so he hath Bowels of Compassion What Mercy may we not expect from so gracious a Mediator that took our Nature on him that he might be Gracious Let us therefore go to God by Christ who has satisfied his Justice by his Death and who without him is to us Sinners as a consuming fire Let us go boldly to his Throne in the name of Jesus and we shall find that the God of whom we were afraid will become our Friend and we shall experience him to be better to us than we ever thought he would have been Our unbelieving hearts whilst they are such will be full of darkness and of trouble but upon our Faith the Storm will cease and the Morning will begin to dawn upon us and instead of that wrath which we feared and had deserved we shall find there is Mercy with the Lord and plenteous Redemption Psal 130. The first thing that a convinced awakened sinner thinks of is his own danger and how he may avoid the Wrath of God and what it is that he must do in order to it now it is not to be accomplished by pompous ceremonious Services not by external mortifications nor by offering the fruity of his Body for the sin of his own Soul but by Faith in Jesus Christ and his Death by the means of which God is become propitious and favourable to us And the first view that as one says an humble Soul is to take of Christ is of his being a Saviour as made a Sin and a Curse and obeying to the death And Christ must be considered not only with respect to the Excellencies of his person but as cloathed with his Garments of Blood and the Qualifications of a Mediator and a Reconciler and this renders him the fit object of a Sinners Faith If we think of God without thinking of Christ he is vastly terrible and amazing to us but in and through him those otherwise-overwhelming apprehensions become very pleasant and comfortable to us Let us honour the Love that he hath shewed in him with admiring thoughts and never have low nor mean apprehensions of his Grace Christ is near unto God and pitiful to us able to help us and most willing to do so for those that come unto him he will in no wise cast out He will not upbraid us for our former follies he will not encrease our grief but when he sees us once lying at his feet and washing them with the tears of an unfeigned humiliation he will raise us up and bid us be of good cheer V. Faith will remove the troubles that we have from the sense of God's displeasure by conveying to us that life and strength from Christ which will enable us to subdue all our spiritual Enemies Phil. 4.13 It will bring him to us and when he is in our Vessel let the Waves threaten us with never so formidable a noise we are sure not to be cast away And all the Spectres that afright us will vanish if we do but hear him once say as to his Disciples It is I be not afraid This Grace will unite us to Christ and communicate to us of his Power in the several measures that we need and without his assistance long and sore afflictions will tire our Spirits and destroy our Hope He is necessary for us for he has a perfect knowledg of our Enemies of their Force their Policies and their Designs He has by his own Combat learn'd to Fight and by his Experience can teach us to get the Victory neither the multitude nor violence nor obstinacy of our Enemies can hinder the Success and the glory of his Triumph Col. 1.11 He prayeth that they might be strengthned with all might because as we have to do with divers Enemies and are sick of divers Infirmities we have need to receive not one or two kinds of strength but many different ones * Vide Daille in loc For as in nature you see the strength of Bodies is different one resisting one thing and yielding to another one has the virtue to repulse the force of one Element but not to guard it self from another So in a manner is it in the Souls of Men such a Man will free himself from the temptation of one sin that will not be able to defend himself from another such a Man will resist the temptations of prosperity whom adversity will overthrow such an one will bear troubles for a while whom the length or tediousness of them will overcome and if one of our Spiritual Enemies succeed against us we are undone for ever Therefore as the Apostle says we have need to have recourse to Christ who can furnish us with skill and strength to defeat whatsoever stands in the way of our Peace or our Salvation To have one on our side that has returned from the Field of Battel as a Conqueror is a mighty encouragement and privilege Such is our Lord he is a Victorious and a Triumphant Saviour he will not leave his Conquests incompleat for he goes on Conquering and to Conquer and the glory of his enterprizes has not fill'd him with disdain or contempt of the poor and needy for he that is the King of Zion is as I said before a meek and lowly King By Faith in Christ we obtain his Spirit which by opening our eyes will shew us that Fountain of Living-waters where we may both quench our thirst and wash away our filth This Spirit will take away the sting of guilt and sweeten the Cross that was very bitter to us and when our Lord is come to help us when we know that he is afflicted in our affliction that yoak which gall'd us before will become as an Ornament about our Necks and when we have the pardon of our sins and the hope of God's acceptance that affliction that we thought a burthen too heavy for us to bear will become light and easie to us Out of the devourer shall come forth sweetness From those very fears that overwhelmed us shall spring glorious hopes and those hearts which a slavish fear of the Wrath had contracted shall be enlarged with a sense of his Goodness and his Love and we shall not look upon him as an Enemy but as a Friend not as a Judge but as a Father Isa 33.14 The inhabitants shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquities Alas when God leaves us the smallest danger terrifies us the least Dart of Satan makes an impression on our spirits the least trouble sinks such low such inconsiderable creatures are we But if the Lord be with us if Christ be on our side neither the Law nor Sin nor Death can hinder us from bidding a defiance to all that is against us 2 Cor. 15. 56 57. VI. Faith will give us relief under the apprehensions of God's displeasure or our Sin as it will shew us the period and conclusion of those miseries which we now are groaning under our
the last day but he will come to you in the Spirit and judge for your Soul against your Enemies to deliver you from all even Sin which is such a burthen to you As also from Satan the great Troubler of your peace who does either accuse you falsly or aggravates all your Infirmities and Miscarriages though such as he has tempted you to above all reason I shall be glad to have some account from you how it is with your Soul .......... I shall endeavour what lies in me as enabled by the Spirit of Christ to be a helper to your faith and joy ............ I shall add no more at this time but only to let you know That I have you and others in your condition daily in my prayers so I commend you to the mercy of God in our dear Redeemer I am Your very affectionate Friend and Brother in Christ GEORGE PORTER Febr. 21. 1688 9. LETTER II. Written to a Relation of the Author 's by one that had been under Melancholly Mrs. Rogers IF you dare believe one that hath been in your Case which I confess is very sad and much to be pitied you have very much of a Bodily distemper and tho by reason of your Clouds you cannot hope for relief either by spiritual or natural means yet know that nothing is too hard for God to do use both and look up to God as well as you can for a Blessing The Lord's arm is not shortned that he cannot save nor his ear heavy that he cannot hear And tho your Sins and sad Apprehensions keep you in sadness that you cannot see the Lord Jesus nor call him yours yet he sees you bemoaning your Misery and Disability to love and serve him I know you would give all the World were it at your disposal for a glimpse of this favour Do not side with your Enemy so far as to believe that you would not accept of the Lord Jesus to be your King as willingly as to be your Saviour If you can get so much ground of your self then judge you are not alone in this for those that have been in deep Melancholly have not only had hard thoughts of themselves but hard and sinful thoughts of God as if he delighted in the death of a Sinner although he hath sworn the contrary In that dismal condition they could not see the loveliness of Christ nor hardly discern desires after him unless only to be saved from Hell they could plead against themselves That their Day of Grace was past and that they had sinned the unpardonable sin and that for several years Much more I could say but I know it is to no purpose none can speak to the heart but God alone only I beg of you to cherish that hope you have which the Devil would have you disown but had you none you would not ask any to pray for you I knew one that was in so despairing a Condition that did not that nor believed it more possible to be saved than the Devil At length was persuaded to use a Steel Course and Drink the Waters and other means which by God's Blessing did good and as the bodily distemper wore off more clearness came into the Mind and hope returned which before seemed to be quite dead and tho the Party still hath Clouds ........... and Satan is apt to put in that all is naught still through God's Mercy the poor creature can reply I am changeable in my frame God is unchangeable in his Covenants Tho I cannot find the sensible joy nor love nor delight that I would yet blessed be God that he inables me to wait on him in the use of the means by which he hath promised to renew my strength and tho I want that sweet sensible Communion with God which is the Life of Heaven Is it not a Mercy that I can hope in his Mercy Have I deserved such high favours that I must be always full of Joy This is what I would but if the Lord will keep me a poor Beggar 't is infinite Mercy that I am not in Hell and that the desire of my heart is after him I chuse to love him I cast my self on him I neither expect nor desire any other Saviour if I perish it shall be in serving him as well as I can and let him do his will There is forgiveness with him that he should be feared This poor Creature often thinks of that Scripture when Christ spoke to Thomas Thou seest and believest blessed are they that do not see yet believe You say this is no Comfort to you it is not your Case true but you know not how soon it may be This Party that I speak of was in your Case and I verily believe in worse therefore pray cast not off your confidence the Lord I verily hope will shew you Mercy But you must wait be not impatient Is not Redemption from Hell and hope of Heaven-worth waiting for .... The Lord shine in upon your Soul and let you see that whatever he doth is in love and faithfulness Pray for me that I may not forget how it hath been with nor be insensible of your Condition or others in your case ................ I am in some small manner sensible of your trouble I wish I were abundantly more so for then I should hope to be hereafter a partaker with you in your Joys July 24. 89. LETTER III. To a Relation of the Author 's MY very kind and dear Friend whom I much respect and love in the Lord even as I have Cause having found you to be one who I am persuaded Love the Lord Jesus in sincerity which you have fully manifested by your longings after him and your great inward sorrow when you could not enjoy him as you would And now he is returned unto you your soul is at rest rejoycing in him as the Lord your Righteousness Peace and Life in whom you have all your soul needs and desires And the Lord manifest himself to you more and more and fill you with abundance of Peace and Joy in Believing which I doubt not you desire for this end That his Joy being your Strength and your Heart enlarged by it you may be able to run the ways of his Commandments and to serve him not only in sincerity but with all gladness in all love and thankfulness for all his loving-kindness and all the great things he has done for your soul in bringing it out of that horrible pit of darkness and the shadow of death wherein you saw neither Sun nor Moon nor Stars but were afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted without all light comfort and joy tho the Father of Lights and the God of all Consolation were with you when you perceived him not and could discover no tokens of his Gracious Presence as neither could I in the like gloomy Condition But I now find as you also do blessed be the Father of Mercies That he was ready at hand to
and my Father any more I have lost all my Fervor and all my Confidence and all my hope in Prayer I go round the streets to seek him that was once my beloved Help me all ye Servants of the Lord to find my God again but for my former undervaluing of his Presence he is now departed and I find him not Woe Woe is me what have I done Woe is me that I have lost him whom to lose is Hell 3. All this will be attended with great anguish of Spirit and with great Tribulation Job 16.12 13 I was at ease but he hath broken me asunder he hath also taken me by my neck and shaken me to pieces and set me up for his mark c. Then all our Sins are brought fresh into our minds with a new and a cutting remembrance as if they had all been committed but as Yesterday They rank themselves in order every one of them being set before us give us a new stab and a wound to encrease the sore and the pain of our former wounds They present themselves with all their hideous Aggravations against what Mercy what Goodness what checks of Conscience and what Warnings and what motions of the Blessed Spirit they were committed And who can bear so terrible a fight as this Job 13.26 Thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth i.e. 1. Always to think upon them 2. To feel pain and smart in that Remembrance 3. To be astonisht with my guilt and fears Then all our thoughts of God himself are uneasy We can think of nothing but his Greatness his Majesty his Justice and Holiness How does it overwhelm us to think what a powerful God we have against us It troubles us to think that he is displeased and yet we know that he is justly so If God were for me says the troubled soul I would bear any pains and wait and hope but He who only can help me is gone away He who alone could speak peace seems to take no notice of the sadness of my case My Sins have taken my God away and what have I more And when we are set on fire with the sense of his Wrath the more we think the more we are distressed every thought returns with sad tidings and pours oyl into the flame And what that anguish is which we feel when we continually think of a displeased God There is nothing on Earth that does resemble neither are any words capable of expressing it We do then smell the Fire and Brimstone of the Infernal pit then a man may say with David The sorrows of death compass me and the paint of hell gat hold upon me Psal 116.3 And I think that these Spiritual terrours are of the same kind with those which they feel who arc now in Hell only they differ in the degree and in the duration For a Sinner under the sense of God's displeasure and in terror for his Sin is as if he were in a burning Oven or in scalding Oyl he is every way beset and every way tormented Trouble of Conscience indeed is a slighter thing but the sense of wrath kindled there is vastly terrible 't is the suburbs of destruction 't is the noisom smell of the bottomless Pit Job 6.4 The Arrows of the Almighty are within me the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit The Terrors of God do set themselves against me whatsoever he thought of which way soever he turned himself he saw nothing but what filled him with amazement Ps 88.16 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me thy terrors have cut me off 4. That which these troubled Souls are afflicted with is the fear they have thut this displeasure will be Eternal this is implied in that Is his mercy clean gone will he be favourable no more Ps 77.7 So the Church Lam. 3.18 My strength and my hope it perisht from the Lord. So Psal 88.5 I am free among the dead like the slain that lie in the Grave whom thou remembrest no more And that sickness is grievous to us when we have no hope of being better That wrath is not to be born which we think to be forerunner of eternal wrath and thus does the troubled soul argue God has withdrawn himself and it may be will never return again I have lost him for the present and Oh! What will become of me should I lose such a God for ever I have now no beams of light and what if I go hence into outer darkness What if my lot and portion should fall among those that are abhorred of the Lord Have I once tasted how good he was and must lose henceforth all the pleasant sense of his Mercy Must not Christ be my Saviour nor Heaven my home after all this Oh! what shall do where shall I appear should he say at last Depart from me for I know thee not Shall I be placed at the left hand of Christ shall I after all that I have read and heard after all my profession strivings and my prayers be shut out of that Kingdom when others shall enter in How shall I bear so great a disappointment How shall I dwell with everlasting burnings III. If you have not yet been under the apprehension of Gods displeasure take warning by those that are so dare not to venture upon any sin when you behold their grief and their sorrows for their Iniquities You see their tears you hear their lamentable groans you see that nothing in this world is refreshing or comfortable to them and made you â—hug the Serpent that has stung them and made them to cry out in the bitterness of their Souls Oh stop where you are go no further lest you fall into the depths lest the Fire that scorches them begin to seize on you lest the God whom they account their Enemy begin also to frown on you learn obedience by their Stroaks lest you also be made to feel the smarting Rod. You see how those that once were as chearful as pleasant and as little afraid as you are now cast down and troubled and perplexed and cannot be merry as they used to be The sense of God's displeasure has untuned their Harps that they cannot sing the Songs of Zion You see how their Pleasure and their Hope is shipwrackt beware lest you run upon the same Rock for the doing so after the sight of their example will make you to be guilty of a double Crime first of doing ill and then in doing it after such a warning as their sorrows gave you Job says he was set up as a mark ch 7.20 And so are others in the like case They now receive the shots of that Justice which they have provoked but if their punishment do not make us to humble our selves and to repent we may be set in their place and it will render the Wounds we shall then receive more poisonous and malignant for not having taken and improved the warning that was given us by
Sense will tell us that our Troubles are tedious and very long but our Faith will rectify our Judgment and shew us that tho' we have been in heaviness yet it is but for a season our Sense makes us think our night of weeping very long but Faith sets the morning before our eyes And indeed when that comes the time of sorrow will appear to have been very short our Weeping will bear no proportion with our Joy nor our Groans with our Hallelujahs The luster of our Crown and the glories of our Triumph will make us to forget the Blood and Sweat and Labour of the Combat tho' whil'st here below we thought it hard Faith will wipe away our Tears and cause us to take a further prospect and to see where they now are that were mourners once as well as we Job is no more wondred at upon a Dunghil by his Friends but shining with glory in the Highest Heaven Heman is no more distracted with terrors but infinitely pleased with the sight and enjoyment of his God There is Asaph also singing praises to him tho' he thought and was afraid that his Mercies were clean gone and that he would be favourable no more Faith will solace your drooping spirits by causing you frequently to remember that tho' God is angry yet it is but for a moment and that tho' you have now four Grapes yet they are only to prepare you for a better relish of the Joys above it is this that sets our feet upon a Rock and produces in our fainting Souls a secret support and hope that tho' it be night with us for the present yet that it will not always be so Rev. 3.21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my father on his throne The dangers and distresses on the way will make us better to like our home All the years of our Life tho' spent in sore afflictions and anxieties will be but a very little space when we are Landed at our haven of Joy and Immortality CHAP. IX Of the direct Acts of Faith as the most suitable to a distressed Soul as also of waiting upon God With several considerations to enforce it And that a Person in great Affliction ought to hope that it may be better with him THird General Look forward to Jesus Christ when you find things perplex'd and troubled in your own souls and indeed in the direct Acts of Faith we have nobler objects to converse withal than when we look and pore upon our guilty selves when we look into our troubled hearts we can see nothing besides confusion and disorder there but we may at the same time discern an alsufficient fulness in God and Christ to relieve our wants It is a long and a tedious work to consider by the several steps by which we are to proceed in such a Case whether we have believed or not our Duty is at this very instant to believe i. e. under a penitent sense of what we have done amiss to look unto Christ for help We must carefully distinguish between Justification and Sanctification between those habits and those holy actions that are the effects of Faith and Faith it self Our Sanctification is full of imperfection but that Righteousness of Christ wherein alone we are to trust for acceptance with God is compleat and perfect These are things to be considered by people under spiritual distress but if you be under the disease of Melancholly to any great degree I am sensible that neither this nor any other direction will be altogether available It is such a stubborn and obstinate disease that it is not to be overcome by rational methods and perswasion no more than a broken Bone can be set again by words and talk 'T is only God that is fully acquainted with the Nature and Violence of this worst of Distempers 't is his Power and his Grace alone that can chase it away and all those things that depend upon consideration and that may succeed in other Cases have not the same tendency to good in this because it is our disease always to pore and think and it is our misery that we cannot think to any purpose I beseech you to remember that the foundation of all our Peace and Comfort is Christ alone and Faith in him Mortification Self-denial and other Graces are the superstructure that is laid upon it but truly all that we can do in great and deep affliction and sore distresses of Soul is only to look up to Christ as a poor wounded bleeding Man does look and cry to one that passes on the Road for help and our Saviour and our Physician is so compassionate that he will regard us tho' we are able to say little more than this Have mercy on us thou son of David Under the prospect of our great infirmities and of the manifold imperfections of our Duties and under the sense of our own nothingness and unworthiness let us humbly betake our selves to Christ he will not disdain nor slight our approaches to him nor leave them unattended with some manifestations of reviving Grace and Mercy IV. When you have done all this you must wait till the Lord appear to your relief and help Psal 123.2 Behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hands of their masters and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hands of her mistress so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that he have mercy upon us Tho' his stroaks be very smart yet we are sure that we have deserved them tho' his delays of help be tedious yet we have merited at his hands a much longer delay We are as so many poor Slaves indeed under the bondage of our fears and our troubles but alas we have brought our selves to that slavery and we must look unto God till he set us free again and tho' our Master be angry with us yet he is a Master still and that relation that we have to him that Interest which we have in his Covenant may be somewhat supporting and comfortable to us 't is a more easie thing to bear any trouble that continues for a Week or for a Month and then passes away but this will be the tryal of our Faith if we can maintain our dependance and trust in God when he afflicts us very sore for many Months or Years together If we see no sign of help no prospect of deliverance we are still to wait till the time even the set time to favour us be come and this must be done with patience with a silent and a quiet resignation to his Will it is the product of a calm and a quiet Soul that is satisfied in the Justice of Providence tho' it be severe only with this limitation that you have the freedom and the command of your natural spirits for if they be put into a hurry and confusion by a disease then indeed you can
When the Affliction brings some special Sin to remembrance and when Sin it self deprives us of a Mercy when Intemperance brings Sickness Ambition Disgrace Covetousness and an over-eager Desire of Riches Poverty But then even great Crosses are in Mercy 1. When God does not afflict us only but teaches us at the same time And 2. When we can be thankful for that Comfort which we have lost that is if it be outward for I see not how any person can be thankful for Desertion while it remains upon him for that were to thank God that he is departed or that he has restrained the manifestations of his Love which no man is obliged to do 3. When all our Losses are made up in God and in the Graces of his Spirit CHAP. XI Shewing That present Distress of Conscience is no sign of Reprobation There may be too great Trouble for Sin And when it is excessive former Experiences may be helpful to Afflicted People And that God will not judge Persons that have been good according to what they are in the woful Disease of Melancholly XI JUdge not of your Eternal State by what you now feel you may by the Terrors of the Lord be in Anguish and Tribulation in the very Suburbs of Hell and yet never go thither God may be displeased and yet after a moments sorrow you may find him to be your Gracious and your Everlasting Friend You are now it may be thrown down but his hand and his promise can quickly raise you up again You may conclude your selves through the Power of your dismal thoughts to be Reprobates and yet God may bring you to Salvation at the last You may for many years lye in terror but you cannot you ought not to say that it will be so for ever I my self have been so afflicted in so great Anguish and Perplexity under such dreadful apprehensions of the Wrath of God and of his Power and Greatness as I thought employed against me that I thought my self in Hell knowing that it is not so much a Place as a State I thought that my Soul would be gathered with Sinners and that I should be found at the left hand of Christ I thought I was cut down for ever banished from the Courts and from the Presence of the Lord and should never see Light nor Comfort nor Refreshment any more and yet through the Grace of God you see I am revived and am not now without hope as I once was and from the very Gates of Death from the very door of Destruction I come to tell you That tho God be Just yet he is also Gracious There is mercy with him that he may be feared and that as the Night comes so will the Morning too for tho we have provoked him which was our Folly yet he will not contend for ever which is our Comfort Psal 31.21 22 23 24. Blessed be the Lord for he hath shewed me his marvellous loving-kindness c. For I said in my haste I am cut off from hefore thine eyes nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my Supplications when I cried unto thee O love the Lord all ye his saints Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your hearts all ye that hope in the Lord. When we are in deep and sore Affliction that smarts and makes us groan 't is hard indeed to believe that what makes us so sick will promote our health or what breaks us to pieces will joint our bones again But our sense and present feeling is not to guide our thoughts We feel our selves indeed miserable but we ought to believe that our present Misery may promote our Happiness tho by ways that we do not for the present see we are not to judge of God by the Darkness of his Providences but by the Light of his Word not by his afflicting Strokes only but by his Promise which obliges him to correct us for our Sin but yet not altogether to destroy us XII Remember that it is an evil thing to be over-much troubled even for Sin it self tho this advice does not concern the greatest part of men the most are secure they break the Laws of God and do not tremble they pollute themselves with manifold abominations and are not ashamed they sin with lofty looks and with hardned hearts and do evil with both hands earnestly They take the Name of God in vain they profane his Sabbaths they scorn his Word they defy his Threats they scorn his Messengers and yet few or none strikes upon his Thigh and says What have I done They are daring where they ought to fear and rejoice where they ought to mourn The greatest part of the world are in a deep slumber in misery and in danger but they are insensible they know not that the end of these things will be very bitter and vexatious But I now speak to such whose Consciences are awakened with a sense of the Greatness the Majesty the Justice of God and the Strictness and Holiness of his Law and have at the same time a deep sense of their own Gulit and liableness to Condemnation their thoughts in such troubles are too much apt to sink and to be over-whelmed and indeed the view of all their sins set in order before them is too terrible for them to look upon The burden and the weight of them is too heavy for any mortal men to bear But they should consider That God is not only severe but very good that he is not only angry but reconcilable and willing to be at Peace again This will represent his love to us and it is that and that alone that will melt our Hearts with a kindly grief and keep our sorrow from overflowing the due bounds as it is very prone to do And it does so in several Cases 1 When our sorrow for sin hinders our regular proceeding in the true judgments of things We know that in dark and cloudy seasons we cannot distinctly perceive the several Objects that we clearly discern in fair weather so when our sorrows have raised a mist before our eyes we dim our reason and weaken our faculties and see not things as they really are but as they do appear in a dark and confused manner When we are not able to apprehend things as they are in themselves but as our Afflictions represent them that is a false Medium whereby to form our Judgments when they do make us heighten our troubles and it may be make them greater than they really are and when they make us altogether inattentive to those directions methods and advices that are suggested for our help 2. When our sorrow for sin drives us away from God the sight of our Wounds should make us haste to the Great Physician for a speedy relief When I have throughly beheld my sin the next thought should be Oh what need have I of a God to forgive me of a Saviour to plead my Cause and of the Holy Spirit to renew me
Gods favour to a soul is matter of great joy to it or these words may denote the promptitude and readiness of Divine Consolations Three things are the usual occasions of joy all which are in this case 1. The remembrance of some danger that we have lately escaped 2. The possession of a present good 3. The solid expectation of some future happiness First The remembrance of a past danger does occasion a more lively sense of joy As past joys renew our grief and make our sorrows more sorrowful so the griefs that are part give us a sweeter and a better tast of joy after long sickness and acute pain 't is very pleasant to be at ease 't is pleasant to rest when we have been tired all the day with hard labour the Laurels of a Soldier flourish with a purer Green when they have been obtained with a mighty difficulty the danger of the Combat brightens the glory of the succeeding Triumph 'T is grateful to the Mariner to stand upon the firm Land and from thence to behold the waves in which he had like to have been thrown away one that has been long in chains rejoyces to find himself at liberty 't is pleasant after a man has been long athirst to be refresht with the fountain of Living waters it renders the joy more accomplished and more satisfying when refreshment comes after long and grievous miseries After long despair the least beam of hope is more reviving a man that has lost his way all night has cause to rejoice at the sight of day As to persons newly converted their faith is full of joy when they compare their former danger and their present safety their former darkness and the shining light that guides their paths so to souls that have been in great anguish and tribulation for sin that have apprehended themselves to be cast out of the presence of the Lord 't is very pleasant to behold his face again 't is pleasant to such as by reason of their sore affliction have been Companions to Owls and Dragons to come into Religious Assemblies and instead of solitary groans and tears to join with the multitudes of those that keep Holiday the soul is then like that of the Returning Prodigal finds it self in the Arms and Embraces of a Loving Father and well treated when it looked as it might justly for rebukes and wrath Thunder and Lightning and Storms make the calm and pleasant weather more grateful to us 't is pleasant after long absence to meet our friend again we find a joy sparkling in our eyes and in our breasts at the sight of them whom we have not seen for many sad and doleful years whom yet we longed to see and that which heightens our pleasure is when a blessing arrives to us that was unexpected that mercy docs fill us with the biggest joy which is extremely suitable to us and which yet we hoped not to receive The Crown sat the easier upon David's head after he had so often thought that he should have fallen by the hands of Saul As life tasts with a better relish when there has been but one step between us and death With what Transports doth a kind mother see her Son coming home whom she gave for lost and dead What a chearful Interview was that which Jacob had with his Son after he had so often thought that he had been torn to pieces as soon as he came near he fell upon his neck and there the revived soul of the poor old man was ready even with excess of pleasure to melt away he never thought to have seen his Joseph his dear Joseph any more he was even with sorrow for his apprehended death going down to the Grave and the news of his Son's welfare made him to be young and live again for at the hearing of it the spirit of Jacob revived and Israel said It is enough Joseph my Son is yet alive I will go and see him before I die Gen. 45.28 And so the Jews having liberty to return from Babylon were so surprized with the favour of their sudden deliverance and the greatness of the mercy that they could hardly think it true it seem'd to be the meer effect of Imagination which during the Interruption of our usual thoughts by sleep put several deceits upon us Psal 126.1 2. When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Zion we were like them that dreamed They were delivered in a manner illustrious and surprizing and it is thus exprest for three Reasons 1. A man does not foresee what he dreams of a man that is apt to be cherished with sound and refreshing sleep does not know whether he shall dream or not So this deliverance arrived to them when they thought not of it 2. As it arrived without any pain to them that were delivered as when we dream we are in repose and are at no trouble and this heightens the glory of a deliverance and the love of the deliverer when the person delivered takes no care about it 3. This deliverance was above all that they could hope for as if a man dreamed of something like it but which he saw not when he was awake for such are the Chymera's which the Imagination then forms and which fall not under the notice of our senses such a thing was never heard or seen before * Monsieu Charles in loc The return of comfort to a Soul that was even expiring in grief and sadness is like the raising of Lazarus to his mourning Sisters they thought that if the Lord had been there he had not died but they did not in the least think that he should be raised again The review of our former miseries does encrease the sense of present happiness the light which the Grace of the Gospel brought into the world and that dissipated the obscurities that compassed it about made the Apostles full of admiration and of wonder when they thought of their former ignorance and error and the light and knowledg that God had given them ever are they wondring at the Riches of his Grace that instead of the corruption in which they were plunged gave them Sanctification Joy and Hope What a surprize was it to the poor Shepherds that were in the field watching their flock by night Luk. 2.9 to see an Angel and the Glory of the Lord shining round about them To see such a Glory when they thought of nothing less nor did expect so great a Grace * Claude Traitte de la Composition d'un Sermon p. 267. but 't is usual with God to bestow the most eminent favours when men do not look for them as Christ came to seek Sinners when they thought not of him and when their minds were filled with other objects they were afraid for great objects when they present themselves suddenly to us usually give us much astonishment for our spirit on these occasions has not the liberty to use its forces and they are most frequently
Decree There are many people whom we are angry with and reprove whom notwithstanding we do in the mean time most sincerely love and Christ has told us Rev. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten 4. The Anger of God is but for a moment because he delights in Mercy Psalm 103.8 The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy He will not always chide neither will he keep his anger for ever It is long before he punishes and 't is with haste that he comes to our help when we repent and many times before In the midst of Wrath he remembers Mercy he does not always inflict what we have deserved but considers what is most proper for him to lay upon us and what we are able to bear and therefore he gives to us some mitigations with our most bitter Cup. He is called the Father of Mercies and the God of all Comfort and tho Punishment does proceed from him as well as Tenderness and Affection yet he is no where called the Father of Judgments Mercy ariseth from his own Nature and he delighteth in it Micah 7.18 He retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy His wrath is said to be reserv'd in Golden Viols Rev. 15.7 i. e. it doth not flow forth all at once but by degrees but his Mercy is compared to a River and a flowing Stream Isaiah 66.12 to the Oyl of gladness to the smell of Myrrh Aloes and Cassia It is a Glory to this God to relieve the miserable and to help his Servants when all their power and might is gone and he ends the Controversy with them when there is cause enough on their side that he should pursue the Quarrel further When he leads us into a Wilderness yet he provides some Water some refreshment for us there It is one of the great Wonders of his Providence that he supports those poor Souls that have no light of Evidence no sense of his Love no hope nothing but the fears of Wrath and Desolation and yet the matter of Fact and our own Experience plainly tells us that so it is his everlasting Arms are underneath and his Power does maintain our Life when we say that he has forgotten to be gracious He bottles our Tears when we weep and hears our Groans when we lament and proportions the Troubles that he sends that they shall not be too long nor too violent Jer. 30.11 I will not make a full end of thee I will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether unpunished And those Afflictions which his People suffer are not in all respects proper Punishments because his Anger is mixed with mildness and mitigated by the Intercessions of a Mediator Lam. 3.31 32. The Lord will not cast off for ever but tho he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his tender mercies 5. That his Anger is but for a moment is for his own Name sake His Nature is most inclinable to do us good therefore the Prophets to those Idolaters mentioned in 1 Kings 18.24 says The God that answers by sire let him be God and he chose that Element above the rest to signify how soon we shall have Mercy it comes as upon the wings of the Wind it is as swift as the rays of Light Hosca 11.9 I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim for I am God and not man A Man when he is greatly provoked by his Enemy is not satisfied with having once made him feel his Anger but carries on his Revenge to further degrees and only ceases the pursuit with the Death of him that he first assaulted But the Great God tho he is able to Conquer those that oppose him with a total Defeat and Ruin yet he suffers them to breathe and live that they may Repent and that he may cause his Goodness to shine with a greater Brightness to the World He could follow them with one Blow after another with a Succession of new and greater Miseries but he restrains his Anger for his own sâ—ke And it maybe a great Consolation to poor afflicted People to consider that they have to deal with God and not with Men when they have sinn'd they have not to deal with Men that are full of Rage and Cruelty but with a God that is gracious and full of Mercy not with Men that may Caress them to day and Hate them to morrow but with a God that is unchangeable and even when they are in the Fire or in the Water his Love is still to them the very same Men think it a dishonour to spare their interiors if they do not by the lowest Submissions testify their Sorrow for their Crimes but the Great God is so far above all his Creatures that he may when he will think them below his Indignation and magnify his Goodness in sparing and forgiving them when they most deserve to dye Isaiah 4.8 9. For my names sake will I defer mine anger and for my praise will I refrain for thee that I cut thee not off 'T is his Power that moderates his Anger Those Persons that have the least strength either of Reason or of Courage are the most passionate and inclinable to Revenge In Punishments he shews his Dominion over his Creatures but his Power over himself when he forgives great Injuries and is slow to punish great Affronts and his Power in those Acts of Grace is very great and illustrious He is God and not Man there is more Compassion and more real Pity in him than in the most compassionate or tender hearted Man that we ever knew He is God and not Man he whom we have offended and who can destroy us begins first to treat about a Reconciliation with us This is not the manner and way of Men who think that those who have offended them are to make the first advances towards a repairing of the Breach There is no Attribute in the displaying of which the Great God glories so much as in this of Mercy and 't is by this that he would be known Exod. 34.6 7. 6. That his Anger is but for a moment is because he would make a difference between the righteous and the wicked The Afflictions that he sends upon the Righteous are to prepare them for Heaven and Glory But those Scourges that he uses to the Wicked and Impenitent are but the beginning of their Sorrows the flashes of those Flames that will consume them for ever The distresses of the Righteous are short and so are the Prosperities of the Wicked The Righteous are weeping here but they shall rejoyce hereafter The Wicked have now their Heaven such as it is and hereafter they go to an Eternal Hell and there must they weep and wail when the Good and Holy shall have all their Tears wiped away The one shall find him to be a loving Father and to have been
from him as we did but he designs not to raise them again they groan'd under the wrath of the mighty Judge and they must always groan under it no beam of chearful Light will shâ—ne into their Dungeon no Messenger will be dispatched to give them the glad-tidings of Salvation the anger of God threw them out of Heaven and the door is for ever shut they know this to be their woful Case and therefore they rage against him and against his Servants and his Interest in the world What could move Christ to take the nature of Man and not of Angels Heb. 2.16 to say to us Live and to suffer them to dye to visit our sinning World to set us at Liberty to set open the Prison-doors whilst he suffers them to roar in chains of wrath As they have greater Capacities and Natures more knowing than ours so they might have honoured their Creator more than we had they been redeemed but they must mourn for ever and never sing his Praise they must grieve whilst we rejoice whilst we look for our Lord they tremble in the fear of his coming whilst we have the sweetness of hope they are in anguish and vexation in despair and horror we have our Sabbaths but they have no days of rest we can through Jesus Christ call God our Father but they know him not by such a comfortable Name they feel his Power but they tast not his Love they tremble under his Vengeance but all comfort and Joy is fled away from them for ever why are we in the light and they in darkness Why is Christ a Phisician to us whilst he is a Judge to them truly nothing makes the difference but his own love and what manner of love is this 2. It was great love in Christ to bear the anger of God because now his poor tempted Servants have one to whom they may repair in all their straits Heb. 2.18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succor them that are tempted 'T is a great relief to the miserable and afflicted to be pitied by others as Job 19.21 Have pity upon me have pity upon me O ye my friends for the hand of God hath touched me It is some relief when others tho they cannot help us yet seem to be truly concerned for the sadness of our case when by the kindness of their words and of their actions they do a little smooth the wounds that they cannot heal but it is an unspeakable addition to the Cross when a man is brought low under the sense of God's displeasure to have men to mock at his Calamity or to revile him or to speak roughly this does enflame and exasperate the wound that was big enough before and it is an hard thing when one has a dreadful sound in his ears to have every friend to become a Son of Thunder It is a small matter for people that are at ease to deal severely with such as are afflicted but they little know how their severe speeches and their angry words pierce them to the very soul 'T is easie to blame others for complaining but if such had felt but for a little while what it is to be under the fear of God's Anger they would find they could not but complain It cannot but make any person very restless and uneasie when he apprehends that God is his Enemy It is no wonder if he makes every one that he sees and every place that he is in a witness of his grief but now it is a Comfort in our Temptations and in our Fears that we have so compassionate a Friend as Christ is to whom we may repair Heb. 4.15 For we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in every time of need Had it not been for his Mediation the absolute and pure Deity would have been too glorious and inaccessible to us but he is cloathed with our nature and though it has undergone several alterations since he is exalted yet we are sure that he retains a tender sence of our miseries And tho he be very high he does not think it below him to regard the most troubled and sorrowful Believer He was on earth acquainted with grief Isa 53.3 And has carryed to Heaven with him a remembrance of what he felt in his own Temptations and of what he felt when his Father frown'd upon him and his own experience renders him more capable of helping us and makes him full of pity when he sees us mourn well knowing what was his own Case As God has fashioned the hearts of all men and some who have naturally more mercy and pity than others and then the holy Spirit by its renewing grace carrying their good Dispositions to greater degrees and proceeding and working usually according to their tempers so it is certain he temper'd the heart of Christ and made it of a softer mould than all the tenderness of all the men in the world put together would have made it he had such a humane nature that might be more merciful than all Men and Angels together Goodwin Christ's Heart in Heaven p. 55. Our groans and our sighs teach his Heart above and tho he does not come with help just when we desire it yet he is providing for our welfare he sends us some inward supports when we have not an immediate deliverance he will not suffer us totally to sink tho he may leave us for a while to try our faith or to let us understand our own weakness we may think that our vessel will be covered with waves when he is guiding us to shore even when we think that he is asleep and has forgot us and cares not though we be cast away only let us never cease to say Master save us or else we perish CHAP. V. Shewing the unreasonableness of long-continued angers among good People as also that the temporary effects of God's displeasure are more elegible than the wrath of Men. Of the Excellency of Religion and that the Enemies of the Church have no cause to insult over it because of its certain deliverance and the dismal Conclusion of their own Wickedness upon which account Christians have no Reason to envy their Prosperity Inf. 2. SEeing God is angry but for a moment How unreasonable are long-continued Anger 's among good People Let not the sun go down upon your wrath Neither give place to the devil Eph. 4.26 27. i. e. he that has injured or provoked another must come to a Temper and sue for a Reconciliation speedily or else before the time of solemn praying to God which was constantly at Evening and so the Exhortation bears proportion with that Matth. 5.23 24. If thou bringest thy gift unto the altar and there remembrest that
present undisturbed Case and their seeming welfare for their happiness is not real but apparent and all the goods that are bestow'd upon them are but mean and low in themselves though our erroneous and blinder Judgments think them to be somewhat great and considerable Dr. Scots Christian life part 2. p. 255. For considering of what little moment the present goods and evils are which good men suffer and bad men enjoy they ought rather to be lookt on as an argument of God's Wisdom than as an objection against his Providence for he understands the just value of things and knows that the best of these worldly goods are bad enough to be thrown away upon the worst of men and so expresses his just scorn of these admired vanities by scattering them abroad with a careless hand for why should he partake of the error of vulgar opinion and express himself so very regardful of these trifles as to put them in Gold Scales and weigh them out to mankind by Grains and Scruples When we see therefore bad men to rejoice and the good to mourn let us not censure but adore that Providence that will assign to them both different portions in another world those that are healthful are not more beloved for that nor are the sick and weak more hateful to God for those outward troubles that they now suffer there are many who have their paradise in this world that shall have none hereafter and there is many an one torn and mangled with the thorns and bryers of the Wilderness to whom God does reserve a Throne above We see many a Vessel on whom the Sun shines and which sails with a fair gale that yet by splitting on a Rock or on the Sand never reaches the Port And others we see that meet with nothing but high waves and contrary winds and tho' they have an unpleasant voyage yet it is for all that very safe and attended with comfort in the latter end The wicked do not always prosper in this life God sometimes makes them examples of his Justice and if he do not usually do so to those that are very bad it affords us a certain ground for the belief which we have of a Judgment that is to come wherein punishments and rewards will be distributed after another manner than now they are This maxim of our Christian Divinity * Fragmens de Serm. de Mons Morus p. 74. That God sometimes afflicts very severely those whom he tenderly loves even then when they well perform their duty even then when he is well pleased with them was unknown to the ancient Isralites This was a Lesson above their understanding God did not afflict them but when they had provoked him by some particular transgression but when they did not so they always had a peaceable and happy life it is not so with us our afflictions are sometimes indeed not the marks of his Anger but of his Favour as when he calls his own out to the enduring of things very bitter and unpleasant for the tryal of their patience and faith there is none of the Prophets that does reckon suffering among the gifts of God but our Apostle does esteem them to be so Phil. 1. We hear none under the new Testament which gives us a clearer discovery of another world say as they did heretofore Why doth the way of the Wicked prosper but rather count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations CHAP. VI. Of the duty of such as never have been under a sense of God's Wrath and Terrors and what is the doleful condition of a Soul that apprehends it self to be under his hot displeasure 1. SEeing God is often angry with his own Servants what cause have those of you that fear him to bless him that he is not angry with you and that you do not feel his displeasure He sets up others as his mark against which he shoots his Arrows you hear others groaning for his departure and yet your hearts are not sadned as theirs are your eyes can look up towards Heaven with hope whilst theirs are clouded with a vail of sorrow He speaks roughly to them but comfortable words to you he seems to set himself against them as his enemies whilst he deals with you as a loving Friend you see a reviving-smile in his Face and they can discern nothing there but one continued and dreadful Frown Oh admire and for ever wonder at the Soveraign distinguishing Grace of God are you that are at ease better than many of his people that are now thrown into a fiery Furnace Have you less dross than they Have they sinned think you at an higher rate than you have ever done He is angry with them for their luke-warmness for their backsliding and have your hearts always burn'd with Love have your feet always kept his way and not declined have you never wandred have you never turned aside to the right hand or to the left surely you have and therefore what a mercy is it that he is not angry with you as well as them You see many whose Consciences for their sins are turned all into flame and horror and perplexity full of accusations full of guilty fears for their sinning their sinning against Light Knowledge Mercy and Love and have you never so sinned Have not your Consciences also been defil'd Have you never done what was evil when you knew it to be so Have you not been often kindly entertain'd of God after you have run away from him Have you not after great Transgressions met with joy and pleasure in the sense of his pardoning healing Grace whilst others that have been it may be more dutiful did not fare so well nor have ever had such a fatted calf killed for them nor such feasts to refresh their Souls as there have been prepared for you You can never sufficiently bless God for his mercy every day you deserve his Anger and yet you have not been under the terrible apprehensions of it for a moment Why are you sitting at his Table and honoured with his Presence in all your Duties in all your Sufferings whilst he is a stranger to them and as a wayfaring Man that tarries but for a night What is it that makes him to bless some Children of the Family with greater peace and comfort than he does the rest Nothing but his own Grace and Mercy Some are drawn with Cords of Love and some have their Iniquities constantly visited with Stripes Some are glad with the hopes of Heaven and some are afraid they shall never go thither and know not by experience what Joy and Pleasure means Some have their spirits overwhelm'd their whole Souls covered with thick darkness and their Bones broken whilst others are at ease and see the light of his Countenance and have an unchanged Health Some travel with weary steps and make their pilgrimage with their own sorrows to be a vale of tears whilst others run the way of his
and to throw my self at his feet whom I have provoked in the submissive terms of the poor Prodigal saying Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son And not because I have once wandred still to wander in a strange Countrey far from my proper home Our grief for sin is too great when it causes us totally to despair to give our selves over as hopeless and lost for ever This we never ought to do we weep too much when we cannot see the Goodness and the Mercy of God as well as his Justice and Severity When we think that it is good to him that he should oppress and crush the works of his own hands and when we judge him to be Tyrannical and Cruel as if he intended nothing but our Ruin and when we peremptorily say that he will not hear our Prayers nor shew us any Favour When we have no suitable thoughts of his Amiable Nature his Covenant and his Promise When by the Painfulness of the Rod we call in question all that he has ever done for us and when because he frowns we say he has thrown us off When because he delays his help we say that he will be gracious and favourable no more for ever When we charge him foolishly and either deny his Providence or blame his Conduct because he uses not so gentle a method towards us as we would have him to take or when from our distress we make desperate Conclusions of him or of our selves And most of all when seeing that others whom we reckon as great sinners as our selves to be in health and peace whilst we groan and languish we are apt to say Psal 73 11. We have cleansed our hearts in vain That it is a vain thing to be Religious to fear such a God who suffers his Servants to be so very much afflicted and with such sort of sorrows that are more spiritual and consequently more bitter than the rest of the world is acquainted withal 3. We are then too much troubled for our sins when that trouble does not only indispose us for duty for if it be attended with pain and trouble if will be apt so to do but when it â—â—â—kes us altogether to omit our duty that we owe to God when our sorrows damp our affections which are the wings of our souls to carry us up to God When it causes us to mind nothing else but what is sad and grievous When our sorrow swells to so great a height that it covers with its imperious Waves all the foundations and grounds of Peace and Comfort it was not so as some have observed with our Blessed Lord for when he was upon the Cross he was in extreme in a mighty pain and violent agonies and yet did not these take away from him his care for his Mother So the Good Thief in the midst of his pangs laboured to gain his fellow and to save his own soul and to glorify Christ These were indeed extraordinary instances for our sickness may be such that all that we can perform to God is a quiet submission to his will and a desire of the Prayers of others thus our forrows for sin are excessive when they make us to give over Prayer or Hearing or the like Duties when they unstring our Harps and dull our Traises and make us unfit for our Calling 4. When our sorrow puts us upon indirect means for relief when we put that trust in men that should be placed in God when we expect that Cure from them which he alone is able to give when we seek it in vain Company in Recreations or the things of this World but if our fense of God's displeasure be very great we soon know that all these things are of no value XIII Call to mind those experiences that you have heretofore had of the goodness of God remember the years of the right hand of the most High you are now fearing his Wrath But can you not remember the time when his Love was your dayly solace and delight You are now complaining that he does not hear your cry But how many Prayers has he sent back with a gracious answer How many times have you laid at his feet in humiliation and tears and his hand has wiped your tears away How many times when you have been fainting has his Word revived your poor troubled souls And tho' his Word be now bitter to your taste and fill you with Gall and Wormwood yet it is still able to revive you Those places of Scripture that heretofore revived you are still able to refresh you those breasts are still as full of consolation as they ever were but only you are for the present under a decay of spirits and have lost your appetite that you cannot draw that consolation thence as you used to do Do not forget the many Mercies of your Infancy your Childhood your Youth and your Riper Age how seasonable how unexpected how necessary have your Mercies been both for your bodies and your souls and tho' I know it is your abuse of them that grieves and troubles you yet remember that he that once forgave you can forgive you still and that he that did you once so much good is still able to do you good Judg. 13.23 If the Lord had meant to destroy us he would not have received a sacrifice at our hands nor have done all this for us Shall we distrust shall we forsake shall we limit a God that has been heretofore so very mericful and so gracious And tho it is very true that it is no comfort to a poor man to think that he was once rich or to a sick man to think that he was once in health for the bitterness of his present evils takes away the relish of his former comforts and when a Man has lost God in his terrible apprehensions it makes it to be more intollerable than if he had never enjoyed him yet the having once had Communion with him by his Grace and by his Spirit may give us some reason to hope that the root of the matter is in us and that God will cause it to bud and spring forth again tho' it now lye under water and be covered with many storms and tribulations And I may add also with many sins and corruptions with which we were not troubled before XIV Remember that God will not judge you according to what you are in such a woful distemper as that of Melancholly but it will go with you as you were in the time of your health This is highly necessary to be considered for many good people when they are under the disease of Melancholly which can no more be prevented than a Consumption or a Fever they are very apt to express themselves after this or the like manner I thought I had once been serious but now I see that all was a deceit I see that I heard and prayed and received
the Spices to flow forth he excites and quickens our Graces when they begin to languish and when we are lukewarm and cold he makes us to be lively and fervent in the performance of our holy Duties for as one says what the Soul is to the Body to move it to natural things to breathe to eat to walk and the like the same is the Spirit of God in our Souls to move us to spiritual actions as the fear of God love to him and trust in him and all the works of Righteousness Charity Humility Patience and Sobriety that are the motions of the new creature so that we may say of this Spirit that he is the Soul of our Souls and take away this Spirit and the Soul resembles a dead Body it has no zeal for God no compunction no tenderness When we are disconsolate one kind look from God makes us to be of good chear When our hearts are benumb'd and our Eyes are dry he melts them into tears with his Love When we are unfruitful he sends his Dew upon our branches that makes us to flourish in his Courts and to look fresh and green and when we are under Spiritual decays he causes us to thrive when we backslide he heals our backslidings he brings us through the great Mediator into a nearness to and acquaintance with himself For as far as we are distant from him so far are we removed from true and real Life When we wander he recals us he sends us fresh influences and establishes our goings when our motions are like those of a wounded body very faint and tottering 3. Eternal Life is in his favour Hence it is said That Eternal life is the gift of God Rom. 6.23 Psal 16.11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence it fulness of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore It is there that they are said to see God for the sight of his face is that which makes it to be such a glorious and delightful place His Wrath is that which kindles Hell the withholding of his Favour makes it to be such a dark and gloomy Dungeon and the clear manifestation of it does make all the Glories of the Coelestial Paradise And therefore Jacob when he had a Vision of God's Favour to him said This place is no other than the gate of Heaven Gen. 29.17 Frame not to your selves a gross and a material Happiness 't is all in the Love and Favour of God To see him fills all the Souls above with ineffable delight to be deprived of this blessed privilege fills all the Souls in misery with Mourning and Lamentation To his Saints God will be all in all his Communications will be entire and full there Lettres de Monsieur Claude p. 10. †As the Creatures are of divers orders every one receives its portion of Divine Favour different from that of others He communicates himself otherwise to the Heavens than to the Earth otherwise to an Angel than to a Man The Earth hath an Image of his firmness the Sun hath an image of his beauty the Heaven an image of his immensity and so in others but there is no Creature that has assembled in it self all the beams of the Communications of God It shall be otherwise in Paradise God shall be all things in the Saints and they shall be filled with his Favour And as he further says God is not so all in all in the Faithful here the troubles of our Conscience the weakness of our Faith the languors of our Devotion the shadows of our Knowledge our Sins our Miseries our Sickness and our Death are the fruits of the Fall and of the Malice of the Devil But in that Felicity there shall be nothing of US in us nothing of the Impression of the Devil All shall be of God our Shadows shall be swallowed up by his Light and our Weakness by his power It is a state of Glory and Glory is a mixture of all the Blessings of God in a degree Sovereignly perfect That Country that is above is indeed the Land of the Living they Live and shall never Dye But this Earth is a Region and a place of Death For beside that which is Natural the most part of men are dead in Sin and truly even those that are alive have but a weak and a fainting Life There it is that that the Saints shall be admirers of the Grace and Favour of God That after various difficulties and innumerable temptations and overwhelming fears did at last bring them to that happy Place For the poor trembling Saint that thought himself cast off and forsaken of God to find himself in his Arms in his Presence in his Heaven how great will his joy and praise be How will he ascribe all his life there to the meer Favour and Grace of God that shall set him at liberty when by his many Sins he had deserved to be bound in Eternal Chains That shall cause him to sing Hallelujahs when others weep and wail for ever How will he admire that Grace that has placed him in Heaven when so many others are in Hell And the more admire when he shall consider that this distinction of States was freely made That that Crown which will adorn his Head was freely given How will every look on God fill his Soul with a wondring Joy because he freely gave his Son How will every view of Christ encrease his wonder When he shall consider that he freely undertook the kind work of his Redemption that he freely shed his Blood and paid the debt which the Sinner himself could never pay and that he freely gave the Spirit and offered that Salvation upon easy terms without money and without price which cost him very dear All the Saints above will continually adore the Riches of his Grace that admitted them to Glory when they deserved to be shut out as well as others That they were deformed till he put his comeliness upon them That they were liable to Death till he justified them and polluted in their Natures till he renewed them and dying till he made them to live That they learned nothing but what he taught them had nothing but what he gave them did nothing but what he enabled them to do So that all must be wonderful in their Eyes from the beginning of God's design for their Salvation to the conclusion of it And when it is all finished they must with loud Praises sing Grace Grace By Grace ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God Eph. 2.8 First No common Mercy yields any Comfort without the Favour and Love of God His loving-kindness is better than life Psal 63.3 If a man have all that he can wish every thing that is splendid and delightful every thing that may please his Eye or gratify his Appetite if he have not this with the Love of God he is a Miserable man For this will mingle
doth behold the upright Psalm 11.7 He encourages the weakness of that Soul that is tender and afraid of sin he will not treat you with the kindness that he shews to his honourable Subjects if you take part with his open enemies Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you Joh. 15.14 Obedience is the genuine effect of so excellent and so near an alliance and 't is the proof and evidence thereof Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and doth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him And vers 23. We will come unto him and make our abode with him A Promile full of Mercy Words that have in them all that is desirable that are big with consolation What can a soul wish for more than to have God the Father and the Son to have them for his Friends for his Guest and not only to tarry for a night or a day but for ever Not to comfort him with a transient visit which were a great privilege but to dwell with him Oh! blessed is the House that hath such Inhabitants and blessed is the Soul who is thus honoured and esteemed By obeying his Commands you shew your selves to be vessels of Honour and when you are so he will at one time or other fill you brim-full of Joy If you serve the Devil you can by no means have that satisfaction that flows from the hope of being a Son of God and an Heir of Heaven And tho' his Showers fall upon the Sands as well as on the manured and cultivated ground yet till you are fruitful you cannot expect to be refresh'd with his gentle and comfortable Dews There are peculiar influences of his Grace that fall upon his inclosed Gardens and not upon the Deserts If favour should be shewed to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness Isa 26.10 It shines like the Sun on a Rock he is no more fruitful no more tender-hearted than he was before if you embrace your ancient Sins if you hold on your correspondence with your former Lusts God will not pour the oyl of gladness into such old and depraved hearts if we go on in sin we violate our own serenity and raise within our breasts a multitude of storms whereas Psal 119.165 Great peace have they which love thy Law and nothing shall offend them And so Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy Isa 64.15 Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness By these means you shall obtain the favour of God and when you have so obtained it CHAP. IV. Shewing that we ought to take heed that we do not lose the favour of God after we have once enjoyed it and what we are to do that we may not fall into a condition so miserable at this would be 7. TAke great heed that you do not lose the favour of God again It is true indeed that those whom God once loves he loves to the end they are not suffered totally to be miserable but yet they may lose the sense of his favour and all the comfort that once flowed from the pleasant thought That he was their God Those that have sailed with a very prosperous gale may upon their negligence be tost with very many storms and may be terrified with a Thousand dangers and calamities whilest they do not see the Sun Moon and Stars for many days and nights together and tho' they do not at length fall short of Heaven yet they may travel as through a Wilderness in their way thither and not meet with those clusters of the promised Land with those joys and comforts that others meet withal The Spirit may suspend his influences and leave the Conscience in a very lamentable slate and take away the peace that he once gave so that the poor soul in that condition cannot but look upon it self with as sad an eye as if it were a reprobate and great difficulties and dangers there are ere the spirit return again to repair the breaches which our sin hath made The disorders of our souls afterwards remain a great while and it will cost us vast labour to remove them as when some River that is very muddy has overflowed the neighbouring Fields tho' it do return to its ordinary Channel yet it nevertheless leaves those places all covered with slime and dirt The least Eclipse of the Face of God is a very formidable thing 't will shake all the powers of your souls and put you into such terror as will seem to be like Hell it self If you be so foolish as upon slight temptations to forfeit his favour you ll dearly pay for that folly you may do that in a moment that may fill you with astonishment and sorrows all your days and make you go at last mourning to the Grave You may by a sudden fall have your Bones broken and it may be never again recover your former ease and strength do not therefore wound nor bruise your selves If you are not very careful that Candle of the Lord that shines upon your Tabernacle may be removed and then you I know by a sad experience that it is an evil and a bitter thing to sin against him Tho' you now do not question your title to Salvation yet you shall then be full of doubts and fears tho' you are now looking to God as to a Friend yet you shall then be forced to look upon him as an Enemy and think your afflictions not the rebukes of a Father but of an angry Judge He will be indeed the same God still as full of Goodness and of Love but to you he will be as a Fountain sealed up and your poor mourning souls like the Mountains of Gilboa curst and barren there will be no Dew nor Rain upon them Tho' you are never so flourishing now yet then the sharpness of the Winter will blast all your Fruit that the Fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall there be any fruit in the Vine and the labour of the Olive shall fail Consider how great was the sorrow of David when God was for a season departed from him How many were his Tears how heavy his Complaints and how sad his Thoughts Tho' he was as 't is usually judged of a sanguine and a merry temper and had a peculiar skill in Musick which is the usual allayer and charm of Grief yet in the sense of God's displeasure his Joy was turned into Lamentation his Harp and those Songs with which he had driven away the melancholly of Saul could not stifle or chase away trouble from his own soul the Storm was too loud to listen to those softer Airs the Wound was too deep to be Cured by those gentle and easie Methods Beware lest you lose the sense of the Favour and the Love of God lest you make your Heavenly Father to visit you with painful Rods and severe Afflictions Take
dissipated and that dissipation causes fear when a soul has long had in it self the sentence of condemnation a pardon from God is very comfortable our former darkness does encrease our present comfort as shadows set off the light 2. Joy arises from the possession of a present good Thus is the presence of God unspeakably sweet to a soul from which he was once departed I. As it now thinks upon him as reconciled 2. As it has by faith possession of Christ by whom his favour is restored as our sadness came by unbelief so does our joy by faith When it was in anguish every thought of God was terrible and amazing but now nothing is so refreshing so desirable so satisfying as to think of him Psal 94.19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul Now the poor finner does not look upon him as an enemy but as a Father sees no more in his hand a flaming Sword but a Scepter of Grace hear 's no more his angry voice but his gentle comfortable Calls and Invitations according to that in Isa 66.13 As one whom his mother comforteth so will I comfort you and ye shall be comforted and when ye see this your heart shall rejoyce and your bones shall flourish like an herb Oh what a joy is it to the soul to find God with it to behold the wonders of his pardoning mercy to see that all its unbelief all its impatience all its murmurings in its wilderness-condition shall not finally obstruct its Journey to the Land of Promise to be pardoned when they thought themselves actually dying in their guilt does aggravate the mercy of escape 'T is true God loves his people even when he is angry with them he designs their good by the sharpest and severest strokes and when he withdraws 't is that they may give a better welcome to him at his return when our lower Region is most cloudy the Sun is still full of light but it is pleasant to us to see the clouds vanish and the sky clear and to be refreshed with his inlivening beams again God indeed is the same for ever our distresses our fears and our troubles do not alter his kindness these several variations in us make no change in him no more than the several alterations in the air infer a diversity in the Sun which is one and the same it self tho the changes be multiplied here below but yet even Paternal wrath is wrath still and his Love is what we ought earnestly to desire and at the manifestation of which we should greatly rejoyce It was once the saying of Mr. Peacock under great distress of Conscience Oh God reconcile me to thee that I may tast one dram of thy Grace by which my miserable soul may receive comfort Such was his longing after him and afterwards when the storm began to cease being put in mind of God's mercy to him he said Oh the Sea is not so full if water nor the Sun of light as God is of Goodness his Mercy is ten thousand times more The good man long'd but for a drop before and he had given him full draughts of Consolation so far are the ways of God above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts in our sore trials we think of God as a frowning Judge but when we are deliver'd we see him to be our best friend that he is really kind to us of whom we were so much afraid who can express the joy of having him at peace with us There is a Heaven in the smiles of a Reconciled God Figure to your selves as one expresses it De Lang-Treize Sermons pag. 850. a person that is condemned to death for his Crimes and who at the same time that he prepares to undergo it sees an Herald from the King bringing his pardon in his hand and stops the Execution by crying Mercy mercy to the miserable man with what transports of joy does the poor Malefactor see this Messenger and hear these tidings such and so pleasant is the joy that a deserted Christian finds after he heard the sentence of ruin and saw it near when the Law condemned him and his Conscience ecchoed to the voice of the Law to find that he is absolved that the Sentence is reversed and the sins that made him afraid are blotted out then it is that the mourning foul dares to look up to God as being no more at war with him nor afraid of the Thunder of his Power then it is refresht with his sweet and amiable Attributes and then the disorders and the pangs that it felt within are vanisht and all is quiet then it dwells not as in the shadow of death nor as on the borders of eternal grief Secondly As the deserted soul does by faith obtain a possession of Christ so it is full of joy and Christ is both the Object and the Author of it he has purchas'd it by his own blood and has born our griefs that we might not mourn for ever the having of him is a constant inexhaustible source of joy to the believer to be possessed of this Saviour who is the brightness of the glory and the express Image of the Father His Word his Wisdom his Love and his Good-will the Treasury of his Graces in whom his Fulness dwells this Divine Saviour is our Light that chases away the darkness of our night and who with his Gracious hand dries our eyes this is that Glorious Sun that arises with healing on his wings that not only chears our hearts but cures our wounds dispells the night and makes the voice of sighing to expire at the first dawning of the day this is the Tree of Life the Coelestial Manna that gives us Immortality * See Daille on Phil. IV. v. IV. This is our David that defeats our Enemies our Solomon that establishes among us a sweet and inviolable peace he expiates our Crimes and gives our minds rest he saves us from the wrath to come he delivers us from our sins from Hell from our slavish fears and causes us at length in our darkest and most tempestuous nights to hear his Voice saying It is I be not afraid We are first sadned by unbelief and faith doth first revive us and this faith is attended with joy and peace when the poor deserted soul begins to apprehend its Interest in Christ how are all its apprehensions changed saying Heretofore in my terrible anguish I thought that he was my certain enemy that I had no portion in his Blood nor any share in his Intercession That as I was under unbelief so I should be vastly more miserable than those that never heard of him than Heathens and Pagans and all the rest of men to whom the Gospel never came I then thought and was fully perswaded that I should not hear of him with comfort any more I then thought that I should see him coming in the Clouds to my terror that I should be placed at his
from natural and ordinary Causes is very healthful and adds very much to the strength and vigour of the body much more then will that joy promote it which is founded on the Word of God and on the hope of his Acceptance And no question David had a respect to this when he said Psal 51.8 Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Ps 35.10 All my bones shall say Lord who is like to thee which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him and the needy from him that spoileth him No troubles wast our natural spirits more than our inward griefs and fears no joys refresh and make them more sprightly than the joys of our Souls See Job 33.19 to 26. God is gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down into the pit I have found a ransome his flesh shall be fresher than a childs he shall return to the days of his youth he shall pray unto God and he will be favourable to him and he shall see his face with joy Those that have writ of Long Life and the means to obtain it advise us to keep our minds always full of splendid and illustrious objects of Histories and the contemplations of Nature and the like but the best Medicine is a quiet Conscience And tho all our Religion will not indeed save us from sickness yet it will enable us to bear it not to be too much concerned and overwhelmed with the manifold and unavoidable Calamities of this mortal Life This is Joy indeed that will recreate our souls and our bodies too that will prepare the one for its passage to Glory and the other for its lying in the Grave Thus our soul which is our glory shall rejoyce and our flesh also shall rest in hope Psal 16.9 and both at length as they have mourn'd so rejoyce together and that for evermore For when God is pleased to speak and to help us both in our bodies and our souls 't is multiplied Salvation and many thousand Cures in one The third General is that Joy arises from the hope of some future Good and this good must be both very agreeable to the soul and very certain For if it be not so there cannot be any other than a weak and a trembling joy There is a great pleasure in expectation of what is to come if it be great and lasting and attainable now to one that hath the returning-sense of God's favour ' tis-very pleasant to look for that hour or day or rather for that chearful Eternity when he shall have the same reviving smiles of his heavenly Father in a more bright and conspicuous manner when not only the night of weeping is gone but that morning is come which shall shine more and more to a perfect day And thus will the comfortable person say If the tast that I have now of God be so sweet Oh! what will the full enjoyment of him be If in this strange Land I am entertained as with the Bread of Angels What Feasts will refresh me when I am at home when I am past the Storms and beyond the Grave and Sin and Tears shall give me no further molestation The first Fruits make them to long for the full Harvest thus says the Apostle We rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and this made the Church to say Make hast O my beloved and be thou like a Roe or a young Hart upon the mountains of spices Expectation of any main event as one says is a great advantage to a wise heart If the fiery Chariot had fetcht away Elias unlookt for we should have doubted of the favour of his Transportation 4. This Morning-Joy will express it self As our griefs cause us to groan and sigh so does this make us in an open pleasant way to manifest our gladness The reviving sense of God's favour does so fill our hearts that we cannot without dishonour to him and prejudice to our selves conceal or stifle it When we apprehend our selves to be happy we take a peculiar pleasure in communicating to others the notice of that happiness and are much more pleased by such a communication This Joy is always attended with an expression of the Mercies of our Deliverer that we cannot but say to our Brethren Come and behold what God has wrought for us Behold what Salvation his own Arm and Power has accomplished so Psal 51.12 Restore to me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit then will I teach transgressors and sinners shall be converted unto thee Then I shall be able to tell them That thy ways however rugged they seem to be for a while yet are at length even and pleasant ways That they lead to Life and Happiness and beholding the beams of thy Love that make me so pleasant and so chearful they shall by such a sight be incouraged also to Religion And to the same purpose Psal 16.9 My heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth His inward Joy was not able to contain it self We testify our pleasure on lower occasions even at the gratification of our senses when our Ear is filled with harmonious melody when our Eye is fixed upon admirable and beauteous objects when our Smell is recreated with agreeable odours and our tast is so by the delicacy and rareness of Provisions and much more will our soul shew its delight when its faculties that are of a more exquisite constitution meet with things that are in all respects agreeable and pleasant to them and in God they meet with all those with his Light our Understanding is refresh'd and so is our Will with his Goodness and his Love So in Psal 126.1 2. When the Lord turn'd again the captivity of Sion then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing It was a sign their hearts were very sull of joy seeing the mouth and the tongue poured it out in so great abundance nay their Neighbours could not but take notice of it They said among the heathen the Lord hath done great things for them far beyond the methods of an ordinary Providence Their Liberty was strange and miraculous that surpassed all Imaginable Reasons and behold as people take delight to go over and over again with a pleasant thing they Eccho to this saying of the Heathens saying Verse 3. The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad Others knew it only by report that God had been so good to them but they by sweet experience In the delivered people it was indeed an inward Jubilation with a loud Cry and Song of Triumph as when God is withdrawn we are forced to speak in the anguish and bitterness of our Souls so when he returns the return is so pleasant that we cannot hold our tongues In our troubles there is a latent grief so sinking and so very sad that no words can express so in the good hope of God's acceptance