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
Praises of the Lord. The Goodness of God should be a daily feast to a gracious soul and should continually feed our cheerful Praises as the spring or cistern fills the Pipes I know no sweeter work on earth nay I am sure there is no sweeter then for faithful sanctified souls rejoicingly to magnifie the Goodness of the Lord and joyn together in his cheerful Praises O Christians if you would tast the Joys of Saints and live like the redeemed of the Lord indeed be much in the exercise of this Heavenly work and with holy David make it your employment and say O how great is thy Goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee Psal. 31. 19. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord Psal. 33. 5. What then are the Heavens Thy Congregation hath dwelt therein thou O Lord hast prepared thy Goodness for the poor O that men would praise the Lord for his Goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men For he satisfyeth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness Psal. 107. 8 9. The goodness of God endureth continually Psal. 52. 1. Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart Psal. 73. 1. O taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him Psal. 34. 8. The Lord is good his mercy is Everlasting his truth endureth from generation to generation Psal. 100. 5 The Lord is good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his works Psal. 145. 9. O Praise the Lord for the Lord is good sing Praises to his name for it is pleasant Psal. 135. â— Call him as David My goodness and my fortress my high tower and my deliverer and my shield and he in whom I trust Psal. 144 2. Let men therefore speak of the glorious honour of his Majesty and of his wonderous works Let them abundantly utter the memory of his great goodness and sing of his Righteousness Psal. 145 5 7. If there be a thought that is truly sweet to the soul it is the Thought of the Infinite Goodness of the Lord. If there be a pleasant word for man to speak it is the mention of the Infinite goodness of the Lord And if there be a pleasant hour for man on earth to spend and a delightful work for man to do it is to meditate on and with the Saints to Praise the Infinite goodness of the Lord. What was the glory that God shewed unto Moses and the tast of Heaven that he gave him upon Earth but this I will make all my Goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee and I will be gracious on whom I will be gracious and will shew Mercy on whom I will shew Mercy Exod. 33. 19. And his proclaimed Name was The Lord the Lord God Merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth Exod. 34. 6. These were the holy Praiâ—es that Solomon did consecrate the Temple with 2 Chron. 6. 41. Arise O Lord God into thy resting place thou and the Ark of thy strength let thy Priests O Lord God be cloathed with salvation and let thy Saints rejoyce in Goodness See Isai. 63. O Christians if you would have joy indeed let this be your employment Draw neer to God and have no low undervaluing thoughts of his Infinite Goodness For How great is his Goodness and how great is his Beauty Zach. 9 17. Why is it that Divine Consolations are so strange to us but because Dive Goodnesâ— is so lightly thought upon As those that think little of God at all have little of God upon their hearts so they that think but little of his Goodness in particular have little Love or Joy or Praise 6. Moreover the Goodness of God must possess us with desire to be conformed to his goodness in our measure The Holy perfection of his Will must make us desire to have our Wills conformed to the will of God We are not called to Imitate him in his works of Power nor so much in the paths of his Omniscience as we are in his goodness which as manifested in his work and word is the Pattern and standard of Moral Goodness in the sons of men The Impress of his goodness within us is the chief part of his Image on us and the fruits of it in our Lives is their Holiness and Vertue As he is Good and doth Good Psal. 119. 68. so must it be our greatest care to be as good and do as much good as possibly we can Any thing within us that is sinful and contrary to the Goodness of God should be to our souls as griping poyson to our bodies which nature is excited to strive against with all its strength and can have no safety or rest till it be cast out And for Doing Good it must be the very study and trade of our lives As worldlings study and labour for the world and the Pleasing of their flesh so must the Christian study and labour to improve his masters talents to his use and to do as much good as he is able and to please the Lord. Prov. 11. 23. The desire of the Righteous as such is only Good To depart from evil and do good is the care of the just Psal. 34. 14. We must please our neighbours for Good to their Edification Rom. 15. 2. While we have time we must do good to all men as we are able but especially to them of the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 10 Not only to them that do good to us but to our enemies Luk. 6. 32 33 34. Mat. 5. 44. This is it that we must not forget Heb. 13. 16. and which by Ministers we must be â—ut in mind of 1 Tim. 6. 18. which all that love life and would inherit the blessing must devote themselves to 1 Pet. 3. 10 11 12. In this we must be like our heavenly Father and approve our selves his Children Mat. 5. 45 46. 7. From the perfect Infinite goodness of God we must learn to judge of Good and Evil and in all the Creatures To this must all be reduced as the standard and by this must they be tryed It is a most wretched absurdity of sensual men to try the will or word or wayes of God by themselves and by their own interests or wills and to judge all to be Evil in God that is against them And yet alas how common is this case Every man is naturally â—oth to be miserable suffering he abhors and therefore that which causeth his suffering he calleth evil And so when he hath deserved it himself by his sin he thinks that the Law is Evil for threatning it and that God himself is Evil for inflicting it so that Infinite Goodness must be tryed and judged by the vicious creature and the Rule and standard must be reduced to the crooked line of humane actions or dispositions and if God will please
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
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
and therefore it is here that we have the loudest call and best assistance to make a large return of Love And where there is the most of this Love between God and man there is most Communion and most of Heaven that can be had on Earth But it much concerneth the members of Christ that they deprive not themselves of this Communion with God in this Holy Sacrament through their miscarriage which is too frequently done by one of these extreams Either by rushing upon holy things with a presumptuous careless common frame of heart as if they knew not that they go to feast with Christ and discerned not his body or else by an excess of fear drawing back and questioning the good will of God and thinking diminutively of his love and mercy By this means Satan depriveth many of the comfortable part of their communion with God both in this Sacrament and in other waies of grace and maketh them avoid him as an enemy and be loth to come into his special presence and even to be afraid to think of him to pray to him or to have any holy converse with him When the just belief and observation of his Love would stablish them and revive their souls with joy and give them experience of the sweet delights which are opened to them in the Gospel and which believers finde in the Love of God and the foretast of the everlasting pleasures 4. In holy faithful servent Prayer a Christian hath very much of his converse with God For Prayer is our approach to God and calling to mind his presence and his attributes and exercising all his graces in a holy motion towards him and an exciting all the powers of our souls to seek him attend him reverently to worship him It is our treating with him about the most important businesses in all the world a beâ—ging of the greatest mercies and a deprecating his most grievous judgments and all this with the nearest familiarity that man in flesh can have with God In prayer the Spirit of God is working up our hearts unto him with desires exprest in sighs and groans It is a work of God as well as of man He bloweth the fire though it be our hearts that burn and boil In Prayer we lay hold on Jesus Christ and plead his merits and intercession with the Father He taketh us as it wereby the hand and leadeth us unto God and hideth our sins and procureth our acceptance and presenteth us amiable to his Father having justified and sanctified us and cleansed us from those pollutions which rendered us loathsome and abominable To speak to God in serious prayer is a work so high and of so great moment that it calleth off our minds from all things else and giveth no creature room or leave to look into the soul or once to be observed The mind is so taken up with God and employed with him that creatures are forgotten and we take no notice of them unless when through the diversions of the flesh our prayers are interrupted and corrupted and so far degenerate and are no prayer so far I say as we thus turn away from God So that the soul that is most and best at Prayer is most and best at walking with God and hath most communion with him in the Spirit And to withdraw from Prayer is to withdraw from God And to be unwilling to pray is to be unwilling to draw near to God Meditation or Contemplation is a duty in which God is much enjoyed But Prayer hath Meditation in it and much more All that is upon the mind in Meditation is upon the mind in Prayer and that with great advantage as being presented before God and pleaded with him and so animated by the apprehensions of his observing presence and actuated by the desires and pleadings of the soul. When we are commanded to Pray it includeth a command to Repent and Believe and Fear the Lord and Desire his Grace For Faith and Repentance and Fear and Desire are altogether in action in a serious prayer And as it were naturally each one takes his place and there is a holy order in the acting of these graces in a Christians prayers and a harmony which he doth seldome himself observe He that in Meditation knoweth not how to be regular and methodical when he is studiously contriving and endeavouring it yet in Prayer before he is aware hath Repentance and Faith and Fear and Desire and every grace fall in its proper place and order and contribute its part to the performance of the work The new nature of a Christian is more immediately and vigorously operative in Prayer than in many other duties And therefore every Infant in the family of God can pray with groaning desires and ordered graces if not with well-ordered words When Paul began to live to Christ he began aright to pray Behold he prayeth saith God to Ananias Act. 9. 11. And because they are Sons God sends the Spirit of his Son into the hearts of his Elect even the Spirit of Adoption by which they cry Abba Father Gal. 4. 6. as children naturally cry to their Parents for relief And Nature is more regular in its works than Art or humane contrivance is Necessity teacheth many a beggar to pray better for relief to men than many learned men that feel not their necessities can pray to God The Spirit of God is a better Methodist than we are And though I know that we are bound to use our utmost care and skill for the orderly actuating of each holy affection in our Prayers and not pretend the sufficiency of the Spirit for the patronage of our negligence or sloth for the Spirit makes use of our understandings for the actuating of our wills and affections yet withall it cannot be denied but that it was upon a special reason that the Spirit that is promised to Believers is called a Spirit of Grace and Supplication Zech. 12. 10. And that it is given us to help our infirmities even the infirmities of our understanding when we know not what to pray for as we ought Rom. 8. 26. And that the Spirit it self is said to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered It is not the Spirit without that is here meant such intercession is nowhere ascribed to that How then is the Prayer of the Spirit within us distinguished from our Prayer Not as different effects of different causes as different prayers by these different parties But as the same prayer proceeding from different causes having a special force for quality and degree as from one cause the Spirit which it hath not from the other cause from our selves except as received from the Spirit The Spirit is as a New Nature or fixed inclination in the Saints For their very self-love and will to good is sanctified in them which works so readily though voluntarily as that it is in a sort by the way of Nature though not excluding Reason and
and makes them as no mercies at all Creation and our Being is a mercy but it is in order to our Eternal end Redemption by Christ is an unspeakable mercy but its denyed by the Infidel and rejected by the Ungodly what is Christ worth and all his mediation if there be no life for man but this Peace and Liberty health and life friends and neighbours food and rayment are all mercyes to us as a ship and sails are to the Mariner or a fair way or Horse or Inn to a Traveller But if by denying our Eternal end you make our voyage or our journey vain these mercies then are little worth no more then a ship on the land or a plow in the sea or a horse to him that hath no use for him And O what an ungrateful wretch is that who will deny all the mercies of God to himself and to all others For once deny the use and the Eternal end and you deny the mercy 3. He that believeth not or seeks not after an Eternal end destroyeth all the Doctrine Law and Government of God For all is but to lead us to this end All the holy Scriptures the precepts of Christ and his holy example the Covenant of Grace the gifts and miracles of the Holy Ghost the light and law of Nature it self are all to bring us to our Eternal end And therefore he that denyeth that end doth cancel them all and cast them by as useless things 4. And he denyeth all the Graces of the Spirit For what use is there for Faith if the object of it be a falshood what use for Hope if there be no life to be Hoped for what use for holy desires and love if God be not to be enjoyed Grace is but the delusion and deformity of the soul if the Infidel and ungodly be in the right 5. They destroy also All the means of our Salvation if they deny Salvation which is the End To what purpose should men study or read or hear or pray or use either Sacraments or any other means for an End that is not to be had To what end should men obey or suffer for any such end that 's not attainable 6. Yea they do let loose the soul to sin and take off all essectual restraint If there be no Eternal end and no Reward or Punishment but here what can effectually hinder the men of this opinion from stealing whoredome or any villany when it may be done with secrecy what should hinder the revengeful man from poisoning or secret murdering his enemy or setting his house on fire in the night If I know a man or woman that believes no life to come I take it for granted they are revengeful thieves deceivers fornicators or any thing that is bad if they have but temptation and secret opportunity For what hath he to seek but the pleasing of his flesh that thinks he hath no God to seek or please or no future reward or punishment to expect He that confesseth himself an Infidel to me doth confess himself to be in all things else as bad as ever he can or dare Honesty is renounced by that man or woman that profess themselves to be Atheists or Infidels Methinks in congruency with their profession they should take it for a wrong to be called or reputed honest If you tell me that Heathens had a kind of Honesty I must tell you again that most Heathens believed the Immortality of the soul and that kind of seeming Honesty which they had was only in those of them that thus expected a life to come But those that believe not another life where man is to have his punishment and reward have nothing like to Honesty in them but live like greedy ravenous beasts where they are from under the Laws and Government of them that look for another life The Cannibals that eat mens flesh and some such savages as they are the Nations that expect no life but this It is believed so commonly by all the civil Infidels and Turks as shews it to be a principle that nature doth reveal 7. Yea the whole Creation that is within the sight of man is destroyed opinionatively by the Infidels that look for no Immortal life For all things were made to further our Salvation the Heavens to declare the Glory of God and the sirmament to shew his handy work and all Creatures to be our Glass in which we must behold the Lord and our Book in which we must read and learn his nature and his will The sun is to light us and maintain our Life and the Life of other lower Creatures while we prepare for Immortality The earth is to bear us and to bear fruit for us and the Trees and Plants and every Creature to accommodate and serve us while we serve the Lord and pass on to Eternity And therefore the Atheist that denyeth us our Eternity denyeth the usefulness of all the world what were all the Creatures here good for if there were no men the earth would be a wilderness and the beasts would for the most part perish for want of sustenance and all would be like a forsaken Cottage that no man dwelleth in and doth no good And if man be not the Heir of Immortality they can do him no good All Creatures are but our provision in the way to this Eternity And therefore if there were no Eternity what should we do with them what should we do with wayes and pavements or with Inns for Travellers or with horses or other provision for our journey if there were no travelling that way And who will travel to a place that is not or a City that is nowhere but in his brains besides a mad man It s evident therefore that as all the tools in a workmans shop are made useless to him if he be forbidden to use his trade and all the books in my Library are useless if I may not read them to get knowledge so all Creatures under Heaven are made useless and destroyed doctrinally by the Atheist that thinks there is no Eternal life for which they should be used I must seriously profess if I believed this being in other things of the mind I am I knew not what to do with any thing What should I do with my Books but to learn the way to this Eternity what should I do with my money if there be no treasure to be laid up in Heaven nor friends to be made with the Mammon abused commonly to unrighteousness what should I do with my Tongue my Hands my Time my Life my Self or any thing if there were no Eternity I think I should dig my grave and lay me down in it and die and perish to scape the sorrows of a longer life that must be my companions Remember then Christians and still remember it that Eternity is the matter of your Faeith and Hope Eternity is your portion and felicity Eternity is the End of all your desires and labours and
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
right his kindness and sollicitations of you and you have so little to say for any pretence of right or merit in the creature Why are not men ashamed of the greatest dishonesty against God when all that have any humanity left them do take adultery theft and other dishonesty against creatures for a shame The time will come when God and his interest shall be better understood that this dishonesty against Him will be the matter of the most confounding shame that ever did or could befall men Prevent this by the juster exercise of your thoughts and keeping them pure and chast to God 10. If God be not in your thoughts and the chiefest in them there will be no matter in them of solid comfort or content Trouble and deceit will be all their work when they have fled about the earth and taken a tast of every flower they will come loaden home with nothing better then Vanity and Vexation Such thoughts may excite the laughter of a fool and cause that mirth that is called madness Eccles. 7. 4 6. and 2. 2. But they will never conduce to setled Peace and durable content And therefore they are alwaies repented of themselves and are troublesome to our review as being the shame of the sinner which he would fain be cleared of or disown Though you may approach the creature with passionate fondness and the most delightful promises and hopes be sure of it you will come off at last with grief and disappointment if not with the loathing of that which you chose for your delight Your thoughts are in a wilderness among thorns and bryars when God is not in them as their guide and end They are lost and torn among the creatures but rest and satisfaction they will find none It may be at the present it is pleasanter to you to think of recreation or business or worldly wealth then to think of God But the pleasure of these thoughts is as delusory and short-lived as are the things themselves on which you think How long will you think with pleasure on such fading transitory things And the pleasure cannot be great at the present which reacheth but the flesh and fantasie and which the possessed knoweth will be but short Nay you will shortly find by sad experience that of all the creatures under heaven there will none be so bitter to your thoughts as those which you now find greatest carnal sweetness in O how bitter will the thought of idolized honour and abused wealth and greatness be to a dying or a damned Dives The thoughts of that Alehouse or Playhouse where thou hadst thy greatest pleasure will trouble thee more then the thoughts of all the houses in the town besides The thoughts of that one woman with whom thou didst commit thy pleasant sin will wound and vex thee more then the thoughts of all the women in the town besides The thoughts of that beloved sport which thou couldst not be weaned from will be more troublesome to thee then the thoughts of a thousand other things in which thou hadst no inordinate delight For the end of sinful mirth is sorrow when Solomon had tryed to please himself to the full in mirth in buildings vineyards woods waters in servants and possessions silver and gold and cattel and singers and instruments of musick of all sorts in greatness and all that the eye or appetite or heart desired he findeth when he awaked from this pleasant dream that he had all this while been taken up with Vanity and Vexation in so much that he saith on the review Therefore I hated life because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous to me for all is vanity and vexation of spirit Yea I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun Eccles. 2. 1 2 3 c. 17. 18. You may toil out and tire your selves among these bryars in this barren wilderness but if ever you would feel any solid ground of quietness and rest it must be by coming off from vanity and seeking your felicity in God and living sincerely for Him and upon Him as the worldling doth upon the world His pardoning mercy must begin your Peace forgiving you your former thoughts and â—is healing quickening mercy must increase it by teaching you better to employ your thoughts and drawing up your hearts â—nto himself and his glorifying mercy must perfect it by giving you the full intuition and fruition of himself in heaven and employing you in his perfect Love and Praise not leaving any room for creatures nor suffering a thought to be employed on vanity for ever CHAP. IV. BY this time I hope you may see reason to call your selves to a strict account what converse you have been taken up with in the world and upon what you have exercised your thoughts surely you must needs be conscious that the thoughts which have been denyed God have brought you home but little satisfaction and have not answered the ends of your creation redemption or preservation and that they are now much fitter matter for your penitential tears then for your comfort in the review I do not think you dare own and stand to those thoughts which have been spent for fleshly pleasures or in unnecessary worldly cares or that were wasted in impertinent vagaries upon any thing or nothing when you should have been seeking God! I do not think you have now any great pleasure in the review of those thoughts which once were taken up with pleasure when your most pleasant thoughts should have been of God Dare you approve of your rejecting your Creatour and the great concernments of your soul out of your thoughts and wasting them upon things unprofitable and vain Did not God and Heaven deserve more of your serious thoughts then any thing else that ever they were employed on Have you laid them out on any thing that more concerned you or on any thing more excellent more honourable more durable or that could claim precedency upon any just account Did you not shut heaven it self out of your thoughts when you shut out God And is it not just that God and Heaven should shut out you If Heaven be not the principal matter of your thoughts its plain that you do not principally love it And if so judge you whether those that Love it not are fit to be made possessors of it O poor distracted senseless world Is not God Great enough to command and take up your chiefest cogitations Is not Heaven enough to find them work and afford them satisfaction and delight And yet is the dung and dotage of the world enough Is your honour and wealth and fleshly delights aed sports enough God will shortly make you know whether this were wise and equal dealing Is God so low so little so undeserving to be so oft and easily forgotten and so hardly and so sleightly remembred I tell you ere long he will make you think of him to your sorrow whether you will or
that hath rightly and resolvedly determined of his end hath virtually resolved a thousand controversies that others are unsatisfied and erroneous in He that is resolved that his End is to Please and Glorifie God and to enjoy him for ever is easily resolved whether a holy life or a sensual and worldly be the way whether the way be to be Godly or to make a mock at Godliness whether Covetousness and Riches Ambition and Preferment Voluptuousness and Fleshly pleasures be the means to attain his End whether it will be attained rather by the studying of the Word of God and meditating on it day and night and by holy conference and fervent prayer and an obedient life or by negligence or worldliness or drunkenness or gluttony or cards and dice or beastly filthiness or injustice and deceit Know once but whither it is that we are going and its easie to know whether the Saint or the Swine or the Swaggerer be in the way But a man that doth mistake his End is out of his way at the first step and the further he goes the further he is from true felicity and the more he erreth and the further he hath to go back again if ever he return Every thing that a man doth in the world which is not for the right end the Heavenly felicity is an act of foolishness and errour how splendid soever the Matter or the Name may make it appear to ignorant men Every word that an ungodly person speaketh being not for a right End is in him but sin and folly however materially it may be an excellent and useful Truth While a miserable soul hath his back upon God and his face upon the world every step he goeth is an act of folly as tending unto his further misery It can be no act of wisdome which tendeth to a mans damnation When such a wretch begins to enquire and bethink him where he is and whither he is going and whither he should go and to think of turning back to God then and never till then he is beginning to come to himself and to be wise Luk. 15. 17. Till God and Glory be the End that he aimeth at and seriously bends his study heart and life to seek though a man were searching into the mysteries of nature though he were studying or discussing the notions of Theology though he were admired for his earning and wisdome by the world and cryed up as the Oracle of the Earth he is all the while but playing the fool and going a cleanlier way to Hell than the grosser sinners of the world For â—s he wise that knoweth not whether Heaven or Earth be better whether God or his Flesh should be obeyed whether everlasting joyes or the transitory pleasures of sin should be preferred or that seemeth to be convinced of the truth in these and such like cases and yet hath not the wit to make his choice and bend his life according to his conviction He cannot be wise that practically mistakes his End 3. He that walketh with God doth know those things with a deep effectual heart-changing knowledge which other men know but superficially by the halves and as in a dream And true wisdome consisteth in the Intensiveness of the knowledge subjectively as much as in the extensiveness of it objectively To see a few things in a narrow room perspicuously and clearly doth shew a better eye-sight than in the open Air to see many things obscurely so as scarce to discern any of them aright â—â—ke him that saw men walk like trees The clearness and 〈◊〉 of knowledge which makes it effectual to its proper use 〈…〉 greatness and excellency of it Therefore it is that unlearned men that love and fear the Lord may well be said to be incomparably more wise and knowing men than the most learned that are ungodly As he hath more riches that hath a little Gold or Jewels than he that hath many load of stones so he that hath a deep effectual knowledge of God the Father and the Redeemer and of the life to come is wiser and more knowing than he that hath only a notional knowledge of the same things and of a thousand more A wicked man hath so much knowledge as teacheth him to speak the same words of God and Christ and Heaven which a true Believer speaks but not so much as to work in him the same affections and choice nor so much as to cause him to do the same work As it is a far more excellent kind of knowledge which a man hath of any Country by travel and habitation there than that which cometh but by reading or report or which a man hath of meat of fruits of wine by eating and drinking than that which another hath by hearsay so is the inward heart-affecting knowledge of a true believer more excellent than the flashy notions of the ungodly Truth simply as Truth is not the highest and most excellent object of the mind But Good as Good must be apprehended by the Understanding and commended to the Will which entertaineth it with Complacency adhereth to it with Choice and Resolution prosecuteth it with Desire and Endeavour and Enjoyeth it with Delight And though it be the Understanding which apprehendeth it yet it is the Heart or Will that rellisheth it and tasteth the greatest sweetness in it working upon it with some mixture of internal sense which hath made some ascribe a knowledge of Good as such unto the Will. And it is the Wills intention that causeth the Understanding to be denominated Practical And therefore I may well say thâ—t it is Wisdom indeed when it reacheth to the heart No man knoweth the Truth of God so well as he that most firmly Believeth him And do man knoweth the Goodness of God so well as he that Loveth him most No man knoweth his Power and Mercy so well as he that doth most confidently Trust him And no man knoweth his Justice and Dreadfulness so well as he that feareth him No man knoweth or believeth the Glory of Heaven so well as he that most esteemeth desireth and seeketh it and hath the most Heavenly Heart and Conversation Ho man believeth in Jesus Christ so well as he that giveth up himself unto him with the greatest Love and Thankfulness and Trust and Obedience As James saith Shew mee thy Faith by thy works so say I Let me know the measure and value of my knowledge by my Heart and Life That is wisdome indeed which conformeth a man to God and saveth his soul This only will be owned as wisdome to eternity when dreaming notions will prove but folly 4. He that walketh with God hath an infallible Rule and taketh the right course to have the best acquaintance with it and skill to use it The Doctrine that informeth him is Divine It is from Heaven and not of Men And therefore if God be wiser than man he is able to make his Disciples wisest and Teaching will more certainly and
Satan can never come in so ill a time with his temptations and have so little hope to speed as when the soul is contemplating the attributes of God or taken up in prayer with him or any way apprehensive of his presence The soul that faithfully walks with God hath enough at hand in him to answer all temptations And the further any man is from God and the less he knoweth him the more Temptations can do upon him 3. The presence of God affordeth the most powerful motives unto Good to those that walk with him There is no grace in man but what is from God and may find in God its proper object or incentive As God is God above the creature transcendently and infinitely in all perfections so all the motives to goodness which are fetcht from him are transcendently above all that may be fetcht from any creature He that liveth alwaies by the fire or in the Sun-shine is likest to be warm He that is most with God will be most like to God in Holiness Frequent and serious converse with him doth most deeply imprint his communicable attributes on the heart and make there the clearest impression of his image Believers have learned by their own experience that one hours serious prayer or meditation in which they can get nigh to God in the Spirit doth more advance their grace then any help that the creature can afford them 4. Moreover those that walk with God have not only a Powerful but an universal incentive for the actuating and increasing of every grace Knowledge and faith and fear and love and trust and hope and obedience and zeal and all have in God their proper objects and incentives One Creature may be useful to us in one thing and another in another thing but God is the most effectual mover of all his graces and that in a holy harmony and order Indeed he hath no greater Motive to draw us to Love him and Fear him and Trust him and Obey him than himself It is life eternal to know him in his Son Joh. 17. 3. And that is not only because it entitleth us to life eternal but also because it is the beginning and incentive of that life of holiness which will be eternal 5. Moreover those that walk with God have a constant as well as a Powerful and Universal incentive to exercise and encrease their Graces Othet helps may be out of the way Their Preachers may be silenced or removed Their Friends may be scattered or taken from them Their Books may be forbidden or not at hand But God is alwaies ready and willing They have leave at all times to come to him and be welcome Whenever they are willing they may go to him by prayer or contemplation and find all in him which they can desire If they want not Hearts they shall find no want of any thing in God At what time soever fear would torment them they may draw near and put their trust in him Psal. 56. 2 3 4. 11. 1. 18. 2 30. 31. 1 6. He will be a sure and speedy refuge for them a very present help in trouble Psal. 46. 1. 62. 7 8. 91. 2 9 94. 22. Whenever coldness or lukewarmness would extinguish the work of Grace they may go to him and find those streams of flaming Love flow from him those strong attractives those wonderful mercies those terrible judgements of which while they are musing the fire may again wax hot within them Psal. 39. 3. 6. Lastly by way of encouraging reward God useth to give abundantly of his Grace to those that walk most faithfully with him He will shew most Love to those that most love him He will be nearest to them that most desirously draw nigh to him while he forsaketh those that forsake him and turneth away from those that turn away from him 2 Chro. 15. 2. Prov. 1. 32. Ezr. 8. 22. The hand of our God is for good upon all them that seek him but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him Thus it is apparent in all those evidences that walking with God is not only a discovery of the Goodness that men have but the only way to encrease their Grace and make them better O what a sweet humility and seriousness and spirituality appeareth in the conference or conversation or both of those that newly come from a believing close converse with God! When they that come from men and Books may have but a common mind or life And those that come from the business and pleasure of the world and flesh and from the company of foolish riotous gallants may come defiled as the Swine out of the mire V. LAstly to walk with God is the best preparation for times of suffering and for the day of death As we must be judged according to what we have done in the body so the nearer we find our selves to judgement the more we shall be constrained to judge our selves according to what we have done and shall the more perceive the effects upon our souls That this is so excellent a preparative for sufferings and death will appear by the consideration of these particulars 1. They that walk with God are safest from all destructive sufferings and shall have none but what are sanctified to their good Rom. 8. 28. They are near to God where destruction cometh not as the Chicken under the wings of the Hen. They walk with him that will not lead them to perdition that will not neglect them nor sell them for nought nor expose them to the will of men and devils though he may suffer them to be tryed for their good No one can take them out of his hands Be near to him and you are safe The destroyer cannot fetch you thence He can fetch you when the time is come from the side of your merriest companions and dearest friends from the presence of the greatest Princes from the strongest Tower or most sumptuous Pallace or from your heaps of riches in your securest health But he cannot take you from the arms of Christ nor from under the wings of your Creatours love For there is no God like him in Heaven above or on the earth beneath who keepeth Covenant and Mercy with his servants that walk before him with all their heart 1 King 8 23. 1 King 11. 38. However we are used in our Fathers presence we are sure it shall be for good in the latter end For he wanteth neither Power nor Love to deliver us if he saw deliverance to be best 2. Walking with God is the surest way to obtain a certainty of his special love and of our salvation And what an excellent preparative for sufferings or death such assurance is I need not tell any considerate beleever How easie may it be to us to suffer poverty disgrace or wrongs or the pains of sickness or death when once we are certain that we shall not suffer the pains of