more effectually to proceed with some other in the same disease. Secondly, though the sick man refuses comfort for the present, yet what doth not sink on a sudden, may soak in by degrees, and may prove profitable afterwards. Thirdly, his. unsucceeding pains may notwithstanding facilitate comfort for another to work in the same body, as Solomon built a temple with most materials formerly provided and brought thither by David. Lastly, grant his pains altogether lost on the wounded conscience, yet his labour is not in vain in the Lord, who without respect to the event, will reward his endeavours. TIM. But what if this minister hath been the means to cast this sick man down, and now cannot comfort him again? PHIL. In such a case, he must make this sad accident the more matter for his humiliation, but not for his dejection. Besides, he is bound, both in honour and honesty, civility and christianity, to procure what he cannot perform, calling in the advice of others more able to assist him, not conceiving, out of pride or envy, that the discreet craving of the help of others is a disgraceful confessing of his own weakness: like those malicious midwives, who had rather that the woman in travail should miscarry, than be safely delivered by the hand of another more skilful than themselves. * 1 Cor. xv. 58. DIALOGUE XVII. What is to be conceived of their final Estate who die in a wounded Conscience without any visible Comfort. WH TIMOTHEUS. HAT think you of such, who yield up their ghost in the agony of an afflicted spirit, without receiving the least sensible degree of comfort? PHIL. Let me be your remembrancer to call or keep in your mind, what I said before, that our discourse only concerns the children of God: this notion renewed, I answer. It is possible that the sick soul may receive secret solace, though the standers by do not perceive it. We know how insensibly Satan may spirt and inject despair into a heart, and shall we not allow the Lord of heaven to be more dexterous and active with his antidotes than the devil is with his poisons? TIM. Surely if he had any such comfort, he would shew it by words, signs, or some way, were it only but to comfort his sad kindred, and content such sorrowful friends which survive him; were there any hidden fire of consolation kindled in his heart, it would sparkle in his looks and gestures, especially seeing no obligation of secrecy is im posed on him, as on the * blind man, when healed, to tell none thereof. PHIL. It may be he cannot discover the comfort he hath received, and that for two reasons: First, because it comes so late, when he lies in the marshes of life and death, being so weak, that he can neither speak, nor make signs with Zechariah, being at that very instant when the silver cord is ready to be loosed, and the golden bowl to be broken, and the pitcher to be broken at the fountain, and the wheel to be broken at the cistern. TIM. What may be the other reason? : PHIL. Because the comfort itself may be incommunicable in its own nature, which the party can take, and not tell; enjoy, and not express; receive, and not impart as by the assistance of God's Spirit, he sent up †groans which cannot be uttered, so the same may from God be returned with comfort which cannot be uttered; and as he had many invisible and privy pangs, concealed from the cognizance of others, so may God give him secret comfort, known unto himself alone, without any other men's sharing in the notice thereof. The heart knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy. So that his comfort may be compared to the new name given to God's servants,§ which no man knoweth, save he that receiveth it. TIM. All this proceeds on what is possible or probable, but amounts to no certainty. * Mark viii. 26. + Rom. viii. 26. § Rev. ii. 17. PHIL. Well, then, suppose the worst, this is most sure, though he die without tasting of any comfort here, he may instantly partake of everlasting joys hereafter. Surely many a despairing soul, groaning out his last breath with fear and thought to sink down to hell, hath presently been countermanded by God's goodness to eternal happiness. TIM. What you say herein, no man alive can confirm or confute, as being known to God alone, and the soul of the party. Only I must confess, that you have charity on your side. * PHIL. I have more than charity, namely, God's plain and positive promise, Blessed are such as mourn, for they shall be comforted. Now though the particular time, when, be not expressed, yet the latest date that can be allowed must be in the world to come, where such mourners, who have not felt God in his comfort here, shall see him in his glory in heaven. TIM. But some who have led pious and godly lives have departed, pronouncing the sentence of condemnation upon themselves, having one foot already in hell by their own confession. PHIL. Such confessions are of no validity, wherein their fear bears false witness against their faith. The fineness of the whole cloth of their life must not be thought the worse of, for a little coarse list at the last. And also their final estate is not to be construed by what was dark, doubtful, and desperate at their deaths, but * Matt. v. 4. must be expounded, by what was plain, clear, and comfortable, in their lives. TIM. You then are confident, that a holy life, must have a happy death. * PHIL. Most confident. The logicians hold, that, although from false premises a true conclusion may sometimes follow; yet from true propositions nothing but a truth can be thence inferred; so, though sometimes a bad life may be attended with a good death, (namely, by reason of repentance, though slow, sincere, though late, yet unfeigned, being seasonably interposed) but where a godly and gracious life hath gone before, there a good death must of necessity follow; which, though sometimes doleful (for want of apparent comfort) to their surviving friends, can never be dangerous to the party deceased. member what St. Paul saith,† Our life is hid with Christ in God. Re TIM. What makes that place to your purpose? PHIL. Exceeding much. Five cordial observations are couched therein. First, that God sets a high price and valuation on the souls of his servants, in that he is pleased to hide them: none will hide toys and trifles, but what is counted a treasure. Secondly, the word hide, as a relative, imports, that some seek after our souls, being none other than Satan himself, that roaring lion, who goes about seeking whom he may devour.‡ But the best is, let him seek, and seek, and seek, * Ex veris possunt, nil nisi vera sequi. |