that watch for the morning Psa 130. 6 Ps 119. 20. when his soul broke for the longing that it had unto him at all times I say not that you should prepare for death that seems too low both word and thing look and live beyond death and the grave be lifting up your heads to discover the dawnings of the day of your Redemption be laying hold upon immortality and eternal life Something to this purpose you will find in the second Discourse withâ—r I refer you And now accept I pray you these poor labours which for the glory of my God I makâ— publick that since with Hezekâ—â—h I may not go up â—o the House of the 2 King 20. 8. Lord to declare the goodness of the Lord â—et I may leave some monument of it in wâ—iâ—â—ng as he did when he had been sick Isa 3â— 9. and was recovered of his sickness I will add no more but entreat all serious and devout Readors to magnifie the holy name of God on my behalf adding thereunto their earnest prayers to God for me viz. that the same fire that burnt up the standing Corn of my creature-comforts may also happily consume all the stubble of my creature delights and loves that my God would give me a name better than of Sons and of Daughters the blessed Isa 56 5. fruits of his Spirit instead of the Beloved fruits of the womb that I may for ever live under the most powerful influences of this dispensation and that the glory of the Lord may never depart out of the Temple of my soul as it departed out of the Temple made with hands Now to the God of all grace and peace be all praise and glory To him I commit you all and rest Your friend and servant in Christ Jesus S. S. Feb. 27. 1665. Quod sani quaesivimus hoc invenimus aegri Quae nequiit vallis visûs tulit haec lachrymarum Courteous Reader THere being through some ill circumstances such a mistake happened in the Printing of these Papers which caused a confusion not to be afterward helpt by the placing of them thou art desired to take notice that after those words Curse God and Die page 31. should have followed the second Reason which is now to be found in the midst of pag. 43. and so the sense is continued to pag. 102. after which comes in the Application pag. 31. to pag. 43. where the first Discourse is concluded with those words Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him nor known him I shall suppose thy candour such as to excuse this trouble thou art unhappily put to which I have done what I could to lessen by this Notice and Direction and should but increase it by any farther Apology for a fault which now admits not of a remedy Other slighter Errata's correct thus â— Page 13 line 19 for the read a l. 20 for a r. the p 15 l. 4. for so r to p. 46 l. 8. put in hold of and l. 9. blot out here p. 68. l. 7. for had r. hath p. 81. l. 2 for act read art and l. ult for promises r. premises p. 85. l. 4. for on r. up p. 125. l. 4 for more r. meer p. 136. l. 9. blot our it p 157. l. 22. for it r. Christ p. 193. l. 15. for the r. your p. 214. l. 12. for them r. him Place this after the Epistle to the Reader A VVelcome TO THE PLAGUE AMOS 4. 12. Prepare to meet thy God O Israel IN this Sermon of the Prophet the Lord reckons up the many fearful Plagues wherewith from time to time he had assayed to reclaim this perverse people the ten Tribes of Israel beginning at the 6th verse But still concludes the relation with a doleful Epiphonema yet have ye not returned unto me It is not my business to enquire into the several Plagues either the clear meaning of them or the particular time when they took place or ended nor into the impenitence and stubborness of the people though many useful things might be observed from hence But in the conclusion because none of these judgments had prevailed upon them God resolves to trouble himself with them no longer but to destroy them utterly All that he had done to them in the Land had not prevailed therefore now he will cast them and carry them out of the Land by the over-flowing scourge of an Assyrian captivity This threatning he denounces in the second and third verses I will take you away with hooks and your posterity with fish-hooks c. And after he had reckoned up the many calamities whereby he had sought to bring them to repentance but they repented not and so had demonstrated the equitableness of this final judgment he reassumes the same threatning and persists in his former resolution vers 12. Therefore thus will I do unto thee And then adds Because I will do thus unto thee therefore prepare to meet thy God O Israel Which words may either be understood Ironically by way of derision of all their vain confidences and refuges and then the Doctrine is That there is no standing before nor striving against nor flying from God when he comes to execute vengeance Which is an excellent truth and of great use Or else the words may be understood seriously by way of exhortation The doubt seems to arise from the ambiguous meaning of the word Meet The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both to meet in a hostile manner to assault invade or grapple with as a man meets his enemy so it is used concerning David addressing himself to fight with Goliah 1 Sam. 17. 48. He ran to meet the Phillstin And also to meet in a friendly amicable manner by way of communication collocution salutation or converse So it is used concerning Isaac going to meet Rebekah Gen. 24. 65. and concerning Gods meeting of Balaam to speak with him and impart his mind to him Numb 23. 4. If we take the word in the first sense then it is spoken by way of Irony or derision and so the meaning of the words is contained in the Proposition that I have laid down If we take the words in the latter sense then it is spoken seriously by way of exhortation and so the meaning of them may be wrapt up into this Doct. That it is the duty of Gods people to study a right behaviour towards him and to converse with him aright in the way of his judgments in the time of their afflictions And in this sense I shall take them and prosecute them Besides that general unalterable godly frame and behaviour which Gods people owe to him as a standing duty and indispensable homage there are some more especial behaviours and tempers which they owe to him in special cases and are duties pro hic nunc as the season requireth Particularly there are some special behaviours required at our hands in the time of our affliction And these both 1. Towards ourselves as self-examination
the seeing of God The life of Angels is called a continual beholding of the face of God Mat. 18. 10. and the state of the Saints glory and happiness is also a seeing of God Mat. 5. 8. Heb. 12. 14. Rev. 22. 4. They shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads Now this phrase the seeing of God applyed both to the Saints and Angels doth place their happiness in God alone excluding the creature and it doth import the fulness and clearness and certainty of that their bliss Thus I have shewed you in what sense though I am not able to shew you in what degree the glorified Saints shall be like the Angels of God in Heaven Their way of living viz. upon the blessed God alone shall be the same with that of the holy Angels Application From the discovery of the future state of the Saints I find my self filled with indignation 1. Reproof Against the carnal conceits that many Christians have of Heaven Christians do I call them Nay herein they seem rather Mahumetans who place Heaven in the full and lasting enjoyment of all creature-comforts nay indeed of sinful and abominable pleasures as one may read in their Alcoran It may be few Christians are altogether so sensual but sure I am the far greater sort of Christians so called are very gross and carnal at least very low in their conceits of the state of future happiness Heaven is a word as little understood as Holiness and that I am sure is the greatest mystery in the world it would be tedious to run thorow the particular various apprehensions of men in this matter and indeed impossible to know them The common sort of people understand either just nothing by Heaven but a glorious name or at best but a freeness from bodily torment As nothing of Hell affects them but that dreadful word fire so nothing of Heaven but the comfortable word Rest or safety Others it may be think there is something positive in Heaven and they dream of an honourable easic pleasant life free from such kind of toyls labours pains persecutions reproaches penuries which men are subject to in this life This is a true notion but much below the nature of that happy state others are yet more highly affected with the words of Glory and Glorious and seem to be much ravished with them but are like men in a maze or wonderment that admire something that they understand not and are altogether confounded in their own apprehensions of it As if a man should be mightily taken with such a fine name as Arabia the happy and by a blind fervor of mind should desire to go and visit it Others rise higher yet in their apprehensions of Heaven and look upon it as a holy state but that holiness is negative viz. a perfect freedom from sin and all temptations to it And indeed this is a precious consideration and that wherein many a weary soul finds much rest But yet this amounts not to the life of Angels it is a lower consideration of Heaven than what our Saviour here presents us with The state of the glorified Saints shall not only be a state of freedom from temporal pains or eternal pains or a freedom from spiritual pains and imperfections but a state of perfect positive holiness pure light ardent love spiritual liberty holy delights when all created good shall perfectly vanish all created love shall be swallowed up the soul shall become of a most God-like disposition shining forth in the glory that he shall put upon it glorying in nothing but the blessed God Father Son and Holy Ghost in his divine Image and perfections and wrapt up entirely into his infinite fulness to all eternity Which hath made me oft-times to nauseat and indeed to blame the poor low descriptions of the Kingdom of Heaven which I have found in Books and Sermons for too drye yea and gross which do describe Heaven principally as a place and give it such circumstances of beauty firmness security light and splendor pleasant society good neighbourhood as they think will most commend an earthly habitation True indeed the Holy Ghost in Scripture is pleased to condescend so far to our weak capacities as to describe that glorious state to us by such things as we do best understand and are apt to be most taken with and do most gratifie our senses in this world as a Kingdom Paradise a glorious City a Crown an Inheritance c. But yet it is not the will of God that his enlightened people should rest in such low notions of eternal life For in other places God speaks of the state of glory according to the nature and excellency of it and not according to the weakness of our understanding and describes it at another rate calling it the Life of Angels as here the beholding of God Mat. 5. 8. a coming unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Ephes 4. 13. Gods being All things in us 1 Cor. 15. 28. It is called a Knowing of God and of his Son Jesus Christ Joh. 17. 3. In a word which is as high as can be spoke higher indeed than can be perfectly understood it is called a Being like unto God 1 Joh. 3. 21. We shall be like unto him But this Use is not so much for Reproof as it is for Information 2. Here is matter of Roproof yea and of just indignation against the gross low sensual earthly life of Professors who yet hope to be the children of the Resurrection and to be as the Angels of God in Heaven What hope to be like them then and yet altogether unlike them now I speak not in a passion but out of a just indignation that I have conceived against my self and against the generality even of Saints themselves I am not going to speak of Covetousness commonly so called there is a sin much like to it which is not indeed a single sin but an evil and unseemly temper which is earthly-mindedness or minding of earthly things or if you will because I would not be misunderstood a living upon the creature or a loving of the creature with a distinct love Oh the insensible secrecy and insuperable power of this creature-love I cannot sufficiently exclaim against it Why do we spend noble affections upon such low and empty nothings Are we called with suâ—h a high Calling think you that our conversation should be so low Is the fulness of the fountain yours and do ye yet delight to sit down by and bathe your selves in the shallow streams Is your life hid with Christ in God Why then do you converse as if your life were bound up in the creature Have you layd up your treasure in the blessed God what do your hearts then so far from it Is your happiness in Heaven why then is not your conversation there too Do ye count it your bliss to see God what then mean those fond and wanton glances that ye cast
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
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
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
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
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
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
rendring them like unto himself and all these powers of the soul mutually spending themselves upon him freely and entirely as upon the chiefest good which is their proper and full object Seeing the Saints in glory shall be like unto the Angels of God in their way of living in and upon God alone receive I pray this Exhortation which I have so largely prosecuted and labour to begin that life as far as you can upon Earth Is there not reason for such an Inference Doth it not now flow naturally from the Doctrine If you think it do not I will add two or three particulars to strengthen this Inference or at least to clear it 1. It is highly reasonable that we begin to be that which we expect to be for ever to learn that way of living in which we hope to live to all eternity So that I infer upon as strong ground as the Apostle 1 Joh. 3. 3. He that hath this hope purifieth himself c. 2. If this be the life of Angels then it is the highest and noblest life that any created Being is capable of As by the bread of Angels and the tongue of Angels the most excellent food and the most excellent language is understood in Scripture so must we understand this life of Angels Now it is very suitable to the reasonable soul that immortal noble Being to aim at the highest and noblest life See Mat. 16. 26. What shall a man give in exchange for his soul 3. This shall not only be our life in Heaven but it self is something of Heaven a beginning of Heaven This life is not a thing really distinct from life eternal Joh. 17. 3. this is life eternal c. 1 Joh. 5. 13. Ye have eternal life Therefore we read of eternal life abiding in men and not abiding in them 1 Joh. 3 15. So also Joh. 6. 54. Whoso eateth my flesh hath eternal life A holy soul thus deified thus living in and upon God is as truly glorified upon Earth in some degree as the world is enlightened by the morning Sun which is as truly though not so glorionsly as by the Sun in its gâ—eatest height Oh low and ignoble spirits that can be satisfied with a happiness which shall only be in the world to come Certainly it true and proper speech to say that a Participation of God is an Anticipatien of Heaven and to be like unto him is to be with him You see what reason I have to make such an Inference and to form it into such an earnest Exhortation Oh therefore I beseech you before God and his holy Angels to endeavour to be like him and live like them Object Say not How can men on Earth live like Angels Ans 1. But fall on and imitate them though it be haud passibus aequis labour to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if you cannot be altogether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. We are bidden to live the life of God Mat. 5. ult Be perfâ—ct c. So 1 Pet. 1. 15. Be ye holy c. If I speak high how high speak these Texts Obj. Say not But how can this animal life permit this Ans 1. For 1. Thus men have lived in the body Thus lived Enoch Gen. 5. 22. Thus lived Paul Phil. 1. 21. Thus lived David that man after Gods own heart the greatest and most divine character that can be given of a mortal man Psal 73. 25. there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee 2. Cannot we live in the body except we live to the body You see Saints upon Earth live above other men upon Earth and yet a little more pains take the other flight and you may live above your selves too higher than you do I will only add a Motive or two to this duty of living upon God 1. The last enemy to be overcome is creature-love This is the last enemy that keeps the field by which alone the greatest sort of men do perish everlastingly beat down this and you win the day and shall wear the Crown nay the very conquest of it is a Crown as I said before 2. To live upon God in the creature is to enjoy the creature in the best sense You will lose nothing of the creature by this means but shall enjoy it more fully than ever you did For the creature is ten thousand times sweeter in God than it is in it self Yea in a word this is the way to enjoy all the world and to enjoy the accomplishments of all men and all things as much as if they were your own 3. is the way never to lose any thing He that lives upon God spends upon a stock that cannot be wasted drinks at a fountain that cannot be exhausted So much as we enjoy of God in the creature we do not lose with it and that which we do not so enjoy we deserve to lose This then is the secure and honourable life in comparison of which the life of a Prince is but a wallowing in the mire Lord give us evermore this bread and hearts to feed upon it Amen FINIS Dei Animae Consortium SIVE Periphrasis in posterius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 JOHN 4. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Mnia mî Deus est idem Deus est meus omnis Ipse Deo totus totus ipse Dei. Omnia mihi Deus est In Deo cujusque boni creati Singulae vires penitissimè insunt In Deo solaminà que implicantur O mnia vitae Omnis Deus est meus Omne quod feoit mihi dat benignus Omne quod prae se quia nil pependi Insuper menti dedit appetenti Omne quod ipse est Ipse in Deo totus In Deo versor medio que spiro In Deo grandescere concupisco Luceo totus radiis paternâ Luce receptis Ipse totus Dei. Non mâ—â— non alterius creati Sum Deus sed quantus ego tuus sum Vita quos à te radios recepi Oro reflâ—ctat Cunctate subter Deus alme quae sunt Judico mente inferiora nostrâ Absit ut rebus studeat caducis Mens generosa Fac teipsum mi Deus ipsiorem Huic meae menti penitus seipsâ Fac meipsum mi Deus uniorem Quà m mihi tecum GOD and the SOVL OR A Periphrase upon 1 JOHN 4. 16. dwelleth in God and God in him MY God is All things unto me All God is also mine I am O Lord wholly in thee And also wholly thine God is All things unto me The powers of each created good In God are all contain'd In him my Comforts all do bud Flourish and are maintain'd All God is mine He gave me all that he had made All which did not suffice My larger Soul therefore I pray'd He gave himself likewise I am wholly in God I' th midst of God I live and breath In him I 'm only bright The rayes with which I shine beneath Are borrow'd from his light I am wholly God's O Lord I 'm not at all mine own Nor for another free Let life be a reflection Of beams receiv'd from thee All things below thee Lord I judge To be below my Soul Oh let my nobler mind even grudge It self in dust to rowl Be more my self O God to me Than I my self have been Make me O God more one with thee than with my self Amen FINIS