7. Exercise your selves to have always a good Conscience So Paul Herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Act. 24.16 Conscience will not be ensured or preserved without consideration exercise and pains 1. Co-united endeavours there must be as respects the subject Herein do I exercise my self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is his study his labour his work his business which took up his outward specially his inward man Of so large an import is that word Here is matter enough to take up the whole Man Mind Memory Will Affections Members which had need be all imployed either for informing of or conforming to Conscience 2 Continued endeavours they must be as respects the circumstances Herein do I exercise my self always Let the times frown or favour the good Conscience let Conscience smite or smile whether you are under the arrests of Judgment or the happy liberties of mercy whether men speak well or ill whether the Candle of the Lord shine upon you on the one hand or the calumnies of men like so many arrows stick fast in you on the other whatever business be before you this business must not be behind or be neglected by you and herein use an holy constancy as you would maintain an holy Conscience and be able to say with Paul I have lived in all good Conscience before God until this day 1 Pet. 3.15 Job 27.6 3 Comprehensive endeavours they must be both as respects the state of Conscience that it be void of offence and the objects it regardeth likewise both toward God and toward man Keep the Conscience inoffensive if you would keep it entire and Evangelically good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is sometimes passively taken Phil. 1.10 Sometimes actively 1 Cor. 10.32 that Conscience neither give nor take offence either offend or be offended Eye Conscience in both kinds and herein exercise your selves constantly nor only as respects God nor only as respects man but as respects both God and Man first as respects God then as respects Man Let Religion toward God and Righteteousness toward Man be your continued exercise and you will neither impair the tranquillity nor injure the tenderness of your Conscience Job 2.3 Psal 15. Isa 33.15 16. Conscience hath both Tables of the Law committed originally to it The Conscience again committeth them as Josiah did to the other Powers as its inferior Officers when these bring Conscience word as Shaphan brought the King back word again saying All that was committed to thy servants they do it Then we have both a sincere and inoffending and also a secure and inoffended Conscience 2 Chr. 34.15 16. 8. Exercise Conscience oftner if you would have it always good The weal of Conscience lyes much-what within the walls of conscience If you vvould keep conscience vvell you must keep conscience at vvork sloth vvill beget sickness beget sin and incense justice to take away your talent Mat. 25.28 2. 1 Be frequent in examining Conscience ask how the case stands the frequent'st trier is usually the forward'st thriver in the School of Christ and of Conscience as well as of humane Literature The more you prove and examine Conscience the more you provoke and engage it for after-times and improve the experiences antecedent Psal 77.6 c. 2 Be forward in exciting Conscience Is it incident to drowsiness distempers deadness call upon it the oftener rouse it up by awakening Considerations thy Conscience is keeper of the Vineyards the other faculties and thine own Vineyard hast thou not kept Put it in remembrance of its duty and thy danger Provoke it by arguments of mercy and alarums of justice that if thou must say with the Spouse I sleep yet thou may'st say with her my heart waketh Psal 108.2 Cant. 1.6 c. 5.2 3 Be faithful in exonerating Conscience Whatever Conscience directed by the Word of God dictateth fail not to do it whatever it forbids thee forbear it else thou teachest Conscience to forbear thee limiting Conscience and not listning to Conscience are a ready way to the losing of Conscience 'T is miserable when men are churlish with Conscience and it must be said of you as Nabal's servants said of him He is such a son of Belial that Conscience cannot speak to him 1 Sam. 25.17 Listen to Conscience then and be led by it so shalt thou live in all good Conscience As God said to Abraham so say I to thee In all that Sarah in all that Conscience shall say unto thee hearken unto her voice If you would hold a good Conscience obey a good Conscience if it may not be heard it will away If it may command thee it will continue with thee Act. 23.1 Gen. 21.12 2 Tim. 1.3 1 Tim. 3.9 9. Exercise the good that is in and with your Conscience Actuate and imploy your implanted habits of Grace and these will grow into greater increases Keep up the lively exercise of Faith Love and Repentance and you keep up the exercise and enjoyment of a good Conscience These say to Conscience as David sometime did to Abiatbar Abide with us fear not he that seeketh thy life seeketh our life With us thou shalt be in safety Prov. 4.18 1 Sam. 22.23 Rinse Conscience upon every fall thou catchest from the filth which thou contractest in the waters of repentance The more tears of Contrition the more tenderness of Conscience and transcendent comfort Psal 51. Job 11.14 15. Raise and quicken Faith this will subdue enemies without sanctifie Conscience within sprinkle the blood of Jesus on it and suck continued virtue from his blessed promises 1 Joh. 5.4 5. Act. 26. Heb. 10.22 23. Repeat and continue the dear and delicious acts of Love which will facilitate the Commandments to you free Conscience in you and fits you to whatever capacity Christ shall call you 1 Joh. 5.3 1 Cor. 13.4 8. CHAP. III. Of the Pure and Defiled Conscience Q. 1. Whether the Conscience in man be naturally pure or defiled Touching this I must return you to what hath been already spoken Chap. 2. Quest 2. and 3. Q. 2. Whether a pure Conscience be attainable by man in this life THere is a double purity of the Conscience 1. Exact and legal as fully answers to what the Law asks 2. Evangelical and more large as fitly agrees with what the Gospel allows That excludes all degrees of pollution and includes all degrees of perfection this allows no degree of pollution and aspires after the highest degree of perfection 1. That legal and exact purity of the Conscience neither can nor ever was attained since the Fall by any meer man in this life 1. Who was ever priviledged in this life from the pollution of Conscience Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Who can understand his errors Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean as man is not one There is not a just man upon the earth
Tell him with Job Behold I am vile and with Agur Surely I am more brutish than any man I have not the understanding of a man Prov. 28.13 Psal 32.5 6. Job 40.4 Prov. 30.2 3 Abhor thy self in the sense of it A prostrate self-abhorrence will surely purge thy Conscience and blot that consciousness of sin thou hast contracted both out of God's debt-book and thy own day-book Whereof Job and David are plain and pregnant instances Job 42.6 Psal 51. This Medicament is a sure preventive and safe purgative of a putrified Conscience it includeth these two as the principal ingredients 1. Self-displicence in sorrow and indignation with thy self as David Oh! that I should be such a fool such a sot such a beast 2 Cor. 7.11 Psal 73.21 22. 2. Self-defiance in shaming and judging thy own self renouncing thy righteousness and ripping up thy follies and filthiness and loathing thy self in thy own sight O Lord righteousness belongeth to thee but to me shame and confusion of face O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face c. Ezek. 6.9 c. 16.63 Dan. 9.7 8. Ezra 9.6 3. Rev. 2.5 Renew Do over the first works for thy former washing The door of Mercy stands as open as heretofore Thy duty to use the means and the efficacy of the means upon a due use of them is as observable as heretofore Then thou wert without strength and couldst not co-operate with divine Grace nor any more cleanse thy sin than the Ethiopian can change his skin In that first work thou wert meerly passive Rom. 5.6 Jer. 13.23 Job 14.4 * See Saryl ad loc But now the case is altered the least Saint is not without a little strength Grace is communicated and doth expect thy co-operation with it self that a man purge himself Rev. 3.8 2 Tim. 2.21 2 Cor. 7.1 Renew then 1 the advised provision Q. 5. Dir. 3. Particularly 2 the application of the Promises this is not only an excellent congruity and an evident connexion between the Promises of Christ and the purging of our Conscience but they exhibit a Copy how we should purge and effectually conveigh a power whereby ye shall purge the Conscience and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust 2 Cor. 7.1 2 Pet. 1.4 3 Renew the ardour of thy Prayers these will engage and sanctifie all other endeavours engage Heaven and thy own Heart follow thy work close here and with much constancy Double the duty and thy diligence therein Remember the Psalmist how he reiterated this Petition Wash me purge me cleanse me create a clean heart in me Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin Psal 51.2.7 10. 4 Renew the Acts of these holy Principles in thee Faith Hope and Love as they were of past so are they of present and perpetual efficacy so the expressions intimate Act. 15.9 1 Joh. 3.3 Purifying 't is not said having purified their Hearts by Faith He that hath this hope purifieth himself c. Send Faith afresh then to the Blood of Christ and the blessed Covenant of Grace for cleansing and let this stir up and streng then the other implanted Habits to their several imployments Shew Hope a further sight of those pure and perfect Glories which God hath prepared and promised The more this glorious Purity becomes the matter of thy Hope for hereafter the more will a gracious Purity become the matter of thy attempts and aspirings here And to besure the more thou lovest pureness of heart the more wilt thou apply thy self for and shalt attain of heart-purity CHAP. IV. Of the Peaceable and Disquiet Conscience Q. 1. Whether the Conscience that is not Evangelically good or pure may yet enjoy great peace and so whether a Man may safely conclude his Conscience is pure because 't is quiet and at peace I. Prop. 1 IF you understand peace of Conscience in the most proper precise and strict notion thereof then can there be no peace of Conscience where there is no purity 'T is first pure then peaceable There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Others may sing a Requiem to them Peace peace and they may bless themselves in their own hearts saying I shall have peace but my God saith there is no peace Jam. 3.17 Jer. 6.14 Deut. 29.19 Isa 57.21 The quiet of such Consciences some please to call a Truce but cannot allow it the name of peace If that here is only a temporary suspension of arms no total cessation * See Dyk good Cons p. 31 32. the quarrel is not taken up Conscience is but taking more time to right it self and revenge their stubbornness Peace of Conscience if we understand it strictly imports more than an immunity from inward Concertations and Concussions it implieth also an enjoyment of it self with a victorious serenity in the felicitating smiles of God's Countenance and in viewing the spoils of Sin and Satan its vanquished adversaries Rom. 15.13 Phil. 4.7 Joh. 14.27 It presupposeth peace with God as its prime basis upon which it rests and into which it is resolved as its principal cause Peace of Conscience being originally but the reflex of this that God is reconciled and at peace with us Rom. 5.1 2. Job 22.21 Men of impure Consciences are upon terms of enmity not of peace with God they are against him and he against them Ephes 2.16 Psal 18.26 2. It presupposes a propriety in Christ who is our Peace whose death for us is the sole price of our reconciliation and peace with God and whose Union with us and the communion with and conformity to him is the signal evidence thereof But the impure Conscience hath no interest in Christ he is not only without Christ but at war and enmity with Christ Ephes 2.14 Rom. 5.1 10. 2 Cor. 5.18 19. Fph. 2.12 Col. 1.21 3. It is produced by Faith Faith Evangelical giveth us peace with God and God giveth us peace in and by the exercise of faith Faith unites us with God in Christ and so 't is peace in Heaven here is its direct act and then Faith unfolds and reviews this Union and so 't is peace in the Heart here is its reflex act Now the impure Conscience hath no saving Faith which doth still first purifie then pacifie the Conscience Rom. 5.1 c. 15.13 Ephes 3.17 18 19. 1 Joh. 5.11 12 13. Joh. 5.44 Act. 15.9 4. Besides this peace is made the priviledg the incommunicable priviledg of the Church and Kingdom of Christ who are said to be clean through his word Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you c. i. e. to you not only eminently above others but exclusively to you and not to any others Rom. 14.17 Joh. 14.27 cum 15.3 II. Prop. 2 But if you understand peace of Conscience in a larger and less proper sense in the vulgar notion and latitude of this expression as it imports the quietness thereof from inward arrests
came to in Peter how his blessed peace was exchanged into bitter pangs And indeed such persons carry their condemnatory sentence in their own bosom till it be reversed by repentance Rom. 1.32 c. 2.1 Mat. 26.75 Rom. 14.22 Titus 3.11 Direct 2. Keep off Satan Thy peace is his pain The more thou enjoyest the more he envieth Job's tranquility was Satan's trouble Job 1. C. 2. And he doth not only afflict him in his goods but accuse him to his God There is no impression it is true can be made by him upon the God of peace he is immutable but there may be on the peace of God for this is mutable in it self and in a mutable Subject Numb 23.19 Jer. 14.19 c. 16.5 You have seen the first league of peace violated through his temptation And if you are not the more circumspect he will frustrate the second as to the sweets and serenities thereof to your Souls by feeding your thoughts with tribulations or flattering you to transgressions Be sober be vigilant your adversary the Devil is not at rest because you are in peace The sense of your happiness stirs up the more activity and assiduousness As a roaring lion he walketh about seeking whom he may devour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Swallow up or drink down 'T is not long since he would have swallowed thee up with over-much sorrow Look to it for he is designing the same end though it may be diversifying in the means If he cannot cut off the Covenant of peace yet he will clog the peace of the Covenant in whatsoever he can Stand upon your guard then set out your centinels gird on your spiritual armour keep the shield of faith in your hand Give no place but resist him stedfastly and the God of peace will not only bind but bruise him under your feet shortly 1 Pet. 5.8 9. 2 Cor. 2.7 cum 11. Eph. 6.11 17. c. 4.27 Jam. 4.7 Rom. 16.20 Direct 3. Keep down Secular things They are like fire of place and profit in the hearth but of greatest peril when they get abroad and get up into the house Its objects they are for the sensitive part they relieve refresh it but not for the rational part they disappoint distract divide it and are not only vanity but vexation of spirit Eccles 1.14 c. Though they may feast Concupiscence they will vex the Conscience if you let them come too nigh it 'T is between Conscience and the Creatures as between the Children of Israel and the Canaanites As these get up they come down Are these high they are as low If these be the head they are the tail Deut. 28.43 44. He that would secure the peace of his Conscience must keep these Canaanites under and make them servants and tributaries He must not set his heart but his heel upon them He may not lift up his Soul to vanity He must not love the world though he may live in it But should have his conversation in heaven if he would have this heaven in his Conscience Psal 62.10 24.4 1 Joh. 2.15 16. Phil. 3.20 Take heed to your spirits then keep this world under your feet and the other world in the eye of your faith Let not the lean kine devour the fat Secular prosperity Spiritual peace Set your affection on things above not on things on the earth Mal. 2.15 Gen. 41.20 Coloss 3.2 Direct 4. Keep up your Society and Communion with the God of peace The marrow and kernel of peace of Conscience consists mostly in this Conscience cannot lift up an hand against you while he lifts up the light of his countenance upon you and nothing but your sins can hinder these shines The Lord is with you while you are with him Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him Psal 4.6 cum 8.2 Chron. 15.2 Psal 85.9 Your danger then is in being behind with him doubtless he will not be behind with you you see that he is ready be not you remiss either in receiving in or retaining of those acts of communion which are offered on his part to you or in returning thereto and reciprocating with him therein by those acts of Communion which you owe on your part to him 1 Be still ready to receive and take in whatever further demonstrations of his kindness for and reconciliation to you he shall yet tender thee He comes not without his myrrh and his spices his honey-comb and his honey See that divine Loves find you not snoring upon your beds but stirring about your business and seeking your beloved He meeteth him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness those that remember him in his ways If you 'l sleep away such opportunities or slight his overtures the very watchmen will wound and smite you You cannot put off his presence but you therewith put off your own peace Cant. 5.1 8. c. 2.1 4. Isa 64.5 Look to your receptive capacities that they be not prepossessed or unprepared The Lamb's wife had no sooner made her self ready but she had the grant of other raiment While David's heart was ready it was at rest And if thou prepare thine heart thou mayst preserve it from anxieties Then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot yea thou shalt be stedfast and shalt not fear Rev. 19.7 8. Psal 57.7 cum Marg. Job 11.13 15. 2 Be sure thou reserve with thee and repeat often to thee what former discoveries of his loving kindness he hath left with thee Review often the evidences he hath shewn and the experiences thou hast sens'd of his love to thee This will strengthen faith silence fear speaketh forgiveness and satisfieth the Soul as with marrow and fatness We have known and believed saith the Apostle the love that God hath to us Hereupon their Souls dwell in love yea in God and God in them and they neither dread law or death nor hell or judgment Psal 63.5 26.3 36.7 8. 1 Joh. 4.16 17 18. What holy challenges may the Soul now bid to all and every one of them yea what an happy conquest is it sure of over them Their united strength can never overthrow his peace while he liveth under the sweet rayes of divine love and is looking on so many pecifick pledges of an omnipotent well-pleasedness And as long as he can look upon him as the God of love he can live upon him also as the God of peace Rom. 8.35 ad finem 2 Cor. 13.11 3 Be serious and speedy in thy returns to him lest thy delay cause his with-drawing Cant. 5.7 Summon up every faculty to attend his coming and answer his loving kindness with the highest joys and thankfulness His loving kindness is better than life therefore heart and lip and life and all should praise him Psal 103.1 2 4. 63.3 138.2 Now is the time to be giving him your loves and bringing forth those pleasant fruits both new and old which you have laid up for him Now it is that he expects most the
thus plagued He as upon the borders of this crime Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency But he soon takes up the tentation Isa 49.4 Job 35.2 3. Psal 73.2 12 16. 3. To furious commotions both of their reason and passions so as to curse their birth to complain of life and to court and covet death saith Job 3. per totum Mark me saith he and be astonished even when I remember I am afraid and trembling taketh hold of my flesh My sighing cometh before I eat and my roarings are poured out like the waters My bones shook my hair stood up Job 21.5 6. c. 3.24 c. 4.14 15. 4. To fearful concussions of the very frame of nature in them I am troubled saith David I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long there is no soundness in my flesh I am feeble and sore broken I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart My soul is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the grave saith Heman I am as a man that hath no strength My members are as a shadow saith Job My bowels boiled and rested not Psal 38.6 7 8. 88.3 4. Job 17.7 c. 30.27 Conscience pours out blackness and darkness upon the constitution and this pours it back upon Conscience 5. To frightful conclusions against themselves As if all past were but hypocrisie all present were but iniquity and all future were but exclusion from mercy and enduring of misery as if it were not only past help but past hope What is my strength that I should hope saith this Soul with Job Yea where is now my hope as for my hope who shall see it My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. My Judgment is passed over from my God My bones are dried up my hope is lost and I am cut off for my part I am counted with them that go down into the pit like the slain that lie in the grave whom God remembreth no more Job 6.11 c. 17.15 Isa 40.27 Ezek. 37.11 Psal 88.4 5. Upon such precipices may the prejudices and passions of pious Souls hurry them So that their Souls may refuse comfort as if they resolved with Jacob to go down into the grave mourning and to give the Sons of Consolation but Isaiah's language in another case Look away from me I will weep bitterly labour not to comfort me Psal 77.2 Gen 37.35 Isa 22.4 Let me only add that though I have justified these Propositions I must not be understood to justifie the passions and provocations instanced I have not written this for the patronage but plucking up of sin nor for the ulcerating but healing of Souls as also that others may hear and fear that they fall not after the same examples of distrust into the same excesses of disquiet Q. 12. What if a pious Soul hath hitherto persisted in the use of such means and yet finds no peace but his perplexities rather increase what shall he do Direct 1. Abide with perseverance Give not over but go on with the use of the means prescribed thee nor slacken thy diligence in the duties shewn thee If they are means they conduce to this end and will be crowned with success in the end And if thou expect to come at the end it must be by a continued use of the means These are not wells without water nor clouds without rain They tend to peace in their native operation and shall end in peace according to God's ordinance and promise Joh. 16.33 Isa 32.17 c. 26.3 Psal 119.65 Rom. 2.10 You say then you have not declined from the means but I doubt you have either declined from Christ in them or in your care about them Let me ask you 1. Hath there not been slightness in the course of your duties You do the work of the Lord but is it not negligently How often do you quicken and convene all that is within you How often do call upon your drowsie hearts Awake awake Deborah awake awake to this holy duty If you are slothful no marvel that God and Conscience do still scourge you for you are herein guilty both of unkindness to God and cruelty to your selves for as much as every duty hath a reward in it for you as well as it is a debt to him Jer. 48.10 Psal 103.1 108.2 Jud. 5.12 Be diligent then that you may be found of him in peace He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him Their Souls shall delight themselves in fatness 2 Pet. 3.14 Heb. 11.6 Isa 55.2 2. Have not you slighted Christ in your duties You come and that often but do you come unto God by him Do you take him with you in the hand of your faith and in the arms of your love No marvel if God be strange to your Souls if you are strange to his Son What atonement what acceptance can you have or hope for but by him He is our peace Heb. 7.25 Jer. 14.8 Rom. 5.11 1 Pet. 2.5 Ephes 2.13 14. Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus from hence forwards Keep him fresh before the eye of Conscience This may fill you with confidence Christ now undertakes the case and that you shall in time have comfort Bring him in your hand and he beareth you upon his heart And he cannot be denied who hath his father's ear his father's heart Col. 3.17 Ephes 3.12 Joh. 16.22 25. Exod. 28.29 30. 1 Joh. 5.14 Direct 2. I advise you that notwithstanding 1 That you attend with patience You have need of patience of the patience of expecting as well as of the patience of enduring that after ye have done the will of God you may receive the promises I doubt your work is not done or not well done However there must be time allowed for between work and wages between seed-time and harvest In due season you shall reap if you fain not Heb. 10.36 Gal. 6.9 Durst you say with that profane Pursevant of King Joram This evil is of the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer Nay rather should you say with the Church In the way of thy judgments will we saith she have we wait for thee who in the midst of judgment remembreth mercy Yea and waits that he may be gracious to his when it will be the best season when it will be best for their Souls for the Lord is a God of judgment 2 King 6.33 Isa 26.8 Hab. 3.2 Isa 30.18 God will be known to be the God of all comfort and of this arbitrarily not at our but at his own pleasure and appointment He will speak peace and that in season in due season when it shall seem most free in him the giver and when it shall be most fit for you the receivers But you must leave eternity to take his own time and not look on it as if it would be at no time because it is not at your time The vision is yet
is and it is offered and exposed to the imbraces and improvements of your faith love patience and hope Gen. 17.1 Isa 45.22 24 25. His infinite and immutable perfections have your Souls to feast with and feed upon Your strength and your heart faileth you But if the bottle be empty the well of water which is by you though perhaps you see it not is full God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psal 73.26 Jer. 10.16 Gen. 21.15 19. Remember 't is an infinite and immutable mercy that orders you out this condition an infinite and immutable wisdom that over-rules it for duration how long for degree how far c. an infinite and immutable goodness upholds you in and under it and an infinite truth and power is bound in his own time to pluck you out of it and to make good all his promises in and by it God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10.13 2 For Christ What an abundance is there in him to quiet you yea fulness all fulness and this for you If you will but by faith fall in with him you shall receive of his fulness grace for grace Col. 1.19 Joh. 1.16 Nay in Christ there is not only matter of peace and joy for you but of boasting of triumph His preaching his prayers his promises his passion resurrection ascension c. Do all call upon you as himself sometime did in person Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me Yea he is now touched with the feeling of your infirmities in way of compassion though not of corrupt passions so that you may come boldly to the throne of grace Phil. 3.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 2.14 Joh. 14.1 Heb. 4.15 16. 3 For Christians You may fetch matter of heart-quieting from their distresses which yours cannot equal from their dignity which yours cannot exceed from their deliverance which is an earnest of yours as also from their directions and exhortations which tell you it is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. That he is the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we are comforted of God Lam. 3.26 2 Cor. 1.3 4. Secondly From the operation ends and effects of these sad troubles This I had principally in my eye and let me pitch here a little because the pious Soul is apt to pore more upon their extremity than to pry into their ends and effects neglecting the bright side of the Cloud and noting only the black and dark side Consider then these sharp throws and bitter agonies are not only to punish but to purge to prove to approve to improve and to prepare his Saints for more signal services or sufferings Of which you will see full proof in the further progress Consider then in these agonies 1. Happily they are to purge me The spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning is but to wash away the filth of the Daughters of Sion Like fullers sope and a refiners fire not to consume but cleanse and purifie them to purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged And shall I quarrel at that pill or cast away that potion which is blessed with such a sequel because 't is bitter in it self or breaks my sleep or burdens my stomach c. whence it conserves nature and cures my diseases and the little pains I feel are preventive of far greater Isa 4.4 Mal. 3.2 3. Isa 27.9 Perhaps it is to purge and so heal thy sleepiness and inanimadvertence David lay in an apoplectick drowsiness for a long time This state required strong purgatives and sharp prescriptions God therefore applieth this medicine and it effectually awakens and recovers him Psal 51. Or perhaps it is to purge out pride and stiffness of spirit And gentle potions will not do it there must be some other draught or the dose must be doubled David had enough to humble him but his heart stood it out undauntedly till God put this cup of trembling into his hand and this fetcheth all up and his heart down and his Soul-health returneth to its old frame ibid. What ever it is this may quiet that these troubles are not a ponyard to kill but a purge to cure 2. Happily it is to prove me Behold I will melt them and try them for how shall I do for the daughter of my people 'T is not said I will burn them and make an utter end of them Let it be to a Judas or a Cain an evil an only evil But to a Job there is good as well as evil These troubles were for his probation rather than punishment not at all for his perdition Thou O God hast proved us thou hast tried us as silver is tried God knoweth us perfectly and intuitively but 't is that we may upon trial know our selves and be less strangers to our own hearts or that others may know us This furnace then is not â—o destroy but to discriminate Judg. 9.7 Ezek. 7.5 Job 2.3 c. 7.18 Psal 66.10 May not this quiet you that whereas it might have been a milstone to tear you 't is but a touch-stone to try you to acquaint you more with your selves and acquaint others more with your sincerity Why doth God suffer you to wander thus long in the Wilderness but to numble you and prove you and to know what is in your hearts God might have thrown you like brands into the fire but he casts you like Gold into the furnace This affliction is not to ruin but to refine you Peut 8.2 Isa 48.10 Zach. 13.9 3. Happily it is to approve me When he bath tried me saith Job I shall come forth as gold more pure and more approved The Primitive Saints were tried with inward hâ—â—viness as well as outward hardships And why But That the trial of their faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth might be found unto praise and honour and glory Job 23.10 1 Pet. 1.6 7. Perhaps it may be to approve you to others here Job is to this day propounded for a pattern of patience to the faithful and must pray for his three friends as the person whom God would only accept He became the more signally approved by being so strangely afflicted Paul's necessities distresses afflictions stripes sorrows did but commend him the more to the Churches of our Saviour The skill of the Pilot is best spoken by storms and tempests Jam. 5.11 Job 42.7 8. 2 Cor. 4.4 11. Or beyond a perhaps it is to approve you at the appearing of Christ when he shall say Lo these