where were the righteous cut off All the answer Job returns to their uncharitable character calumny is in that meek but smart reply Job 6.14,15 To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend How forcibly are right words but what doth your arguing reprove Endeavouring all along in his whole dispute with them at once to clear Gods Justice and to vindicate his own Innocency and upon the whole to discover his matchless Patience his high content and uninterrupted joy through the whole scene of his dismal wretched condition the main foundation you see of Job's comfort in his affliction was his assurance that his poverty and sickness came from Gods own hand The Lord says he hath taken away His own wickedness riot or idleness had contributed nothing to it But he saw 't was purely the Lords doing and that was the reason that he opened not his mouth And indeed whensoever a good Christian upon the impartial searching of his heart can find that 't was neither his gluttony nor his drunkenness neither his idleness extortion defrauding over-reaching his worldly-mindedness covetousness or unthankfulness that have provoked God to withhold his blessing from him in the management of his affairs so that notwithstanding all his honest studious endeavours his diligence in his calling his devotion to God his intire dependance upon him for success it still pleases the Majesty on high to lessen his Estate and by variety of sad Providences to bring him to beggery He hath now the justest cause of satisfaction in his Poverty that can be desired He may pronounce with truth in the language of old Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good And he may assure himself and rejoice in the very thought of it that Psal 116.5 gracious is the Lord and righteous yea our God is merciful Psal 103.13,14 And that as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him he knoweth our frame he remembers that we are but dust So likewise when a good Christian observes his sickness to come from God his disease arising from no act of intemperance or luxury from no greedy incessant prosecution of his business nor from any bold presuming upon his strength or slighting the severities of wind air and weather much less from the perpetual following his pleasure and his eager addictedness to his sport He may then with an humble confidence repose himself upon Gods goodness for ease and cure not doubting but that God will strengthen him upon his bed of languishing will make all his bed in his sickness Psal 41.3 enable him with strength to go thorough with his distemper if it be great or else lessen the disease if he be too weak to bear it at its heighth And whereas others in their fits of sickness lie like so many wild bulls in a net raving and tumbling in a most impatient manner and refuse to be comforted because they are full of the fury of the Lord Isa 41.20 An humble good Christian does with all quietness resign up himself to his heavenly Physicians ordering looking upon Gods dealing with him in the whole course of his sickness as a procedure full of mercy and goodness such as aims at nothing but the Patients health and soundness designed so to make him whole that he sins no more And therefore though Gods handling him be never so irksome to flesh and blood yet does he look upon it and rejoice in it as a necessary method for the curing the tumors and ulcers of his diseased soul And this strengthens his feeble knees and enables him to lift up the hands that hang down and to praise God even when he hath brought him to the brink of the grave For though no chastisement at the present seems to be joyous but grievous yet 't is worth observing that 't is only said it seems so and not that it is so for it hath indeed an inconceivable joy wrapt and coucht in it for them that are exercised thereby though there are few eyes so piercing that can discern it Yea affliction affords an infinite satisfaction and comfort to them that are so far exercised thereby that they seem like wrestlers in the Olympick Games quite stript by and for their encountering with it for so the Original signifies reduced to that condition that have not clothes to cover their nakedness nor an house to hide their head in And this is the chief cause that they faint not in the worst of tribulations because though their outward man doth perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day to use St. Paul's words 2 Cor. 4.16 Now the comforts of a Soul are really so great that they are above all description none being able sufficiently to know them but he that hath them St. Paul gives us to understand something of them by which I shall leave you to guess at their inexpressible excellency and sweetness in that account he gives of himself to the Corinthians where he says 2 Cor. 1. That though he was troubled out of measure above strength insomuch that he despaired even of life Vers 8. Yet could he in that hopeless and almost helpless condition pour out his heart to God in that joyful Thanksgiving Vers 3. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies the God of all comforts who comforteth us in all our tribulation Vers 5. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ And hence it was that he that became capable of all this comfort viz. for the consideration of his well-led-life the remembrance whereof must needs refresh not only him but all such as he was Vers 12. For our rejoicing is this says he the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity by the grace of God we have had our conversation in this world keeping a conscience void of offence both towards Gods and towards all men He that does this hath just cause whatsoever his condition in this world may happen to be to rejoice in the Lord always again I say to rejoice Being able to defie his last grim enemy in that Triumph of the Apostles 1 Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory And in that great day of darkness to give thanks to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ I shall conclude all in the following words Therefore my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmovable in this thanksgiving praising and rejoicing in him always abounding in this work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour yea and your leisure too your suffering and your joy are not in vain in the Lord. To which God the only bestower of all true comfort and consolation be ascribed all Honour and Glory Might Majesty Praise and Thanksgiving in Saecula FINIS
A SERMON PREACHED Some Years since BY AVGVSTIN MEDCALF DECEASED Master of Art Prebend of Chichester and Minister of Berwick in Sussex LONDON Printed in the Year 1679. PHIL. IV. 4. Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce MY Text presents us not only with the duty but the incomparable priviledg of every faithful obedient Christian who is here enjoined a service so satisfactory pleasing and advantageous that as no man in the world besides can have half the reason to do it at all so every good Christian hath all the reason in the world to perform it always To be pleased and satisfied to be merry and joyful one would think were a service so natural and delightful to all the world that the very commanding of it would appear one of the vainest and most needless injunctions imaginable and to do all this upon the justest score and upon a never-failing account to entertain and accept preserve and always keep in ones possession an inexhausted Fountain of joy such as will supply all our wants serve all our necessities gratifie and please us in all conditions to place this joy of ours in God in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore To command a Christian to do this one would fancy at first hearing it were a very superfluous Precept it looks all one as if a man should be desired not to be a stock or stone or swine for if he were but a man much less a Christian man he cannot but do it of his own accord without commands or entreaties And yet Heaven knows such degenerate creatures are we grown that God is fain to oblige us to that by positive express command which did we behave our selves in the least like Christian people we could not but perform by a meer inclination of nature Nay did but a man observe the general dejectedness sullenness murmurings and repinings that are to be met with in the conversation of most Christians against the dealings and disposings of God himself 't would let us see sufficient reason why St. Paul should in this very Epistle so often inculcate and impress this one duty He thought it not enough to say My brethren rejoyce in the Lord Cap. 3.1 but as if people were apt to forget nothing more than what they should and cannot when they truly understand it but delight in most he repeats his Injunction in the words of the Text Rejoyce in the Lord always Nay as if this bare repetition were not sufficient but that people would sill persist to neglect it though they both know it and remember it too he does redouble and impress it over again hereby intimating it to be a duty of that concern that it can never be too much repeated because after all the insisting upon it 't is every where amongst all sorts of persons too little practised and therefore says he in the next words and again I say Rejoyce Now to rejoyce in God always is evermore to have a heart and mind so disposed and ordered that it can in an humble waiting constant depending and faithful serving of God derive and continue to its self an inexpressible comfort satisfaction and delight from this one consideration that the Lord is her God this secures that in all conditions whatsoever she is certainly under the protection of his Providence and the care of his love and in the arms of his mercy And this happy assurance does beget and break open such a fountain of joy in the soul as does never or at least never need leave streaming until it empty it self into those Rivers of joy that are at Gods right hand for we shall find that the consideration of having the Lord for his God does furnish the obedient humble Christian for of such only I would have this whole Discourse understood with two such mighty arguments of joy that the due weighing of them cannot chuse but make him in all conditions to rejoice in this Lord yea and again I say to rejoice 1. The obedient good Christian may very justly rejoice in God always because he is secure the Lord will so order and govern the concernments of this temporal life as shall be most for his benefit and advantage 2. He may again rejoice in the fame God and that always too because he is secured by him that he shall be prepared for and hereafter put in possession of a better even a heavenly life with himfelf in his glorious Kingdom 1. The obedient good Christian may very justly rejoice in God always c. for the performance of this he hath the express promise of the God of mercy and truth with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning For St. Paul having laid down this as a Proposition of unquestionable truth We know that all things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8.28 He triumphantly proceeds to conclude That none of the miseries of this inferior world can do us the least hurt because they cannot separate us from the protection of Gods Providence nor the gracious disposals of his mercy and the over-ruling beneficialness of his love 'T is not says he Vers 35. tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword that shall separate us from the love of Christ And therefore none of these can hinder his mercy from doing us good in and by our afflictions Nay says he Vers 37. in all these things we are more than conquerours through him that loved us There are few indeed but will readily grant men may justly rejoice in God when the world smiles upon them and their contrivances are seconded with success so that by this means they prosper in the world have riches in possession flourish like a green bay-tree and do even what they list who is he so wretched but hath gladness in his heart in the time that his corn and wine and oyl increases when their oxen are strong to labour when their barns are full of corn when there is no leading into captivity no want nor complaining in their houses when their sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in their streets then men can be content to thank God for his goodness and rejoice in him for the great bounty he bestows upon the children of men But if this very God should by his wise and gracious Providence change the scene of their affairs give their fruits to the caterpiller and their labour to the grashopper blast the work of their hands strike their flocks with hot thunder-bolts and bring an evil disease amongst their herds should he make them poor in their estates sick in their persons unprosperous in their undertakings forsaken of their friends and a reproach and derision to them that are round about them how ready would they then be to forget the joy of their heart and the rock of their Salvation and think themselves sufficiently excused and justified
said Ps 55.22 That he will never suffer the righteous to he moved He looks upon Affliction as a messenger sent from God and thereupon receives it joyfully hearkens to it attentively and obeys it with all submission For he is well assured that our Heavenly Father unlike to our fleshly Parents chastens not his Children as they sometimes do for his pleasure but altogether for their profit and he does it for this blessed end that they may be partakers of his Holiness Heb. 12.10 Every one of Gods rods hath a voice as well as a lash and was sent to instruct as well as to correct the extravagant So that when once God lays his rod upon the back of an humble obedient Soul he presently answers the call of Gods chastisement Speak Lord for thy servant hears Strike on Father for thy child attends O Lord my heart is fixed my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise I will thankfully receive thy corrections and am steadfastly purposed to obey thy righteous judgments 't is true indeed that no chastening for the present seems to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12.11 'T is the consideration of the blessed fruits that affliction brings along with it and springs out of it that makes a good man rejoice in tribulation and heartily thank God for his chastisement he sees how useful it is to reclaim him from some sin he was too much addicted to and to instigate him to the practise of some duties he was too forgetful of or negligent in So that upon the survey of the spiritual benefit he receives by it he cannot but express himself in the language of holy David Psal 109.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now since I was afflicted have I kept thy word I now am able to say by my own experience upon the observing the happy reformation of my naughty life that 't is good for me that I have been afflicted because thereby have I learned thy statutes And therefore O Lord since thou hast dealt so well with thy servant in this seasonable afflicting of me continue I beseech thee such thy loving-kindness unto me according to thy word Vers 65. And indeed God hath pass'd his word that he will in much mercy to their souls afflict his dearest servants in their Bodies and Estates in all the concernments I mean of this temporal life that his Wisdom sees will do them most good And should he not do so he would fail in two main Articles of his Divinity which are the great supporters and incouragement of his most beloved Childrens obedience and that is his truth and his love towards them Thus David acquaints us Psal 199.75 I know O Lord that thy judgments are rights and thou in thy faithfulness hast afflicted me Intimating that if God had not afflicted him he would have forfeited his Justice and Veracity by so doing nor would his love be less questionable than his truth if he should utterly leave off correcting his dearest children For this is that the Writer to the Hebrews lays down as a proposition of everlasting verity Heb. 12.6 Whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourges every Son whom he receives God indeed the Apostle tells us expresses his Fatherly love in correcting of his Children by instructing chiding and scourging of them for so the Original doth signifie And lest we should think that affliction alone is enough to intitle us to the relation of Gods Children or should argue with our selves because God scourges every son which he receives therefore every one whom he scourges he receives for his son The Apostle to rectifie this mistake acquaints us that though indeed 't is true that our being without chastisement whereof all are partakers would certainly evince us to be Bastards and not Sons Yet our bare having chastisement is not sufficient to conclude us to be Sons and not Bastards For says he Vers 7. If ye endure not barely if you have chastening God deals with you c. if ye endure if you humbly receive patiently bear thankfully employ and fruitfully improve Gods word and Gods rod Gods chidings and Gods scourgings to your own amendment if they yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness in a conversation of holiness then you may reasonably conclude your selves to be Gods children And for being so related and in this sort afflicted whereby that relation is so clearly discovered you have good cause to rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorious How are men transported and with what exuberances of exultation do they ordinarily entertain an adoption into Caesars Family which puts them in hopes they shall one day sway a Scepter and govern and triumph over the Kingdoms of the Earth And yet what a trivial petit Preferment is this if it be but compared to that inexpressible advancement of being received into the number of Gods Children and admitted to be an heir and a co-heir with the Eternal Son of his love Jesus Christ the righteous King of Kings and Lord of Lords And then how much more reason have they not only more exceedingly to rejoice but themselves to be turned as 't were who have the surest evidence of the King of Heavens love and protection who are able as 't were to produce his gracious Letters-Patents under his broad Authentick Seal of Affliction and to shew in their Bodies and Estates these undeniable marks of their Heavenly Fathers love They who find themselves thus sealed to the day of Redemption can't chuse certainly but keep a perpetual Jubilee all their lives long and in the overflowing exultation of their souls amidst all their crosses and calamities must needs lift up their heads with joy and thanksgiving to that God who hath vouchsafed them one of the most certain and infallible signs of his love and goodness to them whilest he hath been graciously pleased to exercise them with affliction and not only so but to compleat and crown his mercy and loving-kindness to them hath moreover given them patience to bear courage to endure constancy to persevere and wisdom to improve all the crosses he lays upon them to his honour and their own comfort so that methinks if ever a man could be allowed to be a competent Judg of his own felicity he hath the surest grounds to conclude and pronounce himself a happy man when the world possibly thinks him poor and miserable and the most wretched person piteous upon earth See the man whom Eliphaz brings in with a note of admiration as if he had a mind to pick out and shew you that particular person whom all the world so much court and admire and endeavour to make themselves like Behold the happy man says he Job 5.17 Behold him will most people say but alas where shall we ever see him a happy man indeed were a sight worth our beholding we should
Providence To be fed out of his store-house and to be cloathed out of his Wardrobe and take my rest where he shall provide me a lodging Certainly he who hath so bountiful so compassionate and so powerful a Master can't chuse but be sufficiently accommodated and comforted during the whole discharge of his faithful service And therefore why should I take thought torment and vex my self about what I should eat and what I should drink and wherewithal I shall be clothed when I very well know that the God whose I am and whom I serve liberally provides all these for the lillies of the field and the fowl of the air without the least of their care and contrivance Math. 6.25,26 Nay the Holy Book informs me that the Son of his love in whom the Father was always well pleased was little better provided for he had neither house nor land nor revenues to furnish him with a subsistence in the days of his flesh but lived all along for above thirty years especially the three last of them purely upon Gods Providence and good mens charity Though he hath often created food for his followers yet he hath been sometimes fain to beg it for himself and for all that never harbour'd the least repining or dissatisfaction at the meanness of his quality or entertainment And most of those renowned Heroes both before and after our Saviours Incarnation men so famous for their Piety in their several generations that the ungrateful wicked world was not worthy of their continuance in it trod the very same steps They wander'd about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute afflicted tormented Heb. 11.17 And yet all these by their faith in God by their dependance upon his Providence by their thankfulness for his protection and their obedience to his will obtained a good report Vers 39. very highly favour'd by God and worthily reputed of amongst men their names and their vertues being had in everlasting remembrance And now if to compleat the scene of my Poverty it should please God to bring me to such a pass that neither my own endeavours nor mens charity nor any extraordinary dispensation should help me with bread to eat nor clothes to put on which hardly yet ever came to pass however it should never come to pass but that the Lord should be my God him only would I serve and on him alone would I place all my joy And I should think I had great reason to do so if upon no other account yet for this that he would be pleased amongst all the children of men to make choice of me to witness to the world that man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Mat. 4.4 And in a word I should neither have bread nor flesh to sustain me withal I should notwithstanding have one sort of meat to eat which the world knows not of and can never take from me and that is the refreshment of a good conscience this would afford me many a delicious meal when every thing else is wanting and the joy that does arise from the consideration and prospect of a well-led life will furnish me with a perpetual Gaudie which will do more than administer health to my navil and marrow to my bones Prov. 3.8 being able to strengthen then a fainting spirit and to enliven and cheer a dejected Soul This will make ones heart merry and that will without further care or trouble give a continual feast Prov. 15.15 And when after all this ravishing treatment I shall find nature to decay and no longer able to support my fading-tabernacle of clay I would in all humility and contentment of mind resign up my soul into the hands of my gracious Father breathing out my last breath in the accents of fainting Elijah 1 King 19.4 It is enough now O Lord take away my life for I am not better than my fathers And I would not doubt but that God would in pity to my extream want and unreliev'd hunger either mercifully take my Soul into his bosom of blessedness or else were I as good a man and as useful a person to Gods Church as Elijah was would as miraculously provide me with food to sustain my feeble fainting nature as he did for that his distressed languishing Prophet But besides this of Poverty a good Christian can bear up his heart and lift up his head with joy amidst all the misery pain and vexation of a long tormenting sickness Many people 't is true are in this particular of Satans opinion they think they could easily grapple with all the hardships of poverty and the utmost mischief this world can bring upon them so long as they enjoy their health but if once God stretches out his hand upon their bodies and smites them with a sore disease they can then no longer hold their integrity their hearts repine and their tongues blaspheme and their whole life is nothing but a scene of quarrellings and defying of the Almighty Skin for skin and all that they have they could be content to give for their life and the preservation of their health but if once God puts forth his hand and touches but their bone and their flesh they presently set their mouths against Heaven and let fly against God himself and in this condition adventure to curse him to his face Job 2.4,5 But now a good Christian when he once finds that God hath laid a sore disease upon his loins and cast him upon his sick-bed he does in all humility quietly submit to his stroke heartily implore his mercy and patiently attend his pleasure and with a joyful confidence commits his body and his soul into the hands of his gracious Father For this indeed is the never failing comfort and principal cordial of his afflicted heart That 't is the merciful Physician of the Universe who brought this sickness upon him that the same good God makes the sore and binds it up and that he hath wounded him whose hands make whole Job 5.18 So that though by reason of the infirmity of his flesh he may possibly express his uneasie sad condition in the language of holy Job saying Chap. 7.3,4 I am made to possess months of vanity and wearisome nights are appointed to me When I lie down I say when shall I arise and the night he gone I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day Nay though he may continue his complaint to God in the words of holy David Psal 38. O Lord thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hands presseth me sore there is no soundness in my flesh neither is there any rest in my bones my wounds stink and are corrupt I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long Yet can he cheer up his heart and refresh his soul with the comfortable language of the same holy Prophet saying Vers 9. Lord all