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
God and if once the Devil get the possession and can back thy spirit he will ride thee post into the pit where there is no bottom and from whence there is no return I will shut up all with that expression of God in Isai 17.11 Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy Salvation and hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy strength therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants and shall set it with strange slips In the day shalt thou make thy plants to grow and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish but the Harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow You may in your forgetfulness of God enjoy your desire trim up this world to your own contentment and make all your ways like pleasant walks in delightful gardens you may make your paths to be as fruitful fields But what shall the end be When the Harvest comes in the appointed time thereof there shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow If you would have a Harvest of Rejoycing if you would reap that which may be the Refreshing of your Souls if you would not sow gall and wormwood for you to reap hereafter take heed of betraying your selves into a forgetfulness of God THE Principal Interest OR THE Propriety of Saints in God DISPLAYED In several Discourses upon MICAH 7.7 My GOD will hear Me. CHAP. I. Interest in God the true Spring of Consolation How it is Propriety with Community Best because God is best by a Confluence of all Excellencies THE Church was now sad and there was cause enough for God frown'd upon her If she look'd upward she saw God displeased if downward there was nothing but violence one devouring another with the tongue and with the hand And therefore she makes her retreat unto God Therefore because men are so injurious so false so treacherous therefore I 'le look to the Lord. It 's an excellent spirit which is in the Saints that the world knows not of they make such Therefores such Conclusions as the world is not acquainted with The froward man says Therefore I 'le do so too the politick man says Therefore I 'le be wise and look to my self the good man says Therefore I 'le look to the Lord. Observe how the evils of this world put the Saints upon the improvement of their power with God and how the sight of propriety in God gives strength and life to the spirits of Saints I 'le look up I 'le wait for the God of my Salvation my God will hear me That which I am to speak to then is That the sight of God as our God is that which lifts up our heads and chears our hearts against all discouragements and carries us through all difficulties and whatsoever is dismall When a man can say God is mine that man shall live when nothing else lives I 'le give you some few Foundations of this The first thing I 'le instance in is That this propriety of the Saints is a propriety with community there is much in that In 1 Cor. 1.2 Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours The force of this lies thus That which serves for most is best The Sun is better then a Tapor because that serves all the other serves but one or a few A Spring is better then a Cistern because all my drink of that but few of the other That which all want is best Universal want argues that thing which we need to be universally good That may be wanting to one man which another wants not A Mariner may want a rudder or a sail which others want not but all men want bread That thing is good to him but this is good to all This Propriety therefore being with Community to wit that God is not my God alone but of all the Saints in Heaven and in Earth and of all the Angels this shews that a Propriety and Interest in God is the best Propriety Hence it is that the Saints having their portion in such an one are so refreshed and their comforts much advanced because they know that others drink of the same River of Life together with them Secondly This Propriety is in that which is best by a Confluence of all excellent things As for example Love Goodness and Kindness there is none like that which is in God here it is transcendent You may reason so not only from what God is an infinite Being but from what God doth Look on those high operations of his Wisdom and Power you shall see they are clear demonstrations of his Goodness the most excellent things have flowed from thence Pardon of sin Peace that passeth all understanding and everlasting life these have flowed from this Goodness God in his Love hath gone to the utmost to set it out He never intended so full a demonstration of his Power as of his Love Therefore though he hath not gone to the utmost of his Power yet he hath gone to the utmost of his Love It 's Love that passeth knowledg all knowledg Eph. 3.19 It 's possible to imagine how some things in the Creation might have shewn forth more of the Power of God as if he had made men equal power with Angels c. But it 's not devisable which way there should be a greater demonstration of his Love then he hath shewn partly in what is the enjoyment of his Saints in this world but principally in that which he hath promised in the other Now where the greatest Goodness and Love is an Interest in that Person is most precious and excellent There is in God a descending Love You shall seldom find that love in a child carries that worth and excellency in it as the Love of a Father doth because descending love chiefly seeks the good of another ascending love seeks our own good The love of God greater because descending love Further There is not only Goodness and Love in God but Wisdom also for the managing of these this adds to the Propriety The best Prince may not have wisdom enough to know all his Subjects but God knows all his as Christ saith Joh. 10. I know my sheep and am known of them He that tells the stars and calls them all by their names knows every one of his and their cases he knows what fears what wants what pressures what straits they are in The Lord knows how to deliver the righteous out of all their troubles 2 Pet. 2.9 Again He is present with all his all things in the world are confined and limited God only is every where The Sun reacheth to the whole Hemisphere But Gods Power is infinite and himself omnipresent He fills Heaven and Earth He is not confin'd to any place or limited within any bounds Therefore to have a Propriety or Interest in this
and empty And will you suffer your Souls against Nature to live out of God when you are called to live on him who is the Fountain of Life I may say unto you as Eliphaz spake in Job 15. Are the Consolations of God small to you And is it so light a matter to have the knowledg of the love of God and your Interest in him In Jer. 14.18 the Prophet speaks of spoiling and wasting but if it doth come saith he thy ways and thy sins have procured these things unto thee therefore know that it is an evil thing and bitter to forsake the Lord. You may thank your selves if a day come wherein there will be bitterness to your hearts and the pangs of death upon you because you know not that God is your God know that this is your wickedness because you will not now look after it and so you rob your Souls That is one thing 2dly When you are not sedulous and industrious in this thing to make sure that God is your God you leave your selves in the high way of Apostacy What is that which will make us able to stand the Apostle Peter tells us 2 Pet. 1.10 Give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure for if you do these things you shall never fall You expose your selves to offences to stumbling and falling when you are content to live in the dark not knowing what Interest you have in God For consider you are now out of the shine of the Sun you are in the cold evening shade your life is much weakened and your strength abated It is the knowledg of divine Love that is the spirit and strength of our love this lays bonds upon our spirits by which we become one with God it is the wing of our Souls the spring of our activity by which we are born up to an enjoyment of God The joy of the Lord is your strength saith Nehemiah And by this Paul was more then a Conqueror yet Paul had many Enemies Through this Abraham was able to do so great things by this Moses was able to despise the wrath and favor of Pharaoh and all the pleasures and riches of his Court While a man walks in the shine and sense of divine Love he will feel a strength in two Principles of great use 1. To cleave fast to the chief good now that chief good is God to that man that enjoys him he hath the truest taste that sees God to be his God and no man else hath such a taste as he this will hold him to God Where the Creatures have but a Judgment of Sense they will not depart from what they find good A Beast will not change his pasture for gold that is best for him It 's the astonishment of the world that the Angels should fall from their state of Glory and it 's matter of amazement that man should fall from his Creator when he had a full enjoyment of him It 's that which God calls Heaven and Earth to tremble at Jer. 2.13 That men should depart from him the Fountain of living Water c. The sense of acceptation with God makes a man that he cannot go from God Whither shall we go saith Peter Joh. 6. Thou hast the words of eternal life That Soul that lives under the influence of divine Comforts cannot but say Lord it 's good for me to be here he desires no change it cannot be better with him Change proceeds from want for if want were not the creature would not change That Soul that enjoys God is pleased and he saith with David Psal 16. He hath a good portion and his lines are fallen in a good place Nothing is dear to that man to part with that he may enjoy God he bids all things stand by and saith I charge you wife and friends estate and all things do not molest me in my enjoyment of the light of Gods face let all the world go which way it will let me enjoy this blessedness to know assuredly that God is my God When a man lives without this knowledg his life is but a poor shadow of life all without God is but a dead thing to him Another Principle receiving strength from the knowledg of Gods Love and our Interest in him is That a man should be friendly to his friend that he should walk with an harmony of spirit to his friends desire Love pleaseth not it self Now when a man enjoys the sweetness of friendship with God this makes him true to his Maker and to cleave close to God as to his Father Indeed the sense of this constrains the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.14 saith The love of Christ constrains us How can I do this evil saith Joseph and sin against my God But now if thou be careless and canst make a shift to live I know not how a dull stupid dark sensless kind of life thy heart not witnessing that thou endeavorest to make good thy Interest in God thou art not under the bond of Love and then what art thou under Other Lovers have taken away thy heart but as for God thou art a stranger to him and art contented to be without him this is a woful state And as a man that lives out of the shine of divine Love starves and wastes away so fears in this case are apt to turn into hatred when the Soul is gall'd and tormented with fears of the displeasure of God against him this is apt to turn to hatred Naturally whom we fear we hate and naturally the stronger fear is the more men hate The Devils hate God to the full being past doubting of his displeasure What the Soul fears it flies from and what is the flight of the Soul but hatred Judas would chuse rather to go out of the world and sink into nothing then endure his condition when he saw God not to be his God I 'l shut up this Argument with these few things All that is in a Christian makes to this that he would get a clear knowledg of his Interest in God Hath he Faith why by that he believes God to be his Happiness and that will put him on Hath he Love Love is restless but in clear enjoyment Hath he desire and thirst what are they but the Souls sickness till it hath health and life in the enjoyment of God Hath he Fear what is that but the Soul seeking to be secure and safe in God Hath he Reason what 's that but the voyce of God calling him unto God Hath he a sense of the sweetness of God what 's that but the comfort of divine Love drawing the Soul to himself So that all that is in a Christian puts him on to this to make this clear that God is his God And therefore they that can rub out their days and make a shift to busie themselves in other things without the knowledg of God to be their God have great cause to pronounce this heavy sentence upon themselves that surely
he lives in an holy contentment and a glorious rest in all things that are according to God and in a hatred of all things that are in opposition to God If any thing come into the ballance with God if it be like God he loves it but if it be contrary to God he hates it having once drunk of the new wine he desires not the old harsh spiritless wine You may remember the Catalogue of Saints in Hebr. 11. when you are come to their pitch then God will be dear to you and there will be a flatness upon all things else The life of every thing is according to its compass and the thing by which it is maintained Men have a better life then beasts for they have better things to live on Princes live better lives then beggers and Angels then men because they have better things to live on Now then if your life be in God you have the best and sweetest life We judg of lives in the world by the contentment they have that live in them now in this life you find innumerable Angels the spirits of just men made perfect Jesus Christ lives this life and thinks it enough he desires no better life God himself lives this life he lives in himself Thirdly A third thing is That if you do not maintain this life you offer unspeakable violence to that blessed station and happy relation wherein God hath set you One of these two things you must needs acknowledg 1. If you live not on God God is not your portion you have not taken him for your God you have not clos'd with him and then you are undone 2. Or this must be granted If you have closed with him you wrong God and your selves extreamly because you live not on him Hath God taken you and have you taken him Hath he said to thee My Spouse and hath thy Soul said to him My Lord and my Husband And shall we live upon other things and not upon our Husband Shall the child live on strangers bread and not upon his Father Shall the son of a Prince hang as a begger upon others doors and be a stranger to his Fathers love to his Fathers house and fulness This is certain that so far as you do this you are not children but Prodigals in Luke 15. last dead and lost While you are out of God and your hearts set on other things you are in a state of dead men in an absolute indisposedness and incapacity either to the fulfilling of that which lies upon you as the Law of your relation unto God or to the enjoyment of that which is the sweetness priviledg and comfort of your relation unto God Is she a wife think you or doth she not offer violence to the Law of her Relation that refuseth bed and board with her husband You should drink water out of your own Cistern from your own Head and Spring who is that but your Lord and Head whom you have chosen God will not endure that you should wander He will hedg up your way as he speaks in Hos 2. and those hedges will teer you He is pleased with you when you lean on him and take of his Love and then his joy is fulfilled in you you do what he loves he takes contentment in it Other comforts are stoln sweet they may be in the taste but they will be bitterness in your bowels it must be so for when you live any where but in God you cross his great design which is to make himself your Center wherein your Souls should rest He hath appointed no place for thy Soul to rest in but his own bosom You despise him when you suffer the joys of your Souls to be clouded If Elkanah could say to his wife Am not I better to thee then ten sons Surely God may say much more Am not I better to thee then ten such things as these that thou art troubled at So that if your hearts go out any other way it is against all reason Christ in John 4.10 made account that the Soul hath enough that tastes of this for he saith he shall never thirst more Go no more then to the hedges and high ways thou that hast such a God and such a Friend be quiet and rest in his Love He rests in his love to you Zech. 3.17 And will not you rest in it and lie down in his arms and embracements and say It is sweet it is enough Is not he always embracing you and cheering you and holding forth the brests of his consolation to you wooing and winning you and using all means to fill your Souls with himself and to make you blessed in the enjoyment of him If then you have any fear of his displeasure if you have any sweetness and comfort of the Love of God if you have tasted and known how good the Lord is then keep fast to him and maintain your Souls in a constant living communion with him If you keep near him you shall find that there is life in him Psal 69.32 They shall live that seek the Lord. CHAP. XVIII Heavenly life nearest at hand Christians are to live up to the height of it and to maintain it in every condition A Fourth Argument is That this life we speak of is most present it is nearest at hand most attainable being wholly mental and spiritual and those works are quickest done All other life comes in by parcels and pieces If a man would live in honor what a deal ado is there what a compass must he fetch to maintain good thoughts with this man and with that man and his honor riseth by degrees The like may be said concerning pleasures and riches Nay naturally what a course doth the Soul take to bring in that meat which supplies our life in eating concocting and digesting it and carrying it to every part The labour of Nature is great But this life is maintained by a sweet and silent working of Spirit it is a life that is got kept and cherished by the sweetest actings of the Soul In Psal 63.6 saith David I shall be fill'd as with marrow and fatness when I remember thee upon my bed And in Psal 20.7 you have this exprest by the like words Some trust in Charets and some in Horses Great preparations they make but what is his trust I will remember the Name of the Lord our God This is life to remember the Name of the Lord our God It is the best exercise of the most noble part of a man towards the most excellent Object And what should we love more to look upon and to remember then God Do not you find how a few affectionate thoughts of him come down in showres of spiritual blessing and consolation Both the Goodness of God and the Love of God makes this work sweet He that seeks to live this way hath not only sweetness in his end but in the way to it Remember how successful you have found this
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
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