Iacob bowed himselfe to the ground seven times untill hee came neere to his brother and Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his necke and kissed him and so became friends with him So when we come out to meet God and bow and humble our soules before him hee will run to us and embrace us and kisse us in token of heartie friendship and reconciliation Luk. 15. 20. When he was a great way off but making towards him his father saw him and had compassion and ranne and fell on his neck and kissed him 2. Secondly there must be an acknowledgement on the offenders part of his errour that hee hath done amisse that he is sorry and grieved and that if it were to doe againe hee would not doe it Though a man have done another wrong and have made a friend an enemy yet upon his submission and fault acknowledged all is healed and the breach made up againe yea our Saviours commandement is in such cases that there should be an heartie redintegration of love and friendship Luke 17. 3. 4. If thy brother trespasse against thee rebuke him and if he repent forgive him And if hee trespasse against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turne againe to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive be good friends with him Thus is it much more with God though wee have sinned and offended many a time against him yet if wee come with submission and acknowledgement Gods friendly and fatherly heart will come off If thou have sinned against God and trespassed against him many many a time yet if thou turn to him again and say I repent hee will assuredly forgive thee and will bee good friends with thee We may not imagine that God wil in this case require more of us than hee will do himselfe If he require thus much of us whose mercies are but drops to his Ocean what will hee doe who is the father of bowels that hath multitude of bowels Isai 63. 15. and the God that multiplies to pardon Isai 55. 7. God is quickly friends with an humbled soule if hee sees a man droope and mourn for having offended he is very inclinable to entertaine termes of friendship with such an one 3. Thirdly there must bee a closing with such an one against his common enemies and an hating and opposing of them This very thing closes mens hearts many times in a strong league and bond of friendship So here if wee would bee Gods friends wee must fall out with our selves with our lusts and maintaine an opposition and an hatred even a deadly feud against them Now this repentance teaches a man to doe True repentance makes a man to fall out bitterly with himselfe filles him with a mortall vindictive hatred against his lusts and corruptions And when the Lord sees that he then resolves that such an one whom he sees so cordial an enemy to his enemies shall become his friend And thus by Repentance are we made the friends of God Thirdly by obedience to God and his Commandements It is true that it is faith that first makes God and men friends but after faith hath knit that band of amity betweene God and us that friendship is encreased and more and more confirmed by yeelding God obedience Iob 22. 21 22. Acquaint thy selfe now with him and be at peace seeke to bee friends with God and get inward acquaintance with him not onely get peace but labour to grow such friends with him that thou mayest be of his familiar acquaintance That 's the thing thou wilt say that thou wouldest faine doe but thou wouldest know how that may bee done Marke therefore what followes in the next words Receive I pray thee the Law from his mouth and lay up his words in thine heart If thou wouldest bee acquainted with God bee acquainted with his word lay that up in thine heart and yield obedience to that in thy life And so Christ tels his Disciples Iohn 15. 14. Ye are my friends if ye doe whatsoever I command you By your obedience you shall manifest your selves to bee my friends and by this meanes you shall encrease advance and Ea est jucundissima amicitia quā morum similitudo conjugavit Cicer. offic 1. confirme that friendship that is betweene us Amongst men there is nothing so conciliates mens hearts so glewes and soders mens spirits as a similitude and conformity of manners and dispositions when there is a suitablenesse of mens spirits and inclinations they quickly close and so the Philosopher observes that a speciall conciler of friendship is a likenesse according to vertue So it is here when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot there is in us a conformity to Gods will and a conformity to his nature that wee are holy as hee is holy mercifull as hee is mercifull pure as he is pure walking in all obedience and purity of life it much encreases the friendship betweene God and us That as Salomon speakes Prov. 22. 11. Hee that loveth purenesse of heart for the grace of his lips the King shall bee his friend So much here hee that loves purenesse of heart and purenesse of life that is pure as God is pure for that holinesse and purity the King of Heaven shall bee his friend Yet God is good to Israel even to the pure in heart Psal 73. 1. God is a good friend to such and a true friend to them though they may have many back friends in the world Fourthly by our love to God Amongst men love winnes gaines and kindles love As a man that hath friends must shew himselfe friendly Prov. 18. 24. So a man that Quaeris quo modo amicum cito facturus sit sapians Dicam Hecaton ait ego tibi monstrabo amatorium sine medicamento sine herba sine ullius veneficae carmine si vis amari ama Senec. cp 9. will further engage his friend to him and kindle his affection to him must by offices and expressions of friendship still gaine his friendship more and more Friendlinesse makes friends more friendly Ioh. 14. 23. Hee that loveth mee shall be loved of my Father and I will love him Not that wee love God or Christ first and then hee loveth us He loves us first as the Apostle speakes It is not therefore meant of Gods first love or Christs first love that hee shewes to us but of after and following Acts of his love Hee loves us and is our friend now if wee shew a friends love to him hee will adde further degrees of his love or hee will love that is hee will vouchsafe us further expressions of his love as Christ there explaines himselfe I will love him and manifest my selfe to him So that upon our friendly love to Christ though hee loves us before wee love him yet hee will more cleerely manifest and expresse his friendship to us Fiftly by a frequent use of the duty of prayer A man that
Ionathans soule was knit to the soule of David and he loved him as his owne soule Such love as this is knitting and sodering love and when a friend is loved thus hee will hold friendship with us But if a man seriously and in good earnest offer friendship to another and hee sees no returne no reflexion of love and like affection onely some outward faire carriages some respective formalities some formall visits and invitations but the mans heart closes not with him hee will happily for some respects hold faire but yet he makes him but a friend for his credit but will have another for his counsell and secrecies Here such a man though he earnestly desired friendship yet finding not that knitting love that should bee betweene friends he gives over to woo a friend that at best will bee but a friend with his reserved distances and so lets his friendly affection die and gradually quench and goe out If he must be onely a friend for a turne to put some credit and respect upon another or to accommodate him onely with some conveniences but the heart of the man holds off and goes another way such a man hath in such a case the wisedome to have done and let such an one goe Secondly a friendly love is a durable continuing love Prov. 17. 17. A friend loves at all times Not for a time till hee hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot Rhetor. 2. Amicitia quae desinere potuit nunquam vera suit Senec. his fill and his glut and then falls off and gives up but at all times Prov. 27. 10. Thine owne friend and thy fathers friend forsake thou not If a man have chosen a friend upon whom hee sets his heart and hee perceives his friends affections to slake to chill and at last to fall quite off this unglues and dissolves the joynt of friendship Now thus it is in this case God hath made us his friends and therefore hee must have a friends love from us we must shew our selves friendly to him First our love to him must be an hearty love Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart with all thy soule Luk. 10 27. This will keepe us in Gods friendship and keep him our friend But if wee complement with God and hold faire with him in the outward performance of the duties of his worship wil pray will come to Church and heare and receive Sacraments and will professe our selves the friends of God because it would otherwise turne to our discredit and disgrace to be out with or strangers to him If wee make him our friend onely for our ends to serve a turne upon him have him our friend for our credit respect profit but yet make him not our friend for our counsels and comforts but will have the world our profits our pleasures for our choyce friends and our hearts close and goe with them God will doe in this case as any wise man would doe Any man so used can have the wit to see how the world goes and can returne complement for complement but never put such an one into the catalogue of his friends neither will hee let out his heart and affections to such an one nor have hearty and intire communion with such as with familiar friends And so will the Lord doe if men complement with him if hee be not unto them as their owne soule if mens hearts bee not knit unto him so as to love him as their owne soules hee sees that their love is not hearty and serious he will shake them off and keepe aloofe and keep distance as well as they do they shall never have Abrabams honour to bee called the friends of God Those the Prophet speakes of Isai 58. 2. and Ezek. 33. 31 32. They heare thy words but they will not doe them for with their mouth they shew much love but their hearts goe after their covetousnesse those were pretenders of friendship but God saw them to be formall complementers and hee kept his heart as far from them as they kept theirs from him Secondly our love to God it must bee durable wee must love him for ever Thine owne friend and thy fathers friend forsake thou not He is our friend and the friend of our father Abraham he must bee loved at all times hee must never bee forsaken If we once let fall our affections to God and let the stream of them runne another way he will have done with us and wee loose a friend of him We see it is so with friends amongst men if a man have had ever so deere a friend in the sweetenesse of whose society hee hath beene much delighted and their hearts have beene close knit yet if hee see his friend beginne to bee remisse and that hee sits loose and communion is entertained with another with the neglect and a slighting dis-regard of the first yea with an exclusion of him what followes but a slaking of his affections thus slighted excluded and neglected In like manner if God sees our affections cooling and slaking and new acquaintances taken up and wee and our new friend never well but when together and closely together and himselfe scarce minded or looked after God will in such a case casheere us and out us hee will have nothing to doe with such slippery leviculous and fickle fancied friends We shall goe for him as good lost as kept If therefore we would keep in with God and hold friends with him love him with a friends love with an hearty and a lasting durable affection Thirdly Have a care to make much of Gods friends Be a true and hearty friend to all Gods friends A man that either is or meanes seriously to be and continue another mans friend will bee kinde and friendly to all his friends and will make those his friends whom hee sees to affect for his choyce friends Great was the friendship that was betweene David and Ionathan And Ionathan being Davids friend David shewes a great deale of kindnesse unto Mephibosheth for Ionathans sake On the other side this is that which will separate very friends or as Salomon speakes in that case chiefe friends Prov. 16. 28. When a man shall slight and set light by his friends friends especially if hee shall oppose and hate those whom hee cordially affects We will not wee cannot close kindly with those that slight our dearest friends though they seeme to desire our friendship ever so much it is a provocation to enmity and cannot but breed ill blood Now thus it is here all Gods people are his friends if we would hold in and maintaine friendship with God we must be friends kinde and cordial friends to them Many talke of being Gods friends and yet are but backe-friends unto and slighters of his friends they looke coyly and strangely upon them cannot afford them a good word doe scorne and abuse them and yet they will needs goe for Gods friends But how can this be Iudge by
weaned and then I will bring him up that hee may appeare before the Lord and there abide for ever And vers 24. When shee had weaned him shee tooke him up with her and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh Ill would Samuel have abode at Shiloh and have had his conversation there with Eli if hee had not beene weaned from his mothers breast If a man sometimes doe chance to make a steppe up to heaven yet if hee be not weaned from the world he will never long abide there nor have his converse there his heart will bee hankering and lingering after the worlds breast he will quickly come downe againe that hee may be sucking that Milke The Apostle compares the love cares and thoughts of the world to weights Heb. 12. 1. Let us lay aside every weight They are weights that hold and keepe downe the heart from rising up to heaven or plucke downe the heart from heaven if it be raised up towards heaven A man that wil have his conversation in heaven must first have his heart lifted and raised up into heaven it must first be there before it can converse there Now how can the heart lift and raise up it selfe into heaven if it be clogged with a company of weights if it could raise it selfe upwards yet these waights would soone pull and weigh it downe againe An Eagle flies towards heaven Prov. 23. 5. But if an Eagle had waights fastned to her legges shee could not flie at all much lesse towards heaven If therefore we would converse in heaven wee must first sore up into heaven and if wee would mount and flie up into heaven wee must first get loose from these weights get our hearts loose and free from the love and cares of this world Yea these are not onely weights but they are as Bird-lime to those wings upon which we should mount up to heaven Worldly things are entanglements 2 Tim. 2. 4. No man that worketh entangles himselfe with the affaires of this life A Bird that is entangled with a snare that is entangled with lime-twigs cannot flie up aloft and the love and cares of the world doe entangle the spirit of a man so as he cannot raise it up into heaven And he that cannot raise up his heart into heaven cannot have his conversation there First get we our hearts to bee estranged from the earth and then wee shall the more willingly converse in heaven That man will hardly come to live in the countrey to have his abode and conversation there that hath not first weaned himselfe from the City so long as his minde is to the City hee will hardly like to leade a Countrey-life When once David had got his heart off from the world see how spiritually and heavenly minded he was Psal 119. 19 20. I am a stranger in the earth hee had alienated his heart and estranged his effections from the world and see what followes Hide not thy Commandements from mee my soule breakes for the longing that it hath unto thy judgements at all times Wee see the Patriarches were heavenly minded persons had their conversation in heaven Hebr. 11. 16. Their mindes were upon an heavenly Countrey but yet first vers 13. they confesse they were strangers and pilgrims on earth They had estranged their hearts from this world from the earth and so made way to have their conversation in heaven Secondly yee must doe as our Saviour prescribes Math. 6. 20. Lay up treasures in heaven Make heavenly things your treasures hoard up there and lay up there as much as may be and then yee shall soone have your conversation there Then the conversation is in heaven when the heart and affections are in heaven as wee saw before The way to have the heart in heaven is to have the treasure there Math. 6. 20 21. Lay up your treasure in heaven for where your treasure is there will your hearts be also As if he had said Get your treasure into heaven and you shall easily get your hearts into heaven for if the treasure bee once in heaven the heart will soone bee in heaven too for the heart and the treasure will be undivided What is the reason that many have their conversation on earth but because they lay up their treasure on earth and they make these earthly things their treasures So if treasure were laid up in heaven and heavenly things made our treasure our conversation would be in heaven for the heart would follow and runne after the treasure Make Christ thy treasure make him the welbeloved of thy soule make him the pearle of great price prize him so as to count all earthly things as dung and drosse to him and Christ in heaven being made our treasure will draw our hearts up into heaven And when the heart is drawne up into heaven the conversation is there Looke where the Loadstone is that way it draws the yron If the Loadstone bee beneath it drawes the yron downeward if it be above it drawes the yron upwards Pitch our Loadstone in heaven make Christ our Loadstone and then our hearts will up apace into heaven as mens hearts goe so fast downwards because their Loadstone is in the earth Thirdly hee must get an intrinsecall principle of grace into his heart that may be continually lifting heaving and raysing the heart upward and heaven-ward Heavy things they naturally affect to descend and to goe downeward because they have an intrinsecall principle of nature that inclines them to descend And light things they naturally affect to ascend and goe upwards because they have an intrinsecall principle that carries them that way Now a man that would have his conversation in heaven should get such an inward principle of grace into his heart that should bee carrying the heart still upward A man must get a sanctified frame of heart that so the naturall bent of his spirit may be to heaven-ward to be heaving and lifting upwards Psal 25. 1. Vnto thee O Lord doe I lift up my soule By that phrase is expressed the strange desires of a servant to his wages Deut. 24. 15. Thou shalt give him his hire for hee sets his heart upon it or hee lifts up his soule unto it Looke now how a servants heart is lifted up to his hire how he sets his heart upon it how his minde runs upon it so such a frame of Spirit should a man get that his heart should be lifting up it selfe to God and Christ and heavenly things that though a man may have some diversions and some occurrences that may put his heart off heaven for a time yet those diversions no sooner over but a mans heart should bee upon heaven againe and never well but when it is set that way The needle of the compasse being once toucht with the Loadstone though by some violent shaking it may bee carried to this and to that point of the compasse yet if once that violence cease it ceases not till