to the performance of it under the fear of the greatest terrours such the terrours of the Lord are and under the incouragement of the largest promises and upon the highest principles of ingenuity A man or woman not fearing God may be under obligations to do no man wrong to give to every one his due to do good to others c. But I pray what are his obligations Let us weigh them apart and consider them with the obligations to the same things which are upon the hearts of persons fearing the Lord and who have in them this same principle 1. Others may be under the obligations of humane Laws and blessed be God for them to them we are beholden that there are in the world no more murthers thefts and other disorders to the utter confusion of humane society Men are afraid of the Ax the Gallows c. But alas what is the force of these compared with the terrour of everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels If he be under an obligation to avoid these enormous disorders in humane society who is only awed from them with the fear of a Gaol or Gallows what is he think you who is afraid of being tormented in Hell by the wrath of God to all eternity Where the worm never dieth and the fire never goeth out It is true there is the same obligation upon him that feareth not God he is in danger of Hell fire but it is the person fearing God who alone firmly and fixedly believeth any such thing Others if they do not laugh and mock at such things yet very faintly assent to Propositions of such a nature 2. Obligations may lie upon others to just and vertuous actions from the rational beauty and comeliness of a just and sober conversation above one which is lewd and debaucht Until reason in man be out-lawed and beasâ—ly passions and affections have perfectly subdued it moral vertue will commend it self to humane nature But what is the force of this obligation compared with the Will of God to that man who hath said the Lord shall rule over him Or to the apprehension of a Conformity by such actions to Jesus Christ to him to whom Christ is precious who hath avowed Christ to be his Master and assumed to be his Disciple What is this obligation to the consideration of a gracious man that these are the fruits of the Spirit which he hath received and in which he standeth obliged to walk and that the contrary acts are the fruits of the flesh which he standeth obliged to mortifie which if he so much as savours they will argue him to walk after the flesh and conclude him liable to condemnation as having no interest in Jesus Christ The gracious man does not these things because reason only approves them but because God hath commanded and because God doth approve them because they are the Will of God concerning him because Jesus Christ while in the flesh so walked setting him an an example c. 3. Thirdly Others may have obligations upon them to do some such things from good nature Some naturally are of more sweet and ingenuous natures than others are more naturally inclined to justice pitty mercy and this obligation worketh very high where it is found But alas what is this to his obligation who hath these things as branches of the Law of God ingraven upon his heart and that in that deep sculpture which the finger of the holy Spirit useth to make to his who hath a new name yea and a new nature given to him and from that new nature acts according to the prescript of Divine Law freely and ingenuously not from constraint Luther sometimes said of such a one Justus non debet bene agere sed bene agit A passage that had need of a candid interpretation but thus far true That a man or woman truly fearing God is not so much constrained by the force of a Divine Law in which sense it may be the Apostle saith that the Law is not made for him as compelled by his new nature and the generous principles of the new creature his nature is quite altered the things which he hated he now loveth and what he formerly loved he now abhorreth 4. Again a man or woman not fearing God may be under some obligations to just and vertuous actions which may make him a good neighbour From Honour obedience to Governours Courtesie to some who have done him a kindness or an ingenuous nature abhorring to do wrong to such as have done him none But alas what are these compared with the honour of maintaining the repute of a Christian of a child of God who is concerned to walk unblameably as a Spouse of Christ which must be presented without spot and wrinckle who is pressed to these actions from a far higher ingagement upon his ingenuity as they are the prescripts of that God who hath loved him with an everlasting love of that dear Saviour who hath not loved his life for his sake I saith he must love mine enemies do good to them that hate me bless them that persecute me and pray for them who despitefully use me Thus I shall be like my Father which is in Heaven Thus I shall fulfil the Royal Law of Love under which my Saviour hath laid me I cannot say I love him if I do not keep his Commandments 5. One not fearing God may be principled to some such actions from some hopes either from some particular friends who if he behave himself vertuously will do well by him make him their heir or for some hopes of honour credit and repute in the world and these things oft-times go a great way But how much greater is the obligation to these things under which a gracious soul is from his hopes of the injoyment of God here and the blessed fruition of him in the beatifical vision hereafter These are the hopes of a person fearing the Lord how infinitely higher than all earthly hopes of what nature soever What are all the hopes in the world laid in ballance with them how much lighter than vanity I will add but one thing more 6. A person not fearing the Lord may be ingaged to the doing of these things from some Law that he hath laid upon himself some Oath or Promise But what are these to the correspondent engagements of this nature which are upon the hearts of all truly fearing the Lord. To say nothing of the Baptismal Engagements common to others with them though better remembred by such as have not received the grace of God in vain or such as they have renewed in their daily prayers in sicknesses or so oft as they have come to the Lords Table What think you of that great engagement to these things amongst others which every one fearing the Lord taketh upon him in the day when the Lord calleth him out of darkness into marvelous light and putteth his Spirit into him There is no obligation like
he foreknew such a day he believed it he hoped for it and rejoyced So Hearing in Scripture often indeed most ordinarily signifieth much more than bare hearing viz. hearkening attentive hearing believing obeying So for words signifying Passion Thus the wrath and anger of God in Scripture when it is threatned doth not only signifie Gods just will to punish but also his acts of vindicative justice I will bear the indignation of the Lord saith the Prophet because I have sinned against him That is I will bear those punishments which the wrath of the Lord hath brought upon me So here The fear of the Lord doth not only signifie an inward awe and dread of God caused by the Spirit of God in the hearts of creatures upon the apprehension of Gods Majesty Greatness Power Glory Goodness or other Attributes but it also importeth all those external acts all that outward deportment and behaviour which naturally flow or which according to the divine rule should flow from that principle So that the woman fearing Jehovah is not only she who in the contemplation of the Majesty Power Greatness Glory Justice and Goodness of God reverenceth and dreadeth him carrying in her heart a continual awe of the great God of Heaven and Earth which makes her heart and thoughts stoop and bow at the meditation or hearing of him in consideration of that infinite Majesty Glory Greatness and Power which naturally require that homage from every reasonable nature but also in the whole of her conversation in all her actions both before and towards God and men in obedience to that principle of Religion Fear exerciseth her self in all things to keep a good conscience void of offence not daring to do any thing which may provoke this God to displeasure whom she thus dreadeth and being exactly careful to do all things which and as he commandeth This is the woman fearing Jehovah so far as we have yet discovered her But this is not all which this term importeth Once more 3. It is very ordinary as in other Writings so in holy Writ by a figure called Synechdoche to express a part of a thing for the whole Look as the Philosopher saith of moral virtues Virtutes sunt concatenatae the Virtue like beads are all strung in a chain and none can properly be denominated virtuous who in some degree or other hath not all habits of virtue So I may say in matters of grace The graces of Gods Spirit are in a chain too Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of the chains about thy neck Cant. 4. 9. A man cannot have one but he must have all of them nor from a single habit can any be denominated a gracious person in regard of this concatenation of grace It is ordinary in Scripture to find a gracious person expressed Synechdochically under the notion of one singular special habit of grace especially some one more principal operative habit Now of all habits there are none more operative than those of Fear and Love None that take more hold on the souls or whose influence upon it is more evident Hence in Scripture it is very ordinary to find an holy gracious person expressed under the notion of one fearing God or one that loveth God Divines have observed that the former is more common to the Old Testament which gives account to the Church of God under its Paedagogical estate when the dispensation of the Covenant of Grace was more terrible and the latter to the New Testament where it is more sweet Thus the grace and godly conversation of Obadiah 1 King 18. 5. of Job Job 1. 8. of the whole body of severer professors Mal. 3. 16. is expressed and so very frequently and in the New Testament where the dispensation is more sweet and gentle it is more ordinary to express the same things under the notion of believing and loving 1 John 4. 21. He that loveth God John 21. 15. Simon Son of Jonas James 2. 5. lovest thou me Jam. 1. 12. To them that love him 2 Tim. 4. 8. Those that love his appearance So Rom. 8. 28. and in many other places But yet though as the Apostle speaketh we be come now to Mount Sion and we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but the spirit of Adoption teaching us to cry Abba Father And as the Apostle saith Perfect love casteth out fear Yet those texts must not be understood of an awfull reverential fear and dread of God such as even the holy Angels have Nor yet of that filial fear of God which every child of God hath and must carry with him even to the gates of Heaven but only of servile slavish fear for even under the New Testament we shall find the servants of God expressed under this Notion A godly man in Thesi is thus described One that feareth God and worketh Act. 10. 35. Act. 10. 22. Righteousness So also Act. 13. 26. Cornelius in particular is thus described A man that feareth God and we shall find that the fear of God is so eminently necessary to the constitution of a godly man that any wickedness by warrant of Scripture may be presumed of those that want it Abraham thus excused himself to Abimelech for his not trusting his people with his life and the honour of Sarah I said the fear of God was not in this Gen. 20. â—1 place And on the other side Joseph gives this as a sufficient security to his brethren that whatever they feared he would do them no wrong This do and live For I fear God Gen. 42. 18 So that you see it is but a reasonable figurative way to express the whole of inherent grace under the notion of The fear of the Lord and to express the whole course practice and exercise of godliness under this single habit or act as a common head and this I think enough to have spoken for the explication of the subject in the Proposition and to give you the true notion of a woman or a person fearing the Lord or as the Hebrew phrase in the Text is The fear of the Lord. It is in short An eminently gracious godly woman Or if you will you may take it more largely thus A woman or a person who being possessed of all the graces of the holy Spirit of God communicated in regeneration and being grown up to some degree of perfection in those spiritual habits eminently lives in a diligent caution and taking heed of whatsoever is contrary to the holy will of God and a diligent and exact performance of all those duties of an holy life and conversation which those sacred principles command and produce in obedience to the whole revealed will of God This is the woman of whom this text speaketh The Woman the fear of Jehovah Let me now come to the second thing to inquire what is said of this person That which in short is said of
There is a bundle of Principles some of which have grown too fast too in these evil times which are calculated for the very Meridian of Atheism and devised as if it had been on purpose to banish all dread of God out of mens hearts That things are not ordered by Providence but come in a meer series and succession of necessary natural causes That there are no spirits no such things as indications of divine wrath That there is no Judgement to be made from Providences If we should see the Earth open and swallow up Corah Dathan and Abiram yet there is nothing to be concluded but these may be as honest men as those that do not go down quick into the pit These and such like Principles are Doctrines devised on purpose to make men faces of Brass that they might not blush and necks of Iron that they might not bow at any divine rebukes but might out-face God to the utmost until he tear them in pieces and there be none to deliver 2. Secondly Take heed of customary sinning against God Frequency in sin taketh away the sense of it and a custom of daring God makes men to forget all kind of fear and dread of the Divine Majesty Sin naturally hardens the heart and takes away all natural modesty 4. Fourthly Nothing so contributes to fear as faith Both faith of assent and faith of adherence Faith of assent is that habit by which we give assent to the Proposition of the word Faith of Reliance is a gracious habit by which we rest upon the person of the Mediatour Either of these hath an influence upon us to beget this fear and dread of God in our souls The one as it perswades us of the truth of what the Scripture reveals concerning the Glory and Majesty of God concerning his Purity and Holiness concerning his Justice and Severity all which represent God unto us as the true and proper object of our fear The other as it uniteth us to Christ and endeareth him to our soâ—ls and so layeth us under a sacred awe of sinning against him as we naturally fear to offend any person whom we dearly and intirely love and honour It is true the Apostle saith Rom. 8. We have not received the spirit for bondage again to fear And again Perfect love casteth out fear But those texts must be understood not of a filial reverential fear but of a slavish servile fear our daily experience teacheth us that the more intirely we love any person the more we fear to offend and grieve them and to do any thing which we think they will take ill at our hands Faith therefore as it is the root of hope and love so it is the kindest root of filial and ingenuous fear 5. Lastly Beg this Grace of God It is a plant of our heavenly Fathers it is a part of Gods Covenant I will put my fear into their heart that they shall never depart from me O beg of God that he would bestow his fear upon you The fear of God is prima gratia saith Bernard torius Religionis exordium radix est custos omnium bonorum i. e. The fear of the Lord is the first grace the very beginning of all Religion the root and the keeper of all good things therefore pray that above all things God would bestow this grace upon your souls But I shall add no more to the first branch of the Exhortation Let me in the next place speak to you in whom God hath created this fear of his great and glorious Name Two things this Doctrine calleth to you for 1. To grow in this excellent habit 2. To live like excellent persons 1. Labour to grow in this excellent habit There is a fear of God in which the more perfect a Christian is the more he decreaseth in it This is that servile and slavish fear which I mentioned dreading God as a Judge an Enemy one that can cast both body and soul into Hell fire The more a soul grows up into communion with God and into an assurance of union with him the more this fear dieth and weareth out of his soul It is a dread of God which attendeth the spirit of bondage and much possesseth the soul in the moment of its conversion and wears off as the soul comes to receive the spirit of Adoption touching it to cry Abba Father and groweth moâ—â— perfect in Love But there is another fear which as the soul groweth more perfect in love and in the exercise of grace the more this groweth up and increaseth in the soul this is that fearing of the Lord and his goodness of which the Scripture speaks Such a fear as the tender wife fears her husband with and the dutiful child its Parent who he knows intâ—rely loves him he feareth not his Fathers rod but he fears his frown he fears the change of his countenance towards him This is that habit of fear in which I would have you to grow 2. And as in this habit so in the performance of all acts and exercises by which you may testifiethis your reverencing of the great God of Heaven and Earth The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom saith Solomon it is both the beginning and the perfection of it The fear of the Lord is a grace necessary at all times especially in evil times Cyril saith that the soul that is full of the fear of the Lord velut nâ—uro obsepta fortis est is strong as a City guarded with a wall and in a manner invincible 2. This Doctrine calleth to you to live like excellent persons I hinted the reason of this before every one should live ratably to his honour and dignity Persons fearing God are the most excellent persons they should therefore live like the excellent of the Earth distinguishing themselves from others by their lives as God hath distinguished them by his favour But I have hinted this before and therefore shall not here inlarge upon that discourse I have but one word more to add That is to the men of the world in general To them I shall speak from the advantage of what you have heard for three things 1. To undervalue other excellencies in comparison with this Learn to speak after Solomon Favour is deceitful Beauty is vain Riches commend not a soul to God they profit not in the day of wrath Why should you set your eyes upon things that are not and admire things that have nothing of worth in them proportioned to your affection to them admiration of them pursuit after them Knowledge is a fine thing by it a man differs from a beast Wisdom and Moral Vertues are excellent things by these things men out-shine men and excel each other as light excelleth darkness But what are all these to the fear of the Lord O then let these things ride but in the second Chariot let the fear of God in the throne of your estimation be greater than they are Remember nothing so much
of God but our bodies shall be rotting and putrifying in the graves but in the resurrection the whole man both soul and body shall see God and be happy in the enjoyment of him to all eternity In our flesh we shall see him 2. Secondly The degrees of satisfaction we shall have there are infinitely above what the souls of Gods people enjoy here Here we see but it is as in a glass darkly there we shall see face to face here if at any time God uncovereth his comfortable face to us yet we can but see him according to our present capacity but in that day the capacity of the soul will be inlarged and the soul to its utmost inlarged capacity shall be filled with the enjoyment of God Here we see him by the eye of faith sitting upon his Throne of Grace and that fight is full of glory there we shall see him by the eye of sense upon his Throne of Glory that sight will be infinitely more glorious and beatifical Here the child of God sometimes seeth God and though nothing be wanting ex parte objecti to make him perfectly happy in that vision God being an unchangeable fulness yet much is wanting ex parte subjecti our capacities not being able to receive in much of so glorious a light there is a deficiency in our sight and such a vastness of glory in the object that we can but comprehend a little of it In short the soul in that day shall be so filled with the likeness of God that it will be impossible for it to receive any further additions Yet to obviate the mistakes of some who know not what they say As in this life the measure of the fulness of the stature of Christ is but our mark not the attainment of any soul none so pure so holy so righteous as Christ so in that life which is to come none shall be so glorious as Christ The children of God shall like Joseph ride in the second Chariot but Christ who is the express Image of his Fathers person shall be greater in this Throne of Glory than any of Gods people can be he is of his Fathers Essence the brightness of his Glory the Word his Fathers express Image who so asserts an equality of the Saint either in grace or glory to the only begotten Son of God cannot avoid a double blasphemy The exalting a finite Being to the dignity of an infinite Subsistence or the degrading the Creatour and equalizing him with a creature But this is a digression Certain it is that the children of God in the resurrection shall be filled with the likeness of God though they shall not have so much of it as the only begotten Son of God The proof of this is evident from those many phrases in Scripture We shall see him as he is face to face we shall be like him in which I have before instanced I have now shortly opened those five Propofitions which I told you were implied in the Proposition I come now to what is expressed Here are two grounds of some satisfaction from Davids example according to the various sense of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a child of God living under such a dark dispensation yea if God should call them to die under it 1. They should be satisfied in watching for Gods likeness 2. This should satisfie them that they shall in the resurrection awake and then they shall be satisfied with the likeness of God Let me shortly discourse the reasonableness of both these First I say Though a Christian should in his life time walk without the sense of divine love yet he ought to be satisfied in case he findeth God inabling him to resist sin and to hope in him and by faith and patience to wait for him and to order his conversation aright before him or in short to watch for him when he or she doth not see him Yea if God should call him to die without those sensible comforts which others have and he possibly thirsteth after I must first open to you how and how far forth he ought to be satisfied and then give you some reasons for it Methinks I hear a child of God thus replying upon me Ah Sir is this possible that a Christian should be satisfied without the sense of Gods love a child that tenderly loves his Parent satisfied under his frown a wife under jealousies of her husbands love Are these things possible Can a soul be satisfied so long as it is crying out where is my God become Can a soul awakened to a sense of eternity be satisfied to leave the earth and go it knows not whither This is an hard chapter an hard saying who can hear it 1. I answer when I say a Christian should be satisfied my meaning is not that he should be so contented with such a dispensation as not to desire an alteration of it This is indeed plainly impossible that a Christian awakened to consider what the love of God to the soul is worth should live without desires of the manifestations of it to him they may be thus satisfied that never felt any thing of Gods wrath nor were ever warmed with any beams of his special favour but he that hath ever lived under any feeling of the wrath of God or that hath ever been perswaded of the love of God or felt any thing of the warm influences of it can never be in this sense satisfied he must pant and breath and thirst after Gods manifestations of himself to his soul and use all possible means for the obtaining of it 2. But as there is a Satisfaction of complacence and delight exclusive of any motions any indeavours any desires for an alteration so there is a Satisfaction of content in opposition to murmuring repining distrust and unbelief and in this sense he ought to be satisfied that is 1. Not to murmure and repine against God as not just or wise or good 2. Not to distrust God not to give over waiting upon him crying to him doing his duty not to despond and cast away his hope in God as to his eternal salvation for want of these sensible manifestations he ought to be so far satisfied as to be thankful for such influences of grace as he hath and with a meek and quiet spirit to commit himself to the good will and pleasure of God to trust in the Name of the Lord and to stay upon his God to continue waiting upon God and praying and ordering his conversation so aright that he may see the Lords solvation Thus far satisfied a Christian under these circumstances ought to be 1. First Because he hath what may reasonably give him satisfaction notwithstanding his want of such more sensible and comfortable reflections If you ask me what that is I answer that which the Apostle calleth A sure word of promise a word which shall not pass away though Heaven and Earth pass away Gods word of promise is security
truth in the Scripture but I mean that faith which the Apostle calls The faith of Gods Elect Justifying faith It was indeed an unwary description which some ancient Divines gave of justifying faith calling it a full perswasion of the Love of God and it may be much occasioned by the heat of their opposition to the jejune faith of Papists who would make justifying faith to be assent to the Proposition of the Word it is likely their so describing justifying faith gave too much advantage to the Antinomian notion who to this day will understand nothing of faith under plerophory or full perswasion but undoubtedly the act of justifying faith lyes lower in receiving Christ believing in him relying upon him committing our selves unto him c. Nor can the other be the act of faith that justifieth being not to be found but in souls that are justified For how can any soul whom God doth not love in Jesus Christ be fully and justly perswaded of his love Now the Lord loveth the righteous until the soul be made righteous through the imputed righteousness of Christ it can be no object of divine love That soul who hath opened his Will through divine grace to receive and embrace Christ as tendered in the Gospel that is perswaded to rest hang trust rely commit its self to him and him alone for salvation that soul truly believeth Now this the soul doth that watcheth for Gods likeness though it want sensible comforts Nay this faith is strong faith It is the note of a late eminent servant of God that faith is so much the stronger by how much the fewer externals it needs to support it It was said of Abraham that he was strong in the Rom. 4. 18 19 20 21. faith giving glory to God Wherein did the strength of Abrahams faith appear v. 18. He staggered not at the promise he against hope believed in hope he had nothing of sense to help his faith his faith stood meerly upon the strength of the word he had a word of promise and he staggered not at the promise he was so far from having any help to his faith from sense that he had all the discouragement and hinderance imaginable the matter to be believed was that God would give him a Son for this he had the word of God Thou shalt have a Son saith God his wife was past child-bearing her womb was dead insomuch that she laughed when she Gen. 18. 12. heard the promise and said Shall I of a surety bear a child who am old Abraham himself was beyond the age in which ordinarily children are begot he was an hundred years old But though he had no incouragement but all imaginable discouragement from sense both on his own and on his wives part yet saith the Apostle he distrusted not he staggered not at the promise through unbelief Thus he was strong in faith and thus he gave glory to God saith the Apostle giving him the honour of his power of his truth and faithfulness c. and this faith was imputed to him for righteousness v. 21 22. Now if the weakest faith being true be sufficient to carry the soul to Heaven much more shall a strong faith such a faith as that of Abraham the Father of the faithful do it 6. Lastly Will it not satisfie thee Christian to tell thee thou art blessed I have a good warrant to do that Joh. 20. 19. They are the words of our Saviour to Thomas Thou hast seen saith our Lord therefore thou hast believed blessed are they that have not seen and yet believed You are even out of Christs mouth more blessed believing when you do not see than those are who see and therefore believe But I shall enlarge no more upon this first ground of satisfaction for Christians walking in the dark and seeing no light I proceed to the second from the word considered as it signifies to awake 2. It ought to satisfie Christians walking in the dark as to sensible consolations to consider that when in the resurrection they shall awake they shall be satisfied with the likeness of God There is nothing more needful for the explication of the Proposition than I have already said in the opening of some or other of the Propositions In short the substance of what I intend is this that if it so pleaseth God that any child of his should not only spend a great part of his life without any sensible comforts any witnessings of the Spirit to his spirit Nay if the Lord should call him to die without such sensible evidences yet he ought not to repine or murmure against God but to be silent before him and trust in him chearfully considering that though he dieth he shall rise again from the dead and in the resurrection he shall be fully and abundantly satisfied with Gods full and glorious manifestations of himself unto him when he shall be blessed in the full and glorious enjoyment of God to all eternity 1. This is that which God hath agreed with us for this is the penny for which he hath contracted But of this I spake before 2. This is infinitely more than any child of God hath merited or can merit at Gods hand It will be a great piece of the work of the Saints in Heaven to admire that rich and infinite grace which hath brought them thither Yea though we should never see Gods face till we come in Heaven yet we shall see free grace magnified in bringing us thither at last 3. Lastly The satisfaction which the soul shall meet with when it comes in Heaven will be infinitely more than will make us amends for all the dissatisfactions all the hours of sadness and darkness we have met with in this life and infinitely more than will recompence us for all our faith and hope all our watchings and waitings for and upon God For our duties we value them above the Scripture rate if we count them better than menstrous cloths and filthy raggs or reckon that they deserve any thing at the hand of God other than wrath and shame and confusion of faith And saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 18. Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Every one of you would easily determine this were I able to shew you but a little of those things which eye hath not seen nor hath ear heard nor can 2 Cor. 13. 12. 1 Thes 1. 17. 1 Joh. 3. 2. it enter into the heart of man to conceive To open to you what it is to be ever with the Lord to see him face to face to see him as be is to be like the Angels in Heaven to have our bodies made like unto his glorious body and our corruptible to put on incorruption I say were I able to open these and other expressions by which it hath pleased the Holy Ghost in Scripture to express
mortal who with you could glory Of all those things which serve to fill your story Birth Breeding Beauty Riches Honours she Knew what there was of true felicity In these The strains of courtesie and wit What Courtship several qualities would fit She knew how to receive a Complement And to return it with a Grace when lent And one thing more she knew which was to call These Trifling Vanities and slight them all To her to live was to Read Hear and Pray Her life was but one constant Sabbath day She sometime went abroad 't is true but trode Act. 10. 38. Her Saviour's path she went but doing good Had she been Catholick in the Romish sense What stock their thrifty Church had raised hence For poorer Madams Oh! how many pair Would she alone have watch'd for unto prayer How many might have sate at Cards and sent Their Beads to her to drop for them or spent Their time at Playes and charg'd her with their share Of close Devotions she had had to spare She of Moguntia whom the Priest espied V. Gazâ—â— pia bilaria Lond. 1657. p. 67. Ex Coesarâ— l. 5. cap. 5. With troops of Devils riding all astride On her long train to Church they from her glass Came with her something tardy unto Mass Mean while where were the Exorcists to indure Upon the holy ground fiends so impure Had notwithstanding scap'd the purging fire If this rare Lady had been of their Quire Her early presence and her Zeal no doubt Had clear'd the hallowed soil scar'd spirits out The Holy-water had been spar'd her eyes Had dropt the lazy Ladies Sacrifice Fond Catholicks charge us no more that we Advancing Faith teach good works needless be This Protestant out-did you every one And yet lookt to be sav'd by Faith alone Love to your selves is what makes you so free And by your works you think to satisfie Her good deeds were no peuance yet their store Was every whit as great if not much more Than yours which are design'd in Commutation For Purgatorial paâ—ns or expiatioâ— Of some flaâ—gtious crimes Her purer love To Christ constrain'd her noble soul above Your Lott'ry deeds you 'd nere your pence throw down Did not you vainly hope to draw a Crown You put your Alms to interest for gain She lent she gave and lookt for naught again You in Devotions who were wont to go To Walsingham hence forward learn to know The way to Chapplefield there you may see The place where once this Saint abode where she So long wrought Miracles of Love Far more Than your dull Colledge that was there before Thence weeping pass to Blicklin vault and there Pay your Devotions to her Sepulchre When this is done go you and do likewise Acknowledge Christ the only Sacrifiâ—e For Sin Take Heaven upon the gift of Grace Then work as she Thus you may see the place Where she abides and a Saint Frances find Can you believe 't that was not of your mind ERRATA PAge 3. line 10. read feeble Dove p. 5. l. penult r. Dinah p. 6. l. 9. r. she p. 19. l. 12. dele ordinarily p. 24. l. 1. r. from spending p. 43. l. 13. r. Jedidâ—ah p. 46. l. 20. r. their p. 54. l. 3. r. account of p. 58. l. 30. r. Jael p. 59. l. ult r. lazy p. 64. l. 16. r. excell p. 76. l. 28. r. because p. 77. l. 1. r. these are p. 80. l. penult r. on p. 86. l. 13. r. peruse Justinians c. p. 101. l. 8. r. the loss p. 103. l. ult r. all the p. 110. l. 22. r. Paul p. 121. l. 17. r. in the Land p. 122. l. 3. r. demission p. 153. l. 12. r. custos In the second Part. In the Epist Ded. p. 3. l. 13. r. Navis p. 6. r. approve himself p. 178. l. 22. r. a p. 183. l. 8. r. Root p. 187. l. 3. the verse misquoted 30 for 39. p. 195. l. 16. r. in p. 199. l. 22. r. the p. 201. l. 32. r. eternal p. 208. l. 17. r. An hungring after p. 210. l. 2. a comma at doubting p. 212. marg r. Cant. 8. 5. p. 217. l. penult r. hath done p. 222. l. 18. r. in p. 232. l. 4. blot out do p. 240. l. 9. r. to p. 240. l. 21. r. face TO THE Honourable Memory OF THE Lady FRANCES HOBART late of Chapplefield in Norwich NAtures Endymion whose Lyntean eye Did's Mistress secret Cabinet descry Who plants describ'd from Leb'nons Cedar tall Unto the creeping Hysop on the wall Who seeing Knowledge puffeth up might vaunt His held in capâ—te by special grant From the Lord Paramount who virtue vice Nature and Art what not did enterprise Remits the search t' a more sagacious mind Saying A vertuous woman who can find One of a thousand men no female mate Sure God dâ—d Male and Female good create And though the strong man armed first attaqueâ— The weaker Sex and her his Engine makes Yet God to countermine makes her also The Magazine of Arms and Champion too An Achillean Spear to wound and heal Right Weapon-Salve cause both of woe and weal And now through grace goodness in man and woman Without exception doth enter common Vertue is not monopoliz'd but mean Nor 's Phoenix masculine but Epicene Here was a Vertuous Woman Solomon Might here have had for his Deucalion A Pyrrha one where each becoming grace Ambitious of an advantageous place To shew it self agreed in one Tense To make themselves a noble residence Here you might see greatness and couâ—tesie In-laid and counterpointed equally There 's Modesty like to the Morning Rose Which Phoebus tyring doth but half disclose 'Bove them with eyes lift up and bended knee Is Closet-piety This you may not see That 's Charity on her attendant stands With chearful aspect free and open hands She in th' old dress which there you standing see Waiting on her is Madam Constancy And that below which hangeth down the crest Humility which graceth all the rest If Vertue need an adventitious praise Beauty and Honour here did lend its bayes Heroick Vertue from prolifick womb Of Noble blood by th' holy Spirit doth come If Rarity Encomiums may indite O' th' better side she was an Heteroclite Not many Noble called chosen ones All goods are rare Pearls are call'd Unions Goodness impal'd with greatness is indeed A Noble Vine and wholly a right seed How O Vinedressers for the Vine laid waste Whose shadow was so sweet whose fruit did taste So gratefully 'T is cut up branch and root Nor slip nor cion left again to sprout The comfort 's this she is no withered gourd A Tree of Righteousness Plant of the Lord By him transplanted she more fruit shall yield In the Elysian than in Chapplefield To the Illustrious Memory OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lady FRANCES HOBART late of Capplefield in Norwich OH for a Sea of tears for tears of blood Oh! for an hundred eyes to weep a flood Of waters
unweariable in her attendance upon Sermons such especially where the Truths of God were opened most lively and with least vanity and in fullest evidence of Scripture she ordinarily heard three or four Lecture Sermons in the week and three on the Lords day till her distempers so prevailed upon her that she could not attend them without that heaviness which she was loth to discover and which was her great affliction This her love to the Word argued that she had chosen the Promises in it for her portion and had cast her Soul upon them how else were they so precious to her She was indeed a Lady exercised with her doubts and fears and love-jealousies rather evidences for than against this adherence to her dear Lord. I have seen her in great agonies and conflicts and almost refusing to be satisfied but could never find that they argued more than an earnest thirsting after further evidences of divine love than it pleased God for some time to vouchsafe her She was possessed indeed of a Noble Estate and so had not that temptation as others to distrustfull cares for the things of this life yet so far as she could she exercised this act of faith never caring for to morrow nor considering what it might bring forth But freely spending her whole revenue in pious and charitable works that of it I mean which she could spare from the frugal expenses of her houshold prosessing she desired no more than to make her accounts of Receits and Disbursements even at the years end Her love to God was beyond the love of Women whether we view it in the more secret motions of her soul or in more imperate acts What sighs what heart-breaking sadness have I been a witness to from her when she lay at any time under apprehensions of any degrees of divine desertions or any suspicions of the truth of Grace in her own heart What tears in such dark hours have I seen flow from her eyes in her Closet more privately What groans have I heard from her while we have been praying more publickly On the other side if at any time she could have laid hold upon any good Word of God if she had found any more freedom of spirit or heart or felt what she judged an Efflux of divine love upon her Soul What a chearfulness did we all the day see in her countenance what freedom did we discern in her converse It was no hard matter for me from the observation of her converse and countenance in the day-time to judge how it had sared with her Ladyships spirit in her addresses to God that morning Her dread of God was exceeding great I have sometimes trembled to hear with what earnestness she would adjure me to be faithfull to her in the business of her Soul and not to suffer sin to rest upon her Her fear indeed was for some time too too servile favouring too much of the spirit of Bondage but it was afterward more constantly Filial in all things discovered by a reverential sense of the great and glorious Majesty of God and a fear of wilfull sinning against him Nor was this Excellent Lady's Religion such as to evince it to the World she was put to flee to the plea of a good heart as a Sanctuary Out of the abundance of Grace in her heart her mouth spake her whole outward man moved in a just conformity to her external profession She was exemplarily diligent and devout in all Religious performances Prayer was her great delight To that form are the first spiritual words which the Childe of God speaketh The first account we have of Saint Paul after his conversion was Behold he prayeth and this seemeth to have been the first study of this Excellent Lady In the external performance of which she found some difficulty to relieve her self in which she had furnished her Closet with most valuable English books which contained Forms of Prayer upon several occasions in none of which she could find a full satisfaction but ever and anon she was still at a loss for words fitted to the altering complexion of her spirit To help her self she procured her Pastor to draw up several Forms fitted to the frame of her Soul at several times And in this work when I was come into her Family she often imployed me but still she remained dissatisfied that she gave us so frequent troubles and that after some years owning her self to be Gods childe she should in any exigent be at a loss for words to take unto her self and to say Abba Father I humbly advised her to a praevious study of the more general matter and method of Prayer and of the Divine Promises which are the sacred Obligations which Prayer puts in suit As to the former I drew up for her Ladyship a Scheme which she kept hanging before her in her Closet to her dying day describing to her the plainer and more ordinary method and the more general matter of Prayer and commended to her some Books which gave the fullest account of the Promises After some small exercise of her self in both of them she needed her Prayer-books and Forms no longer but was able as occasion ministred it self to pour out her Soul to God according to her necessities without any further Monitor than the Spirit of Supplications in conjunction with the pious workings of her own breast And indeed after this she was no friend to Forms she judged that they could never be used with that warmth of affection which attends the words of a good Christian formed in his own heart That whoso limited himself by them would never from his performance in duty understand any thing of the frame of his heart And that no knowing person could have other need of them than as a Supplement for his own laziness neither studying the Scriptures nor his own Heart Whatever be determined as to her judgement in the ease her Ladyship for 15 or 16 years before her death would not allow her self the use of them She prayed much in her Closet Thrice each day in Communion with us in the Family She was as diligent in hearing the Word ordinarily hearing three Sermons on the Lords Day and more Lectures in the Week-day till her increasing distempers of late years more indisposed her Her Sabbath day service and the hearing of one weekly Lecture which her Ladyship at her own charge erected and maintained she continued while she was able to go down stairs yea and after that in her Bed-chamber to her dying-day Once every month she in Communion with us received the Lords Supper and that not without praevious preparation before she came and most ardent devotion when she was present at that sacred Institution Of her private Fastings and extraordinary times of Prayer I shall say nothing though in them she was not wanting Her love to the Ministers and servants of God was beyond comparison she had not only like the Shunamite prepared a Table a Bed
approvable to the reasonable nature of man than their contraries have some true real worth and excellency in them and persons possessed of them may in their degrees be justly judged more excellent and valuable than those that want them But the person fearing Jehovah is yet the most excellent person Others upon the aforementioned accounts have ascended to use the Hebrew phrase or do excel many others in the world But the person that eminently feareth the Lord hath as the text speaketh eminently ascended above them all Amongst them all there is none like to that person and that brings me to the next thing which I promised you in the explication and demonstration of the Predicate of the Proposition Quest 2. What there is in this supereminent Quality The fear of the Lord which so raiseth the price of its subject that the person which hath it by reason of it so much out-shineth others In my former discourse I gave you the just value of all valuable things in the world this only excepted which make one person in the world considerably to differ from another in any degree of excellency without making any rebatements for the accidents to which those things are subjected I shall anon make that rebatement My present work is to rate The fear of the Lord and shew you the true value of it In the general I must say of it as Job hath spoken before me Silver shall not be weighed Job 28. 15. for the price thereof it cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir with the precious Onyx or the Saphire The Gold and the Chrystal cannot equal it and the exchange of it shall not be for Jewels of fine Gold No mention shall be made of Coral nor of Pearls for the price of wisdom is above Rubies the Topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it nor shall it be valued with pure Gold Or in the words of Solomon Happy is the man that findeth wisdom Wisdom and Prov. 3. 13 14 15 c. Grace and The fear of the Lord are much the same in the dialect of Scripture and the man that geiteth understanding for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine Gold she is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her Length of daies are in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour Her waies are waies of pleasantness and all her paths are peace She is a Tree of Life to all that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaineth her Prov. 8. 11. All the things that may be Prov. 8. 11. desired are not to be compared with her Lest you should doubt what is meant by wisdom Job expoundeth both himself and Solomon Job 28. 28. Job 28. 28. The fear of the Lord that is wisdom But lest you should judge these empty wordâ— blowing up a thing beyond its due value let us but rationally consider The fear of the Lord and the person blessed with it and we shall find these were not vain words I shall demonstrate to you the superlative excellency of this spiritual quality and the person indued with it if you please with me to consider these six or seven things 1. The particular fountain or spring head from which it floweth 2. The particular subject which it blesseth â—r channel in which it runneth 3. The excellent object to which it moveth 4. The admirable end towards which it worketh 5. The noble actions to which it principleth 6. The admirable use of it not only in reference to God and our selves but also with reference to others in our political converse 7. The train of good things which ordinarily attend it I shall speak something to each of these in their order Let us first then consider the particular fountain or spring-head from which the fear of the Lord floweth The Apostle telleth us That Jam. 1. 17. every good and perfect gift cometh down from above from the Father of Lights I told you before that health strength beauty honour riches favour with men and those other things before mentioned of a less valuable consideration came from God The Lord raiseth up one and pulleth down another The blessing of the Lord maketh rich It is as true and in a more eminent manner concerning The fear of the Lord Jer. 32. 40. I will put my Jer. 32. 40. fear into their hearts God is the Author of every good gift and thing but in a different manner Divines distinguish betwixt a more general love of God to his creatures which they call his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his more special distinguishing love which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not to dispute that distinction it is most certain that there is a Will in God freely to do good to the Sons and Daughters of men which we call his Love It is as certain that this free and just Will of God is not to do alike good to all to some he willeth to shew some particular grace and mercy which he willeth not to others Upon the first account He maketh his Sun to shine Mal. 5. 46. and his Rain to fall upon the just and unjust He leaveth not the Heathen without a testimony of his love giving them fruitful times Acts 14. and seasons From this fountain flow riches honours and all other effluxes of his goodness which we call the gifts of common Providence Divines rank them under the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things for this life yea and there are some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual gifts and spiritual means such as knowledge and the fruits of restraining grace our natural endeavours only supposed such are the habits of moral vertues all these flow from the more general common love of God But now there are others flowing from a special distinguishing love in reference to the spiritual and eternal advantâ—ge of our souls From his Convenant-love and such is this supernatural quality And I will make an everlasting Jer. 32. 4. Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall never depart from me Now this is enough in the first place to evince the excellency of the fear of the Lord and the superlative excellency of the person possessed of it above the value of such as are possessed of more inferiour gifts Let us but argue rationally and after the manner of men If there be any excellency in the favour of a man or if the collation of a mans favour doth imprint any excellency upon the person upon whom it is bestowed then certainly the more any one hath of that favour or the greater and higher degrees he hath of it the more he hath of excellency The story is known of the Emperour who displeased his Courtier by giving him a Ring when he
Earth Prov. 8. 13. The fear of the Lord is 〈◊〉 â—vil Prov. 16. 6. By Prov. 8. 13. 16. 6. the fear of the Lord 〈…〉 from evil That man feareth the Lord 〈◊〉 â—â—th not only a reverence and dread of â—od upon his heart but in whom this dread worketh to make the person that hath it to take heed of every sin and to perform every duty to avoid all that the Lord forbiddeth and to do all that God commandeth This it is for a man or woman to fear Jehovah But you will say â—â— this be so where is that person to be found of whom this can be predicated or how shall any person satisfie himself that he is by the fear of the Lord distinguished from another This is a great question and the Holy Ghost having thought fit to express the whole of Grace and Godliness by this notion the resolution of it will exceedingly tend to the satisfaction of such souls as thirst after righteousness To which purpose now I shall lay down some few Conclusions which will open this thing to you 1. A true fear of God in what soul soever it is found is not only the product of sense but the operation of faith This is one great and material difference betwixt that fear and dread of God which may be found in a natural man and that which is sound in every true child of God There is a terrour and awe and dread of God which as I told you before sometimes seizeth the hearts of the greatest Atheists and most debaucht wretches in the Earth But this dread is ordinarily but the effect and product of sense the poor wretch seeth some terrible work of God and trembleth or feeleth something of the weight of Gods hand Hence as soon as the impression is off his sense the fear and dread of God is also off his heart And thus it will be with all that fear which is but the product of sense The natural mans fear is not at all caused from faith neither from the habit of faith which is within us nor from the object of saith which is without us I mean the Word of God he doth not fear God because of what the holy Scriptures tell him concerning God he believeth not that But now the fear of God in a gracious soul is the issue of saith A Christian knows the Scripture and what that revealeth concerning God and now the Lord having by his Spirit wrought up his soul to give a firm and stedfast assent to what is revealed in his Word he feareth the great God as much when he seeth or feeleth nothing of the greatness of his power in his works of Providence as when he is under the greatest demonstrations of sense It is the precept of Solomon Prov. 23. 17. Be thou in the fear of the Lord at all times Indeed he that is not in the fear of the Lord at all times doth truly fear the Lord at no time for where fear is the operation and fruit of saith the effect is as abiding and permanent as the cause now the cause of the fear of the Lord in that person is his firm assent to what is revealed in the holy Scriptures concerning God The Word of the Lord abiding the same for ever and the Propositions in it having an eternal verity and the seed of God also once cast in the soul abâ—ding at all timâ—s in it it is impossible but this soul should have a fear and dread of God upon his heart in health as well as in sickness in prosperity as well as in adversity in a time of the greatest liberty as well as in a time of the greatest straits when the Providence of God may propose the greatest objects of terrour unto him If the soul of any at all times dreadeth and reverenceth the great God of Heaven and Earth and that by reason of what the Word of God revealeth and it believeth concerning him this is an excellent sign that the true fear of God is in that soul Though it is true the various workings of Divine Providence may make this fear as to the servile part of it higher and greater at some one time than at another 2. Although the true fear of the Lord in any soul be not consistent with a course of deliberate sinning against God and defying the Divine Majesty yet it is confistent in the same soul with many sinnings both of ignorance and of infirmity If there were none feared God but such as were wholly free from sin there were no such excellent person in the world as I have been discoursing of For who liveth and sinneth not against God But I must open this General 1. I say the fear of God is not in any soul consistent with open defiances of the Divine Majesty or constant courses of deliberate sinning There are some in the world that live in an open defiance of Heaven the Atheistical blasphemer the prophane swearer and curser and such like eminent sinners Every one that cometh near them may say the fear of God is not in these persons No nor with any course of deliberate or presumptuous finning when a man is free and under no height of temptation to do this or that thing which he knoweth to be what God hath forbidden him to do and yet he will do it and doth do it and that not once only but again and again from one day to another making a course of it how dwelleth the fear of God in that soul God hath said he that doth these things shall die he shall be plagued in this life and he shall die eternally The poor wretch knoweth this and yet presumptuously doth these things how can the dread or fear of God be in any judgement of charity judged to dwell in this soul 2. But I say the fear of God is consistent in the soul with much sin either sins of ignorance or sins of infirmity Experience teacheth this 1. For sins of ignorance a servant may truly fear his master and a child his father and yet they may both do many things that their superiours would not have done if they do not persectly know their will It is so betwixt the child and servant of God and his Father and Master which is in Heaven 2. I say it is also consistent with much sinning of weakness and infirmity Sins of infirmities are of two sorts 1. Such as are of pure weakness and infirmity which are failures in such things as through our natural weakness and impotency we cannot perform 2. Such as are mixt with something of wilfulness but yet the great cause of our admission of them is some original weakness and infirmity in us Such now are those sins which we commit upon the prevalence of some affection or passion in us whether love or fear or anger c. Lust prevailed on David fear on Peter and truly it is hard to say what sin that is which upon this account a soul truly fearing
a people he is set out as turning his face toward them Hence in Scripture the people of God pray for the favour of God under this notion Psal 80. 3. Psal 80. 3. Cause thy face to shine upon us and we shall be saved Psal 31. 16. Make thy face to shine 31. 16. 27. 8. upon us Psal 27. 8. c. In this sense Cain spake Gen. 4. 14. From thy face I shall be Gen. 4. 14. hid id est from thy favour And it is by some learned Expositors observed that when the term favour is joyned with behold or shine c. it alwaies thus signifies Thus Psal 67. 1. God be merciful unto us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us i. e. shew us some token for good this is sometimes called the light of Gods countenance 2. The fear of God sometimes signifies Gods glorious manifestation to his Saints in Heaven 1 Joh. 3. 2. 2 Cor. 3. 16. where as the Apostle speaketh his people shall see him with open face face to face as he is c. I am inclined to understand the phrase in the utmost latitude I will or shall in righteousness behold thy favourable face in the influences of thy love in this life and thy glory in that life which is to come and accordingly it will not be different to interpret Davids beholding 1. In this life they behold the favour of God with the eyes of their mind apprehending the love of God in Jesus Christ to their souls and being perswaded of it according to that of the Apostle Rom. 8. 38. I am perswaded that neither life nor death nor Angels c. shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In the life to come they shall behold the face the presence and glorious manifestations of God not only with the eyes of their minds but with their bodily eyes Job 19. 26 27. In my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another Then we shall see him face to face 1 Cor. 13. 12. and as he is 1 Joh. 3. 13. I have now opened the former part of the text which I called Davids resolution I will behold thy face in righteousness c. And you see it comes to thus much O Lord it pleaseth thee in the wisdom of thy providence to prosper my bloody and cruel enemies they are full of riches and children yet they walk proudly and dishonour thy name they have a large proportion of the good things of this life and they look upon them as their portion let them do so As for me I am indeed in a low condition poor and afflicted and persecuted but I will look after righteousness I will labour for the righteousness of Jesus Christ and endeavour to live an holy life and conversation having respect to all the Commandments and walking closely with thee Though I be used cruelly and unjustly yet I will walk innocently and manage a just and righteous cause and so doing I will look towards thee and hope in thee Let others look after the favour of the world my business shall be to contemplate thee to meditate to fix the eyes of my soul on thee that I may have the manifestation of thy love to my soul here and that I may enjoy thee in glory hereafter This shall be my aim this my study though I do not now see thee yet if my soul be clothed with the Righteousness of thy Son if I endeavour to walk closely with thee I shall one day either here or in glory behold thy face if I do not see thy face before I die yet in the resurrection I shall see it When I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likeness I come now to the Explication of the latter part of the text which I told you in those words I shall be satisfied The Septuagint reads it I shall be feasted 1. The word signifies a plentifull filling The word by which the Greek Interpreters translate it signifieth such a filling as the beasts are filled with eating grass you know they make themselves very full seeding meerly by sense and according to appetite under no regulation of reason Thus it is used Hosea 13. 6. According to their pasture so were they filled and their heart was exalted To this degree are souls sometimes filled in this life with manifestations of grace Thus are the souls of the Saints filled with Gods manifestations of himself to them in glory Such sometimes are the shinings of divine light upon the soul on this side of Heaven that it knows not how to bear any more it is filled with a joy unspeakable and full of glory But in the other life Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what things God hath prepared for them that love him Yet even then the glory of the Sun of Righteousness will be above the glory of the brightest Star They shall be glorified with the same glory as Christ and his Father are glorified as to the kind not as to the degree of it we can receive but according to our capacity In short they shall be so filled as they shall desire no more The word signifieth perfect fulness and therefore Criticks derive it from a word that signifies seven which in the dialect of Scripture is the number of perfection Seven times a day will I Psal 119. 164. Gen. 4. 15. Pro. 24. 16. praise thee that is many times Vengeance shall be taken on Cain seven-fold She that hath born seven languisheth Prov. 24. 16. The righteous man falleth seven times a day And so in many other texts But further yet the word signifies a filing as with dainties as a man is filled at a feast a man may be filled with bread but at a feast we are usually filled with pleasant bread as Daniel calleth it So then when David saith he shall be satisfied he in effect saith I shall be filled seven times filled brim full perfectly filled as at a feast And indeed thus shall the souls of Gods people be filled but when and how are two questions which by the remaining words must be resolved When I awake saith the text or in awaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in watching or in being made to awake or to watch For the form of the words it admits this variety of interpretation The LXX read it When thou shalt appear unto me The Vulg. Lat. When thy glory shall appear unto me We will first consider the original word in its latitude of significancy and then weigh what it here importeth The word in the Hebrew comes from a roo which signifies three things 1. To make tedious 2. To watch 3. To awake The two latter alone can fit this text and betwixt those two interpretations I find all valuable interpreters divided The Hebrew properly is in watching or in awaking
see him and also in restoring life to our dead bodies in the Resurrection It is God who giveth spiritual life and who giveeth the aboundings of spiritual life who first quickeneth the soul and who further quickeneth it and keepeth it up in its spiritual operations and it is God who quickneth the dead Rom. 4. 17. The words thus opened afford us two things as grounds of Davids satisfaction in that dark condition in which he was Though his state was but at present sad and uncomfortable though lately he neither had seen God nor heard from him only had seen and felt the srowns and thunderings of his providence against him yet he would be satisfied 1. If he found God inabling him in this his sad perplexed persecuted state to wait upon him and exercise grace in watching for him 2. In the assurance he had that though as yet he were unsatisfied and might possibly fall asleep so in death yet in the resurrection of the just he should awake from that sleep then he should have enough of God and be fully satisfied with his likeness I have only that one term more to open With thy likeness The Hebrew word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the imaginary form of a thing Job 14. 16. An Image was before mine eyes Sometimes the real form of a thing presented to the bodily eye Deut. 4. 16. You saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire that is God did not appear to you in any real sensible shape Sometimes it signifieth some real fignature of a thing presented not to the eye of the body but to the eye of the mind to the understanding So Numb 12. 8. The similitude of the Lord shall he behold That is I will make an impression of my divine Nature and Majesty upon him by which he shall be able in some measure to conceive of and to comprehend me We cannot see the divine Essence such glory is too great for mortal eyes we are not able to fix our eyes upon the Sun riding in the Firmament in its full triumph of light much less upon his Essence whose brightness is such that even the Sun in its fullest glory is darkness to him God told Moses he could not see his face and live but his similitude he should behold he would make upon his spirit an impression of his Majesty and Goodness But let us now inquire more strictly what this likeness of God in the text is The Septuagint interpret it The glory of God I shall be satisfied with thy glory that is a truth but whether the whole of the truth I doubt Some think the Ark of God is meant which the wife of Phinehas called the glory of Israel And that David in this his afflicted state comforted himself with this consideration that he one day should again see the Ark of God the power and the glory of God in his Sanctuary We read also that when he fled from Absolom and Abiathar brought the Ark after him he bid him carry it back again if the Lord had a pleasure in him he would bring him back and he should see it and his holy habitation But I think we shall find that glorious Symbol of Gods presence no where stiled Gods likeness Others think that by Gods likeness here David understands Christ who is indeed called the brightness of his Fathers glory the express Image of his person And that David here comforts himself as Job before him that he should see his Redeemer with those eyes Those who interpret the text as the words of Christ by Gods likeness here understand the glory of God wherewith Christ was glorified after his resurrection from the dead and ascension But I take all these senses to be too much forced upon the text There are three things which I think may be all comprehended under this term 1. There is a likeness of God in us Adam was at first created in Gods image or likeness Gen. 1. 26. And in our Regeneration the Gen. 1. 26. image of God is said to be renewed in us Col. 3. 10. And we are said to be created after Col. 3. 10. the image of God in righteousness and holiness Thus we are commanded to be holy as the Lord is holy This is now the image of God within us the impression of the spirit of Grace upon our hearts by which we are made partakers of the Divine Nature I take this to be much the sense of the place Lord if thou shalt inable me in my dark hours to study and to perfect holiness I shall be satisfied though I want comfort yet I shall be much satisfied â—f I be but inabled to watch for a further degree in holiness 2. Secondly We may take likeness for Gods manifestations of himself to us by his spirit of consolation In this life we do not see God as he is but he sometimes makes gracious manifestations of his love unto his people in the sensible consolations of his Spirit reflecting divine Love upon the souls of the Saints and sealing them up to the day of Redemption Now saith the Psalmist though I do not see the Lord in this likeness of his though I want the assurances of his love and comfortable manifestations of his gracious Spirit yet Lord it shall stay me if I find thy grace inabling me but to wait for these manifestations 3. Lastly Gods likeness may be taken for the glorious manifestation of himself to his Saints in another life and this I take to come fullest up to Davids meaning O Lord though while I live here I walk in the dark and see no light while I am beholding thy face in righteousness and watching for thee though I may go down to the grave and sleep my sleep in the dust not fully satisfied not seeing what of God I would do yet this I know that in the resurrection I shall awake and then I shall be made amends for all which my soul hath suffered in its dark and sad hours under the ecclipses of divine light I shall then be filled with God I shall see him as he is face to face and my vile body shall be made like to my Redeemers glorious body Thus I have largely opened the words take the substance of them shortly David was at this time in a sad condition both 1. In respect of the persecution against him from without And 2. The divine desertion which at this time clouded his inward man 3. And the temptations which attended him in these straits In this verse he takes up his resolution what he would do and also shews us what stayed his heart and gave him something of satisfaction in his perplexity That which he resolveth to do is to labour for the Righteousness of Christ in which to behold the face of God to live an holy life and conversation and to manage his cause against his enemies in a just and
and think that the asserting of it derogateth from Christs plenary satisfaction which indeed would have something of truth in it had not God in that Covenant reserved himself this liberty If Psa 89. 31 32 33 34. they break my Statutes and keep not all my Commandments then will I visit their iniquity with a rod and their transgressions with stripes Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail My Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips By vertue of Gods Covenant with Christ for us their earnest salvation and the welfare of their souls for ever is secured Nay more afflictions as they are tokens of divine wrath and legal demands of satisfaction to Gods Justice cannot fall upon Gods people but he hath reserved to himself the liberty of a Father in love and kindness to chastise his people with rods The people of God therefore should not think it strange if they meet with these dark issues of divine providence nor should any entring into the waies of God promise himself a freedom from afflictions and trials of this nature Christ hath secured us eternal salvation and all necessary means and influences of grace in order to it but he hath not totally exempted us from the rod of affliction But this is not all The second Proposition speaketh yet more The Child of God may not only live but may 2 Prop. also die and fall asleep unsatisfied as to the likeness of God This is true both as to the likeness of God in them and the manifestations of God unto them 1. As to Gods Image in them this lies in the perfection of holiness and is so far true that it is hard to find a child of God whoever as to this died satisfied what Christian on his death-bed ever said he had faith enough or love enough or holiness enough David cryes out Although my house be not so with God And where is the soul that departing to eternity sees not reason to complain that his heart hath not been so with God as it ought to have been The best of men sinneth seven times in a day 2. But it is true also as to the apprehensions of divine love not being able when they die to say assuredly My Beloved is mine and I am his What shall we say to the great example of our Lord and Saviour It is true he knew he was the eternal Son of God that after his resurrection he should be glorified with that glory which he had with his Father from all eternity and in this respect might differ from some of his children who dying may want that certainty and only die with a good hope through grace yet in this dying hour he cryes out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Nor can we well understand how he should for us die under the curse and sensible feelings of divine wrath unless we grant that he died under the withdrawings of the sensible manifestations of divine love and certainly the Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord. Our own experience also proves it have not we known some persons of whom while they went in and out with us could say These are the anointed of the Lord we saw them walking closely with God fearing every sin making conscience of every duty serving the Lord so far as we could judge in spirit and truth and this not in a fit but constantly yet when they came to die their Candles went out in obscurity We have not seen them in that triumph of faith that fulness of joy and peace which it may be we did expect Not able to say with Job In Job 19. 26. Rom. 8 38. my flesh I shall see God nor with Paul I am perswaded that neither life nor death shall separate me from the love of God in Christ Nor is there any thing in spiritual reason to hinder it Sensible manifestations are none of our necessaries God hath no where promised that they shall not fail the soul in death Mr. Rutherford I remember propounds this to be observed Whether usually when in the time of their life the Saints of God have felt many reflexions of divine love many sensible consolations God hath not left them to die in the dark And on the contrary when any of his children have in the time of their life been full of fear and dejections c. God hath not usually in their sick and dying hours shined upon them with visions of peace It is not to be fixed as a standing Rule for the Almighty is neither to be limited nor tracked in his goings but it may be worthy of our observation Now this seemeth a very hard dispensation Gods people oft-times know not how to live without sensible manifestations of his love but they are much more at loss how to satisfie themselves to die without it May we therefore in any degree of humility guess at some reasons of so sad a divine dispensation 1. In the first place it is enough to a modest soul inquisitive in this particular to say Even so O Father because it pleaseth thee God will have us to know that the wind bloweth both where it listeth and when it listeth and that his Spirit is not less free We shall not know the hour when he will visit his peoples souls nor will he constantly come in at the same hour that he might assert his own liberty to us this may be one and indeed it is the great reason to be assigned of this dispensation 2. The Lord may have a design by it to make a trial of his servants faith It is a good faith that will long maintain a living Saint without sight but it must be a strong faith which will maintain a Christian in his dying hour without it This was the faith of Job Though he kills me yet I will trust in him This is a faith which holds out to the end and shall have the Crown of life which God hath promised It is the last act of faith to serve a departing soul Love goes with the soul into another world Faith parts with it at the gates of death the vision of faith is then changed for the beatifical vision What a man seeth how doth he hope for That faith that seeth Christ through a glass darkly hath its eyes in death quite out The soul comes with open face to behold the glory of God It argues a great spirit in a souldier to fight to his last breath And it speaks a couragious strong faith for a Christian to die believing dying hope is a good hope therefore it is given as the character of a righteous man that he hath hope in death And of the Hypocrite it is said Where is the hope of an Hypocrite when God takes away his soul Job saith that his hope shall be like the giving up of the Ghost Look as dying
men fetch their breath shorter and shorter till at last it quite fails them so are the presumptuous hopes of hypocrites the nearer they come to death the shorter they fetch the breath of their hopes till at last they quite fail them and they die either stupid or despairing God makes a great trial of his Saints faith when he calls them to die in the strength of it 3. God may have a design in it to honour his Word If we wholly lived upon sight the Word of God would not be so precious to us the Promises would not be so dear to us Though I consess it is a very suspicious comfort which the Word brings not into our souls but yet consolatory dispensations are the more special and extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit in a more than ordinary improvement of the Word Gods Word appeareth and is made very precious to the soul when it hangs its whole weight upon it being not at all advantaged from sensible reflexions I had perished saith Psal 119. 92. David in my affliction if they Word had not been my delight What an honour there did holy David put upon the Word of God acknowledging that the whole weight of his perishing soul hung upon it and it sustained him Indeed there is a secret powerful influence of the Holy Ghost tcaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply this Word But in faith of adhereâ—â—e though the Spirit be the great Author and Finisher of it teaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply the Promise yet it is by a more secret and insensible act and the Word appeareth most in maintaining that Oh! faith the soul had it not been for such a Word such a Promise such a good word of God is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation In the reflex act of Faith which giveth the soul a plerophorous evidence or a full perswasion of its evidence in God the work of the Spirit appeareth more extraordinary and glorious the vertue of the Word doth not so much shew it self Now the Lord will sometimes honour his Word in the fight of his children letting them see that it is enough to support bear up and to uphold a soul though it should never see the face of God till it come in Heaven yet the Word is enough securely to carry it thither 4. God in such a dispensation may have a design to teach his people that salvation doth not depend upon sensible consolatory manifestations Not upon the sweet application of the Promises to the soul an act wherein we have no share it being the Lords work alone and marvelous in our eyes but upon the strong and steddy application of our souls to the Promise This latter is justifying faith the other is the faith of one already actually justified We are too prone to lay too much upon sensible comforts Some there are who will acknowledge no other notion of faith but a full perswasion of the love of God and so indeed confound faith and sight which the Apostle seemed so warily to distinguish when he told us We live by faith and not by fight And again that hope which is seen is no hope and indeed cut the throat of many a poor Christians comfort who it may be all his life cannot come to such a sensible evidence Indeed the most judicious Christians are prone to lay too much stress upon these consolatory manifestations and to think all nothing if they want them Now this is a great error which the Lord may aim at the correction of in his people by such dispensations letting the soul see there is vertue enough in his Word to bear it up through the deepest waters of affliction without the bladders of sensible manifestations Enough in that and the souls application of it self to that though until it come in Heaven it never sees the face of God It is believing that carries the soul to Heaven i. e. an hungring and relying upon Christ and his righteousness alone not that joy and peace which is the consequent of believing and that too inconsistent and uncertain And indeed I do not know any one truth that needs more rooting and confirmation in a gracious heart The life of sense is the life of the Saint triumphant The life of faith is the life of the militant Christian Though God sometimes condescends in such manifestations to the infirmities and desires of his people and is pleased to give them a glimpse of glory as the earnest penny of a future greater reward which he intendeth them yet these must not be lookt upon as the necessaries of a Christian but what God gives â—s ex abundanti a pledge of future glory Sometimes God gives his children to go to Heaven in the sight of Heaven As Stephen went to it seeing the Heavens opened and Christ Jesus stanidng at the right hand of God pleading for him and ready to receive him into the glorious mansions provided for him But as this is a note of singular and extraordinary favour which God is not bound to any particular soul by promise for so God will sometimes single out a child of his unto death that shall go to Heaven without this seal that living Christians may not run away with an erroneous apprehension that these influences are necessary to salvation and upon the death of such a child of God the Lord proclaims See here my friends you of little of faith here 's a child of mine coming alone to me without the staff of sense trusting me upon the credit of my bare word Here 's one that hath not seen and yet hath believed that hath dared to take my word for Heaven Now be not faithless but believing 5. Lastly I do not know but God may sometimes do it in Justice when one who hath been made partaker of Gods distinguishing love hath apostatized in his profession or run into some degrees of looseness of life by which Gods Name hath been dishonoured the Lord may thus far chastize his Apostacy I told you before that the Covenant runs with a notwithstanding sin as to eternal salvation the unfaithfulness of man cannot make God unfaithful he cannot alter the thing gone out Psal 89. 33. of his lips But the comforts of Gods people may fail and they may for ought I know dy although not despairingly yet doubting with an a king heart and with broken bones Divines question whether holy David though stiled the man after Gods own heart ever after his fall into those two great sins of murther and adultery recovered the fulness of his comfort again It is plain by all his penitential Psalms that he lost them and especially by that petition Psal 51. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation Though the Scripture plainly evidenceth that he died strong in the faith yet it speaketh nothing of sensible consolations You have his last words 2 Sam. 23. 1. These be the last words of
greater priviledge than this is It is the happiness of Heaven to behold him as he is to see him face to face and is this no ingagement to lay upon you to seek righteousness to tell you that if you get into a state of righteousness you shall be some of them who shall see the face of God another day in glory who shall be heirs of glory and joynt-heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ Are your lusts more worth than Heaven and your carnal pleasures more valuable than the pleasures of beholding God and being satisfied with his likeness 2 Branch Lastly What you have heard may be of use to perswade you that fear the Lord to your duties under the ecclipses of divine love It is the great business of a Christian to study and know and practise what is his duty in every estate You have heard that it is the lot of Gods people sometimes to walk in the dark and see no light what their duty is under such a dispensation I have at large shewed you I beseech you that you would be consciencious in the performance of it 1. Do not murmure or repine against God he doth you no wrong 2. Do not you leave beholding God though it pleaseth not God to look upon you with such a kind aspect as possibly you dâ—sire Do not give over your waiting upon him in prayer and in all his Ordinances But on the contrary 1. Appear often before him in the righteousness of Christ and plead that with him 2. Walk close with God perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. 3. Keep your watch take heed of spiritual sleep giving way to temptation or to your own corruptions 4. Believe for that which you do not see hope for him whom you cannot yet behold and with patience wait for the Lord Never yet was a waiting soul ashamed nor a believing soul confounded never yet did an holy soul perish Do this and satisfie your self with holy David That when you awake in the Resurrection of the Just you shall be abundantly satisfied with the Lords likeness and Comfort your selves with these words A Narrative of the holy Life and Death of the Lady Katharine Courten Some useful Observations upon the latter part of the Life and the Righteous Death of the Right Honourable the Lady Katharine Courten one of the younger Daughters of the Right Honourable John late Earl of Bridgewater and late wife of Will. Courten Esq I Shall not undertake the pourtraiture of this excellent Lady from head to foot partly because the circumstances of her birth breeding and education were much the same with her elder Sisters whose Copy I have given more fully so as I should but repeat the same things again partly because indeed till the latter two years of her life she was not at all known to me and partly because that part of her life was it alone wherein she made not her self known to the world It was about the first day of April anno 1650. that her Lap having received an invitation from her noble Sister whom we have formerly in this treatise discoursed of came to spend the retired part of her life with her at Chaplifield-house in Norwich Her time of health with us was about three quarters of a year the other was her dying time I will suppose that none who knew her derived from Adam will think she was not subject to like passions and infirmities with others of the same blood but as these were not such but were consistent enough with eminent degrees of grace so neither were they her pleasure but her burthen And the Apostle tells us that we have an High Heb. 4. 16. Priest who can have compassion upon our infirmities being touched with a feeling of them having been in all points tempted like as we are only without sin I shall only copy out this excellent servant of God so far as the abundant grace of God appeared in her for our consolation and our imitation of her example Six things I observed in her in the daies of her health speaking much of the grace of God bestowed on her 1. The first was her chearful quiet thankful submission to Divine Providence I have not known hardly read of any Job alone excepted whom the Lord was pleased to blow upon with a series of sharper providences than he did upon this eminent Lady he had even made her a mark for all his arrows I have often thought her afflicted condition much parallel to that of Job he had great substance dear relations an healthful body and in a moment lost the comfort of them all This noble Lady was removed from the great plenty of her Fathers house by marriage to William Courten Son and her of Sir William Courten with whom she enjoyed a plenteous estate inferiour to few subjects of England Silver was with her as dust and as the stones of the field He gave her an Husband who was to her the man of her bosom the delight of her eyes and as the breath of her nostrils he blessed them both with a numerous off spring Thus he had made her mountain to stand strong and in this height of her prosperity she began to say I shall never be moved But it was not long before the Lord hid the face of his providence from her and she was troubled First he strips off her branches taking away one child after another until only one Son and one Daughter were left unto her Then he causeth an East-wind to blow upon her estate scattering and breaking the ships that went for treasures to the Indies every year bringing some sad tydings or other of this nature until the Lord had stript her naked and her dearest Husband was not only ruined as to his whole estate but involved in an irrecoverable debt and this noble Lady who lately equalized her greatest friends in an affluence of the good things of this life became into a condition of dependance upon them and through the violence of men is separated from her dearest relation who was now constrained in a remote Land to seek himself a City of Refuge and to secure her self from the snare of an oath which she judged unnatural it was that she retired to her noble Sister at Norwich yet in all this she charged not God foolishly The Lord had given and the Lord had taken and she blessed the Name of the Lord with a meek and quiet spirit humbly kissing the Rod of God that was upon her and holding her peace because it was the Lords doing who she freely acknowledged might do with her and hers what he pleased and she could not say unto him what dost thou Yea not only so but taken up with the admiration of the goodness of God to her seen in the readiness of her noble friends to shew kindness to her and her remaining children in their afflicted state and much more affected with this than with any trouble for Gods severer dispensations to her I
have often heard her say That she now saw more of the goodness of God in one ten pounds which a friend sent her and could better acknowledge it than she did before in those many thousands which were her own Nay when after all this it pleased the Lord to return upon her and to lay his hand upon her skin and flesh visiting her with a tormenting incurable disease yet she laid her hand upon her mouth and not only acknowledged the Lords justice but also admired his mercy and if at any time it pleased God to give her any respiration from her tormenting pains how straightened was her tongue in the expressing the thankfulness of her heart how did praise wait in her thankful soul for God Sometimes indeed I saw her troubled at Gods more external dispensations to her and that to a degree beyond what could be called a just sense of them but upon discourse with her I constantly found the cause Either a bitter reflection upon the influence which the sad providence of God blasting her dear Husbands estate had upon many other persons and families which she could never think on without tears and which she would often profess more troubled her than her own her dearest husbands and childrens concerns Or else some fears heightened in her by the advantage her subtil adversary took of her afflicted state lest the Rod of God should be an indication of his wrath the dread of which infinitely more troubled her than her low condition as to the comforts of this life upon which the Lord had taught her to set a very cheap valuation Verily it hath often startled me to suppose my soul in her souls stead and to think what I should have been under such dispensations as it pleased God to measure out to her which she imbraced with wondrous degrees of meekness and chearfulness 2. A second thing eminently conspicuous in this Excellent Lady was her exceeding tenderness of conscience and watchful jealousie over her own heart It would have made a good Christian to have suspected himself to have seen her scrupulosity of every action how wary she was in setting every foot how afraid of the least sin against God she often discovered unto me living with her under the same roof the state of her soul what she found what she wanted what she resolved upon what grievances and what comforts at any time she had but scarce ever did it without adjuring me to be saithful unto her in telling her what I judged of her condition in reference to eternity indeed the hearing her strictly charging me not to flatter her but to deal faithfully with her hath often made me tremble lest through temptation or weakness I should fall short of my duty to her Indeed she was over-jealous and through fear of sin would sometime scruple what was her duty yea her greatest duty How often did I hear from her these words Oh Sir Satan is very busie he would have me let go my hold on my dear Saviour but I am resolved to keep it until I die Sir may I not I beseech you tell me if you think I may not 3. A third thing was her admirable love to publick Ordinances She might truly say with David How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts This very thing was her great motive to chuse her dear Sisters family for the place of her recess and rejoyce in it by reason of the private Chapel where the Ordinances of God were ordinarily dispensed and she could attend them without any publick notice taken of her as best suited her present condition she was never either absent from or tardy at a Sermon when by reason of the prevailing of her bodily distempers she could not go down the stairs she chose rather to be carried down than to miss the Ordinance till her Physicians advice restrained her Nor was her carriage at Religious exercises less exemplary her outward posture discovered with what reverence and trembling she heard the holy Word of God she received the Word of God as the Word of God 4. Her secret communion with God was as remarkable Her way was not to set a trumpet to her mouth when she went to her devotions but whatever company was in the house she was exceeding certain to her hours of secret prayer and in her discourse continually commended it as that by which a Christian comes best to understand his own heart and by her countenance and discourse when she came from her closet it was easie for us who conversed with her to judge what she had been doing she was much in prayer much in tears much in reading the holy Scriptures in reading over good books and notes of Sermons which her self had taken and as we could judge by her discourse much in the application of what she read to her own soul and examining her heart by them Thus you have her copy towards God though the lineaments of her perfections in this are imperfectly drawn and much is left to be understood I omit any discourse of her intellectual and moral virtues she was a Lady of great knowledge prudence humility modesty gravity and sobriety of behaviour temperance courtesie nobleness of spirit c. but my design is to shew you how far she was an excellent Christian 5. A fifth thing remarkable in her was her well ordered tender love to her dearest relations None could by the dejection of her countenance have known that the providence of God had blown cross upon her had not some sad thoughts for the exiled state of her dear Husband sometimes darkened her joy and disturbed her thoughts nor was her love seen only in fond expressions and a fondness of behaviour in which the love of the most evaporates Her husband and childrens person were exceeding dear to her but their souls were more exceeding dear She was acquainted with no Christian whom she did not importune for prayers for her dear husband and children I remember it was her great request to me in a great sickness which she had about a year before she died when we thought she had received the sentence of death That I would not in any prayers forget her husband and children when she should cease to be for her husband that God would be with him and keep him from the temptations and pollutions of that Popish Country into which the Providence of God had driven him And for her children that Jesus Christ might be formed in them It was the great ambition of this Elect Lady that her children might be found walking in the Truth this was the portion she desired for them this the treasure even a treasure in Heaven where moth could not corrupt nor thief break through nor steal How far it pleased God to hear her her worthy and only Son yet surviving being at that time in his childhood is a living testimony who as by his religious and virtuous disposition he demonstrates that the prayers of his Mother
with her Ladiship and perceiving the stone upon which she stumbled indeavoured her assistance partly remembring her 1. Of what Solomon saith That none can judge of love or hate by all that is before him Eccles 9. 1. For it may fall out alike to him that is spiritually wise and to him that is spiritually a fool 2. Partly by minding her of what the Apostle tells us That God chasteneth whom he Heb. 12. 6. loveth and scourgeth every one whom he receiveth 3. Partly arguing thus with her If afflictions be tokens of divine wrath then health and prosperity are signs of divine love which is evidently salfe 4. Parâ—ly by remembring her of the many examples of Gods children in Scripture to whom God had wrung out bitter waters in a full cup who yet at that time when they were so afflicted were undoubtedly beloved of God and exceeding precious in his eyes Such were Joseph David Job Daniel and many others recorded in Scripture With these and such like Arguments I had satisfied her sanctified reason and judgement and thought I should have heard no more of this temptation But soon after it was inforced Two things she had to say 1. The greatness of her affliction spake more than a chastisement with a rod she was scourged with Scorpions 2. The Lords multiplying afflictions and repeating sad Providences to her seemed to argue that he had a quarrel against her Why else should he return upon her body when he had served an execution upon all she had besides To this I replied 1. That the afflictions of Gods people are not called chaâ—â—isements because they are lâ—ght or little but because they come from the hand of a gracious Father not as legal demands of satisfaction to divine Justice offended because they flow from a principle of love not of wrath and are designed to a gracious end 2. That for the multitude of them Job had as many yet was a person singularly beloved of God and one of whom God gave testimony that there was not one like him in all the East 3. That as the afflictions of Job were of divers hands and exceeding heavy so the succession of them was much like to hers God first took away his children then his estate and last of all let loose Satan upon his person and gave him a liberty to tempt him With these and such like considerations I endeavoured to arm her against this fiery dart at last it pleased him who was therefore tempted that he might be able to succour those that were tempted by his mighty power to lift her over this stone of stumbling and she became fully satisfied that she could neither from the greatness nor multitude of her trials conclude any thing against the love of God to her 2. Tempt If during her afflictions she did not also want the inward consolations of the holy Spirit but alas saith she I have no inward assurance of Gods love no sensible consolations c. Perceiving that her adversary had betaken himself to a new battery I endeavoured to direct her in the use of the Armour of God for the repâ—lling of his darts thrown from hence by offering to her consideration 1. That even Gods dearest children have often wanted these influences of the Spirit What else made David cry out When wilt thou comfort me and vestorâ— unto me the joy of thy salvation What else made the Spouse Cant. 3 1. at such a loss for him whom her soul loved What else caused those sad complaints of the Psalmist Psal 77. To this she replied That it was true but surely if she indeed had any interest in God he would not hide himself from one so pressed with afflâ—ctions as she was God indeed might thus try his children in health and at liberty but would a tender Father so hide himself from so distressed and a dying child This was hard to imagine of God who is Love I replied to this purpose That sensible consolations were not the necessaries of salvation 2. That the love of God to his children is far more seen in giving the soul necessaries than accommodating it with superfluities 3. That God is no where in Scripture tyed by his promise to Saints for the comforts of assurance to be given them in at this or that hour 4. That it is a very great mistake in Christians to judge they want the manifestations of the Spirit because they want these consolatory reflections for the Spirit manifesteth it self in the soul as well by the influences of strengthening and quickening as comforting grace and the witnessings of it That David was become like a bottle in the smoke that his eyes failed for Gods Word saying When wilt thou comfort me Psal 119. 82 83. yet he was at that time Gods child yea the man according to his heart That Job also as might be gathered from several passages in his Book often wanted these sensible manifestations at last I commended a Sermon upon that subject to her after the reading of which her Spirit was more composed and she satisfied that if she could but find the strengthening and quickening influences of divine grace she had no reason for want of sensible consolations to conclude against her self 3 Tempt Satan perceiving this fiery dart well nigh quenched betakes him again to his quiver for another arrow his next device was to perswade her that she wanted also the strengthening grace of God soon after I heard her speaking to this sense 'T is true Sir if I could but find the grace of God strengthening me unto duty against sin I think I ought not to cast away my hope though I do want assurance that I am my Beloveds and my Beloved mine but alas I want this Sir I am now at such a pass I cannot pray c. God hath laid his hand upon my mouth and I cannot open it so much as to say unto him Abba Father Observing the subtilty of this crafty adversary to perswade her from some partial weaknesses and those also much occasioned from bodily distempers that she wholly wanted the workings of the Spirit of Grace I accordingly applied my self to her She tells me it was true she had learned from the Apostle Rom. 8. 11. That if she had the Spirit of Christ she was his which way soever the Spirit as the author of special and distinguishing grace pleased to work in her and she did believe That if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwelt in Rom. 8. 11. 15. Gal. 4. 6. Rom. 8. 26. her he that raised up Christ from the dead should also one day quicken her mortal body by his Spirit dwelling in her But Sir said she this spirit is a spirit of supplication a spirit of adoption teaching to cry Abba Father a spirit helping our infirmities in prayer To which I replied 1. That this was no more than the lot of Gods children Asaph or whoever was the author of that 77 Psalm complained