4. Again, when we are in such a seeming forlorn estate, let us have recourse to former experience, \\1iat is the reason that God vouchsafes his children for the most part in the beginning of their conversion, in their first love, experience of his love to ravishment ? It is, that afterwards they may have recourse to that love of God then felt, to support themselves, and withal to stir up endeavours, and hope ; that finding it not so well ■wdth them now as formerly it hath been, by comparing state with state, desires may be stirred up to be as they were, or rather better, Hosea ii. 7.
And as the remembrance of fonner experiences serve to excite endeavour, so to stir up hope, I hope it shall be as it was, because God is immuta- ble ; I change, but Christ alters not. The inferior elementary world changes. Here is fair weather and foul, but the sun keeps his pei-petual com-se. And as in the gloomiest day that ever was, there was Ught enough to make it day and to distinguish it from night, though the sun did not shine, so in the most disconsolate state of a Christian soul, there is light enough in the soul to shew that the Sun of righteousness is there, and that Christ hath shined upon the soul, that it is day with the soul, and not night, Ps. cxii. 4.
5. And learn when we are in this condition to wait God's leisure, for he hath waited ours. It is for our good, to prepare us for further blessings, to mortify and subdue our corruptions, to enlarge the capacity of the soul, that the Lord absents himself. Therefore Bernard saith well, ' Tibi accidit,' &c., ' Christ comes and goes away for our good.' When he withdrav\-s the sense of his love, the soul thereupon is stretched with desire, that it may be as it was in former time, in the days of old. Thus much for that. ' I sought, but could not find him : I called, but he gave me no answer.'
Obj. Here we must answer one objection before we leave the words. This seems to contradict other Scriptures, which promise that those that seek shall find, Matt. vii. 7.
Ans. It is true they that seek shall find, but not presently. God's times are the best and fittest. They that seek shall find, if they seek constantly with their whole heart in all the means. Some do not find, because they seek in one means and not in another. They seek Christ in reading and not m the ordinance of hearing, in private meditation, but not in the com- munion of saints. We must go through all means to seek Christ, not one must be left. Thus if we will seek him, undoubtedly he will make good his promise. Nay, in some sort, ' he is found before he is sought,' for he is in our souls to stir up desire of seeking him. He prevents us with des.u-es, and answers us in some sort before we pray, Isa. Ixv. 24. When he f;ives us a spirit of prayer, it is a pledge to us, that he means to answe.v us.
118 BOWELS OPENED. [SeRMON XI.
Therefore it is a spiritual deceit when we think Christ is not in us, and we are neglected of him, because we have not all that we would have. Among many other deceits that Christians deceive themselves with in this kind, these be two,
1. That they judge grace hy the quantity and not by the value and price of it ; whereas the least measure of grace and comfort is to be esteemed, because it is an immortal seed cast into the soul by an immortal God, the Father of eternity,* Isa. ix. 6.
2. Another deceit is, that we judge of ourselves hy sense and feeling, and not hy faith.
* The watchman that went about the city foimd me, and smote me, and took away my veil from me.' Here the poor church, after the setting down of her own exercise in her desertion, now sets out some outward ill deal- ing she met with, and that from those that should have been her gi'eatest comforters. * The watchmen that went about the city found me, they wounded me : the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.'
Thus we see how trouble follows trouble. ' One depth calls upon another.' Inward desertion and outward affliction go many' times together. The troubles of the church many times are like Job's messengers. They come fast one upon another, because God means to perfect the work of grace in their hearts. All this is for their good. The sharper the winter the better the spring. Learn hence first of all therefore in general.
That it is no easy thiny to he a sound Christian. We see here, when the church had betrothed herself to Christ and entertained him into her garden, thereafter she falls into a state of security and sleep, whence Christ labours to rouse her up. Then she useth him unkindly. After which he withdi'aws himself, even so far that her heart fails her. Then, as if this were not enough, the watchmen that should have looked to her, ' they smite her, wound her, and take away her veil.' See here the variety of the usage of the church and changes of a Christian ; not long in one state, he is ebbing and flowing.