Being of a Holy state as that God be so much in our thoughts as to be preferred before all things else and principally beloved and obeyed and to be the end of our lives and the byas of our wills And there are some thoughts of God that are necessary only to acting and increase of grace 7. So great is the weakness of our Habits so many and great are the temptations to be overcome so many difficulties are in our way and the occasions so various for the exercise of each grace that it behoveth a Christian to exercise as much thoughtfulness about his end and work as hath any tendency to promote his work and to attain his end But such a thoughtfulness as hindereth us in our work by stopping or distracting or diverting us is no way pleasing unto God So excellent is our end that we can never encourage and delight the mind too much in the forethoughts of it So sluggish are our hearts and so loose and unconstant are our apprehensions and resolutions that we have need to be most frequently quickening them and lifting at them and renewing our desires and suppressing the contrary desires by the serious thoughts of God and Immortality Our Thoughts are the bellows that must kindle the flames of Love desire hope and zeal Our thoughts are the spur that must put on a sluggish tired heart And so far as they conduce to any such works and ends as these they are desireable and good But what Master loveth to see his servant sit down and Think when he should be at work Or to use his Thoughts only to grieve and vex himself for his faults but not to mend them to sit down lamenting that he is so bad and unprofitable a servant when he should be up and doing his Masters business as well as he is able Such Thoughts are sins as hinder us from duty or discourage or unfit us for it however they may go under a better name 8. The Godly themselves are very much wanting in the holiness of their thoughts and the liveliness of their affections Sense leadeth away the thoughts too easily after these present sensible things while faith being infirm the Thoughts of God and heaven are much disadvantaged by their invisibility Many a gracious soul cryeth out O that I could think as easily and as affectionately and as unweariedly about the Lord and the life to come as I can do about my friends my health my habitation my business and other concernments of this life But alas such thoughts of God and Heaven have far more enemies and resistance then the thoughts of earthly matters have 9. It is not distracting vexatious thoughts of God that the holy Scriptures call us to but it is to such thoughts as tend to the healing and peace and felicity of the soul and therefore it is not to a melancholy but a joyful life If God be better then the world it must needs be better to think of him If he be more beloved then any friend the thoughts of him should be sweeter to us If he be the everlasting hope and happiness of the soul it should be a foretast of happiness to find him nearest to our hearts The nature and use of holy thoughts and of all Religion is but to exalt and sanctifie and delight the soul and bring it up to everlasting Rest And is this the way to melancholy or madness Or is it not liker to make men melancholy to think of nothing but a vain deceitful and vexatious world that hath much to disquiet us but nothing to satisfie us and can give the soul no hopes of any durable delight 10. Yet as God is not equally related unto all so is he not the same to all mens thoughts If a wicked enemy of God and godliness be forced and frightened into some thoughts of God you cannot expect that they should be as sweet and comfortable thoughts as those of his most obedient children are While a man is under the guilt and power of his reigning sin and under the wrath and curse of God unpardoned unjustified a child of the devil it is not this mans duty to think of God as if he were fully reconciled to him and took pleasure in him as in his own Nor is it any wonder if such a man think of God with fear and think of his sin with grief and shame Nor is it any wonder if the justified themselves do think of God with fear and grief when they have provoked him by some sinful and unkind behaviour or are cast into doubts of their sincerity and interest in Christ and when he hides his face or assaulteth them with his terrors To doubt whether a man shall live for ever in Heaven or Hell may rationally trouble the thoughts of the wisest man in the world and it were but sottishness not to be troubled at it David himself could say In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ran in the night and ceased not my soul refused to be comforted I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed Thou holdest mine eyes waking I am so troubled that I cannot speak Will the Lord cast off for ever Psal. 77. 2 3 4 5 7. Yet all the sorrowful thoughts of God which are the duty of either the godly or the wicked are but the necessary preparatives of their joy It is not to melancholy distraction or despair that God calleth any even the worst But it is that the wicked would Seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near that he would forsake his way and the unrighteous man his Thoughts and return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon Isa. 55. 6 7. Despair is sin and the thoughts that tend to it are sinful thoughts even in the wicked If worldly crosses or the sense of danger to the soul had cast any into melancholy or overwhelmed them with fears you can name nothing in the world that in reason should be so powerful a remedy to recover them as the Thoughts of God his Goodness and Mercy and readiness to receive and pardon those that turn unto him his Covenant and Promises and Grace through Christ and the everlasting happiness which all may have that will accept and seek it in the time of grace and prefer it before the deceitful transitory pleasures of the world If the Thoughts of God and of the Heavenly everlasting joyes will not comfort the soul and cure a sad despairing mind I know not what can rationally do it Though yet its true that a presumptuous sinner must needs be in a trembling state till he find himself at peace with God And mistaken Christians that are cast into causeless doubts and fears by the malice of Satan are unlikely to walk comfortably with God till they are resolved and recovered from their mistakes and fears CHAP. V. Obj.
for the Head yet we are more for Christ as a means to his glory then he for us I mean he is the more excellent principal end For to this end Christ both dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14. 9. who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow both of things in heaven and things in earth and under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2. 6. to 12. Rev. 5. 8 9 10 11 12. And I beheld and I heard the voice of many Angels round about the Throne and the beasts and the elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing And every creature which is in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard I saying Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever So Rev. 15. 3 4. 20. 6. Rev. 21. 23. The City had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof Rev. 22. 3 4. The Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him And they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads These and many other Scriptures shew us that God will be for ever Glorified in the person of the Redeemer more then in either men or Angels and consequently that it was the principal part of his Intention in the design of mans Redemption 2. I will be briefer in the rest In the way of Redemption man will be saved with greater humiliation and self-denyal then he should have been in the way of Creation If we had been saved in a way of Innocency we should have had more to ascribe to our selves And it is meet that all Creatures be humbled and abased and nothing in themselves before the Lord. 3. By the way of Redemption sin will be more dishonoured and Holiness more advanced then if sin had never been known in the world Contraries illustrate one another Health would not be so much valued if there were no sickness nor Life if there were no Death nor Day if there were no Night nor Knowledge if there were no Ignorance nor Good if man had not known Evil. The Holiness of God would never have appeared in execution of vindictive Justice against sin if there had never been any sin and therefore he hath permitted it and will recover us from it when he could have prevented our falling into it 4. By this way also Holiness and Recovering Grace shall be more triumphant against the Devil and all its enemies By the many conquests that Christ will make over Satan the World and the Flesh and Death there will very much of God be seen to us that innocency would not thus have manifested 5. Redemption brings God nearer unto man The mysterie of Incarnation giveth us wonderful advantages to have more familiar thoughts of God and to see him in a clearer glass then ever we should else have seen him in on earth and to have access with boldness to the throne of grace The pure Deity is at so vast a distance from us while we are here in flesh that if it had not appeared in the flesh unto us we should have been at a greater loss But now without controversie great is the mysterie of godliness God was manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles believed on in the world and received up into glory 1 Tim. 3. 16. 6. In the way of Redemption man is brought to more earnest and frequent addresses unto God and dependance on him Necessity driveth him And he hath use for more of God or for God in more of the wayes of his mercy then else he would have had 7. Principally in this way of saving miserable man by a Redeemer there is opportunity for the more abundant exercise of Gods mercy and consequently for the more glorious discovery of his Love and Goodness to the sons of men then if they had fallen into no such Necessities Misery prepareth men for the sense of mercy In the Redeemer there is so wonderful a discovery of Love and Mercy as is the astonishment of men and Angels 1 Joh. 3. 1. Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God! Eph. 2. 4 5. God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ by grace yee are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us by Christ Jesus for by grace yee are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of works lest any man should boast Tit. 3 3 4. For we our selves were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures c. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Never was there such a discovery of God as he is Love in a way of Mercy to man on earth as in the Redeemer and his benefits 8. In the way of Redemption the soul of man is formed to the most sweet and excellent temper and his obedience cast into the happiest mold The glorious demonstration of Love doth animate us with Love to God and the shedding abroad of his Love in our hearts by the spirit of the Redeemer doth draw out our hearts in Love to him again And the sense of his wonderful Love and Mercy filleth us with Thankfulness so that Love is hereby made the nature of the new man and Thankfulness is the life of all our obedience For all floweth from these principles and expresseth them so that Love is the compendium of all Holiness in one word and Thankfulness of all Evangelical obedience And
is called a new begetting or new birth without which none can enter into heaven Joh. 3. 3 5 6. A renewing us and making us new men and new creatures so far as that old things are past away and all become new Eph. 4. 23 24. Col. 3. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 17. It is a new creating us after the Image of God Eph. 4. 24. It maketh us Holy as God is Holy 1 Pet. 1. 15 16. yea it maketh us partakers of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. It giveth us repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that we may recover our selves out of the snare of the Devil who were taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. It giveth us that Love by which God dwelleth in us and we in God 1 Joh. 4. 16. We are redeemed by Christ from all iniquity and therefore it is that he gave himself for us to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. It is an abundant shedding of the Holy Ghost on us for our renovation Tit. 3. 5 6. and by it a shedding the Love of God abroad in our hearts Rom. 5. 5. It is this Holy Spirit given to believers by which they pray and by which they mortifie the flesh Jud. 20. Rom. 8. 26. 13. By this Spirit we live and walk and rejoyce Rom. 8. 1. and 14. 17. Our joy and peace and hope is through the power of the Holy Ghost Rom 15. 13. It giveth us a spiritual mind and taketh away the carnal mind that is enmity against God and neither is nor can be subject to his law Rom. 8. 7. By this Spirit that is given to us we must know that we are Gods children 1 Joh. 3. 24. 4. 13. For if any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8 9. All holy graces are the fruits of the spirit Gal. 5. 22 23. It would be too long to number the several excellent effects of the sanctifying work of the spirit upon the soul and to recite the Elogies of it in the Scripture Surely it is no low or needless thing which all these expressions do intend Quest. 3. If you think it a most hainous sin to vilifie the Creator and his work and the Redeemer and his work why should not you think so of the vilifying of the sanctifier and his work when God hath so magnified it and will be glorified in it and when it is the applying perfecting work that maketh the purchased benefits of Redemption to be ours and formeth our Fathers Image on us Quest. 4. Do we not Doctrinally commit too much of that sin if we undervalue the Spirits sanctifying work as a common thing which the ungodly world do manifest in practice when they speak and live in a contempt or low esteem of grace And which is more injurious to God for a prophane person to jest at the Spirits work or for a Christian or Minister deliberately to extennate it especially when the preaching of grace is a Ministers chief work sure we should much fear partaking in so great a sin Quest. 5. Why is it that the Scripture speaks so much to take men off from boasting or ascribing any thing to themselves Rom. 3. 19. That every mouth may be stopped and why doth not the Law of works exclude boasting but only the Law of faith Rom. 3. 27. Surely the actions of nature except so far as it is corrupt are as truly of God as the acts of grace And yet God will not take it well to deny him the glory of Redemption or Sanctification and tell him that we paid it him in another kind and ascribed all to him as the author of our free will by natural production For as Nature shall honour the Creatour so Grace shall also honour the Redeemer and Sanctifier And God designeth the humbling of the sinner and teaching him to deny himself and to honour God in such a way as may stand with self abasement leaving it to God to honour those by way of reward that honour him in way of duty and deny their own honour Quest. 6. Why is the Blaspheming and sinning against the Holy Ghost made so hainous and dangerous a sin if the works of the Holy Ghost were not most excellent and such as God will be most honoured by Quest. 7. Is it not exceeding ingratitude for the soul that hath been illuminated converted renewed quickened and saved by the Holy Ghost to extenuate the mercy and ascribe it most to his natural Will O what a change was it that Sanctification made what a blessed birth day was that to our souls when we entered here upon Life Eternal Joh. 17. 3. And is this the thanks we give the Lord for so great a Mercy Quest. 8. What mean those texts if they consute not this unthankful opinion Phil. 2. 13. It is God that worketh in you to Will and to do of his good pleasure Eph. 2. 7 8 9 10. God hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might shâ—w the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus For by Grace ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of works lest any man should boast For we are his workmanship Created to Good works in Christ Jesus The like is in Tit. 3. 5 6. 7. Joh. 15. 16. Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain 1 Joh. 4. 10. Herein is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us 1 Cor. 4. 7. For who maketh thee to differ and what hast that thou that thou didst not receive Joh. 6. 44. No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can be know them because they are spiritually discerned Joh. 3. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit that is plainly the fleshly birth produceth but flesh and not spirit if any man will have the spirit and so be saved it must be by a spiritual begetting and birth by the Holy Ghost Act. 16. 14. The Lord opened Lydia's heart that she attended to the things that were spoken of Paul c. Was the Conversion of Paul a murdering persecuter his own work rather then the Lords when the means and manner were such as we read of Act. 22. 14. The God of our Fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldst know his will and see that just one and hear the voice of his mouth c. He was chosen to the Means and to faith and not only in faith to salvation When Christ called his Disciples
wisdom that knows best how to use his own If he take our friends from us he taketh but his own If he deny his saving grace to our ungodly children a heavy judgement of which we must be sensible yet when we have devoted them to God and done our own part we must be silent as Aaron was when his sons were destroyed Lev. 10. 3. and confess that the Potter hath power over his own clay to make of the same lump ae vessel to honour and another to dishonour Rom. 9. 21. All his disposals shall work to that end which is the most universal perfect good and most denominateth all the means But those that are his own by consent and Covenant may be sure that all shall work to their own good Let us die with Christ and be buried to the world and know no Lord or Owner but our great Creatour and Redeemer except in a limited subservient sense and then we may boldly argue with him to the quiet of our souls from this Relation I am thine help me Psal. 35. 23. Stir up thy self and awake to my judgement even to my cause my Lord and my God when faith and love have first said as Thomas my Lord and my God Joh. 20. 28. CHAP. XIV 13. THE next Relation to be spoken of is Gods soveraignty both by Creation and Redemption he hath the Right of Governing us as our Soveraign King and we are obliged to be his willing subjects and as such to obey his holy laws He is the Lord or Owner of all the world even of Brutes as properly as of Man But he is the Soveraign King or Governour only of the Reasonable Creature because no other are capable of that proper Moral Government which now we speak of Vulgarly indeed his Physical motions and dispositions are called his Rule or Government and so God is said to Govern Brutes and inanimate creatures but that is but a Metaphorical expression as an Artificer Metaphorically Governeth his clock or engine or a Shepheard his sheep But we now speak of proper moral Government God having made man a Rational and free agent having an immortal soul and capable of everlasting happiness his very nature and the end of his creation required that he should be conducted to that end and happiness by means agreeable to his nature that is by the Revelation of the Reward before he seeth it that he may seek it and be fitted for it and by prescribed duties that are necessary to obtain it and to his living here according to his nature and by threatned penalties to quicken him to his duty so that he is naturally a creature to be Governed both as sociable and as one to be conducted to his end He therefore that created him having alone both sufficiency and Right doth by this very Creation become his Governour His Government hath two parts the world being thus constituted the Kingdom of God The first is by Legislation or making Laws and Officers for execution The second is by the procuring the execution of these Laws To which end he doth exhort and perswade the subjects to obedience and judge them according to their works and execute his judgement His first Law was to Adam the Law of Nature obliging him to adhere to his Creator and to love him trust him fear him honour him and obey him with all his might in order to the pleasing of his Creator and the attainment of everlasting life To which was added a positive Law against the eating of the tree of Knowledge and Death was the penalty due to the sinner This Law was quickly broken by man and God delayed not his judgement but sentenced the Tempter the Woman and the Man but not according to their merits but graciously providing a Redeemer he presently stopt the execution of the far greatest part of the penalty the Son of God undertaking as our surety to become a sacrifice and ransome for us Hereupon the Covenant of Grace was made and the Law of Grace enacted with mankind but more obscurely in the beginning being cleared up by degrees in the several Promises to the Fathers the types of the Law and the Prophecies of the Prophets of several ages the Law being interposed because of transgression In the fulness of time the Messiah was incarnate and the first promises concerning him fulfilled and after his holy life and preachings and conquests of the Tempter and the world he gave himself a Ransome for us and conquering Death he Rose again ascended into Heaven being possessed in his manhood of the fulness of his power and all things being delivered into his hands so that he was made the General Administrator and Lord of all And thus he more clearly revealing his Covenant of Grace and bringing life and immortality to light commissioned his Ministers to preach this Gospel to all the world And thus the Primitive Soveraign is God and the Soveraign by Derivation is Jesus the Mediator in his manhood united to the second person in the Godhead and the Laws that we are governed by are the Law of Nature with the superadded Covenant of Grace the subordinate officers are Angels Magistrates and Pastors of the Church having works distinct the society it self is called the Church and Kingdom of God the Reward is everlasting glory with the mercies of this life in order to it and the Punishment is everlasting misery with the preparatory judgements especially on the soul which are here inflicted Subjection is due upon our first being and is consented to or vowed in Baptisme and is to be manifested in holy obedience to the death This is the Soveraignty and Government of God And now let us see how God as our Soveraign must be known 1. The Princes and all the Rulers of the world must understand their Place and Duty They are first Gods subjects and then his officers and can have no power but from God Rom. 13. 3 4. nor hold any but in dependance on him and subordination to him Their power extendeth no further then the Heavenly Soveraign hath signified his pleasure and by commission to them or command to us conferred it on them As they have no strength or natural power but from the Omnipotent God so can they have no Authority or Governing Power or Right but from the Absolute King of all the world They can less pretend to a Right of Governing not derived from God then a Justice or Constable may to such Power not derived from the earthly soveraigns Princes and States also must hence understand their End and Work God who is the Beginning must be the End also of their Government Their Laws must be but by Laws subservient to his Laws to further mens obedience to them The Common Good which is their lower nearer End must be measured by his Interest in the Nations and mens Relations unto him The Common possession of his favour blessing and protection is the greatest Common Good His Interest in us
for sin 2. The Fatherly Love and Benefits of God do call for our best returns of Love The Benefits of Creation oblige all to Love him with all their Heart and Soul and Might Much more the Benefits of Redemption and especially as applyed by sanctifying Grace to them that shall be heirs of life it obligeth them by multiplied strongest obligations The Worst are obliged to as much Love of God as the Best for none can be obliged to more than to Love him with all their Heart c. but they are not as much obliged to that Love We have new and special obligations and therefore must return a Hearty Love or we are doubly guilty Mercies are Loves Messengers sent from Heaven to win up our Hearts to Love again and entice us thither All mercies therefore should be used to this end That mercy that doth not encrease or excite and help our Love is abused and lost as seed that is buried when it 's sowed and never more appeareth Earthly Mercies point to Heaven and tell us whence they come and for what Like the Flowers of the Spring they tell us of the reviving approaches of the Sun But like foolish children because they are near us we Love the Flowers better than the Sun forgetting that the Winter is drawing on But Spiritual Mercies are as the Sun-shine that more immediately dependeth on and floweth from the Sun it self And he that will not see and value the Sun by its Light will never see it These beams come down to invite our Minds and Hearts to God and if we shut the windows or play till night and they return without us we shall be left to utter darkness The Mercies of God must imprint upon our minds the fullest and deepest conceptions of him as the most perfect suitable Lovely Objects to the soul of man when all our Good is Originally in him and all flows from him that hath the Goodness of a Means and finally himself is all not to Love God then is not to Love Goodness it self and there is nothing but Good that 's suited to our Love Night and day therefore should the Believer be drawing and deriving from God by the views and tasts of his precious Mercies a sweetness of nature and increase of holy Love to God as the Bee sucks Honey from the flowers We should not now and then for a recreation light upon a flower and meditate on some Mercy of the Lord but make this our work from day to day and keep continually upon our souls the lively tasts and deep impressions of the Infinite Goodness and Amiableness of God When we Love God most we are at the best most pleasing to God and our lives are sweetest to our selves And when we steep our minds in the believing thoughts of the abundant Fatherly Mercies of the Lord we shall most abundantly Love him Every Mercy is a Suiter to us from God! The contents of them all is this My Son Give mee thy Heart Love him that thus loveth thee Love him or you reject him O wonderful Love that God will regard the Love of man that he will enter into a Covenant of Love that he will be Related to us in a Relation of Love and that he will deal with us on terms of Love that he will give us leave to Love him that are so base and have so Loved Earth and Sin yea and that he will be so earnest a suiter for our Love as if he needed it when it is only we that need But the paths of Love are mysterious and incomprehensible 3. As God is in special a Benefactor and Father to us we must be the readiest and most diligent in obedience to him Childlike duty is the most willing and unwearied kind of duty Where Love is the principle we shall not be eye-servants but delight to do the Will of God and wish O that I could please him more It is a singular delight to a Gracious soul to be upon any acceptable duty and the more he can do good and please the Lord the more he is pleased As Fatherly Love and Benefits are the fullest and the surest so will filial duty be The Heart is no fit soil for Mercies if they grow not up to holy fruits The more you love the more chearfully will you obey 4. From hence we must well learn both How God is mans End and what are the chief Means that lead us to him 1. God is not the End of Reason nakedly considered but he is Finis Amantis the End which Love inclineth us to and which by Love is attained and by love enjoyed The understanding of which would resolve many great perplexing difficulties that à natura finis do step into our way in Theological studies I will name no more now but only that it teacheth us How both God and our own Felicity in the fruition of him may be said to be our Ultimate End without any contradiction yet so that it be Eminently and Chiefly God For it is a Union such as our Natures are capable of that is desired in which the soul doth long to be swallowed up in God Understand but what a filial or friendly Love is and you may understand what a regular Intention is and how God must be the Christians End 2. And withall it shews us that the most direct and excellent means of our felicity and to our End are those that are most suited to the work of Love Others are means more Remotely and necessary in their places but these directly And therefore the Promises and Narratives of the Love and Mercy of the Lord are the most direct and powerful part of the Gospel conducing to our End and the Threatnings the remoter means And therefore as Grace was advanced in the world the Promissory part of Gods Covenant or Law grew more illustrious and the Gospel consisted so much of Promises that it is called Glad tydings of great joy And therefore the most full demonstration of Gods Goodness and Loveliness to our hearers is the most excellent part of all our Preaching though it is not all And therefore the meditation of Redemption is more powerful than the bare meditation of Creation because it is Redemption that most eminently revealeth Love And therefore Christ is the Principal Means of Life because he is the Principal Messenger and Demonstration of the Fathers Love and by the wonders of Love which he revealeth and exhibiteth in his wondrous Grace he wins the soul to the Love of God For God will have external objective means and internal effective means concur because he will work on man agreeably to the nature of man Though there was never given out such prevalent invincible measures of the Spirit as Christ hath given for the Renewing of those that he will save yet shall not that Spirit do it without as excellent objective means And though Christ and the Riches of his Grace revealed in the Gospel be the most wonderful
objective means yet shall not these do it without the internal effectual means But when Love doth shine to us so resplendently without us in the face of the Glorious Sun of Love and is also â—et into us by the Spirits Illumination that sheds abroad this Love in our hearts then will the holy fire burn which comes from Heaven and leads to Heaven and will never rest till it have reacht its center and brought us to the face and arms of God 5. And from the Fatherly Relation and Love of God we must learn to Trust him and Rest our souls in his securing Love Shall we distrust a Father an Omnipotent Father Therefore is this Relation prefixed to the Petitions of the Lords Prayer and we begin with Our Father which art in Heaven that when we remember his Love and our Interest in him and his Alsufficiency we may be encouraged to Trust him and make our addresses to him If a Father and such a Father smite mee I will submit and kiss the Rod for I know it is the healing fruit of Love If a Father and such a Father afflict mee wound mee deal strangely wiâ—h mee and grieve my flesh let mee not murmure or distrust him for he well understandeth what he doth and nothing that shall hurt mee finally can come from Omnipotent Paternal Love If a Father and such a Father kill mee yet let mee Trust in him and let not my soul repine at his proceedings nor tremble at the separating stroak of death A Beast knows not when we strive with him what we intend whether to Cure or to Kill him but a Child need not fear a killing blow nor a Loving soul a damning death from such a Father If he be a Father where is his Love and Trust 6. If God be our Father and so wonderful a Benefactor to us then Thanks and Praise must be our most constant work and must be studied above all the rest of Duty and most diligently performed If the tongue of man which is called his Glory be made for any thing and good for any thing it is to give the Lord his Glory in the Thankful acknowledgement of his Love and Mercies and the daily chearful Praises of his Name Let this then be the Christians work 7. The Children of such a Father should live a contented chearful life Diligence becometh them but not contrivances for worldly greatness nor carking cares for that which their Father hath promised them to care for Humility and Reverence beseemeth them but not dejection and despondency of mind and a still complaining fearful troubled disconsolate soul. If the Children of such a Father shall not be bold and confident and chearful let joy and confidence then be banished from the earth and be renounced by all the Sons of men CHAP. XVI 15. THere are yet divers subordinate Attributes of God that being comprized in the forementioned may be passed over with the briefer touch And the next that I shall speak of is his Freedome And God is Free in more senses than one but for brevity I shall speak of all together 1. And first God hath a Natural Freedome of Will being Determined to Will by nothing without him nor liable to any Necessity but what is consistent with perfect Blessedness and Liberty His own Being and Blessedness and Perfections are not the objects of his Election and therefore not of that which we call Free Will But all his works without as Creation Providence Redemption c. are the effects of his Free Will Not but that his Will concerning all these hath a Necessity of existence For God did from Eternity Will the Creation and all that is done in time and therefore from Eternity that will existing had a Necessity of existence But yet it was Free because it proceedeth not Necessarily from the very Nature of God God was God before he made the world or Redeemed it or did the things that are daily done And therefore one part of the Schoolmen maintain not only that there is Contingency from God but that there could be no Contingency in the Creature if it had not its Original in God the Liberty of God being the fountain of Contingency 2. There is also an Eminency both of Dominion and Soveraignty in God according to which he may be called Free His Absoluteness of Propriety freeth him from the restraint of any Obligation but what floweth from his own Free Will from Disposing of his own as he pleases And his Absolute Soveraignty freeth him from the Obligation of his own Laws as Laws though he will still be true to his Promises and Predictions Let man therefore take heed how he questioneth his Maker or censureth his Laws or Works or Waies CHAP. XVII 16. ANother Attribute of God is his Justice With submission I conceive that this is not to be said to be from 〈◊〉 any otherwise than all Gods Relations are as Creator 〈◊〉 c. because here is no time with God For though 〈◊〉 Blessed Nature denominated Just is from Eternity yet not 〈◊〉 â—â—râ—ality or Denomination of Justice For Justice is an Attribute of God as he is Governour only And he was not Governour till he had Creatures to Govern And he could not be a Just Governour when he was no Governour The Denomination â—â—â— not arise till the Creation had laid the Foundation Many Questions may be resolved hence which I will not trouble you to reâ—â—â—e Justice in God is the Perfection of his Nature as it giveth every his his due oâ— Governeth the world in the most perfect Orders â—or the Ends of Government Because he is Just he will Reward the Righteous and difference between the Godly and the Wicked For that Governor that useth all alike is not Just. The Crown of Righteousness is given by him as a Righteous Judge 2 Tâ—m 4. 8. 1. The Justice of God is substantially in men we call it an Inclination â—â—â— Nature and so it is Eternal 2. It is 〈◊〉 formally in his Relation of Governour 3. It is expressively first in his Laws For as a Just Governour he made them suited to the Subjects Objects and Ends. 4 It is expressively secondarily in his Judgments and Executions which is when they are according to his Law oâ— in the Cares of Penalty where he may dispense at least according to the state of the subject and sitted to the Ends of Government 1. The Justice of God is the Consolation of the Just He will Justifie them whom his Gospel Justifieth because he is Just. The Justice of God in many places of Scripture is taken for his Fidelity in vindicating his people and his Judging for them and procuring them the happy fruits of his Government and so is taken in a Consolatory sense Psal. 89. 14. Justice and Judgement are the habitations of thy Throne Mercy and Truth shall go before thy face 2 Thes. 1. 5 6. It is a Righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble
Tell them that death and judgement are at hand and that when they laugh or sport or scorn and jeast at the Displeasure of the Dreadful God it is posting toward them and will be upon them before they are aware and when they slumber their damnation slumbereth not but while unbelieving sinners say Peace Peace sudden destruction will come upon them as unexpected travail on a woman with child and they shall not escape O tell them how dreadful a thing it is for a soul that is unregenerate and unsanctified to go from that body which it pampered and sold its salvation to pleasure and to appear at the tribunal of God and how dreadful it is for such a soul to fall into the hands of the living God At least save your own souls by the faithful discharge of so great a duty and if they will take no warning let them at last remember when it is too late that they were told in time what they should see and feel at last and what the later end would prove and that God and man did warn them in compassion though they perish because they would have no compassion or mercy upon themselves Thus let the Terribleness of God provoke you to do your duty with speed and zeal for the converting and saving of miserable souls AND thus I have briefly set before you the Glass in which you may see the Lord and told you how he must be known and how he must be conceived of in our apprehensions and how the knowledge of God must be improved and what impressions it must make upon the heart and what effect it must have upon our lives Blessed and for ever blessed are those souls that have the truly and lively Image of this God and all these his Attributes imprinted on them as to the Creature they are communicable And O that the veil were taken from our hearts that we all with open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Loord may be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. and may increase and live in the knowledge of the true and only God and of Jesus Christ which is Eternal Life Amen THE DESCRIPTION Reasons Reward OF THE BELIEVERS Walking with God On Gen. 5. 24. By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed for Francis Tyton at the three Daggers in Fleet-street and Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster 1664. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE Text explained what it is to Walk with God what it containeth both for Matter and Manner Page 159 CHAP. II. The first Use A Lamentation of the practical Atheisme of the world Motives to change your inordinate creature-converse into converse with God How much sinners have to do with God more than with all the world besides shewedin 14 instances p. 185 CHAP. III. An answer to them that think God doth us good by necessity of Nature as the sun doth illuminate and warm us and therefore though he have much to do for us yet much is not required from us towards him And to them that think he is above our converse and unsuitable to us Ten Quere's to evince the necessity of our own holy diligence in godliness Especially of exercising our Thoughts upon God Ten mischiefs that befall them who have not God in all their Thoughts p. 205 CHAP. IV. Practical Atheism further detected An answer to them that think it unfit for ignorant men or poor men to think so much of God and that it will make men melancholy and mad Ten propositions shewing how far it is our duty to Think of God by way of explication p. 220 CHAP. V. An answer to them that say God regardeth not Thoughts but Deeds Twelve evidences of the regardableness of our Thoughts p. 230 CHAP. VI. The application to the Godly The Benefits of walking with God I. It is suitable to humane Nature Hoâ— it is Natural No middle life between the sensual and the Holy Of them that delight in Knowledge and moral vertue Nature in its first constitution was not only Innocent but Holy Proved II. To walk with God is the highest and noblest life III. It is the only course to prove and make men truly wise Proved by ten evidences IV. It maketh men good as well as wise and advanceth to the greatest holiness and rectitude Proved by five evidences V. It is the best preparation for sufferings and death shewed by seven advantages to that end p. 235 CHAP. VII Five special obligations on true believers to walk with God and to avoid inordinate Creature-converse p. 277 CHAP. I. Gen. 5. 24. And Henoch walked with God and he was not for God took him BEeing to speak of our Converse with God in Solitude I think it will not be unsuitable nor unserviceable to the Ends of that Discourse if I here premise a short description of the General Duty of practical godliness as it is called in Scripture a Walking with God It is here commended to us in the example of Holy Henoch whose excellency is recorded in this signal character that he walked with God and his special Reward expressed in the words following and he was not for God took him I shall speak most of his Character and then somewhat of his Reward The Samaritan and vulgar-Latine versions do strictly translate the Hebrew as we read it but the interpretation of the Septuagint the Syriack the Chaldee and the Arabick are rather good expositions all set together of the meaning of the word than strict translations The Septuagint and Syriack read it Henoch pleased God The Chaldee hath Henoch walked in the fear of God And the Arabick he walked in obedience to God And indeed to walk in the fear and obedience of God and thereby to please him is the principal thing in our Walking with God The same Character is given of Noah in Gen. 6. 19. and the extraordinary Reward annexed He and his family were saved in the Deluge And the holy life which God commanded Abraham is called a walking before God Gen. 17. 1. Walk before me and be thou perfect And in the New Testament the Christian Conversation is ordinarily called by the name of Walking Sometime a Walking in Christ as Col. 2. 6. Sometime a Walking in the spirit in which we live Gal. 5. 25. And a Walking after the spirit Rom. 8. 1. Sometime a Walking in the Light as God is in the Light 1 Joh. 1. 7. Those that abide in Christ must so walk even as he hath walked 1 Joh. 2. 6. These phrases set together tell us what it is to Walk with God But I think it not unprofitable somewhat more particularly to shew you what this Walking with God doth contain As Atheism is the sum of wickedness so all true Religiousness is called by the name of Godliness or Holiness which is nothing else but our Devotedness to God and Living to Him and our Relation to Him as thus Devoted in Heart and Life
heaven with the blessed God then may we with the holy Apostle be in the spirit on the Lords day Rev. 1. 10. and if we turn away our foot from the Sabbath from doing our pleasure on that holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shall honour him not doing our own wayes nor finding our own pleasure nor speaking our own words then shall we delight our selves in the Lord Isa. 58. 13 14. and understand how great a priviledge it is to have the liberty of those holy dayes and duties for our sweet and heavenly converse with God 4. Our walking with God must be a matter of industry and diligence It is not an occasional idle converse but a life of observance obedience and imployment that this phrase importeth The sluggish idle wishes of the hypocrite whose hands refuse to labour are not this walking with God nor the sacrifice of fools who are hasty to utter the overflowings of their fantasie before the Lord while they keep not their foot nor hearken to the Law nor consider that they do evil Eccles. 5. 1 2 3. He that cometh to God and will walk with him must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him God is with you while you are with him but if you forsake him he will forsake you 2 Chron. 15. 2. Up and be doing and the Lord will be with you 1 Chron. 22. 16. If you would meet with God in the way of Mercy take diligent heed to do the Commandment and Law to love the Lord your God and to walk in all his Wayes and to cleave unto him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul Josh. 22. 5. 5. Our walking with God is a matter of some Constancy It signifieth our course and trade of life and not some accidental action on the by A man may walk with a stranger for a Visit or in Complement or upon some unusual occasion But this walk with God is the act of those that dwell with him in his Family and do his work It is not only to step and speak with him or cry to him for mercy in some great extremity or to go to Church for company or custome or think or talk of him sometime heartlesly on the by as a man will talk of news or matters that are done in a forein Land or of persons that we think we have little to do with But it is to be alwaies with him Luk. 15. 31. To seek first his Kingdom and Righteousness Matth. 6. 33. Not to labour comparatively for the food that perisheth but for that which endureth to everlasting life Joh. 6. 27. To delight in the Law of the Lord and meditate in it day and night Psal. 1. 2. That his words be in our hearts and that we teach them diligently to our Children and talk of them sitting in the house and walking by the way lying down and rising up c. Deut. 6. 6 7 8. That we pray continually 1 Thes. 5. 17. And in all things give thanks But will the hypocrite delight himself in the Almighty or will he alwaies call upon God Job 27. 10. His goodness is as the morning Cloud and as the early Dew it goeth away Hos. 6. 4. So much of the description of this walking with God CHAP. II. Use. WE are next to consider how far this doctrine doth concern our selves and what use we have to make of it upon our hearts and lives And first it acquainteth us with the abundance of Atheism that is in the world even among those that profess the knowledge of God It is Atheism not only to say There is no God but to say so in the heart Psal. 14. 1. While the heart is no more affected towards him observant of him or consident in him or submissive to him than if indeed there were no God When there is nothing of God upon the Heart no Love no Fear no Trust no Subjection then is Heart-Atheism When men that have some kind of knowledge of God yet glorifie him not as God nor are thankful to him but become vain in their imaginations and their foolish hearts are darkened these men are Heart-Atheists and professing themselves wise they become fools and are given up to vile affections And as they do not like to retain God in their knowledge however they may discourse of him so God oft giveth them over to a reprobate mind to do those things that are not convenient being filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness maliciousness envy murther debate deceit malignity c. Rom. 1. 21 22 26 28 29 30. Swarms of such Atheists go up and down under the self-deceiving name of Christians being indeed unbelieving and defiled so void of Purity that they deride it and nothing is Pure to them but even their mind and conscience is defiled They profess that they know God but they deny him in their works being abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate Tit. 1. 15 16. What is he but an Atheist when God is not in all his thoughts Psal. 10. 4. unless it be in their impious or blaspheming thoughts or in their sleight contemptuous thoughts To take God for God indeed and for our God essentially includeth the taking him to be the most powerful wist and good the most just and holy the Creator Preserver and Governour of the world whom we and all men are obliged absolutely to obey and fear to love and desire whose Will is our Beginning Rule and End He that taketh not God for such as here described taketh him not for God and therefore is indeed an Atheist What name soever he assumeth to himself this is the name that God will call him by even a fool that hath said in his heart there is no God while they are corrupt and do abominably they understand not and seek not after God they are all gone aside and are altogether become filthy there is none of them that doth good they are workers of iniquity that have no knowledge and eat up the people of God as bread and call not upon the Lord Psal. 14. 1 2 3 4. Ungodliness is but the English for Atheism The Atheist or Ungodly in Opinion is he that thinks that there is no God or that he is One that we need not Love and Serve and that is but the same viz. to be no God The Atheist or Ungodly in Heart or Will is he that consenteth not that God shall be his God to be loved feared and obeyed before all The Atheist in Life or outward practice is he that liveth as without God in the world that seeketh him not as his chiefest good and obeyeth him not as his highest absolute Lord so that indeed Atheism is the summe of all iniquity as Godliness is the summe of all Religion and moral good If you see by the description which I have given you
unresistibly procureth our Love to them And when we Love them it is wonderful to observe how easily we are brought to think well of almost all they do and highly to value their judgements graces parts and works when greater excellencies in another perhaps are scarce observed or regarded but as a common thing And therefrre the destruction or want of Love is apparent in the vilifying thoughts and speeches that most men have of one another and in the low esteem of the judgements and performances and lives of other men much more in their contempt reproaches and cruel persecutions Now though God will have us encrease in our Love of Christ in his members and in our pure Love of Christians as such and in our common charity to all yea and in our just fidelity to our friend yet would he have us suspect and moderate our selfish and excessive Love and inordinate partial esteem of one above another when it is but for our selves and on our own account And therefore as he will make us know that we our selves are no such excellent persons as that it should make another so laudable or advance his worth because he Loveth us so he will make us know that our friends whom we overvalue are but like other men If we exalt them too highly in our esteem it is a sign that God must cast them down And as their Love to us was it that made us so exalt them so their unkindness or unfaithfulness to us is the fittest means to bring them lower in our estimation and affection God is very jealous of our hearts as to our overvaluing and overloving any of his Creatures what we give inordinately and excessively to them is some way or other taken from him and given them to his injury and therefore to his offence Though I know that to be void of natural friendly or social affections is an odious extream on the other side yet God will rebuke us if we are guilty of excess And it 's the greater and more inexcusable fault to over-love the Creature because our Love to God is so cold and hardly kindled and kept alive He cannot take it well to see us dote upon dust and frailty like our selves at the same time when all his wondrous kindness and attractive goodness do cause but such a faint and languid Love to him which we our selves can scarcely feel If therefore he cure us by permitting our friends to shew us truly what they are and how little they deserve such excessive Love when God hath so little it is no more wonder than it is that he is tender of his glory and merciful to his servants souls 5. By the failing and unfaithfulness of our friends the wonderful Patience of God will be observed and honoured as it is shewed both to them and us When they forsake us in our distress especially when we suffer for the cause of Christ it is God that they injure more than us And therefore if he bear with them and forgive their weakness upon repentance why should not we do so that are much less injured The worlds persidiousness should make us think How great and wonderful is the patience of God that beareth with and beareth up so vile ungrateful treacherous men that abuse him to whom they are infinitely obliged And it should make us consider when men deal treacherously with us How great is that mercy that hath born with and pardoned greater wrongs which I my self have done to God than these can be which men have done to me It was the remembranâ—e of David's sin that had provoked God to raise up his own Son against him of whom he had been too fond which made him so easily bear the curses and reproach of Shimei It will make us bear abuse from others to remember how ill we have dealt with God and how ill we have deserved at his hands our selves 6. And I have observed another of the Reasons of Gods permitting the failing of our friends in the season and success It is that the Love of our friends may not hinder us when we are called to suffer or dye When we over-love them it teareth our very hearts to leave them And therefore it is a strong temptation to draw us from our duty and to be unfaithful to the cause of Christ lest we should be taken from our too-dear friends or lest our suffering cause their too-much grief It is so hard a thing to dye with willingness and peace that it must needs be a mercy to be saved from the impediments which make us backward And the excessive Love of friends and relations is not the least of these impediments O how loth is many a one to dye when they think of parting with wife or husband or children or dear and faithful friends Now I have oft observed that a little before their death or sickness it is ordinary with God to permit some unkindness between such too-dear friends to arise by which he moderated and abated their affections and made them a great deal the willinger to dye Then we are ready to say It is time for me to leave the world when not only the rest of the world but my dearest friends have first forsaken me This helpeth us to remember our dearest everlasting friend and to be grieved at the heart that we have been no truer our selves to him who would not have forsaken us in our extremity And sometime it maketh us even aweary of the world and to say as Elias Lord take away my life c. 1 King 19. 4 10 14. when we must say I thought I had one friend left and behold even he forsaketh me in my distress As the Love of friends intangleth our affections to this world so to be weaned by their unkindnesses from our friends is a great help to loosen us from the world and proveth oft a very great mercy to a soul that is ready to depart And as the friends that Love us most and have most interest in our esteem and Love may do more than others in tempting us to be unfaithful to our Lord to entertain any errour to commit any sin or to flinch in suffering so when God hath permitted them to forsake us and to lose their too great interest in us we are fortified against all such temptations from them I have known where a former intimate friend hath grown strange and broken former friendship and quickly after turned to such dangerous wayes and errours as convinced the other of the mercifulness of God in weakning his temptation by his friends desertion who might else have drawn him along with him into sin And I have often observed that when the husbands have turned from Religion to Infidelity Familism or some dangerous heresie that God hath permitted them to hate and abuse their wives so inhumanely as that it preserved the poor women from the temptation of following them in their Apostasie or sin When as some other women with
according unto Godliness but doth subserve our carnal ends 6. In the next form we grow to study more the pure and wonderful Love of God in Christ and to rellish and admire that Love and to be taken up with the Goodness and tender mercies of the Lord and to be kindling the flames of holy Love to him that hath thus Loved us and to keep our souls in the exercise of that Love And withall to live in Joy and Thanks and Praise to him that hath redeemed us and Loved us And also by Faith to converse in Heaven and to live in holy contemplation beholding the Glory of the Father and the Redeemer in the Glass which is fitted to our present use till we come to see him face to face Those that are the highest in this form do so walk with God and burn in Love and are so much above inferiour vanities and are so conversant by Faith in Heaven that their hearts even dwell there and there they long to be for ever 7. And in the highest form in the School of Christ we are exercising this confirmed Faith and Love in sufferings especially for Christ In following him with our Cross and being conformed to him and glorifying God in the fullest exercise and discovery of his Graces in us and in an actual trampling upon all that standeth up against him for our hearts and in bearing the fullest witness to his Truth and Cause by constant enduring though to the death Not but that the weakest that are sincere must suffer for Christ if he call them to it Martyrdome it self is not proper to the strong Believers Whoever forsaketh not all that he hath for Christ cannot be his Disciple Luke 14. 33. But to suffer with that Faith and Love forementioned and in that manner is proper to the strong And usually God doth not try and exercise his young and weak ones with the tryals of the strong nor set his Infants on so hard a service nor put them in the front or hottest of the battel as he doth the ripe confirmed Christians The sufferings of their inward doubts and fears doth take up such It is the strong that ordinarily are called to sufferings for Christ at least in any high degree I have digrest thus far to make it plain to you that our Conformity to Christ and fellowship with him in his sufferings in any notable degree is the lot of his best confirmed servants and the highest forme in his School among his Disciples and therefore not to be inordinately feared or abhorred nor to be the matter of impatiency but of holy joy and in such infirmities we may glory And if it be so of sufferings in the general for Christ then is it so of this particular sort of suffering even to be forsaken of all our best and nearest dearest friends when we come to be most abused by the enemies For my own part I must confess that as I am much wanting in other parts of my conformity to Christ so I take my self to be yet much short of what I expect he should advance me to as long as my friends no more forsake me It is not long since I found my self in a low if not a doubting case because I had so few enemies and so little sufferings for the cause of Christ though I had much of other sorts And now that doubt is removed by the multitude of furies which God hath let loose against me But yet methinks while my friends themselves are so friendly to me I am much short of what I think I must at last attain to BUt let us look further into the Text and see what is the cause of the failing and forsaking Christ in the Disciples and what it is that they betake themselves to when they leave him Ye shall be scattered every man to his Own Self-denyal was not perfect in them selfishness therefore in this hour of temptation did prevail They had before forsaken all to follow Christ they had left their Parents their Families their Estates their Trades to be his Disciples But though they believed him to be the Christ yet they dreamt of a visible Kingdome and did all this with too carnal expectations of being great men on earth when Christ should begin his reign And therefore when they saw his apprehension and ignominious suffering and thought now they were frustrate of their hopes they seem to repent that they had followed him though not by apostasie and an habitual or plenary change of mind yet by a sudden passionate frightful apprehension which vanished when grace performed its part They now began to think that they had lives of their Own to save and families of their Own to mind and business of their Own to do They had before forsaken their private interests and affairs and gathered themselves to Jesus Christ and lived in communion with him and one another But now they return to their trades and callings and are scattered every man to his own Selfishness is the great enemy of all societies of all fidelity and friendship There is no trusting that person in whom it is predominant And the remnants of it where it doth not reign do make men walk unevenly and unsteadfastly towards God and men They will certainly deny both God and their friends in a time of tryal who are not able to deny themselves Or rather he never was a real friend to any that is predominantly selfish They have alway some interest of their own which their friend must needs contradict or is insufficient to satisfie Their houses their lands their monies their children their honour or something which they call their Own will be frequently the matter of contention and are so near them that they can for the sake of these cast off the nearest friend Contract no special friendship with a selfish man nor put no confidence in him whatever friendship he may profess He is so confined to himself that he hath no true love to spare for others If he seem to love a friend it is not as a friend but as a servant or at best as a benefactour He loveth you for himself as he loveth his money or horse or house because you may be serviceable to him Or as a horse or dog doth love his keeper for feeding him And therefore when your provender is gone his love is gone when you have done feeding him he hath done loving you When you have no more for him he hath no more for you Object But some will say it is not the falseness of my friend that I lament but the separation or the loss of one that was most faithful I have found the deceitfulness of ordinary friends and therefore the more highly prize those few that are sincere I had but one true friend among abundance of self-seekers and that one is dead or taken from me and I am left as in a wilderness having no mortal man that I can trust or take much comfort in Answ.
Is this your case I pray you answer these few Questions and suffer the truth to have its proper work upon your mind Quest. 1. Who was it that deprived you of your friend was it not God Did not he that gave him you take him from you Was it not his Lord and owner that call'd him home And can God do any thing injuriously or amiss will you not give him leave to do as he list with his own Dare you think that there was wanting either wisdom or goodness justice or mercy in Gods disposal of your friend Or will you ever have Rest if you cannot have Rest in the will of God 2. How know you what sin your friend might have fallen into if he had lived as long as you would have him You 'l say that God could have preserved him from sin It 's true but God preserveth sapientially by means as well as omnipotentially And sometime he seeth that the temptations to that person are like to be so strong and his corruption like to get such advantage and that no means is so fit as Death it self for his preservation And if God had permitted your friend by temptation to have fallen into some scandalous sin or course of evil or into errors or false wayes would it not have been much worse then death to him and you God might have suffered your friend that was so faithful to have been sifted and shaken as Peter was and to have denied his Lord and to have seemed in your own eyes as odious as he before seemed amiable 3. How know you what unkindness to your self your dearest friend might have been guilty of Alas there is greater frailty and inconstancy in man then you are aware of And there are sadder roots of corruption unmortified that may spring up into bitter fruits then most of us ever discover in our selves Many a Mother hath her heart broken by the unnaturalness of such a child or the unkindness of such a husband as if they had died before would have been lamented by her with great impatience and excess How confident soever you may be of the future fidelity of your friend you little know what tryal might have discovered Many a one hath failed God and man that once were as confident of themselves as ever you were of your friend And which of us see not reason to be distrustful of our selves And can we know another better then our selves or promise more concerning him 4. How know you what great calamity might have bifallen your friend if he had lived as long as you desired When the Righteous seem to men to perish and merciful men are taken away it is from the evil to come that they are taken Isa. 57. 1. How many of my friends have I lamented as if they had died unseasonably concerning whom some following providence quickly shewed me that it would have been a grievous misery to them to have lived longer Little know you what calamities were eminent on his person his family kindred neighbours country that would have broke his heart What if a friend of yours had died immediately before some calamitous subversion of a Kingdome some ruines of the Church c. and if ignorantly he had done that which brought these things to pass can you imagine how lamentably sad his life would have been to him to have seen the Church the Gospel and his Country in so sad a case especially if it had been long of him Many that have unawares done that which hath ruined but a particular friend have lived in so much grief and trouble as made them consent that death should both revenge the injured on them and conclude their misery What then would it have been to have seen the publick good subverted and the faithful overwhelmed in misery and the Gospel hindered and holy worship changed for deceit and vanity and for conscience to have been daily saying I had a hand in all this misery I kindled the fire that hath burned up all What comfort can you think such friends if they had survived would have found on earth Unless it were a comfort to hear the complaints of the afflicted to see and hear such odious sins as sometimes vexed righteous Lot to see and hear or to hear of the scandals of one friend and the apostasie of another and the sinful compliances and declinings of a third and to be under temptations reproaches and afflictions themselves Is it a matter to be so much lamented that God hath prevented their greater miseries and wo 5. What was the world to your friends while they did enjoy it Or what is it now or like to be hereafter to your selves was it so good and kind to them as that you should lament their separation from it was it not to them a place of toil and trouble of envy and vexation of enmity and poison of successive cares and fears and griefs and worst of all a place of sin Did they groan under the burden of a sinful nature a distempered tempted troubled heart of languishings and weakness of every grace of the rebukes of God the wounds of conscience and the malice of a wicked world And would you have them under these again Or is their deliverance become your grief Did you not often joyn in prayer with them for deliverance from malice calamities troubles imperfections temptations and sin and now those prayers are answered in their deliverance and do you now grieve at that which then you prayed for Doth the world use your selves so well and kindly as that you should be sorry that your friends partake not of the feast Are you not groaning from day to day your selves and are you grieved that your friends are taken from your griefs you are not well pleased with your own condition when you look into your hearts you are displeased and complain when you look into your lives you are displeased and complain when you look into your families into your neighbourhoods unto your friends unto the Church unto the Kingdome unto the world you are displeased and complain And are you also displeased that your friends are not under the same displeasedness and complaints as you Is the world a place of Rest or trouble to you And would you have your friends to be as far from Rest as you And if you have some Ease and Peace at present you little know what storms are near you may see the dayes you may hear the tydings you may feel the griping griefs and pains which may make you call for Death your selves and make you say that a life on earth is no felicity and make you confess that they are Blessed that are dead in the Lord as resting from their labours and being past these troubles griefs and fears Many a poor troubled soul is in so great distress as that they take their own lives to have some tast of Hell and yet at the same time are grieving because their friends are taken from them who
had been less with the dearest of my friends How much more sweet then would my life have been How much more blameless regular and pure How much more fruitful and answerable to my obligations and professions How much more comfortable to my review How many falls and hurts and wounds and griefs and groans might I have escaped O how much more pleasing is it now to my Rememberance to think of the hours in which I have lain at the feet of God though it were in tears and groans than to think of the time which I have spent in any common converse with the greatest or the learnedest or the dearest of my acquaintance And as my Greatest business is with God so my daily business is also with him He purposely leaveth me under wants and suffers necessities daily to return and enemies to assault me and affliction to surprize me that I may be daily driven to him He loveth to hear from me He would have me be no stranger with him I have business with him every hour I need not want employment for all the faculties of my soul if I know what it is to converse in Heaven Even prayer and every holy thought of God hath an Object so great and excellent as should wholly take me up Nothing must he thought or spoken lightly about the Lord. His name must not be taken in vain Nothing that is common beseemeth his worshippers He will be sanctified of all that shall draw near him He must be Loved with all the Heart and Might His servants need not be wearied for want of employment nor through the lightness or unprofitableness of their employment If I had Cities to build or Kingdoms to govern I might better complain for want of employment for the faculties of my soul than I can when I am to converse in Heaven In other studies the delight abateth when I have reached my desire and know all that I can know But in God there is infinitely more to be known when I know the most I am never satiated with the easiness of knowing nor are my desires abated by any unusefulness or unworthiness in the Object but I am drawn to it by its highest excellencies and drawn on to desire more and more by the infiniteness of the Light which I have not yet beheld and the infiniteness of the Good which yet I have not enjoyed If I be idle or seem to want employment when I am to contemplate all the Artributes relations mercies works and revealed perfections of the Lord its sure for want of eyes to see or a Heart enclined to my business if God be not enough to employ my soul then all the persons and things on earth are not enough And when I have Infinite Goodness to delight in where my soul may freely let out it self and never need to fear excess of Love how sweet should this employment be As Knowledge so Love is never stinted here by the narrowness of the Object We can never Love him in any proportion either to his Goodness and amiableness in himself or to his Love to us What need have I then of any other company or business when I have infinite Goodness to delight in and to Love further than they subserve this greatest work Come home then O my soul to God Converse in Heaven Turn away thine eyes from beholding vanity Let not thy affections kindle upon straw or bryars that go out when they have made a flash or noise and leave thee to thy cold and darkness But come and dwell upon celestial beauties and make it thy daily and most diligent work to kindle thy affections on the infinite everlasting Good and then they will never be extinguished or decay for want of fewel but the further they go and the longer they burn the greater will be the flame Though thou find it hard while Love is but a spark to make it burn and complain that thy cold and backward heart is hardly warmed with the Love of God yet when the whole pile hath taken fire and the flame ascendeth fire will breed fire Love will cause Love and all the malice of Hell it self shall never be able to suppress or quench it unto all eternity 6. And it is a great encouragement to my converse with God that no misunderstanding no malice of enemies no former sin or present frailty no nor the infinite distance of the most Holy Glorious God can hinder my access to him or turn away his Ear or Love or interrupt my leave and liberty of converse If I converse with the poor their wants afflict me being greater than I can supply Their complaints and expectations which I cannot satisfie are my trouble If I would converse with Great ones it is not easie to get access and less easie to have their favout unless I would purchase it at too dear a rate How strangely and contemptuously do they look at their inferiours Great friends must be made for a word or smile And if you be not quickly gone they are aweary of you And if you seek any thing of them or would put them to any cost or trouble you are as welcome to them as so many vermine or noisome creatures They please them best that drive you away With how much labour and difficulty must you clime if you will see the top of one of these mountains And when you are there you are but in a place of barrenness and have nothing to satisfie you for your pains but a larger prospect and vertiginous despect of the lower grounds which are not your own it is seldome that these Great ones are to be spoken with And perhaps their speech is but a denyal of your requests if not some snappish and contemptuous rejection that makes you glad when you are got far enough from them and makes you the better like and love the accessible calm and fruitful plains But O how much greater encouragements hath my soul to converse with God! Company never hindereth him from hearkening to my suit He is infinite and Omnipotent and as sufficient for every individual soul as if he had no other to look after in the world when he is taken up with the attendance and praises of his Heavenly Host he is as free and ready to attend and answer the groans and prayers of a contrite soul as if he had no nobler creatures nor no higher service to regard I am oft unready but God is never unready I am unready to pray but he is not unready to hear I am unready to come to God to walk with him and to solace my soul with him but he is never unready to entertain me Many a time my conscience would have driven me away when he hath called me to him and rebuked my accusing fearful conscience Many a time I have called my self a prodigal a companion of Swine a miserable hard-hearted sinner unworthy to be called his Son when he hath called me Child and chid me for my questioning
Third must be my excuse for all But pardon the Manner and I dare commend the Matter to you as more worthy your serious contemplation and your daily most delightful practice than any other that was ever proposed unto mortal man This is the man-like noble life The life which the Rational soul was made for To which if our faculties be not by sanctifying Grace restored they fall below their proper dignity and use and are worse than lost like a Prince or Learned man that is employed only in sweeping Dog-kennels or tending Swine To walk in Holiness with the most Holy God is the improvement and advancement of the nature of man towards its designed equality with Angels When Earthliness and Sensuality degrade humanity into a voluntary and therefore sinful brutishness This is the Life which affordeth the soul a solid and durable pleasure and content When carnal minds evaporate into Air and bubble into froth and vanity wasted in a dream and the violent busie pursuit of a shadow deceiving themselves with a mixture of some counterfeit Religion playing with God and working for the world living in jeast and dying and despairing and suffering in earnest with unwearied labour building on the Sand and sinking at death for want of a foundation hating the serious practice of their own profest Religion because it is not the profession but the serious practice which hath the greatest enmity to their sensual delights yet wishing to be numbred with those hereafter whom they hated here This Holy Walking with the most Holy God is the only life which is best at last and sweet in the review which the Godly Live in and most of the ungodly could wish to dye in like him that wished to be Caesar in life and Socrates at death Yea this is the Life which hath no end which we are here but learning and beginning to practise and which we must hereafter live in another manner and degree with God for ever O wondrous Mercy which thus ennobleth even the state of mortality and honoureth Earth with so much participation of and communion with Heaven That by God and with God we may walk in holy peace and safety unto God and there be blessed in his perfect Sight and Love for ever Madam the greatest service I can do you for all your favours is to pray that God will more acquaint you with himself and lead you by this blessed way to that more blessed end that when you see all worldly glory in the dust you may bless him for ever who taught you to make a wiser choice Which are the prayers of Dec. 24. 1663. MADAM Your very much obliged Servant RICHARD BAXTER TO THE READER Reader THE Embryo of this Book was but one Sermon preached a little before the ending of my publick Ministry upon the Text of the third Treatise upon the occasion intimated in the Epistle to that truly Honour able Lady Being obliged to communicate the Notes and unavoidably gullty of some delays I made a compensation by enlargement and having reasons for the publication of them with which I shall not trouble you to make them more suitable to the designed end I prefixed the two former Treatises The first I had preached to my ancient flock Of the second I had preached but one Sermon If many of the materials in the second be the same as in the first you must understand that my design required that it should be so They being the same Attributes of God which the first Part endeavoureth to imprint upon the mind and which the second and third endeavour to improve into a constant course of holy affection and conversation As it is the same food which the first concoction chylifieth which the perfecting concoctions do work over again and turn into blood and spirits and flesh so far am I in such points from gratifying thy sickly desire of variety and avoiding the displeasing of thee by the rehearsals of the same that it is my very business with thee to perswade thee to live continually upon these same Attributes and Relations of God as upon thy daily air and bread and to forsake that lean consuming company who feed on the shels of hard and barren controversies or on the froth of complements and affected shews and run after novelty instead of substantial solid nutriment And to tell thee that the primitive pure simple Christianity consisted in the daily serious use of the great materials of the Creed Lords Prayer and ten Commandements contracted in the words of our Baptismal Covenant Do thus and thou will be like those examples of the succeeding Church in uprightness purity simplicity charity peaceableness and holy communion with God when the pretended subtilties and sublimities of wanton uncharitable contentious wits will serve but to strangle or delude their souls I have purposely been very brief on the several Attributes and Relations of God in the first Treatise because the copious handling of them would have made a very great volume of it self and because it is my great design in that first part to give you a sight of all Gods Attributes and Relations conjunct and in their order that looking on them not one by one but all together in their proper places the whole Image of God may by them be rightly imprinted on your minds The Method being the first thing and the necessary Impressions on the soul the second which I there desire you to observe and employ your minds about if you desire to profit and receive what I intend you Decem. 24. 1663. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE Text explained The Doctrine The Knowledge of the only true God and of Jesus Christ the Mediatour is the life of grace and the necessary way to the life of glory What is contained in the Knowledge of God as to the Act what as to the Object A short Scheme of the Divine properties and Attributes to be known Page 1 CHAP. II. Of the Knowledge of Gods Being and the necessary effects of it on the heart p. 14 CHAP. III. Of the Knowledge of Gods Unity and Indivisibility and its necessary effects p. 17 CHAP. IV. Of the Knowledge of Gods Immensity and so of his Incomprehensibleness Omnipresence and the effects p. 21 CHAP. V. Of the Knowledge of Gods Eternity and its due effects A Believer referring all things to Eternity honoureth his very horse or dog or smallest mercy more than Unbelievers honour their King their lives their souls regarding them but for transitory ends Unbelievers denying the End destroy morally all souls all mercies all Divine revelations all Gods ordinances all graces and duties and the whole Creation p. 28 CHAP. VI. The Knowledge of God as he is a Spirit and incorporeal and consequently 1. As he is simple or uncompounded 2. Invisible c. 3. Immortal Incorruptible Immutable The Uses of Gods Simplicity The Uses of his Invisibility The Uses of his Immortality and Immutability p. 44 CHAP. VII Of the Knowledge of Gods Almightiness
Related to us as our Lord By a Lord we mean strictly a Proprietary or Owner as you are the Owner of your goods or any thing that is your Own Secondly He is Related to us as our Ruler our Governour or King This riseth from our nature made to be Ruled in order to our End being Rational Voluntary Agents and also from the Dominion and blessed nature of God who only hath Right to the Government of the world and only is fit and capable of Ruling it Thirdly He is Related also to us as our Benefactor or Father freely and of his bounty giving us all the good that we do receive His first Relation in this Trinity answereth his first Property in the Trinity He is our Almighty Creator and therefore is our Owner or our Lord. The second of these Relations answereth the second Property of God He is most Wise and made an Impress of his Wisdom on the Rational Creature and therefore is our Governour The third Relation answereth the third property of God As he is most Good so he is our Benefactor Psal. 119. 68. Thou art Good and dost Good Mans nature and disposition is known by his Works though he be a free agent For the Tree is known by its fruit Mat. 7. 17. And so Gods nature is known by his works as far as is fit for us here to know though he be a free agent In each of these Relations God hath other special Attributes which are denominated from his Relations or his following works As he is our Lord or Owner his proper Attribute is to be Absolute having so full a title to us that he may do with us what he list Mat. 20. 15. Rom. 9. 21. As he is our Ruler his proper Attribute is to be our Soveraign or Supream there being none above him nor co-ordinate with him nor any Power of Government but what is derived from him As he is our Benefactor it is his prerogative to be our Chief or All the Alpha and Omega the Fountain or first Efficient cause of all that we receive or hope for and the End or ultimate final cause that can make us Happy by fruition and that we must still intend As these are the Attributes of God in these his great Relations so in Respect to the Works of these Relations he hath other subordinate Attributes As he is our Owner it is his Work to Dispose of us and his proper Attribute to be most Free. As he is our Ruler it is his work to Govern us which is first by making Laws for us and then by teaching and perswading us to keep them and lastly by executing them which is by Judging Rewarding and Punishing In respect to all these his principal Attribute is to be Just or Righteous In which is comprehended his Truth or Faithfulness his Holiness his Mercy and his terrible dreadfulness As his Attributes appear in the Assertions of his word he is True his Veracity being nothing but his Power Wisdom and Goodness expressing themselves in his Word or Revelations For he that is Able to do what he will and so wise as to Know all things and so Good as to Will nothing but what is Good cannot possibly lye For every lie is either for want of Power or Knowledge or Goodness He that is most Able and Knowing need not deceive by Lying And he that is most Good will not do it without need As his first properties appear in the word of Promise he is called Faithful which is his Truth in making good a word of grace As he Commandeth Holy duties and condemneth sin as the most detestable thing by a pure righteous Law so he is called Holy and also as the fountain of this Law and the Grace that sanctifieth his people As he fulfilleth his promises and rewardeth and defendeth men according to his word so he is called Merciful and Gracious as a Governour where his Mercy is considered as limited or ordinate by his laws As he fulfilleth his Threatnings he is called Angry wrathful terrible dreadful holy jealous c. But he is Just in all And as these are his Attributes as our Soveraign Ruler so as our Benefactor his special Attribute is to be Gracious or Bountiful or Benign or to be Loving and inclined to do good These are the Attributes of God resulting from his Nature as appearing in his Image in the Creation Laws and the person of his Son and resulting from his Relations and the works of those Relations even as he is our Creator in Unity and our Lord or Owner our Ruler and Benefactor in Trinity Were it not my purpose to consine my self to this short discovery of the nature attributes and works of God but to run deeper into the rest of the body of Divinity I should come down to the fall and work of Redemption and shew you in the Gospel and all the ordinances c. the footsteps of this Method of Trinity in Unity which I have here begun but that were to digress Besides what is said we might name you many Attributes of God that are commonly called Negative and do but distinguish him from the Imperfect Creature by setting him above us Infinitely in his perfections Man hath a Body but God is not a Body but a spirit Man is mutable but God Immutable Man is Mortal but God Immortal c. And now as I have shewed you these Properties Relations and Attributes of God so I must next tell you that we also stand in answerable counter-relations unto him and must have the qualities and do the works that answer those Relations 1. As God is our Almighty Creator so we are his Creatures impotent and insufficient for our selves We owe him therefore all that a Creature can owe his Maker that hath but our receivings 2. In this Relation is contained a Trinity of Relations 1. We are his Own as he is our Lord. 2. We are his subjects as he is our Ruler 3. We are his Children as he is our Father or his obliged Beneficiaries as he is our Benefactor And now having opened to your observation the Image of God and the extrinsick seals I have ripened the discourse so far that I may fitlyer shew you How the Impression of this Image of God is to be made upon the soul of the Believer CHAP. II. Of the Knowledge of Gods Being 1. HE that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. The first thing to be imprinted on the soul is that there is a God that he is a real most Trascendent Being As sure as the Sun that shineth hath a Being and the Earth that beareth us hath a being so sure hath God that made them a Being infinitely more excellent then theirs As sure as the streams come from the fountain and as sure as Earth and Stones and Beasts and Men did never make themselves nor do uphold themselves or continue the
This they preferred or ventured on before a holy heavenly life And this is it that Believers are labouring to escape in all their holy care and diligence It is an Infinite value that is put upon the blood of Christ the promises of God the ordinances and means of Grace and grace it self and the poorest duties of the poorest Saints because they are for an Infinite Eternal glory No Mercy is small that tasts of Heaven as all doth or should do to the Believer No action is low that aims at Heaven And O how lively should the Resolutions and courage of those men be that are travelling sighting and watching for Eternity How full should be their Comforts that are fetcht from the foresight of Infinite Eternal Comforts As all things will presently be swallowed up in Eternity so methinks the present apprehension of Eternity should now swallow up all things else in the soul. Object But saith the Unbeliever if God have made man for Eternity it is a wonder that there are no more lively Impressions of so Infinite a thing upon the souls of all Our sense of it is so small that it makes me doubt whether we are made for it Answ. Consider 1. That benummedness and sleep and death is the very state of an unholy soul Hast thou cast thy self into a sleepy senseless disease and wilt thou argue thence against Eternity This is as if the blind should conclude that there is no Sun or that the eye of man was not made to see it because he hath no sight himself Or as if you should think that man hath not any life or feeling because your palsie limbs do not feel Or that the stomack was not made for meat because the stomacks of the sick abhor it 2. And for believers 1. You may see by their lives that they have some apprehensions of Eternity why else do they differ from you and deny themselves and displease the world and the flesh it self why do they set their hearts above if they have not lively thoughts of an Eternity 2. But if you aske me Why their apprehensions are not a thousand times more lively about so Infinite a thing I answer 1. Their Apprehensions must be suitable to their State Our state here is a state of Imperfection and so will our apprehensions be But a perfect state will have perfect apprehensions It is no proof that the Infant in the womb is not made to come into this world and see the Sun and converse with men because he hath no apprehensions of it Our state here is a conjunction of the soul to a frail distempered body and so neer a conjunction that the actions of the soul must have great dependance on the Body And therefore our Apprehensions are limited by its frailty and the soul can go no higher then the capacity of the Body will allow 2. And our Apprehensions now are fitted to our Use and benefit We are now Believers and must live by faith And therefore must not be Beholders and live by sense If Eternity were open to mens Natural sight or we had here as clear and lively apprehensions of it as those have that are there then it were not thanks no praise to us to be believers or to obey and live as Saints And then God should not Govern man as man here in the way by a Law but as a beast by sense or as the glorified that have possession Where there are perfect Apprehensions of God and Glory there will be also perfect Love and Joy and Praise and consequently perfect Happiness and this were to make Earth and Heaven the way and the end to be all one Perfect apprehensions are kept for a perfect state of Happiness But here it is well if we have such Apprehensions as are fitted to the use of travellers and soldiers as will carry us on and prevail against the difficulties of our course If you had never been at London you could not have any such clear Apprehensions of the place as those that see it have And yet your imperfect Apprehensions might be sufficient to make you take a journey thither and you may come as safely and certainly to it as if you had seen it Moreover the body the brain which the soul in Apprehending now makes use of cannot bear such Apprehensions as are suitable to the thousandth part of the greatness of the object without distraction The smallest eye may see the sun but the greatest cannot endure to gaze upon its Glory much less if it were at the neerest approach It s a mercy oâ— mercies to give us such Apprehensions of Eternity as are meet for passengers to bring us thither and it is part of our Mercy that those Apprehensions are not so great as to distract and over whelm us 4. Lastly The Eternity of God must teach the soul contentedness and patience under all labours changes sufferings and dangers that are here below Believing Soul draw neer look seriously on Eternity and try whether it will not make such Impressions as these upon thee Art thou weary of Labours either of the mind or body Is not Eternity long enough for thy Rest Canst thou not afford to work out the day light of this life when thou must Rest with Christ to all Eternity Canst thou not run with patience so short a race when thou lookest to so long a Rest Canst thou not watch one hour with Christ that must Reign with him to all Eternity Dost thou begin to shrinke at sufferings for Christ when thou must be in Glory with him for ever How short is the suffering how long is the Reward Dost thou begin to think hatdly of the dealing of the Lord because his people are here afflicted and made the scorn and by-word of the world why is not Eternity long enough for God to shew his Love and bounty to his people in Is not the day at hand when Lazarus and the Rich worldling both must hear But now he is comforted and thâ—n art tormented Luk. 16. 25. Did not that Now câ—me â—â—me enough which was the entrance of Eternity Even Jesus the Author and perfecter of our saith for the Joy that was â—â—t before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God! consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lâ—st yâ—â— be wâ—â—â—ied and saint in your minds Heb. 12. 2 3. Dâ—st 〈…〉 the prosperity of the wicked and prevalency of the Churches Enemies Look then unto Eternity and 〈…〉 e whether that be not long enough for the 〈…〉 aâ—d the wicked to be tormented Wouldst 〈…〉 their time Dost thou begin to 〈…〉 of Christ oâ— the truth of his promises because he doth 〈…〉 O what is a thousand years to Eternity is there not yet time enough before thee for Christ to make good all his promises in Were not those Disciples sharply but justly rebuked as Fools and slow of heart to believe that when
prevent the sinner with his Judgement but with his Grace he often doth He never punisheth before we are sinners nor never Decreed so to do as all will grant He punisheth none where his foregoing commands and warnings have had their due effect for the prevention And therefore because the Precept is the first part of his Law and the Threatning is but subservient to that and the first intent of a Governour is to procure Obedience and Punishing is but upon supposition that he misseth of the first therefore is God said not to afflict willingly because he doth it not ex voluntate antecedente but ex voluntate consequente that is for so the distinction is sound not as a Law-giver and Ruler by those Laws considered before the violation but only as a Judge of the Law-breakers But yet Gods Mercy is no security to the abusers of his Mercy Bot rather will sink them into deeper misery as the aggravation of their sin As God Afflicts not willingly and yet we feel that he afflicteth so if he do not condemn you willingly you shall finde iâ— you are impenitent that yet he will condemn you If you say God can be forced to do nothing against his will I answer you that it is not simply against his will for then it should never come to pass But it is against the Principal act of his will which floweth from him as a Law-giver or Ruler by Laws in which respect it may be said that he had rather that the wicked turn and live but yet if they will not turn they shall not live A merciful Judge had rather the Thief had saved his life by forbearing to steal but yet he had not rather that Thieves go unpunished than he should condemn them But you 'l say If God had rather men did not sin why doth he not hinder it I answer 1. He had not absolutely and simply rather that is so far as to do all that he can to prevent it nor all that without which he foreknoweth it will not be prevented But he doth much against sin as a Law-giver and nothing for it he causeth us not but perswades us from it and therefore as a Ruler he may be said to have rather that men did not sin or rather that they would turn and live 1. The Mercy of God therefore should lead sinners to Repentance and shame them from their sin and lead them up to God in Love 2. Mercy should encourage sinners to Repent as well as engage them to it For we have to do with a Merciful God that hath not shut up any among us in despair nor forbid them to come in but continueth to invite when we have oft refused and will undoubtedly pardon and welcome all that do return 3. Mercy being specially the portion of the Saints must keep them in Thankfulness Love and Comfort and all Mercies must be improved for their proper ends When a Merciful God is pleased to fill up his servants lives with such Great and Various Mercies as he doth it should breed a continual sweetness upon their hearts and cause them to study the most grateful retribution He should breath forth nothing but Thankfulness Obedience and Praise who breaths nothing but Mercies from God As the food that men live upon will be seen in their temperature 〈…〉 and strength so they that live continually upon Mâ—rcâ—â—s â—â—ould be wholly turned into Love and Thankfulness 〈…〉 ould become as it were their nature temperature 〈…〉 O how unspeakable is the Love of God that 〈…〉 eet a life for his servants even in their warfare 〈…〉 ge in this world that Mercy must be as it were 〈…〉 Air that they breath in the food which they must live upon and the remembrance improvement and thankful mention of it must be the business and imployment of their lives O with what sweet affections meditations and expressions should we live if we lived but according to the rate of those Mercies upon which we live Love and Joy and Thanks and Praise would be our very lives What sweet thoughts would Mercy breed and feed in our minds when we are alone what sweet apprehensions of the Love of God and Life Eternal should we have in Prayer Reading Saoraments and other holy ordinances Sickness and Health Poverty and Wealth Death as well as Life would be comfortable to us for all is full of Mercy to the Vessels of Mercy O Christians what a shame is it that God is so much wronged and our selves so much defrauded of our peace and joy by passing over such abundance of great unvaluable mercies without tasting their sweetness or well considering what we do receive Had we Davids heart what songs of Praise would Mercy teach us to indite How affectionately should we recount the mercies of our youth and riper age of every place and state that we have lived in to the honour of our Gracious Lord and the encouragement of those that know not how Good and Merciful he is But withall see that you contemn not or abuse not Mercy Use it well for it is Mercy that you must trust to in the hour of your distresses O do not trample upon Mercy now lest you be confounded when you should cry for Mercy in your extremity 4. The Mercifulness of God must cause his servants to imitate him in a Love of mercy Be merciful for your heavenly Father is merciful Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Matth. 5. 7. Be merciful in your Censures Be merciful in your retributions You are none of Gods Children if you Love not your Enemies and pray not for them that curse you and do not good to them that hate and persecute you according to your power Matth. 5. 44 45. If you forgive not men their trespasses but take your Brother by the throat neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your Trespasses Matth. 6. 14 15. Mark that even while he is called your heavenly Father yet he will not forgive if you forgive not Unmerciful men are too unlike to God to claim any interest in his saving mercy in the hour of their extremest misery Men of cruelty blood and violence he abhorreth And usually they do not live out half their daies But they that bite and devour one another are devoured one of another Gal. 5. 15. The last judgement will pass much according to mens works of mercy to the members of Christ Matth. 25. He shall have judgement without mercy that hath shewed no mercy and mercy rejoyceth against judgement James 2. 13. Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the Fatherless and Widdows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted in the world James 1. 27. He that having this worlds goods seeth his Brother in need and shutteth up the bowels of his compassion from him how dwelleth the Love of God in him But above all cruelty there is none more devilish than cruelty to souls And
in those that undertake the place of Pastors cruelty to mens souls is a far greater sin than in any others To starve those that they undertake to feed and to seduce those whom they undertake to Guide and be Wolves to those whose Shepherds they pretend to be and to prefer their worldly honours and commodity and ease before the souls of many thousands to be so cruel to souls when Christ hath been so merciful to them as to come down on earth to seek and save them and to give his life a ransome for them this will one day be so heavy a charge that the man that must stand as guilty under it will a thousand times wish that a milstoâ—â— had been hanged about his neck and he had been cast into the bottome of the Sea before he had betrayed or murdered souls or offended one of the little ones of Christ. Be merciful to mens souls and bodies as ever you would find mercy with a merciful God in the hour of your necessity and distress CHAP. XXI 20. THE last of Gods Attributes which I shall now mention is his Dreadfulness or Terribleness to those that are the objects of his wrath This is the result of his other Attributes especially of his Holiness and Governing Justice and Truth in his commiâ—ations He is a Great and Dreadful God Dan. 9 4. A mighty God and terrible Deut. 7. 21. A great and terrible God Nah. 1. 5. With God is terrible Majesty Job 37. 22. The Lord most high is terrible Psal. 47. 22. 1. His Children therefore must be kept in a holy awe God is never to be approached or mentioned but with the greatest reverence We must sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and he must be our fear and dread Isa. 8. 13. Even they that receive the unmoveable Kingdom must have grace in their hearts to serve him acceptably with Reverence and godly fear because our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12. 28 29. When we come to worship in the holy Assemblies we should think as Jacob Gen. 28. 17. How dreadful is this place This is none other but the House of God and this is the gate of Heaven Especially when God seemeth to frown upon the soul his servants must humble themselves before him and deprecate his wrath as Jeremiah did Jer. 17. 17. Be not a terrour to mee It ill becometh the best of men to make light of the frowns and threatnings of God Also when he dealeth with us in Judgement and we feel the smart of his chastisements though we must remember that he is a Father yet withall we must consider that he sheweth himself an offended Father And therefore true and deep Humiliation hath ever been the course of afflicted Saints to turn away the wrath of a terrible God 2. But above all what cause have the Ungodly to tremble at the Dreadfulness of that God who is engaged in Justice except they be converted to use them everlastingly as his unpardoned enemies As there is no felicity like the favour of God and no joy comparable to his childrens joyes so is there no misery like the sense of his Displeasure nor any terrours to be compared to those which his wrath inflicteth everlastingly on the ungodly O wretched sinner what hast thou done to make God thine enemy what could hire thee to offend him by thy willful sin and to do that which thou knewest he forbad and condemned in his Word What madness caused thee to make a mock at sin and hell and to play with the vengeance of the Almighty what gain did hire thee to cast thy soul into the danger of damnation canst thou save by the match if thou win the world and lose thy soul Didst thou not know who it was thou hadst to do with It had been better for thee that all the world had been offended with thee even men and Angels great and small than the most Dreadful God Didst thou not believe him when he told thee how he was resolved to judge and punish the ungodly Read it 2 Thes. 2. 7 8 9 10. and 2. 10 11. Matth. 25. Jud. 15. Psal. 1. c. what caused thee to venture upon the consuming fire Didst thou not know that as he is Merciful so he is Jealous Holy Just and Terrible In the Name of God I require and intreat thee fly to his Mercy in Jesus Christ and hearken speedily to his Grace and turn at his reproof and warning To day while it is called to day harden not thy heart but hear his voice lest he resolve in his wrath that thou shalt never enter into his rest There is no enduring there is no overcoming there is no contending with an angry dreadful holy God Repent therefore and turn to him and obey the voice of Mercy that thy soul may live 3. The Dreadfulness of God doth tell both good and bad the great necessity of a Mediator What an unspeakable mercy is it that God hath given us his Son and that by Jesus Christ we may come with boldness and confidence into the presence of the Dreadful God that else would have been to us a greater terror than all the world yea than Satan himself The more we are apprehensive of our distance from God and of his Terrible Majesty and his more Terrible justice against such sinners as we have been the more we shall understand the mysterie of Redemption and highly value the Mediation of Christ. 4. Lastly let the Dreadfulness of God prevail with every believing soul to pitty the ungodly that pitty not themselves O pray for them O warn them exhort them intreat them as men that know the Terrours of the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 11. If they knew as well as you do what sin is and what it is to be children of wrath and what it is to be unpardoned unjustified and unsanctified they would pitty themselves and cry for mercy mercy mercy from day to day till they were recovered into a state of life and turned from the power of Satan unto God Alas they know not what it is to die and to see the world to come and to appear before a dreadful God They know not what it is to be in Hell fire nor what it is to be glorified in Heaven They never saw or tryed these things and they want the Faith by which they must be foreseen by those that are yet short of nearer knowledge you therefore that have Faith to foreknow these things and are enlightned by the Spirit of God O pitty and warn and help the miserable Tell them how much easier it is to escape Hell than to endure it and how much easier a Holy life on earth is than the endless wrath of the most Dreadful God Tell them that unbelief presumption and security are the certain means to bring their misery but will do nothing to keep it off though they may keep off the present knowledge and sense of it which would have droven them to seek a cure
to leave the crowd and come home to God and try a more noble and gainful conversation If Reasons may have room and leave to work upon you I will set a few before you more distinctly to call you off from your barren inordinate creature converse to a believing serious converse with God 1. The higher and more excellent the object is especially when it is also of most concernment to our selves the more excellent is the converse Therefore as nothing dare compare it self with God so no employment may be compared with thâ—s of holy walking with him How vile a contempt is it of the Almighty and of our Celestial joyes for the heart to neglect them and turn away and dwell upon vanity and trouble and let these highest pleasures go Is not God and Glory worthy of thy thoughts and all thy service 2. What are those things that take thee up Are they better then God Or fitter to supply thy wants If thou think and trust in them accordingly ere long thou shalt know better what they are and have enough of thy cursed choice and confidence Tell those that stand by thee at the parting hour whether thou didst choose aright and make a gaining or a saving match O poor sinners have you not yet warning enough to satisfie you that all things below are Vanity and Vexation and that all your hope of happiness is above Will not the testimony of God satisfie you will not the experience of the world for so many thousand years together satisfie you will not the ill success of all the damned satisfie you will nothing but your own experience convince you If so consider well the experience you have already made and seasonably retire and try no further and trust not so dangerous a deceiver to the last least you buy your knowledge at a dearer rate then you will now believe 3. You have daily more to do with God than with all the world whether you will or no And therefore seeing you cannot avoid him if you would prefer that voluntary obediential converse which hath a reward before that necessitated converse which hath none You are alwaies in his hands he made you for his service and he will dispose of you and all that you have according to his will It shall not go with you as your selves would have it nor as your friends would have it nor as Princes and great ones of the world would have it unless as their wills comply with Gods but as God would have it who will infallibly accomplish all his will If a sparrow fall not to the ground without him and all the hairs of our heads are numbered then certainly he overruleth all your interests and affairs and they are absolutely at his dispose To whom then in reason should you so much apply your selves as unto him If you will not take notice of him he will take notice of you He will remember you whether you remember him or not but it may be with so strict and severe a remembrance as may make you wish he did quite forget you You are alwaies in his presence and can you then forget him and hold no voluntary converse with him when you stand before him If it be but mean inferiour persons that we dwell with and are still in company with yet we mind them more and speak more to them then we do to greater persons that we seldom see But in God there is both Greatness and Nearness to invite you Should not all the worms on earth stand by while the Glorious God doth call you to him and offer you the honour and happiness of his converse shall the Lord of Heaven and Earth stand by and be shut out while you are chatting or trifling with his creatures Nay shall he be neglected that is alwaies with you You cannot remove your selves a moment from his sight and therefore you should not shut your eyes and turn away your face and refuse to observe him who is still observing you Moreover your dependence both for soul and body is all on him You can have nothing desirable but by his gift He feeds you he cloatheth you he maintaineth you he gives you life and breath and all things and yet can you overlook him or forget him Do not all his mercies require your acknowledgement A Dog will follow him that feedeth him his eye will be upon his Master And shall we live upon God and yet forget and disregard him We are taught a better use of his Mercies by the Holy Prophet Psal. 66. 8 9. O bless our God ye people and make the voice of his praise to be heard which holdeth our soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be moved Nay it is not your selves alone but all the world that depends on God It is his power that supporteth them and his will that disposeth of them and his bounty that provideth for them And therefore he must be the observation and admiration of the world It is less unreasonable to take no notice of the Earth that beareth us and yieldeth us fruit and of the Sun that yields us heat and light than to disregard the Lord that is more to us than Sun and Earth and all things The eyes of all things wait on him and he giveth them their meat in season He openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing Psal. 145. 15 16. The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works All his works therefore shall praise him and his Saints shall bless him They shall speak of the glory of his Kingdom and talk of his power vers 10 11. Moreover God is so abundantly and wonderfully represented to us in all his works as will leave us under the guilt of most unexcusable contempt if we overlook him and live as without him in the world The Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge Psa. 19. 1 2. Thus that which may be known of God is manifest for the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that the ungodly are without excuse Rom. 1. 19 20. Cannot you see that which all the world revealeth nor hear that which all the world proclaimeth O sing ye forth the honour of his name make his praise glorious Say to the Lord How terrible art thou in thy works through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee All the earth shall worship thee and shall sing unto thee they shall sing unto thy name come and see the works of God he is tertible in his doings towards the children of men Psal. 66. 2 3 4 5. Can we pass him by that is everywhere present and by every Creature represented to us Can we forget him when all the world are our
spent your time in youth and in your riper age and how many sinful thoughts and words and deeds you have been guilty of how oft you have sinfully pleased your appetites and gratified your flesh and yeilded to temptations and abused mercy and lost your time how oft you have neglected your duty and betrayed your souls how long you have lived in forgetfulness of God and your salvation minding only the things of the flesh and of the world how oft you have sinned ignorantly and against knowledge through carelesness and through rashness through negligence and through presumption in passion and upon deliberation against convictions purposes and promises how oft you have sinned against the precepts of piety to God and of justice and charity to men Think how your sins are multiplied and aggravated more in number then the hours of your lives Aggravated by a world of mercies by the clearest teachings and the lowdest calls and sharpest reproofs and seasonable warnings and by the long and urgent importunities of grace Think of all these and then consider whether you have nothing now to do with God whether it be not a business to be followed with all possible speed and diligence to procure the pardon of all these sins you have no such businesses as these to transact with men you may have business with them which your estates depend upon or which touch your credit commodity or lives but you have no business with men unless in subordination to God which your salvation doth depend upon your eternal happiness is not in their hands They may kill your bodies if God permit them but not your souls You need not sollicite them to pardon your sins against God It is a small matter how you are judged of by man you have one that judgeth you even the Lord 1 Cor. 4. 3 4. No man can forgive sin but God only O then how early how earnestly should you cry to him for mercy Pardon must be obtained now or never There is no Justification for that man at the day of Judgement that is not forgiven and iustified now Blessed then is the man whose iniquity is forgiven whose sin is covered and to whom it is not imputed by the Lord Rom. 4. 7 8. And wo to that man that ever he was born that is then found without the pardon of his sins Think of this as the case deserves and then think if you can that your daily business with God is small 5. Moreover you have Peace of Conscience to obtain and that dependeth upon your Peace with God Conscience will be your accuser condemner and tormenter if you make it not your friend by making God your friend Consider what Conscience hath to say against you and how certainly it will speak home when you would be loth to hear it and bethink you how to answer all its accusations and what will be necessary to make it a messenger of Peace and then think your business with God to be but small if you are able It is no easie matter to get assurance that God is reconciled to you and that he hath forgiven all your sins 6. In order to all this you must be united to Jesus Christ and be made his members that you may have part in him and that he may wash you by his blood and that he may answer for you to his Father woe to you if he be not your righteousness and if you have not him to plead your cause and take upon him your final justification None else can save you from the wrath of God And he is the Saviour only of his body Eph. 5. 23. He hath dyed for you without your own consent and he hath made an universal conditional grant of pardon and salvation before you consented to it But he will not be united to you nor actually forgive and justifie and save you without your own consent And therefore that the Father may draw you to the Son and may give you Christ and Life in him 1 Joh. 5. 9 10 11. when all your hope dependeth on it you may see that you have more to do with God then your senseless hearts have hitherto understood 7. And that you may have a saving interest in Jesus Christ you must have sound Repentance for all your former life of wickedness and a lively effectual faith in Christ Neither sin nor Christ must be made light of Repentance must tell you to the very heart that you have done foolishly in sining and that it is an evil and a bitter thing that you forsook the Lord and that his fear was not in you and thus your wickedness shall correct you and reprove you Jer. 2. 19. And Faith must tell you that Christ is more necessary to you then food or life and that there is no other name given under heaven by which you can be saved Act. 4. 12. And it is not so easie nor so common a thing to Repent and Believe as ignorant presumptuous sinners do imagine It is a greater matter to have a truly humbled contrite heart and to loath your selves for all your sins and to loath those sins and resolvedly give up your selves to Christ and to his Spirit for a holy life then heartlesly and hypocritically to say I am sorry or I Repent without any true Contrition or Renovation And it is a greater matter to betake your selves to Jesus Christ as your only hope to save you both from sin and from damnation then barely through custom and the benefit of education to say I do believe in Christ. I tell you it is so great a work to bring you to sound Repentance and Faith that it must be done by the power of God himself Act. 5. 31. 2 Tim. 2. 25. They are the Gift of God Eph. 2. 8. you must have his spirit to illuminate you Eph. 1. 18. and shew you the odiousness of fin the intolerableness of the wrath of God the necessity and sufficiency the power and willingness of Christ and to overcome all your prejudice and save you from your false opinions and deceits and to repulse the temptations of Satan the world and the flesh which will all rise up against you All this must be done to bring you home to Jesus Christ or else you will have no part in him his righteousness and grace And can you think that you have not most important business with God who must do all this upon you or else you are undone for ever 8. Moreover you must have all the corruptions of your natures healed and your sins subdued and your hearts made new by sanctifying grace and the Image of God implanted in you and your lives made holy and sincerely conformable to the will of God All this must be done or you cannot be acceptable to God nor ever will be saved Though your carnal interest rise against it though your old corrupted natures be against it though your custome and pleasure and worldly gain and honour be against it
would have been grieved for their griefs and for ought they know might have fallen into as sad a state as they themselves are now lamenting 6. Do you think it is for the Hurt or the Good of your friend that he is removed hence It cannot be for his Hurt unless he be in Hell At least it is uncertain whether to live would have been for his Good by an increase of Grace and so for greater Glory And if he be in Hell he was no fit person for you to take much pleasure in upon earth He might be indeed a fit object for your compassion but not for your complacency Sure you are not undone for want of such company as God will not endure in his sight and you must be separated from for ever But if they be in Heaven you are scarce their friends if you would wish them thence Friendship hath as great respect to the good of our friends as of our selves And do you pretend to friendship and yet lament the removal of your friend to his greatest happiness Do you set more by your own enjoying his company then by his enjoying God in perfect blessedness This sheweth a very culpable defect either in Faith or Friendship and therefore beseemeth not Christians and friends If Love teacheth us to mourn with them that mourn and to rejoyce with them that rejoyce can it be an act of rational Love to mourn for them that are possessed of the highest everlasting joyes 7. God will not honour himself by one only but by many He knoweth best when his work is done When our friends have finished all that God intended them for when he put them into the world is it not time for them to be gone and for others to take their places and finish their work also in their time God will have a succession of his servants in the world Would you not come down and give place to him that is to follow you when your part is played and his is to begin If David had not died there had been no Solomon no Jehoshaphat no Hezekiah no Josiah to succeed him and honour God in the same throne You may as wisely grudge that one day only takes not up all the week and that the clock striketh not the same hour still but proceedeth from one to two from two to three c. as to murmur that one man only conâ—inueth not to do the work of his place excluding his successors 8. You must not have all your Mercies by one messenger or hand God will not have you consine your Love to one only of his servants And therefore he will not make one only useful to you but when one hath delivered his message and done his part perhaps God will send you other mercies by another hand And it belongeth to him to choose the messenger who gives the gift And if you will childishly dote upon the first messenger and say you will have all the rest of your mercies by his hand or you will have no more your frowardness more deserveth correction than compassion and if you be kept fasting till you can thankfully take your food from any hand that your Father sends it by it is a correction very suitable to your sin 9. Do you so highly value your friends for God or for them or for your selves in the final consideration If it was for God what reason of trouble have you that God hath disposed of them according to his wisdome and unerring will should you not then be more pleased that God hath them and employeth them in his highest service than displeased that you want them But if you value them and love them for themselves they are now more lovely when they are more perfect and they are now fitter for your content and joy when they have themselves unchangeable content and joy than they could be in their sin and sorrows But if you valued and loved them but for your selves only it is just with God to take them from you to teach you to value men to righter ends and upon better considerations and both to prefer God before your selves and better to understand the nature of true friendship and better to know that your own felicity is not in the hands of any creature but of God alone 10. Did you improve your friends while you had them or did you only Love them while you made but little use of them for your souls If you used them not it was just with God for all your Love to take them from you They were given you as your candle not only to Love it but to work by the Light of it And as your garments not only to Love them but to wear them and as your meat not only to Love it but to feed upon it Did you receive their counsel and hearken to their reproofs and pray with them and conser with them upon those holy truths that tended to elevate your minds to God and to inflame your brests with sacred Love If not be it now known to you that God gave you not such helps and mercies only to talk of or look upon and Love but also to improve for the benefit of your souls 11. Do you not seem to forget both where you are your selves and where you must shortly and for ever live Where would you have your friends but where you must be your selves Do you mouâ—n that they are taken hence Why if they had staid here a thousand years how little of that time should you have had their company when you are almost leaving the world your selves would you not send your treasure before you to the place where you must abide How quickly will you pass from hence to God where you shall find your friends that you lamented as if they had been lost and there shall dwell with them for ever O foolish mourners would you not have your friends at home at their home and your home with their Father and your Father their God and your God! Shall you not there enjoy them long enough Can you so much miss them for one day that must live with them to all eternity And is not eternity long enough for you to enjoy your friends in Obj. But I do not know whether ever I shall there have any distinct knowledge of them or love to them and whether God shall not there be so far All in All as that we shall need or fetch no comfort from the creature Answ. There is no reason for either of these doubts For 1. You cannot justly think that the knowledge of the Glorified shall be more confused or imperfect then the knowledge of natural men on earth We shall know much more but not so much less Heaven exceedeth earth in knowledge as much as it doth in joy 2. The Angels in Heaven have now a distinct particular knowledge of the least believers rejoycing particularly in their conversion and being called by Christ himself Their Angels Therefore when we shall
is with us Though in all our wants we have no other to supply us yet he is still with us to perform his promise that no good thing shall be wanting to them that fear him Though we may have none else to strengthen and help us and support us in our weakness yet he is alwaies with us whose Grace is sufficient for us to manifest his strength in weakness Though we have no other to Teach us and to resolve our doubts yet he is with us that is our chiefest Master and hath taken us to be his Disciples and will be our Light and Guide and will lead us into the Truth Though we have none else to be our Comforters in our agony darkness or distress but all forsake us or are taken from us and we are exposed as Hagar with Ishmael in a wilderness yet still the Father of all consolations is with us his Spirit who is the Comforter is in us And he that so often speaketh the words of Comfort to us in his Gospel and saith Be of good chear let not your hearts be troubled neither be afraid c. will speak them in the season and measure which is fittest for them unto our hearts Though all friends turn enemies and would destroy us or turn false accusers as Job's friends in their ignorance or passion though all of them should add affliction to our affliction yet is our Redeemer and Justifier still with us and will lay his restraining hand upon our enemies and say to their proudest fury Hitherto and no further shalt thou go He is angry with Job's accusing friends notwithstanding their friendship and good meaning and though they seemed to plead for God and Godliness against Job's sin And who shall be against us while God is for us or who shall condemn us when it is he that justifieth us Though we be put to say as David Psal. 142 4. I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me no man cared for my soul Yet we may say with him vers 5. 3. I cryed unto thee O Lord I said Thou art my refuge and my portion in the Land of the Living Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise thy Name The righteous shall compass me about for thou shalt dâ—al bountifully with me 2 3 I poured out my complaint before him I shewed before him my trouble When my spirit was overwhelmed within me then thou knewest my path in the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me Thus God is our refuye and strength a very present help in trouble Psal. 46. 1. Therefore should we not fear though the earth were removed and though the mountains were carried into the midst of the Sea though the waters thereof roar and be troubled c. vers 2 3. Though as David saith Psal. 41. 5 6 7. Mine enemies speak evil of me when shall he dye and his name perish And if he come to see me he speaketh vanity his heart gathereth iniquity to it self when he goeth abroad he telleth it All that hate me whisper together against me against me do they devise my hurt An evil disease say they cleaveth fast unto him and now that he lyeth he shall rise up no more Yea my own familiar friend in whom I trusted that did eat of my bread hath lift up his heel against me Yet we may add as he v. 12. And as for me thou upholdest me in mine integrity and settest me before thy face for ever Though as Psal. 35. 7 c. Without cause they have hid for me their net in a pit which without cause they have digged for my soul 11. And false witnesses did rise up they laid to my charge things that I knew not they rewarded me evil for good 15 16. In my adversity they rojoyced and gathered themselves together the abjects gathered themselves together against me and I knew it not they did tear and ceased not with hypocritical mockers in feasts they gnashed upon me with their teeth 20. For they speak not peace but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the Land Yet vers 9. My soul shall be joyful in the Lord it shall rejoyce in his salvation 10. All my bones shall say Lord who is like unto thee who deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him yea the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him Though friends be far off the Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all Psal. 34 18 19. The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate v. 22. Therefore I will be glad and rejoyce in his Mercy for he hath considered my trouble and hath known and owned my soul in adversity and hath not shut me in the hand of the enemy When my life was spent with grief and my years with sighing my strength failed because of mine iniquity and my bones were consumed I was a reproach among all mine enemies but especially among my neighbours and a fear to mine acquaintance they that did see me without fled from me I was forgotten and as a dead man out of mind I was like a brokrn vessel I heard the slander of many fear was on every side while they took counsel together against me they devised to take away my life But I trusted in thee O Lord I said Thou art my God my times are in thy hand deliver me from the hand of mine enemies and from them that persecute me Make thy face to shine upon thy servant Save me for thy mercies sake O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues Psal. 31. Thus God is with us when men are far from us or against us His people finde by happy experience that they are not alone Because he is nigh them evil shall not come nigh them unless as it worketh for their good He is their hiding place to preserve them from trouble the great water-floods shall not come nigh them he will compass them about with songs of deliverance Psal. 32. 6 7. 3. And as God is with us thus Relatively and Efficiently so also Objectively for our holy converse Whereever our friends are God is still at â—and to be the most profitable honourable and delightful Object of our thoughts There is enough in him to take up all the faculties of my soul. He that is but in a well furnished Library may find great and excellent employment for his thoughts many years together And
Righteous Judgement be remembered and all be terminated in the glorious everlasting Kingdom Is it not much better thus to converse with him that I must be with for ever about the place and the company and work and concernments of my perpetual abode then to be taken up with strangers in my way and detained by their impertinencies I have form'd my self so long in these meditations that I will but name the rest and tell you what I had further to have treated on and leave the enlargement to your own meditations 8. I have no reason to be weary of converse with God seeing it is that for which all humane converse is regardable Converse with man is only so far desirable as it tendeth to our Converse with God And therefore the end must be preferred before the means 9. It is the office of Christ and the work of the Holy Ghost and the use of all the means of Grace and of all creatures mercies and afflictions to reduce our straying souls to God that we may converse with him and enjoy him 10. Converse with God is most suitable to those that are so near to death It best prepareth for it It is likest to the work that we are next to do We had rather when death comes be found conversing with God then with Man It is God that a dying man hath principally to do with It is his judgement that he is going to and his mercy that he hath to trust upon And therefore it concerneth us to draw near him now and be no strangers to him lest strangeness then should be our terrour 11. How wonderful a condescension is it that God should be willing to converse with me with such a worm and sinful wretch And therefore how unexcusable is my crime if I refuse his company and so great a mercy 12. Lastly Heaven it self is but our Converse with God and his Glorified ones though in a more perfect manner then we can here conceive And therefore our holy converse with him here is the state that is likest Heaven and that prepareth for it and all the Heaven that is on earth IT remaineth now that I briefly tell you what you should do to attain and manage this Converse with God in the improvement of your solitude For Directions in general for Walking with God I reserve for another place At present let these few suffice Direct 1. If you would comfortably Converse with God make sure that you are Reconciled to him in Christ and that he is indeed your friend and Father Can two walk together except they be agreed Can you take pleasure in dwelling with the consuming fire or conversing with the most dreadful enemy Yet this I must add that every doubting or self-accusing soul may not find a pretence to fly from God 1. That God ceaseth not to be a Father when ever a fearful soul is drawn to question it or deny it 2. That in the Universal Love and Grace of God to miserable sinners and in the universal act of conditional pardon and oblivion and in the offers of Grace and the readiness of God to receive the penitent there is Glad tidings that should exceedingly rejoyce a sinner and there is sufficient encouragement to draw the most guilty miserable sinner to seek to God and sue for mercy But yet the sweetest converse is for children and for those that have some assurance that they are children But perhaps you will say that this is not easily attained How shall we know that he is our friend In brief I answer If you are unfeignedly friends to God it is because he first loved you Prefer him before all other friends and all the wealth and vanity of the world Provoke him not by wilfulness or neglect use him as your best friend and abuse him not by disobedience or ingratitude own him before all at the dearest rates whenever you are called to it Desire his presence Lament his absence Love him from the bottom of your hearts Think not hardly of him Suspect him not Misunderstand him not Hearken not to his enemies Receive not any false reports against him Take him to be really Better for you than all the world Do these and doubt not but you are friends with God and God with you In a word Be but heartily willing to be friends to God and that God should be your chiefest friend and you may be sure that it is so indeed and that you are and have what you desire And then how delightfully may you converse with God! Direct 2. Wholly depend on the Mediation of Christ the great Reconciler Without him there is no coming near to God But in his Beloved you shall be accepted Whatever fear of his displeasure shall surprize you fly presently for safety unto Christ Whatever guilt shall look you in the face commit your self and cause to Christ and desire him to answer for you When the doors of mercy seem to be shut up against you fly to him that bears the keyes and can at any time open to you and let you in Desire him to answer for you to God to your consciences and against all accusers By him alone you may boldly and comfortably converse with God But God will not know you out of him Direct 3. Take heed of bringing particular Guilt into the presence of God if you would have sweet communion with him Christ himself never reconciled God to sin And the sinner and sin are so nearly related that for all the death of Christ you shall feel that iniquity dwelleth not with God but he hateth the works of it and the foolish shall not stand in his sight and that if you will presume to sin because you are his Children be sure your fin will find you out O what fears what shame what self-abhorrence and self-revenge will guilt raise in a penitent soul when it comes into the light of the presence of the Lord it will unavoidably abate your boldness and your comforts When you should be sweetly delighting in his pleased face and promised Glory you will be befooling your selves for your former sin and ready even to tear your flesh to think that ever you should do as you have done and use him as you would not have used a common friend and cast your selves upon his wrath But an innocent soul or pacified conscience doth walk with God in quietness and delight without those frowns and fears which are a taste of Hell to others Direct 4. If you would comfortably converse with God be sure that you bring not Idols in your hearts Take heed of inordinate affection to any Creature Let all things else be nothing to you that you may have none to take up your thoughts but God Let your Minds be further separate from them than your Bodies Bring not into solitude or to contemplation a proud or lustful or covetous mind It much more concerneth thee what Heart thou bringest that what Place thou art in or what work