and therefore it is here that we have the loudest call and best assistance to make a large return of Love And where there is the most of this Love between God and man there is most Communion and most of Heaven that can be had on Earth But it much concerneth the members of Christ that they deprive not themselves of this Communion with God in this Holy Sacrament through their miscarriage which is too frequently done by one of these extreams Either by rushing upon holy things with a presumptuous careless common frame of heart as if they knew not that they go to feast with Christ and discerned not his body or else by an excess of fear drawing back and questioning the good will of God and thinking diminutively of his love and mercy By this means Satan depriveth many of the comfortable part of their communion with God both in this Sacrament and in other waies of grace and maketh them avoid him as an enemy and be loth to come into his special presence and even to be afraid to think of him to pray to him or to have any holy converse with him When the just belief and observation of his Love would stablish them and revive their souls with joy and give them experience of the sweet delights which are opened to them in the Gospel and which believers finde in the Love of God and the foretast of the everlasting pleasures 4. In holy faithful servent Prayer a Christian hath very much of his converse with God For Prayer is our approach to God and calling to mind his presence and his attributes and exercising all his graces in a holy motion towards him and an exciting all the powers of our souls to seek him attend him reverently to worship him It is our treating with him about the most important businesses in all the world a beâ—ging of the greatest mercies and a deprecating his most grievous judgments and all this with the nearest familiarity that man in flesh can have with God In prayer the Spirit of God is working up our hearts unto him with desires exprest in sighs and groans It is a work of God as well as of man He bloweth the fire though it be our hearts that burn and boil In Prayer we lay hold on Jesus Christ and plead his merits and intercession with the Father He taketh us as it wereby the hand and leadeth us unto God and hideth our sins and procureth our acceptance and presenteth us amiable to his Father having justified and sanctified us and cleansed us from those pollutions which rendered us loathsome and abominable To speak to God in serious prayer is a work so high and of so great moment that it calleth off our minds from all things else and giveth no creature room or leave to look into the soul or once to be observed The mind is so taken up with God and employed with him that creatures are forgotten and we take no notice of them unless when through the diversions of the flesh our prayers are interrupted and corrupted and so far degenerate and are no prayer so far I say as we thus turn away from God So that the soul that is most and best at Prayer is most and best at walking with God and hath most communion with him in the Spirit And to withdraw from Prayer is to withdraw from God And to be unwilling to pray is to be unwilling to draw near to God Meditation or Contemplation is a duty in which God is much enjoyed But Prayer hath Meditation in it and much more All that is upon the mind in Meditation is upon the mind in Prayer and that with great advantage as being presented before God and pleaded with him and so animated by the apprehensions of his observing presence and actuated by the desires and pleadings of the soul. When we are commanded to Pray it includeth a command to Repent and Believe and Fear the Lord and Desire his Grace For Faith and Repentance and Fear and Desire are altogether in action in a serious prayer And as it were naturally each one takes his place and there is a holy order in the acting of these graces in a Christians prayers and a harmony which he doth seldome himself observe He that in Meditation knoweth not how to be regular and methodical when he is studiously contriving and endeavouring it yet in Prayer before he is aware hath Repentance and Faith and Fear and Desire and every grace fall in its proper place and order and contribute its part to the performance of the work The new nature of a Christian is more immediately and vigorously operative in Prayer than in many other duties And therefore every Infant in the family of God can pray with groaning desires and ordered graces if not with well-ordered words When Paul began to live to Christ he began aright to pray Behold he prayeth saith God to Ananias Act. 9. 11. And because they are Sons God sends the Spirit of his Son into the hearts of his Elect even the Spirit of Adoption by which they cry Abba Father Gal. 4. 6. as children naturally cry to their Parents for relief And Nature is more regular in its works than Art or humane contrivance is Necessity teacheth many a beggar to pray better for relief to men than many learned men that feel not their necessities can pray to God The Spirit of God is a better Methodist than we are And though I know that we are bound to use our utmost care and skill for the orderly actuating of each holy affection in our Prayers and not pretend the sufficiency of the Spirit for the patronage of our negligence or sloth for the Spirit makes use of our understandings for the actuating of our wills and affections yet withall it cannot be denied but that it was upon a special reason that the Spirit that is promised to Believers is called a Spirit of Grace and Supplication Zech. 12. 10. And that it is given us to help our infirmities even the infirmities of our understanding when we know not what to pray for as we ought Rom. 8. 26. And that the Spirit it self is said to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered It is not the Spirit without that is here meant such intercession is nowhere ascribed to that How then is the Prayer of the Spirit within us distinguished from our Prayer Not as different effects of different causes as different prayers by these different parties But as the same prayer proceeding from different causes having a special force for quality and degree as from one cause the Spirit which it hath not from the other cause from our selves except as received from the Spirit The Spirit is as a New Nature or fixed inclination in the Saints For their very self-love and will to good is sanctified in them which works so readily though voluntarily as that it is in a sort by the way of Nature though not excluding Reason and
and dead to morrow They are our delight to day and our sorrow or horrour to morrow But our God is Immortal Our houses may be burned Our goods may be consumed or stolne our cloaths will be worn out our treasure here may be corrupted But our God is unchangeable the same for ever Our Laws and Customes may be changed our Governours and Priviledges changed our company and employments and habitation changed but our God is never changed Our estates may change from Riches to poverty and our names that were honoured may incur disgrace Our health may quickly turn to sickness and our ease to pain But still our God is unchangeable for ever Our friends are unconstant and may turn our enemies Our Peace may be changed into war and our liberty into slavery but our God doth never change Time will change customes families and all things here but it changeth not our God The Creatures are all but earthen mettal and quickly dasht in peices our comforts are changeable our selves are changeable and mortal but so is not our God 3. And it should teach us to draw as near to God as we are capable by unchangeable fixed Resolutions and constancy of endeavours and to be still the same as we are at the best 4. It should move us also to be more desirous of passing into the state of immortality and to long for our unchangeable habitation and our immortal incorruptible Bodies and to possess the Kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. And let not the mutability of things below much trouble us while our Rock our Portion is unmoveable God waxeth not old Heaven doth not decay by duration the Glory of the blessed shall not wither nor their sun set upon them nor their day have any night nor any mutations or commotions disturb their quiet possessions O Love and Long for Immortality and Incorruption CHAP. VII 6. HAving spoken of the effects of the Attributes of Gods Essence as such we must next speak of the Effects of his three great Attributes which some call Subsistential that is his Omnipotency Understanding and Will or his Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness By which it hath been the way of the Schoolmen and other Divines to denominate the three Persons not without some countenance from Scripture Phrase The Father they call the Infinite Power of the God head and the Son the Wisdom and Word of God and of the Father and the Holy Ghost the Love and Goodness of God of the Father and Son But that these Attributes of Power Understanding and Will or Power Wisdome and Goodness are of the same importance with the termes of Personality Father Son and Holy Ghost we presume not to affirm It sufficeth us 1. That God hath assumed these Attributes to himself in Scripture 2. And that man who beareth the Natural Image of God hath Power Understanding and Will and as he beareth the Holy Moral Image of God he hath a Power to execute that which is Good and Wisdome to direct and Goodness of Will to determine for the execution And so while God is seen of us in this Glass of Man we must conceive of him after the Image that in man appeareth to us and speak of him in the language of man as he doth of himself And first The Almightiness of God must make these impressions on our souls 1. It must possess the soul with very awful Reverent thoughts of God and fill us continually with his holy Fear Infinite Greatness and Power must have no common careless thoughts lest we Blaspheme him in our Minds and be guilty of Contempt The Dread of the Heavenly Majesty should be still upon us and we must be in his fear all the day long Prov. 23. 17. Not under that slavish Fear that is void of Love as men fear an Enemy or hurtful Creature or that which is Evil For we have not such a spirit from the Lord nor stand in a Relation of enmity and bondage to him But Reverence is necessary and from thence a Fear of sinning and displeasing so Great a God The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome Prov. 1. 7. and 9. 10. Psal. 111. 10. By it men depart from evil Prov. 16. 6. Sin is for want of the Fear of God Luk. 23. 40. Pro. 3. 7. Jer. 5. 24. I. ev 25. 36. The Fear of God is often put for the whole new man or all the work of Grace within us even the Principle of new life Jer. 2. 19. and 32. 40. And it is often put for the whole work of Religion or Service of God Psal. 34. 11. Prov. 1. 29. Psal. 130. 4. and 34. 9. And therefore the Godly are usually denominated such as Fear God Psal. 15. 4. and 22. 23. and 115. 11 13. and 135. 20. and 34. 7 9. c. The godly are devoted to the Fear of God Psal. 119. 38. It is our Sanctifying the Lord in our hearts that he be our fear and dread Isa. 8. 13. If we Fear him not we take him not for our Master Mal. 1. 6. Evangelical Grace excludeth not this Fear Luk. 12. 5. Though we receive a Kingdom that cannot be moved yet must our acceptable service of God be with Reverence and godly fear Heb. 12. 28. With fear and trembling we must work out our salvation Phil. 2. 12. In fear we must pass the time of â—â—journing here 1 Pet. 1. 17. In it we must converse together Eph. 5. 4. Yea Holiness is to be perfected in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. and that because we have the Promises The most prosperous Churches walk in this fear Acts 9. 31. It s a necessary means of preventing destruction Heb. 11. 7. and of attaining salvation when we have the promises Heb. 4. 1. God puts this fear in the hearts of those that shall not depart from him Jer. 32. 40. See therefore that the Greatness of the Almighty God possess thy soul continually with his Fear 2. Gods Almightiness should also possess us with holy Admiration of him and cause us in heart and voice to Magnifie him Oh what a Power is that which made the world of nothing which upholdeth the earth without any foundation but his Will which placed and maintaineth all things in their Order in Heaven and Earth which causeth so great and glorious a creature as the Sun that is so much bigger then all the earth to move so many thousand miles in a few moments and constantly to keep its time and course that giveth its instinct to every brute and causeth every part of nature to do its office By his Power it is that every motion of the Creature is performed and that order is kept in the Kingdoms of the world Jer. 32. 17 18 19. He made the Heaven and the Earth by his Great Power and stretched out arm and nothing is too hard for him The Great the Mighty God the Lord of Hosts is his Name great in counsel and mighty in works Neh. 9.
in those that undertake the place of Pastors cruelty to mens souls is a far greater sin than in any others To starve those that they undertake to feed and to seduce those whom they undertake to Guide and be Wolves to those whose Shepherds they pretend to be and to prefer their worldly honours and commodity and ease before the souls of many thousands to be so cruel to souls when Christ hath been so merciful to them as to come down on earth to seek and save them and to give his life a ransome for them this will one day be so heavy a charge that the man that must stand as guilty under it will a thousand times wish that a milstoâ—â— had been hanged about his neck and he had been cast into the bottome of the Sea before he had betrayed or murdered souls or offended one of the little ones of Christ. Be merciful to mens souls and bodies as ever you would find mercy with a merciful God in the hour of your necessity and distress CHAP. XXI 20. THE last of Gods Attributes which I shall now mention is his Dreadfulness or Terribleness to those that are the objects of his wrath This is the result of his other Attributes especially of his Holiness and Governing Justice and Truth in his commiâ—ations He is a Great and Dreadful God Dan. 9 4. A mighty God and terrible Deut. 7. 21. A great and terrible God Nah. 1. 5. With God is terrible Majesty Job 37. 22. The Lord most high is terrible Psal. 47. 22. 1. His Children therefore must be kept in a holy awe God is never to be approached or mentioned but with the greatest reverence We must sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and he must be our fear and dread Isa. 8. 13. Even they that receive the unmoveable Kingdom must have grace in their hearts to serve him acceptably with Reverence and godly fear because our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12. 28 29. When we come to worship in the holy Assemblies we should think as Jacob Gen. 28. 17. How dreadful is this place This is none other but the House of God and this is the gate of Heaven Especially when God seemeth to frown upon the soul his servants must humble themselves before him and deprecate his wrath as Jeremiah did Jer. 17. 17. Be not a terrour to mee It ill becometh the best of men to make light of the frowns and threatnings of God Also when he dealeth with us in Judgement and we feel the smart of his chastisements though we must remember that he is a Father yet withall we must consider that he sheweth himself an offended Father And therefore true and deep Humiliation hath ever been the course of afflicted Saints to turn away the wrath of a terrible God 2. But above all what cause have the Ungodly to tremble at the Dreadfulness of that God who is engaged in Justice except they be converted to use them everlastingly as his unpardoned enemies As there is no felicity like the favour of God and no joy comparable to his childrens joyes so is there no misery like the sense of his Displeasure nor any terrours to be compared to those which his wrath inflicteth everlastingly on the ungodly O wretched sinner what hast thou done to make God thine enemy what could hire thee to offend him by thy willful sin and to do that which thou knewest he forbad and condemned in his Word What madness caused thee to make a mock at sin and hell and to play with the vengeance of the Almighty what gain did hire thee to cast thy soul into the danger of damnation canst thou save by the match if thou win the world and lose thy soul Didst thou not know who it was thou hadst to do with It had been better for thee that all the world had been offended with thee even men and Angels great and small than the most Dreadful God Didst thou not believe him when he told thee how he was resolved to judge and punish the ungodly Read it 2 Thes. 2. 7 8 9 10. and 2. 10 11. Matth. 25. Jud. 15. Psal. 1. c. what caused thee to venture upon the consuming fire Didst thou not know that as he is Merciful so he is Jealous Holy Just and Terrible In the Name of God I require and intreat thee fly to his Mercy in Jesus Christ and hearken speedily to his Grace and turn at his reproof and warning To day while it is called to day harden not thy heart but hear his voice lest he resolve in his wrath that thou shalt never enter into his rest There is no enduring there is no overcoming there is no contending with an angry dreadful holy God Repent therefore and turn to him and obey the voice of Mercy that thy soul may live 3. The Dreadfulness of God doth tell both good and bad the great necessity of a Mediator What an unspeakable mercy is it that God hath given us his Son and that by Jesus Christ we may come with boldness and confidence into the presence of the Dreadful God that else would have been to us a greater terror than all the world yea than Satan himself The more we are apprehensive of our distance from God and of his Terrible Majesty and his more Terrible justice against such sinners as we have been the more we shall understand the mysterie of Redemption and highly value the Mediation of Christ. 4. Lastly let the Dreadfulness of God prevail with every believing soul to pitty the ungodly that pitty not themselves O pray for them O warn them exhort them intreat them as men that know the Terrours of the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 11. If they knew as well as you do what sin is and what it is to be children of wrath and what it is to be unpardoned unjustified and unsanctified they would pitty themselves and cry for mercy mercy mercy from day to day till they were recovered into a state of life and turned from the power of Satan unto God Alas they know not what it is to die and to see the world to come and to appear before a dreadful God They know not what it is to be in Hell fire nor what it is to be glorified in Heaven They never saw or tryed these things and they want the Faith by which they must be foreseen by those that are yet short of nearer knowledge you therefore that have Faith to foreknow these things and are enlightned by the Spirit of God O pitty and warn and help the miserable Tell them how much easier it is to escape Hell than to endure it and how much easier a Holy life on earth is than the endless wrath of the most Dreadful God Tell them that unbelief presumption and security are the certain means to bring their misery but will do nothing to keep it off though they may keep off the present knowledge and sense of it which would have droven them to seek a cure
though all your carnal friends and superiors be against it though the devil will do all that he can against it yet all this must be done or you are lost for ever And all this must be done by the Spirit of God for it is his work to make you New and Holy And can you think then that the business is not great which you have with God when you have tryed how hard every part of this work is to be begun and carryed on you will finde you have more to do with God than with all the world 9. Moreover in order to this it is necessary that you read and hear and understand the Gospel which must be the means of bringing you to God by Christ This must be the instrument of God by which he will bring you to Repent and Believe and by which he will renew your Natures and imprint his Image on you and bring you to Love him and obey his will The Word of God must be your Counsellor and your delight and you must set your heart to it and meditate in it day and night Knowledge must be the means to reclaim your perverse misguided Wills and to reform your careless crooked Lives and to bring you out of the Kingdom of darkness into the State of Light and Life And such Knowledge cannot be expected without a diligent attending unto Christ the Teacher of your souls and a due consideration of the truth By that time you have learnt what is needful to be learnt for a true Conversion a sound Repentance a saving Faith and a holy Life you will finde that you have far greater business with God than with all the world 10. Moreover for the attaining of all this Mercy you have many a prayer to put up to God You must daily pray for the forgiveness of your sins and deliverance from temptations and even for your daily bread or necessary provisions for the work which you have to do You must daily pray for all the supplies of Grace which you want and for the gradual mortification of the flesh and for help in all the duties which you must perform and for strength against all the spiritual enemies which will assault you and preservation from the manifest evils which attend you And these prayers must be put up with unwearied constancy fervency and Faith Keep up this course of fervent prayer and beg for Christ and Grace and Pardon and Salvation in any measure as they deserve and according to thy own necessity and then tell mee whether thy business with God be small and to be put off as lightly as it is by the ungodly 11. Moreover you are made for the Glory of your Creator and must apply your selves wholly to glorifie him in the world You must make his service the trade and business of your lives and not put him off with something on the by You are good for nothing else but to serve him as a knife is made to cut and as your cloaths are made to cover you and your meat to seed you and your horse to labour for you so you are made and redeemed and maintained for this to Love and Please your great Creator And can you think that it is but little business that you have with him when he is the End and Master of your lives and all you are or have is for him 12. And for the due performance of his service you have all his Talents to employ To this end it is that he hath entrusted you with reason and health and strength with time and parts and interest and wealth and all his mercies and all his ordinances and means of Grace and to this end must you use them or you lose them And you must give him an account of all at last whether you have improved them all to your Masters use And can you look within you without you about you and see how much you are trusted with and must be accountable to him for and yet not see how great your business is with God 13. Moreover you have all the graces which you shall receive to exercise and every grace doth carry you to God and is exercised upon him or for him It is God that you must study and know and love and desire and trust and hope in and obey It is God that you must seek after and delight in so far as you enjoy him It is his absence or displeasure that must be your fear and sorrow Therefore the soul is said to be sanctified when it is renewed because it is both disposed and devoted unto God And therefore Grace is called Holiness because it all disposeth and carryeth the soul to God and useth it upon and for him And can you think your business with God is small when you must live upon him and all the powers of your soul must be addicted to him and be in serious motion towards him and when he must be much more to you than the Air which you breath in or the Earth you live upon or than the Sun that gives you light and heat yea than the soul is to your bodies 14. Lastly you have abundance of temptations and impediments to watch and strive against which would hinder you in the doing of all this work and a corrupt and treacherous heart to watch and keep in order which will be looking back and shrinking from the service Lay all this together and then consider whether you have not more and greater business with God than with all the creatures in the world And if this be so as undeniably it is so is there any cloak for that mans sin who is all day taken up with creatures and thinks of God as seldome and as carelesly as if he had no business with him And yet alas if you take a survey of high and low of Court and City and Country you shall find that this is the case of no small number yea of many that observe it not to be their case it is the case of the prophane that pray in jeast and swear and curse and rail in earnest It is the case of the malignant enemies of holiness that hate them at the heart that are most acquainted with this converse with God and count it but hypocrisie pride or fancy and would not suffer them to live upon the Earth who are most sincerely conversant in Heaven It is the case of Phariseâ—s and Hypocrites who take up with ceremonious observances as touch not taste not handle not and such like traditions of their forefathers instead of a spiritual rational service and a holy serious walking with the Lord. It is the case of all ambitious men and covetous worldlings who make more ado to climb up a little higher than their brethren and to hold the reins and have their wills and be admired and adored in the world or to get a large estate for themselves and their posterity than to please their Maker or to save their souls It is
Being of a Holy state as that God be so much in our thoughts as to be preferred before all things else and principally beloved and obeyed and to be the end of our lives and the byas of our wills And there are some thoughts of God that are necessary only to acting and increase of grace 7. So great is the weakness of our Habits so many and great are the temptations to be overcome so many difficulties are in our way and the occasions so various for the exercise of each grace that it behoveth a Christian to exercise as much thoughtfulness about his end and work as hath any tendency to promote his work and to attain his end But such a thoughtfulness as hindereth us in our work by stopping or distracting or diverting us is no way pleasing unto God So excellent is our end that we can never encourage and delight the mind too much in the forethoughts of it So sluggish are our hearts and so loose and unconstant are our apprehensions and resolutions that we have need to be most frequently quickening them and lifting at them and renewing our desires and suppressing the contrary desires by the serious thoughts of God and Immortality Our Thoughts are the bellows that must kindle the flames of Love desire hope and zeal Our thoughts are the spur that must put on a sluggish tired heart And so far as they conduce to any such works and ends as these they are desireable and good But what Master loveth to see his servant sit down and Think when he should be at work Or to use his Thoughts only to grieve and vex himself for his faults but not to mend them to sit down lamenting that he is so bad and unprofitable a servant when he should be up and doing his Masters business as well as he is able Such Thoughts are sins as hinder us from duty or discourage or unfit us for it however they may go under a better name 8. The Godly themselves are very much wanting in the holiness of their thoughts and the liveliness of their affections Sense leadeth away the thoughts too easily after these present sensible things while faith being infirm the Thoughts of God and heaven are much disadvantaged by their invisibility Many a gracious soul cryeth out O that I could think as easily and as affectionately and as unweariedly about the Lord and the life to come as I can do about my friends my health my habitation my business and other concernments of this life But alas such thoughts of God and Heaven have far more enemies and resistance then the thoughts of earthly matters have 9. It is not distracting vexatious thoughts of God that the holy Scriptures call us to but it is to such thoughts as tend to the healing and peace and felicity of the soul and therefore it is not to a melancholy but a joyful life If God be better then the world it must needs be better to think of him If he be more beloved then any friend the thoughts of him should be sweeter to us If he be the everlasting hope and happiness of the soul it should be a foretast of happiness to find him nearest to our hearts The nature and use of holy thoughts and of all Religion is but to exalt and sanctifie and delight the soul and bring it up to everlasting Rest And is this the way to melancholy or madness Or is it not liker to make men melancholy to think of nothing but a vain deceitful and vexatious world that hath much to disquiet us but nothing to satisfie us and can give the soul no hopes of any durable delight 10. Yet as God is not equally related unto all so is he not the same to all mens thoughts If a wicked enemy of God and godliness be forced and frightened into some thoughts of God you cannot expect that they should be as sweet and comfortable thoughts as those of his most obedient children are While a man is under the guilt and power of his reigning sin and under the wrath and curse of God unpardoned unjustified a child of the devil it is not this mans duty to think of God as if he were fully reconciled to him and took pleasure in him as in his own Nor is it any wonder if such a man think of God with fear and think of his sin with grief and shame Nor is it any wonder if the justified themselves do think of God with fear and grief when they have provoked him by some sinful and unkind behaviour or are cast into doubts of their sincerity and interest in Christ and when he hides his face or assaulteth them with his terrors To doubt whether a man shall live for ever in Heaven or Hell may rationally trouble the thoughts of the wisest man in the world and it were but sottishness not to be troubled at it David himself could say In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ran in the night and ceased not my soul refused to be comforted I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed Thou holdest mine eyes waking I am so troubled that I cannot speak Will the Lord cast off for ever Psal. 77. 2 3 4 5 7. Yet all the sorrowful thoughts of God which are the duty of either the godly or the wicked are but the necessary preparatives of their joy It is not to melancholy distraction or despair that God calleth any even the worst But it is that the wicked would Seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near that he would forsake his way and the unrighteous man his Thoughts and return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon Isa. 55. 6 7. Despair is sin and the thoughts that tend to it are sinful thoughts even in the wicked If worldly crosses or the sense of danger to the soul had cast any into melancholy or overwhelmed them with fears you can name nothing in the world that in reason should be so powerful a remedy to recover them as the Thoughts of God his Goodness and Mercy and readiness to receive and pardon those that turn unto him his Covenant and Promises and Grace through Christ and the everlasting happiness which all may have that will accept and seek it in the time of grace and prefer it before the deceitful transitory pleasures of the world If the Thoughts of God and of the Heavenly everlasting joyes will not comfort the soul and cure a sad despairing mind I know not what can rationally do it Though yet its true that a presumptuous sinner must needs be in a trembling state till he find himself at peace with God And mistaken Christians that are cast into causeless doubts and fears by the malice of Satan are unlikely to walk comfortably with God till they are resolved and recovered from their mistakes and fears CHAP. V. Obj.
Nature hath its aptitude as Rational to be employed for its Maker so that he is not a New Creature in a Natural sense An actual or habitual willingness to this Holy employment a promptitude to it and a due understanding of it is the New Creature Morally so called which is given in our sanctification But the Natural aptitude that is in our faculties as Rational to this holy life is essential to us as men or as Rational even to have the Potentiam naturalem which must yet have further help or moral life to actuate it And Adam had both these The one he retained or else he had not continued a man The other he lost or else he had not had need of Renovation 6. If Adams Nature had not been Disposed to God as to his End and Soveraign then the Law of Nature to adhere to God and obey and serve him was not written in his heart And then it would not have been his duty to adhere to God and to obey and serve him which is so false that even in lapsed unrenewed Nature there is left so much aptitude hereto as will prove him to be still under the obligations of this Law of Nature even actually to adhere to God and to obey him which a dead man a mad man or an Infant is not immediately By all this you see that though the blindness and disease of Reason is contrary to faith and holiness yet Reason it self is so much for it as that Faith it self is but the act of elevated well informed Reason and supernatural Revelation is but the means to inform our Reason about things which have not a natural evidence discernable by us And sanctification actively taken is but the healing of our Reason and Rational appetite And Holiness is but the health or soundness of them The errour of Reason must be renounced by Believers but not the use of Reason The sufficiency of Reason and Natural Light without supernatural Light and Help we must all deny But to set Reason as Reason in opposition to Faith or Holiness or Divine Revelation is as gross a piece of foolery as to set the visive faculty in opposition to the Light of the Sun or to its objects It is the unreasonableness of sinners that is to be cured by Illuminating Grace They are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge Their Reason is wounded depraved and corrupted about the matters of God They have Reason to serve the flesh but not to Master it God doth renew men by giving them wisdome and bringing them to a sound mind As Logick helpeth Reason in discourse and arguing so Theology informeth Reason about the matters of God and our salvation and the Spirit of God doth make his Doctrine and Revelation effectual Make Nature sound and Reason clear then we will consent that all men be perswaded to live according to their Nature and their Reason But if a Bedlam will rave and tear himself and others and say this is according to my Nature or my Reason it is fitter that chains and whips do cure that Nature and Reason than that he be allowed to live according to his madness If a Drunkard or Whoremonger will say My Nature and Reason incline mee to please my appetite and lust it is fit that the swinish Nature be corrected and the beast which rideth and ruleth the man be taken down and when indeed his Nature is the Nature of a man and fitted to the use and ends that it was made for then let him live according to it and spare not If a malicious man will abuse or kill his neighbours and say This is according to my Nature let that Nature be used as the Nature of Wolves and Foxes and other noxious creatures are But let humane Nature be cured of its blindness carnality and cortuption and then it will need no external testimony to convince it that no employment is so natural and suitable to man as to Walk with God in Love and Confidence and reverent Worship and chearful Obedience to his Will A worldly fleshly sensual life will then appear to be below the rational nature of a man as it is below us to go to grass with horses or to live as meer companions of brutes It will then appear to be as natural for us to Love and Live to our Creatour and Redeemer and to Walk with God as for a Child to love his Parents and to live with them and serve them When I say that this is Natural I mean not that it is Necessary by Natural Necessity or that Grace doth operate per modum naturae as the irrational motion is so called There is a Brutish or Inanimate Nature and there is a Rational Voluntary Nature Grace worketh not according to the way of Inanimate or Brutish Nature but according to the way of Rational Nature in free Agents I may well say that whatever is Rational is Natural to a Rational Creature as such so far as he discerneth it Yea and Habits though they effect not necessarily but freely in a Rational nature yet they Incline Necessarily per modum naturae They contain in their being a Natural aptitude and propensity to action Obj. But thus you confound Nature and Grace Natural and supernatural operations while you make Grace Natural Answ. No such matter Though walking with God be called Natural as it is most agreeable to Nature so far as it is sound and is the felicity and meetest employment of the rational nature as such Yet 1. Diseased nature doth abhor it as a diseased stomack the pleasantest and most wholesome food as I said before 2. And this disease of Nature cannot he cured without Divine supernatural Grace So that as to the efficient cause our Holinesse is supernatural But it is unsound doctrine of those that affirm that Adam in his pure Natural state of innocency had no Natural Holiness or aptitude and promptitude to Walk with God in order to everlasting happiness but say that all this was either wanting to him and was a state specifically distinct which he fell short off by his sin or that it was given him by superadded Grace and was not in his entire Nature And yet we deny not but as to Degrees Adams nature was to grow up to more perfection and that his Natural Holiness contained not a sufficient immediate aptitude and promptitude to every duty which might afterward be required of him but this was to be obtained in the exercise of that Holiness which he had Even as a Vine or other fruit tree though it be Natural to it to bear its proper fruit yet hath it not an immediate sufficient aptitude hereto whilst it is but appearing out of the seed before it be grown up to just maturity Or as it is Natural to a man to discourse and reason but yet his nature in infancy or untaught and unexercised hath not a sufficient immediate aptitude and promptitude hereunto Or
remember Where it is that he is to be fully and perpetually enjoyed and then it is good for thee that thou wast afflicted for all thy sufferings have their end This last Consideration will be further prosecuted in the following Part And the Directions for Walking with God which I should here give you I have reserved for a peculiar Treatise intitled A Christian Directory THE CHRISTIANS Converse with God OR The Insufficiency and Uncertainty OF HUMANE FRIENDSHIP AND THE Improvement of Solitude IN Converse with God With some of the Authors breathings after him By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed for Francis Tyton at the three Daggers in Fleet-street and Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster 1664. THE CONTENTS THe Context opened p. 298 Why Christ was forsaken by his Disciples p. 300 Use 1. Expect by the forsaking of your friends to be conformed unto Christ Reasons for your Expectation p. 302 The Aggravations of their forsaking you p. 313 Some quieting Considerations p. 315 The order of forms in the School of Christ. p. 322 The Disciples scattered every man to his own p. 324 Selfishness contrary to friendly fidelity p. 325 Considerations to quiet us in the death of faithful friends p. 326 Whether we shall know them in Heaven p. 331 Whether creatures be any matter of our Comfort in Heaven p. 332 Quest. Shall I have any more comfort in present friends than in others p. 334 Doct. 3. When all forsake us and leave us as to them alone we are far from being simply alone because God is with us p. 336 The Advantages of having God with us ibid. Quest. How he is with us p. 337 Use 1. Imitate Christ Live upon God alone though men forsake you yet thrust not your selves into Solitude uncalled p. 341 In what cases Solitude is lawful and good p. 342 Reasons against unnecessary Solitude p. 343 The comfort of Converse with God in necessary Solitude The Benefits of Solitude The Reasons from God Improved largely in some Meditations p. 347 351 Directions for conversing with God in Solitude p. 370 Concluded in further Meditation p. 375 A Caution p. 378 Joh. 16. 32. Behold the hour cometh yea is come that ye shall be scattered every man to his own and shall leave me alone And yet I am not alone because the Father is with me HAving treated of our Conformity to Christ in sufferings in General I since came distinctly to treat of his particular sufferings in which we must be conformed to him And having gone over many of those particulars I am this day to handle the instance of Christs being forsaken by his friends and followers He thought meet to foretell them how they should manifest their infirmity and untrustiness in this temporary forsaking of him that so he might fullyer convince them that he knew what was in man and that he knew future contingencies or things to come which seem most dependent on the will of man and that he voluntarily submitted to his deserted state and expected no support from creatures but that man should then do least for Christ when Christ was doing most for man that man by an unthankful forsaking Christ should then manifest his forsaken deplorate state when Christ was to make atonement for his Reconciliation to God and was preparing the most costly remedy for his recovery He foretold them of the fruit which their infirmity would produce to humble them that were apt to think too highly of themselves for the late free confession they had made of Christ when they had newly said Now we are sure that thou knowest all things by this we are sure that thou comest forth from God ver 30 He answereth them Do ye now believe Behold the hour cometh c. Not that Christ would not have his servants know his graces in them but he would also have them know the corruption that is latent and the infirmity consistent with their grace We are very apt to judge of all that is in us and of all that we shall do hereafter by what we feel at the present upon our hearts As when we feel the stirring of some corruption we are apt to think that there is nothing else and hardly perceive the contrary grace and are apt to think it will never be better with us so when we feel the exercise of faith desire or love we are apt to overlook the contrary corruptions and to think that we shall never feel them more But Christ would keep us both humble and vigilant by acquainting us with the mutability and unconstancy of our minds When it goes well with us we forget that the time is coming when it may go worse As Christ said to his Disciples here in the case of Believing we may say to our selves in that and other cases Do we now Believe It is well but the time may be coming in which we may be brought to shake with the stirrings of our remaining unbelief and shrewdly tempted to question the truth of Christianity it self and of the holy Scriptures and of the life to come Do we now rejoyce in the perswasions of the Love of God The time may be coming when we may think our selves forsaken and undone and think he will esteem and use us as his enemies Do we now pray with ferveur and pour out our souls enlargedly to God It is well but the time may be coming when we shall seem to be as dumb and prayerless and say we cannot pray or else we find no audience and acceptance of our prayers Christ knoweth that in us which we little know by our selves and therefore may foreknow that we will commit such sins or fall into such dangers as we little fear What Christ here prophesieth to them did afterwards all come to pass As soon as ever danger and trouble did appear they began to flag and to shew how ill they could adhere unto him or suffer with him without his special corroborating grace In the garden when he was sweating blood in prayer they were sleeping Though the spirit was willing the flesh was weak They could not watch with him one hour Matth. 26 40 41. When he was apprehended they shifted each man for himself Matth. 26. 56. Then all the Disciples forsook him and fled And as this is said to be that the Scriptures might be fulfilled Matth. 26. 54 56. so it might be said to be that this prediction of Christ himself might be fulfilled Not that Scripture Prophesies did cause the sin by which they were fulfilled nor that God caused the sin to fulfill his own predictions but that God cannot be deceived who foretold in Scriptures long before that thus it would come to pass when it is said that thus it must be that the Scripture may be fulfilled the meaning is not that thus God will make it be or thus he causeth men to do that he may fulfill the Scriptures It is not necessitas consequentis vel causata that is inferred from predictions but only
man and the instability of the dearest friends How highly was Athanasius esteemed and yet at last deserted and banished even by the famous Constantine himself How excellent a man was Gregory Nazianzene and highly valued in the Church and yet by reproach and discouragements driven away from his Church at Constantinople whither he was chosen and envied by the Bishops round about him How worthy a man was the eloquent Chrysostome and highly valued in the Church And yet how bitterly was he prosecuted by Hierome and Epiphanius and banished and dyed in a second banishment by the provocation of factious contentious Bishops and an Empress impatient of his plain reproofs What person more generally esteemed and honoured for learning piety and peaceableness then Melanchthon and yet by the contentions of Illyricus and his party he was made aweary of his life As highly as Calvin was deservedly valued at Geneva yet once in a popular lunacy and displeasure they drove him out of their City and in contempt of him some called their dogs by the name of Calvin though after they were glad to intreat him to return How much our Grindal and Abbot were esteemed it appeareth by their advancement to the Archbishoprick of Canterbury and yet who knoweth not that their eminent piety sufficed not to keep them from dejecting frowns And if you say that it is no wonder if with Princes through interest and with people through levity it be thus I might heap up instances of the like untrustiness of particular friends But all History and the experiences of the most do so much abound with them that I think it needless Which of us must not say with David that all men are lyars Psal. 116. that is deceitful and untrusty either through unfaithfulness weakness or insufficiency that either will forsake us or cannot help us in the time of need Was Christ forsaken in his extremity by his own Disciples to teach us what to expect or bear Think it not strange then to be conformed to your Lord in this as well as in other parts of his humiliation Expect that men should prove deceitful Not that you should entertain censorious suspicions of your particular friends but remember in general that man is frail and the best too selfish and uncertain and that it is no wonder if those should prove your greatest grief from whom you had the highest expectations Are you better then Job or David or Christ and are your friends more firm and unchangeable then theirs Consider 1 That Creatures must be set at a sufficient distance from their Creator Allsufficiency Immutability and indefectible fidelity are proper to Jehovah As it is no wonder for the Sun to set or be ecclipsed as glorious a body as it is so it is no wonder for a friend a pious friend to fail us for a time in the hour of our distress There are some that will not but there is none but may if God should leave them to their weakness Man is not your Rock He hath no stability but what is derived dependant and uncertain and defectible Learn therefore to rest on God alone and lean not too hard or confidently upon any mortal might 2. And God will have the common infirmity of man to be known that so the weakest may not be utterly discouraged nor take their weakness to be gracelesness whilest they see that the strongest also have their infirmities though not so great as theirs If any of Gods servants lives in constant holiness and fidelity without any shakings or stumbling in their way it would tempt some self accusing troubled souls to think that they were altogether graceless because they are so far short of others But when we read of a Peters denying his Master in so horrid a manner with swearing and cursing that he knew not the man Matth. 26. 74. and of his dissimulation and not walking uprightly Gal. 2. and of a Davids unfriendly and unrighteous dealing with Mephihosheth the seed of Jonathan and of his most vile and treacherous dealing with Uriah a faithful and deserving subject it may both abate our wonder and offence at the unfaithfulness of our friends and teach us to compassionate their frailty when they desert us and also somewhat abate our immoderate dejectedness and trouble when we have failed God or man our selves 3. Moreover consider how the odiousness of that sin which is the root and cause of such unfaithfulness is greatly manifested by the failing of our friends God will have the odiousness of the remnants of our self-love and carnalmindedness and cowardize appear we should not discern it in the seed and root if we did not see and tast it in the fruits Seeing without tasting will not sufficiently convince us A crab looks as beautiful as an apple but when you tast it you better know the difference When you must your selves be unkindly used by your friends and forsaken by them in your distress and you have tasted the fruits of the remnants of their worldliness selfishness and carnal fears you will better know the odiousness of these vices which thus break forth against all obligations to God and you and notwithstanding the light the conscience and perhaps the grace that doth resist them 4. Are you not prone to overvalue and overlove your friends If so is not this the meetest remedy for your disease In the loving of God we are in no danger of excess and therefore have no need of any thing to quench it And in the loving of the godly purely upon the account of Christ and in loving Saints as Saints we are not apt to go too far But yet our understandings may mistake and we may think that Saints have more of sanctity then indeed they have and we are exceeding apt to mix a selfish common love with that which is spiritual and holy and at the same time when we Love a Christian as a Christian we are apt not only to Love him as we ought but to overlove him because he is our friend and Loveth us Those Christians that have no special Love to us we are apt to undervalue and neglect and Love them below their holiness and worth But those that we think entirely Love us we Love above their proper worth as they stand in the esteem of God Not but that we may Love those that Love us and add this Love to that which is purely for the sake of Christ but we should not let our own interest prevail and overtop the interest of Christ nor Love any so much for Loving us as for Loving Christ And if we do so no wonder if God shall use such remedies as he seeth meet to abate our excuse of selfish love O how highly are we apt to think of all that Good which is found in those who are the highest esteemers of us and most dearly love us when perhaps in it self it is but some ordinary good or ordinary degree of goodness which is in them Their Love to us
Is this your case I pray you answer these few Questions and suffer the truth to have its proper work upon your mind Quest. 1. Who was it that deprived you of your friend was it not God Did not he that gave him you take him from you Was it not his Lord and owner that call'd him home And can God do any thing injuriously or amiss will you not give him leave to do as he list with his own Dare you think that there was wanting either wisdom or goodness justice or mercy in Gods disposal of your friend Or will you ever have Rest if you cannot have Rest in the will of God 2. How know you what sin your friend might have fallen into if he had lived as long as you would have him You 'l say that God could have preserved him from sin It 's true but God preserveth sapientially by means as well as omnipotentially And sometime he seeth that the temptations to that person are like to be so strong and his corruption like to get such advantage and that no means is so fit as Death it self for his preservation And if God had permitted your friend by temptation to have fallen into some scandalous sin or course of evil or into errors or false wayes would it not have been much worse then death to him and you God might have suffered your friend that was so faithful to have been sifted and shaken as Peter was and to have denied his Lord and to have seemed in your own eyes as odious as he before seemed amiable 3. How know you what unkindness to your self your dearest friend might have been guilty of Alas there is greater frailty and inconstancy in man then you are aware of And there are sadder roots of corruption unmortified that may spring up into bitter fruits then most of us ever discover in our selves Many a Mother hath her heart broken by the unnaturalness of such a child or the unkindness of such a husband as if they had died before would have been lamented by her with great impatience and excess How confident soever you may be of the future fidelity of your friend you little know what tryal might have discovered Many a one hath failed God and man that once were as confident of themselves as ever you were of your friend And which of us see not reason to be distrustful of our selves And can we know another better then our selves or promise more concerning him 4. How know you what great calamity might have bifallen your friend if he had lived as long as you desired When the Righteous seem to men to perish and merciful men are taken away it is from the evil to come that they are taken Isa. 57. 1. How many of my friends have I lamented as if they had died unseasonably concerning whom some following providence quickly shewed me that it would have been a grievous misery to them to have lived longer Little know you what calamities were eminent on his person his family kindred neighbours country that would have broke his heart What if a friend of yours had died immediately before some calamitous subversion of a Kingdome some ruines of the Church c. and if ignorantly he had done that which brought these things to pass can you imagine how lamentably sad his life would have been to him to have seen the Church the Gospel and his Country in so sad a case especially if it had been long of him Many that have unawares done that which hath ruined but a particular friend have lived in so much grief and trouble as made them consent that death should both revenge the injured on them and conclude their misery What then would it have been to have seen the publick good subverted and the faithful overwhelmed in misery and the Gospel hindered and holy worship changed for deceit and vanity and for conscience to have been daily saying I had a hand in all this misery I kindled the fire that hath burned up all What comfort can you think such friends if they had survived would have found on earth Unless it were a comfort to hear the complaints of the afflicted to see and hear such odious sins as sometimes vexed righteous Lot to see and hear or to hear of the scandals of one friend and the apostasie of another and the sinful compliances and declinings of a third and to be under temptations reproaches and afflictions themselves Is it a matter to be so much lamented that God hath prevented their greater miseries and wo 5. What was the world to your friends while they did enjoy it Or what is it now or like to be hereafter to your selves was it so good and kind to them as that you should lament their separation from it was it not to them a place of toil and trouble of envy and vexation of enmity and poison of successive cares and fears and griefs and worst of all a place of sin Did they groan under the burden of a sinful nature a distempered tempted troubled heart of languishings and weakness of every grace of the rebukes of God the wounds of conscience and the malice of a wicked world And would you have them under these again Or is their deliverance become your grief Did you not often joyn in prayer with them for deliverance from malice calamities troubles imperfections temptations and sin and now those prayers are answered in their deliverance and do you now grieve at that which then you prayed for Doth the world use your selves so well and kindly as that you should be sorry that your friends partake not of the feast Are you not groaning from day to day your selves and are you grieved that your friends are taken from your griefs you are not well pleased with your own condition when you look into your hearts you are displeased and complain when you look into your lives you are displeased and complain when you look into your families into your neighbourhoods unto your friends unto the Church unto the Kingdome unto the world you are displeased and complain And are you also displeased that your friends are not under the same displeasedness and complaints as you Is the world a place of Rest or trouble to you And would you have your friends to be as far from Rest as you And if you have some Ease and Peace at present you little know what storms are near you may see the dayes you may hear the tydings you may feel the griping griefs and pains which may make you call for Death your selves and make you say that a life on earth is no felicity and make you confess that they are Blessed that are dead in the Lord as resting from their labours and being past these troubles griefs and fears Many a poor troubled soul is in so great distress as that they take their own lives to have some tast of Hell and yet at the same time are grieving because their friends are taken from them who
on their Love but upon God and therefore desire their Company but for His and if thou have His be content if thou have not theirs He wants not man that enjoyeth God Gather up all the Love and Thoughts and Desires which have been scattered and lost upon the Creatures and set them all on God himself and press into his presence and converse with him and thou shalt find the mistake of thy present discontents and sweet experience shall tell thee thou hast made a happy change 5. If God be with me I am not alone because he is with me with whom my greatest business lyeth And what company should I desire but theirs with whom I have my daily necessary work to do I have more to do with God than with all the world Yea more and greater business with him in one day than with all the world in all my life I have business with man about house or lands or food or rayment or labour or journying or recreations about society and publick peace But what are these to my business with God! Indeed wâ—â—h holy men I have holy business but that is but as they are Mâ—ssengers from God and come to me on his business and so they must be dearly welcome But even then my business is much more with God then with them with him that sent them then with the Messenger Indeed my business with God is so great that if I had not a Mediatour to encourage and assist me to do my work and procure me acceptance the thoughts of it would overwhelm my soul. O therefore my soul let man stand by It is the Eternal God that I have to do with and with whom I am to transact in this little time the business of my endless life I have to deal with God through Christ for the pardon of my sins of all my great and grievous sins and wo to me if I speed not that ever I was born I have some hopes of pardon but intermixt with many perplexing fears I have evidences much blotted and not easily understood I want assurance that he is indeed my Father and reconciled to me and will receive me to himself when the world forsaketh me I have many languishing graces to be strengthened and alas what radicated obstinate vexatious corruptions to be cuâ—ed Can I look into my heart into such an unbelieving dead and earthly heart into such a proud and peevish and disordered heart into such a trembling perplexed self-accusing heart and yet not understand how great my business is with God! Can I peruse my sins or feel my wants and sink under my weaknesses and yet not discern how great my business is with God! Can I look back upon all the time that I have lost and all the grace that I unthankfully resisted and all the mercies that I trod under foot or fool'd away and can I look before me and see how near my time is to an end and yet not understand how great my business is with God! Can I think of the malice and diligence of Satan the number power and subtilty of mine enemies the many snares and dangers that are still before me the strength and number of temptations and my ignorance unwatchfulness and weakness to resist and yet not know that my greatest business is with God! Can I feel my afflictions and lament them and think my burden greater then I can bear and find that man cannot relieve me can I go mourning in the heaviness of my soul and water my bed with tears and fill the air with my groans and lamentations or feel my soul overwhelm'd within me so that my words are intercepted and I am readier to break then speak and yet not perceive that my greatest business is with God Can I think of dying Can I draw near to judgement Can I think of everlasting joyes in Heaven and of everlasting pains in Hell and yet not feel that my greatest business is with God O then my soul the case is easily resolved with whom it is that thou must most desirously and seriously converse Where shouldst thou be but where thy business is and so great business Alas what have I to do with man what can it do but make my head ake to hear a deal of sensless chat about preferments lands and dignities about the words and thoughts of men and a thousand toyes that are utterly impertinent to my great imployments and signifie nothing but that the dreaming world is not awake What pleasure is it to see the bussles of a Bedlam world what a stir they make to prove or make themselves unhappy How low and of how little weight are the learned discourses about syllables and words and names and notions and mood and figure yea or about the highest planets when all are not referred unto God Were it not that some converse with men doth further my converse with God and that God did transact much of his business by his messengers and servants it were no matter whether ever I more saw the face of man were it not that my Master hath placed me in society and appointed me much of my work for others and with others and much of his mercy is conveyed by others man might stand by and solitude were better then the best society and God alone should take me up O nothing is so much my misery and shame as that I am no more willing nor better skilled in the management of my great important business That my work is with God and my heart is no more with him O what might I do in holy meditation or Prayer one hour if I were as ready for prayer and as good at prayer as one that hath so long opportunity and so great necessity to converse with God should be A prayerless heart a heart that flyeth away from God is most unexcusable in such a one as I that hath so much important business with him It is work that must be done and if well done will never be repented of I use not to return from the presence of God when indeed I have drawn near him as I do from the company of empty men repenting that I have lost my time and trembled that my mind is discomposed or depressed by the vanity and earthly savour of their discourse I oft repent that I have prayed to him so coldly and conversed with him so negligently and served him so remisly but I never repent of the time the care the affections or the diligence imployed in his holy work Many a time I have repented that ever I spent so much time with man and wisht I had never seen the faces of some that are eminent in the world whose favour and converse others are ambitious of But it is my grief and shame that so small a part of all my life hath been spent with God and that fervent prayer and heavenly contemplations have been so seldom and so short O that I had lived more with God though I