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
am still with Thee The mind may slip from God and sometime be taken up with other things but cannot be long kept from him because God is its Center and it 's natural for a holy mind to move toward God as for a needle touch'd with a Load-stone to point toward the North Pole Psal 16.8 I have set the Lord alway before me This was the practise of Christ our Head Acts 2. It 's applyed to him though spoken by David as the Type You and I may suspect our hearts if there be an elongation of our minds from God if our minds be scattered up and down the world If our business be not with him we have reason to look sadly upon our selves for where God hath no place with us wee have none with him A good man must be with God he hath many things puts him upon it and inclines him to it he wants much and therefore cannot forbear Can a man forget to drink that is athirst can a man forget to eat his meat that is hungry Certainly when David Psal 102.4 saith He forgot to eat his bread sorrow had taken away his stomack that he found not the want of his meat but a man that feels his want cannot forget it neither can a man forget God that lives in the sensible want of God his Soul is still breathing after God Love will send out a mans thoughts and not suffer a man to live at home but to be where it is best of all to be Can a Bridegroom forget his Bride or a Bride her attire Jerem. 3.32 Men cannot forget what they love Can a mother forget her childe Isai 49.14 and can a man forget God that loves God There 's a necessity that a man should be minding what he loves he will send his understanding on errands to Heaven that it may bring him matter of delight from the Visions of God to refresh his Soul And not onely so but Christ awakens the heart and calls it forth Indeed were it left to us should we have no more heavenly-mindedness and meditations of God then our own spirits bring forth it would be little or none but Christ calls to the spirits of his people as he called to John Come up hither and see he knocks at the door that we may open and go forth with him The King led me into his wine celler Cant. 1. She was there but how came she in the King led me Christ will not be long from his if their hearts come not up to him he will come into them and if he be there all is taken up with attending upon him as you may see abundantly by experience Though the heart stands still like a Clock when the plummets are off and the wheels move not yet when Christ comes in he puts all into motion If a Loadstone be cast among many Needles though they did he still yet now how do they all move and hang about it So all the affections run towards him and the thoughts go out like motes in the Sun the mind is at work hard The presence of Christ not only excites the mind but contracts it and makes the working of the mind more strong It 's reported of the Flower de luce That when the Sun goes down it opens and scatters it self abroad but when the Sun appears it shuts and contracts it self There is in the presence of Christ such a contracting of the heart towards himself Mary when she saw Christ though her mind were scattered before and about the Sepulchre yet now â—t concenters in Christ A man that loves God cannot live in a course of forgetfulness of God either want brings him or love constrains him or Christ draws him here cannot be a lusting alienation of mind in those that belong to God CHAP. IV. Disconformity to the forementioned Principles a great fault in Christians The Discovery of it Slumbering Eyes and wandering Hearts â— Exerâ—ise HAving spoken something to the opening of the thing I shall now endevor that you and I may lay our selves to this pattern and compare our selves with this Rule Do you thus mind God Let me ask you where your Eyes are The truth is the Eyes of the whole World are misplaced all the World either wholly dwell out of God or extreamly wander from God all sorts of men are extreamly guilty of notorious forgetfulness of God and of this God complains and that often and that not only in reference to the dead and dark part of the world who have eyes and see not but are like Images but with respect to his own My people my people have forgotten me days without number Ier. 2.32 negligently have they suffered me to be out of their minds and that for a long time My work now shall be to lay before you the Fault and the Causes of it The fault with respect to the godly and ungodly that both may see how guilty they stand and may see whence it is that their understandings are so alienated and estranged from God As for the godly their frequent excursions from God their inordinate affections to the world their sad dejections of spirit their many withdrawings and a world of these are too clear and deplorable demonstrations that their eyes are not always upon God The Fault I 'le express in these four things 1. In not sending out the understanding toward God not pointing of the mind towards its Maker The mind of man is a nimble thing nothing is of that agility it 's the swiftest creature God hath made next the Angels yet towards God it must be moved directed ordered and pointed For though the way on high was natural yet man not keeping his first state it 's now become a way hardly passable that the Soul cannot walk it of it self neither can it dwell on high more then we can live in the Ayr without the drawing and holding of divine Power I have written saith the Apostle 2 Pet. 3.1 to stir up your pure minds to awaken you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it was but need See how David calls upon himself Psal 103. Praise the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits be sure to remember God Psal 5.3 In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee or I will set it in order I will order my self in my addresses to Thee And in Psal 57.8 Awake my glory Though his spirit was holy and set towards God yet it had need to be called on that it might be put forward in a right motion towards God and answer the voyce that calls Come up hither Awakening is a word imports rouzing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as birds that provoke their young ones by flight to make use of their wings or as men call one upon another to their business Judg. 5.12 Awake awake Deborah awake awake utter a song Men do not thus call on themselves It 's a great fault that a man loseth that watch and that
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
but in the water and beasts in their pastures and cannot live in the Sea And indeed there is something of the divine new nature in Christians they must live in God or they dye 2. There is the Law of Love The child loves the mother above all women though it may be there be many better the Lord hath placed the life of the child in the mother how much more the life of a Christian in himself for there is no love like that love 3. Life is cut out by the Law of Reason and Judgment by which men chuse their portion upon which they feed and upon which they make their lives This way nothing but God is eligible to a good man He saith some other things serve for other uses but not to live on Nothing but God can be made our own nothing out of God is properly our own but our sins How can a man say that is his own which he cannot command and hold Nothing can be made full enough strong enough answerable to our desires but God Hence it is that a good man lives in God because he can live no where else Though he make use of his bed to sleep on of his meat to refresh him and do as others do in the use of these things yet he would be a very dead man worse then a man layd in the grave if his life were not in God I would exhort you then Vse Exhortat that you would thus live in God it is a riddle to the world but a truth to Saints and that which their Souls can witness to The world knows no other life then friends estate and such like enjoyments the Saints know that there is no life in these they live another life which the world knows not of Live this life that is make this to be the strength reason and rule of all your walkings to be the pillar and prop of your Souls whereon you may lean and rest make this your ultimate rest that after all the troublesom turnings and tossings of this world you may take rest here in this peace of God which passeth all underestanding that you may say as David in Psal 34. He was in trouble but saith he I trusted in the Lord and said O Lord thou art my God and this was all to him against all trouble They seek my life and make me a derision but I said O Lord thou art my God Two things I premise in this Exhortation 1. That you make your Interest in God sure that you may be able to say without fear and trembling thou art my God This Interest is mutual if God be yours then you are his He is yours by gift of himself to you and you are his by gift of your selves to him Remember the day when how and by what act you did give your selves to God Have you put by your selves and all your sinful propensions dispositions and resolutions Have you layd an absolute denyal upon them never more to observe them much less to serve them And have you resolved that you will have no purposes or desires but such as are according to God Be sure if you cannot say you are his you cannot say he is yours You may please your selves indeed with fancies and vain imaginations of that which is not but know this that such a kind of Contract with God as we speak of hath evidence in it It 's not a cold and liveless acting but there is power and efficacy in it These two things will be of power in that man that hath in truth given himself to God 1. Conscience with Love Conscience without Love hath very much power in it but Conscience with Love is very potent Indeed Conscience will tell thee O man thou hast given thy self to God therefore thou shouldst walk as his And Love will take thee aside and sound the same alarum in thine ears too but more effectually 2. A second thing is the power of God in them and over them There is a power of God in such You have received saith the Apostle the spirit of power 2 Tim. 1.7 This is the difference between the relation that is between God and his people and all other relations This relation conveys the Spirit of God into men The husband and wife that are never so closely knit cannot convey their spirits one to another the husband may wish that his wife were wise and meek but he cannot give her such a spirit But the relation between God and his people always works a communication of spirit the Spirit of God is given to them Besides There is a power of God over such because he sees that there is a great power against them They are kept by the power of God through faith unto Salvation Certainly if you have not such a Conscience joyned with Love and find not such a power of God watching over you and the Spirit of God guiding you you are none of his Another thing to be premised is this That a Christians life whether we consider the life of peace or the life of holiness depends much upon his minding of his Interest in God The Apostle in Hebr. 2. tells them they had lost much of the life of Christianity how came that because they had forgotten the Exhortation that spake to them as unto Children And in Prov. 2.27 Who forsakes the guide of her youth and forgets the Covenant of her God The latter is the cause of the former because she forgets the Covenant of her God therefore she forsakes the guide of her youth You have need to seek much in God your sins are many your dangers great you know it well enough You have this encouragement Whatsoever you go for you knock at the right door whatsoever you ask you ask that which is as much your own as any thing you enjoy God hath made over himself to you in becoming yours He hath said he will be your God All particular promises are but streams from this Spring and branches from this Root Your Interest is larger then Heaven and Earth Heaven and Earth are nothing to God Therefore if God be yours you have more cause to rejoyce then if he had made you actual and sole Possessors of Heaven and Earth In the world they that have little of their own comfort themselves that they have something in their friends such a Lord such a Duke is their friend So if you have not much in this world comfort your selves in this that God is your God The Lord thought this enough to comfort his people with when they were afflicted and tossed with tempests He that takes not comfort in this either knows not what God is or denies what he professeth to know Live by Faith or as some render these words in Psal 37. Feed on Faith When you come to God you come not to ask a title but to plead a title you come not to ask any thing that was not your own before but you come to
and tremblings of the hearts of his people are for want of the light of his face Pharaoh's daughter looking upon a strange child found her bowels and compassions moved within her Do you think Gods compassions are not richer and fuller to his own A child sometimes may complain but it 's not to the honor of his father My life is uncomfortable because my father loves me not shews not his love to me though perhaps there be cause for it And there is cause that God should deal so with us but he hath said he will not If we turn from the evil of our ways and repent he will multiply pardons Isai 55. Again A thing that may be easily done will not be denyed when it 's asked when it 's not only what we need but what we beg This Christ shews in the Parable of the unjust Judg. Importunity will move a stone how much more will the affectionate tears of an ingenuous child move the compassionate heart of a tender father A third Encouragement is That this is simply necessary to the right fulfilling of the Law of our Relation and to the enjoyment of the priviledges of it What is thy relation to God but of a child to his Father What Law lies upon a child but to obey and that not as a slave but with a filial spirit How can you be cheerful in your work when you have this cloud upon your spirits this pang upon your Souls I know not whether God be my God Again The Law of a child is to live a life of cheerful dependance upon his father But how can a man live thus upon God when he doubts whether God be his or no How can I be confident to receive great things of a stranger much less of an Enemy But God appears in these forms to me so far as he appears not to be my God Again This Law lies upon a child to live with cheerfulness of heart upon his fathers fulness This the Scripture calls for We are to rejoyce and rejoyce evermore and with all joy Colos 1.11 and in the worst times Account it all joy when you fall into divers temptations Jam. 1.2 I 'le add but this That those desires that are after God after the knowledg and assurance of his being our God are from himself God hath planted them in us and God hath invited called and set us a longing and a thirsting after him And will he tell us of a Fountain of Life and not let us drink of it Will he call us to himself and when we come to him will he hide himself Certainly we are very much mistaken when we go to God to beg this grace to have our Souls refreshed with the sight of his Love if we go ingenuously with a cheerful resignation of our selves to him if we go not with a cheerful expectation that God will hear our prayer CHAP. XII They are not right who are careless to clear their Evidence Wisdom and Love make the Saints seek after full satisfaction Two sorts of Content in the want of God A Third Argument is this If you seek not and that industriously and in earnest to put this Question out of question you are not right It 's an Evidence against a mans sincerity and his real fellowship with that invisible world when he is not careful to know what Interest he hath in it The Saints desire nothing more with them there is nothing above the Love of God that they seek and nothing beneath it that they can rest in Whom have I in Heaven but Thee and there is none in all the world that I desire in comparison of Thee Psal 73. David had whatsoever the heart of man could desire in this world he had all sorts of accommodations and contentments and yet he was still athirst till he could come to the Well-head and drink of the Water of Life He was painfully athirst in Psal 63. There are two great Springs of these desires and tendencies of Soul after God 1. A spirit of Wisdom that represents God as he is in that amiableness and glory which takes them it represents him in goodness and greatness as one in whose hands all things are so that nothing is concluded to be of that concernment with them as to have God to be their God They that know thy Name will put their trust in Thee Psal 9.10 2. The second is a spirit of Love The Saints have their hearts knit to God there is nothing which they so much prize as him they are taken with him above all things therefore cannot be content without him their desires after him are infinite till his infinite goodness fills up their whole capacities and leave no more place for hope till he hath blessed them with the full enjoyment of himself You know Reason in things of importance will not be easily satisfied While we are in any doubt we have no rest Men must have things cleared to them that are of weight and much more should they in this which is the greatest of all They say and cannot but say as David doth in Psal 86.17 though his own spirit often told him that God was his God yet he looks up to Heaven and saith Shew me a token for good And so in Psal 80.3 Cause thy face to shine upon us and we shall be saved The shining of Gods face puts a man into a state above men and Devils and all things Love is both eager in the prosecution of its end and very curious in its judgment It is eager in the prosecution of its end it will not be easily put off it finds out its Object and knows it and will not take a shadow for the thing if it be not satisfied it rouls restlesly and sinks and dyes in it self like Noah's Dove that fluttered up and down the world but found no rest for the sole of her foot It is death to the man that loves God not to see that God loves him They therefore are not right they are not Believers in earnest there is not a through work upon their spirits that can dally with God and be at rest when they are not clear in this that God is their God There be two very great Evils in this thing 1. That such a man lives in contempt of God This is contempt to be content to be without God That which I know not to be mine I am without That which I know not to be mine is as if it were not if I be content therefore to live so that I know not God to be my God I am content to be without God There is a contentment that is opposed to murmuration to froward perturbation of mind and fretting this must not be no not in the midst of clouds and darkness and in the depth of our disputes about this great thing Whether God be my God and my sins pardoned and whether my Soul shall be saved And in case I be not satisfied in the thing
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
this will banish those fears from the Soul and make a man to go out of the body with peace as one that knows whether he is going even out of an unquiet Sea to a quiet Harbor which he sees fair before him and where he shall be free from danger This is that which John speaks of 1 Epist 4.17 Herein is love made perfect the love of God is herein perfected hath its utmost sweetness efficacy and operation that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment It doth secure and quiet our spirits and doth answer all sad thoughts of the Soul that we may have boldness in that day because as he is so are we in this world Because as he is faithful and real in his love to us so we are faithful and real in our love to him so that there is a firm union and conjunction between God and us Another Advantage is that Assurance makes the heart to long after God and to be with Jesus Christ That most assured Saint Paul was by faith put into this temper and having a sight of those things within the vail and looking at them as before him how abundantly as one burdened doth he groan and sigh that he may be in the enjoyment of those things whereof he had a sight and hope So that it is of very great concernment for a man to know God to be his God in reference to his appearance before him at the last day My Exhortation to you all therefore shall be That you would labor to make your Interest certain that you may be able to say with Job I know that my Redeemer lives and as David in the Text I am thine A man cannot be a good man that drives not after this he knows not God at all that hath no desire of this assurance That man also what ever he knows of God is in a sad miserable and wretched condition that doubts whether God be his God that lives floating between hope and fear and yet lives without vehement desires and endeavors to have this question cleared Certainly you cannot be right if you have not such a desire of the enjoyment of this Interest to be able to say God is my God This we are to seek in truth and purity not to the quieting of our spirits only or to the indulgence of the flesh as many seem to long after the consolations of God that know not what they are but that God having so filled us we may become a sacrifice to him You must effectually prosecute this also in the utmost improvement of your might and power without ceasing till you have obtained it till you have that word sealed up in your Souls Son daughter be of good comfort for thy sins are forgiven thee lift up thy head for thy Maker is thy Husband It is the greatest folly in the world for Christians to pretend a life of faith and cut the life and sinews of just and necessary endeavors for the attaining assurance of the love of God A man should take heed of presuming upon God when he cannot say God is his God and he must take heed of pretending to live a life of faith in such a way that weakens his endeavors after assurance Certainly the same principle that carries a man from the world to God will make a man restless till he knows that God is his God and what things are contained in that Interest which things as it is a great grief not to know so if they be clouded it is usually from Gods displeasure by which the Soul is left fluctuating tossing rouling and wasting it self in anxieties clouds and perplexing doubts I say not that it 's always from displeasure because God hath other ends then he hath acquainted us withall yet I say usually it is so But as a wise father full of bowels if he be strange to his child or take any relation of love if it be clouded and darkened it usually betokens all is not well something is amiss So I say thou mayst justly suspect and take occasion to make a search what is the difference between God and thee and what is the cause of those clouds that are interposed between God and thy Soul In Isai 54.8 God tells us the spring of this evil In a little wrath for a moment I hid my face In a little wrath So that the suspending of comfort from our spirits leaving the Souls of men dubious and anxious about this great matter doth usually betoken displeasure all is not well FINIS