self-judging renewing of repentance c. 2. Towards men meekness compassion instructing warning comforting c. 3. Towards God as we shall see anon An afflicted condition doth call for some more especial tempers and behaviours towards our selves and others But these I am not to speak unto from this Text. It is the souls meeting God behaviour towards him conversing with him that my Text leads me to treat of and I shall not vary from it In handling of which Position I shall take this Method 1. Premise some things needful to be known concerning the souls conversing with God For I shall retain the word conversing throughout my discourse as being a single yet a large and significant word 2. Shew what it is for a soul to converse with God and how it comes to converse with him 3. Prove the doctrine That it is our duty to converse with God in the way of his judgments 4. Shew particularly how we are to converse with God in the time of afflictions 5. Apply it 1. I shall premise some things needful to be known that tend to clear up my way to the following discourse 1. I premise That it is the great duty of man to converse with God I have read that it was a common precept that the Jewish Doctors were wont to give to the people that they should single out some one Commandment and exercise themselves very diligently in the observation of it that therein they might make God their friend and make him a kind of amends for the breach of many others I doubt it is a Rule that too many Professors live by who not having the genuine and generous spirit of true Religion do parcel out their obedience into some little shreds of homage and devotion and instead of consecrating their whole lives to God do content themselves with some circumstantial and light obedience and think themselves people of great attainments if they do but severely tye up themselves to hearing twice a week and prayer twice a day and a few other acts of more solemn Worship Certainly this is a penurious and needy spirit much unlike the generous ample and free-born spirit of true Religion The duty the whole duty the constant duty of man is to converse with God commended in Enoch by the name of walking with God Gen. 5. 22. Where you may observe of him that he did not only set out fairly with God or take a turn or two with him but he walked with him three hundred years together The same God calls for from Abraham under the same name Gen. 17. 1. Walk before me and be perfect But it is not only the command of God that makes this a duty If there had been no express commandment concerning it yet were it the duty of every man necessarily flowing from his relation of a reasonable creature As man is a creature so he must needs live upon God and as a reasonable creature so he ought to live with him and unto him Therefore hath God given unto man a noble rational soul not only that he might talk and work manage the creatures and converse with the world but that he might converse with the God of the world that Infinite blessed and glorious Being This is the very end of mans Creation as man as a reasonable creature This was the end of his being created in the Image of God and when he was fallen from this Image this was the end of his Redemption by Christ Jesus that Heaven and Earth might be reconciled and those that were far off might be brought â—igh sin is a sinking of the soul down to self and the creature And redemption from sin is nothing else but a recovery of the soul into a state of favour and fellowship with God So that whatever is expressed by Faith and Repentance is contained in this one word Converse with God It is the great the necessary and as I may say the natural duty of the Reasonable Soul 2. It is the highest priviledge of man The Prerogative of man above the beasts is his Reason and the Glory of reason is that it is capable of knowing loving enjoying and conversing with the Supreme and Infinite Good The priviledge of Reason is not as too many think that it is capable of understanding Arts and Sciences that it is capable of climbing up into the nature and course of the Heavens and diving into the secret depths of the Earth and Sea and the creatures therein contained but in conversing with the Infinite and Glorious God How miserably do vulgar souls abuse this noble faculty who exercise it only in discoursing numbring and ordering the poor conâ—â—â—â— cernments of the world and the body Yea certainly those wise men those Scribes those Disputers of this world as the Apostle calls them who cry up this faculty and glory so much in it and yet do not exercise it about that high and eternal Being do not converse with God in pure affections and God like dispositions and conversations but expend those vast treasures of reason upon secrets in Nature secrets in Art secrets in State or any other created Being do enthrall their own souls which they say are so free-born and captivate and confine that noble principle which they themselves do so much magnifie For sin is certainly the great and only shame and reproach of an immortal soul And indeed these men though they put their souls to somewhat a more noble drudgery yet are really no more happy than the vulgar sort who spend the strength of their souls about eating and drinking plowing or sowing or keeping of Cattel What difference I pray you in point of true happiness is there between Boys playing with Pins and Points and old mens hugging of Baggs and Lands The noblest Sciences the greatest Commands the most enriching Traffiques are as very toys in comparison of true happiness as the poor dunghil-possessions of vulgar men And the wise the rich the learned the honourable of the world that take up with an employment in this world and with a happiness in themselves or in any creature do as much disgrace their own souls and as truly live below their own faculties as he doth that knows no higher good than food and rayment no higher employment than to toil all his dayes in a ditch For indeed as to all things but conversing with God man seems to be but equal perhaps inferiour to the beasts that perish Doth man eat drink sleep work so do they Doth man find any sensual pleasure which the beasts do not sensate as well as he Nay the Gormandâ—zâ—ng Emperour envyed the Cranes long neck and others have envyed the more able and permanent lusts of the brute beasts because themselves have been inferiour to them therein and have enjoyed less sensual pleasure than they If any glory in their knowledge of natural and political things I could instance in the strong memory great sagâ—city quick fancy wonderful perceptions of many beasts and their
freedom from worldly business as some other things are but is equally incumbent upon Prince and Peasant upon him that sits in his closet and upon him that ploughs in the field yea they that go down unto the Sea in ships ought to go up unto heaven in their hearts and not only to converse with the clouds which they often do but above them too A hand full of earth and a heart full of heaven may well stand together For as this duty justles out no honest business so neither should it self be justled out by any And as this high excellent duty agrees to all ages and times and persons so it agrees to all conditions too poor men do think that rich men may well do it and rich men think that poor men had need to do it prosperity thinks it hath better things to mind than a God and adversity knows it hath worse things but it must mind them plenty is too full to entertain him and poverty hath enough to do to bear up under its own burden learning knows how but will not ignorance sayes it would but knows not how but notwithstanding all this shuffling the obligation to this duty ceases not None so high as to be above it none so mean as to be below it For rich and poor high and low learned and unlearned Prince and peasant though they are divided amongst themselves by punctilioes and lesser differences yet they are united in one universal Being meet in one and the same center agree in the common capacity of reasonable creatures As religion hath an interest and a concernment in the whole of the conversation according to that of the Apostle Phi. 3. 20. our conversation is in heaven so also hath it a room in the conversation of every man in every capacity No Relation Condition Action Change is exempted from the powerful influence thereof so the Apostle describes himself by his living in all good conscience before God all along Act. 23. 1. and by his exercising himself in this thing to have alwayes a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men Act. 24. 16. Now the fifth step in order would be that It is more especially the duty of Gods people to study to converse with him aright in the way of his judgements which is the Doctrine it self which I must not come to confirm till I have shewed according to my promise in the second place what it is for the soul to converse with God and how it comes to converse with him Not to name those too low and improper notions that men ordinarily have of this high and spiritual matter conversing with God to speak properly of it is a compiex Act of the soul whereby it entertains God into it self and renders it self back again to him receives impressions from him and gives up it self again to him is first filled with him and then empties it self into him You may conceive of it after the similitude of a Plant that is influenc't by the benign beams of the Sun and in those beams spreads it self and in the virtue and power of them grows up towards Heaven or after the similitude of a River that is continually filled with the Ocean and is continually emptying it self into the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This seems to be our Saviours elegant allusion Job 4. 14. where he compares a divine and godly principle in the soul to a well of water springing out from God and continually boyling and bubling up towards him springing up into eternal life Or you may conceive of it after the similitude of a Glass which receives the image of him that looks into it and reflects the self same image that it receives For indeed the brightness and beanty of holiness wherewith a godly soul doth shine as a light in the world is nothing but a reflection of that light and brightness wherewith the Father of lights shineth into it And so the best of men have nothing of their own to glory in for they behold God but it is in his own light they love him with a love which he hath shed abroad in their hearts they are therefore like him because he hath stampt his own image upon them And so they must needs acknowledge concerning all their acts of love and communion and delight as David did in another case Of thine own we offer unto thee This is indeed the true and noble converse and communion with God wherein the life of a godly man is infinitely advanced above the life of all other men and indeed doth nearly resemble the life of Angels Their life is described in the Holy Scriptures by a seeing of God a beholding of him face to face which we must not understand of a naked idle speculation but of a real assimilation arising from the divine impressions made upon them a beholding of him so as to be changed into his image And such is a godly mans life spiritual life his life of converse with God consisting in a participation of God and of his Grace and a holy recipâ—ocation or reflection of affections to him which are indeed two distinct acts though originally springing from the same fountain for the love wherewith the soul loves God is it self an efflux from him For by loving us he inspires a love into us and by influences from God we become God-like But this converse with God is not only by the impressions of goodness from God and the reflections of love and delight towards him but is also seen in the various acts of the soul according to the various impressions which God maketh upon the soul and suitable to the various occasions of life so we converse with God by acts of fear reverence joy confidence self-resignation and the like Now because we are in the body and so cannot converse with God so purely spiritually and immediately as the Angels in Heaven do therefore it hath pleased God to appoint unto man wayes and means of conversing with him wherein he haâ—h promised to communicate himself to the soul and so to draw forth reciprocal acts of communion acts of love fear reverence confidence resignation dependance and delight out of the same soul towards himself Now these wayes or means may be reduced to three heads Duties Ordinances and Providences though indeed the two first might be contracted into one First I will speak a word or two of Ordinances such as the Word and Sacraments for I shall name no more but those two The Preaching of the Word is a way in which God doth usually meet the soul to communicate Life 1 Pet. 1. 23. Light Psal 19. 8. Warmth Luke 23. 32. Growth 1 Pet. 2. 2. And the soul doth answer these impressions as in the water face answereth face by the acts of the acts of Faith Love Joy Meekness and holy Resolution So also the administration of the Sacraments is a way wherein God meetech the soul and communicateth his Love Sweetness Fulnâ—ss Goodness
Strength and Vigour to the soul and it reflects upon him in the acts of holy complacency and delight chearfulness thankfulness and dependence Secondly Duties these are also wayes of converse with God such as Confession Petition Thankigiving Conference Singing Meditation Observation In all which God impresseth something of himself upon the soul and draws answerable affections of the soul unto himself as might appear in the particular explication of them but that would be too much a digression Only I will here note by the way the mistake of many low-spirited Christians who know no other converse with God than the bare performance of these things this they count the very top-stone of a Christians perfections the very flower of the spiritual life But alas this is a gross mistake There is sure something more sweet savoury satisfactory in the spiritual life than the dry duty there is marrow in the bone or else a holy soul could not cover it with so much servour Converse with God in duties is a spiritual favoury filling enjoyment distinct from the duties themselves This must needs be except we will allow to wicked and hypocritical men the same dainties that the most sanctified souls do feed upon and say That the childrens bread is common to the Dogs as well as them The soul doth not converse with God in duties barely when it prayes or meditates for even godly souls themselves do many times find little converse with God in these viz. when he suspends the influences of his graces or their hearts are â—logg'd or cloy'd with earthly objects or otherwise indisposed and shut up against him It is not speaking to God that brings the soul really nigh unto him nor bare thinking of God that advances the soul into the excellent state of feeling converse with him Even prayer it self may prove many times an empty sound vox praeterea â—ihil and meditation that most excellent and genuine off-spring of the soul may prove a poor dry and sapless speculation It is not enough to set up the sayls but there must also be wind to fill them But then doth the soul converse with God in duties when the dark places thereof become filled with his divine light and the empty places thereof filled with his divine love and the low and languishing affections thereof are ravished and revived with the powerful insinuations of his Almighty Grace when God draws and the soul runs he puts in his finger by the hole of the door and the very bowels of the soul are moved for him as it is described Cant. 5. 4. Then doth the soul converse with God in meditation and prayer when the Spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters when he kisses it with the kisses of his mouth and the shaking soul finds it self marvelously settled the doubting soul established the frozen heart thawed the benumm'd affections warmed the scant and contracted capacity of it enlarged and wonderfully widened and its slow and sluggish motions quickened into a lively and chearful compliance with and pursuit of the supreme and self sufficient good when the soul finds its leggs to run after that glorious object which is presented to it lifts up its hands to lay hold upon the strength the fulness the faithfulness the Christ of God and bearing up it self upon the wings of faith and love flyes out to seek its rest and happiness and no longer envyes the birds of the Altar for it self enters into the Holy of Holies and thorough the arms of its Mediator throws it self into the very heart of God In a word and that shall be the Word of God then doth a soul converse with God in duties when with open face beholding the glory of God it doth not only admire it but it self is changed into the same image from glory to glory i. e. from grace to grace 2 Cor. 3. ult Thirdly Providences These are another way wherein the soul converses with God Now by Providences we mean in general the whole work of God in governing the world and all things therein And so indeed a religious enlarged soul a mind freed from particular pinching Cares low and selfish ends converses with God in beholding and observing Gods setled course of governing the world The whole Heavens Earth and Sea and the admirable order kept up in them do teach the knowledge of God and draw up the contemplative soul into an observation and admiration of him in them and the pious soul longs to find some impressions made upon it self by all these and to be affected with God therein It is not content with a bare speculation but its meditation of God in these is sweet to it as Davids were Psal 104. 34. Particularly Gods Providence towards mankind as it doth most livelily express his infinite love justice and wisdom so we ought to converse with him therein and in all the changes of any kind that befall man in the world that befall all the Kingdoms of the world the four great Monarchies of it and all other subordinate Dominions more especially in all the mutations that befall the Church of God in the world and all men of all sects and sorts therein but most especially our selves Labour to converâ—e with that infinite mind wisdom and understanding that ordains and orders all the changes that befall your selves Nâ—w our conveâ—sing with God in the several changes that befall us in the world is in general by endeavouring to serve the Providence of God in every change The Providence of God serves it self even upon wicked men and upon all creatures that do least understand it but a godly man only knows how to serve the Providence of God in the things that befall him He hath no private selfish interest of his own but counts it his interest chearfully and faithfully to serve the will of God to be what God would have him be to be without that which God would have him to want and to do what God would have him do Every wicked soul in the world sets up some trade for himself and drives on some particular self-interest distinct from God But a godly soul counts it his greatest honour and happiness to be nothing in himself nor for himself but is wholly at the beck of his Creator and looking upon all his interest as being bound up in God is sollicitous for nothing else but to serve the will of God in his generation So the life of holy David is described Act. 13. 36. David in his generation having served the will of God i. e. the Providence of God say the Dutch Annotat. translating the words in this order A good man eying nothing but the great and blessed God in the world and knowing that he was not made for himself but for a higher good is only ambitious to be subservient to that Infinite and Soveraign Being herein imitating his Blessed Saviour who lived not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him Joh.
Oh how sweet is the God that made it so Is there any thing lovely it is a picture of him whose name is Love Is any thing firm stable lasting it is a shadow of that glorious essence with whom there is no shadow of change Have you any thing strong it arises out of that God with whom is everlasting strength Doth any creature give rest ease refreshment it springs out of the All satisfying fulness of God In a word labour to climb up by every created excellency as by so many beams to the Father of lights let all the world be to you as Gods Temple and be ready to say of every place as Jacob How dreadful is this place surely this is no other than the house of God! that God who runs thorow all created Beings and from himselves derives several prints of beauty and excellency all the world over But especially take heed of your own created-comforts that they do not insensibly lead a way your hearts and ensnare you into a sinful particular distinct love of them which is a sin soon committed hardly discerned and most hardly reformed If any be freed from these inordinate affections sure they are but few and those few have come dearly by it as he said in another case with a great summ they have obtained this freedom they have payed for it not with the foreskins of the Philistines but with the lives of what they so loved there being no way to cure this evil distemper but cutting off the member infected with it the part that it fed upon As a branch of this head let me add labour to live upon God in the excellencies of other men value them and all their accomplishments only in God as he that did diligere Deum habitantem in Augustino Admire God and enjoy God in them Where ever you see wisdom goodness ingenuity holiness justice or any other accomplishment say Here and there is God And this is the honest way of making our selves Masters of whatever is another mans and enjoying it as truly as he himself doth yea as truly as if it were our own when we behold all these beams as coming from the same fountain of lights and do love them all in him with an universal love This is the rare Art of having nothing yet possessing all things of being rich though one have nothing and of being wise though one know nothing 3. The last way of living upon God in the creature is To taste and feed upon the love of God in them not only his common bounty but his special love in Christ The good will of God gives a sweet relish to every morsel as I hinted before Even in the midst of all your delightful pleasant sweet enjoyments let your souls be more affected with this than with them let this be as the Manna lying upon the top of all your outward comforts which your spirits may gather up and feed upon But this I toucht upon before therefore I shall add no more concerning it Thus I have shewed you how you may imitate the life of Angels in living upon God even whilst you live in the body To this I may add another particular or two 3. Converse with God and live upon him in all his Ordinances Let communion with God be your drift in every duty and the very life and soul and sweetness of every ordinance You never read of a soul more thirsty after ordinances than David as might appear abundantly yet if you look well into the expressions you will find that it was not so much after them as after God in them not after the dead letter but after the living God Psa 4. 2. 2. My soul thirsteth for God for the living God and Psal 84. 2. My heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God Let the Word preacht or read be as a voyce from Heaven talking you let your conserence be a comment upon that Word let meditation be as a kind of bringing down God into your souls and prayer as a raising up of your souls into God nothing but faith and love put into phrases And so of all the rest 4. Converse with God in all his Providences prosperity adversity plenty penury health sickness peace and perplexity This is a large Theme But as to prosperity I have speken something a ready under that head of conversing with God in creature enjoyments As for adversity I have said much more in a large discourse to describe and commend the Art of conversing with God in affictions Briefly at this time converse not with losses wants afflictions but with God in them and that not only with the justice righteousness severity and soveraignty of God in them but with the goodness and mercy of God in them They are dark Providences we had not need to dwell all together on the dark side of them If all the wayes of the Lord towards his people be mercy and truth Psa 25. 10 then his roughest and most uncouth wayes are so 100 If God be wholly love 1 Joh. 4. 8. then his very corrections proceed not from hatred If it be his name to be good and to do good Psal 119. 68. where have we learnt then to call his afflicting Providences Evils and to divide evil which is but one even as God is one into culpae and paenae sin and affliction surely we speak as men And if God call them so he speaks after the manner of men as he often doth If the governing will of God be pure persect and infinitely good and righteous ought we not to converse with it in a free and chearful manner yea and to love it too In a word pore not upon creature-changes nor the uncertain wheels of motion that are turning up and down we know not how nor how oft but fix your souls upon that All-seeing eye that unbounded understanding that unsearchable and infinite goodness that derives it self thorow the whole universe and sits in all the wheels of motion governing all the strange motions of the creatures in a wonderful and powerful manner and carrying them all in their several Orbs to one last and blessed end Thus imitate the Angelical life even whilst you are in the body converse with God in self-excellencies in creature-excellences Ordinances Providences And yet labour to be more like them still to abstract your mind from all these and all material and sensible things and to converse with God without the help of any creature I mean in the spirit and by a secret feeling of his Almighty Goodness and the energy of grace and the communications of a divine life in your souls In a word if you would taste of Heaven whilst you are upon Earth labour above all things for a true conjunction of your hearts with God in a secret feeling of his goodness and a reciprocation of love to him and to find the holy and blessed God exercising his grace and power upon all the faculties of your souls and
â—â—te upon a Child than upon a Kingdom But Christian Divinity doth abundantly demonstrate all creaturefondness unreasonable and intolerable The next thing that I will record shall be the dâ—fficult taâ—k that I found to maintain a right humble and a right cheerful frame at the same time oh how oft and how long did I labour under this difficulty That sense of sin which was called in to promote tenderness of heart being overmuch indulged was ready at length â—o destroy that largeness and cheerfulness of soul which was so much my duty and interest to maintâ—in and on the other hand the sense of Divine Wisdom Grace and Love in Christ Jesus being called in to keep up the soul from sinking was ready to bear it up so high as that it almost forgot that it was in thâ— waters Beware Christians and watch diligently that Godly sorrow do not settle into an ungodly despondency and inconsolable heaviness the soul not being able to bear up under its own burden and that a holy chearfulness and serenâ—ty do not evaporate into an unholy frotâ—â—ness and fargetfulness of your infiâ—mities the soul not being able to manage its own metal and motions I know you would willingly understand something of the frame of my heart at that day respective to my departure out of this world you will best read my heart in the ensuâ—ng discourse upon 2 Cor. 5. 6. which I think was fetcht from thence I shall therefore say no more as to this matter only acquaint you with one eminent Experience relating hereunto My mind or fancy or appetite I know not wâ—ll what to call it was somâ—times enâ—ting in me some desires to live yet longer I â—ntred the lists with this temptation and when I had fairly and calmly debated the ground and reason of such inclination after many shifts and pretences it came to this I would fain perswade my self I was not yet holy enough this I did immediately consent to knewing it to be â— certain truth But that therefore I should desire to prolong my dayes upon earth this was a fallacious Inferencâ— Me thought I pleased my self a while whilst I could say I desired only to live to be better But after a time I apprehended a fallacy in this pretence for the way to be perfected in holiness is not living but indeed dying Christians if indeed your souls be sincerely and powerfully affected towards perfect holiness then sing not so much with David Spare me that I may recover Psa 39. 13. c. as with good old Simeon who having seen God in the flesh desired to go out of the flesh that he might see him more fully and beatifically Now Luk. 2. 29. leâ—test thou thy servant depart c. I cannot inlarge upon this Observation I suppose I have hinted enough to shew those pretences of many men viz. that they would fain live to be more fit to dye to be for the most part but a kind of mockery and self decâ—it Lastly that I be not over-tedious I do solemnly and sincerely profess before God and Angels and Men that I was never so much as inclined to think hardly of God or his good and holy wayes because of this dispensation but did then constantly and freely proclaim to all that came to visit me that sin particularly self will and sensual loves are the worst of plagues and holiness the only happiness of man yea â—ffâ—â—cted holiness infinitely to be preferred before prosperous wiâ—kedness 3. Suffer me as a conclusion of this Preface and as a result from all that I have seen and suffered to commend unto you a few excellent and necessary duties I have much adâ—â— to forbear being large here but I have already transgrest therefore I will wave those common Themes of remembring your Creator bâ—times of hear kening to the voice of his Word before his Rod speak of living in continual preparation for death of repenting and renewing repeâ—tance c. and only commend two or three things which seem to me of most excellent and necessary imporâ—ance petimuâ—que daâ—uâ—que vicâ—ssim 1. Love and eâ—joy all things in God Admire Divine Goodneâ—s in every created excellency and taste a Divine Sweetness in every created comfort O how is the noble soul of man debased pinâ—hed confined by low and sensual loves whilst many men love the creature in opposition to the Creator most men in competition with him and almost all men in a way of separation from him Oh base and degenerate affâ—ctions Let God be All things in your eye so that you shall see nor know nor love nor taste nothing but him in the world Dâ—liver your selves oh immortal souls to whom I write from all those and straitning and stâ—rving creature-loves and long and labour to be filled with pure and holy and spiritual delights such as the â—ngelâ— of God have such as the Son of God had whâ—n he made it his meat and drink to do the Joh. 4. 34. will of his Father But this you will find more largely prosecuted and prest in the last of these following Discourses Therefore 2. Live purely at the pleasure of God and maintain an universal and hearty compliance with his holy and perfect will Believe it you will never enjoy a firm and steady peace till you have committed all your wâ—lls and wayes to him and wrapt up all your interests and ends in him till your hearts be conformed to the heart of God and your wills molded into his will It is a difference of wills and ends and a distinction of interests that beget all those ragings and stormings in the hearts of men against God Mine and Thine do not only divide the world amongst men but divide men against God Earth against Heaven Take this for a certain and undoubted Aphorism that the grand interâ—st of a soul is to comply with and be one with God Communion of hearts and wills and interests and ends is that glorious fellowship which a creature hath with its Creator it is indeed the interest and bonour the duty and dignity yea the Heaven and hâ—p iness of the reasonable creature But something to this purpose you will find in the first Discourse 3. I beseech you Christians be not content to say you have chosen God for your chiefest good but puriue after him as luch without grudging and without ceasing longing to be as much one with hâ—m in a participation of divine perfections as our created natures are capable Maintain a holy and secret striving of soul towards this blessed object continually as a thing moves towards its center as a soul ought to endeavour to accomplish its own perfections stand not gazing upon a Heaven to come but labour to draw dâ—wn all that peace joy love purity which Heaven is into your own souls by growing up into the life of God daily Râ—â—kon that you are never in a right temper except you be in Davids temper when he waited for God more than they
strange knowledge of many secrets which they never learnt by Books no nor gathered gradually by Observations And as for mans communications of his notions by words and phrases I doubt not to affirm that there is something like to be found in Beasts and Birds yea that very beauty and flower of sound even Musick which some men magnifie so much is more fairly and sweetly uttered by the filly Bird that sits solitary upon a bough than by the Quiristers of the Popes Cathedral What solid Prerogative worth naming remains to man above his fellow-creatures but his conversing with God which we call Religion and is indeed Reason rectified sanctified exalted and boyled up into its pure and primitive perfection In so mnch that I have sometimes thought that I never heard a more reproachful word spoken concerning degenerate man neither do I think that any thing can be spoken of him more shameful and dishonourable than what the Apostle saith of the Heathen Ephes 2. 12. Without God in the world By conversing with God in the world is man truly raised above the beasts and the godly man above all other men Nay hereby is the godly soul advanced to the dignity and glory of the Holy Angels or at least to a parity of happiness For it is this that is their perfection and glory as we find it described in Mat. 18. 10. They alwayes behold the face of God And therefore our blessed Saviour doth affirm that the Saints in the Resurrection who shall be raised above all creature-communion to live upon God singly and entirely shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels of God Luk. 20. 36. In a word this is the most real Heaven setting aside all circumstances of place c. the perfect and proper happiness of a soul to see God Mar. 5. 8. to be like unto him 1 John 3. 2. to converse with the Father by the Son as our Saviour bath told us who â—est knew it John 17. 3. This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent By this it is that God dwells in the soul and the soul in God as we shall see hereafter and the Kingdome of Heaven doth really enter into every Believer 3. The natural man is utterly unwilling and unable to converse with God An earthly Mountain may as soon rise up to Heaven by its own power and good will as an earthly mind And such minds are all natural and unregenerate Sin as I hinted before is a falling from God a sinking of the soul into self whether sensual self or spiritual self and a shrivâ—lling of it up into the creature and the sinful soul is alwayes like a shadow moving upon the surface of the Earth and higher it cannot get Rom. 8. 5. Would you know what is the principal object of a natural mans admiraration inclination and ambition The Psalmist will tell you It is some created good Psal 4. 6 7. Will you know what is the disposition of the natural man towards the supreme and uncreated good The Apostle will tell you It is Ignorance and Enmity 1 Cor. 2. 14. Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God This high duty of conversing with God in a right manner is besides the temper of the wicked man never any such man did perform it It is a contradiction A wicked man conversing with God is as if one should say An ungodly man that is godly But that 's not all This duty is not only out of the hands of a wicked man but out of his reach too Neither can he know him saith the Apostle to the Corinthians and again to the Romans Neither can he be subject to him Can two walk together except they be agreed saith the Prophet Can man walk with God converse with God except he be reconciled to him And what agreement but by a Mediator What Mediator between God and man but Christ Jesus who 〈◊〉 a Mediator as the Logicians call a medium participationis who is God man In the word some converse with one thing in a world and some with another as I noted before but all converse principally and mainly with the creature that are not regenerated by Grace reconciled by Christ 4. It is the duty of man in all ages of life at all times and in all places and conditions to converse with God It is a necessary natural certain constant duty springing up out of the very nature and natural will of God and out of the very nature and relation and capacity of the reasonable soul binding semper and ad semper as the Schoolmen speak and admitting of no dispensation nor diminution There is no time wherein it is not a duty or wherein it is less a duty than at another time however we are apt to give to our selves many relaxations from it The first fruits nay the very early buds of the tender soul and of the springing faculties these are due to God and ought to be dedicated to him Eccles 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth Manhood is not allowed so to attend unto cares and exploits nor old age to pains and griefs as to neglect converse with God But whether young men build or plant fight or study or work or marry or manage the affairs of the house or of the field all should be undertaken and carryed on in away of converse and fellowship with God or whether old men sit and muse and meditate or lye under the pains and grievances of decrepit age still it ought to be in the Lord. Neither doth this duty admit of interruption no more than of cessation There is no dispensation given us from this duty as in no age so in no hour of our life As we cannot live a moment out of God so neither ought we to live a moment without God in the world We ought continually so endeavour to walk in subservience to and converse with God yea and as far as may be in a feeling converse with him too Holy David witnesseth of himself that the fear of God was continually before his eyes and that he did continually converse with God for so those words may be understood Psal 73. 23. I am continually with thee The like is recorded of many other Saints both in the Old and New Testaments concerning whom one may well say as the Queen of Sheba concerning the servants of Solomon and with much better reason 1 King 10. 8. Happy are these thy servants O Lord which stand continually before thee Neither is it the duty of some few men that have the greatest knowledge or the most leasure For it springs up out of the relation of a creature and out of the very nature of the rational soul so that no soul of man is exempted from it however many ignorant and profane persons live rather in a professed independance upon God Neither is it a duty only upon supposition of leasure and
them not What an unseemly and indeed monstrous fight is it to see a creature pulling tugging against his Creator maintaining his supposed right against Heaven its self Is it for a Heaven-born soul to stand gazing and doating upon or passionately weeping over created friends carnal liberty corporal health houses made with hands things below God yea and below its self too Pore not too much upon them value them only in God and refer them freely to him If you can say you have any thing of your own make much of it and spare not But give unto God the things that are Gods and by that time you have done so I think you need not dote upon what 's left We ought indeed at all times to enjoy all our creature comforts with hearts loosened from them but if formerly our hearts have been too much joyned to them it is time now to loosen them 2. Converse not with creature causes in a time of Affliction This is a strange kind of Atheistical temper into which we are very prone to fall I speak properly when I say Fall for it is indeed a falling down from God in our hearts in whose Infinite Essence all creature-causes are lapt up and in whose hand the several successes and events of them all do lie Let a beast that judges by sense kick at the poor thorn that pricks him But let rational souls fix upon the highest and supreme Agent who in an infinite powerful and skilful manner uses what creature he will for what end he will and sends it of an errand which it self knows not Why do we run hunting Poor Partridge instruments upon the mountains of contemplation Shall the noble faculties of an immortal soul spend themselves upon such an inquisition or is it just to pursue an innocent creature out of breath for being an instrument in the hand of God to quarrel with the Sword because it suffered its self to be drawn or beat the Air because it is infected This were indeed to go out with the King of Israel with much warlike preparation to catch Fleas I deny not but that wise men may look into second causes and make many profitable Observations from them both for present and future and all men may and ought to learn many wholesome lessons even from the instrument that afflicts them But sure I am a godly man will not dwell upon these he will not fix here but readily resolve all into an higher cause and so falls to converse with that Much less will he blame or murmure at a poor harmless Arrow that flew no further than it was shot nor pierced no deeper than it was bidden Yea though the second cause were a sinful cause a rational Agent and so consequently acted by malicious and evil principles yet a godly soul knows how to distinguish upon him and his action he hates him as a sinner but comports well enough with him as Gods instrument and though he condemns his action as it varies from Gods command yet he approves of it as being ordered by Gods hand and counsel David hated cursing as much as any man yet did he so eye the hand of God in every thing and comply with it too that there was a time when he said concerning Shimei So let him curse Concerning this I hinted something before under another head Therefore 3. Converse not with creature-cures creature-relief These may indeed be lookt out after and safely made use of when they are found Nay I will add further that they are to be sought diligently and used carefully They that know the Infinite Soveraignty Power and Wisdom of God will not tye him to means much less to these or those particular means But on the other hand they that understand Gods usual and ordinate way of acting and governing and upholding the world will not tye him up from means no nor expect that he should appear for their relief immediately and miraculously Though if any one have a miraculous faith truly grounded upon some special and particular promise I will not contend with him only I would desire to see his miraculous faith justified by some miraculous works which I conceive do alwayes attend it But the converse with creature-cures which I forbid is the immoderate seeking of them or the inordinate using of them To seek after means in themselves unlawful can never become lawful But I speak not of these For although some are come to that height of Atheism and abjuration of God as to retain the Devil himself for counself in a time of straits as Saul did and contract with the Prince of death for the preservation of life in time of sickness as Ahaziah did And I doubt very many do fall into acquaintance with that evil spirit and receive assistance from him before they be well aware by medling with unphysical unscriptural unwarrantable cures yet the greatest danger is not in these in licit is perimus omnes the greatest danger is of miscarrying about things in themselves lawful And that is chiefly by those two wayes which I named but now Take heed therefore of immoderate seeking after created helps Be not anxious perplexed tormented in mind by a passionate desire of any of these Oh what a raging and unquenchable thirst have many men after creature cures They will move Heaven and Earth and almost Hell too with her in the Poet but they will find out relief Give me a Physician or I dye sayes one Give me trading good Markets a plentiful Crop or I am undone sayes another What man is thy life lapt up in a pill or incorporated into a potion Is thy main happiness in the abundance of these things here below or wilt thou say to the wind Blow here in this quarter and nowhere else tye up the supreme and free Agent to a form and method of working Let not such a prophane disposition be found amongst us Again if you have found out hopeful creature-cures take heed of using them in an inordinate manner laying stress upon them looking earnestly on them as though they by their own power and proper virtue could make the lame to walk or the sick to recover Eye not much less depend upon the virtue of any created means as distinct from God But acknowledge the poweâ— and virtue and goodness of every created Being to be the power and virtue and goodness of God in that creature and so consequently use it in subordination and subserviency to the supreme cause who can at pleasure let loose or suspend the influences and virtues of every such means 4. Converse not with creature-losses in a time of affliction The sinful soul that hath straggled off from God and centred upon the creature is alwaies intemperate and restless If it be disappointed in its converse with creature-cures and sees that for all these his comforts are â—ut off health liberty friends are perished then he falls to converse with his losses and spends the powers of his soul
wound our own peace we shake the settledness of our own hearts we put our selves into briars In a word we both lessen our creature comforts and multiply our griefs and aggravate our sorrows by calling things our own If we had not taken them to be our own it would not have troubled us to part with them Be sure therefore to eye and own the absolute and unlimited Soveraignty of God But â—hat's not all it is not enough to believe it we must converse with it otherwise than by thinking of it or assenting to it Then do we converse with the Soveraignty of God 1. When the powerful sense of it doth silence quarrelling yea murmurings yea even disputings in the soul We may indeed modestly contend with men concerning their dealings with us the Potsheard may strive with the Potsheard of the earth but it must not say to the Potter Why hast thou made me thus A pacate and quiet frame of heart is a real conversing with the Soveraignty of God So did Aaron when he held his peace Levit. 10. 3. and Job when he attributed nothing unseemly to God Job 1. ult 2. When the sense of it doth suppress self-will This is an unruly lust in the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Giant-like spirit warring against Heaven and breeding bate continually This is that which maintains a Meum and Tuum even with God himself that â—ets up interests as the Jews set up Princes Hosea 8. 4. but not by God yea indeed in opposition to him This is the seditious party in the soul that is alwayes crying out We will not have this man to rule over us And when that darling interest which this proud rival hath set up is touched of God and smitten and blasted from Heaven it is ready to fret and storm yea and to think it hath reason to be angry If this Son of the bondwoman were cast out Abraham's Family would be all of a peece all in order and at rest If this undisciplin'd and perverse spirit were quite banished Oh what a calm day would it be in the soul what fair and sweet correspondence would there be between God and his creature for certainly this is the Jonah that raises the storm and makes the great deeps of the soul that they cannot rest but do perpetually roll and toss yea and cast out mire and dirt continually But alas I doubt this spirit is not quite layd no not in the most spiritual man the best of men are ready to nourish and hatch up some darling some private interest or other of their own dinstinct from God and the grand interest of their souls which God himself must not touch some Gourd or other that the cold wind must not blow upon He is a blessed man indeed who doth so understand that he lives and moves in God alone and is so overpowered with the sense of the infinite goodness and holiness of God and the absolute perfection of his divine will as that he reckons it his greatest perfection to be nothing in himself nor have nothing of his own distinct from God but only studyes to be great in God to be filled with God to live to him and for him to enjoy all things as in and under him who counts it his only interest to quit all self interest and particular ends and to be freely at the disposal of the highest mind conformable to the highest good chearfully compliant with the uncreated will Potiphar had so committed all to Joseph in the sense of his great faithfulness that he knew not ought he had save the bread that he did eat Gen. 39. 6. But this similitude is too low A godly soul should commit all its interest its life and livelihood and all to God in the sense of his Soveraignty and not know ought that he hath no not his own life but despise it in comparison of uncreated life as Job speaks Job 9. 21. Methinks the Soveraignty of God speaks such language to the soul and in it as Eli to Samuel My Son hide nothing from me keep nothing back of all that thou hast and the pious soul should not with foolish Rachel conceal any selfish interest so as not to be willing to part with it when its Soveraign Lord and Father comes to search the tent but with allusion to Amos 6. 10. when God comes to ferret out all self-interests and shall ask Is there any such yet with thee should be able to answer boldly No there is none Blessed is the man that is in such a case blessed is the man whose only interest it is to serve the will of the Lord Well improve the infinite Soveraignty of God to this end and work it upon and into your own hearts that all self-will may stoop to it and let the main interest of your souls be so planted and established in your souls that no other interest may be able to grow by it Charm your own self-will with such severe reproofs as this is Either deny thy self O my soul or deny thy self to be a creature either be wholly at Gods command or call him not thy Soveraign 3. When the sense of it doth beget Revevence in the soul towards God We ought not only to be subject to the Rod of God but even to reverence him when he correcteth with it and so not only to accept of the Rod but to kiss it too And surely iâ— the Fathers of our flesh correct us and we give them Reverence Heb. 12. 9. much more ought we to reverence the Soveraign Father both of flesh and spirit This is a devout act of the soul whereby it looks up and adores the Infinite and Soveraign Majesty and thinks equitable and honourable thoughts of him even when he is in the way of his Judgments And these are the proper acts of a soul conversing with Gods Soveraignty in the time of afflictions When we are silent before him subject unto him and reverencing of him then do we really and truly converse with him as our Almighty and absolute Soveraign But Gods Authority and Prerogative though it may silence will scarce satisfie such a corrupt and rebellious pass are our natures grown to Therefore 2. Converse with the perfect and infinite Righteousness of God in the time of afflictions that divine perfection whereby he renders to every man what is just and due and no more This we are to eye and own and sincerely to acknowledge even in the time of our greatest extremity after the example of Daniel chap. 9. 14. The Lordour God is righteous in all his works and of the godly Levites Neh. 9. 33. Thou art just in all that is brought upon us thou hast done right Argue with Abraham Gen. 18. 25. Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right Can Righteousness it self erre in Judgment Shall the Timber say unto the Rule Why hast thou measured mee thu or to the Line thou art crooked Are not my wayes equul saith the Lord Ezek.
that the will is prepared to close readily with such Methods as God shall please to use to accomplish his own ends then do we properly and feelingâ—y converse with God under the notion of the All-wise God But this of Self-resignation I spoke something to under the first head and much of that which is spoken there may be indifferently applyed hither Therefore 7. Converse with the unbounded Goodness Love and Mercy of God God is infinitely and unchangeably loving and merciful to his people he is good saith the Psalmist and he is Love saith the Apostle 1 John 4. 8. Those dreadful and terrifying apprehensions which men have of the blessed and good God as if he were some austere and surly Majesty given to passion and revenge are apt to destroy that chearful and ingenuous converse with him which the creature should maintain with its Creator at all times But then are we most prone to entertain those apprehensions and to harbour such unseemly notions of him when he appears in the way of his judgments when we take a view of him in the ruines of our comforts the blood of our friends the spoyl of our goods and in the distresses of our lives We are apt to frame notions of God according to what we find in our own disposition to fancy a God like unto our selves and therefore we cannot eye an afflicting God but we presently conclude an angry God as though the Eternal and Pure Being were subject to passions and changes as we are These apprehensions being once drunk into the soul it becomes unhinged presently and almost afraid to behold the face of love it self but flyes and hides it self as Adam in the Garden or if the soul do converse with God at all it is as a City that is besieged converses with the enemy without viz. sending out to seek peace and to obtain a cessation of Arms. And so a soul may bestow much upon God surrender up the Castle give him all that he hath almost not for any love that he bears to him but as Joash gave Hazael a present of gold and precious things to hire him to depart from him 2 King 12. 18. Oh then they will on and do any thing yea circumcise their lives as Zipporah circumcised her Son Exod. 4 25. to escape the hands of an angry God Every one will converse with God as an enemy in time of extremity hang out a flag sor peace send presents pay a homage send Embassadors to entreat his face But few know how to converse with the Goodness and Mercy of God with him as their dear and only friend in a time of afflâ—ctâ—on freely and chearfully Now there seems to be a double account to be given of mens not conversing with the Goodness and Mercy of God in the time of afflictions 1. Many cannot believe the Mercy and Kindness of God when he is in the way of his Judgments If it be so why am I thus cryes the poor soul strugling under its burden and travelling in pangs to be delivered of its griefs Thus unbelievingly argues Gideon who was otherwise famous for saith in the time of his bitter bondage under the Midianites Judg. 6. 13. when an Angel from Heaven was sent to assure him of the good will of God towards him he could not entertain the news nor believe the report because of the anguish of his soul but cryes out Oh my Lord if the Lord be with us why is all this evil befallen us No the Lord hath forsâ—ken us for he hath delivered us into the hands of the Midianites The sad soul is ready to cry concerning Christs gracious presence as the two Sisters concerning his personal presence John 11. 21 32. Lord if thou hadst been here my Brother had not dyed Lord if thou hadst been here if thou hadst loved me if thou hadst had any delight in me my Brother had not dyed my Husband my Wife my Children had not dyed I had not been thus plagued afflicted wounded tormented as I am Hence we have those many complaints of the afflicted soul up and down the Psalms Hath the Lord forgotten to be gracious Is his Mercy clean gone Hath he shut up his tender Mercies in anger and many such like The smart of our senses is apt to pervert the judgment of our minds and the sense of bodily evils is ready to destroy all sense of the Infinite and Unchangeable Goodness and Love of God Now this great evil seems to arise from these two causes viz. our measuring of God and his Divine Dispositions by our selves and humane passions and affections as I hinted before And our measuring the Love of God too much by the proportion that he gives us of worldly prosperity Woe to him in a day of distress that was wont to judge of Divine Love by the things that are before him as Solomon calls the things of this world Eccles 9 1. This I say is the temper the infirmity of many in the time of afflictions though indeed there be no reason for it For why should we conclude harshly concerning Job upon the dunghill any more than we would conclude charitably concerning Ahab on the Throne Besides the Scripture teacheâ—h expresly that the Love of God doth stand with correction Psal 89. 33. I will visit his iniquity but my loving kindness wâ—ll I not take from him Nay it seems as if it could not well stand without it Heb. 12. 6. Whom the Lord loveth be chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth 2. Others do indeed believe the Goodness and Mercy of God to them in a time of affliction but either they cannot or dare not or will not converse with it nor take comfort in it They remember God with the Psalmist Psal 77. 3. i. e. the Goodness Bounty Mercy of God saith Mollevus and yet at the same time are troubled their hearts are unquiet fluctuating tumultuous within them The soul is so imprest with the sense of sin which it hath contracted from the consideration of its sufferings that it dare not presume to meddle with Mercy but though this Mercy of God be its own yet is ready to think that it is a duty to forsake its own Mercies as though it heard God chiding it in the words of Jehu to Jorams scout 2 King 9. 18. What hast thou to do with peace What hast thou to do with Mercy turn ye behind me An afflicted soul hath much adoe to believe it to be a duty to converse with the Goodness and Love of God in a time of affliction It easily agrees to converse with the Justice Holiness and Power of God indeed but thinks it very improper and unseasonable if not unsafe to converse with his Mercy It is ready to cry with Solomon presently In the day of prosperity rejoyce but in the day of adversity consider or with the Apostle If any be afflicted let him pray if he be merry let him sing Psalms Conversing with the Goodness of
The Well is deep and they have nothing to draw with as the Woman said concerning another Well Joh. 4. Therefore be sure you get an interest in the Fulness and Sufficiency of God or as Solomon speaks in another case Prov. 5. 15. Drink waters out of thine own Well 3. Converse with the Self-sufficient Fulness of God by delighting your selves in it Drink of this Fountain yea drink abundantly ye beloved of God Cant. 5. 1. yea lie down by it Psal 23. 2. yea bathe you selves wholly in it Enter into the Joy of your Lord lie down in his bosome spread your selves in his Love and Fulness The Beloved Disciple leaning upon the breast of his Lord at Supper was but a dark shadow a poor scant resemblance of a beloved soul which by the lovely acts of Joy and Confidence and Delight layes it self down in the bosome of Jesus and doth not feed with him but feed upon him and his Alsufficiency Then do we converse indeed feelingly and comfortably with the Infinite Fulness when the soul is swallowed up in it doth rest in it is filled with it and centred upon it Oh the noble and free-born spirit of true Religion that disdaining the pursuit of low and created things is carryed out with delight to feed and dwell and live upon uncreated Fulness Then is a soul raised to its just altitude to the very height of its Being when it can spend all its powers upon the supreme and self-sufficient good spreading and stretching it self upon God with full contentment and wrapping up it self entirely in him This is the souls way of living above losses and he that so lives though he may often be a loser yet shall never be at a loss He who feeds upon created Goodness or Sweetness may soon eat himself out of all the stock will be spent and which is worse the soul will be dryed up that hath nothing else to nourish it But he that lives upon uncreated Fulness is never at a loss though he lose never so much of the creature For who will value the spilling of a dish of water that hath a well of living water at his door from whence he had that and can have more as good though not the same Nay to speak properly this is the only way to lose nothing For how can he be properly said to lose any thing who possesses all things And so doth he I am sure who is filled with the Fulness of God Be sure therefore that in the want in the loss of all things you live upon the Fountain-fulness delight your self in the Lord after the example of the Prophet Habakkuk cap. 3. 17 18. A Farewel to Life 2 COR. 5. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. THE holy Apostle having in the first verse of this Chapter layd down the Doctrine of Eternal Glory which shall follow upon this transitory life of Believers shews in the following verses how he himself longed within himself and groaned after that happy state And then Proceeds to give a double ground of this his confident expectation one in vers 5. therefore is the Apostle confident concerning the putting off of this mortal body because God had wrought and formed him for this state of glory and already given him an earnest of it even his holy Spirit The other ground of the confidence and settledness of his mind as to his desires of a change is taken from his present state in the body which was but poor and uncomfortable in comparison of that glorious state This in the words of the Text Therefore we are alwayes confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For I do not take the words we are confident concerning the Apostles resolvedness with a quiet and sober mind to suffer any kind of persecution or affliction whatever but we are alwayes confident i. e. we do with confidence expect or at least we are alwayes well satisfied contented well resolved in our minds concerning our departure out of this life For the Apostle was speaking not of afflictions or persecutions in the former verses but indeed of death which he calls a dissolving of the earthly house of this tabernacle vers 1. and a being cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven vers 2. 4. Yea and thus the Apostle explains himself vers 8. where he tells you what he means by this his confidence we are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body where the latter words are exegetical to the former q. d. It is better to be with the Lord than in this mortal body but we cannot be with the Lord whilst we are in this body it keeps us from him therefore we have the confidence to part with it It is the reason of the Apostles confidence and willingness to part with the body that I am to speak of and the reason is because this body keeps him from his Lord whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. The words are a Metaphor and are to be translated thus we indwelling in the body do dwell out from the Lord which our Translation renders well taking little notice of the Metaphor whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Though indeed if they had left out that word at home it would have been as well and so have neglected the Metaphor altogether as we may haply hint hereafter The words are a reason of the Apostles willingness to be dissolved and do contain a kind of an accusat on of the body and so seem to lay a blame upon it and upon this animal life which must be remembred Now for the former phrase of being at home in the body it is easily understood and generally I think agreed upon to be no more than whilst we carry about with us this corruptible flesh whilst we live this naâ—ural animal life It only signifies man in his compounded animal state 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and doth not at all allude to his sinful unregenerate or carnal state But the latter phrase Absent from the Lord is capable of a double sense both good and true and I think both fit enough to the context and drift of the Apostle I shall speak to both but insist most upon the latter 1. Whilst we are in the body we are absent from the Lord i. e. from the bodily presence of the Lord in Heaven absent from Christ Jesus and his glory And so the words are the same in sense with 1 Cor. 15. 50. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God for by flesh and blood there must needs be meant man in this animal corruptible state And so the Apostle accuses this kind of life in the body and as it were blames it for standing between him and his glorified Lord and so consequently between him and the glory of his Lord.
the eyes run over the lips quaver the shoulders pull back the hands tremble the knees knock together and the whole fabrick is ready to tumble down for fear of falling Either to this as some inter pret or to that duty of Prayer as others doth that of our Saviour refer Mark 14. 38. The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak It seems the spirit of the weakest Christian is strong though the body as we have seen of the strongest Saint is weak Though indeed it is not properly the weakness that is in the body that I am to speak to but the influence that the body hath upon the soul to weaken that for whilst the soul sympathizes with the body attends to it spares it pities it self becomes almost ill affected to the service of God I am not so much blaming the body because it had need by reason of its slothfulness to be drawn on to dutie but because by its influences it draws off the soul also from them for so we find it by woful experience that if the body do sleep the soul cannot wake it cannot hear without the ear nor see without the eyes so that the bodyes weariness at leng hends in the souls unwillingness and the weakness of the one grows to be the sin of the other 3. Whilst we are in the body we are at a distance from God as to communion with him we are estranged from fellowship with him and this is indeed to be absent from the Lord. Oh how many weary and uncomfortable dayes do poor Saints live at a great distance from their God their Life their Happiness whilst they are in their worldly Pilgrimage in their Cage of flesh Oh how many dayes do they forget God and are apt to think that God hath forgotten them too How do they live sometimes as it were without God in the world their souls being surfeited with carnal pleasures benummed with fears frozen with self-love choaked with cares stifled with griefs and seem to have no more feeling of God their life than a body in the dust hath of the soul its life Oh what a heavy yoke doth the poor soul draw under when it plows and harrows to the flesh and cannot lift up its head to Heaven Oh how is our intercouse with God obstructed our beholding of him obscured our entertaining of him prevented our enjoyment of him disturbed and violâ—ted our love to him to him deadned and his love to us damped ours rendred iâ—firm and his rendred insensible and all by this make bare mortal flesh Alas what uncertainties and vicissitudes what changing and tossings turnings and windings are our poor pilgrim souls here exercised with What breakin gs and piecings reconciliations and fallings out closing and parting rising and falling what ups and downs what forwards and backwards doth the poor distressed soul experience in this animal state The flourishing soul withers the lofty soul languishes the vigorous soul fainteth the nimble soul flaggeth the devout soul swooneth the lively soul sickeneth and is ready to give up the Ghost and she that was a while ago resting and glorying in the arms of her Lord anon lyes embracing a dunghil and hath almost forgotten that ever she was happy Her peace is violated her rest is disturbed her converse with Heaven interrupted her incomes from God are few and insensible her outgoings to him are few and lazy and the rivers of her divine pleasures are almost dryed up And all this whilst she is in this body and indeed a great part of it by reason of this body in which she is The animal body keeps us distant from the Lord that we cannot converse with him mind him enjoy him live upon him and unto him The body being fitted only for this animal staâ—e is ever drawing down the soul when it would raise up it self in contemplation of and communion with the blessed God And so 1. The Necessities of the body do hinder the souls communion with the Lord. Not that the necessities of the body are simply in themselves to be blamed but the caring for these doth so exercise the soul in this state that it cannot attend upon God without distraction Oh how much doth the necessary caring for meat and drink food and physick yea the ordering of temporal affairs estrange from communion and converse with God! so that the soul like poor Martha is cumbred with many cares and busied with much serving in this house and cannot attend so devoutly and entirely as it ought upon the Lord. If the body be pinched with pain the soul cannot be at rest but must needs look out for relief If the body be pinched with hunger and thirst the soul can take no rest till it have found out a supply for it If the one be sick the other is sad if the one be hungry or thirsty the other seems to languish like Hippocrates his Twins that laught and cryed lived and dyed together It is a wonderful mystery and a rare secret how the soul comes to sympathize with the body and to have not only a knowledge but as it were a feeling of its necessities how these come to be conveyed to the soul and how it comes to be thus affected with them But we find it so And indeed to speak truth it seems necessary for the maintaining of this animal state that it should be so that the soul should be as it were hungry weary sick and sleep too together with the body for if our soul should not know what it is to be hungry thirsty cold or sick or weary but by a bare ratiocination or a dry syllogistical inference without any more especial feeling of these necessities it would soon suffer the body to languish and decay and commit it wholly to all changes and casualties neither would our own body be any more to us than the body of a plant or of a starr which we do many times view with as much clearness and contemplate with as much contentment as we do our own But in the mean time the soul is diverted from its main employment turned aside from its communion with God not so much by providing somewhat for our bodyes to eat and drink and put on which is lawful and needful as our Saviour implyes Mat. 6. 32. as by sinking it self into the body being passionately and inordinately affected with its wants and so being sinfully thoughtful as our Saviour intimateth in the same chapter vers 31. 2. The Passions of the body do hinder the souls communion with the Lord. So powerful is the interest and influence that this body hath in and over the soul that it fills it with desires pleasures griefs joys fears angers and sundry passions The body calls out the soul to attend upon its several passions which I dare not say are sinful in themselves as they first affect our souls no more than it is our sin that we are men our blessed Saviour seems not to have been free
from them as grief Isa 53. 3. fear Heb. 5 7. who yet was free from all sin 1 Pet. 2. 22. Nay it seems necessary as I said before considering the nature of this animal life that the soul should have the corporeal passions and impressions feelingly and powerfully conveyed to it without which it could not express a due benevolence to the body that belongs to it and indeed were it not so we could not properly be said in the Apostles phrase here to be at home in the body the soul would rather dwell in domo alienâ quà m suâ But the soul being called out to attend upon these passions is easily ensnared by them for it can hardly exercise it self about them but it stâ—ps insensibly into a sinful inordinacy As for example The animal spirits nimbly playing in the brain and swiftly flying from thence thorow the nerves up and down the whole body do raise the fancy with mirth and chearfulness which we must not presently mistake for the power of grace nor condemn for the working of corruption So also when the Gall empties its bitter juice into the liver and that mingles it self with the blood there it begets fiery spirits which presently fly up into the brain and cause impressions of anger Now though I dare not say that the souls first sensating and entertaining of these passions is sinful yet it is sadly evident that our souls being once moved by these undisciplin'd animal spirits are very apt to fit upon and cherish those passions of grief fear mirth anger and as it were to work them into it self in an inordinate manner and contrary to the dictates of reason and so the will presently makes those sinful which before were but meerly humane or as one calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the more blossomings or shooâ—ings forth of animal life within us We see then in these particulars that not only the depraved dispositions of the soul do keep us at a distance from God but even this body also is a great hinderance to that knowledge of God which we shall attain to that service of God which we might perform and that sweet communion with him which we shall enjoy It is a clog to the soul that would run a mist to the soul that would see clearly a manacle to the soul that would work a snare to the soul that would be free a fetter to chain it to earthly and material things and as it were a pinion to the wings of contemplation More particularly it is a hinderance to it as to those three things which I have â—â—amed As to the souls knowledge of God the body is an occasion of ignorance and errour As to its serving of God an occasion of distract on and weariness lightness and triflingness and as to its communion with God an occasion of earthliness and sensuality Now this distance which this body keeps the soul at from God might more particularly appear in another way of explication by observing the especial grievances that do arise to the soul from those three great animal faculties if I may so speak The Senses the Appetite the Fancy 1. The Senses I mean the external senses of the body seeing hearing c. These convey passions to the soul upon which it insists and feeds with a sinful fondness and eagerness Set open the eye and it will set hard to convey some species to the soul of earthly objects that shall justle the Ideas of God out of it Set open the ear and it will fill the soul with such a noise and earthly tumult that the secret whispers of the divine spirit cannot be heard The like I may say of the rest Oh how easily do these discompose the fixed soul distract the devout soul cast a mist before the contemplative soul and hale down the raised soul from communion with Heaven to converse with earthly objects Vt vidi ut perii is the complaint of many a Christian as well as it was of the Heathen The souls of most men are quite sunk into their senses and do nothing but as it were lacky to them all their lives and so the servants are on horseback and Princes go on foot Though the eye will never be satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing yet forsooth these importunate suiters must be gratified the eye must see what it will see and the ear must hear what it will hear nothing must be with held from them that these childish senses do whine after These mens souls are indeed incarnate swallowed up in their eyes ears and mouths But not only these but even godly souls are often charmed and ensnared by their senses even they converse not only in the body but too much with it also and it becomes as a Dalilah to lull them asleep and bind them too Good Job found his senses so treacherous that he was fain to make a covenant with them Job 31. 1. And well if he could scape so too The words are a Metaphor for indeed the worst of it is that these senses are not capable of any discipline one cannot bring them into any covenant-terms so that whilst we have senses they will be treacherous whilst our eyes are in our heads they will be wandring after forbidden objects 2. The Appetite the sensitive appetite which is a faculty of the sensitive soul whereby this animal man is stirred up to desire and lust after the things which his senses have dictated to him This bodily lust following upon the neck of the former becomes a greater snare to the soul This restless suitor comes whining ever and anon to the soul for every trâ—fle that the eye hath seen or the ear heard or the mouth hath tasted and by it continual coming and importunate crying wearies her into an observance of it As the fond child comes crying to the Mother for every knack and gaw that it hath seen upon the stalls and she though she cannot in judgment approve of the request yet either in fond indulgence or for peace sake will condescend to purchase it This is the Daughter of the Horsleech that cryes continually Give Give Why what would it have even any thing that it hath seen or heard or touched or tasted any thing that it sees a fellow-creature to be possest of And so indeed the Appetite doth not only ensnare the soul unto drunkenness and glutâ—ony but voluptuousness lascivousness and all manner of sensuality The evil of the sensual appetite appears in wantonness and lasciviousness whether real verbal or mental in immoderate and inordinate trading ingrossing sporting building attiring sleeping visiting as well as in eating and drinking I will determine nothing concerning the first motions of the appetite whereby it sollicits the will to fulfil it only this that if it sollicite to any thing simply and morally evil it is sinful in that first act and that at all times it ought carefully to be watcht lest it seduce to intemperance in things lawful
a dead Lion Eccles 9. 4. But I may say to these even as our Saviour said to that woman in Joh. 4. 18. concerning her Husband The life that we live here is not our life The union of the sensitive soul with the body is indeed truly and properly the life of a beast and its greatest happiness for it is capable of no higher perfection But the union of the rational soul with God is the noblest perfection of man and his highest life so that the life of a believing soul is not destroyed at death but perfected Neither was the Apostle weary of his life because of the adversities of it The Apostle was of a braver spirit sure than any Stoick he durst live though he rather desired to dye All the conflicts he endured with the world never wrung such a sigh from him as the conflict that he had with his own corruptions did Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man c. All the perfecutions in the world never made him groan so much as the burden of his flesh doth here and his great distance from the Lord. A godly soul can converse with persecuting men and a tempting Devil can handle briars and thorns can grapple with any kind of oppressions and adversities in the flesh without despondency so long as it finds it self in the bosome of God and in the arms of Omnipotence But when it begins to consider where it is how far it is from its God its life and the happy state that God hath prepared it for then it cannot but groan within it self and be ready with Peter to cast it self out of the ship to get to its God to land it self in eternity Neither indeed to speak truly is it only the sense of sin against God which seâ—s the godly soul a going For though it must be confest that this is a heavy burden upon the soul yet the Apostle makes no complaint of this here but only of his distance from God that necessary distance from God that the body kept him it at 2. See here the excellent spirit of true Religion Godly souls do groan after an unbodyed estate not only because of their sins in the body but even because of the necessary distance at which the body keeps them from God We may suppose a godly soul at some time to have no manner of affliction in the world to grieve him no sin unpardoned unrepented of to trouble him yet for all this he is not at perfect rest he is burdened and groans within himself because he is at such a distance from that absolute good whom he longs to know more familiarly and enjoy more â—ully than he doth yet or than is allowed to mortal men And though nothing else ayl him yet the consideration of this distance makes him cry out Oh when shall I come and appear before God! be wholly swallowed up in him see him as he is and converse with him face to face Bare innocency or freedom from sin cannot satisfie that noble and large spirit that is in a truly and God-like soul but that spirit of true goodness being nothing else but an efflux from God himself carryes the soul out after a more intimate union with that Being from whence it came God dwelling in the soul doth by a secret mighty power draw the soul more and more to himself In a word a godly soul that is really toucht with the sense of divine sweetness and â—ulness and imprest with divine goodness and holiness as the wax is with the stamp of the seal could not be content to dwell for ever in this kind of animal body nor take up an eternal rest in this imperfect mixed state though it could converse with the world without a sinful sullying of it self but must needs endeavour still a closer conjunction with God and leaving the chase of all other objects pant and breath not only after God alone but after more and more of him and not only when it is under the sense of sin but most of all when it is under the most powerful influences of divine grace and love cry out with Paul Oh who will deliver me out of this body 3. Suffer me from hence to expostulate a little to expostulate with Christian souls about their unseemly temper Doth this animal life and mortal body keep us at such a distance from our God our happiness Why are we then so fond of this life and mixed state Why do we so pamper this body Why so anxiously studious to keep it up so dreadfully afraid of the ruines of it If we take the Apostles words in the first sense that I named then I may ask with him in the first verse Know we not that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we had a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens or vers 8. Why are we not willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord If we take them in the latter sense as this animal body is an hinderance to the souls knowledge of and communion with God then I ask concerning this as the Apostle doth concerning rich men James 2. 6. Why do ye pamper prize honour dote upon this body Doth not this body oppress you distract you burden you clog you hinder you Doth not this body interpose between the Sun of Righteousness between the Father of Lights and your souls that should shine with a light and glory borrowed from him even as the dark body of the earth interposes between the Sun and Moon to ecclipse its light Why are we not rather weary that we are in the body Surely there are some objections some impediments to the souls longing after its happy state which I shall come to anon But I doubt also that there is something that chains the soul to this animal life some cords in this earthly tabernacle that tye up the soul in it but I cannot well imagine what they should be Say not There is something of God to be enjoyed in this life which makes it pleasant For although this be true yet I am sure God gives nothing of himself to a soul thereby to clog it or cloy it Did Moses send for some Clusters of the Land of Canaan into the wilderness think ye that the people might see and taste the fruits and sit still and be satisfied and say Oh it is enough we see that there are pleasant things in that Land we will never come at it or did he not do it rather that they might make the more haste to possess themselves of it Will any man say Away I will have no more land no more mony I have some already Can a godly soul say God hath given me an earnest I desire no more No no but the report that a Christian hears of a rest remaining a happy life remaining for it and the chariots of divine graces that he sees God hath sent out into his soul to
wicked travelleth with pain all his dayes a dreadful sound is in his ears They are the words of Eliphaz indeed but they do agree with the words of God himself Isa 33. 14. The sinners in Sion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the hypocrites When I read over these Texts I cannot but pray and cry O my soul come not you into the number of the wicked and be not united into the assembly of Hypocrites 2. Take heed of fondness of the body of a double act of it priding pampering 1. Take heed you pride not your selves in any excellencies of the body Doth this mortal body keep us at a distance from our God Do we well then to love that which keeps us from that which is most lovely Why do we stand fondly gazing upon that which keeps us from the blessed sight of God If you ask me Did ever any man hate his own flesh I will ask you again Did ever any wise man love his own flesh above him that made it Did ever any godly soul love his body in opposition to his God Oh but it is a comely body And what is a beautiful body but a fair prison A silver twist or a clog of gold do as really hinder the flight of a Bird and forestall her liberty as a stone tyed at her heels Nay those very excellencies which you so much admire are so much the greater hinderances If we had learned that excellent lesson indeed of enjoying all things only in God then the several beauties and braveries of the body would be a help to our devotion they would carry us up to an admiration and contemplation of that glorious and most excellent Being from whom they were communicated so we might in some sense look into a glass and behold the beauty of God But alas these commonly prove the greater snares Many had been more beautiful within had they been less beautiful without more chaste if less comely many had been more peacèable and more at peace too if they had been less able to have quarrelled and fought It was said of Galba who was an ingenious man but deformed that his soul dwelt ill but sure I am it might better have been so said of beautiful Absolom or Jezabel whose bodies became a snare to their souls On the other hand they that want a beauty in their bodyes will perhaps labour to find an excellency in their minds far beyond it as the Philosopher advised to look often into a glass ut si deformis sis corrigas formositate morum c. 2. Take heed of pampering the body of treating it too gently and delicately Deny it nothing that may fit it for the service of God and your souls and allow it no more than may do that Thy pampering is 1. Vnseemly What make a darling of that which keeps us from our Lord carry it gently and delicately and tenderly towards that which whilst we carry about with us we cannot be happy 2. Injurious If you bring up this servant delicately from a child you shall have him become your Son at length yea your Master If you do by your bodyes as the fond King did by his Son Adonijah 1 King 1. 6. never displease it never reprove it never deny it it will do with you in time as he did raise seditions in your soul Go on and please and pamper and cocker your bodyes and it will come to this at length that you must deny them nothing you must give whatsoever a whining appetite will crave go whither your gadding senses will carry you and speak whatsoever wanton fancy will suggest Doth not the body it self set us at a sufficient distance from God but we must estrange our selves more from him by pleasuring it spend the time that should be for God in decking trimming adorning it When you cram this you feed a Bird that will pick out your eyes you nourish a Traitor when you gratifie this Adonijah In a word Is it not enough that we do all carry fire in our bosomes but we must also blow it up into a flame Nay my Brethren do not so foolishly And now methinks by this time I may venture upon an Exhortation by degrees at least 1. Watch against the Body You have heard how the senses appetite and fancy become a snare to the souls â—â—ing unto and conversing with God Now then if you seriously design communion with Heaven if you placed your happiness in the knowledge and enjoyment of that supreme and eternal good it becomes you to watch against all things that may distract or divert you from it or make you fall short of the glory of God Men that live upon earthly designs whose great ambition it is to be great in the world do not only use the most effectual means and take the most direct courses to accomplish those designs and attain those ends but do continually suspect and diligently watch against all the moths that would corrupt the rust that would consume the thieves that would plunder their treasures and in a word against all possible hinderances defraudations and disappointments So will we suspect and watch sure against all enemies and traitors to our souls if we live here upon eternal designs if our ambition be to be great in God alone And the more eminent the danger is the more will we watch Have you not found by experience which of these three have been most prejudicial to your communion with God If not you have not been so studious to know the state nor pursue the happiness of your own souls as you might If so then watch against that most of all which you have found to be most injurious For it ordinarily comes to pass either by the difference of constitutions or difference of temptations or different wayes of living or some other thing that Gods children are more ensnared by some one of these than other Well be sure to watch and pray and strive more especially against the more especial enemies of your souls 2. Live above the body above bodily enjoyments ornaments excellencies Though these bodily enjoyments be never so sweet these bodily ornaments never so glorious yet is not your happiness in these Certainly they live to their loss who live upon the excellencies of their own souls whether natural or supernatural they deprive themselves of the infinite glory fulness and sufficiency that is in the Blessed God who take up their happiness in these Much more do they pinch and impoverish their own souls who live upon bodily ornaments or excellencies wherein many inferiour creatures do excel them the Rose in beauty the Sun in brightness the Lion in strength the Stagg in swiftness c. If a woman were as lovely as the morning fair as the Moon clear as the Sun if a man were full of personal grace and majesty terrible as an Army with banners yet were not their happiness in these accomplishments Nay which is worse these ornaments stand between us and our
But I will not enveigle my self in any controversie Methinks the sad consideration layd before your eyes whilst we are in the body we are absent distant from the Lord should wring out an O wretched man that I am c. or an I desire to be dssiolved or if not words yet at least a groan after immortality with our Apostle here We groan within our selves that mortality may be swallowed up of life But can a soul possibly long for the destruction of the body Philosophy indeed tells us that it cannot Be it so yet I 'm sure Divinity teaches that a soul may long after the redemption of the body the redemption of it from this kind of aâ—iâ—al corruptible ensnaring condition that it is now in Rom. 8. 23. We groan within our selves waiting for the redemption of our body If we cannot wish to be unclothed yet we may long to be clothed upon vers 4. of this chapter At least methinks the Heathen should not out-do us who could say Morinolo sed me mortuum esse nihil curo But will all cry Oh if we were sure of interest in it of pardon of sin of truth of grace of eternal life then we could freely leave all Answ 1. That is you would live to be more holy before you dye you are not yet holy enough No nor never shall be till you dye If you long after holiness long to be with God then for that is a state of perfect holiness To desire to live upon pretence of being more holy is a meer fallacy a contradiction But it may be this is not the meaning of the Objection Theresore 2. A not having of what we would have is not an excuse for not doing what we should do It is our duty to rejoyce in the Lord Phil. 4. 4. which our not having of assurance doth not exempt us from though if we have assurance we might indeed rejoyce the more But to take off this plea at once 3. Our earnest longings after a full and perfect enjoyment of God and so our breathings after an immortal state doth not depend upon our assurance but indeed assurance rather depends upon that I doubt we are commonly mistaken in the nature of assurance and it may be are in a wrong manner curious about the signs of Christs appearing in our souls For certainly a well grounded assurance of the love of God doth most discover and unfold it self in the growth of true godliness in the soul Now the love of God and an earnest desire to be like unto him and to be with him is the better half of all religion Mat. 22. 37 38. so that it rather seems that assurance springs up from this frame of soul than that this arises out of assurance If assurance be the thing that you desire get your souls joyned to God in a union of affections will and ends and then labour and long to be closer to him liker to him perfectly holy and happy in him and be ye assured that Christ is in you of a truth For these mighty works which he hath wrought these divine breathings these holy pantings after him do bear witness of him 4. Whether ever you come to that feeling knowledge that powerful sense of your state or no which you call assurance yet know that it is your duty to long after immortality We are wont to call assurance the priviledge of some few but the Scripture makes this temper that I am speaking of the duty of all Believers which I do the rather name because I find few Professors of this temper and indeed but few that are willing to believe that they ought to be Our Saviour calls all Believers to as much in effect as I do Luk. 21. 28. Look up and lift up your heads for the day of your redemption draweth nigh whereby is not meant a bare posture and speculation but joy and longing are required by that phrase say the Dutch Annotat. See also Rev. 22. 17. Consider further which methinks should strike cold to the hearts of cold-hearted Professors that this very temper is made one of the greatest characters of true and sincere Saints I do not know of any one oftner named See Rom. 8. 23. We groan within our selves waiting for the redemption of our body 2 Tim. 4. 8. The Lord shall give the Crown to them that love his appearing Tit. 2. 13. We should live godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 3. 12. What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hastening to the coming of the day of God! Jude 21. Keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Do all these plain and pathetical Scriptures stand for cyphers in your eye Methinks they should not But not to stand upon the proof of it to be a duty it matters not whether there be an express command for it or no This that I am speaking of is not so much the duty of godly persons as the very nature genius and spirit indeed of godliness iâ— self Methinks a godly soul that is truly toucht with divine goodness influenc't by it and imprest with it as the Needle is with the Loadstone must needs strive powerfully within it self to be in conjunction with it A holy soul that after all its wearisome defeats and shameful disappointments in the creature finds its self perfectly matcht with this infinite full and perfect object must certainly and necessarily be carryed without any other argument with fervent longings after union to it and communion with it The Spouse might say concerning Christ as he concerning her Cant. 6. 12. Or ever I was aware my soul made me like the chariots of Aminadab And every godly soul may in some degree say with that Spouse Cant. 5. 4 5. My Beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door and my bowels were moved for him I rose up c. Tell me friends How can Divine Grace that Well of living water in the soul chuse but spring up into eternal life John 4 14. I doubt not to affirm that that which is of God in the soul must needs carry the soul after God as it belongs to Heaven so it will belonging towards Heaven That which is of a divine original must needs have a divine tendency that which is of divine extraction will have in it a divine attraction and persue a divine perfection Col. 3. 1. That divine life and spirit that runs thorow godly souls doth awaken and exalt in some measure all the powers of them into an active and chearful sympathy with that absolute good that renders them compleatly blessed Holiness and purity of heart will be attracting God more and more to it self and the more pure our souls are and the more separate from earthly things the more earnestly will they
endeavour the nearest union that may be with God and so by consequence methinks they must needs in some sense desire the removal of that animal life and dark body that stands in their way for they know that that which now letteth will let such is the unchangeable nature of it till it be layd in the dust till it be taken out of the way The thirsty King did but cry for water of the Well of Bethlehem and his Champions broke thorow the Host of the Philistines and fetcht it 2 Sam. 23. 15. And will ye not allow the thirsty soul if not to break thorow to fetch it yet at least to break out into an Oh that one would give me to drink of the living water of the fountain of grace and peace and love Will ye allow hunger to break down stone-walls and will ye neither allow the hungry soul to break down these mud-walls nor to wish within it self that they were broken down In a word then give me leave earnestly to press you to an earnest pressing after perfect fruition of and eternal converse with God and to change the Apostles words Heb. 12. 1. Seeing we are compassed about with so great a divine light and glory and brightness let us be willing and desirous to lay aside this weight of flesh and this body that so easily resists us with sins and snares and run with eagerness to the object that is set before us Amen Amen Draw me we will run after thee THE Angelical Life MAT. 22. 30. Are as the Angels of God in Heaven THE Doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ and the great things of Christian Religion as they were accounted a strange thing by all the world when they were first publisht and preacht so indeed by none less entertained or rather more opposed than by the wisest of men living in that age viz. Scribes Pharisees Sadduces who were the disputers of this world as the Apostles phrase is 1 Cor. 1. 20. A thing of wonderful observation not only to us in our day but even to our blessed Lord himself in the dayes of his flesh who fetches the cause of it from Heaven and adores the infinite Wisdom of God in it Mat. 11. 25. Amongst other set Disputations that the Saddâ—ces held with our Saviour this in this chapter is very famous where they dispute against the Resurrection of the dead by an argument fetcht ab absurdo vers 25. grounded upon an instance of a woman that had been married to seven Husbands successively Now say they if there be a Resurrection whose Wise shall she be then our Saviour answers by destroying the ground of their argument and shewing that they disputed upon a false supposition for saith he In the Resurrection there shall be no marrying but men shall be as the Angels of God In which words this Doctrine is plainly layd down for I shall not meddle with the Controversie Doct. That the glorified Saints shall be as the Angels of God in Heaven The other Evangelists do lay down the same truth as you may find Mark 12. 25. Luk. 20. 36. In the explication of which point I will shew 1. Negatively wherein the Saints shall not be like the Angels 2. Affirmatively wherein they shall be like unto them or as St. Luke hath it equal to them 1. Negatively The glorified Saints shall not be like the Angels in essence The Angelical essence and the rational soul are and shall be different Souls shall remain souls still keep their own essence The essence shall not be changed souls shall not be changed into Angelical essences 2. They shall not be wholly spirits without bodyes as the Angels The spirit of just men now made perfect are more line to the Angels in this sense than they shall be after the Resurrection For now they are spirits without bodyes but the Saints shall have bodyes not such as now so corruptible so crazy not in any thing defective not needing creature supplyes But incorruptible glorious bodyes in some sense spiritual bodyes which are described by three characters 1 Cor. 15. 42 43. Incorruptible somewhat more than immortal glorious powerful Neither doth their having bodyes any whit abate of their perfection or glory nor render them inferior to the Angels for even the glorious Redeemer of the world hath a body who is yet superior to the Angels and he shall change the vile bodyes of the Saints and make them like unto his glorious body Phil. 3. ult 3. Neither have we any ground to believe that the Saints shall be altogether equal to the Angels in dignity and glory But rather that as man was at first made a little lower than the Angels so that he shall never come to be exalted altogether so high as they for it seemeth that the natural capacity of an Angel is greater than of a 〈◊〉 and so shall continue for they are distinct kinds of creatures As a beast cannot become so wise and intelligent as a man for then he would cease to be a beast so neither can a man become so large and capable as an Angel for then he would cease to be a man 2. Affirmatively The glorified Saints shall be like the Angels of God in Heaven first In their qualities that is 1. In being pure and holy whether they shall be equal to them in positive holiness or no I know not whether they shall understand and know and love God in all degrees as much as the Angels It seems rather that they shall not because as I said before their capacity shall not be so large But if in this they be not altogether equal to the Angels yet it implyes no imperfection for they shall be positively holy as far as their nature is capable and so shall be perfect in their kind Heb. 12. 23. The spirits of Just men made perfect They shall in this be like unto the Angels if not equal to them yea like unto God himself in it Be ye holy as I am holy 1 Pet. 1. 15. Mat. 5. ult But as to negative holiness the Saints shall be even equal to the Angels of God in Heaven i. e. they shall have no more sin no more corruption than they have They shall be as perfectly freed from all iniquities imperfections and infirmities as the Angels What can be cleaner than that which hath no uncleanness at all in it Why so clean shall all the Saints be Rev. 21. 27. No unclean thing shall enter into Heaven They shall be without all kind of spot or blemish Ephes 5. 27. which is a perfect negative holiness more cannot be said of the Angels in this respect As branches of this 2. As the holy Angles do reverence the Divine Majesty Isa 6. 2 3. they cover their faces with their wings crying Holy Holy Holy Lord of Hosts so shall the glorified Saints You may see what sweet harmony they make consenting together to give all the glory of all to God Rev. 7. 9 11 12. The Saints
stood and cryed Salvation to our God who sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb The Angels stood round about saying Amen Amen 3. In their readiness to do the will of God and execute his commands therefore the Angels are described to have wings Isa 6. 2. with twain they did fly How God shall please to imploy Angels or Saints in the world to come is not for us to enquire But they shall be alike ready to do his will and serve his pleasure whatever it shall be Even whilst the Saints are imperfect on earth they can cry Here am I send me Isa 6. 8. How much more ready shall they be then when all their fetters are knockt off 4. They shall be as the Angels in their chearful and unwearied execution of the will of God So the Angels are and so shall the Saints be The spirit shall be then more willing and the Flesh shall be no more weak as it is now for when it is raised again it shall be in power 1 Cor. 15. 43. More things of this nature might be added but I pass lightly over them because although they be true yet they are not principally lookt at in this Text therefore I come to the second thing wherein the glorified Saints shall be like unto the Angels and that is 2. In their way of living They shall be like the Angels i. e. saith one truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living like the Angels How is that our Saviour tells us Neither marrying nor being given in marriage it is added presently in Luk. 20. 36. For neither can they dye any more If there be no dying there will be no need of propagation if no need of propagation then why should they marry The Angels are single and know no other conjunction but with God in a spiritual manner no more shall the Saints But what great matter is that to be like the Angels in what perfection is that Many Saints yea and sinners too upon earth are so like the Angels nay and the Devils too Therefore you must know that our Saviour under this phrase of not marrying c. doth comprehend all manner of creature-converse all kind of living upon and delighting in the creature by a Synecdoche of the part as is ordinary in Scripture I have not given upon usury saith the Prophet yet the people curse me Jer. 15. 10. i. e. I have had no dealing in the world no negotiation By one kind he understands the whole Ezek. 25. 41. where by eating their fruits and drinking their milk is understood the possessing of all that was theirs And in many other places the Spirit of God uses this Tropical way of speaking The Angels of God neither marry nor are given in marriage i. e. they live not upon any created good delight not in any created comfort but live entirely upon God converse with him are everlastingly beholding his glory and delighting themselves in him Thus shall the glorified Saints live for ever Their bodyes shall not need nor use created supplyes food physick rayment c. which things in this animal state they stand in need of Mat. 6. 32. But that 's not all for their souls shall not any longer desire nor hanker after any created thing but as the Angels shall be possest of God filled with the fulness of God all the powers and faculties of them perfectly refined and spiritualized abstracted from all created things eternally rejoycing and delighting themselves in the contemplation and participation of the supreme and infinite good For during this earthly and imperfect state not only the bodyes of good men feed upon and are sustained by the creatures in common with other men but even their souls do taste too much of worldly contentments and drink too deep of earthly pleasures and creature-comforts Even the most refined souls upon earth though they do not properly feed upon any thing below God yet do ost dip the end of their Rod in this hony that lyes upon the earth with Jonathan do cast an unchaste eye upon their earthly enjoyments and delight in them in a way too gross and unspiritual having abstracted them from God and loving them with a distinct love But in the Resurrection it shall not be so for the holy souls shall be perfectly conformed to the holy God shall feed upon him singly live upon him entirely be wrapt up in him wholly and be satisfied in him solely and everlastingly and so shall they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels The creature although it do not fill any truly sanctified soul upon earth yet it hath some room there but then it shall be perfectly cast out and the soul shall be filled with all the fulness of God the creature is now much in some godly souls and something in all of them but then it shall be nothing at all to them or in them but God shall be all in all all things in all of them as the way of the Saints living and their glorified state is described 1 Cor. 15. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God may be all in all They shall inherit all things but how is that why see the explication of it in the following words God will be their God Rev. 21. 7. He that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God God shall be unto them instead of all things In that state there shall be no need of Sun or Moon Rev. 21. 23. by which excellent and useful creatures the whole Creation seems to be understood for they that shall live above the Sun and Moon shall certainly live above all things that are below these But how then why it follows The glory of God shall enlighten them and the Lamb shall be their light so Rev. 22. 5. And there shall be no night there and they need no Candle neither light of the Sun for the Lord giveth them light All happiness is derived into them from God and therefore there shall be no night no want of any creature-comfort to them neither shall they desire any thing more of the creature whether small or great whether Candle or Sun For explication of this their blessed life let me allude to that of our Saviour Luk. 12. 24. The Fowls of the Heaven neither sow nor reap yet God feedeth them so the Saints of Heaven neither want nor desire any created good for they feed upon God the supreme and infinite good And again vers 27. The Lillies neither toyl nor spin and yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these These blessed souls have no respect at all to things terrene created yet are they so filled and adorned with the glory of the infinite Majesty that Solomon in all his glory was a filthy and ragged thing in comparison of them In a word the state of the glorified Saints and Angels is set out by our Saviour in the same manner by one and the same description and that is
the seeing of God The life of Angels is called a continual beholding of the face of God Mat. 18. 10. and the state of the Saints glory and happiness is also a seeing of God Mat. 5. 8. Heb. 12. 14. Rev. 22. 4. They shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads Now this phrase the seeing of God applyed both to the Saints and Angels doth place their happiness in God alone excluding the creature and it doth import the fulness and clearness and certainty of that their bliss Thus I have shewed you in what sense though I am not able to shew you in what degree the glorified Saints shall be like the Angels of God in Heaven Their way of living viz. upon the blessed God alone shall be the same with that of the holy Angels Application From the discovery of the future state of the Saints I find my self filled with indignation 1. Reproof Against the carnal conceits that many Christians have of Heaven Christians do I call them Nay herein they seem rather Mahumetans who place Heaven in the full and lasting enjoyment of all creature-comforts nay indeed of sinful and abominable pleasures as one may read in their Alcoran It may be few Christians are altogether so sensual but sure I am the far greater sort of Christians so called are very gross and carnal at least very low in their conceits of the state of future happiness Heaven is a word as little understood as Holiness and that I am sure is the greatest mystery in the world it would be tedious to run thorow the particular various apprehensions of men in this matter and indeed impossible to know them The common sort of people understand either just nothing by Heaven but a glorious name or at best but a freeness from bodily torment As nothing of Hell affects them but that dreadful word fire so nothing of Heaven but the comfortable word Rest or safety Others it may be think there is something positive in Heaven and they dream of an honourable easic pleasant life free from such kind of toyls labours pains persecutions reproaches penuries which men are subject to in this life This is a true notion but much below the nature of that happy state others are yet more highly affected with the words of Glory and Glorious and seem to be much ravished with them but are like men in a maze or wonderment that admire something that they understand not and are altogether confounded in their own apprehensions of it As if a man should be mightily taken with such a fine name as Arabia the happy and by a blind fervor of mind should desire to go and visit it Others rise higher yet in their apprehensions of Heaven and look upon it as a holy state but that holiness is negative viz. a perfect freedom from sin and all temptations to it And indeed this is a precious consideration and that wherein many a weary soul finds much rest But yet this amounts not to the life of Angels it is a lower consideration of Heaven than what our Saviour here presents us with The state of the glorified Saints shall not only be a state of freedom from temporal pains or eternal pains or a freedom from spiritual pains and imperfections but a state of perfect positive holiness pure light ardent love spiritual liberty holy delights when all created good shall perfectly vanish all created love shall be swallowed up the soul shall become of a most God-like disposition shining forth in the glory that he shall put upon it glorying in nothing but the blessed God Father Son and Holy Ghost in his divine Image and perfections and wrapt up entirely into his infinite fulness to all eternity Which hath made me oft-times to nauseat and indeed to blame the poor low descriptions of the Kingdom of Heaven which I have found in Books and Sermons for too drye yea and gross which do describe Heaven principally as a place and give it such circumstances of beauty firmness security light and splendor pleasant society good neighbourhood as they think will most commend an earthly habitation True indeed the Holy Ghost in Scripture is pleased to condescend so far to our weak capacities as to describe that glorious state to us by such things as we do best understand and are apt to be most taken with and do most gratifie our senses in this world as a Kingdom Paradise a glorious City a Crown an Inheritance c. But yet it is not the will of God that his enlightened people should rest in such low notions of eternal life For in other places God speaks of the state of glory according to the nature and excellency of it and not according to the weakness of our understanding and describes it at another rate calling it the Life of Angels as here the beholding of God Mat. 5. 8. a coming unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Ephes 4. 13. Gods being All things in us 1 Cor. 15. 28. It is called a Knowing of God and of his Son Jesus Christ Joh. 17. 3. In a word which is as high as can be spoke higher indeed than can be perfectly understood it is called a Being like unto God 1 Joh. 3. 21. We shall be like unto him But this Use is not so much for Reproof as it is for Information 2. Here is matter of Roproof yea and of just indignation against the gross low sensual earthly life of Professors who yet hope to be the children of the Resurrection and to be as the Angels of God in Heaven What hope to be like them then and yet altogether unlike them now I speak not in a passion but out of a just indignation that I have conceived against my self and against the generality even of Saints themselves I am not going to speak of Covetousness commonly so called there is a sin much like to it which is not indeed a single sin but an evil and unseemly temper which is earthly-mindedness or minding of earthly things or if you will because I would not be misunderstood a living upon the creature or a loving of the creature with a distinct love Oh the insensible secrecy and insuperable power of this creature-love I cannot sufficiently exclaim against it Why do we spend noble affections upon such low and empty nothings Are we called with suâ—h a high Calling think you that our conversation should be so low Is the fulness of the fountain yours and do ye yet delight to sit down by and bathe your selves in the shallow streams Is your life hid with Christ in God Why then do you converse as if your life were bound up in the creature Have you layd up your treasure in the blessed God what do your hearts then so far from it Is your happiness in Heaven why then is not your conversation there too Do ye count it your bliss to see God what then mean those fond and wanton glances that ye cast
upon God and enjoying all happiness in him alone for ever Shall this certainly be ouâ—â— life in Heaven oh then labour to begin this life upon earth If you cannot perfectly transcribe yet at least imitate that Angelical kind of life Though you are here imprisoned in a body of earth and oft cumbred and clogg'd with bodily infirmities and called to attend upon bodily necessities yet as far as this animal state will permit live upon God Do not excuse nor vindicate that low kind of earthly life do not justifie your living below and besides God but stir up your selves to behold where your happiness lies and live not willingly below it Certainly a godly soul hath more than bare hope in this world God the blessed infinite and communicative good hath not lockt up himself so far out of fight but that he gives his people a comfortable beholding of him even whilst they are in their Pilgrimage and what Soloman saith of the life of the godly he means it of their present life Prov. 15. 24. The way of life is above to the wise Their living not only shall be but is now above it is a high way of living They are certainly a puny sort of Mechanical Christians that think and talk only of a Heaven to come and dream of an happiness without them and distinct from them The truly godly and God-like soul cannot so content himself but being spirited and principled from above is carryed out after the Infinite and Almighty Good as a thing is carryed towards its centre and hastens into his embraces as the Iron hastens to the Loadstone and longs to be in conjunction with it If therefore ye be from Heaven live above all above all earthly things If ye be risen with Christ seek the things that are above Col. 3. 1. If ye be born of God live upon God and suck not the breasts of a stranger Deny self live besides self i. e. live not to the lusts live not to the service of your senses to the lust of the flesh to the lust of the eye to the pride of life let not your souls be servants to your sins no nor to your senses that were for servants to ride on horseback and Princes to walk on foot Eccles 10. 7. Live above self i. e. let your souls quit all their own interest in themselves and entirely resign themselves to God as to all points of duty and service But that 's not all neither is that it which I press you to from these words but live above the creature and whatsoever is in it viz. delighting in God conversing and communing with him alone as the chiefest Good Desire not any creature any further than as it may help you forward to the Creator neithet delight in it any further than as it either represents some of the divine perfections witnesseth something of divine love or leadeth to some divine participation or communion Seeing we shall come to live upon God and delight in God alone without any creature let us now live upon feed upon love God alone in every creature Now to give you a more distinct knowledge of this high and noble life I will explain it in some particulars negatively and affirmatively First Negatively 1. Live not upon Self I speak not of living unto Self but live not upon Self Self-excellencies Self-sufficiencies any created accomplishments which was the life of the Stoicks those great Philosophers who placed happiness in the enjoyment of themselves which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To enjoy ones self indeed is a high duty a noble priviledge a duty of the Gospel Luk. 21. 19. Possess ye your souls But how must we enjoy our selves why only in God He enjoys himself 1. Not who in a sullen melancholy retires to a solitary and monastical life as many of the sowrer sort of Papists do 2. Nor he that in a proud mood disdains the perfections of God shining forth in other men and hiding himself from them through envy contents himself to sit and admire his own personal accomplishments as many humorists do 3. Nor he who finding nothing without him nor knowing nothing above him to give his soul her full rest settles upon a foundation of his own and admires a self-sufficiency in the temper of his own spirit a little subdued by Philosophical precepts as the Stoicks did and our Quakers do But he who enjoyes himself in God i. e. who doth not view himself in the narrow point of his own Being but taking a view of himself in the unbounded essence of God loves and enjoyes and values himself and all his personal excellencies as he is in God and partakes of his perfections To live in a way of self-converse is below the end of mans creation who was made for a higher good And hereby a man shall never obtain true happiness for it is peculiar to God alone to be happy in himself In a word a soul that confines it self to its self and lives and moves and rejoyces only within the narrow cell of its own particular Being deprives it self of that Almighty and Original Goodness and Glory that sills the world and shines thorow the whole Creation 2. Live not upon any creature without your selves Self indeed is a Creature but yet for clearness in proceeding we shall distinguish them Now this is the life of the greatest sort of men they live beside God and move only within the sphere of the creature you will easily understand that I speak not of the bodyes living upon the creature for so God hath appointed that it shall live and yet as to this too I say with our Saviour Man liveth not by bread alone c. But I speak of the soul of man living upon the creature as its highest good and feeding upon it as its best fare They rise up early and sit up late and God is not in all their thoughts They are filled with domestiek and forein comforts but behold not the Father of Lights from whom all these descend They live upon the good things of the world yet live without God in the world Now by these men 1. do not mean those Heathens that in the most Idolatrous manner do in the literal sense set up the creatures for Gods 2. Nor those Christians that in a most gross manner do makeidols of the creatures and place their happiness in them 3. No nor only those earthly Professors who follow the world too eagerly and have such a deep and rooted respect for it that they can be ordinarily content to suffer creature-employments to justle God and duties out of their hearts and houses whose worldliness is apparently too hard for their Religion Who then Shall we come any nearer yes 4. Those are guilty of creature converse who do not enjoy all creatures in God who love any thing in any creature with a distinct love that do not love it only in God who love silver gold houses lands trading friends with