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
course What unspeakable effusions of inward refreshing have you found upon turning of your spirits unto God upon the very cast of your eye upon the Father of Mercies Alas for those poor Souls those wandering Beggers even all men that do not come in and that have not God for their God in Christ It is pity and grief to see what a poor life they live and they know it not How do they sweat and toyl for that which they never get They get but the image of what they aim at For what do they work For life they think but they work themselves out of life not into life they are knocking always at that door where nothing is where vanity and emptiness dwells they are digging pits that will hold no water they are seeking grapes on thorns and figs on thistles But this way is sure and sweet you are sure to find and your sweetness is as well in seeking as in finding Let Christians then endeavor to live this life How can we without shame complain that we are dead and broken in spirit that a weight lies upon our Souls that we are empty when life is so near us when the Well is not deep and we might take of the water of Life and drink freely Men will not improve the activity and nimbleness of their Souls to enrich themselves We oftentimes charge God with hiding his face from us but wrongfully he turns not away his face from us we turn from him we go out of the Sun-shine into the cold shade and then we shake by reason of cold But those looks of God which are easily had in Jesus Christ warm and chear the Soul Have not such a thought in your hearts that holy Consolations are hardly gotten You wrong the Fountain of Life if you think that you may draw and find nothing or that you may let down your bucket and bring it up empty these are blasphemies which our unbeleeving hearts form against God Certainly God is easie to be entreated and to be found of those that seek him David in Psal 32. had hard thoughts of him but when he once tryed him though he came in the blackness and dread of his Soul covered over with shame and confusion yet he found God to be to him according to all his Name and according to all his Word his tears were wiped away and his broken bones were set again and he was satisfied I would yet a little more clearly express this thing and winde up the Exhortation to its just height in two words 1. That we endevor to live this life in the highest degree that is to live very much in God not only to have a true life but a life proportionable to our relation unto him Princes should feed as Princes and their life should be like their place So should Christians have their life proportionable to what God is What God is in himself he is to us if we have accepted Salvation by Jesus Christ Meer peace is too low a temper for a Christian he is never like himself except he live in joy his principles reach to all joy and for that the Apostle Paul pray'd Col. 1.11 Saints might as well live like Princes in faith and joy as with feeble hopes some weak consolations they might as well drink a full draught as taste of the goodness and kindness of God Who straitens you What is your life but a continual espousing of your selves unto God and should not there be much joy on the Marriage day Therefore the Apostle prays in Rom. 15. The God of peace fill you with all peace and joy always All peace and always 2. A second word is That you maintain this life in every state No variation of our outward estate in this life should be any diminution of the glory of this life The rejoycing you have by Faith and spiritual enjoyments should not be dampt by any thing Is our fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Can we say so Then what should all the turnings of this world be to us How unsuitable to this Communion is it to have our spirits turned and our joys changed with outward things Suppose it be well with us in the world and we be pleased yet is it fit for the Expectants of eternal life who have also a sense of the sweetness of enjoying God to be much taken with these things Is there not a Crown prepared for us Is not God our God Can we be content to be so taken with the dishes at a feast as to forget our friend at the table and that our best friend Suppose it be ill with us as we commonly account ill though the truth is it is never ill with a good man it doth but appear ill it seems ill but it is all good and well for all is from goodness and love therefore though it be ill with us in this sence yet let us be in our own temper that is rejoyce in God Though nothing be the same yet if God be the same let us be the same Meditate upon that famous place Habak 3.17 Although the fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation This is that which God calls for that you live in him always Whatsoever fails say as the Psalmist Psal 73.26 God is my portion for ever I have a Father in Heaven and so though I find things bad enough here yet it is well it is well well above and well within CHAP. XIX Further Considerations to promote the forementioned life of its incomparable worth Those that will not live the life of Faith shall not A firm belief of the Gospel the foundation of this Life LEt us now take a few things more into consideration to promote our living in God for we have need of all cords to draw us and bind us to this life 1. The first is the unutterable difference that is between this life and any other attainable or imaginable Harken to all that can judg every thing speaks in the Case especially take the testimony of God and of those whom he hath blessed with the best enjoyment of himself You know what God saith of himself and what glorious descriptions he hath made of that absoluteness and incomprehensible goodness which is in him You know what he hath said of all things else that they are broken Cisterns Ask the Saints also and the spirits of just men made perfect take the Angels too they live in God and are confined in that life they go no further yet their confinement is no imprisonment but it 's a confinement of love and liberty it 's from the satisfaction of their Souls You know that perfect rest is from a perfection of
in it to live in a Desart But besides There is not only infinite goodness as an attractive object to hold the Soul of man when once come to God but the almighty Power of God that holds us to himself and keeps in his way the spirits of such as have resigned themselves unto him If he that had a bird fly into his brest at Sea would not kill it because it came thither for refuge how much more will God preserve those who commit themselves to him You are kept saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 1.5 by the mighty power of God through faith unto Salvation If any should say here again Is it so where there is a resignation of the Soul to God I fear I am mistaken that break my Covenant dayly I have said I would be his but have broken my word in many things have walked after the counsel of my own heart I answer The Covenant between God and Man in Christ is not broken in particular actions but when violence is offered to the whole Law of this Contract There is this difference between this Covenant and the first Covenant made with Adam Man stood so engaged that one breach one failing undid him and discharged God but this Contract is of a more excellent nature so that it is not this sin and that nor another sin that dissolves the Covenant though they be sins against it and injuries against God yet God doth not hold himself discharged to cast off his people for them As it is with a father and his child and with the husband and the wife every angry word or neglect of carriage in either is a sin against that relation but not to occasion one to cast off the other but when violence is offered to the whole Law of that relation this makes a dissolution And then though all the People of God have cause to be humbled f r sinning against a Covenant so firm and against such grace and mercy therein yet let them know they have no reason to be discouraged for though through sin that dwells in them they may be over-ruled in this or that yet that very sin tends to the destruction of sin and God doth break sin by sin as one wave breaks another or as one heat destroys another And as inward diseases are cured by breaking out and Rats and Mice by coming out of their holes being discovered are destroyed and as evil roots that are in the Earth when they appear and shew themselves it tends to their eradication so God out-reaches the Devil in his design who thinks by sin to destroy the Soul and God by sin destroys sin The Consideration of the nature of that Engagement wherein the Souls of Saints have engaged themselves to God should be such that sin should be more bitter to them more dreadful then Hell it self and it is hardly possible that a man upon the knowledg of the excellency of that grace in this Covenant should embolden himself to sin against God CHAP. II. The Will of God is the Bounds and Rule of a Resigned Spirit NOw we come to consider the End of this Resignation of our selves to God to what end or for what we do resign our selves unto him I shall express it in these two things First To be governed and ordered by God in all our motions both inward and outward When we come to God we come in a state of subordination as inferiors and the end of our coming to God is that he might restore us to our primitive state with some additional grace and favor which state was a state of Communion with God but yet in subjection to God To be under the government of God lies in these two things 1. To have the Will of God to be our Bounds 2. To have it to be our Pattern and Rule The Will of God is that which must so circumscribe and confine us as that we are not left at liberty to any action of our own but we must do it by order There is no creature which God hath made but he hath set certain limits to it which it should not pass as David speaks of the Sea Psal 104.9 God hath set bounds to it which it cannot pass which it cannot go beyond So God though he hath given unto man a larger compass in point of activity yet he hath not left him without bounds he hath bounded his time and hath set bounds to his power as Job speaks Chap. 14.5 His days are determined and the number of his months are with thee Thou hast appointed him bounds which he cannot pass Laws are very often expressed by the name of Bounds and in Hos 5.10 it 's said concerning the Princes of Israel that they were as those that removed the bounds That is as fields are set out by Boundaries and every man thereby knows his own and is to keep within his compass so God hath bounded these Princes and all the people by Laws and Constitutions which he had given them but they offered violence to his Laws and removed the Bounds to enlarge themselves unduly To be bounded by God is to do nothing but what God either doth command or warrant In 1 King 14.8 it 's said to Jeroboam God rent the Kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to thee and yet thou hast not been as my servant David who kept my Commandments and followed me with all his heart to do that only which was right in mine eyes that is it was his dayly disposition desire intention and endevor not that he did so indeed for God himself in the very next Chap. makes an exception at ver 5. he saith that he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing he commanded him all the days of his life save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite That is to be bounded when a man doth nothing but what he is commanded or warranted All things are not commanded that we may do but Commands and Warrants are the utmost latitude of that freedom which is left to us we have no further to go indeed we need not there is scope enough to keep within these limits Psa 119.96 saith David I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandments are exceeding large That is as if he should say I have walked over the fair fields of every creature I have looked to the extent of all goodness in them and I could see beyond it but when I look upon the Commandments of God the Word of God as it is either mandatory or promisory it is of so vast dimensions so exceeding great that it exceeds all things in this world here is room enough for the spirit of a man that is in true subjection unto God Nay as we have no need to step beyond this bound so if we do it is extravagancy and dangerous and not freedom but bondage it is but as a man that steps out of his
to be separated from this world in his affections that he can steer through the world untouched that he may be in the use of creatures but not come in bonds under the power government and force of them Now when a man sees God to be his God this makes him to be as Christ speaks of his They are not of this world as I am not of this world Joh. 17. This comfort dissolves all bonds and sets free from a confederacy with other things and now the whole world is of little force with him Moses is a pregnant example of 〈…〉 this in Hebr. 11.24 By faith Moses when he was come to years or when he became great refused to be called the Son of Pharaohs daughter chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season What was the Reason The Text gives you these Reasons that he had respect to the recompence of reward at the twenty sixth Verse and because he had seen him who was invisible at the 27. Verse So that the sight of God and the sight of our Interest in him lays the world dead casts a darkness upon the glory of it and the soul is taken with nothing in comparison of him Thirdly The sight of our Interest holds the soul in bonds unto God it doth not onely bind it but hold it bound The love of Christ saith the Apostle constrains us 2 Cor. 5.14 It holds us to God that though there be something in us that makes us apt to excursions to go out from him yet we are held in by bonds of love This Interest must needs be of a mighty force to those that see it because its the highest Interest in the sweetest way God gives us such an Interest in himself as a child hath in his Father and as a Spouse hath in her husband which are Interests of greatest Love It s an Interest of constant communion there are constant effluxes out-flowings of the kindness of God upon that soul that knows God to be his which do bind him every day more and more and leave him less his own This is the nature of the Spirit of Adoption that makes a man cry Abba Father it makes him more a child as willing to acknowledg himself in that state of subordination as a child as he is to look up to God in a way of hope as he is the Father of mercies The assurance of the love of God as it comforts so it conquers the soul It doth not work it into a strange kind of mad rejoycing such as the Spirit that is gone forth begets in the hearts of many at this day who are strangers to the life of God yet boast as if they had drunk deep of the cup of consolation whereas they are loose and careless and can do all evil against God and be free from him and not have their hearts touch'd with it at all But now true Gospel comfort that which he who is the God of all comfort gives by the manifestation of himself in conjunction with the creature doth overcome the heart and put it into a willing necessity and strengthens it to walk in all well-pleasing before him so that the soul cannot go from him In Psalm 63. v. 7. David expresseth this Because thou hast been my help therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce my soul cleaveth unto thee for thy right hand upholdeth me As if he should say Thou hast done me good and thine hand hath supported me else I should fall at every step I live upon thee therefore my soul followeth after thee or is glued to thee the expression of thy love and constant goodness towards me is that which binds my soul unto thee Fourthly When a man knows God to be his God and there is no more remembrance of sin against him and that he is received into the inheritance of the Saints and of Christ himself and that God is become his Father Now all his ways are made easie this facilitates all For what are those things that are wont to burden a mans spirit in the race which is set before him It is either because there are such sad things in his way or because a man fears whether his work and service shall be accepted or because he doth not like his work or because he is not satisfied about his wages Now it is manifest that the knowledg of this that God is our God removes all these things he cannot dislike his way that sees God in it he cannot dislike that work which God sets him about he cannot but think he is accepted and that his wages is more then sufficient recompence that knows God to be his God 1 Joh. 5.3 4. the Apostle saith That to him that loves the Commandment is not grievous It is no burthen in comparison so far as a man loves so far his work is easie and sweet to him What 's the reason It s given in the next words follwing Because he hath overcome the world for there is nothing except darkness upon a mans spirit which is a spring of fear and doubt concerning his acceptance with God that clogs a mans spirit in the ways of God that sharpens and imbitters the things which we must grapple withall I say nothing can hurt him but this Now a man that sees God to be his God hath overcome the world And if his case be dangerous such wherein he is tempted on the right hand he saith with Paul I pass not I care not for all these things as Moses cared not for all the riches of Pharaohs Court And as Paul when he was tempted upon the left hand I pass not for all these things neither shame trouble reproach stripes imprisonments and the like And Esth 4.16 In that service for the people of God I see saith she it 's the will of God I should do it I le go and If I perish I perish such an impression doth the sight of God leave upon the Spirit that nothing can stop the soul in its course no more then the Sun in the firmament Others go heavy and are soon tyred as God complains in Mal. 1.13 They say also What a weariness is it that is to attend upon God in his worship And they snuff at it in way of dislike or as men that would blow away something which lies in their way and which they dislike Upon all these Considerations nothing promotes holiness more then the knowledg of this that God is ours To that which hath been said I will only add a double advantage that this assurance gives to our meeting with God 1. That it doth allay that unquietness that is ready to rise upon the thoughts of dissolution and the remembrance of that day of Doom when one word determines a mans estate to all Eternity To know that a man is going to his God and Father to be able to say as Christ said I go to my Father
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
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
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
appointed his going forth as the morning that is as the Sun riseth and fails not as the Sun goes forth in its light and grows so will Gods appearance to his people be And as the rain comes upon the thirsty Earth and causeth all things to spring afresh so shall the manifestation of Gods love be to those that seek him without ceasing What if God appear not presently and you have not that full answer to your desires Though he come slowly yet he will be sure to come his staying is not a denyal and his not shewing himself is not an hiding himself He is uncovering himself and making way for the appearance of that which you would fain have a sight of He stays a while to make his love the more visible afterward by his absence he raiseth the mind and enlargeth the heart to desire and long after his presence and then his manifestation will be fullest God is as ready nay more ready to open then you are to knock he loves that thirst in you which is after himself he loves to be loved let him be pleased as well as you It may be seeking Christians are not so ingenuous as they should be We are not to seek him only but to please him Psal 119.2 Blessed are they that keep his Testimonies and that seek him with their whole heart That seek him and his Love and keep his Law Or it may be offences have been but not bewailed Impotency is the continuation of sin You are ever doing that evil which you have not been humbled for nothing nulls it but repentance and humbling your selves in the sight of God With what face can you say to God Let thy love O Lord be upon me when as you cannot say to God Lord I love thee That man cannot say he loves God that desires not to please him Can he say his heart is with God who suffers his heart to go out after other things Why should he desire so to impose upon God that God should love him whom he desires not to love and please it is unreasonable What father would be so dealt with that the child walking in stubborn courses would have his father shew nothing but clearness of countenance and love to him David all the while he was under clouds of guilt and sorrow wished that God would shew forth the light of his countenance to him but he suffered many wrackings in his Soul till he confessed his sins Psal 32. What God hath said he will have fulfilled Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one tittle of his Promise If he hear not it is not because he is not a God hearing prayer but because you hear not him Isai 45.19 I said not unto the seed of Jacob Seek ye me in vain I the Lord speak righteousness I declare things that are right I speak as I mean my words and my heart agree in one What ever our offences have been if we be ingenuous in our approaches to God God will not look upon our offences but upon our persons In 2 Chron. 7.14 you have this promise If my people that are called by my Name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their Land If thy Soul be sick and thou mournest after God that hideth himself from thee and humblest thy self and repentest of thy sins with abasedness of spirit before him he will hear CHAP. X. God hath fully made known whom he loves Christians able to know themselves Gods Spirit strengthens the testimony of our spirits Christians hindered by Slothfulness and Discouragements A Second Fault is That God doth give the manifestation of his Love and we receive it not we accept it not I will for the more full clearing of this lay down these Considerations First That God hath given to his people sufficient means for the knowledg of their Interest in him for he hath told us who they are that he loves whom he hath chosen and called out of this world and made his peculiar people If he had carried on a design of love to particular persons in his own brest no man could have known who was loved of him then we had been left in the dark for no man knows the things of a man but the spirit of a man as the Apostle speaks But as the Angel marked those in Jerusalem that were to be spared so there is a mark that God hath set upon his own by which they may be known to what fold and flock they do belong And indeed the end of the Scripture so discovering and setting forth the marks of the people of God is for this purpose that we may know our Happiness So in 1 Joh. 5.13 this was the end of writing his Epistle These things saith he have I written unto you that beleeve on the Name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may beleeve on the Name of the Son of God Wherefore was it that he had told them how many ways they might know that God dwelt in them and they in God Wherefore did he make so many descriptions of those whom God had set his love upon but that you may know saith he that you have eternal life because you are such And he hath not only done thus but hath given us understanding also by which we are able to know not only other things but our selves by which we may judg our selves and our actions and what is within us Neither hath he given us an understanding meerly natural but it is raised being illuminated with his own light that we may be able to find out the work of God in us an understanding that can reflect upon it self not only in way of simple vision and apprehension of what is within us but by way of argumentation and reasoning 1 Joh. 2.3 5. Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments And whoso keepeth his Word in him verily is the love of God perfected hereby we know that we are in him God hath given us understanding to reflect upon our selves in a way of reasoning to make certain to our selves our Interest in these things Nay he hath given us his Spirit that bears witness to our spirits that we are the sons of God Rom. 8. We must not think that was a special favor given to the Saints then but it 's common to all the people of God The Spirit of Adoption hath a double office of quickening and comforting and whosoever is a son hath the testimony of that Spirit There is a double Testimony A Testimony of the things themselves so that which is of God in us doth bear witness as the effect bears witness of the cause There 's another Testimony and that is of God himself by his Spirit and that Testimony doth help our spirits it helps the testimony of the things
59.2 saith God Your sins have separated between me and you Certainly God leaves us very frequently and sometimes when the manifestation of his love is very needful In Micah 3.4 the time was an evil time and saith the Prophet Then shall they cry unto the Lord but he will not hear them he will even hide his face from them at that time A fourth Consideration is That we do not seldom or not a little reject the testimony of God and oppose the light and the clear manifestations of his Love to us The Comforter comes many times but that may be said of us that he said of himself in Psal 77. My Soul refused to be comforted would not be comforted As against the conviction of the Spirit in wicked men there is a great deal of contest a great fight as in Jer. 2.34 Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the Soul of poor Innocents I have not found it by secret search but upon all these Yet thou sayst Because I am innocent surely his anger shall turn from me I say as wicked men rise up in opposition to the conviction of the Spirit so good men likewise have their oppositions against the consolations and comforts of the Spirit not only against the counsel of it but against the comfort of it In Isai 49.13 you have an instance of this see how sweetly God speaks Behold these shall come from far Sing O Heavens and be joyful O Earth and break forth into singing O Mountains for God hath comforted his people and will have mercy upon his afflicted But what saith the Church But Sion saith The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me What ever God said yet she said God had forsaken and forgotten her A like instance you have in Lament 3.45 There are strong holds in our spirits against the inward comforts as there are against other operations of the Spirit and it requires the mighty power and operation of God to settle our hearts in peace as well as to convince us of our miseries and dangers The work of Conversion is quickly done because it is of greatest concernment I 'le give it you in this simile A mother finds her child among devouring Hogs or Dogs or what you will she makes haste to snatch her child out of danger but he is all bemoiled and dirted and his clothes she makes not so much haste to get him clean and to put other clothes upon him So God quickly finisheth the work of Conversion and Regeneration he makes haste to free us from danger and misery but he makes not such speed to comfort us and to establish our hearts in the assurance of our Interest in him that may be done at leasure As there is a reluctancy in us against the work of grace so there 's a reluctancy against the testimony of grace we are apt to turn all that God speaks and doth for us against our selves the reason is because dejection is most natural to us considering the state of our Apostacy and what we are judged to A slave doth naturally torment himself with fears and with sad expectations It 's easier to us to believe the sentence of condemnation then of Justification Sin is more visible then Grace The greatness of the things promised are such that they make the Soul at a stand To have pardon of sin to be adopted to be raised from the depth of misery to such a state of blessedness this makes the Soul to be like those that dream Besides there is a concurrence of forreign power to heighten all this CHAP. XI Encouragements to endevor 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 A Second Argument is taken from the encouragement we have to put us on to put this out of question that God is ours Certainly there is more ease in this then we are willing to beleeve I speak it to the glory of God and our shame That the things which God hath spoken and done for our encouragement should be so great and high and yet we should lie so low in the satisfaction of our spirits about this question First Consider whatsoever excellency there is in any love that is in Gods love transcendently Love is very fruitful it brings forth much for those towards whom it is set it will not be hid it is compared to fire which is known by its heat and you shall know the warmth of love where it is A man may use the words of Solomon Prov. 27.16 which he speaks concerning the froward woman Whoso hideth her hideth the wind and the ointment of his right hand which bewrayeth it self That as the wind cannot be concealed when it is up and as a sweet ointment cannot be concealed but it will discover it self so wrath and love for there is the like reason for both they cannot be hid A friend is contented not to have his beneficence known he would do much more then his friend should know of but he would have his benevolence his love and good-will known and manifested Therefore the Apostle Ephes 3.8 10. saith He obtained this grace to shew forth among the Gentiles the unsearchable Riches of Christ Near relations live upon the manifestation of love those which are more remote need less and less is due to them The child will have but an ill life unless he have the light of his fathers countenance The husband and wife will have their life imbittered if there be not mutual love As life is visible so is love it will discover it self and the highest love will most discover it self A second Encouragement is That what may be easily done may be easily obtained of a friend What is more easie with God then to make us know that he is our God It is but one beam of light from Heaven that doth it but a word spoken Soul be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee Love stands not at small matters especially great Love The Love of God is the highest Pattern of Love and the most glorious Spring of Love all Love flows from it Therefore if the love of a creature can do so much how much more will the Love of God do If your child should beg of you to give him a good look could you deny him would not your love constrain you And shal not the Love of God much more Certainly it is more for him to love you then to tell you he loves you He hath put forth his love already in a strange way to give his Son for you and do you think he will be so unwilling to speak a word of peace to his people where it is duly sought Again where a thing is most needed where one stands in much need of what a friend can do for one that will be soon granted What do you need more then refreshment of spirit in the sense of the Love of God All the fears
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
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
the same Saul fretted and was angry his Soul was at dis-rest and in a rage within him because he was cross'd and suffered a frustration of his hopes and designs This is the natural operation of evil upon such spirits as the Wise-man hath it in Prov. 29.3 The foolishness of man perverteth his way and his heart fretteth against the Lord he is angry with his condition and in that with God But see Davids carriage in Psal 39. I layd mine hand upon my mouth I held my peace because it was Thou O Lord that didst it It was a patience not constrained but from satisfaction of spirit he saw love in his affliction and that sweetened his Soul I know saith he that in very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me Psal 119.17 Faithfulness is a reach beyond Justice there is something more of sweetness in it and that David saw Saul went out and did not keep his way but David made streight steps unto his feet In Psal 18.21 he gives an account of himself I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God or I have not done wickedly from God or as the Chaldee I have not walked in my wickedness from God for all his Judgments were before me and I did not put away his Statutes from me they were before me in mine eye for observation before me in mine heart for delight and contentment and I did not turn my back upon them or as it is in 2 Sam. 22.23 I turned not away from them so is the expression there I was also upright before him or with him or I was perfect to him I was upright to him all the while I was under my sufferings my wishes mine affections my intentions were unmoveable they were still toward God I did not change in my spirit toward God though he made me to know many changes in my condition I was tempted to impatience and revenge but I kept my self from mine evil dispositions and workings I bridled my spirit and so preserved my self in his ways To be short Take the most noble and generous spirit in the world that hath not attained to an enjoyment of God and you shall find that it is far beneath that spirit which a sight of Interest in God works in his people Look upon the strength that such a man may possibly have it is either from meer Reason whereby he may perswade himself to patience by the necessity and mutability of things c. but this can never lead him into those depths whereby he shall be filled with those joys and comforts which the sight of Interest in God fills the Soul withall Or it may be from natural courage and every man hath something of this and many beasts have more then men Job hath told us of the courage of the Horse in Job 39.20 Canst thou make him afraid as the grashopper And in Chap. 41.33 concerning the Leviathan he saith that upon the Earth there is not his like which is made without fear he beholdeth all high things he is a king over all the children of pride But there is often an addition to this natural courage in men from pride both against God and men and by an influence from this world that strengthens them in their sufferings and hardships But see a little further the reason why many times those men carry it out so stoutly they do not understand the significancy and import of their sufferings as the people of God do It is true God intends more evil unspeakably in the sufferings of the one then of the other but one hath a hint of it more then the other The Unbeleever understands it not receives not the message into his judgment he conceives not that these are tokens of the displeasure and anger of God against him but the sight of the displeasure of God to a good man is more then any Rod. Once more No wonder that they bear so strongly for it is their Judgment God pours out a spirit of stupidity and senslessness a spirit of hardness upon them as you have it in Rom. 11.8 He pours on them the spirit of slumber The word properly signifies compunction or remorse but so it reaches not to the Hebrew Text for the words in the Hebrew are in Isai 29.10 He poured on them the spirit of deep sleep Some therefore because they see the Hebrew doth speak this have made the Greek word to speak in another sence then it is translated they read it the night and so make this spirit of comâ—unction to be the spirit of the night However that may be something strained yet certainly the word must answer to the Hebrew and that is a spirit of deep sleep Now as a man that is asleep hath not a sense of things so it is with these men The Apostle useth another expression in the words before in vers 7. of Rom. 11. The rest were hardened It was with them as it is with a man that hath a thick skin drawn over him that hath a part of his flesh become brawny he cannot receive the sense of things no more can these therefore it is no wonder they bear their sufferings so stoutly as they do it is their Judgment CHAP. XXIII 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 I Will shut up this Discourse by drawing one Inference from what hath been premised The Inference is this If Interest in God be so sweet so powerful and mighty how precious and excellent is the enjoyment For that take these few Considerations First To have an Interest in God is much less then to enjoy God A great difference there is between the meanest Saint and a glorified Spirit and yet the meanest Saint hath as well an Interest in God as the highest Creature in Glory Interest in all things is less then possession An heir hath not so much sweetness and content in his right and title as when he comes to have actual possession of that he looks for A state of meer Interest is a state of expectation and where there is hope there is always grief it 's a state of desire and that imports want for when there is fulness desire ceaseth Therefore you find this to be the temper of the people of God that having seen their Interest they long after enjoyment In 2 Cor. 5. We sigh and groan saith the Apostle and he heaps one word upon another till we come to the fulness of that which we have Interest in Secondly Consider this That though Interest here be not without some enjoyment of God yet that enjoyment is far less then it will be There be four things that make up enjoyment of God 1. A gracious presence a sweet effusion or communication of himself to the Soul It must not be a bare presence but an active presence God pouring forth himself A
way and falls into a pit or as a man that steps from his habitation and slips into a prison it is a dangerous thing for us to enlarge Hosea 4.6 For this very thing God threatened them he saith Because they had withdrawn from him that he would feed them as a lamb in a large place Israel slides back as a backsliding heifer now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place Like a lamb in a large place What 's that Like a lamb not kept within her fold and appointed pastures under the super-vision and care of a vigilant Pastor and Shepherd but left to ramble at its own will Indeed God saith Because they would not be content to live within the bounds that he had set them he would enlarge them by captivity they should wander from Country to Country And as to have the Mind of God our Bounds is to do nothing but what is agreeable to his Will so it is to do all that he requireth This is that which the Lord thy God requireth of thee to do all these things that he hath commanded thee saith Moses All must be done both that wherein we are concerned in common with all men and that which we receive by particular charge from God Every one of us besides the general bonds that lie upon us as men hath something that lies upon us in respect of our particular charge place relation and condition Look to your selves in this that you find your selves bounded here by God else you are at large and free from righteousness You have many people that will in some measure keep pace with the Commandment in general things the worst of men will hear and pray c. but look to them in their places and there you shall find them extreamly deficient refractory and exorbitant So far indeed as a Command of God falls in with their interest and advantage they will own it thus even the worst of men are often diligent in their callings because they live by them But look upon those Commands that do most try them wherein they have most occasion to discover what their spirit is and there you shall find them like wilde Asses untamed creatures children of Belial without yoke living according to no Rule Those relations especially which are in subordination are so ill managed through a spirit of pride that hates all superintendency and whatsoever is above it that to this day they are the burden of the world But whosoever it is that doth not own God in all things that man is not bounded by God and so is his own man he is left to the guidance of a miserable and destructive creature When we give our selves to God to be commanded and governed by him it is to a subjection that is absolute and not conditional When you take a servant it may be he 'l say to you when you bid him do this and that It was none of my bargain I am contented to be your Steward but not to serve you in the Stable I am contented thus far to serve you but here is my bounds But when we come to God there is no such treaty we come to serve God absolutely to be at his command absolutely in every thing whatsoever For the Law of God is indivisible and indispensible if you cannot give your selves to the obedience of all you have done nothing He that offends in one is a transgressor of the whole Law Jam. 2.10 that is he transgresseth the authority of the whole Law and he transgresseth the sence and meaning of the Law which was not that we should hold our selves obliged in many things and free in some other but that we should subject and submit our selves to God in every thing you do nothing if not all things As in a journey of a hundred miles if you be content to go ninety nine and no more you lose the end if you stop there If God tell you These are my words and I 'le have them all looked to and you look to many but not to all at that one gap you enter into death and by that one thing neglected you shut your selves out of eternal life If there be any one way wherein you do not submit unto God in that you are lost Numb 14.24 it 's said of Caleb in comparison of the rest of the people But my servant Caleb because he had another spirit and followed me fully The people did something yea many things that God required of them but at some they stuck and came not off with subjection But saith God My servant Caleb had another spirit and he followed me fully or wholly he did whatsoever I commanded and that must be the compass of our obedience The Will of God must be our bounds which we must not pass and to the utmost compass thereof we must endeavor 2. To be under the Command and Government of God is when the Will of God is our Rule and Pattern so that we act not the things only that are enjoyned but as they are enjoyned and commanded You have an example of this in that holy man Ezra 10.3 When as Ezra and others of the Rulers with him had declared themselves against the sin of the Congregation in mingling themselves in marriage with strangers and had humbled themselves before God with the people Shechaniah stood up as in vers 2. and saith thus Now therefore let us make a Covenant with our God to put away all the wives and such as are born of them according to the Counsel of the Lord and let it be done according to the Law The Law in case of transgression what doth it require That we return from our obliquities and wanderings with mourning and with abasement that we reform speedily and vigorously with a deep sense of our going from God So would he have their strange wives and children to be put out from among the people of God without delay and with a deep sense of that transgression by which they had offended God This may suffice to have spoken of the first Branch of the end of our Resignation that is to be commanded by God and to be under his Government The second is That we be disposed by him according to his Will Now that lies in these two things 1. In a contentation of mind in every condition wherein God sets us to be at peace and silent in our spirits towards God to be answered in our hearts what ever condition God in his wisdom sees good to put us into This is a blessed Lesson to them that have learned it Paul had and every good man hath in his measure Phil. 4.11 I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content The Greek word for contentment imports self-sufficiency That man is well that doth thus he is as if he had all as possessing all things and yet wanting all things Our English word and the Latin imports a spirit bounded the spirit of a man
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
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