discursive faculty help us to discern the connexions of some things which otherwise we should not perceive so it may by assisting the intuitive make things evident to us that of themselves are not Nor yet also that it actually doth so can any I believe certainly tell For admit that at some times some have very transporting apprehensions of the love of God towards themselves suggested to their hearts by the holy Spirit they having this habitual knowledg before that love to him for instance or faith in him or the like are descriptive characters of the persons whom he accepts and delightfully loves How suddenly may the divine light irradiate or shine upon those preconceived notions which were begotten in them by the interveniency of the external revelation before and excite those before-implanted principles of Faith Love c. so as to give them the lively sense of them now stirring and acting in their hearts And thence also inable them unwaveringly to conclude and with an unexpressible joy and pleasure their own interest in his special love in this way shedding it abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost given to them This may be so suddenly done that they may apprehend the testimony to be immediate when indeed it is not Nor are they able to prove from Scripture the immediateness of it For as to what it doth to them in particular Scripture says nothing they not being so much as mentioned there What it doth or hath done to this or that person there mentioned signifies nothing to their case if any thing were said that must have that import which will be hard to evince and that it is any where in Scripture signified to be its usual way in common towards them on whose hearts it impresses this perswasion to do it immediately is much less to be evinced For what Scripture saith so and that famous Text that speaks so directly to this matter The Spirit of God beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God seemeth rather to imply the contrary In as much as the Spirit of God is there expresly said to co-witness with our spirit as the word there used signifies by which it should seem to take the same course in testifying which our spirit or conscience doth that is of considering the general characters of his children laid down in his Word reflecting upon the same in our selves and thereupon concluding we are his children Which if it were suppos'd the only thing the Spirit of God ordinarily doth in this matter we may with much confidence assert 1. That it doth herein no small thing for is it a small thing to be ascertain'd of Gods fatherly love to us as his own children 2. That it doth not a less thing than if it testify'd the same matter in a way altogether immediate For wherein is it less Is the matter less important that cannot be said for the thing we are assured of is the same howsoever we be certify'd thereof Is it less evident That can with as little pretence be said For doth any one account a thing not evident in it self and that needs to be proved to him some way or other the less evident for being proved to him in a discursive way What pretence can any one have to say or think so Is it that reasoning is more liable to error and mistake But I hope the reasoning of Gods Spirit is not so when it enables us to apprehend the general Truth we should reason from to assume to it to collect and conclude from it guiding us by its own light In each of these surely we have as much reason to rely upon the certainty and infallibility of the Spirits reasonings as of its most assertory dictates Otherwise we would most unreasonably think the authority of those conclusions laid down in the Epistle to the Romans and other parts of Scripture invalidated by the Holy Ghost's vouchsafing to reason them out to us as we know it most nervously and strongly doth Or is it less consolatory That cannot be for that depends on the two former the importance and evidence of the thing declared The former whereof is the same the latter not less 3. Yea and supposing that the Holy Ghost do manifestly concur with our spirits in the several steps of that discursive way so that we can observe it to do so and there is little doubt but it may do so as observably to us by affording a more than ordinary light to assist and guide us in each part of that procedure as if it did only suggest a sudden dictate to us and no more we may upon that supposition add That it doth hereby more advantageously propose the same thing to us than if it only did it the other way It doth it in a way more sutable to our natures which is not nothing and it doth it in a way less liable to after-suspicion and doubt for it is not supposed to be always dictating the same thing And when it ceases to do so howsoever consolatory and satisfying the dictate was at that instant when it was given the matter is liable to question afterwards upon what grounds was such a thing said And though it cannot be distrusted that what the Holy Spirit testifieth is true yet I may doubt whether it was indeed the Holy Spirit that testify'd it or no. Whereas if it proceeded with me upon grounds they remain and I have no reason to suspect that which was argued out to me upon grounds which I still find in me was either from an ill suggestor or with an ill design whereas there may be some plausible pretence of doubt in the matter if there was only a transient dictate given in to me without any reference or appeal to that rule by which God hath not only directed me to try my self but also to try spirits whether they be of him or no. Nor is there any imaginable necessity of assigning quite another method to the Spirits work as it is a Spirit of Adoption from that which it holds as it is a Spirit of Bondage For as to this latter when it convinces a person and binds down the condemning sentence upon him this surely is the course it follows to let a person see for instance they that live after the flesh shall die But thou livest after the flesh therefore thou shalt dye Or all that believe not the wrath of God abides on them But thou believest not as it is we know the Spirits work to convince of not-believing therefore the wrath of God abides on thee And what need is there of apprehending its method to be quite another in its comforting-work Nor is it surely a matter of less difficulty to perswade some that they are unbelievers and make them apprehend and feel the terror sutable to their states than others that they are believers and make them apprehend the comfort which is proper to theirs Yea and is not its course the same in its
pleases and sees fit to determine 3. It may not therefore with so absolute and peremptory an expectation be sought after as those things may that are necessary to the holding of souls in life but with much resignation submission and deference of the matter to the divine good pleasure such as shall neither import disesteem of it nor impatience in the want of it 4. That it ought to be less-esteemed than the heart-rectifying-communication that is impressive of Gods Image and whereby we are made partakers of his holiness This proceeds more entirely from pure love to God for himself that from self-love this tends more directly to the pleasing of us than to the pleasing of God This is necessary as was said but to our well or better being That simply to our very being in Christ this hath its greatest real value from its subserviency to the other And what hath its value from its reference to another must be of less value than that 5. That its a great mistake to think God is not otherwise to be enjoyed than in this way of more express testification of his love as if you could have no enjoyment of a friend otherwise than by his often repeating to you I love you I love you indeed I love you 6. That it 's a much greater to place the sum of Religion here and that any should make it the whole of their business to seek this or to talk of it or should think God doth nothing for them worth their acknowledgment and solemn thanksgiving while he doth not this 7. Most of all that any should reckon it the first thing they have to do when they begin to mind Religion to believe Gods particular love to them and that he hath elected them pardoned them and will certainly save them So too many most dangerously impose upon themselves and accordingly before any true humiliation renovation of heart or transaction and stipulation with the Redeemer do set themselves thus to believe and it may be seek help from God more strongly to believe it when-as the Devil is too ready to help them to this Faith And when he hath done it they cry to themselves peace peace and think all is well take their liberty and humour themselves live as they list and say that for so long a time they have had assurance of their salvation The Father of Lies must needs be the Author or the Fautor or both of this Faith for it is a lie which they believe that is that they are pardoned and accepted of God is a downright lie repugnant to his Word and the tenour of his Covenant And for any thing else that may import their state to be at present safe is to them no credible truth 8. That for the most part if Christians upon whom the renewing-work of the Holy Ghost in that former communication hath in some degree taken place do yet want that degree of this also which is necessary to free them from very afflicting doubts and fears and enable them to a cheerful and lively walking with God it is to be reckoned their own fault either that they put too much upon it too little minding his publick declarations in his Word or do unduly seek it or unseasonably expect it or that they put too little upon it and expect or seek it not or that by their indulged carnality earthliness vanity of spirit they render themselves uncapable of it or by their careless and too licentious walking or their either resisting or neglecting holy motions they grieve that Spirit that would comfort them For though the restraint of such more pleasant communications may proceed sometimes from an unaccountable Soveraignty that owes no reason to us of it's arbitrary way of giving or withholding favours yet withal we are to know and consider that there is such a thing as paternal and domestick Justice proper to Gods own Family and which as the Head and Father of it he exerciseth therein whereby though he do not exercise it alike at all times it seems meet to his infinite Wisdom to awaken and rouze the sloth or rebuke the folly or check the vanity or chastise the wantonness of his offending-children and that even in this way by retiring himself becoming more reserved withdrawing the more discernible tokens of his presence and leaving them to the torture sometimes of their own conjectures what worse thing may ensue And herein he may design not only refâ—rmation to the delinquents but instruction to others and even vindication to Himself For however these his dealings with mens spirits are in themselves as they must needs be secret and such as come not under the immediate notice of other men yet somewhat consequential thereto doth more openly appear and becomes obvious to the common observation of serious Christians with whom such persons converse that is not only such as languish under the more remarkable terrors of their spirits and are visibly as it were consuming in their own flame of which sort there occur very monitory and instructive examples at some times but even such also as are deprived of his quickning influence and have only somewhat remaining in them that is ready to dye that are pining away in their iniquities and sunk deep into deadness and carnality for his comforting communication is also quickning and he doth not use to withhold it as it is quickening and continue it as it is comforting but if such have comfort such as it is they are their own comforters do carry very discernible tokens of divine pleasure upon them and the evils and distempers under which their spirits lye wasting are both their sin and punishment Their own wickedness corrects them and their backsliding reproves them And that reproof being observable doth the same time warn others yea and do that right to God as to let it be seen he makes a difference and refuses the intimacies with more negligent loose idle wanton professors of his Name which he vouchsafes to have with some others that make it more their business and study to carry acceptably towards him and are more manifestly serious humble diligent obedient observers of his will If therefore we find not what we have found in this kind however the matter may possibly be resolvable into the Divine Pleasure as it is more likely to be in the case of such desertions as are accompanied with terror when no notorious apostacy or scandalous wickedness hath gone before it is both safe and modest yea and obvious to suspect such delinquencies as were before-mentioned are designed to be animadverted upon and that the Love hath been injured which is now not manifested as heretofore 9. That yet such a degree of it as is necessary to a comfortable serving of God in our stations being afforded such superadded degrees as whereby the Soul is in frequent raptures and transports are not to be thought withheld penally in any peculiar or remarkable respect or otherwise than it may be understood
a little to delight in this respect that thereby mens spirits are rectified and set right towards God viz. both towards the Creator and Redeemer 2. As hereby they are rectified towards men having the universal Law of Love wrought deep into their hearts being fill'd with all goodness righteous meekness mercifulness apt to do no wrong to bear any to pity and help the distressed to love enemies and as there is opportunity to do good to all especially to them that are of the houshold of Faith We must understand in this as well as in the other parts of that stamp which the Spirit of God puts on the Souls of men That the Impression corresponds and answers to the Seal as hath been said the inward Communication to the outward Revelation of Gods will And so we find the matter is For as Divine Precepts require this should be the temper of mens spirits so the very things that compose and make up that blessed temper are said to be the fruits of his own Spirit The fruit of the Spirit is peace long-suffering gentleness goodness meekness c. And again The fruit of the spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth Now hath not that Soul a spring of pleasure within it self that is in these respects as God would have it be That is conscious to it self of nothing but righteousness goodness benignity candor towards any man and is in all things acted by a spirit of love that suffereth long and is kind that envieth not that vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not its own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth that beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things and never faileth That so equally poises and acts a mans spirit that he carries seemly and sutably towards all men takes pleasure in the best in the Saints and excellent ones of the earth hath all his delight and is no worse affected than to wish them better even towards the very worst neither envies the greatest nor despises the meanest neither is revengeful towards them that injure him nor unthankful to them that oblige him that is apt to learn of good men and to teach the bad by observing and giving the most imitable example That is not undutiful to superiors nor morose and unconversable towards equals That lives not to himself Is a common good to all within the sphere through which his activity can extend it self That doth good with inclination from the steady propension of his own will and an implanted principle of goodness It is evident God hath formed such a mans spirit unto delight of the purest kind and the best sort of pleasure unto which they who are strangers banish it from their own breasts by the resistance and grief they give his blessed Spirit thereby making it a stranger there And by harbouring in their own bosoms their own tormentors the pride the wrath the envy the malice the revengefulness the bitterness of spirit which as they render them uneasie and intolerable to all that are about them so most of all to themselves And which while they prey wherever they range abroad yet still bite most keenly and tormentingly that heart it self wherein they are bred as poysonous Vipers gnawing the bowels which inclose them 3. Towards themselves which also may be considered distinctly For though all the good qualifications we can mention or think of do redound to a mans self and turn to his own advantage repose and delight which it is the design of all this discourse to shew yet there are some that more directly terminate on a mans self wherein the rectitude we now speak of doth in great part consist When we are obliged to love others as our selves it supposes not only an allowable but a laudable self-love Men shall praise thee when thou dost well to thy self Before this right spirit be renewed in a man he doth not only wound himself by blows that are reflected on him and hurt at the rebound but by many a direct stroke or he lets the wounds fester and corrupt to the cure whereof he should with all diligence directly apply himself How unpropitious and cruel to themselves are all unholy persons What wastes and desolations do they commit and make in their own Souls by breaking the order God and Nature did at first set and establish there Dethroning their own reason and judgment which ought to bear sway and govern within them This banishes delight and drives it far away from them They see what is fittest for them to do and seek and run a quite counter-course What storms do they hereby raise in their own bosoms What a torture is it when a man 's own light and knowledg bears a standing testimony against him and holds him under a continual doom How ill-dispos'd are men towards themselves when they wholly neglect themselves in one kind when they too much mind and seek themselves in another when they too little understand themselves so as not to put a true value on themselves but do either disesteem themselves as to their more noble part in respect of that common excellency which belongs to them with all other men or do over-magnifie themselves and are conceited and too well opinion'd of themselves in respect of any peculiar excellency wherein they imagine they out-strip others How ill do they treat themselves in their self-indulgence their gratifying their own sensual inclination with the greatest danger and damage to their Souls When they care not at what expence they make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof What unkind usage do they find at their own hands when they cherish and countenance desires which they cannot gratifie and raise to themselves expectations of things not within their own power which being disappointed turn into so many furies and in that shape take a sharp revenge upon their own hearts when they exercise no authority and dominion over themselves preserve not the liberty due to what should both be it self free and should command the rest in them Inslave themselves to vile and ignominious lusts and passions put out their own eyes and grind blindfold to the basest and most tyrannical Lords their own sordid humours and base mean appetites when though they serve more rigorous task-masters than the Israelites in Egypt did and are more sorely beaten by them when their tale is not fulfill'd for want of materials yet groan not because of their hard bondage nor affect liberty This gracious communication from God sets all things in a good degree right within So that where there was nothing before but horrid and hellish darkness disorder and confusion there now shines a mild pleasant chearful light that infers regularity purity peace How great is the pleasure that arises from self-denial wherein we do duly and as we ought deny our selves not only as it
understood to say all these things may be thine i. e. if thou shalt love him If thou do not thou hast no part in them but in as much as a conditional promise when the condition is performed is equivalent to an absolute These words do as truly import this sense to one that loves God these things are thine as if they were directed to it in particular As truly I say supposing the person do truly love God but not so clearly or with that evidence For this Truth supposing it a Truth I do sincerely love God is not so evident as this That such preparation is made for them that do For this is expresly contained in the Word of God The other is not so but to be collected only by self-inspection and observation of the bent and tenor of my spirit and way Godward yet however the evidence of truth admits of degrees Truth it self doth not All things that are true are equally true And therefore when it is said so great things are prepared for them that love God It is as truly said they are prepared for this man who loves God as this or that particular lover of God is contained in the general notion of a lover of him And then as that publick declaration says not to any these things are prepared for you whether you love God or no or otherwise than as they come under that common notion of lovers of God This inward manifestation is also so accommodate to that as that it says not another thing but the same that is nothing that contradicts and indeed no more than is virtually contained in the other or it applies what is generally said of the lovers of God to this particular lover of him as such that is enabling him to discern himself a lover of him impresses this Truth powerfully upon the heart these great preparations belong to thee as thou art such a one We speak not here of what God can do but what he doth Who can doubt but as God can if he please imprint on the mind the whole System of necessary Truth and on the heart the entire frame of holiness without the help of an external revelation so he can imprint this particular perswasion also without any outward means Nor do we speak of what he more rarely doth but of what he doth ordinarily or what his more usual course and way of procedure is in dealing with the spirits of men The supream Power binds not its own hands We may be sure the inward testimony of the Spirit never is opposite to the outward testimony of his Gospel which is the Spirits testimony also and therefore it never says to an unholy man an enemy to God thou art in a reconcil'd and pardoned state But we cannot be sure he never speaks or suggests things to the spirits of men but by the external testimony so as to make use of that as the means of informing them with what He hath to impart Nay we know he sometime hath imparted things as to Prophets and the Sacred Pen-men without any external means and no doubt excited sutable affections in them to the import of the things imparted and made known Nor do I believe it can ever be proved That he never doth immediately testifie his own special love to holy Souls without the intervention of some part of his external Word made use of as a present instrument to that purpose or that he always doth it in the way of methodical reasoning therefrom Nor do I think that the experience of Christians can signifie much to the deciding of the matter For besides that this or that or a third persons experience cannot conclude any thing against a fourth's and the way of arguing were very infirm what one or two or a thousand or even the greater part of serious Christians even such as have attain'd to some satisfying evidence of their own good estate have not found that no-where is to be found Besides that I say it 's likely few can distinctly tell how it hath been with them in this matter that is what way or method hath been taken with them in begetting a present perswasion at this or that time of Gods peculiar love to them His dealings with persons even the same persons at divers times may be so various his illapses and coming in upon them at some times may have been so sudden and surprizing the motions of thoughts are so quick the observation or animadversion persons usually have of what is transacted in their own spirits is so indistinct and they may be so much taken up with the thing it self as less to mind the way and order of doing it that we may suppose little is to be gathered thence towards the settling of a stated rule in this case Nor is the matter of such moment that we need either be curious in enquiring or positive in determining about it that Principle being once supposed and firmly stuck to That he never says any thing in this matter by his Spirit to the hearts of men repugnant to what the same Spirit hath said in his Word Or That he doth not say a new or a diverse thing from what he hath said there for their assurance that is That he never testifies to any person by his Spirit that he is accepted and beloved of him who may at the same time be concluded by his publiquely-extant constitutions in his Word to be in a state of non-acceptance and disfavour or concerning whom the same thing viz. his acceptance might not be concluded by his Word if it were duly applied to his case Hereby the most momentous danger in this matter is avoided For if that Principle be forelaid enough is done to preclude the vain boasts of such as may be apt to pretend highly to great manifestations of divine love while they carry with them manifest proofs of an unsanctified heart and are under the power of unmortified reigning sin That Principle admitted will convince that their boasted manifestations do only manifest their own ignorance pride and vanity or proceed only from their heated imagination or the worse cause Satanical illusion designed to lull them asleep in sin and the more easily to lead them blind-fold to perdition And this is the main concernment about which we need to be solicitous in this matter which being provided for as it is difficult so it is not necessary to determine whether the Spirit do always not only testifie according to the external revelation but by it also and so only as to concur in the usual way of reasoning from it No doubt but the same Truth may be assented to upon divers grounds sometimes upon rational evidence sometimes upon testimony And some Truths may be seen by immediate mental intuition as being self-evident which also may be capable of demonstration And though this Truth of Gods particular love to such a man be none of those that have self-evidence Yet Gods Spirit as it may by assisting the
mingles with the appeals which such a Soul makes to Him whose eye is a flame of fire searches hearts and tries reins And it is some pleasure however to find that disposition in their own Souls that they are throughly willing to know themselves and desire not to shun and decline the search of that fiery flaming eye Thus then upon all accounts this divine communication is delectable as it tends to rectifie mens dispositions towards themselves and to set them right in their inclinations and posture in reference to their own Souls We may add 4. It contributes much to the matter of delight as it sets mens spirits right in their dispositions towards this and the other world the present and future state of things How great a work is necessary to be done in this respect wherein things are so monstrously out of course and men become thereby not strangers only to true delight and pleasure but even uncapable of any such relishes till the matter be redrest How vitiated and unexercised are mens senses as to these things and unable to discern between good and evil Their grosser sense is utterly incompetent and a spiritual more refin'd sense is wanting Therefore do they judg and chuse and love and pursue only as that most incompetent and injudicious principle doth direct That is appeal'd to in all cases All their measures are taken from thence and that only is called good which to their sensual imagination tinctur'd by the earthliness and carnality of their hearts appears so that evil of which the same principle doth so pronounce according hereto is the whole bent and inclinâ—â—ion of their Souls And they are only inâ—â—â—â—â—'d and govern'd by the powers of this sensible world this present evil world the fashion whereof yea it and the lusts thereof together are passing away And the things of the world to come have no power with them no motives from thence signifie any thing They are only steer'd in their whole course by the apprehension they have of advantages or disadvantages in reference to their present secular concernments They love this world and the things of this world mind earthly things and are not startled when they are so plainly told that men of this character have not the love of the Father in them and are enemies to the cross of Christ and that their end will be destruction 'T is a death to them to think of dying not from the fear of what may ensue they have Atheism enough to stifle such fear but from the love of their earthly stations and that vile earthly body in which they dwell But how delightful a thing is the change which this rectifying communication makes How pleasant to live in this world as a Pilgrim and Stranger seeking still the better the heavenly Country To behold the various inticements which are here offered to view at sometimes without inclination towards them the frightful aspect and appearance of things at other times without commotion Is not this delectable To dwell apart from this world in the midst of it In the secret of the Almighty under his pavilion as one of his hidden ones with-drawn from the communion of this world to his own communion so severed and cut off from this world as not to partake in the spirit of it or be acted thereby but by another a greater and more mighty as well as a purer and more holy Spirit Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world And again We have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God Which things the divine Spirit disposes the Soul to and unites it with when it disinclines and disjoins it from this world and the things thereof and thereby discovers this Soul to be quite of another community from that of this world viz. of an heavenly community unto which those better and more excellent things do ly in common as their portion and inheritance What matter of Joy and Glorying is it when one is crucified to this world and this world to him when the world appears to him a crucified thing i. e. an accursed hateful detestable thing which is one notion of crucify'd such a thing as he can despise and hate which he is as little apt to be fond of as one would be of a loathsom carcase hanging upon an ignominious Cross. And when he can feel himself crucified towards it i. e. dead another notion of it disinclin'd without sense breath pulse motion or appetite not so dead as to be without any kind of life but without that base low sordid kind of life by which he lived to it and in its converses and embraces So much of delectation doth this infer as even to endear the very cross it self that hateful horrid thing by which it is effected But that carries a farther signification with it to be fetcht more expresly from other Scriptures The cross is it self render'd amiable and a thing to be gloried in to be lookt on with delight and pleasure upon the account of the design and end of that Tragedy which was acted thereon within which design being executed and accomplished this happy effect is included We elsewhere find the Apostle expressing his vehement desire to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and in order thereto the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death But what did he lastly aim at in this The next words more fully speak out what he first mentioned the power of his resurrection to be the thing chiefly in his eye and that he desired what he adds the fellowship of his sufferings c. as a means unto that end though it seem'd a sharp and painful means If by any means I might attain the resurrection of the dead q. d. I care not what I undergo not the sufferings even of a painful crucifixion it self or that my worldly earthly Self do suffer conformably to the sufferings of my crucify'd Lord I matter not by what so severe method the thing be brought about if by any means it may be brought about that I may know the power of his resurrection so feelingly as to attain also the resurrection of the dead And what was that No doubt to attain a state which he confesses he had not yet perfectly attain'd but was in pursuit of sutable to his relation and union with a risen Jesus Union with him supposes a being risen with him If ye then be risen with Christ It is taken as a granted thing that they that are his are risen with him And what state and temper of spirit would be sutable to that supposition The next words shew Seek those things that are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Set your affection or mind on the things above not on the things on the earth Then follows the
method in which they were brought to the capacity of doing so For ye are dead Their professed relation to Christ did suppose them risen and did therefore first suppose them dead Now if they would do sutably to what their profession imported this was it they had to do To abstract their minds and hearts from the things of this earth and place them upon the things of an higher region And as it s afterwards expressed in this same context which we were considering before to have our conversation or Citizenship in heaven whence we look for the Saviour c. That is as our chief interests and priviledges are above to have our thoughts and the powers of our Souls chiefly exercised upon that blessed and glorious state which state is the prize mentioned above of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus It being the scope and import of his Call unto us and the very design of his sufferings on the Cross to draw up a people from earth to heaven whence therefore they that under this Call do still mind earthly things are said to be enemies to the Cross of Christ the great incongruity whereof the Apostle even resents with tears as he there testifies And it was in this that he was for his part so willing to comply with the design of the Cross that he made no difficulty to endure all the hardship and dolour of it that he might attain this glorious fruit and gain which he reckoned should accrew to him from it even more of a rais'd heavenly mind which signify'd it to be strongly bent that way already when no mortifications were reckoned too severe to be undergone in order thereto And here therefore this soul-rectifying influence must be understood to have been proportionably strong Hence also it was that we find him groaning as one under a pressure or heavy weight to be cloath'd upon with the heavenly house and to have mortality swallowed up of life Because God had wrought him to this self-same thing so bent and determined his spirit was towards the blessedness of the future state which seems the most natural contexture of discourse here though some others have understood it otherwise as that though he could bear patiently the delay he could not but desire most earnestly to be there And we see how the temper of the Primitive Christians was as to this and the other world in those days when the Spirit was plentifully poured out They took joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing in themselves they had in Heaven a far better and an enduring substance Heaven signified much with them and this world very little They looked not to the things that were seen and temporal but to the things unseen and eternal As those former Worthies did whose minds and hearts being set right by that faith which is the substance of the things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen They lived as pilgrims and strangers on earth despised the pleasures riches and honours of it Endured all manner of hardships and tortures in it not accepting deliverance because they were taken up in the pursuit of the better Country had respect to the recompence of reward and expected a part in the better Resurrection And is it not a delightful thing to the spirit of a man when he is sensibly disintangled and at liberty from the cares desires griefs and fears that were wont to enwrap his heart when he finds his weights and clogs faln off that deprest him the bonds and snares loosed which bound him down to this earth and feels himself ascending and moving upwards out of that darkness stupidity and death that possessed his Soul into that upper region of light purity and peace unto which his spirit is still gradually more and more connaturallized day by day When Heaven in respect of the pure holiness the calm serenity the rest and blessedness of it is now grown familiar to him and his very element We see then that in all these mentioned respects this gracious communication wherein it is rectifying and tends to settle the Soul in that frame which it ought to be in and which is most proper and natural to it therein it is also most delightful and carries highest matter of pleasure in it It is upon the whole that we may sum up the account of this divine communication in the following characters of it 1. Generative and begets the Soul to a new a divine life makes it of a sluggish stupid dead thing as it was towards all heavenly and divine matters living and sprightly full of active life and vigour Life we say is sweet it is in it self a pleasant thing This mean bodily life it self is so if we do but consider it and allow our selves to taste and enjoy the pleasure of it As for instance that this and that limb and member is not a dead lump that we feel life freshly sprouting and springing in every part is not this delightsom How much more the life of the Soul especially this so excellent and sublime kind of life And it is the radical principle of all other consequent pleasure that by which we are capable thereof every thing is sapless and without savour to the dead How pleasant operations and fruitions doth the divine life render a person capable of 2. It is Nutritive Souls are nourished by the same thing by which they are begotten by the same divine influence As a generative vertue is wont to be attributed to the Sun so it cherishes also its own productions The beams of that Sun of righteousness make them that fear God grow up as calves in the stall fill them with marrow and fatness cause them to flourish as the Cedars of Lebanon And is not that delightsome to be increased daily with the increases of God fed with heavenly hidden Manna Angels food and thereby though we need not here speak distinctly of these to receive at once both nourishment and growth 3. It is Sanative and virtually contains all the fruits in it which are for the healing of the Nations when the Soul grows distemper'd it restores it and is both sustaining and remedying to it How great is the pleasure of health and soundness of ease to broken bones of relief to a sick and fainting heart so it is often for in the present state the cure is not perfect and relapses are frequent with the Soul in which the life of God hath begun to settle and diffuse it self till his influence repair and renew it And when it doth so how pleasant is it to find an heart made sound in his statutes and to perceive a-new working in it the Spirit of love power and a sound mind So pleasant that it occasions a triumph even when the outward man is perishing if it be found that the inward is renewed day by day 4. It is Corroborative and strengthening confirms resolutions and establishes the heart Hereby they
whole sanctifying-work to bring home the particular Truth whose Impression it would leave on the Soul with application thereof to it in particular which as generally propounded in Scripture men are so apt to wave and neglect for what is every ones concern is commonly thought no ones And what need that its method here should be wholly diverse But in whichsoever of these ways the Spirit of God doth manifest his love it is not to be doubted but that There is such a thing in it self very necessary and to be attained and sought after And that it is highly delectable when he doth vouchsafe it That there is such a thing to be sought after as a communicable priviledg and favour to holy Souls is evident enough from multitudes of Scriptures Those that have been occasionally mentioned in speaking what was thought fit to be said of the way of his doing it need not be repeated unto which we may add what we find is added to those above-recited words Eye hath not seen c. the things which God hath prepared for them that love him viz. But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit And that Spirit not only gives those lovers of God above-mentioned a clearer view of the things prepared for them so as that the nature of them might be the more distinctly understood as is argued in the latter part of this and in the following verse but also of their own propriety and interest in them Now we have received not the Spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God that we may know the things that are freely given us of God Whence therefore they are revealed by the Spirit not as pleasing objects in themselves only but as gifts the evidences and issues of Divine Love their own proper portion by the bequest of that Love to whom they are shew'n Nor is this the work of the Spirit only as inditing the Scriptures but it is such a work as helps to the spiritual discerning of these things such as whereto the natural man is not competent who yet is capable of reading the Scriptures as well as other men And what will we make of those words of our Saviour when having told his Disciples he would pray the Father and he should give them another comforter even the Spirit of Truth that he might abide with them for ever Even the Spirit of Truth c. He adds I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you that is as is plain by that Spirit And then shortly after subjoins He that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Here is an express promise of this love-manifestation whereof we speak by the Spirit the Comforter mentioned above not to those particular persons only unto whom he was then directing his speech or to those only of that time and age but to them indefinitely that should love Christ and keep his commandments Which is again repeated in other words of the same import after Judas not Iscariot his wondering expostulation touching that peculiarly of this loving manifestation Jesus answered and said unto him 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 So that such a manifestation as is most aptly expressive of love such converse and cohabitation as imports most of kindness and endearedness they have encouragement to expect that do love Christ and keep his words The same thing no doubt with that shedding abroad of the love of God in their hearts by the Holy Ghost given to them mentioned before And whereas we have so plain and repeated mention of the seal the earnest the first-fruits of the Spirit what can these expressions be understood to import and they do not signifie nothing other than confirmation of the love of God or assuring and satisfying evidences and pledges thereof And that there should be such an inward manifestation of divine love superadded to the publique and external declaration of it which is only made indefinitely to persons so and so characteriz'd the exigency of the case did require That is wherein it was necessary his love should be distinctly understood and apprehended it was so far necessary this course should be taken to make it be so A meer external revelation was not sufficent to that end Our own unassisted reasonings therefrom were not sufficient As other Truths have not their due and proper impression meerly by our rational reception be they never so plain without that holy sanctifying influence before insisted on so this Truth also of Gods love to this person in particular hath not its force and weitht its efficacy and fruit answerable to the design of its discovery unless it be appâ—ied and urged home on the Soul by a communicated influence of the Spirit to this purpose Many times not so far as to overcome and silence tormenting doubts fears and anguish of spirit in reference hereto and where that is done not sufficient to work off deadness drowziness indisposition to the doing of God chearful service not sufficient to excite and stir up love gratitude admiration and praise How many who have learned not to make light of the love of God as the most do who reckon in his favour is life to whom it is not an indifferent thing whether they be accepted or no who cannot be overly in their enquiry nor trifle with matters of everlasting consequence who are not enough Atheists and Scepticks to permit all to a mad hazard nor easie to be satisfy'd walk mournfully from day to day with sunk dejected spirits full of anxiety even unto agonies under the clear external discovery of Gods love to persons of that character whereof they really are such as observe them judg their case plain and every one thinks well of them but themselves yea their mouths are sometimes stopt by such as discourse the matter with them but their hearts are not quieted or if they sometime are in a degree yet the same doubts and fears return with the former importunity the same work is still to be done and 't is but rolling the returning stone And all humane endeavours to apply and bring home the comforts proper and sutable to their case prove fruitless and ineffectual nothing can be fastened upon them they refuse to be comforted while God himself doth not create that which is the fruit of his own lips peace peace while as yet they are not fill'd with joy and peace in believing and made to abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost It is plain there needs a more learned tongue than any humane one to speak a word in season to such weary ones How many again have spirits overcome with deadness and sloth under a settled perhaps
greatness of their cause If we indeed were to form conceptions of these things our selves by our own light and conduct our way were to follow the ascending order and go up from the effects till we reach the cause But he can if he please in the cause present to us the effects and maginfie them in our eyes by giving us to see unto how great and magnificent a cause they owe themselves Now shall we know whence all hath proceeded that he hath done for us Wherefore again must the transported Soul admiringly cry out I now see whence it was that he gave his Son because he so loved the world Why he came and bled and died who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his blood What a lustre doth that love cast upon those sufferings and performances I see why he sent his Gospel to me why so convincing awakening words were often spoken in my ear I see much in what once I saw but little why he so earnestly strove with me by his spirit why he gave not over till he had overcome my heart why he humbled melted broke me why he drew so strongly bound me so fast to himself in safe and happy bonds why he shone into my mind with that mild and efficacious light transformed my whole Soul stampt it with his holy Image and markt me out for his own These are now great things when I behold their glorious mighty cause And now also in this same cause are all the great effects to be seen which are yet to be brought about by it They are seen as very great His continued presence and conduct which he affords to his own through this world That constant fellowship which they expect him to keep with them The guidance and support they look for In his love these appear great things And now doth Heaven sound no more as an empty name it looks not like a languid faint shadow somewhat can be apprehended of it that imports substance when it 's understood to be a state of rest and blessedness in the communion of the God of Love and intended as the last product and expression of his love They are seen as most sure and certain Such Love now manifested and apprehended leaves no place for doubtful thoughts and suspicious misgivings There is no fear that this Love intends to impose upon us or mock us with the representation of an imaginary heaven or that it will fail to do what can be expected from it to bring us to the real one How pleasant is it now to behold the great and sure products of this mighty Love its admirable designs and projects as they appear in the Gospel-revelation now illustrated and shone upon by divine light to lie ready formed in the pregnant womb of this great productive cause It cannot but be an unspeakable pleasure which such a discovery will carry with it when we thus behold the matter it self that is discovered and offered to our view unto which it must be a very considerable additional pleasure that will arise 2. From the nature and kind of this manifestation As being In the general made by himself 'T is a too plain and sad Truth that men have unhappily learn'd to diminish God to themselves and make every thing of him seem little But when he represents his Love himself as who but God can represent the Love of God He only can tell the story of his own Love that evil is provided against He will manifest it so as it shall be understood and set it off to the best advantage He will make it known how great a thing it is to be beloved of him And when he gives that blessed salutation Hail thou that art highly favoured O thou that art greatly beloved He will withal bespeak and procure a sutable entertainment of it And hence Particularly it will be Most incomparably bright and lightsom in respect of any representation we have had of the Love of God any other way Most immediate that is at least so as not to be only made by some external testimony given out many an age ago out of which we are left to pick what we can and to construe or misconstrue it as our own judgment serves us but so as that if He use such an instrument he animates it puts a soul into it leaves it not as a dead spiritless letter and applies it himself to the purpose he intends by it and immediately himself reaches and touches the heart by it Most facile and easily sliding in upon us so that we are put to no more pains than to behold the light which the Sun casts about us and upon us Whatever labour it was necessary for us to use before in our searches and enquiries into the state of our case there is no more now than in moving being carried or in using our own weak hand when another that is sufficiently strong lifts and guides it for us Most efficacious and overcoming That makes its own way scatters clouds drives away darkness admits no disputes makes doubts and misgiving thoughts vanish pierces with a quick and sudden energy like lightening and strikes through the mind into the heart there sheds abroad this love diffuses the sweet refreshing savour of it actuates spiritual sense makes the soul taste how gracious the Lord is and relish the sweetness of his love puts all its powers into a sutable motion and excites answerable affection so as to make the Soul capable of interchanging love with love In all these respects this manifestation of love cannot but be very delectable and they who have not found it to be so will yet apprehend that it must be so if they have found and experienced the cravings of their own hearts directed this way and can upon enquiry find this among the things they would fain have from God O that I might be satisfied of his love that I might know his good will towards me For to such cravings must this delight at least be commensurate as was formerly said But to them that are indifferent in this matter unconcerned to whom the love of God is a fancy or a trifle no real or an inconsiderable thing all this will be as tastless as the white of an egg Concerning which yet before we pass from this head 't is needful to add these few things by way of caution 1. That when we say this is of great necessity we mean not that it is simply necessary we think it not so necessary that a Christian cannot be without it i. e as a Christian. But it is necessary to his well-and more-comfortable-being and his more lively fruitful walking and acting in his Christian course 2. That therefore the way of Gods dealing herein is with great latitude and variety he having reserved to himself by the tenour of his Covenant a liberty to afford or suspend it to give it in a greater or less degree as in absolute sovereignty and infinite wisdom he
the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof in denying thy self in dying to this world in living to God in minding the things of another world in giving up thy self to the several exercises of an holy Life watching praying meditating c. in trusting in the Lord with all thy heart and in doing all the good thou canst in thy place and station letting so thy Light shine before men that they seeing thy good works may glorifie thy Father which is in Heaven In contentment with what thou enjoyest and patience under what thou sufferest in this world in doing justice loving righteousness and walking humbly with thy God Than ever the vanishing pleasures of sin did or can afford Thus into these two Things may all be summ'd up which Delighting in God imports according to this notion of it 1. The applying our selves to those things by the help of Gods own communicated Influence which in that case will not be withheld wherein the matter of Delight lies 2. The reflecting upon the things themselves that are so Delightful and setting our selves to discern and tasting actually the Delectableness of them And surely if such words Delight thy self in the Lord do say to us all this they do not say nothing nor say any thing impertinent either to their owâ— native import or our state and condition in this world Obj. But here it may be Objected If we so interpret Delighting in God we shall by this means bring the whole of Religion and all sorts of actions that are governed and directed by it within the compass of this one thing and make Delighting in God swallow up all that belongs to a Christian and be the same thing with Repentance Faith Self-denial Humility Meekness Patience c. which would sure seem too much to be comprehended under the name of one Particular holy action or affection Especially that they should be called Delighting in God when in the exercise of divers of these God may possibly not be in that instant actually so much as thought on Answ. To this it may be sufficiently answered 1. That these things cannot be hence said with any pretence to be made the same thing with Delighting in God but only that there is a delight adhering to all these no more than it can be said when at some splendid Treat or entertainment there is a great variety of delicious Meats and Wine which do therefore all agree in this That they are delectable that all these Dishes and Liquors are therefore one and the same Or if the Master of the Feast call upon his Guests to delight themselves with him their Friend as here the Particle in the Text which we read Delight thy self in the Lord may be read Delight thy self with him and he explains himself That he means by tasting this and that and another sort of his Provisions and eating and drinking chearfully thereof surely his words could not with more Reason than civility be capable of that snarling reply That therefore it seems he thought the things themselves or their tasts and relishes were all one For though they all afford Delight yet each of a different kind 2. But are not all these truly Delectable Is there not a real Delight to be had in them Let any man that hath tried consult his experience yea let any one that hath not besotted his Soul and infatuated his understanding but seriously consider the very Idaea's of these things and revolve the notions of them in his mind and then soberly judg whether they be not delightful And if so when there is an actual sense of pleasure and sweetness in the communicated power and in the practice of them Why is not this delighting in God Admit that he is not actually thought on in some of these exercises As when I freely forgive a wrong or relieve a distressed person or right a wronged one If yet I do these things from the radical Principle of the Love of God deeply setled in my Soul and with a sensible delight accompanying my act and the disposition I find in mine heart thereunto Here is not 't is true the very act of delighting in God formally terminated upon him as the Object But it 's he that gives me this Delight and is the material Object as well as Author of it The communication is from him whereby I am delighted and inabled to do the things that are further delightful As if I converse with an excellent person my intimate friend who is at this time incognito and by a disguise conceals himself from me or I through my forgetfulness or inadvertency have no present thoughts of this person but I hear his pleasant Discourse and am much taken with it and the person on the account of it It is my Friend that I Delighted in all this while though I knew it not 3. And what fault can I find in the matter that Divine delight thus runs and spreads it self through the whole business of Religion all the affairs whereon it hath any influence Is this the worse or the better Have I any cause to quarrel at this Sure I have not But if I have not such actual thoughts of God as may give me the advantage of terminating my Delight more directly on him that may be very much my own fault 4. And what is that an absurdity that under the name of Delighting in God the several acts and exercises of Religion besides should be comprehended How often in Scripture are other no-more-eminent parts of Religion put for the whole The knowledg of God calling upon God The fear of God c. How commonly are these acknowledged to be Paraphrases of Religion And shall I not add The Love of God That most authentick and owned summary of all practical Religion and which ought to influence all our actions And then how far are we from our mark What is the difference between loving God and delighting in him But I moreover add that delight it self in him cannot but be so taken in that sharp passage though misapply'd to the person of whom it was meant For Job hath said what profit is it that a man should delight himself with God i. e. or be religious It fitly enough signifies Religion as thus modify'd or qualified viz. as having this quality belonging to it that it is delightful or is tinctur'd with delight in God But this so large is not the only sense as we have said wherein we are to take delighting in God And when any part of Religion casts it's name upon the whole it would be very unreasonable to exclude the part from which the denomination is taken or not to make that the principal thing there meant We therefore proceed to speak 2. Of the more explicite delight in God And shall therein consider The Nature Modification of it 1. It s Nature Which from what hath been said of delight in the general with the addition of holiness thereto which is the work of
with the glittering of that sword which is directed against his own heart and must be the present instrument of death to him And so little pleasant is the case of such a person in it self who thus satisfies his own curiosity with the concernments of eternal life and death that any serious person would tremble on his behalf at that wherein he takes pleasure and apprehend just horrour in that state of the case whence he draws matter of delight 2. 'T is yet a more insipid and gustless Religion which too many place in some peculiar opinions that are either false and contrary to Religion or doubtful and cumbersome to it or little and inconsiderable and therefore certainly alien to it and impertinent For if that Religion only be truly delightful which hath a vital influence on the heart and practice as that must needs be indelectable which is only so notionally conversant about the greatest truths as that it hath no such influence much more is that so which is so wholly coversant about matters either opposite or irrelative hereto as that it can have none It must here be acknowledg'd that some Doctrines not only not revealed in the Word of God but which are contrary thereto may being thought true occasion the excitation of some inward affection and have an indirect influence to the regulating of practice also so as to repress some grosser enormities As the false notions of Pagans concerning the Deity which have led them to Idolatry have struck their minds with a certain kind of reverence of invisible powers and perhaps rendered some more sober and less vicious than had they been destitute of all Religious sentiments And yet the good which hath hence ensued is not to be refer'd to the particular principles of Idolatry which were false but to the more general principles of Religion which were true Yea and though such false principles viewed alone and by themselves may possibly infer somwhat of good yet that is by accident only and through the short-sightedness and ignorance of them with whom they obtain who if they did consider their incoherence with other common notions and principles most certainly true would receive by them if thought the only Principles of Religion so much the greater hurt and become so much the more hopelesly and incurably wicked As most manifestly the principles which lookt upon by themselves while they are reckon'd true do lead to Idolatry and consequently by that mistake only to some Religion do yet being really false lead to Atheism and of themselves tend to subvert and destroy all Religion Therefore such Doctrines as cohere not with the general frame of Truth whatever their particular aspect may be considered apart and by themselves are yet in their natural tendency opposite and destructive to the true design of Religion and the pleasure which they can any way afford is only stol'n and vain such as a person takes in swallowing a potion that is pleasant but which if it perform what belongs to it he must with many a sickly qualm refund and disgorge back again We also acknowledg some Truths of less importance may be said to concern practice though not so immediately Nor is it therefore the design of this Discourse to derogate from any such that are of apparently Divine Revelation or Institution which however they justly be reckoned less than some other things yet for that very reason as they are reveal'd by God for such an end are by no means to be esteemed little or inconsiderable be their subserviency to the great design of Religion never so remote Vpon the account of which subserviency they are also to be esteem'd delectable that is in proportion thereto but when they are so esteem'd beyond that proportion and are exalted into an undue preference to their very end it self so as that in comparison of them the great things of Religion are reckoned low frigid sapless things when men set their hearts upon them abstractly and without consideration of their reference and usefulness to the greater things of Religion The delight that is so taken in them argues but the disease of the mind that takes it and so great a degree of dotage that a serious person would wonder how men can please themselves with such matters without considering and with the neglect of so great things they have relation to 3. And hither is to be refer'd the much less rational pleasure which is taken by some in the meer dress wherewith such notions and opinions may be artificially clothed by themselves or others Rhetorical flourishes a set of fine words handsom cadencies and periods fanciful representations little tricks and pieces of wit and which cannot pretend so high pitiful quibbles and gingles inversions of sentences the pedantick rhyming of words yea and an affected tone or even a great noise things that are neither capable of gratifying the Christian nor the man without which even the most important weighty matters do to so squeamish stomachs seem gustless and unsavoury and are reckon'd dull and flat things And most plain it is though it is not strange that so trifling minds should impose upon themselves by so thin a sophism that such are in a great mistake whose delight being wholly taken up in these trifles do hereupon think they taste the delights of Religion for these are nothing of it are found about it only accidentally and by a most unhappy accident too as ill for the most of these things agreeing to it and no more becoming it than a Fool 's Coat doth a prudent grave person and the best of them agreeing to it but in common with any thing else about which such arts may be used so that they are no way any thing of it or more peculiarly belonging to it than to any theam or subject besides unto which such ornaments as they are thought can be added How miserably therefore do they cheat themselves who because they hear with pleasure a discourse upon some head of Religion thus garnished according to their idle trifling humour and because they are taken with the contrivance of some sentences or affected with the loudness of the voice or have their imagination tickled with some phantastical illustrations presently conclude themselves to be in a Religious transport when the things that have pleased them have no affinity or alliance with Religion befal to it but by chance and are in themselves things quite of another Country 4. Of the like strain is the Religion that is made up all of talk And such like are that sort of persons who love to discourse of those great things of God wherewith it was never their design or aim to have their hearts stamped or their lives commanded and governed Who invert that which was the ancient glory of the Christian Church We do not speak great things but live them And are pleased with only the noise of their own most commonly insigficant sensless words unto whom how ungrateful a relish
things Would not the word of an ordinary man premonishing you of any advantage or danger which you have no other knowledg of be of more value with you Constant suspicion of any one without cause or pretence most certainly argues radicated enmity You love him not whom you cannot trust Do you love him whom upon all occasions you most causlesly displease whose offence you reckon nothing of Is that ingenuous towards a Friend or dutiful towards a Father or a Lord How do you in this carry towards the blessed God Are you wont to displease your selves to please him or cross your own will to do his Do you take delight in him whom you make no difficulty to vex whose known declared pleasure though you confess him greater wiser and more righteous than your self you have no more regard to wherein it crosses your own inclination than you would have to that of your Child your Slave or a Fool Have you any thing to except against that measure and character of loyal affection to your Redeemer and Lord If ye love me keep my commandments Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you This is the love of God that we keep his commandments Do you not disobey the known will of God in your ordinary practice without regret Do not you know it to be his will That you strive to enter in at the strait gate That you seek first the Kingdom of Heaven That you keep your heart with all diligence That you deny your self crucifie the flesh be temperate just merciful patient Do you aim at obeying him in these things Can you say Lord for thy sake I refrain the things to which my heart inclines Hath his prohibition any restraining force upon your hearts Do you not allow your self to be licentious earthly vain proud wrathful revengeful though you know it will offend him And is this your love to him or delight in him Do you bear goodwill to him whose reproach and dishonour you are not concern'd for yea whom you stick not to dishonour and reproach whose interest among men hath no place in your thoughts whose friends are none of yours whose enemies are your friends whose favour you care not for nor regret his frowns whose Worship is a burthen to you that you had rather do any thing than pray to him and his fellowship an undesired thing Make an estimate by these things of the temper of your hearts towards God and consider whether it bespeak delight in him or not rather habitual aversion and enmity It may be you will admit these things seem to carry somewhat of conviction with them But they concern many that are taken for godly persons and lovers of God as well as they do you And it may be many such may take themselves for godly persons and lovers of God and be mistaken as well as you And what will that mend your cause If these things will prove a person one that hath no delight in God they equally prove it as to you and others which will make nothing to your advantage But if they who have sincere love to God are in a degree peccant against the Laws of such love as that they are they will hear in due time They are more ready to accuse themselves than other men They abhor themselves that they do not more entirely delight in God and repent in dust and ashes It better becomes you to imitate their repentance than glory in their sinful weakness which while they patronize not themselves you should not think it can afford a valuable patronage unto you When did you check and contend with your own hearts upon these accounts as they are wont to do And if these things in a degree found with them prove their delight in God imperfect their prevailing contraries will prove it however sincere And if you will not now understand the difference God grant you may not hereafter at a more costly rate between the imperfection and the total want of his love between having your heart and Soul imperfectly alive towards God and perfectly dead You may further say God is out of your sight and therefore how can it be expected you should find a sensible delight in him But is he out of the sight of your minds If he be what would you infer That then you cannot delight in him at all and therefore that you do not the thing that you are charg'd with all this while But he is out of sight by the high excellency of his Being for which reason he should be delighted in the more i.e. with a deeper delight though not like that you take in the things of sense And he hath been so beyond all things notwithstanding his abode in that light which is inaccessible This therefore is confession without excuse and would never be offered as an excuse by any but those that are lost in flesh and sense have forgot they have reasonable Souls and had rather be numbred with Brutes than Men As if there were not many things you have not seen with the eyes of flesh more excellent than those you have Or as if you had no other faculty than eyes of flesh to see with Which since you have and the depravation thereof is vicious and sinful as your not-delighting in God the matter of fact seems to be yeilded and so you quit your first Post It will thence appear that it cannot but be sinful too And since at that you seem to make a stand as at your next Post either thinking to deny or extenuate the evil of it our Expostulation must follow you thither and be aimed 2. To evince to you the greatness and horridness of that sin Suffer your selves therefore to be reasoned with to this purpose and consider First That you have somewhat of delectation in your Natures i.e. you have the power naturally inherent in you of taking delight in one thing or other You have such a thing as love about you Are not some things grateful and agreeable to you in which you can and do take complacency Therefore herein an act is not enjoined you which is incompetent to your Natures or simply impossible to you Next then Do you not know your delight or love ought to be placed on some good or other that is known to you and among things that you know to be good proportionably to the goodness which you find in them and supreamly on the best Further Do you not acknowledg the blessed God to be the best and most excellent Good as being the first and fountain-Good the fullest and most comprehensive the purest and altogether unmixed the most immutable and permanent Good How plain and certain is this How manifestly impossible is it if there were not such a Good that otherwise any thing else should ever have been good or been at all Is not this as sure and evident as any thing your senses could inform you of Whence is the glorious excellency of this great
Creation the beauty loveliness pleasantness of any Creature Must not all that and infinitely more be originally in the great Creator of all This if you consider you cannot but see and own While then your own hearts tell you you delight not in God Do not your Consciences begin to accuse and judg you that you deal not righteously in this matter And ought it not to fill your Souls with horror when you consider you take no delight in the best and sovereign Good Yea when you look into your disaffected hearts and find that you not only do not delight in God but you cannot and not for the want of the natural power but a right inclination Should you not with astonishment bethink your selves every one for himself what is this that 's befal'n me I am convinced this is the best Good every way most worthy of my highest delight and love and yet my heart savours it not You can have no pretence to say That because your heart is disinclin'd therefore you are excused for you only do not what through an invincible disinclination you apprehend you cannot do But you should bethink your self What a wretch am I that am so ill-inclin'd For is not any one more wicked according as he is more strongly inclin'd to wickedness and averse to what is good But how vincible or invincible your disinclination is you do not yet know not having yet made due trial That you cannot of your selves overcome it is out of question But have you tried what help might be got from Heaven in the use of Gods own prescribed means If that course bring you in no help then may you understand how much you have provoked the Lord. For though he have promised that for such as turn at his reproof he will pour out his Spirit to them yet they who when he calls refuse and when he stretches out his hand regard not but set at naught all his counsel c. may call and not be answered may seek him early and not find him And that wickedness may somewhat be estimated by this effect that thus it makes the Spirit of Grace retire that free benign merciful Spirit the Author of all love sweetness and goodness become to a forlorn soul a resolved stranger If you are so given up you have first given up your selves You have wilfully cast him out of your thoughts and hardened your own hearts against him who was the Spring of your Life and Being and in whom is all your Hope And whether this malignity of your hearts shall ever finally be overcome or no as you have no cause to despair but it may be overcome if apprehending your life to lie upon it you wait and strive and pray and cry as your case requires Yet do you not see it to be a fearful pitch of malignity and so much the worse and more vicious by how much it is more hardly overcome That we may here be a little more particular Consider 1. How tumultuous and disorderly a thing this your disaffection is You are here to consider its direct tendency its natural aptitude or what it doth of it self and in its own nature lead and tend to If you may withdraw your delight and love from God then so may all other men as well Therefore now view the thing it self in the common nature of it And so Is not aversion to delight in God a manifest contrariety to the order of things A turning all upside down A shattering and breaking asunder the bond between rational appetite and the First Good A disjointing and unhinging of the best and noblest part of Gods Creation from its station and rest its proper basis and center How fearful a rupture doth it make How violent and destructive a dislocation If you could break in pieces the orderly contexture of the whole universe within it self reduce the frame of nature to utmost confusion rout all the ranks and orders of creatures tear asunder the Heavens and dissolve the compacted body of the earth mingle Heaven and Earth together and resolve the World into a meer heap you had not done so great a spoil as in breaking the primary and supream tie and bond between the Creature and his Maker Yea between the Creator of all things and his more noble and excellent Creature All the relations aptitudes and inclinations of the Creatures to one another are but inferior and subordinate to those between the Creatures and their common Author and Lord And here the corruption of the best cannot but be worst of all Again 2. What an unnatural wickedness is it To hate thy own original To disaffect the most bountiful Author of thy Life and Being What wouldst thou say to it if thy own Son did hate the very sight of thee and abhor thy presence and converse especially if thou never gave him the least cause If thou hast been always kind and indulgent full of paternal affection towards him Wouldst thou not think him a vile miscreant and reckon the Earth too good to bear him But how little and in how low a capacity didst thou contribute to his being in comparison of what the great God did to thine How little of natural excellency hast thou above him it may be in many things besides this unhappy temper he much excels thee when thou knowest in thy Maker is infinite excellency beyond what thou canst pretend unto And what cause canst thou pretend of disaffection towards him Many good works hath he done for thee For which of these dost thou hate him Whereby hath he ever disoblig'd thee With how sweet and gentle allurements hath he sought to win thy heart And is it not most vilely unnatural that thy spirit should be so sullenly averse to him who is pleased to be stiled the Father of Spirits And in which respect it may fitly be said to thee Dost thou thus requite the Lord O foolish Creature and unwise Is not he thy Father If thou didst hate thy own self in a sense besides that wherein it is thy duty and in which kind thou hast as thy case is a just and dreadful cause of self-abhorrence If thou didst hate thy very life and being and wer't laying daily plots of self-destruction thou wer 't not so wickedly unnatural He is more intimate to thee than thou art to thy self That natural love which thou owest to thy self and the nature from whence it springs is of him and ought to be subordinate to him And by a superior Law of Nature thy very life if he actually require it ought to be sacrific'd and laid down for his sake Thy hatred towards him therefore is more prodigiously unnatural than if it were most directly and implacably bent against thy self And yet also in hating him thou dost most mischievously hate thy self too and all that thou dost by the instinct of that vile temper of heart towards him thou dost it against thy own life and soul. Thou cuttest thy self off
he professes to do over you If he should repent In what case were you Not to take pleasure in God! Your own God! How strangely uncouth is it You are not to consider him as a stranger an unrelated one If he were such to you his own excellencies challenge to be beheld with delight But you are to reckon and say of him This is my Beloved and this is my Friend c. I am his and he is mine And how ill do such words become the mouth that utters them not from the abundance of the heart even from an heart abounding and overflowing with Love and Joy 7. And how doth the temper of your heart and your practice while you take not actual ordinary delight in God clash and jar with your profession For admit you do not then make an express verbal profession of actual delight in God at such times when you find it not yet you still avow your selves and would be accounted and lookt upon as related to him And the just challenges of that relation are not any way answered but by a course of ordinary actual delight So much your Profession manifestly imports Whilst you profess the Lord to be your God you profess him to be your supream delight And how is he so when you seldom have a delightful thought of him or look to him with any pleasure and the temper of your Spirit towards him is usually strange and shie And bethink your selves What would you then be esteemed such as care not for him as value him not Would you willingly be taken for such in all those long intervals wherein your actual delight in him is wholly discontinued Would you not be ashamed the disposition of your heart towards him at such times should be known Do you not desire to be better thought of What is there then at the bottom and under the covert of your yet continued profession at such times but falsehood A correspondent affection there is not Is not your very profession then meer dissimulation and a lie A concealment and disguise of an heart inwardly bad and naught but which only comforts it self that it is not known that is all day long full of earth and vanity and wholly taken up with either the contentments delights and hopes or the cares fears and discontents that do naturally arise from these vile mean Objects and so are of a kind as mean and vile as they Only makes a shift to lie hid all the while and lurk under the appearance such a one hath put on of a Lover of God and one that above all things delights in him But is this honest dealing or was this indeed all that was this while to be got of God the credit of being thought his Yet it may be you will somewhat relieve your selves by saying you suppose for all this your profession was not altogether false For you hope there was still a Principle in you by which your heart was habitually directed towards God and whereby his Interest did still live and was maintained in you notwithstanding your many and long diversions from him And while your Profession did signifie that it signified some real thing and so was not a false and lying Profession But to this I say Was this all that your Profession was in it self apt and by you designed to signifie Surely it was apt and intended to signifie more than habitual inclination It carried the appearance of such actings Godward as were sutable to your having him for your God And you would it's likely have been loth it should have been otherwise understood And surely whatsoever it said or imported more than the Truth was false And again Can you be confident that so much as you suppose was true Are you sure of this that because you have sometimes found some motions of heart towards God it is therefore habitually inclin'd to him when it very rarely puts forth it self in any sutable acts and for the most part works quite another way Whereby are Habits to be known but by the frequency of their acts Do not you know there are many half-inclinations and workings of heart with some complacency God-ward that prove abortive and come to nothing as that of the stony ground and that of Heb. 6. 4. do more than intimate Surely your hope and safety more depend upon your repentance your return and closer adherence to God thereupon than the supposition your heart is in the main sound and right amidst those more notable declinings from him But we will admit your supposition true which the consideration of the persons we are now dealing with and the Design of this present Piece of our Discourse requires and take it for granted that amidst this your great neglect you have notwithstanding a Principle a new and holy nature in you whose tendency is Godward Whereupon we further say then 8. And doth not your unaccustomedness to this blessed exercise resist the Tendency of that new nature And so your practice while your hearts run a quite contrary course for they are not doing nothing while they are not in this delightful way working towards God doth not only offend against your profession which it in great part belies but against that vital Principle also which is in you and so your very excuse aggravates your sin Is there indeed such a Principle in you And whither tends it Is it not from God And doth it not then naturally aim at him and tend towards him Being upon both those accounts as well as that it resembles him and is his living Image called a participation of the Divine Nature Yea doth it not tend to delight in him For it tends to him as the Souls last end and rest What good Principle can you have in you God ward if you have not Love to him And the property of that is to work towards him by desire that it may rest in him by delight Have you Faith in God That works by this Love Faith is that great power in the Holy Soul by which it acts from God as a Principle Love is that by which it acts towards him as an End By that it draws from him by this it moves to him and rests in him The same holy gracious nature dependently on its great Author and Cause inclining it both to this motion and rest and to the former in order to the latter So by the work of the new Creature is the Soul formed purposely for blessedness in God and devotedness to him its aspirations its motions its very pulse breath tend and beat this way But you apply not your Souls to delight in God You bend your minds and hearts another way What are you doing then You are striving against your own life you are mortifying all good inclinations towards God stifling and stopping the breath that your panting heart would send forth to him you are busily crucifying the new creature instead of the body of sin There is somewhat in you that would work
bad a temper hath in it such a complication of peevish wilfulness of undutifulness and ingratitude to him of negligence and disregard of our selves that it must want a name to express it And now do you see what evil the neglect of delighting in God accompanied as it cannot but be with the having your hearts otherwise ingaged and vainly busie doth include and carry in it Will you pause a while and deliberate upon it Do but make your just and sober estimate by the things that have been mentioned Measure it by Gods Law and it imports manifest disobedience in a matter of highest consequence by the judgment of your own conscience and it imports much boldness against light in a very plain case by your experience and it speaks an uninstructible stupidity or a very heedless forgetful spirit by the obligation laid upon you by the kindness of this very counsel and offer besides many other ways and it hath in it great ingratitude and insensibleness of the greatest love by your Covenant and it imports treachery by your Relation much incongruity and undecency by your Profession falshood and hypocrisie by the tendency of the new nature in you unnatural violence by the Dictates of Gods Spirit great untractableness by his known declared Design in this matter a most undutiful disrespect to him with a most wretched carelesness of your selves as to your nearest and most important concern One would think it needless to say more But why should we balk any thing that so obviously occurs tending to set forth the exceeding great sinfulness of this sin Therefore know that besides its great faultiness in it self Much also cannot but be derived into it from its very faulty causes It supposes and argues great evils that flow into it and from which it hath its rise 1. Great blindness and ignorance of God For is it possible any should have known and not have loved him or have beheld his glory and not have been delighted therewith and that with such delight and love as should have held a setled seat and residence in them And can your ignorance of God be excusable or innocent The Apostles words are too applicable Some have not the knowledg of God I speak it to your shame Do you pretend to him and know him not Worship him so oft and worship you know not what Had such opportunity of knowing him and yet be ignorant at least it would be thought In Judah is God known and that his Name were great in Israel where he hath had his Tabernacle and dwelling place Here one would think his Altar should not bear the same Inscription as at Athens To the unknown God How express hath his discovery of himself been to you and how amiable What was there in it not delectable or in respect whereof he hath not appeared altogether lovely as it were composed of delights You have had opportunity to behold him clad with the Garments of Salvation and Praise And as he is in Christ in that alluring posture reconciling the world to himself wherein all his Attributes have visibly comply'd to the reconciling design His boundless fulness of life and love not obstructed by any of them from flowing out in rich and liberal communications If you had not excluded that glorious pleasant light wherein he is so to be beheld you would have beheld what had won your hearts fully and bound them to him in everlasting delight and love And have you not reason to be ashamed you have not known him better and to better purpose Alienation from the life of God proceeds from blindness of heart i. e. a chosen affected voluntary blindness Or if your knowledg of him be not little 2. Your little delight in him argues much unmindfulness of him At least that you have not minded him duly and according to what you have known It might here be seasonable to suggest to you how likely it is that several ways your great faultiness in the matter of thinking of God may have contributed to the withholding of your delight from him Consider therefore 1. Have not your thoughts of him been slight and transient Have they not been overly superficial thoughts casual only and such as have dropt into your minds as it were by chance fluid and roving fixed neither upon him nor into your hearts Too much resembling what is said of the wicked man God is not in all his thoughts He hath not been amidst them Your thoughts have not united upon him he hath not been situated and centred in them Was not this the case You bestowed upon him it may be now and then an hasty passant glance the careless cast of a wandering eye and was this likely to beget an abiding permanent delight Have you been wont to compose your selves designedly and on purpose to think of him so as your thoughts might be said to have been directed towards him by the desire and inclining bent of your heart according to that The desire of our Soul is towards thy name and to the remembrance of thee Whence it is that 't is represented as the usual posture of them whom he reckons among his Jewels and for whom the book of remembrance was written that they thought on his name A thing that they might be known by and distinguisht from other men wherefore it is observable that their remembrance of him was thought worth the remembring and to be transmitted into records never to be forgotten The evil of your not-delighting in God hath a great accession from your negligent thinking of him 2. Have not your thoughts of Him been low and mean such as have imported light esteem Compare them with those admiring thoughts Who is like unto thee O Lord among the gods Who is like thee glorious in holiness O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth How unlike have yours been to such thoughts Bethink your selves how deeply culpable you have made your neglect to delight in God by your unworthy thoughts by which you have detracted so unspeakably from the Divine excellency Hence you have more to account for than meerly not-delighting in God a rendering him such to your selves as if he were not worthy to be delighted in How ought this to shake your hearts 3. Have they not been hard thoughts full of censure and misjudging of his Nature Counsels Ways and Works Have there not been perverse reasonings with dislike of his Methods of Government over men in this present state As if he had too little kindness for such as you would have him favour and too much for others Judging his love and hatred by false measures This seems to be much the evil unto which the Injunction of delight in God is here opposed in this Psalm and whence it may be estimated how directly that militates against this and prevailing excludes it Perhaps you have delighted so little in God because ye have thought the thing
and repent and do your first works Till then He hath this against you that you have left your first love And consider Is it not a grievous thing to you Doth it not pain your hearts that your Lord and Redeemer should have somewhat against you as it were laid up noted and put on record kept in store and as himself remarkably expresses it sealed up among his treasures somewhat that sticks with him and which he bears in mind and hath lying in his heart against you Is this a small thing with you when that must be apprehended to be his sense and suppose him saying to you I remember the kindness of thy youth the love of thine espousals And now since those former days What iniquity hast thou found in me that thou art gone far from me and hast walked after vanity and art become vain How confounding a thing were it if he should say as sometime to others in a case resembling yours and why should you not take it as equally belonging to you O my people What have I done unto thee and wherein have I wearied thee testifie against me And while the case admits such sharp and cutting rebuke and that it is the matter of rebuke not rebuke it self abstracted from the matter i. e. if it were causless that should smart or wound How becoming is it and sutable to the case to cast down a wounded bleeding heart before the Lord and be abased in the dust at the footstool of his Mercy-seat And though your sin be great and hainous 4. Yet apprehend you are before a Mercy-Seat That there is forgiveness with him that he may be feared How would this apprehension promote the humiliation which the case requires A sullen despondency that excludes hope of mercy hardens the heart continues the sinful comfortless distance Therefore apply your selves to him seek his Pardon in the Blood of the Redeemer know you need it and that it is only upon such terms to be obtained Yet also take heed lest any diminishing thoughts of the evil of your sin return and make you neglect the thing or wave the known stated way of remission We are apt to look upon crimes whereby men are immediately offended and which therefore are of worse reputation among men as robbery murder c. as very horrid This is a matter that lies immediately between Spirit and Spirit the God of the Spirits of all flesh and your Spirit You have had a solemn transaction with him and have dealt falsly And though the matter were secret between God and you Is it the less evil in it self for that If you had dealt unworthily and used base treachery towards a friend in a matter only known to him and your self Would you not when you have reflected blush to see his face till matters be composed betwixt you And is there another way of having them composed and of restoring delightful friendly converse than by your seeking his Pardon and his granting it Could you have the confidence to put your self upon conversing with him as at former times without such a preface Or were it not great immodesty and impudence to offer at it But that when this hath been the case between the blessed God and you and you now come with deep resentments and serious unfeigned acknowledgments of your most offensive neglects of him to seek forgiveness at his hand he should be easie and facile to forgive How should this melt you down before him And this is what his own word obliges you to apprehend and believe of him These words He hath required to be proclaimed to you Return you back-sliding ones and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful saith the Lord and I will not keep anger for ever Only acknowledg your iniquity that you have transgressed against the Lord your God and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree your offence hath been Idolatry as well as theirs Turn O backsliding Children saith the Lord for I am married unto you What heart would not break and bleed at this overture You can be recovered to no capacity of delighting in God as heretofore till you sensibly feel the need of great forgiveness and have a disposition of heart inwardly to relish the sweetness and pleasantness of it Till those words do agree with the sense of your hearts and you can as in a transport cry out O the blessedness of the man as the expression imports whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is covered c. And now when you are come thus far if the temper of your Spirit be right even in this there will be in conjunction with the desire hope and value of forgiveness at least an equal dread of such future strangenesses and breaches between God and you And that will be very natural to you which I next add as further advice 5. Most earnestly seek and crave a better and more fixed temper of spirit More fully determined and bent Godward That your heart may be directed into the love of God That the spirit of love power and a sound mind may bear rule in you Be intent upon the recovery of that healthy soundness which wheresoever it hath place will with a certain steady power and a strong inclining bent of love carry your heart toward God And take heed lest you be satisfied in the expectation and hope of forgiveness as to your former neglects of God without this There is a manifest prejudice daily accrewing to the Christian name and profession by the unequal estimation which that part of the Doctrine of Christ hath that concerns the work of his Spirit upon us regeneration the new creature repentance and an holy life in comparison of that which concerns his performances and acquisitions for us expiation of sin satisfaction of Divine Justice forgiveness and acceptance with God How sweet ravishing transporting Doctrines and how pure Gospel are these latter accounted by many who esteem the former cold sapless unpleasant notions Thence comes Christian Religion to look with so distorted a face and aspect as if it suffered a convulsion that hath altered and disguised it unto that degree that it is hardly to be known being made to seem as if it imported only a design to rescue some persons from Divine Wrath and Justice without ever giving them that disposition of heart which is necessary both to their serving of God and their blessedness in him This is not to be imputed so much to the misrepresentation made of it by them whose business it hath been to instruct others though of them too many may have been very faulty in almost suppressing or insisting less or very little upon Doctrines of the former strain while the stream of their Discourses hath mostly run upon the other for it must be acknowledged that by very many in our age the absolute necessity of the great heart-change hath been both most
to fix the thoughts of your hearts on him and yet it will not be or that he gives you no help Though he can be no way indebted to you but by his own free promise He giveth meat to them that fear him being ever mindful of his Covenant yea he doth it for Ravens and Sparrows He will not then famish the Souls that cry to him and wait on him Their heart shall live that seek God It 's becoming and sutable to the state of things between him and you that he should put you upon seeking that you may find Your reasonable nature and faculties especially being already rectified in some measure and enlivened by his Grace and Spirit do require to be held to such terms It is natural to you to think and there is nothing more sutable to the new creature than that you apply and set your selves to think on him and that your thoughts be set and held on work to enquire and seek him out Know therefore you do not your parts unless you make this more your business Therefore to be here more particular 1. Solemnly set your selves at chosen times to think on God Meditation is of it self a distinct Duty and must have a considerable time allow'd it among the other exercises of the Christian Life It challenges a just share and part in the time of our Lives and he in whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to place our delight is you know the prime and chief Object of this holy Work Is it reasonable that he who is our Life and our All should never be thought on but now and then as it were by chance and on the by My meditation on him shall be sweet Doth not that imply that it was with the Psalmist a designed thing to meditate on God that it was a stated course whereas it was become customary and usual to him his ordinary practice to appoint times for meditating on God his well-known exercise which is supposed he promises himself satisfaction and solace of soul herein Let your eyes herein therefore prevent the Night-watches Reckon you have neglected one of the most important businesses of the day if you have omitted this and that to such omissions you ow your little delight in God Wherein therefore are you to repair your selves but by redressing this great neglect 2. Think often of him amidst your other affairs Every one as he is called be his state or way of living what it will be he bond or free is required therein to abide with God And how is that but by often thinking of him as being a great part and fundamental to all the rest of what can be meant by this abode How grateful a mixture would the thoughts of God make with that great variety of other things which we are necessarily to be concern'd in while we are in this world If they be serious and right thoughts they will be accompanied with same favour and relish of sweetness and at least tend to keep the heart in a disposition for more delightful solemn intercourses with God It is a sad Truth than which also nothing is more apparâ—nt that whatsoever there is either of sinfulness or uncomfortableness in the lives of those who have engaged and devoted themselves to God doth in greatest part proceed from their neglect to mind God A thing if due heed were taken about it so easie so little laborious and the labour whereof so much as it is were sure to be recompenc't with so unspeakable pleasure that they are so often lost in darkness drown'd in carnality buried in earthliness and overwhelmed with miseries and desolations of spirit and all this for want of a right employing of their thoughts is from hence only They set their thoughts upon things that tend either to corrupt and deprave their spirits or to disquiet and afflict them At this in-let and by the labour of their own thoughts sins and calamities are brought in upon them as a flood which very thoughts if they were plac't and exercised aright would let in God upon them fill them with his fulness replenish their Souls with his light grace and consolations And how much more easie an exercise were it to keep their thoughts imployed upon one object that is ever full delectable and present than to divide them among many that either lie remote and out of their power to be pursued with anxiety toil and very often with disappointment Or being nearer hand are to be enjoyed if they be things that have an appearance of good in them with much danger and damage to their spirits and with little satisfaction or if they appear evil to be endured with pain and sorrow So that the labour of their thoughts among those many things brings them in torture when their Rest upon God alone would be all pleasure delight and joy Here their souls might dwell at ease or as those words import rest in goodness even with that quiet repose which men are wont to take by night for so the word we read Dwell peculiarly fignifies after the weariness which we may suppose to have been contracted by the labour of the foregoing day And if no such sweet and pleasant fruit were to be hoped for from the careful government and ordering of our thoughts Is the obligation of Gods Law in this matter nothing with us whom we are bound to fear and love to trust and obey above all things of him are we not bound so much as to think And what is loving God with all our mind so expresly mentioned in that great summary of our duty towards him Or what can it mean after the required love of all the heart and all the soul to add so particularly and with all thy mind when-as the mind we know is not the seat of love Surely it cannot at least but imply that our thoughts must be much exercised upon God even by the direction of our Love and that our Love must be maintain'd by thoughts of him That our minds and hearts must continually correspond and concur to the loving of God and so our whole soul be exercised and set on work therein What doth it mean that our Youth is challenged to the remembrance of him What is our riper Age more exempt Do we as we longer live by him ow him less Doth it signifie nothing with us that as was hinted formerly the wicked bear this brand in the Scriptures They that forget God That it is a differencing character of his own people That they thought on his Name Why do we suppose our thoughts exempt from his Government or the obligation of his Laws Why should it be reckoned less insolent to say our thoughts than our tongues are our own who is Lord over as May we do what we will with our thoughts Who gave us our thinking power or made us capable of forming a thought And now Will we assume the confidence to tell God we think on him all that we can How many
great and glorious and excellent is exalted and most high over all And it is to be observed that as this was the common and more usual strain and temper of holy Souls in the ages whereof the Scriptures give us any account so were doubts and fears and troubled thoughts concerning their own interest in God a great deal less usual and common in those days So that in proportion to the other pious and holy exercises of such as were true fearers of God and devoted to him there is little account given us of any thing of that kind in the sacred Writings and especially in the New Testament of our Lord An argument That such as were sincerely religious were most taken up about the interest of God and Christ in the world rejoicing either in the observation of its growth and increase or in the hope and confidence that it shall grow And that they were much less concerned about their own interest yea and that this course did thrive best with them While they were most intent upon the affairs of their common Lord their own were well enough provided for We cannot hereupon but note therefore by the way how altered a thing Religion is now become Almost the whole business of it even among them that more seriously mind any thing belonging to it is a fear of going to Hell and hence perpetual endless scruples doubts and enquiries about marks and signs and how to know what is the least degree of that grace which is necessary to their being saved As if the intention were to beat down the price to the very lowest and dodge always and cheapen heaven to the utmost it may be feared as too many with a design not to aim at any thing higher than what is meerly necessary to that purpose only and never to mind being excellent but only being saved And yet also it were well in a comparative sense if that it self were minded in good earnest by many that profess beyond the common rate And That whereas their own interest is the thing they most mind it were not their meanest and least considerable interest even that of their sense and flesh and secular advantage and that under the pretence too which makes the matter so much the worse of much love and zeal Godward and devotedness to his interest which they supposed involved and wrapt up wholly with theirs Whence also all their delight and joy is measured only by the aspect of the world and of publick affairs upon them and their private ones And they are either overwhelmed with sorrow or transported with joy according as the state of things doth either frown upon or favour their concernments In the days when the interest of Christ lay more entirely and undividedly among one sort of men and more apparently their contests being less among themselves and chiefly with the Infidel world and they had for the most part no enemies but those in common of the Christian Name and Cause So that any common state of suffering to them was the visible prejudice of that Cause and Interest Why what Did they delight and please themselves in nothing but a warm Sun and Halcyon-seasons Surely they had matter little enough for that sort of joy And what Did they therefore dejectedly languish and despond and give themselves up to sorrow and despair Nor that neither unless they had all had but one neck and that also perfectly in the enemies power it had been an impossible thing to stifle and extinguish their delight and joy So fully did Christ make it good to them That their sorrow should be turned into joy and their joy should no man take from them For even that increased it which aim'd at it's suppression and the waters thrown upon their flame became rivers of oyl They had got a secret way of rejoicing in tribulation of counting it all joy when they fell into divers tentations of taking pleasure in reproaches for the sake of Christ of turning difficulties and hazards into matter of triumph of taking joyfully the spoiling of their goods and glorying to be counted worthy to suffer any thing for so excellent a name Insomuch that though their Head and Lord was in a most ignominious way taken from them and they left as a despised party of men in the midst of an outragious world under the seemingly-hopeless profession of addictedness to the interest of a Man that dy'd upon a Cross among Thieves but the other day And though many of them never saw his face but had their knowledg of him by report and hear-say yet believing they rejoic'd with joy unspeakable and full of glory The matter and ground of their joy was not so uncertain and changeable a thing nor so light and unsubstantial as the worlds kindness and favour and the smooth face of a serene Sky These were true Lovers of Christ and such as counted him worthy for whom they should do all that lay in their power and suffer all which it was in the power of any others to do against them upon his account They that rejoice and place their delight in the blessed God himself through Jesus Christ have for the Object of their joy the Everlasting I AM Him who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever And whose excellent glory may be clouded indeed and eclips'd to the world and the eye of Sense but still shines in it self and to the eye of Faith with the same bright and undiminish'd lustre That delight will then be continued and permanent and ever springing up in fresh liveliness and vigour which is taken in this blessed Object considered as it is in it self and that hath place in a Soul that acts in a steady direct course towards that Object without sinister respects or any selfish ones of even the highest kind otherwise than in that subordination which will be sutable to the vast disproportion and inequality between Gods interest and ours that is looking upon our own external concernments as unworthy to be named in the same day That though we reckon what there is delectable in God will make for our eternal advantage yet to consider that advantage of ours so much less and to be so much more pleased and satisfy'd that he is in himself blessed and glorious as it is in it self a thing more considerable that he be so than it is what becomes of us or of any creature or of this whole Creation We are not indeed concern'd nor may think it warrantable to put our selves upon any such severe and unnatural trials of our love and fidelity to him as to put the question to our own hearts Could we be content to lye in Hell or be in the state of the damned for ever for his Glory For it were a most injurious and vile supposition of somewhat inconsistent with his own most blessed Nature and eternal essential felicity for his happiness cannot but be much placed in the benignity of his Nature to
imagine that ever he can be pleased or esteem himself glorify'd by the everlasting miseries of any one that truly loves him We ought to abhor the mention or imagination of such a thing as a blasphemy against his infinite goodness the denial whereof were to deny his Godhead And it were also an absurd and self-contradicting supposition For none can be in the state of the damned but they must be also in a state of extream enmity to God and of all wickedness and malignity arrived and grown up to its highest pitch Which indeed is the very horrour and immost center of Hell Wickedness and eternal misery differing for the most part but in degree as grace and glory do So that to put our selves upon this trial of sincerity towards God were to ask ourselves Whether we would be willing to express our sincere love to God by everlasting hatred of him and the Truth of our grace by being as maliciously wicked as the Devil and his Angels The expressions of Moses and Paul so frequently alledged can be wiredrawn to no such sense This is no place to discuss the importance of them But iâ— were certainly most imprudent whatsoever they import to seek marks of sincere love to God thence which may be fetcht from so many plain texts of Scripture But it is out of question that we may and ought to mind and take complacency in our own blessedness in a degree inferior and subordinate to that which we take in the glory of the blessed God without making the sinful and absurd supposition of their inconsistency Or that we can ever be put to choose the absence or privation of the one as a means to the other And such complacency and delight in God as arises upon such grounds is of the right stamp and kind See then that yours be a well-complexion'd delight and such as inwardly partakes of the true nature of Religion i. e. that hath in it entire devotedness to God as the very life Soul spirit of it And if this be not the thing but meerly self-satisfaction which you chiefly have in pursuit under the name of delight in God you beat the air and do but hunt after a shadow For there is no such thing as real solid delight in God any-where existing or ever will be separately and apart from a supream love and addictedness of heart to him and his interest as our chief and utmost end Which temper of spirit towards him must be maintained and improved by our fixed intuition and view of his glorius greatness and absolute excellency and perfection and the congruity and fitness which we thereupon apprehend that we and all things as all are of him should be wholly to him that he alone may have the glory 5. And though you are not to prefer the consideration of your own interest in God as a good sutable to you or to give it the highest place in your delight yet also you must take heed of neglecting it or of denying it any place at all For though we may plainly observe as hath been said That it was the usual temper of holy Men of Old to be most taken up in admiring God upon the account of his own Excellency and Glory in it self considered and may thence collect that to be the genuine right temper of a gracious heart when it is most it self Yet also 't is as evident That they were far from neglecting their own interest in God and that they counted it not a small matter Yea that it had though not the principal a very great influence upon their delight and joy in him No one can read the Bible and not have frequent occasion to take notice of this For how often do we find him spoken of under the names of their Portion Heritage c And in what raptures of Joy do we often find them upon that account So the Psalmist considers him when he says The lines are fallen to him in pleasant places and he had a goodly heritage How often do we find them glorying in their relation by Covenant and making their boasts of him as their God I will love thee O Lord my strength c You have my no less than nine times repeated in the beginning the first and second verses of that Psalm My strength my rock my fortress my deliverer my God c. And afterwards How glorious a triumph is there raised and in what exultation do we behold them upon this Who is God save the Lord and who is a Rock save our God And again The Lord liveth and blessed be my Rock and let the God of my Salvation be exalted And this was some of the last holy breath uttered by that anointed one of the God of Jacob and the sweet Psalmist of Israel He hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure And this is all my Salvation and all my Desire With this How well satisfied and pleased did he expire and go down to the grave And the People of God are sometime represented as so taken with this apprehension of their peculiar relation to God that they cannot be content to know but they proclaim it nor was it enough the present age should know but they must have it told the following generation Let Mount Sion rejoice c. Mark That ye may tell the generation following For this God is our God See their ostentation of him This God! q. d. Behold what a God have we View him well and take notice how glorious a God he is And as they glory in the greatness of the God to whom they were related so they do in the eternity of the relation This God is our God for ever and ever c. And how unexpressible was the inward pleasure wherewith we may suppose those words to have been uttered God even our own God shall bless us How delightful an appropriation as if it were intended to be said The blessing it self were less significant it could not have that savour with it if it were not from our own God Not only therefore allow but urge your spirits thus to look towards God that you may both delight in him as being in himself the most excellent one also as being yours for know you are not permitted only but obliged to eye accept and rejoice in him as such It is his first and great Law and the form of his Covenant which he requires you to enter into with him To take him for your God Herein to be shie and decline is to rebel And when he offers himself in all his rich fulness to be your Portion and your God How vile ingratitude were it to neglect and overlook the kindness of the overture It is his glory to have indigent souls satiating themselves in him drawing from him their vital breath living upon him as their All Confessing they cannot live but by his vouchsafed communications And if you should say you love
him but so he be ever glorious in himself you care not to be happy It would sound like an hollow complement You are not to deal with a God upon such terms It becomes you not nor is sutable to him It is fit for you to own it to him that he is your Life that you are a meer nothing in your self and must seek your All in him Your Song and your Prayer must be directed to him as the God of your life You do not own him as God except you own and adore him as your all-sufficient Good and that fulness which filleth all in all You detract from the glory of his Godhead if you attribute not this to him And if accordingly as one that cannot live without him you do not seek union with him and joyn your self to him and then rejoyce and solace your self in that blessed conjunction And if you be not sure as yet that he is yours your delighting in him is not therefore to be suspended and delayed till you be But in the mean time delight in him as willing to become yours To disbeleive that he is willing is to give him the lye It is the great design of his Gospel so to represent him to you See that your hearts do embrace and close with that as a most delightful and lovely representation The great and glorious Lord of heaven and earth offering himself in all his fulness to be thine Thy portion and thy God for ever How transporting should this be to you Nor if you suspect the sincerity of your own heart towards him which is the only thing you can have any pretence to suspect for it were a blasphemy to his Truth and Goodness to intimate a suspicious thought of him may you therefore spend all your time in anxious enquiries or in looking only upon your own evil heart But look most and with a direct and steady eye towards him Behold and view well his glory and his love that by this means your heart may be captivated and more entirely won to him This makes delight in God a strange thing in the hearts and practice of many They find too much cause of complaint concerning their own hearts that they are disaffected and disenclin'd Godward And what is the course they take hereupon Their Religion is nothing but complaint And all their days are spent in beholding that they are bad without ever taking the way to become better They conclude their case to be evil and full of danger because they find they can take no delight in God And they will take no delight in him because they have that apprehension of the danger of their case And so their not-delighting in God resolves into it self And they delight not in him because they delight not in him T is strange the absurdity of this is not more reflected on And what now is to be done in this case To rest here is to be held in a circle of sin and misery all your days And would signify as if delighting in God were a simple impossibility or as if not to delight in God were a thing so highly rational as to be its own sufficient self-justification And that it were reason enough not to delight in him because we do not There can be no other way to be taken but to behold him more in that discovery of him which his Gospel sets before your eyes and in that way seek to have your hearts taken with his amiableness and love and allured to delight in him And labour in this way to have that delight increased to that degree that it may cease to be a question or doubt with you Do I delight in God or no Whence when you reflect and find that you do Then shall you have that additional matter of further delight That whereas you before took delight in him because being in himself so excellent a one he hath freely offered himself to you to become yours You may now delight in him also because you are sure he is so Whereof you cannot have a more fatisfying assurance than from his so express saying I Love them that Love me and we love him because he loved us first 6. Take especial heed of more apparent and grosser transgressions Nor account your security from the danger of them so much to stand in your being ordinarily out of the way of temptations to them as in an habitual frame of holiness and the settled aversion of your heart to them Endeavour a growing conformity to God in the temper of your spirit and to be in Love with purity That your heart may no more endure an impure thought than you would fire in your bosom If you be herein careless and remiss and suffer your heart to grow dissolute or more bold and adventurous in admitting sinful cogitations Or if you have more liking or less dislike of any wicked course wherein others take their liberty you are approaching the borders of a dangerous precipice And if some greater breach hereupon ensue between God and you what becomes of your delight in him A sad interruption of such pleasant intercourse cannot but follow both on his part and on yours On his part a suspension and restraint of those communications of light and grace which are necessary to your delight in him He will be just in his way of dealing towards those of his own family as well as merciful It appears how much David's delight in God was intermitted upon his great transgression through Gods withdrawing from him when he prays he would restore the joy of his salvation And on your part will insue both less liking of Gods presence and a dread of it Your inclination will not be towards him as before though the act of sin be soon over the effect will remain even a carnal frame of spirit that disaffects converse with God and cares not to come nigh him And if that were not a guilty fear would hold you off so that if you were willing you would not dare to approach him Your liberty taken to sin would soon infer a bondage upon your spirit God-ward unless conscience be wholly asleep and you have learned a stupid insolent confidence to affront God which surely would signifie little to your delight in him Thou shalt put away iniquity from thy tabernacles Then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty and shalt lift up thy face unto God The conscience of unpurged iniquity will not let you lift up your face or appear in that glorious presence 7. Cherish the great grace of humility And be ever mean and low in your own eyes That temper carries in it even a natural disposition to delight in God How sweet complacency will such a Soul take in him His light and glory shine with great lustre in the eyes of such a one while there is not a nearer imagined lustre to vie therewith Stars are seen at noon by them that descend low into a deep pit
This will be found the sence of his heart though his desire hath inclin'd to this or that thing in particular And this would be his Prayer in such a case Lord If thy wisdom which is infinitely more than mine see this thing not fit cross me deny me in this desire of mine And this general desire at least which is the measure of the particular one is sure to be accomplisht to one that hath God for his delight For the promise is express and cannot fail All things shall Work together for good to them that love God And this love to God or delight in him as it entitles such to that his care and concern for them which is exprest in this promise So it doth in its own nature dispose their hearts to an acquiescence and satisfiedness therein For love to God where it is true is supream and prevails over all other love to this or that particular good Whence it cannot be but if this love be in act as the Text must be understood to call unto actual and exercised delight in God it must subdue and keep the heart so far subject to the divine good pleasure as that its desire and addictedness to this particular lesser good concerning which there may also be a just and rational doubt whether it will be now a good to him yea or no shall never be a matter of controversy and quarrel with him who is unquestionably the Supream and universal good How will that one thought overcome if such a one shall but apprehend God saying to him Dost thou love me above all things and wilt yet contend with me for such a trifle And we may by the way note That upon this ground of the dubious mutability of external good things which by circumstances may become evil to this or that person As they are not here so nor can they be any-where the matter of a general absolute promise to be claim'd indefinitely by any ones faith The nature of the thing refuses it For suppose we that what may in this or that case become evil or prejudicial to this or that person doth now actually become so and is the matter of an absolute promise now claimable by such a person What would follow That an evil is now the actual matter of a promise Than which what can be said or supposed more absurd when nothing can further or otherwise be the matter of a promise than as it is good Wherefore that promise would in the supposed case degenerate as the matter of it is by the present circumstances varied and turn into a threatning Wherefore when that condition or proviso is not expresly added to a promise concerning a temporal good the very nature of the thing implies and requires it to be understood For it is not otherwise than as qualifi'd by that condition any way a promise Now he that is in the present exercise of delight in God hath his heart so set upon God and alienated from earthly things as that the present temper of it bears proportion to the natural tenor of such promises And is not otherwise than by the cessation of this delight liable to the torture of unsatisfied desire in reference to these lower things Although the fig-tree shall not blossom yet I will rejoyce in the Lord c. And as delight in God doth thus reduce and moderate desires in reference to any inferior good so that if it be with-held they admit a satisfaction without it and the want of is easily tolerable So secondly If it be granted Delight in God addes a satisfying sweetness to the enjoyment A lover of God hath another taste and relish even of earthly good things than an earthly-minded man can have He hath that sweet Savor of the Love of God upon his spirit that imparts a sweetness to all the enjoyments of this World beyond what such things in their own nature have with them This makes the righteous mans little better than the great revenues of many wicked Upon the whole therefore This is if duly weighed a mighty and most perswasive argument to delight in God For it imports thus much which I add for a close to this discourse If you place your delight here You are most certainly delivered from the vexation and torment of unsatisfied desire The motions of your Souls are sure to end in a pleasant rest Your lesser desires will be swallowed up in greater and all in the Divine fulness So that you will now say Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none on earth I desire besides thee If you take no delight in God your own Souls will be a present Hell to you And it may be it is not enough considered how much the future Hell stands also in unsatisfied desire Which desire all sutable Objects being for ever cut off from it turns wholly to despair rage and torture And that ravenous appetite which would be preying upon external Objects that now fail turns inward and as an insatiable Vulture gnaws everlastingly the wretched Soul it self And the beginnings of this Hell you will now have within you while you refuse to delight in God The sapless earthly vanities upon which your hearts are set give you some present content which allays your misery for a little while and renders it less sensible to you But they have nothing in them to answer the vast desires of a reasonable immortal spirit Whereby you certainly doom yourselves to perpetual disrest For in these false vanishing shadows of goodness you cannot have satisfaction and in the blessed God you will not Imprimatur Aug. 9. 1674. C. Smith THE END THE Blessedness of the Righteous Opened and further Recommended from the Consideration of the Vanity of this Mortal Life In two Treatises On Psal. 17. 15. Psal. 89. 47. By the same Author And are to be sold at the Ball in St. Pauls Church-yard 1674. * From Psal. 10. 13. Rom. 5. 10 11. Psal. 27. 4. Joh. 14. Hos. 6. Rom. 1. 1 Cor. 2. Phil. 3. Eph. 1. 17. v. 13. v. 13. v. 17. v. 38. Joh. 14. 21 v. 22. Mat. 6. Psal. 26. Mat. 11. Act. 26. 18. 1 Joh. 5. 20. 1 Pet. 2. Psal. 119. Rom. 15. 3. 1 Pet. 1. 8. Joh. 6. Num. 14. 11. Psal. 106. 24. Joh. 7. 39. Joh. 6. v. 35. v. 63. v. 64. v. 65. Joh. 12. v. 37. 38. Isa. 53. 1. Eph. 1. 19 Isa. 6. 1 Cor. 12. 3. Joh. 4. 15. ch 5. 1. 2 Cor. 4. 1 Pet. 2. 2 3. Prov. 2. 10. 2 Cor. 2 14. v. 16. Joh. 1. 2 Cor. 5. Eph. 4. 2 Pet. 1 1 Joh. 3. Jam. 1. 1 Joh. 1. 3. 5. Eph. 5. v. 6. v. 7. 2 Cor. 3. 18. Rom. 6. 17 Isa. 58. 11. v. 14. Joh. 4. 14. Pro. 14. 14. ch 10. * And how rationally men may be said at the same time to love delight in and enjoy the amiable or delectable object and therewith also love their own love enjoy their own fruition
it possible enough That some of them who differ from me having much more light in greater matters may have so in these also Besides that I most seriously think Humility Charity and Patience would more contribute to the composing of these lesser Differences or to the good estate of the Christian Interest under them than the most fervent Disputes and Contestations I have upon such considerations little concern'd my self in contending for one way or another while I was among you or in censuring such as have differed from me in such Notions and Practices as might consist with our common great End or as imported not manifest hostility thereto Contenting my self to follow the course that to my preponderating judgment seemed best without stepping out of my way to justle others But I cannot be so patient of their practical disagreement not only with all serious Christians but even their own Judgments and Consciences also who have no Delight in God and who take no pleasure in the very substance of Religion I have been grieved to observe That the case hath too apparently seemed so with some among you Some have been openly profane and dissolute and expressed more Contempt of God which you know was often insisted on the one part of the day when I had this subject in hand the other than Delight in him I know not how the case may be altered with such since I left you or what blessing may have followed the endeavours of any other hand Death I am sure will be making alterations as I have heard it hath If these lines may be beforehand with it may they be effectually monitory to any such that yet survive That however this or that external from of godliness may consist with your everlasting well-being real ungodliness and the denial of the power never can which power stands in nothing more than in love to God or delight in him Therefore seriously bethink your selves Do you delight in God or no If you do methinks you should have some perception of it Surely if you delight in a friend or some other outward comfort you can perceive it But if you do not What do you think alienation from the life of God will come to at last It is time for you to pray and cry and strive earnestly for a renewed heart And if any of you do in some degree find this yet many degrees are still lacking You cannot delight in God but upon that apprehension as will give you to see you do it not enough Therefore reach forth to what is still before I bow my knees for you all that a living delightful Religion may flourish in your hearts and families in the stead of those dry wither'd things worldliness formality and strife about trifles Which will make Torrington an Heph-zibah a place to be delighted in your Country a pleasant Region And if he may but hear of it add not a little to the satisfaction and delight of Antrim Sept. 1. 1674. Your affectionate Servant in Christ who most seriously desires your true prosperity John Howe IF there be any thing of mistake or defectiveness found in this Scheme let it not be charged upon the accurate Author who lives at a very great distance from the press and knows nothing of it but upon one who was willing to help the Reader by giving him a short View of this Excellent Work which for the matter contrivance spirit and manly Eloquence of it may commend it self above the vulgar estimate unto the ingenuous who upon a distinct reading of it all through with seriousness cannot but desire a review and be glad easily to find out the Page where some remarkable thing did more especially affect his heart that he may refresh himself again and again with it Others may perhaps from a glance at the sweetness and variety of these Contents be invited to feed heartily upon the Book it self Which if they do no doubt but they will experimentally attest it to be in its proportion very agreeable to the Subject it treats upon truly Delectable Of Delighting in God Two Parts Concerning the I. Import or meaning of it Page 1. 1. Delectible Object in an Absolute Relative consideration 5 1. Absolute ibid. 2. Relative as 1. Lord to be obey'd ibid. 2. Portion to be enjoy'd sufficient communicable 10 To state the Communicable Delectable Good with more advantage premise 1. That delightful enjoyment of God supposeth some Communication from God 12 2. However God himself is enjoy'd yet this Communication is also a sort of mediate object of this real Delight suted to the new-born-creature's wants of further knowledg likeness and assurance of his Love 13 Hence Divine Communication to regenerate Souls contains in it 1. An inwardly enlightening revelation of God himself to them 19 Which exceeds the common appearances to all in that it is 1. Attributed to the Spirit 22 2. Spoken as a reward of their love 23 This exceeding common light may have these characters 1. It is much more distinct and clear 24 both as to the beauty and tendency 26 of Truths 27 2. More powerfully assuring 32 in respect of matter revealed manner of revelation vigour it carries with it design of it 2. A transforming impression of his Image 43 including the removal of such dispositions as are corrupt 50 setlement of such as are gracious ibid. rectifying the Soul towards God himself as the end 51 Christ as the means 52 men 72 themselves 72 this and the other world 86 The Characters of this Divine Communication are 1. Generative 93 2. Nutritive ibid. 3. Sanative 94 4. Corroborative ibid. From not-knowing or not-considering this way of enjoying God ariseth a twofold mistake 97 viz. 1. That some have thought they have enjoyed God when they have not 2. That others have thought they have not enjoyed God when they have Yet some Doubts upon this Discourse are to be removed viz. D. 1. Doth not this bring us to delight in our selves A. 1. As such holy dispositions are not God so not our selves 98 2. Yet they have more affinity with God than us 100 3. Nor said nor meant our delight is here to terminate ibid. 4. We enjoy a friend without partaking his essence ibid. D. 2. But how can this delighting in God communicating himself be our duty 101 A. This will be clear'd in treating of actual delighting in God ibid. D. 3. But where is this temper of spirit to be found or how can I delight in that I question whether I have or no ibid. A. 1. They who really have not this communication cannot delight in it but in hope 102 2. Somewhat else than delight belongs to their states ibid. 3. Such who really have it have that which is delectable in it self ibid. 3. A manifestation of Gods love to the Soul in particular 103 Not any Enthusiastical assurance ibid. Nor that which God rarely doth 105 Nor that he ever says any thing in this matter by his Spirit to the
hearts of men repugnant to what the same Spirit hath said in his Word 107 Nor is it his usual way to do it immediately 110 But if the Spirit do it as a co-witness and but mediately 1. It is no small thing to be ascertained of Gods love ibid. 2. It is not less than if he testified immediately ibid. 3. Yea it doth more advantageously propose the same thing to us 111 Whichsoever way the Spirit doth manifest Gods love it is not to be doubted but that 1. There is such a thing in it self very necessary to be attain'd and sought after And 2. That 't is highly delectable when he doth vouchsafe it 113 1. If we consider the matter the Love of God 119 2. The nature and kind of the manifestation 124 as being in the general made by himself 125 particular most bright and lightsom immediate in a sort facile efficacious Yet to be understood with Caution viz. 1. Not simply necessary to a Christian as a Christian. 126 2. God deals herein with great variety 127 3. 'T is to be sought with much resignation ibid. 4. To be less esteemed than heart-rectifying communication ibid. 5. Nor think God is not otherwise to be enjoy'd ibid. 6. Nor to place the sum of Religion here 128. 7. Nor to reckon it the first thing in minding Religion ibid. 8. Yet renewed Christians wanting it should reckon it much 9. However the necessary degree not to think raptures withheld penally 131 10. They who have transports should take heed they despise not those who have them not in the same kind 134 2. The Delight it self to be taken in the Delectable object 135 This 1 in General is essential to Love and imports well-pleasedness 136 But because Love in the present state is but in a tendency to perfection Desire that it might be so to our selves and others takes place 138 Delight being Love in Motion Desire Love in Rest. 139 2 In Special which is here placed upon God 141 About which consider 1. What it is we are call'd to 142 Here distinguish Humane delight into meerly natural in mans corrupt state Holy the subject of the present Discourse as suted to God the blessed Object This Holy delight is twofold according to the consideration of the object in the communication of light 144 operative influence So Delight is either mental understood or real felt And the Delight taken in God is either more Open and explicite more directly Latent implicite and unobserved rather collaterally 145 The former is contemplative as of the Sight the latter spiritually sensitive as of the Taste that of spiritual reason this of spiritual sense 146 1. Of the latter Delight from spiritual sensation being a relish of sweetness in the holy quickening communications of God to it more principally in his spiritually infant state 148 So under Delighting in God thus taken Christians are called to the keeping of their Souls open to Divine influences and communications thirsting after them praying and waiting for them and endeavouring to improve them 149 Delighting in this notion imports then two things 1. Applying our selves by help of God communicating influences to these things wherein the matter of delight lies 151 2. Reflecting upon the things themselves that are so delightful Obj. But so we shall bring our whole Religion within the compass of this one thing Ans. 1. It can only be said there is a delight adhering thereto 152 2. All the things of Religion are truly delectable 153 3. What fault that delight runs through Religion 154 4. What absurdity the several acts of Religion should be comprehended under Delight in God 2. Explicite Delight in God may be considered as to its 1. Nature which is the rest of the Soul in God by a satisfiedness of will in him as the best and most excellent Good 155 Which supposeth 1. A knowledg of him 156 2. Actual thoughts of him 157 3. A pleasedness with the first view of him 4. A desire of what is due to him or wanted from him 5. Satisfaction and repose it self so far as desire is satisfied work as our love to him either for himself or our selves 158 6. A stirring up of our selves to heighten our delight 159 2. Modification manner or measure of this delight in God in respect of the Excellency highest delight simply and comparatively 160 Permanency sutable to the object 162 2. How 't is we are called to it 163 And that is according to what it is in it self both As 1. A Priviledg by Gracious Invitation 164 2. A Duty by way of Authoritative Command It is a great piece of Homage 165 Therefore we should be well informed 1. That we are to delight in him supreamly 169 2. That we continue therein 170 II. Practice or Exercise of Delight in God 173 Both as 1. Adhaerent to the other Duties of Religion and so treat of the exercise of Religion as delightful 175 Wherein 1. We are not to rest in or practise a Religion which is not naturally and in it self delightful 176 Hence more distinctly is shew'd 1. What that Religion is which is wholly in it self undelightful Taking two Cautions 1. That even such Religion as is true and living and consequently in it self delightful yet may by accident sometimes not appear or be thought so 177 2. That a dead Religion may be thought delightful through the ill temper of the subject And premising a twofold General Rule viz. 1. Such Delight which is taken in any thing not answering the end to which it serves 178 2. Such as is accompanied with a real hurt greater than the Delight can countervail So then that Religion is undelightful i.e. not chiefly delightful 1. Which consists wholly in revolving in one's mind the notions that belong to Religion without either the experience or the design and expectation of having the heart and conversation formed according to them 180 2. Which too many place in some peculiar opinions that are either false and contrary to Religion or doubtful and cumbersom to it 182 3. Hitherto may be referr'd the much less rational pleasure which is taken by some in the meer dress wherewith such notions and opinions may be artificially clothed by themselves or others 184 4. Which is made all of Talk 186 5. Which stands all in hearing 187 6. Which consists entirely in the external additaments and forms of Worship which this or that party have chosen to affix to it 188 2. How unfit that Religion is to be chosen and rested in 189 Here let it be considered 1. That Religion which is in it self undelightful is uncapable of growth because a dead thing 190 2. Nor for the same reason can it be a lasting thing 192 3. While it doth last it wants the fruit and profit which should be designed and sought by Religion 193 4. How foolish a thing it is and unworthy of a reasonable creature to do that in a continued course and series of actions wherein we