fancy or self-deceit I answer that really their hearts are set upon God and the everlasting world and that it is their chiefest care and business to attain it this is a thing that they feel and you may see in the bent and labour of their lives and therefore you cannot call that a fancy of which you have so full experience But whether the motives that have invited them and engaged them to such a choice and course be fancies and deceits or not let God be Judge and let the awakened consciences of worldlings themselves be Judge when they have seen the end and tryed whether it be Earth or Heaven that is the shadow and whether it be God or their unbelieving hearts that was deceived Quest. 10. Have you any hopes of living with God for ever or not If you have not no wonder if you live as beasts when you have no higher expectations than beasts When we are so blind as to give up all our hopes we will also give up all our care and holy diligence and think we have nothing to do with Heaven But if you have any such hopes can you think that any thing is fitter for the chiefest of your thoughts and carâ—â— than the God and Kingdom which you hope for ever to enjoy Or is there any thing that can be more suitable or should be more delightful to your thoughts than to employ them about your highest hopes upon your endless happiness and joy and should not that be now the most noble and pleasant employment for your minds which is nearest to that which you hope to be exercised in for ever Undoubtedly he that hath true and serious thoughts of Heaven will highliest value that life on Earth which is likest to the life in Heaven And he that hateth or is most averse to that which is nearest to the work of Heaven doth boast in vain of his hopes of Heaven By this time you may see if you love not to be blind that mans chiefest business in the world is with his God and that our thoughts and all our powers are made to be employed upon him or for him and that this is no such needless work as Atheists make themselves believe Remember that it is the description of the desperately wicked Psal. 10. 4. that God is not in all his thoughts And if yet you understand it not I will a little further shew you the evil of such Atheistical unhallowed thoughts 1. There is nothing but darkness in all thy Thoughts if God be not in them Thou knowest nothing if thou knowest not him and thou usest not thy knowledge if thou use it not on him To know the creature as without God is to know nothing No more than to know all the Letters in the Book and not to know their signification or sense All things in the world are but insignificant ciphers and of no other sense or use if you separate them from God who is their sense and end If you leave out God in all your studies you do but dream and dote and not understand what you seem to understand Though you were taken for the learnedst men in the world and were able to discourse of all the Sciences and your thoughts had no lower employment daily than the most sublime speculations which the nature of all the creatures doth afford it is all but folly and impertinent dotage if it reach not unto God 2. Yea your thoughts are erroneous and false which is more than barely ignorant if God be not in them You have false thoughts of the world of your houses and lands and friends and pleasures and whatsoever is the daily employment of your minds You take them to be something when they are nothing you are covetous of the empty purse and know not that you cast away the treasure You are thirsty after the empty cup when you wilfully cast away the drink You hungrily seek to feed upon a painted feast You murder the creature by separating it from God who is its life and then you are enamoured on the carkass and spend your daies and thoughts in its cold embracements Your thoughts are but vagabonds stragling abroad the world and following impertinencies if God be not in them You are like men that walk up and down in their sleep or like those that have lost themselves in the dark who weary themselves in going they know not whither and have no end nor certain way 3. If God be not in all your thoughts they are all in vain They are like the drone that gathereth no honey They fly abroad and return home empty They bring home no matter of honour to God of profit or comfort to your selves They are employed to no more purpose than in your dreams Only they are more capable of sin Like the distracted thoughts of one that doteth in a feaver they are all but non-sense whatever you employ them on while you leave out God who is the sense of all 4. If God be not in all your thoughts they are nothing but confusion There can be no just Unity in them because they forsake him who is the only Center and are scatterad abroad upon incoherent creatures There can be no true Unity but in God The further we go from him the further we run into divisions and confusions There can be no just Method in them because he is left out that is the Beginning and the End They are not like a well ordered Army where every one is moved by the will of one Commander and all know their colours and their ranks and unanimously agree to do their work But like a swarm of Flyes that buzze about they know not whither nor why nor for what There is no true Government in your thoughts if God be not in them they are masterless and vagrants and have no true order if they be not ordered by him and to him if he be not their First and Last 5. If God be not in all your thoughts there is no Life in them They are but like the motion of a bubble or a feather in the Air They are impotont as to the resisting of any evil and as to the doing of any saving-good They have no strength in them because they are laid out upon objects that have no strength They have no quickning renewing reforming encouraging resolving confirming power in them because there is no such power in the things on which they are employed whereas the thoughts of God and everlasting life can do wonders upon the soul They can raise up men above this world and teach them to despise the worldlings Idol and look upon all the pleasures of the flesh as upon a Swines delight in wallowing in the mire They can renew the soul and cast out the most powerful beloved sin and bring all our powers into the obedience of God and that with pleasure and delight They can employ us with the Angels in a heavenly conversation and shew us the Glory of
and dead to morrow They are our delight to day and our sorrow or horrour to morrow But our God is Immortal Our houses may be burned Our goods may be consumed or stolne our cloaths will be worn out our treasure here may be corrupted But our God is unchangeable the same for ever Our Laws and Customes may be changed our Governours and Priviledges changed our company and employments and habitation changed but our God is never changed Our estates may change from Riches to poverty and our names that were honoured may incur disgrace Our health may quickly turn to sickness and our ease to pain But still our God is unchangeable for ever Our friends are unconstant and may turn our enemies Our Peace may be changed into war and our liberty into slavery but our God doth never change Time will change customes families and all things here but it changeth not our God The Creatures are all but earthen mettal and quickly dasht in peices our comforts are changeable our selves are changeable and mortal but so is not our God 3. And it should teach us to draw as near to God as we are capable by unchangeable fixed Resolutions and constancy of endeavours and to be still the same as we are at the best 4. It should move us also to be more desirous of passing into the state of immortality and to long for our unchangeable habitation and our immortal incorruptible Bodies and to possess the Kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. And let not the mutability of things below much trouble us while our Rock our Portion is unmoveable God waxeth not old Heaven doth not decay by duration the Glory of the blessed shall not wither nor their sun set upon them nor their day have any night nor any mutations or commotions disturb their quiet possessions O Love and Long for Immortality and Incorruption CHAP. VII 6. HAving spoken of the effects of the Attributes of Gods Essence as such we must next speak of the Effects of his three great Attributes which some call Subsistential that is his Omnipotency Understanding and Will or his Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness By which it hath been the way of the Schoolmen and other Divines to denominate the three Persons not without some countenance from Scripture Phrase The Father they call the Infinite Power of the God head and the Son the Wisdom and Word of God and of the Father and the Holy Ghost the Love and Goodness of God of the Father and Son But that these Attributes of Power Understanding and Will or Power Wisdome and Goodness are of the same importance with the termes of Personality Father Son and Holy Ghost we presume not to affirm It sufficeth us 1. That God hath assumed these Attributes to himself in Scripture 2. And that man who beareth the Natural Image of God hath Power Understanding and Will and as he beareth the Holy Moral Image of God he hath a Power to execute that which is Good and Wisdome to direct and Goodness of Will to determine for the execution And so while God is seen of us in this Glass of Man we must conceive of him after the Image that in man appeareth to us and speak of him in the language of man as he doth of himself And first The Almightiness of God must make these impressions on our souls 1. It must possess the soul with very awful Reverent thoughts of God and fill us continually with his holy Fear Infinite Greatness and Power must have no common careless thoughts lest we Blaspheme him in our Minds and be guilty of Contempt The Dread of the Heavenly Majesty should be still upon us and we must be in his fear all the day long Prov. 23. 17. Not under that slavish Fear that is void of Love as men fear an Enemy or hurtful Creature or that which is Evil For we have not such a spirit from the Lord nor stand in a Relation of enmity and bondage to him But Reverence is necessary and from thence a Fear of sinning and displeasing so Great a God The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome Prov. 1. 7. and 9. 10. Psal. 111. 10. By it men depart from evil Prov. 16. 6. Sin is for want of the Fear of God Luk. 23. 40. Pro. 3. 7. Jer. 5. 24. I. ev 25. 36. The Fear of God is often put for the whole new man or all the work of Grace within us even the Principle of new life Jer. 2. 19. and 32. 40. And it is often put for the whole work of Religion or Service of God Psal. 34. 11. Prov. 1. 29. Psal. 130. 4. and 34. 9. And therefore the Godly are usually denominated such as Fear God Psal. 15. 4. and 22. 23. and 115. 11 13. and 135. 20. and 34. 7 9. c. The godly are devoted to the Fear of God Psal. 119. 38. It is our Sanctifying the Lord in our hearts that he be our fear and dread Isa. 8. 13. If we Fear him not we take him not for our Master Mal. 1. 6. Evangelical Grace excludeth not this Fear Luk. 12. 5. Though we receive a Kingdom that cannot be moved yet must our acceptable service of God be with Reverence and godly fear Heb. 12. 28. With fear and trembling we must work out our salvation Phil. 2. 12. In fear we must pass the time of â—â—journing here 1 Pet. 1. 17. In it we must converse together Eph. 5. 4. Yea Holiness is to be perfected in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. and that because we have the Promises The most prosperous Churches walk in this fear Acts 9. 31. It s a necessary means of preventing destruction Heb. 11. 7. and of attaining salvation when we have the promises Heb. 4. 1. God puts this fear in the hearts of those that shall not depart from him Jer. 32. 40. See therefore that the Greatness of the Almighty God possess thy soul continually with his Fear 2. Gods Almightiness should also possess us with holy Admiration of him and cause us in heart and voice to Magnifie him Oh what a Power is that which made the world of nothing which upholdeth the earth without any foundation but his Will which placed and maintaineth all things in their Order in Heaven and Earth which causeth so great and glorious a creature as the Sun that is so much bigger then all the earth to move so many thousand miles in a few moments and constantly to keep its time and course that giveth its instinct to every brute and causeth every part of nature to do its office By his Power it is that every motion of the Creature is performed and that order is kept in the Kingdoms of the world Jer. 32. 17 18 19. He made the Heaven and the Earth by his Great Power and stretched out arm and nothing is too hard for him The Great the Mighty God the Lord of Hosts is his Name great in counsel and mighty in works Neh. 9.
them pleasing them and shewing them respect while they take no notice of God at all as if they believed not that he is there Hence it is that the men of God were wont to speak though reverently yet familiarly of God as children of their Father with whom they dwell as being indeed fellow-citizens with the Saints who are his houshold Abraham calleth him Gen. 24. 40. The Lord before whom I walk And Jacob Gen. 48. 15. God before whom my Fathers Abraham and Isaac walked And David resolveth Psal. 116. 9. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living Yea God himself is pleased to use the terms of gracious condescending familiarity with them Christ dwelleth in them by faith Eph. 3. 17. His spirit dwelleth in them as his house and temple Rom. 8. 9. Yea the Father himself is said to dwell in them and they in him 1 Joh. 3. 24. He that keepeth his Commandements dwelleth in Him and He in him and 3. 12. If we love one another God dwelleth in us 13. Hereby we know that we dwell in him and He in us because he hath given us of His spirit 15. Whoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God 16. God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him Yea God is said to walk in them as they are said to walk with Him 2 Cor. 6. 16. For ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people Our walking with God then is not only a sense of that common presence which he must needs afford to all but it is also a believing apprehension of his Gracious presence as our God and reconciled Father with whom we dwell being brought near unto Him by Christ and who dwelleth in us by his spirit 9. To walk with God as here we are in flesh includeth not only our believing his presence but also that we see him as the chief cause in the effects in his creatures and his daily providence that we look not on creatures as independent or separated from God but see them as the Glass and God as the represented face and see them as the letters and words and God as the sense of all the creatures that are the first Book which he appointed man to read We must behold his glory declared by the Heavens Psal. 19. 1. and see Him shining in the Sun and see his Power in the Fabrick of the world and his wisdom in the admirable order of the whole we must tast the sweetness of his Love in the sweetness of our food and in the comforts of our friends and all our accommodations we must see and Love his Image in his Holy ones and we must hear his Voice in the Ministry of his Messengers Thus every creature must become a Preacher to us and we must see the Name of God upon it and thus all things will be sanctified to us while Holiness to the Lord is written upon all Though we must not therefore make Idols of the creatures because God appeareth to us in them yet must we hear the message which they bring us and reverence in them the Name of the Creatour which they â—ear By this way of conversing with them they will not ensnare us or deceive or poyson us as they do the carnal unbelieving world but as the Fish brought money to Peter to pay his tribute so every creature would bring us a greater even a spiritual gain When we behold it we should say with pleasant admiration This is the work of God and it is wonderful in our eyes This is the true Divine Philosophy which seeketh and findeth and contemplateth and admireth the Great Creatour in his works When that which sticketh in the creature it self whatever discovery it seem to make is but a childish unprofitable trifling like learning to shape all the letters aright without learning to know their signification and sense It is God appearing in the creatures that is the life and beauty and use and excellency of all the creatures wthout him they are but carkasses deformed useless vain insignificant and very nothings 10. Our walking with God doth contain our willing and sincere attendance on him in the use of those holy duties in which he hath appointed us to expect his grace He is everywhere in his essential presence but he is not everywhere alike to be found in the communications of his grace The assemblies of his Saints that worship him in holy communion are places where he is likelyer to be found then in an Ale-house or a Play-house You are likelier to have holy converse with him among the holy that will speak of holy things to your edification then among the senseless ignorant sensualists and the scornful enemies of Holiness that are the servants of the Devil whom he useth in his daily work for the deceiving and perdition of the world Therefore the conversation of the wicked doth grieve and vex a righteous soul as it s said the Sodomites did by Lot 2 Pet. 2. 7 8. because all their conversation is ungodly far from God not savouring of any true knowledge of him or love to him but is against him by enmity and provocation If God himself do dwell and walk in all his holy ones then they that dwell and walk with them have the best opportunity to dwell and walk with God To converse with those in whom God dwelleth is to converse with him in his Image and to attend him at his dwelling And willfully to run among the wicked is to run far away from God In his Temple doth every man speak of his Glory Psal. 29. 9. when among his brutish enemies every man speaketh to the dishonour of him in his word and wayes He is otherwise present with those that are congregated in his Name and for his worship then he is with those that are assembled for wickedness or vanity or live as brutes without God in the world And we must draw as near him as we can if we would be such as walk with God We must not be strange to him in our Thoughts but make him the object of our most serious meditations It s said of the wicked that they are far from God and that God is not in all their thoughts Ps. 73. 27. Ps. 10. 4. The thoughts are the minds employment It dwells on that which it frequently thinks of It is a walk of the Mind and not of the Body which we are treating of To mind the world and fleshly things is contrary to this walk with God we are far from him when our thoughts are ordinarily far from him I know that it is lawful and meet to think of the business of our callings so far as is necessary to the prudent successful management of them and that it is not requisite that our thoughts
thou art upon A mind that is drowned in ambition sensuality or passion will scarce find God any sooner in a wilderness than in a croud unless he be there returning from those sins to God whereever he seeth him God will not own and be familiar with so foul a soul. Seneca could say Quid prodest totius regionis silentium si affectus fremunt What good doth the silence of all the Country do thee if thou have the noise of raging affections within And Gregory saith Qui corpore remotus vivit c. He that in body is far enough from the tumult of humane conversation is not in solitude if he busie himself with earthly cogitations and desires and he is not in the City that is not troubled with the tumult of worldly cares or fears though he be pressed with the popular crouds Bring not thy house or land or credit or carnal friend along with thee in thy heart if thou desire and expect to walk in Heaven and to converse with God Direct 5. Live still by Faith Let Faith lay Heaven and Earth as it were together Look not at God as if he were far off set him alwaies as before you even as at your right hand Psal. 16. 8. Be still with him when you awake Psal. 1 39. 18. In the morning thank him for your rest and deliver up your self to his conduct and service for that day Go forth as with him and to do his work Do every action with the Command of God and the Promise of Heaven before your eyes and upon your hearts Live as those that have incomparably more to do with God and Heaven than with all this world That you may say with David Psal. 37. 25 26. as aforecited Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I desire besides thee And with Paul Phil. 1. 21. To me to Live is Christ and to Dye is gain You must shut up the eye of sense save as subordinate to Faith and live by Faith upon a God a Christ and a World that is unseen if you would know by experience what it is to be above the brutish life of sensualists and to converse with God O Christian if thou hadst rightly learned this blessed life what a high and noble soul-conversation wouldst thou have How easily wouldst thou spare and how little wouldst thou miss the favour of the greatest the presence of any worldly comfort City or Solitude would be much alike to thee saving that the place and state would be best to thee where thou hast the greatest help and freedome to converse with God Thou wouldst say of humane society as Seneca Unus pro populo mihi est populus pro uno Mihi satis est unus satis est nullus One is instead of all the people to me and the people as one One is enough for me and none is enough Thus being taken up with God thou mightest live in prison as at liberty and in a wilderness as in a City and in a place of banishment as in thy native Land For the Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof and everywhere thou mayest find him and converse with him and lift up pure hands unto him In every place thou art within the sight of home and Heaven is in thine eye and thou art conversing with that God in whose converse the highest Angels do place their highest felicity and delight How little cause then have all the Churches enemies to triumph that can never shut up a true believer from the presence of his God nor banish him into such a place where he cannot have his conversation in Heaven The stones that were cast at holy Stephen could not hinder him from seeing the Heavens opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God A Patmos allowed holy John Communion with Christ being there in the Spirit on the Lords day Rev. 1. 9 10. Christ never so speedily and comfortably owneth his servants as when the world disowneth them and abuseth them for his sake and hurls them up and down as the scorn and off-scouring of all He quickly found the blind man that he had cured when once the Jews had cast him out Joh. 9. 35. Persecutors do but promote the blessedness and exceeding joy of sufferers for Christ Mat. 5. 11 12. And how little Reason then have Christians to shun such sufferings by unlawful means which turn to their so great advantage and to give so dear as the hazard of their souls by wilful sin to escape the honour and safety and commodity of Martyrdome And indeed we judge not we Love not we Live not as sanctified ones must do if we judge not that the truest Liberty and Love it not as the Best Condition in which we may Best converse with God And O how much harder is it to walk with God in a Court in the midst of sensual delights than in a prison or wilderness where we have none to interrupt us and nothing else to take us up It is our prepossessed minds our earthly hearts our carnal affections and concupiscence and the pleasures of a prosperous state that are the prison and the Jaylors of our souls Were it not for these how free should we be though our bodies were confined to the straightest room He is at Liberty that can walk in Heaven and have access to God and make use of all the Creatures in the world to the promoting of this his Heavenly conversation And he is the prisoner whose soul is chained to flesh and earth and confined to his lands and houses and feedeth on the dust of worldly riches or walloweth in the dung and filth of gluttony drunkenness and lust that are far from God and desire not to be near him but say to him Depart from us we would not have the knowledge of thy waies that Love their prison and chains so well that they would not be set free but hate those with the cruellest hatred that endeavour their deliverance Those are the poor prisoners of Satan that have not liberty to believe nor to Love God nor converse in Heaven nor seriously to mind or seek the things that are high and honourable that have not liberty to meditate or pray or seriously to speak of holy things nor to love and converse with those that do so that are tyed so hard to the drudgery of sin that they have not liberty one month or week or day to leave it and walk with God so much as for a recreation But he that liveth in the family of God and is employed in attending him and doth converse with Christ and the Host of Holy ones above in reason should not much complain of his want of friends or company or accommodations nor yet be too impatient of any corporal confinement Lastly be sure then most narrowly to watch your hearts that nothing have entertainment there which is against your Liberty of converse with God Fill not those Hearts with
The Divine Life IN THREE TREATISES THE FIRST Of the Knowledge of God THE SECOND Of Walking with God THE THIRD Of Coversing with God In SOLITUDE By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed for Francis Tyton at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet and Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster 1664. A TREATISE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. AND THE Impression which it must make upon the Heart and its necessary Effects upon our Lives Upon John 17. 3. By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed for Francis Tyton at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet and Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster 1664. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND Exemplary Lady ANN COUNTESS OF BALCARRES MADAM IN hope of the fuller pardon of my delay I now present you with two other Treatises besides the Sermon enlarged which at your desire I preached at your departure hence I knew of many and great afflictions which you had undergone in the removal of your dearest friends which made this subject seem so suitable and seasonable to you at that time But I knew not that God was about to make so great an addition to your tryals in the same kind by taking to himself the principal branch of your Noble Family by a rare disease the embleme of the mortal malady now raigning I hope this loss also shall promote your gain by keeping you nearer to your Heavenly Lord who is so jealous of your affections and resolved to have them entirely to himself And then you will still find that you are not alone nor deprived of your dearest or most necessary friend while the Father the Son the sanctifying and comforting Spirit is with you And it should not be hard to reconcile us to the disposals of so sure a friend Nothing but good can come from God however the blind may miscall it who know no Good or Evil but what is measured by the private standard of their selfish interest and that as judged of by sense Eternal Love engaged by Covenant to make us happy will do nothing but what we shall find at last will terminate in that blessed end He envyed you not your Son as too good for you or too great a mercy who hath given you his own Son and with him the mercy of eternal life Corporal sufferings with Spiritual blessings are the ordinary lot of Believers here on earth As corporal prosperity with spiritual calamity is the lot of the ungodly And I beseech you consider that God knoweth better than you or I what an Ocean your son was ready to lanch out into and how tempestuous and terrible it might have proved and whether the world that he is saved from would have afforded him more of safety or seduction of comfort or calamity whether the protraction of the life of your Noble husband to have seen our sins and their effects and consequents would have afforded him greater joy or sorrow Undoubtedly as God had a better title to your Husband and Children and Friends than you had so it is much better to be with him than to be with you or with the best or greatest upon earth The heavenly inhabitants fear not our fears and feel not our afflictions They are past our dangers and out of the reach of all our enemies and delivered from our pains and cares and have the full possession of all those mercies which we pray and labour for Can you think your Children and Friends that are with Christ are not safer and better than those that yet remain with you Do you think that earth is better than heaven for you your self I take it for granted you cannot think so and will not say so And if it be worse for you it s worse for them The providence which by hastening their Glorification doth promote your Sanctification which helpeth them to the End and helpeth you in the Way must needs be good to them and you however it appear to flesh and unbelief O Madam when our Lord hath shewed us as he will shortly do what a state it is to which he bringeth the spirits of the just and how he doth there entertain and use them we shall then be more competent judges of all those acts of Providence to which we are now so hardly reconciled Then we shall censure our censurings of these works of God and be offended with our offences at them and call our selves blind unthankful sinners for calling them so bad as we did in our misjudging unbelief and passion We shall not wish our selves or friends again on earth among temptations and pains and among uncharitable men malicious enemies deceitful flatterers and untrusty friends When we see that face which we now long to see and know the things which we long to know and feel the Love which we long to feel and are full of the joyes which now we can scarce attain a taste of and have reacht the End which now we seek and for which we suffer we shall no more take it for a judgement to be taken from ungodly men and from a world of sin and fear and sorrow nor shall we envy the wicked nor ever desire to be partakers of their pleasures Till then let us congratulate our departed friends the felicity which they have attained and which we desire and let us rejoyce with them that rejoyce with Christ and let us prefer the least believing thought of the everlasting joyes before all the defiled transitory pleasures of the deluded dreaming miserable world And let us prefer such converse as we can here attain with God in Christ and with the Heavenly Society before all the pomp and friendship of the world We have no friend that is so able to supply all our wants so sufficient to content us so ready to relieve us so willing to entertain us so unwearied in hearing us and conversing with us as our blessed Lord. This is a friend that will never prove untrusty nor be changed by any change of interest opinion or fortune nor give us cause to suspect his Love A friend that we are sure will not forsake us nor turn our enemy nor abuse us for his own advantage nor will ever dye or be separated from us but we shall be alwaies with him and see his Glory and be filled and transported with his Love and sing his praise to all Eternity With whom then should we so delightfully converse on Earth and till we can reach that sweet delightful converse whom should we seek with more ambition or observe with greater devotedness and respect O that we were less carnal and more spiritual and lived less by Sense and more by Faith that we knew better the difference between God and Man between visible Temporals and invisible Eternals we should then have other thoughts and desires and resolutions and converse and employments and pleasures than too many have Madam it displeaseth me that it is no more elaborate a Treatise to which the present opportunity inviteth me to prefix your Name but your own Desire of the
Third must be my excuse for all But pardon the Manner and I dare commend the Matter to you as more worthy your serious contemplation and your daily most delightful practice than any other that was ever proposed unto mortal man This is the man-like noble life The life which the Rational soul was made for To which if our faculties be not by sanctifying Grace restored they fall below their proper dignity and use and are worse than lost like a Prince or Learned man that is employed only in sweeping Dog-kennels or tending Swine To walk in Holiness with the most Holy God is the improvement and advancement of the nature of man towards its designed equality with Angels When Earthliness and Sensuality degrade humanity into a voluntary and therefore sinful brutishness This is the Life which affordeth the soul a solid and durable pleasure and content When carnal minds evaporate into Air and bubble into froth and vanity wasted in a dream and the violent busie pursuit of a shadow deceiving themselves with a mixture of some counterfeit Religion playing with God and working for the world living in jeast and dying and despairing and suffering in earnest with unwearied labour building on the Sand and sinking at death for want of a foundation hating the serious practice of their own profest Religion because it is not the profession but the serious practice which hath the greatest enmity to their sensual delights yet wishing to be numbred with those hereafter whom they hated here This Holy Walking with the most Holy God is the only life which is best at last and sweet in the review which the Godly Live in and most of the ungodly could wish to dye in like him that wished to be Caesar in life and Socrates at death Yea this is the Life which hath no end which we are here but learning and beginning to practise and which we must hereafter live in another manner and degree with God for ever O wondrous Mercy which thus ennobleth even the state of mortality and honoureth Earth with so much participation of and communion with Heaven That by God and with God we may walk in holy peace and safety unto God and there be blessed in his perfect Sight and Love for ever Madam the greatest service I can do you for all your favours is to pray that God will more acquaint you with himself and lead you by this blessed way to that more blessed end that when you see all worldly glory in the dust you may bless him for ever who taught you to make a wiser choice Which are the prayers of Dec. 24. 1663. MADAM Your very much obliged Servant RICHARD BAXTER TO THE READER Reader THE Embryo of this Book was but one Sermon preached a little before the ending of my publick Ministry upon the Text of the third Treatise upon the occasion intimated in the Epistle to that truly Honour able Lady Being obliged to communicate the Notes and unavoidably gullty of some delays I made a compensation by enlargement and having reasons for the publication of them with which I shall not trouble you to make them more suitable to the designed end I prefixed the two former Treatises The first I had preached to my ancient flock Of the second I had preached but one Sermon If many of the materials in the second be the same as in the first you must understand that my design required that it should be so They being the same Attributes of God which the first Part endeavoureth to imprint upon the mind and which the second and third endeavour to improve into a constant course of holy affection and conversation As it is the same food which the first concoction chylifieth which the perfecting concoctions do work over again and turn into blood and spirits and flesh so far am I in such points from gratifying thy sickly desire of variety and avoiding the displeasing of thee by the rehearsals of the same that it is my very business with thee to perswade thee to live continually upon these same Attributes and Relations of God as upon thy daily air and bread and to forsake that lean consuming company who feed on the shels of hard and barren controversies or on the froth of complements and affected shews and run after novelty instead of substantial solid nutriment And to tell thee that the primitive pure simple Christianity consisted in the daily serious use of the great materials of the Creed Lords Prayer and ten Commandements contracted in the words of our Baptismal Covenant Do thus and thou will be like those examples of the succeeding Church in uprightness purity simplicity charity peaceableness and holy communion with God when the pretended subtilties and sublimities of wanton uncharitable contentious wits will serve but to strangle or delude their souls I have purposely been very brief on the several Attributes and Relations of God in the first Treatise because the copious handling of them would have made a very great volume of it self and because it is my great design in that first part to give you a sight of all Gods Attributes and Relations conjunct and in their order that looking on them not one by one but all together in their proper places the whole Image of God may by them be rightly imprinted on your minds The Method being the first thing and the necessary Impressions on the soul the second which I there desire you to observe and employ your minds about if you desire to profit and receive what I intend you Decem. 24. 1663. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE Text explained The Doctrine The Knowledge of the only true God and of Jesus Christ the Mediatour is the life of grace and the necessary way to the life of glory What is contained in the Knowledge of God as to the Act what as to the Object A short Scheme of the Divine properties and Attributes to be known Page 1 CHAP. II. Of the Knowledge of Gods Being and the necessary effects of it on the heart p. 14 CHAP. III. Of the Knowledge of Gods Unity and Indivisibility and its necessary effects p. 17 CHAP. IV. Of the Knowledge of Gods Immensity and so of his Incomprehensibleness Omnipresence and the effects p. 21 CHAP. V. Of the Knowledge of Gods Eternity and its due effects A Believer referring all things to Eternity honoureth his very horse or dog or smallest mercy more than Unbelievers honour their King their lives their souls regarding them but for transitory ends Unbelievers denying the End destroy morally all souls all mercies all Divine revelations all Gods ordinances all graces and duties and the whole Creation p. 28 CHAP. VI. The Knowledge of God as he is a Spirit and incorporeal and consequently 1. As he is simple or uncompounded 2. Invisible c. 3. Immortal Incorruptible Immutable The Uses of Gods Simplicity The Uses of his Invisibility The Uses of his Immortality and Immutability p. 44 CHAP. VII Of the Knowledge of Gods Almightiness
then begin their perfection The Hopes of the ungodly are like an addle egge that when it is broken sends forth nothing but an odious stink when another sends forth the living bird O all you worldlings rich and poor you dream you play you trifâ—le because you labour not for Eternity Even worldly Princes and Nobles of the earth your glory is but a squib a flash a nothing in comparison of the Eternal glory which you lose you are doing Nothing when you are â—â—iving for the world you are trifling and befooling your â—mmortal souls while you are grasping a shaddow the uncerâ—â—in Riches 〈…〉 is the Believer whom you despise that seeks â—â—â— something thâ—â— loseth not his labour that shews himself a â—an of reason who is caring and studying and labouring and 〈…〉 watching and suffering for Eternity why is a 〈…〉 courts of God so much better then a thousand in 〈…〉 oâ— palaces of wickedness but because it is the Exâ—… where we have News of Heaven and trade for an Eternity And why is it better to be a door keeper in the 〈…〉 of God then to floursh in the prosperity of sinners but because Gods house is the porch or entrance of an Eternity â—â— delights and the lowest room among the saints affords us a better prospect into Heaven then the Highest state of worldly 〈◊〉 The ungodly are neer to cutting down when they flourish in their greatest glory Psal. 37. 2 20. Stay but a little and hâ— that flourisheth will be withered and cast into the fire and the Righteous shall see it when he is out off and shall seek him but he is not to be found vers 34 35 36 38. For the enemies of God and all that are far from him shall perish Psal. 92. 9. 13. 27. their desire shall perish Psal. 112. 10. their hope shall perish Prov. 11. 7. Job 8. 13. their way shall perish Psal. 1. 6. and himself and all that they sought and loved and delighted in shall perish Job 20. 7. 2 Pet. 2. 12. Rom. 2. 12. Heb. 1. 11. Even the visible Heavens and Earth which they abused shall be consumed with fire Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking towards and waiting for the coming and appearance of our Lord 2 Pet. 3. 11. Shall any man be accounted wâ—le that is not wise for Eternal happiness shall any man be counted Happy that must be most miserable to Eternity In the name of God Christian I charge thee to hold on and look to thy soul thy words thy wayes for it is for Eternity O play not loyter not do nothing by the halves in the way to Eternity Let the careless world do what they will they despise and know not what they do despise they neglect and know not what they do neglect but thou that seekest and labourest and waitest knowest what thou seekest and labourest and waitest for They sin and and know not what they do They know not what they are treasuring up for an Eternity But tâ—â—n knowest why thou â—â—test and avoidest sin Sinners be awakened by the Call of God Do you know where you are and what you do You are every man of you stepping into Eternity Will you sin away will you loyter away will you sell-for nothing an Eternal Glory Is thy sinful lust and gain and mirth and gluttony and excess of drink a price to set upon Eternity If Heaven be no more worth to thee art thou not as bad as Judas that for thirty pieces of silver would sell his Lord O Eternity Eternity what hearts have they that can so forget thee neglect thee and disesteem thee when they stand so neer thee O sleepy souls do you never use to rub your eyes and look before you towards Eternity And doth it not amaze you to see whither it is that you are going Merrily you run down the Hill but where 's the bottom If you look but down from the top of a steeple it may occasion an amazing fear what then should it cause in you to look down into Hill which is your Eternity No good can possibly be small that is Eternal And no hurt or pain can be called little that is Eternal An Eternal tooth-ake or an Eternal gowt or stone or feaver were a misery unspeakable But O what are these to an Eternal loss of Heaven and to an Eternal sense of the burning wrath of God Almighty To be out of Heaven a day and in Hell that day is a misery now unknown to sinners But if it were as many thousand years as the earth hath sands it were a greater Misery But to be there for Ever doth make the Misery past all Hope and all conceiving O me thinks the very name of Eternity should frighten the drunkard out of the Alehouse and the sleepy sinner out of his security and the lustful sportful voluptuous sinner out of his sensual delights Methinks the very name of Eternity should call off the worldling to seek betime a more enduring treasure and should take down the gallants pride and bring men to look after other matters then the most do look after Me thinks to hear the name of Eternity should with men of any faith and reason even blast all the beauty and blurre the glory and sadden the delights and weaken the temptations of the world and make all its pleasure pomp and splendour to be to our apprehensions as a smoak a shaddow as the dirt that we tread upon Methinks to hear the name of Eternity should lay so odious a reproach on sin and so nakedly open the folly and shame and misery of the ungodly and so lively shew the need and worth of faith and Holiness that men should be soon resolved in their choice and soon be at the end of an ungodly course and need no more words to make them the resolved servants of the Lord before to morrow O me thinks that a thought of Eternity should with a Believer answer all temptations and put life into all his prayers and endeavours If we were never so cold or dull or sleepy one would think a serious thought of Eternity should warm us quicken us and awake us O Christians shall we hear carelesly or speak carelesly of Eternity shall we pray coldly or labour negligently for Eternity O what an Ocean of Joy will Eternity be unto the sanctified It hath neither banks nor bottom O what a gulf of misery and woe will Eternity be to the ungodly wonderful that on their dying beds they quake not with the horrour and that they cry not out with greatest lamentation to think what a bottomless gulf of misery their departing souls must be cast into To be for Ever Ever Ever under the most heavy wrath of God! This is the appointed wages of ungodliness This is the end of wicked wayes This is it that sinners chose because they would not live to God!
This they preferred or ventured on before a holy heavenly life And this is it that Believers are labouring to escape in all their holy care and diligence It is an Infinite value that is put upon the blood of Christ the promises of God the ordinances and means of Grace and grace it self and the poorest duties of the poorest Saints because they are for an Infinite Eternal glory No Mercy is small that tasts of Heaven as all doth or should do to the Believer No action is low that aims at Heaven And O how lively should the Resolutions and courage of those men be that are travelling sighting and watching for Eternity How full should be their Comforts that are fetcht from the foresight of Infinite Eternal Comforts As all things will presently be swallowed up in Eternity so methinks the present apprehension of Eternity should now swallow up all things else in the soul. Object But saith the Unbeliever if God have made man for Eternity it is a wonder that there are no more lively Impressions of so Infinite a thing upon the souls of all Our sense of it is so small that it makes me doubt whether we are made for it Answ. Consider 1. That benummedness and sleep and death is the very state of an unholy soul Hast thou cast thy self into a sleepy senseless disease and wilt thou argue thence against Eternity This is as if the blind should conclude that there is no Sun or that the eye of man was not made to see it because he hath no sight himself Or as if you should think that man hath not any life or feeling because your palsie limbs do not feel Or that the stomack was not made for meat because the stomacks of the sick abhor it 2. And for believers 1. You may see by their lives that they have some apprehensions of Eternity why else do they differ from you and deny themselves and displease the world and the flesh it self why do they set their hearts above if they have not lively thoughts of an Eternity 2. But if you aske me Why their apprehensions are not a thousand times more lively about so Infinite a thing I answer 1. Their Apprehensions must be suitable to their State Our state here is a state of Imperfection and so will our apprehensions be But a perfect state will have perfect apprehensions It is no proof that the Infant in the womb is not made to come into this world and see the Sun and converse with men because he hath no apprehensions of it Our state here is a conjunction of the soul to a frail distempered body and so neer a conjunction that the actions of the soul must have great dependance on the Body And therefore our Apprehensions are limited by its frailty and the soul can go no higher then the capacity of the Body will allow 2. And our Apprehensions now are fitted to our Use and benefit We are now Believers and must live by faith And therefore must not be Beholders and live by sense If Eternity were open to mens Natural sight or we had here as clear and lively apprehensions of it as those have that are there then it were not thanks no praise to us to be believers or to obey and live as Saints And then God should not Govern man as man here in the way by a Law but as a beast by sense or as the glorified that have possession Where there are perfect Apprehensions of God and Glory there will be also perfect Love and Joy and Praise and consequently perfect Happiness and this were to make Earth and Heaven the way and the end to be all one Perfect apprehensions are kept for a perfect state of Happiness But here it is well if we have such Apprehensions as are fitted to the use of travellers and soldiers as will carry us on and prevail against the difficulties of our course If you had never been at London you could not have any such clear Apprehensions of the place as those that see it have And yet your imperfect Apprehensions might be sufficient to make you take a journey thither and you may come as safely and certainly to it as if you had seen it Moreover the body the brain which the soul in Apprehending now makes use of cannot bear such Apprehensions as are suitable to the thousandth part of the greatness of the object without distraction The smallest eye may see the sun but the greatest cannot endure to gaze upon its Glory much less if it were at the neerest approach It s a mercy oâ— mercies to give us such Apprehensions of Eternity as are meet for passengers to bring us thither and it is part of our Mercy that those Apprehensions are not so great as to distract and over whelm us 4. Lastly The Eternity of God must teach the soul contentedness and patience under all labours changes sufferings and dangers that are here below Believing Soul draw neer look seriously on Eternity and try whether it will not make such Impressions as these upon thee Art thou weary of Labours either of the mind or body Is not Eternity long enough for thy Rest Canst thou not afford to work out the day light of this life when thou must Rest with Christ to all Eternity Canst thou not run with patience so short a race when thou lookest to so long a Rest Canst thou not watch one hour with Christ that must Reign with him to all Eternity Dost thou begin to shrinke at sufferings for Christ when thou must be in Glory with him for ever How short is the suffering how long is the Reward Dost thou begin to think hatdly of the dealing of the Lord because his people are here afflicted and made the scorn and by-word of the world why is not Eternity long enough for God to shew his Love and bounty to his people in Is not the day at hand when Lazarus and the Rich worldling both must hear But now he is comforted and thâ—n art tormented Luk. 16. 25. Did not that Now câ—me â—â—me enough which was the entrance of Eternity Even Jesus the Author and perfecter of our saith for the Joy that was â—â—t before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God! consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lâ—st yâ—â— be wâ—â—â—ied and saint in your minds Heb. 12. 2 3. Dâ—st 〈…〉 the prosperity of the wicked and prevalency of the Churches Enemies Look then unto Eternity and 〈…〉 e whether that be not long enough for the 〈…〉 aâ—d the wicked to be tormented Wouldst 〈…〉 their time Dost thou begin to 〈…〉 of Christ oâ— the truth of his promises because he doth 〈…〉 O what is a thousand years to Eternity is there not yet time enough before thee for Christ to make good all his promises in Were not those Disciples sharply but justly rebuked as Fools and slow of heart to believe that when
or life to them We should know what is Gods prerogative and that we should keep entirely for him A subordinate esteem and love and desire the Creature may have as it revealeth God to us or leadeth to him or helpeth us in his work But it should not have the least of his part in our esteem or love or desire This is the Chastity the Purity the Integrity of the soul. It is the mixture impurity corruption and consusion of our souls when any thing is taken in with God See therefore Christian that in thy heart thou have no God but ONE and that he have all thy heart and soul and strength as far as thou canst attain it And because there will be still in imperfect souls some sinful mixture of the Creatures interest with Gods let it be the work of thy life to be watching against it and casting it out and cleansing thy heart of it as thou wouldst do thy food if it fall into the dirt For whatever is added to God in thy Affections doth make no better an increase there then the adding of earth unto thy gold or of dung unto thy meat or of corrupted humours and sickness to thy body Mixture will make no better work It may be thy Rejoycing if thou have the testimony of a good conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity and not in fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God thou hast had thy conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1. 12. It is the state of Hypocrisie when One God is openly professed and worshipped and yet the creature lyeth deepest and nearest to the heart 2. The Invisibility of God also must have its due effects upon us And 1. It must warn us that we picture not God to our eye sight or in our fancies in any bodily shape Saith the Prophet Isa. 40. 18. To whom will you liken God or what likeness will ye compare unto him so 25. No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosome of his Father he hath declared him Joh. 1. 18. and therefore we must conceive of him but as he is declared Joh. 6. 46. Not that any man hath seen the Father save he which is of God he hath seen the Father If you ask me How then you should conceive of God if not in any Bodily shape I answer Get all these Attributes and Relations of God to make their proper Impress upon thy soul as now I am teaching you and then you will have the true Conceiving of God This Question therefore is to be answered at the end of this Discourse when you have seen all the Attributes of God together and heard what impression they must make upon you 2. This must teach us to think most highly of the things that are Invisible and meanlier of these visible things Let it be the property of a Beast and not of a man to know nothing but what he seeth or hath seen Let it be the mark of the bruitish Insidels and not of Christians to doubt of the invisible things because they are invisible or to think that things visible are more excellent or sure As the senses are more ignoble then the Intellect a beast having as perfect senses as a man and yet no reasonable understanding so the objects of sense must proportionably be below the Objects of the understanding as such The grossest and most palpable objects are the basest It is the subtle part that 's called the Spirits which being drawn out of plants or other vegetables is most powerful and excellent and valued when the earthly dregs are cast away as little worth It is that subtle part in our blood that 's called the Spirits that hath more of the virtue of life and doth more of the works then the feculent gross and earthly part The aire and wind have as true a Being as the Earth and a more excellent nature though it be more gross and they invisible The Body is not so excellent as the invisible soul. Invisible things are as real as visible and as suitable to our more noble invisible part as visible things to our fleshly baser part 3. The invisibility of God must teach us to Live a life of Faith and to get above a sensual life And it must teach us to value the faith of the Saints as knowing its excellency and necessity Invisible objects have the most perfect excellent Reality and therefore Faith hath the preheminence above sense Natural Reason can live upon things not seen if they have been seen or can be known by natural evidence subjects obey a Prince that they see not and fear a punishment which they see not and the nature of man is afraid of the Devils though we see them not But Faith liveth upon such invisible things as mortal eye did never see nor natural ordinary evidence demonstrate but are revealed only by the Word of God though about many of its invisible objects Faith hath the consent of Reason for its encouragement Value not sight and sense too much Think not all to be meer uncertainties and notions that are not the objects of sense We should not have heard that God is a spirit if Corporal substances had not a baser kind of Being then Spirits Intellection is a more noble operation then sense If there be any thing properly called sense in Heaven it will be as far below the pure Intellective Intuition of the Lord as the glorified Body will be below the glorified soul. But what that difference will be we cannot now understand Fix not your minds on sensible things Remember that your God your home your portion are unseen And therefore live in hearty Affections to them and serious prosecution of them as if you saw them Pray as if you saw God and Heaven and Hell Hear as if you saw him that sends his Messenger to speak to you Resist all the Temptations to lust and sensuality and every sin as you would do if you saw God stand by Love him and Fear him and Trust him and Serve him as you would do if you beheld him Faith is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. Believing must be to you in stead of seeing and make you as serious about things unseen as sensual men are about things sensible In every thing that you see remember it is he that is unseen that appeareth in them He lighteth you by the sun he warmeth you by the fire he beareth you by the earth See him in all these by the eye of Faith 3. The Immortality Incorruptibility and Immutability of God must 1. Teach the soul to rise up from these Mortal Corruptible Mutable things and to fix upon that God who is the immortal incorruptible portion of his Saints 2. It must comfort and encourage all Believers in the consideration of their felicity and support them under the failings of all mortal corruptible things Our Parents and Children and Friends are mortal They are ours to day
they Know not what they do Men could not go so quietly or merrily to Hell with their eyes open as they do when they are shut by Ignorance Whence is it that such Multitudes are still ungodly under all the Teachings and warnings of the Lord but because they have their understandings darkened being alienated from the life of God by the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart and therefore many being past feeling have given them over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with grâ—ediness Eph. 4. 18 19. Sin is the fruit of folly and the greatest folly They are fools that make a jest of it Prov. 14. 9. And it is for want of wisdom that they die Prov. 10. 21. 1. 32. The ignorant are prisoners to the Prince of darkness Eph. 6. 12. 5. 8. Knowledge is despised by none but fools Prov. 1. 7 22. The conquest of so many subtil enemies the performance of so many spiritual duties which we must go through if we will be saved are works too hard for fools to do The saving of a mans soul is a work that requireth the greatest wisdom And therefore the Illumination of the mind is Gods first work in the Conversion of a sinner Act. 26. 18. Eph. 1. 18. If Infinite wisdom communicate to you but the smallest beam of heavenly light it will change your minds and make you other men then before and set you on another course Wisdom will be your guide and keep you in safe paths It will cause you to refuse the evil and to choose the good It will shew you true Happiness and the way to obtain it It will cause you to foresee the evil and escape it when fools go on and are destroyed Prov. 22. 3. Wisdom will teach you to know the season and Redeem your Time and walk exactly when folly will leave you to too late repentance Eph. 5. 15. There is not a soul in Hell but was brought thither by sinful folly Nor is there a soul in Heaven of them at age but by heavenly wisdom was conducted thither In worldly matters the wicked may seem wisest and many a Saint may be very ignorant But when you see the end you will all consess that those were the wise men that had wisdom to repell temptations and to refuse the entising baits of sin and to make sure of everlasting Joyes O therefore apply your hearts to Wisdom Go to Christ for it who is the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. and is appointed by him to be our Wisdom 1 Cor. 1. 30. He will teach it you who is the best Master in the world so you will but keep in his School that is his Church and will humbly learn as little Children and apply your selves submissively to his spirit word and Ministers Ask Wisdom of God that giveth liberally and upbraideth not with former ignorance Jam. 1. 5. Think not any pains in holy means too much to get it Prov. 2. 1 2 3 4 5. If thou wilt receive the words of God and hide his Commandments with thee and encline thy heart to wisdom and apply it to understanding yea if thou cryest after Knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God For the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth is Knowledge and understanding And fear not being a loser by thy cost or labour For Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth undestanding For the merchandise of it is better then silver and the gain thereof then of fine gold she is more precious then Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Prov. 3. 13. to 18. 2 The Infinite Wisdom of God must resolve you to take him for your principal Teacher Counseller and director in all your undertakings Who would go seek the advice of a fool when he may have Infallible wisdom to direct him In a work of so great difficulty and concernment a work that Hell and Earth and Flesh opposeth a work that our Everlasting state dependeth on I think it behoveth us to take the best advice that we can get And who knoweth the will of God like God or who knoweth the certain means of salvation like him that is 〈…〉 ver of salvation would you know whether it 〈…〉 a â—ortified holy life Who shall be your coun 〈…〉 you advise with your Flesh you know that it would 〈…〉 If you advise with the World of wicked men you know that they would be imitated and judge as they are and are not like to be wise for you that are so foolish for themselves as to part with Heaven for a merry dream If you advise with the Devil you know he would be obeyed and have company in his misery You can advise with none but God but such as are your Enemies And will you ask an enemy a deadly enemy what course you should take to make you happy Will you ask the Devil how you may be saved Or will you ask the blind ungodly world what course you should take to please the Lord Or will you ask the Flesh by what means you may subdue it and become spiritual If you take advice of Scripture of the spirit of a holy well informed Minister or Christian or of a renewed well informed Conscience I take this for your advising with the Lord But besides these that are his mouth you can ask advice of none but enemies But if they were never so much your friends and wanted wisdom they could but ignorantly seduce you And do you think that any of them all is as wise as God It is the constant course of a worldly man to advise with the world and of carnal men to advise with the flesh and therefore it is that they are hurried to perdition The flesh is brutish and will lead you to a brutish life and if you live after it undoubtedly you shall die Rom. 8. 13. and if you sow to it you shall but reap Corruption Gal. 6. 6 7. If you are tempted to Lust will you ask the flesh that tempteth you whether you should yield If the cup of excess be offered to you or flesh-pleasing feasts prepared for you will you ask the flesh whether you should take them or refuse them You may easily know what counsel it will give you The Counsel of God and of your flesh are contrary and therefore the lives of the carnal and spiritual man are contrary And will you venture on the advice of a brutish appetite and refuse the counsel of the all knowing God such as is your Guide and Counsellor such will be your End Never mâ—n miscarried by obeying God and never man â—ped well by obeying the flesh God leadeth no man to perdition
and the flesh leadeth no man to his Salvation Gods motions are all for our Eternal good though they seem to be for our temporal hurt The motions of the flesh are for our Eternal hurt though at present they seem to be for our Corporal benefit If at any time you be at a loss and your carnal friends or your commodity or pleasure adviseth you one way and the Word of God and his faithful Ministers advise you another way use but your Reason well and consider whether God or those that contradict him be the wiser and accordingly suit your practice Alas man thy friend is ignorant and knows not what is good for himself Thy flesh is ignorant and knows not what is good for thy soul But God knoweth all things Your flesh and friends do feel what pleaseth them at present and judge accordingly but what will be hereafter they understand not or consider not But God knoweth as well what will be as what is He counselleth you as one that knoweth how your actions will appear at last and what it is that will save you or undo you to all eternity If you be but sick it s too to one but the Counsel of your Physition and of your Appetite will differ And if you will obey your Physition before your Appetite for your health or life should you not obey God before it for your Salvation Do you think in your Consciences that any that perswade you to a careless worldly fleshly life are as Wise as God that perswadeth you to the contrary you dare not say so with your tongues and yet the most dare say so with their lives O how justly do the ungodly perish that deliberately choose a brutish appetite a malignant world and a malicious Devil as a wiser or fitter conducter then the Lord But blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly but his delight is in the Law of the Lord Psal. 1. 1 2. And wo to the ungodly that reject and set at nought the counsel of the Lord Prov. 1. 25 30. Luke 7. 30. and will have none of it that wait not for his counsel Psal. 106. 13. that rehell against the words of God and contemn the counsel of the most High Psal. 107. 11. And wo to them that take counsel against the Lord and his Christ that they may break asunder his bondt and cast away his obligations Psal. 2. 1 2 3. And wo to them that are given up to the lusts of their own hearts and to walk in their own counsels Psal. 81. 12. For by their own counsels shall they fall Psal. 5. 10. But had they harkened to the Lord and walked in his way with the fulness of his blessings would he have satisfied them Psal. 81. 13 16. Resolve therefore what ever the flesh or the world say that the Testimonies of God shall be your Counsellors Psal. 119. â—4 and bless the Lord that giveth thee counsel Psal. 16. 7. For his counsel is infallible having guided thee by his counsel be will bring thee to his glory Psal 73. 24. 3. The Infinite Wisdome of God must resolve the soul to Rest in his determinations We are most certain that God is not deceived Though all men seem Lyers to you let God be true for it is impossible for him to lye Heb. 6. 18. If our Reason be to seek so is not God When we are saying with Nicodemus How can these things be God knoweth how and it is enough for us to know that they are so If Infinite wisdome say the word Believe it though all the world contradict it Though proud unbelievers say that the words of God are improbable let them know that God is not at a loss when ever mens dark understandings are at a loss The Sun is not taken out of the firmament when ever a man closeth or loseth his eyes What will those cavillers puzzle the Almighty will they pose Omniscience Doth it follow that the course of the Planets and the Heavens and all the Creatures are out of order if these silly Moles understand not the order of them No more will it follow that any word of God is false or any Rule of God is crooked because they see not its truth and rectitude Shall dust and ashes judge the Lord who hath been his Counseller and with whom hath he advised for the making redeeming or governing of the world There is no Rest to an inquisitive soul but in the Infinite wisdome of the Lord. Find once that it is his word and enquire no further It s madness to demand a further proof As all Goodness is comprized in his Will and Love so all Truth is comprized in his Wisdom and Revelations There are no Arguments but what are lower and subordinate to this And therefore if thy Reason be at a loss as to the cause or manner yet hast thou the greatest Reason to believe that all is just and true that proceedeth from the Wisdom of the Lord. Iâ— flesh and blood and all the world gain say it yet Rest in the Word of God 4. And that 's the next effect that Gods Omniscience should have upon our minds Take all the sayings of men as folly that are against the Lord. Let them be high or low learned or unlearned if they contradict the God of Infinite wisdome take it but as the words of a distracted man Did you ever meet with any man of them that durst say he was wiser than God himself Herod that was eaten to death with vermine was applauded by the flattering crowd but with this acclamation It is the voice of a God and not of a man Act. 12. 22. And will you say of any man that he is wiser than God If you dare not say so how dare you hear them and believe them against the Word of God How dare you be drawn from a holy life or from a selfdenying duty or from the truth of God by the words of a man yea perhaps of a very sot that speaks against the Word of God! To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to these it is because there is no Light in them Isa. 8. 20. 5. The Infinite wisdom of God should establish our confidence concerning the fulfilling of all his Word He will not fail for want of Knowledge when he spoke that Prophesie that Promise or that Threatning he perfectly knew all things that would come to pass to all eternity He knew therefore what he said when he gave out his Word and therefore will fulfill it Heaven and earth may pass away but one Iota or tittle of his word shall not pass away till all be accomplished Mat. 5. 18 6. And from the Infinite wisdom of God the Church must be encouraged in its greatest straits and against all the cunning subtilty of their enemies Are we ever in such straits that God knows not how to bring us out when we see no way for our deliverance doth
Praises of the Lord. The Goodness of God should be a daily feast to a gracious soul and should continually feed our cheerful Praises as the spring or cistern fills the Pipes I know no sweeter work on earth nay I am sure there is no sweeter then for faithful sanctified souls rejoicingly to magnifie the Goodness of the Lord and joyn together in his cheerful Praises O Christians if you would tast the Joys of Saints and live like the redeemed of the Lord indeed be much in the exercise of this Heavenly work and with holy David make it your employment and say O how great is thy Goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee Psal. 31. 19. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord Psal. 33. 5. What then are the Heavens Thy Congregation hath dwelt therein thou O Lord hast prepared thy Goodness for the poor O that men would praise the Lord for his Goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men For he satisfyeth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness Psal. 107. 8 9. The goodness of God endureth continually Psal. 52. 1. Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart Psal. 73. 1. O taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him Psal. 34. 8. The Lord is good his mercy is Everlasting his truth endureth from generation to generation Psal. 100. 5 The Lord is good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his works Psal. 145. 9. O Praise the Lord for the Lord is good sing Praises to his name for it is pleasant Psal. 135. â— Call him as David My goodness and my fortress my high tower and my deliverer and my shield and he in whom I trust Psal. 144 2. Let men therefore speak of the glorious honour of his Majesty and of his wonderous works Let them abundantly utter the memory of his great goodness and sing of his Righteousness Psal. 145 5 7. If there be a thought that is truly sweet to the soul it is the Thought of the Infinite Goodness of the Lord. If there be a pleasant word for man to speak it is the mention of the Infinite goodness of the Lord And if there be a pleasant hour for man on earth to spend and a delightful work for man to do it is to meditate on and with the Saints to Praise the Infinite goodness of the Lord. What was the glory that God shewed unto Moses and the tast of Heaven that he gave him upon Earth but this I will make all my Goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee and I will be gracious on whom I will be gracious and will shew Mercy on whom I will shew Mercy Exod. 33. 19. And his proclaimed Name was The Lord the Lord God Merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth Exod. 34. 6. These were the holy Praiâ—es that Solomon did consecrate the Temple with 2 Chron. 6. 41. Arise O Lord God into thy resting place thou and the Ark of thy strength let thy Priests O Lord God be cloathed with salvation and let thy Saints rejoyce in Goodness See Isai. 63. O Christians if you would have joy indeed let this be your employment Draw neer to God and have no low undervaluing thoughts of his Infinite Goodness For How great is his Goodness and how great is his Beauty Zach. 9 17. Why is it that Divine Consolations are so strange to us but because Dive Goodnesâ— is so lightly thought upon As those that think little of God at all have little of God upon their hearts so they that think but little of his Goodness in particular have little Love or Joy or Praise 6. Moreover the Goodness of God must possess us with desire to be conformed to his goodness in our measure The Holy perfection of his Will must make us desire to have our Wills conformed to the will of God We are not called to Imitate him in his works of Power nor so much in the paths of his Omniscience as we are in his goodness which as manifested in his work and word is the Pattern and standard of Moral Goodness in the sons of men The Impress of his goodness within us is the chief part of his Image on us and the fruits of it in our Lives is their Holiness and Vertue As he is Good and doth Good Psal. 119. 68. so must it be our greatest care to be as good and do as much good as possibly we can Any thing within us that is sinful and contrary to the Goodness of God should be to our souls as griping poyson to our bodies which nature is excited to strive against with all its strength and can have no safety or rest till it be cast out And for Doing Good it must be the very study and trade of our lives As worldlings study and labour for the world and the Pleasing of their flesh so must the Christian study and labour to improve his masters talents to his use and to do as much good as he is able and to please the Lord. Prov. 11. 23. The desire of the Righteous as such is only Good To depart from evil and do good is the care of the just Psal. 34. 14. We must please our neighbours for Good to their Edification Rom. 15. 2. While we have time we must do good to all men as we are able but especially to them of the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 10 Not only to them that do good to us but to our enemies Luk. 6. 32 33 34. Mat. 5. 44. This is it that we must not forget Heb. 13. 16. and which by Ministers we must be â—ut in mind of 1 Tim. 6. 18. which all that love life and would inherit the blessing must devote themselves to 1 Pet. 3. 10 11 12. In this we must be like our heavenly Father and approve our selves his Children Mat. 5. 45 46. 7. From the perfect Infinite goodness of God we must learn to judge of Good and Evil and in all the Creatures To this must all be reduced as the standard and by this must they be tryed It is a most wretched absurdity of sensual men to try the will or word or wayes of God by themselves and by their own interests or wills and to judge all to be Evil in God that is against them And yet alas how common is this case Every man is naturally â—oth to be miserable suffering he abhors and therefore that which causeth his suffering he calleth evil And so when he hath deserved it himself by his sin he thinks that the Law is Evil for threatning it and that God himself is Evil for inflicting it so that Infinite Goodness must be tryed and judged by the vicious creature and the Rule and standard must be reduced to the crooked line of humane actions or dispositions and if God will please
crossed or accomplished pleased or displeased and you will see that his will is alwayes done and pleased even by them that displease him in 〈…〉 ting his will â—or Gods will hath two sorts of Objects or Products which must be still distinguished 1. He willeth what shall be Due from us to him and from him to us 2. He willeth Entities and Events or what shall actually Be or come to pass Strictly both these acts of Gods will perform the things willed and so are not without their proper effect God as the Cause and disposer of all things attaineth his will concerning Events All things shall Come to pass which he absolutely wideth shall come to pass He is not frustrated of his will herein being neither unwise nor impotent nor unhappy Whatsoever pleased the Lord that did he in Heaven and in Earth in the Sea and in the depths Psal. 135. 6. Our God is in Heaven he hath done whatsoever he pleased Psâ—â— 115. 3. And as God as our Governour doth by his Laws oblige man to his Duty his will hath its effect A Command doth but make the thing commanded to be our Duty and our Duty it is and so this act of the will of God is not in vain Thus far he hath his will By his Promises he maketh the Reward to be Due to all on condition they perform the Duty on which he hath suspended it and to be Actually Due to those only that perform the condition And all this is accomplished Heaven is Conditionally given to all and Actually to the Faithful only So that what God willeth to be Due as a Lawgiver is accordingly Due and what he actually willeth shall come to pass shall come to pass according to his will But perhaps you will say He doth not will that all men shall Eventually obey his Laws but only that it shall be their Duty I answer Our speeches of God being borrowed from man who is one of the Glasses in which he is here seen by us especially the manhood of Jesus Christ We must accordingly conceive and say acknowledging still the improprieties and imperfections of our conceptions and expressions that as man doth simply and most properly will the Event of some things which he absolutely desireth should come to pass and doth not simply will some other things but only in tantum he so far willeth them that he willeth and resolveth to do such and such things as have a tendency thereto and to go no farther and do no more for the attaining of them though he could so God doth simply and properly will some things that is the things which he Decreeth shall come to pass but we must after our manner conceive and say that there are other things which he willeth but in tantum so far as to make it mans Duty to perform it and perswade him to the doing of that duty and give him such a measure of help as leaveth him without any just excuse if he do it not and so far he willeth the salvation of such as to Promise or offer it them on such terms and no further doth he will the obedience or salvation which never comes to pass but leaveth it here to the will of man For if he simply willed that every Duty should be Eventually done it would be done and if he simply willed that all men should be actually saved they would be saved And that he simply willeth their Duty or Obligation and in tantum so far doth will the event of their obedience and salvation as this comes to as aforesaid is certain and in this we are all agreed and I am not so well skild in dividing as to understand where the real difference lyeth between the parties that here most contend But about the bare Name I know they differ some thinking that this last is not to be Named an Act of Gods will or a willing of mans obedience or salvation and some thinking that it is so to be named who doubtless are in the right nor is there room for controversies while we confess the impropriety of this and all our speeches of God as speaking after the manner of men and while Scripture that must teach us how to speak of God doth frequently so speak before us 2. God being the Maker and first Cause of all things that is of all substantial Beings commonly called Creatures we must conclude that Sin is no such Being because it is most certain that he is not the Creatour or the cause of it Scripture assureth us and all Christians are agreed that God is not the Cause or Author of sin How odious then should that be to us that is so bad as not to come from God If God disclaim it let us disclaim it Let us abhor that it should come from us seeing God abhorreth that it should come from him Own not that which hath nothing of God upon it If you say that it is an Accident though not a substance and therefore it must needs come from God because even Accidents have their Being I answer That among the subtilest Disputers it is granted that it hath no Created Being or no Being that is caused by God of this they are agreed It s granted by all Christians that sin hath no other kind of Being but what the will of man can cause And if that be so the Philosophical trifling controversie whether it be only a Privation or a Relation or Modus Entis which the will thus causeth must be handled as Philosophical and valued but as it deserveth For this is all the controversie that here remains If the form be Relative and the Foundation be but a meer Prevation the Disconformity being founded in a defect then the case is soon resolved as to the rest He that erreth understandeth amiss that he understandeth is of God that he erreth that is is defective and so false in his understanding is of himself that he willeth when he chooseth sin is of God the Universal cause But that he willeth a forbidden object rather then the contrary and faileth in his understanding and his will this is not of God but of himself If others say that the very Fundamentum of that Disconformity which is the Form of sin is sometime an Act they must also say that it is not an Act as such but This Act comparatively considered or as circumstantiated or as exercised on the forbidden object rather then another or a Volition instead of a Nolition and choosing that which should be refused or a refusing that which should be chosen And whether this comparate specifying foundation be a Privation or a Mode is a Philosophical controversie and in Philosophy and not in Theology is the difficulty Divines being agreed as aforesaid that what ever you Name it Being or Privation or Mode it is but such as must be resolved ultimately into the will of man as its Original or first cause supposing God to be the Creator and Conserver of that free Power
6. Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake For so is the will of God 1 Pet. 2. 13 15. Deut. 1. 16 17. Judge righteously between every man and his brother ye shall not respect persons in judgement but shall hear the small as well as the great you shall not be afraid of the face of man for the judgement is Gods 2 Chron. 19 5 6 7. And he said to the Judges Take heed what ye do for you judge not for man but for the Lord who is with you in the judgement wherefore let the fear of the Lord be upon you But our Atheistical Politicians would teach Rulers that they are none of the Ministers of God and that they judge for man only and not for him The nature of all true obedience is such as Paul describeth in children and servants Eph. 6. 1 6 7 8. that setcheth its rise and motives from the Lord Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Servants be obedient to them that are your Masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ not with eye-service as men-pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with good-will doing service as to the Lord and not to men So Colos. 3. 22 23. 7. Hence also you must learn that Gods authority is the highest authority and there is indeed no such thing in the world as true authority that is against him or not subordinate unto him And therefore if men command us to disobey God by neglecting that which is hic nunc a duty or by sinning against him their commands are from a disobedient will of their own but from no Authority and it is better in such cases to obey God then man Act. 5. 29. so many Prophets Apostles and other Martyrs would not have been sacrificed by the fury of Persecutors if they had thought it just to obey them before God God never gave any man Authority against him Nor to nullifie his laws The acts of a Justice or Constable against the King or beyond their power are private or rebellious acts and not Authoritative And so are the Laws of men that are against God Yet note well that though we must rather disobey men then God yet we may not forcibly Resist when we may not obey them And in some cases as if a King would ravish a woman or the like when it is lawful to Resist his fact it is not lawful to Resist his State and disturb the Government of the Commonwealth Obey men chearfully when God forbids it not but see that God be your Absolute Soveraign whose Laws can be dispensed with by none If Parents or Masters command you to break the Laws of God obey them not Despise them not but humbly deprecate their displeasure and obey them in all other things but in the unlawful thing obey them not no not if they were the greatest Princes upon earth But say as the three witnesses of God Dan. 3. 16 17. We are not careful to answer thee in this matter If it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thy hands O King But if not be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy Gods nor worship thy golden Image which thou hast set up What I have said of Magistrates in the two last cases I mean also of Pastours of the Church They must be obeyed in and for the Lord but not against the Lord. Saith Paul of the Churches of Maceâ—onia 2 Cor. 8. 5. They gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God See Act. 20. 28. 1 Thes. 5. 12. Luk. 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me And yet the leaven of the Pharisees must be avoided and an Angel from Heaven be held as accursed if he should preach another Gospel Gal. 1. 8. And I would not have flatterers to set either Princes or Pastours above the Angels of Heaven Though yet in other respects we may be still obliged as I said before to hear and to obey them 8. And the Knowledge of Gods soveraignty must teach us to fear his righteous Threatnings and reverence his Justice and prepare our selves to be judged by him He ruleth by his Laws and so by Threatnings and Promises which he will make good It is not a painted fire that he Threatneth Judgement is a part of Government Laws are but shadows if there be no execution O worship the Lord in the beauty of Holiness fear before him all the earth Say among the Heathen that the Lord reigneth Psal. 96. 9 10 As his promises so his peremptory threatnings shall be fulfilled He will not revoke his stablished Laws for fear of hurting willful sinners that will not fear his judgements till they feel them Psal. 33. 8. Let all the earth fear the Lord let all the inhabitants of the world stand in aw of him for he spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Mark also the present judgements of the Lord and rush not on his indignation For the Lord is known by the judgements which he executeth the wicked is oft snared in the work of his own hands Psal. 9. 16. Though the wicked contemn God and say in his heart Thou wilt not require it Psal. 10. 13. yet they shall find that he beholdeth mischief to requite it with his hand and that he is the helper of the fatherless and poor that commit themselves unto him ver 14. The Lords throne is in heaven his eyes behold his eyelids try the children of men the Lord tryeth the Righteous but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth Psal. 11. 4 5. 9. The Soveraignty of God is a comfort to his loyal subjects They may be sure that he will protect them and make good his word Behold he cometh and his reward is with him Rev. 22. 12. The righteous Judge at his appearing will give the Crown of Righteousness to all them that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4. 18 7 8. O let the Nations be glad and sing for joy for thou shalt judge the people righteously and govern the Nations upon earth Psal. 67. 4. Let the Heavens rejoyce and the earth be glad before the Lord for he cometh for he cometh to judge the world with righteousness and the people with his truth Psal. 69. 11. 13. 10. Lastly the Knowledge of God as our Soveraign King must cause us to desire and pray for and promote the glory of his Kingdome and the obedience of his subjects in the world that his Name may be hallowed by the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his will on earth as it is in Heaven must be the matter of our daily requests to God It must be the grief of every subject of the Lord to
in those that undertake the place of Pastors cruelty to mens souls is a far greater sin than in any others To starve those that they undertake to feed and to seduce those whom they undertake to Guide and be Wolves to those whose Shepherds they pretend to be and to prefer their worldly honours and commodity and ease before the souls of many thousands to be so cruel to souls when Christ hath been so merciful to them as to come down on earth to seek and save them and to give his life a ransome for them this will one day be so heavy a charge that the man that must stand as guilty under it will a thousand times wish that a milstoâ—â— had been hanged about his neck and he had been cast into the bottome of the Sea before he had betrayed or murdered souls or offended one of the little ones of Christ. Be merciful to mens souls and bodies as ever you would find mercy with a merciful God in the hour of your necessity and distress CHAP. XXI 20. THE last of Gods Attributes which I shall now mention is his Dreadfulness or Terribleness to those that are the objects of his wrath This is the result of his other Attributes especially of his Holiness and Governing Justice and Truth in his commiâ—ations He is a Great and Dreadful God Dan. 9 4. A mighty God and terrible Deut. 7. 21. A great and terrible God Nah. 1. 5. With God is terrible Majesty Job 37. 22. The Lord most high is terrible Psal. 47. 22. 1. His Children therefore must be kept in a holy awe God is never to be approached or mentioned but with the greatest reverence We must sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and he must be our fear and dread Isa. 8. 13. Even they that receive the unmoveable Kingdom must have grace in their hearts to serve him acceptably with Reverence and godly fear because our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12. 28 29. When we come to worship in the holy Assemblies we should think as Jacob Gen. 28. 17. How dreadful is this place This is none other but the House of God and this is the gate of Heaven Especially when God seemeth to frown upon the soul his servants must humble themselves before him and deprecate his wrath as Jeremiah did Jer. 17. 17. Be not a terrour to mee It ill becometh the best of men to make light of the frowns and threatnings of God Also when he dealeth with us in Judgement and we feel the smart of his chastisements though we must remember that he is a Father yet withall we must consider that he sheweth himself an offended Father And therefore true and deep Humiliation hath ever been the course of afflicted Saints to turn away the wrath of a terrible God 2. But above all what cause have the Ungodly to tremble at the Dreadfulness of that God who is engaged in Justice except they be converted to use them everlastingly as his unpardoned enemies As there is no felicity like the favour of God and no joy comparable to his childrens joyes so is there no misery like the sense of his Displeasure nor any terrours to be compared to those which his wrath inflicteth everlastingly on the ungodly O wretched sinner what hast thou done to make God thine enemy what could hire thee to offend him by thy willful sin and to do that which thou knewest he forbad and condemned in his Word What madness caused thee to make a mock at sin and hell and to play with the vengeance of the Almighty what gain did hire thee to cast thy soul into the danger of damnation canst thou save by the match if thou win the world and lose thy soul Didst thou not know who it was thou hadst to do with It had been better for thee that all the world had been offended with thee even men and Angels great and small than the most Dreadful God Didst thou not believe him when he told thee how he was resolved to judge and punish the ungodly Read it 2 Thes. 2. 7 8 9 10. and 2. 10 11. Matth. 25. Jud. 15. Psal. 1. c. what caused thee to venture upon the consuming fire Didst thou not know that as he is Merciful so he is Jealous Holy Just and Terrible In the Name of God I require and intreat thee fly to his Mercy in Jesus Christ and hearken speedily to his Grace and turn at his reproof and warning To day while it is called to day harden not thy heart but hear his voice lest he resolve in his wrath that thou shalt never enter into his rest There is no enduring there is no overcoming there is no contending with an angry dreadful holy God Repent therefore and turn to him and obey the voice of Mercy that thy soul may live 3. The Dreadfulness of God doth tell both good and bad the great necessity of a Mediator What an unspeakable mercy is it that God hath given us his Son and that by Jesus Christ we may come with boldness and confidence into the presence of the Dreadful God that else would have been to us a greater terror than all the world yea than Satan himself The more we are apprehensive of our distance from God and of his Terrible Majesty and his more Terrible justice against such sinners as we have been the more we shall understand the mysterie of Redemption and highly value the Mediation of Christ. 4. Lastly let the Dreadfulness of God prevail with every believing soul to pitty the ungodly that pitty not themselves O pray for them O warn them exhort them intreat them as men that know the Terrours of the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 11. If they knew as well as you do what sin is and what it is to be children of wrath and what it is to be unpardoned unjustified and unsanctified they would pitty themselves and cry for mercy mercy mercy from day to day till they were recovered into a state of life and turned from the power of Satan unto God Alas they know not what it is to die and to see the world to come and to appear before a dreadful God They know not what it is to be in Hell fire nor what it is to be glorified in Heaven They never saw or tryed these things and they want the Faith by which they must be foreseen by those that are yet short of nearer knowledge you therefore that have Faith to foreknow these things and are enlightned by the Spirit of God O pitty and warn and help the miserable Tell them how much easier it is to escape Hell than to endure it and how much easier a Holy life on earth is than the endless wrath of the most Dreadful God Tell them that unbelief presumption and security are the certain means to bring their misery but will do nothing to keep it off though they may keep off the present knowledge and sense of it which would have droven them to seek a cure
what it is to be Godly and to walk with God and what it is to be an Atheist or Ungodly you may easily see that Godliness is more rare and Atheism more common than many that themselves are Atheists will believe It is not that which a man calls his God that is taken by him for his God indeed It is not the Tongue but the Heart that is the man Pilate called Christ the King of the Jews when he crucified him The Jews called God their Father when Christ telleth them they were of their father the Devil and proveth it because what ever they said they would do his lusts Joh. 8. 44. The same Jews pretended to honour the name of the Messiah and expect him while they killed him The question is not what men call themselves but what they are Not whether you say you take God for your God but whether you do so indeed Not whether you profess your selves to be Atheists but whether you are Atheists indeed or not If you are not look over what I have here said and tell your consciences Do you walk with God who is it that you submit your selves willingly to be disposed of by To whom are you most subject and whose commands have the most effectual authority with you who is the Chief Governour of your hearts and lives whom is it that you principally desire to please whom do you most fear and whose displeasure do you principally avoid from whom is it that you expect your greaetest reward and in whom and with whom do you place and expect your happiness whose work is it that you do as the greatest business of your lives Is it the goodness of God in himself and unto you that draweth up your hearts to him in Love Is he the ultimate End of the main intentions design and industry of your lives Do you trust upon his Word as your security for your everlasting hopes and happiness Do you study and observe him in his works Do you really live as in his presence Do you delight in his Word and meditate on it Do you love the Communion of Saints and to be most frequent and familiar with them that are most frequent and familiar with Christ Do you favour more the particular affectionate discourse about his Nature Will and Kingdom than the frothy talk of empty wits or the common discourse of carnal worldlings Do you love to be employed in thanking him for his Mercies and in praising him and declaring the glory of his attributes and works Is your dependence on him as your great benefactor and do you receive your mercies as his gifts If thus your principal observation be of God and your chief desire after God and your chiefest confidence in God and your chiefest business in the world be with God and for God and your chifest joy be in the favour of God when you can apprehend it and in the prosperity of his Church and your hopes of glory and your chiefest grief and trouble be your sinful distance from him and your backwardness and disability in his love and service and the fear of his displeasure and the injuries done to his Gospel and honour in the world then I must needs say you are savingly delivered from your Atheism and Ungodliness you do not only talk of God but walk with God you are then acquainted with that spiritual life and work which the sensual world is unacquainted with and with those invisible everlasting excellencies which if worldlings knew they would change their minds and choice and pleasures You are then acquainted with that rational manly saintly life which ungodly men are strangers to and you are in the way of that well grounded Hope and Peace to which all the Pleasures and Crowns on earth if compared are but cheats and misery But if you were never yet brought to walk with God do not think that you have a sound belief in God nor that you acknowledge him sincerely nor that you are saved from heart atheism Nor is it Piety in the Opinion and the Tongue that will save him that is an Atheist or ungodly in heart and life Divinity is an affective-practical science Knowing is not the ultimate or perfective act of man but a means to holy Love and Joy and service Nor is it clear and solid knowledge if it do not somewhat affect the heart and engage and actuate the life according to the nature and use of the thing known The soundness of Knowledge and Belief is not best discerned in the intellectual acts themselves but in their powerful free and pleasant efficacy upon our choice and practice By these therefore you must judge whether you are Godly or Atheistical The question is not what your Tongues say of God nor what complemental ceremonious observances you allow him but what your Hearts and your endeavours say of him and whether you glorifie him as God when you say you know him Otherwise you will find that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who held the truth in unrighteousness Rom. 1. 18 21. And now alas what matter of lamentation is here before us To see how seriously men converse with one another and how God is overlookt or neglected by the most How men live together as if there were more that is considerable and regardable in these particles of animated dust then in the Lord Almighty and in all his graces service and rewards To see how God is cast aside and his interest made to give place to the interest of the flesh and his services must stay till men have done their service to their lusts or to worldly men that can do them hurt or shew them favour And his will must not be done when it crosseth the will of sinful man How little do all the commands and promises and threatnings of God signifie with these Atheistical men in comparison of their lusts or the laws of men or any thing that concerneth their temporal prosperity O how is the world revolted from their Maker How have they lost the knowledge of themselves and forgotten their natures capacities and obligations and what it is to be indeed a man O hearken sinners to the call of your Redeemer Return O seduced wandering souls and know at last your resting place why is not God in all your thoughts or why is he thought on with so much remisness unwillingness and contempt and with so little pleasure seriousness or regard Do you understand your selves in this Do you deal worthily with God Or wisely for your selves Do you take more pleasure with the Prodigal to feed swine and to feed with swine then to dwell at home with your heavenly Father and to walk before him and serve him in the world Did you but know how dangerous a way you have been in and how unreasonably you have dealt to forsake God in your hearts and follow that which cannot profit you what haste would you make
to leave the crowd and come home to God and try a more noble and gainful conversation If Reasons may have room and leave to work upon you I will set a few before you more distinctly to call you off from your barren inordinate creature converse to a believing serious converse with God 1. The higher and more excellent the object is especially when it is also of most concernment to our selves the more excellent is the converse Therefore as nothing dare compare it self with God so no employment may be compared with thâ—s of holy walking with him How vile a contempt is it of the Almighty and of our Celestial joyes for the heart to neglect them and turn away and dwell upon vanity and trouble and let these highest pleasures go Is not God and Glory worthy of thy thoughts and all thy service 2. What are those things that take thee up Are they better then God Or fitter to supply thy wants If thou think and trust in them accordingly ere long thou shalt know better what they are and have enough of thy cursed choice and confidence Tell those that stand by thee at the parting hour whether thou didst choose aright and make a gaining or a saving match O poor sinners have you not yet warning enough to satisfie you that all things below are Vanity and Vexation and that all your hope of happiness is above Will not the testimony of God satisfie you will not the experience of the world for so many thousand years together satisfie you will not the ill success of all the damned satisfie you will nothing but your own experience convince you If so consider well the experience you have already made and seasonably retire and try no further and trust not so dangerous a deceiver to the last least you buy your knowledge at a dearer rate then you will now believe 3. You have daily more to do with God than with all the world whether you will or no And therefore seeing you cannot avoid him if you would prefer that voluntary obediential converse which hath a reward before that necessitated converse which hath none You are alwaies in his hands he made you for his service and he will dispose of you and all that you have according to his will It shall not go with you as your selves would have it nor as your friends would have it nor as Princes and great ones of the world would have it unless as their wills comply with Gods but as God would have it who will infallibly accomplish all his will If a sparrow fall not to the ground without him and all the hairs of our heads are numbered then certainly he overruleth all your interests and affairs and they are absolutely at his dispose To whom then in reason should you so much apply your selves as unto him If you will not take notice of him he will take notice of you He will remember you whether you remember him or not but it may be with so strict and severe a remembrance as may make you wish he did quite forget you You are alwaies in his presence and can you then forget him and hold no voluntary converse with him when you stand before him If it be but mean inferiour persons that we dwell with and are still in company with yet we mind them more and speak more to them then we do to greater persons that we seldom see But in God there is both Greatness and Nearness to invite you Should not all the worms on earth stand by while the Glorious God doth call you to him and offer you the honour and happiness of his converse shall the Lord of Heaven and Earth stand by and be shut out while you are chatting or trifling with his creatures Nay shall he be neglected that is alwaies with you You cannot remove your selves a moment from his sight and therefore you should not shut your eyes and turn away your face and refuse to observe him who is still observing you Moreover your dependence both for soul and body is all on him You can have nothing desirable but by his gift He feeds you he cloatheth you he maintaineth you he gives you life and breath and all things and yet can you overlook him or forget him Do not all his mercies require your acknowledgement A Dog will follow him that feedeth him his eye will be upon his Master And shall we live upon God and yet forget and disregard him We are taught a better use of his Mercies by the Holy Prophet Psal. 66. 8 9. O bless our God ye people and make the voice of his praise to be heard which holdeth our soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be moved Nay it is not your selves alone but all the world that depends on God It is his power that supporteth them and his will that disposeth of them and his bounty that provideth for them And therefore he must be the observation and admiration of the world It is less unreasonable to take no notice of the Earth that beareth us and yieldeth us fruit and of the Sun that yields us heat and light than to disregard the Lord that is more to us than Sun and Earth and all things The eyes of all things wait on him and he giveth them their meat in season He openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing Psal. 145. 15 16. The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works All his works therefore shall praise him and his Saints shall bless him They shall speak of the glory of his Kingdom and talk of his power vers 10 11. Moreover God is so abundantly and wonderfully represented to us in all his works as will leave us under the guilt of most unexcusable contempt if we overlook him and live as without him in the world The Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge Psa. 19. 1 2. Thus that which may be known of God is manifest for the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that the ungodly are without excuse Rom. 1. 19 20. Cannot you see that which all the world revealeth nor hear that which all the world proclaimeth O sing ye forth the honour of his name make his praise glorious Say to the Lord How terrible art thou in thy works through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee All the earth shall worship thee and shall sing unto thee they shall sing unto thy name come and see the works of God he is tertible in his doings towards the children of men Psal. 66. 2 3 4 5. Can we pass him by that is everywhere present and by every Creature represented to us Can we forget him when all the world are our
remembrancers Can we stop our ears against the voice of Heaven and Earth Can we be ignorant of him when the whole Creation is our Teacher Can we overlook that holy glorious Name which is written so legibly upon all things that ever our eyes beheld that nothing but blindness sleepiness or distraction could possibly keep us from discerning it I have many a time wondred that as the eye is dazzled so with the beholding of the greatest Light that it can scarce perceive the shining of a lesser so the Glorious transcendent Majesty of the Lord doth not even overwhelm our understandings and so transport and take us up as that we can scarce observe or remember any thing else For naturally the greatest objects of our sense are apt to make us at that time insensible of the smaller And our exceeding great business is apt to make us utterly neglect and forget those that are exceeding small And O what Nothings are the Best and Greatest of the Creatures in comparison of God! And what toyes and trifles are all our other businesses in the world in comparison of the business which we have with Him But I have been stopped in these admirations by considering that the wise Creator hath fitted and ordered all his Creatures according to the use which he designeth them to And therefore as the eye must be receptive only of so much light as is proportioned to its use and pleasure and must be so distant from the Sun that its Light may rather guide than blind us and its Heat may rather quicken than consume us so God hath made our understandings capable of no other knowledge of Him here than what is suited to the work of holiness And while we have Flesh and fleshly works to do and lawful necessary business in the world in which Gods own commands employ us our souls in this Lanthorn of the body must see him through so thick a glass as shall so far allay our apprehension as not to distract us and take us off the works which he enjoyneth us And God and our souls shall be at such a distance as that the proportionable Light of his countenance may conduct us and not overwhelm us and his Love may be so revealed as to quicken our desires and draw us on to a better state but not so as to make us utterly impatient of this world and utterly weary of our lives or to swallow us up or possess us of our most desired happiness before we arrive at the state of happiness While the soul is in the body it maketh so much use of the body the brain and spirits in all is operations that our wise and merciful Creator and Governour doth respect the body as well as the soul in his ordering disposing and representing of the objects of those operations so that when I consider that certainly all men would be distracted if their apprehensions of God were anywhit answerable to the Greatness of his Majesty and Glory the Brain being not able to bear such high operations of the soul nor the greatness of the passions which would necessarily follow it much reconcileth my wondring mind to the wise and gracious providence of God even in setting innocent nature it self at such a distance from his Glory allowing us the presence of such Grace as is necessary to bring us up to Glory Though it reconcile me not to that doleful distance which is introduced by sin and which is furthered by Satan the world and the flesh and which our Redeemer by his Spirit and Intercession must heal And it further reconcileth me to this disposure and will of the blessed God and this necessary natural distance and darkness of our minds when I consider that if God and Heaven and Hell were as near and open to our apprehensions as the things are which we see and feel this life would not be what God intended it to be a life of Tryal and preparation to another a work a race a pilgrimage a warfare what Tryal would there be of any mans Faith or Love or Obedience or Constancy or Self-denial If we saw God stand by or apprehended him as if we saw him in degree it would be no more praise-worthy or rewardable for a man to abhor all temptations to worldliness ambition gluttony drunkenness lust cruelty c. than it is for a man to be kept from sleeping that is pierced with thorns or for a man to forbear to drink a cup of melted Gold which he knoweth will burn out his bowels or to forbear to burn his flesh in the fire It were no great commendation to his Chastity that would forbear his filthiness if he saw or had the fullest apprehensions of God when he will forbear it in the presence of a mortal man It were no great commendations to the intemperate and voluptuous to have no mind of sensual delights if they had but such a knowledge of God as were equal to sight It were no thanks to the persecutor to forbear his cruelty against the servants of the Lord if he saw Christ coming with his glorious Angels to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel and to be admired in his Saints and glorified in them that now believe 2 Thes. 1. 7 8 9 10. I deny not but this happily necessitated Holiness is best in it self and therefore will be our state in Heaven but what is there of Tryal in it or how can it be suitable to the state of man that must have Good and Evil set before him and Life and Death left to his choice and that must conquer if he will be crowned and approve his fidelity to his Creator against competitors and must live a rewardable life before he have the reward But though in this life we may neither hope for nor desire such overwhelming sensible apprehensions of God as the rest of our faculties cannot answer nor our bodies bear yet that our apprehensions of him should be so base and small and dull and unconstant as to by born down by the noise of worldly business or by the presence of any creature or by the tempting baits of sensuality this is the more odious by how much God is more Great and Glorious than the creature and even because the use of the creature it self is but to reveal the Glory of the Lord. To have such sleight and stupid thoughts of him as will not carry us on in uprightness of obedience nor keep us in his fear nor draw out our hearts in sincere desires to please him and enjoy him and as will not raise us to a contempt of the pleasures and profits and honours of this world this is to be despisers of the Lord and to live as in a sleep and to be dead to God and alive only to the world and flesh It is no unjust dishonour or injury to â—e Creature to be accounted as Nothing in comparison of God that it may be able to do Nothing
though all your carnal friends and superiors be against it though the devil will do all that he can against it yet all this must be done or you are lost for ever And all this must be done by the Spirit of God for it is his work to make you New and Holy And can you think then that the business is not great which you have with God when you have tryed how hard every part of this work is to be begun and carryed on you will finde you have more to do with God than with all the world 9. Moreover in order to this it is necessary that you read and hear and understand the Gospel which must be the means of bringing you to God by Christ This must be the instrument of God by which he will bring you to Repent and Believe and by which he will renew your Natures and imprint his Image on you and bring you to Love him and obey his will The Word of God must be your Counsellor and your delight and you must set your heart to it and meditate in it day and night Knowledge must be the means to reclaim your perverse misguided Wills and to reform your careless crooked Lives and to bring you out of the Kingdom of darkness into the State of Light and Life And such Knowledge cannot be expected without a diligent attending unto Christ the Teacher of your souls and a due consideration of the truth By that time you have learnt what is needful to be learnt for a true Conversion a sound Repentance a saving Faith and a holy Life you will finde that you have far greater business with God than with all the world 10. Moreover for the attaining of all this Mercy you have many a prayer to put up to God You must daily pray for the forgiveness of your sins and deliverance from temptations and even for your daily bread or necessary provisions for the work which you have to do You must daily pray for all the supplies of Grace which you want and for the gradual mortification of the flesh and for help in all the duties which you must perform and for strength against all the spiritual enemies which will assault you and preservation from the manifest evils which attend you And these prayers must be put up with unwearied constancy fervency and Faith Keep up this course of fervent prayer and beg for Christ and Grace and Pardon and Salvation in any measure as they deserve and according to thy own necessity and then tell mee whether thy business with God be small and to be put off as lightly as it is by the ungodly 11. Moreover you are made for the Glory of your Creator and must apply your selves wholly to glorifie him in the world You must make his service the trade and business of your lives and not put him off with something on the by You are good for nothing else but to serve him as a knife is made to cut and as your cloaths are made to cover you and your meat to seed you and your horse to labour for you so you are made and redeemed and maintained for this to Love and Please your great Creator And can you think that it is but little business that you have with him when he is the End and Master of your lives and all you are or have is for him 12. And for the due performance of his service you have all his Talents to employ To this end it is that he hath entrusted you with reason and health and strength with time and parts and interest and wealth and all his mercies and all his ordinances and means of Grace and to this end must you use them or you lose them And you must give him an account of all at last whether you have improved them all to your Masters use And can you look within you without you about you and see how much you are trusted with and must be accountable to him for and yet not see how great your business is with God 13. Moreover you have all the graces which you shall receive to exercise and every grace doth carry you to God and is exercised upon him or for him It is God that you must study and know and love and desire and trust and hope in and obey It is God that you must seek after and delight in so far as you enjoy him It is his absence or displeasure that must be your fear and sorrow Therefore the soul is said to be sanctified when it is renewed because it is both disposed and devoted unto God And therefore Grace is called Holiness because it all disposeth and carryeth the soul to God and useth it upon and for him And can you think your business with God is small when you must live upon him and all the powers of your soul must be addicted to him and be in serious motion towards him and when he must be much more to you than the Air which you breath in or the Earth you live upon or than the Sun that gives you light and heat yea than the soul is to your bodies 14. Lastly you have abundance of temptations and impediments to watch and strive against which would hinder you in the doing of all this work and a corrupt and treacherous heart to watch and keep in order which will be looking back and shrinking from the service Lay all this together and then consider whether you have not more and greater business with God than with all the creatures in the world And if this be so as undeniably it is so is there any cloak for that mans sin who is all day taken up with creatures and thinks of God as seldome and as carelesly as if he had no business with him And yet alas if you take a survey of high and low of Court and City and Country you shall find that this is the case of no small number yea of many that observe it not to be their case it is the case of the prophane that pray in jeast and swear and curse and rail in earnest It is the case of the malignant enemies of holiness that hate them at the heart that are most acquainted with this converse with God and count it but hypocrisie pride or fancy and would not suffer them to live upon the Earth who are most sincerely conversant in Heaven It is the case of Phariseâ—s and Hypocrites who take up with ceremonious observances as touch not taste not handle not and such like traditions of their forefathers instead of a spiritual rational service and a holy serious walking with the Lord. It is the case of all ambitious men and covetous worldlings who make more ado to climb up a little higher than their brethren and to hold the reins and have their wills and be admired and adored in the world or to get a large estate for themselves and their posterity than to please their Maker or to save their souls It is
the world above and advance us above the life of the greatest Princes upon earth But the thoughts of earthly fleshly things have power indeed to delude men and mislead them and hurry them about in a vertiginous motion but no power to support us or subdue concupiscence or heal our folly or save us from temptations or reduce us from our errors or help us to be useful ie the world or to attain felicity at last There is no Life nor Power nor Efficacy in our thoughts if God be not in them 6. There is no stability or fixedness in your thoughts if God be not in them They are like a boat upon the Ocean tost up and down with winds and waves The mutable uncertain creatures can yield no rest or settlement to your minds You are troubled about many things and the more you think on them and have to do with them the more are you troubled But you forget the One thing Necessary and fly from the Eternal Rock on which you must build if ever you will be established While the Creature is in your thought instead of God you will be one day deluded with its unwholesome pleasure and the next day feel it gripe you at the heart One day it will seem your happiness and the next you will wish you had never known it That which seemeth the only comfort of your lives this year may the next year make you aweary of your lives One day you are impatiently desiring and seeking it as if you could not live without it and the next day or ere long you are impatiently desiring to be rid of it You are now taking in your pleasant morsâ—ls and drinking down your delicious draughts and jovially sporting it with your inconsiderate companions But how quickly will you be repenting of all this and complaining of your folly and vexing your selves that you took not warning and made not a wiser choice in time The creature was never made to be your end or rest or happiness and therefore you are but like a man in a wilderness or a maze that may go and go but knoweth not whither and findeth no end till you come home to God who only is your proper end and make him the Lord and life and pleasure of your thoughts 7. As there is no present fixedness in your thoughts so the business and pleasure of them will be of very short continuance if God be not the chief in all And who would choose to imploy his thoughts on such things as he is sure they must soon forget and never more have any business with to all eternity You shall think of those houses and lands and friends and pleasures but a little while unless it be with repenting tormenting thoughts in the place of misery you will have no delight to think of any thing which is now most precious to your flesh when once the flesh it self decayes and is no more capable of delight Psal. 146. 4. His breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish Call in your thoughts then from these transitory things that have no consistency or continuance and turn them unto him with whom they may find everlasting employment and delight Remember not the enticing baits of sensuality and pride but Remember now thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth while the evil dayes come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them 8. Thy thoughts are but sordid dishonourable and low if God be not the chiefest in them They reach no higher then the habitation of beasts nor do they attain to any sweeter employment then to meditate on the felicity of a brute Thou choosest with the fly to feed on dung and filthy ulcers and as magots to live on stinking carrion when thou mightst have free access to God himself and mightst be entertained in the Court of heaven and wellcomed thither by the holy Angels Thou wallowest in the mire with the swine or diggest thy self a house in the earth as worms and moles do when thy thoughts might be soaring up to God and might be taken up with high and holy and everlasting things What if your thoughts were employed for preferment wealth and honour in the world Alas what silly things are these in comparison of what your souls are capable of You will say so your selves when you see how they will end and fail your expectations Imprison not your minds in this infernal cell when the superior regions are open to their access confine them not to this narrow vessel of the body whose tossings and dangers on these boistrous seas will make them restless and disquiet them with tumultuous passions when they may safely land in Paradise and there converse with Christ. God made you men and if you reject not his grace will make you Saints Make not your selves like beasts or vermine God gave you souls that can step in a moment from earth to heaven and there foretast the endless joyes Do not you stick then fast in clay and setter them with worldly cares or intoxicate them with fleshly pleasures nor employ them in the worse-then-childish toyes of ambitious sensual worldly men Your thoughts have Manna Angels food provided them by God If you will loath this and refuse it and choose with the serpent to feed on the dust or upon the filth of sin God shall be judge and your consciences one day shall be more faithful witnesses whether you have dealt like wise men or like fools like friends or enemies to your selves and whether you have not chosen baseness and denyed your selves the advancement which was offered you 9. If God be not the chiefest in your thoughts they are no better then dishonest and unjust You are guilty of denying him his own He made not your mindes for lust and pleasure but for himself you expect that your cattle your goods your servants be employed for your selves because they are your own But God may call your minds his own by a much fuller title for you hold all but derivatively and dependently from him what will you call it but injustice and dishonesty if your wife or children or servants or goods be more at the use and service of others then of you If any can shew a better title to your Thoughts then God doth let him have them but if not deny him not his own O straggle not so much from home for you will be nowhere else so well as there Desire not to follow strangers you know not whither nor for what you have a Master of your own that will be better to you then all the strangers in the world Bow not down to creatures that are but Images of the true and solid good Commit not Idolatry or Adultery with them in your thoughts Remember still that God stands by Bethink you how he will take it at your hands and how it will be judged of at last when he pleads his
right his kindness and sollicitations of you and you have so little to say for any pretence of right or merit in the creature Why are not men ashamed of the greatest dishonesty against God when all that have any humanity left them do take adultery theft and other dishonesty against creatures for a shame The time will come when God and his interest shall be better understood that this dishonesty against Him will be the matter of the most confounding shame that ever did or could befall men Prevent this by the juster exercise of your thoughts and keeping them pure and chast to God 10. If God be not in your thoughts and the chiefest in them there will be no matter in them of solid comfort or content Trouble and deceit will be all their work when they have fled about the earth and taken a tast of every flower they will come loaden home with nothing better then Vanity and Vexation Such thoughts may excite the laughter of a fool and cause that mirth that is called madness Eccles. 7. 4 6. and 2. 2. But they will never conduce to setled Peace and durable content And therefore they are alwaies repented of themselves and are troublesome to our review as being the shame of the sinner which he would fain be cleared of or disown Though you may approach the creature with passionate fondness and the most delightful promises and hopes be sure of it you will come off at last with grief and disappointment if not with the loathing of that which you chose for your delight Your thoughts are in a wilderness among thorns and bryars when God is not in them as their guide and end They are lost and torn among the creatures but rest and satisfaction they will find none It may be at the present it is pleasanter to you to think of recreation or business or worldly wealth then to think of God But the pleasure of these thoughts is as delusory and short-lived as are the things themselves on which you think How long will you think with pleasure on such fading transitory things And the pleasure cannot be great at the present which reacheth but the flesh and fantasie and which the possessed knoweth will be but short Nay you will shortly find by sad experience that of all the creatures under heaven there will none be so bitter to your thoughts as those which you now find greatest carnal sweetness in O how bitter will the thought of idolized honour and abused wealth and greatness be to a dying or a damned Dives The thoughts of that Alehouse or Playhouse where thou hadst thy greatest pleasure will trouble thee more then the thoughts of all the houses in the town besides The thoughts of that one woman with whom thou didst commit thy pleasant sin will wound and vex thee more then the thoughts of all the women in the town besides The thoughts of that beloved sport which thou couldst not be weaned from will be more troublesome to thee then the thoughts of a thousand other things in which thou hadst no inordinate delight For the end of sinful mirth is sorrow when Solomon had tryed to please himself to the full in mirth in buildings vineyards woods waters in servants and possessions silver and gold and cattel and singers and instruments of musick of all sorts in greatness and all that the eye or appetite or heart desired he findeth when he awaked from this pleasant dream that he had all this while been taken up with Vanity and Vexation in so much that he saith on the review Therefore I hated life because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous to me for all is vanity and vexation of spirit Yea I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun Eccles. 2. 1 2 3 c. 17. 18. You may toil out and tire your selves among these bryars in this barren wilderness but if ever you would feel any solid ground of quietness and rest it must be by coming off from vanity and seeking your felicity in God and living sincerely for Him and upon Him as the worldling doth upon the world His pardoning mercy must begin your Peace forgiving you your former thoughts and â—is healing quickening mercy must increase it by teaching you better to employ your thoughts and drawing up your hearts â—nto himself and his glorifying mercy must perfect it by giving you the full intuition and fruition of himself in heaven and employing you in his perfect Love and Praise not leaving any room for creatures nor suffering a thought to be employed on vanity for ever CHAP. IV. BY this time I hope you may see reason to call your selves to a strict account what converse you have been taken up with in the world and upon what you have exercised your thoughts surely you must needs be conscious that the thoughts which have been denyed God have brought you home but little satisfaction and have not answered the ends of your creation redemption or preservation and that they are now much fitter matter for your penitential tears then for your comfort in the review I do not think you dare own and stand to those thoughts which have been spent for fleshly pleasures or in unnecessary worldly cares or that were wasted in impertinent vagaries upon any thing or nothing when you should have been seeking God! I do not think you have now any great pleasure in the review of those thoughts which once were taken up with pleasure when your most pleasant thoughts should have been of God Dare you approve of your rejecting your Creatour and the great concernments of your soul out of your thoughts and wasting them upon things unprofitable and vain Did not God and Heaven deserve more of your serious thoughts then any thing else that ever they were employed on Have you laid them out on any thing that more concerned you or on any thing more excellent more honourable more durable or that could claim precedency upon any just account Did you not shut heaven it self out of your thoughts when you shut out God And is it not just that God and Heaven should shut out you If Heaven be not the principal matter of your thoughts its plain that you do not principally love it And if so judge you whether those that Love it not are fit to be made possessors of it O poor distracted senseless world Is not God Great enough to command and take up your chiefest cogitations Is not Heaven enough to find them work and afford them satisfaction and delight And yet is the dung and dotage of the world enough Is your honour and wealth and fleshly delights aed sports enough God will shortly make you know whether this were wise and equal dealing Is God so low so little so undeserving to be so oft and easily forgotten and so hardly and so sleightly remembred I tell you ere long he will make you think of him to your sorrow whether you will or
BUt it may be the objector will be ready to think that If it be indeed our duty to walk with God yet Thoughts are no considerable part of it what more uncertain or mutable then our Thoughts It is Deeds and not Thoughts that God regardeth To do no harm to any but to do good to all this is indeed to walk with God You set a man upon a troublesome and impossible work while you set him upon so strict a guard and so much exercise of his thoughts what cares the Almighty for my thoughts Answ. 1 If God know better then you and be to be believed then Thoughts are not so inconsiderable as you suppose Doth he not say that the Toughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 15. 26. It is the work of the Gospel by its power to pull down strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. The unrighteous mans forsaking his thoughts is part of his necessary conversion Isa. 55. 7. It was the description of the deplorate state of the old world Gen. 6. 5. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart Judge by this whether Thoughts be so little regarded by God as you imagine David saith of himself I hate vain thoughts Psal. 119. 113. Solomon saith The thoughts of the righteous are right Prov. 12. 5. Paul saith that Charity thinketh not evil 1 Cor. 13. 5. 2. Thoughts are the issue of a rational soul. And if its operations be contemptible its essence is contemptible If its essence be noble its operations are considerable If the soul be more excellent then the body its operations must be more excellent To neglect our Thoughts and not employ them upon God and for God is to vilisie our noblest faculties and deny God who is a spirit that spiritual service which he requireth 3. Our Thoughts are commonly our most cordial voluntary acts and shew the temper and inclination of the heart And therefore are regardable to God that searcheth the heart and calleth first for the service of the heart 4. Our Thoughts are radical and instrumental acts such as they are such are the actions of our lives Christ telleth us that out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts false witness blasphemies which defile the man Matth. 15. 19. 5. Our Thoughts are under a Law as well as words and deeds Prov. 24. 9. The thought of foolishness is sin And Matth. 5. 28 c. Christ extendeth the Law even to the thoughts and desires of the heart And under the Law it is said Deut. 15. 9. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart c. viz. of unmercifulness towards thy brother 6. Thoughts can reach higher much then sense and may be employed upon the most excellent and invisible objects and therefore are fit instruments to elevate the soul that would converse with God Though God be infinitely above us our Thoughts may be exercised on him Our persons never were in Heaven and yet our Conversation must be in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. And how is that but by our thoughts Though we see not Christ yet by the exercise of believing thoughts on him we love him and rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Though God be invisible yet our Meditation of him may be sweet and we may delight in the Lord Psal. 104. 34. Say not that all this is but fantastical and delusory as long as Thoughts of things unseen are meeter to actuate and elevate the love desires and delights of the soul and to move and guide us in a regular and holy life then the sense of lesser present good The Thoughts are not vain or delusory unless the object of them be false and vain and delusory Where the object is great and sure and excellent the thoughts of such things are excellent operations of the soul. If thoughts of vainglory wealth and pleasure can delight the ambitious covetous and sensual no wonder if the Thoughts of God and life eternal afford us solid high delights 7. The Thoughts are not so lyable to be counterfeit and hypocritical as are the words and outward deeds And therefore they shew more what the man is and what is in his heart For as Solomon saith Prov. 23. 7. as he thinketh in his heart so is he 8. Our Thoughts may exercise the highest graces of God in man and also shew those graces as being their effects How is our Faith and Love and Desire and Trust and Joy and Hope to be exercised but by our cogitations If Grace were not necessary and excellent it would not be wrought by the spirit of God and called the Divine nature and the image of God And if Grace be excellent the use and exercise of it is excellent And therefore our Thoughts by which it is exercised must needs have their excellency too 9. Our Thoughts must be the instruments of our improving all holy Truth in Scripture and all the mercies which we receive and all the afflictions which we undergo What good will Reading a Chapter in the Bible do to any one that never Thinketh on it Our delight in the Law of God must engage us to meditate in it day and night Psal. 1. 2. What good shall he get by hearing a Sermon that exerciseth not his Thoughts for the receiving and digesting it Our considering what is said is the way in which we may expect that God should give us understanding in all things 2 Tim. 2. 7. What the better will he be for any of the merciful providences of God who never bethinks him whence they come or what is the use and end that they are given for what good will he get by any affliction that never bethinks him who it is that chastiseth him and for what and how he must get them removed and sanctified to his good A man is but like one of the pillars in the Church or like the corps which he treadeth on or at best but like the dog that followeth him thither for company if he use not his Thoughts about the work which he hath in hand and cannot say as Psal. 48. 9. We have thought of thy loving kindness O God in the midst of thy Temple He that bideth you Hear doth also bid you Take heed how you hear Luk. 8. 18. And you are commanded to lay up the word in your heart and soul Deut. 11. 18 19. And to set your hearts to all the words which are testified among you for it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life 10. Our Thoughts are so considerable a part of Gods service that they are
that hath rightly and resolvedly determined of his end hath virtually resolved a thousand controversies that others are unsatisfied and erroneous in He that is resolved that his End is to Please and Glorifie God and to enjoy him for ever is easily resolved whether a holy life or a sensual and worldly be the way whether the way be to be Godly or to make a mock at Godliness whether Covetousness and Riches Ambition and Preferment Voluptuousness and Fleshly pleasures be the means to attain his End whether it will be attained rather by the studying of the Word of God and meditating on it day and night and by holy conference and fervent prayer and an obedient life or by negligence or worldliness or drunkenness or gluttony or cards and dice or beastly filthiness or injustice and deceit Know once but whither it is that we are going and its easie to know whether the Saint or the Swine or the Swaggerer be in the way But a man that doth mistake his End is out of his way at the first step and the further he goes the further he is from true felicity and the more he erreth and the further he hath to go back again if ever he return Every thing that a man doth in the world which is not for the right end the Heavenly felicity is an act of foolishness and errour how splendid soever the Matter or the Name may make it appear to ignorant men Every word that an ungodly person speaketh being not for a right End is in him but sin and folly however materially it may be an excellent and useful Truth While a miserable soul hath his back upon God and his face upon the world every step he goeth is an act of folly as tending unto his further misery It can be no act of wisdome which tendeth to a mans damnation When such a wretch begins to enquire and bethink him where he is and whither he is going and whither he should go and to think of turning back to God then and never till then he is beginning to come to himself and to be wise Luk. 15. 17. Till God and Glory be the End that he aimeth at and seriously bends his study heart and life to seek though a man were searching into the mysteries of nature though he were studying or discussing the notions of Theology though he were admired for his earning and wisdome by the world and cryed up as the Oracle of the Earth he is all the while but playing the fool and going a cleanlier way to Hell than the grosser sinners of the world For â—s he wise that knoweth not whether Heaven or Earth be better whether God or his Flesh should be obeyed whether everlasting joyes or the transitory pleasures of sin should be preferred or that seemeth to be convinced of the truth in these and such like cases and yet hath not the wit to make his choice and bend his life according to his conviction He cannot be wise that practically mistakes his End 3. He that walketh with God doth know those things with a deep effectual heart-changing knowledge which other men know but superficially by the halves and as in a dream And true wisdome consisteth in the Intensiveness of the knowledge subjectively as much as in the extensiveness of it objectively To see a few things in a narrow room perspicuously and clearly doth shew a better eye-sight than in the open Air to see many things obscurely so as scarce to discern any of them aright â—â—ke him that saw men walk like trees The clearness and 〈◊〉 of knowledge which makes it effectual to its proper use 〈…〉 greatness and excellency of it Therefore it is that unlearned men that love and fear the Lord may well be said to be incomparably more wise and knowing men than the most learned that are ungodly As he hath more riches that hath a little Gold or Jewels than he that hath many load of stones so he that hath a deep effectual knowledge of God the Father and the Redeemer and of the life to come is wiser and more knowing than he that hath only a notional knowledge of the same things and of a thousand more A wicked man hath so much knowledge as teacheth him to speak the same words of God and Christ and Heaven which a true Believer speaks but not so much as to work in him the same affections and choice nor so much as to cause him to do the same work As it is a far more excellent kind of knowledge which a man hath of any Country by travel and habitation there than that which cometh but by reading or report or which a man hath of meat of fruits of wine by eating and drinking than that which another hath by hearsay so is the inward heart-affecting knowledge of a true believer more excellent than the flashy notions of the ungodly Truth simply as Truth is not the highest and most excellent object of the mind But Good as Good must be apprehended by the Understanding and commended to the Will which entertaineth it with Complacency adhereth to it with Choice and Resolution prosecuteth it with Desire and Endeavour and Enjoyeth it with Delight And though it be the Understanding which apprehendeth it yet it is the Heart or Will that rellisheth it and tasteth the greatest sweetness in it working upon it with some mixture of internal sense which hath made some ascribe a knowledge of Good as such unto the Will. And it is the Wills intention that causeth the Understanding to be denominated Practical And therefore I may well say thâ—t it is Wisdom indeed when it reacheth to the heart No man knoweth the Truth of God so well as he that most firmly Believeth him And do man knoweth the Goodness of God so well as he that Loveth him most No man knoweth his Power and Mercy so well as he that doth most confidently Trust him And no man knoweth his Justice and Dreadfulness so well as he that feareth him No man knoweth or believeth the Glory of Heaven so well as he that most esteemeth desireth and seeketh it and hath the most Heavenly Heart and Conversation Ho man believeth in Jesus Christ so well as he that giveth up himself unto him with the greatest Love and Thankfulness and Trust and Obedience As James saith Shew mee thy Faith by thy works so say I Let me know the measure and value of my knowledge by my Heart and Life That is wisdome indeed which conformeth a man to God and saveth his soul This only will be owned as wisdome to eternity when dreaming notions will prove but folly 4. He that walketh with God hath an infallible Rule and taketh the right course to have the best acquaintance with it and skill to use it The Doctrine that informeth him is Divine It is from Heaven and not of Men And therefore if God be wiser than man he is able to make his Disciples wisest and Teaching will more certainly and
Hell How chearfully may we go out of this troublesome world and leave the greatest prosperity behind us when we are sure to live in Heaven for ever Even an Infidel will say that he could suffer or dye if he could but be certain to be Glorified in Heaven when he is dead 3. Walking with God doth mortifie the flesh and allay the affections and lusts thereof The soul that is taken up with higher matters and daily seeth things more excellent becometh as dead to the things below And thus it weaneth us from all that is in the world which seemeth most desirable to carnal men And when the flesh is mortified and the world is nothing to us or but as a dead and loathsome carkass what is there left to be very troublesome in any suffering from the world or to make us loth by death to leave it It is men that know not God that overvalue the profits and honours of the world and men that never felt the comforts of Communion with God that set too much by the pleasures of the flesh And it is men that set too much by these that make so great a matter of suffering It is he that basely overvalueth wealth that whineth and repineth when he comes to poverty It is he that set too much by his honour and being befooled by his pride doth greatly esteem the thoughts or applauding words of men that swelleth against those that disesteem him and breaketh his heart when he falleth into disgrace He that is cheated out of his wits by the pomps and splendour of a high and prosperous estate doth think he is undone when he is brought low But it is not so with him that walks with God For being taken up with far higher things he knoweth the vanity of these As he seeth not in them any thing that is worthy of his strong desires so neither any thing that is worthy of much lamentation when they are gone He never thought that a shadow or feather or a blast of wind could make him happy And he cannot think that the loss of these can make him miserable He that is taken up with God hath a higher interest and business and findeth not himself so much concerned in the storms or calms that are here below as others are who know no better and never minded higher things 4. Walking with God doth much overcome the fear of man The fear of him that can destroy both soul and body in Hell fire will extinguish the fear of them that can but kill the body Luke 12. 4. The threats or frowns of a worm are inconsiderable to him that daily walketh with the great and dreadful God and hath his power and word for his security As Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt because he had respect to the recompence of reward so he feared not the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him that is invisible Heb. 11. 27. 5. Walking with God doth much prepare for sufferings and death in that it breedeth quietness in the conscience so that when all is at peace within it will be easie to suffer any thing from without Though there is no proper merit in our works to comfort us yet it is an unspeakable consolation to a slandered persecuted man to be able to say These evil sayings are spoken falsly of me for the sake of Christ and I suffer not as an evil doer but as a Christian And it is matter of very great peace to a man that is hasting unto death to be able to say as Hezekiah 2 King 20. 3. Remember now O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight And as Paul 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness c. And as 2 Cor. 1. 12. For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world such a testimony of conscience is a precious cordial to a suffering or a dying man The time that we have spent in a holy and heavenly conversation will be exceeding sweet in the last review when time spent in sinful vanity and idleness and in worldly and fleshly designs will be grievous and tormenting The day is coming and is even at hand when those that are now the most hardened Infidels or obstinate presumptuous sinners or scornful malicious enemies of holiness would wish and wish a thousand times that they had spent that life in a serious obedient walking with God which they spent in seeking worldly wealth and saying up a treasure on earth and feeding the inordinate desires of their flesh I tell you it is walking with God that is the only way to have a sound and quiet conscience And he thâ— is healing and setling his conscience upon the Love of God and the Grace of Christ in the time of his prosperity is making the wisest preparation for adversity And the preparation thus made so â—ong before perhaps twenty or forty or threescore years or more is as truly useful and comfortable at a dying hour as that part which is made immediately before I know that besides this general preparation there should be also a particular special properation for sufferings and death But yet this general part is the chiefest and most necessary part A man that hath walked in his life time with God shall certainly be saved though death surprize him unexpectedly without any more particular preparation But a particular preparation without either such a life or such a heart as would cause it if he had recovered is no sufficient preparation at all and will not serve to any mans salvation Alas what a pittiful provisioâ— doth that man make for death and for salvation who neglecteth his soul despiseth the commands of God and disregardeth the promises of eternal life till he is ready to dye and then cryeth out I repent I am sorry for my sin I would I had lived better and this only from the constraint of fear without any such love to God and holiness which would make him walk with God if he should recover what if the Priest absolve this man from all his sins Doth God therefore absolve him Or shall he thus be saved No it is certain that all the Sacraments and Absolution in the world will never serve to save such a soul without that grace which must make it new and truly holy The Absolution of a Minister of Christ which is pronounced in his name is a very great comfort to the truly penitent For such God hath first pardoned by his general Act of Oblivion in the Gospel and it is God that sendeth his Messenger to them in Sacraments and Ministerial Absolution
my Wife neither am I her Husband Nay more than this if you are Christians you are members of the body of Christ And therefore how can you withdraw your selves from him and not feel the pain and torment of so sore a wound or dislocation you cannot live without a constant dependence on him and communication from him Joh 15. 1 4 5. I am the true Vine and my Father is the Husbandman Abide in me and I in you I am the Vine ye are the Branches He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you So near are you to Christ that he delighteth to acquaint you with his secrets O how many mysteries doth he reveal to those that walk with him which carnal strangers never know Mysteries of Wisdome Mysteries of Love and saving Grace Mysteries of Scripture and Mysteries of Providence Mysteries felt by inward experience and Mysteries revealed foreseen by Faith Not only the strangers that pass by the doors but eveâ—â— the common servants of the family are unacquainted with the secret operations of the Spirit and entertainments of Grace and Joy in believing which those that walk with God either do or may possess Therefore Christ calleth you friends as being more than servants Joh. 15. 14 15. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what the Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you It is true for all this that every true Christian hath reason and is apt to complain of his darkness and distance from God Alas they know so little of him and of the Mysteries of his Love and Kingdom that sometimes they are apt to think that they are indeed but utter strangers to him But this is because there is infinitely more still unknown to them than they know what can the silly shallow creature comprehend his infinite Creatour Or shall we know all that is to be known in Heaven before we enjoy all that is to be enjoyed in Heaven It is no more wonder to hear a believer pant and mourn after a fuller knowledge of God and neâ—râ—r access to him than to seek after Heaven where this will be his happiness But yet though his Knowledge of God be small compared with his Ignorance that little Knowledge of God which he hath attained i 〈…〉 ore mysterious sublime and excellent than all the learning of the greatest unsanctified Scholars in the world Walk with him according to the neatness of your Relations to him and you shall have this excellent knowledge of his Mysteries which no Books or Teachers alone can give You shall be effectually touched at the heart with the truths which others do uneffectually hear You shall be powerfully moved when they are but uneffectually exhorted When they only hear the voice without them you shall hear the voice within you and as it were behind you saying This is the way walk in it O that you could duly value such a friend to watch over you and for you and dwell in you and tell you faithfully of every danger and of every duty and teach you to know good and evil and what to choose and what to refuse How closely and delightfully would you converse with such a blessed friend if you rightly valued him 2. MOreover you that are the servants of God have by your Covenant and Profession renounced and forsaken all things else as they stand in any opposition to him or competition with him and have resigned your selves wholly unto him alone And therefore with him must you converse and be employed unless you will forsake your Covenant You knew first that it was your interest to forsake the world and turn to God You knew the world would not serve your turn nor be instead of God to you either in life or at death And upon this Knowledge it was that you changed your Master and changed your minds and changed your way your work your hopes And do you dream now that you were mistaken Do you begin to think that the world is fitter to be your God or Happiness if not you must still confess that both your Interest and your Covenant do oblige you to turn your hearts and minds from the things which you have renounced and to walk with him that you have taken for your God and to obey him whom you have taken for your King and Judge and to keep close to him with purest Love whom you have taken for your everlasting portion Mark what you are minding all the day while you are neglecting God Is it not something that you have renounced And did you not renounce it upon sufficient cause Was it not a work of your most serious deliberation and of as great wisdome as any that ever you performed if it were turn not back in your hearts again from God unto the renounced Creature You have had many a lightning from Heaven into your understandings to bring you to see the difference between them You have had many a teaching and many a warning and many a striving of the spirit before you were prevailed with to renounce the world the flesh and the devil and to give up your self intirely and absolutely to God Nay did it not cost you the smart of some afflictions before you would be made so wise And did it not cost you many a gripe of conscience and many a terrible thought of Hell and of the wrath of God before you would be heartily engaged to him in his Covenant And will you now live as strangely and neglectfully towards him as if those daies were quite forgotten and as if you had never felt such things and as if you had never been so convinced or resolved O Christians take heed of forgetting your former case your former thoughts your former convictions and complaints and covenants God did not work all that upon your hearts to be forgotten He intended not only your present change but your after remembrance of it for your close adhering to him while you live and for your quickning and constant preservance to the end The forgetting of their former miseries and the workings of God upon their hearts in their conversion is a great cause of mutability and revolting and of unspeakable hurt to many a soul. Nay may you not remember also what sorrow you had in the day of your Repentance for your forsaking and neglecting God so long And will you grow again neglective of him Was it then so hainous a sin in your eyes and is it not now grown less Could you then aggravate it so many waies and justly and now do you justifie or extenuate it Were you then ready to sink under the burden of it and were
wanteth more of God than he enjoyeth and his enjoying graces Love and Joy are yet imperfect But when he hath attained his nearest approach to God he will have fulness of Delight in fulness of fruition O Christians Do I need to tell you that after all the tryals you have made in the world you have never found any state of life that was worthy your desires nor that gave you any true content but only this living upon God If you have not found such comfort here as others have done yet at least you have seen it afar off within your reach As men that in the Indies in the discovery of Plantations expect Gold Mines when they find those golden sands that promise it You have found a life which is certainly desirable and leadeth to joy in the midst of sorrow And it is no small joy to have a certain promise and prospect of everlasting joy It is therefore more excusable in those that never tasted any better than the pleasures of the flesh to neglect this sweeter Heavenly life than it is in you that have been convinced by your own experience that there is no life to be compared with it 4. YOur Walking with God is the necessary prosecution of your Choice and Hopes of life eternal It is your necessary preparation to your enjoying him in Heaven And have you fixed on those Hopes with so great reason and deliberation and will you now draw back and be slack in the prosecution of them Have you gone so far in the way to Heaven and do you now begin to look behind you as if you were about to change your mind Paul setteth you a better example Phil. 3. 8 9 10 11 12 13. Yea doubtless I account all things but loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect But I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus He compareth himself to a runner in a race that till be apprehend the price or mark doth still make forward with all his might and will not so much as mind or look at any thing behind him that would turn him back or stop him in his course The world and the flesh are the things behind us We turned our backs upon them at our conversion when we turned to God It is these that would now call back our thoughts and corrupt our affections when we should run on and reach forward to the heavenly price It is God and Heaven and the remaining duties of a holy life that are the things before us And shall we now look back what we that are running and striving for a Crown of endless glory we that if we lose it do lose our souls and hopes for ever we that have loitered in the morning of our lives and lost so much precious time as we have done we that have gone so far in our way and held out through so many difficulties and assaults Shall we now grow weary of walking with God and begin to look to the things behind us Did he not tell us at the first that Father and Mother and house and land and life and all things must be forsaken for Christ if we will be his Disciples These are the things behind us which we turned our back on when we consented to the Covenant and are they now grown better or is God grown worse that we turn our hearts from him to them when we first begun our Christian race it was upon supposition that it was for that immortal Crown which all the world is not to be compared to And have we not still the same consideration before us to move us to hold on till we attain it Hold on Christians it is for Heaven Is there not enough in that word to drive back all the cares and pleasures that importune your minds to forget your God Is there not enough in that word to quicken you up in your greatest dulness and to call you home when you are wandring from God and to make you again fall out with all that would reduce you or divert you and call it Vanity and Vexation of spirit Methinks the fore-thought of that life and work which you hope to have with God for ever should make you earnestly desire to have as much of the like on earth as is here to be attained If it will he your Heaven and Happiness then it must needs be desirable now It is not beseeming a man that saith he is seeking for perfect communion with God in Heaven and that above all things as every Christian doth to live in a daily neglect or forgetfulness of God on earth Delightfully to draw near him and exercise all our faculties upon him or for him sometime in prayer and contemplation on himself and alwaies in works of obedience to him this is the life that beseemeth those that profess to seek eternal life O therefore let us make it our daily work to keep our God and Glory in our eye and to spur on our dull affections and in the diligent attendance and following the Captain of our salvation to prosecute our expected End 5. LAstly consider that God doth purposely provide you hard entertainment in the world and cause every creature to deny you the pleasure and satisfaction which you desire that so you may have none to walk with but himself with any heart-setling comfort and content If you see not enough in him to allure you to himself you shall feel enough in the world to drive you to him If his Love and Goodness will not serve alone to make him your pleasure and hold you to him in the best and most excellent way of Love at least the storms and troubles that are abroad shall shew you a Necessity of keeping close to God and the Love of your selves shall help you to do that which was not done by the attraction of his Love alone If you will put him to it to send out his command to every creature to cross and vex you and disappoint all your expectations from it that so he may force you to remember your Father and your home deny not then but it is long of your selves that you were not saved in an easier way Would you wish God to make that condition pleasant to you which he seeth you take too much pleasure in already or seek and desire it at least When as it is the pleasantness of the
Creature that is your danger and which detaineth your thoughts and affections from himself If you could but learn to walk with him and to take up your pleasure in his Love appearing to you in his Creatures and to make their sweetness a means to your apprehension of the sweetness of his favour and of the everlasting joyes then you might say the Creature doth you good and then it 's like you might be permitted to possess and use it for such pleasure The jealous God will watch your hearts though you watch them not and he will make you know that he seeth which way they run out from him and what Creature it is that is minded and delighted in while he is neglected as if he were unsuitable and scarce desirable And you must never look that he should long permit you those prohibited delights or let you alone in those idolatrous inclinations If he Love you he will cure that Carnal Love and recover your Love to himself that hath deserved it If he intend not your salvation he may let you go and try again whether the Creature will prove better to you than himself But you cannot think that he will thus let go his Children that must live with him for ever Have you not perceived that this is the design and meaning of his afflicting and disappointing providences even to leave you no comfortable entertainment or converse but with himself and with his servants and with those means that lead you to himself If you begin to desire to lodge abroad in strange habitations he will uncover those houses and will not leave you a room that 's dry to put your head in or he will throw open the doors and leave all open to the lust of ravenous beasts and robbers He will have thy heart and he will have thy company because thou art his child and because he loveth thee He will allow thee neither thy carnal Delights or Hopes If he perceive thee either taking that Pleasure in thy Prosperity which thou shouldest take in him alone or Hoping at least that the world may hereafrer prove more amiable and delightful to thee the more he loveth thee the more his Providence shall conspire with his Grace to change thy mind by depriving thee of thy unwholsome dangerous delights and of all thy Hopes of such hereafter Use the world as a traveller for the ends to which it was ordained to the service of God and the furtherance of thy salvation and then thou shalt find that God will furnish thee with all that is necessary to these necessary ends But if the world must have your Love and Care and must be your chiefest business and delight and your excuse for not attending upon God murmure not nor marvel not if he dispose of it and you accordingly If you are yet too healthful to think with seriousness on your eternal state If you are too Rich to part with all for Christ or openly to own his Cause If you are too much esteemed in the world to own a scorned slandered Religion If you are so busie for Earth that you cannot have time to think of Heaven If you have so much delight in House or Land or in your employments or recreations or friends that God and Godliness can have little or none of your delight Marvel not then if God do shake your Health or waste your Riches or turn your Honour into contempt and suffer men to slander and reproach you and spit in your sace and make you of no reputation Marvel not if he turn you out of all or turn all to your grief and trouble and make the world a desert to you and the inhabitants as wolves and bears The great Lesson that Christ hath undertaken to teach you is the difference betwixt the Creatour and the Creature and the difference betwixt Heaven and Earth The great work that Christ hath undertaken to do upon you is to recover your hearts from the world to God And this Lesson he will teach you and this work he will do upon you whatever it cost you For it must be done Yet is not the world unjust enough or cruel or vexatious enough to you to teach you to come home and take up your content and rest in God It may then prove more cruel and more vexatious to you till you have better learned this necessary Lesson Yet is not your condition empty enough of carnal delusory pleasures to weâ—n you from the world and make you look to surer things Yet are you keeping up your worldly hopes that the world will again prove better to you and that you shall have happy daies hereafter It seems you are not yet brought low enough you must yet take another purge and perhapâ— a sharper than you took before You must have more blood letting till your delâ—ration cease and your feaverish thirst after creature-comorts do abate It is sad that we should be so foolish and unkind as to stay from God as long as any preferments or pleasures or profits in the world will entertain us But seeing it is so let us be thankful both to that Grace and that Providence which cureth us If you perceive it not better to dwell with God than with a flattering prospering world he will try whether you can think it better to dwell with God than with a malicious cruel persecuting world And whether it be better to have your hearts in Heaven than in poverty prison banishment or reproach If you find it not better to converse with God than with those that honour you please you or prefer you he will try whether you can think it better to converse with him than with those that hate revile belye and persecute you And are these the wise and wholsome methods of our great Physician And shall we not rather be ruled by him than by our brutish appetites and think better of his counsels than of the blind concupiscence of the flesh Let this be the issue of all our sufferings and all the cruelties and injuries of the world to drive us home to converse with God and to turn our desires and labours and expectations to the true felicity that never will forsake us and then the Will of the Lord be done Let him choose his means if this may be the end Let us kiss the Rod and not revile it if this may be the fruit of his corrections Who will not pray that God would deny us those contents which keep us from seeking our content in him And that he would deny us all those hurtful pleasures which hinder us from pleasing him or from making him and his waies our chiefest pleasure And that he would permit us no such creature-converse as hinderth our converse with him It is best living there be it in prison or at liberty where we may live best to God Come home O suffering Christian to thy God! take up thy Content and Rest in him be satisfied with him as thy Portion and
according unto Godliness but doth subserve our carnal ends 6. In the next form we grow to study more the pure and wonderful Love of God in Christ and to rellish and admire that Love and to be taken up with the Goodness and tender mercies of the Lord and to be kindling the flames of holy Love to him that hath thus Loved us and to keep our souls in the exercise of that Love And withall to live in Joy and Thanks and Praise to him that hath redeemed us and Loved us And also by Faith to converse in Heaven and to live in holy contemplation beholding the Glory of the Father and the Redeemer in the Glass which is fitted to our present use till we come to see him face to face Those that are the highest in this form do so walk with God and burn in Love and are so much above inferiour vanities and are so conversant by Faith in Heaven that their hearts even dwell there and there they long to be for ever 7. And in the highest form in the School of Christ we are exercising this confirmed Faith and Love in sufferings especially for Christ In following him with our Cross and being conformed to him and glorifying God in the fullest exercise and discovery of his Graces in us and in an actual trampling upon all that standeth up against him for our hearts and in bearing the fullest witness to his Truth and Cause by constant enduring though to the death Not but that the weakest that are sincere must suffer for Christ if he call them to it Martyrdome it self is not proper to the strong Believers Whoever forsaketh not all that he hath for Christ cannot be his Disciple Luke 14. 33. But to suffer with that Faith and Love forementioned and in that manner is proper to the strong And usually God doth not try and exercise his young and weak ones with the tryals of the strong nor set his Infants on so hard a service nor put them in the front or hottest of the battel as he doth the ripe confirmed Christians The sufferings of their inward doubts and fears doth take up such It is the strong that ordinarily are called to sufferings for Christ at least in any high degree I have digrest thus far to make it plain to you that our Conformity to Christ and fellowship with him in his sufferings in any notable degree is the lot of his best confirmed servants and the highest forme in his School among his Disciples and therefore not to be inordinately feared or abhorred nor to be the matter of impatiency but of holy joy and in such infirmities we may glory And if it be so of sufferings in the general for Christ then is it so of this particular sort of suffering even to be forsaken of all our best and nearest dearest friends when we come to be most abused by the enemies For my own part I must confess that as I am much wanting in other parts of my conformity to Christ so I take my self to be yet much short of what I expect he should advance me to as long as my friends no more forsake me It is not long since I found my self in a low if not a doubting case because I had so few enemies and so little sufferings for the cause of Christ though I had much of other sorts And now that doubt is removed by the multitude of furies which God hath let loose against me But yet methinks while my friends themselves are so friendly to me I am much short of what I think I must at last attain to BUt let us look further into the Text and see what is the cause of the failing and forsaking Christ in the Disciples and what it is that they betake themselves to when they leave him Ye shall be scattered every man to his Own Self-denyal was not perfect in them selfishness therefore in this hour of temptation did prevail They had before forsaken all to follow Christ they had left their Parents their Families their Estates their Trades to be his Disciples But though they believed him to be the Christ yet they dreamt of a visible Kingdome and did all this with too carnal expectations of being great men on earth when Christ should begin his reign And therefore when they saw his apprehension and ignominious suffering and thought now they were frustrate of their hopes they seem to repent that they had followed him though not by apostasie and an habitual or plenary change of mind yet by a sudden passionate frightful apprehension which vanished when grace performed its part They now began to think that they had lives of their Own to save and families of their Own to mind and business of their Own to do They had before forsaken their private interests and affairs and gathered themselves to Jesus Christ and lived in communion with him and one another But now they return to their trades and callings and are scattered every man to his own Selfishness is the great enemy of all societies of all fidelity and friendship There is no trusting that person in whom it is predominant And the remnants of it where it doth not reign do make men walk unevenly and unsteadfastly towards God and men They will certainly deny both God and their friends in a time of tryal who are not able to deny themselves Or rather he never was a real friend to any that is predominantly selfish They have alway some interest of their own which their friend must needs contradict or is insufficient to satisfie Their houses their lands their monies their children their honour or something which they call their Own will be frequently the matter of contention and are so near them that they can for the sake of these cast off the nearest friend Contract no special friendship with a selfish man nor put no confidence in him whatever friendship he may profess He is so confined to himself that he hath no true love to spare for others If he seem to love a friend it is not as a friend but as a servant or at best as a benefactour He loveth you for himself as he loveth his money or horse or house because you may be serviceable to him Or as a horse or dog doth love his keeper for feeding him And therefore when your provender is gone his love is gone when you have done feeding him he hath done loving you When you have no more for him he hath no more for you Object But some will say it is not the falseness of my friend that I lament but the separation or the loss of one that was most faithful I have found the deceitfulness of ordinary friends and therefore the more highly prize those few that are sincere I had but one true friend among abundance of self-seekers and that one is dead or taken from me and I am left as in a wilderness having no mortal man that I can trust or take much comfort in Answ.
would have been grieved for their griefs and for ought they know might have fallen into as sad a state as they themselves are now lamenting 6. Do you think it is for the Hurt or the Good of your friend that he is removed hence It cannot be for his Hurt unless he be in Hell At least it is uncertain whether to live would have been for his Good by an increase of Grace and so for greater Glory And if he be in Hell he was no fit person for you to take much pleasure in upon earth He might be indeed a fit object for your compassion but not for your complacency Sure you are not undone for want of such company as God will not endure in his sight and you must be separated from for ever But if they be in Heaven you are scarce their friends if you would wish them thence Friendship hath as great respect to the good of our friends as of our selves And do you pretend to friendship and yet lament the removal of your friend to his greatest happiness Do you set more by your own enjoying his company then by his enjoying God in perfect blessedness This sheweth a very culpable defect either in Faith or Friendship and therefore beseemeth not Christians and friends If Love teacheth us to mourn with them that mourn and to rejoyce with them that rejoyce can it be an act of rational Love to mourn for them that are possessed of the highest everlasting joyes 7. God will not honour himself by one only but by many He knoweth best when his work is done When our friends have finished all that God intended them for when he put them into the world is it not time for them to be gone and for others to take their places and finish their work also in their time God will have a succession of his servants in the world Would you not come down and give place to him that is to follow you when your part is played and his is to begin If David had not died there had been no Solomon no Jehoshaphat no Hezekiah no Josiah to succeed him and honour God in the same throne You may as wisely grudge that one day only takes not up all the week and that the clock striketh not the same hour still but proceedeth from one to two from two to three c. as to murmur that one man only conâ—inueth not to do the work of his place excluding his successors 8. You must not have all your Mercies by one messenger or hand God will not have you consine your Love to one only of his servants And therefore he will not make one only useful to you but when one hath delivered his message and done his part perhaps God will send you other mercies by another hand And it belongeth to him to choose the messenger who gives the gift And if you will childishly dote upon the first messenger and say you will have all the rest of your mercies by his hand or you will have no more your frowardness more deserveth correction than compassion and if you be kept fasting till you can thankfully take your food from any hand that your Father sends it by it is a correction very suitable to your sin 9. Do you so highly value your friends for God or for them or for your selves in the final consideration If it was for God what reason of trouble have you that God hath disposed of them according to his wisdome and unerring will should you not then be more pleased that God hath them and employeth them in his highest service than displeased that you want them But if you value them and love them for themselves they are now more lovely when they are more perfect and they are now fitter for your content and joy when they have themselves unchangeable content and joy than they could be in their sin and sorrows But if you valued and loved them but for your selves only it is just with God to take them from you to teach you to value men to righter ends and upon better considerations and both to prefer God before your selves and better to understand the nature of true friendship and better to know that your own felicity is not in the hands of any creature but of God alone 10. Did you improve your friends while you had them or did you only Love them while you made but little use of them for your souls If you used them not it was just with God for all your Love to take them from you They were given you as your candle not only to Love it but to work by the Light of it And as your garments not only to Love them but to wear them and as your meat not only to Love it but to feed upon it Did you receive their counsel and hearken to their reproofs and pray with them and conser with them upon those holy truths that tended to elevate your minds to God and to inflame your brests with sacred Love If not be it now known to you that God gave you not such helps and mercies only to talk of or look upon and Love but also to improve for the benefit of your souls 11. Do you not seem to forget both where you are your selves and where you must shortly and for ever live Where would you have your friends but where you must be your selves Do you mouâ—n that they are taken hence Why if they had staid here a thousand years how little of that time should you have had their company when you are almost leaving the world your selves would you not send your treasure before you to the place where you must abide How quickly will you pass from hence to God where you shall find your friends that you lamented as if they had been lost and there shall dwell with them for ever O foolish mourners would you not have your friends at home at their home and your home with their Father and your Father their God and your God! Shall you not there enjoy them long enough Can you so much miss them for one day that must live with them to all eternity And is not eternity long enough for you to enjoy your friends in Obj. But I do not know whether ever I shall there have any distinct knowledge of them or love to them and whether God shall not there be so far All in All as that we shall need or fetch no comfort from the creature Answ. There is no reason for either of these doubts For 1. You cannot justly think that the knowledge of the Glorified shall be more confused or imperfect then the knowledge of natural men on earth We shall know much more but not so much less Heaven exceedeth earth in knowledge as much as it doth in joy 2. The Angels in Heaven have now a distinct particular knowledge of the least believers rejoycing particularly in their conversion and being called by Christ himself Their Angels Therefore when we shall
be equal to the Angels we shall certainly know our nearest friends that there dwell with us and are employed in the same attendance 3. Abraham knew the Rich man in Hell and the man knew Abraham and Lazarus Therefore we shall have as distinct a Knowledge 4. The two Disciples Knew Moses and Elias in the mount whom they had never seen before Though it is possible Christ told them who they were yet there is no such thing expressed and therefore it is as probable that they knew them by the communication of their irradiating glory Much more 〈…〉 we be then illuminated to a clearer knowledge 5. It is said expresly 1 Cor. 13. 10 11 12. that our present knowledge shall be done away only in regard of its imperfection and not of it self which shall be perfected when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away As we put away childish thoughts and speeches when we become men The change will be from seeing in a glass to seeing face to face and from knowing in part to knowing even as we are known 2. And that we shall both Know and Love and rejoyce in creatures even in Heaven notwithstanding that God is all in all appeareth further thus 1. Christ in his glorified humanity is a Creature and yet there is no doubt but all his members will there Know and Love him in his glorified humanity without any derogation from the glory of the Deity 2. The Body of Christ will continue its unity and every member will be so nearly related even in Heaven that they cannot choose but Know and Love each other Shall we be ignorant of the members of our Body and not be concerned in their felicity with whom we are so nearly one 3. The state and felicity of the Church hereafter is frequently described in Scripture as consistent in society It is a Kingdom the City of God the Heavenly Jerusalem and it is mentioned as part of our happiness to be of that society Heb. 12. 22 23 24 c. 4. The Saints are called Kings themselves and it is said that they shall judge the world and the Angels And Judging in Scripture is frequently put for Governing Therefore whether there will be another world of moreals which they shall Govern as Angels now Govern men or whether the Misery of damned men and Angels will partly consist in as base a subjection to the glorified Saints as dogs now have to men or wicked reprobates on earth to Angels or whether in respect of both these together the Saints shall then be Kings and Rule and Judge or whether it be only the participation of the Glory of Christ that is called a Kingdom I will not here determine but it is most clear that they will have a distinct particular Knowledge of the world which they themselves must judge and some concernment in that work 5. It is put into the description of the Happiness of the Saints that they shall come from the East and from the West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God Therefore they shall know them and take some comfort in their presence 6. Love even to the Saints as well as unto God is one of the graces that shall endure for ever 1 Cor. 13. It is exercised upon an Immortal object the Image and Children of the Most High and therefore must be one of the Immortal Graces For Grace in the Nature of it dyeth not and therefore if the Object cease not how should the Grace cease unless you will call it's perfecting a ceasing It is a state too high for such as we and I think for any meer Creature to live so Immediately and only upon God as to have no use for any fellow Creature nor no comfort in them God can make use of Glorified Creatures in such subserviency and subordination to himself as shall be no diminution to his All sufficiency or Honour nor to our glory and felicity We must take heeed of fancying even such a Heaven it self as is above the capacity of a Creature as some very wise Divines think they have done that tell us we shall immediately see Gods Essence his Glory being that which is provided for our intuition and felicity and is distinct from his Essence being not everywhere as his Essence is And as those do that tell us because that God will be All in All therefore we shall there have none of our comfort by any creature Though flesh and blood shall not enter into that Kingdom but our Bodies will then be Spiritual Bodies yet will they be really the same as now and distinct from our souls and therefore must have a felicity suitable to a Body glorified And if the soul did immediately see Gods Essence yet as no reason can conclude that it can see nothing else or that it can see even Created Good and not Love it so the Body however must have objects and felicity fit for a Body Obj. But it is said If we knew Christ after the flesh henceforth know we him no more Answ. No doubt but all the carnality in principles matter manner and ends of our knowledge will then cease as it's imperfection But that a carnal knowledge be turned into a spiritual is no more a diminution to it than it is to the glory of our Bodies to be made like the stars in the Firmament of our Father Obj. But then I shall have no more comfort in my present friends than in any other Answ. 1. If you had none in them it is no diminution to our happiness if indeed we should have all in God immediately and alone 2. But if you have as much in others that you never knew before that will not diminish any of your comfort in your antient friends 3. But it is most probable to us that as there is a twofold object for our love in the Glorified Saints one is their Holiness and the other is the Relation which they stood in between God and us being made his instruments for our conversion and salvation so that we shall Love Saints in Heaven in both respects And in the first respect which is the chiefest we shall love those most that have most of God and the greatest Glory though such as we never knew on earth And in the second respect we shall Love those most that were employed by God for our greatest good And that we shall not there lay by so much respect to our selves as to forget or disregard out benefactours is manifest 1. In that we shall for ever remember Christ and Love him and Praise him as one that formerly Redeemed us and washed us in his blood and hath made us Kings and Priests to God And therefore we may also in just subordination to Christ remember them with Love and Thankfulness that were his Instruments for the collation of these benefits 2. And this kind of Self-Love to be sensible of Good and
think of the Heathen and Infidel parts of the world and to see the Rebellion of the Prophane among us and that the Laws of God are unknown or despised by the most of men Alas what abundance are ruled by their lusts and self-conceitedness and corrupted wills and the customs of the world or the wills of men but how few are Ruled by the Laws of God! O how should it grieve an honest heart to see Gods Kingdom hindered by Infidelity and weakned divided and disturbed by Popery and Heresie and dishonoured by scandal and impiety as it is And to see the multitude and the violence and industry of corrupters dividers and destroyers and the fewness the coldness and remisness of the builders the healers and restorers All you that are loyal subjects to your Lord lament these waies of Rebellion and Disobedience and the diminutions and distempers of the subjects of his Kingdom and the unfaithfulness and negligence of his Ministers and bend your cares desires and prayers to the promoting of Gods Kingdom in you and in the world and befriend not any thing that hindereth its prosperity CHAP. XV. 14. THE third of these Relations and the next point in the Knowledge of God to be spoken of is that he is Our must Loving Father or Bountiful Benefactor As he is Good so he doth Good Psal. 119. 68. And as he is the chiefest Good so he bestoweth the greatest Benefits and therefore is thence by a Necessary Resultancy our Most Bountiful Benefactor The term Father comprehendeth in it all his three great Relations to us 1. A Father gives Being to his Children and therefore hath some Propriety in them and God is the first cause oâ— our whole Being and therefore we are his Own 2. A Father is the Governour of his Children and God is our Chief Governour 3. A Father tenderly Loveth his Children that are childlike loving and obedient to him and seeketh their felicity and so doth God Love and will make Happy his loving and obedient children who have not only their Being from him as their Maker but their New being or Holy nature from him as their Sanctifier And this last being the end and perfection of the rest doth communicate its nature to the rest as the Means And so 1. The new nature that God thus giveth us in our Regeneration is not from his common Love but is an act of special Grace proceeding from his special Fatherly Love 2. The Government that he exerciseth over them as his Regenerate children is not a Common Government such as is that of the meer Law of Nature or of works but it is a special Government by a Law of Grace a Justifying Remedying Saving Law or Covenant together with an internal illuminating quickning guiding spirit with Church-state and Officers and Ordinance all suited to this way of Grace Even as his Dominion or Propriety by Redemption and our Sanctification and Resignation is not a Common Propriety but a gracious Relation to us as Our Own Father who have the endeared Relation to him of being his Own Children All is from Love and in a way of Love and for the exercise and demonstration of Love so that when I call God Our Benefactor I precisely distinguish this last part of his Relations to us from the rest But when I call him a Father I mean the same thing or Relation which a Benefactor signifieth but with fuller aspect on the foregoing Relations and connotation of them as they are perfected all in this And here I. I shall briefly name the Benefits on which this Relation of God is founded And 1. Even in Creating us he acted as a Benefactor giving us the Fundamental Good of Being and the excellency of manhood 2. By setting us in a well furnished world and putting all things under our feet and giving us the use of Creatures 3. By entering into the Relation of a Governour to us and consequently engaging himself to terms of Justice in his dealing with us and to protect us and reward us if we did obey and making us capable of an everlasting happiness as our end and appointing us sufficient means thereto These Benefits denominated God the Great Benefactor or Father unto man in the state of his Creation But then moreover he is a Common Benefactor also 4. By so loving the world as to give his only begotten Son to be their Redeemer a sufficient sacrifice for sin 5. By giving out his Promise or Covenant of Grace and making a Common Deed of Gift of pardon Reconciliation and Eternal Life to all that will accept it in and with Christ to Gospel ends 6. By sending forth the Messengers of this Grace commanding them to Preach to every creature the Gospel or word of Reconciliation committed to them and to beseech men in Christs stead as his Embassadours as if God himself did intreat by them to be reconciled to God Matth. 28. 18 19. Mar. 16. 16. 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. 7. By affording some common mercies without and motions of his spirit within to second these invitations But though by this much God hath a Title to their dearest Love yet they have no Title to his highest Benefits nor are in the nearest Relation of Children or Beneficiaries to him But 8. When he begetteth us again to a lively Hope by his incorruptible seed and giveth us both to will and to do and when the Father effectually draweth us to the Son and reneweth us according to his Image and taketh away our old and stony hearts and giveth us new and tender hearts and giveth us to Know him and Love him as a Father then is he our Father in the dearest and most comfortable sense and we are his children that have interest in his dearest Love 9. And therefore we have his spirit and pardon Justification and Reconciliation with him 10. And also we have special Communion with him in Prayer Praises Sacraments and all holy Ordinances and Conversation 11. And we and our services are pleasing to him and so we are in the light of his countenance and under a special promise of his protection and provision and that all things shall work together for our good 12. And we have the promise of perfection in everlasting Glory II. And now as you see how God is our Benefactor or most Gracious and Loving Father let us next see what this must work on us And 1. Goodness and Bounty should shame men from their sin and lead them to Repentance Rom. 2. 4 5. Love is not to be abused and requited with unkindness and provocation He that can turn grace into wantonness and do evil because grace hath abounded or that it may abound shall be forced to confess that his damnation is just He that will not hate his sin when he seeth such exceeding Benefits stand by and heareth mercy and wonderful mercy plead against it and upbraid the sinner with ingratitude is like to die a double death and shall have no more sacrifice