from them as grief Isa 53. 3. fear Heb. 5 7. who yet was free from all sin 1 Pet. 2. 22. Nay it seems necessary as I said before considering the nature of this animal life that the soul should have the corporeal passions and impressions feelingly and powerfully conveyed to it without which it could not express a due benevolence to the body that belongs to it and indeed were it not so we could not properly be said in the Apostles phrase here to be at home in the body the soul would rather dwell in domo alienâ quà m suâ But the soul being called out to attend upon these passions is easily ensnared by them for it can hardly exercise it self about them but it stâ—ps insensibly into a sinful inordinacy As for example The animal spirits nimbly playing in the brain and swiftly flying from thence thorow the nerves up and down the whole body do raise the fancy with mirth and chearfulness which we must not presently mistake for the power of grace nor condemn for the working of corruption So also when the Gall empties its bitter juice into the liver and that mingles it self with the blood there it begets fiery spirits which presently fly up into the brain and cause impressions of anger Now though I dare not say that the souls first sensating and entertaining of these passions is sinful yet it is sadly evident that our souls being once moved by these undisciplin'd animal spirits are very apt to fit upon and cherish those passions of grief fear mirth anger and as it were to work them into it self in an inordinate manner and contrary to the dictates of reason and so the will presently makes those sinful which before were but meerly humane or as one calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the more blossomings or shooâ—ings forth of animal life within us We see then in these particulars that not only the depraved dispositions of the soul do keep us at a distance from God but even this body also is a great hinderance to that knowledge of God which we shall attain to that service of God which we might perform and that sweet communion with him which we shall enjoy It is a clog to the soul that would run a mist to the soul that would see clearly a manacle to the soul that would work a snare to the soul that would be free a fetter to chain it to earthly and material things and as it were a pinion to the wings of contemplation More particularly it is a hinderance to it as to those three things which I have â—â—amed As to the souls knowledge of God the body is an occasion of ignorance and errour As to its serving of God an occasion of distract on and weariness lightness and triflingness and as to its communion with God an occasion of earthliness and sensuality Now this distance which this body keeps the soul at from God might more particularly appear in another way of explication by observing the especial grievances that do arise to the soul from those three great animal faculties if I may so speak The Senses the Appetite the Fancy 1. The Senses I mean the external senses of the body seeing hearing c. These convey passions to the soul upon which it insists and feeds with a sinful fondness and eagerness Set open the eye and it will set hard to convey some species to the soul of earthly objects that shall justle the Ideas of God out of it Set open the ear and it will fill the soul with such a noise and earthly tumult that the secret whispers of the divine spirit cannot be heard The like I may say of the rest Oh how easily do these discompose the fixed soul distract the devout soul cast a mist before the contemplative soul and hale down the raised soul from communion with Heaven to converse with earthly objects Vt vidi ut perii is the complaint of many a Christian as well as it was of the Heathen The souls of most men are quite sunk into their senses and do nothing but as it were lacky to them all their lives and so the servants are on horseback and Princes go on foot Though the eye will never be satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing yet forsooth these importunate suiters must be gratified the eye must see what it will see and the ear must hear what it will hear nothing must be with held from them that these childish senses do whine after These mens souls are indeed incarnate swallowed up in their eyes ears and mouths But not only these but even godly souls are often charmed and ensnared by their senses even they converse not only in the body but too much with it also and it becomes as a Dalilah to lull them asleep and bind them too Good Job found his senses so treacherous that he was fain to make a covenant with them Job 31. 1. And well if he could scape so too The words are a Metaphor for indeed the worst of it is that these senses are not capable of any discipline one cannot bring them into any covenant-terms so that whilst we have senses they will be treacherous whilst our eyes are in our heads they will be wandring after forbidden objects 2. The Appetite the sensitive appetite which is a faculty of the sensitive soul whereby this animal man is stirred up to desire and lust after the things which his senses have dictated to him This bodily lust following upon the neck of the former becomes a greater snare to the soul This restless suitor comes whining ever and anon to the soul for every trâ—fle that the eye hath seen or the ear heard or the mouth hath tasted and by it continual coming and importunate crying wearies her into an observance of it As the fond child comes crying to the Mother for every knack and gaw that it hath seen upon the stalls and she though she cannot in judgment approve of the request yet either in fond indulgence or for peace sake will condescend to purchase it This is the Daughter of the Horsleech that cryes continually Give Give Why what would it have even any thing that it hath seen or heard or touched or tasted any thing that it sees a fellow-creature to be possest of And so indeed the Appetite doth not only ensnare the soul unto drunkenness and glutâ—ony but voluptuousness lascivousness and all manner of sensuality The evil of the sensual appetite appears in wantonness and lasciviousness whether real verbal or mental in immoderate and inordinate trading ingrossing sporting building attiring sleeping visiting as well as in eating and drinking I will determine nothing concerning the first motions of the appetite whereby it sollicits the will to fulfil it only this that if it sollicite to any thing simply and morally evil it is sinful in that first act and that at all times it ought carefully to be watcht lest it seduce to intemperance in things lawful
The Well is deep and they have nothing to draw with as the Woman said concerning another Well Joh. 4. Therefore be sure you get an interest in the Fulness and Sufficiency of God or as Solomon speaks in another case Prov. 5. 15. Drink waters out of thine own Well 3. Converse with the Self-sufficient Fulness of God by delighting your selves in it Drink of this Fountain yea drink abundantly ye beloved of God Cant. 5. 1. yea lie down by it Psal 23. 2. yea bathe you selves wholly in it Enter into the Joy of your Lord lie down in his bosome spread your selves in his Love and Fulness The Beloved Disciple leaning upon the breast of his Lord at Supper was but a dark shadow a poor scant resemblance of a beloved soul which by the lovely acts of Joy and Confidence and Delight layes it self down in the bosome of Jesus and doth not feed with him but feed upon him and his Alsufficiency Then do we converse indeed feelingly and comfortably with the Infinite Fulness when the soul is swallowed up in it doth rest in it is filled with it and centred upon it Oh the noble and free-born spirit of true Religion that disdaining the pursuit of low and created things is carryed out with delight to feed and dwell and live upon uncreated Fulness Then is a soul raised to its just altitude to the very height of its Being when it can spend all its powers upon the supreme and self-sufficient good spreading and stretching it self upon God with full contentment and wrapping up it self entirely in him This is the souls way of living above losses and he that so lives though he may often be a loser yet shall never be at a loss He who feeds upon created Goodness or Sweetness may soon eat himself out of all the stock will be spent and which is worse the soul will be dryed up that hath nothing else to nourish it But he that lives upon uncreated Fulness is never at a loss though he lose never so much of the creature For who will value the spilling of a dish of water that hath a well of living water at his door from whence he had that and can have more as good though not the same Nay to speak properly this is the only way to lose nothing For how can he be properly said to lose any thing who possesses all things And so doth he I am sure who is filled with the Fulness of God Be sure therefore that in the want in the loss of all things you live upon the Fountain-fulness delight your self in the Lord after the example of the Prophet Habakkuk cap. 3. 17 18. A Farewel to Life 2 COR. 5. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. THE holy Apostle having in the first verse of this Chapter layd down the Doctrine of Eternal Glory which shall follow upon this transitory life of Believers shews in the following verses how he himself longed within himself and groaned after that happy state And then Proceeds to give a double ground of this his confident expectation one in vers 5. therefore is the Apostle confident concerning the putting off of this mortal body because God had wrought and formed him for this state of glory and already given him an earnest of it even his holy Spirit The other ground of the confidence and settledness of his mind as to his desires of a change is taken from his present state in the body which was but poor and uncomfortable in comparison of that glorious state This in the words of the Text Therefore we are alwayes confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For I do not take the words we are confident concerning the Apostles resolvedness with a quiet and sober mind to suffer any kind of persecution or affliction whatever but we are alwayes confident i. e. we do with confidence expect or at least we are alwayes well satisfied contented well resolved in our minds concerning our departure out of this life For the Apostle was speaking not of afflictions or persecutions in the former verses but indeed of death which he calls a dissolving of the earthly house of this tabernacle vers 1. and a being cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven vers 2. 4. Yea and thus the Apostle explains himself vers 8. where he tells you what he means by this his confidence we are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body where the latter words are exegetical to the former q. d. It is better to be with the Lord than in this mortal body but we cannot be with the Lord whilst we are in this body it keeps us from him therefore we have the confidence to part with it It is the reason of the Apostles confidence and willingness to part with the body that I am to speak of and the reason is because this body keeps him from his Lord whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. The words are a Metaphor and are to be translated thus we indwelling in the body do dwell out from the Lord which our Translation renders well taking little notice of the Metaphor whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Though indeed if they had left out that word at home it would have been as well and so have neglected the Metaphor altogether as we may haply hint hereafter The words are a reason of the Apostles willingness to be dissolved and do contain a kind of an accusat on of the body and so seem to lay a blame upon it and upon this animal life which must be remembred Now for the former phrase of being at home in the body it is easily understood and generally I think agreed upon to be no more than whilst we carry about with us this corruptible flesh whilst we live this naâ—ural animal life It only signifies man in his compounded animal state 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and doth not at all allude to his sinful unregenerate or carnal state But the latter phrase Absent from the Lord is capable of a double sense both good and true and I think both fit enough to the context and drift of the Apostle I shall speak to both but insist most upon the latter 1. Whilst we are in the body we are absent from the Lord i. e. from the bodily presence of the Lord in Heaven absent from Christ Jesus and his glory And so the words are the same in sense with 1 Cor. 15. 50. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God for by flesh and blood there must needs be meant man in this animal corruptible state And so the Apostle accuses this kind of life in the body and as it were blames it for standing between him and his glorified Lord and so consequently between him and the glory of his Lord.
And this sense doth well agree with what went before and with what follows The Apostle hath a great mind to depart for whilst he is in the body he is absent from his perfect happiness For this is the consummation of a Christians happiness to be with the Lord to be admitted to a beholding of his infinite glory as appears by our Saviours earnest prayer for this Joh. 17. 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory Besides if we shall see him as he is we must also needs be made lâ—ke unto him 1 Joh. 3. 2. else how can we be fit to live for ever in his presence Now we are kept from this seeing and beholding of the Lord in glory by this animal life It stands between us and the Crown between us and our Masters Joy between us and the perfect enjoyment of God To be with the Lord is a state of perfect freedom from sin No unclean thing shall or can enter into Heaven Rev. 21. 27. A perfect freedom from all manner of afflâ—ctions Rev. 21. 4. There shall be no more sorrow nor crying nor pain and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all tears shall be wiped away from their eyes A state of freedom from all temptations to sin For a tempting Devil and all tempting lusts shall be cast out for ever A state of perfect peace without the least disturbance from within or from without of perfect joy that shall neither have end nor abatement and of perfect holiness when the whole soul shall be enlarged and raised to know and love and enjoy the blessed God as much as created nature is capable This is the happy state of seeing God of being with the Loâ—d And it is thy corruptible body this animal life that interposes between us and it so that the Apostle is confident and rather willing to depart and be with the Lord than stay here and be without him 2. Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord without any reference to the world to come and so it may be fitly translated distant from the Lord estranged from God This agrees well with the context and scope of the Apostle also And thus the words are also a good ground of the Apostles resolution and willingness to dye q. d. I am willing to be absent from this body for whilst I am in it I find my self to be at a great distance from God And indeed the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies properly to be at a distance or to be estranged So I find it interpreted by a learned Critick without any mystery as he speaks of the distance that even Believers themselves stand at from God in this life And in thâ—s sense I shall chuse to prosecute the words In which sense the Apostle blames this body and animal life because it keeps us at a distance from God is a clog a snare a fetter a pinion to the soul And so the words do agree in sense with those of our Saviour Mat. 26. 41. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak where by the flesh must needs be understood the body if we consider the contexâ— viz. the occasion upon which the words were spoken the sleepiness of the Apostles or if we consider the propriety of speech according to the style of the New Testament True indeed the corruption of nature is sometimes called Flesh but according to that way of speaking our Saviour would rather have said That the spirit was willing but the flesh was strong as he saith elsewhere That the strong man armed kept the house Now to explain this Doctrine a little That even the godly themselves whilst they are in this body are at a distance from the Lord It must be granted that the godly soul is nigh unto God even whilst it so journs in this mortal body and tottering flesh All souls are involved in the Apostasie of Adam and are fallen down from God have alike stâ—agled from their God and are sunk into self and the creature God opened a way for their return by the blood of Jesus for we owe it unto Christs death not only that God is reconciled to us pardoning our sins but that any of our natures become reconciled to God by accepting of him as our God and loving him as the chiefest good Now there is a double being brought nigh to God by Christ The first is more general external and as I may say relational Thus the partition-wall being broken down the Gentiles that were converted from their Idolatry to a profession of God and Christ and admâ—tted to a communion with the Visible Church are upon that account said to be Brethren to the rest of Gods Children 1 Cor. 5. 11. and as to the Church they are said to be within it vers 12. though at the same timâ— they were Fornicators Covetous Drunkards And as to God they are said to be made nigh Ephes 2. 13. A prosessing of God is said to be a being nigh to him and even an external performance is said to be a drawing nigh to him and so Nadab and Abihu even in the offering of strange fire are said to have drawn nigh to God Levit. 10. 3. And this though it be a priviledge yet it is not that honourable priviledge of the truly godly souls who are by Christ Jesus raised up to God in their hearts and reconciled to him in their natures and united to him in their affections and so are made nigh unto him in a more especial and spiritual manner Thus all sinful and wicked souls notwithstanding all their profession and performances are far from God estranged from the life of God Enmity and dissimilitude are the most real distance from God And truly God-like souls only are nigh unto him they dwell in him and he dwelleth in them as in his most proper Temple As to any kind of Apposition no man can draw nigh to God nor by any local accession for so all men are alike nigh to him who is everywhere and the worst as well as the best of men do live and move in him But they are really nigh unto God who do enjoy him and they only enjoy him whose natures are conformable to him in a way of love goodness and God-like perfections We do not enjoy God by any gross and external conjunction with him but we enjoy him and are nigh unto him by an internal union when a Dâ—vine Spirit informeth and acteth our souls and derives a Divine Life into them and thorow them And so a godly soul only is really and happily nigh unto God Thus the Apostle Paul I believe was as nigh unto God as any man in the world who did not only live and move in God as all men do though few understand it but God did even live and as it were breathe in him the very life that he 〈◊〉 was by faith in the Son of
a dead Lion Eccles 9. 4. But I may say to these even as our Saviour said to that woman in Joh. 4. 18. concerning her Husband The life that we live here is not our life The union of the sensitive soul with the body is indeed truly and properly the life of a beast and its greatest happiness for it is capable of no higher perfection But the union of the rational soul with God is the noblest perfection of man and his highest life so that the life of a believing soul is not destroyed at death but perfected Neither was the Apostle weary of his life because of the adversities of it The Apostle was of a braver spirit sure than any Stoick he durst live though he rather desired to dye All the conflicts he endured with the world never wrung such a sigh from him as the conflict that he had with his own corruptions did Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man c. All the perfecutions in the world never made him groan so much as the burden of his flesh doth here and his great distance from the Lord. A godly soul can converse with persecuting men and a tempting Devil can handle briars and thorns can grapple with any kind of oppressions and adversities in the flesh without despondency so long as it finds it self in the bosome of God and in the arms of Omnipotence But when it begins to consider where it is how far it is from its God its life and the happy state that God hath prepared it for then it cannot but groan within it self and be ready with Peter to cast it self out of the ship to get to its God to land it self in eternity Neither indeed to speak truly is it only the sense of sin against God which seâ—s the godly soul a going For though it must be confest that this is a heavy burden upon the soul yet the Apostle makes no complaint of this here but only of his distance from God that necessary distance from God that the body kept him it at 2. See here the excellent spirit of true Religion Godly souls do groan after an unbodyed estate not only because of their sins in the body but even because of the necessary distance at which the body keeps them from God We may suppose a godly soul at some time to have no manner of affliction in the world to grieve him no sin unpardoned unrepented of to trouble him yet for all this he is not at perfect rest he is burdened and groans within himself because he is at such a distance from that absolute good whom he longs to know more familiarly and enjoy more â—ully than he doth yet or than is allowed to mortal men And though nothing else ayl him yet the consideration of this distance makes him cry out Oh when shall I come and appear before God! be wholly swallowed up in him see him as he is and converse with him face to face Bare innocency or freedom from sin cannot satisfie that noble and large spirit that is in a truly and God-like soul but that spirit of true goodness being nothing else but an efflux from God himself carryes the soul out after a more intimate union with that Being from whence it came God dwelling in the soul doth by a secret mighty power draw the soul more and more to himself In a word a godly soul that is really toucht with the sense of divine sweetness and â—ulness and imprest with divine goodness and holiness as the wax is with the stamp of the seal could not be content to dwell for ever in this kind of animal body nor take up an eternal rest in this imperfect mixed state though it could converse with the world without a sinful sullying of it self but must needs endeavour still a closer conjunction with God and leaving the chase of all other objects pant and breath not only after God alone but after more and more of him and not only when it is under the sense of sin but most of all when it is under the most powerful influences of divine grace and love cry out with Paul Oh who will deliver me out of this body 3. Suffer me from hence to expostulate a little to expostulate with Christian souls about their unseemly temper Doth this animal life and mortal body keep us at such a distance from our God our happiness Why are we then so fond of this life and mixed state Why do we so pamper this body Why so anxiously studious to keep it up so dreadfully afraid of the ruines of it If we take the Apostles words in the first sense that I named then I may ask with him in the first verse Know we not that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we had a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens or vers 8. Why are we not willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord If we take them in the latter sense as this animal body is an hinderance to the souls knowledge of and communion with God then I ask concerning this as the Apostle doth concerning rich men James 2. 6. Why do ye pamper prize honour dote upon this body Doth not this body oppress you distract you burden you clog you hinder you Doth not this body interpose between the Sun of Righteousness between the Father of Lights and your souls that should shine with a light and glory borrowed from him even as the dark body of the earth interposes between the Sun and Moon to ecclipse its light Why are we not rather weary that we are in the body Surely there are some objections some impediments to the souls longing after its happy state which I shall come to anon But I doubt also that there is something that chains the soul to this animal life some cords in this earthly tabernacle that tye up the soul in it but I cannot well imagine what they should be Say not There is something of God to be enjoyed in this life which makes it pleasant For although this be true yet I am sure God gives nothing of himself to a soul thereby to clog it or cloy it Did Moses send for some Clusters of the Land of Canaan into the wilderness think ye that the people might see and taste the fruits and sit still and be satisfied and say Oh it is enough we see that there are pleasant things in that Land we will never come at it or did he not do it rather that they might make the more haste to possess themselves of it Will any man say Away I will have no more land no more mony I have some already Can a godly soul say God hath given me an earnest I desire no more No no but the report that a Christian hears of a rest remaining a happy life remaining for it and the chariots of divine graces that he sees God hath sent out into his soul to
Oh how sweet is the God that made it so Is there any thing lovely it is a picture of him whose name is Love Is any thing firm stable lasting it is a shadow of that glorious essence with whom there is no shadow of change Have you any thing strong it arises out of that God with whom is everlasting strength Doth any creature give rest ease refreshment it springs out of the All satisfying fulness of God In a word labour to climb up by every created excellency as by so many beams to the Father of lights let all the world be to you as Gods Temple and be ready to say of every place as Jacob How dreadful is this place surely this is no other than the house of God! that God who runs thorow all created Beings and from himselves derives several prints of beauty and excellency all the world over But especially take heed of your own created-comforts that they do not insensibly lead a way your hearts and ensnare you into a sinful particular distinct love of them which is a sin soon committed hardly discerned and most hardly reformed If any be freed from these inordinate affections sure they are but few and those few have come dearly by it as he said in another case with a great summ they have obtained this freedom they have payed for it not with the foreskins of the Philistines but with the lives of what they so loved there being no way to cure this evil distemper but cutting off the member infected with it the part that it fed upon As a branch of this head let me add labour to live upon God in the excellencies of other men value them and all their accomplishments only in God as he that did diligere Deum habitantem in Augustino Admire God and enjoy God in them Where ever you see wisdom goodness ingenuity holiness justice or any other accomplishment say Here and there is God And this is the honest way of making our selves Masters of whatever is another mans and enjoying it as truly as he himself doth yea as truly as if it were our own when we behold all these beams as coming from the same fountain of lights and do love them all in him with an universal love This is the rare Art of having nothing yet possessing all things of being rich though one have nothing and of being wise though one know nothing 3. The last way of living upon God in the creature is To taste and feed upon the love of God in them not only his common bounty but his special love in Christ The good will of God gives a sweet relish to every morsel as I hinted before Even in the midst of all your delightful pleasant sweet enjoyments let your souls be more affected with this than with them let this be as the Manna lying upon the top of all your outward comforts which your spirits may gather up and feed upon But this I toucht upon before therefore I shall add no more concerning it Thus I have shewed you how you may imitate the life of Angels in living upon God even whilst you live in the body To this I may add another particular or two 3. Converse with God and live upon him in all his Ordinances Let communion with God be your drift in every duty and the very life and soul and sweetness of every ordinance You never read of a soul more thirsty after ordinances than David as might appear abundantly yet if you look well into the expressions you will find that it was not so much after them as after God in them not after the dead letter but after the living God Psa 4. 2. 2. My soul thirsteth for God for the living God and Psal 84. 2. My heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God Let the Word preacht or read be as a voyce from Heaven talking you let your conserence be a comment upon that Word let meditation be as a kind of bringing down God into your souls and prayer as a raising up of your souls into God nothing but faith and love put into phrases And so of all the rest 4. Converse with God in all his Providences prosperity adversity plenty penury health sickness peace and perplexity This is a large Theme But as to prosperity I have speken something a ready under that head of conversing with God in creature enjoyments As for adversity I have said much more in a large discourse to describe and commend the Art of conversing with God in affictions Briefly at this time converse not with losses wants afflictions but with God in them and that not only with the justice righteousness severity and soveraignty of God in them but with the goodness and mercy of God in them They are dark Providences we had not need to dwell all together on the dark side of them If all the wayes of the Lord towards his people be mercy and truth Psa 25. 10 then his roughest and most uncouth wayes are so 100 If God be wholly love 1 Joh. 4. 8. then his very corrections proceed not from hatred If it be his name to be good and to do good Psal 119. 68. where have we learnt then to call his afflicting Providences Evils and to divide evil which is but one even as God is one into culpae and paenae sin and affliction surely we speak as men And if God call them so he speaks after the manner of men as he often doth If the governing will of God be pure persect and infinitely good and righteous ought we not to converse with it in a free and chearful manner yea and to love it too In a word pore not upon creature-changes nor the uncertain wheels of motion that are turning up and down we know not how nor how oft but fix your souls upon that All-seeing eye that unbounded understanding that unsearchable and infinite goodness that derives it self thorow the whole universe and sits in all the wheels of motion governing all the strange motions of the creatures in a wonderful and powerful manner and carrying them all in their several Orbs to one last and blessed end Thus imitate the Angelical life even whilst you are in the body converse with God in self-excellencies in creature-excellences Ordinances Providences And yet labour to be more like them still to abstract your mind from all these and all material and sensible things and to converse with God without the help of any creature I mean in the spirit and by a secret feeling of his Almighty Goodness and the energy of grace and the communications of a divine life in your souls In a word if you would taste of Heaven whilst you are upon Earth labour above all things for a true conjunction of your hearts with God in a secret feeling of his goodness and a reciprocation of love to him and to find the holy and blessed God exercising his grace and power upon all the faculties of your souls and
THE Voice of one Crying IN A WILDERNESS OR The business of a Christian both Antecedaneous to Concomitant of and Consequent upon a sore and heavy Visitation Represented in several Sermons First Preacht to his own Family lying under such Visitation And now made Publike as a Thank-offering to the Lord his healer By S. S. A Servant of God in the Gospel of his Son All the Paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies Psal 25. 10. Mala poenalia non sunt veré mala quia fluunt à summo Bono nimirum Deo ducunt ad summum Bonum nimirum fruitionem Dei erant in summo bono nimirum Christo Biel. The evils of Punishment are not truly evils for they flow from the chiefest good even God they lead to the chiefest good the enjoyment of God and are found in the chiefest good even Christ Jesus LONDON Printed Anno Dom. 1666. TO THE READER Christian Readers IT is now more than seaven months since it pleased the holy and wise God together with some dear and Christian friends from London to visit my house with the Plague whereby he gently toucht and gave warning to my self and whole family consisting then of eight souls but called away bâ—nce only three members of it viz. two tâ—nder babes and one servant besides my beloved sister and a child of my precious friend that man of God Mr. G. C. since also translated who were of those Citizens that visited me You will easily believe that I can have no pleasure to rake into the ashes of the dead nor to revive the tast of that wormwood and gall which was then given me to drink and yet I see no reason but that I ought to take pleasure in the pure and holy will of God which alwayes proceeds by the eternal rules of Almighty love and goodness though the same be executed upon my dearest creature-comforts and grate never so much upon my sweetest earthly-interest yea and I see all reason in the world Why I should give God the glory of his Attributes and works before all the world and endeavour that some instruction may accompany that astonishment which from me and my house hath gone out and spread it self far and near I will not undertake to make any Physical observations upon this unaccountable disease nor to vindicate my self either from that great guilt that is charged upon me as if I were a sinner above all that dwell in this countrey or from those many false and senseless aspersions that have been cast upon my behaviour during this visitation much like that we read of Mat. 28. 13. but do freely commit my self to him that judgeth righteously and pray with the Psalmist Psal 69. â— Let not them that wait on thee O Lord God of Hosts be ashamed for my sake let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake O God of Israel Neither do I purposely undertake in this Preface to reconcile the providences of the most wise God to his promises or to salve that seeming difference between the words of his mouth and the language of his hands between which I have only suspected some kind of jarr but have experienc't an excellent harmony In very faithfulness hast thou afflicted me Whence arise all those uncharitable censures with which the afflicted soul is apt to charge both himself and his God too Spring they not certainly from these two grand causes viz. A misapprehension of the nature of God and of the nature of Good and Evil let the studious and pious Reader search and judge If ever therefore you would be establisht in your minds in a day of affliction 1. Labour to be rightly informed concerning the nature of God Away with those low and gross apprehensions of God whereby your carnal fancies do ascribe unto God such a kind of indulgence towards his children as you bear towards yours which indeed no way agrees to his nature His good will towards his children is a solia wise and holy disposition infinitely unlike to our humane affections Soli Deo competit Amare Sapere â— Labour to be rightly informed concerning the nature of good and evil Judge not the goodness or evilness of things by their agreeableness or disagretableness to your flesh palate or carnal interest but by the relation that they have to the supream good The greatest prosperity in the world is no further good than as it tends to make us partakers of God and the greatest affliction may thus be really good also But that by the By. My design is to justifie and glorifie Infinite Wisdom Righteousness Goodness and Holiness before all men Oh blessed God! who maketh a seeming Dungeon to be indeed a Wine-celler who bringeth his poor people into a Wilderness on set purpose there to speak comfortably to them â—s 2. 14. Be of good cheer O my soul He hath taken away nothing but what he gave and in â—b 1 21. lieu of it hath given thee that which shall never be taken away the first fruits of liâ—e â—k 10. â—2 instead of those whom the first born of death hath devoured But why do I say devoured Doth not that truly live at this day which was truly lovely in those darlings Didst thou O my fond heart love Beauty Sweetness Ingenuity incarnate And canst thou not love it still in the fountain and enjoy it in a more immediate and compendious way Thy body indeed cannot taste sweetness in the abstract nor see beauty except it be subjected in matter but canst not thou O my soul taste the Vncreated goodness and sweetness except it be embodyed and have some material thing to commend it to thy palat Be shâ—med that thou being a spirit as to thy constitution art no more spiritual in thy affections and operations Dost thou with sadness reflect upon those sweet Smiles and that broken Rhetorick with which those Babes were went to entertain thee 1 Consider duly what of real contentment thou hast lost in losing those For what were those things to thy real happiness Thou hast lost nothing but what it was no solid pleasure nor true felicity to enjoy nothing but what the most sensual and brutish souls do enjoy as much as thou 2. Be ashamed rather that thou didst enjoy them in such a gross and unspiritual manner Art thou troubled because any earthly interest is violated Rather be ashamed that thou hadst and cherishedst any such interest But pardon me Courteous Readers this digressive Soliloquy and now suffer me patiently whilest I speak something by way of Admiration something by way of Observation and something by way of Exhortation 1. Let me call upon Men and Angels to help me in celebrating the Infinite and almighty grace and goodness of the Eternal and blessed God Who enabled me to abide the day of â—l 3. 2. his coming to stand when he appeared and made me willing to suffer him to sit as a
Refiner of silver in my house Who carryed me above all murmurings against I had almost said all remembrance of those instruments that conveyed the infection to me Who reconciled my heart to this Disease so that it seemed no more grievous noysome or scandalous than any other Who subdued me to I had almost said brought me in love with this passage of the Divine Will I can remember alass that I can say little more but that I do remember how my soul was overpowred yea and almost ravisht with the goodness holiness and perfection of the will of God and verily judged it my happiness and perfection as well as my duty to comply cheerfully with it and be molded into it Who gave me a most powerful and quick sense of the Plague of a carnal heart self-will and inordinate creature-loves convincing me that those were infinitely worse than the Plague in the flesh so that I did more pitty than I could be pittied by my ordinary visiters Who wonderfully preserved me from the assaults of the Devil never leâ—t him loose so much as to try his strength upon my integrity to drive me to a despondency or to any uncharitable conclusions concerning my state Who enabled me to converse with his love and mercy in the midst of his chastenings to see his shining and smiling face through this dark cloud yea kept up clear and steady perswasions in my soul that I was beloved of him though afflicted by him Who knew my soul in adversity visited Psal 3 me when I was sick and in prison refreshed strengthned comforted my inner man in a marvelous manner and measure and made me appear to my self never less Nunquâ— minus lus qâ— cum sâ— Scip. shut up then when shut up Oh would to God I might be never worse than when I was shut up of the Plague The not removing of that affliction-frame I shall count a greater blessing and a more proper mercy than the removing of that afflicted state Who cleared up my interest in his son strengthened my evidences of his love satisfied and assured my soul of its happy state more than at any time more then at all times formerly I had clearer and surer evidences of Divine gracè in that patient self denying self submitting frame of spirit than in all the duties that ever I performed The valley of tears brought me more sight of my God more insight into my self then ever the valley of visions all duties and ordinances had done When the Sun of righteousness arose upon my soul and chased away all the mists and foggs of self-will and creature loves then also did all black and dismal fears all gloomy doubtings most sensibly flee before him Who supplyed my Family from compassionate friends with all things needful for Food Physick c. The Lord return it sevenfold into their bosoms Who maintained my health in the midst of sickness in the midst of so great a death I do not remember that either sorrow of mind or sickness of body ever prevailed so much upon me during three months seclusion as to hinder me of my ordinary study repast devotions or my necessary attendance upon my several infected rooms and administring to the necessities of my sick These ensuing Discourses were then composed which doth at least argue that through grace this mind was not altogether discomposed nor body neither Who preserved me and gave me not up to death For I judge that I was personally visited with the Plague though not with the Sickness Who hath given me a sincere and setled resolution and vehement desire to live entirely on and to Himself which I account to be the only life of a soul and only worthy to be called a living Grant me this prayer O most blessed and gracious God for the sake of my only and dear Redeemer Thou O Lord God who art witness to all my thoughts and words and works knowest that in truth and soberness I publish these things to the world not to advance the reputation of my own silly name or to be admired of my fellow creatures but for the glory of thy holy name to beget a good liking of so gracious a Creator in all thy poor creatures who are prejudiced against thee and thy holy Service and to strengthen the hearts of thy servants to a most firm and lasting adherence to thee even in the greatâ—st extremities that thou mayest be admired in thy Saints and glorified for gâ—ving such power and grace and comfort â— 9. 8. unto men And oh thaâ— men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful â—l 107. 8. works in and to the children of men 2. Suffer me to make a short Observation of some few memorable Passages out of mâ—ny possibly they may be for the future though they should not be for your present advantage The Lord direct you to make a right application of them according to the â—mergencies of life First I do thankfully record the gracious design of the holy and wise God in that he had secretly prepared my heart though at that time I knew not particularly for what I remember that for some few weeks before I had found a more than ordinary largeness and readiness of soul particularly that I had been studying the exceâ—lent mysterie and sâ—â—king out the streng thning marrow of that famous Text 1 Joh. 4. 8. God is love from whence I had imâ—ortunately prist upon my self the reasonableness of â—â— complying sweetly cheerfully universally with the will of God little dreaming then of the Plague which was almost an hundred miles off me Oh blessed and merciful God who of old didst make Abraham and yet makest his and thy children Heb. 1â— to follow thee though they know not well whither In the next place I count it most worthy of my observation not unworthy of your consideration that it pleased God to seize upon my Family in the beginning of harvest a harvest which I had too earnestly expected too carefully provided for and promised my self too liberally from which folly and vanity of mind this Visitation thus tim'd did as clearly convince me of me thought as if I had seen an hand-writing upon the wall I am ashamed yet I will not stick to confess before all the world God grant it may be for the seasonable and effectual warning of any that my vainer mind was over-pleasantly not to say eagerly drawn out towards secular and worlaly however necessary employments and concernments And thus I was rebuked Vpon examination I find that verily I have been guilty concerning my Children I do not remember that ever any man reproved me for immoderate loving of them or could for any indulgence that could be by humane eyes discerned But oh I see and feel it as a sword at my heart that I loved them not so purely spiritually and properly in God as I ought to have done Philosophy will easily prove it to be a more tolerable vanity to
that watch for the morning Psa 130. 6 Ps 119. 20. when his soul broke for the longing that it had unto him at all times I say not that you should prepare for death that seems too low both word and thing look and live beyond death and the grave be lifting up your heads to discover the dawnings of the day of your Redemption be laying hold upon immortality and eternal life Something to this purpose you will find in the second Discourse withâ—r I refer you And now accept I pray you these poor labours which for the glory of my God I makâ— publick that since with Hezekâ—â—h I may not go up â—o the House of the 2 King 20. 8. Lord to declare the goodness of the Lord â—et I may leave some monument of it in wâ—iâ—â—ng as he did when he had been sick Isa 3â— 9. and was recovered of his sickness I will add no more but entreat all serious and devout Readors to magnifie the holy name of God on my behalf adding thereunto their earnest prayers to God for me viz. that the same fire that burnt up the standing Corn of my creature-comforts may also happily consume all the stubble of my creature delights and loves that my God would give me a name better than of Sons and of Daughters the blessed Isa 56 5. fruits of his Spirit instead of the Beloved fruits of the womb that I may for ever live under the most powerful influences of this dispensation and that the glory of the Lord may never depart out of the Temple of my soul as it departed out of the Temple made with hands Now to the God of all grace and peace be all praise and glory To him I commit you all and rest Your friend and servant in Christ Jesus S. S. Feb. 27. 1665. Quod sani quaesivimus hoc invenimus aegri Quae nequiit vallis visûs tulit haec lachrymarum Courteous Reader THere being through some ill circumstances such a mistake happened in the Printing of these Papers which caused a confusion not to be afterward helpt by the placing of them thou art desired to take notice that after those words Curse God and Die page 31. should have followed the second Reason which is now to be found in the midst of pag. 43. and so the sense is continued to pag. 102. after which comes in the Application pag. 31. to pag. 43. where the first Discourse is concluded with those words Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him nor known him I shall suppose thy candour such as to excuse this trouble thou art unhappily put to which I have done what I could to lessen by this Notice and Direction and should but increase it by any farther Apology for a fault which now admits not of a remedy Other slighter Errata's correct thus â— Page 13 line 19 for the read a l. 20 for a r. the p 15 l. 4. for so r to p. 46 l. 8. put in hold of and l. 9. blot out here p. 68. l. 7. for had r. hath p. 81. l. 2 for act read art and l. ult for promises r. premises p. 85. l. 4. for on r. up p. 125. l. 4 for more r. meer p. 136. l. 9. blot our it p 157. l. 22. for it r. Christ p. 193. l. 15. for the r. your p. 214. l. 12. for them r. him Place this after the Epistle to the Reader A VVelcome TO THE PLAGUE AMOS 4. 12. Prepare to meet thy God O Israel IN this Sermon of the Prophet the Lord reckons up the many fearful Plagues wherewith from time to time he had assayed to reclaim this perverse people the ten Tribes of Israel beginning at the 6th verse But still concludes the relation with a doleful Epiphonema yet have ye not returned unto me It is not my business to enquire into the several Plagues either the clear meaning of them or the particular time when they took place or ended nor into the impenitence and stubborness of the people though many useful things might be observed from hence But in the conclusion because none of these judgments had prevailed upon them God resolves to trouble himself with them no longer but to destroy them utterly All that he had done to them in the Land had not prevailed therefore now he will cast them and carry them out of the Land by the over-flowing scourge of an Assyrian captivity This threatning he denounces in the second and third verses I will take you away with hooks and your posterity with fish-hooks c. And after he had reckoned up the many calamities whereby he had sought to bring them to repentance but they repented not and so had demonstrated the equitableness of this final judgment he reassumes the same threatning and persists in his former resolution vers 12. Therefore thus will I do unto thee And then adds Because I will do thus unto thee therefore prepare to meet thy God O Israel Which words may either be understood Ironically by way of derision of all their vain confidences and refuges and then the Doctrine is That there is no standing before nor striving against nor flying from God when he comes to execute vengeance Which is an excellent truth and of great use Or else the words may be understood seriously by way of exhortation The doubt seems to arise from the ambiguous meaning of the word Meet The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both to meet in a hostile manner to assault invade or grapple with as a man meets his enemy so it is used concerning David addressing himself to fight with Goliah 1 Sam. 17. 48. He ran to meet the Phillstin And also to meet in a friendly amicable manner by way of communication collocution salutation or converse So it is used concerning Isaac going to meet Rebekah Gen. 24. 65. and concerning Gods meeting of Balaam to speak with him and impart his mind to him Numb 23. 4. If we take the word in the first sense then it is spoken by way of Irony or derision and so the meaning of the words is contained in the Proposition that I have laid down If we take the words in the latter sense then it is spoken seriously by way of exhortation and so the meaning of them may be wrapt up into this Doct. That it is the duty of Gods people to study a right behaviour towards him and to converse with him aright in the way of his judgments in the time of their afflictions And in this sense I shall take them and prosecute them Besides that general unalterable godly frame and behaviour which Gods people owe to him as a standing duty and indispensable homage there are some more especial behaviours and tempers which they owe to him in special cases and are duties pro hic nunc as the season requireth Particularly there are some special behaviours required at our hands in the time of our affliction And these both 1. Towards ourselves as self-examination
Strength and Vigour to the soul and it reflects upon him in the acts of holy complacency and delight chearfulness thankfulness and dependence Secondly Duties these are also wayes of converse with God such as Confession Petition Thankigiving Conference Singing Meditation Observation In all which God impresseth something of himself upon the soul and draws answerable affections of the soul unto himself as might appear in the particular explication of them but that would be too much a digression Only I will here note by the way the mistake of many low-spirited Christians who know no other converse with God than the bare performance of these things this they count the very top-stone of a Christians perfections the very flower of the spiritual life But alas this is a gross mistake There is sure something more sweet savoury satisfactory in the spiritual life than the dry duty there is marrow in the bone or else a holy soul could not cover it with so much servour Converse with God in duties is a spiritual favoury filling enjoyment distinct from the duties themselves This must needs be except we will allow to wicked and hypocritical men the same dainties that the most sanctified souls do feed upon and say That the childrens bread is common to the Dogs as well as them The soul doth not converse with God in duties barely when it prayes or meditates for even godly souls themselves do many times find little converse with God in these viz. when he suspends the influences of his graces or their hearts are â—logg'd or cloy'd with earthly objects or otherwise indisposed and shut up against him It is not speaking to God that brings the soul really nigh unto him nor bare thinking of God that advances the soul into the excellent state of feeling converse with him Even prayer it self may prove many times an empty sound vox praeterea â—ihil and meditation that most excellent and genuine off-spring of the soul may prove a poor dry and sapless speculation It is not enough to set up the sayls but there must also be wind to fill them But then doth the soul converse with God in duties when the dark places thereof become filled with his divine light and the empty places thereof filled with his divine love and the low and languishing affections thereof are ravished and revived with the powerful insinuations of his Almighty Grace when God draws and the soul runs he puts in his finger by the hole of the door and the very bowels of the soul are moved for him as it is described Cant. 5. 4. Then doth the soul converse with God in meditation and prayer when the Spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters when he kisses it with the kisses of his mouth and the shaking soul finds it self marvelously settled the doubting soul established the frozen heart thawed the benumm'd affections warmed the scant and contracted capacity of it enlarged and wonderfully widened and its slow and sluggish motions quickened into a lively and chearful compliance with and pursuit of the supreme and self sufficient good when the soul finds its leggs to run after that glorious object which is presented to it lifts up its hands to lay hold upon the strength the fulness the faithfulness the Christ of God and bearing up it self upon the wings of faith and love flyes out to seek its rest and happiness and no longer envyes the birds of the Altar for it self enters into the Holy of Holies and thorough the arms of its Mediator throws it self into the very heart of God In a word and that shall be the Word of God then doth a soul converse with God in duties when with open face beholding the glory of God it doth not only admire it but it self is changed into the same image from glory to glory i. e. from grace to grace 2 Cor. 3. ult Thirdly Providences These are another way wherein the soul converses with God Now by Providences we mean in general the whole work of God in governing the world and all things therein And so indeed a religious enlarged soul a mind freed from particular pinching Cares low and selfish ends converses with God in beholding and observing Gods setled course of governing the world The whole Heavens Earth and Sea and the admirable order kept up in them do teach the knowledge of God and draw up the contemplative soul into an observation and admiration of him in them and the pious soul longs to find some impressions made upon it self by all these and to be affected with God therein It is not content with a bare speculation but its meditation of God in these is sweet to it as Davids were Psal 104. 34. Particularly Gods Providence towards mankind as it doth most livelily express his infinite love justice and wisdom so we ought to converse with him therein and in all the changes of any kind that befall man in the world that befall all the Kingdoms of the world the four great Monarchies of it and all other subordinate Dominions more especially in all the mutations that befall the Church of God in the world and all men of all sects and sorts therein but most especially our selves Labour to converâ—e with that infinite mind wisdom and understanding that ordains and orders all the changes that befall your selves Nâ—w our conveâ—sing with God in the several changes that befall us in the world is in general by endeavouring to serve the Providence of God in every change The Providence of God serves it self even upon wicked men and upon all creatures that do least understand it but a godly man only knows how to serve the Providence of God in the things that befall him He hath no private selfish interest of his own but counts it his interest chearfully and faithfully to serve the will of God to be what God would have him be to be without that which God would have him to want and to do what God would have him do Every wicked soul in the world sets up some trade for himself and drives on some particular self-interest distinct from God But a godly soul counts it his greatest honour and happiness to be nothing in himself nor for himself but is wholly at the beck of his Creator and looking upon all his interest as being bound up in God is sollicitous for nothing else but to serve the will of God in his generation So the life of holy David is described Act. 13. 36. David in his generation having served the will of God i. e. the Providence of God say the Dutch Annotat. translating the words in this order A good man eying nothing but the great and blessed God in the world and knowing that he was not made for himself but for a higher good is only ambitious to be subservient to that Infinite and Soveraign Being herein imitating his Blessed Saviour who lived not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him Joh.
wound our own peace we shake the settledness of our own hearts we put our selves into briars In a word we both lessen our creature comforts and multiply our griefs and aggravate our sorrows by calling things our own If we had not taken them to be our own it would not have troubled us to part with them Be sure therefore to eye and own the absolute and unlimited Soveraignty of God But â—hat's not all it is not enough to believe it we must converse with it otherwise than by thinking of it or assenting to it Then do we converse with the Soveraignty of God 1. When the powerful sense of it doth silence quarrelling yea murmurings yea even disputings in the soul We may indeed modestly contend with men concerning their dealings with us the Potsheard may strive with the Potsheard of the earth but it must not say to the Potter Why hast thou made me thus A pacate and quiet frame of heart is a real conversing with the Soveraignty of God So did Aaron when he held his peace Levit. 10. 3. and Job when he attributed nothing unseemly to God Job 1. ult 2. When the sense of it doth suppress self-will This is an unruly lust in the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Giant-like spirit warring against Heaven and breeding bate continually This is that which maintains a Meum and Tuum even with God himself that â—ets up interests as the Jews set up Princes Hosea 8. 4. but not by God yea indeed in opposition to him This is the seditious party in the soul that is alwayes crying out We will not have this man to rule over us And when that darling interest which this proud rival hath set up is touched of God and smitten and blasted from Heaven it is ready to fret and storm yea and to think it hath reason to be angry If this Son of the bondwoman were cast out Abraham's Family would be all of a peece all in order and at rest If this undisciplin'd and perverse spirit were quite banished Oh what a calm day would it be in the soul what fair and sweet correspondence would there be between God and his creature for certainly this is the Jonah that raises the storm and makes the great deeps of the soul that they cannot rest but do perpetually roll and toss yea and cast out mire and dirt continually But alas I doubt this spirit is not quite layd no not in the most spiritual man the best of men are ready to nourish and hatch up some darling some private interest or other of their own dinstinct from God and the grand interest of their souls which God himself must not touch some Gourd or other that the cold wind must not blow upon He is a blessed man indeed who doth so understand that he lives and moves in God alone and is so overpowered with the sense of the infinite goodness and holiness of God and the absolute perfection of his divine will as that he reckons it his greatest perfection to be nothing in himself nor have nothing of his own distinct from God but only studyes to be great in God to be filled with God to live to him and for him to enjoy all things as in and under him who counts it his only interest to quit all self interest and particular ends and to be freely at the disposal of the highest mind conformable to the highest good chearfully compliant with the uncreated will Potiphar had so committed all to Joseph in the sense of his great faithfulness that he knew not ought he had save the bread that he did eat Gen. 39. 6. But this similitude is too low A godly soul should commit all its interest its life and livelihood and all to God in the sense of his Soveraignty and not know ought that he hath no not his own life but despise it in comparison of uncreated life as Job speaks Job 9. 21. Methinks the Soveraignty of God speaks such language to the soul and in it as Eli to Samuel My Son hide nothing from me keep nothing back of all that thou hast and the pious soul should not with foolish Rachel conceal any selfish interest so as not to be willing to part with it when its Soveraign Lord and Father comes to search the tent but with allusion to Amos 6. 10. when God comes to ferret out all self-interests and shall ask Is there any such yet with thee should be able to answer boldly No there is none Blessed is the man that is in such a case blessed is the man whose only interest it is to serve the will of the Lord Well improve the infinite Soveraignty of God to this end and work it upon and into your own hearts that all self-will may stoop to it and let the main interest of your souls be so planted and established in your souls that no other interest may be able to grow by it Charm your own self-will with such severe reproofs as this is Either deny thy self O my soul or deny thy self to be a creature either be wholly at Gods command or call him not thy Soveraign 3. When the sense of it doth beget Revevence in the soul towards God We ought not only to be subject to the Rod of God but even to reverence him when he correcteth with it and so not only to accept of the Rod but to kiss it too And surely iâ— the Fathers of our flesh correct us and we give them Reverence Heb. 12. 9. much more ought we to reverence the Soveraign Father both of flesh and spirit This is a devout act of the soul whereby it looks up and adores the Infinite and Soveraign Majesty and thinks equitable and honourable thoughts of him even when he is in the way of his Judgments And these are the proper acts of a soul conversing with Gods Soveraignty in the time of afflictions When we are silent before him subject unto him and reverencing of him then do we really and truly converse with him as our Almighty and absolute Soveraign But Gods Authority and Prerogative though it may silence will scarce satisfie such a corrupt and rebellious pass are our natures grown to Therefore 2. Converse with the perfect and infinite Righteousness of God in the time of afflictions that divine perfection whereby he renders to every man what is just and due and no more This we are to eye and own and sincerely to acknowledge even in the time of our greatest extremity after the example of Daniel chap. 9. 14. The Lordour God is righteous in all his works and of the godly Levites Neh. 9. 33. Thou art just in all that is brought upon us thou hast done right Argue with Abraham Gen. 18. 25. Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right Can Righteousness it self erre in Judgment Shall the Timber say unto the Rule Why hast thou measured mee thu or to the Line thou art crooked Are not my wayes equul saith the Lord Ezek.
the eyes run over the lips quaver the shoulders pull back the hands tremble the knees knock together and the whole fabrick is ready to tumble down for fear of falling Either to this as some inter pret or to that duty of Prayer as others doth that of our Saviour refer Mark 14. 38. The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak It seems the spirit of the weakest Christian is strong though the body as we have seen of the strongest Saint is weak Though indeed it is not properly the weakness that is in the body that I am to speak to but the influence that the body hath upon the soul to weaken that for whilst the soul sympathizes with the body attends to it spares it pities it self becomes almost ill affected to the service of God I am not so much blaming the body because it had need by reason of its slothfulness to be drawn on to dutie but because by its influences it draws off the soul also from them for so we find it by woful experience that if the body do sleep the soul cannot wake it cannot hear without the ear nor see without the eyes so that the bodyes weariness at leng hends in the souls unwillingness and the weakness of the one grows to be the sin of the other 3. Whilst we are in the body we are at a distance from God as to communion with him we are estranged from fellowship with him and this is indeed to be absent from the Lord. Oh how many weary and uncomfortable dayes do poor Saints live at a great distance from their God their Life their Happiness whilst they are in their worldly Pilgrimage in their Cage of flesh Oh how many dayes do they forget God and are apt to think that God hath forgotten them too How do they live sometimes as it were without God in the world their souls being surfeited with carnal pleasures benummed with fears frozen with self-love choaked with cares stifled with griefs and seem to have no more feeling of God their life than a body in the dust hath of the soul its life Oh what a heavy yoke doth the poor soul draw under when it plows and harrows to the flesh and cannot lift up its head to Heaven Oh how is our intercouse with God obstructed our beholding of him obscured our entertaining of him prevented our enjoyment of him disturbed and violâ—ted our love to him to him deadned and his love to us damped ours rendred iâ—firm and his rendred insensible and all by this make bare mortal flesh Alas what uncertainties and vicissitudes what changing and tossings turnings and windings are our poor pilgrim souls here exercised with What breakin gs and piecings reconciliations and fallings out closing and parting rising and falling what ups and downs what forwards and backwards doth the poor distressed soul experience in this animal state The flourishing soul withers the lofty soul languishes the vigorous soul fainteth the nimble soul flaggeth the devout soul swooneth the lively soul sickeneth and is ready to give up the Ghost and she that was a while ago resting and glorying in the arms of her Lord anon lyes embracing a dunghil and hath almost forgotten that ever she was happy Her peace is violated her rest is disturbed her converse with Heaven interrupted her incomes from God are few and insensible her outgoings to him are few and lazy and the rivers of her divine pleasures are almost dryed up And all this whilst she is in this body and indeed a great part of it by reason of this body in which she is The animal body keeps us distant from the Lord that we cannot converse with him mind him enjoy him live upon him and unto him The body being fitted only for this animal staâ—e is ever drawing down the soul when it would raise up it self in contemplation of and communion with the blessed God And so 1. The Necessities of the body do hinder the souls communion with the Lord. Not that the necessities of the body are simply in themselves to be blamed but the caring for these doth so exercise the soul in this state that it cannot attend upon God without distraction Oh how much doth the necessary caring for meat and drink food and physick yea the ordering of temporal affairs estrange from communion and converse with God! so that the soul like poor Martha is cumbred with many cares and busied with much serving in this house and cannot attend so devoutly and entirely as it ought upon the Lord. If the body be pinched with pain the soul cannot be at rest but must needs look out for relief If the body be pinched with hunger and thirst the soul can take no rest till it have found out a supply for it If the one be sick the other is sad if the one be hungry or thirsty the other seems to languish like Hippocrates his Twins that laught and cryed lived and dyed together It is a wonderful mystery and a rare secret how the soul comes to sympathize with the body and to have not only a knowledge but as it were a feeling of its necessities how these come to be conveyed to the soul and how it comes to be thus affected with them But we find it so And indeed to speak truth it seems necessary for the maintaining of this animal state that it should be so that the soul should be as it were hungry weary sick and sleep too together with the body for if our soul should not know what it is to be hungry thirsty cold or sick or weary but by a bare ratiocination or a dry syllogistical inference without any more especial feeling of these necessities it would soon suffer the body to languish and decay and commit it wholly to all changes and casualties neither would our own body be any more to us than the body of a plant or of a starr which we do many times view with as much clearness and contemplate with as much contentment as we do our own But in the mean time the soul is diverted from its main employment turned aside from its communion with God not so much by providing somewhat for our bodyes to eat and drink and put on which is lawful and needful as our Saviour implyes Mat. 6. 32. as by sinking it self into the body being passionately and inordinately affected with its wants and so being sinfully thoughtful as our Saviour intimateth in the same chapter vers 31. 2. The Passions of the body do hinder the souls communion with the Lord. So powerful is the interest and influence that this body hath in and over the soul that it fills it with desires pleasures griefs joys fears angers and sundry passions The body calls out the soul to attend upon its several passions which I dare not say are sinful in themselves as they first affect our souls no more than it is our sin that we are men our blessed Saviour seems not to have been free
convey it thither make him cry out not with Jacob Gen. 45. 28. It is enough Joseph my Son is yet alive I will go and see him before I dye But oh this is not enough this report is not enough it is not enough that I taste some of the good things of the Land it is not enough that I see these carriages sent out for me it is not enough that my soul hath an happy and honourable life prepared for it I see it indeed before I dye but I will also dye that I may see it better and enjoy it more But I doubt there is some earthly tye even upon the heavenly soul that chains it to this present animal body But sure I am that whatsoever it is it is but a weak one Is there any worldly accommodation any creature-toy that should in reason step between a soul and its God Is this life sweet because there are creature comforts to be enjoyed And will it not be a better life when creature comforts shall not be needed And are the pleasures of this body the comforts of this life the flattering smiles or fawning embraces of the creature such a mighty contentment to a soul to a soul acquainted with the highest good Hast thou O my soul any such full and satisfying entertainment in thy Pilgrimage as to make thee loath to go home Wilt thou hide thy self with Saul among the stuff among the lumber of the world when thou art sought for to be crowned Are the empty sounds of popular applause the breaking bubbles of secular greatness the shallow streams of sensual pleasures the smiling dalliance and lisping eloquence of wives and children the flying shadows of creature-refreshments the momentany flourishes of worldly beauty and bravery Are these meat for a soul Are these the proper object or the main happiness of such a divine thing as an immortal soul Why are we not rather weary of this body that makes us so weary of heavenly employment Why do we not rather long to part with that life that parts us from our life And instead of the young Apostles It is good to be here cry out with the sweet singer Oh that one would give me the wings of a Dove that I might fly away and be at rest And now methinks by this time I might be somewhat bold and form my remaining discourse into an Exhortation But it may be you will not bear it all at once therefore I will first begin with a Dehortation to disswade from two evils concerning your body viz. Fear and Fondness 1. Take heed of Fear for the body I speak not so much of those first impressions which our fancyes and animal spirits do make upon our minds though it were to be wished that the mind not so much as once sensate or entertain these but oâ— those acts of the will whereby it doth receive allow cherish these impressions until the Cockatrice egge be hatcht into a Viper I speak not against care and circumspection no nor against that kind of suspicion whereby wise and prudent persons are jealous of circumstances and events and so do watch to prevent remove or manage bodily evils which is called Fear though even in these there may be an extreme a fear where no fear is Psal 53. 5 which is there ascribed to the wicked anâ— elsewhere threatned as a judgement Levit. 26 36. The sound of a shaken leaâ— shall chase them Deut. 28. 65. The Lord shall give thee a trembling heart There is a prudent man who foreseeth the evil and hideth himself Prov. 22. 3. But there are also many fools that hide themselves though they see no evil But I am not speaking of these There is a vast diffeâ—â—â—ce between Care and Fear By Fear I mean that trembling fluctuating tormenting passion that doth not suffer the heart to be at rest but doth as it were unhinge it and loosen the joynts of the soul whether it break out into â—xpressions or no It clouds the understanding unsettles the will disordereth the affections confounds the memory and is like an Earthquake in the soul taking it off from iâ—s own basis destroying the consistency of it and hurling all the faculties into confusion This whether it break out into any unseemly acts or â—o which commonly it doth is it self an unseemly temper for a wise man much more for a godly I might speak as a Philosopher and shew how unbecoming a man and how destructive to him this passion is so much that whilst it doth predominate it almost robs him of that which is his greatest glory even reason it self But to say no worse of it is very opposite if not contrary to that noble grace of Faith whereby the steady soul resteth and lodgeth in the arms of God as in its center But to speak to the thing in hand what an unseemly passion is this we would have the world to believe that we have layd up our happiness in God and that we are troubled that we are so far from him and yet we are afraid lest that should be taken out of the way that keeps us at a distance from him We flatter our selves that we are in haste for Heaven and yet we are dreadfully afraid lest our rubs should be taken out of the way How do these things hang together Are we perswaded that if this earthly house of our tabernacle were taken down we have a building not made with hands eternal in the Heavens If not Why do we yet call our selves Christians But I think I may take it for granted we are all so perswaded And if so Why are we so afraid it should be taken down I am loath to speak what I think yet methinks the entire and ardent love which we either do bear or ought to bear to the Blessed God and union and communion with him should cast out this fear This is suitable to Scripture 1 Joh. 4. 18. I will not dispute how far sinful fear for the body may carry a godly soul the further the worse I am sure But if any will needs be so indulgent to his own passions and so much an enemy to his own peace as to encourage himself to fear which is a strange thing from the example of Abraham denying his wife or Peter denying his Lord let him compare the issue and then let me see whether he dare go and do likewise But if that will not fright you from fear chew upon these two Considerations 1. I pray you seriously dispute the matter with your selves how far fear of sickness and death may consist with that ardent thirst after union and perfect communion with the Blessed God with which we ought to be possest 2. Dispute seriously how far it can stand with the sincerity of a Christian God hath not left us in the dark as to this matter I will turn you to a Text or two which methinks should strike cold to all slavish trembling Professors Prov. 28. 1. Job 15. 20 21. The
happiness When you begin therefore at any time fondly to admire any of these bodily excellencies then think with your selves Oh but all these do not make my soul happy Nay this beautiful outside must stink and be deformed these fair and flourishing members must wither in the dust this active strong and graceful body must be buryed in disgrace and weakness before I can attain to entire and perfect happiness This consideration will advance us to live above the body 3. Be content to be unbodyed for a time Is it true that we can no otherwise be happy no otherwise be present with God know him familiarly enjoy him perfectly and entirely cannot we get to him except we go thorow the dust Be it so then be content to be unbodyed for a time Occidat modo imperet could the Heathen say concerning her Son much rather may a Christian say concerning his Father Let him slay me so my soul may but reign with him which is by his reigning in it Let him kill me so he will but fill me Let him draw me thorow the dust of the earth so he will but draw me out of this dust of the world so he will but draw me nigh unto himself and bring me into a full and inseparable conjunction with my Lord Methinks I need not use many arguments to perswade a soul that is feelingly overpowered mastered ravished with the infinite beauty goodness glory and fulness of his God to be willing to quit a dusty tabernacle for a time wherein it is almost swallowed up to depart and to be entirely swallowed up in him Nay suppose a Christian in the lowest form who hath but chosen God for his highest good and only happiness as every sincere Christian hath methinks he should have learnt this lesson to comply with that infinite perfect will that governs both him and the whole world I cannot conceive a godly soul without the subduing of self-will nor suppose a sincere Saint void at least of the habit of self-resignation Therefore I will add no more concerning this but rise a step higher 4. Long after an unbodyed state desire to depart and to be with the Lord groan within your selves to have morality swallowed up of life in which temper you find the holy Apostle To be content to dye is a good temper a temper scarce to be found I think in any wicked man not from a right principle I am sure But methinks it s no very great thing in comparison of what we should labour to attain to Think on 't a little what a strange kind of cold uncouth phrase it is Such a man is content to be happy Men are not said to be content to be rich but covetous not willing to be honoured but ambitious And why should it only be content to be with God I am perswaded there is no shew nor semblance of satisfactory bliss and happiness for a soul a noble immortal nature but only in the supreme essential perfect absolute good the blessed and eternal good And should not this noble active Being be carryed out with vehement longings after its proper and full happiness as well as this earthly sluggish body is carryed with restless appetite after health and safety and liberty Why should a soul alone be content to be happy when all other things in the world do so ardently court and vehemently pursue their respective ends and several perfections Certainly if the blessed and glorious God should display himself in all his beauty and open all his infinite treasures of goodness and sweetness and fulness within the view of a soul it could not but be ravished with the object earnestly press into his presence ruere in amplexus and with a holy impatience throw it self into his arms There would be need of setting bounds to the Mount to keep it from breaking thorow unto the Lord what is said of the Queen of the South when she had heard the wisdom and seen the glory of Solomon 2 Chron. 9. 4. would be more true of a Christian there would be no more spirit left in him Some have therefore observed the wisdom of God in engaging the soul in so dear a union with the body that it might care for it and not quit it Yea the Heathen observed the wisdom of God in concealing the happy state of a separated soul that so men might be content to live out their time victurosque Dii celant ut vivere durent Foelix esse mori But alas we see but darkly as thorow a glass and our affections towards God are proportionable to our apprehensions of him these are dark and therefore those are dull And oh would to God they were but indeed proportionable for then we should love him only if not earnestly and desire him entirely if not sufficiently Consider what I have hinted concerning the happiness of the soul in the enjoyment of God and what I have more fully demonstrated concerning the bodyes hindering of it and keeping it at a distance and then argue Is happiness the main end of every Being Must not this soul then being a noble and immortal nature needs look out for some high and noble happiness suitable to its excellent self Can that be any where but in the enjoyment of the highest and uncreated good And can this never be attained whilst we are in this animal state in this mortal body that keeps at such a distance Oh why then do we not look out after so much enjoyment of this blessed God as we are now capable of and long after a departure hence that we may enjoy him freely and fully and be eternally happy in him oh be not only content but even covetous But what shall the soul break the cage that she may take her flight God forbid How can he pretend to be a lover of God who is not formed into his will subject to his ordination content to abide in the station that he hath allotted him But if we may not break it to escape yet methinks it may be safe enough with submission to wish it were broken If we may not with Saul dissolve our selves yet with Paul we may desire to be dissolved The perfection that the most Christians attain to is but to desire to live and be content to dye Oh consider what I have said in this matter and invert the order of those words in your hearts Be content to live desire to dye But what would you have us pray for death Answer I speak not of a formal praying either for one or other What the Apostle speaks of the greatest of sins 1 Joh. 5. 16. I am ready to say of this state of freedom from all sin I do not say that ye should pray for it You will tell me that David and Hezâ—kiah prayed for life And I could tell you that Elijah prayed for death 1 King 19 4. he was indeed a man subject to passions James 5. 17. but I believe this was none of them
But I will not enveigle my self in any controversie Methinks the sad consideration layd before your eyes whilst we are in the body we are absent distant from the Lord should wring out an O wretched man that I am c. or an I desire to be dssiolved or if not words yet at least a groan after immortality with our Apostle here We groan within our selves that mortality may be swallowed up of life But can a soul possibly long for the destruction of the body Philosophy indeed tells us that it cannot Be it so yet I 'm sure Divinity teaches that a soul may long after the redemption of the body the redemption of it from this kind of aâ—iâ—al corruptible ensnaring condition that it is now in Rom. 8. 23. We groan within our selves waiting for the redemption of our body If we cannot wish to be unclothed yet we may long to be clothed upon vers 4. of this chapter At least methinks the Heathen should not out-do us who could say Morinolo sed me mortuum esse nihil curo But will all cry Oh if we were sure of interest in it of pardon of sin of truth of grace of eternal life then we could freely leave all Answ 1. That is you would live to be more holy before you dye you are not yet holy enough No nor never shall be till you dye If you long after holiness long to be with God then for that is a state of perfect holiness To desire to live upon pretence of being more holy is a meer fallacy a contradiction But it may be this is not the meaning of the Objection Theresore 2. A not having of what we would have is not an excuse for not doing what we should do It is our duty to rejoyce in the Lord Phil. 4. 4. which our not having of assurance doth not exempt us from though if we have assurance we might indeed rejoyce the more But to take off this plea at once 3. Our earnest longings after a full and perfect enjoyment of God and so our breathings after an immortal state doth not depend upon our assurance but indeed assurance rather depends upon that I doubt we are commonly mistaken in the nature of assurance and it may be are in a wrong manner curious about the signs of Christs appearing in our souls For certainly a well grounded assurance of the love of God doth most discover and unfold it self in the growth of true godliness in the soul Now the love of God and an earnest desire to be like unto him and to be with him is the better half of all religion Mat. 22. 37 38. so that it rather seems that assurance springs up from this frame of soul than that this arises out of assurance If assurance be the thing that you desire get your souls joyned to God in a union of affections will and ends and then labour and long to be closer to him liker to him perfectly holy and happy in him and be ye assured that Christ is in you of a truth For these mighty works which he hath wrought these divine breathings these holy pantings after him do bear witness of him 4. Whether ever you come to that feeling knowledge that powerful sense of your state or no which you call assurance yet know that it is your duty to long after immortality We are wont to call assurance the priviledge of some few but the Scripture makes this temper that I am speaking of the duty of all Believers which I do the rather name because I find few Professors of this temper and indeed but few that are willing to believe that they ought to be Our Saviour calls all Believers to as much in effect as I do Luk. 21. 28. Look up and lift up your heads for the day of your redemption draweth nigh whereby is not meant a bare posture and speculation but joy and longing are required by that phrase say the Dutch Annotat. See also Rev. 22. 17. Consider further which methinks should strike cold to the hearts of cold-hearted Professors that this very temper is made one of the greatest characters of true and sincere Saints I do not know of any one oftner named See Rom. 8. 23. We groan within our selves waiting for the redemption of our body 2 Tim. 4. 8. The Lord shall give the Crown to them that love his appearing Tit. 2. 13. We should live godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 3. 12. What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hastening to the coming of the day of God! Jude 21. Keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Do all these plain and pathetical Scriptures stand for cyphers in your eye Methinks they should not But not to stand upon the proof of it to be a duty it matters not whether there be an express command for it or no This that I am speaking of is not so much the duty of godly persons as the very nature genius and spirit indeed of godliness iâ— self Methinks a godly soul that is truly toucht with divine goodness influenc't by it and imprest with it as the Needle is with the Loadstone must needs strive powerfully within it self to be in conjunction with it A holy soul that after all its wearisome defeats and shameful disappointments in the creature finds its self perfectly matcht with this infinite full and perfect object must certainly and necessarily be carryed without any other argument with fervent longings after union to it and communion with it The Spouse might say concerning Christ as he concerning her Cant. 6. 12. Or ever I was aware my soul made me like the chariots of Aminadab And every godly soul may in some degree say with that Spouse Cant. 5. 4 5. My Beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door and my bowels were moved for him I rose up c. Tell me friends How can Divine Grace that Well of living water in the soul chuse but spring up into eternal life John 4 14. I doubt not to affirm that that which is of God in the soul must needs carry the soul after God as it belongs to Heaven so it will belonging towards Heaven That which is of a divine original must needs have a divine tendency that which is of divine extraction will have in it a divine attraction and persue a divine perfection Col. 3. 1. That divine life and spirit that runs thorow godly souls doth awaken and exalt in some measure all the powers of them into an active and chearful sympathy with that absolute good that renders them compleatly blessed Holiness and purity of heart will be attracting God more and more to it self and the more pure our souls are and the more separate from earthly things the more earnestly will they
endeavour the nearest union that may be with God and so by consequence methinks they must needs in some sense desire the removal of that animal life and dark body that stands in their way for they know that that which now letteth will let such is the unchangeable nature of it till it be layd in the dust till it be taken out of the way The thirsty King did but cry for water of the Well of Bethlehem and his Champions broke thorow the Host of the Philistines and fetcht it 2 Sam. 23. 15. And will ye not allow the thirsty soul if not to break thorow to fetch it yet at least to break out into an Oh that one would give me to drink of the living water of the fountain of grace and peace and love Will ye allow hunger to break down stone-walls and will ye neither allow the hungry soul to break down these mud-walls nor to wish within it self that they were broken down In a word then give me leave earnestly to press you to an earnest pressing after perfect fruition of and eternal converse with God and to change the Apostles words Heb. 12. 1. Seeing we are compassed about with so great a divine light and glory and brightness let us be willing and desirous to lay aside this weight of flesh and this body that so easily resists us with sins and snares and run with eagerness to the object that is set before us Amen Amen Draw me we will run after thee THE Angelical Life MAT. 22. 30. Are as the Angels of God in Heaven THE Doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ and the great things of Christian Religion as they were accounted a strange thing by all the world when they were first publisht and preacht so indeed by none less entertained or rather more opposed than by the wisest of men living in that age viz. Scribes Pharisees Sadduces who were the disputers of this world as the Apostles phrase is 1 Cor. 1. 20. A thing of wonderful observation not only to us in our day but even to our blessed Lord himself in the dayes of his flesh who fetches the cause of it from Heaven and adores the infinite Wisdom of God in it Mat. 11. 25. Amongst other set Disputations that the Saddâ—ces held with our Saviour this in this chapter is very famous where they dispute against the Resurrection of the dead by an argument fetcht ab absurdo vers 25. grounded upon an instance of a woman that had been married to seven Husbands successively Now say they if there be a Resurrection whose Wise shall she be then our Saviour answers by destroying the ground of their argument and shewing that they disputed upon a false supposition for saith he In the Resurrection there shall be no marrying but men shall be as the Angels of God In which words this Doctrine is plainly layd down for I shall not meddle with the Controversie Doct. That the glorified Saints shall be as the Angels of God in Heaven The other Evangelists do lay down the same truth as you may find Mark 12. 25. Luk. 20. 36. In the explication of which point I will shew 1. Negatively wherein the Saints shall not be like the Angels 2. Affirmatively wherein they shall be like unto them or as St. Luke hath it equal to them 1. Negatively The glorified Saints shall not be like the Angels in essence The Angelical essence and the rational soul are and shall be different Souls shall remain souls still keep their own essence The essence shall not be changed souls shall not be changed into Angelical essences 2. They shall not be wholly spirits without bodyes as the Angels The spirit of just men now made perfect are more line to the Angels in this sense than they shall be after the Resurrection For now they are spirits without bodyes but the Saints shall have bodyes not such as now so corruptible so crazy not in any thing defective not needing creature supplyes But incorruptible glorious bodyes in some sense spiritual bodyes which are described by three characters 1 Cor. 15. 42 43. Incorruptible somewhat more than immortal glorious powerful Neither doth their having bodyes any whit abate of their perfection or glory nor render them inferior to the Angels for even the glorious Redeemer of the world hath a body who is yet superior to the Angels and he shall change the vile bodyes of the Saints and make them like unto his glorious body Phil. 3. ult 3. Neither have we any ground to believe that the Saints shall be altogether equal to the Angels in dignity and glory But rather that as man was at first made a little lower than the Angels so that he shall never come to be exalted altogether so high as they for it seemeth that the natural capacity of an Angel is greater than of a 〈◊〉 and so shall continue for they are distinct kinds of creatures As a beast cannot become so wise and intelligent as a man for then he would cease to be a beast so neither can a man become so large and capable as an Angel for then he would cease to be a man 2. Affirmatively The glorified Saints shall be like the Angels of God in Heaven first In their qualities that is 1. In being pure and holy whether they shall be equal to them in positive holiness or no I know not whether they shall understand and know and love God in all degrees as much as the Angels It seems rather that they shall not because as I said before their capacity shall not be so large But if in this they be not altogether equal to the Angels yet it implyes no imperfection for they shall be positively holy as far as their nature is capable and so shall be perfect in their kind Heb. 12. 23. The spirits of Just men made perfect They shall in this be like unto the Angels if not equal to them yea like unto God himself in it Be ye holy as I am holy 1 Pet. 1. 15. Mat. 5. ult But as to negative holiness the Saints shall be even equal to the Angels of God in Heaven i. e. they shall have no more sin no more corruption than they have They shall be as perfectly freed from all iniquities imperfections and infirmities as the Angels What can be cleaner than that which hath no uncleanness at all in it Why so clean shall all the Saints be Rev. 21. 27. No unclean thing shall enter into Heaven They shall be without all kind of spot or blemish Ephes 5. 27. which is a perfect negative holiness more cannot be said of the Angels in this respect As branches of this 2. As the holy Angles do reverence the Divine Majesty Isa 6. 2 3. they cover their faces with their wings crying Holy Holy Holy Lord of Hosts so shall the glorified Saints You may see what sweet harmony they make consenting together to give all the glory of all to God Rev. 7. 9 11 12. The Saints
a particular pinching love Oh take heed of this creature-love of valuing any created thing any otherwise than in God any otherwise than as being from God partaking of him and leading to him 3. Live not upon Ordinances These are Gods institutions love them cleave to them attend upon them let no temptation cause you to leave them but live not upon them place not your Religion place not your hope your happiness in them but love them only in God attend upon them yet not so much upon them as upon God in them lie by the Pool but wait for the Angel love not no not a divine ordinance for its own sake Why who doth so Alas who almost doth not 1. Thus did they in Ezek. 33. 32. who delighted in the Prophets eloquence and in the Rhetorick of his Sermons as much as in a well tuned voice and harmonious musick and so do thousands in England who read the Bible for the style or the stories sake and love to sit under learned and elegant discourses more for accomplishment than for conversion And swarms of Priests who preach themselves more than Christ Jesus even in his own ordinances as a proud Boy rides a horse into the Market to set forth himself more than his Masters goods 2. But there are many not so gross as these who do yet use ordinances in a way very gross and unspiritual placing their devotion in them and sinking their Religion into a settled course of hearing or praying who will wait upon God as they call it at some set and solemn times New Moons and Sabbaths it may be evening and morning but Religion must not be too busie with them nor intermeddle in their ordinary affairs or worldly employments it hath no place there they do not count it a garment for every dayes wear 3. And not only these but even almost all men are too apt to seek rest in duties and ordinances or at least to be pretty well satisfied with the work done whether they have conversed with God there or no Oh if you love your souls seek you happiness higher conversing with divine ordinances I confess is honourable and amiable but it is too low a life for an immortal soul Affirmatively Let nothing satisfie you but God himself take up with no pleasure no treasure no portion no paradise nay no Heaven no happiness below the infinite supreme and self-sufficient good Let your eye be upon him and his all-filling sulness let your desire be unto him and to the remembrance of his name follow hard after to know the Lord and to enjoy the Father through his Son Jesus Christ let your fellowship be with the Father and with the Son by the spirit 1 Joh. 1. 3. O love the Lord all ye his Saints Psal 31. 23. yea love him with all your soul and all your strength Mat. 22. 37. yea and keep your selves alwayes in the love of God Jude 21. persevere and increase in the love of God Keep your selves in the love of God Oh sweet duty Oh amiable pleasant task Oh sweet and gratesul command Away ye crowd of creatures I must keep my heart for my God Away ye gawdy suitors away ye glittering toyes there is no room for you My whole soul if its capacity were ten thousand times larger than it is were too scant to entertain the supreme good to let in infinite goodhess and fulness Oh charge it upon your selves with the greatest vehemence love the Lord O my soul keep thy self in the love of God let the love of God constrain you and keep your selves under the most powerful constraints of it In a word live upon God as upon uncreated life it self drink at the fountain seed upon infinite fulness depend upon Almighty Power refer your selves to unsearchable wisdom and unbounded love see nothing but God in the creature taste nothing but God in the world delight your selves in him long for communion with him and communications from him to receive of his fulness grace for grace Then do we live most like Angels when we live most purely in God and find all the powers of our souls spending themselves upon him and our selves our life and all the comforts of it flowing from him and again swallowed up in him But because we are yet in the body I shall explain it in these following particulars 1. Converse with God in all your Selfexcellencies I bade you before not converse with these now I say converse with God in these Thus do the Angels they know nothing that they have of their own they enjoy nothing distinct from God They are excellent creaturs excellent in knowledge power holiness c. yet they enjoy all their excellencies in God and ascribe them all to him Rev. 7. 12. And so let us labour to do 1. View your selves not in your own particular Beings but in the Essence of God look upon your selves as being and subsisting in the midst of an Infinite Essence in which the whole Creation is as it were wrapt up and doth subsist 2. And what ever excellency you find in your souls or bodyes look not upon it as your own maintain not a Meum and Tuum a distinction of interests beâ—ween God and your selves but look upon all as Gods and enjoy it in him 3. When you find your selves tempted to cast a fond and unchaste look upon the beauty strength activity or temper of your own bodyes upon the ingenuity wisdom constancy courage composedness of your own souls take heed of settling into a selfish admiration of any of them but enjoy them in God and say This O my body this O my soul is no other than the portraicture of the Blessed God these created excellencies are broken beams of the infinite unspotted uncreated perfections Jer. 9. 23 24. Having once attained to this we shall no longer covet to be admired desire to be commended fret at being undervalued I mean not in a selfish manner but rather break out in a spiritual passion with the psalmist Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works in the children of men Psal 107. 8. 3. Nay let me add when you find your selves ready to put your own stamp upon Gods best coin to look upon supernatural gifts and graces with a sinful selfish admiration remember that you have them only in Christ Jesus and enjoy them in your head labour to enjoy grace it self only in Christ as the Apostle Gal. 2. 20. I yet not I but Christ in me I laboured yet not I but the grace of God 1 Cor. 15. 10. So ought we to glory I believe I love I am patient penitent humble yet not I but the grace of God that is with me Christ Jesus that dwelleth in me And indeed a godly man who thus lives at the very height of his own Being yea and above it too knows best how to reverence himself yea and to love himself too and yet without any self-love For he