3 \^\, G'lrask signifies to expulse and cast out, as Adam was ezpulsed out of paradise, Gen. iii. 24. It signifiea an ignominious expulsion.
Rom. VIII. 32--34.] heaven on earth. 381
I am expulsed out of God's sight/ as Moses was expulsed out of Egypt. God hath cast me out as one in whom he can take no pleasure nor de- light, as a husband doth a wife that hath been false and unfaithful to him ; and yet God's heart and love is so set upon Jonah that he will save him by a miracle rather than he shall not be saved. Jonah was much in the heart of God, and God made his faith at last victorious. To these I shall add some other famous instances. In king James his time there was one Mistress Honiwood of Kent, an ancient and religious gentle- woman, who lived many years in much horror and terror of conscience, for want of assurance of the favour of God, and of her eternal well-being. She would very often cry out, 'She was damned, she was damned.' Several men of eminent piety and parts, left no means unattempted, whereby her doubts might be answered, her conscience pacified, and her soul satisfied and cheered ; yet she being strongly under the power of despair, per- sisted in crying out, 'Oh! she was damned, she was damned.' When these gentlemen were about to depart, she called for a cup of wine for them, which being brought, she drank to one of them a glass of the wine, and as soon as she had done, in an extreme passion she threw the Venice glass against the ground, saying, 'As sure as this glass will break, so surely am I damned.' The glass rebounded from the ground without any harm, which one of the ministers suddenly caught in his hand, and said, * Behold, a miracle from heaven to confute your unbelief. Oh ! tempt God no more, tempt God no more.' Both the gentlewoman and all the company were mightily amazed at this strange accident, and all glorified God for what was done ; and the gentlewoman, by the grace and mercy of God, was delivered out of her hell of despair, and was filled with much comfort and joy, and lived and died full of peace and assurance.'
Take another instance. There lived lately at Tilbury, in Essex, a gentleman who was a long time under such an eminent degree of despair, that he rejected all comfort that was tendered to him by any hand, and would not suffer any to pray with him ; nay, he sent to the ministers and Christians that lived near him, and desired them, that as they would not increase his torments in hell, they would cease praying for him. He would not suffer any religious service to be performed in his family, though formerly himself was much in the use of them ; yet God gave him at last such inward refreshings, and by degrees filled him with such abundance of heavenly comforts, as he told all that came to him that it was impossible for any tongue to utter, or heart to ima- gine, that did not feel them. At last God gave him ' the new name, and the white stone, that none knows but he that hath it,' Rev. ii. 17. He lived about three quarters of a year, enjoying heaven upon earth, and then breathed out his last in the bosom of Christ.
Poor I, that am but of yesterday, have known some that have been so deeply plunged in the gulf of despair, that they would throw all the spiritual cordials that have been tendered to them against the walls. They were strong in reasoning against their own souls, and resolved against everything that might be a comfort and support unto them.
*< The truth of this whole story is notoriously known. [Brooks quotes this also in his ' Ark for all God's Noahs,' but there spells the name Hony wood. See Index, sub nomine. -G.]
382 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34'.
They have been much set against all ordinances and religious services ; they have cast off holy duties themselves, and peremptorily refused to join with others in them ; yea, they have, out of a sense of sin and wrath, which hath lain hard upon them, refused the necessary comforts of this life, even to the overthrow of natural life. And yet out of this horrible pit, this hell upon earth, hath God delivered their souls, and given them such manifestations of his grace and favour, that they would not exchange them for a thousand worlds.
O despairing souls, despairing souls, you see that others, whose con- ditions have been as bad, if not worse than yours, have obtained mercy. God hath tiirned their hell into a heaven ; he hath remembered them in their low estate; he hath pacified their raging consciences, and quieted their distracted souls; he hath wiped all tears from their eyes; and he hath been a well-spring of life unto their hearts. Therefore be not discouraged, O despairing souls, but look up to the mercy-seat; remem- ber who is your rest, and kick no more, by despair, against the bowels of divine love.
(2.) The second impediment to assurance is, men's entering into the lists of dispute with Satan about those things that are above their reach, as about the decrees and counsel of God. Oh by this Satan keeps many precious souls off from assurance. Since God hath cast him out of paradise, and bound him in chains of darkness, he will make use of all his skiU, power, and experience to draw men into the same misery with himself ; and if he cannot prevent their entering at last into paradise above, he will labour might and main to make their life a wilderness here below;' and to this purpose he will busy their thoughts and hearts about the decrees of God, and about their particular elec- tions ; as, whether God hath decreed them to eternal happiness, or chosen them to everlasting blessedness, &c., that so by this means he may keep them from that desirable assurance that may yield believers two heavens, a heaven of joy and comfort here, and a heaven of felicity and glory hereafter.^
It is said of Marcellus, the Roman general, that he could not be quiet, nee victor, nee victus, neither conquered, nor conqueror. Such a one is Satan: if he be conquered by faith, yet he will be essaying; if he conquers, yet he will be roaring and triumphing. Satan's great design is eternally to ruin souls ; and where he cannot do that, there he will endeavour to discomfit souls by busying them about the secret decrees and counsels of God. If the soul break through his temptations, as David's worthies did break through the hosts of the Philistines, 1 Sam. xxiii. ] 6, and snap his snares in sunder, as Samson did his cords, Judges XV. 13, 14, then his next shift is to engage them in such debates and disputes that neither men nor angels can certainly and infallibly deter- mine, that so he may spoil their comforts when he cannot take away their crown.
Now thy wisdom and thy work, O doubting soul, lieth not in disput- ing, but in believing, praying, and waiting on God. No way to heaven,
' 2 Sam. xiv. 19, ' Is not the hand of Joah with thee in all this ?' You know how to apply it.