the Sabbath calling it a loss of the seventh part of their time But it was their best spent time sanctified all their other daies Then their new man dealeth freely with God and all the gifts of the spirit poure themselves out on him Then they feele the beginnings of life eternall which maketh the time seeme shorter than it is indeed For the more wee enjoy a desired good the more time we crave for that enjoying so that a long time seemeth short And againe when an hatefull ill sticketh to us a short time seemeth long hours are as dayes dayes as moneths and moneths as years Hereof commeth the wearinesse of the profane for the shortest houre of worship tormenteth them Their fleshly passions are bound in stocks they know not God and the signes of his presence are terrible to them And yet these same men count whole daies but short for their drunkennesse in tavernes and in brothels they joyne nights to daies and daies to nights as though all time were too short to measure out their vanitie But this will bee the end of all when at death wee looke backe to our time wee shall have most comfort of these dayes wee have spent in the Sanctuarie in seeking happinesse and shall put these chiefly in our Almanack for one day in thy house is better than a thousand elsewhere SECT VII The marrow of true happinesse That I may see the beautie of the Lord. THis is the end why hee desireth to dwell in the Sanctuarie and that is two-fold in the fruition of Gods goodnesse and continuance in that fruition wherein consisteth the happinesse he desireth This fruition is to behold the beauty of the Lord wherein are two things the beautie it selfe and beholding For the knowledge of this beautie we shall first remove two false Glosses and then follow the truth The first is of some Papists who place this beautie in the stately and costly building of their Temple Herein they follow the Jewes devoted to the externall showes their religion is all for them and seeing they cannot fill the hearts of people with the power of doctrine they will fill their eyes with stately buildings and pompous ceremonies So their Cardinals advised Paul 3. that in the decay of their authoritie they would make the world admire them by building and busking stately temples The statelinesse of the temple of Jerusalem was extraordinary both because it was in the time of a carnall service and a type of the Church under Christ the beautie whereof was not in gold and silver as Malachie expresseth but in that the desire of all nations came therein But some faile on the other extreme and have no more care to the houses of God than to common houses yea it may be seene that many barns and stables are more stately in the Parish than Gods house This argueth a brutish mis-regard of God and of his worship which is justly fruitlesse in them Churches ought indeed to bee comely as houses set apart to God But that necessarie comelinesse is not this beautie of the Lord that wee require the beautie of houses is not in marble The second is worse and placeth this beautie in Images So the Fathers of the second Nicene Councell such a Councel such Fathers thought them the beautie of the Sanctuarie But the Scripture calleth images abominations and the shame of the Sanctuarie And when the Jewes brought the Idols of Israel and Thammuz or Osiris the God of Egypt in their temple God departed from them When the Pagans charged the Christians of the first ages that their Oratories had no images Origen and other Apologists tooke with the challenge and gave the reason that God whom they worshipped was invisible and infinite and therefore neither could nor would be represented by images From the Apostles time till images were brought in the Church there was a sufficient body of doctrine though with some declination but after that the Cleargy turned more blockish and ignorant than images Let them be called the bookes of the Laicks but such as turne the Laicks in stockes and stones because they are the teachers of lies and vanities for they leave their mindes in as base estimation of the thing they represent as of themselves The beautie of the Lord in the Sanctuarie is to be taken first of God himselfe and then of his worke with his people God is the beautie of beauties and all these things which we call beautifull excellent glorious perfect c. in the creatures are but names and shadowes of the truth of these things that are in him He alone is being without beginning and giveth being to all and sustaineth them in that being He is life it selfe without inliving and yet quickening and inliving all What ever wee consider to be excellent as wisedome puritie goodnesse power c. are all in him primely perfectly and unitely howsoever to our mindes and experience they be diverse He is great without quantitie good without qualitie Every where but included in no place without localitie and yet excluded no place A fountaine without a veine but running out in a continuall source communicating substance life induements of both to all creatures in such plenty as proveth his riches and in such diversitie to make up the beautie of the creature that hee the Authour thereof may be seene most bountifull How beautifull is that Unitie in Trinity and Trinity in Unity The Father begetting the Sonne begotten and the holy Spirit proceeding from both the Father the beginning working all in the Sonne and that by the holy Spirit a mysterie to be adored but not searched beleeved by faith but not discussed by reason Herein Christ Jesus the fairest among men is to be considered in whom the Church taketh boldnesse to seeke her happinesse with God he is that eternall Sonne of the eternall Father and came downe full of grace and truth to save us As God he is equall with the Father and the Spirit As man he is most beautifull of all creatures In him dwelleth all fulnesse even the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily and because of the personall union his humane nature exalted above all principalities and powers is adored by them He is most beautifull because of wisedome in preaching righteousnesse in remission of sinnes Sanctification in conversing with sinners Redemption in suffering for sinners And because through him only we take boldnesse to approch to God for who durst commit himselfe to so great a Majestie without his mediation But while we speake of him we faile and suffice not But most of all he is the beautie of beauties if wee consider him in his passion For though the world contemne him in that state yet he is our delight because he suffered these things for us This then is the first thing that we should doe when wee enter into the Sanctuarie to take up with the light
smiteth my heart without hurt so that I both tremble and burne I tremble in so farre I am unlike him I burne in so farre I am like unto him This sight terrifieth not but comforteth It is the sight of a reconciled God by a reconciled man the matter of his presence here and of our heaven on earth There is no light clearer than this when truth shineth in the minde and the minde in truth seeth God and it selâ—e Herein appeareth the Prophets happinesse that seeking out happinesse and knowing what it is and where it is to be found he resteth not there till hee apply it to himselfe Happinesse may ever bee happinesse and wee remaine miserable if wee have no part in it God is happinesse in himselfe without us and wee are miserie in our selves without him therefore we must be in him that we may be happie And this is by application when as wee know hee is chiefe good so wee are perswaded that hee is our chiefe good and happinesse This is the proper worke of faith in her double perswasion The one direct and outgoing to the truth and things themselves The other reflecting and turning home to us by the work of our conscience in the assurance that wee beleeve and that these things are ours by faith Papists are here blame-worthie who cut the throate of the sweetest Christian consolation for what availeth it to hear that God is good that happinesse is in him if wee dare not and may not apply it to our selves And this is the end of Gods dispensation of the Gospel for he revealeth to us that we may know and the first end of knowledge is application It is also the end of the efficacie of the Spirit joyned with the word not to open our minds onely to know but also to apply to us And shall we think that the blessings of the Gospel are set before us only to looke to without application It is the food of our soule and must be eaten The cloathes of our soule and must be put on The physick of our soul and must be applied So is Christ to us The Apostle is not content to say that Christ came in the world to save sinners but subjoyneth of whom I am the chief And more clearly Henceforth I live not but Christ liveth in me and the life that I live I live by the faith of the Sonne of God who loved mee and gave himselfe for me Ancient Creeds content themselves more to expresse things to be beleeved because of the debates of hereticks in the matter of doctrine than to declare the way how to beleeve and yet this particular application may be found in them for as we beleeve the spirituall patrimonie of the Church in the remission of sinnes the glorious resurrection of the body and life eternall is it onely to know that there is such a treasure in the Church without application to our selves Or is an heire so simple as to content himself to know that his father hath an heritage and is not at all perswaded that it pertaineth to him Faith acteth a personall act and as the root of it is personall in the habit so the fruit of it must be personall in the application of consolation Gods work is particular to his own he chooseth them by name he calleth them by name as he called Come down Zacheus Hee casteth them down by the law personally why should not the application of the grace of the Gospel bee personall also The nature and work of conscience proveth the same for it is a withknowledge in our breast and all the actions of it are particular ending in our person And it contenteth not it self generally to say We are sinners but choppeth us in a particular branch of a particular Law and that in a particular kinde of sinne in a particular degree So it maketh us as particularly to apply the promise of the Gospel under conscience of repentance as it applieth wrath under conscience of sinne And Christ commendeth the wiseman not for finding of the pearle but for buying of it nor for knowing of the field where the treasure was but for the possession of the treasure Where this application is not there is nothing but doubting concerning the promise Probably they hold them as generall in the conscience of sinne as they are in the promises of grace and content themselves slenderly to thinke they are sinners without any feeling of particular sinnes Thus they delight to shuffâ—e themselves up in generall both in miserie and happinesse and not to come to particular application of either Gods children call him Abba Father for the divine nature in them the sense of their filiation and the testimonie of the Spirit of adoption maketh them to doe so but the want of these things make bastards and slaves to stand aloofe from him and not to thinke or speake warmely of him whom they know not to be their Father None hath this sight in the sanctuarie but the spirituall man For he only hath the heavenly light infused in him which is as necessary as the externall light in the eye for bodily things For the minde and not the eye is created to behold that greatest beautie of God And they live the better and more highly the more perfectly they behold him The naturall man percieveth it not but thinketh it a phantasie that is spoken of it They see not God but men and the actions they see are both base and a burthen to them The Philosophers called Paul a Babler because his doctrine was not in a Philosophick forme and Festus said that much learning made him mad so the naturall man conceiveth not the things of God because they are spiritually discerned None conceiveth these things but he that is wise spiritually for the world cannot receive the Spirit because it seeth him not But the spirituall man discerneth all he seeth the glorie of God in his sanctuarie discerneth the spiritualitie of doctrine feeleth the power of the spirit and so wisedome contemned of fooles is justified of her owne children Hee who feeleth not the sweet smell of the spouse and runneth not is either dead or rotten Let us then strive to see God This sight shall be our happinesse in heaven and the godly are desirous of it in this life for they will see nothing more desireable and can see nothing more dilectable Moses desired to see his glory but was refused and saw only his way Esay saw him symbolically or significatively And though he datted the Patriarchs by the familiaritie of his divine presence yet they saw not himselfe but some thing of him For these Fathers saw him not as he was And that because to see him as he is is to be as he is but wee have that much sight of him in Christ as to save us for he that seeth me seeth the
and politicks that they can plot mischief and bring it to passe Who ever glorieth in sin professeth that he counteth it his happines It may here be demanded If affliction can stand with happines The name of it is miserable to the worldly but that name hurteth not where miserie is absent I answer it can for it is not the ill of sin or of the fault but the ill of punishment and there is more miserie in the least sin than in the greatest crosse and the Apostle called not himselfe miserable for his great affliction but glorieth in it I will glorie in my infirmities But when he found the rebellion of his will against the law of his spirit hee cryes out Miserable man that I am Gods love is the ground of our happines and affliction can stand well with it for whom he loveth he chasteneth Sin woundeth the soul and bodie and wasteth the conscience but affliction purgeth all and maketh Gods grace more sharp and lively Sin can admit no qualification but must either be simply pardoned or punished but affliction is qualified with grace to the godly and furthereth them to happines so that the spirit pronounceth them happie that are chastened of the Lord Our happines is in no externall good but in Gods favour and the state of our person qualified with his grace and image in us But affliction though it spill externall blessings yet it neither separateth us from his favour neither destroyeth his grace but augmenteth it It can make us no more miserable than prosperitie maketh the wicked happy We need not now compare Lazarus in heaven with the rich man in hell Even in this life Lazarus in his rags and sores was more happy than the rich man in his costly apparell and daintie fair Affliction is a medicine and keepeth grace fresh in us while ease and prosperitie slayeth the foolish It is both the occasion and whetstone of vertue for God exerciseth them most whom he loveth and imployeth most The best souldiers are set on hardest service and none of them going out exponeth it as their Generals base account of them but rather that he esteemeth highly of their valour God keepeth us from more miserie in making us repent former sin and keeping us from sin that we might commit than all the ill that affliction bringeth on us Our daily crosses chase us daily to God who is our happines and the godly count more of grace than of goods Job after he had lost all kept his soul so fixt on God that he made it manifest that they they were not given to him but that he was more than they and God was more to him than they and himself The second respect is to good that we choose it and that not every good but the best for wee are not now inquiring everie good but the chief Herein we must climb in two ascensions the one in our self the other in goods For our self we must not bide in our bodily senses which are evill Judges of happines but we must ascend from our body to our spirit from our affections and will to our reason and from that to the eternall law the rule of reason and from that to eternall veritie the informer of reason in that law So we must rise to the inlightned minde in Jesus Christ that we may be inabled to make this search aright Next we must ascend by the degrees of goodnesse in the things themselves for every creature of God is good but not the chief good Though we may respect it as good in the own kinde and degree yet we may not rest on it for happinesse As a man that seeketh a lost jewell in a house casteth by all that cometh to hand till he finde it Or as one in a well furnished shop seeking rare stuffe though the merchant put many in his hand after other yet he layeth them all by till he finde that he desires So in this search of happinesse what ever good come in our way we must shift it till we come to the chief good If we ascend to the height of a minde inlightned by God nothing will content us till we come to himself As his own light discovereth him so his own love shed abroad in our heart cannot rest on any good till it come to him The dove sent out by Noah found no rest till she returned to the ark so the inquiring minde findeth no rest in the creature till it come to God in the covenant of grace Spirituall things are better then temporall and heavenly things better then earthly and in spirituall things we must ascend from gifts to grace and in grace from a common to a speciall grace and in the speciall grace from a preveening to an exciting grace from that to the operating and cooperating graces and from those to preserving and persevering grace From given grace we ascend to giving grace that maketh us acceptable And from all graces inhering in us and qualifying us as faith hope holinesse c. we rise to the fountain-grace in God even his free favour whereby he hath chosen and blessed us in spirituall things in Christ This is the grace whereby we are saved our chief good and true happinesse The Prophet professeth this his search through heaven and earth ending in this choice of God alone Whom have I in heaven but thee and in the earth I have desired none with thee And the Apostle I count all things but dung for the excellencie of the knowledge of Christ and that I may know him and be found in him This is our highest ascent Reason it self craveth this for we ought to seek the best good and if these things be good God is better who made them They have their goodnesse of him which is infinitely lesse then his goodnesse as a drop of water compared to the sea They are both better and greater in him then in themselves and more truly also as the originall is better then the extract All goodnesse is both originally and eminently in him and more perfect then in creatures because what is in them a shadow in him is truth If we love riches true riches is in his favour If we love honour true honour is in his testimonie If we love true pleasure it is in his peace The authour of things is better then the things themselves and he who made all is to us for all things He who made all is better then all and that is our God he departeth not because none succeedeth to him This is the right sett of our two chief affections hatred and love Of hatred that we hate all ill absolutely There are degrees of ill some lesse and some greater and answerably we should hate them all but we may not love any degree of ill this is our separation from it for though it subsist in our substance flesh yet if it be not
joyes What ever our condition be in the world wee are but miserable without this peace but what ever be our condition wee are happie with it and may say Blessed is the man whose sinnes are forgiven him This peace of God hath two fruits Peace with our selves and with the creatures Peace with our selves floweth from Gods peace So soone as God is offended with our sinnes and setteth us against him as marks of his wrath Then wee are contrary to our selves and revenge his quarell on us This is that holy indignation arising of the sorrow according to God when we seeke a sithment and revenge on our selves for angring him we take Gods part against our selfe and eat up our owne heart and make our flesh to pine away for his displeasure and our beautie to consume like a moth But when he pardoneth us and sealeth that pardon with his peace then wee turne to peace with our selves So long as we feele sinne wee are as an house on fire God is a consuming fire and who can dwell with devouring fire and who can abide with everlasting burnings The conscience terrified of God doth terrifie us and all the powers of the soul are in confusion The spirit so wounded woundeth the body in all the naturall powers weake appetite worse digestion troubled sleepe and an universall ineptnesse both in soul and bodie to any good office The flesh evanishing the bones consuming and the moisture turning in the drought of summer wherein the Prophet possibly alludeth to mount Horeb which had the name from burning the Law was given on it in fire and thunder and every heart in some measure must be shaken with the terrours of the Lord that it may come to the peace of God But the sight of a reconciled God in Christ changeth all to the contrary the testimonie of conscience is stronger in her judiciall acts than in other For when God is directing informing and simply proponing things she hath but a weake testimonie but when God judicially dealeth with us accusing reproving and terrifying her testimonie is strong because the hand of God is powerfull in it and therefore there is no denying of her accusation no shifting of her torture On the other part her comforting is as certaine when shee assureth us of Gods pardon because the hand of God is in her to comfort us and in us to be as sweetly comforted as we were formerly grievously tormented The combat betwixt the flesh and the spirit seemeth to trouble this peace and consequently our happinesse but it doeth rather confirme and increase it For it is not a power of God pursuing us but our owne corruption molesting us The parties are flesh and spirit nature and grace the new and the old man And though it be grievous that we have corruption either passively to receave Sathans temptations by consent or actively of it selfe to breed the worke of sinne Yet this is joyfull that we have a partie within us against Sathan And that not only a conscience or reason or care of publick honestie c. which are in the wicked but the new man and the new spirit assisted by the holy spirit The Apostle finding that combat cried out miserable man that I am yet feeling the spirit a contrary party making resistance thanked God in Christ for his deliverie and though Rebecca was grieved to finde the two children strive in her belly yet she was glad for having children This spirituall combat is a seal that we are at peace with God and our selves so long as wee abhorre our flesh strive against and complaine to God of violence and implore his helpe to his owne spirit against it Our peace with the creatures commeth not so neere to our happinesse God hath the fabrick of the world in his hand as a mounter so long as we please him he maketh all creatures go in their order but when wee offend him he distempereth it that nothing goe right till we returne to him by repentance and then he maketh the stone of the field at covenant with us But we are to inquire of the peace of the reasonable creature The good angels are ever at peace with us for though sometimes God giveth them hard commissions of punishment against us yet they love us still The evill angels will never be at peace with us but their warre is our peace Better to have Sathan without us than within us and to have him tempting us to sinne rather than tormenting us for sinne If we were his possession he would not trouble us but his tentation argueth that God hath hedged us about and we are free of his tyrannie He troubleth none of his owne but keepeth them in peace A mastive dog barketh at none of the houshold but at strangers and Sathans tentations are not against his owne but the Saints As for men their peace is various We should not looke for peace at the hand of the wicked for wee are called out of the world therefore the world hateth us and the old denounced warre betwixt the woman and the serpent hath neither truce nor peace therefore their injuries are our peace But the wrongs wee receave from the godly are more grievous for Gods grace in them coloureth their cause and perplexeth our minde more than the wrongs of the wicked And Sathan craftily setteth the godly against the godly as Jacobs sonnes against Joseph and Davids brethren against him c. But though these things may trouble the peace of our body yet they should not trouble the peace of our breast The equitie of our cause Our patience in suffering No desire of revenge but seeking occasions to do good to our injurers and that neither of hypocrisie nor policie nor a naturall softnesse but a conscience and that because God commandeth it Christ hath done so and commandeth us to follow him These worke greater peace than injuries can make trouble Joseph rejoyced more in Gods grace making him meek and beneficiall to his brethren than in the outward power he had so to doe In the second he overcame them but in the first he overcame himselfe The second part of this habitation is Rest the most desireable end of our appetites and that of resolution refreshment and securitie The rest of Resolution keepeth us at home with God For when wee are searching what is happinesse where and how it is to be found perplexitie holdeth us from home but being resolved that all is in God that as Andrew said to Peter We have found the Messias so that we may say We have found happinesse in God we rest from these first perplexities Our labours after that though painfull are sweet and pleasant because they are about the chiefe good yea we have not such rest in any thing as when we are most busied about happinesse These very labours are our rest and we goe to
a nation but God gave more to the Jewes in the Temple and Synagogues than to the Assyrians Persians Grecians Romans in their flourishing Monarchies He giveth to other nations without the Church great naturall and politick gifts but they are nothing to the sanctuarie Albeit they excell the Sainâ—s in these common gifts yet the spirituall gifts are infinitely better For as the waxing power is stronger in plants than in beasts because in them it is eminent but in the other subject to the sensitive power and in beasts the sensitive power is stronger than in man in whom it is subject to reason so among men they who have nothing but Nature it is eminent in them as in the own sphere Without the Church many have excelled in common gifts for mankinds civill perfection and because they had no other purpose to exercise their spirit But the Saints are taken up in things supernaturall and so are weaker in the naturall And this is a fruit of Gods dwelling among them when their soules runne out on things supernaturall rather than naturall Thirdly our duty in two things First that wee frequent the house of God in reverence for God is there in a singular maner and our salvation and happinesse is proponed there Therefore since he keepeth both time and place of trysting let us not be so ingrate as not to meet with him Many in opinion of greater spirituall profit in private abstain from temples but let them remember that David was a Prophet and laden with revelations yet in the statute times of worship hee chose to bee in the Sanctuarie rather than in private For albeit God bid us worship him privately lest we be found hypocrites yet he wil have us honour the publike meetings because larger grace descendeth from God and more groans ascend to him Moreover when we come to the sanctuarie let us remember that we are come to get happinesse which is proponed there For to passe by humanitie and phâ—losophie which treat not of happinesse and come to the schooles of divinitie Happinesse is not there so clearly proponed as in Churches For there truth is almost lost by jangling Happinesse is rather obscured than cleared new questions augmented and all more for the glorie of the disputer than edification of the hearer but nothing of heart or conscience But in the Churches happines is clearly proponed Here a man shall bee convinced of his own miserie he shall heare many are blessed whom the world count miserable for their crosses and that many are miserable whom they count happie for their prosperitie And that the best have need to look to the deceit of their heart that they steale not Gods glorie ascribing his gifts to them Churches are types of heaven and of these two great places God hath set the earth under our feet and the heaven above our head and given our bodie a straight stature to tell we should tread on the earth and aspire to heaven Next that we try if we be the Temples of the holy Spirit if we have the altar of a cleane heart daily warmed with fire from above The daily offering of Repentance The shining Candlestick of a pure conscience The Shew-bread of sinceritie and truth in obedience The altar of Incense to praise God for his blessings we receive daily God sought not sacrifices under the Law for themselves but for the thing signified They represented Christ to us and that wee should sacrifice our selves upon that great altar If we be so that unction dwelleth in us he will reveale to us the chiefe good and apply our hearts to the love of it that we may enjoy it Hee maketh us also conscious and sensible of this work for he is an unction teaching and a seale confirming our union with the chiefe good This is a great happinesse when the temples of the holy Ghost and living members of Jesus Christ come to the house of God to seeke true happinesse and obtaine it Here is also a mutuall dwelling when God man dwelleth mutually in other He prepareth us Mansions when he prepareth us for these mansions His house is the godly and then the place is prepared when we live by Faith by beleaving wee desire him that by our desire we may have him The desire of our love to him is the preparing of our Mansion So Lord prepare what thou preparest thou preparest us to thee and thee to us because thou makest a place in us to thee and thee to us for thou hast said Abide in me and I will abide in you SECT VI. The Time of learning Happinesse All the dayes of my life FOlloweth the Time which is not a Day nor a yeare but all the Time of our life This may seem too much for neither God in the fourth Commandment craveth it neither his royall affaires could permit it But this must bee exponed by the Prophets desire flowing from his delight in the house of God which was so great that gladly he would have spent all his life in it And this desire is acceptable to God for as the wicked are punished eternally albeit they sinne but temporally because they sinne in their eternall and because they never repent nor change nor diminish their desire nor delight of sinning Yea if they lived eternally here they would sinne eternally So God respecteth the holy desires of the faithfull for albeit they cannot bide continually in the temple neither be ever exercised in holy things yet God accepteth their desire so as though they remained in the Temple Hereof we may gather the Saints Kalendar We number times from the course of the Sunne and thereby measure naturall and civill actions But the godly reckon their Kalendar from the Sun of righteousnesse his aspect and influence this reckoning is for the new man for he hath his spirituall being in Christ. That I may be found in him And his spirituall life Henceforth I live not but Christ liveth in me and the life that I live I live by the faith of the sonne of God so he hath his Sunne that measureth his time and seasons For the Lord is a Sunne and Shield Yea hee counteth these daies shorter than they are and no time runneth to him so swiftly as the time of Gods worship for he is so affected with the sweetnesse of God that hee is grieved that such sweet time doth so soone end The Sabbath is both the sweetest and shortest day to him so among hours is the houre of divine service but the profane count that a long time Gods house is a prison to them and his worship a torture This cleareth the contrary disposition of the godly and the wicked while they are in that same Church in that same work of Gods worship in that same houre The godly rejoyce as in their own element worshipping God and enjoying his presence Some mocked the Jews for keeping
and furniture whereby wee beleeve is of God Next these spirituall acts being pure as they come of him yet they have some blemish in them because of our corruption as water from a pure fountaine doeth taste of the brasen or myrie channell through which it runneth For our very righteousnesse is as a filthy clout For woe to the life otherwise commendable if it be judged without mercie Yet he winketh at these blemishes and taketh our service as perfect He taketh a weake faith like a Graine of mustard-seed as though it were a Cedar Our will for deed Our purposes for performances Our very desires of grace for grace and for a sufficient preparation to fill us with grace yea and the desire of a desire is as welcome to him as though it were a greater degree We would not take so little of our neighbour no not of our selves as he taketh of us yea ofttimes we are most acceptable to him when wee are least content with our selves The people a part of this beautie SEcondly this beautie is in respect of the people and that either in themselves or in their worke In themselves they are the Lords choice and portion They have a spirituall and inward beautie in the image of God by regeneration and their love to God maketh them beautifull The love of no other beautifull thing can change us into it but the love of God maketh us beautifull like him For by loving him who is ever beautifull we become beautifull and how much that love groweth in us so much groweth that beautie because that love is the beautie of the soule The people in their work are beautifull when they flow to the Sanctuarie I rejoyced when they said Wee will go unto the house of the Lord They are like the chickens gathered under the hens wings in that dispensation of grace to be warmed with the heat of that same love of God that hath elected them It is like the Angels moving of the waters of that poole but with this difference that there only one was healed but here all are healed who can by faith but touch the hem of his garment Or it is rather like the spirit moving upon the waters in the creation Because the holy Spirit working mightily upon the hearts of the godly produceth such motions and affections as he thinketh good And in a word it is like innumerable empty vessels set about an over-running fountaine so godly soules compassing God in the Sanctuarie are sensible of their owne wants and desirous of God his supply And he in the riches of his grace furnisheth to every one as they have need In the Gospell sometimes a leper craved to be cleansed Sometimes a blind man to receave his sight Sometimes a deaf man to get his hearing c. But in the sanctuarie all these are spiritually for therein some are blinde in ignorance some are lepers in naturall corruption others are deaf and cannot heare God Others are lame and cannot walk in the wayes of God yea and more there is not one soule who hath not all these spirituall diseases by nature and Christ in his owne time healeth them by parts In this beautie the diversitie of peoples disposition and God his operation are to be considered For as many men and women as many severall dispositions and God answerably worketh on them all His word is the extract of his infinit wisedome so accommodat to man that it both informeth his minde with light and stampeth his heart with a divine power So it hath a varietie of that stamping according to the disposition of the hearer Some that are guilty of great sinnes and yet senselesse it will waken and pierce them and make them cry Men and brethren what shall we doe Some againe are wounded with conscience of sinne and feare of Gods wrath but they shall heare At what time ever a sinner repenteth I will pardon him and the conscience of his faith beleeving in Christ and repenting sinne shall be followed with this sweet whispering of his spirit Sonne be of good comfort thy sinnes are forgiven thee A contrite heart is a pleasant spectacle to God when it is brayed in the mortar of conscience Some againe borne downe with heavie affliction and in feare that they be rejected of God because they are daily afflicted their wearie hearts shall heare this word in due season That whom I love I chasten and the only way to follow him is to take up our crosse daily and that affliction is our best lot because it telleth us we are not bastards but children and that it is a part of our conformity with Christ here and a pledge that we shall be like him in glorie Moreover that same variety will be found in one godly soule at one time for being in the hand of God it is like soft waxe for the stamp and as the points of doctrine go along is answerably moved so that in one Sermon it will finde downe-cast and raising up griefe and comfort and be sensible of all these changes of operation This beautie is inward seene of God and felt of them that have it yet so that outwardly it will appeare For there is such harmonie betweene the heart and face as scarcely can any affection be in the heart that appeareth not some way in the countenance which as it ought to be expressed with modestie so should it be exponed of other in charitie Sometimes the heart will be so moved when Gods hand toucheth it that it cannot containe it selfe but will breake forth into teares of sorrow and joy but prudence commandeth us to convoy these things in publick as modestly as we can Our chambers or the fields are more convenient places for the full uttering of these affections for there we may use gestures of body speeches c. which we cannot before man for even the most sincere affection any wayes uttered will finde such uncharitable censure as Hannahs teares found at the hand of Eli. Therefore in publicke the expressions of our affections must be moderat our teares that would burst out must be turned into groanes and these groanes must be suppressed and turned into ejaculations and these brought to a soul-speech with God admiring our vilenesse and his goodnesse that taketh such paines on us Praising him where we finde his grace hath kept us in obedience resolving promising and vowing better obedience in time to come That is the joy of our heart when as it can poure out it selfe wholly on God in spirituall affections Affection hath the own voice whereby it is known of God Sometimes it requireth no other expression but is content with sighs and these sighs will breake out not only when we will but also when we know not What more pleasant thing than to see Gods people taught of him All hearers are not taught of God
but only such as the unction teacheth He speaketh to the renewed eare and heart and the soft heart is only sensible of his working and giveth him the Echo of his voice When thou saidst Seek ye my face my heart answered Thy face Lord will I seek If he speak of sinne it groaneth under guiltinesse or praiseth him if it be free If hee speake of wrath it trembleth and prayeth for averting If hee command it prayeth for grace to obey And as clean paper taketh the stamp of everie type so the soft heart is stamped with all his word this is the writing of the Law in our heart The pen is his effectuall power the ink his unction the letters are Gods properties stamped on the powers of our soule the words are infused habits the lines are the lineaments of his image in righteousnesse and holinesse This is to heare to our happinesse when we heare in our heart and there remaineth no more doubting But oft times we know not what Christ speaketh because we feele not what he feeleth If any thinke this beauty to bee marred because therein possibly are Hypocrites and Atheists c. I answer that as there is a beautie of the universe which is not destroyed but decored by some naughtie things for ill vices argue a good nature wherin they are manifest good things to be better by their comparison By some things perfect and some things imperfect the universe is perfect God seeth them as blots in the Sanctuarie without prejudice of the godly who are his delight How Pastors are this beautie THe beautie of the sanctuarie in respect of Pastors is in their calling and work Their calling is to stand betwixt God and man They are Gods mouth to the people in doctrine and the peoples mouth to him in prayer and praise This is the onely calling that teacheth man true happinesse that openeth the heaven and leadeth him to it All the body of the heavens is pure yet the stars are most pure parts receiving light from the sunne and rendring it to the world So are Pastors among men the light of the world starres receiving light from God and rendring it to others They are as one of a thousand to declare to man the righteousnes of God and their very feet are beautifull because they bring good tidings to the world God sendeth them not of indigence but indulgence as a more fit way to teach man than either by himselfe or by Angels for man can peaceably receive instruction of man but the glorie of God or of Angels would overwhelme us It is likewise mans triall and the commendation of his Faith for if we were taught onely by God immediately and not of man there were no proofe of our obedience to Gods ordinance Pastors then are a part of this beautie when they stand between God who heareth the prayer and inhabiteth the praise of Israel and are remembrancers to both The beautie in respect of their work is as the mouth of God to the people and their mouth to him They are Gods mouth in preaching the beautie whereof standeth in the matter form the diversitie efficacie The matter that they preach Christ crucified and happines in him That it be sound without error or heresie and divine according to Scripture Mans minde enquireth a reason of all humane verities but when it heareth divine veritie it neither enquireth nor examineth but at the first resteth upon it with a divine faith Therefore the Ancients in their sermons were exceeding sparing of humane testimonies and contented them with Scripture because they knew to doe otherwise was to confound divine and humane faith in the hearer As now the Papists who have equalled traditions with Scriptures have brought their people that they know no difference betweene divine and humane truth or betwixt divine and humane faith respecting both When any thing is spoken beside Scripture the minde of the hearer will vage but when God speaketh all doubting ceaseth The second beautie of their doctrine is in the form that holy things be delivered holily As every science hath the owne proper matter so hath it the owne proper forme and Gods word which is holy hath the owne paterne of wholesome words wherein it should be delivered If therefore we propone it as Oratours in the schoole or Lawyers wee spill the native beautie of the word And this is it which the Apostle calleth the demonstration of spirit and power which is not so much to be expounded of an exact forme of reasoning as with a manifesting and kything of a spirituall power in doctrine Doctrine commeth of foure speciall grounds 1 Naturall quicknesse 2. Art and learning 3. Diligence in industrie hearing reading collecting and by grace in the inward teaching and inspiration of the Spirit Now publick doctrine is a kything how many of these or what of them are in us For a judicious hearer can well discerne from which of these one or moe or all it floweth And though we could rub the itching eare wonderfully with the first or the second or the third or all three of them together yet if the fourth be lacking it is not the Apostles demonstration of the spirit and power but of nature and industrie This commeth of the concurrence of the spirit who is first effectuall in them by sanctification and then effectuall by them in a heavenly doctrine in the hearts of people Then his Priests are clothed with salvation and his Saints shout for joy Thirdly the beautie of Pastors doctrine is in the diversitie of their gifts Gods house hath people of all complexions and his word hath a sufficiencie to every mans condition So wife Pastors propone it as milk for the weaker and as strong food for the perfect For they studie not to their owne vain honour and praise but to the profit of their hearers God is not like Isaac that hath but one blessing but out of his fulnesse to some hee giveth the gift of knowledge to some the gift of wisedome he hath given some to be Apostles some Pastors some Doctors c. and all to the edifying of the Church but these two are most eminent and ordinarie gifts Knowledge and Wisedome The first is doctrinall knowledge preserving the puritie of doctrine in the Church The other is pastorall wisedome dividing the bread of life aright and applying it to the hearts of people which Saint Austine preferreth to the other as farre as the Sunne is above the moone This commeth not only by ordinarie teaching of men and that measure of Instruction which the spirit giveth to every one but likewise by exercise of the crosse and experience For God schooleth some Pastors greatly in affliction and that not only for their personall sinnes which they have as great as any but also to make them fitter instruments to instruct and
is when God so communicateth himselfe to the soule that it exceedeth the wonted disposition and is carried out of it selfe to him The excellencie of the object and singular sort of working maketh this unaccustomed sweetnesse for ordinarily wee can comprehend our disposition but when he transcendeth our ordinary diet wee must gather our wits afterward to consider the matter In our wonted diet the spirit can bide in it selfe though with reference to God and by the way can move our body in naturall and civill actions But when this excesse commeth the spirit is pulled out of it selfe and the body feebled So the Apostle knew not whether in the body or out of the body because of the excellencie of revelation so Daniels body was feebled because of the separation of the spirit taken up only with heavenly things For the soule in any degree of that excesse doeth not furnish power to the body but turneth it in halfe a carcase It is good that the body finde sometimes this feebling by the vigorous worke of the spirit because the vigour of the body often feebleth the spirit Though they both make up one person yet they have but a discording concord and doe not ay agree upon a common joy and griefe By this feebling the body resents its owne mortalitie and findeth that verified That no mortall man can see God and live and therefore is moved to long for immortalitie that it may joyfully brooke the fulnesse of that joy whose first fruits doe so affect us But this is not oft to be found no not in the best It is but as a sunne-blink in the mids of stormes that commeth rarely and bideth shortly God offereth it but rarely as a delicate lest we should thinke that it came of our owne deserving or working or lest the frequence of it should take away the sweetnesse or accompt of it And he giveth it for two speciall ends The one to refresh us after great afflictions or desertions when we have beene striving with hardnesse and witherednesse of heart But so soone as his spirit rusheth on us with that holy and heavenly satietie like the woman delivered of a sonne we forget our former sorrowes because we have found him whom our soule loveth The other is to strengthen us for some great temptation like Eliahs double supper But come what tentation may better to find that furnishing than to want it It hath also a further reach than for the present time for it leadeth us back to eternitie and maketh us feele our selves in Gods electing love whose infallible fruit wee finde in so full infusion of his love Next it leadeth us foreward to glorification and these joyes assure us that as now we have these first fruits so eternally we shall rejoyce with God for it is not as the small and warsh taste of the temporarie Christian as a drop but the full measure of Gods children as the outbreaking of a fountaine It reacheth also to a higher place than the sanctuarie for under this satietie we are in heaven with God For as he boweth downe and kisseth us with the kisses of inspiration infusion and delight so wee ascend to him in heaven and the soule is more there busied than the body in the sanctuarie This is also to assure us of life eternall for God never bringeth any to heaven but sometimes in this life he giveth them a taste of it by some transfiguration on the mountaine He hath promised it and Sathan would make us thinke his promise but winde therefore he giveth us such reall beginnings to assure us of the truth and to perswade us of the fulnesse of it in heaven For it is not a divided but a continuat thing like a chaine that cannot be broken so that he which getteth such beginnings shall also get the perfection Lastly it is to destroy the love of the world for the world will never be great in his eyes who hath seene God but the loathing of the world and the love of God will grow in his soule by equall degrees The soule thus filled with love and joy is full of God and under that disposition cannot be wrong charged to any doing or suffering for him For the sense of Christs love maketh his yoak easie his burden light That love constrained the Apostle to diligence and the nativenes of it seeketh out wayes to honour God The Martyrs were thereby moved to misregard their torments For as a drunken man neither heareth nor seeth what is done beside him so when their wives and children wept on them that they would pitie themselves they neither heard that diversion neither the paine of the torments And the Apostle met teares with What do yee weeping and breaking my heart I am not only content to be bound at Ierusalem but also to die for the name of the Lord Iesus On this excesse Moses desired to be cut off and the Apostle to be accursed for his brethren The love of God made them forget themselves with an holy oblivion But it was their best remembring of themselves to hold them fast in straitest union with God Hereof foure things arise 1. The agreement of sight and fruition 2. The compleatnesse of Gods beautie in the sanctuarie 3. The difference of religions 4. And of worshippers in the true religion 1. Sight and fruition goe well together as the double spirit of Eliseus for the illumination of the minde and the purging of the affections compleat the man for the minde knoweth and the affections will Sight or light without fruition is fruitlesse and fruition or affection without light is rash Light first wakeneth and then directeth the affection to affect things in that order and measure as it directeth And the affection followeth to justifie the trueth of that light Sight apprehendeth God as distant but fruition injoyeth him within and our selves in that union the minde is more easily inlightned than the affection bowed The Disciples knew Christ was to depart from them yet they were sorie for it their will crossing their minde But fruition is better than sight as Ephraim the younger brother was more fruitfull and mightie than Manasseh When God craveth the best of man he biddeth him love him with all his heart And the image of God consisteth most in righteousnesse and holinesse which are most in the heart Knowledge maketh a sort of mentall union and yet the heart may hate that same thing it is so united to but affection maketh a heartie and strong union which cannot be broken Knowledge is a great gift of God but if men stand at it as their happinesse and advance not to fruition they may be as hard in heart and profane in life as the ignorant Sathan hath his name Daemon from knowledge because being a compleat spirit he hath both great knowledge by creation and daily augmented by