that hath rightly and resolvedly determined of his end hath virtually resolved a thousand controversies that others are unsatisfied and erroneous in He that is resolved that his End is to Please and Glorifie God and to enjoy him for ever is easily resolved whether a holy life or a sensual and worldly be the way whether the way be to be Godly or to make a mock at Godliness whether Covetousness and Riches Ambition and Preferment Voluptuousness and Fleshly pleasures be the means to attain his End whether it will be attained rather by the studying of the Word of God and meditating on it day and night and by holy conference and fervent prayer and an obedient life or by negligence or worldliness or drunkenness or gluttony or cards and dice or beastly filthiness or injustice and deceit Know once but whither it is that we are going and its easie to know whether the Saint or the Swine or the Swaggerer be in the way But a man that doth mistake his End is out of his way at the first step and the further he goes the further he is from true felicity and the more he erreth and the further he hath to go back again if ever he return Every thing that a man doth in the world which is not for the right end the Heavenly felicity is an act of foolishness and errour how splendid soever the Matter or the Name may make it appear to ignorant men Every word that an ungodly person speaketh being not for a right End is in him but sin and folly however materially it may be an excellent and useful Truth While a miserable soul hath his back upon God and his face upon the world every step he goeth is an act of folly as tending unto his further misery It can be no act of wisdome which tendeth to a mans damnation When such a wretch begins to enquire and bethink him where he is and whither he is going and whither he should go and to think of turning back to God then and never till then he is beginning to come to himself and to be wise Luk. 15. 17. Till God and Glory be the End that he aimeth at and seriously bends his study heart and life to seek though a man were searching into the mysteries of nature though he were studying or discussing the notions of Theology though he were admired for his earning and wisdome by the world and cryed up as the Oracle of the Earth he is all the while but playing the fool and going a cleanlier way to Hell than the grosser sinners of the world For â—s he wise that knoweth not whether Heaven or Earth be better whether God or his Flesh should be obeyed whether everlasting joyes or the transitory pleasures of sin should be preferred or that seemeth to be convinced of the truth in these and such like cases and yet hath not the wit to make his choice and bend his life according to his conviction He cannot be wise that practically mistakes his End 3. He that walketh with God doth know those things with a deep effectual heart-changing knowledge which other men know but superficially by the halves and as in a dream And true wisdome consisteth in the Intensiveness of the knowledge subjectively as much as in the extensiveness of it objectively To see a few things in a narrow room perspicuously and clearly doth shew a better eye-sight than in the open Air to see many things obscurely so as scarce to discern any of them aright â—â—ke him that saw men walk like trees The clearness and 〈◊〉 of knowledge which makes it effectual to its proper use 〈…〉 greatness and excellency of it Therefore it is that unlearned men that love and fear the Lord may well be said to be incomparably more wise and knowing men than the most learned that are ungodly As he hath more riches that hath a little Gold or Jewels than he that hath many load of stones so he that hath a deep effectual knowledge of God the Father and the Redeemer and of the life to come is wiser and more knowing than he that hath only a notional knowledge of the same things and of a thousand more A wicked man hath so much knowledge as teacheth him to speak the same words of God and Christ and Heaven which a true Believer speaks but not so much as to work in him the same affections and choice nor so much as to cause him to do the same work As it is a far more excellent kind of knowledge which a man hath of any Country by travel and habitation there than that which cometh but by reading or report or which a man hath of meat of fruits of wine by eating and drinking than that which another hath by hearsay so is the inward heart-affecting knowledge of a true believer more excellent than the flashy notions of the ungodly Truth simply as Truth is not the highest and most excellent object of the mind But Good as Good must be apprehended by the Understanding and commended to the Will which entertaineth it with Complacency adhereth to it with Choice and Resolution prosecuteth it with Desire and Endeavour and Enjoyeth it with Delight And though it be the Understanding which apprehendeth it yet it is the Heart or Will that rellisheth it and tasteth the greatest sweetness in it working upon it with some mixture of internal sense which hath made some ascribe a knowledge of Good as such unto the Will. And it is the Wills intention that causeth the Understanding to be denominated Practical And therefore I may well say thâ—t it is Wisdom indeed when it reacheth to the heart No man knoweth the Truth of God so well as he that most firmly Believeth him And do man knoweth the Goodness of God so well as he that Loveth him most No man knoweth his Power and Mercy so well as he that doth most confidently Trust him And no man knoweth his Justice and Dreadfulness so well as he that feareth him No man knoweth or believeth the Glory of Heaven so well as he that most esteemeth desireth and seeketh it and hath the most Heavenly Heart and Conversation Ho man believeth in Jesus Christ so well as he that giveth up himself unto him with the greatest Love and Thankfulness and Trust and Obedience As James saith Shew mee thy Faith by thy works so say I Let me know the measure and value of my knowledge by my Heart and Life That is wisdome indeed which conformeth a man to God and saveth his soul This only will be owned as wisdome to eternity when dreaming notions will prove but folly 4. He that walketh with God hath an infallible Rule and taketh the right course to have the best acquaintance with it and skill to use it The Doctrine that informeth him is Divine It is from Heaven and not of Men And therefore if God be wiser than man he is able to make his Disciples wisest and Teaching will more certainly and
it is a more sweet and excellent state of life to be the Spouse of Christ and his members and serve God as friends and children with Love and Thankfulness then to serve him meerly as the most loyal subjects or with an obedience that hath less of Love 9. In the way of Redemption Holiness is more admirably exemplified in Christ then it was or would have been in Adam Adam would never have declared it in that eminency of Charity to others submission to God contempt of the world self-denyal and conquest of Satan as Christ hath done 10. And in the way of Redemption there is a double obligation laid upon man for every duty To the obligations of Creation all the obligations of Redemption and the new Creation are superadded And this threefold cord should not so easily be broken Here are moral means more powerfully to hold the soul to God 11. And in this way there is a clearer discovery of the everlasting state of man and life and immortality are more fully brought to light by the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10 then for ought we find in Scripture they were to innocent man himself No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son that is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Joh. 1. 18. For no man hath ascended up into heaven but he that came down from heaven even the son of man which is in heaven Joh 3. 13. 12. Man will be advanced to the judging of the ungodly and of the conquered Angels even by the good will of the Father and a participation in the honour of Christ our head and by a participation in his Victories and by our own Victories in his strength by the right of Conquest we shall judge with Christ both Devils and men that were enemies to him and our salvation as you may see 1 Cor. 6. 2 3. And there is more in that promise then we yet well understand Rev. 2. 26 27. He that overcometh and keepeth my words unto the end to him will I give power over the Nations and he shall rule them with a rod of Iron as the vessels of a Potter shall they be broken to shivers even as I received of my Father 13. And that which Augustine so much insisteth on I think is also plain in Scripture that the Salvation of the Elect is better secured in the hands of Christ then his own or any of his posterities was in the hands of Adam We know that Adam lost that which was committed to him But we know whom we have believed and are perswaded that he is able to keep that which we commit to him against that day 1 Tim. 1. 12. Force not these Scriptures against our own Consolation and the glory of our Redeemer and then judge Joh. 7. 2. As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him Joh. 6. 3. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Ver. 39. And this is the Fathers will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day Joh. 10. 26 27 28 29. But yee believe not because yee are not of my sheep as I said unto you My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish and none shall take them out of my hands My Father which gave them me is greater then all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hands Eph. 1. 3 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in Love Having predestinated us to the adoption of his children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved Being predestinated according to the purpose of him that worketh all things after the counsel of his own will Ver. 11. And if Faith and Repentance and the right disposition of the will it self be his resolved gift to his Elect and not things left meerly to our uncertain wills then the case is past all question 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves our of the snare of the Devil Eph. 2. 8. By grace yee are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the spirit is Love Faith Phil. 1. 29. To you it is given on the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him Act. 13. 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed Jer. 24. 7. And I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart Ezek. 11. 19 20. And I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God Ezek. 36. 26 27. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you an heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes See also Heb. 8. 6 7 8 9 10. where this is called the new and better Covenant I will put my Laws in their minds and write them in their hearts Jer. 31. 33. And Jer. 32. 39 40. And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever And I will make an everlasting Covenant with them and I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me 1 Cor. 4. 7. Who makes thee to differ and what hast thou that thou didst not receive Much more may be produced from which it is evident that Christ is the Author and finisher of our Faith and that the certainty of the salvation of his Elect doth lie more on his undertaking and resolution infallibly to accomplish their salvation then upon our wisdom or the stability of our mutable free-wills and that thus we are better in the hands of the second Adam then we were in the hands of the first
talents and must make it our daily study and business to do him the greatest service we are able whatever it may cost us through the malice of the enemies being sure our labour shall not be in vain and that we cannot serve him at too dear a rate It is not as idle companions but as servants as souldiers as those that put forth all their strength to do his work and reach the Crown that we are called to walk with God And all this is done though not in the same degree by all yet according to the measure of their Holiness by every one that lives by faith Having told you what it is to Walk with God as to the Matter of it I shall more briefly tell you as to the Manner The nature of God of man and of the work will tell it you 1. That our walk with God must be with the greatest reverence were we never so much assured of his special love to us and never so full of faith and joy our reverence must be never the less for this Though Love cast out that guilty fear which discourageth the sinner from hoping and seeking for the mercy which would save him and which disposeth him to hate and fly from God yet doth it not cast out that Reverence of God which we owe him as his creatures so infinitely below him as we are It cannot be that God should be known and remembred as God without some admiring and awful apprehensions of him Infiniteness Omnipotency and inaccessible Majesty and Glory must needs affect the soul that knoweth them with reverence and selfe-abasement Though we receive a Kingdome that cannot be moved yet if we will serve God acceptably we must serve him with reverence and godly fear as knowing that as he is our God so he is also a consuming fire Heb. 12. 28 29. We must so worship him as those that remember that we are worms and guilty sinners and that he is most High and Holy and will be sanctified in them that come nigh him and before all the people he will be glorified Lev. 10. 3. Unreverence sheweth a kind of Atheistical contempt of God or else a sleepiness and inconsiderateness of the soul. The sense of the Goodness and Love of God must consist with the sense of his Holiness and Omnipotency It is presumption pride or blockish stupidity which excludeth Reverence which Faith doth cause and not oppose 2. Our walking with God must be a work of humble boldness and familiarity The Reverence of his Holiness and Greatness must not overcome or exclude the sense of his Goodness and compassion nor the full assurance of faith and hope Though by sin we are enemies and strange to God and stand a far off yet in Christ we are reconciled to him and brought near Eph. 2. 13. For he is our Peace who hath taken down the partition and abolished the enmity and reconciled Jew and Gentile unto God Ver. 14 15 16. And through him we have all an access to the Father by one spirit we are now no more strangers and forraigners but fellow-Citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God ver 18 19. In him we have boldness and access with confidence by the belief of him Eph. 3. 12. Though of our selves we are unworthy to be called his children and may well stand a far off with the Publican and not dare to lift up our faces towards heaven but smite our breasts and say O Lord be merciful to me a sinner Yet have we boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh And having an high Priest over the house of God we may draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith Heb. 10. 19 20 21 22. Therefore whensoever we are afraid at the sight of sin and Justice let us remember that we have a great high Priest that is passed into the heavens even Jesus the Son of God and therefore let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Heb. 4. 14 15 16. He that alloweth us to walk with him doth allow us such humble familiarity as beseemeth those that walk together with him 3. Our walking with God must be a work of some holy pleasure and delight We may unwillingly be drag'd into the presence of an enemy and serve as drudges upon meer necessity or fear But walking together is the loving and delightful converse of friends When we take sweet counsel of the Lord and set him alwaies as at our right hand and are glad to hear from him and glad to speak to him and glad to withdraw our thoughts from all the things and persons in the world that we may solace our selves in the contemplations of his excellency and the admirations of his Love and Glory this is indeed to walk with God You converse with him as with a stranger an enemy or your destroyer and not as with God while you had rather be far from him and only tremble in his presence and are glad when you have done and are got away but have no delight or pleasure in him If we can take delight in our walking with a friend a friend that is truly loving and constant a friend that is learned wise and holy if their wise and heavenly discourse be better to us then our recreations meat or drink or clothes what delight then should we find in our secret converse with the most high most wise and gracious God! How glad should we be to find him willing and ready to entertain us How glad should we be that we may employ our thoughts on so high and excellent an object what cause have we to say My meditation of him shall be sweet and I will be glad in the Lord Ps. 104. 34. In the multitude of my thoughts within me my sorrowful troublesome weary thoughts thy comforts do delight my soul Ps. 94. 19. Let others take pleasure in childish vanity or sensuality but say thou as David Ps. 119. 14 15 16. I have rejoyced in the wayes of thy Commandements as much as in all riches I will meditate in thy precepts and have respect unto thy waies I will delight my self in thy statutes and will not forget thy Word Ver. 47. I will delight my self in thy commandements which I have loved Let scorners delight in scorning and fools hate knowledge Prov. 1. 22. but make me to go in the path of thy commandements for therein do I delight Psal. 119. 35. If thou wouldst experimentally know the safety and glory of a holy life delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee the desire of thy heart Ps. 37. 4. Especially when we draw near him in his solemn worship and when we separate our selves on his holy dayes from all our common worldly thoughts to be conversant as in
thou art upon A mind that is drowned in ambition sensuality or passion will scarce find God any sooner in a wilderness than in a croud unless he be there returning from those sins to God whereever he seeth him God will not own and be familiar with so foul a soul. Seneca could say Quid prodest totius regionis silentium si affectus fremunt What good doth the silence of all the Country do thee if thou have the noise of raging affections within And Gregory saith Qui corpore remotus vivit c. He that in body is far enough from the tumult of humane conversation is not in solitude if he busie himself with earthly cogitations and desires and he is not in the City that is not troubled with the tumult of worldly cares or fears though he be pressed with the popular crouds Bring not thy house or land or credit or carnal friend along with thee in thy heart if thou desire and expect to walk in Heaven and to converse with God Direct 5. Live still by Faith Let Faith lay Heaven and Earth as it were together Look not at God as if he were far off set him alwaies as before you even as at your right hand Psal. 16. 8. Be still with him when you awake Psal. 1 39. 18. In the morning thank him for your rest and deliver up your self to his conduct and service for that day Go forth as with him and to do his work Do every action with the Command of God and the Promise of Heaven before your eyes and upon your hearts Live as those that have incomparably more to do with God and Heaven than with all this world That you may say with David Psal. 37. 25 26. as aforecited Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I desire besides thee And with Paul Phil. 1. 21. To me to Live is Christ and to Dye is gain You must shut up the eye of sense save as subordinate to Faith and live by Faith upon a God a Christ and a World that is unseen if you would know by experience what it is to be above the brutish life of sensualists and to converse with God O Christian if thou hadst rightly learned this blessed life what a high and noble soul-conversation wouldst thou have How easily wouldst thou spare and how little wouldst thou miss the favour of the greatest the presence of any worldly comfort City or Solitude would be much alike to thee saving that the place and state would be best to thee where thou hast the greatest help and freedome to converse with God Thou wouldst say of humane society as Seneca Unus pro populo mihi est populus pro uno Mihi satis est unus satis est nullus One is instead of all the people to me and the people as one One is enough for me and none is enough Thus being taken up with God thou mightest live in prison as at liberty and in a wilderness as in a City and in a place of banishment as in thy native Land For the Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof and everywhere thou mayest find him and converse with him and lift up pure hands unto him In every place thou art within the sight of home and Heaven is in thine eye and thou art conversing with that God in whose converse the highest Angels do place their highest felicity and delight How little cause then have all the Churches enemies to triumph that can never shut up a true believer from the presence of his God nor banish him into such a place where he cannot have his conversation in Heaven The stones that were cast at holy Stephen could not hinder him from seeing the Heavens opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God A Patmos allowed holy John Communion with Christ being there in the Spirit on the Lords day Rev. 1. 9 10. Christ never so speedily and comfortably owneth his servants as when the world disowneth them and abuseth them for his sake and hurls them up and down as the scorn and off-scouring of all He quickly found the blind man that he had cured when once the Jews had cast him out Joh. 9. 35. Persecutors do but promote the blessedness and exceeding joy of sufferers for Christ Mat. 5. 11 12. And how little Reason then have Christians to shun such sufferings by unlawful means which turn to their so great advantage and to give so dear as the hazard of their souls by wilful sin to escape the honour and safety and commodity of Martyrdome And indeed we judge not we Love not we Live not as sanctified ones must do if we judge not that the truest Liberty and Love it not as the Best Condition in which we may Best converse with God And O how much harder is it to walk with God in a Court in the midst of sensual delights than in a prison or wilderness where we have none to interrupt us and nothing else to take us up It is our prepossessed minds our earthly hearts our carnal affections and concupiscence and the pleasures of a prosperous state that are the prison and the Jaylors of our souls Were it not for these how free should we be though our bodies were confined to the straightest room He is at Liberty that can walk in Heaven and have access to God and make use of all the Creatures in the world to the promoting of this his Heavenly conversation And he is the prisoner whose soul is chained to flesh and earth and confined to his lands and houses and feedeth on the dust of worldly riches or walloweth in the dung and filth of gluttony drunkenness and lust that are far from God and desire not to be near him but say to him Depart from us we would not have the knowledge of thy waies that Love their prison and chains so well that they would not be set free but hate those with the cruellest hatred that endeavour their deliverance Those are the poor prisoners of Satan that have not liberty to believe nor to Love God nor converse in Heaven nor seriously to mind or seek the things that are high and honourable that have not liberty to meditate or pray or seriously to speak of holy things nor to love and converse with those that do so that are tyed so hard to the drudgery of sin that they have not liberty one month or week or day to leave it and walk with God so much as for a recreation But he that liveth in the family of God and is employed in attending him and doth converse with Christ and the Host of Holy ones above in reason should not much complain of his want of friends or company or accommodations nor yet be too impatient of any corporal confinement Lastly be sure then most narrowly to watch your hearts that nothing have entertainment there which is against your Liberty of converse with God Fill not those Hearts with
the use of means in the course of our Conversations 9. A seeking him in the choise and use of means 10. An obeying him as our Soveraign Governour 11. An honouring and praising him as God 12. And an enjoying him and delighting in him in some small foretasts here as he is seen by saith but perfectly hereafter as beheld in Glory The affective practical Knowing of God which is Life eternal containeth or implyeth all these parts And every Christian that hath any of this Knowledge desireth more It is his great desire to Know more of God and to know him with a more affecting powerful knowledge He that groweth in grace doth accordingly grow in this knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ. The vigour and alacrity of our souls lieth in it The rectitude of our actions and the holiness of them floweth from it God is the excellency of our Hearts and lives Our advancement and our joy is here only to be found All other knowledge is so far desirable as it conduceth to the knowledge of God or to the several duties which that knowledge doth require All knowledge of words or things of causes and effects of any creatures actions customes Laws or whatsoever may be known is so far valuable as it is useful and so far useful as it is Holy subserving the knowledge of God in Christ. What the sun is to all mens eyes that God is to their souls and more It is to Know him that we have understandings given us And our understandings enjoy him but so far as they know him as the eye enjoyeth the Light of the sun by seeing it The ignorance of God is the blindness and part of the atheism of the soul and inferreth the rest They that know him not desire not heartily to know him nor can they Love him Trust him fear him serve him or call upon him whom they do not Know How shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed Rom. 10. 14. The heart of the Ungodly saith to God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes what is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit shall we have if we pray unto him Job 21. 14 15. 22. 17. All wickedness hath admission into that heart or land where the knowledge of God is not the watch to keep it out Abraham inferred that the men of Gerar would kill him for his wife when he saw that the fear of God was not in that place Gen. 20. 11. It was Gods controversie with Israel because there was no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land but by swearing and lying and killing and stealing they brake out and blood touched blood Hos. 4. 1 2. They are called by God a foolish people sottish children of no understanding that knew not God though they were wise to do evil Jer. 4. 22. He will pour out his fury upon the heathen that know him not and the families that call not on his name Jer. 10. 25. As the day differeth from the night by the light of the sun so the Church differeth from the world by the Knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. Psal. 76. 1 2. In Judah is God known his name is great in Israel In Salem also is his Tabernacle and his dwelling place in Sion The Love and Unity and peace which shall succeed persecution and malice in the blessed times shall be because the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Isa. 11. 6 7 8 9. Hypocrites shall know him superficially and uneffectually and his holy ones shall know him so as to Love him fear him trust him and obey him with a knowledge effectual upon heart and life And he will continue his loving kindness to them that know him Psal. 36. 10. He is the best Christian that hath the fullest impression made upon his soul by the Knowledge of God in all his Attributes Thus it is our Life eternal to Know God in Christ. It is to reveal the Father that the Son was sent and it is to reveal the Father and the Son that the Holy spirit is sent God is the light and the life and felicity of the soul. The work of its salvation is but the restoring it to him and putting it in possession of him The beginning of this is Regeneration and Reconciliation the perfection oâ— it is Glorification beatifical Vision and Fruition The Mind that hath least of God is the darkest and most deluded Mind And the mind that hath most of him is the most lucide pure and serene And how is God in the Mind but as the Light and other visible objects are in the eye and as pleasant melodie is in the ear and as delightful meats and drinks are in the tast But that God maketh a more deep and durable impress on the soul and such as is suitable to its spiritual immaterial nature As your seal is to make a full impression on the wax of the whole figure that is upon it self so hath God been pleased in divers seals to engrave his Image and these must make their Impress upon us 1. There is the seal of the Creation sor the world hath much of the Image of God It is engraven also on the seal of Providential disposals though there we are uncapable of reading it yet so fully as in the rest 2. It is engraven on the seal of the holy Scriptures 3. And on the Person of Jesus Christ who is the purest clearest Image of the Father as also on the holy example of his life 4. And by the means of all these applyed to the soul in our sober consideration by the working of the Holy Ghost the Image of God is made upon us Here note 1. That All the revealed Image of God must be made on the soul and not a part only and all is wrought where any is truly wrought 2. That to the compleatness of his Image on us it is necessary that each part of Gods Description be orderly made and orderly make the Impress on us and that each part keep its proper place For it is a monster that hath feet where the head should be or the backside forward or where there is any gross misplacing of the parts 3. Note also that all the three forementioned seals contain all Gods Image on them but yet not all alike but the first part is more clearly engraven upon the first of them and the second part upon the second of them and the third part most clearly on the third and last To open this more plainly to you Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity is the sum of our holy faith In the Deity there is revealed to us One God in three persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost The Essence is but one the subsistences are three And as we must conceive and speak of the Divine Nature according to its Image while we see it but in a glass so
less then they either something better or worse then they If less or worse how could it make them Greater or Better then it self Can any thing give that which it hath not If it must needs be Greater and Better then the Creatures then as it must be Wiser than they and more Holy Gracious and Just then they so must it be more comprehensive then all they Whoever made this earth is certainly greater then the earth or else he should give it more than he had to give And if he be Greater he must be present If thou shouldst be so vain as to account any other higher thing the Maker of this world that is not God thou must ascribe also a sufficiency to that maker to exercise a particular providence and moreover be put to consider who did make that Maker Nothing therefore is more certain even to Reason it self then the Maker of the world must be Greater then the world and therefore present with all the world and therefore must observe and regard all the world When thou canst find out a thought or word or deed that was not done in the presence of God or any creature that is not in his presence then believe and spare not that he seeth it not or regardeth it not yea and that it hath no being O blind Atheists you see the Sun before your eyes which enlightneth all the upper part of the earth at once even millions of millions see all by its light and yet do you doubt whether God beholds and regards and provides for all at once Tell me if God had never a Creature to look to in all the world but thee wouldst thou believe that he would regard thy heart and words and wayes or not If he would why not now as well as then Is he not as sufficient for thee and as really present with thee as if he had no other creature else If all men in the world were dead save one would the Sun any more illuminate that one then now it doth Maist thou not see as well by the light of it now as if it had never another to enlighten And dost thou see a Creature do so much and wilt thou not believe as much of the Creator If thou think us worms too low for God so exactly to observe thou maist as well think that we are too low for him to Create or preserve and then who made us and preserveth us Doth not the sun enlighten the smallest bird and crawling vermine as well as the greatest prince on earth Doth it withhold its light from any Creature that can see and say I will not shine on things so base And wilt thou more restrain the Infinite God that is the Maker Light and Life of all It is he that filleth all in all Eph. 1. 23. The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him 1 King 8. 27. and is he absent from thee He doth beset thee before and behind and layeth his hand upon thee Whither wilt thou go from his spirit or whither wilt thou fly from his presence If thou ascend up into Heaven he is there If thou make thy bed in Hell thou wilt feel him there If thou take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea even there shalt thou find him to be to thee as thou art Psal. 139. 5 7 8 9 10. Thou maist think with sinful Adam and Eve Gen. 3. 8. to hide thy self from the presence of the Lord But thou wilt quickly find that he observeth thee and be sure thy sin will find thee out Numb 32. 23. Thou maist with Cain be turned out of the Gracious presence of God Gen. 4. 16. and cast out of his Church and Mercy and with the damned thou maist be turned out of the presence of his blessedness and glory but thou shalt never be out of his essential presence nor so escape the presence of his Justice Job 1. 12. 2. 7. It is the presence of his Grace where the upright are promised here to dwell Psal. 140. 13. and out of which they fear lest they be cast Psal. 51. 11. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me And it is the presence where is fulness of Joy which they aspire after Psal. 16. 11. But there is also a presence that the earth shall tremble at Psal. 114. 7. and that the wicked shall perish at Psal. 68. 2. so that a particular Providence must be remembred by them that believe and remember the Immensity of God CHAP. V. 4. THe Eternity of God is the next Attribute to be Known which also must have its work upon the soul. And 1. This also sheweth us that God is Incomprehensible For man cannot comprehend Eternity When we go about to think of that which hath no Beginning nor End it is to our mind as a place a thousand miles off is to our eye even beyond our reach we cannot say there is no such place yea we know there is but we cannot see it so we know there is an Eternal Being but our Knowledge of his Eternity is not intuitive or comprehensive Eternity therefore is the object of our faith and reverence and admiration but forbids our busie bold enquiries O the arrogancy of those ignorantly learned and foolishly-wise disputing men that have so long perplexed if not torn in pieces the Church about the priority and posteriority of the knowledge and decrees of God when they confess them all to be Eternal As if they knew not that terms of priority presentiality and posteriority have not that significancy in or about Eternity as they have with us 2. The Eternity of God must draw the soul from Transitory to Eternal things It is an Everlasting blessedness even the Eternal God that our souls are made for the Bruits are made for a mortal happiness The Immortal soul cannot be fully content with any thing that will have an end As a capacity of this endless blessedness doth difference man from the beasts that perish so the Disposition to it doth difference Saints from the ungodly and the Fruition of it doth difference the Glorified from the damned Alas what a silly thing were man if he were capable of nothing but these transitory things What were our Lives worth and what were our time worth and what were all our mercies worth or what were all the world worth to us or what were we worth our selves I would not undervalue the works of God but truly if man had no other life to live but this I should esteem him a very contemptible creature If you say that there 's some excellency in the Bruits I answer True but their usefulness is their chiefest excellency And what is their use but to be a glass in which we may see the Lord and to be serviceable to man in his passage to Eternity They are not capable of Knowing or Loving or enjoying God themselves but they are useful to man that
or life to them We should know what is Gods prerogative and that we should keep entirely for him A subordinate esteem and love and desire the Creature may have as it revealeth God to us or leadeth to him or helpeth us in his work But it should not have the least of his part in our esteem or love or desire This is the Chastity the Purity the Integrity of the soul. It is the mixture impurity corruption and consusion of our souls when any thing is taken in with God See therefore Christian that in thy heart thou have no God but ONE and that he have all thy heart and soul and strength as far as thou canst attain it And because there will be still in imperfect souls some sinful mixture of the Creatures interest with Gods let it be the work of thy life to be watching against it and casting it out and cleansing thy heart of it as thou wouldst do thy food if it fall into the dirt For whatever is added to God in thy Affections doth make no better an increase there then the adding of earth unto thy gold or of dung unto thy meat or of corrupted humours and sickness to thy body Mixture will make no better work It may be thy Rejoycing if thou have the testimony of a good conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity and not in fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God thou hast had thy conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1. 12. It is the state of Hypocrisie when One God is openly professed and worshipped and yet the creature lyeth deepest and nearest to the heart 2. The Invisibility of God also must have its due effects upon us And 1. It must warn us that we picture not God to our eye sight or in our fancies in any bodily shape Saith the Prophet Isa. 40. 18. To whom will you liken God or what likeness will ye compare unto him so 25. No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosome of his Father he hath declared him Joh. 1. 18. and therefore we must conceive of him but as he is declared Joh. 6. 46. Not that any man hath seen the Father save he which is of God he hath seen the Father If you ask me How then you should conceive of God if not in any Bodily shape I answer Get all these Attributes and Relations of God to make their proper Impress upon thy soul as now I am teaching you and then you will have the true Conceiving of God This Question therefore is to be answered at the end of this Discourse when you have seen all the Attributes of God together and heard what impression they must make upon you 2. This must teach us to think most highly of the things that are Invisible and meanlier of these visible things Let it be the property of a Beast and not of a man to know nothing but what he seeth or hath seen Let it be the mark of the bruitish Insidels and not of Christians to doubt of the invisible things because they are invisible or to think that things visible are more excellent or sure As the senses are more ignoble then the Intellect a beast having as perfect senses as a man and yet no reasonable understanding so the objects of sense must proportionably be below the Objects of the understanding as such The grossest and most palpable objects are the basest It is the subtle part that 's called the Spirits which being drawn out of plants or other vegetables is most powerful and excellent and valued when the earthly dregs are cast away as little worth It is that subtle part in our blood that 's called the Spirits that hath more of the virtue of life and doth more of the works then the feculent gross and earthly part The aire and wind have as true a Being as the Earth and a more excellent nature though it be more gross and they invisible The Body is not so excellent as the invisible soul. Invisible things are as real as visible and as suitable to our more noble invisible part as visible things to our fleshly baser part 3. The invisibility of God must teach us to Live a life of Faith and to get above a sensual life And it must teach us to value the faith of the Saints as knowing its excellency and necessity Invisible objects have the most perfect excellent Reality and therefore Faith hath the preheminence above sense Natural Reason can live upon things not seen if they have been seen or can be known by natural evidence subjects obey a Prince that they see not and fear a punishment which they see not and the nature of man is afraid of the Devils though we see them not But Faith liveth upon such invisible things as mortal eye did never see nor natural ordinary evidence demonstrate but are revealed only by the Word of God though about many of its invisible objects Faith hath the consent of Reason for its encouragement Value not sight and sense too much Think not all to be meer uncertainties and notions that are not the objects of sense We should not have heard that God is a spirit if Corporal substances had not a baser kind of Being then Spirits Intellection is a more noble operation then sense If there be any thing properly called sense in Heaven it will be as far below the pure Intellective Intuition of the Lord as the glorified Body will be below the glorified soul. But what that difference will be we cannot now understand Fix not your minds on sensible things Remember that your God your home your portion are unseen And therefore live in hearty Affections to them and serious prosecution of them as if you saw them Pray as if you saw God and Heaven and Hell Hear as if you saw him that sends his Messenger to speak to you Resist all the Temptations to lust and sensuality and every sin as you would do if you saw God stand by Love him and Fear him and Trust him and Serve him as you would do if you beheld him Faith is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. Believing must be to you in stead of seeing and make you as serious about things unseen as sensual men are about things sensible In every thing that you see remember it is he that is unseen that appeareth in them He lighteth you by the sun he warmeth you by the fire he beareth you by the earth See him in all these by the eye of Faith 3. The Immortality Incorruptibility and Immutability of God must 1. Teach the soul to rise up from these Mortal Corruptible Mutable things and to fix upon that God who is the immortal incorruptible portion of his Saints 2. It must comfort and encourage all Believers in the consideration of their felicity and support them under the failings of all mortal corruptible things Our Parents and Children and Friends are mortal They are ours to day
it follow that he sees none If cunning Serpents are too subtle for us do we think that they can overwit the Lord what had become of us long ago if God had not known what ever is plotted at Rome or Spain or Hell against us If he knoweth not of all the consultations of the conclave and of all the contrivances of Jesuits and Fryers and of all the juglings of the masked Emissaries If God had not known of Vaux and his Powder mine it might have blown up all our hopes But while we know that God is in their Councils and heareth every word they say and knoweth every secret of their hearts and every mischief which they enterprise let us do our duty and rest in the wisdom of our great Protector who will prove all his adversaries to have plaid the fools For as sure as his Omnipstency shall be glorified by overtopping all opposing powers so sure shall his Infinite wisdom be glorified by conquering and befooling the wisdom that is against him 7. Lstly if God be Infinite in Knowledge it must resolve us all to live accordingly O Remember what ever thou Thinkest that God is acquainted with all thy Thoughts And wilt thou feed on lustful or covetous or malicious or unbelieving Thoughts in the eye of God Remember in thy prayers and every duty that he knows the very frame of all thy affections and the manner as well as the matter of thy services And wilt thou be cold and careless in the sight of God O Remember in thy secretst sins and thy works of darkness that nothing is unknown to God and that before him thou art in the open light And fearest thou not the face of the Almighty Wilt thou do that when he knoweth it that thou wouldst not do if man did know He knows whether thou deceive thy neighbour or deal uprightly Defraud not therefore for the Lord is the avenger 1 Thes. 4. 6. Do nothing that thou wouldst not have God to know For certainly he knoweth all things Shall he not see that made and illuminateth the eye and shall he not hear that made both tongue and ears and shall he not know that giveth us understanding and by whom we know Psal. 94. 8 9 10. And let this be thy comfort in thy secret duties He that knoweth thy Heart will not overlook the desires of thy Heart though thou hadst not words as thou desirest to express them And he that knoweth thy uprightness will justifie thee if all the world condemn thee He that seeth thee in thy secret Alms or Prayers or Tears will openly reward thee Mat. 6. 4 6. Let this also comfort thee under all the slanders of malicious or misinformed men He that must be thy Judge and theirs is acquainted with the truth who will certainly bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgement as the noone day Psal. 37. 6. O how many souls are justified with the Omniscient God that are condemned by the malignant world And how many blots will be wiped off before the world at the day of Judgement that here did lie upon the names of faithful upright men O how many Hypocrites shall be then disclosed And what a cutting thought should it be to the dissembler that his secret falshood is known to God! And when he hath the Reputation that he sought with men he hath his reward Mat. 6. 2. For its a sadder reward that God will give him CHAP. IX 8. THE next of Gods Attributes that must make its Impress on the soul is Hit Infinite Goodness The Denomination of Goodness as all other his Attributes is fetcht from and suited to the capacity or affections of the soul of man That which is truly Amiable is called Good Not as if there were no Goodness but what is a means to mans felicity as some most sottishly have affirmed For our End and Felicity it self and God as he is Perfect and Excellent in himself is more amiable then all means In three respects therefore it is that God is called Good or Amiable to man 1. In that he is Infinitely Excellent and perfect in Himself For the Love of Friendship is a higher Love then that of Desire And the most perfect sort of Love is that which wholly carrieth the Lover from himself to the perfect object of his Love The soul Delighteth to contemplate excellency when the excellency it self and not the delight is the ultimate end of that desire and contemplation 2. God is called Good as he is the Pattern and Fountain of all Moral Good As he maketh us Righteous Holy Laws commanding Moral Good and forbidding and condemning evil And thus his Goodness is his Holiness and Righteousness his Faithfulness and Truth 3. God is called Good as he is the Fountain of all the Creatures happiness and as he is bountiful and gracious and ready to do good and as he is the felicitating end and object of the soul. And this Infinite goodness must have these effects upon us 1. It must possess us with a superlative Love to God This blessed Attribute is it that makes us Saints indeed and maketh that Impression on us which is as the Heart of the New Creature It is Goodness that produceth Love And Love is that Grace that closeth with God as our Happiness and End and is the felicitating enjoying Grace Without it we are but as sounding brass or tinkling Cymbals whatever our gifts and parts may be 1 Cor. 13. Love is the very excellency of the soul as it closeth with the infinite excellency of God It is the very felicity of the soul as it enjoyeth him that is our felicity Most certainly the prevailing Love of God is the surest evidence of true sanctification He that hath most Love hath most Grace and is the best and strongest Christian and he that hath least Love is the worst or weakest Knowledge and faith are but to work our hearts to Love and when Love is perfect they have done their work 1 Cor. 12. 31. and 13. 8 9 10 13. Teaching and distant Revelations will not be for ever and therefore such Knowledge and Faith as we have now will not be for ever But God will be for ever Amiable to us and therefore Love will endure for ever The goodness of God is called Love and as God is Love so he that dwelleth in Love doth dwell in God and God in him 1 Joh. 4. 16. The knowledge of Divine goodness makes us good because it maketh us Love him that is good It is Love that acteth most purely for God Fear is selfish and hath somewhat of aversation Though there be no evil in God for us to fear yet is there such good in him that will bring the evil of punishment upon the evil and this they fear But Love doth resign the soul to God and that in the most congruous acceptable manner Make it therefore your daily work to possess your souls with the Love of God Love him once and
that is able to choose or to refuse and as an universal Cause to concur with the agent to the Act as such But Philosophers indeed are at a loss and are fain to tell us of Privations Modes Relations Denominations Entia Rationis and I know not what that they say are neither Beings nor Nothing but between both they know not what the nature of things in the utmost extremities of the branches being so capâ—llar and spun with so fine a thred that the understanding is not subtil enough to discern them And shall this disturb us in Divinity or be imputed to it If you say That the Will of God is the Cause of all things and therefore of sin I answer If you call sin Nothing as a shaddow darkness death c. are nothing for all that we abhor them then you answer your selves If you call it something we are all agreed that it s but such a something as man can cause without Gods first causing it It sufficeth that God do the part of a Creatour in giving man the free Power of choosing or refusing and the part of a preserver in maintaining that power and as an universal cause concurring to all acts in genere as the sun doth shine on the dunghill and the flowers and that he also do the part of a just Governour in prohibiting and disswading and threatning sinners Object But how can sin Eventually be if God decree it not seeing all Events are from his Will I answer 1. We are agreed that he Causeth it not 2. And that he doth not so much as Will the Event of sin as sin 3. And that he willingly permitteth what is by him permitted 4. And that sin is such a thing as may Evenire be brought forth by a bare permission if there be no Positive Decree for the Event As a Negative in the effects requireth not a Positive Cause so neither a Positive Will for its production There are millions of millions of worlds and individual creatures and species Possible that shall never be And it is audaciousness to assert that there must be millions of millions of Positive Decrees that such worlds or creatures shall not be 5. Nor is it any dishonour to God if he have not a Positive Decree or Will about every Negation as that all the men in the world shall not be called by a thousand possible names rather then their own c. These things being all certain I add 1. Let them dispute that dare that yet de facto God doth Positively Will the Events of all Privations or Negations of acts 2. But when men are once habitually wicked and bent to evil it is just with him if he permit them to follow their own lusts and if he leave before them such Mercies as he foreknoweth they will wilfulfully make occasions of their sin and if he resolve to make use of the sin which he knoweth they will commit for his Churches Good and for his Glory Object But doth not God Will that sin Eventually shall not be Answ. Even as I before said he willeth that obedience eventually shall be If sin come to pass it is certain that God did not simply Will that it should not come to pass For then he must be conquered and unhappy by every sin But he willeth simply that it shall be the Duty of man to avoid it And he may be said to Nill the Event in tantum so far as that he will forbid it and threaten and disswade the sinner and give him the helps that shall leave him unexcusable if he sin and so leave it to his Will Thus far he may be said to Will that sin Eventually shall not be but not simply Though these things are not obvious to vulgar capacities yet they are such as the subject in hand viz. Gods first causation and Creation together with the weight of them and the contentions of the world about them have made needfull 3. If God be the Creator and the cause of all then we must remember that all his works are Good and therefore nothing must be hated by us that hath he made considered in its native Goodness God hateth sin and so must we for that he made it not Rev. 2. 6. Psal. 45. 7. Isa. 1. 14. And he hateth all the works of iniquity as such Psal. 5. 5. and so must we but we must Love all of God that is in them and Love them for it There is somewhat Good and Amiable in every creature yea all of it that is of God Though Toads and Serpents are odious to us because they are hurtful and seem deformed in themselves yet are they Good in themselves and not deformed as parts of the universe but Good unto the common end The wants in the wheels of your watch are as useful to the motion as the nucks or solid parts The night is part of the useful order of the creation as well as the day The vacant interspace in your writing is needful as well as the words Every letter should not be a vowel nor every character a Capital Every member should not be a heart or head or eye Nor should every one in a Commonwealth be a King or Lord So in the Creation the parts that seem base are useful in their places and good unto their Ends. Let us not therefore vilifie or detest the works of God but study the excellencies of them and see and admire and Love them as they are of God It is one of the hardest practical points before us to know how to esteem of all the Creatures and to use them without running into one extream At the same time to Love the world and not to Love it to honour it and despise it to exalt it and to tread it under our feet to mind it and use it with delight and yet to be weaned from it as those that mind it not And yet a great part of our Christian duty lyeth in the doing of this difficult work As the world is the Devils bait and the fleshes Idol set up against God and would tice us from him or hinder us in his service and either be our Carnal end and happiness or a means thereto so we must make it the care of our hearts to hate it despise it neglect it and tread it under foot and the labour of our lives to conquer it But the same creatures must be admired studyed loved honoured delighted in and daily used as they are the excellent work of the Almighty God and reveal to us his Attributes or will being the Glass in which we must see him while we are in the flesh and as they lead us to God and strengthen furnish or help us in his service But to Love them for God and not for themselves O how hard is it To keep pure affections towards them and a spiritual delight in in them that shall not degenerate into a carnal delight is a task for the holiest Saint on Earth to labour
say this much here 5. The Truth of God must teach us to hate every Motion to Unbelief in our selves and others It is a hainons sin to give God the Lye though he speak to us but by his messengers Every honest man so far as he is honest is to be believed and is God less true A graceless Gallant will challenge you the field for the dishonour if you give him the Lye If you deny Gods Veracity you do not only equal him with the worst of men but with the Devil who was a Lyer from the beginning Yea you make him uncapable of being the Governour of the world or suppose him to Govern it by Deceits and Lyes Abhor therefore the first motions of Unbelief It makes men somewhat worse than Devils for the Devils know that God cannot lye and therefore they believe and tremble Unbelief of the Truth of the Word of God is the curse of the soul the enemy and bane of all Grace and Religion so far as it prevaileth Let it be the principal care and labour of your souls to settle the foundation of your Faith aright and to discern the Evidence of Divine Authority in the holy Scriptures and to extirpate the remnants of Infidelity in your hearts 6. Let the Truth and Faithfulness of God engage you to be True and Faithful to him and to each other You have promised him to be his servants be faithful in your promises You are in Covenant with him break not your Covenant Many a particular promise of Reformation you have made to God Prove not false to him that is True to you Be as good as your word to all men that you have to do with Abhor a Lye as the off-spring of the Devil who is the father of it Remember you serve a God of Truth and that it is the Rectitude and Glory of his servants to be conformable to him They say the Turks are offended at Christianity because of the lyes and falshood of Christians But sure they were but nominal Christians and no true Christians that ever they found such And its pitty that Christianity should be judged of through the world by the lives of them that never were Christians but from the teeth outward and the skin that was washt in Baptism They that will lye to God and covenant to be his holy Servants when they hate his holy service will lye to man when their commodity requireth it When they seem to Repent and honour him with their tongues They flatter him with their mouth and lye to him with their tongues for their heart is not right with him neither are they stedfast in his Covenant Psal. 78. 34 35 36 37. God saith Levit. 19. 11. Ye shall not steal nor deal fasly nor lye one to another A Righteous man hateth lying Prov. 13. 5. The lying tongue is but for a moment Prov. 12. 19. For God hateth it and it is an abomination to him Prov. 16. 16 17. The lovers and makers of lyes are shut out of the Kingdom of Christ Rev. 22. 15. But above all false Teachers that preach and prophesie lyes and deceive the Rulers and people of the Earth are abominable to God See Jer. 27. 10 14 15 16. 14. 14. 23. 25 26 32. Ezek. 13. 9 12. Isa. 54. 13. When Ahab was to be destroyed a lying spirit in the mouth of his Prophets deceived him And if a Ruler hearken to lyes all his servants are wicked Prov. 29. 2. 7. Above all false witness and perjury should be most odious to the servants of the God of Truth Prov. 19. 9. A false witness shall not be unpunished and he that speaketh lyes shall perish Eccles. 5. 4 5. When thou vowest a vow to God defer not to pay it Saith David Thy Vows are upon mee O God Psal. 56. 12. And unto thee shall the Vow be performed Psal. 65. 1. Perjury is a sin that seldome scapeth vengeance even in this life The instances of Saul the first and Zedekiah the last of the Kings of Judah before their desolation are both very terrible Sauls posterity must be hanged to stay the Famine that came upon the people for his breaking a Vow that was made by Joshua and not by him though he did it in zeal for Israel 2 Sam. 21. Zedekiah's case you may see 2 Chron. 26. Ezek. 17. He that sweareth appealeth to God as the searcher of hearts and avenger of perjury The perjured person chooseth the vengeance of God He is unfit till he repent to be a member of any civil society For he dissolveth the bond of all societies He cannot well be supposed to make conscience of any sin or villany in the world against God his Country his King his Friend or Neighbour that makes no conscience of an oath It is not easie to name a greater wickedness out of Hell than to approve of perjury by Laws or Doctrine And whether the Church of Rome do so or not I only desire them to consider that have read the third Canon of the Council at Lateran under P. Innocent the third where an Approved General Council decreeth that the Pope discharge vassals from their allegiance or fidelity to those Temporal Lords that exterminate not Hereticks as they call them out of their dominions What shall restrain men from killing Kings or any villany if once the bond of oatht be nullified But Scripture saith Keep the Kings Commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God Eccles. 8 2. No man defendeth Perjury by name But to say that men that swear to do that which God commandeth or forbids not are not bound to keep that oath or that the Pope may absolve men or disoblige them that swore fidelity to Temporal Lords when once the Pope hath excommunicated them doth seem to mee of the same importance CHAP. XX. 19. THE next Attribute to be spoke of is his Mercifulness and his Long-suffering Patience which we may set together This is implied in his Goodness and the Relation of a Father before expressed Mercy is Gods Goodness inclining him to prevent or remove his creatures Misery It is not only the Miserable that are the object of it but also those that may be miserable it being as truly Mercy to keep us out of it foreseen as to deliver us out of it when we are in it Hence it is that he taketh not Pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that he turn and Live And hence it is that he Afflicts not willingly nor grieves the children of men Lam. 3. 33. Not that his Mercy engageth him to do all that he can do for the salvation of every sinner or absolutely to prevent or heal his misery But it is his Attribute chiefly considered as Governour of the Rational Creature and so his Mercy is so great to all that he will destroy none but for their wilful sin and shut none among us out of Heaven but those that were guilty of contemning it God doth not
it should all be done to the Glory of God 1 Cor. 10. 31. He that regardeth a day or regardeth it not he that eateth or that eateth not must do it to the Lord And though a Good Intention will not sanctifie a forbidden action yet sins of Ignorance and meer Frailty are forborn and pardoned of God when it is his Glory and Service that is sincerely intended though there be a mistake in the choice of means None of us liveth to himself and no man dyeth to himself For whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord Whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords For to this end Christ â—â—th dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14. 6 7 8 9. Our walking with God is a serious Labouring that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him 2 Cor. 5. 9 To this the Love of our Redeemer must constrain us For he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him thâ—t dyed for them and rose again Vers. 14 15. Religion therefore is called the seeking of God because the soul doth press after him and labour tu enjoy him as the Runner seeks to reach the prize or as a Suiter seeketh the Love and fruition of the person beloved And all the particular acts of Religion are oft denominated from this intention of the End and following after it and are all called a seeking the Lord. Conversion is called a seeking the Lord Isa. 55. 6. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found Hos. 3. 5. The Children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God Hos. 7. 10. They do not return to the Lord their God nor seek him Men that are called to Conversion are called to seek God Hos. 10. 12. Break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain Righteousness upon you The converted Children of Israel and Judah shall go weeping together to seek the Lord their God Jer. 50. 4. The wicked are described to be men that do not seek the Lord Isa. 9. 13. 31. 1. The holy Covenant 2 Chron. 15. 12 13. was to seek the Lord If therefore you would Walk with God let him be the mark the prize the treasure the happiness the Heaven it self which you aim at and sincerely seek 1 Chron. 22. 19. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God Psal. 105. 3 4 Glory ye in his Holy Name Let the heart of them rejoyce that seek the Lord Seek the Lord and his strength seek his face for evermore As the life of a Covetous man is a seeking of Riches and the life of an ambitious man is a seeking of worldly honour and applause so the life of a man that liveth to God is a seeking Him to please him honour him and enjoy him And so much of this as he attaineth so much dotb he attain of satisfaction and content If you live to God and seek him as your End and All the want of any thing will be tolerable to you which is but consistent with the fruition of his Love If he be pleased mans displeasure may be borne The loss of all things if Christ be won will not undo us Mans condemnation of us signifieth but little if God the absolute Judge do justifie us He walketh not with God that Liveth not to him as his only Happiness and End 4. Moreover our Walking with God includeth our subjection to his Authority and our taking His Wisdom and Will to be our Guide and his Laws in Nature and Scripture for our Rule you must not walk with him as his Equals but as his Subjects nor give him the honour of an ordinary superior but of the universal King In our doubts he must resolve us and in our straits we must ask counsel of the Lord Lord what wouldst thou have me to do is one of the first words of a penitent soul Act. 9. 6. When sensual worldlings do first ask the flesh or those that can do it hurt or good what they would have them be or do None of Christs true Subjects do call any man Father or Master on earth but in subordination to their highest Lord Matth. 23. The Authority of God doth aw them and govern them more than the fear of the greatest upon earth Indeed they know no power but Gods and that which he committeth unto man And therefore they can obey no man against God what ever it cost them but under God they are most readily and faithfully subject to their Governours not meerly as to men that have power to hurt them if they disobey but as to the officers of the Lord whose Authority they discern and reverence in them But when they have to do with the enemies of Christ who usurp a power which he never gave them against his Kingdom and the souls of men they think it easie to resolve the question whether it be better to obey God or men As the commands of a rebellious Constable or other fellow-subject are of no authority against the Kings Commands so the commands of all the men on earth are of so small authority with them against the Laws of God that they fully approve of the ready and resolute answer of those Witnesses Dan. 3. 16 17 18. We are not careful to answer thee in this matter If it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us c. But if not be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up Worldlings are ruled by their fleshly interest and wisdom and self-will and by the will of man so far as it doth comporte with these By these you may handle them and lead them up and down the world By these doth Satan hold them in captivity But believers feel themselves in subjection to a higher Lord and better Law which they faithfully though imperfectly observe Therefore our walking with God is called A walking in his Law Exod. 16. 4. A walking in his statutes and keeping and doing his commands Lev. 26. 3. A walking in his paths Mic. 4. 2. It is our following the Lamb which way soever he goeth To be given up to our own hearts lusts and to walk in our counsels is contrary to this holy walk with God Psal. 81. 12. and is the course of those that are departed from him And they that are far from him shall perish he destroyeth those that go a whoring from him But it is good for us to draw near to God Psal. 73. 27 28. 5. Our walking with God doth imply that as we are ruled by his Will so we fear no punishment like his threatned displeasure and that the threats of death from mortal men will not prevail with us so much as his threats of Hell Luk. 12. 4. If God
say I will condemn thee to everlasting punishment if thou wilt not keep my Laws And if men say We will condemn thee to imprisonment or death if thou keep them the believer more feareth God than man The Law of the King doth condemn Daniel to the Lyons den if he forbear not to pray for a certain time But he more feareth God that will deny those that deny him and forsake those that forsake him Therefore the forementioned witnesses ventured on the fiery furnace because God threatned a more dreadful fire Therefore a true believer dare not live when an unbeliever dare not die He dare not save his life from God lest he lose it but loseth it that he may save it But unbelievers that walk not with God but after the flesh do most fear them that they observe most powerful in the world and will more be moved with the penalty of some worldly loss or suffering then with Gods most dreadful threats of Hell For that which they see not is to them as nothing while they want that faith by which it is foreknown and must be escaped 6. Moreover he that walks with God doth from God expect his full reward He ceaseth not his holy course though no man observe him or none commend him or approve him though all about him hate him and condemn him though he be so far from gaining by it with men that it cost him all that he hath or hoped for in the world For he knoweth that Godliness is of it self great gain and that it hath the promise of this life and that to come and none can make Gods promise void He knoweth that his Father which seeth in secret will reward him openly Matth. 6. and that he shall have a treasure in heaven that parteth with all on earth for Christ Luk. 18. 22. And he hath such respect to this promised recompence of reward that for it he can suffer with the people of God and account the very reproach of Christ a greater treasure then Court or Country can afford him in a way of sin Heb. 11. 26. He accounteth them blessed that are persecuted for righteousness sake because the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs He judgeth it a cause of exceeding joy to be reviled and persecuted and to have all manner of evil falsly spoken of us for the sake of Christ because our reward in Heaven is great Matth. 5. 10 11 12. For he verily believeth that as sure as these transitory pleasures will have an end and everlastingly forsake those miserable souls that were deluded by them so certainly is there a life of endless joyes to be possessed in Heaven with God and all the Holy ones and this he will trust to as that which will fully repair his losses and repay his cost and not deceive him Let others trust to what they will it is this that he is resolved to trust to and venture all to make it sure when he is sure that All is Nothing which he ventureth and that by the adventure he can never be a loser nor never save by choosing that which it self must perish Thus he that truly walks with God expecteth his Reward from God and with God and thence is encouraged in all his duty and thence is emboldned in all his conflicts and thence is upheld and comforted in his sufferings When Man is the Rewarder as well as the chief Ruler of the Hypocrite and earthly things are the poise and motives to his earthly mind 7. Our walking with God importeth that as we expect our Reward from him so also that we take his Promise for our security for that Reward Believing his Word and trusting his fidelity to the quieting and emboldening of the soul is part of our holy walking with him A promise of God is greater satisfaction and encouragement to a true believer than all the visible things on earth A promise of God can do more and prevail further with an upright soul than all the sensible objects in the world He will do more and go further upon such a promise then he will for all that man can give him Peruse the life of Christs Apostles and see what a promise of Christ can do How it made them forsake all earthly pleasures possessions and hopes and part with friends and houses and Country and travail up and down the world in dangers and sufferings and unwearied labours despised and abused by great and small and all this to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom which they had never seen and to attain that Everlasting Happiness and help others to attain it for which they had nothing but the promise of their Lord. See what a promise well believed will make a Christian do and suffer Believers did those noble acts and the Martyrs under went those torments which are mentioned Heb. 11. because they judged him faithful that had promised Heb. 11. 11. They considered not difficulties and defect of means and improbabilities as to second causes nor staggered at the promise of God through unbelief but being strong in faith gave glory to God being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was also able to perform As it is said of Abraham Rom. 4. 19 20 21. 8. To walk with God is to live as in his presence and that with desire and delight When we believe and apprehend that whereever we are we are before the Lord who seeth our hearts and all our waies who knoweth every thought we think and every word we speak and every secret thing which we do As verily to believe that God is here present and observeth all as we do that we our selves are here To compose our minds our thoughts our affections to that Holy reverence and seriousness as beseemeth man before his Maker To order our words with that care and gravity as beseems those that speak in the hearing of the Lord. That no mans presence do seem more considerable to us then his presence As we are not moved at the presence of a fly or worm or dog when persons of honour and reverence are present so should we not comparatively be moved at the presence of man how great or rich or terrible soever when we know that God himself is present to whom the greatest of the sons of men is more inconsiderable then a fly or worm is unto them As the presence of the King makes ordinary standers by to be unobserved and the discourses of the learned make us disregard the bablings of children so the presence of God should make the greatest to be scarce observed or regarded in comparison of him God who is still with us should so much take up our regard that all others in his presence should be but as a candle in the presence of the sun Therefore it is that a believer composeth himself to that behaviour which he knoweth God doth most expect and beseemeth those that stand before him when others accommodate themselves to the persons that are present observing
what it is to be Godly and to walk with God and what it is to be an Atheist or Ungodly you may easily see that Godliness is more rare and Atheism more common than many that themselves are Atheists will believe It is not that which a man calls his God that is taken by him for his God indeed It is not the Tongue but the Heart that is the man Pilate called Christ the King of the Jews when he crucified him The Jews called God their Father when Christ telleth them they were of their father the Devil and proveth it because what ever they said they would do his lusts Joh. 8. 44. The same Jews pretended to honour the name of the Messiah and expect him while they killed him The question is not what men call themselves but what they are Not whether you say you take God for your God but whether you do so indeed Not whether you profess your selves to be Atheists but whether you are Atheists indeed or not If you are not look over what I have here said and tell your consciences Do you walk with God who is it that you submit your selves willingly to be disposed of by To whom are you most subject and whose commands have the most effectual authority with you who is the Chief Governour of your hearts and lives whom is it that you principally desire to please whom do you most fear and whose displeasure do you principally avoid from whom is it that you expect your greaetest reward and in whom and with whom do you place and expect your happiness whose work is it that you do as the greatest business of your lives Is it the goodness of God in himself and unto you that draweth up your hearts to him in Love Is he the ultimate End of the main intentions design and industry of your lives Do you trust upon his Word as your security for your everlasting hopes and happiness Do you study and observe him in his works Do you really live as in his presence Do you delight in his Word and meditate on it Do you love the Communion of Saints and to be most frequent and familiar with them that are most frequent and familiar with Christ Do you favour more the particular affectionate discourse about his Nature Will and Kingdom than the frothy talk of empty wits or the common discourse of carnal worldlings Do you love to be employed in thanking him for his Mercies and in praising him and declaring the glory of his attributes and works Is your dependence on him as your great benefactor and do you receive your mercies as his gifts If thus your principal observation be of God and your chief desire after God and your chiefest confidence in God and your chiefest business in the world be with God and for God and your chifest joy be in the favour of God when you can apprehend it and in the prosperity of his Church and your hopes of glory and your chiefest grief and trouble be your sinful distance from him and your backwardness and disability in his love and service and the fear of his displeasure and the injuries done to his Gospel and honour in the world then I must needs say you are savingly delivered from your Atheism and Ungodliness you do not only talk of God but walk with God you are then acquainted with that spiritual life and work which the sensual world is unacquainted with and with those invisible everlasting excellencies which if worldlings knew they would change their minds and choice and pleasures You are then acquainted with that rational manly saintly life which ungodly men are strangers to and you are in the way of that well grounded Hope and Peace to which all the Pleasures and Crowns on earth if compared are but cheats and misery But if you were never yet brought to walk with God do not think that you have a sound belief in God nor that you acknowledge him sincerely nor that you are saved from heart atheism Nor is it Piety in the Opinion and the Tongue that will save him that is an Atheist or ungodly in heart and life Divinity is an affective-practical science Knowing is not the ultimate or perfective act of man but a means to holy Love and Joy and service Nor is it clear and solid knowledge if it do not somewhat affect the heart and engage and actuate the life according to the nature and use of the thing known The soundness of Knowledge and Belief is not best discerned in the intellectual acts themselves but in their powerful free and pleasant efficacy upon our choice and practice By these therefore you must judge whether you are Godly or Atheistical The question is not what your Tongues say of God nor what complemental ceremonious observances you allow him but what your Hearts and your endeavours say of him and whether you glorifie him as God when you say you know him Otherwise you will find that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who held the truth in unrighteousness Rom. 1. 18 21. And now alas what matter of lamentation is here before us To see how seriously men converse with one another and how God is overlookt or neglected by the most How men live together as if there were more that is considerable and regardable in these particles of animated dust then in the Lord Almighty and in all his graces service and rewards To see how God is cast aside and his interest made to give place to the interest of the flesh and his services must stay till men have done their service to their lusts or to worldly men that can do them hurt or shew them favour And his will must not be done when it crosseth the will of sinful man How little do all the commands and promises and threatnings of God signifie with these Atheistical men in comparison of their lusts or the laws of men or any thing that concerneth their temporal prosperity O how is the world revolted from their Maker How have they lost the knowledge of themselves and forgotten their natures capacities and obligations and what it is to be indeed a man O hearken sinners to the call of your Redeemer Return O seduced wandering souls and know at last your resting place why is not God in all your thoughts or why is he thought on with so much remisness unwillingness and contempt and with so little pleasure seriousness or regard Do you understand your selves in this Do you deal worthily with God Or wisely for your selves Do you take more pleasure with the Prodigal to feed swine and to feed with swine then to dwell at home with your heavenly Father and to walk before him and serve him in the world Did you but know how dangerous a way you have been in and how unreasonably you have dealt to forsake God in your hearts and follow that which cannot profit you what haste would you make
to leave the crowd and come home to God and try a more noble and gainful conversation If Reasons may have room and leave to work upon you I will set a few before you more distinctly to call you off from your barren inordinate creature converse to a believing serious converse with God 1. The higher and more excellent the object is especially when it is also of most concernment to our selves the more excellent is the converse Therefore as nothing dare compare it self with God so no employment may be compared with thâ—s of holy walking with him How vile a contempt is it of the Almighty and of our Celestial joyes for the heart to neglect them and turn away and dwell upon vanity and trouble and let these highest pleasures go Is not God and Glory worthy of thy thoughts and all thy service 2. What are those things that take thee up Are they better then God Or fitter to supply thy wants If thou think and trust in them accordingly ere long thou shalt know better what they are and have enough of thy cursed choice and confidence Tell those that stand by thee at the parting hour whether thou didst choose aright and make a gaining or a saving match O poor sinners have you not yet warning enough to satisfie you that all things below are Vanity and Vexation and that all your hope of happiness is above Will not the testimony of God satisfie you will not the experience of the world for so many thousand years together satisfie you will not the ill success of all the damned satisfie you will nothing but your own experience convince you If so consider well the experience you have already made and seasonably retire and try no further and trust not so dangerous a deceiver to the last least you buy your knowledge at a dearer rate then you will now believe 3. You have daily more to do with God than with all the world whether you will or no And therefore seeing you cannot avoid him if you would prefer that voluntary obediential converse which hath a reward before that necessitated converse which hath none You are alwaies in his hands he made you for his service and he will dispose of you and all that you have according to his will It shall not go with you as your selves would have it nor as your friends would have it nor as Princes and great ones of the world would have it unless as their wills comply with Gods but as God would have it who will infallibly accomplish all his will If a sparrow fall not to the ground without him and all the hairs of our heads are numbered then certainly he overruleth all your interests and affairs and they are absolutely at his dispose To whom then in reason should you so much apply your selves as unto him If you will not take notice of him he will take notice of you He will remember you whether you remember him or not but it may be with so strict and severe a remembrance as may make you wish he did quite forget you You are alwaies in his presence and can you then forget him and hold no voluntary converse with him when you stand before him If it be but mean inferiour persons that we dwell with and are still in company with yet we mind them more and speak more to them then we do to greater persons that we seldom see But in God there is both Greatness and Nearness to invite you Should not all the worms on earth stand by while the Glorious God doth call you to him and offer you the honour and happiness of his converse shall the Lord of Heaven and Earth stand by and be shut out while you are chatting or trifling with his creatures Nay shall he be neglected that is alwaies with you You cannot remove your selves a moment from his sight and therefore you should not shut your eyes and turn away your face and refuse to observe him who is still observing you Moreover your dependence both for soul and body is all on him You can have nothing desirable but by his gift He feeds you he cloatheth you he maintaineth you he gives you life and breath and all things and yet can you overlook him or forget him Do not all his mercies require your acknowledgement A Dog will follow him that feedeth him his eye will be upon his Master And shall we live upon God and yet forget and disregard him We are taught a better use of his Mercies by the Holy Prophet Psal. 66. 8 9. O bless our God ye people and make the voice of his praise to be heard which holdeth our soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be moved Nay it is not your selves alone but all the world that depends on God It is his power that supporteth them and his will that disposeth of them and his bounty that provideth for them And therefore he must be the observation and admiration of the world It is less unreasonable to take no notice of the Earth that beareth us and yieldeth us fruit and of the Sun that yields us heat and light than to disregard the Lord that is more to us than Sun and Earth and all things The eyes of all things wait on him and he giveth them their meat in season He openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing Psal. 145. 15 16. The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works All his works therefore shall praise him and his Saints shall bless him They shall speak of the glory of his Kingdom and talk of his power vers 10 11. Moreover God is so abundantly and wonderfully represented to us in all his works as will leave us under the guilt of most unexcusable contempt if we overlook him and live as without him in the world The Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge Psa. 19. 1 2. Thus that which may be known of God is manifest for the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that the ungodly are without excuse Rom. 1. 19 20. Cannot you see that which all the world revealeth nor hear that which all the world proclaimeth O sing ye forth the honour of his name make his praise glorious Say to the Lord How terrible art thou in thy works through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee All the earth shall worship thee and shall sing unto thee they shall sing unto thy name come and see the works of God he is tertible in his doings towards the children of men Psal. 66. 2 3 4 5. Can we pass him by that is everywhere present and by every Creature represented to us Can we forget him when all the world are our
spent your time in youth and in your riper age and how many sinful thoughts and words and deeds you have been guilty of how oft you have sinfully pleased your appetites and gratified your flesh and yeilded to temptations and abused mercy and lost your time how oft you have neglected your duty and betrayed your souls how long you have lived in forgetfulness of God and your salvation minding only the things of the flesh and of the world how oft you have sinned ignorantly and against knowledge through carelesness and through rashness through negligence and through presumption in passion and upon deliberation against convictions purposes and promises how oft you have sinned against the precepts of piety to God and of justice and charity to men Think how your sins are multiplied and aggravated more in number then the hours of your lives Aggravated by a world of mercies by the clearest teachings and the lowdest calls and sharpest reproofs and seasonable warnings and by the long and urgent importunities of grace Think of all these and then consider whether you have nothing now to do with God whether it be not a business to be followed with all possible speed and diligence to procure the pardon of all these sins you have no such businesses as these to transact with men you may have business with them which your estates depend upon or which touch your credit commodity or lives but you have no business with men unless in subordination to God which your salvation doth depend upon your eternal happiness is not in their hands They may kill your bodies if God permit them but not your souls You need not sollicite them to pardon your sins against God It is a small matter how you are judged of by man you have one that judgeth you even the Lord 1 Cor. 4. 3 4. No man can forgive sin but God only O then how early how earnestly should you cry to him for mercy Pardon must be obtained now or never There is no Justification for that man at the day of Judgement that is not forgiven and iustified now Blessed then is the man whose iniquity is forgiven whose sin is covered and to whom it is not imputed by the Lord Rom. 4. 7 8. And wo to that man that ever he was born that is then found without the pardon of his sins Think of this as the case deserves and then think if you can that your daily business with God is small 5. Moreover you have Peace of Conscience to obtain and that dependeth upon your Peace with God Conscience will be your accuser condemner and tormenter if you make it not your friend by making God your friend Consider what Conscience hath to say against you and how certainly it will speak home when you would be loth to hear it and bethink you how to answer all its accusations and what will be necessary to make it a messenger of Peace and then think your business with God to be but small if you are able It is no easie matter to get assurance that God is reconciled to you and that he hath forgiven all your sins 6. In order to all this you must be united to Jesus Christ and be made his members that you may have part in him and that he may wash you by his blood and that he may answer for you to his Father woe to you if he be not your righteousness and if you have not him to plead your cause and take upon him your final justification None else can save you from the wrath of God And he is the Saviour only of his body Eph. 5. 23. He hath dyed for you without your own consent and he hath made an universal conditional grant of pardon and salvation before you consented to it But he will not be united to you nor actually forgive and justifie and save you without your own consent And therefore that the Father may draw you to the Son and may give you Christ and Life in him 1 Joh. 5. 9 10 11. when all your hope dependeth on it you may see that you have more to do with God then your senseless hearts have hitherto understood 7. And that you may have a saving interest in Jesus Christ you must have sound Repentance for all your former life of wickedness and a lively effectual faith in Christ Neither sin nor Christ must be made light of Repentance must tell you to the very heart that you have done foolishly in sining and that it is an evil and a bitter thing that you forsook the Lord and that his fear was not in you and thus your wickedness shall correct you and reprove you Jer. 2. 19. And Faith must tell you that Christ is more necessary to you then food or life and that there is no other name given under heaven by which you can be saved Act. 4. 12. And it is not so easie nor so common a thing to Repent and Believe as ignorant presumptuous sinners do imagine It is a greater matter to have a truly humbled contrite heart and to loath your selves for all your sins and to loath those sins and resolvedly give up your selves to Christ and to his Spirit for a holy life then heartlesly and hypocritically to say I am sorry or I Repent without any true Contrition or Renovation And it is a greater matter to betake your selves to Jesus Christ as your only hope to save you both from sin and from damnation then barely through custom and the benefit of education to say I do believe in Christ. I tell you it is so great a work to bring you to sound Repentance and Faith that it must be done by the power of God himself Act. 5. 31. 2 Tim. 2. 25. They are the Gift of God Eph. 2. 8. you must have his spirit to illuminate you Eph. 1. 18. and shew you the odiousness of fin the intolerableness of the wrath of God the necessity and sufficiency the power and willingness of Christ and to overcome all your prejudice and save you from your false opinions and deceits and to repulse the temptations of Satan the world and the flesh which will all rise up against you All this must be done to bring you home to Jesus Christ or else you will have no part in him his righteousness and grace And can you think that you have not most important business with God who must do all this upon you or else you are undone for ever 8. Moreover you must have all the corruptions of your natures healed and your sins subdued and your hearts made new by sanctifying grace and the Image of God implanted in you and your lives made holy and sincerely conformable to the will of God All this must be done or you cannot be acceptable to God nor ever will be saved Though your carnal interest rise against it though your old corrupted natures be against it though your custome and pleasure and worldly gain and honour be against it
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
God be Good because he will not save you when he can I shall leave you to him to receive satisfaction who will easily silence and consound your impudence and justifie his works and laws Prepare your accusations against him if you will needs insist upon them and try whether he or you shall prevail but remember that thou art a worm and he is God and that he will be the only judge when all is done and ignorance and impiety that prate against him to their own confusion in the day of his patience shall not then usurp the throne Object 2. But how can God be fit for mortals to converse with when they see him not and are infinitely below him Answ. I hope you will not say that you have nothing to do at home with your own souls and yet you never saw your souls And it is the souls the Reason and the will of men that you daily converse with here in the world more then their bodies and yet you never saw their souls their Reason or their wills If you have no higher light to discern by then your eyesight you are not men but beasts If you are men you have Reason and if you are Christians you have faith by which you know things that you never saw You have more dependance on the things that are unseen then on those which you see and have much more to do with them And though God be infinitely above us yet he condescendeth to communicate to us according to our capacities As the Sun is far from us and yet doth not disdain to enlighten and warm and quicken a worm or fly here below If any be yet so much an Atheist as to think that Religious converse with God is but a fancy let him well answer me these few questions Quest. 1. Doth not the continued being and well-being of the Creatures tell us that there is a God on whom for being and well-being they depend and from whom they are and have whatsoever they are and whatsoever they have And therefore that passively all the Creatures have more respect to him by far then to one another Quest. 2. Seeing God communicateth to every Creature according to their several capacities is it not meet then that he deal with man as man even as a Creature Rational capable to know and love and obey his Great Creator and to be happy in the knowledge love and fruition of him That man hath such natural faculties and capacities is not to be denyed by a man that knoweth what it is to be a man And that God hath not given him these in vain will be easily believed by any that indeed believe that he is God Quest. 3. Is there any thing else that is finally worthy of the highest actions of our souls or that is fully adequate to them and fit to be our happiness If not then we are left either to certain infelicity contrary to the tendency of our natures or else we must seek our felicity in God Quest. 4. Is there any thing more certain then that by the title of Creation our Maker hath a full and absolute right to all that he hath made and consequently to all our love and obedience our time and powers For whom should they all be used but for him from whom we have them Quest. 5. Can any thing be more sure then that God is the Righteous Governour of the world and that he Governeth man as a rational creature by Laws and Judgement And can we live under his absolute Soveraignty and under his many righteous Laws and under his Promises of salvation to the Justified and under his threatnings of damnation to the unjustified and yet not have more to do with God than with all the world If indeed you think that God doth not Love and reward the holy and obedient and punish the ungodly and disobedient then either you take him not to be the Governour of the world or which is worse you take him to be an unrighteous Governour And then you must by the same reason say that Magistrates and Parents should do so too and love and reward the obedient and disobedient alike But if any mans disobedience were exercised to your hurt by slandering or beating or robbing you I dare say you would not then commend so indifferent and unjust a Governour Quest. 6. If it be not needless for man to Labour for food and rayment and necessary provision for his body how can it be needless for him to labour for the happiness of his soul If God will not give us our daily bread while we never think of it or seek it why should we expect that he will give us Heaven though we never think on it value it or seek it Quest. 7. Is it not a contradiction to be happy in the fruition of God and yet not to mind him desire him or seek him How is it that the Soul can reach its Object but by estimation desire and seeking after it And how should it enjoy it but by Loving it and taking pleasure in it Quest. 8. While you seem but to wrangle against the Duty of believers do you not plead against the comfort and happiness of believers For surely the employment of the soul on God and for him is the health and pleasure of the soul And to call away the soul from such employment is to imprison it in the dungeon of this world and to forbid us to smell to the sweetest flowers and confine us to a sink or dunghill and to forbid us to tast of the food of Angels or of men and to offer us Vineger and Gall or turn us over to feed with Swine He that pleadeth that there is no such thing as real Holiness Communion with God doth plead in effect that there is no true felicity or delight for any of the Sons of men And how welcome should ungodly Atheists be unto mankind that would for ever exclude them all from happiuess and make them believe they are all made to be remedilesly miserable And here take notice of the madness of the unthankful world that hateth and persecuteth the Preachers of the Gospel that bring them the glad tidings of pardon and hope and life eternal of solid happiness and durable delight and yet they are not offended at these Atheists and ungodly Cavillers that would take them off from all that is truly good and pleasant and make them believe that nature hath made them capable of no higher things than beasts and hath enthralled them in remediless infelicity Quest. 9. Do you not see by experience that there are a people in the world whose hearts are upon God and the life to come and that make it their chiefest care and business to seek him and to serve him How then can you say that there is no such thing or that we are not capable of it when it is the case of so many before your eyes If you say that it is but their
and erroneous disposition of our own hearts The will hath a very great power upon the understanding And therefore ungodly fleshly men will very hardly receive any truth which crosseth the carnal interest or disposition And will hardly let go any errour that feedeth them because their corrupted wills are a byas to their understandings and make them desperately partial in all their reading and hearing and hypocritical in their prayers and enquiries after truth Interest and corruption locketh up their hearts from their own observation Whereas a man that walketh with God that is jealous and holy and just and a searcher of the heart is driven from hypocrisie and forced to behave himself as in the open light and to do all as in the sight of all the world as knowing that the sight of God is of far greater concernment and regard The partiality corruption and byas of the heart is detected and shamed by the presence of God Therefore to walk with God is to walk in the light and as children of the light and not in darkness And he that doth Truth cometh to the light that his deeds might be manifest that they are wrought in God when every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved And this is their condemnation that light is come into the world and men love the darkness rather then the light because their deeds are evil Joh. 3. 19 20 21. It tendeth therefore exceedingly to make men wise to Walk with God because it is a walking in the light and in such a presence as most powerfully prevaileth against that hypocrisie deceitfulness and partiality of the heart which is the common cause of damning errour 10. Lastly they that walk with God are entitled by many promises to the guidance and direction of his spirit And blessed are those that have such a guide at once a light in the world without them and a light immediately from God within them For so far as he is received and worketh in them he will lead them into truth and save them from deceit and folly and having guided them by his counsel will afterward take them unto glory Psal. 73. 24. Whereas the ungodly are led by the flesh and often given up to their own hearts lusts to walk in their own counsels Rom. 8. 1 13. Psal. 81. 12. till at last the fools do say in their hearts there is no God Psal. 14. 1. and they become corrupt and abhominable eating up the people of the Lord as bread and call not on his Name ver 2. c. Deceiving and being deceived sensual having not the spirit Jud. 19. who shall receive the reward of their unrighteousness as accounting it pleasure to riot in the day time 2 Pet. 2. 13. IV. ANother benefit of Walking with God is that it maketh men good as well as wise It is the most excellent means for the advancement of mans soul to the highest degree of holiness attainable in this life If conversing with Good men doth powerfully tend to make men good conversing with God must needs be more effectual which may appear in these particulars 1. The apprehensions of the presence and attributes of God do most effectually check the stirrings of corruption and rebuke all the vicious inclinations and motions of the soul even the most secret sin of the heart is rebuked by his presence as well as the most open transgression of the life For the thoughts of the heart are open to his view All what is done before God is done as in the open light nothing of it can be hid no sin can have the encouragement of secresie to embolden it It is all committed in the presence of the Universal King and Lawgiver of the world who hath forbidden it It is done before him that most abhorreth it and will never be reconciled to it It is done before him that is the Judge of the world and will shortly pass the sentence on us according to what we have done in the body It standeth up in his presence who is of infinite Majesty and perfection and therefore most to be reverenced and honoured And therefore if the presence of a wise and grave and venerable person will restrain men from sin the presence of God apprehended seriously will do it much more It is committed before him that is our dearest friend and tender Father and chiefest benefactor And therefore ingenuity gratitude and love will all rise up against it in those that walk with God There is that in God before the eyes of those that walk with him which is most contrary to sin and most powerful against it of any thing in the world Every one will confess that if mens eyes were opened to see the Lord in Glory standing over them it would be the most powerful means to restrain them from transgressing The drunkard would not then venture upon his cups the fornicator would have a cooling for his lusts the swearer would be afraid to take his Makers name in vain the prophane would scarce presume to scorn or persecute a holy life And he that walketh with God though he see him not corporeally yet seeth him by faith and liveth as in his presence and therefore must needs be restrained from sin as having the means which is next to the sight of God If pride should begin to stir in one that walks with God O what a powerful remedy is at hand How effectually would the presence of the Great and Holy God rebuke it and constrain us to say as Job 42. 5 6. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes If worldly love or carnal lust should stir â—n such a one how powerfully would the terrours of the Lord repress it and his Majesty rebuke it and his Love and Goodness overcome it If worldly cares or murmuring discontents begin to trouble such a one how effectually will the Goodness the All sufficiency and the faithfulness of God allay them and quiet and satisfie the soul and cause it to be offended at its own offence and to chide it self for its repinings and distrust If Passion arise and begin to discompose us how powerfully will the presence of God rebuke it and the reverence of his Majesty and the sense of his Authority and pardoning grace will asswage it and shame us into silent quietness who dare let out his passions upon man in the presence of his Maker that apprehendeth his presence The same I might say of all other sins 2. The presence and attributes of God apprehended by those that walk with him is the potent remedy against Temptations Who will once turn an eye to the gold and glory of the world that is offered him to allure him to sin if he see God stand by who would be tempted to lust or any sinful pleasure if he observe the presence of the Lord
so hardly perswaded that it would be forgiven you and now do you make so small a matter of it Did you then so much wonder at your folly that could so long let out your thoughts and affections upon the creature while you neglected God and Heaven and do you begin to look that way again Do you now grow familiar with a life so like to that whirh was once your state of death and bear that easily that once was the breaking of your heart O Christians turn not away from that God again who once fetcht you home with so much smart and so much grace with such a twist of Love and Fatherly severity Methinks when you remember how you were once awakened you should not easily fall asleep again And when you remember the thoughts which then were in your hearts and the tears that were in your eyes and the earnest prayers which you then put up that God would receive you and take you for his own you should not now forget him and live as if you could live without him Remember that so far as you withdraw your hearts from God and let them follow inferiour things so far you contradict his works upon your hearts so far you violate your Covenant with him or sin against it so far you are revolters and go against the principal part of your profest Religion Yea so far you are ungodly as you thus withdraw your hearts from God Cleave to him and prosecute your Covenant if you will have the saving benefits of his Love and Covenant 3. MOreover the servants of God are doubly obliged to walk with him because they have had that experience of the goodness the safety and the sweetness of it which strangers have not Do you not remember how glad you were when you first believed that he pardoned and accepted you And how much you rejoyced in his Love and entertainment And how much better you found your Fathers house than ever you had found your sinful state And how much sweeter his service was than you did before believe It 's like you can remember something like that which is described in Luk. 15. 20 22 23 24. And he arose and came to his Father But when he was yet a great way off his Father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him And the Son said unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy Son But the Father said to his servants Bring forth the best Robe and put it on him and put a Ring on his hand and Shooes on his feet and bring hither the fatted Calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry for this my Son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found What would you have thought or said of this Prodigal if after all this he should have been weary of his Fathers house and company and have taken more pleasure in his former company Would you not have said he was a forgetful and unthankful wretch and worthy never more to be received I do not speak to you now as to Apostates that are turned ungodly and have quite forsaken God and Holiness But I beseech you consider what it is after such experiences and obligations as these so much as to abate your love and grow remiss and mindless and indifferent as if you were aweary of God and were inclined to neglect him and look again to the world for your hope and satisfaction and delight As you love your souls and as you would avoid the sorrows which are greater than any that ever you felt take heed of fleighting the Love that hath done such wonders for you and of dealing so unthankfully with the everliving God and of turning thus away from him that hath received you Remember whilst you live the Love of your espousals Was God so good to you at the first and holiness so desirable and is it not so still And I am sure that your own experience will bear witness that since that time in all your lives it never was so well with you as when you walked most faithfully with God If you have received any falls and hurts it hath been when you have stragled from him If ever you had safety peace or joy it hath been when you have been nearest to him your wounds and grief and death hath been the fruit of your own waies and of your forsaking him Your recovery and health and life have been the fruit of his waies and of your adhering to him Many and many a time you have confessed this and have said It is good for me to draw near to God He hath helped you when none else could help you and comforted you when none else could comfort you How far are you above the worldlings happiness when you are nigh to God One lively thought of his Greatness and Excellency and of his Love to you in Jesus Christ will make the name of wealth and honour and favour and preferment and sensual pleasures to seem to you as words of no signification How indifferent will you be as to your prosperity in the world when you feel what it is to walk with God If you are lively experimental Christians you have found this to be true Have you not found that it is the very Health and Ease and proper employment of your souls to walk with God and keep close to him And that all goes well with you while you can do thus however the world doth esteem or use you And that when you grow strange or disobedient to God and mindless of his Goodness his presence and his authority you are like the stomach that is sick and like a bone that is out of joynt that can have no ease till it be healed and restored to its proper place No meats or drinks no company nor recreation no wealth or greatness will serve to make a sick man well or ease the dislocated bones Nothing will serve a faithful holy soul but God This is the cause of the dolour of his heart and of the secret groans and complainings of his life because in this life of distance and imperfection he finds himself so far from God and when he hath done all that he can he is still so dark and strange and cold in his affections when persecution driveth him from the Ordinances and publick Worship or when sin hath set him at a greater distance from his God he bemoaneth his soul as David in his banishment from the Tabernacle Psal. 42. 1 2 c. As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God When shall I come and appear before God My tears have been my meat day and night while they continually say unto me Where is thy God And it is no wonder if with his greatest joy he be yet clouded with these sorrows because he yet
world his God so doth it savour of the same hainous sin to lament our loss of Creatures more than the displeasure of God If God be my enemy or I am fallen under his indignation I have then so much greater matters to lament than the loss or absence or frowns of man as should almost make me forget that there is such a thing as man to be regarded But if God be my Father and my friend in Christ I have then so much to think of with delight and to recreate and content my soul as will proclaim it most incongruous and absurd to lament inordinately the absence of a worm while I have his Love and presence who is All in All. If God cannot content me and be not enough for me how is he then my God or how shall he be my Heaven and everlasting Happiness 2. If God be with me he is with me to whom I am absolutely devoted I am wholly his and have acknowledged his interest in me and long ago disclaimed all usurpers and repented of alienations and unreservedly resigned my self to him And where should I dwell but with him that is my owner and with whom I have made the solemnest Covenant that ever I made â— never gave my self to any other but in subordination to him and with a salvo for his highest inviolable right Where should my goods be but in my own house with whom should a Servant dwell but with his Master and a Wife but with her Husband and Children but with their Father I am nearlier related to my God and to my Saviour than I am to any of my Relations in this world I owe more to him than to all the world I have renounced all the world as they stand in any competition or comparison with him And can I want their company then while I am with him How shall I hate Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brother and Sister for his sake if I cannot spare them or be without them to enjoy him To hate them is but to use them as men do hated things that is to cast them away with contempt as they would alâ—enate me from Christ and to cleave to him and be satisfied in him alone I am now married to Christ and therefore must chearfully leave Father and Mother and my native place and all to cleave to him And with whom should I now delight to dwell but with him who hath taken me into so near relation to be as it were one flesh with him O my dear Lord hide not thou thy face from an unkind an unworthy sinner Let me but dwell with thee and see thy face and feel the gracious embracements of thy Love and then let me be cast off by all the world if thou see it meetest for me or let all other friends be where they will so that my soul may be with thee I have agreed for thy sake to forsake all even the dearest that shall stand against thee and I resolve by thy grace to stand to this agreement 3. If God be with me I am not alone for he is with me that Loveth me best The Love of all the friends on earth is nothing to his Love O how plainly hath he declared that he loveth me in the strange condescention the sufferings death and intercession of his Son What Love hath he declared in the communications of his Spirit and the operations of his Grace and the near relations into which he brought me What Love hath he declared in in the course of his providences in many and wonderful preservations and deliverances in the conduct of his wisdome and in a life of mercies What Love appeareth in his precious promises and the glorious provisions he hath made for me with himself to all eternity O my Lord I am ashamed that thy Love is so much lost that it hath no better return from an unkind unthankful heart that I am not more delighted in thee and swallowed up in the contemplation of thy Love I can contentedly let go the society and converse of all others for the converse of some one bosome friend that is dearer to me than they all as Jonathan to David And can I not much more be satisfied in thee alone and let go all if I may continue with thee My very Dog will gladly for sake all the Town and all persons in the world to follow me alone And have I not yet found so much Love and Goodness in thee my dear and blessed God as to be willing to converse alone with thee All men delight most in the company of those that Love them best They choose not to converse with the Multitude when they look for solace and content but with their dearest friends And should any be so dear to me as God O were not thy Love unworthily neglected by an unthankful heart I should never be so unsatisfied in thee but should take up or seek my comforts in thee I should then say Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee Though not only my friends but my flesh and heart themselves should fail me it is thou that will still be the strength of my heart and my portion for ever it is good therefore for me to draw near to thee how far soever I am from man O let me there dwell where thou wilt not be strange for thy loving kindness is better than life instead of the multitude of my turmoiling thoughts let me be taken up in the believing views of thy reconciled face and in the glad attendance upon thy Grace or at least in the multitude of my thoughts within me let thy celestial comforts delight my soul. Let me dwell as in thy family and when I awake let me be still with thee Let me go no whither but where I am still following thee Let me do nothing but thy work nor serve any other but when I may truly call it a serving thee Let me hear nothing but thy voice and let me know thy voice by whatever instrument thou shalt speak Let me never see any thing but thy self and the glass that representeth thee and the books in which I may read thy name And let me never play with the outside and gaze on words and letters as insignificant and not observe thy name which is the sense Whether it be in company or in solitude let me be continually with thee and do thou vouchsafe to hold me by my right hand And guide me with thy counsel and afterwards receive me unto thy glory Psal. 73. 23 24 25 26 28. Psal. 63. 3. 4. If God be with me I am not alone for I shall be with him whose Love is of greater use and benefit to me than the Love of all my friends in the world Their Love may perhaps be some little comfort as it floweth from His But it is His Love by which and upon which I Live It is His Love that gives
had been less with the dearest of my friends How much more sweet then would my life have been How much more blameless regular and pure How much more fruitful and answerable to my obligations and professions How much more comfortable to my review How many falls and hurts and wounds and griefs and groans might I have escaped O how much more pleasing is it now to my Rememberance to think of the hours in which I have lain at the feet of God though it were in tears and groans than to think of the time which I have spent in any common converse with the greatest or the learnedest or the dearest of my acquaintance And as my Greatest business is with God so my daily business is also with him He purposely leaveth me under wants and suffers necessities daily to return and enemies to assault me and affliction to surprize me that I may be daily driven to him He loveth to hear from me He would have me be no stranger with him I have business with him every hour I need not want employment for all the faculties of my soul if I know what it is to converse in Heaven Even prayer and every holy thought of God hath an Object so great and excellent as should wholly take me up Nothing must he thought or spoken lightly about the Lord. His name must not be taken in vain Nothing that is common beseemeth his worshippers He will be sanctified of all that shall draw near him He must be Loved with all the Heart and Might His servants need not be wearied for want of employment nor through the lightness or unprofitableness of their employment If I had Cities to build or Kingdoms to govern I might better complain for want of employment for the faculties of my soul than I can when I am to converse in Heaven In other studies the delight abateth when I have reached my desire and know all that I can know But in God there is infinitely more to be known when I know the most I am never satiated with the easiness of knowing nor are my desires abated by any unusefulness or unworthiness in the Object but I am drawn to it by its highest excellencies and drawn on to desire more and more by the infiniteness of the Light which I have not yet beheld and the infiniteness of the Good which yet I have not enjoyed If I be idle or seem to want employment when I am to contemplate all the Artributes relations mercies works and revealed perfections of the Lord its sure for want of eyes to see or a Heart enclined to my business if God be not enough to employ my soul then all the persons and things on earth are not enough And when I have Infinite Goodness to delight in where my soul may freely let out it self and never need to fear excess of Love how sweet should this employment be As Knowledge so Love is never stinted here by the narrowness of the Object We can never Love him in any proportion either to his Goodness and amiableness in himself or to his Love to us What need have I then of any other company or business when I have infinite Goodness to delight in and to Love further than they subserve this greatest work Come home then O my soul to God Converse in Heaven Turn away thine eyes from beholding vanity Let not thy affections kindle upon straw or bryars that go out when they have made a flash or noise and leave thee to thy cold and darkness But come and dwell upon celestial beauties and make it thy daily and most diligent work to kindle thy affections on the infinite everlasting Good and then they will never be extinguished or decay for want of fewel but the further they go and the longer they burn the greater will be the flame Though thou find it hard while Love is but a spark to make it burn and complain that thy cold and backward heart is hardly warmed with the Love of God yet when the whole pile hath taken fire and the flame ascendeth fire will breed fire Love will cause Love and all the malice of Hell it self shall never be able to suppress or quench it unto all eternity 6. And it is a great encouragement to my converse with God that no misunderstanding no malice of enemies no former sin or present frailty no nor the infinite distance of the most Holy Glorious God can hinder my access to him or turn away his Ear or Love or interrupt my leave and liberty of converse If I converse with the poor their wants afflict me being greater than I can supply Their complaints and expectations which I cannot satisfie are my trouble If I would converse with Great ones it is not easie to get access and less easie to have their favout unless I would purchase it at too dear a rate How strangely and contemptuously do they look at their inferiours Great friends must be made for a word or smile And if you be not quickly gone they are aweary of you And if you seek any thing of them or would put them to any cost or trouble you are as welcome to them as so many vermine or noisome creatures They please them best that drive you away With how much labour and difficulty must you clime if you will see the top of one of these mountains And when you are there you are but in a place of barrenness and have nothing to satisfie you for your pains but a larger prospect and vertiginous despect of the lower grounds which are not your own it is seldome that these Great ones are to be spoken with And perhaps their speech is but a denyal of your requests if not some snappish and contemptuous rejection that makes you glad when you are got far enough from them and makes you the better like and love the accessible calm and fruitful plains But O how much greater encouragements hath my soul to converse with God! Company never hindereth him from hearkening to my suit He is infinite and Omnipotent and as sufficient for every individual soul as if he had no other to look after in the world when he is taken up with the attendance and praises of his Heavenly Host he is as free and ready to attend and answer the groans and prayers of a contrite soul as if he had no nobler creatures nor no higher service to regard I am oft unready but God is never unready I am unready to pray but he is not unready to hear I am unready to come to God to walk with him and to solace my soul with him but he is never unready to entertain me Many a time my conscience would have driven me away when he hath called me to him and rebuked my accusing fearful conscience Many a time I have called my self a prodigal a companion of Swine a miserable hard-hearted sinner unworthy to be called his Son when he hath called me Child and chid me for my questioning
Righteous Judgement be remembered and all be terminated in the glorious everlasting Kingdom Is it not much better thus to converse with him that I must be with for ever about the place and the company and work and concernments of my perpetual abode then to be taken up with strangers in my way and detained by their impertinencies I have form'd my self so long in these meditations that I will but name the rest and tell you what I had further to have treated on and leave the enlargement to your own meditations 8. I have no reason to be weary of converse with God seeing it is that for which all humane converse is regardable Converse with man is only so far desirable as it tendeth to our Converse with God And therefore the end must be preferred before the means 9. It is the office of Christ and the work of the Holy Ghost and the use of all the means of Grace and of all creatures mercies and afflictions to reduce our straying souls to God that we may converse with him and enjoy him 10. Converse with God is most suitable to those that are so near to death It best prepareth for it It is likest to the work that we are next to do We had rather when death comes be found conversing with God then with Man It is God that a dying man hath principally to do with It is his judgement that he is going to and his mercy that he hath to trust upon And therefore it concerneth us to draw near him now and be no strangers to him lest strangeness then should be our terrour 11. How wonderful a condescension is it that God should be willing to converse with me with such a worm and sinful wretch And therefore how unexcusable is my crime if I refuse his company and so great a mercy 12. Lastly Heaven it self is but our Converse with God and his Glorified ones though in a more perfect manner then we can here conceive And therefore our holy converse with him here is the state that is likest Heaven and that prepareth for it and all the Heaven that is on earth IT remaineth now that I briefly tell you what you should do to attain and manage this Converse with God in the improvement of your solitude For Directions in general for Walking with God I reserve for another place At present let these few suffice Direct 1. If you would comfortably Converse with God make sure that you are Reconciled to him in Christ and that he is indeed your friend and Father Can two walk together except they be agreed Can you take pleasure in dwelling with the consuming fire or conversing with the most dreadful enemy Yet this I must add that every doubting or self-accusing soul may not find a pretence to fly from God 1. That God ceaseth not to be a Father when ever a fearful soul is drawn to question it or deny it 2. That in the Universal Love and Grace of God to miserable sinners and in the universal act of conditional pardon and oblivion and in the offers of Grace and the readiness of God to receive the penitent there is Glad tidings that should exceedingly rejoyce a sinner and there is sufficient encouragement to draw the most guilty miserable sinner to seek to God and sue for mercy But yet the sweetest converse is for children and for those that have some assurance that they are children But perhaps you will say that this is not easily attained How shall we know that he is our friend In brief I answer If you are unfeignedly friends to God it is because he first loved you Prefer him before all other friends and all the wealth and vanity of the world Provoke him not by wilfulness or neglect use him as your best friend and abuse him not by disobedience or ingratitude own him before all at the dearest rates whenever you are called to it Desire his presence Lament his absence Love him from the bottom of your hearts Think not hardly of him Suspect him not Misunderstand him not Hearken not to his enemies Receive not any false reports against him Take him to be really Better for you than all the world Do these and doubt not but you are friends with God and God with you In a word Be but heartily willing to be friends to God and that God should be your chiefest friend and you may be sure that it is so indeed and that you are and have what you desire And then how delightfully may you converse with God! Direct 2. Wholly depend on the Mediation of Christ the great Reconciler Without him there is no coming near to God But in his Beloved you shall be accepted Whatever fear of his displeasure shall surprize you fly presently for safety unto Christ Whatever guilt shall look you in the face commit your self and cause to Christ and desire him to answer for you When the doors of mercy seem to be shut up against you fly to him that bears the keyes and can at any time open to you and let you in Desire him to answer for you to God to your consciences and against all accusers By him alone you may boldly and comfortably converse with God But God will not know you out of him Direct 3. Take heed of bringing particular Guilt into the presence of God if you would have sweet communion with him Christ himself never reconciled God to sin And the sinner and sin are so nearly related that for all the death of Christ you shall feel that iniquity dwelleth not with God but he hateth the works of it and the foolish shall not stand in his sight and that if you will presume to sin because you are his Children be sure your fin will find you out O what fears what shame what self-abhorrence and self-revenge will guilt raise in a penitent soul when it comes into the light of the presence of the Lord it will unavoidably abate your boldness and your comforts When you should be sweetly delighting in his pleased face and promised Glory you will be befooling your selves for your former sin and ready even to tear your flesh to think that ever you should do as you have done and use him as you would not have used a common friend and cast your selves upon his wrath But an innocent soul or pacified conscience doth walk with God in quietness and delight without those frowns and fears which are a taste of Hell to others Direct 4. If you would comfortably converse with God be sure that you bring not Idols in your hearts Take heed of inordinate affection to any Creature Let all things else be nothing to you that you may have none to take up your thoughts but God Let your Minds be further separate from them than your Bodies Bring not into solitude or to contemplation a proud or lustful or covetous mind It much more concerneth thee what Heart thou bringest that what Place thou art in or what work
worldly trash which are made and new-made to be the dwelling place of God Desire not the company which would diminish your heavenly acquaintance and correspondency Be not unfriendly nor conceited of a self-sufficiency but yet beware lest under the honest ingenuous title of a friend a special faithful prudent faithful friend you should entertain an Idol or an enemy to your Love of God or a corrival and competitor with your highest friend For if you do it is not the specious title of a friend that will save you from the thorns and bryars of disquietment and from greater troubles than ever you found from open enemies O blessed be that High and everlasting friend who is every way suited to the upright souls To their Minds their Memories their Delight their Love c. by surest Truth by fullest Goodness by clearest Light by dearest Love by firmest Constancy c. O why hath my drowsie and dark-sighted soul been so seldome with him why hath it so often so strangely and so unthankfully passed by and not observed him nor hearkened to his kindest calls O what is all this trash and trouble that hath filled my memory and employed my mind and cheated and corrupted my affections while my dearest Lord hath been daies and nights so unworthily forgotten so contemptuously neglected and disregarded and loved as if I loved him not O that these drowsie and those waking nights those loitered lost and empty hours had been spent in the humblest converse with him which have been dreamed and doted away upon now I know not what O my God how much wiser and happier had I been had I rather chosen to mourn with thee than to rejoyce and sport with any other O that I had rather wept with thee than laughed with the creature For the time to come let that be my friend that most befriendeth my dark and dull and backward soul in its undertaken progress and heavenly conversation Or if there be none such upon earth let me here take no one for my friend O blot out every Name from my corrupted heart which hindereth the deeper engraving of thy Name Ah Lord what a stone what a blind ungrateful thing is a Heart not touched with celestial Love yet shall I not run to thee when I have none else that will know me shall I not draw near thee when all fly from me When daily experience cryeth out so loud NONE BUT CHRIST GOD OR NOTHING Ah foolish Heart that hast thought of it Where is that place that Cave or Desert where I might soonest find thee and fullest enjoy thee is it in the wilderness that thou walkest or in the croud in the Closet or in the Church where is it that I might soonest meet with God But alas I now perceive that I have a Heart to find before I am like to find my Lord O Loveless Lifeless stony heart that 's dead to him that gave it Life and to none but him Could I not Love or Think or Feel at all methinks I were less dead than now Less dead if dead than now I am alive I had almost said Lord let me never Love more till I can Love thee Nor think more on any thing till I can more willingly think of thee But I must suppress that wish for Life will act And the mercies and motions of Nature are necessary to those of Grace And therefore in the life of Nature and in the glimmerings of thy Light I will wait for more of the Celestial life My God thou hast my consent It is here attested under my hand Separate me from what and whom thou wilt so I may but be nearer thee Let me Love thee more and feel more of thy Love and then let me Love or be beloved of the world as little as thou wilt I thought self-love had been a more predominant thing But now I find that Repentance hath its Anger its Hatred and its Revenge I am truly Angry with that Heart that hath so oft and foolishly offended thee Methinks I hate that Heart that is so cold and backward in thy love and almost grudge it a dwelling in my breast Alas when Love should be the life of Prayer the life of holy meditation the life of Sermons and of holy conference and my soul in these should long to meet thee and delight to mention thee I straggle Lord I know not whither or I sit still and wish but do not rise and run and follow thee yea I do not what I seem to do All 's dead all 's dead for want of Love I often cry O where is that place where the quickening beams of Heaven are warmest that my frozen soul might seek it out But whither ever I go to City or to Solitude alas I find it is not Place that makes the difference I know that Christ is perfectly replenished with Life and Light and Love Divine And I hear him as our Head and Treasure proclaimed and offered to us in the Gospel This is thy Record that he that hath the Son hath Life O why then is my barren soul so empty I thought I had long ago consented to thy offer and then according to thy Covenant both He and Life in him are mine And yet must I still be dark and dead Ah dearest Lord I say not that I have too long waited but if I continue thus to wait wilt thou never find the time of Love and come and own thy gasping worm wilt thou never dissipate these clouds and shine upon this dead and darkened soul Hath my Night no Day Thrust me not from thee O my God! For that 's a Hell to be thrust from God But sure the cause is all at home could I find it out or rather could I cure it It is sure my face that 's turned from God when I say His face is turned from me But if my Life must here be out of sight and hidden in the Root with Christ in God and if all the rest be reserved for that better world and I must here have but these small beginnings O make me more to Love and long for the blessed day of thine appearing and not to fear the time of my deliverance nor unbelievingly to linger in this Sodom as one that had rather stay with sin then come to thee Though sin hath made me backward to the fight let it not make me backward to receive the Crown Though it hath made me a loiterer in thy work let it not make me backward to receive that wages which thy Love will give to our pardoned poor accepted services Though I have too oft drawn back when I should have come unto thee and walked with thee in thy waies of Grace yet heal that unbelief and disaffection which would make me to draw back when thou callest me to possess thy Glory Though the sickness and lameness of my soul have hindered me in my journey yet let their painfulness help me to desire to be delivered from them and to be at home where without the interposing nights of thy displeasure I shall fully feel thy fullest Love and walk with thy Glorified ones in the Light of thy Glory triumphing in thy Praise for evermore Amen BUT now I have given you these few Directions for the improvement of your solitude for converse with God lest I should occasion the hurt of those that are unfit for the Lesson I have given I must conclude with this Caution which I have formerly also published That it is not melancholly or weak-headed persons who are not able to bear such exercises for whom I have written these Directions Those that are not able to be much in serious solitary thoughtfulness without confusions and distracting suggestions and hurrying vexatious thoughts must set themselves for the most part to those duties which are to be done in company by the help of others and must be very little in solitary duties For to them whose natural faculties are so diseased or weak it is no duty as being no means to do them the desired good but while they strive to do that which they are naturally unable to endure they will but confound and distract themselves and make themselves unable for those other duties which yet they are not utterly unfit for To such persons therefore instead of ordered well-digested Meditations and much time spent in secret thoughtfulness it must suffice that they be brief in secret Prayer and take up with such occasional abrupter Meditations as they are capable of and that they be the more in reading hearing conference and praying and praising God with others untill their melancholly distempers are so far overcome as that by the direction of their Spiritual Guides they may judge themselves fit for this improvement of their Solitude FINIS * Charles Earl of Balcarres who dyed of a stone in his heart of a very strange magnitude