113.5 6. as well as in heaven to converse with men as well as Angels As the Sun in heaven is far above us and yet doth not disdain to inlighten and warm and quicken the poorest worm that crawls upon the earth as well as the Eagle that soars aloft above the clouds and can gaze the Sun in the face Let not therefore any poor soul be discouraged and think or say It is not for such a worm for such a nothing as I am to aspire to acquaintance and converse with God No no Men may be too high for thee to reach and too great for thee to grasp and compass acquaintance with but the great God will stoop to entertain acquaintance with thee if thou wilt acquaint thy self with him He disdaineth not the acquaintance of the least of men nor of the greatest of sinners Such was the condescension of the divine nature that it disdained not the near acquaintance with the humane nature to take it into personal union with himself and such was the condescension of God in our nature that when he was upon earth he disdained not the acquaintance of those who upon common account were the vilest of men even Publicans and sinners Mat. 9.11 And such is still the gracious condescension of God in Christ that he disdaineth not the acquaintance of the meanest Persons or vilest sinners that seek acquaintance of him Nay Secondly He offers and tenders this acquaintance to them and this is not usual for great persons to do to their Inferiours he intreateth and beseecheth poor sinners that they would be reconciled to him and acquainted with him And this he doth Thirdly Out of his meer grace and favour only for their good and benefit not for any gain or advantage to himself Can a man be profitable to God saith Eliphaz No Job 22.2 God cannot be a gainer by our acquaintance that he offers it seeks it is for our good and benefit that we may be made happy and blessed by it O then let not this grace of God be in vain to us but accept we this gracious offer of God acquainting our selves with him CHAP. VI. Particularly exhorting those that never yet had acquaintance with God now to labour for it With Directions for the attaining of it NOw here are three sorts that I would apply my self unto First Those that never yet were acquainted with God My Exhortation to them shall be that they would now acquaint themselves with God now presently without any further delay Secondly To those that have acquainted themselves with God that they would labour to keep and maintain their acquaintance with him inviolate and uninterrupted Thirdly To those whose acquaintance with God is intermitted and they have in a manner lost it that they would labour to renew it First Such as never yet had any acquaintance with God O labour now to get into acquaintance with him Acquaint thy self now with him now presently immediately without any further delay O consider how long you have lived strangers to God already enemies to God already Is it not enough that you have lived twenty thirty forty fifty years already without any intimacy or acquaintance with God O if you love God if you love your own souls live not a day longer live not an hour longer in that strange condition The time past of our life may suffice us to have lived in lasciviousness lust excess of wine 1 Pet. 4.3 c. saith the Apostle Peter And it is high time to awake out of sleep saith the Apostle Paul Rom. 13.11 So say I the time past may suffice us to have lived without God in the world and it is now high time for every one of us to begin to acquaint our selves with him Acquaint therefore now thy self with him Now now while God is pleased to offer and tender this acquaintance Now is the day of grace 2 Cor. 6.2 now is the accepted time Now while the golden scepter is held forth while the Gospel is preached unto you To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts Heb. 3.7 If God speak to your hearts and bespeak your acquaintance with him see that ye refuse not him that speaketh but acquaint thy self now with him If any say Quest But how shall we do to get this acquaintance with God I answer Answ O that there were such a heart in you O that every one into whose hands the providence of God shall bring this poor Treatise were come thus far to seek after God as seriously to enquire how they might be acquainted with God! you that are so take these directions First Labour to be fully convinced of an absolute necessity of acquainting your selves with God Look upon it as your great duty look upon it as that upon which not only the comfort of your lives but the eternal salvation of your souls doth depend There are three times especially wherein this acquaintance with God will be found of great and absolute necessity First In a time of common calamity Such a time as our Saviour speaks of Luke 21.25 26. When there shall be distress of Nations upon the earth with perplexity mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things that are coming upon the earth and how near such times may be to us and how fast they may be hastening upon us who can tell O then happy are those that have acquaintance with God they have a friend an acquaintance that will not fail them when their own hearts are ready to fail them and would undoubtedly fail them were it not for their acquaintance with God Whereas they that have not acquainted themselves with God will find God himself a terrour to them in the day of their calamity God will deal with them as he threatens I will shew them the back Jer. 18.17 and not the face in the day of their calamity Secondly In the day of death then acquaintance with God will be found absolutely necessary There is no man but when he comes to lye a dying would be glad to have God his friend and to receive his soul into his presence and favour Into thy hands Lord I commend my spirit Lord Jesus receive my soul is the prayer or at least the wish of every dying man and woman that doth not dye like Nabal stupid and senseless as a stock or stone But do you think that God will do this for every one at the first asking surely no. They that never regarded to acquaint themselves with God in the time of their life God will not so easily own them at the hour of their death but they that have acquainted themselves with God in the time of their life they may with much comfort and assurance commend their souls into the hand of God when they are at the point of death And may say with Paul 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and that he is able to keep
that good thing that I have committed unto him against that day It was a noble speech of good Dr. Preston when he lay a dying and full of Christian confidence and comfort I shall change my place but not my company The meaning was that he had so acquainted himself with God here upon earth and had so much conversed with him that now that he was to dye his company should still be the same after death that it was in life How far are they from being able to speak this at their death that have had no care to acquaint themselves with God and to converse with him in the course of their life Thirdly In the day of Judgment it will then be necessary that you should have acquaintance with God Can you your selves imagine but that God who is the righteous Judge of all the world will in that great day look and judge and pronounce far otherwise upon those that have been here acquainted with him than upon those that have lived and dyed strangers and enemies to him To the one he will say Come ye blessed ye have known me and I have known you you have loved me and I have loved you you have visited me and I have visited you and you have thankfully and gladly entertained those visits you have been of my old acquaintance many a prayer have I received from you and many a tear have you dropt into my bottle come therefore come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world But to the other he will say go ye cursed ye have not known me ye have not loved me ye have not regarded to acquaint your selves with me ye have set at nought all my counsels and would none of my reproofs ye have said unto me depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes Therefore now I say unto you depart from me into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels O dreadful sentence dreadful to hear intolerable to bear which yet ye can no wayes avoid but by acquainting your selves with God You must of necessity acquaint your selves with God or dye miserably and perish eternally O press these and the like considerations upon your selves till you be throughly and effectually convinced of an absolute necessity of acquainting your selves with God Then Secondly Labour to be seriously and deeply humbled that you have lived so â—ong as you have done and lived unacquainted with God Let me plead with you as Moses doth with Israel Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people Deut. 32.6 and unwise is not he thy father that hath bought thee hath he not made thee and established thee Is not he that God that hath given thee life and being that hath preserved thee upheld thee maintained thee fed thee clothed thee is not he the God in whose hands thy breath and all thy ways are upon whose pleasure and favour thou dependest for all thy present and eternal good who is able to kill or cause to live to save or to destroy to make blessed or to make miserable to all eternity And hast thou lived twenty thirty or forty years before this God yea upon this God and all this while never acquainted thy self at all with him O what unthankfulness what disingenuity what folly what brutishness is this If thou hadst fed a horse or a dog but the tenth part of that time that God hath fed thee he would have taken more knowledge and acquaintance of thee than thou didst ever do of God Yea thou hast not only not acquainted thy self with God but thou hast not cared thou hast not regarded to acquaint thy self with him but hast lived in a continual mindlessness and regardlessness of God Of the rock that begat thee Deut. 32.18 thou art unmindful and hast forgotten the God that formed thee Yea thou hast not only neglected acquaintance with God but thou hast despised it undervalued it preferred converse with the world and with thy lusts above converse and acquaintance with God as if a man should prefer the company and consortship of beggars and thieves and whores and such like lewd persons before the favour familiarity and acquaintance of his Sovereign King such an affront hast thou put upon the great God of heaven and earth O let the thoughts of this afflict and humble thee in time or else know that hereafter it will torment thee to all eternity and make thee tear thy flesh and gnaw thy tongue and curse thy self for rage indignation at this thy present folly Thirdly When you have thus convinced your selves of a necessity of getting acquaintance with God and humbled your selves for living so long without acquaintance with God Then in the third place be careful to remove those things which may be bars in your way and may obstruct and hinder your acquaintance with God Now what is that why sin and only sin Sin is the wall of separation between God and us that keeps God and us from meeting together and from acquainting one with another Your sins have separated between God and you and have hid his face from you Isa 59.2 Therefore saith God Wash you make you clean Isa 1.16 17. put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well Come now and let us reason together As if God had said Ay now you have repented and made your selves clean from sin now you are fit for God to treat withal before you were not fit to come near him nor approach his presence A rebel that would be admitted into his Princes favour and acquaintance must first throw down his weapons of rebellion so must they that would have any acquaintance with God they must put away sin all sin Sin is the only thing that God hates and is an enemy against for its own sake they therefore that would have any acquaintance with God must renounce all acquaintance and familiarity with sin If I regard iniquity in my heart Psal 66.18 God will not hear my prayer Let a man pray never so often and never so earnestly and beg acquaintance with God never so much yet if he regard iniquity in his heart God will not regard him nor his prayers We must therefore resolve to break off all our leagues with sin to give a bill of divorce to every lust to renounce for ever all acquaintance with sin or else to renounce all acquaintance with God Now which of these two would you rather do Fourthly When you have thus convinced your selves of a necessity of acquainting your selves with God and have humbled your selves for living so long without acquaintance with God and have not only resolved but have actually renounced every evil way you must not now think that for your humiliation or for your repentance or for your forsaking of your sins God is obliged or bound to take you for his friends or to admit you into his acquaintance
of converse and familiarity and letting fall the performance of friendly offices visits colloquies and the like these loosen friendship by degrees and cause it to languish and dye Hence the Proverb of amicitia Academica University-friendship that holds only for a time Scholars while they live together in the same University often meeting and walking and talking together they grow into great familiarity and acquaintance one with another but afterwards being parted and living at distance one from another their friendship and acquaintance dyes and is extinct so it is here absence from God disuse and discontinuance of communion with him not frequenting Gods company not often resorting to him and speaking to him will not only loosen but lose our acquaintance with him If therefore we would maintain our acquaintance with God we must often and daily visit him frequent his house and Ordinances be frequent in reading hearing praying converse with him by holy meditations and soliloquies invite him home to us importune him to visit our hearts with his Spirit as we do by our other friends we often visit them and invite them to visit us assuring them that our house and any thing that we have is at their service thâ—s must we deal with God and this is the way to maintain communion and acquaintance with him Fifthly Take heed of entertaining jealousies and suspitions of God and of his love unto thee or taking things unkindly at Gods hand Many a man by taking up a groundless conceit that his friend is alienated from him gives his friend just cause of alienation and so loseth his friend I am sure we often deal so with God and I am perswaded there is scarce any one thing whereby the true friends of God do more grieve him and hinder their free and comfortable acquaintance with him than by thinking that God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is easily provoked so easily that for involuntary failings and infirmities such as are wandring thoughts deadness of heart in prayer and the like which God knows they cannot help if their lives lay upon it and God knows they are as bitter to them as death it self and yet they do think that for these God will fall quite out with them and tantum non cast them down to hell and by these hard thoughts they grieve God they break the law of friendship they discourage and dishearten themselves from converse with God and so their hearts are alienated and estranged from God and then they measuring God by themselves as if he were like one of us think God is estranged from them and fallen out with them when indeed it is they are fallen out with him Therefore take heed of these thoughts of God Sixthly Take heed that Satan do not set in his foot between God and you take heed you give no ear to what he will tell you concerning God and the purposes and dispensations of God towards you You know what the holy Ghost faith A whisperer separateth chief friends Pro. 16.28 There are no two friends in the world so great but if either of them listen and give way to whisperers or detractors that seek to set strife and variance between them and believe every tale that they tell bands of friendship will quickly be loosed and they will be as great enemies as ever they were friends we know that Satans great design is to set strife between God and Man he began this game in paradise God and Man were perfect friends till the Devil comes like a whisperer and slanders God and tells Eve that it was out of meer envy and ill will that God had forbidden her and her husband to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and she believing this slander did eat and so the league of friendship was broken between God and her so deals the Devil still not indeed with those whom he knows to be Gods enemies he doth not trouble their heads much with the thoughts of God but fills their heads with the thoughts of other matters but where he knows or but suspects any to be the friends of God or perceives them but to be seeking after reconciliation and acquaintance with God O the strange thoughts of God that he buzzeth into their minds sometimes he tells them that God hates them worse than he hates a dog or a toad that it is in vain for them to pray or repent or to do any thing God hath rejected them they are reprobate from all eternity if God afflict them he tells them that now they may see and feel if they will that God is angry with them and hates them and these afflictions are but the fore-runners and beginnings of hell and what they feel here is nothing to what they shall feel hereafter of God spare them from affliction he tells them God doth this but to fat them against the day of slaughter and that they may the sooner fill up the measure of their sin and be ripe for hell And thus Satan slanders God in all his wayes and that not to the wicked and those that are Gods enemies but to those that are his friends and the believing of those lyes and slanders of Satan against God proves many times the very bane and break-neck as I may so say of acquaintance with God Therefore take heed of giving credit to the Devil and his suggestions and whatever Satan tells you of God believe it not but believe the contrary to be true because that which Satan speaks of God cannot but be false Thus I have shewn you what the things are we must take heed of if we would maintain our acquaintance with God Which is the third direction Fourthly If thou wouldst maintain thy acquaintance with God look that thy heart be sincere and upright with him No man would entertain into his bosom as his entire friend one that he knows doth but flatter and dissemble with him and in his heart doth not love him You know what Jehu said to Jonadab 2 Kings 10.15 Is thine heart right as my heart is with thy heart And when he said It is then he bid him give him his hand and he took him up to him into the charriot God need not ask any of us that question Is thine heart right for if it be not he knows it well enough and if it be not he will never give us the hand of friendship nor never take us up into the chariot of acquaintance with himself To this therefore let us look that our hearts be right with God that what profession we make of our love and of our desires of acquaintance with him may come from a good and honest heart Fifthly If you would maintain and keep your acquaintance with God then labour to increase your acquaintance with God and to grow in it For as grace so the priviledges of grace are of that nature that they cannot stand at a stay but are like the Sun alwayes either ascending or descending like