with a petition in one hand and with weapons of defiance in the other hand Wilt thou come to God with the face of a Petitioner and with the spirit of a Rebel What infinite boldness is this with God I have before shewed you the horridness of this kind of prayer and the horrid things that such prayers impose upon God But consider further whilest thou retainest a resolution and bent of heart set towards thy sin and yet wilt pray thou art in a necessity of sinning do thou what thou canst If thou dost not pray thou sinnest by breaking of a Law of Nature which enjoyns the creature to acknowledg his dependance upon his Maker by prayer and supplication If in the day of thy distress thou comest to ask mercy thou sinnest more So that thou art as a Ship between two Rocks that must needs perish upon one there is no escaping so is thy Soul in the midst of sin and to be in the midst of sin is to be in the midst of death And thou every day makest thy condition more unhappy that wherein thou blessest thy self and rejoycest thy prayers are so far from being any reasonable relief unto thee that they are matter of amazement and astonishment to a man that rightly understands What have I done may such a man say I have been with God and mock'd him to his face I have called him Lord but I am not his servant but serve my self and divers lusts I called my self his Subject but I am a Rebel Nay this is a blaspheming of God Men commonly are afraid of blasphemy but thou that comest to God praying but sinning that is having thy heart upon thy evil ways thou that comest praying but not yielding thou blasphemest God to his face thus to make thy self equal with God is blasphemy it was so judg'd in the heart of that people Joh. 10. but they mistook in the Case But when thou makest thy self the chiefest of thine own affections thou makest thy self equal with God whose priviledg and supremacy it is to be chiefest in the affections of his Creature and to have the highest superintendency over the spirits of his people to command them Nay thou makest thy self greater then God because thou thinkest it nothing to transgress to offend and offer violence to his Commands but thou takest all pleasure and contentment in gratifying thine own wicked spirit Thou makest that greatest to which thou most yieldest when thou then yieldest unto sin and leavest God hast not thou made thy self greater then God Very high dishonors are offered to God in such a course past expression Mark that in Mal. 2.2 If you will not hear and lay to heart to give glory to my Name I will even send a curse upon you If you will not hear and yield your selves to my Commands to give me glory As if he had said If you will not acknowledg me to be what I am but deny me if you will not submit to the Authority and Wisdom of my Commands I 'le send a Curse upon you And by this means thou dost as thou canst destroy that which doth only difference thee from Devils for the Devils are cast into that condemnation which shall come upon the world but Man hath a possibility to escape Now thou dost what thou canst to make thy Salvation impossible and to fasten and tye up thy Soul to the condemnation of those apostate Angels whilest thou refusest to turn unto God from whom thou hast departed and dost not acknowledg the grace and mercy of that open door for poor creatures to return again to the God of mercy And be sure of this If you be not the Lords the Lord will not be yours You have such a passage They are not mine break down their bulwarks I 'le take no knowledg of Jerusalem because she takes no knowledg of me What a thing is this that God stands with both hands to give out mercy to the Creature as it is said of Wisdom Prov. 3.16 Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour and that the Creature shall bend both his hands against God Such a passage you have in Micah 7.3 Men do evil with both hands earnestly Now then consider how much it concerns every one of you that have not yet given your selves to God to do it now What an unhappy creature art thou if God shall shut out thy prayers when straits fears and death come Thy prayers are no more then the howling of Dogs and Wolves because thou prayest to God and thy spirit is not given up in obedience to him I shall now turn to those who have given up their spirits to God You must do it still when you come to God Faith and Love which are two fundamental graces of universal influence to all the rest are to be continually used and acted Others are to be acted upon occasion but these have their constant work every day these must be acted When I say that upon our coming to God there must be a giving up of our selves to God I mean these three things 1. That there must be a willing and hearty acknowledgment that we are Gods and not our own We must see the bonds of God upon upon us and like it and own it we must hate all other freedom that is offered us we must account it true bondage and be glad that such a day is come wherein God took us out of our own hands and hath taken us into his Psal 119.106 I have sworn and will perform I confess Lord that is my hand and my bond I will not for a thousand worlds go back Certainly there should be no other spirit in you when you come to God but to acknowledg your selves to be his and under his Commands a Christian cannot but do it Partly because he sees his happiness lies in this he sees in his coming again to be the Lords there is a restitution of all that blessedness from which he fell by his Apostacy By becoming Gods he sees that God also is become his How may the Soul raise it self in joy when it can say this God is my God all he hath and is is mine he is mine to all Eternity The acknowledging of this engagement wherein he stands to God and of Gods engaging of himself to him is all his happiness from whence springs all his power and confidence in prayer I can go boldly saith he to Heaven because God is my God I can go and ask all things because he is mine and I am his Partly also because he loves him with a love of complacency the Soul hath all contentment in him Never did a spouse speak to her husband whom her Soul loved to the highest more willingly and say I am thine then the spirit of an upright man saith to God Lord I am thine And he loves him with a love of thankfulness Hast thou given thy self to me saith he and shall I then withhold
given Pag. 190 Chap. 17. What it is to live upon God as our God No other life appointed for Saints The fulness beauty and satisfaction of this life How Christians offer violence to their relation Pag. 199 Chap. 18. Heavenly life nearest at hand Christians are to live up to the height of it and to maintain it in every condition Pag. 208 Chap. 19. 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 Pag. 214 Chap. 20. Our Apostacy hath made us unapt for divine Life and Converse with God through a Mediator and willing to conform to the lowest Patterns Pag. 222 Chap. 21. Several Questions concerning the forementioned Doctrine answered Saints not always equally strong Some afflictions sweetened more then others Sometimes God will have his Rod smart Pag. 230 Chap. 22. How it comes to pass that deformities creep into the Conversation of Christians since they have so high a principle of life Whence it is that those which enjoy not God seem to go through afflictions with strength Pag. 239 Chap. 23. A Comparison of Interest and Enjoyment and the excellency of Enjoyment evinced from Interest What is requisite to make full Enjoyment An affectionate Close to all the foregoing Discourses Pag. 251 III. Treatise on PSALM 119. vers 4. Chap. 1. Gods Interest in man natural and acquired this latter twofold Of holy Resignation Of true and false Mourning Pag. 1 Chap. 2. The Will of God is the Bounds and Rule of a Resigned Spirit Pag. 21 Chap. 3. Resignation necessary in Prayer Prayer without it hath no truth in it is non-sence and imposeth upon God absurdly The true Advantage of a spirit of Resignation as to Prayer Pag. 34 Chap. 4. Wicked mens prayers not to be dreaded The sins of those that pray greatest Some out-live the contests of the Spirit Three things to be still done by those who have resigned themselves to God Pag. 41 Chap. 5. The knowledg of Interest in God doth much further our approaches to God It begets propensions carries the spirit in a due frame fits it for all divine determinations Pag. 67 Chap. 6. How the knowledg of divine Interest doth promote Holiness sets Judgment and Nature against Sin keeps the heart from inordinate reaching after and holding fast present things Faith binds the Soul and keeps it bound makes all a Christians ways easie Assurance gives a double advantage to our great meeting with God Pag. 82 THE FIXED EYE OR THE Mindful Heart PSAL. 25.15 Mine Eyes are Ever towards the Lord. CHAP. I. Eyes of Saints set upon God In what sence Ever and how many ways THis Psalm is a Psalm of speciall excellency and hath this mark on it that as some others its form'd in Verses of it according to the Hebrew Alphabet David was a man of a heavenly spirit and truly he breaths much life in every word This Psalm is a Prayer David complains of Enemies good men shal never want them but this is their advantage that as the world wil be sure to be their enemie so God wil be more sure to be their friend He had one to go to and could tel him how it was with him and how men dealt with him and that 's but a bad business to the world but it s a great relief to the Spirits of the Saints that they can go to God and speak their hearts And in his Prayer observe his spirit He doth not after the manner of the world breathe out Affections moved meerly from the smart of the stroke without sense of the cause but cries out more of his sin then of his suffering and speaks more against himself then against his enemies and begs more that he might walk in the sight of Gods countenance and have his favor then to be delivered from his enemies And as all Prayer the more spiritual the more argumentative it is Prayer that is full of Affection is full of Arguments so this But while David was drawing down mercy upon himself he was catcht up Love fires in Prayer His Faith is quickened in Prayer and then Love 's inflam'd In the midst of his Prayer he breaks out and tells God in the words of the Text that his eyes were ever towards him While he was begging the eye of God toward him he tells God Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord. Ever You cannot understand that actually and uncessantly his thoughts and heart were towards God and his mind taken up with him for by the necessity of this life and the Law of it he was sometimes to be taken up with other things But when he says Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord he means these three things 1. That the disposition of his Soul was such that he could be always looking upon God he could wish that when he is departed out of himself and got up that he might never come down more and never have any other work in the world but this to behold God Thus always is taken in the Scriptures In Acts 10.2 Cornelius is said to pray always that is he had a disposition his heart was ready to pray always Acts 7.51 It 's said of the Jews They were stiff-necked and hard-hearted always to resist the Holy Ghost this was their temper like a stone that resists the hand of the workman takes in no impression but is wholly shut up to it self 2. When he saith Mine eyes are always towards the Lord he means this That upon all occasions in every condition in all places his eyes were towards God In Luke 18.1 Christ teacheth to watch and pray always that is upon all occasions when ever Prayer is called for watch to see the season and have your hearts open Making mention of you Always in my prayer saith the Apostle Rom. 1.9 and not seldom elsewhere that is as I have occasion I do intercede for you as I pray for my self it s my dayly work So in Psal 88.9 Every day will I praise thee Psal 145.2 Every day will I bless thee So here Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord that is it 's my every days work 3. Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord that is continually it is not only my ordinary work and dayly course but it 's a work that shall last while I live a work for life 2 Sam. 9.10 David saith concerning Mephibosheth He shall Always eat bread at my table that is while he lives he shall sit at my table And in Psal 146.2 While I live he speaks in the sence of the Text I will praise thee So that now here you have the temper and practise of a godly man his eyes are Ever toward the Lord. The Text holds forth these three things to us 1. What it is upon which the eyes of Saints are set upon what they are terminated upon God 2. Their great diligence and assiduity in this work
and our Redeemer thy Name is upon us See what a conclusion here is made Doubtless thou art our Father and therefore we call to thee for help 3. There is this encouragement and strength that the spirit of a man receives in thus arguing with God that if he can say in truth I am thine God much more will say to the creature I am thine If we have so much love to offer our selves to God to become his much more will the love of God make him to become ours for God loves first and most and surest If mine heart rise toward God much more is the heart of God toward me because there Love is in the Fountain CHAP. IV. Wicked mens prayers not to be dreaded The sins of those that pray greatest Some out-live the contests of the Spirit Three things to be still done by those who have resigned themselves to God NOw I come to the Application Vse If there must be such a Resigning of our selves to God when we come to him then truly you need never fear the prayers of the men of this world assure your selves they wish you as much evil as it is possible and their hearts cannot love you they envy all your welfare and the constant vote of their spirits is that your day were turned into night and that in stead of light darkness should be round about you but it matters not though they put up such prayers to God they are but bruta fulmina The reason of it is because they come to God without that which is the nerves and sinews of prayer If they come to God and bow the knee before him that God would bless them and prosper them poor Creatures they speak to no purpose because they deal hypocritically with God for they bow the knee and call him Lord as if he were their Lord but they do what they list and are their own Lords Rulers and Commanders Hos 7.14 God saith the people of Israel dealt so with him They did not cry to me with their hearts when they howled upon their beds and assembled themselves for corn and for wine and rebelled against me They pray that God would do so such a good turn for them but they shut their hearts against God and had a rebellious spirit at the same time Though I have strengthened their arm yet they imagined mischief against me They are no friends of my Cause and Kingdom in this world but wish their overthrow though I have shewed them mercy In Hos 4.7 8. it 's said They have set their hearts on iniquity and it shall be like people like Priests and I 'le punish them for their ways and reward them for their doings or as the word is I will cause their doings to be turned upon them Men may think when they come to God that the sins of so many years past are forgotten that God will not reckon with them for sins so long past and so they come to God in their filth and with their hearts unwashen But saith God They are deceived I will turn their ways upon them and though they be sins of so long time backward yet I 'le remember them In Hos 8.3 Israel cryed to me My God we know thee What saith God Israel hath cast off the thing that is good the Enemy shall pursue him They have set up Kings but not by me c. They say My God we know thee No saith God I 'le not know you thou hast cast off the thing that is good Mal. 2.2 3. You have God expressing himself to this purpose If you will not hear and lay to heart to give glory to my Name A man dishonors God and puts the greatest indignity and affront upon God that can be when he refuseth to hear and obey Then I 'le curse your blessings and cast even the dung of your solemn Feasts on your faces c. That 's a strange thing but it was so their solemn Feasts were as dung to God and God saith he will cast them as dung in their faces and they shall be a dunghill which my Soul abhors You need not fear the prayers of such men as are without yoke and fear not God but the prayers of Saints are to be dreaded because they have power with God if they come to God and say Save me I am thine God will answer I am thine I will save thee 2. If when we come to God we must make a resignment of our selves to God and acknowledg we are not our own but his Then we learn secondly that the sins of a praying people are the greatest sins there be no sins that are so out of measure sinful as the sins of those that pray and pray most Hath God made thee as a Prince with himself hath God set open a door that thou mayst have access to him hath he given thee leave in the day of thy straits to pour out thy Soul hast thou in the midst of those mercies in the sense of the sweetness of those visions said to God that thou art his and hast thou departed from him hast thou given to him a withdrawing shoulder as it 's said of them This sin is of the highest nature for it is a renewed Apostacy Those that are without God and Christ in the world are Apostates but it is by one Apostacy it is a continued act wherein they are held but now thou art gone out from God after thou hadst returned to him thou hast gone from the unspeakable refreshings of the Father of mercies and hast offered violence to the many engagements which thou hast layd yea which they have layd upon thy Soul thou hast broken the bonds of them all Sins after Resignation and after the matter of difference is taken up between God and the Creature are not to be easily passed over they are the worst sins Remember your selves as many as have known Jesus Christ when you said to God that you would walk with him did you mean it And hast thou fallen from the truth into a lye The world many times come to God and say many good words that they will be his but as it 's said of them in Psal 78.36 They flattered with their lips and lyed with their tongues their hearts were not stedfast in the Covenant with their God They minded no such thing but thou didst and therefore boundst thy self more thou didst intend to be bound When thou engagedst thy self to God thou didst it upon the greatest reason through the enforcement of the highest Arguments thou feltst the power of God conquering and subduing thee and thou yieldedst thy self to be his for ever And remember how often thou hast said this to God Is not the voyce of thy Soul still in his ears Doth not he remember the language thou hast uttered And after thou hast said it again and again that thou wouldst do no more so after thou hast said Thou art and shalt be my God for thee to draw back
my self from thee Hast thou who art so great done all this for me and shall I stand out against thee He will willingly acknowledg himself to be his the Saints often do this David above twenty times comes with this acknowledgment in this Psalm and in Psal 116.16 I am thy servant I am thy servant To say it once was not enough he saith it again to shew the sincerity of his spirit and to witness that his heart was fully pleased with this that he was not his own but the Lords 2. There must be a perfecting and compleating of our Resignment All beginnings are but cold yet there are some excellencies in our primitive and first resigning of our selves to God which without great wariness are not preserved till after times In the day of love when God first comes with terms of peace O how freely doth the Soul go out and how willingly doth it offer it self to him The flower and beauty of this first love how hardly are they maintained But what ever spirit there is in our first love it is certain that it 's imperfect and we therefore live to make it compleat Compleat extensively as our spirits and minds come to be enlarged in the knowledg of the Will of God as God makes himself more known I saith the Soul I will do that and that too And so intensively the heart and Soul cleaves unto God in more height and vigor of affection as it is said of Jehosaphat who walked with God before and was the Lords yet in 2 Chron. 13.6 Jehosaphats heart was lifted up in the ways of God His spirit was raised before towards God but now raised to an higher pitch and greater strength he did encourage and fortifie himself in the ways of God A third thing that must be done is this After any unfaithfulness treachery or base departing from God there must be a renovation of our Resignation We must again give our selves to him Having offered this injury to God to deny him his right we cannot again come to him but we must restore it and acknowledg our selves to be his It was good counsel given Job by that friend of his Job 34.31 Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more that which I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I 'le do no more With such a spirit you must come to God I confess I have offered violence to that right thou hast in me but I 'le do so no more and here I am a straying sheep I have a foolish rebellious heart I offer my self again to thy Government and to the Conduct and and Command of thy spirit There must be in those that have given themselves to God a resigning and giving up of themselves in prayer Consider it in vain else do we pray God hath given us leave to come to him and hath engaged himself to hear us but upon condition there must be a hearing on both sides He hath said that if any man come to him in the stoutness of his spirit he will not regard him he hath abundantly in the Scripture disliked such and their prayers he hates In Jer. 11.13 14. you have a full expression of this Concerning this resigning of our selves to God it cannot be dispensed with God hath sworn this shall be done Rom. 14.11 As I live saith the Lord Every knee shall bow before me God will have it done He hath put conditions upon prayer partly because he loves his people he knows there is no greater happiness to them then to cease to be their own and become his As a father pities his child that wanders abroad in the desart and tells him Except he will submit himself to him he will never take him into his house He doth this because he knows the happiness of his child lies in a subâ—rdination to his father Again God doth it to put his people into a capacity of having and enjoying the things they ask For what art thou fit for O man If thou comest to God as a petitioner and come with thy heart lifted up against him either the good thou desirest cannot come to thee or it will come as a rod and a snare at the best it will be be bitterness to thy Soul Consider Not to come in sincerity to yield your selves to God is not to come after the Law of Prayer When you come to ask of God God then asks of you the requests are mutual and reciprocal when you come to God it is not your business alone but God hath something to treat with you about It is fit if you ask and would have God hear you to have God grant your things but you should grant him his especially considering he is free He needs not give what thou askest but thou art bound to give what he asketh there is no proportion between that which thou askest of God and that he asks of thee God asks of thee to give up thy self and what art thou fit for A creature more contemptible then a rotten Carkass that lies in a ditch Wel saith God as bad as thou art let me have thee give up thy self to me And what dost thou ask of God Pardon and eternal life Besides God spake first You come indeed and ask but God spake first Thou sayst Lord hear my prayer but saith God My words are gone out first hear me God prevents thee with requests and hath been long waiting upon thee that thou wouldst come in and give up thy self to him Consider what it is that you come for what do you plead with God for You would have God to be yours to do you good to the utmost not to withhold any good thing from you then will you grant God this one request when you ask so many of him You ask a thousand things of God God asks but this one of you Give up your selves to him You would have God to be yours for ever if you ask so great things is it not meet that you should restore God his ancient Right Surely God is full of grace and mercy unto his people they can set their seals to this that he is a God hearing prayer See what an ingenuous acknowledgment the Apostle makes of the goodness of God 1 Joh. 5.15 We know that he hears us what ever we ask of him and we know that we have the petition that we desire of him It 's in effect as much as this we can have what we will of God You that walk with him what is it that you may not get of him You never come for any thing and go away empty he hath not denyed you even to himself therefore it much concerns you when you come to God to give up your selves to him Certainly this Resignation is a work of a sad import we must resign our selves we must be Gods we were his before this imports that dreadful violence that man hath exercised upon Gods
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
'le name one more Interest in God is better enjoyed then any other Interest whatsoever There is no Interest to be enjoyed with that sweetness security usefulness and consolation as our Interest in God is For besides that unspeakable and infinite Fulness that is in God know that this Interest is not subject to any dissolution Interest in God now is better then it was in our first estate when we came out of Gods hand All other Interests may cease If our love or others loveliness cease our Interest is gone and the loveliness of every Creature under the Sun will have an end but God abides Take a man the most wise the most learned the most amiable the richest man all these things will pass away but our Interest in God is not subject to any separation that is we shall be never from him The absence of our friends is like the setting of the Sun they are life to us in their presence but when they are gone from us they cannot help us they are so far dead to us but God is ever with us Interests with men are oft-times very exacting A man must do this and do that and much ado to please Men do tye up their Interest so strait that except things be done at this time and after this mode we indanger a flaw God doth not impose upon his people after this manner And again Other Interests are apt to be tyred and so fall into a dull sleep of mutual forgetfulness because the goodness that is in us is but little a shallow Cistern is soon drawn dry But with God there is no difficulty at all to give out love and if he spend himself never so much this way he is not at all diminished He rests in his love Zeph. 3. His joy and self-contentment is always flourishing So that as this Interest is more attainable so it 's better to be enjoyed CHAP. IX Christians ought to clear their hopes from Uncertainties Beleevers doubt through their own fault They that seek God must pursue their end THat which follows next is Exhortation That you would not only seek this Interest and get it but that you would seek to know it and to be satisfied that you have indeed an Interest in God Live not upon hopes mingled with uncertainties and anxieties Let not this suffice It may be God is my God or I hope he is but put it out of doubt Give all diligence saith the Apostle to make your Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 Sure as firm ground that you may so know it that there may be no trembling of heart about it that it may be a certain conclusion made up in your own spirits that you are the called and chosen of God For if you do these things saith the Apostle you shall never fall but an abundant entrance shall be administred to you into his Kingdom You shall never fall or as it is sometimes rendered you shall never offend So the Apostle James Chap. 2.10 He that Offends in one is guilty of all Indeed the sight of Interest in God carries a man with more evenness and strength in his way and keeps him in more compliance with and conformity unto God Sometimes the word is rendered stumble Rom. 11.11 Have they stumbled that they should fall If a man know God to be his God he walks with a more even and steady foot all his ways are more plain before him mountains of difficulty and danger will be layd level there will be nothing to dash his foot against to hinder him in his race and an entrance in abundance will be administred to him into the Kingdom of Heaven Fears and doubts straiten our way and hinder our passage to the Kingdom of God Suppose a man were to go into an house where he fears he shall not enter this would very much hinder his endevor But when a man shall have a blessed prospect into Heaven and see his place there that must needs further his more abundant and free entrance into it But more particularly that I may perswade you if God will to be very serious in this thing to make your Interest in God more certain let me tell you In the first place That no man that beleeves in Christ wants it but through his own fault I say it is a mans own fault if he be not able to say that God is his God I speak now according to the ordinary course of God demeaning himself to his people There is nothing of greater concernment either to his peoples welfare or the advancement of his own design which he hath upon them then the manifestation of his Love and the satisfaction of their spirits in that great Question Whether God be their God And that Spirit upon whom lies the Office of bringing from darkness to light hath this Office also of refreshing and reviving the spirit and therefore bears that name the Comforter He not only espouses us to Christ but maintains a perpetual entertainment that is his work He is not only the bond of our Union but the light of it by which we see our selves one with Christ and so one with the Father Many complain they find not God to be their God but it is not because God is not willing to shew himself what he is but because they are wanting to themselves There are two great faults that oftentimes wrong us and keep us in the dark and make that seem a secret which otherwise might lie open to our eyes One Error concerneth seeking Some never put their Interest in God to the question Some seek not at all and never put the question whether God be their God but run the hazard live and dye venturing their Souls to Eternity Others complain they seek but they cannot find fain they would be satisfied in this thing but they cannot Now I say the complaint must fall upon our selves there is perhaps a fault in our seeking This is the word that must stand fast for ever God will be found of them that seek him In Jer. 29.13 Then you shall find me when you seek me with all your heart To seek with all the heart is not only to seek truly and sincerely some seek but in words only making verbal prayers without any inward sense but to seek him strongly above all things and not only from an ardent thirst of spirit but to seek him without ceasing till we find him In due time we shall reap if we faint not Gal. 6. The Rule of Scripture you know is this that we pray incessantly 1 Thes 5.17 Mark that in Hos 6.3 After two days will he revive us and in the third he will raise us up Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord His going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come unto us as the rain as the former and latter rain unto the Earth If you follow on if you follow the business you shall obtain God hath
was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant It was an usual thing with this people to come in their troubles and distresses and say Arise O Lord and save us and we will walk with thee but they did lye with their lips and flatter God with their false and dissembling words and minded not what they spake but were Deceivers Further When a man comes to God upon any occasion as a Suiter not giving himself to God he speaks no sence at all his prayer is a piece of non-sence there is no judgment nor reason in it but a heap of contradictions and folly If any should come to God persisting in the evil of his ways not having his heart set toward God to become subject to him in all things he contradicts himself praying against evil and yet loves evil We pray against a particular evil and we love the greatest evil that which is all evil and the cause of all evil What contradiction is here We pray for mercy O that God would shew me mercy in this thing and yet we shew no mercy to our selves but do that by which we weaken poyson and destroy our selves and with contentment and yet we come to God and say Lord have mercy on us This is folly extremity of folly When you come to God you come for this or that good Lord give me health or give me enlargement or supply me in my necessities deliver me from this danger c. Men come for some particular good and they hate that which is all good the chief and universal good Thou wouldst have life and health in this world but not Jesus Christ thou carest not for eternal life What contradiction and folly is this while you cry for good and hate good You walk in ways of contradiction against God and hate him in your hearts You say Lord save me when it may be you have some sense upon your spirits of the sad condition of men gone out of the world and of your own present state to be like theirs Thou wouldst have God save thee and yet thou destroyest thy self What sayst thou O man wilt thou depart from the evil of thy ways O no saith the Soul Will any man hold forth his hand to a Chyrurgeon and pray him to cure him and at the same time gash and wound himself Would any man pray to the Judg O Sir pray save my life and at the same time drink down poyson And yet this is the dayly dealing of men with God they pray to him but they are fools they offer up most intolerable contradictions to him 3. Except a man come to God with an heart submitting to him he imposeth most strange and horrid things upon God For either he saith in his heart that God knows not what his intentions are he never means nor hath an heart to forsake this or that sin which is to make him no God or else if he thinks that God knows his heart and yet he will take the boldness to come to God and cry for mercy and to be helped and relieved Mark what he imposeth upon God hereby he would have God act strangely against his own Wisdom the language of that mans prayer is Do but save my life at this time and I will sin more and more against thee Do but let me enjoy mine estate and it shall be the fomentor of my lusts and the weapons of mine unrighteousness against thee do but take off my burden and I will be like an untamed Ass in the desart God hath declared and revealed his wrath from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men that hold the truth in unrighteousness men that know what they should do and do it not yet they are so unrighteous to God and to themselves that they will not suffer this truth to work upon their spirits these men call to God for mercy when as God hath declared that he will shew no mercy to men that walk thus in the stubbornness of their hearts but that his wrath shall burn against them that he will be their Enemy and oppose himself to all their wickedness When thou knowest thy heart is stark naught and art privy to thy secret mischievous intentions unto God and to his Truth thou comest to beg of God to shew thee mercy which so much goes against his Will see what thou imposest upon the Nature of God who is most good and holy thou in the baseness and rottenness of thy heart which holdest a confederacy with sin comest to God in this infinite contradiction wherein thou standest to him and beggest of him that he will take thee into his bosom and be kind unto thee Was there ever such a request made to a man that he would take this Serpent and that Toad into his bosom I know God doth so in effect but then they cease to be such Never doth a man put up a prayer to God with a purpose of continuing in his sin but he imposeth a strange thing on the Will of God Micah 3.11 It is said They build Zion with blood and yet will they loan upon the Lord. And you have a pregnant example Jer. 3.5 6. Wilt thou turn when we cry to thee my Father will he reserve his anger for ever Here is a great sense of evil but saith he Thou hast spoken and done evil things and at that very time was the hearts of this people set against God when they came beging praying and crying that God would help them and shew them mercy That shall suffice for the second thing Why when we come to God we must come with resigning of our selves with a hearty giving up of our selves to his Commands and in all things to be disposed of by him A third thing propounded was What Argument this is or wherein the force of it lies that we should plead this with God Save me for I am thine There is a three-fold strength in this Argument 1. The Law of Nature which obligeth a father to be good to his child the husband to his wife c. And God hath subjected himself more unto the Law of Nature he lies more under it then any of these and doth more perfectly fully and gloriously fulfil this Law of Nature then any ther is no father like him no friend no husband like him Can a mother forget her child can she Yet I will not forget thee Isai 49.4 A mother can hardly do it Nature teacheth her to have bowels and a merciful remembrance toward her child much more will I saith God 2. When we can say to God I am thine we plead the Covenant that God hath made with us wherein he is become our Father and Friend And this is that which was pleaded in Isai 63.16 Doubtless or surely thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledg us not because they are gone and so have no cognisance of us now yet Thou O Lord art our Father
receive only but to give Thou hast promised to be his make good thy word Thou didst say in thy distress I am thine Lord save me say now in the day of thy deliverance I am thine Lord for Thou hast saved me CHAP. V. The knowledg of Interest in God doth much further our approaches to God It begets propensions carries the spirit in a due frame fits it for all divine determinations THere is yet something more in the words worthy of our consideration I am thine What 's the fruits of this apprehension of God his drawing near to God I am thine save me The knowledg of our Interest in God doth much further our approaches to God Doctr. When a man is once assured and can say with a clear spirit I am thine this man is a man of prayer he is much in addresses to God and conversing with him I shall give you the sence and import of this Point in these two or three things First That when God out of his unspeakable goodness hath broke through the dark Cloud that was between him and us and hath made this good to our hearts that he is ours this begets an inclination and propension an aptness to have recourse to God and converse with him A child that knows his father though strangers pass by him and take no notice of him yet he loves to be with him and the more he hath the nature of a child the more he loves to be where his father is So much more is the conjunction of the Soul with God and the enjoyment of God the portion of a child of God there it loves to be and if it might there it would be and no where else This Interest is such that it begets desire upon desire that the Soul hath never enough of God there is a constant spring of motion toward God that makes the Soul to hang after him as after that in which its life is In Psal 63.1 saith David O God thou art my God What then Early will I seek thee my Soul thirsts for thee my flesh also longs for thee c. Such a man needs not much driving when he is himself he is drawn of God he needs not much to be driven by other things My Soul thirsts You need not force a thirsty beast to the river do not withhold her and she will run her self There needs no Law to bind a man that is hungry to eat his meat do but set meat before him and he will eat willingly he will not withhold his hands That man that hath this sealed up in his Soul that God is his cannot nor will for ten thousand worlds be held from communion with him he breaks through all things he accounts all other time but what is necessary ill spent in comparison of that time he spends with God If he were at his own choyce he would have no other employment nor be put upon any other service then to wait upon God and be wholly his An ingenuous child that carries his father in his heart though at his fathers command he be content to go hither and thither as David to keep sheep in the field yet he had rather be at home where he may speak with his father and hear his voyce and have communion with him God is so good to his that where once a man finds himself to be his he finds such streams of mercy and goodness flowing forth as knit his Soul to him When he comes to him he comes not as to a great God but as to his own Father and God entertains his not as strangers but as children with the entertainment of a Father His entertainments are so sweet that they are new invitations so that a man who hath been with God in a right spirit is not glad that the time is past but longs for that season to come again Yea God shews himself kind with the best advantage kind in great things and those things that are the very desires of their Souls those things that men cannot be without without pain anguish and bitterness of spirit those he gives When their Souls are in trouble then he easeth and comforteth them How often have his people come to him in tears heaviness and much mourning and he hath wiped away their tears and scattered the clouds that were about them and given rest to their Souls In Psal 116. I love the Lord because he hath heard my prayer and the voyce of my supplication because he hath inclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live The sorrows of death compassed me about and the pains of Hell caught hold on me I found trouble and sorrow c. The force and spirit of it is this I came to God in a sad time and God shewed me kindness seasonably seeing he hath been so kind to me I will call on him as long as I live I 'le go often to him I 'le live in the presence of God I 'le be much with him because of his kindness to me Interest will carry a man according to the worth and sufficiency that is in him in whom he hath Interest and according to his own wants and indigency Now the Interest of the people of God in God is in one that is most glorious and it 's the Interest of such as have most need None can do for them what he can do Now if a man have treasure of his own will he want will he not go to it If a man thirst and have rivers that run by him if he have springs of his own will he not drink of them So it is with the people of God when they see God to be their God they see all to be their own in God and therefore will not suffer want but will go to him Yea indeed the Interest of the people of God in God is mingled with such ingenuity and such a spirit of Love that when they have not much cause to go to God as beggers when necessity doth not pinch and enforce them then they go upon friendly visits It 's great content to a child to see his father though he ask him nothing It 's great content to an ingenuous spirit to come to God as his friend to behold him and refresh himself in that infinite glory wherewith he is clothed though for the present he be not much pinched with necessities and straits So David Psal 5.7 As for me I will come into thine house in the multitude of thy mercies In the multitude of thy mercies Not only that I will make this mine Argument which I 'le plead with thee not that this shall be that on which my Soul shall lean but even when thou art very good to me in the multitude of thy mercies towards me will I come not as others that come only when they need something but when thou art most gracious to me then will I come Thus the knowledg of a mans Interest in God works