the living And so it containeth all the former in their highest perfection that is both Natural Life and Moral-Spiritual Life and the holy exercise thereof together with the full attainment and fruition of God in Glory the End of all ETERNAL That is simply eternal objectively as to God the principal object and Eternal ex parte post subjectively that is Everlasting THIS IS LIFE ETERNAL Not Natural life in it self considered as the Devils and wicked men shall have it But 1. It is the same Moral-Spiritual Life which shall have no End but endure to Eternity It is a Living to God in Love But only initial and very imperfect here in comparison of what it will be in Heaven 2. It is the Eternal felicity 1. Seminally for Grace is as it were a seed of Glory 2. As it is the Necessary way or means of attaining it and that preparation which infallibly procureth it The Perfect Holiness of the Saints in Heaven will be one part of their perfect happiness And this Holiness imperfect they have here in this life It is the same God that we know and love here and there and with a Knowledge and Love that is of the same nature seminally As the egg is of the nature of the Bird Whether it may be properly said to be formally and specifically the same quoad actum as well as quoad objectum yea whether the Objectum clare visum and the objectum in speculo vel aenigmate visum make not the act specifically differ I shall not trouble you to dispute And this imperfect Holiness hath the promise of Perfect Holiness and Happiness in the full fruition of God hereafter So it is the Seed and Prognostick of Life Eternal TO KNOW Non semper ubique eodem modo vel gradu Not to know God here and hereafter in the same manner or degree But to know him here as in a glass and hereafter in his Glory as face to face To know him by an Affective Practical knowledge There is no Text of Scripture of which the rule is more clearly true and necessary than of this that Words of Knowledge do imply affection It is the closure of the whole soul with God which is here called the knowing of God And because it is not meet to name every particular act of the soul when ever this duty is mentioned it is all denominated from Knowledge as the first Act which inferreth all the rest 1. Knowledge of God in the Habit is Spiritual Life as a Principle 2. Knowledge of God in the exercise is Spiritaal Life as an employment 3. The Knowledge of God in perfection with its effects is Life Eternal as it signifieth full felicity What it containeth I shall further shew anon THEE That is The Father called by some Divines Fons vel fundamentum Trinitatis the fountain or foundation of the Trinity and oft used in the same sense as the word GOD to signifie the pure Deity THE ONLY He that believeth that there is more Gods than One believeth not in any For though he may give many the Name yet the description of the true God can agree to none of them He is not God indeed if he be not One only This doth not at all exclude Jesus Christ as the second person in Trinity but only distinguisheth the pure Deity or the Only true God as such from Jesus Christ as Mediator between God and man TRUE There are many that falsly and Metaphorically are called Gods If we think of God but as one of these it is not to know him but deny him GOD The word GOD doth not only signifie the Divine perfections in himself but also his Relation to the Creatures To be a God to us is to be one to whom we must ascribe all that we are or have and one whom we must Love and obey and honour with all the powers of soul and body and one on whom we totally depend and from whom we expect our judgement and reward in whom alone we can be perfectly blessed AND JESUS CHRIST That is As Mediator in his Natures God and man and in his Office and Grace WHOM THOU HAST SENT That is whom thy Love and Wisdom designed and commissioned to this undertaking and performance The Knowledge of the Holy Ghost seemeth here left out as if it were no part of life Eternal But 1. At that time the Holy Ghost in that Eminent sort as sent by the Father and Son on the Apostles after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ was not yet so manifested as afterwards and therefore not so necessarily to be distinctly known and believed in as after The having of the Spirit being of more necessity than the distinct knowledge of him Certain it is that the Disciples were at first very dark in this article of faith And Scripture more fully revealeth the necessity to salvation of believing in the Father and Son than in the Holy Ghost distinctly yet telling us that if any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. 2. But presently after when the Spirit was to be sent the necessity of believing in him is expressed especially in the Apostles Commission to Baptize all Nations that were made Disciples in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Doct. THe Knowledge of the only true God and of Jesus Christ the Mediator is the Life of Grace and the necessary way to the life of Glory As James distinguisheth between such a dead faith as Devils and wicked men had and such a living and working faith as was proper to the justified so must we here of the Knowledge of God Many profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate Tit. 1. 16. There is a form of knowledge which the unbelievers had Rom. 2. 22. and a knowledge which puffeth up and is void of Love which hypocrites have 1 Cor. 8. 1. 13. But no man spiritually knoweth the things of God but by the spirit And they that rightly know his name will put their trust in him Psal. 9 10. Thus he giveth the regenerate a heart to know him Jer. 24. 7. and the new creature is renewed in knowledge Col. 3. 10. And vengeance shall be poured out on them that know not God 2 Thes. 1. 8. This saving Knowledge of God which is Eternal Life containeth and implyeth in it all these acts 1. The understandings apprehesion of God according to the necessary articles of faith 2. A Belief of the truth of these articles that God is and is such as he is therein described 3. An high estimation of God accordingly 4. A Volition complacency or Love to him as God the chiefest Good 5. A Desiring after him 6. A Choosing him with the rejection of all competitors 7. A Consent that he be our God and a giving up our selves to him as his people 8. An intending him as our Ultimate End in
and dead to morrow They are our delight to day and our sorrow or horrour to morrow But our God is Immortal Our houses may be burned Our goods may be consumed or stolne our cloaths will be worn out our treasure here may be corrupted But our God is unchangeable the same for ever Our Laws and Customes may be changed our Governours and Priviledges changed our company and employments and habitation changed but our God is never changed Our estates may change from Riches to poverty and our names that were honoured may incur disgrace Our health may quickly turn to sickness and our ease to pain But still our God is unchangeable for ever Our friends are unconstant and may turn our enemies Our Peace may be changed into war and our liberty into slavery but our God doth never change Time will change customes families and all things here but it changeth not our God The Creatures are all but earthen mettal and quickly dasht in peices our comforts are changeable our selves are changeable and mortal but so is not our God 3. And it should teach us to draw as near to God as we are capable by unchangeable fixed Resolutions and constancy of endeavours and to be still the same as we are at the best 4. It should move us also to be more desirous of passing into the state of immortality and to long for our unchangeable habitation and our immortal incorruptible Bodies and to possess the Kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. And let not the mutability of things below much trouble us while our Rock our Portion is unmoveable God waxeth not old Heaven doth not decay by duration the Glory of the blessed shall not wither nor their sun set upon them nor their day have any night nor any mutations or commotions disturb their quiet possessions O Love and Long for Immortality and Incorruption CHAP. VII 6. HAving spoken of the effects of the Attributes of Gods Essence as such we must next speak of the Effects of his three great Attributes which some call Subsistential that is his Omnipotency Understanding and Will or his Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness By which it hath been the way of the Schoolmen and other Divines to denominate the three Persons not without some countenance from Scripture Phrase The Father they call the Infinite Power of the God head and the Son the Wisdom and Word of God and of the Father and the Holy Ghost the Love and Goodness of God of the Father and Son But that these Attributes of Power Understanding and Will or Power Wisdome and Goodness are of the same importance with the termes of Personality Father Son and Holy Ghost we presume not to affirm It sufficeth us 1. That God hath assumed these Attributes to himself in Scripture 2. And that man who beareth the Natural Image of God hath Power Understanding and Will and as he beareth the Holy Moral Image of God he hath a Power to execute that which is Good and Wisdome to direct and Goodness of Will to determine for the execution And so while God is seen of us in this Glass of Man we must conceive of him after the Image that in man appeareth to us and speak of him in the language of man as he doth of himself And first The Almightiness of God must make these impressions on our souls 1. It must possess the soul with very awful Reverent thoughts of God and fill us continually with his holy Fear Infinite Greatness and Power must have no common careless thoughts lest we Blaspheme him in our Minds and be guilty of Contempt The Dread of the Heavenly Majesty should be still upon us and we must be in his fear all the day long Prov. 23. 17. Not under that slavish Fear that is void of Love as men fear an Enemy or hurtful Creature or that which is Evil For we have not such a spirit from the Lord nor stand in a Relation of enmity and bondage to him But Reverence is necessary and from thence a Fear of sinning and displeasing so Great a God The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome Prov. 1. 7. and 9. 10. Psal. 111. 10. By it men depart from evil Prov. 16. 6. Sin is for want of the Fear of God Luk. 23. 40. Pro. 3. 7. Jer. 5. 24. I. ev 25. 36. The Fear of God is often put for the whole new man or all the work of Grace within us even the Principle of new life Jer. 2. 19. and 32. 40. And it is often put for the whole work of Religion or Service of God Psal. 34. 11. Prov. 1. 29. Psal. 130. 4. and 34. 9. And therefore the Godly are usually denominated such as Fear God Psal. 15. 4. and 22. 23. and 115. 11 13. and 135. 20. and 34. 7 9. c. The godly are devoted to the Fear of God Psal. 119. 38. It is our Sanctifying the Lord in our hearts that he be our fear and dread Isa. 8. 13. If we Fear him not we take him not for our Master Mal. 1. 6. Evangelical Grace excludeth not this Fear Luk. 12. 5. Though we receive a Kingdom that cannot be moved yet must our acceptable service of God be with Reverence and godly fear Heb. 12. 28. With fear and trembling we must work out our salvation Phil. 2. 12. In fear we must pass the time of â—â—journing here 1 Pet. 1. 17. In it we must converse together Eph. 5. 4. Yea Holiness is to be perfected in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. and that because we have the Promises The most prosperous Churches walk in this fear Acts 9. 31. It s a necessary means of preventing destruction Heb. 11. 7. and of attaining salvation when we have the promises Heb. 4. 1. God puts this fear in the hearts of those that shall not depart from him Jer. 32. 40. See therefore that the Greatness of the Almighty God possess thy soul continually with his Fear 2. Gods Almightiness should also possess us with holy Admiration of him and cause us in heart and voice to Magnifie him Oh what a Power is that which made the world of nothing which upholdeth the earth without any foundation but his Will which placed and maintaineth all things in their Order in Heaven and Earth which causeth so great and glorious a creature as the Sun that is so much bigger then all the earth to move so many thousand miles in a few moments and constantly to keep its time and course that giveth its instinct to every brute and causeth every part of nature to do its office By his Power it is that every motion of the Creature is performed and that order is kept in the Kingdoms of the world Jer. 32. 17 18 19. He made the Heaven and the Earth by his Great Power and stretched out arm and nothing is too hard for him The Great the Mighty God the Lord of Hosts is his Name great in counsel and mighty in works Neh. 9.
for the Head yet we are more for Christ as a means to his glory then he for us I mean he is the more excellent principal end For to this end Christ both dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14. 9. who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow both of things in heaven and things in earth and under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2. 6. to 12. Rev. 5. 8 9 10 11 12. And I beheld and I heard the voice of many Angels round about the Throne and the beasts and the elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing And every creature which is in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard I saying Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever So Rev. 15. 3 4. 20. 6. Rev. 21. 23. The City had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof Rev. 22. 3 4. The Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him And they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads These and many other Scriptures shew us that God will be for ever Glorified in the person of the Redeemer more then in either men or Angels and consequently that it was the principal part of his Intention in the design of mans Redemption 2. I will be briefer in the rest In the way of Redemption man will be saved with greater humiliation and self-denyal then he should have been in the way of Creation If we had been saved in a way of Innocency we should have had more to ascribe to our selves And it is meet that all Creatures be humbled and abased and nothing in themselves before the Lord. 3. By the way of Redemption sin will be more dishonoured and Holiness more advanced then if sin had never been known in the world Contraries illustrate one another Health would not be so much valued if there were no sickness nor Life if there were no Death nor Day if there were no Night nor Knowledge if there were no Ignorance nor Good if man had not known Evil. The Holiness of God would never have appeared in execution of vindictive Justice against sin if there had never been any sin and therefore he hath permitted it and will recover us from it when he could have prevented our falling into it 4. By this way also Holiness and Recovering Grace shall be more triumphant against the Devil and all its enemies By the many conquests that Christ will make over Satan the World and the Flesh and Death there will very much of God be seen to us that innocency would not thus have manifested 5. Redemption brings God nearer unto man The mysterie of Incarnation giveth us wonderful advantages to have more familiar thoughts of God and to see him in a clearer glass then ever we should else have seen him in on earth and to have access with boldness to the throne of grace The pure Deity is at so vast a distance from us while we are here in flesh that if it had not appeared in the flesh unto us we should have been at a greater loss But now without controversie great is the mysterie of godliness God was manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles believed on in the world and received up into glory 1 Tim. 3. 16. 6. In the way of Redemption man is brought to more earnest and frequent addresses unto God and dependance on him Necessity driveth him And he hath use for more of God or for God in more of the wayes of his mercy then else he would have had 7. Principally in this way of saving miserable man by a Redeemer there is opportunity for the more abundant exercise of Gods mercy and consequently for the more glorious discovery of his Love and Goodness to the sons of men then if they had fallen into no such Necessities Misery prepareth men for the sense of mercy In the Redeemer there is so wonderful a discovery of Love and Mercy as is the astonishment of men and Angels 1 Joh. 3. 1. Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God! Eph. 2. 4 5. God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ by grace yee are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us by Christ Jesus for by grace yee are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of works lest any man should boast Tit. 3 3 4. For we our selves were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures c. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Never was there such a discovery of God as he is Love in a way of Mercy to man on earth as in the Redeemer and his benefits 8. In the way of Redemption the soul of man is formed to the most sweet and excellent temper and his obedience cast into the happiest mold The glorious demonstration of Love doth animate us with Love to God and the shedding abroad of his Love in our hearts by the spirit of the Redeemer doth draw out our hearts in Love to him again And the sense of his wonderful Love and Mercy filleth us with Thankfulness so that Love is hereby made the nature of the new man and Thankfulness is the life of all our obedience For all floweth from these principles and expresseth them so that Love is the compendium of all Holiness in one word and Thankfulness of all Evangelical obedience And
14. To conclude Vindictive Justice will be doubly honoured upon them that are final rejecters of this grace Though conscience would have had matter enough to work upon for the torment of the sinner and the justifying of God upon the meer violation of the Law of nature or works yet nothing to what it now will have on them that are the despisers of this great salvation For of how much sorer punishment suppose yee shall he be thought worthy that hath trodden under foot the Son of God when it is willful impenitency against most excellent means and mercies that is to be charged upon sinners and when they perish because they would not be saved Justice will be most fully glorified before all and in the conscience of the sinner himself All this considered you may see that besides what reasons of the counsel of God are unknown to us there is abundant reason open to our sight from the great advantages of this way why God would rather save us by a Redeemer then in a way of Innocency as our meer Creator But for the answering of all objections against this I must desire you to observe these two things following 1. That we here suppose man a terrestrial inhabitant cloathed with flesh otherwise it is confessed that if he were perfect in heaven where he had the Beatifical Vision to confirm him many of these forementioned advantages to him would be none 2. And it is supposed that God will work on man by Moral means and where he never so infallibly produceth the good of man he doth it in a way agreeable to his nature and present state and that his work of Grace is Sapiential magnifying the contrivance and conduct of his Wisdom as well as his Power otherwise indeed God might have done all without these or any other means 3. The knowledge of God in Christ as our Redeemer must imprint upon the soul those Holy Affections which the design and nature of our Redemption do bespeak and which answer these forementioned ends As 1. It must keep the soul in a sense of the odiousness of sin that must have such a remedy to pardon and destroy it 2. It must raise us to most high and honourable thoughts of our Redeemer the Captain of our Salvation that bringeth back lâ—st sinners unto God and we must study to advance the Glory of our Lord whom the Father hath advanced and set over all 3. It must drive us out of our selves and bring us to be nothing in our own eyes and cause us to have humble penitent self condemning thoughts as men that have been our own undoers and deserved so ill of God and man 4. It must drive us to a full and constant dependance on Christ our Redeemer and on the Father by him As our life is now in the Son as its root and fountain so in him must be our faith and confidence and to him we must daily have recourse and seek to him and to the Father in his Name for all that we need for daily pardon strength protection provision and consolation 5. It must cause us the more to admire the Holiness of God which is so admirably declared in our Redemption and still be sensible how he hateth sin and loveth Purity 6. It must invite and encourage us to draw near to God who hath condescended to come so near to us and as sons we must cry Abba Father and though with reverence yet with holy confidence must set our selves continually before him 7. It must cause us to make it our daily imployment to study the Riches of the Love of God and his abundant mercy manifested in Christ so that above all books in the world we should most diligently and delightfully peruse the Son of God incarnate and in him behold the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of the Father And with Paul we should desire to know nothing but Christ crucified and all things should be counted but loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord Phil. 3. 8. That we may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the bredth and length and depth and heighth and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge that we may be filled with all the fulness of God 8. Above all if we know God as our Redeemer we must Live in the Power of holy Love and Gratitude His Manifested Love must prevail with us so far that unfeigned Love to him may be the predominant affection of our souls And being free from the spirit of bondage and slavish fear we must make Love and Thankfulness the sum of our Religion and think not any thing will prove us Christians without prevailing Love to Christ nor that any duty is accepted that proceedeth not from it 9. Redemption must teach us to apply our selves to the holy Laws and Example of our Redeemer for the forming and ordering of our hearts and lives 10. And it must quicken us to Love the Lord with a redoubled vigour and to obey with double resolution and diligence because we are under a double obligation What should a people so Redeemed esteem too much or too dear for God 11. Redemption must make us a more Heavenly people as being Redeemed to the incorruptible inheritance in Heaven The blessed God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 3. 12. Lastly Redemption must cause us to walk the more carefully and with a greater care to avoid all sin and to avoid the threatned wrath of God because sin against such unspeakable Mercy is unspeakably great and condemnation by a Redeemer for despising his grace will be a double condemnation Joh. 3. 19. 36. CHAP. XII 11. THE third Relation in which God is to be Known by us is as he is our Sanctifier and Comforter which is specially ascribed to the Holy Ghost And doubtless as the Dispensation of the Holy Ghost is the Perfecting dispensation without which Creation and Redemption would not attain their ends and as the sin against the Holy Ghost is the great and dangerous sin so our Belief in the Holy Ghost and Knowledge of God as our Sanctifier by the Spirit is not the least or lowest act of our faith or Knowledge And it implieth or containeth these things following 1. We must hence take notice of the certainty of our common original sin The necessity of sanctification proveth the corruption as the necessity of a Redeemer proveth the guilt It is not one but all that are Baptized that must be Baptized into the Name of the Son and Holy Ghost as well as of the Father which is an entering into Covenant with the Son as our Redeemer and with the
world his God so doth it savour of the same hainous sin to lament our loss of Creatures more than the displeasure of God If God be my enemy or I am fallen under his indignation I have then so much greater matters to lament than the loss or absence or frowns of man as should almost make me forget that there is such a thing as man to be regarded But if God be my Father and my friend in Christ I have then so much to think of with delight and to recreate and content my soul as will proclaim it most incongruous and absurd to lament inordinately the absence of a worm while I have his Love and presence who is All in All. If God cannot content me and be not enough for me how is he then my God or how shall he be my Heaven and everlasting Happiness 2. If God be with me he is with me to whom I am absolutely devoted I am wholly his and have acknowledged his interest in me and long ago disclaimed all usurpers and repented of alienations and unreservedly resigned my self to him And where should I dwell but with him that is my owner and with whom I have made the solemnest Covenant that ever I made â— never gave my self to any other but in subordination to him and with a salvo for his highest inviolable right Where should my goods be but in my own house with whom should a Servant dwell but with his Master and a Wife but with her Husband and Children but with their Father I am nearlier related to my God and to my Saviour than I am to any of my Relations in this world I owe more to him than to all the world I have renounced all the world as they stand in any competition or comparison with him And can I want their company then while I am with him How shall I hate Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brother and Sister for his sake if I cannot spare them or be without them to enjoy him To hate them is but to use them as men do hated things that is to cast them away with contempt as they would alâ—enate me from Christ and to cleave to him and be satisfied in him alone I am now married to Christ and therefore must chearfully leave Father and Mother and my native place and all to cleave to him And with whom should I now delight to dwell but with him who hath taken me into so near relation to be as it were one flesh with him O my dear Lord hide not thou thy face from an unkind an unworthy sinner Let me but dwell with thee and see thy face and feel the gracious embracements of thy Love and then let me be cast off by all the world if thou see it meetest for me or let all other friends be where they will so that my soul may be with thee I have agreed for thy sake to forsake all even the dearest that shall stand against thee and I resolve by thy grace to stand to this agreement 3. If God be with me I am not alone for he is with me that Loveth me best The Love of all the friends on earth is nothing to his Love O how plainly hath he declared that he loveth me in the strange condescention the sufferings death and intercession of his Son What Love hath he declared in the communications of his Spirit and the operations of his Grace and the near relations into which he brought me What Love hath he declared in in the course of his providences in many and wonderful preservations and deliverances in the conduct of his wisdome and in a life of mercies What Love appeareth in his precious promises and the glorious provisions he hath made for me with himself to all eternity O my Lord I am ashamed that thy Love is so much lost that it hath no better return from an unkind unthankful heart that I am not more delighted in thee and swallowed up in the contemplation of thy Love I can contentedly let go the society and converse of all others for the converse of some one bosome friend that is dearer to me than they all as Jonathan to David And can I not much more be satisfied in thee alone and let go all if I may continue with thee My very Dog will gladly for sake all the Town and all persons in the world to follow me alone And have I not yet found so much Love and Goodness in thee my dear and blessed God as to be willing to converse alone with thee All men delight most in the company of those that Love them best They choose not to converse with the Multitude when they look for solace and content but with their dearest friends And should any be so dear to me as God O were not thy Love unworthily neglected by an unthankful heart I should never be so unsatisfied in thee but should take up or seek my comforts in thee I should then say Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee Though not only my friends but my flesh and heart themselves should fail me it is thou that will still be the strength of my heart and my portion for ever it is good therefore for me to draw near to thee how far soever I am from man O let me there dwell where thou wilt not be strange for thy loving kindness is better than life instead of the multitude of my turmoiling thoughts let me be taken up in the believing views of thy reconciled face and in the glad attendance upon thy Grace or at least in the multitude of my thoughts within me let thy celestial comforts delight my soul. Let me dwell as in thy family and when I awake let me be still with thee Let me go no whither but where I am still following thee Let me do nothing but thy work nor serve any other but when I may truly call it a serving thee Let me hear nothing but thy voice and let me know thy voice by whatever instrument thou shalt speak Let me never see any thing but thy self and the glass that representeth thee and the books in which I may read thy name And let me never play with the outside and gaze on words and letters as insignificant and not observe thy name which is the sense Whether it be in company or in solitude let me be continually with thee and do thou vouchsafe to hold me by my right hand And guide me with thy counsel and afterwards receive me unto thy glory Psal. 73. 23 24 25 26 28. Psal. 63. 3. 4. If God be with me I am not alone for I shall be with him whose Love is of greater use and benefit to me than the Love of all my friends in the world Their Love may perhaps be some little comfort as it floweth from His But it is His Love by which and upon which I Live It is His Love that gives
his Love He hath readify forgiven the sins which I thought would have made my soul the fuel of Hell He hath entertained me with joy with musick and a feast when I better deserved to have been among the Dogs without his doors He hath embraced me in his sustaining consolatory arms when he might have spurned my guilty soul to Hell and said Depart from me thou worker of iniquity I know thee not O little did I think that he could ever have forgotten the vanity and villany of my youth yea so easily have forgotten my most aggravated sins When I had sinned against light when I had resisted conscience when I had frequently and wilfully injured Love I thought he would never have forgotten it But the greatness of his Love and Mercy and the blood and intercession of his Son hath cancelled all O how many mercies have I tasted since I thought I had sinned away all mercies How patiently hath he born with me since I thought he would never have put up more And yet besides my sins and the withdrawings of my own heart there hath been nothing to interrupt our converse Though he be God and I a worm yet that would not have kept me out Though he be in Heaven yet he is near to succour me on Earth in all that I call upon him for Though he have the Praise of Angels he disdaineth not my tears and groans Though he have the perfect Love of perfect soulâ— he knoweth the little spark in my breast and despiseth not my weak and languid Love Though I injure and dishonour him by Loving him no more though I oft forget him and have been out of the way when he he hath come or called me though I have disobediently turned away mine ears and unkindly refused the entertainments of his Love and unfaithfully plaid with those whose company he forbad me he hath not divorced me nor turned me out of doors O wonderful that Heaven will be familiar with Earth and God with man the Highest with a worm and the most Holy with an unconstant sinner Man refuseth me when God will entertaine me Man that is no wiser or better than my self Those that I never wronged or deserved ill of reject me with reproach And God whom I have unspeakably injured doth invite me and intreat me and condescendeth to me as if he were beholden to me to be saved Men that I have deserved well of do abhorre me And God that I have deserved Hell of doth accept me The best of them are bryars and as a thorny hedge and he is Love and Rest and Joy And yet I can be more welcome to him though I have offended him than I can to them whom I have obliged I have freer leave to cast my self into my Fathers arms than to tumble in those bryars or wallow in the dirt I upbraid my self with my sins but he doth not upbraid me with them I condemn my self for them but he condemns me not He forgiveth me sooner than I can forgive my self I have peace with him before I can have peace of conscience O therefore my soul draw near to him that is so willing of thy company That frowneth thee not away unless it be when thou hast fallen into the dirt that thou mayest wash thee from thy filthiness and be fitter for his converse Draw near to him that will not wrong thee by believing misreports of enemies or laying to thy charge the things thou knewest not but will forgive the wrongs thou hast done to him and justifie thee from the sins that conscience layeth to thy charge Come to him that by his Word and Spirit his Ministers and Mercies calleth thee to come and hath promised that those that come to him he will in no wise shut out O walk with him that will bear thee up and lead thee as by the right hand Psal. 73. 23. and carry his Infants when they cannot go O speak to him that teacheth thee to speak and understandeth and accepts thy stammering and helpeth thine infirmities when thou knowest not what to pray for as thou oughtest and giveth thee groans when thou hast not words and knoweth the meaning of his spirit in thy groans that cannot be contained in the Heaven of Heavens and yet hath respect to the contrite soul that trembleth at his word and feareth his displeasure that pittieth the tears and despiseth not the sighing of a broken heart nor the desires of the sorrowful O walk with him that is never weary of the converse of an upright soul that is never angry with thee but for flying from him or for drawing back or being too strange and refusing the kindness and felicity of his presence The day is coming when the proudest of the sons of men would be glad of a good look from him that thou hast leave to walk with Even they that would not look on thee and they that injured and abused thee and they that inferiours could have no access to O how glad would they be then of a smile or a word of hope and mercy from thy Father Draw near then to him on whom the whole Creation doth depend whose favour at last the proudest and the worst would purchase with the loudest cryes when all their pomp and pleasure is gone and can purchase nothing O walk with him that is Love it self and think him not unwilling or unlovely and let not the deceiver by hideous misrepresentations drive thee from him when thou hast felt a while the storms abroad methinks thou shouldest say How goâ—d how safe how sweet is it to draw near to God! 1. With whom should I so desirously converse as with him whom I must Live with for ever If I take pleasure in my house or land or country my walks my books or friends themselves as clothed with flesh I must possess this pleasure but a little while Henceforth know we no man after the flesh Had we known Christ himself after the flesh we must know him so no more for ever Though his Glorified spiritual Body we shall know Do you converse with Father or Mother with Wives or Children with Pastors and Teachers Though you may converse with these as Glorified Saints when you come to Christ yet in these Relations that they stand in to you now you shall converse with them but a little while For the Time is short It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it or as though they used it not for the fashion of this world doth pass away 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. Why then should I so much regard a converse of so short continuance why should I be so familiar in my Inne and so in love wiâ—h that familiarity as to grieve when I must but think of
The Divine Life IN THREE TREATISES THE FIRST Of the Knowledge of God THE SECOND Of Walking with God THE THIRD Of Coversing with God In SOLITUDE By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed for Francis Tyton at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet and Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster 1664. A TREATISE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. AND THE Impression which it must make upon the Heart and its necessary Effects upon our Lives Upon John 17. 3. By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed for Francis Tyton at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet and Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster 1664. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND Exemplary Lady ANN COUNTESS OF BALCARRES MADAM IN hope of the fuller pardon of my delay I now present you with two other Treatises besides the Sermon enlarged which at your desire I preached at your departure hence I knew of many and great afflictions which you had undergone in the removal of your dearest friends which made this subject seem so suitable and seasonable to you at that time But I knew not that God was about to make so great an addition to your tryals in the same kind by taking to himself the principal branch of your Noble Family by a rare disease the embleme of the mortal malady now raigning I hope this loss also shall promote your gain by keeping you nearer to your Heavenly Lord who is so jealous of your affections and resolved to have them entirely to himself And then you will still find that you are not alone nor deprived of your dearest or most necessary friend while the Father the Son the sanctifying and comforting Spirit is with you And it should not be hard to reconcile us to the disposals of so sure a friend Nothing but good can come from God however the blind may miscall it who know no Good or Evil but what is measured by the private standard of their selfish interest and that as judged of by sense Eternal Love engaged by Covenant to make us happy will do nothing but what we shall find at last will terminate in that blessed end He envyed you not your Son as too good for you or too great a mercy who hath given you his own Son and with him the mercy of eternal life Corporal sufferings with Spiritual blessings are the ordinary lot of Believers here on earth As corporal prosperity with spiritual calamity is the lot of the ungodly And I beseech you consider that God knoweth better than you or I what an Ocean your son was ready to lanch out into and how tempestuous and terrible it might have proved and whether the world that he is saved from would have afforded him more of safety or seduction of comfort or calamity whether the protraction of the life of your Noble husband to have seen our sins and their effects and consequents would have afforded him greater joy or sorrow Undoubtedly as God had a better title to your Husband and Children and Friends than you had so it is much better to be with him than to be with you or with the best or greatest upon earth The heavenly inhabitants fear not our fears and feel not our afflictions They are past our dangers and out of the reach of all our enemies and delivered from our pains and cares and have the full possession of all those mercies which we pray and labour for Can you think your Children and Friends that are with Christ are not safer and better than those that yet remain with you Do you think that earth is better than heaven for you your self I take it for granted you cannot think so and will not say so And if it be worse for you it s worse for them The providence which by hastening their Glorification doth promote your Sanctification which helpeth them to the End and helpeth you in the Way must needs be good to them and you however it appear to flesh and unbelief O Madam when our Lord hath shewed us as he will shortly do what a state it is to which he bringeth the spirits of the just and how he doth there entertain and use them we shall then be more competent judges of all those acts of Providence to which we are now so hardly reconciled Then we shall censure our censurings of these works of God and be offended with our offences at them and call our selves blind unthankful sinners for calling them so bad as we did in our misjudging unbelief and passion We shall not wish our selves or friends again on earth among temptations and pains and among uncharitable men malicious enemies deceitful flatterers and untrusty friends When we see that face which we now long to see and know the things which we long to know and feel the Love which we long to feel and are full of the joyes which now we can scarce attain a taste of and have reacht the End which now we seek and for which we suffer we shall no more take it for a judgement to be taken from ungodly men and from a world of sin and fear and sorrow nor shall we envy the wicked nor ever desire to be partakers of their pleasures Till then let us congratulate our departed friends the felicity which they have attained and which we desire and let us rejoyce with them that rejoyce with Christ and let us prefer the least believing thought of the everlasting joyes before all the defiled transitory pleasures of the deluded dreaming miserable world And let us prefer such converse as we can here attain with God in Christ and with the Heavenly Society before all the pomp and friendship of the world We have no friend that is so able to supply all our wants so sufficient to content us so ready to relieve us so willing to entertain us so unwearied in hearing us and conversing with us as our blessed Lord. This is a friend that will never prove untrusty nor be changed by any change of interest opinion or fortune nor give us cause to suspect his Love A friend that we are sure will not forsake us nor turn our enemy nor abuse us for his own advantage nor will ever dye or be separated from us but we shall be alwaies with him and see his Glory and be filled and transported with his Love and sing his praise to all Eternity With whom then should we so delightfully converse on Earth and till we can reach that sweet delightful converse whom should we seek with more ambition or observe with greater devotedness and respect O that we were less carnal and more spiritual and lived less by Sense and more by Faith that we knew better the difference between God and Man between visible Temporals and invisible Eternals we should then have other thoughts and desires and resolutions and converse and employments and pleasures than too many have Madam it displeaseth me that it is no more elaborate a Treatise to which the present opportunity inviteth me to prefix your Name but your own Desire of the
and of its due effects p. 50 CHAP. VIII Of the Knowledge of Gods Omniscience or Infinite Wisdome with the due effects p. 57 CHAP. IX Of the Knowledge of Gods Infinite Goodness and Love and of the due impression of it on the soul. p. 65 CHAP. X. Of the Knowledge of God as the first Cause Creator and Preserver of all things All things are for God as the Ultimate End manifested How his Will is still fulfilled Whether he will de eventu that all obey him God willeth not sin Differences ended about it Whether he Decree not or will not ut evenit peccatum Whether he will de eventu that sin shall not come to pass when it doth All Gods works good None to be dishonoured no not our selves our Reason and Free-will as Natural and of God though as vitiated by us and ill disposed we must accuse it p. 76 CHAP. XI Of the Knowledge of God as our Redeemer Infants not in a state of Innocency but of Original sin fully proved The great ends of Redemption enumerated The effects it must have upon the soul. p. 86 CHAP. XII The Knowledge of God the Holy Ghost as our Sanctifier and Comforter A further proof of Original sin Twenty considerations by way of Quere's to convince them that deny or extenuate the Sanctifying works of the Holy Ghost ascribing them to Nature and themselves p. 100 CHAP. XIII Of the Knowledge of God as the Absolute Owner Proprietary or Lord of all of his Jus Dominii grounded on his Creation and Redemption and the Uses p. 109 CHAP. XIV Of the Knowledge of God as our Soveraign Governour or King His Jus Imperii The grounds The exercise The uses and effects p. 115 CHAP. XV. Of the Knowledge of God as our most bountiful Benefactor or most Loving Father The Benefits founding this Relation 1. Common 2. Special to his chosen ones The necessary effects p. 124 CHAP. XVI Of the Freedome of God p. 131 CHAP. XVII Of the Justice of God what it is the effects p. 132 CHAP. XVIII Of the Knowledge of Gods Holiness What it is The necessary effects p. 133 CHAP. XIX Of Gods Veracity or Truth and Faithfulness The Uses The Dominicans doctrine of Phyfical efficient immediate predetermination at once obliterateth all Divine faith by denying the Veracity of God which is its formal Object Lying and Perjury abhominable p. 138 CHAP. XX. Of the Knowledge of Gods Mercifulness including his Patience and long suffering and the necessary uses and effects p. 144 CHAP. XXI Of the Knowledge of Gods Dreadfulness or Terribleness and the necessary uses and effects p. 148 ERRATA PAge 20. l. 1. blot out it p. 54. l. 25. r. a fly p. 58. l. 20. r. themselves p. 78. l. 35. r. Doth he not p. 82. l. 7. r. wilfully l. 29. r. he hath l. 3â— r. workers p. 106. l. â— blot out that p. 118. l. 22. r. wheele p. 127. l. 30. r. Object p. 145. l 26 for us r. it p. 146. l. 5 r. breath 's in p. 151. l 18. r. true p. 178. l. 37 blot out of p 187. l. 20. for particular r practical p. 204. l. 26. r would not be p. 219. l. 8. r. possessor p. 229. l. 33. for presumptuous r. awakened p 243 l. 22. r. unproved p. 252. l. 27 r. straining p. 259. l. 5 for do r. no. l. 12. for Hâ— r No. l. 24. after and r. his p. 266. l. 24. for what r that p. 276. l. 10. for any r an l. 21. r. preparation p. 282. l. 22. blot out not p. 306. l. 14. r. grudge and distasts p. 307. l. 4. blot out that p 310. l. 4. for serve r. seem p. 315 l. 27. for might r. wight p. 337. l. 14. for in r is p. 357. l. 16. blot out a. p. 369. l. 20. for formâ— r. found p. 371. l. 33 r. workers p. 372. l. 16. for that r. than p. 375. l. 19 blot out faithful p. 376. l. 20. for of it r. oft p. 377. l. 31. for nor r. no. JOHN 17. 3. And this is Life Eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent CHAP. I. GOD is the Principal Efficient the Supream Directive and the Ultimate final Cause of man For OF him and THROUGH him and TO him are all things and to him shall be the Glory for ever Rom. 11. 36. The New life or Nature in the Saints is his Image Col. 3. 10. The Principle of it is called The Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. The exercise of that principle including the principle it self is called The life of God Eph. 4. 18. from which the Gentiles are said to be alienated by their ignorance Therefore it is called Holiness which is a separation to God from common use and Gods dwelling in us and ours in him 1 John 4. 12 13. of whom we are said to be born and regenerate 1 John 4. 7. John 3. 5. And our perfection in Glory is our living with God and enjoying him for ever GODLINES then is the comprehensive name of all true Religion Jesus Christ himself came but to restore corrupted man to the Love and Obedience and Fruition of his Creator and at last will give up the Kingdom to the Father that God may be All and in all and the Son himself shall be subject to this end 1 Cor. 15. 24 28. The End of Christs Sacrifice and Intercession is to Reconcile God and man The End of his Doctrine is to teach us to know God The end of his Government is to reduce us to the perfect obedience of our Maker It is therefore the greatest Duty of a Christian to know God as revealed by his Son and it is such a Duty about our Ultimate End as is also our greatest Mercy and Felicity Therefore doth the Lord Jesus here in the Text describe that Life Eternal which he was to give to those whom the Father had given him to consist in Knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he had sent My purpose is in this Treatise to speak only of the first part of the Text The Knowledge of God And first I shall very briefly explain the Text. THIS That is This which I am describing LIFE Life is taken sometime for the Souls abode in the Body which is the Natural Life of man or the souls continuation in its separated state which is the Natural life of the soul and sometimes for the Perfections of Natural life And that either its Natural Perfection that is Its Health and Vivacity or its moral perfection or Rectitude and that is either in the Cause and so God is our Life Christ is our Life the Holy Spirit is our Life or in it self and so Holiness is our Life in the Principle Seed or Habit. Sometime Life is taken for the Work Imployment and Exercise of Life and so a Holy Conversation is our Moral Spiritual or holy life And sometime it is taken for the Felicity of
we must say that in this Blessed Deity in the Unity of Essence there is a Trinity of Essential properties and Attributes that is Power Wisdom and Goodness Life Light and Love The measure of which is to have no measure but to be Infinite And therefore this Being is Eternal and not measured by Time being without Beginning or end He is Immense as being not measured by Place but containeth all places and is contained in none He is Perfect as not Measured by Parts or by Degrees but quite above Degrees and Parts This Infiniteness of his Being doth communicate it self or also consist in the Infiniteness of his Essential properties His Power is Omipotency that is Infinite Power His Knowledge or wisdom is Omniscience that is Infinite Wisdom His Goodness is Felicity it self or Infinite Goodness The first seal to our Cognisance on which he engraved this his Image was the Creation that is 1. The whole world in General 2. The Intellectual Nature or Man in special In the Being of the Creation and every particular Creature his Infinite Being is revealed so wretched a Fool is the Atheist that by denying God he denyeth all things Could he prove that there is no God I would quickly prove that there is no world no man no creature If he know that he is himself or that the world or any Creature is he may know that God is For God is the Original Being And all Being that is not Eternal must have some Original And that which hath no Original is God being Eternal Infinite and without cause The Power of God is revealed in the Being and Powers of the Creation His Wisdom is revealed in their Nature Order Offices Effects c. His Goodness is revealed in the Creatures Goodness its beauty usefulness and accomplishments But though all his Image thus appear upon the Creation yet is it his Omnipotency that principally there appears The beholding and consideration of the wonderful greatness activity and excellency of the Sun the Moon the Stars the fire and other creatures doth first and chiefly possess us with apprehensions of the Infinite Greatness or Power of the Creator In the Holy Word or Laws of God which is the second glass or seal more clear and legible to us than the former there appeareth also all his Image His power in the narratives predictions c. His Wisdom in the prophesies precepts and in all His Goodness in the promises and institutions in a special manner But yet it is his second property his Wisdom that most eminently appeareth on this second seal and is seen in the glass of the holy Law The discovery of such mysteries the revelation of so many Truths the suitableness of all the instituted means and the admirable fitness of all the holy contrivances of God and all his precepts promises and threatnings for the Government of Mankind and carrying him on for the attainment of his end in a way agreeable to his nature these shew that wisdom that is most Eminently here revealed though Power and Goodness be revealed with it so in the face of Jesus Christ who is the third and most perfect seal and glass there is the Image of the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of the Godhead But yet it is the Love or Goodness of the Father that is most Eminently revealed in the son His Power appeared in the incarnation the conquests over Satan and the world the Miracles the Resurrection and the Ascension of Christ. His wisdom appeareth in the admirable mysterie of Redemption and in all the parts of the office works and laws of Christ and in the means appointed in subordination to him But Love and Goodness shineth most clearly and amiably through the whole it being the very end of Christ in this blessed work to reveal God to man in the Richoâ— of his Love as giving us the greatest mercies by the most precious means in the meetest season and manner for our good Reconciling us to himself and treating us as Children with Fatherly compassions and bringing us nearer him and opening to us the everlasting treasure having brought life and immortality to light in the Gospel God being thus revealed to man from without in the three Glasses or Seals of the Creation Law and Son himself he is also revealed to us in our selves man being as it were a little world In the Nature of man is revealed as in a Seal or Glass the nature of the blessed God in some measure In Unity of Essence we have a Trinity of Faculties of soul even the Vegetative Sensitive and Rational as our bodies have both parts and spirits Natural Vital and Animal the Rational Power in Unity hath also its Trinity of faculties even Power for Execution Understanding for Direction and Will for Command The measure of Power is Naturally sufficient to its use and end the understanding is a faculty to reason discern and discourse The will hath that Freedom which beseemeth an undetermined self-determining creature here in the way Besides this Physical Image of God that is inseparable from our Nature we have also his Law written in our hearts and are our selves objectively part of the Law of nature that is the signifiers of the will of God Had we not by sin obliterated somewhat of this Image it would have shewed it self more clearly and we should have been more capable of understanding it And then when we are Regenerate and Renewed by the Grace and Spirit of Christ and planted into him as living members of his body we have then the third impression upon our souls and are made like our Head in Wisdom Holiness and in effectual strength Considered as Creatures endued with Power understanding and will we have the Impress of all the foresaid Attributes of God But Eminently of his Power Considered as we were at first possessed with the light and law of works or Nature of which we yet retain some part so we have the Impress of all these Attributes of God But most Eminently of his Wisdom Considered as Regenerate by the Spirit and planted into Christ so we have the impress of all his said Attributes But most eminently of his Love and Goodness shining in the Moral accomplishments or graces of the soul. Man being thus made at first the Natural and Sapiential image of God with much of the Image of his Love the Lord did presently by necessary Resultancy and voluntary consent stand Related to us in such variety of Relations as answer the foresaid Properties and Attributes And these Relations of God to us are next to be known as flowing from his Attributes and Works As we have our derived Being from God who is the Primitive Eternal Being so from our Being given by Creation God is Related to us as our Maker From this Relation of a Creator in Unity there ariseth a Trinity of Relations This Trintty is in that Unity and that Unity in this Trinty First God having made us of nothing is necessarily
innocent therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ Isa. 53. 6. All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all Rom. 5. 15. Through the offence of one many are dead 16. And the judgement was by One to condemnation 17. By the offence of one death reigned by one 18. By the offence of one judgement came on all men to condemnation 19. By one mans disobedience many were made sinners Psal. 51. 4. We were shapen in iniquity and in sin did our mothers conceive us Eph. 2. 1 3. We were by nature the Children of wrath and dead in trespasses and sin 1 Cor. 15. 22. In Adam all die 2 Cor. 5. 14 We thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead Eph 5. 23. Christ is the Saviour of the Body v. 25 26 27. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church If Infants have no sin and misery then they are none of the Body the Church which Christ loved and gave himself for that he might cleanse it But what need we further proof when we have the common experience of all the world Would every man that is born of a woman without exception so early manifest sin in the life if there were no corrupt disposition at the heart And should all mankind without exception tast of the punishment of sin if they had no participation of the guilt Death is the wages of sin and by sin death entred into the world and it passeth upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. 5. 12. Infants have sickness and torments and death which are the fruits of sin And were they not presented to Christ as a Saviour when he took them in his arms and blessed them and said Of such is the Kingdom of God Certainly none that never were guilty or miserable are capable of a place in the Kingdom of the Mediator For to what end should he mediate for them or how can he Redeem them that need not a Redemption or how should he reconcile them to God that never were at enmity with him Or how can he wash them that were never unclean Or how can he be a Physicion to them that never were sick when the whole have no need of the Physicion Mat. 9. 12. He came to seek and to save that which was lost Luk. 19. 10. and to save his people from their sins Mat. 1. 21. They are none of his saved people therefore that had no sin He came to redeem those that were under the Law Gal. 4. 5. But it is most certain that Infants were under the Law as well as the adult And 〈…〉 a paâ—â— of his people Israel whom he visited and Re 〈…〉 1. 68. If ever they be admitted into Glory they 〈…〉 him that Redeemed 〈…〉 God doth first justifie those whom he Glorifieth Rom. 8. 30. And they must be born again that will enter into his Kingdom Jâ—h 3. 3 5. And there is no Regeneration or renovation but from sin Col. 3. 10. Eph. 4. 22. Nor any Justification but from sin and from what we could not be Justified from by the Law of Moses Act. 13. 30. Nor any Justification but what containeth a Remission of sin Rom. 3. 25. And where there is no sin there is none to be Remitted Nor is there any Justification but what is through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus and his propitiation Rom. 3. 24 25. He is made of God Redemption to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. And the Redemption that we have by him is Remission of sins by his blood Col. 1. 14. Eph. 1. 7. By his own blood entered he once into the holy place having obtained eternal Redemption for us The eternal inheritance is received by means of death for the Redemption of transgressions Heb. 9. 12 15. so that all Scripture speaks this truth aloud to us that there is now no salvation promised but to the Church the Justified the Regenerate the Redeemed and that none can be capable of these but sinners and such as are lost and miserable in themselves And till our necessity be understood Redemption cannot be well understood They that believe that Christ dyed not only for this or that man in particular but for the world methinks should believe that the world are sinners and need his death He is called the Saviour of the world Joh. 4. 42. and the Saviour of all men especially of believers 1 Tim. 4. 10. 1 Joh. 4. 14. We have seen and do testifie that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world And from what doth he save them From their sins Mat. 1. 21. and from the wrath to come 1 Thes. 1. 10. For this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners Infants then are sinners or none of those that he came to save Christ hath made no man Righteous by his Obedience but such as Adam made sinners by his disobedience Rom. 5. 19. For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many shall be made Righteous Infants are not made Righteous by Christ if they were not sinners And sinners they cannot be by any but Original sin Rom. 5. 8 9 10. God commended his Love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Much more being now Justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him When we were enemies we were Reconciled to God by the death of his Son so that it is sinners that Christ dyed for and sinners that are justified by his blood and sinners that are reconciled to God Infants therefore are sinners or they are none of the Redeemed Justified or reconciled And when Jesus Christ by the grace of God did taste death for every man Heb. 2. 9. Infants are sure included There is one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransom for all 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. therefore all had sin and misery and needed that ransome He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world And is it not plain then that the whole world are sinners I speak all this for the evincing of Original sin only because that only is denyed by such as yet pretend to Christianity For actual sin is commonly confessed and shews it self And truly so doth Original sin in our proneness to actual and in the earliness and commonness of such evil inclinations and in the remnants of it which the sanctified
it is a more sweet and excellent state of life to be the Spouse of Christ and his members and serve God as friends and children with Love and Thankfulness then to serve him meerly as the most loyal subjects or with an obedience that hath less of Love 9. In the way of Redemption Holiness is more admirably exemplified in Christ then it was or would have been in Adam Adam would never have declared it in that eminency of Charity to others submission to God contempt of the world self-denyal and conquest of Satan as Christ hath done 10. And in the way of Redemption there is a double obligation laid upon man for every duty To the obligations of Creation all the obligations of Redemption and the new Creation are superadded And this threefold cord should not so easily be broken Here are moral means more powerfully to hold the soul to God 11. And in this way there is a clearer discovery of the everlasting state of man and life and immortality are more fully brought to light by the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10 then for ought we find in Scripture they were to innocent man himself No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son that is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Joh. 1. 18. For no man hath ascended up into heaven but he that came down from heaven even the son of man which is in heaven Joh 3. 13. 12. Man will be advanced to the judging of the ungodly and of the conquered Angels even by the good will of the Father and a participation in the honour of Christ our head and by a participation in his Victories and by our own Victories in his strength by the right of Conquest we shall judge with Christ both Devils and men that were enemies to him and our salvation as you may see 1 Cor. 6. 2 3. And there is more in that promise then we yet well understand Rev. 2. 26 27. He that overcometh and keepeth my words unto the end to him will I give power over the Nations and he shall rule them with a rod of Iron as the vessels of a Potter shall they be broken to shivers even as I received of my Father 13. And that which Augustine so much insisteth on I think is also plain in Scripture that the Salvation of the Elect is better secured in the hands of Christ then his own or any of his posterities was in the hands of Adam We know that Adam lost that which was committed to him But we know whom we have believed and are perswaded that he is able to keep that which we commit to him against that day 1 Tim. 1. 12. Force not these Scriptures against our own Consolation and the glory of our Redeemer and then judge Joh. 7. 2. As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him Joh. 6. 3. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Ver. 39. And this is the Fathers will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day Joh. 10. 26 27 28 29. But yee believe not because yee are not of my sheep as I said unto you My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish and none shall take them out of my hands My Father which gave them me is greater then all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hands Eph. 1. 3 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in Love Having predestinated us to the adoption of his children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved Being predestinated according to the purpose of him that worketh all things after the counsel of his own will Ver. 11. And if Faith and Repentance and the right disposition of the will it self be his resolved gift to his Elect and not things left meerly to our uncertain wills then the case is past all question 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves our of the snare of the Devil Eph. 2. 8. By grace yee are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the spirit is Love Faith Phil. 1. 29. To you it is given on the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him Act. 13. 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed Jer. 24. 7. And I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart Ezek. 11. 19 20. And I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God Ezek. 36. 26 27. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you an heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes See also Heb. 8. 6 7 8 9 10. where this is called the new and better Covenant I will put my Laws in their minds and write them in their hearts Jer. 31. 33. And Jer. 32. 39 40. And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever And I will make an everlasting Covenant with them and I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me 1 Cor. 4. 7. Who makes thee to differ and what hast thou that thou didst not receive Much more may be produced from which it is evident that Christ is the Author and finisher of our Faith and that the certainty of the salvation of his Elect doth lie more on his undertaking and resolution infallibly to accomplish their salvation then upon our wisdom or the stability of our mutable free-wills and that thus we are better in the hands of the second Adam then we were in the hands of the first
think of the Heathen and Infidel parts of the world and to see the Rebellion of the Prophane among us and that the Laws of God are unknown or despised by the most of men Alas what abundance are ruled by their lusts and self-conceitedness and corrupted wills and the customs of the world or the wills of men but how few are Ruled by the Laws of God! O how should it grieve an honest heart to see Gods Kingdom hindered by Infidelity and weakned divided and disturbed by Popery and Heresie and dishonoured by scandal and impiety as it is And to see the multitude and the violence and industry of corrupters dividers and destroyers and the fewness the coldness and remisness of the builders the healers and restorers All you that are loyal subjects to your Lord lament these waies of Rebellion and Disobedience and the diminutions and distempers of the subjects of his Kingdom and the unfaithfulness and negligence of his Ministers and bend your cares desires and prayers to the promoting of Gods Kingdom in you and in the world and befriend not any thing that hindereth its prosperity CHAP. XV. 14. THE third of these Relations and the next point in the Knowledge of God to be spoken of is that he is Our must Loving Father or Bountiful Benefactor As he is Good so he doth Good Psal. 119. 68. And as he is the chiefest Good so he bestoweth the greatest Benefits and therefore is thence by a Necessary Resultancy our Most Bountiful Benefactor The term Father comprehendeth in it all his three great Relations to us 1. A Father gives Being to his Children and therefore hath some Propriety in them and God is the first cause oâ— our whole Being and therefore we are his Own 2. A Father is the Governour of his Children and God is our Chief Governour 3. A Father tenderly Loveth his Children that are childlike loving and obedient to him and seeketh their felicity and so doth God Love and will make Happy his loving and obedient children who have not only their Being from him as their Maker but their New being or Holy nature from him as their Sanctifier And this last being the end and perfection of the rest doth communicate its nature to the rest as the Means And so 1. The new nature that God thus giveth us in our Regeneration is not from his common Love but is an act of special Grace proceeding from his special Fatherly Love 2. The Government that he exerciseth over them as his Regenerate children is not a Common Government such as is that of the meer Law of Nature or of works but it is a special Government by a Law of Grace a Justifying Remedying Saving Law or Covenant together with an internal illuminating quickning guiding spirit with Church-state and Officers and Ordinance all suited to this way of Grace Even as his Dominion or Propriety by Redemption and our Sanctification and Resignation is not a Common Propriety but a gracious Relation to us as Our Own Father who have the endeared Relation to him of being his Own Children All is from Love and in a way of Love and for the exercise and demonstration of Love so that when I call God Our Benefactor I precisely distinguish this last part of his Relations to us from the rest But when I call him a Father I mean the same thing or Relation which a Benefactor signifieth but with fuller aspect on the foregoing Relations and connotation of them as they are perfected all in this And here I. I shall briefly name the Benefits on which this Relation of God is founded And 1. Even in Creating us he acted as a Benefactor giving us the Fundamental Good of Being and the excellency of manhood 2. By setting us in a well furnished world and putting all things under our feet and giving us the use of Creatures 3. By entering into the Relation of a Governour to us and consequently engaging himself to terms of Justice in his dealing with us and to protect us and reward us if we did obey and making us capable of an everlasting happiness as our end and appointing us sufficient means thereto These Benefits denominated God the Great Benefactor or Father unto man in the state of his Creation But then moreover he is a Common Benefactor also 4. By so loving the world as to give his only begotten Son to be their Redeemer a sufficient sacrifice for sin 5. By giving out his Promise or Covenant of Grace and making a Common Deed of Gift of pardon Reconciliation and Eternal Life to all that will accept it in and with Christ to Gospel ends 6. By sending forth the Messengers of this Grace commanding them to Preach to every creature the Gospel or word of Reconciliation committed to them and to beseech men in Christs stead as his Embassadours as if God himself did intreat by them to be reconciled to God Matth. 28. 18 19. Mar. 16. 16. 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. 7. By affording some common mercies without and motions of his spirit within to second these invitations But though by this much God hath a Title to their dearest Love yet they have no Title to his highest Benefits nor are in the nearest Relation of Children or Beneficiaries to him But 8. When he begetteth us again to a lively Hope by his incorruptible seed and giveth us both to will and to do and when the Father effectually draweth us to the Son and reneweth us according to his Image and taketh away our old and stony hearts and giveth us new and tender hearts and giveth us to Know him and Love him as a Father then is he our Father in the dearest and most comfortable sense and we are his children that have interest in his dearest Love 9. And therefore we have his spirit and pardon Justification and Reconciliation with him 10. And also we have special Communion with him in Prayer Praises Sacraments and all holy Ordinances and Conversation 11. And we and our services are pleasing to him and so we are in the light of his countenance and under a special promise of his protection and provision and that all things shall work together for our good 12. And we have the promise of perfection in everlasting Glory II. And now as you see how God is our Benefactor or most Gracious and Loving Father let us next see what this must work on us And 1. Goodness and Bounty should shame men from their sin and lead them to Repentance Rom. 2. 4 5. Love is not to be abused and requited with unkindness and provocation He that can turn grace into wantonness and do evil because grace hath abounded or that it may abound shall be forced to confess that his damnation is just He that will not hate his sin when he seeth such exceeding Benefits stand by and heareth mercy and wonderful mercy plead against it and upbraid the sinner with ingratitude is like to die a double death and shall have no more sacrifice
for sin 2. The Fatherly Love and Benefits of God do call for our best returns of Love The Benefits of Creation oblige all to Love him with all their Heart and Soul and Might Much more the Benefits of Redemption and especially as applyed by sanctifying Grace to them that shall be heirs of life it obligeth them by multiplied strongest obligations The Worst are obliged to as much Love of God as the Best for none can be obliged to more than to Love him with all their Heart c. but they are not as much obliged to that Love We have new and special obligations and therefore must return a Hearty Love or we are doubly guilty Mercies are Loves Messengers sent from Heaven to win up our Hearts to Love again and entice us thither All mercies therefore should be used to this end That mercy that doth not encrease or excite and help our Love is abused and lost as seed that is buried when it 's sowed and never more appeareth Earthly Mercies point to Heaven and tell us whence they come and for what Like the Flowers of the Spring they tell us of the reviving approaches of the Sun But like foolish children because they are near us we Love the Flowers better than the Sun forgetting that the Winter is drawing on But Spiritual Mercies are as the Sun-shine that more immediately dependeth on and floweth from the Sun it self And he that will not see and value the Sun by its Light will never see it These beams come down to invite our Minds and Hearts to God and if we shut the windows or play till night and they return without us we shall be left to utter darkness The Mercies of God must imprint upon our minds the fullest and deepest conceptions of him as the most perfect suitable Lovely Objects to the soul of man when all our Good is Originally in him and all flows from him that hath the Goodness of a Means and finally himself is all not to Love God then is not to Love Goodness it self and there is nothing but Good that 's suited to our Love Night and day therefore should the Believer be drawing and deriving from God by the views and tasts of his precious Mercies a sweetness of nature and increase of holy Love to God as the Bee sucks Honey from the flowers We should not now and then for a recreation light upon a flower and meditate on some Mercy of the Lord but make this our work from day to day and keep continually upon our souls the lively tasts and deep impressions of the Infinite Goodness and Amiableness of God When we Love God most we are at the best most pleasing to God and our lives are sweetest to our selves And when we steep our minds in the believing thoughts of the abundant Fatherly Mercies of the Lord we shall most abundantly Love him Every Mercy is a Suiter to us from God! The contents of them all is this My Son Give mee thy Heart Love him that thus loveth thee Love him or you reject him O wonderful Love that God will regard the Love of man that he will enter into a Covenant of Love that he will be Related to us in a Relation of Love and that he will deal with us on terms of Love that he will give us leave to Love him that are so base and have so Loved Earth and Sin yea and that he will be so earnest a suiter for our Love as if he needed it when it is only we that need But the paths of Love are mysterious and incomprehensible 3. As God is in special a Benefactor and Father to us we must be the readiest and most diligent in obedience to him Childlike duty is the most willing and unwearied kind of duty Where Love is the principle we shall not be eye-servants but delight to do the Will of God and wish O that I could please him more It is a singular delight to a Gracious soul to be upon any acceptable duty and the more he can do good and please the Lord the more he is pleased As Fatherly Love and Benefits are the fullest and the surest so will filial duty be The Heart is no fit soil for Mercies if they grow not up to holy fruits The more you love the more chearfully will you obey 4. From hence we must well learn both How God is mans End and what are the chief Means that lead us to him 1. God is not the End of Reason nakedly considered but he is Finis Amantis the End which Love inclineth us to and which by Love is attained and by love enjoyed The understanding of which would resolve many great perplexing difficulties that à natura finis do step into our way in Theological studies I will name no more now but only that it teacheth us How both God and our own Felicity in the fruition of him may be said to be our Ultimate End without any contradiction yet so that it be Eminently and Chiefly God For it is a Union such as our Natures are capable of that is desired in which the soul doth long to be swallowed up in God Understand but what a filial or friendly Love is and you may understand what a regular Intention is and how God must be the Christians End 2. And withall it shews us that the most direct and excellent means of our felicity and to our End are those that are most suited to the work of Love Others are means more Remotely and necessary in their places but these directly And therefore the Promises and Narratives of the Love and Mercy of the Lord are the most direct and powerful part of the Gospel conducing to our End and the Threatnings the remoter means And therefore as Grace was advanced in the world the Promissory part of Gods Covenant or Law grew more illustrious and the Gospel consisted so much of Promises that it is called Glad tydings of great joy And therefore the most full demonstration of Gods Goodness and Loveliness to our hearers is the most excellent part of all our Preaching though it is not all And therefore the meditation of Redemption is more powerful than the bare meditation of Creation because it is Redemption that most eminently revealeth Love And therefore Christ is the Principal Means of Life because he is the Principal Messenger and Demonstration of the Fathers Love and by the wonders of Love which he revealeth and exhibiteth in his wondrous Grace he wins the soul to the Love of God For God will have external objective means and internal effective means concur because he will work on man agreeably to the nature of man Though there was never given out such prevalent invincible measures of the Spirit as Christ hath given for the Renewing of those that he will save yet shall not that Spirit do it without as excellent objective means And though Christ and the Riches of his Grace revealed in the Gospel be the most wonderful
objective means yet shall not these do it without the internal effectual means But when Love doth shine to us so resplendently without us in the face of the Glorious Sun of Love and is also â—et into us by the Spirits Illumination that sheds abroad this Love in our hearts then will the holy fire burn which comes from Heaven and leads to Heaven and will never rest till it have reacht its center and brought us to the face and arms of God 5. And from the Fatherly Relation and Love of God we must learn to Trust him and Rest our souls in his securing Love Shall we distrust a Father an Omnipotent Father Therefore is this Relation prefixed to the Petitions of the Lords Prayer and we begin with Our Father which art in Heaven that when we remember his Love and our Interest in him and his Alsufficiency we may be encouraged to Trust him and make our addresses to him If a Father and such a Father smite mee I will submit and kiss the Rod for I know it is the healing fruit of Love If a Father and such a Father afflict mee wound mee deal strangely wiâ—h mee and grieve my flesh let mee not murmure or distrust him for he well understandeth what he doth and nothing that shall hurt mee finally can come from Omnipotent Paternal Love If a Father and such a Father kill mee yet let mee Trust in him and let not my soul repine at his proceedings nor tremble at the separating stroak of death A Beast knows not when we strive with him what we intend whether to Cure or to Kill him but a Child need not fear a killing blow nor a Loving soul a damning death from such a Father If he be a Father where is his Love and Trust 6. If God be our Father and so wonderful a Benefactor to us then Thanks and Praise must be our most constant work and must be studied above all the rest of Duty and most diligently performed If the tongue of man which is called his Glory be made for any thing and good for any thing it is to give the Lord his Glory in the Thankful acknowledgement of his Love and Mercies and the daily chearful Praises of his Name Let this then be the Christians work 7. The Children of such a Father should live a contented chearful life Diligence becometh them but not contrivances for worldly greatness nor carking cares for that which their Father hath promised them to care for Humility and Reverence beseemeth them but not dejection and despondency of mind and a still complaining fearful troubled disconsolate soul. If the Children of such a Father shall not be bold and confident and chearful let joy and confidence then be banished from the earth and be renounced by all the Sons of men CHAP. XVI 15. THere are yet divers subordinate Attributes of God that being comprized in the forementioned may be passed over with the briefer touch And the next that I shall speak of is his Freedome And God is Free in more senses than one but for brevity I shall speak of all together 1. And first God hath a Natural Freedome of Will being Determined to Will by nothing without him nor liable to any Necessity but what is consistent with perfect Blessedness and Liberty His own Being and Blessedness and Perfections are not the objects of his Election and therefore not of that which we call Free Will But all his works without as Creation Providence Redemption c. are the effects of his Free Will Not but that his Will concerning all these hath a Necessity of existence For God did from Eternity Will the Creation and all that is done in time and therefore from Eternity that will existing had a Necessity of existence But yet it was Free because it proceedeth not Necessarily from the very Nature of God God was God before he made the world or Redeemed it or did the things that are daily done And therefore one part of the Schoolmen maintain not only that there is Contingency from God but that there could be no Contingency in the Creature if it had not its Original in God the Liberty of God being the fountain of Contingency 2. There is also an Eminency both of Dominion and Soveraignty in God according to which he may be called Free His Absoluteness of Propriety freeth him from the restraint of any Obligation but what floweth from his own Free Will from Disposing of his own as he pleases And his Absolute Soveraignty freeth him from the Obligation of his own Laws as Laws though he will still be true to his Promises and Predictions Let man therefore take heed how he questioneth his Maker or censureth his Laws or Works or Waies CHAP. XVII 16. ANother Attribute of God is his Justice With submission I conceive that this is not to be said to be from 〈◊〉 any otherwise than all Gods Relations are as Creator 〈◊〉 c. because here is no time with God For though 〈◊〉 Blessed Nature denominated Just is from Eternity yet not 〈◊〉 â—â—râ—ality or Denomination of Justice For Justice is an Attribute of God as he is Governour only And he was not Governour till he had Creatures to Govern And he could not be a Just Governour when he was no Governour The Denomination â—â—â— not arise till the Creation had laid the Foundation Many Questions may be resolved hence which I will not trouble you to reâ—â—â—e Justice in God is the Perfection of his Nature as it giveth every his his due oâ— Governeth the world in the most perfect Orders â—or the Ends of Government Because he is Just he will Reward the Righteous and difference between the Godly and the Wicked For that Governor that useth all alike is not Just. The Crown of Righteousness is given by him as a Righteous Judge 2 Tâ—m 4. 8. 1. The Justice of God is substantially in men we call it an Inclination â—â—â— Nature and so it is Eternal 2. It is 〈◊〉 formally in his Relation of Governour 3. It is expressively first in his Laws For as a Just Governour he made them suited to the Subjects Objects and Ends. 4 It is expressively secondarily in his Judgments and Executions which is when they are according to his Law oâ— in the Cares of Penalty where he may dispense at least according to the state of the subject and sitted to the Ends of Government 1. The Justice of God is the Consolation of the Just He will Justifie them whom his Gospel Justifieth because he is Just. The Justice of God in many places of Scripture is taken for his Fidelity in vindicating his people and his Judging for them and procuring them the happy fruits of his Government and so is taken in a Consolatory sense Psal. 89. 14. Justice and Judgement are the habitations of thy Throne Mercy and Truth shall go before thy face 2 Thes. 1. 5 6. It is a Righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble
prevent the sinner with his Judgement but with his Grace he often doth He never punisheth before we are sinners nor never Decreed so to do as all will grant He punisheth none where his foregoing commands and warnings have had their due effect for the prevention And therefore because the Precept is the first part of his Law and the Threatning is but subservient to that and the first intent of a Governour is to procure Obedience and Punishing is but upon supposition that he misseth of the first therefore is God said not to afflict willingly because he doth it not ex voluntate antecedente but ex voluntate consequente that is for so the distinction is sound not as a Law-giver and Ruler by those Laws considered before the violation but only as a Judge of the Law-breakers But yet Gods Mercy is no security to the abusers of his Mercy Bot rather will sink them into deeper misery as the aggravation of their sin As God Afflicts not willingly and yet we feel that he afflicteth so if he do not condemn you willingly you shall finde iâ— you are impenitent that yet he will condemn you If you say God can be forced to do nothing against his will I answer you that it is not simply against his will for then it should never come to pass But it is against the Principal act of his will which floweth from him as a Law-giver or Ruler by Laws in which respect it may be said that he had rather that the wicked turn and live but yet if they will not turn they shall not live A merciful Judge had rather the Thief had saved his life by forbearing to steal but yet he had not rather that Thieves go unpunished than he should condemn them But you 'l say If God had rather men did not sin why doth he not hinder it I answer 1. He had not absolutely and simply rather that is so far as to do all that he can to prevent it nor all that without which he foreknoweth it will not be prevented But he doth much against sin as a Law-giver and nothing for it he causeth us not but perswades us from it and therefore as a Ruler he may be said to have rather that men did not sin or rather that they would turn and live 1. The Mercy of God therefore should lead sinners to Repentance and shame them from their sin and lead them up to God in Love 2. Mercy should encourage sinners to Repent as well as engage them to it For we have to do with a Merciful God that hath not shut up any among us in despair nor forbid them to come in but continueth to invite when we have oft refused and will undoubtedly pardon and welcome all that do return 3. Mercy being specially the portion of the Saints must keep them in Thankfulness Love and Comfort and all Mercies must be improved for their proper ends When a Merciful God is pleased to fill up his servants lives with such Great and Various Mercies as he doth it should breed a continual sweetness upon their hearts and cause them to study the most grateful retribution He should breath forth nothing but Thankfulness Obedience and Praise who breaths nothing but Mercies from God As the food that men live upon will be seen in their temperature 〈…〉 and strength so they that live continually upon Mâ—rcâ—â—s â—â—ould be wholly turned into Love and Thankfulness 〈…〉 ould become as it were their nature temperature 〈…〉 O how unspeakable is the Love of God that 〈…〉 eet a life for his servants even in their warfare 〈…〉 ge in this world that Mercy must be as it were 〈…〉 Air that they breath in the food which they must live upon and the remembrance improvement and thankful mention of it must be the business and imployment of their lives O with what sweet affections meditations and expressions should we live if we lived but according to the rate of those Mercies upon which we live Love and Joy and Thanks and Praise would be our very lives What sweet thoughts would Mercy breed and feed in our minds when we are alone what sweet apprehensions of the Love of God and Life Eternal should we have in Prayer Reading Saoraments and other holy ordinances Sickness and Health Poverty and Wealth Death as well as Life would be comfortable to us for all is full of Mercy to the Vessels of Mercy O Christians what a shame is it that God is so much wronged and our selves so much defrauded of our peace and joy by passing over such abundance of great unvaluable mercies without tasting their sweetness or well considering what we do receive Had we Davids heart what songs of Praise would Mercy teach us to indite How affectionately should we recount the mercies of our youth and riper age of every place and state that we have lived in to the honour of our Gracious Lord and the encouragement of those that know not how Good and Merciful he is But withall see that you contemn not or abuse not Mercy Use it well for it is Mercy that you must trust to in the hour of your distresses O do not trample upon Mercy now lest you be confounded when you should cry for Mercy in your extremity 4. The Mercifulness of God must cause his servants to imitate him in a Love of mercy Be merciful for your heavenly Father is merciful Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Matth. 5. 7. Be merciful in your Censures Be merciful in your retributions You are none of Gods Children if you Love not your Enemies and pray not for them that curse you and do not good to them that hate and persecute you according to your power Matth. 5. 44 45. If you forgive not men their trespasses but take your Brother by the throat neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your Trespasses Matth. 6. 14 15. Mark that even while he is called your heavenly Father yet he will not forgive if you forgive not Unmerciful men are too unlike to God to claim any interest in his saving mercy in the hour of their extremest misery Men of cruelty blood and violence he abhorreth And usually they do not live out half their daies But they that bite and devour one another are devoured one of another Gal. 5. 15. The last judgement will pass much according to mens works of mercy to the members of Christ Matth. 25. He shall have judgement without mercy that hath shewed no mercy and mercy rejoyceth against judgement James 2. 13. Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the Fatherless and Widdows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted in the world James 1. 27. He that having this worlds goods seeth his Brother in need and shutteth up the bowels of his compassion from him how dwelleth the Love of God in him But above all cruelty there is none more devilish than cruelty to souls And
Will and not as the motion of the brutish appetite And that God is their felicity and the only help and comfort of their souls and so the principal Good to be desired by them is become to them a truth so certain and beyond all doubt that their understandings are convinced that Velle Bonum Velle Deum to Love Good and to Love God are words that have almost the same signification and therefore here is no room for deliberation and choice where there is omnimoda ratio boni nothing but unquestionable good A Christian so far as he is such cannot chuse but desire the favour and fruition of God in immortality even as he cannot chuse because he is a man but desire his own felicity in general And as he cannot as a man but be unwilling of destruction and cannot but fear apparent misery and that which bringeth it so as a Christian he cannot chuse but be unwilling of damnation and of the wrath of God and of sin as sin and fear the apparent dangers of his soul so that his New Nature will presently cast his Fear and Repentance and Desires into their proper course and order and set them on work on their several objects about the main unquestionable things however they may erre or need more deliberation about things doubtful The New Creature is not as a lifeless Engine as a Clock or Watch or Ship where every part must be set in order by the art and hand of man and so kept and used But it is liker to the frame of our own nature even like man who is a living Engine when every part is set in its place and order by the Creatour and hath in it self a living and harmonical principle which disposeth it to action and to regular action and is so to be kept in order and daily exercise by our selves as yet to be principally ordered and actuated by the Spirit which is the principal cause By all which you may understand how the Holy Ghost is in us a spirit of Supplication and helpeth of our infirmities and teacheth us to pray and intercedeth in us and also that Prayer is to the New Man so natural a motion of the soul towards God that much of our walking with God is exercised in this holy duty And that it is to the New Life as breathing to our Natural Life and therefore no wonder that we are commanded to pray continually 1 These 5. 17. as we must breath continually or as nature which needeth a daily supply of food for nourishment hath a daily appetite to the food which it needeth so hath the Spiritual Nature to its necessary food and nothing but sickness doth take it off And thus I have shewed you how our walking with God containeth a holy use of his appointed means II. To walk with God includeth our Dependence on him for our Receivings and taking our Mercies as from his hand To live as upon his Love and Bounty as Children with their Father that can look for nothing but from him As the eye of a Servant yea of a craving Dog is upon his Masters face and hand so must our eye be on the Lord for the gracious supply of all our wants If men give us any thing we take them but as the Messengers of God by whom he sendeth it us We will not be unthankful unto men but we thank them but for bringing us our Fathers gifts Indeed man is so much more than a meer Messenger as that his own Charity also is exercised in the gift A meer Messenger is to do no more but obedientlly to deliver what is sent us and he need not exercise any Charity of his own and we owe him thanks only for his fidelity and labour but only to his Master for the gift But God will so far honour man as that he shall be called also to use his Charity and distribute his Masters gifts with some self-denial and we owe him thanks as under God he partaketh in the Charity of the Gift and as one childe oweth thanks to another who both in obedience to the Father and Love to his Brother doth give some part of that which his Father had given him before But still it is from our Fathers Bounty as the principal cause that all proceeds Thus Jacob speaketh of God Gen. 48. 15. God before whom my Fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk the God which fed mee all my life long unto this day the Angel which redeemed mee from all evil bless the Lads c. When he had mentioned his Father Abraham and Isaac's walking with God he describeth his own by his dependence upon God and receiving from him acknowledging him the God that had fed him and delivered him all his life Carnal men that live by sense do depend upon inferiour sensible causes and though they are taught to pray to God and thank him with their tongues it is indeed their own contrivances and industry or their visible benefactors which their hearts depend upon and thank It were a shame to them to be so plain as Pharaoh and to say Who is the Lord or to speak as openly as Nebuchadnezzar and say Is not this great Babylon that I have built by the might of my power c. Dâ—n 4 30. Yet the same Atheism and Self-idolizing is in their hearts though it be more modestly and cunningly exprest Hence it is that they that walk with God have all their Receivings sanctified to them and have in all a Divine and spiritual sweetness which those that take them but as from Creatures do never feel or understand 12. Lastly it is contained in our Walking with God that the greatest business of our lives be with Him and for him It is not a walk for complement or recreation only that is here meant but it is a life of nearness converse and employment as a servant or child that dwelleth with his Master or Father in the house God should be alwayes so regarded that Man should stand by as Nothing and be scarce observed in comparison of Him We should begin the day with God and entertain Him in the first and sweetest of our thoughts we should walk abroad and do our work as in his sight we must resolve to do no work but His no not in our trades and ordinary callings we must be able to say It is the work which my Master set me to do and I do it to obey and please his Will At night we must take an account of our selves and spread open that account before him desiring his acceptance of what was well and his pardon for what we did amiss that we may thus be ready for our last account In a word though Men be our fellow-labourers and companions yet the principal business of our Care and Diligence must be our Masters service in the world And therefore we must look about us and discern the opportunities of serving him and of the best improvement of his
blood and made them Kings and Priests to God Herein he hath sometime a sweet foretast of the everlasting pleasures which though it be but little as Jonathans honey on the end of his rod or as the clusters of grapes which were brought from Canaan into the wilderness yet are they more excellent then all the delights of sinners And in the beholding of this celestial Glory some beams do penetrate his breast and so irradiate his longing soul that he is changed thereby into the same image from Glory to Glory the spirit of Glory and of God doth rest upon him And O what an excellent holy frame doth this converse with God possess his soul of How reverently doth he think of him what life is there in every Name and Attribute of God which he heareth or thinketh on The mention of his Power his Wisdome his Goodness his Love his Holinesse his Truth how powerful and how pleasant are they to him when to those that know him but by the hearing of the ear all these are but like common names and notions and even to the weaker sort of Christians whose Walking with God is more uneven and low interrupted by their sins and doubts and fears this life and glory of a Christian course is lesse perceived And the sweet appropriating and applying works of faith by which the soul can own his God and finds it self owned by him are exercised most easily and happily in these near approaches unto God Our doubts are cherished by our darknesse and that is much caused by our distance The nearer the soul doth approach to God the more distinctly it heareth the voice of mercy the sweet reconciling invitations of Love and the more clearly it discerneth that goodness and amiableness in God which maketh it easier to us to believe that he loveth us or is ready to embrace us and banisheth all those false and horrid apprehensions of him which before were our discouragement and made him seem to us more terrible then amiable As the Ministers and faithful servants of Christ are ordinarily so misrepresented by the malignant Devil to those that know them not that they are ready to think them some silly fools or falsehearted hypocrites and to shun them as strange undesirable persons but when they come to through acquaintance with them by a nearer and familiar converse they see how much they were mistaken and wronged by their prejudice and belief of slanderers misreports Even so a weak believer that is under troubles in the apprehension of his sin and danger is apt to hearken to the enemy of God that would shew him nothing but his wrath and represent God as an enemy to him And in this case it is exceeding hard for a poor sinner to believe that God is reconciled to him or loveth him or intends him good but he is ready to dread and shun him as an enemy or as he would fly from a wild beast or murderer or from fire or water that would destroy him And all these injurious thoughts of God are cherished by strangeness and disacquaintance But as the soul doth fall into an understanding and serious converse with God and having been often with him doth find him more merciful than he was by Satan represented to him his experience reconcileth his mind to God and maketh it much easier to him to believe that God is reconciled unto him when he hath found much better entertainment with God than he expected and hath observed his benignity and the treasures of his bounty laid up in Christ and by him distributed to believers and hath found him ready to hear and help and found him the only full and suitable felicitating Good this banisheth his former horrid thoughts and maketh him ashamed that ever he should think so suspiciously injuriously and dshonourably of his dearest God and Father Yet I must confesse that there are many upright troubled souls that are much in reading prayer and meditation that still find it hard to be perswaded of the Love of God and that have much more disquietment and fear since they set themselves to think of God than they had before But yet for all this we may well conclude that to walk with God is the way to consolation and tendeth to acquaint us with his love As for those troubled souls whose experience is objected against this some of them are such as are yet but in their return to God from a life of former sin and misery and are yet but like the needle in the compasse that is shaken in a trembling motion towards their rest and not in any setled apprehensions of it Some of them by the straying of their imagination too high and putting themselves upon more than their heads can bear and by the violence of fears or other passions do make themselves uncapable of those sweet consolations which else they might find in their converse with God as a Lute when the strings are broken with straining is uncapable of making any melody All of them have false apprehensions of God and therefore trouble themselves by their own mistakes And if some perplex themselves by their errour doth it follow that therefore the Truth is not comfortable Is not a Fathers presence consolatory because some children are afraid of their Fathers that know them not because of some disguise And some of Gods children walk so unevenly and carelesly before him that their sins provoke him to hide his face and to seem to reject them and disown them and so to trouble them that he may bring them home But shall the comforts of our Fathers Love and Family be judged of by the fears or smart of those whom he is scourging for their disobedience or their tryal Seek God with understanding as knowing his essential properties and what he will be to them that sincerely and diligently seek him and then you will quickly have experience that nothing so much tendeth to quiet and settle a doubting troubled unstable soul as faithfully to walk with God But the soul that estrangeth it self from God may indeed for a time have the quietness of security but so far it will be strange to the assurance of his Love and to true consolation Expect not that God should follow you with his comforts in your sinfulnesse and negligence and cast them into your hearts whilest you neither seek nor mind them or that he give you the fruit of his wayes in your own wayes Will he be your joy when you forget him will he delight your souls with his goodness and amiableness while you are taken up with other matters and think not of him can you expect to find the comforts of his family among his enemies out of doors The experience of all the world can tell you that prodigals while they are stragling from their Fathers house do never tast the comfort of his embraces The strangers meddle not with his childrens joyes They grow not in the way of ambition covetousnesse vainglory or
and erroneous disposition of our own hearts The will hath a very great power upon the understanding And therefore ungodly fleshly men will very hardly receive any truth which crosseth the carnal interest or disposition And will hardly let go any errour that feedeth them because their corrupted wills are a byas to their understandings and make them desperately partial in all their reading and hearing and hypocritical in their prayers and enquiries after truth Interest and corruption locketh up their hearts from their own observation Whereas a man that walketh with God that is jealous and holy and just and a searcher of the heart is driven from hypocrisie and forced to behave himself as in the open light and to do all as in the sight of all the world as knowing that the sight of God is of far greater concernment and regard The partiality corruption and byas of the heart is detected and shamed by the presence of God Therefore to walk with God is to walk in the light and as children of the light and not in darkness And he that doth Truth cometh to the light that his deeds might be manifest that they are wrought in God when every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved And this is their condemnation that light is come into the world and men love the darkness rather then the light because their deeds are evil Joh. 3. 19 20 21. It tendeth therefore exceedingly to make men wise to Walk with God because it is a walking in the light and in such a presence as most powerfully prevaileth against that hypocrisie deceitfulness and partiality of the heart which is the common cause of damning errour 10. Lastly they that walk with God are entitled by many promises to the guidance and direction of his spirit And blessed are those that have such a guide at once a light in the world without them and a light immediately from God within them For so far as he is received and worketh in them he will lead them into truth and save them from deceit and folly and having guided them by his counsel will afterward take them unto glory Psal. 73. 24. Whereas the ungodly are led by the flesh and often given up to their own hearts lusts to walk in their own counsels Rom. 8. 1 13. Psal. 81. 12. till at last the fools do say in their hearts there is no God Psal. 14. 1. and they become corrupt and abhominable eating up the people of the Lord as bread and call not on his Name ver 2. c. Deceiving and being deceived sensual having not the spirit Jud. 19. who shall receive the reward of their unrighteousness as accounting it pleasure to riot in the day time 2 Pet. 2. 13. IV. ANother benefit of Walking with God is that it maketh men good as well as wise It is the most excellent means for the advancement of mans soul to the highest degree of holiness attainable in this life If conversing with Good men doth powerfully tend to make men good conversing with God must needs be more effectual which may appear in these particulars 1. The apprehensions of the presence and attributes of God do most effectually check the stirrings of corruption and rebuke all the vicious inclinations and motions of the soul even the most secret sin of the heart is rebuked by his presence as well as the most open transgression of the life For the thoughts of the heart are open to his view All what is done before God is done as in the open light nothing of it can be hid no sin can have the encouragement of secresie to embolden it It is all committed in the presence of the Universal King and Lawgiver of the world who hath forbidden it It is done before him that most abhorreth it and will never be reconciled to it It is done before him that is the Judge of the world and will shortly pass the sentence on us according to what we have done in the body It standeth up in his presence who is of infinite Majesty and perfection and therefore most to be reverenced and honoured And therefore if the presence of a wise and grave and venerable person will restrain men from sin the presence of God apprehended seriously will do it much more It is committed before him that is our dearest friend and tender Father and chiefest benefactor And therefore ingenuity gratitude and love will all rise up against it in those that walk with God There is that in God before the eyes of those that walk with him which is most contrary to sin and most powerful against it of any thing in the world Every one will confess that if mens eyes were opened to see the Lord in Glory standing over them it would be the most powerful means to restrain them from transgressing The drunkard would not then venture upon his cups the fornicator would have a cooling for his lusts the swearer would be afraid to take his Makers name in vain the prophane would scarce presume to scorn or persecute a holy life And he that walketh with God though he see him not corporeally yet seeth him by faith and liveth as in his presence and therefore must needs be restrained from sin as having the means which is next to the sight of God If pride should begin to stir in one that walks with God O what a powerful remedy is at hand How effectually would the presence of the Great and Holy God rebuke it and constrain us to say as Job 42. 5 6. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes If worldly love or carnal lust should stir â—n such a one how powerfully would the terrours of the Lord repress it and his Majesty rebuke it and his Love and Goodness overcome it If worldly cares or murmuring discontents begin to trouble such a one how effectually will the Goodness the All sufficiency and the faithfulness of God allay them and quiet and satisfie the soul and cause it to be offended at its own offence and to chide it self for its repinings and distrust If Passion arise and begin to discompose us how powerfully will the presence of God rebuke it and the reverence of his Majesty and the sense of his Authority and pardoning grace will asswage it and shame us into silent quietness who dare let out his passions upon man in the presence of his Maker that apprehendeth his presence The same I might say of all other sins 2. The presence and attributes of God apprehended by those that walk with him is the potent remedy against Temptations Who will once turn an eye to the gold and glory of the world that is offered him to allure him to sin if he see God stand by who would be tempted to lust or any sinful pleasure if he observe the presence of the Lord
Satan can never come in so ill a time with his temptations and have so little hope to speed as when the soul is contemplating the attributes of God or taken up in prayer with him or any way apprehensive of his presence The soul that faithfully walks with God hath enough at hand in him to answer all temptations And the further any man is from God and the less he knoweth him the more Temptations can do upon him 3. The presence of God affordeth the most powerful motives unto Good to those that walk with him There is no grace in man but what is from God and may find in God its proper object or incentive As God is God above the creature transcendently and infinitely in all perfections so all the motives to goodness which are fetcht from him are transcendently above all that may be fetcht from any creature He that liveth alwaies by the fire or in the Sun-shine is likest to be warm He that is most with God will be most like to God in Holiness Frequent and serious converse with him doth most deeply imprint his communicable attributes on the heart and make there the clearest impression of his image Believers have learned by their own experience that one hours serious prayer or meditation in which they can get nigh to God in the Spirit doth more advance their grace then any help that the creature can afford them 4. Moreover those that walk with God have not only a Powerful but an universal incentive for the actuating and increasing of every grace Knowledge and faith and fear and love and trust and hope and obedience and zeal and all have in God their proper objects and incentives One Creature may be useful to us in one thing and another in another thing but God is the most effectual mover of all his graces and that in a holy harmony and order Indeed he hath no greater Motive to draw us to Love him and Fear him and Trust him and Obey him than himself It is life eternal to know him in his Son Joh. 17. 3. And that is not only because it entitleth us to life eternal but also because it is the beginning and incentive of that life of holiness which will be eternal 5. Moreover those that walk with God have a constant as well as a Powerful and Universal incentive to exercise and encrease their Graces Othet helps may be out of the way Their Preachers may be silenced or removed Their Friends may be scattered or taken from them Their Books may be forbidden or not at hand But God is alwaies ready and willing They have leave at all times to come to him and be welcome Whenever they are willing they may go to him by prayer or contemplation and find all in him which they can desire If they want not Hearts they shall find no want of any thing in God At what time soever fear would torment them they may draw near and put their trust in him Psal. 56. 2 3 4. 11. 1. 18. 2 30. 31. 1 6. He will be a sure and speedy refuge for them a very present help in trouble Psal. 46. 1. 62. 7 8. 91. 2 9 94. 22. Whenever coldness or lukewarmness would extinguish the work of Grace they may go to him and find those streams of flaming Love flow from him those strong attractives those wonderful mercies those terrible judgements of which while they are musing the fire may again wax hot within them Psal. 39. 3. 6. Lastly by way of encouraging reward God useth to give abundantly of his Grace to those that walk most faithfully with him He will shew most Love to those that most love him He will be nearest to them that most desirously draw nigh to him while he forsaketh those that forsake him and turneth away from those that turn away from him 2 Chro. 15. 2. Prov. 1. 32. Ezr. 8. 22. The hand of our God is for good upon all them that seek him but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him Thus it is apparent in all those evidences that walking with God is not only a discovery of the Goodness that men have but the only way to encrease their Grace and make them better O what a sweet humility and seriousness and spirituality appeareth in the conference or conversation or both of those that newly come from a believing close converse with God! When they that come from men and Books may have but a common mind or life And those that come from the business and pleasure of the world and flesh and from the company of foolish riotous gallants may come defiled as the Swine out of the mire V. LAstly to walk with God is the best preparation for times of suffering and for the day of death As we must be judged according to what we have done in the body so the nearer we find our selves to judgement the more we shall be constrained to judge our selves according to what we have done and shall the more perceive the effects upon our souls That this is so excellent a preparative for sufferings and death will appear by the consideration of these particulars 1. They that walk with God are safest from all destructive sufferings and shall have none but what are sanctified to their good Rom. 8. 28. They are near to God where destruction cometh not as the Chicken under the wings of the Hen. They walk with him that will not lead them to perdition that will not neglect them nor sell them for nought nor expose them to the will of men and devils though he may suffer them to be tryed for their good No one can take them out of his hands Be near to him and you are safe The destroyer cannot fetch you thence He can fetch you when the time is come from the side of your merriest companions and dearest friends from the presence of the greatest Princes from the strongest Tower or most sumptuous Pallace or from your heaps of riches in your securest health But he cannot take you from the arms of Christ nor from under the wings of your Creatours love For there is no God like him in Heaven above or on the earth beneath who keepeth Covenant and Mercy with his servants that walk before him with all their heart 1 King 8 23. 1 King 11. 38. However we are used in our Fathers presence we are sure it shall be for good in the latter end For he wanteth neither Power nor Love to deliver us if he saw deliverance to be best 2. Walking with God is the surest way to obtain a certainty of his special love and of our salvation And what an excellent preparative for sufferings or death such assurance is I need not tell any considerate beleever How easie may it be to us to suffer poverty disgrace or wrongs or the pains of sickness or death when once we are certain that we shall not suffer the pains of
no connaturality with the things above for such a soul to be surprized with the tydings of death alas how dreadful must it be And thus I have shewed you the Benefits that come by walking with God which if you Love your selves with a rational love me thinks should resolve every impartial considerate Reader to give up himself without delay to so desirable a course of life or if he have begun it to follow it more chearfully and faithfully than he had done CHAP. VII I Am next to shew you that Believers have special obligations to this holy course of life and therefore are doubly faulty if they neglect it Though indeed to neglect it totally or in the main drift of their lives is a thing inconsistent with a living Faith Consider 1 If you are true Christians your Relations engage you to walk with God Is he not your Reconciled Father and you his Children in a special sense And whom should Children dwell with but with their Father You were glad when he received you into his Covenant that he would enter into so near a Relation to you as he expresseth 2 Cor. 6. 17 18. I will receive you and will be a Father to you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty And do you draw back as if you repented of your Covenant and were not only weary of the Duty but of the Priviledges and Benefits of your Relation You may have access to God when others are shut out Your Prayers may be heard when the prayers of the wicked are abominable You may be welcome when the worldling and ambitious and carnal are despised He that dwelleth in the highest Heaven is willing to look to you with respect and dwell with you when he beholdeth the proud afar off Isa. 66. 1 2. 57. 15 16. And yet will you not come that may be welcome Doth he put such a difference between you and others as to feed you as his Children at his table while others are called Dogs and are without the doors and have but your crums and leavings and yet will you be so foolish and unthankful as to run out of your Fathers presence and choose to be without among the Dogs How came your Fathers presence to be so grievous to you and the priviledges of his family to seem so vile Is it not some unchild-like carriage the guilt of some disobedience or contempt that hath first caused this Or have you faln again in love with fleshly pleasures and some vanity of the world Or have you had enough of God and Godliness till you begin to grow aweary of him If so you never truly knew him However it be if you grow indifferent as to God do not wonder if shortly you find him set as light by you And believe it the day is not far off in which the Fatherly Relation of God and the priviledges of Children will be more esteemed by you when all things else forsake you in your last distress you will be loth that God should then forsake you or seem as a stranger to hide his face Then you will cry out as the afflicted Church Isa. 63. 15 16. Look down from Heaven and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory Where is thy zeal and thy strength the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards me are they restrained Doubtless thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not thou O Lord art our Father our Redeemer thy name is from everlasting Nothing but God and his Fatherly Relation will then support you Attend him therefore and with reverent obedient chearfulness and delight converse with him as with your dearest Father For since the beginning of the world men have not known by sensible evidence either the ear or the eye besides God himself what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him Isa. 64. 4. Though he be wroth with us because we have sinned yet doth he meet him that rejoyceth and worketh rightcousness that remembreth him in his waies vers 5. Say not I have played abroad so long that I dare not now go home I have sinned so greatly that I dare not speak to him or look him in the face Come yet but with a penitent returning heart and thou mayest be accepted through the Prince of Peace Prodigals find better entertainment than they did expect when once they do but resolve for home If he allow us to begin with Our Father which art in Heaven we may boldly proceed to ask forgiveness of our trespasses and whatever else is truly good for us But alas as our iniquities seduce us away from God so the guilt of them affrighteth some from returning to him and the love of them corrupteth the hearts of others and makes them too indifferent as to their communion with him so that too many of his children live as if they did not know their Father or had forgotten him We may say as Isa. 64. 6 7 8 9. But we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away and there is none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee for thou hast hid thy face from us and hast consumed us because of our iniquities But now O Lord thou art our Father we are the Clay and thou our Potter and we are all the work of thy hand Be not wroth very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever Behold see we beseech thee we are all thy people O do not provoke your Father to disown you or to withdraw his help or hide his face or to send the Rod to call you home for if you do you will wish you had known the priviledges of his presence and had kept nearer to him Be not so unnatural so unthankful so unkind as to be weary of your Fathers presence and such a Father 's too and to take more delight in any others Moreover you are related to God in Christ as a Wife unto a Husband as to Covenant union and nearness and dearness of affection and as to his tender care of you for your good And is it seemly is it wisely or gratefully done of you to desire rather the company of others and delight in creatures more than him Isa. 54. 5 6. How affectionately doth thy Maker call himself the Husband of his people And can thy heart commit adultery and forsake him My Covenant they brake though I was an Husband to thee saith the Lord Jer. 31. 32. O put not God to exercise his jealousie It is one of his terrible attributes to be a jealous God And can he be otherwise to thee when thou lovest not his converse or company and carest not how long thou art from him in the world Woe to thee if he once say as Hos. 2. 2. She is not
my Wife neither am I her Husband Nay more than this if you are Christians you are members of the body of Christ And therefore how can you withdraw your selves from him and not feel the pain and torment of so sore a wound or dislocation you cannot live without a constant dependence on him and communication from him Joh 15. 1 4 5. I am the true Vine and my Father is the Husbandman Abide in me and I in you I am the Vine ye are the Branches He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you So near are you to Christ that he delighteth to acquaint you with his secrets O how many mysteries doth he reveal to those that walk with him which carnal strangers never know Mysteries of Wisdome Mysteries of Love and saving Grace Mysteries of Scripture and Mysteries of Providence Mysteries felt by inward experience and Mysteries revealed foreseen by Faith Not only the strangers that pass by the doors but eveâ—â— the common servants of the family are unacquainted with the secret operations of the Spirit and entertainments of Grace and Joy in believing which those that walk with God either do or may possess Therefore Christ calleth you friends as being more than servants Joh. 15. 14 15. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what the Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you It is true for all this that every true Christian hath reason and is apt to complain of his darkness and distance from God Alas they know so little of him and of the Mysteries of his Love and Kingdom that sometimes they are apt to think that they are indeed but utter strangers to him But this is because there is infinitely more still unknown to them than they know what can the silly shallow creature comprehend his infinite Creatour Or shall we know all that is to be known in Heaven before we enjoy all that is to be enjoyed in Heaven It is no more wonder to hear a believer pant and mourn after a fuller knowledge of God and neâ—râ—r access to him than to seek after Heaven where this will be his happiness But yet though his Knowledge of God be small compared with his Ignorance that little Knowledge of God which he hath attained i 〈…〉 ore mysterious sublime and excellent than all the learning of the greatest unsanctified Scholars in the world Walk with him according to the neatness of your Relations to him and you shall have this excellent knowledge of his Mysteries which no Books or Teachers alone can give You shall be effectually touched at the heart with the truths which others do uneffectually hear You shall be powerfully moved when they are but uneffectually exhorted When they only hear the voice without them you shall hear the voice within you and as it were behind you saying This is the way walk in it O that you could duly value such a friend to watch over you and for you and dwell in you and tell you faithfully of every danger and of every duty and teach you to know good and evil and what to choose and what to refuse How closely and delightfully would you converse with such a blessed friend if you rightly valued him 2. MOreover you that are the servants of God have by your Covenant and Profession renounced and forsaken all things else as they stand in any opposition to him or competition with him and have resigned your selves wholly unto him alone And therefore with him must you converse and be employed unless you will forsake your Covenant You knew first that it was your interest to forsake the world and turn to God You knew the world would not serve your turn nor be instead of God to you either in life or at death And upon this Knowledge it was that you changed your Master and changed your minds and changed your way your work your hopes And do you dream now that you were mistaken Do you begin to think that the world is fitter to be your God or Happiness if not you must still confess that both your Interest and your Covenant do oblige you to turn your hearts and minds from the things which you have renounced and to walk with him that you have taken for your God and to obey him whom you have taken for your King and Judge and to keep close to him with purest Love whom you have taken for your everlasting portion Mark what you are minding all the day while you are neglecting God Is it not something that you have renounced And did you not renounce it upon sufficient cause Was it not a work of your most serious deliberation and of as great wisdome as any that ever you performed if it were turn not back in your hearts again from God unto the renounced Creature You have had many a lightning from Heaven into your understandings to bring you to see the difference between them You have had many a teaching and many a warning and many a striving of the spirit before you were prevailed with to renounce the world the flesh and the devil and to give up your self intirely and absolutely to God Nay did it not cost you the smart of some afflictions before you would be made so wise And did it not cost you many a gripe of conscience and many a terrible thought of Hell and of the wrath of God before you would be heartily engaged to him in his Covenant And will you now live as strangely and neglectfully towards him as if those daies were quite forgotten and as if you had never felt such things and as if you had never been so convinced or resolved O Christians take heed of forgetting your former case your former thoughts your former convictions and complaints and covenants God did not work all that upon your hearts to be forgotten He intended not only your present change but your after remembrance of it for your close adhering to him while you live and for your quickning and constant preservance to the end The forgetting of their former miseries and the workings of God upon their hearts in their conversion is a great cause of mutability and revolting and of unspeakable hurt to many a soul. Nay may you not remember also what sorrow you had in the day of your Repentance for your forsaking and neglecting God so long And will you grow again neglective of him Was it then so hainous a sin in your eyes and is it not now grown less Could you then aggravate it so many waies and justly and now do you justifie or extenuate it Were you then ready to sink under the burden of it and were
necessitas consequentiae a Logical Necessity in ordine cognoscendi dicendi not a Natural Necessity in ordine essendi not a Necessity of the Thing it self as caused by the prediction or decree but a necessity of the truth of this conclusion in arguing such a thing will be because God hath decreed foreknown or foretold it or whatever God foretelleth must necessarily come to pass that is will certainly come to pass but this God hath foretold therefore this will come to pass Here are three observable points in the Text that are worthy our distinct consideration though for brevity â—ake I shall handle them together 1. That Christ was forsaken by his own Disciples and left alone 2. When the Disciples left Christ they were scattered every one to his own They returned to their old habitations and old acquaintance and old employment as if their hopes and hearts had been almost broken and they had lost all their labour in following Christ so long Yet the root of faith and and love that still remained caused them to enquire further of the end and to come together in secret to confer about these matters 3. When Christ was forsaken of his Disciples and left alone yet was he not forsaken of his Father nor left so alone as to be separated from him or his love We are now to consider of this not only as a part of Christs humiliation but also as a point in which we must expect to be conformed to him It may possibly seem strange to us that Christ would suffer all his Disciples to forsake him in his extreamity and I doubt it will seem strange to us when in our extreamity and our suffering for Christ and perhaps for them we shall find our selves forsaken by those that we most highly valued and had the greatest familiarity with But there are many Reasons of this permissive providence open to our observation 1. No wonder if when Christ was suffering for sin he would even then permit the power and odiousness of sin to break sorth that it might be known he suffered not in vain No wonder if he permitted his followers to desert him and to shew the latent unbelief and selfishness and unthankfulness that remained in them that so they might know that the death of Christ was as necessary for them as for others and the universality of the disease might shew the need that the remedy should be universal And it is none of Christs intent to make his servants to seem better then they are to themselves or others or to honour himself by the hiding of their faults but to magnifie his pardoning and healing grace by the means or occasion of the sins which he pardoneth and healeth 2. Hereby he will bring his followers to the fuller knowledge of themselves and shew them that which all their dayes should keep them humble and watchful and save them from presumption and trusting in themselves When we have made any full confession of Christ or done him any considerable service we are apt to say with the Disciples Matth. 19. 27. Behold we have forsaken all and followed thee What shall we have As if they had rather been Givers to Christ then Receivers from him and had highly merited at his hands But when Peter forsweareth him and the rest shift for themselves and when they come to themselves after such cowardly and ungrateful dealings then they will better understand their weakness and know on whom they must depend 3. Hereby also they shall better understand what they would have been if God had left them to themselves that so they may be thankful for grace received and may not boast themselves against the miserable world as if they had made themselves to differ and had not received all that grace by which they excel the common sort when our falls have hurt us and shamed us we shall know to whom we must be beholden to support us 4. Christ would permit his Disciples thus far to forsake him because he would have no support from man in his sufferings for man This was part of his voluntary humiliation to be deprived of all earthly comforts and to bear affliction even from those few that but lately were his faithful servants that men dealing like men and sinners while he was doing like God and as a Saviour no man might challenge to himself the honour of contributing to the Redemption of the world so much as by encouraging the Redeemer 5. Christ did permit the Faith and courage of his Disciples thus far to fail that their witness to him might be of the greater credit and authority when his actual Resurrection and the Communication of the Spirit should compel them to believe when all their doubts were dissipated they that had doubted themselves and yet were constrained to believe would be received as the most impartial witnesses by the doubting world 6. Lastly by the desertion and dissipation of his Disciples Christ would teach us whenever we are called to follow him in suffering what to expect from the best of men Even to know that of themselves they are untrusty and may fail us and therefore not to look for too much assistance or encouragement from them Paul lived in a time when Christians were more self-denying and stedfast than they are now And Paul was one that might better expect to be faithftlly accompanied in his sufferings for Christ than any of us And yet he saith 2 Tim. 4. 16. At my first answer no man stood with me but all men forsook me and prayeth that it be not laid to their charge Thus you have seen some Reasons why Christ consented to be left of all and permitted his Disciples to desert him in his sufferings Yet note here that it is but a partial temporary forsaking that Christ permitteth and not a total or final forsaking or Apostasie Though he will let them see that they are yet men yet will he not leave them to be but as other men Nor will he quite cast them off or suffer them to perish Nor is it all alike that thus forsake him Peter doth not do as Judas The sincere may manifest their infirmity but the Hypocrites will manifest their hypocrisie And accordingly in our sufferings our familiars that were false-hearted as being worldlings and carnal at the heart may perhaps betray us and set against us or forsake the cause of Christ and follow the way of gain and honour when our tempted shrinking friends that yet may have some sincerity may perhaps look strange at us and seem not to know us and may hide their heads and shew their fears and perhaps also begin to study some self deceiving arguments and distinctions and to stretch their consciences and venture on some sin because they are afraid to venture on affliction till Christ shall cast a gracious rebuking quickning aspect on them and shame them for their sinful shame fear them from their sinful fears and inflame their Love to
according unto Godliness but doth subserve our carnal ends 6. In the next form we grow to study more the pure and wonderful Love of God in Christ and to rellish and admire that Love and to be taken up with the Goodness and tender mercies of the Lord and to be kindling the flames of holy Love to him that hath thus Loved us and to keep our souls in the exercise of that Love And withall to live in Joy and Thanks and Praise to him that hath redeemed us and Loved us And also by Faith to converse in Heaven and to live in holy contemplation beholding the Glory of the Father and the Redeemer in the Glass which is fitted to our present use till we come to see him face to face Those that are the highest in this form do so walk with God and burn in Love and are so much above inferiour vanities and are so conversant by Faith in Heaven that their hearts even dwell there and there they long to be for ever 7. And in the highest form in the School of Christ we are exercising this confirmed Faith and Love in sufferings especially for Christ In following him with our Cross and being conformed to him and glorifying God in the fullest exercise and discovery of his Graces in us and in an actual trampling upon all that standeth up against him for our hearts and in bearing the fullest witness to his Truth and Cause by constant enduring though to the death Not but that the weakest that are sincere must suffer for Christ if he call them to it Martyrdome it self is not proper to the strong Believers Whoever forsaketh not all that he hath for Christ cannot be his Disciple Luke 14. 33. But to suffer with that Faith and Love forementioned and in that manner is proper to the strong And usually God doth not try and exercise his young and weak ones with the tryals of the strong nor set his Infants on so hard a service nor put them in the front or hottest of the battel as he doth the ripe confirmed Christians The sufferings of their inward doubts and fears doth take up such It is the strong that ordinarily are called to sufferings for Christ at least in any high degree I have digrest thus far to make it plain to you that our Conformity to Christ and fellowship with him in his sufferings in any notable degree is the lot of his best confirmed servants and the highest forme in his School among his Disciples and therefore not to be inordinately feared or abhorred nor to be the matter of impatiency but of holy joy and in such infirmities we may glory And if it be so of sufferings in the general for Christ then is it so of this particular sort of suffering even to be forsaken of all our best and nearest dearest friends when we come to be most abused by the enemies For my own part I must confess that as I am much wanting in other parts of my conformity to Christ so I take my self to be yet much short of what I expect he should advance me to as long as my friends no more forsake me It is not long since I found my self in a low if not a doubting case because I had so few enemies and so little sufferings for the cause of Christ though I had much of other sorts And now that doubt is removed by the multitude of furies which God hath let loose against me But yet methinks while my friends themselves are so friendly to me I am much short of what I think I must at last attain to BUt let us look further into the Text and see what is the cause of the failing and forsaking Christ in the Disciples and what it is that they betake themselves to when they leave him Ye shall be scattered every man to his Own Self-denyal was not perfect in them selfishness therefore in this hour of temptation did prevail They had before forsaken all to follow Christ they had left their Parents their Families their Estates their Trades to be his Disciples But though they believed him to be the Christ yet they dreamt of a visible Kingdome and did all this with too carnal expectations of being great men on earth when Christ should begin his reign And therefore when they saw his apprehension and ignominious suffering and thought now they were frustrate of their hopes they seem to repent that they had followed him though not by apostasie and an habitual or plenary change of mind yet by a sudden passionate frightful apprehension which vanished when grace performed its part They now began to think that they had lives of their Own to save and families of their Own to mind and business of their Own to do They had before forsaken their private interests and affairs and gathered themselves to Jesus Christ and lived in communion with him and one another But now they return to their trades and callings and are scattered every man to his own Selfishness is the great enemy of all societies of all fidelity and friendship There is no trusting that person in whom it is predominant And the remnants of it where it doth not reign do make men walk unevenly and unsteadfastly towards God and men They will certainly deny both God and their friends in a time of tryal who are not able to deny themselves Or rather he never was a real friend to any that is predominantly selfish They have alway some interest of their own which their friend must needs contradict or is insufficient to satisfie Their houses their lands their monies their children their honour or something which they call their Own will be frequently the matter of contention and are so near them that they can for the sake of these cast off the nearest friend Contract no special friendship with a selfish man nor put no confidence in him whatever friendship he may profess He is so confined to himself that he hath no true love to spare for others If he seem to love a friend it is not as a friend but as a servant or at best as a benefactour He loveth you for himself as he loveth his money or horse or house because you may be serviceable to him Or as a horse or dog doth love his keeper for feeding him And therefore when your provender is gone his love is gone when you have done feeding him he hath done loving you When you have no more for him he hath no more for you Object But some will say it is not the falseness of my friend that I lament but the separation or the loss of one that was most faithful I have found the deceitfulness of ordinary friends and therefore the more highly prize those few that are sincere I had but one true friend among abundance of self-seekers and that one is dead or taken from me and I am left as in a wilderness having no mortal man that I can trust or take much comfort in Answ.
Righteous Judgement be remembered and all be terminated in the glorious everlasting Kingdom Is it not much better thus to converse with him that I must be with for ever about the place and the company and work and concernments of my perpetual abode then to be taken up with strangers in my way and detained by their impertinencies I have form'd my self so long in these meditations that I will but name the rest and tell you what I had further to have treated on and leave the enlargement to your own meditations 8. I have no reason to be weary of converse with God seeing it is that for which all humane converse is regardable Converse with man is only so far desirable as it tendeth to our Converse with God And therefore the end must be preferred before the means 9. It is the office of Christ and the work of the Holy Ghost and the use of all the means of Grace and of all creatures mercies and afflictions to reduce our straying souls to God that we may converse with him and enjoy him 10. Converse with God is most suitable to those that are so near to death It best prepareth for it It is likest to the work that we are next to do We had rather when death comes be found conversing with God then with Man It is God that a dying man hath principally to do with It is his judgement that he is going to and his mercy that he hath to trust upon And therefore it concerneth us to draw near him now and be no strangers to him lest strangeness then should be our terrour 11. How wonderful a condescension is it that God should be willing to converse with me with such a worm and sinful wretch And therefore how unexcusable is my crime if I refuse his company and so great a mercy 12. Lastly Heaven it self is but our Converse with God and his Glorified ones though in a more perfect manner then we can here conceive And therefore our holy converse with him here is the state that is likest Heaven and that prepareth for it and all the Heaven that is on earth IT remaineth now that I briefly tell you what you should do to attain and manage this Converse with God in the improvement of your solitude For Directions in general for Walking with God I reserve for another place At present let these few suffice Direct 1. If you would comfortably Converse with God make sure that you are Reconciled to him in Christ and that he is indeed your friend and Father Can two walk together except they be agreed Can you take pleasure in dwelling with the consuming fire or conversing with the most dreadful enemy Yet this I must add that every doubting or self-accusing soul may not find a pretence to fly from God 1. That God ceaseth not to be a Father when ever a fearful soul is drawn to question it or deny it 2. That in the Universal Love and Grace of God to miserable sinners and in the universal act of conditional pardon and oblivion and in the offers of Grace and the readiness of God to receive the penitent there is Glad tidings that should exceedingly rejoyce a sinner and there is sufficient encouragement to draw the most guilty miserable sinner to seek to God and sue for mercy But yet the sweetest converse is for children and for those that have some assurance that they are children But perhaps you will say that this is not easily attained How shall we know that he is our friend In brief I answer If you are unfeignedly friends to God it is because he first loved you Prefer him before all other friends and all the wealth and vanity of the world Provoke him not by wilfulness or neglect use him as your best friend and abuse him not by disobedience or ingratitude own him before all at the dearest rates whenever you are called to it Desire his presence Lament his absence Love him from the bottom of your hearts Think not hardly of him Suspect him not Misunderstand him not Hearken not to his enemies Receive not any false reports against him Take him to be really Better for you than all the world Do these and doubt not but you are friends with God and God with you In a word Be but heartily willing to be friends to God and that God should be your chiefest friend and you may be sure that it is so indeed and that you are and have what you desire And then how delightfully may you converse with God! Direct 2. Wholly depend on the Mediation of Christ the great Reconciler Without him there is no coming near to God But in his Beloved you shall be accepted Whatever fear of his displeasure shall surprize you fly presently for safety unto Christ Whatever guilt shall look you in the face commit your self and cause to Christ and desire him to answer for you When the doors of mercy seem to be shut up against you fly to him that bears the keyes and can at any time open to you and let you in Desire him to answer for you to God to your consciences and against all accusers By him alone you may boldly and comfortably converse with God But God will not know you out of him Direct 3. Take heed of bringing particular Guilt into the presence of God if you would have sweet communion with him Christ himself never reconciled God to sin And the sinner and sin are so nearly related that for all the death of Christ you shall feel that iniquity dwelleth not with God but he hateth the works of it and the foolish shall not stand in his sight and that if you will presume to sin because you are his Children be sure your fin will find you out O what fears what shame what self-abhorrence and self-revenge will guilt raise in a penitent soul when it comes into the light of the presence of the Lord it will unavoidably abate your boldness and your comforts When you should be sweetly delighting in his pleased face and promised Glory you will be befooling your selves for your former sin and ready even to tear your flesh to think that ever you should do as you have done and use him as you would not have used a common friend and cast your selves upon his wrath But an innocent soul or pacified conscience doth walk with God in quietness and delight without those frowns and fears which are a taste of Hell to others Direct 4. If you would comfortably converse with God be sure that you bring not Idols in your hearts Take heed of inordinate affection to any Creature Let all things else be nothing to you that you may have none to take up your thoughts but God Let your Minds be further separate from them than your Bodies Bring not into solitude or to contemplation a proud or lustful or covetous mind It much more concerneth thee what Heart thou bringest that what Place thou art in or what work
worldly trash which are made and new-made to be the dwelling place of God Desire not the company which would diminish your heavenly acquaintance and correspondency Be not unfriendly nor conceited of a self-sufficiency but yet beware lest under the honest ingenuous title of a friend a special faithful prudent faithful friend you should entertain an Idol or an enemy to your Love of God or a corrival and competitor with your highest friend For if you do it is not the specious title of a friend that will save you from the thorns and bryars of disquietment and from greater troubles than ever you found from open enemies O blessed be that High and everlasting friend who is every way suited to the upright souls To their Minds their Memories their Delight their Love c. by surest Truth by fullest Goodness by clearest Light by dearest Love by firmest Constancy c. O why hath my drowsie and dark-sighted soul been so seldome with him why hath it so often so strangely and so unthankfully passed by and not observed him nor hearkened to his kindest calls O what is all this trash and trouble that hath filled my memory and employed my mind and cheated and corrupted my affections while my dearest Lord hath been daies and nights so unworthily forgotten so contemptuously neglected and disregarded and loved as if I loved him not O that these drowsie and those waking nights those loitered lost and empty hours had been spent in the humblest converse with him which have been dreamed and doted away upon now I know not what O my God how much wiser and happier had I been had I rather chosen to mourn with thee than to rejoyce and sport with any other O that I had rather wept with thee than laughed with the creature For the time to come let that be my friend that most befriendeth my dark and dull and backward soul in its undertaken progress and heavenly conversation Or if there be none such upon earth let me here take no one for my friend O blot out every Name from my corrupted heart which hindereth the deeper engraving of thy Name Ah Lord what a stone what a blind ungrateful thing is a Heart not touched with celestial Love yet shall I not run to thee when I have none else that will know me shall I not draw near thee when all fly from me When daily experience cryeth out so loud NONE BUT CHRIST GOD OR NOTHING Ah foolish Heart that hast thought of it Where is that place that Cave or Desert where I might soonest find thee and fullest enjoy thee is it in the wilderness that thou walkest or in the croud in the Closet or in the Church where is it that I might soonest meet with God But alas I now perceive that I have a Heart to find before I am like to find my Lord O Loveless Lifeless stony heart that 's dead to him that gave it Life and to none but him Could I not Love or Think or Feel at all methinks I were less dead than now Less dead if dead than now I am alive I had almost said Lord let me never Love more till I can Love thee Nor think more on any thing till I can more willingly think of thee But I must suppress that wish for Life will act And the mercies and motions of Nature are necessary to those of Grace And therefore in the life of Nature and in the glimmerings of thy Light I will wait for more of the Celestial life My God thou hast my consent It is here attested under my hand Separate me from what and whom thou wilt so I may but be nearer thee Let me Love thee more and feel more of thy Love and then let me Love or be beloved of the world as little as thou wilt I thought self-love had been a more predominant thing But now I find that Repentance hath its Anger its Hatred and its Revenge I am truly Angry with that Heart that hath so oft and foolishly offended thee Methinks I hate that Heart that is so cold and backward in thy love and almost grudge it a dwelling in my breast Alas when Love should be the life of Prayer the life of holy meditation the life of Sermons and of holy conference and my soul in these should long to meet thee and delight to mention thee I straggle Lord I know not whither or I sit still and wish but do not rise and run and follow thee yea I do not what I seem to do All 's dead all 's dead for want of Love I often cry O where is that place where the quickening beams of Heaven are warmest that my frozen soul might seek it out But whither ever I go to City or to Solitude alas I find it is not Place that makes the difference I know that Christ is perfectly replenished with Life and Light and Love Divine And I hear him as our Head and Treasure proclaimed and offered to us in the Gospel This is thy Record that he that hath the Son hath Life O why then is my barren soul so empty I thought I had long ago consented to thy offer and then according to thy Covenant both He and Life in him are mine And yet must I still be dark and dead Ah dearest Lord I say not that I have too long waited but if I continue thus to wait wilt thou never find the time of Love and come and own thy gasping worm wilt thou never dissipate these clouds and shine upon this dead and darkened soul Hath my Night no Day Thrust me not from thee O my God! For that 's a Hell to be thrust from God But sure the cause is all at home could I find it out or rather could I cure it It is sure my face that 's turned from God when I say His face is turned from me But if my Life must here be out of sight and hidden in the Root with Christ in God and if all the rest be reserved for that better world and I must here have but these small beginnings O make me more to Love and long for the blessed day of thine appearing and not to fear the time of my deliverance nor unbelievingly to linger in this Sodom as one that had rather stay with sin then come to thee Though sin hath made me backward to the fight let it not make me backward to receive the Crown Though it hath made me a loiterer in thy work let it not make me backward to receive that wages which thy Love will give to our pardoned poor accepted services Though I have too oft drawn back when I should have come unto thee and walked with thee in thy waies of Grace yet heal that unbelief and disaffection which would make me to draw back when thou callest me to possess thy Glory Though the sickness and lameness of my soul have hindered me in my journey yet let their painfulness help me to desire to be delivered from them and to be at home where without the interposing nights of thy displeasure I shall fully feel thy fullest Love and walk with thy Glorified ones in the Light of thy Glory triumphing in thy Praise for evermore Amen BUT now I have given you these few Directions for the improvement of your solitude for converse with God lest I should occasion the hurt of those that are unfit for the Lesson I have given I must conclude with this Caution which I have formerly also published That it is not melancholly or weak-headed persons who are not able to bear such exercises for whom I have written these Directions Those that are not able to be much in serious solitary thoughtfulness without confusions and distracting suggestions and hurrying vexatious thoughts must set themselves for the most part to those duties which are to be done in company by the help of others and must be very little in solitary duties For to them whose natural faculties are so diseased or weak it is no duty as being no means to do them the desired good but while they strive to do that which they are naturally unable to endure they will but confound and distract themselves and make themselves unable for those other duties which yet they are not utterly unfit for To such persons therefore instead of ordered well-digested Meditations and much time spent in secret thoughtfulness it must suffice that they be brief in secret Prayer and take up with such occasional abrupter Meditations as they are capable of and that they be the more in reading hearing conference and praying and praising God with others untill their melancholly distempers are so far overcome as that by the direction of their Spiritual Guides they may judge themselves fit for this improvement of their Solitude FINIS * Charles Earl of Balcarres who dyed of a stone in his heart of a very strange magnitude