Joy in Tribulation, Chapter 12
CHAP. XII. Meditation in these comforts given in the Sacraments.
NOw here againe let us commune with our owne hearts, and say; Why, oh my soule, art thou so distracted, and rent with doubts and distrustfull feares? Hast thou not the seales of Gods Covenant for thee, yea, in thee? If hee will doe thee good, shall any creature bee able to hurt thee? If he will knit my heart to him in his feare, what shall separate it from his love? Oh be perswaded (for which thou hast so strong evidence and assurance) That no tribulation, Rom. 8.38, 39.nor anguish, nor life, nor death, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come shall be able to seperate thee from the love of God, which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. Now therefore cast thy burthen upon his truth; leane and stablish all thy hopes upon these his sealed Promises. Oh let perfect love cast out all distrust and feare. Assure thy selfe hee will not, nay, in his truth cannot faile thee in such assurances. How should not he pitty his owne (though never so weake) life in thee, who pittied thy death in sinne? How should hee hate thee now his childe, who loved thee once an enemy? Oh my God, as thou hast given me an eye, in some measure, to see my sinfull filthinesse; so hast thou given me an heart, in the same measure, to loath my selfe so polluted and filthy. Lord, thou hast made mee to know, and I desire with more feeling, to acknowledge that I am beyond measure, beyond mine owne apprehension, in nature, horrible and lothsome: my roote, rottennesse; my stalke, corruption; my fruit, contagion; more vile than the earth I tread on, more polluted than the dung I scorne to tread on. But (oh incomprehensible heigth, depth, bredth and length of thy grace!) those thine infinitely pure eies could even then with compassion behold this unmeasurably impure and infectious mire, when no eye pittied me, when I had no pitty on my selfe, even then hadst thou compassion on me.Ezek. 16. When I was cast out as the execrable and loathsome dunghill of the world, even then d…ddest thou not despise me: I was dead in sinne, stinking in the grave of my lusts, yet even then didst thou say unto me, Live. Thou washedst mee with the water of life, the Blood of the Lord Jesus; annoyntedst me with the oyle of thy gracious Spirit, and diddest set thine owne beauty upon me. Iob. 6. 32, 33.Thou hast nourished me with the true Manna, That bread of heaven, which giveth life unto the world: And daily dost thou vouchsafe to renew mee after thine image, and to strengthen thy life and nature in me.
And now my God, is there any thing like this, to be like to thee? Oh what an honour, what a Crowne is this unto me? In all other endowments every creature may excell me. Stones more durable, Plants more vegetative, Beasts more sensible, even Divels more wise and understanding: But herein hast thou magnified thy grace toward me thy abject Creature, that I excell other workes of thy hands in that, wherein thou (my glorious God) excellest thy selfe: that thou hast printed thy holinesse, thy Divine image and beauty upon me, and crowned me with thy glory and honor. Rejoyce then, oh my soule, in the Lord, and dance for joy. His grace hath prevented, and farre out-runne thy wishes: As the first Adam lost all his happinesse by his ambitious desires to bee like unto God in knowing good and evill, so the second Adam hath restored all happinesse, by satisfying our ambition, in making us like himselfe, in loving good, and hating evill. The life and estate which thou enjoyest in Christ, the nourishment of that life, and the assurance of that estate, equalleth, and transcendeth thy most ambitious desires and wishes.Phil. 4…4. Rejoyce then in the Lord, againe I say rejoyce: for the world is thine, 1 Cor. 3.22things present, and to come, are thine, life and death are thine, nay, the Lord of life is thine, thy portion, the seale of thy portion, and of thine inheritance in glory.