it should all be done to the Glory of God 1 Cor. 10. 31. He that regardeth a day or regardeth it not he that eateth or that eateth not must do it to the Lord And though a Good Intention will not sanctifie a forbidden action yet sins of Ignorance and meer Frailty are forborn and pardoned of God when it is his Glory and Service that is sincerely intended though there be a mistake in the choice of means None of us liveth to himself and no man dyeth to himself For whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord Whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords For to this end Christ â—â—th dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14. 6 7 8 9. Our walking with God is a serious Labouring that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him 2 Cor. 5. 9 To this the Love of our Redeemer must constrain us For he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him thâ—t dyed for them and rose again Vers. 14 15. Religion therefore is called the seeking of God because the soul doth press after him and labour tu enjoy him as the Runner seeks to reach the prize or as a Suiter seeketh the Love and fruition of the person beloved And all the particular acts of Religion are oft denominated from this intention of the End and following after it and are all called a seeking the Lord. Conversion is called a seeking the Lord Isa. 55. 6. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found Hos. 3. 5. The Children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God Hos. 7. 10. They do not return to the Lord their God nor seek him Men that are called to Conversion are called to seek God Hos. 10. 12. Break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain Righteousness upon you The converted Children of Israel and Judah shall go weeping together to seek the Lord their God Jer. 50. 4. The wicked are described to be men that do not seek the Lord Isa. 9. 13. 31. 1. The holy Covenant 2 Chron. 15. 12 13. was to seek the Lord If therefore you would Walk with God let him be the mark the prize the treasure the happiness the Heaven it self which you aim at and sincerely seek 1 Chron. 22. 19. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God Psal. 105. 3 4 Glory ye in his Holy Name Let the heart of them rejoyce that seek the Lord Seek the Lord and his strength seek his face for evermore As the life of a Covetous man is a seeking of Riches and the life of an ambitious man is a seeking of worldly honour and applause so the life of a man that liveth to God is a seeking Him to please him honour him and enjoy him And so much of this as he attaineth so much dotb he attain of satisfaction and content If you live to God and seek him as your End and All the want of any thing will be tolerable to you which is but consistent with the fruition of his Love If he be pleased mans displeasure may be borne The loss of all things if Christ be won will not undo us Mans condemnation of us signifieth but little if God the absolute Judge do justifie us He walketh not with God that Liveth not to him as his only Happiness and End 4. Moreover our Walking with God includeth our subjection to his Authority and our taking His Wisdom and Will to be our Guide and his Laws in Nature and Scripture for our Rule you must not walk with him as his Equals but as his Subjects nor give him the honour of an ordinary superior but of the universal King In our doubts he must resolve us and in our straits we must ask counsel of the Lord Lord what wouldst thou have me to do is one of the first words of a penitent soul Act. 9. 6. When sensual worldlings do first ask the flesh or those that can do it hurt or good what they would have them be or do None of Christs true Subjects do call any man Father or Master on earth but in subordination to their highest Lord Matth. 23. The Authority of God doth aw them and govern them more than the fear of the greatest upon earth Indeed they know no power but Gods and that which he committeth unto man And therefore they can obey no man against God what ever it cost them but under God they are most readily and faithfully subject to their Governours not meerly as to men that have power to hurt them if they disobey but as to the officers of the Lord whose Authority they discern and reverence in them But when they have to do with the enemies of Christ who usurp a power which he never gave them against his Kingdom and the souls of men they think it easie to resolve the question whether it be better to obey God or men As the commands of a rebellious Constable or other fellow-subject are of no authority against the Kings Commands so the commands of all the men on earth are of so small authority with them against the Laws of God that they fully approve of the ready and resolute answer of those Witnesses Dan. 3. 16 17 18. We are not careful to answer thee in this matter If it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us c. But if not be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up Worldlings are ruled by their fleshly interest and wisdom and self-will and by the will of man so far as it doth comporte with these By these you may handle them and lead them up and down the world By these doth Satan hold them in captivity But believers feel themselves in subjection to a higher Lord and better Law which they faithfully though imperfectly observe Therefore our walking with God is called A walking in his Law Exod. 16. 4. A walking in his statutes and keeping and doing his commands Lev. 26. 3. A walking in his paths Mic. 4. 2. It is our following the Lamb which way soever he goeth To be given up to our own hearts lusts and to walk in our counsels is contrary to this holy walk with God Psal. 81. 12. and is the course of those that are departed from him And they that are far from him shall perish he destroyeth those that go a whoring from him But it is good for us to draw near to God Psal. 73. 27 28. 5. Our walking with God doth imply that as we are ruled by his Will so we fear no punishment like his threatned displeasure and that the threats of death from mortal men will not prevail with us so much as his threats of Hell Luk. 12. 4. If God
distresses Eternity is your Religion and the Life of all your holy motions and as without the Capacity of it you would be but beasts so without the Love and Desire of it and title to it you would be but wicked miserable men Set not your hearts on transitory things while you stand near unto Eternity How can you have room for so many thoughts on fading things when you have an Eternity to think on what light can you see in the Candles or Glow-worms of this world in the Sunshine of Eternity Oh remember when you are tempted to please your eyes your tast and sensual desires that these are not Eternal pleasures Remember when you are tempted for wealth or honour to wrong your souls that these are not the Eternal riches Houses and Lands are not Eternal meats and drinks are not Eternal sports and pastimes and jocund sinful company are not Eternal Alas how short how soon do they vanish into nothing But it is God and our dear Redeemer that are Eternal The flower of beauty withereth with age or by the nipping blast of a short disease the honours of the world are but a dream your graves will bury all its glory Down comes the Prince the Lord the gallant and suddenly takes his lodgings in the dust The corps that was pampered and adorned yesterday is a clod to day The body that was bowed to attended and applauded but the other day is now interred in the vault of darkness with worms and moles To day it is corruption and a most loathsome thing that lately was dreaming of an earthly happiness One day he is striving for riches and preheminences or glorying and rejoycing in them that the next day may be snatcht away to hell O fix not your minds on fading things that perish in the using and by their vanishing mock you that set your hearts upon them You will not fix your eye and mind upon every bird that flyeth by you as you will on the houses that you must dwell in nor will you mind every passenger as you will do your friends that still live with you And shall transitory vanity be minded by you above Eternity 3. It is Eternity that must direct you in your estimate of all things It is this that sheweth you the excellency of man above the beasts It is this that tells you the worth of Grace and the weight of sin the preciousness of holy Ordinances and helps and the evil of hinderances and temptations the wisdome of the choice and diligence of the Saints and the folly of the choice and negligent sinful lives of the ungodly the worth of Gods favour and the vanity of mans and the difference between the godly and the unsanctified world in point of Happiness Were noâ— Grace the egg the seed the earnest of an Eternal glory it were not so glorious a thing But O how precious are all those thoughts desires delights and breathings of the soul that bring us on to sweet Eternity Even those sorrows and groans and tears are precious that lead to an Eternal joy Who would not willingly obey the holy motions of the holy Spirit that is but hatching and preparing us for Eternity This is it that makes a Bible a Sermon a holy Book to be of greater value then Lands and Lordships It is Eternity that makes the illuminated soul so fearful of sinning so diligent in holy duties so chearful and resolved in suffering because he believeth it is all for an Eternity A Christian in the holy Assemblies and in his reading learning prayer conference is laying up for Everlasting when the worldling in the Market in the field or shop is making provision for a few dayes or hours Thou gloriest in thy Riches and preheminence now but how long wilt thou do so To day that house that land is thine but canst thou say it shall be thine to morrow Thou canst not But the Believer can truly say My God my Christ is mine to day and will be mine to all Eternity O Death thou canst take my friends from me and my worldly riches from me and my time and strength and life from me but take my God my Christ my Heaven my Portion from me if thou canst My sin is all thy sting and strength But where is thy sting when sin is gone and where is thy strength when Christ hath conquered thee Is it a great matter that thou deprivest me of my sinful weak and troublous friends when against thy will thou bringest me to my perfect blessed friends with whom I must abide for ever Thou dost indeed bereave me of these Riches but it is that I may possess the unvaluable Eternal riches Thou endest my Time that I may have Eternity Thou castest me down that I may be exalted Thou takest away my strength of life that I may enter into Life Eternal And is this the worst that Death can do And shall I be afraid of this I willingly lay by my cloaths at night that I may take my rest and I am not loth to put off the old when I must put on new The bird that is hatcht is not grieved because he must leave the broken shell Nor is it the grief of man or beast that he hath left the womb Death doth but open the womb of Time and let us into Eternity and is the second birth day of the soul. Regeneration brings us into the Kingdom of Grace and Death into the Kingdom of Glory Blessed are they that have their part in the New birth of Grace and the first Resurrection from the death of sin for to such the Natural Death will be Gain and they shall have their part in the second Resurrection and on them the everlasting Death shall have no power O sirs it is Eternity that telleth you what you should mind and be and do and that turneth the seales in all things where it is concerned Can you slâ—ep in sin so neer Eternity Can you play and laugh before you are prepared for Eternity Can you think him wise that selleth his eternal Joy for the ease the mirth the pleasure of a moment and trifleth away the time in which he must win or lose Eternity If these men be wise there are nâ— fools nor any but wise men in Bedlam Dare thy tongue report or thy heart imagine that any holy work is needless or a heavenly life too much adoe or any suffering too dear that is for an Eternity O happy souls that win Eternity with the loss of all the world O bless that Christ that spirit that light that word that messenger of God that drew thy heart to choose Eternity before all transitory things That was the day when thou beganst to be wise and indeed to shew thy self a man Thy wealth thy honour thy pleasure will be thine when the sensual world hath nothing to shew but sin and Hell of all they laboured for Their pleasures honours and all die when they die But thine will
then begin their perfection The Hopes of the ungodly are like an addle egge that when it is broken sends forth nothing but an odious stink when another sends forth the living bird O all you worldlings rich and poor you dream you play you trifâ—le because you labour not for Eternity Even worldly Princes and Nobles of the earth your glory is but a squib a flash a nothing in comparison of the Eternal glory which you lose you are doing Nothing when you are â—â—iving for the world you are trifling and befooling your â—mmortal souls while you are grasping a shaddow the uncerâ—â—in Riches 〈…〉 is the Believer whom you despise that seeks â—â—â— something thâ—â— loseth not his labour that shews himself a â—an of reason who is caring and studying and labouring and 〈…〉 watching and suffering for Eternity why is a 〈…〉 courts of God so much better then a thousand in 〈…〉 oâ— palaces of wickedness but because it is the Exâ—… where we have News of Heaven and trade for an Eternity And why is it better to be a door keeper in the 〈…〉 of God then to floursh in the prosperity of sinners but because Gods house is the porch or entrance of an Eternity â—â— delights and the lowest room among the saints affords us a better prospect into Heaven then the Highest state of worldly 〈◊〉 The ungodly are neer to cutting down when they flourish in their greatest glory Psal. 37. 2 20. Stay but a little and hâ— that flourisheth will be withered and cast into the fire and the Righteous shall see it when he is out off and shall seek him but he is not to be found vers 34 35 36 38. For the enemies of God and all that are far from him shall perish Psal. 92. 9. 13. 27. their desire shall perish Psal. 112. 10. their hope shall perish Prov. 11. 7. Job 8. 13. their way shall perish Psal. 1. 6. and himself and all that they sought and loved and delighted in shall perish Job 20. 7. 2 Pet. 2. 12. Rom. 2. 12. Heb. 1. 11. Even the visible Heavens and Earth which they abused shall be consumed with fire Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking towards and waiting for the coming and appearance of our Lord 2 Pet. 3. 11. Shall any man be accounted wâ—le that is not wise for Eternal happiness shall any man be counted Happy that must be most miserable to Eternity In the name of God Christian I charge thee to hold on and look to thy soul thy words thy wayes for it is for Eternity O play not loyter not do nothing by the halves in the way to Eternity Let the careless world do what they will they despise and know not what they do despise they neglect and know not what they do neglect but thou that seekest and labourest and waitest knowest what thou seekest and labourest and waitest for They sin and and know not what they do They know not what they are treasuring up for an Eternity But tâ—â—n knowest why thou â—â—test and avoidest sin Sinners be awakened by the Call of God Do you know where you are and what you do You are every man of you stepping into Eternity Will you sin away will you loyter away will you sell-for nothing an Eternal Glory Is thy sinful lust and gain and mirth and gluttony and excess of drink a price to set upon Eternity If Heaven be no more worth to thee art thou not as bad as Judas that for thirty pieces of silver would sell his Lord O Eternity Eternity what hearts have they that can so forget thee neglect thee and disesteem thee when they stand so neer thee O sleepy souls do you never use to rub your eyes and look before you towards Eternity And doth it not amaze you to see whither it is that you are going Merrily you run down the Hill but where 's the bottom If you look but down from the top of a steeple it may occasion an amazing fear what then should it cause in you to look down into Hill which is your Eternity No good can possibly be small that is Eternal And no hurt or pain can be called little that is Eternal An Eternal tooth-ake or an Eternal gowt or stone or feaver were a misery unspeakable But O what are these to an Eternal loss of Heaven and to an Eternal sense of the burning wrath of God Almighty To be out of Heaven a day and in Hell that day is a misery now unknown to sinners But if it were as many thousand years as the earth hath sands it were a greater Misery But to be there for Ever doth make the Misery past all Hope and all conceiving O me thinks the very name of Eternity should frighten the drunkard out of the Alehouse and the sleepy sinner out of his security and the lustful sportful voluptuous sinner out of his sensual delights Methinks the very name of Eternity should call off the worldling to seek betime a more enduring treasure and should take down the gallants pride and bring men to look after other matters then the most do look after Me thinks to hear the name of Eternity should with men of any faith and reason even blast all the beauty and blurre the glory and sadden the delights and weaken the temptations of the world and make all its pleasure pomp and splendour to be to our apprehensions as a smoak a shaddow as the dirt that we tread upon Methinks to hear the name of Eternity should lay so odious a reproach on sin and so nakedly open the folly and shame and misery of the ungodly and so lively shew the need and worth of faith and Holiness that men should be soon resolved in their choice and soon be at the end of an ungodly course and need no more words to make them the resolved servants of the Lord before to morrow O me thinks that a thought of Eternity should with a Believer answer all temptations and put life into all his prayers and endeavours If we were never so cold or dull or sleepy one would think a serious thought of Eternity should warm us quicken us and awake us O Christians shall we hear carelesly or speak carelesly of Eternity shall we pray coldly or labour negligently for Eternity O what an Ocean of Joy will Eternity be unto the sanctified It hath neither banks nor bottom O what a gulf of misery and woe will Eternity be to the ungodly wonderful that on their dying beds they quake not with the horrour and that they cry not out with greatest lamentation to think what a bottomless gulf of misery their departing souls must be cast into To be for Ever Ever Ever under the most heavy wrath of God! This is the appointed wages of ungodliness This is the end of wicked wayes This is it that sinners chose because they would not live to God!
and dead to morrow They are our delight to day and our sorrow or horrour to morrow But our God is Immortal Our houses may be burned Our goods may be consumed or stolne our cloaths will be worn out our treasure here may be corrupted But our God is unchangeable the same for ever Our Laws and Customes may be changed our Governours and Priviledges changed our company and employments and habitation changed but our God is never changed Our estates may change from Riches to poverty and our names that were honoured may incur disgrace Our health may quickly turn to sickness and our ease to pain But still our God is unchangeable for ever Our friends are unconstant and may turn our enemies Our Peace may be changed into war and our liberty into slavery but our God doth never change Time will change customes families and all things here but it changeth not our God The Creatures are all but earthen mettal and quickly dasht in peices our comforts are changeable our selves are changeable and mortal but so is not our God 3. And it should teach us to draw as near to God as we are capable by unchangeable fixed Resolutions and constancy of endeavours and to be still the same as we are at the best 4. It should move us also to be more desirous of passing into the state of immortality and to long for our unchangeable habitation and our immortal incorruptible Bodies and to possess the Kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. And let not the mutability of things below much trouble us while our Rock our Portion is unmoveable God waxeth not old Heaven doth not decay by duration the Glory of the blessed shall not wither nor their sun set upon them nor their day have any night nor any mutations or commotions disturb their quiet possessions O Love and Long for Immortality and Incorruption CHAP. VII 6. HAving spoken of the effects of the Attributes of Gods Essence as such we must next speak of the Effects of his three great Attributes which some call Subsistential that is his Omnipotency Understanding and Will or his Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness By which it hath been the way of the Schoolmen and other Divines to denominate the three Persons not without some countenance from Scripture Phrase The Father they call the Infinite Power of the God head and the Son the Wisdom and Word of God and of the Father and the Holy Ghost the Love and Goodness of God of the Father and Son But that these Attributes of Power Understanding and Will or Power Wisdome and Goodness are of the same importance with the termes of Personality Father Son and Holy Ghost we presume not to affirm It sufficeth us 1. That God hath assumed these Attributes to himself in Scripture 2. And that man who beareth the Natural Image of God hath Power Understanding and Will and as he beareth the Holy Moral Image of God he hath a Power to execute that which is Good and Wisdome to direct and Goodness of Will to determine for the execution And so while God is seen of us in this Glass of Man we must conceive of him after the Image that in man appeareth to us and speak of him in the language of man as he doth of himself And first The Almightiness of God must make these impressions on our souls 1. It must possess the soul with very awful Reverent thoughts of God and fill us continually with his holy Fear Infinite Greatness and Power must have no common careless thoughts lest we Blaspheme him in our Minds and be guilty of Contempt The Dread of the Heavenly Majesty should be still upon us and we must be in his fear all the day long Prov. 23. 17. Not under that slavish Fear that is void of Love as men fear an Enemy or hurtful Creature or that which is Evil For we have not such a spirit from the Lord nor stand in a Relation of enmity and bondage to him But Reverence is necessary and from thence a Fear of sinning and displeasing so Great a God The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome Prov. 1. 7. and 9. 10. Psal. 111. 10. By it men depart from evil Prov. 16. 6. Sin is for want of the Fear of God Luk. 23. 40. Pro. 3. 7. Jer. 5. 24. I. ev 25. 36. The Fear of God is often put for the whole new man or all the work of Grace within us even the Principle of new life Jer. 2. 19. and 32. 40. And it is often put for the whole work of Religion or Service of God Psal. 34. 11. Prov. 1. 29. Psal. 130. 4. and 34. 9. And therefore the Godly are usually denominated such as Fear God Psal. 15. 4. and 22. 23. and 115. 11 13. and 135. 20. and 34. 7 9. c. The godly are devoted to the Fear of God Psal. 119. 38. It is our Sanctifying the Lord in our hearts that he be our fear and dread Isa. 8. 13. If we Fear him not we take him not for our Master Mal. 1. 6. Evangelical Grace excludeth not this Fear Luk. 12. 5. Though we receive a Kingdom that cannot be moved yet must our acceptable service of God be with Reverence and godly fear Heb. 12. 28. With fear and trembling we must work out our salvation Phil. 2. 12. In fear we must pass the time of â—â—journing here 1 Pet. 1. 17. In it we must converse together Eph. 5. 4. Yea Holiness is to be perfected in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. and that because we have the Promises The most prosperous Churches walk in this fear Acts 9. 31. It s a necessary means of preventing destruction Heb. 11. 7. and of attaining salvation when we have the promises Heb. 4. 1. God puts this fear in the hearts of those that shall not depart from him Jer. 32. 40. See therefore that the Greatness of the Almighty God possess thy soul continually with his Fear 2. Gods Almightiness should also possess us with holy Admiration of him and cause us in heart and voice to Magnifie him Oh what a Power is that which made the world of nothing which upholdeth the earth without any foundation but his Will which placed and maintaineth all things in their Order in Heaven and Earth which causeth so great and glorious a creature as the Sun that is so much bigger then all the earth to move so many thousand miles in a few moments and constantly to keep its time and course that giveth its instinct to every brute and causeth every part of nature to do its office By his Power it is that every motion of the Creature is performed and that order is kept in the Kingdoms of the world Jer. 32. 17 18 19. He made the Heaven and the Earth by his Great Power and stretched out arm and nothing is too hard for him The Great the Mighty God the Lord of Hosts is his Name great in counsel and mighty in works Neh. 9.
to leave the crowd and come home to God and try a more noble and gainful conversation If Reasons may have room and leave to work upon you I will set a few before you more distinctly to call you off from your barren inordinate creature converse to a believing serious converse with God 1. The higher and more excellent the object is especially when it is also of most concernment to our selves the more excellent is the converse Therefore as nothing dare compare it self with God so no employment may be compared with thâ—s of holy walking with him How vile a contempt is it of the Almighty and of our Celestial joyes for the heart to neglect them and turn away and dwell upon vanity and trouble and let these highest pleasures go Is not God and Glory worthy of thy thoughts and all thy service 2. What are those things that take thee up Are they better then God Or fitter to supply thy wants If thou think and trust in them accordingly ere long thou shalt know better what they are and have enough of thy cursed choice and confidence Tell those that stand by thee at the parting hour whether thou didst choose aright and make a gaining or a saving match O poor sinners have you not yet warning enough to satisfie you that all things below are Vanity and Vexation and that all your hope of happiness is above Will not the testimony of God satisfie you will not the experience of the world for so many thousand years together satisfie you will not the ill success of all the damned satisfie you will nothing but your own experience convince you If so consider well the experience you have already made and seasonably retire and try no further and trust not so dangerous a deceiver to the last least you buy your knowledge at a dearer rate then you will now believe 3. You have daily more to do with God than with all the world whether you will or no And therefore seeing you cannot avoid him if you would prefer that voluntary obediential converse which hath a reward before that necessitated converse which hath none You are alwaies in his hands he made you for his service and he will dispose of you and all that you have according to his will It shall not go with you as your selves would have it nor as your friends would have it nor as Princes and great ones of the world would have it unless as their wills comply with Gods but as God would have it who will infallibly accomplish all his will If a sparrow fall not to the ground without him and all the hairs of our heads are numbered then certainly he overruleth all your interests and affairs and they are absolutely at his dispose To whom then in reason should you so much apply your selves as unto him If you will not take notice of him he will take notice of you He will remember you whether you remember him or not but it may be with so strict and severe a remembrance as may make you wish he did quite forget you You are alwaies in his presence and can you then forget him and hold no voluntary converse with him when you stand before him If it be but mean inferiour persons that we dwell with and are still in company with yet we mind them more and speak more to them then we do to greater persons that we seldom see But in God there is both Greatness and Nearness to invite you Should not all the worms on earth stand by while the Glorious God doth call you to him and offer you the honour and happiness of his converse shall the Lord of Heaven and Earth stand by and be shut out while you are chatting or trifling with his creatures Nay shall he be neglected that is alwaies with you You cannot remove your selves a moment from his sight and therefore you should not shut your eyes and turn away your face and refuse to observe him who is still observing you Moreover your dependence both for soul and body is all on him You can have nothing desirable but by his gift He feeds you he cloatheth you he maintaineth you he gives you life and breath and all things and yet can you overlook him or forget him Do not all his mercies require your acknowledgement A Dog will follow him that feedeth him his eye will be upon his Master And shall we live upon God and yet forget and disregard him We are taught a better use of his Mercies by the Holy Prophet Psal. 66. 8 9. O bless our God ye people and make the voice of his praise to be heard which holdeth our soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be moved Nay it is not your selves alone but all the world that depends on God It is his power that supporteth them and his will that disposeth of them and his bounty that provideth for them And therefore he must be the observation and admiration of the world It is less unreasonable to take no notice of the Earth that beareth us and yieldeth us fruit and of the Sun that yields us heat and light than to disregard the Lord that is more to us than Sun and Earth and all things The eyes of all things wait on him and he giveth them their meat in season He openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing Psal. 145. 15 16. The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works All his works therefore shall praise him and his Saints shall bless him They shall speak of the glory of his Kingdom and talk of his power vers 10 11. Moreover God is so abundantly and wonderfully represented to us in all his works as will leave us under the guilt of most unexcusable contempt if we overlook him and live as without him in the world The Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge Psa. 19. 1 2. Thus that which may be known of God is manifest for the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that the ungodly are without excuse Rom. 1. 19 20. Cannot you see that which all the world revealeth nor hear that which all the world proclaimeth O sing ye forth the honour of his name make his praise glorious Say to the Lord How terrible art thou in thy works through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee All the earth shall worship thee and shall sing unto thee they shall sing unto thy name come and see the works of God he is tertible in his doings towards the children of men Psal. 66. 2 3 4 5. Can we pass him by that is everywhere present and by every Creature represented to us Can we forget him when all the world are our
powerfully illuminate Many among men have pretended to Infallibility that never could justifie their pretensions but have confuted them by their own mistakes and crimes But none can deny the Infallibility of God He never yet was deceived or did deceive He erreth not nor teacheth errour Nicodemus knew Christ was to believed when he knew that he was a Teacher come from God Joh. 3. 2. Christ knew that the Jews themselves durst not deny the truths of John's Doctrine if he could but convince them that it was from Heaven and not of men It is impossible for God to lye It is the Devil that was a Lyar from the beginning and is yet the Father of lyes No wonder if they believe lyes that follow such a Teacher And those that follow the flesh and the world do follow the Devil They that will believe what their fleshly interest and lusts perswade them to believe do believe what the Devil perswadeth them to believe For he perswadeth them by these and for these What marvel then if there be found men in the world that can believe that Holiness is Hypocrisie or a needless thing that those are the worst men that are most careful to please God that the world is more worthy of their care and labour than their salvation is that the pleasures of sin for a season are more desirable than the everlasting happiness of the Saints that cards and dice and mirth and lust and wealth and honour are matters more delectable than Prayer and meditating on the Word of God and loving him and obeying him and waiting in the hopes of life eternal that gluttons and drunkards and whoremongers and covetous persons may enter into the Kingdom of God c. What wonder if a thousand such damnable lyes are believed by the Disciples of the Father of lyes what wonder if there are so many Saint-haters and God-haters in the world as to fill the earth with persecutions and cruelties or make a scorn of that which God most highly valueth and all this under pretences of Order or Unity or Justice or something that is good and therefore fit to palliate their sin Is there any thing so false or foul or wicked that Satan will not teach his followers Is he grown modest or moderate or holy or just Is he reconciled to Christ to Scripture to Godliness or to the Godly Or is his Kingdom of darkness at an end and hath he lost the earth Or are men therefore none of the servants of the Devil because they were baptized as Simon Magus was and call and think themselves the servants of Christ As if still it were not the art by which he gets and keeps Disciples to suffer them to wear the livery of Christ and to use his name that he may thus keep possession of them in peace who else would be frighted from him and fly to Christ He will give them leave to study Arts and Sciences and to understand things excellent of inferiour use so be it they will be deceived by him in the matters of God and their salvation He can allow them to be learned Lawyers excellent Physicians Philosophers Politicians to be skilful Artists so be it they will follow him in sin to their damnation and will overlook the Truth that should set them free Joh. 8. 32. Yea he will permit them when there 's no remedy to study the holy Scriptures if he may but be the expounder and applyer of it Yea he will permit them notionally to understand it if they will not learn by it to be converted to be holy and to be saved He can suffer them to be eminent Divines so they will not be serious Christians Thus is the world by the grand Deceiver hurried in darkness to perdition being taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2. 26. But the Sanctified are all illuminated by the Holy Ghost by whom their eyes are so effectually opened that they are turned from darkness unto light and from the power of Satan unto God Act. 26. 18. The Father of Glory hath given them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ that the eyes of their understanding being enlightned they may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the Glory of his inheritance in the Saints Eph. 1. 17 18. Certainly that illumination of the Holy Ghost which is so often mentioned in Scripture as given to all true believers is not a fansie nor an insignificant name And if it signifie any thing it signifieth somewhat that is much above the teaching of man All that walk with God are taught of God! And can man teach like God God hath accesse unto the heart and there he doth transcribe his Laws and put them into our inward parts And they that walk with him have not only his Word to read but his Spirit to help them to understand it and being with him in his family yea he dwelleth in them and they in him he is ready at hand to resolve their doubts when he gave them his fear he gave them the beginning of wisdom Psal. 111. 10. He causeth them to incline their ear to wisdom Prov. 2. 2 6. and to apply their hearts unto it Psal. 90. 12. and maketh them to know it in the hidden parts Psal. 51. 6. It is his Law that they have determined to make their rule They live as under his authority They are more observant of his Will and Government than of any Laws or Government of man And as they obey man in and for the Lord so they do it in subordination to him and therefore not against him and his Laws which being the standard of Justice and the Rule of Rulers and of subjects both they are in the safest way of unerring wisdom who walk with God according to that Rule and refuse to turn aside though commanded by man or enticed by Satan the world or flesh 5. He that walketh with God is the most considerate person and therefore hath great advantage to be wise The frequent and serious thoughts of God do awaken all the powers of the soul so that drowsiness doth not hinder the understanding and so occasion its deceit There is scarce a more common and powerful cause of mens folly and delusion and perdition in all the world than that sleepiness and stupidity which hindereth Reason from the vigorous performance of its office In this sensless case though a man both know and consider of the same Truths which in their nature are most powerful to cleanse and govern and save his soul yet sluggishness doth enervate them He knoweth them as if he knew them not and considereth them as if he never thought of them They work little more upon him then if he believed them not or had never heard of them even as a dream of the greatest matters moveth not the sleeper from his pillow In this senslesse state the Devil can do almost any thing with a sinner He can
wanteth more of God than he enjoyeth and his enjoying graces Love and Joy are yet imperfect But when he hath attained his nearest approach to God he will have fulness of Delight in fulness of fruition O Christians Do I need to tell you that after all the tryals you have made in the world you have never found any state of life that was worthy your desires nor that gave you any true content but only this living upon God If you have not found such comfort here as others have done yet at least you have seen it afar off within your reach As men that in the Indies in the discovery of Plantations expect Gold Mines when they find those golden sands that promise it You have found a life which is certainly desirable and leadeth to joy in the midst of sorrow And it is no small joy to have a certain promise and prospect of everlasting joy It is therefore more excusable in those that never tasted any better than the pleasures of the flesh to neglect this sweeter Heavenly life than it is in you that have been convinced by your own experience that there is no life to be compared with it 4. YOur Walking with God is the necessary prosecution of your Choice and Hopes of life eternal It is your necessary preparation to your enjoying him in Heaven And have you fixed on those Hopes with so great reason and deliberation and will you now draw back and be slack in the prosecution of them Have you gone so far in the way to Heaven and do you now begin to look behind you as if you were about to change your mind Paul setteth you a better example Phil. 3. 8 9 10 11 12 13. Yea doubtless I account all things but loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect But I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus He compareth himself to a runner in a race that till be apprehend the price or mark doth still make forward with all his might and will not so much as mind or look at any thing behind him that would turn him back or stop him in his course The world and the flesh are the things behind us We turned our backs upon them at our conversion when we turned to God It is these that would now call back our thoughts and corrupt our affections when we should run on and reach forward to the heavenly price It is God and Heaven and the remaining duties of a holy life that are the things before us And shall we now look back what we that are running and striving for a Crown of endless glory we that if we lose it do lose our souls and hopes for ever we that have loitered in the morning of our lives and lost so much precious time as we have done we that have gone so far in our way and held out through so many difficulties and assaults Shall we now grow weary of walking with God and begin to look to the things behind us Did he not tell us at the first that Father and Mother and house and land and life and all things must be forsaken for Christ if we will be his Disciples These are the things behind us which we turned our back on when we consented to the Covenant and are they now grown better or is God grown worse that we turn our hearts from him to them when we first begun our Christian race it was upon supposition that it was for that immortal Crown which all the world is not to be compared to And have we not still the same consideration before us to move us to hold on till we attain it Hold on Christians it is for Heaven Is there not enough in that word to drive back all the cares and pleasures that importune your minds to forget your God Is there not enough in that word to quicken you up in your greatest dulness and to call you home when you are wandring from God and to make you again fall out with all that would reduce you or divert you and call it Vanity and Vexation of spirit Methinks the fore-thought of that life and work which you hope to have with God for ever should make you earnestly desire to have as much of the like on earth as is here to be attained If it will he your Heaven and Happiness then it must needs be desirable now It is not beseeming a man that saith he is seeking for perfect communion with God in Heaven and that above all things as every Christian doth to live in a daily neglect or forgetfulness of God on earth Delightfully to draw near him and exercise all our faculties upon him or for him sometime in prayer and contemplation on himself and alwaies in works of obedience to him this is the life that beseemeth those that profess to seek eternal life O therefore let us make it our daily work to keep our God and Glory in our eye and to spur on our dull affections and in the diligent attendance and following the Captain of our salvation to prosecute our expected End 5. LAstly consider that God doth purposely provide you hard entertainment in the world and cause every creature to deny you the pleasure and satisfaction which you desire that so you may have none to walk with but himself with any heart-setling comfort and content If you see not enough in him to allure you to himself you shall feel enough in the world to drive you to him If his Love and Goodness will not serve alone to make him your pleasure and hold you to him in the best and most excellent way of Love at least the storms and troubles that are abroad shall shew you a Necessity of keeping close to God and the Love of your selves shall help you to do that which was not done by the attraction of his Love alone If you will put him to it to send out his command to every creature to cross and vex you and disappoint all your expectations from it that so he may force you to remember your Father and your home deny not then but it is long of your selves that you were not saved in an easier way Would you wish God to make that condition pleasant to you which he seeth you take too much pleasure in already or seek and desire it at least When as it is the pleasantness of the
world his God so doth it savour of the same hainous sin to lament our loss of Creatures more than the displeasure of God If God be my enemy or I am fallen under his indignation I have then so much greater matters to lament than the loss or absence or frowns of man as should almost make me forget that there is such a thing as man to be regarded But if God be my Father and my friend in Christ I have then so much to think of with delight and to recreate and content my soul as will proclaim it most incongruous and absurd to lament inordinately the absence of a worm while I have his Love and presence who is All in All. If God cannot content me and be not enough for me how is he then my God or how shall he be my Heaven and everlasting Happiness 2. If God be with me he is with me to whom I am absolutely devoted I am wholly his and have acknowledged his interest in me and long ago disclaimed all usurpers and repented of alienations and unreservedly resigned my self to him And where should I dwell but with him that is my owner and with whom I have made the solemnest Covenant that ever I made â— never gave my self to any other but in subordination to him and with a salvo for his highest inviolable right Where should my goods be but in my own house with whom should a Servant dwell but with his Master and a Wife but with her Husband and Children but with their Father I am nearlier related to my God and to my Saviour than I am to any of my Relations in this world I owe more to him than to all the world I have renounced all the world as they stand in any competition or comparison with him And can I want their company then while I am with him How shall I hate Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brother and Sister for his sake if I cannot spare them or be without them to enjoy him To hate them is but to use them as men do hated things that is to cast them away with contempt as they would alâ—enate me from Christ and to cleave to him and be satisfied in him alone I am now married to Christ and therefore must chearfully leave Father and Mother and my native place and all to cleave to him And with whom should I now delight to dwell but with him who hath taken me into so near relation to be as it were one flesh with him O my dear Lord hide not thou thy face from an unkind an unworthy sinner Let me but dwell with thee and see thy face and feel the gracious embracements of thy Love and then let me be cast off by all the world if thou see it meetest for me or let all other friends be where they will so that my soul may be with thee I have agreed for thy sake to forsake all even the dearest that shall stand against thee and I resolve by thy grace to stand to this agreement 3. If God be with me I am not alone for he is with me that Loveth me best The Love of all the friends on earth is nothing to his Love O how plainly hath he declared that he loveth me in the strange condescention the sufferings death and intercession of his Son What Love hath he declared in the communications of his Spirit and the operations of his Grace and the near relations into which he brought me What Love hath he declared in in the course of his providences in many and wonderful preservations and deliverances in the conduct of his wisdome and in a life of mercies What Love appeareth in his precious promises and the glorious provisions he hath made for me with himself to all eternity O my Lord I am ashamed that thy Love is so much lost that it hath no better return from an unkind unthankful heart that I am not more delighted in thee and swallowed up in the contemplation of thy Love I can contentedly let go the society and converse of all others for the converse of some one bosome friend that is dearer to me than they all as Jonathan to David And can I not much more be satisfied in thee alone and let go all if I may continue with thee My very Dog will gladly for sake all the Town and all persons in the world to follow me alone And have I not yet found so much Love and Goodness in thee my dear and blessed God as to be willing to converse alone with thee All men delight most in the company of those that Love them best They choose not to converse with the Multitude when they look for solace and content but with their dearest friends And should any be so dear to me as God O were not thy Love unworthily neglected by an unthankful heart I should never be so unsatisfied in thee but should take up or seek my comforts in thee I should then say Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee Though not only my friends but my flesh and heart themselves should fail me it is thou that will still be the strength of my heart and my portion for ever it is good therefore for me to draw near to thee how far soever I am from man O let me there dwell where thou wilt not be strange for thy loving kindness is better than life instead of the multitude of my turmoiling thoughts let me be taken up in the believing views of thy reconciled face and in the glad attendance upon thy Grace or at least in the multitude of my thoughts within me let thy celestial comforts delight my soul. Let me dwell as in thy family and when I awake let me be still with thee Let me go no whither but where I am still following thee Let me do nothing but thy work nor serve any other but when I may truly call it a serving thee Let me hear nothing but thy voice and let me know thy voice by whatever instrument thou shalt speak Let me never see any thing but thy self and the glass that representeth thee and the books in which I may read thy name And let me never play with the outside and gaze on words and letters as insignificant and not observe thy name which is the sense Whether it be in company or in solitude let me be continually with thee and do thou vouchsafe to hold me by my right hand And guide me with thy counsel and afterwards receive me unto thy glory Psal. 73. 23 24 25 26 28. Psal. 63. 3. 4. If God be with me I am not alone for I shall be with him whose Love is of greater use and benefit to me than the Love of all my friends in the world Their Love may perhaps be some little comfort as it floweth from His But it is His Love by which and upon which I Live It is His Love that gives
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