can do it no more affecting even to be infinite herein while it yet sees it must be confined within some bounds It loves to lye in the dust and abase it self and is pleased with the humiliation contrition and brokenness of heart which repentance towards God includes in it So that as God is delighted with this Sacrifice so it is with the offering of it up to him Many men apprehend a certain sweetness in revenge such a one finds it only in this just revenge upon himself How unexpressible pleasure accompanies its devoting it self to God when bemoaning it self and returning with weeping and supplication It says Now Lo I come to thee thou art the Lord my God I have brought thee back thine own what I had sacrilegiously alienated and stol'n away the heart which was gone astray that hath been so long a vagabond and fugitive from thy blessed presence service and communion Take now the Soul which thou hast made Possess thy own right enter upon it stamp it with the intire impression of thine own Seal and mark it for thine Other Lords shall no more have dominion What have I to do any more with the Idols wherewith I was wont to provoke thee to jealousie I will now make mention of thy name and of thine only I bind my self to thee in everlasting bonds in a covenant never to be forgotten The self-denial which is included in this transaction hath no little pleasure in it When the Soul freely quits all pretence to it self and by its own consent passes into his now acknowleged right disclaims it self and all its own former interests inclinations and ends and is resolved to be to him and to no other When this is done Vnreservedly without any intention of retaining or keeping back any thing from him Absolutely and without making any conditions of its own but only agreeing to and thankfully accepting his Peremptorily and without hesitation and without halting between two opinions Shall I or shall I not as if it were ready in the same breath to retract and undo its own act How doth it now rejoice to feel it self offer willingly They that have life and sense about them can tell there is pleasure in all this And the oftner repetition is made hereof so it be done with life not with trifling formality they so often renew the relishes with themselves of the same pleasure Continued commerce with God agreeable to the tenor of that League and Covenant struck with him how pleasant and delightful is it To be a friend of God an associate of the most High a domestique no more a stranger a foreigner but of his own houshold To live wholly upon the plentiful provisions and under the happy order and government of his family To have an heart to seek all from him and lay out all for him How great is the pleasure of trust of living free from care that is of any thing but how to please and honour him in a cheerful unsolicitous dependance expecting from him our daily bread believing he will not let our Souls famish That while they hunger and thirst after righteousness they shall be filled that they shall be sustained with the bread and waters of life that when they hunger he will feed them with hidden Manna and with the fruits that grow on the tree of life in the midst of the Paradise of God that when they thirst he will give water and add milk and honey without money without price And for the body not to doubt but he that feeds Ravens and clothes Lillies will feed and cloath them To be so taken up in seeking his Kingdom and righteousness as freely to leave it to him to add the other things as he sees fit To take no thought for to morrow To have an heart framed herein according to divine precept Not to be encumbered or kept in an anxious suspence by the thoughts and fears of what may fall out by which many suffer the same affliction a thousand times over which God would have them suffer but once A firm repose on the goodness of providence and its sure and never-erring wisdom A steady perswasion that our heavenly Father knows what we have need of and what it is fittest for us to want to suffer or enjoy How delightful a life do these make And how agreeable to one born of God his own Son and heir of all things as being joint-heirs with Christ and claiming by that large grant that says all things are yours only that in minority it is better to have a wise Fathers allowance than be our own carvers To live in the fear of God is not without its pleasure It composes the Soul expels the vanity which is not without vexation represses exorbitant motions checks unruly passions keeps all within in a pleasant peaceful calm Is health to the navel and marrow to the bones To live in his love is delight it self or a tendency towards it The disposition whereto being communicated from God and a part of the holy new creature derived from him is also part of the secondary or subservient delectable object As the light that serves unto vision is partly as the mediate object somewhat of what I see and doth partly as a principle actuate and concur with the faculty in the act of seeing And as the blessed God himself is both the first Principle and ultimate Object of that and other gracious acts Therefore it cannot but be pleasant to the Soul to perceive that powerful influence from God stirring in it by which it is disposed to design and pitch upon him as the Great Object of its highest delight unto whom it laboured under so vile and wicked an aversion heretofore Yea though it yet have no certain perswasion of a present interest in him yet this disposition of heart towards him and that it finds it could satisfyingly rest in him as its best good upon supposition it had such an interest the very strivings and contentions of the Soul towards him upon this account are not without a present pleasure As we behold with an intermixed desire and delight a grateful object which we would enjoy but do not yet know whether we can compass or not To be in that temper of Soul as to resolve Him I will seek and pursue him I will study to please and serve and spend my strength and life in serving him which is to live in his love though I yet know not whether he will accept or how he will deal with me This cannot but have a certain sensible delectation in it To live in a stated habitual subjection to him as the Lord of our lives How pleasant is it To have learned to obey To be accustomed to the yoke To taste and prove the goodness and acceptableness of his will through an effectual transformation in the renewal of our minds To be by the law of the spirit of life made free from the law of sin and death To be able
whom God requires it to unite for this very purpose This cannot but add unspeakably to the delightfulness of this transaction and of this effusion of the Holy Ghost in the virtue whereof the thing is done how oft soever it be seriously done As our case and state require that it be very often And to receive him as our Lord which is joined with that other capacity wherein we receive him viz. of a Jesus or Saviour As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord so c. This also and the heart-subduing influence that disposes to it is most highly delectable When the Soul that was so stoutly averse and that once said within it self I will not have him to reign over me is brought freely to yeild and with sincere loyal resolutions and affections devotes it self to him consents to his government submits its neck and shoulder to his yoke and burden says to him with an ungainsaying heart as its full sense Now thou Lord of my life and hope who hast so long striven with me so oft and earnestly prest me hereto so variously dealt with me to make me understand thy merciful design and who seekest to rule with no other aim or intent but that thou may'st save and who hast founded thy dominion in thy blood and didst dy and revive and rise again that thou mightest be Lord of the living and the dead and therefore my Lord Accept now a self-refigning Soul I make a free surrender of my self I bow and submit to thy Sovereign Power I fall at the footstool of thy Throne Thou Prince of the Kings of the Earth who hast loved sinners and washt them from their sins in thy blood Glory in thy conquest Thou hast overcome I will from henceforth be no longer mine own but thine I am ready to receive thy commands to do thy will to serve thy interests to sacrifice my all to thy Name and Honour my whole life and being are for ever thine I say as before there is pleasure in the very doing this it self as often as it is sincerely done And it adds hereto if it be more distinctly considered It is no mean or any way undeserving person to whom this homage is paid and obligation taken on unto future obedience He is the brightness of the Fathers glory the express Image of his person the Heir of all things and who sustains all things by the word of his power It is he whose name is Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of peace 'T is he to whom all power is given both in heaven and earth and more especially power over all flesh that he might give eternal life to as many as were given him 'T is he who spoiled Principalities and Powers and made an open shew of them He whom because when he was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God he humbled himself made himself of no reputation took on him the form of a servant became obedient to death the Father hath therefore highly exalted and given him a Name above every name that in his Name every knee should bow And of whom when he brought him his first-born into the world he said Let all the Angels of God worship him And such a one he is whose temper is all goodness and sweetness Tell Sion thy King cometh meek and lowly He came into this world drawn down only by his own pity and love beholding the desolations and ruins that were wrought in it every where Sin universally reigning and death by sin and spreading its dark shadow and a dreadful cloud over all the earth In which darkness the Prince thereof was ruling and leading men captive at his will having drawn them off from the blessed God their life and sunk them into a deep oblivion of their own original and disaffection to their true happiness that could only be found there This great Lord and Prince of life and peace came down on purpose to be the Restorer of Souls to repair the desolations and ruins of many generations He came full of grace and truth and hath scattered blessings over the world wheresoever he came hath infinitely obliged all that ever knew him and is he in whom all the nations of the earth must be blessed And who would not with joy swear fealty to him and take pleasure to do him homage Who would not recount with delight the unexpressible felicity of living under the governing power of such a one And if the tenor and scope of all his Laws and Constitutions be viewed over what will they be found but obligations upon men to be happy How easie his yoke how light his burden what is the frame of his Kingdom or whereof doth it consist but Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And who would not now say This Lord reigneth let the earth rejoyce let the multitude of the Isles be glad thereof Why should it not be triumphingly said among the Heathen That the Lord reigneth that the world also shall be established that it cannot be moved Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad let the sea roar and the fulness thereof let the fields rejoice and all that is therein and all the trees of the wood rejoice It s plain that be the matter of joy here what it will be there never so much cause of exultation and glorying in him The righteousness and peace which his Kingdom promises never actually take place nor the joy that is connexion therewith till the Holy Ghost dispose and form mens spirits thereto For all this is but meer dream and idle talk to those who hear only of these things and feel not that vital influence insinuating it self that may give the living sense and savor of them And we may rather expect seas and fields beasts and trees to sing his triumphant Song and chant his praises than those men whose hearts are not attempered to his Government and who are yet under the dominion of another Lord not being yet by the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made free from the law of sin and death But where this is effectually done How large matter of most rational pleasure do they find here while there is nothing in that whole System of Laws by which he governs that is either vain unequal or unpleasant or upon any account grievous only this is not the estimate of distempered spirits or of any other than them in whose hearts his Law is written and who because they love him keep his Commandments Unto Love his commands are most connatural For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments They are not grievous i. e. by the Meiosis which some do reasonably enough apprehend in those words they are joyous delightful pleasant but to them only who being born of God have overcome the world This holy influence and communication of God is therefore grateful and contributes not
is an act of duty towards God of which before but as it is an act of justice and mercy towards our own souls That is wherein we make a just and true estimate of our selves do esteem basely of our selves wherein we are really become base and vile And wherein there is any thing of real value and excellency in our own beings we value it only upon that account and in that subordination wherein it is truly valuable How pleasant when we have learned to forsake and abandon our selves when we are not apt to magnifie and applaud to trust or love to seek serve our selves unduly and are only inclin'd to own to cleave and stick to our selves wherein and so far as we ought when that Idol Self is no longer maintained within us at the dear expence of our peace comfort safety and eternal hope An Idol that ingrossed the whole substance of our Souls that exhausted and devour'd the strength and vigour of our spirits which it doth not maintain and cannot repair which consumes our time which keeps all our powers and faculties in a continual exercise and hurry to make a costly a vain an unlawful provision for it How great is the ease and pleasure which we feel in being delivered from that soul-wasting Monster that was sed and sustain'd at a dearer rate and with more costly sacrifices and repasts then can be paralleld by either sacred or other History That hath made more desolation in the souls of men then ever was made in their Towns Cities where Idols were served by only humane sacrifices or monstrous creatures satiated with only such refections Or where the lives safety of the most were to be bought out by the constant successive tribute of the blood of not a few That hath devoured more and preyed more cruelly upon human lives than Molech or the Minotaure When this monstrous Idol is destroy'd trodden down what a Jubilee doth it make what songs of triumph and praise doth it furnish and supply to the poor soul now deliver'd redeem'd from death and bondage How much more easie and reasonable a service is it when once the grace of God and their own experience give men to understand it to study to please him than themselves when they feel themselves dead to their former Lord and service and only alive to God through Jesus Christ when Sin no longer reigns in their mortal bodies that they should obey it in the lusts thereof when they no more yield their members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but have yielded themselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead c. When being made free from sin they are become servants unto righteousness The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus having made me free from the law of sin What an ease is it to the spirit of a man when he hath not himself to seek serve and care for in any unlawful disallowed sense when he finds not himself necessitated or urged by his own imperious fleshly inclination so to do when he perceives himself by a prevailing better principle counterpoys'd and the weight and byass of his own Spirit inclines him quite another way when he finds he hath nothing left him to do but to serve God to know his will and do it is disburdened of all unnecessary care for himself That which is necessary being part of his duty and is therefore done on purpose only for God and that which is unnecessary and forbidden which part only was burdensome being supplied by what hath the greatest ease and pleasure in it imaginable trust and self resignation to his pleasure and will whose we wholly are what life is pleasant if this be not Surely wherein it is attain'd to it is most pleasant and hither this gracious heart-rectifying communication is gradually tending How great is the pleasure that arises from Self-government When that governs in us which should govern and that is subject and obeys which should obey when a mans mind is competently furnished with directive practical principles and his heart is so framed that it is capable of being prescribed to is patient of restraints and direction easily obeys the reign and follows the ducture of an inlightened well-instructed mind when the order is maintained between the superior faculties and the inferior and there are no contentious murmurs of ungovernable appetitions and passions against the law of the mind T is true that where this holy rectitude doth but in a degree take place there will be many conflicts but those conflicts are in order to victory and how joyful and glorious is the triumph upon that victory when the soul enters upon its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 its thanksgiving song I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord how happy a state is that wherein at some times it is here attained when there are now no tumults within The wicked which is the very import of their name are as troubled sea that cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt Here is no governing principle in any power no Scepter no Trident to check and allay the rage of those waters But when his power goes forth in the soul whose very word Winds and Seas obey how peaceful and pleasant a calm doth ensue Now is a man restor'd to himself and is again in his right mind He is truly now said to enjoy himself and upon the best terms that is he enjoys himself in and under God He is in a due subordination master of himself He possesses his own Soul That one piece of holy rectitude patience inables him to do so In your patience possess ye your Souls Patience is a part of Fortitude an ability to suffer He that is in this respect impotent of himself not able to suffer is a perfect slave not a slave only to the vicious wills and humours of other men in whose power he apprehends it is to befriend or hurt him but first and chiefly to his own he is not master of his own judgment reason and conscience but he prostitutes all in the first place to his own inordinate self-love his avarice his fear and consequently to the pleasure of other men which upon no other terms and inducements is base and vile towards any man were the matter in it self never so right and the obedience as due to them as can be supposed whereas if he could suffer he retain'd his mastery over himself and were under God within his own power Upon this with other grounds is joyfulness a companion of patience How much more is it so if to this one part to the whole frame of that holy rectitude whereby a mans spirit is compos'd to a due order within it self When there is an universal sobriety or soundness of mind as the word that uses to express sobriety signifies a continency and dominion of ones self and the Soul is no longer hurried to and fro and even outed
and repent and do your first works Till then He hath this against you that you have left your first love And consider Is it not a grievous thing to you Doth it not pain your hearts that your Lord and Redeemer should have somewhat against you as it were laid up noted and put on record kept in store and as himself remarkably expresses it sealed up among his treasures somewhat that sticks with him and which he bears in mind and hath lying in his heart against you Is this a small thing with you when that must be apprehended to be his sense and suppose him saying to you I remember the kindness of thy youth the love of thine espousals And now since those former days What iniquity hast thou found in me that thou art gone far from me and hast walked after vanity and art become vain How confounding a thing were it if he should say as sometime to others in a case resembling yours and why should you not take it as equally belonging to you O my people What have I done unto thee and wherein have I wearied thee testifie against me And while the case admits such sharp and cutting rebuke and that it is the matter of rebuke not rebuke it self abstracted from the matter i. e. if it were causless that should smart or wound How becoming is it and sutable to the case to cast down a wounded bleeding heart before the Lord and be abased in the dust at the footstool of his Mercy-seat And though your sin be great and hainous 4. Yet apprehend you are before a Mercy-Seat That there is forgiveness with him that he may be feared How would this apprehension promote the humiliation which the case requires A sullen despondency that excludes hope of mercy hardens the heart continues the sinful comfortless distance Therefore apply your selves to him seek his Pardon in the Blood of the Redeemer know you need it and that it is only upon such terms to be obtained Yet also take heed lest any diminishing thoughts of the evil of your sin return and make you neglect the thing or wave the known stated way of remission We are apt to look upon crimes whereby men are immediately offended and which therefore are of worse reputation among men as robbery murder c. as very horrid This is a matter that lies immediately between Spirit and Spirit the God of the Spirits of all flesh and your Spirit You have had a solemn transaction with him and have dealt falsly And though the matter were secret between God and you Is it the less evil in it self for that If you had dealt unworthily and used base treachery towards a friend in a matter only known to him and your self Would you not when you have reflected blush to see his face till matters be composed betwixt you And is there another way of having them composed and of restoring delightful friendly converse than by your seeking his Pardon and his granting it Could you have the confidence to put your self upon conversing with him as at former times without such a preface Or were it not great immodesty and impudence to offer at it But that when this hath been the case between the blessed God and you and you now come with deep resentments and serious unfeigned acknowledgments of your most offensive neglects of him to seek forgiveness at his hand he should be easie and facile to forgive How should this melt you down before him And this is what his own word obliges you to apprehend and believe of him These words He hath required to be proclaimed to you Return you back-sliding ones and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful saith the Lord and I will not keep anger for ever Only acknowledg your iniquity that you have transgressed against the Lord your God and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree your offence hath been Idolatry as well as theirs Turn O backsliding Children saith the Lord for I am married unto you What heart would not break and bleed at this overture You can be recovered to no capacity of delighting in God as heretofore till you sensibly feel the need of great forgiveness and have a disposition of heart inwardly to relish the sweetness and pleasantness of it Till those words do agree with the sense of your hearts and you can as in a transport cry out O the blessedness of the man as the expression imports whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is covered c. And now when you are come thus far if the temper of your Spirit be right even in this there will be in conjunction with the desire hope and value of forgiveness at least an equal dread of such future strangenesses and breaches between God and you And that will be very natural to you which I next add as further advice 5. Most earnestly seek and crave a better and more fixed temper of spirit More fully determined and bent Godward That your heart may be directed into the love of God That the spirit of love power and a sound mind may bear rule in you Be intent upon the recovery of that healthy soundness which wheresoever it hath place will with a certain steady power and a strong inclining bent of love carry your heart toward God And take heed lest you be satisfied in the expectation and hope of forgiveness as to your former neglects of God without this There is a manifest prejudice daily accrewing to the Christian name and profession by the unequal estimation which that part of the Doctrine of Christ hath that concerns the work of his Spirit upon us regeneration the new creature repentance and an holy life in comparison of that which concerns his performances and acquisitions for us expiation of sin satisfaction of Divine Justice forgiveness and acceptance with God How sweet ravishing transporting Doctrines and how pure Gospel are these latter accounted by many who esteem the former cold sapless unpleasant notions Thence comes Christian Religion to look with so distorted a face and aspect as if it suffered a convulsion that hath altered and disguised it unto that degree that it is hardly to be known being made to seem as if it imported only a design to rescue some persons from Divine Wrath and Justice without ever giving them that disposition of heart which is necessary both to their serving of God and their blessedness in him This is not to be imputed so much to the misrepresentation made of it by them whose business it hath been to instruct others though of them too many may have been very faulty in almost suppressing or insisting less or very little upon Doctrines of the former strain while the stream of their Discourses hath mostly run upon the other for it must be acknowledged that by very many in our age the absolute necessity of the great heart-change hath been both most
pleases and sees fit to determine 3. It may not therefore with so absolute and peremptory an expectation be sought after as those things may that are necessary to the holding of souls in life but with much resignation submission and deference of the matter to the divine good pleasure such as shall neither import disesteem of it nor impatience in the want of it 4. That it ought to be less-esteemed than the heart-rectifying-communication that is impressive of Gods Image and whereby we are made partakers of his holiness This proceeds more entirely from pure love to God for himself that from self-love this tends more directly to the pleasing of us than to the pleasing of God This is necessary as was said but to our well or better being That simply to our very being in Christ this hath its greatest real value from its subserviency to the other And what hath its value from its reference to another must be of less value than that 5. That its a great mistake to think God is not otherwise to be enjoyed than in this way of more express testification of his love as if you could have no enjoyment of a friend otherwise than by his often repeating to you I love you I love you indeed I love you 6. That it 's a much greater to place the sum of Religion here and that any should make it the whole of their business to seek this or to talk of it or should think God doth nothing for them worth their acknowledgment and solemn thanksgiving while he doth not this 7. Most of all that any should reckon it the first thing they have to do when they begin to mind Religion to believe Gods particular love to them and that he hath elected them pardoned them and will certainly save them So too many most dangerously impose upon themselves and accordingly before any true humiliation renovation of heart or transaction and stipulation with the Redeemer do set themselves thus to believe and it may be seek help from God more strongly to believe it when-as the Devil is too ready to help them to this Faith And when he hath done it they cry to themselves peace peace and think all is well take their liberty and humour themselves live as they list and say that for so long a time they have had assurance of their salvation The Father of Lies must needs be the Author or the Fautor or both of this Faith for it is a lie which they believe that is that they are pardoned and accepted of God is a downright lie repugnant to his Word and the tenour of his Covenant And for any thing else that may import their state to be at present safe is to them no credible truth 8. That for the most part if Christians upon whom the renewing-work of the Holy Ghost in that former communication hath in some degree taken place do yet want that degree of this also which is necessary to free them from very afflicting doubts and fears and enable them to a cheerful and lively walking with God it is to be reckoned their own fault either that they put too much upon it too little minding his publick declarations in his Word or do unduly seek it or unseasonably expect it or that they put too little upon it and expect or seek it not or that by their indulged carnality earthliness vanity of spirit they render themselves uncapable of it or by their careless and too licentious walking or their either resisting or neglecting holy motions they grieve that Spirit that would comfort them For though the restraint of such more pleasant communications may proceed sometimes from an unaccountable Soveraignty that owes no reason to us of it's arbitrary way of giving or withholding favours yet withal we are to know and consider that there is such a thing as paternal and domestick Justice proper to Gods own Family and which as the Head and Father of it he exerciseth therein whereby though he do not exercise it alike at all times it seems meet to his infinite Wisdom to awaken and rouze the sloth or rebuke the folly or check the vanity or chastise the wantonness of his offending-children and that even in this way by retiring himself becoming more reserved withdrawing the more discernible tokens of his presence and leaving them to the torture sometimes of their own conjectures what worse thing may ensue And herein he may design not only refâ—rmation to the delinquents but instruction to others and even vindication to Himself For however these his dealings with mens spirits are in themselves as they must needs be secret and such as come not under the immediate notice of other men yet somewhat consequential thereto doth more openly appear and becomes obvious to the common observation of serious Christians with whom such persons converse that is not only such as languish under the more remarkable terrors of their spirits and are visibly as it were consuming in their own flame of which sort there occur very monitory and instructive examples at some times but even such also as are deprived of his quickning influence and have only somewhat remaining in them that is ready to dye that are pining away in their iniquities and sunk deep into deadness and carnality for his comforting communication is also quickning and he doth not use to withhold it as it is quickening and continue it as it is comforting but if such have comfort such as it is they are their own comforters do carry very discernible tokens of divine pleasure upon them and the evils and distempers under which their spirits lye wasting are both their sin and punishment Their own wickedness corrects them and their backsliding reproves them And that reproof being observable doth the same time warn others yea and do that right to God as to let it be seen he makes a difference and refuses the intimacies with more negligent loose idle wanton professors of his Name which he vouchsafes to have with some others that make it more their business and study to carry acceptably towards him and are more manifestly serious humble diligent obedient observers of his will If therefore we find not what we have found in this kind however the matter may possibly be resolvable into the Divine Pleasure as it is more likely to be in the case of such desertions as are accompanied with terror when no notorious apostacy or scandalous wickedness hath gone before it is both safe and modest yea and obvious to suspect such delinquencies as were before-mentioned are designed to be animadverted upon and that the Love hath been injured which is now not manifested as heretofore 9. That yet such a degree of it as is necessary to a comfortable serving of God in our stations being afforded such superadded degrees as whereby the Soul is in frequent raptures and transports are not to be thought withheld penally in any peculiar or remarkable respect or otherwise than it may be understood
durable and sooner apt to vanish upon the cessation of the present act like the delight of the eye The latter is more permanent as that of the taste and habitual such as is the pleasure of any thing whereof one hath a continued possession as of a confirm'd state and habit of health or of the riches dignities pleasant accommodations which belong to any ones setled condition of which he hath that continual enjoyment that insensibly forms his spirit raises and keeps it up to a pitch sutable to his condition though he have not every day or hour distinct formed thoughts of them nor is often in that contemplative transport with Nebuchadnezzar Is not this great Babylon which I have built c. Both these are holy delight or delight in God In both whereof may be seen added to the general nature of delight an holy Nature as the Principle inferring a powerful steady determination of the heart towards God as the object and end which it ultimately tends to and terminates upon Though in the former way of delighting in God the Soul tends towards him more directly In the latter according as the acts may be to which the delight adheres more obliquely and through several things that may be intermediate unto that final and ultimate object And both these may fitly be understood to be within the meaning of this Text which therefore we shall now consider apart and severally though both of them very briefly And we begin with the latter of them For though the former have in some respect an excellency in it above the latter yet as the progress of Nature in other Creatures is by way of ascent from what is more imperfect to what is perfecter and more excellent So is it with the communicated Divine Nature in the new creature which puts it self forth first in more imperfect operations the buddings as it were of that tree of life which hath its more florid blossoms and at length its ripe and fragrant fruit afterwards Or to come nearer the case inasmuch as the latter sort of delight according to the order wherein we before mentioned them hath more in it of the exercise of spiritual sense the other more of spiritual reason Since humane Creatures that have Natures capable of both sorts of functions do first exercise sense and by a slower and more gradual process come on to acts of ratiocination afterwards So it is here The Soul in which the Divine life hath taken place doth first exercise it self in spiritual sensations So that though in the matter of delight it is not destitute of the grateful relishes of things truly and spiritually delectable yet the more formed and designed acts of holy delectation in the highest object thereof distinctly apprehended and pitcht upon for that purpose do follow in their season and these are preparations and the essays of the new creature gradually and more indistinctly putting forth it self in order thereto The Embryo's of the other If therefore it be inquired Wherein the delight of this more imperfect sort doth consist I answer In the Souls sensation and relish of sweetness in the holy quickening communications of God unto it by which he first forms it for himself and in the operations which it is hereby enabled to put forth towards him while it is in the infancy or childhood of its Christian state Nor while we say the delight of this kind doth more properly belong to the younger and more immature state of Christianity do we thereby intend wholly to appropriate or confine it to that state For as when a Child is grown up to the capacity of exercising reason it doth not then give over to use sense but continues the exercise of it also in its adult state even as long as the person lives only in its infancy and childhood its life is more intirely a life of sense though there are early buddings of reason that soon come to be intermingled therein notwithstanding which the principle that rules and is more in exercise more fitly gives the denomination So it is in this case also that is though there are sensations of Delight and pleasure in Religion yea and those more quick confirm'd and strong in more grown Christians yet these sensations are more single and unaccompany'd though not altogether with the exercise of spiritual reason and judgment and do less come in that way with Christians in their minority than with others or themselves afterwards Therefore that which we are to understand our selves called to under the name of delighting in God thus taken is The keeping of our Souls open to Divine Influences and Communications Thirsting after them praying and waiting for them Endeavouring to improve them and co-operate with them and to stir up our selves unto such exercises of Religion as they lead to and are most sutable to our present state Together with an allowing yea and applying our selves to stay and taste in our progress and course the sweetness and delightfulness of those communications and operations whereof we have any present experience For instance When we find God at work with us and graciously dealing with our spirits to humble them break and melt them under a sense of sin incline and turn them towards himself draw them to a closure with his Son the Redeemer to a resignation and surrender of our selves to him upon the terms of his Covenant and Law of Grace Yea and when afterwards we find him framing our hearts to a course of holy walking and conversation to the denyal of ungodliness and worldly lusts to a sober righteous and godly life in this present world to the exercises of Piety Sobriety Righteousness Charity Mercy c. And now this or the like heavenly Dictate occurs to us Delight thy self in the Lord what doth it import what must we understand it to say or signifie to us Though this that hath been mentioned and which we are now saying is not all that it signifies as will be shown hereafter yet thus much we must understand it doth signifie and say to us Thy only true Delights are to be found in a course of Religion they are not to be expected from this world or thy former sinful course but in exercising thy self unto godliness in receiving and complying with the Divine discoveries recommended to thee in the Gospel and through them the influences of Life and Grace which readily flow in upon any Soul that hungers and thirsts after righteousness and by which thou mayst be fram'd in all things after the good and holy and acceptable will of God Herein thou shalt find such pleasures and Delights entertaining thy Soul as that thou wilt have no cause to envy wicked men their sensual Delights which they find in their sinful way if thou wilt but observe what thou findest and exercise thy sense to discern between good and evil and set thy self to consider whether there be not as well more satisfying as purer relishes of pleasure in mortifying
Unto which design though you must know you are to be subservient and must do something yet you must withal consider you can be but subservient and of your selves alone can do just nothing Therefore if ever you would know what a life of spiritual delight means you must constantly strive against all your spiritual distempers that obstruct it in the power of the Holy Ghost And do not think that is enjoining you a course wholly out of your power for though it be true that the power of the Holy Ghost is not naturally yours or at your dispose yet by gracious vouchsafement and ordination it is If it were not so what means that exhortation Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and that If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit with the foregoing prescription of Walking in the Spirit that we might not fulfil the lusts of the flesh Doth the Holy Ghost himself prescribe to us impertinently in order to our obtaining of his own imparted influences Doth not He know the method and way wherein they are to be conveyed Or would he deceive us by misrepresenting it In short Walking in the Spirit must signifie something and what can it signifie less than dependence on its power and subjection thereto with the continuance of both these These therefore are necessary to the making of that power our own 1. Dependence and trust as that like phrase imports I will go in the strength of the Lord God c. And that I will strengthen them in the Lord and they shall walk up and down in his name at once shews us both the communication of the Divine Power I will strengthen them in the Lord and the way wherein it is communicated their walking up and down in his name viz. in actual and continued dependence thereon The blessed God hath setled this connexion between our Faith and his own exerted Power As the extraordinary works of the Spirit were not done but upon the exercise of the extraordinary Faith which by the Divine constitution was requisite thereunto So that the Infidelity which stood in the privation of this Faith did sometimes so inviolable had that constitution made that connexion in a sort bind up the Power of God And he could do no might works there And he marvelled because of their unbelief Why could not we cast him out Because of your unbelief Nor also are the works of the Holy Ghost that are common upon all sincere Christians done but upon the intervening exercise of that more-common Faith Therefore is this Shield to be taken above all the other parts of the Divine Armature as sufficient to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked therefore are we said to be kept by the Power of God through Faith And more expresly in terms to our present purpose We are to receive the promise of the Spirit i. e. the Spirit promised through Faith Hereby we draw the Power of that Almighty Spirit into a consent and co-operation with our spirit So the great God suffers Himself his own Arm and Power to be taken hold of by us He is ingaged when he is trusted that trust being now in this case not a rash and unwarrantable presuming upon him but such whereto he hath given the invitation and encouragement himself So that when we reflect upon the Promises wherein the gift of the Spirit is conveyed or wherein the express grant there of is folded up we may say Remember thy word to thy servant wherein thou hast caused me to hope And then surely he will not frustrate the expectation which he hath himself been the Author of He would never have induced those to trust in him whom he intended to disappoint That free Spirit which as the Wind blows where it listeth now permits it self to be brought under bonds even the bonds of Gods own Covenant whereof we now take hold by our faith so that he will not fail to give forth his influence so far as shall be necessary for the maintaining a resolution in us of stedfast adherence to God and his service and retaining a dominion over undue inclinations and affections How express and peremptory are those words This I say q.d. I know what I say I have well weigh'd the matter and speak not at random Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh And so much as this affords great matter of rational delight though more sensible transports which are not so needful to us and in reference whereto the Spirit therefore retains its liberty be not so frequent Therefore if we aim at the having our spirits placed and setled in the secret of the Divine Presence entertain'd with the delights of it If we would know and have the sensible proof of that Religion which is all life and power and consequently sweetness and pleasure our direct way is believing on the Spirit That very Trust is his delight He taketh pleasure in them that hope in his mercy It is that whereby we give him Divine Honour the homage and acknowledgment proper to a Deity confessing our selves impotent and insufficient to think any thing as of our selves we rely upon his sustaining hand and own our sufficiency to be of him It is his delight to be depended on as a Father by his children He is pleased that Title should be given him The Father of Spirits To have the Spirits which are his off-spring gathering about him especially those who being revolted from him and become sensible of their misery by their revolt do now upon his invitation apply themselves and say Lo now we come to thee thou art the Lord our God craving his renewed communications drawing vital influences from him and the breath of life adoring his boundless fulness that filleth all in all And when we thus give him his delight we shall not long want ours But then we must also add 2. Subjection to our dependence a willing obedient surrender and resignation of our selves to the conduct and guidance of that blessed Spirit A dutiful yielding to his dictates so as that they have actually with us the governing binding force and power of a Law The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ as it is called Great care must be taken of grieving and quenching the Spirit of rebelling and vexing it of resisting it and of striving against it which appears to have been the horrid crime of the old world His Spirit it is intimated had striven when it is said it should no longer strive And that it had striven implies a counter-striving that was now by his penal retirement permitted to be victorious but to their own sudden ruine of despiting the Spirit of grace A wickedness aggravated by the very style and title there given it the Spirit of Grace and unto which only such a
Creation the beauty loveliness pleasantness of any Creature Must not all that and infinitely more be originally in the great Creator of all This if you consider you cannot but see and own While then your own hearts tell you you delight not in God Do not your Consciences begin to accuse and judg you that you deal not righteously in this matter And ought it not to fill your Souls with horror when you consider you take no delight in the best and sovereign Good Yea when you look into your disaffected hearts and find that you not only do not delight in God but you cannot and not for the want of the natural power but a right inclination Should you not with astonishment bethink your selves every one for himself what is this that 's befal'n me I am convinced this is the best Good every way most worthy of my highest delight and love and yet my heart savours it not You can have no pretence to say That because your heart is disinclin'd therefore you are excused for you only do not what through an invincible disinclination you apprehend you cannot do But you should bethink your self What a wretch am I that am so ill-inclin'd For is not any one more wicked according as he is more strongly inclin'd to wickedness and averse to what is good But how vincible or invincible your disinclination is you do not yet know not having yet made due trial That you cannot of your selves overcome it is out of question But have you tried what help might be got from Heaven in the use of Gods own prescribed means If that course bring you in no help then may you understand how much you have provoked the Lord. For though he have promised that for such as turn at his reproof he will pour out his Spirit to them yet they who when he calls refuse and when he stretches out his hand regard not but set at naught all his counsel c. may call and not be answered may seek him early and not find him And that wickedness may somewhat be estimated by this effect that thus it makes the Spirit of Grace retire that free benign merciful Spirit the Author of all love sweetness and goodness become to a forlorn soul a resolved stranger If you are so given up you have first given up your selves You have wilfully cast him out of your thoughts and hardened your own hearts against him who was the Spring of your Life and Being and in whom is all your Hope And whether this malignity of your hearts shall ever finally be overcome or no as you have no cause to despair but it may be overcome if apprehending your life to lie upon it you wait and strive and pray and cry as your case requires Yet do you not see it to be a fearful pitch of malignity and so much the worse and more vicious by how much it is more hardly overcome That we may here be a little more particular Consider 1. How tumultuous and disorderly a thing this your disaffection is You are here to consider its direct tendency its natural aptitude or what it doth of it self and in its own nature lead and tend to If you may withdraw your delight and love from God then so may all other men as well Therefore now view the thing it self in the common nature of it And so Is not aversion to delight in God a manifest contrariety to the order of things A turning all upside down A shattering and breaking asunder the bond between rational appetite and the First Good A disjointing and unhinging of the best and noblest part of Gods Creation from its station and rest its proper basis and center How fearful a rupture doth it make How violent and destructive a dislocation If you could break in pieces the orderly contexture of the whole universe within it self reduce the frame of nature to utmost confusion rout all the ranks and orders of creatures tear asunder the Heavens and dissolve the compacted body of the earth mingle Heaven and Earth together and resolve the World into a meer heap you had not done so great a spoil as in breaking the primary and supream tie and bond between the Creature and his Maker Yea between the Creator of all things and his more noble and excellent Creature All the relations aptitudes and inclinations of the Creatures to one another are but inferior and subordinate to those between the Creatures and their common Author and Lord And here the corruption of the best cannot but be worst of all Again 2. What an unnatural wickedness is it To hate thy own original To disaffect the most bountiful Author of thy Life and Being What wouldst thou say to it if thy own Son did hate the very sight of thee and abhor thy presence and converse especially if thou never gave him the least cause If thou hast been always kind and indulgent full of paternal affection towards him Wouldst thou not think him a vile miscreant and reckon the Earth too good to bear him But how little and in how low a capacity didst thou contribute to his being in comparison of what the great God did to thine How little of natural excellency hast thou above him it may be in many things besides this unhappy temper he much excels thee when thou knowest in thy Maker is infinite excellency beyond what thou canst pretend unto And what cause canst thou pretend of disaffection towards him Many good works hath he done for thee For which of these dost thou hate him Whereby hath he ever disoblig'd thee With how sweet and gentle allurements hath he sought to win thy heart And is it not most vilely unnatural that thy spirit should be so sullenly averse to him who is pleased to be stiled the Father of Spirits And in which respect it may fitly be said to thee Dost thou thus requite the Lord O foolish Creature and unwise Is not he thy Father If thou didst hate thy own self in a sense besides that wherein it is thy duty and in which kind thou hast as thy case is a just and dreadful cause of self-abhorrence If thou didst hate thy very life and being and wer't laying daily plots of self-destruction thou wer 't not so wickedly unnatural He is more intimate to thee than thou art to thy self That natural love which thou owest to thy self and the nature from whence it springs is of him and ought to be subordinate to him And by a superior Law of Nature thy very life if he actually require it ought to be sacrific'd and laid down for his sake Thy hatred towards him therefore is more prodigiously unnatural than if it were most directly and implacably bent against thy self And yet also in hating him thou dost most mischievously hate thy self too and all that thou dost by the instinct of that vile temper of heart towards him thou dost it against thy own life and soul. Thou cuttest thy self off
towards God and you suffer it not And is that well That Divine thing born of God of heavenly descent that hath so much in it of sacredness by its extraction and parentage you fear not to do violence to If indeed such a thing as you seem to hope be in you at sometime or other you may perceive which way it beats and tends The Soul in which it hath place is byass'd by it Godward and though often it is not discernible it sometimes shews its inclination Other men and meaner creatures sleep sometimes and then their most rooted dispositions appear not when they are awake they bewray them and let them be seen in their actions motions and pursuits The renewed Soul hath its sleeping intervals too and what propensions it hath towards God is little discernible and yet even then it sometimes dreams of him at least between sleeping and waking I sleep but my heart waketh it is the voice of my beloved But if you seriously commune with your selves in your more wakeful seasons you may perceive what your hearts seek and crave some such sense as this may be read in them The desire of our Souls is unto thy Name O Lord and to the remembrance of thee One thing have I desired that will I seek after to behold the beauty the delight as the word signifies of the Lord. And when you observe this discovered inclination you may see what it is that in your too wonted course you repress and strive against That Divine Birth calls for sutable nutriment more tastes how gracious the Lord is You will have it feed upon ashes upon wind and vanity or although it had the best Parent it hath so ill a Nurse when it asks bread you give it a stone and let it be stung by a Scorpion And the injury strikes higher than at it alone even as is obvious at the very Author of this Divine Production Which therefore we add as a further aggravation of this evil viz. 9. That it 's an offence against the Spirit of Grace whose dictates are herein slighted and opposed for surely with the tendencies of the new creature he concurs It is maintained by him as well as produced continually depends on him as to its being properties and all its operations Nothing therefore can be cross to the inclination of a renewed Soul as such which is not more principally so to the Holy Ghost himself And particularly the disposing of the Soul unto delight is most expresly ascribed to him that very disposition being it self joy in the Holy Ghost And we find it numbered among the fruits of the Spirit You may possibly be less apprehensive of your sin in this because you find him not dictating to you with that discernible Majesty Authority and Glory that you may think agreeable to so great an Agent But you must know he applies himself to us in a way much imitating that of nature And as in reference to the conservation of our natural beings we are assured the First Cause co-operates with Inferiour Causes for we live move and have our being in him though the Divine influence is not communicated to this purpose with any sensible glory or so distinguishably that we can discern what influence is from the superiour Cause and what from subordinate our reason and faith certainly assure us of what our sense cannot reach in this matter So it is here also The Divine Spirit accommodates himself very much to the same way of working with our own and acts us sutably to our own Natures And though by very sensible tokens we cannot always tell which be the motions that proceed from him yet Faith teaches us from his Word to ascribe to him whatever spiritual good we find in our selves inasmuch as we are not of our selves sufficient to think a good thought And if by that Word we judg of the various motions that stir in us we may discern which are good and which not and so may know what to ascribe to the Spirit and what not Whereas therefore that Word commands us to delight in God if we find any motion in our hearts tending that way we are presently to own the finger of God and the touch of his Holy Spirit therein And what have you found no such motions excited no thoughts cast in that have had this aspect and tendency which your indulged carnality and aversion have represt and counter-wrought Herein you have grieved and quencht the Spirit And if it have not over-born you into what you should have understood to have been your duty but have upon your untractableness retired and withdrawn from you Do not therefore make the less reckoning of the matter but the more rather this carries more in it of awful consideration to you and smarter rebuke that He desisted You must consider him as a free Agent and who works to will and to do of his good pleasure His influence is retractable and when it is retracted you ought in this case to reckon it signifies a resentment of your undutiful and regardless carriage towards him And ought you not to smite upon the thigh then and say What have I done You have striven against the Spirit of the most High God You have resisted him in the exeeution of his Office when you were committed to his Conduct and Government you have fal'n out and quarrelled with your merciful Guide and slighted at once both his Authority and Love This could be no small offence And you are also to consider that when such a Province was assigned him in reference to you and such as you and the great God set his Spirit on work about you It was with a special end and design being the determination of most wise Counsel And how highly doth this increase the offence That 10. You have herein directly obstructed the course and progress of that Design That could be no other than the magnifying of his grace in your conduct to blessedness This is that whereon he hath been intent and he hath made his Design herein so visible that they that run might read what it was The very overture to you of placing your delights on him speaks its end 'T is that whereby he should be most highly acknowledg'd and you blessed both at once His known design you ought to have reckoned did prescribe to you and give you a Law 'T is a part of civility towards even an ordinary man not to cross his Design which I know him earnestly to intend when it tends no way to my prejudice or any mans Yea to do so would in common interpretation besides rudeness argue ill nature and a mischievous disposition Much more would duty and just observance towards a superior challenge so much as not to counter-work him and awe a well-temper'd spirit into subjection and compliance but a stiff reluctancy to the great and known Design of the blessed God meant so directly to our own advantage speaks so very
wherein you can most freely breath and live and be most at ease and out of which you may perceive you cannot enjoy your self and that what-ever tends to withdraw you from him any extravagant motion the beginnings of the excursion or the least departing step may be sensibly painful and grievous to you And do not look upon it as an hopeless thing you should ever come to this some have come to it One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple Nor was this a transient fit only with the Psalmist but we find him frequently speaking the same sense Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the House of the Lord for ever And again we have the like strains How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord God of Hosts My Soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord Blessed are they that dwell in thy House c. And what was this House more to him than another House save that here he reckoned upon enjoying the Divine Presence So that here was an heart so naturaliz'd to this Presence as to affect an abode in it and that he might lead his life with God and dwell with him all his days He could not be content with giving a visit now and then And why should this temper of spirit in the clearer light of the Gospel be look't upon as an unattainable thing A lazy despondency and the mean conceit that it is modest not to aim so high starves Religion and stifles all truly noble and generous desires Let this then be the thing designed with you and constantly pursue and drive the design that you may get into this disposition of spirit towards God His Spirit will not be restrained if it be duly sought and dutifully comply'd with and obeyed if you carefully reserve your self for him as one whom be hath set apart for himself If you will be entirely his and keep your distance using an holy chast reservedness as to other things that is such things as any way tend to indispose your spirit towards him or render it less sutable to his converse He will be no stranger to you And that it may be more sutable and fit for him you should habituate and accustom your self to converse in the general with spiritual things You will be as the things are you converse most with they will leave their stamp and impress on you wandring after vanity you will become vain minding earthly things you will become earthly Accordingly being much taken up with spiritual things you will bear their image and become spiritual Think how unworthy it is since you have faculties and those now refined and improved by Divine light and grace that are capable of being employed about so much higher objects than those of sense That you should yeild to a confinement in so great part to so low and mean things whence it is that when you should mind things of an higher nature 't is a strange work with you and those things seem odd and uncouth to you and are all with you as meer shadow and darkness that you should be most familiar with Urge on your spirit make it enter into the invisible world May you not be assured if you will use your understanding That there are things you never saw that are unspeakably more excellent and glorious than any thing you have seen or than can be seen by eyes of flesh Why should your mind and thoughts be limited within the narrow bounds of this sublunary world so small and minute and by the apostacy and sin of man so abject and deformed a part of Gods Creation Do not bind down your spirit to the consideration and view of the affairs and concernments only of this Region of sin and wretchedness where few things fall under your notice that can be a comfortable or so greatly edifying and instructive a prospect to a serious spirit But consider That as certainly as you behold with your eyes the wickedness and miseries of this forlorn world that hath forsaken God and is in great part forsaken of him so certainly there is a vastly greater world than this of glorious and innocent Creatures that stand in direct and dutiful subordination to their common Maker and Lord loving and beloved of him delighting to do his will and solacing themselves perpetually in his blessed presence and in the mutual love communion and felicity of one another Unto which happy number or innumerable company rather as they are called the Redeemer is daily adjoining such as he recovers and translates out of the ruins and desolation of this miserable accursed part of the Universe Reckon your self as someway appertaining to that blessed Society Mind the affairs thereof as those of your own Country and that properly belong to you When we are taught to pray That the will of God may be done on earth as it is in heaven Can it be supposed it ought to be a strange thing to our thoughts how affairs go there Surely Faith and holy Reason well used would furnish us with regular and warrantable notions enough of the state of things above that we should not need to carry it as persons that have no concern therein or when we are required to be as strangers on earth that we should make our selves such to heaven rather Let your mind be much employed in considering the state of things between God and his Creatures Design a large field for your thoughts to spread themselves in and you will also find it a fruitful one let them run backward and forward and expatiate on every side Think how all things sprang from God and among them Man that excellent part of this his lower Creation what he was towards God and what he is now become Think of the admirable person the glorious excellences the mighty design the wonderful atchievements and performances of the Redeemer And the blessed issue he will bring things to at length Think of and study much the nature parts and accomplishments of the new creature get your mind well-instructed and furnished with apprehensions of the whole entire frame of that holy rectitude wherein the Image of God upon renewed Souls doth consist the several lovely ornaments of the hidden man of the heart how it is framed and habited when it is as it should be towards God and towards men Cast about and you will not want matter of spiritual employment and exercise for your minds and hearts nor have occasion if any expostulate with you why you mind this earth and the things of sense so much to say you know not what else to think of you may sure find many things else And if you would use your thoughts to such converse and thus daily entertain your self In
to fix the thoughts of your hearts on him and yet it will not be or that he gives you no help Though he can be no way indebted to you but by his own free promise He giveth meat to them that fear him being ever mindful of his Covenant yea he doth it for Ravens and Sparrows He will not then famish the Souls that cry to him and wait on him Their heart shall live that seek God It 's becoming and sutable to the state of things between him and you that he should put you upon seeking that you may find Your reasonable nature and faculties especially being already rectified in some measure and enlivened by his Grace and Spirit do require to be held to such terms It is natural to you to think and there is nothing more sutable to the new creature than that you apply and set your selves to think on him and that your thoughts be set and held on work to enquire and seek him out Know therefore you do not your parts unless you make this more your business Therefore to be here more particular 1. Solemnly set your selves at chosen times to think on God Meditation is of it self a distinct Duty and must have a considerable time allow'd it among the other exercises of the Christian Life It challenges a just share and part in the time of our Lives and he in whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to place our delight is you know the prime and chief Object of this holy Work Is it reasonable that he who is our Life and our All should never be thought on but now and then as it were by chance and on the by My meditation on him shall be sweet Doth not that imply that it was with the Psalmist a designed thing to meditate on God that it was a stated course whereas it was become customary and usual to him his ordinary practice to appoint times for meditating on God his well-known exercise which is supposed he promises himself satisfaction and solace of soul herein Let your eyes herein therefore prevent the Night-watches Reckon you have neglected one of the most important businesses of the day if you have omitted this and that to such omissions you ow your little delight in God Wherein therefore are you to repair your selves but by redressing this great neglect 2. Think often of him amidst your other affairs Every one as he is called be his state or way of living what it will be he bond or free is required therein to abide with God And how is that but by often thinking of him as being a great part and fundamental to all the rest of what can be meant by this abode How grateful a mixture would the thoughts of God make with that great variety of other things which we are necessarily to be concern'd in while we are in this world If they be serious and right thoughts they will be accompanied with same favour and relish of sweetness and at least tend to keep the heart in a disposition for more delightful solemn intercourses with God It is a sad Truth than which also nothing is more apparâ—nt that whatsoever there is either of sinfulness or uncomfortableness in the lives of those who have engaged and devoted themselves to God doth in greatest part proceed from their neglect to mind God A thing if due heed were taken about it so easie so little laborious and the labour whereof so much as it is were sure to be recompenc't with so unspeakable pleasure that they are so often lost in darkness drown'd in carnality buried in earthliness and overwhelmed with miseries and desolations of spirit and all this for want of a right employing of their thoughts is from hence only They set their thoughts upon things that tend either to corrupt and deprave their spirits or to disquiet and afflict them At this in-let and by the labour of their own thoughts sins and calamities are brought in upon them as a flood which very thoughts if they were plac't and exercised aright would let in God upon them fill them with his fulness replenish their Souls with his light grace and consolations And how much more easie an exercise were it to keep their thoughts imployed upon one object that is ever full delectable and present than to divide them among many that either lie remote and out of their power to be pursued with anxiety toil and very often with disappointment Or being nearer hand are to be enjoyed if they be things that have an appearance of good in them with much danger and damage to their spirits and with little satisfaction or if they appear evil to be endured with pain and sorrow So that the labour of their thoughts among those many things brings them in torture when their Rest upon God alone would be all pleasure delight and joy Here their souls might dwell at ease or as those words import rest in goodness even with that quiet repose which men are wont to take by night for so the word we read Dwell peculiarly fignifies after the weariness which we may suppose to have been contracted by the labour of the foregoing day And if no such sweet and pleasant fruit were to be hoped for from the careful government and ordering of our thoughts Is the obligation of Gods Law in this matter nothing with us whom we are bound to fear and love to trust and obey above all things of him are we not bound so much as to think And what is loving God with all our mind so expresly mentioned in that great summary of our duty towards him Or what can it mean after the required love of all the heart and all the soul to add so particularly and with all thy mind when-as the mind we know is not the seat of love Surely it cannot at least but imply that our thoughts must be much exercised upon God even by the direction of our Love and that our Love must be maintain'd by thoughts of him That our minds and hearts must continually correspond and concur to the loving of God and so our whole soul be exercised and set on work therein What doth it mean that our Youth is challenged to the remembrance of him What is our riper Age more exempt Do we as we longer live by him ow him less Doth it signifie nothing with us that as was hinted formerly the wicked bear this brand in the Scriptures They that forget God That it is a differencing character of his own people That they thought on his Name Why do we suppose our thoughts exempt from his Government or the obligation of his Laws Why should it be reckoned less insolent to say our thoughts than our tongues are our own who is Lord over as May we do what we will with our thoughts Who gave us our thinking power or made us capable of forming a thought And now Will we assume the confidence to tell God we think on him all that we can How many
him but so he be ever glorious in himself you care not to be happy It would sound like an hollow complement You are not to deal with a God upon such terms It becomes you not nor is sutable to him It is fit for you to own it to him that he is your Life that you are a meer nothing in your self and must seek your All in him Your Song and your Prayer must be directed to him as the God of your life You do not own him as God except you own and adore him as your all-sufficient Good and that fulness which filleth all in all You detract from the glory of his Godhead if you attribute not this to him And if accordingly as one that cannot live without him you do not seek union with him and joyn your self to him and then rejoyce and solace your self in that blessed conjunction And if you be not sure as yet that he is yours your delighting in him is not therefore to be suspended and delayed till you be But in the mean time delight in him as willing to become yours To disbeleive that he is willing is to give him the lye It is the great design of his Gospel so to represent him to you See that your hearts do embrace and close with that as a most delightful and lovely representation The great and glorious Lord of heaven and earth offering himself in all his fulness to be thine Thy portion and thy God for ever How transporting should this be to you Nor if you suspect the sincerity of your own heart towards him which is the only thing you can have any pretence to suspect for it were a blasphemy to his Truth and Goodness to intimate a suspicious thought of him may you therefore spend all your time in anxious enquiries or in looking only upon your own evil heart But look most and with a direct and steady eye towards him Behold and view well his glory and his love that by this means your heart may be captivated and more entirely won to him This makes delight in God a strange thing in the hearts and practice of many They find too much cause of complaint concerning their own hearts that they are disaffected and disenclin'd Godward And what is the course they take hereupon Their Religion is nothing but complaint And all their days are spent in beholding that they are bad without ever taking the way to become better They conclude their case to be evil and full of danger because they find they can take no delight in God And they will take no delight in him because they have that apprehension of the danger of their case And so their not-delighting in God resolves into it self And they delight not in him because they delight not in him T is strange the absurdity of this is not more reflected on And what now is to be done in this case To rest here is to be held in a circle of sin and misery all your days And would signify as if delighting in God were a simple impossibility or as if not to delight in God were a thing so highly rational as to be its own sufficient self-justification And that it were reason enough not to delight in him because we do not There can be no other way to be taken but to behold him more in that discovery of him which his Gospel sets before your eyes and in that way seek to have your hearts taken with his amiableness and love and allured to delight in him And labour in this way to have that delight increased to that degree that it may cease to be a question or doubt with you Do I delight in God or no Whence when you reflect and find that you do Then shall you have that additional matter of further delight That whereas you before took delight in him because being in himself so excellent a one he hath freely offered himself to you to become yours You may now delight in him also because you are sure he is so Whereof you cannot have a more fatisfying assurance than from his so express saying I Love them that Love me and we love him because he loved us first 6. Take especial heed of more apparent and grosser transgressions Nor account your security from the danger of them so much to stand in your being ordinarily out of the way of temptations to them as in an habitual frame of holiness and the settled aversion of your heart to them Endeavour a growing conformity to God in the temper of your spirit and to be in Love with purity That your heart may no more endure an impure thought than you would fire in your bosom If you be herein careless and remiss and suffer your heart to grow dissolute or more bold and adventurous in admitting sinful cogitations Or if you have more liking or less dislike of any wicked course wherein others take their liberty you are approaching the borders of a dangerous precipice And if some greater breach hereupon ensue between God and you what becomes of your delight in him A sad interruption of such pleasant intercourse cannot but follow both on his part and on yours On his part a suspension and restraint of those communications of light and grace which are necessary to your delight in him He will be just in his way of dealing towards those of his own family as well as merciful It appears how much David's delight in God was intermitted upon his great transgression through Gods withdrawing from him when he prays he would restore the joy of his salvation And on your part will insue both less liking of Gods presence and a dread of it Your inclination will not be towards him as before though the act of sin be soon over the effect will remain even a carnal frame of spirit that disaffects converse with God and cares not to come nigh him And if that were not a guilty fear would hold you off so that if you were willing you would not dare to approach him Your liberty taken to sin would soon infer a bondage upon your spirit God-ward unless conscience be wholly asleep and you have learned a stupid insolent confidence to affront God which surely would signifie little to your delight in him Thou shalt put away iniquity from thy tabernacles Then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty and shalt lift up thy face unto God The conscience of unpurged iniquity will not let you lift up your face or appear in that glorious presence 7. Cherish the great grace of humility And be ever mean and low in your own eyes That temper carries in it even a natural disposition to delight in God How sweet complacency will such a Soul take in him His light and glory shine with great lustre in the eyes of such a one while there is not a nearer imagined lustre to vie therewith Stars are seen at noon by them that descend low into a deep pit
to speak it as the undisguised sense of our hearts because thy law is holy therefore thy servant loveth it To reckon it a royal law of liberty so as to account our selves so much the more free by how much we are the more thus bound When we affect to be prescrib'd to and are become patient of Government not apt to chafe at the bridle or spurn and kick at the boundaries that hem us in This is a temper that hath not more of duty in it than it hath of delight There is such a thing as delighting in the law of God according to the inward man when there is yet a difficulty in suppressing and keeping under inordinate rebellious workings of corrupt nature unto which there is no desire an indulgence should be given by having the law attempered to them but severity rather used to reduce them to a conformity to the law So will it be if the law become an heart impression when it can once be truly said Thy law is in my heart It will be also with the same sincerity said I delight to do thy will O God The continual exercise of good conscience towards God hath great pleasure in it Hereby our way and course is continually reviewed and we pass censures upon our selves and upon that account survey our own works And by how much the more carefully and often this is done so much the more delectable it will be that is the more approvable we shall find them upon review For we shall order our course the more warily as we reckon upon undergoing an inquisition and search wherein an apprehensive serious heart well understands it is not it self to be the supreme Judg. How blessed an imitation might there here be of the blessed God himself who we find beheld his six days works and lo they were all very good whereupon follows his delightful day of rest So we shall in some degree of conformity to him finding our works to be in that sort good as that he will by gracious indulgence accept them as such have our own Sabbath a sweet and peaceful rest in our own spirits Though we can pretend no higher than sincerity only yet how sweet are the reflections of a well-instructed conscience upon that when our hearts reproach us not and we resolve they shall not as long as we live we are conscious to our selves of no base designs we propose nothing to our selves wherein we apprehend cause to decline Gods eye we walk in the light and are seeking no darkness or shadow of death where as workers of iniquity we may hide our selves from him Can implore him as an assistant and appeal to him as a Judg in reference to our daily affairs and wonted course Is this without pleasure This is our rejoicing saith the Apostle the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation c. And thus to converse with God a him whom we daily design to glorifie and serve and whom we expect daily in some measure and fully and finally ere it be long to enjoy Is certainly throughout a way of pleasantness and peace How delectable then is this Soul-rectifying communication from God whereby being before so disaffected it becomes now so well inclin'd towards him in all these respects But because the exigency of the case did require by reason of sin that had cut off the intercourse that there should be a Mediator to open the way and renew the former out-worn friendship Therefore it was also necessary that so the Soul might duly move towards God it should be rightly framed and disposed also towards him We are therefore to consider too how delectable this communication must be as it aright disposes the heart towards Christ our way to God For towards him we must understand it to have been most obstinately and inflexibly averse and that therefore a mighty communication of power was necessary to set it right here Unto that part of Religion which is natural there was so much of an advantage before-hand as that there was an old foundation to build upon There are some notions of God left not only concerning his Existence but his Nature and Attributes many of them And from the Apprehension what he was it was in some measure discernible what he should have been and ought yet to be towards him And from thence many checks and rebukes of conscience wherein it was found to be otherwise So that here was somewhat in Nature to be wrought upon as to this part of Religion But as to that part which respects the Mediator this was a frame wholly to be rais'd up from the ground There were no principles immediately and directly inclining to take part with the Gospel But all to be implanted anew The way that God would take to bring back Souls to him being so infinitely above all human thought And therefore though to a considering Pagan it would not sound strangely that God ought to be trusted feared loved c. yet even to such the Gospel of Christ was foolishness Besides that this way of dealing with men was not only unknown and unimaginable to them not so much as once thought of or to be guest at But the tendency and aspect of it when it should come to be made known was such as that it could not but find the temper of mens spirits most strongly opposite not meerly ignorant but prejudic't and highly disaffected For this course most directly tended to take men quite off from their old bottom To stoop and humble and even bring them to nothing To stain the pride of their Glory and lay them down in the dust as abject wretches in themselves fit for nothing but to be trampled on and crusht by the foot of divine revenge Suppose a man to have admitted a conviction from the light of his own mind and conscience that he was a sinner and had offended his Maker incur'd his just displeasure and made himself liable to his punishing justice It would yet have been a hard matter to make him believe it altogether impossible to him to do any thing to remedy the matter and restore himself to divine favour and acceptance He would naturally be inclin'd to think why admit the case be so he should easily find out a way to make God amends He would recount with himself all his own natural excellencies and think himself very capable of doing some great thing that should more than expiate his offence and make recompence abundantly for any wrong that he had done But when the Gospel shall come and tell him he hath deserved eternal wrath that his sin is inexpiable but by everlasting sufferings or what is of equal value That here is one the eternal Son of God who became a man like himself and thereupon a voluntary Sacrifice to make atonement for the transgression of men That God will never accept