Believer's estimate there is but one main chief good and that 's to draw near to God and all other things are only good reductive as either they may be reduced to this or we led 1 Sam. 25. 8. Esther 8. 17. to God by them Some call it a good Time and the Scripture calls it a good Day that 's a day and time of feasting and rejoycing but if they be Festivals rather than Holy Days times in which we run a whoring from God rather than draw near to him account that day to thee the worst in the year in which thou runnest furthest from God and let that ever be accounted good Company and good Employment c. in and after which thy heart was most drawn out after God but if more deaded and straitned God and thy Soul more estranged by it either certainly it was bad in it self or at least unhappily it proved not good to thee If Jacob take a Wife of the Daughters of Heth what good will my life do me said Rebekah Gen. 27. 46. And what good will the goodliest Beauties and most delightful Objects in the World do thee if as the Daughters of Heth did Esau's so they draw off thine heart from God whom to draw near and keep close to is so good as nothing is good without it nothing so bad as that which comes most cross to it And this for direction of our Judgment in a right estimate of true goodness 2. Of our practice in our earnestest pursuit after our own happiness Let this Text It 's good for me to draw near and keep close to God be ever our Vade mecum to quicken us still and ever to draw nearer and cleave faster Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you saith the Apostle Jam. 4. 8. The Promise is very heartning that in these our approaches God as the Father to the Prodigal will meet us the half way but therefore it layeth a greater engagement upon us to mind the Duty Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of Faith having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience Heb. 10. 22. Happy that we may that such as whose unworthiness is such as their place is with the Publican to stand afar off and whose Guilt Luk. 18. 13. is such as with Cain may make them run from God may have liberty and boldness of access to draw near to God that the Exod. 3. 2. Bush should burn and not be consumed was not so great a Miracle as that such dry Stubble as we are should draw nigh to that God which is a consuming Fire and not perish in everlasting Burnings That Blood of Sprinkling which hath quenched the Fire of God's Wrath being sprinkled on us hath so cooled the inflammations of our wounded and afrighted Consciences that we with humble boldness may draw near We had need therefore look to it that we do And here now the faithful Soul breaths out the Psalmist's Prayer Lord cause me to know the way for I lift up my Soul unto Psal 143. 8. Psal 27. 8. thee Thou sayest unto me Seek ye my Face and my heart ecchoes back again Thy Face O Lord will I seek When thou callest to us Return ye back-sliding Children from our Souls we return this Answer Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Jer. 3. 22. Lord our God Thou hast fastned Cords of Love upon our Hearts thou hast savingly touched them that they strongly move towards thee they cleave to thee or they follow hard after thee as it is Psal 63. 8. But the distance between thee and us is great the obstacles many and the way hard we are to be found yet so to walk in it as by it to attain to these blessed Approaches and therefore here the main Query is in what way and by what means we may so draw near to thee as to cleave close and abide with thee for ever SERMON XXXI PSAL. 73. 28. III. Sermon Preacht at St. Maries Decemb 2. 1649. It is good for me to draw near to God THe best Prospect to take View of the Creature 's Beauty is at a greater Distance and in a transient Glance whilst nearer standing and longer looking discovers Blemishes and Deformities in choicest Beauties But Moses bids Israel stand still if they would see God's Salvation Here Juvat usque morari when gotten upon the Mount to a Glymps of this Transfiguration Peter thinks it's good to be here He was â—â—t well awake when he spake of making a Tabernacle he should have said a Mansion Which I hope will excuse my longer dwelling upon this Text which speaks of our drawing near to God with whom it 's best to abide for ever In two former Sermons I have â—â—deavoured to shew how Good how every way Good it is to draw near to God and that it might come the nearer to us I have endeavoured also to set it home in the Application Now as to that Question which in the Close of the last Discourse was but barely propounded viz. In and by what Way and Means we may draw near to God I say as to that Question when Thomas was stumbling on it our Saviour returns this full Answer John 14 5 6. I am the Way the Truth and the Life no Man cometh unto the Father but by me We come to God by Christ Heb. 7. 25. But of this before And therefore it now only remaineth to shew by what Means and after what Manner we may by Christ thus draw near to God And here let me Premise in general That 1. First it must be in due time according to that Isa 55. 6. Seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near That Glorious God who in the perfection of his Essence and Majesty is at an infinit Distance from us and yet further removed by our sins is pleased so far to humble himself and stoop to us as graciously to look towards us and sometimes especially to draw very near to us as the Sun from on High in the Firmament by darting down his warm Light and inlivening Beams especially in his Summer-approaches In the Ministry of his Word God holds out his Hand Rom. 10. 21. and by the Inspirations of his Spirit he lays hold on our Hearts In both our Beloved puts in his Hand by the hole of the Door Cant. 5. 4. and saith as unto Thomas Reach hither thy Finger and put thy Hand into my Side Or as to his Spouse Cant. 2. 13. Arise John 20. 27. my Love my fair One and come away When thus Christ by his Spirit comes a Woing to the Spouse and after this manner whispers in thy Heart he is come very near thee as our Saviour said even at the Doors And now that this Door stands Mark 13. 29. open and Christ is coming out to meet thee now come forth ye Daughters of Jerusalem and behold King Solomon Cant. 3.
a fervent and filial Love of God for Spiritus noster adhaeret Deo per intimum amorem so Alensis Love in its nature is Appetitus unionis and as such carrieth the Soul out of it self to the desired Embraces of its beloved Object 2 Sam. 13. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 David longed or he was consumed with desire of going out to a beloved Absalom The Love of God I am sure carrieth out the ravished Soul to God in Divine Extasies as Dionysius expresseth it This Glutinum animae as Bernard calls it How quickly doth it catch and how fast doth it cleave These Cords of Love how strongly do they draw And how firmly do they bind The loving Wife and Châ—â—d is not well if not in the beloved Father's arms and Husband's presence Had we more of the Love of God in our Hearts we could not live without him It would be death to part with him We could not be such aloof-off Strangers if we were more loving Friends 3. To Love add Fear for although servile Fear as in Cain Gen. 4. 16. makes the Slave run from his Master yet a filial Fear brings the Child as Neh. 1. 11. into his Father's presence They shall walk after the Lord and tremble from the West saith the Prophet Hos 11. 12. Trepide accurrent they shall tremble but they shall come trembling This Fear will make us flie but into our Father's arms stand at a reverential distance and yet even then on our Knees creep toward him And how deep is the awful Child put into the Father's bosome Whilst the bold Wanton is thrust away and bid stand further off God's Salvation is nigh to them that fear him Psal 85. 9. and where his Salvation is so near he himself is not far off In a word this Fear is most of all afraid of sin which alone separates us from God as we heard from Isa 59. 2. It cannot therefore but bring us very near which removes that which only can keep us asunder 4. Humility is wont to be the Fear of God's attendant and when the one is trembling in its nearer approach this much helps it to a more safe and easie access for though it fall low yet it lifteth up the Soul in the rebound much nearer to God The Psalmist saith that he humbleth himself in looking down upon us Psal 113. 6. But we by humbling our selves get nearer and the higher up to him who is wont to have respect to the humble whilst the proud he useth to behold afar off Psal 138. 6. For if none of us can Prov. 3. 34. endure a proud Man's company why should How can God We that are so mean and low might better away with an insolent Superiour But how can the most high God indure a proud Competitor And yet such is every proud Man contests with God about the two main Points of his Royalty who should be the Prima Causa and Finis Vltimus But the nearer he aspires to be to God in one sense the further he is from him in another who scorns the Scorners but gives Grace to the lovely Prov. 3. 34. Lucifer that climbed so high above the Clouds to get Isa 14. 14. near to be like the most High is cast down to the utmost possible distance whilst Michael whose very Name speaks humble Acknowledgment and Adoration of God's Supremacy is advanced to his place from which his Pride threw him as our proud attempt in Adam to scale Heaven was as I may use the Prophet's words such a swelling in an high wall that hath tumbled Isa 30. 13. us down far off from God into this woful Ruine wherein he now finds us At magna humilitatis virtus cui etiam Deitatis Bernard Majestas tam facile se inclinat How gracious is this lowly Grace or rather how Gracious is the High and Mighty God that when we in humility bow down and as it were shrink back from him in sense of our own Baseness he should then bow down lowest to us in nearest Approximation So as Heaven should never be more clearly seen than in the lowest Vault nor we ever nearer God than when we are furthest from all proud Conceits of our selves 5. Repentance and Humility are near akin and whilst these two lovely Twins are not parted they will keep us closer united to God The penitent Publican indeed stood afar off Luke 18. 13. yet in their Addresses to God we know he got the upper hand of him that thought and bragged himself to be the better Man It 's true some of our now overgrown Men think repentant Crys and Tears Childish yet let me be one of those Children of whom is the Kingdom of Heaven Nor let their scoffs babish us as long as the crying Child is laid closest to the Mother's breast and taken nearest into our Heavenly Father's Bosome For so the Psalmist assureth us that the Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart Psal 34. 18. Deus delinquentium gemitus esurit sitit lachrymas peccatorum so Chrysologus Serm. 33. Nothing more pleasing in God's sight than a repentant Tear in Faiths Eye Which leads to a Sixth Particular 6. Above all saith the Apostle take the Shield of Faith when you draw near to fight with your worst Enemy Ephes 6. 16. And I must advise you above all bring Faith along with you if you would ever draw near to your best Friend There is nothing in Faith that hath not a strong tendency this way In its justifying Act it hath an Eye to look towards God Isa 45. 22. a Foot to come to him John 6. 35. an Hand to take him John 1. 12. to lean on him Cant. 8. 5. to lay hold on him Isa 56. 4. 1 Tim. 6. 12. Heb 6. 18. so opens the Door Rev. 3. 20. that he may come in and sup with us And because no walking together unless agreed and made Friends Amos 3. 3. It layeth hold on Christ our Mediator and Reconciler which brings God and us together Brings our Benjamin along with it by whom we have access into Joseph's presence By it we come to Christ and by him to God Through him we have access but by Faith saith the Apostle Rom. 5. 2. There is also the Prayer of Faith Jam. 5. 15. and by it we heard we have access and entrance And the Scripture tells us and Believers find that there is such a thing as the Assurance of Faith in which the Apostle exhorts us to draw nigh Heb. 10. 22. In this Plerophory our Sail is so filled that we go amain towards God and Heaven We do because it tells us we may that whilst Infidelity dares not approach She trusted not in the Lord she drew not nigh to her God Zeph. 3. 2. and despair in Horror and Amazement makes us run away from him as from our Enemy and Judg the assurance of Faith imboldens us to draw nigh to him as our Friend and
to Christ and Heaven To this purpose God even in Paradise would have some Trees Sacramental and Mystical that Adam in that Garden might rise higher than Philosophical speculation and not perish by a Tree of Knowledg but be fed and live by a Tree of Life And for this end likewise Christ as he useth so many Parables and spiritualizeth outward things so he is set out by the Name of some of the Chief and Choice of all kinds of Beings The Angel of the Covenant amongst the Angels the Sun and Morning-Star in the Heavens The Rock and Precious Stone among the Inanimates The Vine and Apple-Tree amongst Vegetables and both Lion and Lamb amongst Sensitives And so of the rest that as Quaelibet herba Deum so in every Creature we see and feel after and find Christ and that as all of them were Acts 17. at first made by him so by all we might be led to him Which therefore in the last place is that which we should all be seriously exhorted to Vse 3 1. That we would not have our desires terminated and so take up with any or all such outward Mercies and Salvations which in the World we may be entertain'd with but still to seek on till we find a better Saviour and Salvation which we may safely and quietly rest in as Joseph and Mary stay not with their Kinsfolk and Acquaintance till they find the Child Jesus Luke 2. 44 45 46. and mean while they seek him sorrowing ver 48. The Beggar that is ready to die for Hunger though he have never so much else given him if not Food waits still as wanting that which he came for and had most need of When Christ said to the Blind-man What wilt thou that I shall Luke 18. 41. do unto thee His answer is Lord that I may receive my sight A Sinner that hath his Eyes so far open as to see Christ's Worth and his own want of him would have said Lord that I might receive Thee A poor Believer hath a further and greater Errand to Christ than for Corn and Wine or outward Safety and Prosperity which those in Hos 7. 14. howled upon their Beds for He hath a Soul to be both saved and satisfied and nothing can do either of them but Christ only O that we had such hungring thirsting desires after him that nothing might stay our Stomachs without him much-less take away our Stomachs as too too oft they do from him Nor is this all that Speech of Jacob calls upon us for not only not to be taken off or hindred in the out-goings of our Souls to Christ by being satisfied with those outward Mercies and Deliverances But 2. By them as Helps to be drawn out and raised up in our desires after him It 's great Mercy if by any means our Hearts may be led out to him though they be the Horrors of Conscience that prick us the Terrors of the Law that whip us outward Wants that drive us or Dangers that affright us It 's well if any thing will bring us even Chains of Affliction will draw us to him but yet not so well as if they were those Cords of Love If we might be preserved in Sugar rather than in Brine If comfortable Supplies and Deliverances be not as Seats to sit down but as Foot-stools to get up to Christ by In times of Want and Danger to seek Christ may be rather to seek our selves than him and to make our selves our End when we only make use of Christ as a means to it Such may be shaken off with Jephtah's check Ye did thus and thus unto me and why are you come to me now that ye are in distress Judg. 11. 7. more out of love of your selves than to me And the like also may be said if In times of enjoyment of Mercy and Deliverance we rejoyce in God and seem to love and praise him This also may be Self-love rather than the Love of God They might rejoyce in God's great Goodness Neh. 9. 25. who yet did not serve him in his great Goodness ver 35. And he might say Blessed be God for I am rich Zech. 11. 5. who yet never truly praised him This may be but their following of Christ for Loaves John 6. 26. as the Roman Emperours did Populum annonâ demereri Heinsius Exercit. But thus to love God and Christ in his Mercies that He is the Oyl of Gladness swimming on the top of all that we are no way satisfied with them without him and best satisfied when we enjoy Him in them and by them this shews the ingenuity of our Love and that it 's not the World or Self but Christ that is the Object of it That as Paul said to his Corinthians I seek not yours but you so it is not our selves but Christ that we 2 Cor. 12. 14. love and desire and not his Portion but his Person and not so much Man's as his Salvation And therefore to conclude as in all our gettings we are to get Wisdom Prov. 4. 7. So in all our seekings let us seek after Christ And in and above all our Enjoyments let us enjoy and eye Him As Jacob here in Sampson's salvation had a further longing look at His. And so Hannah 1 Sam. 2. in a Samuel looks at a Saviour And therefore as it hath been observed by some her Song at his Birth and Mary's at the news of Christ's in many Passages of both very much agree and are perfect Vnisons And this further that Song of Hannah will to our present purpose inform us that the Eying of Christ in all other Mercies will 1. Make little Mercies great As the Diamond adds Value to the Brass-Ring And the Figure added makes empty Cyphers vastest Numbers And so you shall observe that Hannah in that Song for her gaining a Son and prevailing against her Adversary Peninnah as concerning their Houshold-talk and Womens Brabbles speaks of greater Matters carries it in a very high Key in the strain of a Triumphant Song of some glorious Conquerour And such indeed Christ was whom she in that looked at and where ever Faith seeth him it seeth Magnum though in Parvo which will make little Mercies great 2. Will not be they never so great let the heart rest in The greater Light dims the lesser them which would be a dangerous Disease of a vain love-sick Soul like those Obstructions in the Body when those Vessels that should convey Spirit and Nourishment to the other parts stop and intercept them by the way but like the Tennis-Ball toucheth upon the Ground yet thereby rebounds upward so it from the Earth mounts up Heaven-ward as Jacob here from deliverance by Sampson riseth up to Christ's Though Sampson as the Serpent by the way so bites the Horse heels that his Rider falls backward and so he is saved from him yet that 's not enough not all that he looks for And therefore he adds I have waited for
unhappy days gives too sad Examples of many who have indeed got as far from God as they think they are above Ordinances but till we gain Heaven where we shall at the next hand see and enjoy God without such mediums let all sober-hearted Christians ever keep close to them as they would ever draw near to him 1. To the Ministry of the Word in which if the Minister do not so much jingle in the Ear as labour to fasten Nails and Goads in the Heart Eccles 12. 11. that it come to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 34. 1. 58. 2. an ingrafted Word Jam. 1. 21. It then and God in it comes very near to us as we do to him as Scholars sitting down at his feet to hear his Instructions Deut. 33. 3. or as Servants standing Ezek. 33. 31. before him to receive his Commands as Children and Friends from his gracious Promises to carry away intimations of his Love and his Threats prick our hearts Acts 2. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 4. 20. fastning the Eye and putting the Ear to his Mouth as it was said of our Saviour's Auditors Luke 19. 48. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they hung upon him to hear him By these mutual out-goings of the Soul to God and God to it they come in this Ordinance to an happy meeting and then are very near 2. As likewise in the Sacraments it 's very near that we either do or may draw on to Christ In our Liturgy we say well Draw near c. not so much to the Minister as to God He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him and as I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me John 6. 56 57. Though no Popish corporal Transubstantiation yet there is a very near spiritual union set out by three very strong and almost strange Expressions Of a kind of Concorporation as of the Meat and the Body that is fed by it in that Metaphor of eating and drinking Of a mutual cohabitation or coinhabitation in that other of his dwelling in us and we in him Nay of a more divine coalition into the same Nature as in that third expression of our living by Christ as he by the Father In it with the Elders of Israel we go up to God in the Mount Exod. 24. 11. And it 's mercy that as it 's there said he doth not lay his hand upon us but that we may eat and drink draw so near as Children to sit down at our Father's Table with John to lean on our Saviour's Brest and with Thomas be bid reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless but believing John 20. 27. It was our sin that when we more frequently enjoyed Sacraments we drew no nearer to Christ in them and therefore it 's deservedly our misery that we are cut short of such opportunities of these blessed Approaches now in our too much want of them 3. In the Communion of Saints if rightly improved we may enjoy very near and full communion with God and therefore the Apostle when he had said Let us draw near with a true heart to God Heb. 10. 22. he adds not forsaking the assembling of our selves together Thither God comes down to us Matth. 18. 20. and thereby our mutual help as upon one another's shoulders our hearts are gotten nearer up to him The Saints are a People near to him Psal 148. 14. and therefore they that keep close to them are not far from him as they that dwell in the Court are near to the King 4 I add Prayer for Petitioners use to draw near when they tender their Petitions Numb 32. 16. and so do God's Suppliants when they present him with their Prayers 1 Sam. 14. 37. In Prayer we seek him fall down at his footstool come into his presence We speak to him we lift up our Eyes Hands and Souls to him we wrestle with him These and such-like Expressions of it we meet with in Scripture and they all speak drawing near to him according to Jamblichus his description of it that it 's Copula quâ homines cum Deo conjunguntur Clavis quâ Dei penetralia aperiuntur the Soul's Wing by which it mounts up to Heaven and the Key that opens the Gate of Heaven and lets us into the presence of the everlasting King How deep doth it thrust both Petition and Petitioner into its Saviour's Bosom And how often doth the loving Father with a sweet kiss take up the weeping Child from his knees into his Arms How near doth he bow the Ear and how low doth he reach down his hand to take us by ours when it 's lifted up to him O the blessed interviews in this Duty when God's and our Eye meet Thou drewest near in the day when I called upon thee said Psal 145. 18. the lamenting Church Lament 3. 57. When for any other relief she could say The Comforter that should relieve my Soul is far from me Chap. 1. 16. In Prayer God draweth near to the Soul and the Soul to God and one of his main Suits as Esther's first was for the King's company and the second for it Esther 5. 7 8. again the second time so it is that God would both draw nearer himself and draw it also nearer Draw nigh to my Soul Psal 69. 18. and draw my Soul nearer to thee unite my heart Psal 86. 11. With holy Austin Redde mihi te Deus meus redde Confess l. 13. c. 8. te mihi ut currat vita mea in amplexus tuos O convert me and I shall be converted Jer. 31. 18. Draw me and we shall run after thee Cant. 1. 4. as well knowing that we cannot draw near to him till he draw near to us first We cannot come till the Father draw John 6. 44. and therefore the Child reacheth out the hand in Prayer and layeth hold on the Father that he may draw and thereby it also may draw nearer And thus we see how by these and the like Ordinances as by means appointed and sanctified by God we do or at least may draw near unto him Which saith these things to us 1. First therefore use them and carefully attend on them as ever we would draw near to God who for that very end hath appointed them and as we would not with the Pharisees Luk. 7. 30. reject the Counsel of God against our selves it 's there said they did it in refusing one Ordinance of Baptism Too many now reject not only that but all Ordinances else But do they get the nearer to God by it No The Autumn's witherings tell us that the Sun is withdrawn backward and the woful decays of fome of their both Professions and Practises saith that the Sun of Righteousness instead of drawing nearer is got further off Ordinances are sanctified Means of our approach
to God His going is in the Sanctuary Psal 68. 24. He meets us in them and therefore make Conscience to use them 2. Because but means therefore rest not in them till we find that we draw near to God by them Not in Prayer till either God draw near to us in a gracious Answer or at least we get so near him as by Faith to lay hold on him in a more serious wrestling Not in hearing till God speak something to our hearts Nor in receiving till we feel him strengthning us with strength in our Souls Till we see the glory of God filling the Tabernacle as Exod. 40. 34. the Holy Ghost falling upon us whilst we are hearing the Word as Acts 10. 44. and Jesus Christ coming in and breathing upon us when we are met together in such Ordinances as John 20. 22. Let the Spouse abide in the Bed of Loves but let her seek her Beloved there Our falling short of this and sitting down with the enjoyment of bare Ordinances Cant. 3. 1. 1. Makes others as we see undervalue and despise them whilst we rest in them We in so doing make them our Idols and then they think they have thence just ground to make them their Abominations 2. For our selves instead of growing better and drawing nearer to God by them by this means we prove worse and are set further off None further from God and Salvation than they that take up in means of Salvation without enjoying God in them as none more sure to fall short of his journies end than he that sits down as having gone far enough when he hath gotten on but the half way My Friend may be gotten the further off and it may be past hope of overtaking whilst in the dark I take fast hold of his Garment and think that by so doing I keep him as fast by me 3. At best nothing at all the better as your Phrase is never the nearer for all those outward approaches It will be but the grasping of the Cloud instead of Juno a looking into the Grave when Christ is risen a seeking in the Bed when the Beloved is withdrawn an enquiring in the Temple when the Glory of the Lord is departed And what a poor empty forlorn thing is the most Royal Palace when the Court hath left it The former Lustre and Majesty which the King of Heaven's Presence conferred to a heedful Eye makes his Court look the more Desolate when he is withdrawn So that whilst others jollily vaunt and chant it The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Jer. 7 4. Lord the Temple of the Lord are these Yet the chast Spouse not withstanding all these is at a loss and still upon the Inquest with her Saw ye him whom my Soul loveth As long as she cannot Cant. 3. 3. Mat. 12. 6. find him there who is greater than the Temple who too often finds cause enough in us on his part to leave his House Jer. 12. 7. and then thou mayst come and knock hard and yet not meet with him but more often on our parts when he is most graciously and powerfully present there to others we are absent from him because absent from our selves our Thoughts wandering and then the Mind is in another place we drowsing and the Man asleep is in another World Though God be in that Place yet Jacob when asleep is not aware of it Gen. 28. 16. And Lot when drowsie and drunk together knows Gen. 19. 33 35. not when his Daughters lie down and rise up And so we may come and go to and again to God's Ordinances and yet whilst we are in like Distempers he and we may continue very strangers Ordinances are like those Golden Pipes Zech. 4. 2. and yet but Pipes do us no good will be but empty to us unless they empty into us that Golden Oyl ver 12. Sweetest Breasts of Consolation but we shall suck Wind rather than Nourishment unless like the Suckling we then find our selves in our Heavenly Father's Arms and laid close to our Saviour's Breast to suck Life-Blood from his wounded Heart It 's good thus to draw near to God and till it be thus it will not be well with us notwithstanding all outward Approaches and Ordinances And therefore our chief care and endeavour should be in our enjoyment of them that they may Instrumentally concur to the working and quickning such Graces in us as whereby we may formally I mean indeed and good earnest draw nigh to God 1. Amongst which as it 's most fit Knowledg in the first place must lead the way for he must needs go very wide that follows a blind Guide He will toto coelo errare instead of arriving at God or Heaven The blind Sodomite will sooner Gen. 19. stumble on Lot's door and a Man in the Dark hit right in an unknown way than that Man whose Eyes the God of this World hath blinded find of himself the way of access to God or indeed find in his heart to draw nigh to him For Ignorance usually is very profane and so careth not to come into God's Presence hath so much Candle-light of Sense as to commit Works of Darkness by and to see and follow that which leads off from God But as long as it continues invincible cuts off all hopes because it plucks off all those ansae by which we might be laid hold on and drawn nearer And therefore gross ignorant Men are in a most desperate Condition they that are so dark must needs be far from the Father of Lights now as that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the very Name of it denotes the remotest Mat. 8. 12. distance from God will be their Portion hereafter But on the contrary the saving and clear Knowledg of God and his Divine Excellencies especially in Christ approacheth so near that the Understanding is in a manner made one with so blessed an Object It indeed is so transcendently Glorious that it bids Moses not come near in regard of a reverential distance Exod. 3. 5. and yet so infinitly ravishing that it makes him desire to get as near as he may to see so great a Sight ver 3. as in Heaven a full Vision begets a perfect Love and Union Angels that always behold God's Face Mat. 18. 10. have the nearest Station And if the lovely Creature 's Beauty useth to draw after it many Eyes sure the infinite Beauty of God so Glorious of Christ so White and Ruddy even the Brightness of his Father's Glory if beheld with a clearer Eye could not but much more strongly snatch our Hearts to it They that turn away from him do not see him And if any be so desperate as to hate him as the School determines do so because they only Aquin. 1. q. 60. a. 5. ad 5. look at some particular in him that is contrary to their own Lusts which are nearer to them and so blind them 2. The second is
Father Guilt of sin lying on the Conscience is like a Mist that keeps Friends from seeing and coming near one the other as the Pillar of Cloud kept the Israelites and Egyptians asunder But the Son of Righteousness arising and shining out in bright Beams of Assurance and Joy sheweth us our Friend and imboldens us ruere in Amplexus When the Spouse can say my Beloved he is then as a bundle of Myrrh lying all the night between her Breasts Cant. 1. 13. And that is very near her Heart 7. I might here add Hope which though in nature it 's of an object absent yet as a Grace it hath God very present And so the Apostle calls it a better Hope by which we draw nigh to God Heb. 7. 19. 8. And Sincerity which being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dare draw nigh to the Light whilst the painted Hypocrite is like the Man John 3. 21. cloathed with a kind of course Stuff which they called stand further off cares not for so near a view of so piercing an Eye But I shall not Insist on any more Particulars 9. But lastly add in general That a course of sincere Obedience in the practice of all Saving Graces is in Scripture-phrase a Walking with God and that implieth very near Communion Gen. 5. 22. 6. 9. Every particular Grace in us is part of the Divine Nature and so Allieth us to God But in the general exercise of them all God is ours not only in surest Covenant but also in closest Communion It was the want of such a Wedding-Garment that cast the Guest in the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into utter Darkness Mat. 22. 13. which signifieth the utmost distance from God and Heaven that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that impassable Gulf Luke 16. 26. being between But whilst we are here in a gracious Course we have the best Stand and Prospect for the fullest and nearest view of God Thou meetest him Psal 17. 15. that rejoyeeth and worketh Righteousness Isa 64. 5. And to him that ordereth his Conversation aright I will shew the Salvation of God Psal 50. 23. But when once Grace is made Perfect and the Bride all over Cloathed and fully made Ready then shall be the Marriage of the Lamb when Christ shall come from Heaven to us and we shall be caught up in the Clouds to meet with him and so for ever shall be with the Lord when the whole Quire of Heaven every one in his own Part and all together shall sing aloud this sweet Note of the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is good for me to draw near to God and to keep close to him for ever Even so Amen Lord Jesus SERMON XXXII LUKE 21. 19. I. Sermon Preacht at St. Maries May 13. 1649. In your Patience possess ye your Souls OUr Saviour in the beginning of this Chapter is foretelling Jerusalem's destruction vers 6. but as a forerunner of it he foretells also his Servants Persecution that they shall be persecuted by Enemies v. 12. betrayed by Friends v. 16. and hated by all v. 17. As when the Ship Acts 27. 42. was ready to be wracked they would first have killed Paul who alone kept them from drowning A foolish mistake of a mad World to do the Godly most hurt when they should most stand them in stead when the Night is putting in to put out the Candle which should give them light and when the House is falling to make sure of it they will needs pull down the Pillars that uphold it the Holy Seed being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 statumen eorum Isa 6. 13. So sottish is the World's malice which otherwhile useth to be too ingenious in doing mischief to the Godly as it were on purpose to undoe themselves But although they be such Enemies to themselves yet Christ is a better Friend to his Servants and therefore as he encourageth them telling them That not an hair of their head shall perish v. 18. so he directs them in this 19th Verse In your Patience possess ye your Souls In which words we have three Particulars which according to the Metaphor here used we may call 1. The Freehold and that 's their Souls 2. The Seisin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are to be kept in possession Possess ye your Souls 3. The Tenure and that is the Tenure of Patience and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In your Patience possess ye your Souls 1. For a little opening of the words and first for Patience it 's duplex Activa Passiva The one forbears the other bears both suffer though in a different way Active so called in reference to acting but improperly a minime agendo because it acts not when Passion 's Fingers itch and would fain be doing and so it 's defined quae malum non infert that even when provoked doth no evil which the Greeks express by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or long suffering This is eminently and essentially in God who when we provoke him is yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 long-suffering Exod. 34. 6. even a God of Patience But Patience Passive is that quae malum fert that quietly suffers evil from others which is more properly this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text not properly falling upon God who simply is impassible but is that which by his Grace he works in his suffering Servants when in an humble submission to his Will out of Faith in his Promise in hope of his assistance and deliverance they neither sink in despondency under the burden nor rise up in rage against him or the Instrument he strikes with but willingly submit and quietly wait for the Salvation of God Lament 3. 26 27. If you will have Tully's description of it Patientia est honestatis utilitatis let us add Religionis causâ rerum arduarum ac difficilium voluntaria ac diuturna perpessio Or if rather you would have Bede's Patientia vera est aliena mala aequanimiter perpeti contra eum quoque qui mala irrogat nullo dolore moveri This is properly this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text by which when dispossessed of all things else we are even then able to possess our Souls 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Possess ye so it 's usually read and so it holds forth a Command though some read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye may or so ye shall possess and so it contains a Promise I shall make use of both and here only add that this word in the Greek answerable to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew signifieth both acquirere and conservare both to procure and preserve and Patience doth F. Illyricu◠both 3. For the last word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I need not tell you that although it most properly signifie the Soul yet oft in Scripture is put for Mat. 16. 26. the †Gen. 46. 15. Levit. 4. 2. whole Man and sometime for our * 1 Sam. 26. 21.