whom God requires it to unite for this very purpose This cannot but add unspeakably to the delightfulness of this transaction and of this effusion of the Holy Ghost in the virtue whereof the thing is done how oft soever it be seriously done As our case and state require that it be very often And to receive him as our Lord which is joined with that other capacity wherein we receive him viz. of a Jesus or Saviour As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord so c. This also and the heart-subduing influence that disposes to it is most highly delectable When the Soul that was so stoutly averse and that once said within it self I will not have him to reign over me is brought freely to yeild and with sincere loyal resolutions and affections devotes it self to him consents to his government submits its neck and shoulder to his yoke and burden says to him with an ungainsaying heart as its full sense Now thou Lord of my life and hope who hast so long striven with me so oft and earnestly prest me hereto so variously dealt with me to make me understand thy merciful design and who seekest to rule with no other aim or intent but that thou may'st save and who hast founded thy dominion in thy blood and didst dy and revive and rise again that thou mightest be Lord of the living and the dead and therefore my Lord Accept now a self-refigning Soul I make a free surrender of my self I bow and submit to thy Sovereign Power I fall at the footstool of thy Throne Thou Prince of the Kings of the Earth who hast loved sinners and washt them from their sins in thy blood Glory in thy conquest Thou hast overcome I will from henceforth be no longer mine own but thine I am ready to receive thy commands to do thy will to serve thy interests to sacrifice my all to thy Name and Honour my whole life and being are for ever thine I say as before there is pleasure in the very doing this it self as often as it is sincerely done And it adds hereto if it be more distinctly considered It is no mean or any way undeserving person to whom this homage is paid and obligation taken on unto future obedience He is the brightness of the Fathers glory the express Image of his person the Heir of all things and who sustains all things by the word of his power It is he whose name is Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of peace 'T is he to whom all power is given both in heaven and earth and more especially power over all flesh that he might give eternal life to as many as were given him 'T is he who spoiled Principalities and Powers and made an open shew of them He whom because when he was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God he humbled himself made himself of no reputation took on him the form of a servant became obedient to death the Father hath therefore highly exalted and given him a Name above every name that in his Name every knee should bow And of whom when he brought him his first-born into the world he said Let all the Angels of God worship him And such a one he is whose temper is all goodness and sweetness Tell Sion thy King cometh meek and lowly He came into this world drawn down only by his own pity and love beholding the desolations and ruins that were wrought in it every where Sin universally reigning and death by sin and spreading its dark shadow and a dreadful cloud over all the earth In which darkness the Prince thereof was ruling and leading men captive at his will having drawn them off from the blessed God their life and sunk them into a deep oblivion of their own original and disaffection to their true happiness that could only be found there This great Lord and Prince of life and peace came down on purpose to be the Restorer of Souls to repair the desolations and ruins of many generations He came full of grace and truth and hath scattered blessings over the world wheresoever he came hath infinitely obliged all that ever knew him and is he in whom all the nations of the earth must be blessed And who would not with joy swear fealty to him and take pleasure to do him homage Who would not recount with delight the unexpressible felicity of living under the governing power of such a one And if the tenor and scope of all his Laws and Constitutions be viewed over what will they be found but obligations upon men to be happy How easie his yoke how light his burden what is the frame of his Kingdom or whereof doth it consist but Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And who would not now say This Lord reigneth let the earth rejoyce let the multitude of the Isles be glad thereof Why should it not be triumphingly said among the Heathen That the Lord reigneth that the world also shall be established that it cannot be moved Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad let the sea roar and the fulness thereof let the fields rejoice and all that is therein and all the trees of the wood rejoice It s plain that be the matter of joy here what it will be there never so much cause of exultation and glorying in him The righteousness and peace which his Kingdom promises never actually take place nor the joy that is connexion therewith till the Holy Ghost dispose and form mens spirits thereto For all this is but meer dream and idle talk to those who hear only of these things and feel not that vital influence insinuating it self that may give the living sense and savor of them And we may rather expect seas and fields beasts and trees to sing his triumphant Song and chant his praises than those men whose hearts are not attempered to his Government and who are yet under the dominion of another Lord not being yet by the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made free from the law of sin and death But where this is effectually done How large matter of most rational pleasure do they find here while there is nothing in that whole System of Laws by which he governs that is either vain unequal or unpleasant or upon any account grievous only this is not the estimate of distempered spirits or of any other than them in whose hearts his Law is written and who because they love him keep his Commandments Unto Love his commands are most connatural For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments They are not grievous i. e. by the Meiosis which some do reasonably enough apprehend in those words they are joyous delightful pleasant but to them only who being born of God have overcome the world This holy influence and communication of God is therefore grateful and contributes not
method in which they were brought to the capacity of doing so For ye are dead Their professed relation to Christ did suppose them risen and did therefore first suppose them dead Now if they would do sutably to what their profession imported this was it they had to do To abstract their minds and hearts from the things of this earth and place them upon the things of an higher region And as it s afterwards expressed in this same context which we were considering before to have our conversation or Citizenship in heaven whence we look for the Saviour c. That is as our chief interests and priviledges are above to have our thoughts and the powers of our Souls chiefly exercised upon that blessed and glorious state which state is the prize mentioned above of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus It being the scope and import of his Call unto us and the very design of his sufferings on the Cross to draw up a people from earth to heaven whence therefore they that under this Call do still mind earthly things are said to be enemies to the Cross of Christ the great incongruity whereof the Apostle even resents with tears as he there testifies And it was in this that he was for his part so willing to comply with the design of the Cross that he made no difficulty to endure all the hardship and dolour of it that he might attain this glorious fruit and gain which he reckoned should accrew to him from it even more of a rais'd heavenly mind which signify'd it to be strongly bent that way already when no mortifications were reckoned too severe to be undergone in order thereto And here therefore this soul-rectifying influence must be understood to have been proportionably strong Hence also it was that we find him groaning as one under a pressure or heavy weight to be cloath'd upon with the heavenly house and to have mortality swallowed up of life Because God had wrought him to this self-same thing so bent and determined his spirit was towards the blessedness of the future state which seems the most natural contexture of discourse here though some others have understood it otherwise as that though he could bear patiently the delay he could not but desire most earnestly to be there And we see how the temper of the Primitive Christians was as to this and the other world in those days when the Spirit was plentifully poured out They took joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing in themselves they had in Heaven a far better and an enduring substance Heaven signified much with them and this world very little They looked not to the things that were seen and temporal but to the things unseen and eternal As those former Worthies did whose minds and hearts being set right by that faith which is the substance of the things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen They lived as pilgrims and strangers on earth despised the pleasures riches and honours of it Endured all manner of hardships and tortures in it not accepting deliverance because they were taken up in the pursuit of the better Country had respect to the recompence of reward and expected a part in the better Resurrection And is it not a delightful thing to the spirit of a man when he is sensibly disintangled and at liberty from the cares desires griefs and fears that were wont to enwrap his heart when he finds his weights and clogs faln off that deprest him the bonds and snares loosed which bound him down to this earth and feels himself ascending and moving upwards out of that darkness stupidity and death that possessed his Soul into that upper region of light purity and peace unto which his spirit is still gradually more and more connaturallized day by day When Heaven in respect of the pure holiness the calm serenity the rest and blessedness of it is now grown familiar to him and his very element We see then that in all these mentioned respects this gracious communication wherein it is rectifying and tends to settle the Soul in that frame which it ought to be in and which is most proper and natural to it therein it is also most delightful and carries highest matter of pleasure in it It is upon the whole that we may sum up the account of this divine communication in the following characters of it 1. Generative and begets the Soul to a new a divine life makes it of a sluggish stupid dead thing as it was towards all heavenly and divine matters living and sprightly full of active life and vigour Life we say is sweet it is in it self a pleasant thing This mean bodily life it self is so if we do but consider it and allow our selves to taste and enjoy the pleasure of it As for instance that this and that limb and member is not a dead lump that we feel life freshly sprouting and springing in every part is not this delightsom How much more the life of the Soul especially this so excellent and sublime kind of life And it is the radical principle of all other consequent pleasure that by which we are capable thereof every thing is sapless and without savour to the dead How pleasant operations and fruitions doth the divine life render a person capable of 2. It is Nutritive Souls are nourished by the same thing by which they are begotten by the same divine influence As a generative vertue is wont to be attributed to the Sun so it cherishes also its own productions The beams of that Sun of righteousness make them that fear God grow up as calves in the stall fill them with marrow and fatness cause them to flourish as the Cedars of Lebanon And is not that delightsome to be increased daily with the increases of God fed with heavenly hidden Manna Angels food and thereby though we need not here speak distinctly of these to receive at once both nourishment and growth 3. It is Sanative and virtually contains all the fruits in it which are for the healing of the Nations when the Soul grows distemper'd it restores it and is both sustaining and remedying to it How great is the pleasure of health and soundness of ease to broken bones of relief to a sick and fainting heart so it is often for in the present state the cure is not perfect and relapses are frequent with the Soul in which the life of God hath begun to settle and diffuse it self till his influence repair and renew it And when it doth so how pleasant is it to find an heart made sound in his statutes and to perceive a-new working in it the Spirit of love power and a sound mind So pleasant that it occasions a triumph even when the outward man is perishing if it be found that the inward is renewed day by day 4. It is Corroborative and strengthening confirms resolutions and establishes the heart Hereby they
Creation the beauty loveliness pleasantness of any Creature Must not all that and infinitely more be originally in the great Creator of all This if you consider you cannot but see and own While then your own hearts tell you you delight not in God Do not your Consciences begin to accuse and judg you that you deal not righteously in this matter And ought it not to fill your Souls with horror when you consider you take no delight in the best and sovereign Good Yea when you look into your disaffected hearts and find that you not only do not delight in God but you cannot and not for the want of the natural power but a right inclination Should you not with astonishment bethink your selves every one for himself what is this that 's befal'n me I am convinced this is the best Good every way most worthy of my highest delight and love and yet my heart savours it not You can have no pretence to say That because your heart is disinclin'd therefore you are excused for you only do not what through an invincible disinclination you apprehend you cannot do But you should bethink your self What a wretch am I that am so ill-inclin'd For is not any one more wicked according as he is more strongly inclin'd to wickedness and averse to what is good But how vincible or invincible your disinclination is you do not yet know not having yet made due trial That you cannot of your selves overcome it is out of question But have you tried what help might be got from Heaven in the use of Gods own prescribed means If that course bring you in no help then may you understand how much you have provoked the Lord. For though he have promised that for such as turn at his reproof he will pour out his Spirit to them yet they who when he calls refuse and when he stretches out his hand regard not but set at naught all his counsel c. may call and not be answered may seek him early and not find him And that wickedness may somewhat be estimated by this effect that thus it makes the Spirit of Grace retire that free benign merciful Spirit the Author of all love sweetness and goodness become to a forlorn soul a resolved stranger If you are so given up you have first given up your selves You have wilfully cast him out of your thoughts and hardened your own hearts against him who was the Spring of your Life and Being and in whom is all your Hope And whether this malignity of your hearts shall ever finally be overcome or no as you have no cause to despair but it may be overcome if apprehending your life to lie upon it you wait and strive and pray and cry as your case requires Yet do you not see it to be a fearful pitch of malignity and so much the worse and more vicious by how much it is more hardly overcome That we may here be a little more particular Consider 1. How tumultuous and disorderly a thing this your disaffection is You are here to consider its direct tendency its natural aptitude or what it doth of it self and in its own nature lead and tend to If you may withdraw your delight and love from God then so may all other men as well Therefore now view the thing it self in the common nature of it And so Is not aversion to delight in God a manifest contrariety to the order of things A turning all upside down A shattering and breaking asunder the bond between rational appetite and the First Good A disjointing and unhinging of the best and noblest part of Gods Creation from its station and rest its proper basis and center How fearful a rupture doth it make How violent and destructive a dislocation If you could break in pieces the orderly contexture of the whole universe within it self reduce the frame of nature to utmost confusion rout all the ranks and orders of creatures tear asunder the Heavens and dissolve the compacted body of the earth mingle Heaven and Earth together and resolve the World into a meer heap you had not done so great a spoil as in breaking the primary and supream tie and bond between the Creature and his Maker Yea between the Creator of all things and his more noble and excellent Creature All the relations aptitudes and inclinations of the Creatures to one another are but inferior and subordinate to those between the Creatures and their common Author and Lord And here the corruption of the best cannot but be worst of all Again 2. What an unnatural wickedness is it To hate thy own original To disaffect the most bountiful Author of thy Life and Being What wouldst thou say to it if thy own Son did hate the very sight of thee and abhor thy presence and converse especially if thou never gave him the least cause If thou hast been always kind and indulgent full of paternal affection towards him Wouldst thou not think him a vile miscreant and reckon the Earth too good to bear him But how little and in how low a capacity didst thou contribute to his being in comparison of what the great God did to thine How little of natural excellency hast thou above him it may be in many things besides this unhappy temper he much excels thee when thou knowest in thy Maker is infinite excellency beyond what thou canst pretend unto And what cause canst thou pretend of disaffection towards him Many good works hath he done for thee For which of these dost thou hate him Whereby hath he ever disoblig'd thee With how sweet and gentle allurements hath he sought to win thy heart And is it not most vilely unnatural that thy spirit should be so sullenly averse to him who is pleased to be stiled the Father of Spirits And in which respect it may fitly be said to thee Dost thou thus requite the Lord O foolish Creature and unwise Is not he thy Father If thou didst hate thy own self in a sense besides that wherein it is thy duty and in which kind thou hast as thy case is a just and dreadful cause of self-abhorrence If thou didst hate thy very life and being and wer't laying daily plots of self-destruction thou wer 't not so wickedly unnatural He is more intimate to thee than thou art to thy self That natural love which thou owest to thy self and the nature from whence it springs is of him and ought to be subordinate to him And by a superior Law of Nature thy very life if he actually require it ought to be sacrific'd and laid down for his sake Thy hatred towards him therefore is more prodigiously unnatural than if it were most directly and implacably bent against thy self And yet also in hating him thou dost most mischievously hate thy self too and all that thou dost by the instinct of that vile temper of heart towards him thou dost it against thy own life and soul. Thou cuttest thy self off
wherein you can most freely breath and live and be most at ease and out of which you may perceive you cannot enjoy your self and that what-ever tends to withdraw you from him any extravagant motion the beginnings of the excursion or the least departing step may be sensibly painful and grievous to you And do not look upon it as an hopeless thing you should ever come to this some have come to it One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple Nor was this a transient fit only with the Psalmist but we find him frequently speaking the same sense Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the House of the Lord for ever And again we have the like strains How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord God of Hosts My Soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord Blessed are they that dwell in thy House c. And what was this House more to him than another House save that here he reckoned upon enjoying the Divine Presence So that here was an heart so naturaliz'd to this Presence as to affect an abode in it and that he might lead his life with God and dwell with him all his days He could not be content with giving a visit now and then And why should this temper of spirit in the clearer light of the Gospel be look't upon as an unattainable thing A lazy despondency and the mean conceit that it is modest not to aim so high starves Religion and stifles all truly noble and generous desires Let this then be the thing designed with you and constantly pursue and drive the design that you may get into this disposition of spirit towards God His Spirit will not be restrained if it be duly sought and dutifully comply'd with and obeyed if you carefully reserve your self for him as one whom be hath set apart for himself If you will be entirely his and keep your distance using an holy chast reservedness as to other things that is such things as any way tend to indispose your spirit towards him or render it less sutable to his converse He will be no stranger to you And that it may be more sutable and fit for him you should habituate and accustom your self to converse in the general with spiritual things You will be as the things are you converse most with they will leave their stamp and impress on you wandring after vanity you will become vain minding earthly things you will become earthly Accordingly being much taken up with spiritual things you will bear their image and become spiritual Think how unworthy it is since you have faculties and those now refined and improved by Divine light and grace that are capable of being employed about so much higher objects than those of sense That you should yeild to a confinement in so great part to so low and mean things whence it is that when you should mind things of an higher nature 't is a strange work with you and those things seem odd and uncouth to you and are all with you as meer shadow and darkness that you should be most familiar with Urge on your spirit make it enter into the invisible world May you not be assured if you will use your understanding That there are things you never saw that are unspeakably more excellent and glorious than any thing you have seen or than can be seen by eyes of flesh Why should your mind and thoughts be limited within the narrow bounds of this sublunary world so small and minute and by the apostacy and sin of man so abject and deformed a part of Gods Creation Do not bind down your spirit to the consideration and view of the affairs and concernments only of this Region of sin and wretchedness where few things fall under your notice that can be a comfortable or so greatly edifying and instructive a prospect to a serious spirit But consider That as certainly as you behold with your eyes the wickedness and miseries of this forlorn world that hath forsaken God and is in great part forsaken of him so certainly there is a vastly greater world than this of glorious and innocent Creatures that stand in direct and dutiful subordination to their common Maker and Lord loving and beloved of him delighting to do his will and solacing themselves perpetually in his blessed presence and in the mutual love communion and felicity of one another Unto which happy number or innumerable company rather as they are called the Redeemer is daily adjoining such as he recovers and translates out of the ruins and desolation of this miserable accursed part of the Universe Reckon your self as someway appertaining to that blessed Society Mind the affairs thereof as those of your own Country and that properly belong to you When we are taught to pray That the will of God may be done on earth as it is in heaven Can it be supposed it ought to be a strange thing to our thoughts how affairs go there Surely Faith and holy Reason well used would furnish us with regular and warrantable notions enough of the state of things above that we should not need to carry it as persons that have no concern therein or when we are required to be as strangers on earth that we should make our selves such to heaven rather Let your mind be much employed in considering the state of things between God and his Creatures Design a large field for your thoughts to spread themselves in and you will also find it a fruitful one let them run backward and forward and expatiate on every side Think how all things sprang from God and among them Man that excellent part of this his lower Creation what he was towards God and what he is now become Think of the admirable person the glorious excellences the mighty design the wonderful atchievements and performances of the Redeemer And the blessed issue he will bring things to at length Think of and study much the nature parts and accomplishments of the new creature get your mind well-instructed and furnished with apprehensions of the whole entire frame of that holy rectitude wherein the Image of God upon renewed Souls doth consist the several lovely ornaments of the hidden man of the heart how it is framed and habited when it is as it should be towards God and towards men Cast about and you will not want matter of spiritual employment and exercise for your minds and hearts nor have occasion if any expostulate with you why you mind this earth and the things of sense so much to say you know not what else to think of you may sure find many things else And if you would use your thoughts to such converse and thus daily entertain your self In
heavens he hath done whatsoever he pleased Their Idols are silver and gold c. Be thou exalted O God in thine own strength We will sing and praise thy power Forsake me not until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to every one that is to come c. This is given out as the Song of Moses and the Lamb Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy name Great and marvelous are thy works Lord God Almighty c. And how do they magnifie his Mercy and Goodness both towards his own people and his creatures in general O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee that thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the children of men Rejoice in the Lord O ye righteous for praise is comely for the upright Praise the Lord with harp Sing unto him with the Psaltery The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. I will extol thee my God O King I will bless thy name for ever and ever Men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts they shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works To insert all that might be mentioned to this purpose were to transcribe a great part of the Bible And in what raptures do we often find them in the contemplation of his Faithfulness and Truth his Justice and Righteousness his Eternity the boundlesness of his Presence the greatness of his Works the extensiveness of his Dominion the perpetuity of his Kingdom the exactness of his Government Who is a strong God like unto thee and to thy faithfulness round about thee Thy mercy O Lord is in the heavens and thy faithfulness reaches unto the clouds Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth or the world from everlasting to everlasting thou art God But will God indeed dwell on the earth Behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee The works of the Lord are great sought out of them that have pleasure therein His work is honourable and glorious c. All thy works shall praise thee O Lord and thy Saints shall bless thee they shall speak of the glory of thy Kingdom and talk of thy power To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious Majesty of his Kingdom Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and thy Dominion endureth throughout all generations And his Glory in the general which results from his several Excellencies in conjunction How loftily is it often celebrated with the expression of the most loyal desires that it may be every-where renowned and of greatest complacency in as far as it is apprehended so to be The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever They shall sing in the ways of the Lord for great is the glory of the Lord. Be thou exalted above the heavens let thy glory be above all the earth Let them praise the name of the Lord for his name alone is excellent his glory is above the earth and the heavens When you read such passages as these whether they be elogies or commendations of him or doxologies and direct attributions of glory to him you are to bethink your selves with what temper of heart these things were uttered with how raised and exalted a spirit what high delight and pleasure was conceived in glorifying God or in beholding him glorious How large and unbounded a heart and how full of his praise doth still every where discover it self in such strains When all Nations when all Creatures when every-thing that hath breath when Heaven and Earth are invited together to join in the consort and bear a part in his praises And now eye him under the same notions under which you have seen him so magnified that in the same way you may have your own heart wrought up to the same pitch and temper towards him Should it not provoke an emulation and make you covet to be amidst the throng of loyal and devoted Souls when you see them ascending as if they were all incense When you behold them dissolving and melting away in delight and love and ready to expire even fainting that they can do no more designing their very last breath shall go forth in the close of a Song I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live I will sing praise to my God while I have my being How becoming is it to resolve This shall be my aim and ambition to fly the same and if it were possible a greater height Read over such Psalms as are more especially designed for the magnifying of God and when you see what were the things that were most taking to so spiritual and pious hearts thence receive instruction and aim to have your hearts alike affected and transported with the same things Frame the supposition that you are meant that the invitation is directed to you O Come let us sing unto the Lord let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise to him with Psalms for the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods c. And think with your selves Is he not as great as he was Is he not as much our Maker as he was theirs Is it not now as true that the Lord reigneth and is high above all the earth and exalted far above all gods Now since these were the considerations upon which so great complacency was taken in him set the same before your own eyes And since these were proposed as the matter of so common a joy and the Creation seems design'd for a musical instrument of as many strings as there are Creatures in Heaven and Earth Awake and make haste to get your heart fixed Lest the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad the world and all that dwell therein Lest the sea roar and the fulness thereof the floods clap their hands the fields and the hills be joyful together and all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord while you only are silent and unconcern'd And seriously consider the kind and nature of that joy and delight in God wherewith the hearts of holy men did so exceedingly abound Which is to be collected from the expressed ground and reasons of it for the most part wheresoever you have any discovery of that joy it self This general and principal character may be given of it that it was a sincerely-devout and a loyal joy not a mean narrow selfish pleasure an hugging of themselves in this apprehension meerly It is well with me or I am safe and happy whatsoever becomes of the world This was still the burden of their Song The Lord is