and empty And will you suffer your Souls against Nature to live out of God when you are called to live on him who is the Fountain of Life I may say unto you as Eliphaz spake in Job 15. Are the Consolations of God small to you And is it so light a matter to have the knowledg of the love of God and your Interest in him In Jer. 14.18 the Prophet speaks of spoiling and wasting but if it doth come saith he thy ways and thy sins have procured these things unto thee therefore know that it is an evil thing and bitter to forsake the Lord. You may thank your selves if a day come wherein there will be bitterness to your hearts and the pangs of death upon you because you know not that God is your God know that this is your wickedness because you will not now look after it and so you rob your Souls That is one thing 2dly When you are not sedulous and industrious in this thing to make sure that God is your God you leave your selves in the high way of Apostacy What is that which will make us able to stand the Apostle Peter tells us 2 Pet. 1.10 Give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure for if you do these things you shall never fall You expose your selves to offences to stumbling and falling when you are content to live in the dark not knowing what Interest you have in God For consider you are now out of the shine of the Sun you are in the cold evening shade your life is much weakened and your strength abated It is the knowledg of divine Love that is the spirit and strength of our love this lays bonds upon our spirits by which we become one with God it is the wing of our Souls the spring of our activity by which we are born up to an enjoyment of God The joy of the Lord is your strength saith Nehemiah And by this Paul was more then a Conqueror yet Paul had many Enemies Through this Abraham was able to do so great things by this Moses was able to despise the wrath and favor of Pharaoh and all the pleasures and riches of his Court While a man walks in the shine and sense of divine Love he will feel a strength in two Principles of great use 1. To cleave fast to the chief good now that chief good is God to that man that enjoys him he hath the truest taste that sees God to be his God and no man else hath such a taste as he this will hold him to God Where the Creatures have but a Judgment of Sense they will not depart from what they find good A Beast will not change his pasture for gold that is best for him It 's the astonishment of the world that the Angels should fall from their state of Glory and it 's matter of amazement that man should fall from his Creator when he had a full enjoyment of him It 's that which God calls Heaven and Earth to tremble at Jer. 2.13 That men should depart from him the Fountain of living Water c. The sense of acceptation with God makes a man that he cannot go from God Whither shall we go saith Peter Joh. 6. Thou hast the words of eternal life That Soul that lives under the influence of divine Comforts cannot but say Lord it 's good for me to be here he desires no change it cannot be better with him Change proceeds from want for if want were not the creature would not change That Soul that enjoys God is pleased and he saith with David Psal 16. He hath a good portion and his lines are fallen in a good place Nothing is dear to that man to part with that he may enjoy God he bids all things stand by and saith I charge you wife and friends estate and all things do not molest me in my enjoyment of the light of Gods face let all the world go which way it will let me enjoy this blessedness to know assuredly that God is my God When a man lives without this knowledg his life is but a poor shadow of life all without God is but a dead thing to him Another Principle receiving strength from the knowledg of Gods Love and our Interest in him is That a man should be friendly to his friend that he should walk with an harmony of spirit to his friends desire Love pleaseth not it self Now when a man enjoys the sweetness of friendship with God this makes him true to his Maker and to cleave close to God as to his Father Indeed the sense of this constrains the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.14 saith The love of Christ constrains us How can I do this evil saith Joseph and sin against my God But now if thou be careless and canst make a shift to live I know not how a dull stupid dark sensless kind of life thy heart not witnessing that thou endeavorest to make good thy Interest in God thou art not under the bond of Love and then what art thou under Other Lovers have taken away thy heart but as for God thou art a stranger to him and art contented to be without him this is a woful state And as a man that lives out of the shine of divine Love starves and wastes away so fears in this case are apt to turn into hatred when the Soul is gall'd and tormented with fears of the displeasure of God against him this is apt to turn to hatred Naturally whom we fear we hate and naturally the stronger fear is the more men hate The Devils hate God to the full being past doubting of his displeasure What the Soul fears it flies from and what is the flight of the Soul but hatred Judas would chuse rather to go out of the world and sink into nothing then endure his condition when he saw God not to be his God I 'l shut up this Argument with these few things All that is in a Christian makes to this that he would get a clear knowledg of his Interest in God Hath he Faith why by that he believes God to be his Happiness and that will put him on Hath he Love Love is restless but in clear enjoyment Hath he desire and thirst what are they but the Souls sickness till it hath health and life in the enjoyment of God Hath he Fear what is that but the Soul seeking to be secure and safe in God Hath he Reason what 's that but the voyce of God calling him unto God Hath he a sense of the sweetness of God what 's that but the comfort of divine Love drawing the Soul to himself So that all that is in a Christian puts him on to this to make this clear that God is his God And therefore they that can rub out their days and make a shift to busie themselves in other things without the knowledg of God to be their God have great cause to pronounce this heavy sentence upon themselves that surely
Reasons of both BEfore I propound the Directions how they who are sincere and ingenious toward God and indeed have him for their God may know that they have a sure Interest and Propriety in him I will premise two things of moment First That our Interest in God is more knowable then any other Interest in the world There is no Interest that a man hath which is so discernable Whatsoever it is that belongs to an Interest in any thing or any friend and doth discover it is much more here Examine it in a few particulars 1. Where there is an Interest with men there is a mutual closing of their spirits by which they know one another and come to rest secure in each others good intentions and hearty wishes Here also is this mutual closing and in a far more high and excellent degree then is or can be with any creature For that affection and love which God discovers to his people and which he doth act upon them is a Love that is transcendent that is not only beyond all other love but beyond all understanding That entire closing that is between a Beleever and God in Jesus Christ is above all that which can be found in any other his whole Soul runs this way In Psal 119.10 I have sought thee saith David with my whole heart That is the proportion which God hath cut out for himself Deut. 6.5 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart with all thy Soul and with all thy might Christ challenges the same proportion and indeed it should not be less less would not fulfil his end which is the solid peace and satisfaction of his people in the enjoyment of him and also the subjecting and subduing of their spirits to his government No proportion of love loss then the greatest could work these things But besides this there is such a through change by reason of this Interest as no Interest in the world doth work though the closest and the nearest For the habit and disposition of the spirit of a man is altered in closing with God and he becomes a new creature he is not what he was It is true that in all friendship that is with men there is a kind of change on both sides because there must be a due and necessary application of themselves to each others spirits but that change is unspeakably inferior to this in those who have been wrought upon to beleeve and have obtained this mercy to close with God for they are changed to the proportion of as great a distance as death is distant from life and darkness from light for they are brought off from the love of all that on which their hearts were set even to a hatred of it and are subjected subordinate and conformed to the Will of God There is another thing in this Interest which belongs to the nature of it and so discovers it and that is a mutual conversing with each other with contentment Jonathan and David had much pleasure in their mutual conversings with each other and in drawing forth their spirits one to another This is much more strong in Beleevers then can be in any relation between husband and wife or between the father and child This must needs be so For first The love wherewith they love God is the highest love Therefore many will not go for Christians that pretend to be such because their hearts are not brought up to this The highest Love acts highest it takes the highest delight and contentment in its Object In Cant. 2.3 As the Apple trees among the trees of the Forrest so is my Beloved among the sons I sat down under his shadow with great delight c. In Psal 73. saith David It is good for me to draw near to God That look as others find contentment in the things they love and draw near to them so the Saints find much more contentment with God and therefore draw near to him Again Friends cannot always enjoy these Converses Oftentimes they are parted and so cannot have this felicity of expressing mutual love but God is ever with them In Psal 73. Thou art my strong habitation to whom I may have a continual resort I may always come to thee 3. There is a third thing in Interest and that is mutual Communication Love is a spring which flows forth it doth enjoy what it hath rather for its friend then for it self Gods Love hath this excellency more abundantly and transcendently Take the dearest friends that live at the highest rate of love they cannot maintain a constant Communication partly because there is not always an equal necessity and capacity partly because there is not always the same power to give forth But our necessities are always very great and vast and Gods power is always the same so that here is always a perfect Communication of Love that ceaseth not but flows forth as beams of light from the Sun Now as effects discover their causes so then especially when they are most full and perfect As you may better know any tree by its fruit then when it is in the bud and blossoms and you may better know it when the fruit is in its fulness and in more abundance then when there are but a few if there be but one or two upon a tree they may be hid but when there are many the testimony is the more abundant Abundant are the testimonies of the fruits of Gods Love in what he hath done for his So that upon this account no Interest is more knowable then that of a Beleever in his God Secondly A second thing to be propounded is this That though no Interest be more knowable yet ordinarily no Interest is less known then this This we need not prove I think it 's a Question out of question with us all The unevenness of the holiness of Beleevers in their walkings the inconstancy of their rejoycing are two strong demonstrations of this that they do know but little of their Interest in God It springs from such unhappy Causes as these That abiding Unbelief that bitter root that hath taken such strong hold of the nature of man that till the whole house be pull'd down it will not be wholly eradicated and destroyed This is that weight the Apostle speaks of in Heb. 12. that hangs on us so fast as is manifest by the Apostle's scope who perswading unto faith and the workings of faith this is that saith he that so suppresseth and bears us down from those heights of heavenly joy from that sweet contentment and rest of spirit whereto we are called Beleeving is the first stone that is layd in a Christian He that comes to God must beleeve that he is and that he is a Rewarder of those that seek him Hebr. 12. And as there is a spirit in all Beleevers that tends to the setling of them upon a sure foundation that they may stedfastly beleeve so there is a spirit that works
some are sensless and therefore perceive it not will be filled with God Then a Strand will be set to that deplorable forgetfulness of God which hath swell'd to such unreasonable heights that it hath left the tops of very few mountains discernable above it Then those which have pure minds will be stirred up to run after their Lord The Children of the Kingdom will enjoy more of the promises and by them partake of a Divine nature in greater measures inherit more of the holy Land trade in true life be tyed in Heavenly Galleries having their eyes set continually upon Christ who with his will take away their hearts and keep them with himself and be a Covering of the eyes to them from all false ones for ever I have no more to adde but the continuance of these wishes and prayers humbly begging a remembrance also in yours for From my Study in Eton Colledg June 1. 1653. Your weak Fellow-servant in the hopes of the Gospel Nathanael Ingelo THE CONTENTS Of the Ensuing TREATISES I. The Fixed Eye or the Mindful Heart on PSAL. 25.15 Chap. 1. EYes of Saints set upon God In what sence Ever and how many ways Pag. 1. Chap. 2. The Way of Eying God in heavenly Meditation Thoughts setled upon God include much choyce and pleasantness Pag. 5 Chap. 3. Holy thoughts of God are mixed with awful love leave deep impressions transform the spirit and are the Trade of good Souls Pag. 13 Chap. 4. Disconformity to the forementioned Principles a great fault in Christians The Discovery of it Slumbering Eyes and wandering Hearts Pag. 18 Chap. 5. How the Soul comes to wander from God of divine Permission in this Case Discouragements pretended The heart pleased with something else more then God Pag. 28 Chap. 6. False Meditation subdueth not the heart A wicked heart hath no joy in the thoughts of God What 's done and not according to Rule is as if it were undone The heart which mindeth not God in a constant course is not right Pag. 33 Chap. 7. Man wanders from God having lost the government of his spirit Thoughts of God suit not perverted Souls are above them and against them Satan lord of the imaginations and master of the affections in those which forget God Pag. 43 Chap. 8. Perswasions to frequent Emanations and contentful abode of Soul with God Minding of God a work possible to Christians A work of the most exellent power Spiritual actions easier then bodily Contemplative life everlasting Natural propensity of Soul to God renewed in Saints A blessing of love in true mindfulness of God Pag. 51 Chap. 9. Jesus Christ a Pattern of Eying the Father Greatest mindfulness of God due God our best Friend All we have is in his hands and af his gift All Religion founded upon a due mindfulness of God Anguish awails wandering hearts Pag. 62 Chap. 10. Directions cencerning Eying of God Truths to be received in their power Saints are to keep in their hearts a meetness for their work Saints are to preserve their capacities for God Saints must maintain a deep sense of divine engagements A lively sense of necessities is useful Pure hearts are meet for divine converse The mind will'd without Sanctification Pag. 69 Chap. 11. Advantages that come by minding of God are to be duly considered The more we mind God the more we may Those which eye God most know themselves best Those which eye God most have most of God Forgetfulness of God cuts the nerves of Holiness Forgetfulness of God betrays to Apostacy Pag. 86 II. The Principal Interest or the Propriety of Saints in God on MICAH 7.7 Chap. 1. Interest in God the true Spring of Consolation How it is Propriety with Community Best because God is best by a Confluence of all Excellencies Pag. 92 Chap. 2. Interest in God of a perfect extent to all in God Gods love lasts is not broke off by offences is not hindred by distance Interest in God effectual to all good ends Divine friendship not burdensom Pag. 97 Chap. 3. Saints engaged to live upon God by the Law of Nature Love and Judgment Spiritual Relation is mutual True Resignation hath Conscience with Love A divine Power in and over Saints The grace and peace of Saints furthered as they mind their Interest in God Pag. 102 Chap. 4. Saints have not only the Portion but the Spirit of Children Ingenious walking greatly requisite in those who pretend Interest in God God more easily pleased with his people then with others Tastes of Gods sweetness are obligatory Carless walking weakens hope in prayer Pag. 110 Chap. 5. Saints Interest is through great Condescension Conjunction of God and his people very intimate A Priviledg restored and how by Jesus Christ Pag. 116 Chap. 6. God content to be ours though we had disowned him and depraved our selves Gods Interest in us chargeable to him God owns not all but some Peculiar frowns upon those which walk unworthy of God Pag. 124 Chap. 7. The Absolute Necessity of Interest in God God is either with or against his Creatures Whosoever hath not God hath no true Interest in any thing Pag. 128 Chap. 8. Interest in God most attainable Goodness and Fulness the Springs of Communication Desire easily and with most success revealed to God Poor strangers impotent persons not bar'd from God as from men Interest in God incomparable in the enjoyment Pag. 133 Chap. 9. Christians ought to clear their hopes from their Uncertainties Beleevers doubt through their own fault They that seek God must pursue their end Pag. 142 Chap. 10. God hath fully made known whom he loves Christians able to know themselves Gods Spirit strengthens the testimony of our spirits Christians hindered by Slothfulness and Discouragements Pag. 148 Chap. 11. Encouragements to endeavor the clearing of our Interest in God Love cannot hide it self Love will not deny what may be easily granted and is much needed Pag. 159 Chap. 12. They are not right who are careless to clear their Evidence Wisdom and Love make the Saints seek after full satisfaction Two sorts of Content in the want of God Pag. 164 Chap. 13. Those which seek not to clear their Interest offer inexpressible violence to their own Souls How the sense of divine Love gives strength to two useful Principles of holy life Pag. 171 Chap. 14. The Evil of Doubting as it is a denyal of the Truth of God a diminution of his Love and Favors and a mis-interpretation of his Dispensations The vexation of doubting to enlightened persons in an evil day Pag. 177 Chap. 15. Interest in God more knowable then any other and yet unknown to most The Reasons of both Pag. 183 Chap. 16. How the knowledg of blessed Interest in God may be attained Desires to have the question determined A spirit free to yield to the determination Arguments proper for the deciding of the question Those that have an Interest in God are much in holy resignation Of taking answers when they are
God and if once the Devil get the possession and can back thy spirit he will ride thee post into the pit where there is no bottom and from whence there is no return I will shut up all with that expression of God in Isai 17.11 Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy Salvation and hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy strength therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants and shall set it with strange slips In the day shalt thou make thy plants to grow and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish but the Harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow You may in your forgetfulness of God enjoy your desire trim up this world to your own contentment and make all your ways like pleasant walks in delightful gardens you may make your paths to be as fruitful fields But what shall the end be When the Harvest comes in the appointed time thereof there shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow If you would have a Harvest of Rejoycing if you would reap that which may be the Refreshing of your Souls if you would not sow gall and wormwood for you to reap hereafter take heed of betraying your selves into a forgetfulness of God THE Principal Interest OR THE Propriety of Saints in God DISPLAYED In several Discourses upon MICAH 7.7 My GOD will hear Me. CHAP. I. Interest in God the true Spring of Consolation How it is Propriety with Community Best because God is best by a Confluence of all Excellencies THE Church was now sad and there was cause enough for God frown'd upon her If she look'd upward she saw God displeased if downward there was nothing but violence one devouring another with the tongue and with the hand And therefore she makes her retreat unto God Therefore because men are so injurious so false so treacherous therefore I 'le look to the Lord. It 's an excellent spirit which is in the Saints that the world knows not of they make such Therefores such Conclusions as the world is not acquainted with The froward man says Therefore I 'le do so too the politick man says Therefore I 'le be wise and look to my self the good man says Therefore I 'le look to the Lord. Observe how the evils of this world put the Saints upon the improvement of their power with God and how the sight of propriety in God gives strength and life to the spirits of Saints I 'le look up I 'le wait for the God of my Salvation my God will hear me That which I am to speak to then is That the sight of God as our God is that which lifts up our heads and chears our hearts against all discouragements and carries us through all difficulties and whatsoever is dismall When a man can say God is mine that man shall live when nothing else lives I 'le give you some few Foundations of this The first thing I 'le instance in is That this propriety of the Saints is a propriety with community there is much in that In 1 Cor. 1.2 Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours The force of this lies thus That which serves for most is best The Sun is better then a Tapor because that serves all the other serves but one or a few A Spring is better then a Cistern because all my drink of that but few of the other That which all want is best Universal want argues that thing which we need to be universally good That may be wanting to one man which another wants not A Mariner may want a rudder or a sail which others want not but all men want bread That thing is good to him but this is good to all This Propriety therefore being with Community to wit that God is not my God alone but of all the Saints in Heaven and in Earth and of all the Angels this shews that a Propriety and Interest in God is the best Propriety Hence it is that the Saints having their portion in such an one are so refreshed and their comforts much advanced because they know that others drink of the same River of Life together with them Secondly This Propriety is in that which is best by a Confluence of all excellent things As for example Love Goodness and Kindness there is none like that which is in God here it is transcendent You may reason so not only from what God is an infinite Being but from what God doth Look on those high operations of his Wisdom and Power you shall see they are clear demonstrations of his Goodness the most excellent things have flowed from thence Pardon of sin Peace that passeth all understanding and everlasting life these have flowed from this Goodness God in his Love hath gone to the utmost to set it out He never intended so full a demonstration of his Power as of his Love Therefore though he hath not gone to the utmost of his Power yet he hath gone to the utmost of his Love It 's Love that passeth knowledg all knowledg Eph. 3.19 It 's possible to imagine how some things in the Creation might have shewn forth more of the Power of God as if he had made men equal power with Angels c. But it 's not devisable which way there should be a greater demonstration of his Love then he hath shewn partly in what is the enjoyment of his Saints in this world but principally in that which he hath promised in the other Now where the greatest Goodness and Love is an Interest in that Person is most precious and excellent There is in God a descending Love You shall seldom find that love in a child carries that worth and excellency in it as the Love of a Father doth because descending love chiefly seeks the good of another ascending love seeks our own good The love of God greater because descending love Further There is not only Goodness and Love in God but Wisdom also for the managing of these this adds to the Propriety The best Prince may not have wisdom enough to know all his Subjects but God knows all his as Christ saith Joh. 10. I know my sheep and am known of them He that tells the stars and calls them all by their names knows every one of his and their cases he knows what fears what wants what pressures what straits they are in The Lord knows how to deliver the righteous out of all their troubles 2 Pet. 2.9 Again He is present with all his all things in the world are confined and limited God only is every where The Sun reacheth to the whole Hemisphere But Gods Power is infinite and himself omnipresent He fills Heaven and Earth He is not confin'd to any place or limited within any bounds Therefore to have a Propriety or Interest in this
God must needs be a very great Refreshing and Consolation CHAP. II. Interest in God of a perfect extent to all in God Gods love lasts is not broke off by offences is not hindered by distance Interest in God effectual to all good ends Divine friendship not burdensom THe Propriety that the Saints have in God is perfect I mean it extends throughout to all that God is Among friends and acquaintance this is the Law their friendship reacheth to some things not to all but the Interest of the wife and children reacheth to the full compass of the husbands estate Much more our Propriety in God reacheth to all that God is As the Law of Communion between the Father and the Son was this John 17.10 All mine are thine and thine are mine So is the Law of the Interest between Christ and his people 1 Cor. 3. ult All things are yours because all is Christs If there be enough in God for the spirits of just men made perfect whose capacities are greater then ours if there be enough in God for Angels whose capacities are greater then theirs if there be enough in God for Jesus Christ whose capacity is yet far wider if there be enough in God for God himself then there must needs be satisfaction to a man If he can say that God is his God he needs no more this will content and fill his spirit Fourthly This Propriety is that which will hold out All our interest in men and things is very fleeting experience shews it the Anchor comes home again because the ground was not firm All friends are but like flowers in the hand they are mine now anon they are good for nothing and are no bodies You have this given as a reason why we should not trust in Princes in Psal 146. Because they pass away and their thoughts perish What ever they intended and had contrived for your good all dye with them The Israelites that found favor in Egypt for Josephs sake suffered when another Pharaoh arose that knew not Joseph But if our friends live nothing is more common then to have an eclipse and a damp brought upon the love of friends But Christ loves to the end and if he loved his people when he was in this world how much more doth his love continue now he is in the other world Because here his love met with many difficulties but there he hath nothing hard to do his work lies plain and easie before him The affections of men are subject to a natural I may call it an unnatural mutability which is not only a torment to others but to themselves for that man that changeth his heart suffers as well as he from whom his heart is changed and this is help'd on by many things 1. By offences that ripen and quicken that fickle mutability of this poor frail mortal changeable creature Man You shall have him now like the Sun in his full shining and anon some cloud of offence darkens all his love We were the unhappiest creatures that could be if God should be so to us but he hath expressed himself in Isai 55.7 that he will abundantly pardon and that he will multiply pardons 2. Distance many times takes off the edg of love and friendship among friends friends oftentimes dye one to another while they live The child sometimes is forgotten of his Father and the wife of her husband But the eye of God is ever upon us and we cannot but be satisfied in his love whose eye is ever fixt upon us as you have his promise in the last of Matthew Lo I am with you always to the end of the world 3. There is a love that is fastened only by a short relation as between the Master and the servant and those that are in a Brotherhood for a time when the term of years is out that relation ceaseth But it is not so between Christ and the Saints In the fifth place This Propriety that the people of God have in him is most effectual because there is neither want of love nor power in God In Isai 48.14 All ye assemble your selves and hear which among them hath declared these things the Lord hath loved him he will do his pleasure on Babylon and his arm shall be on the Caldeans Whether we understand it of his love to his people or of his love to Cyrus it is not much material as to the setting forth the efficacy of this Propriety If we understand it of his love to Cyrus who perhaps was yet a stranger to God that notwithstanding this he would do so great things as he had spoken for him how much more effectual will his love be to those to whom he is engaged by relation He will stick at nothing because his love is so great no offences shall hinder because he hath engaged to pardon You are sure to speed when you come to God they that see this their Propriety in him therefore must needs rejoyce Sixthly This Propriety in God is not onerous and burdensom Indeed our relations to men and our propriety in them is oftentimes costly and not without charge can we either preserve or act our friendship toward them We usually lose by receiving A man accepts a benefit and loseth his liberty as a wise Heathen once said A man by his engagement is put oftentimes upon hard services he is made to do every thing that receives every thing the more you take from a friend the more he is discharged and he things he owes you the less and that you owe him the more But indeed whatsoever God doth is an engagement upon him to do more for you Expressions of friendship from friends come many times mingled with much bitterness harshness and rigidness But when God dischargeth the part of a Father and a Friend he doth it like himself it comes pure like water out of a pure fountain no sadness no bitterness mingled with it He doth it with all his heart as in Jer. 32.41 I 'le rejoyce over them to do them good and with my whole Heart and with my whole Soul Oh when kindness comes so it comes sweetly What refreshing is it then to Beleevers in all their conditions to look upon divine Love that 's sweet and clear and pure All these joyn'd together make but one head of Arguments from that Excellency that is in God CHAP. III. Saints engaged to live upon God by the Law of Nature Love and Judgment Spiritual Relation is mutual True Resignation hath Conscience with Love A divine Power in and over Saints The grace and peace of Saints furthered as they mind their Interest in God ANother Argument is this We have nothing else to live upon we must either live here or no where If we live not upon what we have in God we are dead men for God is our life The life of every creature is maintain'd proportionably by a threefold Law 1. Some by the Law of Nature so fishes live not
but he loseth so much of his own life because they are one therefore crossness and untowardness between them strikes them dead In unequal relations the inferior is more dependant and so should be more subordinate In the relation between the father and the child the child is the lower part and lives more upon the father and therefore ought to live more according to the Father according to his Will or else he acts against himself he offends his father to his own hurt And the goodness of Superiors is of greater influence and force then that of Inferiors Take a child in the goodness of a child be it never so high that cannot work so much to the good of the father as the goodness of the father doth for the child The love goodness and mercy of God who is infinitely greater then we is of unspeakable influence to our good and therefore to be tendered and preserved Sin in the nature of it is a violation of the Law that is of the Will of God the effect of sin is a provocation of wrath and anger Hence it is that the Wise-man speaks so in Prov. 8. He that sins against me wrongs his own Soul He offers violence he spoils his own Soul he becomes a robber of himself The nature of sin aims at the destruction of that against which it is set although it do not attain this effect because of the power of him against whom it is for it 's a denying of all that God is as that he is infinitely wise infinitely good c. Therefore the Apostle speaks of some in Tit. 1.16 that profess they know God but in works they deny him how is that that is by their works they declare that they do not acknowledg him as he is Men therefore that seek not to please God do no otherwise then as if men in a Ship should with Axes or such like Instruments seek to cut holes in the Ship wherein their lives lie To act therefore against God is to act most desperately against our own good and by this we see how we are engaged to please him Again take this in that God will more easily be pleased with his people then with others therefore they are the more bound He takes that well from some hands that will not pass from others It is true we are all under one Law and Rule God did not destroy the Law by taking his people into a Gospel state but established it nay the Law binds more then it did before only as the binding power of it is encreased so the rigor of it is abated that is the terms of obedience required are changed God said before If you do not this and this and every thing to the height of it you shall dye but he doth not hold his people to those terms now that we are reconciled to him all is due that is commanded but he accepts of what we can perform so that here is the difference The Law speaks to one sort to those that are in the flesh that are out of Christ as in Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the Law to do them To the other sort whom God accepts in Christ he speaks as in 2 Cor. 8.12 He accepts according to what a man hath if there be a willing mind Now if less will pass with God and be well taken from thine hand then from others thy sin is greater then others if thou dost it not Further You are engaged much because you have had tastes of the sweetness of walking with God This is that which made that aggravation of their sin which God hath said he will not forgive Heb. 6. That they had tasted of the powers of the world to come But it 's a greater engagement to have a taste of God himself then to have a taste of the things of God to have a taste of that excellency and goodness that is in him is far a greater bond then to taste of all his favors Nay you have had a taste of the bitterness of wandering from God and neglecting him witness the blows and stripes of your own spirits and the frowns of God upon you How hath your unwary walking led you into a wilderness of darkness and fears and will you yet sin thus against God Have you not said in those dismal days as in Hos 2.7 I 'le return to my first husband for then it was better with me then now And have you given your selves to God again and again and do you now neglect him Will you not endevor to fulfil your promises Mark how God carried himself to his people that neglected him Jer. 2.20 Of old time I broke thy yoke and burst thy bonds and thou saidst I will not transgress thou saidst thou wouldst not but thou didst for under every green tree and upon every high hill thou wanderest playing the harlot Yet I planted thee a noble vine How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me It is a dangerous thing to break promise with God he will plead your own words against you That then is one main Consideration why such as plead an Interest in God should labor to walk in all pleasing to him from that Engagement that lies upon such to God A second Consideration is this Otherwise you will weaken the comfort of your hope and expectation in prayer How can you rationally with any satisfaction to your own spirits expect that God should fulful your will that are not willing to fulfil his How dis-ingenious and base is it for a man to wish in his heart that God would act so as to please him when in the mean time he is not careful to please God It doth horribly impose upon God it argues a most vile and base spirit it imposes upon Gods Wisdom upon his Goodness and indeed upon all that God is and God takes it very ill to be thus dealt with as he expresseth himself Mic. 3.11 The heads thereof judg for reward and the Priests teach for hire and the Prophets divine for mony yet they lean upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord among us none evil can come upon us What followed Therefore Zion for your sakes shall be plowed like a field God will not be so put off This sin borders upon that in Deut. 29.20 If any man say I shall have peace though I walk after the imaginations of mine own heart my wrath and jealousie shall smoke against that man and I will strike out his name from under Heaven You come to me saith God and say O Father arise and save us in Jer. 5.3 but you do all the evil against me that you can or as some read it you do evil and you can or and you prevail that is Whereas before I told you how ready I was to do you all good you have now so tempted me and provoked me with your sins as to prevail with me
house made a shift to live on husks and such trash for a time so do many now but the day will come when God will take these husks away from you wives children pleasures and estates and what ever it is that gives you some refreshment in this world and then you will be left worse then nothing you shall neither have God nor the world Yea such a necessity there is to look after this that you have indeed no true interest in any thing till you get aâ— Interest in God though you think you have That man that hath not God hath nothing it is most sure for he is under sentence A condemned man loseth all his estate Men will perswade themselves they are Lords and that they have this and they have that but indeed they have nothing what they have is but prisoners allowance something is allowed to condemned men till the stroke comes and this is the case of all men that have not God for their God Know also that a man is not said to have any interest in any thing that doth not add something to him if it be not something that contributes to his well-being A man doth not reckon his sickness diseases pains and such evils and miseries to be his interest in these things no man accounts of it is unhappiness Whatsoever adds not to a man stands for a cypher is nothing Interest in nothing is nothing That which we claim Interest in must have some good in it to give out unto us But now the real good of a man is no way promoted by any thing while he lives without God in the world It is the priviledg of Saints that all things work together for their good Rom. 8.28 And it 's as true otherwise that nothing works for the good of those that love not God Children and estate may tend to the goodness of one mans condition there may be good working out of them to one man and yet may prove to the hurt of another as the best good may be evil to this or that man to a man that is under the Curse all turns to bitterness and death The truth is that which kills life doth less hurt the senses then that which only destroys the peace and rest of a man A man feels more by a stroke sometimes then he doth by a Consumption or an Apoplexy That which destroys most effectually is oftentimes least felt and therefore what men feel not because of their outward enjoyments they consider not they lay not to heart But if God be your God then all is yours 1 Cor. 3. Then comes an Interest in all As he that marries the heir becomes Lord of the estate servants and cattel and lands are his he commands all the family So if God be our God the whole Creation becomes ours Men come to have much by coming to God The Apostle gives some account of this in Heb. 12. where he saith We are come to Mount Zion to the City of the living God to an innumerable company of Angels to the spirits of just men made perfect c. We come to all these to communion with these when God becomes ours We begin therefore at the wrong end when we seek any thing in this world and seek not God first for saith Christ Mat. 6.33 Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be given to you When therefore you seek estates and the accommodations of this life and do not indeed seek to make God yours you act very crosly to your own good There is a simple necessity to look after this for besides what hath been said you all live and are in a state of absolute dependance upon God who hath the power of life and death we are all in his hands and that Key by which he shuts and none can open you shall see put forth one day when you shall know what a loss it is to miss an Interest in him who hath all power in Heaven and in Earth That 's one thing which should make us serious to get an Interest in God that it 's simply necessary CHAP. VIII Interest in God most attainable Goodness and Fulness the Springs of Communication Desire easily and with most success revealed to God Poor strangers impotent persons not bar'd from God as from men Interest in God incomparable in the enjoyment A Second Argument is That it is an Interest most attainable for it is Goodness and Fulness by which we come to have Interest in any thing these are the Springs of all Communication between one and another and where these are greatest there is a wider door opened a fuller easier and sweeter entrance into Communion and the enjoyment of each other It 's the nature of goodness to be communicative and the more goodness the more ready to communicate Look through the whole Creation and you shall find it so that as any Creature is more noble and excellent so it is the more hospitable and bountiful the more ready to give out it self The Sun the Air the Sea how liberal are they Things of a more confin'd and straitened nature are but like a small Cottage into which one or two or a few may enter but it cannot give habitation to many But as Creatures abound in the goodness of God and his fulness they become like a stately Palace that gives open ready and liberal entertainment to many Now God is greatest in all Excellencies and therefore his Propensions to Mercy and Goodness towards his Creatures are unspeakably unconceiveably greater then any Propensions in the Creature can be In these two Glories God infinitely transcends all Creatures in the glory of his Being and the glory of his Working Nothing more sets out God and exalts him then his readiness to do good and communicate himself to his Creatures He hath said It 's a more blessed thing to give then to receive Indeed it 's sometimes a more blessed thing to give then to have and enjoy Take one that hath great power to do good and no love what is he but like a meer Iron Chest a Fountain sealed Now God is most ready to do good it 's his glory It 's said in Prov. 19.23 That the desire of a man is his kindness The desire of a man that is that which is most to be desired the most precious thing in a man that thing which makes him desireable that renders him glorious and beautiful is his kindness that he is a kind man such an one wears a Crown and Garland upon his head This Crown God wears above all the desire of God is his kindness And to make it yet more apparent that an Interest in God is most attainable Consider That by which we come to have an Interest in another is usually the manifestation of our desire with the tender of our love and affections to him and this is best done and with most efficacy with God for the breathings and operations of a mans spirit lie
more open to him then to any creature One may wish good-will to another and may want skill to make his mind known but you cannot have an ingenuous and hearty wish in your Souls O that God were my God! but he hears it and knows it He hears spirits and reads spirits as we do words In Psal 138.9 My groanings are not hid from Thee If thou lovest God and thine heart be towards him he needs no Interpreter or Spokes-man to tell him what thine heart is The Apostle saith He knows the meaning of the spirit When it can but sob and sigh within it self O that God were my God! he knows the meaning of that language Rom. 8.22 When Christ asked Peter Lovest thou me Lord saith he thou knowest that I love thee Add to this That there cannot be that assurance of speeding upon the manifestation of our spirits to any as there is with God I may make my mind known to another for the enjoyment of his friendship yet I may fail and come short of it but now if I come to God with an ingenuous and sincere desire to have God to be my God I shall not fail in that You seek many things in vain but God never frustrates his poor people in their desires after him He crosseth them in many of their other desires but never in that If he be so good that he satisfies the desire of all things of every living creature as in Psal 146. much more will he satisfie desires after himself for these are from his best love they spring from his own bosom and he 'l be sure to bless them they shall attain their end Other desires may be satisfied with other things if you cannot have one thing another thing may serve you in its stead if a man cannot have this friend he may have another But we must either have Gods love and his friendship or we dye for ever He hath engaged himself that those that thirst after him shall never go without him the word stands upon record the Lord Jesus Christ spake it from his Father Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied in Mat. 5. And let him that thirsteth come in Revel 22. Indeed these desires are given not only to be as a byass or principle of motion in our Souls after God but are planted in our Souls as indubitable pledges of his love and of his habitation there Other things are first desired and then obtained but God is first ours before he be desired Divine love works downward it begins in Heaven and that Communion that is wrought between God and us begins in himself and from himself He loves first and speaks first and our love is but the answer of his love If we can say to God Lord I am thine this is but the eccho of what he hath said first I am thine So in Zech. 13. latter end I will say saith God Thou art my people and they shall say Thou art my Father Oh this assurance of obtaining mercy with God for poor thirsty Creatures it is the honey and milk of our Souls our greatest joy and the satisfaction of our spirits in this life They that seek God shall glorifie him If they seek once the next thing is praise their hearts shall live for ever The manifestation of this grace mercy and goodness that is in God is the life of such as seek him In Isai 38.15 16. What shall I say he hath spoken to me and himself hath done it I shall walk softly all my years in the bitterness of my Soul O Lord by these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit so wilt Thou recover me and make me to live He speaks of Gods goodness appearing to him in that act which was not a single but a compound act and it was not a meer natural good but a spiritual and inward communication of himself it took him much What shall I say I shall be at rest as one quieted and satisfied in spirit after my bitterness I have had sorrow but now I have seen the love of God towards me I rejoyce I was tumultuous before and unquiet and unsatisfied but now I shall be satisfied Hitherto you have been looking upon the feasibleness of this Interest that no Interest is so attainable as Interest in God And if you will look once more consider how many bars there are to our Interests with men and you shall see how these things that are such impediments with us are of no force with God Many times a poor man a begger one in rags knows it would be his happiness to have an Interest in such a Prince but how shall he come at it In Prov. 14.20 Solomon tells us The poor man is hated of his neighbor he is afraid if he should ask something of him he should burden him Nay he is hated of his Brother and though he speak with intreaties yet he is answered roughly What thou a Begger and come so boldly to ask of me And yet we that are but poor beggers and in our rags may have free access to God In Prov. 19.7 it is said All the brethren of the poor do hate him how much more will his friends depart far from him But God turns not back our prayers though we be poor and miserable yet our Lord Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call us Brethren Heb. 11.6 Strangers have a bar in their way Come to a great one I know you not saith he I never saw you before what have you to do to come to me Therefore Ruth was much taken with the kindness of Boaz because she was a stranger to him What are we but strangers and aliens afar off and yet he rejects us not when we come near him God will not say to men I know you not though they have been strangers except when they come too late In Luke 13.25 saith Christ Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you shall seek to enter and shall not be able that is they seek too late When once the Master of the house is risen up and hath shut the door if then you come and say Lord Lord open to us he will say I know you not But seek him while the door is open while he may be found and he will be ready to receive you Impotent persons that are fit for nothing how shall they get an Interest in great ones What can he do say they though it be but for a servants place What would become of us if God should put that question to us He receives us when we are good for nothing fit for us Nay when we were Enemies then he was reconciled to us Rom. 5. Now then you see that God hath received such persons indeed be never receives any other So that upon all accompts an Interest in God is more attainable then any other Interest That 's a second Argument I
59.2 saith God Your sins have separated between me and you Certainly God leaves us very frequently and sometimes when the manifestation of his love is very needful In Micah 3.4 the time was an evil time and saith the Prophet Then shall they cry unto the Lord but he will not hear them he will even hide his face from them at that time A fourth Consideration is That we do not seldom or not a little reject the testimony of God and oppose the light and the clear manifestations of his Love to us The Comforter comes many times but that may be said of us that he said of himself in Psal 77. My Soul refused to be comforted would not be comforted As against the conviction of the Spirit in wicked men there is a great deal of contest a great fight as in Jer. 2.34 Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the Soul of poor Innocents I have not found it by secret search but upon all these Yet thou sayst Because I am innocent surely his anger shall turn from me I say as wicked men rise up in opposition to the conviction of the Spirit so good men likewise have their oppositions against the consolations and comforts of the Spirit not only against the counsel of it but against the comfort of it In Isai 49.13 you have an instance of this see how sweetly God speaks Behold these shall come from far Sing O Heavens and be joyful O Earth and break forth into singing O Mountains for God hath comforted his people and will have mercy upon his afflicted But what saith the Church But Sion saith The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me What ever God said yet she said God had forsaken and forgotten her A like instance you have in Lament 3.45 There are strong holds in our spirits against the inward comforts as there are against other operations of the Spirit and it requires the mighty power and operation of God to settle our hearts in peace as well as to convince us of our miseries and dangers The work of Conversion is quickly done because it is of greatest concernment I 'le give it you in this simile A mother finds her child among devouring Hogs or Dogs or what you will she makes haste to snatch her child out of danger but he is all bemoiled and dirted and his clothes she makes not so much haste to get him clean and to put other clothes upon him So God quickly finisheth the work of Conversion and Regeneration he makes haste to free us from danger and misery but he makes not such speed to comfort us and to establish our hearts in the assurance of our Interest in him that may be done at leasure As there is a reluctancy in us against the work of grace so there 's a reluctancy against the testimony of grace we are apt to turn all that God speaks and doth for us against our selves the reason is because dejection is most natural to us considering the state of our Apostacy and what we are judged to A slave doth naturally torment himself with fears and with sad expectations It 's easier to us to believe the sentence of condemnation then of Justification Sin is more visible then Grace The greatness of the things promised are such that they make the Soul at a stand To have pardon of sin to be adopted to be raised from the depth of misery to such a state of blessedness this makes the Soul to be like those that dream Besides there is a concurrence of forreign power to heighten all this CHAP. XI Encouragements to endevor the clearing of our Interest in God Love cannot hide it self Love will not deny what may be easily granted and is much needed A Second Argument is taken from the encouragement we have to put us on to put this out of question that God is ours Certainly there is more ease in this then we are willing to beleeve I speak it to the glory of God and our shame That the things which God hath spoken and done for our encouragement should be so great and high and yet we should lie so low in the satisfaction of our spirits about this question First Consider whatsoever excellency there is in any love that is in Gods love transcendently Love is very fruitful it brings forth much for those towards whom it is set it will not be hid it is compared to fire which is known by its heat and you shall know the warmth of love where it is A man may use the words of Solomon Prov. 27.16 which he speaks concerning the froward woman Whoso hideth her hideth the wind and the ointment of his right hand which bewrayeth it self That as the wind cannot be concealed when it is up and as a sweet ointment cannot be concealed but it will discover it self so wrath and love for there is the like reason for both they cannot be hid A friend is contented not to have his beneficence known he would do much more then his friend should know of but he would have his benevolence his love and good-will known and manifested Therefore the Apostle Ephes 3.8 10. saith He obtained this grace to shew forth among the Gentiles the unsearchable Riches of Christ Near relations live upon the manifestation of love those which are more remote need less and less is due to them The child will have but an ill life unless he have the light of his fathers countenance The husband and wife will have their life imbittered if there be not mutual love As life is visible so is love it will discover it self and the highest love will most discover it self A second Encouragement is That what may be easily done may be easily obtained of a friend What is more easie with God then to make us know that he is our God It is but one beam of light from Heaven that doth it but a word spoken Soul be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee Love stands not at small matters especially great Love The Love of God is the highest Pattern of Love and the most glorious Spring of Love all Love flows from it Therefore if the love of a creature can do so much how much more will the Love of God do If your child should beg of you to give him a good look could you deny him would not your love constrain you And shal not the Love of God much more Certainly it is more for him to love you then to tell you he loves you He hath put forth his love already in a strange way to give his Son for you and do you think he will be so unwilling to speak a word of peace to his people where it is duly sought Again where a thing is most needed where one stands in much need of what a friend can do for one that will be soon granted What do you need more then refreshment of spirit in the sense of the Love of God All the fears
and tremblings of the hearts of his people are for want of the light of his face Pharaoh's daughter looking upon a strange child found her bowels and compassions moved within her Do you think Gods compassions are not richer and fuller to his own A child sometimes may complain but it 's not to the honor of his father My life is uncomfortable because my father loves me not shews not his love to me though perhaps there be cause for it And there is cause that God should deal so with us but he hath said he will not If we turn from the evil of our ways and repent he will multiply pardons Isai 55. Again A thing that may be easily done will not be denyed when it 's asked when it 's not only what we need but what we beg This Christ shews in the Parable of the unjust Judg. Importunity will move a stone how much more will the affectionate tears of an ingenuous child move the compassionate heart of a tender father A third Encouragement is That this is simply necessary to the right fulfilling of the Law of our Relation and to the enjoyment of the priviledges of it What is thy relation to God but of a child to his Father What Law lies upon a child but to obey and that not as a slave but with a filial spirit How can you be cheerful in your work when you have this cloud upon your spirits this pang upon your Souls I know not whether God be my God Again The Law of a child is to live a life of cheerful dependance upon his father But how can a man live thus upon God when he doubts whether God be his or no How can I be confident to receive great things of a stranger much less of an Enemy But God appears in these forms to me so far as he appears not to be my God Again This Law lies upon a child to live with cheerfulness of heart upon his fathers fulness This the Scripture calls for We are to rejoyce and rejoyce evermore and with all joy Colos 1.11 and in the worst times Account it all joy when you fall into divers temptations Jam. 1.2 I 'le add but this That those desires that are after God after the knowledg and assurance of his being our God are from himself God hath planted them in us and God hath invited called and set us a longing and a thirsting after him And will he tell us of a Fountain of Life and not let us drink of it Will he call us to himself and when we come to him will he hide himself Certainly we are very much mistaken when we go to God to beg this grace to have our Souls refreshed with the sight of his Love if we go ingenuously with a cheerful resignation of our selves to him if we go not with a cheerful expectation that God will hear our prayer CHAP. XII They are not right who are careless to clear their Evidence Wisdom and Love make the Saints seek after full satisfaction Two sorts of Content in the want of God A Third Argument is this If you seek not and that industriously and in earnest to put this Question out of question you are not right It 's an Evidence against a mans sincerity and his real fellowship with that invisible world when he is not careful to know what Interest he hath in it The Saints desire nothing more with them there is nothing above the Love of God that they seek and nothing beneath it that they can rest in Whom have I in Heaven but Thee and there is none in all the world that I desire in comparison of Thee Psal 73. David had whatsoever the heart of man could desire in this world he had all sorts of accommodations and contentments and yet he was still athirst till he could come to the Well-head and drink of the Water of Life He was painfully athirst in Psal 63. There are two great Springs of these desires and tendencies of Soul after God 1. A spirit of Wisdom that represents God as he is in that amiableness and glory which takes them it represents him in goodness and greatness as one in whose hands all things are so that nothing is concluded to be of that concernment with them as to have God to be their God They that know thy Name will put their trust in Thee Psal 9.10 2. The second is a spirit of Love The Saints have their hearts knit to God there is nothing which they so much prize as him they are taken with him above all things therefore cannot be content without him their desires after him are infinite till his infinite goodness fills up their whole capacities and leave no more place for hope till he hath blessed them with the full enjoyment of himself You know Reason in things of importance will not be easily satisfied While we are in any doubt we have no rest Men must have things cleared to them that are of weight and much more should they in this which is the greatest of all They say and cannot but say as David doth in Psal 86.17 though his own spirit often told him that God was his God yet he looks up to Heaven and saith Shew me a token for good And so in Psal 80.3 Cause thy face to shine upon us and we shall be saved The shining of Gods face puts a man into a state above men and Devils and all things Love is both eager in the prosecution of its end and very curious in its judgment It is eager in the prosecution of its end it will not be easily put off it finds out its Object and knows it and will not take a shadow for the thing if it be not satisfied it rouls restlesly and sinks and dyes in it self like Noah's Dove that fluttered up and down the world but found no rest for the sole of her foot It is death to the man that loves God not to see that God loves him They therefore are not right they are not Believers in earnest there is not a through work upon their spirits that can dally with God and be at rest when they are not clear in this that God is their God There be two very great Evils in this thing 1. That such a man lives in contempt of God This is contempt to be content to be without God That which I know not to be mine I am without That which I know not to be mine is as if it were not if I be content therefore to live so that I know not God to be my God I am content to be without God There is a contentment that is opposed to murmuration to froward perturbation of mind and fretting this must not be no not in the midst of clouds and darkness and in the depth of our disputes about this great thing Whether God be my God and my sins pardoned and whether my Soul shall be saved And in case I be not satisfied in the thing
to unbelief perplexity and dissettlement While unbelief works in us it must needs be that there will be a great want of that through knowledg of Interest Another Cause of this great misery of man is That Gods communications of himself to us and entertainments of us are not always in intelligible forms so that we cannot presently take them up and understand the meaning and good-will of God in them The fault is in our minds The print is good but cannot be read because the eye is dull and dark Sometimes God comes to us wrapt up in Clouds and indeed he varies his dispensations that he may attain his End His End is this that he may work his people to a strength of Faith and Love mixt with Fear that 's the proper constitution of a Christian and the truest temper of one that is marked out to eternal life Therefore God sometimes displays his greatness in the sight of his people far above all the manifestations of the sweetness of his mercy that the spirit of a poor man is overborn shakes and trembles at the presence of God So it was with Moses Heb. 12.21 The sight was so terrible though God meant no ill to Moses that Moses shakes and quakes for fear he was sore afraid Sometimes God comes with the manifestations of his fatherly displeasure and dislike and then how can it be but the Soul must dwell in bitterness mourning heaviness and trembling must needs possess us A third Cause why so little is known of this Interest that God is our God though he be so is our unhappy diversions We are oftentimes turned off from that one thing necessary and our spirits run otherways out of light into darkness Alas Solomon minded not this matter or to little purpose when he poured out his Soul after vanities and for this God pleaded with him 1 King 11.9 that he had departed from him The Lord was wrath with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel who had appeared to him twice CHAP. XVI How the knowledg of blessed Interest in God may be attained Desires to have the question determined A spirit free to yield to the determination Arguments proper for the deciding of the question Those that have an Interest in God are much in holy resignation Of taking answers when they are given THese things being premised now I come to shew you how we may attain this blessed knowledg that God is ours and so quiet our hearts in this assurance that he is our Portion First Let it be the true desire of thy Soul to have this question determined and concluded that God is thy God Certainly many are careless concerning this business that never much debate the matter whether God be their God or no. Others there are that have care enough but it is a perplexed care a care sowred with unbelief there is a desire indeed raised but it 's mixed with perturbation the Soul is indeed in motion after it but it is a very disorderly motion working with fretting and such disturbing fears that they leave themselves without judgment Exod. 6.9 It is said concerning the Children of Israel that when Moses spake to them they would not hear him for their anguish of spirit and for their cruel bondage for the shortness and straitness of their spirits Fears do straiten Secondly A second Means is this Come with a spirit free to yield to the determination of truth one way or other take your answer from God as he shall give it Certainly there are a generation that know that they are very partial and foolish in this business that fly from the decision and determination of this question from a secret strong suspicion that all is not well with them and therefore they will rather flatter themselves with the uncertainty of their own estate then affright themselves with the clear knowledg of their unhappy condition As a guilty prisoner fears to think of the time of Judgment because he knows there is just cause of suspicion that it shall go ill with him Poor man what shall it profit thee to carry things thus If God be not thy God what hurt is it for thee to know it He that lives thus refuseth the judgment of God and as much as in him lies hates the judgment of God There can be no greater evidence of a right spirit then for a man to put the question home whether God be his for that man is not willing to be the Lords that is not willing to have it determined whether he be his or no. Some again are so possessed and overcome with fears so ready to self-condemnation to what ever may afflict and oppress them that they wrap themselves up in thick clouds lest any light should spring forth upon them These are like unjust Judges that are precipitant in their proceedings that hear only one party It is a dangerous thing for a man to mistake in Judgment as the Wise-man speaks concerning Civil Judgment Prov. 17.15 He that justifies the wicked and condemns the just even they both are an abomination unto God You displease God and sin against Truth and Righteousness when you bear down your selves and pronounce a sentence of death upon your own Souls when God hath passed the sentence of life and peace upon you You cross the design of Jesus Christ which is a design of love and peace You offer violence to that light reason and spirit which God hath set up in you You tempt God to say as you do and to make good your words Be therefore willing to hear what God shall say to you as they in Acts 10. said to Peter We are all here ready to hear the things that are commanded thee of God Thirdly A third Means is To proceed and argue by proper Mediums by such Arguments as are proper to the Question Some work themselves into a good opinion by false discourses concluding upon insufficient grounds that God is their God either from an empty appearance of good or else from a real presence of the life of such things as may flow from other principles then the spirit of Adoption as the fear of God mourning for sin subjection of spirit to the Commands of God which things indeed are good but may flow from another spring then the spirit of Adoption But if you would conclude in a right way of reasoning that God is your God argue then by such things as are proper to that state and relation wherein you suppose your selves to be toward God and that is in one word a spirit of true Love You shall find that working thus it will carry thy Soul in propensions towards God equal to thy consolations The Soul that loves is carried unto God with desires equal to its refreshings yea and more for when it cannot taste the comforts of the Almighty yet it is carried after him in desires and saith Lord I will love thee though thou wilt not love me This love
course What unspeakable effusions of inward refreshing have you found upon turning of your spirits unto God upon the very cast of your eye upon the Father of Mercies Alas for those poor Souls those wandering Beggers even all men that do not come in and that have not God for their God in Christ It is pity and grief to see what a poor life they live and they know it not How do they sweat and toyl for that which they never get They get but the image of what they aim at For what do they work For life they think but they work themselves out of life not into life they are knocking always at that door where nothing is where vanity and emptiness dwells they are digging pits that will hold no water they are seeking grapes on thorns and figs on thistles But this way is sure and sweet you are sure to find and your sweetness is as well in seeking as in finding Let Christians then endeavor to live this life How can we without shame complain that we are dead and broken in spirit that a weight lies upon our Souls that we are empty when life is so near us when the Well is not deep and we might take of the water of Life and drink freely Men will not improve the activity and nimbleness of their Souls to enrich themselves We oftentimes charge God with hiding his face from us but wrongfully he turns not away his face from us we turn from him we go out of the Sun-shine into the cold shade and then we shake by reason of cold But those looks of God which are easily had in Jesus Christ warm and chear the Soul Have not such a thought in your hearts that holy Consolations are hardly gotten You wrong the Fountain of Life if you think that you may draw and find nothing or that you may let down your bucket and bring it up empty these are blasphemies which our unbeleeving hearts form against God Certainly God is easie to be entreated and to be found of those that seek him David in Psal 32. had hard thoughts of him but when he once tryed him though he came in the blackness and dread of his Soul covered over with shame and confusion yet he found God to be to him according to all his Name and according to all his Word his tears were wiped away and his broken bones were set again and he was satisfied I would yet a little more clearly express this thing and winde up the Exhortation to its just height in two words 1. That we endevor to live this life in the highest degree that is to live very much in God not only to have a true life but a life proportionable to our relation unto him Princes should feed as Princes and their life should be like their place So should Christians have their life proportionable to what God is What God is in himself he is to us if we have accepted Salvation by Jesus Christ Meer peace is too low a temper for a Christian he is never like himself except he live in joy his principles reach to all joy and for that the Apostle Paul pray'd Col. 1.11 Saints might as well live like Princes in faith and joy as with feeble hopes some weak consolations they might as well drink a full draught as taste of the goodness and kindness of God Who straitens you What is your life but a continual espousing of your selves unto God and should not there be much joy on the Marriage day Therefore the Apostle prays in Rom. 15. The God of peace fill you with all peace and joy always All peace and always 2. A second word is That you maintain this life in every state No variation of our outward estate in this life should be any diminution of the glory of this life The rejoycing you have by Faith and spiritual enjoyments should not be dampt by any thing Is our fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Can we say so Then what should all the turnings of this world be to us How unsuitable to this Communion is it to have our spirits turned and our joys changed with outward things Suppose it be well with us in the world and we be pleased yet is it fit for the Expectants of eternal life who have also a sense of the sweetness of enjoying God to be much taken with these things Is there not a Crown prepared for us Is not God our God Can we be content to be so taken with the dishes at a feast as to forget our friend at the table and that our best friend Suppose it be ill with us as we commonly account ill though the truth is it is never ill with a good man it doth but appear ill it seems ill but it is all good and well for all is from goodness and love therefore though it be ill with us in this sence yet let us be in our own temper that is rejoyce in God Though nothing be the same yet if God be the same let us be the same Meditate upon that famous place Habak 3.17 Although the fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation This is that which God calls for that you live in him always Whatsoever fails say as the Psalmist Psal 73.26 God is my portion for ever I have a Father in Heaven and so though I find things bad enough here yet it is well it is well well above and well within CHAP. XIX Further Considerations to promote the forementioned life of its incomparable worth Those that will not live the life of Faith shall not A firm belief of the Gospel the foundation of this Life LEt us now take a few things more into consideration to promote our living in God for we have need of all cords to draw us and bind us to this life 1. The first is the unutterable difference that is between this life and any other attainable or imaginable Harken to all that can judg every thing speaks in the Case especially take the testimony of God and of those whom he hath blessed with the best enjoyment of himself You know what God saith of himself and what glorious descriptions he hath made of that absoluteness and incomprehensible goodness which is in him You know what he hath said of all things else that they are broken Cisterns Ask the Saints also and the spirits of just men made perfect take the Angels too they live in God and are confined in that life they go no further yet their confinement is no imprisonment but it 's a confinement of love and liberty it 's from the satisfaction of their Souls You know that perfect rest is from a perfection of
Thou hast made me glad with thy Countenance The sense of the good presence and favour and love of God doth fill the Soul with pleasure and when it can hold no more it hath enough Let the issue of all this Discourse be to set our hearts a longing and wishing O that I were blessed with a full enjoyment of God! O that I had as much of him as ever I shall or can have The Soul that is thus in travel travels without pain The Mind reaching after other things oftentimes out-stretcheth it self There are usually if not always pains with desires especially in desires after the Creature because that oftentimes there is a frustration of our desires or an elongation of the things the things are far off hard to come by our desires oftentimes are mute they speak not or the things that we desire know not our minds but our desires after God always speak they are open unto God he heareth their voyce All my desires are before Thee saith David Psal 38.8 and my groanings are not hid from Thee Therfore it must needs be sweet when the Soul lies thus open unto God Other desires do not assure and secure a man in the things he desires a man may wish this and wish that and go without both but the Soul that thus longs after God is instated in his wish hath a present enjoyment and certainly shall have a full enjoyment of him He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him God will hear them Psal 145.16 They that long most receive most it 's the hungry spirit that feeds best and fares best When the Church was sick of love being very much taken with what she had and much longing after what she wanted then she could say I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine his desire is towards me in Cant. 7.10 That refreshed her the Greek reads it his Conversion is towards me indeed God will turn to those that go out toward him In Isai 64.5 He meets those that work righteousness and seek him in his ways Again Consider this That longing after a full enjoyment is the natural effect of a known Interest in God Look through all the Orders of the Creation and you shall find that every thing seeks the enjoyment of its Interest Angels do Men do Beasts do they seek their own their own pastures their own young their own mates Can you imagine that we should be the Children of God and account him our Father and not long to enjoy him A child hears from his father and receives tokens from his father but he is not contented he would be with his father So it is truly with a Child of God so far as he hath received of that Spirit he longs to enjoy God Interest in God works by a power of its own and God works in it too God pursues his Interest in us to the utmost therefore he is working us to himself by all means all ways by good and evil by life by mortality and death by the senses by Ordinances by his Spirit He is always at work to bring us home that we may be in his possession and enjoy him And to make it the more full he hath appointed the breaking of these bodies that our spirits may come more full to him nay and he hath appointed a day of Resurrection that our bodies may come full to him and this is one great end of Christs coming again in Joh. 14. that we may be with him in his Fathers house If God so drives on his Interest to make us perfect with him let us drive on our Interest to make God fully ours in the enjoyment of him Lastly There is nothing to hinder in this Case that you should not drive on to a full and perfect enjoyment of him Are you full in this world should your full enjoyments of the world hinder your full enjoyments of God Is not God better then these things Are you scanted in this world The more need you have then of the fullest enjoyments of God Have you much of God You know the more what God is and can you chuse but desire him Have you little of God Then you need more and should drive on to get more Are you sure of your Interest Where Interest is most sure there is most love and where the Soul loves most thither it drives most Do you fear your Interest You have so much the more reason to seek after a full enjoyment of God to the satisfaction of your Souls What do you think should stand in the way You must part with the world What is this world to your Fathers house and to God himself You must dye What is death Cannot that everlasting life recompence you infinitely Therefore there is nothing to hinder you Then seeing God invites you and provokes you to seek more of him in this world though you cannot have all I conjure you by all the sweetness that is in God and that you have found in God that you obey his Word herein and drive on more diligently and strongly to a more full enjoyment of God FINIS PSAL. 119. vers 4. I am thine save me for I have sought thy Precepts CHAP. I. Gods Interest in man natural and acquired this latter twofold Of holy Resignation Of true and false Mourning I Have chosen this excellent Pattern to propose to you and to my self of an ingenuous spirit David a man after Gods own heart would be saved but not after the manner of the men of this world that would be saved to be their own and to enjoy themselves at their own wills but he in being saved would be Gods and at his disposing I am thine save me There are three things here that would be thought on 1. What David means when he saith I am thine 2. What the Reason should be that we should use such an acknowledgment of our selves to be Gods when we pray to him 3. What force there is in this argument to be pleaded with God I am thine save me Thine We are said to be Gods either by way of affection as the Church Cant. 2.16 I am my well-beloveds and my well-beloved is mine Or in respect of that Interest that God hath in us The Interest of God in man is upon a twofold Foundation and Account 1. Upon account of the Law of Nature the natural Law which doth set God as Lord over all and acknowledg him supreme Commander of every thing because he is the Original and glorious Fountain of all Being Upon that account it is that in Psal 89.11 it is said The Heavens are thine and the Earth also is thine as for the world and the fulness thereof thou hast founded them There is the ground of that Dominion which God hath over all things they are his off-spring things that himself hath made And in Psal 50.12 God owns himself in this Soveraignty The Heavens are mine and the Earth is mine and all that in them is
but the perfecting of our freedom Take it in this Similitude A poor woman that lives in rags hath the honor and happiness of being wife to a great Prince offered her for her now to give up her self is no way to straiten her freedom or diminish her happiness for she will enjoy her self better as a Queen then as a Begger So by resigning our selves unto God we lose no liberty nor any thing that is good but enjoy our selves in greater amplitude and fulness of all happiness So that for a man to give himself to God is self-self-love in the height of it and there is no true self-love but this for a man to think to love himself in ways of separation from God or in opposition to God is to hate himself in the appearance of love but this is true self-love that makes me give my self to God and be subject to him 3. Resigning of our selves to God is an act of the greatest joy and the greatest grief Of the greatest joy and contentment for when once the Soul is blest with such a life from above as over-powers a man and makes him surrender himself to God now he is in his first and proper Center The whole state of men out of God is nothing but a constant course of confusion and restless motion who by reason of darkness and want of judgment by reason of hardness and want of sense may think they are well may think they are at home when they are not but are like men fallen asleep in a strange place so is every man that is out of God But when the heart is brought home to God it is in its place Do you think the Prodigal had not more rest in his Fathers house then among the Swine Now a man sees what a blessed change is wrought in his condition that he is come now into a state of Reconciliation with God and of unspeakable advancement of his nature that he is advanced to the greatest freedom to the greatest honor and riches to the best life every way and so this Resignation is an act of the greatest Joy It 's likewise such a work as is with the greatest grief These two will stand together neither can they be parted every mans grief is as his joy is Consider these two things 1. That when a man is brought to God he is put into a state of Judgment and Ingenuity so that now he sees things as they are and looks upon the wrongs he hath done against God with another eye an ingenuous spirit can no more forbear mourning then a stone can forbear falling to the Center 2. Think on this also that Gods end in bringing back the creature is such as cannot be accomplished without this mourning For his end is the Exaltation of his Grace Grace is no grace to an unbroken spirit Sermons of mercy are but empty sounds to a man that knows not what sorrow is God intends to make Christ precious but what is a salve a plaister though the best in the world to a man that is whole Christ came indeed to save the miserable but that man that is not brought to see his misery and mourn over it cares not for Christ Gods end is the engaging of the Creature to himself but that man will never think himself beholding to God that knows not what he hath done against God But when he sees what a wretch he hath been and his heart is stricken within him and he lies melting in sorrow and clothed with shame before God now he thinks body and Soul too little for God now if he had a thousand lives they should all go for God now he saith What can I render to the Lord c. Gods end is to bring his people in so that they may be fast when they are in that they may not go forth again But he that thinks himself off from sins that he never mourn'd for and thinks he hath escaped evil courses that he hath not been broken for will return again A mourning spirit makes a Christian stedfast in his course and this will be a bar between him and his lust He that knows not to mourn knows nor to stand fast Certainly where there is not a spirit of mourning that man hath not resign'd himself to God to this day For that which is the principle of such self-resignation doth by its vertue also work mourning abasement and brokenness of heart If the sight of God in all his goodness be that which moves and draws the Soul as with a cord unto God that very goodness of God which is so apprehended will also break and melt the Soul In Jer. 8.6 saith God I harkened and heard but they spake not aright no man repented of his wickedness saying What have I done Every one turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel This people made many promises that they would walk better with God but being not touch'd with an effectual sense of their injurious dealings with God they repented not Therefore they returned every man to his own ways c. If any one now should say I have little of this sorrow and therefore do suspect my self I answer 1. There is a passionate mourning which lies in weeping crying and howling and this every one hath not 2. There is a mental mourning where a man sees the things to be mourned for and where he hath such a spirit that carries him against his way and against himself and is full of wishes O that I had never been so against God and O that I might never do so again and makes the Soul walk humbly it cannot be proud now nor lift up it self because it remembers what it hath been and done against God Canst thou find these things in thy self 3. Again There is a mourning of pure necessity not willingly and contentfully but so as a man cannot avoyd it God presents himself angry and shews sin in its colour and then not an Ahab nor a Judas can forbear mourning but this mourning is bitterness But true mourning is sweet sweeter then all the comforts in the world A right spirit puts the sweetness of Heaven in mourning God cannot please him better with any thing then by touching his spirit and laying it low before him If then thine heart be touched of God and thou love him and feel some meltings thou rejoycest and purst not off this sorrow but bids it welcome and when God as a Father rebukes thee thou blessest him and lovest him 4. There is a mourning that is by fits not habitual The veriest hypocrite in the world you may find sometimes in his closet before God and he will be weeping and mourning and taking on heavily by fits but take him a while after and he is like the dry ground after a Land flood hard as a stone True mourning is another frame of spirit wherein the spirit in an usual course is carried with abasement and a secret lamenting within O
further our walking with God in all holiness In the first place When a man hath tasted those comforts that flow from this Interest Sin to that man is sin indeed it 's out of measure sinful An assurance of our propriety in God represents sin in its deepest colour and causeth it with the most afflicting resemblance to reflect upon the spirit The knowledg of our pardon doth not put an end to our sorrows it rather begins them The sight of God reconciled doth not work that peace that is without sorrow but makes those streams run deeper and purer The more a man knows that he shall not dye for sin the more he is under a necessity of bewailing his sin and it 's as natural an effect of the sight of God to have the heart pierced and wounded as healed David when Nathan told him that he had sinned and when he knew that his sin was done away then was he most candid most serious and strong in his humiliation before God Those men that pretend to have their joys from their pardon and reckon God to be theirs and yet can pass over their sins with dry eyes drink their refreshing waters not from him who is the Well of Life but from beneath and are under a spirit of depravation and delusion and such a spirit as will seal them up to everlasting condemnation Nothing becomes the Saints more then mourning The proper working of love in Heaven is joy because there is nothing but good but the proper working of love here is joy with grief because though God be good to us yet we are evil against him In Ezek. 36.31 you have this expression by God himself Then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves for your iniquities and for your abominations Then When If you look in the verses before it is when God should come to do them the greatest good when he would cause his face to shine upon them and make his footsteps to drop down blessings Then saith God when I have you upon the knee and satisfied your Souls with goodness then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings that have not been good and you shall loath your selves for all your abominations The knowledg of absolution in Heaven breeds the severest condemnation in the hearts of the Saints the more they see they are accepted the more that voyce sounds in their ears Thou art comely and fair my Beloved the more do they point at their spots and have an eye upon their own spirits I am black saith the Church the Sun hath stained my beauty though God said she was all fair and comely Christ saith to Paul Thou art a chosen Vessel What saith Paul of himself all along I was a Persecutor and a Blasphemer c. He read it as if it were wrote in a table always before his eyes Not only sin in act but sin in temptation the very solicitations to sin are grievous to that man that hath received a testimony from Heaven that his name is written in the Book of Life and that God whose Name is God blessed for ever is his God and Father Remember Joseph what he said Gen. 39.9 How can I do this great evil and sin against God Above all sin in their nature as it dwells in them and acts in them incessantly and renders them in such a contrariety to the Nature and Will of God this is that which doth mightily humble and abase them not only as it is displeasing to God but also as it puts them into an incapacity of serving him and having communion with him The more sin is in us the less we see of God Matthew 5. vers 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God See him not only in Heaven but as they are pure and are sanctified as they are more filled with the spirit of holiness so they shall have clear visions of God and more full acquaintance with God here Now the assurance of our Interest in God making sin to be thus vile and setting the Soul at such a distance from it is a great furtherance to holiness It sets the judgment against it and not only the judgment for so it may be in the worst of men but it puts the nature of the man against it A child knows in his judgment he ought not to wound his father but there is something in his nature that he cannot do it besides the over-powering force of his judgment As Esther in Chap. 8.6 expresseth this natural force How can I endure to see the evil that shall come upon my people or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred See how resolution wrought with her How can I endure how can I endure to see these things So saith the Soul that hath a sight of God How can I do thus against God That 's one thing In the second place The knowledg of this blessedness that God is become ours calms quiets and moderates the heart towards all things So that there is neither that inordinacy of reaching after or holding fast these present things as there was before Besides this it works an holy contentment in our present estate an holy indifferency to any future possible condition according to the Will and Wisdom of God When once a man hath tasted of this Interest and hath seen the favour of the great God in the face of Jesus Christ he looks no more after other Lovers but shakes them off according to the measure he hath attained As in a house more noble things take place and dust and things of no value are cast out so when this Pearl of infinite worth takes place in the Soul when once a man lives in an enjoyment of God he dyes so far to all things else In Gal. 6.14 saith the Apostle having said before that Christ lived in him I am crucified to the world and the world is crucified to me The world looks on me as a dead thing with whom it would not converse and I look on the world as a dead corps and have nothing to do with it it is of no value with me When Ruth was married to Boaz she forsook the field and gleaned no more when she had got Boaz's estate she minded no more to gather handfulls of Corn by gleaning If any man saith Christ drink of these waters he shall never thirst he shall not need to dig any other pits these waters shall content him his desires shall be so confined contented and contracted to this one thing A mans interest in one is according to the person in whom it is He that hath interest in a Prince will not be drawn away by beggers When Saul had found a Kingdom he minded no more the Asses which he was seeking When the people of God had freedom to come to Jerusalem they were willing to leave Babylon This is a great piece of holiness for a man
to be separated from this world in his affections that he can steer through the world untouched that he may be in the use of creatures but not come in bonds under the power government and force of them Now when a man sees God to be his God this makes him to be as Christ speaks of his They are not of this world as I am not of this world Joh. 17. This comfort dissolves all bonds and sets free from a confederacy with other things and now the whole world is of little force with him Moses is a pregnant example of 〈…〉 this in Hebr. 11.24 By faith Moses when he was come to years or when he became great refused to be called the Son of Pharaohs daughter chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season What was the Reason The Text gives you these Reasons that he had respect to the recompence of reward at the twenty sixth Verse and because he had seen him who was invisible at the 27. Verse So that the sight of God and the sight of our Interest in him lays the world dead casts a darkness upon the glory of it and the soul is taken with nothing in comparison of him Thirdly The sight of our Interest holds the soul in bonds unto God it doth not onely bind it but hold it bound The love of Christ saith the Apostle constrains us 2 Cor. 5.14 It holds us to God that though there be something in us that makes us apt to excursions to go out from him yet we are held in by bonds of love This Interest must needs be of a mighty force to those that see it because its the highest Interest in the sweetest way God gives us such an Interest in himself as a child hath in his Father and as a Spouse hath in her husband which are Interests of greatest Love It s an Interest of constant communion there are constant effluxes out-flowings of the kindness of God upon that soul that knows God to be his which do bind him every day more and more and leave him less his own This is the nature of the Spirit of Adoption that makes a man cry Abba Father it makes him more a child as willing to acknowledg himself in that state of subordination as a child as he is to look up to God in a way of hope as he is the Father of mercies The assurance of the love of God as it comforts so it conquers the soul It doth not work it into a strange kind of mad rejoycing such as the Spirit that is gone forth begets in the hearts of many at this day who are strangers to the life of God yet boast as if they had drunk deep of the cup of consolation whereas they are loose and careless and can do all evil against God and be free from him and not have their hearts touch'd with it at all But now true Gospel comfort that which he who is the God of all comfort gives by the manifestation of himself in conjunction with the creature doth overcome the heart and put it into a willing necessity and strengthens it to walk in all well-pleasing before him so that the soul cannot go from him In Psalm 63. v. 7. David expresseth this Because thou hast been my help therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce my soul cleaveth unto thee for thy right hand upholdeth me As if he should say Thou hast done me good and thine hand hath supported me else I should fall at every step I live upon thee therefore my soul followeth after thee or is glued to thee the expression of thy love and constant goodness towards me is that which binds my soul unto thee Fourthly When a man knows God to be his God and there is no more remembrance of sin against him and that he is received into the inheritance of the Saints and of Christ himself and that God is become his Father Now all his ways are made easie this facilitates all For what are those things that are wont to burden a mans spirit in the race which is set before him It is either because there are such sad things in his way or because a man fears whether his work and service shall be accepted or because he doth not like his work or because he is not satisfied about his wages Now it is manifest that the knowledg of this that God is our God removes all these things he cannot dislike his way that sees God in it he cannot dislike that work which God sets him about he cannot but think he is accepted and that his wages is more then sufficient recompence that knows God to be his God 1 Joh. 5.3 4. the Apostle saith That to him that loves the Commandment is not grievous It is no burthen in comparison so far as a man loves so far his work is easie and sweet to him What 's the reason It s given in the next words follwing Because he hath overcome the world for there is nothing except darkness upon a mans spirit which is a spring of fear and doubt concerning his acceptance with God that clogs a mans spirit in the ways of God that sharpens and imbitters the things which we must grapple withall I say nothing can hurt him but this Now a man that sees God to be his God hath overcome the world And if his case be dangerous such wherein he is tempted on the right hand he saith with Paul I pass not I care not for all these things as Moses cared not for all the riches of Pharaohs Court And as Paul when he was tempted upon the left hand I pass not for all these things neither shame trouble reproach stripes imprisonments and the like And Esth 4.16 In that service for the people of God I see saith she it 's the will of God I should do it I le go and If I perish I perish such an impression doth the sight of God leave upon the Spirit that nothing can stop the soul in its course no more then the Sun in the firmament Others go heavy and are soon tyred as God complains in Mal. 1.13 They say also What a weariness is it that is to attend upon God in his worship And they snuff at it in way of dislike or as men that would blow away something which lies in their way and which they dislike Upon all these Considerations nothing promotes holiness more then the knowledg of this that God is ours To that which hath been said I will only add a double advantage that this assurance gives to our meeting with God 1. That it doth allay that unquietness that is ready to rise upon the thoughts of dissolution and the remembrance of that day of Doom when one word determines a mans estate to all Eternity To know that a man is going to his God and Father to be able to say as Christ said I go to my Father
this will banish those fears from the Soul and make a man to go out of the body with peace as one that knows whether he is going even out of an unquiet Sea to a quiet Harbor which he sees fair before him and where he shall be free from danger This is that which John speaks of 1 Epist 4.17 Herein is love made perfect the love of God is herein perfected hath its utmost sweetness efficacy and operation that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment It doth secure and quiet our spirits and doth answer all sad thoughts of the Soul that we may have boldness in that day because as he is so are we in this world Because as he is faithful and real in his love to us so we are faithful and real in our love to him so that there is a firm union and conjunction between God and us Another Advantage is that Assurance makes the heart to long after God and to be with Jesus Christ That most assured Saint Paul was by faith put into this temper and having a sight of those things within the vail and looking at them as before him how abundantly as one burdened doth he groan and sigh that he may be in the enjoyment of those things whereof he had a sight and hope So that it is of very great concernment for a man to know God to be his God in reference to his appearance before him at the last day My Exhortation to you all therefore shall be That you would labor to make your Interest certain that you may be able to say with Job I know that my Redeemer lives and as David in the Text I am thine A man cannot be a good man that drives not after this he knows not God at all that hath no desire of this assurance That man also what ever he knows of God is in a sad miserable and wretched condition that doubts whether God be his God that lives floating between hope and fear and yet lives without vehement desires and endeavors to have this question cleared Certainly you cannot be right if you have not such a desire of the enjoyment of this Interest to be able to say God is my God This we are to seek in truth and purity not to the quieting of our spirits only or to the indulgence of the flesh as many seem to long after the consolations of God that know not what they are but that God having so filled us we may become a sacrifice to him You must effectually prosecute this also in the utmost improvement of your might and power without ceasing till you have obtained it till you have that word sealed up in your Souls Son daughter be of good comfort for thy sins are forgiven thee lift up thy head for thy Maker is thy Husband It is the greatest folly in the world for Christians to pretend a life of faith and cut the life and sinews of just and necessary endeavors for the attaining assurance of the love of God A man should take heed of presuming upon God when he cannot say God is his God and he must take heed of pretending to live a life of faith in such a way that weakens his endeavors after assurance Certainly the same principle that carries a man from the world to God will make a man restless till he knows that God is his God and what things are contained in that Interest which things as it is a great grief not to know so if they be clouded it is usually from Gods displeasure by which the Soul is left fluctuating tossing rouling and wasting it self in anxieties clouds and perplexing doubts I say not that it 's always from displeasure because God hath other ends then he hath acquainted us withall yet I say usually it is so But as a wise father full of bowels if he be strange to his child or take any relation of love if it be clouded and darkened it usually betokens all is not well something is amiss So I say thou mayst justly suspect and take occasion to make a search what is the difference between God and thee and what is the cause of those clouds that are interposed between God and thy Soul In Isai 54.8 God tells us the spring of this evil In a little wrath for a moment I hid my face In a little wrath So that the suspending of comfort from our spirits leaving the Souls of men dubious and anxious about this great matter doth usually betoken displeasure all is not well FINIS
other life appointed for Saints The fulness beauty and satisfaction of this life How Christians offer violence to their relation IN this Chapter I would make Exhortation to all that have Interest in God to live upon it Only first I will shew what it is to live upon God as our God And it is First To cleave to God with joy of heart to live in the affectionate embraces of God in Christ and delightful conversings with him to have God for our life as it is said of Jacob concerning Benjamin His Soul his life was bound up in the life of the child Gen. 44.13 that is they had one lot if one lived the other lived their joys were the same they could not be severed or parted they were but as one So we should be towards God our lives should be so bound up in him we should be one with him Secondly To live upon God is to contract all our desires into God to have none but what are for him and according to him This is the way of life indeed when God is a mans all when the language of his Soul is Whom have I in Heaven but Thee Thus to have desires to God that he rests not in any thing beneath God nor seek any thing besides God that is to live in God Thirdly To live in a faithful real resignation of ones self unto God If you be his you know that he hath taken chosen and set apart the good man for himself Psal 4. And so must we live as sequestred persons as those that are his that as the holy things of the Temple were for no other use so must we be only for God In Hos 3.3 't is said Thou shalt abide with me many days thou shalt not play the harlot thou shalt not be for another man but shalt be unto me so will I also be for thee God will stand close to that spirit and be the comfort stay and life of it that reserves it self for him Fourthly It is to contract and draw all your expectations upon God to lay all your weight there If there be any thing thou promisest thine own heart let it be from the bosom of God if there be any answer that thou makest to the fears doubts and troubles of thy spirit let it be from the voyce of the Lord. Thus David in Psal 62.2 He only is my Rock and my Salvation he is my defence I shall not be greatly moved And he saith at vers 5. My Soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him He tells you what God is to him and what indeed he looks for from God What God is to him He is my Rock and my Salvation in God is my Salvation and my Glory he is the Rock of my strength He tells you also what he expects from God My Refuge is from him so that if I need safety or refreshing and supply of any good mine eye is upon him and from him I look for all This is to live upon God Having expressed in a few words what it is to live upon God Now take those Considerations which perswade to live such a life as this First There is no other life for you This is appointed for you to this you are called for this you are fitted Fishes may as well live in the ayr as you live in the world You may try and weary out your selves in vain but God is your life This be sure of if you neglect this life either dulness and benumedness will fall upon you so that you will grow sensual brutish and earthly strangers to the joy activity and tenderness of holy Christians or you shall fall into a dis-rest an unsufferable unquietness of spirit while you are as a rouling thing in the wind having no consistence because you are out of your place You shall be afflicted within and this will be your great evil that you lived not in God And now because you seek life in other things you shall dig for your own death And if you have any reason it will work to your own affliction vex and torment your Souls night and day because you did not walk in the counsels of the Most high and the embracements of his Love Your sweetest enjoyments will be all sowred like the waters of Jericho bitterness will be in them not to be endured Secondly This is a life that should be most pleasing and amiable unto our spirits and certainly we are dead and alienated from God if there be not an incomparable sweetness to us in it For 1. It is the fullest life The life of all other things hath something mixed with it the life of your enjoyments your pleasures and relations is a mixt life there is death in all your comforts and you taste it and are sick of it many times you know it well It is true there is nothing that God hath made and appointed for our use but brings in some portion of life our garments give a little and our food a little and friends give something but how little do all these give But now this life is all life the life you have from other things is a short poor narrow life but this life is more compleat Take the life of a man that hath whatsoever his heart can wish his comforts strike but upon his sense or at best have but some light touch upon his spirit Alas the Souls of men cannot drink at these Cisterns Life that comes from these things hath not immortality in it such things are as far from immortality as they are from sufficiency The wisest the richest and most honorable that have the fullest life dye because the life they have by such things cannot hold pace with the Soul nor communicate a life of consistency But the life we have with God extends to the whole course and capacity of the Soul it fills up every corner and leaves no want 2. It is a life that gives perfect satisfaction he can ask no more that hath it 3. It is a life that beautifies the Soul Mens complexions usually are as their dyet is Oh he that feeds on God what a rare complexion is his Soul of It makes him like to God it reduceth a Soul from a miserable separation into a blessed and orderly union Our life being in one God one Good which is all Good he that lives this life would dye ten thousand deaths rather then part with it Thou well knewest Peter what thou saidst in Joh. 6. When Christ said to his Disciples Will ye also go away then Simon Peter answered To whom shall we go Lord Thou hast the words of eternal life Whither dost thou think we can go when we knew thee not we could indeed be without thee but now we know thee whither shall we go When Nature comes to a state of Consistency it rests it seeks no more That man is in such a state that is in God that enjoys him and his Love and rests in him
he lives in an holy contentment and a glorious rest in all things that are according to God and in a hatred of all things that are in opposition to God If any thing come into the ballance with God if it be like God he loves it but if it be contrary to God he hates it having once drunk of the new wine he desires not the old harsh spiritless wine You may remember the Catalogue of Saints in Hebr. 11. when you are come to their pitch then God will be dear to you and there will be a flatness upon all things else The life of every thing is according to its compass and the thing by which it is maintained Men have a better life then beasts for they have better things to live on Princes live better lives then beggers and Angels then men because they have better things to live on Now then if your life be in God you have the best and sweetest life We judg of lives in the world by the contentment they have that live in them now in this life you find innumerable Angels the spirits of just men made perfect Jesus Christ lives this life and thinks it enough he desires no better life God himself lives this life he lives in himself Thirdly A third thing is That if you do not maintain this life you offer unspeakable violence to that blessed station and happy relation wherein God hath set you One of these two things you must needs acknowledg 1. If you live not on God God is not your portion you have not taken him for your God you have not clos'd with him and then you are undone 2. Or this must be granted If you have closed with him you wrong God and your selves extreamly because you live not on him Hath God taken you and have you taken him Hath he said to thee My Spouse and hath thy Soul said to him My Lord and my Husband And shall we live upon other things and not upon our Husband Shall the child live on strangers bread and not upon his Father Shall the son of a Prince hang as a begger upon others doors and be a stranger to his Fathers love to his Fathers house and fulness This is certain that so far as you do this you are not children but Prodigals in Luke 15. last dead and lost While you are out of God and your hearts set on other things you are in a state of dead men in an absolute indisposedness and incapacity either to the fulfilling of that which lies upon you as the Law of your relation unto God or to the enjoyment of that which is the sweetness priviledg and comfort of your relation unto God Is she a wife think you or doth she not offer violence to the Law of her Relation that refuseth bed and board with her husband You should drink water out of your own Cistern from your own Head and Spring who is that but your Lord and Head whom you have chosen God will not endure that you should wander He will hedg up your way as he speaks in Hos 2. and those hedges will teer you He is pleased with you when you lean on him and take of his Love and then his joy is fulfilled in you you do what he loves he takes contentment in it Other comforts are stoln sweet they may be in the taste but they will be bitterness in your bowels it must be so for when you live any where but in God you cross his great design which is to make himself your Center wherein your Souls should rest He hath appointed no place for thy Soul to rest in but his own bosom You despise him when you suffer the joys of your Souls to be clouded If Elkanah could say to his wife Am not I better to thee then ten sons Surely God may say much more Am not I better to thee then ten such things as these that thou art troubled at So that if your hearts go out any other way it is against all reason Christ in John 4.10 made account that the Soul hath enough that tastes of this for he saith he shall never thirst more Go no more then to the hedges and high ways thou that hast such a God and such a Friend be quiet and rest in his Love He rests in his love to you Zech. 3.17 And will not you rest in it and lie down in his arms and embracements and say It is sweet it is enough Is not he always embracing you and cheering you and holding forth the brests of his consolation to you wooing and winning you and using all means to fill your Souls with himself and to make you blessed in the enjoyment of him If then you have any fear of his displeasure if you have any sweetness and comfort of the Love of God if you have tasted and known how good the Lord is then keep fast to him and maintain your Souls in a constant living communion with him If you keep near him you shall find that there is life in him Psal 69.32 They shall live that seek the Lord. CHAP. XVIII Heavenly life nearest at hand Christians are to live up to the height of it and to maintain it in every condition A Fourth Argument is That this life we speak of is most present it is nearest at hand most attainable being wholly mental and spiritual and those works are quickest done All other life comes in by parcels and pieces If a man would live in honor what a deal ado is there what a compass must he fetch to maintain good thoughts with this man and with that man and his honor riseth by degrees The like may be said concerning pleasures and riches Nay naturally what a course doth the Soul take to bring in that meat which supplies our life in eating concocting and digesting it and carrying it to every part The labour of Nature is great But this life is maintained by a sweet and silent working of Spirit it is a life that is got kept and cherished by the sweetest actings of the Soul In Psal 63.6 saith David I shall be fill'd as with marrow and fatness when I remember thee upon my bed And in Psal 20.7 you have this exprest by the like words Some trust in Charets and some in Horses Great preparations they make but what is his trust I will remember the Name of the Lord our God This is life to remember the Name of the Lord our God It is the best exercise of the most noble part of a man towards the most excellent Object And what should we love more to look upon and to remember then God Do not you find how a few affectionate thoughts of him come down in showres of spiritual blessing and consolation Both the Goodness of God and the Love of God makes this work sweet He that seeks to live this way hath not only sweetness in his end but in the way to it Remember how successful you have found this