Selected quad for the lemma: rest_n
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A59601
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Immanuel, or, A discovery of true religion as it imports a living principle in the minds of men, grounded upon Christ's discourse with the Samaritaness : being the latter clause of The voice crying in a wilderness, or, A continuation of the angelical life / mostly composed at the same time by S.S.
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Shaw, Samuel, 1635-1696.
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1667
(1667)
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Wing S3038; ESTC R35174
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154,749
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423
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to bribe Gods justice or engage mens charity to purchase favour with God or man or his own clamarous conscience but he prays because he wants and loves and believes he wants the fuller presence of that God whom he loves he loves the presence which he wants he believes that he that loves him will not suffer him to want any good thing that he prays for And therefore he do's not bind up himself severely and limit himself penuriously to a morning and evening Sacrifice and solemnity as unto certain rent-seasons wherein to pay a homage of dry devotion but his loving and longing Soul disdaining to be confin'd within Canâ—nical hours is frequently soaring in some heavenly raptures or other and sallying forth in holy ejaculations He is not content with some weak assays towards Heaven in set and formal Prayer once or twice a day but labours also to be all the day long sucking in those Divine influences and streams of grace by the mouth of faith which he beg'd in the morning by the tongue of prayer which hath made me sometimes to think it a proper speech to say the faith of Prayer as well as the prayer of faith for believing and hanging upon Divine grace doth really drink in what Prayer opens its mouth for and is in effect a powerful kind of praying in silence By believing we pray as well as in praying we do believe A truly godly man hath not his hands tyed up meerly by the force of a National Law no nor yet by the authority of the fourth commandment to keep one in seven a day of rest As he is not content with meer resting upon the Sabboth knowing that neither working nor ceasing from work doth of itself commend a Soul to God but doth press after intimacy with God in the duties of his worship so neither can he be content with one Sabboth in a week nor think himself absolved from holy and heavenly meditations any day in the week but labours to make every day a Sabboth as to the keeping of his heart up unto God in a holy frame and to find every day to be a Sabboth as to the communications of God unto his Soul Though the necessities of his body will not allow him it may be though indeed God hath granted this to some men to keep every day as a Sabboth of Rest yet the necessities of his Soul do call upon him to make every day as far as may be a Sabboth of communion with the blessed God If you speak of Fasting he keeps not Fasts meerly by vertue of a civil no nor a divine institution but from a principle of godly sorrow afflicts his â—oul for sio and daily endeavours more and more to be emptied of himself which is the most excellent Fasting in the world If you speak of Thansgiving he do's not give thanks by laws and ordinances but having in himself a law of thanksulness and an ordinance of love engraven upon and deeply radicated in his Soul delights to live unto God and to make his heart and life a living descant upon the goodness and love of God which is the most divine way of thank offering in the world it is the hallâ—lujah which the Angels sing continually In a word wherever God hath a tongue to command true godliness will find an hand to perform whatever yoke Christ Jesus shall put upon the Soul religion will enable to bear it yea and to count it easie too the mouth of Christ hath pronounâ—'d it easie Mat. 11. 30. and the spirit of Christ makes it easie Let the commandment be what it will it will not le grievous 1 Joh. 5. 3. The same spirit doth in some measure dwell in every Christian which without measure dwelt in Christ who counted it his meat and drink to do the will of his Father Joh. 4. 34. 2. And more especially the true Christian is free from any constâ—aint as to the inward acts which he performeth Holy love to God is one principal Act of the gracioâ—s soul whereby it is carryed out freely and with an ardent lust towards the object that is truly and infinitely lovely and satisfâ—ctory and to the enjoyment of iâ— I know indeed that this springs from self indigency and is commanded by the soveraignty of the supream good the object that the Soul eyes but it is properly free from any constraint Love is an affection that cannot be excorted as sear is nor sorâ—â—d by any external power nor indeed internal neither the revenues of the King of Persia or the treasuâ—es oâ— Aegypt cannot commit a rape upon â—â— Heb. 11. 26. neither indeed can the soul it self raise and lay this spirit at pleasure which made the Poet complain of himself as if he were not sole Emperour at home Non amo te Sabidi nec possum dicere quare c. Though the outward bodily Acts of Religion are ordinarily forced yet this pure chast virgin-affection cannot be ravished it seems to be a kind of a peculiar in the soul though under the jurisdiction of the understanding By this property of it it is elegantly described by the spirit of God Cant. 8. 7. if a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be contemned It cannot be bought with money or money-worth cannot be purchased with gifts or arts and if any should offer to bribe it it would give him a sharp and scornful check in the language of Peter to Simon Thy money perish with thee love is no hireling no base born mercenary affection but noble free and generous Neither is it low-spirited and slavish as Fear is therefore when it comes to full age it will not suffer this Son of the Bond woman to divide the inheritance the dominions of the Soul with it when it comes to be perfect it casteth out fear sayes the Apostle 1 Joh. 4. 18. Neither indeed is it directly under the authority of any law whether humane or Divine it is not begotten by the influence of a divine law as a law but as holy just and good as we shall see more anon quis legem dat amantibus ipse Est sibi lex amor the Law of Love or if you will in the Apostles phrase the spirit of love and of power in opposition to the spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1. 7. doth more influence the godly man in his pursuit of God than any law without him this is as a wing to the Soul whereas outward commandments are but as guides in his way or at most but as spurs in his sides The same I may say of holy delight in God which is indeed the flower of love or love grown up to its full age and stature which hath no torment in it and consequently no force upon it Like unto which are holy confidence Faith and Hope ingenuous and natural Acts of the Religious Soul whereby it hastens into the Divine embraces as the Eagle hastneth to the prey swiftly and speedily
finite can grasp a finite Being and enjoy it as I may say all at once A man may come so near to his friend that he can come no nearer enjoy him as fully as he is capable to enjoy or the other to be enjoyed Created sweetness may be exhausted to the very bottom But the souls communion with God dos not give it any such satisfaction though indeed in some sense it gives a satisfaction of a much higher and more excellent kind I told you before that the souls communion with God is imperfect in this life and therefore it must needs follow that it cannot satisfie that is not terminate and fill up the desires of it Communion with God is maintained by faith and love as you have heard which proves it to be very sweet but it also admits of Hope which proves it to be not satisfactory For where there is yet any place left for hope there is no full or satisfactory enjoyment This may serve as a certain note whereby to judge of the truth of that communion with God it is not glutting to the soul but will certainly manifest it self in incessant hungrings inter opes inops the soul is in the midst of plenty and yet cryes out as if it were ready to starve for want When I consider the temper of some perfectionists who cry down duties and ordinances as low and unprofitable rudiments and boast of their full and inaccessionable attainments and compare it with the temper of the great Apostle who did not reckon that he had attained but still followed after that he might apprehend who forgot the things that were behind and reached forth unto those things that were before pressing towards the mark c. Phil. 3. 12 13 14. I am ready to cry out Aut hic non est Apostolus aut hi non sunt Apostolici But an Apostle he was and had very intimate communion with his Lord and therefore I confess I cannot allow these men so high a place in my opinion as they have in their own God is infinite and therefore though the soul may be ever grasping yet it can never comprehend and yet the soul finds him to be infinitely good and so cannot cease grasping him neither The godly soul sees that there is yet much more to be enjoyed of God and in him and therefore though it be very near to him yet cryes out and complains of its distance from him Oh when shall I come and appear before him though it be united to him yet it longs to be yet more one with him still to be in a closer conjunction The godly soul forgets with Paul what it hath received not through disingenuity and unthankfulness but through a holy ardour and covetousness All that he has of God seems little because there is yet so much to be had Though the godly soul do drink of the fountain yet that is not enough it would lye down by it though it do lye down by it yet so it is not satisfied neither except it may bath it self and even be swallowed up therein Behold a Paradox the godly soul is most thirsty though according to Christs promise it thirst no more it is most restless though according to his promise it have rest It is proper to God alone to rest in his love for the creature cannot in this imperfect state By this we know that we are not yet in Heaven for it is a state of perfect rest not sloth or cessation but satisfaction Faith is the Feaver of the soul rendring it more thirsty by how much the more it drinks in of the Water of Life the living streams that flow forth from the Throne of God and of the Lamb. As the Waters of the Sanctuary are described by the Prophet growing deeper and deeper Ezek. 47. so hope which is the souls appetite grows larger and larger and cannot be satisfied till the souls capacity be filled up The Doctrinal part being thus briefly dispatcht it will be easie to inferr some things by way of corolary I shall content my self with three only amongst many 1. All wicked men are strangers to God We know indeed that God according to his infinite essence is present with all his creatures not only men but even devils too have their being in him he hath spread his omnipotence as the foundation whereupon the whole Creation doth stand he reared up the world in himself and in him it doth subsist at this day However Angels and men have sadly fallen from God yet they may be truly said to live in him still and although all wicked souls do straggle off from God as to their dispositions and affections ingrafting themselves into another stock by sin and wickedness yet they cannot possibly straggle from him as to their subsistence as the Apostle teaches the Athenian Philosophers Act. 17. 27. He is not far from every one of us though few feel after him or find him And it may be truly said in some sense that all the Creatures yea the very worst of them have a communion with God all partake of him no creature hath any thing of its own really distinct from him Every thing that hath a Being hath a relation to that infinite and supream Being and every living thing may be rightly said to have communion with him who is life it self And all those several excellencies that are in the Creatures are effluxes from God who hath derived various prints of his own beauty and perfection upon every thing that he hath made Gods making of a thing is no other than the communicating of himself thereunto And therefore when you look into the world do not view any creature in the narrow point of its own Being but in the unbounded essence of God and therein love and admire it But upon the immortal soul of man God hath coppyed out his Divine perfections more clearly and gloriously than upon any other Creature in this world God could not make a rational soul without communicating of his own infinite wisdom power life freedom unto it so that there is more of the Divine nature to be seen in the understanding and will of any one man than in the whole fabrick of Heaven and Earth Notwithstanding this wicked men are strangers to God They live and move in God indeed but they know it not they consider it not they act as if they had no dependance upon him no relation to him Though they have some kind of communion with God as Creatures yet this makes them not at all happy for they are departed from God in their affections and dispositions they have degenerated from that subserviency and subordination to the Divine Will which is the proper perfection of the creature and are alienated from the life of God as the Apostle speaks Eph. 4. 18. It is not the souls moving in God that makes it truly and happily nigh unto him but its moving towards God as the chief object and according to the will