why say you my way is hidden from the Lord and my judgement passed over of my God know you not or have you not heard that the everlasting God the Lords of the ends of the Earth is neither weary nor fainteth but giveth strength to him that fainteth the young men shall faint and be weary but they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength and lift up their wings as the Eagle they shall run and not faint In that day when the Mountains of the Lords house shall be established above the Mountains of the Earth for which glorious day I shall not cease to pray for O thou eternal being of beings whose name is Jehovah the Lord of Hosts who hast made the Heavens the earth the great sea and all the Creatures therein for the manifesting of thy blessed self in thine excellency that so by the displaying of thy glorious attributes we might know thy power wisdom and goodness and fear thy great and glorious name and truly Lord thou hadst done a most sweet work in the day wherein thou beheldst the works of thy hands and said they were very good O the great engagements of love and obedience thou hast laid upon us in that day when thou hadst advanced us and made us not only Lords of the works of thine hands and for our use putting all things in subjection under our feet but making us after thine own Image in righteousness and holiness whereby thou didst enable us to the performance of worship and obedience thou requirest at our hands But O the great dishonour and Rebellion we acted against thee our Creator in breaking thy holy Law which thou gavest us to keep as the Tryal of our obedience and by giving more credit unto Sathan in believing him and what he said then the threatnings of thee our God and therefore O Lord how righteous wast thou in thy judgements upon them and us their posterity in delivering us into the hands of Satan so that we who came from their loins came so deformed with that cursed Image of Satan that we are born thine enemies children of wrath and heirs of vengeance and bringing upon our selves a woful necessity of sinning against thee O Lord how justly mightest thou laid upon our first Parents and we their posterity to have born thy righteous punishments for ever without Redemption But blessed Lord thou didst in judgement remember mercy in condescending to treat with our Parents letting out that gratious promise That the seed of the woman should break the serpents head revealing mercy by a second Adam to come and so entring into a new covenant not of works but of grace that believing in him we should have eternal Life O gratious Father how didst thou magnifie thy mercy over the works of thine hands and didst do a work more wonderful then the Creation in giving the eternal word the brightness of thy glory the express Image of thy self thine only begotten Son by an eternal generation to take upon him the nature of man and to be born of the blessed Virgin that so he might by an Hupostatical union joy the humanity to the diety that so he might be enabled to undergo the work of mans Redemption a work so wonderful that all the Angels could not have devised and into which they pry into with admiration that thereby he might make such an attonement that might satisfie for the sins of man to the utmost and that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Eternal Life And now dear Father thou hast given us the word of reconciliation the witness of thy truth wherein thou hast made known to us that thou hast given us eternal Life by Jesus Christ that immaculate Lamb of God who hath laid down his Life upon the Cross to answer thy justice and by his sufferings merits and Righteousness Resurrection from Death to Life hath cancelled the Law of condemnation taking down the wall of partition and making admission for sinners to come to the Throne of Grace with boldness And now hast given us pretious promises that what we ask in the name of thy son shall be done for us And now dear Father of Heaven what was I or my Fathers family but a sinful generation of men That thou shouldst choose me to salvation before the world was and in due time to call me to the knowledge of this mistery of mans Redemption and by the witness of thy word and blessed spirit should seal unto me the pardon of sin in the day when thou deliveredst me out of the hands of that roaring Lyon And after my seeking thy face for many years with doubtings and fears under many desertions and dreadful temptations and many various dispensations which thou most blessed God hast turned all to my advantage breaking into my Soul with so much love that I know not whom of the sons of men did ever receive a greater mercy And now Lord of thy goodness hast called me from the ways of the world to be of the number of those whom thou hast chosen to eternal Life and therefore having tasted so abundantly of thy strange Love a Love to admiration a Love we are not able to apprehend in the acknowledgement whereof and that I might declare what a God thou art according to mine engagement and that I might exalt thy glorious name and declare thy loving kindness to me to the ends of the earth have made bold to present these lines to the publick view for the magnifying of thy mercies to me the worst of the sons of men and the greatest of sinners if thou shouldest charge my sins upon me and be thou pleased to accept of what I have written in good part and let thy blessing so go along with it that the delusions methods devices and temptationt of Sathan that old cunning Serpent may be so discovered to poor souls that lye under his cruelty may receive advantage thereby When they shall read this small discourse of thy gratious actings with me O let thy blessing be upon iâ— that they may receive comfort thereby that thy goodness may be magnâ—fied which thou knowest Lord to be the only cause I have given it to the publick view who never thought my namâ— should have appeared in such a way And now dear Father I humbly beseech thee manifest thy glorious Gospel of thy Son to the ends of the Earth that all Nations may know thou art a God through Jesus Christ forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and to that end I humbly beseech thee fulfill thy word in pouring out thy indignation upon that whore of Babylon who hath dyed her garments red in the blood of the Saints that we may say Babylon Babylon is fallen and upon all the powers that oppose the righteous Scepter of thy Son the Gospel whom thou hast made King of Kings and Lord of Lords and hast given him the Heathen for his inheritance and the utmost ends of the earth for his possession who
to the Deliverer To have God deserting a Soul and permitting Satan to Rage and Rule so far that it believeth all his suggestions and is not able to believe the contrary expecting nothing but the lowermost Hell This was my condition and when I have told you so though you might perceive something of my sad and wearysome Life yet cannot the misery be expressed by me nor conceived by you a thousand worlds had I been owner would I have given for a Free Spirit a heart enabled to shake off the meditating and pondering upon Hell torments as the things that methoughts I should for ever dwell with Now I say when all this lay upon my Soul and I expected no deliverance then for the Lord my God to surprize and break in upon me with so glorious and unexpected a mercy who can but set forth the loving kindness of so gratious a God and Saviour I may therefore boldly say to any poor Soul let his distress be never so great yet if he have but so much faith as to believe the Scriptures and that Jesus is the Son of God and died for sinners though he hath no assurance for himself no more hopes then I had not a spark of Grace in his own apprehension Is 50.10 Yet let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay himself upon his God Let him wait for the Lord will come Is 8.17 And such a faith is sufficient for such a Soul in that condition In my distress before my God gave me experience of Light Love and Salvation I engaged by promise that if my God would give me deliverance I would declare to his Saints abroad what he had done for me and that as Satan suggested to me before that I should be a shame to Professors so would I declare his wiles and devices and what a lying unclean and murdering Spirit he is that in what I could his designs of ruine against poor Souls might be frustrated and the Lord having heard my vows setting me at liberty a strong temptation fell upon me to pray that God would assist me in performance of them nor were my prayers single or alone I had the help of such as feared God about me my body at that time was very much disordered Yet he that prepared my heart to pray enclined his Ear to hear enabling with speed and ease to the wonder of some to Write the ensuing discourse I here present to open view with much hope that the same hand that made it easie to me will make it useful to many who may be troubled in Spirit For the comfort of such and the discovery of Sathans subtilty the good of them and hurt of none but Him are the ends I have in publishing this experimental Relation begging that the Lord would exalt his great and glorious Name in magnifying his Mercy to all Eternity by dealing thus with many poor Souls as he hath done with his poor servant Charles Langford The Captive delivered Or a Relation of the great things which the Lord the mighty God of Heaven and Earth did for his poor Servant C. L. in delivering him out of the midst of violent and dreadful temptations April 16. 1669. witnessing to his Soul the greatness of his mercy in the midst of his sins and magnifying his free-grace in sealing it with the comfortable perswasion of his being one of Abrams believing seed and this when under great unworthiness and unbelief all which he now desires in thankfulness and according to his vows in the day of his distress to declare to the people of God and to as many as shall read it CHAP. I. Of the Original cause of all troubles what share the Authour had therein Why seeing all men are by nature the children of wrath do not all thus feel the weight of it the particular occasion of his first awakening Satans design in it Gods over-ruling and turning it to good VVHen I consider the sad estate wherein all the sinful Sons of Adam lye how through the most righteous judgement of God for our wilful transgression of his holy Law which he gave for a rule and tryal of our obedience miserably they are deprived of a most blessed estate Gods Image and blessed presence once had and enjoyed and how dangerously depraved and swollen up into an enmity against God their Maker their nature is I am so far from wondring at the horror that sometimes here and there one is surprized withall that I must confess 't is a far greater wonder to me that any are found to live at ease Dread and horror are the best fruit that can be had for eating of the forbidden tree If meer justice ruled the world the thickets would be every mans habitation Magor Missabib might be the fittest name for Adams race Jer. 20.3 fear round about now degenerated into a brood of vipers 'T is a wonder sin hath not found out and frightned the sinner upon earth that caught him in and cast him out of Paradice If it spared him not there how should it pass him by here if it turned him out of his walk his most delightful walk with the God of bliss there why hath it not tumbled him down into a bed of fire â—ere sure I am sorrow and distress of conscience is as much an attendant upon sin and guilt as the shadow is of the body as hear is of the fire as dark shadows were of the night by this the children of the day are transformed into those of the night and the heirs of God into haters of God and children of wrath and such are all men without exception in a natural condition These considerations make it less to be wondred at I say that any man should groan under the burthen of sin which lyes so heavy upon all it being a far greater wonder as I said before that the just holy and righteous God should so long suspend the execution of the antient sentence past upon Adam and his posterity or that any of the inhabitants of the earth should not sear their dropping into Hell and dread their danger I for my part must to the honour of my strong Redeemer take to my self the guilt of that first transgression and acknowledge that from the loins of the first Adam hath a venemous empoisoned nature been conveyed unto me Let no man say or think that any part of my past misery sprung from any other fountain then this evil nature I know that amidst the numberless number of Satans artifices this is one of his main engines whereby he would keep poor captive souls from the ways of life and peace He labours to bring up an evil report of such ways representing religion as the great incending as well in the Consciences as in the Kingdoms of Men and with as much confidence avers it as wicked Ahab did of the good Prophets that profession of the Gospel attended with it's required strictness is the grand trouble of the world
1. Kings 18.17 Insomuch that I think 't would be no mistake should I affirm this for a certain truth That Satans furious attempts made most what upon the inward peace of Gospel professions who having escaped the polutions that are in the world through lust and committed the keeping of their souls into the hands of an able preserver are not allwayes raised by him in hope of bringing them back into their former bondage or undoing their souls by desperation But that he may stir up a greater dislike in the hearts of his Vassals to the ways of purity Offences are the trade that Satan sets up and drives The miseries of us are the mirth of him But woe to him by whom they come and woe to the world because of them Let the Reader know for a certain truth that however carnall hearts conceive of the way that is called Holy branding it by the names of melancholly mopish and mâ—d wisdom is justified of her Children all her wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Prov. 3.17 carnal and sensual delights are not in the least to be compared with spiritual and divine Ps 46.4 the River that makes glad the City of God is more deep more durable more delightful then the Egyptian Nilus the waters of Siloam run but softly the consolations of God found in the way of holy obedience make no great noise in the ears of common observers who are meet strangers to such joyes but they are therefore the more deep and solid My long experience hath taught me in the midst of all the intricacies of providence to hold this for a certain truth that godliness never took away any mans peace nor ungodliness never gave it The closest conformity to the commands of God never did any man harm nor did the pleasures of sin ever do any man good the wise lord of all hath thought fit to train me up under many spiritual afflictions and sore temptations I am now arrived at the borders of Death through age of much of my part life may I truly say in the words of the distressed Psalmist that in it my Soul hath been full of troubles Ps 88.3 by reason whereof my life hath oft drawn nigh to the grave yet in the greatest of my extremities have I ever seen a real-worth in holy strictness such a worth have I seen in that that I may truly say not it but Satan taking advantage of my want of it was that which did me harm the bitter cup of external internal or eternal evils receiveth it Fulness from an evil nature a naughty heart whoever is employed in the filling of it the fountain for fetching of it is within our selves destruction when it cometh as a whirl-wind suddenly surroundingly and on every side so that to determine from what particular point it blows may seem impossible yet must it be granted that its ingendring was in the deep and deadly Caverns of an earthly and an evil heart whatever instrumentallity Men or Devils have in the infliction of our troubles our destructions are undeniably not from them but from our selves Oh! then let none say or think that 't is Religion but irreligion preciseness but dissoluteness drawing nigh unto but departing away from the living God much reading praying hearing searching the Scriptures consorting with the godly c. But the contrary have been the causes though the other sometimes the occasions of hellish horrors and disquietness of mind Rom. 7.8.11 Oh! no no 't is sin that is the root of bitterness springing up into troubles a sinful nature a sinful life or the least sinful omission any one act of sin though never so small is enough to infuse that horror into the soul that all the pleasures of time shall never be able to claw off Thus that sinful nature which I brought along with me into the world and by which as soon as I had attained to my ripeness of years I began to manifest whose child I was bringing forth such fruits whereof I am ashamed This I say was the root of all the bitterness I have hitherto tasted of 't was not too much preciseness which the enemies of true Godliness falsly so call that wrought this disturbance in me For at the time when my troubles began I had neither affection to nor acquaintance with any other way of serving the God of heaven then what was common carnal and external Q. How then comes it to pass that the whole Earth upon the matter lyeth still and is at quiet not troubled themselves with such strange kind of doubts fears and distractions of thoughts about their Eternal state as you speak of nor troubling others with their complaint about them Sure coming too near the heels of Religion is the cause of such fractions of the bones of inward peace or else why should not others be thus perplexed Ans I answer that however the Objection is manifestly rooted in the minds of carnal men who by reason of their fondness of their false peace not willing to raise disturbances within themselves like no worship of God save that which biteth not but contrarily bite and devour such as do yet so false and ground less is this Objection that in few words I shall only say 1. That however t is true de facto that most of those who ingage in the ways of God meet with great troubles and distress of conscience at the first entrance yet de jure no sort of men are more the sons of consolation than they 2. Such distresses are most needful most profitable things and such as commend the waâ—es of God above all others For consider 1. How else should the heart of man who by nature drinketh in iniquity as a thirsty man water be put out of his seeming delightful way of sinning 't is the way that Heaven hath pitcht upon to save men from Hell this to acquaint them with the bitterness of sin here 2. How else should the heart of a sinner be prepared to entertain the terms and tidings of a Saviour Christ believed in Christ relyed upon Christ owned and embraced and submitted unto 1 Tim. 3.16 is one of the greatest misteries of Godliness in all the world and nothing prepareth the heart more to hearken to and embrace the tidings the tenders and the terms of so sweet a name as Jesus is then spiritual distress souls weary and heavy laden Mat. 11.28 and none but such have to do or will have to do with Iesus Christ 3. How should the Law of God be found powerful to kill or the Gospel of Christ powerful to quicken any other way We read of Gods magnifying his word above all his name 't is his aim and delight to do so he will have men to know his word to be a word of power an instrument of life or death a two edged sword and therefore not to be jested with and the ordinary way of effecting this is
by raising the benumbed Souls of sinners from that natural Lethargy and carnal security that lyeth upon their whole inward man understanding will conscience affections the Soul and all that is within the Soul of an unregenerate person standeth not in awe of divine precepts promises or threatnings till awakened by divine power God may speak once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not until in a dream in a vision of the night when deep sleep falleth upon men in slumberings upon the bed then he openeth the ears of men and sealeth their instruction Job 33.14 c. 't is usually some rough dealing that is required to rouze the sinner out of his pleasant but false dreams of peace Sometimes he is chastned with pain upon his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong pains so that his life abhorreth bread and his soul dainty meat His flesh is consumed away that it cannot be sâ—on and his bones that were not seen stick ouâ— his Soul dâ—aweth nigh to the Grave and his lâ—fe to the destroyers Thus God ruineth and tortureth Sinners into the way of Life maketh room for the Messenger the interpreter the One among a thousand to shew unto Man his uprightness verses 20.21 22 23. Mount Sinai's terrible thunderings did not more powerful make way for the reception of the Law then the conviction of sin by the Law doth for the embracement of the Gospel and the embracement of it for the settlement of inward distractions In a word The wounds of conscience plainly shew not only the power of the Law by which sin is strengthned armed and enabled to work death but also the power of the Gospel in setting poor distressed Souls at freedom from The Law Sin and Death 3. 'T is a most senceless imagination to judge any mans person or way to be the more excellent because less troublesome in it By this crooked rule the unblushing forehead of an Harlot may pass for an hopeful sign of her future happiness the Bedlam may boast of his better condition then others because he feels not those prickings of pins and needles which if others had they would cry out of And yet 4. How many instances have the records of time given us of the confounding terrors that wicked men on the sudden have been overwhelmed with how oft may it be observed how God distributeth sorrow to such in dreadful measures and how from the heighth of censuall delights God casts them down into destruction how are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors Ps 73.18 19. God hath appointed a day wherein he will make known his wrath upon all the vessels of wrath eminently And this is called in Scripture Rom. 25. The day The great and terible day of the Lord The day of wrath But alas how few fear this because t is future the heart of man fears not wrath to come though no wrath like it Things present affect most And the Apostle hath told us why because such are blind and cannot see afar off 2 Per. 1.9 But now let such remember the stoutest siners have been unhorst and perished even in the very way God puts not off all to the gâ—eat and last desires he hath his petty fessions sometimes some are tormented before their time They fall into the hands of a loving â—od when they little thought of it Job 21.17 How oft is the Candle of the wicked put out Gen. 4.14 Who would have thought that that heart of Cain which feared nothing should so suddenly be smitten with the fear of every thing Dan. 5.6 Or that Belshazzar who just now could boldly bid defiance to the God of Israel should upon the first sight of what he understood not be surprized with such an hellish fit of quaking Ch. 4.32 Or that great Nebuchadnâ—zzar now feeding his fancy with the splend our of his own works and swelling himself into a conceited Deity should in the same hour yea while the word was in his mouth became as a Reast v. 37. How easily can God abase such as walk in pride should the Lord commission our own thoughts against us no need of any other enemy to make us miserable and this he hath often done as in the cases already mentioned Stories both sacred and prophane afford us a large account of many more â—ragicall overthrows of the enemies of holyness And few ages pass without some drops of wrath â—mminently falling upon the heads of one siner or other which were we but wise to consider them would fully inform us that Gods dealings with his Saints and servants in desertion of comfort and permission of Satan to agonize them in this world However it seem tedious and tiresome for a while and they apt to speak as once Job did he teareth me in his wrath who â—ateth me he gnasheth upon me with his teeth Yet weighing in an equall Ballance these dealings of God with his Children with those earfull cruptions of wrath that seize upon the â—ngodly and it will soon appear that the wayes of God to his people are not severity but lenity not fury but mercy tender mercy and loving kindness Thus distress oâ— conscience is not so concomitant to profession of the Gospel as the enemies thereof feign Luke 15.7 but that sometimes it may be found among the jovial crew of unrighteous men needing no repentance and whensoever it falleth upon such it is much more lamentable then that which is let out upon poor humble bruised obedient Sinners Because when the Lord riseth up agâ—inst the Souls of those that hate and forget him he comes 1. With greater fury Ps 11.6 An horrible tempest is the portion of their cup. Is 54.8 Now when he troubleth his Children for sin he hideth his face from them in wrath but then it is but in a little wrath Hab. 3 2. and his wrath makes him not at any time to forget his love he can remember that in the midst of it still 2. With sewer advantages there is less hope of such a ones recovery Distresses of whatsoever sort are like violent purges to the body preparatives must be had or else a body full of humors and unaccustomed to such means is beset with dangers who knows which way dreadful convictions of divine displeasure may drive the amaz'd and affrighten'd Soul 't is possible to God but very improbable to man that he who hath hardned his own heart against God and his fear and been forging arguments and studying offences and picking quarrels against the ways and worship of God should ever take to those as his proper remedy in times of temptation Satan will do all he can to keep up a dislike in such a One against those things that make for true peace or if peradventure Satan be cast out of the outward conversation and the man seems to recover his peace by a partial reformation yet how truly hath our Lord set forth the doleful doom of such half begotten
Christians Mat. 12.33 34 35. The latter end of such is worse for sin and sorrow then their beginning wounds skinned over will become ulcerous at last the sting of the old Serpent like that of the Taâ—antula dispatcheth this kind of sinners into hell laughing 5. Moreover the proper time of discovery is not yet come judgement passing before the last act is ridiculous â—olly Mark but the end of wicked men patiently stay but a very little while and tell me then what you think of all their pleasures Follow them to death or at the furthest to judgement then will the blackness of their countenance and the loudness of their howling cryes confirm the truth of that passage now little thought of Eccles 8.12.13 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God which fear before him But it shall not be well with the wicked He that seriously layes to heart the sure and sore miseries that come stealing on upon the sinful sensual merry world Ez. 32. And how even they who have Pharoah like been stout hearted oppressors and reproachers of the distressed remnant of Jacob though they have caused their terror in the land of the living are nevertheless gone down to hell and how heavy their iniquities lyâ— upon their bones I say he that observes these things and layeth them to heart will find there was a reason for Balaam wish Num. 3.10 Lâ—â— me dye the death of the righteous and my laâ—â— end bâ— like to his Heb. 11.24 And that Moses was 〈◊〉 child when he refused to be called the Son 〈◊〉 Pharoahs Daughter chusing rather to fussâ—â— affliction with the people of God then to 〈◊〉 joy the pleasures oâ— sin for a season esteeâ—ing the reproach of Christ greater riches thâ— the treasures of Egypt to rush upon the poâ—â— of sufferings when a man may chuse to account pleasures to be no more then pressures reproaches to be renown and treasures to be but trash Oh! what folly doth the world judge this to be and yet such a fool was Moses and so must he be that would be wise 't is the highest wisdom to shun those short pleasures that breed long and eternal pains an eternal weight of glory will make afflictions that are but for a moment seem but â—ight and little when heaviest and greatest 't is this the end the duration of good and evil that wisdom considereth before it bestows it's names on any thing And oh that men were wise in this to employ their thoughts more upon the end of their way and the wages of their work then upon the way and work it self then would not the present delights of sin make the life of a sinner to appear delightfuâ— because such pleasures are but for a season the pleasures are but false and fading but the torments are true and eternal ones We are told concerning Witches that the Devil appeareth not to them in any terrible shape at the beginning of their contract but in the shape of a man and with many fair promises of wealth long life and power to revenge their wrongs with many pleasures besides That the hook being bid it may go down the better 2 Cor. 4.4 were but the seals of ignorance by which the God of this world blinds the eyes of them that believe not taken off the life of sinners would quickly prove a weary life and the Ministers of Christ who now are wearied with silence would find work enough to answer the question Acts 11.16.30 Sirs what shall we do to be saved There is but a thin seal over thine eye and that will not alway there abide Death or the day of judgement will ferch it off And when that drops all thy comforts drops away from thee sin will find thee out then be sure no place shall priviledge thee from its arrest Is 32.2 To be found in Christ will be the best hiding place and covert from the Wind and Tempest Sions heights and shews of holyness will stand in little stead when Is 33.14 The sinners in Zion are afraid fearfullness hath surprized the hypocrite who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings sincerity reall Christianity will be the best Religion then when shews and shadows shall flee away Then they that fear God walk in darkness that are wounded in spirit laden with the spirit of heavyness whose faith of adoption lyeth open to manyfold temptations troden underfoot of Men and not spâ—red by the rod of God these these I say then will have a merry day a day of redemption from sears and deliverance from every particular of their complaint Mark well Mat. 4.2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Son of righâ—eousness arise with healing in his wings and ye shall go forth and grow up as Calves of the stall Ch. 3 17. And they shall be mine saith the Lord of hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels and I will spare them as a Man spareth his own Son that serveth him Let all the world then know that if the unchecked pleasures of time be attended with eternall displeasures there is but small reason why any man should become sins advocate because of that pleasure that attends it concerning which that may as truly be said which St. Iames asserts concerning the life of all Men. What is it but a vapour which soon appeareth and presently disapeareth leaving its possessor â—n an interminable irrecoverable gulf of dismall horror and confounding distraction This is the fifth branch of my answer to â—hose that think the troubles of mind which â—arnall professors are freed from is an argument strong enough to perswade men from intermedling in the stricter and purer wayes of holyness Eternity is before us Mal. 3.18 Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that feareth God and hâ—m that feareth him not 6. Let me also add this that as all Gods people are not so happy as to enjoy the heighth of assurance of the love of God without fits of intermission so neither are they also miserable as to be cast into the depths of terrors the belly of Hell without hope of comming thence Or this is that I would say depths of terrors among professors is altogether as rare as heights of assurance 'T is but a few that fall into such temptation as may render them the wonder of others The rod of correction is as needfull among Children in a family as bread its self and of this all that belong to God are one way or other partakers but to be whipt with Scorpions to be chastned in wrath or rebuked in hot displeasure is a thing rarely to be seen among the thousands of Israel 7. Those whom God thus puts upon the wrack of unusuall â—errors have none to thank but an evill nature in themselves and that evilâ— One that is
root that beareth Gall and Wormwood and it come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the immagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst the Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak against that man and all the curses that are written in this book shall fly upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under Heaven and the Lord shall seperate him unto evil Deut 29.19 20. According to all the curses of the Covenant that are written in this book of the Law Because I have called and you refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regardeth but ye have set at nought my councels and would none of my reproofes I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your Fear cometh When your Fear cometh as desolation and your Destrection cometh as a whirle-wind when Distress and Anguish cometh upon you c. Prov. 24 c. How express is the holy Law of God terror hath an appointed season distress and anguish lye in the Womb of time God hath hiâ— vials of wrath tribulation and anguish to powrâ—â—â— upon enery soul of man that doth evil Rom. 2. 〈◊〉 and who knows what a day may bring forth Prov. 27.1 7. How many a time hath Hell-fire flashed in thy face already and yet thou returnest not I mean how oft hast thou found terror seizing upon thee at all times which yet thou hast shaken off again I can hardly believe there is any sinner in the world that now sinneth with the greatest delight and freedom but findeth that his way is beset with dangers I know not what may be said of such who live in Countryes where the word of God hath not been familiarly taught the Apostle of the Gentiles seemeth to speak the same thing plainly concerning them Even they have witness bearing Consciences and thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Rom. 2.15 The Devils servants have an hard Apprentiship before they be made free They sin with much bondage before they come to sin with delight The spirit of God hath striven with them their own hearts have smitten them secret warnings have they had within themselves oh do not this thing which God hateth now what do these things mean why they shew you what is like nay sure to be the wages of sin that God will not be blamed when he shall sentence you to an eternal bondage under his heavy wrath He now would have frightned you out of your sinful state and you would not he sent his spirit to strive with you and wring your weapons of sin out of your hands and you would not let them go he gave you some tastes of the Cup of trembling shook the full bottles of wrath before thy eyes which he might have put to thy lips and held them fast there until thou hadst been overwhelmed with terrors He drew his bow and whet his sword that thou beholding that mightest prepare thy seâ—f to escape the prepared instruments of death So that poor sinner thou art not an utter stranger to the things that I am perswading thee to think off the terrors of God Some small appearances may be have been sometime found in thee upon commission of some extraordinary sin Well see to it this is the bitter root which though thou labour to bury it under the Earth a while will without doubt spring up into a mighty tree bringing forth the fruits of shame pain and death 8. Thou goest on merrily in the way of thine own heart labouring to suppress thy sorrows at the first rising Thou hast no thoughts of thy latter end which thou smotherest not in their very beginning But remember though thou fearest not thy self now upon the Earth but thy danger is better thought off in Hell Oh I think with thy self that the story of dâ—mned Dâ—vâ—s was not penned from the mouth of Christ in vain Luke 16.27 c. rather judge it to be as indeed it is an argument fetcht from Hell to carry thee over into the ways of Heaven All thy old acquaintance and relations who once while they were in the Land of the living spent their days in pleasure drawing thee on to use the good things that are now present Wisd 2.6 c. Come on let us fill our selves with costly wine and Ointments and let no flower of the Spring pass by us Let us Crown our selves with Rose-bud before they be withered let none of us go without his part of our jollity let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every place for this is our portion and our lot is this Let us oppress the poor righteous man let our strength be the Law of justice let us lye in wait for the righteous because he is not for our turn he is clean contrary to our doings he upbraideth us with our offending the Law and objecteth to our infamy the transgressings of our education He professeth himself to have the knowledge of God and he calleth himself the Child of the Lord he was made to reprove our thoughts he is grievous unto us even to behold for his life is not like other mens his ways are of another fashion we are esteemed of him as counterfeit false come he abstaineth from our ways as from filthyness he pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed and maketh his boast that God is his Father let us see if his words be true and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him For if the just man be the Son of God he will help him and deliver him from the hand of his enemies let us examine him with despightfulness and torture him that we may know his meekness and prove his patience let us condemn him with a shameful death for by his own saying he shall be respected In contemplation follow these boon Companions down to Hell and you shall find them of another mind Wisd 5.2 c. There they shall be troubled with terrible fear and shall be amazed at the strangeness of the despised righteous mans salvation so farr beyond all that they looked for And repenting and groaning within themselves for anguish of spirit shall say This was he whom we had sometimes in derision and a Proverb of reproach we fools accounted his life madness and his end to be without honour How is he numbred among the Children of God and his lot is among the Saints therefore have we erred from the right way we wearied our selves in the way of wickedness and destruction what hath Pride profitted us or what good hath riches with our vaurting brought us all those things are passed as a shadow and as a Post that hasteth away and as a Ship that pâ—sseth over the waves of the water or when as a bird hath flown through the air or like an arrow shot at