flagrant in the desire of them so panting after them as the Hart after the Water-brooks The Apostle's Assertion is thus to be taken If any Man thus love the World the Love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2.15 The Throne and the Bed admit but one To subject us to the World is to depose God To take the World into our Hearts is to put him far from them How much less saith another Apostle The Friendship of the World is Enmity with God whosoever will be a Friend of the World is an Enemy of God! Jam. 4.4 When the Earth is interposed between the Sun and us it must needs be Night and when earthly things get between God and our Hearts there as necessarily follows an Estrangement and Darkness The Psalmist's Word speaks it in short The Covetous the Lord abhorreth Psal 10.3 Be it added lastly They err not knowing the Scriptures and the Grace of God who imagine Sins of unavoidable Infirmity inconsistent with his Acquaintance and Amity The Penitent who resists them is not alienated by them And as the innumerable Moats in the Air hinder not the descent of the Sun 's bright and benign Beams upon us neither do the numberless Failings of good Men deprive them of the rich Consolations of God Sins of meer VVeakness do rather excite Pity than kindle VVrath so far they be from interrupting Acquaintance Which is not broken neither by the moderate Employments or Comforts of this Life The Shop and the Plow are not only lawful but necessary Let there be just Care that the lean Kine eat not up the Fat that the Kingdom of Heaven be sought and first sought then do civil Callings subserve and not prejudice our higher Sacred One. So for the Comforts foresaid they are more than Innocent when Temperate If we take them by the Rules of God's Word we shall find them both harmless and useful to his Frindship We do so take them when we chuse none but what are of good Report for he that breaks the Hedg thereof a Serpent shall bite him and when we use not any to the wounding of Piety Charity and Chastity for by marrying of a Wife as well as by dallying with a Harlot a Man breaks the Peace of God if his Use of Liberty degenerates into Licentiousness and if he suffers it to make him break the Precepts of God Pleasure regularly chosen and used is Health to the Navel and Marrow to the Bones a Servant to Life and Godliness The Heart of the Wise is therefore in the House of such Mirth And may I not say it Look as God first created Man in a Garden of Delight He mostly new creates him also where the Voice of Joy and Gladness Sensual as well as Spiritual is heard The innocent Mirth of a Christian casteth a Lustre on his Religion and maketh it attractive Removeth from it the Reproach of Sowrness and Asperity Forth-shews its Sweetness and Alacrity whereof Men that try it not think it to be destitute Yea and as Cyprian and Justin of old because they think it to be destitute they are unpersuadable to try it Insomuch that Stoical and Monkish Austerity gives Occasion of Reproach and makes the Way of God to be blasphemed So far it is from adorning the Gospel from making it appear Amiable and from winning Men to the Love of it It was then when they that believed did eat their Meat with Gladness that the Lord added daily to the Church such as should be saved Morosity was never other than a back Friend to Christianity The Scruples of some others do require that this be added sc that Acquaintance with God is not inconsistent with Darkness and Doubts of his Love The Life of it consists not in Raptures and Extacies of Joy which God gives as in absolute Soveraignty and infinite Wisdom he sees fit and pleases How often do Children of Light sit in Darkness and see no Light Clouds of Witnesses are every where to be found yea the whole Sky of the Church is full of them Wherefore in a word the natural Sun maketh Gold and Silver where it doth not shine with any Lustre And the Sun of Righteousness riseth on many with Healing in his Wings to whom he doth not of a long time give rapturous Sensations of the same Neither know they well what Spirit they are of who think the holy One to be no Sanctifier where He is not at the same time a Comforter §. 2. Of the Peace and Good following Acquaintance with God The Hebrew Dialect takes Peace for the whole Element of Goodness For no less than all that is desirable Nor can the Gain of God's Acquaintance be supposed to be less Omnia habet qi habet habentem omnia To enjoy Him who is all Good is to enjoy no less than all of it Uncreated Goodness giving us its Acquaintance how shall it not with the same freely give us all things All that is necessary of created Goodness God is Faithful and his Acquaintance is thus Gainful His Friends are Kings as well as Priests and richer than the Persian Kings who went a begging to Projectors to invent them more Pleasures These are blest with more than they can ask or think But because Particulars are most affective that we may be provoked in the Faith and Love hereof to pursue it with becoming Zeal and Vigour attend we but these two Positions Yet sufficient one would think to reform the most Obstinate in evil VVays and to encourage the least Resolute in good Ones The Lord clothe them with a Power which none may be able to resist Posit 1 The Properties which commend this Peace are many e. gr 1. It is Vniversal One which contains all sc Peace with God with Conscience with Creatures and with Death Peace with God with God whose Wrath is Hell and whose Peace is Heaven A Peace which the Apostle saith passes all Vnderstanding Phil. 4.7 This follows Acquaintance with God When Adam sinned Enmity was made Enmity that is a Reciprocation of Hatred Christ Jesus maketh Friendship which is a Reciprocation of Love And how Partly by his Blood satisfying God's Justice and meriting his Mercy for us Partly by his Spirit mortifying our Malice and reviving all Grace in us Propitiating God to us and qualifying us for God's Love and Acquaintance Without the first God would be a consuming Fire to us and without the other we should never conquer our Fear or quench our Malice against him But by means of both there 's mutual Peace The Peace whence do spring the sweet Ones following Peace with Conscience one less known by the most accurate Description than by the least Fruition It can be but darkly shadowed forth by the liveliest Colours of Language but faintly represented by Metaphors What Calmness is to the Sea what Serenity is to a Day what Health is to a Body that Peace of Conscience is unto a Man That and much more But to such as have
whom they are Brought and Kept nigh Him and are excited with frequence to Draw most near to Him in his Ordinances Which as Jacob's Ladder have their Top in Heaven though their Foot on Earth And whereon as God descends to us we do Ascend to God The Lord is nigh to all that Call upon Him Howbeit without the Exercise of Graces vain is the Use of Ordinances Such Use is very Profaness and no Mean but the Bane of Acquaintance with God For what is such Worship but Lies and Deceit Hos 11. ult Think we that we can Come to God a Spirit upon Bodily Feet Or that there is any beneficial Approach to Him but with the Heart Or with any thing of the Heart but the Holy Vertues of it Briefly thus in every Ordinance we must set forward Repentance It is unto his Mourners that in Ordinances God cometh down with Comforts Isa 57.15 We must act Faith what we Feel our selves to Want we must Believe God able and willing to Give To wit for the sake of Christ who hath paid for it on Earth and pleads for it in Heaven The Scripture bids him not think to Receive any thing who in Ordinances asketh without Faith and Wavering Jam. 1.6 7. We must act Hope this is the Waiting Grace It is an Expectation that is Certain because built on the Rock of Divine Promises and Quickning both Desire and Action because of its Objects attractive excellency and Quieting also till God's time of bestowing it doth come because Hope is it self a very Foretaste of its Object 's sweetness And there is a Rejoicing in Hope as well as in Possession No wonder therefore that there is a Patience of Hope without the Exercise whereof in an Ordinance our Hearts be either Frozen and Negligent or Furious and Impatient When we Hope for God's Salvation then we do his Commandments Psal 119.166 We must also put forth Love for this is the Uniting Grace By its Desire we run to an Object by its Delight we rest in it Desire the first act of Love is as Thirst Delight which is its other Act is Satisfaction An Ordinance without these is as a Feast where there 's no Appetite or Eating But what saith our Saviour If a Man Love me he shall be Beloved of my Father and I will Love him and will Manifest my self unto him We will Come unto him and make our Abode with him Joh. 14.21 23. We must likewise express Humility because of our Natural distance from God which is never to be reduced and our Moral distance which is but in part removed Who can measure the Distance between Infinite and Finite Between a God and a Creature Or the Distance that is between Perfect Holiness and little beside Guilt and Filth Between Him in whose sight Angels are not clean and Creatures that proclaim themselves to be Sinks of Sin and to need no less than a Fountain of Grace The Man unto whom God will look in any Ordinance is the Poor and Contrite in Spirit that trembleth at his Word Isa 66.2 Then only we Worship when our Souls bow down and our Spirits Kneel before God our Maker Thus is Acquaintance with God maintained By his Communications unto us and our Exercising Graces and Performing Duties toward Him A blessed Reciprocation wherein He descending to us in a way of Bounty we ascend up unto him in a way of Duty Happy is the People that is in such a Case Happy is the People whose God is the Lord Wherefore lastly Posit 8 Acquaintance with God is Interrupted and broken by these particulars These into which we easily Fall and under which we must deeply Suffer as oft as we do so Namely 1. Presumptuous Sins Sins commited not by the Error of the Vnderstanding and named Sins of Ignorance or Incogitancy nor by the rashness and precipitance of the Affections and named Sins of Infirmity but committed by the rebellious Will which notwithstanding the Dictate of the Mind offered to it is swayed by the Lust of brutish Affection and rushes into the abominable thing that God hates These bear the name of Presumptuous Sins And such is their Malignity that they alienate God from the Soul and the Soul from God They are said to Separate Isa 59.2 And know we not their Effect upon the Man of God's own Heart His own words do argue that they made him fear himself to be a Cast-a-way Cast me not away from thy Presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me Psal 51.11 In short where wilful Sins do not die no Acquaintance with God can Live It must lay us in a Swoon till their Mortification 2. Rejected Duties Known Duties declined as to Frequence or as to Fervence in them As slow as the Lord is unto Wrath he will bear no such Slights of his Love For what a Contempt is weariness of the Supream King's Service and Benefactor 's Acquaintance What a Blasphemy is it in practice to say We are Lords and will come no more unto thee Jer. 2.31 What a sensless Iniquity is it as well as a Contumelious For never could any answer to God's Query VVhat have I done unto thee and wherein have I wearied thee Mic. 6.3 If we have full Stomachs and loath God's Honeycombs we shall not go long without feeling his Rods and Scorpions The Vials of his Anger shall be poured out and the wonted Aids and Comforts of his grieved Spirit be suspended It 's more than probable that till we stir up our selves and fill our Life with Duties and our Duties with Graces we shall find our selves emptied of our Hopes of Heaven and filled with the Fears of Hell My seldom-praying hath made me so often-despairing saith one My long Fasts from Duty have taken away all my Appetite unto it And what saith another For my sake let all Christians beware of Coldness in Ordinances it hath been the Death of my Hopes and giveth me a Life of nothing but Fears It is said of some Sovereign Potions that if taken cold their Virtue is Malignant they rather kill than heal I am much more certain that the Ordinances which being attended with Zeal lift up toward Heaven when Lukewarmness obtains they do throw us clean contrary As many as desire a flourishing Acquaintance with him let them seek the Lord continually and with all their Heart and their Soul Knowing that all drawing back tends to its Perdition Lastly 3. Pursued Vanities By Vanities I intend this World's Idols Sensual Pleasures which are but Swines Delights Riches of Gold that is but Dust and of Pearl which is no more than the Sea's Froth Honour and Praise of Men which is but their unseen Conceit and their favourable Breath Of these the condemned Pursuit is such as is Absolute and Vltimate neither Submissive nor Moderate When we prosecute them as resolved any manner of way to gain them Making them our highest Ambition Impatient of their being withheld from us by the undoubted Proprietor And
Spirit do set in with it will enlighten our Minds and give us to see better things Even with a Sight which shall ravish our Hearts into a full free and firm Choice and Pursuit of them In order to this be it attentively considered what is the Acquaintance of God and what the Peace and Good which infallibly follows it §. 1. Of Acquaintance with God A comprehensive Duty the whole Continent of Religion A short Map whereof followeth in these Positions Posit 1 Acquaintance with God consisteth in these Particulars viz. 1. Knowledg of Him of Him and of his Will as revealed in his Word As many as are acquainted with Him must know him from the least to the greatest Jer. 31.33 Ignorance perfectly alienates for both in Nature and Grace the Mind goes before the Will neither can this Chuse more than that Knows Qi non Sentit non Consentit Jeti Hence is the Inchoation of this Acquaintance said to be made by the opening of our Eyes or Understandings Acts 26.18 The Increase of it to be made by Knowledg 2 Pet. 3.18 And the Perfection of it in Heaven to be made by seeing God as He is 1 Joh. 3.2 Such an ingredient of Acquaintance is Knowledg I mean Natural Knowledg corrected and enlarged by Scriptural and both refined and raised by Spiritual Bats are not Saints and Moles are none of God's Friends But without the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation giving clearness and sweetness unto their Knowledg the greatest Doctors and Sophi's are no more Knowing nothing as they ought to know 2. Reverence of Him is also in this Acquaintance By this Reverence I understand not that Fear which is the Bastard of Error and springs from a conceit that the supream King is a Tyrant Void of Goodness tho full of Power Almighty but not most Merciful A Fear which blasphemes God and tormenteth Man draws God in the frightful Picture and puts Man into the distracting Terror of the Devil Reverence is the mixt Affection of Love and Fear rising from perswasion of Goodness and Power Maintained by this Tenet that its Object is as gracious as great One which together magnifies the Lord and regulates his Servants Sheweth his Majesty to be Serene as well as Dread and maketh his Subjects both Confident and Humble That is as Holy Angels be most governable and not at all servile For their Fulness of Joy is not abated by the Reverence which composes them for Adoration The Covering of their Faces doth not in the least prejudice their Beatific Vision Now so essential is this Reverence unto Acquaintance with God that Pagan Moralists could not but see it in their Darkness With them all Religion was stiled Reverence and all who followed it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. were named Men of Reverence The divinely inspired Writers are in nothing more express The God of Israel is called the Fear or Reverence of Israel Gen. 31.42 And He that ought to be feared Psal 75.11 His Fear and Reverence is also said to be our Wisdom Job 28.28 The Beginning or as that Text rather speaks the Principal Part of it Castal Ainsw Hammond in Loc. Psal 111.10 Insomuch that it is beyond all peradventure they who know not the Divine Goodness so as to fear its Forfeiture and know not his Greatness so as to fear the Frowns of his Displeasure they are alienated and Enemies in their Minds 3. Love of Him Love that consists of Estimation and Choice Our Valuation of his Excellencies and our Option of him for them Then we love God when our Judgments determine Him to be the proper Object of our Happiness and our Hearts renouncing all Competitors do embrace Him as such Constancy is to be un-understood in both and so is Transcendency Constancy because a transient Passion of Love without the firm and fixed Vertue of it is unworthy of the Name of Love Should a Man for a Fit equal the most passionate Love of the Holy Martyrs if by and by his Esteem and Choice of God do expire he is to be numbred among those who have not the true Love of God in them Again Transcendency because there being no compare between Finite and Infinite if the constant Torrent of our Love toward God sho'd rise no higher than it doth toward Creatures it might be truly said that our Love were Hatred and no Honour but high Contempt of Him For among the Worms of this Earth he is held to hate his Father who loves him but as much as he loves his Hawk or his Hound And extremely to despise his King who makes him but equal to his Footman In short there is no Medium betwixt so loving God and hating of Him He that is not thus transcendently and constantly for God he is against Him Luke 11.23 And he that is against Him is surely unacquainted with Him Because it 's a Natural Principle as well as a Moral Duty to love God when we know Him Nor can we do otherwise if we take him for the true and sole Object of our Rational Appetite No but we must as necessarily reject Idols and love God as a sensible hungry Man casts away Stones and eateth Bread The beloved Disciple saith as much as this He that loveth not knoweth not God! hath not seen Him neither known Him 4. Converse with Him is likewise included in this Acquaintance Can two walk together except they be agreed or will they be agreed and not walk together Who did ever conceive of Acquaintance without Fellowship and Communion Indeed profane Wits laugh to scorn the Phrase of Communion with God concluding that all who profess to enjoy it do embrace but a Shadow and hug no more than an empty Cloud And more than a few who are blest with the Fruition of it are not well able to express or form distinct Conceptions of it But it must be said that to question whether there be such a thing or no is to question whether there be any such thing as Acquaintance with God or any Religion Yet it may not be denied but that there have been Brain-sick Creatures who by their swelling Words of Vanity and of Blasphemy have rendred this Phrase obnoxious to Scorn and Calumny I shall here endeavour to give such a Notion of it as shall not fear Obloquy or give Occasion for it By Converse with God and Communion I understand Sacred Discourse Holy Dialogues between God and the Enochs who humbly walk with Him God speaking to them by Excitations of Grace and Injections of Heavenly Thoughts they speaking unto God by gracious Desires and solemn Addresses God speaking unto them Words of Instruction directing them unto Duty Words of Reproof breaking them off from Sin Words of Comfort raising them up from under Sorrow They speaking unto God Words of Confession bewailing Sin Words of Petition deprecating Vengeance and imploring pardoning and healing Grace Words of Praise and Thanksgiving celebrative of his Greatness and his Goodness Not to