given Pag. 190 Chap. 17. What it is to live upon God as our God No other life appointed for Saints The fulness beauty and satisfaction of this life How Christians offer violence to their relation Pag. 199 Chap. 18. Heavenly life nearest at hand Christians are to live up to the height of it and to maintain it in every condition Pag. 208 Chap. 19. Further Considerations to promote the forementioned life of its incomparable worth Those that will not live the life of Faith shall not A firm belief of the Gospel the foundation of this Life Pag. 214 Chap. 20. Our Apostacy hath made us unapt for divine Life and Converse with God through a Mediator and willing to conform to the lowest Patterns Pag. 222 Chap. 21. Several Questions concerning the forementioned Doctrine answered Saints not always equally strong Some afflictions sweetened more then others Sometimes God will have his Rod smart Pag. 230 Chap. 22. How it comes to pass that deformities creep into the Conversation of Christians since they have so high a principle of life Whence it is that those which enjoy not God seem to go through afflictions with strength Pag. 239 Chap. 23. A Comparison of Interest and Enjoyment and the excellency of Enjoyment evinced from Interest What is requisite to make full Enjoyment An affectionate Close to all the foregoing Discourses Pag. 251 III. Treatise on PSALM 119. vers 4. Chap. 1. Gods Interest in man natural and acquired this latter twofold Of holy Resignation Of true and false Mourning Pag. 1 Chap. 2. The Will of God is the Bounds and Rule of a Resigned Spirit Pag. 21 Chap. 3. Resignation necessary in Prayer Prayer without it hath no truth in it is non-sence and imposeth upon God absurdly The true Advantage of a spirit of Resignation as to Prayer Pag. 34 Chap. 4. Wicked mens prayers not to be dreaded The sins of those that pray greatest Some out-live the contests of the Spirit Three things to be still done by those who have resigned themselves to God Pag. 41 Chap. 5. The knowledg of Interest in God doth much further our approaches to God It begets propensions carries the spirit in a due frame fits it for all divine determinations Pag. 67 Chap. 6. How the knowledg of divine Interest doth promote Holiness sets Judgment and Nature against Sin keeps the heart from inordinate reaching after and holding fast present things Faith binds the Soul and keeps it bound makes all a Christians ways easie Assurance gives a double advantage to our great meeting with God Pag. 82 THE FIXED EYE OR THE Mindful Heart PSAL. 25.15 Mine Eyes are Ever towards the Lord. CHAP. I. Eyes of Saints set upon God In what sence Ever and how many ways THis Psalm is a Psalm of speciall excellency and hath this mark on it that as some others its form'd in Verses of it according to the Hebrew Alphabet David was a man of a heavenly spirit and truly he breaths much life in every word This Psalm is a Prayer David complains of Enemies good men shal never want them but this is their advantage that as the world wil be sure to be their enemie so God wil be more sure to be their friend He had one to go to and could tel him how it was with him and how men dealt with him and that 's but a bad business to the world but it s a great relief to the Spirits of the Saints that they can go to God and speak their hearts And in his Prayer observe his spirit He doth not after the manner of the world breathe out Affections moved meerly from the smart of the stroke without sense of the cause but cries out more of his sin then of his suffering and speaks more against himself then against his enemies and begs more that he might walk in the sight of Gods countenance and have his favor then to be delivered from his enemies And as all Prayer the more spiritual the more argumentative it is Prayer that is full of Affection is full of Arguments so this But while David was drawing down mercy upon himself he was catcht up Love fires in Prayer His Faith is quickened in Prayer and then Love 's inflam'd In the midst of his Prayer he breaks out and tells God in the words of the Text that his eyes were ever towards him While he was begging the eye of God toward him he tells God Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord. Ever You cannot understand that actually and uncessantly his thoughts and heart were towards God and his mind taken up with him for by the necessity of this life and the Law of it he was sometimes to be taken up with other things But when he says Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord he means these three things 1. That the disposition of his Soul was such that he could be always looking upon God he could wish that when he is departed out of himself and got up that he might never come down more and never have any other work in the world but this to behold God Thus always is taken in the Scriptures In Acts 10.2 Cornelius is said to pray always that is he had a disposition his heart was ready to pray always Acts 7.51 It 's said of the Jews They were stiff-necked and hard-hearted always to resist the Holy Ghost this was their temper like a stone that resists the hand of the workman takes in no impression but is wholly shut up to it self 2. When he saith Mine eyes are always towards the Lord he means this That upon all occasions in every condition in all places his eyes were towards God In Luke 18.1 Christ teacheth to watch and pray always that is upon all occasions when ever Prayer is called for watch to see the season and have your hearts open Making mention of you Always in my prayer saith the Apostle Rom. 1.9 and not seldom elsewhere that is as I have occasion I do intercede for you as I pray for my self it s my dayly work So in Psal 88.9 Every day will I praise thee Psal 145.2 Every day will I bless thee So here Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord that is it 's my every days work 3. Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord that is continually it is not only my ordinary work and dayly course but it 's a work that shall last while I live a work for life 2 Sam. 9.10 David saith concerning Mephibosheth He shall Always eat bread at my table that is while he lives he shall sit at my table And in Psal 146.2 While I live he speaks in the sence of the Text I will praise thee So that now here you have the temper and practise of a godly man his eyes are Ever toward the Lord. The Text holds forth these three things to us 1. What it is upon which the eyes of Saints are set upon what they are terminated upon God 2. Their great diligence and assiduity in this work
contained and kept within his compass and not like water let out of a vessel that runs hither and thither and is lost but kept within its bounds There is a contentment from the object the thing we enjoy as when that doth fully answer our expectation but that is not thank-worthy when a man hath what his heart desires when nothing is wanting there not to quarrel is no great vertue But it 's a Contentment that ariseth from Reason and Judgment when though a mans condition be not so pleasing yet in respect of him by whom he is disposed and in respect of the end of it and in respect of the ingredients wherewith God mingles his state he is at rest Not that this requires an excluding of all desire to have his state otherwise or an excluding of all grief under the sense of any evil of a mans condition but that the heart run not inordinately and impetuously with desires after change when it is not well with us nor are we dejected and sowred in our spirits because it is ill with us When Christ was near unto death and that Cup ready to be reached into his hand he had a desire to escape it and vented his desire in prayer If it be possible let this Cup pass from me But as it was the glory of Jesus Christ to submit to his Fathers Will so here is the excellency of Contentment in a Christian when though he can truly say and may say My case is hard and there is much in it to afflict nature yet I will lay my hand upon my mouth that I offend not with my tongue I will lie quietly under the Hand and Will of God That 's one Branch of our Willingness to be disposed by God to be contented in every state wherein God sets us and he that understands not this hath not yet known God nor seen him I mean he that doth not this nor can do it is a stranger to God 2. A second Branch of being willing to be at Gods disposing is an indifferency of mind in respect of any possible change whereunto we are called according to the Wisdom and Will of God to be willing to be changed and poured as water from vessel to vessel according to the Will of God You shall find an eminent example of this in David 2 Sam. 15.25 When Zadock was by the Ark the King said to him Carry back the Ark of God into the City if I find favor in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me hither again and shew me both it and his habitation but if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here I am let him do with me as seemeth him good This must be the language of every spirit that doth own God as his Soveraign to whom he hath subjected himself What are those that are the people of God but as sheep before the Shepherd that must change their pasture at their Shepherds will and wisdom What are they but as Soldiers that must march hither and thither as they are cammanded or as vessels in the house that stand to be filled or emptied according to pleasure or as servants that must go and come as they are bid and not to stay in any place at their wills There are two things contrary to this frame of spirit which must be looked to and taken heed of 1. The first is An eager and over-vehement prosecution after any good that we want any thing that we would have or be in this world as it was with Rachel Give me children or else I dye The Soul that runs out thus after any thing in this present world is a Soul without bounds hath cast off God denyed his Soveraignty Authority and Command over him 2. A second thing that is contrary to this is an obstinate cleaving or holding to any state or condition in the world be it never so amiable sweet or suitable to our desires To hold this fast and not to be willing to go out of it when God bids us is to deny God it is not to own God in his power of disposing us according to his Will We must endeavor and it must be in our measure with us as it was with Abraham Abraham was at ease Well saith God Get thee out from thy fathers house and from thy Country do as I bid thee leave all and go to a Land which thou hast not seen or known and Abraham went There are some that in the midst of their enjoyments are as men in chains they are married and cannot endure to think of a divorce from that state it 's death to them to think of a change To be brought into disgrace after honor and after the sweetness of freedom to be brought into bondage they cannot brook it The Prophet Habakkuk in Chap. 2.6 speaks of some that lade themselves with thick clay What 's the reason that the treasures of this world are compared to thick clay Because when men get into the possession of them they commonly stick fast as men in the mire But if thou stick fast in the Creature thou art separated from the Creator if thine heart be in conjunction and a state of confederacy and agreement with any things in this world thou art at odds with God and hast shaken hands with him This is the first thing which was propounded to be spoken of What Resignation of our selves to God is CHAP. III. Resignation necessary in Prayer Prayer without it hath no truth in it is non-sence and imposeth upon God absurdly The true Advantage of a spirit of Resignation as to Prayer 2. THe second thing is Why we must do this when we come to pray Consider If you come to God to ask any thing at his hands which you would enjoy and of which you have great necessity without such a disposition and frame of spirit as you have heard you pray but not in truth there is no truth in your recourse to God thine action is false treacherous and deceitful there is no truth in it For consider when you come to God you come with a professed sense of your indigence and your dependance upon God if you did not want you would not ask you come with a professed sense of the all-sufficiency of God and his dominion over you and you come and say Lord and great God and Maker of the World c. Now what false dealing is this with God to call him Lord and not yield obedience to him What absurd dealing is this with the holy One the true God the only wise God to come in this fashion to him It is true he is near to those that call upon him but it is to those that call upon him in truth Psal 145.18 You have an example of such false dealing with God in Psal 78.36 And they remembered God their Rock and the high God their Redeemer nevertheless they flattered him with their mouths and lyed to him with their tongues for their heart
and our Redeemer thy Name is upon us See what a conclusion here is made Doubtless thou art our Father and therefore we call to thee for help 3. There is this encouragement and strength that the spirit of a man receives in thus arguing with God that if he can say in truth I am thine God much more will say to the creature I am thine If we have so much love to offer our selves to God to become his much more will the love of God make him to become ours for God loves first and most and surest If mine heart rise toward God much more is the heart of God toward me because there Love is in the Fountain CHAP. IV. Wicked mens prayers not to be dreaded The sins of those that pray greatest Some out-live the contests of the Spirit Three things to be still done by those who have resigned themselves to God NOw I come to the Application Vse If there must be such a Resigning of our selves to God when we come to him then truly you need never fear the prayers of the men of this world assure your selves they wish you as much evil as it is possible and their hearts cannot love you they envy all your welfare and the constant vote of their spirits is that your day were turned into night and that in stead of light darkness should be round about you but it matters not though they put up such prayers to God they are but bruta fulmina The reason of it is because they come to God without that which is the nerves and sinews of prayer If they come to God and bow the knee before him that God would bless them and prosper them poor Creatures they speak to no purpose because they deal hypocritically with God for they bow the knee and call him Lord as if he were their Lord but they do what they list and are their own Lords Rulers and Commanders Hos 7.14 God saith the people of Israel dealt so with him They did not cry to me with their hearts when they howled upon their beds and assembled themselves for corn and for wine and rebelled against me They pray that God would do so such a good turn for them but they shut their hearts against God and had a rebellious spirit at the same time Though I have strengthened their arm yet they imagined mischief against me They are no friends of my Cause and Kingdom in this world but wish their overthrow though I have shewed them mercy In Hos 4.7 8. it 's said They have set their hearts on iniquity and it shall be like people like Priests and I 'le punish them for their ways and reward them for their doings or as the word is I will cause their doings to be turned upon them Men may think when they come to God that the sins of so many years past are forgotten that God will not reckon with them for sins so long past and so they come to God in their filth and with their hearts unwashen But saith God They are deceived I will turn their ways upon them and though they be sins of so long time backward yet I 'le remember them In Hos 8.3 Israel cryed to me My God we know thee What saith God Israel hath cast off the thing that is good the Enemy shall pursue him They have set up Kings but not by me c. They say My God we know thee No saith God I 'le not know you thou hast cast off the thing that is good Mal. 2.2 3. You have God expressing himself to this purpose If you will not hear and lay to heart to give glory to my Name A man dishonors God and puts the greatest indignity and affront upon God that can be when he refuseth to hear and obey Then I 'le curse your blessings and cast even the dung of your solemn Feasts on your faces c. That 's a strange thing but it was so their solemn Feasts were as dung to God and God saith he will cast them as dung in their faces and they shall be a dunghill which my Soul abhors You need not fear the prayers of such men as are without yoke and fear not God but the prayers of Saints are to be dreaded because they have power with God if they come to God and say Save me I am thine God will answer I am thine I will save thee 2. If when we come to God we must make a resignment of our selves to God and acknowledg we are not our own but his Then we learn secondly that the sins of a praying people are the greatest sins there be no sins that are so out of measure sinful as the sins of those that pray and pray most Hath God made thee as a Prince with himself hath God set open a door that thou mayst have access to him hath he given thee leave in the day of thy straits to pour out thy Soul hast thou in the midst of those mercies in the sense of the sweetness of those visions said to God that thou art his and hast thou departed from him hast thou given to him a withdrawing shoulder as it 's said of them This sin is of the highest nature for it is a renewed Apostacy Those that are without God and Christ in the world are Apostates but it is by one Apostacy it is a continued act wherein they are held but now thou art gone out from God after thou hadst returned to him thou hast gone from the unspeakable refreshings of the Father of mercies and hast offered violence to the many engagements which thou hast layd yea which they have layd upon thy Soul thou hast broken the bonds of them all Sins after Resignation and after the matter of difference is taken up between God and the Creature are not to be easily passed over they are the worst sins Remember your selves as many as have known Jesus Christ when you said to God that you would walk with him did you mean it And hast thou fallen from the truth into a lye The world many times come to God and say many good words that they will be his but as it 's said of them in Psal 78.36 They flattered with their lips and lyed with their tongues their hearts were not stedfast in the Covenant with their God They minded no such thing but thou didst and therefore boundst thy self more thou didst intend to be bound When thou engagedst thy self to God thou didst it upon the greatest reason through the enforcement of the highest Arguments thou feltst the power of God conquering and subduing thee and thou yieldedst thy self to be his for ever And remember how often thou hast said this to God Is not the voyce of thy Soul still in his ears Doth not he remember the language thou hast uttered And after thou hast said it again and again that thou wouldst do no more so after thou hast said Thou art and shalt be my God for thee to draw back
with a petition in one hand and with weapons of defiance in the other hand Wilt thou come to God with the face of a Petitioner and with the spirit of a Rebel What infinite boldness is this with God I have before shewed you the horridness of this kind of prayer and the horrid things that such prayers impose upon God But consider further whilest thou retainest a resolution and bent of heart set towards thy sin and yet wilt pray thou art in a necessity of sinning do thou what thou canst If thou dost not pray thou sinnest by breaking of a Law of Nature which enjoyns the creature to acknowledg his dependance upon his Maker by prayer and supplication If in the day of thy distress thou comest to ask mercy thou sinnest more So that thou art as a Ship between two Rocks that must needs perish upon one there is no escaping so is thy Soul in the midst of sin and to be in the midst of sin is to be in the midst of death And thou every day makest thy condition more unhappy that wherein thou blessest thy self and rejoycest thy prayers are so far from being any reasonable relief unto thee that they are matter of amazement and astonishment to a man that rightly understands What have I done may such a man say I have been with God and mock'd him to his face I have called him Lord but I am not his servant but serve my self and divers lusts I called my self his Subject but I am a Rebel Nay this is a blaspheming of God Men commonly are afraid of blasphemy but thou that comest to God praying but sinning that is having thy heart upon thy evil ways thou that comest praying but not yielding thou blasphemest God to his face thus to make thy self equal with God is blasphemy it was so judg'd in the heart of that people Joh. 10. but they mistook in the Case But when thou makest thy self the chiefest of thine own affections thou makest thy self equal with God whose priviledg and supremacy it is to be chiefest in the affections of his Creature and to have the highest superintendency over the spirits of his people to command them Nay thou makest thy self greater then God because thou thinkest it nothing to transgress to offend and offer violence to his Commands but thou takest all pleasure and contentment in gratifying thine own wicked spirit Thou makest that greatest to which thou most yieldest when thou then yieldest unto sin and leavest God hast not thou made thy self greater then God Very high dishonors are offered to God in such a course past expression Mark that in Mal. 2.2 If you will not hear and lay to heart to give glory to my Name I will even send a curse upon you If you will not hear and yield your selves to my Commands to give me glory As if he had said If you will not acknowledg me to be what I am but deny me if you will not submit to the Authority and Wisdom of my Commands I 'le send a Curse upon you And by this means thou dost as thou canst destroy that which doth only difference thee from Devils for the Devils are cast into that condemnation which shall come upon the world but Man hath a possibility to escape Now thou dost what thou canst to make thy Salvation impossible and to fasten and tye up thy Soul to the condemnation of those apostate Angels whilest thou refusest to turn unto God from whom thou hast departed and dost not acknowledg the grace and mercy of that open door for poor creatures to return again to the God of mercy And be sure of this If you be not the Lords the Lord will not be yours You have such a passage They are not mine break down their bulwarks I 'le take no knowledg of Jerusalem because she takes no knowledg of me What a thing is this that God stands with both hands to give out mercy to the Creature as it is said of Wisdom Prov. 3.16 Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour and that the Creature shall bend both his hands against God Such a passage you have in Micah 7.3 Men do evil with both hands earnestly Now then consider how much it concerns every one of you that have not yet given your selves to God to do it now What an unhappy creature art thou if God shall shut out thy prayers when straits fears and death come Thy prayers are no more then the howling of Dogs and Wolves because thou prayest to God and thy spirit is not given up in obedience to him I shall now turn to those who have given up their spirits to God You must do it still when you come to God Faith and Love which are two fundamental graces of universal influence to all the rest are to be continually used and acted Others are to be acted upon occasion but these have their constant work every day these must be acted When I say that upon our coming to God there must be a giving up of our selves to God I mean these three things 1. That there must be a willing and hearty acknowledgment that we are Gods and not our own We must see the bonds of God upon upon us and like it and own it we must hate all other freedom that is offered us we must account it true bondage and be glad that such a day is come wherein God took us out of our own hands and hath taken us into his Psal 119.106 I have sworn and will perform I confess Lord that is my hand and my bond I will not for a thousand worlds go back Certainly there should be no other spirit in you when you come to God but to acknowledg your selves to be his and under his Commands a Christian cannot but do it Partly because he sees his happiness lies in this he sees in his coming again to be the Lords there is a restitution of all that blessedness from which he fell by his Apostacy By becoming Gods he sees that God also is become his How may the Soul raise it self in joy when it can say this God is my God all he hath and is is mine he is mine to all Eternity The acknowledging of this engagement wherein he stands to God and of Gods engaging of himself to him is all his happiness from whence springs all his power and confidence in prayer I can go boldly saith he to Heaven because God is my God I can go and ask all things because he is mine and I am his Partly also because he loves him with a love of complacency the Soul hath all contentment in him Never did a spouse speak to her husband whom her Soul loved to the highest more willingly and say I am thine then the spirit of an upright man saith to God Lord I am thine And he loves him with a love of thankfulness Hast thou given thy self to me saith he and shall I then withhold
my self from thee Hast thou who art so great done all this for me and shall I stand out against thee He will willingly acknowledg himself to be his the Saints often do this David above twenty times comes with this acknowledgment in this Psalm and in Psal 116.16 I am thy servant I am thy servant To say it once was not enough he saith it again to shew the sincerity of his spirit and to witness that his heart was fully pleased with this that he was not his own but the Lords 2. There must be a perfecting and compleating of our Resignment All beginnings are but cold yet there are some excellencies in our primitive and first resigning of our selves to God which without great wariness are not preserved till after times In the day of love when God first comes with terms of peace O how freely doth the Soul go out and how willingly doth it offer it self to him The flower and beauty of this first love how hardly are they maintained But what ever spirit there is in our first love it is certain that it 's imperfect and we therefore live to make it compleat Compleat extensively as our spirits and minds come to be enlarged in the knowledg of the Will of God as God makes himself more known I saith the Soul I will do that and that too And so intensively the heart and Soul cleaves unto God in more height and vigor of affection as it is said of Jehosaphat who walked with God before and was the Lords yet in 2 Chron. 13.6 Jehosaphats heart was lifted up in the ways of God His spirit was raised before towards God but now raised to an higher pitch and greater strength he did encourage and fortifie himself in the ways of God A third thing that must be done is this After any unfaithfulness treachery or base departing from God there must be a renovation of our Resignation We must again give our selves to him Having offered this injury to God to deny him his right we cannot again come to him but we must restore it and acknowledg our selves to be his It was good counsel given Job by that friend of his Job 34.31 Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more that which I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I 'le do no more With such a spirit you must come to God I confess I have offered violence to that right thou hast in me but I 'le do so no more and here I am a straying sheep I have a foolish rebellious heart I offer my self again to thy Government and to the Conduct and and Command of thy spirit There must be in those that have given themselves to God a resigning and giving up of themselves in prayer Consider it in vain else do we pray God hath given us leave to come to him and hath engaged himself to hear us but upon condition there must be a hearing on both sides He hath said that if any man come to him in the stoutness of his spirit he will not regard him he hath abundantly in the Scripture disliked such and their prayers he hates In Jer. 11.13 14. you have a full expression of this Concerning this resigning of our selves to God it cannot be dispensed with God hath sworn this shall be done Rom. 14.11 As I live saith the Lord Every knee shall bow before me God will have it done He hath put conditions upon prayer partly because he loves his people he knows there is no greater happiness to them then to cease to be their own and become his As a father pities his child that wanders abroad in the desart and tells him Except he will submit himself to him he will never take him into his house He doth this because he knows the happiness of his child lies in a subâ—rdination to his father Again God doth it to put his people into a capacity of having and enjoying the things they ask For what art thou fit for O man If thou comest to God as a petitioner and come with thy heart lifted up against him either the good thou desirest cannot come to thee or it will come as a rod and a snare at the best it will be be bitterness to thy Soul Consider Not to come in sincerity to yield your selves to God is not to come after the Law of Prayer When you come to ask of God God then asks of you the requests are mutual and reciprocal when you come to God it is not your business alone but God hath something to treat with you about It is fit if you ask and would have God hear you to have God grant your things but you should grant him his especially considering he is free He needs not give what thou askest but thou art bound to give what he asketh there is no proportion between that which thou askest of God and that he asks of thee God asks of thee to give up thy self and what art thou fit for A creature more contemptible then a rotten Carkass that lies in a ditch Wel saith God as bad as thou art let me have thee give up thy self to me And what dost thou ask of God Pardon and eternal life Besides God spake first You come indeed and ask but God spake first Thou sayst Lord hear my prayer but saith God My words are gone out first hear me God prevents thee with requests and hath been long waiting upon thee that thou wouldst come in and give up thy self to him Consider what it is that you come for what do you plead with God for You would have God to be yours to do you good to the utmost not to withhold any good thing from you then will you grant God this one request when you ask so many of him You ask a thousand things of God God asks but this one of you Give up your selves to him You would have God to be yours for ever if you ask so great things is it not meet that you should restore God his ancient Right Surely God is full of grace and mercy unto his people they can set their seals to this that he is a God hearing prayer See what an ingenuous acknowledgment the Apostle makes of the goodness of God 1 Joh. 5.15 We know that he hears us what ever we ask of him and we know that we have the petition that we desire of him It 's in effect as much as this we can have what we will of God You that walk with him what is it that you may not get of him You never come for any thing and go away empty he hath not denyed you even to himself therefore it much concerns you when you come to God to give up your selves to him Certainly this Resignation is a work of a sad import we must resign our selves we must be Gods we were his before this imports that dreadful violence that man hath exercised upon Gods
some are sensless and therefore perceive it not will be filled with God Then a Strand will be set to that deplorable forgetfulness of God which hath swell'd to such unreasonable heights that it hath left the tops of very few mountains discernable above it Then those which have pure minds will be stirred up to run after their Lord The Children of the Kingdom will enjoy more of the promises and by them partake of a Divine nature in greater measures inherit more of the holy Land trade in true life be tyed in Heavenly Galleries having their eyes set continually upon Christ who with his will take away their hearts and keep them with himself and be a Covering of the eyes to them from all false ones for ever I have no more to adde but the continuance of these wishes and prayers humbly begging a remembrance also in yours for From my Study in Eton Colledg June 1. 1653. Your weak Fellow-servant in the hopes of the Gospel Nathanael Ingelo THE CONTENTS Of the Ensuing TREATISES I. The Fixed Eye or the Mindful Heart on PSAL. 25.15 Chap. 1. EYes of Saints set upon God In what sence Ever and how many ways Pag. 1. Chap. 2. The Way of Eying God in heavenly Meditation Thoughts setled upon God include much choyce and pleasantness Pag. 5 Chap. 3. Holy thoughts of God are mixed with awful love leave deep impressions transform the spirit and are the Trade of good Souls Pag. 13 Chap. 4. Disconformity to the forementioned Principles a great fault in Christians The Discovery of it Slumbering Eyes and wandering Hearts Pag. 18 Chap. 5. How the Soul comes to wander from God of divine Permission in this Case Discouragements pretended The heart pleased with something else more then God Pag. 28 Chap. 6. False Meditation subdueth not the heart A wicked heart hath no joy in the thoughts of God What 's done and not according to Rule is as if it were undone The heart which mindeth not God in a constant course is not right Pag. 33 Chap. 7. Man wanders from God having lost the government of his spirit Thoughts of God suit not perverted Souls are above them and against them Satan lord of the imaginations and master of the affections in those which forget God Pag. 43 Chap. 8. Perswasions to frequent Emanations and contentful abode of Soul with God Minding of God a work possible to Christians A work of the most exellent power Spiritual actions easier then bodily Contemplative life everlasting Natural propensity of Soul to God renewed in Saints A blessing of love in true mindfulness of God Pag. 51 Chap. 9. Jesus Christ a Pattern of Eying the Father Greatest mindfulness of God due God our best Friend All we have is in his hands and af his gift All Religion founded upon a due mindfulness of God Anguish awails wandering hearts Pag. 62 Chap. 10. Directions cencerning Eying of God Truths to be received in their power Saints are to keep in their hearts a meetness for their work Saints are to preserve their capacities for God Saints must maintain a deep sense of divine engagements A lively sense of necessities is useful Pure hearts are meet for divine converse The mind will'd without Sanctification Pag. 69 Chap. 11. Advantages that come by minding of God are to be duly considered The more we mind God the more we may Those which eye God most know themselves best Those which eye God most have most of God Forgetfulness of God cuts the nerves of Holiness Forgetfulness of God betrays to Apostacy Pag. 86 II. The Principal Interest or the Propriety of Saints in God on MICAH 7.7 Chap. 1. Interest in God the true Spring of Consolation How it is Propriety with Community Best because God is best by a Confluence of all Excellencies Pag. 92 Chap. 2. Interest in God of a perfect extent to all in God Gods love lasts is not broke off by offences is not hindred by distance Interest in God effectual to all good ends Divine friendship not burdensom Pag. 97 Chap. 3. Saints engaged to live upon God by the Law of Nature Love and Judgment Spiritual Relation is mutual True Resignation hath Conscience with Love A divine Power in and over Saints The grace and peace of Saints furthered as they mind their Interest in God Pag. 102 Chap. 4. Saints have not only the Portion but the Spirit of Children Ingenious walking greatly requisite in those who pretend Interest in God God more easily pleased with his people then with others Tastes of Gods sweetness are obligatory Carless walking weakens hope in prayer Pag. 110 Chap. 5. Saints Interest is through great Condescension Conjunction of God and his people very intimate A Priviledg restored and how by Jesus Christ Pag. 116 Chap. 6. God content to be ours though we had disowned him and depraved our selves Gods Interest in us chargeable to him God owns not all but some Peculiar frowns upon those which walk unworthy of God Pag. 124 Chap. 7. The Absolute Necessity of Interest in God God is either with or against his Creatures Whosoever hath not God hath no true Interest in any thing Pag. 128 Chap. 8. Interest in God most attainable Goodness and Fulness the Springs of Communication Desire easily and with most success revealed to God Poor strangers impotent persons not bar'd from God as from men Interest in God incomparable in the enjoyment Pag. 133 Chap. 9. Christians ought to clear their hopes from their Uncertainties Beleevers doubt through their own fault They that seek God must pursue their end Pag. 142 Chap. 10. God hath fully made known whom he loves Christians able to know themselves Gods Spirit strengthens the testimony of our spirits Christians hindered by Slothfulness and Discouragements Pag. 148 Chap. 11. Encouragements to endeavor the clearing of our Interest in God Love cannot hide it self Love will not deny what may be easily granted and is much needed Pag. 159 Chap. 12. They are not right who are careless to clear their Evidence Wisdom and Love make the Saints seek after full satisfaction Two sorts of Content in the want of God Pag. 164 Chap. 13. Those which seek not to clear their Interest offer inexpressible violence to their own Souls How the sense of divine Love gives strength to two useful Principles of holy life Pag. 171 Chap. 14. The Evil of Doubting as it is a denyal of the Truth of God a diminution of his Love and Favors and a mis-interpretation of his Dispensations The vexation of doubting to enlightened persons in an evil day Pag. 177 Chap. 15. Interest in God more knowable then any other and yet unknown to most The Reasons of both Pag. 183 Chap. 16. How the knowledg of blessed Interest in God may be attained Desires to have the question determined A spirit free to yield to the determination Arguments proper for the deciding of the question Those that have an Interest in God are much in holy resignation Of taking answers when they are
God Sanctification is a great thing What is the body until Sanctification comes but an untamed monster as a wilde beast O with what numberless outragious passions doth it blind and carry away the Soul Until it be sanctified it puts a man into an incapacity of conversing with God it lies not only open to all temptations but it snatcheth after them it 's a weight that lies upon the spirit of a man Pray for Sanctification which is the sequestration of the spirit of a man from vanity and the consecration of it unto God it is the putting of it into his possession the planting in it a new disposition to move towards God and to converse with God this the Apostle calls the renewing of the mind CHAP. XI Advantages that come by minding of God are to be duly considered The more we mind God the more we may Those which eye God most know themselves best Those which eye God most have most of God Forgetfulness of God cuts the nerves of Holiness Forgetfulness of God betrays to Apostacy NOw let me add another Help Weigh well with a deep sense the high Advantages which a due discharge of this work doth bring upon you this will facilitate the work The more you mind God the better you may Men cry out the work is hard It is good and sweet but hardest to those that do it least easiest to those that do it most Living in this work doth advantage and enlarge your spiritual strength and put you into more meetness and fitness into more proportion of ability for the discharge of it That as the Apostle speaks of the sinful use of the eye and of the sinful effusions of the spirit in way of evil that it works unto a necessity of sinning so that they have eyes full of adultery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that cannot cease to sin 2 Pet. 2.14 So the more you live in mindfulness of God the more are you wrought into a most excellent and sweet necessity of living in this course Gods entertainment is very gracious unto a friend that minds him that he cannot long have God out of his eye De coelo descendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This advantage you will also have by it the discovery of your self and truly that is a great matter for a man to know himself We are therefore so little our selves because we know our selves so little all that monstrous pride and self-love that foolish indulgence that is usual toward our selves is because we know not what we are This will make you know your selves more for when your eye is on God it is upon your Rule the Rule of all perfection the most absolute Pattern of all spiritual beauty therefore you may see what proportion and similitude there is between God and you This will breed a self abhorrency because of that infinite disagreement that is in the spirit of a man and his ways to the holy God Job in the sight of God abhor'd himself in dust and ashes Job 42.4 Here you may see how your hearts and the Rule agree Now also you may observe what impressions the sight of God leaveth upon you You say you mind God Well and I pray what comes of it what fear what faith what hope what tenderness What watchfulness is there wrought in your spirits by your minding of God What a hard heart is that which is layd under the very beams of the Sun of Righteousness and melts not What an obdurate spirit is that which in the sight of God yields no more We should come to see better what we are if we were more in this work This advantage too you shall have you shall be filled more with God What is the moaning of your Souls O saith the Saint that I might enjoy him O that God might be my God! and that his presence might be with me where ever I am All spiritual life hath its birth and growth in this work the first sight of God lays the foundation all after-sights do superstruct The first sight of God is the planting of holiness in the Soul after-sights are waterings unto more encrease and fruitfulness at the first sight of God God enters into the Soul but the after-sights of God fills and fills until they fill up the Soul If therefore it be so great an advantage consider it and let it provoke you unto this work One Rule more to help unto this work Possess your selves deeply with the apprehensions of the great sinfulness of the neglect of this Therefore men and their sins are so near together because they see not their sins more sinful When sin appears out of measure sinful then it sets the heart at the greatest distance from it Look on the sinfulness of it in the Cause of it Whence is it thou wandering Soul thou sleeping spirit thou man possessed with the world that thou sayst thou breathest after God and yet shuttest thy eye from him It is from a most woful frame of spirit Faith is dead and love dead all principles of life are put into a state of astonishment it is deep night all the spiritual powers are asleep bound up hence it is thou mindest God no more Poor Creature thou art not thy self thy heart is gone other things have born it away thou art like the Prodigal until God brings thee unto thy wits and right mind again Now see what the state of that man is by the true original of the sin of neglecting to remember God and look a little further into this matter to see it in the Effect of it Forgetting of God dissolves the bond between the Soul and God and sets it free from God It is the minding of God that doth beget and preserve a capacity of him and propensity toward him then forgeting of God shuts up thy heart from him and doth byass thy Soul unto a contrary motion to a departing from him puts thee into a state wherein thou canst not be according to the calling whereunto thou art called Thou canst not walk in the place of a servant toward thy Lord for how canst thou do his Will whom thou rememberest not If all the Reason of holy walking lies in this then the nerves and sinews of Holiness are cut in sunder when forgetfulness of God raigns in men There is this evil also thou betrayest thy Soul as much as in thee lies into the state of the Devils themselves What makes Hell but want of God and what makes the unhappiness of Devils but separation from God And this thou dost practise upon thy own self I could give a notorious and sad Instance of this truth to every one that doth voluntarily forget God in an Apostate Professor whom I knew who said The turning point and first beginning of his declining from God was his neglect of communion with Jesus Christ Therefore when you give your selves to a voluntary forgetfulness of God you betray your selves into a state of Apostacy and backsliding from
ask the possession of it You cannot ask more then he is intended to give you He takes more contentment in giving I do not say then you can take in asking though that be much but then you can have in enjoying The Propriety you have in God is by a Mediator so that he by whose means you come by this Propriety hath all things put into his hand and he is in stead of God to you as it is said of Joseph that he was in stead of God to his Brethren He that hath obliged us to be whatsoever we can to those that are ours hath much more obliged himself to be all that he can for us Christ was made so great not for his own sake but for our sakes if he be set on the Throne it is for our sakes What shall we need to fear when we come to ask any thing of him He stands more obliged to us then we can be to ours because it is easier for him to do what his place calls upon him for then it is for us for the engagement is strongest where the performance is easiest and because we are dearer to him then ours are to us the dearest child is not so dear to its mother as we are dear to him and the hurt that would come to those that are beloved of God if he should fail them is greater then can come to children by the neglect of their parents Again The honor that Christ hath engaged is of infinite more concernment If a father be unnatural that is a stain upon him but what is a spot of dishonor upon a piece of dirt But if the Prince of Glory should be unnatural this would highly reflect dishonor upon him How may we walk with confidence and security and account our selves richer then Princes and stronger then Armies Though all this nothing concerns those that stand out and are as strangers and aliens that will call God Father whether he will or no that are not taught it from above but have learned it of themselves If a man cannot call God his Father and his God upon good grounds what a miserable state is that man in He is nothing he hath nothing and there is nothing between him and everlasting misery but a moment of time He goes up and down pleasing himself with vain shews pleasing himself with painted Butterflies but hath nothing to live on he is utterly unprovided for Eternity CHAP. IV. Saints have not only the Portion but the Spirit of Children Ingenious walking greatly requisite in those who pretend Interest in God God more easily pleased with his people then with others Tastes of Gods sweetness are obligatory Careless walking weakens hope in prayer Vse 2d IF the sight of our Interest in God be the life of Saints then let those who plead an Interest in God walk worthy of it It is precious for it is their life it is worth all that is required of you That which God calls for at your hands takes nothing from your happiness but adds much to it It is the Apostle's exhortation Col. 1.10 Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing Let me propound to your Considerations a few things to put you on to this First You are deeply obliged to please God and thereby to walk worthy of him for being in so near relation to him you have not only the portion but the spirit of children Because you are sons therefore he hath sent the Spirit of Adoption into your hearts Gal. 4. Other relations This was touched in the foregoing Sermon because they want strength are not always beautified and sweetened with a convenient spirit The relation of a husband cannot communicate a meek spirit to his wife nor the relation of a parent to the child because of their impotency their will is strong but their hand is short But God in that gracious relation wherin he stands unto his own gives them a Spirit like unto himself that so he may have Children answerable to himself and to his Will In Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his He that is joyned to the Lord saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 6.7 is one Spirit As persons conjoyned in marriage are one flesh so he that is married to the Lord that is brought into that near relation unto him is one Spirit they are one in their affections propensions dispositions and designs As we say of a multitude they are of one heart and of one spirit when they conspire in one so God and his people are one Spirit because they center in one he in governing them and they in subjection and subordination to him so one as things ruled and the Rule is one This argument the Apostle urgeth in 2 Tim. 1.7 God hath not given us the Spirit of Fear but of Power Love and of a Sound Mind He had in the words before exhorted to this Therefore saith he I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God that is in thee by the putting on of my hands But Timothy might say How can I do that Why saith the Apostle we have received not the spirit of fear but of power It is a time of danger indeed and a hard work to preach the Gospel in such days as these but he that is gifted and fitted by Christ to that work hath received a spirit of courage and power by which he is able to mannage the things that he hath received of God Then I say having received the Spirit of children the obligation lyes the stronger upon you to walk as children This is a Rule The more proportionably a man hath received strength and ability to his work the more he is bound to it therefore the more of the Spirit you have received the more you are obliged And this Spirit of Christ in his people acts according to its primitive original Pattern as it wrought in Christ so it will work in you according to your proportion This moving will be strong because it moves upon the highest grounds that which is most taking and prevailing it moves upon hopes and sense of eternal life If you walk not so as to please God you walk with much frowardness of heart and your sin is the greater It 's true though you have received this Spirit yet there is much of the spirit of this world in your hearts but this is our duty and our work not to suffer the better Spirit to be quel'd and damp'd by the other But yet again that you may see it more fully remember if you please not God you act against your own Interest and advantage for your life is bound up in the favor of God when you therefore act against God you act against your selves The Apostle useth such an argument in Ephes 5. where he exhorts husbands to love their wives for no man ever hated his own flesh He means this that they being one the husband cannot cease to love his wife
THREE TREATISES Being the Substance of sundry DISCOURSES VIZ. I. The Fixed Eye or the Mindful Heart on Psal 25.15 II. The Principal Interest or the Propriety of the Saints in God on Micah 7.7 III. Gods Interest in Man Natural and Acquired on Psal 119.4 By that Judicious and Pious Preacher of the Gospel Mr JOSEPH SYMONDS M. A. late Vice-provost of Eaton Colledg LONDON Printed by J Macock for LUKE FAVVN and are to be sold at his Shop at the sign of the Parrot in Pauls Church-yard M.DC.LIII The Pourtraiture of Mr. Joseph Symonds Late Vice Prouost of Eaton Colledge Aetat Suae 50. To all that desire to live godly in CHRIST JESUS IT is not unknown to very many of Gods people in this Nation with what entire affection and happy success the pious Authour of these Meditations now asleep in Jesus laid out himself in the service of the Gospel Divers of you sate somtimes under the shadow of his Ministry with great delight And of those who had not the enjoyment of him but in more removed distances what serious eye ever read as it ought that truly incomparable piece The Deserted Souls Case and Cure and was not thereby enlightned startled humbled lifted up nearer to God Or what good heart for that end that it might be better duly perused his later piece Of Faith and Sight but it was by increased faith and its just appendages more fitted for sight The Holy Spirit was his spring and plentiful emanations from thence filled his Cistern and made him free to communication He dwelt in the presence of Christ d so was at home in Heavenly Negotiations and the content that he had there made him delight to stand still between Christ and his people to receive and give though he gave away his own life withall And when he perceived the shadow of the evening to be stretched forth upon him they did nothing to him but only provoke him to make more haste in the finishing of his work Those holy Tapers which receive their light from the golden Lamp of the Sanctuary shine and burn down to the socket and are burning and shining lights thereto In his wearinesses and weaknesses grown constant in his later time when the effects of his pains made strong sollicitations to desist it was an expression which he often used with pleasance to his friends Yet praying and preaching is too good work to be weary of In the continuance of it he poured forth himself as a drink-offering to Christ upon the service of his Saints and so passed to eternal life through the best forms of death And indeed that way as is roported of Moses God doth kiss away the souls of his Servants But that he might prevent death he took much pains with his own pen besides constant expence of mony for the assistance of another that his love in permanent testimonies might out-live his life and the first neglects of his hearers He knew well how precious discourses are lost to the inconsiderate part of men and women who either do not give due heed while a Sermon is preached and so take it not into their understandings and hearts or else cannot remember it having heard it but once Of his good will to such he hath left many evidences which will be produced if God pleases as soon as time health and other work will give leave to make up the Chasin's and mend other errours of the writer in those copies which were taken from the Pulpit and were not corrected by himselfe For the present it was judged meet to print these three small Tracts The first touching Spiritual remembrance of God as a most seasonable praelibation This being a time when a careless Devil hath after too eminent a manner possessed a multitude of Professours and many Christians have recklesly lost Jesus Christ in the crowd of worldly affections designes diversions The aim of this is to quicken all that have the root of eternal life in them to more frequent Addresses of Soul to God and to rivet them in contentful abode and holy reposes in him The Second is an excellent discovery of the Saints interest in God in which all holy souls may see how happy they are or may be in God their God The Third holds forth Gods interest in us by which as by a true glass we may learn to reflect upon God all his goodness and love contained in the former Treatise if it be also revealed in our hearts and so God will be to us as he is to all true Christians the beginning and end of our life All which Discourses the Godly Reader will find enrich'd with many clear descriptions of heavenly truths many rational considerations which in way of Exhortation do strike fitly and weightily upon those capable principles which God hath put into the soul as Ears for him to take hold of both with very lovely representations and right dreadful terrours and as he goes up and down he will meet methodicall and sure directions like benigne Guides telling the way of happy life to all the children of wisdom and truth So you have a short account of what you may find in these papers Be their Patronage the living influence of the all-quickning Spirit who only is able to make these and all other well-ordered tendencies effectual to their desirable ends and who can protect them from unprofitable reading and forgetful neglects which are the wrongful abuses and unjust imprisonment of the most useful truths I who in this matter do only carry the staff of Elisha which he hath left behind do and shall pray that it may not only be laid upon the child which is ready to dye but that this Spirit would joyn himself to it and make it the ministration of life even the beauty and bands of God upon the spirits of his own That the misplaced eye of some Reader may be set right and then fixed that some heart may be undeceived And Oh that the time were come when no Child of God would write his name in the earth which to do is to be cursed and to make the Divels sport Alas whil'st we through their false representations and cozening impulses sell our comfort our life our soul for cheap things at easie rates do they not laugh do they not insult Though it is a poor sport and proper only to Divels to rejoyce in the follies and sorrows of humanity The Lord Jesus who came to break the power of spiritual wickednesses drive them out of the souls of men and women and if they must have leave to enter any where let it be onely into swine The Lord appear more to the Inhabitants of this world that they may see the glory of truth and be transformed into its Image delivered into the spirit and life of truth and out of the power of detaining falshoods and seducing vanities the chains of evil spirits Then the capacity of the children of men so empty hungry and sore distressed though
of Eying God 3. The continuance of it Always Eying of God in Scripture expression as it 's taken in a large sence it 's put for the mind of man and not only for the mind but for the heart eying seeing and looking signifies all manner of Affections a Sub oculorum nomine omnes affectus notari non rarum est Calv. in loc I shall give you that sence only that is most comprehensive as full and large as either the propriety of this phrase or any Scripture of like expression will reach to There is an Eying of God in these six ways You shall see these all cleared in their order 1. In way of Meditation 2. In way of Affection 3. In way of Observation 4. In way of Expectation 5. In way of Supplication 6. In way of Intention CHAP. II. The Way of Eying God in heavenly Meditation Thoughts setled upon God include much choyce and pleasantness FIrst Eying of God is meditating thinking contemplating on God Jerem. 3.2 Lift up thine eyes to the high places and see where thou hast not been lien with Lift up thine eyes the meaning is not that they should so much or onely exercise the Eyes of their Bodies but of their Mindes that they should consider and think well of this how greatly they sinned against God Prov. 24.32 Then I saw and considered well I looked upon it and received instruction speaking of the field of the Sluggard I saw that is I diligently weighed and viewed it and considered it well the word in the Original is I set my heart to it and made it my work to think of the matter So that this Eying of God is thinking and minding of him meditating upon him Hebr. 12.2 Looking to Jesus c. The Apostle means consider him as he speaks in Chap. 3.1 Consider the High Priest of our Profession looking to Jesus * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The two prepositions shew that the mind should be drawn off from other things and set on Christ as one looks to his pattern which he doth with all diligence or as one looks to his refuge hope and help all which import a solemn and serious employment of the minde about the thing Exod. 2.11 It is said when Moses grew old he went out to see his Brethren he looked on their Burdens He did not onely come near and cast an eye upon them that 's not the meaning of it but he weighed and considered their condition therefore it 's rendered by the Septuagint by a word that signifies Consideration c He considered their labor and travel Psal 25.18 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Look upon mine Affliction saith David that is consider it Then to eye God is to consider him I will express this duty in these few words It 's a course of voluntary and holy turning and holding of the minde upon God I 'l a little open this in these three things First This Eying of God is not onely a converting and pointing of the minde toward God Contemplatio est mentis in Deum suspensae elevatio Bern. de scala claustrali but the abiding and staying of the minde with God It 's not some few and fleeting thoughts that are the discharge of this work but thoughts resting dwelling fixing and staying upon God The truth is there is a mighty rouling in the mindes and thoughts of men their thoughts fly up and down like dust in the wind and some of these may light sometimes upon God but they vanish and abide not these kinde of Visions may consist with the greatest forgetfulness of God God hath his way open every where and even they that live in the greatest unmindfulness of him have their hearts and mindes open for him to pass in and through at pleasure God hath his way through the spirits of the worst men but he stays not there that 's a favor promised to some onely Joh. 14.23 If any man love me c. We will come and make our abode with him He comes to many but stays not he is in their eye but passeth away so that many have occasion to take up the Prophets complaint in another case Jer. 14.8 O thou hope of Israel the Saviour thereof in time of trouble why shouldst thou be as a stranger and as a wayfaring man that turneth in but for a night Thus God deals with most in the world He is as a stranger to them As one in a strange Country is there for his business converseth with none but his friends passeth by all the rest as so many strangers so God is a stranger in the world onely he knows some few he findes out his friends and passeth by all others As a wayfaring man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a traveller comes to a place at night and mindes his rest d Declinat ad pernoctandum when the night is gone he is gone so saith the Prophet why art thou as a wayfaring man that tarryest for a night and art gone in the morning Thus God deals with most He hath indeed his accesses to them but he hath likewise his recesses from them he is in their eye sometimes but afterwards hides himself and is in darkness again that men cannot see him Look to it therefore it 's not a discharge of this work when you have some transient thoughts of God when you throw a thought upon him then which nothing is more fluent and vanishing being the usual Emblem of greatest and most speedy fading vanity How would you take it that the Childe of your own bowels should only give you a look sometimes and be gone and not live in your presence Minding of God is another manner of business then many are aware of It 's a thinking with thought upon thought a reiteration and multiplication of the thoughts of the minde upon God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ruâ—sus ego cum v derem Jun. so the Scripture expresseth it I returned and beheld vanity under the Sun Eccles 4.7 and in Chap. 2. v. 11. I considered all my works c. and in the next Verse I returned to see he look'd upon and considered his works and he returned to behold them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 et respexi ad videndendum v. ut viderem the force of that expression in the Hebrew is this he renewed his work and consider'd again he thought on them before but now he returned to think he renewed his thoughts upon the matter and took a new view of it Indeed when the understanding works seriously it will fetch things into sight and not onely so but holds them there and fastens upon them and when they are gone will fetch them back again Lam. 3.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Recordando recordabitur My Soul hath them still in remembrance My Soul in remembering doth remember them that is such a calling to minde as is exprest in the next Verse This I recalled to minde or as the word
is in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Redire faciam ad cor and in the Margin This I made return to my heart Things are apt to be gone with most men they are apt to lose the sight of God but he did recall again the thoughts that were vanisht and sunk This then is one thing that belongs to the work That Eying of God is not onely a turning of the minde towards God and setting it upon God but a fastening and holding it towards him 2. Minding of God is a willing work the will is in it there be many thoughts fly at random they get out of the Mind but are not sent out The Mind of a Man is a most profuse thing and nothing in the world spreadeth it self into so many actings as the Mind doth The Sun is not so full of beams as the Mind is full of thoughts which spreads it self more then a thousand Suns But these acts of the Mind which flow forth as Bees from their hive are not this work but when the Mind is sent out upon this errand the heart putting forth the understanding upon advice and makes it mind God when the heart puts the mind upon the wing to fly upwards within the vail to see him that fits upon the Throne this is somewhat And it 's a chearful minding of God a man is pleased in it when he is himself It 's good for me to draw near to thee Psal 73. ult Good how good better then perfume My meditation of him shall be sweet Psal 104.34 My meditation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or my word of thee is sweet it signifies a word secretly spoken the heart speaks of God and those words are musick in the Soul the word imports a sweetness with mixture like compound Spices or many flowers such a sweetness this thought of God yields to him whose heart is towards him every thought is pleasant and the whole working of the Mind makes up a sweet delight Again It 's better then wine Cant. 1.4 We remember his love more then wine There is more content in contemplating on God more refreshing to the spirit then wine gives to the body Psal 63.5 My Soul is filled as with marrow and fatness when or if I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches When I do this I am as one satisfied with marrow and fatness Psal 139.17 David tells you there is a preciousness in the thoughts of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word signifieth to be of weight authority or in honor that word signifies precious in every sence Look in what kind soever you account a thing precious so precious are the thoughts of God to a man whose heart is in a right frame Some thoughts are driven out toward God as a messenger sent and driven out upon an unwelcome message in a way and to a person whom he loves not Many cast an eye sometime upon God because they think they must not always live in forgetfulness of him they do it as a duty not a refreshment to them as a work not wages because they must do it not because they love it Yet by some men God will be thought on though they would not The Devils cannot forget God God hath made such a stamp of himself upon their natures that they cannot forget him that 's their unhappiness they wish they could be out of Gods sight and God out of theirs and if it could be their misery would be the less So God will be in the eyes of some men that they cannot cast him out of their thoughts but the impression of God fastens and abides upon their Souls so the sight of God followed Judas to a continual amazement and distraction of his mind But the more a man that is right finds a conjunction of God and his mind the more sweet it is to him he reckons this like the gate of Heaven such a day is as one of the days of Heaven When the Soul is thus taken with God it loves every glance of God the more it sees the more it loves Abraham saw my day afar off and was glad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It signifies a rejoycing with gesticulation as much as Luke 6.13 Rejoyce and leap or highly rejoyced Joh. 8.56 This work then of eying and minding of God is a willing work not a work whereto the heart is drawn and driven and wherein it hath no content but such a work that is both work and wages CHAP. III. Holy thoughts of God are mixed with awful love leave deep impressions transform the spirit and are the Trade of good Souls IT 's not only a serious setling of the mind toward and upon God but a holy pointing and fastening of the mind upon him holy in the manner and holy in the end of it 1. In the manner not like the bold practise of men that know not God who cast an eye upon him with as little regard as upon a post or pillar This minding of God must be according to the nature of God You cannot look upon a friend a stranger and a Prince with one and the same eye You cannot look upon God as he is god but you will love him nor as powerfl but you will fear him nor as he is excellent but you will admire him c. These things will work with you either in a way of assimilation or delectation or admiration c. 2. Holy in the end of it a man may do think much of God and yet do no work of holiness There is a meditation of God that we may call the meditation of a Student who studies God as he studies other things by which means he heaps together many notions concerning God but hath no impression of the holiness of God upon his heart but is a stranger to God and hath no communion with him But this work is holy in the end of it A man eyes God that he may have more of God He that minds God truly hunts and seeks after something of God he would have more of his presence light favor and Image he is seeking the beloved of his Soul and the love of his beloved therefore would fain be near him and looks toward him that he may receive that from him which his Soul so much prizeth he minds God and as one that desires to present as an offering to him those fruits of his love which by the love of God are begotten in his heart so that this work is holy 4. This minding of God is a work of course not to be done now and then and layd down again but it 's the trade of that man that doth it right It is his every days work and his constant employment to be mindful of God David describes the good man thus Psal 1.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et adhuc His meditation is in the Law of the Lord day and night Psal 139.17 When I awake I
am still with Thee The mind may slip from God and sometime be taken up with other things but cannot be long kept from him because God is its Center and it 's natural for a holy mind to move toward God as for a needle touch'd with a Load-stone to point toward the North Pole Psal 16.8 I have set the Lord alway before me This was the practise of Christ our Head Acts 2. It 's applyed to him though spoken by David as the Type You and I may suspect our hearts if there be an elongation of our minds from God if our minds be scattered up and down the world If our business be not with him we have reason to look sadly upon our selves for where God hath no place with us wee have none with him A good man must be with God he hath many things puts him upon it and inclines him to it he wants much and therefore cannot forbear Can a man forget to drink that is athirst can a man forget to eat his meat that is hungry Certainly when David Psal 102.4 saith He forgot to eat his bread sorrow had taken away his stomack that he found not the want of his meat but a man that feels his want cannot forget it neither can a man forget God that lives in the sensible want of God his Soul is still breathing after God Love will send out a mans thoughts and not suffer a man to live at home but to be where it is best of all to be Can a Bridegroom forget his Bride or a Bride her attire Jerem. 3.32 Men cannot forget what they love Can a mother forget her childe Isai 49.14 and can a man forget God that loves God There 's a necessity that a man should be minding what he loves he will send his understanding on errands to Heaven that it may bring him matter of delight from the Visions of God to refresh his Soul And not onely so but Christ awakens the heart and calls it forth Indeed were it left to us should we have no more heavenly-mindedness and meditations of God then our own spirits bring forth it would be little or none but Christ calls to the spirits of his people as he called to John Come up hither and see he knocks at the door that we may open and go forth with him The King led me into his wine celler Cant. 1. She was there but how came she in the King led me Christ will not be long from his if their hearts come not up to him he will come into them and if he be there all is taken up with attending upon him as you may see abundantly by experience Though the heart stands still like a Clock when the plummets are off and the wheels move not yet when Christ comes in he puts all into motion If a Loadstone be cast among many Needles though they did he still yet now how do they all move and hang about it So all the affections run towards him and the thoughts go out like motes in the Sun the mind is at work hard The presence of Christ not only excites the mind but contracts it and makes the working of the mind more strong It 's reported of the Flower de luce That when the Sun goes down it opens and scatters it self abroad but when the Sun appears it shuts and contracts it self There is in the presence of Christ such a contracting of the heart towards himself Mary when she saw Christ though her mind were scattered before and about the Sepulchre yet now â—t concenters in Christ A man that loves God cannot live in a course of forgetfulness of God either want brings him or love constrains him or Christ draws him here cannot be a lusting alienation of mind in those that belong to God CHAP. IV. Disconformity to the forementioned Principles a great fault in Christians The Discovery of it Slumbering Eyes and wandering Hearts â— Exerâ—ise HAving spoken something to the opening of the thing I shall now endevor that you and I may lay our selves to this pattern and compare our selves with this Rule Do you thus mind God Let me ask you where your Eyes are The truth is the Eyes of the whole World are misplaced all the World either wholly dwell out of God or extreamly wander from God all sorts of men are extreamly guilty of notorious forgetfulness of God and of this God complains and that often and that not only in reference to the dead and dark part of the world who have eyes and see not but are like Images but with respect to his own My people my people have forgotten me days without number Ier. 2.32 negligently have they suffered me to be out of their minds and that for a long time My work now shall be to lay before you the Fault and the Causes of it The fault with respect to the godly and ungodly that both may see how guilty they stand and may see whence it is that their understandings are so alienated and estranged from God As for the godly their frequent excursions from God their inordinate affections to the world their sad dejections of spirit their many withdrawings and a world of these are too clear and deplorable demonstrations that their eyes are not always upon God The Fault I 'le express in these four things 1. In not sending out the understanding toward God not pointing of the mind towards its Maker The mind of man is a nimble thing nothing is of that agility it 's the swiftest creature God hath made next the Angels yet towards God it must be moved directed ordered and pointed For though the way on high was natural yet man not keeping his first state it 's now become a way hardly passable that the Soul cannot walk it of it self neither can it dwell on high more then we can live in the Ayr without the drawing and holding of divine Power I have written saith the Apostle 2 Pet. 3.1 to stir up your pure minds to awaken you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it was but need See how David calls upon himself Psal 103. Praise the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits be sure to remember God Psal 5.3 In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee or I will set it in order I will order my self in my addresses to Thee And in Psal 57.8 Awake my glory Though his spirit was holy and set towards God yet it had need to be called on that it might be put forward in a right motion towards God and answer the voyce that calls Come up hither Awakening is a word imports rouzing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as birds that provoke their young ones by flight to make use of their wings or as men call one upon another to their business Judg. 5.12 Awake awake Deborah awake awake utter a song Men do not thus call on themselves It 's a great fault that a man loseth that watch and that
command over his spirit which he should have so that his mind either stands still as a lake or if it move it runs at waste as indeed a mans mind doth if it be not toward God and for God A great fault it is when men take not pains with themselves as the Prophet complains Isai 64.7 No man stirs up himself to take hold on God It 's said in Exod. 35.28 They came every one whose heart stir'd him up Your hearts had need be stir'd up else they will not do their work Is it fit that so noble a faculty then which there is none under Heaven more glorious as that understanding which God hath entrusted you withall should be no more improved Was this golden Candlestick given you for any other light then that which is from above that may shew you the way to union with God and enjoyment of him Were these golden Cabinets given you and have you the keys of them that you should keep them empty when you might fill them with heavenly treasure which is invaluable David calls his Soul his glory you stain the crown of your glory when you make such glorious creatures to lacquey after every creature which should be in attendance upon God like Angels in the presence of their Father When the mind runs after vanity you become vain Jer. 2. What iniquity have your fathers found in me that they run far from me and walk after vanity and are become vain The vain out-goings of your minds and spirits will make you vain yea worse then nothing What injury do you do your selves that have such nimble winged messengers that can mount up to the highest Heavens can walk with Angels can lodg themselves in the bosom of the glorious God can present all your Cases to him can bring back again reports of mercy to you if you use them not Do you not see how God is sending out to you continually The thoughts of his heart are Love eternal Love and the fruits of his Love are always sent out like the beams of the Sun He hath sent out his own Son and will not you send out your thoughts towards him Will not you order your thoughts toward him who hath directed his greatest Love towards you What is your life but a continual emanation and emission of divine Love And is God thus flowing forth to you and will you stand still and not have your minds runing out to him 2. In the next place As this is a fault that there is not that sending out of the thoughts toward God and that setting of the mind to this work so this is another fault that there is not a bending of the mind in this work Oftentimes the mind looks up but it 's so feeble that a mans thoughts are like an arrow shot from a Bow weakly bent which reacheth not the mark It 's wise counsel that the Wise-man gives Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do do it with all thy might I am sure in nothing more it concerns us to act with all our might then when we act towards God in whom all our life is 1 Chron. 22.19 Now set your hearts and souls to seek the Lord your God This is our work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 give your hearts to act with life and vigor when you go to take into your eyes the greatness of that glory which you hear of God The Apostle's phrase is Have the loyns of your mind girt when you are upon this work I ask you that question which Christ put to some in another case What went you out to see When you crawl and move as if you had no heart nor spirits whom go you forth to see What him that is the Lord of Glory the only Potentate What are such heavy and lazy aspects to take in such a Glory You see in what large streams your thoughts fly forth to other things and are you only languishing weak and feeble in things of so great concernment Mal. 1.14 Cursed be the deceiver that hath in his flock the sound and the strong but offers the blind and lame Certainly this is the way to procure a curse to be so exceeding remiss in your addresses to God hence it is you get no more Then God comes most to the heart when the eyes are most set upon him The child that draws with strength is soonest filled The Brests of Consolation are full but therefore you are empty and complain because you bend not your selves to draw from the Wells of Salvation You take not pains with your selves to make your way to God lively 3. As this is a fault not to send our your minds toward God and not to bend your minds to the work so this is another the not binding of your minds to it You should not only go to God but stay with him The right minding of God is not a transient glance and sudden cast of the eye that is presently wheel'd off from God again Psal 143.5 I remember the days of old I meditate on all thy works I remember them and not only bring them to remembrance but I meditate on them my mind talks of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the force of the word I muse and stand looking on the works of thy hands this is that which fires the heart when a mans eye is fixed on God Psal 39.4 5. My heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire kindled then spake I with my tongue c. Indeed that is a season of kindling when the mind is musing but when the mind is fleeting and floating little impression is made little good comes of it There are many days at Court wherein strangers come to see and are soon gone and what get they Nothing But they that abide in the presence of the Prince live by him It 's not a pointing and casting of your eye towards Heaven that makes God your portion If you do not dwell with him he useth you like strangers Think well of it Certainly where the Eye abides not it 's because either the thing displeaseth or there is some better thing that draws away your hearts What is there in Heaven or in Earth should draw away your minds from these Visions When you look upon him who is most glorious is he not worthy on whom your Souls should dwell and your minds rest themselves with all their might Certainly what we love that will hold us that will be in our thoughts we need not call out our minds and if once the eye be set upon it it holds as the Loadstone having drawn the Iron keeps it fast to it self Christ himself acknowledgeth such an operation of love upon himself Cant. 6.5 Turn away thine eyes Or taken away mine heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excordiasti me for they have overcome me And in Cant. 4.9 Thou hast ravisht my heart my Sister my Spouse with one of thine eyes Christ was as one that had lost his heart
as the word imports He is pleased so to express his deep affection toward his Church He was held in the galleries and captivated with love to his People so that his eye was ever upon them he loved to behold them it satisfied his Soul as marrow and fatness to see them He shall see of the travel of his Soul and be satisfied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isai 53.11 And indeed he saith he cannot get his eyes off them Can a mother forget her child Isai 49.14 No more can I forget you And is Christ so tender in his love toward us that he ever minds us and shall our minds be so loose to him so fluttering and fleeting Shall there be no more care to bind our selves in cords of love to him that we may ever behold him who bears us in his brest before his Father always 4. This is our fault that whatsoever is done in sending bending and binding of our minds towards God yet with some at least O that it might not be true of all it 's not their course and trade Now and then they are awakened and get up into Heaven to see their Father but it is not dayly and here is their failing that it 's not their course as it was Davids Psalm 145 Every day will I praise thee And I am ever thee Psal 73. I beseech you consider it Is this now and then going to Heaven within the vail to live the life of Friends Is this to carry your selves as children to be so strange at home What now and then once a month or week seldom to be where you always should be You should ever dwell with God as the lovely Center and resting place of your Souls and you are seldom with him is this fair Is Christ and the Father of Christ objects that are not worth the looking after such mean things that a visit now and then should serve the turn What said the Queen of Sheba concerning Solomon Blessed are these thy servants that Always stand before thee and hear thy wisdom If she were so taken with Solomon remember that a greater then Solomon is here And will you deprive your selves of that blessedness which you might enjoy by standing always in the presence of your Father to hear his Wisdom and behold his Glory But if this be a fault as indeed it is what shall we say of that voluntary retention of our minds when the voyce of God within bids us go and visit Heaven but we sit still in a voluntary reluctancy to the voyce that speaks What shall we say to that voluntary diversion of mind when God sets himself in our eyes and our minds turn off from God and pitch on other things and have no content in beholding him But above all what shall we say to that voluntary effusion and vile expence of mind and strength of understanding upon vanities when we send out thoughts in whole troops towards vanities and do not spare one toward Heaven Certainly this is a crime of a very high nature You see in part what is your fault and to know that is a great advantage I have endevored to shew you it in the several degrees of it I shall now shew you the Causes of it CHAP. V. How the Soul comes to wander from God Of divine Permission in this Case Discouragements pretended The heart pleased with something else more then God 1. THe first is Divine Permission God pleaseth to leave his people much to themselves for ends best known to himself and oh what work is made when this wilde Boar is let into the Garden How doth he trample and tread down What spoil doth he make when he is got into the place where he most gladly would be How did God let him in upon Job so that his thoughts by visions in the night troubled him how was he tost in his spirit Solomon how did the Devil run away with his understanding and carry him almost into a total forgetfulness of God that no good man I think ever since the Creation did run so desperate a race as he did God was rooted out of his heart as it were he giving himself up to fulfil the lusts of his eyes and of his mind with all his might but in the end he cries out Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of spirit Certainly it were better the Devil had power to run away with our estates and liberties then with our thoughts keeping them in captivity and as the steers-man of our minds ordering their motions at his pleasure Some mens understandings by the mighty workings of these principalities and powers are as swiftly carried to imaginations of evil as Eagles when they fly to dead bodies or as any creatures when they make haste to their prey You shall see a man when he is in this case all his thoughts are beneath Heaven and they roul up and down the world and pitch sometimes here sometimes there as things suit but are separated from God and he cannot get off but as Jael strook a nail into the head of Sisera and fastened him to the ground so mens thoughts and minds are fastened to something in the world that they cannot deliver themselves This is a woful day indeed when God will not be seen when God saith of a man as David of Absalom Let him not see my face Truly if this be the condition of any that their understandings are ridden by the Devil and carried away from God go to Christ confess and humble your selves seek his face who is the Father of spirits and hath command and power over Devils that as by permission he hath suffered the unclean Spirit to enter so by his commanding word he may say to them Come forth that your understandings may be free for their proper work for he only can cast down imaginations and every thing that exalteth it self against the knowledg of God and bring into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 Many may complain as Job in another case Chap. 17.11 My days are passed my purposes are broken off even the thoughts of my heart or as it is in the Margin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the possessions of my heart are broken off as if a man should say I had thoughts of Jesus Christ I was wont to have sweet apprehensions of my Father which took me much God was wont to take up my Soul and my mind was wont to be contentfully possest with the meditation of him now these possessions are gone and broken off Pray then as David Psal 119.37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity or make mine eyes to pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they be not held to gaze upon vanity but that I may run with freedom the Race that is set before me having God still in mine eyes 2. A second cause of this great fault not having our eyes bent and fixt on God is Discouragements Indeed Discouragements
be sure you mind it and have this in your hearts to be ready to it Revel 12. They loved not their lives to the death Animarum suarum pro. digi Beza they did with their lives as with things they hate not at all regard them So when it 's said they liked not to retain the knowledg of God in their thoughts the meaning is they hated that God should have any room in them or that there should be any knowledg of God in their hearts Though the worst of men cannot but sometimes have God in their eyes yet because they like it not God counts it is not done and takes it as if they gave him no attendance or never lookt after him The Apostle Rom. 7.17 upon this account reckons It 's no more I but sin that dwelleth in me because the propention of my spirit my better part is all towards God it is no more I In this sence when a wicked man thinks of God it 's not the man that doth it but his conscience or the power of God upon him he doth what he would not do As in another case Quae quia non potuit non facit illa facit when a man would do a thing though he cannot do it it goes for done with God as it 's said of Abraham concerning his son and David concerning the temple So that whether it be good or evil it 's not reckoned if the will be not in it Let no man deceive himself though he cast his eyes toward Heaven all the day long if he love not this work he doth nothing 3. That which is not done according to the Rule God reckons it as not done If a Master set his servant about a work if he do it not according to the pattern and rule which is set him nothing is done it may be worse then nothing This is not to eat the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.20 Yet they did eat it but because it was not done after its due manner he saith this is not to eat it And mark it what God faith in this case Isai 43.22 Thou hast not called on me O Jacob but hast been weary of me O Israel Thou hast not brought me the small cattel of thy burnt-offerings neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices I have not caused thee to serve with an offering nor wearied thee with incense Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices c. Yet they did these things and God acknowledgeth it Jer. 6.20 To what purpose cometh there to me Incense from Sheba and the sweet Cane from a far Country Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable nor your sacrifices sweet to me He looks on the thing as not done because 't is not done as it should be Men think of God but their thoughts are not holy awful and subjecting the spirit they think of God but their thoughts are no way proportionable to the Majesty of God they look loosly carelesly and carnally upon God they peep upon that glory with an unholy and undaunted spirit and so it s against the Rule and God reckons it not done nay it will be worse to them God will recompence upon their heads even their thoughts of him this he will punish severely People think they do well when they have good thoughts and think well they are deceived for if their thoughts be not as they should be though they be for number as motes in the Sun they do no good but bring many sufferings and punishments upon them 4. That which is a mans course and trade denominates a man and not any particular action A man may come to a Carpenters house and take up his tools and do something at his work but this makes him not a Carpenter it doth not denominate him because that is not his trade The best Saints sin yet because it 's not their trade and course they are said not to sin and are called blameless and holy c. And David is said to be a man after Gods own heart notwithstanding his many failings because the habit of his spirit was so Now the course of the world is a course of habitual and voluntary forgetfulness of God endeavoring to shut God out of their thoughts and if their thoughts do run towards him it 's but as water out of its proper channel not in its place their way is altogether out of God that we may say of God in reference to these as Job of places not frequented They are forgotten of the foot Job 28.4 So the minds and spirits of these men converse not with God but he is forgotten of the foot of their Souls This is a dangerous state when they are not with God where are they In the night tares are sown and when is night but when God appears not as the non-appearance of the Sun makes darkness and then the night takes place and now all evil is to be found in that man Judg. 3.7 They did evil and forgot God Those two are joyned together as the cause and the effect they forgot God and therefore did evil Forgetfulness and unmindfulness of Gods is the womb of all sin where every unclean spirit nests A man that lives in forgetfulness of God is free to righteousness as the Apostle speaks Rom. 6.20 He is in no bonds to God he feels no obliging power in any thing upon his spirit toward God Non entis non appaâ—entis eadem est ratio As things that are not so things that are unknown and not minded are worth nothing It 's all one to me whether things be not or be forgotten The spirits of those men are in a woful case that live without God they are as Sheep without a Shepherd and like a Ship among Rocks nothing but a divine hand can rescue them from everlasting Shipwrack All affections of love joy fear and hope flow from sight of God therefore where there is no sight and knowledg of God men are free to all evil If thou forgettest God thou clearly pronouncest and the express language of thy course is that there is no God this very thing strips him of all loveliness and beauty one not worthy to be minded What is more contemptible then that which no man will look on Forgetfulness is the state of death Psal 31.12 That I be not as one forgotten among the dead When God is not remembered by thee he is to thee a dead thing And what is thy mind but as a grave a place of darkness and forgetfulness where is nothing but pollution and corruption and whatsoever is loathsom in it self and destructive to thee It 's the speech of Bildad in Job 8.11 12 13 14. Can the rush grow without mire or the flag without water Whilest it is yet in his greenness and not cut down it withereth before any other herb So are the paths of all that forget God and the hypocrites hope shall
Job took it that his friends had forgotten him My kinsfolk have failed and my familiar friends have forgotten me c. As God is your friend so all you have is in his hand My times saith David Psal 31. are in thy hands O God And can you forget him in whose hands are all your concernments If you had but a piece of your estate in a mans hand you could not but mind him God hath all that you have for Soul and body to Eternity in his hands and shall we forget him It was the aggravation of the sin of Belshazzar in Dan. 5.23 that he did not glorifie God in whose hands his life was Thy God in whose hands thy breath is thou hast not glorified Again You have all from him all the good of every kind that you receive is all from God and will you not mind him Deut. 32.18 God complains that the people were unmindful of the Rock that begot them and forgot God that formed them Shall we so dishonor our selves and live so cross to all principles of Reason and Justice as to be taken with the things we receive from God and forget him Shall we receive all that comes from him and shut him out of doors It was never Gods intent that when he had deckt our ways with all flowers of comfort we should sink into an ungrateful unmindfulness of him These are so many memento's to excite us to remember him It was the commendation of Abraham Heb. 11. that he sojourned in the Land of Promise as in a strange Country He did not sit down as at home and make glad his heart in the enjoyment of mercies but reckoned himself as in a strange Country that he might enjoy him that is better then all It is upon record that God had said often to his own people the Jews Beware lest you forget me when you come into that good Land It is spoken to you also Take heed you forget not me in your habitations in your relations and friends in your goods in all your enjoyments Isai 44.21 Thou art my servant O Israel I have formed thee thou art my servant thou shalt not be forgotten of me or not forget me the force of the word is thou shalt not bear me away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non oblivisceris mei but let me be in thy heart and in thy mind and remembrance always as I 'le not bear thee away thou shalt not be forgotten of me Thus you see much in him whom you are to mind to draw and hold your eyes toward him The last Argument It is a very fundamental Duty all your intentions purposes dispositions and affections in your whole course comes to nothing except they receive life from this for this is the foundation of all In the sight of God lies your Rule of direction for all your actions and all the Reason of your holy walking The mind is the Leader and it leads according to the object where it is set Job 31.7 My heart hath not followed my eye That is the natural course for the heart to follow the eye where the eye is set there the heart will be also See how the Prophet expresseth Isai 59.2 I have stretched out my hand to a rebellious people that walk in a way that is not good they follow their own thoughts They walkt in a way that was not good What led them Their own thoughts Thoughts do mould men a man that thinks much of the world grows worldly and a man that thinks much of God grows godly as he thinks so he is saith Solomon Prov. 23. And we beholding the glory of Christ saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.18 are changed from glory to glory If there be any comfort of hope if any flames of love if any life of faith if any vigorous dispositions or motions toward God if any meltings of a softened heart these flow from the knowledg of God not habitual but actual Quod appositio vel adaptatio ligni est ad ignem corporalem hoc est rememoratio recogitatio beneficiorum ad ignem spiritualem Gul. par de virtut c. 11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Habitual knowledg is as meat in the Cubboard and as precious water in a glass but actual knowledg is those things in use and enjoyment We are renewed day by day saith the Apostle how by looking on things that are eternal 2 Cor. 4.16 Heb. 11. it is reported that Moses did many excellent things How came he by that excellent spirit he saw him that was invisible Plato saith that it is Philosophy to love God for that is the end of it to bring men unto God Upon all these considerations and many more that might be urged give up your selves unto this work There is not a man free but the bonds of this counsel are upon him The sum of it is this Often have your eye on God dwell in the contemplation of him let that day be as one of the days of Hell and of darkness wherein you have nothing to do with God This is certain if God be your God you cannot let your minds run at waste To turn aside from God will be very chargeable and expensive to you you will pay dear for it Children that wander from home get the rod The rod is not far from that man that loves not to stay with God God can make the thoughts of thy heart to be like Hell it self and to minister more bitterness to you then if a whole legion of Devils were about you I beseech you therefore mould your selves into this Doctrine that you be not found Despisers of the great God who will not speak in vain One of these two things will be made good upon all either the Word will subject your Souls unto the Command of God or unto the Vengeance of God and if you cannot now look up to him with delight you may know the day in which you may look up and curse Isai 8.21 Now you may look up towards God and live but the time may come that you may be in that distress that you will curse God and the world and your selves when bitterness shall be on your Souls for your neglect of this work CHAP. X. Directions concerning Eying of God Truths to be received in their power Saints are to keep in their hearts a meetness for their work Saints are to preserve their capacities for God Saints must maintain a deep sense of divine engagements A lively sense of necessities is useful Pure hearts are meet for divine converse The mind will'd without Sanctification I Shall now set before you some helpful Counsel that may enable to this great work from which the heart of man doth so hang off Certainly there is nothing which men are more hardly brought to then to this to keep the remembrance of God fresh in their spirits and to let their understandings run in this channel constantly As men do intend an end so they eye the
means indeed the means lie in the way to the end yea they are the way it self and the end is in them I will therefore offer some means to you First Entertain the Rule in the power of it When any Command of God comes armed with his own strength it makes man weak he cannot make resistance but falls down conquered in the assault The heart naturally stands out against and is estranged to every voyce of God it will give him the hearing and admit the sound but not the strength it will keep the Word at a distance either by non-attending or by voluntary diversions and forgetfulness Indeed the things of God are very strange to us though they were our best and nearest acquaintance in our primitive state and therefore now we are hardly brought to own them and receive them The not entertaining of the Truth in the power of it is that which frustrates so many thousand Sermons so that though everyday one thing or other is called for and pressed yet matters are as they were God speaks but few regard he cals but few answer He saith Do this and do that but all is undone still Then the Word and Counsel of God is received in its power when a man doth acknowledg it and hath the sense of the weight and efficacy of it and this was the commendation of them 1 Thes 1.5 that they receive the Gospel not in word only but in power and what was the effect of it see vers 6. And they became followers of us and of the Lord having received the word in much affliction And observe John 8.37 what the Reason was that the Jews were in so desperate a course against Christ that they sought to slay him Christ himself gives the Answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My word hath no place in you Christ had preached unto them as he doth unto us but that word which he then spake had little entrance or little abode at least in the spirits of men And so at this day either the door is shut against the Word or it is soon cast out of doors again It is not a faint yielding of your spirits unto the call of God when he speaks of such a thing as this is The thorny ground had much of this When the Gospel came and call'd on them to look to God and Jesus Christ they were very yielding there was a sprouting of many affections and great appearances of the efficacious working of the Word on them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but all came to nothing Many while they are under the ministration of the Word are under some operation of the Spirit that attends it and they are ready to say as they in Exod. 19. We will do whatsoever the Lord saith But I may take up that wish O that there were such a heart to do even this one thing now call'd for to walk in more mindfulness of God and that it might be said of you as it is of them Rom. 6.17 Thanks be to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that you have obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine into which you were delivered The receiving of the Counsels of God in their power is not as you may think only a present entertaining of them nor is it the present taste of the sweetness and vigor of them in your spirits but it is the abiding of this Word in the power of it upon your hearts There are many that are much struck in their spirits by the Word but yet what saith the Scripture of them They cast the Word of God behind their backs and no more look after it therefore they are unfruitful hearers of it all their days 1 John 2.24 see what the Apostle John saith Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning if that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you ye shall also continue in the Son and in the Father Men know not what they do when they let their hearts depart from the Word many invaluable Counsels from Heaven in which their Souls are bound up are lost and made nothing of as to them This is Satans gathering of the Corn that is sowed before it come to maturity Those whom God carries through obedience to eternal life he doth cause to lay up his Word to be their companion and unto them as the Covenant that was layd up in the Ark of God I have hid thy Word in my heart saith David Psal 119.11 It is such a hiding as men are wont to use when they hide their treasure that by no means it may be lost God writes on the minds of those whom he loves his Law and he leaves impressions of himself that he will be minded He that is our Pattern hath said that the Law of God was in his heart Psal 40.9 And it is the name that the Prophet gives unto the people of God Isa 51.7 that they are such in whose heart is his Law This then you should do lay up the Word and have often recourse to it and lay your selves and your practises to this Rule and often say Where am I where is my mind whither is my understanding wandering what path hath my Soul been treading in have I been walking with God have I been minding him have I been serious in my spirit in the contemplation of him Thus often have recourse unto the Word it is a dangerous thing to let our minds go far without a check It was the great fault charged upon those that were near to destruction Jer. 6.8 No man repented saying What have I done This Commandment of minding God is a Commandment backed not only with Authority and Reason from the equity and excellency of it which all Precepts have but it is also accompanied with special Ordinances besides the natural Ordinance of the Creation which is a memorial of God that you may be ever promped unto the fountain of it There are special instituted Ordinances appointed to this end that you may remember him What is Baptism and what is the Lords Supper but the representation of Jesus Christ to us memorials of him that in the celebration of them you might remember him Therefore labour to make your hearts sensible of the Authority and Majesty that is in this Command when God speaks from Heaven unto you that you would walk in all mindfulness of him and that is the first thing The second thing that I would commend to you is this To get and keep your hearts in a meetness and fitness for this work As God hath put work on his people so he doth expect that there should be a fitness in them for it as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 2.21 A vessel made meet for his Masters use and service I will express this meetness in a few particulars One is to keep the mind as free as you can Our understandings though they are mighty things yet they are limited When they are held much
unto other things there cannot be much of them left for God Take heed of being too prodigal in cutting out too large portions of your selves otherwise When you fill your spirits with the world Intus existens prohibet alienum you are put into an incapacity of communion with God that which is within keeps out that which is without Mark what Christ saith Luk. 21.34 Take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness with the cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares What ever doth put you out of possession of your selves what ever incapacitates you to that obedience whereunto you are called these things as you would not have the evil day come upon you unawares are to be taken heed of O what a dread is it to the Soul of a man when the evil day the day of affliction the day of temptation especially when the day of dissolution comes on him before he looks for it while he is busie in the world in hunting after this and that vanity snatcht away like a fish taken in the net that it lookt not for The cares and the pleasures of this world are unto the spirit of a man as wine it doth intoxicate and put a man out of himself and under the power of Satan he is a man in bonds the Devil hath his foot upon his head and his hand upon his heart he hath the possession of him when he is taken with any thing in this world You know what Christ saith that these cares and pleasures choak the Word Hear and read never so much let the wisdom of Angels speak to you let men put themselves to the utmost improvement of Reason and understanding and lay out their bodies to the very last to perswade you yet if your hearts be taken if the world hath gotten you away you are choaked that as the corn that is over-grown with weeds faints away and as a man that is surfeited cannot breathe so is a man in this case The effusion of your self upon the creature weakens you towards God that as a drunken man that hath not the use of his limbs nor of his Reason that is like a child in strength and a fool in understanding so is a man whose mind is cut out and shared among the creatures he is separated from God that he cannot draw near to him The body cannot be in two places at once and your understandings and spirits cannot be strongly in Heaven and strongly in the world The streams will run strongly but one way If you will therefore be in the world you must be content to own your selves banished from God You have set your selves from God you make your selves strangers to your own life and put your selves at a distance from your own eternal good Take heed therefore of filling your selves with the world take heed of sinful fulness worldly fulness takes up the whole capacity of the Soul that there will be no room left for God Tell me I pray you what use are your Chrystal glasses for do you keep them to be filled with puddle water Will you fill your stomacks with chaff or carrion and will you fill your precious and glorious minds those high and excellent creatures with the vanities of the world nay the things of Hell it self Take heed of prepossessing your selves for if you be not free we speak to dead men it is all one to bid you look towards God as to bid a deaf man look Eastward when his eyes are fixed Westward it is all one to bid a man walk with God and in mindfulness of him as to bid a man that is bound in chains of Iron rise up and walk Another thing is Maintain in your selves a deep sense of those divine Engagements that lie upon you Indeed we have all of us many bonds upon us but yet we are too free and disobliged to God and whence is it but because we forget our Engagements Another Discouragement Alas say some 〈…〉 this troubles me Soepe in libro experientia legimus quomodo a corde nostro relinquimur nunc est nobiscum nunc alibi nunc avolat nunc recurrit in sola lubricitate manens in nullo unquam sui soliditate consistit Bern. Opusc c. 33. I cannot hold my self to the work I am oftentimes assailing and putting on toward Heaven forcing on and driving out some thoughts but I cannot lodg them there they roul down again and I cannot fasten them truly this is my grief I beseech you consider it This rouling of the mind downwards is either from remisness of heart or from weakness if from the former it 's very sinful and imputed if from weakness it is sinful but not imputed the evil is not charged upon you What think you of your selves if you had a child that hath a palsie hand that cannot hold fast what is put into it you are not angry with your child but pity him He that is so * Tam pius nâ—mâ— tam pater neâ—o Bern. a Father that there is none like him who saith he will accept according to what we have and not according to what we have not 2 Cor. 8.12 he will not charge his children with their weakness All the Saints on this side Heaven are troubled with dimness and instability of sight when they look upwards there is a turning and wheeling of their minds downwards of which they shall be perfectly cured when they come to Heaven in the mean time be not discouraged but do as well as you can the more weak your eyes are the more frequently do you look he had need look often that cannot look long Another Discouragement is this I would look up to God but what sweetness will it be when I have not an Interest in him 'T is true he is a glorious Father but the more unhappy I that he is not my Father He is a blessed fountain but the more unhappy I that I may not sit and drink of those waters What though thy case be so that God be not thy Father yet he is thy Lord if he be not thy Portion yet he is thy Pattern and thy Rule thou must mind him But withall consider It 's your minding of God that is the means to bring God and you into one that he may be yours and you his We are transformed from glory to glory by beholding him 2 Cor. 3.18 Sights of God are of great force and therefore men lie dead because they are in the dark Light hath something of an awakening and a quickening power therefore if your minds were more in conjunction with God this would form and fashion your hearts more unto God and bring God more into you Again saith another This disheartens me that though I endeavor dayly this course of bending my self to eye God yet I get no good by it I know my pride and the stoutness of my spirit and many evils that
are in me and I think by presenting my self before God to be bettered and to get more quickening and enlarging a heart more prepared to seek and to see God in all my ways but I find still a crooked spirit and a heart unwrought upon I get no good by it But is it so indeed dost thou get no good at no time then there is no life in you certainly thou art dead if thou get no good from him that is all good But yet there are that get good that know it not Be not discouraged but endeavor to have your eyes set toward God and toward him alway One Cause more I shall name why this Duty is so much neglected and omitted and that 's this That the heart is set upon some other object Observe this For where the heart is set the thoughts of the heart run out and are poured forth You have got something that pleaseth you more then God and that hath entertainment and place in your understandings Where a mans treasure is 't is Christs rule Mat. 6.21 there will the heart be also If God be in your hearts he will be in your eyes if you love him you will mind him what you mind most you love most Love makes the mind quick in motion and strong in resting on the thing whereon 't is set They that are taken with the glory of divine goodness cannot keep themselves from the remembrance of it nay they will force on themselves and spur up all their powers unto it Praise the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name Praise the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits Psal 103.1 2. If you would mind mercies more you would mind more the God of mercies If you did remember the sweetness and fulness of this stream of grace by which you are maintained you would eye more the fountain from whence they flow and if you would get your selves under the engagement of this love it would constrain you that you could not live forgetters of God but your eye would turn readily toward him If we were sensible of our engagements could we deny God that attendance that he calls for from us as his servants Could we deny him dwelling in his own house Could we shut the doors of our hearts against him that is the place where he should rest Could we deny him communion who is our Lord who is our Husband who is our Friend and Father A heart under the effectual impress and strong touch of divine grace and mercy will not be able to keep from minding of him David was a man that had a strong touch of this and therefore saith he in Psal 145.2 I will praise thee O Lord my King and I will bless thy Name for ever and ever Every day will I bless thee and I will praise thy Name for ever and ever c. Where bonds of love take hold they bind to God as well as draw Another thing is Keep your hearts in a lively sense of your own necessities You need much The world groans whence is it it is from want You want much even they that have received much want much and you want nothing so much as God and here your wants are great and constant and it were good you did always live in the sense of this want Can a hungry man forget his bread Can the heart that pants for thirst forget the river Can a man in bonds forget freedom Can a child in distress forget a father in honour and wealth And if you lived in the sense of your necessities could you forget God that is the fountain and he by whom all your wants are to be supplyed according to his riches in glory by Jesus Christ Again Keep your hearts pure and then you will be meet for this work Guilt brings fear and fear brings torment The natural effect of guilt is flying and hiding from God and dying in our selves Adam would not be seen when he had sinned David was afraid to come before God when under guilt In Psal 32. see how he did contend with fear Go saith Conscience and fall down before that God against whom thou hast sinned I dare not saith David I am afraid to stand in his presence he saith it was his torment for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moisture was turned into the drought of summer so in vers 5. I said I will confess my sins Fear said Do not but saith David I will do this But this is sure a man that hath a spirit that is sullied by sin a spirit that hath guilt upon it a man that is under the power of an accusing Conscience that man will be afraid of God as a Prisoner of the Judg And certainly sometimes if God did not by a mighty power draw in his people they would rather hazard their eternal life then look up when they have lift up their heel against him so dreadful is the sight of God that it exceeds the strength of any creature not only the natural strength but also the spiritual It is with man in this case as with servants when they have committed some notorious fault against their Master away they run forsake their service and Master too This is the disposition of man when he hath rebelled against God he is apt to take a run from him and go with those that wander from God and live without God in the world See what is said in 1 Sam. 12.20 The people sinned and Samuel said unto the people Fear not ye have done all this wickedness yet turn not aside from following the Lord but serve the Lord with all your hearts and turn not aside for then shall you go after vain things that cannot profit nor deliver for they are vain For the Lord will not forsake his people c. He saw such a disposition in them that through discouragement of heart finding themselves in sin they were ready to sink and fall off from their attendance and service unto God and therefore he gives this counsel by no means to harken to this suggestion of an evil and a torturing spirit Let me add this as another means That you must pray for sanctification of mind What a strange wilde thing is the mind of man by nature Sanctification is the taming the composing the ordering and seasoning of the understanding it is the bringing of the mind into a right frame and the setting of it in its proper course until that be it lies open for all comers all the powers of darkness snatch and catch and rend it in pieces and bear it away and every vanity commands it but when grace comes that appropriates it unto God so that it becomes the Lords Therefore pray for Sanctification which is the induction of a new nature into the spirits of a man and a new propensity so that as naturally it had its tendency towards vanity now it will have its tendency toward
but he loseth so much of his own life because they are one therefore crossness and untowardness between them strikes them dead In unequal relations the inferior is more dependant and so should be more subordinate In the relation between the father and the child the child is the lower part and lives more upon the father and therefore ought to live more according to the Father according to his Will or else he acts against himself he offends his father to his own hurt And the goodness of Superiors is of greater influence and force then that of Inferiors Take a child in the goodness of a child be it never so high that cannot work so much to the good of the father as the goodness of the father doth for the child The love goodness and mercy of God who is infinitely greater then we is of unspeakable influence to our good and therefore to be tendered and preserved Sin in the nature of it is a violation of the Law that is of the Will of God the effect of sin is a provocation of wrath and anger Hence it is that the Wise-man speaks so in Prov. 8. He that sins against me wrongs his own Soul He offers violence he spoils his own Soul he becomes a robber of himself The nature of sin aims at the destruction of that against which it is set although it do not attain this effect because of the power of him against whom it is for it 's a denying of all that God is as that he is infinitely wise infinitely good c. Therefore the Apostle speaks of some in Tit. 1.16 that profess they know God but in works they deny him how is that that is by their works they declare that they do not acknowledg him as he is Men therefore that seek not to please God do no otherwise then as if men in a Ship should with Axes or such like Instruments seek to cut holes in the Ship wherein their lives lie To act therefore against God is to act most desperately against our own good and by this we see how we are engaged to please him Again take this in that God will more easily be pleased with his people then with others therefore they are the more bound He takes that well from some hands that will not pass from others It is true we are all under one Law and Rule God did not destroy the Law by taking his people into a Gospel state but established it nay the Law binds more then it did before only as the binding power of it is encreased so the rigor of it is abated that is the terms of obedience required are changed God said before If you do not this and this and every thing to the height of it you shall dye but he doth not hold his people to those terms now that we are reconciled to him all is due that is commanded but he accepts of what we can perform so that here is the difference The Law speaks to one sort to those that are in the flesh that are out of Christ as in Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the Law to do them To the other sort whom God accepts in Christ he speaks as in 2 Cor. 8.12 He accepts according to what a man hath if there be a willing mind Now if less will pass with God and be well taken from thine hand then from others thy sin is greater then others if thou dost it not Further You are engaged much because you have had tastes of the sweetness of walking with God This is that which made that aggravation of their sin which God hath said he will not forgive Heb. 6. That they had tasted of the powers of the world to come But it 's a greater engagement to have a taste of God himself then to have a taste of the things of God to have a taste of that excellency and goodness that is in him is far a greater bond then to taste of all his favors Nay you have had a taste of the bitterness of wandering from God and neglecting him witness the blows and stripes of your own spirits and the frowns of God upon you How hath your unwary walking led you into a wilderness of darkness and fears and will you yet sin thus against God Have you not said in those dismal days as in Hos 2.7 I 'le return to my first husband for then it was better with me then now And have you given your selves to God again and again and do you now neglect him Will you not endevor to fulfil your promises Mark how God carried himself to his people that neglected him Jer. 2.20 Of old time I broke thy yoke and burst thy bonds and thou saidst I will not transgress thou saidst thou wouldst not but thou didst for under every green tree and upon every high hill thou wanderest playing the harlot Yet I planted thee a noble vine How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me It is a dangerous thing to break promise with God he will plead your own words against you That then is one main Consideration why such as plead an Interest in God should labor to walk in all pleasing to him from that Engagement that lies upon such to God A second Consideration is this Otherwise you will weaken the comfort of your hope and expectation in prayer How can you rationally with any satisfaction to your own spirits expect that God should fulful your will that are not willing to fulfil his How dis-ingenious and base is it for a man to wish in his heart that God would act so as to please him when in the mean time he is not careful to please God It doth horribly impose upon God it argues a most vile and base spirit it imposes upon Gods Wisdom upon his Goodness and indeed upon all that God is and God takes it very ill to be thus dealt with as he expresseth himself Mic. 3.11 The heads thereof judg for reward and the Priests teach for hire and the Prophets divine for mony yet they lean upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord among us none evil can come upon us What followed Therefore Zion for your sakes shall be plowed like a field God will not be so put off This sin borders upon that in Deut. 29.20 If any man say I shall have peace though I walk after the imaginations of mine own heart my wrath and jealousie shall smoke against that man and I will strike out his name from under Heaven You come to me saith God and say O Father arise and save us in Jer. 5.3 but you do all the evil against me that you can or as some read it you do evil and you can or and you prevail that is Whereas before I told you how ready I was to do you all good you have now so tempted me and provoked me with your sins as to prevail with me
more open to him then to any creature One may wish good-will to another and may want skill to make his mind known but you cannot have an ingenuous and hearty wish in your Souls O that God were my God! but he hears it and knows it He hears spirits and reads spirits as we do words In Psal 138.9 My groanings are not hid from Thee If thou lovest God and thine heart be towards him he needs no Interpreter or Spokes-man to tell him what thine heart is The Apostle saith He knows the meaning of the spirit When it can but sob and sigh within it self O that God were my God! he knows the meaning of that language Rom. 8.22 When Christ asked Peter Lovest thou me Lord saith he thou knowest that I love thee Add to this That there cannot be that assurance of speeding upon the manifestation of our spirits to any as there is with God I may make my mind known to another for the enjoyment of his friendship yet I may fail and come short of it but now if I come to God with an ingenuous and sincere desire to have God to be my God I shall not fail in that You seek many things in vain but God never frustrates his poor people in their desires after him He crosseth them in many of their other desires but never in that If he be so good that he satisfies the desire of all things of every living creature as in Psal 146. much more will he satisfie desires after himself for these are from his best love they spring from his own bosom and he 'l be sure to bless them they shall attain their end Other desires may be satisfied with other things if you cannot have one thing another thing may serve you in its stead if a man cannot have this friend he may have another But we must either have Gods love and his friendship or we dye for ever He hath engaged himself that those that thirst after him shall never go without him the word stands upon record the Lord Jesus Christ spake it from his Father Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied in Mat. 5. And let him that thirsteth come in Revel 22. Indeed these desires are given not only to be as a byass or principle of motion in our Souls after God but are planted in our Souls as indubitable pledges of his love and of his habitation there Other things are first desired and then obtained but God is first ours before he be desired Divine love works downward it begins in Heaven and that Communion that is wrought between God and us begins in himself and from himself He loves first and speaks first and our love is but the answer of his love If we can say to God Lord I am thine this is but the eccho of what he hath said first I am thine So in Zech. 13. latter end I will say saith God Thou art my people and they shall say Thou art my Father Oh this assurance of obtaining mercy with God for poor thirsty Creatures it is the honey and milk of our Souls our greatest joy and the satisfaction of our spirits in this life They that seek God shall glorifie him If they seek once the next thing is praise their hearts shall live for ever The manifestation of this grace mercy and goodness that is in God is the life of such as seek him In Isai 38.15 16. What shall I say he hath spoken to me and himself hath done it I shall walk softly all my years in the bitterness of my Soul O Lord by these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit so wilt Thou recover me and make me to live He speaks of Gods goodness appearing to him in that act which was not a single but a compound act and it was not a meer natural good but a spiritual and inward communication of himself it took him much What shall I say I shall be at rest as one quieted and satisfied in spirit after my bitterness I have had sorrow but now I have seen the love of God towards me I rejoyce I was tumultuous before and unquiet and unsatisfied but now I shall be satisfied Hitherto you have been looking upon the feasibleness of this Interest that no Interest is so attainable as Interest in God And if you will look once more consider how many bars there are to our Interests with men and you shall see how these things that are such impediments with us are of no force with God Many times a poor man a begger one in rags knows it would be his happiness to have an Interest in such a Prince but how shall he come at it In Prov. 14.20 Solomon tells us The poor man is hated of his neighbor he is afraid if he should ask something of him he should burden him Nay he is hated of his Brother and though he speak with intreaties yet he is answered roughly What thou a Begger and come so boldly to ask of me And yet we that are but poor beggers and in our rags may have free access to God In Prov. 19.7 it is said All the brethren of the poor do hate him how much more will his friends depart far from him But God turns not back our prayers though we be poor and miserable yet our Lord Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call us Brethren Heb. 11.6 Strangers have a bar in their way Come to a great one I know you not saith he I never saw you before what have you to do to come to me Therefore Ruth was much taken with the kindness of Boaz because she was a stranger to him What are we but strangers and aliens afar off and yet he rejects us not when we come near him God will not say to men I know you not though they have been strangers except when they come too late In Luke 13.25 saith Christ Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you shall seek to enter and shall not be able that is they seek too late When once the Master of the house is risen up and hath shut the door if then you come and say Lord Lord open to us he will say I know you not But seek him while the door is open while he may be found and he will be ready to receive you Impotent persons that are fit for nothing how shall they get an Interest in great ones What can he do say they though it be but for a servants place What would become of us if God should put that question to us He receives us when we are good for nothing fit for us Nay when we were Enemies then he was reconciled to us Rom. 5. Now then you see that God hath received such persons indeed be never receives any other So that upon all accompts an Interest in God is more attainable then any other Interest That 's a second Argument I
'le name one more Interest in God is better enjoyed then any other Interest whatsoever There is no Interest to be enjoyed with that sweetness security usefulness and consolation as our Interest in God is For besides that unspeakable and infinite Fulness that is in God know that this Interest is not subject to any dissolution Interest in God now is better then it was in our first estate when we came out of Gods hand All other Interests may cease If our love or others loveliness cease our Interest is gone and the loveliness of every Creature under the Sun will have an end but God abides Take a man the most wise the most learned the most amiable the richest man all these things will pass away but our Interest in God is not subject to any separation that is we shall be never from him The absence of our friends is like the setting of the Sun they are life to us in their presence but when they are gone from us they cannot help us they are so far dead to us but God is ever with us Interests with men are oft-times very exacting A man must do this and do that and much ado to please Men do tye up their Interest so strait that except things be done at this time and after this mode we indanger a flaw God doth not impose upon his people after this manner And again Other Interests are apt to be tyred and so fall into a dull sleep of mutual forgetfulness because the goodness that is in us is but little a shallow Cistern is soon drawn dry But with God there is no difficulty at all to give out love and if he spend himself never so much this way he is not at all diminished He rests in his love Zeph. 3. His joy and self-contentment is always flourishing So that as this Interest is more attainable so it 's better to be enjoyed CHAP. IX Christians ought to clear their hopes from Uncertainties Beleevers doubt through their own fault They that seek God must pursue their end THat which follows next is Exhortation That you would not only seek this Interest and get it but that you would seek to know it and to be satisfied that you have indeed an Interest in God Live not upon hopes mingled with uncertainties and anxieties Let not this suffice It may be God is my God or I hope he is but put it out of doubt Give all diligence saith the Apostle to make your Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 Sure as firm ground that you may so know it that there may be no trembling of heart about it that it may be a certain conclusion made up in your own spirits that you are the called and chosen of God For if you do these things saith the Apostle you shall never fall but an abundant entrance shall be administred to you into his Kingdom You shall never fall or as it is sometimes rendered you shall never offend So the Apostle James Chap. 2.10 He that Offends in one is guilty of all Indeed the sight of Interest in God carries a man with more evenness and strength in his way and keeps him in more compliance with and conformity unto God Sometimes the word is rendered stumble Rom. 11.11 Have they stumbled that they should fall If a man know God to be his God he walks with a more even and steady foot all his ways are more plain before him mountains of difficulty and danger will be layd level there will be nothing to dash his foot against to hinder him in his race and an entrance in abundance will be administred to him into the Kingdom of Heaven Fears and doubts straiten our way and hinder our passage to the Kingdom of God Suppose a man were to go into an house where he fears he shall not enter this would very much hinder his endevor But when a man shall have a blessed prospect into Heaven and see his place there that must needs further his more abundant and free entrance into it But more particularly that I may perswade you if God will to be very serious in this thing to make your Interest in God more certain let me tell you In the first place That no man that beleeves in Christ wants it but through his own fault I say it is a mans own fault if he be not able to say that God is his God I speak now according to the ordinary course of God demeaning himself to his people There is nothing of greater concernment either to his peoples welfare or the advancement of his own design which he hath upon them then the manifestation of his Love and the satisfaction of their spirits in that great Question Whether God be their God And that Spirit upon whom lies the Office of bringing from darkness to light hath this Office also of refreshing and reviving the spirit and therefore bears that name the Comforter He not only espouses us to Christ but maintains a perpetual entertainment that is his work He is not only the bond of our Union but the light of it by which we see our selves one with Christ and so one with the Father Many complain they find not God to be their God but it is not because God is not willing to shew himself what he is but because they are wanting to themselves There are two great faults that oftentimes wrong us and keep us in the dark and make that seem a secret which otherwise might lie open to our eyes One Error concerneth seeking Some never put their Interest in God to the question Some seek not at all and never put the question whether God be their God but run the hazard live and dye venturing their Souls to Eternity Others complain they seek but they cannot find fain they would be satisfied in this thing but they cannot Now I say the complaint must fall upon our selves there is perhaps a fault in our seeking This is the word that must stand fast for ever God will be found of them that seek him In Jer. 29.13 Then you shall find me when you seek me with all your heart To seek with all the heart is not only to seek truly and sincerely some seek but in words only making verbal prayers without any inward sense but to seek him strongly above all things and not only from an ardent thirst of spirit but to seek him without ceasing till we find him In due time we shall reap if we faint not Gal. 6. The Rule of Scripture you know is this that we pray incessantly 1 Thes 5.17 Mark that in Hos 6.3 After two days will he revive us and in the third he will raise us up Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord His going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come unto us as the rain as the former and latter rain unto the Earth If you follow on if you follow the business you shall obtain God hath
themselves and clears them it leaves them without doubt it strengthens and fixeth fast the Soul in the knowledg of its Interest in God God stands obliged for this unto his people for their comfort lies in it and that makes to the fulfilling of his last end which is his glory for how shall we give him praise if we know not that God is ours Besides he hath given us visible Seals to ratifie all the Promises to us He hath given the earnest of his Spirit to his He hath set Christ on the Throne for us an indubitable Pawn of his Love and many other which are still with us Secondly A second Consideration is this That the people of God in the want of this knowledg and assurance do not what they may they do not improve that ability and those means which God hath put into their hands and so they spin out their days in heaviness mourning and anxiety Either there is slothfulness of spirit or some discouragement of spirit upon them Slothfulness and so they are careless idle and vain having lost the sweetness of the enjoyment of God their hearts are poured out upon vanities they have gone a whoring after other things and have placed their Souls upon things that will not profit and are not industrious to seek after God When the Soul is thus gone out from God then it commits folly under every green tree there 's no plant that may yield any kind of refreshing but they will suck something from it Whilest the Soul is busied about other Interests and securing them the other great business lies by Another sort are under discouragement they say The work is hard it 's a very hard thing to find out this matter to do that whereby it should be found Saith another I have endevored and sought and done all I can and cannot compass it Consider you that say it is hard what a vain thing is it for a man to plead that a thing is difficult which must be done Will you plead difficulty against necessity You must do it or your life will be as death you will lose the comfort of all Promises of all Performances the Promises will be as a sealed Fountain that you cannot drink of them But again It is false to say it is hard That false Prophet within us communicates of his own spirit to us and we oftentimes speak untruths against God Is it hard to walk in the way of life Is it hard to enquire after God Is it easie to be hunting after the world and getting something in this life Is it hard to reach after the fruit of the Tree of Life When you seek after God you are in that very way of Life wherein they now are that shall enjoy God to all Eternity Another Discouragement is this I have endevored but it is a fruitless thing I see I shall never be satisfied Poor Soul Wilt thou indulge that remissness of spirit that is in thee to a contradiction against the God of Truth He hath said If thou seek him thou shalt find him He hath said he will comfort the mourners He hath spoken as much as can be desired What would you have God to do more Rather blame your seeking then your success Say not It is in vain to seek because I have not found nay rather say Because I have not found therefore I must seek more and seek better What saith Christ in Joh. 14.23 If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him If any man love me be he what he will be though he hath been a notorious wretch though he hath been a grief and burden to me and offended me days without number yet if he love me my Father will love him and we will come and make our abode with him Will you rather blame the truth of the Promise then your selves The fault must be layd on us Let God be true and every man a lyar It is manifest that we do not what we might do in these particulars 1. We do not call our minds in and bend them to this work of enquiring after God and setling this great question of our Interest in God for ever And indeed if we do not call in and bend our minds and use some enforcements upon them they will never do their work There is upon our minds anatural fluidness and dulness they go out easily to all things but unto God The mind must be summoned prest bound and buckled to this work Saith the Apostle 2 Pet. 3.1 2. This second Epistle Beloved I now write unto you to stir up your pure minds To stir up your pure minds The Apostle was afraid of them lest dulness and sluggishness should fall upon their minds If you do not stir up your selves to the work and gird up the loyns of your minds the work will not be done Another fault is That as men do not bend their minds to the work so they do not hold them in a way of beleeving and cheerful expectation of what they seek for Saith the Church in Micah 7.9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord until he plead my cause So long as I seek the Lord I will wait and expect that he will hear me and answer my desires In Hos 10.12 saith the Prophet Sow to your selves in righteousness reap in mercy break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you You must seek the Lord till he come In Isai 62.7 This is the counsel of God by his Prophet That you give him no rest until he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise Again There may be this fault We do not bring things to an effectual judgment Many queries are raised about this business but there is not a full hearing and determining of them but either the Court breaks up before things are concluded and so the Soul is left to hang upon a poor thred of a feeble hope I hope God is my God or else the Soul is contented to bear the burden of many fears and sorrows not stirring up it self as it ought to get free of them So that doubtless it 's our fault that we have not so clear a knowledg of our Interest in God as to make us to triumph or glory therein One way or other we are defective either in our seeking of God or in our not receiving what God gives unto us Thirdly A third Consideration is That we have often offended and sinned against the Spirit and then God weakens his Testimony towards us and doth not so make himself known to us as we desire David by his sin brought himself into that sad condition that he knew not what to make of himself as appears by that prayer of his in Psal 51. He lookt on himself almost as one in bonds estranged from God a man without spirit In Isai
they are separated from the love of God So I have done with the third Argument CHAP. XIV The Evil of Doubting as it is a denyal of the Truth of God a diminution of his Love and Favors and a mis-interpretation of his Dispensations The vexation of doubting to enlightened persons in an evil day A Fourth is this Doubts in this case are very sinful and grievous especially to a Soul in light and to a Soul in trouble To clear this I will shew first That they contain in them exceeding great evil against God in these things 1. They are contrary to the Truth and Faithfulness of God They are a denyal of the Truth of God manifested in the Promises and by the testimony and witness of his Spirit God hath made our way open to himself and we are apt to say most wretchedly as the Church in Lament 3.44 He covereth himself with a Cloud that our prayers should not pass through He hath left upon you perhaps some marks of his love he hath put into you some earnest of his favor what are these but the voyce of God from Heaven that God is your God and yet you say as the Church in her frowardness The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Again It is not only opposite to his Truth but to his Love When a friend comes to one passionately affected in suspicion of his friendship and saith to him Sir I love you you are very dear to my heart and he will not beleeve him he takes it ill God may say to us in the matter of his Love as he said to them in the matter of obedience What could I have done more God may say I have given them the knowledg of my self I have given them a heart to love me I have given them all the pledges of my dear Love and yet they will sit down in corners and spend and waste themselves in mourning because I love them not What can I do more In Deut. 1.32 God took it ill when his Word could not be taken and when the manifestation of his Love was of no force Yet in this thing ye believed not the Lord your God who went in the way before you to search out you a place to pitch his tent in c. Surely saith God there shall not one man of this evil generation go to see that good Land that would not believe me It may be our hearts may be somewhat like Jobs in Job 9. saith he If I have called and he hath answered me yet I will not believe that he will harken to my voyce What a strange thing is this Though he hath heard me when I came to him and hath given me entertainment of a Father and I did receive pledges of his Love yet I will not believe that He loves me and that he will hear me Again They are diminutions of divine Favors He that doubts his Interest cannot so bless God in the enjoyment of wife children and estate and whatsoever carries sweetness in it but bitterness of Soul overflows and makes all things bitter and he is apt to overlook all who is not perswaded of his Interest in God In Esth 5.13 you read of the froward spirit of Haman and such a spirit is usually in him that feareth What is all this to me seeing Mordecai sits still at the gate Another evil against God is That these doubts cause mis-interpretation of all divine Actions They make a man mis-construe God in all things whatsoever he saith or doth God shall not be taken aright by that man that doubts his Interest in him O Job how wert thou mistaken and what meanest thou to speak those words Job 13.20 Wherefore hidest thou thou thy face from me and holdest me for thy enemy Why did God ever take thee for his enemy So many because God crosseth them in their desires and frustrates them in their hopes O say they God is angry with me he doth not love me I might tell you the same in other dispensations of God indeed that man cannot be pleased Now we may consider how painful and vexing doubting is in that man that is alive that is in a living state and especially in an evil day There are these three things that clear it 1. This is a matter of greatest consequence it 's a business of the greatest weight See you not a man sometimes how heavily he walks when his estate is in question but much more when his life is in question But what if his life and estate too be in question That man that knows God truly would rather endure the loss of ten thousand lives and estates then the loss of Gods favor 2. Another thing that makes it exceeding heavy is the loss of the sweetness of former experience David in Psal 42. complains of this When I remember these things I pour out my Soul in me for I had gone with the multitude I went with them to the house of God with the voyce of joy and praise with the multitude that kept holy-day And Job in Chap. 29.2 O that it were with me as in the days of old and in months past as in the days when God preserved me when his Candle shined upon mine head and when by his light I walk'd in darkness As I was in my youth when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle and when the Almighty was yet with me Thus that man that loseth the sweetness of his former experience remembers the days of old and that afflicts him Again God will have it so that where this thing is not yet driven home and the Soul hath not duly sought and so not found satisfaction concerning his Love it shall be bitterness to him I say God will have it so the Soul shall not enjoy it self He doth this partly to give a demonstration of his own Excellency and to vindicate it in the Soul that a man may surely know and find that there is none like him therefore saith he I will take away the light of my face from that man he shall have his house and land and estate and see what he will do with them what he can make of them And by this the love and favor of God appears to be excellent Besides this God loves his people he will have their love and will have his love sweetened to them therefore it shall be bitterness to them when it is lost Be perswaded then to make this your work and rest not till you know that you have Interest in God plead with David in Psal 35. Lord say unto my Soul thou art my Salvation not only be my Salvation but say thou art my Salvation And then though you may have many sad thoughts accompanying you yet this will refresh you in the midst of all as it did David in Psal 94.14 In the multitude of my thoughts thy comforts delight my Soul CHAP. XV. Interest in God more knowable then any other and yet unknown to most The
Reasons of both BEfore I propound the Directions how they who are sincere and ingenious toward God and indeed have him for their God may know that they have a sure Interest and Propriety in him I will premise two things of moment First That our Interest in God is more knowable then any other Interest in the world There is no Interest that a man hath which is so discernable Whatsoever it is that belongs to an Interest in any thing or any friend and doth discover it is much more here Examine it in a few particulars 1. Where there is an Interest with men there is a mutual closing of their spirits by which they know one another and come to rest secure in each others good intentions and hearty wishes Here also is this mutual closing and in a far more high and excellent degree then is or can be with any creature For that affection and love which God discovers to his people and which he doth act upon them is a Love that is transcendent that is not only beyond all other love but beyond all understanding That entire closing that is between a Beleever and God in Jesus Christ is above all that which can be found in any other his whole Soul runs this way In Psal 119.10 I have sought thee saith David with my whole heart That is the proportion which God hath cut out for himself Deut. 6.5 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart with all thy Soul and with all thy might Christ challenges the same proportion and indeed it should not be less less would not fulfil his end which is the solid peace and satisfaction of his people in the enjoyment of him and also the subjecting and subduing of their spirits to his government No proportion of love loss then the greatest could work these things But besides this there is such a through change by reason of this Interest as no Interest in the world doth work though the closest and the nearest For the habit and disposition of the spirit of a man is altered in closing with God and he becomes a new creature he is not what he was It is true that in all friendship that is with men there is a kind of change on both sides because there must be a due and necessary application of themselves to each others spirits but that change is unspeakably inferior to this in those who have been wrought upon to beleeve and have obtained this mercy to close with God for they are changed to the proportion of as great a distance as death is distant from life and darkness from light for they are brought off from the love of all that on which their hearts were set even to a hatred of it and are subjected subordinate and conformed to the Will of God There is another thing in this Interest which belongs to the nature of it and so discovers it and that is a mutual conversing with each other with contentment Jonathan and David had much pleasure in their mutual conversings with each other and in drawing forth their spirits one to another This is much more strong in Beleevers then can be in any relation between husband and wife or between the father and child This must needs be so For first The love wherewith they love God is the highest love Therefore many will not go for Christians that pretend to be such because their hearts are not brought up to this The highest Love acts highest it takes the highest delight and contentment in its Object In Cant. 2.3 As the Apple trees among the trees of the Forrest so is my Beloved among the sons I sat down under his shadow with great delight c. In Psal 73. saith David It is good for me to draw near to God That look as others find contentment in the things they love and draw near to them so the Saints find much more contentment with God and therefore draw near to him Again Friends cannot always enjoy these Converses Oftentimes they are parted and so cannot have this felicity of expressing mutual love but God is ever with them In Psal 73. Thou art my strong habitation to whom I may have a continual resort I may always come to thee 3. There is a third thing in Interest and that is mutual Communication Love is a spring which flows forth it doth enjoy what it hath rather for its friend then for it self Gods Love hath this excellency more abundantly and transcendently Take the dearest friends that live at the highest rate of love they cannot maintain a constant Communication partly because there is not always an equal necessity and capacity partly because there is not always the same power to give forth But our necessities are always very great and vast and Gods power is always the same so that here is always a perfect Communication of Love that ceaseth not but flows forth as beams of light from the Sun Now as effects discover their causes so then especially when they are most full and perfect As you may better know any tree by its fruit then when it is in the bud and blossoms and you may better know it when the fruit is in its fulness and in more abundance then when there are but a few if there be but one or two upon a tree they may be hid but when there are many the testimony is the more abundant Abundant are the testimonies of the fruits of Gods Love in what he hath done for his So that upon this account no Interest is more knowable then that of a Beleever in his God Secondly A second thing to be propounded is this That though no Interest be more knowable yet ordinarily no Interest is less known then this This we need not prove I think it 's a Question out of question with us all The unevenness of the holiness of Beleevers in their walkings the inconstancy of their rejoycing are two strong demonstrations of this that they do know but little of their Interest in God It springs from such unhappy Causes as these That abiding Unbelief that bitter root that hath taken such strong hold of the nature of man that till the whole house be pull'd down it will not be wholly eradicated and destroyed This is that weight the Apostle speaks of in Heb. 12. that hangs on us so fast as is manifest by the Apostle's scope who perswading unto faith and the workings of faith this is that saith he that so suppresseth and bears us down from those heights of heavenly joy from that sweet contentment and rest of spirit whereto we are called Beleeving is the first stone that is layd in a Christian He that comes to God must beleeve that he is and that he is a Rewarder of those that seek him Hebr. 12. And as there is a spirit in all Beleevers that tends to the setling of them upon a sure foundation that they may stedfastly beleeve so there is a spirit that works
to unbelief perplexity and dissettlement While unbelief works in us it must needs be that there will be a great want of that through knowledg of Interest Another Cause of this great misery of man is That Gods communications of himself to us and entertainments of us are not always in intelligible forms so that we cannot presently take them up and understand the meaning and good-will of God in them The fault is in our minds The print is good but cannot be read because the eye is dull and dark Sometimes God comes to us wrapt up in Clouds and indeed he varies his dispensations that he may attain his End His End is this that he may work his people to a strength of Faith and Love mixt with Fear that 's the proper constitution of a Christian and the truest temper of one that is marked out to eternal life Therefore God sometimes displays his greatness in the sight of his people far above all the manifestations of the sweetness of his mercy that the spirit of a poor man is overborn shakes and trembles at the presence of God So it was with Moses Heb. 12.21 The sight was so terrible though God meant no ill to Moses that Moses shakes and quakes for fear he was sore afraid Sometimes God comes with the manifestations of his fatherly displeasure and dislike and then how can it be but the Soul must dwell in bitterness mourning heaviness and trembling must needs possess us A third Cause why so little is known of this Interest that God is our God though he be so is our unhappy diversions We are oftentimes turned off from that one thing necessary and our spirits run otherways out of light into darkness Alas Solomon minded not this matter or to little purpose when he poured out his Soul after vanities and for this God pleaded with him 1 King 11.9 that he had departed from him The Lord was wrath with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel who had appeared to him twice CHAP. XVI How the knowledg of blessed Interest in God may be attained Desires to have the question determined A spirit free to yield to the determination Arguments proper for the deciding of the question Those that have an Interest in God are much in holy resignation Of taking answers when they are given THese things being premised now I come to shew you how we may attain this blessed knowledg that God is ours and so quiet our hearts in this assurance that he is our Portion First Let it be the true desire of thy Soul to have this question determined and concluded that God is thy God Certainly many are careless concerning this business that never much debate the matter whether God be their God or no. Others there are that have care enough but it is a perplexed care a care sowred with unbelief there is a desire indeed raised but it 's mixed with perturbation the Soul is indeed in motion after it but it is a very disorderly motion working with fretting and such disturbing fears that they leave themselves without judgment Exod. 6.9 It is said concerning the Children of Israel that when Moses spake to them they would not hear him for their anguish of spirit and for their cruel bondage for the shortness and straitness of their spirits Fears do straiten Secondly A second Means is this Come with a spirit free to yield to the determination of truth one way or other take your answer from God as he shall give it Certainly there are a generation that know that they are very partial and foolish in this business that fly from the decision and determination of this question from a secret strong suspicion that all is not well with them and therefore they will rather flatter themselves with the uncertainty of their own estate then affright themselves with the clear knowledg of their unhappy condition As a guilty prisoner fears to think of the time of Judgment because he knows there is just cause of suspicion that it shall go ill with him Poor man what shall it profit thee to carry things thus If God be not thy God what hurt is it for thee to know it He that lives thus refuseth the judgment of God and as much as in him lies hates the judgment of God There can be no greater evidence of a right spirit then for a man to put the question home whether God be his for that man is not willing to be the Lords that is not willing to have it determined whether he be his or no. Some again are so possessed and overcome with fears so ready to self-condemnation to what ever may afflict and oppress them that they wrap themselves up in thick clouds lest any light should spring forth upon them These are like unjust Judges that are precipitant in their proceedings that hear only one party It is a dangerous thing for a man to mistake in Judgment as the Wise-man speaks concerning Civil Judgment Prov. 17.15 He that justifies the wicked and condemns the just even they both are an abomination unto God You displease God and sin against Truth and Righteousness when you bear down your selves and pronounce a sentence of death upon your own Souls when God hath passed the sentence of life and peace upon you You cross the design of Jesus Christ which is a design of love and peace You offer violence to that light reason and spirit which God hath set up in you You tempt God to say as you do and to make good your words Be therefore willing to hear what God shall say to you as they in Acts 10. said to Peter We are all here ready to hear the things that are commanded thee of God Thirdly A third Means is To proceed and argue by proper Mediums by such Arguments as are proper to the Question Some work themselves into a good opinion by false discourses concluding upon insufficient grounds that God is their God either from an empty appearance of good or else from a real presence of the life of such things as may flow from other principles then the spirit of Adoption as the fear of God mourning for sin subjection of spirit to the Commands of God which things indeed are good but may flow from another spring then the spirit of Adoption But if you would conclude in a right way of reasoning that God is your God argue then by such things as are proper to that state and relation wherein you suppose your selves to be toward God and that is in one word a spirit of true Love You shall find that working thus it will carry thy Soul in propensions towards God equal to thy consolations The Soul that loves is carried unto God with desires equal to its refreshings yea and more for when it cannot taste the comforts of the Almighty yet it is carried after him in desires and saith Lord I will love thee though thou wilt not love me This love
also will work resignation of our selves to God equal to all our enjoyments and expectations from God David was much taken with Gods love to him that tendred him in his distresses but withall saith he Lord I am thy servant Psal 106. He gave himself to God in the sense of the sweetness of that mercy he had from God Yea this will exceed also for he will give himself to God when he knows not but that God hath hid himself from him This love will work equal melting of spirit with rejoycing of spirit and fill a man equally with shame and joy True love makes a man as happy in sorrowing as in rejoycing and he never more abounds in godly sorrow then when he abounds in the manifestation of Gods love to him In Psal 32. you may see how David was taken after he found mercy with God see how he breaks forth detesting his own nature and the natures of all men he compares them to the horse and mule like Asaph in another case So brutish was I and ignorant as a beast before thee Now if you would know whether God be your God what do you find of such a spirit in you Some conclude too well in a false way by false Arguments Some indeed too who beleeve conclude too ill to their own wrong by mistakes also as because they find their feet slipping and their ways not so even therefore they conclude their spirits are crooked and there is no streightness in them whereas it is not the action but the disposition whereby we should judg our selves nor is it this or that tripping that discovers a man but the inward frame of his spirit Again They conclude Surely God is not my God because I feel my love so faint my faith so feeble whereas it is not the degree but the truth of grace that must discover our estates Fourthly A fourth Means is this Labor to be more full in closing with God and in the resignation of your selves to him and in conversing with him in all delightfulness and in whatsoever it is that shews your Interest in God For as there is a light in all these by which they bear witness of themselves and of your happy state so the fuller and stronger they are the more clear full and vigorous is their testimony A tender plant newly springing from the ground doth not so well discover what it is as when it is grown up to a full body now it is easily known This is certain things are more significant as they are more perfect A little smoak discovers fire but more smoak is more full in its discovery This the Apostle Peter intimates 2 Pet. 1.9 If these things be lacking if men be but weak in these if men be not only not sound but little in these they are dark-sighted they cannot well discern things their judgments will be very much clouded and darkened in the things that concern their peace Be frequent therefore in those works that discover your Interest be frequent in conversing with God frequent in expressions of the sincerity of your Love for it is with God as it is with us discoveries of our Love make discoveries of his Love When I say to a friend Sir I love you you are dear to me and I am wholly yours his heart opens to me and there is an eccho in his spirit to my Love When you come to God and say Father I am thine and will be thine wholly thine and always thine if your Love can make you say so to God much more the Love of God will make him say so to you Thou art mine In Zech. 13. They shall say Thou art our God and I will say Thou art my people Therefore be much in this Fifthly Be true to your Interest walk with a streight spirit make streight paths to your feet for upon such shall peace be Psal 119. Great peace have they that keep thy Laws God bears the clearest testimony where there is most excellent walking Usually his testimony is according to the measure of grace as the co-operation of the Spirit also is And as God comes with the most terrible convictions upon highest transgressors so he comes with sweetest consolations to those that walk most evenly Uneven walking carries a shew of insincerity and puts a difficulty upon beleeving David had much ado in this case to conclude himself to be Gods was a shattered man and had lost his confidence The Conscience of guilt to an Unbeleever is deadly and even to a Beleever it is a wound You put a sword into your enemies hand when you walk not uprightly You arm your unbelief against your selves that is too strong without your help This is certain that no hope conquers fear but that which conquers sin for they have both one foundation If therefore now you would know and would walk in this light that God is your God then you must walk uprightly and faithfully in your Interest Lastly Take answers of Love when they are given you and keep them treasure them up as most precious things bless Jesus Christ by whom it is that you enjoy them and suffer not the great question of thy Soul to be always in agitation Suffer not thy self to be brought to endless disputes when the cause is once heard and concluded It is as well sinful to make voyd the grounds of our Consolations as to break the bonds and cords whereby God holds us to obedience You put gold no more to the touch-stone when it hath once passed the furnace you say it is gold Suffer not your selves to be tossed in whirls of amazement when God hath said he is your God It is true indeed there will be objections and they cannot be shunned they are often injected yet these things must sometimes pass undisputed Mark the season when these things are disputed in your Souls commonly at the worst season when a man is at greatest disadvantage When Job's spirit was disturbed you know what amazement he fell into and what advantage did it take of him Another season is the season of transgression The Devil so works in our unbeleeving hearts that we oftentimes put that to the question that God before hath put out of question Offences should not work in us amazement and fear of our former bondage but they should work in us brokenness and shame Lord pardon me saith David for my sin is very great The greater our transgression is the more we should have recourse to God and his goodness but by no means fly from him Certainly Gods design is to break sin by sin and his aym is to out-shoot the Devil in his own Bow Oh! they love much to whom much is forgiven The end of this discourse is that you would be serious solemn and impartial in debating of this business for when God hath cleared the matter it is to thy hurt to bring it about to be disputed again CHAP. XVII What it is to live upon God as our God No
other life appointed for Saints The fulness beauty and satisfaction of this life How Christians offer violence to their relation IN this Chapter I would make Exhortation to all that have Interest in God to live upon it Only first I will shew what it is to live upon God as our God And it is First To cleave to God with joy of heart to live in the affectionate embraces of God in Christ and delightful conversings with him to have God for our life as it is said of Jacob concerning Benjamin His Soul his life was bound up in the life of the child Gen. 44.13 that is they had one lot if one lived the other lived their joys were the same they could not be severed or parted they were but as one So we should be towards God our lives should be so bound up in him we should be one with him Secondly To live upon God is to contract all our desires into God to have none but what are for him and according to him This is the way of life indeed when God is a mans all when the language of his Soul is Whom have I in Heaven but Thee Thus to have desires to God that he rests not in any thing beneath God nor seek any thing besides God that is to live in God Thirdly To live in a faithful real resignation of ones self unto God If you be his you know that he hath taken chosen and set apart the good man for himself Psal 4. And so must we live as sequestred persons as those that are his that as the holy things of the Temple were for no other use so must we be only for God In Hos 3.3 't is said Thou shalt abide with me many days thou shalt not play the harlot thou shalt not be for another man but shalt be unto me so will I also be for thee God will stand close to that spirit and be the comfort stay and life of it that reserves it self for him Fourthly It is to contract and draw all your expectations upon God to lay all your weight there If there be any thing thou promisest thine own heart let it be from the bosom of God if there be any answer that thou makest to the fears doubts and troubles of thy spirit let it be from the voyce of the Lord. Thus David in Psal 62.2 He only is my Rock and my Salvation he is my defence I shall not be greatly moved And he saith at vers 5. My Soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him He tells you what God is to him and what indeed he looks for from God What God is to him He is my Rock and my Salvation in God is my Salvation and my Glory he is the Rock of my strength He tells you also what he expects from God My Refuge is from him so that if I need safety or refreshing and supply of any good mine eye is upon him and from him I look for all This is to live upon God Having expressed in a few words what it is to live upon God Now take those Considerations which perswade to live such a life as this First There is no other life for you This is appointed for you to this you are called for this you are fitted Fishes may as well live in the ayr as you live in the world You may try and weary out your selves in vain but God is your life This be sure of if you neglect this life either dulness and benumedness will fall upon you so that you will grow sensual brutish and earthly strangers to the joy activity and tenderness of holy Christians or you shall fall into a dis-rest an unsufferable unquietness of spirit while you are as a rouling thing in the wind having no consistence because you are out of your place You shall be afflicted within and this will be your great evil that you lived not in God And now because you seek life in other things you shall dig for your own death And if you have any reason it will work to your own affliction vex and torment your Souls night and day because you did not walk in the counsels of the Most high and the embracements of his Love Your sweetest enjoyments will be all sowred like the waters of Jericho bitterness will be in them not to be endured Secondly This is a life that should be most pleasing and amiable unto our spirits and certainly we are dead and alienated from God if there be not an incomparable sweetness to us in it For 1. It is the fullest life The life of all other things hath something mixed with it the life of your enjoyments your pleasures and relations is a mixt life there is death in all your comforts and you taste it and are sick of it many times you know it well It is true there is nothing that God hath made and appointed for our use but brings in some portion of life our garments give a little and our food a little and friends give something but how little do all these give But now this life is all life the life you have from other things is a short poor narrow life but this life is more compleat Take the life of a man that hath whatsoever his heart can wish his comforts strike but upon his sense or at best have but some light touch upon his spirit Alas the Souls of men cannot drink at these Cisterns Life that comes from these things hath not immortality in it such things are as far from immortality as they are from sufficiency The wisest the richest and most honorable that have the fullest life dye because the life they have by such things cannot hold pace with the Soul nor communicate a life of consistency But the life we have with God extends to the whole course and capacity of the Soul it fills up every corner and leaves no want 2. It is a life that gives perfect satisfaction he can ask no more that hath it 3. It is a life that beautifies the Soul Mens complexions usually are as their dyet is Oh he that feeds on God what a rare complexion is his Soul of It makes him like to God it reduceth a Soul from a miserable separation into a blessed and orderly union Our life being in one God one Good which is all Good he that lives this life would dye ten thousand deaths rather then part with it Thou well knewest Peter what thou saidst in Joh. 6. When Christ said to his Disciples Will ye also go away then Simon Peter answered To whom shall we go Lord Thou hast the words of eternal life Whither dost thou think we can go when we knew thee not we could indeed be without thee but now we know thee whither shall we go When Nature comes to a state of Consistency it rests it seeks no more That man is in such a state that is in God that enjoys him and his Love and rests in him
the house of Eli and he did it As a fundamental assistance to all this Look to the setling of your Souls in a firm belief of the Gospel for so far only as we beleeve the words of eternal life they are of power to us Remember that in Heb. 4.2 The Gospel came to the Jews but it did not profit them because it was not mixed with faith The weight of words lies in the truth of them and not only in the worth of them For if you speak of mountains of Gold of heaps of Pearls though these are rich words yet if there be not as much truth in them they are but an empty sound and take not the heart Converse much with all the witnesses of the Scriptures truth converse with and call to mind frequently that inward Seal which is upon your own spirits that living and effectual force and vertue which the Word of God hath had upon your hearts unto a thankful embracing of it to a holy subjection to it to a couragious and chearful dependance upon it to the melting of your hearts and the pouring out of your spirits unto God Remember these things for Gods appearances in his Word are as so many seals and witnesses from above Rest not till you can say with that Angel Rev. 19.19 These are the true sayings of God And with the Apostle in Joh. 21.2 We know that his testimony is true For while this is not done our comforts and rejoycings in God cannot be high they cannot exceed our faith Then let no dark clouds remain upon your spirits so far as you can if you have received a little light make it to encrease more and more to the perfect day Observe the language of the people of God I know that my Redeemer lives I know that thou art with me How often have you these expressions in the first Epistle of John 2.3.4 and 5. Chapters We know that we are of God We know that God dwells in us We know that we have passed from death to life We know that we are in the truth Endeavor to come to this Again Be frequent in drawing comfortable and reviving inferences from your Interest in God Mark what inference the Church makes I will wait upon God my God will hear me Faith and a lively enjoyment of God is full of argumentation and that is the life of the Soul It is not maintained by a speculation of God but by arguments reasonings and such conclusions as are meat and drink indeed to the Soul CHAP. XX. Our Apostacy hath made us unapt for divine Life and Converse with God through a Mediator and willing to conform to the lowest Patterns HAving said much to this Point I will shew now what great need there is that so much should have been said and much more also for the furtherance of this life in God take therefore into your hearts these few things First We are naturally in greater affinity and capacity as to the things of the creature then to the things of God It is was not so from the beginning but our Apostacy cast us into this unhappy state that whereas we were nearest unto God now all things are nearer unto us then God we are grown strangers to that life As the child of a Prince that goes away in his childhood and is trained up in a beggers house he contracts a beggers spirit and grows a stranger to a Princes life So it hath been with us As Nebuchadnezzar lived like a beast and forgot the life of a Prince yea of a man so we are strangers from the life of God What God saith in Hosea 8.10 is true of us all We account his things as strange things as things that we are not acquainted with we have neither a pleasing sight of them nor a pleasing taste of them but they are to us as meat that we cannot relish that suits not with us Nothing was more natural to man then to live in God as we came out of Gods hand It was not more natural for the fish to live in the water then for us to live in God and that was a blessed state The brest is not more natural to the child then that life was to us that was our first life and it was sweet though it was short It was a blessed life for God let out himself in so much fulness as took the heart up into intimate acquaintance We were made upright that is such as God delighted in such as we should be now we are altered our spirits are divided and scattered In as much then as we have not altogether cast off our depraved natures we have need to be thus called upon we being more enclined to the creature then unto God Secondly Naturally we have a greater propensity to observe the Law then the Gospel to do what we are bid then to take what is offered and given to us in the Gospel For the Law is natural to us it is written in our hearts the things that are revealed in the Gospel are above Nature This disposition the Apostle found in those Rō 9. latter end Israel which followed after the Law of Righteousness did not attain unto the Law of Righteousness Wherefore because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law for they stumbled at that stumbling stone It was a stumbling stone indeed to them they rather chose to make their way to life by the Law then to accept of life according to the propositions of the Gospel because the Law was more near to them it was more natural to them but the Gospel is supernatural Children are nearer to and more apt to receive those things which are by Nature then those things which are by instruction and appointment It is natural for a child to eat he need not be taught it but for a child to learn that is hard he is at more distance from it So it is more easie for us to form our selves to the obedience of the Law then to the Gospel Thirdly We are naturally more apt to converse with God immediately then by a Mediator Because this is still according to the natural course and original appointment of God in the first Creation of Man Though then there was a very great disproportion an infinite disproportion between God and us yet because there was no Conscience of guilt no matter of offence this poor Creature though but dust and ashes could come to God and did converse with him immediately But now since his going away from God God hath declared that man should come no more immediately to him but by the Door which he hath appointed He hath made Jesus Christ that Door and whosoever entereth by him hath life and none else You may knock at the door of Mercy and spend your days in tears and prayers but not be heard unless your way be through Christ Therefore 1 Pet. 1.21 the Apostle speaks thus Through Him we beleeve in God And
their afflictions be not so much under them yet they are above their afflictions though they cannot go on their way with so much gallantry as others yet they are not turned out of their way So Job that pattern of patience was sometimes up and sometimes down but he had the Conquest It is with Christians as it is with the Ayr which is sometimes bright and sometimes cloudy sometimes stormy and sometimes calm A Ship at anchor rouls in the Sea but is safe So Christians have many tosses in this world but are secure Peter is an instance of this truth And some of our own Martyrs and others might be produced who have shewed a very trembling spirit a misgiving heart in the time of their tryals Some have begun to fret at their condition as that good man Asaph did in Psal 73. because he saw God did not do for him as for others was angry and disputed the matter Jeremiah did so in the 12 Chapter of his Book Jonah did so with a witness David sometimes Why hast thou forgotten me saith he Sometimes they are brought to use ill means to help themselves Asa did so in 2 Chron. 15. Because God did not help him he would see if he could help himself he struck a League with the King of Assyria and thereby provoked God The Reason of this Inequality that is between Christians compared one with another or that is to be found in themselves at one time compared with themselves at another time lies in such things as these 1. Some sufferings are more sweetened with the divine presence then others God attends some afflictions with more inward Consolations and manifestations of his Love then others Those sufferings that are for his Names sake are usually thus sweetened The Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 4.14 saith If you be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye What follows For the Spirit of Glory and of God rests upon you These two sufferings and rejoycings are mixed and put together In 1 Thes 1.6 You have received the Gospel in much affliction and joy of the Holy Ghost Much affliction much persecution and therefore joy in the Holy Ghost Sufferings for God and Christ are no bars to the sweetest serenity and most perfect calm of the Soul notwithstanding these joy oft rises to the highest even unto extasie as some have found God usually pours out himself very fully at such times Light though but a spark will appear against all the darkness of a whole spacious room The little light of a twinkling Star prevails against the darkness of the night How much more will the light of Gods face when that shines upon the Soul prevail against all the darkness of sufferings that are upon a man When Peter and Daniel were in great afflictions God sent his Angel to comfort them We have examples in our own stories that do sufficiently witness what the sight and taste of divine Love will do in sufferings Have not some called the flames beds of Roses not only things without pain but of pleasure Eusebius tells of one that writ to his friend from a stinking Dungeon and dated his Letter from my delicate Orchard God so sweetens every condition even the worst that they undergo for his sake that they have more contentment and satisfaction of Soul then a Prince on his Throne Therefore the Apostle 2 Cor. 7.4 hath these expressions Great is my boldness of speech toward you great is my glorying of you I am fill'd with comfort I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulations Strange matter of Joy He was very glad to hear that they were hunted and persecuted of this world for the Name of Christ as himself was because now he knew they should enjoy more of God and of that which the world knew not Therefore the Apostle James saith Account it all joy when you fall into such temptations when you suffer thus Other afflictions and tryals usually have less of sweetness in them Secondly True Interest in God is not always of equal strength and power with Christians Let a man be supposed to be of a vast estate such things have been found if he doth not keep an exact account of what he hath he may think himself worse then nothing and then will be as a Begger though he be rich So a Christian not keeping the account of his Interest clear may suffer in his Spirit as one that is without God when indeed he is in the bosom of God Oh how is our unhappy spirit subject to excursions and wanderings from God! and these are the destruction of our peace and bring our Souls into a night of sorrow Asah of whom I spake before was out upon this account because he had lost the sweetness of the enjoyment of God Thirdly God sometimes leaves his people not only to their sufferings but to grief yea and to faintings under their burdens When God comes in way of Correction he will have his Rod known to be a Rod it shall smart It is true the ultimate end of it is to make us more partakers of his holiness His end is cure but the way is by grief and we shall know the weight of his hand when he comes thus When God comes to visit us it will be a sharp season He will not always deny us some comfort from the manifestation of himself to us but he will so manage the matter that we shall know he is not pleased with us But however there is a vast difference between the people of God and others between their impatience under their burdens and that of the world for God doth maintain his presence in his people and they find it it 's attended with such a Spirit as this usually in the worst times they can still plead with God You have an example in Psal 44.17 All this is come upon us yet we have not forgot Thee nor dealt falsly in thy Covenant Our hearts have not turned back neither have our steps declined from thy Way And yet they had complained very much in the words before and shewed a deep sense of the burdens and troubles that lay upon their spirits yet for all this God was their God and they had not departed from him So in Isai 26.8 In the way of thy Judgments O Lord we have waited for Thee the desire of our Soul is to thy Name and to the remembrance of it This is the frame of the spirit of Gods people that although they complain and be full of sorrows yet still their affections are towards God they are unmoveable and unchangeable our desires are still towards Thee You know that famous speech of Job in Chap. 13.15 Though he kill me yet will I trust in him and yet Job spoke many hard things and was full of bitterness And the Church here in this Micah 7. saith She will wait and bear the indignation of the Lord which was heavy upon her till God came and shewed mercy to her Again Though
they are born down they rise again all the hurt of their spirits ends in a sweet recovery In Jer. 31.18 it is said concerning Ephraim Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised I was as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke See what a carriage here was he was smitten and smitten but still stout and unquiet restless and kicking against the Rod but afterward he saith Turn thou me and I shall be turned though there was before a froward spirit there is now a praying spirit that he might be brought unto himself I was ashamed saith he and confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth The return of Saints is with this double excellency 1. With a deep self-abhorrency when they find they have fainted in the day of their tryal when they reflect upon the ill carriage of their spirits toward God there is a deep shame falls upon them Job is an instance in Chap. 42. when he saw God and remembered his own carriage he saith I abhor my self in dust and ashes in dust and ashes that is he was very much afflicted for that was the manner of the afflicted as you may read in Jer. 26. Oh daughter of my people gird thee with sackcloth and Wallow in Ashes So in Isai 61. I will give them beauty for Ashes that is in stead of a mourning condition I will put them into a joyful So in Psal 73. that good man confesseth concerning himself I was foolish and ignorant even as a beast before Thee my carriage was brutish and absurd 2. They attain also more subjection unto God then before they have their hearts more bowed to him then before Discoveries of sin and restored mercies do mightily work upon their spirits In Psal 39. David after his dis-rest yielded to God and came to more calmness of spirit I held my peace because it was thy doing The Lord will not lose his people his end when he comes to smite them is not to drive them from him They can say to God as he said to his Master when he was driving him from school with a staff It 's not thy staff can drive me from thee What father ever used the rod upon his child that he might alienate the heart of his child from him Nay if a father had power to bring the spirit of his child to his own heart he would do it God can and therefore he will It cannot stand with that infinite goodness which is in God by afflictions or any thing else to separate his people from himself he having set his own Image upon them What would he give the blood of his own Son for them and suffer them to be thrown away No neither will he suffer them to throw themselves away CHAP. XXII How it comes to pass that deformities creep into the Conversation of Christians since they have so high a principle of life Whence it is that those which enjoy not God seem to go through afflictions with strength A Second Question is Quest 2 If Interest in God be so effectual to lift up Christians spirits whence is it that there is such a poor ragged spirit appearing in some Christians and that so many weaknesses and frailties are upon them that so much of contrariety to God and deformity is sometimes in their carriage Answer It is a most deplorable Truth and to be lamented of all the generation of the righteous That very few of those that beleeve do enjoy a clear and constant sight of their Interest in God Many do oftentimes bring a damp upon it by their going out from him they dwell not in him and the hope of glory for the nature of that is to sanctifie and bring us into a conformity to God 1 Joh. 3.3 He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure And Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not So far as a mans abiding is in God so far he is at a greater distance from sin 2. There is something in the natural temper I may call it rather unnatural that very much clouds the beauty of a Christians Conversation Some things will be in Christians according to that state of the body which they have here Let a man be strongly disposed to anger fear grief or sorrow these passions will oftentimes appear because they are in the constitution of the body and grace is not so perfect a Physician as to alter the state of it The end of grace is to bring the worser part into conformity and obedience and it will do it at last and in the mean time where it cannot govern it will cry out and complain as the Apostle in Rom. 7. O wretched man that I am c. 3. In great tryals the spirits of men are apt to be more serious solid and contracted then in smaller matters A Soldier gathers up his courage puts on his armor and will stand to it when he is assaulted for his life whereas he minds not the little dog that bites him by the heels Great spirits oftentimes are mov'd at small things that are not mov'd at all at greater things Aaron was sometime stir'd at a less occasion yet when that sore tryal was upon him mentioned in Levit. 26. Aaron held his peace He had a plain signification of the Mind and Will of God in the thing and he was quiet 4. Assaults upon our outward man are more visible then corruptions that dwell in us Sin comes oftentimes stealing and creeping by degrees so it did upon Solomon though he was a wise man yet he was not aware whether he was going 5. Afflictions and sufferings being things without us corruptions and sins within us it 's easier for us to bear one then the other A Giant can bear a burden upon his shoulders but is not able to bear a little stone in his bladder The Earth that is not moved by all the storms without is shaken with a little wind in the body of it 6. Outward sufferings and tryals usually are more consistent and abiding but miscarriages obliquities and deformities are transient things more sudden and so surprize us The third Question is Quest 3 How men that have not God for their God nor ever tasted the sweetness of his Love do go through very great tryals and sore afflictions with much strength It is to be granted that they do so many times but never as the Saints do Answ Look upon Saul and David and see the disproportion of their spirits in their tryals In Saul evil wrought like it self The natural product of affliction is depravation Affliction stirs up and puts life and activity into sin as when you beat a Wolf you make him more a Wolf then he was before In 2 Chro. 28.22 it 's said of Ahaz that in the time of his affliction he did add to sin against God he sin'd more and more This is that Ahaz or as some read This is Ahaz the King the same A like phrase you have in Psal 102.23 Thou art
was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant It was an usual thing with this people to come in their troubles and distresses and say Arise O Lord and save us and we will walk with thee but they did lye with their lips and flatter God with their false and dissembling words and minded not what they spake but were Deceivers Further When a man comes to God upon any occasion as a Suiter not giving himself to God he speaks no sence at all his prayer is a piece of non-sence there is no judgment nor reason in it but a heap of contradictions and folly If any should come to God persisting in the evil of his ways not having his heart set toward God to become subject to him in all things he contradicts himself praying against evil and yet loves evil We pray against a particular evil and we love the greatest evil that which is all evil and the cause of all evil What contradiction is here We pray for mercy O that God would shew me mercy in this thing and yet we shew no mercy to our selves but do that by which we weaken poyson and destroy our selves and with contentment and yet we come to God and say Lord have mercy on us This is folly extremity of folly When you come to God you come for this or that good Lord give me health or give me enlargement or supply me in my necessities deliver me from this danger c. Men come for some particular good and they hate that which is all good the chief and universal good Thou wouldst have life and health in this world but not Jesus Christ thou carest not for eternal life What contradiction and folly is this while you cry for good and hate good You walk in ways of contradiction against God and hate him in your hearts You say Lord save me when it may be you have some sense upon your spirits of the sad condition of men gone out of the world and of your own present state to be like theirs Thou wouldst have God save thee and yet thou destroyest thy self What sayst thou O man wilt thou depart from the evil of thy ways O no saith the Soul Will any man hold forth his hand to a Chyrurgeon and pray him to cure him and at the same time gash and wound himself Would any man pray to the Judg O Sir pray save my life and at the same time drink down poyson And yet this is the dayly dealing of men with God they pray to him but they are fools they offer up most intolerable contradictions to him 3. Except a man come to God with an heart submitting to him he imposeth most strange and horrid things upon God For either he saith in his heart that God knows not what his intentions are he never means nor hath an heart to forsake this or that sin which is to make him no God or else if he thinks that God knows his heart and yet he will take the boldness to come to God and cry for mercy and to be helped and relieved Mark what he imposeth upon God hereby he would have God act strangely against his own Wisdom the language of that mans prayer is Do but save my life at this time and I will sin more and more against thee Do but let me enjoy mine estate and it shall be the fomentor of my lusts and the weapons of mine unrighteousness against thee do but take off my burden and I will be like an untamed Ass in the desart God hath declared and revealed his wrath from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men that hold the truth in unrighteousness men that know what they should do and do it not yet they are so unrighteous to God and to themselves that they will not suffer this truth to work upon their spirits these men call to God for mercy when as God hath declared that he will shew no mercy to men that walk thus in the stubbornness of their hearts but that his wrath shall burn against them that he will be their Enemy and oppose himself to all their wickedness When thou knowest thy heart is stark naught and art privy to thy secret mischievous intentions unto God and to his Truth thou comest to beg of God to shew thee mercy which so much goes against his Will see what thou imposest upon the Nature of God who is most good and holy thou in the baseness and rottenness of thy heart which holdest a confederacy with sin comest to God in this infinite contradiction wherein thou standest to him and beggest of him that he will take thee into his bosom and be kind unto thee Was there ever such a request made to a man that he would take this Serpent and that Toad into his bosom I know God doth so in effect but then they cease to be such Never doth a man put up a prayer to God with a purpose of continuing in his sin but he imposeth a strange thing on the Will of God Micah 3.11 It is said They build Zion with blood and yet will they loan upon the Lord. And you have a pregnant example Jer. 3.5 6. Wilt thou turn when we cry to thee my Father will he reserve his anger for ever Here is a great sense of evil but saith he Thou hast spoken and done evil things and at that very time was the hearts of this people set against God when they came beging praying and crying that God would help them and shew them mercy That shall suffice for the second thing Why when we come to God we must come with resigning of our selves with a hearty giving up of our selves to his Commands and in all things to be disposed of by him A third thing propounded was What Argument this is or wherein the force of it lies that we should plead this with God Save me for I am thine There is a three-fold strength in this Argument 1. The Law of Nature which obligeth a father to be good to his child the husband to his wife c. And God hath subjected himself more unto the Law of Nature he lies more under it then any of these and doth more perfectly fully and gloriously fulfil this Law of Nature then any ther is no father like him no friend no husband like him Can a mother forget her child can she Yet I will not forget thee Isai 49.4 A mother can hardly do it Nature teacheth her to have bowels and a merciful remembrance toward her child much more will I saith God 2. When we can say to God I am thine we plead the Covenant that God hath made with us wherein he is become our Father and Friend And this is that which was pleaded in Isai 63.16 Doubtless or surely thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledg us not because they are gone and so have no cognisance of us now yet Thou O Lord art our Father
and start aside it 's a sin that wants a name it 's so haynous in its kind so horrid in its nature What high injustice is this in thee to arrogate a liberty to thy self whē thou hast so solemnly parted with it into his hands whose it was Nay was it not after thou hadst experience of walking in thine own ways Didst thou not know what sin meant It 's an argument the Apostle useth Colos 3.6 Wherein you sometimes walked You know what it is to be in your sins Did you not in the day of your sorrow say in your heart I will go to God again Oh! how happy was it when I was with him How sweet were those days wherein I walked under the Government of Jesus Christ and was blessed with the constant communication of the counsel of the Spirit of life and peace Was not that thy speech which was the Churches Hos 2.7 I 'le go and return to my first husband for then it was better with me then now Now after all this to sin against God to indulge your selves to take a liberty and freedom to transgress against him to whom you have so engaged your selves what a breaking of heart what shame of face should this be When now thou hast put weakness upon the strongest bonds what hast thou said Christ is nothing of no account there is more in my sins then in Christ there is more in the satisfaction of my own desires then in the enjoyment of Jesus Christ for thou hast left one for the other Thou didst think it was best when thou didst give thy self to him and what injury hast thou done to the great and holy one Thou hast set light by him to whom to be given thou thoughtst it thy happiness thou thoughtst it wonderful mercy that he would enter into a new Contract with thee thou thoughtst that should be an everlasting bond of Love upon thy Soul that God should again take thee a Run-away that he should again admit thee a Rebel and a Traytor and hast thou forgotten all this Is God after all this to be set by that thou canst walk so and do as thou list Therefore upon all Considerations the sins of those that are much with God are greatest because upon their conversings parlies and treaties that they hold with God still they acknowledg themselves not to be their own but his such therefore shew not the candor and sincerity of a right spirit It 's a sad demonstration of a heart not under the power of divine Love and very much alienated from God that upon sight of such miscarriages is not broken and melted I do as much wonder at the spirit and doctrine of some men as at any thing in the world that are lifting the heads of Christians above all sorrow that would absent them from all mourning that would have them to be all joy Poor men their language is unnatural They must mourn and cannot but mourn if their hearts be right He that knows and loves God cannot but feel the pain and burden of offences against him It 's as impossible that Nature should cease to feel the smart of stripes and wounds as that a spirit filled with or acted by divine Love should not feel the wounds and wrongs that it offers to his Maker Hezekiah shewed indeed his frailty 2 Chron. 32.26 But notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart That notwithstanding is a word to be observed When a mans heart waxeth proud before God and he can lift up himself and transgress with an high hand when the heart glories in any thing and by the brightness of other things a darkness is cast upon the spirit towards God when this man comes to be humbled it 's a great thing Hezekiah was in such a case as this yet notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself Vse 3 We may further improve this Truth by way of Exhortation partly to those that yet have not given themselves up to God that have not said in truth I am thine and partly to those that have done it There is a generation of men that are under no bonds to God they acknowledg him not that are free from righteousness as the Apostle saith Rom. 6.20 They have not so much many of them as felt the breakings of God and those contentions whereby he strives with their unkindness and frowardness they never so much as came to debate the matter or treat with God about this great business whether they should be his or no but live at peradventures and are at their own swinge walking after the will of the mind and of the flesh as the Apostle speaks There is another sort that have felt many tuggings of God upon them God hath been hammering the matter upon them but they have stood it out sometimes he hath brought them upon their knees and to tears nay to self-judging to condemn themselves in his presence sometimes they have cryed and roared in the presence of God such wretches there are in the world which have out-lived the workings of the power of God upon their spirits as those of whom it is said Gen. 6.3 My Spirit shall no longer strive with man God spoke of that evil and wretched world that though he had striven not only by the preaching of Noah and of the Ark which was a very loud Sermon but also with his Spirit for there is no generation of men that are ever free from those contests of God but the light that is in them hath pleaded Gods cause against their wickedness and lusts Well saith God now I see they have stood out all this while my Spirit shall no longer strive with man Let them alone as he said concerning Ephraim Hos 13. The Apostles language 2 Cor. 10.5 besides many other Scriptures supposeth that there is often a fight in our Souls against God Bringing every thought of the heart into obedience That word bringing into obedience signifies a taking of the spirit of man as with a sword or spear God comes and arms himself against men and when he comes thus in power they yield themselves to him and they are blessed But there are such that always stand out that resist the Holy Ghost as those stiff-necked Jews in Acts 7. Or if they yield yet not in sincerity not in truth but as it 's said Jer. 3.10 Yet for all this her treacherous Sister did not turn to me with the whole heart but feignedly or in falshood Now concerning these persons I shall say but very few words Canst thou come to God with such a spirit as this What state art thou in O man Thou must not thou canst not forbear praying At one time or other the worst in the world lift up their eyes and hearts to their Maker The very Heathens do not cannot withhold from this If not the light that is in men yet their straits and afflictions will cause them to come as Petitioners to God and wilt thou come to God
patience that should humble us and forward the work when we come to resign our selves because we were before his Let me shut up all with this Exhortation That when you have been with God and made this acknowledgment that you are his and have dealt in truth with God and when God hath shew'd you the mercy you came for now stand fast in your own word and perform it break not your word with him to whom you have thus engag'd your selves If you mind you may have a true description of your own spirits you shall see the right face of them upon change of seasons Hast thou been a begger in the day of thy distress Art thou enlarged Is the mercy come Now observe thy spirit now see what frame thy spirit is in towards God when thy way is made smooth and storms are layd and thou art at rest Observe it Men are very apt to promise in a day of trouble Oh upon a sick bed if God would restore me I would walk more exactly with him in a day of fear what is more common then to say so And as in Deut. 27. when they heard the Word of God repeated to them they shut up all with a professed willingness to submit and when the Curse was read all the people said Amen so be it but it was not so In 2 Chron. 12. you have that wicked King coming to God crouching before God and offering himself before him but it was not done effectually what ever thoughts he had at that time that he would be the Lords they went off again Men come to God by the enforcement of distress and say much but are the same afterwards they take up new words but their hearts are what they were before Jer. 2.20 I have planted thee a noble vine I have broken the yoke and burst the bonds thou saidst I will not transgress But what was the temper and frame what was the spirit of this people indeed When under every high hill and every green tree thou playest the harlot She had a whorish and a wicked spirit even then when she said to God I 'le not transgress So in 2 Chron. 34.29 you see what a fair appearance there was Josiah being stir'd in spirit to think that the Lord God should be so far out of sight and mind and knowledg and knowing what danger they were in because of neglecting the Commandment of God He humbled himself and the people joyned with him and engaged themselves unto God and there was great joy and alacrity among them and there was such an appearance such a Passover as never had been Notwithstanding at Chap. 26.16 it 's said that they mocked the Messengers of God and despised his Word and misused his Prophets So false are the hearts of men It concerns you therefore to look to your intentions in this thing Consider That the word is gone out of thy mouth thou hast promised to God that thou wilt be his if thou hast not done it formally thou hast done it virtually There is of the nature of a promise in all prayers No man can come to God as a petitioner but he comes with an acknowledgment of him as his Lord therefore having promised thou oughtst to stand to it a promise binds always but chiefly in such cases as these 1. Where the thing we promised was due before it was promised so was this if thou hast said thou wouldst give thy self to God that was due before 2. Where the performance of the promise brings no loss or detriment if thou fulfil thy promise thou losest not by it thou partest with nothing that will do thee good in that thou thy self becomest the Lords it is thy perfection and thy happiness it is a coming to the very state of Angels No creature can possibly be happy but in a subordination to him that is the supream God blessed for ever Having promised therefore make good thy word 2. Consider That by being with God and having obtained the things you sought for you have now an advantage to walk as the Lords to make good your word Partly because your way is enlarged It 's a hard thing to walk with God in ways full of bryars and thorns it 's hard to walk through Seas of blood and mighty storms and tempests But now when God smooths thy way and removes thy fears and gives thy spirit more composedness it 's a mighty advantage in thy hand and therefore to be improved David was of this spirit Psal 119.32 I will run the ways of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart The meaning is Fears and sorrows compress and burden me and make me walk heavily as a man under a weight but if thou wilt scatter these clouds and deliver me from these straits and comfort my Soul if thou wilt cheer refresh and enlarge me then I will run thy ways I 'le not only walk in them but walk with all alacrity and celerity I entered upon these words when the sword was upon the march and fear was upon us terribly Hath God appeared delivered and saved you yea are the clouds of blood scattered and fallen upon the heads of our enemies You have the desire of your Souls the bryars are removed your way is plain now walk with God fulfil your word to him to whom you have given up your selves This advantage also you have from the greatness of the mercy Great mercies do awaken the Soul renew refresh and enliven the Souls of men Now if God hath put thee upon the wing defer not but now up and be doing pay thy vows before thy heart grow cold It is a great thing to lose impressions when they are lost they are hardly regained David lay long before he was the same that he was before his fall it cost him much pains It may be if thou grow cold again that God will heat thee in a fiery furnace He hath ways enough to visit upon thee the neglects of the seasons of grace You may see how he expresseth himself in anger against his people Hos 7.13 Wo to thee for thou hast fled from me destruction unto thee because thou hast transgressed against me though I have redeemed them they have spoken lyes against me though I have strengthened their arm yet they have imagined evil against me When a people are bound by mercies and yet obey not it displeaseth God was very angry with Hezekiah for what because he did not return according to the mercies he had received Surely the mercy you have received is great it must be measured by years and ages it is not one mercy but a multitude a heap of mercies Look how many mischiefs the wrath of malicious men would have heaped upon you look how many evils your own fearing hearts could devise and suggest so many mercies are in this one If therefore thou hast sought God and God hath heard thee remember when thou didst come to God thou didst come upon such terms not to
receive only but to give Thou hast promised to be his make good thy word Thou didst say in thy distress I am thine Lord save me say now in the day of thy deliverance I am thine Lord for Thou hast saved me CHAP. V. The knowledg of Interest in God doth much further our approaches to God It begets propensions carries the spirit in a due frame fits it for all divine determinations THere is yet something more in the words worthy of our consideration I am thine What 's the fruits of this apprehension of God his drawing near to God I am thine save me The knowledg of our Interest in God doth much further our approaches to God Doctr. When a man is once assured and can say with a clear spirit I am thine this man is a man of prayer he is much in addresses to God and conversing with him I shall give you the sence and import of this Point in these two or three things First That when God out of his unspeakable goodness hath broke through the dark Cloud that was between him and us and hath made this good to our hearts that he is ours this begets an inclination and propension an aptness to have recourse to God and converse with him A child that knows his father though strangers pass by him and take no notice of him yet he loves to be with him and the more he hath the nature of a child the more he loves to be where his father is So much more is the conjunction of the Soul with God and the enjoyment of God the portion of a child of God there it loves to be and if it might there it would be and no where else This Interest is such that it begets desire upon desire that the Soul hath never enough of God there is a constant spring of motion toward God that makes the Soul to hang after him as after that in which its life is In Psal 63.1 saith David O God thou art my God What then Early will I seek thee my Soul thirsts for thee my flesh also longs for thee c. Such a man needs not much driving when he is himself he is drawn of God he needs not much to be driven by other things My Soul thirsts You need not force a thirsty beast to the river do not withhold her and she will run her self There needs no Law to bind a man that is hungry to eat his meat do but set meat before him and he will eat willingly he will not withhold his hands That man that hath this sealed up in his Soul that God is his cannot nor will for ten thousand worlds be held from communion with him he breaks through all things he accounts all other time but what is necessary ill spent in comparison of that time he spends with God If he were at his own choyce he would have no other employment nor be put upon any other service then to wait upon God and be wholly his An ingenuous child that carries his father in his heart though at his fathers command he be content to go hither and thither as David to keep sheep in the field yet he had rather be at home where he may speak with his father and hear his voyce and have communion with him God is so good to his that where once a man finds himself to be his he finds such streams of mercy and goodness flowing forth as knit his Soul to him When he comes to him he comes not as to a great God but as to his own Father and God entertains his not as strangers but as children with the entertainment of a Father His entertainments are so sweet that they are new invitations so that a man who hath been with God in a right spirit is not glad that the time is past but longs for that season to come again Yea God shews himself kind with the best advantage kind in great things and those things that are the very desires of their Souls those things that men cannot be without without pain anguish and bitterness of spirit those he gives When their Souls are in trouble then he easeth and comforteth them How often have his people come to him in tears heaviness and much mourning and he hath wiped away their tears and scattered the clouds that were about them and given rest to their Souls In Psal 116. I love the Lord because he hath heard my prayer and the voyce of my supplication because he hath inclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live The sorrows of death compassed me about and the pains of Hell caught hold on me I found trouble and sorrow c. The force and spirit of it is this I came to God in a sad time and God shewed me kindness seasonably seeing he hath been so kind to me I will call on him as long as I live I 'le go often to him I 'le live in the presence of God I 'le be much with him because of his kindness to me Interest will carry a man according to the worth and sufficiency that is in him in whom he hath Interest and according to his own wants and indigency Now the Interest of the people of God in God is in one that is most glorious and it 's the Interest of such as have most need None can do for them what he can do Now if a man have treasure of his own will he want will he not go to it If a man thirst and have rivers that run by him if he have springs of his own will he not drink of them So it is with the people of God when they see God to be their God they see all to be their own in God and therefore will not suffer want but will go to him Yea indeed the Interest of the people of God in God is mingled with such ingenuity and such a spirit of Love that when they have not much cause to go to God as beggers when necessity doth not pinch and enforce them then they go upon friendly visits It 's great content to a child to see his father though he ask him nothing It 's great content to an ingenuous spirit to come to God as his friend to behold him and refresh himself in that infinite glory wherewith he is clothed though for the present he be not much pinched with necessities and straits So David Psal 5.7 As for me I will come into thine house in the multitude of thy mercies In the multitude of thy mercies Not only that I will make this mine Argument which I 'le plead with thee not that this shall be that on which my Soul shall lean but even when thou art very good to me in the multitude of thy mercies towards me will I come not as others that come only when they need something but when thou art most gracious to me then will I come Thus the knowledg of a mans Interest in God works
in his heart an inward inclination and strong propension to make his addresses to God and converse with him Secondly The knowledg of this Interest carries the spirit of a man to God in a due frame and posture that is it maintains the Soul in its addresses to God in joy and confidence cheerfulness and hope yet with intermixtures of awful fear A man that knows God to be his God when he goes to him he goes not as he to whom Augustus said What dost thou come to me as to a Lion He comes not with that astonishment dread and amazement that men do when their Consciences are defiled and in whose spirits the fire of Hell is He is not afraid notwithstanding the infinite distance between God and him to lift up his face before the Almighty He comes with boldness and confidence when once he is in the sight of this that his name is written in the Book of Life and that God hath taken him into the number of those whom he hath chosen out of the world He comes and speaks to God and his language is as to one with whom he hath power Psal 104.6 I will say unto the Lord Thou art my God hear the voyce of my supplication O Lord. He tells you what language he useth to God I said Thou art my God therefore hear me when I come unto thee and this argument is very strong So in Micah 7.7 you have the Church expressing her self thus Therefore will I look to the Lord and wait for the God of my Salvation my God will hear me The conclusion is very strong So in Psal 67.6 God even our own God shall bless us When a man once comes to know that God hath taken him into the number of his into his flock and fold now saith he God is mine my own God shall bless me That faith which makes a man see his Interest in God makes him see that it 's more to have an Interest in him then to obtain all things from him he therefore goes with courage to God because he hath obtained that already which is more then all comes to that he shall have by asking It was a greater favor for God to give us himself to be ours then for him to give us a portion among the Angels in the glory of Heaven God being our God stands engaged he is not his own but ours also therefore when a man sees this he comes to God for all things as to his own and he comes for his own As a child that is in want speaks to his father for supplies he speaks to him as one in whom he hath Interest and pleads with such a spirit as knowing that he likewise hath interest in his fathers estate Indeed this Interest is the best of all it 's founded upon all Reason Which ways soever a man comes to have Interest in another so many ways hath God exprest our Interest to be in him and more also By Creation He hath made us we are not our own Psal 100.3 or He hath made us we are his It 's founded in Redemption in Isai 43.1 Thus saith the Lord that formed thee O Jacob and created thee O Israel Fear not I have redeemed thee I have called thee by name thou art mine I have made thee and I have bought thee It 's likewise founded in that Union that we have with Jesus Christ God is become ours because Christ is become ours The Sons Wife calls his Father her Father he is become a Father to her in his Son If God takes notice of Israel upon this account that they were the seed of Abraham his friend how much more will he own his people that are members of the body of his own Son In Isai 41.8 Thou Israel art my servant whom I have chosen the seed of Abraham my friend We become his and he ours by his actual admission of us into the number of those that are his own and of the houshold of God Ephes 2.19 They are said to be a people near unto him Psal 148.14 All Souls are mine saith God in Ezek. 18.4 But those whom he admits into his family he takes peculiar notice of and they are in a more especial manner his And also by actual Communion he becomes ours As the wife becomes the husband's not only by contract and marriage and receiving her to his habitation but by actual communion so we are the Lords because of that actual converse that we have with God and by his communication of those fruits of his Love which he reserves for his own Thus then the knowledg of our Interest with God clothes the spirit with fit dispositions and affections in addresses unto God as to joy and confidence Now on the other side it works also in the Soul an awful reverential respect such as becomes the relation of a poor creature to his Maker and that infinite distance that is between the high and holy One and a lump of dust which also belongs to the true temper of a man in communion with God Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Psal 2. And Mal. 1.6 If I be a Master where is my fear It 's a dangerous thing for a man upon presumption of his Interest in God to have a boldness without a mixture of this fear and awfulness Such joys are not from above nor is it the Spirit of Truth that bears witness to them when they do not lay the Soul much under God Of all men they come with the greatest fear of God that have the fullest knowledg of their Interest in God and who have their hearts most spread with joy and gladness because God is become their Portion In Heb. 12.28 Wherefore receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear That seems a strange Inference Having received a Kingdom therefore serve God with fear I saith the Apostle therefore and God looks for it and know if it be not done there will be hazard in it for our God is a consuming fire A stranger passeth by a man and takes no notice of him but a child that knows him to be his father comes toward him with respect and honour the very interest he hath in him and the relation wherein he stands strikes on his spirit an awe towards his father So it is with those that call God Father See what account Nehemiah gives of his just walking in Nehem. 5.15 Other Rulers did so and so but I did not for I feared God The assurance of the Love of God and of a mans eternal life begets fear not that fear which hath torment as the Apostle speaks but it begets an awful caution and wariness as is meet in a business of so great concernment He is more afraid to offend God that knows God to be his God then that man is whom God threatens every day with everlasting death Mark that of the Prophet Hos 3.5
It is spoken concerning the time when they should be restored to a better state Afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days Shall fear the Lord and his goodness No father is more feared of his child then the best father that walks towards his child in the greatest wisdom goodness meekness and bounty So that the kindness of God and tastes of his Love do not lift up the Soul and make it proud That man is the most humble man in the world that hath the most knowledg of the Love of God towards him in Jesus Christ This Fear and Faith do so stand together that they cannot be separated In Act. 9.31 They walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost It 's the right temper of a true Christian to have the comforts of God in his Soul and yet to be with fear and trembling It 's a fear that doth inevitably arise upon a rectified nature from a sight of the disproportion that is between God and us This is in Heaven it self where the Angels in glory beholding God so infinitely lifted up above them cannot but have reverence fear and dread in their Souls towards him And it 's a fear likewise of danger not the danger of eternal death for from that they are saved the knowledg of the Love of God assures them for that but from the danger of other things which to them are as bitter as death is to the world and those are the frowns of God the rebukes of God the suspensions of Love and estrangedness of God towards them the stripes of God these things when God doth as a Father to his that know him they are most grievous and smarting and their Souls groan under these more then worldly men under worldly danger Therefore he that knows God and what it is to be in the light of his Countenance he that hath tasted the bitterness of the loss of this lives in fear lest he should provoke God as a Father to deal thus in severity with him And I speak all this the rather because some do blaspheme that which is the spring of life and peace to the Saints saying That for a man to have the knowledg of God to be his God and everlasting Portion is a snare to bring that man into a forgetfulness of God and his Duty and to blow up the spirit with pride and lull him into a sinful sleep Such like things as these have been and still are not without much cause of grief cast upon this blessed Doctrine of the knowledg of our abode with God Whereas the true knowledg of God being ours is that which doth effectually and firmly work the heart to all diligent watchfulness tenderness and sedulity Thirdly It disposeth a mans spirit to the best entertainment of all divine Determinations that are upon a mans addresses to God upon any occasion Let the answer be what it may be what seems good to God that man that knows God to be his God is best enabled to receive his answer be it I or No whether his prayer succeed or not he is put into such a frame that he can say Amen to the Will and Word of God and go from God without murmuring and repining If God hear him he is glad but yet not so glad of the thing as of his Interest he is not so taken with any thing he obtains but God takes him more If therefore he receives any thing he rejoyceth in it as the fruit of Love and makes a grateful return to God again In Psal 119.137 Save my Soul and it shall praise thee He rejoyceth in this to see how welcome he is to God and that his prayer is accepted others come and are not regarded but he hath audience The things that God gives out to him have another form and taste then to the world they come all with tastes of love to him In love to my Soul saith Hezekiah hast thou delivered me in Isai 38.17 And whatsoever he hath he hath a better enjoyment of it then others by reason of his Interest in God he hath nothing from God as a meer gift but he hath God with it God saith to that man that hath Interest in him There take that which thou askedst for and me with it that is thine and I am thine and the enjoyment of God is more to him then all the world This spirit is upon all that he hath My Father gave me it it is the fruit of the love of the God of my life therefore I must use it in order according to order from him and not after my mind only All things are best enjoyed when they are enjoyed according to Rule We spoil the sweetest things when we take them according to our wills and so use them then they become another thing When a man can sit in his enjoyment of all things and see God this is a drop from the Fountain of Life and it is more then they have that seem to enjoy a thousand times more of the things of this life whose corn and oyl increase And if he be denyed if God see it not good to give him the things he desires yet he is satisfied he doth not contend with God nor doth his spirit rise up against his Maker he hath a word ready in his spirit Not my will but thy Will be done he saith If my God will not give me this it is well that he will give me himself I may be without this but I could not be without him and seeing he hath given himself to be my Portion I will wait with patience and be content all the days of my life In Eccless 5. ult saith Solomon If God give a man the joy of his Soul he shall not much remember the days of his vanity When God denies him any thing he remembers that he comes not to God for this particular thing but for the best good We come not to God for any thing but that which is for our good A good man saith If I had this thing it may be it would not do me good and herein his spirit is satisfied he saith God knows better then I what is good for me and if he thinks not such a thing meet for me I must think so too So you see how the knowledg of a mans Interest furthers his approaches to God and helps him in these three respects that we have mentioned CHAP. VI. How the knowledg of divine Interest doth promote Holiness sets Judgment and Nature against Sin keeps the heart from inordinate reaching after and holding fast present things Faith binds the Soul and keeps it bound makes all a Christians ways easie Assurance gives a double advantage to our great meeting with God IN this Chapter I shall in some particulars shew how the knowledg of our Interest in God doth promote and
further our walking with God in all holiness In the first place When a man hath tasted those comforts that flow from this Interest Sin to that man is sin indeed it 's out of measure sinful An assurance of our propriety in God represents sin in its deepest colour and causeth it with the most afflicting resemblance to reflect upon the spirit The knowledg of our pardon doth not put an end to our sorrows it rather begins them The sight of God reconciled doth not work that peace that is without sorrow but makes those streams run deeper and purer The more a man knows that he shall not dye for sin the more he is under a necessity of bewailing his sin and it 's as natural an effect of the sight of God to have the heart pierced and wounded as healed David when Nathan told him that he had sinned and when he knew that his sin was done away then was he most candid most serious and strong in his humiliation before God Those men that pretend to have their joys from their pardon and reckon God to be theirs and yet can pass over their sins with dry eyes drink their refreshing waters not from him who is the Well of Life but from beneath and are under a spirit of depravation and delusion and such a spirit as will seal them up to everlasting condemnation Nothing becomes the Saints more then mourning The proper working of love in Heaven is joy because there is nothing but good but the proper working of love here is joy with grief because though God be good to us yet we are evil against him In Ezek. 36.31 you have this expression by God himself Then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves for your iniquities and for your abominations Then When If you look in the verses before it is when God should come to do them the greatest good when he would cause his face to shine upon them and make his footsteps to drop down blessings Then saith God when I have you upon the knee and satisfied your Souls with goodness then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings that have not been good and you shall loath your selves for all your abominations The knowledg of absolution in Heaven breeds the severest condemnation in the hearts of the Saints the more they see they are accepted the more that voyce sounds in their ears Thou art comely and fair my Beloved the more do they point at their spots and have an eye upon their own spirits I am black saith the Church the Sun hath stained my beauty though God said she was all fair and comely Christ saith to Paul Thou art a chosen Vessel What saith Paul of himself all along I was a Persecutor and a Blasphemer c. He read it as if it were wrote in a table always before his eyes Not only sin in act but sin in temptation the very solicitations to sin are grievous to that man that hath received a testimony from Heaven that his name is written in the Book of Life and that God whose Name is God blessed for ever is his God and Father Remember Joseph what he said Gen. 39.9 How can I do this great evil and sin against God Above all sin in their nature as it dwells in them and acts in them incessantly and renders them in such a contrariety to the Nature and Will of God this is that which doth mightily humble and abase them not only as it is displeasing to God but also as it puts them into an incapacity of serving him and having communion with him The more sin is in us the less we see of God Matthew 5. vers 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God See him not only in Heaven but as they are pure and are sanctified as they are more filled with the spirit of holiness so they shall have clear visions of God and more full acquaintance with God here Now the assurance of our Interest in God making sin to be thus vile and setting the Soul at such a distance from it is a great furtherance to holiness It sets the judgment against it and not only the judgment for so it may be in the worst of men but it puts the nature of the man against it A child knows in his judgment he ought not to wound his father but there is something in his nature that he cannot do it besides the over-powering force of his judgment As Esther in Chap. 8.6 expresseth this natural force How can I endure to see the evil that shall come upon my people or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred See how resolution wrought with her How can I endure how can I endure to see these things So saith the Soul that hath a sight of God How can I do thus against God That 's one thing In the second place The knowledg of this blessedness that God is become ours calms quiets and moderates the heart towards all things So that there is neither that inordinacy of reaching after or holding fast these present things as there was before Besides this it works an holy contentment in our present estate an holy indifferency to any future possible condition according to the Will and Wisdom of God When once a man hath tasted of this Interest and hath seen the favour of the great God in the face of Jesus Christ he looks no more after other Lovers but shakes them off according to the measure he hath attained As in a house more noble things take place and dust and things of no value are cast out so when this Pearl of infinite worth takes place in the Soul when once a man lives in an enjoyment of God he dyes so far to all things else In Gal. 6.14 saith the Apostle having said before that Christ lived in him I am crucified to the world and the world is crucified to me The world looks on me as a dead thing with whom it would not converse and I look on the world as a dead corps and have nothing to do with it it is of no value with me When Ruth was married to Boaz she forsook the field and gleaned no more when she had got Boaz's estate she minded no more to gather handfulls of Corn by gleaning If any man saith Christ drink of these waters he shall never thirst he shall not need to dig any other pits these waters shall content him his desires shall be so confined contented and contracted to this one thing A mans interest in one is according to the person in whom it is He that hath interest in a Prince will not be drawn away by beggers When Saul had found a Kingdom he minded no more the Asses which he was seeking When the people of God had freedom to come to Jerusalem they were willing to leave Babylon This is a great piece of holiness for a man