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
ask the possession of it You cannot ask more then he is intended to give you He takes more contentment in giving I do not say then you can take in asking though that be much but then you can have in enjoying The Propriety you have in God is by a Mediator so that he by whose means you come by this Propriety hath all things put into his hand and he is in stead of God to you as it is said of Joseph that he was in stead of God to his Brethren He that hath obliged us to be whatsoever we can to those that are ours hath much more obliged himself to be all that he can for us Christ was made so great not for his own sake but for our sakes if he be set on the Throne it is for our sakes What shall we need to fear when we come to ask any thing of him He stands more obliged to us then we can be to ours because it is easier for him to do what his place calls upon him for then it is for us for the engagement is strongest where the performance is easiest and because we are dearer to him then ours are to us the dearest child is not so dear to its mother as we are dear to him and the hurt that would come to those that are beloved of God if he should fail them is greater then can come to children by the neglect of their parents Again The honor that Christ hath engaged is of infinite more concernment If a father be unnatural that is a stain upon him but what is a spot of dishonor upon a piece of dirt But if the Prince of Glory should be unnatural this would highly reflect dishonor upon him How may we walk with confidence and security and account our selves richer then Princes and stronger then Armies Though all this nothing concerns those that stand out and are as strangers and aliens that will call God Father whether he will or no that are not taught it from above but have learned it of themselves If a man cannot call God his Father and his God upon good grounds what a miserable state is that man in He is nothing he hath nothing and there is nothing between him and everlasting misery but a moment of time He goes up and down pleasing himself with vain shews pleasing himself with painted Butterflies but hath nothing to live on he is utterly unprovided for Eternity CHAP. IV. 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 Careless walking weakens hope in prayer Vse 2d IF the sight of our Interest in God be the life of Saints then let those who plead an Interest in God walk worthy of it It is precious for it is their life it is worth all that is required of you That which God calls for at your hands takes nothing from your happiness but adds much to it It is the Apostle's exhortation Col. 1.10 Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing Let me propound to your Considerations a few things to put you on to this First You are deeply obliged to please God and thereby to walk worthy of him for being in so near relation to him you have not only the portion but the spirit of children Because you are sons therefore he hath sent the Spirit of Adoption into your hearts Gal. 4. Other relations This was touched in the foregoing Sermon because they want strength are not always beautified and sweetened with a convenient spirit The relation of a husband cannot communicate a meek spirit to his wife nor the relation of a parent to the child because of their impotency their will is strong but their hand is short But God in that gracious relation wherin he stands unto his own gives them a Spirit like unto himself that so he may have Children answerable to himself and to his Will In Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his He that is joyned to the Lord saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 6.7 is one Spirit As persons conjoyned in marriage are one flesh so he that is married to the Lord that is brought into that near relation unto him is one Spirit they are one in their affections propensions dispositions and designs As we say of a multitude they are of one heart and of one spirit when they conspire in one so God and his people are one Spirit because they center in one he in governing them and they in subjection and subordination to him so one as things ruled and the Rule is one This argument the Apostle urgeth in 2 Tim. 1.7 God hath not given us the Spirit of Fear but of Power Love and of a Sound Mind He had in the words before exhorted to this Therefore saith he I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God that is in thee by the putting on of my hands But Timothy might say How can I do that Why saith the Apostle we have received not the spirit of fear but of power It is a time of danger indeed and a hard work to preach the Gospel in such days as these but he that is gifted and fitted by Christ to that work hath received a spirit of courage and power by which he is able to mannage the things that he hath received of God Then I say having received the Spirit of children the obligation lyes the stronger upon you to walk as children This is a Rule The more proportionably a man hath received strength and ability to his work the more he is bound to it therefore the more of the Spirit you have received the more you are obliged And this Spirit of Christ in his people acts according to its primitive original Pattern as it wrought in Christ so it will work in you according to your proportion This moving will be strong because it moves upon the highest grounds that which is most taking and prevailing it moves upon hopes and sense of eternal life If you walk not so as to please God you walk with much frowardness of heart and your sin is the greater It 's true though you have received this Spirit yet there is much of the spirit of this world in your hearts but this is our duty and our work not to suffer the better Spirit to be quel'd and damp'd by the other But yet again that you may see it more fully remember if you please not God you act against your own Interest and advantage for your life is bound up in the favor of God when you therefore act against God you act against your selves The Apostle useth such an argument in Ephes 5. where he exhorts husbands to love their wives for no man ever hated his own flesh He means this that they being one the husband cannot cease to love his wife
by us we bore it away stifly God found us in this state We were enemies in our minds by evil works or by our minds on evil works Col. 1.21 If a woman depart from her husband and be married to another will he receive her again saith God in Jer. 3. Yet he hath received us though we have offered violence to that Interest which he had in us upon all accounts The Angels did thus indeed but God never pardoned them when he reached forth his hand to the lost World 2 Heb. 16. He did not take hold of them he took hold of man to bring him unto repentance and so to bring him back again to his first Estate If the greater force the lesser the lesser is pitied if the lesser force the greater every one wonders at him and condemns him Oh what condemnation is this worthy of that the Creature should force the Creator and deny God that made him to be his God! And yet this we have all done Again It 's an Interest that hath suffered detriment and loss We are not what we were when we were first his At first we were a glorious structure as we came out of his hands But since we gave our selves to other Lords there is nothing but darkness and confusion and what ever is vile and unlovely in us You are degenerated saith God into a strange vine unto me Jer. 2.20 Strange that is not only new or what it was not but strange that is one that I know not that I approve not as we use to say when we are offended with one You are a strange man that is not according to mine expectation or desire So we were gone into a condition strange to God yet he hath taken us in again If a servant run from his Master and when he is become poor blind lame deformed and altogether diseased shall find re-admitance what an act of grace is this This is our case we went from God when we were well and are become altogether depraved deformed and in an absolute contrariety unto God The Father took in the Prodigal when he had spent all he gave him indeed a goodly portion but he mis-spent it and mis-spent himself yet he received him again as a Son So God hath dealt with us therefore this should be an engagement upon us to please God Again It is an Interest with charge The Prodigal when he returned had nothing to live on but must live on his Fathers alms When God took us in again we had nothing we must wholly live upon him Again It is an Interest by free choyce God takes in not all but some and what mercy is it that any of us should be of that some if any of us should make any of that few which God hath restored to favor One Consideration more is this that God will have it so If God be your God he calls for this that you be careful to please him he will make you to do it It is a most absurd thing to dream of such a state of grace that gives licentiousness to walk in sinful inordinate affections contrary to God it 's against the Wisdom Goodness and Power of God and he having Power in his hand will never suffer it Three things God will do to those that please him not 1. He will suspend the sweetness of his presence which you have expressed in the words of that good Prophet 2 Chro. 15.2 He went out to meet Asa and said unto him Now hear thou me and all Judah and Benjamin The Lord is with you while you are with him and if you seek him he will be found of you but if you forsake him he will forsake you A second thing is a denyal of success to you What you hope for shall be blasted what you desire shall be broken that which you fear shall come upon you Thus God dealt with this King Asa because to shun War he swerved from God and took a wrong course therefore saith God thou hast done very foolishly henceforth thou shalt have War A third thing is that he will deny such the testimony of his favor for want of which David in Psal 51. so complains looking upon himself as a man spiritless and forsaken CHAP. VII 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 THat which I shall next speak to in a few words is this That every one would look after the getting of an Interest in God And then that you would clear up this Interest to your own Souls that you may be able to say My God will hear me Labor for an Interest in God Nothing is more necessary for it is not here as it is in other cases if you cannot have one man to be your friend you may be without him though he will not be for you he will not be against you God stands not neuter in any state of indifferency towards his Creatures either he is with them or against them and to have God against us is the greatest evil that can be Two ways this will vex and torment the spirit 1. In respect of the sight of the excellency that God is If that be hid from our eyes now know that a day of Revelation is coming when God shall shew forth himself in his Glory and then he will appear to be what he is when there is no more hope left for the enjoyment of him Do not turn that into the greatest misery which in its own nature is the most attractive worth the most refreshing comfort and true happiness that is God The enjoyment of God in Heaven makes that life that high life that eternal life It must needs therefore be death the worst of death all death to have him against us But it is not only the Contemplation of his Nature the sight of what he is that shall afflict but his Power shall be visibly put forth against such as have neglected him and he will act against those that did not act toward him and seek to get an Interest in him Where he saith not Come ye blessed he will say Go ye cursed into everlasting fire Besides this Remember that we are made for this end to have an Interest in God and converse with him we were naturally and originally designed to this now if we attain not our end we are lost We many times make things for such ends as they do not reach but if they cannot serve one end they may serve for another but if you attain not this end you attain nothing you are lost When God made thee first he made thee in a capacity for the enjoyment of himself that capacity remains but nothing can fill it up but himself So that the spirits of men shall roar and weary themselves to Eternity in restless motion after that which they cannot attain It is true as the Prodigal when he was gone from his fathers
'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
appointed his going forth as the morning that is as the Sun riseth and fails not as the Sun goes forth in its light and grows so will Gods appearance to his people be And as the rain comes upon the thirsty Earth and causeth all things to spring afresh so shall the manifestation of Gods love be to those that seek him without ceasing What if God appear not presently and you have not that full answer to your desires Though he come slowly yet he will be sure to come his staying is not a denyal and his not shewing himself is not an hiding himself He is uncovering himself and making way for the appearance of that which you would fain have a sight of He stays a while to make his love the more visible afterward by his absence he raiseth the mind and enlargeth the heart to desire and long after his presence and then his manifestation will be fullest God is as ready nay more ready to open then you are to knock he loves that thirst in you which is after himself he loves to be loved let him be pleased as well as you It may be seeking Christians are not so ingenuous as they should be We are not to seek him only but to please him Psal 119.2 Blessed are they that keep his Testimonies and that seek him with their whole heart That seek him and his Love and keep his Law Or it may be offences have been but not bewailed Impotency is the continuation of sin You are ever doing that evil which you have not been humbled for nothing nulls it but repentance and humbling your selves in the sight of God With what face can you say to God Let thy love O Lord be upon me when as you cannot say to God Lord I love thee That man cannot say he loves God that desires not to please him Can he say his heart is with God who suffers his heart to go out after other things Why should he desire so to impose upon God that God should love him whom he desires not to love and please it is unreasonable What father would be so dealt with that the child walking in stubborn courses would have his father shew nothing but clearness of countenance and love to him David all the while he was under clouds of guilt and sorrow wished that God would shew forth the light of his countenance to him but he suffered many wrackings in his Soul till he confessed his sins Psal 32. What God hath said he will have fulfilled Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one tittle of his Promise If he hear not it is not because he is not a God hearing prayer but because you hear not him Isai 45.19 I said not unto the seed of Jacob Seek ye me in vain I the Lord speak righteousness I declare things that are right I speak as I mean my words and my heart agree in one What ever our offences have been if we be ingenuous in our approaches to God God will not look upon our offences but upon our persons In 2 Chron. 7.14 you have this promise If my people that are called by my Name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their Land If thy Soul be sick and thou mournest after God that hideth himself from thee and humblest thy self and repentest of thy sins with abasedness of spirit before him he will hear CHAP. X. 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 A Second Fault is That God doth give the manifestation of his Love and we receive it not we accept it not I will for the more full clearing of this lay down these Considerations First That God hath given to his people sufficient means for the knowledg of their Interest in him for he hath told us who they are that he loves whom he hath chosen and called out of this world and made his peculiar people If he had carried on a design of love to particular persons in his own brest no man could have known who was loved of him then we had been left in the dark for no man knows the things of a man but the spirit of a man as the Apostle speaks But as the Angel marked those in Jerusalem that were to be spared so there is a mark that God hath set upon his own by which they may be known to what fold and flock they do belong And indeed the end of the Scripture so discovering and setting forth the marks of the people of God is for this purpose that we may know our Happiness So in 1 Joh. 5.13 this was the end of writing his Epistle These things saith he have I written unto you that beleeve on the Name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may beleeve on the Name of the Son of God Wherefore was it that he had told them how many ways they might know that God dwelt in them and they in God Wherefore did he make so many descriptions of those whom God had set his love upon but that you may know saith he that you have eternal life because you are such And he hath not only done thus but hath given us understanding also by which we are able to know not only other things but our selves by which we may judg our selves and our actions and what is within us Neither hath he given us an understanding meerly natural but it is raised being illuminated with his own light that we may be able to find out the work of God in us an understanding that can reflect upon it self not only in way of simple vision and apprehension of what is within us but by way of argumentation and reasoning 1 Joh. 2.3 5. Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments And whoso keepeth his Word in him verily is the love of God perfected hereby we know that we are in him God hath given us understanding to reflect upon our selves in a way of reasoning to make certain to our selves our Interest in these things Nay he hath given us his Spirit that bears witness to our spirits that we are the sons of God Rom. 8. We must not think that was a special favor given to the Saints then but it 's common to all the people of God The Spirit of Adoption hath a double office of quickening and comforting and whosoever is a son hath the testimony of that Spirit There is a double Testimony A Testimony of the things themselves so that which is of God in us doth bear witness as the effect bears witness of the cause There 's another Testimony and that is of God himself by his Spirit and that Testimony doth help our spirits it helps the testimony of the things
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
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
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
also will work resignation of our selves to God equal to all our enjoyments and expectations from God David was much taken with Gods love to him that tendred him in his distresses but withall saith he Lord I am thy servant Psal 106. He gave himself to God in the sense of the sweetness of that mercy he had from God Yea this will exceed also for he will give himself to God when he knows not but that God hath hid himself from him This love will work equal melting of spirit with rejoycing of spirit and fill a man equally with shame and joy True love makes a man as happy in sorrowing as in rejoycing and he never more abounds in godly sorrow then when he abounds in the manifestation of Gods love to him In Psal 32. you may see how David was taken after he found mercy with God see how he breaks forth detesting his own nature and the natures of all men he compares them to the horse and mule like Asaph in another case So brutish was I and ignorant as a beast before thee Now if you would know whether God be your God what do you find of such a spirit in you Some conclude too well in a false way by false Arguments Some indeed too who beleeve conclude too ill to their own wrong by mistakes also as because they find their feet slipping and their ways not so even therefore they conclude their spirits are crooked and there is no streightness in them whereas it is not the action but the disposition whereby we should judg our selves nor is it this or that tripping that discovers a man but the inward frame of his spirit Again They conclude Surely God is not my God because I feel my love so faint my faith so feeble whereas it is not the degree but the truth of grace that must discover our estates Fourthly A fourth Means is this Labor to be more full in closing with God and in the resignation of your selves to him and in conversing with him in all delightfulness and in whatsoever it is that shews your Interest in God For as there is a light in all these by which they bear witness of themselves and of your happy state so the fuller and stronger they are the more clear full and vigorous is their testimony A tender plant newly springing from the ground doth not so well discover what it is as when it is grown up to a full body now it is easily known This is certain things are more significant as they are more perfect A little smoak discovers fire but more smoak is more full in its discovery This the Apostle Peter intimates 2 Pet. 1.9 If these things be lacking if men be but weak in these if men be not only not sound but little in these they are dark-sighted they cannot well discern things their judgments will be very much clouded and darkened in the things that concern their peace Be frequent therefore in those works that discover your Interest be frequent in conversing with God frequent in expressions of the sincerity of your Love for it is with God as it is with us discoveries of our Love make discoveries of his Love When I say to a friend Sir I love you you are dear to me and I am wholly yours his heart opens to me and there is an eccho in his spirit to my Love When you come to God and say Father I am thine and will be thine wholly thine and always thine if your Love can make you say so to God much more the Love of God will make him say so to you Thou art mine In Zech. 13. They shall say Thou art our God and I will say Thou art my people Therefore be much in this Fifthly Be true to your Interest walk with a streight spirit make streight paths to your feet for upon such shall peace be Psal 119. Great peace have they that keep thy Laws God bears the clearest testimony where there is most excellent walking Usually his testimony is according to the measure of grace as the co-operation of the Spirit also is And as God comes with the most terrible convictions upon highest transgressors so he comes with sweetest consolations to those that walk most evenly Uneven walking carries a shew of insincerity and puts a difficulty upon beleeving David had much ado in this case to conclude himself to be Gods was a shattered man and had lost his confidence The Conscience of guilt to an Unbeleever is deadly and even to a Beleever it is a wound You put a sword into your enemies hand when you walk not uprightly You arm your unbelief against your selves that is too strong without your help This is certain that no hope conquers fear but that which conquers sin for they have both one foundation If therefore now you would know and would walk in this light that God is your God then you must walk uprightly and faithfully in your Interest Lastly Take answers of Love when they are given you and keep them treasure them up as most precious things bless Jesus Christ by whom it is that you enjoy them and suffer not the great question of thy Soul to be always in agitation Suffer not thy self to be brought to endless disputes when the cause is once heard and concluded It is as well sinful to make voyd the grounds of our Consolations as to break the bonds and cords whereby God holds us to obedience You put gold no more to the touch-stone when it hath once passed the furnace you say it is gold Suffer not your selves to be tossed in whirls of amazement when God hath said he is your God It is true indeed there will be objections and they cannot be shunned they are often injected yet these things must sometimes pass undisputed Mark the season when these things are disputed in your Souls commonly at the worst season when a man is at greatest disadvantage When Job's spirit was disturbed you know what amazement he fell into and what advantage did it take of him Another season is the season of transgression The Devil so works in our unbeleeving hearts that we oftentimes put that to the question that God before hath put out of question Offences should not work in us amazement and fear of our former bondage but they should work in us brokenness and shame Lord pardon me saith David for my sin is very great The greater our transgression is the more we should have recourse to God and his goodness but by no means fly from him Certainly Gods design is to break sin by sin and his aym is to out-shoot the Devil in his own Bow Oh! they love much to whom much is forgiven The end of this discourse is that you would be serious solemn and impartial in debating of this business for when God hath cleared the matter it is to thy hurt to bring it about to be disputed again CHAP. XVII What it is to live upon God as our God No
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
estate This life and the wants of it always breed motion the spirit is still moving out of one condition unto something better The constant Rest of those glorified spirits in God is a plain demonstration that there is no Life like that They know the life that we live in this world they know what honours pleasures and such things are but they are so beneath them that they do no less overlook these then a Prince doth overlook the poorest Cottage or the vilest things of this world Nay the Saints on Earth too when they are themselves do not only prefer a Life in God before all things but with contempt of all things Paul puts a note of superexcellency upon the knowledg of Christ and pronounceth all things else but dross and dung Phil. 3. In Heb. 10.34 They suffered the loss of all things for this life with joyfulness it did not grieve them to see their goods and estates taken from them because they saw this loss make for the further enlargement of their life in God And those in Rev. 12.11 loved not their lives to the death for Christs sake When Solomon had traversed all these things and I make no doubt but he had many that traversed them with him you know what he saith of them Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of spirit But why should I dwell upon outward testimonies Make use of your own understands give them full scope to search and then think what proportion there is between that life that is upon things finite mixed mutable and of short continuance and that life that is in him that is infinite and all good always the same abiding for ever Descend lower then your understandings Call in the sense and experience of those several states of life which you have passed through in the world as that of childhood of manhood of a single estate of a married estate of a meaner and of a fuller condition take the best of them what did you find in them in comparison of that life that you have in God Remember all the sense you have had of the sweetness that is in the enjoyment of God and then upon the verdict of your sense and inward experience you will find that there is no comparison between the one and the other How often have you said when you have been hunting after and wearied your selves in the vanity of this world I will return to my first Husband for then it was better with me then now Hos 2.2 2. What a deplorable loss to our spirits is it when we suffer a day to pass without living in God That day we dye when as we might have been as they in Heaven What shadows of death have covered your Souls when you have been out of God! What bondage and weight are cast upon mens spirits how are they as reeds of no strength shaken with every wind with the turnings of the things in this world if their hearts be out of God We are chargeable with many sorrows and heart-breakings and God might put them upon our account God may visit us for many of our tears and complaints What will not the Fountain give water will not the full brest give milk It is a wrong to say so of God We are the cause of our own harms and losses The rest and chearful vigor of a mans Soul is of more worth then a world and that we lose whilest our spirits roul up and down Who can utter what those joys are what that sweetness of the taste of the Soul is which it hath in its sincere and secret addresses to the Father of Life in its secret conversings with him and enjoyment of him What a holy forgetfulness of all things hath this wrought what a holy magnanimity what peace passing all understanding what joy unspeakable and glorious And shall we lose all this by not maintaining our life in God Our experience and knowledg of these things should be as an attractive Load-stone and the sadness of our Souls under the heavy loss of this should be an enforcement upon us to keep near unto God The Apostle Hebr. 12.5 gives this as a reason why they were so weak You have forgotten saith he the exhortation or consolation that speaks to you as children 3. A third Consideration is The sweet and powerful attractions and invitations of the Spirit How often may that be said to us which Christ saith to them Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man will open to me I will come in and sup with him How often and how strongly hath Wisdom cryed from Heaven and uttered her voyce saying I have built my house I have prepared my feast come my friends all is prepared for you come and eat and rejoyce in the fulness of my Love Christ hath followed us as the waters followed them in the desart mercy and goodness hath followed us all our days Hath not God by his Spirit urged us from all things from all conditions and relations from every thing that strikes upon our senses or that comes within the compass of our knowledg As his design is by all things to work us to himself so hath he not by all things pleaded with us to come home and to stay at home that we might be blessed in the enjoyment of the sweetness of his presence He hath layd up something even in death it self to bring us to him A Crown was once found in a thorny bush Surely then if God be so ready to meet us and doth so seek us if he have so richly prepared for us and set things before us we should provoke our Souls to feed on these precious things and to live that life of the enjoyment of God which only is Life 4. If we will not live this life in God it may be we shall not If nothing will prevail but we will live in the flesh and pour out our Souls upon vanities and will be wandering in this world travelling in the desart and forsaking the fulness and sweetness that is in God surely it may be that shall be our portion all our days God may and he doth hide himself from the Soul when the Soul hides it self from him God calls and they will not hear he invites and they are careless Well saith God seeing they will not come they shall not come but shall live like servants and strangers and shall have no more of the Childrens bread then will maintain them in a state of life but not maintain them in a state of peace Sorrows and troubles will seize upon men because they would not embrace sweet mercies Do you think we can violate all the mercies and goodness of God and be born with No no Remember that example in 1 Sam. 2. Eli had many and great manifestations of Gods love but his sin of fond love to his wicked children would not be done away with sacrifice or burnt-offering God said he would bring evil upon
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-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
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
in his heart an inward inclination and strong propension to make his addresses to God and converse with him Secondly The knowledg of this Interest carries the spirit of a man to God in a due frame and posture that is it maintains the Soul in its addresses to God in joy and confidence cheerfulness and hope yet with intermixtures of awful fear A man that knows God to be his God when he goes to him he goes not as he to whom Augustus said What dost thou come to me as to a Lion He comes not with that astonishment dread and amazement that men do when their Consciences are defiled and in whose spirits the fire of Hell is He is not afraid notwithstanding the infinite distance between God and him to lift up his face before the Almighty He comes with boldness and confidence when once he is in the sight of this that his name is written in the Book of Life and that God hath taken him into the number of those whom he hath chosen out of the world He comes and speaks to God and his language is as to one with whom he hath power Psal 104.6 I will say unto the Lord Thou art my God hear the voyce of my supplication O Lord. He tells you what language he useth to God I said Thou art my God therefore hear me when I come unto thee and this argument is very strong So in Micah 7.7 you have the Church expressing her self thus Therefore will I look to the Lord and wait for the God of my Salvation my God will hear me The conclusion is very strong So in Psal 67.6 God even our own God shall bless us When a man once comes to know that God hath taken him into the number of his into his flock and fold now saith he God is mine my own God shall bless me That faith which makes a man see his Interest in God makes him see that it 's more to have an Interest in him then to obtain all things from him he therefore goes with courage to God because he hath obtained that already which is more then all comes to that he shall have by asking It was a greater favor for God to give us himself to be ours then for him to give us a portion among the Angels in the glory of Heaven God being our God stands engaged he is not his own but ours also therefore when a man sees this he comes to God for all things as to his own and he comes for his own As a child that is in want speaks to his father for supplies he speaks to him as one in whom he hath Interest and pleads with such a spirit as knowing that he likewise hath interest in his fathers estate Indeed this Interest is the best of all it 's founded upon all Reason Which ways soever a man comes to have Interest in another so many ways hath God exprest our Interest to be in him and more also By Creation He hath made us we are not our own Psal 100.3 or He hath made us we are his It 's founded in Redemption in Isai 43.1 Thus saith the Lord that formed thee O Jacob and created thee O Israel Fear not I have redeemed thee I have called thee by name thou art mine I have made thee and I have bought thee It 's likewise founded in that Union that we have with Jesus Christ God is become ours because Christ is become ours The Sons Wife calls his Father her Father he is become a Father to her in his Son If God takes notice of Israel upon this account that they were the seed of Abraham his friend how much more will he own his people that are members of the body of his own Son In Isai 41.8 Thou Israel art my servant whom I have chosen the seed of Abraham my friend We become his and he ours by his actual admission of us into the number of those that are his own and of the houshold of God Ephes 2.19 They are said to be a people near unto him Psal 148.14 All Souls are mine saith God in Ezek. 18.4 But those whom he admits into his family he takes peculiar notice of and they are in a more especial manner his And also by actual Communion he becomes ours As the wife becomes the husband's not only by contract and marriage and receiving her to his habitation but by actual communion so we are the Lords because of that actual converse that we have with God and by his communication of those fruits of his Love which he reserves for his own Thus then the knowledg of our Interest with God clothes the spirit with fit dispositions and affections in addresses unto God as to joy and confidence Now on the other side it works also in the Soul an awful reverential respect such as becomes the relation of a poor creature to his Maker and that infinite distance that is between the high and holy One and a lump of dust which also belongs to the true temper of a man in communion with God Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Psal 2. And Mal. 1.6 If I be a Master where is my fear It 's a dangerous thing for a man upon presumption of his Interest in God to have a boldness without a mixture of this fear and awfulness Such joys are not from above nor is it the Spirit of Truth that bears witness to them when they do not lay the Soul much under God Of all men they come with the greatest fear of God that have the fullest knowledg of their Interest in God and who have their hearts most spread with joy and gladness because God is become their Portion In Heb. 12.28 Wherefore receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear That seems a strange Inference Having received a Kingdom therefore serve God with fear I saith the Apostle therefore and God looks for it and know if it be not done there will be hazard in it for our God is a consuming fire A stranger passeth by a man and takes no notice of him but a child that knows him to be his father comes toward him with respect and honour the very interest he hath in him and the relation wherein he stands strikes on his spirit an awe towards his father So it is with those that call God Father See what account Nehemiah gives of his just walking in Nehem. 5.15 Other Rulers did so and so but I did not for I feared God The assurance of the Love of God and of a mans eternal life begets fear not that fear which hath torment as the Apostle speaks but it begets an awful caution and wariness as is meet in a business of so great concernment He is more afraid to offend God that knows God to be his God then that man is whom God threatens every day with everlasting death Mark that of the Prophet Hos 3.5
It is spoken concerning the time when they should be restored to a better state Afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days Shall fear the Lord and his goodness No father is more feared of his child then the best father that walks towards his child in the greatest wisdom goodness meekness and bounty So that the kindness of God and tastes of his Love do not lift up the Soul and make it proud That man is the most humble man in the world that hath the most knowledg of the Love of God towards him in Jesus Christ This Fear and Faith do so stand together that they cannot be separated In Act. 9.31 They walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost It 's the right temper of a true Christian to have the comforts of God in his Soul and yet to be with fear and trembling It 's a fear that doth inevitably arise upon a rectified nature from a sight of the disproportion that is between God and us This is in Heaven it self where the Angels in glory beholding God so infinitely lifted up above them cannot but have reverence fear and dread in their Souls towards him And it 's a fear likewise of danger not the danger of eternal death for from that they are saved the knowledg of the Love of God assures them for that but from the danger of other things which to them are as bitter as death is to the world and those are the frowns of God the rebukes of God the suspensions of Love and estrangedness of God towards them the stripes of God these things when God doth as a Father to his that know him they are most grievous and smarting and their Souls groan under these more then worldly men under worldly danger Therefore he that knows God and what it is to be in the light of his Countenance he that hath tasted the bitterness of the loss of this lives in fear lest he should provoke God as a Father to deal thus in severity with him And I speak all this the rather because some do blaspheme that which is the spring of life and peace to the Saints saying That for a man to have the knowledg of God to be his God and everlasting Portion is a snare to bring that man into a forgetfulness of God and his Duty and to blow up the spirit with pride and lull him into a sinful sleep Such like things as these have been and still are not without much cause of grief cast upon this blessed Doctrine of the knowledg of our abode with God Whereas the true knowledg of God being ours is that which doth effectually and firmly work the heart to all diligent watchfulness tenderness and sedulity Thirdly It disposeth a mans spirit to the best entertainment of all divine Determinations that are upon a mans addresses to God upon any occasion Let the answer be what it may be what seems good to God that man that knows God to be his God is best enabled to receive his answer be it I or No whether his prayer succeed or not he is put into such a frame that he can say Amen to the Will and Word of God and go from God without murmuring and repining If God hear him he is glad but yet not so glad of the thing as of his Interest he is not so taken with any thing he obtains but God takes him more If therefore he receives any thing he rejoyceth in it as the fruit of Love and makes a grateful return to God again In Psal 119.137 Save my Soul and it shall praise thee He rejoyceth in this to see how welcome he is to God and that his prayer is accepted others come and are not regarded but he hath audience The things that God gives out to him have another form and taste then to the world they come all with tastes of love to him In love to my Soul saith Hezekiah hast thou delivered me in Isai 38.17 And whatsoever he hath he hath a better enjoyment of it then others by reason of his Interest in God he hath nothing from God as a meer gift but he hath God with it God saith to that man that hath Interest in him There take that which thou askedst for and me with it that is thine and I am thine and the enjoyment of God is more to him then all the world This spirit is upon all that he hath My Father gave me it it is the fruit of the love of the God of my life therefore I must use it in order according to order from him and not after my mind only All things are best enjoyed when they are enjoyed according to Rule We spoil the sweetest things when we take them according to our wills and so use them then they become another thing When a man can sit in his enjoyment of all things and see God this is a drop from the Fountain of Life and it is more then they have that seem to enjoy a thousand times more of the things of this life whose corn and oyl increase And if he be denyed if God see it not good to give him the things he desires yet he is satisfied he doth not contend with God nor doth his spirit rise up against his Maker he hath a word ready in his spirit Not my will but thy Will be done he saith If my God will not give me this it is well that he will give me himself I may be without this but I could not be without him and seeing he hath given himself to be my Portion I will wait with patience and be content all the days of my life In Eccless 5. ult saith Solomon If God give a man the joy of his Soul he shall not much remember the days of his vanity When God denies him any thing he remembers that he comes not to God for this particular thing but for the best good We come not to God for any thing but that which is for our good A good man saith If I had this thing it may be it would not do me good and herein his spirit is satisfied he saith God knows better then I what is good for me and if he thinks not such a thing meet for me I must think so too So you see how the knowledg of a mans Interest furthers his approaches to God and helps him in these three respects that we have mentioned CHAP. VI. 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 IN this Chapter I shall in some particulars shew how the knowledg of our Interest in God doth promote and