freedom from worldly business as some other things are but is equally incumbent upon Prince and Peasant upon him that sits in his closet and upon him that ploughs in the field yea they that go down unto the Sea in ships ought to go up unto heaven in their hearts and not only to converse with the clouds which they often do but above them too A hand full of earth and a heart full of heaven may well stand together For as this duty justles out no honest business so neither should it self be justled out by any And as this high excellent duty agrees to all ages and times and persons so it agrees to all conditions too poor men do think that rich men may well do it and rich men think that poor men had need to do it prosperity thinks it hath better things to mind than a God and adversity knows it hath worse things but it must mind them plenty is too full to entertain him and poverty hath enough to do to bear up under its own burden learning knows how but will not ignorance sayes it would but knows not how but notwithstanding all this shuffling the obligation to this duty ceases not None so high as to be above it none so mean as to be below it For rich and poor high and low learned and unlearned Prince and peasant though they are divided amongst themselves by punctilioes and lesser differences yet they are united in one universal Being meet in one and the same center agree in the common capacity of reasonable creatures As religion hath an interest and a concernment in the whole of the conversation according to that of the Apostle Phi. 3. 20. our conversation is in heaven so also hath it a room in the conversation of every man in every capacity No Relation Condition Action Change is exempted from the powerful influence thereof so the Apostle describes himself by his living in all good conscience before God all along Act. 23. 1. and by his exercising himself in this thing to have alwayes a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men Act. 24. 16. Now the fifth step in order would be that It is more especially the duty of Gods people to study to converse with him aright in the way of his judgements which is the Doctrine it self which I must not come to confirm till I have shewed according to my promise in the second place what it is for the soul to converse with God and how it comes to converse with him Not to name those too low and improper notions that men ordinarily have of this high and spiritual matter conversing with God to speak properly of it is a compiex Act of the soul whereby it entertains God into it self and renders it self back again to him receives impressions from him and gives up it self again to him is first filled with him and then empties it self into him You may conceive of it after the similitude of a Plant that is influenc't by the benign beams of the Sun and in those beams spreads it self and in the virtue and power of them grows up towards Heaven or after the similitude of a River that is continually filled with the Ocean and is continually emptying it self into the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This seems to be our Saviours elegant allusion Job 4. 14. where he compares a divine and godly principle in the soul to a well of water springing out from God and continually boyling and bubling up towards him springing up into eternal life Or you may conceive of it after the similitude of a Glass which receives the image of him that looks into it and reflects the self same image that it receives For indeed the brightness and beanty of holiness wherewith a godly soul doth shine as a light in the world is nothing but a reflection of that light and brightness wherewith the Father of lights shineth into it And so the best of men have nothing of their own to glory in for they behold God but it is in his own light they love him with a love which he hath shed abroad in their hearts they are therefore like him because he hath stampt his own image upon them And so they must needs acknowledge concerning all their acts of love and communion and delight as David did in another case Of thine own we offer unto thee This is indeed the true and noble converse and communion with God wherein the life of a godly man is infinitely advanced above the life of all other men and indeed doth nearly resemble the life of Angels Their life is described in the Holy Scriptures by a seeing of God a beholding of him face to face which we must not understand of a naked idle speculation but of a real assimilation arising from the divine impressions made upon them a beholding of him so as to be changed into his image And such is a godly mans life spiritual life his life of converse with God consisting in a participation of God and of his Grace and a holy recipâ—ocation or reflection of affections to him which are indeed two distinct acts though originally springing from the same fountain for the love wherewith the soul loves God is it self an efflux from him For by loving us he inspires a love into us and by influences from God we become God-like But this converse with God is not only by the impressions of goodness from God and the reflections of love and delight towards him but is also seen in the various acts of the soul according to the various impressions which God maketh upon the soul and suitable to the various occasions of life so we converse with God by acts of fear reverence joy confidence self-resignation and the like Now because we are in the body and so cannot converse with God so purely spiritually and immediately as the Angels in Heaven do therefore it hath pleased God to appoint unto man wayes and means of conversing with him wherein he haâ—h promised to communicate himself to the soul and so to draw forth reciprocal acts of communion acts of love fear reverence confidence resignation dependance and delight out of the same soul towards himself Now these wayes or means may be reduced to three heads Duties Ordinances and Providences though indeed the two first might be contracted into one First I will speak a word or two of Ordinances such as the Word and Sacraments for I shall name no more but those two The Preaching of the Word is a way in which God doth usually meet the soul to communicate Life 1 Pet. 1. 23. Light Psal 19. 8. Warmth Luke 23. 32. Growth 1 Pet. 2. 2. And the soul doth answer these impressions as in the water face answereth face by the acts of the acts of Faith Love Joy Meekness and holy Resolution So also the administration of the Sacraments is a way wherein God meetech the soul and communicateth his Love Sweetness Fulnâ—ss Goodness
upon created-comforts and that unchaste love which you bestow upon things below I mean not only the bleatings of the Sheep and the lowings of the Oxen I speak not of the grosser sort of earthly-mindedness sensuality or covetousness but of that more refined and hidden creature-love a loving of friends relations health liberty life and that not in God but with a love distinct from that love wherewith we love God To love all these in God and for his sake and as flowing from him and partaking of him and with the same love wherewith we love God himself is allowed us But to love them with a particular love as things distinct from God to delight in them meerly as creatures and to follow them as if some good or happiness or pleasure were to be found in them distinct from what is in God this is a branch of spiritual Adultery I had almost said Idolatry To taste a sweetness in the creature and to see a beauty and goodness in it is our duty but then it must be the sweetness of God in it and the goodness of God which we ought alone to taste and see in it As we say Vxor splendeâ— radiis mariti the wise shines with the rayes of her husband so more truly every creature shines but by a borrowed light and commends unto us the goodness and sweetness and â—ulness of the blessed Creator You have heard that the glorified souls shall live upon God alone entirely wholly eternally and should not the less glorious souls I mean gracious souls do so too in some degree yea even we who are upon earth and do yet use creatures should behold all the scattered beams of goodness sweetness perfection that are in these creatures all united and gathered up in God and so feed upon them only in God and upon God in all them It is the character of wicked and godless men that they set up and drive a trade for themselves live in a way distinct from God as though they had no dependence upon him they love the world with a predominant love they enjoy creature-comforts in a gross unspiritual manner they dwell upon the dark side of their mercies they treasure up riches not only in their chests but in their hearts they feed upon the creature not only with their bodyes but their very souls do feed upon them and thus in a word they live without God in the world All this is no wonder for that which is of the earth must needs be earthly Joh. 3. 31. is it not a monstrous thing that a heavenly soul should feed upon earthly trash I speak without any Hyperbole the famous King of Babylon forsaking the society of men and herding himself with the beasts of the earth and eating grass with the Oxen was not so absurd a thing nor half so monstrous or unseemly as the children of the Most High God forsaking the true bread of souls and feeding upon the low fare of carnal men even created sweetness worldly goods Nay a glorious starr falling from its own sphere and choaking it self in the dust would not be such an eminent piece of baseness For what is said of the true God in one sense Joh. 3. 31. is true of the truly godly in this sense He that cometh from Heaven is above all i. e. above all things that are below God himself 3. Shall this life of Angels be also the life of Saints This may then serve as a powerful consideration to mortifie in us the love of this animal life to make us weary of this low kind of living and quicken us to long after so blessed a change Well might the Apostle say indeed that to dye was gain Phil. 1. 21. For is not this gain to exchange an animal life for an Angelical life a life which is in some sense common to the very beasts with us for that which in some sense may be called the life of God For as the blessed and holy God lives upon his own infinite and self-sufficient fulness without being beholden to any thing without himself so shall the Saints live upon him and upon the self-same infinite fulness and shall not need any creature contributions The Apostle indeed saith That the last enemy to be destroyed is death 1 Cor. 15. 26. which is true of enemies without us and it is true with respect to Christ who shall make a general Resurrection from the dead for that is the proper meaning of it But it is true also that the last enemy to be overcome within us is the love of life Therefore it is said That a man will part with any thing to keep his life Job 2. 4. And we do generally excuse the matter and cry Oh! life is sweet life is precious It must be confest and it may be granted I believe that there is an inclination of the soul to the body arising from that dear and unconceivable union that God himself hath made of them which is purely natural some say altogether necessary for the maintaining of man in this complex state and not in it self sinful Possibly there may not be found a man upon earth so holy and mortified in whom this is not found certainly it is the last hinderance to be removed out of the way of our perfect happiness This although in iâ— it self natural yea necessary without blame yet in the inordinateness of it ordinarily if not constantly becomes sinful I count him the most perfect man in the world who loves not his own life with an inordinate sinful love who loves it only in God and not with a creature-love distinct from God There are two wayes whereby this natural and lawful love of life becomes sinful viz. immoderateness and inordinateness Immoderateness is when men love their lives at that rate that they are filled with unreasonable and distracting fears cares and thoughts about them when the whole business of life is almost nothing else but a studiousness to preserve the Being of life Inordinateness is when men though they do not love their lives at that excessive rate yet do love life as a creature-good not in God nor in order to him but love it for it self as something out of God Every carnal man in the world is guilty of the latter and I doubt but few Saints altogether free from the guilt of it Now that this immoderate love of life ought to be subdued in Christians all men almost will grant If any will not grant it we can easily prove it from the command of God Mat. 6. 25. Take no thought for your life 1 Joh. 2. 15. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world Both which words in the favourablest interpretation that can be given of them do in the judgment of all forbid immoderation Nâ—y a meer Philosopher would enforce this from meer moral confiderations which I cannot now stand upon But this inordinate love of life as it is a more secret sticking evil a
Strength and Vigour to the soul and it reflects upon him in the acts of holy complacency and delight chearfulness thankfulness and dependence Secondly Duties these are also wayes of converse with God such as Confession Petition Thankigiving Conference Singing Meditation Observation In all which God impresseth something of himself upon the soul and draws answerable affections of the soul unto himself as might appear in the particular explication of them but that would be too much a digression Only I will here note by the way the mistake of many low-spirited Christians who know no other converse with God than the bare performance of these things this they count the very top-stone of a Christians perfections the very flower of the spiritual life But alas this is a gross mistake There is sure something more sweet savoury satisfactory in the spiritual life than the dry duty there is marrow in the bone or else a holy soul could not cover it with so much servour Converse with God in duties is a spiritual favoury filling enjoyment distinct from the duties themselves This must needs be except we will allow to wicked and hypocritical men the same dainties that the most sanctified souls do feed upon and say That the childrens bread is common to the Dogs as well as them The soul doth not converse with God in duties barely when it prayes or meditates for even godly souls themselves do many times find little converse with God in these viz. when he suspends the influences of his graces or their hearts are â—logg'd or cloy'd with earthly objects or otherwise indisposed and shut up against him It is not speaking to God that brings the soul really nigh unto him nor bare thinking of God that advances the soul into the excellent state of feeling converse with him Even prayer it self may prove many times an empty sound vox praeterea â—ihil and meditation that most excellent and genuine off-spring of the soul may prove a poor dry and sapless speculation It is not enough to set up the sayls but there must also be wind to fill them But then doth the soul converse with God in duties when the dark places thereof become filled with his divine light and the empty places thereof filled with his divine love and the low and languishing affections thereof are ravished and revived with the powerful insinuations of his Almighty Grace when God draws and the soul runs he puts in his finger by the hole of the door and the very bowels of the soul are moved for him as it is described Cant. 5. 4. Then doth the soul converse with God in meditation and prayer when the Spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters when he kisses it with the kisses of his mouth and the shaking soul finds it self marvelously settled the doubting soul established the frozen heart thawed the benumm'd affections warmed the scant and contracted capacity of it enlarged and wonderfully widened and its slow and sluggish motions quickened into a lively and chearful compliance with and pursuit of the supreme and self sufficient good when the soul finds its leggs to run after that glorious object which is presented to it lifts up its hands to lay hold upon the strength the fulness the faithfulness the Christ of God and bearing up it self upon the wings of faith and love flyes out to seek its rest and happiness and no longer envyes the birds of the Altar for it self enters into the Holy of Holies and thorough the arms of its Mediator throws it self into the very heart of God In a word and that shall be the Word of God then doth a soul converse with God in duties when with open face beholding the glory of God it doth not only admire it but it self is changed into the same image from glory to glory i. e. from grace to grace 2 Cor. 3. ult Thirdly Providences These are another way wherein the soul converses with God Now by Providences we mean in general the whole work of God in governing the world and all things therein And so indeed a religious enlarged soul a mind freed from particular pinching Cares low and selfish ends converses with God in beholding and observing Gods setled course of governing the world The whole Heavens Earth and Sea and the admirable order kept up in them do teach the knowledge of God and draw up the contemplative soul into an observation and admiration of him in them and the pious soul longs to find some impressions made upon it self by all these and to be affected with God therein It is not content with a bare speculation but its meditation of God in these is sweet to it as Davids were Psal 104. 34. Particularly Gods Providence towards mankind as it doth most livelily express his infinite love justice and wisdom so we ought to converse with him therein and in all the changes of any kind that befall man in the world that befall all the Kingdoms of the world the four great Monarchies of it and all other subordinate Dominions more especially in all the mutations that befall the Church of God in the world and all men of all sects and sorts therein but most especially our selves Labour to converâ—e with that infinite mind wisdom and understanding that ordains and orders all the changes that befall your selves Nâ—w our conveâ—sing with God in the several changes that befall us in the world is in general by endeavouring to serve the Providence of God in every change The Providence of God serves it self even upon wicked men and upon all creatures that do least understand it but a godly man only knows how to serve the Providence of God in the things that befall him He hath no private selfish interest of his own but counts it his interest chearfully and faithfully to serve the will of God to be what God would have him be to be without that which God would have him to want and to do what God would have him do Every wicked soul in the world sets up some trade for himself and drives on some particular self-interest distinct from God But a godly soul counts it his greatest honour and happiness to be nothing in himself nor for himself but is wholly at the beck of his Creator and looking upon all his interest as being bound up in God is sollicitous for nothing else but to serve the will of God in his generation So the life of holy David is described Act. 13. 36. David in his generation having served the will of God i. e. the Providence of God say the Dutch Annotat. translating the words in this order A good man eying nothing but the great and blessed God in the world and knowing that he was not made for himself but for a higher good is only ambitious to be subservient to that Infinite and Soveraign Being herein imitating his Blessed Saviour who lived not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him Joh.
for which we should bewail it and hate it and so consequently that there is something better than God for which we should love him Alas how apt are we to run into a practical blasphemy before we be aware In a word then to decide this controversie Our afflictions losses distresses in the world may possibly be as a Bucket to draw up this water of godly sorrow but they must not be the Cistern to receive and hold it Serious and spiritual Humiliation is a real conversing with the Righteousness of God To meet God is indeed to fall down before him and to converse with him is to lie down under him The truth of which temper is best evidenced by that excellent Commentator the Life of a Christian This doth best declare the nature and interpret the meaning of heart-Humiliation He that breaks off his sins doth best make it appear that his heart is broken for them If you would know whether there have been Rain in the night look upon the ground and that will discover Oh my frieâ—ds if the dust be layd if all earthly joys contentments pleasures concernments be layd you may conclude your sorrow was a shower sent into your souls from Heaven If you see a Boy both sobbing and minding his Book you may conclude he hath some right sense of his Masters severity Conversion to God is the most proper and real conversing with him in the way of his Judgments so he himself interprets in that complaint made Isa 9. 13. The people turneth not to him that smiteth them c. That which happened to Moses when he had been in the Mount with God Exod. 34. 29. should also be the condition of every good Israelite when he hath been with God in the valley the vale of tears an afflicted state his face should shine his conversation should witness that he hath been with God the smell of this fire should pass upon his garments his whole outward man The spirit of mourning should be demonstrated by the spirit of burning If God from Heaven set fire on the standing Corn of our worldly comforts we must answer him from within and set fire on the stubble of our worldly lusts and corruptions Let me change our Saviours words therefore a little Mat. 6. 18. and exhort you earnestly Thou Christian when thou fastest when thou humblest thy soul for sin wash thy face also cleanse thy outward conversation from all sinful pollution that thou mayest appear to be humbled indeed And this shall be accounted as a true and real conversing with the Righteousness of God in the time of affliction 3. Converse with the Faithfulness of God This attribute of God hath respect to his promises and therefore it may be you will think strange that I should speak of this in a discourse of afflictions as not having place there at all Every one will readily acknowledge that Gods Soveraignty and Righteousness do clearly appear in his Judgments but how his Faithfulness can be exercised therein they see not What faithful in punishing in plaguing in visiting in afflicting distressing his creature how can that be Many will be ready to think rather that God is not faithful at such a time when he denyes what he had promised to give takes away what he had promised to continue when he plagues David every morning when he had promised him that the Plague should not come nigh his dwelling when he brings Abijah to the grave whom he had promised that his dayes should be long upon the Land and Job to the dunghill to whom all the promises were made both of the life that now is and of that which is to come Is this faithfulness Doth God fulfil his promises by frustrating them Notwithstanding all this it seems that the faithfulness of God hath place in the afflictions of his people For so saith David expresly Psal 119.75 I know that in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me if indeed faithfulness be taken properly in that place Neither indeed need it seem so strange as some men make it for God hath promised his covenant-people to visit their iniquity with a Rod Psal 89. 32. The Rod The Rod of a man a fatherly chastisement as it is explained 2 Sam. 7. 14. where this seems to be made a branch of the Covenant and is understood by many as a promise But if that be not a plain promise I am sure there is one in Psal 84. 11. No good thing will he with hold from them that walk uprightly And if no good thing then no correction neither for that is often good and profitable for the people of God in this world for many excellent ends which considering the nature of man cannot well be accomplished without it as might appear in many particulars but it is not needful to run out into them God will take more care of his own people than of the rest of the world and will rather correct them than not reduce them It is their main bappiness that he takes care for and he will in kindness take out of the way whatever hinders it and give whatever may promote it Gods thoughts are not as our thoughts he judges otherwise of health riches liberty friends c. than we do We are apt to measure God by ourselves and our own affections which is the ground of our mistake in this business We mind the things that please our flesh our senses our appetite our fancy but God minds the things that concern our souls and their true happiness The Saints are much dearer to God and much more beloved of him than they are to themselves and therefore he will not give them what 's sweet but what 's meet he will give them what makes for their real and eternal happiness whether they would have it or no. He loves them with a strong and powerful love and will not deny them any thing that is truly good for them though they cry out under it nor allow them any thing that is really hurtful though they cry after it So will a wise Father upon Earth do by his children to the best of his skill and power much more will God then qui plusquam patrium amorem gerit in suos whose bowels are infinitely larger and stronger than those of a Father Now then labour to converse with the Faithfulness of God in the time of afflictions which is by studying the Covenant and the promises of it and your present condition and comparing them together and observing how consonant and agreeable they are each interpreting other As also by perswading your hearts of the consistency of afflictions with divine love and favour and by studying to reconcile the hand and heart of God together But especially converse with it practically by a holy establishment and settlement of heart under all afflictions For whereas afflictions in themselves are apt to beget a fearfulness despondency or at least fluctuation in the soul the lively sense of Gods Faithfulness in
water Isa 35 7. as you find both elegantly joyned together Psal 107. 33 35. He turneth water springs into dry grounds sic vicissim Say not therefore with the captive Jews Ezek. 37. 11. Our bones are dryed and our bope is lost c. For God can cause even those dry bones to live Say not with that low-spirited Courtier 2 King 7. 19. If the Lord should make windows in Heaven might such plenty be in a Samaria For he did accomplish it and yet not rain it from Heaven neither But say with Job rather Though he kill me yet will I trust in him Job 13. 15. And with the three Worthies Our God whom me serve is able to deliver us out of thine hand O King Dan. 3. 17. So he is able to deliver us out of thine band O Enemy O Prison O Sickness yea out of thine hand O grave If we despond and be dejected both in mind and body at the same time then is our condition indeed sad and shameful Nay we do more reproach God by such a temper in our affliction than be reproacheth us in afflicting us Make it appear Christians that though God have cast you down yet you do believe that he hath not cast you off and that you although you be sorely shaken by him yet are not shaken off from him Thus you shall gâ—orifie the Almighty Power of God in the day of your Visitation 6. Converse wâ—th the Infinite and unsearchable Wisdom of God especially with the Wisdom of God in reserence to his Judgments and our affâ—ctions He is infinitly wise in reference to our affiictions For 1. He knows what and what manner and what measure of correction we stand in need of 2. When and how best to deliver us 3. How to make the best use of all for our good First He knows what and what manner and what measure of correction we stand in need of He is that wise Physician that kâ—ows what humor is most predominant in the souls of his servanâ—s and what is the most proper Medicine to purge it out where the most corrupt blood is set led and at what vein to let it out He is infinitely knowing of the various tempers and distempers of his servants and can apply himself suitably to them all And as to the measure and degree he is also infinitely wise and exact He doth weigh out the afflâ—ctions of his people to a grain for quantity and measure them to a day and hour for duration He did not miss of his time no not one day in four hundred and thirty years Exod. 12. 41. So many years of bondage were determined upon the people and after those years were expired the very next day the hosts of the Lord went up out of Egypt And as for measure he observes a certain proportion as you may see in that full Tex Isa 28. 27 28. As the Husbandman uses dissering wayes of purging and cleansing different sorts of grain beating the Fitches with a Staff and Cummin with a Rod because they are a weaker sort of grain and will not endure hard usage but bruising the Bread Corn because threshing will not susfice and he is loth to break it all to pieces with turning his Cart-wheels upon it An elegant similitude whereby God insinuateth his different waies of correcting his people and observing a suitableness to their strength and temper when less would not do and more would overdo He must correct so far as to bruise but will be sure not to break and spoil He that saith unto the proud waves of the swelling Sea Hitherto shall ye come and no further Job 38. 11. hath the same command over these Meâ—aphorical waves those floods of afflâ—ction which he lets loose upon his people and they cannot go an such further thâ—n he hath appointed He saith Hitherto shall this Sickness this Mortality this Persecution go and no further and even these storms and this Sea obey him Now we converse with this Instance of Divine Wisdom not only when we observe it and acknowledge it but 1. When it begets in us a friendly and charitable temper towards second causes When we are at peace with the whole Creation even with enemies themselves and in perfect charity with those very Plagues and Sicknesses that do arrest us rather admiring and delâ—ghting in their subserviency to God than at all maligning their severe influences upon us A good man is so much in love with the pure and holy and perfect will of God that he desnes also to fall in love with at least he is at peace with every thing that executes it that serves the will of his heavenly Father He sees no reason in the world to fall out with and fret against any man or any thing that is a meaâ—s to afflict him but views them all as instruments in the hand of God readily serving his will and doing his pleasure and under this notion is charitably affected towards them all Observe a little and admire how David was reconciled to the Rod because it was in the hand of his Father and seems to kiss it for the relation that it had to the Divine Will 2 Sam. 16. 11. Let him alone and let him curse for the Lord hath bidden him This gracious soul is so wonderfully in love with the Will of God that he could almost find in his heart to be reconciled to sin it self if it do accomplish it and to be friends with the wrath of man if it work the righteousness of God And if Dvvid can be so charitably affected towards a cursing Shimei viewing him as an instrument in the hand of God methinks we may be almost in love with any thing under that notion and much rather say concerning a poor harmless Sickness Let it alone so let it put us to pain for God hath sent it To this sense may a devout soul draw the words of his Saviour concerning the Woman in Mat. 26. 10 Why trouble ye the Woman she hath wrought a good work upon me Why do ye interrupt and disturb this disease Why do ye fret against this Persecutor Why do ye repine at this Prison it executes the will of my God upon me What though these men pour out their venom in such ahundance What though this disease spend its influences upon my body so plentifully There 's no waste in all this there 's need of just so much God doth not lavish out his Arrows in vain nor shoot at roveâ—s as Jonathan did who couzened his Lad making him believe he shot at a mark when he shot at none A soul over powered with the sense of Gods Infinite Wisdom in appointing measuring timing all afflictions will easily be reconciled to a poor harmless creature which is set on and taken off at his pleasure 2. When it begets in us a holy Acquiescency and resting in God which is opposed to a larger and disorderly hastening towards deliverance Then do we indeed own and honour the
skill of our Chirurgion when we do quietly suffer the corâ—oâ—ive plaisters to lie on and do not offer to pluck them off notwithstanding the smart they put us to And surely he that believeth the Infinite Wisdom of God who knows what and what manner and measure of correction we stand in need of will not make haste to be delivered from under his hand but composeth himself quietly as young Samuel layd himself down and when he was called answered chearfully Speak Lord for thy servant heareth A soul sensible of Gods Infinite Wisdom in this particular argues thus Who am I poor worm shallow creature that I should contend with Infinite Wisdom about the time or manner of my being in the world Why did I not also undertake to appoint him the time and place of my being born Shall I say it is too much when Infinite Wisdome thinks it is not enough Cease wrangling soul and be at rest for the Lord deals wisely with thee Such a soul so conversing with the all-wise God dare freely refer all to him venture all with him if he smite him on the one cheek he dare turn to him the other if he take away his Coat he dare offer him his Cloak also if he take away his liberty he dare trust him with his life too if he smite him in some of his comforts he dare turn to him the rest also for he knows that Infinite Wisdom cannot erre in Judgment nor miscarry in his dispensations Secondly God knoweth when and how best to deliver us This necessarily follows upon the former To him all times and all things past present and to come are equally present In one single act of understanding he doth wonderfully comprehend both causes and events sicknesses and cures afflictions and deliverances Let the Atheistical world cry These are they that are forsaken whom no man careth for there is no hope for them in their God as their manner is to blaspheme Still the promise stands unrepealed in both Testaments I will never leave you nor forsake you though the case be never so extreme and desperate still the Apostles word holds good 2 Pet. 2. 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temprations If all passages be blockt up he will rather make a gap in the Sea than his people shall not escape Exod. 14. And this way and time of Gods delivering is the most excellent suitable and certain as might abundantly appear in many particulars But that would be a digression In the general be assured that Gods way is the best way of deliverance and his time is also the best time He that sits as a Râ—finer of Silver knows how and when to take out the metal that it be purified and not hurt Here I might enter into a large discourse and shew you how the judgment of man is ordinarily deceived and his expectations disappointed which he had built upon creature-probabilities when in the mean time the purpose of God takes place in a far better and more comfortable deliverance of his servants But it may suffice to have hinted it only Our duty is to converse with this Instance of Divine Wisdom by the exercises of Patience and Hope If God seem to tarry long yet wait patiently for his appearance for he will appear in the most acceptable time and in the end ye shall consider it and acknowledge it Take heed of limiting the Holy One of Israel as that murmuring generation did Psal 78. 41. Take heed of fixing of your deliverance to such or such a train and series of causes which you have layd in your own heads and of engaging God to act by your Method If God be a wise Agent its fit he should be a free Agent too Bear up Christian soul faint not when thou art rebuked of him Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he will in due time find out a way either of lessening it or removing it You have heard of the patience of Job and you have seen the end of the Lord James 5. 11. Be you patient and you shall see it too a better end than ever you could have accomplisht by your own act or industry In the mean time cherish in your hearts a lively hope of an happy issue For your lives and comforts are all hid in him in whom also are bid all the treasures of wildom and knowledge As the consideration of Infinite Wisdom in knowing how and when best to deliver us may settle our hearts that they do not rise up as a soam upon the waters through impatience so it may bear up our hearts that they do not sink within us as a stone in the waters through desperation Thirdly God knoweth how to make the best use of all for our good I say of all both of the affliction the manner and measure of it of his delay and of the season which he chuses to redeem us in He can make Paul's imprisonment turn to his advantage Phil. 1. 19. Job's captivity to redound to his far greater state Job ult Joseph's banishment to make him great and Manasseh's to make him good This is a large Theme and therefore I dare not rifle into it particularly Take all in one word from-the Apostle Rom. 8. 28. All things do work together for good to them that love God Whatever the promises be the only wise God knows how to draw a happy conclusion from them Gâ—t a firm belief of this radicaâ—ed in your hearts and converse with the Wisdom of God in this Instance of it by the great Grace of Self-resignation The Soveraignty of God may well work us into a resignation of our interests and comforts and concernments to him But this Infinite Wisdom of God ought in reason to work us into a resignation even of our very wills unto him Oh this debasing of self-will this self-resignation is a noble and ingenuous act of a pious soul for so I dare call him in whom it is found whereby it honours God greatly in all that comes upon it A godly soul considering it self ignorant of many things burdened with many corruptions and clogg'd with an animal body senses appetite fancy which are alwayes calling for things inconvenient if not unlawful doth conclude it would not be good for it to be at its own finding or caring or carving and duly eying that infinite mind and understanding who in a wonderful unaccountable manner orders all things and all events to the best and certain issue is so mastered by and indeed enamoured with the sense of it that he renounces his own wisdom and throws out his own clamorous wâ—ll and complyes readily with the all-wise God This is truly to converse with the Wisdom of God when we do out of choice refer our selves to it and rowl our selves upon it Every bare acknowledgment of Divine Wisdom is not a proper conversing with it but when the same is wrought into the soul and the lively sense of it doth so over-power the heart
a particular pinching love Oh take heed of this creature-love of valuing any created thing any otherwise than in God any otherwise than as being from God partaking of him and leading to him 3. Live not upon Ordinances These are Gods institutions love them cleave to them attend upon them let no temptation cause you to leave them but live not upon them place not your Religion place not your hope your happiness in them but love them only in God attend upon them yet not so much upon them as upon God in them lie by the Pool but wait for the Angel love not no not a divine ordinance for its own sake Why who doth so Alas who almost doth not 1. Thus did they in Ezek. 33. 32. who delighted in the Prophets eloquence and in the Rhetorick of his Sermons as much as in a well tuned voice and harmonious musick and so do thousands in England who read the Bible for the style or the stories sake and love to sit under learned and elegant discourses more for accomplishment than for conversion And swarms of Priests who preach themselves more than Christ Jesus even in his own ordinances as a proud Boy rides a horse into the Market to set forth himself more than his Masters goods 2. But there are many not so gross as these who do yet use ordinances in a way very gross and unspiritual placing their devotion in them and sinking their Religion into a settled course of hearing or praying who will wait upon God as they call it at some set and solemn times New Moons and Sabbaths it may be evening and morning but Religion must not be too busie with them nor intermeddle in their ordinary affairs or worldly employments it hath no place there they do not count it a garment for every dayes wear 3. And not only these but even almost all men are too apt to seek rest in duties and ordinances or at least to be pretty well satisfied with the work done whether they have conversed with God there or no Oh if you love your souls seek you happiness higher conversing with divine ordinances I confess is honourable and amiable but it is too low a life for an immortal soul Affirmatively Let nothing satisfie you but God himself take up with no pleasure no treasure no portion no paradise nay no Heaven no happiness below the infinite supreme and self-sufficient good Let your eye be upon him and his all-filling sulness let your desire be unto him and to the remembrance of his name follow hard after to know the Lord and to enjoy the Father through his Son Jesus Christ let your fellowship be with the Father and with the Son by the spirit 1 Joh. 1. 3. O love the Lord all ye his Saints Psal 31. 23. yea love him with all your soul and all your strength Mat. 22. 37. yea and keep your selves alwayes in the love of God Jude 21. persevere and increase in the love of God Keep your selves in the love of God Oh sweet duty Oh amiable pleasant task Oh sweet and gratesul command Away ye crowd of creatures I must keep my heart for my God Away ye gawdy suitors away ye glittering toyes there is no room for you My whole soul if its capacity were ten thousand times larger than it is were too scant to entertain the supreme good to let in infinite goodhess and fulness Oh charge it upon your selves with the greatest vehemence love the Lord O my soul keep thy self in the love of God let the love of God constrain you and keep your selves under the most powerful constraints of it In a word live upon God as upon uncreated life it self drink at the fountain seed upon infinite fulness depend upon Almighty Power refer your selves to unsearchable wisdom and unbounded love see nothing but God in the creature taste nothing but God in the world delight your selves in him long for communion with him and communications from him to receive of his fulness grace for grace Then do we live most like Angels when we live most purely in God and find all the powers of our souls spending themselves upon him and our selves our life and all the comforts of it flowing from him and again swallowed up in him But because we are yet in the body I shall explain it in these following particulars 1. Converse with God in all your Selfexcellencies I bade you before not converse with these now I say converse with God in these Thus do the Angels they know nothing that they have of their own they enjoy nothing distinct from God They are excellent creaturs excellent in knowledge power holiness c. yet they enjoy all their excellencies in God and ascribe them all to him Rev. 7. 12. And so let us labour to do 1. View your selves not in your own particular Beings but in the Essence of God look upon your selves as being and subsisting in the midst of an Infinite Essence in which the whole Creation is as it were wrapt up and doth subsist 2. And what ever excellency you find in your souls or bodyes look not upon it as your own maintain not a Meum and Tuum a distinction of interests beâ—ween God and your selves but look upon all as Gods and enjoy it in him 3. When you find your selves tempted to cast a fond and unchaste look upon the beauty strength activity or temper of your own bodyes upon the ingenuity wisdom constancy courage composedness of your own souls take heed of settling into a selfish admiration of any of them but enjoy them in God and say This O my body this O my soul is no other than the portraicture of the Blessed God these created excellencies are broken beams of the infinite unspotted uncreated perfections Jer. 9. 23 24. Having once attained to this we shall no longer covet to be admired desire to be commended fret at being undervalued I mean not in a selfish manner but rather break out in a spiritual passion with the psalmist Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works in the children of men Psal 107. 8. 3. Nay let me add when you find your selves ready to put your own stamp upon Gods best coin to look upon supernatural gifts and graces with a sinful selfish admiration remember that you have them only in Christ Jesus and enjoy them in your head labour to enjoy grace it self only in Christ as the Apostle Gal. 2. 20. I yet not I but Christ in me I laboured yet not I but the grace of God 1 Cor. 15. 10. So ought we to glory I believe I love I am patient penitent humble yet not I but the grace of God that is with me Christ Jesus that dwelleth in me And indeed a godly man who thus lives at the very height of his own Being yea and above it too knows best how to reverence himself yea and to love himself too and yet without any self-love For he