Evil will not always cover himself with Clouds from his own People His common care has provided for the pleasure of his Creatures fruit to delight their Tasts and Flowers and various Colours their Eyes and their smell Rivers and Trees and Meadows and Groves and all the variety of Nature to recreate and entertain them and if all this Accommodation be made for Rebels he will not fail to entertain his Subjects with joys of a better kind Joy is sown for the Righteous and it will arise in the time of Harvest and that time will shortly come If God have done so much to gratify the senses of his Creatures with suitable satisfactions the Souls of his People that are more Noble shall not be disappointed of such as are Coelestial and Divine for joy is that which with a sweet violence does attract the heart of Man God regards the distressed and has a peculiar pity for those that are in the greatest trouble* as Mothers tend with a peculiar care the weakest Child The World indeed admires flatters waits upon those on whom the Sun shines and who are in a prosperous condition as Rivers run into the Sea where there is no need of Water so it heaps its friendships and kindnesses on those that least need them and forsakes the disgraced †Manton Serm. on 2 Thes 2.17 p. 432. the poor and those that are in want but God when his Servants are in the greatest troubles encouragâ—s them by his Name which is The Father of Mercies and the God of all Consolations he is most mindful of them and visits them most and gives them most of his comfortable presence when they are most afflicted 2 Cor. 1.4 He comforteth us in all our tribulations He will not give them a constant ease they shall not be excused from the common inconveniencies of the Fall from sickness or from death but himself is willing to be their own portion he is in all their own God They shall labour but they shall have rest they shall fight but he will Crown their heads with Victory they shall sow in tears but reap in joy The Waves and the Floods that now overwhelm them shall be turned into Rivers of pleasure for evermore The Vse of Exhortation is in these following Particulars 1. Be very well satisfied that God carry you to Heaven in the way that he thinks most proper It were indeed a thing very desirable to be at ease to travel with his light about us but if we must go through darkness and danger and calamity to Heaven let us be satisfied that his will is done tho we go weeping and groaning thither You 'l think perhaps that he deserves not the name of a Christian that will not suffer God to guide him any way so it be to Salvation but alas how few are there that are satisfied with his methods when his Candle shines upon our Tabernacle we are well enough pleased but when he begins to correct and chasten us for a long season then we murmur and repine and when we meet with difficulties and tears and troubles one upon another then we think he is an hard Master this is our common case and our common folly We can all make the Prayer of Jabez 1 Chron. 4.10 Oh that thou wouldst bless me indeed and inlarge my coast and that thine hand might be with me and that thou wouldst keep me from evil that it may not grieve me But how few can say heartily with our Blessed Lord If the Cup must not pass thy will be done He could bring you to Heaven without a tear or a sigh but if not who can resist his order or blame his Providence He led the Children of Israel forty years wandring to and fro in a great and a terrible Wilderness wherein were fiery Serpents and Scorpions and drought and no water Deut. 8.15 when he could have led them quickly to the Land of Canaan You must not think to come to Heaven without many a sad heart and many weeping eyes through the vally of Bacha must you travel to the Mount of God The Ark that had a Noah in it did not immediately rest it was not in one day that the great waters did abate or fall into their old Channels your passage to glory may be safe tho it be very troublesome and the rods that seem to be the most painful may be most necessary to you for tho the Israelites met with various troubles yet Psal 107.7 He led them forth by the right way that they might go to a City of habitation It may be you shall be shipwrackt into the Haven and tho you be saved yet it shall be so as by fire Through many a sharp Cross and many a bitter Tribulation and in the fire your Comforts and your Ease may suffer loss for a time but it shall be made up again Afflictions ruin none that belong to God and many a Christian shall say at last I had perished if I had not perished I had been undone for ever if I had not been afflicted Out of the ruins of the flesh God raises the glorious structure of the new Creature and from the destruction of our Earthly comforts he causes Heavenly joys to spring let us not find fault with God's Providence for it will turn our water into wine our tears of grief into the most pleasant joys And as at the Marriage of Cana we shall have the best at last Our Afflictions will encrease our Grace and we shall ere long mount up from the Wilderness of this world fraught with Myrrh and Frankincense and all the spices of the Merchants Let us not find fault if we meet with the waters of Marah in our Journey to the Land of Promise * Hall on the Marriage in Cana p. 162. Thirst and bitterness is the portion of Pilgrims 'T is enough for us that we shall have rest at last tho we must not expect that the Providence of God should go out of its ordinary course for us Let us confide in his Goodness his Faithfulness and Loving-kindness his Word and Promise this is the quiet harbour into which we must put our trembling souls these are the Consolations that will make our bitter waters sweet Submit therefore to God to him pour out your hearts tho you be long afflicted and with one wave upon another CHAP. X. The Conclusion of the whole Treatise With directions to such who have been formerly in the darkness of a sorrowful Night and now enjoy the light of day 2. LEt us with whom it was once Night improve that Morning-joy that now shines upon us and that briefly in these particulars 1. Let us be continual admirers of God's Grace and mercy to us He has prevented us with his Goodness when he saw nothing in us but impatience and unbelief when we were like Jonas in the belly of Hell his Bowels earned over us and his Power brought us safe to Land What did we to hasten
more clearly to us the corruption and defilement of our nature In a calm the waters of the Sea appear to be clear enough but when the storm comes then it throws up the mire and dirt in prosperity and health we think we have very good hearts and considerable degrees of sanctification but when sin is set home upon us the spiritual Law of God begins to shew its purity Oh what multitudes of iniquities do then appear what unbelief what impatience what murmuring what unbecoming thoughts of God such hideous and strange thoughts as we never had before In health and strength and peace there are a thousand secular Affairs and Contrivances that take up our time and divert our minds and turn us to the view of things without but in the trouble of our Consciences our eyes are turned another way to behold with attention our own Souls and to see what lusts what impurities what venomous Creatures what Vipers have been entertained there and oh what a ghastly formidable sight is this to see such a numerous brood of Transgressions when we imagined that all had been very well with us it is even a wonder that God who saw so much evil in us should let us alone so long These spiritual Afflictions shew us what a sorry contemptible Creature man is what cause he has to be debased when he is most proud and what cause he has to be covered with shame and blushing when he is most fearless and undaunted when God does not blow upon our Garden instead of those Spices those Graces blowing forth that may be for his glory and for our comfort there is nothing but Weeds and Thistles nothing but Thorns and Briars that tear and wound us our Soul is then just like a dead Carkass full of putrefaction no sprightly motions towards Heaven no spiritual no warm desires like the cold Regions of the North which the Sun does only visit with his fainter and weaker beams and not like those Eastern Countries where his greater heat does produce Spices and fragrant Flowers 5. Another End that God hath in the continuance of Spiritual Troubles and Afflictions and the Sense of his Wrath long upon us is that from our own Experience Christ may be for ever very precious to us when we are at ease and think our selves whole we seldom think of him but our pain and our smart our guilt and our fears the sight of our present Danger and of approaching Wrath causes us to run to this Physician and to beg his help when we are sinking it will make us to stretch out our hands and say Master save us or else we perish Never did a poor Man with more earnestness beg an Alms than we shall beg his help never did a diseased Person after violent racking Pain more long for Rest and a Cure than we shall for Christ and having fallen among Lyons having been the flaves of fear and held in Captivity by the Temptations of Satan we shall most gladly shake of our Chains and embrace Liberty and Salvation when our Lord comes to set us free The fight of him to be our Saviour will make us run to meet him and to say Welcome thou only Friend of our Souls welcome thou dear Physician and Healer of our Souls Hosannah to the Son of David blessed is he that comes to us in the name of the Lord. Oh! how will our very hearts melt with love when we remember that as we have been distressed for our Sins against him so he was in greater Agonies for us We have had Gall and Wormwood but he tasted a more bitter Cup. The Anger of God has dried up our Spirits but he was scorched with a more flaming Wrath. He was under violent pain in the Garden and on the Cross ineffable was the sorrow that he felt being forsaken of his Father deserted by his Disciples affronted and reproached by his Enemies and under a Curse for us This Sun was under a doleful Eclipse this Living Lord was pleased to dye and in his Death was under the Frowns of an Angry God That Face was then hid from him that had always smiled before and his Soul felt that horror and that darkness which it had never felt before So that tho there was no Separation between the divine and humane Nature yet he suffered Pains equal to those which we had deserv'd fo suffer in Hell for ever God so suspended the Efficacies of his Grace that it displayed in that hour none of its force and virtue on him He had no Comfort from Heaven none from his Angels none from his Friends even in that sorrowful hour when he needed comfort most Like a Lyon that is hurt in the Forest so he roared and cryed out tho there was no despair in him and when he was forsaken yet there was trust and hope in those words My God My God Have we been abandoned of God He was much more so and was deserted for a while that we might not be so for ever Oh! how frequently should we remember such a Saviour How delightful should we think and speak of him who thought nothing too much for us We have by feeling of the Wrath of God drank in some measure of the Cup whereof he drank We justly for our Sins He out of Love and Kindness that he might make an Atonement and a Propitiation and if what we have felt was so terrible how much more dreadful was that which he endured If the smaller drops that have put our Souls into a flame have filled us with anguish what torment did he undergo that was plunged as into a Sea of Wrath Surely such a Friend such a Physician as he has been to us must be ever valued We cannot pray but in his Name we cannot be justified but with his Righteousness we can hope for nothing but by his Merits and his Intercession we cannot Live we cannot dye without him Let this be the constant Language of our Souls None but Christ none but Christ Cant. 3.1 2 3 4. 6. That we may put an high Value on the Scripture that we may search and look into it with more earnestness and frequency to see if there be any Promises in it that are reviving any place in it that may afford hope and comfor to Souls so miserable and so guilty For when our Consciences are awakened and pierced with the sense of Wrath from God if his Word would speak peace to us we could have ease but the terrible threatnings thereof are the things that wound us deep and that put us to the greater smart and we then know and fully believe beyond all doubt that this is the word by which we are to be tried in the great and solemn day 7. Another end of God in continuing Afflictions and a long remaining sense of his Wrath upon us is That we may be everlasting admirers of the freeness of his Grace when we are delivered Oh! with what wonder should we behold his
and I have hated him He has called me and I have disobeyed his Voice He has provided for me and I have rebelled He has been a Father but I have been undutiful and prodigal and disobedient and now his slighted his forgotten Love and Kindness wounds me to the very Soul Oh! what did I think of when I did not think of him What was it that my vain foolish heart loved when I loved not him that is altogether amiable What was it that I cared for or in what did I spend my time that I did not care for my Soul and the pleasing of my God who spared me and bore with me with an admirable patience I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men Job 7.20 I will put my mouth in the dust I will loath and abhor may self for mine Iniquities if so be there may be hope I have wandred but my wandrings have cost me dear I have been in a strange Land and with tears will I return home saying Bless me even me also O my Father And then the Love of Jesus constrains the poor Christian to be sorrowful saying Did he leave his Heaven for me and for me that many times would not leave a sin for him for me that was a lost Sheep a dying Malefactor an Enemy by my Evil Works Did he come to rescue me when I was in the very jaws of the Roaring Lyon and at the door of Hell and shall I not be grieved to think that I have requited him so ill for all his Love they were my sins that made him astonisht and troubled and exceeding sorrowful even unto death and yet alas I have done what I could to increase his Agonies by my new sins It was my sin that filled the bitter Cup that betrayed that whipt that exposed to so injurious usage the Son of God my sin that wounded his Breast and raked in his Sides and nailed him to the Tree and made him dye and can I look upon what I have done and not be troubled Can my eyes behold him hanging on the Cross and not affect my heart Never was there any Sorrow like to his Sorrow never was there any Love like to his Love Never was there Disobedience more inexcusable never was Sin more sinful than mine has been I have often made light of that that prest him down to the Grave I have rejoyced at that which made him mourn and weep but I will do so again no more for ever And then it troubles the good Christian to think how often he has refused the motions of the blessed Spirit and how when the Spirit has moved upon his heart with a design to do him good he hath sent him grieved and vexed away All this is occasion of grief tho it do not always express it self in tears for there is a rational sorrow as well as a sensitive one and tho this may be more passionate yet the other is more lasting and durable Those that are converted in their younger days the warmth and heat of their glowing and beginning zeal does more easily dissolve and melt them into tears and then the rivers flow more than they do afterwards but yet when the flood ceases the fruitfulness appears and when their tears are dried up yet their hatred of sin remains for these outward expressions of sorrow are very much influenced by the temper and constitution of the body 2 Cor. 7.10 11. As in the first so 't is in the second birth as soon as they are born they cry No sooner are they brought from darkness into marvellous light but they wonder at their folly and at the grace of God that saved them from it and that wonder does produce love and grief First their hearts are softned with his love and then they mourn for their Provocations tho this wherewith good Christians bewail their sins is not a lazy grief but attended with serious endeavours of new obedience as the Husbandman after the profitable showers of rain sets himself with a renewed industry to cultivate the Ground and it is but reasonable that our eyes that are too often the instruments of sin to us should by tears help us to bewail that sin Isa 38.15 I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my Soul 2 Those that are good Christians weep also for the sins of others The love they have to the name of God causes them to grieve for the reflections and dishonours that are thrown upon it by wicked men They cannot without sorrow behold or hear of the sins of men in general the sins of Kingdoms and Provinces and Towns the sins of Families the sins of their Fellow-citizens their Brethren and their Neighbours the tears that they shed are tears of compassion for the very sad and miserable condition of the World Whilst others make a mock at sin and through the blindness of their folly know not what they do good men lament their unconcernedness and insensibility whilst they see them sporting on the hole of Aspes and touching Firebrands and Death They cannot see men treat their heavenly Father with insolence and scorn but their hearts in a just zeal for his glory rise against them not with indecent passions for their ruine but in an hearty longing for their reformation Psal 119.138 Rivers of water run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law Thus saith the Prophet to his hearers Jer. 13.17 My soul shall weep in secrew places for your pride mine eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears Our love to our Neighbour and our zeal for God's glory does oblige us to this it must grieve us to think what men are doing when they sin how great a God they provoke to punish them how great a misery they are bringing on their own souls It must grieve us to think how unsafe a way they go and what a dismal end will be to that way Phil. 3.19 Jer. 9.1 The Prophet wishes Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people And yet as one observes when he pronounced these sad words Dubose Sermons pag. 1. the misery of the Jews was not arrived Jerusalem did as yet subsist in its Magnificence and splendor its Temple had not lost thatadmirable Beauty which made it the wonder of the world its Palaces had lost nothing of their Pomp its Walls and Fortresses were entire and the Daughter of Sion was Princess among the Provinces but he spoke thus foreseeing that their abounding sins and their hardness and obstinacy would certainly bring upon them the Judgments of God We must consider what we were our selves when in the house of bondage and serving divers lusts how enslaved and how miserable that so the remembrance we have of our former danger may quicken us to do others all the good we can that they may not fall into hell whilest we