92 Want of outward mercies 6 Considerations to quiet the heart under it 142 Wicked men go to sinful shifts 179. Wicked men sin and are not troubled 10 Causes 195 The godly why troubled for sin more then comforted with their graces 5 Reasons When they may be said to be too much disquieted for sin in 7. particulars 194. ERRATA PAge 2. line 32. dele from Reasonings to why art thou disquieted XVII SERMONS Preached by Mr. CHRISTOPHER LOVE out of Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God ALthough the Book of Psalmes is compiled into one Volume and called Acts 1. 20. the book of Psalms In the Hebrew there are five books of Psalms they are divided into five books The first book of Psalms according to the Hebrew is from the first Psalm to the end of Psalm 41. And it is concluded with Amen and Amen Secondly The Hebrews doe account the second Book of Psalms to begin at Psal 42. unto Psal 72. And that you find also to conclude with Amen and Amen And the end of Davids prayers The third book of Psalms doth begin at the end of Psal 72. to Psal 89 and there you find it doth conclude with Amen and Amen The fourth book of Psalms you have its beginning from Psal 89. unto Psal 106. and there also it is concluded with Amen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Halelu-jah or praise the Lord. The fifth or Last book of Psalms is from the 106. to Psal 150. the last Psalm in the book of Psalms And this also ended with Halelu-jah My Text it falleth under that Psalm that begins the second book and Interpreters do differ much about the occasion this Psalm was pen'd on Generally Interpreters agree in this that it was penned by David either when he was fleeing before Saul for then David was sore troubled and driven from his house and habitation and was by reason of his enemies driven from the worship of God from the place of Gods publike worship and was forced to hide himselfe in dens and caves of the earth now in that sad Condition that he was then in it may be supposed that he made this Psalm Or else it was made in that time when he was fain to flee for his life before his son Absolom when he was in danger of his life at one of these times do Interpreters conceive it was when David made this Psalm and most do agree that it was made when David was deprived of the publike worship of God But I now come to the words themselves Why art thou cast down O my soul c. My Text containes in it a pathetical Soliloquie that this Psalmist useth unto his own soul as it were two friends when he doth reason and confer with himself and that is when the more supernatural part of man the more excellent and more noble part of man doth confer and reason with the more inferiour part of man or the outward part of man Why art thou cast down and disquieted with u me As a man that should direct his speech to one that he desireth to reason withall So here David to commune with his own heart doth use such like reasonings as he should under all his afflictions and under all his troubles why he should be troubled and why his soul should be troubled and cast down and disquieted within him Why art thou disquieted c. These words I say they are a Soliloquie whereby he doth labour for to cheer him under all that trouble of soul that he found to be within himself These are exceeding usefull to your souls This course you find that David tooke in other places at other times Psal 103. 1. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within mee blesse his holy name See here how the Psalmist doth call to his soul to blesse the name of God and at another time when he would check his own soul for his negligence and for his miscariage before the Lord he saith I was as a beast before him and the Scripture tells us that the people of God have and do check their own hearts before God for any one sinne when they find the least miscarriage in themselves they then do check themselves for it Why art thou cast down O my soul c. Now in general I shall lay down these five particulars to be considered about the words First Why or what may be the reason that this text is three times used in this Psalm and in the next whereas you do not find two verses of the same length used in all the book of Psalms besides in the 5th verse of this 42. Psalm and in the text the 11th verse and in the 5th verse of Psal 43 there are the same words Why art thou cast down O my soul c. there is no Psalm that makes such a repetition of words but only Psalm 107. besides this in the whole book of Psalms there is often repeated O that men would praise the Lord c. Now what may this teach us that David doth so often make mention of his own soul why it should not be cast down and disquieted and troubled Now surely the frequent mention of this text and words doth argue and note unto us the waightinesse of the matter Now things of lesse moment are less spoken of and are but toucht on but things of greater moment are more thought and spoke of and oftner repeated with the more eagerness and earnestnesse as in these words Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me 2. When and on what occasion were these words spoken Was it at that time when David was persecuted by the hands of Saul when he was banished from his own house and from the publike and set-assemblies of the worship of God verse 2. and for this cause was it that his soul was cast down and disquieted within him When he had holy breathings after God in his publike worship O when shall I appear before God and when I remember those things my soul is troubled this surely was one thing that troubled his soul The David he was in affliction and trouble when affliction did come upon the Church of God some deep and great Calamitie one after another one deep of affliction comes after another Deepe calleth to deepe at the noise of the water-spouts ver 7. one after another trouble after trouble sorrow after sorrow affliction after affliction this was that which troubled his soul Tribulatio tribulationem parit Musculus as one Wave in the Sea follows another so did one trouble follow another as v. 7. Again when he made this Psalm it was at that time when deep sorrows and troubles of the Church lay upon him and that by reason of great enemies that he met withall as is recorded
who is in fault the messenger or the condemned man the parallel lies plain O how glad would the servants of Christ be that they might be alwaies pouring out the precious ointment of the Gospel oh how sweet a theme is the grace of God the love of Jesus Christ How sweet and delightfull would our Ministry be if we might alwaies walk among these sweet perfumes Doe ye think Ministers are delighted to heare the screeke and groans of soules when they are put to pain by sound and clear convictions Nay are they not rather astonished to converse every day with so many carcases that prick them cut them wound them burn them threaten doe what you will feel just nothing verily were it not out of faithfulness to God and souls they would not insist so much on such subjects Certainly as it is the glory of a Chirurgeon not to make wounds but heale them so it is the glory of Ministers to heale wounded consciences 3. A third thing observable is the sweet directions that here are scattered up and down how a Christian should behave himself in the vicissitudes of providence You are taught here your spirituall postures how to rise in thankfulnesse how to fall in humility when you must to your close when to your open order here is a straight rule by which you may measure your excesses and defects when you are too much when too little cast down for we are very prone either to over or to underdo it is so hard to hit upon the middle Here you may learn when you are active when you are passive in your own dejections It may be you may meet with some particulars twice but remember he that shoots the same arrow twice and both times hits the mark hath well shot Now concerning the other Treatise the Ministry of Angels as also that other of Gods Omnipresence they were not intended for a Philosophical but for a Christian auditory the former subject is high and there is room enough for speculation Too many in these daies have been wantonly busie to converse with Angels out of pride and curiosity but the good Angels wil not be spoken with upon those terms or if they do speak to be sure it will be no comfort to those persons for the Apostle by laying down a supposition hath given us a certainty that the Angels will speak no other doctrine then he did Therefore such spirits as are intruders into things not seen are vainly puft in their fleshly mind Col. 2. 18. how spiritual soever they seem to be As for that opinion that every man hath his particular Angel If any think it not sufficiently answered in this Treatise we shall add only this that when the maintainers of it are agreed among themselves about it whether every man have not two Angels a good and a bad Or if every man have but one whether that be a good one or a bad one If it be a bad one what comfort is there in that Doctrine If every man have a good one how can this stand with the text that limits their Ministery to the heirs of Salvation When these riddles are unfolded no question but a further answer will be given This Author doth practically handle that subject and with great sobriety To draw towards an end As God hath always in his Family some sick and weak children so he doth provide comforts and attendance for them For he will not leave them comfortlesse and certainly he will not leave them helpless Be of good comfort then there are more with us then against us While we have visible enemies warring against us we have invisible Angels taking our part And therefore the Psalmist after he had spoken of the Protection of Angels in the 34. Psal ver 7. he adds in the 8. v. O tast and see how good the Lord is Go therefore and chide thy self for thy unbelief for thy despondency of spirit Say to thy heart as David Why art thou cast down O my soul And as God to Jenah in another case Dost thou well in it Is it for Kings sons for God's children for those that have Angels to guard and serve them that have hidden Manna to walk so sadly and dejectly It is enough for those poor low spirits that dwel in the lower region of sense and reason to be dejected If these Treatises tend to thy comfort give God the glory Grace be with all that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity Amen So pray The servants of thy soul and thy faith in the work of the Gospel Edm. Calamy William Whitaker Simeon Ash Mat. Poole William Taylor Jos Church A Table of the chief Heads contained in this Book A ASsurance why the Saints want it Page 56. means to regain it Page 93. Afflictions of the Church do afflict the godly p. 124. 127. Afflictions on the outward man apt to disquiet the godly p. 141. B Back-sliders if they return must be deeply humbled p. 11. p. 14. p. 165. C Casting down God's children subject to it p. 6. What persons God doth most cast down p. 8. Why God casts down his own people p. 30. How God doth it p. 40. 41. Checking our own hearts a good means against fainting p. 45. Comforts against desertion when it is for sin p. 76. Comforts under affliction p. 146. D Dejections of spirit how to reason against them p. 46. Dejection when a sin p. 53 Desertion an act sometimes of soveraignty p. 61. and sometimes of justice p. 63 9 Comforts under desertion p. 68 Difference between trouble for sin in the godly and wicked 167. F Formality in duty p. 53. G Great sinners God uses to humble much p. 9. Grieving the spirit p. 9. L Love of God suspended by 8 things p. 89 P Promise made not to the measure but truth of humiliation p. 24. 37. 51. Pride of gifts p. 33. 90. Prosperity of the wicked a stumbling-block to the godly p. 101. No reason to be disquieted at it p. 102. Considerations against it p. 105. Prosperity not always a note of a good cause p. 112. 〈◊〉 Ends why God suffers the wicked to prosper p. 114. Why his own people want it p. 120. R Rules to keep from excessive sorrow for sin p. 36. Repentance begins at the bosome sin Rules to quiet the heart under outward afflictions p. 151. Rules for those that are greatly troubled p. 203. Rules to shew how the soul may be Evangelically troubled With rules of Comforts and Cautions 213. S Sorrow for sin when excessive 16. 17. Soliloquies p. 2. p. 43. Sympathy with suffering brethren and sinful disquiet how they differ p. 129. Sinful sorrow for the Church's Calamity how cured 132. Sorrow for personal sufferings when inordinate 156. T Trouble of heart for sin p. 161. Times when this trouble is most felt 162. V Unmercifulnesse p. 91. Use of tryal whether your trouble of soul for sin be right 200. W Wicked men why not troubled at sin p. 26. Worldlimindednesse
v. 9. Why hast thou forgotten me why goe I mourning because of the oppession of the enemy And yet even then in this great and sad condition of trouble that was upon him did he breath out this sweet ejaculation or Soliloquie Why art thou troubled O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Therefore observe by the way that the people of God have many times to their great comfort cause in the midst of their greatest troubles and sorrows to have these divine meditations in their minds that their souls be not cast down too much under trouble Why said David notwithstanding he was in great trouble yet Why art thou cast down O my soul So you read that Paul that he did write most of his Epistles when he was under bonds in prison and trouble and yet even then was his heart filled with joy to his great comfort So David his heart was better within him at that time when he was in a Cave then at that time when he was in a Palace and though troubles were upon him yet he could then call to his soul not to be troubled within him Thirdly Davids troubles was from the Divel and from wicked men that did oppress him Wicked men opprest him and the Divel tempted him yet David chides his own heart and nothing else David did not chide at Saul nor chide at Absalom but he checks and chides his own heart Why art thou cast down O my soul Though the Divel and wicked men the one do tempt the other do oppresse as instruments of punishment for sin yet we with David are to chide our own hearts David had cause to chide at Absalom and to chide at Saul yet he doth not so but chiefly checks his own heart Why art thou east down O my soul c. Fourthly Consider what though in our translations the words are translated and rendered positively Why art thou cast down yet in the Original they are rendered actively we read it Why art thou cast down c. But in the Original it is read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why bowest or pressest thou down thy self my soul and why tumults thou against me As Arias Montanus Cur humiliasti te Cur deprimes te anima mea So Lorinus Pro. 12. 25. And the words so read they do intimate thus much that Gods own people may be cast down too much for the sense of sinne and they are most active in their own defection It is not God nor the Divel that cast thee down but Why dost thou cast down thy self to Create more trouble on thy self then either God doth inflict or the Divel tempt thee too In the words themselves there are three parrticulars to be considered First Here is a twofold distresse complained of differing gradually from each other disquiet being more then cast down cur tumultuaberis Secondly Here is a twofold duty to be performed hope in God and praise of God Thirdly Here is a twofold encouragement in these distesses he is the health of my countenance and my God Why art thou cast down O my soul Or if you read it in the active voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What dost thou cast down thy self my soul Believers are agents in their own sorrow and trouble neither God by inflicting nor the Divell in tempting doth so much trouble us as we our selves In Prov. 12. 25. Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop c. the sense of sin casteth him down in Gods presence First Casting down it is sometimes in a good sense that is when the soul is duly humbled before God for sin and for judgement as in 2 Cor. 7. 6. God that comforteth those that are cast down c. that is that are cast down in humiliation for sin under the sense of sin and miserie and in this sense David did never nor doth not here check his heart for he never checked his heart for the exercise of grace and doing his duty Secondly It is also sometimes taken in a bad sense where sorrow for sin is inordinate and more then is required and enjoyned where this is found it is not to be cherished but checked and so for this it was that David did check himself as in the text Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me These words in the explaining thereof treating on them will be of singular use to the people of God Therefore I intend to spend some time upon them I shall at this time make entrance into the first part of the text Why art thou cast down or why dest thou cast down thy self my soul Doctrine The Doctrine that I shall draw from these words is this That the Children of God though they cannot be cast off yet they may be cast down Why art thou cast down O my soul There are five particulars why Davids soul was cast down in this Psalm As first He mourneth because of his enforced absence from Gods publike worship that they could not gather together in the place where God was to be worshipped See the breathing of this good man in verse 2. of Psalm 42. my soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before him So in the 4th verse When I remember these things I poure out my soul in me for I had gone with the multitude I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise with a multitude that kept holy-day David was deprived of the publike worship of God and this made him mourn Secondly His soul was cast down under the sense of sinne that he had committed against God and the evil effects of sin to remember what he had done against God and he felt the sense of the wrath of God in the remembrance of sin Thirdly He lay under the eclipse and sad suspension of divine favour in the ninth verse I will say unto God My rock why hast thou forgotten me The apprehensions of the suspensions of Gods favour made Davids soul to be cast down within him because he lay under the loss of Gods love and favour and he wanted the light of Gods countenance this made him mourn Fourthly Because of the opprâ—sion and prevailing of the enemies over the people of God verse 4. Fifthly He was grieved more for sin then personal afflictions because of the reproach blasphemies and dishonour that was cast upon the name of God by other men which made him say As with a sword or with killing in my bones my enemies reproach me while they say daily to me where is thy God So likewise in the 3. verse My tears have been my meat day and night while they continually say unto me where is thy God All this sheweth that he was more troubled about spiritual troubles then outward afflictions of the body blasphemie against God is as a sword in his bones when troubles on himselfe was but as a scratch in
the soul into such a frame to be cast down for sin and to have the soul humbled under the sight and sense of it Now there are three wayes that the Lord doth use for to cast down the souls of sinners and to humble them under the sight and sense of sin The first is this God doth let in a light into the understanding and sets on worke that great Officer of God in man his conscience which doth so smite the heart and convince the whole soul of the evil of his doings and makes the man to single out sin yea to single his master sin his beloved Dalilah his bosome lust that hath made him most guilty of the breach of the righteous Law and laid him most liable to the wrath of God he singles out that sin that hath been his companion all his days God doth not only make him to look upon sin in general because a general view of sin in the soul doth work in the soul a general repentance for sin but God doth by the light that he puts in the understanding and conscience single out thy sin thy dearly beloved sin and as it were bring it to thy understanding that it may understand the guilt and weight of it Therefore you read of some in their first conversion Acts 2. 37. they were guilty of many sins that they had committed I but God by setting their consciences on work did single out one sin in a special manner the sin the iniquity that they were most guilty of and that was the crucifying of the Lord of life You have it laid down in the 36. verse Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Whom ye have crucified there was the sin that came home to them to their hearts as you may read in the 37 verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts here they were taken in the sin that they were most guilty of God made their consciences to bring that in a most special manner and this troubled and pricked them at the very heart though they stood guilty of many great sins yet God laid that one great sin to their hearts that they might be humbled for that most of all So when the woman of Samaria came to Jesus Christ when he was at the Well speaking concerning her husbands he told her what was her sin he whom thou hast now is not thy husband Christ told her what her sin was in plain terms he told her shee was a harlot and shee went and told it that he told her all things that ever shee had done Christ did not tell her shee was a sinner in general but he did single out what her great sin was for which shee was most guilty and that worked upon her heart and conscience her conscience told her she understood the truth of it and this made her to be cast down for it So now if God gives thee grace to be cast down for sin under the sight and sense of it he will put a light into thy understanding and set conscience on work for to single out thy beloved sin the greatest sins thou standst guilty of thy mastercorruption that so thou maiest be humbled for it The Second way that God takes to cast a man down under the sight and sense of sin it is this God doth stir up the affections of the soul in the remembrance of those aggravations and hainous circumstances with which that sin is clothed withall You read Job 36 9. He sheweth unto men their works and their transgressions that they have exceeded He sheweth unto men their iniquities and what follows and their transgressions which have been exceeding great God doth not only shew men their sins that their sins are great but also he sheweth to men the aggravations of their sins and it is not a Transient view of the greatness of their iniquities and transgressions but he causeth them to know it he causeth them to know that their sins are clothed with hainous circumstances as that they have sinned against means and sinned against mercies and sinned against love and sinned against light and sinned against the checks of conscience for thy sins and all this to make thee to be cast down and humbled for thy sins The Third and last way that God takes for to cast a man down for sin it is this God doth put conscience into office in men not only to single out one particular master sin but also to bring to remembrance those sins that thou standst guilty of before God and to set them in thy sight and in especial manner that master sin this beloved sin and to humble thee for it and abase thee before God until that sin be mortified in thee sin must not only be seen and the affections stirred up in remembrance of those hainous circumstances of it with which it is clothed and that they are exceeding great but also conscience must keep them in remembrance until they are mortified in thee untill that sin is subdued and mortified and these are the three steps that God doth take to cast men down in the sight and sense of sin And now all you that are strangers to this work that never yet knew what this casting down for sin meant in any measure Labour to find these three particulars wrought upon thy soul that so thou maiest be cast down under the sight and sense of sin and so I have done with this doctrine concerning casting down for sin SERMON IV. Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God NOw before I come to the Second branch of the words I shall consider the Text in the Dialect or form of speech which the Psalmist here useth and then draw out some Doctrine that the words will afford You see that the form of speech here is by way of a Soliloquie which is a form of speech to himself as between two friends Why art thou cast down O my soul From which expression or form of speech take this Observation Observation That such self-conferences or Soliloquies that the Psalmist here useth are duties that believers ought to be much conversant about and ought to busie themselves much in The Psalms are full fraught with these divine Soliloquies as you may read Psal 103. verse 1 and the last Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name And verse 22. Bless the Lord O my soul And Psal 104. 1. Bless the Lord O my soul So Psal 34. v. 1. I will bless the Lord at all times So likewise Psal 146. v. 6. Praise the Lord O my soul and many places in the Psalms of his praising God All those do intimate to us those
complain of God than to God It is the usual behaviour of the wicked to complain wretchedly against God but not humbly to God when they are in horror of conscience under the disquiet of sin Revel 16. 9. And men were scorched with great beat and blasphemed the Name of God It is said of the followers of Antichrist they were scorched with heat and blasphemed the Name of God When God doth let the fire of his wrath scorch the consciences of men with rage against the Church this doth but make them Blaspheme God As thus in Isa 8. 21. It shall come to pass that when they shall be hungry they shall fret themselves and curse their King their God and look upward They cursed their God and their King Wicked men complain of God that he is a hard Master that he loves to inflict cruel and severe judgements upon his creatures the horror of conscience makes them to expostulate with the most high as if he were unrighteous they complain of him that his decrees are partial that his mercy is defective that his justice is severe but they never humbly complain to God under the disquiet and trouble of the soul A notable text to Characterize a wicked man in Job 15. 24 25 26. verses Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid they shall prevail against him as a King ready to battel For he stretcheth cut his hand against God and strengthens himself against the Almighty He runneth vpon him even upon his neck upon the thick bosses of his buckler It is spoken by Eliphaz in a warlike phrase When a man is angry he will run at another man to doe him a mischief a wicked man in the horror and trouble of his soul will arme himself against God even in complaints this is the temper of wicked men even in horror of conscience to think ill of God to complain of him but not to him but a godly man when God lets him be troubled for sin his temper is to complain to God Lament 1. 18. The Lord is righteous for I have rebelled against him hear I pray you all people and behold my sorrow my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity There is a complaining to God but not of him thou are righteous but I have sinned Psal 51. 4. Against thee onely have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou maiest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest As if he should have said I will blame my self and I will judge my self now my conscience flies in my face but I will clear God and will not judge God this is the temper of a gracious man under trouble of mind for sin he complains to God but never of him The ninth Difference is this Wicked men in disquiet of soul for sin they are more apt to complain to men of their trouble than to God Thus Judas when had had betrayed Jesus Christ his Master it is said that Judas came to the high Priest and the Scribes and Pharisees and said unto them I have sinned in betraying innocent blood But we never read that Judas went to the Lord and said I have betrayd thy Son I have sinned in betraying the innocent blood Thus Haman was troubled when he could not get Mordecai's knee why He told his wife and friends what had befell him but never went to God Thus Saul when he was troubled and vext in spirit It is said Saul told his servants an evil spirit troubled him but we never read that Saul went to God to allay the trouble and disquiet of his heart this is the Character of a wicked man sin dogs him conscience flies in his face thus to men he can complain but never goeth to God to complain to him my soul is troubled my conscience is gauled he can never go to God pouring out his complaints But godly men do more complain to God than to men it may be in some immergent cases to satisfie doubts but God shall hear their moans and complaints in private The Psalmist doth express this notably Psal 61. 2. From the end of thē earth will I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher then I. Jonah 2. 7. When my soul fainted within me then I remembred the Lord and my prayer came in unto thee into thine holy Temple There was Jonah's trouble for his sin my soul fainted within me but I remember the Lord and my prayer came to him When Jonah was under soul-trouble why saith he I remembred the Lord he would commplain more to God than to men when he was under trouble Tenthly The wicked are disquieted for sin but it doth not put them upon consciencious and effectual endeavours for the effectually mortifying of those sins they are troubled for they are more troubled about the guilt of sin then about the power of sin if they can remove the guilt they never care for the power and dominion of sin this is the character of a wicked man Thus Pharach the guilt might trouble him that God did punish him but the power of his hard heart never troubled him Thus it is in wicked men there disquiet of sin never makes them put upon effectual endeavours for the subduing and mortifying of sin But godly men are of a different temper they work more to mortifie sin then to pacifie conscience more to subdue the power of sin then to remove the guilt of sin he knows he must either kill or be kill'd if he kills not sin sin will kill him therefore his work is to purifie the conscience as well as pacific the conscience to remove the power thence as well as the guilt Eleventhly Wicked men in disquiet of soul for sin they are prodigal and free in promising to leave sin whilst trouble is upon them but when trouble is over they run into those sins for which they were troubled with more vehement eagernesse and desire This is expressed unto you in Deut. 5. 27 28. verses Go thou neer and hear all that the Lord our God shall say and speak thou unto us and all that the Lord our God shall say unto thee we will hear and do it And the Lord heard the voice of your words and the Lord said unto me I have heard the voice of the words of this people they have wel said of which they have stoken When the people heard the terrible manner of God's delivering of the Law in thundrings and lightnings they made Moses a large promise What ever God commands us by thee we will observe to do it But saith God in v. 29. O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandements always that it might be well with them and their Children for ever And it is observable that when his trouble was a little over the people were worse then ever they were before they fell to murmuring after and
murmured ten times against that God that had delivered them This is the character of wicked men that when trouble of conscience disquiets them their sins remain on them O how they will promise what men they will be they will turn a new life and they will never be as they have been and yet let their trouble be allayed and you shall see that this restraint of their consciences shall put them on more eagernesse to commit sin then ever they did in all their life time before Mens sins are compared to an Oven Hesea 7. Fire disperst into the Air doth not burn so fierce but in an Oven it burns fierce Wicked men when sin is kept in their hearts through disquiet of soul for sin when this fire hath vent it will burn with more fiercenesse and more rage when conscience shall dam up a sin that trouble is over and conscience is gotten over the dam sin doth prevail on the soul with more eagernesse and more prevalency In a godly man it is otherwise when disquiet of soul is over for sin a godly man detains an awe of running into that sin again though trouble be over yet he remembers how he was troubled I confesse I do remember what it is to lie under the weight and burthen and guilt of sin therefore this puts an awe upon conscience that he dares not venture on sin to wit as in former time Twelfthly The wicked under disquiet of soul for sin they are more apt to apply the comforting part of the Word then to apply the threatning and commanding part of the Word when they were troubled by the Ministry of the Word Deut. 29. 19. And it come to passe when be beareth the words of this curse that he blesse himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk after the imagination of mine heart to add drunkennesse to thirst Say they we shall have peace though we do walk according to the imaginations of our own hearts to add drunkennesse to thirst they could apply peace but they would not apply threatnings though they did walk in the imaginations of their own hearts Wicked men under horror of conscience they are more apt to apply comforts though groundlesse then to apply threatnings though their portion Jer. 3. 4 5. Will thou not for this cry unto my Father thou art the guide of my youth Will be reserve his anger for ever will be keep it unto the end Behold thou hast spoken and done evill things as thou couldest They did evill as much as they could yet they would presume to say God was their Father they claimed interest in God This is the character of a wicked man to apply the comforting part of the world not the threatning part of the world But good men are more apt to apply the threatning part of the Word then the promising part of the Word Psal 77. 2. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore van in the night and ceased not my soul refused to be comforted Asaph could apply terrour but he would refuse comfort Thus by dayly experience look upon a consciencious man under the disquiet of soul for sin you shall see that man all the threatnings all the terrible parts of the Scripture that may work against him he will remember them all but apply no promise that may allay disquiet of soul for sin Thirteenthly Wicked men under trouble of mind for sin they go to sinful shifts and means to allay and pacifie the disquiet of their souls for conscience therefore they use four sinful shifts which godly men dare not do First of all They do shun a soul-searching and a sin reproving Ministry this you see in Felix Acts 24. 25. And as be reasoned of righteousnesse temperance and judgement to come Felix trembled and answered Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will send for thee Paul told him of two sins that he was most guilty of to wit Drunkenness and In justice when he had thus dealt with him roundly made his conscience tremble and his heart troubled Felix said get thee gone I will hear thee some other time Paul had gauled him and troubled him why Felix shuns the continuance of the rebuke and reproof of the word But a godly man dares not do thus a godly man loves that word that most ransackles his conscience and loves that man that shall awaken a secure conscience observe that difference between Felix in the Acts and between the Converts in the Acts Felix bids Paul go from him shuns the reproof of the word when it gauled his conscience but when the Converts were troubled for sin and were pricked in the heart for killing Jesus Christ they loved the Apostles and clave to them and laid their possessions at the Apostles feet the Apostles might command all they had they loved them so well good men dare not doe as wicked men doe in that particular Secondly Wicked men to allay disquiet of Conscience they allay it by running into a crowd of secular imployments thus you read of Cam Gen. 4. 17. After Cain was gone out from the presence of the Lord by reason of his sin he to stifle his conscience went and builded a City God's people dare not doe thus they dare not go to the World for to allay disquiet of conscience but they go to God's word they retire into a corner and they search the Word to see what God's word speaks to them in the day of their trouble Prov. 12. 25. Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop but a good word maketh it glad I stoop under heavinesse and trouble but a good word only from God can comfort me Thirdly Wicked men under trouble use this sinful shift to go to carnal pleasure and sensuality to allay disquiet of mind Saul called for Instruments of Musique 1 Sam. 16. 14. to allay the troubles of his spirit as the Israelites that offered their children to Moloch drowned the cry of their Children with a noise of Drums and Tabrets so wicked men doe with their Consciences God's people dare not doe this they know that sensual pleasures can no more pacifie a disquieted Conscience then a silken stocking can cure a gowty Leg they dare not wallow and swim in sinful pleasures but they go to the promise and in that they take their delight Fourthly wicked men they go to bad company to merry company to see if that can make them forget their troubles thus Herod did Mark 6. 18. For John said unto Herod It is not lawful for thee to have thy brothers wife Immediately after John had troubled his conscience for having his brother Philip's wife then to allay this trouble of John's reproof Herod then calls for his merry company his Nobles and his Souldiers about him that so he might forget the disquiet of spirit but godly men go to good men and to God in a corner Psal 61.
art a burden to thy self Beloved it is an argument that the Divel is a casting off and sin is casting out O comfort thy self I hear the noise of Conscience every day I hear my Conscience suggest this guilt to me and that to me O blessed be God I hear my Conscience to roar and howl why the more hopes I have that the Divel is throwing out and sin is casting out that is a fifth Consideration Sixthly and lastly Take this for thy comfort that there are more promises of the Gospel made to men in this condition then to any other sort of men in the world I could give you multitudes of promises to men in this case Matth. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest So in Isa 54. 10 11. ch 35. 4. ch 57. 15. Many other Texts I could give you where God maketh abundant promises to men under disquiet of soul under the guilt of sin when Children are well they shall have it may be but pebble stones to play withal but if there be one sick Child in the house the Mother goeth to the Cabinet and looketh out fine things to quiet the Child O Beloved it may be healthful Christians shall go on comfortably and shall have now and then smiles of God's face towards them but God's rich Cabinet of promises are open to them when they are sick when a poor sinner suspects that he is not pardoned then God comes with a promise to comfort him that he is pardoned The well children in the house is beloved by the Parents but the sick Child is dandled on the knees the well Child may have bread and butter but the sick Child hath the comfortable things to comfort it Beloved God's sick Children that are sick with sin that are greatly troubled in Conscience God provides for them the promises to allay and pacifie the troubled spirit O let these words of comfort sinke into your hearts SERMON XVII Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God I Now come to give you some other Rules and they are to those who complain and say The Lord help me I am so far from being over disquieted that I do not find my heart disquieted at all I do not find my soul so much as troubled under the guilt of many evils that I am guilty of touching this I shall proceed to give you rules directory and consolatory First How a Child of God that doth not find his soul sensibly touch'd and evangelically disquieted under the sense of sin committed how that soul may come to have his soul evangelically troubled under the guilt of sin First Rest not satisfied with a general and a confused fight of sin but labour to single out the chiefest of thy corruptions to have a particular and distinct view thereof this is the course that God's people have taken Acts 2. 37. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do Peter doth not tell them that they were sinners in the general but of all sins he doth single out one Ye have crucified the Lord of glory and when they heard that they were pricked at the heart They singled out that sin to have their hearts brought to brokenness and to contrition When Christ would bring the Woman of Samaria to remorse and trouble for sin Christ did single out one sin of all and told her Thou art an Harlot and the Scripture gives you this hint that the singling out that one sin made her see all other sins for saith the woman Lo Behold the Man that hath told me of all that ever I have done and yet Christ told her only of her Adultery Do thou thus What is that Dallilah that thou playest withal in thy bosome single out that sin and that is the way to have a distinct view of all the evil general and confused apprehensions of sin doth but bring in a general humiliation it hath been the undoing of a great many souls to rest satisfied with general apprehensions of their guiltiness they have lived and died without any saving remorse on their Consciences He that writes of Bellarmine saith this of him That when he came to die saith he such was the innocency of that man that he could not tell one sin in him that he was to make confession for it did not arise from the innocency of the man but it arised from an indistinct sight and observation of his ways Beloved this makes a man hard-hearted when he comes to die that he hath not evangelical remorse in him because he hath but a confused and a general view of sin You read of Ahimaz that was running in post haste to bring news what was done David asked him What news saith Ahimaz I saw the battel and I heard a tumult and a great noise but I know not what it was a Sam. 18. 29. Thus many men do with their sins as he did with his intelligence they are troubled for sin but they know nothing but in the general they know not what the sin is just like Nebuchadnezzar he called his Magicians and Inchanters together saith he Tell me the Interpretation of my dream for I have dreamed and I know not what it is Some men say they have sinned but they do not know what sin they have committed what particular sin they have done The second Rule is this Look upon small sins cloathed with great aggravations Beloved this is the reason why men are not troubled they look on their small sins as small but do not look on them as cloathed with many hainous circumstances Suppose thy sin be a small sin invisible as to the world yet if thou wouldst cloath this sin with aggravated circumstances it may be a sin against conscience a sin against much mercy it may be it is a sin committed after many purposes and vows This course did Justin take in the second book of his Confessions chap. 4. about his robbing the Orchard I did it saith he compelled neither by hunger nor poverty but even through a cloyedness of well doing and a pamperedness of iniquity for I steal that of which I had enough of mine own and much better c. and so he goeth to aggravate his sin Beloved when you find your souls not troubled for sin cloath it with many hainous circumstances and this we read of one that he would aggravate his sin saith he It is true the Divels have sinned but they never sinned against a Saviour as I have done Adam sinned but he never sinned against a Christ as I have done Do thou thus aggravate a small sin and this will bring humiliation A third Rule live in the meditation of pardoning mercy it is true
the world and which none in the world can take cognizance of but themselves alone and such God doth lay them low when he doth convert them God will raise a storm and a tempestuous trouble in their consciences for sin As it is with the wind all the while it is dispersed in the aire it doth no hurt but when it is gathered together into the bowels of the earth then it doth overturn hills and houses and all things with it So it is with sin all the while that sin although it be within thee yet if it be as wind in the aire dispersed and scattered by repentance and humiliation it doth thee not much hurt I but when sin is indulged and hugged in thy bosome in thy heart and allowed of by thee and concealed by thee in thy soul this will be to thy soul as wind in the earth to make heart-quakes and conscience-quakes and cause great trouble of mind unto thee Therefore O man whosoever thou art that doth goe on in a way of sinning against God and to allow thy self in known sins which none can accuse thee of but God and thy own conscience Know this that whatsoever thy professions are God will make thee lie low before him under the sense and sight of thy sinnes if ever he doth convert thee to himselfe Seventhly God doth most cast down those for sin that do backslide and apostatize from Religion those who did professe Religion and then afterward backslide and apostatize from that profession and turn apostates these men if ever God bring them back he will humble them to the dust and lay them very low in the fight and sense of their sins according to that expression of Solomon Prov. 14. 14. The backsliders in heart shall be filled with their own waies but a good man shall be satisfied from himself The backslider that as he hath been filled with the pleasures of sin in times past so the backslider shall be filled with his own waies that is he shall be filled with horror of conscience and filled with anguish of spirit and trouble of mind and his own backsliding shall be vexation to him God will lay such a man very low if ever he brings him back again In Jeremiah 2. 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy backslidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see what an evil thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God c. It may be thou hast backsliden from religion now God will make thy own wickednesse to reprove thee I shall instance that known flory of Francis Spira he did profess religion and afterwards turned apostate and though his conscience told him he sinned yet he sinned so high that he sinned against conscience and the spirit of God and wished himself to be in Gods place But read the story and you shall see what fretting terror and horror of conscience this wrought upon him it laid him under the terrors and sense and divine vengeance and how his soul lay under horror for his apostacy Now all you what ever you be if you fall from the profession of the Gospel and turn apostates from religion God will meet with you and fill you with terror and your backslidings shall fill you and your own wickednesse shall reprove you Then Eighthly God doth lay these low under the sense and burden of their sins whose natures which by reason of the strength of natural parts are most apt to be listed up with spiritual pride God doth use to bring such as these are very low when he doth bring them to himself he will lay them low under the sight of their sins what the Psalmist said concerning evil and ungodly men that They stand in slipery places and their waies are like ice who appear in high places they shall not stand long and what is spoken of outward pride is true of spiritual pride God brings the proud one to the depth of hell as you may read in Isa 14. from verse 11. to 16. In verse 11. Thy pompe is brought down to the grave the noise of thy viols the worm is spread under thee and the worms cover thee v. 12. How art thou brought down O Lucifer sonne of the morning how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weary nations For thou hast said in thy heart I will ascend into heaven I will exalt my throne above the starres of God I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the North ver 13. I will ascend above the beights of the clouds I will be like the most high v. 14. Yet thou shalt be brought down to bell to the sides of the pit c. All this is spoken of the King of Babylon to bring down his outward pride They who doe imagine and think to set their nests on high God will bring them down to the dust Now O man dost thou grow spiritually proud by reason of the strength of thy natural gifts know that if God hath a purpose thee to bring to himself he will lay thee low before him in the sense of thy own sin they who are listed up in the conceit of their own excellency God will lay them low in the sight of their own sinfulnesse Ninthly God doth cast those down low in the sense sight of their sins whom he doth intend to make instrumental in his Church to the building up and stablishing comforting of souls and perplexed and troubled consciences Now those God doth plunge under the sight and sense of their own sins As the vessels of the sanctuary there were more filling of them and more labour bestowed about them then any ordinary vessels besides for any ordinary use Now if God doth intend to make a man a vessel in his Church God will take more pains if I may so say to fit him for that use he shall be exposed to more tryals to be exposed to more temptations and be laid very low that so he may be the more able and the more fit for to comfort and to quiet others that are perplexed and troubled in mind Astronomers that lie low in pits or valleys have the clearest sight of the stars So those that have been under Gods discipline are most fit to comfort others It is observable of Luther there was no man in his age that was so troubled so tempted so pestered with temptations from the divel and so troubled with the sight of sin as he and the divel would appear to him in a bodily shape that he saw it himself and he was fain to fight with him hand in hand and yet for all this by this means Luther he became the more beneficial to the Church of God to administer comforts to those that were afflicted thus much for the second Question SERMON II. Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I
shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God Question 3 THe third Question is this But when may Gods people be said to be cast down too much for sin Indeed casting down for sin and humiliation for sin is good and necessary but when may it be said that a child of God is too much cast down for sin David doth check himself not that he is humbled for sins but that he is too much cast down for sin A child of God may be said to be cast down too much for sin in these Nine particulars First a man is cast down too much for sin when his humiliation maketh him to cast off all hopes of pardon when he shall so lie under the burden of his sins as that he shall not have any hopes to have it taken off Then in this case it is too much when humiliation for sin shall make you to say Jer. 2. 25. that There is no hope and that you are cut off this is too much too great a degree and measure of humiliation When good men shall say doubtingly which wicked men will say scoffingly that there sins are so great and their case is so desperate that there is no hope no help for them in God no salvation for them to be had no way for them to get out and escape this is too much casting down for sin this is the way to cut of hopes The Saints in heaven their hopes is cut off but it is far different from this way Their hopes are turned to full enjoyment of what they before hoped for they have no hope because they are above hope But Saints on earth they are to carry their hopes still above all discouragements and to hope strongly for pardon of sin better have the thread of our lives cut off then the anchor cord of our hope Despair is the cutting off of hope But to be so cast down under sin as to have despairing thoughts without hope of Mercy is excessive But Secondly That man is cast down for sin too much when is so cast down for sin that he doth cast off duty when a man shall thus reason against himself what need I pray and what need I perform holy duties I know God will not hear me he will not hear my prayers let me pray as long as I can and as often as I will And so for confession of sin what need I confesse sin I know God will not pardon my sin and what need I beg grace I know God will not give me grace and what need I hear sermons I know God will not hear me nor accept of my duties and I shall not get good by all I doe and by all hear These reasonings O man are very sinful and it argues a great degree of too much humiliation for sin As despair in any man cuts off hope so also such a sinful frame cuts off endeavours Fools go on saith Solomon and are confident but sometimes fools go on and are carelesse and for a man to be so cast down for sin as to be careless in discharge of duties it argues too much dejection of spirit Despair is the total eclipse of the mind with the blackest fumes arising from the burning lake of fearful terrors Thirdly Thy casting down for sin is too much when thou art so dejected and cast down for sin that it doth indispose thee for holy duties good men have been so and good men may be so overtaken You have an instance in Asaph Psal 77 4 Thou holdst mine eyes waking I am so sore troubled that I cannot speak Asaph prayed and his soul was so sore troubled and overwhelmed that he could not speak as if he had said I would pray but I cannot pray he was so troubled by reason of his sin Then indeed is thy humiliation too much when the sight of thy sins shall unfit thee for the doing of thy duty this is not necessary but sinful Composednesse of spirit aright for humiliation for sin it is so far from unfitting the soul for duty and prayer that it doth dispose and fit the soul for prayer to God Hos 12. 4. Jer. 3. 21. Nebem 9. 1. 4. Therefore it is said that the people of Israel did weep and make supplication and they offered sacrifice Judges 2. 4. 5. When thy sight of sin and the sense of sin and humiliation for sin doth fill thy heart with matter fit for prayer that is necessary and good but when by this the soul is unfitted for prayer and supplication then it is sinful In Exodus 6. 9. it is said there that they hearkned not unto Moses when he spake unto them for the anguish of their spirits or as it is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the straightnesse of spirit or shortnesse of spirit they were so troubled in mind that they could not hear Gods word Psal 77. 4. Homan said this is my infirmity if it hinder it is no sacrifice that God commands Fourthly Then a man is too much cast down for sin where there is an unaptnesse unwillingnesse in the mind to receive and apply comfortable counsels that are laid down in the Word and which do appertain to him in that condition if there be great aptnesse in thee to entertain such terrible threatnings and denunciations of judgements against sin rather then to receive any good proofs laid down in the Gospel and clear promises to quiet and comfort thy troubled spirit when you are more apt to trouble your selves for sin then to comfort your selves against this disquietness of mind upon and under the sight of sin in this case you are cast down too much for sin In Psal 47. it is spoken of Asaph that he refused to be comforted as bad stomachs in children had rather feed on chalk and dirt then wholesome food So if so be that when comforts are propounded and laid before you by the Ministers of the Gospel and comforts shall be suted to thy condition and you not apply them but lay them all aside be confident that thou art too much cast down for sin In Pro. 12. 25. Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop but a good word maketh it glad Now when heaviness for sin shall so oppresse thee that all the good words that can be given thee out of the Gospel will doe thee no good administer thee no comfort then is thy casting down for sin too much In Mark 9. 50. Have salt in your selves and have peace one with another Maintain good doctrine therefore said Christ ye are the salt of the earth If you see a pot boyling and if it boyle too fast if you take salt and cast into it it will alay the boyling so fast So if your passions do grow so fast that all the doctrines of the gospel precious comforts that are therein cannot allay this passion and pacifie the conscience and comfort the soul and support the spirit then
is thy casting down for sin too much because there is no spiritual disease so dark to the soul but there is comfort enough in the Gospel to support the soul under it When God shall call to thee and say Come to me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you Mat. 11. 28. And you to refuse to come to Jesus Christ and refuse and put off comfort from you you are then too much cast down for sin Fifthly Then is a man cast down too much for sin under the waight and sense and sight of sin when that sorrow for sin shall be an occasion to wrong and hurt and to disturbe the body by diseases and thus melancholy men are subjected too much to this distemper and herein they are too much to blame Many there are who make their tears their meat and drink so fill'd with tears that they cannot eat their bread with comfort There are many godly souls so troubled with sorrow for sin that they have no comfort and joy of heart in Job 20. 25. It is drawn and commeth our of the body the glistering sword commeth cut of his gall terrours are upon him Many men lie in the bitterness of their souls that they cannot eat one morsell of bread with joy Job 21. 25. Now God doth not require so much sorrow for sin as to eat out the comforts of a mans life and to disturbe the comforts of thy daies as to be so troubled and disquieted that they cannot sleep by night and not to take comfort in the day As it is said concerning Asaph Psal 77. 4. Thou holdest mine eyes waking I am so troubled I cannot speak When it is thus with you that you are so sore troubled so over much cast down it is excessive The Lord hath bid thee mourn not to wrack and crucifie thy body but thy lusts he calls thee to weep out thy sins strength and life not thy bodies strength and life God doth never require nor expect that any man should kill his body to save his soul through humiliation and sorrow for sin Sixthly Men are then cast down for sin too much-when a man is so far and so much cast down under the sight and sense of sin that he hath no mind at all to follow his particular calling now this is a sinful sorrow Sorrow for sin is not only sinful when it taketh you off from duties of godliness and Religion but when it taketh you off from your calling in the world and the reason is this as all Divines say That God doth never require any duty which belongs to our general calling as Christians to be inconsistent with our particular callings as Men Therefore if so be that your trouble of mind for sin hath been such as that it doth make you not to regard your particular calling as men in the world this is not accounted in Scripture a sorrow of sin necessary but immoderate and too much casting down for sin Seventhly They are too much cast down for sin when the amiable and admirable and comforting attributes of God are formidable and terrible to such men when we so think of sin as not to think on the divine attributes of God of the mercy of God of the goodnesse of God of the patience of God of the long-suffering of God of the faithfulness of God when men shall think so of God as if he were all justice all wrath without mercy good men have been overtaken with this fault Job was so Job 23. 15. Therefore am I troubled at his presence when I consider I am afraid of him Here Job tells you of the trouble of mind that he lay under that it made him afraid of God to be troubled at his presence and when he thought of him he was troubled at him One would think that to think on God is a comfort for a man to think that God is merciful to pardon my slong in faithful to keep Covenant with his people bountiful in God to supply his people strength in power to defend his people He is able to save them to the utmost one would think it should comfort one to think so on God But that presence that Moses could not endure to be without that presence Job could not endure to see and the reason was because of his guilt and his fears and doubting within him which cast him down too much And this was Asaph his case I remembred God and I was troubled Psal 77. 3. What the thoughts of God to trouble Asaph yes I remembred God and I was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed He might reason thus with himself I think that this God is a glorious and a terrible God a sin-revenging God and he seeth me and he marketh all my steps and he knoweth all my waies and he will reward all my doings therefore when I thought on God I was troubled at him O but the thoughts of God comforted Davids soul when I thought on thy name I was comforted said holy David Psal 99. 14. I but said Asaph when I thought on God I was troubled and Job when I thought on God on the Almighty I was afraid of him When the attributes of God shall trouble men to think of them and not encourage them and comfort them then is this sorrow too much casting down for sin But then Eighthly When under this sorrow for sin thou canst not look to God and blesse God for common mercies or special grace God gives thee mercies great mercies that thou maiest be rich and follows thee with mercies and blessings and loving kindnesses daily and his faithfulnesse is towards thee every moment and gives thee the world at will and yet for all this God not to have glory from thee shews thou art too much cast down for sin Whereas trouble and humiliation for sin if it be moderate and right it administers occasions to serve God and it doth occasion thee to blesse God and to give him glory for common mercies and special grace it doth occasion thee to glorifie God and draweth out the heart to serve God and to blesse him for the receit of mercies and when mercies have not this effect upon thee and when sorrow for sin worketh not this way it is immoderate sorrow and too much casting down for sin When God gives thee grace to assist thee against manifold temptations and to keep thee from the committing of manifold sins and to help thee against thy corruptions and to give thee grace to establish thy heart and yet not to bring up thy heart under thy sorrow to bless God this is a sinful sorrow If a man be upon his knees he may see heaven above and the earth beneath but for a man to lie flat upon his face he cannot see neither the heaven above nor any creature but only the earth below him So when God brings thee to thy knees for sin then you can see a gracious God
sense of sin I would not so treat on this doctrine as many Libertines doe to lay aside all manner of humiliation for sin because some men are cast down too much they will not be cast-down at all for sin Use 1 Not to prosecute such a principle it is the way for to run into all manner of Licencious libertie and to be all upon the extremes Secondly labour to order the affections and passions of thy mind so that when soever you are humbled and in sorrow for sin you take heed that you doe not cast off sorrow for sin be sure that you have such a degree of humiliation for sin that it may make thee to lie at Christs feet and no lower Christ would have you to be so humble as to lie at his feet in the sight and sense of sin but the Divel would have you to be so low in your humiliations for sin as to lie in hell Jesus Christ would have thee to be sorrowful for sin that thou mightest recover out of sin but the Divel would have thee to lie so low in thy humiliations for sin that thou mightest never recover O take heed of such a sinful sorrow for sin doe not be humbled so much as the Divel and thy own evil heart would have thee and thus much for the third Question SERMON III. Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God Question 4 THe fourth Question in order to be considered is this That seeing that Gods people may be cast down too much for sin and too much humbled under the sight and sense of corruptions Then what may be the reason that wicked and ungodly men are not cast down at all for sin and seeing that Godly men may be cast down for sin here too much and not cast off for sin hereafter and wicked men that shall be cast into hell for sin when they dye yet are not all cast down for sin while they live What reasons may be given for this Answer 1 Now for the resolution of this Question I shall lay down these Six particulars by way of answer The first Reason why wicked men though they shall be cast off yet they are not at all cast down for sin It ariseth from their ignorance of the dangerous and damnable Nature of sin they have a blind mind and a dumb conscience they see not such evil in sin as godly men doe Althouch wicked men know what sin is in general yet it is but a general notion of sin in the head and they have no particular and experimental and distinct notion of the evil and dangerous nature of sin upon their hearts and consciences and therefore it comes to passe that they are not cast down for sin But this general notion of sin casts them off and doth not cast them down and this is the reason that they doe not see sin to become exceeding sinful and they doe not take notice of the evil of sin the damning nature of sin according to that expression in Jer. 2. 23. How canst thou say I am not polluted I have not gone after Baalim see thy way in the valley know what thou hast done thou art a swift dromedary traversing her waies Here the Jews they were great in sin and did abound in wickednesse yet they were ready to say that they were not sinful at least they did not know that they were so it is for want of the knowledge of their waies the sinfulnesse of their doings that they are not cast down for sin Should a man meet a Lyon in the Wildernesse he would be afraid of that and the reason is because he knows that the Lyon is hurtful but if a man sees a Lyon painted on the wall he is not afraid of that because he knows that cannot hurt him So when men shall look upon sin but not look upon it as a Lyon in the wildernesse that will certainly destroy him if he avoid it not but to look upon sin as a Lyon painted on the wall that hath no power to doe them hurt they see sin but it is generally and notionally and not particularly and experimentally The second Reason is this it ariseth from a principle of presumption of pardoning grace and mercy when wicked men hear the thunderings and curses of the Law denounced against sin and sinners delivered by the Ministers of the Gospel to awaken them from the sleep of sin and security when they hear of the severity of Gods justice and that he is a sin-revenging God and that he will by no means clear the guilty but will render to every one according to his waies and works Now what doth a wicked man doe in this case doth this awaken his conscience to see the evil of sin no but he doth the quite contrary he then from a principle of presumption of pardoning grace and mercy in God blesseth himself in his own waies and he saith I shall have peace though I walk after the imaginations of my own evil heart as if they should say Let sin trouble them that will let it cast down them that will be cast down it shall never cast down me it shall never trouble me What shall sin trouble my conscience ' or disquiet my peace for or why shall I mourn and trouble my self about that which I need not that which others seem to break their hearts for it shall never break my sleep for I hope that it shall never damn my soul btt I hope though I do commit sin yet I hope God will pardon sin and though I am sinful yet I know God is merciful and thus they doe from a principle of presumption goe on in a way of sin without any trouble for it or casting down under the sight and sense of sin at all But then Thirdly The third Reason why wicked men are not cast down for sin at all it ariseth from that obdurateness from that hardnesse that is in their hearts and from that searedness in their consciences there are a generation of men that it may be said of them as concerning sin they are past feeling according to that expression of the Apostle Eph. 4. 19. Who being past feeling having given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness And as St. Paul said 1 Timothy 4 2. They have their consciences seared with a hot Iron When men have so accustomed themselves to sin that sin shall harden the heart and seare the conscience and then no marvel if they are not at all cast down for sin Then Fourthly Wicked men they are not cast down for sin at all it ariseth from this because that they do stifle the rebukes of conscience when it doth rebuke them and check their sin and cast them down for sin when men shall resolve that though
they shall be cast off for sin though they be cast into hell for sin yet they will not at all be cast down for sin and rather then they will cast off their sins by the dictates and the rebukes and checks of their consciences they will aggravate their sins and greaten their sins by stifling their consciences that it shall not doe its office And thus did Cain when he begins to be troubled for sin and conscience begins to rebuke him for the evils he had done what doth Cain doe now doth he let his conscience doe his office No he both heightens and greatens his sin and stifles his conscience Gen. 4. 13. My punishment is greater when I can bear or as it is in the Hebrew my iniquity is greater then may be forgiven And then he goeth to stifle his conscience ver 16. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the Land of Nod he went out from Gods presence and stifled his conscience by building of Cities And hence it comes to passe that men are not cast down for sin because they do stifle the rebukes and checks of conscience and so Divines do interpret that place in the 11th Verse of the Epistle of Jude Woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and that was when conscience did rebuke and trouble him for killing his brother and spilling of his blood and after to stifle and still his conscience he went to building of Cities And thus O man thou that walkest in waies of wickedness and thy conscience shall rebuke thee for thy evil course in telling thee that thy conversation is not good nor upright shall tell thee that thy waies are unjust and sinful and yet thou through thy accustoming thy self in an evil course shalt stiflle the checks and rebukes of thy conscience and delight to goe on in a way of wickednesse this is an other great reason why wicked men are not cast down in this world for sin Fifthly A fifth Reason why wicked men are not cast down for sin in this world it is this because of the abuse of the long-suffering and patience of God you have a notable place for this in Eccles 8. 11. Because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to doe evil Because God doth not punish wicked men for their wickedness speedily because a drunkard is not speedily punished for his drunkenness and because a swearer is not speedily punished for his swearing and because the adulterer is not speedily punished for his uncleanness c. therefore doe they fully set them selves to work wickedness When wicked men shall abuse the patience and long-suffering of God to presume the more to sin against him hence it comes to passe that they are not cast down for sin at all Sixthly A sixth Reason is this because of the slight thoughts that wicked men have of the Omnisciency of God though wicked men be not doctrinal Atheists to deny that God seeth all things they do but hold it as an opinion Yet most men are practical Atheists to live so loosly and wickedly and vainly as if God did not behold all things and know and see them in their sinful course You have an expression in Job 22. 13 14. And thou saiest How doth God know or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what knows God can be judge through the dark clouds Thick clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not It is as much as if they had said God doth not know and God doth not see their wicked and sinful waies as though the clouds were a covering between God and them that he could not see their evil waies and this was the cause why their sins troubled them not And thus I have done with the Fourth Question why wicked men are not cast down for sin at all The fifth Question is this Now seeing wicked men are not cast down for sin at all and yet shall be cast down into hell and that for these Reasons laid down Then what may be the reason that Godly men who shall never be cast off never be cast down into hell yet they may be cast down for sin in the sight and sense of it Now in the answering of this Question I shall lay down these Seven Reasons Reason 1 The First is drawn from the nature of sin and the justice of God considering of them together Now what is the the nature of sin now this is the nature of sin Sin it is in its own nature a resting and a striving and contending against God and striving to cast God down and to set it self up It is the nature of sin to pull God out of heaven from his Throne and to place it selfe there Now God will in justice strive and contend against sin shew himself to be too strong for sin sinners and to cast them down you may see that this is the nature of sin in Job 15. 25 26. For he stretcheth out his hand against God and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty He runneth upon him even on his neck upon the thick bosses of his bucklers Here Eliphaz describes a sinner in his wicked waies as a souldier comes against his enemie he strengheneth himself against him and he runs upon him with all his might that so he might overcome So doth a wicked man he strengthens himself and runneth against God as it were with all his might if it were possible to overcome cast him from his Throne where he is and therefore it is just with God to condemn sin and to humble the sinner The sinner would cast Gods law behind his back but it is the nature of sin to cast God behind his back now God will in justice cast away a sinner by condemnation or lay the sinner low by humiliation Secondly God doth cast down sinners under the sight and sense of sin that so the children of God might cast away sin with the more indignation and therefore God doth cast him down the more by the way of humiliation When a man shall take a knife in his hand and he fall with his knife in his hand and thereby cut himselfe with it away he presently flings the knife from him Now it is so in the waies of sin and wickedness when you take sin into your hands when you go into any unwarrantable course when you fall into sin you take knives into your hands and in falling so into sin you cut your selves God makes that knife of sin to cut your heart to cut your conscience and you wound your souls and seeing sin doth as knives wound you in your falling therein you should with the more indignation cast it from you You read in Isa 30. 19 22. of sorrow for sin The people shall dwell in Zion they shall weep no more he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of
thy cry he will hear it he will answer thee Here is Gods promise upon their humiliation then in ver 22. Ye shall defile also the covering of the graven Images of silver and the ornament of thy molten Images of gold thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth thou shalt say unto it Get thee hence God maketh his people to mourn for sin and to cast them down for sin and to humble them under the sight and sense of sin and to make them to have indignation against sin and then to cast sin from them as a menstruous cloth And as it is with nurses when they would wean their children they will put some bitter thing upon the brest as Wormwood or Gall thereby to make the child to forsake the brest So God he puts bitter things upon those things which we account sweet he puts bitter potions upon the brest of our sinful delights that so he might wean his people from sucking any more at those poysonous brests which we so highly esteem in our corrupt nature You read of the prodigal son in Luk. 15. 16. when he was brought to those great straights and trouble that he desired to feed of the husks with the swine after he came to himself he desired to eat bread and be as one of the hired servants in his fathers house When God doth make his people smart for sin as the prodigal did in his absence from his fathers house when they are laid low for sin under the sense and sight of their sins as the prodigal was when they come to themselves again then they would be glad with the prodigal to prize their fathers house So the soul when he comes to be brought very low for sin then they come to set a high esteem on Jesus Christ It is very observable where humiliation for sin is mentioned there it is joyned with a detestation and segregation from sin Jam. 4 8. Joel 2. 12. Thirdly God puts sinners under the sight and sense of sin because it puts the soul to cast themselves and to rely upon Jesus Christ it is our necessity that puts us first upon the persuit after and relying upon Jesus Christ because we see that we are undone without Jesus Christ It is with us as it was with the Leprous persons that we read of in 2 Kings 7. 3. And there were four Leprous persons at the entring in of the gate and they said one to another Why sit we here untill we die If we say We will enter into the City then the famine is in the City and we shall die there and if we sit still here we die also Now therefore come and let us fall into the hâ—st of the Syrians if they save us alive we shall live and if they kill us we can but die I apply this here to this case here is the case If I die in a Christless state I am gone forever and undone to eternity and if I rest in confidence in the world that can afford no safety I wil therefore run to Jesus Christ that there I may have relief and that there I may ease me of my burden by resting upon Jesus Christ in his promise Fourthly God doth cast his people down under the sense of sin That so he might suppresse the lifting up the pride of our own hearts in the sight and apprehension of our own gifs when the Lord doth see a man to be lifted up within himself with pride with his gifts then God will hide his gifts and shew him his sin and lay him low and make him humble So was it with Paul he was a man of exceeding great parts and great gifts above other men even above all other men but only Jesus Christ and yet for all that he was apt to be proud and to be too much lifted up within himself in the apprehension of his own gifts and for this he had a thorn in his flesh to keep him humble lest he should be exalted above measure 2 Cor. 12. 7. So you read likewise in Psal 9 20. Put them in fear O Lord that the nations may know themselves to be but men Men of the greatest gifts have the greatest fears to keep down pride The Swan that hath white feathers hath black feet So those that have the greatest excellency shall have some manifest infirmity to keep them down as Heman was a man of excellent gifts 1 Kings 4. 31. yet see how God humbled him Psal 88. 7 15. ver Now God to cure his people of this distemper of spiritual pride he layeth them low and casteth them down under the sight and sense of sin Fifthly That thereby he might bring the hearts of his people to a more cleer sight and sensible and lively feeling of pardoning grace and mercy the deeper God is pleased to cast his people under the sense and sight of sin and the lower he layeth them under humiliation the higher will they exalt God in his pardoning grace and mercy After men are tossed at Sea in a tempest they prize the harbour God doth take that course with his people as t is reported Astronomers do take they do not lie on the tops of high mountains when they would take a view of the skie but they lie in the lowest vallies not in places which are nearest the heavens but in low places most remote from the heavens So God he doth not lift up his people at all times as upon mountains but layeth them low in the valley of humiliation and casts them low under the sight and sense of sin that thereby their hearts by faith might take a more cleere view of and sensibly and lively feel the free mercy and pardoning grace of God God doth cast you into low pits of humiliation that by that you may see the more cleerly Gods mercy and grace God plungeth his people under humiliation as you may read in Psal 44. 25. Our soul is bowed down to the dust our belly cleaveth to the earth And in verse 26. Arise O Lord for our help and redeem us for thy mercies sake Here you see the Church complains of the deepness of her sorrow the greatness of her humiliation their soul was bowed down even to the dust a great degree of casting down But what was Gods end in this greatly humbling of them it was to put them upon a more sensible feeling of Gods pardoning mercy and grace as it appears in these words Redeem us for thy mercies sake Mercy was precious and pardoning grace was precious when that they lay low under affliction and were deeply humbled sense and sight of sin and misery under which they lay made them to prize and highly esteem pardoning grace and mercy and this is an other reason why God doth lay his people low under the sight and sense of sin that they might esteem pardoning grace Sixthly To make them confess that there is more evil in sin then ever there was
thou dost desire to amend thy waies and thy doings that have not been good and to walk more close to God if so though thou hast not the measure of humiliation and casting down for sin as others have yet thou hast the end of humiliation and thou maiest rest satisfied in thy conscience If that humiliation doth imbitter sin and endear Jesus Christ to thy soul I tell thee O poor soul though thou hast not this degree of humiliation thou maiest be dear to Jesus Christ and thou maiest go to heaven for all that and I tell thee further for thy comfort there was never yet any went to hell and lost heaven for want of degrees of grace but many goe to hell and lose heaven for want of truth of grace So none ever went to hell for want of such and such a degree of casting down for sin and for want of such and such a degree of humiliation but many goe to hell for want of humiliation in the least measure and truth of it If there be faith in thee grace in thy soul though it be but as a grain of mustard-seed a little grace sprung in the soul shall spring up in thy soul to a harvest of glory as thy reward Yea God rewards the soul with no less a reward then glory for a little grace heaven is not entailed to the soul upon such and such degrees of grace to have so much faith and so much repentance and so much humiliation and so much casting down for sin and so much love to Christ though this is to be strived after as a strong faith in God much love to God c. yet heaven is entailed to weak faith a little love c. so it be true Therefore if thou findest the ends of humiliation thou maiest satisfie thy selfe though thou wantest the degrees this is the Second rule Rule 3 The Third rule why the souls of the people of God should not be too much cast down for sin is this Be sure to cast thy self upon Jesus Christ for life and salvation and then whatever comes be sure thou wilt not be too much cast down for sin nor too much dejected under it What is the great reason that so many poor souls are so much cast down for sin too much dejected under the sight and sense of it It is this because they are afraid to cast themselves wholly upon Jesus Christ and to rowle themselves upon him for salvation Though more sin requires more tears for sin upon the thoughts of it yet Jesus Christ need not shed more blood for sin Jesus Christ needs no more to die for satisfaction for sin Christ hath paid a full and compleat and sufficient ransome for sin and needs die no more I but thou hast not shed all the tears thou must doe for sin for the body of sin and the remainders of corruption that are within thee It is the nature of wicked men yea and good men too to run into extreams about and concerning sin and therefore observe this rule for it will be a means to keep you that you do not cast your selves down too much for sin First It is natural for wicked men that they will be so far from being cast down for sin too much that they will not be troubled nor cast down for sin at all but to goe on from sin to sin for to passe from one degree to another till they perish everlastingly and this they do without fear Secondly But now on the right hand good men are very apt to run into a right-hand error and wicked men will not be cast down for sin at all these will labour to cast themselves too low for sin under the sight and sense of it The Scripture makes mention of wicked men they are not at all troubled for sin as you may read in Job 21. 14 15. nothing troubles their consciences when they come to die see verse 13. They spend their daies in wealth or as the Hebrew word is they spend their daies in mirth and in a moment goe down to the grave But are they at all humbled before God read the 14 and 15 verses Therefore they say unto God Depart from us for we do not desire the knowledge of thy waies What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him Therefore depart from us Wherefore because they lived in mirth and pleasure and at hearts ease and they never so much as thought of sin and much less for to be humbled under the sense of it and therefore they neither cared for God nor for his waies so that you see wicked men are not cast down for sin at all But now good men are on the other side very apt for to imbitter their own condition by being too much cast down for sin this is possible and good men are very apt to doe it 2 Cor. 2. 7. ye ought to comfort him lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow When a child of God shall out of bitterness of soul cast himself down too much for sin As he was subject too that was by the Church excommunicated for his sin when he under this censure suffered for his sin it was the Apostles fear lest he should be born down with overmuch sorrow Therefore though wicked men make light of sin and are not humbled under the sight and sense of it at all take heed that in your mourning for sin you do not cast your selves down too much for sin and thus I have resolved these six Questions I shall now close up this Doctrine with a word of use Use 1 If it be so that the children of God may be cast down for sin though they may not be cast off for sin and may a godly man be so cast down for sin that he may cry out with the Psalmist Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Although wicked men may live in pleasure all their days and never be troubled and cast down under the sight and sense of sin I shall direct my speech a little to wicked men First O you that live in a course of ungodliness in waies of wickedness delighting your selves to live after the imaginations of your own evil hearts consider and reason thus with your own souls What are good men cast down that shall never be cast off and are they dejected who shall never be rejected what will you doe that heap sin upon sin and add iniquity to iniquity to multiply your abominations and never have your hearts to be troubled and never have your consciences smite you for the evil of your doings O consider that many may be cast into hell for sin that never have been cast down for sin and if you go on and continue in this way of sinning what will become of you But you may say What may be done or what means may be used to get
divine Soliloquies that the people and Saints and servants of God have had in themselves to bless God See not only the divine Soliloquies here mentioned but also the works of Augustin and Bernard Gerrard Dr. Hall and others that have had divine Soliloquies between God and their own souls in secret therefore let this be your care yea make conscience of to be much in these divine Soliloquies to have much conference between God and your own souls in secret it is a duty that Christians are bound to to confer with others and this God takes notice of So also it is a duty to confer with your own souls between God and your own souls David sometimes blesseth God and sometime he checketh himself sometimes he calls to his soul to bless God and raiseth up his soul to praise God and sometimes he chideth his soul for being cast down Why art thou cast down O my soul Are you at any time troubled in mind then use this holy reasoning of this holy man Why art thou cast down O my soul Are you at any time sluggish in duty then say to thy self it is better to be the servant of God then to be the Divels drudge so draw up thy soul again to a frame sutable to the duty thou goest about and the God thou servest it is better to live in peace with God and a good conscience then to live in the service of the Divel which will bring trouble of mind and horror of conscience to thee and say by conferring with thy self with thy soul What am I what is my condition am I an elected person or am I a reprobate am I an heir of glory or an heir of hell am I a child of God or a child of wrath am I in the state of grace or in the bonds of iniquity Such conferences as these with thy own heart will be a means to awaken thy heart from the sleep of securitie to consider of its own estate this is thy duty let this be your practice to enter into a discourse with your own hearts as David did But I shall not follow this particular There is something more in the words to be considered and that is the manner how David doth speak to his own soul and how he reasoneth with his own heart and saith Why art thou cast down O my soul from this manner of speech consider this doctrine Doctrine 2 That a child of God should check his soul for and use holy reasonings against excessive castings down for sin and this I draw from the manner of the Psalmists speech he checks his own heart and reasons with his own soul concerning this particular Why art thou cast down O my soul In the handling of this doctrine there are two particulars to be considered First A child of God should check his heart for and use holy reasonings against excessive sorrow and casting down for sin Secondly To shew you in what manner you are to use these holy reasonings against your excessive casting down for sin First Why a child of God should check his heart for and use holy reasonings against inordinate and excessive casting down for sin Because First he is the chief actor and principal agent of his own dejections and he being the chief agent of his sorrow he is to lay the fault and blame on his own self I told you though the words lie to be read passively Why art thou cast down O my soul yet they are to be read actively according to the original text Arias Montanus cur humiliasti te Lormus cur deprimes te anima mea Why or what dost thou cast down thy self O my soul Therefore if thou art cast down thou art the actor and agent of thy own dejection thou dost cast down thy self therefore check thy own heart for and use holy reasonings against immoderate and excessive dejections for sin God enjoynes his people to believe in him to keep up their souls to lift up their souls to God and yet sometimes they are subject to cast down themselves and cast down their souls by immoderate and excessive casting down for sin When the Divel by his temptations doth not cast them down yet will they cast down themselves Why dost thou cast down thy self O my soul Secondly This is the ready and most effectual way to recover himself out of that dejected condition by checking his own heart for being excessively cast down holy and religious arguments with a mans own soul are prevalent arguments to work the soul out from his dejected estate which if he should let himself alone in this dejected estate he would soon plunge himself into such a condition and excessive and immoderate casting down for sin into such a gulf of misery as that he would not be able to get out again As it is good for a man to reason with his heart when he is assured of salvation so why he doubts of it There is a Why am I cast down in sorrow as well as Why am I raised up in comfort Then Secondly After what manner are the people of God to use these holy reasonings against immoderate and excessive casting down of their souls for sin Answer There are seven waies how the children of God are to check their hearts for and to use holy reasonings against excessive sorrow and casting down for sin First The children of God should reason thus with themselves after this manner O my soul I am not cast off by God everlastingly by lying low before God therefore why should I be cast down excessively for sin In Psal 94. 14. For the Lord will not cast off his people neither will he forsake his inheritance Although God doth not say I will not cast down my people yet he doth say I will not cast them off So Romans 11. 1. the Apostle he repeats the words again God hath not cast off his people and he puts a God forbid upon it in the 1 verse Hath God cast off his people God forbid The Apostle brings it in as a strong negation God hath not cast off his people whom he foreknew Therefore seeing that God doth not cast off his people Why should I be too much cast down let wicked men let reprobates that shall be eternally cast off let them be excessively cast down but let not me be cast excessively down for sin seeing I shall never be cast off though I may be cast down for a little moment according to that expression in Isa 54. 7 8. For a small moment have I forsaken thee but in great mercies will I gather thee In a little wrath have I hid my face from thee in a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy upon thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer This casting down for sin is but momentary a small time a little season but he will not cast off for ever Secondly Reason thus with thy own soul against thy dejections and say Jesus Christ he laid
the other Now what reason can those Christians give that make conscience of all their ways and labour to live usefull in all their relations and to live in the use of Ordinances and to walk close with God in all their ways what reason have they to be too much cast down for sin Therefore as you will reason for believing and comfort so also you must reason against excessive casting down for sin for to do this you have no reason you must shew reasons of your dejections as well as of your assurance and perswasions Wicked men come and ask them concerning Heaven they will tell you that they are sure of Heaven and then ask their reason wherefore they think so they can give you no reason at all therefore that is presumption So good men are apt under too much dejection of spirit to say that they shall goe to hell and be cast off from Heaven but ask them a good reason they can give none at all And this is a sin on the other side I would ask such doubting Christians upon serious thoughts because you are apt to think you shall goe to hell can you say that you have no more reason in you then wicked reprobates have And can you say that you are guilty of those actual sins that are impossible to stand with a principle of true grace and that there is that in you raigning that no child of God can have these are indeed some reasons but if these be not found you have no cause to be cast down Though you must check your own hearts for too much casting down for sin yet you must not cast off all dejection for sin for to be cast down for sin is a duty but to be overmuch and excessively cast down for sin that is a sin There is such duties that you are to put your hearts upon but not to deject your hearts excessively under And if you ask me how I shall know that these are duties I Answer in these Four particulars First You are not to check your hearts for dejection under sin when the measure of your dejection is subservient to the ends of dejection Now the end of dejection it is two-fold First It is to imbitter sin And Secondly To endear Jesus Christ And when thy dejection hath these two ends namely to make sin to be bitter to thy soul and to make Jesus Christ to be precious to thy soul then is thy dejection right thou not to check thy heart for it but to cherish it embrace it But when thy dejection doth not make sin bitter nor make Christ to be precious but trouble thy mind and cast down thy soul and drive thee away from Christ this is excessive and not subservient to those two ends and so becomes sinful Secondly You are to cherish this dejection when with this humiliation dejection for sin you do joyn with itthe sense of Gods love favour when thy heart is brought into this frame as to see sin with one eye and Gods love and free grace and pardoning mercy with an other but those that do so pore upon their corruptions and sinful miscariages as never to be able to see Gods love and free grace and pardoning mercy in the promises of the Gospel this is a sin and this you should check your hearts for Thirdly Thy dejections are not excessive when thy dejections are more for the evil of fact then for the danger of punishment when your dejection is more for sin committed then thy state thou hast endangered that is not excessive But when thy dejections are more in mourning for the state you have endangered then the sin you have committed that is excessive When a man shall commit a sin and he shall be dejected and say I shall goe to hell and lose my happy estate in Heaven and fear hell as punishment more then to mourn for sin as a sin this is excessive sorrow for sin When thou shalt mourn more for the fear of punishment of sin then for sin as it is a dishonour to God and that thou hast committed and aggravated evil it is excessive But when thy sorrow shall be more for sin and Gods dishonour then for fear of punishment if this be the trouble of thy soul thou art not to check thy heart for it Fourthly Those dejections and castings down for sin are to be entertained when they have this effect for to make thee to justifie God and to condemn thy self to justifie God in all this proceedings But when under dejections of mind thou shalt entertain hard thoughts of God to murmur and to repine and to be disquieted these thoughts are not to be cherished but thou art to check thy heart for them But when thou canst justifie God in all his dispensations towards thee these workings of spirit are not to be checked but cherished Job 40. 4 5. Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my band upon my mouth And verse 5. Once have I spoken but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further As if Job had said In my trouble of mind I have spoken often against God once and a second time against God but I will lay my hand upon my mouth and justifie God and condemn my self and acknowledge my self vile in my own eyes thus did Job learn to doe And so when you can under your casting down for sin justifie God and condemn your selves and acknowledge God to be just in all his dispensations and to acknowledge your selves vile in your own eyes then is your casting down for sin not excessive and you are to cherish it and not to check your hearts for it And thus I have finished the first ground why Gods people are cast down for sin SERMON V. Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God Question 2 THe second Question is For what are the people of God cast down and that is for the want of the apprehension of Gods love and favour and in the handling of this case I shall take this way First To shew you why God doth suffer his people to be cast down under the apprehensions of the want of Gods love and favour Secondly To shew you that though this be your condition yet there is no great cause of your dejection and trouble and casting down of soul under this condition Thirdly To lay down some Theological rules what a Christian is to doe what course to take that so he may gain the love and favour of God And Fourthly I shall lay down the use and application First Then I shall shew you why God doth suffer his people to be cast down under the apprehensions of the want of Gods love and favour that though God may love them yet they may not know that love and favour that
God doth bear to them I shall reduce the Reasons into these Four Heads First It ariseth from a mans own self Secondly It commeth from God Thirdly From the Divel Fourthly It commeth from other men These may be the Four general Causes why Gods people are cast down under the want of Gods love and favour to their souls First It ariseth from a mans own self and that in these Six regards First From the prevalency of natural melancholy in a mans body The prevalency of melancholy in a man doth darken the understanding and it troubles the fancy and it doth disturbe the reason and sadden the soul and cloaths it in mourning weeds and when these meet together it must needs cast the man down and suspend the sense of Gods favour from him Melancholy it is the mother of discomfort and discontent and it is the nurse of doubts Think of that story which you read of Daniel 4. concerning Nebuchad-nezzar He did eat grass like an Oxe he knew not whether he was a beast or a man But his fancy was troubled and his understanding was darkened and his reason was gone and thus natural melancholy maketh a child of God to think that he is a child of the Divel when he is a child of God and it makes him to think he is a brat of Babylon when indeed he is a son of Sion It is no more wonder saith Baxter for a melancholy man to doubt and fear despair then it is to see a sick man groan and a child crie when he is beaten the best way to cure this belongs rather to a Physitian then to a Divine There is a natural distemper in the body is the cause of melancholy yet trouble of conscience doubtings distresse of spirit are the companions of it You may silence a melancholy man when you cannot comfort him If you abate his sadnesse by convincing arguments yet when he retires alone through the prevalency of this humour all is forgotten his comforts are but a day or two old 2. The second cause of the suspension of the favour of God it is this spiritual security and indulging and harboring in the heart any known sin there is nothing in the world that will so much hinder him of and keep the soul from the assurance of the favour of God as the harbouring in the soul any known sin for all the while David did harbour in his heart and indulge and hide his sin from God he did lose the light of Gods countenance and he lost the shining of Gods face upon his soul insomuch that he prayeth to God to restore unto him the joy of his salvation It is true the salvation of David was not lost but the joyes of his salvation the comforts and consolation that he formerly enjoyed that was lost and for this he begs of God for to restore unto him Psal 51. 12. restore unto me the joyes of thy salvation Although that sin cannot make a child of God to lose salvation it self yet sin may cause God to suspend the comforts and the wonted joyes of his salvation I may say concerning this case as Philosophers say of Earth-quakes When the wind is in the Air spread abroad and diffused in the Air then it doth not throw down either hill or mountain but when the wind is gathered together and lies in the caverns of the Earth then it causeth Earth-quakes and over-turns all that is about it so while that sin is not kept close in the soul and while it is not indulged there and whiles it is not hid and concealed but confessed and repented of and prayed against it doth not much hurt but when that sin is indulged and kept close and not repented of nor prayed against but indulged in the soul this will make a heart-quake and a conscience-quake and will fill thy heart with horror and amazement Psal 32. 3. When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day When a man doth conceal his sin it troubles his soul and woundeth his heart and breaketh his peace if you will break Gods Law it is but just and righteous with God to break your peace God will not encourage any of his people by giving them peace and comforts and mercies in any sinful course and however the Antinomians hold us in hand and would make us believe that our comforts have no dependance on our sinful actions whereas God teacheth us no such thing saith the Prophet Isaiah The work of Righteousness that is peace and the end thereof is quietness and assurance for ever Here you see that comfort and consolation and joy and peace and assurance is annexed to the works of Righteousness when as discomforts and discouragements are annexed unto sin if you break Gods Law God will break your peace God will break your heart the same promises of peace cannot be made to the godly and wicked for they have promises of divine peace the other have not Ezek. 14. 4. Therefore speak unto them and say unto them Thus saith the Lord God Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquities before his face and cometh to the Prophet I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols When a man shall come to the Prophets to the Ministers of God and shall make great complaint of his inward trouble in his soul and much cast down within himself and yet in the mean time keep and harbour known sins upon his own heart God hath said he shall not answer that man that he might give him comfort but saith God in the 5. v. Thus saith the Lord repent and turn your selves from your idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations and then God will answer him but those that will not turn from their evil wayes God will answer such a man with rebuke and God will set his face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb and cut him off he that keeps sin in his heart and indulges sin there there shall be no peace in his conscience nor serenity nor quietness of soul he shall not in joy the smiles of Gods face the light of Gods countenance but the sense of his wrath much anguish and sorrow and perplexity of mind for his sin The third cause of the souls suspension and want of Gods favour it is the defectiveness of the people of God in the exercising of their graces little grace shall have but little evidence and if you are not abundant in the exercise of grace you will not have the comfort of grace but in a weak measure Ioh. 14. 21. He that hath my Commandements and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and will manifest my self unto him You know that all the stars in the Firmament
have light but you cannot see the light of the little stars so clearly as the light of the greatest so though there is truth of grace in the weak as wel as thestrongest acts yet if thy graces be weak in the exercise of them thy comforts and evidences will be also weak and hardly discerned and hardly seen Peace be multiplyed to you said the Apostle if you do not multiply your graces God will not multiply your peace if you do withdraw the exercise of your grace God will withdraw the comforts of your grace You cannot see small things so easily as you see great things he that will see a small needle a hair a mote had need have good eyes so ye cannot see small weak grace so easily as ye may see strong and great acts of grace therefore their comforts are small many men cannot see their graces and their evidences because they are like motes and hairs if you do not abound in the exercise of grace you will not be able to see the evidence of grace and injoy the comforts of your grace You know when a man is in a sound you do not know whether the man is dead or alive because his breath is not perceived and his pulse not beating so when your graces are weak and your graces little when you do not live in the exercise of grace you cannot see the evidences of grace Fourthly The suspension of his love and favour it ariseth from the laziness and carelessness and heedlessness in the performance of holy duties There is nothing in the world that is a greater bane of your graces and comforts then this is if you do deny God in your obedience God in justice will deny you in your peace and comforts he that will not work shall not eat As it is true in worldly things so it is also true in spiritual things if you do not your duties towards God God will suspend the comforts of your graces from you if you do your duty toward God you shall eat of the promised Land if you will not let the Spirit of God work and operate in you in its sanctifying work God will not let you enjoy in your souls the comforting work of his Spirit You know what Solomon saith that the slugard shall have poverty enough so you that are spiritual slugards not to do your duties towards God you shall be sure to have spiritual poverty enough in your soul for want of comfort Remember that expression of Christ in that parable in the Gospel that its the faithfull servant that must enter into the joy of his Lord if thou wilt not be faithful in thy duty thou canst not expect to be filled with inward joy Grace saith Baxter is never apparent and sensible in the soul but when it is in action the want of action must needs cause want of assurance though duties merit not comfort yet they usually rise and fall with our diligence in duty I may illustrate this by a familiar comparison there is you know fire in the flint but the fire is not seen in the flint I but strike the flint and the steel together and then you may see the fire so there may be grace in the soul of a man as fire in the flint but untill the spirit of God comes and strikes upon the soul as a flint to the steel until the spirit of God worketh with the spirit of man in duty there is no grace seen and so the soul comes to lye under the dismal workings of soul under the sense and want of the assurance of Gods love Fifthly It ariseth from this because that they do look more after comfort then they do after grace and this is the cause why they want more comfort then they need to want they look more after marks and signs that may tell them what they are then after precepts which tell them what they should do When Christians shall be more enquiring after priviledges more then to inquire after their duty it is just with God to keep their comfort from them When Christians shall labour more to know that they are justified then to know and use the means to be justified to labour more to know that they are in a state of grace rather then to use those means that are prescribed to get grace this may be a means why God keepeth them from the comforts of the Spirit And thus I have given you the first cause why Gods people are cast down under the apprehensions of the suspensions of the favour of God to the soul The second cause why the people of God are cast down under the want of the favour of God it may be from God himself God may keep thee from the enjoying of his love and favour and that 1. From an act of his Soveraignty Assurance is given out of the goodnesse of his Will and withdrawn to shew the absolutenesse and liberty of his Will For May not God do what he will with his own people God he hath by his power made the day and made the night for God doth not only give dayes of comfort and consolation to his people but also he gives nights of desertion as they are acts of Gods power and soveraignty over his people to shew that if it be the will and pleasure of God he can take away the day of comfort and withdraw and suspend his love and favour from the souls of his people so also if he will he can by act of his soveraignty give us assurance and give in comfort to the souls of his people God may do what he please and none may say Wherefore dost thou so 2. So God doth it to manifest his wisdom and goodnesse to his people for by his withdrawing and suspending comfort and hiding his face 1. he hereby doth by this means keep his people from being glutted with comforts and joy and delights should God continue the light of his countenance alwayes to them should God fill their hearts with full assurance of grace and full assurance of faith alwayes to let forth the beams of his glorious love into their souls they would be subject to be glutted and subject to slight comfort and to take little notice of those loving kindnesses of God and of those divine favours bestowed upon them therefore God in wisdom seeth it fitting sometimes to suspend those favours and sometimes to withdraw that love and favour and comforts and joyes from them that they may prize it more and retain it better when they enjoy it 2. God may withdraw his love and favour from the souls of his people out of an act of wisdom that thereby he may let his people see and consider that there is more evil really in sin then ever there did appear seeming good in the commission of sin a man will commit sin that thereby he may obtain some seeming good as to please the lust of the eye or to the obtaining of some other desirable seeming good but
comfort yet if you abound in grace it is matter of joy Do I speak to any this day that are clouded with sin in the want of the sense of the comforting work of the spirit and cannot see and cannot feel the sense and manifestations of Gods love as others do go and pray and mourn and be humbled for thy sin and act thy grace and though you do go without the manisestation of Gods love yet in this case thou art not to be too much cast down God had rather see and hear your graces then that you should see them your selves Cant. 8 13. 4. Though thou art cast down for sin yet be not troubled in case it hath this gratious effect upon thee as to make thee to be more watchful against sin for the time to come more then thou wast before so when thou shalt be afraid of sin and to hate sin in this case thou hast cause to blesse God said the Psalmist my heart is not turned back neither have we slipped again from thy wayes all this is come upon us and yet have we not forgotten thee nor deals falsely against thy Covenant cur hearts have not turned backward neither have our steppings swarved from thy path So when you can say although God hath covered me with the shadow of death and though there is a cloud between God and my soul yet I am afraid of sinning against him and I am afraid of offending him and I have not gone out of his paths for all this in this case you may be comforted though you do apprehend that Christ hath turned his back upon you and yet to say I will not for all the world leave living upon and to Jesus Christ in a way of love and obedience Obj. 2 If it be so That many souls may be cast down for sin and yet you say that it is their sin to be so much cast down but they are to labour against this trouble and casting down for sin Doth not this nourish a principle of presumption in many a mans breast for to presume of his salvation and to make him bold in sinning against God seeing you say they are not to be troubled Answ It is true if this doctrine be not well used and wisely handled it may for as it may comfort one soul it would cause a hundred to run into a presumptious condition for in some cases God doth suspend his favour and hide his face from the soul it being for sin you have cause of mourning in this particular and that in these five cases 1. Thou hast cause to hang down thy head with sorrow thou that wantest the sense and manifestations of Gods love in Christ to thy soul and yet at that time thou dost want the sense and sight of sin thou hast a troubled spirit and yet at that time thou hast not a troubled conscience thou wantest the sense of Christs love to thy soul and yet at that time thou wantest the sight and sense of thy sins against Jesus Christ Many men are in this case there are many men that will say that they do not know whether they shall go to heaven or hell whether they are the children of God or the children of wrath whether Christ loveth them or not and yet no sin troubleth them and no guilt disquieteth them but they presume of grace and presume of pardon when for any thing thou knowest there is but a step between thee and hell and in this case thy condition is very sad 2. You that say that you want the sense of Gods love and yet not at that time want the sense of the losse and absence of that love you say you once had that mans sad spectacle that grieves for the losse of an estate but not for the losse of God when a man shall not know whether God loveth him or not and yet at that time for all this to take no care though his state be a lost state to lose grace and to lose heaven this case is sad to be in such danger and yet not to be sensible of that danger 3. Your case is sad in case when you want a sense of Christs love to your souls and yet at that time you want acts of love and to expresse your love to Jesus Christ you would fain know whether Jesus Christ loveth you or not yet never labour to know and examine whether you love Jesus Christ or not in drawing out your souls in a way of love to him but instead of loving Jesus Christ you do draw forth reginings against God against Jesus Christ when you shall be so far from trusting in him as you shall repine against him and not say with Job Though be kill me yet will I trust in him and though I perish yet I will perish in trusting in him if under the sense of Gods love you also want love to Jesus Christ your case is sad 4. At that time when you want the comforting work of the spirit and yet at that time you want the quickning work of the spirit thy case is sad when you shall not only want comfort but want grace too this maketh thy condition to be sad to be disquieted for want of comfort and to be disquieted for want of grace O look into your own hearts you that want comfort do you want grace too have you no tendernesse of conscience no remorse of spirit no love to duties no zeal for God no faith to live by no hopes in Christ to hang upon no love to Christ in thy soul no repentance for sin in this case thy condition is very sad 5. When thou hast been a long time under the losse of comfort and in trouble of mind and perplexity of spirit and yet so to live without any enquiries how thou mayest get out of this sad condition and to get the comforts you wants when it may be your comforting-work and the quickning-work is gone too to want comfort and to want grace and yet to live and not to look after it but to do as Cain did to pursue the world to pursue the profits and pleasures of this world and all for this end to stifle his conscience for to take no pains to stir up grace in thy soul and to quicken thy heart that thou mightest have the joyes of heaven and the comforts of grace the love of God the shines of Christs face the manifestations of his love and assurance of thy salvation when you shall not look after any means either of grace or comfort this renders thy case to be very sad And thus I have done with this question That the people of God have no cause to doubt though they may be cast down for sin or for the absence of the favour of God to their souls SERMON VII Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God
glutted with the creature to have your hearts filled with the world if you be thus you wil never enjoy a comfortable certainty of Gods love A man that is a worldly-minded man he can never be strong in assurance if you keep your eye at a due distance from the earth you can see far but if you put your eye to the ground you can see but little Beloved keep your hearts at a due distance from the world you may see far into the sense of Gods favour but let your eye I mean the soul be too neer the world you see nothing you will not perceive the sense of Gods love if you have worldly mindednesse predominant in you Put a candle above the ground and it will burn clear and bright but put the same candle under the ground and it burns but dim the damp of the ground hinders the light thereof Beloved keep you hearts above the ground and here your candle may burn bright but if you are buried in the world I mean your hearts your candle will burn dim you will not have so clear a light and sense of Gods love Philosophers say the reason the Sun is eclipsed is by the interposition or putting between of the Moon I may aptly apply it the Scripture makes the Moon to be an Emblem of the world Rev. 12. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in Heaven a woman clothed with the Sun and the Moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve Stars This Moon it doth eclipse the Sun Beloved if the world be at full between you and spiritual things that they are neerer to your hearts then Christ is then grace is then heaven is this Moon of the world will eclipse the shining beams of the Sun of Righteousnesse These are the eight particulars that must be removed in case you do expect to regain a comfortable certainty and assurance of the love of God The next thing is something to be done 2. There are eight or nine Rules What must be done by a Christian in case he would not be cast down under a continued suspension of Gods love 1. The first is this If so be you would regain a comfortable assurance of Gods love take this rule Keep a holy and a consciencious care to act grace throughout the course of your lives let it be the chiefest of your care to act grace and my soul for yours it will not be long before that you have comfort 2 Pet. 1. 5 c. And besides this giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness to brotherly kindness and charity for if these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ but he that lacketh these things is behind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins wherefore the rather Brethren give all diligence to make your calling and election sure for if you do these things you shall never fall All the verses tell you how to get assurance of election add grace to grace and that is the way to come to your assurance of caling and election let it be your care to act grace and it shall be Gods work to give you comfort God will multiply thy peace if thou dost increase thy grace you have Gods promise for it Isa 32. 17. And the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousnesse quietnesse and assurance for ever Here is the way to gain comfort do thou the work of righteousnesse and comfort shall follow after Psal 119. 165. Great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them or they shall have no stumbling block A notable clause which is worthy your notice Job 13. 18. Behold now I have ordered my cause I know that I shall be justified I have ordered my cause that is I have taken care to my life I have made conscience of my wayes I have laboured to act grace in all my whole cause what follows Now I know I shall be justified I have now an evidence and a sense of justification O beloved the actings of grace are the in-lets to inward peace many men say that we know we shall be justified but never make conscience of their wayes never order their cause some are as confident as confidence it self yet as ignorant as ignorance it self as prosane as profannesle it self as proud as pride it self O beloved if you will have a due sense of the knowledge of Justification order your cause well order your lives well To him that orders his Conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God Psal 50. 23. Beloved if God doth but incline your hearts to order your cause aright and your course aright then you may and you shall be justified It is a great fault of Christians that when they want assurance they spend more time in complaining they want comfort then they spend time in acting of grace 2. Keep conscience pure and clear and that is the way to keep conscience pacified guilt on the conscience conceal'd and indulged it contracts a horror and doth cause a hell to arise here this rule the Scripture gives if you would labour to have assurance Job 11. 15. If iniquity be in thy hand put it far away and let not wickednesse dwell in thy Tahernacle for then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot then you shall be stedfast and not fear That is if sin be on thy conscience put it far away what follows Thou shalt not then be under fear and under suspension of Gods love but shalt lift up thy face and be stedfast therefore if ever thou wouldst regain a comfortable certainty of Gods love keep thy conscience pure and clean that thou dost not indulge the guilt of any allowed sin within thee 3. Call to mind the former experiences in the days of old that thou hast had of Gods love the remembrance of past goodnesse is very helpful for present encouragement this rule David took Psal 42. 6. O my God my soul is cast down within me wherefore will I remember thee from the Land of Jordan c. It is remarkable what course the Psalmist took to regain comfort he would remember three experiments of his goodness the Land of Jordan the Land of the Hermonites and the Hill Missar First I will remember the Land Jordan that is I wil remember the great goodnesse of God in drying up the River Jordan that so the Tribes of Israel might pass over to the promised Land why God that hath been good will be good Then I will remember the Land of the Hermonites in that Land was Sihon King of the Amorites and Og King of Bashan defeated that you read of in Joshua 12. 1 2. Now
to put upon holy endeavours after comforts Psal 30. 7. Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled it follows v. 8. I cryed to thee O Lord c. David doth not spend so much time in fruitlesse complaints as he doth in holy endeavours after duties Lastly Spend more time to strengthen evidences then to weaken evidences many men spend more time in questioning their evidences then in strengthning them as in trouble of mind a man will give himself to read dreadful threatnings to read such places of Scripture and such good books that carrie most dread and terror and will spurn at promises and at comforts this is to strengthen the devils hands and to weaken thine own Indeed when thou findest thy heart to presume and delude it self then it is good to make application of dread and terror to awaken thee but when a man is in trouble of mind then to shun promises and only to pore on threatnings of the Scripture I say this is a course rather to weaken thy comforts then strengthen them if thou canst not find thy affections up why run to thine inclinations why it may be thou sayest thou canst not mourn but thou wouldst mourn I cannot pray but I would pray I cannot hear profitably but I would hear better it is a rule that Divines give That when a believer cannot have comforts from the actings of grace he is bound then to look for comforts from his general inclination it may be thou canst not pray well but for what end thou dost pray is not thine end to get more communion with God and to get more power against sin When thou canst not find evidences strengthened by the actings of grace thou mayest find evidences by thy intention in duty Thus I have done with these two great causes of a Believers dejection or casting down to wit the greatness of sin then secondly The desertion or divine suspension of Gods love SERMON VIII Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God I Am now come to the second part of the Psalmists distress Why art thou disquieted within me Arius Montanus whom Ainsworth follows in his translation reads the words thus Cur tumultuaberis Why art thou all in a tumult a Metaphor drawn from the Sea to the tumults that are in a good man The manner of the Psalmists dialect it is in a way of expostulation From thence I shall draw this Observation Observation That godly men they ought to check their hearts for and to use holy reasoning against all inordinate disquietings of soul In the handling of which point in the general I shall shew you what those things are for which the soul of a child of God is disquieted That which disquiets the soul of a child of God either First It is the prosperity of the wicked or else Secondly The calamities of the Church 3. Outward afflictions on their bodies 4. Inward corruption in their hearts I shall spend this Sermon on the first of these to wit That godly men they should check their souls for all disquietings touching the prosperity of wicked men I do not know any one outward thing in the world that doth more disquiet the souls of good men then the prosperity of the wicked Touching this particular I shall handle it to you in this method First I shall shew you that Godly men are apt to be disquieted in soul for the wickeds prosperity 2. Shew you reasons why you should reason against check the soul for all disquietings because of their prosperity Thirdly and lastly Lay down some considerations whereby you may reason against disquietings of the soul because of the prosperity of wicked men First Godly men have had their souls greatly disquieted because of the prosperity of wicked men There are four or five instances of good men in this kind In David the father and Solomon the son you have a discovery of great disquietings of soul First In David the father Psal 73. 3. and in the 12 13. v. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked Behold these are the ungodly which prosper in the world they increase in riches verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency as if he should say It is in vain for me to be godly because I see wicked men do so prosper in the world It is a great stumbling block in good mens wayes to Heaven to see wicked men prosper good men have been overtaken with this discouraged and disquieted in soul to see wicked men prosper in the world Secondly Solomon was troubled for the very same thing Eccles 10. 6 7. Folly is set in great dignity and the rich sit in the low place I have seen servants on horses and Princes as servants walking upon the earth To see servants ride on horse-back c. that is to see wicked men advanced prosperous and successeful and to see the godly in an object despicable and low estate this disquieted Solomon Thirdly Look further into the Prophet Jeremiah he was greatly disquieted because of this Ier. 12. 1. Righteous art thou O Lord when I talk with thee let me talk with thee of judgements wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper c. He would reason with God what did he say to God let me talk with thee of thy judgements wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper Jeremiah would fain know a reason of God wherefore the way of wicked men should prosper Fourthly And thus likewise a fourth instance you have of Job ch 21. v. 7. Wherefore do the wicked live become old and mighty in power c. Thus you see four instances in four of the best men David Solomon Jeremiah and Job Fifthly I might give you in a holy Prophet Habakkuk chap. 1. v. 13. Thou art of purer eyes then to behold inquity or canst not look on grievance wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when he devoureth him that is more righteous then he Here the Prophet doth reason with God why God would do this that he that was of pure eyes would behold a wicked man prosper in his wicked way And thus you see briefly the first part That good men they are apt to be disquieted in soul in seeing the prosperity of wicked men 2. The next thing is to shew you the reasons why good men should not be disquieted and troubled in soul when they do see the wicked prosper in the world The Reasons are four First Do not be disquieted because of the prosperity of wicked men because God doth give them prosperity to be a snare to them Prov. 1. 32. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them It makes them secure it proves fuel to
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scalvat that signifies prosperity in the Hebrew is rendered by the Arabick investigatio by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inquisition or examination to make a search or to examine and the reason is this prosperity makes known a mans disposition as we say of Magistracy Magistratus indicat verum when a man comes to be a Magistrate it will shew what a man is so I may say prosperity will shew what a man is it will find a man out therefore saith Anselme in his Sentences Tribulatio probat unam patientiam prosperitas verô omnes virtutes examinat adversity and trouble it tries but one grace that is your patience but prosperity it will try all your graces it will try your love whether you love God or the World it will try your zeal whether you will venter Christ or your estates O beloved wilt thou envie a man that doth prosper in the World when it is so hard a matter for a good man to use well a prosperous condition It is said of Pius Quintus he was called pious because in their account when he was a mean man he was thought a good man but when he came to be Cardinal he doubted of his Salvation but when he became a Pope he despaired of Salvation Beloved when you are in a mean condition you live holy and pray better then now you doe God had more service from you then now he hath when you have gotten your great livings and much of the world It is a Note that Bernard hath on Psal 91. 7. A thousand shall fall at thy fide and ten thousand on thy right hand but it shall not come nigh thee The genuine sense of that place is the godly should not fall in that time by the plague but saith Bernard I may apply this to prosperity on the left hand there shall be ten thousand fall by prosperity when it may be not a thousand fall by adversity Beloved if so be adversity slays his thousands prosperity slays his ten thousands Secondly Confider that the prosperity of wicked men hastens their end and their ruine Wilt thou envy a mans prosperity when thou seest prosperity hastens his ruine Psal 37. 1 2. Fret not thy selfe because of evil doers neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity For they shall soon be cut down like the grasse and wither as a green herb The more a flower is blossomed the neerer it is to its withering time When wicked men do flourish and blossome broadest they are then neerest to be cut down therefore fret not thy self against evil doers for they shall soon be cut off Prov. 24. 19 20. Fret not thy self because of evil men neither be thou envious at the wicked For there shall be no reward to the evill man the candle of the wicked shall be put out Their prosperity shall hasten their ruine but not their reward there shall be no reward to evil men Would not you account it folly in a man that is heir to so many thousand pounds per annum to enuy a Stage-player in a cloth of Gold in the habit of a King and yet not heir to one foot of Land why though he hath the form and respect and apparrel of a King or Nobleman upon the Stage yet he is heir to nothing Thus wicked men though they are arrayed gorgeously and fare deliciously with Dives everyday wanting nothing having more then heart can wish they are only possessors thou godly man art the heir The Oxe that is the labouring Oxe is longer lived then the Oxe that is put into fatted Pastures putting him there doth hasten the slaughter of the Oxe when the Lord puts wicked men into fat Pastures he doth it to hasten their ruine Thirdly Consider that another mans prosperity is not a hurt to thee nor a prejudice to thee therefore do not envy their prosperity Suppose a wicked man hath much by his muchnesse thou hast never the lesse thy portion is not impaired because anothers is encreased Leahs fruitfulnesse was no cause of Rachels barrenness yet she envied her Why dost thou envy a wicked man when thou seest him grow rich and Prosper this is an Act of folly because his prosperity it is no hurt to thee nor no prejudice to thee Fourthly Consider that thou in this life hast a prosperity which wicked men have not and in the life to come thou shalt have prosperity that they shall never have Here are two parts in this Consideration the One is this 1. That in this life thou hast a prosperity that wicked men have not 3 ep John 3. 2. Beloved I wish as I pray above all things that thou maist prosper and be in health as thy soul prospers When thy body doth not prosper that it is diseased when thy estate doth not prosper that thou art behind hand the labour of thy hand cannot fill thy belly nor cloath thy back even then thy soul may prosper In the Psalmist language thy soul may flourish like a green herb Psal 92. v. 13. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God They shall be fat and flourishing c. The graces of the spirit may thrive in thee when nothing prospers nor goeth well with thee in the World now wicked men though they doe prosper in their bodies they prosper not in their souls they prosper and thrive in wealth and goods not in grace It is a remarkable Text in Psal 106. v. 15. And he gave them their request but sent leanesse into their souls He gave them their request but what follows he sent leanesse into their souls the Quails were dainty food it did fat their bodies but their souls starved their souls thrived not their graces grew not their souls starved Suppose thy estate doth not encrease yet does thy graces thrive this should comfort thee and free thee from all disquietings in thy inward man 2. For the life to come thou shalt then have prosperity that no wicked man shall have this consideration should allay all disquietness thus the Psalmist doth Psal 17. 2 last Verses David speaks of men that have their portion in this life children enough and money enough for all their children to give them large portions What doth David doe to prevent repineing and disquietings of soul mark the next words As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness His meaning is I see them prosper here they have many children and they have enough for them all but as for me this satisfies me I shall behold thy face that is when my body shall be raised at the resurrection day and I shall come to Heaven this will satisfie me and this did quiet the spirit of David Fifthly Consider that prosperity makes wicked men worse and adversity makes good men better there are two parts in this likewise 1. Prosperity makes wicked men worse In the chapter I read this Afternoon God
did exalt Pharach to a magnificent state it was to make him worse all Pharach's wealth did the more harden his heart The prosperity of the wicked slay's them Pro. 1 32. And in the Prophecie of Hesea 13 6. As was their pasture so were they filled and their heart was exalted therefore have they forgotten me Prosperity doth make a wicked man worse it is a spur to licenciousnesse it is fuell to his haste and a pull back to his graces 2. I but now Adversity makes good men better it weans them from the world it makes them look after Heaven it imbitters sin to them it makes them spend more time in duty it makes good men better As Themisticles said of himself that he had perished if he had not perished many a good man might say so If such a disaster had not befallen me I had been drowned in comforts and glutted in the world O beloved this consideration should greatly allay your disquietings prosperity makes wicked men worse and adversity makes good men better Sixthly Consider that wicked men have not always comfort and contentment in their abundance and prosperity in the world wicked men though they do prosper and abound yet they have mixture of discontents and vexations and unsatisfiablenesse with their abundance Would you envy a man to see him have a silken Stocking but a gouty Leg Alas beloved wicked men may be clad in silk but you do not know the pain that may be under a silken garment It may be a poor Leathern coat a poor russet coat hath more inward contentation of mind that gets but his 12. d. per diem then that man that gets his hundreds in the week I have seen many times people wear a neat Shoo yet confess themselves the shoo pincht them Beloved wicked men may be more neatly clad then other men may be and have more of the world then other men yet God may pinch them with a gauled conscience that they have gotten their Estates by oppression and by unjust gain O wilt thou envy a wicked man if godly men knew that vexation and horror of conscience that accompanies a wicked mans abundance they would not have their abundance for all the world they had rather die beggers then live rich men You read of Haman Esther 5. 13. Yet all this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai sitting at the Kings gate He was the Kings favourite he had more favour at Court with Ahasuerus then all the Court besides yet a trifle did eat our all Hamans comfort and contentment and made him lie down on his bed with sorrow and would not be comforted because he could not get a bow of the knee from Mordecai Why a little thing will discontent a wicked man and will make him off the hooks We read of Ahab he had the best Kingdom of the world the Kingdom of Israel yet he could not be contented because he could not have Naboths Vineyard he was sick for it Ye have a notable passage in Eccles 5. 10 12. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with increase This is also vanity Dost thou love money money shall never satisfie thee dost thou love abundance thou shalt have abundance but thou shalt not be satisfied for all that The sleep of a labouring man is sweet whether he eat little or much but the abundance of the rich shall not suffer him to sleep A poor day-labouring man whether he eats little or much can have a sweet nights sleep but a wicked man many times hath abundance and that makes him that he cannot take his rest what care in the keeping what fear in the losing and what thought in the getting more these do cruciate and torment the thoughts of many wicked men So true is that saying of Jesus Christ Luke 12. 15. And he said Take heed and beware of covetousnesse for a mans life consisteth not in the abundance which he possesseth Thou mayst have abundance and yet the comfort of thy life not consist in all thy abundance I but now good men they have more comfort inward quiet and contentation of mind with a little then the wicked have with all their abundance Psalm 37. 16. A little that a righteous man hath is better then the riches of many wicked Prov. 15. 16. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord then great treasures and trouble therewith There may be great treasures and great trouble there may be little of the world and yet great peace therewith Therefore be not disquieted because wicked men prosper in the world I now come to give you a word of application Use If it be so that the people of God must check their hearts for and use reasoning against disquietings of soul because wicked men prosper Then by way of inference First of all Do not so much admire the prosperity of wicked men in the world do not think prosperity to be so happy a state for men to be in it is not worthy envy it is not fit it should give one troubled thought into a good mans mind the admiration of a natural thing another man hath should not disquiet another man that hath not the same Secondly If I must not be disquieted because wicked men prosper then I would infer hence that I must be far from envying and being disquieted at the graces of good men if I must not envy a wicked mans growing rich I must not envy a good mans growing good this is the greatest wickednesse in the World for thee to envy another mans graces it is a Diabolical sin it transforms a man into a Divel it makes a man to be a Divel incarnate because other mens graces outstrips them another man preacheth better then thee therefore thou enviest him Augustin calls it vitium Diabolicum a divelish sin on Psalm 139. Because it is properly the sin of the Divels in Hell The Divel out of pure spite and pure envy doth envy mans good Beloved many men are of this temper that they envy and are troubled that other men are good this is the Divels sin just as the Philistins did envy the good of Gods people so do they Gen. 26. 15 16. For all the wells which his fathers servants had digged the Philistins had stopped and filled them with earth It is a strange passage the Philistins would do themselves hurt because that Gods children should not get benefit what did they they stopt up all the Wells in the Countrey and hindered themselves from having benefit by the Water because Gods people should have no water Why beloved wicked men doe thus they envy that other men should get good they envy Gods people not onely for getting wealth by them but their very graces likewise Cain envied Abel because his brothers works were righteous and his own were wicked Thirdly is it so that we must check all envyings and disquietings because wicked men prosper Then
Then you read of Daniel Daniel 8. 27. And I Daniel fainted and was sick certain daies Now what was the matter that this good Prophet should be sick and faint for many daies It was trouble of mind onely for this That he by his Prophetical Spirit did foresee the troubles that were comming upon the Church and people of God and that the Church and people of God would deeply and sadly suffer under the reigne of Antiochus and for this cause he was sick many daies which trouble fell not upon the Church of God until many years after his death And in Dan. 8. 11 12. He magnified himself even to the Prince of the host and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away and the place of his sanctuary was cast down And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgresson and it cast down the truth to the ground and it practised and prospered And this trouble and sorrow he did foresee should come upon the Church two hundred years after which made him sick and faint and was sore troubled for many daies and thus you have instances of good men that have been troubled for the Chruches calamities before it came Then Secondly You have instances of good men how they have been troubled for the Churches calamities when it was come upon them to see gray haires upon the head of the Church sorrows and trouble to overtake them this did trouble their spirits You read in 2 Sam. 1. 11. 12. when David had heard that the Philistins had given the people of God a defeat and overthrow It is said that David rent his cloths and David took hold of his cloths and rent them and likewise all the men that were with him and they mourned and wept and fasted until Even for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel because they were fallen by the sword So likewise a full Text to this purpose you have in Nehemiah 1. 2 3 4. when the sad condition of the people of God was brought and told to good Nehemiah he wept Hanani one of my brethren came he and certain men of Judah and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped which were lest of the Captivity and concerning Jerusalem And they said unto me The remnant that are lest of the captivity there in the Province are in great affliction and reproach the Wall of Jerusalem also is broken down and the gates thereof are burnt with fire And it came to passe when I heard these words that I sate down and wept and mourned many daies and fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven c. Here you see how good men have mourned and been exceedingly cast down with sorrow when they have heard of the calamaties that have falne upon the Church and people of God Particular 3 The third Particular Is to shew you the difference between a gracious sympathizing with the troubles of the Church and sinful disquiet because of the calamities of the Church for one is a duty the other is a sin First Gracious sympathizing with the Church in trouble quickens prayer and supplication for the Churches good You read of the Psalmist when the people of God was in great trouble he was in sorrow but his sorrow did drive him to the Throne of grace to pray for them Psal 137. 1 2 3 4 5. If I forget thee O Jerusalem then let my right hand forget her cunning Though the Churches sufferings may make thee sad in spirit yet they must not make thee dead in prayer As they had pity towards Gods Church in affliction so they had also prayer in their hearts for them when they were in trouble that they might have them to be removed whereas they that have excessive sorrow of mind for the troubles and calamities of the Church they are apt to complain to men and to make mone to men of their sorrows but their sorrow doth indispose their hearts to go to God by prayer supplication to have their sorrow removed And those that are so prest down with sorrow as to complain to men and not to God It is an argument that that sorrow is inordinate and sinful because moderate sorrow doth put the soul to seek God at the Throne of grace that so sorrows and troubles might be taken off and removed from the Church Secondly Those men that mourn ordinately and moderately for the calamities of the Church does retain within themselves some good hopes of the Churches recovery Therefore you read in Lament 3. 31 32 33. The Lord will not cast off for ever For though he causeth grief yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies For he doth not afflict willingly or from his heart for so 't is in the Original nor grieve the children of men Here you see that though the Church was in great affliction yet behold they could sympathize with them and mourn for them yet so as to have hope in God for all this they could see and know Gods heart towards them though his hand was seemingly against them he doth not afflict from his heart As if they had said God doth not afflict indeed but it is not willingly it is for sin which he hates in his own people and he is as it were constrained to strike his children it is not his wonted work it is a strange work it comes not from his heart but from his hand therefore they could sorrow in hope of deliverance out of trouble But now sinful dejections cut off hope As you may read in 2 King 7. 18 19. Elisha told the people when there was Famine in Samaria and he told them of great evil that should come upon them afterwards he told them that by to morrow this time there should be sold Two measures of Barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria Here was great plenty spoken of And a Lord answered the man of God and said Now Behold if the Lord should make windowes in Heaven might such a thing be As if he had said we that are in so deep sorrow so great trouble to day is it possible that we can have so great plenty to morrow But he said Thou shalt see it with thy eyes but thou shalt not eat thereof So many men are like this man so cast down with excessive sorrow for the sufferings of the Church and when the Church of God is low and the enemies of the Church strong they are ready to think that they are so low and their wounds are so great and their enemies so strong that it is impossible to be restored somewhat like the reasonings of the Church at another time Lam. 3. 18 19. And I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord Remembring my affliction the Wormwood and the Gall. When their sorrow suffering was so long in Babylon and they did not
and this will allay all unquietness and inordinate trouble in thy mind Tenthly and Lastly Consider that God in his wisdome will proportion all afflictions that befall thee in this World according to thy strength that thou art able to bear them 1 Cor. 10. 13. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able If the Lord laies heavy burdens on thee he will give thee strong shoulders Seneca saith Si gravis brevis si longa levis if afflictions be heavy they shall be short but if afflictions be long they shall be light heavy afflictions they shall be short afflictions and long afflictions shall be light afflictions God will proportion them Job 14 1. Man that is born of a Woman is but of few daies and full of trouble troublesome daies are made short daies Why now if they be full of trouble they are but few how sad would it be of perpetuity and misery a multitude of troubles and a multitude of daies met God will proportion thy afflictions according to thy strength Isa 28. 27. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin but the fitches beaten with a staff and the cummin with ard The meaning is that God will not exercise weak people with great afflictions there shall be afflictions proportionable to their strength this God hath promised Isa 27 8. In measure when it shooteth forth thou will debate with it he stayeth his rough winds in the day of his East wind If men be not able to bear a boisterous storm he will stay his rough wind he will abate the measure of his afflictions Let this quiet thy soul that God doth proportion all his dealings with thee according to thy strength thus you have laid down ten Rules how to bear afflictions without inordinate disquiet of soul Qu. But since we must not be stocks to be insensible of Gods afflicting hand and seeing some kind of trouble and sorrow for afflictions is allowed by God How shall we know whether we be inordinately 〈◊〉 for outward afflictions A. sw First When outward afflictions doth swallow up the comforts and enjoyments of present mercies then you are excessiv thus we see in Ahab Ahab had a flourishing Kingdone and statel Palaces yet could take no comfort in them all because he could not get poor Naboths yineyard from him that argued too much disquiet in him And thus we read of Rebecca Genesis 27. 46. And Rebecca said to Isaac I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. A very impatient speech that when a present affliction shall make thee say I have no joy in my life as many people when they are once crost of their wills Well say they I have no joy in my life though they have many mercies such speeches us these are but the issues of disquiet let not one crosse make thee flee off from all thy comforts in the World Thus we read of Jacob likewise he was too much disquieted in that one loss which made him he could not take joy in all his comfort in all his mercies Read the story in Genesis 37 35. And all his sons and his daughters rose up to comfort him but he would not be comforted Jacob had eleven sons living that he knew and many daughters and all came about him for to comfort him but he refused to be comforted Why beloved Men are so over-born and over-whelmed with troubles upon a cross that if they lose one child all the other children shall not affect them certainly this kind of sorrow is an excessive sorrow Secondly Then disquiet of soul for worldly afflictions are inordinate when afflictions in the World doth so disquiet a mans mind that it makes a man weary of life and maxes him wish for death meerly because of afflictions This was the failing of Jonah chap. 4. v. 8. It is better for me to die then to live because God took away the gourd The like you read of in Job chap. 7 15. So that my soul chuseth strangling and death rather then life Job was in a distemper and he wisht death rather then life this was a sin in him for afflictions so to disquiet a mans mind that to wish Would to God I were out of the World all these are but the flowings and impatiency of a disturbed heart And so again chap. 10. v. 1. My soul is weary of my life I will leave my complaint upon my self this was his trouble You that have drank deep of a bitter Cup either by crosses in children or in estates or reproach in your names and all this makes you inordinate and cryeth out I am weary of my life you are sinfully disquieted You have a passage in Isa 32. 2. And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind as rivers of water in a dry place as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land Speaking of Christ the Land cannot be weary but it refers to the inhabitants of the Land here is a rock a weary Land the inhabitants of the Land were weary to live in the Land because they were so scorched with the heat of afflictions when affliction shall oppresse so hard upon you that it shall make you unwilling to live this argues that disquiet of soul is very inordinate Thirdly When a man is disquieted for afflictions that lie upon him yet he is no whit troubled for all the afflictions that befall the Church of God and never laies them near his heart when disquiet for personal sufferings shall justle out all compassion for the sufferings of Gods Church this argues thy trouble is excessive Fourthly When a man is disquieted for outward afflictions that it doth indispose a man to duty then a man is too much disquieted Thus in Exodus chap. 6. 9. The poor Israelites they were so in anguish and trouble because they were held such vassals in Egypt that it is said they could not hearken to Gods word because of the grief and anguish of their spirits When afflictions make you unfit to hear Sermons and make you unfit to pray as in Psal 77. 3. I remembred God and I was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed This is a sinful disquiet Fifthly Disquiet under afflictions is then inordinate when a man dares venter on any sinful shifts or means to get rid of his afflictions Suppose thou beest poor and darest venture on cozenage and deceit to get an estate suppose thou beest in a low place and thou darest sin against conscience to get a place of preferment here in this World this is sinful disquiet Thus we read of Saul an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him the Philistins were upon him he was in distresse in his spirit 1 Samuel 28. 7 8. And Saul said unto his servants Seek me a woman that hath
Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the Captains of the Host which were the Kings of Assyria and took Manasseh among the thornes and bound him with chains and carried him to Babylon And when he was in affliction then he besought the Lord his God and humbled him self greatly before the Lord God of his fathers When Manasseh was in his prosperity then God called to him and he hearkned not but when the Lord brought him into the thornes into troubles and afflictions when he was in captivity then he besought the Lord and then he be thought himself and sought God So likewise you read of Joseph's Brethren they did endeavour for to destroy their Brother and for this sin all the time of their prosperity their consciences did never trouble them and did never check them for it I but when they went down into Egypt for Corn and were put in Prison then they remembred their sin concerning their brother and then they did begin to say conscience being in perplexity and trouble That verily we are guilty of our brothers bloud Gen. 42. 21. So likewise it may be some men may live seven or ten or twenty years under the guilt of sin and not repent of it but when they come to lie under some great affliction and under some sore trouble then conscience is awakened and they exceedingly troubled for sin and now this is the season that God taketh for to trouble the soul and conscience for sin So you read in Judges 1. 7. of Adoni-bezek what cruelty he did use to threescore and ten Kings in cutting off their thumbs now this did not trouble his conscience in his prosperity I but when he was in trouble and taken captive then he remembred his sin and then he could say as I have done so God hath requited me The third season is in that time when a man is under are proving and sin-searching Ministery and hath his particular sins reproved in the Ministery of the Word that is a time when God doth trouble the conscience for sin against God When a man shall come to a Sermon and there let the Word take hold of him and meet with his beloved sin this is a time when God doth stir up conscience to trouble the soul And thus you read of the unconverted Gentiles in 1 Cor. 14. 25. of one that may come into the Church and hear the Word and after he is come in he falling down on his face will worship God and the secrets of his heart shall be made known that is he shall confess his faults and acknowledge his guilt So likewise you read in the Acts of the Apostles of Paul when he was preaching of temperance and righteousness and judgement to come Felix trembled it seems Felix his sin was intemperance and drunkenness and unrighteousness now by the Ministery of the Word Paul he touched his sin that sin he met withall which he was most guilty of and made his heart to tremble So likewise when Peter preached the Gospel to the Jews and told them that they were the men that did crucifie the Lord of life you read what follows in Acts 2. 37. And when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts or cut to their hearts this was a fit season for conscience to work and tell them that they were guilty of such a sin A Fourth Season is when God doth awaken conscience to rebuke and to check them for some great and indulged and bosome sin which it may be he hath indulged and let lie in his heart for many years together unrepented of now when ever God comes to awaken this mans conscience this is the nick of time when he will be most apt to be disquieted for sin You read in Judges 16. 10. Dalilah told Sampson the Philistins are upon him he lay asleep in Dalilah's lap and he lost his strength God was departed from him So when thou art lulled asleep and enticed to yield to a sin and allow thy self in some known lust when thou art secure and asleep in this pleasant sin Time will come as Dalilah told Sampson the Philistins are upon thee so conscience will tell thee Arise O man for the Divel is upon thee and Hell is near thee and destruction approacheth thee and thus conscience will terrifie thee and disquiet thee for the sin thou hast committed As Eliphaz said to Job chap. 22. 9 10. Thou hast sent widows away empty c. Therefore snares are round about thee and sudden fear troubleth thee It was true in the Doctrine though false in the application to Job A Fifth Season is when a man for fear of losse and in hopes of any gain shall be drawn to doe any thing against the dictates of his own conscience now if men do belong to God he will disquiet them for this great evil We have many instances for this It is observable of Bilney in King Henry the eight's days being condemned to die to save his life he did subscribe to Popish Articles but the story relateth that for that sin he was troubled in conscience two years together and never did enjoy one comfortable merry day in peace and quietness until he renounced his subscription and preached the truth and was burnt So likewise Dr. Cranmer he through fear to save his life subscribed to a recantation but he did soon break his promise and recanted of what he had formerly done and could never be quiet in his conscience until he had made a recantation for his recantation and when he came to suffer he did first burn that hand which did for fear subscribe to save his life against his conscience So Baynham a Lawyer subscribed to Popish Articles but had no peace in his conscience til he owned the truth O Beloved take heed that you do not do any thing to engage to any thing to subscribe in any case against thy conscience to save thy life or estate Sixthly A sixth Season when a man shall fall from the true Principles of Religion to Apostatize to any evil way and conscience shall trouble and rebuke him for his back-sliding Pro. 14. 14. The back-slider in heart shall be filled with his own ways but a good man shall be satisfied from himself As a good man shall be satisfied within with peace of conscience and quietness of mind by his upright-walking so on the contrary the back-slider shall be filled with trouble of conscience and disquietness of soul for the evil of his waies Likewise in Jeremiah 2. 19. Thy own wickedness shall correct thee and thy back-slidings shall reprove thee know therefore and consider that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast departed from the Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee saith the Lord of Hosts The back-slider and the sin of back-sliding of all sins shall rebuke the sinner and trouble his conscience and break his peace and disquiet his soul and if God ever
bring thee back he will make conscience for to be like a mastiff Dog for to fly in thy face for thy back-sliding from God and conscience shall tell thee what thou hast done in thy wicked departure from God and then thy own conscience will be worse then the snarling of a dog to thee then shall conscience use this season for to tel thee of thy sins against God Seventhly A seventh Season is this when a man comes for to lie on a sick bed or on his death bed that is the last season that God taketh to rouze the sleepy sinner and to let conscience awake and disquiet him for the sin he hath done It may be you can be living drunkards and living adulterers and not be troubled I but can you when you lie upon a sick bed or your death-bed when conscience shall be awakened canst thou then be a dying drunkard and a dying adulterer and not be troubled Take heed of these sins There is a caution in Pro. 5. 8. Remove thy way far from her and come not nigh the door of her house Here is a caution for young men laid down by Solomon to take heed of a whorish woman least you become mourners at last this is the season for conscience to disquiet thee for sin and if you belong to God he will make thee to mourn at last for the evils thou hast done In Job 21. 25. Another dyeth in the bitterness of his soul and never eateth with pleasure O the bitter pangs that are in many a mans soul when he dyeth and another may think he goeth away in peace and thus you have the second Question what those seasons are that God doth take to trouble mens consciences and disquiet them for sin I now come to the third Question to shew you what difference is between the disquiet for sin that is in the godly and the disquiet that is in the wicked and reprobate men for 't is possible that wicked and ungodly men may have trouble in conscience for the sins they have done because God hath put natural conscience in wicked men for to rebuke and check and trouble and disquiet them for some sins sometimes Now in the resolving of this Question there are thirteen or fourteen differences between the one and the other First Wicked and ungodly men are troubled for sins I but their trouble and their disquietness it is onely for great and gross sins and not for small and secret sins Before conversion Paul was never troubled and disquieted for concupiscence for secret corruption and heart lusts therefore saith Paul I had not known lust if the law had not said Thou shalt not covet Rom. 7. 7. That is he had not known the inward part of lust that the inward and secret desires of the heart were sin he was alive then without the law and he thought himself to be in a very good condition and kept himself from great and gross enormities but never made any reckoning and account of smaller and lesse enormities and lesser evils Unconverted men see sins as we see stars in the night we may see the stars of the first magnitude onely but we cannot see the lesser stars So wicked men by the light of natural conscience they can see sins of the first magnitude gross sins and infamous sins but they never take notice of lesser crimes smaller sins secret sinful lustings and desires for to check their hearts for them these the light of nature as it was with Paul never takes notice of But now look upon a godly man and there you find a great difference their disquietness of conscience doth much differ for their conscience doth disquiet them not onely for sins as big as Camels but for sins as small as Gnats not for mountains of sins but for Mole-hills of corruption small and little sins are the trouble and disquieting of good mens spirits Hezekiah he did greatly humble himself though it was but for an inward sore For the lifting up of his heart in pride This is an Argument of true grace when the soul shall be humbled for inward secret and heart sins So David his heart smote him after he had numbred the people It is questionable what was the particular sin because for a King to number his people it is in it self lawful I but it was some secret evil heart-sin heart-pride some other sin for this his heart smote him Those sins that will not trouble wicked mens sleep will break a godly mans heart that which may be to a wicked man as dust in the finger of his glove not any trouble to him to a godly man is as gravel in his kidneys greatly to trouble and disturbe him The second Difference Wicked men may be disquieted for sin and for some outward acts of sin but they are never troubled for the inward habit of sin for the sinful nature that depraved disposition of heart to sin We read many times wicked men have been troubled for the raigning acts of sin but never troubled at all for the sin of their nature Cain he was troubled for the murdering his brother and Balaam for Witchcraft and Ahab was troubled for the sinful acts of Idolatrie Judas for his treachery and Saul for his cruelty but neither these nor any wicked man in the World was troubled for original sin for the depravity of their natures But now godly men their disquietness for sin doth not only reach to the acts but also to the habits of sin to the natural depravity which is the foundation and fountain from whence all these corrupt actions flow this is that which doth greatly trouble them You read of Paul in Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death or this body of death alluding to those sins wherein men were wont in a way of punishment to tie a dead body to a living body he speaks here of his body of sinful and depraved nature that was to him as a dead man tyed to a living man whereas before conversion he never did complain of any inward corruption nor once make mention of corrupt nature Art thou troubled for sin but can thy conscience bear thee witness thy disquietness of soul is for the sin and depravity of thy nature as well as for the sins of thy life Art thou troubled as well for the nature of sin as well as for the acts of sin Art thou troubled as well for the corrupt fountain as well as for the corrupt streams that flow from thence If thou art thus troubled and disquieted for sin all thy conflicts with sin shall end in conquest over sin another day The third difference Wicked men may be troubled for sin but their disquietnesse for sin is more for the evil of punishment that is the effect of sin then it is for the evil that is in the nature of sin they are disquieted for sin but it is because sin
doth destroy the soul and not because sin doth defile the soul because God pursueth sin not because he hates sin more because it is against Gods justice that is provoked then because it is against the holiness of God which is dishonoured wicked men are troubled and disquieted because God threatens sin not because God doth forbid sin because of the Hell for sin not because of the Hell in sin But now godly men do hate sin and loath sin more because it is against the nature of God and because God loathes it and hateth it more because it is against Gods commands then because God doth punish sin as it is with a child that forbears to touch a coal because it will black his hand now the child will not touch the coal because it is a fire-coal because it will burn his fingers So it is with godly men they will not touch sin because it is of a smutting and defiling nature but wicked men are like the child that will not touch sin but it is onely because it will burn Now if you can say that you hate sin because God hateth it and you do hate sin not because of the punishment of sin but because of the evil of sin not because of the damning power of sin but because of the defiling power of sin in this case thy disquietness for sin shall never hurt thee The fourth Difference Although wicked men may be troubled and disquieted for sin yet that disquietnesse doth not make them for to leave sin but when their pangs of sorrow is over them they will run to their sin again they may be disquieted for sin sometimes but it is onely for the time that the trouble doth last and no longer You read Jer. 18. 12. They said there is no hope but we will walk after the imaginations of our own hearts Their consciences did a little smite them for sin but they would follow sin for all that But godly men doth reason with themselves thus Doe such sins trouble my soul and disturbe my conscience and hinder my Communion with God and break my peace and shall I yet touch them No I will cast them away as a menstruous cloth and break off from them and I will say to them Get you hence this is another difference godly men do break off from sin but wicked men though they may be disquieted yet they continue still in the same sin assoon as the troule is over Fifthly Wicked men may be troubled for sin at the present yet this doth but lay a bare cessation on the act of sin but not to put the soul in a way of detestation of sin it is possible that there may by reason of natural conscience be such a cessation of sin that for a long time he may not commit the same sin again but yet this doth not breed in the soul a detestation of sin but when the trouble is over the cessation is ended and then he goeth to the same way of inning again You have an instance of this in Pharaoh Exodus 8. 15. When Pharaoh saw that there was respit he bardened his bears and hearkned not unto them as the Lord had said When he had a pang upon him and in great trouble then his sin was abated and a cessation of it I but when the trouble was gone then his heart hardned again So when conscience shall fly into the face of ungodly men and wicked livers and shall tell them that thus and thus they have done O then they will labour to stifle conscience and say they will break off from their wicked ways and will do so no more and when trouble of conscience is over then they will to their old sinful ways again and this is the condition of wicked and ungodly men In 2 Pet. 2. 22. It is said there It is happened to them according to the true Proverb The dog is turned to his own vomit again and the sow that is washed to the wallowing in the mire Wicked men are like dogs while they have a pang over their stomach they are troubled and vomit it up but when the pang is over they return to the vomit again so doe wicked men when conscience shall gripe them and trouble them and punish them then they will vomit up their sins and will say they will do so no more but when pain and trouble is gone they go to their sin again Trouble of soul to a wicked man is like a Prison to a thief a Prison to a thief doth restrain his practise to keep him from doing those parts of Robbery which he would be apt to doe were he at liberty but it doth not change his thievish disposition and inclination from that sin Just so it is with a wicked mans conscience it may check and controul and restrain him from those exorbitant practises and keep him from gross acts of sin but it cannot change his sinful inclination and take away that wicked habit of sin that is within him and to stir up indignation against sin It is observable of Balaam You read in a Pet. 2. 15. Which have forsaken the right way and are gone astray following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor who loved the wages of unrighteousness He loved profit and the pangs of natural conscience were so great upon him that it did restrain him from the receiving of this sinful gain and profit but when Peter came to take cognizance of the sin of Balaam you find that he saith that he loved the wages of unrighteousness though he did not receive them his love and desire went out after it though he did not by reason of his trouble of his natural conscience receive it he would sain have had it It is no thanks to thee O wicked man if thou dost not commit sin thou it may be canst not doe it because of the checks of conscience but hast not thou a love to it and a desire to commit it it is charged upon thee as if thou hadst done it Hast thou a desire to commit adultery and though thou hast not opportunity yet if thou lovest it and delightest to contemplate upon it this is looked upon by God as thy sin And so if thou hast a desire to be drunk and lovest strong drink and hast not opportunity to doe it no thanks to thee yet thy love to the sin renders thee guilty and God will judge thee according to that But godly men they are disquieted for sin and they do desire not onely to take away the act but the habit of sin Psal 119. 104. Through thy precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way The Psalmist he by considering the sweet precepts of God came to undestand the nature of sin and the evill of sin and therefore he hated sin and every false way not onely false ways in the outward acts of sin but false ways in regard of the secret actings of sin in his own
heart and sin in the habit and nature of it Sixthly When a wicked man is disquieted for sin he doth not go to God's Word for comfort and consolation and to allay the sorrow and trouble of mind he lieth under but he hath recourse to sinful and sensual pastimes and delights in the world to allay the troubles of his soul and conscience So you read in Genesis 4. from v. 15 to 18. There you read that Cain he lay under sore troubles of mind for his sin even to despair insomuch that he said his sins were greater then can be forgiven I but under this disquieted condition What did he doe what course did he take Did he take to God for satisfaction and to allay his troubles No he took a wrong course for 't is said And Cain went out from the presence of Jehovah and then after he was gone from God then be went to build Cities His going out from the presence of the Lord is meant he went out from the Ordinances of God and from the Church of God to sensual delights in the World not as though Cain could go out from the essential presence of God that no man can So Ainsworth intimateth on this Verse that it is meant his going from the place of God's Word and publique Worship And so to come into God's presence it is the greatest joy for a godly man in this life to come into God's presence in his Ordinances in his Church which joy Cain now was deprived off whereas he should have had recourse to these to allay his trouble of mind and not to have gone to build Cities in the World to stifle his conscience But godly men know when they are disquieted for sin for them to have recourse to pleasures and profits and pastimes and sensual delights in the World it cannot administer no true comfort no true joy no true peace of conscience no more then a silken Stocking will administer comfort to a broken Leg and what can this do it may cover the broken Leg but it cannot cure it so delights may cover the wound of conscience for a time but it cannot give any real comfort But they know they must hear and pray and seek God publique and private in his own way according to his own will in ways which he hath sanctified to that end to ease troubled consciences You read of Jonah he was troubled for sin in going from Gods presence in not obeying his voice but under his trouble for sin his soul fainted within him but did Jonah go to worldly and sinful and sensual delights to allay his troubled soul No the Text saith I remembred the Lord and my prayer came in unto thee in thine holy Temple He saw no other way was available to ease his spirit and pacifie conscience but onely in Gods ways which he hath sanctified for that very end Godly men will present their supplications to God and addresse themselves to him in the way of his Worship to cure their distempered soules and to labour to find God's love in Christ in his promise Godly men may see that sin in their hearts and guilt upon their spirits may make them sad but they labour to find a smile from the face of God to make their souls glad and to speak their sins dead and to speak peace to their consciences and joy to their heart and satisfaction to the soul and delight in the spirit which makes the soul to rejoice and be glad in Gods presence SERMON XIV Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God I Have laid down six Differences already of that disquiet that doth arise from a natural Conscience in wicked men under the guilt of conscience for sin and between that holy disquiet of soul for sin found in the godly The seventh Difference in orders is this Wicked men are disquieted for sin but it is as causing outward afflictions rather then as causing inward and spiritual withdrawings of Gods face I may allude to that in Job 41. 25. When he raiseth up himself the mighty are affraid by reason of breakings they purifie themselves When God breaks them by outward afflictions then they be think themselves what evil they have done and how they must amend and better their days but it is more because of danger of death then out of love of purity this makes men say I must purifie my self not because sin is impure but because it breaks my body and breaks my outward comforts from me it sin did not afflict the body it should never afflict the soul of a wicked man by his will Wicked men are like that man that was in a deep consumption of his Lungs and complained to a Physician of a Whitloe upon his finger Men are troubled at afflictions that are but trivial and toyes but when they do consume in their graces and neer unto an eternal death sin and the consumption of grace that doth not trouble them men that are thus disquieted more because of affliction then the inward withdrawings of God's face from them they are fitly set out by Ducks in a Pond of Water let a little Peble stone be cast into the Water and the Ducks will dive but let it Thunder in the Heavens the Ducks are not affraid I may make this Use of it Wicked men are like Ducks let God but give them a blow on their outward man afflict their bodies this will make them dive croutch tremble and make them affraid but let the Heavens be lowring let God's face be eclipsed if sin did not trouble the body it should never trouble the conscience A godly man is troubled at affliction for sin-sake but a wicked man is troubled at sin for affliction-sake it is affliction makes him troubled at sin But now a godly man is of a far different temper he is disquieted at sin more because of the inward withdrawings of God's face then because of the outward afflictions of the body Psal 30. 7. Lord by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled David had trouble in the Kingdome at that time had troubles on his Person but all this did not go so near his heart as the hiding of God's face the heaviest stroke of God's hand did not so much disquiet David as the Eclips of God's countenance Outward troubles they were to David but as the scratch with a Pin in the flesh but the withdrawings of Gods face did trouble him as a Sword in his bones this is a seventh Difference between the one and the other The eighth Difference is this Wicked men under disquiet for sin they do more complain of God then they do complain to God but Good men more complain to God then of God when they are disquieted for sin wicked men more
when he was under trouble of mind for to refuse comfort God intends trouble for sin to be an exercise of grace not to obliterate the evidence of our graces when trouble for sin proves an eclipse of grace not a spur to grace it is excessive Secondly When the amiable and glorious attributes of God are represented unto the soul of a godly man under a formidable and a dreadful notion this is laid down in v. 3. I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed The thoughts of God should comfort a soul in trouble of mind but when a man in trouble of mind shall make the Attributes of God to trouble him then it is excessive Job 23. 15. Therefore am I troubled at his presence when I consider I am affraid of him Adam after he fell What doth he do he went and hid himself from the presence of God Gen. 3. 8 10. And they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid themselves for they were affraid Beloved when thou canst not think of a God but the thoughts of a God troubles thee this is excessive trouble in a godly man Thirdly When a man is so disquieted in soul for sin that a man doth abridge himself in the use of those natural comforts that God doth allow him to enjoy when he cannot eat nor drink nor sleep this is laid down in the 4. v. of this Psalm Thou holdest mine eyes waking I am so troubled that I cannot sleep His meaning is I am so troubled in conscience under the guilt of my sin that I cannot sleep at night when I lie down in my bed I cannot eat nor sleep I cannot enjoy those natural comforts and sleep which the Lord allows me to enjoy as worldly care is described in covetous men Eccles 5. 12. The sleep of a labouring man is sweet whether be eat little or much but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep That is an argument of excessive worldly care and trouble in a man for the world when he is so puzzled and glutted with the world that he cannot take his rest at night A fourth discovery in this Psalm is When disquiet of soul under the guilt of sin doth either discourage a man or unfit a man for religious duties then they are excessive and inordinate this is laid down in the 4. v. I am so troubled I cannot speak He was so overwhelmed with fears and troubles in his spirit that it did either discourage him from praying or unfit him for the use of prayer now to make it appear put them together v. 10. I said this is ruine infirmity It follows that all those troubles that be so inordinate to make him refuse comfort and troubled at the thoughts of God and to make him likewise that he could not sleep and he could not pray all this was his infirmity These are the four discoveries taken from that one Psalm Fifthly It is then inordinate when a man is so disquieted under the sight of sin that he hath no mind to follow his particular calling where in God hath set him in in the world that he can take no comfort in Wife or Children estate or comforts when a man shall be so perplexed that he cannot follow his trade then it is sinful there is his reason for it because God injoyns no duty belonging to our general calling as Christians that should clash with or justle out our particular callings as Men and herein the Divels policy lies that if he in trouble of mind can keep a man out of his calling he hath the better way to work upon an idle man Sixthly When trouble and disquiet of soul for sin is prejudicial to the health of our bodies I hate robbery for a burnt offering so that 's not God's sacrifice that is prejudicial to bodily health God hates us not for a burnt offering this was an infirmity in Heman one troubled deeply in mind Psal 88. 3. My soul is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh to the grave Heman's trouble of soul was so great that it did weaken his body and bring him to nothing but skin and bones So you read of trouble Psal 31. 9 10. Have mercy upon me Lord for I am in trouble my eyes is consumed with grief c. For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing my strength faileth because of any iniquity Here was a mixture of weaknesse in this though it was for sin yet to consume the bones and to spend the strength God doth not require that Lastly When a man shall be so disquieted under the guilt of sin that he shall be uttenly discouraged from venturing to lay hold on Jesus Christ when they say doubtingly what the enemies say scoffingly where is no help for him in God when the kinde or degree of trouble of mind is so much that it shall impugn the end of it it is then excessive What is the end of trouble of mind for sin the end is to imbitter sin and to provoke a soul to look out after Jesus Christ And thus I have given you but the heads of this particular Question 6 Sixth Quaery You will ask me If it be so that godly men are so much disquieted in soul under the guilt of sin then what is the reason that wicked men can live so jocondly under such heavy loads of guilt yet never have a troubled thought nor disquieted heart all their days that they do not come into trouble as other men What is the reason of all this It is a very fruitful Question and well to be considered There are 10. General Causes First It proceeds partly from the malice and subtilty of the Divel that those souls that he hopes to damn when they die he will not disquiet them for sin whilst they are alive this is hinted to you Luke 11. 21. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace his goods are in peace The strong man is meant the Divel the pallace is meant the heart of a wicked man the goods to be at peace is meant that the thoughts of a wicked man is at peace and nothing troubles him when the Divel doth possesse a wicked man's heart he labours to keep all his thoughts quiet and calm and at peace with him Steila although a Popish Author yet hath a good note Unum est hic observandum we are to observe this one thing here the great cunning of the Divel that soul that he hath a possession of he would not have him trouble his conscience it is his labour saith he ut ne ullum conscientiae stimulum patiatur that he should not endure one prick of conscience the Divel doth with wicked men as the Babylonians did with the Jews in captivity they would make them sing songs when the Divel hath got wicked men captive the Divel would fain have them sing songs and be secure
not walk in the way of this people They speak peace when indeed they were in trouble Jer. 23. 13 14. verses And I have seen folly in the Prophets of Samaria they prophesied in Baal and caused my people to err I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing they have committed adultery and walk in lyes they strengthen also the hands of evil doers that none doth return from his wickedness they are all of them unto me as Sodom and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorah The ninth General cause They have a fulnesse of outward prosperity and blessing in the world it may be refer'd to soul trouble as well as to bodily trouble that prosperity in the world doth mightily keep off a man from having his soul trouble him under the guilt of sin Hos 12. 8. And Ephraim said Yet I am become rich I have found me put substance in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin They were a wicked people and yet their prosperity in an evil way did harden their hearts in a way of sin The instance of Pharaoh there was nothing in the world did more harden his heart then his prosperity God lifting him up to be a King did harden his heart when men are glutted with prosperity that they have not an open ear to the screaks of conscience 2 Chron. 33. 10. And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people but they would not hearken In prosperity he would not hearken to the checks of conscience till God laid him in fetters then he hearkened Lastly Men are not disquieted in soul for sin Why so Because of an inconsideratenesse of the omnipotency and all-seeing eye of God though men be not doctrinal Atheists to hold this opinion that God doth not see all things yet men are practical Atheists to live and continue so in an evil way as if God did not see them we read in Job 28. 13 14. And thou sayst How can the Lord know can he judge through the dark clouds Thick clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not and he walketh in the circuit of Heaven The Lord doth not see nor doth the holy one regard is there not a cloud between him and us the Psalmist hath a passage the wicked doth make a tush of sin tush say they The Lord regards it not What is the reason men make but a tush of sin why they do not think that God regards sin sin doth not trouble them and doth not disquiet them Because they think God doth not behold them they are inconsiderate of the omnipotency of God I shall now only give you a short use of what you have heard touching godly mens disquiet under the guilt of sin only this use Use It shall be by way of trial or examination you have heard much concerning that trouble and disquiet of soul that may be found in reprobates Now the Use shall be to put you upon trial how you may be satisfied in conscience that that disquiet of soul that is in you under the guilt of sin is an evangelical and a gracious trouble for sin and not such a trouble that doth arise from a natural conscience in wicked men and to satisfie you herein I shall name six particulars First Dost thou find this within thee that thy trouble of soul is more for the evil of the fact thou hast done then for the danger thou mayst incur My meaning is this when thou art troubled more for the sin then thou art troubled for the penalty of that sin thou hast incurr'd by the commission of it when thou art troubled for sin more because it robs God of his glory then because it will keep thee from glory this is an evangelical grace Secondly When thou art more troubled for the sin of nature then for the sins that break out in thy life when the sin of nature doth disquiet thee as well as the sins of thy practise We never find in all the Scripture that a wicked man hath any remorse of spirit at all for the sin of nature thou that canst say sins of nature trouble thee as well as sins of practise this is an argument of evangelical trouble of soul for sin David discovered grace herein when he made that penitential Psalm 51. for the sin of adultery with Bathsheba David doth not only bewail the unclean act but he bewails also the unclean nature Thirdly Thou mayst be satisfied if thou art as much disquieted in soul in the sight and apprehension of the power of sin as of the guilt of sin I am troubled not only that sin is so dangerous but also that sin is so strong within me Fourthly The disquiet for sin is evangelical when the measure and degree of thy trouble of mind for sin is subservient to and promoting of the end of trouble of mind the end of trouble of mind I told you was to imbitter sin and indeer Christ when thou hast so much of the measure and degree of trouble of mind as to imbitter sin to thee and to indeer Jesus Christ to thee this is the true evangelical humiliation that the Gospel calls for Fifthly Thou mayst be sure that it is an evangelical trouble of mind when thou art troubled for sin as well because it is against a good God as well as because it is against a just God a wicked man may be troubled for sin against a just God because justice will be avenged on sin and on the sinner but now a godly man saith God loads me with mercies thou that canst grieve and be troubled for sin this is evangelical they shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days Hos 3. 5. I may apply that Fable that Plutarch hath in his Morals of the Sun and the mind contending which should make a Traveller put off his Cloak O Beloved storms and blustering tempests of God's wrath may make a wicked man leave sin and be troubled for sin but when the Son of God's love shall melt the heart and sweetly insinuate into thy soul and that make thee uncloath thy self of the rags of sin that is an argument of evangelical trouble Lastly It is an evangelical sorrow and trouble of soul for sin when thou canst be as truly troubled for sin committed when thou knowest it is pardoned as if thou hadst not known thy sin to be pardoned to be a troubled and a pardoned Christian it is evangelical trouble a pardoned sin shall fill thy heart with trouble when thou art of this temper that thou wilt bathe that sin in thy tears in a way of contrition which thou knowest to be bathed in Christ's blood in a way of remission thou hast a gracious temper of heart engraven upon thee SERMON XVI Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him The health of my Countenance and my God I
Now come to give you some practical instructions by way of Rules My work for this morning shall be to prescribe some Theological rules to those who are greatly troubled and disquieted in soul under the guilt of sin rules of two sorts there are Directory rules and Consolatory rules rules by way of Direction and rules by way of Consolation I begin with the first directory Rules there are eight Rules what they might doe to allay trouble and disquiet of Conscience when it is excessive and inordinate First When thou art excessively troubled under the guilt of sin take this Rule what troubled thoughts thou hast about the guilt of sin spend them upon the power of sin within thee this is a holy diversion to be always conversant about the power of sin it is an evangelical and a gracious temper if Christians were more troubled about the power of sin they would be lesse troubled about the guil of sin the Divel doth not care if Professors of Religion be terrified Christians so they be not mortified Christians Secondly Keep conscience clear that thou do not add guilt to guilt adding guilt to guilt is the way to add horror to horror and terror to terror upon the conscience guilt in the conscience doth contract dismal fear amazement and consternation of soul if conscience doth not shut sin out of doors why sin will shut peace of conscience out of doors It is a rule that Bernard gives Conscience is to be comforted but first it is to be purified and made clean this rule is laid down by Eliphaz if I mistake not Job 11. 14. If iniquity be in thine hand put it far away and let not wickedness dwell in thy Tabernacles Beloved that is the way to keep cut fear to keep out guilt if conscience be not a swept and a cleansed room it will gaul disquiet and vex thy soul to have conscience pacified when it is not purified is but to skin over an old sore which before it be healed will break out again peace saith Bernard in many men is worse then a spiritual conflict such a peace for a man to have peace in his conscience when he indulgeth guilt in his conscience expect not trouble of conscience to be allayed if thy conscience be not purified Prov. 29. 6. In the transgression of an evill man there is a snare but the righteous doth sing and rejoyce By snare Solomon there means horror of conscience it appears by the opposition Interpreters give this rule that in the Proverbs of Solomon that one opposition doth explain the other why here the righteous shall sing and rejoyce in his grace but the wicked shall have a snare in his sin he shall have horror and dread of conscience in the sight of sin Prov. 15. 15. A good and a clear conscience doth keep holy day every day of his life though he hath hardly any thing else to feed upon guilt on the conscience is the way to cause a resurrection of thy fears and doubts and to bring all thy spiritual hopes to the grave A third Rule is this Take heed thou dost not go about to allay the disquiet of thy soul for sin by sin that is a third Rule to run to vain pleasures and to sensual delights to stop and quell the voice of conscience what is this but to go to the Divel for a plaister to heal the wounds of thy soul Beloved these men that go to allay trouble of mind for sin by sin they go the way to make conscience recoyl and turn upon them with more fiercenesse and more savage cruelty It is just as a man that is a thirst he will drink a draught of poyson to quench his thirst O! when thou art scorcht with God's wrath and to allay this dost drink a draught of sin what dost thou but drink so much poyson Many men when they are under trouble of mind they will go to sin for a shelter and there a Serpent puts them to more pain A fourth Rule is this Fix your thoughts on the evidences of your graces when your hearts are overmuch disquieted in the sight of sin as trouble of conscience in the sight of sin will keep a man that he shall not be proud in the sight of his grace so the evidence or sight of grace will keep a man that he shall not be excessively troubled in the sight of sin Fifthly Ponder in your meditations the comfortable promises of the Gospel rather then the threats of the Law if I were to speak to a secure sinner I would give him a quite contrary rule that he should rather ponder on the threats of the Law then the promises of the Gospel but to a sinner greatly prest under the weight of God's wrath he must take this word rather to ponder on the promising part of the word then on the threatning part of the word Prov. 25. 12. As an ear-ring of gold and as an ornament of fine gold so is a wise reprover to an obedient ear The good word of a promise makes glad a poor soul that stoops in heavinesse under the guilt of sin A Pot when it boyls over the fire and boyls too fast cast a handful of Salt and it will allay the boyling of the Pot when thy soul boyls and is restlesse in disquiet for trouble of sin and boyling too fast cast in a handful of Salt a handful of the Promises of the Gospel this will allay the excessive trouble and disquiet of thy soul The Promises are called by one the Instruments of a Christan's peace they are called God's proclamations of pardon to a poor creature they are the character wherein he may read all his Priviledges O study them well A sixth Rule Compare the guilt of you sins with the merits of Christ's righteousnesse and you will find that there is more in Christ's righteousnesse to save then is in sin to damn Christ's righteousnesse is imputed to a believer that the guilt of sin might not be charged on him as Christ's Person is above thy person so Christ's righteousnesse is above thy righteousnesse this the Apostle layeth down Rom. 5. 15. The gift by grace hath abounded to many The gift doth exceed the sin exceed the offence compare but them in thy thoughts and that will be a means to alâ—ay the trouble oâ— thy heart Seventhly Disclose and reveal that sin the guilt whereof doth so much disquiet thy soul unto some judicious compassionate and experienced Christian giving vent to your own sorrows by complaints is a great way to ease the mind If in Innocency God thought fit that Adam should not be alone but should have a helper much more now in a state of defection since the fall do we need others help as well as our own if Jesus Christ when in an agony God thought fit to send an Angel to comfort him O then do not believers need much more when they are in their spiritual agony and conflicts and
wicked men make pardoning grace a means of presumption but pardoning grace rightly applied is the most genuine way for the breaking and troubling of the soul Beloved lay thy self in the arms of Christ on the bed of his love and that 's the way to break thy flinty and stony heart A child of God cannot choose but to bathe his sins in the tears of contrition that knoweth his sins to be bathed in Christ's blood in a way of satisfaction I now come to give you some consolatory Rules which are four Is there comfort to a man that doth find his heart hard that seldome or never findeth his soul disquieted under the sense of sin First Be comforted if what thou wantest in godly sorrow for sin thou makest up in holy care and watchfulness against sin if a child of God hath not a weeping eye for sin yet if he have a watchful heart against sin that is pleasing to God if tears be not in thine eye for sin yet if weapons of defence be in thine hand to contest and conflict with corruptions that is most pleasing to God The Captain of our salvation Jesus Christ he had rather see a fighting weapon against sin then a weeping eye for sin that is one comfort A second comfort is this That the want of trouble of soul for sin doth not always arise from a stupified conscience but from an ignorant mind if Conscience had an eye to see sin Conscience would have a hand to smite for sin Conscience doth therefore want a hand because man's judgement wanteth an eye to discern what is evil A third comfort is this That though a good man may not for some time be troubled for sin yet at that time and in that case there is a great difference between him and a wicked man he is not troubled but he would be troubled a wicked man is not disquieted and he would never be disquieted a godly man doth not mourn but he would mourn and would love that Minister that should pierce his heart a wicked man cannot endure him there is a great difference between the one and the other A good man dares not stitle the checks of Conscience a wicked man when Conscience begins to trouble him he doth what he can to still the crys of Conscience when Conscience doth arrest a wicked man for debt they run not unto God they make conscience drunk with sensual pleasures and vain delights that so they may run away from Consciences arrest but godly men dare not do thus but they cry to conscience excuse me when I do well and accuse me when I do ill this is the behaviour of a godly man Lastly Take this for comfort though thou hast not so much trouble for sin as thou dost desire yet thou hast so much as God doth accept this is a true rule in Divinity that the desire of any grace is the grace it self for to believe is faith and true desire to repent is repentance and true desire to mourn for sin is a mourning for sin if thou dost desire a troubled heart that is a holy trouble this is a great mercy that in Scripture account the desire of any grace is the grace it self It is worthy your observation you read of Nehemiah ch 1. 11. O Lord I beseech thee let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant and to the prayer of thy servants who desire to fear thy Name and prosper c. Compare that place with ch 5. 15. But the former Governours that were before me were chargable unto the people 7 c. but so did not I because of the fear of the Lord. To note that a desire to fear God is a fearing of God a desire to repent is a repenting a desire to be troubled is a holy trouble provided it be a solemn sincere and an insatiable desire after any grace this we read of Abraham when God comes to deal with Abraham What saith God to him Because thou hast done this deed I will do so and so to thee why he had not done this Divines gather that in God's account the desire and intent of doing a good thing is the doing of it therefore when Paul records Abraham's act it is said by faith he did it Beloved it should be a great discomfort to ungodly men that the Scripture should say thus to us that a desire to do a sin is the sin it is all one to God therefore Christ telleth you Mat. 5. 28. He that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery in his heart The desire and the act is all one to God though not to men God looks on the lust of the eye to be as the uncleanness of the act he that is angry with his brother 1 John 3. 15. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murtherer and no murtherer hath eternal life abiding in him God looketh on the desire for to kill a man as if thou hadst kill'd him now on the other hand it should be a great comfort to godly men that the desire of grace is grace it self I mention this to you that grieve because you cannot grieve that do not mourn but would mourn Thus much for the Consolatory Rules I shall only give you this Use Use and so I shall finish this doctrine about the disquietings of the soul and that is a use of caution to perswade you to take heed you do not run into false mistakes touching soul-disquiet for sin the Divel may paint that which is not grace and which is not trouble of Conscience and disquiet of mind for sin like it which is my caution to perswade you that you would not be mistaken in this matter Five Mistakes I shall give you Cautions to take heed of First Take heed you do not mistake a natural Melancholy and take that to be a godly sorrow and trouble of mind for sin many people whose tempers are sad heavy and dumpish they apprehend Melancholy to be a godly sorrow there is a great difference between natural Melancholy and between spiritual trouble First natural Melancholy hath many apprehensions in the fancy in the imaginations but spiritual trouble ariseth from the Conscience upon the sense of God's wrath and the frowns of the Almighty and the greatness of sin and the evil thereof Secondly Melancholy is cured by Physick Gallen is a proper help for a melancholy man but all the Physick in the world cannot allay the disquiet of a godly man's soul Thirdly Melancholy maketh a man sad but he cannot tell for what but a man under spiritual trouble saith thus It is this sin gauls my Conscience and such a failing grieves my soul which a Melancholy man cannot do he cannot tell that it is such a corruption I am guilty of Fourthly Melancholy is discerned by his natural complexion a heavy eye a grizly look but spiritual trouble on the Conscience may be in the man that is of a merry pleasant amiable Countenance therefore
Divines observe of David the Scripture telleth you he was a man of a ruddy complexion the effect thereof is to be merry and pleasant yet he did grieve and roar under disquietness of soul for sin Again Melancholy doth impare the health of the body but sorrow for sin doth not so Again A Melancholy man cannot delight in God nor in duty whereas a man under trouble of mind though he be troubled for sin yet he can rejoyce in God and delight in duty Godly sorrow and spiritual joy are no way contradictory each to other but rather subservient each to other Secondly take this Caution Do not mistake that to be trouble of mind for sin which is onely a trouble for some outward distaster in the World when a man is troubled for the loss of a Child or for the loss of an estate many men deceive themselves and take their worldly sorrow for spiritual trouble which if this were true Achitophel should be a troubled man for sin he came home sad and hanged himself Then Haman should have godly sorrow for he was troubled for crosses in the World he came home sad and told all his friends what had befallen him Beloved you must not look upon worldly trouble to be spiritual trouble but thus do when you find the heart overwhelmed with worldly trouble O Labour to direct it into spiritual trouble to shed tears for sin when thou sheddest tears for the loss of an estate why turn that flood of tears to weep for sin to turn the Mill of godly sorrow to grind thy heart to powder in the sense of sin it is a debasement to tears to be shed for every tride Beloved to shed tears for worldly things it is to be prodigal of your tears Thirdly take this Caution Do not conceive that to be trouble for sin that causeth shame among men many reprobates are troubled for sin but why It is not because God receives dishonour by sin but because they shall receive shame for their sin This is not Evangelical trouble Many men are like Judah Genesis 38. 23. And Judah said Let her take it to her lest we be ashamed behold I send this kid and thou hast not found her As if he should have said if the woman should tell that I have committed Adultery with her I should be ashamed let her alone Thus do men cry out they would have Conscience let them alone and they would let sin alone lest they should be ashamed If so be that the concealing of a sin can conceal their shame they care not why Heathens went beyond this It is a saying of Seneca If I did know saith he that all the men of the world should be ignorant of what sin I had done yet I would not sin because of the filthinesse of sin Tully hath a notable passage and it is to be wondred at that a Heathen should go so far saith he That if I thought that all my sins could be concealed from all the world yet we must do nothing covetously nothing incontinently nothing un justly we must do no evil though the world should never see us Many men are more grieved for sin because it is a shame to them this is not a gracious and an evangelical trouble for sin Fourthly Account not that to be a right trouble for sin which is rather for the punishment of sin then for the evil nature of sin more because there is a Hell for sin then that there is a Hell in sin Cain was more troubled for the punishment then for the sin he cryed out My punishment is more then I can bear but Cain did not cry out My sin is greater that I have committed Fifthly Account not that to be a right disquiet and trouble of soul for sin that is only for great and grosse acts of sin without having any remorse for secret and lesser evils many men if one stares them in the face though all their other sins never trouble them they conclude this to be godly sorrow and evangelical remorse in them Alas Beloved Judas was troubled for one sin but not for another sin he was troubled for ill gotten goods but to be troubled for one sin and not for all sins is no Gospel sorrow he that is not troubled for every sin that he knoweth that he is guilty of he is troubled for no sin Look upon wicked men you shall see them many times troubled for great evils but never troubled for smaller evils those sins that disquiet a godly mans heart shall not break a nap of sleep from him he can go merrily and joeundly under the guilt of those sins which troubleth the soul and breaketh the peace of a godly consciencious man all his days those sins that are ornaments to wicked men that they can wear them as a chain of Gold about their necks they wear their pride and shew their pride they account sin their ornaments I but that which is one mans ornament is another mans torment his pride his lust and his complemental oaths is his delight but it is a torment to a godly man therefore do not account that a disquiet of soul to be a godly disquiet Again Do not account that to be an evangelical trouble for sin when it is not for Original sin as well as actual sin Mr. Bolton telleth you of a Germain in his time that was a great prosessor of Religion and he was once overtaken in drink I went to this man to shew him the evill of drunkennesse to let him see what a beast-like sin it was what a swinish sin it was I laboured to shew him what this was I laboured to make him see the evill of a drunken nature but he would yield to me that drunkenness was a bad sin but he would not yield to the wickedness of nature this man did bewail the act of drunkenness and fell to other sins yet at last God troubled this man again and being perplexed he sent for the same man again and saith he Now I believe your words I find an unclean heart an adulterous heart a drunken heart I see it is now worse then a drunken act and afterwards he never fell to those sins again Thus I have in seventeen Sermons gone over the distresses the Psalmist here complains of Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me FINIS Li. de script Eccles Tom. 1. Ezek. 34. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Sam. 15. 4. a There is this difference between a Dialogue a Soliloquie a Dialogue is a conference between two or moretogether A Soliloquie is the speaking of a person to himself per Apostrophen ad seipsum convertens here the Psalmist by a Prosopopeia brings in two persons Psal 103. 1. Psal 107. Prov. 12. 25. Quanquam bellum cum SatanaÌ„ mundo gerit non tamen directâ— vel aperte cum illis constigit sed seipsum potâ—ùs ditigit antagoni stam teâ—tè haec optima