God's Almightiness and All-sufficiency will work in us an holy awe and filial fear of Him Who would not fear such a God Luke 12. 5. And also it will breed an holy confidence in him Psal 9. 10. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee O my Soul look up to God's All-sufficiency He can in a moment turn thy Darkness into Light thy Sorrow into Joy He can make dry Bones live He that breaks can bind up He that takes can give This is the best way to glorifie God in the day of our Visitation to trust in him and relye upon him though He kill all our Comforts yet to believe He can supply He can provide as said Abraham so Psal 107. 33 35. Whatever our case be let us take heed that we despond not nor cast away our confidence but rest upon God's All-sufficiency Trust in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength Isa 26. 2 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee 6ly Let us eye and own the infinite Wisdom of the invisible eternal God He that sends and orders all our Afflictions is the Wise God the Only-wise God the very Fountain of all Wisdom 1 Tim. 1. 17. He shews his Wisdom not only in his general Providence governing the whole World but in all his special Providences towards his People and that in respect of their Afflictions For 1. God knows best how to order our Afflictions to us and that 1. as to Time when to send them 2. as to Kind what sort of Affliction to send 3. as to Measure how much to send 4. as to Duration how long to continue them Rev. 2. 10. and to what end and purpose He is a most wise God 2. He knows best how to support and comfort his People under all their Afflictions and when to comfort them He knows their Frame He knows their Souls in Adversity He knows their Need and their Strength and hath regard to all this 2 Cor. 1. 4. He is the God of all consolation 3. He knows best when to deliver even then when it shall make most for his own glory and his Peoples greatest good 2 Pet. 2. 9. and surely that must be the best time 4. He knows best how to make Afflictions work most for our good how to bless them and to make them Blessings to us that we may have cause to bless him for them Now we eye and own the Wisdom of God in our Afflictions when by the consideration of it we are kept from maligning and fretting at the Instruments or Causes of our Afflictions saying in our Hearts and Tongues Let Shimei curse let Enemies persecute and plunder c. All these are but Swords Staffs Rods in our most wise and loving Father's Hand These Losses Sicknesses c. do but execute the Will and Wisdom of God and when we make no haste to get out of our Troubles nor use any unlawful means but quietly and contentedly referr all to the Holy Will and Wisdom of God and when we can wait with Patience upon God and stay his time and hope in Him only for an happy issue resigning up our Wills to his Will and Wisdom to do with us to dispose of us and of all our Comforts as He pleaseth By so doing we shall be sweetly supported under all our Troubles Lord God of thy abundant Grace and by thy Almighty Power work in us this blessed frame and keep us in it till Death that thou maist be glorified by us 7ly and lastly Let us eye and own the love and goodness of God in all our Afflictions We are apt to look mostly to the Anger and Displeasure of God in our Troubles which indeed we ought to be sensible of and deeply affected with because we have sinned against Him and therefore ought we patiently to bear the effects of his indignation Mic. 7. 9. and to humble our selves under his mighty Hand to repent of and turn from our evill ways Lam. 3. 40. This we must do but this is not all our Duty but we must also look up to the love of God and to his goodness from which our Afflictions come Psal 89. 33. Heb. 12. 6. Whom the Lord loveth he chastneth Psal 25. 10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth For as our Afflictions have a bad Cause as bad as may be even our Sins Lam. 3. Wherefore doth the living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Yet they proceed from a good Root even the Love of God As many as I love I rebuke and chasten saith our loving Lord Jesus Rev. 3. 19. He loves when he takes as well as when he gives He takes in love and this believed and considered will very much sweeten every bitter Cup The believing consideration that the love of our Father the love of the Mediator is in every Affliction that every Cup that comes to us passeth first through his Hands who loved us and gave himself for us for through him are all things this consideration will support us Lord encrease our Faith So much of the second Counsel viz. To resign up our Wills to the Will of God in all our Miseries III. The last Counsel to Christians in order to their support and comfort in their Afflictions is this Aim at Communion with God and Conformity to him in all your Actions Look unto the invisible eternal God and labour for Communion with him and conformity to him It is conformity to God that fits us for communion with him The more conformity to him to his holy Nature and to his holy Will the more communion we shall have with him and the more we are like him the more will he manifest himself unto us and the more we obey him the more fellowship we shall have with him John 14. 21 23. And also the more communion we have with him the more communications we have from him the more conformable we shall be to him and the more we shall be like him 2 Cor. 3. 18. Communion with God will transform and change us into his Image more and more and the more we have of his Image the more pleasure will he take in us and the more delight will he take to communicate himself to us The more holy heavenly humble meek patient loving merciful peaceable we are the more like him we are and the more we are like him the more of his love and likeness will he continually work in us and manifest unto us This is the Life of true Religion this is to live the Life of God to live in communion with him panting and longing after constant Influences and Communications of his Life Spirit Love Grace Peace and Comfort from him and giving up surrendring up of our Hearts and Souls to him spending our best thoughts desires affections hopes trust joy and
cases God and his Service must be preferred before all visible temporal things But when earthly things so fill up our Heads Hearts Minds Thoughts Hands Time and all that we have none left to spend or bestow on heavenly things then we mind visible things immoderately 2. When our minding visible temporal things unfits and indisposeth us for minding invisible and eternal things when earthly things have so entred our Hearts and so engaged our Minds that they deaden and dull clog and cloy our Spirits so entangle and perplex our Thoughts as that thereby we are put out of frame and temper and made unfit to mind or meddle with Divine and Heavenly things Luke 21. 34. Take heed lest at any time your hearts be over-charged with surfeiting und drunkenness and cares of this life saith our Lord. 3. When we are less tired and wearied in the thoughts of visible temporal things than in the thoughts of invisible eternal things When we can plot study cark care think muse ponder upon freely talk of earthly things without weariness but with much delight as being very suitable to our Minds and therefore very pleasing and grateful to us we can think and speak of earthly things from morning till night without weariness but are soon weary of the study and meditation of heavenly things nay are meer Strangers to heavenly Meditation and heavenly Discourse Mal. 1. 13. When we are in company where there is heavenly talk we are soon weary of such company and of such talk and are willing to break off such Discourse and to entertain the talk of worldly things 4. When we are more attentive unto more intent upon more seriously affected with and more strongly impressed by those visible temporal things than we are with and by invisible and eternal things When good News from Sea or Land a good bargain good success in our Worldly business doth more heartily affect us and rejoyce us thâ—â— good News from Heaven or any spiritual Mercy then we do immoderately mind earthly things It was far otherwise with holy David Psal 4. 6 7. Many say Who will show us any good any visible temporal good but Lord lift thou vp the light of thy countenance upon us Thou hast put more gladness into my heart than when their corn and wine encreased And so it is with all gracious Souls 5. When the gain of visible temporal things brings more joy and the loss of them breeds more sorrow than the gain or loss of invisible eternal things when the gain of an Estate of Honour of the Favour of a great person doth more rejoice the Heart than the gain of the Pearl of Price and the loss of an Estate or Friend doth more cast down than the loss of God or a good Conscience 6. When we are more afraid of Suffering than of Sin and would rather venture the loss of invisible eternal things than the loss of visible temporal things Surely it was not thus with the Apostles and Primitive Christians they looked not on those visible temporal things they did not mind them unseasonably inordinaiely immoderately and so comparatively they are said to mind them not at all The Proof of this 〈◊〉 will appear I by express Precept H. bâ— the 〈◊〉 of Gospel-Christians III. by solid Reasons I. By express Precepts besides 〈…〉 before John 6. 27. 1 Cor. 7. 31 〈…〉 that in Col. 3. 1 2 3 5. Set your affections 〈…〉 things above and not on things below and 〈…〉 inordinate affections 1 John 2. 〈…〉 would nor the things of the 〈…〉 the love of the father is 〈…〉 〈◊〉 in lay that to Heart the love 〈◊〉 World is utterly inconsistent with the love of 〈…〉 that in Jam. 4. 4. He that is 〈…〉 is the Enemy of God the 〈…〉 is enmity to God It is a dangerous 〈…〉 to be the Enemy of God nothing is so dangerous See Nahum 1. 2. God is jealous and the Lord revengeth the Lord revengeth and is furious the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and reserveth wrath for his enemies What a dreadful Text is this And who are the Lord's Enemies Why those that are the friends of the world saith the Spirit of God Although but few think or believe so yet so it is and it is a most dreadful thing to be the Enemies of God for then God is our Enemy and that is most dreadful Now he that is a friend to the world is the enemy of God World in that place I take to be the same that is here in my Text called Visible temporal things the good things of this World Such as are the friends of these things saith the Apostle are the enemies of God and this is no small matter let us all therefore look well to it that we be not such Q. But who are the friends of this World you will ask A. First All such as love this World and the things of it more than God and Christ and Heavenly things this is most clear So Matth. 10. 37. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me saith our Lord. 2 Tim. 3. 4. Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God What do most People mind most and think most upon and speak most of Is it not the World things that are seen What is most in their Thoughts Mornings soon and Evenings late Where are their Hearts and Affections most Let our Consciences speak Whom do we serve most follow and pursue most God or the World Christ or the Creature Who hath the precedency and supremacy in our Hearts What Interest is uppermost in our Souls This is a plain Rule of Tryal and if we will suffer our own Consciences to speak plainly and tell us the truth we may know whether we be Friends of the World or no. Let us deal faithfully with our selves in this great Case and not flatter and deceive our selves as most do and so mistake our selves by taking our selves to be the Lord's Servants when indeed we are his real Enemies because we are Friends of the World and by this mistake may we ruine our selves for ever Secondly All such as covet desire seek after the World the Profits and Pleasures and Favours of it more than after God and Christ after Grace and Glory Such as pant after the Dust of the Earth that make haste to be rich that load themselves with yellow Clay such are Friends of the World Whereas gracious Souls are like those in Isa 26. 8. Yea in the way of thy judgments O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early So Psal 73. 25 26. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever So Psal 42. 1 2. As the hart panteth
we minded and loved them â—o much and lived so much upon them and that â—e lived so little upon God in them and enjoyed â— little of God and his Love in them and this â—ill be the Sting and Burthen of our Souls then â—ut now to live on God and his Love in our â—njoyments will prevent this Trouble of Troubles â—nd support us under all our Troubles because our God and his Love which we lived upon before remain still God is everlasting and his Love unchangable The Foundation remains the â—pring of all our Mercies remains But woe and â—as what Strangers are we to this living upon God and his Love in Christ David lived enâ—rely upon God Psal 73. 24 25 26. Whom have â—in Heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that desire besides thee My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever 2dly By this we may begin our Heaven upon Earth out of Heaven even in the Hell of the Troubles and Miseries of this World for this is the â—ery Happiness of Heaven to be continually with God and to live upon God that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15. 28. This is Heavens Happiness to live upon that infinite Fountain of goodness and to live with God And so far as we can thus live upon God by Faith Love Meditation Holy Confidence and Dependance Holy Resignation of our selves and all our concerns to him so far we are entred into Heaven and Heaven is entred into us already The kingdom of Heaven is within you said our Lord. And what support will this be to us in all our Afflictions 3dly This is the way to lose nothing of all our Earthly Comforts for what we lose in the Creature we shall find in the Creator If we enjoyed God in the Creature in Relations Friends Estate Liberty Health c. we may enjoy him as well when these Creature-comforts are gone and it may be better than before for the Fountain it self is purer than the Streams All the little good the small comfort the slender and short satisfaction the little mixed sweetness that we have in or from any Creature comes not from the Creature it self distinct from God for then all that enjoy the Creature would have that Comfort and Content the bad as well as the good which we know is not so for many have had large Portions of the best of the Creatures that have had no comfort or contentment in them Solomon himself is a Witness But that very little Comfort or Content that any one hath in the Creature it is distilled and derived to him through the Creature from God and from him alone It God put sweetness into any Creature-comfort and bless it to us it shall be sweet to us If He convey any goodness or content to us through any Creature-chanel we shall have it not else But if he put bitterness into any Creature-comfort and with-hold his Blessing it will yield us no content at all This is a most experienc'd Truth That it is God's Love his Blessing in a Mercy that is The Mercy and it is that only which brings any Comfort or Content to us that have it What Content had Ahab in his Kingdom or Haman in his Honour Surely none at all Prov. 10. 22. The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and he adds no sorrow with it The Blessing of the Lord maketh the Poor in this World rich and with this Blessing comes no Sorrow as there doth with all other Blessings This is the Blessing that goes with The Blessing the inward Blessing that goes with the outward Blessing whether little or much the love of God is in it to his People and that maketh rich that contents the Soul and yields sweetness to it and this Contentment is the Blessing without which Godliness it self is not Gain Now when the outward Blessing is gone the Creature-blessing gone the inward Blessing may be continued the Love of God and inward Contentment may be continued when the Cabinet is worn out the Jewel may be as good as ever And if this continue with us namely the Blessing which is the Love of God if that remain towards us when the outward Blessing is taken away we have no cause of Disquietment But this remains always to the true Christian for it is God's Covenant which cannot be broken Psal 89. 34 35. My loving-kindness I will not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail My covenant will I not break c. Oh that we could look more at the invisible eternal Blessing the sure Mercies of David in all our outward Blessings which remains when all the visible temporal things are gone Yea further this invisible everlasting Blessing doth not only remain with us when all other Blessings are gone but which is wonderful then even then our everlasting Father doth usually communicate and manifest more of his Love which is the Blessing indeed to the Souls of his People than when they had the enjoyment of their outward Blessings When had Ezekiel and John such glorious Visions of God but in Captivity and Exile When God brings his People into the Wilderness then he speaks comfortably unto them then he speaks to their Hearts Hos 2. 14. as in the Wilderness in the absence of Creature-comforts the Spouse leans on her Beloved Cant. 8. 5. fixeth her Loves and Desires most intimately and heartily upon him so even then her Beloved manifests most of his tender love to her and when the World frowns he smiles upon her So that this looking up to God in all our Enjoyments living upon Him and enjoying all in him and for him will wonderfully support us under all our Trouble because by this means we shall lose nothing but what we lose in the Stream we shall find in the Fountain what we want in the Creature we shall find in God yea and in all our losses for Christ and his Truths we are assured to have an hundred fold Matth. 19. 29. So much for the first Counsel Look to God in all our Enjoyments II. The second Counsel Resign up your wills entirely to the will of God in all your Afflictions It is an Argument of an excellent Spirit when all Self-respects are drowned in the Will of God and there is nothing lost therein for our best safety is in the Will of God our Happiness is more in God than in our selves and His Will is infinitely better than ours We may be sure of this that a man shall never have setled Peace and Comfort until he have cordially committed and resigned up all his Will and Way all his Concerns and Interests and Ends to the holy Will of God Psal 37. 5 7. Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him Prov. 16. 3. Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established
It is the difference of Wills Ends and Interests that begets all the Stirs and Troubles in the Hearts of Men. GOD will have his Will and Man will have his It is the communion of Wills Hearts Interests and Ends that is that fellowship that a Creature hath with its Creator It is the Interest and Honour the Dignity and Duty the Comfort and Quiet the Heaven and Happiness of a Rational Creature to be what God will have him be to do what God will have him do to want what God will have him want and to suffer what God will have him suffer to be wholly at the dispose of God as our Lord was Not my will but thine be done This is true Christianity indeed true Self-denial Matt. 16. 24. To be no more our own nor at our own dispose but to be entirely at the Will of God is the way to true Comfort Psal 142. 5. Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living Now if we would thus look unto the invisible God and resign up our wills to his will in all things in order to our support and comfort in all our Afflictions we must carefully observe these things 1st We must really look unto and heartily own God's absolute Dominion over and his Propriety in all things He is the Lord and Owner of all his Works Job 9. 12. He taketh away who can hinder him who durst say to him What doest thou Isa 45. 9. He is the Potter we are the Clay He is the Creator of all things and therefore the true only and rightful Owner of all things Ezek. 18. 4. All souls are mine saith God and all Creatures are his Hos 2. 9. And we are none of our own 1 Cor. 6. 20. Whether as Creatures or Christians our Souls Bodies Goods all are God's upon all accounts If we did not look on those earthly Comforts too much as our own we should not grieve too much for the loss of them Now we own God's Dominion and Propriety in all things when we thankfully receive any Creature-comfort from him and silently submit to his dispose of them Psal 39. 9. I was dumb saith David and quietly surrender them up to God when he calls for them as Eli 1 Sam. 3. 18. 2ly We must really and heartily look unto and own God's Righteousness in all his Dispensations towards us though never so hard bitter and pinching to the Flesh yet God is righteous in all By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us O God of our salvation Dan. 9. 14. Righteous art thou O Lord. Psal 145. 17. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works Now we own God's Righteousness in all our Afflictions when we diligently enquire to find out the why and the wherefore of all God's dealings with us We should reason thus The righteous God afflicts me then certainly I must enquire after the Cause and the End Lam. 3. 40. Let us search our hearts and try our ways God is righteous we have deserved this Affliction Hereupon we must search for our Sins confess them hate them turn from them and then this Consideration setleth and satisfieth our Minds under God's correcting Hand It is the righteous God that smites 3ly We must look unto and own the Faithfulness of God in his Chastisements of us When He blasts our Earthly Hopes kills our Creature-comforts takes away our dear Relations deprives us of Health Ease Liberty Name Estate yet He is faithful Psal 119. 75. In faithfulness thou hast afflicted me God hath put chastisement for Sin into his Covenant Psal 89. 31 33. and hath promised to with-hold no good thing from his People Psal 84. 11. Now God sees and knows that Chastisements are good for his People and shall work for their good therefore in very faithfulness he doth correct them to perform his Promise and fulfil his Covenant Oh that we could seriously look to this Faithfulness of God and believe that while He is afflicting and chastising us He is but making good his faithful Promises to us it would mightily support and uphold us But this is our Unhappiness that in Affliction we are apt to judge the quite contrary and to think rather that God is executing his Threatning upon us and that breeds Trouble to us Little do we think that when God strips us of this or that outward Mercy and lays his correcting Hand upon us that now He is in all these Afflictions but performing his Promises to us that He is doing us good by these and accomplishing all his sweet good and gracious ends upon us and that by these Afflictions He is preparing us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Oh could we but believe this and act our Faith upon God's Faithfulness it would help us cheerfully to bear all our Afflictions Lord encrease our Faith 4ly We must look unto and own the infinite Mercy and tender Compassions of the invisible eternal God in all our Afflictions God is the Father of Mercies a God of tender Mercies of tender Bowels his Mercy endureth for ever His tender Mercies are over all his Works and much more over his special Workmanship his own Children whom He hath begotten and formed for himself He is gracious and merciful Exod. 34. 6 7. Plenteous in Mercy His Mercies are a great depth Fury is not in Him towards his poor Children Isa 27. 4. but Pity and Compassion Psal 103. 13. His Compassions fail not Lam. 3. 22 23 24. There is no revengeful Passion in the most holy God it is He that puts Bowels of Mercy and Compassion into his Creatures and then surely He is full of Mercy himself He is rich in mercy and of great love Ephes 2. 4. and full of Mercy The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in them that hope in his mercy Psal 147. 11. Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his Mercy Psal 33. 18. Let us act Faith on the Mercy of God 5ly We must look unto and own the Omnipotency and All-sufficiency of the invisible eternal God Gen. 17. 1. I am the almighty God Rev. 1. 8. The only Creator of all things out of nothing He can create Salvation and Deliverance Isa 4. 5. 57. 19. God being All-sufficient can never be at a loss nor to seek of ways to help his People in distress He hath infinite ways of his own for helping us either immediately from himself or by raising up other means and those it may be very unlikely yea contrary to deliver us God is most honoured by us when we see nothing but rather all contrary to that we look for Refuge failing Friends Flesh Heart failing then to shut our Eyes to all Creature-helps and look altogether on God's All-sufficiency and only relye on that God can convey himself more comfortably to us when He pleaseth without means than by means This our eying and owning
contrary is true of wicked Persons they are curs'd in Soul when cross'd in Body their outward perishings prove inward perishings also for then usually they murmur and repine fret against God and Instruments then they think of sinful shifts and unlawful means to get out of trouble when their outward Man is hurt by affliction they hurt their Souls by sin by impatience and discontent as that wicked King who said what shall I wait upon God any longer but now we find the servants of the Lord as Eli David Job Micah Habakkuk and others when their outward comforts failed them then they submitted to the will of God fled to him for supplies trusted in him and so by the exercise of their Faith and Patience their Souls were supported and strengthned David expressly confesseth that it was good for him that is for his Soul his inner Man that he was afflicted Psal 119. 71. And in the Text we have the attestation of the Apostle and Primitive Christians And this is the comfort also of God's People that their greatest outward evils through the goodness and blessing of God turn to their greatest inward good and this makes them rejoyce in afflictions and glory in tribulations as Rom. 5. 2. to wit because of the Spiritual benefit they receive by afflictions and upon this very ground God gives that command Heb. 12. 12. Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down that is therefore be comforted and encouraged Therefore wherefore because of the great profit and sweet fruits of God's chastnings upon his People Therefore lift up the hands that hang down As it is a comfort to a Man that hath a Wound in his Body to have his Cloths torn off that so his wound may be healed so it is to have the diseases of our Souls cured tho' our outward comforts be rent and torn from us The Application I. For Information First Hence it appears that there is a great difference between the Godly and Ungodly in reference to afflictions between the upright and the hypocrite The godly are the better the wicked are the worse for affliction The godly Man gains in his inner Man by his losses in his outward Man but the wicked in their afflictions commit more wickedness and their Corruptions break out more to the ruine of their Souls The Righteous holdeth on his way altho' Briers and Thorns yea Lyons be in his way that tear and spoil all his outward Comforts and he that hath clean Hand and a clean Heart groweth stronger and stronger even when his outward Man grows weaker and weaker Job 17. 9. The wicked in affliction are like the troubled Sea that casts up nothing but miâ—â— and dirt Isa 57. 20. Secondly That an afflicted godly Person is in a far better case than an afflicted wicked Person thâ— the affliction be of the same kind measure and degree because an afflicted godly Person hath faâ— better grounds of Comfort than the other forth godly Man may be confident that his affliction oâ— his outward Man shall tend to the good of his Soul but the ungodly hath ground enough to fear that he shall be the worse for his affliction the wicked shall grow worse and worse Tho' all things may happen alike to all as to outward afflictions yet the godly have the best on 't upon this account that their outward afflictions shall tend to their Inward Spiritual and Eternal Good O happy are the People that are in such a case that no Winds can blow amiss to them but that all the cross and contrary winds that they meet with upon the Stormy Sea of this World shall but further them in their Passage and hasten them to their Harbour in Heaven Blessed be the Lord our God Amen Thirdly Then a gracious person hath more and better ground of Patience quietness and Contentation under all his afflictions than a wicked Person hath because every gracious Person hath good ground to hope believe and conclude that his good God is doing him good doing his Soul good by all the troubles on his outward Man and having ground to hope believe and conclude so he hath good ground of Patience and Contentation Now a Child of God hath good ground to hope believe and conclude so because he hath the faithful word of the true and faithful God for to ground his Hope and Faith upon who hath said that all things shall work together for good to his People if all things then afflictions Rom. 8. 28. And that all things are theirs 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. things present all their present sufferings and troubles are theirs that is shall work for their Spiritual good and God's word tells us expresly Hebr. 12. 10. that all our chastisements are for our profit our greatest profit namely to make us partakers of God's Holiness to purge away our Sins Isa 27. 9. to make us conformable to Christ and to fit and prepare us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2. Cor. 4. 17. Here we have a sure word of Promise the God of Truth who cannot Lye the Almighty God who is able to perform his promises which promises flow from his everlasting Love and unsearchable goodness mercy and are founded in the full satisfaction of Jesus Christ in whom they are made and through whom they shall be fulfilled to assure us of the truth of them I say the Almighty God hath engaged his word that all the sufferings of his Children shall work for the good of their Souls which is a most firm ground of Patience Contentation and Consolation to them When I can believe and be perswaded in my Soul that all my afflictions shall promote the welfare of my Soul I have all the reason in the World to be patient and content under them Our great care must be to look to this that we be the Heirs of the Promises and if we be in Christ really united to Christ grafted into him made partakers of his Spirit Life and Grace then are we the Heirs of the Promises Hebr. 6. 17 18. Gal. 3. last and we being the Heirs of the promises we have grounds of Patience because God hath promised all shall work for our good and then next that we may be able with patience to bear our afflictions we must labour to keep these promises still in our eyes looking to them and to the love goodness faithfulness and all-sufficiency of God in them and looking unto Jesus through whose satisfaction and mediation they come to us and labouring to keep our Eyes the Eyes of Faith and Hope fixed on those promises trusting in God and relying upon him and so shall we be able in our Patience to possess our Souls and Patience will do us great service in affliction for altho' it cannot keep us from misery it will keep us from being miserable for we can never be miserable so long as we have an interest in Christ and through him in the promises Now Faith in the
upon thy Heart than there is upon thy out-comforts for then without this due Consideration no Duty is performed nor Benefit received by all our Afflictions 1. In time of Affliction consider the vanity of the Creature When God deprives us of our outward Comforts takes away our dearest Relations now consider what vain things they are that we promise our selves so much Comfort and Contentment in how soon they wither one stroke from God separates us and them they are gone We can talk of the Vanity of the Creature but it is never so well learned as when God teacheth by our own Experience other mens Experience is not so much to us Isa 40. 6 7. All flesh is grass all Creature-enjoyments are withering grass 2. Consider the Evil of Sin Are we in any Affliction are we in Pain under any Trouble Let us now consider what Sin is which is the cause of all those Miseries These are the bitter Fruits of Sin 3. Consider also the End and Design of God in our Afflictions Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me What Provocation have we given God What have we done 4. What Errand and Message is this Affliction come upon Surely God hath sent it upon some Errand what is his meaning 5. Consider also the merciful and gracious Disposition of God towards his People in Affliction Deut. 8. 5. Heb. 12. 6. Rev. 3. 19. He is grieved for them Isa 63. 9. In all their Afflictions he is afflicted he doth not afflict willingly he loves them when he corrects them 6. Consider God's fatherly Affection to his Children in Affliction Lam. 3. 33. Judg. 10. 16. Jer. 31. 20. My bowels are turned for him Heb. 4. 15. Zech. 2. 8. they that touch them touch the apple of his Eye Psal 103. 13. God pittieth them as a Father doth his Children Therefore let us pray as the Church Isa 26. 8. In the way of thy judgments have we waited for thee So Isa 63. 15. 7. Consider God's gracious moderation of his Peoples Afflictions Isa 27. 7 8. He afflicts in measure He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind He doth not punish as we deserve Job 34. 23. Psal 103. 10. Job 11. 6. 2. He will keep us from sinking Lam. 3. 22. 2Cor 4. 8 9 10. Though troubled on every side yet not distressed perplexed yet not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed 2Cor 6. 9. see his gracious Promise 1 Cor. 10. 13. God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it Job 23. 6. Will he plead against me with his great power No but he would put strength in me Psal 37. 24. The Lord upholdeth with his hand 3. He will not be always wrath Isa 57. 16. It shall be for a moment and no more Lam. 3. 31. He will not cast off for ever 2 Cor. 1. 10. He hath delivered he doth deliver and will deliver Psal 126. 5. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy 4. He orders all the Circumstances of our Troubles the Time how long the Place where the Quality what kind the Measure how much All the Powers of Men and Devils are not able to add a dram to the weight nor a drop to the measure of what our gracious Father hath appointed for us All these seven Considerations will exceedingly help us to make a profitable improvement of our Afflictions for the preparing of us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And also these Considerations will very much help us to carry and behave our selves aright and as Christians under afflictive Providences which is the right way to attain the benefit of them It is an hard thing for a man to carry himself well under a smiling Providence but an harder thing for a man to carry himself well under a smiting Providence which was hinted before Secondly But a little more to shew how we ought to carry our selves under Afflictions that so we may receive the Blessings and Benefits of them which we may lose by our Miscarriages 1. When any Affliction befals you Be silent before the Lord for he hath put you to silence Do not murmur quarrel fret or be discontented I believe a better sign of an honest and upright Heart can scarcely be found than for a man to love God the more for his afflicting of him and to cleave the faster to God when God cuts off his earthly Comforts from him Oh be silent before the Lord Zech. 2. 13. Lam. 3. 28. 2. Be humble under God's hand for that is his end in afflicting lye down at his Feet Jam. 4. God is humbling of you now then humble your own Souls labour to break your own Hearts in the sense of your Sins and to lye low before the Lord. 3. Acknowledge God's Righteousness and justifie him even when he striketh the heaviest stroke let the blow be never so great upon your most desirable Mercies yet acquit God do not charge him foolishly and say he dealeth hardly Psal 51. 4. God must be acquitted and justified tho' he should condemn us unto everlasting wrath lev 26. 41. This is to accept of the punishment of our Iniquities 4. Search your hearts and try your ways Laâ— 3. 40. find out the Achans the Jonabs the Dalilah Jer. 8. 6. when the Lord sends any Affliction upon his People he hearkens to hear what they speak The Lord hearkened and heard and there was none that smote upon his thigh saying What have I done Our Work now in Affliction is to enquire What Sins have I committed what Duties have I omitted Now make a diligent search 5. Pour out your Hearts to God in Prayer this is our great relief and ease in time of Affliction Jam. 5. 13. Is any afflicted let him pray Now pray earnestly fervently cry to God Let us never think to heal the wound that the stroke of God hath made any other way go not to merâ—y Company and the Affairs and Delights of the World for a Cure Pray for a Blessing on the Rod Pray that God will shew you his End in afflicting you and that he will make up what he hath removed from you by the enjoyment of himself Pray for Suffering Graces for Faith and Patience It is a sad thing when Afflictions are on Men if they know not how to ease themselves by Prayer 6. If by Affliction the Lord discover any particular Evil to thy Soul then break off that Wickedness by speedy Repentance and Reformation or else you frustrate the very End of God in afflicting you and you provoke the Lord to go on with stroke upon stroke until you are consumed Iâ— the Lord smite any of you for any particular Sâ—â— you live in and he convince your Conscience of it do not continue in the practice of that Sin for a World for when once
the Lord taketh up his Rod he will never lay it down if he have Love to thy Soul he will smite thee deeper and deeper until he have stript thee of all thy dearest Enjoyments and leave thee stark naked that he may separate thee and thy Sin But when the Lord intends to punish a Soul eternally in Hell he will not do so but whom he loves and intends to save eternally he will smite and smite and never leave smiting until he separate them and their Lusts 7. Lastly give up your whole Hearts entirely to God in Christ for this end God cuts off our choicest earthly Mercies that we may entirely give up our selves to Christ These things stood in the way of Jesus Christ therefore God removes them and so makes room in the Heart for himself and for Christ O now say O my Soul thou hast wasted too much of thine Affections on those poor perishing things this Mercy and that Enjoyment hath taken off thy Heart from Jesus Christ this Relation hath lain between thy Heart and Christ Well now the Lord hath taken these away oh now my Soul let Jesus Christ stand in the Breach that is made and let him fill it up Let him come in the room of that Mercy that is gone If we labour thus to make up the Breach the stroke will be a stroke of Love and by this we may know that Affliction comes in love to our Souls when it makes us love God better and stick faster to God than before and cleave more to Duty than before That which endeth in our Love to God did come from God's Love to us These are the strokes from a Father's Hand and he will heal them in his due time which is the best time So much of the Second Thirdly If we would improve our Afflictions so as that they may be means of preparing us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory we must carefully avoid the usual Extreams that men are liable to in times of Affliction that is neither to slight them nor to sink under them Prov. 3. 11. Despise not thou the chastnings of the Lord neither faint when thou art corrected of him 1. Slight not Afflictions but value them for Afflictions are of God's sending they arise not oâ—â— of the Dust they are God's Messengers yea sufferings for Christ are God's gifts Phil. 1. 29. 2. They are Love-tokens sent us from a loving Father Heb. 12. 6. Whom he loveth he corrected 3. They are wholsom Physick needful for us to cure the mortal Diseases of our Souls sent us from a most wise and faithful Physician who prescribes and orders every Ingredient in our Potioâ— 4. They are Marks of the true way to Heaven Act. 14. 22. 5. Preservatives against the Venoâ— of Sin to prevent the infection of it 6. They are covenant-Covenant-Mercies Psal 89. 32. 7. Means tâ— prepare us for glory and to prevent our eternal condemnation 1 Cor. 11. 32. Oh could we bâ—â— thus receive our Afflictions and so take and bâ—â— them and so improve them after this manner what singular good would they do us and what Comfort might we have in them And as we must not despise them so we must not faint under them neither but patiently and quietly submit to the holy will of God and resign up our selves to his Good-will and Pleasure â—â— was shewed before Fourthly We improve Afflictions when we are exercised by them Heb. 12. 10. then we shall reap the Fruit of them Now this Exercise consists as a worthy Divine observes in these things Jer. 9. 24. Ezek. 22. 29. Isa 64. 5. to wit 1st About the Affliction that smarts 2dly About our Hearts that feel 3dly About the Hand that smites 1st About the Affliction itself the Rod that is upon us we must be exercised in hearing Work in bearing Work and in doing work 1. In hearing Work Mic. 6. 9. Hear ye the rod and him that hath appointed it The voice of the Rod is the whole Word of God Three words saith he especially the Rod speaks 1. Thou hast sinned 2. God is displeased 3. Return and Repent We must hear and obey these Voices 2dly In bearing Work Mic. 7. 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord. Jam. 1. 4. Lam. 3. 27. Bear thy affliction feelingly freely willingly Jerem. 10. 24. waitingly not growing weary 3dly In doing Work three things are to be done 1. Kiss the Rod in your Father's Hand honour it as your Father's Scepter fear it as his Sword love it as his Physick 2. Cast away the Sin that hath provoked it Isa 30. 22. Hos 14. 8. Job 34. 31. 3. Embrace the Covenant of God for which he pleads Thus must we be exercised about our Affliction Secondly We must be exercised about our Hearts thus 1. Heart-Consideration of the Rod Eccles 7. 14. Weigh well what it is we suffer whence it comes by what provoked and to what intended of which before 2. Heart-breaking under it Jer. 4. 3. Hos 10. 12. 3. Heart-bending Our Spirits must stoop to the Will of God Thirdly We must be exercised about the Hand that smites Isa 24. 15. to glorifie God in the Fires 1st By abasing our selves Job 42. 5 6. I abhor my self in dust and ashes said holy Job 2ly By justifying God in all his Dealings Jer. 12. 1. Lam. 3. 39. Righteous art thou O Lord. 3ly By yielding Reverence Fear Obedience Faith 4ly Going to God for the Blessing of the Rod And thus exercising our selves these ways we shall improve our Afflictions for our spiritual Advantage Q. 3. But who are the People interested in this great Priviledge that those short and light Afflictions shall work for them and work them for this far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Answ Surely not all that are afflicted all shall not receive this Blessing for some grow worse by Affliction but only the Saints and true Believers such only as are the Children of God and such as hold forth the Life of Christ in their mortal Flesh as Vers 10 11. of this 2 Cor. 4. such as walk as Christ walked that follow his Steps such as look aim at and follow after invisible eternal things principally and chiefly as Verse 18 even such and such only as are exercised by Affliction as was shewed before they and they only shall reap the quiet and peaceable Fruits of Righteousness here and receive that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory hereafter They that bear Afflictions as Christians and improve them as Christians and partake of the Blessings of them they shall partake of this Priviledge of being prepared by them for this weight of glory The Application First for Information 1 Inf. I. Then God's Children must take heed that they do neither despise the Chastnings of the Lord nor faint when they are rebuked of him Prov. 3. 11. Seeing they are designed for such good â—â—ds as to fit us for glory we should not slight the â—ast Affliction
out more after God to love God more to fear to please to follow after God more it is in love If thou are more fearful of Sinning against God and more careful to glorifie him it is in love Psal 116. 1 2 3 4 5. 2. If you enjoy the gracions Presence of God with you in your Affliction his teaching strengthning sanctifying quieting satisfying humbling comforting Presence with you then you may conclude it is in love Isa 43. 2. Psal 94. 19. 2 Cor. 4. 16. when your inward man is renewed as your outward perisheth 3. If your Afflictions make you more conformable to Christ in Meekness Humility Heavenlyness Patience Self-denyal c. 4. If you be taught by the Spirit and Word when afflicted by the Rod how to hate Sin more to dye to Self and the Vanities of the World more how to dye to all Relations and Creature-Comforts mâ—re and how to list up Christ more and love him more to prepare for Death more and mind Heaven more then you are afflicted in Love Blessed are they that are thus taught by Affliction Psal 94. 12. 5. If God lay no more on you than he enables you to bear Isa 27. 8. Jer. 30. 11. 46. 28. 1 Cor. 10. 13. 6. If you can be willing to lye in the Furnace until your dross be consumed Job 23. 10. Mic. 7. 9. Can you cry out Lord remove the Cause rather than the Effect take away my Corruption rather than my Affliction A Cure Lord a Cure of the Distempers of my vile Heart good Lord a Cure 7. If you can live by Faith on the Promises in your Affliction Isa 41. 10. 43. 1 2 3. 57. 15. 1 Tim. 1. 15. Psal 50. 15. Joh. 10. 17 27 28. Isa 26. 3. Matth. 11. 28 29. Heb. 12. 10. Hos 2. 14. Heb. 13. 5. Rom. 8. 28. Zech. 13. 9. Psal 34. 8. 84. 11. Let us labour to find these sweet Fruits of God's Fatherly Love to us in our Afflictions and then we shall not grow weary 2 Obj. But my Afflictions have been long upon me Ans 1. Not so long as thy Mercies have been Canst thou number the days of thy Health Have not thy good days been many more than thy evil days 2. Nor so long as thy Sins have been Thou hast been a Transgressor from the Womb a Sinner from thy Conception Psal 51. 5. 3. Nor so long as the Afflictions of others it may be far better than you See the 77th and 88th Psalms Gen. 15. 12 13. Four hundred years Exod. 12. 40 41. Job 21. 25. Some have not had a day of health or pleasure many years no not in their Lives Oh how should this quiet us under our Troubles that we may not complain that they are long 4. The longer thy Afflictions have been on thee the sweeter will Heaven at last be to thee Psal 126. 1 2 5 6. compared The longer the Storm the sweeter the Calm the longer in the Tempest the more welcome the Harbour 5. Thy Afflictions are not long but short if compared with that Eternity of Glory reserved in Heaven for you as in the Text Everlasting Habitations Eternal Life a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away Have an Eye fixed on the Crown while thou bearest the Cross One moments being in the Bosom of Christ will make thee forget all thy Misery oh long for that good hour 6. The longer you are in Afflictions the more spiritual Experiences you have of the Love and Care of Christ towards you 2 Cor. 1. 5. 2 Cor. 12. 5. O the Love-tokens that Christ sends his Spouse in the Furnace of Affliction then he speaks most kindly to her The blessed Martyn found it so 7. Long Afflictions are but Preparatives sometimes to long-liv'd Mercies as in Joseph and David Isa 54. 11 12 13 14. If by my long Affliction God make more room in my Heart for himself Son and Spirit his Word if he crucifie my Affections more to the World and make me more conformable to Christ I shall for ever bless his Name for them 8. The more Afflictions here the more Glory hereafter 2 Cor. 4. 16. Matth. 5. 10. For 1st the more Affliction the more Grace is exercised and the more Grace here the more Glory hereafter 2dly The more Afflictions the more religious Duties will be performed Psal 109. 4. Isa 26. 16. Psal 42. 1 2 3. Now God will reward every into according to his works though not for them 1 Cor. 15. last 2 Cor. 9. 6. 9. Impatience will but lengthen our Affliction God's time is the best for deliverance Affliction shall last no longer than need Act. 27. 13 15. Psal 23. 1 2. 94. 9. Rom. 8. 28. Moreover that we may bear up as Christians and not grow weary and so may find that all our Afflictions are blessed to us to prepare us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory let us dwell on a few more Considerations 1. That these our Troubles are all the Hell we shall have 2. Think much on the real spiritual Advantages we shall have by Affliction Have we not had some bless God for them 3. Your choicest and chiefest Treasure is safe your God your Christ your Portion your Crown your Inheritance is safe your Graces your Souls are safe 4. Consider it is our unmortified Lust that is the sting of all our Afflictions its Sin adds gall to our wormwood Let us set our selves in earnest to the mortifying of our Sins apply the Blood of Christ beg his Spirit Rom. 8. 13. 5. That all our Afflictions come to us through the Covenant of Grace Psal 89. 30 c. 6. That they do but reach our worser our baser part our Bodies 2 Cor. 4. 6. our Souls may grow better 7. Labour to live by Faith and keep it as much in exercise as possible for Faith in exercise 1st shews the extreme vanity of all earthly things for the Soul by Faith seeth them as God seeth them to be all vanity and vexation and so it overcometh the World 1 Joh. 5. 4. 2dly Faith presents to the Soul greater sweeter better things in God and Christ than can possibly be found in the Creature Faith looks and feeds on Invisibles 3dly By enabling the Soul to center it self on God and to be satisfied with the naked enjoyment of him God is All to the Soul that trusteth in him Joh. 14. 8. Psal 17. 15. Phil. 3. 8 9. 8. Labor every day to be more humble low and little in your own Eyes Who am I I am not worthy of the least of God's Mercies I have forfeited all I have improved none it is Pride only that brings Discontent 9. Consider the worst that God doth to his People here is but to do them good in the latter end Hos 2. 14. Heb. 12. 10. 10. What God wills is best God is Wisdom it self and he is Goodness it self when he sends Sickness Sickness is best 11. That God will be with us
true Consolation to be found Jerem. 2. 13. To seek Content here in any thing out of God and beneath him is to seek the Living among the Dead The Work of Faith is to look upwards to look within the Veil to look to Jesus Mic. 7. 7. The right and ready way to present Peace is looking stedfastly not to present things but to that future Rest and Happiness to the full enjoyment of God in Heaven Thus our Lord takes off his Disciples from their Heart-trouble John 14. 1 2. of which Text I have written a Discourse at large Let us consider how this looking unto those eternal things is expressed 2 Tim. 4. 8. it is loving the appearance of Christ Tit. 2. 13. Phil. 3. 20 21. 1 Cor. 1. 7. 2 Cor. 5. 2 3. Rom. 8. 23. waiting hoping hastening unto groaning after that Glory Whoever meets with a distressed disconsolate complaining Christian you shall find that one or both of these things is manifest in him either he hath low Expectations from God hereafter or he hath high Expectations from the Creature here either he looks too much on things visible and temporal or too little on things invisible and eternal and indeed he that doth the one doth the other for the too much minding visible temporal things hinders the true minding of invisible eternal things If we examine matters aright in our own Souls we shall find that this is the main thing that begets in us and keeps us under so many Troubles and Disquiets either that we do not or will not seriously and believingly engage our Hearts and Minds in the meditation consideration and application of all those great and glorious things which God hath promised and which Christ hath purchased or else we will needs mind and expect what God hath not promised nor Christ purchased a total freedom from Troubles Sicknesses Losses c. God hath no where promised nor hath Christ purchased it and then we complain when we miss of our groundless Expectations Either we are still poring and thinking on our Creature-comforts and Enjoyments and looking for much from them and in them much comfort help sweetness satisfaction respect kindness from them or else we are grieving and mourning for the loss and want of them all which thoughts do but sowre imbitter wound and weaken our Spirits or else we do but too seldom think of the infinite Goodness Love Mercy Tenderness All-sufficiency of God and Christ and of the Glory of Heaven which Thoughts would sweeten alleviate and mitigate our Sorrows and help much to support our Spirits under all our Afflictions We are grieved and troubled for Losses and Crosses for loss of Relations for Sickness and Pains Disappointments Unkindnesses of Friends Disesteem in the World c. Let us consider whether God hath promised or Christ purchased any Freedom from those Have any of the Saints been freed from those And why should we expect to be free But if we make Promises to our selves and then our own Promises deceive us whom can we blame for that Nay do we not as it were necessitate God hereby to imbitter all our Earthly Comforts to us and to make every Creature a Scorpion to us because we will make them our Gods We have less Comfort in them than we might have because we would have more in them than we should We might have more kindness from Friends more sweetness in our Relations c. if we looked for less Scarce any Comfort we have but one time or other becomes a Scourge to us because we foolishly made it an Idol to us Isa 2. 22. Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils for whereof is he to be accounted Jer. 17. 5 6 7. We can never expect so little from the Creature but we shall be sure to find less than we looked for But such is the Goodness of God to his People that we can never expect so much from him but we shall be sure to find more The Application First For Information 1. If the serious minding of and believing looking unto invisible eternal things will much support Christians under the Troubles of this Life it follows then that there is a great necessity that Christians should have a distinct saving knowledg of invisible eternal things for without such a knowledge of them they cannot mind them nor set their Hearts upon them John 17. 3. This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Col. 2. 2 3. We know those things but confusedly and therefore we mind them but confusedly This Saving Knowledge is a New Covenant-Mercy God promiseth that his People shall be all taught of him and that they shall all know the Lord Jer. 31. 33 34. John 6. 45. Eph. 4. 21. Our Duty is then to lay hold on God's Covenant and humbly to beseech him to teach us by his Spirit and to enlighten our Understandings as Paul prays Eph. 1. 17 18. 2. Hence appears the Necessity of Faith and full perswasion of the verity reality and excellency of those invisible eternal things It is a full perswasion of a Better Good than the Creature and of a Better Countrey of a Better Substance of a Better Place than this World is and of Better Company Better Friends than can be enjoyed here that will make us set our Thoughts on work upon them and that will support under the loss of those worse things While we have those better things in our Eye we shall not be much troubled about the worse the better will swallow up the worse if we firmly and heartily believe them and have good ground to hope through Grace that we have Title to them as Heb. 11. 25 26. The belief of a better Resurrection and of a better Life than this will support us under the Troubles of this Heb. 11. 35. 3. Then there is also a necessity lies on us of having an Interest in those invisible eternal good things in God in Christ in the Promises and in the Purchased Inheritance An absolute necessity lies on us all of getting an interest in Jesus Christ Real Union with him for only hereby we come to have an Interest in all those eternal Blessings If Christ be ours All is ours not else 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. Oh this this is the one thing necessary That we make sure our Interest in God and in his Covenant by Jesus Christ This and this alone will ballance all our Losses Take special notice of those two Texts 1 Sam. 30. 6. 2 Sam. 23. 5. Let us try our Interest in Christ by those few Scriptures Rom. 8. 1 9. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit If any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature all old things are past away behold all things are become new Gal. 5.
in every Creature-comfort that we enjoy Not only look unto God in our Mercies as was said before in the other particular but let us labour to ascend higher and that is let us labour and learn to live upon God and his Love in those Mercies Let this be minded by us That it is not the Creature but God in the Creature that we must love and live upon The Creature should not content us without some sense of God's Love in it If we have Health Wealth Liberty Friends we should put this Question to our selves Do we enjoy God's Love with these A great Question yet seldom ask'd It is surely the Love of God in a Mercy that doth sanctifie and sweeten the Mercy to us as is evident in that famous Instance of Hezekiah Isa 38. 17. Thou hast in love to my soul delivered me from the pit of corruption Then Deliverance is sweet when it comes from God's Love to our Souls Q. But how may we know that A. As Hezekiah did For saith he thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back When Pardon of Sin comes with a Mercy 't is a Mercy indeed a double Mercy Note When a Soul-mercy comes with a Bodily Mercy a Soul-mercy with Ease Recovery c. then that outward Mercy comes from the Love of God indeed And thus many times our Lord Jesus distributed his Mercies in the days of his Flesh upon the Earth healing Souls and Bodies together forgiving their Sins and curing their Diseases all at once Q. But how shall we know that our Sins are forgiven as well as our Trouble removed Ans 1. When the Soul is stirred up to suitable praising of God as in Hezekiah so in David Psal 103. 1 2 3. the sense of God's Mercies to them enlarged their Hearts with Thankfulness 2. We may know that our Sins are forgiven us if those Conditions are wrought in us unto which forgiveness of Sins is promised and those are chiefly Repentance and Faith Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Acts 10. 43. To him namely to Jesus do all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Now if after Mercies God gives us Hearts to repent and believe we may certainly conclude that those Mercies come to us from the love of God We follow hard in our Prayers and Desires and Endeavours after earthly Mercies when we want them whereas our Souls should follow hard after God in them Psal 63. 8. 31. 23. In every Ordinance Priviledge Duty Providence in every Enjoyment it is the Love of God in it that our Souls should thirst after as David did Psal 63. 1 2 3 My soul thirsteth for God for the living God So Psal 84. 1. Thee thee Lord my soul longeth for He longed for God's Ordinances too but chiefly for God in them So should we cry Health and Ease and Liberty and Deliverance with thy self Lord and with thy Love Peace and Plenty with thy Love Lord not without it Better be without these Mercies than without the Love of God in them Jude 21. Keep your selves in the love of God Gal. 2. 20. Psal 62. 10. If riches Friends Ease c. encrease set not your hearts â—â— them but on God in them To look through and beyond and above a Mercy unto the God of that Mercy is a Mercy in that Mercy and a choice one too for none but God's Chosen ones can do it And so to do argues much Grace and much Communion with God Col. 3. 1 2. Let us look up look up to God in all our Mercies Stay not on the Mercy be not content with the outward Mercy for that is but the Shell but look up to God and long to see and taste his Love in it for that is the Kernel his Love in Christ feed on that by Faith Love Meditation O let us labour to have God in all our Thoughts for to look to love and live upon Creature-comforts meerly barely only is but to live upon Husks Ashes Wind and Vanity these are no Bread for the Soul Isa 55. 2. Psal 143. 6. I stretch forth my hands unto thee my soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land When we taste and see the earthly Comforts we have if we can also taste and see the Love of God in them we enjoy a double sweetness an outward and an inward a visible and an invisible sweetness Oh what sweetness then may we taste for both Faith and Sense are fed at once And we may further know that any Mercy comes to us in Love when our Souls are the better for that Mercy more endeared to God and more enlarged after God 3. We must labour to use and enjoy all our Mercies for God for his Honour and Service as was hinted before This is God's end in giving them and it should be ours in using them 1 Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye eat or drink or whatever ye do do all to the glory of God This great End should always be minded by us We should judge all that good that leads us nearer to God and all that evil that draws us farther from him Prov. 16. 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself We have lost most of our Comforts for want of this to wit our not enjoying them in God and for God and God in them We feed on them but not on God in them and this provokes God to remove them and to take away our best outward Mercies from us even his Gospel for our not using it and not improving it for God and for contenting our selves barely with it without God in it Bare Ordinances bare Duties without God in them are but dry Breasts without Milk which Souls may lye upon all their days and starve and perish notwithstanding if they meet not God in them But now if we thus eye and look unto God and seriously mind the invisible eternal God we shall hereby be sweetly supported under all our Troubles For 1st This will take out the gall and wormwood of our Troubles which is our inordinate love of the Creature for there is no immoderate Sorrow for the loss of any thing but of that which was inordinately loved So that if God had had our Hearts and Affections when we had our Creature-Comforts he will have them much more then they are removed for God remains the â—ime still every way as full and as All-sufficient â—â— supply and support us So that if we had lived â—â—on God the Fountain when we had the Cisterns â— shall live more immediately upon him when the â—â—sterns are broken and shall then have our Comforts more pure and more refreshing And this is not all but if we be truly gracious â— will grieve us to the very Heart when our earthâ—â— Comforts are gone that we set our Hearts so much upon them that
delight upon him Always minding that it is God in Christ that we must thus look unto and mind in all these particulars God in Christ not God singly considered but God in Christ for God cannot be comfortably thought upon out of Christ our Mediator in whom alone he is well pleased No Communion with God but in Christ no Communication of any good from God to us but in Christ and by his Spirit It is the invisible eternal God by the invisible eternal Son of God and through the invisible eternal Spirit that we must make all our Addresses unto and expect all Communications of good from It is Christ alone that must bring God and the Soul together In Christ we are reconciled to him even by the Blood of his Cross 2 Cor. 5. 19. Col. 1. 21. And being reconciled to God by him we have Peace with God and then have Communion with him In Christ God's Nature becomes lovely to us and ours to God otherwise there is an utter Enmity betwixt his pure and our impure Nature Christ hath made up the vast gulf between God and us He drank of the brook in the way Psal 110. last Aim at and thirst after Communion with God in Christ in all your receipts of Mercies from him and in all your returns of Duty to him Pray and pant that all that you receive from him may come to you from his Love in Christ Oh that this Mercy that this Affliction may proceed from God's Fatherly Love in Christ Jesus so in all your Approaches to God in Ordinances and Duties pray and pant after Communion with God in Christ Oh that I may meet with God in this Ordinance and in this Duty without which we should not be satisfied in any Ordinances and Duties and all outward Blessings are but visible temporal things we must look beyond them and above them unto God in Christ for the invisible eternal love and grace and blessing of God in them So holy David Psal 63. 1 2 3. That I may see thy power and thy glory saith he And Vers 8. My soul followeth hard after God to see God's power and love and grace in Ordinances So Psal 42. 1 2. My soul thirsteth for God for the living God This is the marrow and fatness of God's Ordinances and this is that will satisfie the Soul therefore this is the thing that our Souls should long and breath after that we may have sights sweet sights of the invisible eternal God in Christ in Ordinances and Duties and tasts of his love and goodness in them And if we have Communion with God in our Mercies we shall be able thankfully to receive them and fruitfully to improve them for God And also we shall be enabled patiently and comfortably to bear all our Afflictions and profitably to improve them Now if we would have Communion with God in Christ we must look well to these things viz. 1st We must labour to be pure in Heart for such as are pure in Heart and they only shall see God God in his Son God in his Ordinances in his Providences and in Glory at last If we regard Iniquity in our Hearts God will not hear our Prayers nor afford us any Communion with him Mat. 5. 8. A pure Heart is a new Heart an Heart purged by the Blood of Christ from the guilt of Sin and purified by his Spirit Acts 15. 9. An Heart renewed and sanctified a single sincere and upright Heart that hath pure Principles planted in it the Spirit of God the Fear of God the Love of God Faith in God and Christ Christ formed there the Image of God stamped there the Kingdom of God set up there These are the true Principles of Purity of Heart and Life and also an Heart set and bent by the Rules of God's pure Word that pure Rule and that acteth for pure ends to please God to bring Glory to him to do good to others and to enjoy God in our Salvation Such may expect sweet Communion with God 2 Cor. 6. 16 17. the Lord God Almighty will walk and dwell with such 2ly We must labour to be poor in Heart poor in Spirit Mat. 5. 3. broken in Heart contrite in Spirit Isa 57. 15. O the wonderful condescension of the high and lofty one who dwelleth in the Heavens that He should stoop so low as to dwell in the broken Heart to revive such Hearts such Spirits O the Revivings of God they are Soul-satisfying things The Consolations of God are not small Happy indeed are those Souls in whom the great and glorious God dwells Blessed Souls that are the Temple of the holy God Habitations of God by the Spirit 1 Cor. 3. 16. Eph. 2. 22. Isa 66. 2. To the man will God look that is poor and of a contrite Spirit and God's looks on such are sweet looks Love-looks such shall have much communion with God and Christ for Christ was sent to bind up the broken hearted Luke 4. 18. What a comfortable support is this to a poor afflicted Christian that is poor in this World destitute of Friends and earthly Comforts restrained and shut up in Prison or otherwise confined to Chamber or Sick-bed and withal is poor in Spirit is content in this condition Yet now in this his desolate condition he may have Communion with the great God he may enjoy the blessed and sweet Company of the Lord Jesus by day and by night even when Lover and Friend is put far from him even then his God is near him his everlasting Father is with him his dear Lord and Redeemer his â—â—eet Saviour and loving Husband is with him Psal 25. 15 16 17. Psal 102. 17. He will regard â—e prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer He will never leave them nor forsake them Yea He will then speak most comfortably to their poor Souls Hos 2. 14. He will speak to their Hearts He knows their Souls best in Adversity and their Souls know him best then Jesus Christ will then â—hew them his Love and manifest it unto them and support them 3ly If we would have Communion with God â—n every condition we must labour to be upright in Heart Psal 125. The Lord is nigh unto them that call upon him in truth they shall have Communion with him He loveth truth in the inner parts He that walketh uprightly shall dwell in God's tabernacle and abide in his holy hill Psal 15. 1 2. God hates Hypocrisie Oh the guile and falshood of our hearts let us bewail it and cry to God with David Make my heart sound in thy statutes 4ly Be heavenly in heart be heavenly-minded such shall have sweet Communion with God such as have their Conversation in Heaven have converse with God Phil. 3. 20. We must be very watchful that the World do not lye too near our hearts nor lodge too long in our hearts for that will steal away our hearts from God and hinder our Communion with him We must take