shadowy representation of a Saints portion his house and land his food and rayment his money and Jewels are but figures and resemblances of a Christians estate There was far more difference between Solomons stables and out houses for his horses and beast to stand in and Solomons Ivory Throne or Temple whereon Solomon laid out all his glory than there is between the richest worldlings portion and a Saints We are exceeding apt to say of such a man He is wonderfully rich he hath a vast estate he is worth so many thousands by the year or he is a Prince in such a Dominion and a mighty man but alass he is not to be compared with one of Gods poor Saints A Christian that hath not a peny in his purse nor a rag to cover his nakedness nor a bit of bread to put in his mouth is infinitely richer then all the Princes and Potentates of the earth For God is the portion of his Saints Psal 37.16 Secondly That the people of God are a truly happy people So saith the Prophet Aug. to 9. p. 48. Psal 144.15 Men account them happy that have aurum in arca but they are truly happy that have Deum in conscientia For what is true happiness Why it is the enjoyment of good commensurate to all our desires Now this is the happiness of Saints they have a good commensurare to yea and infinitely beyond all their desires God is better to them then they wish for or desire He exceeds the utmost bounds of the largest heart God often gives his Saints more then they ask and yet the enjoyment of God is beyond all his gifts Saints know not to the full what they ask when they beg to be filled with all the fulness of God and when God is enjoyed by them they scarce know what they have These now must needs be happy even to admiration We may well say O the happinesses of that man whose portion is the Lord. Thirdly That the people of God cannot be made miserable as they are happy so they are eternally happy for they have a durable and eternal portion worldly men are at a great uncertainty they may be externally happy to day and very miserable to morrow Nay in a moment a curse comes upon them like an Eastern wind and blasts them irrecoverably but of the righteous we may say as Isaac concerning Jacob he is blessed and he shall be blessed blessed to day and blessed to morrow and for ever A Saints estate is out of danger and hazzard 't is a treasure that can't be plundered by thieves nor devoured by moths nor corrupted by rust nor taken away by unjust dealings 't is a sure and undescisable estate nay 't is an estate that can't be spent A Christian may live at as high a rate as possible he can through faith and prayer and yet he can't live at the height of it he can't lessen or diminish it the meal in the bowl and the oyl in the cruse will never be spent Worldly men never sink in their estates until they come to spend of the stock if they can but keep the Wolf from the door they care not 't is so with a godly man his stock and his portion holds whatever he spends he spends not that Use 2. For instruction Is God the portion of Israel then this may teach us 1. Where to have a portion for our selves and ours Why by making sure of God Alass many persons are plotting about an estate and a portion for themselves and their children but God is not all their thoughts and oftentimes it falleth out as the Psalmist speaks Psal 146.4 that whilst he is contriving and laying out his heart in this design his breath goeth forth he returneth to the earth and in that very day his thoughts perish he dies a beggar miserably poor in estate both for body and soul and leaves his children nothing but an inheritance of their fathers sin and it may be the curse of God for it that whilst he is roaring in hell they are posting thither as fast as they can to increase his torments and make them more intolerable But however if it falls not out thus that thou art defeated in thy design but thou scrapest up an earthly portion for thy self and leavest that to thy children what is this to the enjoyment of God Oh what can compensate the loss of God Not the whole world if thou hadst it For alass this earthly portion is not the souls portion I may help and relieve the body but can do no good to the soul that is poor wretched and miserable without the enjoyment of God the soul hath nothing to live upon whilst it is without God Now what must thy body be preferr'd above thy soul Thy body that is cloathed fed delighted and kept safe I but thine immortal soul is laid naked starved and miserable 'T is possible for thee through the delusions of Satan and the corruption of the flesh that thou mayst shuffle on a while I but when thy naked soul shall fit trembling upon thy lips and ask thee this one question Now whither must I go What portion is for me What canst thou answer Thou dar'st not say as Dives said soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many years For alass thy soul then takes its leave of all earthly goods when it takes its flight from thy body and if it hath not God for its portion to go to it hath nothing to live upon no harbour nor shelter to keep it from that eternal storm of Divine wrath which is showred down from God upon it I have heard it as one of the saddest complaints of some women when their husbands were ready to die that they had not an house to put their heads in nor a friend to go to and it may be little or nothing to help and relieve themselves and it may be the next news is that they are thrown into prison for their husbands debts Why truly it is the godless souls case that when the body dies the soul hath no habitation provided for it but must speedily go to the common Goal to be there kept as a miserable prisoner bound with the chains of eternal darkness and to feed upon soul devouring flame of Divine vengeance to all Eternity O friends will not you be so wise therefore as to look out in time for a sure portion for your souls even for a God Oh live no longer godless for so long as thou livest without God thou hast no provision made for thy soul 2. This may teach us that if we would have God to be our portion we must be Gods Israel and Gods portion as thou wouldest have God to be thine so thou must be the Lords Full is that of the spouse Cant. 2.16 my beloved is mine and I am his The interest between God and his people comes to be mutual So Psal 33.12 Thou canst never truly say that the Lord is
act as to relieve himself by an indirect course for he would not take the name of God upon him in vain he had rather die then do it Now when God hath thus drawn out the desires of the soul after grace then he gives in such a measure as shall preserve it and keep it from yielding to the temptation and Beloved it is a gratious relief to be kept in an holy and gratious frame of heart under a strong and powerful temptation 't is worthy of a Christians taking notice thereof So doth the Prophet this poor man cried and the Lord heard him Psal 34.6 Beloved if you be never so poor yet if God draws out your hearts after him in prayer you shall be kept that you shall not take any indirect course to help your selves but be able to say as David of himself this poor man cried and the Lord heard him As prayer is the desire of the soul formed into requests and petitions so crying is the importunity of the soul in prayer Petitions and requests presented to God with an humble and reverential boldness it is a wrestling with God for a blessing a perseverance in prayer with an holy resolution not to be put off Now 't is the poor that thus crys sense of want that pinches the soul joyned with some hopes of obtaining makes the soul to cry and he that crys shall be heard Divine relief shall come in to help it in this time of need Thus you see how relief comes in to a good man in the want of all outward comforts Secondly When the strength of the outward man fails And this is properly the failing of the flesh when a man is in a consumptive condition God smites the body and then the flesh wasts the beauty thereof fades and the senses grow dull and heavy The Prophet David had great experience hereof and therefore often mentions it in his Psalms Psal 38.10 my strength faileth and Psal 109.24 my flesh faileth of fatness and Psal 69.3 mine eyes fail He was brought low even to the mouth of the grave but Divine relief came in As you may see Psal 116.6 I was brought low and he helped me God sometimes raises a man from the very gates of death and gives him a new life restores him to his former health and strength But if God doth not thus by a gratious man yet he shall have cause to say the Lord is the strength of my heart in this weak and low estate and condition Divine relief shall be given to him 1. To support and strengthen him to bear his affliction with patience the power and grace of God is wonderfully seen in bearing up the spirits when the body sinks and in giving grace to exercise patience under the pains and sorrows of death you have heard saith Saint James of the patience of Job Jam. 5.11 As you heard of his corporal affliction how soarly he was handled so you have heard of his patience how gratiously he was he was supported that he could bear his affliction without murmuring or repining 't is true it made him groan I but the stroke was heavier then his groaning As he saith Job 23.2 Even to day is my complaint bitter my stroke is heavier then my groaning The spirit of a man will sustain corporal infirmities when God sustains the spirit Now patience under afflictions is equivalent to a deliverance from them to be able to bear an affliction is as great a mercy as to be freed from it if God rebukes the feavour of impatiency and thereby cures that it is as much as to rebuke a bodily distemper and thereby to cure it So you may see 1 Cor. 10.13 There hath no temptation taken you but that which is common to man but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to â—scape that ye may be able to bear it i. e. I can assure you that thus far you shall be set free from your temptations afflictions that you shal be able to bear them This is a gratious relief for there is no affliction but impatiency makes a greater affliction many afflict themselves when God doth not and many afflict themselves more then God doth their impatiency first makes their groaning heavier then their stroke and then their stroke heavier then it is in it self 2. Divine relief and strength comes into the heart of a good man in this consumptive condition to renew the inward man as the outward man decays So saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 4.16 Though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day As God pulls down the old house the house of clay he frames and erects a new building that shall abide for ever So that a Christian may say as Peter Martyr said when he was dying My body is weak my mind is well well for the present and it will be better for the future The flesh and spirit of a good man are like two buckets when the flesh goeth down the spirit gets up he is ever best within when he is worst without when the body is going down to the earth from whence it came the soul is ascending to heaven from whence it came And you have a gratious promise for it Psal 92.13 14. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God They shall still bring forth fruit in their old age they shall be fat and flourishing Old age shall have green fruit upon it When â—he flesh proves the most barren the spirit is most fruitful a true Christian never flourisheth so much as when old age hath nipt the flesh and it is a lovely sight to see gray hairs a consumptive body and a withered face fat and flourishing in Holiness and Righteousness to see Summer-fruit upon an old tree in Winter-time and yet thus it is with good Christians their Winter of old age is their most flourishing time When nature is most spent grace comes to its greatest strength and perfection Faith strongest love to God and Christ most enflamed hope most lively and holiness most beautiful and sparkling the greatest beauty in the soul when the body is turning to rottenness and putrifaction When the natural breath smells of the earth the spiritual breath savours most of heaven the eye of the soul most clear in discerning spiritual and heavenly things when the eye of the body grows dim and dark the hand of faith most steady to take hold on Divine promises when the corporal hand shakes with the palsie and the feet of the soul run fastest towards the mark for the price of the high calling in Christ when the bodily feet cannot move So true it is that a Christian may say as S. Paul said When I am weak then am I strong weak in my outward man but strong in the inward 3. Divine relief comes in to the heart of a
good man in a consumptive condition to consume waste and destroy that body of death that he carries about him Bodily weakness and sickness sanctified is purgative that as the body wasts and consumes so sin wasts and consumes for God will not suffer sin to outlive a Saint sin shall not enter into heaven with a Saint for that would marr his joy there as well as here And therefore God first purges that out before the soul can enter in corruption cannot inherit incorruption though God doth crown the grace of a Saint with glory yet he will not crown the sin and corruption of a Saint with glory Heaven is an holy and glorious place and will not hold any but holy and pure ones 't is the pure in heart that shall see God Heaven is a place for none but triumphants for such as have fought the good fight of faith and won the field and conquered Sin Satan and the World and put them to flight I but here a Christian is militant and must encounter these three potent Adversaries let him but worst these and then he will not fear Death though it be the King of terrors and rereserved for the last In this now the power of grace is clearly seen for that directs the Arrow that Death shoots at the outward man that it shall strike through the very heart of Sin Satan and the World that these shall be dead to him as well as he dead to them No sooner doth a good man feel a wound in his body but if sanctified if grace flows in sin is wounded also that lies a bleeding in him This is that which makes the children of God to rejoice in bodily weakness and insirmities because when sanctified through grace it is a means to weaken the power of sin in them For a true Christian bears an unfeigned and implacable hatred against Sin and therefore like to Sampson can be content that the house may be plucked upon his own head that his enemy Sin may die with him It is with the body spiritual as in the body natural there are some Diseases that must be starved out so long as the body is pampered the disease is nourished it must be brought very low or there will be no cure 'T is so with the body spiritual there are some sins in good men that must be starv'd out So long as there is strength in the outward man they will be stirring and active God therefore is pleased to bring the Body low that the Soul may get mastery and power over them Or like to some Rebels in a Castle that will never yield as long as any Provision is left 'T is so with Sin it will not yield as long as corrupted Nature yields any Provision to it And hence it is that sickly and weakly Christians are the most mortified Christians 4. When a good man is in a consumptive condition and begins to put one foot in the grave it pleaseth God to give in such clear evidence of his love to him and so full an assurance of his interest in eternal life that he even longs for a dissolution He was a child of Grace and an Heir before but now God makes him an Heir apparent Now so clear a light shines into his Soul as doth manifest his adoption and Sonship so that he can cry Abba Father which he could not do before I deny not but a true child of God may die in a cloud and not fee the light of life untill it comes in Heaven I but it is not alwaies thus but sometimes God is pleased to reveal his well pleased face to the Soul at the last and not before that she can say He is come he is come Some Christians are like to Swans that never sing but a little before their death their comforts and joyes come in at the last The Holy Ghost is the Guardian of a Christians comforts and sometimes he deals with them as a Guardian doth with an Heir who is committed to his trust When the Heir is come to age and is to enter upon his Estate then the Guardian gives him in his Evidences to preserve and keep himself Even so sometimes when a Christian is to enter upon the Inheritance of Eternal Life the Holy Ghost throws him in Evidences for it that he may carry them along with him thither 'T is true 't is the duty of all Christians to give all diligence to make their Calling and Election sure but some are fain to wait a long time before they can attain to this comfort and then when they are leaving Earth they have a glimpse of Heaven When their earthly house of this tabernacle is crumbling down upon their heads then God shews them his Building An House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens and this is a gratious relief to a dying Christian for it is a beginning of Heaven to have a sight of Heaven it is comfort enough to have an assurance and evidence of these unspeakable joyes into which the Soul e're long shall enter The Soul may then say as he said when he lay upon his death-bed putting his hand to his heart Hic sat lucis Here is light enough This is that which makes sicknes and weakness so sweet to a Christian For though the Rod smarts yet he tastes Honey at the end of it that opens his eyes as it did the eyes of Jonathan to see the salvation of God It is a most soveraign antidote against the sting of death that it can't kill or destroy the Soul although it doth the Body No messenger is more welcome than this that comes to call him home 5. In all the weakness and consumptive condition of a good man God doth act the part of a tender-hearted Nurse to him and doth tend him even as a Nurse doth a bed-rid person who is committed to her care and is not this much Surely he shall be admirably well lookt to whom God tends Now that God doth thus is clear Ps 41.3 The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness The Hebrew signifies to turn and so Arias Montanus renders it As Bed-makers use to turn and toss the Bed to and fro that it it may be easie and soft to lie upon so doth God deal with a good man when he layes him upon the bed of languishing he mitigates and moderates the affliction that it may not be so painful and terrible to him as else it would be No Nurse can do that for a sick and weak person that God can and doth for a good man When a Nurse hath turn'd the Bed and made it as soft as she can that the sick man finds a little ease and refreshment yet the Bed will quickly grow hard again and the man as weary of it as before But when God comes to make the Bed in our sickness he moderates the pain and gives rest to the bones Many a time when those that
returning yet that expression of Love and Grace to them presently turned the bent and frame of their Spirits and quickned them to a speedy return Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God as you may see Jer. 3.22 And therefore it is that a gracious Soul longs for the sense and manifestations of Gods love not only for the peace and comfort that it brings along with it but because he knows that it a is quickner of his Heart and Will to a cheerful performance of obedience unto God 'T is that which begets a free Spirit in the Soul renders it ready and prompt unto all holy service And now set God call him to what he pleaseth and he stands ready prest to do it God hath now as it were a string upon his heart he may lead him about whither he will 4. Sometimes God cures the failing of the Will by removing those impediments that stopt its motion You know if a wheel be scotcht there is no stirring of it until that be removed even thus 't is here Sometimes the Will of man which is the wheel of Motion is scotcht so that it cannot move forward until that be removed Hence that of the Psalmist I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart Psal 119.32 The word enlarge doth not only signifie to widen and extend a thing but also to set at liberty and to free it from impediments and incumbrances and so it is used Psal 4.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress or Thou hast set me at liberty And as it is applicable to the outward state and condition of a man so the Prophet makes use of the same word in reference to tie the inward state I will run the wayes of thy commands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when thou shalt set my heart at liberty i. e. There is that in my heart that cloggs me and hinders me that I cannot run the way of thy commands until thou dost remove it Sometime the mind is clogg'd with strong temptations Sometimes with sore pressures of grief and horror Sometimes with impetuous lusts and passions And untill the Soul be set free she cannot move in the waies of God And therefore divine relief comes into the Soul in this case to remove those obstructions and to take away those clogs And many a gracious Soul hath cause to say Lord thou hast enlarged my Heart My Heart was scotcht but thou hast set me at liberty I was pesterd with such a temptation and with such a pressure of grief and horrour or with such a passion and lust but thou hast removed it and set me at liberty I know the perfect and full enlargement of the soul is not wrought until she comes in heaven but God begins the work here and oftentimes when she is in the greatest streight and so stopt in her motion that she is like an instrument quite out of tune and ready to be hung up or laid by then God steps in and affords this gratious relief to it 5. Sometimes when God finds the soul in this dead and drowzie case that it hath little mind or spirit unto duty he makes use of the rod of correction and then when the soul feels it smart she rouseth up her self and sets to work Even as when Absalon sent for Joab to come to him once and again and saw he would not stir he commanded his servants to set Joabs field on fire and then Joab makes all the hast he could to Absalon 2 Sam. 14.29 30.31 even thus it is here God sends for us first one messenger comes and then another to tell us that God would have us come to him As you have it Cant. 2.14 Let me hear thy voice let me see thy face I but we stir not come not at God either to pray to him or praise him that at last God is forced to fire us out and then we come You have a notable place for this Hos 5.15 I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early They that lay snorting in their bed of security in the time of prosperity will be better husbands in time of adversity they 'l get up early the word signifies they shall morning me i.e. they shall come in the morning of their time and seek me And so Esay 26.16 They poured out a prayer unto thee when thy chastning was upon them and in their affliction they visited thee Mark it when the rod was upon their back then they cry and then they beg I they poured out a prayer It was not as one observes upon the place a dropping now and then but it was violent and continual the spirit was stirred and now it cannot lie still Afflictions commonly move and stir the heart one way or other sometimes they stir the evil and cross humours that are in the heart of man and then he rages and fumes against God and his ways but where grace is there they stir up a lazy and a dull spirit to meet God in his way with mournings and supplications The finger may be in the eye because grief is in the heart but this sorrow will have a vent else the heart will not be at rest God and the soul must be friends or she can have no satisfaction When God corrects the soul in good earnest then she seeks him in good earnest and will not be quiet until she finds him So Esay 26.8 9. 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 with my spirit within me will I seek thee early Here is seeking indeed the whole soul and spirit put forth and that diligently and constantly and then with waiting until she find We have waited for thee 'T is true affections do not always work thus in the heart of a good man at first God whips and whips again before the soul stirs I but God will not give over whipping until she stirs Dull and heavy spirited Christians seldom go long without a rod at their backs and 't is a great mercy when the rod of correction is any ways efficacious to rouse them up out of their drouzie and sleepy state 3. A third particular case of the failing of the natural faculties of the soul is in point of retention the memory may fail As a man may have a good head and a naughty heart so a man may have a good heart and a naughty head a head that will hold little or nothing that tends to the support and comfort of his soul when his flesh fails him A good Christian may be like a leaking vessel that retains no liquor long he may let slip the word of Gods grace and the external works of Gods grace and not
3. Labour to prevent decays in grace It is easier to keep health then to recover it And it is easier to maintain grace in strength and vigour then to recover any degree of grace when 't is lost Though it be Gods goodness to restore grace yet it is your duty to prevent the loss thereof 4. Watch the first decay of grace least it grow to a total consumption of all observe the least flagging of faith and love when it comes to a trial a little grace may serve to repair a little decay but thou wilt stand in need of much to repair a great decay and therefore as soon as grace begins to fail do thou begin to repair O ply the throne of grace for strengthening influences least thy weakness prove dangerous and desperate however do not abuse relieving grace by a present security 3. The third particular failing of the heart is the failing of Animal spirits that the man is ready to fall into a swoon or the soul just taking its flight from the body and leaving its old habitation So the Church complains Cant. 5.6 My soul failed Arias Montanus renders it My soul went forth And this made David cry out Hear me speedily O Lord my spirit faileth I am like them that go down into the pit David was a man ful of spirit and yet he was at this time as if he had had no spirit As 't is said of Nabal his heart died within him and became as a stone 1 Sam. 25.87 And thus it may be with a good man at some time and that in these cases 1. When hope is deserr'd and expectation disappointed Hope deferr'd saith Solomon makes the bea rt sick Prov. 13.12 i. e. When the thing hoped for is deferr'd a mans heart is set upon a thing and he hopes for the obtaining it and he waits and waits and yet it comes not this makes the heart sick but if his expectation be disappointed then his spirit dies It often falls out that mans time and Gods time are not the same Man sets a time to himself and thinks thus at such a time such a mercy and such a good will come in I but Gods time may be long after Now when he seeth that still he must wait and yet the mercy comes not his heart fails his spirit sinks 2. When God hides his face from the soul and she can't see it This was Davids case Psal 143.7 My spirit faileth hide not thy face from me least I be like unto them that go down into the pit i. e. The hiding of thy face will quite kill my spirits As the light of Gods countenance is the life of the soul so the hiding of Gods countenance is its death No sooner doth God depart from a good man but his soul is ready to depart So it was with the Church Cant. 5.6 I opened to my beloved but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone my soul failed when he spake I sought him but I could not find him I called him but he gave me no answer 3. When the soul is wounded with the sense of sin and of Gods displeasure for sin the burden and pain is intolerable and then the spirit sinks As nothing sinks the spirit so much as sorrow and grief So no grief is so heavy upon the soul as grief for sin and the sense of Gods wrath You have a notable passage for this Job 6.4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me the poison whereof drink up my spirits An arrow is a deadly Engine so called in Hebrew from its effect cutting or wounding and God sometimes shoots an arrow which pierceth into the soul cuts and wounds it yea sometimes he shoots a poisoned dart and that drinks up the spirit i. e. it kills the spirit Even as a great fire drinks up a little water that is thrown upon it So Gods wrath drinks up the spirit it leaves no spirit in the heart of a man 4. A sudden passion of fear makes the heart to fail So Luke 21.26 Mens hearts failing them for fear Fear when it is excessive dispirits a man When Josephs brethren found their money in their sacks it is said their hearts failed them and why for they were afraid Gen. 42.28 5. Some strong temptation of Satan may make the heart to fail especially if grace be weak Satans assaults sometimes are very violent they come upon the heart with great power like a mighty torrent that overwhelms and sinks the spirit Thus Luther was assaulted by him His temptation was so strong that it seemed to him as if the swelling surges of the Sea did sound aloud at his left ear and that so violently that die he must except they presently grew calm afterwards when the noise came within his head he fell down as one dead and was so cold in each part that he had remaining neither heat nor blood nor sense nor voice and thus it hath been with others The temptations of Satan are sometimes so strong and violent upon the soul as to cause the Animal Spirits to fail These are the particular cases wherein God reveals and makes known the greatness of his strength for the relief of his people 1. When a mans heart fails him through a disappointment then there is a relief for him 1. By exchanging a mercy the soul hopes for one and God gives in a better and more desireable God deals not with his people as Laban dealt with Jacob instead of a fair and beautiful Rachel he put him off with a blear eyed Leah No! God doth the contrary it may be thou art set upon a blear-eyed Leah and God gives thee a fair Rachel My meaning is when the heart of a Christian is set upon and strongly carried out after a low and inferiour mercy and the soul is sick for want of it even ready to die God gives him an higher and more glorious mercy As God is often better to us then our desires so he is better to us then our hopes and when he disappoints our hopes he gives us a mercy that is beyond our hopes For God is no way tyed to the hopes of his people but onely to his word of promise and that he will perform in his own way and time Now sometimes the hope of a Christian may be falsely bottom'd and not rightly fixt on Gods word and then it is no wonder if we meet with a disappointment I but though God doth frustrate our expectation he will not break his word The promise of God doth not fail although we are apt to think it doth when our hope and expectation is disappointed The word of the Lord standeth sure even then when we are not sure that the thing we desire and hope for shall be granted to us and hence it comes that instead of the mercy we desire God gives us in that which he hath promised although not desired nor hoped for 2. God relieves the hearts of his people by giving in the
from his sense as well as from faith This you have in the Text My flesh and my heart faileth me but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever q. d. I now find it to be true by mine own experience I can give a particular demonstration thereof God was good to me I was in a languishing sinking condition my strength gone and my life almost gone the pains of death and the sorrows of hell took hold on me that I was giving up all my hopes for lost And then God appeared to me and revived and strengthened my heart My case was very sad and now 't is as comfortable My hell is turned into an heaven of joy and comfort So that in the words you have a two fold experiment brought in to demonstrate one precious truth That God is good to Israel that is the truth 1. The first experiment is the Prophets malady 2. The latter is the Prophets relief The first is brought in to grandize and heighten the other Had not the Prophets malady been so desperate his relief had not appeared so glorious The worse the Prophets state was the more was Gods goodness seen in his relief and help Let us therefore take a further Surveigh of both First of the malady and therein consider 1. The nature or kind of it failing 2. The Subject wherein it was seated both in the flesh and in the heart Failing of the flesh notes out a consumption of the outward man or a loss of external supports So we find flesh taken in Scripture both properly for the outward man or the body of man when the strength thereof abates and departs the bulk or quantity thereof lessens or the beauty and glory thereof fades and also Metaphorically for the loss of external priviledges So Phil. 3 4 Flesh is taken for all external advantages These may fail Failing of the Heart notes out a sinking or dying When 1. The faculties of the soul sink and cannot perform their due offices either by way of apprehension election or retention 2. When the infused or acquired habits of the heart are indisposed to act or are weakened not only our moral but our Spiritual habits much abate 3. When the Animal spirits are expiring and even breathing forth This seems to be the Prophets disease and malady he was brought very low even to the very pit ready to die soul and body failed all his powers weakened When the body is smitten it flies for succour to the heart the spirit of a man will sustein his infirmities but when the heart is smitten also and that fails him too the man is done then he can afford himself no relief Die he must and will if God comes not in When communicated strength fails 't is time for the man to look abroad and seek for strength in God or else he sinks and never riseth more Secondly This is the Prophets relief God comes in and fetcheth life again reinsouls him communicates a new supply of strength to him sets him upon his feet again this makes him to say as you have it in the Text But is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rock of my heart In which words we may take notice of five things 1. The order inverted When he mentions his malady he begins with the failing of the flesh and then of the heart but when he reports the relief he begins with that of the heart From hence Observe That when God works a cure in man out of love he begins with the heart he cures that first And there may be these reasons for it 1. Because the sin of the heart is often the procuring cause of the malady of body and soul 2. The body ever fares the better for the soul but not the soul for the body 3. The cure of the soul is the principal cure 2. The suitableness of the remedy to the malady Strength of heart for failing of heart and a blessed portion for the failing of the flesh Obs That there is a proportionate remedy and relief in God for all maladies and afflictions whatsoever both within and without If your hearts fail you God is strength if your flesh fails you or comforts fail you God is a portion 3. The Prophets interest he calls God his strength and his portion Obs That true Israelites have an undoubted interest in God He is theirs 4. The Prophet's experience in the worst time He finds this to be true that when communicated strength fails there is a never failing strength in God Obs That Christians experiences of Gods all-sufficiency are then fullest and highest when created comforts fail them 5. Here is the Prophet's emprovement of his experience for support and comfort against future trials and temptations Obs That a Saints consideration of his experience of Gods all sufficiency in times of Exigency is enough to bear up and to fortifie his spirit against all trials and temptations for the time to come Thus you may emprove the Text by way of Observation But there are two principal Doctrines to be insisted on First That God is the Rock of a Saints heart his strength and his portion for ever Secondly That Divine influence and relief passeth from God to his people when they stand in most need thereof First God is the rock of a Saints heart strength and portion for ever Here are two members or branches in this Doctrine 1. That God is the rock of a Saints heart strength 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. That God is the portion of a Saint Branch 1. God is the rock of a Saints heart strength He is not only strength and the strength of their hearts but the rock of their strength so Esay 17.10 Psal 62.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same word that is used in the Text from hence comes our English word sure Explic. God is the rock of our strength both in respect of our naturals and also of spirituals he is the strength of nature and of grace Psal 27.1 the strength of my life natural and spiritual God is the strength of thy natural faculties of reason and understanding of wisdom and prudence of will and affections He is the strength of all thy graces faith patience meekness temperance hope and charity both as to their being and exercise He is the strength of all thy comfort and courage peace and happiness salvation and glory Psal 140.7 O God the rock of my Salvation In three respects First he is the Author and giver of all strength Psal 18.2 It is God that girdeth me with strength Psal 29.11 he will give strength to his people Psal 138.3 Psal 68.35 Secondly He is the increaser and perfecter of a Saints strength it is God that makes a Saint strong and mighty both to do and suffer to bear and forbear to believe and to hope to the end so Heb. 11.34 Out of weakness they were made strong so 1 Joh. 2.14 And
the Father takes the poor sinner and puts him into the hands of Christ and saith thus to him Son take this poor wretched sinner into thine own hands for I cannot look upon him in himself I can do nothing for him as he stands upon his own carnal bottome he is undone weak and wretched and so he must abide without any help unless thou dost bottome him upon thy self and hide him under the robe of thy righteousness I can't hear his prayers nor own his desires nor pitty his groans unless they be all persumed with the odour of thine incense and presented to me by thy hand The Covenant of grace and the promises of grace are all made in thee and must be performed in thee and therefore he can have no benefit by them until thou hast an actual possession of him he must be thine or else they can't be his Then the Lord Jesus takes the poor sinner and having sprinkled him with his blood and washed him from all his guilt hides him in his own robes and presents him to the Father as an object of pitty and mercy And after this manner mediates and interceeds with his Father on the sinners behalf Heavenly Father here is one whom thou hast given me for whom I have shed my heart blood that I might make satisfaction to Divine Justice for all offences committed by him against thee and purchase all that grace that is in the Covenant for him he stands not upon his own account but upon mine I am touched with the feeling of his infirmities his weakness and griefs are mine his troubles and pains are mine his faintings and failings are mine his tears and cries are mine his prayers and desires are mine here I tender them to thee in mine own name and beg thine audience and acceptance of them my sufferings and my blood shed for him cries to thee yea thine own Covenant ratified and confirmed with thine own oath cries to thee for mercy and grace to help and strengthen him Now hereupon the bowels of grace and mercy earns and melts over a poor distressed sinner and like the great wheel in the Clock sets all the lesser wheels a going by its motion So the grace of God sets the Covenant of grace on work that it may give forth its virtue and strength to the soul This glorious mystery will be best understood and cleared to you by several steps 1. That God the Father is the first mover in this great business He first loves and then gives souls to Christ 1 John 4.19 Heb. 2.13 There is a two fold giving of souls to Christ 1. By way of Covenant designation or decree made in heaven between the Father and the Son in which God made over all his elect to Christ and Christ undertook to bear their names So Joh. 10.29 In this place he doth not only speak of those that did at the present believe but of all others that should believe So vers 16. 2. By way of actual possession and so God gives souls to Christ as his mansion to dwell in This is the Fathers work Joh. 6.44 No man can come to me except the Father draw him When God doth draw a man to Christ then he gives him to Christ for his actual possession 2. Gods design in giving souls to Christ is that they may be put into a capacity for relief for of themselves they are not Out of Christ they cannot come to God there is no immediate access to God His first giving them to Christ by way of designation was for satisfaction but this latter giving them to Christ is for application that they may reap and enjoy the benefit of his satisfaction that through Christ they might have access to God and an entrance into the grace of the Covenant and therefore did Paul so earnestly desire that he might be found in Christ 3. The whole Covenant of grace with all the promises therein are founded in Christ and performed unto none but the chosen of God in Christ and such as are given to Christ Hence is that of the Apostle 2 Corinth 1.20 Acts 2.39 4. The Lord Jesus owns every sinner that is given to him by the Father as his peculiar trust He becomes their shepheard and takes the care of them and never leaves them until he hath brought them into actual possession and fruition of all Covenanting grace You have this fully set forth Heb. 2.11 12 17 18 with 4.15 5. Having taken this trust upon him and made it his business he mediates with the Father for them that the Covenant of grace with all the promises may be performed to them Heb. 7.25 6. The Covenant being pleaded by Christ with the Father must be performed to the sinner God can't in justice deny it this treasury and store-house of grace is presently opened for the soul to come and receive grace and strength most full is that John 14.12 13 14. John 16.24 6. According to the Spirits Revelation of this grace in the heart such is our sense and feeling thereof and according to our sense thereof such is our comfort Divine Revelation gives us the sense of Spiritual incomes and influences and a true sense thereof gives us comfort the larger the discovery is the larger is our sense and comfort There is many a gratious soul that wants the strength of comfort and yet doth not want the strength of grace and holiness and the reason is because he hath not the sense and feeling of his grace This therefore is the office of the Spirit to reveal and make known those incomes and Divine influences which the soul enjoys of and from God for his strength and support As you may see 1 Cor. 2.10 12. The spirit reveals all spiritual gifts to the souls of his Saints that they may know them and have the sense and feeling of them in their hearts And hence he is called the comforter because he reveals that to the soul which is matter of comfort For it is the knowledge and sense of things that administers comfort To be without a good and not to know it is all one in point of comfort As what comfort doth any estate afford a man when he is ignorant of his interest in it and enjoyment of it If a man have a rich Mine of Gold and Silver in any part of his lands and yet knows not of it it is nothing to him So if a man have never such a measure of gifts and graces from God yet if he be still in the dark and know it not he can take no comfort therein So long as a soul questions and is in doubt about his spiritual estate he can't have comfort and therefore the holy Spirit comes and makes it known to the people of God that they may have true comfort Use If God be the rock of a Christians heart strength Then this may serve for counsel and instruction to all true Israelites 1. To account God your strength 2. To give
work of God will most certainly cause a frown from God He hides his face from such as being ashamed to own them And indeed it is a shame that Satans servants should be more active and laborious in his vasallage and drudgery then the servants of God oftentimes are in their high and heavenly calling and employment I say God is even ashamed of them and therefore hides his face from them O it is very good for Christians to examine themselves when they find an ebb in their comforts whether there is not an ebb in their spirits that they are not so lively and active for God as they have been Secondly idle unactive Christians that do not lay out their strength for God are in danger of the loss of Gods assisting presence for a time To what purpose should God give in new influences when as the soul neglects to lay out his former incomes What reason hath the soul to expect that God should stand by him and give in a new supply of grace to sit still and do nothing God is not so prodigal of his grace and 't is but folly in the soul to expect it The promise runs thus the Lord is with you while you are with him i. e. when the soul waits upon God in the way of obedience and is faithful to lay out communicated strength therein to the utmost then God attends all his motions and communicates new supplies to help him forward therein but now when the heart grows dead and the spirit dull to Holy employment God withdraws himself and leaves the soul for a time Some say they must not enter upon a duty until the spirit of God moves them Why truly such men oftentimes sit still a long time without a motion from the spirit No we must attempt our duty and then we may hope for the motions of the spirit but otherwise we cannot The Holy Spirit is an active Spirit and he cannot endure to lodge in an idle unactive soul also when the soul once takes off his hand from Holy employment the Holy Spirit departs The Church never found such a sensible withdrawing of her beloved from her as when she was laid down to rest her self upon her pillow of ease and self enjoyment As you may see Cant. 5.2 6. She found it very hard to recal him and recover her enjoyment of him And so it will be with all those that are in that posture Mark her expression I opened to my beloved but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone my soul failed when he spake I sought him but I could not find him I called him but he gave me no answer See here how God repays the soul in its own Coyn. She will do nothing for God and now God will do nothing for her She would not answer God when he called but was dumb and silent and now God will not answer her when she calls She would not seek him when he offered to be found of her and now he will not be found though she seek him She would not lay out that strength for God which she had and now he denies her that strength which she wants Thirdly An idle unactive Christian is in danger of falling into some powerful temptation When a man once leaves off working for God Satan will presently set him to work If thou canst not find in thine heart to pray meditate believe repent and walk close with God the Devil will find thee work to thy cost The truth is the soul of man can't lie still it must move and act Now if it be taken off from that which is good it will fall to that which is naught Little did David think what a bait Satan had laid for him when he went up to the roof of his house and there walked from thence did those two horrible sins of uncleanness and murther take their rise When a man goeth forth out of his Chamber in a morning with a purpose to spend a day idly and vainly he little thinks what the issue thereof may be before night An idle unactive Christian tempts Satan to tempt him and Satan never goeth up and down unprovided but according to the temper of the person or the season of the year or the place of a mans converse or the age of his life fits and prepares such a snare for him as may most undoubtedly catch him to the breaking of his peace and the wounding of his conscience And indeed the less any Christian works for God the greater advantage Satan hath to work upon him When thou intermittest thy seasons of praying and conversing with God in his Holy Ordinances then the roaring Lion comes and makes a prey of thee Thou art then meat for his tooth And know this that sins of Commission do for the most part if not always take their rise at sins of Omission Thou dost not perform that which God commands and Satan provokes thee to that which God hath forbidden Thou straglest and wanderest out of Gods way and 't is no wonder if this high way adversary take thee up Fourthly Thou art in danger of having thy heart more corrupted hereby The heart of the best is bad enough but by idleness it will be worse Standing water will soon corrupt and so will an idle unactive spirit The less a Christian is imployed in Holy Duties the worse will his heart grow more prone to evil and less disposed to good When a Clock stands still long the wheels will contract rust and put it out of Order Even thus it will be with the heart of man when it is not in continual motion towards God and often wound up into an heavenly frame it contracts abundance of filth that puts it out of order and renders it unfit for holy action it his hard to get the heart into a good frame for communion with God if a Christian take never so much pains with it but if it be in never so good a temper it will soon be out again if a man take not as much pains to keep it so as to get it into it The corruption that is in mans heart will quickly overtop his grace if he stirs not up himself to oppose it An idle Christian cannot continue a good Christian long Fifthly If thou beest idle and unactive thy Spiritual strength will much abate So much as thou abatest of this Christian work so much will thy spiritual strength abate He that will not work when he can will not be able to work when he would For as grace is strengthened by exercise so it decays by idleness And it is a just judgement of God to take away our Talents from us when we do not improve them for his advantage Matt. 25. Branch 2. God is Israels portion for ever Now in the handling this truth I shall do three things 1. Prove it by Scripture 2. Explain it 3. Give you the grounds and reasons and so apply it First For proof turn to that of David
Psal 119.57 142.5 Jer. 10.16 the same with Jer. 51.19 word for word and Lam. 3.24 Secondly For explanation I shall both give you the sense of the word and also shew you in what respect God is a portion In the Hebrew word there is a Metaphor taken from the old custom of dividing inheritances in which every heir had his part given him by lot and that was called his portion so Josh 18.5.6 In like manner God is Israels portion A division is made of heaven and earth of God and the creature the men of the world have their portion in the world Psal 17.14 and the Israel of God have God for their portion Now a portion notes out a mans All All he hath to live upon for sustenance content and satisfaction But God is the godly man's All. Deus est unde vivant Aug in Psa 119.57 He lives upon God God is his sustentation content and satisfaction Though God sometimes is pleased to give much of the earth to a godly man as he did to Abraham Lot c. yet that is not their portion not their All. And therefore saith the Psalmist Whom have I in heaven but thee Psal 73.25 viz. as my portion And so when God takes away all a Christians earthly substance he takes not away his portion Job lost all his earthly goods and yet Job lost not his portion God was his All still When God gives riches in abundance to a godly man 't is but God in those riches God in lands Dat deus portionem in terra viventium sed non aliquid a se extra se Aug. in Psal 14.2.5 God in money God in All and therefore these may be all taken from him and yet he keep his portion still In like manner if a godly man have never so much of the world he is not satisfied therewith unless God be his too When Luther had many gifts sent him by good friends he turn'd himself to God and said That God should not put him off with these things As an heir though he have money cloathes and victuals yet still looks after the inheritance 't is so with a good man Secondly In what respect may God be said to be a portion Ans A portion hath three properties in it and all attributable unto God First a portion is a good Matt. 7.11 and hence a mans estate is called bona because it consists of several good things Thus God is a portion for he is good Psal 100.5 Psal 34.8 O taste and see that the Lord is good Nay God is the chief and highest good not only good but goodness it self All good in created beings is a participation of Divine Goodness For there is but one efficient exemplary and final goodness that from whence good comes according to which all good things are made and to which all things tend The goodness of God is not only the Original copy and first Idea according to which God drew all things but the highest good whereunto all things do tend as their ultimate end So Rom. 11 ult For of him and through him and for him are all things Secondly A portion is a suitable good Men do not give Stones and Scorpions Poison or Prisons to their Children as a portion Matt. 7.11 Thus God is a portion For he is a sutable good Nothing so sutable to the state of man and the nature of the soul as God is Name what you will riches honours pleasures in the world are not these are heterogeneal things The soul of man is spiritual and subline Such a good is God and whatever the soul pants after it is enjoyable in him Hence God is resembled and set out by such things as man stands most in need of and are the most delightful to the heart of man 1. God sets forth himself by the element of water so Esay 33.21 Now water is a refreshing creature to the spirit of a thirsty man Esay 32.2 2. God is also life Psal 36.9 now what is more suitable or convenient unto a dead man then life a dead man can't have true content and satisfaction nothing can sustein and keep a dead corpse from putrifaction and corruption but life All beings sink and perish without life They are comfortless and miserable without life I but that soul that enjoys God hath life his presence quickens a dead soul to the life of God the life of holiness and the life of happiness So that he that enjoys God is eternally sustein'd and can never die So John 6.50 to 57.3 God is also set forth under the notion of light Psal 27.1 a thing most comfortable and pleasant and exceeding suitable to the state of man Darkness shuts up a man in misery but light brings him forth Man is brought into the world in a state of darkness and never seeth the light of life until he comes to God Psal 36.9 In thy light shall we see light In a word God is that which the soul stands in need of to render it happy and glorious Whatever the soul wants it must have from God It is he alone that gives grace and glory and when he hath given both himself must be all in all or else the soul can't have content given what you will to a thirsty heart and yet it is not content unless you give him that which is convenient for thirst 'T is not gold nor silver that will satisfie him No he must have drink 't is so in all other cases In like manner a soul that hungers and thirsts after God cannot be satisfied without the enjoyment of him Thirdly A portion is an adaequate and proportionable good Every legacy is not a portion A portion as was hinted before is a mans livelyhood his All. Now a mans All must be proportioned to a mans necessity it must be enough to live upon Thus God is the Saints portion he is enough the soul needs no more then God to live upon God may well be the Saints All for he is All-sufficient Gen. 17.1 I am the Almighty God or God All-sufficient God is pars abundantissima sufficientissima The soul that enjoys God may truly say as Esau to his brother Jacob when he offered him a large present Gen. 33.9 I have enough Brother or as the prodigal said of his Father there is bread enough and to spare Luk. 15.17 there is not only enough but much to spare in God The soul is of a vast capacity all the world can't give it enough I but God can and yet when it is satisfied he hath never the less still The heart of man is ever craving and begging until it be filled with all the fulnes of God and then it is quiet That man that takes up his rest and saith within himself I have enough I need not ask any more I may leave off praying and seeking is either very ignorant of the dimensions and fulness of God or else is very proud and self-conceited For let a man
are about him stand weeping over him to hear his groans and to see him toss and tumble in his Bed and know not how to afford him any relief first they turn him to one side and then to another but the man finds no rest then God steps in gives a word of command and that layes him to rest refresheth and revives him in an instant the pain and sickness is removed and the man thinks himself in a new world Thus you see how divine relief comes in to Christians in the time of their greatest corporal weakness when they are ready to despair of all help therein Sometimes by divine supports inabling to bear it with patience as also by renewing the inward man and making that to thrive and flourish Sometimes so sanctifying it as that it proves the effectual death and decay of the old man in him Sometimes giving him a sweet foretast of Heaven in clearing up the evidence of Gods love to him and sometimes by mitigating and moderating the pain and grief wherewith he is afflicted In some or all these wayes good men have experience of the incomes of divine relief in this condition And thus much for the first particular wherein I have shewn you how God is the strength of a Christians heart when the flesh faileth Secondly Let us consider the failing of the Heart and see how divine relief comes into a good man in this case Now this failing of the Heart I reduced to three Heads 1. The failing of the natural faculties and that either by way of Apprehension or Election or Retention I call them Natural Faculties although they are sanctified and changed for Grace doth not alter and change the essence of the Soul but only the quality and inclination thereof Now though they are thus altered yet they may fail a man in whom true grace is 1. In respect of Apprehension The Understanding is the eye of the Soul whereby it seeth and discerneth spiritual objects I but sometimes the eye grows dim so that though he be a child of light yet he may walk in darkness as you have it Es 50.10 Who is there among you that feareth the Lord that walketh in darkness and hath no light Sometimes God is pleased to withdraw or cloud up the light and then though the eye be open yet the soul is in the dark the day of divine discoveries and manifestations may be turned into a dark night But sometimes the light shineth clearly upon the Soul and yet for want of a capacity to receive it the Soul is in the dark still as when the eye is shut a man seeth no more then he doth when the light is withdrawn from him and this was the case of the Pen-man of this Psalm as he confesseth of himself ver 22. So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee You know whatever light of Reason is offered to a bruit it receiveth it not because it is beyond its faculty and power Read a Lecture of Philosophy to it and render it as plain as it can be made yet it understands nothing thereof Even thus the Prophet complains of himself That he was as a Bruit that understood not It was not for want of light shining but for want of a seeing eye He could not receive the light and therefore was very much in the dark and that in reference to three things 1. In respect of his own spiritual state and therefore mistook that He thought it bad although it was good for so he saith ver 13. Verily I have cleansed my hands in vain and washed my hands in innocency i. e. All my Religion is to no purpose it doth not at all advantage me that I have lived strictly according to the commands of God I might have spared a great deal of pains that I have taken to cleanse my heart and to wash my hands and have sped as well For notwithstanding all this I have been plagued all the day long and chastened every morning ver 14. Surely had God loved me had I belonged to him he would never have dealt thus with me 2. In reference to the spiritual state of others and therefore mistook that He thought the state of the foolish better then his own because they seemed to prosper ver 3. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked As he concluded his own estate bad so he concluded their's good He was so mistaken that he could have been content to have exchanged states with them and yet had he done so he had made a bad bargain for himself 3. In reference to God's mind touching his duty under this complexed providence he knew not what to do but was at a great loss exceedingly bewildred in his own thoughts through that darkness that had overspread his understanding and nothing less can be implied in these words I was as a beast before thee i. e. I knew not how to carry or behave my self toward God but acted very strangely and preposterously as one that had no command of himself or of his passions and this is the case sometimes of God's dear children they are so darkened in their Spirits as that they know neither how to judge of things nor how to act under divine dispensations And hence flow misapprehensions of themselves false conclusions of divine providence and cross actings to divine will Thus you see this particular case Let us now see what divine relief flows into the Soul herein 1. In time of the greatest darkness that is upon the Spirit of a Christian when 't is dark night with him when he meets with the darkest and most cross dispensation of divine providence that he concludes against himself and the goodness of his estate then God is bringing about some glorious eminent design for his good The more glorious any design of God is and the more it tends to the good of any Soul the more it is kept seccret and the less the Soul discerns it until it be wrought out There is many a good man that fears that God is setting himself in battel array against him and shooting the arrows of his displeasure and indignation at him and that the full vials of his wrath shall be poured forth upon him and yet at that time God is bringing about some eminent design of good for him It may be thou art questioning thy estate and concludest against thy self but God is about to clear it up to thee Thou doubtest of God's love and he is making way for the manifestation of it Thou art labouring under strong temptations and conflicts with strong corruptions I but God is giving in a glorious conquest and treading Satan under thy feet that which thou fearest will prove thy destruction shall be thy salvation God often works as Luther saith in mediis contrariis by contrary means God heals by wounds and makes alive by killing so that a Christian may say as he said I had been undone
if I had not been undone The issue is good although the means seem never so cross This is excellently set forth under a type Ezek. 1.16 And their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel i. e. very cross and intangled one in another one goes one way and another goes another way and yet all perform one and the same work Thus is the providence of God it is often very cross and complexed it works by cross and intangled means yet carries on one glorious design All these cross ways and means work together as the Apostle saith for the good of them that love God Rom. 8.28 2. When a Christian is most in the dark yet he shall not want a secret though insensible conduct of Gods Holy Spirit that shall secure him from ruine in his way It is a notable relief to a blind man to have a sure guide God is a sure guide to a good man when he is unable to direct himself Alass no man is able to guide himself without the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit So Jer. 10.23 O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps Why how then shall he escape ruine and destruction when so many snares and rocks are in his way See that Psal 37.23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. God goeth along with a good man and orders him in every step he takes though we cannot see a step of our way yet if we take God with us he will direct us I will guide thee with mine eye Psal 32.8 His eye is open upon the righteous and he will guide them in the right way even then when they cannot see their way before them and therefore is that counsel of Solomon In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths Prov. 3.5 6. As God orders the steps of a good man so he orders the ways of a good man It may be thou art apt to walk in one way and God will put thee into another where thou shalt find the greatest comfort and peace we never walk so safely as when God takes the sole care of us When Abraham followed God in the darkness of sense and reason not knowing whither he went his course was never better steered and oftentimes we do best when we know not what to do when we are at the greatest stand our reason darkned and our spirits perplexed and all the ways we can imagine of true peace and comfort block'd up and we know not where to set one foot forward then God comes and takes us by the hand and leads us into such a way as we dream't not of where our desired peace and comfort is prepared for us There is an excellent promise for this purpose Esay 35.8 And an high way shall be there and a way and it shall be called the way of holiness the unclean shall not pass over it but it shall be for those the way faring men though fools shall not erre therein Observe first God makes out a way for good men to walk in an high way Via Regia the Kings way the way of God an holy way or the way of holiness sin and wickedness is not Gods way Secondly fools shall not erre therein i. e. the people of God sometimes are much in the dark and know not what to do in a particular case I but yet they shall be guided that they shall not loose their way but how shall they be guided Why God will be with them and so that passage may be read for he shall be with them In our translation it is rendered but it shall be for those but it may be read thus but he i. e. God shall be to them or with them to conduct and guide them in their way How many Christians have cause to bless God and say I could never have found the way to peace and comfort had not God been my guide This very experience brought the Prophet to that confidence for the future As you may see in the second verses before my Text Psa 73.24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory 3. When a Christian is in the dark God is so far the strength of his heart that he can wait for light When they know not what to do nor what to think yet they can wait for light they are expectants And now Lord what wait I for My hope is in thee saith David Psal 39.7 My soul waiteth for the Lord more then they that watch for the morning Psal 130 7. As a man that hath a long journey to go upon very great and important business how doth he watch for the morning because the darkness of the night suspends his motion I but David waited more for the Lord then a traveller watcheth for the morning or as the words may be read as they that watch unto the morning and so he makes a comparison between himself and watchmen i. e. There is no watchman doth more observe and wait for the breaking forth of the light of the day then I do wait for the Lord. And this is a blessed relief to the soul to be put into a waiting posture When the soul knows not what to do yet it can wait for light Not like Saul And why should I wait for the Lord any longer But as David I waited patiently for the Lord Psal 40.1 Though a good heart will not let God wait long No nor at all willingly for obedience yet he is willing to wait as long as God seeth good for light to guide him in his obedience loath is a gratious heart to miscarry in his work or to tread awry or step out of Gods way and therefore he will wait for light glad would he be of one beam of light to clear up his spiritual state to him I but he knows that Gods time is the best It is sad to him to be in the dark yet he knows that none can scatter the cloud that overspreads him but God and therefore he concludes with the Prophet It is good both to wait and to hope in the Lord. 4. Though a good man may be in the dark yet God will not always leave him in the dark Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness Psal 112.4 Oftentimes when they least expect it then it ariseth as the night is darkest a little before the day breaks so when the thickest cloud hath overspread the soul then God causeth light to spring forth Even as it was with Saint Paul in another case 2 Corinth 1.8 10. We were pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that we despaired of life but we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in the living God who delivered us from so great a death When his condition was at the heighth when nothing could help or relieve
him but he was at the very point of death then God revived him Even so it is in this case when the darkness of the soul is at the heighth and the soul is at the greatest loss and plunge no way open for its comfort and relief then God gives in some beam of Divine light to guide and direct it unto peace and comfort for though it be the portion of good men and of children of light sometimes to walk in darkness yet they are never cast into utter darkness eternal darkness is not their portion they shall not lie down in darkness light is sown for the righteous and as God hath his seeds time so they shall have their harvest let the soul be never so full of fears and perplexity of spirit yet this cloud shall vanish these fears shall be scattered and the soul shall see and know that it is under the gratious dispensation of a most gratious God who hath ordered all things for her peace here and eternal well-fare hereafter This is clear in our Text the Prophet had been in darkness I but God had brought him forth into the light and now he is able to correct his mistakes 5. That experimental light and knowledge which a sanctified soul gains in the time of its darkness and from the flowing in of Divine Light to scatter that darkness affords the soul unspeakable joy and satisfaction that she accounts it a sufficient recompence for all her trouble and sorrow in the want thereof As there is knowledge of things by principles so there is a knowledge that ariseth from experience and it would be very strange if the soul should gain no experimental knowledge by the incomes of Divine Relief in the time darkness S. Paul saith Tribulation worketh patience and patience experience Hereby the soul knoweth more of God and attains clearer apprehensions of him then it had before when she is able to say 'T is true I was in darkness but then God carried on a glorious design of doing me good all though I could not see it I was blind and not able to guide my feet into the way of peace but I had the conduct of Gods Holy Spirit I was very much perplexed in my Spirit but Divine strength kept me up in a waiting frame Yea I found at last light breaking in upon me in the darkest night my dark night was turned into a bright shining day Now this experience must needs fill the soul full of ravishing joy and satisfaction that she may say as David Return unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee and this is one mair end of Gods drawing a cloud over the eye of a Christian that he may have some experience of Gods gratious dealing with him in this condition and thereby attain a fuller knowledge of the ways of God then he did before I confess it may seem strange but 't is true that a Christian gains light by the darkness of his spirit Did not the light of a Christian fail him he would never have such experience of Divine Relief as now he hath This makes his light double to what he had before he had the light of instruction before but now he hath the light of experience and hence it is that those Christians who have had the greatest clouds upon their spirits prove the most knowing Christians for experience is the mistress of truth and when the soul is taught by experience it knows the truth indeed Now the soul is put out of all doubt there is no room for queries about it she is fully satisfied in it Many times when God goeth about to teach a man by his word and reads him a Lecture of Divine Promises made to the Soul in such and such a condition he little minds it but when God teaches him by his works in fulfilling those promises then he cannot but sit down and admire at the riches of Gods grace that God should deal thus with so vile and wretched a creature as he is Thus you have seen how Divine Relief flows in to the Soul of a good man when his understanding fails him 2. A second particular case is in point of Election It cannot be denied that as the appetite of all men is carried out to that which is good so the appetite of a good man is fixed upon the highest good and the ultimate end But then it must be granted that there is sometimes a failing of the Will both in point of Liberty and also in point of Domination 1. In point of Liberty which consists chiefly in making choice of such means as are most proper for attaining that end 2. In point of Dominion which lies in imploying all inferiour faculties for execution of those means Now the failing of the Will in both these respects is when the Will falls into a kind of hesitancy or indifferency and begins to halt God hath appointed proper means for the attaining this end but the Soul may be at a stand at some time and not determined Every good man can't say at all times with the Prophet My Heart is fixed It may be fixed as to the end but not as to the means There may be at some time a wavering in the Will about it Christians find it so by experience 2. When the strength of Resolution is not so powerful as to stand out against all assaults and to bear down all opposition The Will may be fixt but not so firmly as it ought to be there may be a giving ground for a time to our spiritual adversary a small retreat in time of temptation A Christian never yields to a temptation of Satan but there is at least a weakness in his Resolution and some presumption in his Will against which David prayed Ps 19. 3. When the Will grows cold and dead there is not that vigour or activity as ought to be put forth in the use of means his heart fails him when as he grows like a silly Dove without heart he prayes and hears and confers but in all with a dead and lazy Spirit 4. When the Will is fickle and inconstant 't is in and out and keeps not in one tenor and frame but like a broken Bow that soon starts aside This this is the spiritual plague and distemper of a good heart Now let us see the remedy and relief that flows from God for the cure hereof First God is pleased to cure this sad distemper by discovering the evil that is in it The failing of the Will is a greater evil and is far worse than the failing of the Understanding The more there is of Will in the commission of Sin and the less there is of Will in the performance of Duty the greater is the Sin Other wants of the Soul will sooner be passed by in a duty then the want of Will and therefore when God sets upon the cure of this distemper he first opens the wound and shews the filth that is in
it i. e. he convinceth a Christian of the greatness and heinousness of the sin It is possible for a Christian that is sound and upright in the main to have so great a failing in his Will that for a time he may but jog on in the way of God that other Christians outstrip him far that set out long after him and yet he may be very insensible thereof until God is pleased to strike a dart of spiritual conviction through his very heart and this wakens and rouzes him up and makes him bestir himself and consider where he is and what he hath been doing all this while A clear place for this you have Cant. 5.2 I sleep but my heart waketh it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh saying open to me my sister This is the ingenuous confession of the Church wherein she acknowledgeth that carnal deadness and security that had overtaken her I sleep or I have been asleep Now a Christian never sleeps spiritually or in a spiritual sense but when his Will flags and fails when that falls to a kind of indifferency or is not strongly bent and inclined but grows cold and dead which is the symptome of a sleepy man I but did Christ suffer his Spouse to lie in this sleepy state No! See how he awakens and rouzes her up he calls to her and bids her open to him whereby he let in a beam of divine light and convinc'd her of her sin and this was the first step to her cure this made her open her eyes as when a man awakes out of sleep he first opens his eyes and then he rises So 't is with a sleepy and dull Christian God's first work upon him is to open his eyes that he may see his sin and be affected with it and this will make him stir O beloved it may be you do not know the evil that is in a sleepy estate the sin that is inindifferency and halting in the waies of God and in the weakness of your Resolution to walk therein you take little notice it may be of the coldness and deadness of your hearts unto holy duties or of the fickleness and inconstancy of your Spirits in them but at one time or other you must expect a Soul-awakening voice that will make you open your eyes and then you will see how great a sin it is What though thou dost not cast off the waies of God yet this heartlessness in them is sin enough if God should charge thee with it to sink thy Soul as low as Hell Secondly God cures this sleeping evil by reviving and renewing the inscription and impression of Divine Law upon the heart A good man never grows dull and dead but when Divine Law is not in its full strength and power upon the heart As this is a means of divine life so it is a restorer and renewer of life When the heart is exceeding dead and indisposed to any thing that is good this can quicken it and hence is that of David Psal 119.93 It is a blessed thing for a dead and dull heart to be quickned unto and in the way of God But this will not be unless the word of God come with life and power upon the heart And this effect is worth remembring and a good man will say with David I will never forget thy Precepts for with them thou hast quickned me It may be thou goest to read or hear the word with a dead and dull Spirit and by that God quickens thee Oh remember it and never forget it It was a great and wonderful mercy to thee that God did write his Law upon thy heart when he first brought thee under the bond of his everlasting Covenant and then bowed and inclined thy heart to a ready and free obedience thereunto It was a day of power when he made thee willing to take his yoak upon thee And it is a great mercy that he is pleased to revive and renew the characters of this divine and heavenly Law upon thy Spirit when they seemed to be obliterated and blotted out when thou hadst almost lost the power and life thereof upon thy Spirit that there was little stirring or moving in thy Will towards Heaven God deals with a Christian as a man deals with his Watch when it goeth dull and begins to beat slowly he gets the Spring which is the principle of its motion mended and renewed So when the heart of man grows dull and heavie his motions very cold and dead unto any good God mends and renews the Will which is the spring and principle of motion in the heart and for that end he sets Divine Law and will to work upon it When God's Will moves upon our Will then 't is quick and liuely in its motions towards God not else if that be dead towards him the man is dead to any thing that is good I know the Law as it is a Covenant of Works is a killing Instrument it slew Saint Paul and laid him a bleeding before God but as it is a Covenant of Grace so it is a quickning Instrument and sets the Soul a going after God in the use of those means which he hath appointed 3. Sometimes God cures this sad distemper by shedding his love abroad upon the heart Divine Love is both a heart-quickner and a heart-in-flamer We saith the Apostle love him because he loved us first 1 Jo. 4.19 Our love is but the reflex of his Gods love to us is founded in it self He loves because he will love but our love to God is founded on his love Nothing in us moved him to love us but God's love to us moves us to love him and therefore it is that as God manifests his love to us so we are able to love him The love of Christ constraineth us 1 Cor. 5.17 As when the Sun shineth then Flowers open so when the love of God shines upon the Soul it opens to God then the Heart is enlarged for God the Will is carried out with high resolutions to follow him fully in all the waies of his commands As the hiding of Gods face is a great damp upon the Spirit that makes it drive on very heavily in the way of God so the shining of his face is a notable quickner of the Spirit it is like oil to the wheel that helps on the motion with greater ease When once a Soul hath tasted the love of God and got some sense thereof the pulse of holy desires will begin to beat strong after the enjoyment of him it is impossible for a Christian to remain dead under the warm beams of this most glorious Sun It is very observable that no sooner did God call to Israel to return with a gracious promise of healing their backslidings and of pardoning their iniquities But they answer Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God Though their Hearts were turned even quite away from God and their Wills exceeding averse from
by a suitable dispensation and to remember us when we forget him 3. Sometimes God supplies the want of a good memory by a mighty and efficacious blessing of his Holy Spirit so that there is much conveyed into the heart to better that little that is retained in the head A good work may be wrought upon the heart when very few words that are delivered by the Preacher are remembred The word sometimes passes through the soul and leaves a sweet savour behind it although it stayeth not It may be a poor soul goeth to hear a Sermon and upon his return would think he had lost all his pains were it not for this that he hath felt the power and efficacy of the Spirit of God upon his heart to do him good and for this he blesseth God He finds his heart quickned or melted or established in the faith and this is better to him than if he had it all by heart without such gratious effects 'T is good to remember what you hear but 't is better to be what you hear when it may be said of you as our Saviour of his Disciples Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken to you John 15.3 As a sieve will not hold the water that is put into it yet is washed and cleansed by it even thus it is with some hearers though they can retain nothing of the expression of the word yet they are cleansed by the lively and efficacious impression thereof Beloved I speak not this to incourage any one in careless hearing and wilful neglect of retaining what they hear but for the comfort of those who when they have given all diligence in their attention yet their memory fails them in retaining what they have heard And I desire that all would take notice of this one thing that though it be the duty of all to treasure up the word in their heads yet the desire of their souls should be chiefly carried out after an impression thereof upon their hearts Head knowledge is good but heart knowledge is better To be able to repeat a Sermon is good but to live a Sermon is better And thou mayst be sure that God will inable thee to live truth in some measure although thou art not able to express the words thereof as they are delivered to thee And this shall be thy Relief in this case Thus much shall serve to shew you how Divine Relief flows in to the soul when the natural faculties thereof fail 2. Divine Relief flows in from God to the Soul of a good man when his infused habits fail and in the opening of this I must hold to my propounded method 1. I shall shew you that they may fail and how far they may fail 2. How relief flows into the Soul in this case First The infused habits of Grace and Virtue may fail There is not a Grace in a Christian but may fail at one time or other Though the state of Grace abideth alwaies yet every mans grace if any mans doth not alwaies abide in the same state A true frame of Grace shall never be destroyed but the heart of a gracious man doth not alwaies continue in the same frame The stream may not be cut off and yet there may be ebbings as well as flowings It may be low water with a Christian at some time in point of inherent grace as well as spiritual comfort He that hath the most grace may seem like him that hath the least and that in three things 1. In respect of the strength of Grace 2. In respect of the vigour and activity of Grace 3. In respect of the beauty and lustre of Grace First in respect of the strength of Grace Grace is not alwaies in the same strength Abraham was strong in Faith yet his Faith was not alwaies alike We find his Fear too strong for his Faith Abraham's Faith had ebbings and declinings Job's Patience at the first was mighty to bear and undergo his afflictions yet at some time it flagg'd Secondly Grace may fail in point of life and vigour The spiritual life of a Christian may not be alwaies lively and active Faith and love may not die and yet they may stir very little the fire of holy affections not be extinct and yet not flame The Church of Ephesus had left her first Love but she had not left off to love she loved Christ I but not as she did at first So it may be with others there may be an abatement of their love although not an extinguishment of it Thirdly Grace may fail in respect of its beauty and loveliness the beauty thereof may fade much 'T is with a Christian as 't is with a fruit-bearing tree the beauty of the tree is its leaves and fruit Now when the fruit is pluckt and the leaves fallen the beauty is gone Even so the holy fruit of a Christian is the beauty of a Christian that which renders him and his grace very lovely in the eyes of good men but when the fruit is off the tree when you see not the fruit of holiness and of spirituality growig upon him in his season the beauty of a Christian is departed from him And thus it may be with a good man for a time He that formerly acted very humbly may upon some temptation act very proudly He that once acted very self-denyingly may at another time act very self-seekingly He that formerly walked like a Saint and truly acted the part of a Saint may act not only below a Saint but below a man Such changes and varieties are found upon the most gratious frames of Spirit which the best of Saints have in this world The strength of grace may so far abate as that the strength of sin may increase The vigour and life of grace may so far abate as that little or nothing may appear but the deformity of sin Secondly What relief flows into the heart of a good man in this case God is still the strength of his heart 1. By preserving the root and principle of grace alive that would die if it were not preserved by a divine power Every Christian would cease to be gracious as well as fail in the exercise of grace if he were wholly left to himself I but Christians are kept in a state of grace by the power of God 1 Pet. 1.5 Grace in a Christian is the root of a Christian and therefore Believers are said to be rooted and grounded in love Eph. 3.17 and as the root may live when the fruit falls off nay when the trunk of the tree withers and decays that there is little life in it so it may be with a Christian I but how is this Root kept alive Why it is kept by an Almighty power Though a Christian doth not alwaies take care of his graces that they may be liuely and strong yet God doth alwaies take care that the root of grace may live he will keep that alive Divine power
is like a strong Fort or Garrison to a Christians Grace that keeps it safe It may be assaulted and beleaguered but shall never receive a mortal wound It is the great security of a Christian that God will not trust him with the root and principle of grace That shall never be in thine own keeping he trusts thee with the exercise of grace but not with the principle and root No he keeps that himself he is both the Garrison and the Commander in it and you may be sure that that is impregnable 2. God is the strength of a Christians heart when the infused habits of grace fail and sin grows strong and vigorous by healing and restoring him A Christian never fails in the exercise of grace but sin gives him a wound And therefore David prayed Lord heal my Soul for I have sinned Psal 41.4 And what David prayed for God promiseth to his people Hos 14.4 I will heal their back-slidings The weakness and decay of grace brings a Christian presently to the falling sickness and so it did David and Ephraim I but God will be a Physitian to the Soul in this case and will heal their diseases and so he did Davids falling-sickness for which he return'd the tribute of Praise Psal 103.3 My soul praise thou the Lord and all that is within me praise his holy name who healeth all thy diseases David had many diseases upon him once for one disease is the cause of another I but God healed all and raised him up again And herein the grace of God did shine forth with great lustre and glory that even ravished his soul in the sense thereof As it appears wonderful in preserving spiritual life and the root of grace so it is no less to be admired for its healing and restoring virtue that it puts forth upon the Soul when spiritual diseases have ceised upon it You have a notable place for this Cant. 8.5 I raised thee up under the apple-tree They are the words of Christ to his Spouse She had been feeding her self upon the forbidden fruit of earthly delights and sensual pleasures until she could stand upon her feet no longer and there she falls and lies I but then Christ comes to her seasonably takes her by the hand and raises her up Green fruit will cause distempers in the body natural and sensual delights and pleasures will cause diseases in the body spiritual none can cure them but Christ When thou art fallen under the Apple-tree he must raise thee up nay Christ will do it though he may suffer the poor Soul to fall yet he will not suffer it to lie and perish This is one main difference between the falls of a gracious man into sin and the fall of a wicked man God lets a wicked man fall and lie in his sin As he falls willingly and resolvedly so he lies wretchedly and desperately in his sin But as a godly man falls through a weakness of grace so God pities him and raises him up again Peter fell fouly when he denied his Master but he did not fall finally Christ raised him up and restored him to his former health and soundness So you may see Matth. 26.75 And Peter remembred the words of Jesus and he went out and wept bitterly The way that Christ takes to heal the backslidings of his people is to break their hearts and melt them into godly sorrow When poor Souls have been almost drown'd in the waies of sin he drowns their sin in the red sea of godly sorrow the Soul swims aloft but his sin sinks to the bottom that it may rise no more 3. God is the strength of a Christians heart when grace fails by working a new creation upon the heart The giving of grace at first is a creation and hence new Converts are called new creatures So the strengthening weak grace and reviving and renewing of grace is no less a creation it is the work of an Almighty power upon the Soul And therefore David prayed for it under this notion Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Psal 50.10 God puts forth the same power in strengthening the weakness of grace as he doth in giving the first act of grace as grace is not mans creature but Gods We are saith the Apostle Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2.10 So the renewing and reviving grace is not mans work but Gods When he seeth a poor Christian lie languishing that he is scarce able to put forth one act of grace he can neither believe nor love nor obey that Satan makes a prey of him and is ready to carry him away captive as his prisoner God creates new strength and a new life and a new glory upon the Soul If a Christian hath his winter he shall have his spring also he shall not be alwaies without fruit Most full is that promise Hos 14.5 6. I will be as the dew unto Israel he shall grow as the lilly and cast forth his roots as Lebanon His branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the olive tree and his smell as Lebanon Observe Gods method in working upon decaying Christians First he heals their backslidings so ver 4. I will heal their backslidings I but that is not all For without divine influence the Soul will be as apt to relapse as ever and therefore God promiseth as a further act of grace that he will be as the dew unto Israel Dew is of a fructifying and refreshing nature it calls forth the fruits of the earth when they lie hid in the roots of trees and herbs Even so is Divine Influence it is of a fructifying nature and calls forth the fruits of grace when they lie hid in the root thereof Let but God send forth his power and Grace will send forth new buds and blossoms of holiness that there shall be a new face upon a Christian He shall grow as the Lilliy cast forth his roots as Lebanon his branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the Olive and his smell as Lebanon 4. God is the strength of a Christians heart by drawing forth much good out of this great evil It is a sore evil for a Christian to decay in grace and to fall into sin I but God works good out of this evil Four things God works by this and they are all good for him 1. Hereby God discovers that corruption that is in the heart As when the water ebbs and grows low then the earth appears then you may see what is at the bottom So when grace ebbs and grows low then the corruption of the heart appears then it is quickly known what foul dregs are at the bottom There is many a Christian that little thinks how full of sin his heart is until his grace grows languid and weak and then he comes to have a sad experience thereof Thus it was with David When grace became so weak in him as not to
be able to withstand a temptation then he saw the uncleanness of his heart and therefore cried to God to wash him and cleanse him and it is as if he had said Lord I see now what a filthy and unclean Spirit dwelleth in me Lord do thou purge it out and cleanse me from it If any one had gone to David and told him that at such a time he should be overcome by such a temptation and commit two great sins he would hardly have believed that his heart had been so bad But after wards his expeperience taught him 2. Hereby God teacheth the Soul where its strength lieth and on whom its grace depends The decay of grace shews that the strength thereof is not in man nor in grace it self but like the Vine it must have a supporter Grace can't live nor thrive without constant influences I but good men are too apt to depend upon their grace and not to go to him for strength in whom it lies Now when a Christian feels the decay of his grace and his own insufficiency to relieve and strengthen it this drives him out of himself to Christ This is one main difference between the total want of grace and a sense of decay in grace The total want of grace drives men from Christ but a sense of the decay of grace drives men to Christ So it did David his weakness brought him upon his knees 3. The falls of Christians through the weakness of grace and the power of sin are made notable antidotes and preservatives against final Apostasie For as there is nothing that estrangeth the heart from God as spiritual pride and self-confidence so nothing keeps the heart so close to God as a filial fear of offending God So you may see Jer. 32.40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me This is that which hemms in the Soul that it cannot go astray Now the falls of Christians provoke and draw forth this filial fear into act The burnt child dreads the fire and he that hath been stung with a Serpent will shun his hole so it is here None so fearful of falling into sin as they that have fallen None so wary and watchful none so resolute and stout against temptations and occasions of sin as those who have been at a time overcome 4. These falls and decayes are like mighty winds to the Oak that settles him faster and make him root deeper in Christ As the more the Oak is shaken if it falls not the faster and deeper it is rooted in the earth So when a Christian hath been shaken with the winds of temptations and corruptions the faster hold he layeth upon Christ and the deeper he is rooted in him For 1. His experience of Christ's faithfulness in keeping him from falling finally and totally strengthens his faith in Christ 2. His experience of Christ's pardoning love knits and unites his heart close to Christ First His experience of Christ's faithfulness in keeping him from falling totally and finally strengthens his faith in Christ As 't is a notable trial of Christ's faithfulness to keep Saints from falling away finally when they fall souly so experience of Christ's faithfulness is a notable strengthener of a Christians faith in Christ They that know thy name will put their trust in thee saith David Psal 9.10 A friend that keeps close to a man in time of need may well be trusted Even so 't is here Christ keeps close to a Christian even at that time when he deserves to be cast off and is both a shame and a grief to Christ Surely the experience hereof must needs be a great incouragement to a Christian to trust him for ever He seeth that Christs strength never fails although his own strength fail He seeth that there is grace enough in Christ to support him in the weakest condition and to raise him up when he is at the lowest Nay further he finds this strength put forth upon him according to the word of promise and though he is unbelieving yet Christ abides faithful to him And therefore he cannot but conclude from hence that Christ will be his strength for ever and will never fail him Secondly A Christians experience of the fulness and continuance of Christs pardoning love knits and unites his soul faster to Christ then ever this doth endear Christ to the soul exceedingly tryed love is an endearing love and if any thing will draw out the souls affections unto Christ and confirm them against all future assaults it is the renewing of pardons upon the renewal of offences When the soul shall hear Christ say as he doth Esay 43.24 25. Thou hast brought me no sweet cane with money neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities I am he that blotteth out thy transgression for mine own sake and will remember thy sins no more I say when the soul shall hear this it must needs be deeply affected herewith What! Will the Lord be gratious to such a vile wretch as I am Will he pardon a backslider Will he forgive the sin of one that hath made him to serve with his sin and wearied him with iniquities O here is wonderful love this is transcendent love and shall not I love him that hath loved me thus Yet Lord thou knowest that I love thee 't is true I have backslidden and grievously offended but I will do so no more Thus God sometimes doth the soul much good by that which in it self doth him the greatest hurt as pain easeth a Christian death revives him dissolution unites him so corruption clarifies him and this is a most gratious relief But before I leave this particular I must enter four cautions 1. That no man take up the better opinion of sin hereby for as darkness is nevertheless an evil though God bring light out of darkness so sin is nevertheless an evil though God is pleased to bring good out of it Poison is destructive although a Physician can so correct it as to make it medicinal and so is sin and the better opinion thou hast of sin the more evil and mortal it will be to thee 2. Take heed of lying in sin with hopes of a relief from God watch against it pray against it that thou mayest not be overcome of it but however if thou art overcome by a temptation if Satan hath tript up thy heels get upon thy feet again assoon as possibly thou canst if thou fallest with Peter weep with Peter and labour to find as much bitterness in sin as thou hast found of a seeming pleasure in it Remember this that more have fallen into sin with hopes of rising again then have risen after they have fallen Many sin with Peter but few repent with him
desired mercy when they are past all hope of it When the soul is at the very brink of despair then the mercy is given in to revive it and that is implied in those words of Solomon Prov. 13.12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick but when the desire cometh it is a tree of life i. e. God may defer the mercy so long as to make the heart sick even unto death and then bestow iâ— upon the soul now when it cometh it is a tree of life an allusion to that tree that God planted in Paradise Gen. 2.9 A tree that was a symbole or sign of life as the Sacraments are of grace Now as the faith hope and comfort of a true Christian is fed nourished and revived by these external symbols signs so it is revived by the income of a desired mercy When the soul hath been languishing at the door of hope until it grows out of hope and is ready to perish then God throws in the mercy to revive and comfort it Nay further 3. God sometimes gives in the mercy in a way that is beyond all hope in a way that seems the most cross to the hopes of a Christian Sometimes God shuts up all the doors of hope and makes that to be the way of conveying mercy to us So God promised to his people of old Hos 2.15 The valley of Achor for a door of hope i. e. when they should be destitute of those means as might encourage them to hope and meet with the greatest difficulties and troubles that they could meet with then the desired mercy should be given Great crosses oftentimes make way for and usher in great mercies Now when mercy comes in unexpectedly and in a cross way it comes with the greater force and power upon the Soul to revive and comfort it Mercies that are common to the Soul do not make such a strong impression upon it as those that are either more special or come to the Soul in a singular and unexpected way Such mercies are very sweet and precious to the Soul 2. As there is relief for a good man in this case so when the heart fails through the hiding of Gods face And that I shall shew you briefly in three things 1. When a good man cannot see Gods face God speaks to him and gives him strength to seek his face When the Soul can't hear God yet sometimes she hears the voice of God So it was with David Psal 27.8 6. When thou saidst Seek my face my heart said unto thee Thy face Lord will I seeek Hide not thy face from me put not thy servant away in anger God hid his face from David I but he did not shut up his lips David had the happiness to hear his voice though it was but from behind a curtain And this encouraged and drew forth his Soul to seek Gods face So when Christ withdrew himself from his Spouse that she knew not what was become of him she sought him but could not find him I but she heard his voice Cant. 5.6 And it is a great comfort to a good man to hear the voice of God when he cannot see the face of God Sometimes God speaks to the Soul by his word and sometimes by his works and thereby draws it forth to seek his face This is a notable sign that God is not wholly and eternally departed from us When God leaves a wicked man he doth not so much as speak to him he shall not hear from God unless it be by way of denouncing judgement against him But when he withdraws and hides his face from a good man he shall hear the voice of God though he cannot see his well pleased face God is desirous to see their face although he hides his own and therefore calls to them to come and seek his face Thou saidst Seek my face and this voice of God caused an eccho in David's Soul And I said Thy face Lord will I seek And this is one end of God in hiding his face from the Soul that hereby he may draw forth the desires of it after him As a mother sometimes turns her back upon the child to see wehther it will cry after her Even thus doth God and it is wonderful delightful to him to hear a Soul cry after him when he hath withdrawn himself and his face from it 2. Sometimes when a good man can't see the well-pleased face of God he feels the hand of God not the weight thereof to crush him down but the power and strength thereof to sustain and uphold him That which the Church had experience of in another case when she was sick of love Cant. 2.6 she did promise to her self in this case Cant. 8.3 His left hand should be under her head and his right hand should embrace her Christ puts forth both hands one for the head and another for the heart to keep the soul from death in this case 1. The left hand of Christ is put under the head to keep up and maintain a good opinion of him When the soul is full of inward trouble it is full of thoughts So Psal 94.19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me Nay it is apt to have hard thoughts of God such as are unbecoming the dear children of so gratious a father We are apt to think that when God hides his face from us he hath forgotten to be gratious and in anger shut up his tender mercies from us that his mercy is clean for ever and that his promise fails for evermore that the Lord hath cast us off for ever and will be favourable no more To these and the like thoughts is a troubled soul very prone when God withdraws Now Christ to prevent these or to moderate them puts his hand under our head As the putting of ones hand under the head of a sick person is a great stay to it and affords it some ease that he may compose to rest so doth Christ deal with a soul that is sick and ready to die in the sense of Gods hiding his face from it He puts under his hand to keep the judgement right that it may maintain a good opinion of God and keep up good thoughts of him and this is a great ease to a good man for there is nothing afflicts the soul more then such hard thoughts of God they are a great torture and perplexity to the soul and when they are removed the mind finds great refreshment thereby 2. The right hand of Christ is put forth to embrace the soul As his left hand is under the head so his right hand doth embrace a good man and with this he stays the heart and keeps it from dying when the soul is going forth he stays it and keeps it in So saith David Psal 18.18 But the Lord was my stay The right hand of Divine Grace and strength doth compass the soul about and thereby keeps it from going forth and that is promised Psal 32.10
Mercy shall compass him about The mercy of God is a long arm and this doth incircle the soul and compass it about the soul can stir no way but mercy meets it to stay its flight Sometime God sends a friend to him who out of his own experience drops a seasonable word of comfort upon his soul and that is a mercy Job 33.23 Sometime God applies a word of Grace that enlivens his dead heart and that is a mercy Psal 119.50 Sometimes God brings to mind some former intimations of his love and grace to him Psal 42.6 And sometime and very often he stays the soul with this very thought that it is a great mercy of God to him that yet he is on this side hell Lam. 3.22 and though he can't see the face of God yet he is not put so far off but he may have the happiness to see it at the last 'T is mercy that he is not eternally banished from his presence And this stays the heart 3. Though God hides his face for a time yet he doth at one time or other unvail and discover it to the soul for its unspeakable joy and comfort If not in this life yet in the life to come a true Christian shall see the face of God again although it be hid for a time You have an excellent promise for this Esay 54.7 8. For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will I gather thee in a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy redeemer Gods departure from a good man is not an eternal departure His hiding his face is not for ever Though thou canst not see it now yet thou shalt see it Thou mayst say with David Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou so disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance Psal 42.5 3. In case that the Animal Spirits do fail a man through the sense of sin and Gods displeasure for it there is relief to be had from God when the poisoned arrows of Divine wrath stick fast in the soul and drinks up the Spirits there is relief for it And this I shall also make evident to you in three things There are three remedies that God makes use of to cure the wounds that sin and Gods wrath make in the Soul 1. The blood of Sprinkling 2. The precious Balm of Gospel promises 3. The sweet oyl of the Holy Spirit 1. The blood of sprinkling or the blood of Christ sprinkled upon the heart this washeth and cleanseth the wound So 1 John 1.7 And the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin And so Revel 5. Vnto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood For as a wound in the body natural will not heal unless the blood and corruption be washed out no more will the wounds of the soul ever be cured unless they be first washed with the blood of Christ And therefore this is Gods first work to apply the blood of Christ to the wound and it is very effectual for this purpose as you may see Heb. 9.13 14. For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh How much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience It first stancheth the blood and then purifies the wound and makes it fit for a plaister The meaning hereof is this that the knowledge of our justification by the righteousness of Christ is a singular and choice remedy for the taking away the sense of sin and Gods displeasure for it It is not only requisite that Christ shed his blood for us and that God hath accepted it as a full satisfaction to His Divine Justice which was offended by our sin but this must be applyed to us As under the Law it was not enough to have the blood of bulls and of goats but it must be sprinkled or else there was no cleansing even so unless God applies the blood of Christ to thy conscience and give thee the knowledge thereof that it is shed for thee in particular thy Spiritual wounds that sin and Satan hath made in thee will never be cleansed Thou mayest be justified before God but still thine own heart may accuse and condemn thee Though God doth not charge thy sin upon thee yet thou wilt be continually charging it upon thy self and the burden will be intolerable thy wounds will still bleed every remembrance of sin will draw new blood from thy heart It is true the blessing lies in Gods free remission of our sin but the comfort lies in our knowledge thereof A traitour may be pardoned and that may save his life but if he knows it not he looseth the comfort thereof Even thus it is until we know that God hath freely justified us in the blood of Christ the sense of sin and Divine wrath will be heavy upon the spirit of an awakened sinner and therefore God's sprinkling the blood of Christ upon the conscience must needs be a sweet relief 2. Another remedy which God makes use of for the curing of this spiritual wound is the balm of Gospel promises there are two sorts of promises by which God speaks comfort to a disconsolate soul 1. Inviting promises 2. Assuring and sealing promises 1. Inviting promises and by these he encourages a poor distressed sinner to come to him Such is that Matth. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden And that Esay 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters he that hath no money come ye buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without money and without price And that Rev. 22.17 And the Spirit and the Bride say come and let him that heareth say come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely Now when a soul that heareth these promises considers with it self thus Sure I am that I am weary and heavy laden with the burden of sin sin is an heavy load upon my soul the arrows of Gods indignation have set my soul on fire that I stand in need of these cooling and refreshing waters I am a poor ceature I have no money nothing to give for the incomes of Gods grace and love I am a meer beggar and therefore must needs be one that God invites And thus God draws the soul to him that he may apply 2. The assuring and sealing promises of comfort Such as these Heb. 10.16 17. This is the Covenant that I will make with them after those days saith the Lord I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more And that in Esay 57.15 16 17 18 19. For thus saith the
his hellish temptations God will bring him out with an holy triumph Hence is that of Psal 5.11 12. But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice let them ever shout for joy because thou defendest them let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee For thou Lord wilt bless the righteous with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield The Hebrew word signifies thou wilt crown him with a shield Some think that the Prophet alludes to a custome of the Athenians who were wont if a Soldier brought his Shield with him out of the battel safe and whole although he lost his Sword to lay his Shield upon his head and with that as with a Diadem to crown him He that holds fast the shield of Faith in an hour of temptation shall wear it on his head as his crown The trial of a Christians faith which is much more precious then of gold that perisheth though it be tried with fire shall be found unto praise honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.7 And hence is that of the Apostle I have fought the good fight I have kept the faith and from henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. Thus I have opened the Doctrine and shewed you what relief flows from God to his people both when their flesh fails and when their heart fails 1. When the natural faculties of the Soul fail 2. When the infused habits of the Soul fail and 3. When the animal Spirits fail Now I will give you the grounds and Reasons thereof Reas 1. Taken from that near relation that is between God and good men He is their Father and they his Children he is their Husband and they his Wife Now this double relation speaks forth that infinite love that God bears to them and special care that God hath of them God bears a love to his people not only like to the love of a Father but infinitely beyond the love of a Father the love of a Father to his Child is but a dark resemblance of the love of God to his Children and therefore as God out-loves all Parents so he out-does all Parents His love is the love of an infinite Father and therefore knows no bounds either of time or measure and his relief is proportionable to his love Relief wrought by an Almighty arm See this clearly held forth Jer. 31.9 I will cause them to walk by the rivers of water in straaight way wherein they shall not stumble And why for I am a father unto Israel and Ephraim is my first-born Divine Paternity is one main ground of a Saints relief This is the reason why he will cause them to walk by the rivers of water in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble because he is their Father You know what dear and tender affection a good Father beareth to his Children especially to his first-born All the Childs wants weakness and grief are a trouble and grief to the Father Much more is God affected with the faintings and failings of his Children So Es 63.8 9. He said surely they are my people so he was their Saviour In all their afflictions he was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pity he redeemed them and he bare them and carried them all the dayes of old The Prophet alludes to the Song of Moses Deut. 32.11 As an Eagle stirreth up her nest fluttereth over her young spreadeth abroad her wings taketh them beareth them on her wings so the Lord alone did lead him How doth this silly creature bestir her self when her young ones are in danger She stirs up her nest she fluttereth over her young and spreadeth abroad her wings And if all this will not secure them she takes them up and bears them upon her wings But how much more will God who is the fountain of such a disposition in his creature bestir himself and put forth his Almighty arm for the relief of his dear ones He will bear them upon the wing of his providence and carry them out of all danger Satan shall not make a prey of them If any thing will draw forth the bowels of a creature the same will draw forth the bowels of God yea much more Luke 11.13 If ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly father give the Spirit Alas the love of the Creature is but a drop in comparison of the love of God and therefore there must needs be more life and vigour in the love of God then in the love of all creatures As there is more heat in the body of the Sun then in all its raies were they all contracted into one ray so it is here And therefore if an earthly creature be so apt to tender the good and welfare of those that belong to it what propensity is there in the heart of God to relieve his people when they are in any straights Many an Orphan sits down and weeps over himself in his calamity and thus bemoans his condition If my Father were alive he would not see me want he would pity and relieve me in my sad condition Why Beloved there is never a child of God that needs put finger in the eye in this respect for your Father is alive he lives for ever he is an everlasting Father and as our Text saith A portion for ever And as he is a tender Father so he is a kind Husband So Es 54.5 For thy maker is thine Husband Though he will not relieve and help men because he is their maker yet he will relieve and help all those to whom he is an Husband As long as marriage Covenant holds God will take the care of his Spouse in sickness as well as in health in poverty as in riches in weakness as in strength Nay as a good Husband is most tender over his Wife in the time of her weakness and sickness even so is God to his Spouse she shall want nothing that an Almighty hand can provide for her Reas 2. Taken from Gods design in all his peoples straights and necessities God lets them fall into straights that he may have the glory of their relief Whatever hand brings them in it is a divine hand that must bring them out We may say of all a Christians troubles and failings both of Flesh and Spirit as our Saviour said of Lazarus his death John 11.4 This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby Lazarus must die yea and be buried also that Christ might have the glory of his resurrection and that after he had been dead four daies His sickness was unto death but not to death eternal for he had a speedy resurrection that made his death but a trance or a long sleep Happy Lazarus as one saith though sick and
dead to be an instrument of glory to be given to God Thus it is with Saints in their spiritual sicknesses they are not unto death but for the glory of God that Christ may be glorified in their relief Otherwise God is able to prevent them but might nature alwaies have its course there would be no room for wonders Nature must sometimes have a stop that the glory of God may appear Saints comforts and strengths must lie a bleeding and die that the glory of God may appear in their resurrection And wherein doth the glory of God appear more then in such a work as this This is a glorious work a work that outshines all common and ordinary works of God For God to breath upon dead and dry bones that they shall live again For God to bring a Jonas out of the Whales belly where he was buried alive three dayes For God to set Job upon his leggs again and to put him into stock both within doors and without when he had stript him of all and to make his last daies better then his first this was a glorious work a work wherein God is much glorified As the beams of the Sun reflected and sent back renders the Sun very glorious So 't is here Reas 3. Taken from the beautifulness of Relief in time of necessity Every thing is beautiful in its season Eccl. 3.11 And relief is very beautiful in time of necessity because it is seasonable True necessity puts a decorum upon every act that is requisite to be put forth therein It would be very absurd to do that at one time which may and ought to be done at another Should those things be done for a person in health that are done in the time of his sickness they would be very ridiculous but done in season and with due order they are very comely God therefore times his works well and that puts a beauty upon them Mans necessity is therefore Gods opportunity to express the riches of his mercy He calls not the righteous but sinners to repentance Physick is not for those that are in health but for the sick So Divine Relief is for those whose flesh fails and whose heart fails Divine strength is for them that have no might And this beautifies Divine dispensations For as God loves to beautifie the the house of his glory so he loves to beautifie the works of his glory These are the Reasons of the Doctrine Now before I come to the Application I must speak something to the doubts and scruples of weak Christians Case Perhaps some will be apt to say If it be true that Divine Relief flows from God to his people according to necessity then I am afraid that I do not belong to God because I have no experience hereof My flesh hath falled and my heart fails I but I do not find relief coming in Resolution Now to such I have three words by way of Answer 1. I beseech you take heed of charging God foolishly for for ought thou understandest yet this may prove a vain and foolish denying that grace of God which thou hast not received in vain Thou mayest have received relief from God in many of these cases and yet be insensible thereof It may be with thee as it was with Jacob God hath been with thee supported and relieved thee and yet thou not know it God conveys Divine Relief insensibly sometimes as well as seasonably When a man is in a swoon many things may be given him to fetch him again and to recover his Spirits and yet the man insensible thereof it may be so with thee Thou hast been in a spiritual swoon and God hath administred many heart-reviving Cordials that hath brought thee to some life again and yet thou maist be insensible thereof It is good therefore to take a more strict survey of thy spiritual state and perhaps upon examination thou wilt find some prints of Divine Relief upon thy Soul For as wicked men do not find their state so bad as it is because they overlook it so sometimes good men do not find their spiritual state so good as it is because they overlook it The piece of Silver that the woman thought she had lost was in the house although she knew not where it was until she did light a candle sweep the house and seek diligently for it as you may see Luke 15.8 God may have sent thee a token of his love and thou mayst have it in thy heart and yet not know it Thou hadst best set up a candle even the word of God in thine heart and by that light search thy heart and that diligently and then thou mayst find it 'T is true some particular acts of relieving grace are so full and strong upon the heart of a Christian that he cannot be insensible thereof but there are others that are conveyed to the Soul in a more secret and insensible way God writes a Letter of consolation to the Soul sometimes in so small a character that she hath much ado to read it it is hard for her to spell out the mind of God therein God deals with Christians as some wise Physitians do with some of their Patients they give them Physick and they never know of it something must be put into their Beer or something into their broth Even so God gives much relief to Christians in their spiritual weakness that the Soul knows not of Little did Jacobs brethren know that they had their money in their Sacks when they came homewards out of the land of Egypt No when they came to bait and opened their Sacks they found it Even thus it may be with many a child of God thy money thy relief may be in thy heart and yet thou ignorant of it Perhaps when thou comest to refresh and lookest within to see what thou hast thou mayst find that which thou dreamedst not of There are three things that sometimes hide relief from the eye of the Soul and are an occasion of the Souls mistake 1. God works gradually herein The cure is not perfected the first day that God takes thee in hand and some diseases are long before they will be cured Now here may be a great mistake If thou thinkest that God hath made no application to thee because thou art not perfectly cured of thy distemper thou dost wrong God exceedingly Thou mayst be in a tendency to a cure God may have done much for thee and yet thy sore may run and thy wound be very wide still Look again therefore and see if there be never a Plaister upon the sore thou mayst be in a way of cure though not cured Strength may be given in although thou art not strengthened with all might Here may be rather matter of thankfulness then of complaint and thou shouldst rather give God the glory of what he hath done for thee be it never so little then sit down dejected because all is not yet done that is requisite to a
A most full place for proof of this you have Psal 106.43 44 45. Many times did he deliver them but they provoked him with their counsels and were brought low for their iniquity Nevertheless he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry And he remembred for them his covenant and repented according to the multitude of his mercies Here is the case First God afforded them relief He had many times delivered them Secondly Here is their unanswerableness to that mercy They provoked him with their counsels Thirdly Although they did deserve to be cast off yet God did not cast them off but as a father corrects his child whom he loves so did the Lord correct them He brought them low for their iniquity Fourthly Did he leave them then No. He regarded their affliction when he heard their cry And why was all this He remembred for them his covenant God did not eye their tempers so much as their interest nor the frame of their Spirits or carriage towards him as his Covenant made to them The unworthiness of a Christian comes and pleads against the Souls relief in time of necessity yet Gods Covenant will carry the day for it And though a Christian may have too much forgotten God yet God cannot forget his Covenant 2. There is nothing more unbecoming a Christian then to doubt of divine relief after experience had thereof Thy other miscarriages and failings may seem worse in the eye of men but nothing seems worse in the eye of God then unbelief There is no sin as one observes so often and so properly called a provocation as unbelief is It may be thou thinkest it but thy modesty and humility to make question or to doubt of thy relief from God and thou art afraid to rest upon God for it in a time of need I but thou little imaginest what thou dost herein Why hereby thou provokest God So you may see Deut. 9.7 8. Remember and forget not how thou provrkedst the Lord thy God Also in Hereb ye provoked the Lord. Now how was that You may see Exod. 17.6 7. Behold I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb c. And thou shalt smite the rock c. And he called the place Massah and Meribah temptation and strife because of the chiding of the children of Israel and because they tempted the Lord saying Is the Lord among us or not They doubted of relief from God in the want of water and hereby they tempted and provoked him Obj. But it may be thou wilt say Israels sin lay chiefly in doubting of Gods power I but I do not doubt of the power of God I know God can do all things and nothing is impossible to him All my doubt is about the will of God for though he can do all he will do yet God will not do all he can Ans Now to this I answer To doubt of Gods will in reference to those things which he hath promised to do is as great a sin as to doubt of Gods power for herein thou callest the faithfulness of God into question and makest him that is truth it self a liar and therefore this must needs be a provoking sin Nay further the attributes of God are so linked together as that no man sins against one through unbelief but he sins against all As he that breaks one command of God breaks all So he that tempts God in one tempts God in all He that doubts of the will of God revealed in a promise doth implicitely doubt of the power of God which is engaged for the performance of it 3. Confidence in God for relief before thou standest in need thereof is a notable help to the exercise of faith in a time of need He that distrusteth God when he is full will hardly trust in God when he is in want I know that many will say they believe in God when all things go well with them and yet when faith is put to a trial indeed they discover that they have little or no faith in them but he that shrinks before the trial comes will hardly hold out in the trial It is not an easie matter to raise thy Soul unto a believing frame it is not done in an instant there must be a daily exercise thereof It is good for us to put faith to its trial before God puts us upon trial that we may have some guess at the strength of our faith When a Christian by dayly exercise hath enured himself to live the life of faith and to cast doubts out of his spirit he can with greater ease live by faith when he hath nothing else to live upon When a Christian can truly say I have trusted God many years and he hath not forsaken me he will be apt to say Shall I distrust him now when my condition calls more for his help then hitherto it hath done I know whom I have believed saith S. Paul and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him 2 Tim. 1.12 Paul doth not say I know whom I do believe but whom I have believed he had maintained the life of faith by a continued exercise thereof and therefore was the more confident of relief from God in a time of need 4. Though through thy miscarriages thou hast rendered thy self unworthy of relief in time of need yet God is most worthy to be trusted for relief Though thou dost not deserve relief at his hands yet he deserves thy trusting in him To trust in God is a duty that all men owe to God As all men are bound to love God and to fear him so they are bound to trust in him And God deserves this trust He and he alone ought to be the sole foundation of every mans confidence but especially of those who have had experience of him It is common for one man to say of another that is tried and found faithful he is worthy to be trusted much more is God He hath bought thy confidence with the price of many mercies and shall God lose his purchase this would be an act of injustice to him And therefore say within thy heart though I am not worthy of relief from God yet because he is most worthy to be trusted in I will trust in him for ever 5. Though thou hast abused relieving mercy yet thou hast not sinned it out Relieving mercy is a fountain that can never be drawn dry And as thou mayest fetch new supplies of strength to help thee against miscarriages so thou mayest fetch new pardons of thy miscarriages And the speediest way to obtain a pardon is to exercise faith on God in Christ for a pardon So Acts 13.38 39. Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses Observe this by Christ all
And so in respect of suffering let the providence of God support and comfort you I have read this of Chrysostom that when Eudoxia procured his banishment He said thus None of these things trouble me but I said within my self if the Queen will let her banish me the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof if she will let her saw me asunder Isaiah suffered the same if she will let her cast me into the Sea I will remember Jonah if she will let her cast me into a fiery furnace or amongst wilde beasts the three children and Daniel were so dealt with if she will let her stone me I have Stephen and the Baptist for my blessed companions go tell her nil nisi peccatum timeo Thus should we support and comfort our hearts by the providences of God exercised towards others and especially by the comforts that others have received from God in the same sufferings and torments that we at any time do or may endure Bishop Ridley writing to Latimer in Prison saith ever since I heard of our dear Brother Rogers his stout confession and departing I never felt any lumpish heaviness in my heart as sometimes I did before And further when you hear or read of the providence of God in preventing evil determined by evil instruments against his Church and people this should raise your spirits to a greater pitch of consolation and holy courage And indeed how many wonders hath God at all times wrought in preserving and hiding his Saints and people from intended and designed plots of mischief and ruine is almost incredible I remember what is recorded in the life of Dionysius Areopagita that when he was caused by Sifinius the Prefect to be thrown to hungry wilde beasts they would not tear him and into an hot Oven it would not burn him The like is reported of S. Ambrose for a certain wizard sent his spirits to kill him but they returned answer that God had hedg'd him in as he did Job another came with a sword to his bed side to have killed him but he could not stir his hand until repenting he was restored by the prayer of S. Ambrose to the use of his hands again So the Circumcellians being not able to withstand S. Austins preaching and writing sought his destruction having beset the way wherein he was to go his visitation but by Gods Providence he missing his way escaped the danger And one saith of Luther That Luther a poor Frier should be able to stand against the Pope was a miracle that he should prevail against the Pope was a greater and after all to die in peace having so many enemies was the greatest of all When this was represented unto Moses in a type it did much affect his heart Oh saith he I will turn aside and see this great sight Exod. â— 2 3 4. It was a great and glorious sight to see the bush in the fire not consumed but more to see the Church under great persecution and yet not destroyed the people of God maligned and opposed and yet to live this is a miracle a soul comforting providence But oh then what a surpassing comfort doth the consideration of Gods improving providences afford to the Saints those providences I mean whereby he doth extract the best good out of the worst evil So that the soul may say as S. Paul of a great evil I know that this shall turn to my salvation Phil. 1.19 And therefore I rejoyce So 2 Cor. 12.9 10. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in mine infirmities And again Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake for when I am weak then am I strong S. Pauls weakness was converted into strength he never was so strong in the inward man as when he was weakest in the outward and herein he rejoyced God doth ever bring about some glorious design as it were at a back door and a contrary way that the wrath of man shall praise God And doth not this speak comfort and courage to the people of God in all their dark and cloudy fits surely it doth and that which kills the hearts of others may be the greatest reviver of their hearts For their greatest sorrows shall turn to their greatest joy and their extremity of miseries shall prove their highest glories their Winter shall bring forth a flourishing Spring and their mournful Seed-time a most plentiful Harvest And therefore let me exhort you in the words of the holy Apostle Heb. 12.12 Lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees Be not dismayed or discouraged at any thing that falleth out For know that there is a wheel within a wheel that worketh and moveth in all things yea that ordereth and disposeth them so that not one iota or tittle of Gods counsel shall fail of accomplishment Melancthon knowing the rage of the Papists and Cesar's threats was much troubled and gave himself wholly up to grief sighs and tears Whereupon Luther writes to him thus I extreamly dislike your excessive cares with which you say you are almost consumed If the cause be bad let us revoke it and fly back If it be good why do we not trust God in his promises If Christ be the Conquerour of the World why should we fear it as if it would overcome us As for Luther himself he had an undaunted Spirit For when our King Henry the eighth had written bitterly against him He makes this Answer Let the Henries the Bishops the Turk and the Devil himself do what they can we are the Children of the Kingdom worshipping and waiting for that Saviour whom they and such as they spit upon and crucifie The truth is there is no condition whereunto the Church of God in general or any Christian in particular can fall but they may hold up their heads and lift up their hearts to an high pitch of consolation therein if they do but lay the providence of God to heart and consider how that works in all to bring about the will of God They may say as Shecaniah said to Ezra There is yet hope in Israel concerning this thing And as Mordecai to Hester Comfort and deliverance shall come And as Saint Paul to the Corinthians in the temptation God will make a way for an escape He hath delivered he doth deliver and in him we trust that he will deliver What though Satan and all the confederates of darkness were now at work to destroy one Soul and to pluck it out of the hand of Christ yet providence will preserve it What though Antichrist and his adherents are combining and plotting against Christ and his members his truths and ordinances yet providence will over-shadow them And Beloved if every Errour in the Nation were an hundred and every Heretick a thousand yet truth and the professors thereof shall prevail Acts 5.38 Providence hath her secret waies of working that cannot be found out and though
under a pretence of acting for God Wicked men will do so but you must go beyond them You must do more then they can do 3. In living by faith upon God 2 Cor. 5.7 We live by faith and not by sight A Christian ought not to hang by the eye-lids eying and looking at external wheels and second causes only but to exercise faith upon the wheel within the wheel This is that which must actuate and inliven all second causes or else they cannot work What is it that thou dost desire this must bring it to pass Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit Zech. 4.6 Would'st thou have thy corruption mortified thy temptation conquered thy graces strengthened thy comforts enlarged thy fears prevented thy prayers heard rest not upon the external wheels but upon the wheel within the wheel Means must be used but not trusted in God alone is the object of a Christians faith Say therefore In vain is salvation hoped for from the multitude of hills and mountains but in the Lord our God is salvation Jer. 3.23 And let it be said of you as it is of Abraham Ro. 4.18 19. Who against hope believed in hope When all instruments are dead Ordinances dead Comforts dead Graces dead heart even dead yet give glory to God by believing in him who never dies And for this end follow the example of the Prophet Psal 77.10 11 12. I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old I will meditate also of all thy work and talk of thy doings Yea wouldst thou set this internal wheel on work wouldst thou move that Why then set faith on work this is that whereby divine providence suffers it self to be moved How came Abraham to be the Father of many Nations but by the movings of this internal wheel and what set that a going but the faith of Abraham And therefore it is said that he believed in hope that he might become the Father of many Nations Beloved if ever you would set any instrument or inferiour wheel on work you must move the greater wheel So it is here 't is God that must move and you must set God on work by faith An active faith will not let God alone it gives him no rest untill he hath set all second causes on work and accomplished the desired mercy Now in this you go beyond all moral men they may make use of means I but they can't believe they can't set the great wheel on work 4. In fixing your hearts upon things that are above Let the constant openings of your Souls be for the entertainment of Heavenly enjoyments And this is a wonder Rev. 12.1 A Christians heart should be in Heaven and the world under his feet The Earth is Gods and a good mans foot-stool thou mayest walk upon it but not be buried in it Most excellent is the Apostles Rule 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. But this I say Brethren the time is short It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away And this was the Apostles glory that the world was crucified unto him and he unto the world Gal. 6.14 He looks upon all as so many dead corps and carkases Fourth and last Inference If this divine wheel be so admirable and glorious then this teacheth you to maintain a constant communion with it For you are little wheels I but what will you do if this divine wheel be not as a wheel in the middle of a wheel what shall act and move you in order to your comfortable winding up Sure I am you will be like Sampson when his Lock was cut off Your strength is departed from you and you like Instruments laid aside and of no use I but if God be in you and with you then you shall go forth in the strength of an omnipotent power and be admirable in working yea you shall have cause to admire the wheel within the wheel and sing with Moses Who is a God like our God glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders Yea with the heavenly Quire saying Amen blessing and glory wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever Amen FINIS A Divine Paradox OR A PRISONER at LIBERTY AND HIS JUDGE IN BONDS Being a Subject Treated of before the Right Honourable the Lord Chief Justice Hales at an Assize holden at Saint Edmunds Bury In the County of Suffolk March 27. 1669. By Samuel Blackerby Minister of the Gospel at Stow Market LONDON Printed for Nevil Simons at the Princes Arms in S. Paul's Church Yard 1674. Acts 24.25 And as he reasoned of righteousness temperance and judgement to come Felix trembled THat I may observe the watch-word given and confine my discourse to the time alotted for it I shall at present wave my usual course and lay aside the threds by which I was resolved to have steer'd my passage to the Text And yet before I can attempt to anatomize and breath any vein of truth therein I must crave leave to strip it of a double paradox which at first view it secmeth to be drest up in For 1. Here is a Prisoner in liberty 2. A Judge in bonds Saint Paul the Prisoner and Felix the Judge the one we meet with in the entrance into the Text the other in the close and both afford us matter of admiration First The liberty of St. Paul the Prisoner for here we find him at liberty to preach and preaching with liberty 1. At liberty to preach That an Apostle should be a Prisoner is much but that he who was imprisoned upon the account of preaching should have liberty whilst a Prisoner to preach and that before his Judge this is more Not many daies before he was accused by a famous Oratour and libell'd against with a deep charge of high misdemeanours and capital crimes and that with so much artifice and subtilty that it is a wonder that a sentence of death had not passed upon him according to the malevolent expectation of his malicious enemies and he for ever deprived of his liberty to preach any more and yet to speak in the Ciceronian Dialect Vivit imo vivit in Senatum venit He lives yea he lives to preach And that 2. With liberty I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with much liberty and boldness For neither the grandeur of the Auditor nor the experience that he had of a former durance no nor his fear of future had any such influence upon him as to seal up his lips or tempt him to play the Sycophant or flattering Courtier that thereby he might have gained an enlargement
we find in the second Considerable in the Text. And that is 2. The Subject matter of the Apostles reasoning for whosoever consults it will not find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fruitless flourish of words in stead of a rich Mine of desirable treasure No! but matter of an universal concern for it concerns all both superiours and inferiours innocent and guilty to be instructed in these topicks righteousness temperance and judgement to come The two first relate to man and the third to God 'T is mans duty to be righteous and temperate and Gods Prerogative to judge The two first are two Cardinal vertues and the third imports a judiciary trial of men thereby at a time fixt in Divine minds men must be vertuous for they shall be judged There is a time given to men to exercise vertue and that is the time present and there is a time for men to be judged by the rule of vertue but that is to come S. Paul reasons of both and so shall I. First Of the Cardinal vertues instanc'd in and herein I cannot but observe the Apostles imitation of a Master Builder that having laid a good foundation ad solidum in solido leaves it not naked but erects the superstructure proportionate thereunto For having presented his auditour with the summe of the Gospel in preaching faith in Christ to him that he might not appear a Solifidean or Antinomian he reasoneth of righteousness and temperance which are the proper and genuine superstructure upon that most choice and excellent foundation For though faith in Christ alone justifies in a figurative sense yet that faith that justifies is not alone For as faith in Christ justifies the person so vertue justifies faith and renders it to be of a Divine Stamp even the faith of Gods elect Faith without works is dead and works without faith do not please him whom above all we ought to study to please Well therefore did the Apostle as it became an Apostle to build the silver gold and pretious stones of righteousness and temperance upon the glorious and precious foundation of faith in Christ for righteousness imparted is a most suitable structure to righteousness imputed and renders the whole fabrique uniform and beautiful the cost indeed is Gods but the beauty is mans And therefore the moralist in dressing up his moral Lady saith that her head is wisdom her eyes prudence her heart love her spirits charity her thighs justice her health temperance and fortitude her strength For that person that is endowed with these vertues is a lovely and beautiful person although he hath no other ornament upon him Nay I hope without offence to Ladies I may call him a beauty Others may be as beautiful as Absalon as fair as Aleibiades in their bodies without and yet have corpora turpissima interne as was said of the last foul and deformed souls Yea may justly be accounted Reipublicae morbi the botches of the Commonwealth Alass with many to be religious just and temperate is too mean too base in their esteem in their eye vertue is the vice and vice the vertue pudebat me non fuisse impudentem as S. Augustine hath it in his confessions may be written upon the foreheads of some persons and none of the inferiour sort For they do not only resist the impressions of grace but trace the stamp of nature and hope with Herostratus to be memorable for villany But I must not be excursive being confined to an Apostolical method and to an inch of time in my reasoning hereof And therefore once more I crave your leave that I may reason of righteousness and temperance apart as the Apostle did And 1. Of righteousness and herein not to trouble you with the various definitions and descriptions thereof laid down in sundry Authors I shall take the liberty to give you this description of it that it is an exact conformity unto law in our dealings with others according to the sphear wherein God hath set us First I say it is an exact conformity unto law in our actings towards and dealings with others And therefore some will have the Latine word to derive its pedigree from a word in that language that signifies Law and say justitia habet nomen a jure for this is an undoubted rule id tantum possumus quod jure possumus that and that onely is just which is justifiable by Law either Humane or Divine either Literal or Aequipollent 'T is very true a discourse of Law becomes Westminster Hall or an Inn of Court better then Gods Sanctuary and yet I hope a Gospel Minister may take liberty to press all men to make Law their Rule I and the Law of man as far as it is conform to the Law of God For I may say of that as Tertullus of Felix By that we enjoy great quietness in our rights and possessions But Secondly This is not all for righteousness is an exact conformity to Law in the sphear and place wherein God hath set us for that is a righteous act when performed by one which is unrighteous when done by another And therefore if St. Peter draws his sword though in defence of his Master and cuts of Malcus his ear he receives no better reward then a sharp rebuke from his Master the King of righteousness and Prince of peace And if David cuts off the lap of Sauls Garment his heart smites him for it 'T is true a national reformation may be very necessary at some times and in some cases but not to be undertaken by private persons Renuente Magistratus against the express and declared will of the supream Magistrate And hence ariseth that common distribution of Justice into distributative commutative The first whereof refers to the Magistrate and the other to the Privateer 1. I say Distributative Justice belongs to the Magistrate qua Magistrate for he properly and principally is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The keeper of Justice and Equity and if I may not stile him Gods Ark because that was in an especial manner sanctified to keep the Law in Yet I may be bold to call him Gods Cabinet to whose trust this precious Jewel is committed He is custos utriusque tabulae jus dicens But when I speak of Magistrates in general you must know that under that notion all their Assistants and Officers are comprehended in reference to the execution of Justice not only the Judges and Justices that sit upon the Bench but also many of those that sit below not only a Supervisor but every Civil Officer and Juror is concern'd herein For in some respects the Sword of Justice is put into the hand of all these especially at such a time as this is And that 1. At the Bar of Nisi prius in determining and silenceing controversies about right between party and party 2. At the Crown Bar. And that 1. In protecting the Innocent and therefore Magistrates are called the shields of the earth because the