Affections will fall off from earthly things of their own accord The keenness and sharpness of them in many things may be abated by the decay of their natural Powers in Age and the like They may be mated by frequent Disappointments by Sicknesses Pains and Afflictions as we shall see immediately or they may be willing unto a Distribution of earthly Enjoyments to have the Reputation of it wherein they still cleave unto the World but under another shape and appearance They may be startled by Convictions so as to do many things gladly that belong unto another Frame But or one pretence or other under one appearance or other they will for ever adhere and cleave unto earthly things unless they are mortified unto them through Faith in the Blood and Cross of Christ. Gal. 6.14 VVhatever thoughts you may have of your selves in this matter unless you have the Experience of a work of Mortification on your Affections you can have no refreshing ground of Assurance that you are in any thing Spiritually-Minded Fifthly In all Instances of Duty belonging unto your Stewardship of earthly things attend diligently unto the Rule of the Word without this the Grace exhorted unto may be abused So of old under a pretence of a relinquishment of the things of this World because of the danger in adhering unto them their own Superstition and the Craft of other men prevailed with many to part with all they had unto the Service of others not better it may be not so good as themselves This Evil wholly arose from want of attendance unto the Rule of Truth which gives no such Direction in ordinary Cases But there is not much seen in these days of an Excess in that kind But on the other hand in all Instances of Duties of this nature most mens Minds are habitually influenced with Pretences Reasonings and Considerations that turn the Scales as unto what they ought to do in proportion in this Duty on the side of the World If you would be safe you must in all Instances of Duty as in works of Charity Piety and Compassion give Authority in and over your Souls unto the Rule of the Word Let neither Self nor Unbelief nor the Custom and Example of others be heard to speak but let the Rule alone be attended unto and to what that speaks yeild Obedience Unless these things are found in us none of us no man living if it be not so with him can have any refreshing Evidence or Assurance that he is not under the Power of an inordinate yea and predominant Love unto this World And indeed to add a little further on the Occasion of this Digression it is a sad thing to have this Exception made against the State of any Man on just Grounds yea but he loves the World He is sober and industrious he is constant in Dutys of Religion it may be an earnest Preacher of them a man of sound Principles and blameless as unto the Excesses of Life but he loves the World The Question is how doth this appear it may be what you say is but one of those evil Surmises which all things are filled withal Wherefore I speak it not at all to give countenance unto the rash Judging of others which none are more prone unto than those who one way or other are eminently guilty themselves But I would have every man judge himself that we be none of us Condemned of the Lord. It notwithstanding the things mentioned any of us do center in Self which is supplyed and filled with the World if we preffer Self above all other things do aim at the Satisfaction of Self in what we do well or ill are useless unto the only Good and Blessed Ends of these earthly things in supplying the wants of others according unto the Proportions wherewith we are intrusted it is to be feared that the World and the things that are in it have the Principal Interest in our Affections And the danger is yet greater with them who divert on the other Extream Such are they who in Pride of Life Vanity in Apparrel Excess in Drinking pampering the Flesh every day tread close on the heels of the World if they do not also fully keep Company with it Altogether in vain is it for such Persons to countenance themselves with an Appearance of other Graces in them or the sedulous Performance of other Dutys This one Rule will eternally prevail against them If any man love the World the Love of the Father is not in him And by the way let men take heed how they walk in any Instance against the known Judgement and Practise of the wiser or more experienced sort of Christians to their Regret and Sorrow if not unto their Offence and Scandal or in any way whereunto they win the Consent of their own Light and Conscience by such Reasonings and Considerations as will not hold weight in the Ballance of the Sanctuary Yet thus and no otherwise is it with all them who under a Profession of Religion do indulge unto any Excesses wherein they are conformed unto the World Fifthly God makes a Hedge against the Excess of the Affections of men rational and any way enlightned unto the things of this World by suffering the Generality of men to carry the use of them and to be carried by the abuse of them into Actings so filthy so abominable so ridiculous as Reason it self cannot but abhor Men by them transform themselves into Beasts and Monsters as might be manifested by all sorts of Instances hence the Wise-man prayed against Riches lest he should not be able to manage the Temptations wherewith they are accompanied Prov. 30.8.9 Lastly to close this matter and to shew us what we are to expect in case we set our Affections on things here below and they have thereby a predominant Interest in our Hearts God hath positively determined and declared that if it be so he will have nothing to do with us nor will accept of those Affections which we pretend we can and do spare for him and Spiritual things If we abstain from open Sins if we abhor the Lewdness and Uncleanness of men in the World if we are constant in religious Dutys and give our selves up to walk after the most strict sort in Religion like Paul in his Pharisaism may we not will some say or think find acceptance with God though our Hearts cleave inordinately unto the things of this VVorld I say God hath preremptorily determined the contrary and if other Arguments will not prevail with us he leaves us at last unto this Go love the World and the things of it but know assuredly you do it unto the eternal Loss of your Souls 1 Joh. 2.15 Jam. 4. These few Instances have I given of the Arguments and Motives whereby God is pleased to deter us from fixing our Affections on things here below And they are most of them such only as he maketh use of in the Administation of his Providence There
is a dangerous Symtom of an Evil State and Condition and that those in whom it is will at last be found to be but Hypocrites I know such Persons will or may have pretended Evidences unto the contrary and that they are well enough satisfyed of and with their own Sincerity in many things so as that it is impossible to fix upon the the Sense and Conviction of being but Hypocrites But this Apprehension ariseth from a false notion of Hypocrisy No man they suppose is an Hypocrite but he that generally or universally pretends himself in Religion to be what he is not and what he knows himself not to be or at least might easily do so And it is true that this is the broadest Notion of Pharisaical Hypocrisy But take an Hypoerite for him who under Light Profession Gifts Duties doth habitually and willingly fail in any Point of sincerity he is no less a perishing Hypocrite than the former and it may alter the Case with them I do not say that every one in whom there is this prevalent Decay in Spiritual Affections is an Hypocrite God forbid I only say that where it continues without Remedy it is such a Symtome of Hypocrisy as that he who is wise and hath a care of his Soul will not rest until he hath searched it unto the bottom For it seemes as if it were thus with such Persons They have had a false or imperfect Work in that Conversion unto God which they have professed Conviction of Sin Communication of Spiritual Light and Gifts Alteration upon the Affections Change of Socicty and Conversation have made it up Now it is the nature of such a Work greatly to flourish for a Season in all the principal Parts and Duties of Profession But it is in its Nature also gradually to decay until it be quite withered away In some it is lost by the Power of some vigorous Temptations and particular Lusts indulged unto ending in Worldliness and Sensuality but in the most it decayes gradually until it hath lost all its Savour and Sap see Joh. 15.3 Wherefore whil'st men find this Decay in themselves unless they are fallen under the Power of a destructive Security unless thay are hardned through be Deceitfulness of Sin they cannot but think it their Duty to examine how things stand with them whether they ever effectually closed with Christ and had the Faith of Gods Elect which works by Love seeing it is with them as though they had only a work of another nature For a Saving Work in its own nature and in the diligent use of Means Thrives and Groweth as the whole Scripture testifyeth but it is this false and imperfect working that hath no Root and is thus subject to withering Sixthly Persons in such an Estate are apt to deceive themselves with false Hopes and Notions whereby the Deceitfulness of Sin doth put forth its Power to harden them unto their Ruine Two ways there are whereby this pernitious Effect is produced The one by the prevalency of a particular Lust or Sin the other by a neglect of Spiritual Duties and a vain Conversation in the World under which the Soul pines away and consumes As unto the first of these there are three false Notions whereby the Deceitfulness of Sin deludes the Souls of Men. The First is that it is that one Sin alone wherein they would be indulged Let them be spared in this one thing and in all other they will be exact enough This is the Composition that Naaman would have made in the Matters of Religion 2 Kings 5.18 And it is that which many trust unto Hence it hath by the Event been made to appear that some Persons have lived long in the Practice of some gross Sins and yet all the while used a Semblance of great diligence in other Duties of Religion This is a false Notion whereby poor Sinners delude their own Souls For suppose it possible that a man should give himself up unto any Lust or be under the Power of it and yet be observant of all other Duties yet this would give him no Relief as unto the Eternal Condition of his Soul The Rule is peremptory unto this purpose Jam. 2.10 11. One Sin willingly lived in is as able to destroy a Mans Soul as a thousand Besides it is practically false There is no man that lives in any one known Sin but he really lives in more though that only bears the chiefest Sway. With some such Persons these Sins appear unto others who observe their Frame and Spirit though they appear not to themselves In some they are manifest in themselves although they are hidden from others 1 Tim. 5.24 But let no man relieve himself with thoughts that it is but one Sin whil'st that one Sin keeps him in a constant Neglect of God Hence Secondly They deceive themselves hereby for they Judge that although they cannot as yet shake off their Sin yet they will continue still to love God and abound in the Duties of his Worship They will not become Haters of God and his Wayes and Persecutors for all the World and therefore hope that notwithstanding this one Zoar this lesser Sin which their Constitution and their Circumstances ingage them in that it may be well with them at the last This also is a false Notion a meer Instrument in the hand of Sin to act its Deceit by For no man that willingly liveth in any Sin can love God at all as is evident in that Rule 1 Joh. 2.15 It is but a false Pretence of Love to God that any man hath who liveth in any known Sin Where God is not loved above all he is not loved at all And he is not so where men will not part with one Cursed Lust for his Sake Let not your Light deceive you nor your Gifts nor your Duties nor your Profession if you live in Sin you love not God Thirdly They determine that at such or such a Season on time after such Satisfaction given unto their Lusts or Pleasures they will utterly give over so as that Iniquity shall not be their Ruine But this is a false Notion also an effectual Instrument of the Deceitfulness of Sin He that will not now give over who will not imediately upon the Discovery of the Prevalency of any Sin and warning about it endeavour sincerely and constantly its Relinquishment say what he will and pretend what he will he never intends to give over nor is it probable in an ordinary way that ever he will do so When mens Decays are from the Prevalency of particular Sins by these and the like false Notions do they harden themselves unto Ruine For those who are pining away under Hectical Consumption a general Decay of the vital Spirits of Religion they have also false Notions whereby they deceive themselves As First that although they have some Cause to mistrust themselves yet indeed their Condition is not so bad as some may apprehend it or as they are
them in conjunction will bring in Relief unto the glory of God and your own Peace without Application by Faith unto him who is able to succour them that are Tempted Wherefore 3. Herein lyes your great Duty with respect unto your Temptations namely in a constant exercise of your Thoughts on the Love Care Compassion and tenderness of Christ with his Ability to help succour and save them that do believe so to strengthen your Faith and Trust in him which will prove assuredly successeful and Victorious The same Duty is incumbent on us with respect unto any urgent prevalent general Temptation There are Seasons wherein an hour of Temptation comes on the earth to try them that dwell therein What if a man should judge that now it is such an hour and that the Power of Darkness is put forth therein what if he should be perswaded that a general security coldness deadness and Decay in Grace especially as to the vigorous Actings of Zeal Love and Delight in God with an Indifferency unto Holy Duties are the effects of this hour of Temptation I do not say determinately that so it is let others judge as they see cause But if any one do so judge undoubtedly it is his Duty to be exercised in his Thoughts how he may escape in this day of Tryal and be counted worthy to stand before the Son of Man He will find it his concernment to be conversant in his mind with the Reasons and Motives unto watchfulness and how he may obtain such supplies of Grace as may effectually preserve him from such Decayes 3. All things in Religion both in Faith and Practice are to be the Objects of such Thoughts As they are proposed or occurr unto our Minds in great variety on all sorts of occasions so we ought to give them entertainment in our Meditations To hear things to have them proposed unto us it may be in the way of a Divine Ordinance and to let them slip out or flow from us as Water that is poured into a leaking Vessel is the Ruine of many Souls I shall therefore choose out some Instances as was before proposed of those things which I judge that they who would be Spiritually minded ought to abide and abound in Thoughts concerning them 1. It is our Duty greatly to mind the things that are above eternal things both as unto their Reality their present State and our future enjoyment of them Herein consists the Life of this Grace and Duty To be Heavenly Minded that is to mind the things of Heaven and to be Spiritually Minded is all one Or it is the effect of being Spiritually Minded as unto its Original and essence or the first proper actings of it It is the Cause of it as unto its growth and Degrees and it is the Evidence of it in Experience Nor do I understand how it is possible for a Man to place his chief Interest in things above and not have many thoughts of them It is the great Advice of the Apostle on a supposition of our Interest in Christ and Conformity unto him Col. 3.1 2. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Set your Affections or your Thoughts Mind much the things that are above It becomes those who through the vertue of the Resurrection of Christ are raised unto Newness of Life to have their Thoughts exercised on the State of things above with respect unto the Presence of Christ among them And the singular use of our Prospect into these things or our Meditations on them he instructs us in 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light Affliction which is but for a Moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory Whilst we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Not to faint under the daily Decays of our outward man and the Approaches of Death thereby to bear afflictions as things light and Momentary to thrive under all in the inward man are unspeakable Mercies and Priviledges Can you attain a better frame Is there any thing that you would more desire if you are Believers Is it not better to have such a mind in us than to enjoy all the Peace and security that the world can afford One principal means whereby we are made partakers of these things is a due Meditation on things unseen and Eternal These are the things that are within the Vail whereon we ought to cast the Anchor of our Hope in all the Storms we meet withall Heb. 6.19 20. whereof we shall speak more afterwards Without doubt the generality of Christians are greatly defective in this Duty partly for want of Light into them partly for want of Delight in them they think little of an eternal Countrey Wherever men are they do not use to neglect Thoughts of that Countrey wherein their Inheritance lyes If they are absent from it for a season yet will they labour to acquaint themselves with the principal Concernments of it But this Heavenly Countrey wherein lyes our Eternal Inheritance is not regarded Men do not as they ought exercise themselves unto thoughts of things Eternal and Invisible It were impossible if they did so that their Minds should be so earthly and their Affections cleave so as they do unto present things He that looks steadily on the Sun although he cannot bear the lustre of its beams fully yet his sight is so affected with it that when he calls off his eyes from it he can see nothing as it were of the things about him they are all dark unto him And he who looks steadily in his Contemplations on things above eternal things though he cannot comprehend their Glory yet a Vail will be cast by it on all the desireable Beauties of Earthly things and take off his Affections from them Men live and act under the Power of a Conviction that there is a State of Immortality and Glory to come With a perswasion hereof they much relieve themselves in their Sorrows Sufferings and Temptations Yet with many it is only a Reserve when they can be here no more But as unto daily Contemplation of the Nature and Causes of it or as unto any entrance into it by Faith and Hope the most are Strangers thereunto If we are Spiritually minded nothing will be more natural unto us than to have many Thoughts of Eternal things as those wherein all our own principal Concerns do lye as well as those which are excellent and glorious in themselves The Direction thereon is that we would make Heavenly Things the things of the future State of Blessedness and Glory a principal Object of our Thoughts that we would think much about them that we
in any place it behoveth them that are concerned to have an Eye and regard unto all their Enemies and their Attempts against them But if they are Vigilant and diligent in their Oppositition unto those that are without that visibly contend with them and in the mean time Neglect such as trayterously act within among themselves betraying their Councels and weakning their Strength they will be undoubtedly ruined Wise men do first take care of what is within as knowing if they are there betrayed all they do against their open Enemies is to no purpose In the warfare wherein we are engag'd we have Enemies of all sorts that openly and visibly in various Temptations fight against our Souls These it is our Duty to watch against to conflict with and to seek a conquest over But it is this internal vanity of mind that endeavours in all things to betray us to weaken us in all our Graces or to hinder their due operations and to open the doors of our Hearts unto our cursed Enemies If our principal Endeavour be not to discover suppress and destroy this Traytor we shall not succed in our spiritual warfare This therefore being the original cause of all that disabilty of mind as unto steadiness in holy Thoughts and Meditations whereof you do complain when you are affected therewith turn unto the consideration of that from whence it doth proceed Labour to be humbled greatly and to walk humbly under a sence of the Remainders of this Vanity of mind So some wholesom Fruits may be taken from this bitter Root and Meat may come out of this Eater If when you cannot abide in holy Thoughts of God and your Relation unto him you reflect on this cause of it to your further Humiliation and self-abasement your Good designs and purposes are not lost Let such an one say I began to think of God of his Love and Grace in Christ Jesus of my Duty towards him and where now in a few minutes do I find my self I am got into the Ends of the earth into things useless and earthly or am at such a loss as that I have no mind to proceed in the work wherein I was ingaged O wretched man that I am what a cursed Enemy have I within me I am asham'd of my self weary of my self loath my self who shall deliver me from this Body of Death Such Thoughts may be as useful unto him as those which he first designed True it is we can never be freed absolutely from all the Effects of this Vanity and Instability of Mind in this world Vnchangeable cleaving unto God alwayes in all the Powers and Affections of our Minds is reserved for Heaven But yet great degrees may be attained in the conquest and expulsion of it such as I fear few have experience of yet ought all to the labour after If we apply our selves as we ought to the increase of Spiritual Light and Grace if we labour diligently to abide and abound in Thoughts of spiritual things and that in Love to them and delight in them if we watch against the entertainment and approbation of such Thoughts and things in our minds as whereby this vain frame is pleased and confirmed there is though not an absolute perfection yet a blessed degree of Heavenly Mindedness to be attain'd and therein the nearest approach unto Glory that in this world we are capable of If a man cannot attain an Athletick Constitution of Health or a strength like that of Sampson yet if he be wise he will not omit the use of such means as may make him to be useful in the ordinary Duties of Life And although we cannot attain Perfection in this matter which yet is our Duty to be continually pressing after yet if we are wise will be endeavouring such a cure of this spiritual distemper as we may be able to discharge all the duties of the Life of God But if men in all other things feed the Vanity of their own Minds if they permit them to Rove continually after things foolish sensual and earthly if they wilfully supply them with Objects unto that End and labour not by all means for the Mortification of this evil frame in vain shall they desire or expect to bring them at any time on any occasion to be Steady in the Thoughts of Heavenly things If it be thus with any as it is to be feared it is with many it is their duty to mind the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in the first place Make the Tree Good and then the Fruit will be Good and not before When the power of Sanctifying Grace hath made the Mind habitually Spiritual and Heavenly Thoughts of such things will be natural unto it and accompanyed with delight But they will not be so untill the God of Peace have Sanctified us in our whole Spirits Souls and Bodies whereby we may be preserved blameless unto the comeing of Jesus Christ. 2. Be alwaies sensible of your own Insufficincy to raise in your Minds or to managed spiritual Thoughts or Thoughts of things spiritual and Heavenly in a due manner But in this case men are apt to suppose that as they may so they can think of what they please Thoughts are their own and therefore be they of what sort they will they need no assistance for them They cannot think as they ought they can do nothing at all And nothing will convince them of their folly untill they are burdened with an experience of the contrary as unto Spiritual things But the advice given is expressely laid down by the Apostle in the Instance of himself 2 Cor. 3.5 Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God He speaks principally of Ministers of the Gospel and that of such as were most eminently furnished with Spiritual Gifts and Graces as he declares v. 6. And If it be so with them and that with respect unto the work and Duties of their Calling how much more is it so with others who have not their Graces nor their Offices Wherefore if men without regard unto the present actual Grace of God and the supplies of his Spirit do suppose that they can of themselves exercise their Minds in spiritual Thoughts and so only fret at themselves when they fall into disappointment not knowing what is the matter with them they will live in a lifeless barren frame all their dayes By the strength of their natural Abilities men may frame Thoughts of God and heavenly things in their Minds according unto the knowledge they have of them They may Methodize them by Rules of Art and express them elegantly unto others But even while they do so they may be far enough from being spiritually minded For there may be in their Thoughts no actings of Faith Love or holy Delight in God or any Grace at all But such alone are things which we enquire after they are such only as wherein the Graces of the Spirit
the present storm may as well be the secret sins of Professors as the open Provocations of ungodly men God will punish severely those which he hath known Amos 3.2 It is therefore certainly our Duty to search diligently that nothing be found resting in us against which God is declaring his Displeasure Take heed of negligence and security herein When our Saviour foretold his Disciples that one of them should betray him he who alone was guilty was the last that said Master is it I. Let no ground of hopes you have of your Spiritual condition and acceptance with God no Sence of your sincerity in any of your Duties no visible difference between you and others in the World impose themselves on your minds to divert them from diligence in this Duty The voice of the Lord cryeth unto the City and the man of wisdom will see his Name 2. A diligent endeavour to live in an holy Resignation of our Persons our Lives our Families all our Enjoyments unto the soveraign Will and Wisdom of God so as that we may be in a readiness to part with all things upon his call without repining This also is plainly declared in the voice of present Providences God is making Wings for mens Riches he is shaking their Habitations taking away the visible Defences of their Lives proclaiming the Instability and uncertainty of all things here below And if we are not minded to contend with him we have nothing left to give us rest and peace for a moment but an holy Resignation of all unto his Soveraign Pleasure Would you now know what you should fix and exercise your Thoughts upon so as that they may be Evidences of your being Spiritually minded I say be frequently conversant in them about these things They lye before you they call upon you and will find you a just employment Count them part of your business allow them some part of your time cease not untill you have the Testimony of your Consciences that you have in sincerity stated both these Duties in your minds which will never be done without many Thoughts about them Unless it be so with you God will be greatly displeased at the neglect of his coming and call now it is so plain and articulate Fear the woful Dooms recorded Prov. 1.24 25 26 27 28. Isa. 56.12 Chap. 66.4 to this purpose And if any calamity publick or private do overtake you under a neglect of these Duties you will be wofully surprized and not know which way to turn for Relief This therefore is the time and season wherein you may have an especial trial and experiment whether you be Spiritually minded or no. It is the wisdom of Faith to excite and draw forth Grace into Exercise according unto present Occasions If this Grace be habitually resident in you it will put it self forth in many Thoughts about these present Duties But alas for the most part men are apt to walk contrary to God in these things as the Wisdom of the flesh is contrary unto him in all things A great Instance we have with respect unto these Duties especially the latter of them For 1. Who almost makes a diligent search into and trial of his heart and ways with respect unto the procuring causes of the Displeasure and Judgments of God Generally when the Tokens and Evidences of them do most abound the World is full of outragious provoking sins These visibly proclaim themselves to be the causes of the coming of the Wrath of God on the Children of Disobedience Hence most men are apt to cast the whole Reason of present Judgments upon them and to put it wholly from themselves Hence commonly there is never less of self Examination than when it is called for in a peculiar manner But as I will not deny but that the open daring sins of the World are the procuring Cause of the Wrath of God against it in temporal Judgments so the wisest course for us is to refer them unto the great Judgment of the last Day This the Apostle directs us unto 2 Thess. 1.6 7 8 9 10. Our Duty it is to consider on what accounts Judgment begins at the House of God and to examine our selves with respect thereunto Again the other part of our present Duty in complyance with the voice of Providence is an humble Resignation of our selves and all our concernments unto the will of God sitting loose in our Affections from all earthly temporal Enjoyments This we neither do nor can do let us profess what we will unless our Thoughts are greatly exercised about the Reasons of it and Motives unto it For this is the way whereby Faith puts forth its efficacy unto the Mortification of Self and all earthly Enjoyments Wherefore without this we can make no Resignation of our selves unto the will of God But alas how many at present do openly walk contrary unto God herein The Ways the Countenances the Discourses of men do give Evidence hereunto Their Love unto present things their contrivances for their encrease and continuance do grow and thrive under the Calls of God to the contrary So it was of old They did eat they drank they married and gave in marriage untill the day that Noah entred into the Ark. Can the generality of Professors at this day give Testimony unto the Exercise of their Thoughts upon such things as should dispose them unto this holy Resignation That they meditate on the Calls of God and thence make themselves ready to part with all at his time and pleasure How can persons pretend to be Spiritually minded the current of whose Thoughts lies in direct contrariety unto the mind of God Here lyes the ground of their self-deceivings they are Professors of the Gospel in a peculiar manner they judge themselves Believers they hope they shall be saved and have many Evidences for it But one Negative Evidence will render an hundred that are positive useless All these things have I done saith the young man yet one thing thou wantest saith our Saviour And the want of that one rendred his all things of no avail unto him Many things you have done many things you do many grounds of hope abide with you neither your selves nor others do doubt of your Condition But are you Spiritually minded If this one thing be wanting all the rest will not avail you you have indeed neither Life nor Peace And what grounds have you to judge that you are so if the current of your thoughts lye in direct contrariety unto the present Calls of God If at such a time as this is your love to the World be such as ever it was and perhaps be encreased if your desires are strong to secure the things of this Life unto you and yours if the daily contrivance of your minds be not how you may attain a constant Resignation of your selves and your all unto the Will of God which will not be done without much Thoughtfulness and Meditations on the Reasons of it
to consider it as what we were by nature obnoxious unto as being Children of Wrath what we have deserved by our Personal sins as the wages of sin is Death what we are delivered from through Jesus the Deliverer who saves us from the wrath to come what expression it is of the Indignation of God against sin who hath prepared this Tophet of Old that we may be delivered from sin kept up to an Abhorrency of it walking in Humility self-abasement and the Admiration of Divine Grace This therefore is required of us that in our Thoughts and Meditations we compare the state of Blessedness and Eternal Glory as a free and absolute effect of the Grace of God in and through Christ Jesus with that state of Eternal Misery which we had deserved And if there be any spark of Grace or of holy Thankfulness in our Hearts it will be stirred up unto its due exercise Some it may be will say that they complained before that they cannot get their minds fixed on these things Weakness Weariness Darkness Diversions Occasions do prevalently obstruct their abiding in such Thoughts I shall speak further unto this afterwards at present I shall only suggest two things 1. If you cannot attain yet continue to follow after get your minds in a perpetual endeavour after an abode in spiritual Thoughts Let your minds be rising towards them every hour yea an hundred times a day on all occasions on a continual sense of Duty and sigh within your selves for deliverance when you find Disappointments or not a continuance in them It is the sence of that Place Rom. 8.23 24 25 26 27. 2. Take care you go not backwards and lose what you have wrought If you neglect these things for a season you will quickly find your selves neglected by them So I observe it every day in the hearing of the Word Whilst Persons keep up themselves to a diligent Attendance on it where they find it preached unto their Edification they find great Delight in it and will undergo great Difficulties for the enjoyment of it Let them be diverted from it for a season after a while it grows indifferent unto them any thing will satisfy them that pretends unto the same Duty CHAP. VII Especial Objects of Spiritual Thoughts on the Glorious State of Heaven and what belongs thereunto First of Christ himself Thoughts of Heavenly Glory in opposition unto Thoughts of Eternal Misery The Use of such Thoughts Advantage in Sufferings IT will be unto our Advantage having stated right Notions of the Glory of the blessed State above in our minds to fix on some particulars belonging unto it as the especial Object of our Thoughts and Meditations As 1. Think much of him who unto us is the Life and Center of all the Glory of Heaven that is Christ himself I shall be very brief in treating hereof because I have designed a peculiar Treatise on this Subject of beholding the Glory of Christ both here and unto Eternity At present therefore a few things only shall be mentioned because on this occasion they are not to be omitted The whole of the Glory of the State above is expressed by being ever with the Lord where he is to behold his Glory For in and through him is the Beatifical manifestation of God and his Glory made for evermore And through him are all Communications of inward Glory unto us The present Resplendency of Heavenly Glory consists in his Mediatory Ministry as I have at large elsewhere declared And he will be the means of all glorious communications between God and the Church unto Eternity Wherefore if we are Spiritually minded we should fix our Thoughts on Christ above as the Center of all Heavenly Glory To help us herein we may consider the things that follow 1. Faith hath continual Recourse unto him on the account of what he did and suffered for us in this world For thereon Pardon of sin Justification and Peace with God do depend This ariseth in the first place from a sence of our own wants But Love of him is no less necessary unto us than Faith in him And although we have powerful Motives unto Love from what he did and was in this world yet the formal Reason of our Adherence unto him thereby is what he is in himself as he is now exalted in Heaven If we rejoyce not at the Remembrance of his present Glory if the Thoughts of it be not frequent with us and refreshing unto us how dwelleth his Love in us 2. Our Hope is that e're long we shall be ever with him And if so it is certainly our Wisdom and Duty to be here with him as much as we can It is a vain thing for any to suppose that they place their chiefest happiness in being for ever in the Presence of Christ who care not at all to be with him here as they may And the only way of our being present with him here is by Faith and Love acting themselves in Spiritual Thoughts and Affections And it is an absurd thing for men to esteem themselves Christians who scarce think of Christ all the day long Yet some as one complained of old scarce ever think or speak of him but when they swear by his Name I have read of them who have lived and dyed in continual Contemplation on him so far as the Imperfection of our present state will admit I have known them I do know them who call themselves unto a Reproof if at any time he hath been many minutes out of their Thoughts And it is strange that it should be otherwise with them who love him in sincerity yet I wish I did not know more who give evidences that it is a rare thing for them to be exercised in serious Thoughts and Meditations about him Yea there are some who are not averse upon occasions to speak of God of Mercy of Pardon of his Power and Goodness who if you mention Christ unto them with any thing of Faith Love Trust in him they seem unto them as a strange thing Few there are who are sensible of any Religion beyond what is natural The things of the Wisdom and Power of God in Christ are foolishness unto them Take some Directions for the Discharge of this Duty 1. In your Thoughts of Christ be very careful that they are conceived and directed according to the Rule of the Word lest you deceive your own souls and give up the conduct of your Affections unto vain Imaginations Spiritual Notions befalling carnal minds did once by the means of Superstition ruine the Power of Religion A Conviction men had that they must think much of Jesus Christ and that this would make them conformable unto him but having no real Evangelical Faith nor the Wisdom of Faith to exercise it in their Thoughts and Affections in a due manner nor understanding what it was to be truely like unto him they gave up themselves unto many foolish Inventions and Imaginations by which they
and make our Souls meet for the Reception and entertainment of him Wherefore 3. Our want of experience in the power of this Holy entercourse and communion with Christ ariseth principally from our Defect in this Duty I have known one who after a long Profession of Faith and Holiness fell into great Darkness and distress meerly on this account that he did not experience in himself the Sweetness Life and Power of the Testimonies given concerning the real Communications of the Love of Christ unto and the intimation of his Presence with Believers He knew well enough the Doctrine of it but did not feel the Power of it at least he understood there was more in it than he had experience of God carryed him by Faith through that Darkness but taught him withal that no sence of these things was to be let into the Soul but by constant Thoughtfulness and Contemplations on Christ. How many blessed visits do we lose by not being exercised unto this Duty See Cant. 5.1 2 3. Sometimes we are busie sometimes careless and negligent sometimes slothful sometimes under the power of Temptations so that we neither enquire after nor are ready to receive them This is not the way to have our Joyes abound Again I speak now with especial respect unto him in Heaven The Glory of his Presence as God and Man eternally united the Discharge of his Mediatory Office as he is at the right hand of God the Glory of his present acting for the Church as he is the Minister of the Sanctuary and the true Tabernacle which God hath fixed and not Man the Love Power and Efficacy of his Intercession whereby he takes care for the Accomplishment of the Salvation of the Church the approach of his Glorious coming unto Judgment are to be the Objects of our daily Thoughts and Meditations Let us not mistake our selves To be spiritually minded is not to have the Notions and Knowledge of spiritual things in our minds it is not to be constant no not to abound in the performance of Duties both which may be where there is no Grace in the Heart at all It is to have our Minds really exercised with delight about Heavenly things the things that are above especially Christ himself as at the right hand of God Again So think of eternal things as continually to lay them in the Ballance against all the sufferings of this Life This use of it I have spoken unto somewhat before and it is necessary it should be pressed upon all occasions It is very probable that we shall yet suffer more than we have done Those who have gone before us have done so it is foretold in the Scripture that if we will live Godly in Christ Jesus we must do so we stand in need of it and the World is prepared to bring it on us And as we must suffer so it is necessary unto the Glory of God and our own Salvation that we suffer in a due manner Meer sufferings will neither commend us unto God nor any way advantage our own Souls When we suffer acording to the will of God it is an eminent Grace Gift and Priviledge Psal. 1.29 But many things are required hereunto It is not enough that men suppose themselves to suffer for Conscience sake though if we do not so all our sufferings are in vain Nor is it enough that we suffer for this or that way of Profession in Religion which we esteem to be true and according to the Mind of God in opposition unto what is not so The Glory of Sufferings on these accounts solely hath been much sullied in the dayes wherein we live It is evident that Persons out of a natural Courage accompanied with deep radicate perswasions and having their minds influenced with some sinister ends may undergo things hard and difficult in giving Testimony unto what is not according to the Mind of God Examples we have had hereof in all Ages and in that wherein we live in an especial manner See 1 Pet. 4.14 15 16. We have had enough to take off all paint and appearance of Honour from them who in their sufferings are deceived in what they profess But men may from the same Principles suffer for what is indeed according to the Mind of God yea may give their bodyes to be burned therein and yet not to his Glory nor their own eternal Advantage Wherefore we are duely to consider all things that are requisite to make our sufferings acceptable unto God and honourable unto the Gospel I have observed in many a frame of Spirit with respect unto sufferings that I never saw good event of when it was tryed to the uttermost Boldness confidence a pretended contempt of hardships and scorning other men whom they suppose defective in these things are the Garments or Livery they wear on this Occasion Such Principles may carry men out in a bad Cause they will never do so in a good Evangelical Truth will not be honourably witnessed unto but by Evangelical Graces Distrust of our selves a due apprehension of the nature of the evils to be undergone and of our own frailty with continual Prayers to be delivered from them or supported under them and prudent care to avoid them without an inroad on conscience or neglect of Duty are much better preparations for an entrance into a state of Suffering Many things belong unto our Learning aright this first and last Lesson of the Gospel namely of bearing the Cross or undergoing all sorts of sufferings for the Profession of it But they belong not unto our present Occasion This only is that which we now press as an evidence of our sincerity in our sufferings and an effectual means to enable us chearfully to undergo them which is to have such a continual prospect of the future state of Glory so as to lay it in the Ballance against all that we may undergo For 1. To have our Minds filled and possessed with Thoughts thereof will give us an Alacrity in our entrance into sufferings in a way of Duty Other considerations will offer themselves unto our Relief which will quickly fade and disappear They are like a Cordial Water which gives a little Relief for a Season and then leaves the Spirits to sink beneath what they were before it was taken Some relieve themselves from the consideration of the Nature of their Sufferings they are not so great but that they may conflict with them and come off with safety But there is nothing of that kind so small which will not prove too hard and strong for us unless we have especial Assistance Some do the same from their Duration they are but for ten dayes or six months and then they shall be free Some from the Compassion and esteem of Men. These and the like considerations are apt to occur unto the minds of all sorts of Persons whether they are spiritually minded or no. But when our Minds are accustomed unto Thoughts of the Glory that shall be
in general but that men have decocted and wasted the Light and Power of Christian Religion It is the fullest Revelation of God that ever he made it is the last that ever he will make in this World If this be despised if men rebell against the Light of it if they break the Cords of it and are senseless of its Power nothing can preserve them from the highest Atheism that the nature of man is capable of It is in vain to expect Relief or Preservation from inferior means where the highest and most Noble is rejected Reason or the Light of Nature gives Evidences unto the being of God and Arguments are still well pleaded from them to the confusion of Atheists And they were sufficient to retain men in an Acknowledgment of the Divine Power and Godhead who had no other no higher Evidences of them But where men have had the Benefit of Divine Revelation where they have been Educated in the Principles of Christian Religion have had some Knowledge and made some Profession of them and have through the Love of sin and hatred of every thing that is truely good rejected all Convictions from them concerning the Being Power and Rule of God they will not be kept unto a Confession of them by any considerations that the Light of nature can suggest There are therefore among others three Reasons why there are more Atheists among them who live where the Christian Religion is professed and the Power of it rejected than among any other sort of men even than there were among the Heathens themselves 1. God hath designed to magnifie his Word above all his Name or all other wayes of the Revelation of himself unto the Children of Men Psal. 138.2 Where therefore this is rejected and despised he will not give the Honour unto Reason or the Light of Nature that they shall preserve the Minds of men from any evil whatever Reason shall not have the same Power and Efficacy on the Minds of men who reject the Light and Power of Divine Revelation by the Word as it hath or may have on them whose best guide it is who never enjoyed the Light of the Gospel And therefore there is oft times more common Honesty among civilized Heathens and Mahumetans than amongst degenerate Christians And from the same Reason the Children of Professors are sometimes irrecoverably profligate It will be said many are recovered unto God by Afflictions who have despised the Word But it is otherwise never any were converted unto God by Afflictions who had rejected the Word Men may by Afflictions be recalled unto the Light of the Word but none are immediately turned unto God by them As a good Shepheard when a Sheep wanders from the Flock and will not hear his call sends out his Dog which stops him and bites him Hereon he looks about him and hearing the call of the Shepheard returns again to the Flock Job 33.19 20 21 22 23 24 25. But with this sort of Persons it is the way of God that where the principal means of the Revelation of himself and wherein he doth most glorifie his Wisdom and his Goodness is despised he will not only take off the Efficacy of inferior means but judicially harden the Hearts and blind the Eyes of men that such means shall be of no use unto them See Isa. 6.8 9 10 11 12. Acts 13 40 41. Rom. 1.21 28. 2 Thes. 2.11 12. 2. The Contempt of Gospel Light and Christian Religion as it is supernatural which is the Beginning of Transgression unto all Atheists among us begets in and leaves on the mind such a depraved corrupt habit such a Congeries of all Evils that the Hatred of the Goodness Wisdom and Grace of God can produce that it cannot but be wholly inclined unto the worst of Evils as all our Original vitious Inclinations succeeded immediately on our rejection and loss of the Image of God The best things corrupted yeild the worst Savour as Manna stank and bred worms The Knowledge of the Gospel being rejected stinking Worms take the place of it in the Mind which grow into Vipers and Scorpions Every Degree of Apostacy from Gospel-Truth brings in a proportionate Degree of inclination unto wickedness into the Hearts and Minds of men 2 Pet. 2.21 And that which is total unto all the evils that they are capable of in this world Whereas therefore Multitudes from their Darkness Unbelief Temptation Love of Sin Pride and contempt of God do fall off from all subjection of Soul and Conscience unto the Gospel either notionally or practically deriding or despising all supernatural Revelations they are a thousand times more disposed unto down-right Atheism than Persons who never had the Light or Benefit of such Revelations Take heed of Decayes Whatever Ground the Gospel loseth in our Minds Sin possesseth it for it self and its own Ends. Let none say it is otherwise with them Men grow Cold and Negligent in the Duties of Gospel Worship publick and private which is to reject Gospel Light Let them say and pretend what they please that in other things in their Minds and Conversations it is well with them indeed it is not so Sin will sin doth one way or other make an encrease in them proportionate unto these Decayes and will sooner or later discover it self so to do And themselves if they are not utterly hardened may greatly discover it inwardly in their Peace or outwardly in their Lives 3. Where Men are resolved not to see the greater the Light is that shines about them the faster they must close they Eyes All Atheism springs from a Resolution not to see things invisible and Eternal Love of sin a resolved continuance in the practice of it the effectual Power of vitious Inclinations in opposition unto all that is Good make it the Interest of such men that there should be no God to call them to an account For a Supream unavoidable Judge an Eternal Rewarder of Good and Evil is inseparable from the first notion of a Divine Being Whereas therefore the most glorious Light and uncontroulable Evidence of these things shines forth in the Scripture men that will abide by their interest to love and live in sin must close their Eyes with all the Arts and Powers that they have or else they will pierce into their Minds unto their Torment This they do by down-right Atheism which alone pretends to give them security against the Light of Divine Revelation Against all other convictions they might take shelter from their fears under less degrees of it It is not therefore unto the Disparagement but honour of the Gospel that so many avow themselves to be Atheists in those places wherein the Truth of it is known and professed For none can have the least Inclination or Temptation thereunto untill they have before hand rejected the Gospel which immediately exposeth them unto the worst of Evils Nor is there any means for the Recovery of such Persons The Opposition that hath been
Thoughts Some wayes that have been found out to keep up a pretence and appearance of it have been and are destructive unto it But herein consists the very Life of all Religion The fear of God is in the Old Testament the usual expression of all the due respect of our Souls unto him and that because where that is not in exercise nothing is accepted with him And thence the whole of our wisdom is said to consist therein and if it be not in a prevalent exercise in all wherein we have to do with him immediately all our Duties are utterly lost as to the Ends of his Glory and the Spiritual Advantage of our own Souls CHAP. IX What of God or in God we are to think and meditate upon His Being Reasons of it Oppositions to it the way of their Conquest Thoughts of the Omnipresence and Omniscience of God peculiarly necessary The Reasons hereof As also of his Omnipotency The Use and Benefit of such Thoughts THese things mentioned have been premised in General as unto the nature manner and way of exercise of our Thoughts on God That which remains is to give some particular instances of what we are to think upon in an especial manner and what we will be conversant withall in our Thoughts if so be we are Spiritually minded And I shall not insist at present on the things which concern his Grace and Love in Christ Jesus which belong unto another head but on those which have an Immediate respect unto the Divine Nature it self and its holy essential Properties 1. Think much of the Being and Existence of God Herein lyes the Foundation of all our Relation and access unto him Heb. 11.6 He that cometh unto God must believe that he is This is the first Object of Faith and it is the first Act of Reason and being the sole Foundation of all Religion it is our duty to be exercised unto multiplied Thoughts about it renewed on all occasions For many who are not direct Atheists yet live without any solid well-grounded Assent unto the Divine being They do not so believe it as to be practically influenced with the Consideration of it It is granted that the inbred Light of Nature in the due exercise of Reason will give any Rational creature satisfaction in the Being of God But there is in the most an Anticipation of any Thoughts of this nature by Tradition and Education which hath invited men into an assent unto it they know not how They never call'd it into question nor have as they suppose any cause so to do Nature it self startles at the first Thoughts of denying of it but if ever such persons on any urgent occasions come to have real Thoughts about it they are at a loss and fluctuate in their minds as not having any certain indubitable convicton of its truth Wherefore as our Knowledge of the Divine Being is as to the Foundation of it laid in the Light of Nature the Operation of Conscience and the due exercise of Reason about the works and effects of infinite Power and Wisdom so it ought to be increased and rendred useful by faith in Divine Revelations and the Experience of Divine power through them By this Faith we ought to let in frequent thoughts of the Divine being and Existence And that on two Reasons rendring the duty necessary in an Eminent manner in this Age wherein we live 1. The abounding of Atheism both Notional and Practical The Reasons of it have been given before and the matter of fact is evident unto any Ordinary observation And on two accounts with respect hereunto we ought to abound in Thoughts of Faith concerning the Being of God 1. An especial Testimony is required in us in opposition to this cursed effect of Hell He therefore who is spiritually minded cannot but have many Thoughts of the Being of God thereby giving Glory to him Isai. 43.9 10 11 12. Let all the Nations be gathered together and let the people be assembled who among them can declare this and shew us former things let them bring forth their witnesses that they may be justified or let them hear and say It is truth Ye are my witnesses saith the Lord and my servant whom I have chosen that ye may know and believe me and understand that I am he before me there was no God formed neither shall there be after me I even I am the Lord and beside me there is no Saviour I have declared and have saved and I have shewed when there was no strange god among you therefore ye are my witnesses saith the Lord that I am God Chap. 44.8 Fear ye not neither be afraid have not I told thee from that time and have declared it ye are even my witnesses Is there a God besides me yea there is no God I know not any 2. We shall have occasion of them continually administred unto us Those Atheistical impieties principles and practices which abound amongst us are grievous provocations unto all pious Souls Without frequent retreat unto Thoughts of the Being of God there is no relief nor refreshment to be had under them Such was the case of Noah in the old World and of Lot in Sodom which rendred their Graces illustrious 2. Because of the unaccountable Confusions that all things are fill'd withall at this day in the World Whatever in former times hath been a Temptation in humane Affairs unto any of the People of God it abounds at this day Never had men profane and profligate greater outward appearances to strengthen them in their Atheism nor those that are Godly greater Tryals for their Faith with respect unto the visible State of things in the world The Psalmist of old on such an occasion was almost surprized into unbelieving complaints Psal. 73.2 3 4 c. And such surprizals may now also befall us that we may be ready to say with him Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in Innocency for all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning Hence when the Prophet Habakkuk was exercised with Thoughts about such a state of things as is at this day in the World which he declares Chap. 1.6 7 8 9 10 11 12. he layes the foundation of his consideration in the fresh exercise of Faith on the Being and Properties of God v. 12 13. And David makes that his Retreat on the like occasion Psal. 11.3 4 5. In such a season as this is upon both the accounts mentioned those who are spiritually minded will much exercise their Thoughts about the Being and Existence of God They will say within themselves Verily there is a Reward for the Righteous verily he is a God who judgeth in the earth Hence will follow such apprehensions of the Immensity of his Nature of his eternal Power and Infinite Wisdom of his absolute Soveraignty as will hold their Souls firm and stedfast in the highest storms of Temptation that may befall them Yet are there
their avoidance they will be filled with the fruit of their own wayes Indeed the Common Converses of Professors among themselves and others walking talking and behaving themselves like other men being as full of the world as the world is of it self hath lost the Grace of being Spiritually-minded within and stain'd the Glory of Profession without The Rule observ'd by David will manifest how careful we ought to be herein Psal. 39.1 2 3. I said I will take heed to my wayes that I sin not with my Tongue I will keep my Mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me I was dumb with silence I held my peace even from good and my sorrow was stirred My heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire burned then spake I with my Tongue Which place was spoken unto before 3. An holy Constraint put on the Mind to abide in the Duty of Spiritual Thoughts and Meditations pressing it continually with the Consideration of their Necessity and Usefulness The Mind will be apt of it self to start aside from Duties purely Spiritual through the mixture of the Flesh abiding in it The more inward and purely Spiritual any Duty is which hath no outward Advantages the more prone will the Mind be to decline from it It will be so more from private Prayer than Publick more from Meditation than Prayer And other things will be apt to draw it aside by Objects without and various stirrings of the Affections within An holy Constraint is to be put upon it with a sudden Rejection of what rises up to its diversion or disturbance Wherefore we are to call in all constraining Motives such as the Consideration of the Love of Christ 2 Cor. 5.14 to keep the Mind steady unto its Duty 4. Diligent use of Means to furnish the Soul with that Light and Knowledge of Heavenly things which may administer continual matter of holy Thoughts and Meditations from within our selves This hath been spoken unto at large before And the want hereof is that which keeps many from the least Proficiency in these Duties As a man may have some skill or ability for a Trade yet if he have no Materials to work upon he must sit still and let his Trade alone And so must men do as unto the work of Holy Meditation whatever be the Ability of the natural Faculties their Inventions or Memories if they are not furnished with Knowledge of things Spiritual and Heavenly which are the subject matter of such Meditations they must let their work alone Hence the Apostle prays for the Colossians that the Word of God might dwell in them richly in all Wisdom Chap. 3.16 That is that they might abound in the knowledge of the mind of Christ without which we shall be unfit for this Duty 5. Vnweariedness in our Conflict with Sathan who by various Artifices and the Injection of fiery darts labours continually to divert us from these Duties He is seldom or never wanting unto this occasion He who is furnished in any measure with spiritual Wisdom and Vnderstanding may find him more sensibly at work in his Craft and Opposition with respect unto this Duty than any other way When we stand thus before the Lord he is alwayes at our right hand to resist us And oft-times his Strength is great Hence as was observed oft-times men design really to exercise themselves in holy Thoughts but end in vain Imaginations and rather take up with Trifles than continue in this Duty Steadiness in the Resistance of him on these Occasions is one great part of our Spiritual Warfare And we may know that he is at work by his Engines and Methods For they consist in his Suggestions of vain foolish or corrupt Imaginations When they begin to rise in our Minds at such times as we would engage them in Spiritual Meditation we may know assuredly from whence they are 6. Continual watchful Care that no root of Bitterness spring up and defile us that no Lust or Corruption be predominant in us When it is so if Persons in complyance with their Convictions do endeavour sometimes to be exercised in these Duties they shall labour in the very fire where all their Endeavours will be Immediately consumed 7. Mortification unto the World in our Affections and Desires with Moderation in our Endeavours after the Needful things of it are also necessary hereunto yea to that Degree that without them no man can in any sence be said to be Spiritually-minded For otherwise our Affections cannot be so preserved under the Power of Grace as that Spiritual things may be alwayes Savoury unto us Some it may be will say That if all these things are required thereunto it will take up a mans whole Life and Time to be Spiritually-minded They hope they may attain it at an easier rate and not forgoe all other Advantages and Sweetnesses of Life which a strict Observation of these things would cast them upon I answer that however it may prove an hard Saying unto some yet I must say it and my heart would reproach me if I should not say that if the principal part of our time be not spent about these things whatever we suppose we have indeed neither Life nor Peace The First-fruits of all were to be offered unto God and in Sacrifices he required the Blood and the Fat of the Inwards If the best be not his he will have nothing It is so as to our Time Tell me I pray you how you can spend your Time and your Lives better or to better purpose and I shall say Go on and prosper I am sure some spend so much of their time so much worse as it is a shame to see it Do you think you came into this World to spend your whole Time and Strength in your Employments your Trades your Pleasures unto the Satisfaction of the Will of the Flesh and of the Mind Have you Time enough to Eat to Drink to Sleep to Talk unprofitably it may be corruptly in all sorts of unnecessary Societies but have not enough to Live unto God in the very Essentials of that Life which consists in these things Alas you came into the World under this Law It is appointed to all men once to die and after that is the Judgment and the End why your Life here is granted unto you is that you may be prepared for that Judgement If this be neglected if the principal part of your Time be not improv'd with respect unto this End you will fall under the Sentence of it unto Eternity But men are apt to mistake in this matter They may think that these things tend to take them off from their Lawful Employments and Recreations which they are generally afraid of and unwilling to purchase any frame of Mind at so dear a rate They may suppose that to have men spiritually minded we would make them Mopes and to disregard all the Lawful Occasions of Life But let not any be mistaken I am not
them into a course of neglecting Duty it self Wherefore it is our wisdom to set apart constantly some part of our time unto the exercise of our thoughts about spiritual things in the way of Meditation And I shall close this discourse with some Directions in this particular unto them who complain of their disability for the discharge of this duty 1. Choose and separate a fit time or Season a time of freedom from other Occasions and diversions And because it is our duty to redeem time with respect unto holy Duties such a season may be the more useful the more the purchase of it stands us in We are not at any Time to serve God with what costs us nought nor with any Time that comes within the same Rule If we will allow only the Refuse of our Time unto this duty when we have nothing else to do and it may be through weariness of Occasions are fit for nothing else we are not to expect any great success in it This is one pregnant reason why men are so cold and formal so lifeless in spiritual duties namely the Times and Seasons which they allot unto them When the Body is wearied with the labour and occasions of the day and it may be the mind in its natural faculties indisposed even by the means of necessary refreshment men think themselves meet to Treat with God about the great concernments of his Glory and their own Souls This is that which God condemneth by the Prophet Mal. 1.8 And if you offer the blind for Sacrifice is it not evil and if you offer the lame and sick is it not evil offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person Both the Law of Nature and all the Laws of holy Institutions do require that we should serve God with the best that we have as all the fat of the Inwards was to be offered in Sacrifice And shall we think to offer that Time unto God wherein we are unmeet to appear before an earthly Ruler Yet such in my account are the Seasons especially the evening seasons that most men choose for the duties of their holy Worship And you may do well to consider that beyond the day and time which he hath taken unto himself by an Everlasting Law how little of the Choice of your time you have offered unto God as a Free-will-offering that you may be excited to future diligence If therefore you seriously intend this Duty choose the Seasons for it wherein you are most fit when even the natural vigour of your spirits is most free and active Possibly some will say this may be such a time as when the occasions of the world do call most earnestly for your attendance unto them I say that is the Season I would recommend And if you can conquer our minds to redeem it for God at that rate your endeavours in it will be prosperous However trust not to times that will offer themselves Take them not up at hazard Let the time it self be a free-will Offering to God taken from the Top of the heap or the Choicest part of your useful Time 2. Preparation of Mind unto a due Reverence of God and spiritual things is required previously hereunto When we go about this duty if we rush into thoughts of heavenly things without a due reverential preparation we shall quickly find ourselves at a loss See the Rule Eccles. 5.1 2. Grace to serve God with reverence and Godly fear is required in all things wherein we have to do with him as in this duty we have in an immediate and especial manner Endeavour therefore in the first place to get your hearts deeply affected with an awful reverence of God and an holy regard unto the heavenly nature of the things you would meditate upon Hereby your Minds will be composed and the roots of other thoughts be they vain or earthly which are apt to arise and divert you from this duty will be cast out The principles of these contrary Thoughts are like Jacob and Esau they struggle in the same womb and often-times Esau will come first forth and for a while seem to carry the Birth-right If various thoughts do conflict in our Minds some for this world and some for another those for this world may carry it for a season But where a due Reverence of God hath cast out the Bond-woman and her Children the workings of the Flesh in its vain Thoughts and Imaginations the Mind will be at liberty to exercise it self on spiritual things 3. Earnest Desires after a renewed sence and relish of Spiritual things are required hereunto If we ingage into this duty meerly on a conviction of the necessity of it or set our selves about it because we think we ought to do so and it will not be well done utterly to neglect it we may not expect to be successeful in it But when the Soul hath at any time tasted that the Lord is gracious when its Meditations on him have been sweet when Spiritual things have had a Savour and Relish in the mind and Affections and hereon it comes unto this duty with earnest desires to have the like tastes the like experience yea to have them encreased then is it in the way of an hopeful progress And this also will make us persevere in our endeavours to go through with what we undertake namely when we do know by former Experience what is to be attained in it if we dig and search for it as Treasure If you shall think that the right discharge of this duty may be otherwise attained if you suppose that it deserves not all this Cost and charge about it Judge by what is past whether it be not adviseable to give it over and let it alone As good lye quietly on the ground as continually attempt to rise and never once effect it Remember how many successeless attempts you have made upon it and all have come to nothing or that which is as bad as nothing I cannot say that in this way you shall alwayes succeed But I fear you will never have success in this duty without such things as are of the same nature and use with it When after this Preparation you find your selves yet perplexed and entangled not able comfortably to persist in Spiritual Thoughts unto your Refreshment take these two Directions for your Relief 1. Cry and Sigh to God for Help and Relief Bewail the darkness weakness and instability of your Minds so as to groan within your selves for Deliverance And if your designed Mediâ—â—…ions do issue only in a renewed gracious sense of your own Weakness and Insufficiency with Application unto God for Supplyes of Strength they are by no means lost as unto a Spiritual account The thoughts of Hezekiah in his Meditations did not seem to have any great Order or consistency when he so exprest them Like a Crane or a Swallow so did I chatter I did mourn as a Dove Mine eyes
predominant in us what if we miss in our measures and that which we approve of in our selves should be disapproved of God we are cast for ever we belong unto the World and with the World we shall perish It may be said that if it be so difficult to distinguish between these things namely the lawful use of things here below and their abuse the allowable Industry about them and the inordinate Love of them on the Knowledge whereof our Eternal Conditions depends it is impossible but men must spend their time in solicitous anxiety of Mind as not knowing when they have aright discharged their Duty Ans. 1 I press these things at present no further but only to shew how dangerous a thing it is for any to encline in his Affections unto the Things of this World wherein an excess is ruinous and hardly discoverable Surely no Wise-man will venture freely and frequently unto the edge of such a Precipice He will be jealous of his Measures lest they will not hold by the Rule of the Word And a due Sense hereof is the best preservative of the Soul from cleaving inordinately unto these things below And when God in any Instance by Afflictions or otherwise shews unto Believers their Transgression herein and how they have exceeded Job 38.8 9. it makes them careful for the future They will now or never be diligent that they fall not under that peremptory Rule 1 Joh. 2.14 Secondly Where the Soul is upright and sincere there is no need in this case of any more Solicitousness or Anxiety of Mind than there is unto or about other Duties But when it is byased and acted by self-Love and its more strong Inclinations unto things present it is impossible men should enjoy Solid Peace or be freed from severe reflexions on them by their own Consciences in such Seasons wherein they are awakened unto their Duty and the Consideration of their State nor have I any thing to tender for their Relief With others it is not so and therefore I shall so far digress in this place as to give some directions unto those who in sincerity would be satisfyed in this lawful use and enjoyment of earthly things so as not to adhere unto them with inordinate Affections First Remember always that you are not Proprietors nor absolute Possessors of these things but only Stewards of them With respect unto men you are or may be just Proprietors of what you enjoy with Respect unto him who is the great Possessor of Heaven and Earth you are but Stewards This Stewardship we are to give an account of as we are taught in the Parable Luk. 16.1 2. This rule always attended unto will be a Blessed Guide in all Instancss and Occasions of Duty But if a man be left in Trust with Houses and large Possessions as a Steward for the right Lord Owner and Proprietor of them if he fall into a pleasing Dream that they are all his own and use them accordingly it will be a woful Surprisal unto him when he shall be called to account for all he hath received and laid out whether he will or no. And when indeed he hath nothing to pay It will scarce be otherwise with them at the great Day who forget the trust which is committed to them and suppose they may do what they will with what they call their own Secondly There is nothing in the ways of getting enjoying or using of these things but giveth its own Evidence unto Spiritual Wisdom whether it be within the bounds of Duty or no. Men are not lightly deceived herein but when they are evidently under the Power of corrupt Affections or will not at all attend unto themselves and the Language of their own Consciences It is a mans own Fault alone if he know not wherein he doth exceed A due Examination of our selves in the Sight of God with respect unto these things the Frame and Actings of our Minds in them will greatly give check unto our corrupt Inclinations and discover the Folly of those Reasonings whereby we deceive our selves into the Love of Earthly things or justify our selves therein and bring to Light the Secret Principle of Self-Love which is the Root of all this evil Thirdly If you would be able to make a right Judgement in this Case be sure that you have another Object for your Affections which hath a predominant Interest in your Minds and which will Evidence it self so to have on all Occasions Let a Man be never so observant of himself as unto all Outward Dutys required to him with respect unto these earthly things let him be liberal in the Disposal of them on all Occasions let him be watchful against all Intemperance and Excesses in the use of them yet if he hath not another Object for his Affections which hath a prevailing Influence upon them if they are not set upon the Things that are above one way or other it is the World that hath the Possession of his Heart For the Affections of our Minds will and must be placed in chief on things below or things above there will be a predominant Love in us and therefore although all our Actions should testify another Frame yet if God and the things of God be not the Principal Object of our Affections by one way or other unto the World we do belong this is that which is taught us so expresly by our Saviour Luk. 16.9 10 11 12 13. And I say unto you make to your selves Friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness that when you fail they may receive you into everlasting Habitations He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon Who will commit to your trust the true Riches And if ye have not been faithful in that which is anothert Mans who shall give you that which is your own No Servant can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon Fourthly Labour continually for the Mortification of your Affections unto the things of this World They are in the State of corrupted Nature set and fixed on them nor will any Reasonings or Considerations effectually divert them or take them off in a due manner unless they are mortifyed unto them by the Cross of Christ. Whatever Change be otherwise wrought in them it will be of no Advantage unto us It is Mortification alone that will take them off from earthly things unto the Glory of God Hence the Apostle having given us that Charge Set your Affections on things above and not on things below on the Earth Col. 3.2 Adds this as the only way and means whereby we may do so Mortify therefore your Members that are on the Earth v. 5. Let no man think that his
but such also as will make Compensation in some measure for their Sins and therefore whereas they cannot but frequently fall into Sin they relieve themselves from the reflection of their Consciences by a Multiplication of Duties and Renewed Diligence in them It is inconceivable what Delight and Satisfaction men will take in any thing that seems to contribute so much unto a Righteousness of their own For it is suitable unto and pleaseth all the Principles of Nature as corrupt after it is brought under the Power of a Conviction concerning Sin Righteousness and Judgement This made the Jews of old so pertinaciously adhere unto the Ceremonies and Sacrifices of the Law and to prefer them above the Gospel the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof Rom. 10.3 4. They looked and sought for Righteousness by them Those who for many Generations were kept up with great difficulty unto any tolerable Observance of them when they had learned to place all their hopes of a Righteousness in them would and did adhere unto them unto their temporal and eternal Ruine Rom. 9 31 32 33. And when men were perswaded that Righteousness was to be attained by Works of Munificence and supposed Charity in the dedication of their Substance unto the Use of the Church they who otherwise were covetous and greedy and oppressing would lavish Gold out of the Bag and give up their whole Patrimony with all their ill gotten Goods to attain it so powerfull an Influence hath the Desire of self Righteousness upon the Minds of Men. It is the best Fortification of the Soul against Christ and the Gospel the last Reserve whereby it maintains the Interest of self against the Grace of God Hence I say those that place their Righteousness or that which is the principal Part of it in the Duties of Religious Worship will not only be diligent in them but oft times abound in a Multiplication of them Especially will they do so if they may be performed in such a way and manner as pleaseth their Affections with a shew of Humility and Devotion requiring nothing of the Exercise of Faith or sincere Divine Love therein So is it with many in all kinds of Religion whether the way of their Worship be true or false whether it be appointed of God or rejected by him And the declaration hereof is the subject of the Discourse of the Prophet Isaiah 1.11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19. Also Mich. 6.7 8. Fourthly The Reputation of Devotion in Religious Duties may insensibly affect the unrenewed Minds of Men with great diligence and delight in their performance However Men are divided in their Apprehension and Practice about Religion however different from and contrary unto each other their ways of Divine Worship are Yet it is amongst all sorts of men yea in the secret thoughts of them who outwardly contemn these things a matter of Reputation to be devout to be diligent to be strict in and about those Duties of Religion which according to their own Light and Perswasion they judge incumbent on them This greatly affects the Minds of Men whil'st Pride is secretly predominant in them and they love the Praise of Men more than the Praise of God Especially will this Consideration prevail on them when they suppose that the Credit and Honour of the way which they profess in competition with others depends much on their Reputation as to their strictness in Duties of Devotion For then will they not only be diligent in themselves but zealous in drawing others unto the same Observances These two Principles their own Reputation and that of their Sect constituted the Life and Soul of Pharisaism of old According as the Minds of men are influenced with these Apprehensions so will a love unto and a delight in those Duties whereby their Reputation is attained thrive and grow in them I am far from apprehending that any Men are at least I speak not of them who are such vile Hypocrites as to do all that they do in Religion to be seen and praised of Men being influenced in all publick Duties thereby which some among the Pharisees were given up unto But I speak of them who being under the Convictions and Motives before mentioned do also yet give admittance unto this corrupt end of desire of Reputation or the Praise of Men. For every such end being admitted and prevalent in the Mind will universally influence the Affections unto a delight in those Duties whereby that end may be attained until the Person with whom it is so be habituated unto them with great Satisfaction Fifthly I should in the last place insist on Superstition As this is an undue Fear of the Divine Nature Will and Opperations built on false Notions and Apprehensions of them it may befall the Minds of Men in all Religions true and false It is an Internal Vice of the Mind As it respects the outward Way and Means of Religious Service and consists in the devout Performance of such Duties as God indeed accepts not but forbids so it belongs only to Religion as it is false and corrupt How in both respects it will engage the Minds of Men into the performance of Religious Duties and for the most part with the most scrupulous diligence and sometimes with prodigious attempts to exceed the measures of humane Nature in what they do design is too long a work here to be declared It may suffice to have mentioned it among the Causes and Reasons why men whose Affections are not Spiritually renewed may yet greatly delight in the diligent performance of the Outward Duties of Religion Our design in these things is the discovery of the true nature of this Grace and Duty of being Spiritually-Minded Hereunto we have declared that it is necessary that our Affections be Spiritually and Supernaturally renewed And because there may be a great Change wrought on the Affections of Men with respect unto Spiritual things where there is nothing of this Supernatural Renovation our present enquiry is what are the Differences that are between the actings of the Affections of the one sort and of the other whether Spiritually renewed or Occasionally changed And wherein the great Exercise of them consists in the Duties of Religious Worship I have declared what are the grounds and reasons whence Men of unrenewed Minds do delight oft times in the Duties of Divine Worship and are diligent in the performance of them From these and the like Considerations it may be made manifest that the greatest part of the Devotion that is in the World doth not spring from the Spiritual Renovation of of the Minds of Men without which it is not accepted with God That which remains to give in Instance farther Evidence unto the Discovery we are in the pursuit of is what are the grounds and reasons whereon those whose Minds and Affections are Spiritually renewed do delight in the Institutions of Divine Worship and attend unto their Observance with great heed and diligence And
Wilderness where no Refreshment is to be obtained To make a Pretence of Coming unto God and not with Expectation of receiving good and great things from him is to despise God himself to overthrow the nature of the Duty and deprive our own Souls of all Benefit thereby And want hereof is that which renders the worship of the most useless and fruitless unto themselves VVe are alwayes to come unto God as unto an Eternal Spring of Goodness Grace and Mercy of all that our Souls do stand in need of of all we can desire in order unto our Everlasting Blessedness and all these things as unto Believers may be reduced unto the two Heads before mentioned First They come for a Communication of a Sense of his Love in Jesus Christ. Hence doth all our Peace Consolation and Joy all our Encouragement to do and suffer according to the VVill of God all our Supportments under our Sufferings solely depend In these things do our Souls live and without them we are of all Men the most miserable It is the Holy Spirit who is the immediate efficient Cause of all these things in us He sheds abroad the Love of God in our Hearts Rom. 5.5 He witnesseth our Adoption unto us Chap. 8.15 16. And thereby an Intrest in the Love of the Father in God as he is Love But the Outward Way and means whereby he communicates these things unto us and effects them in us is by the Dispensation of the Gospel or the Preaching of it ordinarily He doth the same work also in Prayer oft-times in other Holy Administrations For this end for a Participation of this Grace of these Mercies do Believers come unto God by them They use them as meanes to draw Water from the Wells of Salvation and to receive in that Spiritual Sense of Divine Love which God by them will communicate So Christ by his VVord knocks at the Door of the Heart if it be opened by Faith he cometh in and Suppeth with men giving them a gracious Refreshment by the Testimony of his own Love and the Love of the Father Rev. 3.20 Joh. 14.23 This Believers look for in and this they do in various measures receive by the Ordinances of Divine VVorship And although some through their Fears and Temptations are not sensible hereof yet do they secretly receive these blessed gracious Supplies whereby their Souls are held in Life without which they would pine away and perish So he dealeth with them Cant. 4.5 6. These are the Gardens and Galleries of Christ wherein he gives us of his Love Cant. 7.12 Those who are humble and sincere know how often their Souls have been refreshed in them and how long sometimes the Impressions they have received of Divine Grace and Love have continued with them unto their unspeakable Consolation They remember what they have received in the Opening and Application of the exceeding great and pretious Promises that are given unto them whereby they are gradually more and more made Partakers of the Divine Nature how many a time they have received Light in Darkness Refreshment under Despondencies Relief in their Conflicts with dangers and temptations in and by them For this Cause do Affections that are Spiritually renewed cleave unto them VVho can but love and delight in that which he hath found by experience to be the way and means of Communicating unto him the most invaluable Mercy the most inestimable Benefit whereof in this Life he can be made partaker He who hath found an hidden Treasure although he should at once take away the whole of it yet will esteem the place where he found it But if it be of that nature that no more can be found or taken of it at once but what is sufficient for the present Occasion yet is so full and boundless as that whenever he comes again to seek for it he shall be sure to obtain present Supply he will alwayes value it and constantly apply himself unto it And such is the Treasure of Grace and divine Love that is in the Ordinances of divine VVorship If we are Strangers unto these things if we have never received Efficatious Intimations of Divine Love unto our Souls in and by the Duties of Divine Worship we cannot love them and delight in them as we ought VVhat do men come to hear the VVord of God for What do they pray for VVhat do they expect to receive from him Do they come unto God as the Eternal Fountain of Living Waters as the God of all Grace Peace and Consolation Or do they come unto his VVorship without any Design as unto a dry and empty shew Do they fight uncertainly with these things as men beating the Air or do they think they bring something unto God but receive nothing from him that the best of their Business is to please him in doing what he commands but to receive any thing from him they expect not nor do ever examine themselves whether they have done so or no It is not for Persons who walk in such wayes ever to attain a due Delight in the Ordinances of Divine Worship Believers have other Designs herein and among the rest this in the First place that they may be a fresh made Partakers of Refreshing Comforting Pledges of the Love of God in Christ and thereby of their Adoption of the Pardon of their Sins and acceptance of their Persons According as they meet with these things in the Duties of Holy Worship publick or private so will they love value and adhere unto them Some Men are full of other Thoughts and Affections so as that these things are not their principal Design or Desire or are contented with that measure of them which they suppose themselves to have attained or at least are not sensible of the need they stand in to have fresh Communications of them made unto their Souls supposing that they can do well enough without a renewed Sense of Divine Love every Day some are so Ignorant of what they ought to design to look after in the Duties of Gospel Worship as that it is impossible they should have any real Design in them Many of the better sort of Professors are too negligent in this matter They do not long and pant in the Inward man after renewed Pledges of the Love of God They do not consider how much need they have of them that they may be encouraged and strengthened unto all other Duties of Obedience they do not prepare their Minds for their Reception of them nor come with Expectation of their Communication unto them they do not rightly fix their Faith on this Truth namely that these Holy Administrations and Duties are appointed of God in the first place as the wayes and meanes of conveying his Love and a Sense of it unto our Souls From hence springs all that Luke-warmness Coldness and Indifferency in and unto the Duties of holy Worship that are growing among us For if Men have lost the Principal Design of Faith
in them and dis-esteem the chiefest Benefit which is to be obtained by them whence should Zeal for them delight in them or diligence in attendance unto them arise Let not any please themselves under the Power of such decayes they are Indications of their Inward Frame and those infallible Such Persons will grow cold careless and negligent as unto the Duties of publick Worship they will put themselves neither to Charge nor Trouble about them every Occasion of Life diverts them and finds ready Entertainment in their Minds And when they do attend upon them it is with great Indifferency and Unconcernedness Yet would they have it thought that all is still well within as ever it was they have as good a respect unto Religion as any But these things openly discover an ulcerous Disease in the very Souls of Men as evidently as if it were written on their Foreheads what ever they pretend unto the contrary they are under the Power of woful Decayes from all due regard unto Spiritual and Eternal Things And I would avoid the Society of such Persons as those who carry an infectious Disease about them unless it were to help on their Cure But herein it is that Affections Spiritually renewed do manifest themselves When we do delight in and value the Duties of Gods Worship because we find by Experience that they are and have been unto us meanes of communicating a Sense and renewed Pledges of the Love of God in Christ with all the Benefits and Priviledges which depend thereon then are our Affections renewed in and by the Holy Ghost Secondly They come for Supplies of Internal Sanctifying strengthning Grace This is the second great Design of Believers in their Approaches unto God in his VVorship The want hereof as unto Measures and Degrees they find in themselves and are sensible of it Yea therein lyes the great Burden of the Souls of Believers in this VVorld All that we do in the Life of God may be referred unto two Heads First The Observance of all Duties of Obedience And Secondly The Conflict with and Conquest over Temptations About these things are we continually exercised Hence the great thing which we desire labour for and pant after is Spiritual Strength and Ability for the Discharge of our selves in a due manner with respect unto these things This is that which every true Believer groaneth after in the inward Man and which he preferreth infinitely above all Earthly Things So he may have Grace sufficient in any competent measure for these ends let what will befal him he desireth no more in this VVorld God in Christ is the only Fountain of all this Grace There is not one Drachm of it to be obtained but from him alone And as he doth communicate it unto us of his own Soveraign Goodness and Pleasure so the ordinary way and meanes whereby he will do it are the Duties of his Worship Isaiah 40.28 29 30 31. Hast thou not known Hast thou not heard that the Everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the Ends of the Earth fainteth not neither is weary There is no searching of his Understanding He giveth Power to the faint and to them that have no Might he increaseth Strength Even the Youths shall faint and be weary and the Young Men shall utterly fail But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their Strength they shall mount up with Wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint All Grace and Spiritual Strength is originally seated in the nature of God v. 28. But what relief can that afford unto us who are weak feeble fainting He will act suitably unto his nature in the Communication of this Grace and Power v. 29. But how shall we have an Interest in this Grace in these Opperations wait on him in the Ordinances of his Worship v. 31. The Word as Preached is the Food of our Souls whereby God administreth Growth and Strength unto them Joh. 17.17 1 Pet. 2.23 Desire sayeth he the sincere Milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby But what Encouragement have we thereunto if so be sayeth he you have tasted that the Lord is gracious If in and by the Dispensation of this Word you have had Experience of the Grace the Goodness the Kindness of God unto your Souls you cannot but desire it and delight in it And otherwise you will not do so When men have fate some good while under the Dispensation of the VVord and in the enjoyment of other Ordinances without tasting in them and by them that the Lord is gracious they will grow weary of it and them Wherefore Prayer is the way of his Appointment for the Application of our Souls unto him to obtain a Participation of all needful Grace which therefore he hath proposed unto us in the Promises of the Covenant that we may know what to ask and how to plead for it In the Sacraments the same Promises are seal'd unto us and the Grace represented in them effectually exhibited Meditation confirms our Souls in the Exercise of Faith about it and is the especial Opening of the Heart unto the Reception of it By these meanes I say doth God communicate all Supplies of renewing strengthening and sanctifying Grace unto us that we may live unto him in all Holy Obedience and be able to get the Victory over our Temptations Under this Apprehension do Believers approach unto God in the Ordinances of his Worship They come unto them as the meanes of Gods Communication unto their Souls Hence they cleave unto them with Delight so far as their Affections are renewed So the Spouse testifyeth of her self I sate down under his Shadow with great Delight Cant 2.3 In these Ordinances is the protecting refreshing Presence of Christ. This she rested in with great Delight As they come unto them with these Designs and Expectations so they have Experience of the Spiritual Benefits and Advantages which they receive by them which more and more engageth them unto them in their Affections and Delights All these things those who have a Change wrought in their Affections but not a Spiritual Renovation are Strangers unto They neither have the Design before mentioned in coming to them nor the Experience of this Efficacy now proposed in their Attendance on them But these Benefits are great as for Instance when Men find the worth and Effect of the Word Preached on their Souls in its enlightning refreshing strengthening transforming Power when they find their Hearts warmed their Graces excited and strengthened the Love of God improved their Disponding Spirits under Trials and Temptations relieved their whole Souls gradually more and more Conformed unto Christ when they find themselves by it extricated out of Snares Doubts Fears Temptations and brought unto Satisfaction and Rest they cannot but delight in the Dispensation of it and rejoyce in it as the Food of their Souls And it is a great Hinderance unto the Encrease of Spiritual Life and
Obstruction unto Fruitfulness Thrnkfulness and Consolation when we are negligent in our Meditation about the Benefits that we receive by the Word and the Advantages which we have thereby For whil'st it is so with us we can neither value the Grace of God in granting us this Inestimable Priviledge nor perform any Duty with respect unto it in a right manner This renders it an especial Object of our Affections as Spiritually renewed That Secret Love unto and Heavenly Delight in the Statutes and Testimonies of God which David expresseth Psal 119. arose from the Spiritual Benefit and Advantage which he received by them as he constantly declares And the sole Reason on the other hand why men grow so careless negligent and cold in their Attendance unto the Preaching of the Word is because they have no Experience of any Spiritual Benefit or Advantage by it They have been brought unto it by one means or another mostly by conviction of their Duty Their Minds have been variously affected with it unto a Joy in the hearing of it and readiness unto sundry Duties Of Obedience But after a while when a sense of those Temporary Impressions is worn off finding no real Spiritual Benefit by it they loose all delight in it and become very indifferent as unto its Enjoyment The Frame which such Persons at length arrive unto is described Mal. 1.13 and 3.14 And none can give any greater Evidence of the Decay of all manner of Grace in them or of their being destitute of all Saving-Grace than when they apostatize from some degree of Zeal for and Delight in the Dispensation of the Word of God with such a cursed Indifferency as many are overtaken withal It cannot be otherwise For seeing this is a way and means of the Exercise of all Grace it will not be neglected but where there is a Decay of all Grace however Men may please themselves with other Pretences And when they are thus ensnared every foolish Prejudice every Provocation every wanton Opinion and Imagination will confirm them in and increase their gradual Backsliding And as it is with Believers as unto the hearing of the Word in general so it is as unto the Degrees of Advantage which they find by it VVhen Men have enjoyed the Dispensation of the Word in a peculiar manner Spiritual and Effectual if they can be content to forego it for that which is more cold and lifeless provided it possesseth the same time and outward Form with the other it is no great Evidence that their Souls do prosper It is therefore those alone who having a sense of the Efficacy of the Word on their Souls and Consciences unto all the holy Ends of it who cleave unto it with Spiritual Love and Delight They continually remember what holy Impressions it hath made on them what Engagements it hath brought their Souls into what encouragements unto Faith and Obedience it hath furnished them withal and long after renewed Sense of its Enjoyments When we do not find in our selves this Foundation of Spiritual delight in the Dispensation of the Gospel we can have no great Evidence that our Affections are renewed So also it is in the Duties of Prayer and Meditation VVhen the Soul of a Believer hath had Experience of the Communion which it hath had with God in them or either of them of the Spiritual Refreshment which it hath had from them of the Benefits and Mercies which are obtained by them in recovery from Temptations Snares Despondencies in Victory over Sin and Sathan in Spiritual Impressions working it unto an holy watchful Frame which hath abode with it in other VVayes and Occasions with the like Advantages wherewith fervent and Effectual Prayer and sincere Heavenly Meditation are accompanied it cannot but have Love unto them and Delight in them But if indeed we have no Experience of these things if we find not these Advantages in and by these Duties they cannot but be a Burden unto us nor do serve unto any other End but to satisfie Convictions He who had the benefit of a serene and wholsome Air in a recovery from many Diseases and Distempers with the Preservation of his Health so obtained will love it and prize it and so will he these Duties who hath been Partaker of any of these Saving Mercies and Priviledges wherewith they are accompanied Some have been delivered from the worst of Temptations and the nearest Approach of their Prevalency as to destroy themselves by a sudden Remembrance of the Frame of their Souls and the Intimations of Gods Love in such or such a Prayer at such a time Some have had the same Deliverance from Temptations unto Sin when they have been carried away under the Power of their Corruptions and all Circumstances have concurr'd under the Apprehensions of it a Sudden Thought of such a Prayer or Meditation with the Engagement they made of themselves therein unto God hath caused all the weapons of Sin to fall out of its hands and all the Beauties of its Allurements to disappear When others have been under the Power of such Dispondencies and Disconsolations as that no present tenders of Relief can approach unto them they have been suddenly raised and refreshed by the Remembrance of the intimate Love and Kindness between Christ and their Souls that hath evidenced it self in former Duties Multitudes in Feares Distresses and Temptations have found Relief unto their Spirits and Encouragement unto their Faith in the Remembrance of the Returnes they have had unto former Supplications in the like Distresses These are Grounds of Spiritual Delight in these Duties Heartless Lifeless wordy Prayer the Fruit of Convictions and Gifts or of Custom and outward Occasions however multiplyed and whatever Devotion they seem to be accompanied withal will never ingage Spiritual Affections unto them When these things are absent when the Soul hath not Experience of them Prayer is but a lifeless Form a dead Carcase which it would be a torment unto a Soul Spiritually alive to be tied unto There may be a Season indeed when God will seem to hide himself from Believers in their Prayers so as they shall neither find that Life in themselves which they have done formerly nor be sensible of any gracious Communications from him but this is done only for a time and principally to stir them up unto that Fervency and Preseverance in Prayer as may recover them into their former or a better Estate than yet they have attained unto The like may be said concerning all other Duties of Religion or Ordinances of Divine Worship Fourthly Believers whose Affections are Spiritually renewed do delight greatly in the duties of Divine Worship because they are the great instituted way whereby they may give Glory unto God This is the first and principal End of all Duties of Religion as they respect divine Appointment namely to ascribe and give unto God the Glory that is his due For in them all Acknowledgement is made of all the glorious Excellencies