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
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
as it is our priviledg And that we cannot injure our selves in this matter without also robbing God Delight in God is a great piece of homage to him a practical acknowledgment of his sovereign excellency and perfect all comprehending goodness when we retire from all the world to him we confess him better than all things besides That we have none in Heaven or Earth that we esteem worthy to be compared with him But when our hearts are averse to him and will not be brought to delight in him since there is somewhat in the mean while wherein we do delight we do as much as say yea we more significantly express it than by saying that whatever that is 't is better than he Yea that such a thing is good and he is not For as not-believing him is a denial of his Truth the making him a liar not delighting in him is equally a denial of his Goodness and consequently even of his Godhead it self And since we find the words are here laid down plainly in a preceptive form Delight thy self in the Lord Can any think themselves after this at liberty to do so or not 'T is true that they who are in no disposition hereto have somewhat else to do in order to that of which hereafter but in the mean time how forlorn is their case who have nothing to excuse their sin by but sin and who instead of extenuating their guilt do double it Yea and we are further to consider that it is not only commanded by a meer simple precept but that this Precept hath its solemn sanction and that not only by promise here expresly annexed of which hereafter but also of imply'd threatning That we shall not else have the desires of our hearts but be necessarily unsatisfied and miserable which is also in many other places expressed plainly enough Great penalty is due upon not delighting in God even by the Gospel-constitution it self which is not so unreasonably form'd as to require more in this matter than is sutable to the object it self and is framed so indulgently as to accept much less than is proportionable thereto and yet within the capacity also of a reasonable Soul so that though the very nature of the thing doth plainly dictate a rule by which this matter is to be estimated and judged yet this other rule gives considerable abatement and allowance That is it being considered what the Object claims and challenges as by its own proper excellency due to it and what the Subject is by its own nature capable of Not only doth it hence appear that delight in God is a duty but that the Soul ought to rise to that highest pitch of delight in him i. e. unto the highest the Soul is naturally capable of The very Law of Nature resulting from the reference and comparison of our nature unto Gods own requires so much That we Love or delight in him with all our heart with all our mind with all our might and with all our strength He deserves from us our very uttermost Yet this is by the Gospel-constitution required with indulgence and abatement not as to the matter required but as to the manner of requiring it The matter required is still the same so as that the purest highest delight in God doth not cease to be a duty or any gradual defect thereof cease to be a sin The Gospel doth make no change of the natures of things makes nothing cease to be due to God from us which the Law of Nature made due nor renders any defect innocent which is in its own nature culpable and faulty Therefore the same pitch of delight in God is still due and required that ever was But that perfection is not finally and without relief required in the same manner and on the same terms it was that is it is not by the Gospel required under remediless penalty as it was For the Law of Nature though it made not a remedy simply impossible yet it provided none but the Gospel provides one Yet not so but the same penalty also remains in it self due and deserved which was before For as the Gospel takes not away the dueness of any part or degree of that obedience which we did owe to God naturally so nor doth it take away the natural dueness of punishment for disobedience in any kind or degree of it Only it provides that upon the very valuable consideration which it makes known it becomes to us a remissible debt and actually remitted to them who come up to the terms of it Not that it should be in it self no debt for then nothing were remitted Nor yet when it so provides for the remission of defects in this part of our duty doth it remit the substance of the duty it self or pardon any defects of it to any but such who are found sincere in this as well as the other parts of that obedience which we owe. Others who after so gracious overtures remain at their former distance and retain their aversion enmity and disaffection to God it more grievously and most justly threatens and punishes as implacable and who will upon no terms return into a state of friendship and amity with their Maker whom they hated without cause and do now continue strangers and enemies to him without excuse so that the very blood of the reconciling Sacrifice cries against them And surely since as was formerly said it is God in Christ that is the intire Object of this Delight or Love 'T is a fearful penalty that is determined upon them that do not so place it when it is said If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha And when also it is said Grace be upon all them that do it is plainly imply'd that the penalty belongs to all them that do not love him in sincerity Of which sincerity therefore of delight in God to keep within the compass of our present Theam it is necessary we be well informed as we may be from what hath been said before that is 1. That we delight in him supreamly and above all things else viz. with our highest and deepest complacency of will For it is not necessary nor ordinarily possible that our delight in him should be ever accompany'd with such sensible agitation of the corporeal Spirits as we find in reference to meerly sensible objects Which is not essential to such delight but an accident that follows union with the body and more frequently and to a greater degree in some tempers of body than others But it is necessary there be that practical estimation of him and propension towards him as the best and most excellent good as that we be in a preparation of mind and heart to forego whatever can come into any competition with him for his sake That though we do not thus delight in him so much as we should yet we do more than in any thing else 2. That we continue herein
finally to terminate in the Mediator for that the very notion of Mediator resists The name Christ is the proper name of that office and the desire of knowing him under that name imports a desire to know him in his office viz. as one that is to lead us to God and restore our acquaintance with him which was not to be recovered upon other terms So that it is ultimately the knowledg of God that is the so much desired thing and of Christ as the way and our conductor to God That is the knowledg of God not absolutely considered alone though he is even so a very delectable object as hath been said But as he is related to us and from whom we have great expectations our all being comprehended in him It cannot but be very delightful answerably to a certain sort of delectation of which we shall have occasion to speak in its proper place to have him before our eyes represented and revealed to us as the all-comprehending good and that in the way and method whereinto things are now cast may at least become our portion He is some way to be enjoyed even in this view 'T is a thing apt to infer complacency and delight thus to look upon him They who place felicity in contemplation especially in the contemplation of God are not besides the mark If they do not circumscribe and confine it there so as to make it stand in meer eontemplation or in an idle and vainly curious view of so glorious an object without any further concern about it They will then be found to speak very agreeably to the language of holy scripture which so frequently expresses the blessedness of the other state by seeing God And if the act of vision be delicious The representation of the object must have proportionable matter of delight in it It cannot but have so if we consider the nature of this representation Which answerably to the sensible want and desire of such as shall be delighted there-with must have somewhat more in it than the common appearances of God which offer themselves equally to the view of all men Though it is their own as common fault that they are destitute of the more grateful and necessary additions That it hath more in it is evident from Gods own way of speaking of it For we find that his revealing himself in this delectable way 1. Is attributed to the spirit And as a work to be done by it when it shall be given supposing it therefore yet not given and that all have it not yea that such have it not in such a measure as they may have it unto this purpose who yet truly have it in some measure already even as a thing peculiar to them from the unbelieving world For it is prayed for to such as concerning whom it is said that after they believed not before they were sealed by the spirit of promise that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of glory would give it them and it is mentioned by a name and title proper to the end and purpose for which it is desired to be given them viz. as the spirit of Wisdom and Revelation that end and purpose being immediately exprest in or as that particle is some time used for the knowledg of him The eyes of their understanding being enlightened by it which are supposed blind before for the same purpose By which prayer it is supposed a communicable thing Yea and that these had some way a right to the communication of it or that it was a thing proper to their state fit to be prayed for as some way belonging to them they being in a more immediate capacity of such revelation than others But how incongruous had it been with such solemnity of address to make request on their behalf for that which they already sufficiently had as a thing common to all men 2. It is spoken of as a reward of their former love loyalty and obedience 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 Therefore is such manifestation no more to be accounted common than the love of Christ is and keeping his commandments It is spoken of as given discriminatingly and the grace of God admired upon that account In the next words Judas saith unto him not Iscariot it being well understood how little covetous he was of or qualifyed for such manifestations Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self to us and not to the world What it hath more than common light external or internal answerable to the deeply resented wants and the hearts desires of the regenerate by which it becomes so highly pleasant and delectable to them though it is rather to be felt than told as it is hard to describe the very things we have only immediate sensible perception of may yet in some degree be understood by such characters as these 1. It is much more distinct and clear They are confused and dark glimmerings which other men have of the blessed God so that the light which is in them is darkness 'T is true that an unregenerate person may possibly have clearer acquired notions of God and of the things of God than those may be which are of the same kind only in some who are regenerate So that he may by the advantages he may have above some of the other in respect of better natural abilities more liberal education such circumstances of his condition as may more engage him to study and contemplation and befriend him therein be capable of finding out more of making fuller discoveries and more evident deductions and be able to discourse thence more rationally and satisfyingly to others even concerning God his nature attributes and works than some very pious persons destitute of those advantages may be able to do But these though their candle give a dimmer light than the others have the beams of a Sun raying in upon them that much out-shines the others candle And though they know not so many things nor discern the connexions of things so throughly yet as they do know what is most necessary to be known so what they do know they know better and with a more excellent sort of knowledg proportionably as whatsoever is originally and immediately divine cannot but much excel that which is meerly human Those do but blunder in the dark These in Gods own light do see light And his light puts a brighter hue and aspect upon the same things than any other representation can put upon them Things are by it represented to the life which to others carry with them but a faint and languid appearance and are all covered over with nothing else but dark and dusky shadow so as that may be hid from the wise and prudent which is revealed to babes How bright and
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
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
some way a penalty not to be already perfectly blessed For it is certain that such rapturous sensations and the want of them are not the distinguishing characters of the more grown strong and excellent Christians and of them that are more infirm and of a meaner and lower pitch and stature Yea those extatical emotions although they have much of a sensible delectation in them as more hereafter may be said to that purpose and though they may in part proceed from the best and most excellent Cause do yet if they be frequent which would signifie an aptitude thereto import somewhat of diminution in their subject and imply what is some way a lessening of it that is they imply the persons that are more disposed this way to be of a temper not so well fixed and compos'd but more volatile and airy which yet doth not intimate that the chief Cause and Author of those motions is therefore mean and ignoble nay it argues nothing to the contrary but that the Holy Spirit it self may be the supream Cause of them For admitting it to be so it doth not alter mens natural tempers and complexions but so acts them as that they retain and express upon occasion what was peculiar to their temper notwithstanding The work and office of the Holy Ghost in its special communications is to alter and new-mold men in respect of their moral dispositions not those which are strictly and purely natural the subject is in this regard the same it was and whatsoever is received is received according to the disposition of that and it gives a tincture to what supervenes and is implanted thereinto whence the same degree of such communicated influence will not so discernibly move some tempers as it doth others as the same quantity of fire will not so soon put solid wood into a flame as it will light straw That some men therefore are less sensibly and passionately mov'd with the great things of God and even with the discovery of his love than some others doth not argue them to have less of the Spirit but more of that temper which better comports with deeper judgment and a calm and sober consideration of things The unaptness of some mens affections unto strong and fervent motion doth indeed arise from a stupid inconsiderateness of some others from a more profound consideration by which the deeper things sink and the more they pierce even into the inmost center of the Soul the less they move the surface of it And though I do not think the saying of that Heathen applicable to this case It is a wise mans part to admire nothing for here is matter enough in this Theam the Love of God to justifie the highest wonderment possible and not to admire in such a case is most stupidly irrational yet I conceive the admiration as well as other affections of more considering persons is more inward calm sedate and dispassionate and is not the less for being so but is the more solid and rational and the pleasure that attends it is the more deep and lasting And the fervour that ensues upon the apprehended Love of God prompting them to such service as is sutable to a state of devotedness to his interest is more intense and durable of the others more flashy and inconstant As though Flax set on fire will flame more than Iron yet withal it will smoak more and will not glow so much nor keep heat so long 10. But to shut up this Discourse They that have more transporting apprehensions of the love of God should take heed of despising them who have them not in just the same kind or do not express them in the same seraphick strains They that have them not should take heed of censuring those that with humble modesty upon just occasion discover and own what they do experience in this kind much less should they conclude that because they find them not there is therefore no such thing to be found which Cynical humour is too habitual to such tempers If they do fancy such to be a weaker sort of persons they may be sincere for all that And it ought to be considered of whom it was said That he would not quench the smoaking flax The Grace and Spirit of Christ ought to be reverenc'd in the various appearances thereof Whether we be sober or besides our selves The love of Christ constraineth us So diversly may the apprehensions of that Love work in the same person much more in divers Christians should be shie of making themselves standards to one another which they that do discover more pride and self-conceit than acquaintance with God and more admiration of themselves than of his love Thus far we have given some account of the object to be delighted in wherein if any think strange that we have spoken so much of the delectable Divine communication as belonging to the object which how it doth hath been sufficiently shew'n let them call it if they please a preparing or disposing of the Subject which it also making its own way into the Soul as hath been said effectually doth and if the necessity of it be acknowledg'd upon that account it equally answers the main purpose aimed at in all this and had it been only so considered would but have infer'd some alteration in the frame and method of this Discourse but not at all of the substance or design of it We art next to say somewhat briefly of the Delight it self to be taken therein Nor shall we be herein so curious as to distinguish which some do Delight and Joy The distinction wont to be assigned cannot 't is plain hold here so as to make the former of these signifie a brutish affection only and the latter proper to rational nature Nor is there any such propriety belonging to the words but they may be rendered as indeed they are used in Scripture promiscuously either in reference to the matter of intellectual or sensitive complacency and either of a reasonable being or an unreasonable We take these therefore to signifie substantially the same thing and here delight to be intirely all one with joy That is there is not any the highest degree of joy which may not fitly enough be comprehended under the name of Delight when it is placed as here it is requir'd to be upon the blessed God Whereof that we may speak the more fully it will be necessary to preface somewhat concerning its general nature and more principally as it is found in man within which compass our principal business lies Delight in the general is most intimately essential to Love which imports a well-pleasedness arising from the apprehended goodness or congruity of the thing loved and it seems to be meerly by accident that there is any thing else in Love besides that complacency of Delight That is what there is else belonging to the nature of Love arises from the mixture and variety which is to be found in the present state of
things which if it were at present universally and perfectly good and as most rationally it might be wish'd Love could have no exercise but in Delight Not being so Desire that it might be so in reference to our selves and others whom we love comes duly to have place together with other acts or exercises of Love which it belongs not so much to our present purpose to mention For instance Whatsoever we can love is either Things or Persons whatsoever things we love is for the sake of Persons either our selves or others whom also we love either supreamly or subordinately And whomsoever we love supreamly as it is certainly either God or our selves we love whatsoever else Person or Thing either for Gods sake or our own Be it now the one or other or wheresoever we can place our love we find things in reference to any object of it not yet as we would have them and as they shall be in that setled state which shall be permanent and last always whereunto this is but preparatory only and introductive The Creation is indigent every creature wants somewhat even whereof it is capable and our own wants in many respects we cannot but feel Nothing is perfect in its own Kind in respect of all possible accessories thereto even the state of glorify'd Spirits above is not yet every way perfect much is wanting to their full and compleat felicity the Body and Community whereto they belong the General Assembly is not yet entire and full Their common Ruler and Lord is not acknowledg'd and had in honour as he shall be In the mean while their consummate blessedness which much depends on these things and the solemn Jubilee to be held at the close and finishing of all Gods work is defer'd Yea and if we go higher The blessed God himself the Author and Original of all things although no-thing be wanting to the real perfection of his Being and Blessedness hath yet much of his Right with-held from him by his lapsed and apostate Creatures so that which way soever we turn our selves there remains to us much matter of rational yea and holy desire and most just cause that our love place we it as well and duly as we can have its exercise that way we have before us many desiderata according as things yet are Desire is therefore Love suted to an imperfect state of things wherein it is yet imperfect And because it 's suted to such a state of things it cannot therefore but be imperfect love or love tending to perfection Pure and simple delight is love suted to a state of things every way perfect and whereto there is nothing lacking Wherefore Delight appears to be the perfection of Love or Desire satisfied But now because this present state is mixed and not simply evil or such wherein we find no present good therefore the love which is suted thereto ought consequently to be mixed of these two especially unto which two the present discourse is both extended and confin'd because these two affections only are mentioned in the Text Desire and Delight So far as things are otherwise than we practically apprehend 't is fit they should be with our selves or others whom we love our Love is exercised in desire wherein they are as we would have them in delight for then our desire is so far satisfied and desire satisfied ceases though love do not cease Or it ceases not by vanishing into nothing but by being satisfy'd that is by being perfected in the Delight which now takes place The one of these is therefore truly said to be Love exercised upon a good which we behold at a distance and are reaching at The other Love solacing it self in a present good They are as the wings and arms of love Those for pursuits these for embraces Or the former is love in motion the latter is love in rest And as in bodily motion and rest that is in order to this and is perfected in it Things move not that they may move but that they may rest whence perpetual progressive motion is not to be found so it is also in the motion and rest of the mind or spirit it moves towards any object with a design and expectation to rest in it and according to the course and order which God hath stated and set can never move forward endlesly towards a good in which it shall not at length rest though yet Desire and Delight have a continual vicissitude and do as it were circularly beget one another And thus hath God himself been pleased to express his own Delight or the Joy which he takes in his people even by the name of Rest viz. that of Love He will rejoice over thee with joy he will rest in his love Wherefore delight hath not been unfitly defined The repose or rest of the desiring faculty of the thing desired It is true that Love as such hath ever somewhat of delectation in it for we entertain the first view of any thing we apprehend as Good with some pleasedness therein so far as it is loved it is grateful to us and we are gratified some way by it yea there is somewhat of this before any emotion by desire towards it For we would not desire it if it were not pleasing to us which desire is then continued as far as love is in exercise till it be attained for our selves or others according as the object of our love i. e. the object for whom as we may call it is Nor is that a difficulty how yet there may be somewhat of delectation and even of rest in this love of desire For the Soul doth in that case while it is thus desiring rest from the indetermination of desire that is if it have placed Love upon any one it self or another upon whom therefore it doth with a sort of pleasedness stay and rest it doth first in the general desire it may be well with such a one and then if any thing occur to its notice that it apprehends would be an advantage to the person loved though it cease not desiring it yet it ceases from those its former hoverings of desire being pitch'd upon this one thing as satisfied that this would be a good to him it loves The appetite stays and insists upon this thing As the Psalmist One thing have I desired It hath here as it were a sort of hypothetical rest q. d. How well-pleased should I be if this were compast and brought about Or it hath an anticipated and pre-apprehended rest a rest in hope by which the object is some way made present as it is said We rejoice in hope of the glory of God For there is no rational desire which is not accompani'd with hope Despair stifles Desire That which appears simply impossible passes for nothing and goodness goes not beyond the compass of being But whatsoever appears to us a good whether for our selves or another that is sutable and possible That if
Gods Spirit determining the act or faculty to which it adheres towards God may be conceived thus That it is the acquiescense or rest of the Soul in God by a satisfiedness of will in him as the best and most excellent Good That it be the rest of the Soul belongs to its general nature And so doth the mentioned kind of rest more distinguishingly by the wills satisfiedness in him Because the Soul may be also said to rest satisfied in respect of another faculty by the meer knowledg of Truth But this supposes so much of that also as is necessary And because the acts of the understanding are subservient and in order to those of the will in the Souls pursuit of a delightful good which is so far attained as it actually delights therein Therefore this may more simply be called the rest of the whole Soul whereas that other is its rest but in some respect only Especially when we add As in the best and most excellent good for this signifies the good wherein it rests to be ultimate and its last end the very period of its pursuits beyond which it neither needs nor desires to go further viz. as to the kind and nature of the good which it is now intent upon though it still desire more of the same till there be no place left for further desire but it wholly cease and end in full satisfaction And that we may speak somewhat more particularly of this rest in God it supposes 1. Knowledg of him That the Soul be well furnished with such conceptions of his Nature and Attributes as that it may be truly said to be himself it delights in and not another thing not an Idol of its own fancy and which its imagination hath created and set up to it instead of God Therefore his own representation of himself must be our measure which being forsaken or not so diligently attended to He is either by some misrepresented according as their own corrupt hearts do suggest impure thoughts and made altogether such a one as themselves and such as cannot be the object of a pure and spiritual delight or by others as their guilt and fear do suggest to them black and direful thoughts of him render'd such as that he cannot be the object of any delight at all 2. It supposes actual thoughts of him My soul shall be satisfi'd as with marrow and fatness when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches 3. A pleasedness with even the first view or apprehension of him which is most essential to any love to him and which gives rise to any motion of 4. Desire directed towards him upon the apprehension that somewhat is absent either of what is due to him or lacking to our selves from him 5. It includes the satisfaction or repose it self which the Soul hath so far as it finds its desire answered in the one kind or the other Where we must more distinctly know that the delight taken in him is according as the desire is which works towards him and that as our love to him is Now we love him either for himself or for our own selves For himself ultimately so as that our Love periods in him and stays there viz. on him as good in himself For our selves as when our love to him returns upon our selves apprehending a goodness in him which is sutable for our enjoyment Loving him in the former way we desire all may be ascribed and given to him that possibly may or can And because we know him to be every way perfect and full and that nothing can be added to him of real perfection and therefore nothing can be given him besides external honour and acknowledgments We therefore desire these may be universally rendered him to the very uttermost And as far as we find him worthily glorify'd admired and had in honour so far we have delight in or in reference to him consisting in the gratification of that desire Loving him in the other way which also we are not only allow'd but obliged to do in contradistinction to all creature-good we desire his nearer presence and converse more full communications of his light grace and consolations And are delighted according as we find such desire is answered unto us 6. The form of expression used in the Text implies also a stirring up our selves and the use of endeavours with our own hearts to foment heighten and raise our own delight The Conjugation as it is thought fit to be called into which the word is put importing by a peculiarity of expressiveness belonging to the sacred Language action upon ones self which must also be understood to have the same force in reference to that former sense of delighting in God That is that we put our selves upon those acts and exercises whereunto such delight is adjoined These things are now more cursorily mentioned because there will be occasion more at large to insist on them in the Discourse of The Practice of this Duty reserved to the Second Part 2. We now proceed to the Modification of this Delight in God or the right manner or measure of it Concerning which it is apparent in the general it can be no further right than as it is agreeable to its Object That our Delight should ever be adequate or of a measure equal to it is plainly impossible But it must be some-way sutable or must bear proportion to it I shall here mention but two and those very eminent respects wherein it must do so viz. in respect of The Excellency Permanency Of the Good to be delighted in 1. The excellency of it Inasmuch as it is the best and highest Good it plainly challenges our highest Delight That is The highest Delight simply which our natures are capable of is most apparently due to the blessed God even by the Law of nature it self resulting from our natures referd unto his And as the Case stands under the Gospel The highest Delight comparatively i. e. higher than we take in any thing else nothing must be so much delighted in as he We do not otherwise delight in him as God which is one way of glorifying him And its part of the Apostles charge upon the Pagan world that knowing him to be God they did not glorifie him as God If we make the comparison between him and all the good things of this world the matter is out of question It is the sense of holy Souls Whom have I in Heaven but thee and whom can I desire on earth besides thee When others say Who will shew us any Good They say Lord Lift thou up the light of thy countenance And thereby he puts gladness into their hearts more than when Corn and Wine increase And whosoever love not Christ more than Father Mother Wife Child yea and their own lives cannot be his Disciples Their present worldly life it self it put in the balance he must outweigh And if we put the
comparison between our spiritual eternal Life and him though he and that can never be in opposition as there may be often an opposition between him and this present life so that the one is often quitted for the other yet neither is there a co-ordination but the less worthy must be subordinate to the more worthy We are to desire the enjoyment of him for his own glory And yet here is a strange and admirable complication of these with one another For if we enjoy him delight and rest in him as our best and most satisfying Good we thereby glorifie him as God We give him practically highest acknowledgments we confess him the most excellent one 'T is his glory to be the last term of all desires and beyond which no reasonable desire can go further And if we seek and desire his glory supreamly sincerely and really beyond and above all things when he is so glorified to the uttermost or we are assured he will be our highest desire is so far satisfied and that turns to or is our own contentment So that by how much more simply and sincerely we pass from and go out of our selves so much the more certainly we find our own satisfaction rest and full blessedness in him As it is impossible the Soul that loves him above it self can be fully happy while he hath not his full glory so it is for the same reason equally impossible but it must be so when he hath 2. Our delight must be sutable to the Object the Good to be delighted in In respect of the permanency of it This is the most durable and lasting Good In this blessed Object therefore we are to rejoice evermore As in the matter of Trust we are required to Trust in the Lord for ever because in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength Everlasting strength gives sufficient ground for everlasting Trust. So it is in the matter of delight A permanent everlasting excellency is not answered but by a continual and everlasting delight Therefore is it most justly said Rejoice in the Lord alway and again I say to you rejoice alway and still on If through a long tract of time you have been constantly alway rejoicing in the Lord begin again I again say to you rejoice or rather never give over The Object will warrant and justifie the act let it be drawn forth to never so vast a length of time You will still find a continual spring unexhausted fulness a fountain never to be drawn dry There will never be cause of diversion with this pretence that now this Object will yield no more It is drained to the uttermost and is now become an empty and gustless thing With other things it may be so and therefore our delight doth not answer the natures of such things but when we rejoice in them as if we rejoiced not They are as if they were not All the things of this world are so For even the fashion of this world passeth away as it is afterwards added Therefore no delight can fitly be taken in them but what is volatil and unfixed as they are lest otherwise it over-reach and run beyond its Object And how absurd and vain is it to have our hearts set upon that which is not That takes wing and leaves us in the dirt This Object of delight is the I am yesterday and to day the same and for ever without variableness and shadow of change Therefore the nature of it cannot allow us a reason wherefore if we be delighted therein yesterday we should not to day or if to day why not to morrow and so on to for ever Whence then we may see no one can say he hath answered the import of this Exhortation Delight thy self in the Lord by having delighted in him at sometime It is continual as well as highest delight we are here called to We see then thus far what we are called to when we are here directed to delight our selves in the Lord. 2. We are next to shew How we are called to it And the matter it self will answer the enquiry we are called to it according to what in it self it is Now it is Both a Priviledg And Duty We are therefore called to it and accordingly are to understand the words 1. By way of gracious invitation to partake of a priviledg which our Blessed Lord would have us share and be happy in no longer to spend our selves in anxious pursuits and vain expectations of Rest where it is not to be found but that we retire our selves to him in whom we shall be sure to find it Pity and Mercy invite us here to place our delight and take up our Rest. And concerning this there is no question or imaginable doubt 2. By way of authoritative Command For we must know That delight in God is to be considered not only under the notion of a priviledg unto which we may esteem our selves entitled but also of a duty whereto we are most indispensibly obliged This is a thing not so much not understood as not considered and seriously thought on by very many and the not-considering it proves no small disadvantage to the life of Religion It occurs to very many more familiarly under the notion of a high favour and a great vouchsafement as indeed it is that God will allow any of the Sons of men to place their delights in himself but they at least seem to think it's only the priviledg of some special favourites of whom because they perhaps are conscious they have no cause to reckon themselves they are therefore very secure in the neglect of it And thus is the pretence of modesty and humility very often made an umbrage and shelter to the vile carnality of many an heart and a want of fitness is pretended and cherished at the same time as an excuse That whereas they do not delight in God they never may For he that is unfit to day and never therewithal applies himself with seriousness to the endeavour of becoming fit is likely to be more unfit to morrow and so be as much excused always as now and by the same means at length excuse himself from being happy but never from having been the Author of his own misery But what is it indeed no duty to Love God Is that become no Duty which is the very sum and comprehension of all duties or can they be said to Love him that take no pleasure in him that is to Love him without loving him It is indeed wonderful grace that there should be such a contexture of our happiness and duty that by the same thing wherein we are obedient we also become immediately in the same degree blessed And that the Law of God in this case hath this very import an obligation upon us to Blessedness But in the mean time we should not forget that Gods Authority and Honour are concerned herein as it is our duty as well as our own happiness
your Consciences did at such times accuse you And let that be a dreadful thing in your eyes to continue a course which if you consider you cannot but condemn And 3. Ought not your Experience to have been instructive to you as it commonly is to men in other matters Have you not in this neglect run counter to such instruction By this means you are suppos'd to have known the sweetness as by that last mentioned the equity and fitness of delight in God Have not those been your best hours wherein you could freely solace your selves in him was not one of them better than a thousand otherwise spent Did you never find it good for you in this way to draw nigh to God and hereupon pronounce them blessed whom he did chuse and cause to approach unto him And where is that blessedness of which ye spake Have ye forgotten that ye ever thus tasted how gracious the Lord was And 't is like you have by your taste found it also an evil thing and bitter to depart from him Methinks you should reckon it a great increase of your sin to have gone against your own sense when especially your superior rule might give you assurance it did not deceive you And doth it not expresly oblige you to follow its guidance while it puts the character of perfect or of being come to full age upon them who by reason of use or accustomedness have senses exercised to discern between Good and Evil 4. And what will you say to the great obligations which the love and kindness of God have laid upon you Will you not esteem your selves to have been thereby bound to place your love and delight on him Could you decline doing so without putting a slight upon his love who is infinite in what he is and who is love was not his love enough to deserve yours The love of a God that of a silly worm Were you not oblig'd to love him back again who was so much before-hand with you in the matter of love To love him who had loved you first The first love is Therefore perfectly free the latter is thereby certainly obliged and become bounden duty How variously and with how mighty demonstration hath that love exprest and evidence't it self It hath not glanc't at you but rested on you and setled in delight He hath so stood affected towards the people of his choice and put a name on them on purpose to signifie his delight in them He rejoices over them with joy and rests in his love to them The Lord taketh pleasure in his people His delights have from of old been with the Sons of men Could He delight in such as you and cannot you in him Be amazed at this How mean an Object had he for his delight How glorious and enamouring a one have you Excellency and Love in conjunction whereas in you were met Deformity and ill-will He hath loved you so as to remit to you much To give to you and for you a great deal more Himself and the Son of his delights He then thou shouldst recount did invite thee to delight in him who hath always sought thy good done strange things to effect it takes pleasure in thy prosperity and exercises loving kindness towards thee with delight Who contrived thy Happiness wrought out thy Peace at the expence of Blood even his own Taught thee the way of Life cared for thee all thy days hath supplied thy wants born thy burdens eas'd thy griefs wip't thy tears And if now he say to thee After all this couldst thou take no pleasure in me Will not that confound and shame thee He hath exprest his love by his so earnest and at last successful endeavours to gain thine By this that he hath seemed to put a value on it and that he desisted not till in some degree he had won it Whereupon there hath been an acquaintance a friendship some intimacies between him and thee according as sovereign Majesty hath vouchsafed to descend and advance sinful dust And how disingenuous unbecoming and unsutable to all this is thy strangeness and distance afterwards It it is more unworthy to cast out of your hearts than not to have admitted such a guest 5. How contrary is this omission to what by solemn vow and astipulation you have bound your selves to It hath graciously pleased the blessed God in his transactions with men to contrive his Laws into the form of a Covenant wherein upon terms he binds himself to them expecting what he obtains from such as become his own their restipulation Wonderful grace that he should article with his Creatures and capitulate with the work of his own hands And whereas his first and great Law and which virtually being submitted to comprehends our obedience to all the rest is as hath been noted Thou shalt have no other Gods before me This also he gives forth often as the sum and abridgment of his Covenant That he will be our God and we shall be his people Now this you have consented to and therein bound your selves as you have heard our Saviour expounds the first and great Commandment To love him with all your soul c. And how well doth your neglect to delight in him agree and consist with this What love him with all your soul in whom you can rarely find your selves to take any pleasure Surely your hearts will now misgive and admit a conviction you have not dealt truly as well as not kindly in this What not to keep Faith with the righteous God! To deceive a Deceiver some would think not intolerable But what pretence can there be for such dealing with the God of Truth You have vow'd to him What think you of this drawing back Such trifling with him the great and terrible God who keeps Covenant and Mercy for ever How unbecoming is it to dally with him as you would with an uncertain whiffling man To be off and on to say and unsay that he shall be your God and that he shall not for how is he your God if you delight not in him imports little of that solemn gravity and stayedness which becomes a transaction with the most High God He takes no pleasure in fools Wherefore pay that which you have vowed 6. Nor doth it better agree with your Relation to him which arises from your Covenant Thence he becomes yours and you his I entred into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine and the Covenant binding on both parts the relation is mutual so that thereby also he becomes yours It is a most near represented therefore by the nearest among men even the conjugal relation Therefore how full is that Song of Songs of expressions importing mutual delights sutable thereto And what a bondage as well as incongruity were that relation without delight Have you repented your Choice If not Why take you not pleasure Why do you not rejoice and glory in it even as
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
begetting and Spirit begotten And the Spirit begotten as it must be distinguished from its cause the Spirit of God so it must from the subject wherein the effect is wrought our own Spirits For they sure are not produc't by the regenerating work Yea and when God is said to dwell in them that dwell in love and that are humble and contrite somewhat else is thereby signify'd to be indwelling there than the meer being of God for otherwise the priviledg of such were no greater than of all other men and things And what else is it but somewhat communicated and imparted immediately from God to such else how by dwelling in love do they dwell in God which because dwelling imports permanency cannot be a transient influence only but some settled abiding effect a consistent frame and temper of Spirit maintained by his continually renewed influence and therefore it would be very unreasonably said that the representing this as delectable is a calling us off from God to delight in our selves For if this communication be not it self in strict propriety God it were as great impropriety to say it were our selves Again 2. It hath a great deal more affinity with God than with us We are its true the subjects of it but it is his immediate production and very likeness a Divine nature no humane thing Therefore if here our delight were to terminate it were more proper to call it delighting in God than in our selves But 3. It is neither said nor meant that here our delight is to terminate but that hereby we are to delight in God and so that our delight is to terminate in him 4. When we are said to enjoy God I inquire Is any thing communicated to us or no If not we have no enjoyment If any thing be what is it Gods Essence That 's impossible and horrid to think as hath been said And we need not repeat that when we can tell what it is to enjoy a Friend without partaking his essence whose communications are so incomparably more remote mediate resistible It is less difficult to conceive how God is to be enjoy'd by his communications 2. It may be again said But if God be thus to be delighted in how can delighting in him be upon such terms our duty For is it our duty that he communicate himself in this way to us Let any that object thus only study the meaning of those Precepts Keep your selves in the love of God Continue in his goodness Be ye fill'd with the Spirit Walk in the Spirit And if they can think them to signifie any thing they will not be to seek for an answer But to this more hereafter when from the delightful object we come to treat of actual delighting in it 3. But some may say It were indeed to be acknowledged that such a temper of spirit once communicated were indeed very delightful But where is it to be found And to state the matter of delight so much in what is to be sought in our selves is to reduce the whole business of delighting in God to an impossibility or to nothing So little appearing of this temper and so much of the contrary as gives much cause of doubt whether there be any thing to be rejoiced in or no. And what then Are we to suspend the exercise of this duty till we have gotten the difficult case resolved which may be all our time Is there a real thorough work of God upon my Soul or no For how can I rejoice in that whereof I have yet a doubt whether it be what it seems or no I answer 1. It is plain they that really have nothing of this communication from God cannot take delight in it otherwise than as hoped for But 2. Would we therefore have such to please themselves and be satisfied without it and delight in their distance and estrangement from God and while there is no intercourse between him and them And shall this be called too delighting in God Surely somewhat else than delight belongs to their states 3. But for such as really have it That which hath been designed to be evinced is that it is delectable in it self and therefore they cannot be without any taste or relish of pleasure therein while yet some doubt touching the sincerity and truth thereof doth yet remain Though such doubt but more their imperfect reception of this communication and neglect to look after further degrees of it cannot but render their delight comparatively little Nor hath it been designed to speak hitherto of what delight the regenerate in this way actually have but what they may have and what matter of delight Gods heart-rectifying communication doth in the nature of it contain that is supposing it were imparted and received so as actually to have formed the Soul according to the Gospel-revelation And if it were so in a more eminent measure and degree it were then in it self so delectable as without the assurance of our future safe and happy state though that in that case is not likely to be in a comfortable degree wanting that is not by it only but by it self without the present constant necessary concurrence thereof to afford unspeakable pleasure to that Soul in which it hath place So that the getting of assurance is not the only thing to be done in order to a persons delighting in God of which more hereafter is intended to be said in the directive Part But though that be not the only thing yet it is a very great thing and being superadded makes a great addition to the matter of delight Therefore we further say This divine communication is delectable as it includes in it the manifestation of Gods love to the Soul in particular Nor do we hereby intend an Enthusiastical assurance or such a testification of the love of God to the Soul as excludes any reference to his external revelation and exercise of our own enlightened reason and judgment thereupon or wherein these are of no use nor have subservience thereto But as in the other parts of the divine communication his external revelation hath the place of an instrument whereby he effects the work inwardly done upon the mind and heart and of a rule or measure whereby we are to judg of it so we are to account it is as to this part of it also that is he inwardly testifies and manifests the same thing which is virtually contained in his Gospel-revelation considered in that reference and aspect which it hath on the present state of the Soul For that outward Revelation must needs be understood to signifie diversly to particular persons as their state may be divers As when it says The things that eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor have entred into the heart of man God hath prepared for them that love him To a person that doth indeed truly love God it virtually says all these things are prepared for thee To one that doth not love God it can only be
or delight in their own delight enough is said by some Schoolmen Nor indeed can it be conceived how the Soul can continue to love or delight in any thing but it must be so For while it perseveres every latter act justifies the former and takes complacency therein but all as directed towards such an object Psal. 40. 2 Cor. 1. 12. 2 Cor. 5. 15. 2 Cor. 1. Rom. 16. Col. 2. 6. Psal. 96. Rom. 14. 17. Joh. 15. 1 Joh. 5. 3. Gal. 5. 22 23. Eph. 5. 9. 1 Cor. 13. Rom. 6. 11 12. v. 13. v 18. Rom. 8. 2. Luk. 21. 19. Col. 1. 11. Psal. 23. 3. Psal. 51. Prov. 4. 23. Psal. 91. Psal. 27. 1 Joh. 4. 4. 1 Cor. 2. 12. Gal. 6. Phil. 3. v. 10. v. 11. Col. 1. 3. Phil. 3. 20. v. 14. Ver. 18. 19. 2 Cor. 5. v. 4. v. 5. Heb. 10. 34. 2 Cor. 4. ult Heb. 11. Mal. 4. 2. 2 Cor. 4. Job 17. 9. Psal. 84. Prov. 10. Isa. 40. Col. 1. 11. Joh. 3. 6. 1 Cor. 2. 9. Rom. 5. 5. 1 Cor. 2. 9. v. 10. v. 12. Joh. 14. v. 16. v. 18. v. 21. v. 23. Rom. 15 13. Isa. 50. Acts 9. 31. 2 Cor. 5. 9. 3 Cor. 5. 13 14. Zeph. 3. 17. 18 Psal. 27. 4. Job 34. 9. Psal. 63. 5 6. Psal. 73. Psal. 4. Mat. 10. 47 Luk. 14. 26. 1 Thes. 5. 16. Isa. 26. 4. Phil. 4. 4. 1 Cor. 7. 30. v. 31. Heb. 10. 29 1 Cor. 16. 22. Eph. 6. 24. Psal. 48. Isa. 58. 2. 1 Tim. 6. 3 Eph. 4. Mal. 3. Jam. 1. Ezek. 33. Isa. 1. Jer. 7. Joh. 4. Psas. 1. Psal. 92. Job 27. 10. Col. 2. 23. Joh. 4. Isa. 66. 3. Act. 20. Rom. 12. 2 Psal. 23. 2. Rom. 12. 2 Rom. 8. 7. Psal. 40. 8. 1 Joh. 5 Psal. 119. 68. Jer. 9. 23. Eph. 2. Psal. 119. Prov. 4. Gal. 3. 14. 3 Pet. 1. 1 Tim. 4. Jam. 1. 27. Jam. 1. 4. Pro. 14. 14. Isa. 3. 10. Psal. 19. 1 Thes. 5. Isa. 51. Psal. 138. Prov. 3. Isa. 40. Jer. 2. 25. Rom. 8. 24. Psal. 138. Psal. 42. Rev. 3. 2 Pet. 1. Eph. 6. 10. Gal. 5. 25. v. 16. Psal. 71. 16 Zech. 10. 12 Mark 6. 5 6. Mat. 17. 19 20. Eph. 6. 16. 1 Pet. 1. Gal. 3. 14. Prov. 1. 23. Ezek. 36 27. With many the like Psal. 119. Psal. 147. 11. 2 Cor. 3. Heb. 12. * Rom. 8. 2 Eph. 4. 1 Thes. 5. Isa. 63. Acts 7. Gen. 6. Heb. 10. 29 Psal. 14. Psal. 53. Rom. 3. v. 19. Rom. 1. 30 Psal. 10. 4. Psal. 9. 17. Prov. 1. Deut. 32. Prov. 8. Mat. 10. 13 Luk. 14. 26 Mat. 22. Isa. 55. 1 2 3. Psa. 44. 19. Job 27. 10. ch 34. 9. Isa. 58. 14. Psal. 33. 1. 97. 12. Phil. 3. 1. 4. 4. Psal. 73. Psal. 65. Heb 5. 14. 1 John 4. Isa. 62. 4. Zeph. 3. Psal. 149. Prov. 8. Eccl. 5. Cant. 5. Isa. 26. Psal. 27. Rom. 14. 17. Gal. 5. 22. Act. 17. 1 Cor. 15 Psal. 76. 1. 2. Acts 17. 2 Cor. 5. Eph. 4. 18. Psal. 10. Isa. 26. 8. Mal. 3. Deut. 32. 15. Psal. 8. Mal. 2. 17. Psal. 104. 33. Jam. 4. 4. 1 Joh. 2 Psal. 73. Heb. 10. Jer. 22. Psal. 63. Hos. 6. Psal. 139. 1 Joh. 17. Joh. 6. Isa. 27. Jer. 8. 2. Rev. 2. Deut. 32. Jer. 2. Mic. 6. 3. Jer. 3. 12. v. 13. Psal. 32. 1. 2 Thes. 3. 5. Prov. 25. 28. Rom. 8. 5. Psal. 43 Jam. 4. 4. Rom. 8. 7 Psal. 27. 4. Psal. 23. 6 Psal. 84. Psal. 4. Heb. 12. Joh. 1. 18. Joh. 1. 14. Joh. 14. 9. Exod. 34. Eph. 1. Hos. 6. Psal. 63. Psal. 104. 34. 1 Cor. 7. Psal. 25. 13 Eccl. 12. 1. Psal. 9. 16. Psal. 86. 4. Rom. 11. 33. Ch. 16. 27. 1 Tim. 1 17. Jude 25. Exod. 15. 11. 1 Sam. 2. 2 Psal. 97. 12 Psal. 115. Psal. 21. 13 Psal. 71. 18 Psal. 31. 19 Psal. 33. 1. c. Psal. 145. 1 c. Psal. 69. Psal. 36. Psal. 90. 2. 1 Kings 8 Psal. 111. Psal. 145. Psal. 104. 31. Psal. 138. 5. Psal. 57. 7 11. Psal. 148. 13. Psal. 104 33. Psal. 8 48 95 96 97 98 99 c. 1 Pet. 1. 8. Psal. 16. Psal. 18. v. 31. 2 Sam. 23. Psal. 48. Psal. 67. 6. Psal. 42. 8. 1 John 4. Prov. 8. Psal. 51. 12 Job 22. Isa. 66. 1 2. Prov. 8. Nehem. 8. Rom. 8. 28 Hab. 3. 17 18. Psal. 37. 16 Psal 73. 25.