your Rock He hath no stability but what is derived dependant and uncertain and defectible Learn therefore to rest on God alone and lean not too hard or confidently upon any mortal might 2. And God will have the common infirmity of man to be known that so the weakest may not be utterly discouraged nor take their weakness to be gracelesness whilst they see that the strongest also have their infirmities though not so great as theirs If any of God's Servants lives in constant holiness and fidelity without any shakings or stumbling in their way it would tempt some self-accusing troubled Souls to think that they were altogether graceless because they are so far short of others But when we read of a Peters denying his Master in so horrid a manner with swearing and cursing that he knew not the man Mat. 26.74 And of his dissimulation and not walking uprightly Gal. 2. and of a Davids unfriendly and unrighteous dealing with Mephibosheth the seed of Ionathan and of his most vile and treacherous dealing with Vriah a faithful and deserving Subject it may both abate our wonder and offence at the unfaithfulness of our Friends and teach us to compassionate their frailty when they desert us and also somewhat abate our immoderate dejectedness and trouble when we have failed God or man our selves 3. Moreover consider how the odiousness of that sin which is the root and cause of such unfaithfulness is greatly manifested by the failing of our Friends God will have the odiousness of the Remnants of our Self-love and Carnal mindedness and Cowardize appear We should not discern it in the Seed and Root if we did not see and taste it in the Fruits Seeing without Tasting will not sufficiently convince us A Crab looks as beautiful as an Apple but when you taste it you better know the difference When you must your selves be unkindly used by your Friends and forsaken by them in your distress and you have tasted the Fruits of the Remnants of their Worldliness Selfishness and Carnal Fears you will better know the odiousness of these Vices which thus break forth against all Obligations to God and you and notwithstanding the Light the Conscience and perhaps the Grace that doth resist them 4. Are you not prone to overvalue and overlove your Friends If so is not this the meerest Remedy for your Disease In the loving of God we are in no danger of Excess and therefore have no need of any thing to quench it And in the loving of the Godly purely upon the account of Christ and in loving Saints as Saints we are not apt to go too far But yet our Understandings may mistake and we may think that Saints have more of sanctity than indeed they have and we are exceeding apt to mix a Selfish Common Love with that which is Spiritual and Holy and at the same time when we love a Christian as a Christian we are apt not only to love him as we ought but to overlove him because he is our Friend and loveth us Those Christians that have no special Love to us we are apt to undervalue and neglect and love them below their holiness and worth But those that we think entirely love us we love above their proper Worth as they stand in the esteem of God Not but that we may love those that love us and add this love to that which is purely for the sake of Christ but we should not let our own Interest prevail and overtop the Interest of Christ nor love any so much for loving us as for loving Christ And if we do so no wonder if God shall use such Remedies as he seeth meet to abate our excuse of Selfish Love O how highly are we apt to think of all that Good which is found in those who are the highest esteemers of us and most dearly love us when perhaps in it self it is but some ordinary Good or ordinary Degree of Goodness which is in them Their Love to us unresistibly procureth our Love to them And when we love them it is wonderful to observe how easily we are brought to think well of almost all they do and highly to value their Judgments Graces Parts and Works When greater Excellencies in another perhaps are scarce observed or regarded but as a common thing And therefore the destruction or want of Love is apparent in the vilifying Thoughts and Speeches that most Men have one of another and in the low esteem of the Judgments and Performances and Lives of other Men much more in their Contempt Reproaches and cruel Persecutions Now though God will have us encrease in our love of Christ in his Members and in our pure love of Christians as such and in our common Charity to all yea and in our just Fidelity to our Friend yet would he have us suspect and moderate our selfish and excessive Love and inordinate partial esteem of one above another when it is but for our selves and on our own account And therefore as he will make us know that we our selves are no such excellent Persons as that it should make another so laudable or advance his worth because he loveth us so he will make us know that our Friends whom we overvalue are but like other Men If we exalt them too highly in our esteem it is a sign that God must cast them down And as their Love to us was it that made us so exalt them so their unkindness or unfaithfulness to us is the fittest means to bring them lower in our estimation and affection God is very jealous of our hearts as to our overvaluing and overloving any of his Creatures What we give inordinately and excessively to them is some way or other taken from him and given them to his Injury and therefore to his offence Though I know that to be void of natural friendly or social affections is an odious extreme on the other side yet God will rebuke us if we are guilty of Excess And it 's the greater and more inexcusable fault to over-love the Creature because our Love to God is so cold and hardly kindled and kept alive He cannot take it well to see us dote upon dust and frailty like our selves at the same time when all his wondrous kindness and attractive goodness do cause but such a faint and languid Love to him which we ourselves can scarcely feel If therefore he cures us by permitting our Friends to shew us what they are and how little they deserve such excessive Love when God hath so little it is no more wonder than it is that he is tender of his Glory and merciful to his Servants Souls 5 By the failing and unfaithfulness of our Friends the wonderful Patience of God will be observed and honoured as it is shewed both to them and us When they forsake us in our distress especially when we suffer for the Cause of Christ it is God that they injure more than us And therefore if he bear with
you can thankfully take your Food from any hand that your Father sends it by it is a Correction very suitable to your sin 9. Do you so highly value your Friends for God or for them or for your selves in the final consideration If it was for God what reason of trouble have you that God hath disposed of them according to his wisdom and unerring Will should you not then be more pleased that God hath them and employeth them in his highest service than displeased that you want them But if you value them and love them for themselves they are now more lovely when they are more perfect and they are now fitter for your content and joy when they have themselves unchangeable content and joy than they could be in their sin and sorrows But if you valued and loved them but for your selves only it is just with God to take them from you to teach you to value Men to righter ends and upon better considerations And both to prefer God before your selves and better to understand the nature of true Friendship and better to know that your own felicity is not in the hands of any Creature but of God alone 10. Did you improve your Friends while you had them or did you only love them while you made but little use of them for your Souls If you used them not it was just with God for all your Love to take them from you They were given you as your Candle not only to Love it but to work by the Light of it And as your Garments not only to Love them but to wear them and as your meat not only to Love it but to feed upon it Did you receive their Counsel and hearken to their Reproofs and pray with them and confer with them upon those holy Truths that tended to elevate your minds to God and to inflame your Breasts with sacred Love If not be it now known to you that God gave you not such helps and mercies only to talk of or look upon and Love but also to improve for the benefit of your Souls 11. Do you not seem to forget both where you are your selves and where you must shortly and for ever live Where would you have your Friends but where you must be your selâ—es Do you mourn that they are taken hence Why if they had staid here a thousand years how little of that time should you have had their Company When you are almost leaving the World your selves would you not send your treasure before you to the place where you must abide How quickly will you pass from hence to God where you shall find your Friends that you lamented as if they had been lost and there shall dwell with them for ever O foolish Mourners would you not have your Friends at home at their home and your home with their Father and your Father their God and your God Shall you not there enjoy them long enough Can you so much miss them for one day that must live with them to all Eternity And is not Eternity long enough for you to enjoy your Friends in Obj. But I do not know whether ever I shall there have any distinct knowledge of them or love to them and whether God shall not there be so far All in All as thâ—t we shall need or fetch no comfort from the Creature Answ. There is no reason for either of these doubts For 1. You cannot justly think that the knowledge of the Glorified shall be more confused or imperfect than the knowledge of natural Men on Earth We shall know much more but not so much less Heaven exceedeth Earth in knowledge as much as it doth in joy 2. The Angels in Heaven have now a distinct particular knowledge of the least Believers rejoycing particularly in their conversion and being called by Christ himself Their Angels Therefore when we shall be equal to the Angels we shall certainly know our nearest Friends that there dwell with us and are employed in the same attendance 3. Abraham knew the Rich Man in Hell and the Man knew Abraham and Lazarus Therefore we shall have as distinct a Knowledge 4. The two Disciples knew Moses and Elias in the Mount whom they had never seen before Though it is possible Christ told them who they were yet there is no such thing expressed And therefore it is as probable that they knew them by the Communication of their irradiating glory Much more shall we be then illuminated to a clearer knowledge 5. It is said expresly 1 Cor. 13.10 11 12. That our present knowledge shall be done away only in regard of its imperfection and not of it self which shall be perfected when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away As we put away childish thoughts and speeches when we become men The change will be from seeing in a glass to seeing face to face and from knowing in part to knowing even as we are known 2. And that we shall both Know and Love and rejoyce in creatures even in Heaven notwithstanding that God is all in all apeareth further thus 1. Christ in his glorified humanity is a Creature and yet there is no doubt but all his members will there Know and Love him in his glorified humanity without any derogation from the glory of the Deity 2. The Body of Christ will continue its unity and every member will be so nearly related even in Heaven that they cannot choose but Know and Love each other Shall we be ignorant of the members of our Body and not be concerned in their felicity with whom we are so nearly one 3. The state and felicity of the Church hereafter is frequently described in Scripture as consistent in Society It is a Kingdom the City of God the Heavenly Ierusalem and it is mentioned as part of our happiness to be of that society Heb. 12.22 23 24 c. 4. The Saints are called Kings themselves and it is said that they shall judge the world and the Angels And Judging in Scripture is frequently put for Governing Therefore whether there will be another world of mortals which they shall Govern as Angles now Govern men or whether the Misery of damned men and Angels will partly consist in as base a subjection to the glorified Saints as Dogs now have to men or wicked reprobates on Earth to Angles or whether in respect of both these together the Saints shall then be Kings and Rule and Judge or whether it be only the participation of the Glory of Christ that is called a Kingdom I will not here determine but it is most clear that they will have a distinct particular Knowledge of the world which they themselves must judge and some concernment in that work 5. It is put into the description of the Happiness of the Saints that they shall come from the East and from the West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of
God Therefore they shall know them and take some comfort in their presence 6. Love even to the Saints as well as unto God is one of the graces that shall endure for ever 1 Cor. 13. It is exercised upon an Immortal object the Image and Children of the Most High and therefore must be one of the Immortal Graces For Grace in the Nature of it dyeth not and therefore if the Object cease not how should the Grace cease unless you will call it's perfecting a ceasing It is a state too high for such as we and I think for any meer Creature to live so Immediately and only upon God as to have no use for any fellow Creature nor no comfort in them God can make use of Glorified Creatures in such subserviency and subordination to himself as shall be no diminution to his All-sufficiency or Honour nor to our glory and felicity We must take heed of fancying even such a Heaven it self as is above the capacity of a Creature as some very wise Divines think they have â—one that tell us we shall Immediately see Gods Essence his Glory being that which is provided for our intuition and felicity and is distinct from his Essence being not every where as his Essence is And as those do that tell us because that God will be All in All therefore we shall there have none of our comfort by any Creature Though flesh and blood shall not enter into that Kingdom but our Bodies will then be Spiritual Bodies yet will they be really the same as now and distinct from our Souls and therefore must have a felicity suitable to a Body glorified And if the soul did immediately see God's Essence yet as no reason can conclude that it can see nothing else or that it can see even Created Good and not Love it so the Body however must have objects and felicity fit for a Body Obj. But it is said If we knew Christ after the flesh henceforth know we him no more Answ. No doubt but all the carnality in Principles matter manner and ends of our knowledge will then cease as it's imperfection But that a carnal knowledge be turned into a spiritual is no more a diminution to it than it is to the glory of our Bodies to be made like the stars in the Firmament of our Father Obj. But then I shall have no more comfort in my present friends than in any other Answ. 1. If you had none in them it is no diminution to our happiness if indeed we should have all in God immediately and alone 2. But if you have as much in others that you never knew before that will not diminish any of your comfort in your antient Friends 3. But it is most probable to us that as there is a twofold Object for our love in the Glorified Saints one is their Holiness and the other is the Relation which they stood in between God and us being made his instruments for our conversion and salvation so that we shall love Saints in Heaven in both respects And in the first respect which is the chiefest we shall love those most that have most of God and the greatest Glory though such as we never knew on Earth And in the second respect we shall love those most that were employed by God for our greatest good And that we shall not there lay by so much respect to our selves as to forget or disregard our Benefactors is manifest 1. In that we shall forever remember Christ and love him and praise him as one that formerly Redeemed us and washed us in his Blood and hath made us Kings and Priests to God And therefore we may also in just subordination to Christ remember them with Love and Thankfulness that were his Instâ—uments for the Collation of these benefits 2. And this kind of Self-love to be sensible of Good and Evil to our selves is none of the sinful or imperfect selfishness to be renounced or laid by but part of our very Natures and as inseparable from us as we are from our selves Much more were it not digressâ—ve might be said on this subject but I shall only add that as God doth draw us to every holy Duty by shewing us the excellency of that duty and as perpetuâ—ty is not the smallest excellency so he hath purposely mentioned that Love endureth for ever when he had described the Love of one another as a principle motive to kindle and encrease this Love And therefore those that think they shall have no personal Knowledge of one another nor personal Love to one another for we cannot Love personâ—lly if we know not personally do take a most effectual course to destroy in their souls all holy special Love to Saints by casting away that principal or very great motive given them by the Holy Ghost I aâ— not â—ble to Love muâ—h where I fâ—â—eknow that I shall not Love long I cannot Love a comely Inn so well as a nearer dwelling of my own because I must be gone to morrow Therefore must I love my Bible better than my Lawbooks or Physickbooks c. Because it leadeth to Eternity And therefore I must Love Holiness in my self and others better than meat and drink and wealth and honour and beauty and pleasure because it must be Loved for ever when the Love of these must needs be transitory as they are transitory I must profess from the very experience of my soul that it is the belief that I shall Love my friends in Heaven that principally kindleth my Love to them on Earth And if I thought I should never know them after death and consequently never love them more when this life is ended I should in reason number them with temporal things and Love them comparatively but a little even as I Love other transitory things allowing for the excellency in the nature of Grace But now I converse with some delight with my Godly friends as believing I shall converse with them for ever and take comfort in the very Dead and Absent as believing we shall shortly meet in Heaven And I Love them I hope with a Love that is of a Heavenly Nature while I Love them as the Heirs of Heaven with a Love which I expect shall there be perfected and more fully and for ever exercised 12. The last Reason that I give you to move you to bear the Loss or Absence of your friends is that it gives you the loudest call to retire from the world and to converse with God himself and to long for Heaven where you shall be seperated from your friends no more And your forsaken state will somewhat assist you to that solitary converse with God which it calls you to But this brings us up to the third part of the Text. AND yet I am not alone because the Father is with me Doct. When all forsake us and leave us as to them alone we are far from being simply alone because God is with us He is not
Inimica est multorum conversatio I never bring home well from a Crowd the manners which I took out with me Something is disordered of that which I had set in order Something of that which I had banished doth return The conversation of many I find an enemy to me O how many vain and foolish words corrupt the minds of those that converse with an ungodly World when your Ears and Minds who live in Solitude are free from such Temptations You live not in so corrupt an Air as they You hear not the filthy ribbald Speeches which fight against modesty and chastity and are the bellows of Lust You hear not the discontented complaining words of the impatient nor the passionate provoking words of the offended nor the wrangling quarrelsom words of the contentious nor the censorious or slanderous or reproachful words of the malicious who think it their interest to have their Brethren taken to be bad and to have others hate them because they them selves hate them and who are as zealous to quench the Charity of others when it is destroyed in themselves as holy persons are zealous to provoke others to Love which dweâ—â—eth and ruleth in themselves In your Solitude with God you shall not hear the lyes and malicious revilings of the ungodly against the generation of the just Nor the subtile cheating words of Hereticks who being themselves deceived would deceive others of their Faith and corrupt their lives You shall not there be distracted with the noise and clamours of contending uncharitable professors of Religion endeavouring to make odious first the Opinions and then the persons of one another one saying here is the Church and another there is the Church One saying This is the true Church Government and another saying Nay but that is it One saying God will be worshipped thus and another not so but thus or thus You shall not there be drawn to side with one against another nor to joyn with any faction or be guilty of divisions You shall not be troubled with the Oaths and Blasphemies of the wicked nor with the imprudent miscarriages of the Weak with the Persecutions of Enemies or the falling out of Friends You shall not see the cruelty of proud Oppressors that set up lyes by armed violence and care not what they say or do nor how much other men are injured or suffer so that themselves may tyrannize and their wills and words may rule the World when they do so unhappily rule themselves In your solitude with God you shall not see the prosperity of the wicked to move you to envy nor the adversity of the just to be your grief You shall see no Worldly pomp and splendor to be fool you nor adorned beauty to entice you nor wasting calamities to afflict you You shall not hear the laughter of Fools nor the sick mans groans nor the wronged mans Complaints nor the poor mans murmurings nor the proud mans boastings nor the angry mans abusive ragings As you lose the help of your gracious friends so you are freed from the fruits of their peevishness and passions of their differing opinion and ways and tempers of their inequality unsuitableness and contrariety of minds or interests of their levity and unconstancy and the powerful temptations of their friendship to draw you to the errors or other sins which they are tainted with themselves In a word you are there half delivered from the VANITY and VEXATION of the world and were it not that you are yet undelivered from your selves and that you take distempered corrupted hearts with you O what a felicity would your solitude be But alas we cannot overrun our own diseases we must carry with us the remnants of our corrupted nature our deadness and dulness our selfishness and earthly minds our impatience and discontents and worst of all our lamentable weakness of faith and love and heavenly mindedness and our strangeness to God and backwardness to the matters of eternal life O that I could escape these though I were in the hands of the cruellest enemies O that such a heart could be left behind How gladly would I overrun both house and land and honour and all sensual delights that I might but overrun it O where is the place where there is none of this darkness nor disaffection nor distance nor estrangedness from God! O that I knew it O that I could find it O that I might there dwell though I should never more see the face of mortals nor ever hear a human Voice nor ever taste of the delights of flesh Alas foolish Soul such a place there is that hath all this and more than this But it is not in a Wilderness but in Paradise not here on Earth but above with Christ And yet am I so loath to die yet am I no more desirous of the blessed day when I shall bâ— uncloathed of flesh and sin O death what an Enemy art thou even to my Soul By affrighting me from the presence of my Lord and hindring my desires and willingness to be gone thou wrongest me much more than by laying my flesh to rot in darkness Fain I would know God and fain I would more love him and enjoy him But O this hurtful love of life O this unreasonable fear of dying detaineth my desires from pressing on to the happy place where all this may be had O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death this carnal unbelieving heart that sometime can think more delightfully of a Wilderness then of Heaven that can go seek after God in desert solitude among the Birds and Beasts and Trees and yet is so backward to be loosed from flesh that I may find him and enjoy him in the World of glory Can I expect that Heaven come down to Earth and that the Lord of glory should remove his Court and either leave the retinue of his Celestial Courtiers or bring them all down into this drosly World of flesh and sin and this to satisfie my fleshly foolish mind Or can I expect the translation of Henoch or the Chariot of Elias Is it not enough that my Lord hath conquered Death and sanctifyed the passage and prepared the place of my perpetual abode Well! for all this though a Wilderness is not Heaven it shall be sweet and welcom for the sake of Heaven if thence I may but have a clearer prospect of it and if by retiring from the crowd and noise of Folly I may but be more composed and better disposed to converse above and to use my Faith alas my too weak languid Faith until the beatifical Vision and Fruition come If there may be but more of God or readier access to him or more heart quickning flames of Love or more heart-comforting intimations of his Favour in a wilderness than in a City in a Prison than in a Palace let that Wilderness be my City and let that Prison be my Palace while I must abide on Earth If in
Love further than they subserve this greatest Work Come home then O my Soul to God Converse in Heaven Turn away thine eyes from beholding Vanity Let not thy affections kindle upon straw or bryars that go out when they have made a flash or noise and leave thee to thy cold and darkness But come and dwell upon celestial beauties and make it thy daily and most diligent Work to kindle thy affections on the infinite everlasting Good and then they will never be extinguished or decay for want of Fewel but the further they go and the longer they burn the greater will be the Flame Though thou find it hard while Love is but a Spark to make it burn and complain that thy cold and backward heart is hardly warmed with the love of God yet when the whole pile hath taken fire and the flame ascendeth fire will breed fire Love will cause Love and all the malice of Hell it self shall never be able to suppress or quench it unto all Eternity 6. And it is a great Encouragement to my converse with God that no misunderstanding no malice of Enemies no former sin or presentâ— frailty no nor the infinite distance of the most holy glorious God can hinder my access to him or turn away his Ear or Love or interrupt my leave and liberty of converse If I converse with the poor their wants afflict me being greater than I can supply Their complaints and expectations which I cannot satisfie are my trouble If I would converse with Great ones it is not easie to get access and less easie to have their Favour unless I would purchase it at too dear a rate How strangely and contemptuously do they look at their inferiours Great Friends must be made for a word or Smile And if you be not quickly gone they are aweary of you And if you seek any thing of them or would put them to any cost or trouble you are as welcom to them as so many Vermin or noisom Creatures They please them best that drive you away With how much labour and difficulty must you clime if you will see the top of one of these Mountains And when you are there you are but in a place of barrenness and have nothing to satisfie you for your pains but a larger prospect and vertiginous despect of the lower grounds which are not your own It is seldom that these Great Ones are to be spoken with And perhaps their Speech is but a denyal of your Requests if not some snappish and contemptuous Rejection that makes you glad when you are got far enough from them and makes you the better like and love the accessible calm fruitful Plains But O how much greater encouragements hath my Soul to converse with God! Company never hindereth him from harkning to my Suit He is Infinite and Omnipotent and as sufficient for every individual Soul as if he had no other to look after in the World When he is taken up with the attendance and praises of his heavenly Host he is as free and ready to attend and answer the groans and prayers of a contrite Soul as if he had no nobler Creatures nor no higher Service to regard I am oft unready but God is never unready I am unready to pray but he is not unready to hear I am unready to come to God to walk with him and to solace my Soul with him but he is never unready to entertain me Many a time my Conscience would have driven me away when he hath called me to him and rebuked my accusing fearful Conscience Many a time I have called my self a Prodigal a companion of Swine a miserable hard-hearted Sinner unworthy to be called his Son when he hath called me Child and chid me for my questioning his Love He hath readily forgiven the Sins which I thought would have made my Soul 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 Souls 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 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 entertain me Man that is no wiser or better than my self Those that I never wronged or deserved ill off 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 abhor me And God that I have deserved Hell of doth accept me The best of them are Briars and as a thorny Hedge and he is Love and Rest and Joy And yet I can be more welcom to him thoâ—gh I have offended hâ—m than I can to them whom I have obliged I have freer leave to cast my slef into my Fathers Arms than to tumble in those Briars 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 forgivetâ— me soâ—nâ—r 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
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 whether 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 soul night seek it out But whether 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 raâ—her 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 ways 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 journy 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 onâ—s 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 malencholly 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 Books Printed for Iohn Salusbury in Cornhill 〈…〉 opened 〈…〉 Supper of the Parable discovered 〈◊〉 several Sermons By Ioseph Hussey Pastor in Cambridge An Inquiry after Religion or a Veiw of all Religions and Sects in the World By a Member of the Royal Society A Word to poor ignorant and careless people that mind not the Salvation of their precious souls containing Directions for a Holy Life with a Catechism and Prayers for Families and Graces before and after Meat
The Christians CONVERSE with GOD OR THE Insufficiency and Vncertainty OF Human Friendship And the Improvement of SOLITUDE IN CONVERSE with GOD With some of the AUTHOR's Breathings after him By Richard Baxter Recommended to the Reader 's serious thoughts when at the House of Mourning and in Retirement By Mr. Matth. Silvester LONDON Printed for John Salusbury at the Rising Sun over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1693. TO THE READER· THis Excellent Discourse breathing the Excellence of it's now Deceased Authors Spirit craves thy most serious perusal and it will plentifully reward the hours which shall be spent thereon It greatly savours of deep thoughts strict observations and long and great experience of God of Things and Persons Creatures look best when at a distance and in prospect but when nearer to us they are then easily looked through and seldom found to correspond with their Appearances to us and with our expectations from them But God is such a deep and boundless Abyss of Perfection as most delightfully will endure and recompence all the severity and closeness of our eternal Thoughts about him Perfected Spirits are all thought concerning God and find their Hearts enflamed and all their Powers invigorated thereby eternally to inexpressible Satisfaction And what varieties of pleasant Thoughts the Innumerable Instances and Mirrours of Divine Excellencies in the Heavens will endlesly Minister unto I do not know nor dare I guess too boldly at them But how those Souls can look for Heaven or truly be accounted gracious who never retire solemnly to converse with God I know not Surely where God is not more than all to us he can be comfortably nothing And our religious Exercises and Pretences must needs be mean and dull whilst God is triflingly and seldom thought on and conversed with by us Can holy Walking be preserved and promoted without love Can love to God and Christ and to the invisible State be kindled cherished and continually advanced without Faith Can Faith be any thing but Fancy and Presumption without Thought and Knowledge And can the Life of Faith Hope Love and holy Walking be fixt and vigorous and proficient without our serious and frequent representations of God unto our selves by solemn Contemplations of his excellent Perfections free Communications plentiful Provisions and glorious Designs whereto he hath entitled us seeing our Religion and Devotions in all the parts thereof can have no Life and Soul but this What is it to converse with God in Solitude but to actuate our Thoughts of what we know concerning God in Christ and to accomodate them to all the needful and useful Purposes of Religion and Devotion and to make Thoughts solemnly serviceable to the great Ends thereof viz. our due and seasonable Representations of our God to us and of our selves to him in Christ pursuant to the stated and occasional Ends and Interests of Christian Godliness as the matter may require Conversing thus with God wants not its great Advantages in life and death And if these Thoughts contained in this Book which did so greatly reconcile the Author to the Thoughts of his then approaching but now experienced Death were more in Exercise at Funeral Solemnities and this Book then put into the hands of Mourners it would be no matter of Repentance that I know of These are the hasty Thoughts and Sentiments of thine in and for the Lord whilst Matthew Sylvester London Sept. 12. 1692. THE CONTENTS· THE Context opened p. 1 Why Christ was forsaken by his Disciples p. 6. Use 1. Expect by the forsaking of your Friends to be conformed unto Christ Reasons for your Expectation p. 12 The Aggravations of their forsaking you p. 34 Some quieting Considerations p. 38 The Order of Forms in the School of Christ. p. 51 The Disciples scattered every Man to his own p. 57. Selfishness contrary to friendly fidelity p. 58. Considerations to quiet us in the death of faithful Friends p. 60 Whether we shall know them in Heaven p. 71 Whether Creatures be any matter of our Comfort in Heaven p. 73. Quest. Shall I have any more Comfort in present friends than in others p. 76 Doct. 3. When all forsake us and leave us as to them alone we are far from being simply alone because God is with us p. 80. The advantages of having God with us p. 81 Quest. How he is with us p. 82 Use. 1. Imitate Christ Live upon God alone though men forsake you yet thrust not your selves into Solitude uncalled p. 91 In what cases Solitude is lawful and good p. 92 Reasons against unnecessary Solitude p. 94 The Comfort of Converse with God in necessary Solitude The Benefits of Solitude The Reasons from God Improved largely in some Meditations p. 102.111 Directions for Conversing with God in Solitude p. 149 Concluded in further Meditation p. 160 A Caution p. 166 Books Printed for John Salusbury in Cornhill THE certainty of The Worlds of Spirits fully evinced by unquestionable Histories of Apparitions and Witchcrafts Operations Voices c. Proving the Immortality of Souls the Malice and Miseries of the Devils and the Damned and the Blessedness of the Justified By Richard Baxter An End of Doctrinal Controversies which have lately troubled the Churches by â—econciling explication without much Disputing By Richard Baxter The Protestant Religion truly stated and justified by the late Reverend Divine Mr. Richard Baxter Whereunto is added by way of an Epistle some Account of the Learned Author never before published By Mr. Matth. Sylvester and Mr. Daniel Williams The Harmony of the Divine Attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of Mans Redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ. By William Bates D. D. The Changableness of this World with respect to Nations Families and particular Persons with a practial Application thereof to the various conditions of this Mortal Life By Timothy Rogers M. A. The Christian Lover or a discourse opening the Nature of Participation with and Demonstrating the necessity of Purification by Christ. By T. Cruse The Duty and blessing of a Tender Conscience plainly stated and earnestly recommended to all that regard acceptance with God and the prosperity of their Souls By the same Author Five Sermons on various Occasions By the same Author The Mirrour of Divine Love unvail'd in a Paraphrase on the High and misterious Song of Solomon By Robert Fleming V. D. M. The Mourners Memorial in two Sermons on the death of the truly Pious Mrs. Susannah Some With some Account of her Life and death By T. Wright and Robert Fleming V. D. M. A new Examination of the Accidence and Grammar in English and Latin wherein all the Rules of Properi quae Maribus Que Genus As in presenti Sintax and Praesodia are made plain and easie that the meanest Capacity may speedily learn the Latin Tongue OF CONVERSING WITH God c. Joh. XVI 32 Behold the hour cometh yeâ— is come that ye shall be scattered every Man to his own and shall leave me alone And yet
covetous ambitious self-seeking persons in the World or else cure their diseases and possess their minds with perfect Câ—â—rity then â—ll the 〈…〉 hath over and over again given 〈…〉 as full and sad demonstrations of th◠〈◊〉 of Cross opinions to alienate 〈◊〉 and make divisions as most ages of the World have ever had If your Friend 〈◊〉 proud it 's wonderful how he will â—lighâ— you and withdraw his Love if you 〈◊〉 not of his mind If he be zealous he is easily tempted to think it a part of his duty to God to disown you if you differ from him as taking you for one that disowneth the truth of God and therefore one that God himself disowneth or at least to grow cold in his affection toward you and to decline from you as he that thinks you do from God As agreement in opinions doth strangely reconcile Affections so disagreement doth secretly and strangely alienate them even before you are well aware your Friend hath lost possession of your hearts because of an unavoidable diversity of apprehensions When all your Friends have the same intellectual complexion and temperature and measure of understanding with your selves then you may have hope to escape the ruptures which unlikeliness and differences of apprehensions might else cause 6. Moreover some of your friends may so far overgrow you in wisdom or wealth or honour or worth in their own conceits that they may begin to take you to be unsuitable for them and unmeet for their further special friendship Alas poor man they will pity thee that thou art no wiser and that thou hast no greater light to change thy mind as fast as they or that thou art so weak and ignorant as not to see what seems to them so clear a truth or that thou art so simple to cast away thy self by crossing them that might prefer thee or to fâ—ll under the displeasure of those that have power to raise or ruine thee But if thou be so simple thou mayest be the object of their lamentation but art no familiar friend for them They think it fittest to close and converse with those of their own rank and stature and not with such shrubs and children that may prove their trouble and dishonour 7. And some of your friends will think that by a more through acquaintance with you they have found out more of your infirmities or faults and therefore have found that you are less aimable and valuable than at first they judged you They will think that by distance unacquaintedness and an over-hasty love and judgment they were mistaken in you and that now they see reason to repent of the love which they think was guilty of some errors and excess when they come nearer you and have had more tryal of you they will think they are fitter to judge of you than before And indeed our defects are so many and all our infirmities so great that the more men know us the more they may see in us that deserveth pity or reproof and as Pictures we appear less beautiful at the nearest view Though this will not warrant the withdrawing of that Love which is due to friends and to vertue even in the imperfect nor will excuse that alienation and decay of friendship that is caused by the pride of such as overlook perhaps much greater failings and weaknesses in themselves which need forgiveness 8. And perhaps some of your Friends will grow weary of their Friendship having that infirmity of humane nature not to be much pleased with one thing long Their love is a flower that quickly withereth It is a short liv'd thing that soon groweth old It must be novelty that must feed their love and their delight 9. And perhaps they may have got some better Friends in their apprehensions that may have so much interest as to take them up and leave no room for antient Friends It may be they have met with those that are more suitable or can be more useful to them that have more learning or wit or wealth or power than you have and therefore seem more worthy of their Friendship 10. And some of them may think when you are in a low and suffering state and in danger of worse that it is part of their duty of self-preservation to be strange to you though in heart they wish you well They will think they are not bound to hazard themselves upon the displeasure of superiours to own or befriend you or any other Though they must not desert Christ they think they may desert a man for their own preservation To avoid both extreams in such a case men must both study to understand which way is most serviceable to Christ and to his Church and withal to be able to deny themselves and also must study to understand what Christ meaneth in his final sentence In as much as you did it or did it not to one of the least of these my Brethren you did it or did it not to me As if it were to visit the Contagious we must neither cast away our lives to do no good or for that which in value holdeth no proportion with them nor yet must we deny to run any hazard when it is indeed our duty So is it in our visiting those that suffer for the cause of Christ but that here the owning them being the coâ—fessing of him we need more seldom to fear being too forward 11. And some of your friends may cover their faithfulness with the pretence of some fault that you have been guilty of some errour that you hold or some unhansom or culpable act that you have done or some duty that you have left undone or failed in For they think there is not a better shelter for their unfaithfulness then to pretend for it the Name and Cause of God and so to make a duty of their sin Who would not justifie them if they can but prove that God requireth them and Religion oâ—ligeth thâ—m to forsake you fâ—r your faults There are few crimes in the world that by some are not fathered on God that most hateth them as thinking no name can so much honour them False friends therefore use this means as well as other Hypocrites And though God is Love and condemneth nothing more than uncharitableness malice yet these are commonly by falshaâ—ted Hypocrites called by pious vertuous names and God himself is entitled to them so that few worldlings ambitious persons or timeservers but will confidently pretend Religion for all their falshood to their friends or bloody cruelty to the servants of Christ that comply not with their carnal interest 12. Perhaps some of your friends may really mistake your case and think that you suffer as evil doers and instead of comforting you may be your sharpest censurers This is one of the most notable things set out to our observation in the book of Iob It was not the smallest part of his affliction that when the hand of God was heavy upon him
and then if ever was the time for his friends to have been his comforters and friends indeed on the contrary they became his scourge and by unjust accusations and misinterpretations of the providence of God did greatly add to his affliction when God had taken away his children wealth and health his friends would take away the reputation and comfort of his integrity and under pretence of bringing him to repentance did charge him with that which he was never guilty of They wounded his good name and would have wounded his conscience and deprived him of his inward peace Censorious false accusing friends do cut deeper then malicious slandring enemies It is no wonder if strangers or enemies do misjudge and misreport our actions But when your bosom friends that should most intimately know you and be the cheif witness of your innocency against all others shall in their jealousie or envy or peevishness or falling out be your chief reproachers and unjust accusers as it makes it serve more credible to others so it will come nearest to your selves And yet this is a thing that must be expected yea even your most self-denying acts of obedience to God may be so misunderstood by godly men and real friends as by them to be taken for your great miscarriage and turned to your rebuke As Davids dancing before the Ark was by his wife which yet did but make him resolve to be yet more vile If you be cast into poverty or disgrace or prison or banishment for your necessary obedience to Christ perhaps your friend or wife may become your accuser for this greatest service and say This is your own doing your rashness or indiscretion or self-conceitedness or willfulness hath brought it upon you what need had you to say such words or to do this or that why could not you have yeilded in so small a matter Perhaps your costliest and most excellent obedience shall by your nearest friends be called the fruits of pride or humour or passion or some corrupt affection or at least of folly and inconsiderateness When flesh and blood hath long been striving in you against your duty and saying Do not cast away thy self O serve not God at so dear a rate God doth not require thee to undo thy self why shouldest thou not avoid so great inconveniences When with much ado you have conquered all your carnal reasonings and denyed your selves and your carnal interest you must expect even from some religious friends to be accused for these very actions and perhaps their accusations may fasten such a blot upon your names as shall never be washed out till the day of judgment By difference of interests or apprehensions and bâ— unacquaintedness with your hearts and actions the righteousness of of the righteous may be thus taking from him and friends may do the work of enemies yea of Satan himself the accuser of the brethren and may prove as thorns in your bed and gravel in your shoes yea in your eyes and wrong you much more than open adversaries could have done How is it like to go with that mans reputation you may easily judge whose friends are like Iobs and his enemies like Davids that lay snares before him and diligently watch for matter of reproach yet this may befall the best of men 13. You may be permitted by God to fall into some real crime and then your friends may possibly think it is their duty to disown you so far as you have wronged God When you provoke God to frown upon you he may cause your friends to frown upon you If you fall out with him and grow strange to him no marvel if your truest friends fall out with you and grow strange to you They love you for your godliness and for the sake of Christ and therefore must abate their love if you abate your godliness and must for the sake of Christ be displeased with you for your sins And if in such a case of real guilt you should be displeased at their displeasure and should expect that your friend should befriend your sin or carry himself towards you in your guilt as if you were innocent you will but shew that you understand not the nature of true friendship nor the use of a true friend and are yet your selves too friendly to your sins 14. Moreover those few friends that are truest to you may be utterly unable to relieve you in your distress or to give you ease or do you any good The case may be such that they can but pity you and lament your sorrows and weep over you you may see in them that man is not as God whose friendship can accomplish all the good that he desireth to his friends The wisest and greatest and best of men are silly comforters and uneffectual helps you may be sick and pained and grieved and distressed notwithstanding any thing that they can do for you Nay perhaps in their ingnorance they may increase your misery while they desire your relief and by striving indirectly to help and ease you may tye the knot faster and make you worse They may provoke those more against you that oppress you while they think they speak that which would tend to set you free They may think to ease your troubled minds by such words as shall increase the trouble or to deliver you as Peter would have delivered Christ and saved his Saviour first by carnal counsel Math. 16.22 Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee And then by carnal unjust force by drawing his sword against the Officers Love and good meaning will not prevent the mischiefs of ignorance and mistake If your friend cut your throat while he thought to cut but a vein to cure your disease it is not his friendly meaning that will save your lives Many a thousand sick people are killed by their friends that attend them with an earnest desire of their life while they ignorantly give them that which is contrary to their disease and will not be the â—ess pernicious for the good meaning of the giver Who have more tender affections than Mothers to their children And yet a great part of the calamity of the World of sickness and the misery of mans life proceedeth from the ignorant and erroneous indulgence of Mothers to their Children who to please them let them eat and drink what they will and use them to excess and gluttony in their childhood till nature be abused and maâ—tered and clogged with those superfluities and crudities which are the dunghill matter of most of the following diseases of their lives I might here also remember you how your friends may themselves be overcome with a temptation and then become the more dangerous tempters of you by how much the greater their interest is in your affections If they be infected with error they are the likest persons to ensnare you If they be tainted with Covetousness or Pride there is none so likely to draw you to the
them and forgive their Weakness upon Repentance why should not we do so that are much less injured The worlds perfideousness should make us think How great and wonderful is the patience of God that beareth with and beareth up so vile ungrateful treacherous Men that abuse him to whom they are infinitely obliged And it should make us consider when Men deal treacherously with us How great is that mercy that hath born with and pardoned greater wrongs which I my self have done to God than these can be which men have done to me It was the remembrance of David's Sin that had provoked God to raise up his own Son against him of whom he had been too fond which made him so easily bear the Curses and Reproach of Shimei It will make us bear abuse from others to remember how ill we have dealt with God and how ill we have deserved at his hands our selves 6. And I have observed another of the Reasons of God's permitting the failing of our Friends in the season and success It is that the Love of our Friends may not hinder us when we are called to suffer or die When we over-love them it teareth our very hearts to leave them And therefore it is a strong temptation to draw us from our Duty and to be unfaithful to the cause of Christ lest we should be taken from our too-dear Friends or lest our suffering cause their too-much Grief It is so hard a thing to die with willingness and peace that it must needs be a mercy to be saved from the Impediments which make us backward And the excessive Love of Friends and Relations is not the least of these Impediments O how loth is many a one to die when they think of parting with Wife or Husband or Children or dear and faithful Friends Now I have often observed that a little before their death or sickness it is ordinary with God to permit some unkindness between such too dear friends to arise by which he moderated and abated their affections and made them a great deal the willinger to dye Then we are ready to say it is time for me to leave the World when not only the rest of the World but my dearest Friends have first forsaken me This helpeth us to remember our dearest everlasting Friend and to be grieved at the heart that we have been no truer our selves to him who would not have forsaken us in our extremity And sometimes it makes us ev'n weary of the world and to say as Elias Lord take away my Life c. 1 King 19.4.10 14. When we must say I thought I had one friend left and behold even he forsaketh me in my distress As the love of Friends intangleth our affections to this World so to be weaned by their unkindnesses from our Friends is a great help to loosen us from the World and proveth oft a very great mercy to a Soul that is ready to depart And as the friends that Love us most and have most interest in your esteem and Love may do more than others in tempting us to be unfaithful to our Lord to to entertain any errour to commit any sin or to flinch in suffering so when God had permitted them to forsake us and to lose their too great interest in us we are fortified against all temptations from them I have known where a former intimate friend hath grown strange and broken former friendship and quickly after turned to such dangerous ways and errours as convinced the other of the mercifulness of God in weakning his temptation by his friends desertion who might else have drawn him along with him into sin And I have often observed that when the husbands have turned from Religion to Infidelity Familism or some dangerous heresie that God hath permitted them to hate and abuse their wives so inhumanly as that it preserveth the poor women from the temptation of following them in their Apostasie or sin When as some other women with whom their husbands have dealt more kindly have been drawn away with them into pernicious paths Therefore still I must say we were undone if we had the disposing of our own conditions It would belong before we should have been willing our selves to be thus unkindly dealt with by our friends And yet God hath made it to many a soul a notable meâ—â—s of preserving them from being undone for ever Yea the unfaithfulness of all our friends and the malice and cruelty of all our enemies doth us not usually so much harm as the love and temptation of some one deluded â—â—ring friend whom we are ready to follow into the gulf 7. Lastly consider that it is not desirable or suitable to our state to have too much of our comfort by any creature Not only because it is most pure and sweet which is most immediately from God but also because we are very prone to over-love the Creature and if it should but seem to be very commodious to us by serving our necessities or desires it would seem the more amiable and therefore be the stronger snare The work of mortification doth much consist in the annihilation or deadness of all the Creatures as to any power to draw away our hearts from God or to entangle us and detain us from our duty And the more excellent and lovely the Creature appeareth â—o us the less it is dead to us or we to it and the more will it be able to hinder or ensnare us When you have well considered all these things I suppose you will admire the wisdom of God in leaving you under this kind of tryal and weaning you from every creature and teaching you by his Providence as well as by his word to Cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of And you will see that it 's no great wonder that corrupted souls that live in other sins should be guilty of this unfaithfulness to their friends And that he that dare unthankfully trample upon the unspeakable kindness of the Lord should deal unkindly with the best of men You make no great wonder at other kind of sins when you see the world continually commit them why then should you make a greater or a stranger matter of this than of the rest Are you better than God Must unfaithfulness to you be made more hainous than that unfaithfulness to him which yet you daily see and slight The least wrong to God is a thousand fold more than the greatest that can be done to you as such Have you done that for your nearest friend which God hath done for him and you and all men Their obligations to you are nothing in comparison of their great and manifold obligations to God And you know that you have more wronged God your selves than any man ever wronged you And if yet for all that he bear with you have you not great reasons to bear with others Yea you have not been innocent towards men your selves
Did you never wrong or fail another Or rather are you not apter to see and aggravate the wrong that others do to you than that which you have done to others May you not call to mind your own neglects and say as Adonizebeck Judg. 1.7 Threescore and ten Kings having their thumbs and their great toes cut off gathered their meat under my table As I have done so God hath requited me Many a one have I failed or wronged and no wonder if others fail and wrong me Nay you have been much more unfaithful and injurious to your selves than ever any other hath been to you No friend was so near you as your selves None had such a charge of you None had such helps and advantages to do you good or hurt And yet all the Enemies you have in the world even in Earth or Hell have not wronged and hurt you half so much as you have done your selves O methinks the man or woman that knoweth themselves and knoweth what it is to Repent that ever saw the greatness of their sin and folly should have no great mind or leisure or aggravate the failings of their friends to the injuries of their enemies considering what they have proved to themselves Have I forfeited my own salvation and deserved everlasting wrath and sold my Saviour and my Soul for so base a thing as sinful pleasure and shall I ever make a wonder of it that another man doth me some temporal hurt Was any friend so near to me as my self Or more obliged to me O sinful soul let thy own rather then thy friends deceit and treachery and neglects be the matter of thy displeasure wonder and complaints And let thy Confirmity herein to Jesus Christ be thy holy ambition and delight Not as it is thy suffering nor as it is caused by mens sin but as it is thy Confirmity and fellowship in the sufferings of thy Lord and caused by his Love I have already shewed you that sufferers for Christ are in the highest form among his Disciples The Order of his followers usually is this 1. At our entrance and in the lowest form we are exercised with the fears of Hell and Gods displeasure and in the Works of Repentance for the sin that we have done 2. In the second form we come to think more seriously of the Remedy and to enquire what we shall do to be saved and to understand better what Christ hath done and suffered and what he is and will be to us and to value him and his love and grace And here we are much enquiring how we may know our own sincerity and our interest in Christ and are labouring for some assurance and looking after signs of Grace 3. In the next form or order we are searching after further Knowledge and labouring better to understand the mysteries of Religion and to get above the Rudiments and first Principles And here if we escape turning bare Opinionists or Hereticks by the snare of Controversie or Curiosity it 's well 4. In the next form we set our selves to the fuller improvement of all our further degrees of Knowledge and to digest it all and turn it into stronger Faith and Love and Hope and greater Humility Patience Self-denial Mortification and contempt of Earthly Vanities and hatred of Sin and to walk more watchfully and holily and to be more in holy Duty 5. In the next form we grow to be more publick-spirited To set our Hearts on the Churches welfare and long more for the progress of the Gospel and for the good of others and to do all the good 〈◊〉 the World that we are able for mens Souls or Bodies but especially to long and lay out our selves for the Conversion and Salvation of ignorant secure unconverted Souls The counterfeit of this is An eager desire to Proselyte others to our Opinions or that Religion which we have chosen by the direction of Flesh and Blood or which is not of God nor 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 relish 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 withal 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 〈◊〉 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 forever 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 Martyrdom 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 form 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
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 the course of his Providences In many and wonderful preservations and deliverances In the conduct of his Wisdom 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 bosom Friend that is dearer to me than they all as Ionathan to David And can I not much more be satiâ—fied in thee alone and let go all if I mâ—y continue with thee My very Dog will gladly forsake all the Town and all Persons in the world to follow me alone And have I not yet found so much Love and Gooâ— ness 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 neglecteâ— by an unthankful heart I should never â—e 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 forever 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 â—uâ—moiling 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 â—o nothing but thy work nor serve any other but when I may truly call it a serving thee Let me hear nothing â—ut thy voice and let me know thy voice by whatever instrument thou shalt speak Let me never see aâ—y thing but thy self and the glass that representeth thee and the Books in in which I may read thy Name And let me never play with the out-side and gaze on Words and Letters as insignificant and not observe â—hy Name which is the sense Whether it be in company or in solitude let me be continually with thee and do thou vouchsâ—fe 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 me Life and Time and Health and Food and Preservation that gives me Books gives me books and giveth me understanding that giveth me provision and saveth me from turning it to pernicious fleshliness and excess that giveth me even my friends themselves and saveth me from that abuse which might make them to me worse than enemies The Sun the Earth the Air is not so useful or needful to me as his Love The Love of all my friends cannot make me well when I am sick It cannot forgive the smallest of my sins nor yet assure me of Gods forgiveness It cannot heal the maladies of my soul nor give a solid lasting peace to the conscience which is troubled If all my friends stand about me when I am dying they cannot take away the fears of death nor secure my passage to everlasting life Death will be Death still and danger will be danger when all my friends have done their best But my Almighty friend is All sufficient He can prevent my sickness or rebuke and cure it or make it so good to me that I shall thank him for it He can blot out my transgressions and forgive all my sin and justifie me when the world and my conscience do condemn me He can teach me to believe to repent to pray to hope to suffer and to overcome He can quiet my soul in the midst of trouble and give me a well grounded everlasting peace and a joy which no man can take from me He can deliver me from all the corruptions and distempers of my froward heart and ease me and secure me in the troublesom war which is daily managed in my breast He can make it as easie a thing to dye as to lye down and take my rest when I am weary or to undress me at night and go to bed He can teach Death to lay by its terrible aspect and to speak with a mild and comfortable voice to bring me the joyfullest tydings that ever came unto my ears and to preach to me the last and sweetest Sermon even the same that our â—aviour preached on the Cross Luke 23.43 Verily I say unto thee To day shalt thou be with Christ in Paradise And is this the difference between the Love of man and of God And yet do I lament the loss of man And yet am I so backward to converse with God and to be satisfied in his Love alone Ah my God how justly mayest thou withhold that Love which I thus undervalue and refuse that converse which I have first refused and turn me over to man to silly man to sinful man whose converse I so much desire till I have learnt by dear experience the difference between man and God and between an Earthly and an Heavenly friend Alas have I not tryed it oft enough to have known it better before this day Have â— not 〈◊〉 enough sound what man is in a time of tryal Have I not been tolâ— it over and over and told it to the quick by deceitful friends by self-seeking friends by mutable erroneous deceived scandalous backslding friends by proud and selfconceited friends by passionate quarrelsom vexatious friends by self-grieved troubled
art within the sight of home and Heaven is in thine eye and thou art conversing with that God in whose converse the highest Angels do place their highest felicity and delight How little cause then have all the Churches enemies to triumph that can never shut up a true believer from the presence of his God nor banish him into such a place where he cannot have his conversation in Heaven The stones that were cast at holy Stephen could not hinder him from seeing the Heavens opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God A Patmos allowed holy Iohn Communion with Christ being there in the Spirit on the Lords day Rev. 1.9 10. Christ never so speedily and comfortably owneth his servants as when the world disowneth them and abuseth them for his sake and hurls them up and down as the scorn and off-scouring of all He quickly found the blind man that he had cured when once the Jews had cast him out Ioh. 9.35 Persecutors do but promote the blessedness and exceeding joy of sufferers for Christ Mat. 5.11.12 And how little Reason then have Christians to shun such sufferings by unlawful means which turn to their so great advantage and to give so dear as the hazard of their souls by wilful sin to escape the honour and safety and commodity of Martyrdom And indeed we Judge not we Love not we â—ive not as sanctified ones must do if we judge not that the truest Liberty and Love it not as the Best Condition in which we may Best converse with God And O how much harder is it to walk with God in a Court in the midst of sensual delights than in a prison or wilderness where we have none to interrupt us and nothing else to take us up It is our prepossessed minds our earthly hearts our carnal affections and concupisence and the pleasures of a prosperous state that are the prison and the Jaylors of our souls Were it not for these how free should we be though our bodies were confined to the straightest room He is at Liberty that can walk in Heaven and have access to God and make use of all the Creatures in the world to the promoting of this his Heavenly conversation And he is the prisoner whose soul is chained to flesh and earth and confined to his lands and houses and feedeth on the dust of worldly riches or walloweth in the dung and filth of gluttony drunkenness and lust that are far from God and desire not to be near him but say to him Depart from us we would not have the knowledge of thy ways that Love their prisons and chains so well that they would not be set free but hate those with the cruellest hatred that endeavour their deliverance Those are the poor prisoners of Satan that have not liberty to believe nor to Love God nor converse in Heaven nor seriously to mind or seek the things that are high and honourable that have not liberty to meditate or pray or seriously to speak of holy things nor to love and converse with those that do so that are tyed so hard to the drudgery of sin that they have not liberty one month or week or day to leave it and walk with God so much as for recreation But he that liveth in the family of God and is employed in attending him and doth converse with Christ and the Host of Holy ones above in reason should not much complain of his want of friends or company or accommodations nor yet be too impatient of any corporal confinement Lastly be sure then most narrowly to watch your hearts that nothing have entertainment there which is against your Liberty of converse with God Fill not those Hearts with 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 seldom 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 days 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 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