The Divine Life, Treatise 2 · Chapter 7
CHAP. VII.
I Am next to shew you that Believers have special obligations to this holy course of life, and therefore are doubly faulty if they neglect it: Though indeed, to neglect it totally, or in the main drift of their lives, is a thing inconsistent with a living Faith.
Consider, 1 If you are true Christians, your Relations engage you to walk with God: Is he not your Reconciled Father, and you his Children in a special sense? And whom should Children dwell with, but with their Father? You were glad when he received you into his Covenant that he would enter into so near a Relation to you, as he expresseth, 2▪ Cor. 6. 17, 18. [I will receive you, and will be a Father to you, and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.] And do you draw back, as if you repented of your Covenant? and were not only weary of the Duty, but of the Priviledges and Benefits of your Relation? You may have access to God, when others are shut out: Your Prayers may be heard, when the prayers of the wicked are abominable: You may be welcome, when the worldling, and ambitious, and carnal are despised: He that dwelleth in the highest Heaven, is willing to look to you with respect, and dwell with you, when he beholdeth the proud afar off, Isa. 66. 1, 2. & 57. 15, 16. And yet will you not come that may be welcome? Doth he put such a difference between you and others, as to feed you as his Children at his table, while others are called Dogs, and are without the doors▪ and have but your crums and leavings? and yet will you be so foolish and unthankful, as to run out of your Fathers presence, and choose to be without, among the Dogs? How came your Fathers presence to be so grievous to you? and the priviledges of his family to seem so vile? Is it not some unchildlike carriage? the guilt of some disobedience or contempt that hath first caused this? Or have you faln again in love with fleshly pleasures, and some vanity of the world? Or have you had enough of God and Godliness? till you begin to grow aweary of him? If so, you never truly knew him. However it be, if you grow indifferent as to God, do not wonder if shortly you find him set as light by you: And believe it, the day is not far off, in which the Fatherly Relation of God, and the priviledges of Children, will be more esteemed by you: when all things else forsake you in your last distress, you will be loth that God should then forsake you, or seem as a stranger to hide his face: Then you will cry out, as the afflicted Church, Isa. 63. 15, 16. [Look down from Heaven▪ and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: Where is thy zeal and thy strength? the sounding of thy bowels, and of thy mercies towards me? are they restrained? Doubtless thou art our Father: though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not, thou O Lord art our Father, our Redeemer, thy name is from everlasting] Nothing but God, and his Fatherly Relation, will then support you: Attend him therefore, and with reverent, obedient chearfulness and delight, converse with him as with your dearest Father. For since the beginning of the world, men have not known by sensible evidence, either the ear or the eye, besides God himself, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him, Isa. 64. 4. Though he be wroth with us because we have sinned, yet doth he meet him that rejoyceth and worketh rightcousness, that remembreth him in his waies, vers. 5. Say not, I have played abroad so long that I dare not now go home: I have sinned so greatly, that I dare not speak to him, or look him in the face. Come yet but with a penitent returning heart, and thou mayest be accepted through the Prince of Peace: Prodigals find better entertainment than they did expect, when once they do but resolve for home. If he allow us to begin with [Our Father which art in Heaven] we may boldly proceed to ask forgiveness of our trespasses, and whatever else is truly good for us. But, alas, as our iniquities seduce us away from God, so the guilt of them affrighteth some from returning to him, and the love of them corrupteth the hearts of others, and makes them too indifferent as to their communion with him; so that too many of his children live as if they did not know their Father, or had forgotten him: We may say as Isa. 64. 6, 7, 8, 9. [But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away: and there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities: But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the Clay, and thou our Potter, and we are all the work of thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.] O do not provoke your Father to disown you, or to withdraw his help, or hide his face, or to send the Rod to call you home! for if you do, you will wish you had known the priviledges of his presence, and had kept nearer to him! Be not so unnatural, so unthankful, so unkind, as to be weary of your Fathers presence (and such a Father's too) and to take more delight in any others.
Moreover, you are related to God in Christ, as a Wife unto a Husband, as to Covenant union, and nearness and dearness of affection, and as to his tender care of you for your good: And is it seemly, is it wisely or gratefully done of you, to desire rather the company of others, and delight in creatures more than him? Isa. 54. 5, 6. How affectionately doth thy Maker call himself the Husband of his people? And can thy heart commit adultery. and forsake him: [My Covenant they brake, though I was an Husband to thee, saith the Lord, Jer. 31. 32. O put not God to exercise his jealousie. It is one of his terrible attributes, to be [a jealous God.] And can he be otherwise to thee, when thou lovest not his converse or company, and carest not how long thou art from him in the world? Woe to thee if he once say as Hos. 2. 2. [She is not my Wife, neither am I her Husband.]
Nay more than this, if you are Christians, you are members of the body of Christ: And therefore how can you withdraw your selves from him, and not feel the pain and torment of so sore a wound or dislocation? you cannot live without a constant dependence on him, and communication from him, Joh▪ 15. 1, 4, 5. I am the true Vine, and my Father is the Husbandman: Abide in me, and I in you.—I am the Vine, ye are the Branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me, ye can do nothing.—If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
So near are you to Christ, that he delighteth to acquaint you with his secrets: O how many mysteries doth he reveal to those that walk with him, which carnal strangers never know! Mysteries of Wisdome! Mysteries of Love and saving Grace! Mysteries of Scripture, and Mysteries of Providence! Mysteries felt by inward experience, and Mysteries revealed, foreseen by Faith! Not only the strangers that pass by the doors, but eve… the common servants of the family are unacquainted with the secret operations of the Spirit, and entertainments of Grace, and Joy in believing, which those that walk with God either do or may possess. Therefore Christ calleth you friends as being more than servants, Joh. 15. 14, 15. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you: Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what the Lord doth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you.] It is true, for all this, that every true Christian hath reason (and is apt) to complain of his darkness and distance from God. Alas, they know so little of him, and of the Mysteries of his Love and Kingdom, that sometimes they are apt to think that they are indeed but utter strangers to him: But this is, because there is infinitely more still unknown to them than they know! what! can the silly shallow creature comprehend his infinite Creatour? Or shall we know all that is to be known in Heaven, before we enjoy all that is to be enjoyed in Heaven? It is no more wonder to hear a believer pant and mourn after a fuller knowledge of God, and ne…r…r access to him, than to seek after Heaven, where this will be his happiness. But yet, though his Knowledge of God be small, compared with his Ignorance, that little Knowledge of God which he hath attained, i…ore mysterious, sublime and excellent, than all the learning of the greatest unsanctified Scholars in the world. Walk with him according to the neatness of your Relations to him, and you shall have this excellent knowledge of his Mysteries, which no Books or Teachers alone can give. You shall be effectually touched at the heart with the truths which others do uneffectually hear: You shall be powerfully moved, when they are but uneffectually exhorted. When they only hear the voice without them, you shall hear the voice within you, and as it were behind you, saying, This is the way, walk in it: O that you could duly value such a friend, to watch over you, and for you, and dwell in you, and tell you faithfully of every danger, and of every duty, and teach you to know good and evil, and what to choose, and what to refuse! How closely and delightfully would you converse with such a blessed friend, if you rightly valued him?
2. MOreover, you that are the servants of God, have by your Covenant and Profession, renounced and forsaken all things else (as they stand in any opposition to him, or competition with him) and have resigned your selves wholly unto him alone: And therefore with him must you converse, and be employed, unless you will forsake your Covenant. You knew first that it was your interest to forsake the world and turn to God: You knew the world would not serve your turn, nor be instead of God to you either in life, or at death: And upon this Knowledge it was that you changed your Master, and changed your minds, and changed your way, your work, your hopes: And do you dream now that you were mistaken? Do you begin to think that the world is fitter to be your God or Happiness? if not, you must still confess that both your Interest and your Covenant do oblige you to turn your hearts and minds from the things which you have renounced, and to walk with him that you have taken for your God, and to obey him whom you have taken for your King and Judge, and to keep close to him with purest Love, whom you have taken for your everlasting portion. Mark what you are minding all the day, while you are neglecting God: Is it not something that you have renounced? And did you not renounce it upon sufficient cause? Was it not a work of your most serious deliberation? and of as great wisdome, as any that ever you performed? if it were, turn not back in your hearts again from God unto the renounced Creature. You have had many a lightning from Heaven into your understandings, to bring you to see the difference between them: You have had many a teaching, and many a warning, and many a striving of the spirit, before you were prevailed with to renounce the world, the flesh and the devil, and to give up your self intirely and absolutely to God. Nay, did it not cost you the smart of some afflictions, before you would be made so wise? And did it not cost you many a gripe of conscience, and many a terrible thought of Hell, and of the wrath of God, before you would be heartily engaged to him, in his Covenant? And will you now live as strangely and neglectfully towards him, as if those daies were quite forgotten? and as if you had never felt such things? and as if you had never been so convinced, or resolved? O Christians, take heed of forgetting your former case! your former thoughts! your former convictions and complaints and covenants! God did not work all that upon your hearts to be forgotten: He intended not only your present change, but your after remembrance of it, for your close adhering to him while you live; and for your quickning and constant preservance to the end. The forgetting of their former miseries, and the workings of God upon their hearts in their conversion, is a great cause of mutability and revolting, and of unspeakable hurt to many a soul.
Nay, may you not remember also what sorrow you had in the day of your Repentance, for your forsaking and neglecting God so long? And will you grow again neglective of him? Was it then so hainous a sin in your eyes? and is it not now grown less? Could you then aggravate it so many waies (and justly) and now do you justifie or extenuate it? Were you then ready to sink under the burden of it? and were so hardly perswaded that it would be forgiven you? and now do you make so small a matter of it? Did you then so much wonder at your folly, that could so long let out your thoughts and affections upon the creature, while you neglected God and Heaven! and do you begin to look that way again? Do you now grow familiar with a life so like to that whirh was once your state of death? and bear that easily that once was the breaking of your heart? O Christians, turn not away from that God again, who once fetcht you home, with so much smart and so much grace! with such a twist of Love and Fatherly severity! Methinks when you remember how you were once awakened, you should not easily fall asleep again. And when you remember the thoughts which then were in your hearts, and the tears that were in your eyes, and the earnest prayers which you then put up, that God would receive you, and take you for his own, you should not now forget him, and live as if you could live without him. Remember that so far as you withdraw your hearts from God, and let them follow inferiour things, so far you contradict his works upon your hearts; so far you violate your Covenant with him, or sin against it: so far you are revolters, and go against the principal part of your profest Religion: Yea so far you are ungodly, as you thus withdraw your hearts from God. Cleave to him, and prosecute your Covenant, if you will have the saving benefits of his Love and Covenant.
3. MOreover, the servants of God are doubly obliged to walk with him, because they have had that experience of the goodness the safety and the sweetness of it, which strangers have not. Do you not remember how glad you were, when you first believed that he pardoned and accepted you? And how much you rejoyced in his Love and entertainment? And how much better you found your Fathers house, than ever you had found your sinful state? And how much sweeter his service was than you did before believe? It's like you can remember something like that which is described in Luk. 15. 20, 22, 23, 24. [And he arose and came to his Father: But when he was yet a great way off, his Father saw him, and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him; And the Son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy Son; But the Father said to his servants Bring forth the best Robe and put it on him, and put a Ring on his hand, and Shooes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted Calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry: for this my Son was dead and is alive again, he was lost, and is found.] What would you have thought or said of this Prodigal, if after all this he should have been weary of his Fathers house and company, and have taken more pleasure in his former company? Would you not have said▪ he was a forgetful and unthankful wretch, and worthy never more to be received? I do not speak to you now as to Apostates, that are turned ungodly, and have quite forsaken God and Holiness: But I beseech you consider what it is, after such experiences and obligations as these, so much as to abate your love, and grow remiss, and mindless, and indifferent, as if you were aweary of God, and were inclined to neglect him, and look again to the world for your hope, and satisfaction, and delight? As you love your souls, and as you would avoid the sorrows which are greater than any that ever you felt, take heed of fleighting the Love that hath done such wonders for you, and of dealing so unthankfully with the everliving God, and of turning thus away from him that hath received you! Remember whilst you live, the Love of your espousals: Was God so good to you at the first, and holiness so desirable? and is it not so still?
And I am sure that your own experience will bear witness, that since that time, in all your lives, it never was so well with you as when you walked most faithfully with God. If you have received any falls and hurts, it hath been when you have stragled from him: If ever you had safety, peace or joy, it hath been when you have been nearest to him: your wounds, and grief, and death hath been the fruit of your own waies, and of your forsaking him: Your recovery, and health, and life have been the fruit of his waies, and of your adhering to him: Many and many a time you have confessed this, and have said, It is good for me to draw near to God. He hath helped you when none else could help you; and comforted you when none else could comfort you. How far are you above the worldlings happiness, when you are nigh to God? One lively thought of his Greatness, and Excellency, and of his Love to you in Jesus Christ, will make the name of wealth, and honour, and favour, and preferment, and sensual pleasures, to seem to you as words of no signification: How indifferent will you be, as to your prosperity in the world, when you feel what it is to walk with God? If you are lively experimental Christians, you have found this to be true: Have you not found that it is the very Health and Ease, and proper employment of your souls to walk with God, and keep close to him? And that all goes well with you while you can do thus, however the world doth esteem or use you? And that when you grow strange or disobedient to God, and mindless of his Goodness, his presence and his authority, you are like the stomach that is sick, and like a bone that is out of joynt, that can have no ease till it be healed, and restored to its proper place? No meats or drinks, no company nor recreation, no wealth or greatness will serve to make a sick man well, or ease the dislocated bones. Nothing will serve a faithful holy soul but God: This is the cause of the dolour of his heart, and of the secret groans and complainings of his life, because in this life of distance and imperfection, he finds himself so far from God; and when he hath done all that he can, he is still so dark, and strange, and cold in his affections! when persecution driveth him from the Ordinances and publick Worship, or when sin hath set him at a greater distance from his God, he bemoaneth his soul as David in his banishment from the Tabernacle, Psal. 42. 1, 2, &c. As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee O God: My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?] And it is no wonder if with his greatest joy, he be yet clouded with these sorrows, because he yet wanteth more of God than he enjoyeth: and his enjoying graces (Love and Joy) are yet imperfect. But when he hath attained his nearest approach to God, he will have fulness of Delight in fulness of fruition.
O Christians! Do I need to tell you, that after all the tryals you have made in the world, you have never found any state of life, that was worthy your desires, nor that gave you any true content, but only this living upon God? If you have not found such comfort here as others have done, yet at least you have seen it afar off, within your reach: As men that in the Indies, in the discovery of Plantations, expect Gold Mines, when they find those golden sands that promise it. You have found a life which is certainly desirable, and leadeth to joy in the midst of sorrow: And it is no small joy to have a certain promise and prospect of everlasting joy. It is therefore more excusable in those that never tasted any better than the pleasures of the flesh, to neglect this sweeter Heavenly life, than it is in you that have been convinced by your own experience, that there is no life to be compared with it.
4. YOur Walking with God is the necessary prosecution of your Choice and Hopes of life eternal. It is your necessary preparation to your enjoying him in Heaven. And have you fixed on those Hopes with so great reason and deliberation, and will you now draw back and be slack in the prosecution of them? Have you gone so far in the way to Heaven, and do you now begin to look behind you, as if you were about to change your mind? Paul setteth you a better example, Phil. 3. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. [Yea doubtless I account all things but loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ, and be found in him—If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead: Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: But I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus: Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus.] He compareth himself to a runner in a race, that till be apprehend the price or mark, doth still make forward with all his might, and will not so much as mind or look at any thing behind him, that would turn him back, or stop him in his course. The world and the flesh are the things behind us: We turned our backs upon them at our conversion, when we turned to God: It is these that would now call back our thoughts, and corrupt our affections, when we should run on, and reach forward to the heavenly price: It is God and Heaven and the remaining duties of a holy life, that are the things before us! And shall we now look back? what we that are running and striving for a Crown of endless glory! we, that if we lose it, do lose our souls and hopes for ever! we, that have loitered in the morning of our lives, and lost so much precious time as we have done! we, that have gone so far in our way, and held out through so many difficulties and assaults! Shall we now grow weary of walking with God, and begin to look to the things behind us? Did he not tell us at the first, that Father and Mother, and house and land, and life, and all things must be forsaken for Christ, if we will be his Disciples? These are the things behind us, which we turned our back on when we consented to the Covenant; and are they now grown better? or is God grown worse, that we turn our hearts from him to them? when we first begun our Christian race, it was upon supposition that it was for that immortal Crown, which all the world is not to be compared to: And have we not still the same consideration before us, to move us to hold on till we attain it? Hold on Christians, it is for Heaven! Is there not enough in that word to drive back all the cares and pleasures, that importune your minds to forget your God? Is there not enough in that word to quicken you up in your greatest dulness? and to call you home when you are wandring from God, and to make you again fall out with all, that would reduce you, or divert you, and call it Vanity and Vexation of spirit. Methinks the forethought of that life and work which you hope to have with God for ever, should make you earnestly desire to have as much of the like on earth, as is here to be attained! If it will he your Heaven and Happiness then, it must needs be desirable now. It is not beseeming a man that saith he is seeking for perfect communion with God in Heaven, and that above all things (as every Christian doth) to live in a daily neglect or forgetfulness of God on earth. Delightfully to draw near him, and exercise all our faculties upon him, or for him, sometime in prayer and contemplation on himself, and alwaies in works of obedience to him; this is the life that beseemeth those that profess to seek eternal life. O therefore let us make it our daily work, to keep our God and Glory in our eye, and to spur on our dull affections, and in the diligent attendance and following the Captain of our salvation, to prosecute our expected End.
5. LAstly consider, that God doth purposely provide you hard entertainment in the world, and cause every creature to deny you the pleasure and satisfaction which you desire, that so you may have none to walk with but himself, with any heart-setling comfort and content. If you see not enough in him to allure you to himself, you shall feel enough in the world to drive you to him: If his Love and Goodness will not serve alone to make him your pleasure, and hold you to him in the best, and most excellent way (of Love) at least the storms and troubles that are abroad shall shew you a Necessity of keeping close to God; and the Love of your selves shall help you to do that, which was not done by the attraction of his Love alone. If you will put him to it, to send out his command to every creature, to cross and vex you, and disappoint all your expectations from it, that so he may force you to remember your Father and your home, deny not then but it is long of your selves that you were not saved in an easier way. Would you wish God to make that condition pleasant to you, which he seeth you take too much pleasure in already (or seek and desire it, at least?) When as it is the pleasantness of the Creature that is your danger, and which detaineth your thoughts and affections from himself? If you could but learn to walk with him, and to take up your pleasure in his Love appearing to you in his Creatures, and to make their sweetness a means to your apprehension of the sweetness of his favour, and of the everlasting joyes, then you might say the Creature doth you good; and then it's like you might be permitted to possess and use it for such pleasure. The jealous God will watch your hearts, though you watch them not; and he will make you know that he seeth which way they run out from him, and what Creature it is that is minded and delighted in while he is neglected, as if he were unsuitable, and scarce desirable. And you must never look that he should long permit you those prohibited delights, or let you alone in those idolatrous inclinations: If he Love you, he will cure that Carnal Love, and recover your Love to himself that hath deserved it. If he intend▪ not your salvation, he may let you go, and try again whether the Creature will prove better to you than himself: But you cannot think that he will thus let go his Children that must live with him for ever. Have you not perceived that this is the design and meaning of his afflicting and disappointing providences? even to leave you no comfortable entertainment or converse but with himself, and with his servants, and with those means that lead you to himself? If you begin to desire to lodge abroad in strange habitations, he will uncover those houses, and will not leave you a room that's dry to put your head in; or he will throw open the doors, and leave all open to the lust of ravenous beasts and robbers. He will have thy heart, and he will have thy company, because thou art his child, and because he loveth thee. He will allow thee neither thy carnal Delights or Hopes. If he perceive thee either taking that Pleasure in thy Prosperity which thou shouldest take in him alone, or Hoping at least that the world may hereafrer prove more amiable and delightful to thee; the more he loveth thee, the more his Providence shall conspire with his Grace, to change thy mind, by depriving thee of thy unwholsome dangerous delights, and of all thy Hopes of such hereafter. Use the world as a traveller, for the ends to which it was ordained, to the service of God, and the furtherance of thy salvation, and then thou shalt find that God will furnish thee with all that is necessary to these necessary ends: But if the world must have your Love and Care, and must be your chiefest business and delight, and your excuse for not attending upon God, murmure not, nor marvel not if he dispose of it and you accordingly. If you are yet too healthful to think with seriousness on your eternal state; If you are too Rich to part with all for Christ, or openly to own his Cause; If you are too much esteemed in the world to own a scorned slandered Religion; If you are so busie for Earth, that you cannot have time to think of Heaven; If you have so much delight in House or Land, or in your employments, or recreations, or friends, that God and Godliness can have little or none of your delight: Marvel not then if God do shake your Health, or waste your Riches, or turn your Honour into contempt, and suffer men to slander and reproach you, and spit in your sace, and make you of no reputation: Marvel not if he turn you out of all, or turn all to your grief and trouble, and make the world a desert to you, and the inhabitants as wolves and bears. The great Lesson that Christ hath undertaken to teach you, is the difference betwixt the Creatour and the Creature, and the difference betwixt Heaven and Earth. The great work that Christ hath undertaken to do upon you, is to recover your hearts from the world to God: And this Lesson he will teach you, and this work he will do upon you, whatever it cost you: For it must be done. Yet is not the world unjust enough, or cruel or vexatious enough to you, to teach you to come home, and take up your content and rest in God? It may then prove more cruel, and more vexatious to you, till you have better learned this necessary Lesson. Yet is not your condition empty enough of carnal delusory pleasures, to we…n you from the world, and make you look to surer things? Yet are you keeping up your worldly hopes, that the world will again prove better to you, and that you shall have happy daies hereafter? It seems you are not yet brought low enough: you must yet take another purge, and perhap… a sharper than you took before: You must have more blood letting, till your del…ration cease, and your feaverish thirst after creature-comorts do abate. It is sad that we should be so foolish and unkind, as to stay from God, as long as any preferments, or pleasures, or profits in the world, will entertain us: But seeing it is so, let us be thankful both to that Grace and that Providence which cureth us. If you perceive it not better to dwell with God, than with a flattering prospering world, he will try whether you can think it better to dwell with God, than with a malicious, cruel, persecuting world: And whether it be better to have your hearts in Heaven, than in poverty, prison, banishment or reproach. If you find it not better to converse with God, than with those that honour you, please you, or prefer you; he will try whether you can think it better to converse with him, than with those that hate, revile, belye, and persecute you. And are these the wise and wholsome methods of our great Physician? And shall we not rather be ruled by him, than by our brutish appetites? and think better of his counsels, than of the blind concupiscence of the flesh? Let this be the issue of all our sufferings, and all the cruelties and injuries of the world, to drive us home to converse with God, and to turn our desires, and labours, and expectations, to the true felicity that never will forsake us; and then, the Will of the Lord be done! Let him choose his means, if this may be the end: Let us kiss the Rod, and not revile it, if this may be the fruit of his corrections. Who will not pray that God would deny us those contents, which keep us from seeking our content in him? And that he would deny us all those hurtful pleasures which hinder us from pleasing him, or from making him and his waies our chiefest pleasure? And that he would permit us no such creature-converse, as hinderth our converse with him? It is best living there (be it in prison or at liberty) where we may live best to God. Come home, O suffering Christian, to thy God! take up thy Content and Rest in him; be satisfied with him as thy Portion; and remember Where it is that he is to be fully and perpetually enjoyed; and then it is good for thee that thou wast afflicted; for all thy sufferings have their end.
This last Consideration will be further prosecuted in the following Part: And the Directions for Walking with God, which I should here give you, I have reserved for a peculiar Treatise, intitled A Christian Directory.
THE CHRISTIANS Converse with God: OR, The Insufficiency and Uncertainty OF HUMANE FRIENDSHIP: AND THE Improvement of Solitude IN Converse with God.
With some of the Authors breathings after him.
By RICHARD BAXTER.
LONDON, Printed for Francis Tyton at the three Daggers in Fleet-street, and Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster. 1664.
THE CONTENTS.
THe Context opened. p. 298
Why Christ was forsaken by his Disciples. p. 300
Use 1. Expect by the forsaking of your friends to be conformed unto Christ: Reasons for your Expectation. p. 302
The Aggravations of their forsaking you. p. 313
Some quieting Considerations. p. 315
The order of forms in the School of Christ. p. 322
The Disciples scattered every man to his own. p. 324
Selfishness contrary to friendly fidelity. p. 325
Considerations to quiet us in the death of faithful friends. p. 326
Whether we shall know them in Heaven. p. 331
Whether creatures be any matter of our Comfort in Heaven. p. 332
Quest. Shall I have any more comfort in present friends than in others? p. 334
Doct. 3. When all forsake us, and leave us (as to them) alone, we are far from being simply alone, because God is with us. p. 336
The Advantages of having God with us. ibid.
Quest. How he is with us. p. 337
Use 1. Imitate Christ: Live upon God alone, though men forsake you; yet thrust not your selves into Solitude uncalled. p. 341
In what cases Solitude is lawful and good. p. 342
Reasons against unnecessary Solitude. p. 343
The comfort of Converse with God in necessary Solitude. The Benefits of Solitude. The Reasons from God, Improved largely in some Meditations. p. 347, 351
Directions for conversing with God in Solitude. p. 370
Concluded in further Meditation. p. 375
A Caution. p. 378