house made a shift to live on husks and such trash for a time so do many now but the day will come when God will take these husks away from you wives children pleasures and estates and what ever it is that gives you some refreshment in this world and then you will be left worse then nothing you shall neither have God nor the world Yea such a necessity there is to look after this that you have indeed no true interest in any thing till you get aâ— Interest in God though you think you have That man that hath not God hath nothing it is most sure for he is under sentence A condemned man loseth all his estate Men will perswade themselves they are Lords and that they have this and they have that but indeed they have nothing what they have is but prisoners allowance something is allowed to condemned men till the stroke comes and this is the case of all men that have not God for their God Know also that a man is not said to have any interest in any thing that doth not add something to him if it be not something that contributes to his well-being A man doth not reckon his sickness diseases pains and such evils and miseries to be his interest in these things no man accounts of it is unhappiness Whatsoever adds not to a man stands for a cypher is nothing Interest in nothing is nothing That which we claim Interest in must have some good in it to give out unto us But now the real good of a man is no way promoted by any thing while he lives without God in the world It is the priviledg of Saints that all things work together for their good Rom. 8.28 And it 's as true otherwise that nothing works for the good of those that love not God Children and estate may tend to the goodness of one mans condition there may be good working out of them to one man and yet may prove to the hurt of another as the best good may be evil to this or that man to a man that is under the Curse all turns to bitterness and death The truth is that which kills life doth less hurt the senses then that which only destroys the peace and rest of a man A man feels more by a stroke sometimes then he doth by a Consumption or an Apoplexy That which destroys most effectually is oftentimes least felt and therefore what men feel not because of their outward enjoyments they consider not they lay not to heart But if God be your God then all is yours 1 Cor. 3. Then comes an Interest in all As he that marries the heir becomes Lord of the estate servants and cattel and lands are his he commands all the family So if God be our God the whole Creation becomes ours Men come to have much by coming to God The Apostle gives some account of this in Heb. 12. where he saith We are come to Mount Zion to the City of the living God to an innumerable company of Angels to the spirits of just men made perfect c. We come to all these to communion with these when God becomes ours We begin therefore at the wrong end when we seek any thing in this world and seek not God first for saith Christ Mat. 6.33 Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be given to you When therefore you seek estates and the accommodations of this life and do not indeed seek to make God yours you act very crosly to your own good There is a simple necessity to look after this for besides what hath been said you all live and are in a state of absolute dependance upon God who hath the power of life and death we are all in his hands and that Key by which he shuts and none can open you shall see put forth one day when you shall know what a loss it is to miss an Interest in him who hath all power in Heaven and in Earth That 's one thing which should make us serious to get an Interest in God that it 's simply necessary CHAP. VIII Interest in God most attainable Goodness and Fulness the Springs of Communication Desire easily and with most success revealed to God Poor strangers impotent persons not bar'd from God as from men Interest in God incomparable in the enjoyment A Second Argument is That it is an Interest most attainable for it is Goodness and Fulness by which we come to have Interest in any thing these are the Springs of all Communication between one and another and where these are greatest there is a wider door opened a fuller easier and sweeter entrance into Communion and the enjoyment of each other It 's the nature of goodness to be communicative and the more goodness the more ready to communicate Look through the whole Creation and you shall find it so that as any Creature is more noble and excellent so it is the more hospitable and bountiful the more ready to give out it self The Sun the Air the Sea how liberal are they Things of a more confin'd and straitened nature are but like a small Cottage into which one or two or a few may enter but it cannot give habitation to many But as Creatures abound in the goodness of God and his fulness they become like a stately Palace that gives open ready and liberal entertainment to many Now God is greatest in all Excellencies and therefore his Propensions to Mercy and Goodness towards his Creatures are unspeakably unconceiveably greater then any Propensions in the Creature can be In these two Glories God infinitely transcends all Creatures in the glory of his Being and the glory of his Working Nothing more sets out God and exalts him then his readiness to do good and communicate himself to his Creatures He hath said It 's a more blessed thing to give then to receive Indeed it 's sometimes a more blessed thing to give then to have and enjoy Take one that hath great power to do good and no love what is he but like a meer Iron Chest a Fountain sealed Now God is most ready to do good it 's his glory It 's said in Prov. 19.23 That the desire of a man is his kindness The desire of a man that is that which is most to be desired the most precious thing in a man that thing which makes him desireable that renders him glorious and beautiful is his kindness that he is a kind man such an one wears a Crown and Garland upon his head This Crown God wears above all the desire of God is his kindness And to make it yet more apparent that an Interest in God is most attainable Consider That by which we come to have an Interest in another is usually the manifestation of our desire with the tender of our love and affections to him and this is best done and with most efficacy with God for the breathings and operations of a mans spirit lie
Thou hast made me glad with thy Countenance The sense of the good presence and favour and love of God doth fill the Soul with pleasure and when it can hold no more it hath enough Let the issue of all this Discourse be to set our hearts a longing and wishing O that I were blessed with a full enjoyment of God! O that I had as much of him as ever I shall or can have The Soul that is thus in travel travels without pain The Mind reaching after other things oftentimes out-stretcheth it self There are usually if not always pains with desires especially in desires after the Creature because that oftentimes there is a frustration of our desires or an elongation of the things the things are far off hard to come by our desires oftentimes are mute they speak not or the things that we desire know not our minds but our desires after God always speak they are open unto God he heareth their voyce All my desires are before Thee saith David Psal 38.8 and my groanings are not hid from Thee Therfore it must needs be sweet when the Soul lies thus open unto God Other desires do not assure and secure a man in the things he desires a man may wish this and wish that and go without both but the Soul that thus longs after God is instated in his wish hath a present enjoyment and certainly shall have a full enjoyment of him He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him God will hear them Psal 145.16 They that long most receive most it 's the hungry spirit that feeds best and fares best When the Church was sick of love being very much taken with what she had and much longing after what she wanted then she could say I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine his desire is towards me in Cant. 7.10 That refreshed her the Greek reads it his Conversion is towards me indeed God will turn to those that go out toward him In Isai 64.5 He meets those that work righteousness and seek him in his ways Again Consider this That longing after a full enjoyment is the natural effect of a known Interest in God Look through all the Orders of the Creation and you shall find that every thing seeks the enjoyment of its Interest Angels do Men do Beasts do they seek their own their own pastures their own young their own mates Can you imagine that we should be the Children of God and account him our Father and not long to enjoy him A child hears from his father and receives tokens from his father but he is not contented he would be with his father So it is truly with a Child of God so far as he hath received of that Spirit he longs to enjoy God Interest in God works by a power of its own and God works in it too God pursues his Interest in us to the utmost therefore he is working us to himself by all means all ways by good and evil by life by mortality and death by the senses by Ordinances by his Spirit He is always at work to bring us home that we may be in his possession and enjoy him And to make it the more full he hath appointed the breaking of these bodies that our spirits may come more full to him nay and he hath appointed a day of Resurrection that our bodies may come full to him and this is one great end of Christs coming again in Joh. 14. that we may be with him in his Fathers house If God so drives on his Interest to make us perfect with him let us drive on our Interest to make God fully ours in the enjoyment of him Lastly There is nothing to hinder in this Case that you should not drive on to a full and perfect enjoyment of him Are you full in this world should your full enjoyments of the world hinder your full enjoyments of God Is not God better then these things Are you scanted in this world The more need you have then of the fullest enjoyments of God Have you much of God You know the more what God is and can you chuse but desire him Have you little of God Then you need more and should drive on to get more Are you sure of your Interest Where Interest is most sure there is most love and where the Soul loves most thither it drives most Do you fear your Interest You have so much the more reason to seek after a full enjoyment of God to the satisfaction of your Souls What do you think should stand in the way You must part with the world What is this world to your Fathers house and to God himself You must dye What is death Cannot that everlasting life recompence you infinitely Therefore there is nothing to hinder you Then seeing God invites you and provokes you to seek more of him in this world though you cannot have all I conjure you by all the sweetness that is in God and that you have found in God that you obey his Word herein and drive on more diligently and strongly to a more full enjoyment of God FINIS PSAL. 119. vers 4. I am thine save me for I have sought thy Precepts CHAP. I. Gods Interest in man natural and acquired this latter twofold Of holy Resignation Of true and false Mourning I Have chosen this excellent Pattern to propose to you and to my self of an ingenuous spirit David a man after Gods own heart would be saved but not after the manner of the men of this world that would be saved to be their own and to enjoy themselves at their own wills but he in being saved would be Gods and at his disposing I am thine save me There are three things here that would be thought on 1. What David means when he saith I am thine 2. What the Reason should be that we should use such an acknowledgment of our selves to be Gods when we pray to him 3. What force there is in this argument to be pleaded with God I am thine save me Thine We are said to be Gods either by way of affection as the Church Cant. 2.16 I am my well-beloveds and my well-beloved is mine Or in respect of that Interest that God hath in us The Interest of God in man is upon a twofold Foundation and Account 1. Upon account of the Law of Nature the natural Law which doth set God as Lord over all and acknowledg him supreme Commander of every thing because he is the Original and glorious Fountain of all Being Upon that account it is that in Psal 89.11 it is said The Heavens are thine and the Earth also is thine as for the world and the fulness thereof thou hast founded them There is the ground of that Dominion which God hath over all things they are his off-spring things that himself hath made And in Psal 50.12 God owns himself in this Soveraignty The Heavens are mine and the Earth is mine and all that in them is
THREE TREATISES Being the Substance of sundry DISCOURSES VIZ. I. The Fixed Eye or the Mindful Heart on Psal 25.15 II. The Principal Interest or the Propriety of the Saints in God on Micah 7.7 III. Gods Interest in Man Natural and Acquired on Psal 119.4 By that Judicious and Pious Preacher of the Gospel Mr JOSEPH SYMONDS M. A. late Vice-provost of Eaton Colledg LONDON Printed by J Macock for LUKE FAVVN and are to be sold at his Shop at the sign of the Parrot in Pauls Church-yard M.DC.LIII The Pourtraiture of Mr. Joseph Symonds Late Vice Prouost of Eaton Colledge Aetat Suae 50. To all that desire to live godly in CHRIST JESUS IT is not unknown to very many of Gods people in this Nation with what entire affection and happy success the pious Authour of these Meditations now asleep in Jesus laid out himself in the service of the Gospel Divers of you sate somtimes under the shadow of his Ministry with great delight And of those who had not the enjoyment of him but in more removed distances what serious eye ever read as it ought that truly incomparable piece The Deserted Souls Case and Cure and was not thereby enlightned startled humbled lifted up nearer to God Or what good heart for that end that it might be better duly perused his later piece Of Faith and Sight but it was by increased faith and its just appendages more fitted for sight The Holy Spirit was his spring and plentiful emanations from thence filled his Cistern and made him free to communication He dwelt in the presence of Christ d so was at home in Heavenly Negotiations and the content that he had there made him delight to stand still between Christ and his people to receive and give though he gave away his own life withall And when he perceived the shadow of the evening to be stretched forth upon him they did nothing to him but only provoke him to make more haste in the finishing of his work Those holy Tapers which receive their light from the golden Lamp of the Sanctuary shine and burn down to the socket and are burning and shining lights thereto In his wearinesses and weaknesses grown constant in his later time when the effects of his pains made strong sollicitations to desist it was an expression which he often used with pleasance to his friends Yet praying and preaching is too good work to be weary of In the continuance of it he poured forth himself as a drink-offering to Christ upon the service of his Saints and so passed to eternal life through the best forms of death And indeed that way as is roported of Moses God doth kiss away the souls of his Servants But that he might prevent death he took much pains with his own pen besides constant expence of mony for the assistance of another that his love in permanent testimonies might out-live his life and the first neglects of his hearers He knew well how precious discourses are lost to the inconsiderate part of men and women who either do not give due heed while a Sermon is preached and so take it not into their understandings and hearts or else cannot remember it having heard it but once Of his good will to such he hath left many evidences which will be produced if God pleases as soon as time health and other work will give leave to make up the Chasin's and mend other errours of the writer in those copies which were taken from the Pulpit and were not corrected by himselfe For the present it was judged meet to print these three small Tracts The first touching Spiritual remembrance of God as a most seasonable praelibation This being a time when a careless Devil hath after too eminent a manner possessed a multitude of Professours and many Christians have recklesly lost Jesus Christ in the crowd of worldly affections designes diversions The aim of this is to quicken all that have the root of eternal life in them to more frequent Addresses of Soul to God and to rivet them in contentful abode and holy reposes in him The Second is an excellent discovery of the Saints interest in God in which all holy souls may see how happy they are or may be in God their God The Third holds forth Gods interest in us by which as by a true glass we may learn to reflect upon God all his goodness and love contained in the former Treatise if it be also revealed in our hearts and so God will be to us as he is to all true Christians the beginning and end of our life All which Discourses the Godly Reader will find enrich'd with many clear descriptions of heavenly truths many rational considerations which in way of Exhortation do strike fitly and weightily upon those capable principles which God hath put into the soul as Ears for him to take hold of both with very lovely representations and right dreadful terrours and as he goes up and down he will meet methodicall and sure directions like benigne Guides telling the way of happy life to all the children of wisdom and truth So you have a short account of what you may find in these papers Be their Patronage the living influence of the all-quickning Spirit who only is able to make these and all other well-ordered tendencies effectual to their desirable ends and who can protect them from unprofitable reading and forgetful neglects which are the wrongful abuses and unjust imprisonment of the most useful truths I who in this matter do only carry the staff of Elisha which he hath left behind do and shall pray that it may not only be laid upon the child which is ready to dye but that this Spirit would joyn himself to it and make it the ministration of life even the beauty and bands of God upon the spirits of his own That the misplaced eye of some Reader may be set right and then fixed that some heart may be undeceived And Oh that the time were come when no Child of God would write his name in the earth which to do is to be cursed and to make the Divels sport Alas whil'st we through their false representations and cozening impulses sell our comfort our life our soul for cheap things at easie rates do they not laugh do they not insult Though it is a poor sport and proper only to Divels to rejoyce in the follies and sorrows of humanity The Lord Jesus who came to break the power of spiritual wickednesses drive them out of the souls of men and women and if they must have leave to enter any where let it be onely into swine The Lord appear more to the Inhabitants of this world that they may see the glory of truth and be transformed into its Image delivered into the spirit and life of truth and out of the power of detaining falshoods and seducing vanities the chains of evil spirits Then the capacity of the children of men so empty hungry and sore distressed though
other life appointed for Saints The fulness beauty and satisfaction of this life How Christians offer violence to their relation IN this Chapter I would make Exhortation to all that have Interest in God to live upon it Only first I will shew what it is to live upon God as our God And it is First To cleave to God with joy of heart to live in the affectionate embraces of God in Christ and delightful conversings with him to have God for our life as it is said of Jacob concerning Benjamin His Soul his life was bound up in the life of the child Gen. 44.13 that is they had one lot if one lived the other lived their joys were the same they could not be severed or parted they were but as one So we should be towards God our lives should be so bound up in him we should be one with him Secondly To live upon God is to contract all our desires into God to have none but what are for him and according to him This is the way of life indeed when God is a mans all when the language of his Soul is Whom have I in Heaven but Thee Thus to have desires to God that he rests not in any thing beneath God nor seek any thing besides God that is to live in God Thirdly To live in a faithful real resignation of ones self unto God If you be his you know that he hath taken chosen and set apart the good man for himself Psal 4. And so must we live as sequestred persons as those that are his that as the holy things of the Temple were for no other use so must we be only for God In Hos 3.3 't is said Thou shalt abide with me many days thou shalt not play the harlot thou shalt not be for another man but shalt be unto me so will I also be for thee God will stand close to that spirit and be the comfort stay and life of it that reserves it self for him Fourthly It is to contract and draw all your expectations upon God to lay all your weight there If there be any thing thou promisest thine own heart let it be from the bosom of God if there be any answer that thou makest to the fears doubts and troubles of thy spirit let it be from the voyce of the Lord. Thus David in Psal 62.2 He only is my Rock and my Salvation he is my defence I shall not be greatly moved And he saith at vers 5. My Soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him He tells you what God is to him and what indeed he looks for from God What God is to him He is my Rock and my Salvation in God is my Salvation and my Glory he is the Rock of my strength He tells you also what he expects from God My Refuge is from him so that if I need safety or refreshing and supply of any good mine eye is upon him and from him I look for all This is to live upon God Having expressed in a few words what it is to live upon God Now take those Considerations which perswade to live such a life as this First There is no other life for you This is appointed for you to this you are called for this you are fitted Fishes may as well live in the ayr as you live in the world You may try and weary out your selves in vain but God is your life This be sure of if you neglect this life either dulness and benumedness will fall upon you so that you will grow sensual brutish and earthly strangers to the joy activity and tenderness of holy Christians or you shall fall into a dis-rest an unsufferable unquietness of spirit while you are as a rouling thing in the wind having no consistence because you are out of your place You shall be afflicted within and this will be your great evil that you lived not in God And now because you seek life in other things you shall dig for your own death And if you have any reason it will work to your own affliction vex and torment your Souls night and day because you did not walk in the counsels of the Most high and the embracements of his Love Your sweetest enjoyments will be all sowred like the waters of Jericho bitterness will be in them not to be endured Secondly This is a life that should be most pleasing and amiable unto our spirits and certainly we are dead and alienated from God if there be not an incomparable sweetness to us in it For 1. It is the fullest life The life of all other things hath something mixed with it the life of your enjoyments your pleasures and relations is a mixt life there is death in all your comforts and you taste it and are sick of it many times you know it well It is true there is nothing that God hath made and appointed for our use but brings in some portion of life our garments give a little and our food a little and friends give something but how little do all these give But now this life is all life the life you have from other things is a short poor narrow life but this life is more compleat Take the life of a man that hath whatsoever his heart can wish his comforts strike but upon his sense or at best have but some light touch upon his spirit Alas the Souls of men cannot drink at these Cisterns Life that comes from these things hath not immortality in it such things are as far from immortality as they are from sufficiency The wisest the richest and most honorable that have the fullest life dye because the life they have by such things cannot hold pace with the Soul nor communicate a life of consistency But the life we have with God extends to the whole course and capacity of the Soul it fills up every corner and leaves no want 2. It is a life that gives perfect satisfaction he can ask no more that hath it 3. It is a life that beautifies the Soul Mens complexions usually are as their dyet is Oh he that feeds on God what a rare complexion is his Soul of It makes him like to God it reduceth a Soul from a miserable separation into a blessed and orderly union Our life being in one God one Good which is all Good he that lives this life would dye ten thousand deaths rather then part with it Thou well knewest Peter what thou saidst in Joh. 6. When Christ said to his Disciples Will ye also go away then Simon Peter answered To whom shall we go Lord Thou hast the words of eternal life Whither dost thou think we can go when we knew thee not we could indeed be without thee but now we know thee whither shall we go When Nature comes to a state of Consistency it rests it seeks no more That man is in such a state that is in God that enjoys him and his Love and rests in him
be sure you mind it and have this in your hearts to be ready to it Revel 12. They loved not their lives to the death Animarum suarum pro. digi Beza they did with their lives as with things they hate not at all regard them So when it 's said they liked not to retain the knowledg of God in their thoughts the meaning is they hated that God should have any room in them or that there should be any knowledg of God in their hearts Though the worst of men cannot but sometimes have God in their eyes yet because they like it not God counts it is not done and takes it as if they gave him no attendance or never lookt after him The Apostle Rom. 7.17 upon this account reckons It 's no more I but sin that dwelleth in me because the propention of my spirit my better part is all towards God it is no more I In this sence when a wicked man thinks of God it 's not the man that doth it but his conscience or the power of God upon him he doth what he would not do As in another case Quae quia non potuit non facit illa facit when a man would do a thing though he cannot do it it goes for done with God as it 's said of Abraham concerning his son and David concerning the temple So that whether it be good or evil it 's not reckoned if the will be not in it Let no man deceive himself though he cast his eyes toward Heaven all the day long if he love not this work he doth nothing 3. That which is not done according to the Rule God reckons it as not done If a Master set his servant about a work if he do it not according to the pattern and rule which is set him nothing is done it may be worse then nothing This is not to eat the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.20 Yet they did eat it but because it was not done after its due manner he saith this is not to eat it And mark it what God faith in this case Isai 43.22 Thou hast not called on me O Jacob but hast been weary of me O Israel Thou hast not brought me the small cattel of thy burnt-offerings neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices I have not caused thee to serve with an offering nor wearied thee with incense Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices c. Yet they did these things and God acknowledgeth it Jer. 6.20 To what purpose cometh there to me Incense from Sheba and the sweet Cane from a far Country Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable nor your sacrifices sweet to me He looks on the thing as not done because 't is not done as it should be Men think of God but their thoughts are not holy awful and subjecting the spirit they think of God but their thoughts are no way proportionable to the Majesty of God they look loosly carelesly and carnally upon God they peep upon that glory with an unholy and undaunted spirit and so it s against the Rule and God reckons it not done nay it will be worse to them God will recompence upon their heads even their thoughts of him this he will punish severely People think they do well when they have good thoughts and think well they are deceived for if their thoughts be not as they should be though they be for number as motes in the Sun they do no good but bring many sufferings and punishments upon them 4. That which is a mans course and trade denominates a man and not any particular action A man may come to a Carpenters house and take up his tools and do something at his work but this makes him not a Carpenter it doth not denominate him because that is not his trade The best Saints sin yet because it 's not their trade and course they are said not to sin and are called blameless and holy c. And David is said to be a man after Gods own heart notwithstanding his many failings because the habit of his spirit was so Now the course of the world is a course of habitual and voluntary forgetfulness of God endeavoring to shut God out of their thoughts and if their thoughts do run towards him it 's but as water out of its proper channel not in its place their way is altogether out of God that we may say of God in reference to these as Job of places not frequented They are forgotten of the foot Job 28.4 So the minds and spirits of these men converse not with God but he is forgotten of the foot of their Souls This is a dangerous state when they are not with God where are they In the night tares are sown and when is night but when God appears not as the non-appearance of the Sun makes darkness and then the night takes place and now all evil is to be found in that man Judg. 3.7 They did evil and forgot God Those two are joyned together as the cause and the effect they forgot God and therefore did evil Forgetfulness and unmindfulness of Gods is the womb of all sin where every unclean spirit nests A man that lives in forgetfulness of God is free to righteousness as the Apostle speaks Rom. 6.20 He is in no bonds to God he feels no obliging power in any thing upon his spirit toward God Non entis non appaâ—entis eadem est ratio As things that are not so things that are unknown and not minded are worth nothing It 's all one to me whether things be not or be forgotten The spirits of those men are in a woful case that live without God they are as Sheep without a Shepherd and like a Ship among Rocks nothing but a divine hand can rescue them from everlasting Shipwrack All affections of love joy fear and hope flow from sight of God therefore where there is no sight and knowledg of God men are free to all evil If thou forgettest God thou clearly pronouncest and the express language of thy course is that there is no God this very thing strips him of all loveliness and beauty one not worthy to be minded What is more contemptible then that which no man will look on Forgetfulness is the state of death Psal 31.12 That I be not as one forgotten among the dead When God is not remembered by thee he is to thee a dead thing And what is thy mind but as a grave a place of darkness and forgetfulness where is nothing but pollution and corruption and whatsoever is loathsom in it self and destructive to thee It 's the speech of Bildad in Job 8.11 12 13 14. Can the rush grow without mire or the flag without water Whilest it is yet in his greenness and not cut down it withereth before any other herb So are the paths of all that forget God and the hypocrites hope shall
perish Whose hope shall be cut off c. Though the marrow be fresh in thy bones and thou be in the vigor of thy youth though all be green and flourishing about thee yet thou art but like the flag without water and the rush without mire in a withering dying and wasting condition though at present thou please thy self in beholding thine own greenness so are the paths of all that forget God Therefore it 's good to consider of it betime Psal 9.17 David saith God will turn all that forget him into Hell Sheol The word signifies a state of death yea a depth of deaths Indeed to forget God is a deep sin and it brings deep death upon men that live in it that dare walk so boldly viewing every creature and minding every vanity and do not make it their work to mind God All the good you do shall be forgotten and all the evil you do shall be remembered and God will say to you one day I know you not I was a stranger to you upon Earth I could not have an eye from you but when your lazy idle spirits pleased and now out of my sight I 'le never own you nor look upon you more and this will be the case of all that forget God Having presented you with the Fault I shall now lay before you the Causes whence it is that men live so in a course of forgetfulness of God CHAP. VII Man wanders from God having lost the government of his spirit Thoughts of God suit not perverted Souls are above them and against them Satan lord of the imaginations and master of the affections in those which forget God 1. MEn have lost the regiment of themselves that government which God had put into their hands over themselves Man was created in a good state like a well ordered family where there are some in command and others under command some commanding and others commanded He made man upright saith Solomon Eccles 7.27 When is a thing right When it agrees with its Rule God and man were alike the Image of God was upon man What is the Image of God God is good and God is wise and so was man and this was the rightness of mans condition God made man right Aquin. all was in order the reason of man was subject to God and the spirit of man was subject to Reason Man had the command of himself that he could set his thoughts in order and send them out upon their proper work and errand and raise affections suitable to their objects and command their motion Now the case is altered 1 Thes 5.14 The Apostle speaking of some men among other terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he calls them unruly This may be the name of the whole state of man he is unruly like an Army routed where neither Commander nor Soldier are in their places so is man having swerved from his Rule The truth is the government is not utterly extinct but utterly perverted like a Change in a State where though there be an alteration in the frame and constitution of it yet there will be a Government still So here that government which man had over himself being perverted now that which is good is trampled upon and that which is evil is exalted Serving divers lusts and pleasures saith the Apostle Tit. 3.5 This is the state of man In Prov. 17.24 The eyes of a fool are in the ends of the Earth wandering up and down like masterless creatures God is forgotten and man hath lost the command of himself to set and hold his mind streightly in attendance upon God This is one Cause 2. Another is this God is not the object that suits them The eye is not pleased therefore it withdraws What is in God is above man Man was created in a state of obedience to God and communion with him but now is sunk into such a state of darkness and depravation that what was his life is now too high for him that as our bodies cannot live in the ayr so the understandings of men cannot now feed upon God who is their proper bread and is so indeed to those who are delivered from this polluted and defiled perverted and impotent state As beasts take no pleasure in beholding heaps of gold and rich cabinets of precious Jewels which are excellent and glorious in the eyes of men because they suit not with their condition So the eye of a man is not taken with beholding God though he be good beyond all expression even he that made and keeps all good in Heaven and in Earth the blessed Fountain of all because there is now an unsuitableness between this excellency that is in God and the present state of man that as the best food in the world will not please a sick stomack so neither will this Angels food go down with men as Solomon in Prov. 24. saith Wisdom is too high for a fool Wisdom whether he means the actions that are to be governed by wisdom or the dictates and rules of wisdom every thing of wisdom is too high for a fool Creatures cannot go higher then their appointed and natural station A fish in the water enjoys it self but put it in another element it dyes presently Men are naturally of that constitution and frame that they cannot live but on low things they cannot live above What is the life of a Saint is death to the world to rise toward God is the resurrection of their spirits and the elevation of all their life but its death and destruction to natural men And they are not only averse to this because there is in God that which is above them but that which is against them What dreadful apprehensions hath a man that looks upon the Power and Wisdom of God his Eternity Omniscience c. These are visions that fright him and strike his heart through like a dart This God is holy therefore he will destroy me and there is no escaping because he is Omnipotent and Omniscient There is in the nature of man a necessary motion that it puts it self upon flight from every thing which it conceives to be hurtful it will not endure a cohabitation with what is contrary to it Who can dwell with everlasting burnings God is a consuming Fire to the world and their thoughts and apprehensions take fire at the remembrance of him and scorch their Souls and they cannot endure it It 's a great pain for a man to be where he would not Wo is me saith David that I dwell in Meshech It 's a perpetual dis-rest to a man when the place of his abode displeaseth him Though a thing be never so good yet if a man be sunk out of that state wherein formerly he had a sweet enjoyment of it it delights not Bury her out of my sight saith Abraham of his wife when she was dead Though he loved her dearly while she was living yet when she was dead bury her out of my
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
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
are called a weakening of the hands in Jer. 38.4 Melting of the heart Deut. 1.28 Breaking of the heart Numb 32.7 All to shew that a man under discouragements is made unfit and unmeet for service 1. Says one I like this well and you speak to my heart when you speak of this eying and minding of God and my wishes keep pace with the Rule I am ready to say I would it were so with me but the work is too hard for me I find no strength to it Answ Suppose you do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed commonly the best things are hard though this be hard yet it 's a necessary work and you must never plead necessity against Duty You are bound to it all Law requires this Is it hard but is it not good doth not the work pay you wages My meditation of him shall be sweet saith David Again You say it 's hard but not so hard as is pretended and all the hardship that is in it we have brought into it let us not then complain though we sweat at the work let us be willing to do it And remember what I tell you though you have lost the command you had over your spirits yet if you be in Christ it 's in part restored to you You see how you can send out your understandings and how they can shout out thoughts upon other things and will you not use a command over them in this in directing them toward God for the beholding of him What is the renewing of your mind but the giving it a powerful propensity to move towards God and the things of God If then you are in part renewed the difficulty is in part removed You have reason therefore in regard of the necessity and sweetness of the work to set your minds to it Besides Your minds are swift of motion you should not speak of difficulty when in an instant you can start from Earth to the highest Heavens Again When you look to God and Jesus Christ you look to one that opens to you If you draw near to God he will draw near to you If the Journey be long he will meet you more then half way Isai 64. He meets them in the way that rejoyce and work righteousness So that if you set to the work you are not like to be as one that launcheth out into the deep Sea where he sees no bounds or like one in a Desart wandering alone on foot but you go forth to one that comes forth to you CHAP. VI. False Meditation subdueth not the heart A wicked heart hath no joy in the thoughts of God What 's done and not according to Rule is as if it were undone The heart which mindeth not God in a constant course is not right THere is a generation of men 3 Exercise whose course is quite cross to Davids Whereas he saith Mine eyes are Ever towards the Lord they may say Mine eyes are Never towards the Lord God is not in all their thoughts Psal 10.4 God reckons a thing as not done in several respects 1. When it 's not done to purpose when a work is done but reacheth not its end Jer. 8.6 No man repents saying What have I done Yet Isai 59.12 God acknowledgeth something upon record to be done they confest that their transgressions were multiplied before him and their sins testified against them yet he complains No man repents c. because it was not done to purpose the work was not home Psal 119.59 I considered my ways and turned my feet unto thy Testimonies I made haste and delayed not to keep thy Testimones Here was a work to purpose Then a man looks toward God to purpose when the thoughts of God are the possessions of his heart when the eye is so set on God that the heart is changed into the likeness of God Though a man should give a thousand glances every day toward Heaven if there be no effectual impression upon the heart God takes it as if a man ever lookt from him and never cast an eye toward him Psal 50. They are called a people that forget God Surely 't was not a total forgetfulness for the Law of God was in their mouths and they had made a Covenant with him by sacrifice but their remembrance of God was not effectual it did not subdue their hearts to God therefore though they talkt of him yet God chargeth them with forgetfulness of him 1 John 3.6 the Apostle saith that they that live in sin have not seen God neither known him A true sight o◠God separates a man from himself it 's the the destruction of the sins he lived in as ignorance and forgetfulness of God is the strength of sin Forgetting and not regarding are put one for another in Scripture I forget saith the Apostle Phil. 3. those things that are behind i.e. they were of no weight with him he regarded them not So when men forget God it argues they regard him not at all as God is said to forget men when he will do nothing for them then a man is as forgotten as a thing that is not Jer. 23.39 See how this is exprest I even I will utterly forget you Obliviscendo obliviscar or in forgeting I will forget you and I will utterly forsake you and cast you out of my presence and bring everlasting reproach upon you and perpetual shame that shall not be forgotten A terrible place for all forgetters of God 2. God reckons that as not done which men would not have done Sometimes men think of God but they know not how to shun it God breaks in upon their spirits but their natural temper is to suffer themselves to be drunk up and diverted by other objects A natural man abhors the thought of God nothing so sweet to a Saint My meditation of thee shall be sweet A good man could be content to live out of himself to live in God It 's a good work the work of Angels they who once have been used to this employment know not how to wish to change One Eudoxius wisht that he might be admitted to come near the body of the Sun to have a full view of it though it devour'd him He was something rash in his wish But there is something proportionable in a godly spirit he so loves God that he could be content to be swallowed up in the beholding of him 'T is said of some Rom. 1.28 That they liked not to retain God in their knowledg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haimo and God gave them up to a Reprobate Mind They liked not that is they not only neglected but despised it seemed not good to them so the Syriac It was a very unpleasing thing to them to know and to mind God It 's usual in Scripture that verbs negative are put for their contraries Zech. 8.7 Love not a false Oath Love not that is hate it Heb. 13.2 Forget not to entertain strangers that is