comfort yet if you abound in grace it is matter of joy Do I speak to any this day that are clouded with sin in the want of the sense of the comforting work of the spirit and cannot see and cannot feel the sense and manifestations of Gods love as others do go and pray and mourn and be humbled for thy sin and act thy grace and though you do go without the manisestation of Gods love yet in this case thou art not to be too much cast down God had rather see and hear your graces then that you should see them your selves Cant. 8 13. 4. Though thou art cast down for sin yet be not troubled in case it hath this gratious effect upon thee as to make thee to be more watchful against sin for the time to come more then thou wast before so when thou shalt be afraid of sin and to hate sin in this case thou hast cause to blesse God said the Psalmist my heart is not turned back neither have we slipped again from thy wayes all this is come upon us and yet have we not forgotten thee nor deals falsely against thy Covenant cur hearts have not turned backward neither have our steppings swarved from thy path So when you can say although God hath covered me with the shadow of death and though there is a cloud between God and my soul yet I am afraid of sinning against him and I am afraid of offending him and I have not gone out of his paths for all this in this case you may be comforted though you do apprehend that Christ hath turned his back upon you and yet to say I will not for all the world leave living upon and to Jesus Christ in a way of love and obedience Obj. 2 If it be so That many souls may be cast down for sin and yet you say that it is their sin to be so much cast down but they are to labour against this trouble and casting down for sin Doth not this nourish a principle of presumption in many a mans breast for to presume of his salvation and to make him bold in sinning against God seeing you say they are not to be troubled Answ It is true if this doctrine be not well used and wisely handled it may for as it may comfort one soul it would cause a hundred to run into a presumptious condition for in some cases God doth suspend his favour and hide his face from the soul it being for sin you have cause of mourning in this particular and that in these five cases 1. Thou hast cause to hang down thy head with sorrow thou that wantest the sense and manifestations of Gods love in Christ to thy soul and yet at that time thou dost want the sense and sight of sin thou hast a troubled spirit and yet at that time thou hast not a troubled conscience thou wantest the sense of Christs love to thy soul and yet at that time thou wantest the sight and sense of thy sins against Jesus Christ Many men are in this case there are many men that will say that they do not know whether they shall go to heaven or hell whether they are the children of God or the children of wrath whether Christ loveth them or not and yet no sin troubleth them and no guilt disquieteth them but they presume of grace and presume of pardon when for any thing thou knowest there is but a step between thee and hell and in this case thy condition is very sad 2. You that say that you want the sense of Gods love and yet not at that time want the sense of the losse and absence of that love you say you once had that mans sad spectacle that grieves for the losse of an estate but not for the losse of God when a man shall not know whether God loveth him or not and yet at that time for all this to take no care though his state be a lost state to lose grace and to lose heaven this case is sad to be in such danger and yet not to be sensible of that danger 3. Your case is sad in case when you want a sense of Christs love to your souls and yet at that time you want acts of love and to expresse your love to Jesus Christ you would fain know whether Jesus Christ loveth you or not yet never labour to know and examine whether you love Jesus Christ or not in drawing out your souls in a way of love to him but instead of loving Jesus Christ you do draw forth reginings against God against Jesus Christ when you shall be so far from trusting in him as you shall repine against him and not say with Job Though be kill me yet will I trust in him and though I perish yet I will perish in trusting in him if under the sense of Gods love you also want love to Jesus Christ your case is sad 4. At that time when you want the comforting work of the spirit and yet at that time you want the quickning work of the spirit thy case is sad when you shall not only want comfort but want grace too this maketh thy condition to be sad to be disquieted for want of comfort and to be disquieted for want of grace O look into your own hearts you that want comfort do you want grace too have you no tendernesse of conscience no remorse of spirit no love to duties no zeal for God no faith to live by no hopes in Christ to hang upon no love to Christ in thy soul no repentance for sin in this case thy condition is very sad 5. When thou hast been a long time under the losse of comfort and in trouble of mind and perplexity of spirit and yet so to live without any enquiries how thou mayest get out of this sad condition and to get the comforts you wants when it may be your comforting-comforting-work and the quickning-work is gone too to want comfort and to want grace and yet to live and not to look after it but to do as Cain did to pursue the world to pursue the profits and pleasures of this world and all for this end to stifle his conscience for to take no pains to stir up grace in thy soul and to quicken thy heart that thou mightest have the joyes of heaven and the comforts of grace the love of God the shines of Christs face the manifestations of his love and assurance of thy salvation when you shall not look after any means either of grace or comfort this renders thy case to be very sad And thus I have done with this question That the people of God have no cause to doubt though they may be cast down for sin or for the absence of the favour of God to their souls SERMON VII Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God
of justice and wrath for thou mayest want Gods face to comfort thee but thou shalt not want Gods hand to help thee God may lend thee his ear to thy prayers when he may deny thee the shines of his face it is the truth of grace and not the sense and sight of grace that brings the soul to heaven it is not the measure of grace nor the sense and sight of grace but the truth of grace that entitles the soul to glory though while you live you may be without your masters joy yet you shall be sure to come to your masters joy when you die though thou never hadst a heaven in thy soul while thou livest yet thy soul may come to heaven when thou diest 9. Consider and be not so cast down for want of comfort for when you come to heaven you shall have comfort enough God doth reserve the fulnesse of thy comfort untill the fulnesse of thy glory This is the time of thy travelling in this world and you must not expect your reward till you come to your journeys end Here you have joy and comfort for a time but there in heaven you shall have joy and comfort for evermore here in this world joy and comfort entreth into you but in the world to come you shall enter into joy and that is trascendently and infinitely more then to have joy to enter into you here in this world you have but the beginnings of comfort but there you shall have enduring lasting comforts here you have comforts by drops but there you shal come to enjoy and see an ocean of comfort and that for ever Object There is one Objection to be answered which is this and it is a practicall case of conscience Me thinks I hear some poor souls say It is true if I thought that God in his hiding his face from my soul in his withdrawing the comforts of his spirit from me if the absence of the light of his countenance were meerly an act of his Soveraignty and Power and to try my love to try the confidence of my heart in trusting in him and the strength of my love to him and the more to put me forward to look after Jesus Christ if this was so I should not be much troubled but alas what shall I do my conscience tels me that it is for sin that God doth withdraw the light of his countenance and the comforts of his Spirit and for this cause he deals with me and my conscience tells me that I have grieved the spirit of God and sent that sad to heaven and therefore it is just with God to let me live sadly upon earth and to live in a comfortlesse condition and I have committed great sins to take away my comforts and for the guilt of sin it is for which God doth hide his face and this is the sad objection and reasonings of many a poor soul Now there are four particulars why a child of God should not be thus dejected although he may be cast down under sin 1. If thou canst not retain the sense of Gods love yet if you retain the sense of your own sins for which thou hast lost the sense of Gods love to be much in the latter though thou hast little of the former to grow down ward in humiliation thou dost grow but little upward in consolation it is a great mercy Hosea 14. 5. I will be as a dew unto Israel he shall grow as a lilly or blossom or flourish and cast forth or strike forth his root as Lebanon you that do blossom like the lillies though you may not so much blossom in the enjoyment of comfort yet if you do grow downward strike your roots downward by the sense and sight of sin and grow downward in humiliation it is a great mercy it is better and safer for to strike thy roots of grace downward in growing in the sap of humiliation then to grow upward and flourish in the sense of pardoning-grace and the reason is this because the one is of absolute necessity and necessary to the saving of the soul but the other is necessary towards the comforts of the soul and therefore the one is more needful then the other if I were put to my choice I had rather want the sense of the pardon of sin then to want the sense of my own sinfulnesse the Lord had rather to see his people to be in mourning weeds then to be in garments of pleasantnesse if God doth not see thy face full of smiles yet if he sees thy eyes full of tears that is more acceptable to him though you may want the light of Gods countenance yet if you have the sense of your own sinfulnesse that doth eclipse the light of Gods favour to thy soul thou hast no cause to be too much cast down under sin 2. In case thou art cast down for sin yet if you can love Jesus Christ really you need not be discouraged when you do not know seriously that Jesus Christ doth love you yet though thou dost not know thou art beloved yet to love Christ in this time thou needest not to trouble thy self and though thou hast not seen Jesus Christ yet to believe in him and by faith to apply Jesus Christ to thy soul if this hath been thy work and thou canst say so you may be confident that Christ loves you truly though it may not be apparently and the reason is strong because that we can never love Jesus Christ until he first loveth us a man being in trouble of mind wanting the assurance of Gods love he said that he never knew what the testimony of the spirit of God meant and what it was to his soul but yet he could say that he did rest and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and though he knew not that Christ loved him yet he did desire to love Christ so I say to you although you cannot sensibly feel the love of Christ to thy soul yet if thou canst dearly love Jesus Christ be confident that Christ loveth thee 3. In case you want the quieting and comforting work of the spirit yet if you have the quick ning work of the spirit be not too much cast down thou that canst act grace although thou dost want comfort and although thou hast not the sight of thy graces sensibly to feel and find the comforts of them yet if thou canst live in the exercise of grace in this case thou needst not to be troubled cast down if it be with thy soul as with a Well that hath two buckets while one is down the other is still up so if one bucket of thy soul be down and thou be dejected for want of the sense of Gods favour and gratious love to thy soul yet if the other bucket be up in thy living and exercising of grace though thou wantest sensible comforts yet this is matter of joy and comfort to thy spirit if you are dejected for want of
thou dost desire to amend thy waies and thy doings that have not been good and to walk more close to God if so though thou hast not the measure of humiliation and casting down for sin as others have yet thou hast the end of humiliation and thou maiest rest satisfied in thy conscience If that humiliation doth imbitter sin and endear Jesus Christ to thy soul I tell thee O poor soul though thou hast not this degree of humiliation thou maiest be dear to Jesus Christ and thou maiest go to heaven for all that and I tell thee further for thy comfort there was never yet any went to hell and lost heaven for want of degrees of grace but many goe to hell and lose heaven for want of truth of grace So none ever went to hell for want of such and such a degree of casting down for sin and for want of such and such a degree of humiliation but many goe to hell for want of humiliation in the least measure and truth of it If there be faith in thee grace in thy soul though it be but as a grain of mustard-seed a little grace sprung in the soul shall spring up in thy soul to a harvest of glory as thy reward Yea God rewards the soul with no less a reward then glory for a little grace heaven is not entailed to the soul upon such and such degrees of grace to have so much faith and so much repentance and so much humiliation and so much casting down for sin and so much love to Christ though this is to be strived after as a strong faith in God much love to God c. yet heaven is entailed to weak faith a little love c. so it be true Therefore if thou findest the ends of humiliation thou maiest satisfie thy selfe though thou wantest the degrees this is the Second rule Rule 3 The Third rule why the souls of the people of God should not be too much cast down for sin is this Be sure to cast thy self upon Jesus Christ for life and salvation and then whatever comes be sure thou wilt not be too much cast down for sin nor too much dejected under it What is the great reason that so many poor souls are so much cast down for sin too much dejected under the sight and sense of it It is this because they are afraid to cast themselves wholly upon Jesus Christ and to rowle themselves upon him for salvation Though more sin requires more tears for sin upon the thoughts of it yet Jesus Christ need not shed more blood for sin Jesus Christ needs no more to die for satisfaction for sin Christ hath paid a full and compleat and sufficient ransome for sin and needs die no more I but thou hast not shed all the tears thou must doe for sin for the body of sin and the remainders of corruption that are within thee It is the nature of wicked men yea and good men too to run into extreams about and concerning sin and therefore observe this rule for it will be a means to keep you that you do not cast your selves down too much for sin First It is natural for wicked men that they will be so far from being cast down for sin too much that they will not be troubled nor cast down for sin at all but to goe on from sin to sin for to passe from one degree to another till they perish everlastingly and this they do without fear Secondly But now on the right hand good men are very apt to run into a right-hand error and wicked men will not be cast down for sin at all these will labour to cast themselves too low for sin under the sight and sense of it The Scripture makes mention of wicked men they are not at all troubled for sin as you may read in Job 21. 14 15. nothing troubles their consciences when they come to die see verse 13. They spend their daies in wealth or as the Hebrew word is they spend their daies in mirth and in a moment goe down to the grave But are they at all humbled before God read the 14 and 15 verses Therefore they say unto God Depart from us for we do not desire the knowledge of thy waies What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him Therefore depart from us Wherefore because they lived in mirth and pleasure and at hearts ease and they never so much as thought of sin and much less for to be humbled under the sense of it and therefore they neither cared for God nor for his waies so that you see wicked men are not cast down for sin at all But now good men are on the other side very apt for to imbitter their own condition by being too much cast down for sin this is possible and good men are very apt to doe it 2 Cor. 2. 7. ye ought to comfort him lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow When a child of God shall out of bitterness of soul cast himself down too much for sin As he was subject too that was by the Church excommunicated for his sin when he under this censure suffered for his sin it was the Apostles fear lest he should be born down with overmuch sorrow Therefore though wicked men make light of sin and are not humbled under the sight and sense of it at all take heed that in your mourning for sin you do not cast your selves down too much for sin and thus I have resolved these six Questions I shall now close up this Doctrine with a word of use Use 1 If it be so that the children of God may be cast down for sin though they may not be cast off for sin and may a godly man be so cast down for sin that he may cry out with the Psalmist Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Although wicked men may live in pleasure all their days and never be troubled and cast down under the sight and sense of sin I shall direct my speech a little to wicked men First O you that live in a course of ungodliness in waies of wickedness delighting your selves to live after the imaginations of your own evil hearts consider and reason thus with your own souls What are good men cast down that shall never be cast off and are they dejected who shall never be rejected what will you doe that heap sin upon sin and add iniquity to iniquity to multiply your abominations and never have your hearts to be troubled and never have your consciences smite you for the evil of your doings O consider that many may be cast into hell for sin that never have been cast down for sin and if you go on and continue in this way of sinning what will become of you But you may say What may be done or what means may be used to get
have light but you cannot see the light of the little stars so clearly as the light of the greatest so though there is truth of grace in the weak as wel as thestrongest acts yet if thy graces be weak in the exercise of them thy comforts and evidences will be also weak and hardly discerned and hardly seen Peace be multiplyed to you said the Apostle if you do not multiply your graces God will not multiply your peace if you do withdraw the exercise of your grace God will withdraw the comforts of your grace You cannot see small things so easily as you see great things he that will see a small needle a hair a mote had need have good eyes so ye cannot see small weak grace so easily as ye may see strong and great acts of grace therefore their comforts are small many men cannot see their graces and their evidences because they are like motes and hairs if you do not abound in the exercise of grace you will not be able to see the evidence of grace and injoy the comforts of your grace You know when a man is in a sound you do not know whether the man is dead or alive because his breath is not perceived and his pulse not beating so when your graces are weak and your graces little when you do not live in the exercise of grace you cannot see the evidences of grace Fourthly The suspension of his love and favour it ariseth from the laziness and carelessness and heedlessness in the performance of holy duties There is nothing in the world that is a greater bane of your graces and comforts then this is if you do deny God in your obedience God in justice will deny you in your peace and comforts he that will not work shall not eat As it is true in worldly things so it is also true in spiritual things if you do not your duties towards God God will suspend the comforts of your graces from you if you do your duty toward God you shall eat of the promised Land if you will not let the Spirit of God work and operate in you in its sanctifying work God will not let you enjoy in your souls the comforting work of his Spirit You know what Solomon saith that the slugard shall have poverty enough so you that are spiritual slugards not to do your duties towards God you shall be sure to have spiritual poverty enough in your soul for want of comfort Remember that expression of Christ in that parable in the Gospel that its the faithfull servant that must enter into the joy of his Lord if thou wilt not be faithful in thy duty thou canst not expect to be filled with inward joy Grace saith Baxter is never apparent and sensible in the soul but when it is in action the want of action must needs cause want of assurance though duties merit not comfort yet they usually rise and fall with our diligence in duty I may illustrate this by a familiar comparison there is you know fire in the flint but the fire is not seen in the flint I but strike the flint and the steel together and then you may see the fire so there may be grace in the soul of a man as fire in the flint but untill the spirit of God comes and strikes upon the soul as a flint to the steel until the spirit of God worketh with the spirit of man in duty there is no grace seen and so the soul comes to lye under the dismal workings of soul under the sense and want of the assurance of Gods love Fifthly It ariseth from this because that they do look more after comfort then they do after grace and this is the cause why they want more comfort then they need to want they look more after marks and signs that may tell them what they are then after precepts which tell them what they should do When Christians shall be more enquiring after priviledges more then to inquire after their duty it is just with God to keep their comfort from them When Christians shall labour more to know that they are justified then to know and use the means to be justified to labour more to know that they are in a state of grace rather then to use those means that are prescribed to get grace this may be a means why God keepeth them from the comforts of the Spirit And thus I have given you the first cause why Gods people are cast down under the apprehensions of the suspensions of the favour of God to the soul The second cause why the people of God are cast down under the want of the favour of God it may be from God himself God may keep thee from the enjoying of his love and favour and that 1. From an act of his Soveraignty Assurance is given out of the goodnesse of his Will and withdrawn to shew the absolutenesse and liberty of his Will For May not God do what he will with his own people God he hath by his power made the day and made the night for God doth not only give dayes of comfort and consolation to his people but also he gives nights of desertion as they are acts of Gods power and soveraignty over his people to shew that if it be the will and pleasure of God he can take away the day of comfort and withdraw and suspend his love and favour from the souls of his people so also if he will he can by act of his soveraignty give us assurance and give in comfort to the souls of his people God may do what he please and none may say Wherefore dost thou so 2. So God doth it to manifest his wisdom and goodnesse to his people for by his withdrawing and suspending comfort and hiding his face 1. he hereby doth by this means keep his people from being glutted with comforts and joy and delights should God continue the light of his countenance alwayes to them should God fill their hearts with full assurance of grace and full assurance of faith alwayes to let forth the beams of his glorious love into their souls they would be subject to be glutted and subject to slight comfort and to take little notice of those loving kindnesses of God and of those divine favours bestowed upon them therefore God in wisdom seeth it fitting sometimes to suspend those favours and sometimes to withdraw that love and favour and comforts and joyes from them that they may prize it more and retain it better when they enjoy it 2. God may withdraw his love and favour from the souls of his people out of an act of wisdom that thereby he may let his people see and consider that there is more evil really in sin then ever there did appear seeming good in the commission of sin a man will commit sin that thereby he may obtain some seeming good as to please the lust of the eye or to the obtaining of some other desirable seeming good but
an act of his power there is no such trouble nor cause of being cast down but you may take comfort under that state for that God may sometimes withdraw and suspend his love and favour meerly upon an act of his power In peace-offerings there was oyle mixt not so in sin offerings because there is no peace nor comfort in suffering for our faults as God to shew the goodnesse of his Will sometimes gives assurance so to shew the absolutenesse and liberty of his Will he sometimes withdraws it You read of the desertion of the Church in Cant. 5. 5 6. I rose up to open to my beloved but my beloved was gone he had withdrawn himself my soul failed when he spake I sought him but I could not find him I called him but he gave me no answer Now this was an act of Justice in Christ to withdraw himself Jesus Christ he knocked until his head was filled with the dew and his locks with the drops of the night and yet she would not open to him therefore Christ as an act of Justice might withdraw himself to punish them for sin because the Spouse would not let Christ come in when he knocked and then you read of the desertion of the Church not as an act of Justice for the punishment of sin but as an act of his meer power Cant. 3. 1. By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loved I sought him but I could not find him Now if thy conscience can tell thee that thou art careful in thy duties towards God and thy heart is upright and to labour to walk exactly and yet thou canst not see thy comforts appearing now thou mayest say peradventure yea thou mayest say without all peradventure it is not an act of Justice but an act of power that he withdraweth his favour and the light of his countenance from thy soul 2. God may withdraw his love and favour from the soul not for any displeasure that he hath to them but out of an act of love to try his own peoples love to him as a mother a tender-hearted mother many times runs behind the door from her child in a corner and hides her self but it is not because she is angry with her child but to try the strength of her childs love in seeking after the mother so God he may withdraw his love from the souls of his people but it is not from any anger but from love to his people for to try the strength of his peoples graces and to try their love in seeking of him God tryes your graces strength in going after Christ and your graces love in looking after Jesus Christ it was so in Joseph unto which I may allude Gen. 42. 7. it is said that Joseph he spake roughly to them or hard things with them that is to his brethren and he cast them into prison for three dayes ver 17. Now all this his dealing with his brethren was not for want of love to them but it was to try the affections of his brethren and to cause them to call to mind their former unkindnesse Thus God deals many times with his own people he doth withdraw his love and suspend his favour and with-hold the light of his countenance to try the strength of his peoples graces and the strength of his peoples love to him see Luke 24. 28. when the two Disciples were going to a Village and Christ came and walked with them and when they came nigh unto the Village whether they were going Christ seemed as though he would have gone further but this action of Christ it was to try the love of his two Disciples whether they would presse him to make him stay with them so God may withdraw the beams of his love he may suspend his divine favour to this end to try the love of his people how they will long after him and much desire his love to their souls 3. God may suspend his favour because there may be more of Gods fatherly love in withdrawing his love then in manifesting his love in some cases unto the souls of his people and that in these two particulars 1. When a man doth injoy the sense of Gods love and that injoyment makes him to be spiritually proud then it is in mercy to with-hold his love and favour when he cannot injoy the sense of Gods love without the sense of spiritual pride it is in this case great love Job 33. 17. That he may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride from man it is in the Hebrew That he removeth his works from man c. lest men should be proud of Gods grace and proud of comforts God will keep him from the comforts of his grace and in this case it is great mercy to have the love of God withdrawn when to have it continued Gods people would grow proud a little Boat cannot bear a great Sail without sinking nor a weak vessel strong liquor without breaking some of Gods people are like to little vessels you know that little boats are like to weak vessels Weak Christians they are not able to bear strong comforts to put strong liquor in weak bottles is the way to break them so to put strong manifestations strong comforts into weak souls would soon break them God sees that sometimes his people are not able to bear nor able to use comforts and divine manifestations well and in this case it is great mercy when you cannot bear them then to be without them for then the want of comfort doth make you more eager after Jesus Christ then when you do injoy it many times the injoyment of comfort makes you to grow secure and to grow carelesse whereas the want of comfort maketh you the more eager for to look after it Non-deserit ut deseratur deserit potius ne deseratur ideo videtur deserere quia non vult deseri God doth sometimes forsake that so he might not be forsaken and he doth seemingly forsake that his people might not forsake him As it is credulis misericordia cruel mercy for a wicked man to have hopes and presumption of heaven and yet go to hell so 't is misericors crudelitas merciful cruelty that a godly man should lie under fear of Hell and yet go to heaven 2. The suspension of Gods love and favour is in love when it doth make thee to prize Jesus Christ more in the want of him then thou didst in the enjoyment of him the Lord doth many times bring his own people into great wants and expose them to great exigencies and streights that they might the more prize mercy and be the more eager in the pursute after it and not to grow proud when they have it you read Deut. 32. 13. He made them to ride on the high places of the earth that he might eat the fruits of the field and he made him to suck honey out of the rocks and oyle out of the flinty rock