The Divine Life, Treatise 2 · Chapter 2
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, what it is to be Godly, and to walk with God, and what it is to be an Atheist or Ungodly, you may easily see that Godliness is more rare, and Atheism more common, than many that themselves are Atheists will believe. It is not that which a man calls his God, that is taken by him for his God indeed. It is not the Tongue, but the Heart that is the man. Pilate called Christ the King of the Jews, when he crucified him. The Jews called God their Father, when Christ telleth them, they were of their father the Devil, and proveth it, because (what ever they said) they would do his lusts, Joh. 8. 44. The same Jews pretended to honour the name of the Messiah, and expect him, while they killed him. The question is not what men call themselves, but what they are: Not whether you say you take God for your God, but whether you do so indeed: Not whether you profess your selves to be Atheists, but whether you are Atheists indeed or not. If you are not, look over what I have here said, and tell your consciences, Do you walk with God? who is it that you submit your selves willingly to be disposed of by? To whom are you most subject? and whose commands have the most effectual authority with you? who is the Chief Governour of your hearts and lives? whom is it that you principally desire to please? whom do you most fear? and whose displeasure do you principally avoid? from whom is it that you expect your greaetest reward? and in whom, and with whom do you place and expect your happiness? whose work is it that you do, as the greatest business of your lives? Is it the goodness of God in himself and unto you, that draweth up your hearts to him in Love? Is he the ultimate End of the main intentions, design, and industry of your lives? Do you trust upon his Word as your security for your everlasting hopes and happiness? Do you study and observe him in his works? Do you really live as in his presence? Do you delight in his Word, and meditate on it? Do you love the Communion of Saints? and to be most frequent and familiar with them that are most frequent and familiar with Christ? Do you favour more the particular affectionate discourse about his Nature, Will and Kingdom, than the frothy talk of empty wits, or the common discourse of carnal worldlings? Do you love to be employed in thanking him for his Mercies, and in praising him, and declaring the glory of his attributes and works? Is your dependence on him as your great benefactor, and do you receive your mercies as his gifts? If thus your principal observation be of God, and your chief desire after God, and your chiefest confidence in God, and your chiefest business in the world be with God, and for God, and your chifest joy be in the favour of God (when you can apprehend it) and in the prosperity of his Church, and your hopes of glory; and your chiefest grief and trouble be your sinful distance from him, and your backwardness and disability in his love and service, and the fear of his displeasure, and the injuries done to his Gospel and honour in the world; then I must needs say, you are savingly delivered from your Atheism and Ungodliness; you do not only talk of God, but walk with God; you are then acquainted with that spiritual life and work, which the sensual world is unacquainted with, and with those invisible everlasting excellencies, which if worldlings knew, they would change their minds, and choice and pleasures: You are then acquainted with that rational, manly, saintly life, which ungodly men are strangers to; and you are in the way of that well grounded Hope and Peace to which all the Pleasures and Crowns on earth, if compared, are but cheats and misery. But if you were never yet brought to walk with God, do not think that you have a sound belief in God, nor that you acknowledge him sincerely, nor that you are saved from heart atheism: Nor is it Piety in the Opinion and the Tongue, that will save him that is an Atheist or ungodly in heart and life. Divinity is an affective-practical science: Knowing is not the ultimate or perfective act of man: but a means to holy Love and Joy and service. Nor is it clear and solid knowledge, if it do not somewhat affect the heart, and engage and actuate the life, according to the nature and use of the thing known. The soundness of Knowledge and Belief is not best discerned in the intellectual acts themselves, but in their powerful, free and pleasant efficacy, upon our choice and practice. By these therefore you must judge, whether you are Godly or Atheistical. The question is not what your Tongues say of God, nor what complemental ceremonious observances you allow him, but what your Hearts and your endeavours say of him, and whether you glorifie him as God when you say you know him: Otherwise you will find that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who held the truth in unrighteousness,] Rom. 1. 18, 21.
And now alas, what matter of lamentation is here before us! To see how seriously men converse with one another; and how God is overlookt or neglected by the most! How men live together, as if there were more that is considerable and regardable in these particles of animated dust, then in the Lord Almighty, and in all his graces, service and rewards! To see how God is cast aside, and his interest made to give place to the interest of the flesh, and his services must stay till men have done their service to their lusts, or to worldly men, that can do them hurt, or shew them favour! And his will must not be done, when it crosseth the will of sinful man! How little do all the commands, and promises, and threatnings of God signifie with these Atheistical men, in comparison of their lusts, or the laws of men, or any thing that concerneth their temporal prosperity! O how is the world revolted from their Maker! How have they lost the knowledge of themselves, and forgotten their natures, capacities and obligations, and what it is to be indeed a man! O hearken sinners, to the call of your Redeemer! Return, O seduced wandering souls, and know at last your resting place! why is not God in all your thoughts? or why is he thought on with so much remisness, unwillingness, and contempt! and with so little pleasure, seriousness, or regard? Do you understand your selves in this? Do you deal worthily with God? Or wisely for your selves? Do you take more pleasure, with the Prodigal, to feed swine, and to feed with swine, then to dwell at home with your heavenly Father? and to walk before him, and serve him in the world? Did you but know how dangerous a way you have been in, and how unreasonably you have dealt, to forsake God in your hearts, and follow that which cannot profit you, what haste would you make to leave the crowd, and come home to God, and try a more noble and gainful conversation? If Reasons may have room and leave to work upon you, I will set a few before you more distinctly, to call you off from your barren inordinate creature converse, to a believing serious converse with God.
1. The higher and more excellent the object is (especially when it is also of most concernment to our selves) the more excellent is the converse. Therefore as nothing dare compare it self with God, so no employment may be compared with th…s of holy walking with him. How vile a contempt is it of the Almighty, and of our Celestial joyes, for the heart to neglect them, and turn away, and dwell upon vanity and trouble, and let these highest pleasures go! Is not God and Glory worthy of thy thoughts, and all thy service?
2. What are those things that take thee up? Are they better then God? Or fitter to supply thy wants? If thou think, and trust in them accordingly, ere long thou shalt know better what they are, and have enough of thy cursed choice and confidence. Tell those that stand by thee at the parting hour, whether thou didst choose aright and make a gaining or a saving match. O poor sinners! have you not yet warning enough to satisfie you that all things below are Vanity and Vexation, and that all your hope of happiness is above! Will not the testimony of God satisfie you? will not the experience of the world for so many thousand years together satisfie you? will not the ill success of all the damned satisfie you? will nothing but your own experience convince you? If so, consider well the experience you have already made, and seasonably retire, and try no further, and trust not so dangerous a deceiver to the last, least you buy your knowledge at a dearer rate then you will now believe.
3. You have daily more to do with God, than with all the world, whether you will or no: And therefore seeing you cannot avoid him if you would, prefer that voluntary obediential converse, which hath a reward, before that necessitated converse which hath none. You are alwaies in his hands: he made you for his service; and he will dispose of you and all that you have according to his will. It shall not go with you as your selves would have it, nor as your friends would have it, nor as Princes and great ones of the world would have it; (unless as their wills comply with Gods;) but as God would have it, who will infallibly accomplish all his will. If a sparrow fall not to the ground without him, and all the hairs of our heads are numbered, then certainly he overruleth all your interests and affairs, and they are absolutely at his dispose. To whom then in reason should you so much apply your selves as unto him? If you will not take notice of him, he will take notice of you: He will remember you whether you remember him or not: but it may be with so strict and severe a remembrance, as may make you wish he did quite forget you. You are alwaies in his presence; and can you then forget him, and hold no voluntary converse with him, when you stand before him? If it be but mean inferiour persons that we dwell with and are still in company with, yet we mind them more, and speak more to them, then we do to greater persons that we seldom see. But in God there is both Greatness and Nearness to invite you. Should not all the worms on earth stand by, while the Glorious God doth call you to him, and offer you the honour and happiness of his converse? shall the Lord of Heaven and Earth stand by, and be shut out, while you are chatting or trifling with his creatures? Nay, shall he be neglected that is alwaies with you? You cannot remove your selves a moment from his sight; and therefore you should not shut your eyes, and turn away your face, and refuse to observe him who is still observing you.
Moreover, your dependence both for soul and body is all on him: You can have nothing desirable but by his gift. He feeds you, he cloatheth you, he maintaineth you, he gives you life and breath, and all things; and yet can you overlook him or forget him? Do not all his mercies require your acknowledgement? A Dog will follow him that feedeth him: his eye will be upon his Master: And shall we live upon God, and yet forget and disregard him? We are taught a better use of his Mercies by the Holy Prophet, Psal. 66. 8, 9. O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard: which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved!
Nay it is not your selves alone, but all the world that depends on God. It is his power that supporteth them, and his will that disposeth of them, and his bounty that provideth for them: And therefore he must be the observation and admiration of the world: It is less unreasonable to take no notice of the Earth that beareth us and yieldeth us fruit, and of the Sun that yields us heat and light, than to disregard the Lord that is more to us than Sun and Earth, and all things. The eyes of all things wait on him; and he giveth them their meat in season: He openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing, Psal. 145. 15, 16. The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works: All his works therefore shall praise him, and his Saints shall bless him: They shall speak of the glory of his Kingdom, and talk of his power, vers. 10, 11.
Moreover God is so abundantly and wonderfully represented to us in all his works, as will leave us under the guilt of most unexcusable contempt, if we overlook him, and live as without him in the world. The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy work: Day unto day uttereth speech; and night unto night sheweth knowledge, Psa. 19. 1, 2. Thus that which may be known of God is manifest; for the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that the ungodly are without excuse, Rom. 1. 19, 20. Cannot you see that which all the world revealeth? nor hear that which all the world proclaimeth? O sing ye forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious! Say to the Lord, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee: All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee: they shall sing unto thy name: come and see the works of God: he is tertible in his doings towards the children of men, Psal. 66. 2, 3, 4, 5. Can we pass him by that is everywhere present, and by every Creature represented to us? Can we forget him, when all the world are our remembrancers? Can we stop our ears against the voice of Heaven and Earth? Can we be ignorant of him, when the whole Creation is our Teacher? Can we overlook that holy glorious Name, which is written so legibly upon all things that ever our eyes beheld, that nothing but blindness, sleepiness or distraction, could possibly keep us from discerning it! I have many a time wondred, that (as the eye is dazzled so with the beholding of the greatest Light, that it can scarce perceive the shining of a lesser, so) the Glorious transcendent Majesty of the Lord, doth not even overwhelm our understandings, and so transport and take us up, as that we can scarce observe or remember any thing else. For naturally the greatest objects of our sense, are apt to make us at that time insensible of the smaller: And our exceeding great business, is apt to make us utterly neglect and forget those that are exceeding small: And O what Nothings are the Best and Greatest of the Creatures, in comparison of God! And what toyes and trifles are all our other businesses in the world, in comparison of the business which we have with Him! But I have been stopped in these admirations by considering that the wise Creator hath fitted and ordered all his Creatures according to the use which he designeth them to: And therefore as the eye must be receptive only of so much light as is proportioned to its use and pleasure, and must be so distant from the Sun, that its Light may rather guide, than blind us, and its Heat may rather quicken, than consume us; so God hath made our understandings capable of no other knowledge of Him here, than what is suited to the work of holiness: And while we have Flesh, and fleshly works to do, and lawful necessary business in the world, in which Gods own commands employ us, our souls in this Lanthorn of the body, must see him through so thick a glass, as shall so far allay our apprehension, as not to distract us, and take us off the works which he enjoyneth us. And God and our souls shall be at such a distance, as that the proportionable Light of his countenance may conduct us, and not overwhelm us; and his Love may be so revealed, as to quicken our desires, and draw us on to a better state, but not so as to make us utterly impatient of this world, and utterly weary of our lives, or to swallow us up, or possess us of our most desired happiness, before we arrive at the state of happiness. While the soul is in the body, it maketh so much use of the body (the brain and spirits) in all is operations; that our wise and merciful Creator and Governour, doth respect the body as well as the soul in his ordering, disposing, and representing of the objects of those operations: so that when I consider that certainly all men would be distracted, if their apprehensions of God were anywhit answerable to the Greatness of his Majesty and Glory (the Brain being not able to bear such high operations of the soul, nor the greatness of the passions which would necessarily follow) it much reconcileth my wondring mind, to the wise and gracious providence of God, even in setting innocent nature it self at such a distance from his Glory (allowing us the presence of such Grace, as is necessary to bring us up to Glory) Though it reconcile me not to that doleful distance which is introduced by sin, and which is furthered by Satan, the world, and the flesh, and which our Redeemer by his Spirit and Intercession must heal.
And it further reconcileth me to this disposure and will of the blessed God, and this necessary natural distance and darkness of our minds, when I consider, that if God, and Heaven, and Hell, were as near and open to our apprehensions, as the things are which we see and feel▪ this life would not be what God intended it to be, a life of Tryal and preparation to another, a work, a race, a pilgrimage, a warfare; what Tryal would there be of any mans Faith, or Love, or Obedience, or Constancy, or Self-denial? If we saw God stand by, or apprehended him as if we saw him (in degree) it would be no more praise-worthy or rewardable for a man to abhor all temptations to worldliness, ambition, gluttony, drunkenness, lust, cruelty, &c. than it is for a man to be kept from sleeping that is pierced with thorns, or for a man to forbear to drink a cup of melted Gold which he knoweth will burn out his bowels, or to forbear to burn his flesh in the fire. It were no great commendation to his Chastity, that would forbear his filthiness, if he saw or had the fullest apprehensions of God; when he will forbear it in the presence of a mortal man: It were no great commendations to the intemperate and voluptuous, to have no mind of sensual delights, if they had but such a knowledge of God as were equal to sight. It were no thanks to the persecutor to forbear his cruelty against the servants of the Lord, if he saw Christ coming with his glorious Angels, to take vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel, and to be admired in his Saints, and glorified in them that now believe, 2 Thes. 1. 7, 8, 9, 10. I deny not but this happily necessitated Holiness is best in it self, and therefore will be our state in Heaven; but what is there of Tryal in it? or how can it be suitable to the state of man, that must have Good and Evil set before him, and Life and Death left to his choice; and that must conquer if he will be crowned, and approve his fidelity to his Creator against competitors, and must live a rewardable life before he have the reward?
But though in this life we may neither hope for, nor desire, such overwhelming sensible apprehensions of God, as the rest of our faculties cannot answer, nor our bodies bear; yet that our apprehensions of him should be so base, and small, and dull, and unconstant, as to by born down by the noise of worldly business, or by the presence of any creature, or by the tempting baits of sensuality, this is the more odious, by how much God is more Great and Glorious than the creature, and even because the use of the creature it self is but to reveal the Glory of the Lord. To have such sleight and stupid thoughts of him, as will not carry us on in uprightness of obedience, nor keep us in his fear, nor draw out our hearts in sincere desires to please him, and enjoy him, and as will not raise us to a contempt of the pleasures, and profits, and honours of this world, this is to be despisers of the Lord, and to live as in a sleep, and to be dead to God, and alive only to the world and flesh. It is no unjust dishonour or injury to …e Creature, to be accounted as Nothing in comparison of God, that it may be able to do Nothing against Him and his interest: But to make such a Nothing of the most Glorious God, by our contemptuous forgetfulness or neglect, as that our apprehensions of Him cannot prevail against the sordid pleasures of the flesh, and against the richest baits of sin, and against all the wrath or allurements of man, this is but to make a God of dust, and dung, and nothing, and (in heart and practice) to make God worse than dust and dung. And it is a wonder that mans understanding can become so sottish, as thus to wink the Sun it self into a constant darkness, and to take God as Nothing, or a… no God, who is so abundantly revealed to them in astonishing transcendent Greatness and Excellency, by all the Creatures in the world, and with whom we have continually so much to do. O sinful man! into how great a depth of ignorance, stupidity and misery art thou faln!
But because we may see by the lives of the ungodly, that they little think that they have so much to do with God, though I have spoke of this to the Godly in the other Part of this Treatese, I shall somewhat more particularly acquaint those that have most need to be informed of it, what business it is that they have with Ged.
1. It is not a business that may be done, or left undone, like your business with men: but it is such as must be done, or you are undone for ever. Nothing is absolutely Necessary but this: Nothing in all the world doth so much concern you. You may at far cheaper rates forbear to eat, or drink, or cloath your selves, or live, than forbear the dispatch of this necessary work.
2. Your business with God, and for God in the world, is that which you have all your powers and endowments for; it is that which you were born into the world for, and that which you have understanding and free will for, and that which you have your thoughts, and memories, and affections for, and that which you have eyes, and ears, and tongues, and all your corporeal parts and abilities for: It is that which you have your food and rayment for; and that which you have your time for; and your preservation, protection and provisions: It is that which you have all your teaching for; which Christ himself came for into the world; which the Scriptures are written for; which Ministers are sent for, which all Order and Government in Church and State is principally appointed for: In a word, it is that for which you have your lives, and all things, and without which all were as nothing, and will be to you worse than nothing, if they do not further your work with God: You will wish you had never seen them if they befriend you ot in this.
3. Your business with God, and for him, is such as you must be continually doing: as is incumbent on you every hour, for you have every hour given you for this end. You may dispatch this man to day, and another to morrow, and have no more to do with them again of a long time: but you have alwaies incessantly important works to do with God. For your common work should be all his work; and all should be done with principal respect to him.
But I shall yet more particularly tell the ungodly what business it is that they have with God, which it seems by their careless negligent lives they are not aware of.
1. You must be either saved or damned by him; either Glorified with Him, or punished by Him to everlasting: And it is Now that the matter must be determined, which of the two conditions you must be in: You must Now obtain your title to Heaven, if ever you will come thither: You must Now procure your deliverance from Hell fire, if ever you will escape it. Now it is that all that must be done, upon which the scales must turn for your salvation or damnation: And you know this work is principally to be done between you and God, who alone can save you or destroy you; and yet do you forget him, and live as if you had no business with him, when you have your salvation to …btain from him, and your damnation to prevent? Have you such business as this with any other?
2. You have a strict and righteous Judgement to undergo, in order to this salvation or damnation. You must stand before the Holy Majesty, and be judged by the Governour of the World: you must be there accused, and found guilty or not guilty; and judged as fulfillers or as breakers of the holy Covenant of Grace: you must be set on the right hand or on the left: you must answer for all the time that you here spent, and for all the means and mercies which you here received, and for that you have done, whether it were good or evil: And it is now in this life that all your preparation must be made, and all that must be done, upon which your justification or condemnation will then depend. Anh it is between God and you that all this business must be done: And yet can you live as negligently towards him, as if you had no business with him?
3. You have a Death to dye, a change to make which must be made but once; which will be the entrance upon endless joy or pain: And do you think this needeth not your most timely and diligent preparation? You must struggle with pains, and faint with weakness, and feel death taking down your earthen tabernacle: you must then have a life that is ending to review, and all that you have done said open to your more impartial judgement; You must then see Time as at an end, and the last sand running, and your candle ready to go out, and leave the snuff; You must then look back upon all that you have had from the world, as ending; and upon all that you have done as that which cannot be undone again, that you may do it better; and you must have a more serious look into Eternity, when you are stepping thither, then you can now conceive of: And doth all this need no preparation? It is with God that all that business must be Now transacted, that must make your death to be comfortable, or safe. If Now you will only converse with men, and know no business that you have with God, you shall find at last to your exceeding terrour, that you are in his hands, and passing to his bar, and that it is God that then you have to do with, when your business with all the world is at an end: He will then have something to do with you, if you will now find nothing to do with him.
4. In order to all this, you have now your Peace to be made with God, and the pardon of all your sins to be obtained. For woe to you if then you are found under the guilt of any sin. Look back upon your lives, and remember how you have lived in the world, and what you have been doing: how you have 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; though all your carnal friends and superiors be against it; though the devil will do all that he can against it; yet all this must be done, or you are lost for ever: And all this must be done by the Spirit of God; for it is his work to make you New and Holy: And can you think then that the business is not great which you have with God? when you have tryed how hard every part of this work is, to be begun and carryed on, you will finde you have more to do with God, than with all the world.
9. Moreover in order to this, it is necessary that you read, and hear, and understand the Gospel, which must be the means of bringing you to God by Christ: This must be the instrument of God, by which he will bring you to Repent and Believe, and by which he will renew your Natures, and imprint his Image on you, and bring you to Love him, and obey his will. The Word of God must be your Counsellor, and your delight, and you must set your heart to it, and meditate in it day and night. Knowledge must be the means to reclaim your perverse misguided Wills, and to reform your careless crooked Lives, and to bring you out of the Kingdom of darkness into the State of Light and Life. And such Knowledge cannot be expected without a diligent attending unto Christ the Teacher of your souls, and a due consideration of the truth. By that time you have learnt what is needful to be learnt for a true Conversion, a sound Repentance, a saving Faith, and a holy Life, you will finde that you have far greater business with God than with all the world.
10. Moreover for the attaining of all this Mercy, you have many a prayer to put up to God: You must daily pray for the forgiveness of your sins, and deliverance from temptations, and even for your daily bread, or necessary provisions for the work which you have to do: You must daily pray for all the supplies of Grace which you want, and for the gradual mortification of the flesh, and for help in all the duties which you must perform; and for strength against all the spiritual enemies which will assault you; and preservation from the manifest evils which attend you: And these prayers must be put up with unwearied constancy, fervency and Faith. Keep up this course of fervent prayer, and beg for Christ, and Grace, and Pardon, and Salvation in any measure as they deserve, and according to thy own necessity, and then tell mee whether thy business with God be small, and to be put off as lightly as it is by the ungodly.
11. Moreover, you are made for the Glory of your Creator, and must apply your selves wholly to glorifie him in the world: You must make his service the trade and business of your lives, and not put him off with something on the by: You are good for nothing else but to serve him; as a knife is made to cut, and as your cloaths are made to cover you, and your meat to seed you, and your horse to labour for you; so you are made and redeemed, and maintained for this, to Love and Please your great Creator: And can you think that it is but little business that you have with him, when he is the End and Master of your lives, and all you are or have is for him?
12. And for the due performance of his service, you have all his Talents to employ. To this end it is that he hath entrusted you with reason, and health, and strength, with time, and parts, and interest, and wealth, and all his mercies, and all his ordinances and means of Grace; and to this end must you use them, or you lose them: And you must give him an account of all at last, whether you have improved them all to your Masters use. And can you look within you, without you, about you, and see how much you are trusted with, and must be accountable to him for, and yet not see how great your business is with God?
13. Moreover, you have all the graces which you shall receive to exercise; and every grace doth carry you to God, and is exercised upon him, or for him: It is God that you must study, and know, and love, and desire, and trust, and hope in, and obey: It is God that you must seek after, and delight in so far as you enjoy him: It is his absence or displeasure that must be your fear and sorrow: Therefore the soul is said to be sanctified when it is renewed, because it is both disposed and devoted unto God. And therefore Grace is called Holiness, because it all disposeth, and carryeth the soul to God, and useth it upon and for him. And can you think your business with God is small, when you must live upon him, and all the powers of your soul must be addicted to him, and be in serious motion towards him? and when he must be much more to you than the Air which you breath in, or the Earth you live upon, or than the Sun that gives you light and heat; yea than the soul is to your bodies?
14. Lastly, you have abundance of temptations and impediments to watch and strive against, which would hinder you in the doing of all this work, and a corrupt and treacherous heart to watch and keep in order, which will be looking back, and shrinking from the service. Lay all this together, and then consider whether you have not more and greater business with God, than with all the creatures in the world.
And if this be so (as undeniably it is so) is there any cloak for that mans sin, who is all day taken up with creatures, and thinks of God as seldome and as carelesly as if he had no business with him? And yet, alas, if you take a survey of high and low, of Court, and City, and Country, you shall find that this is the case of no small number, yea of many that observe it not to be their case; it is the case of the prophane that pray in jeast, and swear, and curse, and rail in earnest. It is the case of the malignant enemies of holiness, that hate them at the heart that are most acquainted with this converse with God, and count it but hypocrisie, pride or fancy, and would not suffer them to live upon the Earth, who are most sincerely conversant in Heaven. It is the case of Pharise…s and Hypocrites, who take up with ceremonious observances, as touch not, taste not, handle not, and such like traditions of their forefathers, instead of a spiritual rational service, and a holy serious walking with the Lord. It is the case of all ambitious men, and covetous worldlings, who make more ado to climb up a little higher than their brethren, and to hold the reins, and have their wills, and be admired and adored in the world, or to get a large estate for themselves and their posterity, than to please their Maker, or to save their souls: It is the case of every sensual Epicure, whose belly is his God, and serveth his fancy, lust and appetite before the Lord. It is the case of every unsanctified man, that seeketh first the prosperity of his flesh, before the Kingdom and Righteousness of God, and is most careful and laborious to lay up a treasure on Earth, and laboureth more (with the greater estimation, resolution and delight) for the meat that perisheth, than for that which endureth to everlasting life. All these (who are too great a part of the world, and too great a part of professed Christians) are taken up with creature converse; and yet think to scape the deludge of Gods displeasure, because the Henochs and Noahs are so few who walk with God; and they think God will not destroy so many: And thus they think to be saved by their multitude, and to hide themselves in the croud from God: They will go the wide and common path, and be of the mind that most are of: They will not be convinced till most men are convinced; that is, till their wisdome come too late, and cost them dearer than its worth. When all men are convinced that God should have been preferred before the world, and served before their fleshly lusts (as they will certainly and sadly be) then they will be convinced with the rest. When all men understand that Life was given them to have done the work which Eternal Life dependeth on, then they will understand it with the rest. When all men shall discern between the righteous and the wicked; between those that serve God, and that serve him not, then they will discern it with the rest: They will know what their business was in the world, and how much they had to do with God, when all men know it. But O how much better for them had it been to have known it in time while knowledge might have done them better service, than to make them feel the greatness of their sin and folly, and the hopes which once they had of happiness, and to help the sting of desperation continually to prick them at the heart. They would be of so little a Flock as that to which it was the good pleasure of God to give the Kingdom, Luk. 12. 32. If you demand a Reason of all this, their Reason was in their throats and bellies: They had fleshly appetites and lusts, and thereby could rellish fleshly pleasures; but spiritual life and appetite they had none, and therefore rellished not spiritual things: Had Christ, and Holiness, and Heaven been as suitable to their appetites, as the sweetness of their meat, and drink, and lusts, and as suitable to their fantasies as their worldly dignities and greatness were, they would then have made a better choice. They would have walked with God, if drunkenness and gluttony, and pride and wantonness, and covetousness and idleness, had been the way in which they might have walked with him. If these had been Godliness, how Godly would they have been? How certainly would they have come to Heaven, if this had been the▪ way? To be idle, and proud, and fleshly, and worldly, is it that they love; and to be humble, and holy, and heavenly, and mortified, is that which they hate, and cannot away with: And their Love and Hatred proceed from their corrupted natures; and these are instead of Reason to them. Their strong apprehensions of a present suitableness in fleshly pleasures to their appetites, and of a present unsuitableness of a holy life, do keep out all effectual apprehensions of the excellencies of God, and of spiritual heavenly delights, which cross them in the pleasures which they most desire.
But yet (their appetites corrupting their understandings as well as their wills) they will not be mad without some reason, nor reject their Maker and their happiness without some reason, nor neglect that holy work which they were made for without some reason: Let us hear then what it is.