ZIONS' TEARS LEADING TO JOY: OR THE WATERS OF MARAH SWEETENED. First preached at Clonenagh in the Queen's County in several Sermons, and now published for the benefit of the Church. By Ri: Olmstead, Minister of God's Word, and Master of Arts. MATT. 5.4. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. DUBLIN, Printed by the Society of Stationers. 1630. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, ADAM Lord Viscount LOFTUS of Elie, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and one of his Majesty's justices for the government of this Kingdom. Right Honourable, I Humbly beseech You to accept this poor model of my labours, as did Artaxerxes a cup of cold water at the hands of silly Synaetus, even from me, the meanest of Levy his sons: It shall be much honoured if it please your Lordship to pardon my presumption, and to afford your patronage thereunto. The subject is worthy your Lordship's consideration in itself, if the evil cooking of it by my unskilfulness, detract not from the lustre thereof; but if I had enjoyed either that Academic leisure, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the benefit of some Amaraean Library, or conference with men of excellent both parts & graces, I might have produced a more complete Minerva; but being pressed with the care of a large family depending (though not upon tentmaking, as Paul) yet upon my industry, now these seven years, without any annual revenue from the Church, besides my weekly labours in preaching too, and catechising my people, denies me to furnish it as I would. If I be asked, why I publish a Treatise of this subject: 1 john. 2.18. I answer with S. john, these are the last times, wherein our Saviour saith, Mat. 24.12. Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristippus and Aeschinus being fallen out, one asked the other, what was become of their friendship, the answer was, it was asleep, but he would awake it. Now Right Honourable, seeing the most lie like the people of Laish, judg. 18.7. wretchlesly and securely upon their lees, that neither our own sins, the sins of the times, afflictions of the Churches of God abroad, nor the consideration of the signs and symptoms of God's judgements, dependant or poured out upon us (especially spiritual vengeance at home) can awaken, I think it my duty, to make an experiment by this poor Work to stir up and provoke this frozen age to humble themselues before God in the sense both of their own & the sins of others. This point (my much honoured Lord (though sacred, yet a paradox and ae●aigma to nature, and the world, the natural man not perceiving the things that be of God, because they are spiritually discerned. I may truly apply that saying of Themistocles to this purpose, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who beiog exiled his native Country, & being better entertained in the Persian Court, said; I had perished, if I had not perished: that whereas this simple World are opinionated, that to mourn under the sense of sin, is most uncomfortable, & the way to deprive themselues of all solace & joy, every true Christian is assured, and may say, perijssem si non perijssem, that if he had not sorrowed, he had forfeited his joy and his soul also. Right Honourable, In your absence & affliction, this Commonwealth & Church of Ireland, doubting of the success & issue, & experimentally sensible of the want of your Lordship's indefatigable labours in the execution of justice impartially to all, many of her faithful children were not wanting in their daily supplications to God, waiting your Lordship's happy return, as for the a job 29.23. rain, gave me assur●ce of God's special blessing to honour your Lordship; as Ambrose said to Moni●a the mother of August: Non potest peri●e tantarum lachrymatum filius the child of so many prayers and tears cannot possibly perish; the most High hath pleased to hear their prayers (blessed be his most sacred name) in your Honour's safe return, with a largess of honour. Fail not then (my dear Lord) the expectation of the spouse of Christ, and that trust which the most High and his Majesty hath committed to you to be a faithful servant, b Heb. 3.2. as Moses in the house of God, for the eyes of men are not only cast upon you (my noble Lord) and the whole land intent to be hold your life, In re unum cunctorum oculos etc. Hier. ad de. but God & Angels expect your faithful service, to which end my daily prayers shallbe to the most omnipotent, that he will not fail you with his spirit; being assured that your Lordsh: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intends to imitate that saying of Alexander, It profiteth not to possess all things, & to do nothing, as appears by your Lordship's painful industry (in the judgement of all that behold your insupportable affairs beyond humane strength, I am bold to exhort your Honour in the words of an Apostle, (not to be weary of well doing, for in the end you shall receive the crown, if you faint not: assuring myself that that Proverb so oft inculcated by Hierome of Cicile will for ever be your disposition: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That none who spoke freely to him, did importune him, or was unseasonable. Thus craving pardon of my boldness in dedicating this treatise to your Lo: to which my affection are love and duty to your Ho: the zeal of the glory of God, & the care of the prosperity of this church & commonwealth, with the particular comfort of humbled & afflicted consciences, hath transported me: I humbly beseech your Lo: & this whole church, to accept this poor mite at my hands, most humbly & hearty entreating the most high to water it with the dew of his blessing, who only can make the labour both of minister and people fruitful: Rebeeca may cook the venison, but Isaak must give the blessing: we, nay Paul can but speak to the ear, it is the Almighty that must speak to the heart & conscience by his Spirit, and persuade japheth to dwell in the tents of Shem. Thus wishing my much esteemed Lod, to yourself, your noble Lady, & posterity, not only with the Philosopher's prosperity, physicians length of days with health, the common people joy, Romans safety, & increase of honour, but with that blessed Apo. Paul, the peace of God which passeth understanding, with eternal glory in the highest heavens, I remain Your Lordships in all humble service RI: OLMSTEAD. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR Charles Coote Knight, and Baronet, and of his Majesty's most Honourable privy Counsel for the Kingdom of IRELAND. Right Honourable: I Penned this ensuing Treatise in the time of your great affliction, intending it only for your private use, by the divine documents contained therein, to lead your Honour through the waters of Marah, into Elim the sweet waters of spiritual joy and consolation, not purposing ever to make it public; but showing it to the most Reverend Lord Primate, he desired the publishing of it to the view of the Church. These poor meditations shall be much honoured, if you vouchsafe as gracious an aspect to them written, as you did an honourable zealous, and reverend attention to them uttered by voice; though as a picture expresseth not the life, so neither can writing demonstrate the lively Energy of the voice which consists in utterance & action the two ornaments of speech. I know you delight not to have your goodness diwlged but rather be good then seem so, and that you account virtues fairest Theatre to be a good conscience those who shall receive any instruction, refreshing, or consolation, by this poor work, own the acknowledgement (next unto God) to your Honour, who have so watered, and encouraged my poor studies with your beneficence, that my barren heart hath (blessed be God) both by preaching & writing yielded some fruit. I hate to be a Sycophant and flatterer, yet from my heart I wish that all the world understood your Honour's disposition both to myself in particular, and the Commonwealth in general, that all other might be instigated by your right noble example. First for myself, I acknowledge to have received, out of your free bounty my means and maintenance for which I humbly bless the most high God, and your Honour. Lysippus the Carver worthily reproved Appelles that exact painter because be had pictured Alexander with a thunderbolt in his band as a God, the other with a Spear in his hand as a valiant Prince, I am persuaded they are more pleasing to your honour that only give you your due, then which ascribe to you that which your Hon: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not assume. Envy follows virtue flattery nourisheth vice. The first Themistocles well perceived who being yet young, said he had done no excellent thing, because he was not envied. That memorable work of your Honour worthy to be recorded in pillars of Marble, cleansing & purging (like a happy Physician) this country, with some parts of Ulster frothose cursed vipers, & Cockatrices the rebellious kearne who so infested the Country, that no man had any security, that either his goods, life, wife, or children in the evening could be in safety until the morning. insomuch as that night truly be applied to those parts of the Country where they ranged and reigned, for four year's space, which Deborah expresseth of Israel in her song: In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, judg. 5.6.7. in the days of jael the highways were unoccupied, & the travellers walked through byways, until you rose up an honourable Father in this our Israel. How did those rogues & villains run up and down the countries, robbing & spoiling all, delighting and satiating their greedy & unsatiable lusts in rapine, blood, murders, thefts & burning the King's Majesties most loyable Subjects, & if the State by your Honour's indefatigable labour, both of mind and body, had not carefully prevented that mischief, long ere this time, our bloods had run down the streets, our wives, children and goods made a prey to those merciless, and greedy villains. Right honourable, let your memory be blessed upon earth, and le● these lines keep the remembrance thereof to sacceeding ages; yet in this so praise worthy and blessed a work, so prospered by the providence, and good hand of the Almighty, your Honour escaped not the black n●outh of cankered en●ie, like Shimei his railing at David, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but these are blown over, and they are now ashamed of their wicked scandals. The other Photion knew well, to whom when the people gave a plaudite for his Oration, said, have I spoken any thing amiss unawares, intimating that popular applause, and flattery works upon some infirmity. Many have prevented treachery that could never beware of flattery, David whom the valour either of A●ner or Amasah, 2. Sa. 16.3. or the wisdom of Achitophel could vanquish, 2. Sam. 11. was yet seduced by Ziba his false tale to injure honest and plain hearted Mephibosheth, yea how did smiling ease & prosperity corrupt that man, Neh. 6.10.14. according to Gods own heart. Nehemiah could well beware of Tobiah and Sanballat railing & menacing adversaries, but he was greatly in danger by Shemaiah and Noadiah dissembling Prophets. The way Right Honourable to be safe from the sting of these Farantulas, Sirens & sycophants is, to take David's counsel, Psal. 101.6. to have faithfall associates, servants, & followers. The faithful in the land shall dwell with me, the upright in heart shall serve me. And to desire with him let the righteous smite me, for that shallbe a precious balm. Thus humbly craving of the most high long to continue you under his Majesty by your faithful counsel a muniment to the decayed estate of this poor Church, ●n oritament to the Commonwealth, a prop to Religion a pillar of justice, a Father to Orphans, a comfortable succour to distressed widows, a sweet & delightful husband to your noble Lady, & a directing father to your beloved children. And the same God preserve you all unblameable in your spirits, souls and bodies, until the appearing of jesus Christ: So I remain bound to Your Hon: in all humble observance R. Olmstead. ZIONS' TEARS: OR, THE WATERS OF MARAH SWEETENED. THe Wiseman saith, that A a Pro. 25.11. word spoken upon his wheels, is like apples of gold with pictures of silver; that is, a word spoken seasonably, in respect of time, place, and persons; either to awake the drowsy, instruct the ignorant, comfort the afflicted, or strengthen and corroborate the weak and feeble, is most pleasant and acceptable. If ever there were a time and age when, or place where, GOD'S b Titus 1.7. Stewards, c 2. Cor. 5.10. Ambassadors, d Mal 2.7. Angels, e job 33.23. messengers, and Ministers, had need f Is. 58.1. cry and not spare, than this is the age, and this Island the place: For if monstrous, abominable, and odious profaneness on the one side; & impious, wicked, and detestable Idolatry on the other side, with a high contempt of God and his sacred ordinances, may make a people immeasurably wicked, if sin brings the curse of the most High (as sure g Deut. 28. Le●● 26. it doth) than the condition of this Land is woeful and miserable, not only in respect of judgement already poured out, but also depending, especially nourishing in her bosom those locusts and vipers, who wait but opportunity to eat out the heart of their mother, as will appear by their own Writers and practices, in that one gunpowder plot, how had the devil assembled in one Court, all the black Guard of hell, treason, superstition, Atheism, ignorance, murder, blood, fire and sword, to bring all to a confused Chaos) worse than that Tohn and Bohu, h Gen. 1.2. when the earth was without form. And all this (forsooth) was for the Catholic cause, plotted by the Ignatian Scholars the jesuites, tutored by the Devils themselves, and shall we look for any better from them here? Let me entreat you, Right Honourable, Reverend, and grave Senators, now to be assembled this Parliament, to take this into your serious consideration; and that you may the better see what these monsters amongst men are, at your leisure take but a view of their own Writers, cited in the i Acosta de Proc. Ind. sal. l. 4 c. 3. Io Metell. seq. presat. in Osor Arnauld. in jesuis. Plasina in hist. Pontis. margin: For my Brethren the Ministers, I am unwilling to lay open their nakedness, to publish it in Gath, or in the streets of Askelon, lest the uncircumcised rejoice and laugh at it, 2, Sam: 1.20: yet I never consider of it, but I see cause of complaint with the Prophet, k jer. 4.10. O my belly, my belly, I am pained at the very heart: I cannot say, our days and times are so evil, as sometimes the Prophet spoke of the age wherein he lived; There is not one Prophet left to tell us when these things shall end. For (blessed be the Highest) God's Word sounds, or might sound in the cares of many; for God hath vouchsafed some Prophets scattered here and there, who have received both Vrim and Thummim, light of doctrine, and light of holy conversation, whose preaching (as Aaron's bells) ring sweetly amongst the people, and that not without some special fruitt. Yet liver here still swarms of mighty oppressing Nimrods', proud Pharaohs that say, n Exod. 5.2. who is the Lord that I should serve him? wicked and Ahabs', o 1. King. 21 25. that have sold themselves to do wickedly in the sight of the Lord: Abominable jeroboams', that not only sin themselves, but cause others to sin, yea p Rom. 1.31. favour & delight in them that commit iniquity▪ And alas on the contrary, how small is the Flock of the Lord JESUS among us, faithful as Abraham, righteous as Lot, religious as David, truehearted as jonathan and Nathaniel, zealous as josuah, and burning in spirit as Paul, devout as Cornelius? these are almost as rare as black swans, and as the q Micha 7.1. summer fruit r Mat. 7.14. this gate is straight & narrow, and few find it. God hath sent amongst us his Prophets, but those are despised, & they hate him that reproves in the Gate, each bigamist, cavallier and bankrupt, whom the Church, and his native Country for his wickedness hath spewed out, can reproach them, he hath tendered his spirit, as s Acts 7.52. Steven speaks to the jews, but that they resist, he hath sent us his mercies, as peace, prosperity, plenty, with a largess of the Gospel: but these are abused, warned us by his judgements, as wars, pestilence, and cleanness of teeth, but these we have neglected. t Apoc. 2.12 The Devil never busier, for his time is but short, Antichrist never more furious, fraudulent, and subtle, eagerly set to enlarge his kingdom, u Apoc. 16.33.16. by those frogs which come out of his mouth his Euphrates drying up by the Angels pouring out of the sixth vial, that they might excite the Kings of the earth to that Armagedon, which oh our Lord hasten, and I verily believe is at hand, Sin never more common; and though the Lord pronounce a woe upon them, yet w Is. 5.18. they draw it with cords of vanity, and as with cart-ropes, and x job 16.16. drink it in like water (as job saith) men sleep and continue in sin, and it is safer to commit it, then to reprove it. Oh that abominable and accursed Idol the Mass, for which there is no shadow of warrant in all the sacred Scripture, nor any of the ancient Fathers. Let any man show me, if ever any Nation continued long, that forsook the truth, and fell to Idolatry: search all Histories, Chronicles and Records in all Ages of the Church, îf ruin and desolation were not the guerdon and recompense of this villainous and cursed Idolatry, and shall we think to escape? Observe the sacred Histories of the judges, Kings, and Chronicles, if GOD plagued not the Israelites his own people by special covenant; I confess the Lord hath showed long patience towards the Heathen, who never had the lively oracles, but never such as he had betrusted with his statutes and testimonies, as he hath done us; my flesh trembleth at the consideration hereof I fear some heavy and speedy vengeance from God upon this profane and idolatrous kingdom, if we prevent it not y Amos 4.12 by meeting the Lord with speedy & unfeigned repentance: the Lord open our eyes, to see & consider it. Shall we now be silent, and cease to speak at all, or with the false Prophets speak false things, and z Ezech. 3.18 sow pillows under men's armholes, that the woe of GOD should come upon us? No verily, that is neither good for us, nor for you. 1. It is not good for us to be silent, for then the Apostles a 1. Cor. 9.16 woe be to me if I preach not the Gospel, will fall heavily upon us. 2. Not to speak pleasing for then the Prophet's woe will follow us at the heels, Ezechiel 13.16. 3. Not for you, for we shall but flatter and deceive you, as the Lord saith by the Prophet, b jer. 6.14. They have healed the hurt of the daughcer of my people, saying peace, peace, when there is no peace; c Is 57.21. for there is no peace to the wicked, It is not the fairest and calmest Halcyon day that purifieth the air, but thunderings, lightnings, and blustering stormy winds: Sweet potions seldom purge, especially tough humours, but bitter, healing plasters cure not fistulas and old sores except corrosives precede; Therefore the wise Lord injoines the Prophet, d Isoy 58.1. to cry aloud, to lift up his voice like a Trumpet, etc. And elsewhere e jerem. 1.17. Truss up thy loins like a man & speak all that I command thee, be not afraid of their faces lest I consume thee before them. We must therefore purge, corrasive, and apply the knife of the law, cut and lance, & stir in your sick souls, though you murmur against us as Israel against Moses, Num 16.41 Amos 5.10. King. 22.24. jerem. 37.15 Matt. 14.10 hate us that reprove you as the people did Amos, smite us on the face as Zidkiiah did Michaiah, imprison us as the Princes did jeremiah, and behead us, as Herod did john Baptist, for it is better to incur the anger of a mortal man, than the ire and indignation of the eternal God whatsoever this silly sottish world think. I thank God I hate no man's person, but love all from the heart-roote in jesus Christ, but I fear no man's face. This subject calls me to transform myself into all shapes, sometimes to be as james and john f Mar. 3.17 Boanerges,. a son of thunder, and sometimes Barnabas g Act. 4.36. a son of consolation, for should not my words be sweet and pleasanc to the upright, or should I be a false Prophet to speak peace to the wicked h Isa. 57.21. to whom there is no peace. This subject that I purpose to entreat of is, to direct the humbled sinner (as the i Gen. 11.19. Angel did Hagar to the spring of water, to refresh her thirsty Son Ishmael) to the living waters of spiritual and true consolation, a Riddle, a Mystery, and a Paradox to nature, & the world, to whom it is a true axiom, & maxim, that every like begets his like, as beasts, birds, fishes, and creeping things being the sensible creatures, and all plants, herbs, and trees, being the vegetative creatures having only the life of increase, it is also a position true in nature that contraries do not beget or preserve their contraries, but destroy and consume them, as the fumes being hot and dry, and the vapours and clouds cold and moist k job. 36.33 What combat and opposition is there as appears in thunders and lightnings, which are never quieted but by the rapture and breaking of the clouds and vapory substance, to make way for the fiery exhalations evacuation? But behold here one of the wonders of the most high, for his works in creation, providence, and the regenerating of men are contrary to all the understanding of nature, as he brought l Gen. 1.3. light out of darkness, the rainbow m Gen. 9.12. a sign of present rain for the most part, and yet an everlasting sign of the Covenant that God made after the deluge that he will never destroy the earth any more with water. He brings life to all his elect but out of death, even the death of his Son, he brings good out of evil, even out of the most exquisite villainies that ever were, as out of judas his treason and all the wicked conspiracy of the high Priests, Scribes and Pharisees against his eternal Son, so in this particular, joy, comfort, peace and felicity is promised to the righteous, but arising out of a strange branch, and that which is opposite thereto in all men's opinion: even sorrow and howsoever it cannot be a true position in natural things, yet it is a sound & sure position in Divinity, for being both graces of the spirit of God they do conserve, and not destroy each other. The inducements persuading me to this subject are: 1. If it were possible to awaken this sinful world to consider that God calls them to mourning, girding with sackcloth, fasting and prayer in the sense of their own sins and the sins of the time and land where we live, and behold as the Prophet saith m Isa. 12.13 Killing Oxen and slaying sheep, eating and drinking, etc. a horrible sin to be set upon their jovall and mad mirth as the wise man speaks, throwing axes, edge-tools, firebrands, and deadly weapons at the faces each of other, saying, am I not in jest? When the Lord calls for lamentation and mourning. Luk. 6.25. O ponder the woe of our Saviour you that forget God, Woe be to you that now laugh, for you shall mourn, it may be when it is too late. 2. That I might direct the poor humbled Soul (which though they be but few, scarce one of a family, or ten of a Tribe) the true way to the consolations of GOD n Isa. 55.1.3. that they may receive the wine and milk of comfort and their souls may live, time hath been. (Oh that I might truly say time is) when we that are the dispensers of the mysteries and treasures of God, I speak experimentally have not enjoyed time three or four hours after a Sermon to eat or refresh ourselves, for answering the doubts of perplexed and afflicted consciences, a happy work: But now Oh the obdurate and adamantine hardness of heart; an afflicted spirit is as a sign & wonder in Israel, yet blessed be God some there are, for whose cause, and of a tender commiseration, and respect, my soul desires to undergo any task or travail for their ease refreshing and relief; I have known some in terrors of conscience, Prou. 18.14. and under the vexation of a wounded spirit, which the wise man saith Who can bear, ten, twenty years, when I was not so able to administer consolation, which might have been soon directed and recovered, with the assisstance and blessing of the spirit of God. Now for the point, it is a certain truth, that there is no true joy to be expected before the heart be humbled with sorrow in the sense and feeling of a man's sin. 1. Because the current of all the promises run thus. Our Saviour who best knew to administer a word in season pronounceth mourners only to be happy. o Matt. 5.4. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted, and David by the spirit of God teacheth this, p Ps 126.5. They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy: Again q Ps. 30.5.11 Weeping may abide in the Evening, but joy cometh in the Morning: And in the 11. verse. Thou hast turned my mourning into joy: thou hast loosed my sack and guirded me with gladness, thus he proclaimeth this experiment to the comfort of all succeeding ages, and professeth that he will for that favour praise God for ever. 2. A broken heart are the sweet odours and sacrifices acceptable to him, and the Prophet utters it as if it were all, better than all r Psa. 51.17 The sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite heart, and that he will never despise it, what could be spoken more amply than this? 3. The Lord himself professeth that he will take up the contrite heart to keep his royal Court of refidence there, and to revive that spirit. s Isa. 66.2. To him will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word, that is, receiveth my word and doctrine with fear and trembling. Quest. But doth the promises of happiness and beatitude belong to all sorrows indefinitely. Answ. That were too large, and lays open a door of happiness to many which sorrow, and that excessively, & yet shall undoubtedly perish; there must be therefore issued out (as the Lawyers say) a Writ of melias inquirendum, which I will do by a distribution of sorrows and mourners into their several ranks: and answer till I come at the true sorrow, as the Lord answered t 1 Sam. 16.7.12. Samuel when he sent him to anoint David King of Ifrael, the sons of Ishai being brought Eliab, Abinadab, & Sbamuah, the Lord said to each severally, the Lord hath not chosen him, nor any of Ishais seven sons, until David came, and then the Lord answered, anoint him King over my people, for this is he. We are therefore to observe three kinds of sorrows: 1. Natural sorrows. 2. Unnatural, diabolical, or devilish sorrows. 3. Supernatural. The sorrows of the afflicted & scandalised I call natural, because they proceed from nature and natural causes. The sorrows of the afflicted for crosses, losses, and outward troubles & afflictions, are common and ordinary, such as job speaks of, u job 6.2. Oh that my griefs were well weighed, and my miseries laid together in the balance, for it would he now heavier than the sand of the sea: and such was that sorrow w Mat. 2. 1● in x jer. 31.51 Ramah, where a voyee was heard, Rachel weeping for her children, & would not be comforted, because they were not: but this must not be it, being too universal, I were better preach universal grace, than this doctrine, which will fetch within the compass thereof universally all the sons of Adam; for there is no man, but at one time or other, laments the loss of wife, children, lands, possession, goods, good name, wounds, sicknesses, diseases, and such like; and yet millions of these perish, and that eternally; there is no man except he be a Stoic, overwhelmed with stupidity & blockishness, but hath natural passions & affections, & the world skip and leap at this as the fish at the bait but poor souls they deceive themselves, latet anguis in herba; and there is a hook within this bait, when they hear of the promises made to mourners, the devil & their deceitful hearts make them believe, & they fond speak, they hope they have their hell here, and their heaven hereafter, whenas they are but the beginnings and first-fruits of the wrath of the eternal God, and forerunners of that full harvest of vengeance, which the Just will inflict upon them for ever in hell; for the Lord as not so prodigal of his best mercies, as to diffuse & scatter them thus universally upon all: but as aversly deal they with themselves, and with the bounty of God; for if he turn the wheel of prosperity, and give them abundance of peace, plenty, and outward blessings; they turn their songs, and say, if God loved them not, he would never bestow and cumulate those variety of favours upon them, as the children of Ephraim, when God menaced them with wrath for their sins, answered, y Hosea 12.8 Notwithstanding I am rich and increased in all my labours: And the Church of Laodicea said, z Apoc. 3 16 17 she was rich, etc. Thus, which way soever the Lord turn himself towards them, they put poison into the cup which God fil● out to them, and drink it to the ruin of their souls, never enquiring for assurance, whether God gives these conditions to them in his Love, or Wrath; nor considering that which the Wiseman speaks, a Eccles. 9.23. All things (that is) in these outward things, a Eccls 9.1.2.3 God promiscuously bestows) all things alike to the good and bad, to him that sacrificeth, & to him that sacrificeth not, to him that sweareth, and feareth an oath; as is the good, so is the sinner: So that by any of these outward things, no man knows jove, or hatred. Hos. 13.11. There are many rich men wicked, God gave Saul to Israel in his wrath; & the prosperity of the wicked, Prov. 12.32. is their ruin: There are also many poor men abominably wicked, carrying about them many black characters, and plague tokens of reprobation: It is also as certain, that GOD chooseth, (though not many) rich, noble, learned, and wise, to be vessels of grace, mercy, and glory, as Abraham, job, Solomon, & others; and many poor, as S. james saith, b jam. 2.5. Harken my beloved, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, that they may be rich in him, and heirs of the promises. Quest. But may not Gods children grieve and mourn for outward afflictions, losses and troubles in this world? Answ. They may, but with these two cautions or rules. 1. That their heaviness be rather for fin in themselves, which might cause that cross, then for the affliction itself. 2. That their heaviness and sorrow be moderate, as Paul adviseth, c 1 Cor. 7.30. Let them that weep, be as if they wept not: and for the loss of friends, d 1 Thess. 4.13. not to weep as men without hope for them that sleep, etc. Quest. But when is sorrow for afflictions moderate? 1. When it exceeds not the measure of sorrow for fin, that is, liberty enough, if not too much, for a large measure and degree of sorrow for sin is required and necessary. 2. When it withdraws not the heart from God, & the holy use or all his ordinances, through passionate and incredulous perturbations, for that is not according to the Apostles Canon: weep as if ye wept not: fie upon that sorrow for outward losses that drives from God, and the duties either of general or particular callings, as of husband, wife, father, child, or our outward profession and calling in this world. 3. Is. 54.7.8. It must be but for a season, because the troubles and afflictions of God's children are but for a moment, e Psal. 30.5. God hides his face but for a little while; and the reason is, because afflictions are used of God, as plasters, medicines, or as a furnace, Now in as much as the Godly will speedily judge themselves, and make their peace, therefore the Lord will soon draw off the affliction: Sweetly speaks our Saviour to this purpose, f job 36.7.15 john 16.20, 23 Phil. 4.6. Luke 18.7.8. Verily I say unto you, that ye shall weep & lament, and the world shall rejoice, and ye shall sorrow, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. The plaster shall lie no longer, then till the sore be whole: the goldesmith will let his mettle lie no longer in the fire, then till the dross be melted off, or fit for his work. For whether the Lord removes the cross, or pulls out the sting thereof, or sweetens it with special mercies and favours, overvaluing the affliction How should this check the unquietness of our hearts, as David saith. g Ps. 42.11 Why art thou cast down my soul, and unquiet within me etc. and to be ashamed of the failings of our hearts, h Psal. 73.26 My flesh faileth, and my heart also, but GOD is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. And to turn the current of sorrow against ourselves, that we should make so much of our crosses, and so little of God's mercies. Quest, What motives can you give me to mourn less for outward afflictions? Sol. First they as you see, are but for a season, and therefore learn to i Heb. 10.23.38. hold fast the confidence of our hope, and live by faith. 2. If the Lord be angry, k Psal. 73.26.28. Hab. 2.4. to hide ourselves for a little season, till the indignation ●s passed, by unfeigned and godly sorrow, confession of sin, prayer for pardon of sin, renewing our covenants daily, to live better in time to come: and such like as these. 3. Seriously to consider, if greater losses have not befallen us, than these terrene and outward things, as houses, lands, revenues, goods, and credit. Quest. But may there greater losses befall a man, than loss of wife, children, & c? Answ. The world thinks no; but it is sure, many have, and the dearest child of God may; and to turn the edge of our grief and sorrow, a taste whereof I will give you in these few particular instances: A man is never worse spoilt, then when his soul suffers spiritual losses. job his losses by the Sabeans and Shabeans was great, but theirs are infinitely greater, 1. That lose the good seed sown in their hearts, as the most do, l Mat. 13.19 whensoever a man heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, the evil one cometh, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart: and so he betrayeth the seed of God's Word into the hands of the devil. Oh how many lose the benefit of many a Sermon, and bewail it not. 2. That lose the Kingdom of God, in losing the means of the Kingdom, the ministry of the Word, by which an entrace is made into the Kingdom of Grace, and by which they are built up and established in that Kingdom, m Mal. 21.43 The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a Nation that shall bring forth the fruit thereof. How many weep and wring their hands for the loss of these earthly things, this Mammon, but can live without means to save their souls, and never shed a tear for the want thereof. Oh those blessed times of Hierome, when his mouth was stopped, the people cried out, It had been better the Sun had been plucked out of the firmament. 3. That lose their first love which sometimes they had, so threatened by our Saviour, n Apoc. 2.4. I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast lost thy first love. 4. That lose what they have wrought, even all that they have done throughout their life, because they have not been done of faith, and therefore john gives this caution, o 2 john 8. Look to yourselves, that we lose not the things we have done, but that we may receive a full reward, etc. that is, some take pains about the way to a better life, but labour not aright, & therefore lose all, and themselves. 5. That lose the presence of God, not the presence of his effence, wherein Moses was singular but the presence of his grace, and signs of his favour & mercy▪ which the Lord himself threatens to take from Ephraim, p Nos. 5.15. I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their sins, and seek me in their affliction, they will seek me diligently. 6. That lose the taste of the life to come, q Hab. 6.2 as the Aurhour to the Hebrews saith, and all those seeming graces which sometimes they had. 7. That lose the joys of their salvation, r Hs. 51.13. which David did, as in his doleful prayer he expresseth, Restore me to the joy of thy salvation, etc. & questionless it is so to many a child of God for a time, to their great sorrow and heaviness. 8. That lose the stability and steadfastness of their faith, s Ps. 51.12. as David, for howsoever it is a truth, that faith cannot be totally, and finally lost, yet the steadfastness thereof hath been, and may be in the best of God's servants. 9 That have lost those things they had sometimes in spiritual things, t Mat. 13.12 Let this be no wonder; for as touching degree, it may be, and is true in sundry of God's servants, though it is not true of the graces themselves. 10. Most of all that lose their crown, which is either in the hypocrite leaving his perseverance, u Apoc. 3.11 or in God's Child, growing cold and careless. But alas this is not the true sorrow: for of this worldly sorrow the Apostle saith, it w 2 Cos. 7.10 brings death, both temporal and eternal, so far is it from bringing life or grace. 2. The second state of natural sorrows, far enough from this blessed sorrow, which will bring consolation, is the sorrow of the scandalised, or melancholy, which the Apostle Paul speaketh of in the whole fourteenth Chapter, and beginning of the fifteenth of his Epistle to the Romans, calling him by, the name of the weak Christiau: but indeed, because many are deceived in this sorrow, and lose their souls; and many also think the godly sorrow to be but sickness, passion, conceit, or melancholy, and because it changeth the body often, they think it ariseth from the body: but there is no disease like to this for symptoms and torments: and therefore here I will consider two things: 1. The difference betwixt godly sorrow, & fits of melancholy. 2. How it comes to pass, that this sickness being in the soul, yet often it infeebleth the body. Touching the first, there are four differences. 1, They all are natural, whether it proceed from the corruption of the blood universally, or the blood in the brain only, engendered through inflammation, and evil affect about the stomach and sides, which are all distinguished by Physicians, by their causes and symptoms, which in some are almost incredible and strange: but this is supernatural, a plant of Gods own planting, & that it is so, needs no other reason to prove it; then that God commands it; for natural things need no commandment, is a ruled axiom in divinity. 2. They from the constitution of the body; but this is from the constitution of the soul. 3. In melancholy the humours first, and then the imagination; but in this sorrow, the conscience first, and the humours after, are affected to the weakening & wasting of the body. 4. They, even all kinds may be cured by natural remedies & medicines, bringing nature to his right temper; all natural medicines under Heaven cannot cure this sickness; yet I confess, that sometimes these are mixed together, sickness of the body, and the mind, and then is it hard to cure the one without the other: but the cure must be endeavoured by spiritual & bodily helps continually. 2 That the body is oft enfeebled by the sickness of the mind, is; because of the near conjunction, sympathy, and union of them, both being united in one person; for the soul possessed with fear, sorrow, languishing, and heaviness, it is not possible that the body can take any delight in natural and bodily comfort, the sleep will be short, & not so brief as troublesome, and tempestuous; meats and drinks shall be tastelesse, or loathsome, or mingled with tears, as David saith, x Psal. 102.4 I forgot to eat my bread: the use of wife, children, house, lands, etc. shall be uncomfortable to him; for the natural, vital, and animal spirits being all distempered by the soul, which (as Solomon saith,) y Prov, 18.14 the spirits of a man will sustain his infirmities, that is, all natural infirmities, sicknesses, losses, & molestations; but when these fail, in the want of the consolations of God, what shall up-hold him? 2. It comes to pass by the righteous judgement of GOD, who as they have finned undivided, so are they not divided in the smart thereof, but are corrected and afflicted together, the body hath been a servant to ehe lusts of the soul, & receiveth the guerdon & wages of sin with it. David abused the vigour of his body, in the sins of adultery and murder, and the Lord chasteneth him in both-Thus of natural sorrows. 2. Unnatural, or diabolical, & devilish sorrows. 1. Of the desperate. 2. Of the disappointed. 1. The sorrow of the desperate, as job saith, z 〈◊〉 job 3.20. they desire to see the grave, they seek death, and cannot find it; that is, they feel such a rack, torment, and vexation in their conscience, & being without hope of the consolations of God, are not able to endure this insupportable burden of a wounded spirit; and therefore are driven to one of those woeful shifts, either which come to drive it away, by calling in other distractions, (helpless alas, & comfortless) as marrying wives, building cities, inventing muficke, & such like babbles fit for fools and children; buc never turn their thoughts to GOD, to seek for favour, much like the vile world now, that drink away the thought of their latter end: but alas, what good is in this? nothing but to still the out cry and clamour of conscience for a time, that they may have a greater freedom to sin, and not be disquieted, or else desperately to seek death, as a 2 Sam. 17 25. A●hitopbel, and b Math. 27.5 judas, by laying violent hands upon themselves, a medicine as evil, or worse than the disease; or else sink under the burden as those Pryers and Papists, who lay like fools under stocks, crying out bitterly, in the sense of their tormented consciences, Francis Spire wishing that their plagues and torments in Hell might be but as many years, as there are drops of water in the Sea, or as many years as a little bird would be in carrying away a huge mountain in her mouth for then there would be an end, but now it will be eternal. What shall I speak of Latonius who died roaring, as if he had been possessed body and soul with the Devil, or of Hosfminster Eccius, and other whom stories make mention of. 2. The sorrow of the disappointed, as of Haman when his wicked devise he had against Mordecai and the jews was prevented c Hest. 6.12 hasted home mourning, and his head covered: When Ahab could not obtain Nabaoth veineyard, d 1. King. 21.4. went home to his house heavy, lay upon his bed, & would not eat: So Amron, David's son, when he had miss his lust with his sister Thamar e 2. Sam. 13.24. he fell sick for her, the world is filled with these cursed devilish sorrows when they cannot achieve their wicked plots, stratagems, and hellish devices, but this is a diabolical and wicked sorrow, and neither of these yet is that true sorrow, which brings true peace and joy, and therefore we must seek for another. Thirdly supernatural or religious sorrows, which are of two sorts Legal. Euangelical. This legal sorrow goes before faith, being a grief wrought by the preaching of the Law, enlightening and wounding the soul in the sense and feeling of sin, racking, tormenting, and disquieting the conscience, and making it speak and cry out with inutterable clamours, and following him with hue and cry; so as wheresoever he becomes he carries his accuser, judge, tormentor, and executioner about with him, and this hath and must be the condition of every one whom God purposeth to save, at one time or other, and in some degree or other, for the Lord heals none but the wounded, with the wine and oil of the sweet promises of the Gospel; and indeed they feel no want thereof, f Matt. 9.12.13. The whole need nut the Physician saith our Saviour, but those that are sick, these he came to call to repentance, not the righteous, that is such as are righteous in their own account, and howsoever this be no saving grace, but as the Schools speak, a general grace, or a grace of preparation, not of composition, such as he promiscuously bestows upon the world aswell as his people, though he gives them more. Yet let all men know for certainty that till legal sorrow, hath though serious fence of sin made a man tremble, and sorrow even in respect of the vengeance and wrath of God, and brought him to despair in regard of himself, he is not moved to consider seriously, which is the first wheel of all like the spring in a watch, which moves all the rest, much less to desire mercy, which is the opening of the door of the heart to let in the Lord jesus into the soul. Therefore hath the Lord set up a Ministry in his Church, that partly by the laws preached, drives men to their wits-end, as those three thousand Conuertes that at Peter's Sermon cried out b Act. 2.37. What shall we do? and partly by his works, as the jailer when the earthquake and opening of the prison-dores made him tremble, & cry out: c Act. 16.29 30. What shall I do? And Manasseh, God binds him in chains and sends him to Babel, c 2. Chro. 33.12.13. and then he humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers, and God was entreated of him & brought him back into his own land: Many are the gashes & wounds Satan and sin hath made in our souls, we must and shall feel the smart of them before we be throughly healed. To this purpose hath God set up and placed his monitor conscience in man's foul to cry aloud, and tell him what he hath done amiss, to apprehend him, and set up a Gibbet in his soul to which it adjudgeth him, and all to bring him to himself to sue for pardon. Yet is not this the sorrow which hath the promise of joy and comfort annexed to it, though this be not altogether separated from it, yet is this legal sorrow in reproba●es and devils, d Act. 24, 25 when Felix heard Paul dispute of temperance, and the judgement to come he trembleth, etc. And S. james saith: e jam. 2.19 That the Devils believe and tremble, which is more than many a wicked man doth. Hear this ye Profane obdurate, and hard hearted monsters, and be ashamed at your condition, that in this respect are worse than the Devils, and infernal damned spirits, & fiends, & if you will not learn and be taught by your eternal sovereign Lord & King learn thus much of the Devils lest they rise up in judgement against you and condemn you, as our Saviour said of Sodom, and G●morrah, that they should rise up in judgement against the jews. 2. Now are we come to the true sorrow, which will appear g 1. Sa. 16.11 as David the last, lest and youngest of all the sons of Ishai, fair, ruddy, and of a comely countenance, so is this a blessed sweet amiable grace, peculiar, and special to God's people, f Mat. 10.15 and a specifical work of the holy Ghost, never yet did God vouchsafe this gift or grace upon hypocrite or reprobate, but upon his own special beloved ones, and never did true believer want it, though some have wanted the sense of it, styled in Scripture h 2. Cor. 7.10 godly sorrow, or a sorrow for God, offended, & beloved put in the forefront of the blessed Covenant which God makes with his people. i Ezec. 26. 3● A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put in your bowels, and I will take away your stony heart, and give you a heart of flesh. But that we may apprehend, and receive this grace more perspicuously what it is, let us a little consider the rife and immediate branch, out of which it springs, and sprouts which is love, in this manner, when faith hath apprehended the love of God for the pardon and remission of sins, our full justification and adoption, through the blood of Christ, God's love being shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost, the heart is immediately ravished and inflamed with the love of God again, and then the consideration which is as a blessed light held out to the mind, let's the soul see as in a crystal glass all the sins that it hath committed against the mercy, goodness, graciousness and bounty of that gracious loving Father, how they have dishonoured his blessed Majesty, grieved his good spirit, and deserved his wrath, now it looks upon Christ whom his sins hath pierced through, and considers with itself, it was not judas, Pilate the High Priest, Scribes and Pharises, that crucified the blessed Son of God, but my sins have nailed him to the Cross, and pierced his pericardion, and caused his heart blood to issue forth; thus doth Peter beat home this point to the conscience, in that excellent and fruitful Sermon, wherein three thousand were converted. of whom (saith he) k Acts 2.3.16. Ye are now the betrayers and murderers. Can they or the whole world have crucified Christ? no verily, when he did but ask them, l john 13.4. whom seek ye? they fell baeckward to the ground; his words were able to vanquish infinite millions; and as himself speaks to Peter, m Mat. 26.5 thinkest thou not that I can now pray to my Father, and he would give me more than twelve Legions of Angels: one whereof n 1 King. 19.5. slew a hundred fourscore and five thousand in one night: and o Gen. 12.29 all the firstborn of Egypt in a night. It was then thy sins, & my sins, and the sins of all the ●lect that crucified Christ, which the Prophet Zachary aptly expresseth, p Zach. 12.10 They shall look upon him whom they have pierced through, Amaritudine afficientur sicut amaritudine affic●tur quispiam. and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for the loss of his only son; And for the measure of their sorrow, the Hebrew expresseth it lively: & Arrius Montanus translates it significantly, amarificare enm, etc. This, this I say is the sweet branch whence this blessed grace doth issue and spring fonrth; and he which mourneth with this sorrow shall have the issue and fruit thereof in joy here, and consolation unspeakable and glorious hereafter, Quest. May not a godly man dear and precious in Gods account mourn, and sorrow for sins, with deep lamentations, and yet not be the right and true godly sorrow? Sol. Yes questionless, it is the case of many a good man, and that will appear by these reasons. 1. Because the sorrow even of some special beloved ones, continues long upon them, I have known some seven, ten, yea twenty years in afflictions of mind, tormented and vexed with the sense of their sins, and yet have found little or no comfort, which they should have done, had their souls been directed, by any that had the tongue of the learned to administer seasonable direction, for so is the ordinary current of the promises: n Ps. 30.5. Sorrow over night, but joy in the morning: Again o Ps. 126.5. They went out weeping, and carried precious seed, but they shall return with joy, and bring their sheaves after them. Thus in the examples of p 2 King. 20.25. Hezechias, who turned his face to the wall and wept and presently received consolation. And josiah who when he heard the Book of the q 2 King. 22.8.12.13. Law found by Hilkiah, and read by Shaphan, rend his clothes and wept sore, & sent to Huldah the prophetess to inquire of the Lord for him and his people: received a gracious answer, and was comforted. 2. When even a godly man cries and roars only in the sense of the pain and smart of sin; yet it neither brings glory to God, nor consolation to his own soul, it is not godly sorrow, yea though the object be God offended, as 1. When men are impatient, or distrust GOD of his word, providence, and promises, the Highest is so fare from being honoured thereby, as that he is highly dishonoured, and himself no way eased, but his grief augmented and increased. 2. That sorrow which brings glory to God, and good to the party, works in the soul a sweet motion and inclination of the heart to love God, and so to pant, desire and breathe after the sense of God's favour and love, as the Spouse in the Canticles, r Cant. 5. ●. Christ let fall some drops of his precious grace into her heart, which inflamed her so, as it enforced her to seek him indefatigably, until she had found and embraced him, and had been embraced by him: but if the s Ps. 51. 1●. Spirit in sorrow being grieved, withdraweth himself, and the heart is dead, and feels no motion to sue unto God. O beware of such a sorrow, trust it not, it is like to be unfound, as t Gen. 3.8. adam's, which caused him to run from God, and hide himself in the thicket, which brought nought but shame; but the sorrow of the u Luke 15.18 Prodigal, inclined his heart to return unto his father: and w Inbn 12.3. that of Mary Magdalene, drew her heart and body nearer to Christ. 3. That sorrow under pain, though God offended be the object thereof, which is not accompanied with confession and relinquishing of sin, though of a godly man, is not right, because it hath not the promise of remission, which only is made to a true confession, which issueth only out of godly sorrow: q john 1.9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and true to forgive us our sins, and to cleanst us from all unrighteousness. Oh sweet ground and foundation of consolation for faith to lay hold upon: but on the contrary, r Pro. 28.13. he that hides his sin, shall never prosper, that is in grace and consolation, & not only to confess, but to relinquish the sin; else men do like a Cutpurse, that cries mercy, mercy, at the judgement seat, but keeps the purse still; so do men often, especially hide the sweet morsel of their beloved fins under their tongues, the sin of their nature, and the sin of their calling, not considering what the Lord saith, s Isa. 1.16.17 Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your works, cease to do evil, learn to do well, etc. True confession hath these particulars. 1. The most wicked and reprobate man that ever was, may, and oft will confess his sin by lump, and in general, to say, we are all sinners, &c, but this brings no glory to God, or comfort to the party confessing: but there is a confession which indeed brings much glory to God, which joshua adviseth A chan to set his heart upon: t Ios. 7.19. My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and confess this day. This, this (I say) is that which will bring true peace to the conscience: thus did David when he had confessed all his sins in particular which he knew, entreats the u Ps. 15.12. Lord to purge him from his sec●rt sins: as if he should have said, O Lord now I have confessed all my known sins, there are yet infinite secret sins which I know not, and if I knew them all, I would confess them in special and particular to thy Majesty, for otherwise there were no hope of the pardon & remission of them, & this brings case to the heart and comfort to the soul, so did Dautd also, and found comfort: w Ps. 32.5. I confessed my sin to the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my hands. I verily believe there was never any known sin pardoned to any man before it was acknowledged & confessed before God in specie, and in particular. 2. Confession which brings most glory to God, is a private confession, not before, or to man but in secret, as our Saviour adviseth in prayer, whereof confession is a part, x Mat. ●. 6. When thou prayest, enter into thy chamber, and shut the door, and pray to thy Father in secret, etc. an hypocrite may confess his sins, and that largely in prayer, and yet perish; but when the sinner is pinched at the heart with the sense and feeling of his sin against God (beloved) whom he hath grieved thereby, seeks some secret chamber, closet, house, wood, where he is sure to be furthest from the eyes and ears of men, and there pour out his soul before the Lord in a corner, notonely in Paul's, Christ Church, and S. Patrick's, as the manner of the Pharises, anciently was, 〈◊〉, non in Te●●plo. and of our ignorant people now is, to content them which saw; but in secret, this is pleasing and acceptable to God. Neither do I in this infringe or deter from public confession in these particular cases: 1. When men have given public scandal and offence, public confession is necessary, so did (y) A ●han give glory to God. p Iosh. 7.19. 2. When after our confession of sins, God hath been pleased to assure our souls of his mercy in the free remission and pardon of them, we confess them to comfort others, as Paul relates his persecution and blasphemy, to comfort others, if any should ever so deeply be plunged into the like wickedness. 3. We should in some cases not be ashamed to publish our sins to all the world, to testify our true repentance, & through effectual turning unto God▪ at David ●se. 4. It must be free, and not exhausted & wrung from us, as was that of y Iosh. 7.17.18. Acban, first he was pulled out by the Tribe, then by the Family, and after by the people, till which time he held out without confession, when sin hath found out the sinner, and he can hide it no longer, it's no gramercy (as we speak,) I am not peremptory, but that God may, and sometime hath mercy upon thiefs, varlets, and wicked men, brought before judgement seats, and to execution for their villainies, when they confess their sins; but scarce one of a thousand of these confessions are sound, and would look for a great many of sound signs before I should speak comfort to such a man; but when it comes free in times of health, peace, prosperity etc. it brings glory to God, & comfort to the Confessor. 5. It must be to God, not to a Priest, which hath no foundation in sacred writ; thus did David, z Hs. 51.4. against thee, against thee only have I sinned, etc. Have I offended a Priest, or what Law of his have I transgressed, that I should confess to him? or hath he power to remit my sins? the very jews and Pharisees could say, it was blasphemy for a mere man to say, a Luke 7.48 thy sins are forgiven thee: Yet we deny not private confession of man to man privately in these two cases only. In private injuries betwixt man and man, when by our offences we have injured them as oft we do, though the sin be principally against God, b 2. Sam. 11.11. as David wronged Vriah, & in this case it was necessary that David should have confessed his injury done to him, in deflowering and defiling his wife, and not have seconded his first wickedness, by writing murderous lines to joab, to deprave him of his life, and that for two reasons: 1. To testify our repentance to be unfeigned and sound towards God, to ourselves, and the party whom we have offended. 2. To testify that we are throughly and sound reconciled each to other, and this is intended by our Saviour Christ, b Luke 17.4. If thy brother trespass against thee seven times a day, and come and say, it reputes me, thou shalt forgive him. Thus God sends c Gen. 20.7. Abimelech to Abraham, whom he had unwittingly wronged, to reconcile himself to him, & so obtain his prayers, d job 42.7. So are jobs friends sent to job to confess their censoriousness of him, and to importune him to entreat a pacification of God for them. 2. In perplexities of conscience, when a man hath used all private means, as humiliation, confession of sins, private prayer, fasting, searching again and again over the Lords Records, and can find no ease, that the conscience may find ease & peace, the Spirit of God adviseth us to use the help of some other special man of wisdom, gifts and secrecy, not a Minister only, but any other, & to confess to him both his affliction of spirit, and the cause thereof e james 5.16. Confess your sins one to an other, and pray one for another, etc. Now I confess, the Minister ought to be the best prepared, f Mal. 2.7. his hopes should preserve knowledge, and the people should learn the Law at his mouth: he ought also to have the tongue of the learned, and to be studied in cases of conscience to administer and give consolation to a wounded and weary soul, and hath special promise to be heard in his counsel and prayers, as being a Minister of reconciliation between God and his people, and it is not causeless that the Lord useth this reason to Abimelech, p Gen. 20 7. go to Abraham for he is a Prophet: & that which is spoken in q job 33.23 job, If a messenger or an interpreter one of a thousand declare unto man his righteousness, etc. yet these places do not prove that the troubled conscience is obliged to one person, nor to a Priest, having for the most part as little skill or experience of the estates of afflicted consciences, as Balaams' Ass, but to be performed also to private Christians, Therefore this is fare enough from this Auricular Confession to the Priest, which was invented by the Devil and the Pope, and his wicked seculars and regulars, to fill their purses; for, no money, no absolution, like their Purgatory, Indulgences, Trentals, Dirigies, Masses, and the rest of their devised trumpery, to gull the people, and delude their souls: Again, to know and dive into the secrets of all States, Courts, Houses, and secret thoughts of men and women, and the dispositions of all particular persons, and so to know fit patients for their lusts, whereof I could produce many horrible instances, and both name and prove them in this Island if it were seasonable: as also fit agents to perpetrate any villainies in stabbing of Kings, as Raviliak; Massacres, as the Duke of Guise, and the Cardinal of Lorraine at Vashti, & to blow up Parliament-houses as Faux: Lastly, it is so fare from easing the conscience, as it is a rack and tormentor thereto, & therefore miserable and lamentable is the condition of these poor people under these cruel taskmasters: Lord open their blind eyes, that they may see and discern the subtleties and stratagems of these abominable deluders of their poor souls. 1. Quest. But if there be so many kinds of sorrows, which deceive men's souls, and that God's people in their sorrows even for sins, miss the right sorrow, and so continue without ease or comfort? what shall become of me, that cannot mourn, but feel an obdurate and hard heart, which I cannot get mollified? Ans. I cannot deny but that this godly sorrow may be without rackings & terrors in some, the easiest and lowest degree hath these three things ever true in them to their consolation. 1. They vex and grieve, because they can grieve no more, they are sensible of, and discern the hardness of their hearts, which is a degree of softness, for corruption is not discerned by corruption but by grace, and therefore they cry out with the Church, h Isa 63.17. Why hast thou hardened our hearts and caused us to err from thy commandments, return, etc. 2. They hate their special & beloved sins with a deadly hatred. 3. They endeavour a through reformation of their lives both internally, & externally which are good evidences of some softness of spirit, though mixed with some hardness and corruption. 2. Quest. But is it possible to discern this sorrow? Sol. Yes, and I am so fare from the opinion of Popery concerning assurance, that I am assured, that it is hard to have any saving grace, but it will be perceived and discerned, yea it will evidently manifest itself to all that have skill to discern it, and that for these reasons, 1. Grace cannot be without external fruit, i Mat. 7.16. and by their fruits saith our Saviour ye shall know them, men do not gather Grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles, and though these graces be hidden and secret in themselves, yet do in the true convert show themselves by certain demonstrative effects, as by confession in times of persecutions, as Master Glover, who though he had no sense of the assurance of God's love until he came in the flames, yet endured the former scorns, and that torture, and then cried out (to his servant according to his request, that if he felt the consolations of the Spirit at that last time, he would give some token) john he is come, etc. Profession notwithstanding the scorns and disgrace of the world, by victory over the world, love to the word more than their appointed food, and lastly by their love to God's people. 2. Grace cannot be truly received but it works a wonderful change and alteration, the spirit of God having bound the strong man the Devil that had formerly possessed the heart there bussels, throws down the Chair of estate, altars the disposition and practice, affections, and all the conversation both internal and external, and all this stir in reformation is liable to observation. 3. The Devil lies still and quiet whiles men content themselves with common effects of historical and temporary faith, because they feed presumption, and leaves them under the power of damnation safe enough, but so some as justifying faith, godly sorrow and other graces, (for they are never separated) are got in the least measure into the heart, and begin to work in purifying the heart and life from beloved sins, (though they work never so weakly) he bestirs himself by his agents by carnal and wicked counsel, what will you (say they) become precise and live mopishly, come let's be jovall and merry, and drink away these dumpish thoughts, carnal company, a troop of the roaring lads, fit instruments for the work of the Devil, and then in comes the Cards, Tables, etc. or temptations, reproaches, scorns, slanders, difficulties, and a thousand hellish devices, to make this painful, and if possible an untimely and abortive birth, daily experience teacheth this to be true. The flesh boyles and strives within, and the Devil injects his fiery darts into the soul, the world is presently upon the neck of them, and pursues them, and wonder as birds at an Owl, john. 16.19 at this sudden change and retiring k 1. Pet. 4.4. if men run not with them to the same excess of riot: l Isa. 59.15▪ He that refrianeth himself from evil makes himself a prey. 4. Lastly, the Graces of God are like lamps or Sea-sconces, or Lanterns in a dark night set upon a mountain or Hill to direct the lingering Pilot to beware of sands and Rocks, and to conduct him to some Harbour or depth where he may securely anchor from the violence of the storm and tempest, or like Diamonds and other shining & orient Pearls which give lustre in the darkest night, and can these be hid? 3. Quest. Seeing it is certain that these graces may be discerned, and will show themselves, by what symptoms or tokens may this grace of godly sorrow be discerned? Answ. It may be discerned by these symptoms or remarkable characters. 1. It is wrought by him, who as S. james saith, is the m jam. 1.17 Author of every good and perfect gift, which is from above even from the father of light, etc. Even a supernatural work of: Gods own planting, whereas all other sorrows arise from nature, but this grace may as all other graces be called Gods work, because it is he which doth all the work, his spirit making his ordinances effectual, and therefore is that spirit called n Zach. 12.10 the spirit of mourning and supplieation, and promised to all the faithful, yea put in the forefront of that blessed new Covenant which the eternal makes with his people. o Ezec. 36.26 A new heart will I give them, and a new spirit will I put in their bowels, and I will take away their stony heart, and give them an heart of flesh. And this spirit apparently manifests itself in godly sorrow by refasolating and comforting the heart, strengthening, quieting, and refreshing the soul with sweet showers and influences from the head Christ with unspeakable secret joy, peace, and contentation, as also affecting so the heart, as it bendeth the desires thereof to the obedience of God in all things, in truth though not in perfection. Yet this we are not to suppose the Spirit doth without means miraculously and extraordinarily, but by such ordinary means, as God in wisdom hath appointed to the same purpose, as. 1. The ministry of the word is the principal, as appears in these 3000. Converts, David, josiah, and others; When they heard it saith the Text, p Act. 2. 41● They were pricked in their hearts, etc. When Nathan sent by God himself to preach to David, and had delivered his message, cried out, q 2. Sa● 1 ●0 13. I have sinned against the Lord: r 2. King. 22 11. When josiah heard Shaphan read the Book of the Law, he rend his clothes and wept, etc. And saith jeremy, s jer. 23.29. Is not my word like a hammer that breaks the hard stone. 2. The sacrament of the Supper is another means, for by it (saith the Apostle t 1. Cor. 11. We remember Christ his death,) and both these are intended I doubt not by Paul, when he saith to the u Galat. 3.1. Galatians, that Christ was before them crucified and slain: in the ministry of the word to the ear, and in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper crucified and slaine by the eye to the understanding, in the breaking of the bread and pouring out of the wine visibly before the people, and thus is this godly sorrow wrought ordinarily in the heart, both by the word & Sacrament, that blessed sweet grace of consideration wrought by the spirit of God; making both the other effectual for this purpose, that a man now bethinks himself my sin is the cause of all this torment, which Christ the blessed Son of God endured, and therefore affects the heart with godly sorrow for it. Yet doth it not immediately break forth, but the Word & Sacraments sometimes inject certain scintillutae or sparkles which lie hid sometimes in the heart a good space, even in the child of God, and therefore the Lord useth another means 3. Afflictions which are his rod, which though they are not able to convert a soul, no more than the Sacrament, yet are afflictions preparatory means to set the word on work, as in w 2. Chr●. 33 11. Manasseh, he questionless had oft heard the word in the time of his good Father the Paragon of all the Kings of Israel and judah, but it little helped him, therefore God bond him in chains and sent him to Babel, and when he was in prison and fetters, he bumbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, etc. This also is manifest in x 2. King. 20 2. Hezekiah, and especially in the y Act. 16.29 jailer when he saw the Earthquake, and opening of the prison doors, he cried out, What shall I do, etc. So that I say not that afflictions can convert a soul to GOD, for than me thinks Pharaoh must of necessity have been a convert who had ten fearful plagues, and yet drowned, and likely damned, but I say sometimes they make way for conversion, by preparing the soul to attend, and hearken to the word, and also when men have heard the word, and the immortal seed is sown there, as a grain of corn sown in a field lies sometimes long until a ground rain moisten it and then springs, & as in Physic a pill or potion lies in the stomach an hour or two, and never stirs the party, yet let him drink warm broth or posset-ale which have no faculty of themselves to purge, yet setteth the Physic on work, so doth afflictions, the word preached, and the seed sown ten, twenty, or thirty years before; and it may be affected the heart therewith at the present, but it blows over again, with thorny cares or pleasures then comes the rod of God; and sets all that word on work, and brings forth not an Embryo, or abortive birth but this blessed grace of godly sorrow, which when it once seizeth upon the heart eateth up all worldly and carnal sorrows, as z Exod. 7.12 Moses his rod did eat up all the enchanters rods and Serpents, yea the least scruple of this godly sorrow would weigh down a pound of carnal or legal sorrow, and end in sweet true joy and contentment. Consider this ye that spend days, weeks, Months, and years in worldly sorrows without ease or comfort, learn this lesson, and practise it, and my soul for thine, thine end will be peace and invaluable consolation. 2: Sign of this godly sorrow not only that it is fruitful, but brancheth forth into variety of good & happy fruit: and therefore not only true believers in Scriptures, are compared to t Psal 1.4. trees, planted by the rivers, which bring forth fruit in due season, and in every season, as the tree of life bearing twelve sorts of fruit every month, but especially true mourners, whose sorrow ends in joy, u Is. 61.5. To appoint unto all that mourn in Zion, and to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of gladness for the spirit of heaviness, that they night be called true of righteousness etc. And th●se parties, and these graces are not such as are obnoxious sterility and barrenness, or to bear evil fruit; but such as by nature are fertile and bear good fruit, as w Psal. 30. ● 14. Psal. 52.8 james 3.12. vines, olives, figs, and such like. Therefore in such trees, barrenness or unfruitfulness alone is cause enough, to make them fuel for the vengeance and wrath of the Almighty; and so, not only the x Is. 5.4. wild vine that bore wild grapes, and bad fruit, contrary to the expectation of the Husbandman, y Zach. 15.2.3.4. Luke 1 6.7. but the barren vine and fruitless fig, and z Mat. 3.10. & 7.19. every tree that beareth not good fruit, is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Now let us see what fruits this grace bringeth forth, that by the branches and fruits we may know it to be right, and a plant of saving grace, planted by the finger of God, a Mat. 7.16. for by the fruit it shall be known. These are of two sorts. 1. Special, or respecting our own particular. 2. General, or respecting others. Those that are special & respect ourselves, are of five several sorts; 1. For corruption of nature, 2. For special sins after calling. 3. For hardness of heart. 4. For the absence of Christ. 5. For want of the means. General, or respecting others. 1. For the dishonour of God in public abominations, 2. For the miseries of the Church: 3. For God's anger & threatening. 1. Point. For the corruption of nature, thus Paul cryeth out, a Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? And David, b Ps. 51.5. I was conceived in sin, and warmed in iniquity: & this like a loathsome leprosy & gangrene, harh spread itself over the whole man, howsoever not in the substance, yet in all the faculties of soul and body; and made us as a tainted seed, poisoning and contaminating every thought, word, and action, and is the bell-damme of all the evils that proceed from us, as our Saviour saith, c Mark. 7.20 21.22.23. from the heart proceeds adulteries, murders, thefts, evil thoughts &c and these defile a man; yea it so defiles us, that, until we be washed effectually in the blood of Christ, all our thoughts, speeches actions natural & civil, are sin & our best actions are (as the fathers speak) but beautiful sins & after our regeneration and effectual calling, it puts a stain● upon our best services even ou● prayers, hear, readings, &c▪ that we had need to return an● ask forgiveness & pardon fo● the defects of them, and these robes must be tinct and washed c Ap●●. 7.14. white in the blood of the Lambe● that they may appear amiably in the eyes of God, without which there is pollution enough upon them, to cause the Lord to abhor and detest them; & this we do, and must carry abou● with us so long as the soul inhabits these earthly tabernacle Oh where are these mourners that lament and bewail this spawning and mischievous sin; if a man should poison the fountains and springs of waters, all men would cry out against such a monster; but this is infinitely more vile, & yet who complains of it, is sorrowful under the sense & feeling thereof, or cries for the crucifying power of the Lord jesus to subdue it? Yet this depraved condition is the estate of every mother's child, as well he that sitteth upon the Throne, as he or she that grindeth at the mill, d job 15.15. what is man that he should be clean or he that is borne of a woman that he should be just: behold he found no steadfastness in the Angels, and the beavens are unclean in his sight, how much more abominable is man, etc. This Paul proves out of the Psalm, e Rom. 3.10.11 Ps. 14.1.3. There is none that doth good, All are gone astray, etc. Oh that men would throughly consider this, how would it cause all the jovall Lads of this world to turn their tunes, from songs, drink, merry-meetings, and healthings, into howl, lamentations, and sorrows; and it would change our sorrows that be Ministers, into rejoicings, and thankes-givings, to see them with humbled hearts, & cheeks bedewed with brinish tears, enquiring after wholesome Physic for the quieting of their crazy & wounded consciences, and salvation of their souls: Oh that God would open the eyes of this blind foolish world, that they might know & feel this woeful misery; and, Oh that it would please his Highness to give his poor Messenger's occasion of labour and rejoicing this way. 2. Point. For special sins after effectual calling, for which there is in the child of God, a large measure of sorrow and grief for divers causes. 1. Because God hath vouchsafed more mercies then to the world, or to themselves before their calling, to common & ordinary blessings he hath added supernatural, spiritual, and celestial favours, and therefore looks for better fruits: s Mat. 25 29 for to whom much is given, of them much is required. 2. Because he hath given his Spirit, and all the graces thereof, so that as the Apostle saith, f 1 Cor. 1.7. they are not destitute of any grace, and therefore of more ability to resist tentations then formerly; the sinners of Zion are the most offensive to his blessed Majesty; the sins of the world, even their grossest abominations, as drunkenness, whooredomes, oaths, blasphemies, are not so vile as the sins of his own people, they have more knowledge of his righteous will, of the stratagems of Satan, deceitfulness of their own heart, and the danger of sin. Oh that therefore we would be admonished to beware of them for time to come, and to bewail such as are already passed us in the superabundant patience of God. 3. g Ephes. 4.30 They grieve the Spirit of God, by which they are sealed up to the day of redemption, that blessed Guest having taken up their hearts to be his habitation h Ephes' 3.17 by faith, when they open the doors to let in rogues, and villains, his enemies to rob and spoil his habitation, to defile, and like swine to lay-staule it: is there not great cause of grief to that sacred and blessed Spirit? who could endure this indignity? If any man should offer it to a King's Palace, would it be tolerable? and shall the Eternal God suffer it without special correction and chastisement thereof; especially considering the good motions daily of this sweet Guest, and his combating and resisting against them, is it any wonder if he visit them with terrors of conscience, want of the sense of his presence, and joy of his salvation, & such like buffet? 4. These awaken the conscience, who hath admonished them against those sins being sanctified by the holy Spirit, & now set on fire with clamours and out cries against the offenders, that wheresoever they ride or come, they carry this tormentor about them, a woeful condition, and it will never be quiet to rest or be silent, except it bring them upon the knees of soul and body, to seek reconciliation, or else be hushed & stilled with buffet and ill usage to benumb it, a medicine worse than the disease. 5. These cause the Enemies of God to blaspheme the way of righteousness, every base Varlet will exclaim against such a man; yea, the floodgates of blasphemy will be opened against, not only him, but against all that profess the same truth, and against the profession, the roaring Lads, and society of drunkards, and the riffraff will make songs of him, as they did of David, as himself speaks, i Psal. 69.12. the drunkards and abject slaves made their songs of me: and all the country will be on a hurry, that the people of GOD hang the head with grief and sorrow to behold & hear these things, and in all these respects is there not great cause (think you) that a good heart should be touched with deep remorse & godly sorrow as in the examples of the Lords Worthies, who as their failings are left upon eternal tally, so also their humiliation, godly sorrow, and repentance is recorded, as beacons to give warning to all to beware of the like wracks upon such rocks and sands, so also to be instructions and examples to chalk out the way of returning to God, and seeking our reconciliation & the renewment of our peace: see it in David, Hezeckiah, Peter, and the rest of his Highness' memorable servants. Oh that we rhatare Ministers could see the Protestants of our times, lamenting not only their seldom, but frequent evils committed by them, by which they scandalise our Religion & Profession amongst the sottish Papists, that they might be low in their own eyes, and almost swallowed with grief, then should we gladly administer wholesome cordials to refresh their fainting spirits, as Paul would have the repentant incestuous Corinth to be comforted, lest he should be swallowed up of over much heaviness, but professers can sinne in drunkenness, fornications, & such like, & yet pass it easily over: a woeful and black character of an hypocrite. 3. Point. 3 Wherein this godly sorrow expresseth itself in those things which concern our own particular, is grief for hardness of heart, which the Prophet lively showeth to be the estate of the Church of God, k Is. 63.17. O Lord, why-hast thou caused us to err from thy voice, and hardened our hearts from thy sear? return for thy servant's sake, and for the tribes of thine in heritance. Now that we may the better conceive what this hardness of heart is, let me by a distribution distinguish it from that hardness which is in reprobates, or such at least as are in the state of reprobation, wherein we are to consider, that there is a threefold hardness of heart. 1. Totall and final, as in the wicked and reprobate. 2. Totall & temporary, as in the Elect not yet effectually called. 3. Partial & temporary as in all the elect now converted and called, and this kind of hardness of heart may stand with saving grace, that is, when it feels, complains and mourns under the sense of the hardness of it, there must of necessity be some softness; for corruption is not discerned by corruption, but by grace. Now that this must of necessity be the estate of the child of God to bewail his obdurate heart, is evident. 1. Because it is put in the forefront of that Covenant which the eternal God hath made and ratified to all the Elect, and that whereby he begins and continues his mercy towards them. l Ezec. 36. 2● I will put a new spirit within their bowels: I will take away their stony heart and give them an heart of flesh. 2. It is a sound and undoubted mark and symptom of the child of God, for the Gospel shows sin more ugly than the law can, for it shows Christ in the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments bleeding upon the Cross, and the Spear thrust in, and letting out his heartbloud, and considers it was my sin that did all this, whom yet God the Father vouchsafes in his beloved Christ to call a son. 3. If it look to God, it sees him infinitely provoked, yet infinite in power and justice, which makes him prostrate his soul before God both lower & oftener, than l Genes. 33.9. jacob did his body before Esau to procure favour. 4. Again it sees m Psal. 51.17 that a melting and bleeding heart is a sacrifice of sweet smelling odor to God, & no sacrifice pleasing without it: It sees the infinite wisdom of God in all his courses, who never heals, but such as his spirit wounds and makes sick with the sense of sin. (n) Never comforts such as never mourned, o Is. 57.15. he dwells in acontrite soul to refresh it, to grace it, p 1. Pet. 5.5. and it is the usher to honour here, and glory hereafter. 5. It looks upon itself as the Peacock upon his black legs, to pull down his gay plumes, the sight and sense of his own unworthiness, expeperience of the temptations & methodes of Satan, a slavish subjection under cursed lust, his infinite debt which he can never examine, much less satisfy, and therefore sees matter of daily humiliation: It sees and esteems every creature better than itself, yea the vilest Toad, Cockatrice or viper to be better than itself, and then weighing the infinite mercy of God in pardoning all, and of Christ in x Psal. 120.5.6. satisfying the justice of his Father, thinks itself happy with the q Luk. 15.19 Prodigal if it may be but as a servant in his house, & in the 〈…〉 26 Syrophenissian, as a dog to gather crumbs under Christ's Table, is thankful for every mercy, because it esteems itself unworthy of any, and bewails daily the unthankfulness and stony heartedness that cannot grieve for all the dishonour it hath done to this loving Father; and the indignities put upon Christ, and so labours to stir itself up to lamentations and sorrows. 4. Point. 4 This godly sorrow expresseth itself in mourning for the absence of Christ, for howsoever it is true that Moses was singular in seeing the face of God, and the presence of his essence is invisible, yet there is a presence of his Grace, which God commands we should seek: s Ps. 17.8.9. Seek ye my face, to which David's heart answered: Thy face O Lord will I seek and a promise that we shall find if we seek it with our whole heart. Now there are four sorts of God's people that want either the joy, or at least the sense and feeling of this presence of God's spirit. 1. Some that are in the bud and cradle of their conversion, who have this presence of the spirit and joy of their salvation, but yet never observe it, either through ignorance of the doctrine of the consolations of God, that if they were asked, as the Disciples t Act. 19.2. if they had received the holy Ghost, answered, they had not heard whether there were a holy Ghost, so they would answer if they were demanded have you received the presence and comfort of the Spirit? We have never known what it meaneth, or else through negligence, not observing how the Spirit doth exhibit and show his presence in the due use of the holy ordinances of God, as in the Ministry of the Word, Sacraments, prayer, meditation, etc. or else they use some of the ordinances of God as the public, and neglect the private, and oft times they use and perform some but neglect others, & therefore the use of all the rest are blasted, & yields them little or no feelings of that blessed consolation and presence of God. 2. Some have this joyful presence of God, observe it, and are affected with it for a time, but forget and lose it again, especially in times of affliction, u Helr. 12.5. Ye have forgotten the consolation which speaketh to you as to sons. 3. Some true believers are in their souls, as many a poor man or woman in their bodies, who are always diseased and crazy, & so have little joy in all their riches, state, life, etc. So is it with many a soul always diseased with spiritual maladies, and that sometimes till death, as with pride, passion, or strange effects of melancholy, and these how ever they pant and breath after the sense of God's presence, yet it is possible for them to live and die without any evident sense & feeling of God's presence and joy. 4. Some so fall after effectual calling into somegrosse sin for a time, that they may so lose the joy of their salvation and presence of God, as they may never recover it to their very end, though they mourn for the want of it, as David did, who sometimes recovered the comfort again, as in Psal. 30.7.11. But after his gross sins of Adultery and Murder, it is doubtful whether ever he attained the former sweet sense of God's presence, or at least in the same degree: Yet to all these there is cause of comfort when there is a sense of the absence and want thereof, it's a true sign of life when there is complaining of weakness of the spirits in weariness or sickness, or agitation of them by violent exercise of the internal or vital parts. Now if this godly sorrow be in the heart, it will express itself by mourning for the want of consolation and Christ's absence: as David in many Psalms, w Psalm. 77 7.8.9. Hast thou shut up thy tender mercies in displeasure, And hast thou forgotten to be merciful, wilt thou absent thyself for ever? x Psal. 51.8. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. And Verse 11. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me: Restore me to the joy of thy salvation, and establish me with thy free spirit, etc. O Dauld where is all the state, riches, strength, fortitude, the comfort of thy wife, children, friends, etc. that thou art thus off the hinges? Where is the glory of a Crown, Diadem or Kingdom, that none of all these will comfort thy heart, but to be thus complaining, mourning, and full of heaviness and sorrow: In this case nothing will consolate the soul but the enjoying of his presence wherein is life, and his absence worse than death itself. Yet in some this sense of God's presence after assurance is habitual and constant, expressed with admirable joy & gladness of heart, and truly not with much interruption, but then they are such as observe these five rules. 1. They voluntarily seek godly sorrow for their sins, for this y Ps. 126.2.6 Isa. 61.3. Math. 5.5 presence and joy is promised too, and most felt by such as mourn for sin; but for all the rest of the world, I say Master's hands off, as Solomon saith: z Pro. 14.10, The heart knoweth the bitterness of his soul, and the stranger shall not meddle with his joy. 2. Lose not God's presence, but keep him in thine eye still, and walk before him in sincerity, for a Psal. 16.11 at his right hand is fullness of joy, and pleasures for evermore. 3. Be fruitful in well doing, even in all kinds of duties, for sterility and barrenness in god-Iynesse is comfortless, and grieves the Spirit of God, but fertility and abundance of fruitfulness b 1. Cor. 15. vl●im. Col. 1.9.10.11. glads the Spirit and makes our joy abound. 4. Nourish the love of no sin, for than it is as impossible to keep the sense of God's presence, and joy of the spirit, as to keep fire and water in a pot mixed together, as the wise man saith: b Prou. 12.13 Prou. 12. ●0. In the transgression of an evil man is his snare; but the righteous doth sing and rejoice: And deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the counsellors of peace shall be joy. 5. Upon the first feelings of Christ's absence complain betimes, if possible let not the Sun go down upon it, do as in the Canticles: c C●nt. 5.6 I opened to my well-beloved, and my well-beloved was gone and passed: I called but he answered me not. Delay no time, spare no labour nor cost to seek him, go to the watchmen, inquire and search with all diligence, d Can. 3.1.2 lie not in thy bed of security, seek him in the use of all his Ordinances, Ministry, Sacraments, Prayer, examine the cause why he absents himself, humble thy soul with godly sorrow, confess thine unworthiness, renew thy covenants, vows, and promises never to be so sleepy, fruitless, careless, & unthankful for his sweet presence for time to come: Search the Records of God's promises again and again, give him no rest day nor night, be importunate, for that pleaseth him: Add fasting as a wing to thy prayers, observe the least motions of the Spirit, and the beginnings of comfort, and be thankful for it, and be constant never to give over thy search till thou find him whom thy soul loveth, and he will at the last be entreated, as he was of the Spouse she found him e Cant. 3.4 took hold of him and would not let him go, etc. 5. Point. 5 Godly sorrow sets the heart on work to mourn, for the want of the means, especially the ministry of the word and Sacraments. O blessed David thou hadst a great degree and measure of this grace, intimating itself in thy panting and long after the bread of life, even the heavenly Manna and ministry of the word: f Ps. 42.2.4 My soul thirsteth for God, the living God, when shall I come and appear before the presence of God. When I remembered these things, I poured out my very heart, because I had gone with the multitude, and led them into the house of God with singing, etc. The people of God, even when they sat by the pleasant Rivers of Bebell which was an outward comfort to them, yet there g Ps. 137.2.4 they sat down and wept when they remembered Zion, they hanged their Harps upon the Willows, etc. and said (when the Babylonians in scorn called for a song, a song, an Hebrew song,) How shall we sing, a song of the Lord in a strange land? Admirable were the affections of the Church to the Ministers in the days of the Fathers under these Heathenish persecuting Emperors, who when their Ministers, guides and leaders were taken from them, came out as if distracted, and crying to them to take all they had so they would leave them their guides, and of Hierome they said it had been better the Sun had been pulled out of the firmament, then that his mouth should have been stopped: and Lord vouchsafe this mercy to us thy poor Ministers, that our eyes might but see such happy days, that the people might have David's spirit, who when he was exiled his native Country, and though not ignorant of that blessed promise which GOD makes to his Church, when they were in captivity, that h Ezech. 1.16. he would be a little Sanctuary to the● in the countries where they shall come; yet his blessed hair breaks forth into that pathetical acclamation, i Psal. 84.1.2 3. O Lord of hosts, how amiable are thy Tabernacles, That his soul fainted for the courts of the Lord. as also that the sparrow & swallow were happy, that might build their nests, and lay their young by his Altars, etc. This lively affection is in every one of Christ's blessed members: O that it were in the same degree; but it is in some measure, and that for these causes: 1. They are spiritual fathers k 1 Cor. 1.15 to beget men to God by the effectual and powerful preaching of the Gospel, as instruments making us of children of the Devil, l 1 Pet. 2.2. new borne babes, & the sons of God in Christ. And as spiritual mother's travail in birth of us, m Gal. 4.19. till Christ be form in us, undergoing great pains to bring us forth to God; and whereas other mothers bear children into misery, these into a blessed condition: After they have begotten them thus, they do not as the n job 39.13. Ostrich, which leaves her eggs in the sand, to be scattered by the foot, o 1 Thess. 2.7 but as gentle spiritual nurses cherish these children; p 1 Pet. 2.2. and therefore as new borne babes they desire, and in want thereof will cry for the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby, as every creature doth in nature. They know that this is the food of the soul, and therefore rather than they will want this blessed Manna, they will as jacob, send into q Gen. 12.2. Egypt for food; and knowing that when the Eternal God intends a plague with a witness against a people, he sends then a famine, Amo. 8.11. not of bread, or a thirst of water but of his word, that they shall travail from city to city to find the word of the Lord, and shall not find it, they will not willingly bring this curse upon themselves, as most of our Nobility and Gentry do; but if the Lord send this misery upon them, they mourn under it as a most bitter cross. s Mat. 5.14. They are the spiritual light of the world, which without them lies in palpable, thick, black Cimmerian darkness, and therefore having received s Exod 28.20 Vrim and Thummim, t Apoc. 1. 〈◊〉 as stars in the darkest night, shine to others in the light of doctrine, and good example; and as candles & torches, spend and consume themselves in giving light to this dark Egyptian world, u Dan. 12.3. & therefore shall as stars shine most resplendently in glory for ever and ever: Besides, God hath appointed them in Christ his stead, to seek and save what is lost; not health impaired, as Physicians; nor wealth controverted, as Lawyers; but the lost soul, by applying the means appointed by Christ: w job 33.24 To deliver the man that he go not into the pit; not by working the means, which is the office of the Spirit, but applying them, & pronouncing the sinners discharge, which is the duty of the Minister. These things considered, is it possible that a true believer should live without the ministry of the Word, and not be plunged into deep heaviness and sorrow in the want thereof? it is impossible. Quest. But may not self-respects carry men along with desire after the hearing of the word preached, and to complain in the want of it? Answ. Yes verily they may, & I reduce these to three heads. 1. They desire knowledge, and endeavour to get it, not to edify themselves (that were divine & heavenly wisdom, as Solomon saith, x Pro 9.12. If thou he wise, be wise for thyself) nor to edify others (this were gracious love indeed, and a sign of saving grace, as our Saviour said, y Luke 22.32 when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren) but these are like the butterfly, which flies from flower to flower to adorn, bespangle & beautify her wings; so these go from Sermon to Sermon, to know something to be able to discourse & find table talk, (which is mere Vanity.) If the honour & glory of the Highest were their aim in the salvation of their souls, and labouring to know the will of the Almighty that they might do it, our Saviour pronounceth them blessed. 2. Is worldly profit, so long as there is hope that they shall gain either credit or profit, they will hear the Word joyfully: b Acts 2.18. Simon Magus will follow the Apostles at the heels, profess he believes, admire and desire to have power to exhibit the visible gifts of the holy Ghost, and offer large sums of money, & all for cursed lucre. The jews after Christ had fed them with bread, could never be rid of them, following him from place to place; but wherefore was it think you? was it for his doctrine, miracles, or himself? no verily, but because of the loaves. Profits, pleasures, and preferments, will make a man hear diligently, profess openly, and Ministers to preach painfully; c job. 6.16. but if Christ bring no loaves, he shall want auditors; if the Minister be rich, invite them to his table, lend them money to answer their necessities, and will be ready at every turn to help them in their bodies with cure in Physic, in their estates to help them out of straits, dangers, troubles, etc. O than they cry out, a blessed Minister, who would not hear him: but if he be poor, and need their aid, than they forsake him d 2 Tim. 4.10 as Demas did Paul; and if ever the complaint of the Apostle were just, it is now of Professors, e Phil. 2.21. all men seek their own, and not that which is Christ's. If he reprove their ill dealing, covetousness, tale-bearings, whisperings, hypocrisy, they cry out, f Amos 7.10 the earth is not able to bear his words: if he speak any thing against Diana, g Acts 19.24 then Demetrius the silu●● Smith raiseth tumults in defence of his shrines, and cries out, great is Diana of the Ephesians: we have such spirits in our Congregations, every lame hypocrite, and halting Professor, can draw factions, invent scandals, aspersions, and slanders secretly (and therefore the more sinfully) to detract from that Ministry which sometimes they have praised, admired & magnified; but this is no new thing, and for mine own part, I expect no better, seeing they did thus to a g Luke 23.31 green tree, even the Son of righteousness, how much more to a dry. 3. Curiosity and novelty, men have itching ears. A new Preacher if he come, away with the old, he is then either too plain, or too eloquent, or he hath over many points, or over few, or he useth to repeat over long, or else he never speaks of a point but once, or he preacheth nought but the Law and damnation, or else he speaks of nothing but the promises and the Gospel, or he is too earnest, or too soft, or in his conversation he is over familiar, or too austere, rigid, and strange, right like those sullen boys our Saviour speaks of, that would not be drawn out of their sullenness, neither by g Math. 11.16.17. piping, nor mourning, and then to hatred, envying, backbiting, and slandering; or if his conversation be so apparently gracious, as they think it boots them not to traduce him openly, yet they cease not to follow him with secret whisperings in corners, where the Devil hath prepared sit ears to attend, that he may further his own stratagems to keep their souls under his vassalage, till the hand of the Civil or Ecclesiastical Magistrate draws forth the sword of justice to dissipate such hypocrites, and then they either fall away, or get to some other new Preacher; if possible a soft spirit that will suffer them, or if they be deceived, and meet with a man of courage, then begins a new broil after trial, for their spirits cannot keep in, unless they be Lords and Rulers over all: I speak this by lamentable experience, and could point out such as these. Again, some when a strange matter never heard of before, is taught, it draws multitudes to hear, because (say they) we never hear, but there is something which we never heard before, like the b Act. 17.20 Athenians which would hear Paul, and inquire the meaning of his doctrine, because (say they) he brings strange things to our ears, & it was their delight and life to heart and tell news; but Athenians grow weary both of that matter and man, when he ceaseth to be new: Like the ingrateful h Numb. 1.6.7 Israelites, when Manna first comes, commend it, admire it, rejoice in it, feed upon it grow strong by it, wherefore I pray? It is a new and strange meat: But after, they murmur and loathe it, because of the stalenes, notwithstanding their good GOD gave it them every day new: But Lord, where are these mourners for the want of this spiritual Manna? For the most part it may be said as those to the Prophet, i 2 King. 2.19. the Land is pleasant, as thou my Lord seest, but the waters are bitter: so men when they come into this Kingdom, choose pleasant situations, and fertile soils, but their waters (if any) are bitter, all their care is for a body, a body; but the immortal soul is never regarded, but pines and starves, and yet they are senseless of it: Lord awaken their hearts to consider their misery, and bewail it, that it may appear to their souls, that this grace hath possessed their hearts to their eternal consolation. Thus of the five first that concern a man's own particular: The second, such as generally respect others. 1. This godly sorrow affecteth the heart to mourn for the dishonour of God in public abominations; so was David affected with the sins of his time, k Psal. 119. ver. 136.139 158. Mine eyes gush out with rivers of water, because men keep not thy law. And jeremiah wisheth, Iere●● 9.1. Oh that mine head were a fountain of tears, and mine eyes rivers of water, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people, etc. Thus the good servants of God called up their hearts to the performance of this duty, & it is necessary for true Christians so to do: 1. Because it is an indelible mark of a child of the Highest, and by which the destroying Angel knows to reserve them 〈◊〉 the vengeance and l Deut. 4.24. & 32.22. wrath of God, which burns like a consuming fire to the bottom of hell, and cannot be quenched, and shall consume the earth with her increase, etc. but having this mark and character upon their foreheads, that mourn and cry for all the abominatious that be done in the midst of jerusalem, when these were thus marked, m Ezech. 9.4.5.6. the other Angels had charge to go after him through the city, let your eye spare none, nor have pity: Destroy utterly the old & the young, the maids, the children, and the women; but touch no man upon whom is the mark, and begin at my Sanctuary etc. If this be so, how few than are there, which in this Island may not fear the direful vengeance and wrath of the Almighty every day, how few (I say) are there which take things to heart as they ought, or as the occasion requires? what cause hath each particular person given him of grief, by our own sins, and the sins of the land we live in, by God's judgements abroad and at home? And yet how little grief anywhere, except carnal and worldly sorrow, of which the land is full, (such as that of the n Ho. 7.14. Israelites, when they howled upon their beds for corn and wine) because they are abridged and disappointed of their wont profits and pleasures, if only these are stamped with the character of the Spirit of Adoption, that mourn for the abominations of these times: O Lord, where are any almost of the visible Church professing thy truth, whose case is not woeful and miserable? 2. It is a grievous sin not to mourn, yea not to be sick with sorrow for the sins of the times we siue in: Paul saith, o 〈◊〉. 5.1. It is heard certainly, that there is fornication amongst you, and such fornication as is not once named amongst the Gentiles, that one should have his Father's wife: And ye are puffed up, and have not rather sorrowed, etc. as if he should have said, it is your sin that you have not applied it to your hearts to mourn, that God is so dishonoured amongst you. It is then a woeful sinful world which we now live in, where is there a man of a thousand that mourns for the abomination of this sinful Island, and those which do, are as signs and wonders in Israel, the Lord give us the grace of repentance for this hardness of our hearts. 3. It is certain in these sinful days, the Lord calls upon us to practise this duty, and pronounceth a woe upon us if we do it not, and threatneth vengeance to all such as in these times sit upon their merry pins, giving themselves to feasting, drinking, and jollity●, clean contrary to God's Commandment and charge which he expresseth by the prophet Isay, p Is. 22.12.14 In that day did the Lord of Hosts call to weeping and mourning, cutting of bayre and guirding with sackcloth: But behold slaying of Oxen, & killing of sheep, eating of flesh and drinking of wine. Let us eat and drink, say they, to day, for to morrow (the Prophets say) we shall die. q Hebrals. & revelabitur in auribus meis Domini exercitunm Montanus. And it was revealed by the Lord of hosts in my hearing: r junlus. Let me not live, if this impiety be done away till you die for it. By which the Lord expresseth his unapeasable wrath against this detestable iniquity after the manner of an Oath, that no sacrifice shall purge that sin: So the Lord sweareth of Elies' house, for the intolerable wickedness of his sons, That he hath sworn concerning Eli's house that the impiety thereof s 1. Sam. 3.14 shall not be expiated with sacrifice nor offering for ever. And to his former threatening addeth, saith the Lord, The Lord of boasts, doubling the speech for the greater certainty, and that no power shall deliver or free them from the vengeance, for he is the Lord of hosts. But alas a man may take a Torch and seek through jerusalem, yea through Zion until his strength faileth, and his spirits agitated, yea wasted before he shall find a man mourning, & the tears trickling down his cheeks for the abominations of these times: We had need call for all t jerem. 9.17 mourning men and women that they may come, and weep for the abominations of these days wherein we live, for the whole world are set upon mad mirth, and as job speaketh u job. 21.13 go suddenly dancing and iovally to hell. Notwithstanding the Almighty calls them from this, and pronunceth several woes against such, u Is. 5.11.14 Woe be to those that rise early in the morning to follow strong drink, and sit by it till night until the wine have inflamed them: That have the Harp and the Viol, the Taber and Pipe with wine in their feasts: but they regard not the act of God, nor consider his handy work. Therefore is my people led captive, because they have no knowledge of these things: and their honourable men are famished, and their common people destroyed with thirst: Yea therefore hath hell enlarged himself, and widened her mouth beyond measure, and their glory and their multitude, even all those that make merry among them: Let their condition be what it will, aswell he that sitteth upon the Throne, as he that worketh at the Anvil, shall go thither down together, Consider ye jovall and roaring lads of this age, that delight in nothing but feasting, drinking and merriment, and think the whole world mad or foolish that follow not your guise, that your destiny is already read, & your doom pronounced by no less than the eternal Son of God himself: w Luke 6.25 Woe be to you that now laugh, for you shall wail and weep. Ye have your joy and melody here, but your woe and misery shall as assuredly follow, as if it were already effected: When you shall see Abraham, x Math. 8.11.12. Isaac, and jacob with all the Patriarches, Prophets, Apostles, yea all the faithful in the kingdom of heaven, and yourselves shut out of doors: You have your heaven and light here, but your torment follows, as the Lord saith by the Prophet Isai, y Isa. 65.13 14.15 Behold my servants shall eat, and ye shall be hungry, etc. My servants shall rejoice, and ye shall be ashamed: My servants shall sing for joy of heart, and ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and bowl for vexation of spirit, and ye shall leave your name as a curse, etc. O miserable men that ye are, even in mirth and the chief of your jollity, z Pro. 14.13 Your hearts are heavy, you have your flings and tortures of conscience, and the end is worse, for it ends in heaviness. This the Lord threatens to all, and swears by the excellency of jacob a Amos 8.7, 10. surely I will never forget any of their works. And vers. 10. I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lameneation, and I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head, and I will make it as the mourning of an only son and the end thereof as a bitter day. But are these mourners the only beloved ones of the highest charactered and stamped with the special mark of Adoptions Alas then how few shall be saved from the stroke and plague of the destroying a Ezech. 9.4 Psalm. 6.6 Angel whe● God's wrath is let lose? Assuredly they are like black Swa●●● or the Phoenix almost: Where are those that water their couche● with tears every night with David? That set some times apar● to bewail the abominations o● this sinful age & Island, especially that sequester times for fasting and prayer, that stand i● the gap, b Ezec. 22.30 to avert the judgements of God that justly han● over our heads for our sins: y●● some I know there are, to who● I say with the Prophet: c Isa. 62.6.7 Y●● that are the Lorals remembrante●● give him no rest, until he set up Si●● the praise of the world, I dare not say with jeremy: d jere. 12.11 There is 〈◊〉 man that layeth it to ●●cart: or with Isaiah, e Isai. 64.7 There is no man that calleth upon God's name, or that stirreth up himself to lay hold on him: Or with Ezechiel 22.30. There is no man that standeth up in the gap. Some there are which I know, & if I should say none, my heart would rebuke my pen. The Lord increase them as joah said to David a thousand times so many more: But I fear there are but a few, yea very rare, scarce one of a Family or ten of a Tribe, and the bestand forwardest of us (the Lord help and pardon it) are I fear defective this way, and come short of that which should be in us. Thus of the first. 2. This godly sorrow affecteth the heart, to bewail the calamities and miseries of the Churches of God in general, and the afflictious of the particular members of Christ, I will handle these two distinctly. 1. That the miseries and distresses of the Churches of God should affect the heart of each true member of the Church, is manifest to be not contingent only, but necessary. First from examples: It is recorded of famous Nehemiah, that though he lived in Persia in the Court of Artaxerxes f Neh 1.1.11 & 2.1. being his Cupbearer, i Neh. 1.4 and in high estimation and honour with him, yet when he heard of the calamity of the jews, than the only people of God, he was so affected with their oppression and misery, that as a man oppressed with grief he sat down i Neh. 1.4 & wept, fasted, prayed, and mourned sundry days together: Yea so great wa● his grief that his spirits we● dejected, & it appeared so in hi● countenance that the king could not but take notice of it, k Neh. 2 2 & that it was not bodily sickness but grief of mind. The like is said of Daniel, though for his own particular condition in respect of outward preferment he had cause of joy, being chief Precedent under the great Monarches succeeding each other l Da●●r. 48. Nabachadnezar, m Dan. 5.29. and 6.2 Balshazar,. and Darius: yet considering the calamity that the Church was, and had been in a long time, he mourned three whole weeks together o Dan. 10.2.3 in in which space he eat no pleasant meat, neither came flesh or wine in his mouth, nor any ointment (which was usual amongst the Jews in times of rejoicing) upon his body. 2. It is an Apostolical Canon which Paul gives to all the members of the Church to be affected with the afflictions of their brethren, & to sympatize with them in their welfare: p Rom. 12.15.16. Rejoice with those that rejoice, and weep with them that weep, and be like affectioned one towards another: And those that feast and are frolic in the miscries of Zion the Lord threatens with a most heavy woe, etc. q Amos 6.5.6.7 They lie and siretch themselves upon beds of Ivory, and eat the Lambs of the flock, and the calves out of the stall, they sing to the sound of the viol: they invent to themselves instruments of music like David: They drink wine in bowels, and anoint themselves with sweet ointments, but they are not grieved for the affliction of joseph: Therefore none shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the sorrow of them that stretched themselves is at hand: Oh that all such as sit at ease and sleep, snug in the miseries of the Church, would but consider and lay to heart this dreadful threatening of the immortal God, and we of these Lands of Great Britain and Ireland, that stand and gaze only upon the ruins of other Churches, and like Athenians love to hear and tell news, but make no use to return into our own bowels to cause them lament and turn within us, and to express our inward affections to Zion by our sorrows, and earnest supplications prayers, & tears with fasting without ceasing until the Lord return and have mercy upon his poor desolate Spouse: Little consider we that our turn may be next. 3. The eternal Son of God, even our Head Christ, is afflicted with the calamities of his Church; As saith the Prophet: r Ps. 63.5. In all their troubles he was troubled, and the Angel of his presence went before them. He sympathizeth in all the welfare and woe of his Church; observe his speech to Saul; s Act. 9.15. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? and I am jesus whom thou persecutest: Our Saviour he suffers in his members, t Mat. 25. 2● I was hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, harbourless, and in prison; that is, he hath his share in all the wants, necessities, straits, & miseries, that all his members in all parts of the world sustain and endure for he is not in want, saith August: t August in Ps. 75. in regard of any misery, & yet he wanteth in regard of mercy: he suffers not in his deity of himself, and yet he suffers out of commiseration to his: & the Apostle Paul saith, he fulfilled u Col. 1.24 the rest of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh for his bedies sake which is the Church: I am not ignorant that there is great ado amongst Divines about those words: The jesuites Rhemists in their marginal notes upon this place affirm, that Christ did not suffer all that was necessary for man's freedom for sin; but left much to be suffered by his members, especially men of principal note, and hence grew their Diabelicall Supererogation, Satisfactory pains, and Indulgences kept in the Church's Treasures, a Cow that gives as good and store of milk as any in the Pope's deiery, except Confession, and Purgatory, which are his mints. But that this gloss corrupts the text, and cannot be the intention of the Apostle, is apparent: 1. Because that doctrine of Popery is contrary to the analogy of faith, and opposeth these express texts of Scripture: w Is. 53.4.6.10.12. Surely he hath home our infirmities, and carried our sorrows, he was wounded for our transgressions, he was broken for our iniquities, and the chastisement of i● peace was laid upon him, and by 〈◊〉 stripes we are healed, etc. And th● Evangelist saith, that when o●● blessed Saviour x joh. 19.30. had tasted the vinegar, he said, It is finished: what better testimony then of the Son of God himself? and if finished, y Heb. 10.1. to 15. & ●. 14.2.26. 2 Cor. 15.14 1 john 2.1. Ps. 49.7.8. Ezech. 18.20. Gal. 6.5. what need any more propitiatory sacrifices? Many other texts of Scripture might be alleged, some whereof I annex in the margin for brevity's sake, to be read at men's leisures. 2. Augustine is flat against this sense, when he saith, z August. tract. 44. in johau. Le●. when brethren die for brethren, yet no blood of Martyrs is shed for remission of sins, this Christ only hath done: Doctor Fulke in his answer to the Rhemists, allegeth Chrysostome upon this text, homil. 4. Ambrose and Theodoret, yea their own Writers are against them, a Pope could say, The just receive, not give crowns: And their own School Divines are flat against them, the Gloss hath it; for you, for the confirmation of you in the doctrine of the Gospel; others affirm, that to say, Aquinat. Caietan. that the passions of the Saints are added to make up, or fulfil the passion of Christ, is heretical. 3. The next verse declares this, for he did thus suffer, according to the dispensation given him of God, and it is evident, he was given to edify, not to redeem the Church. 4. This Rhemistical sense brings in a strange and gross absurdity; for if the words be understood of the sufferings of Christ, left to his people to endure for propitiation for sin, than the consequent must of necessity be, that Paul suffered all that was wanting, & so there should remain nothing to suffer: For he saith, he suffered the rest of the sufferings of Christ. & therefore this text is nothing to their purpose: Now they may be said to be the sufferings of Christ, either as Christ is taken for the whole mystical body, as Paul a 1 Cor. 12.12. by Christ there, meaneth the body of Christ, or as he is the Head of the Church, and so the afflictions of his people, may be said 〈◊〉 be his sufferings, or else because they were imposed upon him by Christ, for the Churches good, or because they were for Christ and the profession of his doctrine, or because of the union and sympathy betwixt Christ and the Christian, who accounts them as his sufferings, and this is principally intended by the Apostle, for it is questionless, that Christ doth so feel the calamities of his people, that he esteems them in that respect to be his own miseries, as hath been proved by variety of Scriptures before, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and undoubtedly from hence came that witty distinction of Christ's sufferings, into the sufferings he endured in his own Person, and the sufferings he felt in his members. Thus of the necessity of sorrow for the Church's afflictions in general. 2. It is as true, that every member of the Chusch, whereof Christ is the Head, must of necessity (or else no true member of the Head Christ) sympathise with their particular fellow members in all their wealth and woe, even the meanest of them, so saith that worthy Apostle Paul, b 2 Cor. 11.29 who is weak, and I not weak with him? who is scandalised, but I burn with it? and so elsewhere, c 1 Cor. 12.26 If any one member he honoured, all the rest rejoice with it, if any one suffer, all the rest suffer with it. Thus is it in the natural body, if any tread upon, or kick the least toe or foot. will no the head feel? will not the tongue say, why do you tread upon, or kick me? and thus it cannot but be in the mystical body of Christ. O Lord if this be true, where are there any true members of Christ to be found in this age, let me but find such a man or woman, that when they see Christ's members. I mean his believing neighbours hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned, scandalised, and he or she humbly careth for them, for care and joy are the two fairest daughters of Love, and out of his care is affected with his misery, prayeth to God for his relief, and endeavours to furnish his necessities. So on the contrary, if God turn the wheel of prosperity, then to rejoice with them, especially in spiritual prosperity after desertion, and then I will believe that such a man or woman is the child of God, & hath attained to this blessed godly sorrow, as a mostnecessary & true symptom & character thereof: and if it be otherwise, it plainly proveth, & is a black mark of reprobation, as will appear if we consider these reasons. 1. It plainly intimates, d 1 joh. 5.14. we are but dead men, and not translated from death to life, e 1 joh. 2.10. that we are still in darkness, and without the true light: it testifies to ourselves, Angels and men, that we are not only benumbed or paraliticke members, but rotten, putrified, & mortified members, which must be cut off; these are like wooden legs, that feel nothing of the bodies or members malady: how canst thou think thyself a true member of Christ. and criest not out under the afflictions of the poorest true believer, and expressest not thy sorrow by thine earnest endeavour to ease the cross & affliction? what? living members, and feel nothing? It is impossible that a true believer & member of Christ should be thus blockish and senseless. 2. It plainly manifests want of zeal to GOD and his glory, when either the cause of the Church's calamity, or the particular afflictions of God's people strike us not at the very heart, which should be more dear unto us shall I say, than our own wealth, safety, life? yea I may truly say, than our own salvation: where is the zeal of Moses, blot me out of the book of life, f Exo. 32 32. rather than destroying this people, the heathen should insult and say, because God was not able to bring his people into Canaan, therefore he destroyed them in wilderness, it was Gods Name that stroke Moses at the heart, and this is oft eclipsed by the afflictions of God's people: Oh the miseries & woes of infinite millions of men and women, with whom it is all one what condition befalls the Church or any particular member thereof. Were old f 1 Sam. 4.18, 19 Eli & his daughter the wife of Phineas now alive, would not the captivity of the Ark be their deaths, to hear of the desolations that are made in that famous and most ancient Church of Bohemia, and her sister the Palatine, with other parts thus wasted and depopulated, the Name of the Lord of hosts to be dishonoured by that relation which our adversaries make of the victories, triumphs and successes had by that Popish and Iherian faction, and that unnaturally by the Natives and Popish English, which should be his Majesty's loyal subjects in this Island But alas what do I insist upon these reasons to incite us to commiserate the afflictions of the Churches of Christ abroad, great is the dishonour of God at home even in this Kingdom, & the state of both Zion and jerusalem is so miserable, that it gives us just cause (oh that we had their affections) to cry out, g La●. 1.2.16. La●. 2.18. jer. 13.27. mine eye droppeth, etc. Oh that we had not only cause to say with the Prophet jeremy, Because of eathes the land mourneth, but we have just occasion to say with the Lord by the Prophet Hosea, that h Hos. 4.1.2. etc. God hath a controversy with us, because there is no mercy, truth, nor knowledge of God in the Land: by swearing, lying, kill, stealing, & whoring they break out, and blood toucheth blood, therefore shall the Land mourn, and all that are therein shall be cut off, with the beasts of the field, etc. I may add, the abominable drunkenness, oppression, idolatry, with swarms of those Locusts, the Friars, Priests, and that Ignatian brood the jesuites, swarming in every corner by scores, seducing and beguiling unstable souls, robbing and impoverishing not only the poor Natives, but the whole Kingdom, by their intolerable exactions, it is almost incredible, the mass and sums of money that they daily rake together, I could not believe it until I saw it by probable demonstrations, that at the least 500000 pound sterling and upward of treasure, is exhausted out of this poor Kingdom yearly, to maintain that woeful generation at home, and corroborate and animate the enemies abroad, that the Kingdom, of necessity, must grow full of penury, & their insolency increaseth so fast, and our sins provoking the Highest in such degree, that except l Am●s 4.12 we prepare to meet the Lord by speedy repentance, as the Eternal himself adviseth his people, what may we look for, but some bloody massacres, as in Paris and Vasty in the days of Charles the ninth in France; or at Antwerp in the Netherlands, or else some other grievous judgements another way. Oh that we which are k Is. 62.6. ●. the Lords remembrancers, would give him no rest till he repair his jerusalem and Zion. Oh ye Reverend Fathers, let these silent lines speak in your cares, and be not incensed against them, why do you not employ the Churches weapons, which are praeces & lachrymae, to implore his Majesty and the State, for reformation of these horrible and detestable abominations, GOD persuade your hearts to this, I know it is the desire of sundry of your souls to see the prosperity of bethel and Zion, & the ruin and desolation of Bethaven and Babel; and you Right Honourable, the Nobility & State of this Kingdom, pardon the importunity of these rude lines, and let them incite your noble spirits, to entreat our God by unfeigned and earnest supplications & prayers, l Heb. 5.7. with strong cries and tears, as our blessed Saviour (restified by the Author to the Hebrewes) did in the days of his flesh. As also beseech his Vicegerent our dread Sovereign, (whom the almighty long continue) to drive out these Canaavites, which are m Indg. 2.2 thorns in our eyes, and goads in our sides: and the Lord give his Highness a heart to pity us, and vouchsafe him the zeal of his House and Glory like of that worthy n 2. King. 22.1.2.3. josiah, the Paragon of the world to effect it, and to see the erection of the House of our God, and advancing the Kingdom of Christ, that he may be blessed in his blessed soul, body, government, and posterity; and we all as already, may have renewed occasion to bless him, and to bless God for him. Thus of the second. 3. And lastly this godly sorrow affecteth the heart to bewail & mourn for the threatening anger and wrath of God, it is true that anger in man is a perturbation or passion in the mind, but in the most high, unspotted and pure nature of God it is an effect of his justice, for my own part I am of opinion that anger and wrath are properly in his highness, not improperly and by way of Anthropopatie as the most have thought: As for that Text Anger is not in me: it is only to distinguish his most just and righteous anger and wrath, from that which is in man's, for in his most blessed and pure nature is neither passion or perturbation, but in his excellency it is. First, an effect of his justice: Secondly, in such a blessed and holy manner as is agreeable to his blessed name, and to us inconceiveable and inutterable. Thirdly, according to the meaning and sense revealed in his sacred word, to the better unfolding whereof I must consider two things. 1. The dreadfulness & fearfulness and greatfulnesse of it, therefore Moses in his prayer by way of interrogation propounds it: n Psal 90.11 Who knoweth the power of thy wrath, and according to thy fear is thine indignation, as if he should say, no man is able to conceive thy wrath nor know sufficiently to fear thee proportionable to thine indignation. The Prophet Nahum expresseth it, o Nah. 1.4.5 ●● that it drieth up the sea, wasteth Baashan, Carmel & the flower of Lebanon, it makes the mountains tremble, and the bills melt, burns up the world, & those that dwell therein, who can stand before his wrath? or who can abide the fierceness thereof, it is poured out like fire: p Deut. 4.2. It tears the rocks, and rends the mountains in sunder: And to the infiniteness and exequisitenesse of it, Moses compares it to a consuming fire, & addeth q Deu. 32.2 that it burns unquenchably to the bottom of hell: but will consume the earth with all her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. Variety of examples prove this past and present, as Gods foredamning and reprobating so infinite millions of people following Adam with such inconceiveable and inutterable plagues and judgements upon himself and his: drowning of the old world, burning of r Gen. 19.24. Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, & Zeboni, overwhelming and swallowing up s Exod. 14. 2● Pharaoh and his host in the sea, t Act. 17.30 leaving all the Gentiles in a most forlorn & desperate condition by the space of four thousand years, as Paul saith, & now the miserable estate of the jews the first borne of God, now runnegates and vagabounds, yea a curse, astonishment, and a hissing throughout the earth. The insupportable wrath that, he laid upon his own Son, which made him cry out in the anguish of his soul; u Math. 27 46. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me, and in his agony; w Luk. 22.44. to sweat drops of water mingled with blood trickling down to the ground though but a furetie for us miserable sinners. The tortures of afflicted consciences plainly explicate this point, what rending of clothes, and hair sorrows and tears with outcries & sighs proceed from their racked consciences in their desperate condition that their spirits are disabbed to support them; yea but a drop of his Anger let full, & out of commiseration and love also upon his own children, how hath it enforced them to bitter lamentation and sorrows to the wasting and consumption, both of their flesh and spirits, as the examples of job, David, and Hezethia is apparent in their own relations left upon eternal Record to all ages. Lastly the infinite miseries and calamities that as a flood doth continually break in upon the particular bodies of men in diseases and sicknesses which they are infinitely surprised with all, as the stone, strangury, gout, palsies, apoplexies, agues, and other molestations upon their goods, vanity mutation and losses, upon their good name, infamies, disgraces, shame, scandal, and reproach: And upon the soul, ignorances hardness of heart, deadness of spirit & such like with errors, and heresies, etc. all which are evident signs of the wrath and indignation of the Almighty: But the time is coming and hastens apace when the mighty God will manifest this to the full. x 2. Pet. 2.10. When the elements shall melt with heat, & the earth with the work that are thereon shall be burnt up, & all the kindreds of the earth shall mourn, and the cry of the damned and reprobate world in all the four corners thereof shall cry y Reu. 6.16. Isai. 2.19. Luk. 23.30. Hos. 10.8. Mountains cover us and rocks crush us to pieces, & break all our bones that we may never appear before his presence, for the day of his wrath is come & who can stand: especially the flames of hell and the tortures of the damned shall manifest this to the utmost, and therefore consider this and lay it to heart all ye that think God is all mercy, and that there is neither justice nor wrath in your creator. 2. The signs and tokens of the anger of the highest against kingdoms, Churches and public states, are these. 1. When GOD leaves his Church without Prophets, for as the eternal puts in the forefront of the signs of his special favour I will give or send them Prophets according to mine own heart, so when he means a plague with a mischief to any state, ordinarily z Isai 57.1 the Lord takes away his righteous servants from the evil to come, observe the lamentation of the Church a Lam. 2.9. There is not one Prophet left to tell when these things shall have an end, or when God sends them many false Prophets, & but few faithful, it was ominous to Israel and Ahab when there were four hundred false Prophets to overbear one good honest b 1. King. 22.6 Michaiah by whom the Devil seduced Ahab, and doth ordinarily seduce Kings, kingdoms and public states, Sycophants, Parasites and flatterers, of whom jeremiah complained in his time in that Pathetical acclamation: c jere. 14.13.14 Ah Lord the Prophets tell them no such thing that the sword shall not devour, etc. It's a sign of God's wrath. 2. When God doth send variety of faithful Ministers and preachers, and they comparing times with times, sins with sins, and the Lords dealing formerly with his own people, and the menaces of his most righteous law against such sins as are frequent & ordinary howsoever they have no prophetical and immediate spirit of revelation to foretell things to come, (as extraordinary Prophets in former times) yet if they with one consent, with instance and earnestness do foretell & that in diverse places, upon observation of God's former dealing who is immutable, it is time for the world to awake & consider, for as Ames saith d Dan. 7.7 The Lord will do nothing but he will reveal his secrets to his servants the Prophets, and God will ratify their righteous menaces, howsoever this sinful age esteem of them. 3. Public afflictions are signs both of God's wrath begun, and of greater vengeance to come, as pestilence, famine of bread, e Amo● 8.21. famine of the word, wars, f Is. 57.1. the frequent death of the best men, and such like, especially when there is a sting and curse of hardness of heart not to make a good use of them when the heart is not bend towards the Almighty nor yields to him in this godly sorrow, as the Prophet jeremy saith, g jer. 5.1. Thou hast smitten them but they have not forrowed, thou hast consumed them, but they refused to receive correction, they have made their faces harder than a stone, and have refused to return, what think you of this Island? Hath not the immortal God smitten it with wars & consumed them with famine, and may not we say as jeremy, sed non deluerunt, but they have not sorrowed? But it may be said of us as the drunkard saith of himself h Prou. 23.35. They have smitten me, but I was not sick: they have beaten me, but I felt it not, never the worse, and therefore in truth never the better. Quest. But why is this a sign of future wrath? Answ. Because when the just and most almighty God gins to correct a Nation, and they stoop not nor bend under his correcting hand, he will never desist till he bend or break them● as himself saith to the jews i Lovis. 26.21. If ye walk stubbornly against me I will walk stubbornly against you and plague you yet seven times more for your sins, etc. Most lively doth the Prophet A●●● express this, k Amos 4.6.12. I have sent you cleanness of teeth, mill-dewes, yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord: therefore this will I do unto thee, and because I will do this, prepare to meet thy God O Israel. Seeing therefore these symptoms and characters of Gods fearful indignation, are upon us, even upon this miserable Island, what cause have we to cry out with the Prophet, l Psal. 77.7.8.9. will thine anger never cease? hast thou forgotten to be merciful? hast thou shut up thy mercies in displeasure? And to pray convert us unto thee, and show to us thy joyful face, and then we shall be safe: to observe that which the Lord calls upon us for, by joel: if we would have n ●oel 2.13.14. the Lord return and leave a blessing behind him, to sanctifle a fast, and humble ourselves before our God: as also you that are Magistrates, to labour to stay this wrath of God by the severe execution of justice upon malefactors, that keep and maintain Fairs and Markets upon the Sabaoth, upon drunkards, swearers adulterers, as o Num. 25.7 Phineas did upon Zimri and Cosbi, which stayed the plague. Lastly, let all of us, after the example of the King of p jonuh 3.5. Ninive, to turn from our evil ways; ye natives from your Idolatry, superstition, theft, ignorance and oaths; and ye English from your profaneness, drunkenness, lukewarmness, and all other sins, and let all cry mightily to God, that he will be pleased to accept the blood of his Son to pacific his indignation towards us, that we may be delivered, q ●ach. 1.11. Command. 3. as Ierusale●● out of the captivity. 2. Signs of God's anger to particular persons are 1. Spiritual plagues upon his soul, the bottom and dregs of the vials of the indignation and wrath of the Almighty, and the forerunners of his eternal vengeance, as blindness of mind, deadness of spirit, hardness of heart, a benumbed conscience, a punishing of sin with sin, a reprobate mind, and such like. 2. If a man find himself directly under the menaces and threats of Gods eternal truth, as swearing, Command. 3. commandment the third: and that which the Lord speaks dreadfully, r Deut. 2●. 5● If thou wilt not fear this glorious Name the Lord thy God, I will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plague● of thy seed, etc. lukewarmness in profession, s Apoc. 3 15. which the Lord will vomit as a loathsome thing out of his mouth, as he speaks to Laodicea. Again t M●l. 1.8. to offer to God the haut, blind, and lame in his service, to perform the holy duties of his blessed worship, as prayer etc. perfunctarily without all life and affection; & sinally, all that live in such sins contained in any of those catalogues which the Scriptures denounce vengeance upon, as u 1 Cor. 6.9 be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor adulterers, murderers, nor drunkards etc. shall inherit the Kingdom of God. 3. If a man feel not himself bettered by his afflictions and crosses, so as there is in them a curse, and God fight against him in them, either in the disquieting and vexing his soul, or else in the hardness of his heart that as Elihu speaks, he w job 36.13 calls not when the Lord bindeth him, it is a fearful sign of wrath, & that increased & enlarged upon him. 4. If a man bless himself when God curseth him in the threatenings of his Law, and say as the Lord speaks, (x) I shall do we● enough though I walk after the stubbornness of mine own heart, thus adding drunkenness to thirst, he meets with the world's common plea, God is merciful, etc. the Lord answers, he mill not be merciful to that man, but his wrath and jealousy shall smoke against him, and that he will heap upon him every curse, and every plague written in the book of the Law till he be destroyed. 5. If a man have not the characters, marks and symptoms of an Adopted child of God upon his soul; for, whom God love's, he doth indelibly y Ezech. 9.3.4. mark with certain graces, as faith, love, godly sorrow, repentance, and such like; which, if upon examination, and through trial, he cannot find he hath cause to fear and tremble, and in the want of them to mourn with godly sorrow, & never give over until the Lord answer his soul by the witness of the spirit of Adoption. Oh brethren, ponder and consider these things, and God give you understanding & grace to find all these branches of holy sorrow in your souls, that so you may be assured of a plentiful crop and harvest of joy here, and glory afterward: and so I proceed to the third sign of this sacred and holy grace. 3. Remarkable sign & symptom of this sound godly sorrow is, when it passeth not the limits, extent and bounds, which God in his eternal truth hath set it, which if it do, it becomes sinful and evil for it is with this grace as with the moral virtues, which must not exceed their medium, the Eternal hath bounded it as the sea, by the little sands, as the Prophet speaks, and given commandment as to the Israelites at the giving of the Law upon mount Sinai, beyond which if they presumed, it a Exo. 19.12 was death. Now it exceeds and passeth limits two ways: 1. When it exceeds in time, that men lie under it not only night, and days, but months and years, yea ten, twenty years, as I have known some, it is a plain sign, that howsoever GOD offended is the object of their sorrow, yet it is his justice which their eyes behold, and legal sorrow at the fairest, & self-love is the main wheel which sets this sorrow on work, the sense of his fearful wrath, like the roaring of the Lion, makes them tremble, if they could make their part good against him, they would never shed a tear, or be perplexed in their spirits: Or if not so, yet in some it is want of instruction or knowledge of this grace, and how to carry themselves, which if they did, their comfort would be both special and speedy, as the Psalmist speaks, b Psal. 30.5. Sorrow over night, but joy comn●●●h in the morning, and they should fear if they find it not. And no matuaile though some of God's servants miss of this right sorrow, when as such an experienced soldier as David miss of it, and was filled with roar and perplexity, with a roaring sorrow, which was not joined with so much as particular confession of that special sin that perplexed and troubled his poor soul; but when he had recalled his thoughts, & plucked up his spirits, resolving upon the rightsorrow, be confessed his sin to the c Psal. 32.5. Lord, and presently found consolation; for your sakes therefore that travail under the burden of your sins, and find no rest, nor know how to set your souls in a way to true comfort, I have undertaken the labour to lay before your sight this open way, to turn you from all those waters of d Num. 35.9 Marah, into Elim, from bitterness, to sweet fountains of water, to satisfy your thirsty souls: me thinks I see in that sacred Emblem of the Lord, comparing the sorrow of the godly, to the sorrow of a e I●r. 6.24. woman in travail, alively description of this grace. Tribulation apprehends us, as of a woman bringing forth: And to the same purpose speaks the Lord by the Prophet Isaiah, As a woman with child nee●e her travail is vexed and cryeth, so have f Is. 26.17. we been before thy face jehovah; and the sorrow of the godly (if the right sorrow) is like it: 1. Nor only in the extremity and bitterness of it for the time, but 2. that as the one and the other tend to a birth: 3. There is in both hope of deliverance, and therefore even in that extremity there is some joy mi●●t with the sharpness of the sorrow's, faith sets the heart on work to expect better, nay there is in both an expectation of fruit, and therefore of necessity there must be joy in the midst of the sorrow. 4. It is but short in either which ou● blessed Saviour confirms. A g joh. 16.21. woman when she● brings forth, hath sorrow because her hour is come; but when she is delivered, she remembers not the sorrow for joy that a man child is born● & our Lord applies this, so are you now in sorrow, but your heart shall rejoice, observe then thy sorrow for the time and continuance, if it be long, suspect it. 2. It passeth the limits when it exceeds in measure, now it passeth measure: 1. When it unfits the body or soul for the duties either of our general or particular callings, or from the cheerful & lively performance of them, both which, the Eternal God requires at the hands of his people; he required in the Law, not dead, but living sacrifices, the dead were abomination to him, and he blamed hi● people for their uncheerefulnes in his service, and threatens them for it: h Deut. 28.47.48. Because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with cheerfulness and a glad heart in the abundance of all things, thou shalt serve thine enemies in hunger and thirst, and in want of all things, and I will put an iron yoke upon thy neck, etc. Let men observe their sorrows, do they deter and keep them back, either from hearing the Word, Sacraments, Prayer, etc. or from a cheerful performance of them? they are then from the Devil, and not from GOD: yea if they do not further them in all these & draw them nearer unto GOD, beware of such sorrows, and avoid them; so also may I say of duties to our brethren, GOD love's a cheerful giver, & as of alms, so all other duties of charity to our neighbour, visiting the afflicted, comforting the dejected spirit, and such like. But alas, what will become them of worlds of sorrows, which are upon men that refuse the House of GOD, and do as it were excommunicate themselues not only from the power of God's ordinances, but even from the use of the ministry of the Word, Sacraments, and Prayer, though it may be they use some private helps, which yet it is to be feared few do. It is also dangerous when sorrow unfits men from family duties, as reading the Word, instruction of children, and servants, and prayer, or the more private duties, as secret examination, confession of sins, secret supplications, thanksgiving, meditation, conference, or renewing of covenants with GOD; and lastly, if it hinder and keep men or women from conjugal duties, or to abhor or sequester us from the use of meats & drinks necessary to the sustentation of nature, by which the body is unfit to perform his necessary service to GOD our neighbour, and the soul. Lastly, when i● keeps men from the duties of their special callings, to the detriment and hurt of the wife, children, and family, which is an ordinary fault of young professors in mine own observation, any of these are ill signs of a bastard sorrow, and not of the true spiritual gracious sorrow, which hath the sacred promise of the Immortal GOD to end in f Ps 126. 5.● joy,. and therefore beware of it. 2. It passeth his limits & measure, wh●n it makes men forget consolation, and drives all joy out of the heart, even for the time; for these being both graces of God's Spirit, and are not like sire and water, exhalations and vapours, but they conserve and preserve each other, yea increase one another. Grief even for sin must not swallow us up & overwhelm us, the Apostle would have the incestuous Corinth comforted, ● Cor. 2.7. when humbled, lest he should be swallowed up of overmuch heaviness. It must not cause us to forget the consolation, which speaks to us m Neh. 12.5. as Children, nor cause us break or violate the charge which GOD gives; n Phil. 4, 4. Rejoice always, again I say rejoice: so that howsoever it is true, that earnall sorrow and joy can not be in the heart at one ●nne, yet spiritual joy and sorrow may and must, though in divers respects: this made the Apostles Paul and o Acts 16.25. Doctor Ridly john Baynam M. Glover Sylas. sing in prison, and the Martyrs to go to the stake as to a feast, and account it as their marriage, to sing in the flames as in a bed of down, clap their hands with joy in the sense of Christ's presence, and even in their sorrow for special sins, there is cause of joy, for Faith persuades the heart of the remission and pardon of them, & the pacification of God's wrath, and so appeaseth and quieteth the cry and blustering of the conscience. If this be true, what shall we say of the sorrow of such as will not hear of any consolation, to whom I may say with job, Seem the consolations of God small unto thee, or though they seem not little in their eyes, yet they refuse all comfort, and turn off the promises as if they pertained not to them, I am tenderly affected in my judgement, as also in my affections towards such as are in sits of temptation, desertion and melancholy, yet this I say, their grief is not right, and therefore let them be advised, & look that the object be true which is God offended and 〈◊〉 ve for himself, without which they torment and vex themselves all their lives, and find little comfort, for whom my daily prayers shall be, that our most loving and gracious Father even the God of all comfort will vouchsafe unto them the Spirit of illumination, of saith and consolation. Thus of the third sign. 4. Vbi 〈◊〉 detor, desici● p●ni●●tia. August. de vera p●●it. cap. 13. Symptom of this godly sorrow is the continuance of it, it's never dried up or is totally extinct in the heart, so saith Augustine, Where sorrow ceaseth repentance ceaseth, to the which also the speech of Paul is pregnant, q 2 Cor. 7.10 Godly sorrow causeth repentance never to be repent of, and this will appear evidently by these reasons. 1. Reason. The examples of God's servants in the sacred history, as of of job, r job 4.6. Therefore I abhor myself in dust and ashes, s Psal. 6.2.3.32 3.51.1. etc. David is oft and wonderful in this, as appears in all his penitentials, josiah when he heard the Book of the Law t 2 King. ●●. 11.12.13. Rend his clothes, & his heart also wept & sent to Huldah the prophetess to inquire of the Lord for himself & his people: u Mar. 1●. 7●. Peter when his Master looked upon him with the eye of his blessed compastion went out saith the text and wept bitterly: And Paul, all these were persons truly converted, and yet this grace of godly sorrow was never extinct or abolished in them. 2. This true spiritual gracious godly sorrow is never wanting wholly, because the cause thereof which is sin, never ceaseth: but so long as we carry about us these earthly tabernacles, and bodies of flesh, we also must of necessity carry with it a body of sin and corrupt on which will cause us also cry out with the Apostle, w Rom. 7. 1● O wretched man that I am. 3. Because the root and branch of which it immediately springs, is faith and love, neither of which is ever deficient in this life, therefore the fruit also is indeficient, and reneweth oft: yea even upon all occasions, and therefore such persons as flatter themselves in their first sorrow, at their seeming conversion, and never feel any operation thereof afterward, but give themselves to security, yea though they fall into horrible gross sins that justly occasion a large measure of renewed humiliation, and yet can bear it out and be pleasant, are to consider that temporary faith hath legal sorrow, and deep wounding of the heart by the law, but after they once receive some seeming comfort by the promises, they grow jocund and merry, and put off all with a conceit of that first humiliation; but let all flesh know and tremble before God when they bring their hearts upon the anvil of through examination, and find not this blessed grace of humiliation continue, it was never sound, nor had they ever that true joy which is the blessed immediate fruit thereof. To these I might add, that repentance is a continued act all a man's life, and without it no hope of remission of sins, and this repentance springs x 2. Cor. 7.9. from godly sorrow, and lastly God hath in his wisdom appointed, that the true believers should not only as y 2. King 5. 3● Naaman the Assyrian wash in jordan seven times for the cleansing of his jeprosie, but sin is such a renewing leprosy that requires washing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all a man's life; and this is one of those duties of mortification, even those chrystaline streams and fountains that the eternal hath in his wisdom appointed us to wash in, for our cleansing, and there is not a man upon earth hath ever had, or shall have, any true comfort in the assurance of remission and pardon of any one known sin, which he doth not bewail with godly sorrow, confess particularly, and privately to God, and pray, yea beg, importune, and cry unto God, for remission as for life & death, let the blind world, doting hypocrite, or carnal Protestant, think or speak what they will to the contrary. 5. True godly sorrow as it gins in God and hath his blessed Majesty the Author of it being a plant of his sacred planting, and a supernatural grace & gift of his spirit, I may say of it as Solomon of the waters. z Eccles. they all come from the Sea by the influence & operation of the Sun, so they all go to the sea again: So this godly sorrow wheels about and ends in God, and not only leads to God as the sorrow of the a Luk. 15.17 Prodigal when he came to himself for he was mad and out of his wits before (as every unregenerate man is) forced him to go to his Father with tears in his eyes, repentance in his heart, & confession in his mouth. I will go to my father, & say, Father I have sinned against heaven & before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son, etc. but also ends in God, and goes not away without the sense of his love, and the consolation of the spirit and joy of salvation, as in the example of b Psal. 32. David, josiah, and others of Gods, servants which is true joy & comfort indeed, as David speaks to the Courtiers of Saul, wherein he professeth if it pleased God but to lift up the light of his countenance upon him, he should have more delight than the world when their c Ps. 4.6.7. Corn, and wine, and oil did abound. This was the loose and farewell of the sorrow of that worthy d 1. Sam. 1.7. Hanna, when she was vexed by Peninah, she fasted and wept: but faith persuading her heart that God would grant her request she wet her way (saith the text) eat and drank, and looked no more sad: And this is the ordinary end of the sorrow of the godly, if right; But when sorrow departs with the ceasing of pain; or increase of outward things, or if men drive out sorrow with feasting, merry company and such like, it hath an ill end, and is not from God, but from the Devil, and corrupted and depraved nature. 6. Finally the Apostle Paul to the Corinth's hath seven several signs or notes of this godly sorrow, the first whereof in our ordinary translation is care, others have it study, Montanus addeth in the margin solicitudo a restless care or diligence, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or study in the mind how to walk so as we may be pleasing and acceptable unto God; and that in these two things especially: 1. In that which is our main errand for which we were borne and came into this world, and wherein the chief and principal honour we possibly can give unto our Creator consists, as Peter speaketh: f 2. Pet. 1.10 Give diligence to make your calling and election sure, that is, study with all diligence to make your calling sure, and then ye make your election sure, Armilla aurea. for these graces are like a golden chain, that one link depends upon another, & are never segregated or divided, he that hath one, hath all, and to this purpose speaks the Author to the Hebrews: g Hebr. 4.11. Let us therefore study, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather study with all haste and importunity to enter into that rest, etc. So that this grace of godly sorrow or remorse for sin, quickeneth up the heart to a wonderful serious & sedulous diligent care about the assurance and evidence of God's favour in the remission & forgiveness of sins, and all other graces of the Spirit, and assuredly I have in my poor observation seen this seldom or never fail, or such a person seldom or never to fall back again; whereas such as have been industrious about speculations chronoligies, genealogies, & such like, but not intended that special main point, have seldom continued, and therefore let every child of God lay up this, as a special remarkable note: 2. Our study and solicitous care must be so to live as beseems such mercies and favours, as our gracious Father hath vouchsased to bestow upon us in giving us so much and forgiving so infinite a debt, h Ps. 119.15 we must aim at God's Commandments as a●a mark, and as the Apostle saith, to walk worthy of the Lord and please him in all things, being fruitful in all good works. especially show it in these particulars. 1. Study to walk with God in the sense of his blessed presence, so knowing and being affected with his love as we forget not his sacred presence, as the Lord commands Abraham, i Gene. 17.1. walk before me & be upright. Object. I but may the poor humbled sinner say, I have such a corrupt, wand'ring, unmortified heart, as I cannot bring it to this pass? Answ. Micha 6 8. Learn and practise that advice which the Lord adviseth by the Prophet, Hamble thyself before him, to get a better ability and power to walk with thy God, for godly sorrow with fasting and prayer will get it, or nothing will. 2. Set the law of God always before thee as the only perfect rule of all thy actions, as David, this is to be upright in our way, & to walk in the Law of the Lord which makes a man a blessed man: Psal. 119.1. as for those that walk by crooked and by paths will the Lord lead with the workers of iniquity, but peace shall be upon Israel. 3. Observe the motions and stir of God's spirit within thy soul to any good, else the spirit will be grieved within thee, which by no means thou mayst do, for that is against the Apostles charge: Ephes. 4.30. Grieve not the holy Spirit of God by which ye are sealed up to the day of redemption: But in any case and by all means be careful to obey the motions thereof, and that without reasonings against it, or delays which are dangerous, but with all readiness, speed and cheerfulness, this is to walk after the spirit, Gal. 5.25. and not after the flesh: to revive the spirit and not to quench it. Rom. 8.1. 4. To excel all civil and honest men and hypocrites in this, that we carry a careful eye and respect to all God's Commandments, 1. Thes. 5.19. which will assure us of safety, then shall I not be confounded when I have respect to all thy Commandments, and we shall live according to the wish and desire of GOD himself: Oh that there were such an heart in this people that they might fear me and keep all my Commandments always that it might go well with them and with their children after them: Psal. 119. Deut. 5.29. So that to make conscience of every sin; by prayer and the practice of all the duties of mortification, to avoid it, and also to obey God both in our souls and bodies, & that in every part and faculitie of both, and that all our days, so would it go well with us, and we should lay up a good inheritance for our children after us. 5. We should so admire God's love, Ps. 1 16.8.9.12 in delivering our souls from death; our eyes from tears and our feet from falling, that we seek the face of God in the light of the living, and never to come empty handed, but to study with the kingly Prophet David, Ps. 56.12.13. what to render to the Lord for all his mercies, & so let Gods vows be upon us, and we should ever be rendering praise, which is our best sacrifice, yea all we can retribute to him again. 6. And the second of the seven which the Apostle hath, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is defence or apology even the stipulation of a quiet good conscience which maketh request to God, 1. Pet. 3.21 for it is the proper work of a quiet good conscience to make Apology or excuse us before GOD: whence ariseth tranquillity of mind, which the Apostle calleth the peace of God which passeth all understanding, Phil. 4.7. which he prayeth may possess the Philippians minds in Christ jesus: This is a blessing peculiar to God's people, that have it washed by faith in the blood of Christ, and in the laver of mortification, for this can proceed from no perfection in man; true it is that Adam's conscience in his integrity, did excuse him before God, because there was nothing in him blameworthy, but since the depraved estate of man by the fall, no man's conscience can excuse him. For besides those palpable sins of commission and omission, whereunto each man's conscience is privy, is there a man living whose conscience can excuse him in the best works that ever he did? may not all flesh cry out with the Church? Isay. 64.6. is not all our righteousness as filthy and menstruous cloa●hes, Ps. 43.2. etc. and with the Psalmist, Enter not into judgement with thy servant, for in thy sight shall none living be justified. And did not the Eternal appoint A aron to offer sacrifice for the sins of the offerings of the children of Israel? but faith assuring the heart and conscience of remission of sins, & the pacification of the wrath of God justly conceived against us for them, breeds love, love works godly sorrow, which is a sweet witness of God's love to us, and so quieteth the conscience. Obi. It may be objected, that many wicked men's consciences lie quiet? Answ. There is in man, a quiet good conscience, and a quiet ill conscience, which is improperly said to be quiet, but only seemeth to be quiet, yet is it but for a time, which if it be once awaked and roused up either by the law, afflictions, or judgements of God, it will rage and storm like a fell dragon, tiger, or fierce cruel lion or mad dog, as did the consciences of Kaim, A chicophel, and judas: Mat. 27.5. The reasons why the consciences of the most wicked men lie quiet and still, and that in the most till death, are 1. Ignorance, as did Paul's conscience, he thought he did GOD service in persecuting the Saints, and that be aught to do many contrary things against the Name of jesus: it was the ignorance of his conscience which was the cause of his unfeelingnes. 2. Impurity, for the conscience is defiled, and so defileth the actions, and makes them unclean, as Paul saith, Tit. 1.15. to the impure and unbelieving, nothing is pure, for even their minds & coösciences are defiled: and how can the conscience do his office being thus defiled? 3. In constant, because ungrounded, and so is carried and hurried hither and thither upon every supposition. 4. Deceitful, having lost the plainness and innocency which it had by creation, and is restored to the true believer by Christ, 2 Cor. 1.12. which Paul rejoiced in, and doth now nothing but juggle, foist, and deceive. 5. Injustice, so that in judging it determines against the truth, against God, and against the salvation of the soul: a woeful condition, 6. Lastly, through ill usage 〈◊〉 hath lost his tenderness; for when it hath cried oft times, it hath not been heard, or not regarded, or that which is worse, snibbed, buffeted, and beaten, and so resolved to admonish no more; but as a scholar, apprentice, or servant, continually hained at, buffeted and beaten, grows desperate, so is it with the conscience; that it is like that which Paul speaks of those ancient Heretics, which had their conscience feared with a hot i●oo. 1 Tim. 4.2. Quest. How comes the conscience to make Apology, or to excuse us from godly sorrow? Answ. The conscience being delivered from darkness, the Son of God inhabiting it, and bringing light into it, is able to discern what the soul hath performed, that which is commanded by God on his parn, and the promise and covenant made by the Highest on his part, by which he hath obliged himself to be propitious and favourable, yea to give comfort and joy: Blessed are they that mourn, Mat. 5.4. Psal: 26.6. for they shall be comforted, and they that sow in tears, shall reap in joy, causeth the heart to rest upon the promises with an holy security. 2. The Almighty hath appointed, as all the duties of mortification to be special means of this in particular, to mundify and cleanse the conscience from that impurity and uncleanness which naturally is upon it, that a man is able to say with boldness, as Paul, Act. 23.1. I have in all good conscience served God until this day: and so a great care in all things to do uprightly. 3. Being thus cleansed and purified, it hath in it that plainness, innocency, simplicity, and harmlessness, which the Apostle speaks of, 2 Cor. 1.12. Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that is, simplicity and godly pureness, etc. we have had our conversation in the world, etc. 4. Which brings forth in the conscience a divine, sentence, so as in determining it judgeth for God, and as God, according to the sacred Canon of his everlasting word: and so 5. Constancy, and a kind of habitual peace & tranquillity, so as no power of man or Devil can compel or shake it, as job saith, job 27.6. I will keep my righteousness, & will not forsake it, my heart also shall not reprove me of my days: 6. And so becomes a continual refreshing, yea as Solomon saith, Treu. 15.15 a good conscience is a continual feast: it will dwell with him, be with him at bed and board, ride with him, be a sweet companion with him when he is alone, comfort him in his most uncomfortable afflictions, like a loving faithful wife that no changes or alterations can transmutate her affectionate heart from her dearest beloved husband, so is it with this blessed guest, a quiet good conscience arising from the sense of our reconciliation with God, will make apology or defence for us against the world & Devil, in all times, places, companies etc. Thus have I according to my poor talon, opened and unfolded this point of godly sorrow, which is one of the greatest paradoxes in all practical Divinity, with as much plainness and perspicuity as possibly I can, if I should further proceed as I have begun in the other five signs & notes of Godly sorrow, 2 Cor. 7.11. which the Apostle Paul hath set down in the Corinth's, I should be tedious & therefore there being amongst Divines no difference about the interpretation of them, I referr● thee to the blessed labours of tha● Divine Master Caluin, Caluines' institut. Commentariis in 2 Cor. 7.11. Sermon of repentance. as also tha● worthy Master Arthure Deu● who do particularly handle th● only a word or two by way o● exhortation or use. 1. Here is a sound ground o● consolation and comfort for a●● true humbled souls, if it be tru● godly sorrow, they may say with job, After darkness I shall see light, this sense of misery shall bring me to the sweet sense of mercy this sorrow may last for a night but joy shall come in the morning, after two days he will remove us, and the third we shall live in his sight; and as the Prophet Hosea, Hos. 6.2. I know this hand which is heavy upon me, is under my head, to bring me light out of this darkness, & life out of that which for the present is more bitter than death itself. 2. It reproves the most part of men; first, multitudes think it an easy matter to be saved, & that there needs not so much ado, that a few light sighs, and Lord have mercy upon us, a little before, or at the last gasp, is sufficient; & some say also, they thank God their sins never troubled them, whereas it is certain, that never man went to Heaven, but with great difficulty, and therefore our Saviour being asked, if many should be saved? answered: Strive to enter in at the straight gate, for many shall strive, & shall not be able to enter. Never yet man went to Heaven, but sailed by hell, nor ever shall; & they that never felt yet the smart of sin, shall one day find, and that to their cost and misery, that there is the more behind. 3. Many weep & howl for their sins, & yet poor souls, are easeless and remediless, because they are not directed to the right sorrow, & so spend weeks, months, and years, but never the better, the smart remains, & the gashes and wounds made by the Devil and corruption not cured, but the heart left comfortless still, & for such this Treatise is useful, to lead them to the sweet fountains of Elim, Numb. 33. that they drinking of them, may satisfy their thirsty souls, and live for ever. 4. This reproves all flesh, whose hearts are set upon foolish & mad laughter & merriment, drinking, carousing, banqueting, jesting, and such like, and think all the world fools but themselves and such as they are, which cast firebrands, pole-axes, swords and spears at the eyes & faces of each other, saying, am I not in jest, as Solomon speaks: Deut 32.29. Oh that they would be wise, then would they understand, than would they consider their latter end. Oh that these men would but take the advice which God gave to his own beloved people, even to consider what will become of all this foolish, wicked, abominable, sinful mirth, & whether it will hold out and comfort them upon their sick beds, or before the Almighty's Tribunal, as also our blessed Saviour, the wisdom of the Father, calls them from this mirth and jollity, & curseth them if they continue in it, w●e be to you which now laugh, Luke 6. for you shall howl & cry; and seeing it is a sealed truth, ratified in Heaven like the Laws of the Medes and Persians, never to be repealed, that either men must mourn here, or be damned, perish and howl etenally hereafter; Let me exhort; yea beseech you in the Name of the Lord jesus, to set on work about this grace speedily and seriously; and the rather, because no time is properly ours but the present, for time past is irrecoverable, not to be recalled by Angels or men, & for time to come, that is not ours, but the Almighty's, who knows the cotinuance of his life, are we not all tenants at will, and therefore delay not, nor procrastinate, if the Lord do length out thy days, thou art not sure of the continuance of the means God now offereth thee in the ministry of the word, the Candlestick may be removed, Apoc. 2.1.4. as GOD threatened the Church of Ephesus: And the Kingdom of Heaven may be taken from thee, or thy heart may grow obdurate & hard, as Pharaohs did, or thou mayst over slip the time of the Lords gracious visitation, & so given up to a reprobate mind, & have that curse set upon thy soul, which Solomon speaks of, Pron. 1. because I have called, & ye have refused, you shall call and cry, & I will not hear you; but I will laugh at your destruction, and mock when your fear cometh: & that which the Prophet Isay speaks of from the Lord: 〈◊〉 6.9 10. Go & say unto this people, ye shall hear indeed, but y●● shall not understand: ye shall see and not perceive: make the heart of this people fat, make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, & understand with their hearts, and convert, & I should heal them. To this purpose speaks the Author to the Hebrews, Heb. 8.6 7. comparing the heart of man to the earth, & the ministry of the word unto the rain & dew from Heaven, if it fall upon a soil, that is not only obnoxious to sterility; but brings forth briers & thorns; it is near unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. So that it is necessary that every man should take the opportunity of the grace of God, & so the Scriptures call upon us to do, seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near, intimating to all flesh, that a man may let slip and pass over the season of mercy and favour: & again, to day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts, as in Meribab, etc. All men observe their times, the Mariner observes the wind & compass, th● husbandman his seasons for seede-time & harvest, all men their Marts, fairs & markets, the season of God's grace, & the tender & offer of Christ & the promises of the Gospel in the ministry of the word, is not always obvious, the wind is not always seasonable, seedtime & harvest is not every season, every day is not the Mart, Fair & market day, there is a time for the coming of the Bridegroom, & if men sleep and be careless, not looking to get oil in their lamps, that is, saving graces, and fruits of faith, their time may be past, Mat. 25. and they lose their souls: there was a time when Esau seeking the birthright with tears, yet could not obtain it: & it is possible that men living under a powerful ministry of the word, and shut their ears against it, resist the motions of the blessed Spirit, and cries of their consciences, that that curse may be set upon that man's soul, (and I verily believe it is upon the souls of many living under the Gospel) which our Saviour set upon the fig tree, Never fruit grow on thee hereafter, because when he looked for fruit he found nothing but leaves: so when God looks upon congregations, & particular persons (living under special, effectual, & powerful ministry) to find good fruit, finds nothing but leaves of formal profession (if that) it is just with his Majesty to curse that congregation & hear: never fruit grow on thee: Never Sermon do thee good but harden thy heart, to thy deeper & mote fearful condemnation, never mercy do thee good; or chastisement, but brawn up thy heart unto further vengeance and wrath, this is the dregs and bottom of the vials of the wrath of God in this world, and where this curse is upon any man's soul, his case is miserable, jerem. 15.1. Ezech. 14.14 & that which our Saviour said, Woe be thee Corazin & Bethsaida, for if the great works which have been done in thee, had been done in Tyrus and Sidon, etc. and it should be easier for Tyrus and Sidon in the day of judgement, then for thee, etc. Yea whole kingdoms, and Churches cases may be dangerous and desperate, that God will hear no prayers for them, no, not of the most righteous men, job, Samuel, Daniel, and that he shall command his Prophets not to pray for them, or if they do he will not hear them. Therefore thou shalt not pray for this people, neither lift up cryor prayer for them, nor entreat me, n jere. 7.16. for I will not hear thee. So that a Church or kingdom that profess Religion may so provoke the eyes of God's glory that their condition may be worse, & more dangerous and desperate than the condition of the Heathen; for concerning them the Lord himself sometimes gives commandment that his people should pray for them. o jerem. 29 7 And seek the prosperity of the City whether I have caused you to be carried away captives, & pray unto the Lord for it. This being so miserable and woeful must of necessity be the condition of many a man, yea of some Churches, the Lord give grace to this Island to consider it, and I conclude this point with the speech of righteous Noah, The Lord persuade japhet to dwell in the Tents of Shem. Thus of the duty. Next of the fruit, benefit or privilege thereof which is strange and wonderful, for the Lord works in matters of grace by contraries in the judgement of flesh & blood, the thoughts of the Lord are not as the thoughts of man, but as the Prophet Isai saith, Isai. 55.9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts. Natural Philosophy, & man's reason teacheth, it is a sure axiom in natural things, that each like begets his like, but in Divinity it is oft as true & certain, that contrary causes beget contrary effects; as life springs out of death, the way to be rich, and to be Kings, yea to enjoy the Kingdom of grace here, & the kingdom of glory hereafter is for men to be poor, as our blessed Saviour saith: q M●●th. ●. 3. john 8. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, Men must serve if they would be free, and touching our point in hand, men must mourn with true godly sorrow if they would be partakers of the consolations of God, and thus run all the promises in Scripture: s Matt●. 5.4 Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted: Again t Psa. 126.5. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy Behold here one of the greatest wonders in the world though no miracle, a Paradox to nature, and incredible to the world, that the only way to a merry blessed life is to mourn, & also that if never any man or woman did, or ever shall, be wail their sins with this true godly sorrow, but it brings forth the pleasant and sweet fruit of joy and divine consolation? If a man should ask a Divine this question, what should I do to be merry when I am sad & heavy? Were it not a strange answer, go mourn and we●pe, and yet it is not more strange than the course our Saviour took with the blind man whom he cured, u john 9, ●. he made clay with spittle and anointed his eyes, in all natural reason a medicine fit to put out the eyes, rather than to procure sight, and yet it cured him: much like the counsel he gave to the rich young man in the Gospel, that propounded that savoury question: Good master what shall I do to enter into life? When he justified himself to have kept the Commandments, bade him if he would be truly rich, Go sell all thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. This is the sacred and wholesome counsel the holy Ghost gives oft to all that would attain to a true sweet, comfortable merry life, forsake & relinquish the profits, and carnal delights, which at the best are but sensual, temporary, or natural, and get thee with that Leprous Assyrian and wash in jordane, get to the sweet laver of mortification, especially this chrystaline fountain of godly sorrow, set before thine eyes God offended and beloved, let thine heart feel the smart of thy sin committed, against a God, not of infinite Majesty splendour and glory only, but of infinite bounty, goodness, graciousness and mercy, who hath not only bestowed and given thee so infinite favours, but also forgiven thee so infinite debts: behold thy blessed Saviour enduring the insupportable wrath of his father, in his agony sweeting drops of water mingled with blood, nailed upon the Cross, shedding his most precious and sacred blood, and crying out, a Matth. 27.46. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me, and all this for thy sins, say to thy soul my sins are the cause of all these indignities, and torments which he endured, it was not so much judas the high Priests or Pilate that thus vexed my dear Saviour, as my sins, they were the traitor, crucifier, and murderer of this blessed Son of God, & assure thyself, yea my soul for thine, the sacred Spirit the comforter will refresh, refocilate and comfort thy poor afflicted heart: this, this is the right way to the fountain of true spiritual consolation, and this is the savoury & wholesome counsel of the spirit of God the only true comforter. Listen not to those Sirens of Rome that advice afflicted consciences to go on pilgrimage to Rome, Gompostella, jerusalem, Croagh-Patricke, saint Swithens-well, or go cruciate and vex thyself with whip, going barefoot, or upon bared knees, or give so much money to such a College, Fraternity, Abbey and such like, of all which I may truly say as the Lord by the Prophet: b jere. 29.5 Who required these things at your hands: Thus did Martin Luther cruciate and vex his soul and body but found no ease, but the pain, torment, and smart of his sin remained still upon him, until he humbled his soul with this sorrow. And as bootless and helpless is the counsel of the world, who when they see a man dumpish and sad, advice him to imitate the practice of cursed Cain to build Cities, etc. and the doctrine of our wicked, jovall, advisers is to drink away such dumpish & mopish heart quames, of all which I may truly say as job said of his friends: Miserable comforters are ye all. Quest. But what is this joy & comfort that is promised to these mourners so oft in the sacred Scriptures, that we may know and desire it? Answ. It is as hard to know and discern this joy, as it is to conceive the sorrow, for nature teacheth it not, but it is supernatural and a special gift of the highest to his elected, and converted children, and those only know what it is which voluntarily seek this godly sorrow, I will answer this question therefore by a distribution as formerly of sorrows, so now of joy into the several kinds until I come at that true joy, and there are three kinds of joy. 1. Natural joys. 2. Unnatural or diabolical. 3. Spiritual. Concerning natural which I call so, because they proceed from nature and natural causes and these are of two sorts. 1. Such are mere natural joys which in themselves are neither good nor evil, but are made good or evil according to the object they are set upon, and the measure not passing their limits and bounds God hath set them which Solomon commends. x Ecel. ●. 15. I praised joy, for there is no goodness under the Sun, save to eat and drink and rejoice: like so y Pro. 15.13 A joyful heart makes a cheer●efull countenance, etc. 2. Some are from nature depraved and corrupted, wherein men become sensual, giving themselves up to Epicurism, totally taken up with the delight of the pleasures of this life, as banqueting, carousing, sports, for which the wise man upbraids and derides the young man, a Eccles. 11.9 Rejoice O young man in thy youth, etc. And job speaketh of these wicked persons, b job. 21.12, 13. that they take the T●bret and Harpe, and rejoice in the sound of the Organs. c Deut. 32.29 They spend their days in wealth & never look up to God, or consider their latter end which would make them wise, but in that estate and condition suddenly They go down to the grave, etc. 2. Unnatural or devilish joys and they are of two sorts. 1. More apert. 2. More secret. 1. Those that are more express and plain are of two sorts. 1. To joy in sin, either our own sins as Sal●mon saith, The fool that is the wicked man, makes but a sport of sin, or else to rejoice in the evils of others, & the sins of the times which we ought to mourn for, and bewail with inward and hearty grief. 2. It is a diabolical and devilish joy to rejoice in the misery and calamity of the Church of God, this is a grievous sin, for which the Lord threatened d Ezech. 25.5, 6. Rabbah, that it should be a ●welling place for Camels, and the Ammonites a sheepcoat, even because they rejoiced in heart, clapped their hands at the fall of the people of God. 2. Those which are more secret and hard to be discerned are of two kinds. 1. When as through impatience, shortness of spirit, and diffidence in sharp and tedious afflictions, they are weary of their lives, & though they fear to lay violent hands upon themselves, yet would be glad (a sin against nature) that any would deprive them of life, of which job speaks, e job. 3.21.22 They long for death, and if it come not: they would even search it more than treasures which joy for gladness, and rejoice when they can find the grave. 2. A joy from the illusion of Satan feeding men's security with seeming joy, delighting & ravishing the heart for the time mere conceits without foundation from the sacred Scriptures, from whence all the consolations the spirit of God exhibites are derived. This is a mere presumption which causeth the hypocrite to rejoice when he hath no just cause, he thinks all his seeming graces to be sound and saving, a● faith, love, sorrow, and repentance, when (if he would brin● them to examination & try all) all would be found fare otherwise. Like a beggar that in 〈◊〉 drunken sleep dreams, that h● is noble, possessed of stately Palaces and large revenues, his Ta●ble richly furnished with fat an● pleasant meats and wine in a● boundance, full coffers, plenty of at tendants, and costly apparel, with instruments of music etc. A mere delusion, for when, heawakes, he is base, poor, naked, haroourlesse, hungry, etc. O beioved let us not be deceived by the methodes and stratagems of Satan to trust in vain hopes which will not profit us, as if we were true believers, because sometimes we have either been amazed and terrified for our fins at the prenching of the word, as Felix trembled at Paul's Sermon, and Aheb was troubled at the hearing of Eliah: or because we have sometimes felt great joy in hearing. It is questionless thou mayst either weep, or rejoice at a Sermon and be damned for aught I know, if those be all the marks thou hast of the truth of thy saving graces. For the Scriptures are express and plentiful, that an hypocrite may receive the word with joy, Math 13.20 g Hebr. 6.5. and 10. Tact of the heavenly gift, as a Cook, though not as a guest, have some apprehension of Christ, some sight of the favour of God, some worthy gifts of the holy Ghost, some glimpse of the hope of eternal glory (all which make up his joy.) And yet for all this be but an hypocrite, and fall totally and finally from these graces of the spirit of God, and die under the sin against the holy Ghost, be a reprobate and eternally damned in the end of his life. This is so like and near the consolation & joy that no Ephraimite can distinguish it, no more than h judg. 12.6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shibboleth from Sibboleth, that not two & forty thousand only, but infinite million of souls perish for want of th● knowledge and examination o● the truth of this grace in the● own hearts: and it is certain that no wicked man ever did, o● possibly can know, much less attain this blessed privilege: i Pron. 14.10 The stranger shall not meddle wi●● this joy, this is that k R●ue. 2.17. white sto●● spoken of in the Apocalypse h●ving the new name written whi●●one knoweth but he that receiveth 〈◊〉 3. Spiritual joys, which I call spiritual, because they are celestial, heavenly and supernatural, wrought and exhibited by the spirit of God, and perpetuated by the same blessed spirit for ever, this is a Riddle & Paradox to nature, and therefore as the Church prayed: l Cane. 4.16. arise O North and come O South and blow on my garden that the spices thereof may flow out: So I beseech the most high God to pour upon me the spirit and grace of illumination, and holy affections that I may conceive and be enabled to unfold & make plain this sacred blessing to the understanding of the simplest, that their souls may partake thereof. Spiritual joys are of two sorts. 1. In this life. 2. In the life to come. Those in this life are of two sorts. 1. The one a duty. 2. The other a grace. 1. That which is a duty, is that which man brings & aught to bring unto God, as his commandment, the want whereof the Lord threatens to punish and plague in his own people: a Deut. 28.47. Because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with cheerfulness and a glad heart in the abundance of all things, therefore thou shalt serve thine enemies in hunger and thirst, and nakedness & want of all things, etc. This duty is requisite & necessary in each particular service or worship which any man performs to God or duty of righteousness or love and charity either to the good, or evil, and I doubt not but this also springs from, and is much furthered by Evangelicall and godly sorrow, but yet it is not that which is my purpose to speak of and insist upon. 2. Is a grace which God gives to man as a testimony and symptom of his acceptance of our humiliation and godly sorrow, and the Lord not only commandeth his servants to rejoice: b Phil. 4.4 Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice: c Zeph. 3.1 Rejoice O daughter Zion, be ye joyful O Israel: be glad & rejoice with all thine heart: O daughter of jerusalem. So doth David enjoin spiritual rejoicing to all upright hearted, d Psal. 32.11 & riseth by three degrees as appears in the Original. 1. Shimon of Shamac. Be glad signifying inward and hearty joy conceived by the presence or hope of some beloved and defirable good. 2. Gilae of Gil. Hormina of R●●●n. Rejoice o● express the joy by some outward gesture, sometimes used for dancing. 3. Be joyful: or shout for joy, thus I say not only God commands his people to rejoice, & commands his Ambassadors to comfort them: e Is. 40.1.2 Speak comfortably to jerusalem, etc. but also the gracious & mighty Lord is obliged & bound by promise to give them special joy and gladness as a special prerogative and privilege. For besides that the Gospel in general is the doctrine of glad tidings, there are particular and special promises for joy f Isay 51.3. Surely the Lord shall comfort Zion, he shall comfort all her desolations, & shall make her desert like Eden, and her wilderness like the garden of the Lord, joy and gladness shall he found therein, ●● Isay 65.14 praise and the voice of singing. Again: g jere. 31.12 My servants shall sing for joy of heart, and ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, etc. And as the Lord binds himself in general to exhibit & give joy to all his servants, so more specially to those that mourn doth he not only promise joy: but also to perpetuate their joy: h joh. 6.22. And yet now therefore are in sorrow, but I will see you again, and your hearts shall rejoice, and your joy shall no man take from you: i Math. 5.4. Blessed art they that mourn, for they shall be comforted: k Psal. 36.5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Again, sorrow over night but joy in the morning. Quest. Wherein doth this promised joy of these mourners consist? And this question is necessary both to be propounded and answered. 1. In respect of the world; who object and say, they can see neither such joy, or cause of joy in these Professors. 2. In respect of many poor weak believers themselves, who are either in the bud and nonage of their conversion, or in some fit of temptation and desertion, and so are not sensible thereof. Answ. Their joy ariseth two ways: 1. Internally. 2. Externally. 1. Internal is twofold: 1. in things present. 2. In things to come. 1. In things present, and that in seven particulars: 1. They have the presence of God like the Sun to refresh them The Lord a E●ph. 3.15 Ps. 84.11. hath taken away thy judgements, he hath cast out thine enemy; the King of Israel, even the Lord is in the midst of thee, thou shalt see no more evil. To this purpose speaks David, that God shall give them drink out of the rivers of his pleasures. God is in the midst of his people by his special presence b Ps. 36.7.8 not of his essence, but of his grace, & is the same to them, & is more excellent than the Sun is to the creatures, or the rivers & pleasane streams to the thirfly: the vision of God is the greatest felicity of the Saints in Heaven, albeit their great excellency and glory, and the presence & vision of God by faith in the state of grace, is the believers special happiness & felicity, even Heaven upon earth, this the miserable mole-eyed world understands nor sees not. 2. ●h. 14.16. They have in them the Spirit of God, even him that is called the Comfort, whom our Saviour prayeth may abide with them for ever, which no unregenerate man hath, or ever had, & this Spirit of God is an everlasting spring of spiritual and heavenly joy, sweetening & refreshing the soul two ways: 1. In the testimony of the Spirit, juke 10.20. that our names are written in the Book of life, wherein our blessed Saviour hath bidden us rejoice, rather than that the Devils are subjected to us, and this joy by the testimony of the Apostle Peter is (e) unspeakable and glorious, he is the great Comforter of his Church. 2. The graces of the Spirit are full of heavenly delight to be assured, that a man hath received them effectually and savingly. Faith hath a special sweetness & pleasant joy, and therefore called the joy of faith, Phil. 1.25. yea the Apostle saith, it hath a power that reacheth to the consolation each of other, I long to see you, Rom 1.12. that I may be comforted by our mutual saith. And if temporary faith hath such joy, much more justifying & saving faith. So hath hope also his pleasure & delight in the expectation of the promises of this life, Rom. 12.12. and the pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore. 3. They have joy in the contemplation & meditation of the miseries they are freed and delivered from, as the wrath of God the power of death, hell sin, the grave, the devil, that the sting of a 1 Pet. 1.8. all their enemies is taken out, and that they can behold them as vanquished foes and adversaries, have they not much more cause to leap and shout for joy, ●●od. 15. than Moses; Aaron, and Miriam, & the people to take the timbrel, and to dance at their deliverance from Pharaoh & his host; no wonder then though there is heard in all their Tabernacles and houses the voice of melody, Psalms, and thanksgiving. 4. They have assured knowledge of a right to all God's promises to comfort them, 2 Pet. 1.3.4 by which they are made partakers of the divine nature. This is a sweet fountain, out of which they draw waters of refresh and joy. 5. As there is great joy in the assurance and first evidence of the saving graces of God's Spirit planted & settled in the heart, so to see them bud, sprout & spring, as men in the spring-time delight & solace themselves in beholding the seeds to spring, and buds to ●ut outin the several plants, especially considering our Lord jesus delights to come into the gardens to walk there to delight himself in beholding the sweet & blessed growth in graces & holy duties, and hence ariseth joy even in afflictions for the name, & in the honour of Christ, as in all the Martyrs, & the Saints, Heb. 10.34. who suffered with joy the spoiling of their goods. As also to see the weeds of sin to be over-mastred, and rooted out thereby. 6. In the testimony of a good conscience, which is (as Solomon saith, a continual feast: o Cor. 1.12. having witness that in simplicity and godly pureness, and not in fleshly wisdom, he hath conversed. That a man hath not moiled, & all be smeared and durtied himself & the conscience in lusts and pleasures, but hath maintained a blessed combat, and cherished the pant, breathe, and longing desires of the Spirit, against the cursed lusts and corruption of the flesh: As also in the favour of God, reconciled by Christ, the conscience testifying this atonement, Rom. 5.11. the soul● is at quiet peace and repose in his love, as the child in the mother's lap or father's arms. 7. In jesus Christ who is in g 2 Cor. 5.17. us by faith, h Gal. 2.20. liveth, & i Eph. 3.17. dwells in us; & so as Paul say the we worship God in the Spirit, k Phil. 3.3. and rejoice in jesus Christ. The wise Merchant takes more pleasure in the pearl, then in all his estate beside. Phil. 3.8. And the Apostle accounts all but loss & dung in comparison of Christ: Zaccheus received Christ joyfully, not into his house only, but into his heart especially: And it is not possible to be otherwise for the faithful soul being the sweet and beloved Spouse of jesus Christ, should estimate, or delight in any thing in the world above, or comparable to her amiable & beloved Head and loving husband. 2. 〈◊〉 Rom 12.12 For time to come, they find much joy in the hope & expectation of that joy & glory which they shall enjoy in Heaven, in the mercy and salvation of God, as David saith, Psal. 13.5. I trust in thy mercy mine heart shall rejoice in thy salvation: In that presence of glory where the Lord shallbe more than a Sun to refresh & revive them, Ps. 84.11. and more than a shield to defend them. Thus of the internal means or well springs of heavenly joys. 2. Externall, or from without, and that in three particulars: 1. In the Word & blessed ordinances of God●; for the Word, Ps. 11●. David esteemed and delighted in it more than in his appointed food, & pathetically cries out O how love I thy Law, it is my meditation continually. It is a character & true undoubted mark of such as fear God, that they have great delight in his commandments. Ps. 11●. ●. In the Word are described & delineated the ways of wisdom, & the invaluable pleasures & treasures thereof, which make a man, possessing her truly happy. Pro. 3.13.18 Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom, and getteth understanding: for the merchandise thereof are better than the merchandise of silver, & the gain thereof better than gold: length of days are in her right hand, & in her left hand riches & glory: her ways are ways of pleasure, & all her paths prosperity: she is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her, and blessed is he that retaineth her. The Gospel is a deep & sweet fountain of precious promises, Rom. 15.4. & the Spirit worketh consolation by the Scriptures. There is the joyful tidings of salvation, the blessed doctrine and assurance of free remission of sins, & our full justification, by the redemption of jesus Christ, published and proclaimed; there are the pleasures of God's House, there is food for the children of the most High and great King, to nourish them up to eternal life; this they desire, 1 Pet. 2.2. as infants cloth them with tissue or cloth of gold, bespangle them with the most Orient pearls that the East or West Indies can afford, set most curiously in the finest gold of Ophir or crusado, trundle before them apples of gold, bring them instruments, make the most melodious harmony & music that Art can device, make them heirs of this great Universe, yet nothing pleaseth them but the breast; so assuredly not any thing can satisfy the true child & adopted heir of God, but the sweet sincere milk of the Word, that is their proper element, they will travail from sea to sea to find the word of the Lord, they can no more live without it, than the fish without water, the mole without earth, the chameleon without air, & the Salamander without fire, and when they find it, they feed upon it, and vourish up their souls with joy to eternal life. And for the ordinances of God they are as k Is. 12 3. wells and fountains, out of which they draw with joy waters of life and comfort, as the ministry of the word they long after it with earnest & most affectionate desires, as the l Psal. 42.1. chased Hart panteth after the cool chrystaline streams, when they are absent from it and deprived of it, they cry out, m Ps. 84.2.5. Oh how amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord God of hosts. My soul longeth and fainteth for the Courts of the Lord: pronouncing the Sparrow and Swallow happy that may build their nests near the Altar, concluding that they are blessed which dwell in his house, for they feed upon the words of Christ unto eternal life, and so have their hearts lifted up to joyfulness and the praises of God. The Sacraments are other blessed fountains and wells of joy, wherein Christ is before them crucified to the eye, to the increasing & strengthening of faith & all other saving graces of the spirit, which faith is the root & mother of. In like manner is spiritual joy conveyed to the soul in the use of the rest of the ordinances of God as confession of sins, godly sorrow, prayer, reading, conference, and such like, whereof every true believer hath experience, in the secret consolations & ravishments of the heart, which the spirit of God doth exhibit in the due & serious use of these sacred ordinances. 2. In the sweet fellowship & communion of Saints they find secret joy, Psal. 16.2 David professeth that all his delight is in them that excel in virtue. In respect of this Paul longed to be with the Romans that he might be comforted by their mutual saith, Rom. 1. to have fellowship with them publicly in the use of the Ministry of the word, Sacran ents, & prayer, and privately in the use of the more private duties of godliness, as exhortation, they as Solomon saith, The face of a friend sharpens his friend, & as the Apostle saith, whet one another to love and good works, Psal. 122. Hos. 6 2. they surre up & enkindle the graces of God: I may say of such, as David, I rejoiced when they said let us go up to the house of the Lord: pull brands in sunder, and you extinguish them, lay them together and they flame, and as the joy & felicity of God's people is enlarged by their mutual presence, so also is it great joy to hear of their welfare being absent, either the prosperity of any private & particular believer, or the welfare of the Church in general: When jethro heard of all the good the Lord had done for Israel, rejoiced: great is the joy of every true believer to see the word to be magnified, Exod. 18.9. and the Gospel to have free passage, pulling men out of the fire of sin, and snares of the Devil by the mighty power of it, in which the very angels joy, much more man, but most of all faithful Ministers account it the chief and principal part of their happiness in the world to beget & bring home souls of wand'ring sheep to the fold of their Lord: yea they prefer jerusalem and Zion to their chief joy. And if this be a great portion of the joy of the Saints in heaven, it is undoubtedly a special part of the true believers joy on earth. 3. They rejoice in the fruits of their faith & that two ways. 1. In their Evangelicall obedience or action, because they know it is both pleasing and acceptable to God, to Christ, and to the spirit within them, Coa. 15.58. as also because they are sure of a blessed recompense of reward, as Paul saith, Be steadfast, unmoveable always, abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. They know that their sweet husband Christ comes into the garden among the beds of spices, and to gather Lilies, when the garden of their hearts bring forth abundance of sweet flowers and fruits of holiness and righteousness, it is delectable & joyful unto Christ whom they love, it must needs be joyful unto themselves. They well understand, that if they feast Christ with their obedience, he supping and feasting with them as he promiseth, will feast them, and with the blessed influence of his grace and consolations of his spirit, Apoc. 3.20. they herein are like to their blessed head Christ, whose meat & drink was to do the will of his Father: Assuredly the experience of every child of God knows this in his soul, that, that day wherein he is most fruitful in well doing, his heart is most satiate with spiritual joy and heavenly contentment. 2. As they rejoice in their holy actions, and obedience, so in their passions and afflictions, for the Gospel and name of Christ, Ia●es. 1. they count it all joy when they fall into manifold tribulations, they know it is a gift of God, not only to believe, but also to suffer for his name, that the Son of God is a copartner with them in their sufferings. Thus it is evident how the Lord in his eternal wisdom and love to his poor servants to provide all these holy means to convey sacred and secret holy joy into the hearts of his, & ye● are they not exempted or barred from their portion of joy in outward things (which is all the joy wicked men have) and in these the worse and weakest beleeue● hath more right and cause of rejoicing then the best, richest, and most potent carnal man in the world. Before I pass this point I suppose it meet to answer some objections. 1. Oblect. The profane scorners say, that none rejoice in the word but such as have nothing else to rejoice in only a company of poor people. Ans. This is an impudent falsehood by which the Devil beguiles them, was not David rich & yet he said: The law of thy mouth is better to me then thousands of gold and silver. That kingly Prophet by the spirit of prophecy foresaw & foretells of all the Gentile kings, when they should come & ta●●e the sweetness of the Gospel, Psal 119. 7● Psal. 13.4. ●. should sing the praises of the Lord; because the glory of the Lord is great. 2. Object. The civil man saith he seethe no such mirth and joy in such as profess: Nay it is a revenued axiom, and maxim amongst them, that those who indeed and good carnest resign themselves to live the Christian life, are lumpish, heavy, and uncomfortable, and that they always bid farewell to all mirth. Answ. This is a gross imputation, and an impious scandal put upon religion by their father the Devil, & their wretched hearts, & tongues, to bring religion into disgrace, & disregard in the eyes of men: but: 1. It is to be observed, that Moles, Owls, and Bats cannot see the light, nor the blind judge of colours, they have no understanding of these things. The natural man, saith the Apostle perceiveth not the things that be of God, neither can he, because they art spiritually discerned: they must be jewellers that value pearls of price, ●ro. 14.10. and of God's Family, for the stranger shall not meddle with the● joy. It is true indeed that thi● sweet joy is an immediate branc● issuing & springing out of godly sorrow, & no man ever was, or ●●er shallbe truly cheerful, that never was sound humbled at the sight of his sins, and this pusseleth the squint eyed world, who either cannot see, or have not faith to believe Gods almighty power, who out of this darkness bringeth light, and joy to the righteous. 2. They are deceived in the people of God, who after enlightening & conversion having tasted of these celestial joys, cannot now rejoice carnally, as before; but think & esteem all that joy, madness and folly, like fools to throw axes, hammers, firebrands, and deadly weapons at the faces each of other; but now fixes his eyes upon better objects & causes, which the world not able to discern, think they have no joy at all because earthly joy is unsavoury to him at least in comparison of these: but I may answer with our Saviour, I have meat that ye know not of: so they have joy and mirth which they conceive not. 3. The world themselves are the cause to disquiet and unsettle the joy of God's people by those wrongs, injuries, scandals, and afflictions that they cast upon, and bring them into, not willing that they should enjoy any gladness, peace, or content, and then they lay the blame upon their profession. 3. Obi. The last objection is of such as profess Religion, who oft complain of their want of consolation, and are ready to murmur, and discouraged. Answ. I confess there are many who want the comfort and sense of the joy and consolations of God, as some in their nonage and cradle of godliness, & some other in fits of tentation, or times of desertion, and many through their own ignorance, negligence, and carelessness. 1. In some it is through ignorance of the marks and signs of faith, and the rest of the saving graces of God's Spirit, and so are in doubts and fears, and the Spirit of bondage, as the Apostle calls it. 2. Some are ignorant of the causes of true joy, as that their names are written in the Book of Life: john 1. that they are borne not of the will or bloods of men, but of God, sons of the most high, heirs, yea coheirs with Christ the natural Son, to an eternal Kingdom by adoption & grace, members of Christ, estated into a blessed interest and right, to all the creatures, blessings, and ordinances, guarded by Angels, kept by the Almighty himself and his power unto salvation. 3. They observe not, or conceive how the Spirit of God doth exhibit and give this joy and comfort in the due use of his ordinances, as the ministry of the Word, Sacraments, and Prayer, or else in the due use of the private, as meditation, conference, prayer, reading, singing of Psalms, &c: joh. 16.24. & so grieve the holy Spirit. 4. jer. 33.3.8 They do not seriously seek the pardon of sins, as condemned prisoners at the bar, importune the judge for their lives: or if they pray sometimes, it is but seldom. 4. They are not conscionable in the practice of all the duties of godliness, they sow not good seed, a job. 4.36. Gal. 6.8.9.10 that be which soweth, and he that reapeth may rejoice together. Can men be more fruitful in welldoing, they should have b Mat. 25.21 Is. 35.8.10 more joy; sterility & barrenness brings anguish and sorrow, and fruitfulness in obedience, brings consolation, and abundance of peace, and heavenly delight and joy. 5. Many are encumbered and entangled with some gross sin, as the sin of their nature, or of their particular calling, which hinders this consolation and joy of the soul. Pro. 25.6. The transgress on of the wicked is his snare, but the righteous doth rei● y●e and sing. 6. They receive not the Law of God into their hearts, which if they did behold the promise verse 11: Is. 51.7.11. The redeemed of the Lord shall return, & come with joy to Si●n, and everlasting joy shall be upon their beads, &c: they only have an idea or superficies in the brain, but it comes not into the heart. 7. Many live not in peace, but are passionate and contentious, and so break off all their joy, or at least hinder and weaken it much, for passion, contention and pride, do strangely, though secretly disturb and hinder the consolations of God, & therefore doth the Apostle exhort the Corinth's, Be of good comfort, be of one mind, 2 Cor. 13. ●. live in peace, and the God of love & peace shallbe with you. 8. They sorrow not for their sins, or not with godly sorrow, for if they did, Ps. 126.5.6. Is. 61.1.2.3. they should reap in joy. Thus it manifestly appears that true Religion & the profession thereof is not the cause of the uncheerefulnes, heaviness, and sorrow that is in the world, but the clean contrary, and that the fault is the corruption which is in men, and therefore let us lay the imputation & blame where it is, in man's own corruption and defects. Again, such professors are to be blamed as lead a melancholic, he any, uncheerefull life, because thereby they obscure the lustre and glory of their Christian profession, and are a dishonour to their Lord and Master, for the world that know not the privileges and liberty of the sons of God, easily think they serve a hard and rigid master, or father, who is not willing to have his children and servants enjoy any sweet mirth, or live sweetly and comfortably. They do beside all this, hinder & wrong themselves, by detaining themselves from thankfulness, it is also an obstacle to their faith, pravers, lays them open, & exposeth them to temptations, or apostasy, & generally, unfits them to all the duties of piety and righteousness: And for the most part this deepness of spirit and sadness, ariseth from passion, pride, worldly sorrows, and griefs, or some of the causes before specified. Quest. But seeing so many sorts of false joys may be, & are oft in the soul, by what characters, and symptoms may the true joy be discerned, from the counterfeit, especially the illusions of the devil, and temporary joys of the hypocrite? because an hypocrite goes fare, especially in joy, & yet lose his soul, & be damned in the end, for he may receive the word with joy, taste the heavenly gift, have some apprehension of Christ's excellency, some sight of God's favour, some worthy, (though but general gift of the Holy Ghost, and an hope of everlasting life, as appears by the text of Scripture in the margin) all which concur together to lift him up with false joy, & yet lose all and his soul too. Answ. I consider the examination of this grace three ways: 1. In the causes thereof, it ariseth from the apprehension of celestial and heavenly things. It is kindled upon the sense of God● favour, and is a blessed handmaid of faith, and therefore the Apostle Peter annexeth it to believing. 1 Pet. 1.8. Psal. 4.6. Lord life thou up the light of thy countenance upom me: thou hast given me more joy of heart, etc. 2. That our names are written in the Book of Life, a greater cause of rejoicing by the testimony of our Saviour Christ himself, ●●●e 10.20. then to work miracles, and cast out devils; and greater cause of joy then wisdom, strength, riches, etc. to know God, that he is merciful, in the assurance of God's election, and blessed resurrection and eternal life, that our souls shall live immortally happy. 3. It is exhibited and given by the holy Spirit of God, and ordinarily the soul as it were retiring itself into the sweet presence of God, to have some spiritual soliloquy or private conference with him, but especially & principally in meditation & primate prayer, are these sweet joys felt, though not only, but the soul doth draw the wine of joy out of all the wells of salvation, Is. 12.3. but every Christian soul, who usually trade's with God, can experimenlally justify this truth, that it is felt most frequently and lively in meditation & private prayer. Is 32.3. 4. The Spirit never speaks comfort to the soul, but from the written word and promises of God; and therefore the Apostle saith to the Ephesians, After they believed, Eph. 1.13. they were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise. If it witness, seal, and comforts not from the sacred promises, it is a delusion of Satan, and not true joy. 5. It usually follows humiliation and godly sorrow for sin, which is that true & right branch that bears it, our blessed Saviour was sent to comfort those that mourn in Zion, Is. 61.2.3. to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of gladness for the spirit of beaviues, etc. joh. 16.20 23. Verily I say unto you, ye shall weep and lament, and the world shall rejoice, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. Woe be to that joy that hath not humiliation anteceding it, it is hypocritical and unsound. 2. This true joy is known by the degree, for it carrieth a man into an ecstasy, for as the object thereof excels all terrene & earthly things, as the object of true joy, being God himself, Christ jesus, the assurance of the graces of the Spirit, the word, increase, and spiritual growth in grace, etc. so doth the Christians joy in them, exceed all other joys. Thy Law is better to me then thousands of silver and gold. Ps. 119. 7●. Ps. 137.6. Again, If I prefer not jerusalem to my chief joy. The hypocrites joy never exceeds the joy in the world, the profits and pleasures of this world do more affect their hearts then the joy of these supernatural, superexcellent & heavenly things. The truly wise merchant sells all for the blessed Pearl of the Gospel, M●●. 13.46. and goeth away rejoicing also. And if this be so, how few found believers doth this world afford, that for the measure & degree of their joy, can free themselves from being hypocrites, and who (if this be a truth) shallbe saved. 3. It may be discerned and known by the blessed effects thereof. 1 This joy stands by a man when all other joys fade, relinquish & forsake him, even in adversity as well as prosperity, and this the Proph●. Hab. 3.17. ●● Habakack lively expresseth: For the sigge tree shall not flourish, neither shall fruit be on the vines the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat: the sheep shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no bullock in the staules. What more miserable condition can befall the sons of men, yet behold this sweet joy comforts them: But I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. So that no condition of the true child of God can be so miscrable in this world, but that the joy of God will comfort and sustain them. The same doth Paul testify, we rejoice in tribulation, Rom. 5 3. Phil. 2.17. and of himself and the rest of the Apostles he saith, And though I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 2. This joy mars & distastes all carnal joys whatsoever, it makes a man sinned little or no relish or taste in earthly delights, they will be to him as the white of an egg, wherein saith Solomon, what savour is there? If men had received this true joy once, we should soon see a change in their conversation, there would not be such wide gaping and laughter in vain, and foolish jests, apparel, and a thousand things of this sort, as now there is. 3. Ia●●●. It will keep a man from masterlines and censoriousness of others, as also to be compassionate and tender hearted, to sympathise in the wants and sorrows of others, especially such as are under spiritual afflictions. 4. And last effect of true joy is as it springs from true humility and godly sorrow, so it ends in it, and destroys not, but preserves that blessed grace, it keeps the soul in a preparedness and ape●esse to acknowledge his own vileness, & vuworthinesse of so great a portion and mercy from God as this joy is. Thus have I according to my understanding and gift received from God, expressed my thoughts and meditations touching this sacred point, and the true trial thereof, whereas the joys which are temporary, or from the illusisions or methods of Satan, comfort no man in adversity, find sweetness in carnal joys, are masterly and censorious, and make men proud and advance themselves, and are in all things contrary unto the holy true joys, which the Spirit of GOD doth exhibit and give unto those which seek true joy in unfeigned and godly sorrow. 1. Quest. But may some humbled believer say, I can find little comfort or joy, what advite will you give me, or what shall I do to get this sweet grace of happy joy into my heart? Answ. 1. Take heed of such things as grieve the fountain of true joy which is the blessed spirit of God, as the Apostle saith: And grieve not the holy spirit of God by which ye are sealed up to the day of redemption: of which I will give you a taste. 1. Beware thou neglect not the renewing of thy holy faith daily, nor the duties of mortification, as examination of thy slips and failings, which will bring thee to unfeigned: confession and acknowledgement of thy sin to God, that provokes the soul to godly sorrow, and so to prayer, & opens a door to consolation, for the heart gathers soil every day, and if it be not washed and kept clean by these mundifying waters, the uncleanness of the soul will grieve the blessed guest the spirit, and so keep out these blessed joys. 2. Beware of a barren and unfruitful heart, for unprofitableness is the cause of much disrest to the soul. 3. Beware of neglecting the means, by which the spirit exhibites this true consolation, which are both public and private, a Christian must not look for miracles, but if he would have it, he must diligently attend the means, which are the ministry of the word, Sacraments, and prayer, and for the private, especially neglect not private prayer from whence the spirit of God doth most frequently administer this joy. 4. Take heed thou be not ouer borne and over ruled by evil affections, as, passion, envy; pride, immoderate cares, and the love of the world, all which and many more do exceedingly quench and dead the consolations of the spirit of God. 5. Lastly beware of the love of any one sin, though never so secret, for it betrays the evidence of thine uprightness, and how eanst thou expect any other then blasted joy and comfort when thou hast lost or forfeited the evidence of thy assurance. 2. Be exceedingly careful to do such duties as bring true comfort: as 1. Be diligent to know the difference betwixt counterfe it graces and true saving graces; for the Devil & man's corruption hath framed a counterfeit & shadow of every virtue, so that if thou be ignorant of the methodes & deceits, & be not able to get good cuidences and signs of the truth and soundness of them, the heart will be distracted with fears and doubts, and be a means of unrest and unquietness, Is. 55.15. and so deprive thee of this joy, to be God's servant, which otherwise thou mightest enjoy be sure. 2. Voluntarily seek godly sorrow, and try it according to the former rules, be importunate with God by prayer, and the use of all the rest of God's ordinances, and never give over drinking every day a draught of humiliation until thou feel in thyself some good degree of softness of heart, that it may oft bleed inwardly in the sense and feeling, especially of thy beloved sins committed, not only against a God of infinite Majesty, Psaim. 126.23.5.6. Isay 61.3. Maith. 5. ●. power, etc. but especially of infinite sweetness, goodness, mercy, graciousness, bounty and love, who hath given thee so much, and forgiven thee so great a debt, and against CHRIST, pierced him through with so infinite sorrows for these blessed joys are promised to, & most felt of those that mourn most for their sins. 3. If yet thou findest not comfort & these spiritual joys, add fasting to put wing, and fervency to thy prayers, perform with through humiliation of thy soul & seek in all the records of God, if ever any Church in general, or any particular and private man ever went away without some special sweet answer from God in his greatest disrest & unquietness, & think thy case shall not be singular, but the Lord will be the same to thee, that he hath been to other of his servants in former times. 4. If yet thou findest not answer to thy desires unfold thy grief to some merciful experienced Christian who may administer true consolation, and especially some faithful experienced man of God, who though (as Elihu speaks) he be but one of a thousand to declare unto man his righteousness, job. 33.23.26. yet he will have mercy upon him, and will say, deliver him that he go not down into the pit: for I have received a reconciliation. Then shall his flesh be as fresh us a child's, and shall return as in the days of his youth. He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable to him, & he shall see his face with joy, etc. Thus did the Spouse find her well-beloved, Cant. 3. she went and inquired of the watchmen, and when she was a little past she found him whom her soul loved: Many a poor soul is kept in heaviness a long time by Satan's policy, labouring with them to keep secret his subtleties & their own wants, which by wholesome counsel might easily and speedily be relieved and comforted. 5. If yet thou getteest not comfort, travail with thine own heart to delight in the Lord, and then the promise is, he will give thee thine hearts desire; thou shalt never get these sweet refresh and spiritual joys, except thou love to be God's servant, delighting in him and all his holy ordinances, observe how lively and plainly the Lord expresseth this. Also the strangers that cleave unto the Lord to serve him, and to love the 〈◊〉 of the Lord, Isay 56.6.7. and to be his servants, every one that keepeth my sabaoth, and polluteth it not, and embraceth my Covenant. Them will I bring also to mine holy mountain, & make them joyful in my house of prayer. Quest. Sometimes I feel spiritual joys, bue soon lose the sense of them again, what may I do to preserve both the grace & the sense thereof in my soul that it may be habitual in me? Answ. Trade seriously and oft in all the holy duties of mortification, to which the promises are frequently made. I instance in three particulars. 1. Confession of sins upon which God hath pledged his fidelity to forgive and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, 1 joh. 1.9 confession if true hath assurance of remission of sins & justification, out of which springs true and joy. 2. Godly sorrow which as you have seen already, ends in joy. 3. Prayer, as our Saviour adviseth: Ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full: these sweeten the soul, Psal. 126.5.6. Mat. 5.5 john 16.23. & are the ordinary conduits of consolation, the heart gathering soil and corruption daily, must of necessity be cleansed by these, or else the spirit will be grieved, & neither take away the unquietness, or administer those sweet refresh, which otherwise it might enjoy. 4. Beware of much carnal joy, or external rejoicing, for the immoderate delighting in outward things, is like Opium to the body which stupifies the brain, and makes it senseless, so do these earthly joys stupefy the soul & make it insensible of the consolations of the spirit of God, bringing thereupon hardness of heart in the things of God, and most people hereby are gulled by Satan's stratagems hindering themselues from this blessed comfort, & never discern the cause thereof, when they give to these earthly joys either priority or superiority. 5. Be plentiful in well doing, labour that the heart may be like the Tree of life which brought forth fruit, not only some kind, but all manner of fruit, and at all times, every Month, take up all opportunity to do good, for a man can never have assurance of the sincerity & truth of his obedience, Psalm. 119. unless it be universal to all God's commandments: as David saith then shall I not be confounded, when I have respect to all thy commandments. This the Lord wisheth in his people when they gave Moses those fair speeches. All that thou commandest us from the Lord we will do. Deut. 5.29. and 6.2 The Lord answers; Oh that there were such an heart in this people, that they might fear me and keep all my commandments always that it might go well with them, and with their children for ever. Do any think it shall go well with them, or that they can possibly preserve the joys of God in the heart, that are either partial in their obedience, or that perform it, but by sits and starts, there must therefore care be used to preserve uprightness for such shall have an harvest of joy, but if a man nourish but the love of one sin, its impossible to retain the joys of God. Prou. 29.6. In the transgression of an evil man is a snare. but the righteous doth sing & rejoice, especially be careful to preserve unity and peace, and procure it in others, P●ou. 12.20 for to the counsellors of peace shall be joy. 4. Get an humble and meek spirit, for as passion doth disrest and unquiet the heart, so doth pride wonderfully quench and hinder the refresh of God. Isay 29.19 The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the holy one of Israel. 5. Have an eye as to the Law, which is the rule of life, so to the promises, which are the legacies of thy father wherein is bequeathed that to thee which will continually refocilate & refresh thy soul, hang upon these as the breasts of thy consolation, as the Prophet saith: Isay 66.1. That ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolation, that ye may milk out & be delighted with the abundance of her glory. And in this, two things are to be heeded. 1. A faithful remembrance of the promises, for that which is not remembered is as if not known, the memory therefore must be careful to keep in this office, and open the records and rowles of God to the soul, to put it in mind of the privileges to be● rejoiced in, or else look to find little or none of these joys. 2. Blessed wisdom to apply the several promises, whether general or special to thine own particular condition and necessity: else they are like abundance of meat in a Cook's shop to a hungry stomach not eaten, so are the promises not digested and applied by faith, though remembered, as fumes of meat to a hungry belly, or spirits of wine to a thirsty man not eaten, not drunk but poor refreshing or comfort. 6. Keep God in sight and in thine eye still, lose not his presence, but walk before him in all uprightness & sincerity: For, At his right hand is fullness of joy, and pleasures for evermore. 7. Neglect not any one of God's ordinances public or private, & add often private fasting to thy private prayers, which will bring comfort, search all the Scriptures, if ever God refused to give answer to the prayers of any of his people when the wings of fasting were given to cause them soar up to heaven, and its just with God to blast the use of the public, as ministry of the word Sacraments & prayer, when either family duties are neglected, or the more inward and private betwixt God and thine own heart are either neglected or slighted. Again if there be performance of the private, and the public despised or neglected, yea, if but any one of either public or private be not conscionably performed, it's no wonder though the spirit of God answer not the soul, with his sweet refresh. 8. If thou feel the absence or the leaf● decay of these spiritual comforts, complain betimes, for delays in this cause are dangerous, examine the cause why thy beloved hides himself, be sure to remove the cause, call and seek after him with all importunity, and never give over until thou hast recovered again the sweet sense of his presence as did the Church: Cant. 3.4. to catch hold of him, Cant. 5.6. and not to leave him: until h●● have brought thee into thy Mother's house, etc. 9 Beware of the careless and perfunctory use of any of the ordinances of God, for to offer the halt, blind, and lame in sacrifice, Mal. 1. is abomination to the Lord, be sedulous, Eccles. 4.17. watchful and diligent to do all duties of piety to GOD with preparation, yea that the very feet of thy soul be elevated and lifted, that thy affections being raised, thou mayst offer not a dead, but a living sacrifice, always acceptable to his sacred Excellency in JESUS CHRIST. 10 Lastly, take no care for the world, nor the things of the world, for where the love of the world is, the love of the Father cannot dwell; can a loving and kind wife carry that respective love to her husband, if she see him embrace the bosom of a strange woman, and take her into his house to bed and board, is it poffible that the Spirit of Christ who hath taken possession of thy heart, should show that sweetness in thy soul, as formerly if he see thee take into his house, thy heart, that filthy strumpet the world, it is not possible, and therefore take heed of receiving the love of the world into thy heart, if thou purposest to perpetuate this joy. Quest. But are these joys sensible to every believer always? Answ. No: for first some are in the nonage and bud of their conversion in whom these joys are not felt for these causes. 1. Because of their ignorance of the doctrine, either of true godly sorrow, or the true joys of the holy Ghost: They may say with the Church, being asked if they had received the holy Ghost since they believed, they answered, They had not somuch as heard this there was an holy Ghost: how then can they have the blessed sense of that which they are ignorant of. 2. Some know that there are such joys, but observe not how the spirit doth exhibit and give them in the due use of the ordinances of God, and therefore deprive themselves of the comfort, by want of observation, and by a mere neglect. 3. Some have this joy, observe, and are affected with it for the time, but lose the comfort of it from two causes. 1. They soon forget, the consolation and the ground thereof as the Apostle saith, Ye have forgotten the consolation which speaketh, ● 〈◊〉. 12.5. to you as to sons, 2. Because they are not well grounded in the assured truth & soundness of their joy they suspect it, and that breaks off their joy, and dasheth and eclypseth all their solace and gladness. 4. Some feel exceeding flashes and passions of joy & gladness, but because they are encumbered with passions of anger and violent perturbations arising from their distempered constitution & natural turbulent affections, this joy is hindered from being constant and habitual, as other wise it would be. 5. In some this joy is & habitual, which constantly ariseth from the assurance of their reconciliation and peace with God though they oft feel not any great passions or ravish of the heart: yet both these may be the true joys of the holy Ghost, yet the latter I wi●●● & desire from my soul good Reader may be both thine, & mine own portion, and that for ever. Thus have I lead thee the way by the seeming waters of Marah unto the true sweet fountains of Elin● where I leave thee to so●ace and satiate thy soul. But let the world know that they have no part in this spiritual joy as Solomon saith. The stranger shall not inc●●dle with this joy, hands off, it is not for you, it is the particular & special privilege of the household of faith, and there is great reason because they have no cause of true joy, no nor of any joy at all in them; For what cause of joy hath any man who is dead in trespasses and sins, as all unregenerate men are, till the second Adam who is made a quickening spirit to all the elect revive them by his spirit & grace. What cause of joy can he have that is a condemned man, as our Saviour saith. He that believes not is condemned already, that is in God's decree, in the sentence of God's just and righteous law, in his own conscience which hath and doth arraign & condemn him, if it be not a sleep? What joy can a man have in all his mirth when our blessed Saviour calleth him from it, & pronounceth a curse upon him? Woe be to you that now laugh, for ye shall howl and weep. Lastly he can no more rejoice in any of the creatures, than a thief in a true man's purse, neither can that be true joy in the creature, which ariseth from the creature, resteth in the creature, and elevateth or raiseth the heart no higher than the creature, but such is the joy of the hypocrite & every ignorant civil and wicked man, and therefort he hath neither true joy or cause thereof. Miserable then and woeful is the condition of all the iovall Lads of this world, whose Comedy gins, and continues here with seeming mirth & shall end Tragically in inutterable sorrow, heaviness and vexation and that for ever, Whereas the Tragical beginning of the righteous, though it begin in true sorrow yet it is soon recompensed with that true joy which even for the present is filled with celestial and heavenly solace, and delight and perpetuated unto all eternity, which I pray God to increase in thy heart by the spirit of comfort for the Son of his love's sake. Amen. FINIS. ERRATA. P. 11. l. 24. for sensible re●d sensitive, p. 27. l. 11. for Shabeans read Chaldeans. p. 30 l. 16 for things read degrees p. 36. l. 2 for which come read with Cain, p. 37 l. 26. for Amron read Amnon. p. 40. l. 1. for though read through. p 43. l. 22 for rife read right p. 53. l 18 for saw ●ead behold. p. 54. l 22 for people read paul. p. 56. l. 17 for deprave read deprive. p. 8. l. 6. for hopes read lips p 62. l. 16 for sense read sense. p. 64. l. 8. far some read soon. p 67. 14 for refasolating read refosolating, ●. 73 l 17. for true read ●rees. p. 73. l. 19 add to. p. 134. l. 11 for name read nature. p 134. l. 9 for greatfulnes read dreadfulness. p. 135. l 25. for Zeboni read Zeboim. p. 136. l. 15 for disabbed read disabled. p 138. l 10 for cry read be p. 173. l 9 for of read all. p 175. l. 1. for reason read revive l. 2 add day. p 184, l 21. for never read ever. p 211. l. 22. lean out and p. 216. l. 11. for and discouraged rea● and be discouraged p. 231. l 9 for perform read perform them, p 134 for three read these.