and glorifie his own mercy in crossing the reckoning and acquitting thy soul. All sums are equally dischargeable to the munificence of our great Creditor in heaven as it is the act of his Justice to call for the least so of his Mercy to forgive the greatest Had we to do with a finite power we had reason to sink under the burden of our sins Now there is neither more nor less to that which is infinite Onely let thy care be to lay hold on that infinite mercy which lies open to thee And as thou art an object fit for mercy in that thou art in thy self sinful and miserable enough so finde thy self as thou art a subject meet to receive this mercy as a penitent believer Open and enlarge thy bosom to take in this free grace and close with thy blessed Saviour and with and in him possess thy self of remission peace salvation § 4. Complaints oâ— unrepentance anâ— unbelief Sweet words thou sayest to those that are capable of them But what is all this to me that am neither penitent nor believer Alas that which is honey to others is no better then gall wormwood to me who have not the grace to repent and believe as I ought Why wilt thou my son be so unwise and unjust as to take part with Satan against thine own soul Why wilt thou be so unthankfully injurious to the Father of mercies as to deny those graces which his good Spirit hath so freely bestowed upon thee If thou wert not penitent for thy sins wherefore are these tears What mean these sighs and sobs and passionate expressions of sorrow which I hear from thee It is no worldly loss that thus afflicts thee it is no bodily distemper that thus disquiets thee Doubtless thou art soul-sick my son thy spirit is deeply wounded within thee and what can thus affect thy soul but sin and what can this affection of thy soul be for sin but true penitence § 5. Complaints of a misgrounded sorrow satisfied Alas thou sayest I am indeed sorrowful for my sin but not upon the right grounds I grieve for the misery that my sin hath brought upon me not for the evil of my sinâ— for the punishment not the offence for my own danger not for the displeasure of my good God Beware my son lest an undue humility cause thee to belye the graces of Gods Spirit thou art no meet judge of thy self whiles thou art under temptations Had not thy sorrow a relation to thy God why wouldst thou thus sighâ— towards heaven why would thy heart challenge thee for unkindness in offending why dost thou cry out of the foulness not onely of the peril of thy sin What is it that makes the act of thy sin to be sinful but the offence of the Divine Majestie how canst thou then be sorry that thou hast sinned and not be sorry that thou hast offended Tell me What is it that thy conscience primarily suggests to thee in this deep impression of thy sorrow Is it Thou shalt be punished or iâ— it not rather Thou hast sinned And were it put to thy choice whether thou hadst rather enjoy the favour of God with the extremest smart or be in his displeasure with ease whether wouldst thou pitch upon Or if liberty were tendred unto thee that thou mightst freely sin without the danger of punishment whether doth not thy heart rise at the condition as ready to flee in the face of the offerer Besides fear and horrour dost thou not finde an inward kinde of indignation at thy miscarriage and such an hatred of thy sin that were it to be done again if it were possible to be hid from God and men and if there were not an hell to avenge it thou wouldst abhoâ— to commit it All these are strong convictions of the right grounds of thy repentance and of the wrong which thou dost to thine own soul in the unjust scruples which thou raisest against it § 6. Complaint of the insufficient measure of sorrow satisfied If the grounds thou saist of my repentance be right yet the measure is insufficient I am sorrowful for my sins but not enough An effectual grief for sin should be serious deep hearty intensive mine is slight and superficialâ— I sigh but my sighs come not from the bottom of an humbled heart I can sometimes weep but I cannot pour out my self into tears I mourn but I do not dwell upon my sorrow My son thou hast to do with a God which in all the dispositions of our soul regards truth and not quantity If he find thy remorse sound he stands not upon measure He doth not mete out our repentance by inches or by houres but where he findes sincerity of penitence he is graciously indulgent Look upon David and acknowledge his sin formidably hainous no lesse then adultery seconded with inebriation and murder yet no sooner did he in a true compunction of heart cry Peccavi I have sinned against the Lord then he heares from the same mouth that accused him The Lord also hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die you doe not hear of any tearing of hair or rending of garments or knocking 's of brest or lying in sackcloth and ashes but onely a penitent confession availing for the expiation of so grievous crimes Thou art deceived if thou thinkst God delights in the misery and afflictedness of his creature So far onely is the grief his dear ones pleasing unto him as it may make for the health of their souls in theâ— due sensibleness of their sin in their meet capacity of mercy I do not with some Casuists flatter thee with an opinion of the sufficiency of any slight attrition and empty wishes that thou hadst not sinned doubtless a true contrition of spirit and compunction of heart are necessarily required to a saving repentance and these wert thou but an indifferent censurer of thine own waies thou couldst not choose but finde within thy selfe why else is thy countenance so dejected thy cheeks pale and watered so oft with thy teares thy sleeps broken thy meales stomacklesse wherefore are thy so sad bemoanings and vehement deprecations But after all this be thou such 〈◊〉 thou accusest thy selfe defective in the measure of thy repentance dâ—st thou rest contented in this conâ—ition dost thou not complain of it as thy greatest misery Art thou not heartily sorry that thou canst be no more sorry for thy sin Comfort thy selfe my son even this this alone is an acceptable degree of repentance Our God whose will is his deed accounts ours so What is repentance but a change of minde from evil to good and how sensible is this change that thou who formerly delightedst in thy sinne now abhorrest it and thy selfe for it and art yet ambitious of more grief for being transported into it Let not the enemy of thy soule who desires nothing more then to make thee perfectly miserable win so much of thee as to render thee unsatisfied
death another trembles to expect it one beggs for life another will sell it dearer here one would rescue one life and loseth two there another would hide himself where he findes a merciless death here lies one bleeding and groaning and gasping parting with his soul in extremity of anguish there another of stronger spirits kills and dies at once here one wrings her hands and tears her hair and seeks for some instrument of a self-inflicted death rather then yeeld her chaste body to the lust of a bloody ravisher there another clings inseparably to a dear husband and will rather take part of the murtherers sword then let go her last embraces here one tortured for the discovery of hid treasure there another dying upon the rack out of jealousie Oh that one man one Christian should be so bloodily cruel to another Oh that he who bears the image of the merciful God should thus turn fiend to his own flesh and blood These are terrible things my son and worthy of our bitterest lamentations and just fears I love the speculation of Seneca's resolutely-wise man that could look upon the glittering sword of an executioner with erected and undazeled eyes and that makes it no matter of difference whether his soul pass out at his mouth or at his throat but I should more admire the practice whiles we carry this clay about us nature cannot but in the holiest men shrink in at the sight and sense of these tyrannous and tragical acts of death Yet even these are the due revenges of the Almighties punitive justice so provoked by our sins as that it may not take up with an easier judgement Dost thou not see it ordinary with our Physitians when they finde the body highly distempered and the blood foul and inflamed to order the opening of a vein and the drawing out of so many ounces as may leave the rest meet for correction Why art thou over-troubled to see the great Physitian of the world take this course with sinful mankinde Certainly had not this great Body by mis dieting and wilful disorder contracted these spiritual diseases under which we languish had it not impured the blood that runs in these common veins with riot and surfets we had never been so miserable as to see these torrents of Christian blood running down our chanels Now yet as it is could we bewail and abandon our former wickedness we might live in hope that at the last this deadly issue might stop and dry up and that there might be yet left a possibility of a blessed recovery § 7. The woful miseries of Pestilence allaid by consideration of the hand that smites us Thou art confounded with grief to see the pestilence raging in our streets in so frequent a mortality as breeds a question concerning the number of the living and the dead That which is wont to abate other miseries heightens this The company of participants It was certainly a very hard and sad option that God gave to King David after his sin of numbring bring the people Chuse thee whether seven yeers famine shall come unto thee in thy Land or three moneths flight before thine enemies or three days pestilence We may believe the good King when we hear him say I am in a great strait Doubtless so he was but his wise resolutions have soon brought him out Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great and let me not fall into the hand of man He that was to send these evils knew their value and the difference of their malignity yet he opposes three days pestilence to seven yeers famine and three months vanquishment so much oddes he knew there was betwixt the dull activity of man and the quick dispatch of an Angel It was a favour that the Angel of death who in one night destroyed an hundred fourscore and five thousand Assyrians should in three daies cut off but seventy thousand Israelites It was a great mercy that it was no worse We read of one City shall I call it or Region of Cayro wherein eighteen hundred thousand were swept away in one years pestilence enow one would think to have peopled the whole earth and in our own Chronicles of so generall a mortality that the living were hardly sufficient to bury the dead These are dreadfull demonstrations of Gods heavy displeasure but yet there is this alleviation of our misery that we suffer more immediatly from an holy just mercifull God The Kingly Prophet had never made that distinction in his wofull choyce if he had not known a notable difference betwixt the sword of an Angell and an enemy betwixt Gods more direct and immediate infliction and that which is derived to us through the malice of men It was but a poor consolation that is given by a victorious enemy to dying Lausus in the Poet Comfort thy selfe in thy death with this that thou fallest by the hand of great Aeneas but surely we have just reason to â—aise comfort to our souls when the pains of a pestilentiall death compasse us about from the thought and intuition of that holy and gracious hand under which we suffer so as we can say with good Eli It is the Lord. It is not amisse that we call those marks of deadly infection Gods Tokens such sure they are and ought therefore to call up our eyes and hearts to that Almighty power that sends them with the faithfull resolution of holy Iob Though thou kill me yet will I trust in thee It is none of the least miseries of contagious sicknesse that it bars us from the comfortable society and attendance of friends or if otherwise repaies their love and kinde visitation with death Be not dismaid my son with this sad solitude thou hast company with thee whom no infection can indanger or exclude there is an invisible friend that will be sure to stick by thee so much more closely by how much thou art more avoided by neighbours and will make all thy bed in thy sickness and supply thee with those cordialls which thou shouldst in vain expect from earthly visitants Indeed justly doe we style this The sicknesse eminently grievous both for the deadlinesse and generality of the dispersion yet there is a remedy that can both cure and conâ—ine it Let but every man look well to the plague of his own heart and the Land is healed Can we with David but see the Angell that smites us and erect an Altar and offer to God the sacrifices of our praiers penitence obedience we shall hear him say It is enough The time was and that time may not be forgotten when in the dayes of our late Soveraigne our Mother City was almost desolated with this mortall infection When thousands fell at our side and ten thousands at our right hand upon the publique humiliation of our soules the mercy of the Almighty was pleased to command that raging disease in the height of its fury
intermission which thou canst neither suffer nor avoid fear them whiles thou grudgest at these lay thy self lowe under the hand of thy good God and be thankful for a tolerable misery How graciously hath the wisdom of our God thought fit to temper our afflictions so contriving them that if they be sharp they are not long and if they be long they are not over-sharp that our strength might not be over-laid by our trials either way Be content man either thy languishment shall be easie or thy pain soon over Extreme and everlasting are terms reserved for Gods enemies in the other world That is truly long which hath no end that is truly painful which is not capable of any relaxation What a short moment is it that thou canst suffer short yea nothing in respect of that eternity which thou must either hope for or fear Smart a while patiently that thou maist not be infinitely miserable § 8. 7 Comfort Tâ—â— benefit 〈◊〉 the exercise of our patâ—â—ence Thou complainest of pain What use were there of thy Patience if thou aâ—ledst nothing God never gives vertues without an intent of their exercise To what purpose were our Christian valour if we had no enemy to encounter Thus long thou hast lien quiet in a secure Garison where thou hast heard no trumpet but thine own and hast turned thy drumshead into a Dicing table lavishing out thy days in varieties of idle Recreations now God draws thee forth into the field and shews thee an enemy where is thy Christian fortitude if thou shrink back and cowardly wheeling about chusest rather to make use of thy heels then of thy hands Doth this beseem thee who professest to fight under his colours who is the Great Conquerour of Death and Hell Is this the way to that happie Victory which shal carry away a crown of glory My son if thou faint in the day of thine adversity thy strength is but small Stir up thine holy courage Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Buckle close with that fierce enemy wherewith thy God would have thee assaulted looking up to him who hath said and cannot fail to perform it Be faithful to the death and I will give thee a crown of life § 9. 8 Comfort The necessity of expecting sickness Thou art surprized with Sickness whose fault is this but thine own Who bade thee not to look for so sure a guest The very frame of thy body should have put thee into other thoughts Dost thou see this living fabrick made up as a clock consisting of so many wheels and gimmers and couldst thou imagine that some of them should not be ever out of order Couldst thou think that a Cottage not too strongly built and standing so bleak in the very mouth of the Windes could for any long time hold tight and unreaved Yea dost thou not rather wonder that it hath out-stood so many blustring blasts thus long utterly unruined or that the wires of that engine should so long have held pace with time It was scarce 〈◊〉 patient question which Job asked Is my strength the strength of stones or is my flâ—sh as brass No alas Job thy best metal is but â—lay and thine as all flesh is grasse the clay mouldereth and the grasse withereth what doe we make account of any thing but misery and ficklenesse in this wofull region of change If we will needs over-reckon our condition we doe but help to aggravate our owne wretchednesse §. 10. 9. Comfort Thou art retired to thy sick bed Be of good comfort God was never so neer thee never so tenderly indulgent to thee as now The whole saith our Saviour need noâ— the Physitian but the sick Lo the Physitian as being made for the time of necessity commeth not but where there is need and where need is he will not fail to come Our need is motive enough to him who himself tooke our infirmities and bare our sicknesses our health estranges him from us Whiles thou art his patient he cannot be kept off from thee The Lord saith the Psalmist will strengthen thee upon the bed of languishing Thou wilt make all his bed in his sicknesse Loe the heavenly comforter doth not onely visit but attend thee and if thou finde thy pallet uneasie he shall turn and soften it for thy repose Canst thou not read Gods gracious indulgence in thine own disposition Thou art a Parent of children perhaps thou findest cause to affect one more then another though all be deare enough but if any one of them be cast down with a feverous distemper now thou art more carefully busie about him then all the rest how thou pitiest him how thou pliest him with offers and receits with what silent anxiety dost thou watch by his couch listening for every of his breathings jealous of every whispering that might break off his slumber answering every of his groanes with so many sighes and in short so making of him for the time that thy greatest darling seems the while neglected in comparison of this more needfull charge How much more shall the Father of mercies be compassionately intent upon the sufferings of his deare children according to the proportion of their afflictions § 11. 10 Comfort The comfortable end of our suâ—ferings Thou art wholly taken up with the extremity of thy paines Alas poor soule thy purblinde eies see nothing but what is laid close to thee It is thy sense which thou followest but where is thy faith Couldst thou look to the end of thy sufferings thou couldst not but rejoyce in tribulation Let Patience have her perfect work and thou shalt once say It is well for me that I was afflicted Thou mightsâ— be joâ—ond long enough ere thy jollity coulâ— make thee happy Yea woâ— be to them that laugh here But on the contrary our light affliction which is but for a momeâ—t worketh for us a farre more exceeding and eternall weight of glory Oh blessed improvement of a few groanesâ—â— Oh glorious issue of a short brunt of sorrow What do we going for Christians if we be nothing but meer flesh and blood And if we be more we have more cause of joy then complaint For whiles our outward man perisheth our inward man is renewed daily Our outward man is but flesh our inward is spirit infinitely more noble then this living clay that wee carry about us whiles our spirit therefore gaines more then our flesh is capable to lose what reason have we not to boast of the bargain Let not therefore these close curtaines confine thy sight but cast up thine eies to that heaven whence thy soule came and see there that crowne of glory which thy God holds forth for all that overcome and run with patience the race that is set before thee looking unto Iesus the Author and Finisher of our faith who is set down at the right hand of the throne of God And solace thy selfe
with the measure of that penitence which is accepted of thy God rather turn thine eies from thy sins and look up to heaven and fasten them there upon thine all-sufficient Mediator at the right hand of Majesty and see his face smiling upon thine humbled soul and perfectly reconciling thee to his eternall Father as being fully assured That being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom also wee have accesse by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God §. 7. Complaint of the want of faith satisfied Yea there there thou sayest is the very core of all my complaint I want that faith that should give me an interest in my Saviour and afford true comfort to my soule and boldnesse and accesse with confidence to the throne of grace I can sorrow but I cannot beleeve My griefe is not so great as my infidelity I see others full of joy and peace in beleeving but my earthen heart cannot raise it selfe up to a comfortable apprehension of my Saviour so as me thinks I dwell in a kinde of disconsolate darknesse and a sad lumpishnesse of unbeleef wanting that lightsome assurance which others professe to finde in themselves Take heed my son lest whiles thou art too querulous thou prove unthankfull and lest whiles thine humblenesse disparages thy self thou make God a loser Many a man may have a rich mine lying deep in his ground which he knowes not of There are shels that are inwardly furnished with pearles of great price and are not sensible of their worth This is thy condition thou hast that grace which thou complainest to want It is no measuring of thy selfe by sense especially in the time of temptation Thou couldst not so feelingly bemoan the want of faith if thou hadst it not Deny it if thou canst thou assentest to the truth of all the gracious promises of God thou acknowledgest he could not be himselfe if he were not a true God yea truth it self Thou canst not doubt but that he hath made sweet promises of free grace and mercy to all penitent sinners thou canst not but grant that thou art sinfull enough to need mercy and sorrowfull enough to desire and receive mercy Canst thou but love thy selfe so well as that when thou seest a pardon reached forth to thee to save thy soule from death thou shouldst doe any other then stretch forth thy hand to take it Lo this hand stretched forth is thy faith which so takes spirituall hold of thy Saviour that it cals not thy sense to witnesse As for that assurance thou speakest of they are happy that can truly feel maintain it and it must be our holy ambition what we may to aspire unto it but that is such an height of perfection as every traveller in this wretched pilgrimage cannot whiles he is in this perplexed and heavy way hope to attain unto It is an unsafe and perillous path which those men have walked in who have been wont to define all faith by assurance Should I lead thee that way it might cost thee a fall so sure a certainty of our constant and reflected apprehension of eternall life is both hard to get and not easie to hold unmovably considering the many and strong temptations that we are subject unto in this vale of misery and death Should faith be reduced to this triall it would be yet more rare then our Saviour hath foretold it For as many a one boasts of such an assurance who is yet failing of a true faith hugging a vain presumption in stead of it so many a one also hath true faith in the Lord Iesus who yet complaines to want this assurance Canst thou in a sense of thine owne misery close with thy Saviour canst thou throw thy self into the arms of his mercy canst thou trust him with thy soul and repose thy self upon him for forgivenesse and salvation canst thou lay thy self before him as a miserable object of his grace and mercy and when it is held forth to thee canst thou lay some though weak hold upon it Labour what thou mayst for further degrees of strength daily set not up thy rest in this pitch of grace but chear up thy self my son even thus much faith shall save thy soul Thou believest and he hath said it that is Truth it self He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life § 8. Complaint of the weakness of faith satisfied I know thou sayest that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners And that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life Neither can I deny but that in a sense of my own sinful condition I do cast my self in some measure upon my Saviour and lay some hold upon his All-sufficient Redemption But alas my apprehensions of him are so feeble as that they can afford no sound comfort to my soul. Courage my son were it that thou lookedst to be justified and saved by the power of the very act of thy faith thou hadst reason to be disheartened with the conscience of the weakness thereof but now that the vertue and efficacie of this happie work is in the object apprehended by thee which is the infinite merits and mercy of thy God and Saviour which cannot be abated by thine infirmities thou hast cause to take heart to thy self and chearfully to expect his salvation Understand thy case aright Here is a double hand that helps us up towards heaven our hand of Faith lays hold upon our Saviour our Saviours hand of mercy and plenteous redemption lays hold on us our hold of him is feeble and easily loosed his hold of us is strong and irresistible Comfort thy self therefore in this with the blessed Apostle When thou art weak then thou art strong when weak in thy self strong in thy Redeemer Shouldst thou boast of thy strength and say Tush I shall never be moved I should suspect the truth and safety of thy condition now thou bewailest thy weakness I cannot but encourage and congratulate the happie estate of thy soul. If work were stood upon a strength of hand were necessary but now that onely taking and receiving of a precious gift is required why may not a weak hand do that as well as a strong as well though not as forcibly Be not therefore dejected with the want of thine own power but comfort thy self in the rich mercies of thy blessed Redeemer § 9. Complaint of inconâ—tancy and desertion answered Now thou saist Sometimes I confess I finde my heart at ease in a comfortable reliance on my Saviour and being well resolved of the safety of my estate promise good days to my self and after the banishment of my former fears dare bid defiance to temptations But alas how soon is this fair weather over how suddenly is this clear skie over-clouded and spread over with a sad darkness and I return to my former heartlesness
judgements of God denounced against sinners and laid home to the conscience hast thou not found thy heart pierced with them hast thou not shrunk inward and secretly thought How shall I decline this dreadful damnation When thou hast heard the sweet mercies of God laid forth to penitent sinners hath not thy heart silently said Oh that I had my share in them When thou hast heard the Name of Christ blasphemed hast thou not felt a secret horrour in thy bosom All these argue a true spiritual life within thee Motion is the most perfect discoverer of life He that can stir his limbs is surely not dead The feet of the soul are the Affections Hast thou not found in thy self an hate and detestation of that sin whereinto thou hast been miscarried Hast thou not found in thy self a true grief of heart for thy wretched indisposition to all good things Hast thou not found a secret love to and complacency in those whom thou hast thought truly godly and conscionable Without a true life of grace these things could never have been Are not thine eyes and hands many times lifted up in an imploration of mercy Canst thou deny that thou hast a true though but weak appetite to the means and further degrees of grace What can this be but that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse to which our Saviour hath pronounced blessednesse Discomfort not thy selfe too much son with the present disappearance of grace during the hour of thy temptation it is no otherwise with thee then with a â—ree in winter-season whose sap is run down to the root wherein there is no more shew of the life of vegetation by any buds or blossomes that it might put forth then if it were stark dead yet when the Sun returnes and sends forth his comfortable beames in the spring it burgens out afresh and bewraies that vitall juyce which lay long hidden in the earth No otherwise then with the hearth of some good huswife which is towards night swept up and hideth the fire under the heap of her ashes a stranger would think it were quite out here is no appearance of light or heat or smoak but by that time she hath stirred it up a little the bright gleeds shew themselves and are soon raised to a flame Stay but till the spring when the Sun of righteousnesse shall call up thy moisture into thy branches stay but till the morning when the fire of grace which was raked up in the ashes shall bee drawne forth and quickned and thou shalt find cause to say of thy heart as Iacob said of his hard lodging Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not Onely doe thou not neglecting the meanes wait patiently upon Gods leasure stay quietly upon the bank of this Bethesda till the Angel descend and move the water §. 11. Complaint of the insensibleness of the time and meanes of conversion I could gladly thou saist attend with patience upon God in this great and happy work of the excitation of grace were I but sure I had it could I be but perswaded of the truth of my conversion but it is my great misery that here I am at a sad and uncomfortable losse for I have been taught that every true convert can designe the time the place the meanes the manner of his conversion and can shew how neare hee was brought to the gates of death how close to the very verge of hell when God by a mighty and out-stretched arme snacht him away in his own sensible apprehension from the pit and suddenly rescued him from that damnation and put him into a new state of spirituall life and undefaisible salvation All which I cannot do not finding in my selfe any such sudden and vehement concussion and heart-breaking any such forcible and irresistible operation of Gods Spirit within me not being able to design the Sermon that converted me or those particular approaches that my soule made towards an hardly-recovered desperation My son it is not safe for any man to take upon him to set limits to the wayes of the Almighty or to prescribe certain rules to the proceedings of that infinite Wisedome That most free and all-wise agent will not be tyed to walk alwaies in one path but varies his courses according to the pleasure of his own will One man hee cals suddenly another by leasure one by a kinde of holy violence as hee did S. Paul another by sweet solicitations as Philip Nathaniel Andrew Peter Matthew and the rest of the Apostles One man he drawes to heaven with gracious invitations another he drives thither by a strong hand we have known those who having mispent their yonger times in notoriously lewd and debauched courses living as without God yea against him have been suddenly heart-stricken with some powerfull denunciation of judgement which hath so wrought upon them that it hath brought them within sight of hell who after long and deep humiliation have been raised up through Gods mercy to a comfortable sense of the divine favour and have proceeded to a very high degree of regeneration and lived and died Saints But this is not every mans case Those who having from their infancy been brought up in the nurture and feare of the Lord and from their youth have been trained up under a godly and conscionable Ministery where they have been continually plyed with the essectuall means of grace Precept upon precept line upon line here a little and there a little and have by an insensible conveyance received the gracious inoperations of the Spirit of God though not without many inward strifes with temptations and sad fits of humiliation for their particular failings framing them to all holy obedience these cannot expect to finde so sensible alterations in themselves As well may the child know when he was naturally born as these may know the instant of their spirituall regeneration and as well may they see the grasse to grow as they can perceive their insensible increase of grace It is enough that the child attaining to the use of reason now knowes that he was born and that when wee see the grasse higher then we left it we know that it is growne Let it then suffice thee my son to know that the thing is done though thou canst not define the time and manner of doing it Be not curious in matter of particular perceptions whiles thou mayst be assured of the reality truth of the grace wrought in thee Thou seest the skilfull Chirurgion when hee will make a fontinell in the body of his patient he can do it either by a sudden incision or by a leasurely corrasive both sort to one end and equally tend towards health trust God with thy self and let him alone with his own work what is it to thee which way he thinks best to bring about thy salvation § 12. Complaint of irresolution and uncertainâ—y in matter of our election answered All were safe thou saist if onely
blessed Martyr Theodorus have upon racks and gibbets found their consolations stronger then their pains Whiles therefore the goodnesse of thy God sustaines and supplies thee with abundance of spirituall vigour and refreshment answerable to the worst of thine assaults what cause hast thou to complain of suffering The advice is high and heroicall which the Apostle James gives to his Compatriots My brethren count it all joy when ye fâ—ll into divers temptations Let those temptations be rather trials by afflictions then suggestions of sin yet even those overcome yeeld no small cause of triumph for by them is our faith no lesse tried and the trying of our saith worketh patience and the perfect work of patience is a blessed entirenesse of grace The number of enemies addes to the praise of the victory To overcome single temptations is commendable but to subdue Troopes of temptations is glorious § 3. The restraint of our spirituall enemies and their over-matching by the power of God Alas thou saist I am overlaid not with multitudes onely but with power In all challenges of Duels there is wont to be respect had to the equality both of the Combatants and weapons But woe is me how am I overmatched For me I am a weak wretch and we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities and powers against the rulers of the darknesse of this world against spirituall wickednesse in heavenly places Behold the Amorite whose height is like the height of the Cedars and their strength as the strength of oaks What are we but poor pismires in the valley to these men of measures Who can stand before these sonnes of Anak I did not advise thee my son to be strong in thy self alas we are all made up of weaknesse One of those powers of darknesse were able to subdue a whole world of men but to bee strong in the Lord whose lowest Angel is able to vanquish a whole hell of Devils and in the power of his might who commandeth the most furious of those infernal spirits to their chains Wo were us if we were left in our own hands there were no way with us but foiling and death But our help is in the Name of the Lord who hath made heaven and earth The Lord is our strength and our shield he is our rock and our salvation he is our defence so as we shall not be moved It is he that hath girded us with strength unto battel and that subdueth those that rise up against us Take courage therefore to thy self man there cannot be so much difference betwixt thee and those hellish powers as there is betwixt them and the Almighty their force is finite and limited by his omnipotence How fain dost thou think Jannes and Jambres the great Magicians of Egypt by the conjoyned powers of hell would have made but a Louse in an affront to Moses yet they could not How earnestly was that legion of Devils fain to beg but for leave to prevail over a few Gaderene-swine How strong therefore soever they 〈◊〉 to thee yet to him they are so meer weakness that they cannot so much as move without him Who can fear a Bear or a Lion when he sees them chained to their stake Even children can behold them baited when they see their restraint Look not upon thy self therefore look not upon them but look up to that over-ruling hand of the Almighty who ordinates all their motions to his own holy purposes and even out of their malice raises glory to himself and advantage to his servants §. 4. The advantage that is made to 〈◊〉 by our temptations and foils It is a woful advantage thou sayst that I have made of temptations for alas I have been shamefully foiled by them and what by their subtilty and what by their violence have been miscarried into a grievous sin against my God and lie down in a just confusion of face to have been so miserably vanquished Hadst thou wanted tears my son for thine offence I should willingly have lent thee some It is indeed a heavie case that thou hast given thy deadly enemy this cause to triumph over thee and hast thus provoked thy God Be thou thorowly humbled under the consciâ—ence of thy sin and be not too sudden in snatching a pardon out of the hand which thou hast offended be humbled but after thou hast made thy peace with God by a serious repentance be not disheartned with thy faâ—lings neither do I fear to tell thee of an advantage to be made not of thy temptations onely but even of thy sin What art thou other then a gainer if having been beaten down to thy knees thou hast in an holy indignation risen up and fought so much the more valiantly A wound received doth but whet the edge of true fortitude Many a one had never been victorious if he had not seen himself bleed first Look where thou wilt upon all the Saints of God mark if thou canst see any one of them without his scars Oh the fearful gashes that we have seen in the noblest of Gods Champions upon earth whose courage had never been raised so high if it had not been out of the sense of some former discomfitures As some well-spirited wrestler therefore be not so much troubled with thy fall as zealous to repay it with a more successful grapling We know saith the blessed Apostle that all things work together for good to them that love God All things yea even those that are worse then nothing their very sins The Corinthians offended in their silent connivence at the incestuous person the Apostles reproof produceth their sorrow what was the issue For behold this self-same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what indignation yea what fear yea what vehement desire yea what zeal yea what revenge Lo what a marvellous advantage is here made of one offence What hath Satan now gotten by this match One poor Corinthian is mis-led to an incestuous copulation The evil spirit rejoyceth to have got such a prey but how long shall he enjoy it Soon after the offending soul upon the Apostles holy censure is reclaimed he is delivered over to Satan that Satan should never possess him The Corinthians are raised to a greater height of godly zeal then ever Corinth had never been so rich in grace if it had not been defiled with so foul a crime Say now whether this be not in effect thy case Shouldst thou ever have so much hated thy sin if thou hadst not been drawn in to commit it Shouldst thou have found in thy self so fervent love to thy God if it had not been out of the sense of his great mercy in remitting it Wouldst thou have been so wary of thy steps as now thou art if thou hadst never slipped Give glory to God my son whiles thou givest shame to thy self and bless him
for the benefit that he hath been pleased to make of thine offending him § 5. â—omplaint 〈◊〉 relapses 〈◊〉 to sin â—ith the â—â—medy â—ereof But alas thou sayst my case is far worse then it is conceived I have been more then once miscarried into the same sin Even after I have made profession of my repentance I have been transported into my former wickedness Having washed off my sin as I thought with my many tears yet I have suffered my soul to be defiled with it again I may not flatter thee my son this condition is dangerous Those diseases which upon their first seizure have without any great peril of the Patient received cure after a recidivation have threatned death Look upon the Saints of God thou shalt finde they have kept aloof from that fire wherewith they have been formerly burnt Thou shalt not finde Noah again uncovered through drunkenness in his tent thou shalt not finde Judah climbing up again to Tamars bed Thou shalt not take Peter again in the High-Priests hall denying his Master or after Pauls reproof halting in his dissimulation But tell me notwithstanding art thou truly serious with thy God hast thou doubled thine humiliation for the reduplication of thine offence hast thou sought God so much the more instantly with an unfained contrition of heart hast thou found thy soul wrought to so much greater detestation of thy sin as thine acquainâ—tance with it hath been more hast thou taken this occasion to lay better hold on thy Saviour and to reinforce the vows of thy more careful and strict obedience Be of good chear this unpurposed reiteration of thy sin shall be no prejudice to thy salvation It is one thing for a man to walk on willingly in a beaten path of sin another thing for a man to be justled out of the way of righteousness by the violence of a temptation which he soon recovers again by a sound repentance The best cannot but be overtaken with sin but he that is born of God doth not commit sin he may be transported whither he meant not but he makes not a trade of doing ill his heart is against that which his hand is drawn unto and if in this inward strife he be over-powered he lies not down in a willing yeeldance but struggles up again and in a resumed courage and indignation tramples on that which formerly supplanted him Didst thou give thy self over to a resolved course of sinning and betwixt whiles shouldst knock thy brest with a formal God forgive me I should have no comfort in store for thee but send thee rather to the Whipping-stock of the Almighty for due correction if possibly those seasonable stripes may prevent thine everlasting torments But now since what thou hatest that thou doest and thou doest that which thou wouldst not and it is no more thâ—u that doest it but sin that dwells in thee cry out as much as thou wilt on the sinfulness of thy sin bewail thy weakness with a better man then thy self O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death But know that thou hast found mercy with thy God thy repeated sin may grieve but cannot hurt thy soul. Had we to do with a finite compassion it might be abated by spending it self upon a frequent remission like as some great river may be drawn dry by many small out-lets But now that we deal with a God whose mercy is as himself infinite it is not the greatness or the number of our offences that can make a difference in his free remissions That God who hath charged our weak charity not to be overcome with evil but to overcome evil with good justly scorneth that we should think his infinite and incomprehensible goodness can be checked with our evil It was not without a singular providence that Peter came to our Saviour with that question in his mouth Lord how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times that it might fetch from that blessed Son of God that gracious answer for our perpetual direction and comfort I say not unto thee Until seven times but until seventy times seven Lord if thou wouldst have us sinful men thus indulgent to one another in the case of our mutual offences what limits can be set to thy mercies in our sins against thee Be we penitent thou canst not but be gracious Comforts against weakness of grace §. 1. Comfort from the common condition of all Saints THou complainest of the weakness of grace some little stirrings thou feelest of Gods Spirit within thee but so feeble that thou canst not finde any solid comfort in them Thou seest others thou sayst whose brests are full of milk and their bones moistned with marrow whiles thou languishest under a spiritual leanness and imbecillity Thou wantest that vigorous heat of holy affections and that alacrity in the performance of holy duties which thou observest in other Christians I love this complaint of thine my son and tell thee that without this thou couldst not be in the way of being happie Thinkst thou that those whom thou esteemest more eminent in grace make not the same moan that thou dost Certainly they never had any grace if they did not complain to have too little Every man best feels his own wants and is ready to pass secret censures upon himself for that wherein he is applauded by others Even the man after Gods own heart can say But I am poor and sorrowful He was a great King when he said so it was not meanness in outward estate that troubled him but a spiritual neediness for he had before in the same heavenly Ditty professed O God thou knowest my foolishnesse and my guiltinesse is not hid from thee It was an old observation of wise Solomon There is that maketh himselfe rich and hath nothing there is that maketh himselfe poore yet hath great riches In this latter rank are many gracious soules and thine I hope for one who certainly had never been so wealthy in grace if they had been conceited of greater store Even in this sense many a Saint may say with Saint Paul When I am weak then I am strong Since the very complaint of weaknesse argues strength and on the contrary an opinion of sufficient grace is an evident conviction of meere emptinesse §. 2. Comfort from the improvement of weak graces and Gods free distribution But suppose thy selfe so poor as thou pretendest It is not so much what we have as how we improve it How many have we known that have grown rich out of a little whereas others out of a great stock have run into debt and beggery Had that servant in the Gospel who received but one talent imployed it to the gain of a second he had been proportionably as well rewarded as he that with five gained ten In our temporall estate we are warned by the wisest man
vision of God as they apprehend more darknesse in all earthly objects certainly thou shalt not misse these materiall eyes if thou maist finde thy soul thus happily enlightned §. 8. The benefit of the eies which once we had Thine eyes are lost It is a blessing that once thou hadst them hadst thou been born blinde what a stranger hadst thou in all likelihood been to God and the world hadst thou not once seen the face of this heaven and this earth and this Sea what expressions could have made thee sufficiently apprehensive of the wonderfull works of thy Creator What discourse could have made thee to understand what light is what the Sun the fountain of it what the heavens the glorious region of it and what the Moon and Starres illuminated by it How couldst thou have had thy thoughts raised so high as to give glory to that great God whose infinite power hath wrought all these marvellous things No doubt God hath his own waies of mercy even for those that are born dark not requiring what he hath not given graciously supplying by his spirit in the vessels of his election what is wanting in the outer-man so as even those that could never see the face of the world shall see the face of the God that made it But in an ordinary course of proceeding those which have been blinde from their birth must needs want those helps of knowing and glorifying God in his mighty works which lie open to the seeing These once filled thine eies and stay with thee still after thine eies have forsaken thee What shouldst thou doe but walk on in the strength of those fixed thoughts and be alwaies adoring the Majesty of that God whom that sight hath represented unto thee so glorious and in an humble submission to his good pleasure strive against all the discomforts of thy sufferings Our Story tels us of a valiant Souldier answerable to the name he bore Polyzelus who after his eyes were struck out in the Battel covering his face with his Target fought still laying about him as vehemently as if he had seen whom to smite So do thou my son with no less courage let not the loss of thine eyes hinder thee from a chearful resistance of those spiritual enemies which labor to draw thee into an impatient murmuring against the hand of thy God wait humbly upon that God who hath better eyes in store for thee then those thou hast lost § 9. The supply of one sense by another Thou hast lost thy hearing It is not easie to determine whether loss is the greater of the Eye or of the Ear both are grievous Now all the world is to thee as dumb since thou art deaf to it How small a matter hath made thee a meer cypher amongst men These two are the senses of instruction there is no other way for intelligence to be conveyed to the soul whether in secular or in spiritual affairs The eye is the window the ear is the door by which all knowledge enters In matter of observation by the eye in matter of faith by the ear Had it pleased God to shut up both these senses from thy birth thy estate had been utterly disconsolate neither had there been any possible access for comfort to thy soul and if he had so done to thee in thy riper age there Had been no way for thee but 1 to live on thy former store But now that he hath vouchsafed to leave thee one passage open it behâ—ves thee to supply the one sense by the other to let in those helps by the window which are denied entrance at the door And since that infinite goodness hath been pleased to lend thee thine ear so long as till thou hast laid the sure grounds of faith in thy heart now thou mayst work upon them in this silent opportunity with heavenly meditations and raise them up to no less height then thou mightst have done by the help of the quickest ear It is well for thee that in the fulness of thy senses thou wert careful to improve thy bosome as a Magazine of heavenly thoughts providing with the wise Patriarch for the seven yeers of dearth otherwise now that the passages are thus blocked up thou couldst not but have been in danger of affamishing Thou hast now abundant leasure to recal and ruminate upon those holy counsels which thy better times laid up in thy heart and to thy happie advantage findest the difference betwixt a wise providence and a careless neglect § 10. The better condition of the inward ear Thine outward hearing is gone But thou hast an inward and better ear whereby thou hearest the secret motions of Gods Spirit which shall never be lost How many thousands whom thou enviest are in a worse condition they have an outward and bodily ear whereby they hear the voice of men but they want that spiritual ear which perceives the least whisperings of the holy Ghost Ears they have but not hearing ears for fashion more then use Wise Solomon makes and observes the distinction The hearing ear and the seeing eye the Lord hath made even both of them And a greater then Solomon can say of his formal auditors Hearing they hear not If thou have an ear for God though deaf to men how much happier art thou then those millions of men that have au ear for men and are deaf to God § 11. The grief that arises from learâ—ing evil Thou hast lost thy hearing and therewith no small deal of sorrow How would it grieve thy soul to hear those woful ejulations those pitiful complaints those hideous blasphemies those mad paradoxes those hellish heresies wherewith thine ear would have been wounded if it had not been barred against their entrance It is thy just grief that thou missest the hearing of many good words it is thy happiness that thou art freed from the hearing of many evil It is an even lay betwixt the benefit of hearing good and the torment of hearing evil Comforts against Barrenness §. 1. The blessing of fruitfulness seasoned with sorrows THou complainest of dry loins a barren womb so did a better man before thee even the Father of the faithful What wilt thou give me seeing I go childless So did the wife of faithful Israel Give me children or else I die So desirous hath Nature been even in the holiest to propagate it self and so impatient of a denial Lo children and the fruit of the womb are an heritage and gift that cometh from the Lord. Happie is he that hath his quiver full of such shafts It is the blessing that David grudged to wicked ones They have children at their desire It was the curse which God inflicted upon the family of Abimelech King of Gerar that he closed up all the wombs in his house for Sarahs sake And the judgement threatned to Ephraim is a miscarrying womb and dry brests And Jechoniah's sad doom is
God c. Lo the holiest man may not be exempted from the dread but from the slavish fear of the great Judge We know his infinite justice we are conscious to our selves of our manifold failings how can we lay these two together and not fear But this fear works not in us a malignant kinde of repining at the severe Tribunal of the Almighty as commonly whom we fear we hate but rather a careful endeavour so to approve our selves that we may be acquitted by him and appear blameless in his presence How justly may we tremble when we look upon our own actions our own deserts but how confidently may we appear at that Bar where we are beforehand assured of a discharge Being justified by faith â—we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When we think of anâ— universal conflagration of the world how can we but fear but when we think of an happie restitution of all things in this day how can we but rejoyce in trembling § 4. In that great and terrible Day our Advocate is our Judge Thou quakest at the expectation of the last Judgement Surely the very Majestie of that great Assize must needs be formidable And if the very delivery of the Law on Mount Sinai were with so dreadful a pomp of Thunder and Lightning of Fire Smoke Earthquakes that the Israelites were half dead with fear in receiving it with what terrible magnificence shall God come to require an account of that Law at the hands of the whole sinful generation of mankinde Represent unto thy thoughts that which was shewed of old to the Prophet Daniel in Vision Imagine that thou sawest the Ancient of days sitting upon a Throne like the fiery flame 〈◊〉 a fiery stream issuing and coming forth from before him thousand thousands ministring unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him the judgement set and the Books opened Or as John the Daniel of the New Testament saw a great white Throne and him that sate on it from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away and the dead both small and great standing before God and the Books opened and the dead judged out of those things which were written in those Books according to their works Let the eyes of thy minde see before-hand that which these bodily eyes shall once see and tell me how thou feelest thy self affected with the sight of such a Judge such an appearance such a process And if thou findest thy self in a trembling condition cheer up thy self with this That thy Judge is thine Advocate That upon that Throne there sits not greater Majestie then Mercie It is thy Saviour that shall sentence thee How safe art thou then under such hands Canst thou fear that he will doom thee to death who died to give thee life Canst thou fear he will condemn thee for those sins which he hath given his blood to expiate Canst thou fear the rigour of that Justice which he hath so fully satisfied Canst thou misdoubt the miscarriage of that soul which he hath so dearly bought No my son all this divine state and magnificence makes for thee Let those guilty and impenitent souls who have heaped unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath quake at the glorious Majestie of the Son of God for whom nothing remains but a fearful expectation of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries But for thee who art not onely reconciled unto God by the mediation of the Son of his love but art also incorporated into Christ and made a true limb of his mystical Body thou art bidden together with all the faithful to look up and lift up thy head for now the day of thy reâ—emption is come And indeed how canst thou do other since by vertue of this blessed union with thy Saviour this glory is thine every member hath an interest in the honour of the Head Rejoyce therefore in the day of the Lord Jesus and when all the Tribes of the earth shall wail do thou sing and rejoyce and call to the heavens and the earth to bear thee company Let the heavens rejoyce and let the earth be glad let the sea make a noise aud all that is therein let the field be joyful and all that is in it Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoyce before the Lord for he cometh for he cometh to judge the earth and with righteousness to judge the world and the people with his truth §. 5. Frequent meditation and due prepaâ—ation the remedies of our â—ear Thou art affrighted with the thought of that Great Day Think of it oftner and thou shalt less fear it It will come both surely and suddenly let thy frequent thoughts prevent it It will come as a thief in the night without warning without noise let thy careful vigilance always expect it and thy soul shall be sure not to be surprised not to be confounded Thine Audit is both sure and uncertain sure that it will be uncertain when it will be If thou wilt approve thy self a good Steward have thine account always ready set thy reckoning still even betwixt God and thy soul Blessed is the servant whom his Master shall finde so doing Look upon these heavens and this earth as dissolving and think with Jerome that thou hearest the last Trump and the voice of the Archangel shrilling in thine ears as once thou shalt Arise ye dead and come to judgement Shortly let it be thy main care to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Comforts against the fears of our spiritual enemies § 1. The great power of evil spirits and their restraint THou art affrighted at the thought of thy spiritual enemies No marvel Neither earth nor hell hath any thing equally formidable Those three things which are wont to make enmity dreadful and dangerous Power Malice Subtilty are met in them neither is it easie to say in which of these they are most eminent Certainly were we to be matcht with them on even hand there were just cause not of Fear onely but Despair I could tremble thou sayst to think what Satan hath done what he can do what contestation he enabled the Egyptian Sorcerers to hold with Moses how they turned every man his rod into a Serpent so as they seemed to have the advantage for the time of many Serpents crawling and hissing in Phoraoh's pavement for one How they turned the waters into blood How they brought Froggs upon the Land of Egypt 〈◊〉 as if thus far the power of hell would