wicked travelleth with pain all his dayes a dreadful sound is in his ears They are the words of Eliphaz indeed but they do agree with the words of God himself Isa 33. 14. The sinners in Sion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the hypocrites When I read over these Texts I cannot but pray and cry O my soul come not you into the number of the wicked and be not united into the assembly of Hypocrites 2. Take heed of fondness of the body of a double act of it priding pampering 1. Take heed you pride not your selves in any excellencies of the body Doth this mortal body keep us at a distance from our God Do we well then to love that which keeps us from that which is most lovely Why do we stand fondly gazing upon that which keeps us from the blessed sight of God If you ask me Did ever any man hate his own flesh I will ask you again Did ever any wise man love his own flesh above him that made it Did ever any godly soul love his body in opposition to his God Oh but it is a comely body And what is a beautiful body but a fair prison A silver twist or a clog of gold do as really hinder the flight of a Bird and forestall her liberty as a stone tyed at her heels Nay those very excellencies which you so much admire are so much the greater hinderances If we had learned that excellent lesson indeed of enjoying all things only in God then the several beauties and braveries of the body would be a help to our devotion they would carry us up to an admiration and contemplation of that glorious and most excellent Being from whom they were communicated so we might in some sense look into a glass and behold the beauty of God But alas these commonly prove the greater snares Many had been more beautiful within had they been less beautiful without more chaste if less comely many had been more peacèable and more at peace too if they had been less able to have quarrelled and fought It was said of Galba who was an ingenious man but deformed that his soul dwelt ill but sure I am it might better have been so said of beautiful Absolom or Jezabel whose bodies became a snare to their souls On the other hand they that want a beauty in their bodyes will perhaps labour to find an excellency in their minds far beyond it as the Philosopher advised to look often into a glass ut si deformis sis corrigas formositate morum c. 2. Take heed of pampering the body of treating it too gently and delicately Deny it nothing that may fit it for the service of God and your souls and allow it no more than may do that Thy pampering is 1. Vnseemly What make a darling of that which keeps us from our Lord carry it gently and delicately and tenderly towards that which whilst we carry about with us we cannot be happy 2. Injurious If you bring up this servant delicately from a child you shall have him become your Son at length yea your Master If you do by your bodyes as the fond King did by his Son Adonijah 1 King 1. 6. never displease it never reprove it never deny it it will do with you in time as he did raise seditions in your soul Go on and please and pamper and cocker your bodyes and it will come to this at length that you must deny them nothing you must give whatsoever a whining appetite will crave go whither your gadding senses will carry you and speak whatsoever wanton fancy will suggest Doth not the body it self set us at a sufficient distance from God but we must estrange our selves more from him by pleasuring it spend the time that should be for God in decking trimming adorning it When you cram this you feed a Bird that will pick out your eyes you nourish a Traitor when you gratifie this Adonijah In a word Is it not enough that we do all carry fire in our bosomes but we must also blow it up into a flame Nay my Brethren do not so foolishly And now methinks by this time I may venture upon an Exhortation by degrees at least 1. Watch against the Body You have heard how the senses appetite and fancy become a snare to the souls â—â—ing unto and conversing with God Now then if you seriously design communion with Heaven if you placed your happiness in the knowledge and enjoyment of that supreme and eternal good it becomes you to watch against all things that may distract or divert you from it or make you fall short of the glory of God Men that live upon earthly designs whose great ambition it is to be great in the world do not only use the most effectual means and take the most direct courses to accomplish those designs and attain those ends but do continually suspect and diligently watch against all the moths that would corrupt the rust that would consume the thieves that would plunder their treasures and in a word against all possible hinderances defraudations and disappointments So will we suspect and watch sure against all enemies and traitors to our souls if we live here upon eternal designs if our ambition be to be great in God alone And the more eminent the danger is the more will we watch Have you not found by experience which of these three have been most prejudicial to your communion with God If not you have not been so studious to know the state nor pursue the happiness of your own souls as you might If so then watch against that most of all which you have found to be most injurious For it ordinarily comes to pass either by the difference of constitutions or difference of temptations or different wayes of living or some other thing that Gods children are more ensnared by some one of these than other Well be sure to watch and pray and strive more especially against the more especial enemies of your souls 2. Live above the body above bodily enjoyments ornaments excellencies Though these bodily enjoyments be never so sweet these bodily ornaments never so glorious yet is not your happiness in these Certainly they live to their loss who live upon the excellencies of their own souls whether natural or supernatural they deprive themselves of the infinite glory fulness and sufficiency that is in the Blessed God who take up their happiness in these Much more do they pinch and impoverish their own souls who live upon bodily ornaments or excellencies wherein many inferiour creatures do excel them the Rose in beauty the Sun in brightness the Lion in strength the Stagg in swiftness c. If a woman were as lovely as the morning fair as the Moon clear as the Sun if a man were full of personal grace and majesty terrible as an Army with banners yet were not their happiness in these accomplishments Nay which is worse these ornaments stand between us and our
endeavour the nearest union that may be with God and so by consequence methinks they must needs in some sense desire the removal of that animal life and dark body that stands in their way for they know that that which now letteth will let such is the unchangeable nature of it till it be layd in the dust till it be taken out of the way The thirsty King did but cry for water of the Well of Bethlehem and his Champions broke thorow the Host of the Philistines and fetcht it 2 Sam. 23. 15. And will ye not allow the thirsty soul if not to break thorow to fetch it yet at least to break out into an Oh that one would give me to drink of the living water of the fountain of grace and peace and love Will ye allow hunger to break down stone-walls and will ye neither allow the hungry soul to break down these mud-walls nor to wish within it self that they were broken down In a word then give me leave earnestly to press you to an earnest pressing after perfect fruition of and eternal converse with God and to change the Apostles words Heb. 12. 1. Seeing we are compassed about with so great a divine light and glory and brightness let us be willing and desirous to lay aside this weight of flesh and this body that so easily resists us with sins and snares and run with eagerness to the object that is set before us Amen Amen Draw me we will run after thee THE Angelical Life MAT. 22. 30. Are as the Angels of God in Heaven THE Doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ and the great things of Christian Religion as they were accounted a strange thing by all the world when they were first publisht and preacht so indeed by none less entertained or rather more opposed than by the wisest of men living in that age viz. Scribes Pharisees Sadduces who were the disputers of this world as the Apostles phrase is 1 Cor. 1. 20. A thing of wonderful observation not only to us in our day but even to our blessed Lord himself in the dayes of his flesh who fetches the cause of it from Heaven and adores the infinite Wisdom of God in it Mat. 11. 25. Amongst other set Disputations that the Saddâ—ces held with our Saviour this in this chapter is very famous where they dispute against the Resurrection of the dead by an argument fetcht ab absurdo vers 25. grounded upon an instance of a woman that had been married to seven Husbands successively Now say they if there be a Resurrection whose Wise shall she be then our Saviour answers by destroying the ground of their argument and shewing that they disputed upon a false supposition for saith he In the Resurrection there shall be no marrying but men shall be as the Angels of God In which words this Doctrine is plainly layd down for I shall not meddle with the Controversie Doct. That the glorified Saints shall be as the Angels of God in Heaven The other Evangelists do lay down the same truth as you may find Mark 12. 25. Luk. 20. 36. In the explication of which point I will shew 1. Negatively wherein the Saints shall not be like the Angels 2. Affirmatively wherein they shall be like unto them or as St. Luke hath it equal to them 1. Negatively The glorified Saints shall not be like the Angels in essence The Angelical essence and the rational soul are and shall be different Souls shall remain souls still keep their own essence The essence shall not be changed souls shall not be changed into Angelical essences 2. They shall not be wholly spirits without bodyes as the Angels The spirit of just men now made perfect are more line to the Angels in this sense than they shall be after the Resurrection For now they are spirits without bodyes but the Saints shall have bodyes not such as now so corruptible so crazy not in any thing defective not needing creature supplyes But incorruptible glorious bodyes in some sense spiritual bodyes which are described by three characters 1 Cor. 15. 42 43. Incorruptible somewhat more than immortal glorious powerful Neither doth their having bodyes any whit abate of their perfection or glory nor render them inferior to the Angels for even the glorious Redeemer of the world hath a body who is yet superior to the Angels and he shall change the vile bodyes of the Saints and make them like unto his glorious body Phil. 3. ult 3. Neither have we any ground to believe that the Saints shall be altogether equal to the Angels in dignity and glory But rather that as man was at first made a little lower than the Angels so that he shall never come to be exalted altogether so high as they for it seemeth that the natural capacity of an Angel is greater than of a 〈◊〉 and so shall continue for they are distinct kinds of creatures As a beast cannot become so wise and intelligent as a man for then he would cease to be a beast so neither can a man become so large and capable as an Angel for then he would cease to be a man 2. Affirmatively The glorified Saints shall be like the Angels of God in Heaven first In their qualities that is 1. In being pure and holy whether they shall be equal to them in positive holiness or no I know not whether they shall understand and know and love God in all degrees as much as the Angels It seems rather that they shall not because as I said before their capacity shall not be so large But if in this they be not altogether equal to the Angels yet it implyes no imperfection for they shall be positively holy as far as their nature is capable and so shall be perfect in their kind Heb. 12. 23. The spirits of Just men made perfect They shall in this be like unto the Angels if not equal to them yea like unto God himself in it Be ye holy as I am holy 1 Pet. 1. 15. Mat. 5. ult But as to negative holiness the Saints shall be even equal to the Angels of God in Heaven i. e. they shall have no more sin no more corruption than they have They shall be as perfectly freed from all iniquities imperfections and infirmities as the Angels What can be cleaner than that which hath no uncleanness at all in it Why so clean shall all the Saints be Rev. 21. 27. No unclean thing shall enter into Heaven They shall be without all kind of spot or blemish Ephes 5. 27. which is a perfect negative holiness more cannot be said of the Angels in this respect As branches of this 2. As the holy Angles do reverence the Divine Majesty Isa 6. 2 3. they cover their faces with their wings crying Holy Holy Holy Lord of Hosts so shall the glorified Saints You may see what sweet harmony they make consenting together to give all the glory of all to God Rev. 7. 9 11 12. The Saints
self-judging renewing of repentance c. 2. Towards men meekness compassion instructing warning comforting c. 3. Towards God as we shall see anon An afflicted condition doth call for some more especial tempers and behaviours towards our selves and others But these I am not to speak unto from this Text. It is the souls meeting God behaviour towards him conversing with him that my Text leads me to treat of and I shall not vary from it In handling of which Position I shall take this Method 1. Premise some things needful to be known concerning the souls conversing with God For I shall retain the word conversing throughout my discourse as being a single yet a large and significant word 2. Shew what it is for a soul to converse with God and how it comes to converse with him 3. Prove the doctrine That it is our duty to converse with God in the way of his judgments 4. Shew particularly how we are to converse with God in the time of afflictions 5. Apply it 1. I shall premise some things needful to be known that tend to clear up my way to the following discourse 1. I premise That it is the great duty of man to converse with God I have read that it was a common precept that the Jewish Doctors were wont to give to the people that they should single out some one Commandment and exercise themselves very diligently in the observation of it that therein they might make God their friend and make him a kind of amends for the breach of many others I doubt it is a Rule that too many Professors live by who not having the genuine and generous spirit of true Religion do parcel out their obedience into some little shreds of homage and devotion and instead of consecrating their whole lives to God do content themselves with some circumstantial and light obedience and think themselves people of great attainments if they do but severely tye up themselves to hearing twice a week and prayer twice a day and a few other acts of more solemn Worship Certainly this is a penurious and needy spirit much unlike the generous ample and free-born spirit of true Religion The duty the whole duty the constant duty of man is to converse with God commended in Enoch by the name of walking with God Gen. 5. 22. Where you may observe of him that he did not only set out fairly with God or take a turn or two with him but he walked with him three hundred years together The same God calls for from Abraham under the same name Gen. 17. 1. Walk before me and be perfect But it is not only the command of God that makes this a duty If there had been no express commandment concerning it yet were it the duty of every man necessarily flowing from his relation of a reasonable creature As man is a creature so he must needs live upon God and as a reasonable creature so he ought to live with him and unto him Therefore hath God given unto man a noble rational soul not only that he might talk and work manage the creatures and converse with the world but that he might converse with the God of the world that Infinite blessed and glorious Being This is the very end of mans Creation as man as a reasonable creature This was the end of his being created in the Image of God and when he was fallen from this Image this was the end of his Redemption by Christ Jesus that Heaven and Earth might be reconciled and those that were far off might be brought â—igh sin is a sinking of the soul down to self and the creature And redemption from sin is nothing else but a recovery of the soul into a state of favour and fellowship with God So that whatever is expressed by Faith and Repentance is contained in this one word Converse with God It is the great the necessary and as I may say the natural duty of the Reasonable Soul 2. It is the highest priviledge of man The Prerogative of man above the beasts is his Reason and the Glory of reason is that it is capable of knowing loving enjoying and conversing with the Supreme and Infinite Good The priviledge of Reason is not as too many think that it is capable of understanding Arts and Sciences that it is capable of climbing up into the nature and course of the Heavens and diving into the secret depths of the Earth and Sea and the creatures therein contained but in conversing with the Infinite and Glorious God How miserably do vulgar souls abuse this noble faculty who exercise it only in discoursing numbring and ordering the poor conâ—â—â—â— cernments of the world and the body Yea certainly those wise men those Scribes those Disputers of this world as the Apostle calls them who cry up this faculty and glory so much in it and yet do not exercise it about that high and eternal Being do not converse with God in pure affections and God like dispositions and conversations but expend those vast treasures of reason upon secrets in Nature secrets in Art secrets in State or any other created Being do enthrall their own souls which they say are so free-born and captivate and confine that noble principle which they themselves do so much magnifie For sin is certainly the great and only shame and reproach of an immortal soul And indeed these men though they put their souls to somewhat a more noble drudgery yet are really no more happy than the vulgar sort who spend the strength of their souls about eating and drinking plowing or sowing or keeping of Cattel What difference I pray you in point of true happiness is there between Boys playing with Pins and Points and old mens hugging of Baggs and Lands The noblest Sciences the greatest Commands the most enriching Traffiques are as very toys in comparison of true happiness as the poor dunghil-possessions of vulgar men And the wise the rich the learned the honourable of the world that take up with an employment in this world and with a happiness in themselves or in any creature do as much disgrace their own souls and as truly live below their own faculties as he doth that knows no higher good than food and rayment no higher employment than to toil all his dayes in a ditch For indeed as to all things but conversing with God man seems to be but equal perhaps inferiour to the beasts that perish Doth man eat drink sleep work so do they Doth man find any sensual pleasure which the beasts do not sensate as well as he Nay the Gormandâ—zâ—ng Emperour envyed the Cranes long neck and others have envyed the more able and permanent lusts of the brute beasts because themselves have been inferiour to them therein and have enjoyed less sensual pleasure than they If any glory in their knowledge of natural and political things I could instance in the strong memory great sagâ—city quick fancy wonderful perceptions of many beasts and their
strange knowledge of many secrets which they never learnt by Books no nor gathered gradually by Observations And as for mans communications of his notions by words and phrases I doubt not to affirm that there is something like to be found in Beasts and Birds yea that very beauty and flower of sound even Musick which some men magnifie so much is more fairly and sweetly uttered by the filly Bird that sits solitary upon a bough than by the Quiristers of the Popes Cathedral What solid Prerogative worth naming remains to man above his fellow-creatures but his conversing with God which we call Religion and is indeed Reason rectified sanctified exalted and boyled up into its pure and primitive perfection In so mnch that I have sometimes thought that I never heard a more reproachful word spoken concerning degenerate man neither do I think that any thing can be spoken of him more shameful and dishonourable than what the Apostle saith of the Heathen Ephes 2. 12. Without God in the world By conversing with God in the world is man truly raised above the beasts and the godly man above all other men Nay hereby is the godly soul advanced to the dignity and glory of the Holy Angels or at least to a parity of happiness For it is this that is their perfection and glory as we find it described in Mat. 18. 10. They alwayes behold the face of God And therefore our blessed Saviour doth affirm that the Saints in the Resurrection who shall be raised above all creature-communion to live upon God singly and entirely shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels of God Luk. 20. 36. In a word this is the most real Heaven setting aside all circumstances of place c. the perfect and proper happiness of a soul to see God Mar. 5. 8. to be like unto him 1 John 3. 2. to converse with the Father by the Son as our Saviour bath told us who â—est knew it John 17. 3. This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent By this it is that God dwells in the soul and the soul in God as we shall see hereafter and the Kingdome of Heaven doth really enter into every Believer 3. The natural man is utterly unwilling and unable to converse with God An earthly Mountain may as soon rise up to Heaven by its own power and good will as an earthly mind And such minds are all natural and unregenerate Sin as I hinted before is a falling from God a sinking of the soul into self whether sensual self or spiritual self and a shrivâ—lling of it up into the creature and the sinful soul is alwayes like a shadow moving upon the surface of the Earth and higher it cannot get Rom. 8. 5. Would you know what is the principal object of a natural mans admiraration inclination and ambition The Psalmist will tell you It is some created good Psal 4. 6 7. Will you know what is the disposition of the natural man towards the supreme and uncreated good The Apostle will tell you It is Ignorance and Enmity 1 Cor. 2. 14. Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God This high duty of conversing with God in a right manner is besides the temper of the wicked man never any such man did perform it It is a contradiction A wicked man conversing with God is as if one should say An ungodly man that is godly But that 's not all This duty is not only out of the hands of a wicked man but out of his reach too Neither can he know him saith the Apostle to the Corinthians and again to the Romans Neither can he be subject to him Can two walk together except they be agreed saith the Prophet Can man walk with God converse with God except he be reconciled to him And what agreement but by a Mediator What Mediator between God and man but Christ Jesus who 〈◊〉 a Mediator as the Logicians call a medium participationis who is God man In the word some converse with one thing in a world and some with another as I noted before but all converse principally and mainly with the creature that are not regenerated by Grace reconciled by Christ 4. It is the duty of man in all ages of life at all times and in all places and conditions to converse with God It is a necessary natural certain constant duty springing up out of the very nature and natural will of God and out of the very nature and relation and capacity of the reasonable soul binding semper and ad semper as the Schoolmen speak and admitting of no dispensation nor diminution There is no time wherein it is not a duty or wherein it is less a duty than at another time however we are apt to give to our selves many relaxations from it The first fruits nay the very early buds of the tender soul and of the springing faculties these are due to God and ought to be dedicated to him Eccles 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth Manhood is not allowed so to attend unto cares and exploits nor old age to pains and griefs as to neglect converse with God But whether young men build or plant fight or study or work or marry or manage the affairs of the house or of the field all should be undertaken and carryed on in away of converse and fellowship with God or whether old men sit and muse and meditate or lye under the pains and grievances of decrepit age still it ought to be in the Lord. Neither doth this duty admit of interruption no more than of cessation There is no dispensation given us from this duty as in no age so in no hour of our life As we cannot live a moment out of God so neither ought we to live a moment without God in the world We ought continually so endeavour to walk in subservience to and converse with God yea and as far as may be in a feeling converse with him too Holy David witnesseth of himself that the fear of God was continually before his eyes and that he did continually converse with God for so those words may be understood Psal 73. 23. I am continually with thee The like is recorded of many other Saints both in the Old and New Testaments concerning whom one may well say as the Queen of Sheba concerning the servants of Solomon and with much better reason 1 King 10. 8. Happy are these thy servants O Lord which stand continually before thee Neither is it the duty of some few men that have the greatest knowledge or the most leasure For it springs up out of the relation of a creature and out of the very nature of the rational soul so that no soul of man is exempted from it however many ignorant and profane persons live rather in a professed independance upon God Neither is it a duty only upon supposition of leasure and
The Well is deep and they have nothing to draw with as the Woman said concerning another Well Joh. 4. Therefore be sure you get an interest in the Fulness and Sufficiency of God or as Solomon speaks in another case Prov. 5. 15. Drink waters out of thine own Well 3. Converse with the Self-sufficient Fulness of God by delighting your selves in it Drink of this Fountain yea drink abundantly ye beloved of God Cant. 5. 1. yea lie down by it Psal 23. 2. yea bathe you selves wholly in it Enter into the Joy of your Lord lie down in his bosome spread your selves in his Love and Fulness The Beloved Disciple leaning upon the breast of his Lord at Supper was but a dark shadow a poor scant resemblance of a beloved soul which by the lovely acts of Joy and Confidence and Delight layes it self down in the bosome of Jesus and doth not feed with him but feed upon him and his Alsufficiency Then do we converse indeed feelingly and comfortably with the Infinite Fulness when the soul is swallowed up in it doth rest in it is filled with it and centred upon it Oh the noble and free-born spirit of true Religion that disdaining the pursuit of low and created things is carryed out with delight to feed and dwell and live upon uncreated Fulness Then is a soul raised to its just altitude to the very height of its Being when it can spend all its powers upon the supreme and self-sufficient good spreading and stretching it self upon God with full contentment and wrapping up it self entirely in him This is the souls way of living above losses and he that so lives though he may often be a loser yet shall never be at a loss He who feeds upon created Goodness or Sweetness may soon eat himself out of all the stock will be spent and which is worse the soul will be dryed up that hath nothing else to nourish it But he that lives upon uncreated Fulness is never at a loss though he lose never so much of the creature For who will value the spilling of a dish of water that hath a well of living water at his door from whence he had that and can have more as good though not the same Nay to speak properly this is the only way to lose nothing For how can he be properly said to lose any thing who possesses all things And so doth he I am sure who is filled with the Fulness of God Be sure therefore that in the want in the loss of all things you live upon the Fountain-fulness delight your self in the Lord after the example of the Prophet Habakkuk cap. 3. 17 18. A Farewel to Life 2 COR. 5. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. THE holy Apostle having in the first verse of this Chapter layd down the Doctrine of Eternal Glory which shall follow upon this transitory life of Believers shews in the following verses how he himself longed within himself and groaned after that happy state And then Proceeds to give a double ground of this his confident expectation one in vers 5. therefore is the Apostle confident concerning the putting off of this mortal body because God had wrought and formed him for this state of glory and already given him an earnest of it even his holy Spirit The other ground of the confidence and settledness of his mind as to his desires of a change is taken from his present state in the body which was but poor and uncomfortable in comparison of that glorious state This in the words of the Text Therefore we are alwayes confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For I do not take the words we are confident concerning the Apostles resolvedness with a quiet and sober mind to suffer any kind of persecution or affliction whatever but we are alwayes confident i. e. we do with confidence expect or at least we are alwayes well satisfied contented well resolved in our minds concerning our departure out of this life For the Apostle was speaking not of afflictions or persecutions in the former verses but indeed of death which he calls a dissolving of the earthly house of this tabernacle vers 1. and a being cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven vers 2. 4. Yea and thus the Apostle explains himself vers 8. where he tells you what he means by this his confidence we are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body where the latter words are exegetical to the former q. d. It is better to be with the Lord than in this mortal body but we cannot be with the Lord whilst we are in this body it keeps us from him therefore we have the confidence to part with it It is the reason of the Apostles confidence and willingness to part with the body that I am to speak of and the reason is because this body keeps him from his Lord whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. The words are a Metaphor and are to be translated thus we indwelling in the body do dwell out from the Lord which our Translation renders well taking little notice of the Metaphor whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Though indeed if they had left out that word at home it would have been as well and so have neglected the Metaphor altogether as we may haply hint hereafter The words are a reason of the Apostles willingness to be dissolved and do contain a kind of an accusat on of the body and so seem to lay a blame upon it and upon this animal life which must be remembred Now for the former phrase of being at home in the body it is easily understood and generally I think agreed upon to be no more than whilst we carry about with us this corruptible flesh whilst we live this naâ—ural animal life It only signifies man in his compounded animal state 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and doth not at all allude to his sinful unregenerate or carnal state But the latter phrase Absent from the Lord is capable of a double sense both good and true and I think both fit enough to the context and drift of the Apostle I shall speak to both but insist most upon the latter 1. Whilst we are in the body we are absent from the Lord i. e. from the bodily presence of the Lord in Heaven absent from Christ Jesus and his glory And so the words are the same in sense with 1 Cor. 15. 50. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God for by flesh and blood there must needs be meant man in this animal corruptible state And so the Apostle accuses this kind of life in the body and as it were blames it for standing between him and his glorified Lord and so consequently between him and the glory of his Lord.
And this sense doth well agree with what went before and with what follows The Apostle hath a great mind to depart for whilst he is in the body he is absent from his perfect happiness For this is the consummation of a Christians happiness to be with the Lord to be admitted to a beholding of his infinite glory as appears by our Saviours earnest prayer for this Joh. 17. 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory Besides if we shall see him as he is we must also needs be made lâ—ke unto him 1 Joh. 3. 2. else how can we be fit to live for ever in his presence Now we are kept from this seeing and beholding of the Lord in glory by this animal life It stands between us and the Crown between us and our Masters Joy between us and the perfect enjoyment of God To be with the Lord is a state of perfect freedom from sin No unclean thing shall or can enter into Heaven Rev. 21. 27. A perfect freedom from all manner of afflâ—ctions Rev. 21. 4. There shall be no more sorrow nor crying nor pain and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all tears shall be wiped away from their eyes A state of freedom from all temptations to sin For a tempting Devil and all tempting lusts shall be cast out for ever A state of perfect peace without the least disturbance from within or from without of perfect joy that shall neither have end nor abatement and of perfect holiness when the whole soul shall be enlarged and raised to know and love and enjoy the blessed God as much as created nature is capable This is the happy state of seeing God of being with the Loâ—d And it is thy corruptible body this animal life that interposes between us and it so that the Apostle is confident and rather willing to depart and be with the Lord than stay here and be without him 2. Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord without any reference to the world to come and so it may be fitly translated distant from the Lord estranged from God This agrees well with the context and scope of the Apostle also And thus the words are also a good ground of the Apostles resolution and willingness to dye q. d. I am willing to be absent from this body for whilst I am in it I find my self to be at a great distance from God And indeed the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies properly to be at a distance or to be estranged So I find it interpreted by a learned Critick without any mystery as he speaks of the distance that even Believers themselves stand at from God in this life And in thâ—s sense I shall chuse to prosecute the words In which sense the Apostle blames this body and animal life because it keeps us at a distance from God is a clog a snare a fetter a pinion to the soul And so the words do agree in sense with those of our Saviour Mat. 26. 41. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak where by the flesh must needs be understood the body if we consider the contexâ— viz. the occasion upon which the words were spoken the sleepiness of the Apostles or if we consider the propriety of speech according to the style of the New Testament True indeed the corruption of nature is sometimes called Flesh but according to that way of speaking our Saviour would rather have said That the spirit was willing but the flesh was strong as he saith elsewhere That the strong man armed kept the house Now to explain this Doctrine a little That even the godly themselves whilst they are in this body are at a distance from the Lord It must be granted that the godly soul is nigh unto God even whilst it so journs in this mortal body and tottering flesh All souls are involved in the Apostasie of Adam and are fallen down from God have alike stâ—agled from their God and are sunk into self and the creature God opened a way for their return by the blood of Jesus for we owe it unto Christs death not only that God is reconciled to us pardoning our sins but that any of our natures become reconciled to God by accepting of him as our God and loving him as the chiefest good Now there is a double being brought nigh to God by Christ The first is more general external and as I may say relational Thus the partition-wall being broken down the Gentiles that were converted from their Idolatry to a profession of God and Christ and admâ—tted to a communion with the Visible Church are upon that account said to be Brethren to the rest of Gods Children 1 Cor. 5. 11. and as to the Church they are said to be within it vers 12. though at the same timâ— they were Fornicators Covetous Drunkards And as to God they are said to be made nigh Ephes 2. 13. A prosessing of God is said to be a being nigh to him and even an external performance is said to be a drawing nigh to him and so Nadab and Abihu even in the offering of strange fire are said to have drawn nigh to God Levit. 10. 3. And this though it be a priviledge yet it is not that honourable priviledge of the truly godly souls who are by Christ Jesus raised up to God in their hearts and reconciled to him in their natures and united to him in their affections and so are made nigh unto him in a more especial and spiritual manner Thus all sinful and wicked souls notwithstanding all their profession and performances are far from God estranged from the life of God Enmity and dissimilitude are the most real distance from God And truly God-like souls only are nigh unto him they dwell in him and he dwelleth in them as in his most proper Temple As to any kind of Apposition no man can draw nigh to God nor by any local accession for so all men are alike nigh to him who is everywhere and the worst as well as the best of men do live and move in him But they are really nigh unto God who do enjoy him and they only enjoy him whose natures are conformable to him in a way of love goodness and God-like perfections We do not enjoy God by any gross and external conjunction with him but we enjoy him and are nigh unto him by an internal union when a Dâ—vine Spirit informeth and acteth our souls and derives a Divine Life into them and thorow them And so a godly soul only is really and happily nigh unto God Thus the Apostle Paul I believe was as nigh unto God as any man in the world who did not only live and move in God as all men do though few understand it but God did even live and as it were breathe in him the very life that he 〈◊〉 was by faith in the Son of
a dead Lion Eccles 9. 4. But I may say to these even as our Saviour said to that woman in Joh. 4. 18. concerning her Husband The life that we live here is not our life The union of the sensitive soul with the body is indeed truly and properly the life of a beast and its greatest happiness for it is capable of no higher perfection But the union of the rational soul with God is the noblest perfection of man and his highest life so that the life of a believing soul is not destroyed at death but perfected Neither was the Apostle weary of his life because of the adversities of it The Apostle was of a braver spirit sure than any Stoick he durst live though he rather desired to dye All the conflicts he endured with the world never wrung such a sigh from him as the conflict that he had with his own corruptions did Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man c. All the perfecutions in the world never made him groan so much as the burden of his flesh doth here and his great distance from the Lord. A godly soul can converse with persecuting men and a tempting Devil can handle briars and thorns can grapple with any kind of oppressions and adversities in the flesh without despondency so long as it finds it self in the bosome of God and in the arms of Omnipotence But when it begins to consider where it is how far it is from its God its life and the happy state that God hath prepared it for then it cannot but groan within it self and be ready with Peter to cast it self out of the ship to get to its God to land it self in eternity Neither indeed to speak truly is it only the sense of sin against God which seâ—s the godly soul a going For though it must be confest that this is a heavy burden upon the soul yet the Apostle makes no complaint of this here but only of his distance from God that necessary distance from God that the body kept him it at 2. See here the excellent spirit of true Religion Godly souls do groan after an unbodyed estate not only because of their sins in the body but even because of the necessary distance at which the body keeps them from God We may suppose a godly soul at some time to have no manner of affliction in the world to grieve him no sin unpardoned unrepented of to trouble him yet for all this he is not at perfect rest he is burdened and groans within himself because he is at such a distance from that absolute good whom he longs to know more familiarly and enjoy more â—ully than he doth yet or than is allowed to mortal men And though nothing else ayl him yet the consideration of this distance makes him cry out Oh when shall I come and appear before God! be wholly swallowed up in him see him as he is and converse with him face to face Bare innocency or freedom from sin cannot satisfie that noble and large spirit that is in a truly and God-like soul but that spirit of true goodness being nothing else but an efflux from God himself carryes the soul out after a more intimate union with that Being from whence it came God dwelling in the soul doth by a secret mighty power draw the soul more and more to himself In a word a godly soul that is really toucht with the sense of divine sweetness and â—ulness and imprest with divine goodness and holiness as the wax is with the stamp of the seal could not be content to dwell for ever in this kind of animal body nor take up an eternal rest in this imperfect mixed state though it could converse with the world without a sinful sullying of it self but must needs endeavour still a closer conjunction with God and leaving the chase of all other objects pant and breath not only after God alone but after more and more of him and not only when it is under the sense of sin but most of all when it is under the most powerful influences of divine grace and love cry out with Paul Oh who will deliver me out of this body 3. Suffer me from hence to expostulate a little to expostulate with Christian souls about their unseemly temper Doth this animal life and mortal body keep us at such a distance from our God our happiness Why are we then so fond of this life and mixed state Why do we so pamper this body Why so anxiously studious to keep it up so dreadfully afraid of the ruines of it If we take the Apostles words in the first sense that I named then I may ask with him in the first verse Know we not that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we had a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens or vers 8. Why are we not willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord If we take them in the latter sense as this animal body is an hinderance to the souls knowledge of and communion with God then I ask concerning this as the Apostle doth concerning rich men James 2. 6. Why do ye pamper prize honour dote upon this body Doth not this body oppress you distract you burden you clog you hinder you Doth not this body interpose between the Sun of Righteousness between the Father of Lights and your souls that should shine with a light and glory borrowed from him even as the dark body of the earth interposes between the Sun and Moon to ecclipse its light Why are we not rather weary that we are in the body Surely there are some objections some impediments to the souls longing after its happy state which I shall come to anon But I doubt also that there is something that chains the soul to this animal life some cords in this earthly tabernacle that tye up the soul in it but I cannot well imagine what they should be Say not There is something of God to be enjoyed in this life which makes it pleasant For although this be true yet I am sure God gives nothing of himself to a soul thereby to clog it or cloy it Did Moses send for some Clusters of the Land of Canaan into the wilderness think ye that the people might see and taste the fruits and sit still and be satisfied and say Oh it is enough we see that there are pleasant things in that Land we will never come at it or did he not do it rather that they might make the more haste to possess themselves of it Will any man say Away I will have no more land no more mony I have some already Can a godly soul say God hath given me an earnest I desire no more No no but the report that a Christian hears of a rest remaining a happy life remaining for it and the chariots of divine graces that he sees God hath sent out into his soul to
more refined corruption is harder to be discovered and men are loath to be convinced of the evil of it Now this particular distinct loving of life not as in God but in it self as a creature-good is clearly condemned in that first and great Commandment Matth. 22. vers 37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind q. d. God the Supreme Infinite Perfect Original Essential Self-sufficient Good is to be loved in the highest and purest and strongest manner that the heart of man is capable to love and all other things only in him and under him and as being of him and for his sake Let it be allowed that life is good yet it must be added that it is but a created-good let it be allowed that life is comfortable yet it must be acknowledged that mans chiefest comfort and happiness doth not stand in this animal life So then life it self is to be loved in God who is the fountain and spring of life it is to be loved in the quality of a created good and no otherwise Now created goods are to be loved only in the Creator as coming from him as partaking of him as leading to him Argue the case a little thus The soul of man is allowed to love its body with which the great God hath matcht it and to love union with this body which union we call life But this body being a creature and a creature much inferiour to it self and much more ignoble than it self cannot in reason be judged to be the fit and adequate object of its strongest and best affections That must needs be something more excellent than it self and that cannot be any thing in this world for this world hath nothing so noble so excellent in it as the soul of man it must indeed be the Creator himself Well seeing God is the supreme self-sufficient perfect Good he is to be loved with all the streâ—gth and powers of the soul singly and entirely And the will of God being God himself is not only to be submitted to or rested in but to be chosen and loved above all created things yea even above life it self the best of creatures So then if it be the will of God to call for our lives we ought readily to give them up because we ought to love the will of God much more than our lives I pray you drink in that notion viz. that the will of God being pure holy perfect should not only be submitted to or rested in but even loved and chosen above all creatures Now the will of God is not that only whereby he teacheth men and prescribes Laws to them but that whereby he rules and governs the world and disposes of men in any condition of life or takes away their lives from them The eternal fountain of goodness can send forth nothing but what is perfectly good and that which is perfectly good ought to be loved with an universal pure and as far as possible perfect love This you will say perhaps is a high and a hard saying But let it not seem impossible for a man to love his own life only in God and in subordination to him for this God requires and he requires not things â—mpossible Luke 14 26. If any man come after me and hate not his own life he cannot be my Disciple i. e. not simply hate â—t but in comparison of me and my will It is not then impossible nay you see it is a necessary duty without which we cannot be Christs Disciples The Saints of old found it possible Holy Paul gives this answer readily Act. 21. 13. I am ready to dye at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus and Act. 20. 24. I count not my life dear unto me so that I might finish my course with joy It is witnessed of the whole Army of the Saints in Rev. 12. 11. That they loved not their lives unto the death i. e. they did not value them in respect of God and his truth Neither let any one flatter himself and say Yea if I were called to dye for God I would rather do it than deny him For the will of God is as much to be eyed in his sending for us by a natural death as by martyrdom and a not giving up our lives to him at any time is as truly to deny him and his will as not to give them up at the stake when we are called to it Besides how shall we imagine that he that is unwilling to dye in his bed should be willing to dye at a stake Now this duty of being mortified to the love of this animal life being so difficult yet so necessary and so noble how doth it become every Saint to study to attain to this perfection which that we may let us press upon our selves this Consideration this Doctrine That the glorified Saints shall live as the Angels of God in Heaven We know that if this body were broken down this low life cut off we should live like Angels not being beholden any more to poor creatures for help or comfort but should be filled with the fulness of God filled with his Image and Glory and live upon him entirely for evermore Yea I may add that this very living above our own lives meerly at the will of God is a participation of the Angelical Life even in this world Therefore labour to be mortified to that love of this life which is here upon earth yea be weary of it yea almost ashamed of it 4. Shall we thus live the lives of the Angels subsisting in God feasting upon him filled with him to all eternity This may moderate our sorrow which we conceive for the loss of any created good houses lands husband wife children c. yet a little while and we shall not miss them shall not need them shall not desire them any more The blessed Angels live a glorious life and they have none of these but are perfectly satisfied in the enjoyment of God alone They have no wives nor children yet they want none And yet a little while and we shall have none neither neither shall we want them having all things in the God of all things They neither marry nor are given in marriage but are in conjunction with the Father with love and goodness and truth it self and so they have no want of any thing If you have no Candles left in the house yet it is towards day-break and the Sun will rise upon you and you shall need none and yet have light enough too In a word learn to live beside them whilst you have them and you will be the better able to live without them when they are removed 5. I come now to the fifth and last Use that I shall make of this Doctrine and oh that you and I may make this happy use of it Shall the Saints be as the Angels of God in their way of living in living