my Wife neither am I her Husband Nay more than this if you are Christians you are members of the body of Christ And therefore how can you withdraw your selves from him and not feel the pain and torment of so sore a wound or dislocation you cannot live without a constant dependence on him and communication from him Joh 15. 1 4 5. I am the true Vine and my Father is the Husbandman Abide in me and I in you I am the Vine ye are the Branches He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you So near are you to Christ that he delighteth to acquaint you with his secrets O how many mysteries doth he reveal to those that walk with him which carnal strangers never know Mysteries of Wisdome Mysteries of Love and saving Grace Mysteries of Scripture and Mysteries of Providence Mysteries felt by inward experience and Mysteries revealed foreseen by Faith Not only the strangers that pass by the doors but eveâ—â— the common servants of the family are unacquainted with the secret operations of the Spirit and entertainments of Grace and Joy in believing which those that walk with God either do or may possess Therefore Christ calleth you friends as being more than servants Joh. 15. 14 15. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what the Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you It is true for all this that every true Christian hath reason and is apt to complain of his darkness and distance from God Alas they know so little of him and of the Mysteries of his Love and Kingdom that sometimes they are apt to think that they are indeed but utter strangers to him But this is because there is infinitely more still unknown to them than they know what can the silly shallow creature comprehend his infinite Creatour Or shall we know all that is to be known in Heaven before we enjoy all that is to be enjoyed in Heaven It is no more wonder to hear a believer pant and mourn after a fuller knowledge of God and neâ—râ—r access to him than to seek after Heaven where this will be his happiness But yet though his Knowledge of God be small compared with his Ignorance that little Knowledge of God which he hath attained i 〈…〉 ore mysterious sublime and excellent than all the learning of the greatest unsanctified Scholars in the world Walk with him according to the neatness of your Relations to him and you shall have this excellent knowledge of his Mysteries which no Books or Teachers alone can give You shall be effectually touched at the heart with the truths which others do uneffectually hear You shall be powerfully moved when they are but uneffectually exhorted When they only hear the voice without them you shall hear the voice within you and as it were behind you saying This is the way walk in it O that you could duly value such a friend to watch over you and for you and dwell in you and tell you faithfully of every danger and of every duty and teach you to know good and evil and what to choose and what to refuse How closely and delightfully would you converse with such a blessed friend if you rightly valued him 2. MOreover you that are the servants of God have by your Covenant and Profession renounced and forsaken all things else as they stand in any opposition to him or competition with him and have resigned your selves wholly unto him alone And therefore with him must you converse and be employed unless you will forsake your Covenant You knew first that it was your interest to forsake the world and turn to God You knew the world would not serve your turn nor be instead of God to you either in life or at death And upon this Knowledge it was that you changed your Master and changed your minds and changed your way your work your hopes And do you dream now that you were mistaken Do you begin to think that the world is fitter to be your God or Happiness if not you must still confess that both your Interest and your Covenant do oblige you to turn your hearts and minds from the things which you have renounced and to walk with him that you have taken for your God and to obey him whom you have taken for your King and Judge and to keep close to him with purest Love whom you have taken for your everlasting portion Mark what you are minding all the day while you are neglecting God Is it not something that you have renounced And did you not renounce it upon sufficient cause Was it not a work of your most serious deliberation and of as great wisdome as any that ever you performed if it were turn not back in your hearts again from God unto the renounced Creature You have had many a lightning from Heaven into your understandings to bring you to see the difference between them You have had many a teaching and many a warning and many a striving of the spirit before you were prevailed with to renounce the world the flesh and the devil and to give up your self intirely and absolutely to God Nay did it not cost you the smart of some afflictions before you would be made so wise And did it not cost you many a gripe of conscience and many a terrible thought of Hell and of the wrath of God before you would be heartily engaged to him in his Covenant And will you now live as strangely and neglectfully towards him as if those daies were quite forgotten and as if you had never felt such things and as if you had never been so convinced or resolved O Christians take heed of forgetting your former case your former thoughts your former convictions and complaints and covenants God did not work all that upon your hearts to be forgotten He intended not only your present change but your after remembrance of it for your close adhering to him while you live and for your quickning and constant preservance to the end The forgetting of their former miseries and the workings of God upon their hearts in their conversion is a great cause of mutability and revolting and of unspeakable hurt to many a soul. Nay may you not remember also what sorrow you had in the day of your Repentance for your forsaking and neglecting God so long And will you grow again neglective of him Was it then so hainous a sin in your eyes and is it not now grown less Could you then aggravate it so many waies and justly and now do you justifie or extenuate it Were you then ready to sink under the burden of it and were
the evil of Division and misery of distracting multiplicity The Lord our God is One God 1 Cor. 8 6. Perfection hath unity and simplicity We fell into Divisions and miserable distraction when we departed from God unto the Creature For the Creatures are Many and of contrary qualities dispositions and affections And the heart that is set on such an object must needs be a Divided heart And the heart that is Divided among so many and contrary or discordant objects must needs he a distracted heart The confusions of the world confound the heart that is set upon the world He that maketh the world his God hath so many Gods and so discordant that he will never please them all and all of them together will never fully content and please him And who would have a God that can neither please us nor be pleased He that maketh Himself his God hath a compounded God and now corrupted of multifarious and now of contrary desires as hard to please as any without us There is no Rest or Happiness but in Unity And therefore none in our selves or any other creature but in God the only center of the soul. The further from the Center the further from Unity It is only in God that differing minds can be well united Therefore is the world so divided because it is departed so far from God Therefore have we so many minds and wayes and such diversity of opinions and contrariety of affections because men forsake the Center of Unity There 's no Uniting in any worldly carnal self-devised principles or practises When Holiness brings these distracted scatterd souls to God in him they will be one While they bark at Holiness and cry up Unity they shew themselves distracted men For Holiness is the only way to Unity because it is the closure of the soul with God All countreys and persons cannot meet in any one interest or Creature but each hath a several interest of his own But they might all meet in God If the Pope were God and had his perfections he would be fit for all the Church to Center in But being man and yet pretending to this Prerogative of God he is the grand divider and distracter of the Church The Proverb is too true So many men so many minds because that every man will be a God to himself having a self mind and self will and all men will not yield to be one in God God is the common interest of the Saints and therefore all that are truly Saints are truly united in him And if all the Visible Church and all the world would heartily make him their Common Interest we should quickly have a Common Unity and Peace and the Temple of double faced Janus would be shut up They that sincerely have One God have also one Lord and Saviour one spirit one faith one Baptism or holy Covenant with God even because they have one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in them all And therefore they must keep the nuity of the spirit in the bond of Peace Eph. 4. 3 4 5 6. Though yet they have different degrees of gifts vers 7. and therefore differences in opinion about abundance of inferiour things The further we go from the trunk or stock the more numerous and small we shall find the branches They are one in God that are divided in many doubtful controversies The weakest therefore in the faith must be received into this Union and Communion of the Church but not to doubtful disputations Rom. 14. 1. As the antient Baptism contained no more but our Engagement to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost so the antient Profession of saving faith was of the same extent God is sufficient for the Church to Unite in A Union in other Articles of faith is so far necessary to the Unity of the Church as it is necessary to prove our faith and Unity in God and the sincerity of this antient simple belief in God the Father Son and Spirit The Unity of God is the Attribute to be first handled and imprinted on the mind even next unto his Essence Deut. 6. 4. The Lord our God is one Lord. And the unity of the Church is its excellency and attribute that 's first and most to be esteemed and preserved next unto its Essence If it be not a Church it cannot be One Church and if we be not Saints we cannot be united Saints If we be not Members we cannot make One Body But when once we have the Essence of Saints and of a Church we must next be solicitous for its Unity Nothing below an essential point of faith will allowâ—ns to depart from the Catholike Unity love and peace that is due to Saints And because such essentials are never wanting in the Catholich Church or any true member of it therefore we are never allowed to divide from the Catholike Church or any true and visible member It is first necessary that the Church be a Church that is a People separated from the world to Christ and that the Christian be a Christian in Covenant with the Lord. But the next point of Necessity is it that the Church be One and Christians be One. And he that for the sake of lower points how True soever will break this holy bond of Unity shall find at last to his shame and sorrow that he understood not the excellency or necessity of unity The prayer of Christ for the perfection of his Saints is that they all may be One as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be One even as we are One I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in One that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast lved me Here it appeareth that the Unity of the Church or Saints is necessary to convince the world of the truth of Christianity and of the Love of God to his people and necessary to the glory and perfection of the Saints The nearer any Churches or members are to the divine perfections and the more strictly conformable to the mind of God the more they are One and replenished with Catholick Love to all Saints and desirous of Unity and Communion with them It is a most lamentable delusion of some Christians that think their ascending to higher degrees of Holiness doth partly consist in their withdrawing from the Catholike Church or from the Communion of most of the Saints on Earth upon the account of some smaller differing opinions And they think that they should become more loose and leave their strictness if they should hold a Catholike Communion and leave their state of separation and division Is there any strictness amiable or desirable except a strict Conformity to God Surely a strict way
or life to them We should know what is Gods prerogative and that we should keep entirely for him A subordinate esteem and love and desire the Creature may have as it revealeth God to us or leadeth to him or helpeth us in his work But it should not have the least of his part in our esteem or love or desire This is the Chastity the Purity the Integrity of the soul. It is the mixture impurity corruption and consusion of our souls when any thing is taken in with God See therefore Christian that in thy heart thou have no God but ONE and that he have all thy heart and soul and strength as far as thou canst attain it And because there will be still in imperfect souls some sinful mixture of the Creatures interest with Gods let it be the work of thy life to be watching against it and casting it out and cleansing thy heart of it as thou wouldst do thy food if it fall into the dirt For whatever is added to God in thy Affections doth make no better an increase there then the adding of earth unto thy gold or of dung unto thy meat or of corrupted humours and sickness to thy body Mixture will make no better work It may be thy Rejoycing if thou have the testimony of a good conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity and not in fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God thou hast had thy conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1. 12. It is the state of Hypocrisie when One God is openly professed and worshipped and yet the creature lyeth deepest and nearest to the heart 2. The Invisibility of God also must have its due effects upon us And 1. It must warn us that we picture not God to our eye sight or in our fancies in any bodily shape Saith the Prophet Isa. 40. 18. To whom will you liken God or what likeness will ye compare unto him so 25. No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosome of his Father he hath declared him Joh. 1. 18. and therefore we must conceive of him but as he is declared Joh. 6. 46. Not that any man hath seen the Father save he which is of God he hath seen the Father If you ask me How then you should conceive of God if not in any Bodily shape I answer Get all these Attributes and Relations of God to make their proper Impress upon thy soul as now I am teaching you and then you will have the true Conceiving of God This Question therefore is to be answered at the end of this Discourse when you have seen all the Attributes of God together and heard what impression they must make upon you 2. This must teach us to think most highly of the things that are Invisible and meanlier of these visible things Let it be the property of a Beast and not of a man to know nothing but what he seeth or hath seen Let it be the mark of the bruitish Insidels and not of Christians to doubt of the invisible things because they are invisible or to think that things visible are more excellent or sure As the senses are more ignoble then the Intellect a beast having as perfect senses as a man and yet no reasonable understanding so the objects of sense must proportionably be below the Objects of the understanding as such The grossest and most palpable objects are the basest It is the subtle part that 's called the Spirits which being drawn out of plants or other vegetables is most powerful and excellent and valued when the earthly dregs are cast away as little worth It is that subtle part in our blood that 's called the Spirits that hath more of the virtue of life and doth more of the works then the feculent gross and earthly part The aire and wind have as true a Being as the Earth and a more excellent nature though it be more gross and they invisible The Body is not so excellent as the invisible soul. Invisible things are as real as visible and as suitable to our more noble invisible part as visible things to our fleshly baser part 3. The invisibility of God must teach us to Live a life of Faith and to get above a sensual life And it must teach us to value the faith of the Saints as knowing its excellency and necessity Invisible objects have the most perfect excellent Reality and therefore Faith hath the preheminence above sense Natural Reason can live upon things not seen if they have been seen or can be known by natural evidence subjects obey a Prince that they see not and fear a punishment which they see not and the nature of man is afraid of the Devils though we see them not But Faith liveth upon such invisible things as mortal eye did never see nor natural ordinary evidence demonstrate but are revealed only by the Word of God though about many of its invisible objects Faith hath the consent of Reason for its encouragement Value not sight and sense too much Think not all to be meer uncertainties and notions that are not the objects of sense We should not have heard that God is a spirit if Corporal substances had not a baser kind of Being then Spirits Intellection is a more noble operation then sense If there be any thing properly called sense in Heaven it will be as far below the pure Intellective Intuition of the Lord as the glorified Body will be below the glorified soul. But what that difference will be we cannot now understand Fix not your minds on sensible things Remember that your God your home your portion are unseen And therefore live in hearty Affections to them and serious prosecution of them as if you saw them Pray as if you saw God and Heaven and Hell Hear as if you saw him that sends his Messenger to speak to you Resist all the Temptations to lust and sensuality and every sin as you would do if you saw God stand by Love him and Fear him and Trust him and Serve him as you would do if you beheld him Faith is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. Believing must be to you in stead of seeing and make you as serious about things unseen as sensual men are about things sensible In every thing that you see remember it is he that is unseen that appeareth in them He lighteth you by the sun he warmeth you by the fire he beareth you by the earth See him in all these by the eye of Faith 3. The Immortality Incorruptibility and Immutability of God must 1. Teach the soul to rise up from these Mortal Corruptible Mutable things and to fix upon that God who is the immortal incorruptible portion of his Saints 2. It must comfort and encourage all Believers in the consideration of their felicity and support them under the failings of all mortal corruptible things Our Parents and Children and Friends are mortal They are ours to day
BUt it may be the objector will be ready to think that If it be indeed our duty to walk with God yet Thoughts are no considerable part of it what more uncertain or mutable then our Thoughts It is Deeds and not Thoughts that God regardeth To do no harm to any but to do good to all this is indeed to walk with God You set a man upon a troublesome and impossible work while you set him upon so strict a guard and so much exercise of his thoughts what cares the Almighty for my thoughts Answ. 1 If God know better then you and be to be believed then Thoughts are not so inconsiderable as you suppose Doth he not say that the Toughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 15. 26. It is the work of the Gospel by its power to pull down strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. The unrighteous mans forsaking his thoughts is part of his necessary conversion Isa. 55. 7. It was the description of the deplorate state of the old world Gen. 6. 5. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart Judge by this whether Thoughts be so little regarded by God as you imagine David saith of himself I hate vain thoughts Psal. 119. 113. Solomon saith The thoughts of the righteous are right Prov. 12. 5. Paul saith that Charity thinketh not evil 1 Cor. 13. 5. 2. Thoughts are the issue of a rational soul. And if its operations be contemptible its essence is contemptible If its essence be noble its operations are considerable If the soul be more excellent then the body its operations must be more excellent To neglect our Thoughts and not employ them upon God and for God is to vilisie our noblest faculties and deny God who is a spirit that spiritual service which he requireth 3. Our Thoughts are commonly our most cordial voluntary acts and shew the temper and inclination of the heart And therefore are regardable to God that searcheth the heart and calleth first for the service of the heart 4. Our Thoughts are radical and instrumental acts such as they are such are the actions of our lives Christ telleth us that out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts false witness blasphemies which defile the man Matth. 15. 19. 5. Our Thoughts are under a Law as well as words and deeds Prov. 24. 9. The thought of foolishness is sin And Matth. 5. 28 c. Christ extendeth the Law even to the thoughts and desires of the heart And under the Law it is said Deut. 15. 9. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart c. viz. of unmercifulness towards thy brother 6. Thoughts can reach higher much then sense and may be employed upon the most excellent and invisible objects and therefore are fit instruments to elevate the soul that would converse with God Though God be infinitely above us our Thoughts may be exercised on him Our persons never were in Heaven and yet our Conversation must be in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. And how is that but by our thoughts Though we see not Christ yet by the exercise of believing thoughts on him we love him and rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Though God be invisible yet our Meditation of him may be sweet and we may delight in the Lord Psal. 104. 34. Say not that all this is but fantastical and delusory as long as Thoughts of things unseen are meeter to actuate and elevate the love desires and delights of the soul and to move and guide us in a regular and holy life then the sense of lesser present good The Thoughts are not vain or delusory unless the object of them be false and vain and delusory Where the object is great and sure and excellent the thoughts of such things are excellent operations of the soul. If thoughts of vainglory wealth and pleasure can delight the ambitious covetous and sensual no wonder if the Thoughts of God and life eternal afford us solid high delights 7. The Thoughts are not so lyable to be counterfeit and hypocritical as are the words and outward deeds And therefore they shew more what the man is and what is in his heart For as Solomon saith Prov. 23. 7. as he thinketh in his heart so is he 8. Our Thoughts may exercise the highest graces of God in man and also shew those graces as being their effects How is our Faith and Love and Desire and Trust and Joy and Hope to be exercised but by our cogitations If Grace were not necessary and excellent it would not be wrought by the spirit of God and called the Divine nature and the image of God And if Grace be excellent the use and exercise of it is excellent And therefore our Thoughts by which it is exercised must needs have their excellency too 9. Our Thoughts must be the instruments of our improving all holy Truth in Scripture and all the mercies which we receive and all the afflictions which we undergo What good will Reading a Chapter in the Bible do to any one that never Thinketh on it Our delight in the Law of God must engage us to meditate in it day and night Psal. 1. 2. What good shall he get by hearing a Sermon that exerciseth not his Thoughts for the receiving and digesting it Our considering what is said is the way in which we may expect that God should give us understanding in all things 2 Tim. 2. 7. What the better will he be for any of the merciful providences of God who never bethinks him whence they come or what is the use and end that they are given for what good will he get by any affliction that never bethinks him who it is that chastiseth him and for what and how he must get them removed and sanctified to his good A man is but like one of the pillars in the Church or like the corps which he treadeth on or at best but like the dog that followeth him thither for company if he use not his Thoughts about the work which he hath in hand and cannot say as Psal. 48. 9. We have thought of thy loving kindness O God in the midst of thy Temple He that bideth you Hear doth also bid you Take heed how you hear Luk. 8. 18. And you are commanded to lay up the word in your heart and soul Deut. 11. 18 19. And to set your hearts to all the words which are testified among you for it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life 10. Our Thoughts are so considerable a part of Gods service that they are
the living And so it containeth all the former in their highest perfection that is both Natural Life and Moral-Spiritual Life and the holy exercise thereof together with the full attainment and fruition of God in Glory the End of all ETERNAL That is simply eternal objectively as to God the principal object and Eternal ex parte post subjectively that is Everlasting THIS IS LIFE ETERNAL Not Natural life in it self considered as the Devils and wicked men shall have it But 1. It is the same Moral-Spiritual Life which shall have no End but endure to Eternity It is a Living to God in Love But only initial and very imperfect here in comparison of what it will be in Heaven 2. It is the Eternal felicity 1. Seminally for Grace is as it were a seed of Glory 2. As it is the Necessary way or means of attaining it and that preparation which infallibly procureth it The Perfect Holiness of the Saints in Heaven will be one part of their perfect happiness And this Holiness imperfect they have here in this life It is the same God that we know and love here and there and with a Knowledge and Love that is of the same nature seminally As the egg is of the nature of the Bird Whether it may be properly said to be formally and specifically the same quoad actum as well as quoad objectum yea whether the Objectum clare visum and the objectum in speculo vel aenigmate visum make not the act specifically differ I shall not trouble you to dispute And this imperfect Holiness hath the promise of Perfect Holiness and Happiness in the full fruition of God hereafter So it is the Seed and Prognostick of Life Eternal TO KNOW Non semper ubique eodem modo vel gradu Not to know God here and hereafter in the same manner or degree But to know him here as in a glass and hereafter in his Glory as face to face To know him by an Affective Practical knowledge There is no Text of Scripture of which the rule is more clearly true and necessary than of this that Words of Knowledge do imply affection It is the closure of the whole soul with God which is here called the knowing of God And because it is not meet to name every particular act of the soul when ever this duty is mentioned it is all denominated from Knowledge as the first Act which inferreth all the rest 1. Knowledge of God in the Habit is Spiritual Life as a Principle 2. Knowledge of God in the exercise is Spiritaal Life as an employment 3. The Knowledge of God in perfection with its effects is Life Eternal as it signifieth full felicity What it containeth I shall further shew anon THEE That is The Father called by some Divines Fons vel fundamentum Trinitatis the fountain or foundation of the Trinity and oft used in the same sense as the word GOD to signifie the pure Deity THE ONLY He that believeth that there is more Gods than One believeth not in any For though he may give many the Name yet the description of the true God can agree to none of them He is not God indeed if he be not One only This doth not at all exclude Jesus Christ as the second person in Trinity but only distinguisheth the pure Deity or the Only true God as such from Jesus Christ as Mediator between God and man TRUE There are many that falsly and Metaphorically are called Gods If we think of God but as one of these it is not to know him but deny him GOD The word GOD doth not only signifie the Divine perfections in himself but also his Relation to the Creatures To be a God to us is to be one to whom we must ascribe all that we are or have and one whom we must Love and obey and honour with all the powers of soul and body and one on whom we totally depend and from whom we expect our judgement and reward in whom alone we can be perfectly blessed AND JESUS CHRIST That is As Mediator in his Natures God and man and in his Office and Grace WHOM THOU HAST SENT That is whom thy Love and Wisdom designed and commissioned to this undertaking and performance The Knowledge of the Holy Ghost seemeth here left out as if it were no part of life Eternal But 1. At that time the Holy Ghost in that Eminent sort as sent by the Father and Son on the Apostles after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ was not yet so manifested as afterwards and therefore not so necessarily to be distinctly known and believed in as after The having of the Spirit being of more necessity than the distinct knowledge of him Certain it is that the Disciples were at first very dark in this article of faith And Scripture more fully revealeth the necessity to salvation of believing in the Father and Son than in the Holy Ghost distinctly yet telling us that if any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. 2. But presently after when the Spirit was to be sent the necessity of believing in him is expressed especially in the Apostles Commission to Baptize all Nations that were made Disciples in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Doct. THe Knowledge of the only true God and of Jesus Christ the Mediator is the Life of Grace and the necessary way to the life of Glory As James distinguisheth between such a dead faith as Devils and wicked men had and such a living and working faith as was proper to the justified so must we here of the Knowledge of God Many profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate Tit. 1. 16. There is a form of knowledge which the unbelievers had Rom. 2. 22. and a knowledge which puffeth up and is void of Love which hypocrites have 1 Cor. 8. 1. 13. But no man spiritually knoweth the things of God but by the spirit And they that rightly know his name will put their trust in him Psal. 9 10. Thus he giveth the regenerate a heart to know him Jer. 24. 7. and the new creature is renewed in knowledge Col. 3. 10. And vengeance shall be poured out on them that know not God 2 Thes. 1. 8. This saving Knowledge of God which is Eternal Life containeth and implyeth in it all these acts 1. The understandings apprehesion of God according to the necessary articles of faith 2. A Belief of the truth of these articles that God is and is such as he is therein described 3. An high estimation of God accordingly 4. A Volition complacency or Love to him as God the chiefest Good 5. A Desiring after him 6. A Choosing him with the rejection of all competitors 7. A Consent that he be our God and a giving up our selves to him as his people 8. An intending him as our Ultimate End in
and dead to morrow They are our delight to day and our sorrow or horrour to morrow But our God is Immortal Our houses may be burned Our goods may be consumed or stolne our cloaths will be worn out our treasure here may be corrupted But our God is unchangeable the same for ever Our Laws and Customes may be changed our Governours and Priviledges changed our company and employments and habitation changed but our God is never changed Our estates may change from Riches to poverty and our names that were honoured may incur disgrace Our health may quickly turn to sickness and our ease to pain But still our God is unchangeable for ever Our friends are unconstant and may turn our enemies Our Peace may be changed into war and our liberty into slavery but our God doth never change Time will change customes families and all things here but it changeth not our God The Creatures are all but earthen mettal and quickly dasht in peices our comforts are changeable our selves are changeable and mortal but so is not our God 3. And it should teach us to draw as near to God as we are capable by unchangeable fixed Resolutions and constancy of endeavours and to be still the same as we are at the best 4. It should move us also to be more desirous of passing into the state of immortality and to long for our unchangeable habitation and our immortal incorruptible Bodies and to possess the Kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. And let not the mutability of things below much trouble us while our Rock our Portion is unmoveable God waxeth not old Heaven doth not decay by duration the Glory of the blessed shall not wither nor their sun set upon them nor their day have any night nor any mutations or commotions disturb their quiet possessions O Love and Long for Immortality and Incorruption CHAP. VII 6. HAving spoken of the effects of the Attributes of Gods Essence as such we must next speak of the Effects of his three great Attributes which some call Subsistential that is his Omnipotency Understanding and Will or his Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness By which it hath been the way of the Schoolmen and other Divines to denominate the three Persons not without some countenance from Scripture Phrase The Father they call the Infinite Power of the God head and the Son the Wisdom and Word of God and of the Father and the Holy Ghost the Love and Goodness of God of the Father and Son But that these Attributes of Power Understanding and Will or Power Wisdome and Goodness are of the same importance with the termes of Personality Father Son and Holy Ghost we presume not to affirm It sufficeth us 1. That God hath assumed these Attributes to himself in Scripture 2. And that man who beareth the Natural Image of God hath Power Understanding and Will and as he beareth the Holy Moral Image of God he hath a Power to execute that which is Good and Wisdome to direct and Goodness of Will to determine for the execution And so while God is seen of us in this Glass of Man we must conceive of him after the Image that in man appeareth to us and speak of him in the language of man as he doth of himself And first The Almightiness of God must make these impressions on our souls 1. It must possess the soul with very awful Reverent thoughts of God and fill us continually with his holy Fear Infinite Greatness and Power must have no common careless thoughts lest we Blaspheme him in our Minds and be guilty of Contempt The Dread of the Heavenly Majesty should be still upon us and we must be in his fear all the day long Prov. 23. 17. Not under that slavish Fear that is void of Love as men fear an Enemy or hurtful Creature or that which is Evil For we have not such a spirit from the Lord nor stand in a Relation of enmity and bondage to him But Reverence is necessary and from thence a Fear of sinning and displeasing so Great a God The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome Prov. 1. 7. and 9. 10. Psal. 111. 10. By it men depart from evil Prov. 16. 6. Sin is for want of the Fear of God Luk. 23. 40. Pro. 3. 7. Jer. 5. 24. I. ev 25. 36. The Fear of God is often put for the whole new man or all the work of Grace within us even the Principle of new life Jer. 2. 19. and 32. 40. And it is often put for the whole work of Religion or Service of God Psal. 34. 11. Prov. 1. 29. Psal. 130. 4. and 34. 9. And therefore the Godly are usually denominated such as Fear God Psal. 15. 4. and 22. 23. and 115. 11 13. and 135. 20. and 34. 7 9. c. The godly are devoted to the Fear of God Psal. 119. 38. It is our Sanctifying the Lord in our hearts that he be our fear and dread Isa. 8. 13. If we Fear him not we take him not for our Master Mal. 1. 6. Evangelical Grace excludeth not this Fear Luk. 12. 5. Though we receive a Kingdom that cannot be moved yet must our acceptable service of God be with Reverence and godly fear Heb. 12. 28. With fear and trembling we must work out our salvation Phil. 2. 12. In fear we must pass the time of â—â—journing here 1 Pet. 1. 17. In it we must converse together Eph. 5. 4. Yea Holiness is to be perfected in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. and that because we have the Promises The most prosperous Churches walk in this fear Acts 9. 31. It s a necessary means of preventing destruction Heb. 11. 7. and of attaining salvation when we have the promises Heb. 4. 1. God puts this fear in the hearts of those that shall not depart from him Jer. 32. 40. See therefore that the Greatness of the Almighty God possess thy soul continually with his Fear 2. Gods Almightiness should also possess us with holy Admiration of him and cause us in heart and voice to Magnifie him Oh what a Power is that which made the world of nothing which upholdeth the earth without any foundation but his Will which placed and maintaineth all things in their Order in Heaven and Earth which causeth so great and glorious a creature as the Sun that is so much bigger then all the earth to move so many thousand miles in a few moments and constantly to keep its time and course that giveth its instinct to every brute and causeth every part of nature to do its office By his Power it is that every motion of the Creature is performed and that order is kept in the Kingdoms of the world Jer. 32. 17 18 19. He made the Heaven and the Earth by his Great Power and stretched out arm and nothing is too hard for him The Great the Mighty God the Lord of Hosts is his Name great in counsel and mighty in works Neh. 9.
32. The Great the Mighty the terrible God Psal. 136. 4. To him therefore that alone doth Great wonders we must give the Greatest Praise O how Great are his works and his thoughts are very deep Psal. 92. 5. Great is our Lord and of Great Power Psal. 147. 5. And therefore in Zion must â—e be Great Psalm 99. 2. And his Great and terrible Name must be Praised 3. In the Church where he is known must his Name be Great Psal. 76. 1. For we know that the Lord is Great and our God is above all Gods Psal. 135. 5. His Saints delight to praise his Greatness Psal. 104. 1 2 3 4. Bless the Lord O my soul O Lord my God thou art very Great thou art cloathed with honour and Majesty who coverest thy self with Light as with a garment who stretchest out the Heavens like a Curtain who layeth the beams of his Chambers in the waters who maketh the clouds his Chariot who walketh upon the wings of the wind who maketh his Angels Spirits his Ministers a flame of fire c. From Almightiness all things have their being and therefore must honour the Almighty Rev. 1. 8. I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty Rev. 15. 3. They that magnifie the Lord with the song of Moses and of the Lamb say Great and Marvellous are thy works O Lord God Almighty Just and True are thy wayes thou King of Saints 3. The Almightiness of God must imprint upon our souls a strong and stedfast confidence in him according to the tenour of his Covenant and promises Nothing more certain then that Impotency and Insufficiency will never cause him to fail us or to break his word O what an encouragement is it to the Saints that they are built on such an impregnable Rock and that Omnipotency is engaged for them And O what a shame is this to our unbelief that ever we should distrust omnipotency If God be Almighty 1. Remembe in thy greatest wants that there is no want but he can easily and abundantly supply 2. Remember in thy greatest sufferings pains or dangers that no pain is so great which he cannot mitigate and remove and no danger so great from which he is not able to deliver thee The servants of Christ dare venture on the flames because they trust upon the Almighty Dan. 3. 16 17 18. In confidence on Omnipotency they dare stand against the threatnings of the greatest upon earth We are not careful said those three Believers to the King to answer thee in this matter If it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us c. He that is afraid to stand upon a slender bow or upon the unstable waters is not afraid to stand upon the earth And he that is afraid of robbers when he is alone is bolder in a conquering Army what will man Trust if he distrust Omnipotency Where can we be safe if not in the Love the Covenant the hands of the Almighty God When storms and winds had feared the Disciples lest they should be drowned when Christ was in the ship their sin was aggravated by the presence of their Powerful Lord whose mighty works they had often seen Why fear ye saith he O ye of little faith Mat. 8. 26. Cannot he rebuke our winds and waves and will not all obey the rebukes of the Almighty when thou hast a want that God cannot supply or a sickness that he cannot cure or a danger that he cannot prevent then be thou Fearful and distrust him and spare not 3. Remember also in thy lowest state and in the Churches greatest sufferings or dangers that the Almighty is able to raise up his Church or thee even in a moment If you say that Its true God can do it but we know not whether he will I answer 1. I shall shew you in due place how far he hath revealed his Will for such deliverances In sum we have his promise that all things shall work together for our good Rom. 8. 28. and what would we have more Would you have that which is evil for you 2. At present see that Omnipotency do establish thy confidence so far as it is concerned in the cause As 1. Be sure that no work is too hard for the Almighty Do not so much as in the thoughts of thy heart make question of his Power and say with those unbelievers Psal. 78. 19 20. Can God furnish a Table in the wildernest Can he give Bread also Can he provide Flesh If really thou distrust not the Power of God believe then the most difficult or improbable things as well as the easiest and most probable if God reveal or promise them The Resurrection seemeth improbable to impotent man But God hath promised it And nothing is difficult to Omnipotency The calling of the Jews the ruine of the Turk the downfall of the Pope the unity of Christians do all seem to us unlikely things But all things to God are not only possible but easie He is at no more labour to make a world then to make a straw or make fly Whatsoever pleased the Lord that did he in heaven and earth in the sea and in the depths Psal. 135. 6. Dost thou think it improbable that ever all thy sins should be conquered and that ever thy soul should live with Christ among the holy Saints and Angels and that ever thy Body that must first be dust should shine as the stars in the firmament of God And why doth it seem to thee improbable Is it not as easie to God as to cause the earth to stand on nothing and the â—un to run its daily course If God had promised thee to live a day longer or any small and common things thou couldst then believe him And is it not as easie to him to advance thee to Everlasting Glory as â—o cause thee to live another hour or to keep a haire of thy head from perishing sin is too strong for thee to overcome but not for God Death is too strong for thee to conquerâ— but not for Christ. Heaven is too high for thee to reach by thy own strength but he that is there and prepared it for thee can take thee thither Trust God or trust nothing He that cannot Trust in him shall despair for ever for all other confidence will deceive him Psal. 9. 10. They that know his Name will put their Trust in him for the Lord hath not forsaken them that seek him All those that Trust in him shall Rejoyce and ever shout for joy because he defendeth them Psal. 5. 11. Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his Trust and respecteth not the Proud nor such as turn aside to lies Psal 40. 4. â— Who so putteth his Trust in the Lord shall be safe Prov. 29. 25 O what hath Almightiness done in the world and what for the Church and what for thee and yet
they Know not what they do Men could not go so quietly or merrily to Hell with their eyes open as they do when they are shut by Ignorance Whence is it that such Multitudes are still ungodly under all the Teachings and warnings of the Lord but because they have their understandings darkened being alienated from the life of God by the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart and therefore many being past feeling have given them over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with grâ—ediness Eph. 4. 18 19. Sin is the fruit of folly and the greatest folly They are fools that make a jest of it Prov. 14. 9. And it is for want of wisdom that they die Prov. 10. 21. 1. 32. The ignorant are prisoners to the Prince of darkness Eph. 6. 12. 5. 8. Knowledge is despised by none but fools Prov. 1. 7 22. The conquest of so many subtil enemies the performance of so many spiritual duties which we must go through if we will be saved are works too hard for fools to do The saving of a mans soul is a work that requireth the greatest wisdom And therefore the Illumination of the mind is Gods first work in the Conversion of a sinner Act. 26. 18. Eph. 1. 18. If Infinite wisdom communicate to you but the smallest beam of heavenly light it will change your minds and make you other men then before and set you on another course Wisdom will be your guide and keep you in safe paths It will cause you to refuse the evil and to choose the good It will shew you true Happiness and the way to obtain it It will cause you to foresee the evil and escape it when fools go on and are destroyed Prov. 22. 3. Wisdom will teach you to know the season and Redeem your Time and walk exactly when folly will leave you to too late repentance Eph. 5. 15. There is not a soul in Hell but was brought thither by sinful folly Nor is there a soul in Heaven of them at age but by heavenly wisdom was conducted thither In worldly matters the wicked may seem wisest and many a Saint may be very ignorant But when you see the end you will all consess that those were the wise men that had wisdom to repell temptations and to refuse the entising baits of sin and to make sure of everlasting Joyes O therefore apply your hearts to Wisdom Go to Christ for it who is the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. and is appointed by him to be our Wisdom 1 Cor. 1. 30. He will teach it you who is the best Master in the world so you will but keep in his School that is his Church and will humbly learn as little Children and apply your selves submissively to his spirit word and Ministers Ask Wisdom of God that giveth liberally and upbraideth not with former ignorance Jam. 1. 5. Think not any pains in holy means too much to get it Prov. 2. 1 2 3 4 5. If thou wilt receive the words of God and hide his Commandments with thee and encline thy heart to wisdom and apply it to understanding yea if thou cryest after Knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God For the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth is Knowledge and understanding And fear not being a loser by thy cost or labour For Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth undestanding For the merchandise of it is better then silver and the gain thereof then of fine gold she is more precious then Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Prov. 3. 13. to 18. 2 The Infinite Wisdom of God must resolve you to take him for your principal Teacher Counseller and director in all your undertakings Who would go seek the advice of a fool when he may have Infallible wisdom to direct him In a work of so great difficulty and concernment a work that Hell and Earth and Flesh opposeth a work that our Everlasting state dependeth on I think it behoveth us to take the best advice that we can get And who knoweth the will of God like God or who knoweth the certain means of salvation like him that is 〈…〉 ver of salvation would you know whether it 〈…〉 a â—ortified holy life Who shall be your coun 〈…〉 you advise with your Flesh you know that it would 〈…〉 If you advise with the World of wicked men you know that they would be imitated and judge as they are and are not like to be wise for you that are so foolish for themselves as to part with Heaven for a merry dream If you advise with the Devil you know he would be obeyed and have company in his misery You can advise with none but God but such as are your Enemies And will you ask an enemy a deadly enemy what course you should take to make you happy Will you ask the Devil how you may be saved Or will you ask the blind ungodly world what course you should take to please the Lord Or will you ask the Flesh by what means you may subdue it and become spiritual If you take advice of Scripture of the spirit of a holy well informed Minister or Christian or of a renewed well informed Conscience I take this for your advising with the Lord But besides these that are his mouth you can ask advice of none but enemies But if they were never so much your friends and wanted wisdom they could but ignorantly seduce you And do you think that any of them all is as wise as God It is the constant course of a worldly man to advise with the world and of carnal men to advise with the flesh and therefore it is that they are hurried to perdition The flesh is brutish and will lead you to a brutish life and if you live after it undoubtedly you shall die Rom. 8. 13. and if you sow to it you shall but reap Corruption Gal. 6. 6 7. If you are tempted to Lust will you ask the flesh that tempteth you whether you should yield If the cup of excess be offered to you or flesh-pleasing feasts prepared for you will you ask the flesh whether you should take them or refuse them You may easily know what counsel it will give you The Counsel of God and of your flesh are contrary and therefore the lives of the carnal and spiritual man are contrary And will you venture on the advice of a brutish appetite and refuse the counsel of the all knowing God such as is your Guide and Counsellor such will be your End Never mâ—n miscarried by obeying God and never man â—ped well by obeying the flesh God leadeth no man to perdition
it is a more sweet and excellent state of life to be the Spouse of Christ and his members and serve God as friends and children with Love and Thankfulness then to serve him meerly as the most loyal subjects or with an obedience that hath less of Love 9. In the way of Redemption Holiness is more admirably exemplified in Christ then it was or would have been in Adam Adam would never have declared it in that eminency of Charity to others submission to God contempt of the world self-denyal and conquest of Satan as Christ hath done 10. And in the way of Redemption there is a double obligation laid upon man for every duty To the obligations of Creation all the obligations of Redemption and the new Creation are superadded And this threefold cord should not so easily be broken Here are moral means more powerfully to hold the soul to God 11. And in this way there is a clearer discovery of the everlasting state of man and life and immortality are more fully brought to light by the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10 then for ought we find in Scripture they were to innocent man himself No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son that is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Joh. 1. 18. For no man hath ascended up into heaven but he that came down from heaven even the son of man which is in heaven Joh 3. 13. 12. Man will be advanced to the judging of the ungodly and of the conquered Angels even by the good will of the Father and a participation in the honour of Christ our head and by a participation in his Victories and by our own Victories in his strength by the right of Conquest we shall judge with Christ both Devils and men that were enemies to him and our salvation as you may see 1 Cor. 6. 2 3. And there is more in that promise then we yet well understand Rev. 2. 26 27. He that overcometh and keepeth my words unto the end to him will I give power over the Nations and he shall rule them with a rod of Iron as the vessels of a Potter shall they be broken to shivers even as I received of my Father 13. And that which Augustine so much insisteth on I think is also plain in Scripture that the Salvation of the Elect is better secured in the hands of Christ then his own or any of his posterities was in the hands of Adam We know that Adam lost that which was committed to him But we know whom we have believed and are perswaded that he is able to keep that which we commit to him against that day 1 Tim. 1. 12. Force not these Scriptures against our own Consolation and the glory of our Redeemer and then judge Joh. 7. 2. As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him Joh. 6. 3. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Ver. 39. And this is the Fathers will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day Joh. 10. 26 27 28 29. But yee believe not because yee are not of my sheep as I said unto you My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish and none shall take them out of my hands My Father which gave them me is greater then all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hands Eph. 1. 3 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in Love Having predestinated us to the adoption of his children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved Being predestinated according to the purpose of him that worketh all things after the counsel of his own will Ver. 11. And if Faith and Repentance and the right disposition of the will it self be his resolved gift to his Elect and not things left meerly to our uncertain wills then the case is past all question 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves our of the snare of the Devil Eph. 2. 8. By grace yee are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the spirit is Love Faith Phil. 1. 29. To you it is given on the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him Act. 13. 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed Jer. 24. 7. And I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart Ezek. 11. 19 20. And I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God Ezek. 36. 26 27. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you an heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes See also Heb. 8. 6 7 8 9 10. where this is called the new and better Covenant I will put my Laws in their minds and write them in their hearts Jer. 31. 33. And Jer. 32. 39 40. And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever And I will make an everlasting Covenant with them and I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me 1 Cor. 4. 7. Who makes thee to differ and what hast thou that thou didst not receive Much more may be produced from which it is evident that Christ is the Author and finisher of our Faith and that the certainty of the salvation of his Elect doth lie more on his undertaking and resolution infallibly to accomplish their salvation then upon our wisdom or the stability of our mutable free-wills and that thus we are better in the hands of the second Adam then we were in the hands of the first
is called a new begetting or new birth without which none can enter into heaven Joh. 3. 3 5 6. A renewing us and making us new men and new creatures so far as that old things are past away and all become new Eph. 4. 23 24. Col. 3. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 17. It is a new creating us after the Image of God Eph. 4. 24. It maketh us Holy as God is Holy 1 Pet. 1. 15 16. yea it maketh us partakers of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. It giveth us repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that we may recover our selves out of the snare of the Devil who were taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. It giveth us that Love by which God dwelleth in us and we in God 1 Joh. 4. 16. We are redeemed by Christ from all iniquity and therefore it is that he gave himself for us to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. It is an abundant shedding of the Holy Ghost on us for our renovation Tit. 3. 5 6. and by it a shedding the Love of God abroad in our hearts Rom. 5. 5. It is this Holy Spirit given to believers by which they pray and by which they mortifie the flesh Jud. 20. Rom. 8. 26. 13. By this Spirit we live and walk and rejoyce Rom. 8. 1. and 14. 17. Our joy and peace and hope is through the power of the Holy Ghost Rom 15. 13. It giveth us a spiritual mind and taketh away the carnal mind that is enmity against God and neither is nor can be subject to his law Rom. 8. 7. By this Spirit that is given to us we must know that we are Gods children 1 Joh. 3. 24. 4. 13. For if any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8 9. All holy graces are the fruits of the spirit Gal. 5. 22 23. It would be too long to number the several excellent effects of the sanctifying work of the spirit upon the soul and to recite the Elogies of it in the Scripture Surely it is no low or needless thing which all these expressions do intend Quest. 3. If you think it a most hainous sin to vilifie the Creator and his work and the Redeemer and his work why should not you think so of the vilifying of the sanctifier and his work when God hath so magnified it and will be glorified in it and when it is the applying perfecting work that maketh the purchased benefits of Redemption to be ours and formeth our Fathers Image on us Quest. 4. Do we not Doctrinally commit too much of that sin if we undervalue the Spirits sanctifying work as a common thing which the ungodly world do manifest in practice when they speak and live in a contempt or low esteem of grace And which is more injurious to God for a prophane person to jest at the Spirits work or for a Christian or Minister deliberately to extennate it especially when the preaching of grace is a Ministers chief work sure we should much fear partaking in so great a sin Quest. 5. Why is it that the Scripture speaks so much to take men off from boasting or ascribing any thing to themselves Rom. 3. 19. That every mouth may be stopped and why doth not the Law of works exclude boasting but only the Law of faith Rom. 3. 27. Surely the actions of nature except so far as it is corrupt are as truly of God as the acts of grace And yet God will not take it well to deny him the glory of Redemption or Sanctification and tell him that we paid it him in another kind and ascribed all to him as the author of our free will by natural production For as Nature shall honour the Creatour so Grace shall also honour the Redeemer and Sanctifier And God designeth the humbling of the sinner and teaching him to deny himself and to honour God in such a way as may stand with self abasement leaving it to God to honour those by way of reward that honour him in way of duty and deny their own honour Quest. 6. Why is the Blaspheming and sinning against the Holy Ghost made so hainous and dangerous a sin if the works of the Holy Ghost were not most excellent and such as God will be most honoured by Quest. 7. Is it not exceeding ingratitude for the soul that hath been illuminated converted renewed quickened and saved by the Holy Ghost to extenuate the mercy and ascribe it most to his natural Will O what a change was it that Sanctification made what a blessed birth day was that to our souls when we entered here upon Life Eternal Joh. 17. 3. And is this the thanks we give the Lord for so great a Mercy Quest. 8. What mean those texts if they consute not this unthankful opinion Phil. 2. 13. It is God that worketh in you to Will and to do of his good pleasure Eph. 2. 7 8 9 10. God hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might shâ—w the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus For by Grace ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of works lest any man should boast For we are his workmanship Created to Good works in Christ Jesus The like is in Tit. 3. 5 6. 7. Joh. 15. 16. Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain 1 Joh. 4. 10. Herein is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us 1 Cor. 4. 7. For who maketh thee to differ and what hast that thou that thou didst not receive Joh. 6. 44. No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can be know them because they are spiritually discerned Joh. 3. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit that is plainly the fleshly birth produceth but flesh and not spirit if any man will have the spirit and so be saved it must be by a spiritual begetting and birth by the Holy Ghost Act. 16. 14. The Lord opened Lydia's heart that she attended to the things that were spoken of Paul c. Was the Conversion of Paul a murdering persecuter his own work rather then the Lords when the means and manner were such as we read of Act. 22. 14. The God of our Fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldst know his will and see that just one and hear the voice of his mouth c. He was chosen to the Means and to faith and not only in faith to salvation When Christ called his Disciples
in those that undertake the place of Pastors cruelty to mens souls is a far greater sin than in any others To starve those that they undertake to feed and to seduce those whom they undertake to Guide and be Wolves to those whose Shepherds they pretend to be and to prefer their worldly honours and commodity and ease before the souls of many thousands to be so cruel to souls when Christ hath been so merciful to them as to come down on earth to seek and save them and to give his life a ransome for them this will one day be so heavy a charge that the man that must stand as guilty under it will a thousand times wish that a milstoâ—â— had been hanged about his neck and he had been cast into the bottome of the Sea before he had betrayed or murdered souls or offended one of the little ones of Christ. Be merciful to mens souls and bodies as ever you would find mercy with a merciful God in the hour of your necessity and distress CHAP. XXI 20. THE last of Gods Attributes which I shall now mention is his Dreadfulness or Terribleness to those that are the objects of his wrath This is the result of his other Attributes especially of his Holiness and Governing Justice and Truth in his commiâ—ations He is a Great and Dreadful God Dan. 9 4. A mighty God and terrible Deut. 7. 21. A great and terrible God Nah. 1. 5. With God is terrible Majesty Job 37. 22. The Lord most high is terrible Psal. 47. 22. 1. His Children therefore must be kept in a holy awe God is never to be approached or mentioned but with the greatest reverence We must sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and he must be our fear and dread Isa. 8. 13. Even they that receive the unmoveable Kingdom must have grace in their hearts to serve him acceptably with Reverence and godly fear because our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12. 28 29. When we come to worship in the holy Assemblies we should think as Jacob Gen. 28. 17. How dreadful is this place This is none other but the House of God and this is the gate of Heaven Especially when God seemeth to frown upon the soul his servants must humble themselves before him and deprecate his wrath as Jeremiah did Jer. 17. 17. Be not a terrour to mee It ill becometh the best of men to make light of the frowns and threatnings of God Also when he dealeth with us in Judgement and we feel the smart of his chastisements though we must remember that he is a Father yet withall we must consider that he sheweth himself an offended Father And therefore true and deep Humiliation hath ever been the course of afflicted Saints to turn away the wrath of a terrible God 2. But above all what cause have the Ungodly to tremble at the Dreadfulness of that God who is engaged in Justice except they be converted to use them everlastingly as his unpardoned enemies As there is no felicity like the favour of God and no joy comparable to his childrens joyes so is there no misery like the sense of his Displeasure nor any terrours to be compared to those which his wrath inflicteth everlastingly on the ungodly O wretched sinner what hast thou done to make God thine enemy what could hire thee to offend him by thy willful sin and to do that which thou knewest he forbad and condemned in his Word What madness caused thee to make a mock at sin and hell and to play with the vengeance of the Almighty what gain did hire thee to cast thy soul into the danger of damnation canst thou save by the match if thou win the world and lose thy soul Didst thou not know who it was thou hadst to do with It had been better for thee that all the world had been offended with thee even men and Angels great and small than the most Dreadful God Didst thou not believe him when he told thee how he was resolved to judge and punish the ungodly Read it 2 Thes. 2. 7 8 9 10. and 2. 10 11. Matth. 25. Jud. 15. Psal. 1. c. what caused thee to venture upon the consuming fire Didst thou not know that as he is Merciful so he is Jealous Holy Just and Terrible In the Name of God I require and intreat thee fly to his Mercy in Jesus Christ and hearken speedily to his Grace and turn at his reproof and warning To day while it is called to day harden not thy heart but hear his voice lest he resolve in his wrath that thou shalt never enter into his rest There is no enduring there is no overcoming there is no contending with an angry dreadful holy God Repent therefore and turn to him and obey the voice of Mercy that thy soul may live 3. The Dreadfulness of God doth tell both good and bad the great necessity of a Mediator What an unspeakable mercy is it that God hath given us his Son and that by Jesus Christ we may come with boldness and confidence into the presence of the Dreadful God that else would have been to us a greater terror than all the world yea than Satan himself The more we are apprehensive of our distance from God and of his Terrible Majesty and his more Terrible justice against such sinners as we have been the more we shall understand the mysterie of Redemption and highly value the Mediation of Christ. 4. Lastly let the Dreadfulness of God prevail with every believing soul to pitty the ungodly that pitty not themselves O pray for them O warn them exhort them intreat them as men that know the Terrours of the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 11. If they knew as well as you do what sin is and what it is to be children of wrath and what it is to be unpardoned unjustified and unsanctified they would pitty themselves and cry for mercy mercy mercy from day to day till they were recovered into a state of life and turned from the power of Satan unto God Alas they know not what it is to die and to see the world to come and to appear before a dreadful God They know not what it is to be in Hell fire nor what it is to be glorified in Heaven They never saw or tryed these things and they want the Faith by which they must be foreseen by those that are yet short of nearer knowledge you therefore that have Faith to foreknow these things and are enlightned by the Spirit of God O pitty and warn and help the miserable Tell them how much easier it is to escape Hell than to endure it and how much easier a Holy life on earth is than the endless wrath of the most Dreadful God Tell them that unbelief presumption and security are the certain means to bring their misery but will do nothing to keep it off though they may keep off the present knowledge and sense of it which would have droven them to seek a cure
Tell them that death and judgement are at hand and that when they laugh or sport or scorn and jeast at the Displeasure of the Dreadful God it is posting toward them and will be upon them before they are aware and when they slumber their damnation slumbereth not but while unbelieving sinners say Peace Peace sudden destruction will come upon them as unexpected travail on a woman with child and they shall not escape O tell them how dreadful a thing it is for a soul that is unregenerate and unsanctified to go from that body which it pampered and sold its salvation to pleasure and to appear at the tribunal of God and how dreadful it is for such a soul to fall into the hands of the living God At least save your own souls by the faithful discharge of so great a duty and if they will take no warning let them at last remember when it is too late that they were told in time what they should see and feel at last and what the later end would prove and that God and man did warn them in compassion though they perish because they would have no compassion or mercy upon themselves Thus let the Terribleness of God provoke you to do your duty with speed and zeal for the converting and saving of miserable souls AND thus I have briefly set before you the Glass in which you may see the Lord and told you how he must be known and how he must be conceived of in our apprehensions and how the knowledge of God must be improved and what impressions it must make upon the heart and what effect it must have upon our lives Blessed and for ever blessed are those souls that have the truly and lively Image of this God and all these his Attributes imprinted on them as to the Creature they are communicable And O that the veil were taken from our hearts that we all with open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Loord may be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. and may increase and live in the knowledge of the true and only God and of Jesus Christ which is Eternal Life Amen THE DESCRIPTION Reasons Reward OF THE BELIEVERS Walking with God On Gen. 5. 24. By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed for Francis Tyton at the three Daggers in Fleet-street and Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster 1664. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE Text explained what it is to Walk with God what it containeth both for Matter and Manner Page 159 CHAP. II. The first Use A Lamentation of the practical Atheisme of the world Motives to change your inordinate creature-converse into converse with God How much sinners have to do with God more than with all the world besides shewedin 14 instances p. 185 CHAP. III. An answer to them that think God doth us good by necessity of Nature as the sun doth illuminate and warm us and therefore though he have much to do for us yet much is not required from us towards him And to them that think he is above our converse and unsuitable to us Ten Quere's to evince the necessity of our own holy diligence in godliness Especially of exercising our Thoughts upon God Ten mischiefs that befall them who have not God in all their Thoughts p. 205 CHAP. IV. Practical Atheism further detected An answer to them that think it unfit for ignorant men or poor men to think so much of God and that it will make men melancholy and mad Ten propositions shewing how far it is our duty to Think of God by way of explication p. 220 CHAP. V. An answer to them that say God regardeth not Thoughts but Deeds Twelve evidences of the regardableness of our Thoughts p. 230 CHAP. VI. The application to the Godly The Benefits of walking with God I. It is suitable to humane Nature Hoâ— it is Natural No middle life between the sensual and the Holy Of them that delight in Knowledge and moral vertue Nature in its first constitution was not only Innocent but Holy Proved II. To walk with God is the highest and noblest life III. It is the only course to prove and make men truly wise Proved by ten evidences IV. It maketh men good as well as wise and advanceth to the greatest holiness and rectitude Proved by five evidences V. It is the best preparation for sufferings and death shewed by seven advantages to that end p. 235 CHAP. VII Five special obligations on true believers to walk with God and to avoid inordinate Creature-converse p. 277 CHAP. I. Gen. 5. 24. And Henoch walked with God and he was not for God took him BEeing to speak of our Converse with God in Solitude I think it will not be unsuitable nor unserviceable to the Ends of that Discourse if I here premise a short description of the General Duty of practical godliness as it is called in Scripture a Walking with God It is here commended to us in the example of Holy Henoch whose excellency is recorded in this signal character that he walked with God and his special Reward expressed in the words following and he was not for God took him I shall speak most of his Character and then somewhat of his Reward The Samaritan and vulgar-Latine versions do strictly translate the Hebrew as we read it but the interpretation of the Septuagint the Syriack the Chaldee and the Arabick are rather good expositions all set together of the meaning of the word than strict translations The Septuagint and Syriack read it Henoch pleased God The Chaldee hath Henoch walked in the fear of God And the Arabick he walked in obedience to God And indeed to walk in the fear and obedience of God and thereby to please him is the principal thing in our Walking with God The same Character is given of Noah in Gen. 6. 19. and the extraordinary Reward annexed He and his family were saved in the Deluge And the holy life which God commanded Abraham is called a walking before God Gen. 17. 1. Walk before me and be thou perfect And in the New Testament the Christian Conversation is ordinarily called by the name of Walking Sometime a Walking in Christ as Col. 2. 6. Sometime a Walking in the spirit in which we live Gal. 5. 25. And a Walking after the spirit Rom. 8. 1. Sometime a Walking in the Light as God is in the Light 1 Joh. 1. 7. Those that abide in Christ must so walk even as he hath walked 1 Joh. 2. 6. These phrases set together tell us what it is to Walk with God But I think it not unprofitable somewhat more particularly to shew you what this Walking with God doth contain As Atheism is the sum of wickedness so all true Religiousness is called by the name of Godliness or Holiness which is nothing else but our Devotedness to God and Living to Him and our Relation to Him as thus Devoted in Heart and Life
them pleasing them and shewing them respect while they take no notice of God at all as if they believed not that he is there Hence it is that the men of God were wont to speak though reverently yet familiarly of God as children of their Father with whom they dwell as being indeed fellow-citizens with the Saints who are his houshold Abraham calleth him Gen. 24. 40. The Lord before whom I walk And Jacob Gen. 48. 15. God before whom my Fathers Abraham and Isaac walked And David resolveth Psal. 116. 9. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living Yea God himself is pleased to use the terms of gracious condescending familiarity with them Christ dwelleth in them by faith Eph. 3. 17. His spirit dwelleth in them as his house and temple Rom. 8. 9. Yea the Father himself is said to dwell in them and they in him 1 Joh. 3. 24. He that keepeth his Commandements dwelleth in Him and He in him and 3. 12. If we love one another God dwelleth in us 13. Hereby we know that we dwell in him and He in us because he hath given us of His spirit 15. Whoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God 16. God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him Yea God is said to walk in them as they are said to walk with Him 2 Cor. 6. 16. For ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people Our walking with God then is not only a sense of that common presence which he must needs afford to all but it is also a believing apprehension of his Gracious presence as our God and reconciled Father with whom we dwell being brought near unto Him by Christ and who dwelleth in us by his spirit 9. To walk with God as here we are in flesh includeth not only our believing his presence but also that we see him as the chief cause in the effects in his creatures and his daily providence that we look not on creatures as independent or separated from God but see them as the Glass and God as the represented face and see them as the letters and words and God as the sense of all the creatures that are the first Book which he appointed man to read We must behold his glory declared by the Heavens Psal. 19. 1. and see Him shining in the Sun and see his Power in the Fabrick of the world and his wisdom in the admirable order of the whole we must tast the sweetness of his Love in the sweetness of our food and in the comforts of our friends and all our accommodations we must see and Love his Image in his Holy ones and we must hear his Voice in the Ministry of his Messengers Thus every creature must become a Preacher to us and we must see the Name of God upon it and thus all things will be sanctified to us while Holiness to the Lord is written upon all Though we must not therefore make Idols of the creatures because God appeareth to us in them yet must we hear the message which they bring us and reverence in them the Name of the Creatour which they â—ear By this way of conversing with them they will not ensnare us or deceive or poyson us as they do the carnal unbelieving world but as the Fish brought money to Peter to pay his tribute so every creature would bring us a greater even a spiritual gain When we behold it we should say with pleasant admiration This is the work of God and it is wonderful in our eyes This is the true Divine Philosophy which seeketh and findeth and contemplateth and admireth the Great Creatour in his works When that which sticketh in the creature it self whatever discovery it seem to make is but a childish unprofitable trifling like learning to shape all the letters aright without learning to know their signification and sense It is God appearing in the creatures that is the life and beauty and use and excellency of all the creatures wthout him they are but carkasses deformed useless vain insignificant and very nothings 10. Our walking with God doth contain our willing and sincere attendance on him in the use of those holy duties in which he hath appointed us to expect his grace He is everywhere in his essential presence but he is not everywhere alike to be found in the communications of his grace The assemblies of his Saints that worship him in holy communion are places where he is likelyer to be found then in an Ale-house or a Play-house You are likelier to have holy converse with him among the holy that will speak of holy things to your edification then among the senseless ignorant sensualists and the scornful enemies of Holiness that are the servants of the Devil whom he useth in his daily work for the deceiving and perdition of the world Therefore the conversation of the wicked doth grieve and vex a righteous soul as it s said the Sodomites did by Lot 2 Pet. 2. 7 8. because all their conversation is ungodly far from God not savouring of any true knowledge of him or love to him but is against him by enmity and provocation If God himself do dwell and walk in all his holy ones then they that dwell and walk with them have the best opportunity to dwell and walk with God To converse with those in whom God dwelleth is to converse with him in his Image and to attend him at his dwelling And willfully to run among the wicked is to run far away from God In his Temple doth every man speak of his Glory Psal. 29. 9. when among his brutish enemies every man speaketh to the dishonour of him in his word and wayes He is otherwise present with those that are congregated in his Name and for his worship then he is with those that are assembled for wickedness or vanity or live as brutes without God in the world And we must draw as near him as we can if we would be such as walk with God We must not be strange to him in our Thoughts but make him the object of our most serious meditations It s said of the wicked that they are far from God and that God is not in all their thoughts Ps. 73. 27. Ps. 10. 4. The thoughts are the minds employment It dwells on that which it frequently thinks of It is a walk of the Mind and not of the Body which we are treating of To mind the world and fleshly things is contrary to this walk with God we are far from him when our thoughts are ordinarily far from him I know that it is lawful and meet to think of the business of our callings so far as is necessary to the prudent successful management of them and that it is not requisite that our thoughts
be alwaies actually upon God but he that doth manage his calling in Holiness doth all in obedience to Gods commands and sees that his work be the work of God and he intendeth all to the glory of God or the pleasing of his blessed will and he oft reneweth these actual intentions and oft interposeth thoughts of the presence or power or love or interest of him whom he is serving He often lifteth up his soul in some holy desire or ejaculatory request to God He oft taketh occasion from what he seeth or heareth or is doing for some more spiritual meditation or discourse so that still it is God that his mind is principally employed on or for even in his ordinary work while he liveth as a Christian And it is not enough to think of God but we must think of him as God with such respect and reverence and love and trust and submission in our measure as is due from the Creature to his Creator For as some kind of speaking of him is but a taking his Name in vain so some kind of thinking of him is but a dishonouring of him by contemptuous or false unworthy thoughts Most of our walking with God consisteth in such affectionate apprehensions of him as are suitable to his blessed Attributes and Relations All the day long our thoughts should be working either on God or for God either upon some work of obedience which he hath imposed on us and in which we desire to please and honour him or else directly upon himself Our hearts must be taken up in contemplating and admiring him in magnifying his Name his Word and Works and in pleasant contentful thoughts of his benignity and of his Glory and the Glory which he conferreth on his Saints He that is unskilful or unable to manage his own thoughts with some activity seriousness and order will be a stranger to much of the holy converse which believers have with God They that have given up the Government of their thoughts and turned them loose to go which way phantasie pleaseth and present sensitive objects do invite them and to run up and down the world as masterless unruly vagrants can hardly expect to keep them in any constant attendance upon God or readiness for any sacred work And the sudden thoughts which they have of God will be rude and stupid savouring more of prophane contempt than of holiness when they should be reverent serious affectionate and practical and such as conduce to a holy composure of their hearts and lives And as we must walk with God 1. In our communion with his servants 2. And in our affectionate Meditations so also 3 In all the ordinances which he hath appointed for our Edification and his Worship 1. The Reading of the Word of God and the explication and application of it in good Books is a means to possess the mind with sound and orderly and working apprehensions of God and of his holy Truths So that in such Reading our understandings are oft illustrated with a heavenly Light and our hearts are touched with a special delightful rellish of that truth and they are secretly attracted and engaged unto God and all the powers of our souls are excited and animated to a holy obedient life 2. The same Word preached with a lively voice with clearness and affection hath a greater advantage for the same illumination and excitation of the soul. When a Minister of Christ that is truly a Divine being filled with the Knowledge and Love of God shall copiously and affectionately open to his hearers the excellencies which he hath seen and the happiness which he hath foreseen and tasted of himself it frequently through the co-operation of the Spirit of Christ doth wrap up the hearers hearts to God and bring them into a more lively knowledge of him actuating their graces and enflaming their hearts with a heavenly Love and such desires as God hath promised to satisfie Christ doth not only send his Ministers furnished with Authority from him but also furnished with his Spirit to speak of spiritual things in a spiritual manner so that in both respects he might say He that heareth you heareth mee and also by the same Spirit doth open and excite the hearts of the hearers so that it is God himself that a serious Christian is principally employed with in the hearing of his heavenly transforming Word And therefore he is affected with reverence and holy fear with some taste of heavenly delight with obediential subjection and resignation of himself to God The Word of God is powerful not only in pulling down all high exalting thoughts that rise up against God but also in lifting up depressed souls that are unable to rise unto heavenly knowledge or communion with God If some Christians could but alwaies finde as much of God upon their hearts at other times as they finde sometimes under a spiritual powerful Ministry they would not so complain that they seem forsaken and strangers to all communion with God as many of them do While God by his Messengers and Spirit is speaking and man is hearing him while God is treating with man about his reconciliation and everlasting happiness and man is seriously attending to the treaty and motions of his Lord surely this is a very considerable part of our walking and converse with God 3. Also in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ we are called to a familiar converse with God He there appeareth to us by a wonderful condescension in the representing communicating signs of the flesh and blood of his Son in which he hath most conspicuously revealed his Love and Goodness to Believers There Christ himself with his Covenant-gifts are all delivered to us by these Investing signs of his own institution even as Knighthood is given by a sword and as a House is delivered by a Key or Land by a Twig and Turf Nowhere is God so near to man as in Jesus Christ and nowhere is Christ so familiarly represented to us as in this holy Sacrament Here we are called to sit with him at his Table as his invited welcome guests to commemorate his sacrifice to feed upon his very flesh and blood that is with our mouths upon his Representative flesh and blood and with our applying Faith upon his real flesh and blood by such a feeding as belongs to Faith The Marriage-Covenant betwixt God â—ncarnate and his espoused ones is there publickly sealed celebrated and solemnized There we are entertained by God as friends and not as servants only and that at the most precious costly feast If ever a believer may on earth expect his kindest entertainment and near access and a humble intimacy with his Lord it is in the participation of this sacrifice-feast which is called The Communion because it is appointed as well for our special Communion with Christ as with one another It is here that we have the fullest intimation expression and communication of the wondrous Love of God
heaven with the blessed God then may we with the holy Apostle be in the spirit on the Lords day Rev. 1. 10. and if we turn away our foot from the Sabbath from doing our pleasure on that holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shall honour him not doing our own wayes nor finding our own pleasure nor speaking our own words then shall we delight our selves in the Lord Isa. 58. 13 14. and understand how great a priviledge it is to have the liberty of those holy dayes and duties for our sweet and heavenly converse with God 4. Our walking with God must be a matter of industry and diligence It is not an occasional idle converse but a life of observance obedience and imployment that this phrase importeth The sluggish idle wishes of the hypocrite whose hands refuse to labour are not this walking with God nor the sacrifice of fools who are hasty to utter the overflowings of their fantasie before the Lord while they keep not their foot nor hearken to the Law nor consider that they do evil Eccles. 5. 1 2 3. He that cometh to God and will walk with him must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him God is with you while you are with him but if you forsake him he will forsake you 2 Chron. 15. 2. Up and be doing and the Lord will be with you 1 Chron. 22. 16. If you would meet with God in the way of Mercy take diligent heed to do the Commandment and Law to love the Lord your God and to walk in all his Wayes and to cleave unto him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul Josh. 22. 5. 5. Our walking with God is a matter of some Constancy It signifieth our course and trade of life and not some accidental action on the by A man may walk with a stranger for a Visit or in Complement or upon some unusual occasion But this walk with God is the act of those that dwell with him in his Family and do his work It is not only to step and speak with him or cry to him for mercy in some great extremity or to go to Church for company or custome or think or talk of him sometime heartlesly on the by as a man will talk of news or matters that are done in a forein Land or of persons that we think we have little to do with But it is to be alwaies with him Luk. 15. 31. To seek first his Kingdom and Righteousness Matth. 6. 33. Not to labour comparatively for the food that perisheth but for that which endureth to everlasting life Joh. 6. 27. To delight in the Law of the Lord and meditate in it day and night Psal. 1. 2. That his words be in our hearts and that we teach them diligently to our Children and talk of them sitting in the house and walking by the way lying down and rising up c. Deut. 6. 6 7 8. That we pray continually 1 Thes. 5. 17. And in all things give thanks But will the hypocrite delight himself in the Almighty or will he alwaies call upon God Job 27. 10. His goodness is as the morning Cloud and as the early Dew it goeth away Hos. 6. 4. So much of the description of this walking with God CHAP. II. Use. WE are next to consider how far this doctrine doth concern our selves and what use we have to make of it upon our hearts and lives And first it acquainteth us with the abundance of Atheism that is in the world even among those that profess the knowledge of God It is Atheism not only to say There is no God but to say so in the heart Psal. 14. 1. While the heart is no more affected towards him observant of him or consident in him or submissive to him than if indeed there were no God When there is nothing of God upon the Heart no Love no Fear no Trust no Subjection then is Heart-Atheism When men that have some kind of knowledge of God yet glorifie him not as God nor are thankful to him but become vain in their imaginations and their foolish hearts are darkened these men are Heart-Atheists and professing themselves wise they become fools and are given up to vile affections And as they do not like to retain God in their knowledge however they may discourse of him so God oft giveth them over to a reprobate mind to do those things that are not convenient being filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness maliciousness envy murther debate deceit malignity c. Rom. 1. 21 22 26 28 29 30. Swarms of such Atheists go up and down under the self-deceiving name of Christians being indeed unbelieving and defiled so void of Purity that they deride it and nothing is Pure to them but even their mind and conscience is defiled They profess that they know God but they deny him in their works being abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate Tit. 1. 15 16. What is he but an Atheist when God is not in all his thoughts Psal. 10. 4. unless it be in their impious or blaspheming thoughts or in their sleight contemptuous thoughts To take God for God indeed and for our God essentially includeth the taking him to be the most powerful wist and good the most just and holy the Creator Preserver and Governour of the world whom we and all men are obliged absolutely to obey and fear to love and desire whose Will is our Beginning Rule and End He that taketh not God for such as here described taketh him not for God and therefore is indeed an Atheist What name soever he assumeth to himself this is the name that God will call him by even a fool that hath said in his heart there is no God while they are corrupt and do abominably they understand not and seek not after God they are all gone aside and are altogether become filthy there is none of them that doth good they are workers of iniquity that have no knowledge and eat up the people of God as bread and call not upon the Lord Psal. 14. 1 2 3 4. Ungodliness is but the English for Atheism The Atheist or Ungodly in Opinion is he that thinks that there is no God or that he is One that we need not Love and Serve and that is but the same viz. to be no God The Atheist or Ungodly in Heart or Will is he that consenteth not that God shall be his God to be loved feared and obeyed before all The Atheist in Life or outward practice is he that liveth as without God in the world that seeketh him not as his chiefest good and obeyeth him not as his highest absolute Lord so that indeed Atheism is the summe of all iniquity as Godliness is the summe of all Religion and moral good If you see by the description which I have given you
spent your time in youth and in your riper age and how many sinful thoughts and words and deeds you have been guilty of how oft you have sinfully pleased your appetites and gratified your flesh and yeilded to temptations and abused mercy and lost your time how oft you have neglected your duty and betrayed your souls how long you have lived in forgetfulness of God and your salvation minding only the things of the flesh and of the world how oft you have sinned ignorantly and against knowledge through carelesness and through rashness through negligence and through presumption in passion and upon deliberation against convictions purposes and promises how oft you have sinned against the precepts of piety to God and of justice and charity to men Think how your sins are multiplied and aggravated more in number then the hours of your lives Aggravated by a world of mercies by the clearest teachings and the lowdest calls and sharpest reproofs and seasonable warnings and by the long and urgent importunities of grace Think of all these and then consider whether you have nothing now to do with God whether it be not a business to be followed with all possible speed and diligence to procure the pardon of all these sins you have no such businesses as these to transact with men you may have business with them which your estates depend upon or which touch your credit commodity or lives but you have no business with men unless in subordination to God which your salvation doth depend upon your eternal happiness is not in their hands They may kill your bodies if God permit them but not your souls You need not sollicite them to pardon your sins against God It is a small matter how you are judged of by man you have one that judgeth you even the Lord 1 Cor. 4. 3 4. No man can forgive sin but God only O then how early how earnestly should you cry to him for mercy Pardon must be obtained now or never There is no Justification for that man at the day of Judgement that is not forgiven and iustified now Blessed then is the man whose iniquity is forgiven whose sin is covered and to whom it is not imputed by the Lord Rom. 4. 7 8. And wo to that man that ever he was born that is then found without the pardon of his sins Think of this as the case deserves and then think if you can that your daily business with God is small 5. Moreover you have Peace of Conscience to obtain and that dependeth upon your Peace with God Conscience will be your accuser condemner and tormenter if you make it not your friend by making God your friend Consider what Conscience hath to say against you and how certainly it will speak home when you would be loth to hear it and bethink you how to answer all its accusations and what will be necessary to make it a messenger of Peace and then think your business with God to be but small if you are able It is no easie matter to get assurance that God is reconciled to you and that he hath forgiven all your sins 6. In order to all this you must be united to Jesus Christ and be made his members that you may have part in him and that he may wash you by his blood and that he may answer for you to his Father woe to you if he be not your righteousness and if you have not him to plead your cause and take upon him your final justification None else can save you from the wrath of God And he is the Saviour only of his body Eph. 5. 23. He hath dyed for you without your own consent and he hath made an universal conditional grant of pardon and salvation before you consented to it But he will not be united to you nor actually forgive and justifie and save you without your own consent And therefore that the Father may draw you to the Son and may give you Christ and Life in him 1 Joh. 5. 9 10 11. when all your hope dependeth on it you may see that you have more to do with God then your senseless hearts have hitherto understood 7. And that you may have a saving interest in Jesus Christ you must have sound Repentance for all your former life of wickedness and a lively effectual faith in Christ Neither sin nor Christ must be made light of Repentance must tell you to the very heart that you have done foolishly in sining and that it is an evil and a bitter thing that you forsook the Lord and that his fear was not in you and thus your wickedness shall correct you and reprove you Jer. 2. 19. And Faith must tell you that Christ is more necessary to you then food or life and that there is no other name given under heaven by which you can be saved Act. 4. 12. And it is not so easie nor so common a thing to Repent and Believe as ignorant presumptuous sinners do imagine It is a greater matter to have a truly humbled contrite heart and to loath your selves for all your sins and to loath those sins and resolvedly give up your selves to Christ and to his Spirit for a holy life then heartlesly and hypocritically to say I am sorry or I Repent without any true Contrition or Renovation And it is a greater matter to betake your selves to Jesus Christ as your only hope to save you both from sin and from damnation then barely through custom and the benefit of education to say I do believe in Christ. I tell you it is so great a work to bring you to sound Repentance and Faith that it must be done by the power of God himself Act. 5. 31. 2 Tim. 2. 25. They are the Gift of God Eph. 2. 8. you must have his spirit to illuminate you Eph. 1. 18. and shew you the odiousness of fin the intolerableness of the wrath of God the necessity and sufficiency the power and willingness of Christ and to overcome all your prejudice and save you from your false opinions and deceits and to repulse the temptations of Satan the world and the flesh which will all rise up against you All this must be done to bring you home to Jesus Christ or else you will have no part in him his righteousness and grace And can you think that you have not most important business with God who must do all this upon you or else you are undone for ever 8. Moreover you must have all the corruptions of your natures healed and your sins subdued and your hearts made new by sanctifying grace and the Image of God implanted in you and your lives made holy and sincerely conformable to the will of God All this must be done or you cannot be acceptable to God nor ever will be saved Though your carnal interest rise against it though your old corrupted natures be against it though your custome and pleasure and worldly gain and honour be against it
Being of a Holy state as that God be so much in our thoughts as to be preferred before all things else and principally beloved and obeyed and to be the end of our lives and the byas of our wills And there are some thoughts of God that are necessary only to acting and increase of grace 7. So great is the weakness of our Habits so many and great are the temptations to be overcome so many difficulties are in our way and the occasions so various for the exercise of each grace that it behoveth a Christian to exercise as much thoughtfulness about his end and work as hath any tendency to promote his work and to attain his end But such a thoughtfulness as hindereth us in our work by stopping or distracting or diverting us is no way pleasing unto God So excellent is our end that we can never encourage and delight the mind too much in the forethoughts of it So sluggish are our hearts and so loose and unconstant are our apprehensions and resolutions that we have need to be most frequently quickening them and lifting at them and renewing our desires and suppressing the contrary desires by the serious thoughts of God and Immortality Our Thoughts are the bellows that must kindle the flames of Love desire hope and zeal Our thoughts are the spur that must put on a sluggish tired heart And so far as they conduce to any such works and ends as these they are desireable and good But what Master loveth to see his servant sit down and Think when he should be at work Or to use his Thoughts only to grieve and vex himself for his faults but not to mend them to sit down lamenting that he is so bad and unprofitable a servant when he should be up and doing his Masters business as well as he is able Such Thoughts are sins as hinder us from duty or discourage or unfit us for it however they may go under a better name 8. The Godly themselves are very much wanting in the holiness of their thoughts and the liveliness of their affections Sense leadeth away the thoughts too easily after these present sensible things while faith being infirm the Thoughts of God and heaven are much disadvantaged by their invisibility Many a gracious soul cryeth out O that I could think as easily and as affectionately and as unweariedly about the Lord and the life to come as I can do about my friends my health my habitation my business and other concernments of this life But alas such thoughts of God and Heaven have far more enemies and resistance then the thoughts of earthly matters have 9. It is not distracting vexatious thoughts of God that the holy Scriptures call us to but it is to such thoughts as tend to the healing and peace and felicity of the soul and therefore it is not to a melancholy but a joyful life If God be better then the world it must needs be better to think of him If he be more beloved then any friend the thoughts of him should be sweeter to us If he be the everlasting hope and happiness of the soul it should be a foretast of happiness to find him nearest to our hearts The nature and use of holy thoughts and of all Religion is but to exalt and sanctifie and delight the soul and bring it up to everlasting Rest And is this the way to melancholy or madness Or is it not liker to make men melancholy to think of nothing but a vain deceitful and vexatious world that hath much to disquiet us but nothing to satisfie us and can give the soul no hopes of any durable delight 10. Yet as God is not equally related unto all so is he not the same to all mens thoughts If a wicked enemy of God and godliness be forced and frightened into some thoughts of God you cannot expect that they should be as sweet and comfortable thoughts as those of his most obedient children are While a man is under the guilt and power of his reigning sin and under the wrath and curse of God unpardoned unjustified a child of the devil it is not this mans duty to think of God as if he were fully reconciled to him and took pleasure in him as in his own Nor is it any wonder if such a man think of God with fear and think of his sin with grief and shame Nor is it any wonder if the justified themselves do think of God with fear and grief when they have provoked him by some sinful and unkind behaviour or are cast into doubts of their sincerity and interest in Christ and when he hides his face or assaulteth them with his terrors To doubt whether a man shall live for ever in Heaven or Hell may rationally trouble the thoughts of the wisest man in the world and it were but sottishness not to be troubled at it David himself could say In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ran in the night and ceased not my soul refused to be comforted I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed Thou holdest mine eyes waking I am so troubled that I cannot speak Will the Lord cast off for ever Psal. 77. 2 3 4 5 7. Yet all the sorrowful thoughts of God which are the duty of either the godly or the wicked are but the necessary preparatives of their joy It is not to melancholy distraction or despair that God calleth any even the worst But it is that the wicked would Seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near that he would forsake his way and the unrighteous man his Thoughts and return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon Isa. 55. 6 7. Despair is sin and the thoughts that tend to it are sinful thoughts even in the wicked If worldly crosses or the sense of danger to the soul had cast any into melancholy or overwhelmed them with fears you can name nothing in the world that in reason should be so powerful a remedy to recover them as the Thoughts of God his Goodness and Mercy and readiness to receive and pardon those that turn unto him his Covenant and Promises and Grace through Christ and the everlasting happiness which all may have that will accept and seek it in the time of grace and prefer it before the deceitful transitory pleasures of the world If the Thoughts of God and of the Heavenly everlasting joyes will not comfort the soul and cure a sad despairing mind I know not what can rationally do it Though yet its true that a presumptuous sinner must needs be in a trembling state till he find himself at peace with God And mistaken Christians that are cast into causeless doubts and fears by the malice of Satan are unlikely to walk comfortably with God till they are resolved and recovered from their mistakes and fears CHAP. V. Obj.
as Grace inclineth a renewed soul to every holy Truth and duty and yet such a soul in its infancy of Grace hath not a sufficient immediate aptitude or promptitude to the receiving of every holy truth or the doing of every holy duty but must grow up to it by degrees But the addition of these degrees is no specifical alteration of the nature of man or of that grace which was before received Having been so long upon this first Consideration that Walking with God is most agreeable to humane nature I shall be briefer in the rest that follow II. TO Walk with God and live to him is incomparably the Highest and Noblest life To converse with men only is to converse with Worms whether they be Princes or poor men they differ but as the bigger vermine from the lesser If they be Wise and Good their Converse may be profitable and delightful because they have a beam of excellency from the face of God And O how unspeakable is the distance between his Wisdom and Goodness and theirs But if they be foolish ungodly and dishonest how loathsome is their conversation What stinking breath is in their profane and filthy language in their lies and slanders of the just in their sottish jears and scorns of those that Walk with God which expose at once their folly and misery to the pitty of all that are truly understanding When they are gravely speaking evil of the things which they understand not or with a fleering confidence deriding merrily the holy commands and waies of God they are much more lamentably expressing their infatuation than any that are kept in chains in Bedlam Though indeed with the most they scape the reputation which they deserve because they are attended with persons of their own proportion of wisdom that alwayes reverence a silken coat and judge them wise that wear gold lace and have the greatest satisfaction of their wills and lusts and are able to do most mischief in the world and because good men have learnt to honour the worst of their superiours and not to call them as they are But God is bold to call them as they are and give them in his word such names and characters by which they might come to know themselves And is it not a Higher Nobler life to Walk with God then to Converse in Bedlam or with intoxicated sensualists that live in a constant deliration Yea worse then so ungodly men are children of the Devil so called by Jesus Christ himself Joh. 8. 44. because they have much of the nature of the Devil and the lusts of their father they will do yea they are taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2. 26. They are the servants of sin and do the drudgery that so vile a Master sets them on Joh. 8. 34. Certainly as the spirits of the just are so like to Angels that Christ saith we shall be as they and equal to them so the wicked are nearer kin to Devils then they themselves will easily believe They are as like him as children to their Father He is a lyar and so are they He is a hater of God and godliness and godly men and so are they He is a murderer and would fain devour the holy seed and such are they He envyeth the progress of the Gospel and the prosperity of the Church and the increase of Holiness and so do they He hath a special malice against the most powerful and successful Preachers of the Word of God and against the most zealous and eminent Saints and so have they He cares not by what lyes and fictions he disgraceth them nor how cruelly he useth them No more do they or some of them at least He cherisheth licentiousness sensuality and impiety and so do they If they do seem better in their adversity and restraint yet try them but with prosperity and power and you shall see quickly how like they are to devils And shall we delight more to converse with brutes and incarnate devils than with God Is it not a more high and excellent conversation to Walk with God and live to Him then to be companions of such degenerate men that have almost forfeited the reputation of humanity Alas they are companions so deluded and ignorant and yet so wilfull so miserable and yet so confident and secure that they are to a believing eye the most lamentable sight that the whole world can shew us out of hell And how sad a life must it then needs be to converse with such were it not for the hope that we have of furthering their recovery and Salvation But to Walk with God is a word so high that I should have feared the guilt of arrogance in using it if I had not found it in the holy Scriptures It is a word that importeth so high and holy a frame of soul and expresseth such high and holy actions that the naming of it striketh my heart with reverence as if I had heard the voice to Moses Put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground Exod. 3. 5. Methinks he that shall say to me Come see a man that walks with God doth call me to see one that is next unto an Angel or glorified soul It is a far more reverend object in mine eye then ten thousand Lords or Princes considered only in their fleshly glory It is a wiser action for people to run and crowd together to see a man that Walks with God then to see the pompous train of Princes their entertainments or their triumphs O happy man that Walks with God though neglected and contemned by all about him What blessed sights doth he daily see What ravishing tydings what pleasant melody doth he daily hear unless it be in his swoons or sickness what delectable food doth he daily tast He seeth by faith the God the Glory which the blessed Spirits see at hand by nearest intuition He seeth that in a glass and darkly which they behold with open face He seeth the glorious Majesty of his Creatour the Eternal King the Cause of Causes the composer upholder preserver and governour of all the worlds He beholdeth the wonderful methods of his providence And what he cannot reach to see he admireth and waiteth for the time when that also shall be open to his view He seeth by Faith the world of Spirits the hosts that attend the throne of God their perfect righteousnesse their full devotednesse to God their ardent love their flaming zeal their ready and chearful obedience their dignity and shining glory in which the lowest of them exceedeth that which the Disciples saw on Moses and Elias when they appeared on the holy Mount and talkt with Christ. They hear by faith the heavenly consort the high and harmonious Songs of praise the joyful triumphs of crowned Saints the sweet commemorations of the things that were done and suffered on earth with the praises of him that redeemed them by his
necessitas consequentiae a Logical Necessity in ordine cognoscendi dicendi not a Natural Necessity in ordine essendi not a Necessity of the Thing it self as caused by the prediction or decree but a necessity of the truth of this conclusion in arguing such a thing will be because God hath decreed foreknown or foretold it or whatever God foretelleth must necessarily come to pass that is will certainly come to pass but this God hath foretold therefore this will come to pass Here are three observable points in the Text that are worthy our distinct consideration though for brevity â—ake I shall handle them together 1. That Christ was forsaken by his own Disciples and left alone 2. When the Disciples left Christ they were scattered every one to his own They returned to their old habitations and old acquaintance and old employment as if their hopes and hearts had been almost broken and they had lost all their labour in following Christ so long Yet the root of faith and and love that still remained caused them to enquire further of the end and to come together in secret to confer about these matters 3. When Christ was forsaken of his Disciples and left alone yet was he not forsaken of his Father nor left so alone as to be separated from him or his love We are now to consider of this not only as a part of Christs humiliation but also as a point in which we must expect to be conformed to him It may possibly seem strange to us that Christ would suffer all his Disciples to forsake him in his extreamity and I doubt it will seem strange to us when in our extreamity and our suffering for Christ and perhaps for them we shall find our selves forsaken by those that we most highly valued and had the greatest familiarity with But there are many Reasons of this permissive providence open to our observation 1. No wonder if when Christ was suffering for sin he would even then permit the power and odiousness of sin to break sorth that it might be known he suffered not in vain No wonder if he permitted his followers to desert him and to shew the latent unbelief and selfishness and unthankfulness that remained in them that so they might know that the death of Christ was as necessary for them as for others and the universality of the disease might shew the need that the remedy should be universal And it is none of Christs intent to make his servants to seem better then they are to themselves or others or to honour himself by the hiding of their faults but to magnifie his pardoning and healing grace by the means or occasion of the sins which he pardoneth and healeth 2. Hereby he will bring his followers to the fuller knowledge of themselves and shew them that which all their dayes should keep them humble and watchful and save them from presumption and trusting in themselves When we have made any full confession of Christ or done him any considerable service we are apt to say with the Disciples Matth. 19. 27. Behold we have forsaken all and followed thee What shall we have As if they had rather been Givers to Christ then Receivers from him and had highly merited at his hands But when Peter forsweareth him and the rest shift for themselves and when they come to themselves after such cowardly and ungrateful dealings then they will better understand their weakness and know on whom they must depend 3. Hereby also they shall better understand what they would have been if God had left them to themselves that so they may be thankful for grace received and may not boast themselves against the miserable world as if they had made themselves to differ and had not received all that grace by which they excel the common sort when our falls have hurt us and shamed us we shall know to whom we must be beholden to support us 4. Christ would permit his Disciples thus far to forsake him because he would have no support from man in his sufferings for man This was part of his voluntary humiliation to be deprived of all earthly comforts and to bear affliction even from those few that but lately were his faithful servants that men dealing like men and sinners while he was doing like God and as a Saviour no man might challenge to himself the honour of contributing to the Redemption of the world so much as by encouraging the Redeemer 5. Christ did permit the Faith and courage of his Disciples thus far to fail that their witness to him might be of the greater credit and authority when his actual Resurrection and the Communication of the Spirit should compel them to believe when all their doubts were dissipated they that had doubted themselves and yet were constrained to believe would be received as the most impartial witnesses by the doubting world 6. Lastly by the desertion and dissipation of his Disciples Christ would teach us whenever we are called to follow him in suffering what to expect from the best of men Even to know that of themselves they are untrusty and may fail us and therefore not to look for too much assistance or encouragement from them Paul lived in a time when Christians were more self-denying and stedfast than they are now And Paul was one that might better expect to be faithftlly accompanied in his sufferings for Christ than any of us And yet he saith 2 Tim. 4. 16. At my first answer no man stood with me but all men forsook me and prayeth that it be not laid to their charge Thus you have seen some Reasons why Christ consented to be left of all and permitted his Disciples to desert him in his sufferings Yet note here that it is but a partial temporary forsaking that Christ permitteth and not a total or final forsaking or Apostasie Though he will let them see that they are yet men yet will he not leave them to be but as other men Nor will he quite cast them off or suffer them to perish Nor is it all alike that thus forsake him Peter doth not do as Judas The sincere may manifest their infirmity but the Hypocrites will manifest their hypocrisie And accordingly in our sufferings our familiars that were false-hearted as being worldlings and carnal at the heart may perhaps betray us and set against us or forsake the cause of Christ and follow the way of gain and honour when our tempted shrinking friends that yet may have some sincerity may perhaps look strange at us and seem not to know us and may hide their heads and shew their fears and perhaps also begin to study some self deceiving arguments and distinctions and to stretch their consciences and venture on some sin because they are afraid to venture on affliction till Christ shall cast a gracious rebuking quickning aspect on them and shame them for their sinful shame fear them from their sinful fears and inflame their Love to
is with us Though in all our wants we have no other to supply us yet he is still with us to perform his promise that no good thing shall be wanting to them that fear him Though we may have none else to strengthen and help us and support us in our weakness yet he is alwaies with us whose Grace is sufficient for us to manifest his strength in weakness Though we have no other to Teach us and to resolve our doubts yet he is with us that is our chiefest Master and hath taken us to be his Disciples and will be our Light and Guide and will lead us into the Truth Though we have none else to be our Comforters in our agony darkness or distress but all forsake us or are taken from us and we are exposed as Hagar with Ishmael in a wilderness yet still the Father of all consolations is with us his Spirit who is the Comforter is in us And he that so often speaketh the words of Comfort to us in his Gospel and saith Be of good chear let not your hearts be troubled neither be afraid c. will speak them in the season and measure which is fittest for them unto our hearts Though all friends turn enemies and would destroy us or turn false accusers as Job's friends in their ignorance or passion though all of them should add affliction to our affliction yet is our Redeemer and Justifier still with us and will lay his restraining hand upon our enemies and say to their proudest fury Hitherto and no further shalt thou go He is angry with Job's accusing friends notwithstanding their friendship and good meaning and though they seemed to plead for God and Godliness against Job's sin And who shall be against us while God is for us or who shall condemn us when it is he that justifieth us Though we be put to say as David Psal. 142 4. I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me no man cared for my soul Yet we may say with him vers 5. 3. I cryed unto thee O Lord I said Thou art my refuge and my portion in the Land of the Living Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise thy Name The righteous shall compass me about for thou shalt dâ—al bountifully with me 2 3 I poured out my complaint before him I shewed before him my trouble When my spirit was overwhelmed within me then thou knewest my path in the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me Thus God is our refuye and strength a very present help in trouble Psal. 46. 1. Therefore should we not fear though the earth were removed and though the mountains were carried into the midst of the Sea though the waters thereof roar and be troubled c. vers 2 3. Though as David saith Psal. 41. 5 6 7. Mine enemies speak evil of me when shall he dye and his name perish And if he come to see me he speaketh vanity his heart gathereth iniquity to it self when he goeth abroad he telleth it All that hate me whisper together against me against me do they devise my hurt An evil disease say they cleaveth fast unto him and now that he lyeth he shall rise up no more Yea my own familiar friend in whom I trusted that did eat of my bread hath lift up his heel against me Yet we may add as he v. 12. And as for me thou upholdest me in mine integrity and settest me before thy face for ever Though as Psal. 35. 7 c. Without cause they have hid for me their net in a pit which without cause they have digged for my soul 11. And false witnesses did rise up they laid to my charge things that I knew not they rewarded me evil for good 15 16. In my adversity they rojoyced and gathered themselves together the abjects gathered themselves together against me and I knew it not they did tear and ceased not with hypocritical mockers in feasts they gnashed upon me with their teeth 20. For they speak not peace but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the Land Yet vers 9. My soul shall be joyful in the Lord it shall rejoyce in his salvation 10. All my bones shall say Lord who is like unto thee who deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him yea the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him Though friends be far off the Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all Psal. 34 18 19. The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate v. 22. Therefore I will be glad and rejoyce in his Mercy for he hath considered my trouble and hath known and owned my soul in adversity and hath not shut me in the hand of the enemy When my life was spent with grief and my years with sighing my strength failed because of mine iniquity and my bones were consumed I was a reproach among all mine enemies but especially among my neighbours and a fear to mine acquaintance they that did see me without fled from me I was forgotten and as a dead man out of mind I was like a brokrn vessel I heard the slander of many fear was on every side while they took counsel together against me they devised to take away my life But I trusted in thee O Lord I said Thou art my God my times are in thy hand deliver me from the hand of mine enemies and from them that persecute me Make thy face to shine upon thy servant Save me for thy mercies sake O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues Psal. 31. Thus God is with us when men are far from us or against us His people finde by happy experience that they are not alone Because he is nigh them evil shall not come nigh them unless as it worketh for their good He is their hiding place to preserve them from trouble the great water-floods shall not come nigh them he will compass them about with songs of deliverance Psal. 32. 6 7. 3. And as God is with us thus Relatively and Efficiently so also Objectively for our holy converse Whereever our friends are God is still at â—and to be the most profitable honourable and delightful Object of our thoughts There is enough in him to take up all the faculties of my soul. He that is but in a well furnished Library may find great and excellent employment for his thoughts many years together And
thou art upon A mind that is drowned in ambition sensuality or passion will scarce find God any sooner in a wilderness than in a croud unless he be there returning from those sins to God whereever he seeth him God will not own and be familiar with so foul a soul. Seneca could say Quid prodest totius regionis silentium si affectus fremunt What good doth the silence of all the Country do thee if thou have the noise of raging affections within And Gregory saith Qui corpore remotus vivit c. He that in body is far enough from the tumult of humane conversation is not in solitude if he busie himself with earthly cogitations and desires and he is not in the City that is not troubled with the tumult of worldly cares or fears though he be pressed with the popular crouds Bring not thy house or land or credit or carnal friend along with thee in thy heart if thou desire and expect to walk in Heaven and to converse with God Direct 5. Live still by Faith Let Faith lay Heaven and Earth as it were together Look not at God as if he were far off set him alwaies as before you even as at your right hand Psal. 16. 8. Be still with him when you awake Psal. 1 39. 18. In the morning thank him for your rest and deliver up your self to his conduct and service for that day Go forth as with him and to do his work Do every action with the Command of God and the Promise of Heaven before your eyes and upon your hearts Live as those that have incomparably more to do with God and Heaven than with all this world That you may say with David Psal. 37. 25 26. as aforecited Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I desire besides thee And with Paul Phil. 1. 21. To me to Live is Christ and to Dye is gain You must shut up the eye of sense save as subordinate to Faith and live by Faith upon a God a Christ and a World that is unseen if you would know by experience what it is to be above the brutish life of sensualists and to converse with God O Christian if thou hadst rightly learned this blessed life what a high and noble soul-conversation wouldst thou have How easily wouldst thou spare and how little wouldst thou miss the favour of the greatest the presence of any worldly comfort City or Solitude would be much alike to thee saving that the place and state would be best to thee where thou hast the greatest help and freedome to converse with God Thou wouldst say of humane society as Seneca Unus pro populo mihi est populus pro uno Mihi satis est unus satis est nullus One is instead of all the people to me and the people as one One is enough for me and none is enough Thus being taken up with God thou mightest live in prison as at liberty and in a wilderness as in a City and in a place of banishment as in thy native Land For the Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof and everywhere thou mayest find him and converse with him and lift up pure hands unto him In every place thou art within the sight of home and Heaven is in thine eye and thou art conversing with that God in whose converse the highest Angels do place their highest felicity and delight How little cause then have all the Churches enemies to triumph that can never shut up a true believer from the presence of his God nor banish him into such a place where he cannot have his conversation in Heaven The stones that were cast at holy Stephen could not hinder him from seeing the Heavens opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God A Patmos allowed holy John Communion with Christ being there in the Spirit on the Lords day Rev. 1. 9 10. Christ never so speedily and comfortably owneth his servants as when the world disowneth them and abuseth them for his sake and hurls them up and down as the scorn and off-scouring of all He quickly found the blind man that he had cured when once the Jews had cast him out Joh. 9. 35. Persecutors do but promote the blessedness and exceeding joy of sufferers for Christ Mat. 5. 11 12. And how little Reason then have Christians to shun such sufferings by unlawful means which turn to their so great advantage and to give so dear as the hazard of their souls by wilful sin to escape the honour and safety and commodity of Martyrdome And indeed we judge not we Love not we Live not as sanctified ones must do if we judge not that the truest Liberty and Love it not as the Best Condition in which we may Best converse with God And O how much harder is it to walk with God in a Court in the midst of sensual delights than in a prison or wilderness where we have none to interrupt us and nothing else to take us up It is our prepossessed minds our earthly hearts our carnal affections and concupiscence and the pleasures of a prosperous state that are the prison and the Jaylors of our souls Were it not for these how free should we be though our bodies were confined to the straightest room He is at Liberty that can walk in Heaven and have access to God and make use of all the Creatures in the world to the promoting of this his Heavenly conversation And he is the prisoner whose soul is chained to flesh and earth and confined to his lands and houses and feedeth on the dust of worldly riches or walloweth in the dung and filth of gluttony drunkenness and lust that are far from God and desire not to be near him but say to him Depart from us we would not have the knowledge of thy waies that Love their prison and chains so well that they would not be set free but hate those with the cruellest hatred that endeavour their deliverance Those are the poor prisoners of Satan that have not liberty to believe nor to Love God nor converse in Heaven nor seriously to mind or seek the things that are high and honourable that have not liberty to meditate or pray or seriously to speak of holy things nor to love and converse with those that do so that are tyed so hard to the drudgery of sin that they have not liberty one month or week or day to leave it and walk with God so much as for a recreation But he that liveth in the family of God and is employed in attending him and doth converse with Christ and the Host of Holy ones above in reason should not much complain of his want of friends or company or accommodations nor yet be too impatient of any corporal confinement Lastly be sure then most narrowly to watch your hearts that nothing have entertainment there which is against your Liberty of converse with God Fill not those Hearts with