in discontents complaints and many dismal passions Oh then alas I am undone What shall I do for the hundred talents I am the only man that hath seen affliction no sorrow like unto my sorrow I shall go softly all my dayes for the joy of my heart is perished the delight of my eyes is cut off Thus Rachel weeâ—â— for her children and will not be comforted Rizpah attends the carkasses of her Sons and will not be parted from them 2 Sam. 21. It is a strange thing that a soul should live upon its losses And yet how many do so Their very soul cleaveth to the dust where their creature-comforts are interred whose souls are so much bound up in the creature that they will needs live and dye together with them If God smite the Gourd and make it to wither Jonah droops and will needs dye too Jonah 4. 8 9. If Joseph be missing a while Jacob will not be comforted no he will go down into the grave unto his Son mourning Gen. 37. 35. Who would have thought to have heard such words from such wise men as a Prophet and a Patriach Oh the strange and unbounded power which this unseemly creature love hath obtained over the best of men which makes me call him a happy man almost more than a man a compeer of Angels who hath learnt to converse with God alone Well converse not with creature-losses let not your soul take up its lodging by the carkasses of your created-comforts with Rizâ—ah dwell not upon the lowest round of the ladder but climb up by it to the meaning of God and to some higher good and more excellent attainment They live to their loss who live upon their losses who dwell upon the dark side of the dispensation For every dark Providence hath one bright side wherein a godly soul may take comfort if he be not wanting to himself 5. Converse not with flesh and blood By flesh and blood I suppose the Apostle means no more than men Gal. 1. 16. And indeed if we confer with men only for counsel and repair to men only for comfort in a time of affliction we shoot short of the mark But by flesh and blood the Scripture elsewhere often means man in this his animal state as he is in his corruptible mortal body as 1 Cor. 15. 50. and many other places And in this sense I speak when I say Converse not with flesh and blood Judge not according to your senses let not your own sensual appetite determine what is good or evil sweet or bitter Consult with rectified Reason and not with brutish appetite confer with Faith and not with Fancy Rectified Reason will judge that to be really good which our sensual appetite distasts An enlightened mind will judge that to make for the interest of the soul and its eternal happy state which sense judges hurtful to the interest of the body and its animal state It is not possible there should be any order nor consequently any peace or rest in that soul where the inferiour faculties domineer over the superior and sensitive powers Lord it over the intellectual and where raging appetite and extravagant fancy must clamber up into the throne to determine cases and right Reason must stoop and bow before it Be admonished to fly converse with all these if you would converse rightly purely properly comfortably with God which is the highest office and attainment of created nature Consider what I have said concerning this excellent and high employment and awaken your souls and all the powers of them to mâ—et the Lord God and converse with him aright in the way of his judgments Converse with God with God in Christ with God in his promises with God in his attributes and labour to do it not speculatively notionally but really practically according as I have directed in the foregoing discourse Religion is not an empty airy notional thing it is not a matter of thinking nor of talking but it hath a real existence in the soul and doth as really distinguish though not specifically one man from another as Rea on distinguishes all men from beasts Converse with God is set out in Scripture by living and walking and the like Let me inculcate this thing therefore again and press it upon you and I shall finish all As the way of glorifying God in the world is not by a meer thinking of him or entertaining some notion of his glory into our heads but consists in a real participation of his image in a God-like disposition and holy conversation according to that of our Saviour Joh. 15. 8. Herein is my Father glorified c. So the way of conversing with God in his several attributes is not a thinking often with our selves and telling one another that God is just wise merciful c. though this be good But it is a drinking in the virtue and value of these divine perfections a working of them into the soul and on the other hand the souls rendring of it self up to God in those acts of Grace which do suit with such attributes as in water face answereth face I do not call bare performance of duties a conversing with God Prayer and Meditation c. are excellent means in and by which our soul converses with God but communion with God is properly somewhat more spiritual real powerful and divine according as I described it just now As for example The soul receives the impressions of divine Soveraignty into it and gives up it self unto God in the Grace of Self-denyal and humble subjection The soul receives the communications of divine Fulness and Perfection and entertains the same with Delight and Complacency and as it were grows full in it Even as the communications of the virtues of the Sun are answered with life and warmth and growth in the plants of the earth So a souls conversing with the attributes of God is not an empty notion of them or a dry discourse concerning them but a Reception of Impressions from them and a Reciprocation to them The effluxes of these from God are such as do beget reflections in man towards God This is to know Christ to grow up in him into all things according to that in 1 John 3. 6. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him neither known him The second Reason why we ought especially to study to converse with God in the time of afflictions is because that is a time wherein we are most apt to think our selves excused from this duty as if it were allowed us in our extremity to forget God and mind our selves only And that not only in respect of those bodily straits and distresses which I named under the last head but in respect of our own passions When the afflicting hand of God is upon us pressing and grieving of us and taking our beloved comforts from us we are apt to indulge our own private and selfish passions care fear sorrow complainings c. Yea to think we are in some
6. 38. and again to seek the glory of him that sent him John 7. 18. In a word he looks upon himself not as in himself but in God and labours to become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wholly Gods and to live in the world only as an instrument in the hands of him that worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will That in general for the conversing with God in all kind of changes in general Now these changes are reduced to two heads Prosperity and Adversity In the first of these it is our duty to converse with God and not with the creature comforts which we do enjoy from him as one might shew at large But I am to speak of the latter and to shew how we ought to converse with God in that But first I must demonstrate that it is our duty to do it which was the third thing I promised viz. To shew that it is the duty of Gods people to study to converse with him aright in the way of his Judgments in a time of affliction And here I hope I need not be at pains to prove by Scripture that besides the general business of a Christians life some particular and more especial behaviours are required of him in an afflicted state all will grant it sure Besides by that time I shall have declared what they are I shall not need to prove that they are Therefore for the present I shall content my self to give in three or four Reasons of it and so pass on It is especially the duty of Gods people to study to converse with him aright in the time of afflictions 1. Because then especially it is hard to do it We are then very apt to be taken off from it therefore we should then especially labour to pursue it and perform it We are then in eminent danger to be taken off from it and that by these means 1. Our senses do set us on work to converse with outward means which whilst we attend upon too eagerly we neglect and forget God This might appear by an induction of particular afflictions but that would be too long I will only instance in one or two for explication The sickness and painedness of the body calls out the mind to seek after and converse with Physicians bodily wants call us to seek after bodily supplies and so all kind of distresses call out the soul to seek creature-relief Call upon the sick and languishing Patient to call upon and hang upon divine help to converse with God alas he hath enough to do to attend upon his pains and pangs tell him of ease of recovery and he can hearken to you for that 's the news that he longs to hear Call upon the poor pined beggar to seek relief of God to converse with him Alas he finds such a faintness in his limbs such a gnawing of hunger such a restless appetite within himself that he can groan out nothing but Oh that one would give me bread to eat In a word the soul is more naturally addicted to mind its body to which it is joyned than the God that joyned it to that body Hence you may observe two things by the way viz 1. The reason why so few persons repent in time of sickness the sense of sickness drowns the sense of sin 2. The reason why so few poor people who are ever more conflicting with the necessities of the body do not at all mind the concernments of their souls The exigencies and straits of the body do cry louder in their hearts than all the words and works of God So that as health is the best time for repentance so it seemeth that the best way to teach the poor is to relieve them 2. The corruptions of the heart are then most apt to make war against Heaven This is the opinion of him who knows the temper of man too well Job 1. 11. Put forth thine hand against him and he will curse thee to thy face And I am perswaded that the Devil acts much by this observation which makes him endeavour all he can to make many good men poor thinking thereby to make them less good though the wise and merciful God do wonderfully prevent him For indeed the soul is so naturally tender of the body that its loth God himself should touch it if he do it is ready to fret and storm and flye in his face Converse with God! saith the wicked King Why this evil is from the Lord what should I wait upon the Lord any longer 2 King 6. 33. There are many corruptions of the soul that are most ready to clamour against God in a time of affliction as Fear Anger Vnbelief yea and sinful Self-love and Creature-love an affection than can never be taught to converse with God yet will go crying after him when he takes away any darling from it as Phaltiel went crying after his Wife or rather crying against him as Micah cryed against the men of Dan saying Ye have taken away my Gods and are gone away and what have I more Judg. 18. 24. 3. Temptations do then come strongest from without Then it is the Devils time to play his game What put up this reproach what will you sit down with this loss up and revenge thy self He that knows so well the temper of mans heart so ready to curse God when he touches him Job 2. 5. will not fail to touch the heart and tempt it to curse him indeed Job 2. 9. Curse God and dye I have gone thorow the Doctrinal part of my discourse upon these words which was the thing I mainly intended Many Inferences might be drawn from it But I shall content my self to forbid and so as it were to remove out of the way some things that hinder this great duty and so shut up all with one word of Exhortation 1. Converse not with creature comforts the poor low and scant enjoyments of this world For so I may well call them though they be never so high in the opinion of them that have them and never so large as to the proportion that any one hath of them They are low in comparison of that high and supâ—eme good for which the soul was made and scant as to any real happiness or satisfaction that they can possibly give For indeed those sinful and sensual souls that take up their rest and happiness most in them are not properly satisfied but surfeited not filled but for the present glutted with them There are many unlawful and hurtful wayes of the souls conversing with created comforts I will not run thorow them all as not intending any large discourse upon these heads Converse not with them fondly delighting in them and doating upon them especially take heed of this when God is shaking his Rod over any of them Doth God arise and begin to plead with you in judgment laying his hand upon any of these and threatning to take them from you Oh then hands off touch
And this sense doth well agree with what went before and with what follows The Apostle hath a great mind to depart for whilst he is in the body he is absent from his perfect happiness For this is the consummation of a Christians happiness to be with the Lord to be admitted to a beholding of his infinite glory as appears by our Saviours earnest prayer for this Joh. 17. 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory Besides if we shall see him as he is we must also needs be made lâ—ke unto him 1 Joh. 3. 2. else how can we be fit to live for ever in his presence Now we are kept from this seeing and beholding of the Lord in glory by this animal life It stands between us and the Crown between us and our Masters Joy between us and the perfect enjoyment of God To be with the Lord is a state of perfect freedom from sin No unclean thing shall or can enter into Heaven Rev. 21. 27. A perfect freedom from all manner of afflâ—ctions Rev. 21. 4. There shall be no more sorrow nor crying nor pain and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all tears shall be wiped away from their eyes A state of freedom from all temptations to sin For a tempting Devil and all tempting lusts shall be cast out for ever A state of perfect peace without the least disturbance from within or from without of perfect joy that shall neither have end nor abatement and of perfect holiness when the whole soul shall be enlarged and raised to know and love and enjoy the blessed God as much as created nature is capable This is the happy state of seeing God of being with the Loâ—d And it is thy corruptible body this animal life that interposes between us and it so that the Apostle is confident and rather willing to depart and be with the Lord than stay here and be without him 2. Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord without any reference to the world to come and so it may be fitly translated distant from the Lord estranged from God This agrees well with the context and scope of the Apostle also And thus the words are also a good ground of the Apostles resolution and willingness to dye q. d. I am willing to be absent from this body for whilst I am in it I find my self to be at a great distance from God And indeed the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies properly to be at a distance or to be estranged So I find it interpreted by a learned Critick without any mystery as he speaks of the distance that even Believers themselves stand at from God in this life And in thâ—s sense I shall chuse to prosecute the words In which sense the Apostle blames this body and animal life because it keeps us at a distance from God is a clog a snare a fetter a pinion to the soul And so the words do agree in sense with those of our Saviour Mat. 26. 41. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak where by the flesh must needs be understood the body if we consider the contexâ— viz. the occasion upon which the words were spoken the sleepiness of the Apostles or if we consider the propriety of speech according to the style of the New Testament True indeed the corruption of nature is sometimes called Flesh but according to that way of speaking our Saviour would rather have said That the spirit was willing but the flesh was strong as he saith elsewhere That the strong man armed kept the house Now to explain this Doctrine a little That even the godly themselves whilst they are in this body are at a distance from the Lord It must be granted that the godly soul is nigh unto God even whilst it so journs in this mortal body and tottering flesh All souls are involved in the Apostasie of Adam and are fallen down from God have alike stâ—agled from their God and are sunk into self and the creature God opened a way for their return by the blood of Jesus for we owe it unto Christs death not only that God is reconciled to us pardoning our sins but that any of our natures become reconciled to God by accepting of him as our God and loving him as the chiefest good Now there is a double being brought nigh to God by Christ The first is more general external and as I may say relational Thus the partition-wall being broken down the Gentiles that were converted from their Idolatry to a profession of God and Christ and admâ—tted to a communion with the Visible Church are upon that account said to be Brethren to the rest of Gods Children 1 Cor. 5. 11. and as to the Church they are said to be within it vers 12. though at the same timâ— they were Fornicators Covetous Drunkards And as to God they are said to be made nigh Ephes 2. 13. A prosessing of God is said to be a being nigh to him and even an external performance is said to be a drawing nigh to him and so Nadab and Abihu even in the offering of strange fire are said to have drawn nigh to God Levit. 10. 3. And this though it be a priviledge yet it is not that honourable priviledge of the truly godly souls who are by Christ Jesus raised up to God in their hearts and reconciled to him in their natures and united to him in their affections and so are made nigh unto him in a more especial and spiritual manner Thus all sinful and wicked souls notwithstanding all their profession and performances are far from God estranged from the life of God Enmity and dissimilitude are the most real distance from God And truly God-like souls only are nigh unto him they dwell in him and he dwelleth in them as in his most proper Temple As to any kind of Apposition no man can draw nigh to God nor by any local accession for so all men are alike nigh to him who is everywhere and the worst as well as the best of men do live and move in him But they are really nigh unto God who do enjoy him and they only enjoy him whose natures are conformable to him in a way of love goodness and God-like perfections We do not enjoy God by any gross and external conjunction with him but we enjoy him and are nigh unto him by an internal union when a Dâ—vine Spirit informeth and acteth our souls and derives a Divine Life into them and thorow them And so a godly soul only is really and happily nigh unto God Thus the Apostle Paul I believe was as nigh unto God as any man in the world who did not only live and move in God as all men do though few understand it but God did even live and as it were breathe in him the very life that he 〈◊〉 was by faith in the Son of
God Gal. 2. 20. For though he walked in the flesh yet he did not walk after the flesh 2 Cor. 10. 3. And yet this gracious soul even as all other believers was at a distance from God and that not so much by reason of his creatureship for of that he doth no speak so the very Angels of God are at aâ— infinite distance from God but by reason of this mortal body and animal life which hindered him from being so nigh to God as his soul was capable to be Whilst wâ— are in the body we are absent from the Lord i. e. at a great distance from God 1. We are distant from God as to that Knowledge which we shall have of him Philosophical Divines speak of a threefold Knowledge 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an essential Knowledge of God This is that unspeakable light whereby the Divine Nature comprehends its own essence wherein God seeth himself 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Science This man is capable of in this life But this kind of knowing of God by way of Science is but a low and dry thing common to good and bad men and Devils and is indeed the perfection of the learned more than of the godly And this kind of Knowledge of God the glorified soul will reckon but like a Fable or a Parable when it shall be once swallowed up in God feasting upon truth it self and seeing God in the pure rayes of his own divinity 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by Intuition this man cannot attain to in this life in its perfection because it arises from a blissful union with God himself which is in this animal state imperfect This in the Platonick phrase is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a contact of God and in Scripture language a beholding of God face to face which we are not capable of in this animal concrete state So may the answer of God to Moses be understood when he besought God to shew him his glory Exod. 33. 18. i. e. to imprint a distinct Idea of his Divine Essence upon his mind Vers 20. No man can see me and live i. e. no man in this corruptible state and animal life is capable of seeing me as I am to apprehend my Divine Essence to see my face The Vision of God is not in this life but in the other so that a man must dye before he can thus know God This is the exposition of Jewish Doctors and our learned Country-men do approve it also This blessed Knowledge of God we are at a distance from whilst we are in this body so the Apostle plainly 1 Cor. 13. 12. Now we see darkly as thorow a glass but the time will come when we shall see as we are seen and know as we are known Now our body principally hinders the operation of our minds when they do exercise themselves about the nature of God whilst it presents its fancies gross imaginations to the soul so it becomes as it were a vail upon the face of the soul draws a cloud and casts a mist over its eyes that it cannot discern distinctly nor judge properly and spiritually And with allusion to this that passage of the Apostle is proper and significant we see as thorow a glass which glaâ—s is indeed continually sullied and darkened whilst we look into it by the breathing of our animal fancies and imaginations upon it Not only those stinking foggs of pride and self love and other sinful corruptions that do arise out of the soul it self do hinder our right perceptions of God as the earth sends out vapors out of it self which arise and interpose between it self and the Sun but even the animal fancy casts in its phantasms and imaginations as a mist before the eye of the soul which through Divine Grace hath been somewhat enlightened and cleared from its inbred sinful humours Though corruption in the mind be as a rheume in its eye so that it cannot well see yet that doth not hinder but that the fancy by presenting its unspiritual imaginations doth also cast a mist before it that it cannot see well nor judge rightly and so it is either held in gross ignorance or lapses into errour But in the Regeneration this sense either shall not be or shall be pure and spiritual 2. Whilst we are in the body we are distant from God as to that service which we ought to perform to him in the world And herein it were endless to run thorow all those outward duties which we owe unto God in the body and to shew how the body becomes a hinderance either to them or in them Though the soul be made willing and forward by a divine principle implanted in it yet the body remains a body a weak and sluggish instrument and so it will be whilst it is animal it will go down into the dust a weak body 1 Cor. 15. 43. What man ever had a more willing and chearful heart than Moses the friend of God Yet his hands were heavy and ready to hang down Exod. 17. 12. Shall I instance in the excellent duty of Preaching and Hearing wherein the spirits of the most spiritual Preacher are soon exhausted the tongne of the learned is ready to cleave to the roof of his mouth the head is seized with dizziness the heart with pantings the organs of speech with weariness and the knees with trembling and the ears of the most devour hearers with heaviness the eyes with sleepiness and the whole body in a short time with weakness Shall I instance in the noble duty of Prayer wherein the pious soul goes out to God but can scarce get its body to accompany it and there the fancy distracts the senses divert and indeed all the members are ready to play the Truants if not the Traitors too especially the brain where the soul sits enthroned is suddenly environed with a rude rout of sluggish vapours arising from the stomach and being no longer able to defend it self against them falls down dead in the midst of them Insomuch that the poor soul is ready to wish sometimes with the sorrowful Prophet Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place that I might leave my members and go from them for they are all an assembly of treacherous servants or wish that it were like its Saviour who could leave his raw Disciples asleep and go and pray apart and come again unto them Shall I instance in that high duty of sustaining Martydom bearing persecutions for God Come on my body cryes the holy soul come on to the stake come my head lay down thy self upon this block come my body compose thy self in thâ—s dark dungeon come my feet fit your selves into these stocks come my hands draw on these fetters these Iron bracelets come come drink the cup that my Father gives thee But oh how it sollows to the stâ—ke what shaking shivering trembling and reluctancy may you see in the whole structure of it The head hangs down
from them as grief Isa 53. 3. fear Heb. 5 7. who yet was free from all sin 1 Pet. 2. 22. Nay it seems necessary as I said before considering the nature of this animal life that the soul should have the corporeal passions and impressions feelingly and powerfully conveyed to it without which it could not express a due benevolence to the body that belongs to it and indeed were it not so we could not properly be said in the Apostles phrase here to be at home in the body the soul would rather dwell in domo alienâ quà m suâ But the soul being called out to attend upon these passions is easily ensnared by them for it can hardly exercise it self about them but it stâ—ps insensibly into a sinful inordinacy As for example The animal spirits nimbly playing in the brain and swiftly flying from thence thorow the nerves up and down the whole body do raise the fancy with mirth and chearfulness which we must not presently mistake for the power of grace nor condemn for the working of corruption So also when the Gall empties its bitter juice into the liver and that mingles it self with the blood there it begets fiery spirits which presently fly up into the brain and cause impressions of anger Now though I dare not say that the souls first sensating and entertaining of these passions is sinful yet it is sadly evident that our souls being once moved by these undisciplin'd animal spirits are very apt to fit upon and cherish those passions of grief fear mirth anger and as it were to work them into it self in an inordinate manner and contrary to the dictates of reason and so the will presently makes those sinful which before were but meerly humane or as one calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the more blossomings or shooâ—ings forth of animal life within us We see then in these particulars that not only the depraved dispositions of the soul do keep us at a distance from God but even this body also is a great hinderance to that knowledge of God which we shall attain to that service of God which we might perform and that sweet communion with him which we shall enjoy It is a clog to the soul that would run a mist to the soul that would see clearly a manacle to the soul that would work a snare to the soul that would be free a fetter to chain it to earthly and material things and as it were a pinion to the wings of contemplation More particularly it is a hinderance to it as to those three things which I have â—â—amed As to the souls knowledge of God the body is an occasion of ignorance and errour As to its serving of God an occasion of distract on and weariness lightness and triflingness and as to its communion with God an occasion of earthliness and sensuality Now this distance which this body keeps the soul at from God might more particularly appear in another way of explication by observing the especial grievances that do arise to the soul from those three great animal faculties if I may so speak The Senses the Appetite the Fancy 1. The Senses I mean the external senses of the body seeing hearing c. These convey passions to the soul upon which it insists and feeds with a sinful fondness and eagerness Set open the eye and it will set hard to convey some species to the soul of earthly objects that shall justle the Ideas of God out of it Set open the ear and it will fill the soul with such a noise and earthly tumult that the secret whispers of the divine spirit cannot be heard The like I may say of the rest Oh how easily do these discompose the fixed soul distract the devout soul cast a mist before the contemplative soul and hale down the raised soul from communion with Heaven to converse with earthly objects Vt vidi ut perii is the complaint of many a Christian as well as it was of the Heathen The souls of most men are quite sunk into their senses and do nothing but as it were lacky to them all their lives and so the servants are on horseback and Princes go on foot Though the eye will never be satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing yet forsooth these importunate suiters must be gratified the eye must see what it will see and the ear must hear what it will hear nothing must be with held from them that these childish senses do whine after These mens souls are indeed incarnate swallowed up in their eyes ears and mouths But not only these but even godly souls are often charmed and ensnared by their senses even they converse not only in the body but too much with it also and it becomes as a Dalilah to lull them asleep and bind them too Good Job found his senses so treacherous that he was fain to make a covenant with them Job 31. 1. And well if he could scape so too The words are a Metaphor for indeed the worst of it is that these senses are not capable of any discipline one cannot bring them into any covenant-terms so that whilst we have senses they will be treacherous whilst our eyes are in our heads they will be wandring after forbidden objects 2. The Appetite the sensitive appetite which is a faculty of the sensitive soul whereby this animal man is stirred up to desire and lust after the things which his senses have dictated to him This bodily lust following upon the neck of the former becomes a greater snare to the soul This restless suitor comes whining ever and anon to the soul for every trâ—fle that the eye hath seen or the ear heard or the mouth hath tasted and by it continual coming and importunate crying wearies her into an observance of it As the fond child comes crying to the Mother for every knack and gaw that it hath seen upon the stalls and she though she cannot in judgment approve of the request yet either in fond indulgence or for peace sake will condescend to purchase it This is the Daughter of the Horsleech that cryes continually Give Give Why what would it have even any thing that it hath seen or heard or touched or tasted any thing that it sees a fellow-creature to be possest of And so indeed the Appetite doth not only ensnare the soul unto drunkenness and glutâ—ony but voluptuousness lascivousness and all manner of sensuality The evil of the sensual appetite appears in wantonness and lasciviousness whether real verbal or mental in immoderate and inordinate trading ingrossing sporting building attiring sleeping visiting as well as in eating and drinking I will determine nothing concerning the first motions of the appetite whereby it sollicits the will to fulfil it only this that if it sollicite to any thing simply and morally evil it is sinful in that first act and that at all times it ought carefully to be watcht lest it seduce to intemperance in things lawful
a dead Lion Eccles 9. 4. But I may say to these even as our Saviour said to that woman in Joh. 4. 18. concerning her Husband The life that we live here is not our life The union of the sensitive soul with the body is indeed truly and properly the life of a beast and its greatest happiness for it is capable of no higher perfection But the union of the rational soul with God is the noblest perfection of man and his highest life so that the life of a believing soul is not destroyed at death but perfected Neither was the Apostle weary of his life because of the adversities of it The Apostle was of a braver spirit sure than any Stoick he durst live though he rather desired to dye All the conflicts he endured with the world never wrung such a sigh from him as the conflict that he had with his own corruptions did Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man c. All the perfecutions in the world never made him groan so much as the burden of his flesh doth here and his great distance from the Lord. A godly soul can converse with persecuting men and a tempting Devil can handle briars and thorns can grapple with any kind of oppressions and adversities in the flesh without despondency so long as it finds it self in the bosome of God and in the arms of Omnipotence But when it begins to consider where it is how far it is from its God its life and the happy state that God hath prepared it for then it cannot but groan within it self and be ready with Peter to cast it self out of the ship to get to its God to land it self in eternity Neither indeed to speak truly is it only the sense of sin against God which seâ—s the godly soul a going For though it must be confest that this is a heavy burden upon the soul yet the Apostle makes no complaint of this here but only of his distance from God that necessary distance from God that the body kept him it at 2. See here the excellent spirit of true Religion Godly souls do groan after an unbodyed estate not only because of their sins in the body but even because of the necessary distance at which the body keeps them from God We may suppose a godly soul at some time to have no manner of affliction in the world to grieve him no sin unpardoned unrepented of to trouble him yet for all this he is not at perfect rest he is burdened and groans within himself because he is at such a distance from that absolute good whom he longs to know more familiarly and enjoy more â—ully than he doth yet or than is allowed to mortal men And though nothing else ayl him yet the consideration of this distance makes him cry out Oh when shall I come and appear before God! be wholly swallowed up in him see him as he is and converse with him face to face Bare innocency or freedom from sin cannot satisfie that noble and large spirit that is in a truly and God-like soul but that spirit of true goodness being nothing else but an efflux from God himself carryes the soul out after a more intimate union with that Being from whence it came God dwelling in the soul doth by a secret mighty power draw the soul more and more to himself In a word a godly soul that is really toucht with the sense of divine sweetness and â—ulness and imprest with divine goodness and holiness as the wax is with the stamp of the seal could not be content to dwell for ever in this kind of animal body nor take up an eternal rest in this imperfect mixed state though it could converse with the world without a sinful sullying of it self but must needs endeavour still a closer conjunction with God and leaving the chase of all other objects pant and breath not only after God alone but after more and more of him and not only when it is under the sense of sin but most of all when it is under the most powerful influences of divine grace and love cry out with Paul Oh who will deliver me out of this body 3. Suffer me from hence to expostulate a little to expostulate with Christian souls about their unseemly temper Doth this animal life and mortal body keep us at such a distance from our God our happiness Why are we then so fond of this life and mixed state Why do we so pamper this body Why so anxiously studious to keep it up so dreadfully afraid of the ruines of it If we take the Apostles words in the first sense that I named then I may ask with him in the first verse Know we not that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we had a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens or vers 8. Why are we not willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord If we take them in the latter sense as this animal body is an hinderance to the souls knowledge of and communion with God then I ask concerning this as the Apostle doth concerning rich men James 2. 6. Why do ye pamper prize honour dote upon this body Doth not this body oppress you distract you burden you clog you hinder you Doth not this body interpose between the Sun of Righteousness between the Father of Lights and your souls that should shine with a light and glory borrowed from him even as the dark body of the earth interposes between the Sun and Moon to ecclipse its light Why are we not rather weary that we are in the body Surely there are some objections some impediments to the souls longing after its happy state which I shall come to anon But I doubt also that there is something that chains the soul to this animal life some cords in this earthly tabernacle that tye up the soul in it but I cannot well imagine what they should be Say not There is something of God to be enjoyed in this life which makes it pleasant For although this be true yet I am sure God gives nothing of himself to a soul thereby to clog it or cloy it Did Moses send for some Clusters of the Land of Canaan into the wilderness think ye that the people might see and taste the fruits and sit still and be satisfied and say Oh it is enough we see that there are pleasant things in that Land we will never come at it or did he not do it rather that they might make the more haste to possess themselves of it Will any man say Away I will have no more land no more mony I have some already Can a godly soul say God hath given me an earnest I desire no more No no but the report that a Christian hears of a rest remaining a happy life remaining for it and the chariots of divine graces that he sees God hath sent out into his soul to
wicked travelleth with pain all his dayes a dreadful sound is in his ears They are the words of Eliphaz indeed but they do agree with the words of God himself Isa 33. 14. The sinners in Sion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the hypocrites When I read over these Texts I cannot but pray and cry O my soul come not you into the number of the wicked and be not united into the assembly of Hypocrites 2. Take heed of fondness of the body of a double act of it priding pampering 1. Take heed you pride not your selves in any excellencies of the body Doth this mortal body keep us at a distance from our God Do we well then to love that which keeps us from that which is most lovely Why do we stand fondly gazing upon that which keeps us from the blessed sight of God If you ask me Did ever any man hate his own flesh I will ask you again Did ever any wise man love his own flesh above him that made it Did ever any godly soul love his body in opposition to his God Oh but it is a comely body And what is a beautiful body but a fair prison A silver twist or a clog of gold do as really hinder the flight of a Bird and forestall her liberty as a stone tyed at her heels Nay those very excellencies which you so much admire are so much the greater hinderances If we had learned that excellent lesson indeed of enjoying all things only in God then the several beauties and braveries of the body would be a help to our devotion they would carry us up to an admiration and contemplation of that glorious and most excellent Being from whom they were communicated so we might in some sense look into a glass and behold the beauty of God But alas these commonly prove the greater snares Many had been more beautiful within had they been less beautiful without more chaste if less comely many had been more peacèable and more at peace too if they had been less able to have quarrelled and fought It was said of Galba who was an ingenious man but deformed that his soul dwelt ill but sure I am it might better have been so said of beautiful Absolom or Jezabel whose bodies became a snare to their souls On the other hand they that want a beauty in their bodyes will perhaps labour to find an excellency in their minds far beyond it as the Philosopher advised to look often into a glass ut si deformis sis corrigas formositate morum c. 2. Take heed of pampering the body of treating it too gently and delicately Deny it nothing that may fit it for the service of God and your souls and allow it no more than may do that Thy pampering is 1. Vnseemly What make a darling of that which keeps us from our Lord carry it gently and delicately and tenderly towards that which whilst we carry about with us we cannot be happy 2. Injurious If you bring up this servant delicately from a child you shall have him become your Son at length yea your Master If you do by your bodyes as the fond King did by his Son Adonijah 1 King 1. 6. never displease it never reprove it never deny it it will do with you in time as he did raise seditions in your soul Go on and please and pamper and cocker your bodyes and it will come to this at length that you must deny them nothing you must give whatsoever a whining appetite will crave go whither your gadding senses will carry you and speak whatsoever wanton fancy will suggest Doth not the body it self set us at a sufficient distance from God but we must estrange our selves more from him by pleasuring it spend the time that should be for God in decking trimming adorning it When you cram this you feed a Bird that will pick out your eyes you nourish a Traitor when you gratifie this Adonijah In a word Is it not enough that we do all carry fire in our bosomes but we must also blow it up into a flame Nay my Brethren do not so foolishly And now methinks by this time I may venture upon an Exhortation by degrees at least 1. Watch against the Body You have heard how the senses appetite and fancy become a snare to the souls â—â—ing unto and conversing with God Now then if you seriously design communion with Heaven if you placed your happiness in the knowledge and enjoyment of that supreme and eternal good it becomes you to watch against all things that may distract or divert you from it or make you fall short of the glory of God Men that live upon earthly designs whose great ambition it is to be great in the world do not only use the most effectual means and take the most direct courses to accomplish those designs and attain those ends but do continually suspect and diligently watch against all the moths that would corrupt the rust that would consume the thieves that would plunder their treasures and in a word against all possible hinderances defraudations and disappointments So will we suspect and watch sure against all enemies and traitors to our souls if we live here upon eternal designs if our ambition be to be great in God alone And the more eminent the danger is the more will we watch Have you not found by experience which of these three have been most prejudicial to your communion with God If not you have not been so studious to know the state nor pursue the happiness of your own souls as you might If so then watch against that most of all which you have found to be most injurious For it ordinarily comes to pass either by the difference of constitutions or difference of temptations or different wayes of living or some other thing that Gods children are more ensnared by some one of these than other Well be sure to watch and pray and strive more especially against the more especial enemies of your souls 2. Live above the body above bodily enjoyments ornaments excellencies Though these bodily enjoyments be never so sweet these bodily ornaments never so glorious yet is not your happiness in these Certainly they live to their loss who live upon the excellencies of their own souls whether natural or supernatural they deprive themselves of the infinite glory fulness and sufficiency that is in the Blessed God who take up their happiness in these Much more do they pinch and impoverish their own souls who live upon bodily ornaments or excellencies wherein many inferiour creatures do excel them the Rose in beauty the Sun in brightness the Lion in strength the Stagg in swiftness c. If a woman were as lovely as the morning fair as the Moon clear as the Sun if a man were full of personal grace and majesty terrible as an Army with banners yet were not their happiness in these accomplishments Nay which is worse these ornaments stand between us and our
â—â—te upon a Child than upon a Kingdom But Christian Divinity doth abundantly demonstrate all creaturefondness unreasonable and intolerable The next thing that I will record shall be the dâ—fficult taâ—k that I found to maintain a right humble and a right cheerful frame at the same time oh how oft and how long did I labour under this difficulty That sense of sin which was called in to promote tenderness of heart being overmuch indulged was ready at length â—o destroy that largeness and cheerfulness of soul which was so much my duty and interest to maintâ—in and on the other hand the sense of Divine Wisdom Grace and Love in Christ Jesus being called in to keep up the soul from sinking was ready to bear it up so high as that it almost forgot that it was in thâ— waters Beware Christians and watch diligently that Godly sorrow do not settle into an ungodly despondency and inconsolable heaviness the soul not being able to bear up under its own burden and that a holy chearfulness and serenâ—ty do not evaporate into an unholy frotâ—â—ness and fargetfulness of your infiâ—mities the soul not being able to manage its own metal and motions I know you would willingly understand something of the frame of my heart at that day respective to my departure out of this world you will best read my heart in the ensuâ—ng discourse upon 2 Cor. 5. 6. which I think was fetcht from thence I shall therefore say no more as to this matter only acquaint you with one eminent Experience relating hereunto My mind or fancy or appetite I know not wâ—ll what to call it was somâ—times enâ—ting in me some desires to live yet longer I â—ntred the lists with this temptation and when I had fairly and calmly debated the ground and reason of such inclination after many shifts and pretences it came to this I would fain perswade my self I was not yet holy enough this I did immediately consent to knewing it to be â— certain truth But that therefore I should desire to prolong my dayes upon earth this was a fallacious Inferencâ— Me thought I pleased my self a while whilst I could say I desired only to live to be better But after a time I apprehended a fallacy in this pretence for the way to be perfected in holiness is not living but indeed dying Christians if indeed your souls be sincerely and powerfully affected towards perfect holiness then sing not so much with David Spare me that I may recover Psa 39. 13. c. as with good old Simeon who having seen God in the flesh desired to go out of the flesh that he might see him more fully and beatifically Now Luk. 2. 29. leâ—test thou thy servant depart c. I cannot inlarge upon this Observation I suppose I have hinted enough to shew those pretences of many men viz. that they would fain live to be more fit to dye to be for the most part but a kind of mockery and self decâ—it Lastly that I be not over-tedious I do solemnly and sincerely profess before God and Angels and Men that I was never so much as inclined to think hardly of God or his good and holy wayes because of this dispensation but did then constantly and freely proclaim to all that came to visit me that sin particularly self will and sensual loves are the worst of plagues and holiness the only happiness of man yea â—ffâ—â—cted holiness infinitely to be preferred before prosperous wiâ—kedness 3. Suffer me as a conclusion of this Preface and as a result from all that I have seen and suffered to commend unto you a few excellent and necessary duties I have much adâ—â— to forbear being large here but I have already transgrest therefore I will wave those common Themes of remembring your Creator bâ—times of hear kening to the voice of his Word before his Rod speak of living in continual preparation for death of repenting and renewing repeâ—tance c. and only commend two or three things which seem to me of most excellent and necessary imporâ—ance petimuâ—que daâ—uâ—que vicâ—ssim 1. Love and eâ—joy all things in God Admire Divine Goodneâ—s in every created excellency and taste a Divine Sweetness in every created comfort O how is the noble soul of man debased pinâ—hed confined by low and sensual loves whilst many men love the creature in opposition to the Creator most men in competition with him and almost all men in a way of separation from him Oh base and degenerate affâ—ctions Let God be All things in your eye so that you shall see nor know nor love nor taste nothing but him in the world Dâ—liver your selves oh immortal souls to whom I write from all those and straitning and stâ—rving creature-loves and long and labour to be filled with pure and holy and spiritual delights such as the â—ngelâ— of God have such as the Son of God had whâ—n he made it his meat and drink to do the Joh. 4. 34. will of his Father But this you will find more largely prosecuted and prest in the last of these following Discourses Therefore 2. Live purely at the pleasure of God and maintain an universal and hearty compliance with his holy and perfect will Believe it you will never enjoy a firm and steady peace till you have committed all your wâ—lls and wayes to him and wrapt up all your interests and ends in him till your hearts be conformed to the heart of God and your wills molded into his will It is a difference of wills and ends and a distinction of interests that beget all those ragings and stormings in the hearts of men against God Mine and Thine do not only divide the world amongst men but divide men against God Earth against Heaven Take this for a certain and undoubted Aphorism that the grand interâ—st of a soul is to comply with and be one with God Communion of hearts and wills and interests and ends is that glorious fellowship which a creature hath with its Creator it is indeed the interest and bonour the duty and dignity yea the Heaven and hâ—p iness of the reasonable creature But something to this purpose you will find in the first Discourse 3. I beseech you Christians be not content to say you have chosen God for your chiefest good but puriue after him as luch without grudging and without ceasing longing to be as much one with hâ—m in a participation of divine perfections as our created natures are capable Maintain a holy and secret striving of soul towards this blessed object continually as a thing moves towards its center as a soul ought to endeavour to accomplish its own perfections stand not gazing upon a Heaven to come but labour to draw dâ—wn all that peace joy love purity which Heaven is into your own souls by growing up into the life of God daily Râ—â—kon that you are never in a right temper except you be in Davids temper when he waited for God more than they
them not What an unseemly and indeed monstrous fight is it to see a creature pulling tugging against his Creator maintaining his supposed right against Heaven its self Is it for a Heaven-born soul to stand gazing and doating upon or passionately weeping over created friends carnal liberty corporal health houses made with hands things below God yea and below its self too Pore not too much upon them value them only in God and refer them freely to him If you can say you have any thing of your own make much of it and spare not But give unto God the things that are Gods and by that time you have done so I think you need not dote upon what 's left We ought indeed at all times to enjoy all our creature comforts with hearts loosened from them but if formerly our hearts have been too much joyned to them it is time now to loosen them 2. Converse not with creature causes in a time of Affliction This is a strange kind of Atheistical temper into which we are very prone to fall I speak properly when I say Fall for it is indeed a falling down from God in our hearts in whose Infinite Essence all creature-causes are lapt up and in whose hand the several successes and events of them all do lie Let a beast that judges by sense kick at the poor thorn that pricks him But let rational souls fix upon the highest and supreme Agent who in an infinite powerful and skilful manner uses what creature he will for what end he will and sends it of an errand which it self knows not Why do we run hunting Poor Partridge instruments upon the mountains of contemplation Shall the noble faculties of an immortal soul spend themselves upon such an inquisition or is it just to pursue an innocent creature out of breath for being an instrument in the hand of God to quarrel with the Sword because it suffered its self to be drawn or beat the Air because it is infected This were indeed to go out with the King of Israel with much warlike preparation to catch Fleas I deny not but that wise men may look into second causes and make many profitable Observations from them both for present and future and all men may and ought to learn many wholesome lessons even from the instrument that afflicts them But sure I am a godly man will not dwell upon these he will not fix here but readily resolve all into an higher cause and so falls to converse with that Much less will he blame or murmure at a poor harmless Arrow that flew no further than it was shot nor pierced no deeper than it was bidden Yea though the second cause were a sinful cause a rational Agent and so consequently acted by malicious and evil principles yet a godly soul knows how to distinguish upon him and his action he hates him as a sinner but comports well enough with him as Gods instrument and though he condemns his action as it varies from Gods command yet he approves of it as being ordered by Gods hand and counsel David hated cursing as much as any man yet did he so eye the hand of God in every thing and comply with it too that there was a time when he said concerning Shimei So let him curse Concerning this I hinted something before under another head Therefore 3. Converse not with creature-cures creature-relief These may indeed be lookt out after and safely made use of when they are found Nay I will add further that they are to be sought diligently and used carefully They that know the Infinite Soveraignty Power and Wisdom of God will not tye him to means much less to these or those particular means But on the other hand they that understand Gods usual and ordinate way of acting and governing and upholding the world will not tye him up from means no nor expect that he should appear for their relief immediately and miraculously Though if any one have a miraculous faith truly grounded upon some special and particular promise I will not contend with him only I would desire to see his miraculous faith justified by some miraculous works which I conceive do alwayes attend it But the converse with creature-cures which I forbid is the immoderate seeking of them or the inordinate using of them To seek after means in themselves unlawful can never become lawful But I speak not of these For although some are come to that height of Atheism and abjuration of God as to retain the Devil himself for counself in a time of straits as Saul did and contract with the Prince of death for the preservation of life in time of sickness as Ahaziah did And I doubt very many do fall into acquaintance with that evil spirit and receive assistance from him before they be well aware by medling with unphysical unscriptural unwarrantable cures yet the greatest danger is not in these in licit is perimus omnes the greatest danger is of miscarrying about things in themselves lawful And that is chiefly by those two wayes which I named but now Take heed therefore of immoderate seeking after created helps Be not anxious perplexed tormented in mind by a passionate desire of any of these Oh what a raging and unquenchable thirst have many men after creature cures They will move Heaven and Earth and almost Hell too with her in the Poet but they will find out relief Give me a Physician or I dye sayes one Give me trading good Markets a plentiful Crop or I am undone sayes another What man is thy life lapt up in a pill or incorporated into a potion Is thy main happiness in the abundance of these things here below or wilt thou say to the wind Blow here in this quarter and nowhere else tye up the supreme and free Agent to a form and method of working Let not such a prophane disposition be found amongst us Again if you have found out hopeful creature-cures take heed of using them in an inordinate manner laying stress upon them looking earnestly on them as though they by their own power and proper virtue could make the lame to walk or the sick to recover Eye not much less depend upon the virtue of any created means as distinct from God But acknowledge the poweâ— and virtue and goodness of every created Being to be the power and virtue and goodness of God in that creature and so consequently use it in subordination and subserviency to the supreme cause who can at pleasure let loose or suspend the influences and virtues of every such means 4. Converse not with creature-losses in a time of affliction The sinful soul that hath straggled off from God and centred upon the creature is alwaies intemperate and restless If it be disappointed in its converse with creature-cures and sees that for all these his comforts are â—ut off health liberty friends are perished then he falls to converse with his losses and spends the powers of his soul
wound our own peace we shake the settledness of our own hearts we put our selves into briars In a word we both lessen our creature comforts and multiply our griefs and aggravate our sorrows by calling things our own If we had not taken them to be our own it would not have troubled us to part with them Be sure therefore to eye and own the absolute and unlimited Soveraignty of God But â—hat's not all it is not enough to believe it we must converse with it otherwise than by thinking of it or assenting to it Then do we converse with the Soveraignty of God 1. When the powerful sense of it doth silence quarrelling yea murmurings yea even disputings in the soul We may indeed modestly contend with men concerning their dealings with us the Potsheard may strive with the Potsheard of the earth but it must not say to the Potter Why hast thou made me thus A pacate and quiet frame of heart is a real conversing with the Soveraignty of God So did Aaron when he held his peace Levit. 10. 3. and Job when he attributed nothing unseemly to God Job 1. ult 2. When the sense of it doth suppress self-will This is an unruly lust in the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Giant-like spirit warring against Heaven and breeding bate continually This is that which maintains a Meum and Tuum even with God himself that â—ets up interests as the Jews set up Princes Hosea 8. 4. but not by God yea indeed in opposition to him This is the seditious party in the soul that is alwayes crying out We will not have this man to rule over us And when that darling interest which this proud rival hath set up is touched of God and smitten and blasted from Heaven it is ready to fret and storm yea and to think it hath reason to be angry If this Son of the bondwoman were cast out Abraham's Family would be all of a peece all in order and at rest If this undisciplin'd and perverse spirit were quite banished Oh what a calm day would it be in the soul what fair and sweet correspondence would there be between God and his creature for certainly this is the Jonah that raises the storm and makes the great deeps of the soul that they cannot rest but do perpetually roll and toss yea and cast out mire and dirt continually But alas I doubt this spirit is not quite layd no not in the most spiritual man the best of men are ready to nourish and hatch up some darling some private interest or other of their own dinstinct from God and the grand interest of their souls which God himself must not touch some Gourd or other that the cold wind must not blow upon He is a blessed man indeed who doth so understand that he lives and moves in God alone and is so overpowered with the sense of the infinite goodness and holiness of God and the absolute perfection of his divine will as that he reckons it his greatest perfection to be nothing in himself nor have nothing of his own distinct from God but only studyes to be great in God to be filled with God to live to him and for him to enjoy all things as in and under him who counts it his only interest to quit all self interest and particular ends and to be freely at the disposal of the highest mind conformable to the highest good chearfully compliant with the uncreated will Potiphar had so committed all to Joseph in the sense of his great faithfulness that he knew not ought he had save the bread that he did eat Gen. 39. 6. But this similitude is too low A godly soul should commit all its interest its life and livelihood and all to God in the sense of his Soveraignty and not know ought that he hath no not his own life but despise it in comparison of uncreated life as Job speaks Job 9. 21. Methinks the Soveraignty of God speaks such language to the soul and in it as Eli to Samuel My Son hide nothing from me keep nothing back of all that thou hast and the pious soul should not with foolish Rachel conceal any selfish interest so as not to be willing to part with it when its Soveraign Lord and Father comes to search the tent but with allusion to Amos 6. 10. when God comes to ferret out all self-interests and shall ask Is there any such yet with thee should be able to answer boldly No there is none Blessed is the man that is in such a case blessed is the man whose only interest it is to serve the will of the Lord Well improve the infinite Soveraignty of God to this end and work it upon and into your own hearts that all self-will may stoop to it and let the main interest of your souls be so planted and established in your souls that no other interest may be able to grow by it Charm your own self-will with such severe reproofs as this is Either deny thy self O my soul or deny thy self to be a creature either be wholly at Gods command or call him not thy Soveraign 3. When the sense of it doth beget Revevence in the soul towards God We ought not only to be subject to the Rod of God but even to reverence him when he correcteth with it and so not only to accept of the Rod but to kiss it too And surely iâ— the Fathers of our flesh correct us and we give them Reverence Heb. 12. 9. much more ought we to reverence the Soveraign Father both of flesh and spirit This is a devout act of the soul whereby it looks up and adores the Infinite and Soveraign Majesty and thinks equitable and honourable thoughts of him even when he is in the way of his Judgments And these are the proper acts of a soul conversing with Gods Soveraignty in the time of afflictions When we are silent before him subject unto him and reverencing of him then do we really and truly converse with him as our Almighty and absolute Soveraign But Gods Authority and Prerogative though it may silence will scarce satisfie such a corrupt and rebellious pass are our natures grown to Therefore 2. Converse with the perfect and infinite Righteousness of God in the time of afflictions that divine perfection whereby he renders to every man what is just and due and no more This we are to eye and own and sincerely to acknowledge even in the time of our greatest extremity after the example of Daniel chap. 9. 14. The Lordour God is righteous in all his works and of the godly Levites Neh. 9. 33. Thou art just in all that is brought upon us thou hast done right Argue with Abraham Gen. 18. 25. Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right Can Righteousness it self erre in Judgment Shall the Timber say unto the Rule Why hast thou measured mee thu or to the Line thou art crooked Are not my wayes equul saith the Lord Ezek.
18. 25. Are not the Lords wayes equal let your souls say too Be ye sirmly perswaded of the infinite and incorruptible Righteousness and Equity of God but that 's not all we do not then converse with the Righteousness of God when we do believe it or acknowledge it a very Pharaoh may be brought to make such a confession Exod. 9. 27. The Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked But then do we converse with the Righteousness of God in general when the sense of it doth give a rational satisfaction to the soul And indeed whereas the Soveraignty of God is enough to silence yet his Righteonsness had need to be called in to administer satisfaction The former is sufficient to stop the mouth but there is need of the latter to settle the heart And indeed methinks it is a heart-settling consideration For how can the interest of the creature be better secured than in the hands of a righteous God Where can we venture all we have better than in such a cettain and steady bottom How can we better trust our selves than on such firm and even ground We will trust our selves far with an upright and righteous man and if we hear of the miscarriage of any interest of ours at any time it doth mightily calm and satisfie our hearts if we are assured that it was in the hands of a just and upright person Much more rational and steady satisfaction may the Infinite Righteousness of God administer even in the time of the greatest affliction if it be duly wrought into the heart But more particularly 1. The powerful sense of the Reghteousness of God should make us sensible and serious It becomes us seriously to ponder duly to weigh and in good earnest to lay to heart all that is done to us by a righteous God We use slightly to pass by and slightly to esteem the words or actions of vain man But it is not for nothing that the righteous God afflicts any man in any measure at any time The voice of God though it be not alwayes articulate yet is alwayes significant Will a Lion roar for nothing Surely every action of the righteous God hath a meaning in it A hair falls not from our head nor a Sparrow to the ground without him Much less sure do greater changes befall us withcut him And in all things he is infinitely righteous Oh how doth this call us to sensibleness and seriousness How ought all the powers of the soul to be awakened to attention when the righteous God utters his dreadful voice and the whole frame of the heart and life to be composed under his heavy hand Now if ever one would say of Laughter It is mad one would reckon trifling to be a kind of prophaneness and judge that foolish jestings do almost border upon blasphemy formerly not convenient now not lawful For indeed a vain frothy light trifling spirit in the day of affliction is in a sense a blaspheming of the Righteousness of God As a consequent of this 2. It should put us upon self examination Nature it self had taught the Heathenish Mariners to enquire where the fault was in a storm Jonah 1. 7. Much more may the knowledge of Gods Infinite Righteousness teach us so may the holy Word too that word in Lam. 3. 40. Let us search and try our wayes c. and many others Now do the faculties of the godly soul being awakened begin to cast lots upon themselves to find out the guilty party And certainly God hath a great hand in ordering these lots he doth ordinarily shew unto man his sin even by the verdict of his own heart Conscience I mean is Gods Vicegerent in the soul and though its true this Judge is oft-times corrupâ—ed and bribed or at least over-ruled in prosperity yet God instructeth it to speak good sense and to speak out and speak the truth in the time of affliction I believe they hit the nayl upon the head who cryed out one to another Verily we are guilty concerning our Brother Gen. 42. 21. Another cryes Verily I am guilty concerning my Minister concerning my People guilty concerning my Wife concerning my Children concerning my Estate my Time my Talents and it may be all true I believe the Heathen was in the right who lookt upon his hands and feet and cryed out Judg. 1. 7. As I have done so God hath requited me and the Babylonish Monarch harpt upon a right string after he was come to his right wits again Dan. 4. ult Those that walk in pride he is able to abase God hath not given to our faculties any infallibility indeed but he inables them to make good guesses and I am verify perswaded doth many times lay the hand upon the right sore and order this secret Lottery from Heaven So that that faculty or that frame or that action which stands convicted in the Court of Conscience is seldom held guiltless in the Court of Heaven 3. It should work us to Humiliation and Reformation an heart broken and a conversation healed of its breaches By Humiliation I mean a heart broken purely properly and spiritually for sin I do not mean by it an heart broken for losses and afflictions and bowing down it self heavily under the burden of its distresses no nor a heart broken for sin as viewing it only in the calamitous effects and bitter fruits of it which I doubt is the Humiliation of most Many may say concerning their Humiliation to use the Prophets words in a different sense Zach. 13. 6. These are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends by the loss of my friends the loss of my health the loss of my goods these tears that you see these groans that you hear are nothing but the scarr which the soar hath left behind it and the wales which the Rod hath made I doubt our very sorrow for sin in a time of affliction admits of a mixture of carnal self and passion and so of sin too But I mean a pure spiritual proper sorow and hatred of sin which I know may be broached by sharp afflictions and have vent given to it by piercing the vessel but that is not the proper cause and ground of it Moses in his joy had an eye to the recompence of reward Heb. 11. 26. And so a Christian in his sorrow may have respect to the recompence of his sin I mean his afflictions but it is not primarily and principally caused by these For though these dreadful showers from Heaven should cease yet the stream of his eyes or at least the fountain of his heart would not cease issuing forth bitter waters Though the Righteousness of God do serve to give vent to godly sorrow yet it is the goodness and holiness of God that gives it Do we sorrow for sin because it spoiled us of our comforts stript us of our ornaments Then sure we think there is something in the world worse than sin
for which we should bewail it and hate it and so consequently that there is something better than God for which we should love him Alas how apt are we to run into a practical blasphemy before we be aware In a word then to decide this controversie Our afflictions losses distresses in the world may possibly be as a Bucket to draw up this water of godly sorrow but they must not be the Cistern to receive and hold it Serious and spiritual Humiliation is a real conversing with the Righteousness of God To meet God is indeed to fall down before him and to converse with him is to lie down under him The truth of which temper is best evidenced by that excellent Commentator the Life of a Christian This doth best declare the nature and interpret the meaning of heart-Humiliation He that breaks off his sins doth best make it appear that his heart is broken for them If you would know whether there have been Rain in the night look upon the ground and that will discover Oh my frieâ—ds if the dust be layd if all earthly joys contentments pleasures concernments be layd you may conclude your sorrow was a shower sent into your souls from Heaven If you see a Boy both sobbing and minding his Book you may conclude he hath some right sense of his Masters severity Conversion to God is the most proper and real conversing with him in the way of his Judgments so he himself interprets in that complaint made Isa 9. 13. The people turneth not to him that smiteth them c. That which happened to Moses when he had been in the Mount with God Exod. 34. 29. should also be the condition of every good Israelite when he hath been with God in the valley the vale of tears an afflicted state his face should shine his conversation should witness that he hath been with God the smell of this fire should pass upon his garments his whole outward man The spirit of mourning should be demonstrated by the spirit of burning If God from Heaven set fire on the standing Corn of our worldly comforts we must answer him from within and set fire on the stubble of our worldly lusts and corruptions Let me change our Saviours words therefore a little Mat. 6. 18. and exhort you earnestly Thou Christian when thou fastest when thou humblest thy soul for sin wash thy face also cleanse thy outward conversation from all sinful pollution that thou mayest appear to be humbled indeed And this shall be accounted as a true and real conversing with the Righteousness of God in the time of affliction 3. Converse with the Faithfulness of God This attribute of God hath respect to his promises and therefore it may be you will think strange that I should speak of this in a discourse of afflictions as not having place there at all Every one will readily acknowledge that Gods Soveraignty and Righteousness do clearly appear in his Judgments but how his Faithfulness can be exercised therein they see not What faithful in punishing in plaguing in visiting in afflicting distressing his creature how can that be Many will be ready to think rather that God is not faithful at such a time when he denyes what he had promised to give takes away what he had promised to continue when he plagues David every morning when he had promised him that the Plague should not come nigh his dwelling when he brings Abijah to the grave whom he had promised that his dayes should be long upon the Land and Job to the dunghill to whom all the promises were made both of the life that now is and of that which is to come Is this faithfulness Doth God fulfil his promises by frustrating them Notwithstanding all this it seems that the faithfulness of God hath place in the afflictions of his people For so saith David expresly Psal 119.75 I know that in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me if indeed faithfulness be taken properly in that place Neither indeed need it seem so strange as some men make it for God hath promised his covenant-people to visit their iniquity with a Rod Psal 89. 32. The Rod The Rod of a man a fatherly chastisement as it is explained 2 Sam. 7. 14. where this seems to be made a branch of the Covenant and is understood by many as a promise But if that be not a plain promise I am sure there is one in Psal 84. 11. No good thing will he with hold from them that walk uprightly And if no good thing then no correction neither for that is often good and profitable for the people of God in this world for many excellent ends which considering the nature of man cannot well be accomplished without it as might appear in many particulars but it is not needful to run out into them God will take more care of his own people than of the rest of the world and will rather correct them than not reduce them It is their main bappiness that he takes care for and he will in kindness take out of the way whatever hinders it and give whatever may promote it Gods thoughts are not as our thoughts he judges otherwise of health riches liberty friends c. than we do We are apt to measure God by ourselves and our own affections which is the ground of our mistake in this business We mind the things that please our flesh our senses our appetite our fancy but God minds the things that concern our souls and their true happiness The Saints are much dearer to God and much more beloved of him than they are to themselves and therefore he will not give them what 's sweet but what 's meet he will give them what makes for their real and eternal happiness whether they would have it or no. He loves them with a strong and powerful love and will not deny them any thing that is truly good for them though they cry out under it nor allow them any thing that is really hurtful though they cry after it So will a wise Father upon Earth do by his children to the best of his skill and power much more will God then qui plusquam patrium amorem gerit in suos whose bowels are infinitely larger and stronger than those of a Father Now then labour to converse with the Faithfulness of God in the time of afflictions which is by studying the Covenant and the promises of it and your present condition and comparing them together and observing how consonant and agreeable they are each interpreting other As also by perswading your hearts of the consistency of afflictions with divine love and favour and by studying to reconcile the hand and heart of God together But especially converse with it practically by a holy establishment and settlement of heart under all afflictions For whereas afflictions in themselves are apt to beget a fearfulness despondency or at least fluctuation in the soul the lively sense of Gods Faithfulness in
water Isa 35 7. as you find both elegantly joyned together Psal 107. 33 35. He turneth water springs into dry grounds sic vicissim Say not therefore with the captive Jews Ezek. 37. 11. Our bones are dryed and our bope is lost c. For God can cause even those dry bones to live Say not with that low-spirited Courtier 2 King 7. 19. If the Lord should make windows in Heaven might such plenty be in a Samaria For he did accomplish it and yet not rain it from Heaven neither But say with Job rather Though he kill me yet will I trust in him Job 13. 15. And with the three Worthies Our God whom me serve is able to deliver us out of thine hand O King Dan. 3. 17. So he is able to deliver us out of thine band O Enemy O Prison O Sickness yea out of thine hand O grave If we despond and be dejected both in mind and body at the same time then is our condition indeed sad and shameful Nay we do more reproach God by such a temper in our affliction than be reproacheth us in afflicting us Make it appear Christians that though God have cast you down yet you do believe that he hath not cast you off and that you although you be sorely shaken by him yet are not shaken off from him Thus you shall gâ—orifie the Almighty Power of God in the day of your Visitation 6. Converse wâ—th the Infinite and unsearchable Wisdom of God especially with the Wisdom of God in reserence to his Judgments and our affâ—ctions He is infinitly wise in reference to our affiictions For 1. He knows what and what manner and what measure of correction we stand in need of 2. When and how best to deliver us 3. How to make the best use of all for our good First He knows what and what manner and what measure of correction we stand in need of He is that wise Physician that kâ—ows what humor is most predominant in the souls of his servanâ—s and what is the most proper Medicine to purge it out where the most corrupt blood is set led and at what vein to let it out He is infinitely knowing of the various tempers and distempers of his servants and can apply himself suitably to them all And as to the measure and degree he is also infinitely wise and exact He doth weigh out the afflâ—ctions of his people to a grain for quantity and measure them to a day and hour for duration He did not miss of his time no not one day in four hundred and thirty years Exod. 12. 41. So many years of bondage were determined upon the people and after those years were expired the very next day the hosts of the Lord went up out of Egypt And as for measure he observes a certain proportion as you may see in that full Tex Isa 28. 27 28. As the Husbandman uses dissering wayes of purging and cleansing different sorts of grain beating the Fitches with a Staff and Cummin with a Rod because they are a weaker sort of grain and will not endure hard usage but bruising the Bread Corn because threshing will not susfice and he is loth to break it all to pieces with turning his Cart-wheels upon it An elegant similitude whereby God insinuateth his different waies of correcting his people and observing a suitableness to their strength and temper when less would not do and more would overdo He must correct so far as to bruise but will be sure not to break and spoil He that saith unto the proud waves of the swelling Sea Hitherto shall ye come and no further Job 38. 11. hath the same command over these Meâ—aphorical waves those floods of afflâ—ction which he lets loose upon his people and they cannot go an such further thâ—n he hath appointed He saith Hitherto shall this Sickness this Mortality this Persecution go and no further and even these storms and this Sea obey him Now we converse with this Instance of Divine Wisdom not only when we observe it and acknowledge it but 1. When it begets in us a friendly and charitable temper towards second causes When we are at peace with the whole Creation even with enemies themselves and in perfect charity with those very Plagues and Sicknesses that do arrest us rather admiring and delâ—ghting in their subserviency to God than at all maligning their severe influences upon us A good man is so much in love with the pure and holy and perfect will of God that he desnes also to fall in love with at least he is at peace with every thing that executes it that serves the will of his heavenly Father He sees no reason in the world to fall out with and fret against any man or any thing that is a meaâ—s to afflict him but views them all as instruments in the hand of God readily serving his will and doing his pleasure and under this notion is charitably affected towards them all Observe a little and admire how David was reconciled to the Rod because it was in the hand of his Father and seems to kiss it for the relation that it had to the Divine Will 2 Sam. 16. 11. Let him alone and let him curse for the Lord hath bidden him This gracious soul is so wonderfully in love with the Will of God that he could almost find in his heart to be reconciled to sin it self if it do accomplish it and to be friends with the wrath of man if it work the righteousness of God And if Dvvid can be so charitably affected towards a cursing Shimei viewing him as an instrument in the hand of God methinks we may be almost in love with any thing under that notion and much rather say concerning a poor harmless Sickness Let it alone so let it put us to pain for God hath sent it To this sense may a devout soul draw the words of his Saviour concerning the Woman in Mat. 26. 10 Why trouble ye the Woman she hath wrought a good work upon me Why do ye interrupt and disturb this disease Why do ye fret against this Persecutor Why do ye repine at this Prison it executes the will of my God upon me What though these men pour out their venom in such ahundance What though this disease spend its influences upon my body so plentifully There 's no waste in all this there 's need of just so much God doth not lavish out his Arrows in vain nor shoot at roveâ—s as Jonathan did who couzened his Lad making him believe he shot at a mark when he shot at none A soul over powered with the sense of Gods Infinite Wisdom in appointing measuring timing all afflictions will easily be reconciled to a poor harmless creature which is set on and taken off at his pleasure 2. When it begets in us a holy Acquiescency and resting in God which is opposed to a larger and disorderly hastening towards deliverance Then do we indeed own and honour the
skill of our Chirurgion when we do quietly suffer the corâ—oâ—ive plaisters to lie on and do not offer to pluck them off notwithstanding the smart they put us to And surely he that believeth the Infinite Wisdom of God who knows what and what manner and measure of correction we stand in need of will not make haste to be delivered from under his hand but composeth himself quietly as young Samuel layd himself down and when he was called answered chearfully Speak Lord for thy servant heareth A soul sensible of Gods Infinite Wisdom in this particular argues thus Who am I poor worm shallow creature that I should contend with Infinite Wisdom about the time or manner of my being in the world Why did I not also undertake to appoint him the time and place of my being born Shall I say it is too much when Infinite Wisdome thinks it is not enough Cease wrangling soul and be at rest for the Lord deals wisely with thee Such a soul so conversing with the all-wise God dare freely refer all to him venture all with him if he smite him on the one cheek he dare turn to him the other if he take away his Coat he dare offer him his Cloak also if he take away his liberty he dare trust him with his life too if he smite him in some of his comforts he dare turn to him the rest also for he knows that Infinite Wisdom cannot erre in Judgment nor miscarry in his dispensations Secondly God knoweth when and how best to deliver us This necessarily follows upon the former To him all times and all things past present and to come are equally present In one single act of understanding he doth wonderfully comprehend both causes and events sicknesses and cures afflictions and deliverances Let the Atheistical world cry These are they that are forsaken whom no man careth for there is no hope for them in their God as their manner is to blaspheme Still the promise stands unrepealed in both Testaments I will never leave you nor forsake you though the case be never so extreme and desperate still the Apostles word holds good 2 Pet. 2. 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temprations If all passages be blockt up he will rather make a gap in the Sea than his people shall not escape Exod. 14. And this way and time of Gods delivering is the most excellent suitable and certain as might abundantly appear in many particulars But that would be a digression In the general be assured that Gods way is the best way of deliverance and his time is also the best time He that sits as a Râ—finer of Silver knows how and when to take out the metal that it be purified and not hurt Here I might enter into a large discourse and shew you how the judgment of man is ordinarily deceived and his expectations disappointed which he had built upon creature-probabilities when in the mean time the purpose of God takes place in a far better and more comfortable deliverance of his servants But it may suffice to have hinted it only Our duty is to converse with this Instance of Divine Wisdom by the exercises of Patience and Hope If God seem to tarry long yet wait patiently for his appearance for he will appear in the most acceptable time and in the end ye shall consider it and acknowledge it Take heed of limiting the Holy One of Israel as that murmuring generation did Psal 78. 41. Take heed of fixing of your deliverance to such or such a train and series of causes which you have layd in your own heads and of engaging God to act by your Method If God be a wise Agent its fit he should be a free Agent too Bear up Christian soul faint not when thou art rebuked of him Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he will in due time find out a way either of lessening it or removing it You have heard of the patience of Job and you have seen the end of the Lord James 5. 11. Be you patient and you shall see it too a better end than ever you could have accomplisht by your own act or industry In the mean time cherish in your hearts a lively hope of an happy issue For your lives and comforts are all hid in him in whom also are bid all the treasures of wildom and knowledge As the consideration of Infinite Wisdom in knowing how and when best to deliver us may settle our hearts that they do not rise up as a soam upon the waters through impatience so it may bear up our hearts that they do not sink within us as a stone in the waters through desperation Thirdly God knoweth how to make the best use of all for our good I say of all both of the affliction the manner and measure of it of his delay and of the season which he chuses to redeem us in He can make Paul's imprisonment turn to his advantage Phil. 1. 19. Job's captivity to redound to his far greater state Job ult Joseph's banishment to make him great and Manasseh's to make him good This is a large Theme and therefore I dare not rifle into it particularly Take all in one word from-the Apostle Rom. 8. 28. All things do work together for good to them that love God Whatever the promises be the only wise God knows how to draw a happy conclusion from them Gâ—t a firm belief of this radicaâ—ed in your hearts and converse with the Wisdom of God in this Instance of it by the great Grace of Self-resignation The Soveraignty of God may well work us into a resignation of our interests and comforts and concernments to him But this Infinite Wisdom of God ought in reason to work us into a resignation even of our very wills unto him Oh this debasing of self-will this self-resignation is a noble and ingenuous act of a pious soul for so I dare call him in whom it is found whereby it honours God greatly in all that comes upon it A godly soul considering it self ignorant of many things burdened with many corruptions and clogg'd with an animal body senses appetite fancy which are alwayes calling for things inconvenient if not unlawful doth conclude it would not be good for it to be at its own finding or caring or carving and duly eying that infinite mind and understanding who in a wonderful unaccountable manner orders all things and all events to the best and certain issue is so mastered by and indeed enamoured with the sense of it that he renounces his own wisdom and throws out his own clamorous wâ—ll and complyes readily with the all-wise God This is truly to converse with the Wisdom of God when we do out of choice refer our selves to it and rowl our selves upon it Every bare acknowledgment of Divine Wisdom is not a proper conversing with it but when the same is wrought into the soul and the lively sense of it doth so over-power the heart
upon heaps and cryes out like one that feels the weight of his own words Childhood and youth are vanity or alas how soon is the desire of ones eyes taken away with a stroke Another sees his goods carryed away before his face and his house on fire before his eyes and then cryes out that he hath a real proof of the yanity of those things which Solomon had long ago observed Prov. 23. 5. Riches take themselves wings and fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven Whilst we see the creatures stand we will not believe but they are stable whilst we see them fair and flourishing we cannot rightly lay to heart the withering nature of them but when we see them cut down we do then conclude they were but flowers when we see them flitting we conclude they are shadows when God pours them our upon the ground we are then convinced that they were unstable as waters To shew us what the best of our creature enjoyments are God is forced to take them quite away that they be no more Now then in such a case at such a time converse with the Infinite self-sufficient Fulness of God Oh now it is seasonable now it is your duty nay now it will be your greatest policy If that chanel that creature-chanel be stopt in which your affections were wont to run too freely turn the stream of them into their proper chanel in which they may run freely and neither ever meet with obstruction nor ever overflow Let your soul grow up into acquaintance and union with God by creature-breaches and disappointments More particularly converse with the self-sufficient Fulness of God 1. By the act of Creature-denyal The eying of an infinite absolute uncreated Fulness in a right manner takes off the soul from all created objects earthly things even as the beholding of the Sun in its glory dazles the eye to all things below God becomes so great in the eye of the soul that it cannot see the poor motes of worldly comforts Give a soul a feeling taste of the infinite sweetness and fulness of the fountain and its thirst after the poor puddles of the world is presently abated if not perfectly quenched according to that of our Saviour Joh. 4. 14. Whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst that is not after any other thing Like unto which is that Gospel promise Isa 49. 10. they shall not thirst who do enjoy these springs of water When this fountain is opened in the eye of the soul and the soul begins to taste of it it longs to drink deeper of that indeed but as for all other waters waters of the Cistern the soul looks upon them as not being or at least as being bitter waters of Marah in comparison we do then truly converse with the infinite self-sufficient Fulness of God when we look upon all created good with a noble disdain are content to part with it or if we do still enjoy it are resolved to enjoy it only in God and so look upon it and love it only as a beam from the Fâ—â—her of Lights as a drop of the infinite Fountain of all Perfections Tell me Is it not a poor and low thing that many Professors do who acknowledge and magnifie the uncreated Goodness the Fulness of God and yet at the same time do covet and court the creature with all eagerness and their worldliness is apparently too hard for their Religion Methinks I hear God speaking to such seeming friends as Dalilah to Sampson Judg. 16. 15. How can ye say you love me when your heart is not with me To these mens hearts methinks our Saviours Doctrine should strike cold Mat. 6. 21. Where your treasure is there will your heart be also And those words of his beloved Apostle 1 Joh. 2. 15. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Let a man pretend and profess what he will and in words magnifie the Fulness and Sufficiency of God as much as he will if in the mean time his soul be bound up in the creature such a mans Religion is vain nay indeed his profession of God becomes a real reproaching of him and a blasphemy against Reason it self Let your low estem of all created good in comparison of the supreme good your readiness to quit your title to every creature comfort and in the mean time your care to live beside it witness the true and honourable esteem the true and feeling sense that you have in your hearts of the infinite and self-sufficient Fulness of God For however men may make a shift to cheat themselves God is not truly great in the soul till all other things become as nothing neither doth the soul rightly converse with his Infinite Fulness so long as any thing stands in opposition to it or competition with it 2. Converse with the self-sufficient Fulness of God by the grace of Faith I mean by that act of it whereby we do interest our selves and as it were wrap up our own souls in this Fulness and make it our own And herein there is no danger of a humble souls being too bold or venturous For the Proclamation is full and the Invitation free Isa 55. 1. Joh. 7. 37. Rev. 22. 17. Whosoever will let him take the water of life freely What Seneca sayes of the soul in regard of the divine original of it may sure be better said of a godly soul in respect of the Divine Nature and qualities of it illum divina delectant nec ut alienis interest sed ut suis it doth not converse with things divine as with an others but as its own And indeed we cannot truly and comfortably converse with the Infinite Perfection and Fulness of God if we have no title to it but then we converse with God when we converse with our own God not anothers when the soul is able to say All this Fulness of Power Wisdom Goodness is all mine in my head Christ Jesus for in him all this Fulness dwels Col. 2. 9. and he dwelleth in me in him are hid all these treasures Col. 2. 3. and my life also is hid with Christ in God as theirs was in Col. 3. 3. You see then that a soul cannot converse with the Infinite Fulness and Self-sufficiency of God but by Christ for it is in and by him that we receive of Divine Fulness Joh. 1. 16. Hence was that of the devout Father Tolle meum tolle Deum to which I may add Tolle Jesum tollis meum The fulness of a fountain is nothing to me except it be mine There is bread enough in my Fathers house sayes the poor Prodigal but for all that I perish with hunger so is there living waters evermore in this uncreated life this infinite Spring of all Perfection yet many souls are choakt with thirst because the fountain is not theirs it is a fountain sealed as Solomon speaks in another case
The Well is deep and they have nothing to draw with as the Woman said concerning another Well Joh. 4. Therefore be sure you get an interest in the Fulness and Sufficiency of God or as Solomon speaks in another case Prov. 5. 15. Drink waters out of thine own Well 3. Converse with the Self-sufficient Fulness of God by delighting your selves in it Drink of this Fountain yea drink abundantly ye beloved of God Cant. 5. 1. yea lie down by it Psal 23. 2. yea bathe you selves wholly in it Enter into the Joy of your Lord lie down in his bosome spread your selves in his Love and Fulness The Beloved Disciple leaning upon the breast of his Lord at Supper was but a dark shadow a poor scant resemblance of a beloved soul which by the lovely acts of Joy and Confidence and Delight layes it self down in the bosome of Jesus and doth not feed with him but feed upon him and his Alsufficiency Then do we converse indeed feelingly and comfortably with the Infinite Fulness when the soul is swallowed up in it doth rest in it is filled with it and centred upon it Oh the noble and free-born spirit of true Religion that disdaining the pursuit of low and created things is carryed out with delight to feed and dwell and live upon uncreated Fulness Then is a soul raised to its just altitude to the very height of its Being when it can spend all its powers upon the supreme and self-sufficient good spreading and stretching it self upon God with full contentment and wrapping up it self entirely in him This is the souls way of living above losses and he that so lives though he may often be a loser yet shall never be at a loss He who feeds upon created Goodness or Sweetness may soon eat himself out of all the stock will be spent and which is worse the soul will be dryed up that hath nothing else to nourish it But he that lives upon uncreated Fulness is never at a loss though he lose never so much of the creature For who will value the spilling of a dish of water that hath a well of living water at his door from whence he had that and can have more as good though not the same Nay to speak properly this is the only way to lose nothing For how can he be properly said to lose any thing who possesses all things And so doth he I am sure who is filled with the Fulness of God Be sure therefore that in the want in the loss of all things you live upon the Fountain-fulness delight your self in the Lord after the example of the Prophet Habakkuk cap. 3. 17 18. A Farewel to Life 2 COR. 5. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. THE holy Apostle having in the first verse of this Chapter layd down the Doctrine of Eternal Glory which shall follow upon this transitory life of Believers shews in the following verses how he himself longed within himself and groaned after that happy state And then Proceeds to give a double ground of this his confident expectation one in vers 5. therefore is the Apostle confident concerning the putting off of this mortal body because God had wrought and formed him for this state of glory and already given him an earnest of it even his holy Spirit The other ground of the confidence and settledness of his mind as to his desires of a change is taken from his present state in the body which was but poor and uncomfortable in comparison of that glorious state This in the words of the Text Therefore we are alwayes confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For I do not take the words we are confident concerning the Apostles resolvedness with a quiet and sober mind to suffer any kind of persecution or affliction whatever but we are alwayes confident i. e. we do with confidence expect or at least we are alwayes well satisfied contented well resolved in our minds concerning our departure out of this life For the Apostle was speaking not of afflictions or persecutions in the former verses but indeed of death which he calls a dissolving of the earthly house of this tabernacle vers 1. and a being cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven vers 2. 4. Yea and thus the Apostle explains himself vers 8. where he tells you what he means by this his confidence we are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body where the latter words are exegetical to the former q. d. It is better to be with the Lord than in this mortal body but we cannot be with the Lord whilst we are in this body it keeps us from him therefore we have the confidence to part with it It is the reason of the Apostles confidence and willingness to part with the body that I am to speak of and the reason is because this body keeps him from his Lord whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. The words are a Metaphor and are to be translated thus we indwelling in the body do dwell out from the Lord which our Translation renders well taking little notice of the Metaphor whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Though indeed if they had left out that word at home it would have been as well and so have neglected the Metaphor altogether as we may haply hint hereafter The words are a reason of the Apostles willingness to be dissolved and do contain a kind of an accusat on of the body and so seem to lay a blame upon it and upon this animal life which must be remembred Now for the former phrase of being at home in the body it is easily understood and generally I think agreed upon to be no more than whilst we carry about with us this corruptible flesh whilst we live this naâ—ural animal life It only signifies man in his compounded animal state 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and doth not at all allude to his sinful unregenerate or carnal state But the latter phrase Absent from the Lord is capable of a double sense both good and true and I think both fit enough to the context and drift of the Apostle I shall speak to both but insist most upon the latter 1. Whilst we are in the body we are absent from the Lord i. e. from the bodily presence of the Lord in Heaven absent from Christ Jesus and his glory And so the words are the same in sense with 1 Cor. 15. 50. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God for by flesh and blood there must needs be meant man in this animal corruptible state And so the Apostle accuses this kind of life in the body and as it were blames it for standing between him and his glorified Lord and so consequently between him and the glory of his Lord.
But concerning the gratifying of the appetite seeing there must be in us a sensitive appetite whilst we are in this animal state it is to be endeavoured as far as may be that we gratifie the appetite not as it is a sensitive appetite but under this notion as the thing that it desires makes for our real good and tends to the enjoyment of the supreme good to eat and drink not because we are hungry or thirsty because the appetite desires it but with reference to the main end with respect to the highest good that the body may be enabled strengthened and quickened to wait upon the soul chearfully in the actions of a holy life But this man in his animal state cannot perfectly attain to which shews that the appetite doth keep us at a distance from God 3. The Fancy this also keeps a man at a distance from God and hinders us in the knowledge and service of God and interrupts the souls communion with God This is a busie and petulant faculty or inward sense and the soul doth readily sensate the passions of it so that it doth frequently hinder its mental operations and becomes a great snare A working fancy how much soever it is magnified by the wisdom of this world is a mighty snare to the soul except it work in a fellowship with right reason and a sanctified heart I am perswaded there is no greater burden in the world to a serious soul especially in hot and dry constitutions where it is commonly most pregnant and most impatient of discipline And I confess I have often wondred at the souls readiness to be so speedily affected with the fantasms and imaginations of it and fondness to hug them so dearly This indeed if it be so far refined as to present sober and solid imaginations to the mind and to act in subservience to sanctified reason is an excellent handmaid to the soul in many of her functions But otherwise is a snare as we have partly observed already and may observe more if we study the secrets of our own souls and the mighty mysteries that are within us And this doth not only ordinarily disturb distract and hinder in ordinary duties but even when the soul is at the highest pitch of communion and contemplation it assayes to pull it down to attend to its vain fantasms and indeed gives it many a grievous fall I doubt not to affirm that this is the most pernicious enemy of the three that I named to the souls happiness as might appear in many respects I will only name one It hath an advantage against us which neither of the other two hath It infests us and annoyes us sleeping as well as waking In sleep the senses are lockt up and the appetite is for the most part silent from its begging but then the fancy is as busie and tumultuous as ever forming and gathering imaginations and those are commonly wild and senseless if not worse The mind in way of kindness and benevolence to the body suspends its own actings whilst the body takes its rest in the night and then the rude fancy takes its opportunity to wander at liberty as being without its keeper and acts to the disturbance of the body but that 's not the worst for it becomes so tumultuous and impetuous sometimes as that it awakens the mind to attend upon its imaginations and this the soul doth condescend to in an inordinate manner and sets the stamp of sinfulness upon them to its own wounding And now that I am speaking of sleep as a Mantissa to this discourse I cannot but observe how this very thing also keeps us at a distance from God in this animal state How is our communion with God interrupted by this For herein we cease not only from the actions of an animal life but commonly from the actions of a spiritual life too What a great breach what a sad intercision is there made in our converse with God by this means Such a poor happiness it is that we have in this world that it is cut off and seems as it were not to be one fourth part of our time For indeed a happiness that is not felt deserves not the name of happiness Some learned and active men have been ashamed that they have slept away so much of their time which was all too little for their studyes and exploits Ah poor Christian that as it were sleeps away so much of his God being as much estranged from him in the night as though he had never conversed with him in the day and in the morning when he awakes cannot alwayes find himself with him neither which is enough to make a poor Saint wish either that he might have no need of sleep or that with the amorous Spouse Cant. 5. 2. Though he sleep his heart might wake perpetually We have seen in what sense this mortal body keeps Believers absent from the Lord and in what respects it keeps them at a distance from God even in this life from the Knowledge of God the Service of God and Communion with him Here then by way of Application 1. We may see that it was for good reason that the blessed Apostle is confident and willing to depart nay groans within himself desiring that mortality might be swallowed up of life as he speaks v. 4. I told you before that these words did contain the reason or ground thereof and by this time I hopw you see that the reason is good and the ground is sufficient What will the men of this world say Will you perswade us out of our life Should any thing in the world make a man weary of his life Proestat miserum esse quam non esse The Apostle was sure besides himself or he would never have fallen out with hâ—s own life or else he was in a passion and knew not what he said or else his life was bitter to him by reason of the poor afflicted persecuted condition that he lived in and so he was become desperate and cared not what became of him No none of these The Apostle was in his right wits and in a sober mind too It was not a passion or a fit of melancholly but his judgement and choice upon good deliberation and therefore you find him in the same mind elsewhere Phil. 1. 23. I desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Besides he gives a reason for what he desires now we know that passion is unruly and unreasonable Neither was the Apostle besides himself for he gives a good solid and wise reason Whilst we are at home in the body c. He will part with his life rather than not be perfectly happy For whereas worldlings put such a high price upon life and think that nothing should perswade men out of their lives It s true indeed if we speak properly life is the perfection of the creature The happiness of every thing is its life A living Dog is better than
endeavour the nearest union that may be with God and so by consequence methinks they must needs in some sense desire the removal of that animal life and dark body that stands in their way for they know that that which now letteth will let such is the unchangeable nature of it till it be layd in the dust till it be taken out of the way The thirsty King did but cry for water of the Well of Bethlehem and his Champions broke thorow the Host of the Philistines and fetcht it 2 Sam. 23. 15. And will ye not allow the thirsty soul if not to break thorow to fetch it yet at least to break out into an Oh that one would give me to drink of the living water of the fountain of grace and peace and love Will ye allow hunger to break down stone-walls and will ye neither allow the hungry soul to break down these mud-walls nor to wish within it self that they were broken down In a word then give me leave earnestly to press you to an earnest pressing after perfect fruition of and eternal converse with God and to change the Apostles words Heb. 12. 1. Seeing we are compassed about with so great a divine light and glory and brightness let us be willing and desirous to lay aside this weight of flesh and this body that so easily resists us with sins and snares and run with eagerness to the object that is set before us Amen Amen Draw me we will run after thee THE Angelical Life MAT. 22. 30. Are as the Angels of God in Heaven THE Doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ and the great things of Christian Religion as they were accounted a strange thing by all the world when they were first publisht and preacht so indeed by none less entertained or rather more opposed than by the wisest of men living in that age viz. Scribes Pharisees Sadduces who were the disputers of this world as the Apostles phrase is 1 Cor. 1. 20. A thing of wonderful observation not only to us in our day but even to our blessed Lord himself in the dayes of his flesh who fetches the cause of it from Heaven and adores the infinite Wisdom of God in it Mat. 11. 25. Amongst other set Disputations that the Saddâ—ces held with our Saviour this in this chapter is very famous where they dispute against the Resurrection of the dead by an argument fetcht ab absurdo vers 25. grounded upon an instance of a woman that had been married to seven Husbands successively Now say they if there be a Resurrection whose Wise shall she be then our Saviour answers by destroying the ground of their argument and shewing that they disputed upon a false supposition for saith he In the Resurrection there shall be no marrying but men shall be as the Angels of God In which words this Doctrine is plainly layd down for I shall not meddle with the Controversie Doct. That the glorified Saints shall be as the Angels of God in Heaven The other Evangelists do lay down the same truth as you may find Mark 12. 25. Luk. 20. 36. In the explication of which point I will shew 1. Negatively wherein the Saints shall not be like the Angels 2. Affirmatively wherein they shall be like unto them or as St. Luke hath it equal to them 1. Negatively The glorified Saints shall not be like the Angels in essence The Angelical essence and the rational soul are and shall be different Souls shall remain souls still keep their own essence The essence shall not be changed souls shall not be changed into Angelical essences 2. They shall not be wholly spirits without bodyes as the Angels The spirit of just men now made perfect are more line to the Angels in this sense than they shall be after the Resurrection For now they are spirits without bodyes but the Saints shall have bodyes not such as now so corruptible so crazy not in any thing defective not needing creature supplyes But incorruptible glorious bodyes in some sense spiritual bodyes which are described by three characters 1 Cor. 15. 42 43. Incorruptible somewhat more than immortal glorious powerful Neither doth their having bodyes any whit abate of their perfection or glory nor render them inferior to the Angels for even the glorious Redeemer of the world hath a body who is yet superior to the Angels and he shall change the vile bodyes of the Saints and make them like unto his glorious body Phil. 3. ult 3. Neither have we any ground to believe that the Saints shall be altogether equal to the Angels in dignity and glory But rather that as man was at first made a little lower than the Angels so that he shall never come to be exalted altogether so high as they for it seemeth that the natural capacity of an Angel is greater than of a 〈◊〉 and so shall continue for they are distinct kinds of creatures As a beast cannot become so wise and intelligent as a man for then he would cease to be a beast so neither can a man become so large and capable as an Angel for then he would cease to be a man 2. Affirmatively The glorified Saints shall be like the Angels of God in Heaven first In their qualities that is 1. In being pure and holy whether they shall be equal to them in positive holiness or no I know not whether they shall understand and know and love God in all degrees as much as the Angels It seems rather that they shall not because as I said before their capacity shall not be so large But if in this they be not altogether equal to the Angels yet it implyes no imperfection for they shall be positively holy as far as their nature is capable and so shall be perfect in their kind Heb. 12. 23. The spirits of Just men made perfect They shall in this be like unto the Angels if not equal to them yea like unto God himself in it Be ye holy as I am holy 1 Pet. 1. 15. Mat. 5. ult But as to negative holiness the Saints shall be even equal to the Angels of God in Heaven i. e. they shall have no more sin no more corruption than they have They shall be as perfectly freed from all iniquities imperfections and infirmities as the Angels What can be cleaner than that which hath no uncleanness at all in it Why so clean shall all the Saints be Rev. 21. 27. No unclean thing shall enter into Heaven They shall be without all kind of spot or blemish Ephes 5. 27. which is a perfect negative holiness more cannot be said of the Angels in this respect As branches of this 2. As the holy Angles do reverence the Divine Majesty Isa 6. 2 3. they cover their faces with their wings crying Holy Holy Holy Lord of Hosts so shall the glorified Saints You may see what sweet harmony they make consenting together to give all the glory of all to God Rev. 7. 9 11 12. The Saints
upon God and enjoying all happiness in him alone for ever Shall this certainly be ouâ—â— life in Heaven oh then labour to begin this life upon earth If you cannot perfectly transcribe yet at least imitate that Angelical kind of life Though you are here imprisoned in a body of earth and oft cumbred and clogg'd with bodily infirmities and called to attend upon bodily necessities yet as far as this animal state will permit live upon God Do not excuse nor vindicate that low kind of earthly life do not justifie your living below and besides God but stir up your selves to behold where your happiness lies and live not willingly below it Certainly a godly soul hath more than bare hope in this world God the blessed infinite and communicative good hath not lockt up himself so far out of fight but that he gives his people a comfortable beholding of him even whilst they are in their Pilgrimage and what Soloman saith of the life of the godly he means it of their present life Prov. 15. 24. The way of life is above to the wise Their living not only shall be but is now above it is a high way of living They are certainly a puny sort of Mechanical Christians that think and talk only of a Heaven to come and dream of an happiness without them and distinct from them The truly godly and God-like soul cannot so content himself but being spirited and principled from above is carryed out after the Infinite and Almighty Good as a thing is carryed towards its centre and hastens into his embraces as the Iron hastens to the Loadstone and longs to be in conjunction with it If therefore ye be from Heaven live above all above all earthly things If ye be risen with Christ seek the things that are above Col. 3. 1. If ye be born of God live upon God and suck not the breasts of a stranger Deny self live besides self i. e. live not to the lusts live not to the service of your senses to the lust of the flesh to the lust of the eye to the pride of life let not your souls be servants to your sins no nor to your senses that were for servants to ride on horseback and Princes to walk on foot Eccles 10. 7. Live above self i. e. let your souls quit all their own interest in themselves and entirely resign themselves to God as to all points of duty and service But that 's not all neither is that it which I press you to from these words but live above the creature and whatsoever is in it viz. delighting in God conversing and communing with him alone as the chiefest Good Desire not any creature any further than as it may help you forward to the Creator neithet delight in it any further than as it either represents some of the divine perfections witnesseth something of divine love or leadeth to some divine participation or communion Seeing we shall come to live upon God and delight in God alone without any creature let us now live upon feed upon love God alone in every creature Now to give you a more distinct knowledge of this high and noble life I will explain it in some particulars negatively and affirmatively First Negatively 1. Live not upon Self I speak not of living unto Self but live not upon Self Self-excellencies Self-sufficiencies any created accomplishments which was the life of the Stoicks those great Philosophers who placed happiness in the enjoyment of themselves which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To enjoy ones self indeed is a high duty a noble priviledge a duty of the Gospel Luk. 21. 19. Possess ye your souls But how must we enjoy our selves why only in God He enjoys himself 1. Not who in a sullen melancholy retires to a solitary and monastical life as many of the sowrer sort of Papists do 2. Nor he that in a proud mood disdains the perfections of God shining forth in other men and hiding himself from them through envy contents himself to sit and admire his own personal accomplishments as many humorists do 3. Nor he who finding nothing without him nor knowing nothing above him to give his soul her full rest settles upon a foundation of his own and admires a self-sufficiency in the temper of his own spirit a little subdued by Philosophical precepts as the Stoicks did and our Quakers do But he who enjoyes himself in God i. e. who doth not view himself in the narrow point of his own Being but taking a view of himself in the unbounded essence of God loves and enjoyes and values himself and all his personal excellencies as he is in God and partakes of his perfections To live in a way of self-converse is below the end of mans creation who was made for a higher good And hereby a man shall never obtain true happiness for it is peculiar to God alone to be happy in himself In a word a soul that confines it self to its self and lives and moves and rejoyces only within the narrow cell of its own particular Being deprives it self of that Almighty and Original Goodness and Glory that sills the world and shines thorow the whole Creation 2. Live not upon any creature without your selves Self indeed is a Creature but yet for clearness in proceeding we shall distinguish them Now this is the life of the greatest sort of men they live beside God and move only within the sphere of the creature you will easily understand that I speak not of the bodyes living upon the creature for so God hath appointed that it shall live and yet as to this too I say with our Saviour Man liveth not by bread alone c. But I speak of the soul of man living upon the creature as its highest good and feeding upon it as its best fare They rise up early and sit up late and God is not in all their thoughts They are filled with domestiek and forein comforts but behold not the Father of Lights from whom all these descend They live upon the good things of the world yet live without God in the world Now by these men 1. do not mean those Heathens that in the most Idolatrous manner do in the literal sense set up the creatures for Gods 2. Nor those Christians that in a most gross manner do makeidols of the creatures and place their happiness in them 3. No nor only those earthly Professors who follow the world too eagerly and have such a deep and rooted respect for it that they can be ordinarily content to suffer creature-employments to justle God and duties out of their hearts and houses whose worldliness is apparently too hard for their Religion Who then Shall we come any nearer yes 4. Those are guilty of creature converse who do not enjoy all creatures in God who love any thing in any creature with a distinct love that do not love it only in God who love silver gold houses lands trading friends with
inflicting them will settle and sustain it It is a firm and consistent thing upon which the shaking soul may settle safely and center it self boldly 4. Converse with the Holiness and unspotted Purity of God He is angry and sins not he corects for sin without sin Fury is not in me saith the Lord Isa 27. 4. There is no passionate malicious temper in the pure and holy God no revengeful appetite to feed upon the blood of his creature He is of purer eyes than to behold the least iniquity and of a purer nature than any way to miscarry in any of his dealings or dispensations Converse then with this Infinite Holiness of God Keep up pure equitable honourable thoughts of him in your hearts Take heed of fancying to your selves a God guilty of passion of partiality or carryed away with such weak and mixed affections as we our selves are But more practically converse with Gods Holiness in the time of afflictions by laying even little sins greatly to heart little sins compared with Infinite Holiness and Purity ought to be matter of great and serious sorrow to a sensible soul Again take heed of the least miscarriages under affliction of departing from God in the least This I know is the great duty and care of every tender-hearted Christian at all times But I conceive we ought more especially to press it upon our hearts in the time of affliction because we are then most apt to indulge some kind of humane passions which we call natural affections as if we had a license to care and fear and grieve and complain not only in an extraordinary but even in an irregular manner Oh let the sense of Gods Infinite Purity and perefect Holiness check and awe those very natural affections be they what they will if they offer to exceed their bounds and overflow their banks But this I toucht upon before under another head amongst the Reasons of the Doctrine Therefore 5. Converse with the Almighty Power of God That God is Infinite and Almighty in Power I need not undertake to demonstrate No man had read a leaf in Scripture nor indeed turned over one leaf in the book of the creatures that hath not learnt this I need not sure turn you to any particular mighty work of God They that instance in his letting loose the virtues of the creatures in the case of the universal deluge or binding up of their influences as in the case of the three captive Jews Daniel and Jonah when he kept the fire from burning and forbade the Lions to eat one and the fish to digest another Prophet whom he had eaten do make but a poor guess at Almightiness but a faint essay to describe it The Creation of the least creature out of nothing is an higher argument of Divine Power than the command of the greatest that is already created Eye God duly in the notion of a Creator yea of a Creator of your own souls and bodies and you have enough to fill you with everlasting admiration as David was filled Psal 139. 14. I am fearfully and wonderfully made But it is not enough to eye or acknowledge or admire we must yet do more if we will rightly converse with the Almightiness of God viz. by the acts of Reverence and Dependence 1. Reverence that Almighty and glorious God in your hearts who can bring quidlibet ex quolibet any thing out of any thing yea out of nothing yea any thing to nothing in a moment Reverence that power of God that can pour contempt upon Princes that can bring Job the greatest of all the men of the East to lye in the Ashes and make his Bed in the Dunghill that can send home Naomi empty who went out full and flourishing Hath he done so by you debased you when you were high tumbled you down from the clouds and rowled you in the dust emptied you when you were full withered you when you were fresh and flourishing Let not God lose the glory of his Almighty Power reverence that glorious hand of God 2. Rest upon the same Almighty God who can also bring up the same Job from the dunghill and set him with Princes and fill empty Naomi with a famous off spring throwing into her lap one of the Ancestors of the Messiah according to the flesh The same Power that caused your Sun to go down at midday when you least suspected can also cause it to rise at midnight when you least hope Dwell not upon creature-probabilities or improbabilities but lift up thy self believing soul and be assured that God can do what he will and he will do what is good for them that love him according to the dictates of unsearchable wisdom and goodness Thou that art rolled in the dust yet arise and roll thy self upon those Almighty Arms that brought thee thither and are able to advance thee As I have seen a child thrown by his Father off and thrown down to the ground in a seeming displeasure yet clinging to the same hand and will not let it go till at length he rise up again by it a fit emblem of a child of God whom his heavenly Father seems as if he had cast off The wounding hand of God is apt to amaze indeed and to beget consternation and astonishment But remember the same hand that wounds can also heal he that breaks us can also make up all our breaches let this beget confidence and dependence God never wounds deeper than that he can easily bind up the wound again never throws his people so low as that they should be out of his reach Take heed therefore of unseemly despondencies cast not away your confidence which shall have a recompence if ye maintain it A recompence I say for that God that can recover the setting Sun and exalt it in its beauty and brightness and doth so every morning that can cloath the forlorn and naked trees with leaves and fruits that can recoves the verdure of the withering grass and doth so every year he can also cause light to arise to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death Isa 9. 2. He that could give unto Amaziah much more than that which he parted with at his command 2 Chron. 25. 9. that could turn again the captivity of Job and give him double for what he had taken from him Job ult 10. he can surely make his people glad according to the dayes wherein he hath afflicted them and the years whenein they have seen evil Psal 90. 15. He can redompence and restore to his penitent people the fruits which the Locusts and the Caterpillars have consumed according to his promise Joel 2. 25. He can recompence to his people the comforts of health and liberty which sickness hath consumed the comforts of friends and relations which the grave hath devoured He that hath made the Springs dry Jer. 51. 36. can as easily make the parched ground to become a pool and the thirsty land springs of