The Divine Life, Treatise 3 · Part 6 – Part 7
IT remaineth now that I briefly tell you, what you should do to attain and manage this Converse with God, in the improvement of your solitude. (For Directions in general for Walking with God, I reserve for another place.) At present let these few suffice.
Direct. 1. If you would comfortably Converse with God, make sure that you are Reconciled to him in Christ, and that he is indeed your friend and Father. Can two walk together except they be agreed? Can you take pleasure in dwelling with the consuming fire? or conversing with the most dreadful enemy? Yet this I must add, that every doubting or self-accusing soul may not find a pretence to fly from God. 1. That God ceaseth not to be a Father when ever a fearful soul is drawn to question it or deny it. 2. That in the Universal Love and Grace of God to miserable sinners, and in the universal act of conditional pardon and oblivion, and in the offers of Grace, and the readiness of God to receive the penitent, there is Glad tidings that should exceedingly rejoyce a sinner; and there is sufficient encouragement to draw the most guilty miserable sinner to seek to God, and sue for mercy. But yet the sweetest converse is for children, and for those that have some assurance that they are children.
But perhaps you will say, that this is not easily attained: How shall we know that he is our friend?
In brief, I answer, If you are unfeignedly friends to God, it is because he first loved you. Prefer him before all other friends, and all the wealth and vanity of the world; Provoke him not by wilfulness or neglect: use him as your best friend, and abuse him not by disobedience or ingratitude; own him before all, at the dearest rates, whenever you are called to it: Desire his presence: Lament his absence: Love him from the bottom of your hearts: Think not hardly of him: Suspect him not: Misunderstand him not: Hearken not to his enemies: Receive not any false reports against him: Take him to be really Better for you than all the world: Do these, and doubt not but you are friends with God, and God with you: In a word, Be but heartily willing to be friends to God, and that God should be your chiefest friend, and you may be sure that it is so indeed, and that you are and have what you desire. And then how delightfully may you converse with God!
Direct. 2. Wholly depend on the Mediation of Christ, the great Reconciler: Without him there is no coming near to God: But in his Beloved you shall be accepted. Whatever fear of his displeasure shall surprize you, fly presently for safety unto Christ: Whatever guilt shall look you in the face, commit your self and cause to Christ, and desire him to answer for you: When the doors of mercy seem to be shut up against you, fly to him that bears the keyes, and can at any time open to you and let you in: Desire him to answer for you to God, to your consciences, and against all accusers: By him alone you may boldly and comfortably converse with God: But God will not know you out of him.
Direct. 3. Take heed of bringing particular Guilt into the presence of God, if you would have sweet communion with him: Christ himself never reconciled God to sin: And the sinner and sin are so nearly related, that for all the death of Christ, you shall feel that iniquity dwelleth not with God, but he hateth the works of it, and the foolish shall not stand in his sight; and that if you will presume to sin because you are his Children, be sure your fin will find you out. O what fears, what shame, what self-abhorrence and self-revenge will guilt raise in a penitent soul, when it comes into the light of the presence of the Lord! it will unavoidably abate your boldness and your comforts: When you should be sweetly delighting in his pleased face, and promised Glory, you will be befooling your selves for your former sin, and ready even to tear your flesh, to think that ever you should do as you have done, and use him as you would not have used a common friend, and cast your selves upon his wrath. But an innocent soul, or pacified conscience, doth walk with God in quietness and delight, without those frowns and fears which are a taste of Hell to others.
Direct. 4. If you would comfortably converse with God, be sure that you bring not Idols in your hearts: Take heed of inordinate affection to any Creature. Let all things else be nothing to you, that you may have none to take up your thoughts but God. Let your Minds be further separate from them than your Bodies: Bring not into solitude or to contemplation, a proud, or lustful, or covetous mind: It much more concerneth thee, what Heart thou bringest, that what Place thou art in, or what work thou art upon. A mind that is drowned in ambition, sensuality or passion, will scarce find God any sooner in a wilderness than in a croud (unless he be there returning from those sins to God) whereever he seeth him, God will not own and be familiar with so foul a soul. Seneca could say [Quid prodest totius regionis silentium, si affectus fremunt?▪ What good doth the silence of all the Country do thee, if thou have the noise of raging affections within?] And Gregory saith [Qui corpore remotus vivit, &c. He that in body is far enough from the tumult of humane conversation, is not in solitude, if he busie himself with earthly cogitations and desires: and he is not in the City that is not troubled with the tumult of worldly cares or fears, though he be pressed with the popular crouds.] Bring not thy house, or land, or credit, or carnal friend along with thee in thy heart, if thou desire and expect to walk in Heaven, and to converse with God.
Direct. 5. Live still by Faith: Let Faith lay Heaven and Earth as it were together: Look not at God as if he were far off: set him alwaies as before you, even as at your right hand; Psal. 16. 8. Be still with him when you awake, Psal. 1 39. 18. In the morning thank him for your rest; and deliver up your self to his conduct and service for that day. Go forth as with him, and to do his work: Do every action, with the Command of God, and the Promise of Heaven before your eyes, and upon your hearts: Live as those that have incomparably more to do with God and Heaven, than with all this world; That you may say with David, Psal. 37. 25, 26. (as aforecited) Whom have I in Heaven but thee! and there is none on Earth that I desire besides thee:] And with Paul, Phil. 1. 21. [To me to Live is Christ, and to Dye is gain] You must shut up the eye of sense (save as subordinate to Faith) and live by Faith upon a God, a Christ, and a World that is unseen, if you would know by experience what it is to be above the brutish life of sensualists, and to converse with God. O Christian, if thou hadst rightly learned this blessed life, what a high and noble soul-conversation wouldst thou have! How easily wouldst thou spare, and how little wouldst thou miss the favour of the greatest, the presence of any worldly comfort! City or Solitude would be much alike to thee, saving that the place and state would be best to thee, where thou hast the greatest help and freedome to converse with God. Thou wouldst say of humane society as Seneca [Unus pro populo mihi est, & populus pro uno: Mihi satis est unus, satis est nullus] [One is instead of all the people to me, and the people as one: One is enough for me, and none is enough.] Thus being taken up with God, thou mightest live in prison as at liberty, and in a wilderness as in a City, and in a place of banishment as in thy native Land: For the Earth is the Lords, and the fulness thereof: and everywhere thou mayest find him, and converse with him, and lift up pure hands unto him: In every place thou art within the sight of home; and Heaven is in thine eye, and thou art conversing with that God, in whose converse the highest Angels do place their highest felicity and delight.
How little cause then have all the Churches enemies to triumph, that can never shut up a true believer from the presence of his God? nor banish him into such a place where he cannot have his conversation in Heaven? The stones that were cast at holy Stephen, could not hinder him from seeing the Heavens opened, and Christ sitting at the right hand of God. A Patmos allowed holy John Communion with Christ, being there in the Spirit on the Lords day, Rev. 1. 9, 10. Christ never so speedily and comfortably owneth his servants, as when the world disowneth them, and abuseth them for his sake, and hurls them up and down as the scorn and off-scouring of all. He quickly found the blind man that he had cured, when once the Jews had cast him out, Joh. 9. 35. Persecutors do but promote the blessedness and exceeding joy of sufferers for Christ, Mat. 5. 11, 12.
And how little Reason then have Christians, to shun such sufferings, by unlawful means, which turn to their so great advantage? and to give so dear as the hazard of their souls by wilful sin, to escape the honour, and safety, and commodity of Martyrdome?
And indeed we judge not, we Love not, we Live not as sanctified ones must do, if we judge not that the truest Liberty, and Love it not as the Best Condition, in which we may Best converse with God. And O how much harder is it to walk with God, in a Court, in the midst of sensual delights, than in a prison or wilderness where we have none to interrupt us, and nothing else to take us up? It is our prepossessed minds, our earthly hearts, our carnal affections and concupiscence, and the pleasures of a prosperous state that are the prison and the Jaylors of our souls. Were it not for these, how free should we be, though our bodies were confined to the straightest room! He is at Liberty that can walk in Heaven, and have access to God, and make use of all the Creatures in the world, to the promoting of this his Heavenly conversation. And he is the prisoner whose soul is chained to flesh and earth, and confined to his lands and houses, and feedeth on the dust of worldly riches, or walloweth in the dung and filth of gluttony, drunkenness and lust: that are far from God, and desire not to be near him; but say to him, Depart from us, we would not have the knowledge of thy waies: that Love their prison and chains so well, that they would not be set free, but hate those with the cruellest hatred that endeavour their deliverance. Those are the poor prisoners of Satan, that have not liberty to believe, nor to Love God, nor converse in Heaven, nor seriously to mind or seek the things that are high and honourable: that have not liberty to meditate or pray, or seriously to speak of holy things, nor to love and converse with those that do so: that are tyed so hard to the drudgery of sin, that they have not liberty one month, or week, or day, to leave it, and walk with God so much as for a recreation! But he that liveth in the family of God, and is employed in attending him, and doth converse with Christ, and the Host of Holy ones above, in reason should not much complain of his want of friends, or company or accommodations, nor yet be too impatient of any corporal confinement.
Lastly, be sure then most narrowly to watch your hearts, that nothing have entertainment there, which is against your Liberty of converse with God. Fill not those Hearts with worldly trash, which are made and new-made to be the dwelling place of God. Desire not the company which would diminish your heavenly acquaintance and correspondency. Be not unfriendly, nor conceited of a self-sufficiency; but yet beware lest under the honest ingenuous title of a friend, a special, faithful, prudent, faithful friend, you should entertain an Idol, or an enemy to your Love of God, or a corrival and competitor with your highest friend: For if you do, it is not the specious title of a friend that will save you from the thorns and bryars of disquietment, and from greater troubles than ever you found from open enemies.
O blessed be that High and everlasting friend, who is every way suited to the upright souls! To their Minds, their Memories, their Delight, their Love, &c. by surest Truth, by fullest Goodness, by clearest Light, by dearest Love, by firmest Constancy, &c.—O why hath my drowsie and dark-sighted soul been so seldome with him! why hath it so often, so strangely, and so unthankfully passed by, and not observed him, nor hearkened to his kindest calls! O what is all this trash and trouble▪ that hath filled my memory, and employed my mind, and cheated and corrupted my affections, while my dearest Lord hath been daies and nights so unworthily forgotten, so contemptuously neglected and disregarded, and loved as if I loved him not! O that these drowsie and those waking nights, those loitered, lost, and empty hours had been spent in the humblest converse with him, which have been dreamed and doted away upon—now I know not what! O my God, how much wiser and happier had I been, had I rather chosen to mourn with thee, than to rejoyce and sport with any other! O that I had rather wept with thee, than laughed with the creature! For the time to come let that be my friend, that most befriendeth my dark, and dull, and backward soul, in its undertaken progress, and heavenly conversation! Or if there be none such upon earth, let me here take no one for my friend! O blot out every Name from my corrupted heart, which hindereth the deeper engraving of thy Name! Ah Lord, what a stone, what a blind ungrateful thing, is a Heart not touched with celestial Love! yet shall I not run to thee, when I have none else that will know me! shall I not draw near thee, when all fly from me! When daily experience cryeth out so loud [NONE BUT CHRIST: GOD OR NOTHING.] Ah foolish Heart, that hast thought of it [Where is that place, that Cave or Desert, where I might soonest find thee, and fullest enjoy thee? is it in the wilderness that thou walkest, or in the croud: in the Closet, or in the Church? where is it that I might soonest meet with God?] But alas, I now perceive, that I have a Heart to find, before I am like to find my Lord! O Loveless, Lifeless, stony heart! that's dead to him that gave it Life! and to none but him! Could I not Love, or Think, or Feel at all, methinks I were less dead than now? Less dead, if dead, than now I am alive? I had almost said [Lord, let me never Love more till I can Love thee? Nor think more on any thing till I can more willingly think of thee?] But I must suppress that wish; for Life will act: And the mercies and motions of Nature are necessary to those of Grace. And therefore in the life of Nature, and in the glimmerings of thy Light, I will wait for more of the Celestial life! My God, thou hast my consent! It is here attested under my hand: Separate me from what and whom thou wilt so I may but be nearer thee! Let me Love thee more, and feel more of thy Love, and then let me Love or be beloved of the world, as little as thou wilt.
I thought self-love had been a more predominant thing: But now I find that Repentance hath its Anger, its Hatred and its Revenge! I am truly Angry with that Heart that hath so oft and foolishly offended thee! Methinks I hate that Heart that is so cold and backward in thy love, and almost grudge it a dwelling in my breast! Alas when Love should be the life of Prayer, the life of holy meditation, the life of Sermons and of holy conference, and my soul in these should long to meet thee, and delight to mention thee, I straggle Lord, I know not whither! or I sit still and wish, but do not rise and run and follow thee, yea I do not what I seem to do. All's dead, all's dead, for want of Love! I often cry, O where is that place, where the quickening beams of Heaven are warmest, that my frozen soul might seek it out! But whither ever I go, to City or to Solitude, alas, I find it is not Place that makes the difference. I know that Christ is perfectly replenished with Life and Light and Love Divine: And I hear him as our Head and Treasure proclaimed and offered to us in the Gospel! This is thy Record, that he that hath the Son hath Life! O why then is my barren soul so empty! I thought I had long ago consented to thy offer; and then according to thy Covenant, both He and Life in him are mine! And yet must I still be dark and dead!
Ah dearest Lord, I say not that I have too long waited! but if I continue thus to wait, wilt thou never find the time of Love? and come and own thy gasping worm? wilt thou never dissipate these clouds, and shine upon this dead and darkened soul? Hath my Night no Day? Thrust me not from thee O my God! For that's a Hell, to be thrust from God. But sure the cause is all at home, could I find it out, or rather could I cure it! It is sure my face that's turned from God, when I say, His face is turned from me. But if my Life must here be out of sight, and hidden in the Root (with Christ in God,) and if all the rest be reserved for that better world, and I must here have but these small beginnings, O make me more to Love and long for the blessed day of thine appearing, and not to fear the time of my deliverance, nor unbelievingly to linger in this Sodom, as one that had rather stay with sin, then come to thee! Though sin hath made me backward to the fight, let it not make me backward to receive the Crown; Though it hath made me a loiterer in thy work, let it not make me backward to receive that wages, which thy Love will give to our pardoned, poor, accepted services. Though I have too oft drawn back, when I should have come unto thee, and walked with thee in thy waies of Grace, yet heal that unbelief, and disaffection, which would make me to draw back, when thou callest me to possess thy Glory? Though the sickness and lameness of my soul have hindered me in my journey, yet let their painfulness help me to desire to be delivered from them and to be at home, where (without the interposing nights of thy displeasure) I shall fully feel thy fullest Love, and walk with thy Glorified ones in the Light of thy Glory, triumphing in thy Praise for evermore,
Amen.
BUT now I have given you these few Directions for the improvement of your solitude for converse with God, lest I should occasion the hurt of those that are unfit for the Lesson I have given, I must conclude with this Caution (which I have formerly also published,) That it is not melancholly or weak-headed persons, who are not able to bear such exercises, for whom I have written these Directions. Those that are not able to be much in serious solitary thoughtfulness, without confusions and distracting suggestions, and hurrying vexatious thoughts, must set themselves for the most part to those duties which are to be done in company by the help of others; and must be very little in solitary duties: For to them whose natural faculties are so diseased or weak, it is no duty, as being no means to do them the desired good; but while they strive to do that which they are naturally unable to endure, they will but confound and distract themselves, and make themselves unable for those other duties which yet they are not utterly unfit for. To such persons therefore instead of ordered, well-digested Meditations, and much time spent in secret thoughtfulness, it must suffice that they be brief in secret Prayer, and take up with such occasional abrupter Meditations as they are capable of, and that they be the more in reading, hearing, conference, and praying and praising God with others: untill their melancholly distempers are so far overcome, as that (by the direction of their Spiritual Guides) they may judge themselves fit for this improvement of their Solitude.
FINIS.
End of the text · Richard Baxter, The Divine Life (1664)