This is laid as a heavy accusation Job 39.21 For this hast thou chosen rather than affliction To choose iniquity rather than affliction is the greatest folly imaginable It is one great part of the misery of Hell that they never cease from sinning and this is the greatest misery on earth our being so much under the power of sin I appeal to any gracious soul that hath the feeling of the burden of sin what is it's great trouble and sorrow is it not because of sin What are his secret moans to God is it not the sence of corruption Oh wrethed man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death saith Paul Rom. 7. He had been complaining of the mass of corruption that did still press hard upon him and in the strong workings of his spirit against it he calls it The body of death It was as grievous to him as if he had been bound to a stinking rotten carcase How wretched then is the state of every soul unacquainted with God Who can do nothing but sin because they want the right rule of action a right pattern of imitation a right principle for action a right object for action a right end for action the only assistance of action It concerns us then as we make any difference between good and evil if we have any respect unto holiness and purity before sin and iniquity to see to get acquaintance with God because without acquaintance with God we are in a woful necessity of sinning 2. Without acquaintance with God we are in a necessity of misery Indeed sin is a great misery and to be in a necessity of sinning is part of the necessity of misery But besides that there is a necessity of misery of another kind What is the great imployment of men unacquainted with God Men labour in the very fire and weany themselves for very vanity Habak 2.13 This was the misery of men because they know not God But in verse 14. there is a promise of better days When the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Then and not till then will there be a deliverance from labouring in the fire when there is the knowledg of God The reason of it is because true satisfaction and peace cannot be till our desires and enjoyments are alike and this cannot be till the soul is acquainted with God For nothing can fill up the desires of the soul but God The soul of man is mighty spacious so that it cannot be filled with the world and while it feels an emptiness it still cryes out for more and cannot be filled till it be filled with the fulness of God Ephes 3.19 The prodigal son had nothing but husks to feed upon when he was gone from his fathers house he would faine have filled his belly with the husks but could not they were not food for the soul When we are departed from God we have nothing to feed on but the world and we would fill our souls with the world but cannot for it is not food for the soul Acquaintance with God is the food of the soul Job 23.12 I have esteemed the words of his mouth more then my necessary food So that a soul that is not acquainted with God is famished for want of food Psal 42.2 My soul thirsteth for God for the living God When shall I come appeare before God David was acquainted with God but for want of an actual enjoyment how doth he here breath out the trouble of his spirit As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God The soul is still panting Some pant after the dust of the earth Amos 2.7 These were of the Serpents seed whose curse from God was Dust shalt thou eat but the seed of Christ they pant for God they that pant after God shall be filled with the fulness of God but he that panteth after any thing besides God will never find any fulness he will feed as upon the dust of the earth And what can follow but dissatisfaction and misery Acquaintance with God is the only way to be freed from a necessity of sin and misery Fifthly Acquaintance with God is the duty of man because God himself doth acquaint himself with man Shall the King seek after acquaintance with the meanest of his Subjects and he refuse acquaintance with his Soveraign shall God acquaint himself with man and shall not man acquaint himself with God! It is expected among men that the inferiour should seek for acquaintance with the Superiour and not the Superiour to the inferiour but yet God out of his wonderful love hath sought first to man for acquaintance Thus Prov. 8.31 it is said concerning the son of God who is meant by the Eternal Wisdom of the Father that he rejoyced in the habitable parts of the earth his delight was with the sons of men If God thus delights in converse and acquaintance with the sons of men how much more ought men to rejoyce in converse and acquaintance with God Isa 65.1 God saith I am found of them that sought me not All men were departed from God and not a man that did seek after God there is none that understands or seeks after God yet God is found of them The good shepherd seeks his lost sheep before the sheep sought him Cant. 5.2 When the soul is asleep it hears the voice of its Beloved that knocks saying Open to me my sister my love my dove my underfiled Revel 3.20 There Christ saith to the revolting Church that he was ready to spew them out of his mouth Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man will hear me and open the door I will come in and sup with him and he with me Psal 68 18. Thou hast ascended on high thou hast led captivity captive thou hast received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them Is it not becoming then that man should open when God knocks He seeks to dwell among the rebellious is it not fit that man should enter into acquaintance with God when God doth thus acquaint himself with man Thus I have opened to you the Nature of Acquaintance with God and evidenced it to be the Duty of Man to acquaint himself with God let us now make some improvement of this Truth USE 1. First Is there to be an acquaintance between the soul and God Let us then stand and wonder at the great condescention of God! This may surprise our souls with an extasie of admiration that God should dwell with man that the mighty Jehovah should have such respect to the work of his hands Psal 113.5 6. Who is like unto the Lord who dwelleth on high who humbled himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in earth The Psalmist admireth God that he humbled himself to behold things that are in heaven and how much
stirring up of the Soul and awakening all it's strength to wrestle with God to lay hold upon God and to prevail with the Almighty and where are such as these to be found who is this that engages his heart in the service of God It is one thing to engage the tongue and another thing to engage the heart Men come to pray with a common Spirit and are many times weary of the work before they have well begun it what they do they do it lifelessly They can follow their worldly Imployments with life and delight They have Male in their flock but that 's too good for God a lame blind starved weak thing must serve his turn And is this the way to have the blessing Are such as these like to have any thanks for their kindness Let them try how any of their Friends would take such a present Now would you have the Blessing of Acquaintance with God you must wrestle for it and not let God go without it You must be Fervent in Spirit serving the Lord you must fight the good fight of Faith and lay hold on Eternal Life You must grasp about Christ as a man that is a drowning would grasp any thing that were thrown out to save him You must use all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure You must work out your Salvation with fear and trembling You must seek for Wisdom as for Silver and search for her as for hid Treasure Then shall you understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledg of God What excellent thing is there that is got without pains Whoever came to be an Exquisite curious Artist in any skil whatever that never served an Apprentiship to it nor at the least gave his mind to it where is there a famous Physitian that never studied in his life Who gets a Victory by sleeping and carelesseness Who expects to have riches drop into his mouth when he goes all the ways that can be to make himself a beggar Doth the Husbandman look for a good Crop without plowing or sowing Why then should we expect such great things as Heaven Eternal happiness and the favour of God without out looking after them Whatsoever the lazy formal professor may say the Kingdom of Heaven is not obtained thus there must be running watching fighting conquering holding fast holding out and all little enough it requires all the strength of thy soul to engage in this great work it requires some resolution to do such a work as every Christian must do or else his Religion signifies little Further it calls for some time too it is not a thing to be minded now and then by the by between sleep and wake when the Devil and the World have had as much service as they call for Were it for your bodies that I were now pleading were you like to get any great matter in the world by following of my directions could you be shew'd a way how to get a great estate honours and long life I am verily perswaded a few words might prevail much Why if you will believe the word of God I am telling you of other kind of things then these be greater matters by far and yet how little are Men and Women affected As if we spoke but in jest always when we spoke about things that did concern Souls How little time do men spend in their inquiry into these things Ask Epictetus Ench. c. 63. And he will tell you that it is a sign of a low Soul to bestow much time upon thy body and the thoughts of it and little upon the Soul to be long eating and long drinking and long a dressing and short in prayer short in the thoughts of the Soul and short in the service of God and that it is a sign of a base degenerate Spirit to be very curious about toys and inconsiderable trifles and to be negligent about matters of the greatest importance to slubber over the great works of Religion with the greatest slightness Remember O man thy great work it is to take care of thy Soul to look after a Companion a Friend for thy Soul to get food and cloathing for thy Soul that that famish not with hunger and cold To be indifferent in all externals is the greatest prudence but to be indifferent about Spirituals and Eternals is the greatest madness We are all Soudiers and must fight in such a War wherein we must never lay down our Arms. The favour of God is worth the striving for it is as much as Heaven and Glory is worth If your estate or life lay at stake would you not be willing to use all the interest you could to make the Judg your friend would you go up and down laughing as if you had nothing to do would you eat and drink as merrily as ever and say it is but dying it is but being a beggar it is but the undoing of my wife and children would you not look upon a man that should argue at this rate to be little better than frantick and I pray which is most considerable the death of the body or the death of the soul the loss of a temporal or the loss of an eternal inheritance Most mens diligence in Temporals will condemn their negligence in Spiritnals Christ said Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven the righteousness thereof but most men say I will seek first the Earth and the glory thereof and if God will give me Heaven and happiness after I have served the Devil and the world as long as I can I shall be contented to have it No such matter never expect it God must sooner cease to be than to gratifie you in this Wherefore do you think did David follow his work so close Why did all those Noble Worthies in the Church of old take so much pains Why should they not much stick to venture estates and lives too Will you condemn them all as guilty of too much curiosity and unnecessary preciseness Do you think that their labour was in vain Are all those disappointed who willingly parted with present things for future things I must tell you if you expect to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven you must do as they did Heaven will not be obtained now upon any lower Term than then Your Souls are as precious as their's and Heaven will be as well worth your minding as theirs and God will look upon you as well as upon them if you will value his favour as they did Never look to have God give you that which you will not thank him for What do you say after all this will you sit down before your work is done open thine eyes and consider what thou hast to do and then tell me if it be not the greatest folly imaginable to be slight in these Affairs O how can'st thou eat or drink or sleep whilst thou hast such a great work to do which is undone O give
are separated from our sins we cannot be united to God Thus ye see our separation from God and our necessity of returning to God before there can be any acquaintance with him Thirdly To our acquaintance with God is required an abiding with God We reckon not our selves acquainted with any person upon the first meeting or when there hath passed but a word or two between us but it is supposed to acquaintance that we have made a considerable stay with him and have had frequent access to him Thus it is between God and us we must not only come to him but abide with him or else we shall never be acquainted with him Joh. 8.13 If ye continue in my Word then are ye my Disciples So I say if you return to God and continue with God then shall ye be acquainted with him indeed Acquaintance signifies not a bare Act but a State or Habit. Now this is the difference between an Act and a State that an Act is passing and is gone but a State signifies an abiding and continuance There may be a drawing nigh to God without abiding and continuing with God upon some deep Conviction or strange providence or eminent danger as it is said In their affliction they will seek me early Yet they may soon forget and forsake God This is but a seeming and practical approaching to God a drawing nigh in appearance when the heart is far from God but that approaching to God which makes acquaintance with God is abiding with him Those that are acquainted with a spiritual life know these things what they are and that they are the greatest realities in the world they know that sometimes there is a greater nearness of their souls to God they are sensible of the approaches of their heart to God and of the withdrawing of their souls from God they know what it is for the soul to feel the approaches of God and his smiles sill their souls with unspeakable Comfort And to feel God withdrawing from the soul this clouds their joy and makes them go mourning They can tell you at such a time they were brought unto his Banquetting-house and his Banner over them was Love They can tell you at such time Christ came into his Garden to eat his pleasant Fruits at such a time they heard the voice of their Beloved saying Open to me my Sister my Spouse my Love my Dove my Vndefiled And when the soul hath neglected this knock of Christ to open to him that then he hath withdrawn I opened to my Beloved but my Beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone These things are the experiences of a precious child of God which I fear are little felt and little known amongst us but where these things are not there is no acquaintance with God For First They do know him Secondly They draw nigh to him they have near access to him Thirdly They have intimate Converse with him This is another thing required to acquaintance We are not said to be acquainted with any person unless we have had intimate converse with him We may be next Neighbours and yet have no Acquaintance unless our conversation hath been mutual So it is between God and us there may be a nighness between the Soul and God and yet no Acquaintance between the Soul and God We are nigh to God in our dependance upon him we are near to God by his immediate providence and sustentation of us and by his Omnipotence There is a nearness to God by way of Dedication As God set apart the Children of Israel to be a people near unto himself so the visible Church of God is nearer to him then those that are not of the Church There is a nearness of Dedication among us by Baptism But all this may be without Acquaintance There is therefore required to our Acquaintance with God an intimate converse with God We have great converse with those who are of the Family or society with us Now such is our acquaintance with God as those who are of his Family God is called the Father of the Families of all the earth and the visible Church is reckoned as Gods Family but in a great Family there may be little Acquaintance with those persons which be of remote employments but to acquaintance with God there must be such a relation as implies familiar converse This intimacy that the people of God have to him is expressed by the nearest relations in Scripture As Abraham is called The Friend of God 2 Chron. 20.7 Jehoshaphat prayes unto God and saith Art not thon our God who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel and gave it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh to his Friend Exod. 33.11 John 15.15 Henceforth I call you not servants but friends for the servant knows not what his Lord doth but I have called you Friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you Now by Friend is commonly understood a state of converse and society one with another And this intimacy is expressed likewise by the relation of Husband and Wife Isa 54.5 For thy Maker is thy Husband Hos 2.7 Then shall she say I will go and return to my Husband for then was it better with me than now By Husband there is meant God And the whole Book of the Canticles is a relation of the mutual converse betwixt God his people betwixt Christ and his Church under the relation of a Bridegroom and his Spouse Now what converse more intimate than between Husband and Wife Such is that between a soul acquainted with God and God Again this is shadowed out to us under the relation of a Father and his Children 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of Love the father hath be stowed upon us that we should be called his sons And the holy Spirit is given to be the Spirit of Adoption in the hearts of Gods people Rom. 8.15.16 Ye have received the spirit of Adoption whereby ye cry Abba Father The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God What is signified by this Relation but a nigh union and intimate converse between the soul and God And this is necessary to our acquaintance with God even intimate converse with God By this I mean a nearness of employment when the Objects of our employments are the same then are we said to converse with God when we are employed about those things wherein God is most When there is as it were a mutual commerce and trading between the soul and God man giving himself up to God and God giving himself out to man man taking up the interest of God and God undertaking for the interest of man these such like actings are the converse which the soul hath with God I speak of things which the men of the world are not acquainted with
but those that are acquainted with God know these things and upon the mention of them their hearts leap within them As face answereth to face in a glass so experience answereth these things When this string is struck their hearts do harmonize as when a Lute-string is struck the other strings of nighest concord with it move also But these things are a mystery to the world and they say as those of Christs word We know not what he saith And it is no wonder for they are the actings of a Divine life to which all are naturally dead till they are raised to newness of life by the quickning of the spirit of God But I proceed to shew what is meant by this acquaintance with God Fourthly To this Acquaintance with God there is required a mutual Communication Where there is acquaintance between man and man there hath been a mutual Interchange of conference and discourse Thus when the soul is acquainted with God there is an Interchange of conference between God and the soul The soul openeth its wants breaths out its complaints spreadeth its necessities before God God openeth the treasures of his love in his Son the rich Mynes of his precious Promises and the secrets of his good Will to the soul Thus Psal 25.15 The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Gen. 18.17 The Lord saith shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do Those that are friends and acquaintance they will let out their thoughts and purposes one to another they gave out themselves mutually into communion one with another Thus Christs knocks at the door of the soul Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in and sup with him and he with me Here is Christ offering himself to the soul the soul is to entertain him at another time the soul goes to God and God entertains it God hath promised that he will open Mat. 7.28 Knock and it shall be opened unto you and to him that knocks it shall be opened There are frequent actions among those that are acquainted And by these are expressed to us the acquaintance of the soul with God Now the Communications that are between the soul and God are exceeding transcending all communications that are between mens acquaintance Men may communicate their thoughts their estates their assistance to one another but they cannot communicate their life nor their nature nor their likeness but such communications there are between God and the soul that is acquainted with him All being is a communication from God the first being nay the several degrees of being have several communications from God some greater and some lesser spiritual beings have a higher communication then natural but Gods highest communications have been to man in that mystical Union of the Divine Nature to the Humane Nature in Christ and next in the mystical Union of the Sons of God to Christ and in him to the Father Thus Christ is said to live in us Colos 2.20 I live saith Paul yet not I but Christ liveth in me Thus Christ prays the Father for his Children that they may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they be one in us Joh. 4.17 21. Joh. 1.15 16. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God 2 Pet. 1.4 We are said to be partakers of the Divine Nature This expression implyes high communication of God to man Again there are high acts of communication from man to God for though God receives not from man yet man is to act as giving out himself to God such as to give up the will to Gods will As that of Eli It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good And that of David 2 Sam. 15.16 If he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do with me as seemeth good unto him Another act of high Communication of a mans self to God is parting with present enjoyments for future hopes in confidence of Gods promise Thus the Spirit of God works in the children of God a readiness to forsake Father or Mother and Brethren and Sister and life it self for the cause of God Thus John Baptist was willing to become Nothing that Christ might become All to be cast down that Christ might be lifted up Joh. 3.13 He must increase but I must decrease Thus Abraham gives his Isaack to dye when God calls for him Thus Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt Heb. 11.26 Paul counted not his life dear for Christ Acts 20.24 These have been the actings of the souls of those that have been acquainted with God and such workings as these are the feeling of a child of God I have shewed you four things which are requisite to acquaintance with God First Knowledg of God Secondly access to him Thirdly Converse with him Fourthly Communication to him and from him Fifthly There is likewise required to acquaintance a loving compliance Amongst men Acquaintance implyes Affection And so it is between God and Man Never any soul was acquainted with God that did not love God and such a soul is an enemy to God therefore very few are acquainted with God but all that are not acquainted with God are enemies to God If we should come to a person that is not acquainted with God and say Thou art an enemy to God this would seem a heavy imputation but I speak it freely thou whosoever thou art that art not acquainted with God thou art an enemy to God for thou art still as thou we'rt born but we are all enemies to God according to our corrupt nature and abide enemies till we come to be acquainted with God Love to God and acquaintance with God go together are heightned by one another First God lets into the soul by his Spirit a partial discovery of himself and by this with the working of his Spirit he incline the heart in love to him Then on the first working of the soul towards God he lets in a clear light whereby he draweth the soul to a further degree of love A clear place for this Ephes 3.17 18. And that being rooted and grounded in love ye may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the length and breadth and depth and heighth and to know the love of God which passeth all understanding that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God The love of God fits the soul to comprehend the glorious discoveries of God and the discoveries of God doth heighten our love to God Acquaintance with God makes us like unto God as in Joh. 3.2 We shall see him as he is And our likeness to God as it makes us the delight of God so it makes us delight in God
Christ for he is our peace who hath made both one In verse the tenth is a description of our state withour Christ being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel being strangers from the Covenant of promise and having no hope and without God in the world This is a description of our unacquaintance with God But Christ makes up the breach and that by a double Act. First by Covenant with the Father to make man sit for communion with him Secondly His giving man assurance that the Father will receive him upon his return This then is the great design in all those glorious accomplishments of Christ for this he left his Fathers bosome that he might bring us into acquaintance with the Father for this end did he who thought it no robbery to be equal with the Father make himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man and being sound in fashion of a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross that he might bring man into a re-union with God for this end did Christ live a wearisome troublesome life among a company of Rebells and Enemies as if a man should live among Toads and Serpents So that he cryed out as weary of any longer abiding with them Oh faithless generation How long shall I be with you How long shall I suffer you For this did he make himself an offering for sin that by taking away sin he might bring men to God This is the great purpose of Christ in all his offices Ye have heard of the three Offices of the Mediator that he is a Priest a Prophet and a King This is the end of the Priestly Office The purpose of Christs offering up himself a Sacrifice was by satisfying the justice of God to make way for sinners return to God This is the end of his prophetical Office to lead men into knowledg and acquaintance with God This is the end of his Kingly Office that governing them and ruling their hearts by his Spirit he might effectually bring men to God to acquaintance with him Now then since this is the great design of God in his great dispensation towards man to keep men in acquaintance with himself and to reduce him when he had lost it doth it not concern us to do our part for the bringing to pass this great work shall God lose his end in making us and in setting man in the world every way furnished for his service and shall God lose his end in sending his Son to receive us when we had forsaken him Shall Christ leave his Fathers bosom to bring us home to the Father and shall we refuse to return Shall he pour out his soul an offering for sin that he might make way for our access to God that we who were far off might be made nigh by the blood of Christ and shall we frustrate all by our refusing to go to him shall Christ come and offer us his help and direction to come to the Father and shall we abide still strangers Shall the Kings Son come into our Cottages to invite us to dwell with his Father at Court and shall we shut the door upon him esteeming our Cottages better than his Pallace Secondly It is the duty of man to acquaint himself with God because therein is the improvement of his highest excellency Every one acknowledgeth an excellency in man above all the rest of this lower world Now what is this excellency of man Is it not that he is made in a capacity of knowing God and enjoying God and having Communion with God This is the height of his glory Jer. 9.23 24. Thus saith the Lord let not the wise man glory in his wisdom let not the mighty man glory in his might nor the rich man in his riches but let him that glorieth glory in this that he understands and knoweth me that I am the Lord that exercise loving kindness and righteousness in the earth and judgment for in these things I delight saith the Lord. Yee see here wherein man is to glory for which he may value himself as truly glorious In his understanding and knowing of God man standeth above the rest of the Creatures in that he is a rational intellectual Agent This is part of the Image of God even knowledg Col. 3.15 which is renewed in knowledg after the Image of him that created him The nigher any thing resembleth God the greater is the excellency of that thing now in this we resemble God more than any other Creature in that we are knowing understanding Agents and the highest improvement of this excellency of man is in the knowledg of God and acquaintance with God Prov. 20.27 The spirit of a man is called the candle of the Lord that is it is a light set up in the soul to direct the soul to a discovery of God This is the highest improvement of our greatest excellency this is the excellency of man above other Creatures this is that whereby one man excels another Who are those whose names are as precious ointment poured forth who are those which have obtained a good report Are not they those who were most acquainted with God Enock is said to walk with God an expression which signifies intimate acquaintance with God and therefore was translated that he should not see death And Noah whose family alone was preserved when God destroyed the old World by water he was said to walk with God Gen. 6.9 Among all the sons of men he kept close to God and God took care of him alone Abraham who was the Father of the Faithful he was called the Friend of God Moses who was the Mediator of the old Covenant he was said to speak with God face to face as a man speakoth to his friend I might make mention of many more who were the excellent ones of the earth because they did delight in God God delighted in them Mal. 3.16 17. They that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard and the book of remembrance was written for them that fear the Lord and that thought upon his name And they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in the day when I make up my Jewels Ye see how God accounts of those that are of his acquaintance that met together and spake of God and that thought upon his name he reckons them amongst his Jewels his peculiar Treasure Such honour have all those that are acquainted with God Ye see then the excellency of man above all the rest of the other Creatures Now if man fail in this which is his highest excellency he will become the vilest of Creatures Every thing if it fail in its chiefest end and purpose and highest excellency becomes base and of no account If salt lose its savour saith our Saviour it is good for nothing If man have lost his acquaintance with God he is
more then is he to be admired that he humbled himself to acquaint himself with man Let us than be filled with admiration that God should take us so nigh unto himself As Psal 8.4 What is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou shouldest visit him And Joh. 7.17 18. What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him and that thou shouldest set thy heart upon him and that thou shouldest visit him every morning Man in the pride of his heart seeth no such great matter in it but an humble soul is filled with astonishment Isa 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty One which inhahiteth eternity whose name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Oh saith the humble soul will the Lord have respect unto such a vile worm as I am will the Lord acquaint himself with such a sinful wretch as I am Will the Lord open his arms his bosome his heart to me shall such a loathsome creature as I find savour in his eyes In Ezek. 16.15 We have a relation of the wonderful condescention of God to man who is there resembled to a wretched infant cast out in the day of its birth in its bloud and filthiness no eye pitying it such loathsome creatures are we before God and yet when he passed by and saw us polluted in our bloud he said unto us live It is doubled because of the strength of its nature it was the time of Love vers 8. This was love indeed that God should take a filthy wretched thing and spread his skirts over it and cover its nakedness and swear unto it and enter into a covenant with it and make it his that is that he should espouse this loathsome thing to himself that he would be an husband to it this is love unfathomable love unconceivable self-principled love this is the love of God to man for God is love Oh the depth of the riches of the bounty and goodness of God! How is his love wonderful and his grace past finding our How do you find and feel your hearts affected upon the report of these things do you not see matter of admiration and cause of wonder Are you not as it were lanched forth into an Ocean of goodness where you can see no shoar nor feel no bottom Ye may make a Judgement of your selves by the motions and affections that ye feel in your selves at the mention of this For thus Christ judged of the Faith of the Centurion that said unto him Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof Mat. 8.8 When Jesus heard this he marvailed and said to them that followed him I say unto you I have not found so great faith no not in Israel If then you feel not your souls mightily affected with this condescention of God Say thus unto your souls What aileth thee O my soul that thou art no more affected with the goodness of God Art thou dead that thou canst not feel Or art thou blind that thou canst not see thy self compassed about with astonishing goodness Behold the King of glory descending from the habitation of his Majesty and coming to visit thee hearest not thou his voice saying Open to me my sister behold I stand at the door and knock Lift up your selves O ye gates and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors that the king of glory may come in Behold O my soul how he waits still while thou hast refused to open to him O the wonder of his goodness O the condescention of his Love to visit me to sue unto me to wait upon me to be acquainted with me Thus work up your souls into an astonishment at the condescention of God USE 2. Secondly Is there to be acquaintance between the soul and God then let us learn to make a right judgement of our own Excellency let us judge of our selves as too high and noble to converse with this base and beggarly world I am of a nobler original then to debase my self to such mean things I am the off-spring of God and shall I acquaint my self with earth I am of the family of God shall I converse with Sathan Is there bread enough in my Fathers house and shall I perish for hunger Lift up thy self O my soul shake off the intanglements of the flesh break out of that bondage of the Devil trample upon the glory of the world and scorn to let out thy precious desires upon dung and dross get the Moon under thy feet cloath thy self with the Sun put on the son of righteousness come into the palace of God and acquaint thy self with him for this is thy glory this is thy excellency Ye precious ones who can call God Father and the son Brother who have fellowship with the Father and the Son who may have communion with the Holy Ghost What do you lying among the Potts What do you raking in Dunghills What do you conversing with the World Have a holy scorn of these things as below the dignity of your souls know your worth esteem of your selves as of more value then all these lower Treasures This is your glory and your excellency that ye are of Gods acquaintance that ye are Sons of God Heirs of God joynt-Heirs with Christ that ye understand and know God There are two things wherein most men are mistaken First In the Nature of Pride Some look upon that only as Pride which manifesteth it self in costly Apparel and bodily Ornaments beyond the degree and rank of the person Some look no further then the carriage of one man towards another Now favourably consider with me that the greatest Pride in the world is mans undue esteem of himself toward God and this is in the heart of every one by nature Every one by nature doth lift up himself against God goes about to dethrone God and to crown himself Every one takes counsel in his heart against the Lord saying Let us break his hands asunder and cast his cords from us This is the voice of every one that dares wilfully to sin We will not have God to rule over us Yet this is the working of the Pride of a man against God to thurst God out of the Throne of his Majesty and to set himself in For what is Gods glory and respect among his creatures Is it not this that he being the beginning and Author of all should be likewise the end of all And this is the very purpose of God in making of man that having received himself from God he should have what he might freely give up to God so that all man is and all that he hath is to be offered to God as the end and center of all Now a sinning creature brings God under to serve him to provide for him Now though this Pride of man against
our selves whether we are acquainted with him or no. Let us every one turn into our own bosoms and ask our selves this question Thou hast heard O my soul that which is thy great Duty that which is the very end of thy Creation and thy Redemption and that the highest perfection of thy noblest faculty consists in knowing God and being acquainted with him which contains a nigh union to him and intimate converse with him and mutual communion to God and from God and radicated unmoveable love to God these are excellent things O my soul what is thy case Art thou one of those precious ones which conversest oft with God and talk oft of God whom he will make up with his Jewels Or art thou one of those wretched Creatures who are alienated from the life of God by reason of the ignorance that is in thee Or art thou one of those who having been sometimes afar off art now made nigh to God by the bloud of Christ and so art lead into fellowship and communion with the Father and the Son by the Spirit Or art thou one of those who looks upon God afar off and upon whom God looks afar off I beseech you every one of you deal seriously and accurately with your selves in this inquiry for it is most certain that most men in the world yea in the visible Church are not acquainted with God Thus it hath been in all generations from the beginning of the world and thus it is at this day the people of God have been like a little flock of sheep while the rest are like locusts covering the whole face of the earth The people of God have still complained that they are but as the gleaning of the vintage and as two or three Olive-berries in the top of the utmost branches when the rest have been gathered The visible Church of God in respect of the rest of the world â—â—w small a part is it In the visible Church how few live up to their Religion by any considerable profession How little difference is there between most among us and Heathens And of those that profess and lay claim to something beyond others among whom they live how many betray their Profession by their wicked practice and worldly conversation So that when we have made enquiry there will remain very few of those that are really acquainted with God it concerns us then to be very diligent in enquiry what is our case how we stand toward God Secondly I shall be the more earnest in pressing you upon a diligent search into what acquaintance you have gotten with God because I know that those that have least acquaintance with God are most apt to neglect this enquiry It may be a tender soul that hath been much with God will be ready upon the first hint to enter into the secrets of its own heart to look over his evidences to call to mind when have I drawn nigh to God When have I conversed with God When have I communion with God Hath my life been a walking with God Have I dwelt with God and made my abode with him Thus the soul that makes high account of its acquaintance with God will be trying and examining it self and it may be upon its more a wakened signs of its sometimes departing from God or feeling some present strangeness it will be apt to conclude of it self surely I am none of those precious ones whose life is a converse with God But the common generation of the world Oh how hardly will they be brought to ask themselves this question whether they are of the acquaintance of God or no! How often have they been urged with a great and vehement affection upon trial how their souls stand towards God and hitherto they have neglected it Many are so inconsiderate as to think what is spoken is nothing to them they come and sit in the Congregation but their hearts are out of reach out of the shot of the Word so they go away and the word to them is as if it had not been Many are so light and vain and frothy in their spirits as that the streams will almost as soon return to their fountain as they will be perswaded to turn in and enquire into their own souls In all naturally there is an averseness to come to the light that their works and hearts may be manifested If I should come to you one by one and beseech you with the greatest earnestness wherewith I were able when you go from the congregation to take opportunity to go in secret and enter upon tryal with your hearts and ask your selves throughly this question and let them not alone till you have a clear determinate answer whether you are in a state of acquaintance with God I fear you would go one to his pleasures another to this vanity and another to his covetousness and almost all of you neglect this work of so great concernment Let me therefore urge you with all earnestness that you will not account it a small matter whether you be acquainted with God or not and so neglect this trial of your selves But bring your hearts up roundly to the examination yield not to their unreasonable withdrawings force them to answer If you make any account of the charge of God if you make any account of the excellency of man if you would not lose the highest priviledge of the Creature if you have any esteem of the life of heaven know your selves in this whether you are in a state of acquaintance with God and be serious and diligent in this enquiery Thirdly Because men are so exceeding apt to be mistaken and to misapprehend concerning themselves that they are in a state of acquaintance with God while they are meer strangers unto him such as those whom our Saviour speaks of Matth. 7.22 23. Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out Devils and in thy name done many wonderful works and then he will profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity They take it for granted that because of such priviledges gifts common graces which they had therefore they were well acquainted with Christ but our Saviour answereth I never knew you that is I never had any acquaintance with you Such are those who are resembled to us by five foolish Virgins Matth. 25.11 The five foolish Virgins come when the door is shut and say Lord Lord open unto us but he answereth Verily I say unto you I know you not that is never had acquaintance with you you never knew me in the time of your life and I will not know you now you were ashamed to own me before men and I will be ashamed to own you before my Father Men are so apt to be mistaken in Judgment of themselves that they think themselves rich and encreasing with goods and to have need of nothing when they
kindness and love and good will and affection If then I can upon search into my self find that God hath the highest room in my affections that my heart is his that his love is prevailing with me above the love of all things beside and that I love those that are his beloved for his sake then I have in me a sign of regal acquaintance with God for love is the very quintessence of acquaintance but if in the search into the workings of my mind I can find no such friendly compliance but that God was still thwarting and crossing my designs that I should find my self better content if there were no God and that those workings of my mind that are about God are sower harsh and tearing upon my spirit then it is to be feared that I have no acquaintance with God And hast thou made an impartial inquiry into thy state And how stand things between thy Soul and God Art thou acquainted with him or art thou not Consider seriously O sinners that this is one of the weightiest questions in the world and if this question were but well resolved it would put an end to a thousand other questions He that can say of God and Christ this is my beloved and this is my friend he need not very solicitously ask what news He hath heard good news from Heaven which will easily ballance all come what will come he need not much pass as long as there stands that one Text in the Bible That all shall work together for good to them that love God He hath no cause to goe a begging to the world and to say who will shew me any good As long as the Lord hath shined upon him with the light of his countenance He need not complain what shall I do I have lost this or that dear friend when he hath found him who can make up all with one look whom he can never lose In a word he need not ask how shall I do to live and what shall I eat and what shall I drink and wherewithall shall I be cloathed So long as he knows that he hath a noble friend who will ease him of all this care and never see him want Well then hast thou answered this great question or not Or wilt thou do by thy conscience as Felix put it off and say thou wilt hear of these matters at some more convenient season and I wonder when that more convenient season will be and why not now I pray What season more fit then the present I am sure God saith Now is the acceptable time and do you know better then he What hast thou to do that is more necessary Speak out I pray is the following of thy pleasures Is the serving of Satan Is the damming of thy Soul more necessary then the saving of it Is the life and death of a Soul nothing Are everlasting glory and misery small matters Is the love or hatred of thy God so inconsiderable a thing Awake O sinner what meanest thou Arise speedily and look about thee man Consider seriously as thou valuest thy Soul what best becomes a sinner in thy condition What answer shall I return to my Master Are not these things worth the thinking of Shall I say for all this that thou art not at leisure to look after an interest in his favour or any thing that rends to it Shall I tell him that thou hast somthing of greater weight and higher importance to trouble your head with And do you in sober sadness think so For you make account that excuse is sufficient I pray then make use of it your self for I dare not When God shall come to ask you why you did no more vigorously mind the getting acquaintance with himself tell him then if you think that answer will serve your turn that you were not at leisure you had such urgeth occasions which took up the whole of your time such and such a friend you had who sent for you to the Tavern and you could not possibly come when he invited you tell him if you believe that plea will hold water that you would have been glad to have come upon his invitation but that you were taken up with such good old friends the World the Flesh and the Devil How do you think such an answer will be taken You may think to put us off with such kind of reasons as this but do you hope by this answer to satisfie your Judge Believe it sinner God will not thus be put off Wherefore I do again with all the earnestness I can for my soul renew by suit to thee that thou wouldest act like a man in his wits make some serious inquiry into the state and condition of thy soul And consider for the Lords sake again and again before you send me away thus what errand I come to you on It is to treat with you about a rich match for thy poor undone soul therefore consider well what you do before you make light of this business and know when you are well offered believe it God will not long send after you in this manner and you are not like every day to have such proffers Divine Patience and Goodness will not always plead at this rate with you God will ere long say let them alone the Lord will ere long speak to scornful sinners in such language that will make their ears to tingle he will despise and slight as well as they and who is like to have the worst of it at last I leave to any rational man to judge The time is coming when your ungodly hearts shall ake to see him whom you might have had for your husband when you shall have him for your Judge whom you might have had for your Advocate And though we could not get you to be willing to be acquainted with him no not so much as to have any serious thoughts about it or to make any enquiry after him to inform your self concerning him yet you shall have him for your enemy whether you will or no. But O let us not part thus let me a man like thy self reason the case a little more with thee come tell me poor ignorant creature thou that still standest demurring and sayst Shall I shall I what evil is there in thy God that thou shouldest be thus hardly brought so much as to discourse this business with thy own soul What is the reason that thou scarce thinkest it worth the while to trouble thy head about any thing that doth concern your interest in his love Thou that mindest his love so little tell me what do'st thou think had become of thee long before this if God had regarded thee as little as thou dost him What wouldest thou have done had the Lord said to any Disease the least of his Messengers fetch that Rebel before me that values not my favour he shall know what my anger is seeing he will not prize my love O what a lamentable
in honour Deut. 26.18 19. And upon this account might a wise man have his choice whether he will wear a Crown and he a stranger to God or rags and be one of his nearest servants he will not stand long before he determine the case he will soon answer with him That he had rather be a door-keeper in the house of God then dwell in tabernacles of wickedness If mens actions may speak their Judgements most of the Gallants of the world are of a far different opinion But O let me dwell for ever in his house and stand always in his presence happy are they that see his face happy are they that behold his beauty This this mans Crown this is his highest honour and dignity for God to be mindful of man and for his Maker to visit him this sets him but little below the Angels this Crowns him with Glory and Honour Psal 8.45 This is that which puts a true personal worth upon any one and therefore the Psalmist thinks those the excellent persons in whom is his delight Upon this account the Scripture saith The righteous man who is in covenant with God is more excellent then his neighbour The pur-blind World they judge altogether by the outward garb they see the face the rich apparel they see the estate but they see not that inward excellency and beauty that may be under but mean habit they are ready to despise the Noble Worthies of the World such as can look upon Kingdoms as small things in comparison of what they have an interest in who can call God Father and Christ Brother Have you never heard of a King in mean apparel of a Prince without his Robes upon his back or his Crown upon his head and will you say that therefore he was but a common person But those heavenly Creatures that have a more spiritual resined sense that understands something of things and Persons are quite of another mind they can look upon great ones in the midst of their gallantry without a friend in Heaven as mean persons that have no interest to speak of and many of them for all their greatness to be in a far worse condition then Dogs and Toads They can also look upon a poor despised Saint a contemned Christian though as to a carnal eye he should look as if he could scarce speak sense to be a favourite of Heaven a person of quality such a one as this he values as the Son of a King a Citizen of Zion one of the Royal Race one of that glorious Retinue that stand always in the presence of God to serve him the least of which are Kings and Priests to their great Lord Rev. 1.6 By faith he sees their Crown and looks upon that Royal Diadem which shall ere long be put upon their princely heads This was the great preferment they sought this was the honour they most desired as for the world and all its glory they can well spare it for those that shall never be advanced to any higher dignity to any better preferment As for the Saint as contemptible as he looks he hath higher designs nobler things greater honours in his eye and if that which the world so admires were the highest glory that a rational creature were capable of the top of mans preferment why then he could look upon brutes themselves as his equals except in this that their pleasures are more certain and their miseries less understood It is storied of Constantine and Valentinian two Roman Emperours that they subscribed themselves Vassellos Christi the vassels of Christ and that Numa Pompilius esteemed it a higher honour to be a Friend of God then a Lord of Men. Consider poor sinner consider what honours you slight what preserments you refuse what dignity you undervalue when you make light of acquaintance with God Had that brave Stoick Epictetus I mean known God in Christ he would much more have wondered at the inconsiderateness of them which make nothing of being related to God as a Father he would much more have pitty'd them which cleave to their lower meaner kindred beast who had rather be like Swine then God and rather be companions to their servants then their Maker Seems it to you but a light matter to be a Kings Son is it but a small matter think you to call God Father is it nothing to be born to a Crown Immortal that sadeth not away This is honour this is preferment worth the having worth the looking after worth the venturing ones life for This is true Nobility to stand thus nearly related to him before whom the Angels do vail their glorious Faces and at whose feet the four and twenty Elders lay their Crowns The Queen of Sheba thought Solomons Servants happy who stood always in his presence and heard this wisdom but what would she have said had she but known the Honour and Glory of his Prince O blessed are those that stand always in thy presence O God blessed are thy servants blessed are those which see thy Glory and hear thy wisdom blessed are they that may have free access to thee O let me have this preferment though I live like Job at his lowest and dye like Lazarus Let others sue for the favour of Princes let them make the best of what the world can give let them desire that which hath been dangerous to more then Haman I hope I should never envy them might I but have more frequent and intimate converse with God may I be but acquainted with him O may I have but a heart more to admire love and delight in him and serve him with the strength and inrensenss of my Soul while I am here and stand for ever in his presence and behold his glorious Face with joy hereafter O my Soul what meanest thou that thou still speakest so faintly and coldly of such infinitely glorious things Why doth not a new life animate thee at the very mention of these things Hast thou not far more cause to raise up thy desponding Spirits with chearfulness then old Lacob when his Son Joseph who was Lord of that Land sent for him into Egypt Thy Father O my Soul thy Brother is Lord not of Egypt nor of Goshen but of Eden of Zion he is the King of that glorious City the new Jerusalem Heaven is his Throne and Earth is his Foot-stool and yet behold the waggons that he hath sent for thee behold the provision that he hath sent to maintain thee comfortably in thy journey from Egypt to Canaan is not this enough O my Soul awake up and see him before thou dyest behold he is coming the Bridegroome is coming Joseph is coming to meet thee with a gallant Train in a glorious Equipage It is but yet a little while and thy husband will come and fetch thee in Royal State attended with a numberless retinue of Saints and Angels O hadst thou but an eye to behold their Chariots and Horsmen coming upon the mountains
he is coming he is coming he will be here quickly he will not tarry he is at the door Contemplate somtimes on these things and a little antedate that Glory by Spiritual mediation do but think what a brave sight that will be to see the mountains covered with Chariots of fire and Horses of fire when the heavens shall bow before thy friend and the earth shall melt at his presence and yet thy heart not faint within thee when the King shall come in the Clouds to fetch his Friends to his own house where they shall dwell for ever This honour have all the Saints Eleventhly He is a suitable friend It is suitableness that sweetens Society I can easily believe a poor Country Peasant can take as much content in the company of a poor man like himself as in the Society of a Prince an unlearned Country man is no way fit to convers with Courtiers and States-men the vastness of the distance would so much swallow his mind and the unsuitableness of his Spirit to such company takes off that content which otherwise he might enjoy But yet in Spirituals though the distance between God and man beyond a possibility of our conception and the disproportion infinite yet the Soul of man being immediately from God and Spiritual like God and having a Divine new Nature infused into it by the Spirit in Regeneration it finds an infinite suitableness pleasure and content in the injoyment of Gods presence and it is not sunk but raised by an Union converse and Society with it's maker The truth of it is did man but understand his own Original aright he would think it infinitely below his noble Parentage to converse with and have intimate delightful Society with any but God and those which bare the same relation to God with himself or to bring poor strangers acquainted with him as well as themselves There is not a match upon earth fit for the Soul of man to be matched to but in that other Country there is a match indeed every way suitable a Spirit for a Spirit and everlasting God for an everlasting Soul a precious Jesus for a precious Soul a holy God for those which he hath made holy like himself and that is none of the least of mans happiness that notwithstanding that infinite distance that is Naturally between him and his God yet that God should make in his Creature such Noble Dispositions and such Divine Qualifications that there should be the greatest suitableness in the World between God and the Soul and the Soul and God and they both take wonderful content in the enjoyment of one another This is in part here but compleated in Glory This we may find oft in Scripture expressed in the nearest Relations and dearest Affections Hence God is said to be a Father and they his Children a Husband and they his Spouse Now what greater suitableness can there be then between Father and Children Husband and Wife God is also said to delight in them and they in him to rejoyce in their company and they in his and how could this be except there was a suitableness in them one to another Their wills are suited what God wills they will and what God loves they love and so what they love as his Friends God loves one doth not thwart and contradict the other O how sweet then must the company the communion of such Friends be O were our hearts as they should be were we more like God we should quickly experience the unspeakable joy of our Souls how suitable a Friend he is to a soul we should soon find that as clay and stones are as unsuitable sood for the body so the world is unsuitable food for the soul to feed on and that it is God alone that can fill and satisfie the vast desires of it O I say again were we but as we came out of our Makers hands or rather were we trimmed up in our eldest brothers Robes and brought into the immediate presence of this great King where we set before that glorious Throne where the infinite brightness of his Majesty shines so that the Angels themselves do vail their faces before him yet for all that we should not long stand silent as if the place and company were unsuitable to us it would not be long before we should carry it as those that were nearly related and had intimate acquaintance with him that sits upon the throne O the unspeakable sweetness that will be the enjoyment of his company no tediousness no irksomness at all upon our Spirits We shall quickly understand our work our priviledge O infinite goodness O boundless love O let me be always solacing my soul in the contemplation of these things O let the very thoughts of them be a Heaven upon earth to my soul but here O here 's the grief while we are here in a strange Country there is somthing in all the poor fallen children of Adam nay in those of them that are recovered and by grace brought into a re-union with God there is I say something in God unsuitable to them and in them unsuitable to God and this O this makes our lives so uncomfortable but convers with God will wear off a great deal of that When thou comest to lay off thy rages and to put off thy old suit and to put on that new one that is making for thee I mean after death when thou comest to glory thou wilt find the case strangly altered with thee In Heaven there will be a perfect Harmony Suitableness and Agreement between God and thee for ever and thou wilt take infinite complacency and delight in him and he in thee And thus shalt thou spend Eternity in unconceivable joy delight and pleasures This is Heaven a perfect suitableness to God and enjoying him for ever O when when when shall it once be Come Lord Jesus come quickly Come O blessed Father by thy Spirit and burn up what is unlike thee O create a greater suitableness between my Soul and thee O come thou down to me or take me up to thee O could we but talk with one of those happy Creatures that hath been in the very presence of God in glory and should we ask him whether he were not weary of the same work of the same company the same place what answer do you think he would make you No more weary than a man upon the Rack but just before would be of perfect ease no more then a healthful hungry man is of eating no more weary than the Sun is of running than the Fire of ascending or a Stone of falling towards the Center Sen. Epist 10. I know not where I had rather be then with him I was once upon Earth as you are now and now I am in Heaven and in neither of both these places can I find one that I can take more delight in then God I must say as he Psal 73.24 Whom have I in Heaven but him and there is
of this thy soul that it may be in good plight when he shall call for it He doth tell thee what is its most natural food and what is not wholsome He tells thee what thou shalt do to have that soul within thee everlastingly happy And is all this of so little consequence as to go in at one ear and out at the other Are these things to be indifferent in If mans soul were like the soul of a beast the case were altered if when his breath went out of his body there were an end of him the matter were the less considerable if he had ever a friend in another world that could do as much for him as God can do I should have little to say in this business But since this is impossible how can I bare to see thee neglect the making sure of such a friend How can a Christian with any patience think that those that he lives with and dearly loves should miss of such a friend without whom their souls must be everlastingly miserable If it were only for your bodies or estates I should scarce use so many words neither I believe need I but when it is for your souls and eternity who can be silent Once more consider what a friend thou mayst have it is a friend for thy soul Alas man it is thy soul thy precious soul that lies at stake that Spirit within thee which is more worth then a world it is that which is in hazard and here is a friend that offers thee to make that soul of thine happy for ever Thy soul hath abundance of enemies Some would debase it others would rob thee of it others would clap up a hasty match between that Noble Creature and a Servant the World I mean and there are very few that have any true kindness for it and thou knowest not the worth of that Jewel thy Soul but here here 's a friend if thou wilt but leave it with him he will take care of it it shall not be marted away for nothing Here 's one will do that for its security honour and happiness that all the world besides can't do If therefore thou hast any love for thy poor soul if thou settest any price upon that precious thing within thee in a word if thou wouldest have thy soul do well in another world O strike in here close with these tenders listen to the counsel of him who offers you the best advice in the world He he it is that now offers thee that thou canst never value enough he it is that will feed cloath and portion that Soul of thine and after that marry thee to his onely Son by which match you will be made for ever O did men and women but know what a Soul is did they imagine what a dreadful miscarriage of a Soul is did they but in any measure understand the things of their peace could they but conceive what God could and would do for their Souls I need to spend but little time in perswading them to commit their Souls to him to be acquainted with him who will be sure to take special care of their Souls that they may do well whatever is neglected O could you but see did you but know what a sad taking they are in that go into the other world with a poor naked Soul and know no body in the world there and have never a friend that doth take any notice of them you would then think I spoke what I do with reason enough and that my words were too short and my expostulations too faint in a matter of such concernment O sinners I tell you nay God tells you soul-matters are the greatest matters in the world I am sure Christ thought so or else he would not have been at so much cost about them those that are in their wits and understand themselves they know as much too and so will you ere a few years it may be hours be past Those that now make but a pish of all this when they have been but one quarter of an hour in another world will say as I do that a Soul-friend is the only Friend and that Soul-concerns are the great concerns things of weight and moment indeed and that it would have quitted the cost to have taken some pains to have look'd out for such a one that could have stood the Soul in some stead in that other world and that above all it would have been no folly nor madness to have accepted of the kindness of one that desired earnestly to be acquainted with them and to do their Soul a good turn O that they had but been so considerate as to have embraced such a motion when it was offered And this brings me to the next Qualification of this Friend 16. He is a necessary Friend There is an absolute necessity of being acquainted with him It 's possible for a man that hath very few friends upon earth to live as happily as he that hath many Multitude of acquaintance such as they are may contribute much to a mans care and sorrow And as for most friends such as are commonly so called it is better to have their room than their company A man may live without the acquaintance of Nobles he may be as free chearful and rich without the knowledge of such as them One may live holily and die joyfully and may be happy for ever though he never saw the face of a Prince though he was never at Court though he lived and died a stranger to all worldly friends One may be disowned by his Father hatred by his Mother slighted by all his Relation and have never a friend under the Snn that will own him and yet for all that be in a state of truer felicity then those that are daily attended with troops of visitors whose gates are seldom shut whose houses are never empty but amongst all that comes God never comes to them as for his company they are strangers to it this man I may write miserable for all his great and many friends And him that hath the company of God in acquaintance with his Redeemer I 'le call happy though he have never a friend in the world besides Multitude of friends seldom add much to our comforts but always to our cares A man may go to Hell for all his great acquaintance with men but it 's impossible if we are greatly acquainted with God to miss of Heaven When men are unkind if God be kind it 's well ballanced but if God frown whose smiles can comfort I may be happy though I am very little in mans favour but it 's impossible to be happy without Gods favour To be a stranger to God is to be a stranger to peace joy Heaven O it 's sad being without God! If I should declare the Judgement of most in the world at least if their practice may speak for them they see very little need of acquaintance with God They do not write Must
still is carrying on is the honour of God He will undertake nothing of importance before he consult with and hath the advice and direction of his Friend Whatsoever he hath that is worth any thing he sends it to this Friend he presents him with his first fruits he sacrificeth his male the best of his flock desires that his Friend may be always at his house and that he may have the best entertainment that he can possibly give and he is ashamed at the best that he can make him no more welcome whom he so highly honours he is grieved that his entertainment is no better he would fain give God his first and last thoughts his warmest affections he would gladly have the strength and vigour of body and soul spent in his service he studies how to improve all mercies and enjoyments for God to take hold of all opportunities that he can possibly and to make the best of them for the promoting that grand Design which he hath on foot his Honour He thinks not wife and children houses and lands body soul and all that he can make in the world too good for him Whatever temptations he conquers whatsoever sin he slayes whatsover piece of gallantry or prowess he hath done in his inrods upon Satans Kingdom he gives the honour of all to the valour conduct and assistance of this his noble Ally and Friend He sets the Crown of the King of Ammon like Joab upon the head of this King David He hath such a high esteem for God that he thinks nothing well done but when it is done exactly as he would have it he thinks every thing then best when it is done according to Gods will and he counts it no small weakness to be unwilling that infinite Wisdom rather then folly should have the managing of all the affairs of the world He desires to maintain a quick and lively sense of the Divine Majesty upon his Soul and that he may here and hereafter give him as he hath infinite cause all honour glory and praise 6. Another effect of this Acquaintance with God is this It would put abundance of life and vigour into the soul it would as it were oyl the wheels and set them a running There are none in the world that act at so high a rate as those do which are most acquainted with God O how undefatigable are they in their pains with what earnestness and faith do they pray as if they saw the glorious God before them and were talking with him with what reverence seriousness and delight do they read meditate and hear the Word and do all that they do They know in some measure what it is to present their bodies and souls as a living sacrifice to God through Christ they understand what it means to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord they will not serve God with that which cost them nothing kneeling down and saying a few formal words before God in the evening repeating the Lords Prayer and the Creed and the Ten Commandments between sleeping and waking doing no body any wrong and the like is not enough to serve his turn his conscience will not be thus put off but he labours with all his might to stir up his soul to lay hold upon God he is not content to go off from his knees without his Fathers blessing This is the Friend and Acquaintance of God this is the brave Israelite that spiritual Prince that will not let God go till he hath prevailed with him He doth not go to his work as if he caved not whether he work'd or no he is not sick of the service of God but he rejoyceth and works righteousness his work is his pleasure and he goes on merrily with his business Those that are intimately acquainted with God are not so cold faint and dull in the service of God as others be Such a one as knows God very well and hath been oft made welcome by him why he comes with a great deal of confidence and knocks at Gods door and for his part he will not go away though the door be not presently opened but he continues knocking because he is sure that his Friend is within he knows that he is never from home and that he can never come unseasonably to him He comes to Prayer as if he were going to storm Heaven he gets spiritual things by violence he comes to Duty as to fight for a Crown he is ashamed to offer the lame and the blind to God but he chooseth for the best in his flock he desires to improve his interest in God to the height this favourite of Heaven comes frequently to the King to beg some great thing or other and he is sure that his Friend will deny him nothing that it is not a greater kindness to deny then give he knows that his King hath a large purse and as large a heart and he is not willing to lose such excellent things that are to be had for the asking for he is not ignorant that Spiritual things are worth the seeking for and therefore he will seek and seek earnestly he hath tried more then once and he remembers to his joy that wonderful things are to be had if we will but take pains for them and prefer our Petitions or rather get them preferr'd by that great Master of Request the Lord Jesus Christ and follow our business close that it can't possibly miscarry let it be what it will the comfort in enjoying will abundantly pay all the charges we can be at in seeking therefore he layes about him as one that is in good earnest the confidence that he hath in the good will of God it puts life into all his petitions A poor Creature that very rarely injoys any communion with God that is very little or not at all acquainted with him is ready to take up with a few formal complemental performances he is weary of his work before he hath well begun it he is quickly out of breath but now one that is very well acquainted with God is not so soon weary of his company it may be he may be somewhat cold when he sets out but by that time he hath gon a few turns with his Friend his blood grows warm he is sometimes so taken up with God in duty that he can scare tell when to have don O he thinks it 's good being there O it was a sweet season These are the actings and experiences some Noble Soule I have heard some Christians say that had not God made it their duty to follow their callings they could be glad with all their hearts to do nothing else day nor night but hear the mysteries of Gods love in Christ opened Read Pray Meditate and be immediately engaged in the service of God Sure something is the matter with these persons more then ordinary that their Palate should be so Spiritualised as that it is their Food their Wine their Dainties to be actually
projects signifie Is this friendship Can you mean any good by all this What do you say of your condition Do you ever complain and that feelingly of your enemy against God Did you ever observe what a desperate wicked spirit you have against your Maker and were you ever made sensible of the danger of such a state and ashamed and grieved to the very soul that you should ever engage against so good a God why then I am confident you can't but cry out with all the strength and earnestness of your soul for a peace you can't but desire to meet with your adversary quickly while he is in the way But if you see nothing at all of the Treachery and Baseness that is in your heart search and search again it 's your Ignorance and Blindness and not the goodness of your state that makes you to know nothing by your self What are you better than David he was so jealous of his own heart that he dared not to trust to his own Examination of it but he desires the great Heart-searcher to help him in this work Are you more excellent than Paul after his Conversion Had he more reason to complain of himself than you have O be at leisure to look within and get Davids Candle and Lanthorn to go into those dark corners of your soul with it and it may be you may see that within which may make your heart to ake and your joynts to quiver and your spirits to faint within you Paul was sometime as confident as you he took no notice of the Enmity that was within against God though he was as full of it as an Asp is of Poyson yet before he came acquainted with God the case was altered with him he was of another mind when that light shined about him he cried out Lord what wilt thou have me to do he now thinks it is hard kicking against the Pricks dangerous opposing of God and persecuting of Christ in any of his Members and he desires nothing in the world so much as to be reconciled to God and to have him for his friend whom before he fought against as an Enemy II. DIRECTION My next Direction to those which would be acquainted with God shall be this Get an humble heart which is the consequent of the former God will exalt none to this high honour of being his Friends but such as have low Thoughts of themselves The humble are the persons that he will raise these are they that he will converse most with these are the great Favourites of Heaven which God doth delight to honour Psal 34.18 The Lord is nigh to them which are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit God is nigh to them with Reverence be it spoken God takes so much complacency in the company of such that he can't endure to have them far from him he must have them always nigh to him always under his eyes as for these broken ones he will to be sure not leave them long not go far from them but will be ready at hand to set their bones to bind up their wounds to keep them from sestering It may be he may put them to much pain before he brings the Cure to perfection but it is to prevent future Aches He is a foolish cruel Chirurgeon who for fear of putting his Patient to some pain never searcheth the wound but skins it over presently and a wise man will not think him unmerciful that puts him to exquisite pain so he make a through Cure of it Thus God doth by his Patients sometimes when the nature of their Distemper calls for it But however he will be sure not to be out of the way when they want him most It 's possible they may look upon themselves as forgotten by God they may not know their Physician when he is by them and they may take their Friend for an Enemy they may think God far oft when he is near but when their eyes are opened and their distemper is pretty well worn off they will with shame and thankfulness acknowledge their Error nay they do from their souls confess that they do not deserve the least look of Kindness from God but to be counted strangers and enemies but God will let them know that he loves to act like himself that is like a God of Love Mercy and Goodness and that they are the persons that he hath set his heart upon he will have them in his Bosome never leave them nor forsake them and though these contrite ones many times look upon themselves as lost yet God will save them and they shall sing a Song of thankfulness amongst his delivered ones Again the Sacrifices of God are a broken heart A broken and a contrite Spirit O God thou wilt not despise Psal 51.17 The proud sinner he may bring his stalled Oxen multitudes of Rams and Sheep und his Rivers of Oyl and yet all this while not be accepted There is another kind of Sacrifice that would be ten thousand times more acceptable to God We read that Sacrifices have been despised Prayers long Prayers have been rejected Sabbaths New-Moons and Solemn Assemblies the Lord hath sometimes abhorred but we never read that he despised the Sacrifice of an humble heart the Prayers of such always have an answer one way or other their poor performances their chatterings and mournings are sweet melody and powerful Rhetorick in Gods ear Who are the men that have most of Gods company who are they which he doth most frequently visit Are they not such as look upon themselves as the chiefest of sinners These are they which are wrapped up into the third Heaven None have so much of Heaven upon Earth as those that wonder that the Earth doth not swallow them up and that they are not in Hell But O saith the humble Soul God is the high and mighty God and infinite in his Holiness and Justice how then can such a Creature as I ever expect that he should so much as cast his eye upon me Yes sweet soul such is the infinite condescension and goodness of God that he will sooner look upon thee than another And if you can't credit my words here what he speaks himself Isa 7.15 Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth Eternity whose name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of my contrite ones The thoughts of Gods Majesty Eternity and Holiness may and with good reason too awe that Soul that hath low thought of it self Every sinner hath cause enough to cry out with astonishment Will God look upon such a vile sinful wretch as I am Will he that is infinite in holiness take any notice of me except to shew his displeasure against me What shall I do sure such a creature as I can't without a miracle have a
smile from God God may indeed look upon me in his Wrath and vix me in his sore Displeasure God may justly look me into Hell but that he should look upon me in kindness or take any special notice of me in love that would be a Wonder indeed What God dwell with me Yes with thee if thou hast but high thoughts of him and low thoughts of thy self the meaner thou thinkest of thy self the greater worth he sees in thee God will not only look upon thee nor will he only knock at thy door and call at your house or give you a transitory visit but he will come and dwell with thee Now dwelling speaks a continued abode with one and thus God will continue with the Humble never remove from them for any considerable time till eternity hath an end till himself and the soul cease to be which will be never God will not be a stranger to humble Souls but he will come to them and bring that along with him that shall make him and them welcom too God never comes to his Friends but he brings good chear along with him When the Soul gives God the best entertainment it is all at his cost his bread his fatlings his wine his oyl his cordials his rich dainties Where God comes he will keep a noble house there shall be mirth and rich cheer good store Isa 66 1 2. Thus saith the Lord Heaven is my throne Earth is my foot-stool Where is that house ye will build me And where is the place of my rest For all these things hath my had made and all these things hath been saith the Lord but to this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word God seems to have low thoughts of Heaven it self in comparison of an humble soul This is the Pallace where this great King will keep his Court this is the place of his rest God is not so much delighted and pleased in any of his brave Seats as in this of an Humble Heart here he dwelleth most commonly this was the great purchase of his own Son this was the Master-piece of his Power and Goodness this was the project of infinite wisdom and counsel What shall I do to be saved Is a Language that makes Hell in a rage and Heaven to rejoyce God is never so well pleased as when he beholds the beauty of his own Grace shining in a poor lost self-debasing Creature The spouse is adorned with Humility when Christ gives her that visit Cant. 1.4 God hath far more kindness for one that lies under a sense of his own Vileness that thinks himself unworthy to tread upon Gods Earth or to breath in his Air then for the most confident righteous Pharisee in the World Such an humble Soul will be much in admiring of God and will set a high price upon his kindness a look a smile a visit O how welcom are they to those poor trembling Ones Wherefore God doth with frequency and love visit them he knows that he can never be unwelcome to such they will count it the highest honour that the most high should come into them in their low Condition Wherefore if you desire to have any intimate acquaintance with God labour to be more and more sensible of your own unworthiness study your heart and nature well and be more curious in the observance of the baseness and treachery of your own Soul endeavour to have as mean thoughts of your self as Paul had who did not stick to call himself the chiefest of sinners Humble your selves before the Lord and he will exalt you he that is little in his own eye is greater in Gods When was it that Jacob met with God but when he had been humbling of himself As you may read at your leisure Gen. 23. There is many a professor that holds out many a year in a course of external performances and yet never knows what it is to have any intimate acquaintance or converse with God whereas I am perswaded if the business were throughly examined it would be found that they were never made deeply sensible of their undone state out of Christ never understood the desperate depravedness of their hearts and nature that they never lay under any lively sense of their separation from and enmity against God and they were never bronght off from their own righteousness and saw themselves poor beggarly starved Creatures and in this condition came to buy Wine and Milk without money and without price But this humility it is an excellent Grace it makes the soul fit for the richest enjoyments of God and to do God the greatest service Were it possible that God should converse much with a proud man he would make strange use of it he would steal God's Crown and put it upon his own head but God would not endure proud Angels near him and can it be expected that he should take proud men in their places The more any one grows in Grace and acquaintance with God the more he sees of his own unworthiness the more he admires Free Grace Why me Lord why me will be the Language of those which converse with God And while they are thus admiring God and laying themselves low he comes again with his soul-ravishing kindnesses and thus by humility they are more acquainted with God and being more acquainted with God they are made more humble and the one increaseth the other Thus the humble soul is raised higher and higher till be come to an eternal possession of God in the highest Heavens When an humble Saint lives as it were in Heaven upon Earth he scarce thinks himself worthy to live upon the Earth When any one speaks well of him and admireth the grace of God in him he looks upon himself as an unprofitable Servant and he durst not assume the least glory to himself not unto me not unto me but unto the Lord be the praise given Who am I poor wretch O did you but know what a heart I have did you but see the workings of my thoughts could you but tell how things are indeed you would rather admire at Gods patience than mans excellency This he speaks not that he is worse than others but because he hath a more spiritual sence of his state than others have Neither doth he speak thus in proud Policy thinking to make others to have a better esteem of him for his humility but he doth really feel the pressure of that filthiness of sin which makes him thus to groan out these complaints The reason why God doth converse most with the humble is because they will be most thankful and most fruitful and make the wisest improvement of his favours Wherefore if you value the comfort of a spiritual life if you desire communion with God if you would have a Heaven upon Earth endeavour to get and humble heart To walk humbly and to walk with God go together III.
Keeper inquire further and you shall be informed if their experience be not too big for to be clothed in words How oft have some of Christ favourites after they have Dined with their Lord been led forth into the Garden to walk and oh the delightful shades that they have sat under At another time Christ not Satan hath carried them as it were in his Arms and Bosome and set them upon the Pinacle of the Temple not to make them giddy and hazard their fall but to let them understand how much he hath preferred them before others and as long as they are upon that great Corner-Stone no Storms can shake in Christs Arms no fear of falling At another time the Soul hath been carried into the Mount of God and there it hath seen Christ Transfigured and beheld so much Brightness Glory and Majesty in him that hath reflected a Glory upon it self and even Transfigured the Soul that its scarce like it self and there it could say its good being here and then Christ hath bid the Soul lift up its Eyes and look up to the Heavens look round from one side to the other and look beyond the visible Heavens by Faith to the Seat of the Blessed well all this is thine to thee will I give it I purchased it I have paid for it and 't is thine and live like one that is worth more than a world live up to your Estate expect that shortly I should set you in the Possession of all And as for the World look down upon that if it be worth thy accepting so much of it as is good for thee thou shalt have also O did weak Christians but know what strength joy and comfort this Ordinance doth afford I believe they would not be so hardly perswaded to come when they are invited Did they but understand how sweet how wholsome how dainty the Dishes are which Wisdom prepares could they but conceive what satisfaction and fulness there is for the empty what joy and sollace for the Mourning and Disconsolate what strength and quickning for the Weak I am ready to think that they would scarce be so long absent from the Lords Table but think not that every one that sits down is made so welcome nor that Christ gives his dainties to strangers or enemies many may come and receive and yet only feed upon a piece of Bread and Drink two or three spoonfuls of Wine and and really if this were all the Provision that a Saint were to have it were scarce worth so solemn an Invitation It 's possible to come thither to eat and drink your own Damnation and instead of an affectionate Treatment to be dismissed with a Friend how comest thou hither not having on the Wedding Garment Yet the sensible Hungry burthened Souls notwithstanding all their fears may come nay they must and its little less than giving ascent to Sathans callumnies which he raiseth against Christ and his wayes to forbear it s too ungrateful a Contempt of one of the excellent Cordials which the great Physician hath provided for the recovering and strengthning of his poor swooning Patients and in a word it s too like a foolish being fond of our Sin and Sorrow when we refuse the comfor-fortable Appointment which the Goodness and and Wisdom of a Father the Love and Tenderness of a Husband and the Sweetness of the Holy Spirit doth so freely offer perswade command the Spirit saith come and the Bridegroom saith come and why should not he that is a thirst come thankfully humbly speedily Well now poor weary Soul what hast thou to say against the excellency of rest Poor sick Soul what Fault canst thou find with Ease Health and Strength Poor guilty Soul that looks upon thy self as next to condemned What harm would a Pardon and the publique sealing of it do thee Who would think that man hungry that had rather eat Ashes than Bread who would judge that person thirsty that had rather drink Gall Tears and Wormwood than the clear refreshing Streams that come from that Rock the Lord Christ Will you never believe that Christ invites you look into the Note that he hath sent out his servants wish whose Name do I read there Who are the persons that are invited of what Rank and Quality Are they the Great ones of the World Are they the Learned Are they the Proud and Self-conceited Pharises Why I find none of these in the Writing Who are they then that may come with Confidence to draw water out of these Wells of Consolation The Poor in Spirit the Hungry the Sick the Wounded the Lost these are Pools of Bethesdah where the Angel of the Covenant doth oft descend and move the Waters and where is it fitter for the Impotent to lye than there where they can not miss of a Doctor a visit or Cure What do you think of this poor Heart are they but flourishes do I speak or doth Christ and if he say it who can dissanul it will he can he be worse than his word I know he is usually better but never short of his Promise will you Credit the Experiences of Christians have they not seen have they not known have they not felt yea have not all your Spiritual sences been exercised and refreshed at that time when the King hath been at his Table One is ready to say if ever I could have left the World at a minnutes warning and have stept immediately into Eternity it was then when mine eyes beheld the King in his beauty when he held out his Golden Scepter unto me and took me into his Imbraces Yea when the Ministers of Christ presented me with the Jewels and Bracelets and ask't me whither I would go with them to Christ my Soul made a speedy and thankful reply my Heart and Love is his and his will I be for ever O that I were once safe in his Armes O that I might live with him and never part O when shall it be Come Lord Jesus come quickly I remember I have heard it reported of that Reverend and Holy man of God Master Allen who lived at as high a rate as most on this side Perfection and Glory that he was before he died in a very rare seraphique raptures of Joy and Love so that he could not chuse but burst out into unusual Expressions of Praise such as these Ten thousand praises to the King of Saints for the freeness and riches of his Grace to any poor Soul let every corner of Heaven ring with Hallelujahs let all the Angels help me to praise thy incomparable lovely and glorious Jesus O the Joys that he feasts my Soul with I who would not be Christs Servant never did I feel such transcendent pure Divine Joys except at the Lords Table and then indeed I have been oft so raised in Spirit that my Nature except sustained by a Miracle could scarce bear a greater weight of Comfort O the unspeakable vast satisfying Pleasures that Christ
Souls God is their witness they see that your condition requires it that a man in your state is not to be jested with The Lord knows that they take little pleasure in grieving of people they do it that you may rejoyce for ever they watch for your Souls and therefore you must account them worthy of double Honour But of all the Messengers that God sends have the greatest care of dealing unkindly with and grieving his spirit when you have any motions upon your Soul by the Spirit labour to cherish them with all the care and tenderness that you can Turn not Convictions away with I am not at leisure or I will hear you of these things when I have a more convenient season but as soon as you find your heart begin to relent cry out unto the Lord and say O Lord I beseech thee carry on thy work effectually upon my Soul O that I may have through work O let not these convictions wear off from my Soul till they end in a real Conversion O let me not prove but a Half-Christian Any thing in the world Lord so that I may but be made a Christian in good earnest O let me not return with the Dog to his Vomit and with the Sow that is washed to her Wallowing in the Mire Deliver me O God from sinning away these things and getting into a cold World and from shaking off all least I prove worse than eyer and my latter end be more miserable than my beginning Labour to be very curious in the taking notice of Gods absence or presence and when you find your Soul raised in any duty and your Heart somewhat drawn out after God then be sure to own Gods goodness and bless the Lord for it Record his kindness forget not his mercy pass not over such great things in silence Little do men think what a hazard they run when they quench the Motions of God's Spirit You may read in the 5. Cant. how dearly the Spouse had like to have paid for such an unkindness What shall God send his spirit to visit you Shall the infinite Majesty so far condesend as to knock at your Door and will not you open why then you may thank your selves if he never knock more But if you will now open to him he will come into you and sup with you and you shall sup with him VIII DIRECTION Seek his Acquaintance most earnestly if you would have it O why do men and women jest with matters of the greatest weight and importance in the world What do people mean to play with their Souls the wrath of God and damnation O sinners have you nothing else to play with No lower matters to sport with Believe it Sirs Heaven and Glory are not got with sitting still with our Hands in our pockets We think it worth the while to rise early and to sit up late to get an earthly Estate we count it no foolish thing for a man to be very diligent about his Worldly Affairs The poor Country-man Plows and Sows Harrows Weeds Reaps Inns Thresheth and a great deal more before he can eat his bread and shall we look for a rich crop and do nothing at all but eat and drink and sleep Is this the way to be rich is this the way to be happy for ever If you intend to do any thing in Religion to any purpose you must buckle to your business at anothergess rate than most of the Professors of the World do We must take as much pains about our Souls as men do about their Bodies or Estates Is there any comparison between the Soul and the Body between a Worldly Estate and an Heavenly Inheritance Hath a man more reason to look after tricking up his body that must Die or look after the adorning adorning of his soul that must live somewhere for ever Which are matters of the greatest consequence eating and drinking and pampering the flesh and taking our pleasure or looking after Life Salvation and Eternal Joy Do you think that the Scripture faith in vain That we must strive to enter in at the strait Gate Is it a bare seeking that will serve the turn Will a Lord have mercy upon me and bowing the knee do as well as the greatest seriousness and diligence in the World Do you think that God will be put off with the skin and garbage instead of sacrifice with the shell instead of the kernel with chaff instead of the corn Doth not Christ say That many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able O why do not lazy Professors read the Scriptures with trembling Let all those that are angry with us for putting them upon making religion their business and using all diligence to make their calling and election sure Read that one Scripture over again Luk. 13.24 Strive to enter in at the strait Gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able c. It was Christ who spoke that word If we tell you of the danger of a formal Religion you will soon fall upon us as Enemies to your peace and those which impose too much strictness upon you We therefore do here produce our Commission for what we say or rather we desire you but to read your selves what Christ spoke as touching this matter O it might justly make a Christians heart to ake to think how many thousands of Professors will be disowned by Christ in that day who will make many fair pleas for themselves and pretend a great deal of acquaintance with him Consider I beseech you here is no fear of Excess never any man in the World that was too solicitous about his Salvation never any man took too much pains for Heaven Awake O sleeper what meanest thou arise and call upon thy God If you make any thing of the loss of a Soul look about you if you think the wrath to come considerable be serious if you would not be burnt by the fire of his Indignation you must take hold of his strength and make peace with him and God will be at peace with you Isa 27.5 It is not without cause that the Prophet doth complain Isa 64.7 There is none that calls upon thy Name that stirs up himself to take hold on thee There is none that calls upon Gods Name One would think that that were strange What none call upon his Name when so many of them made many Prayers as you have it in the first of Isaiah What did they nothing but look upon one another when they had their Solemn Assemblies Did they say nothing to God when they came before him Did they do nothing at all in that 58. of Isaiah when they are said to seek him daily when they seemed to delight in his way Yet in Gods esteem all this goes for nothing at all this prayer is no prayer this is only wording of it with God But prayer it is another kind of thing it is the