misery of Israel Judg. 10.16 So concerning Ephraim the Lord said his bowels were troubled for him Jere. 31.20 There is a conflict betwixt Justice and Mercie when he goeth to correct his children as appeares Hos 11.8 9. How shall I give thee up O Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel Mine heart is turned within me my repentings are rouled together I will not execute the fiercenesse of my wrath I will not destroy Ephraim When hee punisheth the wicked he doth it in the fircenesse of his wrath as appeareth Psal 78.49 Hee cast upon them the fiercenesse of his anger indignation and wrath And to conclude The godly have libertie yea a command to come unto the Lord to call upon him and cry unto him in the day of trouble Ps 50.15 and he wil hear their cry and will save them Ps 145.19 Whereas the wicked shall cry unto the Lord but hee will not heare them hee will even hide his face from them at that time because they have done wickedly Micah 3.4 For the Lord may justly answere them as Iphtah did the Elders of Gilead Judg. 11.7 Did ye not hate mee How then come yee unto me now in the time of your tribulation Wicked persons are haters of God therefore these seeking to God in their need are like to have cold comfort from him What answere did the Lord make to Israel when in their distresse they sought unto him Yee have forsaken mee and served other gods Go and cry unto the gods which you have chosen let them save you in the time of your tribulation Judg. 10.13 14. So will he answere all those that make either their lusts or their belly or their Mammon their god you have devoted your selves unto the world and your lusts why then seek you not help and comfort from them You have hitherto observed and served these let them now help and save you What hope have the wicked Will God hear his crie when trouble comes upon him saies Job 27.9 By all which it appeareth that there is a great difference betwixt the afflictions which the Lord doth exercise his withall and those judgements which hee layeth upon the wicked Vse 5 Fiftly Is it so that the best of Gods children go not without affliction then let all that desire to have a good use of their affliction or a good issue out of them bee earnest suiters at the throne of grace and humbled before the Lord in prayer Is any among you afflicted let him pray James 5.13 Of all other helpes which wee can use wee may say as David of Goliahs sword There is none to that 1. Sam. 21.13 so none to prayer As the Load-stone draweth Iron unto it so our prayers if they be made in faith and proceed from a broken heart do draw God unto us Thou drewest neere in the day that I called upon thee Lam. 3.57 As the Lord gives us power to aske for it is his spirit which helpeth our infirmities so somtimes he gives us benefits without asking that wee may bee the more bound unto him and his benefits may be the more welcom unto us by how much lesse they are deserved or expected When God bids us to call upon him and pray unto him it is not for that hee needs to be intreated but that he may make us more capable of blessings by desiring them It being his own ordinance that if wee ask we shall have c. And therefore he that oft gives ere wee ask will not fail us when we seek aright unto him The Lord is ready to hear as wee are to pray and if wee send up our requests unto him hee is ready to send down comfort and help unto us Call upon mee in the day of trouble so will I deliver thee Psal 50.15 But to whom think you is this sweet and comfortable promise made even to such as have a desire to glorifie God Therefore as followeth in the next verse Vnto the wicked said God What hast thou to do to take my covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed and hast cast my words behind thee Psal 50.16 17. Although the Lord be a God hearing prayers yet hee is a God that heareth not sinners Job 9.31 Let every one that calleth upon the Name of the Lord depart from iniquitie 2. Tim. 2.19 It is not obedience but impudencie for such as in their health and prosperitie have not harkned unto God speaking unto them in his Word and Works to presse upon him in their need and affliction for help and comfort if their hearts be not more rent and broken by repentance and godly sorrow for their sinne then their estate or bodies are hurt or wounded by their punishment The Lord hath protested against such When affliction and anguish shall come upon you Then shall they call upon mee but I will not answere they shall seek me early but they shall not find mee Prov. 1.27 28. If hee that stoppeth his eare at the crying of the poore shall also cry and not be heard Prov. 21.13 How much lesse hee that stops his eares against the Lord calling and crying unto him in his holy Word His prayers shall bee abhominable Pro. 28.9 O how miserable and lamentable must his case needs be unto whom that exercise becomes sinne by which the godly and penitent obtain remedy against sinne and comfort in affliction Therefore let us be humbled under the hand of God in the sight and sence of our sinnes and then as our troubles will bee a motive to stirre us up to prayer so will they be a motive to procure ease and comfort from the Lord. O Lord turn unto mee according to the multitude of thy tender mercies hide not thy face from thy servant for I am in trouble Psal 69.16 17 Such is the goodnesse of God toward sinners that all that seek unto him by prayer shall fare the better for it Whosoever returned in his affliction to the Lord God of Israel and sought him hee was found of him 2. Chron. 15.4 Jonah did behave himselfe stubbornly against the Lord and the Lord was even with him for his stoutnesse he was thrown into the sea and swallowed up of a Whale Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fishes belly and hee heard him Jon. 2.1 2. Wee have heard what a vile and wicked man Manasses was Hee had done evill in the sight of the Lord like the abominations of the heathen hee built the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down he set up Altars for Baalim and worshipped all the hoast of Heaven and served them And he caused his sonnes to passe thorow the fire hee gave himselfe to witch-craft to charming and to sorcery hee did very much evill in the sight of the Lord to anger him shedding exceeding much innocent blood Yet for all these abominations when hee was in tribulation hee prayed unto the Lord and God was intreated of him and heard his prayer 2.
A CORDIALL FOR THE AFFLICTED Touching The Necessitie and Utilitie of Afflictions Proving unto us The happinesse of those that thankfully receive them AND The misery of all that want them or profit not by them By A. HARSNET B. D. and Minister of Gods Word at Cranham in Essex The Second Edition enlarged with direction touching Spirituall Afflictions LONDON Printed by Ric. Hodgkinsonne for Ph. Stephnes and Chr. Meridith at the Golden Lion in Pauls Churchyard 1638. TO THE HONOrable Lady the Lady JOHAN BARRINGTON The Wife of that Noble and renowned Sr. FRANCIS BARRINGTON late of Barrington Hall and to the Right Worshipfull The Lady MARY EDEN the Wife of Sr. THOMAS EDEN late of Ballingdon Hall Much honored Ladies IT is too true a saying that Greatnes and Goodnesse seldom go together for not many mighty not many noble are called Yet blessed be God for his mercies to you-wards wee finde both of these in both of you For your Greatnesse next under God yee are beholding unto your Parents out of whose loynes you came For your Goodnesse yee are in in some measure beholding unto Affliction by which The Lord hath done you good so as I make no question but that ye may both of you say with David It is good for mee that I have beene afflicted Hereupon worthy Ladies I have adventured to put forth this small Treatise touching the Necessitie and utility of Affliction under your Ladiships names and Patronage joyning you both together because God hath already conjoyned you so neere in affinity by the marriage of your Pious and Religious children beseeching your Ladyships to accept of these my poore labors being such as tend to the furtherance and increase of your comfort in present or future trials For allbeit yee bee good proficients in the School of Affliction Yet peradventure yee may have forgotten some good lessons which Affliction hath formerly taught you or else have not attained as yet to that good wherein it may hereafter instruct you To help you in either or both of these be pleased I heartily beseech your Ladiships seriously to peruse what is here tendered unto you and then I doubt not but by Gods blessing yee shall be able to make that good use of Affliction that yee shall not only blesse God the Father of mercies and God of all comfort who as hee hath afflicted so hath hee comforted you in all your tribulations but yee shall also be able to comfort others which are in Affliction by the cōfort wherewith yee your selves have been comforted of God Which fruit that yee may reape I shall sow my Prayers before throne of Grace and for ever rest your Ladyships to be commanded in the Lord AD. HARSNET Cranham TO THE CHRIstian Reader Increase of Faith Hope and Patience SVch is our blindnesse and ignorance that wee are too ready to judg amisse of our selves as may appeare by two extreames into which the most runne The one is self-conceitednesse or flattering our selves in and about our spirituall estate perswading our selves that wee are in the estate of Grace and that wee have the love and favor of God when as it is neither so nor so For the redressing of which mischiefe I have heretofore undertaken the discoverie of true and sound grace from false counterfeit that so we may no longer be deluded by an overweening of our selves and too high an opinion of our goodnesse as if we were that which wee are not or were not that which wee are The other extream is a diffidence and distrust of Gods love and our own happines through the sense and smart of some troubles and afflictions wherewith it pleaseth the Lord in mercy and wisdom to exercise and trie us Whence it commeth to passe that too many of Gods deere ones are ready to cēsure themselves as out-casts or at the best as a people but meanly beloved or regarded of God in that they are so sorely afflicted For the healing of which error that there may be no mistaking that we neither charge the Lord with any want of love to us ward or hard dealing with us in afflicting of us nor surcharge our selves with unnecssary needles feares and cares nor yet causelesly increase our griefe by adding of more sorrow to our affliction I have now undertaken this Treatise Wherein my desire and ayme is to minister some comfort to such as are in affliction that so they may not cast off their hope of hapines in Heaven because they are exercised with judgments upon earth but rather beleeve that the Lord it now refining and pollishing them that so they may bee the fitter for that glory which is prepared for thē I know it is a hard thing to obey in suffering yet because it is that which maketh for our good we should with the more willingnes and cheerfulnes undergo whatsoever afflictiōs it shal please the Lord to exercise us with If our afflictions brought God out of love with us or us more in love with that which God hates and is hurtfull unto us or if our afflictions were sent unto us as curses wee had great cause to mourn in them but seeing they make so much for our good being sanctified unto us and the word of truth telleth us that wee are blessed in thē have wee not great cause to bee thankfull to God for them the Lord sees how ready we are to plunge our selves into perils if we be but a while exempted from afflictions therefore that wee may not be too bold with sin the Lord wil have us to fall into affliction least being let alone wee fall into condemnation For where God is most silent in threatning and most patient in sparing there is he most inflamed with anger and purpose of revenge And seeing we are willing to receive being sick or diseased any medicine from the hand of him that can truely say probatum est good experience hath been made of the worth working of it let my counsel good reader be acceptable unto thee give me leave to tell thee how much good thou maist gain by afflictiō if through thine unbelief and impatience thou doest not put it from thee I assure thee by good experience that howsoever afflictiō be untoothsome and unpleasing to the flesh it is most soveraign and profitable unto the soul as in the Treatise following I have made plaine unto thee Now if the stile and phrase dislike any because it is so plain and homelike let him know that I prepared this provision for poore and hungry souls unto whom course mean things are welcome and bitter things are sweet not for queasie and full stomacks which despise an hony-combe He that is falne into a pit wil refuse no hand that may help him out of it He that hath a wound in his body will be glad of any plaister that may heal or ease him Accept then of these my poore labors which I desire may be as a hand to help thee out of affliction
to be mistaken in this particular as though God did at any time afflict any without cause Although the Lord doth sometimes afflict and not for sinne yet never without sinne either inherent or imputed God is so farre from picking holes in our coat so far from afflicting any without just cause that hee may see enough in the best of us yea even in our best services performances to afflict us The best of us brought with us into the world so much corruption and do carry about us such bodies of sinne as may expose us to all the plagues of this and another life Every one of us hath in himselfe sufficient fewell for the fire of Gods wrath to work evermore upon him if the Lord in his justice would be pleased to kindle it Let no man therefore question Gods justice in afflicting the best of his children because as I have said he somtimes afflicteth us to prevent some evill to come which through our naturall propension through some violent occasion or through some strong temptation wee may be drawne into Ephraim was mad upon sinne therefore saith the Lord Hos 2.6 I will stop thy way with thornes and make an hedge that she may not find her paths Too much sun-shine will dazle our eyes Too much honey turnes to gall so too much prosperity and ease breeds security and makes us proud or wanton therefore lest our ranck blood should cause some inflamation it pleaseth God our wise and loving Physitian to open a veine to cool us and to keep us in good temper Horses that are full fed and pampered grow many times restif Vessels unused do quickly grow rusty even so our nature would soon contract some evill if the Lord should not now and then take us into affliction 's scouring house The Lord sees that prosperity and immunity from affliction blunts the edge of our devotion cools the fire of our zeal and dulleth our eager pursuit after Heaven and Heavenly things and therefore he afflicts us to prevent these evils as hee took away Jeroboams sonne by death lest if he had lived longer he might have trod in the steps of his wicked father and been tainted with his sinnes It may be the Lord seeth that wee would run into some danger if he should let us alone therefore as he snached Lot out of Sodom lest he should have perished in their flames so he catcheth hold of us by affliction thereby to deliver us from some sinne wee are falling into Therefore whatsoever triall and affliction doth befall thee lay thy hand upon thy mouth murmure not against the Lord but be thankfull unto him and say O Lord thou knowest the distemper of my soul thou knowest how prone I am to sinne and wickednesse and thou who seest things to come as if they were present seest I was inclining to some evill but in mercy hast by this affliction prevented mee keep mee therefore from falling into evill by what means thou pleasest suffer mee not to sin against thee Reason 4 Fourthly the Lord doth afflict us to teach us some good lesson which without affliction hee sees wee shall hardly learn Psal 119.71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes Corrections are instructions God will have none of his to perish for want of instruction he sendeth his word amongst us to teach us his wayes that so we may walk in his truth Psal 86.11 But outward prosperity so thickens our eare and so hardens our heart that we cannot wee will not heare to our profit Jerem. 22.21 I spake unto thee when thou wast in prosperitie but thou saidst I will not hear this hath been thy manner from thy youth that thou wouldest not obey my voice therefore the Lord openeth the ear of men even by their corrections Job 33.16 For such as will not hear the word shall hear the rod Mica 6.9 Manasses learned that lesson in the school of affliction which could never be taught him in the school of the Prophets 2 Chron. 33.12 In his tribulation he humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers He that was prowd and could set himselfe against the Lord and his truth and all that professed it all the while he was in prosperity and upon his throne when the Lord caused him to be cast in prison and put chaines of iron upon his leggs in stead of a chaine of Gold about his neck hee could then learn to be humble and obedient unto the Lord. Nabuchadnezzar being pulled out of his Babel driven from men to have his dwelling amongst the beasts could at length come to praise extoll magnifie the King of heaven whose works are all truth and able to abase those that walk in pride Dan. 4 34. Our hearts are very hard and sturdy so as the word will not break them untill the Lord by affliction subdues and humbles these hearts of ours making them soft and yeelding so as the word may take some impression in us Hence it is that Solomon tells us Prov. 15.32 Hee that obeyeth correction gets understanding Some say that many and I have found it true in some children after a sicknesse grow both in ripenesse of understanding and in stature of body so it is with the Lords children affliction bringeth them to a better understanding of heaven and heavenly things as Nebuchadnezzar confessed Dan. 4.33 Mine understanding was restored unto me and causeth the inner man to grow more then before It teacheth us to walk in the right way and to keep Gods Word as Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I keep thy word What havock did Paul before the Lord met with him make of Christs flock entring into every house hee drew out both men and women and put them into prison Acts. 8.3 And being armed with malice and authority he posteth to Damascus to put in execution his bloody commission but the Lord meets him by the way unhorseth this persecutor strikes him down to the ground and smites him with blindnesse and what followed Paul was now a new man Act. 9.6 He then both trembling and astonied said Lord what wil thou that I do What had become of Paul if affliction had not beene Which of Gods children cannot say as David said It is good for me that I have been afflicted Nay what affliction hath at any time befalne us which wee could have spared Nay let me go a little further is it not best with us when wee are under the rod Would it not be better with us thinke you if the Lord should afflict us more If thou beest the child of God I appeale to thy conscience whether thy case had not been farre worse then now it is if affliction had not been Many are like unto those kind of fishes which seldom or never without much difficulty and labour can be caught but when the water is troubled So before troubles do befall many they cannot be caught
shall suffer and bee afflicted Revel 2.10 Yee shall suffer tribulation ten dayes This time thou canst not shorten but lengthen it thou mayst through thy impatience As an earthly father correcting his childe for some fault doth resolve with himself to give him but a lash or two to keep him but a while under the rod if hee take his correction patiently but if he kicke or murmurre hee resolves to hold him down the longer and give him the more stripes Even so our heavenly Father deales with his children the more patiently wee take our affliction the sooner wee are like to come out of it The patient abiding of the righteous shall be gladnesse Prov. 10.28 Trust in the Lord and thou shalt bee safe Hee that beleeveth maketh not haste Esay 28.16 But is content to tarry the Lords leisure Many are ready to compound and indent with God thus long they will wait thus long they will pray and if by that time no helpe nor deliverance come they will give over in their impatient mood as the messenger of the King of Israel said Behold this evill commeth of the Lord should I attend the Lord any longer 2. Kings 6.33 O beware of such thoughts but let thy heart bee in the feare of the Lord continually for surely there is an end and thy hope shall not be cut off Prov. 23 17 18. Wee cannot denie but The hope that is deferred is the fainting of the heart but when the desire commeth it is a tree of life Prov. 13.12 The longer the Lord delaies our deliverance the sweeter will it bee when it comes Wait therefore with patience seeing the Lord by his writing seal and oath hath promised to deliver us out of all our troubles And what hee hath promised hee will most certainly perform for though God may bee angry with us for our sinnes yet he cannot be unfaithfull though he may like Joseph conceale his affection for a time yet impossible it is that he should shut up his compassions and renounce the protection of such as depend upon him or denie deliverance to such as do seek aright unto him Therefore Who is there amongst you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darknesse and hath no light let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God Esa 50.10 By darknesse is heere understood affliction out of which the Lord will assuredly bring all such as seek unto him and rest upon him Beware of making more haste then good speed to procure freedom from our deliverance out of troubles by unlawfull and sinfull courses Wee rob the Lord of a great deal of honor and our selves of a great deal of comfort which wee should reap by waiting upon the Lord. Too many are ready to thinke that if they have some little time besought the Lord that hee forsooth is bound presently to answer them As those hypocrites Esay 58.3 expostulated the matter with the Lord saying Wherefore have wee fasted and thou seest it not wee have punished our selves and thou regardest it not Some are ready to cry with David How long how long Lord wilt thou forget me for ever how long wilt thou hide thy face from mee Psal 13.1 Againe Have mercy upon mee O Lord for I am weake O Lord heal me for my bones are vexed My soul is also sore troubled but Lord how long wilt thou delay Psal 6.2 3. Beware of measuring the Lord by thine own line and plummet let not thy carnall reason or fleshly wisdom seem to direct or limit Gods Providence thou maiest not joyn thine own fantasies to Gods will but what thou seekest at his hands thou must commend it to his good pleasure without saying to thy selfe Let it be thus or so God doth many times delay his children and not by and by afford them that helpe and comfort which he intendeth them yea sometimes he suffers them to be ready to sink before he saves them As he dealt with his Disciples who were tossed up and down of the waves the ship reeling too and fro and ready to be overwhelmed before hee would awake and bid the tempest be still yet when he saw time hee rebuked the winde and seas and delivered his Disciples from their danger and feare Know and beleeve that the measure and issue of any tentation belongeth unto God Therefore howsoever the case standeth with thee expostulate not with God entertain no hard conceits of him The Lord in wisdom may delay our deliverance out of affliction because haply hee sees that it hath not as yet throughly wrought upon us nor done us that good he intendeth us Do Goldsmiths use to take their mettall out of the fornace before it be fined from the drosse There be some kind of plaisters applied to the bellies of children which will sticke fast so long as the wormes bee alive but if the bed of them be broken and they killed the plaister will fall off and so of many sores If affliction still cleave unto thee it is because sinne is not yet killed in thee This plaister lieth on us no longer then till the sore be whole and the disease be cured in us It may be the Lord sees wee are not fit for deliverance wee would too quickly forget the rod and return to our own byas if hee should by and by ease us as soon as wee cry unto him It may be the Lord sees wee would not be thankfull enough for deliverance if it should bee granted upon the first request Things lightly attained unto are oft times slightly regarded Whereas those things which we get through the pikes wee prize at a high rate Therefore thou forgettest thy selfe and the Word of truth in saying God hath forgotten to be mercifull and gracious because he doth not by and by answere thee Can a woman forget her childe and not have compassion on the son of her wombe Peradventure there may bee some such unnaturall monsters that cast off all naturall affection and lay violent hands upon their children but though they forget yet will I not forget thee saith the Lord and for assurance hereof Behold I have graven thee upon the palmes of my hands Esay 49.15 16. When wee are afraid wee shall forget a thing we tye a thred about our finger for our better remembring thereof but when wee tie threds upon both hands wee then make sure wee will not forget it thus doth the Lord set down his children in the palmes of both hands that they may not be forgotten Therefore still wait and deliverance will come when thou dost least think of it Object I have no hope I cannot thinke I shall be delivered Answ Gods thoughts are not your thoughts Esay 55.8 You know your own thoughts you know not Gods Jerem. 29.11 I know the thoughts that I thinke towards you saith the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evill to give you an expected end Object But I see no way no
of his deare Sonne Is any man so mindfull and carefull of keeping covenant and promise as the Lord Is any so able to make good his word as God Tricks of Law and the wilie subtilties of mans braine are oft occasions of frustrating promises made betwixt man and man but there is no wisedom neither understanding nor councell against the Lord Prov. 21.30 God is not as man that hee should lye neither as the sonne of man that he should repent hath hee said and shall he not do it hath hee spoken and shall hee not accomplish it Numb 23.19 God is so faithfull of his Word that nothing is able to make him goe back or to falsify his promise Gods Word shal stand when Heaven and Earth shall fall To mistrust Gods promise is to question whether there be a God or no. For either to deny or doubt of his truth and fidelity is to deny or doubt him to bee God Every honest man scandeth upon his credit for his credits sake he dares not eate his word hee keepeth promise though it bee to his own losse and hindrance How much more will the Lord who is jealous of his glory bee carefull to make good whatsoever hee hath said What greater indignity can bee offered to an honest and godly man then to question the truth of his word What greater dishonor can be unto the Lord then to call into question his truth which wee do when wee either say or thinke hee loves us not in afflicting of us Howsoever crosses and afflictions do oft times present themselves to the apprehension of carnal men with much terorr horror yet even in the very bitternesse and extremity of them thou by the helpe of faith maist draw a great deal of joy and comfort from them if thou wouldst fix thy minde upon such places and promises as these are Isa 43.2 and 63.8 Rom. 8.28 2. Cor. 4.17 Heb. 12.6 A patient submission to Gods will and a perswasion of his love in correcting of us is an infallible evidence that thou art a sonne and not a bastard Is there not more sweetnesse in those afflictions which are evidences of Gods love tokens that thou art in the right way to Heaven then in outward ease worldy pleasures and carnall liberty which clearly demonstrate to thy conscience that thou art in the broad way to Hell hence it was that the Apostls rejoyced when they were beaten That they were counted worthy to suffer rebuke for the name of Christ Act. 5.41 Nay all the scorne and contempt all the contumelious reproaches which the world shall spit out at thee do crown thy head and therefore should fill thy heart with aboundance of glory blessednesse and joy If ye be reproched for the name of Christ happy are ye for the spirit of glory of God resteth upon you 1. Pet. 4.14 Schoffes spitefull and taunting speeches odious nick-names and lying imputations cast upon thee by those whose tongues cut like sharpe raisors are but so many honorable badges of thy profession and Christian resolution of standing for Christ his truth and shall pull down a blessing upon thee Blessed are ye when men revile you and persecute you and say all evill against you for my sake rejoyce and be glad for great is your reward in Heaven Mat. 5.11 12. I define to beate this mile home to the head therfore I tarry the longer upon this use for if we could but bee thorowlie perswaded of this truth that God loveth us in that he correcteth us all differences betwixt the Lord and us about affliction would bee at an end and our sorrow would be turned into joy and rejoycing in tribulation Rom. 5.3 our unquietnesse would bee turned into patience our lumpishnesse into cheerfulnesse and our murmurring into thankfullnesse Therefore I would have you know that the Devill our adversary hath not a more forcible engine or any more cunning stratageme to batter our peace and patience and so to draw away our hearts from resting upon God in the time of our afflictiō then to make us to question Gods love and so to mistrust his truth Who did ever trust in the Lord and was deceived Our Fathers saith David trusted in thee they trusted thou didst deliver them they called upon thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded Psal 22.4 5. Whereupon David praies My God I trust in thee let mee not bee confounded so all that hope in thee shall not bee ashamed Psalme 25.2 3. And was the Lord the God of David only Is he not also their God that do put their trust in his goodnesse and mercy Is Gods love and kindnesse his mercy and goodnesse lesse unto his people now then it was to those of old Or is the Lord more feeble and lesse able to helpe and do good to us then to our fathers before us No no hee is the Ancient of dayes Dan. 7.22 the same God now that ever hee was as able and as willing now to do good to those that beleeve in him as he hath beene of old Therefore in all thine afflictions learne to judge of and to measure Gods love by his word not by thy present feeling and comfort Let thine eye bee upon that love which will one day change thy estate and give thee a plentifull croppe of good out of this sorrowfull seed time of affliction Should any husbandman measure his estate and wealth by his seed time there were poore comfort to bee found for doth hee not weary his body through painfull toile and labor doth hee not empty his store and cast away his corne out of his hand but when hee doth consider that without a seed time there is no possibility of an harvest and withall that Hee that soweth liberally shall reape liberally 2. Cor. 9.6 He is then contented both with his paines and expences Even so if our eyes bee so fixed upon our present afflictions that wee see not the future good which through the love of God unto us they will bring us wee shal very hardly bee upheld in the time of our affliction but if wee look off the affliction and fasten our eye upon the love of God and that good he will doe us for that evil which we patiently and thankfully sustain how joyfully how contentedly how sweetly may we sit down and blesse God for afflicting of us Object But may some weak beleever object and say I make no question but that God in love doth chasten some of his children but how can I beleeve that my afflictions are tokens of his love when as I find and feele no good that hath come unto me through them nay I feare I am the worse for them for I am now more impatient more uncheerefull and more distrustfull of the love and providence of God then ever I was before Answ To favor thy weaknesse a little let mee tell thee that it may be this is but one of Satans wiles enterprises
not any of thy failings can nulifie Gods covenant which he hath made because it is an everlasting covenant Jer. 32.40 The best of Gods children do daily faile in one part of the covenant or other yet if there be not a revolting a turning back a falling away from God a betaking of thy selfe unto an other husband another love thou art no breaker of the covenant tho there be failings All this is come upon us yet do we not forget thee neither deal we falsly concerning thy covenant Psal 44.17 As the Lords love towards us did not begin in us so doth it not so much depend upon us but upon the mercy goodnesse and truth of him with whom there is no variablenesse neither shaddow of turning Jam. 1.17 For I am the Lord I change not and ye sons of Jaakob are not consumed Mat. 3.6 If Gods grace and mercy should depend upon our deservings the Devill would alwayes pick some hole or other in our coate we should never have inward rest nor assurance either of Gods love or of our own salvation For Satan is subtle and deceiptfull and he will not faile to tell us that we have broken covenant and therfore God hath cashiered us and cast us off therefore whensoever Satan comes to parlie with thee it must be thy wisdom and it will be thy safety not to hold him chat but to break off reasoning and dispute with him Object But Satan doggs and followes me with restles assaults he daily casts his firy darts at me he is daily battering my faith Answ Then go to Heaven for helpe encounter him in the name of Christ as David set upon Golia in the name of the Lord have recourse unto the promises which being well and wisely mannaged by faith will be able to foile the Devill and send him packing from thee A greater and a surer signe of victory we cannot have then this viz. To renounce our own confidence not to stand upon our own bottom but to cast our selves upon the Lord and so wee shall be strong in the power of his might Ephesians 6.10 Therefore give no way to Satan howsoever for the present he may bang thee and cause thee to bauke yet be stedfast in the faith and thou shalt be able to resist him because the Lord taketh thy part For the exceeding greatnesse of his power is toward us which beleeve Eph. 1.19 Assure thy selfe Satan shall be foiled if the power of God doth underprop thee which power if thou wilt call for and beleeven thou art sure to partake of and then if thou chance to be foiled thou standest as one undefiled in Gods account In the old Law if any womans chastitie was assaulted by any varlet if shee cryed out for helpe shee was blamelesse Deutr. 22.27 Even so when satanicall tentations do assault us if wee in the assault crie unto the Lord for helpe the Lord will not require the tentation at our hands but of Satan whose worke it was The ravished woman was chaste in Gods account because her heart and mind was so though her body was defiled So if Satan draw not consent from us his tentations may prevaile with us but shall not be layd unto our charge Therefore slie to God for help cry unto him and hee will either weaken Satan and strenâ—â—hen thee or else not lay the tentation to thy charge And take heed that thou beest not over much disquieted or unsetled by any of Satans tentations for this may give Satan some advantage if hee sees thee to be dejected hee will be the more insolent and double his forces against thee Therefore be strong in the faith feare not be not disheartned the Lord will be thy defence and under the shadow of his wings shalt thou have shelter Thinke never the worse but the better of thy selfe because Satan assaults thee it is a signe thou goest not the way that hee would have thee When any man drives his cattle to pasture if they go the way that hee would have them he is well pleased with them but if they hap to straggle out of the way he throwes a stone at one and his staffe at another even so when wee go the way Satan would have us hee lets us alone as implied by those words of our Saviour Luk. 11.21 When a strong man armed keepeth his palace the things that hee possesseth are in peace but if wee disquiet him hee will not faile to disquiet us so far as he may or can for satan can not tempt thee longer then the Lord wil permit him and hee that suffers Satan to tempt thee will not suffer thee to be tempted by him above that which thou shalt be able to beare but will even give issue with the tentation 1. Cor. 10.13 But I am feeble and weak and am not able to hold out against such fierie darts such furious oppositions as I am assaulted withall Answ But if thou wilt trust in the Lord hee will not faile thee nor forsake thee Object But I feele my heart to faint and my strength to faile Answ Hee giveth strength to him that sainteth and to him that hath no strength hee increaseth power Isa 40.29 Object I had a little strength but it is gone and vanished my faith begins now to flagge and therefore I feare I shall not hold out long Answ But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall runne and not be weary they shall walke and not faint Isa 40.31 If thou hadst strength of thine own it were not to be trusted unto and though thine bee gone the Lord remaines his arme is not shortned his power is not lessened Therefore cheere up thy drooping and fainting heart let the tentation be never so smart or tart yet it is no other then that out of which God intends to fetch some glory and thou in the end shalt receive some good And know it for truth that the more restlesly Satan doth follow thee with varietie of tentations the more sweetly and securely thou maist repose thy perplexed soule upon this comfortable perswasion and assurance that thou art the Lords Object But I feele much lumpishnesse and dead-heartednesse in the best duties I performe my prayers have little or no life in them my mind is full of wandrings and idle vagaries as soone as I have begun to seek the Lord whereupon I am oft times at a stand not knowing whether I were best proceed or recede and leave off And which doth most of all perplexe mee Satan spares not to cast in oft times Atheisticall and blasphemous thoughts which makes me to feare that when I have ended my prayer God may justly begin my punishment seeing I have more offended him I feare in my prayers then I should have done with my silence Answ But dost thou admit of any of these evill thoughts are they not such as make thy heart to ake and thy soul to bleed within thee Dost thou not ever tremble at the
thought of them Then feare not they shall not be layd to thy charge Assure thy selfe those sighes and groans which proceed from thy perplexed soul shall find so much grace and favor with God as they shall be able to prevaile with him for that blessing thou hast begd and standst in need of And although thou canst not pray as thou wouldst yet sigh and groane as thou shouldst and hee which knowes the secrets of all hearts will be able to understand the meaning of thy sighs and groans of the spirit within thee which doth plead and speak to God for thee Object But I feare the Lord doth abominate my sacrifice and service as loathsome hee may cast it as dung in my face and lay some judgement upon mee for offering up such a strange sacrifice unto him Answ If God hath given thee a heart to mourne for sinne he hath made thee able to offer him such a sacrifice as hee is well pleased with and therefore he can not but accept of thy person whatsoever thy failings have been Thy grieved soul and sorrowfull spirit is a sacrifice which casts a sweet savor in the Lords nostrills Psalm 51.17 And would God accept of thy sacrifice if hee had rejected thee No no assure thy selfe that God hath accepted of thy person if hee accepts of thy sacrifice The Lord had 〈…〉 and to his offering Gâ—â—e 4.4 The melting of thy soul and the kindly mourning over him whom thou hast pierced with thy sinne is a most infallible evidence of Gods love towards thee and of the saving presence of his holy Spirit abiding in thee Therefore let thy spirit rejoyce in that thou art able to mourne for sinne Those teares which proceed from a grieved soul and wounded spirit may be compared unto Aprill showers which bring on May-flowers although these showers wet where they fall Yet through the heat of the Sunne working with them they produce a great deale of sweetnesse in those plants and hearbs which they fall upon There is abundance of joy in all godly sorrow As the harvest is potentially in the seed so the harvest of true and sound joy growes out of this seed of sorrow Psalm 126.5 They that sow in teares shall reap in joy Why is thy soul then so troubled within thee why art thou still so sad so heavie and dejected Object Howsoever I grieve and mourn yet I can not beleeve that there is any truth of grace in mee in that I am not so fruitfull and profitable in my place and calling as I should and faine would bee I am a barren fruitlesse tree one that cumbers the earth fit for nothing but the fire Answ But is it not with thee as it fareth with some covetous earthly gripple-minded persons which spend their time in scraping and raking together these outward things pinch their bodies and are ever and anon whining and complaining that they have nothing when as their chests are full of good linnen their houses stored and stuffed full of utensills and their purse full of money but being blinded with the love of the world think they have nothing because they have not so much as their covetous eye would look over and therefore do neither thankfully acknowledge what they have received nor profitably improve any thing they do enjoy either to Gods glory their own comfort or others good Even so many afflicted souls being overladen with anguish of mind and deluded by Satan oft times complaine of the want of grace in the midst of plentie not seeing as the saying is wood for trees and thus do bely both God and themselves And it is just with the Lord somtimes to hold his children down with feares and doubtings because they have not been sufficiently thankfull to God for that rich grace they have received from him Our unthankfulnesse is not only as a great fogg and mist which doth exceedingly obscure and darken the grace of God in his children but is also as a worme or canker which eats into the sap and heart of grace so as it thrives not nor fructifies as otherwise it would do But such as are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God Psalm 92.13 Doth not the Prophet Jeremiah also tell us that those that trust in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is shall be as a tree planted by the water which spreadeth out her roots shall not care for the yeere of drought neither shall cease from yeelding fruit Jere. 17.8 Answ And is not this good fruit to bemoane thy barrennesse Admit that for the present thou dost not increase thy spirituall stock as thou desirest thou dost not perceive grace to thrive and grow in thee as thou dost behold it in others must it needs follow that thou are therefore utterly destitute and void of grace A man whiles hee is asleep makes no use of many good things hee hath a hand benummed with cold feels not that which it holds fast It may so fall out that grace may be somthing chilled in thee doth it therefore follow that it is quite killed in thee Thou must learn to put a difference betwixt no grace and grace some way infeebled for the present It fares with grace in the hearts of many of Gods children as it doth with the Moon somtimes in the full and somtimes in the wain or as with the Sea which somtimes flowes and sometimes ebbs even so through Satans malice and our own frailtie grace may seem somtime to ebbe in us and then no wonder if the heart be deaded and out inward peace disturbed through feares and doubtings Assure thy selfe this off and on this up and down this heat and cold ariseth from those principles of grace and corruption abiding in all the Lords people Corruption somtimes prevailes and this royles and troubles these living waters within us and makes them thick and muddy so as little good appeares in us but anon when the wind of the spirit blowes againe with its holy blast it cleanseth and refineth these troubled waters whose cleernesse may again be seen and whose goodnesse may be tasted Object But my case is worse then ordinary for I have returned with the dogge to lick up my old vomit after repenting and cleansing yea covenanting with God for ever to renounce and abandon my former sinnes I have with the swine wallowed in the old mire of filthinesse and therefore I cannot think that ever grace was in truth begun in mee Answ If it be so thy case is the more lamentable and fearefull but yet it is not desperate For divers of the Lords people many worthie ones have relapsed have fallen back unto old sinnes and yet by the goodnesse and mercie of God have recovered themselves againe and gained the love and favor of God Did not Abraham sinne the matter of Sarah his wife hazarding her chastitie by a poore plot yea a sinfull pollicie exposing his wife to adultrey for his own outward peace
and safety Who can say that Abrahams heart at the first smote him not for this evill Yet it is evident that hee fell into the same sinne againe Hee that peruseth the book of the Judges shall find Israel fallen into idolatry and upon correction humbled and penitent and yet afterwards againe and again fallen into the same wickednesse they had formerly repented of Was not Jonas thinke you thorrowly humbled for his sinne of stubbornnesse and disobedience when hee felt the smart of it in the Whales belly yet for all this when he saw the Lord so mercifull as to spare Ninivie upon her humiliation and repentance how angry was he with God justifying his former sinne which in effect and before God was all one to have committed the same sinne againe yet the Lord forgave these and received them againe to mercie Doth not the Lord enjoyne us to forgive our brother offending us daily even unto Seventy times seven times if hee repent Matth. 18.22 And will the Lord enjoyn us that act of mercie and compassion wherein himselfe will not be exemplar unto us Is there any drop of pittie or kindnesse in us which comes not out of that bottomlesse sea of love and mercie in the Lord if wee must forgive our brother so many times in the day no doubt but the Lord in whom is the fulnesse of goodnesse and compassion will receive humbled sinners as often as they returne unto him There is no sinne but blasphemie against the holy Ghost which upon repentance shall not be pardoned If residnation and relapsing into the same sinne may bee repented of questionlesse it may it shall be pardoned at Gods hand And whereas some may think that true grace will preserve any from falling into the same sinne againe whereof hee hath formerly repented it is a fond error for if the Lord leave any unto themselves they will be as ready nay more ready to fall into the old sin then into a new the disposition and naturall temper being more inclinable to that evill then any other and Satan knowing which way the poore sinner hath been most foiled will that way most strongly againe assault him It is therefore a binding of the Lords hands a confining and limiting of his boundlesse mercie and compassion yea an undervalewing of the all-sufficiencie of Christ his merit and passion to say that relapsing into former sinnes is a thing unpardonable or that a person so offending was never in the state of grace or can be a true member of the Lord Christ The covenant of grace excludes none but impenitent and unbeleeving persons Truth it is that the burnt child dreads the fire and it is not an ordinary thing for the childe of God in the state of grace to fall back againe to his old byas but that it is not possible for him it God leave him so to fall or that true grace will not admit of any such falls is more then can be warranted or proved by the Word of God I speak not this God knowes to countenance or bolster any in their sinne but partly to magnifie the boundlesse and unlimited patience and mercy of our good God and partly to underlay and comfort that poore afflicted soul wounded conscience who through his owne pride selfe confidence or securitie and Satans pollicie hath been againe intangled in that snare out of which by former repentance hee hath been delivered This is the childrens bread it belongs not unto dogs Impudent and impenitent sinners can claim no interest in this comfort it is baulme to heale onely wounded consciences whom I would not have to be so strongly deluded by satan as to be beat off from repentance and the throne of grace or to think that they never had any true grace or that their former repentance was ever sound because old sores are againe broke out in them they have relapsed into old sinnes The worke of grace doth not wholly take away all sinne nor free us from it but only weakens it and workes the heart to a hatred and detestation of it And know that if thy sinne when thou wert Gods enemie could not prevent his love much lesse shall it now thou art reconciled Object But by my relapsing I have made the Lord such a gracelesse requitall of his former love and kindnesse as I know not how to look him in the face againe yea I begin to feare I shall never againe recover that which I have so wretchedly lost Answ I pitie thee Doth thy heart faint hath thy faith lost its former feeling or working in thee dost thou now behold Gods angry countenance bent against thee hath the Lord as thou concievest set thee up as a spectacle for men and Angels to wonder at throw thy self prosttate at Gods feet let not thy soul leave cleaving to the dust never leave knocking at the dore of his goodnesse and compassion intreat him to look upon thee a poore confounded wretch beseech him to behold thee in the face of Christ tell him here lyes a miserable caitiffe a forlorn creature a wounded and forsaken sinner one that resolves to lye and dye at his feet one that will set down at the threshold of his tender mercyes and never depart without some almes some crums of mercy to revive and refresh thy languishing soul withall and my life for thine in due time the Lord will satiate thy heart with comfortable tydings from Heaven of his reconciliation and of the pardon and forgivenesse of all thy sinnes Object There were some hope if I had not gon on so long in my sinne as I have done there was a time I am perswaded when I was capable of mercy but that time I feare is gon and past Gods mercy is out of date with me and therefore I am undone for ever Answ No no the Lord waites that he may have mercy upon thee and therefore will he be exalted that he may have compassion upon you Isa 30.18 The Lord hath proclamed himself to be abundant in goodnesse reserving mercy for thousands Exod. 34.6 7. Hee hath mercy in store for thee as well as for others if thou canst truly repent thee of thy former wickednesse The Lord forgiveth iniquity transgression and sinne Ez. 34.7 It would highly derogate from the Lords power from his all-sufficiencie and boundlesse goodnesse and mercy it he should not forgive capitall and foul sinnes as well as petty and small sinnes Consider what the Lord hath promised Ezek. 18.21 22. None of all his transgressions shall be mentioned And againe verse 23. Hath the Lord any desire thou shouldest perish or shalt thou not live if thou returne from thine owne wayes It is not any sinne but the love of sinne and the going on in sinne that seperates betwixt God and a poore sinner Now then cheer up thy drooping spirits stand it out no longer against the Lord and his goodnesse lay downe not only thy weapons of disobedience but also all carnall reasonings captivate thy will
comming towards them in the time of a tempest at sea when every wave threatens to swallow up the ship or in the time of any terrible thunder and lightning how godly how holy will the prophanest be out of their beds they must and to prayer they will if they be able themselves if not as Pharaoh intreated Moses Exod. 9.28 Pray unto the Lord that there be no more mighty thunders and hail So they will intreat those that can to pray for them But what sayes holy Job of such hypocrites as these are Will God hear his cry when trouble commeth upon him will be set his delight on the Almighty will hee call upon God at all times Job 27.9 10. Is hee like to speed that seldome or never goes unto the Lord but when want necessity drives him for if affliction were not he would not come at God It fares with many as with young chickins in á faire calme sun-shine day you may see them all stragling from the hen one heere and another there the hen desirous to have her young ones neere here clucks and clucks again for them as having some provision for them but they regard not her call untill at length the kyte draws neer them ready to catch one of them up then they cry and runne with all speed to their dam for shelter Even so the Lord seeing us to straggle too farre from him calls us unto him but wee regard not his call whereupon he lets flie at us hee causeth some affliction or other to terrifie us and then wee speed it to the Lord then wee can lay on tongue Help Lord c. So that the Lord deales with us as Absalom did with Joab because we deal with the Lord as Joab did with Absalom Absalom sends for Ioab but hee would not come to him 2. Sam. 14.29 Absalom sends again and Ioab was the same man still he stirs not a foot hee would not come Whereupon Absalom commandeth his servants to set fire on a field of barley which Ioab had Ioab then needs no more messengers hee can then arise and come in haste to Absalom without any more sending for Thus it is with us the Lord sends for us by the mouth of his Ministers he would have us come and appeare continually before him Cant. 2.14 Shew me thy sight let me hear thy voice but wee have little or no minde this way he may send in haste but wee take time and will goe at our own leisure whereupon the Lord sets on fire something wee have that is spoiles us of some-thing that is pleasing and delightfull unto us and then wee can run with open mouth Save us Lord c. So that it is meere need drives many unto God by prayer If they could have helpe elsewhere or by any other wayes be furnished or have their turn served they would not come at God Davids words may well be applyed unto them Psal 142.4 5. I looked upon my right hand and beheld but there was none that would know me all refuge failed mee and none cared for my soul then cried I unto the Lord and said Thou art my hope and my portion When other refuge and helpe failes then they can runne unto the Lord for help and succour These do in a manner tell the Lord as many rogues do answere us at our doores Truely they never asked any thing of us before and if they could shift it or if great necessitie did not compell them to begge they would not now have troubled us Therefore the Lord deales with these as many a wise and discreet tradesman doth with some pedling chapman whose custome he never had before neither now should have it if hee could elsewhere have furnished himselfe with wares and commodities for his turne If any wares be worse then other the tradesman will put them off to such a fellow because he knows it is not love but necessitie that brought him unto his shop As for his choyce and best commodities those he will reserve for his best chapmen whose custome he hath alwayes had and who will not leave his shop to go to another Even so will the Lord deal with the wicked who do not continually trade with the Lord in prayer but now and then when they are at some pinch Haply the Lord who is good unto all and his mercies are over all his works Psal 145.9 may put them off with some of his refuse wares helping them at their need with some outward worldly commodity but as for his choice and rich wares his love his grace his Christ his salvation these shall those have who seeke him continually Reason 1 Againe affliction puts life into our devotion and maketh us more instant in Prayer For if Affliction maketh us not importunate nothing will The Lord holds us many times at the staves end and seemeth to turn away from our prayers that so our prayers may grow more fervent for though God knows our wants and takes no delight in our sorrows yet oft times hee seems not to heare us till our cries be loud and strong God sees it best to let his penitent ones dwell for a time under their affliction and when he sees them sinking he lets them alone till they be at the bottome that out of the deep they may fetch deep sighes and cry louder to the Lord and so prevail For a vehement suiter cannot but speed with God whatsoever he askes If our prayers want successe it is because they want mettall and heart their blessing is according to their faith and fervencie In this behalfe affliction is very needfull for the best of Gods children for too many of them too often seek the living God with dead affections Oh the perfunctory cold drowsie lifelesse prayers which are made by some Many which make conscience of the duty and dare no day omit it do pray so coldly with so little zeal and devotion all the while they are full and at ease that the Lord is even compelled to lash them to sharpen their fervency and to shake off that lythernesse and luskishnesse wherewith they were wont to come before him Our God that heareth prayers knoweth how cold and feeble how slight and perfunctory oft times wee be when wee are in prosperity and the rod of God is not upon us so as little or no life and power appeareth in them do wee not find by our own experience that trouble and affliction whether it be outward or inward not onely drives us to prayer but causeth us to set all our might and strength when wee are wrestling with the Lord that so wee may be the more able to prevaile with his Majestie Affliction will fashion and forme the flowest tongue unto this holy duty and doth oft times furnish us with sighs and grones which cannot be expressed If ever a Christian will tugge and wrestle with the Lord it shall be when affliction lieth sore upon him All the while the childe feels the
and justified And for any to condemn those whom the Lord will acquit is to accuse if not condemn the Lord himself and not only so but to make themselves liable unto judgement For with what judgment ye judge yee shall be judged and with what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again Mat. 7.2 Therefore blessed is he that judgeth wisely of the poore afflicted the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble Ps 41 1. Because the Lord is pleased for speciall ends to lay his hand more heavily upon this man then his neighbour shall any dare from hence to conclude that he is the greater sinner God forbid we may rather conclude that of the twaine he is the best the most beloved of God You onely have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will visit you for all your iniquities Amos 3.2 Who were they that were tried by mockings and scourgings by bonds and prisonment or those that were stoned and hewen a sunder and slaine with the sword or those that wandred up and down in sheepes skinnes and goates skinnes being destitute afflicted and tormented Were they not Gods deare ones those of whom the world was not worthy Heb. 11.36 37. Whose blood was it wherewith Manasses died the streets of Jerusalem was it not innocent blood the blood of the Lords people 2. King 21.16 Who was hee that dolefully cryed out Will the Lord absent himselfe for ever and will he shew no more favor Is his mercy cleane gone for ever shall his promise faile for evermore hath God forgotten to bee mercifull and will he shut up his loving kindnes in displeasure Psal 77.7 8 9. Was it not the complaint of David a righteous and holy man a man after Gods own heart What was he that cursed the time of his birth Saying Let the day perish wherein I was born and the night when it was said there is a man child conceived Why died I not in the birth or why died I not when I came out of the wombe Iob 3.3.11 was it not Iob an upright and just man one that feared God eschewed evill How then darest thou cēsure the child of God by reason of his affliction Surely this must needs proceed either out of ignorance not knowing the Scriptures or from the want of charity or else from the guilt of thine own conscience taking the length of thy neighbors foot by thine own last and measuring him by thy selfe Want of judging of thy selfe is the cause why thou art so ready to judge another But do not flatter thy self neither esteem any one to have the more goodnes because he hath the les affliction For I tell thee a man may be a Dives clad in scarlet and fine linnen living and wallowing in all manner of pleasure and prosperitie faring and feeding every day deliciously and yet bee a devill incarnate a man odious and hatefull unto the Lord. Neither mayest thou condemne any for wicked because the Lord judgeth him A man may bee a poore Lazar not having so much as a clout to cover his nakednesse living in want and penury dying through paine and misery and yet be the Lords faithfull servant and dearely beloved of him Therefore thou goest by a wrong line when thou deemest thy selfe or others to be good because thou dost flourish and prosper because thou livest at ease and goest untouched or takest others to be the worse because their dayes are dayes of sorrow and adversitie For neither doth prosperitie declare a man to be godly nor adversitie prove that he is wicked but rather the contrary for whom the Lord loloveth him he chasteneth and scourgeth every sonne that he receiveth Hebr. 6.8 whereas if yee be without correction then are yee bastards and not sonnes Object But doe not many of Gods children live at ease in fulnesse and prosperity without troubles and afflictions Answer It is possible that the outward estate of the childe of God may be smooth and prosperous though this be rare that no rub comes in the way yet there is no childe of God without his trouble and affliction as hath been proved in one kind or other Afflictions are either outward in our persons our personall state goods or good name or in those that are in some neere relation unto us or they bee inward in the mind and conscience Now one of these wayes every child of God first or last more or lesse hath been is or shall be tried Many a childe of God that liveth in health doth not prosper in his outward estate but bites of the bridle and hath short commons Many that live in fulnesse and feel no want of outward necessaries do sustaine many wrongs and injuries through reproaches slanders and backbitings of the wicked which are more grievous unto them then the losse of their substance many have great troubles in their family through the wickednesse either of unnaturall and disobedient children or else of unfaithfull and gracelesse servants Many have great grief and trouble for or from their kindred And many that taste not of any outward triall and affliction are not without some inward temptations either they be buffeted by satan or allured by the world or sollicited by their own concupiscence unto some evill or else they be disquieted in their minds or troubled in their consciences Now howsoever many of the world which know not what perturbation of mind meaneth may think these inward troubles to be no trialls yet in truth they are the most smarting the sorest afflictions of all other for the heart knoweth the bitternesse of his soul Prov. 14.10 The mind of a man may bear out with patience and fortitude outward and bodily evills but who is able unlesse God strengthen him to endure the torment and torture of a wounded conscience and a grieved spirit A wounded spirit who can bear it Prov. 18.14 So that first or last in one kind or other outwardly or inwardly in ourselves or in some dear or neer unto us wee have had or shall have our troubles and trialls Vse 2 Againe Is it thus that the Lord doth afflict his dearest children then let us put on the whole armor of God that wee may be able to resist and stand fast in the evill day Ephes 6.13 Let us prepare our selves for troubles that when they come wee may not be amazed or over much perplexed as though some strange thing were come unto us 1. Pet. 4.11 Things which wee hear not of or look not for when wee meet with them wee think them strange and wee know not which way to carry our selves or what course to bee undertaken of us whereby wee may either be eased of them or have ease with them Hence it is that many in the day of adversitie are ready to cry out they know not what to doe c. Another saith I never looked for this trouble I never dreamed of this triall No did Why hast thou not heard what
us If the Lord should dispute with us wee could not answer him one thing of a thousand When hee visiteth what shall I answer him said Iob 31.14 Whereupon David saith Psalm 130.3 If thou Lord shouldest marke iniquities O Lord who shall stand The least sinne wee commit makes us liable to the vengeance of eternall torments How grear a measure of punishment do wee then deserve for our many for our grievous sinnes our sinnes being like unto the sand by the sea shore which is innumerable What ever our afflictions are or may be they come short of our sinnes they fall short of that which wee have deserved and that which the Lord may justly without any wrong to us lay upon us Amongst many other one maine cause why we are so troubled and vexed with affliction is because we are so little galled with our sinnes a true sense of these would make our afflictions to be more easie and us lesse sensible of them then many times we are Do we not see it by experience that when the stone and the gout or some other bodily malady meet together the paine of the stone being the more grievous alaies if not takes away the sense pain of the gout even so would it be here when sinne and affliction are both upon us at once the consideration of our sinnes deserving farre greater punishment then we beare should so grieve us that the punishment it selfe should not move us much lesse stirre us up to impatience Is there not then great cause that we should willingly and patiently bear Gods chastisements as the Church resolved Mica 7.9 I will beare the wrath of the Lord because I have sinned against him And confesse with the good theef in the Gospell We indeed are justly here for we receive the due reward of our deeds Luke 23.41 And thus did that Emperor Mauritius who beholding his wife and children murthered before his face cried out just art thou o Lord and just are thy judgements And thus David confessed I know O Lord that thy judgements are right and that thou hast afflicted me justly Ps 119.75 Secondly compare thine afflictions with the sufferings of many of the Lords Worthies and thou hast great cause to be patient Looke but into the 11. Chap. to the Heb. ver 35 36 37. and tell mee if thine afflictions be answerable or sutable to their fiery trials Looke into the sufferings of Christ Consider him that indured such speaking against of sinners lest you should be wearied and faint in your mindes ye have not yet resisted unto blood Heb. 12.3 4. If the Lord deal so sharply with many of his deare children and with thee so mildly so gently wonder at Gods clemency and lenity lay thy hand upon thy mouth and bee patient Thirdly consider how short thine affliction will bee in comparison of that eternall torment the Lord might lay upon thee our afflictions are but light and moment any as Paul calls them 2. Cor. 4.17 The Lord himselfe saith Esay 54.8 For a moment in mine anger I hid my face from thee for a little season but with everlasting love have I had compassion on thee Who would not bee content with a course of physick for a few daies though the physick be untoothsome and very bitter in hope of health for ever after What if thou hast indured months of sorrow and painfull nights have beene appointed unto thee as they were to Job 7.3 What are they in comparison of those eternall torments the Lord might throw thee into in which there will be no ease out of which there shall be no release A great cause of impatience and storming at afflictions is the ignorance of our selves and of the desert of our sinnes which if we knew aright we would confesse with Ezra let our miseries and troubles be what they will that the Lord hath punished us lesse then our iniquities have deserved Ezra 9.13 I will beare the wrath of the Lord saith the Church Mic. 7.9 I will not repine at his dealing with me I wil not open my mouth by way of complaint or murmuring but from what doth this holy resolution and patience proceed It followeth in the same verse because I have sinned against him I have carried my selfe proudly stoutly and rebelliously against him I have provoked the eyes of his glory I have many waies many times broken his holy lawes I have deserved farre more farre greater judgements then he hath laid upon me it is his mercy that I am not confounded that I am of this side hell Fourthly and lastly the consideration of the blessed end that God for the most part makes of the afflictions of his servants will further our patience After they have endured any great fight in affliction he doth usually bestow some speciall favor or other upon them yea proportionable to the measure of the affliction hath the recompence and the blessing been such as have had the bitterest crosses have received the sweetest comforts Ye have heard of the patience of Job and what end the Lord made Jam. 5.11 What this end was is recorded Iob. 42. where it is said that the Lord turned a way the captivitie of Iob and gave him twice as much as he had before So the Lord blessed the last daies of Iob more then the first Iob 42.12 This hope of future mercy kept David from fainting in his affliction Psal 71.20 21. Thou hast shewed we great troubles and adversities but thou wilt return and revive me and wilt come againe and take me from the depth of the earth Thou wilt increase mine honnor and receive and comfort me if not with temporall assuredly with spirituall comfort here for they bring forth the quiet fruit of righteousnesse unto them that are thereby exercised Heb. 12.11 They are occasions as hath been formerly proved of purging our corruption and bringing of us neerer God and into more conformity with Christ and should not this comfort us Besides they make way for glory and endlesse comfort They that sow in teares shall reape in ioy Psalm 126.5 Afflictions cause unto us a farre more excellent and eternall weight of glory 2. Cor. 4.17 Art thou in any affliction thou art but under a short cloud it will quickly blow over and thou shalt have a faire season a most comfortable and glorious sun-shine when all teares shall be wiped away from thine eyes Rev. 7.17 After two dayes hee will revive us and in the third day he will raise us up and wee shall live in his sight Hos 6.2 Art thou in affliction be patient the third day is comming wherein the Lord will deliver thee There must be a time for thee to sow thy prayers in and a time for thee to water them with the teares of true repentance and then presently comes the joyfull harvest in due season thou shalt reape if thou thou bee patient if thou faint not Gal. 6.10 What made Steven in his martyrdome to bee so patient and chearefull but
a load upon thine heart and conscience or keeps thee it may be upon the rack it is not because thou shouldst thinke or say hee hath cast thee off from being his child but that thou mayest be the better fitted for that good hee intendeth thee and that thou mayest make more account of his love when it is shed abroad in thine heart God will have those which shall hereafter partake of his light now and then to know what it is to fit in darknesse and to bee in the shadow of death Now because of all other tentations and tryals incident unto us there are none so grievous and unsupportable as are inward and spirituall afflictions let it not be accounted lost time if before I proceed any further I make here some little stand both to take a view of some inward afflictions and also to prescribe some remedies for the easing if not the curing of such malladies as are most obvious and oft times prove most dangerous for want of applying or improving of those helpes means which may be used Almighty God our most wise Physition who sees us inwardly and is better acquainted with our constitution and temper then wee our selves are knoweth how to strike every one in the right veine and because people full fed are oft full of grosse humors and bad blood and those that live idly live oft times unprofitably the Lord in great wisedome doth exercise some of his deare ones with fightings within that so the inward man may be the better able to withstand outward evills as souldiers in many places are trained that so they may bee the more skilfull and better able to resist a forraign enemie Somtimes the Lord is pleased to withdraw the sweet comforts of his spirit from the hearts of his deare children and to strike them with inward terrors and feares of his wrath and vengeance which condition of theirs although it be uncomfortable for the present yet it proves profitable in the end Of all afflictions incident to the soul of man there is none so grievous and intolerable as a wounded conscience this transcends all other malladies and miseries whatsoever and therefore Solomon asketh Who can be are it Prov. 18.14 An accusing conscience tortures the soul with hellish horror here and as it were plungeth a poore sinner into hell whiles he lives When that gnawing and biting worme begins to fasten its teeth upon a poore soul his anguish and vexation becomes unspeakable and unconceivable of any but those that have felt it No favor of man no love of friends no preferment of the world no outward honors nor abundance of riches will be able to quench the fire or alay the heat of a tormented conscience As may apeare by that memorable story of Francis Spira who being upon the rack of a guilty and accusing conscience oft wished himselfe as is reported in Cains case and in Judas his place and that his soul might exchange with theirs wishing and desiring rather to be in hell torments then to be racked and rent with such hellish horrors and raging feares as did continually affright his poore soul And being by one demanded If hee feared not greater tortures and torments after this life then hee now sustained hee answered Yes but yet he wished he were in hell that so his torturing fears might be at an end This mans condition no boubt was terrible and dredfull yet who can say that hee perished everlastingly What warrant have any as some have done to judge him to bee a desperate castaway They will say that God might condemne him out of his own mouth But is this sufficient evidence for any peremptorily to passe sentence upon him The words of a distempered person are of no validitie in any civill court whatsoever Is it not an usuall thing for brain-sick and distempered persons to belie themselves and others too Object But Spira despaired of mercie Answ And what of that Have not many of Gods deare children done so many yeeres together Did any thing befall him in the time of his desperation but that which is incident unto the childe of God hath not our age afforded us examples as deep in dispaire in outward appearance as ever Spira was whether wee consider the matter of his tentation which was Apostacie or the deepnesse of his desperation and yet through the goodnesse and mercie of God they received comfort in the end Hee that will avouch Spira to be a castaway must prove that he despaired both totally and finally which as I conceive they can hardly do seeing it is said That in the midst of his desperation hee complained of the hardnesse of his heart which as hee said lockt up his mouth and tyed up his tongue from prayer Hee felt the hardnesse of his heart complained of it and lamented it the Word of God may discover corruption in us but is it not grace that makes any to be waile corruption Who knowes what case and comfort he might find and feele within before his soul went out of his body albeit hee never made any expression of it nor any neere him could perceive it Object But doth God deale so sharply with any of his children as to exercise them with such horror of conscience Answ Yes very often The conscience of a deere child of God may a long time be vexed with feares and horrors lie a long time upon the rack of unquietnesse and torture so farre from apprehending or hoping for any comfort or mercie that hee may receive the sentence of death against himselfe and subscribe to his own damnation yea he may confidently avouch himselfe to have no grace no faith to be a very castaway And yet wee see these blustring stormes have in good time blowne over and God upon unfained humiliation hath pacified their accusing conscience stilled and quieted their troubled minde by the apprehension of his love in the pardon of their sinnes For after the soul is once kindly soaked in godly sorrow and the heart sufficiently humbled in the sight of our unworthinesse the Lord at length shewes us his loving countenance tells us by his Spirit that he is reconciled unto us and that through Christ wee are freed from the guilt and so from the punishment of all our sinnes For though wee have been polluted and stained with all manner of iniquitie and impietie even from top to toe though our sinnes have been of a crimson and skarlet hue as great and grievous as may be so as peradventure in our conceit there is no possibillity of being cleansed from them yet God is able to make them as white as snow and wool Isa 1.18 There is no sinner so abominable and loathsome whom true and sound repentance will not make as holy and as righteous as Adam was before his fall Mistake me not not that any penitent if his heart-strings should breake with sighing and sobbing or his eyes fall out of his head with weeping and mourning can of himselfe be
That the end of Gods afflicting of us is the bettering of us When as by affliction hee brings us to a thorow knowledge and understanding of our selves to judge aright of the nature of sinne and so to come to abhorre and detest it and last of all by affliction wee are brought to feare the Lord. Not that afflictions of themselves do work this good in any for they only make the wound they do not heal they only cast us down but cannot raise us up againe they are as a Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ they bring not Christ into the heart of a sinner It prepares the heart and makes a way for good it is only the spirit of God working with the Word and helping us to apply the same aright unto our selves which is the efficient cause of all good that betideth us yet because the Lord doth work good by affliction that thing is figuratively applyed unto affliction which is the proper worke of Gods Spirit in the hearts of his children Vse Is it so that the chiefe end of the Lords afflicting of us is the bettering of us Then are the Romanists grosly mistaken who say that God hath another end in correcting of us and that is say the Papists for the punishment of our sinnes and the satisfying of Gods Justice All sinne doth deserve a double punishment both temporall and eternall This latter say they Christ hath undergone for all his members but the former the temporall punishment lyeth upon our necks and must be undergone by us as a satisfaction to be made of our parts to the Justice of God And for proofe hereof they alledge the example of David who howsoever hee was received into mercie upon his humiliation and contrition and so freed from eternall punishment yet was hee not quit of that satisfaction which he was in his own person to make unto God for his offences therefore did hee say they indure temporal punishments A foul and a grose error and that which doth not only derogate from the all-sufficiencie of Christ his merrit and satisfaction for with one offering hath hee consecrated for ever them that are sanctified Hebrewes 10.24 But it also takes much from the goodnesse of God his love and mercie is wonderfully clouded eclipsed by their doctrine For whereas the Lord telleth us that hee doth afflict us in great love for the bettering of us for the beating of sinne down in us and driving it away from us they say that God correcteth us for the punishment of sinne in us and the satisfying of his justice Away therefore with their blasphemous doctrine and beleeve wee the Word of truth and be wee assured that our afflictions are rather furtherances of sanctification then any helps or means of satisfaction administred unto us rather as medicines and preservatives to help us then as swordes to wound or hurt us For the Lord in afflicting of us seeks us not himselfe alone and rather the bettering of us then the satisfying of his own minde for hee goeth unwillingly to punish Lam. 3.33 And yet how ready are wee to turn the truth of God into a lie wee are ready to think that the Lord doth punish us to ease his mind of us and that wee suffer to satisfie Truth it is that the Lord doth punish the wicked his enemies to ease himselfe and to be avenged of them Esay 1.24 But hee hath other ends as we have heard in afflicting his children therefore wee may not say by our temporall punishments wee are any way able fully to satisfie the justice of God for one sinne If this debt had not been discharged by Christ our surety wee should be cast into prison wee should perish everlastingly Vse 2 Therefore hold wee this as an undoubted truth that God may forgive us our sins yet here punish our persons not to exact any satisfaction of us as if Christ his satisfaction were insufficient and wee reconciled unto God by halves but to make us better for time to come Secondly if the end of Gods correcting us bee the bettering of us wee may take notice of our perverse and crooked nature and temper with whom gentle and faire means that is the Word of God and benefits bestowed upon us cannot prevail but that the Lord must bee forced to take this tart and unpleasing course with us namely correcting us for our amendment The Lord as hee proclames himselfe is a father of mercies slow to anger and of great patience long in his long-suffering one that delights not in our griefes but is rather grieved for our miseries Judges 10.16 and his bowels are troubled for us Jeremie 31.20 Object If the Lord were so unwilling to punish his children and so grieved for their sorrow and miserie as the Scripture telleth us why doth hee not which if it please him he might spare himselfe that labor and us those paines hee putteth us unto Answ His love and your good constraineth him so to deal with you Suppose thou hadst a childe that had broken his leg what course wouldst thou take with him for the helping and healing of him wouldst thou not bind him hand and foot tye him down to some place or other c Thy childe it may be cries out good father let me alone you hurt me c. Wouldst thou give over because of his cry Dost thou not rather cry with him to consider what paine thou art constrained to put him unto Wouldest thou not tell him O childe I may not let thee alone for then thou wilt be lame for ever yet still thy childe renews his cries good father if you love me let me alone Wouldst thou not reply againe O childe because I love thee I cannot let shee alone for then thou wert spoil'd for ever Even thus dealeth the Lord with us it is for our good and in love that hee doth any way chasten us this course hee must take with us unlesse hee should suffer us to perish which thing his love will not give him leave to do He smites us with the rod that wee die not and that our soules may bee delivered from hell Proverbes 23.13.14 Oh the wickednesse of our hearts and the rebellion of our wils that wee must bee thus hampered and handled before we can be bettered We may see and confesse if wee were not blind and hardned that corruption is deeply setled in us in that such sharp physick such bitter and unpleasing potions must be administred and that again and again unto us before we can be cleansed from that filthinesse of the flesh and spirit which is innated and setled in us Vse 3 In the third place wee are to be admonished from hence to profit by those light and gentle afflictions wherewith it shall please the Lord to exercise us For if little ones will not serve the turn to reclaim us greater shall bruise if not breake us If we shal dare to walke stubbornly against the Lord Then will he