God and if once the Devil get the possession and can back thy spirit he will ride thee post into the pit where there is no bottom and from whence there is no return I will shut up all with that expression of God in Isai 17.11 Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy Salvation and hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy strength therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants and shall set it with strange slips In the day shalt thou make thy plants to grow and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish but the Harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow You may in your forgetfulness of God enjoy your desire trim up this world to your own contentment and make all your ways like pleasant walks in delightful gardens you may make your paths to be as fruitful fields But what shall the end be When the Harvest comes in the appointed time thereof there shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow If you would have a Harvest of Rejoycing if you would reap that which may be the Refreshing of your Souls if you would not sow gall and wormwood for you to reap hereafter take heed of betraying your selves into a forgetfulness of God THE Principal Interest OR THE Propriety of Saints in God DISPLAYED In several Discourses upon MICAH 7.7 My GOD will hear Me. CHAP. I. Interest in God the true Spring of Consolation How it is Propriety with Community Best because God is best by a Confluence of all Excellencies THE Church was now sad and there was cause enough for God frown'd upon her If she look'd upward she saw God displeased if downward there was nothing but violence one devouring another with the tongue and with the hand And therefore she makes her retreat unto God Therefore because men are so injurious so false so treacherous therefore I 'le look to the Lord. It 's an excellent spirit which is in the Saints that the world knows not of they make such Therefores such Conclusions as the world is not acquainted with The froward man says Therefore I 'le do so too the politick man says Therefore I 'le be wise and look to my self the good man says Therefore I 'le look to the Lord. Observe how the evils of this world put the Saints upon the improvement of their power with God and how the sight of propriety in God gives strength and life to the spirits of Saints I 'le look up I 'le wait for the God of my Salvation my God will hear me That which I am to speak to then is That the sight of God as our God is that which lifts up our heads and chears our hearts against all discouragements and carries us through all difficulties and whatsoever is dismall When a man can say God is mine that man shall live when nothing else lives I 'le give you some few Foundations of this The first thing I 'le instance in is That this propriety of the Saints is a propriety with community there is much in that In 1 Cor. 1.2 Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours The force of this lies thus That which serves for most is best The Sun is better then a Tapor because that serves all the other serves but one or a few A Spring is better then a Cistern because all my drink of that but few of the other That which all want is best Universal want argues that thing which we need to be universally good That may be wanting to one man which another wants not A Mariner may want a rudder or a sail which others want not but all men want bread That thing is good to him but this is good to all This Propriety therefore being with Community to wit that God is not my God alone but of all the Saints in Heaven and in Earth and of all the Angels this shews that a Propriety and Interest in God is the best Propriety Hence it is that the Saints having their portion in such an one are so refreshed and their comforts much advanced because they know that others drink of the same River of Life together with them Secondly This Propriety is in that which is best by a Confluence of all excellent things As for example Love Goodness and Kindness there is none like that which is in God here it is transcendent You may reason so not only from what God is an infinite Being but from what God doth Look on those high operations of his Wisdom and Power you shall see they are clear demonstrations of his Goodness the most excellent things have flowed from thence Pardon of sin Peace that passeth all understanding and everlasting life these have flowed from this Goodness God in his Love hath gone to the utmost to set it out He never intended so full a demonstration of his Power as of his Love Therefore though he hath not gone to the utmost of his Power yet he hath gone to the utmost of his Love It 's Love that passeth knowledg all knowledg Eph. 3.19 It 's possible to imagine how some things in the Creation might have shewn forth more of the Power of God as if he had made men equal power with Angels c. But it 's not devisable which way there should be a greater demonstration of his Love then he hath shewn partly in what is the enjoyment of his Saints in this world but principally in that which he hath promised in the other Now where the greatest Goodness and Love is an Interest in that Person is most precious and excellent There is in God a descending Love You shall seldom find that love in a child carries that worth and excellency in it as the Love of a Father doth because descending love chiefly seeks the good of another ascending love seeks our own good The love of God greater because descending love Further There is not only Goodness and Love in God but Wisdom also for the managing of these this adds to the Propriety The best Prince may not have wisdom enough to know all his Subjects but God knows all his as Christ saith Joh. 10. I know my sheep and am known of them He that tells the stars and calls them all by their names knows every one of his and their cases he knows what fears what wants what pressures what straits they are in The Lord knows how to deliver the righteous out of all their troubles 2 Pet. 2.9 Again He is present with all his all things in the world are confined and limited God only is every where The Sun reacheth to the whole Hemisphere But Gods Power is infinite and himself omnipresent He fills Heaven and Earth He is not confin'd to any place or limited within any bounds Therefore to have a Propriety or Interest in this
as the word imports He is pleased so to express his deep affection toward his Church He was held in the galleries and captivated with love to his People so that his eye was ever upon them he loved to behold them it satisfied his Soul as marrow and fatness to see them He shall see of the travel of his Soul and be satisfied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isai 53.11 And indeed he saith he cannot get his eyes off them Can a mother forget her child Isai 49.14 No more can I forget you And is Christ so tender in his love toward us that he ever minds us and shall our minds be so loose to him so fluttering and fleeting Shall there be no more care to bind our selves in cords of love to him that we may ever behold him who bears us in his brest before his Father always 4. This is our fault that whatsoever is done in sending bending and binding of our minds towards God yet with some at least O that it might not be true of all it 's not their course and trade Now and then they are awakened and get up into Heaven to see their Father but it is not dayly and here is their failing that it 's not their course as it was Davids Psalm 145 Every day will I praise thee And I am ever thee Psal 73. I beseech you consider it Is this now and then going to Heaven within the vail to live the life of Friends Is this to carry your selves as children to be so strange at home What now and then once a month or week seldom to be where you always should be You should ever dwell with God as the lovely Center and resting place of your Souls and you are seldom with him is this fair Is Christ and the Father of Christ objects that are not worth the looking after such mean things that a visit now and then should serve the turn What said the Queen of Sheba concerning Solomon Blessed are these thy servants that Always stand before thee and hear thy wisdom If she were so taken with Solomon remember that a greater then Solomon is here And will you deprive your selves of that blessedness which you might enjoy by standing always in the presence of your Father to hear his Wisdom and behold his Glory But if this be a fault as indeed it is what shall we say of that voluntary retention of our minds when the voyce of God within bids us go and visit Heaven but we sit still in a voluntary reluctancy to the voyce that speaks What shall we say to that voluntary diversion of mind when God sets himself in our eyes and our minds turn off from God and pitch on other things and have no content in beholding him But above all what shall we say to that voluntary effusion and vile expence of mind and strength of understanding upon vanities when we send out thoughts in whole troops towards vanities and do not spare one toward Heaven Certainly this is a crime of a very high nature You see in part what is your fault and to know that is a great advantage I have endevored to shew you it in the several degrees of it I shall now shew you the Causes of it CHAP. V. How the Soul comes to wander from God Of divine Permission in this Case Discouragements pretended The heart pleased with something else more then God 1. THe first is Divine Permission God pleaseth to leave his people much to themselves for ends best known to himself and oh what work is made when this wilde Boar is let into the Garden How doth he trample and tread down What spoil doth he make when he is got into the place where he most gladly would be How did God let him in upon Job so that his thoughts by visions in the night troubled him how was he tost in his spirit Solomon how did the Devil run away with his understanding and carry him almost into a total forgetfulness of God that no good man I think ever since the Creation did run so desperate a race as he did God was rooted out of his heart as it were he giving himself up to fulfil the lusts of his eyes and of his mind with all his might but in the end he cries out Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of spirit Certainly it were better the Devil had power to run away with our estates and liberties then with our thoughts keeping them in captivity and as the steers-man of our minds ordering their motions at his pleasure Some mens understandings by the mighty workings of these principalities and powers are as swiftly carried to imaginations of evil as Eagles when they fly to dead bodies or as any creatures when they make haste to their prey You shall see a man when he is in this case all his thoughts are beneath Heaven and they roul up and down the world and pitch sometimes here sometimes there as things suit but are separated from God and he cannot get off but as Jael strook a nail into the head of Sisera and fastened him to the ground so mens thoughts and minds are fastened to something in the world that they cannot deliver themselves This is a woful day indeed when God will not be seen when God saith of a man as David of Absalom Let him not see my face Truly if this be the condition of any that their understandings are ridden by the Devil and carried away from God go to Christ confess and humble your selves seek his face who is the Father of spirits and hath command and power over Devils that as by permission he hath suffered the unclean Spirit to enter so by his commanding word he may say to them Come forth that your understandings may be free for their proper work for he only can cast down imaginations and every thing that exalteth it self against the knowledg of God and bring into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 Many may complain as Job in another case Chap. 17.11 My days are passed my purposes are broken off even the thoughts of my heart or as it is in the Margin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the possessions of my heart are broken off as if a man should say I had thoughts of Jesus Christ I was wont to have sweet apprehensions of my Father which took me much God was wont to take up my Soul and my mind was wont to be contentfully possest with the meditation of him now these possessions are gone and broken off Pray then as David Psal 119.37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity or make mine eyes to pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they be not held to gaze upon vanity but that I may run with freedom the Race that is set before me having God still in mine eyes 2. A second cause of this great fault not having our eyes bent and fixt on God is Discouragements Indeed Discouragements
place but the acts of the Soul may be done in any place at any time you may start into Heaven when no eye sees you you may be on the wing towards God though among a croud of men no business is such but you may be with God and yet your business not suffer Again It 's an eternal faculty and the work of it is everlasting A contemplative life is the life of Heaven it 's that which Angels do they ever behold the face of your Father in Heaven If you like not this work how will you live in Heaven The dislike of it is a bar against your entrance The life of blessedness is a life of Vision and seeing God which if you take no delight in Heaven is no place for you Again It 's a faculty very active your minds must be somewhere else if they be not with God and if they be not on God they are upon something of less concernment Why should you follow after drops and neglect the Fountain Why should you fly after shadows and neglect him who is the true Substance Truly if the mind have its current from God towards other things these things are not only of less concernment but destructive and from whence you will reap nothing but corruption and depravation and defilement of spirit you will grow worse and worse into the form of the Devil by how much your minds stray from God and pitch upon other things Jer. 2.5 They are gone far from me and have walked after vanity and are become vain Again It 's a faculty that hath received in the Saints a tendency towards God You do extreamly wrong your selves when you make not use of that propensity and put not forth your selves to have communion with God whereby you might bless your selves in the enjoyment of him See how David expresses the propensity of his spirit towards God Psal 63.1 O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my Soul thirsts for thee my flesh longeth for thee When shall I come and appear before thee to behold thy Glory as I have seen it in the Sanctuary This is the course of the spirits of the children of God in whom that propensity which was natural is now in part restored so that they are bent towards God they thirst after God as a man thirsts for water in a dry and thirsty Land Again There is a blessing in this work God blesseth what he likes as he curseth what he hateth He likes it well Mal. 3.16 Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and thought on his Name He will be sure to mind those that mind him and be a friend to those that seek after him When you are bid to look upon him it is but to receive from him Is it any thing else but to call and invite you to look on the most pleasing and delightful Object that in the beholding of it it may convey it self unto you and you be delighted and filled with it It is all one as if he should bid you sit down by a Well of Life and drink and to be as Christ and the Angels are who are blessed in the beholding of him as if he should bid you come and pluck Apples off that Tree of Life that is in the midst of Paradise God loves this work Cant. 2.14 Let me see thy face my Beloved and hear thy voyce for thy voyce is sweet and thy countenance comely In one act you may do that which pleaseth God and makes you blessed Set your eye towards him and his eye will be more towards you and he will refresh you as with Manna there is enough in him come and take freely Reflect upon your own experience have you ever found this way like a wilderness If it be a blessed work why will you unbless your selves If the work will exalt you why will you debase your selves in not closing with it And if you might live above in Heaven why will you live below Let all the sweetness you have ever found in this work provoke you to enlarge your self toward it When thoughts of God are moving in you God himself is not far off he will come and enter too and how sweet is it for God to come and take up his habitation in the Soul CHAP. IX Jesus Christ a Pattern of Eying the Father Greatest mindfulness of God due God our best Friend All we have is in his hands and of his gift All Religion founded upon a due mindfulness of God Anguish awails wandering hearts ANother Argument is from the Example of our Lord Jesus whom we are to mind and imitate He is your Pattern What saith Christ Learn of Me And Be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect How can you follow Christ the Captain of your Salvation if you mind him not When the Apostle perswades them in Heb. 12. to run the race that is set before them he bids them look to Jesus the Author and Finisher of their Faith Mariners at Sea that they may run a right course keep an eye on that ship that bears the light Your course cannot be right when your eye is not upon Jesus Christ your Pattern Would it be with us as it is when the forgetfulness of God lodgeth in our hearts if we did more mind Christ We should say in our selves Is this the course that he steered David tells us of Christ Psal 16.8 that he set the Lord always before him or as Luke expounds it applying those words to Christ Acts 2.25 I foresaw the Lord always before my face The Father was Ever in his eye whatsoever came into his sight he ey'd him first and fix'd upon him Now Christ is not only appointed to be our Pattern in this thing but he takes notice of us whether we imitate or no His eye is upon us to see whether our eye be upon the Father as his was and is for ever It was the counsel of Seneca that when men are about to do evil they should think on Plato or some such eminent man as present to behold them Certainly if Christ were more minded as such a Pattern God would be more the object of our most affectionate thoughts Again If we consider the Object it is the greatest reason in the world that our eye should be upon God God is our friend he loves us he bears us in his heart and shall not he be in our thoughts This is ill requiting of him whose eye is always on us seldom or never to eye him This is a great contradiction to the Law of Friendship which consists in reciprocation of loves Jer. 29.11 I know my thoughts toward you saith the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end Oh that we could say so I know my thoughts towards God are thoughts of love and care to please him Job 19.14 See how hainously
'le name one more Interest in God is better enjoyed then any other Interest whatsoever There is no Interest to be enjoyed with that sweetness security usefulness and consolation as our Interest in God is For besides that unspeakable and infinite Fulness that is in God know that this Interest is not subject to any dissolution Interest in God now is better then it was in our first estate when we came out of Gods hand All other Interests may cease If our love or others loveliness cease our Interest is gone and the loveliness of every Creature under the Sun will have an end but God abides Take a man the most wise the most learned the most amiable the richest man all these things will pass away but our Interest in God is not subject to any separation that is we shall be never from him The absence of our friends is like the setting of the Sun they are life to us in their presence but when they are gone from us they cannot help us they are so far dead to us but God is ever with us Interests with men are oft-times very exacting A man must do this and do that and much ado to please Men do tye up their Interest so strait that except things be done at this time and after this mode we indanger a flaw God doth not impose upon his people after this manner And again Other Interests are apt to be tyred and so fall into a dull sleep of mutual forgetfulness because the goodness that is in us is but little a shallow Cistern is soon drawn dry But with God there is no difficulty at all to give out love and if he spend himself never so much this way he is not at all diminished He rests in his love Zeph. 3. His joy and self-contentment is always flourishing So that as this Interest is more attainable so it 's better to be enjoyed CHAP. IX Christians ought to clear their hopes from Uncertainties Beleevers doubt through their own fault They that seek God must pursue their end THat which follows next is Exhortation That you would not only seek this Interest and get it but that you would seek to know it and to be satisfied that you have indeed an Interest in God Live not upon hopes mingled with uncertainties and anxieties Let not this suffice It may be God is my God or I hope he is but put it out of doubt Give all diligence saith the Apostle to make your Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 Sure as firm ground that you may so know it that there may be no trembling of heart about it that it may be a certain conclusion made up in your own spirits that you are the called and chosen of God For if you do these things saith the Apostle you shall never fall but an abundant entrance shall be administred to you into his Kingdom You shall never fall or as it is sometimes rendered you shall never offend So the Apostle James Chap. 2.10 He that Offends in one is guilty of all Indeed the sight of Interest in God carries a man with more evenness and strength in his way and keeps him in more compliance with and conformity unto God Sometimes the word is rendered stumble Rom. 11.11 Have they stumbled that they should fall If a man know God to be his God he walks with a more even and steady foot all his ways are more plain before him mountains of difficulty and danger will be layd level there will be nothing to dash his foot against to hinder him in his race and an entrance in abundance will be administred to him into the Kingdom of Heaven Fears and doubts straiten our way and hinder our passage to the Kingdom of God Suppose a man were to go into an house where he fears he shall not enter this would very much hinder his endevor But when a man shall have a blessed prospect into Heaven and see his place there that must needs further his more abundant and free entrance into it But more particularly that I may perswade you if God will to be very serious in this thing to make your Interest in God more certain let me tell you In the first place That no man that beleeves in Christ wants it but through his own fault I say it is a mans own fault if he be not able to say that God is his God I speak now according to the ordinary course of God demeaning himself to his people There is nothing of greater concernment either to his peoples welfare or the advancement of his own design which he hath upon them then the manifestation of his Love and the satisfaction of their spirits in that great Question Whether God be their God And that Spirit upon whom lies the Office of bringing from darkness to light hath this Office also of refreshing and reviving the spirit and therefore bears that name the Comforter He not only espouses us to Christ but maintains a perpetual entertainment that is his work He is not only the bond of our Union but the light of it by which we see our selves one with Christ and so one with the Father Many complain they find not God to be their God but it is not because God is not willing to shew himself what he is but because they are wanting to themselves There are two great faults that oftentimes wrong us and keep us in the dark and make that seem a secret which otherwise might lie open to our eyes One Error concerneth seeking Some never put their Interest in God to the question Some seek not at all and never put the question whether God be their God but run the hazard live and dye venturing their Souls to Eternity Others complain they seek but they cannot find fain they would be satisfied in this thing but they cannot Now I say the complaint must fall upon our selves there is perhaps a fault in our seeking This is the word that must stand fast for ever God will be found of them that seek him In Jer. 29.13 Then you shall find me when you seek me with all your heart To seek with all the heart is not only to seek truly and sincerely some seek but in words only making verbal prayers without any inward sense but to seek him strongly above all things and not only from an ardent thirst of spirit but to seek him without ceasing till we find him In due time we shall reap if we faint not Gal. 6. The Rule of Scripture you know is this that we pray incessantly 1 Thes 5.17 Mark that in Hos 6.3 After two days will he revive us and in the third he will raise us up Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord His going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come unto us as the rain as the former and latter rain unto the Earth If you follow on if you follow the business you shall obtain God hath
appointed his going forth as the morning that is as the Sun riseth and fails not as the Sun goes forth in its light and grows so will Gods appearance to his people be And as the rain comes upon the thirsty Earth and causeth all things to spring afresh so shall the manifestation of Gods love be to those that seek him without ceasing What if God appear not presently and you have not that full answer to your desires Though he come slowly yet he will be sure to come his staying is not a denyal and his not shewing himself is not an hiding himself He is uncovering himself and making way for the appearance of that which you would fain have a sight of He stays a while to make his love the more visible afterward by his absence he raiseth the mind and enlargeth the heart to desire and long after his presence and then his manifestation will be fullest God is as ready nay more ready to open then you are to knock he loves that thirst in you which is after himself he loves to be loved let him be pleased as well as you It may be seeking Christians are not so ingenuous as they should be We are not to seek him only but to please him Psal 119.2 Blessed are they that keep his Testimonies and that seek him with their whole heart That seek him and his Love and keep his Law Or it may be offences have been but not bewailed Impotency is the continuation of sin You are ever doing that evil which you have not been humbled for nothing nulls it but repentance and humbling your selves in the sight of God With what face can you say to God Let thy love O Lord be upon me when as you cannot say to God Lord I love thee That man cannot say he loves God that desires not to please him Can he say his heart is with God who suffers his heart to go out after other things Why should he desire so to impose upon God that God should love him whom he desires not to love and please it is unreasonable What father would be so dealt with that the child walking in stubborn courses would have his father shew nothing but clearness of countenance and love to him David all the while he was under clouds of guilt and sorrow wished that God would shew forth the light of his countenance to him but he suffered many wrackings in his Soul till he confessed his sins Psal 32. What God hath said he will have fulfilled Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one tittle of his Promise If he hear not it is not because he is not a God hearing prayer but because you hear not him Isai 45.19 I said not unto the seed of Jacob Seek ye me in vain I the Lord speak righteousness I declare things that are right I speak as I mean my words and my heart agree in one What ever our offences have been if we be ingenuous in our approaches to God God will not look upon our offences but upon our persons In 2 Chron. 7.14 you have this promise If my people that are called by my Name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their Land If thy Soul be sick and thou mournest after God that hideth himself from thee and humblest thy self and repentest of thy sins with abasedness of spirit before him he will hear CHAP. X. God hath fully made known whom he loves Christians able to know themselves Gods Spirit strengthens the testimony of our spirits Christians hindered by Slothfulness and Discouragements A Second Fault is That God doth give the manifestation of his Love and we receive it not we accept it not I will for the more full clearing of this lay down these Considerations First That God hath given to his people sufficient means for the knowledg of their Interest in him for he hath told us who they are that he loves whom he hath chosen and called out of this world and made his peculiar people If he had carried on a design of love to particular persons in his own brest no man could have known who was loved of him then we had been left in the dark for no man knows the things of a man but the spirit of a man as the Apostle speaks But as the Angel marked those in Jerusalem that were to be spared so there is a mark that God hath set upon his own by which they may be known to what fold and flock they do belong And indeed the end of the Scripture so discovering and setting forth the marks of the people of God is for this purpose that we may know our Happiness So in 1 Joh. 5.13 this was the end of writing his Epistle These things saith he have I written unto you that beleeve on the Name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may beleeve on the Name of the Son of God Wherefore was it that he had told them how many ways they might know that God dwelt in them and they in God Wherefore did he make so many descriptions of those whom God had set his love upon but that you may know saith he that you have eternal life because you are such And he hath not only done thus but hath given us understanding also by which we are able to know not only other things but our selves by which we may judg our selves and our actions and what is within us Neither hath he given us an understanding meerly natural but it is raised being illuminated with his own light that we may be able to find out the work of God in us an understanding that can reflect upon it self not only in way of simple vision and apprehension of what is within us but by way of argumentation and reasoning 1 Joh. 2.3 5. Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments And whoso keepeth his Word in him verily is the love of God perfected hereby we know that we are in him God hath given us understanding to reflect upon our selves in a way of reasoning to make certain to our selves our Interest in these things Nay he hath given us his Spirit that bears witness to our spirits that we are the sons of God Rom. 8. We must not think that was a special favor given to the Saints then but it 's common to all the people of God The Spirit of Adoption hath a double office of quickening and comforting and whosoever is a son hath the testimony of that Spirit There is a double Testimony A Testimony of the things themselves so that which is of God in us doth bear witness as the effect bears witness of the cause There 's another Testimony and that is of God himself by his Spirit and that Testimony doth help our spirits it helps the testimony of the things
and empty And will you suffer your Souls against Nature to live out of God when you are called to live on him who is the Fountain of Life I may say unto you as Eliphaz spake in Job 15. Are the Consolations of God small to you And is it so light a matter to have the knowledg of the love of God and your Interest in him In Jer. 14.18 the Prophet speaks of spoiling and wasting but if it doth come saith he thy ways and thy sins have procured these things unto thee therefore know that it is an evil thing and bitter to forsake the Lord. You may thank your selves if a day come wherein there will be bitterness to your hearts and the pangs of death upon you because you know not that God is your God know that this is your wickedness because you will not now look after it and so you rob your Souls That is one thing 2dly When you are not sedulous and industrious in this thing to make sure that God is your God you leave your selves in the high way of Apostacy What is that which will make us able to stand the Apostle Peter tells us 2 Pet. 1.10 Give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure for if you do these things you shall never fall You expose your selves to offences to stumbling and falling when you are content to live in the dark not knowing what Interest you have in God For consider you are now out of the shine of the Sun you are in the cold evening shade your life is much weakened and your strength abated It is the knowledg of divine Love that is the spirit and strength of our love this lays bonds upon our spirits by which we become one with God it is the wing of our Souls the spring of our activity by which we are born up to an enjoyment of God The joy of the Lord is your strength saith Nehemiah And by this Paul was more then a Conqueror yet Paul had many Enemies Through this Abraham was able to do so great things by this Moses was able to despise the wrath and favor of Pharaoh and all the pleasures and riches of his Court While a man walks in the shine and sense of divine Love he will feel a strength in two Principles of great use 1. To cleave fast to the chief good now that chief good is God to that man that enjoys him he hath the truest taste that sees God to be his God and no man else hath such a taste as he this will hold him to God Where the Creatures have but a Judgment of Sense they will not depart from what they find good A Beast will not change his pasture for gold that is best for him It 's the astonishment of the world that the Angels should fall from their state of Glory and it 's matter of amazement that man should fall from his Creator when he had a full enjoyment of him It 's that which God calls Heaven and Earth to tremble at Jer. 2.13 That men should depart from him the Fountain of living Water c. The sense of acceptation with God makes a man that he cannot go from God Whither shall we go saith Peter Joh. 6. Thou hast the words of eternal life That Soul that lives under the influence of divine Comforts cannot but say Lord it 's good for me to be here he desires no change it cannot be better with him Change proceeds from want for if want were not the creature would not change That Soul that enjoys God is pleased and he saith with David Psal 16. He hath a good portion and his lines are fallen in a good place Nothing is dear to that man to part with that he may enjoy God he bids all things stand by and saith I charge you wife and friends estate and all things do not molest me in my enjoyment of the light of Gods face let all the world go which way it will let me enjoy this blessedness to know assuredly that God is my God When a man lives without this knowledg his life is but a poor shadow of life all without God is but a dead thing to him Another Principle receiving strength from the knowledg of Gods Love and our Interest in him is That a man should be friendly to his friend that he should walk with an harmony of spirit to his friends desire Love pleaseth not it self Now when a man enjoys the sweetness of friendship with God this makes him true to his Maker and to cleave close to God as to his Father Indeed the sense of this constrains the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.14 saith The love of Christ constrains us How can I do this evil saith Joseph and sin against my God But now if thou be careless and canst make a shift to live I know not how a dull stupid dark sensless kind of life thy heart not witnessing that thou endeavorest to make good thy Interest in God thou art not under the bond of Love and then what art thou under Other Lovers have taken away thy heart but as for God thou art a stranger to him and art contented to be without him this is a woful state And as a man that lives out of the shine of divine Love starves and wastes away so fears in this case are apt to turn into hatred when the Soul is gall'd and tormented with fears of the displeasure of God against him this is apt to turn to hatred Naturally whom we fear we hate and naturally the stronger fear is the more men hate The Devils hate God to the full being past doubting of his displeasure What the Soul fears it flies from and what is the flight of the Soul but hatred Judas would chuse rather to go out of the world and sink into nothing then endure his condition when he saw God not to be his God I 'l shut up this Argument with these few things All that is in a Christian makes to this that he would get a clear knowledg of his Interest in God Hath he Faith why by that he believes God to be his Happiness and that will put him on Hath he Love Love is restless but in clear enjoyment Hath he desire and thirst what are they but the Souls sickness till it hath health and life in the enjoyment of God Hath he Fear what is that but the Soul seeking to be secure and safe in God Hath he Reason what 's that but the voyce of God calling him unto God Hath he a sense of the sweetness of God what 's that but the comfort of divine Love drawing the Soul to himself So that all that is in a Christian puts him on to this to make this clear that God is his God And therefore they that can rub out their days and make a shift to busie themselves in other things without the knowledg of God to be their God have great cause to pronounce this heavy sentence upon themselves that surely
course What unspeakable effusions of inward refreshing have you found upon turning of your spirits unto God upon the very cast of your eye upon the Father of Mercies Alas for those poor Souls those wandering Beggers even all men that do not come in and that have not God for their God in Christ It is pity and grief to see what a poor life they live and they know it not How do they sweat and toyl for that which they never get They get but the image of what they aim at For what do they work For life they think but they work themselves out of life not into life they are knocking always at that door where nothing is where vanity and emptiness dwells they are digging pits that will hold no water they are seeking grapes on thorns and figs on thistles But this way is sure and sweet you are sure to find and your sweetness is as well in seeking as in finding Let Christians then endeavor to live this life How can we without shame complain that we are dead and broken in spirit that a weight lies upon our Souls that we are empty when life is so near us when the Well is not deep and we might take of the water of Life and drink freely Men will not improve the activity and nimbleness of their Souls to enrich themselves We oftentimes charge God with hiding his face from us but wrongfully he turns not away his face from us we turn from him we go out of the Sun-shine into the cold shade and then we shake by reason of cold But those looks of God which are easily had in Jesus Christ warm and chear the Soul Have not such a thought in your hearts that holy Consolations are hardly gotten You wrong the Fountain of Life if you think that you may draw and find nothing or that you may let down your bucket and bring it up empty these are blasphemies which our unbeleeving hearts form against God Certainly God is easie to be entreated and to be found of those that seek him David in Psal 32. had hard thoughts of him but when he once tryed him though he came in the blackness and dread of his Soul covered over with shame and confusion yet he found God to be to him according to all his Name and according to all his Word his tears were wiped away and his broken bones were set again and he was satisfied I would yet a little more clearly express this thing and winde up the Exhortation to its just height in two words 1. That we endevor to live this life in the highest degree that is to live very much in God not only to have a true life but a life proportionable to our relation unto him Princes should feed as Princes and their life should be like their place So should Christians have their life proportionable to what God is What God is in himself he is to us if we have accepted Salvation by Jesus Christ Meer peace is too low a temper for a Christian he is never like himself except he live in joy his principles reach to all joy and for that the Apostle Paul pray'd Col. 1.11 Saints might as well live like Princes in faith and joy as with feeble hopes some weak consolations they might as well drink a full draught as taste of the goodness and kindness of God Who straitens you What is your life but a continual espousing of your selves unto God and should not there be much joy on the Marriage day Therefore the Apostle prays in Rom. 15. The God of peace fill you with all peace and joy always All peace and always 2. A second word is That you maintain this life in every state No variation of our outward estate in this life should be any diminution of the glory of this life The rejoycing you have by Faith and spiritual enjoyments should not be dampt by any thing Is our fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Can we say so Then what should all the turnings of this world be to us How unsuitable to this Communion is it to have our spirits turned and our joys changed with outward things Suppose it be well with us in the world and we be pleased yet is it fit for the Expectants of eternal life who have also a sense of the sweetness of enjoying God to be much taken with these things Is there not a Crown prepared for us Is not God our God Can we be content to be so taken with the dishes at a feast as to forget our friend at the table and that our best friend Suppose it be ill with us as we commonly account ill though the truth is it is never ill with a good man it doth but appear ill it seems ill but it is all good and well for all is from goodness and love therefore though it be ill with us in this sence yet let us be in our own temper that is rejoyce in God Though nothing be the same yet if God be the same let us be the same Meditate upon that famous place Habak 3.17 Although the fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation This is that which God calls for that you live in him always Whatsoever fails say as the Psalmist Psal 73.26 God is my portion for ever I have a Father in Heaven and so though I find things bad enough here yet it is well it is well well above and well within CHAP. XIX Further Considerations to promote the forementioned life of its incomparable worth Those that will not live the life of Faith shall not A firm belief of the Gospel the foundation of this Life LEt us now take a few things more into consideration to promote our living in God for we have need of all cords to draw us and bind us to this life 1. The first is the unutterable difference that is between this life and any other attainable or imaginable Harken to all that can judg every thing speaks in the Case especially take the testimony of God and of those whom he hath blessed with the best enjoyment of himself You know what God saith of himself and what glorious descriptions he hath made of that absoluteness and incomprehensible goodness which is in him You know what he hath said of all things else that they are broken Cisterns Ask the Saints also and the spirits of just men made perfect take the Angels too they live in God and are confined in that life they go no further yet their confinement is no imprisonment but it 's a confinement of love and liberty it 's from the satisfaction of their Souls You know that perfect rest is from a perfection of