some are sensless and therefore perceive it not will be filled with God Then a Strand will be set to that deplorable forgetfulness of God which hath swell'd to such unreasonable heights that it hath left the tops of very few mountains discernable above it Then those which have pure minds will be stirred up to run after their Lord The Children of the Kingdom will enjoy more of the promises and by them partake of a Divine nature in greater measures inherit more of the holy Land trade in true life be tyed in Heavenly Galleries having their eyes set continually upon Christ who with his will take away their hearts and keep them with himself and be a Covering of the eyes to them from all false ones for ever I have no more to adde but the continuance of these wishes and prayers humbly begging a remembrance also in yours for From my Study in Eton Colledg June 1. 1653. Your weak Fellow-servant in the hopes of the Gospel Nathanael Ingelo THE CONTENTS Of the Ensuing TREATISES I. The Fixed Eye or the Mindful Heart on PSAL. 25.15 Chap. 1. EYes of Saints set upon God In what sence Ever and how many ways Pag. 1. Chap. 2. The Way of Eying God in heavenly Meditation Thoughts setled upon God include much choyce and pleasantness Pag. 5 Chap. 3. Holy thoughts of God are mixed with awful love leave deep impressions transform the spirit and are the Trade of good Souls Pag. 13 Chap. 4. Disconformity to the forementioned Principles a great fault in Christians The Discovery of it Slumbering Eyes and wandering Hearts Pag. 18 Chap. 5. How the Soul comes to wander from God of divine Permission in this Case Discouragements pretended The heart pleased with something else more then God Pag. 28 Chap. 6. False Meditation subdueth not the heart A wicked heart hath no joy in the thoughts of God What 's done and not according to Rule is as if it were undone The heart which mindeth not God in a constant course is not right Pag. 33 Chap. 7. Man wanders from God having lost the government of his spirit Thoughts of God suit not perverted Souls are above them and against them Satan lord of the imaginations and master of the affections in those which forget God Pag. 43 Chap. 8. Perswasions to frequent Emanations and contentful abode of Soul with God Minding of God a work possible to Christians A work of the most exellent power Spiritual actions easier then bodily Contemplative life everlasting Natural propensity of Soul to God renewed in Saints A blessing of love in true mindfulness of God Pag. 51 Chap. 9. Jesus Christ a Pattern of Eying the Father Greatest mindfulness of God due God our best Friend All we have is in his hands and af his gift All Religion founded upon a due mindfulness of God Anguish awails wandering hearts Pag. 62 Chap. 10. Directions cencerning Eying of God Truths to be received in their power Saints are to keep in their hearts a meetness for their work Saints are to preserve their capacities for God Saints must maintain a deep sense of divine engagements A lively sense of necessities is useful Pure hearts are meet for divine converse The mind will'd without Sanctification Pag. 69 Chap. 11. Advantages that come by minding of God are to be duly considered The more we mind God the more we may Those which eye God most know themselves best Those which eye God most have most of God Forgetfulness of God cuts the nerves of Holiness Forgetfulness of God betrays to Apostacy Pag. 86 II. The Principal Interest or the Propriety of Saints in God on MICAH 7.7 Chap. 1. Interest in God the true Spring of Consolation How it is Propriety with Community Best because God is best by a Confluence of all Excellencies Pag. 92 Chap. 2. Interest in God of a perfect extent to all in God Gods love lasts is not broke off by offences is not hindred by distance Interest in God effectual to all good ends Divine friendship not burdensom Pag. 97 Chap. 3. Saints engaged to live upon God by the Law of Nature Love and Judgment Spiritual Relation is mutual True Resignation hath Conscience with Love A divine Power in and over Saints The grace and peace of Saints furthered as they mind their Interest in God Pag. 102 Chap. 4. Saints have not only the Portion but the Spirit of Children Ingenious walking greatly requisite in those who pretend Interest in God God more easily pleased with his people then with others Tastes of Gods sweetness are obligatory Carless walking weakens hope in prayer Pag. 110 Chap. 5. Saints Interest is through great Condescension Conjunction of God and his people very intimate A Priviledg restored and how by Jesus Christ Pag. 116 Chap. 6. God content to be ours though we had disowned him and depraved our selves Gods Interest in us chargeable to him God owns not all but some Peculiar frowns upon those which walk unworthy of God Pag. 124 Chap. 7. The Absolute Necessity of Interest in God God is either with or against his Creatures Whosoever hath not God hath no true Interest in any thing Pag. 128 Chap. 8. Interest in God most attainable Goodness and Fulness the Springs of Communication Desire easily and with most success revealed to God Poor strangers impotent persons not bar'd from God as from men Interest in God incomparable in the enjoyment Pag. 133 Chap. 9. Christians ought to clear their hopes from their Uncertainties Beleevers doubt through their own fault They that seek God must pursue their end Pag. 142 Chap. 10. God hath fully made known whom he loves Christians able to know themselves Gods Spirit strengthens the testimony of our spirits Christians hindered by Slothfulness and Discouragements Pag. 148 Chap. 11. Encouragements to endeavor the clearing of our Interest in God Love cannot hide it self Love will not deny what may be easily granted and is much needed Pag. 159 Chap. 12. They are not right who are careless to clear their Evidence Wisdom and Love make the Saints seek after full satisfaction Two sorts of Content in the want of God Pag. 164 Chap. 13. Those which seek not to clear their Interest offer inexpressible violence to their own Souls How the sense of divine Love gives strength to two useful Principles of holy life Pag. 171 Chap. 14. The Evil of Doubting as it is a denyal of the Truth of God a diminution of his Love and Favors and a mis-interpretation of his Dispensations The vexation of doubting to enlightened persons in an evil day Pag. 177 Chap. 15. Interest in God more knowable then any other and yet unknown to most The Reasons of both Pag. 183 Chap. 16. How the knowledg of blessed Interest in God may be attained Desires to have the question determined A spirit free to yield to the determination Arguments proper for the deciding of the question Those that have an Interest in God are much in holy resignation Of taking answers when they are
God must needs be a very great Refreshing and Consolation CHAP. II. Interest in God of a perfect extent to all in God Gods love lasts is not broke off by offences is not hindered by distance Interest in God effectual to all good ends Divine friendship not burdensom THe Propriety that the Saints have in God is perfect I mean it extends throughout to all that God is Among friends and acquaintance this is the Law their friendship reacheth to some things not to all but the Interest of the wife and children reacheth to the full compass of the husbands estate Much more our Propriety in God reacheth to all that God is As the Law of Communion between the Father and the Son was this John 17.10 All mine are thine and thine are mine So is the Law of the Interest between Christ and his people 1 Cor. 3. ult All things are yours because all is Christs If there be enough in God for the spirits of just men made perfect whose capacities are greater then ours if there be enough in God for Angels whose capacities are greater then theirs if there be enough in God for Jesus Christ whose capacity is yet far wider if there be enough in God for God himself then there must needs be satisfaction to a man If he can say that God is his God he needs no more this will content and fill his spirit Fourthly This Propriety is that which will hold out All our interest in men and things is very fleeting experience shews it the Anchor comes home again because the ground was not firm All friends are but like flowers in the hand they are mine now anon they are good for nothing and are no bodies You have this given as a reason why we should not trust in Princes in Psal 146. Because they pass away and their thoughts perish What ever they intended and had contrived for your good all dye with them The Israelites that found favor in Egypt for Josephs sake suffered when another Pharaoh arose that knew not Joseph But if our friends live nothing is more common then to have an eclipse and a damp brought upon the love of friends But Christ loves to the end and if he loved his people when he was in this world how much more doth his love continue now he is in the other world Because here his love met with many difficulties but there he hath nothing hard to do his work lies plain and easie before him The affections of men are subject to a natural I may call it an unnatural mutability which is not only a torment to others but to themselves for that man that changeth his heart suffers as well as he from whom his heart is changed and this is help'd on by many things 1. By offences that ripen and quicken that fickle mutability of this poor frail mortal changeable creature Man You shall have him now like the Sun in his full shining and anon some cloud of offence darkens all his love We were the unhappiest creatures that could be if God should be so to us but he hath expressed himself in Isai 55.7 that he will abundantly pardon and that he will multiply pardons 2. Distance many times takes off the edg of love and friendship among friends friends oftentimes dye one to another while they live The child sometimes is forgotten of his Father and the wife of her husband But the eye of God is ever upon us and we cannot but be satisfied in his love whose eye is ever fixt upon us as you have his promise in the last of Matthew Lo I am with you always to the end of the world 3. There is a love that is fastened only by a short relation as between the Master and the servant and those that are in a Brotherhood for a time when the term of years is out that relation ceaseth But it is not so between Christ and the Saints In the fifth place This Propriety that the people of God have in him is most effectual because there is neither want of love nor power in God In Isai 48.14 All ye assemble your selves and hear which among them hath declared these things the Lord hath loved him he will do his pleasure on Babylon and his arm shall be on the Caldeans Whether we understand it of his love to his people or of his love to Cyrus it is not much material as to the setting forth the efficacy of this Propriety If we understand it of his love to Cyrus who perhaps was yet a stranger to God that notwithstanding this he would do so great things as he had spoken for him how much more effectual will his love be to those to whom he is engaged by relation He will stick at nothing because his love is so great no offences shall hinder because he hath engaged to pardon You are sure to speed when you come to God they that see this their Propriety in him therefore must needs rejoyce Sixthly This Propriety in God is not onerous and burdensom Indeed our relations to men and our propriety in them is oftentimes costly and not without charge can we either preserve or act our friendship toward them We usually lose by receiving A man accepts a benefit and loseth his liberty as a wise Heathen once said A man by his engagement is put oftentimes upon hard services he is made to do every thing that receives every thing the more you take from a friend the more he is discharged and he things he owes you the less and that you owe him the more But indeed whatsoever God doth is an engagement upon him to do more for you Expressions of friendship from friends come many times mingled with much bitterness harshness and rigidness But when God dischargeth the part of a Father and a Friend he doth it like himself it comes pure like water out of a pure fountain no sadness no bitterness mingled with it He doth it with all his heart as in Jer. 32.41 I 'le rejoyce over them to do them good and with my whole Heart and with my whole Soul Oh when kindness comes so it comes sweetly What refreshing is it then to Beleevers in all their conditions to look upon divine Love that 's sweet and clear and pure All these joyn'd together make but one head of Arguments from that Excellency that is in God CHAP. III. Saints engaged to live upon God by the Law of Nature Love and Judgment Spiritual Relation is mutual True Resignation hath Conscience with Love A divine Power in and over Saints The grace and peace of Saints furthered as they mind their Interest in God ANother Argument is this We have nothing else to live upon we must either live here or no where If we live not upon what we have in God we are dead men for God is our life The life of every creature is maintain'd proportionably by a threefold Law 1. Some by the Law of Nature so fishes live not
appointed his going forth as the morning that is as the Sun riseth and fails not as the Sun goes forth in its light and grows so will Gods appearance to his people be And as the rain comes upon the thirsty Earth and causeth all things to spring afresh so shall the manifestation of Gods love be to those that seek him without ceasing What if God appear not presently and you have not that full answer to your desires Though he come slowly yet he will be sure to come his staying is not a denyal and his not shewing himself is not an hiding himself He is uncovering himself and making way for the appearance of that which you would fain have a sight of He stays a while to make his love the more visible afterward by his absence he raiseth the mind and enlargeth the heart to desire and long after his presence and then his manifestation will be fullest God is as ready nay more ready to open then you are to knock he loves that thirst in you which is after himself he loves to be loved let him be pleased as well as you It may be seeking Christians are not so ingenuous as they should be We are not to seek him only but to please him Psal 119.2 Blessed are they that keep his Testimonies and that seek him with their whole heart That seek him and his Love and keep his Law Or it may be offences have been but not bewailed Impotency is the continuation of sin You are ever doing that evil which you have not been humbled for nothing nulls it but repentance and humbling your selves in the sight of God With what face can you say to God Let thy love O Lord be upon me when as you cannot say to God Lord I love thee That man cannot say he loves God that desires not to please him Can he say his heart is with God who suffers his heart to go out after other things Why should he desire so to impose upon God that God should love him whom he desires not to love and please it is unreasonable What father would be so dealt with that the child walking in stubborn courses would have his father shew nothing but clearness of countenance and love to him David all the while he was under clouds of guilt and sorrow wished that God would shew forth the light of his countenance to him but he suffered many wrackings in his Soul till he confessed his sins Psal 32. What God hath said he will have fulfilled Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one tittle of his Promise If he hear not it is not because he is not a God hearing prayer but because you hear not him Isai 45.19 I said not unto the seed of Jacob Seek ye me in vain I the Lord speak righteousness I declare things that are right I speak as I mean my words and my heart agree in one What ever our offences have been if we be ingenuous in our approaches to God God will not look upon our offences but upon our persons In 2 Chron. 7.14 you have this promise If my people that are called by my Name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their Land If thy Soul be sick and thou mournest after God that hideth himself from thee and humblest thy self and repentest of thy sins with abasedness of spirit before him he will hear CHAP. X. God hath fully made known whom he loves Christians able to know themselves Gods Spirit strengthens the testimony of our spirits Christians hindered by Slothfulness and Discouragements A Second Fault is That God doth give the manifestation of his Love and we receive it not we accept it not I will for the more full clearing of this lay down these Considerations First That God hath given to his people sufficient means for the knowledg of their Interest in him for he hath told us who they are that he loves whom he hath chosen and called out of this world and made his peculiar people If he had carried on a design of love to particular persons in his own brest no man could have known who was loved of him then we had been left in the dark for no man knows the things of a man but the spirit of a man as the Apostle speaks But as the Angel marked those in Jerusalem that were to be spared so there is a mark that God hath set upon his own by which they may be known to what fold and flock they do belong And indeed the end of the Scripture so discovering and setting forth the marks of the people of God is for this purpose that we may know our Happiness So in 1 Joh. 5.13 this was the end of writing his Epistle These things saith he have I written unto you that beleeve on the Name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may beleeve on the Name of the Son of God Wherefore was it that he had told them how many ways they might know that God dwelt in them and they in God Wherefore did he make so many descriptions of those whom God had set his love upon but that you may know saith he that you have eternal life because you are such And he hath not only done thus but hath given us understanding also by which we are able to know not only other things but our selves by which we may judg our selves and our actions and what is within us Neither hath he given us an understanding meerly natural but it is raised being illuminated with his own light that we may be able to find out the work of God in us an understanding that can reflect upon it self not only in way of simple vision and apprehension of what is within us but by way of argumentation and reasoning 1 Joh. 2.3 5. Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments And whoso keepeth his Word in him verily is the love of God perfected hereby we know that we are in him God hath given us understanding to reflect upon our selves in a way of reasoning to make certain to our selves our Interest in these things Nay he hath given us his Spirit that bears witness to our spirits that we are the sons of God Rom. 8. We must not think that was a special favor given to the Saints then but it 's common to all the people of God The Spirit of Adoption hath a double office of quickening and comforting and whosoever is a son hath the testimony of that Spirit There is a double Testimony A Testimony of the things themselves so that which is of God in us doth bear witness as the effect bears witness of the cause There 's another Testimony and that is of God himself by his Spirit and that Testimony doth help our spirits it helps the testimony of the things
and empty And will you suffer your Souls against Nature to live out of God when you are called to live on him who is the Fountain of Life I may say unto you as Eliphaz spake in Job 15. Are the Consolations of God small to you And is it so light a matter to have the knowledg of the love of God and your Interest in him In Jer. 14.18 the Prophet speaks of spoiling and wasting but if it doth come saith he thy ways and thy sins have procured these things unto thee therefore know that it is an evil thing and bitter to forsake the Lord. You may thank your selves if a day come wherein there will be bitterness to your hearts and the pangs of death upon you because you know not that God is your God know that this is your wickedness because you will not now look after it and so you rob your Souls That is one thing 2dly When you are not sedulous and industrious in this thing to make sure that God is your God you leave your selves in the high way of Apostacy What is that which will make us able to stand the Apostle Peter tells us 2 Pet. 1.10 Give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure for if you do these things you shall never fall You expose your selves to offences to stumbling and falling when you are content to live in the dark not knowing what Interest you have in God For consider you are now out of the shine of the Sun you are in the cold evening shade your life is much weakened and your strength abated It is the knowledg of divine Love that is the spirit and strength of our love this lays bonds upon our spirits by which we become one with God it is the wing of our Souls the spring of our activity by which we are born up to an enjoyment of God The joy of the Lord is your strength saith Nehemiah And by this Paul was more then a Conqueror yet Paul had many Enemies Through this Abraham was able to do so great things by this Moses was able to despise the wrath and favor of Pharaoh and all the pleasures and riches of his Court While a man walks in the shine and sense of divine Love he will feel a strength in two Principles of great use 1. To cleave fast to the chief good now that chief good is God to that man that enjoys him he hath the truest taste that sees God to be his God and no man else hath such a taste as he this will hold him to God Where the Creatures have but a Judgment of Sense they will not depart from what they find good A Beast will not change his pasture for gold that is best for him It 's the astonishment of the world that the Angels should fall from their state of Glory and it 's matter of amazement that man should fall from his Creator when he had a full enjoyment of him It 's that which God calls Heaven and Earth to tremble at Jer. 2.13 That men should depart from him the Fountain of living Water c. The sense of acceptation with God makes a man that he cannot go from God Whither shall we go saith Peter Joh. 6. Thou hast the words of eternal life That Soul that lives under the influence of divine Comforts cannot but say Lord it 's good for me to be here he desires no change it cannot be better with him Change proceeds from want for if want were not the creature would not change That Soul that enjoys God is pleased and he saith with David Psal 16. He hath a good portion and his lines are fallen in a good place Nothing is dear to that man to part with that he may enjoy God he bids all things stand by and saith I charge you wife and friends estate and all things do not molest me in my enjoyment of the light of Gods face let all the world go which way it will let me enjoy this blessedness to know assuredly that God is my God When a man lives without this knowledg his life is but a poor shadow of life all without God is but a dead thing to him Another Principle receiving strength from the knowledg of Gods Love and our Interest in him is That a man should be friendly to his friend that he should walk with an harmony of spirit to his friends desire Love pleaseth not it self Now when a man enjoys the sweetness of friendship with God this makes him true to his Maker and to cleave close to God as to his Father Indeed the sense of this constrains the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.14 saith The love of Christ constrains us How can I do this evil saith Joseph and sin against my God But now if thou be careless and canst make a shift to live I know not how a dull stupid dark sensless kind of life thy heart not witnessing that thou endeavorest to make good thy Interest in God thou art not under the bond of Love and then what art thou under Other Lovers have taken away thy heart but as for God thou art a stranger to him and art contented to be without him this is a woful state And as a man that lives out of the shine of divine Love starves and wastes away so fears in this case are apt to turn into hatred when the Soul is gall'd and tormented with fears of the displeasure of God against him this is apt to turn to hatred Naturally whom we fear we hate and naturally the stronger fear is the more men hate The Devils hate God to the full being past doubting of his displeasure What the Soul fears it flies from and what is the flight of the Soul but hatred Judas would chuse rather to go out of the world and sink into nothing then endure his condition when he saw God not to be his God I 'l shut up this Argument with these few things All that is in a Christian makes to this that he would get a clear knowledg of his Interest in God Hath he Faith why by that he believes God to be his Happiness and that will put him on Hath he Love Love is restless but in clear enjoyment Hath he desire and thirst what are they but the Souls sickness till it hath health and life in the enjoyment of God Hath he Fear what is that but the Soul seeking to be secure and safe in God Hath he Reason what 's that but the voyce of God calling him unto God Hath he a sense of the sweetness of God what 's that but the comfort of divine Love drawing the Soul to himself So that all that is in a Christian puts him on to this to make this clear that God is his God And therefore they that can rub out their days and make a shift to busie themselves in other things without the knowledg of God to be their God have great cause to pronounce this heavy sentence upon themselves that surely
also will work resignation of our selves to God equal to all our enjoyments and expectations from God David was much taken with Gods love to him that tendred him in his distresses but withall saith he Lord I am thy servant Psal 106. He gave himself to God in the sense of the sweetness of that mercy he had from God Yea this will exceed also for he will give himself to God when he knows not but that God hath hid himself from him This love will work equal melting of spirit with rejoycing of spirit and fill a man equally with shame and joy True love makes a man as happy in sorrowing as in rejoycing and he never more abounds in godly sorrow then when he abounds in the manifestation of Gods love to him In Psal 32. you may see how David was taken after he found mercy with God see how he breaks forth detesting his own nature and the natures of all men he compares them to the horse and mule like Asaph in another case So brutish was I and ignorant as a beast before thee Now if you would know whether God be your God what do you find of such a spirit in you Some conclude too well in a false way by false Arguments Some indeed too who beleeve conclude too ill to their own wrong by mistakes also as because they find their feet slipping and their ways not so even therefore they conclude their spirits are crooked and there is no streightness in them whereas it is not the action but the disposition whereby we should judg our selves nor is it this or that tripping that discovers a man but the inward frame of his spirit Again They conclude Surely God is not my God because I feel my love so faint my faith so feeble whereas it is not the degree but the truth of grace that must discover our estates Fourthly A fourth Means is this Labor to be more full in closing with God and in the resignation of your selves to him and in conversing with him in all delightfulness and in whatsoever it is that shews your Interest in God For as there is a light in all these by which they bear witness of themselves and of your happy state so the fuller and stronger they are the more clear full and vigorous is their testimony A tender plant newly springing from the ground doth not so well discover what it is as when it is grown up to a full body now it is easily known This is certain things are more significant as they are more perfect A little smoak discovers fire but more smoak is more full in its discovery This the Apostle Peter intimates 2 Pet. 1.9 If these things be lacking if men be but weak in these if men be not only not sound but little in these they are dark-sighted they cannot well discern things their judgments will be very much clouded and darkened in the things that concern their peace Be frequent therefore in those works that discover your Interest be frequent in conversing with God frequent in expressions of the sincerity of your Love for it is with God as it is with us discoveries of our Love make discoveries of his Love When I say to a friend Sir I love you you are dear to me and I am wholly yours his heart opens to me and there is an eccho in his spirit to my Love When you come to God and say Father I am thine and will be thine wholly thine and always thine if your Love can make you say so to God much more the Love of God will make him say so to you Thou art mine In Zech. 13. They shall say Thou art our God and I will say Thou art my people Therefore be much in this Fifthly Be true to your Interest walk with a streight spirit make streight paths to your feet for upon such shall peace be Psal 119. Great peace have they that keep thy Laws God bears the clearest testimony where there is most excellent walking Usually his testimony is according to the measure of grace as the co-operation of the Spirit also is And as God comes with the most terrible convictions upon highest transgressors so he comes with sweetest consolations to those that walk most evenly Uneven walking carries a shew of insincerity and puts a difficulty upon beleeving David had much ado in this case to conclude himself to be Gods was a shattered man and had lost his confidence The Conscience of guilt to an Unbeleever is deadly and even to a Beleever it is a wound You put a sword into your enemies hand when you walk not uprightly You arm your unbelief against your selves that is too strong without your help This is certain that no hope conquers fear but that which conquers sin for they have both one foundation If therefore now you would know and would walk in this light that God is your God then you must walk uprightly and faithfully in your Interest Lastly Take answers of Love when they are given you and keep them treasure them up as most precious things bless Jesus Christ by whom it is that you enjoy them and suffer not the great question of thy Soul to be always in agitation Suffer not thy self to be brought to endless disputes when the cause is once heard and concluded It is as well sinful to make voyd the grounds of our Consolations as to break the bonds and cords whereby God holds us to obedience You put gold no more to the touch-stone when it hath once passed the furnace you say it is gold Suffer not your selves to be tossed in whirls of amazement when God hath said he is your God It is true indeed there will be objections and they cannot be shunned they are often injected yet these things must sometimes pass undisputed Mark the season when these things are disputed in your Souls commonly at the worst season when a man is at greatest disadvantage When Job's spirit was disturbed you know what amazement he fell into and what advantage did it take of him Another season is the season of transgression The Devil so works in our unbeleeving hearts that we oftentimes put that to the question that God before hath put out of question Offences should not work in us amazement and fear of our former bondage but they should work in us brokenness and shame Lord pardon me saith David for my sin is very great The greater our transgression is the more we should have recourse to God and his goodness but by no means fly from him Certainly Gods design is to break sin by sin and his aym is to out-shoot the Devil in his own Bow Oh! they love much to whom much is forgiven The end of this discourse is that you would be serious solemn and impartial in debating of this business for when God hath cleared the matter it is to thy hurt to bring it about to be disputed again CHAP. XVII What it is to live upon God as our God No
but the perfecting of our freedom Take it in this Similitude A poor woman that lives in rags hath the honor and happiness of being wife to a great Prince offered her for her now to give up her self is no way to straiten her freedom or diminish her happiness for she will enjoy her self better as a Queen then as a Begger So by resigning our selves unto God we lose no liberty nor any thing that is good but enjoy our selves in greater amplitude and fulness of all happiness So that for a man to give himself to God is self-self-love in the height of it and there is no true self-self-love but this for a man to think to love himself in ways of separation from God or in opposition to God is to hate himself in the appearance of love but this is true self-love that makes me give my self to God and be subject to him 3. Resigning of our selves to God is an act of the greatest joy and the greatest grief Of the greatest joy and contentment for when once the Soul is blest with such a life from above as over-powers a man and makes him surrender himself to God now he is in his first and proper Center The whole state of men out of God is nothing but a constant course of confusion and restless motion who by reason of darkness and want of judgment by reason of hardness and want of sense may think they are well may think they are at home when they are not but are like men fallen asleep in a strange place so is every man that is out of God But when the heart is brought home to God it is in its place Do you think the Prodigal had not more rest in his Fathers house then among the Swine Now a man sees what a blessed change is wrought in his condition that he is come now into a state of Reconciliation with God and of unspeakable advancement of his nature that he is advanced to the greatest freedom to the greatest honor and riches to the best life every way and so this Resignation is an act of the greatest Joy It 's likewise such a work as is with the greatest grief These two will stand together neither can they be parted every mans grief is as his joy is Consider these two things 1. That when a man is brought to God he is put into a state of Judgment and Ingenuity so that now he sees things as they are and looks upon the wrongs he hath done against God with another eye an ingenuous spirit can no more forbear mourning then a stone can forbear falling to the Center 2. Think on this also that Gods end in bringing back the creature is such as cannot be accomplished without this mourning For his end is the Exaltation of his Grace Grace is no grace to an unbroken spirit Sermons of mercy are but empty sounds to a man that knows not what sorrow is God intends to make Christ precious but what is a salve a plaister though the best in the world to a man that is whole Christ came indeed to save the miserable but that man that is not brought to see his misery and mourn over it cares not for Christ Gods end is the engaging of the Creature to himself but that man will never think himself beholding to God that knows not what he hath done against God But when he sees what a wretch he hath been and his heart is stricken within him and he lies melting in sorrow and clothed with shame before God now he thinks body and Soul too little for God now if he had a thousand lives they should all go for God now he saith What can I render to the Lord c. Gods end is to bring his people in so that they may be fast when they are in that they may not go forth again But he that thinks himself off from sins that he never mourn'd for and thinks he hath escaped evil courses that he hath not been broken for will return again A mourning spirit makes a Christian stedfast in his course and this will be a bar between him and his lust He that knows not to mourn knows nor to stand fast Certainly where there is not a spirit of mourning that man hath not resign'd himself to God to this day For that which is the principle of such self-resignation doth by its vertue also work mourning abasement and brokenness of heart If the sight of God in all his goodness be that which moves and draws the Soul as with a cord unto God that very goodness of God which is so apprehended will also break and melt the Soul In Jer. 8.6 saith God I harkened and heard but they spake not aright no man repented of his wickedness saying What have I done Every one turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel This people made many promises that they would walk better with God but being not touch'd with an effectual sense of their injurious dealings with God they repented not Therefore they returned every man to his own ways c. If any one now should say I have little of this sorrow and therefore do suspect my self I answer 1. There is a passionate mourning which lies in weeping crying and howling and this every one hath not 2. There is a mental mourning where a man sees the things to be mourned for and where he hath such a spirit that carries him against his way and against himself and is full of wishes O that I had never been so against God and O that I might never do so again and makes the Soul walk humbly it cannot be proud now nor lift up it self because it remembers what it hath been and done against God Canst thou find these things in thy self 3. Again There is a mourning of pure necessity not willingly and contentfully but so as a man cannot avoyd it God presents himself angry and shews sin in its colour and then not an Ahab nor a Judas can forbear mourning but this mourning is bitterness But true mourning is sweet sweeter then all the comforts in the world A right spirit puts the sweetness of Heaven in mourning God cannot please him better with any thing then by touching his spirit and laying it low before him If then thine heart be touched of God and thou love him and feel some meltings thou rejoycest and purst not off this sorrow but bids it welcome and when God as a Father rebukes thee thou blessest him and lovest him 4. There is a mourning that is by fits not habitual The veriest hypocrite in the world you may find sometimes in his closet before God and he will be weeping and mourning and taking on heavily by fits but take him a while after and he is like the dry ground after a Land flood hard as a stone True mourning is another frame of spirit wherein the spirit in an usual course is carried with abasement and a secret lamenting within O
and start aside it 's a sin that wants a name it 's so haynous in its kind so horrid in its nature What high injustice is this in thee to arrogate a liberty to thy self whē thou hast so solemnly parted with it into his hands whose it was Nay was it not after thou hadst experience of walking in thine own ways Didst thou not know what sin meant It 's an argument the Apostle useth Colos 3.6 Wherein you sometimes walked You know what it is to be in your sins Did you not in the day of your sorrow say in your heart I will go to God again Oh! how happy was it when I was with him How sweet were those days wherein I walked under the Government of Jesus Christ and was blessed with the constant communication of the counsel of the Spirit of life and peace Was not that thy speech which was the Churches Hos 2.7 I 'le go and return to my first husband for then it was better with me then now Now after all this to sin against God to indulge your selves to take a liberty and freedom to transgress against him to whom you have so engaged your selves what a breaking of heart what shame of face should this be When now thou hast put weakness upon the strongest bonds what hast thou said Christ is nothing of no account there is more in my sins then in Christ there is more in the satisfaction of my own desires then in the enjoyment of Jesus Christ for thou hast left one for the other Thou didst think it was best when thou didst give thy self to him and what injury hast thou done to the great and holy one Thou hast set light by him to whom to be given thou thoughtst it thy happiness thou thoughtst it wonderful mercy that he would enter into a new Contract with thee thou thoughtst that should be an everlasting bond of Love upon thy Soul that God should again take thee a Run-away that he should again admit thee a Rebel and a Traytor and hast thou forgotten all this Is God after all this to be set by that thou canst walk so and do as thou list Therefore upon all Considerations the sins of those that are much with God are greatest because upon their conversings parlies and treaties that they hold with God still they acknowledg themselves not to be their own but his such therefore shew not the candor and sincerity of a right spirit It 's a sad demonstration of a heart not under the power of divine Love and very much alienated from God that upon sight of such miscarriages is not broken and melted I do as much wonder at the spirit and doctrine of some men as at any thing in the world that are lifting the heads of Christians above all sorrow that would absent them from all mourning that would have them to be all joy Poor men their language is unnatural They must mourn and cannot but mourn if their hearts be right He that knows and loves God cannot but feel the pain and burden of offences against him It 's as impossible that Nature should cease to feel the smart of stripes and wounds as that a spirit filled with or acted by divine Love should not feel the wounds and wrongs that it offers to his Maker Hezekiah shewed indeed his frailty 2 Chron. 32.26 But notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart That notwithstanding is a word to be observed When a mans heart waxeth proud before God and he can lift up himself and transgress with an high hand when the heart glories in any thing and by the brightness of other things a darkness is cast upon the spirit towards God when this man comes to be humbled it 's a great thing Hezekiah was in such a case as this yet notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself Vse 3 We may further improve this Truth by way of Exhortation partly to those that yet have not given themselves up to God that have not said in truth I am thine and partly to those that have done it There is a generation of men that are under no bonds to God they acknowledg him not that are free from righteousness as the Apostle saith Rom. 6.20 They have not so much many of them as felt the breakings of God and those contentions whereby he strives with their unkindness and frowardness they never so much as came to debate the matter or treat with God about this great business whether they should be his or no but live at peradventures and are at their own swinge walking after the will of the mind and of the flesh as the Apostle speaks There is another sort that have felt many tuggings of God upon them God hath been hammering the matter upon them but they have stood it out sometimes he hath brought them upon their knees and to tears nay to self-judging to condemn themselves in his presence sometimes they have cryed and roared in the presence of God such wretches there are in the world which have out-lived the workings of the power of God upon their spirits as those of whom it is said Gen. 6.3 My Spirit shall no longer strive with man God spoke of that evil and wretched world that though he had striven not only by the preaching of Noah and of the Ark which was a very loud Sermon but also with his Spirit for there is no generation of men that are ever free from those contests of God but the light that is in them hath pleaded Gods cause against their wickedness and lusts Well saith God now I see they have stood out all this while my Spirit shall no longer strive with man Let them alone as he said concerning Ephraim Hos 13. The Apostles language 2 Cor. 10.5 besides many other Scriptures supposeth that there is often a fight in our Souls against God Bringing every thought of the heart into obedience That word bringing into obedience signifies a taking of the spirit of man as with a sword or spear God comes and arms himself against men and when he comes thus in power they yield themselves to him and they are blessed But there are such that always stand out that resist the Holy Ghost as those stiff-necked Jews in Acts 7. Or if they yield yet not in sincerity not in truth but as it 's said Jer. 3.10 Yet for all this her treacherous Sister did not turn to me with the whole heart but feignedly or in falshood Now concerning these persons I shall say but very few words Canst thou come to God with such a spirit as this What state art thou in O man Thou must not thou canst not forbear praying At one time or other the worst in the world lift up their eyes and hearts to their Maker The very Heathens do not cannot withhold from this If not the light that is in men yet their straits and afflictions will cause them to come as Petitioners to God and wilt thou come to God
THREE TREATISES Being the Substance of sundry DISCOURSES VIZ. I. The Fixed Eye or the Mindful Heart on Psal 25.15 II. The Principal Interest or the Propriety of the Saints in God on Micah 7.7 III. Gods Interest in Man Natural and Acquired on Psal 119.4 By that Judicious and Pious Preacher of the Gospel Mr JOSEPH SYMONDS M. A. late Vice-provost of Eaton Colledg LONDON Printed by J Macock for LUKE FAVVN and are to be sold at his Shop at the sign of the Parrot in Pauls Church-yard M.DC.LIII The Pourtraiture of Mr. Joseph Symonds Late Vice Prouost of Eaton Colledge Aetat Suae 50. To all that desire to live godly in CHRIST JESUS IT is not unknown to very many of Gods people in this Nation with what entire affection and happy success the pious Authour of these Meditations now asleep in Jesus laid out himself in the service of the Gospel Divers of you sate somtimes under the shadow of his Ministry with great delight And of those who had not the enjoyment of him but in more removed distances what serious eye ever read as it ought that truly incomparable piece The Deserted Souls Case and Cure and was not thereby enlightned startled humbled lifted up nearer to God Or what good heart for that end that it might be better duly perused his later piece Of Faith and Sight but it was by increased faith and its just appendages more fitted for sight The Holy Spirit was his spring and plentiful emanations from thence filled his Cistern and made him free to communication He dwelt in the presence of Christ d so was at home in Heavenly Negotiations and the content that he had there made him delight to stand still between Christ and his people to receive and give though he gave away his own life withall And when he perceived the shadow of the evening to be stretched forth upon him they did nothing to him but only provoke him to make more haste in the finishing of his work Those holy Tapers which receive their light from the golden Lamp of the Sanctuary shine and burn down to the socket and are burning and shining lights thereto In his wearinesses and weaknesses grown constant in his later time when the effects of his pains made strong sollicitations to desist it was an expression which he often used with pleasance to his friends Yet praying and preaching is too good work to be weary of In the continuance of it he poured forth himself as a drink-offering to Christ upon the service of his Saints and so passed to eternal life through the best forms of death And indeed that way as is roported of Moses God doth kiss away the souls of his Servants But that he might prevent death he took much pains with his own pen besides constant expence of mony for the assistance of another that his love in permanent testimonies might out-live his life and the first neglects of his hearers He knew well how precious discourses are lost to the inconsiderate part of men and women who either do not give due heed while a Sermon is preached and so take it not into their understandings and hearts or else cannot remember it having heard it but once Of his good will to such he hath left many evidences which will be produced if God pleases as soon as time health and other work will give leave to make up the Chasin's and mend other errours of the writer in those copies which were taken from the Pulpit and were not corrected by himselfe For the present it was judged meet to print these three small Tracts The first touching Spiritual remembrance of God as a most seasonable praelibation This being a time when a careless Devil hath after too eminent a manner possessed a multitude of Professours and many Christians have recklesly lost Jesus Christ in the crowd of worldly affections designes diversions The aim of this is to quicken all that have the root of eternal life in them to more frequent Addresses of Soul to God and to rivet them in contentful abode and holy reposes in him The Second is an excellent discovery of the Saints interest in God in which all holy souls may see how happy they are or may be in God their God The Third holds forth Gods interest in us by which as by a true glass we may learn to reflect upon God all his goodness and love contained in the former Treatise if it be also revealed in our hearts and so God will be to us as he is to all true Christians the beginning and end of our life All which Discourses the Godly Reader will find enrich'd with many clear descriptions of heavenly truths many rational considerations which in way of Exhortation do strike fitly and weightily upon those capable principles which God hath put into the soul as Ears for him to take hold of both with very lovely representations and right dreadful terrours and as he goes up and down he will meet methodicall and sure directions like benigne Guides telling the way of happy life to all the children of wisdom and truth So you have a short account of what you may find in these papers Be their Patronage the living influence of the all-quickning Spirit who only is able to make these and all other well-ordered tendencies effectual to their desirable ends and who can protect them from unprofitable reading and forgetful neglects which are the wrongful abuses and unjust imprisonment of the most useful truths I who in this matter do only carry the staff of Elisha which he hath left behind do and shall pray that it may not only be laid upon the child which is ready to dye but that this Spirit would joyn himself to it and make it the ministration of life even the beauty and bands of God upon the spirits of his own That the misplaced eye of some Reader may be set right and then fixed that some heart may be undeceived And Oh that the time were come when no Child of God would write his name in the earth which to do is to be cursed and to make the Divels sport Alas whil'st we through their false representations and cozening impulses sell our comfort our life our soul for cheap things at easie rates do they not laugh do they not insult Though it is a poor sport and proper only to Divels to rejoyce in the follies and sorrows of humanity The Lord Jesus who came to break the power of spiritual wickednesses drive them out of the souls of men and women and if they must have leave to enter any where let it be onely into swine The Lord appear more to the Inhabitants of this world that they may see the glory of truth and be transformed into its Image delivered into the spirit and life of truth and out of the power of detaining falshoods and seducing vanities the chains of evil spirits Then the capacity of the children of men so empty hungry and sore distressed though
as the word imports He is pleased so to express his deep affection toward his Church He was held in the galleries and captivated with love to his People so that his eye was ever upon them he loved to behold them it satisfied his Soul as marrow and fatness to see them He shall see of the travel of his Soul and be satisfied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isai 53.11 And indeed he saith he cannot get his eyes off them Can a mother forget her child Isai 49.14 No more can I forget you And is Christ so tender in his love toward us that he ever minds us and shall our minds be so loose to him so fluttering and fleeting Shall there be no more care to bind our selves in cords of love to him that we may ever behold him who bears us in his brest before his Father always 4. This is our fault that whatsoever is done in sending bending and binding of our minds towards God yet with some at least O that it might not be true of all it 's not their course and trade Now and then they are awakened and get up into Heaven to see their Father but it is not dayly and here is their failing that it 's not their course as it was Davids Psalm 145 Every day will I praise thee And I am ever thee Psal 73. I beseech you consider it Is this now and then going to Heaven within the vail to live the life of Friends Is this to carry your selves as children to be so strange at home What now and then once a month or week seldom to be where you always should be You should ever dwell with God as the lovely Center and resting place of your Souls and you are seldom with him is this fair Is Christ and the Father of Christ objects that are not worth the looking after such mean things that a visit now and then should serve the turn What said the Queen of Sheba concerning Solomon Blessed are these thy servants that Always stand before thee and hear thy wisdom If she were so taken with Solomon remember that a greater then Solomon is here And will you deprive your selves of that blessedness which you might enjoy by standing always in the presence of your Father to hear his Wisdom and behold his Glory But if this be a fault as indeed it is what shall we say of that voluntary retention of our minds when the voyce of God within bids us go and visit Heaven but we sit still in a voluntary reluctancy to the voyce that speaks What shall we say to that voluntary diversion of mind when God sets himself in our eyes and our minds turn off from God and pitch on other things and have no content in beholding him But above all what shall we say to that voluntary effusion and vile expence of mind and strength of understanding upon vanities when we send out thoughts in whole troops towards vanities and do not spare one toward Heaven Certainly this is a crime of a very high nature You see in part what is your fault and to know that is a great advantage I have endevored to shew you it in the several degrees of it I shall now shew you the Causes of it CHAP. V. How the Soul comes to wander from God Of divine Permission in this Case Discouragements pretended The heart pleased with something else more then God 1. THe first is Divine Permission God pleaseth to leave his people much to themselves for ends best known to himself and oh what work is made when this wilde Boar is let into the Garden How doth he trample and tread down What spoil doth he make when he is got into the place where he most gladly would be How did God let him in upon Job so that his thoughts by visions in the night troubled him how was he tost in his spirit Solomon how did the Devil run away with his understanding and carry him almost into a total forgetfulness of God that no good man I think ever since the Creation did run so desperate a race as he did God was rooted out of his heart as it were he giving himself up to fulfil the lusts of his eyes and of his mind with all his might but in the end he cries out Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of spirit Certainly it were better the Devil had power to run away with our estates and liberties then with our thoughts keeping them in captivity and as the steers-man of our minds ordering their motions at his pleasure Some mens understandings by the mighty workings of these principalities and powers are as swiftly carried to imaginations of evil as Eagles when they fly to dead bodies or as any creatures when they make haste to their prey You shall see a man when he is in this case all his thoughts are beneath Heaven and they roul up and down the world and pitch sometimes here sometimes there as things suit but are separated from God and he cannot get off but as Jael strook a nail into the head of Sisera and fastened him to the ground so mens thoughts and minds are fastened to something in the world that they cannot deliver themselves This is a woful day indeed when God will not be seen when God saith of a man as David of Absalom Let him not see my face Truly if this be the condition of any that their understandings are ridden by the Devil and carried away from God go to Christ confess and humble your selves seek his face who is the Father of spirits and hath command and power over Devils that as by permission he hath suffered the unclean Spirit to enter so by his commanding word he may say to them Come forth that your understandings may be free for their proper work for he only can cast down imaginations and every thing that exalteth it self against the knowledg of God and bring into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 Many may complain as Job in another case Chap. 17.11 My days are passed my purposes are broken off even the thoughts of my heart or as it is in the Margin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the possessions of my heart are broken off as if a man should say I had thoughts of Jesus Christ I was wont to have sweet apprehensions of my Father which took me much God was wont to take up my Soul and my mind was wont to be contentfully possest with the meditation of him now these possessions are gone and broken off Pray then as David Psal 119.37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity or make mine eyes to pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they be not held to gaze upon vanity but that I may run with freedom the Race that is set before me having God still in mine eyes 2. A second cause of this great fault not having our eyes bent and fixt on God is Discouragements Indeed Discouragements
sight So men love not God therefore they bury him out of their sight and God buries such out of his sight Jer. 15.1 I will cast you out of my sight as I have cast out your brethren the whole seed of David c. Man as he is in his depraved state hates his being and wishes himself rather to be nothing then to behold such an one as God that is everlasting burnings and hath an unchangeable Will eternally and severely to punish sinners 3. A strong cause of mans unmindfulness of God is that distance into which the nature of man is sunk from all good especially from the greatest good and as any thing lies near that and hath most tendency to it so the heart of man draws back most from it As a man that is renewed loves that best that is best and then that which is next to it so an unregenerate man loves that best which is worse and hence they give themselves up to all vanity setting open their Souls and prostituting themselves to every thing that is evil and become a common habitation and resting place for every thing that is not good and the more unlike any thing is to God the better entertainment the heart of man gives it By this voluntary tradition of himself he is so captivated to those things that he had once a power over and his back so bowed down and he so held under that he cannot come out of this state except God bring him out That in Mark 6. doth something resemble the state of these men They were in the desart where were many comers and goers and they had no leasure to eat It 's so with worldly men they have many thoughts coming and going that they have no leasure to do that which is best for them 4. The last Cause is this God doth sometimes give men up and leave them to be at the will of Satan to raign and order their motion as he pleaseth so that he is master of their affections and lord of their imaginations and he calls back and sends them out hither and thither as he pleaseth He is called the strong man and as he is strong so he works strongly He is said Eph. 2.2 to work effectually in the children of disobedience Where he hath possession of the mind he picks up the seed sown that it may take no root nor spring up he prepossesseth the mind and holds it in perpetual employment like Sampson that was made to serve in a mill so Satan makes the Soul to run a round which way pleaseth him that it hath no time nor leasure to look towards God which is a very sad thing Joh. 13.2 It 's said of Judas The Devil having put into his heart to betray Christ c. When once the Devil hath got the regiment of a poor creature in that kind he puts in and puts out at pleasure and the truth is when he put this thought into Judas Satan himself entered into him vers 27. he came in with those thoughts he entered when they entered and then the man was perpetually and mightily employed by him The mind of man is naturally fruitful in thoughts tending from God Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts Mat. 15.19 It is with the nature of man as 't is with some ground that brings forth some things of it self but if it be drest by a skilful man it abounds much more When Satan becomes the Gardiner of the Soul every plant there multiplies and fructifies exceedingly and there will be a mighty encrease Hence it is that man lives in a course of forgetfulness of God because by a voluntary diverting of himself from God at length God is provoked to divert from him and then Satan takes possession of the heart and thoughts he enters and commands the man at his pleasure This may suffice to set before you the Causes of that unnatural and that hateful forgetfulness of God wherein most in the world live I beseech you mind it it 's a business of exceeding great weight My next work is to perswade you to practise the Duty held forth That you would always have your eyes toward God CHAP. VIII Perswasions to frequent Emanations and contentful abode of Soul with God Minding of God a work possible to Christians A work of the most excellent power Spiritual actions easier then bodily Contemplative life everlasting Natural propensity of Soul to God renewed in Saints A blessing of love in true mindfulness of God LIve in a more close attendance upon God You never live rightly till you live in the world as in a place consecrated to God It 's an extream wrong to the end of our Being when we let our minds loose unto vanity To be extravagant and open to vanity is worse then that the Temple should have been opened to all abominations This work is little regarded in the world little of it is done The Children of the night are altogether in the dark and shut out from God the Children of the light very much found in forgetfulness of him And truly these days in special manner abound with this fault men stand more remote from God now then ever Forgetfulness of him from whom all our Being is and upon whom we all depend reigns yea much of it is there where men think themselves to be raised most unto God and brought into more conformity to him and communion with him My counsel to you is to look to your eyes My eye saith David is ever towards the Lord And oh that all our eyes were so fixed The work that I now call for is the willing holy and frequent emanation and outgoing of your minds towards God and contentful and effectual abode with him I shall give you a few Arguments to press this Duty and indeed we had need have Arguments urg'd with all force and it 's well if a hundred Arguments draw one man the most argumentative discourse in the world is not strong enough alone to prevail with men 1. The first Argument is from the nature of the work it 's that which you may do it 's a work possible it 's a work that you have power to do When God calls for your eyes it supposeth your eyes are not so set and fastened in your heads not so fixt and immovable but you may look up to him you may eye him and mind him God never gave a Command impossible But here is this threefold fault which I 'le but touch That men having understandings to mind God their minds stand still like standing water or like a clock whose wheels move not at all which fault however sometimes it may be from a meer distemper yet oftentimes it is from a sinful principle There is no list in mens hearts to look to God nay there is a withdrawing from God and rather then the understanding shall be employ'd upon God it shall run at waste like water or stand still and not move Men sometimes do look
place but the acts of the Soul may be done in any place at any time you may start into Heaven when no eye sees you you may be on the wing towards God though among a croud of men no business is such but you may be with God and yet your business not suffer Again It 's an eternal faculty and the work of it is everlasting A contemplative life is the life of Heaven it 's that which Angels do they ever behold the face of your Father in Heaven If you like not this work how will you live in Heaven The dislike of it is a bar against your entrance The life of blessedness is a life of Vision and seeing God which if you take no delight in Heaven is no place for you Again It 's a faculty very active your minds must be somewhere else if they be not with God and if they be not on God they are upon something of less concernment Why should you follow after drops and neglect the Fountain Why should you fly after shadows and neglect him who is the true Substance Truly if the mind have its current from God towards other things these things are not only of less concernment but destructive and from whence you will reap nothing but corruption and depravation and defilement of spirit you will grow worse and worse into the form of the Devil by how much your minds stray from God and pitch upon other things Jer. 2.5 They are gone far from me and have walked after vanity and are become vain Again It 's a faculty that hath received in the Saints a tendency towards God You do extreamly wrong your selves when you make not use of that propensity and put not forth your selves to have communion with God whereby you might bless your selves in the enjoyment of him See how David expresses the propensity of his spirit towards God Psal 63.1 O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my Soul thirsts for thee my flesh longeth for thee When shall I come and appear before thee to behold thy Glory as I have seen it in the Sanctuary This is the course of the spirits of the children of God in whom that propensity which was natural is now in part restored so that they are bent towards God they thirst after God as a man thirsts for water in a dry and thirsty Land Again There is a blessing in this work God blesseth what he likes as he curseth what he hateth He likes it well Mal. 3.16 Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and thought on his Name He will be sure to mind those that mind him and be a friend to those that seek after him When you are bid to look upon him it is but to receive from him Is it any thing else but to call and invite you to look on the most pleasing and delightful Object that in the beholding of it it may convey it self unto you and you be delighted and filled with it It is all one as if he should bid you sit down by a Well of Life and drink and to be as Christ and the Angels are who are blessed in the beholding of him as if he should bid you come and pluck Apples off that Tree of Life that is in the midst of Paradise God loves this work Cant. 2.14 Let me see thy face my Beloved and hear thy voyce for thy voyce is sweet and thy countenance comely In one act you may do that which pleaseth God and makes you blessed Set your eye towards him and his eye will be more towards you and he will refresh you as with Manna there is enough in him come and take freely Reflect upon your own experience have you ever found this way like a wilderness If it be a blessed work why will you unbless your selves If the work will exalt you why will you debase your selves in not closing with it And if you might live above in Heaven why will you live below Let all the sweetness you have ever found in this work provoke you to enlarge your self toward it When thoughts of God are moving in you God himself is not far off he will come and enter too and how sweet is it for God to come and take up his habitation in the Soul CHAP. IX Jesus Christ a Pattern of Eying the Father Greatest mindfulness of God due God our best Friend All we have is in his hands and of his gift All Religion founded upon a due mindfulness of God Anguish awails wandering hearts ANother Argument is from the Example of our Lord Jesus whom we are to mind and imitate He is your Pattern What saith Christ Learn of Me And Be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect How can you follow Christ the Captain of your Salvation if you mind him not When the Apostle perswades them in Heb. 12. to run the race that is set before them he bids them look to Jesus the Author and Finisher of their Faith Mariners at Sea that they may run a right course keep an eye on that ship that bears the light Your course cannot be right when your eye is not upon Jesus Christ your Pattern Would it be with us as it is when the forgetfulness of God lodgeth in our hearts if we did more mind Christ We should say in our selves Is this the course that he steered David tells us of Christ Psal 16.8 that he set the Lord always before him or as Luke expounds it applying those words to Christ Acts 2.25 I foresaw the Lord always before my face The Father was Ever in his eye whatsoever came into his sight he ey'd him first and fix'd upon him Now Christ is not only appointed to be our Pattern in this thing but he takes notice of us whether we imitate or no His eye is upon us to see whether our eye be upon the Father as his was and is for ever It was the counsel of Seneca that when men are about to do evil they should think on Plato or some such eminent man as present to behold them Certainly if Christ were more minded as such a Pattern God would be more the object of our most affectionate thoughts Again If we consider the Object it is the greatest reason in the world that our eye should be upon God God is our friend he loves us he bears us in his heart and shall not he be in our thoughts This is ill requiting of him whose eye is always on us seldom or never to eye him This is a great contradiction to the Law of Friendship which consists in reciprocation of loves Jer. 29.11 I know my thoughts toward you saith the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end Oh that we could say so I know my thoughts towards God are thoughts of love and care to please him Job 19.14 See how hainously
God Sanctification is a great thing What is the body until Sanctification comes but an untamed monster as a wilde beast O with what numberless outragious passions doth it blind and carry away the Soul Until it be sanctified it puts a man into an incapacity of conversing with God it lies not only open to all temptations but it snatcheth after them it 's a weight that lies upon the spirit of a man Pray for Sanctification which is the sequestration of the spirit of a man from vanity and the consecration of it unto God it is the putting of it into his possession the planting in it a new disposition to move towards God and to converse with God this the Apostle calls the renewing of the mind CHAP. XI Advantages that come by minding of God are to be duly considered The more we mind God the more we may Those which eye God most know themselves best Those which eye God most have most of God Forgetfulness of God cuts the nerves of Holiness Forgetfulness of God betrays to Apostacy NOw let me add another Help Weigh well with a deep sense the high Advantages which a due discharge of this work doth bring upon you this will facilitate the work The more you mind God the better you may Men cry out the work is hard It is good and sweet but hardest to those that do it least easiest to those that do it most Living in this work doth advantage and enlarge your spiritual strength and put you into more meetness and fitness into more proportion of ability for the discharge of it That as the Apostle speaks of the sinful use of the eye and of the sinful effusions of the spirit in way of evil that it works unto a necessity of sinning so that they have eyes full of adultery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that cannot cease to sin 2 Pet. 2.14 So the more you live in mindfulness of God the more are you wrought into a most excellent and sweet necessity of living in this course Gods entertainment is very gracious unto a friend that minds him that he cannot long have God out of his eye De coelo descendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This advantage you will also have by it the discovery of your self and truly that is a great matter for a man to know himself We are therefore so little our selves because we know our selves so little all that monstrous pride and self-self-love that foolish indulgence that is usual toward our selves is because we know not what we are This will make you know your selves more for when your eye is on God it is upon your Rule the Rule of all perfection the most absolute Pattern of all spiritual beauty therefore you may see what proportion and similitude there is between God and you This will breed a self abhorrency because of that infinite disagreement that is in the spirit of a man and his ways to the holy God Job in the sight of God abhor'd himself in dust and ashes Job 42.4 Here you may see how your hearts and the Rule agree Now also you may observe what impressions the sight of God leaveth upon you You say you mind God Well and I pray what comes of it what fear what faith what hope what tenderness What watchfulness is there wrought in your spirits by your minding of God What a hard heart is that which is layd under the very beams of the Sun of Righteousness and melts not What an obdurate spirit is that which in the sight of God yields no more We should come to see better what we are if we were more in this work This advantage too you shall have you shall be filled more with God What is the moaning of your Souls O saith the Saint that I might enjoy him O that God might be my God! and that his presence might be with me where ever I am All spiritual life hath its birth and growth in this work the first sight of God lays the foundation all after-sights do superstruct The first sight of God is the planting of holiness in the Soul after-sights are waterings unto more encrease and fruitfulness at the first sight of God God enters into the Soul but the after-sights of God fills and fills until they fill up the Soul If therefore it be so great an advantage consider it and let it provoke you unto this work One Rule more to help unto this work Possess your selves deeply with the apprehensions of the great sinfulness of the neglect of this Therefore men and their sins are so near together because they see not their sins more sinful When sin appears out of measure sinful then it sets the heart at the greatest distance from it Look on the sinfulness of it in the Cause of it Whence is it thou wandering Soul thou sleeping spirit thou man possessed with the world that thou sayst thou breathest after God and yet shuttest thy eye from him It is from a most woful frame of spirit Faith is dead and love dead all principles of life are put into a state of astonishment it is deep night all the spiritual powers are asleep bound up hence it is thou mindest God no more Poor Creature thou art not thy self thy heart is gone other things have born it away thou art like the Prodigal until God brings thee unto thy wits and right mind again Now see what the state of that man is by the true original of the sin of neglecting to remember God and look a little further into this matter to see it in the Effect of it Forgetting of God dissolves the bond between the Soul and God and sets it free from God It is the minding of God that doth beget and preserve a capacity of him and propensity toward him then forgeting of God shuts up thy heart from him and doth byass thy Soul unto a contrary motion to a departing from him puts thee into a state wherein thou canst not be according to the calling whereunto thou art called Thou canst not walk in the place of a servant toward thy Lord for how canst thou do his Will whom thou rememberest not If all the Reason of holy walking lies in this then the nerves and sinews of Holiness are cut in sunder when forgetfulness of God raigns in men There is this evil also thou betrayest thy Soul as much as in thee lies into the state of the Devils themselves What makes Hell but want of God and what makes the unhappiness of Devils but separation from God And this thou dost practise upon thy own self I could give a notorious and sad Instance of this truth to every one that doth voluntarily forget God in an Apostate Professor whom I knew who said The turning point and first beginning of his declining from God was his neglect of communion with Jesus Christ Therefore when you give your selves to a voluntary forgetfulness of God you betray your selves into a state of Apostacy and backsliding from
God and if once the Devil get the possession and can back thy spirit he will ride thee post into the pit where there is no bottom and from whence there is no return I will shut up all with that expression of God in Isai 17.11 Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy Salvation and hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy strength therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants and shall set it with strange slips In the day shalt thou make thy plants to grow and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish but the Harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow You may in your forgetfulness of God enjoy your desire trim up this world to your own contentment and make all your ways like pleasant walks in delightful gardens you may make your paths to be as fruitful fields But what shall the end be When the Harvest comes in the appointed time thereof there shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow If you would have a Harvest of Rejoycing if you would reap that which may be the Refreshing of your Souls if you would not sow gall and wormwood for you to reap hereafter take heed of betraying your selves into a forgetfulness of God THE Principal Interest OR THE Propriety of Saints in God DISPLAYED In several Discourses upon MICAH 7.7 My GOD will hear Me. CHAP. I. Interest in God the true Spring of Consolation How it is Propriety with Community Best because God is best by a Confluence of all Excellencies THE Church was now sad and there was cause enough for God frown'd upon her If she look'd upward she saw God displeased if downward there was nothing but violence one devouring another with the tongue and with the hand And therefore she makes her retreat unto God Therefore because men are so injurious so false so treacherous therefore I 'le look to the Lord. It 's an excellent spirit which is in the Saints that the world knows not of they make such Therefores such Conclusions as the world is not acquainted with The froward man says Therefore I 'le do so too the politick man says Therefore I 'le be wise and look to my self the good man says Therefore I 'le look to the Lord. Observe how the evils of this world put the Saints upon the improvement of their power with God and how the sight of propriety in God gives strength and life to the spirits of Saints I 'le look up I 'le wait for the God of my Salvation my God will hear me That which I am to speak to then is That the sight of God as our God is that which lifts up our heads and chears our hearts against all discouragements and carries us through all difficulties and whatsoever is dismall When a man can say God is mine that man shall live when nothing else lives I 'le give you some few Foundations of this The first thing I 'le instance in is That this propriety of the Saints is a propriety with community there is much in that In 1 Cor. 1.2 Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours The force of this lies thus That which serves for most is best The Sun is better then a Tapor because that serves all the other serves but one or a few A Spring is better then a Cistern because all my drink of that but few of the other That which all want is best Universal want argues that thing which we need to be universally good That may be wanting to one man which another wants not A Mariner may want a rudder or a sail which others want not but all men want bread That thing is good to him but this is good to all This Propriety therefore being with Community to wit that God is not my God alone but of all the Saints in Heaven and in Earth and of all the Angels this shews that a Propriety and Interest in God is the best Propriety Hence it is that the Saints having their portion in such an one are so refreshed and their comforts much advanced because they know that others drink of the same River of Life together with them Secondly This Propriety is in that which is best by a Confluence of all excellent things As for example Love Goodness and Kindness there is none like that which is in God here it is transcendent You may reason so not only from what God is an infinite Being but from what God doth Look on those high operations of his Wisdom and Power you shall see they are clear demonstrations of his Goodness the most excellent things have flowed from thence Pardon of sin Peace that passeth all understanding and everlasting life these have flowed from this Goodness God in his Love hath gone to the utmost to set it out He never intended so full a demonstration of his Power as of his Love Therefore though he hath not gone to the utmost of his Power yet he hath gone to the utmost of his Love It 's Love that passeth knowledg all knowledg Eph. 3.19 It 's possible to imagine how some things in the Creation might have shewn forth more of the Power of God as if he had made men equal power with Angels c. But it 's not devisable which way there should be a greater demonstration of his Love then he hath shewn partly in what is the enjoyment of his Saints in this world but principally in that which he hath promised in the other Now where the greatest Goodness and Love is an Interest in that Person is most precious and excellent There is in God a descending Love You shall seldom find that love in a child carries that worth and excellency in it as the Love of a Father doth because descending love chiefly seeks the good of another ascending love seeks our own good The love of God greater because descending love Further There is not only Goodness and Love in God but Wisdom also for the managing of these this adds to the Propriety The best Prince may not have wisdom enough to know all his Subjects but God knows all his as Christ saith Joh. 10. I know my sheep and am known of them He that tells the stars and calls them all by their names knows every one of his and their cases he knows what fears what wants what pressures what straits they are in The Lord knows how to deliver the righteous out of all their troubles 2 Pet. 2.9 Again He is present with all his all things in the world are confined and limited God only is every where The Sun reacheth to the whole Hemisphere But Gods Power is infinite and himself omnipresent He fills Heaven and Earth He is not confin'd to any place or limited within any bounds Therefore to have a Propriety or Interest in this
'le name one more Interest in God is better enjoyed then any other Interest whatsoever There is no Interest to be enjoyed with that sweetness security usefulness and consolation as our Interest in God is For besides that unspeakable and infinite Fulness that is in God know that this Interest is not subject to any dissolution Interest in God now is better then it was in our first estate when we came out of Gods hand All other Interests may cease If our love or others loveliness cease our Interest is gone and the loveliness of every Creature under the Sun will have an end but God abides Take a man the most wise the most learned the most amiable the richest man all these things will pass away but our Interest in God is not subject to any separation that is we shall be never from him The absence of our friends is like the setting of the Sun they are life to us in their presence but when they are gone from us they cannot help us they are so far dead to us but God is ever with us Interests with men are oft-times very exacting A man must do this and do that and much ado to please Men do tye up their Interest so strait that except things be done at this time and after this mode we indanger a flaw God doth not impose upon his people after this manner And again Other Interests are apt to be tyred and so fall into a dull sleep of mutual forgetfulness because the goodness that is in us is but little a shallow Cistern is soon drawn dry But with God there is no difficulty at all to give out love and if he spend himself never so much this way he is not at all diminished He rests in his love Zeph. 3. His joy and self-contentment is always flourishing So that as this Interest is more attainable so it 's better to be enjoyed CHAP. IX Christians ought to clear their hopes from Uncertainties Beleevers doubt through their own fault They that seek God must pursue their end THat which follows next is Exhortation That you would not only seek this Interest and get it but that you would seek to know it and to be satisfied that you have indeed an Interest in God Live not upon hopes mingled with uncertainties and anxieties Let not this suffice It may be God is my God or I hope he is but put it out of doubt Give all diligence saith the Apostle to make your Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 Sure as firm ground that you may so know it that there may be no trembling of heart about it that it may be a certain conclusion made up in your own spirits that you are the called and chosen of God For if you do these things saith the Apostle you shall never fall but an abundant entrance shall be administred to you into his Kingdom You shall never fall or as it is sometimes rendered you shall never offend So the Apostle James Chap. 2.10 He that Offends in one is guilty of all Indeed the sight of Interest in God carries a man with more evenness and strength in his way and keeps him in more compliance with and conformity unto God Sometimes the word is rendered stumble Rom. 11.11 Have they stumbled that they should fall If a man know God to be his God he walks with a more even and steady foot all his ways are more plain before him mountains of difficulty and danger will be layd level there will be nothing to dash his foot against to hinder him in his race and an entrance in abundance will be administred to him into the Kingdom of Heaven Fears and doubts straiten our way and hinder our passage to the Kingdom of God Suppose a man were to go into an house where he fears he shall not enter this would very much hinder his endevor But when a man shall have a blessed prospect into Heaven and see his place there that must needs further his more abundant and free entrance into it But more particularly that I may perswade you if God will to be very serious in this thing to make your Interest in God more certain let me tell you In the first place That no man that beleeves in Christ wants it but through his own fault I say it is a mans own fault if he be not able to say that God is his God I speak now according to the ordinary course of God demeaning himself to his people There is nothing of greater concernment either to his peoples welfare or the advancement of his own design which he hath upon them then the manifestation of his Love and the satisfaction of their spirits in that great Question Whether God be their God And that Spirit upon whom lies the Office of bringing from darkness to light hath this Office also of refreshing and reviving the spirit and therefore bears that name the Comforter He not only espouses us to Christ but maintains a perpetual entertainment that is his work He is not only the bond of our Union but the light of it by which we see our selves one with Christ and so one with the Father Many complain they find not God to be their God but it is not because God is not willing to shew himself what he is but because they are wanting to themselves There are two great faults that oftentimes wrong us and keep us in the dark and make that seem a secret which otherwise might lie open to our eyes One Error concerneth seeking Some never put their Interest in God to the question Some seek not at all and never put the question whether God be their God but run the hazard live and dye venturing their Souls to Eternity Others complain they seek but they cannot find fain they would be satisfied in this thing but they cannot Now I say the complaint must fall upon our selves there is perhaps a fault in our seeking This is the word that must stand fast for ever God will be found of them that seek him In Jer. 29.13 Then you shall find me when you seek me with all your heart To seek with all the heart is not only to seek truly and sincerely some seek but in words only making verbal prayers without any inward sense but to seek him strongly above all things and not only from an ardent thirst of spirit but to seek him without ceasing till we find him In due time we shall reap if we faint not Gal. 6. The Rule of Scripture you know is this that we pray incessantly 1 Thes 5.17 Mark that in Hos 6.3 After two days will he revive us and in the third he will raise us up Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord His going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come unto us as the rain as the former and latter rain unto the Earth If you follow on if you follow the business you shall obtain God hath
themselves and clears them it leaves them without doubt it strengthens and fixeth fast the Soul in the knowledg of its Interest in God God stands obliged for this unto his people for their comfort lies in it and that makes to the fulfilling of his last end which is his glory for how shall we give him praise if we know not that God is ours Besides he hath given us visible Seals to ratifie all the Promises to us He hath given the earnest of his Spirit to his He hath set Christ on the Throne for us an indubitable Pawn of his Love and many other which are still with us Secondly A second Consideration is this That the people of God in the want of this knowledg and assurance do not what they may they do not improve that ability and those means which God hath put into their hands and so they spin out their days in heaviness mourning and anxiety Either there is slothfulness of spirit or some discouragement of spirit upon them Slothfulness and so they are careless idle and vain having lost the sweetness of the enjoyment of God their hearts are poured out upon vanities they have gone a whoring after other things and have placed their Souls upon things that will not profit and are not industrious to seek after God When the Soul is thus gone out from God then it commits folly under every green tree there 's no plant that may yield any kind of refreshing but they will suck something from it Whilest the Soul is busied about other Interests and securing them the other great business lies by Another sort are under discouragement they say The work is hard it 's a very hard thing to find out this matter to do that whereby it should be found Saith another I have endevored and sought and done all I can and cannot compass it Consider you that say it is hard what a vain thing is it for a man to plead that a thing is difficult which must be done Will you plead difficulty against necessity You must do it or your life will be as death you will lose the comfort of all Promises of all Performances the Promises will be as a sealed Fountain that you cannot drink of them But again It is false to say it is hard That false Prophet within us communicates of his own spirit to us and we oftentimes speak untruths against God Is it hard to walk in the way of life Is it hard to enquire after God Is it easie to be hunting after the world and getting something in this life Is it hard to reach after the fruit of the Tree of Life When you seek after God you are in that very way of Life wherein they now are that shall enjoy God to all Eternity Another Discouragement is this I have endevored but it is a fruitless thing I see I shall never be satisfied Poor Soul Wilt thou indulge that remissness of spirit that is in thee to a contradiction against the God of Truth He hath said If thou seek him thou shalt find him He hath said he will comfort the mourners He hath spoken as much as can be desired What would you have God to do more Rather blame your seeking then your success Say not It is in vain to seek because I have not found nay rather say Because I have not found therefore I must seek more and seek better What saith Christ in Joh. 14.23 If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him If any man love me be he what he will be though he hath been a notorious wretch though he hath been a grief and burden to me and offended me days without number yet if he love me my Father will love him and we will come and make our abode with him Will you rather blame the truth of the Promise then your selves The fault must be layd on us Let God be true and every man a lyar It is manifest that we do not what we might do in these particulars 1. We do not call our minds in and bend them to this work of enquiring after God and setling this great question of our Interest in God for ever And indeed if we do not call in and bend our minds and use some enforcements upon them they will never do their work There is upon our minds anatural fluidness and dulness they go out easily to all things but unto God The mind must be summoned prest bound and buckled to this work Saith the Apostle 2 Pet. 3.1 2. This second Epistle Beloved I now write unto you to stir up your pure minds To stir up your pure minds The Apostle was afraid of them lest dulness and sluggishness should fall upon their minds If you do not stir up your selves to the work and gird up the loyns of your minds the work will not be done Another fault is That as men do not bend their minds to the work so they do not hold them in a way of beleeving and cheerful expectation of what they seek for Saith the Church in Micah 7.9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord until he plead my cause So long as I seek the Lord I will wait and expect that he will hear me and answer my desires In Hos 10.12 saith the Prophet Sow to your selves in righteousness reap in mercy break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you You must seek the Lord till he come In Isai 62.7 This is the counsel of God by his Prophet That you give him no rest until he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise Again There may be this fault We do not bring things to an effectual judgment Many queries are raised about this business but there is not a full hearing and determining of them but either the Court breaks up before things are concluded and so the Soul is left to hang upon a poor thred of a feeble hope I hope God is my God or else the Soul is contented to bear the burden of many fears and sorrows not stirring up it self as it ought to get free of them So that doubtless it 's our fault that we have not so clear a knowledg of our Interest in God as to make us to triumph or glory therein One way or other we are defective either in our seeking of God or in our not receiving what God gives unto us Thirdly A third Consideration is That we have often offended and sinned against the Spirit and then God weakens his Testimony towards us and doth not so make himself known to us as we desire David by his sin brought himself into that sad condition that he knew not what to make of himself as appears by that prayer of his in Psal 51. He lookt on himself almost as one in bonds estranged from God a man without spirit In Isai
59.2 saith God Your sins have separated between me and you Certainly God leaves us very frequently and sometimes when the manifestation of his love is very needful In Micah 3.4 the time was an evil time and saith the Prophet Then shall they cry unto the Lord but he will not hear them he will even hide his face from them at that time A fourth Consideration is That we do not seldom or not a little reject the testimony of God and oppose the light and the clear manifestations of his Love to us The Comforter comes many times but that may be said of us that he said of himself in Psal 77. My Soul refused to be comforted would not be comforted As against the conviction of the Spirit in wicked men there is a great deal of contest a great fight as in Jer. 2.34 Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the Soul of poor Innocents I have not found it by secret search but upon all these Yet thou sayst Because I am innocent surely his anger shall turn from me I say as wicked men rise up in opposition to the conviction of the Spirit so good men likewise have their oppositions against the consolations and comforts of the Spirit not only against the counsel of it but against the comfort of it In Isai 49.13 you have an instance of this see how sweetly God speaks Behold these shall come from far Sing O Heavens and be joyful O Earth and break forth into singing O Mountains for God hath comforted his people and will have mercy upon his afflicted But what saith the Church But Sion saith The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me What ever God said yet she said God had forsaken and forgotten her A like instance you have in Lament 3.45 There are strong holds in our spirits against the inward comforts as there are against other operations of the Spirit and it requires the mighty power and operation of God to settle our hearts in peace as well as to convince us of our miseries and dangers The work of Conversion is quickly done because it is of greatest concernment I 'le give it you in this simile A mother finds her child among devouring Hogs or Dogs or what you will she makes haste to snatch her child out of danger but he is all bemoiled and dirted and his clothes she makes not so much haste to get him clean and to put other clothes upon him So God quickly finisheth the work of Conversion and Regeneration he makes haste to free us from danger and misery but he makes not such speed to comfort us and to establish our hearts in the assurance of our Interest in him that may be done at leasure As there is a reluctancy in us against the work of grace so there 's a reluctancy against the testimony of grace we are apt to turn all that God speaks and doth for us against our selves the reason is because dejection is most natural to us considering the state of our Apostacy and what we are judged to A slave doth naturally torment himself with fears and with sad expectations It 's easier to us to believe the sentence of condemnation then of Justification Sin is more visible then Grace The greatness of the things promised are such that they make the Soul at a stand To have pardon of sin to be adopted to be raised from the depth of misery to such a state of blessedness this makes the Soul to be like those that dream Besides there is a concurrence of forreign power to heighten all this CHAP. XI Encouragements to endevor the clearing of our Interest in God Love cannot hide it self Love will not deny what may be easily granted and is much needed A Second Argument is taken from the encouragement we have to put us on to put this out of question that God is ours Certainly there is more ease in this then we are willing to beleeve I speak it to the glory of God and our shame That the things which God hath spoken and done for our encouragement should be so great and high and yet we should lie so low in the satisfaction of our spirits about this question First Consider whatsoever excellency there is in any love that is in Gods love transcendently Love is very fruitful it brings forth much for those towards whom it is set it will not be hid it is compared to fire which is known by its heat and you shall know the warmth of love where it is A man may use the words of Solomon Prov. 27.16 which he speaks concerning the froward woman Whoso hideth her hideth the wind and the ointment of his right hand which bewrayeth it self That as the wind cannot be concealed when it is up and as a sweet ointment cannot be concealed but it will discover it self so wrath and love for there is the like reason for both they cannot be hid A friend is contented not to have his beneficence known he would do much more then his friend should know of but he would have his benevolence his love and good-will known and manifested Therefore the Apostle Ephes 3.8 10. saith He obtained this grace to shew forth among the Gentiles the unsearchable Riches of Christ Near relations live upon the manifestation of love those which are more remote need less and less is due to them The child will have but an ill life unless he have the light of his fathers countenance The husband and wife will have their life imbittered if there be not mutual love As life is visible so is love it will discover it self and the highest love will most discover it self A second Encouragement is That what may be easily done may be easily obtained of a friend What is more easie with God then to make us know that he is our God It is but one beam of light from Heaven that doth it but a word spoken Soul be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee Love stands not at small matters especially great Love The Love of God is the highest Pattern of Love and the most glorious Spring of Love all Love flows from it Therefore if the love of a creature can do so much how much more will the Love of God do If your child should beg of you to give him a good look could you deny him would not your love constrain you And shal not the Love of God much more Certainly it is more for him to love you then to tell you he loves you He hath put forth his love already in a strange way to give his Son for you and do you think he will be so unwilling to speak a word of peace to his people where it is duly sought Again where a thing is most needed where one stands in much need of what a friend can do for one that will be soon granted What do you need more then refreshment of spirit in the sense of the Love of God All the fears
and tremblings of the hearts of his people are for want of the light of his face Pharaoh's daughter looking upon a strange child found her bowels and compassions moved within her Do you think Gods compassions are not richer and fuller to his own A child sometimes may complain but it 's not to the honor of his father My life is uncomfortable because my father loves me not shews not his love to me though perhaps there be cause for it And there is cause that God should deal so with us but he hath said he will not If we turn from the evil of our ways and repent he will multiply pardons Isai 55. Again A thing that may be easily done will not be denyed when it 's asked when it 's not only what we need but what we beg This Christ shews in the Parable of the unjust Judg. Importunity will move a stone how much more will the affectionate tears of an ingenuous child move the compassionate heart of a tender father A third Encouragement is That this is simply necessary to the right fulfilling of the Law of our Relation and to the enjoyment of the priviledges of it What is thy relation to God but of a child to his Father What Law lies upon a child but to obey and that not as a slave but with a filial spirit How can you be cheerful in your work when you have this cloud upon your spirits this pang upon your Souls I know not whether God be my God Again The Law of a child is to live a life of cheerful dependance upon his father But how can a man live thus upon God when he doubts whether God be his or no How can I be confident to receive great things of a stranger much less of an Enemy But God appears in these forms to me so far as he appears not to be my God Again This Law lies upon a child to live with cheerfulness of heart upon his fathers fulness This the Scripture calls for We are to rejoyce and rejoyce evermore and with all joy Colos 1.11 and in the worst times Account it all joy when you fall into divers temptations Jam. 1.2 I 'le add but this That those desires that are after God after the knowledg and assurance of his being our God are from himself God hath planted them in us and God hath invited called and set us a longing and a thirsting after him And will he tell us of a Fountain of Life and not let us drink of it Will he call us to himself and when we come to him will he hide himself Certainly we are very much mistaken when we go to God to beg this grace to have our Souls refreshed with the sight of his Love if we go ingenuously with a cheerful resignation of our selves to him if we go not with a cheerful expectation that God will hear our prayer CHAP. XII They are not right who are careless to clear their Evidence Wisdom and Love make the Saints seek after full satisfaction Two sorts of Content in the want of God A Third Argument is this If you seek not and that industriously and in earnest to put this Question out of question you are not right It 's an Evidence against a mans sincerity and his real fellowship with that invisible world when he is not careful to know what Interest he hath in it The Saints desire nothing more with them there is nothing above the Love of God that they seek and nothing beneath it that they can rest in Whom have I in Heaven but Thee and there is none in all the world that I desire in comparison of Thee Psal 73. David had whatsoever the heart of man could desire in this world he had all sorts of accommodations and contentments and yet he was still athirst till he could come to the Well-head and drink of the Water of Life He was painfully athirst in Psal 63. There are two great Springs of these desires and tendencies of Soul after God 1. A spirit of Wisdom that represents God as he is in that amiableness and glory which takes them it represents him in goodness and greatness as one in whose hands all things are so that nothing is concluded to be of that concernment with them as to have God to be their God They that know thy Name will put their trust in Thee Psal 9.10 2. The second is a spirit of Love The Saints have their hearts knit to God there is nothing which they so much prize as him they are taken with him above all things therefore cannot be content without him their desires after him are infinite till his infinite goodness fills up their whole capacities and leave no more place for hope till he hath blessed them with the full enjoyment of himself You know Reason in things of importance will not be easily satisfied While we are in any doubt we have no rest Men must have things cleared to them that are of weight and much more should they in this which is the greatest of all They say and cannot but say as David doth in Psal 86.17 though his own spirit often told him that God was his God yet he looks up to Heaven and saith Shew me a token for good And so in Psal 80.3 Cause thy face to shine upon us and we shall be saved The shining of Gods face puts a man into a state above men and Devils and all things Love is both eager in the prosecution of its end and very curious in its judgment It is eager in the prosecution of its end it will not be easily put off it finds out its Object and knows it and will not take a shadow for the thing if it be not satisfied it rouls restlesly and sinks and dyes in it self like Noah's Dove that fluttered up and down the world but found no rest for the sole of her foot It is death to the man that loves God not to see that God loves him They therefore are not right they are not Believers in earnest there is not a through work upon their spirits that can dally with God and be at rest when they are not clear in this that God is their God There be two very great Evils in this thing 1. That such a man lives in contempt of God This is contempt to be content to be without God That which I know not to be mine I am without That which I know not to be mine is as if it were not if I be content therefore to live so that I know not God to be my God I am content to be without God There is a contentment that is opposed to murmuration to froward perturbation of mind and fretting this must not be no not in the midst of clouds and darkness and in the depth of our disputes about this great thing Whether God be my God and my sins pardoned and whether my Soul shall be saved And in case I be not satisfied in the thing
there must be a patient waiting for Jesus Christ and the glory of his appearance though we be mournful yet we must be patient quiet and humble As in Isai 26. In the way of thy Judgments O Lord we have waited for thee and the desire of our Souls are unto thy Name and the remembrance of Thee With my Soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early And in Isai 8.17 I will wait upon the Lord that hides his face from the house of Jacob and I will look for him or I will stay for him till he come There is another kind of contentment of dulness and stupidity from darkness which over-clouds the Soul and bears it down Now I would argue thus The doubts thou findest in thy spirit are either weak or strong if they be not great but some little anxieties they are more easily overcome and thy fault is the greater that thou sufferest those clouds to remain which thou mayst so easily scatter when the question is not much disputable when there is not much against it thou art the more negligent that thou dost not draw it to a full determination It is with many Christians as it is with a Conquering Army in a Nation that hath beaten down all Forces round about them only there is a weak party now and then appearing who cannot do much but when the Militia in a Commonwealth hath beaten down the Enemy before them it cannot stand with their faithfulness to suffer the least party to remain in opposition to them No more can it stand with our faithfulness with God and our own Souls to suffer the least party of doubts to continue but to make all clear and sure We will not suffer the least flaw in a Lease or any security for the things of this world I grant that we are like to live in disputes all our days There 's no vacation with a Christian but always Term time still suits strifes and contentions But you must strive to hold your own you must be employed to quench all the fiery darts of Satan As a man that is in possession of an Estate when one comes and lays claim to one part of it and another comes and challenges another part and so a third and a fourth he keeps his Suit a foot against them all and so holds his own So must we go on conquering till we have subdued all fears and doubts that rise within us Satan is a cunning Sophister as full of subtilty as he is of malice if he cannot draw men to gross prophaneness he will tempt them to fears and doubtings Now as holiness works against sinfulness so it strives against doubts Doubting is as truly a sin in a Believer as any other miscarriage A good man cannot rest till he see all well Psal 41.11 By this I know that thou lovest me c. If he cannot lay hold on something to draw this conclusion he thinks himself a most miserable man Again Suppose thy doubts be strong that thou canst not make out this that God is thy God if thou canst notwithstanding sit down and make a life of sweetness and contentment in other things thou contemnest God this shews you care not much for him for what a man cares for much that he loves much and what he loves much that he will have as near to him as may be Therefore if thou goest sighing and mourning after other things and canst sit down with contentment in the enjoyment of other things this shews thou dost prefer other things before God and so dost contemn him If you can live without his love you can live without his fear and what is more horrid then for a man to live without the love and fear of God In Jer. 5.22 God argues this matter with his people Fear ye not me saith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence who have placed the sand for the bound of the Sea by a perpetual decree c. But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart they are revolted and gone Neither say they in their heart Let us now fear the Lord our God that giveth the former and latter rain in his season c. It is extream darkness that is upon you even the darkness of Hell when you can live quietly in the enjoyment of other things without the knowledg of the love of God in Christ All that have known God to be their God when they are under doubts concerning this when they are under the frowns of God oh how do they mourn Lay but your ears to their closets and hear their secret complaints who can measure their tears or number the sighs and groans that are found with them when they seek after God David in Psal 32. tells you how it was with him he made his bed swim with tears and his moisture turned to dryness his strength was gone through the bitterness of his Soul because he could not see the love of God as formerly Our Lord Jesus Christ when that ineffable shadow was upon his spirit how did he cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me It is therefore a contempt of God when you can be without the knowledg that he hath pardoned you and accepted you in his Beloved CHAP. XIII Those which seek not to clear their Interest offer inexpressible violence to their own Souls How the sense of divine Love gives strength to two useful principles of holy life IT will further appear that they are not right Christians that can live without the knowledg of the love of God if we consider that such live in unexpressible violence offered to their own Soul and in most horrid practises against themselves To instance and clear it Are you content to live so basely and vile in this world when you know not that God is your God as to rob and spoil your Souls of their truest Life and to consent and yield to that evil disposition in them to live on things that are dead and that have but a shew of life The spirit of a man will fasten on something if the spring of his life be not in God if he have not life there he will seek it where he can find it When Cain went from the presence of the Lord he fell to building of Cities When Demas forsook Christ what did he imbrace even this present world The Prodigal when he went from his fathers house fell on something and what was it but Hogs meat When the Jews were driven from Zion they made much of Babylon Wilt thou see thy Soul feeding thus upon vanities and not deal effectually with thy self to labor for self-conviction that thou mayst return unto God Say with thy self Where am I now what am I doing Is this to live on God is this Eternal Life Know you not that your life lies in the sense and taste of divine Love Do you not find all other things to be dark
they are separated from the love of God So I have done with the third Argument CHAP. XIV The Evil of Doubting as it is a denyal of the Truth of God a diminution of his Love and Favors and a mis-interpretation of his Dispensations The vexation of doubting to enlightened persons in an evil day A Fourth is this Doubts in this case are very sinful and grievous especially to a Soul in light and to a Soul in trouble To clear this I will shew first That they contain in them exceeding great evil against God in these things 1. They are contrary to the Truth and Faithfulness of God They are a denyal of the Truth of God manifested in the Promises and by the testimony and witness of his Spirit God hath made our way open to himself and we are apt to say most wretchedly as the Church in Lament 3.44 He covereth himself with a Cloud that our prayers should not pass through He hath left upon you perhaps some marks of his love he hath put into you some earnest of his favor what are these but the voyce of God from Heaven that God is your God and yet you say as the Church in her frowardness The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Again It is not only opposite to his Truth but to his Love When a friend comes to one passionately affected in suspicion of his friendship and saith to him Sir I love you you are very dear to my heart and he will not beleeve him he takes it ill God may say to us in the matter of his Love as he said to them in the matter of obedience What could I have done more God may say I have given them the knowledg of my self I have given them a heart to love me I have given them all the pledges of my dear Love and yet they will sit down in corners and spend and waste themselves in mourning because I love them not What can I do more In Deut. 1.32 God took it ill when his Word could not be taken and when the manifestation of his Love was of no force Yet in this thing ye believed not the Lord your God who went in the way before you to search out you a place to pitch his tent in c. Surely saith God there shall not one man of this evil generation go to see that good Land that would not believe me It may be our hearts may be somewhat like Jobs in Job 9. saith he If I have called and he hath answered me yet I will not believe that he will harken to my voyce What a strange thing is this Though he hath heard me when I came to him and hath given me entertainment of a Father and I did receive pledges of his Love yet I will not believe that He loves me and that he will hear me Again They are diminutions of divine Favors He that doubts his Interest cannot so bless God in the enjoyment of wife children and estate and whatsoever carries sweetness in it but bitterness of Soul overflows and makes all things bitter and he is apt to overlook all who is not perswaded of his Interest in God In Esth 5.13 you read of the froward spirit of Haman and such a spirit is usually in him that feareth What is all this to me seeing Mordecai sits still at the gate Another evil against God is That these doubts cause mis-interpretation of all divine Actions They make a man mis-construe God in all things whatsoever he saith or doth God shall not be taken aright by that man that doubts his Interest in him O Job how wert thou mistaken and what meanest thou to speak those words Job 13.20 Wherefore hidest thou thou thy face from me and holdest me for thy enemy Why did God ever take thee for his enemy So many because God crosseth them in their desires and frustrates them in their hopes O say they God is angry with me he doth not love me I might tell you the same in other dispensations of God indeed that man cannot be pleased Now we may consider how painful and vexing doubting is in that man that is alive that is in a living state and especially in an evil day There are these three things that clear it 1. This is a matter of greatest consequence it 's a business of the greatest weight See you not a man sometimes how heavily he walks when his estate is in question but much more when his life is in question But what if his life and estate too be in question That man that knows God truly would rather endure the loss of ten thousand lives and estates then the loss of Gods favor 2. Another thing that makes it exceeding heavy is the loss of the sweetness of former experience David in Psal 42. complains of this When I remember these things I pour out my Soul in me for I had gone with the multitude I went with them to the house of God with the voyce of joy and praise with the multitude that kept holy-day And Job in Chap. 29.2 O that it were with me as in the days of old and in months past as in the days when God preserved me when his Candle shined upon mine head and when by his light I walk'd in darkness As I was in my youth when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle and when the Almighty was yet with me Thus that man that loseth the sweetness of his former experience remembers the days of old and that afflicts him Again God will have it so that where this thing is not yet driven home and the Soul hath not duly sought and so not found satisfaction concerning his Love it shall be bitterness to him I say God will have it so the Soul shall not enjoy it self He doth this partly to give a demonstration of his own Excellency and to vindicate it in the Soul that a man may surely know and find that there is none like him therefore saith he I will take away the light of my face from that man he shall have his house and land and estate and see what he will do with them what he can make of them And by this the love and favor of God appears to be excellent Besides this God loves his people he will have their love and will have his love sweetened to them therefore it shall be bitterness to them when it is lost Be perswaded then to make this your work and rest not till you know that you have Interest in God plead with David in Psal 35. Lord say unto my Soul thou art my Salvation not only be my Salvation but say thou art my Salvation And then though you may have many sad thoughts accompanying you yet this will refresh you in the midst of all as it did David in Psal 94.14 In the multitude of my thoughts thy comforts delight my Soul CHAP. XV. Interest in God more knowable then any other and yet unknown to most The
Reasons of both BEfore I propound the Directions how they who are sincere and ingenious toward God and indeed have him for their God may know that they have a sure Interest and Propriety in him I will premise two things of moment First That our Interest in God is more knowable then any other Interest in the world There is no Interest that a man hath which is so discernable Whatsoever it is that belongs to an Interest in any thing or any friend and doth discover it is much more here Examine it in a few particulars 1. Where there is an Interest with men there is a mutual closing of their spirits by which they know one another and come to rest secure in each others good intentions and hearty wishes Here also is this mutual closing and in a far more high and excellent degree then is or can be with any creature For that affection and love which God discovers to his people and which he doth act upon them is a Love that is transcendent that is not only beyond all other love but beyond all understanding That entire closing that is between a Beleever and God in Jesus Christ is above all that which can be found in any other his whole Soul runs this way In Psal 119.10 I have sought thee saith David with my whole heart That is the proportion which God hath cut out for himself Deut. 6.5 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart with all thy Soul and with all thy might Christ challenges the same proportion and indeed it should not be less less would not fulfil his end which is the solid peace and satisfaction of his people in the enjoyment of him and also the subjecting and subduing of their spirits to his government No proportion of love loss then the greatest could work these things But besides this there is such a through change by reason of this Interest as no Interest in the world doth work though the closest and the nearest For the habit and disposition of the spirit of a man is altered in closing with God and he becomes a new creature he is not what he was It is true that in all friendship that is with men there is a kind of change on both sides because there must be a due and necessary application of themselves to each others spirits but that change is unspeakably inferior to this in those who have been wrought upon to beleeve and have obtained this mercy to close with God for they are changed to the proportion of as great a distance as death is distant from life and darkness from light for they are brought off from the love of all that on which their hearts were set even to a hatred of it and are subjected subordinate and conformed to the Will of God There is another thing in this Interest which belongs to the nature of it and so discovers it and that is a mutual conversing with each other with contentment Jonathan and David had much pleasure in their mutual conversings with each other and in drawing forth their spirits one to another This is much more strong in Beleevers then can be in any relation between husband and wife or between the father and child This must needs be so For first The love wherewith they love God is the highest love Therefore many will not go for Christians that pretend to be such because their hearts are not brought up to this The highest Love acts highest it takes the highest delight and contentment in its Object In Cant. 2.3 As the Apple trees among the trees of the Forrest so is my Beloved among the sons I sat down under his shadow with great delight c. In Psal 73. saith David It is good for me to draw near to God That look as others find contentment in the things they love and draw near to them so the Saints find much more contentment with God and therefore draw near to him Again Friends cannot always enjoy these Converses Oftentimes they are parted and so cannot have this felicity of expressing mutual love but God is ever with them In Psal 73. Thou art my strong habitation to whom I may have a continual resort I may always come to thee 3. There is a third thing in Interest and that is mutual Communication Love is a spring which flows forth it doth enjoy what it hath rather for its friend then for it self Gods Love hath this excellency more abundantly and transcendently Take the dearest friends that live at the highest rate of love they cannot maintain a constant Communication partly because there is not always an equal necessity and capacity partly because there is not always the same power to give forth But our necessities are always very great and vast and Gods power is always the same so that here is always a perfect Communication of Love that ceaseth not but flows forth as beams of light from the Sun Now as effects discover their causes so then especially when they are most full and perfect As you may better know any tree by its fruit then when it is in the bud and blossoms and you may better know it when the fruit is in its fulness and in more abundance then when there are but a few if there be but one or two upon a tree they may be hid but when there are many the testimony is the more abundant Abundant are the testimonies of the fruits of Gods Love in what he hath done for his So that upon this account no Interest is more knowable then that of a Beleever in his God Secondly A second thing to be propounded is this That though no Interest be more knowable yet ordinarily no Interest is less known then this This we need not prove I think it 's a Question out of question with us all The unevenness of the holiness of Beleevers in their walkings the inconstancy of their rejoycing are two strong demonstrations of this that they do know but little of their Interest in God It springs from such unhappy Causes as these That abiding Unbelief that bitter root that hath taken such strong hold of the nature of man that till the whole house be pull'd down it will not be wholly eradicated and destroyed This is that weight the Apostle speaks of in Heb. 12. that hangs on us so fast as is manifest by the Apostle's scope who perswading unto faith and the workings of faith this is that saith he that so suppresseth and bears us down from those heights of heavenly joy from that sweet contentment and rest of spirit whereto we are called Beleeving is the first stone that is layd in a Christian He that comes to God must beleeve that he is and that he is a Rewarder of those that seek him Hebr. 12. And as there is a spirit in all Beleevers that tends to the setling of them upon a sure foundation that they may stedfastly beleeve so there is a spirit that works
to unbelief perplexity and dissettlement While unbelief works in us it must needs be that there will be a great want of that through knowledg of Interest Another Cause of this great misery of man is That Gods communications of himself to us and entertainments of us are not always in intelligible forms so that we cannot presently take them up and understand the meaning and good-will of God in them The fault is in our minds The print is good but cannot be read because the eye is dull and dark Sometimes God comes to us wrapt up in Clouds and indeed he varies his dispensations that he may attain his End His End is this that he may work his people to a strength of Faith and Love mixt with Fear that 's the proper constitution of a Christian and the truest temper of one that is marked out to eternal life Therefore God sometimes displays his greatness in the sight of his people far above all the manifestations of the sweetness of his mercy that the spirit of a poor man is overborn shakes and trembles at the presence of God So it was with Moses Heb. 12.21 The sight was so terrible though God meant no ill to Moses that Moses shakes and quakes for fear he was sore afraid Sometimes God comes with the manifestations of his fatherly displeasure and dislike and then how can it be but the Soul must dwell in bitterness mourning heaviness and trembling must needs possess us A third Cause why so little is known of this Interest that God is our God though he be so is our unhappy diversions We are oftentimes turned off from that one thing necessary and our spirits run otherways out of light into darkness Alas Solomon minded not this matter or to little purpose when he poured out his Soul after vanities and for this God pleaded with him 1 King 11.9 that he had departed from him The Lord was wrath with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel who had appeared to him twice CHAP. XVI How the knowledg of blessed Interest in God may be attained Desires to have the question determined A spirit free to yield to the determination Arguments proper for the deciding of the question Those that have an Interest in God are much in holy resignation Of taking answers when they are given THese things being premised now I come to shew you how we may attain this blessed knowledg that God is ours and so quiet our hearts in this assurance that he is our Portion First Let it be the true desire of thy Soul to have this question determined and concluded that God is thy God Certainly many are careless concerning this business that never much debate the matter whether God be their God or no. Others there are that have care enough but it is a perplexed care a care sowred with unbelief there is a desire indeed raised but it 's mixed with perturbation the Soul is indeed in motion after it but it is a very disorderly motion working with fretting and such disturbing fears that they leave themselves without judgment Exod. 6.9 It is said concerning the Children of Israel that when Moses spake to them they would not hear him for their anguish of spirit and for their cruel bondage for the shortness and straitness of their spirits Fears do straiten Secondly A second Means is this Come with a spirit free to yield to the determination of truth one way or other take your answer from God as he shall give it Certainly there are a generation that know that they are very partial and foolish in this business that fly from the decision and determination of this question from a secret strong suspicion that all is not well with them and therefore they will rather flatter themselves with the uncertainty of their own estate then affright themselves with the clear knowledg of their unhappy condition As a guilty prisoner fears to think of the time of Judgment because he knows there is just cause of suspicion that it shall go ill with him Poor man what shall it profit thee to carry things thus If God be not thy God what hurt is it for thee to know it He that lives thus refuseth the judgment of God and as much as in him lies hates the judgment of God There can be no greater evidence of a right spirit then for a man to put the question home whether God be his for that man is not willing to be the Lords that is not willing to have it determined whether he be his or no. Some again are so possessed and overcome with fears so ready to self-condemnation to what ever may afflict and oppress them that they wrap themselves up in thick clouds lest any light should spring forth upon them These are like unjust Judges that are precipitant in their proceedings that hear only one party It is a dangerous thing for a man to mistake in Judgment as the Wise-man speaks concerning Civil Judgment Prov. 17.15 He that justifies the wicked and condemns the just even they both are an abomination unto God You displease God and sin against Truth and Righteousness when you bear down your selves and pronounce a sentence of death upon your own Souls when God hath passed the sentence of life and peace upon you You cross the design of Jesus Christ which is a design of love and peace You offer violence to that light reason and spirit which God hath set up in you You tempt God to say as you do and to make good your words Be therefore willing to hear what God shall say to you as they in Acts 10. said to Peter We are all here ready to hear the things that are commanded thee of God Thirdly A third Means is To proceed and argue by proper Mediums by such Arguments as are proper to the Question Some work themselves into a good opinion by false discourses concluding upon insufficient grounds that God is their God either from an empty appearance of good or else from a real presence of the life of such things as may flow from other principles then the spirit of Adoption as the fear of God mourning for sin subjection of spirit to the Commands of God which things indeed are good but may flow from another spring then the spirit of Adoption But if you would conclude in a right way of reasoning that God is your God argue then by such things as are proper to that state and relation wherein you suppose your selves to be toward God and that is in one word a spirit of true Love You shall find that working thus it will carry thy Soul in propensions towards God equal to thy consolations The Soul that loves is carried unto God with desires equal to its refreshings yea and more for when it cannot taste the comforts of the Almighty yet it is carried after him in desires and saith Lord I will love thee though thou wilt not love me This love
other life appointed for Saints The fulness beauty and satisfaction of this life How Christians offer violence to their relation IN this Chapter I would make Exhortation to all that have Interest in God to live upon it Only first I will shew what it is to live upon God as our God And it is First To cleave to God with joy of heart to live in the affectionate embraces of God in Christ and delightful conversings with him to have God for our life as it is said of Jacob concerning Benjamin His Soul his life was bound up in the life of the child Gen. 44.13 that is they had one lot if one lived the other lived their joys were the same they could not be severed or parted they were but as one So we should be towards God our lives should be so bound up in him we should be one with him Secondly To live upon God is to contract all our desires into God to have none but what are for him and according to him This is the way of life indeed when God is a mans all when the language of his Soul is Whom have I in Heaven but Thee Thus to have desires to God that he rests not in any thing beneath God nor seek any thing besides God that is to live in God Thirdly To live in a faithful real resignation of ones self unto God If you be his you know that he hath taken chosen and set apart the good man for himself Psal 4. And so must we live as sequestred persons as those that are his that as the holy things of the Temple were for no other use so must we be only for God In Hos 3.3 't is said Thou shalt abide with me many days thou shalt not play the harlot thou shalt not be for another man but shalt be unto me so will I also be for thee God will stand close to that spirit and be the comfort stay and life of it that reserves it self for him Fourthly It is to contract and draw all your expectations upon God to lay all your weight there If there be any thing thou promisest thine own heart let it be from the bosom of God if there be any answer that thou makest to the fears doubts and troubles of thy spirit let it be from the voyce of the Lord. Thus David in Psal 62.2 He only is my Rock and my Salvation he is my defence I shall not be greatly moved And he saith at vers 5. My Soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him He tells you what God is to him and what indeed he looks for from God What God is to him He is my Rock and my Salvation in God is my Salvation and my Glory he is the Rock of my strength He tells you also what he expects from God My Refuge is from him so that if I need safety or refreshing and supply of any good mine eye is upon him and from him I look for all This is to live upon God Having expressed in a few words what it is to live upon God Now take those Considerations which perswade to live such a life as this First There is no other life for you This is appointed for you to this you are called for this you are fitted Fishes may as well live in the ayr as you live in the world You may try and weary out your selves in vain but God is your life This be sure of if you neglect this life either dulness and benumedness will fall upon you so that you will grow sensual brutish and earthly strangers to the joy activity and tenderness of holy Christians or you shall fall into a dis-rest an unsufferable unquietness of spirit while you are as a rouling thing in the wind having no consistence because you are out of your place You shall be afflicted within and this will be your great evil that you lived not in God And now because you seek life in other things you shall dig for your own death And if you have any reason it will work to your own affliction vex and torment your Souls night and day because you did not walk in the counsels of the Most high and the embracements of his Love Your sweetest enjoyments will be all sowred like the waters of Jericho bitterness will be in them not to be endured Secondly This is a life that should be most pleasing and amiable unto our spirits and certainly we are dead and alienated from God if there be not an incomparable sweetness to us in it For 1. It is the fullest life The life of all other things hath something mixed with it the life of your enjoyments your pleasures and relations is a mixt life there is death in all your comforts and you taste it and are sick of it many times you know it well It is true there is nothing that God hath made and appointed for our use but brings in some portion of life our garments give a little and our food a little and friends give something but how little do all these give But now this life is all life the life you have from other things is a short poor narrow life but this life is more compleat Take the life of a man that hath whatsoever his heart can wish his comforts strike but upon his sense or at best have but some light touch upon his spirit Alas the Souls of men cannot drink at these Cisterns Life that comes from these things hath not immortality in it such things are as far from immortality as they are from sufficiency The wisest the richest and most honorable that have the fullest life dye because the life they have by such things cannot hold pace with the Soul nor communicate a life of consistency But the life we have with God extends to the whole course and capacity of the Soul it fills up every corner and leaves no want 2. It is a life that gives perfect satisfaction he can ask no more that hath it 3. It is a life that beautifies the Soul Mens complexions usually are as their dyet is Oh he that feeds on God what a rare complexion is his Soul of It makes him like to God it reduceth a Soul from a miserable separation into a blessed and orderly union Our life being in one God one Good which is all Good he that lives this life would dye ten thousand deaths rather then part with it Thou well knewest Peter what thou saidst in Joh. 6. When Christ said to his Disciples Will ye also go away then Simon Peter answered To whom shall we go Lord Thou hast the words of eternal life Whither dost thou think we can go when we knew thee not we could indeed be without thee but now we know thee whither shall we go When Nature comes to a state of Consistency it rests it seeks no more That man is in such a state that is in God that enjoys him and his Love and rests in him
Thou hast made me glad with thy Countenance The sense of the good presence and favour and love of God doth fill the Soul with pleasure and when it can hold no more it hath enough Let the issue of all this Discourse be to set our hearts a longing and wishing O that I were blessed with a full enjoyment of God! O that I had as much of him as ever I shall or can have The Soul that is thus in travel travels without pain The Mind reaching after other things oftentimes out-stretcheth it self There are usually if not always pains with desires especially in desires after the Creature because that oftentimes there is a frustration of our desires or an elongation of the things the things are far off hard to come by our desires oftentimes are mute they speak not or the things that we desire know not our minds but our desires after God always speak they are open unto God he heareth their voyce All my desires are before Thee saith David Psal 38.8 and my groanings are not hid from Thee Therfore it must needs be sweet when the Soul lies thus open unto God Other desires do not assure and secure a man in the things he desires a man may wish this and wish that and go without both but the Soul that thus longs after God is instated in his wish hath a present enjoyment and certainly shall have a full enjoyment of him He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him God will hear them Psal 145.16 They that long most receive most it 's the hungry spirit that feeds best and fares best When the Church was sick of love being very much taken with what she had and much longing after what she wanted then she could say I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine his desire is towards me in Cant. 7.10 That refreshed her the Greek reads it his Conversion is towards me indeed God will turn to those that go out toward him In Isai 64.5 He meets those that work righteousness and seek him in his ways Again Consider this That longing after a full enjoyment is the natural effect of a known Interest in God Look through all the Orders of the Creation and you shall find that every thing seeks the enjoyment of its Interest Angels do Men do Beasts do they seek their own their own pastures their own young their own mates Can you imagine that we should be the Children of God and account him our Father and not long to enjoy him A child hears from his father and receives tokens from his father but he is not contented he would be with his father So it is truly with a Child of God so far as he hath received of that Spirit he longs to enjoy God Interest in God works by a power of its own and God works in it too God pursues his Interest in us to the utmost therefore he is working us to himself by all means all ways by good and evil by life by mortality and death by the senses by Ordinances by his Spirit He is always at work to bring us home that we may be in his possession and enjoy him And to make it the more full he hath appointed the breaking of these bodies that our spirits may come more full to him nay and he hath appointed a day of Resurrection that our bodies may come full to him and this is one great end of Christs coming again in Joh. 14. that we may be with him in his Fathers house If God so drives on his Interest to make us perfect with him let us drive on our Interest to make God fully ours in the enjoyment of him Lastly There is nothing to hinder in this Case that you should not drive on to a full and perfect enjoyment of him Are you full in this world should your full enjoyments of the world hinder your full enjoyments of God Is not God better then these things Are you scanted in this world The more need you have then of the fullest enjoyments of God Have you much of God You know the more what God is and can you chuse but desire him Have you little of God Then you need more and should drive on to get more Are you sure of your Interest Where Interest is most sure there is most love and where the Soul loves most thither it drives most Do you fear your Interest You have so much the more reason to seek after a full enjoyment of God to the satisfaction of your Souls What do you think should stand in the way You must part with the world What is this world to your Fathers house and to God himself You must dye What is death Cannot that everlasting life recompence you infinitely Therefore there is nothing to hinder you Then seeing God invites you and provokes you to seek more of him in this world though you cannot have all I conjure you by all the sweetness that is in God and that you have found in God that you obey his Word herein and drive on more diligently and strongly to a more full enjoyment of God FINIS PSAL. 119. vers 4. I am thine save me for I have sought thy Precepts CHAP. I. Gods Interest in man natural and acquired this latter twofold Of holy Resignation Of true and false Mourning I Have chosen this excellent Pattern to propose to you and to my self of an ingenuous spirit David a man after Gods own heart would be saved but not after the manner of the men of this world that would be saved to be their own and to enjoy themselves at their own wills but he in being saved would be Gods and at his disposing I am thine save me There are three things here that would be thought on 1. What David means when he saith I am thine 2. What the Reason should be that we should use such an acknowledgment of our selves to be Gods when we pray to him 3. What force there is in this argument to be pleaded with God I am thine save me Thine We are said to be Gods either by way of affection as the Church Cant. 2.16 I am my well-beloveds and my well-beloved is mine Or in respect of that Interest that God hath in us The Interest of God in man is upon a twofold Foundation and Account 1. Upon account of the Law of Nature the natural Law which doth set God as Lord over all and acknowledg him supreme Commander of every thing because he is the Original and glorious Fountain of all Being Upon that account it is that in Psal 89.11 it is said The Heavens are thine and the Earth also is thine as for the world and the fulness thereof thou hast founded them There is the ground of that Dominion which God hath over all things they are his off-spring things that himself hath made And in Psal 50.12 God owns himself in this Soveraignty The Heavens are mine and the Earth is mine and all that in them is
It is spoken concerning the time when they should be restored to a better state Afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days Shall fear the Lord and his goodness No father is more feared of his child then the best father that walks towards his child in the greatest wisdom goodness meekness and bounty So that the kindness of God and tastes of his Love do not lift up the Soul and make it proud That man is the most humble man in the world that hath the most knowledg of the Love of God towards him in Jesus Christ This Fear and Faith do so stand together that they cannot be separated In Act. 9.31 They walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost It 's the right temper of a true Christian to have the comforts of God in his Soul and yet to be with fear and trembling It 's a fear that doth inevitably arise upon a rectified nature from a sight of the disproportion that is between God and us This is in Heaven it self where the Angels in glory beholding God so infinitely lifted up above them cannot but have reverence fear and dread in their Souls towards him And it 's a fear likewise of danger not the danger of eternal death for from that they are saved the knowledg of the Love of God assures them for that but from the danger of other things which to them are as bitter as death is to the world and those are the frowns of God the rebukes of God the suspensions of Love and estrangedness of God towards them the stripes of God these things when God doth as a Father to his that know him they are most grievous and smarting and their Souls groan under these more then worldly men under worldly danger Therefore he that knows God and what it is to be in the light of his Countenance he that hath tasted the bitterness of the loss of this lives in fear lest he should provoke God as a Father to deal thus in severity with him And I speak all this the rather because some do blaspheme that which is the spring of life and peace to the Saints saying That for a man to have the knowledg of God to be his God and everlasting Portion is a snare to bring that man into a forgetfulness of God and his Duty and to blow up the spirit with pride and lull him into a sinful sleep Such like things as these have been and still are not without much cause of grief cast upon this blessed Doctrine of the knowledg of our abode with God Whereas the true knowledg of God being ours is that which doth effectually and firmly work the heart to all diligent watchfulness tenderness and sedulity Thirdly It disposeth a mans spirit to the best entertainment of all divine Determinations that are upon a mans addresses to God upon any occasion Let the answer be what it may be what seems good to God that man that knows God to be his God is best enabled to receive his answer be it I or No whether his prayer succeed or not he is put into such a frame that he can say Amen to the Will and Word of God and go from God without murmuring and repining If God hear him he is glad but yet not so glad of the thing as of his Interest he is not so taken with any thing he obtains but God takes him more If therefore he receives any thing he rejoyceth in it as the fruit of Love and makes a grateful return to God again In Psal 119.137 Save my Soul and it shall praise thee He rejoyceth in this to see how welcome he is to God and that his prayer is accepted others come and are not regarded but he hath audience The things that God gives out to him have another form and taste then to the world they come all with tastes of love to him In love to my Soul saith Hezekiah hast thou delivered me in Isai 38.17 And whatsoever he hath he hath a better enjoyment of it then others by reason of his Interest in God he hath nothing from God as a meer gift but he hath God with it God saith to that man that hath Interest in him There take that which thou askedst for and me with it that is thine and I am thine and the enjoyment of God is more to him then all the world This spirit is upon all that he hath My Father gave me it it is the fruit of the love of the God of my life therefore I must use it in order according to order from him and not after my mind only All things are best enjoyed when they are enjoyed according to Rule We spoil the sweetest things when we take them according to our wills and so use them then they become another thing When a man can sit in his enjoyment of all things and see God this is a drop from the Fountain of Life and it is more then they have that seem to enjoy a thousand times more of the things of this life whose corn and oyl increase And if he be denyed if God see it not good to give him the things he desires yet he is satisfied he doth not contend with God nor doth his spirit rise up against his Maker he hath a word ready in his spirit Not my will but thy Will be done he saith If my God will not give me this it is well that he will give me himself I may be without this but I could not be without him and seeing he hath given himself to be my Portion I will wait with patience and be content all the days of my life In Eccless 5. ult saith Solomon If God give a man the joy of his Soul he shall not much remember the days of his vanity When God denies him any thing he remembers that he comes not to God for this particular thing but for the best good We come not to God for any thing but that which is for our good A good man saith If I had this thing it may be it would not do me good and herein his spirit is satisfied he saith God knows better then I what is good for me and if he thinks not such a thing meet for me I must think so too So you see how the knowledg of a mans Interest furthers his approaches to God and helps him in these three respects that we have mentioned CHAP. VI. How the knowledg of divine Interest doth promote Holiness sets Judgment and Nature against Sin keeps the heart from inordinate reaching after and holding fast present things Faith binds the Soul and keeps it bound makes all a Christians ways easie Assurance gives a double advantage to our great meeting with God IN this Chapter I shall in some particulars shew how the knowledg of our Interest in God doth promote and
this will banish those fears from the Soul and make a man to go out of the body with peace as one that knows whether he is going even out of an unquiet Sea to a quiet Harbor which he sees fair before him and where he shall be free from danger This is that which John speaks of 1 Epist 4.17 Herein is love made perfect the love of God is herein perfected hath its utmost sweetness efficacy and operation that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment It doth secure and quiet our spirits and doth answer all sad thoughts of the Soul that we may have boldness in that day because as he is so are we in this world Because as he is faithful and real in his love to us so we are faithful and real in our love to him so that there is a firm union and conjunction between God and us Another Advantage is that Assurance makes the heart to long after God and to be with Jesus Christ That most assured Saint Paul was by faith put into this temper and having a sight of those things within the vail and looking at them as before him how abundantly as one burdened doth he groan and sigh that he may be in the enjoyment of those things whereof he had a sight and hope So that it is of very great concernment for a man to know God to be his God in reference to his appearance before him at the last day My Exhortation to you all therefore shall be That you would labor to make your Interest certain that you may be able to say with Job I know that my Redeemer lives and as David in the Text I am thine A man cannot be a good man that drives not after this he knows not God at all that hath no desire of this assurance That man also what ever he knows of God is in a sad miserable and wretched condition that doubts whether God be his God that lives floating between hope and fear and yet lives without vehement desires and endeavors to have this question cleared Certainly you cannot be right if you have not such a desire of the enjoyment of this Interest to be able to say God is my God This we are to seek in truth and purity not to the quieting of our spirits only or to the indulgence of the flesh as many seem to long after the consolations of God that know not what they are but that God having so filled us we may become a sacrifice to him You must effectually prosecute this also in the utmost improvement of your might and power without ceasing till you have obtained it till you have that word sealed up in your Souls Son daughter be of good comfort for thy sins are forgiven thee lift up thy head for thy Maker is thy Husband It is the greatest folly in the world for Christians to pretend a life of faith and cut the life and sinews of just and necessary endeavors for the attaining assurance of the love of God A man should take heed of presuming upon God when he cannot say God is his God and he must take heed of pretending to live a life of faith in such a way that weakens his endeavors after assurance Certainly the same principle that carries a man from the world to God will make a man restless till he knows that God is his God and what things are contained in that Interest which things as it is a great grief not to know so if they be clouded it is usually from Gods displeasure by which the Soul is left fluctuating tossing rouling and wasting it self in anxieties clouds and perplexing doubts I say not that it 's always from displeasure because God hath other ends then he hath acquainted us withall yet I say usually it is so But as a wise father full of bowels if he be strange to his child or take any relation of love if it be clouded and darkened it usually betokens all is not well something is amiss So I say thou mayst justly suspect and take occasion to make a search what is the difference between God and thee and what is the cause of those clouds that are interposed between God and thy Soul In Isai 54.8 God tells us the spring of this evil In a little wrath for a moment I hid my face In a little wrath So that the suspending of comfort from our spirits leaving the Souls of men dubious and anxious about this great matter doth usually betoken displeasure all is not well FINIS