A Consolatory Letter

A Consolatory Letter to an afflicted Conscience, Grace and Peace.

I Understand by your Letter, that you have many and great trials; some external and bodily, some internal and spiritual: as the deprivall of inward comfort, the buffetings (and that in more then ordinary manner) of your soul, with Satan's temptations: and (which makes all those inward and outward, the more heavy and insupportable) that you have wanted Christian society with the Saints of God, to whom you might make known your griefs, and by whom you might receive comfort from the Lord, and encouragement in your Christian course.

Now that which I earnestly desire in your behalf, and hope likewise you do in your own, is that you may draw nearer to God, and be more conformable to his command by these afflictions; for if our afflictions be not sanctified, that is, if we make not an holy use of them by purging out the old leaven of our ingenerate corruptions, they are but judgments to us, and makes way for greater plagues: John. 5.14. And therefore the chief end and aim of God in all the afflictions which he sends to his children in love, is, that they may be partakers of his holiness, and so their afflictions may conduce to their spiritual advantage and profit, Heb. 12.10. The Lord aims not at himself in any calamities he lays on us, (for God is so infinitely all-sufficient▪ that we can add nothing to him by all our doings or sufferings) but his main aim is at our Melioration and Sanctification in and by them. And therefore our duty in every affliction and pressure, is thus to think with ourselves: How shall we carry and behave ourselves under this cross, that our souls may reap profit by it? This (in one word) is done by our returning and drawing nearer to the Lord, as his holy Apostle exhorts us. This in all calamities the Lord hath a special eye unto, and is exceeding wroth if he find it not.

The Prophet declares That his anger was not turned from Israel, because they turned not to him that 〈◊〉 them. Now it is impossible that a man should draw nigh to God, and turn to him, if he turn not from his evil ways: for in every conversion there is Terminus à quo, something to be turned from, as well as Terminus ad quod, something to be turned to.

Now, that we must turn to, is God; and that we must turn from, is sin; as being diametrally opposite to God, and that which separates between God and us.

To this purpose we must search and try our hearts and ways, and see what sins there be that keep us from God, and separate us from his gracious favor: and chiefly we must weed out our special bosom-sins. This the ancient Church of God counsels each other to do in the time of their anguish and affliction, Lament. 3.39, 40. Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord: for though sin make not a final divorce betwixt God and his chosen people, yet it may make a dangerous rupture by taking away sense of comfort, and suspending the sweet influence of his favor, and the effectual operation of his grace.

And therefore (dear Sir) my earnest suit and desire is, that you would di • igently peruse the book of your conscience, enter into a thorough search and examination of your heart and life; and every day before you go to bed, take a time of recollection and meditation, (as holy Isaac did in his private walks) holding a privy Session in your soul, and indicting yourself for all the sins, in thought, word, or act committed, & all the good duties you have omitted. This self-examination, if it be so strict and rigid as it ought to be, will soon show you the sins whereto you are most inclinable, (the chief cause of all your sorrows) and consequently, it will (by God's assistance) effectually instruct you to fly from those venomous and fiery serpents, which have so stung you.

And though you have (as you say) committed many grievous sins, as abusing God's gracious ordinances, and neglecting the golden opportunities of grace: the original, as you conceive of all your troubles; yet I must tell you, there is another Coloquintida in the pot, another grand enormity (though you perceive it not) and that is your separation from God's Saints and Servants in the Acts of his public Service and worship. This you may clearly discern by the affliction it self, for God is methodical in his corrections, and doth (many times) so suite the cross to the sin, that you may read the sin in the cross. You confess that your main affliction, and that which made the other more bitter, is, that God took away those to whom you might make your complaint; and from whom you might receive comfort in your distress. And is not this just with God, that when you willfully separate yourself from others, he should separate others from you? Certainly, when we undervalue mercy, especially so great a one as the communion of Saints is, commonly the Lord takes it away from us, till we learn to prize it to the full value. Consider well therefore the heinousness of this sin, which that you may the better conceive, First, consider it is against God's express Precept, charging us not to forsake the assemblies of the Saints, Heb. 10.20.25. Again, it is against our own greatest good and spiritual folace, for by discommunicating & excommunicating ourselves from that blessed society, we deprive ourselves of the benefit of their holy conference, their godly instructions, their divine consolations, brotherly admonitions, and charitable reprehensions; and what an inestimable loss is this? Neither can we partake such profit by their prayers as otherwise we might: for as the soul in the natural body conveys life and strength to every member, as they are compacted and joined together, and not as dis-severed; so Christ conveys spiritual life and vigor to Christians, not as they are disjoined from, but as they are united to the mystical body, the Church.

But you will say England is not a true Church, and therefore you separate; adhere to the true Church.

I answer, our Church is easily proved to be a true Church of Christ: First, because it hath all the essentials, necessary to the constitution of a true Church; as sound preaching of the Gospel, right dispensation of the Sacraments, Prayer religiously performed, and evil persons justly punished (though not in that measure as some criminals and malefactors deserve:) and therefore a true Church.

2. Because it hath begot many spiritual children to the Lord, which for soundness of judgment, and holiness of life, are not inferior to any in other Reformed Churches. Yea, many of the Separation, if ever they were converted, it was here with us: (which a false and adulterous Church communicated.)

But I hear you reply, our Church is corrupted with Ceremonies, and pestered with profane Persons. What then? must we therefore separate for Ceremonies, which many think may be lawfully used: But admit they be evils, must we make a tent in the Church for Ceremonious Rites, for circumstantial evils? That were a remedy worse then the disease. Besides, had not all the true Churches of Christ their blemishes and deformities, as you may see in seven Asian Churches? Revel. 2. and 3. And though you may find some Churches beyond Sea free from Ceremonies, yet notwithstanding they are more corrupt in Preachers, (which is the main) as in profanation of the Lord's day, &c.

As for wicked and profane Persons amongst us, though we are to labor by all good means to purge them out, yet are we not to separate because of this residence with us: for, there will be a miscellany and mixture in the visible Church, as long as the world endures, as our Savior shows by many parables: Matth. 13. If therefore we should be so over-just as to abandon all Churches for the intermixture of wicked Persons, we must sails to the Antipodes, or rather go out of the world, as the Apostle speaks: it is agreed by all that Noah's Ark was a type and emblem of the Church. Now as it had been no less then self-murder for Noah, Sem, or Japheth, to have leapt out of the Ark▪ because of that ungracious Gains company; so it is no better then soul-murder for a man to cast himself out of the Church, either for real or imaginall corruptions. To conclude, as the Angel enjoined Hagar to return, and submit to her Mistress Sarah, so let me admonish you to return yourself from these extravagant courses, and submissively to render yourself to the sacred communion of this truly Evangelical Church of England.

I beseech you therefore, as you respect God's glory and your own eternal salvation, as There is but one body and one spirit, one Lord, one Baptisms, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in 〈◊〉 all; so endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, as the Apostle sweetly invites you. So shall the peace of God ever establish you, and the God of peace ever preserve you; which is the prayer of