5. ult But how shall we thus discern by what rule shall we judge them Good is the rule whereby to judge of Evil Rectum est Index obliqui and then for created good the nature of God the supreme good is the rule whereby to judge of that Perfectum in suo genere est mensur a reliquorum So then judge of all things by their relation that they bear to the nature of God and the tendency that they have to make us partakers of it And if we thus judge sincerely we shall not be so much offended at those Providences that are forming us into a resemblance of Christ Jesus nor be so hasty to run out of that Furnace that is refining us to be Vessels of Honour fit for our Masters use If David had at this time judged as discreetly and discerned as clearly as afterwards he did he would rather have wisht for the strength of an Ox to endure than the wings of a Dove to escape these pressures for in the up shot of all when he had viewed and compared all together and well recollected himself he professed openly that he accounted it good for him that he met with such usage in the World Psal 119. 67 71 75. God is the supreme good that is good for us that brings us nigh and makes us like unto him and that is not only Prosperity though indeed that ought to do it and I hope often doth it but even Adversity also Heb. 12. 10. He chasteneth us for our profit that we might be made partakers of his holiness CHAP. IV. The Fourth and last Cause assigned viz. Selfishness Self-love briefly touch'd upon Self-will more largely described with an earnest advice to bend all our powers against this rebellious Giant THese Causes of this Distemper are to be found in the understanding The Fourth and last Cause that I shall name is in the Will and it is Selfishness By this I mean two things Self-love and Self-will By Self-love in this place I mean sensuality or a judging of things by sense which I have touched upon already and an over high valuation of this meer earthly life and the conveniencies thereof Why are we so weary of Sickness and so impatient under Persecution Will it not come to this at length because we are so afraid to die There can be no farther end of the greatest Afflictions in this World than the parting of soul and body Is not this the worst that can come It seems then that it is an immoderate love of this wretched life that is the root of all these bitter fears and passions Labour therefore to be Crucified to the love of this natural life There are many inconveniencies and miseries that do arise from this root which I cannot now name certainly this distemper which I am speaking of is a very great one For however you find David here labouring under it yet elsewhere we find him earnestly labouring to be rid of it Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me c. Psal 42. 5 12. 43. 5. He is troubled at his being troubled and cannot with patience think how impatient he had been Strike therefore at the root of this Distemper labour to get your over-fond love and over-high valuation of this earthly life mortified He will be able not only to endure but even to contemn all Adversity who hath once well learnt to contemn his own life He cannot be in the power of any who hath death in his own power saies Seneca which admits of a good sense and agreeable to our Christian Divinity though he did not mean it so The other branch of selfishness is Self-will And this also is a pestilent disturber of the mind and engages the soul in many quarrels against God The understanding indeed may be mistaken and the flesh may smart and the Devil may tempt but I think the proud petulant perverse Self-will is the Achan the grand troubler of the soul This is the Sea from whence arise all those Clouds and Storms that trouble the Earth and infest Heaven it self If this were thoroughly mortified I dare say all the skill of earth all the Magick of Hell all the passions and pangs of the body could not make a clamorous soul This was the cause of Jonah's heat and rage and desire of death viz. because he might not have his own will Yea and it seems that Job's will was not molded into the Will of God and that that was the cause of his impatience for his complaint is called a contending with the Almighty and that by Job himself Job 40. 2. I do earnestly advise you therefore to bend all your strength against this rebellious Giant and be daily begging more strength than yet you have If you can overcome your own Wills you need not fear being overcome by any Adversity He that can deny himself can do any thing The Will of God is holy pure and perfect and indeed it is not only the duty but the glory of man to comply with it freely and chearfully What can be more Divine than a will according to God's Will an Heart according to God's Heart It was the commendation of David you know yea it is the perfection of Angels I have often observed with great delight the excellent patience and composure of David's spirit in the time of his flight from Absalom which you will find recorded in 2 Sam. 15 and 16 Chap. and you may see that he possest his soul in so much patience by this means by eying the absolute goodness of the Will of God and resigning himself thereunto Chap. 15. 26. and Chap. 16. 10. The patience of our Lord and Saviour was much more admirable than his and he was a person whose will was swallowed up in the Will of God Luk. 22. 42. Not my will but thy Will be done The time and matter and manner and measure of all your afflictions are all ordered by a Will and Wisdom which is above that is infinitely pure and perfect O therefore labour to get your wills reconciled to this Divine Will and your hearts at all times overpowered and mastered with the sense of the infinite goodness and holiness thereof and so shall you find all wrath and doubtings all discontents and jealousies to die and wither away and you will possess your souls in peace and gladness in patience and serenity in the midst of all your Afflictions I know several other causes might be brought of this distemper but I conceive they are either such as are inferiour and less principal or such as may be reduced to some of these that I have assigned Therefore I pass on to the Improvement CHAP. V. The Improvement by way of Concession that there is an averseness in the humane nature from Afflictions which is purely natural How it becomes sinful Secondly It is a greater distemper when unlawful means are used for deliverance out of Adversity Thirdly An Exhortation to beware
whole Creation If in neither of these the soul of the Psalmist can be matcht with a suitable and satisfactory good then certainly not in the whole World If God be better and dearer to him than both Earth and Heaven then certainly we may justly lay down this proposition from the words that God is the good man 's All or that God is All things to a gracious soul CHAP. II. A general Description of the Apostate condition of Souls The Doctrine of Evangelical Redemption and true Liberty asserted and explained THE Soul of man is naturally debased and depraved by falling from God it loseth its original and most natural freedom and amplitude and sinks into the creature and settles upon a Self-center Wicked men are sadly pinch'd and straitened by fixing their minds upon poor fading particularities they move up and down in a narrow sphere and circle of their own and therefore are base low and narrow-spirited persons whatever greatness of spirit and generousness of mind they vainly pretend to In this sense I 'me sure there are none more certainly imprison'd nor more miserably confin'd than they that live and converse perpetually at home For Self though it be the home yet is certainly the dungeon of the sensual soul It is sin alone that contracts the soul of man and cramps and cripples all the powers of it strangely enfeebling and captivating all its vigorous and generous faculties But the grace of regeneration redeems the captive soul from this bondage thaws its congealed affections knocks off the Chains and Fetters from its hands and feet and so spirits all the powers thereof by its kind and powerful insinuations as that they dilate and spread themselves in God even as the poor charmed Flowers do gladly open their arms wide to entertain and welcom the beams of the Sun and the precious influences thereof This is indeed that Redemption which the Almighty Saviour of the World the true dispenser of life and liberty came into the World to accomplish for us This is the true freedom according to the Evangelist John 8. 36. and he is the only purchaser and dispenser of it If the Son shall make you free then shall ye be free indeed And this is that which when it shall be perfected shall be found to be the glorious liberty of the Children of God according to the Apostles phrase Rom. 8. 21. Whatever other liberties and deliverances men may pretend to have by Christ Jesus certainly this is that releasement and redemption which is so often spoken of and intended by those phrases of Christ's being sent to proclaim liberty to the Captive and the opening of the Prison to them that are bound Isa 61. 13. of his bringing out the Prisoners from the Prison and them that sit in darkness out of the Prison-house Isa 42. 7. of his saying to the Prisoners Go forth c. Isa 49. 9. For so the Apostle interprets this freedom 2 Cor. 3. 17. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty The godly soul is free by Christ Jesus the true Redeemer of souls and the powerful dispenser of Liberty from that straitness and selfishness under which it laboured and endued with a noble largeness and amplitude Whereas it was formerly pinched and shrivelled and wrapt up in particular created goods now it spends it self wholly upon the uncreated goodness and is as it were Universaliz'd God is All things to the Godly Soul This Doctrine I shall explain and confirm at once in several particulars CHAP. III. The natural understanding is sunk into matter and the imaginations of carnal men are gross Unregenerate men neglect God and ascribe Events to Fate or Chance or humane Wit and Industry But the understandings and apprehensions of Regenerate Souls are refin'd and spiritualiz'd They apprehend the perfections of God in all things It is of great importance to have right and proper notions of things especially of God and of the relation in which the world stands to him 1. GOD is All things to a godly man in his Aprrehensions The natural understanding is sunk into matter and pent up in poor petty particularities The imaginations of a carnal and unregenerate heart are gross and terminated in the outside or in the particular being of things He that is of the Earth is Earthly saies the Baptist Joh. 3. 31. the natural wisdom is Earthly and sensual saies the Apostle James 3. 15. These fools are ready to say in their hearts There is no God Psal 14. 1. or if they do acknowledge a Deity yet they make him but a kind of an idle Spectator or Supervisor that neither does good nor evil Zeph. 1. 12. phancying to themselves that all things fall out in the World by a certain kind of fatality casualty or humane wit and industry Hence you hear those brags of themselves that they are some great ones Acts 8. 9. and of their Works and Atchievements Is not this great Babel that I have built Dan. 4. 30. I have digged and drunk waters and with the sole of my feet have I dryed up all the Rivers of the besieged places Isa 37. 25. They apprehend little more in the Creation than what with their senses they see or hear or taste or handle One saies mine own Hand hath saved me Judg. 7. 21. our Lips are our own and who is Lord over us say others Psal 12. 4. others proclaim their own goodness Prov. 20. 6. will not cease from their own wisdom Prov. 23. 4. seek their own glory Prov. 25. 27. My River is mine own and I have made it for my self saies another Ezek. 29. 3. We have taken to us Horns by our own strength say they in Amos 6. 13. By my wisdom my understanding my great traffique have I gotten Gold and Silver cries he in Ezek. 28. 4 5. By the strength of my hand and by my wisdom have I done it for I am prudent I have removed the bounds of the people and I have put down the Inhabitants like a valiant man thus brags the great Assyrian Atheist Isa 10. 13. I have made my self to differ cries another And so God is not in all their thoughts Psal 10. 4. They consider not the operation of his hands Isa 5. 12. they live without the sense or apprehension of God in the World Ut nemo supra sese ascendere tentat But the understanding and apprehension of the Godly Soul is much refined and spiritualized He sticks not in the creature but by every thing that is Good and Perfect climbes up with the Apostle James unto God himself the Father and Fountain thereof Though the understandings of all good men are not made learned yet they are all refined from sensual grossness and made somewhat Metaphysical or spiritual The godly man views not himself in the small point of his own being but in the infinite essence of God he views not the creature in its own particular and limited existence or goodness but in the nature and
of Worship they fancy themselves as Religious as needs to be in the mean time being ignorant of or little attending to that agreeableness of soul to the nature and perfections of God which is man's Religion and only Glory Nay sin and Apostasie is the sinking of his soul from God down into self and the creature and Religion is the recovery and restitution of this lapsed soul caused by the Regenerating power of the Divine Spirit And until the soul be thus raised and God and his holy Will come to be advanc'd into a supremacy in the soul Religion cannot be said to be much less to be perfect there It is to be feared that the greatest part of men even of those men who speak much of God of His Will and Glory of His Word and Kingdom that speak much unto Him as His Suppliants and from Him as His Embassadours yet still fixing upon a Self-center and moving within a circle of their own may be too truly said notwithstanding their pretensions to Religion to live without God in the World and that there are infinite numbers of men who scorn to be accounted Covetous and indeed in the common acceptation of the word are far from it that yet in proper speech mind earthly things To heal these distempers and to rectifie these mistakes I have adventured once more to explain and recommend Christian Religion in this short Discourse which I think is agreeable to the holy Word of God and which I humbly pray the same blessed God to make effectual for this end to some soul or other I dare not say I have already attain'd but through the grace of God I can say that this thing I do viz. in my judgement renounce Self-love Self confidence Self-seeking and Self-feeling and desire that God may be the object of all my Ambition Covetousness and Voluptuousness if I may so speake with reverence As I have not calculated this Discourse for the palate of any one Party of men so I expect the praise or dread the censure of none but to the ever blessed God I humbly commend it for success and thee for edification and rest Thine in Him and for His sake S. S. Nov. 26. 1677. PSAL. 73. 25. Whom have I in Heaven but Thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides Thee CHAP. I. The Introduction guessing at the Author of the Psalm and shewing the occasion of it viz. the observation of the prosperity of wicked men and the afflicted condition of good men in the World Wherein also a brief account is given of the misapprehensions of men about that matter A brief Explication of the Connexion of the Psalm The words resolved into this Conclusion That God is the good man's All. IT is disputed by some whether David were not the Pen man of this Psalm and whether he did not deliver it into the hands of Asaph as he is said to have done some others 1 Chron. 16. 7. But I think it is more generally concluded that it was composed by Asaph for sundry reasons the principal whereof seems to be that which Mollerus that learned Critick in the Hebrew Language renders viz. for that the stile and Phrase thereof doth much differ from David's But about this I list not to contend The occasion of it was a sharp conflict which the Psalmist had with himself being tempted to harbour envious thoughts towards the wicked and hard thoughts of God and Godliness by observing the prosperity of evil men and the afflicted state of good men in the World This very thing hath indeed usually been a great offence and occasion of stumbling to good men in all Ages by reason of that remainder of carnal and corrupt apprehensions which is found even in them they oftentimes judging of things more by fancy and sense than either by Faith or right reason It seemeth to me that as the promises and the threatnings of the Law savoured more of Earth than the Gospel doth and were calculated for the morning of Religion rather than the Meridian of it for the minority of men rather than their maturity so that the minds even of good men under the Law were generally more affected and influenced with worldly things than under the Gospel And yet it cannot be denied but that men of the most refined Gospel minds may sometimes be somewhat surprized and for the present startled at the consideration of the seeming inequality of God's dealings which yet upon due deliberation may be easily solved yea and at length resolved into perfect wisdom righteousness and goodness too The Psalmist begins with an elegant kind of abruptness laying down the conclusion of the whole in the very first Verse more like a triumphant Conquerour than a wrangling Disputant It seems his heart was very much upon this to assert and vindicate the goodness of God towards His people and having been in some danger to have been depraved in his apprehensions concerning God he glories in this that he was resolved to hold the conclusion however he knew not well how at present to answer the premises It is said to the great commendation of Job that he attributed nothing unseemly to God Job 1. although he seemed to deal so harshly with him And truly this doth highly concern us to maintain right and honourable apprehensions of God yea though we be not able to answer the Arguments brought against him and his dealings Having thus briefly and pathetically asserted the Position about the controversie arose in these words Truly God is good to Israel which our English Meter renders very emphatically However it be yet God is good and kind to Israel he falls presently upon the Narrative wherein he relates a combate between faith and sense a victory that faith obtained and the means by which it obtained it even by the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God At the 23 Verse you have him come to himself again and so the residue of the Psalm is the voice of Faith alone triumphing and glorying in God and in the consolation satisfaction and confirmation received from him We Translate the words of the Text by way of interrogation implying a vehement negation others Translate them in the form of a Prayer quis mihi dabit in coelo c. making them the same in Phrase with 2 Sam 23. 15. and the same in sense with Psal 4. 6. But which way soever we Translate them the sense will be much what one and either translation will indifferently serve for the end for which I pitch upon them For however you express them in English the meaning and intendment of them is to declare the dear esteem which the Psalmist had of God above all things in the World Yet they are somewhat more emphatical to my present purpose according to our Translation of them Whom have I in Heaven but Thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides Thee By Heaven and Earth must needs be meant the
perfections of the Creator He looks upon the whole World as not subsisting of it self nor for it self but in and for God who is above all through all and in all Ephes 4. 6. in whom the whole Creation standeth and we all live move and have our beings Acts 17. 28. To him the whole World is as the Temple of God all mankind and all their several excellencies an Image and Portraicture of God yea to him Monstrat quaelibet herba Deum the Grass of the Field reads a Divinity Lecture In a word Huic Deus est quodcunque videt quodcunque movetur He apprehends the Power Wisdome Perfection and Will of God in all that he sees does receives or sustains Though Religion do not consist in Notions yet true proper and spiritual Notions of things especially of God and of the relation wherein the whole World stands to him are mightily conducing to it if not a substantial part of it So thought the Apostle Paul sure when he corrected the superstitions and false conceits of the Athenians concerning a Deity Acts 17. And so thought our Blessed Saviour when he would not suffer the Jewish Ruler to ascribe goodness to him whom he believed to be no more than a meer man Luk. 18. 19. Why callest thou me good none is good save One that is God CHAP. IV. God is all things to the godly man in his Affections The Desires of Unregenerate men run out only after Creature good The Objection of wicked men having good desires answered Wherein is shewed that all desires of good are not good desires and an account given of it Men may be carnal in their desiring of spiritual good James 4. 3. explained wherein is shewed how many waies men seek their own lusts instead of God and the carnality which may be found in Prayers that seem spiritual God is All to the godly man in his desires of things temporal and in his hopes of Heaven 2. GOD is All things to the godly man in his Affections The wicked man as he views himself in himself and the several creatures in themselves so he loves and delights in himself and the creatures as something distinct from God But the godly soul endeavours by all means to keep all his affections pure and chast for God alone Now in as much as the affections of the soul are many it will be necessary to explain the matter in some particulars 1. God is All to the godly man in his desires and cravings in his lookings and waitings in his hopes and expectations I put all these together under one Head because they seem to be much what the same or at least of great affinity one to another The desires and appetites of the unregenerate soul do run out only after creature good self accommodations and things that do gratifie the meer animal life Thus the Psalmist describes their temper Psal 4. 6. Many say Who will shew us any good which our English Meter interprets very truly The greater sort crave worldly goods That is a short but yet a very true and full description that the Apostle Paul makes of these men Phil. 3. 19. They mind Earthly things It were easie to be large here in demonstrating in a general way that there is nothing in the worldly nature but the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life according to the distribution which the Apostle makes 1 Joh. 2. 16. But I shall not further insist upon that general It seems as if wicked men sometimes had good desires and good wishes and indeed it cannot be denied but that some of their desires are materially good who can say but that of Balaam was a good wish as to the matter of it Numb 23. 10. Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his It was materially a good wish though a bad bargain of Simon Magus that by the imposition of his hands men might receive the holy Ghost Acts 8. 19. It is not to be doubted but that many wicked men yea perhaps the most of them at one time or other do heartily desire that their sins may be pardoned and their souls saved and they go to Heaven according to that of our Saviour Luk. 13. 28. Many will seek to enter in and shall not be able But however these may seem to be good desires yet they are not really so All desires of good are not good desires If men should desire the presence of Christ in glory and the Kingdom of Heaven in subordination to self and subserviency to a fleshly interest it would be so far from being indeed a good that it would scarce be a lawful it may be a blasphemous wish And it is very clear that all the seeming good wishes and prayers and desires of unsanctified minds are ultimately resolved into a fleshly interest and self gratification It is not God but themselves that they really seek even then when they desire him to be at peace with them and that they might be with him in his Kingdom It is only true of all unregenerate men which the Apostle affirms of all men Phil. 2. 21. All men seek their own things and not the things which are Jesus Christs and this holds good of them not only when they are with Saul seeking their Asses or with Absolom seeking an earthly Kingdom but even then when they are seeking to enter into the Kingdom of God But God is All in the desires and prayers and hopes of the godly soul The whole World is too short a bed for such a soul to stretch it self upon The appetites and cravings of such a soul being excited and awakened by the sense of its own large and excellent capacity the inadequateness and insufficiency of the creature the infinite self-sufficiency and sweetness and suitableness of God the supreme good cannot possibly fix or rest or terminate themselves in any thing below him and the enjoyment of him Thus the desires of the godly are described by the Psalmist in opposition to the lustings of the wicked Psal 4. 6. Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us And so in the words of the Text if they be understood by way of prayer Who will give me to be in Heaven with thee The prayers of the wicked although they may be for things good and lawful yet are ultimately resolved into self-gratification They may be as fluent in words as loud in their cries as hearty and fervent in their requests as other men If it be for Corn and Wine and Oyl they can roar and howl as loud as the best and yet this is not interpreted as seeking of God but of themselves Hos 7. 17. They have not cryed unto me with their heart when they howled upon their beds They assemble themselves for Corn and for Wine c. That is a very memorable expression of the Apostle James Jam. 4. 3. Ye ask amiss that ye may consume it
right gracious soul The great thing which he hopes for in the world to come is to be perfected in the image of God and live everlastingly in communion with him And therefore when the Apostle Paul speaks of his departure out of this world he gives us to understand what was mostly in his eye and upon his heart and that was to be with Christ Phil. 1. 23. And the Apostle John when he speaks of the glory and blessedness of a future state describes it by the resemblance that the soul shall bear to God at that time 1 Joh. 3. 2. When he shall appear we shall be like unto him Heaven is but a name and notion without God God himself is not the happiness of a soul except he be enjoyed and he can no other way be enjoyed but by a spiritual union with him and assimilation to him The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text signifies either who or what Now then there are many that are for ease many for peace and liberty many for pomp and preeminence in Heaven But our Psalmist hath nothing desireable no not there but God alone Whom have I or what have I in Heaven but thee CHAP. V. God is All to the godly man in his delight and pleasure The pleasures of wicked men are sensual There are degrees of sensuality amongst carnal men The delight that an unregenerate man takes in spiritual things is carnal The godly soul feeds upon God in every thing He loves and admires his own soul in God Grace does not overthrow the judgement of sense but it regulates the senses as to their actings and enables the soul to delight in things sensual in a super sensual manner 2. GOD is All to the godly man in his Delight and Pleasure As the appetites of the unregenerate soul are sensual so are his sentiments and resentments This must needs follow as indeed it doth follow in the fourth Psalm their desire is Who will shew us any good vers 6. their delight is in Corn and Wine and in the encrease of them vers 7. They know no higher good than peace plenty liberty and length of daies know not how to entertain themselves any better than by sitting down to eat and drink and rising up to play Thus you find the desport and jovialty of the wicked described Job 21. 10 11 12 13. Am. 6. 4 5 6. Luk. 12. 19. and many other places But you will say these are a grosser sort of sensualists all wicked men sure are not so brutish so swinish as to wallow in such kind of mire as this is I confess they do not all welter in the same mire there are almost as many kind of Idolaters as there are kinds of creatures to be idolized There seems to be a greater and lesser brutishness amongst the brutes themselves a Sheep will not wallow in the mire like a Swine nor a Pidgeon feed upon such stinking Carrion as a Crow and yet they are brutes as well as they All wicked souls do not feed upon the same husks but all feed upon husks that have forsaken the bread of their Father's house There are several sorts of Dishes whereupon the earthly life feeds Lust is oft-times fed by things materially good as well as by those that are materily evil A man may be as unchast and adulterous with his own gifts and parts as with his neighbours Wife and a woman may fall into as unclean dalliances with her own beauty as with a man that is not her Husband The Logical life when men adore their own souls and feed upon their own perfections is as truly unholy and unclean though not altogether so gross as that which is meer sensual And thus I doubt not but that many of the Stoical Philosophers with their Autaesthesie and self-enjoyment were as unclean and idolatrous as the Epicurean Atheists with all their meats and drinks and strange flesh Yea though the unregenerate mind should be much delighted with the outward dress and dispensation of Religion as they were in Ezek. 33. 31 32. yea though it should be mightily pleased and tickled with the notions of God's Free-grace Justification by the blood of Jesus an everlasting inheritance in the Paradise of God and such spiritual things as these as I do easily conceive it may yet were his delight that he takes in these very things unclean and earthly For still it is resolved into this it is self and not God which he ultimately takes pleasure in But God is All in the delights and complacencies of the truly godly soul He delights not in himself or any other creature abstractly considered and in separation from God It is said of one I think it is of Austin that after his conversion he could take no pleasure in Cicero's Orations because he could not find the name of Christ there but surely in a good sense the name of Christ may be said to be inscribed and something of his image drawn upon every creature for by him all things were made and he hath copyed out something of his own perfections upon them all And this is that which the holy and wise soul gathers up and feeds upon with delight I know indeed that Grace doth not destroy natural affections in men no nor overthrow the judgement of sense but it doth certainly confer upon men a far more excellent and spiritual faculty of discerning and delighting What I said before concerning the spirituality of a godly man's desires of Heaven and heavenly things may be applied to his delights also But I conceive that the greatest doubt doth not lie there Therefore as to the pleasurable objects of this World whereof the chiefest seems to be a man 's own soul The godly man loves and admires and reverences his own soul no less but much more purely than any other man He admires the infinite and uncreated wisdom understanding love life liberty displaying and discovering it self in the constitution of his own mind Free-will and Affections and the excellent capacities and functions of these faculties and so by giving God the glory of his wonderful making Psal 139. 14. he escapes the brand of a self-admirer There are many other objects of delight in this World all which it is the proper work of Divine Grace to spiritualize to the soul such as food and raiment Houses and Lands Friends and Relations and many the like It cannot be denied but that the godly man loves his friends his Wife and Children and Parents with a natural love but he loves them also and all that is lovely in them with a spiritual love which is predominant that by which they are any of them pleasant and amiable he understands to be a communication of God unto them and under that notion labours to relish them most of all Whilst we are in this bodily mixt state we cannot be freed from a delight that is meerly sensual Meat and drink no doubt affected our Saviours sense and afforded the same
far as he is regenerate and acteth up to the height of Divine principles doth thus see taste enjoy and design God in all as I have shewed For the very life and essence of Religion is the dethroning of Self and advancing of God into preeminence In as much therefore as God being supreme and his interest prevailing in a soul is the very life and soul of Religion it will necessarily follow that the Doctrine holds good concerning every truly regenerate soul and that every such soul hath this temper as to the predominancy of it CHAP. X. The improvement of the Doctrine laid down by way of examination A general direction what Queries men are to put to themselves as to the finding out of this matter Certain instances of a Self-emptied and God-exalting mind The first instance When we are concerned in all the wickedness committed in the World as truly as if it were committed by our selves The second when we are more affected with the iniquity of an action than the injury that is done to our selves thereby YOU cannot but by this time be somewhat in love with this excellent and Angel-like temper and desirous to find whether you your selves be thus spirited It is doubtless a scrutiny and meditation becoming the most serious and generous minds For all Religion is reduced to this summa Totalis and Religion is the only concernment of souls Examine therefore I pray you and that not only once and generally but frequently and precisely and rifle into all the particular and if it be possible into all the individual motions and actions of your hearts and lives to find this Divine temper Examine your selves in all the forementioned particulars whether God be All to you in your Apprehensions Affections Actions Sufferings Enjoyments Endowments Enquire whether the truth of God be dearer to you than your own party or perswasion whether the interest of God lie nearer to your heart than self-interest the interest of your own credit and reputation whether the advancement of the Divine Life be more desireable to you than Self-accommodation or Self-advancement whether the love of God or the naked possession of the creature do most delight you in every enjoyment whether the Image of God or your own do most affect you in your Children whether the glory of God or your own do most spirit you in your Actions whether you be rent from Self-enjoyment and centred upon God alone whether you be emptied of Self-will and molded into the Divine Will whether you abound in your own sense and Self-feeling or be filled with the fullness of God In a Word whether all Self-love and Self-supremacy be thrown down and God alone do exercise his Soveraignty over all the powers of your souls These are very substantial enquiries For your better discovery I will therefore propound to you some certain marks or signs of such a Self-emptied and God-exalting mind as I have been commending which yet indeed are rather branches and instances of it than signs 1. When we take our selves to be concerned in all the wickedness committed in the World as truly as if it were committed by our selves or our relations I mean so far as to be grieved for it We are wont to be dejected by reason of any gross sin that we our selves fall into this I do not condemn nay judge necessary as our Duty and yet this may possibly arise from a meer superstitious principle and may be found springing up in the heart of a slave We are apt to be troubled when our Children or near friends prove ungracious or openly rebellious against God this I do not simply condemn neither and yet I must tell you that this may arise from a meer natural affection and a principle that is carnal But if the interest of God lay so close and warm to our hearts as it ought to do and as it does to the Saints and Angels in Heaven we should mourn over the sins of all men even our Enemies and Persecutors as truly as our friends we should be grieved for the Apostasie of mankind yea and of the Devils themselves The predominancy of Religion in the soul would refine natural affections into spiritual and exalt particular affections into universals You have heard of a man who vexed his soul with the ungodly conversations of strangers 2 Pet. 2. 7. and of another who when ever he lookt abroad and beheld transgressours was grieved Psal 119. 158. And I have known a man who when he lookt upon an Assembly of ignorant and hypocritical and ungodly men either in a Church or in a Market would have wept over them as if they had all been his own Family It is an argument of God's supremacy in the soul when we mourn over sin because it is a degeneracy from the pure nature of God and not because it is found in them whom we love or are related to 2. When in the wrongful persecutions committed against us we can look through our own injury and be mostly affected with the wickedness of the action I do not say it is unlawful to be sensible of or affected with the injury and violence offered to us But I say it is no more than is common to a Publican or Harlot no more than what is common to an Elephant a Lion or a Dog as well as to us and therefore though it be a lawful thing and necessary yet it is no great thing But when we can look upon the reproaches cast upon our names and have our hearts mainly concerned for the Name and Honour of God when we can forget the burden of our own fetters and as it were not feel the smart of our own stripes and wounds because of the greater load and pain which we sustain by the lusts of men that do inflict them it is certainly an excellent instance of God's supremacy in our souls But you will say Is this possible Is it possible that the soul whilst it is embodied should be more concerned for God than for its own body I must confess it is somewhat difficult and very rare Men complain of the Injuriousness of men but seldom of their Unrighteousness of the cruelty of their enemies as it is exercised upon them but not as it is a departure from the holy and loving nature of God But yet it is not impossible neither thus to neglect the smarting of our own flesh and carnal interest in comparison of the interest of truth and holiness and the glory of God For thus did our blessed Saviour who seemed to forget his own pangs upon the Cross in comparison of the sin of them that Crucified him praying Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luk. 23. 34. And that I may not seem to over-shoot you with Examples thus did Stephen a man of like infirmities with us whose last and loudest voice was Lord lay not this sin to their Charge Act. 7. ult as if his heart were more broken with the sin
than his body bruised with the Stones of them that persecuted him Thus did Moses and thus did David whose zeal and anger against his enemies was principally upon the account of their sin Psal 119. 139. My zeal hath consumed me because mine enemies have forgotten thy Words Upon which words Mollerus glosses thus David in suis aerumnis non tam afficitur malorum suorum sensu privatis injuriis quà m quòd videt nomen Dei ab hostibus contumeliâ affici CHAP. XI Three more Instances of a God exalting mind When in the afflictions that befal us we can over-look all creature comforts and delight in the Will of God When we repent of sin and hate it for its own sake and esteem nothing worse than it is When we take pleasure in the gifts and graces of God shining forth in others as well as in our selves Joshua and Jonah taxed This temper proved to be Angelical 3. WHen in the Afflictions that befal us more immediately from the hand of God we can overlook all the creature-comforts which are taken from us and kiss the hand of God that takes them There is all reason that the Will of God should be dearer to us than any created good however our fond and sensual hearts may contradict and blaspheme Is not the Will of God to be seen in all our crosses losses sicknesses in all our personal domestical and national disturbances And is not even this Will of God God himself Is it not infinitely wise holy and perfect What are our sorry scant mixt enjoyments then in this World that they should be valued against this Almighty and Sacred pleasure We magnifie the good Will and pleasure of God in our peace plenty health prosperity and it is good to do so in a right spiritual manner But possibly it may be the sweetness of the enjoyments themselves that we do so much relish and not the good Will of God in them But if in the sharpest and sorest afflictions that do befall us we find our selves so mastered and over-powered with the sense of the purity and perfection of the Will of God that we can adore and reverence it yea cleave to it and love it more than any of our creature comforts more than our lives themselves nakedly considered it is an excellent instance of that soveraignty which God hath obtained in our souls This was the temper of our blessed Saviour who seemed scarce to taste the bitterness of the Cup for the excellency of the hand that reached it to him Joh. 18. 11. The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it The affliction which the Lord sendeth shall I not bear it saies old Eli 1 Sam. 3. 18. It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good The Book which was given to the Prophet Ezekiel to eat was as sweet as Honey to him because it was given him by the hand of God although it contained nothing in it but lamentation and mourning and woe Ezek. 2. 10. 3. 3. the Will of God was pleasant and delightful to him for though the contents thereof were grievous yet he gladly assented to the end and scope of these providences as the Dutch Annotators gloss upon the words 4. When we esteem nothing worse than sin is for which we should repent of it or hate it You may fright superstitious minds by telling them of judgements and punishments and scare hypocrites with everlasting burning but certainly there is that in the very nature of sin that is more dreadful to an ingenuous soul than fire and brimstone can fully represent Such a soul cannot sin without pain he esteems sin to be the very same to his soul which a disease is to the body and therefore he is not so properly said to be grieved for it which seems to respect the evil consequences of it as indeed to be sick of it as one is of a distemper or weary of it as one is of a painful burden It is well when men will reform their evil waies for fear of the punishments of this World or the Hell of another though I fear such reformation is rather superstition than true conversion in God's account but it were much better if men would be drawn to God and not driven to him Perhaps the fear of wrath and Hell may at length end in a more ingenuous and generous temper but for the present it seems to me to be nothing else but a spirit of bondage when Isaac is once grown up in the soul this Bond-woman and her son must pack Love when it is perfected will cast out fear 1 Joh. 4. 18. 5. When we can rejoyce and take pleasure in the gifts and graces of God shining forth in others as heartily and really as in our selves It were to be wished that we could do it as much but this is a rare attainment and for ought I know reserved for the other World However if we do it as truly and really it is an argument that God is greater than self in our souls Joshuah though a good man being transported with zeal for his Master's credit fail'd in this when he was offended at the gift of Prophecie confer'd upon Eldad and Medad and cry'd My Lord Moses forbid them Num. 11. 28. And it lies as a blemish to this day upon Jonah the Prophet that he valued his own reputation above the kindness of God shewed upon the poor Ninevites We profess to disrelish this temper in Joshuah and Jonah but alas we are apt to indulge it in our selves For where shall we find a soul so emptied of it self and so ravished with the Divine beauty and glory that can be heartily well pleased with the temporal prosperity of others when it seems to jar with our own or the beamings forth of Divine lustre upon the souls of others when we our selves come to be eclipsed thereby If God were so supreme in our souls as he ought to be we should overlook our selves look upon the excellencies of other men without disdain or envy yea and admire and delight in the communications of God to our fellow-creatures as heartily as if our own particular Beings were adorned with them Certainly there is no such thing as Meum and Tuum amongst the Inhabitants of the upper World but God is All in All unto them and we commonly say that one part of the happiness of Heaven will be that there will be no place for envy and emulation From whence I infer that those souls that are in this World most refined and universaliz'd have most of Heaven come into them and do most plentifully taste the First-fruits of Eternal Life This heavenly temper we find in Moses made manifest in his answer to Joshuah Numb 11. 29. In his Father-in-law Jethro who rejoyced for all the goodness that the Lord had done to Israel Exod. 18. 9. In the Apostles who glorified God and were right glad because that unto the Gentiles also God had granted Repentance
unlimited it is doth alwaies proceed according to the Eternal Rules of goodness and righteousness And this will heal your spirits of all fretfulness and reconcile your minds not only to those Laws and Institutions of his which seem to be most Arbitrary but also to those Providences which seem to be most severe or unequal By a like mistake we are apt to ascribe Passion to God and to represent him to our selves as if he were all in a rage and very angry when he afflicts us Which Notion destroies all that chearful acquiescence under his hand and that quiet and friendly conversing with his Providence which we ought to maintain and so an imaginary wrath in God begets a real rage in our peevish and inpotent minds When as indeed the nature of God is as free from Anger Hatred Revenge and all the passions of our minds as it is from Hands or Eyes or Feet or any of the Members of our Bodies God is good and doth good saies our Psalmist Psal 119. 68. God is Love saies the beloved Apostle again and again 1 Joh. 4. 8 16. And there is nothing more certain than that God would never afflict his Creature if some greater good were not in view He envies not his People any of their Ease Peace Health Liberty or other Enjoyments but he loves them with a strong and Holy and Wise Affection and therefore will Afflict them in these things whether they will or no that he may bestow upon them some more substantial good Labour to converse with God in all his Providences as with Wisdom Goodness Righteousness and Love it self and then you will not be weary of his Discipline or peevishly affected towards any of his Dispensations We are apt to cry out Oh if we were but sure of the Love of God towards us in all our Afflictions we could be then content and patient Why go you and possess your souls in patience and get your Wills reconciled to the Providences of God Love him and delight in him and believe in him though he Afflict you never so sore and then be assured that God loves you for the Love and good Will of God is not his giving the Creature but it is the communication of himself and his Divine Perfections to your Souls CHAP. III. A Second Cause assigned viz. A misunderstanding of our true interest This Explained Where the true interest of Souls is Stated and the Cure prescribed in reference to this Cause of the Distemper A third Cause assigned viz. The want of a right discerning of Good and Evil. Where the nature of Good and Evil is Explained and Direction given how to discern them by way of Cure 2. ANother Cause of this distemper is A misunderstanding of our true interest Alas how are we sunk into this body How studious are we and fond of the accommodations and conveniencies of this animal life What fears and jealousies cares and contrivances what watchings and prayings and strivings and all for the peace and welfare of the flesh Certainly we judge our main interest to lie in the preserving pleasuring accommodating of the body and not of the soul which wicked apprehension as it destroies all true Religion so particularly it breeds the distemper that I am speaking of We are strangely fond of this Life as miserable as it is and of this body as unsuitable as it is and therefore are we so much offended with all things that are grievous and hurtful to the same yea we are apt to fret against God himself if he do not please and pamper them as much as we It is a woful degeneracy that hath befallen the soul of man which makes him mis-judge and mistake his main interest the like mistake is not to be found in the whole World sure I will not say with the Prophet Pass ye over the Isles of Chittim and send unto Kedar and see if there be such a thing but indeed pass ye through the whole Creation and visit all the particular beings that are therein and you shall not find such a thing such a degeneracy as this is you shall not find any Creature that thus forgets it self or thus mistakes its main intetest although the same be no interest in comparison of the concernment of an immortal soul Be astonished O ye Heavens at this monstrous absurdity The Fig-tree in Jonathan's Parable would not leave its sweetness to go to be promoted over the Trees but this noble plant of the Lord 's planting the rational soul hath forsaken its interest and forgotten its proper sweetness and renounced its own pleasure and felicity to go serve its own servant and study the interest of flesh and blood To the service whereof it is so entirely devoted that God himself must be quarrelled with if he use not this Dalilah kindly if he offer to put it to any pain Be advised I beseech you therefore to get a right understanding of your grand interest and where it lies in order to the healing of this distemper Value your selves by your souls and not by your bodies by your spiritual and not by your corporal state Is that man happy whose body and bodily concernments are all in a peaceful and flourishing state when in the mean time his soul is defiled depraved deformed impoverished and become more vile than the Dung upon the earth and more wretched than the Beasts that perish How then can that man be judged miserable whose nobler part is beautiful healthful rich and prosperous although his corporal and temporal estate be squalid sordid contemptible and much afflicted Our Saviour hath fully resolved this Question in the persons of Dives and Lazarus Luk. 16. Live like souls as much as may be abstracted from the body provide take care for view and visit your souls value your selves happy or unhappy according as it fares with your souls and then you will find it more natural and easie for you to bear up patiently and chearfully under all the Storms that light upon your outward man 3. The want of a right discerning of Good and Evil. This is somewhat akin to the former Our souls are so sadly sunk into matter and so fondly inamoured of our bodies that we are ready to judge of all things to be good or bad according as they accommodate or incommodate them and so we come many times to put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Isa 5. 20. This is certainly a proper and immediate cause of our flying from groaning under and hastening out of Afflictions and Persecutions because we judge them hurtful and evil to us And why evil Forsooth because they gall our backs offend our senses pinch and oppress our flesh And is this indeed a right rule whereby to judge of the goodness or evilness of things Nay but if you would indeed possess your souls in patience in the midst of bodily pressures then exercise your spiritual senses to discern aright between Good and Evil as the Apostle's phrase is Heb.
upon your lusts Which indeed is the design of unregenerate souls even when they seem to pray for things in their own nature spiritual Wicked men are carnal even in praying for spiritual things But godly men are not so they are so far from that that on the contrary they are spiritual in praying for carnal and earthly things They wrap up a Prayer in a Prayer they have a farther reach than the meer enjoyment of the creature when they pray for creature good a higher end than the pleasing and serving of themselves when they pray for themselves or their own private and personal concernments Certainly it is not only an absurd but a monstrous and blasphemous thing for any man to pray to God to fulfil his lusts the interest of God being so perfectly contrary to the interest of carnal self And yet I fear there are very many that do thus interpretatively blaspheme God even in their Prayers when they pretend to honour him and these sometimes perhaps not of the very worst of men neither What would it have been else but a prayer of lust if the two Disciples had been suffered to have prayed for fire from Heaven upon the heads of the poor Samaritans to revenge their Master's quarrel as they would have done Luk. 9. 24 What was it else but a prayer of lust when the same two Disciples petitioned their Lord for the chiefest place and preeminence in his Kingdom Mark 10. 37 Only our gracious Saviour was pleased somewhat to excuse them by reason of their ignorance Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of and again Ye know not what ye ask I will not dispute how far a devout and well meaning soul may pray upon a mistake nor how far such a soul may possibly mistake the interest of his lusts for the interest of Religion and the Kingdom of Christ But methinks such mistakes are very dangerous and much more dangerous and inexcusable now than they were in the daies of the Son of Man And yet as dangerous as they are I fear they are too too common even in these daies Charity covereth a multitude of sins indeed but yet it is the endowment of a rational soul and so the Charity that is stark blind is no Charity Yea I may add that it is the part of Charity to discover a multitude of sins before the eyes of those that commit them as well as to cover them before ones own It is too evident if we compare the constant talk and temper of men with their devotions and if with their prayers you compare their practices which they use in pursuit of them that passion revenge and self-interest do indite the prayers of many that seem to be zealous for the Lord every thing is Anti-christian that is contrary to their opinion ease or interest and then is the Kingdom of Christ exalted when they themselves are advanced into a peaceful honourable and ruling state What if it should come to pass that some even of them that seem to be most forward to sit at the right and left hand of Christ in his Kingdom should be found to stand on his left hand with the impure Goats in the day of the decision of all things And what can we say of those animose and furious strivings and groanings of men in prayer against all that dissent from themselves but that their prayers are rather the bublings and boylings up of interest than the language of the pure peaceable and gentle spirit of God I fear these mens prayers are not put up without wrath as the Apostle exhorts 1 Tim. 2. 8. and I wish their hands be found so holy as they should be if ever they have opportunity to use them Nay what if many of our most fervent and affectionate groanings after deliverance liberty and redemption from afflictions and oppressions as innocent as they seem to be should be found to be nothing else but the raging of our own animal passions and such prayers as an oppressed Beast might put up as well as we if he could express them so affectionately I know it is very lawful and warrantable to put up prayers unto God for relief in our troubles and release from our pressures but yet it is no more than what is natural unto men no more than what Jonah's heathenish Mariners did as well as he Man seeks for deliverance from troubles properly as an animal not as a Christian And if this be All we aim at in our prayers they will be interpreted if not as a begging for our lusts yet as meer breathings of the Animal life and out-cries of our own sensual affections no better fruit than may be found upon Publicans For do not even the Publicans the same But this is not all that the Godly soul aims at in his prayers and hopes but God is All in his hopes whether of things in this World or in another It is not the meer naked abstract enjoyment of prosperity liberty or life it self in this World that the godly soul so vehemently looks longs prays and hopes for but it is some real communication from God or something that may capacitate him for God in all these Every man that is wronged and oppressed would gladly be righted and delivered But the godly man sets not his heart so much upon his own ease as upon the honour of God and the interest of Truth and righteousness which he desires may take place in the World Every man would be great but the good man alone accepts of worldly power meerly for this end that by his authority he may the better serve the honour of his great God which seems to have been purely David's design Psal 75. 2. When I shall receive the Congregation I will judge uprightly Victory is sweet and acceptable to all but that truth should be mighty and prevail that equity and justice should triumph in the World this is dear and desirable only to the godly soul the soul that is purified from earthly and selfish loves The meer worldly life desires worldly liberty but that higher principle which is seated in the godly soul covets a more spiritual and excellent freedom even the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Life is sweet to all but to the godly Soul to be without God would not be to live For his loving kindness is better than life Psal 63. 3. In a word it is the interest of God and communion with him which spirits and impregnates all the hopes and expectations of the renewed soul which he conceives concerning earthly things And if this be so it need not be doubted but that God is All to him in his hopes concerning the World to come the All of Heaven I fear there are many Christians that are high in their own hopes of Heaven and of their going thither who little think of God there and are little acquainted with the spiritual nature of right happiness But God is All of Heaven it self to a