Sect. IX. If thou wouldst have thy heart in heaven, keep thy soul still possessed with true believing thoughts of the exceeding, infinite love of God. Love is the attractive of love.m No man's heart will be set upon him that hates him, were he never so excellent, nor much upon him that doth not much love him. There are few so vile, but will love those that love them, be they never so mean. No doubt it is the death of our heavenly life, to have hard and doubtful thoughts of God; to conceive of him as a hater of the creature (except only of obstinate rebels), and as one that had rather damn us, than save us, and that is glad of an opportunity to do us a mischief, or at least hath no great good-will to us: this is to put the blessed God into the similitude of Satan. And who, then, can set his heart and love upon him? When in our vile unbelief and ignorance we have drawn the most ugly picture of God in our imaginations, then we complain that we cannot love him, and delight in him. This is the case of many thousand Christians. Alas! that we should thus belie and blaspheme God, and blast our own joys, and depress our spirits! Love is the very essence of God. The Scripture tells us, that "God is love;" it telleth us, that fury dwelleth not in him; that he delighteth not in the death of him that dieth, but rather that he repent and live. (1 John iv. 16; Isa. xxvii. 4; Ezek. xviii. 32, and xxxiii. 11.) Much more, that he testifieth his love to his chosen; and his full resolution, effectually to save them. Oh, if we could always think of God but as we do of a friend! As of one that doth unfeignedly love us, even more than we do ourselves; whose very heart is set upon us to do us good, and hath therefore provided us an everlasting dwelling with himself; it would not then be so hard to have our m All our love is moved from some good which we apprehend in the party loved; when the ground and motive of our love faileth, the affection must needs cease.-Bishop Hall's Select Thoughts, sect. Iv. p. 158. God hath put that pity into a righteous man, as to be merciful to his very beast, and love his enemy; and yet people look on God as more cruel to those that are willing to obey him. Even Pythagoras could not find in his heart to kill and feed ou the flesh of the creatures; and yet men think the God of love delights in the damnation of those that would fain be such as he would have them be. Semiferi nos homines, quinimo feri, quos infœlix necessitas et malus usus edocuit cibos ex his carpere; miseratione interdum commovemur illorum, arguimus nos ipsos; penitusque revisa atque inspecta damnamus, quod humanitatis jure deposito naturalis initii consortia reperimus. Deos aliquis credit pios, beneficos, mites, cæde pecorum delectari? &c. Quanto minus damnatione hominum?-Arnobius adver. Gent. lib. vii. p. 242. It seems Arnobius was of Pythagoras's mind, against killing the creatures to eat. And Minut. Fœlix saith, that then Christians ate no blood, p. 390. heart still with him! Where we love most heartily, we shall think most sweetly, and most freely; and nothing will quicken our love more than the belief of his love to us. Get therefore a truer conceit of the loving nature of God, and lay up all the experiences and discoveries of his love to thee; and then see if it will not further thy heavenly-mindedness. I fear, most Christians think higher of the love of a hearty friend, than of the love of God: and then what wonder if they love their friends better than God, and trust them more confidently than God, and had rather live with them than with God, when they take them for better and trustier friends than God, and of more merciful and compassionate nature! Sect. X. 9. Another thing I would advise you to, is this:" Be a careful observer of the drawings of the Spirit, and fearful of quenching its motions, of resisting its workings; if ever thy soul get above the earth, and get acquainted with this living in heaven, the Spirit of God must be to thee as the chariot to Elijah; yea, the very living principle by which thou must move and ascend. O, then, grieve not thy guide, quench not thy life, (Eph. iv. 30; 1 Thess. v. 19,) knock not off thy chariot-wheels! If thou do, no wonder if thy soul be at a loss, and all stand still, or fall to the earth. You little think how much the life of all your graces, and the happiness of your souls doth depend upon your ready and cordial obedience to the Spirit. When the Spirit urgeth thee to secret prayer, and thou refusest obedience; when he forbids thee thy known transgressions, and yet thou wilt go on; when he telleth thee which is the way, and which not, and thou wilt not regard; no wonder if heaven and thy soul be strange. If thou wilt not follow the Spirit while it would draw thee to Christ, and to thy duty; how should it lead thee to heaven, and bring thy heart into the presence of God? O, what supernatural help, what bold access shall that soul find in its approaches to the Almighty, that is accustomed to a constant obeying of the Spirit! And how "Hear a heathen :-Prope est à te Deus, tecum est, intus est. Ita dico; intra nos Spiritus sedet, malorum bouorumque vestrorum observator; et eustos hic prout à nobis tractatus est, ita nos ipse tractat. Bonus vir sine Deo nemo est. An potest aliquis supra fortunam nisi ab illo adjutus exsurgere?— Seneca, epist. 41. I speak not of any drawing of the Spirit above, or contrary to the Word, but its enforcing the precepts and prohibitions of the Word upon our hearts. And that not persuading the will, I think, immediately by himself, but exciting, and so using our reason and conscience as the instruments to persuade the will, and affect the heart. backward, how dull, and strange, and ashamed will he be to these addresses, who hath long used to break away from the Spirit that would have guided him! Even as stiff and unfit will they be for this spiritual motion, as a dead man to a natural. I beseech thee, christian reader, learn well this lesson, and try this course; let not the motions of thy body only, but also the very thoughts of thy heart, be at the Spirit's beck. Dost thou not feel sometimes a strong impulsion to retire from the world, and draw near to God? O do not thou disobey, but take the offer, and hoist up sail while thou mayest have this blessed gale. When the wind blows strongest, thou goest fastest, either backward or forward. The more of this Spirit we resist, the deeper will it wound; and the more we obey, the speedier is our pace; as he goes heaviest that hath the wind in his face, and he easiest that hath it in his back. 10. Lastly, I advise as a further help to this heavenly work, that thou neglect not the due care for the health of thy body, and for the maintaining a vigorous cheerfulness in thy spirits ; nor yet over-pamper and please thy flesh: learn how to carry thyself with prudence to thy body. It is a useful servant if thou give it its due, and but its due: it is a most devouring tyrant, if thou give it the mastery, or suffer it to have what it unreason ably desireth. And it is as a blunted knife, as a horse that is lame, as thy ox that is famished, if thou injuriously deny it what is necessary to its support. When we consider how frequently men offend on both extremes, and how few use their bodies aright, we cannot wonder if they be much hindered in their heavenly conversing. Most men are very slaves to their sensitive appetite, and can scarce deny any thing to the flesh, which they can give it on easier rates, without much shame, or loss, or grief. The flesh thus used is as unfit to serve you as a wild colt to ride on. When such men should converse in heaven, the flesh will carry them out to an ale-house, or to their sports, to their profits, or credit, or vain company; to wanton practices, or sights, or speeches, or thoughts: it will thrust a whore, or a pair of cards, or a good bargain into their minds, instead of God. Look to this specially, you that are young, and heathful, and lusty as you love your souls, remember that in Rom. xiii. 14, which converted Austin, Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil its desires; and that in Rom. viii. 4-8, 12-14. Some few others do much hinder their heavenly joy, by overrigorous denying the body its necessaries, and so making it un able to serve them. But the most, by surfeiting and excess, do overthrow and disable it. P You love to have your knife keen, and every instrument you use in order: when your horse goes lustily, how cheerfully do you travel! As much need hath the soul of a sound and cheerful body. If they who abuse their bodies, and neglect their health, did wrong the flesh only, the matter were small, but they wrong the soul also as he that spoils the house, doth wrong the inhabitant. When the body is sick, and the spirits do languish, how heavily move we in these meditations and joys! Yet where God denieth this mercy, we may the better bear it, because he oft occasioneth our benefit by the denial. : CHAP. VI. Containing the Description of the great Duty of Heavenly Contemplation. SECT. I. Though I hope what is already spoken be not unuseful, and that it will not by the reader be cast aside; yet I must tell you, that the main thing intended is yet behind, and that which I aimed at when I set upon this work. I have observed the maxim, that my principal end be last in execution, though it was first in my intention. All that I have said is but for the preparation to this: the doctrinal part is but to instruct you for this; the rest of the uses are but introductions to this: the motives I have laid down, are but to make you willing for this: the hinderances mentioned were but so many blocks in the P It is ill with men when they cram into their bellies as if they were laying provision in a garner, rather than eating for digestion: and when they are so curious, and must have their devouring appetite so pleased, that the cook is got in more esteem than the husbandman; this is called λaiμapyía, a madness in the throat.-Clemens Alexandr. Pædagog. lib. ii. cap. 1. Humanus animus quando corporibus nulla familiaritate conjungitur, nihilque extrinsecus habet concupiscentiæ carnalis admixtum, sed totus secum, ut ab initio conditus, et in se habitat, tunc sensibilia et mortalia cuncta transcendens in auras veræ libertatis evadit, et verbum intuens, in eo etiam ipsum patrem videt.-Athanas. cont. Gentil. lib. i. Those who are prone to excess in daintiness of diet, they nourish their own diseases, and are led by the great glutton the devil, whom I will not fear to call the belly-devil; which indeed is the worst and most pernicious of all devils. And it is better to be happy than to have a devil dwelling in you.-Clemens Alexandr. Pædagog. lib. ii. cap. 11. way to this: the general helps which I last delivered, are but the necessary attendants of this; so that, reader, if thou neglect this that follows, thou dost frustrate the main end of my design, and makest me lose (as to thee) the chief of my labour. I once more entreat thee, therefore, as thou art a man that maketh conscience of a revealed duty, and that darest not wilfully resist the Spirit, as thou valuest the high delights of a saint, and the soulravishing exercise of heavenly contemplation, as all my former moving considerations seem reasonable to thee, and as thou art faithful to the peace and prosperity of thine own soul, that thou diligently study these directions following, and that thou speedily and faithfully put them into practice: practice is the end of all sound doctrine, and all right faith doth end in duty. I pray thee, therefore, resolve before thou readest any further, and promise here, as before the Lord, that if the following advice be wholesome to thy soul, thou wilt conscionably follow it, and seriously set thyself to the work; and that no laziness of spirit shall take thee off, nor the lesser business interrupt thy course, but that thou wilt approve thyself a doer of this word, and not an idle hearer only. Is this thy promise; and wilt thou stand to it? Resolve, man; and then I shall be encouraged to give thee my advice: if I spread not before thee a delicious' feast, if I set thee not upon as gainful a trade, and put not into thy hand as delightful an employment as ever thou dealtest with in all thy life, then cast it away, and tell me I have deceived thee; only try it thoroughly, and then judge: I say again, if in the faithful following of this prescribed course, thou dost not find an increase of all thy graces, and dost not grow beyond the stature of common Christians, and art not made more serviceable in thy place, and more precious in the eyes of all that are discerning; if thy soul enjoy not more fellowship with God, and thy life be not fuller of pleasure and solace, and thou have not comfort readier by thee at a dying hour, and when thou hast greatest need ; then throw these directions back in my face, and exclaim against me as a deceiver for ever: except God should leave thee uncomfortable for a little season, for the more glorious manifestation of his attributes, and thy integrity, and single thee out as he did Job, for an example and mirror of constancy and patience, which would be but a preparative for thy fuller comfort. Tamen hæc via et scientia non discitur ex libris, sed desursum est: et cui vult participat eam Pater luminum; his quidem clarius, his verò obscurius.-Gerson, in Alphabet. Divini Amoris, part. 3. cap. 14. |