6. Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake For so is the will of God 1 Pet. 2. 13 15. Deut. 1. 16 17. Judge righteously between every man and his brother ye shall not respect persons in judgement but shall hear the small as well as the great you shall not be afraid of the face of man for the judgement is Gods 2 Chron. 19 5 6 7. And he said to the Judges Take heed what ye do for you judge not for man but for the Lord who is with you in the judgement wherefore let the fear of the Lord be upon you But our Atheistical Politicians would teach Rulers that they are none of the Ministers of God and that they judge for man only and not for him The nature of all true obedience is such as Paul describeth in children and servants Eph. 6. 1 6 7 8. that setcheth its rise and motives from the Lord Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Servants be obedient to them that are your Masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ not with eye-service as men-pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with good-will doing service as to the Lord and not to men So Colos. 3. 22 23. 7. Hence also you must learn that Gods authority is the highest authority and there is indeed no such thing in the world as true authority that is against him or not subordinate unto him And therefore if men command us to disobey God by neglecting that which is hic nunc a duty or by sinning against him their commands are from a disobedient will of their own but from no Authority and it is better in such cases to obey God then man Act. 5. 29. so many Prophets Apostles and other Martyrs would not have been sacrificed by the fury of Persecutors if they had thought it just to obey them before God God never gave any man Authority against him Nor to nullifie his laws The acts of a Justice or Constable against the King or beyond their power are private or rebellious acts and not Authoritative And so are the Laws of men that are against God Yet note well that though we must rather disobey men then God yet we may not forcibly Resist when we may not obey them And in some cases as if a King would ravish a woman or the like when it is lawful to Resist his fact it is not lawful to Resist his State and disturb the Government of the Commonwealth Obey men chearfully when God forbids it not but see that God be your Absolute Soveraign whose Laws can be dispensed with by none If Parents or Masters command you to break the Laws of God obey them not Despise them not but humbly deprecate their displeasure and obey them in all other things but in the unlawful thing obey them not no not if they were the greatest Princes upon earth But say as the three witnesses of God Dan. 3. 16 17. We are not careful to answer thee in this matter If it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thy hands O King But if not be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy Gods nor worship thy golden Image which thou hast set up What I have said of Magistrates in the two last cases I mean also of Pastours of the Church They must be obeyed in and for the Lord but not against the Lord. Saith Paul of the Churches of Maceâ—onia 2 Cor. 8. 5. They gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God See Act. 20. 28. 1 Thes. 5. 12. Luk. 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me And yet the leaven of the Pharisees must be avoided and an Angel from Heaven be held as accursed if he should preach another Gospel Gal. 1. 8. And I would not have flatterers to set either Princes or Pastours above the Angels of Heaven Though yet in other respects we may be still obliged as I said before to hear and to obey them 8. And the Knowledge of Gods soveraignty must teach us to fear his righteous Threatnings and reverence his Justice and prepare our selves to be judged by him He ruleth by his Laws and so by Threatnings and Promises which he will make good It is not a painted fire that he Threatneth Judgement is a part of Government Laws are but shadows if there be no execution O worship the Lord in the beauty of Holiness fear before him all the earth Say among the Heathen that the Lord reigneth Psal. 96. 9 10 As his promises so his peremptory threatnings shall be fulfilled He will not revoke his stablished Laws for fear of hurting willful sinners that will not fear his judgements till they feel them Psal. 33. 8. Let all the earth fear the Lord let all the inhabitants of the world stand in aw of him for he spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Mark also the present judgements of the Lord and rush not on his indignation For the Lord is known by the judgements which he executeth the wicked is oft snared in the work of his own hands Psal. 9. 16. Though the wicked contemn God and say in his heart Thou wilt not require it Psal. 10. 13. yet they shall find that he beholdeth mischief to requite it with his hand and that he is the helper of the fatherless and poor that commit themselves unto him ver 14. The Lords throne is in heaven his eyes behold his eyelids try the children of men the Lord tryeth the Righteous but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth Psal. 11. 4 5. 9. The Soveraignty of God is a comfort to his loyal subjects They may be sure that he will protect them and make good his word Behold he cometh and his reward is with him Rev. 22. 12. The righteous Judge at his appearing will give the Crown of Righteousness to all them that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4. 18 7 8. O let the Nations be glad and sing for joy for thou shalt judge the people righteously and govern the Nations upon earth Psal. 67. 4. Let the Heavens rejoyce and the earth be glad before the Lord for he cometh for he cometh to judge the world with righteousness and the people with his truth Psal. 69. 11. 13. 10. Lastly the Knowledge of God as our Soveraign King must cause us to desire and pray for and promote the glory of his Kingdome and the obedience of his subjects in the world that his Name may be hallowed by the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his will on earth as it is in Heaven must be the matter of our daily requests to God It must be the grief of every subject of the Lord to
course of nature in themselves and others nor govern the world so sure is there an Infinite eternal Being that doth this Every Atheist that is not mad must confess that there is an Eternal Being that had no beginning or cause The question is only which this is which ever it is it is this that is the true God What now would the Atheist have it to be Certainly it is that Being that hath being it self from none that is the first cause of all other Beings And if it caused them it must necessarily be every way more excellent then they and contain all the good that it hath caused For none can give that which it hath not to give nor make that which is better then it self that Being that hath made so glorious a creature as the Sun must needs it self be much more glorious It could not have put strength and power into the Creatures if it had not it self more strength and power It could not have put Wisdom and Goodness into the Creature if it had not more Wisdom and Goodness then all they Whatever it is therefore that hath more Power Wisdom and Goodness then all the world besides that is it which we call God That cause that hath communicated to all things else the Being Power and all perfections which they have is the God whom we acknowledge and adore If Democritists will ascribe all this to Atomes and think that the Motes did make the Sun or if others will think that the Sun is God because it participateth of so much of his excellency let them be mad a while till judgement shall convince them So clear beyond all question to my soul is the Being of the Godhead that the Devil hath much lost the rest of his more subtil temptations when he hath foolishly and maliciously adjoyned this to draw me to question the Being of my God which is more then to question Whether there be a Sun in the Firmament But what is the Impress that the Being of God must make upon the Soul I answer From hence the holy soul discerneth that the Beginning and the End of his Religion the substance of his Hope is the Being of Beings and not a shaddow and that his faith is not a fansie The Object is as it were the matter of the act If our faith and hope and Love and Fear be exercised about the most Real Being it shews that there is a Reality in our faith and that we be not exercised in a delusory work God is to the Atheist but an empty name He feels no life or Being in him And accordingly he offereth him a shaddow of devotion and a nominal service But to the holy soul there is nothing that hath life and Being but God and that which doth receive a Being from him and leadeth to him This Real object putteth a Reality into all the devotions of a holy soul. They look upon the vanities of the world as Nothing and therefore they look on worldly men as on idle dreamers that are doing nothing This puts a seriousness and Life into the faith and holy affections of the believer He knows whom he trusteth 2 Tim. 1. 12. he knows whom he Loveth and in whom he Hopeth Atheists and all ungodly men do practically judge of God as the true Believer judgeth of the world The Atheist takes the pleasures of the world to be the only substance and God to be but as a shaddow a notion or a dream The godly take the world to be as nothing and know it is but a fancy and dream and shadow of pleasures and honour and profit and felicity that men talk of and seek so eargerly below but that God is the substantial object and portion of the soul. If you put into the mouth of a hungry man a little froth or breath or aire and bid him eat it and feed upon it he will tell you he finds no substance in it so judgeth the graceless soul of God and so judgeth the gracious soul of the creature as separate from God Let this be the Impression on thy soul from the consideration of Gods transcendent Being O look upon thy self and all things as nothing without him and as Nothing in comparison of him And therefore let thy Love to them be as nothing and thy desires after them and care for them as nothing But let the Being of thy Love desire and endeavours be let out upon the transcendent Being The creature hath its kind of being but if it would be to us instead of God it will be as nothing The Aire hath its Being but we cannot dwell in it nor rest upon it to support us as the earth doth The water hath its Being but it will not bear us if we would walk upon it The name of the great Jehovah is I am Exod. 3. 14. Try any Creature in thy need and it will say as Jacob to Rachel Gen. 30. 2. Am I in Gods stead that hath withheld thy desire from thee send to it and it will say as John Baptist that confessed I am not the Christ Joh. 1. 20. Let none of all the affections of thy soul have so much Life and Being in them as those that are exercised upon God Worms and motes are not regarded in comparison of mountains a drop is not regarded in comparison of the Ocean Let the Being of God take up thy soul and draw off thy observation from deluding vanities as if there were no such things before thee When thou remembrest that there is a God Kings and Nobles Riches and Honours and all the world should be forgotten in comparison of him And thou shouldst live as if there were no such things if God appear not to thee in them See them as if thou didst not see them as thou seest a candle before the sun or a pile of grass or single dust in comparison with the Earth Hear them as if thou didst not hear them as thou hearest the leaves of the shaken tree at the same time with a clap of thunder As greatest things obscure the least so let the Being of the Infinite God so take take up all the powers of thy soul as if there were nothing else but he when any thing would draw thee from him O if the Being of this God were seen by thee thy seducing friend would scarce be seen thy tempting baits would scarce be seen thy riches and honours would be forgotten all things would be as nothing to thee in comparison of him CHAP. III. 2. AS the Being of God should make this Impression on thee so the Attributes that speak the perfection of that Being must each one have their work as his unity or indivisibility his Immensity and Eternity And first the thought of Gods unity should contract and unite thy stragling affections and call them home from multifarious vanity It should possess thy mind with deep apprehensions of the excellency of holy Unity in the soul and in the Church and of
Praises of the Lord. The Goodness of God should be a daily feast to a gracious soul and should continually feed our cheerful Praises as the spring or cistern fills the Pipes I know no sweeter work on earth nay I am sure there is no sweeter then for faithful sanctified souls rejoicingly to magnifie the Goodness of the Lord and joyn together in his cheerful Praises O Christians if you would tast the Joys of Saints and live like the redeemed of the Lord indeed be much in the exercise of this Heavenly work and with holy David make it your employment and say O how great is thy Goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee Psal. 31. 19. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord Psal. 33. 5. What then are the Heavens Thy Congregation hath dwelt therein thou O Lord hast prepared thy Goodness for the poor O that men would praise the Lord for his Goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men For he satisfyeth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness Psal. 107. 8 9. The goodness of God endureth continually Psal. 52. 1. Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart Psal. 73. 1. O taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him Psal. 34. 8. The Lord is good his mercy is Everlasting his truth endureth from generation to generation Psal. 100. 5 The Lord is good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his works Psal. 145. 9. O Praise the Lord for the Lord is good sing Praises to his name for it is pleasant Psal. 135. â— Call him as David My goodness and my fortress my high tower and my deliverer and my shield and he in whom I trust Psal. 144 2. Let men therefore speak of the glorious honour of his Majesty and of his wonderous works Let them abundantly utter the memory of his great goodness and sing of his Righteousness Psal. 145 5 7. If there be a thought that is truly sweet to the soul it is the Thought of the Infinite Goodness of the Lord. If there be a pleasant word for man to speak it is the mention of the Infinite goodness of the Lord And if there be a pleasant hour for man on earth to spend and a delightful work for man to do it is to meditate on and with the Saints to Praise the Infinite goodness of the Lord. What was the glory that God shewed unto Moses and the tast of Heaven that he gave him upon Earth but this I will make all my Goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee and I will be gracious on whom I will be gracious and will shew Mercy on whom I will shew Mercy Exod. 33. 19. And his proclaimed Name was The Lord the Lord God Merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth Exod. 34. 6. These were the holy Praiâ—es that Solomon did consecrate the Temple with 2 Chron. 6. 41. Arise O Lord God into thy resting place thou and the Ark of thy strength let thy Priests O Lord God be cloathed with salvation and let thy Saints rejoyce in Goodness See Isai. 63. O Christians if you would have joy indeed let this be your employment Draw neer to God and have no low undervaluing thoughts of his Infinite Goodness For How great is his Goodness and how great is his Beauty Zach. 9 17. Why is it that Divine Consolations are so strange to us but because Dive Goodnesâ— is so lightly thought upon As those that think little of God at all have little of God upon their hearts so they that think but little of his Goodness in particular have little Love or Joy or Praise 6. Moreover the Goodness of God must possess us with desire to be conformed to his goodness in our measure The Holy perfection of his Will must make us desire to have our Wills conformed to the will of God We are not called to Imitate him in his works of Power nor so much in the paths of his Omniscience as we are in his goodness which as manifested in his work and word is the Pattern and standard of Moral Goodness in the sons of men The Impress of his goodness within us is the chief part of his Image on us and the fruits of it in our Lives is their Holiness and Vertue As he is Good and doth Good Psal. 119. 68. so must it be our greatest care to be as good and do as much good as possibly we can Any thing within us that is sinful and contrary to the Goodness of God should be to our souls as griping poyson to our bodies which nature is excited to strive against with all its strength and can have no safety or rest till it be cast out And for Doing Good it must be the very study and trade of our lives As worldlings study and labour for the world and the Pleasing of their flesh so must the Christian study and labour to improve his masters talents to his use and to do as much good as he is able and to please the Lord. Prov. 11. 23. The desire of the Righteous as such is only Good To depart from evil and do good is the care of the just Psal. 34. 14. We must please our neighbours for Good to their Edification Rom. 15. 2. While we have time we must do good to all men as we are able but especially to them of the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 10 Not only to them that do good to us but to our enemies Luk. 6. 32 33 34. Mat. 5. 44. This is it that we must not forget Heb. 13. 16. and which by Ministers we must be â—ut in mind of 1 Tim. 6. 18. which all that love life and would inherit the blessing must devote themselves to 1 Pet. 3. 10 11 12. In this we must be like our heavenly Father and approve our selves his Children Mat. 5. 45 46. 7. From the perfect Infinite goodness of God we must learn to judge of Good and Evil and in all the Creatures To this must all be reduced as the standard and by this must they be tryed It is a most wretched absurdity of sensual men to try the will or word or wayes of God by themselves and by their own interests or wills and to judge all to be Evil in God that is against them And yet alas how common is this case Every man is naturally â—oth to be miserable suffering he abhors and therefore that which causeth his suffering he calleth evil And so when he hath deserved it himself by his sin he thinks that the Law is Evil for threatning it and that God himself is Evil for inflicting it so that Infinite Goodness must be tryed and judged by the vicious creature and the Rule and standard must be reduced to the crooked line of humane actions or dispositions and if God will please
objective means yet shall not these do it without the internal effectual means But when Love doth shine to us so resplendently without us in the face of the Glorious Sun of Love and is also â—et into us by the Spirits Illumination that sheds abroad this Love in our hearts then will the holy fire burn which comes from Heaven and leads to Heaven and will never rest till it have reacht its center and brought us to the face and arms of God 5. And from the Fatherly Relation and Love of God we must learn to Trust him and Rest our souls in his securing Love Shall we distrust a Father an Omnipotent Father Therefore is this Relation prefixed to the Petitions of the Lords Prayer and we begin with Our Father which art in Heaven that when we remember his Love and our Interest in him and his Alsufficiency we may be encouraged to Trust him and make our addresses to him If a Father and such a Father smite mee I will submit and kiss the Rod for I know it is the healing fruit of Love If a Father and such a Father afflict mee wound mee deal strangely wiâ—h mee and grieve my flesh let mee not murmure or distrust him for he well understandeth what he doth and nothing that shall hurt mee finally can come from Omnipotent Paternal Love If a Father and such a Father kill mee yet let mee Trust in him and let not my soul repine at his proceedings nor tremble at the separating stroak of death A Beast knows not when we strive with him what we intend whether to Cure or to Kill him but a Child need not fear a killing blow nor a Loving soul a damning death from such a Father If he be a Father where is his Love and Trust 6. If God be our Father and so wonderful a Benefactor to us then Thanks and Praise must be our most constant work and must be studied above all the rest of Duty and most diligently performed If the tongue of man which is called his Glory be made for any thing and good for any thing it is to give the Lord his Glory in the Thankful acknowledgement of his Love and Mercies and the daily chearful Praises of his Name Let this then be the Christians work 7. The Children of such a Father should live a contented chearful life Diligence becometh them but not contrivances for worldly greatness nor carking cares for that which their Father hath promised them to care for Humility and Reverence beseemeth them but not dejection and despondency of mind and a still complaining fearful troubled disconsolate soul. If the Children of such a Father shall not be bold and confident and chearful let joy and confidence then be banished from the earth and be renounced by all the Sons of men CHAP. XVI 15. THere are yet divers subordinate Attributes of God that being comprized in the forementioned may be passed over with the briefer touch And the next that I shall speak of is his Freedome And God is Free in more senses than one but for brevity I shall speak of all together 1. And first God hath a Natural Freedome of Will being Determined to Will by nothing without him nor liable to any Necessity but what is consistent with perfect Blessedness and Liberty His own Being and Blessedness and Perfections are not the objects of his Election and therefore not of that which we call Free Will But all his works without as Creation Providence Redemption c. are the effects of his Free Will Not but that his Will concerning all these hath a Necessity of existence For God did from Eternity Will the Creation and all that is done in time and therefore from Eternity that will existing had a Necessity of existence But yet it was Free because it proceedeth not Necessarily from the very Nature of God God was God before he made the world or Redeemed it or did the things that are daily done And therefore one part of the Schoolmen maintain not only that there is Contingency from God but that there could be no Contingency in the Creature if it had not its Original in God the Liberty of God being the fountain of Contingency 2. There is also an Eminency both of Dominion and Soveraignty in God according to which he may be called Free His Absoluteness of Propriety freeth him from the restraint of any Obligation but what floweth from his own Free Will from Disposing of his own as he pleases And his Absolute Soveraignty freeth him from the Obligation of his own Laws as Laws though he will still be true to his Promises and Predictions Let man therefore take heed how he questioneth his Maker or censureth his Laws or Works or Waies CHAP. XVII 16. ANother Attribute of God is his Justice With submission I conceive that this is not to be said to be from 〈◊〉 any otherwise than all Gods Relations are as Creator 〈◊〉 c. because here is no time with God For though 〈◊〉 Blessed Nature denominated Just is from Eternity yet not 〈◊〉 â—â—râ—ality or Denomination of Justice For Justice is an Attribute of God as he is Governour only And he was not Governour till he had Creatures to Govern And he could not be a Just Governour when he was no Governour The Denomination â—â—â— not arise till the Creation had laid the Foundation Many Questions may be resolved hence which I will not trouble you to reâ—â—â—e Justice in God is the Perfection of his Nature as it giveth every his his due oâ— Governeth the world in the most perfect Orders â—or the Ends of Government Because he is Just he will Reward the Righteous and difference between the Godly and the Wicked For that Governor that useth all alike is not Just. The Crown of Righteousness is given by him as a Righteous Judge 2 Tâ—m 4. 8. 1. The Justice of God is substantially in men we call it an Inclination â—â—â— Nature and so it is Eternal 2. It is 〈◊〉 formally in his Relation of Governour 3. It is expressively first in his Laws For as a Just Governour he made them suited to the Subjects Objects and Ends. 4 It is expressively secondarily in his Judgments and Executions which is when they are according to his Law oâ— in the Cares of Penalty where he may dispense at least according to the state of the subject and sitted to the Ends of Government 1. The Justice of God is the Consolation of the Just He will Justifie them whom his Gospel Justifieth because he is Just. The Justice of God in many places of Scripture is taken for his Fidelity in vindicating his people and his Judging for them and procuring them the happy fruits of his Government and so is taken in a Consolatory sense Psal. 89. 14. Justice and Judgement are the habitations of thy Throne Mercy and Truth shall go before thy face 2 Thes. 1. 5 6. It is a Righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble
fancy or self-deceit I answer that really their hearts are set upon God and the everlasting world and that it is their chiefest care and business to attain it this is a thing that they feel and you may see in the bent and labour of their lives and therefore you cannot call that a fancy of which you have so full experience But whether the motives that have invited them and engaged them to such a choice and course be fancies and deceits or not let God be Judge and let the awakened consciences of worldlings themselves be Judge when they have seen the end and tryed whether it be Earth or Heaven that is the shadow and whether it be God or their unbelieving hearts that was deceived Quest. 10. Have you any hopes of living with God for ever or not If you have not no wonder if you live as beasts when you have no higher expectations than beasts When we are so blind as to give up all our hopes we will also give up all our care and holy diligence and think we have nothing to do with Heaven But if you have any such hopes can you think that any thing is fitter for the chiefest of your thoughts and carâ—â— than the God and Kingdom which you hope for ever to enjoy Or is there any thing that can be more suitable or should be more delightful to your thoughts than to employ them about your highest hopes upon your endless happiness and joy and should not that be now the most noble and pleasant employment for your minds which is nearest to that which you hope to be exercised in for ever Undoubtedly he that hath true and serious thoughts of Heaven will highliest value that life on Earth which is likest to the life in Heaven And he that hateth or is most averse to that which is nearest to the work of Heaven doth boast in vain of his hopes of Heaven By this time you may see if you love not to be blind that mans chiefest business in the world is with his God and that our thoughts and all our powers are made to be employed upon him or for him and that this is no such needless work as Atheists make themselves believe Remember that it is the description of the desperately wicked Psal. 10. 4. that God is not in all his thoughts And if yet you understand it not I will a little further shew you the evil of such Atheistical unhallowed thoughts 1. There is nothing but darkness in all thy Thoughts if God be not in them Thou knowest nothing if thou knowest not him and thou usest not thy knowledge if thou use it not on him To know the creature as without God is to know nothing No more than to know all the Letters in the Book and not to know their signification or sense All things in the world are but insignificant ciphers and of no other sense or use if you separate them from God who is their sense and end If you leave out God in all your studies you do but dream and dote and not understand what you seem to understand Though you were taken for the learnedst men in the world and were able to discourse of all the Sciences and your thoughts had no lower employment daily than the most sublime speculations which the nature of all the creatures doth afford it is all but folly and impertinent dotage if it reach not unto God 2. Yea your thoughts are erroneous and false which is more than barely ignorant if God be not in them You have false thoughts of the world of your houses and lands and friends and pleasures and whatsoever is the daily employment of your minds You take them to be something when they are nothing you are covetous of the empty purse and know not that you cast away the treasure You are thirsty after the empty cup when you wilfully cast away the drink You hungrily seek to feed upon a painted feast You murder the creature by separating it from God who is its life and then you are enamoured on the carkass and spend your daies and thoughts in its cold embracements Your thoughts are but vagabonds stragling abroad the world and following impertinencies if God be not in them You are like men that walk up and down in their sleep or like those that have lost themselves in the dark who weary themselves in going they know not whither and have no end nor certain way 3. If God be not in all your thoughts they are all in vain They are like the drone that gathereth no honey They fly abroad and return home empty They bring home no matter of honour to God of profit or comfort to your selves They are employed to no more purpose than in your dreams Only they are more capable of sin Like the distracted thoughts of one that doteth in a feaver they are all but non-sense whatever you employ them on while you leave out God who is the sense of all 4. If God be not in all your thoughts they are nothing but confusion There can be no just Unity in them because they forsake him who is the only Center and are scatterad abroad upon incoherent creatures There can be no true Unity but in God The further we go from him the further we run into divisions and confusions There can be no just Method in them because he is left out that is the Beginning and the End They are not like a well ordered Army where every one is moved by the will of one Commander and all know their colours and their ranks and unanimously agree to do their work But like a swarm of Flyes that buzze about they know not whither nor why nor for what There is no true Government in your thoughts if God be not in them they are masterless and vagrants and have no true order if they be not ordered by him and to him if he be not their First and Last 5. If God be not in all your thoughts there is no Life in them They are but like the motion of a bubble or a feather in the Air They are impotont as to the resisting of any evil and as to the doing of any saving-good They have no strength in them because they are laid out upon objects that have no strength They have no quickning renewing reforming encouraging resolving confirming power in them because there is no such power in the things on which they are employed whereas the thoughts of God and everlasting life can do wonders upon the soul They can raise up men above this world and teach them to despise the worldlings Idol and look upon all the pleasures of the flesh as upon a Swines delight in wallowing in the mire They can renew the soul and cast out the most powerful beloved sin and bring all our powers into the obedience of God and that with pleasure and delight They can employ us with the Angels in a heavenly conversation and shew us the Glory of
of all our lamentable weakness of faith and love and heavenly mindedness and our strangeness to God and backwardness to the matters of eternal life O that I could escape these though I were in the hands of the cruellest enemies O that such a heart could be left behind How gladly would I overrun both house and land and honour and all sensual delights that I might but overrun it O where is the place where there is none of this darkness nor disaffection nor distance nor estrangedness from God! O that I knew it O that I could find it O that I might there dwell though I should never more see the face of mortals nor ever hear a humane voice nor ever tast of the delights of flesh Alas foolish soul such a place there is that hath all this and more than this but it is not in a wilderness but in Paradise not here on earth but above with Christ And yet am I so loth to die yet am I no more desirous of the blessed day when I shall be unclothed of flesh and sin O death what an enemy art thou even to my soul By affrighting me from the presence of my Lord and hindering my desires and willingness to be gone thou wrongest me much more than by laying my flesh to rot in darkness Fain I would know God and fain I would more love him and enjoy him but O this hurtful love of life O this unreasonable fear of dying detaineth my desires from pressing on to the happy place where all this may be had O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death this carnal unbelieving heart that sometime can think more delightfully of a Wilderness then of Heaven that can go seek after God in desert solitude among the birds and beasts and trees and yet is so backward to be loosed from flesh that I may find him and enjoy him in the world of glory Can I expect that heaven come down to earth and that the Lord of Glory should remove his Court and either leave the retinue of his celestial Courtiers or bring them all down into this drossy world of flesh and sin and this to satisfie my fleshly foolish mind Or can I expect the translation of Henoch or the Chariot of Elias Is it not enough that my Lord hath conquered Death and sanctified the passage and prepared the place of my perpetual abode Well! for all this though a Wilderness is not Heaven it shall be sweet and wellcome for the sake of Heaven if thence I may but have a clearer prospect of it and if by retiring from the crowd and noise of folly I may but be more composed and better disposed to converse above and to use my faith alas my too weak languid faith untill the beatifical vision and fruition come If there may be but more of God or readier access to him or more heart-quickening flames of Love or more heart-comforting intimations of his favour in a wilderness then in a City in a prison then in a Palace let that wilderness be my City and let that prison be my Palace while I must abide on earth If in solitude I may have Henochs walk with God I shall in due season have such a translation as shall bring me to the same felicity which he enjoyeth and in the mean time as well as after it is no incommodity if by mortal eyes I be seen no more If the Chariot of contemplation will in solitude raise me to more believing affectionate converse with heaven than I could expect in tumults and temptations it shall reconcile me unto solitude and make it my Paradise on earth till Angels instead of the Chariot of Elias shall convey me to the presence of my glorified Head in the Celestial Paradise Object But it is grievous to one that hath been used to much company to be alone Answ. Company may so use you that it may be more grievous to you not to be alone The society of waspes and serpents may be spared and Bees themselves have such stings as make some that have felt them think they bought the honey dear But can you say you are alone while you are with God Is his presence nothing to you Doth it not signifie more then the company of all men in the world saith Hierome Sapiâ—ns nunquam solus esse potest habet enim secum omnes qui sunt qui fuerunt boni si hominum sit inopia loquitur cum Deo viz. A wise man cannot be alone for he hath with him the good men that are or have been And if there be a want of men he speaks with God He should rather have said There can be no want of man when we may speak with God And were it not that God is here revealed to us as in a glass and that we do converse with God in man we should think humane converse little worth Object O but solitude is disconsolate to a sociable mind Answ. But the most desirable society is no solitude saith Hierome Infinita eremi vastitas te terret sed tu Paradisum mente deambula Quotiescunque cogitatione ac mente illuc conscenderis toties in eremo non eris that is Doth the infinite vastness of the wilderness terrifie thee But do thou ascend in mind and walk in Paradise As oft as thou ascendest thither in thought and mind so oft thou shalt not be in the wilderness If God be nothing to thee thou art not a Christian but an Atheist If God be God to thee he is All in all to thee and then should not his presence be instead of all O that I might get one step nearer unto God though I receded many from all the world O that I could find that place on earth where a souâ— may have nearest access unto him and fullest knowledge and enjoyment of him though I never more saw the face of friends I should chearfully say with my blessed Saviour I am not alone for the Father is with me And I should say so for these Reasons following 1. If God be with me the Maker and Ruler and Disposer of all is with me so that all things are virtually with me in him I have that in Gold and Jewels which I seem to want in Silver Lead and Dross I can want no friend if God vouchsafe to be my friend and I can enjoy no benefit by all my friends if God be my enemy I need not fear the greatest enemies if God be reconciled to me I shall not miss the light of the Candle if I have this blessed Sun The Creature is nothing but what it is from God and in God And it is worth nothing or good for nothing but what it's worth in order unto God as it declareth him and helps the soul to know him serve him or draw nearer to him As it is Idolatry in the unhappy worldling to thirst after the Creature with the neglect of God and so to make the
thou art upon A mind that is drowned in ambition sensuality or passion will scarce find God any sooner in a wilderness than in a croud unless he be there returning from those sins to God whereever he seeth him God will not own and be familiar with so foul a soul. Seneca could say Quid prodest totius regionis silentium si affectus fremunt What good doth the silence of all the Country do thee if thou have the noise of raging affections within And Gregory saith Qui corpore remotus vivit c. He that in body is far enough from the tumult of humane conversation is not in solitude if he busie himself with earthly cogitations and desires and he is not in the City that is not troubled with the tumult of worldly cares or fears though he be pressed with the popular crouds Bring not thy house or land or credit or carnal friend along with thee in thy heart if thou desire and expect to walk in Heaven and to converse with God Direct 5. Live still by Faith Let Faith lay Heaven and Earth as it were together Look not at God as if he were far off set him alwaies as before you even as at your right hand Psal. 16. 8. Be still with him when you awake Psal. 1 39. 18. In the morning thank him for your rest and deliver up your self to his conduct and service for that day Go forth as with him and to do his work Do every action with the Command of God and the Promise of Heaven before your eyes and upon your hearts Live as those that have incomparably more to do with God and Heaven than with all this world That you may say with David Psal. 37. 25 26. as aforecited Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I desire besides thee And with Paul Phil. 1. 21. To me to Live is Christ and to Dye is gain You must shut up the eye of sense save as subordinate to Faith and live by Faith upon a God a Christ and a World that is unseen if you would know by experience what it is to be above the brutish life of sensualists and to converse with God O Christian if thou hadst rightly learned this blessed life what a high and noble soul-conversation wouldst thou have How easily wouldst thou spare and how little wouldst thou miss the favour of the greatest the presence of any worldly comfort City or Solitude would be much alike to thee saving that the place and state would be best to thee where thou hast the greatest help and freedome to converse with God Thou wouldst say of humane society as Seneca Unus pro populo mihi est populus pro uno Mihi satis est unus satis est nullus One is instead of all the people to me and the people as one One is enough for me and none is enough Thus being taken up with God thou mightest live in prison as at liberty and in a wilderness as in a City and in a place of banishment as in thy native Land For the Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof and everywhere thou mayest find him and converse with him and lift up pure hands unto him In every place thou art within the sight of home and Heaven is in thine eye and thou art conversing with that God in whose converse the highest Angels do place their highest felicity and delight How little cause then have all the Churches enemies to triumph that can never shut up a true believer from the presence of his God nor banish him into such a place where he cannot have his conversation in Heaven The stones that were cast at holy Stephen could not hinder him from seeing the Heavens opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God A Patmos allowed holy John Communion with Christ being there in the Spirit on the Lords day Rev. 1. 9 10. Christ never so speedily and comfortably owneth his servants as when the world disowneth them and abuseth them for his sake and hurls them up and down as the scorn and off-scouring of all He quickly found the blind man that he had cured when once the Jews had cast him out Joh. 9. 35. Persecutors do but promote the blessedness and exceeding joy of sufferers for Christ Mat. 5. 11 12. And how little Reason then have Christians to shun such sufferings by unlawful means which turn to their so great advantage and to give so dear as the hazard of their souls by wilful sin to escape the honour and safety and commodity of Martyrdome And indeed we judge not we Love not we Live not as sanctified ones must do if we judge not that the truest Liberty and Love it not as the Best Condition in which we may Best converse with God And O how much harder is it to walk with God in a Court in the midst of sensual delights than in a prison or wilderness where we have none to interrupt us and nothing else to take us up It is our prepossessed minds our earthly hearts our carnal affections and concupiscence and the pleasures of a prosperous state that are the prison and the Jaylors of our souls Were it not for these how free should we be though our bodies were confined to the straightest room He is at Liberty that can walk in Heaven and have access to God and make use of all the Creatures in the world to the promoting of this his Heavenly conversation And he is the prisoner whose soul is chained to flesh and earth and confined to his lands and houses and feedeth on the dust of worldly riches or walloweth in the dung and filth of gluttony drunkenness and lust that are far from God and desire not to be near him but say to him Depart from us we would not have the knowledge of thy waies that Love their prison and chains so well that they would not be set free but hate those with the cruellest hatred that endeavour their deliverance Those are the poor prisoners of Satan that have not liberty to believe nor to Love God nor converse in Heaven nor seriously to mind or seek the things that are high and honourable that have not liberty to meditate or pray or seriously to speak of holy things nor to love and converse with those that do so that are tyed so hard to the drudgery of sin that they have not liberty one month or week or day to leave it and walk with God so much as for a recreation But he that liveth in the family of God and is employed in attending him and doth converse with Christ and the Host of Holy ones above in reason should not much complain of his want of friends or company or accommodations nor yet be too impatient of any corporal confinement Lastly be sure then most narrowly to watch your hearts that nothing have entertainment there which is against your Liberty of converse with God Fill not those Hearts with
worldly trash which are made and new-made to be the dwelling place of God Desire not the company which would diminish your heavenly acquaintance and correspondency Be not unfriendly nor conceited of a self-sufficiency but yet beware lest under the honest ingenuous title of a friend a special faithful prudent faithful friend you should entertain an Idol or an enemy to your Love of God or a corrival and competitor with your highest friend For if you do it is not the specious title of a friend that will save you from the thorns and bryars of disquietment and from greater troubles than ever you found from open enemies O blessed be that High and everlasting friend who is every way suited to the upright souls To their Minds their Memories their Delight their Love c. by surest Truth by fullest Goodness by clearest Light by dearest Love by firmest Constancy c. O why hath my drowsie and dark-sighted soul been so seldome with him why hath it so often so strangely and so unthankfully passed by and not observed him nor hearkened to his kindest calls O what is all this trash and trouble that hath filled my memory and employed my mind and cheated and corrupted my affections while my dearest Lord hath been daies and nights so unworthily forgotten so contemptuously neglected and disregarded and loved as if I loved him not O that these drowsie and those waking nights those loitered lost and empty hours had been spent in the humblest converse with him which have been dreamed and doted away upon now I know not what O my God how much wiser and happier had I been had I rather chosen to mourn with thee than to rejoyce and sport with any other O that I had rather wept with thee than laughed with the creature For the time to come let that be my friend that most befriendeth my dark and dull and backward soul in its undertaken progress and heavenly conversation Or if there be none such upon earth let me here take no one for my friend O blot out every Name from my corrupted heart which hindereth the deeper engraving of thy Name Ah Lord what a stone what a blind ungrateful thing is a Heart not touched with celestial Love yet shall I not run to thee when I have none else that will know me shall I not draw near thee when all fly from me When daily experience cryeth out so loud NONE BUT CHRIST GOD OR NOTHING Ah foolish Heart that hast thought of it Where is that place that Cave or Desert where I might soonest find thee and fullest enjoy thee is it in the wilderness that thou walkest or in the croud in the Closet or in the Church where is it that I might soonest meet with God But alas I now perceive that I have a Heart to find before I am like to find my Lord O Loveless Lifeless stony heart that 's dead to him that gave it Life and to none but him Could I not Love or Think or Feel at all methinks I were less dead than now Less dead if dead than now I am alive I had almost said Lord let me never Love more till I can Love thee Nor think more on any thing till I can more willingly think of thee But I must suppress that wish for Life will act And the mercies and motions of Nature are necessary to those of Grace And therefore in the life of Nature and in the glimmerings of thy Light I will wait for more of the Celestial life My God thou hast my consent It is here attested under my hand Separate me from what and whom thou wilt so I may but be nearer thee Let me Love thee more and feel more of thy Love and then let me Love or be beloved of the world as little as thou wilt I thought self-love had been a more predominant thing But now I find that Repentance hath its Anger its Hatred and its Revenge I am truly Angry with that Heart that hath so oft and foolishly offended thee Methinks I hate that Heart that is so cold and backward in thy love and almost grudge it a dwelling in my breast Alas when Love should be the life of Prayer the life of holy meditation the life of Sermons and of holy conference and my soul in these should long to meet thee and delight to mention thee I straggle Lord I know not whither or I sit still and wish but do not rise and run and follow thee yea I do not what I seem to do All 's dead all 's dead for want of Love I often cry O where is that place where the quickening beams of Heaven are warmest that my frozen soul might seek it out But whither ever I go to City or to Solitude alas I find it is not Place that makes the difference I know that Christ is perfectly replenished with Life and Light and Love Divine And I hear him as our Head and Treasure proclaimed and offered to us in the Gospel This is thy Record that he that hath the Son hath Life O why then is my barren soul so empty I thought I had long ago consented to thy offer and then according to thy Covenant both He and Life in him are mine And yet must I still be dark and dead Ah dearest Lord I say not that I have too long waited but if I continue thus to wait wilt thou never find the time of Love and come and own thy gasping worm wilt thou never dissipate these clouds and shine upon this dead and darkened soul Hath my Night no Day Thrust me not from thee O my God! For that 's a Hell to be thrust from God But sure the cause is all at home could I find it out or rather could I cure it It is sure my face that 's turned from God when I say His face is turned from me But if my Life must here be out of sight and hidden in the Root with Christ in God and if all the rest be reserved for that better world and I must here have but these small beginnings O make me more to Love and long for the blessed day of thine appearing and not to fear the time of my deliverance nor unbelievingly to linger in this Sodom as one that had rather stay with sin then come to thee Though sin hath made me backward to the fight let it not make me backward to receive the Crown Though it hath made me a loiterer in thy work let it not make me backward to receive that wages which thy Love will give to our pardoned poor accepted services Though I have too oft drawn back when I should have come unto thee and walked with thee in thy waies of Grace yet heal that unbelief and disaffection which would make me to draw back when thou callest me to possess thy Glory Though the sickness and lameness of my soul have hindered me in my journey yet let their painfulness help me to desire to be delivered from them and to be at home where without the interposing nights of thy displeasure I shall fully feel thy fullest Love and walk with thy Glorified ones in the Light of thy Glory triumphing in thy Praise for evermore Amen BUT now I have given you these few Directions for the improvement of your solitude for converse with God lest I should occasion the hurt of those that are unfit for the Lesson I have given I must conclude with this Caution which I have formerly also published That it is not melancholly or weak-headed persons who are not able to bear such exercises for whom I have written these Directions Those that are not able to be much in serious solitary thoughtfulness without confusions and distracting suggestions and hurrying vexatious thoughts must set themselves for the most part to those duties which are to be done in company by the help of others and must be very little in solitary duties For to them whose natural faculties are so diseased or weak it is no duty as being no means to do them the desired good but while they strive to do that which they are naturally unable to endure they will but confound and distract themselves and make themselves unable for those other duties which yet they are not utterly unfit for To such persons therefore instead of ordered well-digested Meditations and much time spent in secret thoughtfulness it must suffice that they be brief in secret Prayer and take up with such occasional abrupter Meditations as they are capable of and that they be the more in reading hearing conference and praying and praising God with others untill their melancholly distempers are so far overcome as that by the direction of their Spiritual Guides they may judge themselves fit for this improvement of their Solitude FINIS * Charles Earl of Balcarres who dyed of a stone in his heart of a very strange magnitude