the other Now what reason can those Christians give that make conscience of all their ways and labour to live usefull in all their relations and to live in the use of Ordinances and to walk close with God in all their ways what reason have they to be too much cast down for sin Therefore as you will reason for believing and comfort so also you must reason against excessive casting down for sin for to do this you have no reason you must shew reasons of your dejections as well as of your assurance and perswasions Wicked men come and ask them concerning Heaven they will tell you that they are sure of Heaven and then ask their reason wherefore they think so they can give you no reason at all therefore that is presumption So good men are apt under too much dejection of spirit to say that they shall goe to hell and be cast off from Heaven but ask them a good reason they can give none at all And this is a sin on the other side I would ask such doubting Christians upon serious thoughts because you are apt to think you shall goe to hell can you say that you have no more reason in you then wicked reprobates have And can you say that you are guilty of those actual sins that are impossible to stand with a principle of true grace and that there is that in you raigning that no child of God can have these are indeed some reasons but if these be not found you have no cause to be cast down Though you must check your own hearts for too much casting down for sin yet you must not cast off all dejection for sin for to be cast down for sin is a duty but to be overmuch and excessively cast down for sin that is a sin There is such duties that you are to put your hearts upon but not to deject your hearts excessively under And if you ask me how I shall know that these are duties I Answer in these Four particulars First You are not to check your hearts for dejection under sin when the measure of your dejection is subservient to the ends of dejection Now the end of dejection it is two-fold First It is to imbitter sin And Secondly To endear Jesus Christ And when thy dejection hath these two ends namely to make sin to be bitter to thy soul and to make Jesus Christ to be precious to thy soul then is thy dejection right thou not to check thy heart for it but to cherish it embrace it But when thy dejection doth not make sin bitter nor make Christ to be precious but trouble thy mind and cast down thy soul and drive thee away from Christ this is excessive and not subservient to those two ends and so becomes sinful Secondly You are to cherish this dejection when with this humiliation dejection for sin you do joyn with itthe sense of Gods love favour when thy heart is brought into this frame as to see sin with one eye and Gods love and free grace and pardoning mercy with an other but those that do so pore upon their corruptions and sinful miscariages as never to be able to see Gods love and free grace and pardoning mercy in the promises of the Gospel this is a sin and this you should check your hearts for Thirdly Thy dejections are not excessive when thy dejections are more for the evil of fact then for the danger of punishment when your dejection is more for sin committed then thy state thou hast endangered that is not excessive But when thy dejections are more in mourning for the state you have endangered then the sin you have committed that is excessive When a man shall commit a sin and he shall be dejected and say I shall goe to hell and lose my happy estate in Heaven and fear hell as punishment more then to mourn for sin as a sin this is excessive sorrow for sin When thou shalt mourn more for the fear of punishment of sin then for sin as it is a dishonour to God and that thou hast committed and aggravated evil it is excessive But when thy sorrow shall be more for sin and Gods dishonour then for fear of punishment if this be the trouble of thy soul thou art not to check thy heart for it Fourthly Those dejections and castings down for sin are to be entertained when they have this effect for to make thee to justifie God and to condemn thy self to justifie God in all this proceedings But when under dejections of mind thou shalt entertain hard thoughts of God to murmur and to repine and to be disquieted these thoughts are not to be cherished but thou art to check thy heart for them But when thou canst justifie God in all his dispensations towards thee these workings of spirit are not to be checked but cherished Job 40. 4 5. Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my band upon my mouth And verse 5. Once have I spoken but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further As if Job had said In my trouble of mind I have spoken often against God once and a second time against God but I will lay my hand upon my mouth and justifie God and condemn my self and acknowledge my self vile in my own eyes thus did Job learn to doe And so when you can under your casting down for sin justifie God and condemn your selves and acknowledge God to be just in all his dispensations and to acknowledge your selves vile in your own eyes then is your casting down for sin not excessive and you are to cherish it and not to check your hearts for it And thus I have finished the first ground why Gods people are cast down for sin SERMON V. Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God Question 2 THe second Question is For what are the people of God cast down and that is for the want of the apprehension of Gods love and favour and in the handling of this case I shall take this way First To shew you why God doth suffer his people to be cast down under the apprehensions of the want of Gods love and favour Secondly To shew you that though this be your condition yet there is no great cause of your dejection and trouble and casting down of soul under this condition Thirdly To lay down some Theological rules what a Christian is to doe what course to take that so he may gain the love and favour of God And Fourthly I shall lay down the use and application First Then I shall shew you why God doth suffer his people to be cast down under the apprehensions of the want of Gods love and favour that though God may love them yet they may not know that love and favour that
of justice and wrath for thou mayest want Gods face to comfort thee but thou shalt not want Gods hand to help thee God may lend thee his ear to thy prayers when he may deny thee the shines of his face it is the truth of grace and not the sense and sight of grace that brings the soul to heaven it is not the measure of grace nor the sense and sight of grace but the truth of grace that entitles the soul to glory though while you live you may be without your masters joy yet you shall be sure to come to your masters joy when you die though thou never hadst a heaven in thy soul while thou livest yet thy soul may come to heaven when thou diest 9. Consider and be not so cast down for want of comfort for when you come to heaven you shall have comfort enough God doth reserve the fulnesse of thy comfort untill the fulnesse of thy glory This is the time of thy travelling in this world and you must not expect your reward till you come to your journeys end Here you have joy and comfort for a time but there in heaven you shall have joy and comfort for evermore here in this world joy and comfort entreth into you but in the world to come you shall enter into joy and that is trascendently and infinitely more then to have joy to enter into you here in this world you have but the beginnings of comfort but there you shall have enduring lasting comforts here you have comforts by drops but there you shal come to enjoy and see an ocean of comfort and that for ever Object There is one Objection to be answered which is this and it is a practicall case of conscience Me thinks I hear some poor souls say It is true if I thought that God in his hiding his face from my soul in his withdrawing the comforts of his spirit from me if the absence of the light of his countenance were meerly an act of his Soveraignty and Power and to try my love to try the confidence of my heart in trusting in him and the strength of my love to him and the more to put me forward to look after Jesus Christ if this was so I should not be much troubled but alas what shall I do my conscience tels me that it is for sin that God doth withdraw the light of his countenance and the comforts of his Spirit and for this cause he deals with me and my conscience tells me that I have grieved the spirit of God and sent that sad to heaven and therefore it is just with God to let me live sadly upon earth and to live in a comfortlesse condition and I have committed great sins to take away my comforts and for the guilt of sin it is for which God doth hide his face and this is the sad objection and reasonings of many a poor soul Now there are four particulars why a child of God should not be thus dejected although he may be cast down under sin 1. If thou canst not retain the sense of Gods love yet if you retain the sense of your own sins for which thou hast lost the sense of Gods love to be much in the latter though thou hast little of the former to grow down ward in humiliation thou dost grow but little upward in consolation it is a great mercy Hosea 14. 5. I will be as a dew unto Israel he shall grow as a lilly or blossom or flourish and cast forth or strike forth his root as Lebanon you that do blossom like the lillies though you may not so much blossom in the enjoyment of comfort yet if you do grow downward strike your roots downward by the sense and sight of sin and grow downward in humiliation it is a great mercy it is better and safer for to strike thy roots of grace downward in growing in the sap of humiliation then to grow upward and flourish in the sense of pardoning-grace and the reason is this because the one is of absolute necessity and necessary to the saving of the soul but the other is necessary towards the comforts of the soul and therefore the one is more needful then the other if I were put to my choice I had rather want the sense of the pardon of sin then to want the sense of my own sinfulnesse the Lord had rather to see his people to be in mourning weeds then to be in garments of pleasantnesse if God doth not see thy face full of smiles yet if he sees thy eyes full of tears that is more acceptable to him though you may want the light of Gods countenance yet if you have the sense of your own sinfulnesse that doth eclipse the light of Gods favour to thy soul thou hast no cause to be too much cast down under sin 2. In case thou art cast down for sin yet if you can love Jesus Christ really you need not be discouraged when you do not know seriously that Jesus Christ doth love you yet though thou dost not know thou art beloved yet to love Christ in this time thou needest not to trouble thy self and though thou hast not seen Jesus Christ yet to believe in him and by faith to apply Jesus Christ to thy soul if this hath been thy work and thou canst say so you may be confident that Christ loves you truly though it may not be apparently and the reason is strong because that we can never love Jesus Christ until he first loveth us a man being in trouble of mind wanting the assurance of Gods love he said that he never knew what the testimony of the spirit of God meant and what it was to his soul but yet he could say that he did rest and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and though he knew not that Christ loved him yet he did desire to love Christ so I say to you although you cannot sensibly feel the love of Christ to thy soul yet if thou canst dearly love Jesus Christ be confident that Christ loveth thee 3. In case you want the quieting and comforting work of the spirit yet if you have the quick ning work of the spirit be not too much cast down thou that canst act grace although thou dost want comfort and although thou hast not the sight of thy graces sensibly to feel and find the comforts of them yet if thou canst live in the exercise of grace in this case thou needst not to be troubled cast down if it be with thy soul as with a Well that hath two buckets while one is down the other is still up so if one bucket of thy soul be down and thou be dejected for want of the sense of Gods favour and gratious love to thy soul yet if the other bucket be up in thy living and exercising of grace though thou wantest sensible comforts yet this is matter of joy and comfort to thy spirit if you are dejected for want of
comfort yet if you abound in grace it is matter of joy Do I speak to any this day that are clouded with sin in the want of the sense of the comforting work of the spirit and cannot see and cannot feel the sense and manifestations of Gods love as others do go and pray and mourn and be humbled for thy sin and act thy grace and though you do go without the manisestation of Gods love yet in this case thou art not to be too much cast down God had rather see and hear your graces then that you should see them your selves Cant. 8 13. 4. Though thou art cast down for sin yet be not troubled in case it hath this gratious effect upon thee as to make thee to be more watchful against sin for the time to come more then thou wast before so when thou shalt be afraid of sin and to hate sin in this case thou hast cause to blesse God said the Psalmist my heart is not turned back neither have we slipped again from thy wayes all this is come upon us and yet have we not forgotten thee nor deals falsely against thy Covenant cur hearts have not turned backward neither have our steppings swarved from thy path So when you can say although God hath covered me with the shadow of death and though there is a cloud between God and my soul yet I am afraid of sinning against him and I am afraid of offending him and I have not gone out of his paths for all this in this case you may be comforted though you do apprehend that Christ hath turned his back upon you and yet to say I will not for all the world leave living upon and to Jesus Christ in a way of love and obedience Obj. 2 If it be so That many souls may be cast down for sin and yet you say that it is their sin to be so much cast down but they are to labour against this trouble and casting down for sin Doth not this nourish a principle of presumption in many a mans breast for to presume of his salvation and to make him bold in sinning against God seeing you say they are not to be troubled Answ It is true if this doctrine be not well used and wisely handled it may for as it may comfort one soul it would cause a hundred to run into a presumptious condition for in some cases God doth suspend his favour and hide his face from the soul it being for sin you have cause of mourning in this particular and that in these five cases 1. Thou hast cause to hang down thy head with sorrow thou that wantest the sense and manifestations of Gods love in Christ to thy soul and yet at that time thou dost want the sense and sight of sin thou hast a troubled spirit and yet at that time thou hast not a troubled conscience thou wantest the sense of Christs love to thy soul and yet at that time thou wantest the sight and sense of thy sins against Jesus Christ Many men are in this case there are many men that will say that they do not know whether they shall go to heaven or hell whether they are the children of God or the children of wrath whether Christ loveth them or not and yet no sin troubleth them and no guilt disquieteth them but they presume of grace and presume of pardon when for any thing thou knowest there is but a step between thee and hell and in this case thy condition is very sad 2. You that say that you want the sense of Gods love and yet not at that time want the sense of the losse and absence of that love you say you once had that mans sad spectacle that grieves for the losse of an estate but not for the losse of God when a man shall not know whether God loveth him or not and yet at that time for all this to take no care though his state be a lost state to lose grace and to lose heaven this case is sad to be in such danger and yet not to be sensible of that danger 3. Your case is sad in case when you want a sense of Christs love to your souls and yet at that time you want acts of love and to expresse your love to Jesus Christ you would fain know whether Jesus Christ loveth you or not yet never labour to know and examine whether you love Jesus Christ or not in drawing out your souls in a way of love to him but instead of loving Jesus Christ you do draw forth reginings against God against Jesus Christ when you shall be so far from trusting in him as you shall repine against him and not say with Job Though be kill me yet will I trust in him and though I perish yet I will perish in trusting in him if under the sense of Gods love you also want love to Jesus Christ your case is sad 4. At that time when you want the comforting work of the spirit and yet at that time you want the quickning work of the spirit thy case is sad when you shall not only want comfort but want grace too this maketh thy condition to be sad to be disquieted for want of comfort and to be disquieted for want of grace O look into your own hearts you that want comfort do you want grace too have you no tendernesse of conscience no remorse of spirit no love to duties no zeal for God no faith to live by no hopes in Christ to hang upon no love to Christ in thy soul no repentance for sin in this case thy condition is very sad 5. When thou hast been a long time under the losse of comfort and in trouble of mind and perplexity of spirit and yet so to live without any enquiries how thou mayest get out of this sad condition and to get the comforts you wants when it may be your comforting-work and the quickning-work is gone too to want comfort and to want grace and yet to live and not to look after it but to do as Cain did to pursue the world to pursue the profits and pleasures of this world and all for this end to stifle his conscience for to take no pains to stir up grace in thy soul and to quicken thy heart that thou mightest have the joyes of heaven and the comforts of grace the love of God the shines of Christs face the manifestations of his love and assurance of thy salvation when you shall not look after any means either of grace or comfort this renders thy case to be very sad And thus I have done with this question That the people of God have no cause to doubt though they may be cast down for sin or for the absence of the favour of God to their souls SERMON VII Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God
thou dost desire to amend thy waies and thy doings that have not been good and to walk more close to God if so though thou hast not the measure of humiliation and casting down for sin as others have yet thou hast the end of humiliation and thou maiest rest satisfied in thy conscience If that humiliation doth imbitter sin and endear Jesus Christ to thy soul I tell thee O poor soul though thou hast not this degree of humiliation thou maiest be dear to Jesus Christ and thou maiest go to heaven for all that and I tell thee further for thy comfort there was never yet any went to hell and lost heaven for want of degrees of grace but many goe to hell and lose heaven for want of truth of grace So none ever went to hell for want of such and such a degree of casting down for sin and for want of such and such a degree of humiliation but many goe to hell for want of humiliation in the least measure and truth of it If there be faith in thee grace in thy soul though it be but as a grain of mustard-seed a little grace sprung in the soul shall spring up in thy soul to a harvest of glory as thy reward Yea God rewards the soul with no less a reward then glory for a little grace heaven is not entailed to the soul upon such and such degrees of grace to have so much faith and so much repentance and so much humiliation and so much casting down for sin and so much love to Christ though this is to be strived after as a strong faith in God much love to God c. yet heaven is entailed to weak faith a little love c. so it be true Therefore if thou findest the ends of humiliation thou maiest satisfie thy selfe though thou wantest the degrees this is the Second rule Rule 3 The Third rule why the souls of the people of God should not be too much cast down for sin is this Be sure to cast thy self upon Jesus Christ for life and salvation and then whatever comes be sure thou wilt not be too much cast down for sin nor too much dejected under it What is the great reason that so many poor souls are so much cast down for sin too much dejected under the sight and sense of it It is this because they are afraid to cast themselves wholly upon Jesus Christ and to rowle themselves upon him for salvation Though more sin requires more tears for sin upon the thoughts of it yet Jesus Christ need not shed more blood for sin Jesus Christ needs no more to die for satisfaction for sin Christ hath paid a full and compleat and sufficient ransome for sin and needs die no more I but thou hast not shed all the tears thou must doe for sin for the body of sin and the remainders of corruption that are within thee It is the nature of wicked men yea and good men too to run into extreams about and concerning sin and therefore observe this rule for it will be a means to keep you that you do not cast your selves down too much for sin First It is natural for wicked men that they will be so far from being cast down for sin too much that they will not be troubled nor cast down for sin at all but to goe on from sin to sin for to passe from one degree to another till they perish everlastingly and this they do without fear Secondly But now on the right hand good men are very apt to run into a right-hand error and wicked men will not be cast down for sin at all these will labour to cast themselves too low for sin under the sight and sense of it The Scripture makes mention of wicked men they are not at all troubled for sin as you may read in Job 21. 14 15. nothing troubles their consciences when they come to die see verse 13. They spend their daies in wealth or as the Hebrew word is they spend their daies in mirth and in a moment goe down to the grave But are they at all humbled before God read the 14 and 15 verses Therefore they say unto God Depart from us for we do not desire the knowledge of thy waies What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him Therefore depart from us Wherefore because they lived in mirth and pleasure and at hearts ease and they never so much as thought of sin and much less for to be humbled under the sense of it and therefore they neither cared for God nor for his waies so that you see wicked men are not cast down for sin at all But now good men are on the other side very apt for to imbitter their own condition by being too much cast down for sin this is possible and good men are very apt to doe it 2 Cor. 2. 7. ye ought to comfort him lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow When a child of God shall out of bitterness of soul cast himself down too much for sin As he was subject too that was by the Church excommunicated for his sin when he under this censure suffered for his sin it was the Apostles fear lest he should be born down with overmuch sorrow Therefore though wicked men make light of sin and are not humbled under the sight and sense of it at all take heed that in your mourning for sin you do not cast your selves down too much for sin and thus I have resolved these six Questions I shall now close up this Doctrine with a word of use Use 1 If it be so that the children of God may be cast down for sin though they may not be cast off for sin and may a godly man be so cast down for sin that he may cry out with the Psalmist Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Although wicked men may live in pleasure all their days and never be troubled and cast down under the sight and sense of sin I shall direct my speech a little to wicked men First O you that live in a course of ungodliness in waies of wickedness delighting your selves to live after the imaginations of your own evil hearts consider and reason thus with your own souls What are good men cast down that shall never be cast off and are they dejected who shall never be rejected what will you doe that heap sin upon sin and add iniquity to iniquity to multiply your abominations and never have your hearts to be troubled and never have your consciences smite you for the evil of your doings O consider that many may be cast into hell for sin that never have been cast down for sin and if you go on and continue in this way of sinning what will become of you But you may say What may be done or what means may be used to get
the soul into such a frame to be cast down for sin and to have the soul humbled under the sight and sense of it Now there are three wayes that the Lord doth use for to cast down the souls of sinners and to humble them under the sight and sense of sin The first is this God doth let in a light into the understanding and sets on worke that great Officer of God in man his conscience which doth so smite the heart and convince the whole soul of the evil of his doings and makes the man to single out sin yea to single his master sin his beloved Dalilah his bosome lust that hath made him most guilty of the breach of the righteous Law and laid him most liable to the wrath of God he singles out that sin that hath been his companion all his days God doth not only make him to look upon sin in general because a general view of sin in the soul doth work in the soul a general repentance for sin but God doth by the light that he puts in the understanding and conscience single out thy sin thy dearly beloved sin and as it were bring it to thy understanding that it may understand the guilt and weight of it Therefore you read of some in their first conversion Acts 2. 37. they were guilty of many sins that they had committed I but God by setting their consciences on work did single out one sin in a special manner the sin the iniquity that they were most guilty of and that was the crucifying of the Lord of life You have it laid down in the 36. verse Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Whom ye have crucified there was the sin that came home to them to their hearts as you may read in the 37 verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts here they were taken in the sin that they were most guilty of God made their consciences to bring that in a most special manner and this troubled and pricked them at the very heart though they stood guilty of many great sins yet God laid that one great sin to their hearts that they might be humbled for that most of all So when the woman of Samaria came to Jesus Christ when he was at the Well speaking concerning her husbands he told her what was her sin he whom thou hast now is not thy husband Christ told her what her sin was in plain terms he told her shee was a harlot and shee went and told it that he told her all things that ever shee had done Christ did not tell her shee was a sinner in general but he did single out what her great sin was for which shee was most guilty and that worked upon her heart and conscience her conscience told her she understood the truth of it and this made her to be cast down for it So now if God gives thee grace to be cast down for sin under the sight and sense of it he will put a light into thy understanding and set conscience on work for to single out thy beloved sin the greatest sins thou standst guilty of thy mastercorruption that so thou maiest be humbled for it The Second way that God takes to cast a man down under the sight and sense of sin it is this God doth stir up the affections of the soul in the remembrance of those aggravations and hainous circumstances with which that sin is clothed withall You read Job 36 9. He sheweth unto men their works and their transgressions that they have exceeded He sheweth unto men their iniquities and what follows and their transgressions which have been exceeding great God doth not only shew men their sins that their sins are great but also he sheweth to men the aggravations of their sins and it is not a Transient view of the greatness of their iniquities and transgressions but he causeth them to know it he causeth them to know that their sins are clothed with hainous circumstances as that they have sinned against means and sinned against mercies and sinned against love and sinned against light and sinned against the checks of conscience for thy sins and all this to make thee to be cast down and humbled for thy sins The Third and last way that God takes for to cast a man down for sin it is this God doth put conscience into office in men not only to single out one particular master sin but also to bring to remembrance those sins that thou standst guilty of before God and to set them in thy sight and in especial manner that master sin this beloved sin and to humble thee for it and abase thee before God until that sin be mortified in thee sin must not only be seen and the affections stirred up in remembrance of those hainous circumstances of it with which it is clothed and that they are exceeding great but also conscience must keep them in remembrance until they are mortified in thee untill that sin is subdued and mortified and these are the three steps that God doth take to cast men down in the sight and sense of sin And now all you that are strangers to this work that never yet knew what this casting down for sin meant in any measure Labour to find these three particulars wrought upon thy soul that so thou maiest be cast down under the sight and sense of sin and so I have done with this doctrine concerning casting down for sin SERMON IV. Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God NOw before I come to the Second branch of the words I shall consider the Text in the Dialect or form of speech which the Psalmist here useth and then draw out some Doctrine that the words will afford You see that the form of speech here is by way of a Soliloquie which is a form of speech to himself as between two friends Why art thou cast down O my soul From which expression or form of speech take this Observation Observation That such self-conferences or Soliloquies that the Psalmist here useth are duties that believers ought to be much conversant about and ought to busie themselves much in The Psalms are full fraught with these divine Soliloquies as you may read Psal 103. verse 1 and the last Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name And verse 22. Bless the Lord O my soul And Psal 104. 1. Bless the Lord O my soul So Psal 34. v. 1. I will bless the Lord at all times So likewise Psal 146. v. 6. Praise the Lord O my soul and many places in the Psalms of his praising God All those do intimate to us those
have light but you cannot see the light of the little stars so clearly as the light of the greatest so though there is truth of grace in the weak as wel as thestrongest acts yet if thy graces be weak in the exercise of them thy comforts and evidences will be also weak and hardly discerned and hardly seen Peace be multiplyed to you said the Apostle if you do not multiply your graces God will not multiply your peace if you do withdraw the exercise of your grace God will withdraw the comforts of your grace You cannot see small things so easily as you see great things he that will see a small needle a hair a mote had need have good eyes so ye cannot see small weak grace so easily as ye may see strong and great acts of grace therefore their comforts are small many men cannot see their graces and their evidences because they are like motes and hairs if you do not abound in the exercise of grace you will not be able to see the evidence of grace and injoy the comforts of your grace You know when a man is in a sound you do not know whether the man is dead or alive because his breath is not perceived and his pulse not beating so when your graces are weak and your graces little when you do not live in the exercise of grace you cannot see the evidences of grace Fourthly The suspension of his love and favour it ariseth from the laziness and carelessness and heedlessness in the performance of holy duties There is nothing in the world that is a greater bane of your graces and comforts then this is if you do deny God in your obedience God in justice will deny you in your peace and comforts he that will not work shall not eat As it is true in worldly things so it is also true in spiritual things if you do not your duties towards God God will suspend the comforts of your graces from you if you do your duty toward God you shall eat of the promised Land if you will not let the Spirit of God work and operate in you in its sanctifying work God will not let you enjoy in your souls the comforting work of his Spirit You know what Solomon saith that the slugard shall have poverty enough so you that are spiritual slugards not to do your duties towards God you shall be sure to have spiritual poverty enough in your soul for want of comfort Remember that expression of Christ in that parable in the Gospel that its the faithfull servant that must enter into the joy of his Lord if thou wilt not be faithful in thy duty thou canst not expect to be filled with inward joy Grace saith Baxter is never apparent and sensible in the soul but when it is in action the want of action must needs cause want of assurance though duties merit not comfort yet they usually rise and fall with our diligence in duty I may illustrate this by a familiar comparison there is you know fire in the flint but the fire is not seen in the flint I but strike the flint and the steel together and then you may see the fire so there may be grace in the soul of a man as fire in the flint but untill the spirit of God comes and strikes upon the soul as a flint to the steel until the spirit of God worketh with the spirit of man in duty there is no grace seen and so the soul comes to lye under the dismal workings of soul under the sense and want of the assurance of Gods love Fifthly It ariseth from this because that they do look more after comfort then they do after grace and this is the cause why they want more comfort then they need to want they look more after marks and signs that may tell them what they are then after precepts which tell them what they should do When Christians shall be more enquiring after priviledges more then to inquire after their duty it is just with God to keep their comfort from them When Christians shall labour more to know that they are justified then to know and use the means to be justified to labour more to know that they are in a state of grace rather then to use those means that are prescribed to get grace this may be a means why God keepeth them from the comforts of the Spirit And thus I have given you the first cause why Gods people are cast down under the apprehensions of the suspensions of the favour of God to the soul The second cause why the people of God are cast down under the want of the favour of God it may be from God himself God may keep thee from the enjoying of his love and favour and that 1. From an act of his Soveraignty Assurance is given out of the goodnesse of his Will and withdrawn to shew the absolutenesse and liberty of his Will For May not God do what he will with his own people God he hath by his power made the day and made the night for God doth not only give dayes of comfort and consolation to his people but also he gives nights of desertion as they are acts of Gods power and soveraignty over his people to shew that if it be the will and pleasure of God he can take away the day of comfort and withdraw and suspend his love and favour from the souls of his people so also if he will he can by act of his soveraignty give us assurance and give in comfort to the souls of his people God may do what he please and none may say Wherefore dost thou so 2. So God doth it to manifest his wisdom and goodnesse to his people for by his withdrawing and suspending comfort and hiding his face 1. he hereby doth by this means keep his people from being glutted with comforts and joy and delights should God continue the light of his countenance alwayes to them should God fill their hearts with full assurance of grace and full assurance of faith alwayes to let forth the beams of his glorious love into their souls they would be subject to be glutted and subject to slight comfort and to take little notice of those loving kindnesses of God and of those divine favours bestowed upon them therefore God in wisdom seeth it fitting sometimes to suspend those favours and sometimes to withdraw that love and favour and comforts and joyes from them that they may prize it more and retain it better when they enjoy it 2. God may withdraw his love and favour from the souls of his people out of an act of wisdom that thereby he may let his people see and consider that there is more evil really in sin then ever there did appear seeming good in the commission of sin a man will commit sin that thereby he may obtain some seeming good as to please the lust of the eye or to the obtaining of some other desirable seeming good but
God did not give them water but God gave them honey it had been a mercy had God given them water to drink when they were ready to die for thirst but when Moses comes to speak of this he makes mention that God gave them honey to suck because they saw the want of a lesser mercy God gave them a greater mercy so it is in spiritual things when we in our straights see the want of mercy a spiritual want of mercy to the soul O then the soul would be glad of a little mercy the least crumb of comfort then would refresh the soul The want of spiritual mercies makes us for to see the spiritual worth of mercies the want of Gods favour the want of the light of Gods countenance makes the soul to prize the enjoyment of it the want of the love of Jesus Christ shining on the soul makes the soul to see and feel and know that the love of God in Christ is exceeding precious Now when the withdrawments of the light of Gods countenance from the soulworks these gratious effects it is in great love and mercy to the soul 4. That you may not be too much cast down consider That the people of God they have alwayes ground of comfort in their souls though they have not alwayes the sense of comfort though the souls of the children of God may be sometimes without the present sense of comfort yet the people of God are never without the cause of comfort in their souls as a man hath right to an inheritance though he cannot read the evidences for it so they have a real right to an inheritance with them that are sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ though you may not sensibly enjoy your inheritance as it was with Hagar so it is with many doubting Christians about Gen. 21. She flying into the wilderness of Bersheba her water was spent in the bottle she casts her child under one of the shrubs and sate down over against it and wept and there was a Well of water by her the Well was there before and she knew it not but when God opened her eyes then she saw the Will of water that was by her So it may be with many a poor soul salvation may be neer thee very nigh thy soul and yet the soul may not have a sensible knowledge of it but may be ready to think that he shall perish for want of salvation and for want of comfort and consolation from God in Christ it is very observable what is spoken concerning Josephs brethren they had so much love from their brother that they had a testimony of his love along with them they had the money in their sacks and yet they never knew it nor never knew him to be their Brother So a poor soul may have the testimony of Gods love in the soul and the sure pledge of Gods everlasting and eternal love to the soul and yet thou mayst not know this testimony and thou mayest not know and sensibly feel the loving kindnesse of thy God to thy soul 5. Remember this for thy support that none of Gods people do retain alwayes the like sense and manifestation of Gods love to their souls but it fares with the souls of Gods people in reference to comfort as it is with the Sea sometimes ebbing and sometimes flowing and as with the air sometimes cloudy and sometimes clear and so like the season of the year sometimes winter and sometimes summer as it is in nature so it is in grace nothing in nature doth alwayes retain and keep the same likenesse at all times to keep the like perfection so it is in grace no child of God under heaven doth alwayes at all times retain and keep the same measure of comforts in his own spirit As Sampson had not the same strength at all times so a Christian hath not alwayes the same comforts 6. If at any time God doth suspend his love and favour the light of his countenance yet consider that God never doth this but he seeth great reason need for it you read 1 Pet. 1. 6. Wherein you greatly rejoice though now for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations there it referreth to the sufferings for the Gospel so I may say to you If need be you shall be in heavinesse for want of the enjoyment of Gods love in Christ if you need heavinesse you shall have heavinesse if no need of sorrow you shall have no sorrow Philosophers say there is great need of wind and thunder as well as of shining of the Sun for thereby the air is kept clear so when God doth thunder into thy soul and sometimes bluster like wind into thy soul God doth see some need of that dealing with thee to sweep thy soul from sin and the love of the world and to quell thy pride and to subdue thy lusts and to purge away that slightnesse of spirit wherein thou art apt to slight others God many times doth suspend the light of his countenance and hold from thy soul the comforts of thy graces for this end that thou mightest not be proud of thy measure of grace and sometimes God may do it to stir up in thee a compassionate spirit towards others in affliction and that thou mightest exercise thy grace and God may let thee want the comforting work of the spirit that thou mightest have more of the sanctifying work of the spirit therefore comfort thy self for if God did not see need of this afflicting of thee he would never let thee lie under this sad condition 7. Consider this for thy comfort That Jesus Christ himself was under spiritual desertion as well as thou Christ himself cried My God my God why hast thou for saken me Mat. 27. 46. Here was substractio visionis though not unionis and thou dost no more but cry my God my God under the absence of the favour of God Jesus Christ did it to sanctifie thy death was buried to make thy grave a bed of roses to thee and was tempted to sanctifie thy temptations and deserted to sanctifie thy desertions he drank deep of the cup thou dost but sip of it Now he himself was under troubles and desertions and temptations that he might be able to succour them that are tempted he was able to succour them before I but now he is made experimentally able to succour his people in the like case 8. Consider this That the seeming loss of Gods favour it is not simply prejudicial to the state of grace for it doth not hinder thy having accesse to and having successe at the throne of grace neither can it hinder thee of glory thou mayest trust and wait upon God in the way of thy duties and though thou dost not enjoy the light of his countenance yet this will not hinder thee of successe at the throne of grace It is the want of Christ not of comfort that makes the throne of grace a throne