sensuality but in the way of holy obedience and of believing contemplations of the Divine everlasting objects of delight For lo they that are far from him shall perish he destroyeth them that go a whoring from him but it is good for us to draw nigh to God Psal. 73. 27 28. III. VVAlking with God is the only course that can prove and make men truly wise It proves them wise that make so wise and good a choice and are disposed and skilled in any measure for so high a work Practical Wisdome is the solid useful profitable wisdome And Practical Wisdome is seen in our Choice of Good and Refusal of Evil as its most immediate and excellent effect And no Choosing or Refusing doth shew the Wisdome or Folly of man so much as that which is about the Greatest matters and which everlasting life or death depends on He is not thought so wise among men that can write a Volume about the Orthography or Etymology of a word or that can guess what wood the Trojane Horse was made of or that can make a chain to tye a Flea in as he that can bring home Gold and Pearls or he that can obtain and manage Governments or he that can cure mortal maladies For as in lading we difference Bulk and Value and take not that for the best commodity which is of greatest quantity or weight but that which in most precious and of greatest use so there is a bulky knowledge extended far to a multitude of words and things which are all of no great use or value and therefore the Knowledge of them is such as they And there is a precious sort of Knowledge which fixeth upon the most precious things which being of greatest Use and Value do accordingly prove the Knowledge such Nothing will prove a man simply and properly wise but that which will prove or make him Happy He is wise indeed that is wise to his own and others good And that is indeed his Good which saveth his soul and maketh him for ever blessed Though we may admire the Cunning of those that can make the most curious engines or by deceiving others advance themselves or that can subtilly dispute the most curious niceties or criticize upon the words of several languages yet I will never call them Wise that are all that while the Devils slaves the enemies of God the refusers of Grace and are making haste to endless misery And I think there is not one of those in Hell who were once the subtile men on earth that now take themselves to have been truly wise or glory much in the remembrance of such Wisdome And as this Choice doth prove men wise so the practice of this Holy walking with God doth make them much wiser than they were As there must be some work of the Spirit to draw men to believe in Christ and yet the Spirit is promised and given in a special sort or measure to them that do Believe so must there be some special Wisdome to make men Choose to walk with God but much more is given to them in this holy course As Solomon was wiser than most of the world before he asked wisdome of God or else he would not have made so wise a Choice and preferred wisdome before the riches and honours of the world And yet it was a more notable Degree of wisdome that was afterwards given him in answer to his prayer so it is in this case There are many undenyable Evidences to prove that walking with God doth do more to make men truly wise than all other learning or policy in the world 1. He that walketh with God doth begin aright and settle upon a sure foundation And we use to say that a work is half finished that is well begun He hath engaged himself to the best and wisest Teacher He is a Disciple to Him that knoweth all things He hath taken in infallible principles and taken them in their proper place and order He hath learnt those Truths which will every one become a Teacher to him and help him to that which is yet unlearnt Whereas many that thought they were Doctors in Israel if ever they they will be wise and happy must become fools that is such as they have esteemed fools if ever they will be wise 1 Cor. 3. 18. and must be called back with Nicodemus to learn Christs Cross and to be taught that that which is born of the flesh is but flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit and that therefore they must be born again not only of water but also of the spirit if ever they will enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Joh. 3. 3 5 6. O miserable beginning and miserable progress when men that never soundly learnt the mysteries of Regeneration and Faith and Love and Self-denyal and Mortification do proceed to study names and words and to turn over a multitude of Books to fill their brains with airy notions and their Common-places with such sayings as may be provision and furniture for their pride and ostentation and ornament to their style and language and know not yet what they must do to be saved and indeed know nothing as they ought to know 1 Cor. 8. 2. As every Science hath its principles which are supposed in all the consequential verities so hath Religion as Doctrinal and Practical those Truths which must be first received before any other can be received as it ought and those things which must be first done before any other can be done so as to attain their ends And these Truths and Duties are principally about God himself and are known and done effectually by those and only those that walk with God or are devoted to him It is a lamentable thing to see men immerst in serious studies even till they grow aged and to hear them seriously disputing and discoursing about the controversies or difficulties in Theology or inferiour Sciences before ever they had any saving knowledge of God or of the work of the Holy Ghost in the converting and sanctifying of the soul or how to escape everlasting misery 2. He that walketh with God hath fixed upon a right end and is renewing his estimation and intention of it and daily prosecuting it And this is the first and greatest part of Practical Wisdome When a man once knoweth his End aright he may the better judge of the aptitude and seasonableness of all the means When we know once that Heaven containeth the only felicity of man it will direct us to Heavenly cogitations and to such spiritual means as are fitted to that End If we have the right mark in our eye we are liker to level at it than if we mistake our mark He is the wise man and only he that hath steadily fixed his eye upon that blessedness which he was created and redeemed for and maketh strait towards it and bends the powers of soul and body by faithful constant diligence to obtain it He
all that he saith and doth will be more acceptable to you and all that you say or do in Love will be more acceptable unto him Love him and you will be loth to offend him you will be desirous to please him you will be satisfied in his Love Love him and you may be sure that he Loveth you Love is the fulfilling of his Law Rom. 13. 10. And that you may Love him this must be your work to Believe and Contemplate his goodness Consider daily of the Infinite goodness or Amiableness of his Nature and of his excellency appearing in his works and of the perfect Holiness of his Laws But especially see him in the face of Christ and behold his Love in the design of our Redemption in the person of the Redeemer and in the promises of Grace and in all the benefits of Redemption Yea look by Faith to Heaven it self and think how you must for ever live in the perfect blessed Love of infinite enjoyed goodness As it is the knowledge and sight of gold or beauty or any other earthly vanity that kindleth the Love of them in the minds of men so is it the knowledge and serious contemplation of the goodness of God that must make us Love him if ever we will Love him 2. The goodness of God must also encourage the soul to trust him For Infinite good will not deceive us Nor can we fear any hurt from him but what we wilfully bring upon our selves If I knew but which were the best and most Loving man in the world I could trust him above all men and I should not fear any injury from him How many friends have I that I dare trust with my estate and life because I know that they have Love and goodness in their low degree And shall I not trust the Blessed God that is Love it self and Infinitely good what ever he will be in Justice to the ungodly I am sure he delighteth not in the death of sinners but rather that they turn and live and that he will not cast off the soul that Loveth him and would fain be fully conformed to his will It cannot be that he should spurn at them that are humbled at his feet and long and pray and seek and mourn after nothing more then his grace and love Think not of God as if he were scanter of love and goodness then the Creature is If you have high and confident thoughts of the goodness and fidelity of any man on earth and dare quietly trust him with your life and all see that you have much higher thoughts of God and trust him with greater confidence left you set him below the silly creature in the Attributes of his goodness which his Glory and your Happiness require you to know 3. The Infinite goodness of God must call off our hearts from the inordinate Love of all created good whatever Who would stoop so low as earth that may converse with God And who would feed on such poor delights that hath tasted the graciousness of the Lord Nothing more sure then that the Love of God doth not reign in that soul where the Love of the world or of fleshly lust or pleasure reigneth 1 John 2. 15. Had worldlings or sensual or ambitious men but truly known the goodness of the Lord they could never have so fallen in Love with those deceitful vanities If we could but open their eyes to see the Loveliness of their Redeemer they would soon be weaned from other Loves Would you conquer the Love of Riches or Honour or any thing else that corrupteth your affections O try this sure and powerful way Draw nigh to God and take the fullest view thou canst in thy most serious Meditation of his Infinite goodness and all things else will be vile in thy esteem and thy heart will soon contemn them and forget them and thou wilt never dote upon them more 4. The Infinite goodness of God should increase Repentance and win the soul to a more resolute chearful service of the Lord. O what a heart is that which can offend and wilfully offend so good a God! This is the odiousness of sin that it is an abuse of an Infinite good This is the most hainous damning aggravation of it that Infinite goodness could not prevail with wretched souls against the empty flattering world but that they suffered a dream and shadow to weigh down Infinite goodness in their esteem And is it possible for worse then this to be found in man He that had rather the sun were out of the firmament then a hair were taken off his head were unworthy to see the light of the Sun And surely he that will turn away from God himself to enjoy the pleasures of his flesh is unworthy to enjoy the Lord. It s bad enough that Augustine in one of his Epistles saith of sottish worldly men that they had rather there were two stars fewer in the firmament then one Cow fewer in their Pastures or one tree fewer in their woods or grounds But it is ten thousand times a greater evil that every wicked man is guilty of that will rather forsake the Living God and lose his part in Infinite goodness then he will let go his filthy and unprofitable sins O Sinners as you love your souls despise not the riches of the goodness and forbearance and long suffering of the Lord but know that his goodness should lead you to Repentance Rom. 2. 4. Would you spit at the Sun Would you revile the stars Would you curse the holy Angels If not O do not ten thousand fold worse by your wilful sinning against the Infinite Goodness it self But for you Christians that have seen the Amiableness of the Lord and tasted of his perfect Goodness let this be enough to melt your hearts that ever you have wilfully sin'd against him O what a Good did you contemn in the dayes of your unregeneracy and in the hour of your sin Be not so ingrateful and disingenuous as to do so again Remember when ever a Temptation comes that it would entice you from the Infinite Good Ask the tempter man or Devil Whether he hath more then an Infinite Good to offer you and whether he can outbid the Lord for your affection And now for the time that is before you how cheerfully should you address your selves unto his service and how delightfully should you follow it on from day to day What manner of persons should the servants of this God be that are called to nothing but what is Good How Good a Master how good a work and how good company encouragements and helps and how good an End All is good because it is the Infinite Good that we serve and seek And shall we be loitering unprofitable servants 5. Moreover this Infinite Goodness should be the matter of our daily Praises He that cannot cheerfully magnifie this Attribute of God so suitable to the nature of the Will is surely a stranger to the
Tell them that death and judgement are at hand and that when they laugh or sport or scorn and jeast at the Displeasure of the Dreadful God it is posting toward them and will be upon them before they are aware and when they slumber their damnation slumbereth not but while unbelieving sinners say Peace Peace sudden destruction will come upon them as unexpected travail on a woman with child and they shall not escape O tell them how dreadful a thing it is for a soul that is unregenerate and unsanctified to go from that body which it pampered and sold its salvation to pleasure and to appear at the tribunal of God and how dreadful it is for such a soul to fall into the hands of the living God At least save your own souls by the faithful discharge of so great a duty and if they will take no warning let them at last remember when it is too late that they were told in time what they should see and feel at last and what the later end would prove and that God and man did warn them in compassion though they perish because they would have no compassion or mercy upon themselves Thus let the Terribleness of God provoke you to do your duty with speed and zeal for the converting and saving of miserable souls AND thus I have briefly set before you the Glass in which you may see the Lord and told you how he must be known and how he must be conceived of in our apprehensions and how the knowledge of God must be improved and what impressions it must make upon the heart and what effect it must have upon our lives Blessed and for ever blessed are those souls that have the truly and lively Image of this God and all these his Attributes imprinted on them as to the Creature they are communicable And O that the veil were taken from our hearts that we all with open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Loord may be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. and may increase and live in the knowledge of the true and only God and of Jesus Christ which is Eternal Life Amen THE DESCRIPTION Reasons Reward OF THE BELIEVERS Walking with God On Gen. 5. 24. By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed for Francis Tyton at the three Daggers in Fleet-street and Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster 1664. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE Text explained what it is to Walk with God what it containeth both for Matter and Manner Page 159 CHAP. II. The first Use A Lamentation of the practical Atheisme of the world Motives to change your inordinate creature-converse into converse with God How much sinners have to do with God more than with all the world besides shewedin 14 instances p. 185 CHAP. III. An answer to them that think God doth us good by necessity of Nature as the sun doth illuminate and warm us and therefore though he have much to do for us yet much is not required from us towards him And to them that think he is above our converse and unsuitable to us Ten Quere's to evince the necessity of our own holy diligence in godliness Especially of exercising our Thoughts upon God Ten mischiefs that befall them who have not God in all their Thoughts p. 205 CHAP. IV. Practical Atheism further detected An answer to them that think it unfit for ignorant men or poor men to think so much of God and that it will make men melancholy and mad Ten propositions shewing how far it is our duty to Think of God by way of explication p. 220 CHAP. V. An answer to them that say God regardeth not Thoughts but Deeds Twelve evidences of the regardableness of our Thoughts p. 230 CHAP. VI. The application to the Godly The Benefits of walking with God I. It is suitable to humane Nature Hoâ— it is Natural No middle life between the sensual and the Holy Of them that delight in Knowledge and moral vertue Nature in its first constitution was not only Innocent but Holy Proved II. To walk with God is the highest and noblest life III. It is the only course to prove and make men truly wise Proved by ten evidences IV. It maketh men good as well as wise and advanceth to the greatest holiness and rectitude Proved by five evidences V. It is the best preparation for sufferings and death shewed by seven advantages to that end p. 235 CHAP. VII Five special obligations on true believers to walk with God and to avoid inordinate Creature-converse p. 277 CHAP. I. Gen. 5. 24. And Henoch walked with God and he was not for God took him BEeing to speak of our Converse with God in Solitude I think it will not be unsuitable nor unserviceable to the Ends of that Discourse if I here premise a short description of the General Duty of practical godliness as it is called in Scripture a Walking with God It is here commended to us in the example of Holy Henoch whose excellency is recorded in this signal character that he walked with God and his special Reward expressed in the words following and he was not for God took him I shall speak most of his Character and then somewhat of his Reward The Samaritan and vulgar-Latine versions do strictly translate the Hebrew as we read it but the interpretation of the Septuagint the Syriack the Chaldee and the Arabick are rather good expositions all set together of the meaning of the word than strict translations The Septuagint and Syriack read it Henoch pleased God The Chaldee hath Henoch walked in the fear of God And the Arabick he walked in obedience to God And indeed to walk in the fear and obedience of God and thereby to please him is the principal thing in our Walking with God The same Character is given of Noah in Gen. 6. 19. and the extraordinary Reward annexed He and his family were saved in the Deluge And the holy life which God commanded Abraham is called a walking before God Gen. 17. 1. Walk before me and be thou perfect And in the New Testament the Christian Conversation is ordinarily called by the name of Walking Sometime a Walking in Christ as Col. 2. 6. Sometime a Walking in the spirit in which we live Gal. 5. 25. And a Walking after the spirit Rom. 8. 1. Sometime a Walking in the Light as God is in the Light 1 Joh. 1. 7. Those that abide in Christ must so walk even as he hath walked 1 Joh. 2. 6. These phrases set together tell us what it is to Walk with God But I think it not unprofitable somewhat more particularly to shew you what this Walking with God doth contain As Atheism is the sum of wickedness so all true Religiousness is called by the name of Godliness or Holiness which is nothing else but our Devotedness to God and Living to Him and our Relation to Him as thus Devoted in Heart and Life
remembrancers Can we stop our ears against the voice of Heaven and Earth Can we be ignorant of him when the whole Creation is our Teacher Can we overlook that holy glorious Name which is written so legibly upon all things that ever our eyes beheld that nothing but blindness sleepiness or distraction could possibly keep us from discerning it I have many a time wondred that as the eye is dazzled so with the beholding of the greatest Light that it can scarce perceive the shining of a lesser so the Glorious transcendent Majesty of the Lord doth not even overwhelm our understandings and so transport and take us up as that we can scarce observe or remember any thing else For naturally the greatest objects of our sense are apt to make us at that time insensible of the smaller And our exceeding great business is apt to make us utterly neglect and forget those that are exceeding small And O what Nothings are the Best and Greatest of the Creatures in comparison of God! And what toyes and trifles are all our other businesses in the world in comparison of the business which we have with Him But I have been stopped in these admirations by considering that the wise Creator hath fitted and ordered all his Creatures according to the use which he designeth them to And therefore as the eye must be receptive only of so much light as is proportioned to its use and pleasure and must be so distant from the Sun that its Light may rather guide than blind us and its Heat may rather quicken than consume us so God hath made our understandings capable of no other knowledge of Him here than what is suited to the work of holiness And while we have Flesh and fleshly works to do and lawful necessary business in the world in which Gods own commands employ us our souls in this Lanthorn of the body must see him through so thick a glass as shall so far allay our apprehension as not to distract us and take us off the works which he enjoyneth us And God and our souls shall be at such a distance as that the proportionable Light of his countenance may conduct us and not overwhelm us and his Love may be so revealed as to quicken our desires and draw us on to a better state but not so as to make us utterly impatient of this world and utterly weary of our lives or to swallow us up or possess us of our most desired happiness before we arrive at the state of happiness While the soul is in the body it maketh so much use of the body the brain and spirits in all is operations that our wise and merciful Creator and Governour doth respect the body as well as the soul in his ordering disposing and representing of the objects of those operations so that when I consider that certainly all men would be distracted if their apprehensions of God were anywhit answerable to the Greatness of his Majesty and Glory the Brain being not able to bear such high operations of the soul nor the greatness of the passions which would necessarily follow it much reconcileth my wondring mind to the wise and gracious providence of God even in setting innocent nature it self at such a distance from his Glory allowing us the presence of such Grace as is necessary to bring us up to Glory Though it reconcile me not to that doleful distance which is introduced by sin and which is furthered by Satan the world and the flesh and which our Redeemer by his Spirit and Intercession must heal And it further reconcileth me to this disposure and will of the blessed God and this necessary natural distance and darkness of our minds when I consider that if God and Heaven and Hell were as near and open to our apprehensions as the things are which we see and feel this life would not be what God intended it to be a life of Tryal and preparation to another a work a race a pilgrimage a warfare what Tryal would there be of any mans Faith or Love or Obedience or Constancy or Self-denial If we saw God stand by or apprehended him as if we saw him in degree it would be no more praise-worthy or rewardable for a man to abhor all temptations to worldliness ambition gluttony drunkenness lust cruelty c. than it is for a man to be kept from sleeping that is pierced with thorns or for a man to forbear to drink a cup of melted Gold which he knoweth will burn out his bowels or to forbear to burn his flesh in the fire It were no great commendation to his Chastity that would forbear his filthiness if he saw or had the fullest apprehensions of God when he will forbear it in the presence of a mortal man It were no great commendations to the intemperate and voluptuous to have no mind of sensual delights if they had but such a knowledge of God as were equal to sight It were no thanks to the persecutor to forbear his cruelty against the servants of the Lord if he saw Christ coming with his glorious Angels to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel and to be admired in his Saints and glorified in them that now believe 2 Thes. 1. 7 8 9 10. I deny not but this happily necessitated Holiness is best in it self and therefore will be our state in Heaven but what is there of Tryal in it or how can it be suitable to the state of man that must have Good and Evil set before him and Life and Death left to his choice and that must conquer if he will be crowned and approve his fidelity to his Creator against competitors and must live a rewardable life before he have the reward But though in this life we may neither hope for nor desire such overwhelming sensible apprehensions of God as the rest of our faculties cannot answer nor our bodies bear yet that our apprehensions of him should be so base and small and dull and unconstant as to by born down by the noise of worldly business or by the presence of any creature or by the tempting baits of sensuality this is the more odious by how much God is more Great and Glorious than the creature and even because the use of the creature it self is but to reveal the Glory of the Lord. To have such sleight and stupid thoughts of him as will not carry us on in uprightness of obedience nor keep us in his fear nor draw out our hearts in sincere desires to please him and enjoy him and as will not raise us to a contempt of the pleasures and profits and honours of this world this is to be despisers of the Lord and to live as in a sleep and to be dead to God and alive only to the world and flesh It is no unjust dishonour or injury to â—e Creature to be accounted as Nothing in comparison of God that it may be able to do Nothing
against Him and his interest But to make such a Nothing of the most Glorious God by our contemptuous forgetfulness or neglect as that our apprehensions of Him cannot prevail against the sordid pleasures of the flesh and against the richest baits of sin and against all the wrath or allurements of man this is but to make a God of dust and dung and nothing and in heart and practice to make God worse than dust and dung And it is a wonder that mans understanding can become so sottish as thus to wink the Sun it self into a constant darkness and to take God as Nothing or aâ— no God who is so abundantly revealed to them in astonishing transcendent Greatness and Excellency by all the Creatures in the world and with whom we have continually so much to do O sinful man into how great a depth of ignorance stupidity and misery art thou faln But because we may see by the lives of the ungodly that they little think that they have so much to do with God though I have spoke of this to the Godly in the other Part of this Treatese I shall somewhat more particularly acquaint those that have most need to be informed of it what business it is that they have with Ged 1. It is not a business that may be done or left undone like your business with men but it is such as must be done or you are undone for ever Nothing is absolutely Necessary but this Nothing in all the world doth so much concern you You may at far cheaper rates forbear to eat or drink or cloath your selves or live than forbear the dispatch of this necessary work 2. Your business with God and for God in the world is that which you have all your powers and endowments for it is that which you were born into the world for and that which you have understanding and free will for and that which you have your thoughts and memories and affections for and that which you have eyes and ears and tongues and all your corporeal parts and abilities for It is that which you have your food and rayment for and that which you have your time for and your preservation protection and provisions It is that which you have all your teaching for which Christ himself came for into the world which the Scriptures are written for which Ministers are sent for which all Order and Government in Church and State is principally appointed for In a word it is that for which you have your lives and all things and without which all were as nothing and will be to you worse than nothing if they do not further your work with God You will wish you had never seen them if they befriend you ot in this 3. Your business with God and for him is such as you must be continually doing as is incumbent on you every hour for you have every hour given you for this end You may dispatch this man to day and another to morrow and have no more to do with them again of a long time but you have alwaies incessantly important works to do with God For your common work should be all his work and all should be done with principal respect to him But I shall yet more particularly tell the ungodly what business it is that they have with God which it seems by their careless negligent lives they are not aware of 1. You must be either saved or damned by him either Glorified with Him or punished by Him to everlasting And it is Now that the matter must be determined which of the two conditions you must be in You must Now obtain your title to Heaven if ever you will come thither You must Now procure your deliverance from Hell fire if ever you will escape it Now it is that all that must be done upon which the scales must turn for your salvation or damnation And you know this work is principally to be done between you and God who alone can save you or destroy you and yet do you forget him and live as if you had no business with him when you have your salvation to â—btain from him and your damnation to prevent Have you such business as this with any other 2. You have a strict and righteous Judgement to undergo in order to this salvation or damnation You must stand before the Holy Majesty and be judged by the Governour of the World you must be there accused and found guilty or not guilty and judged as fulfillers or as breakers of the holy Covenant of Grace you must be set on the right hand or on the left you must answer for all the time that you here spent and for all the means and mercies which you here received and for that you have done whether it were good or evil And it is now in this life that all your preparation must be made and all that must be done upon which your justification or condemnation will then depend Anh it is between God and you that all this business must be done And yet can you live as negligently towards him as if you had no business with him 3. You have a Death to dye a change to make which must be made but once which will be the entrance upon endless joy or pain And do you think this needeth not your most timely and diligent preparation You must struggle with pains and faint with weakness and feel death taking down your earthen tabernacle you must then have a life that is ending to review and all that you have done said open to your more impartial judgement You must then see Time as at an end and the last sand running and your candle ready to go out and leave the snuff You must then look back upon all that you have had from the world as ending and upon all that you have done as that which cannot be undone again that you may do it better and you must have a more serious look into Eternity when you are stepping thither then you can now conceive of And doth all this need no preparation It is with God that all that business must be Now transacted that must make your death to be comfortable or safe If Now you will only converse with men and know no business that you have with God you shall find at last to your exceeding terrour that you are in his hands and passing to his bar and that it is God that then you have to do with when your business with all the world is at an end He will then have something to do with you if you will now find nothing to do with him 4. In order to all this you have now your Peace to be made with God and the pardon of all your sins to be obtained For woe to you if then you are found under the guilt of any sin Look back upon your lives and remember how you have lived in the world and what you have been doing how you have
with that pardon particularized and applied to themselves But where the heart is not truly penitent and converted that person is not pardoned by the Gospel as being not in the Covenant or a child of promise and therefore the pardon of a Minister being upon mistake or tâ— an unqualified person can reach no further than to admit him into the esteem of men and to the Communion and outward priviledges of the Church which is a poor comfort to a soul that must lye in Hell But it can never admit him into the Kingdom of Heaven God indeed may approve the act of his Ministers if they go according to his rule and deal in Church administrations with those that make A CREDIBLE PROFESSION of FAITH and HOLINESSE as if they had true faith and holiness but yet he will not therefore make such Ministerial acts effectual to the saving of unbelieving or unholy souls Nay because I have found many sensual ungodly people inclining to turn Papists because with them they can have a quick and easie pardon of their sins by the Pope or by the Absolution of the Priest let me tell such that if they understand what they do even this cheat is too thin to quiet their defiled consciences For even the Papists School-doctors do conclude that when the Priest absolveth an impenitent sinner or one that is not qualified for pardon such a one is not loosed or pardoned in Heaven Leg. Martin de Ripalda exposit Liber Magist. li. 4. dist 18. p. 654 655. p. 663 664. dist 20. Aquin. Dist. 20. q 1. a. 5. Suar. Tom. 4. in 3. p. disp 52. Greg. Valent. Tom. 4. disp 7. q. 20. p. 5. Tolet. lib. 6. cap. 27 Navar. Notab 17. 18. Cordub de indulg li. 5. q. 23. they deny not the truth of those words of Origen Hom. 14. ad cap. 24. Levit. Exit quis à fide perexit de castris Ecclesiae etiamsi Episcopi Voce non abjiciatur sicut contru interdum fit ut aliquis non recto judicio eorum qui praesunt Ecclesiae for as mittatur sed si non egit ut mereretur exire nihil laeditur interdum enim quod for as mittitur intus est qui foris est intus videtur retineri And what he saith of Excommunication is true of Absolution An erring Key doth neither lock out of Heaven nor let into Heaven A Godly Believer shall be saved though the Priest condemn him and an unbeliever or ungodly person shall be condemned by God though he be absolved by the Priest Nay if you have not walked with God in the spirit but walked after the flesh though your repentance should be sound and true at the last it will yet very hardly serve to comfort you though it may serve to your salvation because you will very hardly get any assurance that it is sincere It is dangerous lest it should prove but the effect of fear which will not save when it cometh not till death do fright you to it As Augustine saith Nullus expectet quando peccare non potest arbitrii enim libertatem quaerit Deus ut deleri possint commissa non necessitatem sed charitatem non tantum timorem quia non in solo timore vivit homo Therefore the same Augustine saith Siquis positus in ultima necessitate voluerit accipere poenitentiam accipit fateor vobis non illi negamus quod petit sed non praesumimus quod bene hinc exit si securus hinc exierit ego nescio Poenitentiam dare possumus securitatem non possumus You see then how much it is needful to the peace of conscience at the hour of death that you walk with God in the time of life 6. Moreover to walk with God is an excellent preparation for sufferings and death because it tendeth to acquaint the soul with God and to embolden it both to go to him in Prayer and to Trust on him and expect salvation from him He that walketh with God is so much used to holy Prayer that he is a man of Prayer and is skilled in it and hath tryed what prayer can do with God so that in the hour of his extremity he is not to seek either for a God to pray to or a Mediator to intercede for him or a Spirit of Adoption to enable him as a child to fly for help to his reconciled Father And having not only been frequently with God but frequently entertained and accepted by him and had his prayers heard and granted it is a great encouragement to an afflicted soul in the hour of distresse to go to such a God for help And it is a dreadful thing when a soul is ready to go out of the world to have â—â— comfortable knowledge of God or skill to pray to him or encouragement to expect acceptance with him To think that he must presently appear before a God whom he never knew nor heartily loved being never acquainted with that communion with him in the way of Grace which is the way to communion in Glory O what a terrible thought is this But how comfortable is it when the soul can say I know whom I have believed The God that afflicteth me is he that loveth me and hath manifested his love to me by his daily attractive assisting and accepting Grace I am going by death to see him intuitively whom I have often seen by the eye of Faith and to live with him in Heaven with whom I lived here on earth From whom and Through whom and To whom was my life I go not to any enemy nor an utter stranger but to that God who was the Spring the Ruler the Guide the Strength and the Comfort of my life He hath heard me so oft that I cannot think he will now reject me He hath so often comforted my soul that I will not believe he will now thrust me into Hell He hath mercifully received me so oft that I cannot believe he will now refuse me Those that come to him in the way of Grace I have found he will in no wise cast out As strangeness to God doth fill the soul with distrustful fears so walking with him doth breed that humble confidence which is a wonderful comfort in the hour of distress and a happy preparations to sufferings and death 7. Lastly to walk with God doth encrease that Love of God in the soul which is the heavenly tincture and inclineth it to loâ—k upward and being weary of a sinful flesh and world to desire to be perfected with God How happy a preparation for death is this when it is but the passage to that God with whom we desire to be and to that place where we fain would dwell for ever To love the state and place that we are going to being made connatural and suitable thereto will much overcome the fears of death But for a soul that is acquainted with nothing but this life and favoureth nothing but Earth and Flesh and hath
This they preferred or ventured on before a holy heavenly life And this is it that Believers are labouring to escape in all their holy care and diligence It is an Infinite value that is put upon the blood of Christ the promises of God the ordinances and means of Grace and grace it self and the poorest duties of the poorest Saints because they are for an Infinite Eternal glory No Mercy is small that tasts of Heaven as all doth or should do to the Believer No action is low that aims at Heaven And O how lively should the Resolutions and courage of those men be that are travelling sighting and watching for Eternity How full should be their Comforts that are fetcht from the foresight of Infinite Eternal Comforts As all things will presently be swallowed up in Eternity so methinks the present apprehension of Eternity should now swallow up all things else in the soul. Object But saith the Unbeliever if God have made man for Eternity it is a wonder that there are no more lively Impressions of so Infinite a thing upon the souls of all Our sense of it is so small that it makes me doubt whether we are made for it Answ. Consider 1. That benummedness and sleep and death is the very state of an unholy soul Hast thou cast thy self into a sleepy senseless disease and wilt thou argue thence against Eternity This is as if the blind should conclude that there is no Sun or that the eye of man was not made to see it because he hath no sight himself Or as if you should think that man hath not any life or feeling because your palsie limbs do not feel Or that the stomack was not made for meat because the stomacks of the sick abhor it 2. And for believers 1. You may see by their lives that they have some apprehensions of Eternity why else do they differ from you and deny themselves and displease the world and the flesh it self why do they set their hearts above if they have not lively thoughts of an Eternity 2. But if you aske me Why their apprehensions are not a thousand times more lively about so Infinite a thing I answer 1. Their Apprehensions must be suitable to their State Our state here is a state of Imperfection and so will our apprehensions be But a perfect state will have perfect apprehensions It is no proof that the Infant in the womb is not made to come into this world and see the Sun and converse with men because he hath no apprehensions of it Our state here is a conjunction of the soul to a frail distempered body and so neer a conjunction that the actions of the soul must have great dependance on the Body And therefore our Apprehensions are limited by its frailty and the soul can go no higher then the capacity of the Body will allow 2. And our Apprehensions now are fitted to our Use and benefit We are now Believers and must live by faith And therefore must not be Beholders and live by sense If Eternity were open to mens Natural sight or we had here as clear and lively apprehensions of it as those have that are there then it were not thanks no praise to us to be believers or to obey and live as Saints And then God should not Govern man as man here in the way by a Law but as a beast by sense or as the glorified that have possession Where there are perfect Apprehensions of God and Glory there will be also perfect Love and Joy and Praise and consequently perfect Happiness and this were to make Earth and Heaven the way and the end to be all one Perfect apprehensions are kept for a perfect state of Happiness But here it is well if we have such Apprehensions as are fitted to the use of travellers and soldiers as will carry us on and prevail against the difficulties of our course If you had never been at London you could not have any such clear Apprehensions of the place as those that see it have And yet your imperfect Apprehensions might be sufficient to make you take a journey thither and you may come as safely and certainly to it as if you had seen it Moreover the body the brain which the soul in Apprehending now makes use of cannot bear such Apprehensions as are suitable to the thousandth part of the greatness of the object without distraction The smallest eye may see the sun but the greatest cannot endure to gaze upon its Glory much less if it were at the neerest approach It s a mercy oâ— mercies to give us such Apprehensions of Eternity as are meet for passengers to bring us thither and it is part of our Mercy that those Apprehensions are not so great as to distract and over whelm us 4. Lastly The Eternity of God must teach the soul contentedness and patience under all labours changes sufferings and dangers that are here below Believing Soul draw neer look seriously on Eternity and try whether it will not make such Impressions as these upon thee Art thou weary of Labours either of the mind or body Is not Eternity long enough for thy Rest Canst thou not afford to work out the day light of this life when thou must Rest with Christ to all Eternity Canst thou not run with patience so short a race when thou lookest to so long a Rest Canst thou not watch one hour with Christ that must Reign with him to all Eternity Dost thou begin to shrinke at sufferings for Christ when thou must be in Glory with him for ever How short is the suffering how long is the Reward Dost thou begin to think hatdly of the dealing of the Lord because his people are here afflicted and made the scorn and by-word of the world why is not Eternity long enough for God to shew his Love and bounty to his people in Is not the day at hand when Lazarus and the Rich worldling both must hear But now he is comforted and thâ—n art tormented Luk. 16. 25. Did not that Now câ—me â—â—me enough which was the entrance of Eternity Even Jesus the Author and perfecter of our saith for the Joy that was â—â—t before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God! consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lâ—st yâ—â— be wâ—â—â—ied and saint in your minds Heb. 12. 2 3. Dâ—st 〈…〉 the prosperity of the wicked and prevalency of the Churches Enemies Look then unto Eternity and 〈…〉 e whether that be not long enough for the 〈…〉 aâ—d the wicked to be tormented Wouldst 〈…〉 their time Dost thou begin to 〈…〉 of Christ oâ— the truth of his promises because he doth 〈…〉 O what is a thousand years to Eternity is there not yet time enough before thee for Christ to make good all his promises in Were not those Disciples sharply but justly rebuked as Fools and slow of heart to believe that when
to be here and the covetous man among his gains and the sensual man among his recreations and merâ—y companions It is good to be here the Christian that can get nigh to God or have any prospect of his Love in his ordinances concludeth that of all places upon earth It is good to be here and that a day in his Courts is better then a thousand Psal. 84. 10. But O to depart and be with Christ is far better Phil. 1. 23. With Infinite goodness we shall find no evil no emptiness or defect when we perfectly enjoy the perfect Good what more can be added but for ever to enjoy it O therefore think on this Christians when death is dreadful to you and you would fain stay here as being afraid to come before the Lord or loth to leave the things which you here posfess shall Goodness it self be distrusted by you or seem no more desirable to you Are you afraid of Goodness even of your Father of your Happiness it self Are you better here then you shall be with God Are your houses or lands or friends or pleasures or any thing better then Infinite Goodness meditate on this blessed Attribute of God till you distast the world till you are angry with your withdrawing murmuring flesh till you are ashamed of your unwillingness to be with God and till you can calmly look in the face of death and contentedly hear the message that is posting towards you that you must presently come away to God Your Natural birth day brought you into a Better place then the womb and your gracious Birth day brought you into a far Better state then your former sinful miserable captivity And will not your Glorious birth day put you into a better habitation then this world O know and choose and seek and live to the Infinite Good and then it may be your greatest joy when you are called to him CHAP. X. 9. HAving spoken of these three great Attributes of God I must needs speak of those three great Relations of God to man and of these three works in which they are founded which have flowed from these Attributes This one God in three Persons hath Created man and all things which before were not hath Redeemed man when he was lost by sin and sanctifieth those that shall be saved by Redemption Though the external works of the Trinity are undivided yet not indistinct as to the order of working and a special interest that each person hath in each of these works The Father Son and Holy Ghost did create the world and they also did Redeem us and do Sanctifie us But so as that Creation is in a special sort ascribed to the Father Redemption to the Son and Sanctification to the Holy Spirit Not only because of the order of operation agreeable to the order of subsisting for then the Father would be as properly said to be incarnate or to die for us or mediate as the Son to create us which is not to be said For he created the world by his Word or Son and Spirit Joh. 1. 3. Psal. 33. 6. and he Redeemed it by his Son and Sanctifieth it by his Spirit But Scripture assureth us that the Son alone was incarnate for us and dyed and Rose again and not the Father or the Spirit and so that the humane nature is peculiarly united to the second person in glory and so that each person hath a peculiar interest in these several works the Reason of which is much above our reach The first of these Relations of God to man which we are to consider of is that he is our Creator It is he that giveth Being to us and all things and that giveth us all our faculties or Powers Under this for brevity we shall speak of him also as he is our Preserver because preservation is but a kind of continued Creation or a continuance of the Beings which God hath caused God then is the first efficient cause of all the creatures from the greatest to the least Gen. 1. And easily did he make them for he spake but the word and they were created They are the Products of his Power Wisdome and Goodness Psal. 33. 6. Joh. 1. 3. Psal. 148. 5. He commanded and they were created He still produceth all things that in the course of nature are brought forth Psal. 104. 30. Thou sendest forth thy spirit they are created thou renewest the face of the earth And from hence these following impressions must be made upon the considering soul. 1. If All things be from God as the Creater and Preserver then we must be deeply possessed with this truth that All things are for God as their ultimate end For he that is the Beginning and first cause of all things must needs be the End of all His Will produced them and the Pleasure of his Will is the End for which he did produce them Isa. 43. 7. I have created him for my glory Prov. 16. 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself yea even the wicked for the day of evil I think the Chaldee Paraphrase the Syriack and Arabick give us the true meaning of this who concordantly translate it The wicked is kept for the day of evil as Job hath it 21. 30. The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath And 2 Pet. 2. 9. To reserve the unjust to the day of judgement to be punished God made not the wicked as wicked or to be wicked but he that gave them their Being and continueth it will not be a loser by his Creation or preservation but will have the glory of his Justice by them in the day of wrath or evil for which he keeps them and till which he beareth with them because they would not obediently give him the glory of his Holiness and mercy So it is said of Christ Col. 16 17. For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible all things were created By him and For him If they are By him they must needs be For him So Rev. 4. 11. Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created This Pleasure of Gods will is the End of all things and therefore it is certain that he will see that all things shall accomplish that end and his will shall be pleased Rom. 11. 36. we have all in few words For of him and through him and to him are all things and to whom be glory for ever Amen Of him as the first efficient that giveth them their Beings and Through him as the Preserver disposer and conducter of them to their end and To him as the Ultimate end If you say But how is the pleasure of Gods will attained from the wicked that break his Laws and displease his will I answer Understand but how his will is
innocent therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ Isa. 53. 6. All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all Rom. 5. 15. Through the offence of one many are dead 16. And the judgement was by One to condemnation 17. By the offence of one death reigned by one 18. By the offence of one judgement came on all men to condemnation 19. By one mans disobedience many were made sinners Psal. 51. 4. We were shapen in iniquity and in sin did our mothers conceive us Eph. 2. 1 3. We were by nature the Children of wrath and dead in trespasses and sin 1 Cor. 15. 22. In Adam all die 2 Cor. 5. 14 We thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead Eph 5. 23. Christ is the Saviour of the Body v. 25 26 27. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church If Infants have no sin and misery then they are none of the Body the Church which Christ loved and gave himself for that he might cleanse it But what need we further proof when we have the common experience of all the world Would every man that is born of a woman without exception so early manifest sin in the life if there were no corrupt disposition at the heart And should all mankind without exception tast of the punishment of sin if they had no participation of the guilt Death is the wages of sin and by sin death entred into the world and it passeth upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. 5. 12. Infants have sickness and torments and death which are the fruits of sin And were they not presented to Christ as a Saviour when he took them in his arms and blessed them and said Of such is the Kingdom of God Certainly none that never were guilty or miserable are capable of a place in the Kingdom of the Mediator For to what end should he mediate for them or how can he Redeem them that need not a Redemption or how should he reconcile them to God that never were at enmity with him Or how can he wash them that were never unclean Or how can he be a Physicion to them that never were sick when the whole have no need of the Physicion Mat. 9. 12. He came to seek and to save that which was lost Luk. 19. 10. and to save his people from their sins Mat. 1. 21. They are none of his saved people therefore that had no sin He came to redeem those that were under the Law Gal. 4. 5. But it is most certain that Infants were under the Law as well as the adult And 〈…〉 a paâ—â— of his people Israel whom he visited and Re 〈…〉 1. 68. If ever they be admitted into Glory they 〈…〉 him that Redeemed 〈…〉 God doth first justifie those whom he Glorifieth Rom. 8. 30. And they must be born again that will enter into his Kingdom Jâ—h 3. 3 5. And there is no Regeneration or renovation but from sin Col. 3. 10. Eph. 4. 22. Nor any Justification but from sin and from what we could not be Justified from by the Law of Moses Act. 13. 30. Nor any Justification but what containeth a Remission of sin Rom. 3. 25. And where there is no sin there is none to be Remitted Nor is there any Justification but what is through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus and his propitiation Rom. 3. 24 25. He is made of God Redemption to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. And the Redemption that we have by him is Remission of sins by his blood Col. 1. 14. Eph. 1. 7. By his own blood entered he once into the holy place having obtained eternal Redemption for us The eternal inheritance is received by means of death for the Redemption of transgressions Heb. 9. 12 15. so that all Scripture speaks this truth aloud to us that there is now no salvation promised but to the Church the Justified the Regenerate the Redeemed and that none can be capable of these but sinners and such as are lost and miserable in themselves And till our necessity be understood Redemption cannot be well understood They that believe that Christ dyed not only for this or that man in particular but for the world methinks should believe that the world are sinners and need his death He is called the Saviour of the world Joh. 4. 42. and the Saviour of all men especially of believers 1 Tim. 4. 10. 1 Joh. 4. 14. We have seen and do testifie that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world And from what doth he save them From their sins Mat. 1. 21. and from the wrath to come 1 Thes. 1. 10. For this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners Infants then are sinners or none of those that he came to save Christ hath made no man Righteous by his Obedience but such as Adam made sinners by his disobedience Rom. 5. 19. For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many shall be made Righteous Infants are not made Righteous by Christ if they were not sinners And sinners they cannot be by any but Original sin Rom. 5. 8 9 10. God commended his Love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Much more being now Justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him When we were enemies we were Reconciled to God by the death of his Son so that it is sinners that Christ dyed for and sinners that are justified by his blood and sinners that are reconciled to God Infants therefore are sinners or they are none of the Redeemed Justified or reconciled And when Jesus Christ by the grace of God did taste death for every man Heb. 2. 9. Infants are sure included There is one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransom for all 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. therefore all had sin and misery and needed that ransome He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world And is it not plain then that the whole world are sinners I speak all this for the evincing of Original sin only because that only is denyed by such as yet pretend to Christianity For actual sin is commonly confessed and shews it self And truly so doth Original sin in our proneness to actual and in the earliness and commonness of such evil inclinations and in the remnants of it which the sanctified
for the Head yet we are more for Christ as a means to his glory then he for us I mean he is the more excellent principal end For to this end Christ both dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14. 9. who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow both of things in heaven and things in earth and under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2. 6. to 12. Rev. 5. 8 9 10 11 12. And I beheld and I heard the voice of many Angels round about the Throne and the beasts and the elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing And every creature which is in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard I saying Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever So Rev. 15. 3 4. 20. 6. Rev. 21. 23. The City had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof Rev. 22. 3 4. The Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him And they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads These and many other Scriptures shew us that God will be for ever Glorified in the person of the Redeemer more then in either men or Angels and consequently that it was the principal part of his Intention in the design of mans Redemption 2. I will be briefer in the rest In the way of Redemption man will be saved with greater humiliation and self-denyal then he should have been in the way of Creation If we had been saved in a way of Innocency we should have had more to ascribe to our selves And it is meet that all Creatures be humbled and abased and nothing in themselves before the Lord. 3. By the way of Redemption sin will be more dishonoured and Holiness more advanced then if sin had never been known in the world Contraries illustrate one another Health would not be so much valued if there were no sickness nor Life if there were no Death nor Day if there were no Night nor Knowledge if there were no Ignorance nor Good if man had not known Evil. The Holiness of God would never have appeared in execution of vindictive Justice against sin if there had never been any sin and therefore he hath permitted it and will recover us from it when he could have prevented our falling into it 4. By this way also Holiness and Recovering Grace shall be more triumphant against the Devil and all its enemies By the many conquests that Christ will make over Satan the World and the Flesh and Death there will very much of God be seen to us that innocency would not thus have manifested 5. Redemption brings God nearer unto man The mysterie of Incarnation giveth us wonderful advantages to have more familiar thoughts of God and to see him in a clearer glass then ever we should else have seen him in on earth and to have access with boldness to the throne of grace The pure Deity is at so vast a distance from us while we are here in flesh that if it had not appeared in the flesh unto us we should have been at a greater loss But now without controversie great is the mysterie of godliness God was manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles believed on in the world and received up into glory 1 Tim. 3. 16. 6. In the way of Redemption man is brought to more earnest and frequent addresses unto God and dependance on him Necessity driveth him And he hath use for more of God or for God in more of the wayes of his mercy then else he would have had 7. Principally in this way of saving miserable man by a Redeemer there is opportunity for the more abundant exercise of Gods mercy and consequently for the more glorious discovery of his Love and Goodness to the sons of men then if they had fallen into no such Necessities Misery prepareth men for the sense of mercy In the Redeemer there is so wonderful a discovery of Love and Mercy as is the astonishment of men and Angels 1 Joh. 3. 1. Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God! Eph. 2. 4 5. God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ by grace yee are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us by Christ Jesus for by grace yee are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of works lest any man should boast Tit. 3 3 4. For we our selves were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures c. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Never was there such a discovery of God as he is Love in a way of Mercy to man on earth as in the Redeemer and his benefits 8. In the way of Redemption the soul of man is formed to the most sweet and excellent temper and his obedience cast into the happiest mold The glorious demonstration of Love doth animate us with Love to God and the shedding abroad of his Love in our hearts by the spirit of the Redeemer doth draw out our hearts in Love to him again And the sense of his wonderful Love and Mercy filleth us with Thankfulness so that Love is hereby made the nature of the new man and Thankfulness is the life of all our obedience For all floweth from these principles and expresseth them so that Love is the compendium of all Holiness in one word and Thankfulness of all Evangelical obedience And
wisdom that knows best how to use his own If he take our friends from us he taketh but his own If he deny his saving grace to our ungodly children a heavy judgement of which we must be sensible yet when we have devoted them to God and done our own part we must be silent as Aaron was when his sons were destroyed Lev. 10. 3. and confess that the Potter hath power over his own clay to make of the same lump ae vessel to honour and another to dishonour Rom. 9. 21. All his disposals shall work to that end which is the most universal perfect good and most denominateth all the means But those that are his own by consent and Covenant may be sure that all shall work to their own good Let us die with Christ and be buried to the world and know no Lord or Owner but our great Creatour and Redeemer except in a limited subservient sense and then we may boldly argue with him to the quiet of our souls from this Relation I am thine help me Psal. 35. 23. Stir up thy self and awake to my judgement even to my cause my Lord and my God when faith and love have first said as Thomas my Lord and my God Joh. 20. 28. CHAP. XIV 13. THE next Relation to be spoken of is Gods soveraignty both by Creation and Redemption he hath the Right of Governing us as our Soveraign King and we are obliged to be his willing subjects and as such to obey his holy laws He is the Lord or Owner of all the world even of Brutes as properly as of Man But he is the Soveraign King or Governour only of the Reasonable Creature because no other are capable of that proper Moral Government which now we speak of Vulgarly indeed his Physical motions and dispositions are called his Rule or Government and so God is said to Govern Brutes and inanimate creatures but that is but a Metaphorical expression as an Artificer Metaphorically Governeth his clock or engine or a Shepheard his sheep But we now speak of proper moral Government God having made man a Rational and free agent having an immortal soul and capable of everlasting happiness his very nature and the end of his creation required that he should be conducted to that end and happiness by means agreeable to his nature that is by the Revelation of the Reward before he seeth it that he may seek it and be fitted for it and by prescribed duties that are necessary to obtain it and to his living here according to his nature and by threatned penalties to quicken him to his duty so that he is naturally a creature to be Governed both as sociable and as one to be conducted to his end He therefore that created him having alone both sufficiency and Right doth by this very Creation become his Governour His Government hath two parts the world being thus constituted the Kingdom of God The first is by Legislation or making Laws and Officers for execution The second is by the procuring the execution of these Laws To which end he doth exhort and perswade the subjects to obedience and judge them according to their works and execute his judgement His first Law was to Adam the Law of Nature obliging him to adhere to his Creator and to love him trust him fear him honour him and obey him with all his might in order to the pleasing of his Creator and the attainment of everlasting life To which was added a positive Law against the eating of the tree of Knowledge and Death was the penalty due to the sinner This Law was quickly broken by man and God delayed not his judgement but sentenced the Tempter the Woman and the Man but not according to their merits but graciously providing a Redeemer he presently stopt the execution of the far greatest part of the penalty the Son of God undertaking as our surety to become a sacrifice and ransome for us Hereupon the Covenant of Grace was made and the Law of Grace enacted with mankind but more obscurely in the beginning being cleared up by degrees in the several Promises to the Fathers the types of the Law and the Prophecies of the Prophets of several ages the Law being interposed because of transgression In the fulness of time the Messiah was incarnate and the first promises concerning him fulfilled and after his holy life and preachings and conquests of the Tempter and the world he gave himself a Ransome for us and conquering Death he Rose again ascended into Heaven being possessed in his manhood of the fulness of his power and all things being delivered into his hands so that he was made the General Administrator and Lord of all And thus he more clearly revealing his Covenant of Grace and bringing life and immortality to light commissioned his Ministers to preach this Gospel to all the world And thus the Primitive Soveraign is God and the Soveraign by Derivation is Jesus the Mediator in his manhood united to the second person in the Godhead and the Laws that we are governed by are the Law of Nature with the superadded Covenant of Grace the subordinate officers are Angels Magistrates and Pastors of the Church having works distinct the society it self is called the Church and Kingdom of God the Reward is everlasting glory with the mercies of this life in order to it and the Punishment is everlasting misery with the preparatory judgements especially on the soul which are here inflicted Subjection is due upon our first being and is consented to or vowed in Baptisme and is to be manifested in holy obedience to the death This is the Soveraignty and Government of God And now let us see how God as our Soveraign must be known 1. The Princes and all the Rulers of the world must understand their Place and Duty They are first Gods subjects and then his officers and can have no power but from God Rom. 13. 3 4. nor hold any but in dependance on him and subordination to him Their power extendeth no further then the Heavenly Soveraign hath signified his pleasure and by commission to them or command to us conferred it on them As they have no strength or natural power but from the Omnipotent God so can they have no Authority or Governing Power or Right but from the Absolute King of all the world They can less pretend to a Right of Governing not derived from God then a Justice or Constable may to such Power not derived from the earthly soveraigns Princes and States also must hence understand their End and Work God who is the Beginning must be the End also of their Government Their Laws must be but by Laws subservient to his Laws to further mens obedience to them The Common Good which is their lower nearer End must be measured by his Interest in the Nations and mens Relations unto him The Common possession of his favour blessing and protection is the greatest Common Good His Interest in us
it should all be done to the Glory of God 1 Cor. 10. 31. He that regardeth a day or regardeth it not he that eateth or that eateth not must do it to the Lord And though a Good Intention will not sanctifie a forbidden action yet sins of Ignorance and meer Frailty are forborn and pardoned of God when it is his Glory and Service that is sincerely intended though there be a mistake in the choice of means None of us liveth to himself and no man dyeth to himself For whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord Whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords For to this end Christ â—â—th dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14. 6 7 8 9. Our walking with God is a serious Labouring that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him 2 Cor. 5. 9 To this the Love of our Redeemer must constrain us For he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him thâ—t dyed for them and rose again Vers. 14 15. Religion therefore is called the seeking of God because the soul doth press after him and labour tu enjoy him as the Runner seeks to reach the prize or as a Suiter seeketh the Love and fruition of the person beloved And all the particular acts of Religion are oft denominated from this intention of the End and following after it and are all called a seeking the Lord. Conversion is called a seeking the Lord Isa. 55. 6. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found Hos. 3. 5. The Children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God Hos. 7. 10. They do not return to the Lord their God nor seek him Men that are called to Conversion are called to seek God Hos. 10. 12. Break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain Righteousness upon you The converted Children of Israel and Judah shall go weeping together to seek the Lord their God Jer. 50. 4. The wicked are described to be men that do not seek the Lord Isa. 9. 13. 31. 1. The holy Covenant 2 Chron. 15. 12 13. was to seek the Lord If therefore you would Walk with God let him be the mark the prize the treasure the happiness the Heaven it self which you aim at and sincerely seek 1 Chron. 22. 19. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God Psal. 105. 3 4 Glory ye in his Holy Name Let the heart of them rejoyce that seek the Lord Seek the Lord and his strength seek his face for evermore As the life of a Covetous man is a seeking of Riches and the life of an ambitious man is a seeking of worldly honour and applause so the life of a man that liveth to God is a seeking Him to please him honour him and enjoy him And so much of this as he attaineth so much dotb he attain of satisfaction and content If you live to God and seek him as your End and All the want of any thing will be tolerable to you which is but consistent with the fruition of his Love If he be pleased mans displeasure may be borne The loss of all things if Christ be won will not undo us Mans condemnation of us signifieth but little if God the absolute Judge do justifie us He walketh not with God that Liveth not to him as his only Happiness and End 4. Moreover our Walking with God includeth our subjection to his Authority and our taking His Wisdom and Will to be our Guide and his Laws in Nature and Scripture for our Rule you must not walk with him as his Equals but as his Subjects nor give him the honour of an ordinary superior but of the universal King In our doubts he must resolve us and in our straits we must ask counsel of the Lord Lord what wouldst thou have me to do is one of the first words of a penitent soul Act. 9. 6. When sensual worldlings do first ask the flesh or those that can do it hurt or good what they would have them be or do None of Christs true Subjects do call any man Father or Master on earth but in subordination to their highest Lord Matth. 23. The Authority of God doth aw them and govern them more than the fear of the greatest upon earth Indeed they know no power but Gods and that which he committeth unto man And therefore they can obey no man against God what ever it cost them but under God they are most readily and faithfully subject to their Governours not meerly as to men that have power to hurt them if they disobey but as to the officers of the Lord whose Authority they discern and reverence in them But when they have to do with the enemies of Christ who usurp a power which he never gave them against his Kingdom and the souls of men they think it easie to resolve the question whether it be better to obey God or men As the commands of a rebellious Constable or other fellow-subject are of no authority against the Kings Commands so the commands of all the men on earth are of so small authority with them against the Laws of God that they fully approve of the ready and resolute answer of those Witnesses Dan. 3. 16 17 18. We are not careful to answer thee in this matter If it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us c. But if not be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up Worldlings are ruled by their fleshly interest and wisdom and self-will and by the will of man so far as it doth comporte with these By these you may handle them and lead them up and down the world By these doth Satan hold them in captivity But believers feel themselves in subjection to a higher Lord and better Law which they faithfully though imperfectly observe Therefore our walking with God is called A walking in his Law Exod. 16. 4. A walking in his statutes and keeping and doing his commands Lev. 26. 3. A walking in his paths Mic. 4. 2. It is our following the Lamb which way soever he goeth To be given up to our own hearts lusts and to walk in our counsels is contrary to this holy walk with God Psal. 81. 12. and is the course of those that are departed from him And they that are far from him shall perish he destroyeth those that go a whoring from him But it is good for us to draw near to God Psal. 73. 27 28. 5. Our walking with God doth imply that as we are ruled by his Will so we fear no punishment like his threatned displeasure and that the threats of death from mortal men will not prevail with us so much as his threats of Hell Luk. 12. 4. If God
Satan can never come in so ill a time with his temptations and have so little hope to speed as when the soul is contemplating the attributes of God or taken up in prayer with him or any way apprehensive of his presence The soul that faithfully walks with God hath enough at hand in him to answer all temptations And the further any man is from God and the less he knoweth him the more Temptations can do upon him 3. The presence of God affordeth the most powerful motives unto Good to those that walk with him There is no grace in man but what is from God and may find in God its proper object or incentive As God is God above the creature transcendently and infinitely in all perfections so all the motives to goodness which are fetcht from him are transcendently above all that may be fetcht from any creature He that liveth alwaies by the fire or in the Sun-shine is likest to be warm He that is most with God will be most like to God in Holiness Frequent and serious converse with him doth most deeply imprint his communicable attributes on the heart and make there the clearest impression of his image Believers have learned by their own experience that one hours serious prayer or meditation in which they can get nigh to God in the Spirit doth more advance their grace then any help that the creature can afford them 4. Moreover those that walk with God have not only a Powerful but an universal incentive for the actuating and increasing of every grace Knowledge and faith and fear and love and trust and hope and obedience and zeal and all have in God their proper objects and incentives One Creature may be useful to us in one thing and another in another thing but God is the most effectual mover of all his graces and that in a holy harmony and order Indeed he hath no greater Motive to draw us to Love him and Fear him and Trust him and Obey him than himself It is life eternal to know him in his Son Joh. 17. 3. And that is not only because it entitleth us to life eternal but also because it is the beginning and incentive of that life of holiness which will be eternal 5. Moreover those that walk with God have a constant as well as a Powerful and Universal incentive to exercise and encrease their Graces Othet helps may be out of the way Their Preachers may be silenced or removed Their Friends may be scattered or taken from them Their Books may be forbidden or not at hand But God is alwaies ready and willing They have leave at all times to come to him and be welcome Whenever they are willing they may go to him by prayer or contemplation and find all in him which they can desire If they want not Hearts they shall find no want of any thing in God At what time soever fear would torment them they may draw near and put their trust in him Psal. 56. 2 3 4. 11. 1. 18. 2 30. 31. 1 6. He will be a sure and speedy refuge for them a very present help in trouble Psal. 46. 1. 62. 7 8. 91. 2 9 94. 22. Whenever coldness or lukewarmness would extinguish the work of Grace they may go to him and find those streams of flaming Love flow from him those strong attractives those wonderful mercies those terrible judgements of which while they are musing the fire may again wax hot within them Psal. 39. 3. 6. Lastly by way of encouraging reward God useth to give abundantly of his Grace to those that walk most faithfully with him He will shew most Love to those that most love him He will be nearest to them that most desirously draw nigh to him while he forsaketh those that forsake him and turneth away from those that turn away from him 2 Chro. 15. 2. Prov. 1. 32. Ezr. 8. 22. The hand of our God is for good upon all them that seek him but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him Thus it is apparent in all those evidences that walking with God is not only a discovery of the Goodness that men have but the only way to encrease their Grace and make them better O what a sweet humility and seriousness and spirituality appeareth in the conference or conversation or both of those that newly come from a believing close converse with God! When they that come from men and Books may have but a common mind or life And those that come from the business and pleasure of the world and flesh and from the company of foolish riotous gallants may come defiled as the Swine out of the mire V. LAstly to walk with God is the best preparation for times of suffering and for the day of death As we must be judged according to what we have done in the body so the nearer we find our selves to judgement the more we shall be constrained to judge our selves according to what we have done and shall the more perceive the effects upon our souls That this is so excellent a preparative for sufferings and death will appear by the consideration of these particulars 1. They that walk with God are safest from all destructive sufferings and shall have none but what are sanctified to their good Rom. 8. 28. They are near to God where destruction cometh not as the Chicken under the wings of the Hen. They walk with him that will not lead them to perdition that will not neglect them nor sell them for nought nor expose them to the will of men and devils though he may suffer them to be tryed for their good No one can take them out of his hands Be near to him and you are safe The destroyer cannot fetch you thence He can fetch you when the time is come from the side of your merriest companions and dearest friends from the presence of the greatest Princes from the strongest Tower or most sumptuous Pallace or from your heaps of riches in your securest health But he cannot take you from the arms of Christ nor from under the wings of your Creatours love For there is no God like him in Heaven above or on the earth beneath who keepeth Covenant and Mercy with his servants that walk before him with all their heart 1 King 8 23. 1 King 11. 38. However we are used in our Fathers presence we are sure it shall be for good in the latter end For he wanteth neither Power nor Love to deliver us if he saw deliverance to be best 2. Walking with God is the surest way to obtain a certainty of his special love and of our salvation And what an excellent preparative for sufferings or death such assurance is I need not tell any considerate beleever How easie may it be to us to suffer poverty disgrace or wrongs or the pains of sickness or death when once we are certain that we shall not suffer the pains of
Is this your case I pray you answer these few Questions and suffer the truth to have its proper work upon your mind Quest. 1. Who was it that deprived you of your friend was it not God Did not he that gave him you take him from you Was it not his Lord and owner that call'd him home And can God do any thing injuriously or amiss will you not give him leave to do as he list with his own Dare you think that there was wanting either wisdom or goodness justice or mercy in Gods disposal of your friend Or will you ever have Rest if you cannot have Rest in the will of God 2. How know you what sin your friend might have fallen into if he had lived as long as you would have him You 'l say that God could have preserved him from sin It 's true but God preserveth sapientially by means as well as omnipotentially And sometime he seeth that the temptations to that person are like to be so strong and his corruption like to get such advantage and that no means is so fit as Death it self for his preservation And if God had permitted your friend by temptation to have fallen into some scandalous sin or course of evil or into errors or false wayes would it not have been much worse then death to him and you God might have suffered your friend that was so faithful to have been sifted and shaken as Peter was and to have denied his Lord and to have seemed in your own eyes as odious as he before seemed amiable 3. How know you what unkindness to your self your dearest friend might have been guilty of Alas there is greater frailty and inconstancy in man then you are aware of And there are sadder roots of corruption unmortified that may spring up into bitter fruits then most of us ever discover in our selves Many a Mother hath her heart broken by the unnaturalness of such a child or the unkindness of such a husband as if they had died before would have been lamented by her with great impatience and excess How confident soever you may be of the future fidelity of your friend you little know what tryal might have discovered Many a one hath failed God and man that once were as confident of themselves as ever you were of your friend And which of us see not reason to be distrustful of our selves And can we know another better then our selves or promise more concerning him 4. How know you what great calamity might have bifallen your friend if he had lived as long as you desired When the Righteous seem to men to perish and merciful men are taken away it is from the evil to come that they are taken Isa. 57. 1. How many of my friends have I lamented as if they had died unseasonably concerning whom some following providence quickly shewed me that it would have been a grievous misery to them to have lived longer Little know you what calamities were eminent on his person his family kindred neighbours country that would have broke his heart What if a friend of yours had died immediately before some calamitous subversion of a Kingdome some ruines of the Church c. and if ignorantly he had done that which brought these things to pass can you imagine how lamentably sad his life would have been to him to have seen the Church the Gospel and his Country in so sad a case especially if it had been long of him Many that have unawares done that which hath ruined but a particular friend have lived in so much grief and trouble as made them consent that death should both revenge the injured on them and conclude their misery What then would it have been to have seen the publick good subverted and the faithful overwhelmed in misery and the Gospel hindered and holy worship changed for deceit and vanity and for conscience to have been daily saying I had a hand in all this misery I kindled the fire that hath burned up all What comfort can you think such friends if they had survived would have found on earth Unless it were a comfort to hear the complaints of the afflicted to see and hear such odious sins as sometimes vexed righteous Lot to see and hear or to hear of the scandals of one friend and the apostasie of another and the sinful compliances and declinings of a third and to be under temptations reproaches and afflictions themselves Is it a matter to be so much lamented that God hath prevented their greater miseries and wo 5. What was the world to your friends while they did enjoy it Or what is it now or like to be hereafter to your selves was it so good and kind to them as that you should lament their separation from it was it not to them a place of toil and trouble of envy and vexation of enmity and poison of successive cares and fears and griefs and worst of all a place of sin Did they groan under the burden of a sinful nature a distempered tempted troubled heart of languishings and weakness of every grace of the rebukes of God the wounds of conscience and the malice of a wicked world And would you have them under these again Or is their deliverance become your grief Did you not often joyn in prayer with them for deliverance from malice calamities troubles imperfections temptations and sin and now those prayers are answered in their deliverance and do you now grieve at that which then you prayed for Doth the world use your selves so well and kindly as that you should be sorry that your friends partake not of the feast Are you not groaning from day to day your selves and are you grieved that your friends are taken from your griefs you are not well pleased with your own condition when you look into your hearts you are displeased and complain when you look into your lives you are displeased and complain when you look into your families into your neighbourhoods unto your friends unto the Church unto the Kingdome unto the world you are displeased and complain And are you also displeased that your friends are not under the same displeasedness and complaints as you Is the world a place of Rest or trouble to you And would you have your friends to be as far from Rest as you And if you have some Ease and Peace at present you little know what storms are near you may see the dayes you may hear the tydings you may feel the griping griefs and pains which may make you call for Death your selves and make you say that a life on earth is no felicity and make you confess that they are Blessed that are dead in the Lord as resting from their labours and being past these troubles griefs and fears Many a poor troubled soul is in so great distress as that they take their own lives to have some tast of Hell and yet at the same time are grieving because their friends are taken from them who