appointed his going forth as the morning that is as the Sun riseth and fails not as the Sun goes forth in its light and grows so will Gods appearance to his people be And as the rain comes upon the thirsty Earth and causeth all things to spring afresh so shall the manifestation of Gods love be to those that seek him without ceasing What if God appear not presently and you have not that full answer to your desires Though he come slowly yet he will be sure to come his staying is not a denyal and his not shewing himself is not an hiding himself He is uncovering himself and making way for the appearance of that which you would fain have a sight of He stays a while to make his love the more visible afterward by his absence he raiseth the mind and enlargeth the heart to desire and long after his presence and then his manifestation will be fullest God is as ready nay more ready to open then you are to knock he loves that thirst in you which is after himself he loves to be loved let him be pleased as well as you It may be seeking Christians are not so ingenuous as they should be We are not to seek him only but to please him Psal 119.2 Blessed are they that keep his Testimonies and that seek him with their whole heart That seek him and his Love and keep his Law Or it may be offences have been but not bewailed Impotency is the continuation of sin You are ever doing that evil which you have not been humbled for nothing nulls it but repentance and humbling your selves in the sight of God With what face can you say to God Let thy love O Lord be upon me when as you cannot say to God Lord I love thee That man cannot say he loves God that desires not to please him Can he say his heart is with God who suffers his heart to go out after other things Why should he desire so to impose upon God that God should love him whom he desires not to love and please it is unreasonable What father would be so dealt with that the child walking in stubborn courses would have his father shew nothing but clearness of countenance and love to him David all the while he was under clouds of guilt and sorrow wished that God would shew forth the light of his countenance to him but he suffered many wrackings in his Soul till he confessed his sins Psal 32. What God hath said he will have fulfilled Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one tittle of his Promise If he hear not it is not because he is not a God hearing prayer but because you hear not him Isai 45.19 I said not unto the seed of Jacob Seek ye me in vain I the Lord speak righteousness I declare things that are right I speak as I mean my words and my heart agree in one What ever our offences have been if we be ingenuous in our approaches to God God will not look upon our offences but upon our persons In 2 Chron. 7.14 you have this promise If my people that are called by my Name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their Land If thy Soul be sick and thou mournest after God that hideth himself from thee and humblest thy self and repentest of thy sins with abasedness of spirit before him he will hear CHAP. X. God hath fully made known whom he loves Christians able to know themselves Gods Spirit strengthens the testimony of our spirits Christians hindered by Slothfulness and Discouragements A Second Fault is That God doth give the manifestation of his Love and we receive it not we accept it not I will for the more full clearing of this lay down these Considerations First That God hath given to his people sufficient means for the knowledg of their Interest in him for he hath told us who they are that he loves whom he hath chosen and called out of this world and made his peculiar people If he had carried on a design of love to particular persons in his own brest no man could have known who was loved of him then we had been left in the dark for no man knows the things of a man but the spirit of a man as the Apostle speaks But as the Angel marked those in Jerusalem that were to be spared so there is a mark that God hath set upon his own by which they may be known to what fold and flock they do belong And indeed the end of the Scripture so discovering and setting forth the marks of the people of God is for this purpose that we may know our Happiness So in 1 Joh. 5.13 this was the end of writing his Epistle These things saith he have I written unto you that beleeve on the Name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may beleeve on the Name of the Son of God Wherefore was it that he had told them how many ways they might know that God dwelt in them and they in God Wherefore did he make so many descriptions of those whom God had set his love upon but that you may know saith he that you have eternal life because you are such And he hath not only done thus but hath given us understanding also by which we are able to know not only other things but our selves by which we may judg our selves and our actions and what is within us Neither hath he given us an understanding meerly natural but it is raised being illuminated with his own light that we may be able to find out the work of God in us an understanding that can reflect upon it self not only in way of simple vision and apprehension of what is within us but by way of argumentation and reasoning 1 Joh. 2.3 5. Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments And whoso keepeth his Word in him verily is the love of God perfected hereby we know that we are in him God hath given us understanding to reflect upon our selves in a way of reasoning to make certain to our selves our Interest in these things Nay he hath given us his Spirit that bears witness to our spirits that we are the sons of God Rom. 8. We must not think that was a special favor given to the Saints then but it 's common to all the people of God The Spirit of Adoption hath a double office of quickening and comforting and whosoever is a son hath the testimony of that Spirit There is a double Testimony A Testimony of the things themselves so that which is of God in us doth bear witness as the effect bears witness of the cause There 's another Testimony and that is of God himself by his Spirit and that Testimony doth help our spirits it helps the testimony of the things
the house of Eli and he did it As a fundamental assistance to all this Look to the setling of your Souls in a firm belief of the Gospel for so far only as we beleeve the words of eternal life they are of power to us Remember that in Heb. 4.2 The Gospel came to the Jews but it did not profit them because it was not mixed with faith The weight of words lies in the truth of them and not only in the worth of them For if you speak of mountains of Gold of heaps of Pearls though these are rich words yet if there be not as much truth in them they are but an empty sound and take not the heart Converse much with all the witnesses of the Scriptures truth converse with and call to mind frequently that inward Seal which is upon your own spirits that living and effectual force and vertue which the Word of God hath had upon your hearts unto a thankful embracing of it to a holy subjection to it to a couragious and chearful dependance upon it to the melting of your hearts and the pouring out of your spirits unto God Remember these things for Gods appearances in his Word are as so many seals and witnesses from above Rest not till you can say with that Angel Rev. 19.19 These are the true sayings of God And with the Apostle in Joh. 21.2 We know that his testimony is true For while this is not done our comforts and rejoycings in God cannot be high they cannot exceed our faith Then let no dark clouds remain upon your spirits so far as you can if you have received a little light make it to encrease more and more to the perfect day Observe the language of the people of God I know that my Redeemer lives I know that thou art with me How often have you these expressions in the first Epistle of John 2.3.4 and 5. Chapters We know that we are of God We know that God dwells in us We know that we have passed from death to life We know that we are in the truth Endeavor to come to this Again Be frequent in drawing comfortable and reviving inferences from your Interest in God Mark what inference the Church makes I will wait upon God my God will hear me Faith and a lively enjoyment of God is full of argumentation and that is the life of the Soul It is not maintained by a speculation of God but by arguments reasonings and such conclusions as are meat and drink indeed to the Soul CHAP. XX. Our Apostacy hath made us unapt for divine Life and Converse with God through a Mediator and willing to conform to the lowest Patterns HAving said much to this Point I will shew now what great need there is that so much should have been said and much more also for the furtherance of this life in God take therefore into your hearts these few things First We are naturally in greater affinity and capacity as to the things of the creature then to the things of God It is was not so from the beginning but our Apostacy cast us into this unhappy state that whereas we were nearest unto God now all things are nearer unto us then God we are grown strangers to that life As the child of a Prince that goes away in his childhood and is trained up in a beggers house he contracts a beggers spirit and grows a stranger to a Princes life So it hath been with us As Nebuchadnezzar lived like a beast and forgot the life of a Prince yea of a man so we are strangers from the life of God What God saith in Hosea 8.10 is true of us all We account his things as strange things as things that we are not acquainted with we have neither a pleasing sight of them nor a pleasing taste of them but they are to us as meat that we cannot relish that suits not with us Nothing was more natural to man then to live in God as we came out of Gods hand It was not more natural for the fish to live in the water then for us to live in God and that was a blessed state The brest is not more natural to the child then that life was to us that was our first life and it was sweet though it was short It was a blessed life for God let out himself in so much fulness as took the heart up into intimate acquaintance We were made upright that is such as God delighted in such as we should be now we are altered our spirits are divided and scattered In as much then as we have not altogether cast off our depraved natures we have need to be thus called upon we being more enclined to the creature then unto God Secondly Naturally we have a greater propensity to observe the Law then the Gospel to do what we are bid then to take what is offered and given to us in the Gospel For the Law is natural to us it is written in our hearts the things that are revealed in the Gospel are above Nature This disposition the Apostle found in those Rō 9. latter end Israel which followed after the Law of Righteousness did not attain unto the Law of Righteousness Wherefore because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law for they stumbled at that stumbling stone It was a stumbling stone indeed to them they rather chose to make their way to life by the Law then to accept of life according to the propositions of the Gospel because the Law was more near to them it was more natural to them but the Gospel is supernatural Children are nearer to and more apt to receive those things which are by Nature then those things which are by instruction and appointment It is natural for a child to eat he need not be taught it but for a child to learn that is hard he is at more distance from it So it is more easie for us to form our selves to the obedience of the Law then to the Gospel Thirdly We are naturally more apt to converse with God immediately then by a Mediator Because this is still according to the natural course and original appointment of God in the first Creation of Man Though then there was a very great disproportion an infinite disproportion between God and us yet because there was no Conscience of guilt no matter of offence this poor Creature though but dust and ashes could come to God and did converse with him immediately But now since his going away from God God hath declared that man should come no more immediately to him but by the Door which he hath appointed He hath made Jesus Christ that Door and whosoever entereth by him hath life and none else You may knock at the door of Mercy and spend your days in tears and prayers but not be heard unless your way be through Christ Therefore 1 Pet. 1.21 the Apostle speaks thus Through Him we beleeve in God And
THREE TREATISES Being the Substance of sundry DISCOURSES VIZ. I. The Fixed Eye or the Mindful Heart on Psal 25.15 II. The Principal Interest or the Propriety of the Saints in God on Micah 7.7 III. Gods Interest in Man Natural and Acquired on Psal 119.4 By that Judicious and Pious Preacher of the Gospel Mr JOSEPH SYMONDS M. A. late Vice-provost of Eaton Colledg LONDON Printed by J Macock for LUKE FAVVN and are to be sold at his Shop at the sign of the Parrot in Pauls Church-yard M.DC.LIII The Pourtraiture of Mr. Joseph Symonds Late Vice Prouost of Eaton Colledge Aetat Suae 50. To all that desire to live godly in CHRIST JESUS IT is not unknown to very many of Gods people in this Nation with what entire affection and happy success the pious Authour of these Meditations now asleep in Jesus laid out himself in the service of the Gospel Divers of you sate somtimes under the shadow of his Ministry with great delight And of those who had not the enjoyment of him but in more removed distances what serious eye ever read as it ought that truly incomparable piece The Deserted Souls Case and Cure and was not thereby enlightned startled humbled lifted up nearer to God Or what good heart for that end that it might be better duly perused his later piece Of Faith and Sight but it was by increased faith and its just appendages more fitted for sight The Holy Spirit was his spring and plentiful emanations from thence filled his Cistern and made him free to communication He dwelt in the presence of Christ d so was at home in Heavenly Negotiations and the content that he had there made him delight to stand still between Christ and his people to receive and give though he gave away his own life withall And when he perceived the shadow of the evening to be stretched forth upon him they did nothing to him but only provoke him to make more haste in the finishing of his work Those holy Tapers which receive their light from the golden Lamp of the Sanctuary shine and burn down to the socket and are burning and shining lights thereto In his wearinesses and weaknesses grown constant in his later time when the effects of his pains made strong sollicitations to desist it was an expression which he often used with pleasance to his friends Yet praying and preaching is too good work to be weary of In the continuance of it he poured forth himself as a drink-offering to Christ upon the service of his Saints and so passed to eternal life through the best forms of death And indeed that way as is roported of Moses God doth kiss away the souls of his Servants But that he might prevent death he took much pains with his own pen besides constant expence of mony for the assistance of another that his love in permanent testimonies might out-live his life and the first neglects of his hearers He knew well how precious discourses are lost to the inconsiderate part of men and women who either do not give due heed while a Sermon is preached and so take it not into their understandings and hearts or else cannot remember it having heard it but once Of his good will to such he hath left many evidences which will be produced if God pleases as soon as time health and other work will give leave to make up the Chasin's and mend other errours of the writer in those copies which were taken from the Pulpit and were not corrected by himselfe For the present it was judged meet to print these three small Tracts The first touching Spiritual remembrance of God as a most seasonable praelibation This being a time when a careless Devil hath after too eminent a manner possessed a multitude of Professours and many Christians have recklesly lost Jesus Christ in the crowd of worldly affections designes diversions The aim of this is to quicken all that have the root of eternal life in them to more frequent Addresses of Soul to God and to rivet them in contentful abode and holy reposes in him The Second is an excellent discovery of the Saints interest in God in which all holy souls may see how happy they are or may be in God their God The Third holds forth Gods interest in us by which as by a true glass we may learn to reflect upon God all his goodness and love contained in the former Treatise if it be also revealed in our hearts and so God will be to us as he is to all true Christians the beginning and end of our life All which Discourses the Godly Reader will find enrich'd with many clear descriptions of heavenly truths many rational considerations which in way of Exhortation do strike fitly and weightily upon those capable principles which God hath put into the soul as Ears for him to take hold of both with very lovely representations and right dreadful terrours and as he goes up and down he will meet methodicall and sure directions like benigne Guides telling the way of happy life to all the children of wisdom and truth So you have a short account of what you may find in these papers Be their Patronage the living influence of the all-quickning Spirit who only is able to make these and all other well-ordered tendencies effectual to their desirable ends and who can protect them from unprofitable reading and forgetful neglects which are the wrongful abuses and unjust imprisonment of the most useful truths I who in this matter do only carry the staff of Elisha which he hath left behind do and shall pray that it may not only be laid upon the child which is ready to dye but that this Spirit would joyn himself to it and make it the ministration of life even the beauty and bands of God upon the spirits of his own That the misplaced eye of some Reader may be set right and then fixed that some heart may be undeceived And Oh that the time were come when no Child of God would write his name in the earth which to do is to be cursed and to make the Divels sport Alas whil'st we through their false representations and cozening impulses sell our comfort our life our soul for cheap things at easie rates do they not laugh do they not insult Though it is a poor sport and proper only to Divels to rejoyce in the follies and sorrows of humanity The Lord Jesus who came to break the power of spiritual wickednesses drive them out of the souls of men and women and if they must have leave to enter any where let it be onely into swine The Lord appear more to the Inhabitants of this world that they may see the glory of truth and be transformed into its Image delivered into the spirit and life of truth and out of the power of detaining falshoods and seducing vanities the chains of evil spirits Then the capacity of the children of men so empty hungry and sore distressed though
place but the acts of the Soul may be done in any place at any time you may start into Heaven when no eye sees you you may be on the wing towards God though among a croud of men no business is such but you may be with God and yet your business not suffer Again It 's an eternal faculty and the work of it is everlasting A contemplative life is the life of Heaven it 's that which Angels do they ever behold the face of your Father in Heaven If you like not this work how will you live in Heaven The dislike of it is a bar against your entrance The life of blessedness is a life of Vision and seeing God which if you take no delight in Heaven is no place for you Again It 's a faculty very active your minds must be somewhere else if they be not with God and if they be not on God they are upon something of less concernment Why should you follow after drops and neglect the Fountain Why should you fly after shadows and neglect him who is the true Substance Truly if the mind have its current from God towards other things these things are not only of less concernment but destructive and from whence you will reap nothing but corruption and depravation and defilement of spirit you will grow worse and worse into the form of the Devil by how much your minds stray from God and pitch upon other things Jer. 2.5 They are gone far from me and have walked after vanity and are become vain Again It 's a faculty that hath received in the Saints a tendency towards God You do extreamly wrong your selves when you make not use of that propensity and put not forth your selves to have communion with God whereby you might bless your selves in the enjoyment of him See how David expresses the propensity of his spirit towards God Psal 63.1 O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my Soul thirsts for thee my flesh longeth for thee When shall I come and appear before thee to behold thy Glory as I have seen it in the Sanctuary This is the course of the spirits of the children of God in whom that propensity which was natural is now in part restored so that they are bent towards God they thirst after God as a man thirsts for water in a dry and thirsty Land Again There is a blessing in this work God blesseth what he likes as he curseth what he hateth He likes it well Mal. 3.16 Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and thought on his Name He will be sure to mind those that mind him and be a friend to those that seek after him When you are bid to look upon him it is but to receive from him Is it any thing else but to call and invite you to look on the most pleasing and delightful Object that in the beholding of it it may convey it self unto you and you be delighted and filled with it It is all one as if he should bid you sit down by a Well of Life and drink and to be as Christ and the Angels are who are blessed in the beholding of him as if he should bid you come and pluck Apples off that Tree of Life that is in the midst of Paradise God loves this work Cant. 2.14 Let me see thy face my Beloved and hear thy voyce for thy voyce is sweet and thy countenance comely In one act you may do that which pleaseth God and makes you blessed Set your eye towards him and his eye will be more towards you and he will refresh you as with Manna there is enough in him come and take freely Reflect upon your own experience have you ever found this way like a wilderness If it be a blessed work why will you unbless your selves If the work will exalt you why will you debase your selves in not closing with it And if you might live above in Heaven why will you live below Let all the sweetness you have ever found in this work provoke you to enlarge your self toward it When thoughts of God are moving in you God himself is not far off he will come and enter too and how sweet is it for God to come and take up his habitation in the Soul CHAP. IX Jesus Christ a Pattern of Eying the Father Greatest mindfulness of God due God our best Friend All we have is in his hands and of his gift All Religion founded upon a due mindfulness of God Anguish awails wandering hearts ANother Argument is from the Example of our Lord Jesus whom we are to mind and imitate He is your Pattern What saith Christ Learn of Me And Be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect How can you follow Christ the Captain of your Salvation if you mind him not When the Apostle perswades them in Heb. 12. to run the race that is set before them he bids them look to Jesus the Author and Finisher of their Faith Mariners at Sea that they may run a right course keep an eye on that ship that bears the light Your course cannot be right when your eye is not upon Jesus Christ your Pattern Would it be with us as it is when the forgetfulness of God lodgeth in our hearts if we did more mind Christ We should say in our selves Is this the course that he steered David tells us of Christ Psal 16.8 that he set the Lord always before him or as Luke expounds it applying those words to Christ Acts 2.25 I foresaw the Lord always before my face The Father was Ever in his eye whatsoever came into his sight he ey'd him first and fix'd upon him Now Christ is not only appointed to be our Pattern in this thing but he takes notice of us whether we imitate or no His eye is upon us to see whether our eye be upon the Father as his was and is for ever It was the counsel of Seneca that when men are about to do evil they should think on Plato or some such eminent man as present to behold them Certainly if Christ were more minded as such a Pattern God would be more the object of our most affectionate thoughts Again If we consider the Object it is the greatest reason in the world that our eye should be upon God God is our friend he loves us he bears us in his heart and shall not he be in our thoughts This is ill requiting of him whose eye is always on us seldom or never to eye him This is a great contradiction to the Law of Friendship which consists in reciprocation of loves Jer. 29.11 I know my thoughts toward you saith the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end Oh that we could say so I know my thoughts towards God are thoughts of love and care to please him Job 19.14 See how hainously
but he loseth so much of his own life because they are one therefore crossness and untowardness between them strikes them dead In unequal relations the inferior is more dependant and so should be more subordinate In the relation between the father and the child the child is the lower part and lives more upon the father and therefore ought to live more according to the Father according to his Will or else he acts against himself he offends his father to his own hurt And the goodness of Superiors is of greater influence and force then that of Inferiors Take a child in the goodness of a child be it never so high that cannot work so much to the good of the father as the goodness of the father doth for the child The love goodness and mercy of God who is infinitely greater then we is of unspeakable influence to our good and therefore to be tendered and preserved Sin in the nature of it is a violation of the Law that is of the Will of God the effect of sin is a provocation of wrath and anger Hence it is that the Wise-man speaks so in Prov. 8. He that sins against me wrongs his own Soul He offers violence he spoils his own Soul he becomes a robber of himself The nature of sin aims at the destruction of that against which it is set although it do not attain this effect because of the power of him against whom it is for it 's a denying of all that God is as that he is infinitely wise infinitely good c. Therefore the Apostle speaks of some in Tit. 1.16 that profess they know God but in works they deny him how is that that is by their works they declare that they do not acknowledg him as he is Men therefore that seek not to please God do no otherwise then as if men in a Ship should with Axes or such like Instruments seek to cut holes in the Ship wherein their lives lie To act therefore against God is to act most desperately against our own good and by this we see how we are engaged to please him Again take this in that God will more easily be pleased with his people then with others therefore they are the more bound He takes that well from some hands that will not pass from others It is true we are all under one Law and Rule God did not destroy the Law by taking his people into a Gospel state but established it nay the Law binds more then it did before only as the binding power of it is encreased so the rigor of it is abated that is the terms of obedience required are changed God said before If you do not this and this and every thing to the height of it you shall dye but he doth not hold his people to those terms now that we are reconciled to him all is due that is commanded but he accepts of what we can perform so that here is the difference The Law speaks to one sort to those that are in the flesh that are out of Christ as in Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the Law to do them To the other sort whom God accepts in Christ he speaks as in 2 Cor. 8.12 He accepts according to what a man hath if there be a willing mind Now if less will pass with God and be well taken from thine hand then from others thy sin is greater then others if thou dost it not Further You are engaged much because you have had tastes of the sweetness of walking with God This is that which made that aggravation of their sin which God hath said he will not forgive Heb. 6. That they had tasted of the powers of the world to come But it 's a greater engagement to have a taste of God himself then to have a taste of the things of God to have a taste of that excellency and goodness that is in him is far a greater bond then to taste of all his favors Nay you have had a taste of the bitterness of wandering from God and neglecting him witness the blows and stripes of your own spirits and the frowns of God upon you How hath your unwary walking led you into a wilderness of darkness and fears and will you yet sin thus against God Have you not said in those dismal days as in Hos 2.7 I 'le return to my first husband for then it was better with me then now And have you given your selves to God again and again and do you now neglect him Will you not endevor to fulfil your promises Mark how God carried himself to his people that neglected him Jer. 2.20 Of old time I broke thy yoke and burst thy bonds and thou saidst I will not transgress thou saidst thou wouldst not but thou didst for under every green tree and upon every high hill thou wanderest playing the harlot Yet I planted thee a noble vine How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me It is a dangerous thing to break promise with God he will plead your own words against you That then is one main Consideration why such as plead an Interest in God should labor to walk in all pleasing to him from that Engagement that lies upon such to God A second Consideration is this Otherwise you will weaken the comfort of your hope and expectation in prayer How can you rationally with any satisfaction to your own spirits expect that God should fulful your will that are not willing to fulfil his How dis-ingenious and base is it for a man to wish in his heart that God would act so as to please him when in the mean time he is not careful to please God It doth horribly impose upon God it argues a most vile and base spirit it imposes upon Gods Wisdom upon his Goodness and indeed upon all that God is and God takes it very ill to be thus dealt with as he expresseth himself Mic. 3.11 The heads thereof judg for reward and the Priests teach for hire and the Prophets divine for mony yet they lean upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord among us none evil can come upon us What followed Therefore Zion for your sakes shall be plowed like a field God will not be so put off This sin borders upon that in Deut. 29.20 If any man say I shall have peace though I walk after the imaginations of mine own heart my wrath and jealousie shall smoke against that man and I will strike out his name from under Heaven You come to me saith God and say O Father arise and save us in Jer. 5.3 but you do all the evil against me that you can or as some read it you do evil and you can or and you prevail that is Whereas before I told you how ready I was to do you all good you have now so tempted me and provoked me with your sins as to prevail with me
house made a shift to live on husks and such trash for a time so do many now but the day will come when God will take these husks away from you wives children pleasures and estates and what ever it is that gives you some refreshment in this world and then you will be left worse then nothing you shall neither have God nor the world Yea such a necessity there is to look after this that you have indeed no true interest in any thing till you get aâ— Interest in God though you think you have That man that hath not God hath nothing it is most sure for he is under sentence A condemned man loseth all his estate Men will perswade themselves they are Lords and that they have this and they have that but indeed they have nothing what they have is but prisoners allowance something is allowed to condemned men till the stroke comes and this is the case of all men that have not God for their God Know also that a man is not said to have any interest in any thing that doth not add something to him if it be not something that contributes to his well-being A man doth not reckon his sickness diseases pains and such evils and miseries to be his interest in these things no man accounts of it is unhappiness Whatsoever adds not to a man stands for a cypher is nothing Interest in nothing is nothing That which we claim Interest in must have some good in it to give out unto us But now the real good of a man is no way promoted by any thing while he lives without God in the world It is the priviledg of Saints that all things work together for their good Rom. 8.28 And it 's as true otherwise that nothing works for the good of those that love not God Children and estate may tend to the goodness of one mans condition there may be good working out of them to one man and yet may prove to the hurt of another as the best good may be evil to this or that man to a man that is under the Curse all turns to bitterness and death The truth is that which kills life doth less hurt the senses then that which only destroys the peace and rest of a man A man feels more by a stroke sometimes then he doth by a Consumption or an Apoplexy That which destroys most effectually is oftentimes least felt and therefore what men feel not because of their outward enjoyments they consider not they lay not to heart But if God be your God then all is yours 1 Cor. 3. Then comes an Interest in all As he that marries the heir becomes Lord of the estate servants and cattel and lands are his he commands all the family So if God be our God the whole Creation becomes ours Men come to have much by coming to God The Apostle gives some account of this in Heb. 12. where he saith We are come to Mount Zion to the City of the living God to an innumerable company of Angels to the spirits of just men made perfect c. We come to all these to communion with these when God becomes ours We begin therefore at the wrong end when we seek any thing in this world and seek not God first for saith Christ Mat. 6.33 Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be given to you When therefore you seek estates and the accommodations of this life and do not indeed seek to make God yours you act very crosly to your own good There is a simple necessity to look after this for besides what hath been said you all live and are in a state of absolute dependance upon God who hath the power of life and death we are all in his hands and that Key by which he shuts and none can open you shall see put forth one day when you shall know what a loss it is to miss an Interest in him who hath all power in Heaven and in Earth That 's one thing which should make us serious to get an Interest in God that it 's simply necessary CHAP. VIII Interest in God most attainable Goodness and Fulness the Springs of Communication Desire easily and with most success revealed to God Poor strangers impotent persons not bar'd from God as from men Interest in God incomparable in the enjoyment A Second Argument is That it is an Interest most attainable for it is Goodness and Fulness by which we come to have Interest in any thing these are the Springs of all Communication between one and another and where these are greatest there is a wider door opened a fuller easier and sweeter entrance into Communion and the enjoyment of each other It 's the nature of goodness to be communicative and the more goodness the more ready to communicate Look through the whole Creation and you shall find it so that as any Creature is more noble and excellent so it is the more hospitable and bountiful the more ready to give out it self The Sun the Air the Sea how liberal are they Things of a more confin'd and straitened nature are but like a small Cottage into which one or two or a few may enter but it cannot give habitation to many But as Creatures abound in the goodness of God and his fulness they become like a stately Palace that gives open ready and liberal entertainment to many Now God is greatest in all Excellencies and therefore his Propensions to Mercy and Goodness towards his Creatures are unspeakably unconceiveably greater then any Propensions in the Creature can be In these two Glories God infinitely transcends all Creatures in the glory of his Being and the glory of his Working Nothing more sets out God and exalts him then his readiness to do good and communicate himself to his Creatures He hath said It 's a more blessed thing to give then to receive Indeed it 's sometimes a more blessed thing to give then to have and enjoy Take one that hath great power to do good and no love what is he but like a meer Iron Chest a Fountain sealed Now God is most ready to do good it 's his glory It 's said in Prov. 19.23 That the desire of a man is his kindness The desire of a man that is that which is most to be desired the most precious thing in a man that thing which makes him desireable that renders him glorious and beautiful is his kindness that he is a kind man such an one wears a Crown and Garland upon his head This Crown God wears above all the desire of God is his kindness And to make it yet more apparent that an Interest in God is most attainable Consider That by which we come to have an Interest in another is usually the manifestation of our desire with the tender of our love and affections to him and this is best done and with most efficacy with God for the breathings and operations of a mans spirit lie
themselves and clears them it leaves them without doubt it strengthens and fixeth fast the Soul in the knowledg of its Interest in God God stands obliged for this unto his people for their comfort lies in it and that makes to the fulfilling of his last end which is his glory for how shall we give him praise if we know not that God is ours Besides he hath given us visible Seals to ratifie all the Promises to us He hath given the earnest of his Spirit to his He hath set Christ on the Throne for us an indubitable Pawn of his Love and many other which are still with us Secondly A second Consideration is this That the people of God in the want of this knowledg and assurance do not what they may they do not improve that ability and those means which God hath put into their hands and so they spin out their days in heaviness mourning and anxiety Either there is slothfulness of spirit or some discouragement of spirit upon them Slothfulness and so they are careless idle and vain having lost the sweetness of the enjoyment of God their hearts are poured out upon vanities they have gone a whoring after other things and have placed their Souls upon things that will not profit and are not industrious to seek after God When the Soul is thus gone out from God then it commits folly under every green tree there 's no plant that may yield any kind of refreshing but they will suck something from it Whilest the Soul is busied about other Interests and securing them the other great business lies by Another sort are under discouragement they say The work is hard it 's a very hard thing to find out this matter to do that whereby it should be found Saith another I have endevored and sought and done all I can and cannot compass it Consider you that say it is hard what a vain thing is it for a man to plead that a thing is difficult which must be done Will you plead difficulty against necessity You must do it or your life will be as death you will lose the comfort of all Promises of all Performances the Promises will be as a sealed Fountain that you cannot drink of them But again It is false to say it is hard That false Prophet within us communicates of his own spirit to us and we oftentimes speak untruths against God Is it hard to walk in the way of life Is it hard to enquire after God Is it easie to be hunting after the world and getting something in this life Is it hard to reach after the fruit of the Tree of Life When you seek after God you are in that very way of Life wherein they now are that shall enjoy God to all Eternity Another Discouragement is this I have endevored but it is a fruitless thing I see I shall never be satisfied Poor Soul Wilt thou indulge that remissness of spirit that is in thee to a contradiction against the God of Truth He hath said If thou seek him thou shalt find him He hath said he will comfort the mourners He hath spoken as much as can be desired What would you have God to do more Rather blame your seeking then your success Say not It is in vain to seek because I have not found nay rather say Because I have not found therefore I must seek more and seek better What saith Christ in Joh. 14.23 If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him If any man love me be he what he will be though he hath been a notorious wretch though he hath been a grief and burden to me and offended me days without number yet if he love me my Father will love him and we will come and make our abode with him Will you rather blame the truth of the Promise then your selves The fault must be layd on us Let God be true and every man a lyar It is manifest that we do not what we might do in these particulars 1. We do not call our minds in and bend them to this work of enquiring after God and setling this great question of our Interest in God for ever And indeed if we do not call in and bend our minds and use some enforcements upon them they will never do their work There is upon our minds anatural fluidness and dulness they go out easily to all things but unto God The mind must be summoned prest bound and buckled to this work Saith the Apostle 2 Pet. 3.1 2. This second Epistle Beloved I now write unto you to stir up your pure minds To stir up your pure minds The Apostle was afraid of them lest dulness and sluggishness should fall upon their minds If you do not stir up your selves to the work and gird up the loyns of your minds the work will not be done Another fault is That as men do not bend their minds to the work so they do not hold them in a way of beleeving and cheerful expectation of what they seek for Saith the Church in Micah 7.9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord until he plead my cause So long as I seek the Lord I will wait and expect that he will hear me and answer my desires In Hos 10.12 saith the Prophet Sow to your selves in righteousness reap in mercy break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you You must seek the Lord till he come In Isai 62.7 This is the counsel of God by his Prophet That you give him no rest until he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise Again There may be this fault We do not bring things to an effectual judgment Many queries are raised about this business but there is not a full hearing and determining of them but either the Court breaks up before things are concluded and so the Soul is left to hang upon a poor thred of a feeble hope I hope God is my God or else the Soul is contented to bear the burden of many fears and sorrows not stirring up it self as it ought to get free of them So that doubtless it 's our fault that we have not so clear a knowledg of our Interest in God as to make us to triumph or glory therein One way or other we are defective either in our seeking of God or in our not receiving what God gives unto us Thirdly A third Consideration is That we have often offended and sinned against the Spirit and then God weakens his Testimony towards us and doth not so make himself known to us as we desire David by his sin brought himself into that sad condition that he knew not what to make of himself as appears by that prayer of his in Psal 51. He lookt on himself almost as one in bonds estranged from God a man without spirit In Isai
and empty And will you suffer your Souls against Nature to live out of God when you are called to live on him who is the Fountain of Life I may say unto you as Eliphaz spake in Job 15. Are the Consolations of God small to you And is it so light a matter to have the knowledg of the love of God and your Interest in him In Jer. 14.18 the Prophet speaks of spoiling and wasting but if it doth come saith he thy ways and thy sins have procured these things unto thee therefore know that it is an evil thing and bitter to forsake the Lord. You may thank your selves if a day come wherein there will be bitterness to your hearts and the pangs of death upon you because you know not that God is your God know that this is your wickedness because you will not now look after it and so you rob your Souls That is one thing 2dly When you are not sedulous and industrious in this thing to make sure that God is your God you leave your selves in the high way of Apostacy What is that which will make us able to stand the Apostle Peter tells us 2 Pet. 1.10 Give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure for if you do these things you shall never fall You expose your selves to offences to stumbling and falling when you are content to live in the dark not knowing what Interest you have in God For consider you are now out of the shine of the Sun you are in the cold evening shade your life is much weakened and your strength abated It is the knowledg of divine Love that is the spirit and strength of our love this lays bonds upon our spirits by which we become one with God it is the wing of our Souls the spring of our activity by which we are born up to an enjoyment of God The joy of the Lord is your strength saith Nehemiah And by this Paul was more then a Conqueror yet Paul had many Enemies Through this Abraham was able to do so great things by this Moses was able to despise the wrath and favor of Pharaoh and all the pleasures and riches of his Court While a man walks in the shine and sense of divine Love he will feel a strength in two Principles of great use 1. To cleave fast to the chief good now that chief good is God to that man that enjoys him he hath the truest taste that sees God to be his God and no man else hath such a taste as he this will hold him to God Where the Creatures have but a Judgment of Sense they will not depart from what they find good A Beast will not change his pasture for gold that is best for him It 's the astonishment of the world that the Angels should fall from their state of Glory and it 's matter of amazement that man should fall from his Creator when he had a full enjoyment of him It 's that which God calls Heaven and Earth to tremble at Jer. 2.13 That men should depart from him the Fountain of living Water c. The sense of acceptation with God makes a man that he cannot go from God Whither shall we go saith Peter Joh. 6. Thou hast the words of eternal life That Soul that lives under the influence of divine Comforts cannot but say Lord it 's good for me to be here he desires no change it cannot be better with him Change proceeds from want for if want were not the creature would not change That Soul that enjoys God is pleased and he saith with David Psal 16. He hath a good portion and his lines are fallen in a good place Nothing is dear to that man to part with that he may enjoy God he bids all things stand by and saith I charge you wife and friends estate and all things do not molest me in my enjoyment of the light of Gods face let all the world go which way it will let me enjoy this blessedness to know assuredly that God is my God When a man lives without this knowledg his life is but a poor shadow of life all without God is but a dead thing to him Another Principle receiving strength from the knowledg of Gods Love and our Interest in him is That a man should be friendly to his friend that he should walk with an harmony of spirit to his friends desire Love pleaseth not it self Now when a man enjoys the sweetness of friendship with God this makes him true to his Maker and to cleave close to God as to his Father Indeed the sense of this constrains the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.14 saith The love of Christ constrains us How can I do this evil saith Joseph and sin against my God But now if thou be careless and canst make a shift to live I know not how a dull stupid dark sensless kind of life thy heart not witnessing that thou endeavorest to make good thy Interest in God thou art not under the bond of Love and then what art thou under Other Lovers have taken away thy heart but as for God thou art a stranger to him and art contented to be without him this is a woful state And as a man that lives out of the shine of divine Love starves and wastes away so fears in this case are apt to turn into hatred when the Soul is gall'd and tormented with fears of the displeasure of God against him this is apt to turn to hatred Naturally whom we fear we hate and naturally the stronger fear is the more men hate The Devils hate God to the full being past doubting of his displeasure What the Soul fears it flies from and what is the flight of the Soul but hatred Judas would chuse rather to go out of the world and sink into nothing then endure his condition when he saw God not to be his God I 'l shut up this Argument with these few things All that is in a Christian makes to this that he would get a clear knowledg of his Interest in God Hath he Faith why by that he believes God to be his Happiness and that will put him on Hath he Love Love is restless but in clear enjoyment Hath he desire and thirst what are they but the Souls sickness till it hath health and life in the enjoyment of God Hath he Fear what is that but the Soul seeking to be secure and safe in God Hath he Reason what 's that but the voyce of God calling him unto God Hath he a sense of the sweetness of God what 's that but the comfort of divine Love drawing the Soul to himself So that all that is in a Christian puts him on to this to make this clear that God is his God And therefore they that can rub out their days and make a shift to busie themselves in other things without the knowledg of God to be their God have great cause to pronounce this heavy sentence upon themselves that surely
Reasons of both BEfore I propound the Directions how they who are sincere and ingenious toward God and indeed have him for their God may know that they have a sure Interest and Propriety in him I will premise two things of moment First That our Interest in God is more knowable then any other Interest in the world There is no Interest that a man hath which is so discernable Whatsoever it is that belongs to an Interest in any thing or any friend and doth discover it is much more here Examine it in a few particulars 1. Where there is an Interest with men there is a mutual closing of their spirits by which they know one another and come to rest secure in each others good intentions and hearty wishes Here also is this mutual closing and in a far more high and excellent degree then is or can be with any creature For that affection and love which God discovers to his people and which he doth act upon them is a Love that is transcendent that is not only beyond all other love but beyond all understanding That entire closing that is between a Beleever and God in Jesus Christ is above all that which can be found in any other his whole Soul runs this way In Psal 119.10 I have sought thee saith David with my whole heart That is the proportion which God hath cut out for himself Deut. 6.5 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart with all thy Soul and with all thy might Christ challenges the same proportion and indeed it should not be less less would not fulfil his end which is the solid peace and satisfaction of his people in the enjoyment of him and also the subjecting and subduing of their spirits to his government No proportion of love loss then the greatest could work these things But besides this there is such a through change by reason of this Interest as no Interest in the world doth work though the closest and the nearest For the habit and disposition of the spirit of a man is altered in closing with God and he becomes a new creature he is not what he was It is true that in all friendship that is with men there is a kind of change on both sides because there must be a due and necessary application of themselves to each others spirits but that change is unspeakably inferior to this in those who have been wrought upon to beleeve and have obtained this mercy to close with God for they are changed to the proportion of as great a distance as death is distant from life and darkness from light for they are brought off from the love of all that on which their hearts were set even to a hatred of it and are subjected subordinate and conformed to the Will of God There is another thing in this Interest which belongs to the nature of it and so discovers it and that is a mutual conversing with each other with contentment Jonathan and David had much pleasure in their mutual conversings with each other and in drawing forth their spirits one to another This is much more strong in Beleevers then can be in any relation between husband and wife or between the father and child This must needs be so For first The love wherewith they love God is the highest love Therefore many will not go for Christians that pretend to be such because their hearts are not brought up to this The highest Love acts highest it takes the highest delight and contentment in its Object In Cant. 2.3 As the Apple trees among the trees of the Forrest so is my Beloved among the sons I sat down under his shadow with great delight c. In Psal 73. saith David It is good for me to draw near to God That look as others find contentment in the things they love and draw near to them so the Saints find much more contentment with God and therefore draw near to him Again Friends cannot always enjoy these Converses Oftentimes they are parted and so cannot have this felicity of expressing mutual love but God is ever with them In Psal 73. Thou art my strong habitation to whom I may have a continual resort I may always come to thee 3. There is a third thing in Interest and that is mutual Communication Love is a spring which flows forth it doth enjoy what it hath rather for its friend then for it self Gods Love hath this excellency more abundantly and transcendently Take the dearest friends that live at the highest rate of love they cannot maintain a constant Communication partly because there is not always an equal necessity and capacity partly because there is not always the same power to give forth But our necessities are always very great and vast and Gods power is always the same so that here is always a perfect Communication of Love that ceaseth not but flows forth as beams of light from the Sun Now as effects discover their causes so then especially when they are most full and perfect As you may better know any tree by its fruit then when it is in the bud and blossoms and you may better know it when the fruit is in its fulness and in more abundance then when there are but a few if there be but one or two upon a tree they may be hid but when there are many the testimony is the more abundant Abundant are the testimonies of the fruits of Gods Love in what he hath done for his So that upon this account no Interest is more knowable then that of a Beleever in his God Secondly A second thing to be propounded is this That though no Interest be more knowable yet ordinarily no Interest is less known then this This we need not prove I think it 's a Question out of question with us all The unevenness of the holiness of Beleevers in their walkings the inconstancy of their rejoycing are two strong demonstrations of this that they do know but little of their Interest in God It springs from such unhappy Causes as these That abiding Unbelief that bitter root that hath taken such strong hold of the nature of man that till the whole house be pull'd down it will not be wholly eradicated and destroyed This is that weight the Apostle speaks of in Heb. 12. that hangs on us so fast as is manifest by the Apostle's scope who perswading unto faith and the workings of faith this is that saith he that so suppresseth and bears us down from those heights of heavenly joy from that sweet contentment and rest of spirit whereto we are called Beleeving is the first stone that is layd in a Christian He that comes to God must beleeve that he is and that he is a Rewarder of those that seek him Hebr. 12. And as there is a spirit in all Beleevers that tends to the setling of them upon a sure foundation that they may stedfastly beleeve so there is a spirit that works
estate This life and the wants of it always breed motion the spirit is still moving out of one condition unto something better The constant Rest of those glorified spirits in God is a plain demonstration that there is no Life like that They know the life that we live in this world they know what honours pleasures and such things are but they are so beneath them that they do no less overlook these then a Prince doth overlook the poorest Cottage or the vilest things of this world Nay the Saints on Earth too when they are themselves do not only prefer a Life in God before all things but with contempt of all things Paul puts a note of superexcellency upon the knowledg of Christ and pronounceth all things else but dross and dung Phil. 3. In Heb. 10.34 They suffered the loss of all things for this life with joyfulness it did not grieve them to see their goods and estates taken from them because they saw this loss make for the further enlargement of their life in God And those in Rev. 12.11 loved not their lives to the death for Christs sake When Solomon had traversed all these things and I make no doubt but he had many that traversed them with him you know what he saith of them Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of spirit But why should I dwell upon outward testimonies Make use of your own understands give them full scope to search and then think what proportion there is between that life that is upon things finite mixed mutable and of short continuance and that life that is in him that is infinite and all good always the same abiding for ever Descend lower then your understandings Call in the sense and experience of those several states of life which you have passed through in the world as that of childhood of manhood of a single estate of a married estate of a meaner and of a fuller condition take the best of them what did you find in them in comparison of that life that you have in God Remember all the sense you have had of the sweetness that is in the enjoyment of God and then upon the verdict of your sense and inward experience you will find that there is no comparison between the one and the other How often have you said when you have been hunting after and wearied your selves in the vanity of this world I will return to my first Husband for then it was better with me then now Hos 2.2 2. What a deplorable loss to our spirits is it when we suffer a day to pass without living in God That day we dye when as we might have been as they in Heaven What shadows of death have covered your Souls when you have been out of God! What bondage and weight are cast upon mens spirits how are they as reeds of no strength shaken with every wind with the turnings of the things in this world if their hearts be out of God We are chargeable with many sorrows and heart-breakings and God might put them upon our account God may visit us for many of our tears and complaints What will not the Fountain give water will not the full brest give milk It is a wrong to say so of God We are the cause of our own harms and losses The rest and chearful vigor of a mans Soul is of more worth then a world and that we lose whilest our spirits roul up and down Who can utter what those joys are what that sweetness of the taste of the Soul is which it hath in its sincere and secret addresses to the Father of Life in its secret conversings with him and enjoyment of him What a holy forgetfulness of all things hath this wrought what a holy magnanimity what peace passing all understanding what joy unspeakable and glorious And shall we lose all this by not maintaining our life in God Our experience and knowledg of these things should be as an attractive Load-stone and the sadness of our Souls under the heavy loss of this should be an enforcement upon us to keep near unto God The Apostle Hebr. 12.5 gives this as a reason why they were so weak You have forgotten saith he the exhortation or consolation that speaks to you as children 3. A third Consideration is The sweet and powerful attractions and invitations of the Spirit How often may that be said to us which Christ saith to them Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man will open to me I will come in and sup with him How often and how strongly hath Wisdom cryed from Heaven and uttered her voyce saying I have built my house I have prepared my feast come my friends all is prepared for you come and eat and rejoyce in the fulness of my Love Christ hath followed us as the waters followed them in the desart mercy and goodness hath followed us all our days Hath not God by his Spirit urged us from all things from all conditions and relations from every thing that strikes upon our senses or that comes within the compass of our knowledg As his design is by all things to work us to himself so hath he not by all things pleaded with us to come home and to stay at home that we might be blessed in the enjoyment of the sweetness of his presence He hath layd up something even in death it self to bring us to him A Crown was once found in a thorny bush Surely then if God be so ready to meet us and doth so seek us if he have so richly prepared for us and set things before us we should provoke our Souls to feed on these precious things and to live that life of the enjoyment of God which only is Life 4. If we will not live this life in God it may be we shall not If nothing will prevail but we will live in the flesh and pour out our Souls upon vanities and will be wandering in this world travelling in the desart and forsaking the fulness and sweetness that is in God surely it may be that shall be our portion all our days God may and he doth hide himself from the Soul when the Soul hides it self from him God calls and they will not hear he invites and they are careless Well saith God seeing they will not come they shall not come but shall live like servants and strangers and shall have no more of the Childrens bread then will maintain them in a state of life but not maintain them in a state of peace Sorrows and troubles will seize upon men because they would not embrace sweet mercies Do you think we can violate all the mercies and goodness of God and be born with No no Remember that example in 1 Sam. 2. Eli had many and great manifestations of Gods love but his sin of fond love to his wicked children would not be done away with sacrifice or burnt-offering God said he would bring evil upon
Heb. 10. He saves those that come unto God through Him We are very apt rather to come to God as he is the great God our Creator then to come to him through a Mediator Therefore since there is no other way of life but this we had need be taught it Fourthly We are apt to think it almost impossible to live such a life as this Oh how do we greaten the matter of our duty We make mountains of mole-hills The fault is not in God but in us Certainly we might have more What saith the Gospel Doth it not call us to all joy all peace and to rejoyce always What 's the meaning of this Doth not God speak realities Shall we rather have hard thoughts of God then of our selves No no it is because we will not we thirst not It is not because water is not to be had but because we will not take the pains to draw it We say the Well is deep and the water will not come but he hath said he will meet those that rejoyce and work righteousness and that he will draw near to those that draw near to him and he will be as good as his word Certainly the fault lies either in our not seeking or not seeking as we should or in our not taking what is offered to us Do you not find that when you come to the door of grace it stands open and that God is ready to give the comfort and refreshings of a Father when you come overwhelmed with sorrows Is not he always the same Will he hear one prayer and not another If you did continue in prayer and seeking might you not have more It is very ill to fancy such impossibilities Why do you set bounds where God hath set none and make that so hard to get which God is so willing to give and so straiten your selves when you have license to ask Lastly We are apt to live much by patterns and examples We see how Christians live at the common rate it 's neither night nor day with them they have a trembling hope a mingled joy a mourning life sometimes bright sometimes clouded and this sight doth form other Christians to the same life and makes them say Seeing others live so I 'le live so too Examples are mighty Of what force was Peter's example of to the Galatians in another case Beggers form one anothers spirits to beggery and a poor kind of life Remember that counsel of the Apostle in Rom. 12. Be not conform'd unto this world Make no patterns to your selves further then they agree with the Rule that you are to go by How low did the Jews bring themselves by the traditions of their Fathers Their Fathers did so and so That 's a poor beggerly life Shall I say one thing more We are subject to slothfulness It 's strange that a Christian should be slothful of all men Should we not wonder if we saw a man slothful to gather up Pearls and Jewels of great worth Was ever any man so slothful that he would not take the pains to eat his meat when he was hungry Can a poor man be so slothful that he will not dig a Myne of Gold when he may have it What should make a Christian slothful What is it the difficulty of this Life Certainly if we say so we speak evil of God and his goodness as those Spies did of the good Land What is there difficulty in eating and drinking Our way all along is pleasure even the pleasure of living in God and enjoying of him Or is the work unsuccessful Dare you say you have let down your bucket and drew up nothing Dare you say that you went sincerely to God and could not procure him to hear you No you cannot for when his servants have come to him in their worst conditions he hath received and embraced them Could a man come to God in a worse condition then David did Psal 32. When he had run from God desperately and stayed out a great while you may well think how often he quenched the spirit in that time and contended with God and yet when he returned and came home God did not despise him God did not say to him Away wretch what hast thou to do to expect mercy but pardoned refreshed and cheered him and David tells it abroad For this saith he shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayst be found Say not then with thy self that thy coming shall be unsuccessful To that which hath been said we may add these pertinent Considerations 1. If we live in God and fetch all our peace strength and satisfaction from him we shall have the best enjoyment of all things else The taste of Gods love sweetens all enjoyments 2. This puts the Soul into a secure state against all dangers it cannot be ill with him that enjoys God It puts a man into a state of conquest and victory over all things When a man enjoys God and lies upon his Love he is above all things 3. This fulfils the end of our Creation For this was Gods appointment that we might be for the demonstration of his infinite Excellency and to the enhappying of our selves in the enjoyment of him 4. This keeps the Soul in a preparedness to all holy walkings and obedience When a man lives in God his heart is tuned to all duties CHAP. XXI Several Questions concerning the forementioned Doctrine answered Saints not always equally strong Some afflictions sweetened more then others Sometimes God will have his Rod smart I Proceed now to answer two or three Questions which concern this Doctrine and Truth 1 Quest Seeing the Saints have this way for Life and that their Interest in God doth so ballance their Souls whence is it that they are so frequently dejected so under hatches 2 Quest If Interest in God be so effectual to lift up Christians spirits whence is it that there are so many weaknesses deformities and contrarieties to God in their spirits 3 Quest Whence is it that they who have no Interest in God oftentimes seem to go through very great troubles with much strength 1 Quest If the Saints life springs from their Interest in God how is it then that they are so often broken in spirit that there dwells with them heaviness confusion and distraction oftentimes as with others Answer In the first place let us know that the Saints do not all live this life equally they have not all received such measures of grace that they can with equal magnanimity pass through their troubles in this world Some pass through trouble with a spirit of glory being highly lifted up above their sufferings So Paul in Rom. 5. We glory in tribulation In Heb. 10.34 They sâ—ffered joyfully the spoiling of their goods And Acts 5. when the Apostles were scourged they went away rejoycing that they were accounted worthy to suffer for the Name of Jesus Others go not on triumphantly but stedfastly though
Thou hast made me glad with thy Countenance The sense of the good presence and favour and love of God doth fill the Soul with pleasure and when it can hold no more it hath enough Let the issue of all this Discourse be to set our hearts a longing and wishing O that I were blessed with a full enjoyment of God! O that I had as much of him as ever I shall or can have The Soul that is thus in travel travels without pain The Mind reaching after other things oftentimes out-stretcheth it self There are usually if not always pains with desires especially in desires after the Creature because that oftentimes there is a frustration of our desires or an elongation of the things the things are far off hard to come by our desires oftentimes are mute they speak not or the things that we desire know not our minds but our desires after God always speak they are open unto God he heareth their voyce All my desires are before Thee saith David Psal 38.8 and my groanings are not hid from Thee Therfore it must needs be sweet when the Soul lies thus open unto God Other desires do not assure and secure a man in the things he desires a man may wish this and wish that and go without both but the Soul that thus longs after God is instated in his wish hath a present enjoyment and certainly shall have a full enjoyment of him He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him God will hear them Psal 145.16 They that long most receive most it 's the hungry spirit that feeds best and fares best When the Church was sick of love being very much taken with what she had and much longing after what she wanted then she could say I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine his desire is towards me in Cant. 7.10 That refreshed her the Greek reads it his Conversion is towards me indeed God will turn to those that go out toward him In Isai 64.5 He meets those that work righteousness and seek him in his ways Again Consider this That longing after a full enjoyment is the natural effect of a known Interest in God Look through all the Orders of the Creation and you shall find that every thing seeks the enjoyment of its Interest Angels do Men do Beasts do they seek their own their own pastures their own young their own mates Can you imagine that we should be the Children of God and account him our Father and not long to enjoy him A child hears from his father and receives tokens from his father but he is not contented he would be with his father So it is truly with a Child of God so far as he hath received of that Spirit he longs to enjoy God Interest in God works by a power of its own and God works in it too God pursues his Interest in us to the utmost therefore he is working us to himself by all means all ways by good and evil by life by mortality and death by the senses by Ordinances by his Spirit He is always at work to bring us home that we may be in his possession and enjoy him And to make it the more full he hath appointed the breaking of these bodies that our spirits may come more full to him nay and he hath appointed a day of Resurrection that our bodies may come full to him and this is one great end of Christs coming again in Joh. 14. that we may be with him in his Fathers house If God so drives on his Interest to make us perfect with him let us drive on our Interest to make God fully ours in the enjoyment of him Lastly There is nothing to hinder in this Case that you should not drive on to a full and perfect enjoyment of him Are you full in this world should your full enjoyments of the world hinder your full enjoyments of God Is not God better then these things Are you scanted in this world The more need you have then of the fullest enjoyments of God Have you much of God You know the more what God is and can you chuse but desire him Have you little of God Then you need more and should drive on to get more Are you sure of your Interest Where Interest is most sure there is most love and where the Soul loves most thither it drives most Do you fear your Interest You have so much the more reason to seek after a full enjoyment of God to the satisfaction of your Souls What do you think should stand in the way You must part with the world What is this world to your Fathers house and to God himself You must dye What is death Cannot that everlasting life recompence you infinitely Therefore there is nothing to hinder you Then seeing God invites you and provokes you to seek more of him in this world though you cannot have all I conjure you by all the sweetness that is in God and that you have found in God that you obey his Word herein and drive on more diligently and strongly to a more full enjoyment of God FINIS PSAL. 119. vers 4. I am thine save me for I have sought thy Precepts CHAP. I. Gods Interest in man natural and acquired this latter twofold Of holy Resignation Of true and false Mourning I Have chosen this excellent Pattern to propose to you and to my self of an ingenuous spirit David a man after Gods own heart would be saved but not after the manner of the men of this world that would be saved to be their own and to enjoy themselves at their own wills but he in being saved would be Gods and at his disposing I am thine save me There are three things here that would be thought on 1. What David means when he saith I am thine 2. What the Reason should be that we should use such an acknowledgment of our selves to be Gods when we pray to him 3. What force there is in this argument to be pleaded with God I am thine save me Thine We are said to be Gods either by way of affection as the Church Cant. 2.16 I am my well-beloveds and my well-beloved is mine Or in respect of that Interest that God hath in us The Interest of God in man is upon a twofold Foundation and Account 1. Upon account of the Law of Nature the natural Law which doth set God as Lord over all and acknowledg him supreme Commander of every thing because he is the Original and glorious Fountain of all Being Upon that account it is that in Psal 89.11 it is said The Heavens are thine and the Earth also is thine as for the world and the fulness thereof thou hast founded them There is the ground of that Dominion which God hath over all things they are his off-spring things that himself hath made And in Psal 50.12 God owns himself in this Soveraignty The Heavens are mine and the Earth is mine and all that in them is
It is spoken concerning the time when they should be restored to a better state Afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days Shall fear the Lord and his goodness No father is more feared of his child then the best father that walks towards his child in the greatest wisdom goodness meekness and bounty So that the kindness of God and tastes of his Love do not lift up the Soul and make it proud That man is the most humble man in the world that hath the most knowledg of the Love of God towards him in Jesus Christ This Fear and Faith do so stand together that they cannot be separated In Act. 9.31 They walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost It 's the right temper of a true Christian to have the comforts of God in his Soul and yet to be with fear and trembling It 's a fear that doth inevitably arise upon a rectified nature from a sight of the disproportion that is between God and us This is in Heaven it self where the Angels in glory beholding God so infinitely lifted up above them cannot but have reverence fear and dread in their Souls towards him And it 's a fear likewise of danger not the danger of eternal death for from that they are saved the knowledg of the Love of God assures them for that but from the danger of other things which to them are as bitter as death is to the world and those are the frowns of God the rebukes of God the suspensions of Love and estrangedness of God towards them the stripes of God these things when God doth as a Father to his that know him they are most grievous and smarting and their Souls groan under these more then worldly men under worldly danger Therefore he that knows God and what it is to be in the light of his Countenance he that hath tasted the bitterness of the loss of this lives in fear lest he should provoke God as a Father to deal thus in severity with him And I speak all this the rather because some do blaspheme that which is the spring of life and peace to the Saints saying That for a man to have the knowledg of God to be his God and everlasting Portion is a snare to bring that man into a forgetfulness of God and his Duty and to blow up the spirit with pride and lull him into a sinful sleep Such like things as these have been and still are not without much cause of grief cast upon this blessed Doctrine of the knowledg of our abode with God Whereas the true knowledg of God being ours is that which doth effectually and firmly work the heart to all diligent watchfulness tenderness and sedulity Thirdly It disposeth a mans spirit to the best entertainment of all divine Determinations that are upon a mans addresses to God upon any occasion Let the answer be what it may be what seems good to God that man that knows God to be his God is best enabled to receive his answer be it I or No whether his prayer succeed or not he is put into such a frame that he can say Amen to the Will and Word of God and go from God without murmuring and repining If God hear him he is glad but yet not so glad of the thing as of his Interest he is not so taken with any thing he obtains but God takes him more If therefore he receives any thing he rejoyceth in it as the fruit of Love and makes a grateful return to God again In Psal 119.137 Save my Soul and it shall praise thee He rejoyceth in this to see how welcome he is to God and that his prayer is accepted others come and are not regarded but he hath audience The things that God gives out to him have another form and taste then to the world they come all with tastes of love to him In love to my Soul saith Hezekiah hast thou delivered me in Isai 38.17 And whatsoever he hath he hath a better enjoyment of it then others by reason of his Interest in God he hath nothing from God as a meer gift but he hath God with it God saith to that man that hath Interest in him There take that which thou askedst for and me with it that is thine and I am thine and the enjoyment of God is more to him then all the world This spirit is upon all that he hath My Father gave me it it is the fruit of the love of the God of my life therefore I must use it in order according to order from him and not after my mind only All things are best enjoyed when they are enjoyed according to Rule We spoil the sweetest things when we take them according to our wills and so use them then they become another thing When a man can sit in his enjoyment of all things and see God this is a drop from the Fountain of Life and it is more then they have that seem to enjoy a thousand times more of the things of this life whose corn and oyl increase And if he be denyed if God see it not good to give him the things he desires yet he is satisfied he doth not contend with God nor doth his spirit rise up against his Maker he hath a word ready in his spirit Not my will but thy Will be done he saith If my God will not give me this it is well that he will give me himself I may be without this but I could not be without him and seeing he hath given himself to be my Portion I will wait with patience and be content all the days of my life In Eccless 5. ult saith Solomon If God give a man the joy of his Soul he shall not much remember the days of his vanity When God denies him any thing he remembers that he comes not to God for this particular thing but for the best good We come not to God for any thing but that which is for our good A good man saith If I had this thing it may be it would not do me good and herein his spirit is satisfied he saith God knows better then I what is good for me and if he thinks not such a thing meet for me I must think so too So you see how the knowledg of a mans Interest furthers his approaches to God and helps him in these three respects that we have mentioned CHAP. VI. How the knowledg of divine Interest doth promote Holiness sets Judgment and Nature against Sin keeps the heart from inordinate reaching after and holding fast present things Faith binds the Soul and keeps it bound makes all a Christians ways easie Assurance gives a double advantage to our great meeting with God IN this Chapter I shall in some particulars shew how the knowledg of our Interest in God doth promote and
to God but as it 's not their dayly course so they do it not with strength but weakly and faintly Slight visions leave but very shallow impressions These men live according to the sight they have of God Slight men are of poor spirits because they do not enoble themselves in a vigorous beholding God A third fault which is worst of all when men send out their thoughts and lay out their understandings in an ill way when the matter of their thoughts and imaginations is evil There are thoughts of good that are evil thoughts and thoughts of evil that are good When a mans mind looks on God but the heart withdraws when it looks upon God with contradictions and quarrellings at him these are evil thoughts of God There are thoughts of evil that are good as when a man looks on evil but his end is the separation of his heart from it and that he may destroy it But when a man looks upon evil with affections and desires after it when his mind is employed 〈◊〉 the bellows to the fire when he is conâ—â—â—ing and devising how he may compass 〈◊〉 â—vil this is most notorious wickedness 〈◊〉 doth mightily habituate and root the Soul in a deplorable elongation from God He that thinks and deviseth evil makes haste to it with all the strength he hath Prov. 24.8 He that deviseth evil shall be called a mischievous person a Master of evil * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so some read it this is the fruit a man by employing his understanding in a sinful way he becomes to be a sinner in grain a Master sinner a Leader of others a man transcendent going beyond others as Saul was higher then the people by the head and shoulders David describeth such an one Psal 36.3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit he hath left off to be wise and to do good He deviseth mischief upon his bed he sets himself in a way that is not good he abhors not evil that is he loves it as those phrases import verbs negative are put for their contrary affirmative Prov. 30.32 If thou hast thought evil lay thy hand upon thy mouth for as the churning of milk brings forth butter and the wringing of the nose brings forth blood so the forcing of wrath brings forth strife It 's but to shew what degrees sin hath When a man hath thought an injurious thought against another it 's time for him to lay his hand upon his mouth and stifle it there for if the thought be entertained it inflameth the tongue and then much evil comes into act As the churning of milk brings forth butter and the wringing of the nose blood so saith Solomon the Forcing of wrath brings forth strife As Vipers dye by the young ones bred in them so do men dye by the evil thoughts bred in their minds The Apostle Peter speaks of some men 2 Pet. 2.14 so sunk in sin by the exercise of their understanding and senses about it that they could not cease from sin * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This I am sure of the more you wander from God the more you run into sin and every thought you have of evil this way is a step from God Stop betimes before you go so far that there can be no return that you be not held in the cords of your own iniquity pray that the thoughts of thine heart may be forgiven thee which was the Apostle's counsel to Simon Magus Acts 8.22 Men come to be in a remediless state by giving way to evil thoughts Isa 44.20 it is said of Ephraim A deceived heart hath turned him aside that he cannot deliver his Soul nor say Is there not a lye in my right hand Now a man is in a woful state when he is so turned aside by his deceitful heart that he cannot extricate himself You have a power and may do something and by how much more you are enabled to it by so much the greater your sin is if you neglect it When God calls on you for this work if you can be profuse on other things in a great expence of your minds and thoughts towards them and you will not mind him in all your ways your sin is the greater 2 Argu. 2. This work is a work of the noblest power and faculty you have and as any thing is more excellent so it stands in the greater obligation towards God for as a man receives so he owes we owe much that receive much Seeing then you have received so noble a faculty from God you are more engaged to lay it out when called for according to the Will of him that gave it You have other faculties that are not under such a tye you have a power of breathing a power of motion in all your members you have many powers but these lie not under that obligation as this because this excels all the more careless and unfaithful you are in improving it for God the greater your sin and fault is This faculty is as one calls it Divinae particulam aurae a divine breath a beam of the immortal Light the very Image of God Nothing comes nearer unto God then the mind of Man and Angels When you suffer therefore your understandings to run from God you debase your glory your excellency is now deflowred and dishonored It 's recorded as a reproach upon Domitian the Emperor that he would be spending his time to catch and kill flies too childish a work for a man in so high a place It is much worse for you to employ that excellent faculty your understanding about flies and trifles that was made to behold God and in beholding him to be filled with him It 's the most excellent and highest faculty and the workings of it are so much the more easie The works of the Soul are more easie then those of the body therefore you should be encouraged to put your selves on the exercise of it The eyes of the body can by one glance reach the stars and see further in a moment then the body can move in all its time The mind is quicker then the eye and in a moment can glance into Heaven to the beholding of God therefore this should be a motive to prevail with you to the practise of this Duty because it 's a thing whereunto you are so enabled O dulcis confabulatio Dei in anima cum anima quae sine linguae labiorum formatur strepitâ— sine aure percipitur subsilentio solus qui loquitur cui loquitur audit illum omnis alienus excluditur Ber. Opusc c. 5. Vita contemplativa incipit in hoc seculo perficitur in futuro Bern. It 's a most excellent power conducing most to your life the actions of the body do more weakly and remotely conduce to your life This faculty is spiritual and herein differs much from the actions of the body which have their seasons their proper time and