The dejected soules cure tending to support poor drooping sinners. With rules, comforts, and cautions in severall cases. In divers sermons, by Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Laurence Jury. To which is added, I. The ministry of the angels to the heirs of salvation. II. Gods omnipresence. III. The sinners legacy to their posterity.

SERMON V. (Book 5)

Psal. 42. 11.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him—The health of my Countenance, and my God.

[Question 2] THe second Question is, For what are the people of God cast down? and that is for the want of the apprehension of Gods love and favour: and in the handling of this case, I shall take this way.

First, To shew you why God doth suffer his people to be cast down under the apprehensions of the want of Gods love and favour.

Secondly, To shew you, that though this be your condi∣tion; yet there is no great cause of your dejection and trou∣ble, and casting down of soul under this condition.

Thirdly, To lay down some Theological rules what a Chri∣stian is to doe, what course to take, that so he may gain the love and favour of God.

And Fourthly, I shall lay down the use and application.

First Then I shall shew you why God doth suffer his peo∣ple to be cast down under the apprehensions of the want of Gods love and favour; that though God may love them, yet they may not know that love and favour that God doth bear to them. I shall reduce the Reasons into these Four Heads.

First, It ariseth from a mans own self.

Secondly, It commeth from God.

Thirdly, From the Divel.

Fourthly, It commeth from other men: These may be the Four general Causes why Gods people are cast down under the want of Gods love and favour to their souls.

First, It ariseth from a mans own self; and that in these Six regards.

First, From the prevalency of natural melancholy in a mans body. The prevalency of melancholy in a man doth * 1.1 darken the understanding, and it troubles the fancy, and it doth disturbe the reason, and sadden the soul, and cloaths it in mourning weeds; and when these meet together, it must needs cast the man down, and suspend the sense of Gods fa∣vour from him. Melancholy, it is the mother of discomfort and discontent; and it is the nurse of doubts. Think of that story which you read of, Daniel 4. concerning Nebuchad-nez∣zar, He did eat grass like an Oxe, he knew not whether he was a beast or a man. But his fancy was troubled, and his under∣standing was darkened, and his reason was gone: and thus natural melancholy maketh a child of God to think that he is a child of the Divel when he is a child of God; and it makes him to think he is a brat of Babylon when indeed he is a son of Sion. It is no more wonder saith Baxter, for a melan∣choly man to doubt, and fear, & despair, then it is to see a sick man groan, and a child crie when he is beaten: the best way to cure this, belongs rather to a Physitian then to a Divine. There is a natural distemper in the body is the cause of me∣lancholy; yet trouble of conscience, doubtings, distresse of spirit are the companions of it. You may silence a melan∣choly man, when you cannot comfort him. If you abate his sadnesse by convincing arguments, yet when he retires

alone through the prevalency of this humour all is forgotten; his comforts are but a day or two old.

2. The second cause of the suspension of the favour of God it is this, spiritual security, and indulging and harbo∣ring in the heart any known sin; there is nothing in the world that will so much hinder him of, and keep the soul from the assurance of the favour of God, as the harbour∣ing in the soul any known sin; for all the while David did harbour in his heart, and indulge and hide his sin from God, he did lose the light of Gods countenance, and he lost the shining of Gods face upon his soul, insomuch that he prayeth to God to restore unto him the joy of his salvati∣on. It is true, the salvation of David was not lost, but the joyes of his salvation; the comforts and consolation that he formerly enjoyed, that was lost; and for this he begs of God for to restore unto him, Psal. 51. 12. restore unto me the joyes of thy salvation. Although that sin cannot make a child * 1.2 of God to lose salvation it self, yet sin may cause God to suspend the comforts, and the wonted joyes of his salvati∣on. I may say concerning this case, as Philosophers say of Earth-quakes, When the wind is in the Air, spread a∣broad and diffused in the Air, then it doth not throw down either hill or mountain; but when the wind is gathered together, and lies in the caverns of the Earth, then it cau∣seth Earth-quakes, and over-turns all that is about it; so while that sin is not kept close in the soul, and while it is not indulged there, and whiles it is not hid and concealed, but confessed and repented of, and prayed against, it doth not much hurt; but when that sin is indulged and kept close, and not repented of, nor prayed against, but indulged in the soul, this will make a heart-quake, and a conscience-quake, and will fill thy heart with horror and amazement: Psal. 32. 3. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day. When a man doth conceal his sin, it * 1.3 troubles his soul, and woundeth his heart, and breaketh his peace: if you will break Gods Law, it is but just and righ∣teous with God to break your peace. God will not encou∣rage any of his people, by giving them peace, and com∣forts,

and mercies in any sinful course; and however, the Antinomians hold us in hand, and would make us believe that our comforts have no dependance on our sinful actions, whereas God teacheth us no such thing; saith the Prophet Isaiah, The work of Righteousness that is peace, and the end thereof is quietness, and assurance for ever. Here you see that comfort, and consolation, and joy, and peace, and assu∣rance, is annexed to the works of Righteousness; when as discomforts and discouragements are annexed unto sin; if you break Gods Law, God will break your peace, God will break your heart; the same promises of peace cannot be made to the godly and wicked; for they have promises of divine peace, the other have not, Ezek. 14. 4. Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; * 1.4 Every man of the house of Israel, that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquities be∣fore his face, and cometh to the Prophet, I the Lord will an∣swer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols. When a man shall come to the Prophets, to the Ministers of God, and shall make great complaint of his inward trouble in his soul, and much cast down within himself; and yet in the mean time keep and harbour known sins upon his own heart; God hath said he shall not answer that man that he might give him comfort; but saith God in the 5. v. Thus saith the Lord, repent and turn (* 1.5 your selves) from your idols, * 1.6 and turn away your faces from all your abominations. and then God will answer him; but those that will not turn from their evil wayes, God will answer such a man with rebuke, and God will set his face against that man, and make him a sign and a proverb, and cut him off; he that keeps sin in his heart, and indulges sin there, there shall be no peace in his conscience, nor serenity, nor quietness of soul; he shall not in joy the smiles of Gods face, the light of Gods countenance, but the sense of his wrath, much anguish, and sorrow, and perplexity of mind for his sin.

The third cause of the souls suspension and want of Gods favour; it is the defectiveness of the people of God in the exercising of their graces; little grace shall have but

little evidence: and if you are not abundant in the exercise of grace, you will not have the comfort of grace but in a weak measure. Ioh. 14. 21. He that hath my Com∣mandements and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me, shall be loved of my father, and I will love him, and will manifest my self unto him. You know that all the stars in the Firmament have light, but you cannot see the light of the little stars so clearly as the light of the greatest; so though there is truth of grace in the weak as wel as thestron∣gest acts; yet if thy graces be weak in the exercise of them, thy comforts and evidences will be also weak, and hardly discerned and hardly seen. Peace be multiplyed to you said the Apostle; if you do not multiply your graces, God will not multiply your peace; if you do withdraw the exercise of your grace, God will withdraw the comforts of your grace. You cannot see small things so easily as you see great things; he that will see a small needle, a hair, a mote, had need have good eyes: so ye cannot see small weak grace so easily as ye may see strong and great acts of grace; there∣fore their comforts are small many; men cannot see their graces, and their evidences, because they are like motes and hairs; if you do not abound in the exercise of grace, you will not be able to see the evidence of grace, and injoy the comforts of your grace. You know when a man is in a sound, you do not know whether the man is dead or alive, because his breath is not perceived, and his pulse not beat∣ing; so when your graces are weak, and your graces little, when you do not live in the exercise of grace, you cannot see the evidences of grace.

Fourthly, The suspension of his love and favour, it ari∣seth from the laziness, and carelessness, and heedlessness in the performance of holy duties: There is nothing in the world that is a greater bane of your graces and comforts then this is; if you do deny God in your obedience, God in justice will deny you in your peace and comforts; he that will not work shall not eat. As it is true in worldly things, so it is also true in spiritual things; if you do not your duties towards God, God will suspend the comforts

of your graces from you; if you do your duty toward God, you shall eat of the promised Land: if you will not let the Spirit of God work and operate in you in its san∣ctifying work, God will not let you enjoy in your souls the comforting work of his Spirit. You know what Solo∣mon saith, that the slugard shall have poverty enough; so you that are spiritual slugards not to do your duties towards God, you shall be sure to have spiritual poverty enough in your soul, for want of comfort. Remember that expression of Christ, in that parable in the Gospel, that its the faithfull servant that must enter into the joy of his Lord; if thou wilt not be faithful in thy duty, thou canst not expect to be filled with inward joy. Grace saith Baxter, is never apparent and sensible in the soul, but when it is in action; the want of action must needs cause want of assurance: though duties merit not comfort, yet they usually rise and fall with our diligence in duty. I may illustrate this by a familiar comparison; there is you know fire in the flint, but the fire is not seen in the flint: I but strike the flint and the steel together, and then you may see the fire; so there may be grace in the soul of a man, as fire in the flint; but untill the spirit of God comes and strikes upon the soul as a flint to the steel, until the spirit of God worketh with the spi∣rit of man in duty, there is no grace seen; and so the soul comes to lye under the dismal workings of soul, under the sense and want of the assurance of Gods love.

Fifthly, It ariseth from this, because that they do look more after comfort then they do after grace; and this is the cause why they want more comfort then they need to want; they look more after marks and signs that may tell them what they are, then after precepts, which tell them what they should do. When Christians shall be more enquiring after priviledges, more then to inquire after their duty, it is just with God to keep their comfort from them. When Christians shall labour more to know that they are justified, then to know and use the means to be justified; to labour more to know that they are in a state of grace, rather then to use those means that are prescribed to get grace; this may

be a means why God keepeth them from the comforts of the Spirit.

And thus I have given you the first cause, why Gods peo∣ple are cast down under the apprehensions of the suspensi∣ons of the favour of God to the soul.

The second cause, why the people of God are cast down under the want of the favour of God, it may be from God himself; God may keep thee from the enjoying of his love and favour; and that, 1. From an act of his Soveraignty. Assurance is given out of the goodnesse of his Will, and withdrawn to shew the absolutenesse and liberty of his Will. For, May not God do what he will with his own peo∣ple? God he hath by his power made the day, and made the night; for God doth not only give dayes of comfort and consolation to his people, but also he gives nights of deser∣tion, as they are acts of Gods power and soveraignty over his people, to shew that if it be the will and pleasure of God, he can take away the day of comfort, and withdraw and suspend his love and favour from the souls of his peo∣ple; so also if he will, he can by act of his soveraignty give us assurance, and give in comfort to the souls of his people; God may do what he please, and none may say, Wherefore dost thou so?

2. So God doth it to manifest his wisdom and goodnesse to his people; for by his withdrawing and suspending com∣fort, and hiding his face, 1. he hereby doth by this means keep his people from being glutted with comforts, and joy, and delights; should God continue the light of his countenance alwayes to them; should God fill their hearts with full assurance of grace, and full assurance of faith alwayes, to let forth the beams of his glorious love in∣to their souls, they would be subject to be glutted, and sub∣ject to slight comfort, and to take little notice of those lo∣ving kindnesses of God, and of those divine favours bestow∣ed upon them: therefore God in wisdom seeth it fitting sometimes to suspend those favours, and sometimes to withdraw that love, and favour, and comforts, and joyes from them, that they may prize it more, and retain it better when they enjoy it.

2. God may withdraw his love and favour from the souls of his people, out of an act of wisdom, that thereby he may let his people see and consider that there is more evil really in sin, then ever there did appear seeming good in the commission of sin; a man will commit sin, that thereby he may obtain some seeming good, as to please the lust of the eye, or to the obtaining of some other desira∣ble seeming good; but God he lets them see and find, by the with-holding of his love and favour, and the light of his countenance, that there is more real evil in the losse of Gods countenance, then ever there did appear seeming good in the committing of sin, and in the pleasure of it.

3 God may suspend his favour as an act of wisdom, to hide pride from men, and self-conceitednesse, that they may not be proud of their own gifts and graces, of the strength and degrees of their graces, Job. 33. 17 He doth withhold from man his purpose (or as in the margent, his works) & hide pride from man; why so? because a man may be proud in the works that he doth, & be full of high & vain concei••s of him∣self, therefore God doth hide his works that he may hide pride from him; & this is an act of wisdom & goodnes in God.

4. God doth it, that thereby he might make his people to be more afraid of sinning against him, lest the comforts be again eclipsed; for I must reason thus, before I commit any sin, that if I do this, I break the righteous Law of God, and if I do break his Law, God will break my heart, and break my peace; and shall I make no care of committing a sin against God, seeing by the committing thereof, I must lie under the sense of Gods wrath.

5. Then God doth it to let a man know, and find that assurance is not essential to holinesse, although the people of God have grace, and do believe, and have sins pardon∣ed, yet the sense of this pardon, and the sense of this faith, and the assurance of this grace is not essential; though there cannot be peace, but there must be grace; yet it may be where there is not peace; there may be a root where there is no faith, yet there cannot be fruit but there must be root. God will have men know the sense of faith and repentance is a gift of meer liberality.

6. God doth it to let men see the difference between hea∣ven and earth; God reserves the best to the last: God doth not think it fit that men should have constant joy in this un∣constant world, nor full joy in this empty earth, nor last∣ing joy in this transitory world, but he doth reserve that until his people come to heaven; should the people of God, while they live in this world, have the fulnesse of joy and constant comfort, they would be ready to slight, and ne∣ver look after that place where is fulnesse of joy, they would never desire to be in heaven; but therefore God is pleased to mix sorrow with comfort, and suspend, and hide his face, to that end that his people might look after heaven; and to let them see the difference between heaven and earth: and thus you see that second reason, why God doth suspend his favour from his people, which is drawn from the wisdom of God.

[Reason 3] The third reason, as God may suspend his love and favour from his own soveraignty, and from his own wisdom; so thirdly, he may do it from an act of his justice, and lay them under the apprehensions of his wrath; God will pu∣nish his own people for sin, with the suspension of his love and favour. Although he will not punish them with hell, * 1.7 and in hell, yet he will and may punish them with the sense of hell, and lay them under the sense of wrath. And I shall lay down some particulars, how God by an act of justice doth punish his own people for sin, with the sense of the want of assurance.

First, God doth punish his people for the sin of grieving his Spirit; if you do trouble and grieve Gods Spirit, he will grieve & trouble your spirits; if you send Gods Spirit sad to heaven, God will put sadnesse into your spirits upon earth; and if you be comforted, how can you expect to receive any comfort, when you send him away sad that should rejoice your souls? therefore when God hath withdrawn his coun∣tenance, then conclude thou hast grieved his spirit.

Secondly, God may withdraw his love, and punish his people for the sin, for the carelessenesse and slightnesse that his people have of God, and of his fear; as children are

apt to grow saucy, and presumptously malepert and irreve∣rent, till the father frown, and majeistick austerity takes down their saucinesse; so Gods people are like wanton children, apt to slight God and his fear, and therefore he sees it fitting that we should see his frowns as well as his smiles; he will punish his people with the losse of his favour, for their sin, as well as smile upon them in the light of his countenance; God will sometimes brow-beat his own children, that they may see the wrinkles of his brows (to speak after the manner of men) Too much familiarity breeds contempt: the Persian Kings shunned familiarity, and were seldom seen, that they might be more honoured.

Thirdly, God doth it to punish that rigidnesse, unmerci∣fulnesse, and uncharitablenesse that men have towards others that are troubled in their minds; there are many Christians that have obtained the assurance of Gods favour, the assu∣rance of their salvation; they do look upon others that are filled with fear and trouble of mind, and that lye under temptation, they look upon them at a great distance, and carry no more love and bowels towards them then they do to those that have no grace at all; now God for to cure this distemper, he doth suspend his favour, and withdraw the light of his countenance, and let them to lie under doubts and fears, that they may learn to pitty those that are cast down, and not to be so uncharitable to them, not to cen∣sure them, not to break those bruised reeds.

[Reason 3] I now come to the third reason, why Gods people are de∣jected and lie under the apprehensions of the want of Gods love and favour to their souls; it ariseth from the devil; it may arise from him, and that both from his malice and his subtilty; the devil, because he cannot make the chil∣dren of God to dash their souls in pieces upon the rocks of presumption, therefore he labours to make them to drownd their souls in the gulf of desperation, because he cannot hinder a child of God from going into his masters joy in another world, he labors to hinder their masters joy from comming into them in this world; the devil, he will rather play at small game then at no game at all; seeing he cannot

keep them from going into heaven it self, he will keep heaven from entring into them; because he cannot keep you from the having of grace, he will keep you as long as he can from having the sence of grace. And this is the third reason, why Gods people may lye under the want of the light of Gods countenance.

[Reason 4] The fourth sort of reasons, why God may withdraw the light of his countenance, it is this; it ariseth from o∣ther men, and that partly from good men, and partly from bad men.

1. It ariseth partly from good men, (i) good men may slight the society and company of doubting and weak Christi∣ans; when they shall consider thus with themselves, I am a trouble to the company and society of good men; and when good men shall stand at a distance and not care for the company of weak Christians, it makes them say, sure∣ly God will not have good thoughts of me, and surely God will not think well of me, and will Christ have fel∣lowship with me, and not contemn me? These reasonings arise in the hearts and spirits of good men, weake Christians occasioned, by that strangenesse and slightness of spirit in good men, towards those that are weak; Tis hard to pity much, till we have felt much; women that never was in travel, cannot pity them so much that are in travel; for Christians that never was tempted, cannot pity those so much that lie under great and strong tem∣ptations; those that have not been under strong doubts and fears, cannot pity those that are under doubting and fears.

2. It is to make them more experienced for to comfort tempted souls, 2 Cor. 4, 5, 6. there the Apostle layeth down one end of their affliction; whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer, or whether we be com∣forted, it is for your consolation and salvation, who comforteth us in all our trihulation, that we may be able to comfort those that are in trouble, by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God. This was it, that they who are under

spiritual afflictions, they may comfort them with the same comforts that they themselves have been comforted of God; a Scholar may read much of sufferings, yea, he may read whole volumes of sufferings, and of spiritual sufferings, of doubts and fears that other Christians have lain under: I, but yet for all that reading, he may not be so able to pitty distressed souls, because he wanteth experience of it himself. A Scholar may read books of the Art of Navigation, and yet he may not be a good Mariner, but it is experience that makes them to be good Mariners; so a man may read books of sufferings, yet not be able so kindly to pity those that are in sufferings, because he wants that experience that others have, that have been in the same case; those that have been tempted, those whose consciences have been trou∣bled, those are the fittest men to succour those that are in that condition; God chuses broken vessels to poure com∣fort into, that they may diffuse it unto others.

2. It may arise from bad men, bad men may occasion the trouble of soul to dejected souls; though the Lord doth leave and suffer his people to be dejected and cast down, yet the Lord doth it,

1. To make wicked men to fear their eternal condition; may not wicked men justly reason thus with themselves? do I see such a man that doth follow the Ordinances of God, and live, and walk in the wayes of God with care, and making conscience how he liveth in his calling, and labours to keep his heart close to God, and to maintain communion with him, and will not, nor dares not commit any known sin, and prayes in his family, and labours to mortifie sin, and to keep under his body, and to abound and grow fruitful in the wayes of God, and in goodnesse? and do I see such a man to lie under fears, and under doubts, and under troubles of mind, and so cast down, and even ready to fear all is in vain, that he shall lose heaven at last? O what then will become of me? what may I think with my self, whose wayes are nothing like his wayes? he hath followed Ordinances, but I have not; he hath laboured to walk in Gods way with care and conscience, whereas

I never made conscience of any such thing; he hath labou∣red to live conscientious in his calling, which I never did; he dares not commit known sins, whereas alas I indulge sin, and hug sin in my bosom; he labours to mortifie sin, where∣as sin reigns over me as a Lord; he labours to grow fruit∣ful, but I am unfruitful; and I never watch my heart, and do my duty, and I never make conscience to walk holy and humbly with God as he doth; and yet behold, he is in trouble and cast down for want of Gods favour: what then may I think of my self? doth this man lie under the sense of wrath, and may not I fear that I shall lie under the weight of Gods wrath? Doth he fear hell, and shall not I surely feel hell? And when they see this, it is only for this end, to awaken them out of the sleep of security, and to rouze him from those false presumptions and perswasions of his own salvation; and in some sense it is a mercy to wicked men, that good men are cast down and troubled, that they may look into their own hearts and wayes, to amend and repent.

2. God doth it in a way of Judgement to wicked men, that the Lord lets his own people be cast down, under the absence of his Divine favour in Judgement to the world, that it may be a stumbling-block to the world in their way to heaven; when they shall say of themselves I and my company, there is no such merry men in the world as we are; we can be merry, and we can over-reach and deceive in our trade, and we can do this and that, and yet not at all troubled in conscience all the year long: and yet behold, those that follow Ministers, and go to Ordinances, and hear Sermons, & love the Bible, yet see how they hang down their heads & are troubled in mind, & cast down, and scarce have any comfort all their lives. Now what may be the reason, that they should go so after their own evil wayes, and not be troubled, and the people of God in their exact walking be so much cast down? It was so in Calvins dayes, Spiritus Calvinianus est Spiritus melancholicus, Christians spirits were sad spirits; and this was a stumbling-block to many Papists, who would not follow a sad Religion.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Why Gods Children want assurance.
• * 1.2

  Psal. 51. 12.
• * 1.3

  Psal. 32. 3.
• * 1.4

  Eze. 14. 4.
• * 1.5

  Others.
• * 1.6

  V. 5.
• * 1.7

  Desertion, an of justice.