The Whole Duty of a Christian, Chapter 18
CHAP. XVIII.
§ 1. NInthly, His very sins and infirmities by Gods grace do work his good, and he is by much the better for them, for he will from hence grow more holy. Yea, he gains strength by every fall: for hence issues deeper humiliation, stronger hatred of sinne, fresh indignation against himself, more experience of his hearts deceitfulnesse, renewed resolutions untill sinne be brought under: it makes him more earnest with God by prayer, to keep a more careful watch over himself; to pity others more, and censure them lesse when they offend or are overtaken: to rest wholly upon the assistance of Gods Spirit, and to a…cribe all glory to him, of whom whatsoever he hath he holds. True, his offending God brings much misery upon him, and God seems to have left him, and to reject his prayers and humiliation: but at length, and so soon as the poor soul ceaseth to do ev…, and learns to do well, the Lord repenteth him of the evil; and not only delivers him, but returns with the greater interest of joy and felicity. Indeed the Lord lets him know what it is to lose his favour, and makes him tugg hard by prayer, and to persevere a long time in kn…cking and asking: but at length he will be sure to give him what he desires, or that which is better for him; for the prayer of faith, from the knees of humility and a broken heart, will conquer even the Conqueror. Indeed, the case may be such that he cannot pray, or not to purpose; as in time of sicknesse, by reason of the extremity of pain: but then he can send to the Congregations, & intreat them to pray for him. Besides, all his former prayers and meditations, do serve to ayd him in his last straits, and meet together in the center of his extremity; yeelding though not sensible relies, yet secret benefit to his soul. Yea (which is best of all) he hath the benefit of Christs intercession in Heaven, and of the prayers of all the Saints on earth.
§ 2. Tenthly, The malice of Satan shall make much for his good: for if Satan be sent to buffe… him as he did Paul, or to winnow him as he would have done Peter, it is that he may not be exalted: his malice shall prove the occasion of much good to him, as it did to the incestuous Corinthian: or if God lets him loose upon him as it did upon Iob, it shall but advance the glory of God, manifest this Beleevers patience, occasion his own shame, &c. so the Devil shall be over-shot in his own bow, and wounded with his own weapon. And so it is, that to all whom God hath any interest in, this Scorpion shall prove a medicine against the sting of the Scorpion. For though he aym at despair and destruction, yet God ayms▪ at humiliation and conversion, yea at consolation and salvation: and when the sinner is sufficiently humbled, Satan shall be cashiered; that Horse-leach shall be taken off, when he hath sufficiently abated the vicious and superfluous bloud; so that he shall be healed by wounding, exalted by humbling: Satan shall help him to the destruction of his flesh (his corruption,) and the edification of his soul.
§ 3. Eleventhly, Death, the last and strongest enemy of all, shall do him the greatest good of all. He may be killed, but he cannot be hurt nor conquered: for even Death, that Fiend, is to him a friend: like the Red Sea to the Israelites, that put them over to the Land of Promise, whiles it drowned their enemies. It is his bridge from woe to glory, for dying he sleeps, and sleeping he rests from all the travels of a toylsome life, to live in joy and blisse for evermore. It is to him the end of all sorrowes, and the beginning of his everlasting joyes, the cessation of all trouble, a Superse…eas for all diseases, the extinction of sinne, the deliverance from enemies, a rescue from Satan, the quiet rest of the body, and infranchisement of the soul.