the instinct of the divine nature in himself which points out God to him as his Original 2. There is in Faith a going forth towards God in desire in delight in confidence it naturally desires God delights in God and relieth upon him This Nature teacheth him more freely and fully to trust God then the nature in common children doth them to trust their parents It is not by outward promises and falling in with a visible Covenant that things are transacted between God and them but God begetteth them by his nature and they turn again towards God by the same nature so soon as it springs up and acts in them Of his own will he begets them and by the same will begotten in them they run into his lap and give themselves up unto him The little weak imperfect childish Will of eternity in us naturally rouls it self upon the perfect compleat fatherly Will of Eternity in God Now Faith is the substance of a Christian of this new child All that the Soul is it is by Faith All that the Soul enjoys it enjoys by Faith All that the Soul acts it acts by Faith All that the Soul receives it receives by Faith By Faith it walks with God by Faith it pleaseth God by Faith it goeth forth towards God by Faith it receiveth God into it self or in plain terms It is by the several windings and turnings of this divine Instinct that it lives moves acts enjoys any thing And as this Instinct or nature is nipped so it withers and dyes for it hath its storms and sharp Winter blasts and frosts and so also it hath its seasons of retiring its life as things in this outward world have By Faith this weak vessel whereinto this new Nature is put comes to be saved for the new man himself needeth not Salvation for himself having never sinned but the vessel whereinto it is put is unclean and fit only to be cast away unless it were purified and saved by Faith Of Love LOve is the spiritual affection between God and this new child As they know one another so they love one another and as their knowledg is the straitest knowledg so is their love likewise the closest love There is no such union besides as is between them nor are there any such streams of love any where else to carry hearts up and down to one another or to center them in one another This Love is sown in their nature there is no attaining it but where this nature is sown Man may reason himself into love of God a kind of love and it is natural to him so to do but he cannot thus love him he hath not the root of this love in him he hath not the nature whence it flows O how excellent is this Love O how strong is this Love Cast this child into what state you will you cannot turn the heart of God one hairs bredth from him Let God appear in what posture he will act how he will towards this Child it cannot think hardly of him The streams of this Love run though sometimes insensibly forward and backward from each towards each in the midst of all the varieties changes and strange unlovely disguises that both are clothed with And O what torment is it to have this Love chained up How doth it consume and burn up the poor spirit within when it cannot find its God to go forth upon for it cannot move towards any thing else It were a very pretty thing to observe the workings of this Love on both hands between God and them in the several dispensations he carrieth them through How gentle it maketh them both how kind to one another They can withhold nothing from one another They dare trust one another with all they have The child dares put himself into the hands of the Father it is the pleasure of the child to be subject to the will of the Father The Father dareth trust his whole Estate his Name then which nothing is dearer to him every thing in the hands of the child How patient towards one another God will bear any thing from them they will bear any thing from God How naturally do they interpret every thing well concerning one another notwithstanding all the contradictions and contrary apparitions of sense Surely says God they are children that will not lye I will trust them with Salvation Surely say they God will not fail me nor forsake me I will follow him into the jaws of death and destruction And if things appear never so contrary to what is expected or hoped though it be quite swallowed up in misery contrary to all Promises and Assurances as it cannot but apprehend yet it will not beleeve what it feels because of the strength of its Love And though with its mouth it cannot but at sometimes complain because of the bitterness of its anguish yet in heart it cannot think amiss Nay those very complaints be they never so bitter against God yet they flow from Love and he who had but a skilful eye to read them might read Love in them God never deals so sharply with his People but still 't is from Love and in Love and they never speak so hardly against God but 't is from Love and in Love too Love is at bottom and 't is Love moves 't is Love complains Love thus vents it self to ease it self that it might strengthen it self at the root There is a two-fold Love between God and his People A Love of Good-will and a Love of Righteousness and Iustice They love one another from their nature from that natural tye that is between them and they love one another according to that worth and excellency they see in one another A shadow of this we see in man We love our kindred from and according to the bond of nature and also from and according to that worth that appears in them The former of these remains constant is still the same in both The latter varies according to the various appearances of worth and loveliness in each It was the latter of these from which we fell We fell from the Love of God according to our excellency when we lost our excellency God could not then love us as excellent when we were no longer excellent And this Christ restoreth us unto in restoring us to our former beauty and excellency So in this Love we vary towards God too Though we always love him with the love of good-will yet his Excellency is so hid from us that we cannot always love it because it is often and cannot but be otherwise represented to us in this frail state His Ways his Dispensations his various Appearances are not throughly seen into by us and so we cannot throughly love them or him in them but this Christ will also restore us to in opening that loveliness in them all which is yet hid from us And when this is compleatly done our hearts will perfectly flow forth in all manner
of love one towards another when we are made in every respect what God loves and esteems and when God is made to appear what he is even every way pure excellent and lovely in all his Ways and Motions This Love both in God and in his for it is one and the same hath these six Properties in it 1. It is Spiritual 2. Pure 3. Vniversal 4. Gradual 5. Dispersive 6. Conquering or Subduing 1. It is Spiritual of a divine Nature of the Nature of God Not of an earthly nature not of the nature of any thing here below but of an heavenly Nature of the Nature of God No man no creature can thus love but God alone it dwells in him it goes along with him where he sows his own Life there he sows this Love and it is no where else to be found 2. It is Pure it is not mixed it will not mix with any thing it will not go forth for any by ends but from it self of its own Nature it is of pure good-will of exact Righteousness Where there is the nature it seeks where there is the worth it seeks it will it cannot but love it 3. It is Vniversal it goes forth towards all things God loveth himself his Son his Creatures his Enemies Heaven and Hell Light and Darkness Saints and Devils Holiness and Sin It is a comprehensive Love takes in all things into its bosom God is Love as every thing hath its place in God so every thing hath its proper place in his Love God hath prescribed us nothing but what is in himself and he calls for it from us because he would have us like himself He bids us love our enemies because he himself doth so he hath no enemy but what he loves O how vast are his Motions He can hate with a perfect hatred and yet love with a more perfect Love And he in whom this Love is grown up in strength and power finds it also spreading in him in this universality There is nothing he can so hate but he also loveth it He knoweth Hell Devil Sin so well that he can tell both how and wherein to hate and love them 4. It is Gradual God loveth not all things alike but every thing in its order place and station He loveth himself first and chiefly he loveth his Son as himself he loveth his Creatures according to their several ranks Hell Devil and Sin in theirs and that both with the love of good-will and of Righteousness all which are lovely in their several respects though some of them are very unlovely both in themselves and in their motions yet all of them are very lovely in their subserviency and none of them can be spared Yea the very nature of the very worst of them which is the worst thing in them far worse then any of their motions and actions hath its proper lustre and loveliness to that eye which throughly discerneth it The loveliness of darkness lieth in its black dark nature in its contrariety to and opposition against light and he who made it so saw it lovely and cannot but love it in its being so and he who is taken up into him cannot but see its loveliness also and love it with him Yet there is an order and degree as in things themselves so in Love's going forth towards them A Master of a family loveth his whole family every thing in it his wife his children his servants his vassals his horses his oxen his sheep his asses his whole houshold stuff all his furniture and several sorts of jewels vessels of gold silver wood stone brass tin c. yet not all alike These have not all the same nearness to him though they have all some relation and may challenge some love and respect These are not all of the same nature have not all the same make are not all for the same use They are not of the same worth in themselves they yeeld not the same delight unto him but there is a vast difference in them and cannot but be likewise in his love towards them An excellent Work-man may like all his peeces of work because several veins of his skill appear in them all yet still with a difference He hath his rude inferior draughts of things which he careth not much for which any almost may beg from him but he hath some peeces he setteth so high a price upon that he will by no means be drawn to part with them God is THE GREAT OPERATOR he has THE SKILL He is wonderful in Counsel excellent in working but yet he works variously He hath his slight peeces as he reckoneth this Creation which he made but for a Say and regards not what becomes of it but maketh havock of it and suffereth havock to be made of it continually Such are all his outward Works in his outward People by his outward visible Covenant He never set much by the one he never did any great thing by the other he brought it forth to shew its weakness its insufficiency for the bringing about of what he meant to do And the love he beareth to it is for its weakness for its fitness to set off the strength of his other Covenant when it should be brought forth But God hath his peeces of Skill he hath his accurate peeces of Work which he hath brought forth all his Wisdom in wherein there are the very depths of God running in their several secret lines these he is very dainty of He loveth every thing but yet wisely in its order and place according to its nature end and use His Love is not such a confused love as must go forth with its whole strength or not at all but he hath Wisdom and Judgment to guide it by to let it out as may yeeld him most pleasure and may most commend and set it off in its going forth which consists in the perfect variety of objects and in the perfect variety of acts and ways of motion The having and enjoying of the whole strength of his heart would not be so choyce rare and excellent if it were over-common But when none hath it but his Spouse his Children his Jewels it will appear what it is to be his Spouse to be his Child to be his Jewel And when he hath none else to love enjoy and delight in as them his delight in them will be more precious and pleasing to himself God will have can have but one Spouse and his Spouse will not cannot endure the least jot of his husbandly affection to run aside from her no more then he can suffer the least Spouse-like affection of hers to run aside from him They shall each love every thing else but nothing so as they love one another 5. It is Dispersive This Love sows and scatters it self every where There is not any thing any where but God is there it is in God and God is in it God hath excluded himself from many things yea from most things
world is not worthy A dram of their life is worth a thousand worlds They are blessed in their likeness unto Christ blessed in their present communion with Christ in their fellowship in his death and sufferings and shall appear to be blessed when they are taken up into his glory and come to inherit both God Heaven and Earth in and with him which he who cannot lye hath promised them and hath reserved for them and which none shall ever come to partake of with them but this way Of the Fathers care over this Childe and his readiness to provide for him every thing he needs FROM LUK. 11. Vers 13. If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him NAture among other of her lessons teacheth Parents to be tender over their Children to give them what is for their good and not for their hurt While they are babes unable to chuse for themselves they provide for them what they know needful when they grow up and begin to feel what they want they are still ready to furnish them with those necessaries which Nature directeth them to seek to them for God hath his Children his Children need provision and his Nature teacheth him to take care of them to be tender towards them as well as the nature of man teacheth him That which these children chiefly want is the Spirit of the Father to live in them to dwell with them to guide them to enlighten them to quicken them to comfort and refresh them They came from this Spirit and all their content lies in union and communion with this Spirit in the presence and power ot this Spirit in them He is their meat their drink their light their life their strength their clothes their house their inheritance their way their end their all They are as it were at present severed from him as the seed is from the body but they cannot be well till they return into him and that which they want in the mean time is him to enter into and dwell in them And as they grow up to any distinct understanding of themselves and their state they feel this want and are led by their nature to ask accordingly of their Father That which this Childe begs is the Spirit he cares not for any thing else It is that which his Soul which every part of him wants it is that which he needs in every motion in every condition He cannot tell how to shift any where how to do any thing without this Spirit of life There is no life more vigorous then this when it lives in this Spirit nor no life more flags without it To them that ask him This Childe asks it is natural to him to be asking what he wants of the Father He is taught to ask and according to the nature and degree of his want And Oh how he begs for this Spirit for this Holy Spirit He loathes the unclean spirit of the world but he loves and longs for the pure Spirit of the Father His Nature is pure and he loves purity His Nature is spirit and he loves spirit but not every spirit but that spirit which is suitable to his Nature the Spirit which he himself came from and for this he cries and groans unto the Father night and day Now there seems to be a great hardness in God to part with this Spirit unto them which may be gathered out of this question here and may be further confirmed by their experience for though they cry hard for him they obtain little of him little of his presence little of his power little of his comfort They are ever and anon complaining that they have not sufficient of him to rub on with They do not onely want the delight of his presence but they have hardly enough to keep life and soul together hardly enough of Gods Spirit to keep life in their spirits But for all this there is a great propensity in God to furnish them with his Spirit with so much as their present state needs though not with so much to their sence yet with so much to his knowledg How much more shall your heavenly Father c. He is not an heavenly Father for nothing but is as ready to give heavenly good things as earthly Parents are to give earthly good things How much more If your Nature which is weak derived which came from him teach you to carry your selves thus towards your children how much more shall his Nature which is strong which is the Fountain of Strength and Perfection teach him to empty his Goodness into his Children according to their need If ye being evil know how to give good gifts c. If your nature thus prevail to instruct you who are corrupted and in whom it is corrupted how much more shall his pure his heavenly his incorruptible Nature teach him tender-heartedness towards his Children How much more shall it encline him to give not outward things earthly things but heavenly things and that heavenly thing which they all want which is his own Spirit Be silent O Sense Be confounded O Experience who art still witnessing the contrary in our spirits We see not we feel not we taste not we apprehend not God or any of his Ways aright through thee A strange Occurrence which may befall this Darling of God and of Christ in his pilgrimage and travel towards his native Country hidden in a Parable JOHN Chap. 11. IN which Parable there are several strange things covertly held forth or represented to that eye which is taught and enabled to pierce into them under a vail 1. There is the sickness and death of one dearly beloved of Christ he whom he loved was sick His love was so great to him that he was known to be an especial object of it Christ who cured others had power enough to have preserved him in health if he had pleased or to have recovered him at a distance but for all Christs Love and Power Lazarus falls sick and his sickness tends unto that which we count and call death 2. The true causes of his death which were Christs neglect and an hidden design of glory to God and love to him I reckon not his sickness as any that was but an instrument an engine so inferior a cause as it deserves not to come in number with these First Christs neglect and that was very great Vers 6. When he had heard therefore that he was sick he abode two days still in the same place where he was Though he had notice of it and that in the most pathetical maner that could be the news was directed to his heart and so directed as it might best touch and wound his heart Behold he whom thou lovest is sick There is one whom thou hast professed and born much love to he now stands in need of thy love of the putting forth of
is proper to him it is his due yea let me speak a little freely it is his duty it is that which he owes to every thing that came from him Now God will be a God to them that is First He will be Fulness to them he will be the Fountain of all Perfection in them he will lay out all his Wisdom Goodness Power and Love for them He will not only be their God in giving them a right to these an interest in these but he will be a God to them in employing and improving these for them that they shall have as great a share in them and as great a freedom in the use of them as any man can have in that that is his most proper possession that as God is a God to himself still laying out his Wisdom Power c. for himself so he will be a God to them he will never spare any of them when they have occasion to use them they shall have as free and as full use of every thing he has as he himself has The same Fulness that dwells in himself and is enjoyed by himself shall dwell in them and be enjoyed by them What he is in himself he will be in them and to them I will be to them a God And then secondly God will be a God to them in his care over them He will take as exact care of them as a Master does of his family as a King does of his people yea as he does of himself and what belongs to himself As he taketh care of himself of his own Glory that it be preserved and flourish so will he take care of them in every respect of their standing growing thriving c. that nothing hurt them that every thing advance their happiness And well he may for they are himself the children that came out of his own loyns the Wife that came out of his own side they were one at first in the straitest union and conjunction they are one still even as much as ever they were their present separation doth but hide not destroy their union and they must appear to be one again Indeed he is a God to them at present he taketh care of them at present his eye is continually upon them and his heart with them in all their bondage and captivities but he is not so a God to them as he will be when he brings them forth as his people under this Covenant And well may he forbear appearing thus a God to them for he doth not yet so appear a God to himself but his own Name Glory and Excellencies go to wrack and ruine And they shall be to me a people Not only Gods people so they are where ever they are and in what state and condition soever but a people to him a people that walks every way like his people children that will not lye and deceive in that relation which they pretend to stand and act in There are two things which a people stand indebted to God in Love and Obedience in neither of which shall they fall short God loves his people entirely and he cannot be satisfied unless they love him again ye know it goes to our hearts to have no returns of love from them on whom we bestow all our affection It is Gods great desire to have a people that may love him that may receive and answer all his Love When he chose the Jews this was the main thing he looked for from them viz. Love in that way wherein he loved them Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart As it is Gods Love makes him chuse a people so it is their love he doth it for that the same Love may have free scope between them The end of this Covenant being to engage hearts together Love is a necessary fruit on both sides It is the root the main ingredient and the fruit on both sides That from or out of which the Covenant grows is Love that which makes up the Covenant is Love that which sprouts out of the Covenant is Love Because God loves his people therefore he makes this Covenant with them that which he makes this Covenant up of is his own Love and as it contains his Love so it is continually emptying it into them and they fall in with this Covenant from the same Love that they might have the same way and the same advantage of emptying their Love into him And Obedience is necessary to testifie the truth of Love If ye love me keep my Commandments Thou shalt love the Lord and keep all his Statutes he prescribes the Law of Obedience immediately after the Command of loving him As God must perfectly write his Law in their hearts or he cannot fully testifie his Love So they must perfectly obey every tittle or they cannot fully testifie their love Now the people of God shall fail neither in Love nor Obedience to him when he comes to set up this Covenant among them but they shall love him as much as he desires to be loved and obey him as much as he desires to be obeyed they shall be to him a people he shall have every thing fully from them that he can expect from a people And so by this means by this Covenant will he amend both those faults which he excepted against in the former Covenant vers 9. God disliked that Covenant but why There are two Reasons rendered in that 9. vers The one was because they continued not in it The other was because God was not sufficiently engaged by it to respect them Neither God nor they were bound close enough to one another in that Covenant the bonds were not strait enough for either but they were able to start from God notwithstanding the Covenant and God was left at liberty too he could slip loose from them for all this Covenant Notwithstanding the bond of this Covenant he regarded them not he did not look upon them as his people and so on himself as their God to take care of them as of his people but let enemies loose upon them scattered them up and down become of them what would he cared not I regarded them not saith the Lord. But now in this Covenant God undertakes and hath so framed it that he will be sure to mend both those faults it shall so bind him and his people together that neither shall be able to start one hairs bredth from the other but when they once meet they shall ever remain together in perfect Life and Love He will be to them a God and they shall be to him a people Vers 11. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest The happiness the perfection of the creature consists in the knowledg of God A man might be any thing do any thing have any thing enjoy any thing if he knew but God If he
AN ECCHO FROM The Great Deep CONTAINING Further Inward Openings Concerning divers other things upon some whereof the Principles and Practises of the Mad Folks do much depend As also the Life Hope Safety and Happiness of the Seed of God is pointed at which through many dark dismall untrodden paths and passages as particularly through an unthought of death and captivity they shall at length be led unto Through ISAAC PENINGTON junior Esq PSAL. 14.2 3. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God They are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that doth good no not one PSAL. 82.5 They know not neither will they understand they walk on in darkness all the foundations of the earth are out of course LONDON Printed by John Macock and are to be sold by Giles Calvert neer the West end of Pauls MDCL To the Mad Folks Poor shattered Souls YE little think how dear ye are unto me because of your breakings such of you as have been broken by power and not by notion That which I have felt in the same kind for I have been broken all in peeces once and again yea and yet again My life and my strength hath been led nay driven into captivity yea I have been made to taste the death of the whole lump and the death of every parcel over and over and the bitter relish of it is yet very strong upon my palate That I say which I have felt in this kind hath made me beyond measure tender towards you and I cannot but own you before all the world as the greatest objects both of my delight and expectation I am most pleased in beholding you your sickness is more lovely in my eye then that health which others enjoy and please themselves in My expectations of the next discovery of Light Life and Glory are fastned upon you as the most proper materials which wisdom hath fitted to disclose it self in most unexpectedly to the world My heart tells me that ye are not thus shattered broken and made so odious for nothing yet let me withal tell you that my spirit thinketh you never the neerer either for your principles or practises which carry more unloveliness to me then any principles or practises of any sort of men upon the face of the earth It is not your new Fabrick but your old desolations that kindle in me any desire towards you or hopes concerning you They are not your new notions of God Christ the death of Christ the life of Christ the coming of Christ the Judgment hell heaven the equality of things the community of things c. that represent you any thing lovely to me No really My palate doth in no wise relish this new wine but rather saith the old is better But 't is your broken state your desolate condition your being stripped and made naked of all your garments ornaments beauty glory this is it takes with me and if I could see you yet more sick yet more stripped stripped of these new fig-leaves also wherewith you cover your old nakedness mine eye would more pity you and my heart more love and embrace you As ye live I loath you nay I loath your life more then the life of any else So far as ye are dead I cannot but hug you And for such of you who break forth through Visions and Revelations into new apprehensions I profess I know you not this is not the way of the breaking forth of my life which must not be steered by these but be able to judg these which when once I feel with cleerness Majesty and power I may then be drawn to beleeve that I begin to taste life But oh how I long to see your new life with all the motions of it swallowed up by death There is a cup prepared for you a baptism ye are to be baptized with which shall wash you clean within and make you vomit lustily even till ye are quite emptied of all that froth and scum of vanity which now swims up and down in your stomacks and fumes up into your brains This is not HE whom ye now hold forth This is not God nor any thing which ye now take to be all things The child is not yet born in you that knows how to chuse the good or refuse the evill This is not the Land of promise wherein ye now set up your rest but a strange land a land of dearth and barrenness a land of darkness and of the shadow of death This is not light not true light it is but a painted light wherein ye now walk not the light of the Lord but the light of the vain imagination of the creature O quit your station your present habitation the wilderness is better though not as an abode yet as a passage Depart ye depart ye this is not your rest for it is polluted Life lives not here This is not the chamber of the Bridegroom for him to embrace and enjoy his Bride in This is poor gain This falls short of what ye have lost The meanest enjoyment of a living God in the lowest dispensation is better then the highest transportations from airy notions O my Beloved where dwellest thou where is thy Temple where is thy Turtle where dwellest thou where dwells thy love Where shal God and his people meet to know and enjoy one another When shal the Son put off his servile Form and be admitted into his inheritance When shall the creature be made free which hath so long groaned under the bondage of its corruption Awake arise save with thy right hand that thy Beloved may be delivered Gather into thy self that which cannot be happy out of thee Put an end to death to destruction by thy life by thy Salvation Bind up enmity in the bosom of thine own love O let us at length see the conquest of love Overcome all by thine own goodness Swallow up all in thine own perfection and nothing shall remain weak or imperfect any longer Visit thy fainting Spouse for behold the very strength of her heart faileth which she desireth only to preserve to entertain and embrace thee with Her spirit is quite spent therefore contend no longer but yeild up thy self at length to the desire which thou thy self hast kindled in the bosom of thy Beloved Revive that precious life by thy presence which is expiring for want of thee and can no longer live but in thee and with thee Thou who hast prepared food for every thing thou haste made satisfie that hunger that thirst which is immeasurable after and can only be allayed with the presence and possession of a living God Thou who invitest him that is a thirst give to him whose very tongue faileth for thirst that he may drink of the water of life freely and fully What shall every desire be satisfied but that which is kindled after God Is this the true
in some considerations but yet he is still there in other considerations and where he is his Love is And how remote soever things appear at present from him yet he will have a time to discover himself and consequently his Love in them 6. It is Conquering it is Subduing it subjects all things to it self Love is stronger then death The Love that is in every thing will one day when it discovers its strength conquer the Death that is in every thing and the Conquest must be where the Combate is even in the heart of every thing Nothing is able to stand before Love If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink hereby thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head and he shall not be able to hold out against the engines and art of Love If we had but Love enough we might conquer our greatest enemies God hath Love enough and therefore can conquer his greatest enemies He can chain them up by Power but that is nothing so noble a Conquest as to change them by Love The letting loose of pure and perfect Love will charm all the enmity and opposition in the bitterest and fiercest adversary Now do not say O Man these things cannot be There is certainly such a Love in God who cannot but delight to give it full vent And when Wrath hath had its full scope why should not Love which cannot be always bound have its turn Wrath comes from Love and in its greatest heat is subject unto Love and why should it not at length be swallowed up in Love Love cannot be perfect in its work while it suffers an enemy to remain and its Conquest being so sweet excellent and universally good how can it but desire and delight to conquer If Love be the best thing the most universally pleasing and profitable why should it not delight to diffuse it self how can it rest until it hath diffused it self Was there any thing but Love before things were brought forth in such a way as they might be exposed to hatred When there was nothing but God was there any hatred in him Doth any man hate his own flesh himself And how can Love be quiet until it hath reduced all into Love and loveliness again Surely saith my Soul Love must want strength or it cannot suffer misery always to remain If I had power in me answerable to the love I find sown and springing up in me I could not endure the misery of any thing Whence cometh this what is this being interpreted Is not this from and a shadow of that Love which wants not this power nor this good-will nor skill to do it in a way of Righteousness Is it not just for Love to recover all it once had and possessed if it can And this may God do to my understanding which since he hath broken it gives him his scope in doing what he pleases in speaking what he pleases in interpreting his own words as he pleases and not contradict any thing he hath said but only our weak creaturely apprehension of things who have measured his declaration of his Intentions not in his light but in our own Of Self-denyal SElf-denyal is the first step in Christianity that which Christ first teaches and requires to have learnt of any before he will admit of them into his School before he will undertake to train them up as his Disciples It is that which makes way for all the Lessons which he teacheth afterwards without which none of them can be learnt and by which they are all made easie He who hath learn'd to deny himself will quickly learn to bear his Cross to dye with Christ dayly yea to live and move towards God in and through Christ Self is the natural man the earthly principle Adam in his own nature which is of the earth and tends to the earth which is ever sinking into that corruption which makes way for death This Self where ever it is where ever it hath a Being it cannot but seek to preserve and make use of its Being in motion and activity which as it comes from it self so it centers in it self it may move towards God towards any spiritual thing yet it is from Self and for Self that it so moves This Self being corrupted hath most of its principles motions and ends in and from corruption yet it will not rest there but wanders up and down every where for security and there is nothing within its reach but it will lay hold on if it may hope for preservation from it or through it There is nothing can be propounded for it to beleeve but it will beleeve nothing can be propounded for it to practise but it will practise yea it will not fall short in the very accurateness of Self-denyal it self There was never yet any Fabrick that God reared for himself for his own Spirit to make use of or to dwell in but our spirits our Self hath entered in after him hoping to live there with him and to be safe there through him through his presence and help When the Lord built a material Temple which he appeared in how did the spirits of fleshly Israel cling unto it how did Flesh Self corrupt all those Ordinances and wayes of Worship which were once pleasing but by it made abhominable in the eyes of God There is no Form take the expression as largely as ye can either of outward or inward worship but flesh self will intrude thither will be making use of it will be corrupt there and corrupting it It will enter into all Duties Ordinances into all Spirituall Motions of every kind into Faith into Love into Humility Patience Meekness heavenly mindedness there Self will be in these postures will Self act and move There is not any strain of Religion so pure not a notion or apprehension so spiritual not a vision or revelation so sublime and seemingly remote from Self but Self will be climbing up and getting into it putrifying and preparing it for Eternal fire which will not be quenched when once it is kindled until it hath burnt up flesh burnt up Self where ever it finds it And though these now seem very glorious smell very sweet O how Flesh is pleased and ravished here yet when the Eternal fire is let loose upon them they will stink extreamly nothing scents worse then burnt flesh and then in stead of a sweet savor there will be a stink Ye begin to smell the flesh in your Ordinances in your Duties ye shall smell it in your Graces too yea in the purest intirest motions that ever your spirits went out in This sickness is so deep this leprosie so spread that it will be very costly to have it purged out and the person cured The whole house must be pulled down the whole building the spiritual Temple as well as the material and every stone burnt in the fire Every Ordinance all spiritual Knowledg every spiritual Motion must be rent confounded torn
youth He sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he hath born it upon him He putteth his mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him he is filled full with reproach For the Lord will not cast off for ever But though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies Vers 24. The Lord is my Portion saith my Soul A Portion is the childs share in his fathers estate containing in it present provision for him education according to his quality and degree and a proportion of substance for him afterwards to enjoy and inherit as his fathers estate will bear and as his fathers good will standeth towards him The Lord hath his children and he according to the bond of the relation provides portions for them shares out his own estate among them taketh care of them both to furnish them with necessaries and to bring them up by education suitable to their rank in the time of their nonage and hath cut out an inheritance for them which he will freely bestow upon them when they come to age which he hath divided and disposed of partly according to the greatness of his own estate partly according to the disposition and inclination of his own Will Now this Portion is the Lord himself As he hath cut out his people for himself the Lords Portion is his People Jacob is the lot of his Inheritance So he hath cut out himself for his Peoples Portion the Lord is my Portion saith my Soul For every thing that is made he hath made provision but his own Seed hath he reserved for himself and himself for his Seed They come from nothing but God they live upon nothing but God they can expect nothing but God He is all their share all that ever was intended or appointed for them all they have all they can enjoy all they are to look for And as God knows this so his Seed have a knowledg of this likewise When they are grown up to understanding they come to see whose they are from whence they came to whom they belong what their life and hope is Their relation and all that belongs to them is written in their very nature which when they come to be so skilful as to read they cannot but take notice of But in their Captivity their light and their life is buried their relation to God vailed they removed at a distance from him He severs them from him as if they belonged not to him he acteth towards them as if he knew them not he letteth all kind of misery and distress befall them as if he took no care of them at all so that the poor Soul loseth all sight of him all viable vertue from him yea and interest in him cannot tell how to lay any hold of him Yet for all this there remains a deep inward sense of this thing and the heart secretly inwardly in such a manner as perhaps the person himself cannot distinguish the sound saith the Lord is my Portion I have no share in any thing but God nothing can help me nothing can relieve me nothing can refresh me but God And I have a share in him he will yet look after me I shall yet see him who is the health of my countenance and my God he will yet be Life unto me and Spirit in me The Lord is my Portion saith my Soul Therefore will I hope in him In extremity the poor creature looks up and down every where is everywhere kindling desire after relief everywhere fastening hope for relief But the heart of the Spouse the heart of the child looks for no relief any where else but only from her Husband from its Father nor will fasten hope any where else If it can but look at any time into its own heart it shall hear this kind of language Nothing can relieve me but God Nothing can mitigate my misery but God Nothing can satisfie my tormenting love my scortching desire but the full enjoyment of God therefore there is all the hope I have I may be made to search up and down by the force of extremity I may be perswaded to try this way and that way and the other way but I have no manner of expectation from them I cannot hope in them I will not hope in them I will hope in him He is all my share my only share my help my relief lies there or no where from thence must I have it or no where at all and thither alone will I have recourse upon him will I hang for it Vers 25. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him to the Soul that seeketh him There are two son-like tempers or kinds of motion in the spirit of this child towards his Father in his Fathers withdrawing and absence for him which are to wait for him and to seek after him He waits and he seeks he seeks and he waits Fain would he find him and therefore he seeks and yet he would not have him come afore his own time and therefore he waits for his appointed season He waits for a full enjoyment of him he seeks for present food and support Those that know not God can neither wait nor seek but those that have this life in them can forbear neither for their nature is pointed towards it their nature puts them into and keeps them in that posture it is the proper course and current of their nature which cannot be stopped while their nature remains If it were possible by the thickness of darkness and extremity of misery to drive them into the greatest hatred of these and strongest resolution against these yet their spirits would return again to their course yea in the very midst hereof have their secret current through secret channels though perhaps untaken notice of by themselves in these To what parpose is it to wait to what purpose is it to seek saith the flesh and the fleshly birth Yes it is to purpose saith the Spirit and the spiritual Child for the Lord is good unto them that wait for him to the Soul that seeketh him It is not in vain to wait for God for the goodness and kindness of God to seek him or what our spirits want from him The Lord is good to such You cannot perswade the child that it is in vain for him to ask what he wants of his father or to wait the pleasure of his father for it he knows it is not He who is led to seek God to wait for God to seek what his spirit wants of God to wait for it from God shall find that the Lord who put him into this posture who keeps and sustains him in this posture will be good unto him And what ever jealousies to the contrary may be whispered into his ears yet they cannot enter into the inmost of his heart but there is still this secret language there The Lord is good unto