate suppose thou beest in a low place and thou darest sin against conscience to get a place of preferment here in this World this is sinful disquiet Thus we read of Saul an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him the Philistins were upon him he was in distresse in his spirit 1 Samuel 28. 7 8. And Saul said unto his servants Seek me a woman that hath