The Christians converse with God, or, The insufficiency and uncertainty of human friendship and the improvement of solitude in converse with God with some of the author's breathings after him / by Richard Baxter ... Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1693 Approx. 208 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 92 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-08 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A26896 Wing B1222 ESTC R14884 12542378 ocm 12542378 62989 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A26896) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 62989) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 305:1) The Christians converse with God, or, The insufficiency and uncertainty of human friendship and the improvement of solitude in converse with God with some of the author's breathings after him / by Richard Baxter ... Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Divine life. viii, [4], 167, [1] p. Printed for John Salusbury ..., London : 1693. The third treatise of: The divine life. Cf. BM. Page 5 print faded in the filmed copy. Pages 1-25 photographed from Bodleian Library copy and inserted at the end. Advertisements: p. [3]-[4] at beginning and p. [1] at end. Reproduction of original in British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng God -- Worship and love. 2004-03 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-04 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-05 Melanie Sanders Sampled and proofread 2004-05 Melanie Sanders Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-07 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion The Christians CONVERSE with GOD , OR , THE Insufficiency and Vncertainty OF Human Friendship And the Improvement of SOLITUDE IN CONVERSE with GOD ; With some of the AUTHOR's Breathings after him . By Richard Baxter . Recommended to the Reader 's serious thoughts when at the House of Mourning , and in Retirement . By Mr. Matth. Silvester . LONDON , Printed for John Salusbury , at the Rising Sun over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill . 1693. TO THE READER· THis Excellent Discourse , breathing the Excellence of it's ( now Deceased ) Authors Spirit , craves thy most serious perusal ; and it will plentifully reward the hours which shall be spent thereon . It greatly savours of deep thoughts , strict observations , and long and great experience of God , of Things , and Persons . Creatures look best when at a distance , and in prospect ; but when nearer to us , they are then easily looked through , and seldom found to correspond with their Appearances to us , and with our expectations from them . But God is such a deep and boundless Abyss of Perfection , as most delightfully will endure and recompence all the severity and closeness of our eternal Thoughts about him . Perfected Spirits are all thought concerning God , and find their Hearts enflamed , and all their Powers invigorated thereby eternally , to inexpressible Satisfaction : And what varieties of pleasant Thoughts the Innumerable Instances and Mirrours of Divine Excellencies in the Heavens will endlesly Minister unto , I do not know , nor dare I guess too boldly at them . But how those Souls can look for Heaven , or truly be accounted gracious , who never retire solemnly to converse with God , I know not . Surely , where God is not more than all to us , he can be comfortably nothing : And our religious Exercises and Pretences must needs be mean and dull , whilst God is triflingly and seldom thought on , and conversed with by us . Can holy Walking be preserved and promoted without love ? Can love to God and Christ , and to the invisible State , be kindled , cherished , and continually advanced without Faith ? Can Faith be any thing but Fancy and Presumption , without Thought and Knowledge ? And can the Life of Faith , Hope , Love , and holy Walking , be fixt and vigorous , and proficient , without our serious and frequent representations of God unto our selves by solemn Contemplations of his excellent Perfections , free Communications , plentiful Provisions , and glorious Designs , whereto he hath entitled us , seeing our Religion and Devotions in all the parts thereof can have no Life and Soul but this ? What is it to converse with God in Solitude , but to actuate our Thoughts of what we know concerning God in Christ , and to accomodate them to all the needful and useful Purposes of Religion and Devotion ; and to make Thoughts solemnly serviceable to the great Ends thereof , viz. our due and seasonable Representations of our God to us , and of our selves to him in Christ , pursuant to the stated and occasional Ends and Interests of Christian Godliness , as the matter may require ? Conversing thus with God , wants not its great Advantages in life and death . And if these Thoughts contained in this Book , ( which did so greatly reconcile the Author to the Thoughts of his then approaching , but now experienced Death , ) were more in Exercise at Funeral Solemnities , and this Book then put into the hands of Mourners , it would be no matter of Repentance that I know of . These are the hasty Thoughts and Sentiments of thine in and for the Lord , whilst Matthew Sylvester . London , Sept. 12. 1692. THE CONTENTS· THE Context opened . p. 1 Why Christ was forsaken by his Disciples . p. 6. Use 1. Expect by the forsaking of your Friends to be conformed unto Christ : Reasons for your Expectation . p. 12 The Aggravations of their forsaking you . p. 34 Some quieting Considerations . p. 38 The Order of Forms in the School of Christ. p. 51 The Disciples scattered every Man to his own . p. 57. Selfishness contrary to friendly fidelity . p. 58. Considerations to quiet us in the death of faithful Friends . p. 60 Whether we shall know them in Heaven . p. 71 Whether Creatures be any matter of our Comfort in Heaven . p. 73. Quest. Shall I have any more Comfort in present friends than in others ? p. 76 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. 80. The advantages of having God with us . p. 81 Quest. How he is with us . p. 82 Use. 1. Imitate Christ : Live upon God alone , though men forsake you ; yet thrust not your selves into Solitude uncalled . p. 91 In what cases Solitude is lawful and good . p. 92 Reasons against unnecessary Solitude . p. 94 The Comfort of Converse with God in necessary Solitude . The Benefits of Solitude . The Reasons from God. Improved largely in some Meditations . p. 102.111 Directions for Conversing with God in Solitude . p. 149 Concluded in further Meditation . p. 160 A Caution . p. 166 Books Printed for John Salusbury in Cornhill . THE certainty of The Worlds of Spirits , fully evinced by unquestionable Histories of Apparitions and Witchcrafts , Operations , Voices , &c. Proving the Immortality of Souls , the Malice and Miseries of the Devils and the Damned , and the Blessedness of the Justified . By Richard Baxter . An End of Doctrinal Controversies which have lately troubled the Churches , by ●econciling explication without much Disputing . By Richard Baxter . The Protestant Religion truly stated and justified , by the late Reverend Divine Mr. Richard Baxter : Whereunto is added by way of an Epistle , some Account of the Learned Author , never before published . By Mr. Matth. Sylvester and Mr. Daniel Williams . The Harmony of the Divine Attributes , in the contrivance and accomplishment of Mans Redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ. By William Bates , D. D. The Changableness of this World , with respect to Nations , Families , and particular Persons ; with a practial Application thereof to the various conditions of this Mortal Life . By Timothy Rogers , M. A. The Christian Lover , or a discourse opening the Nature of Participation with , and Demonstrating the necessity of Purification by Christ. By T. Cruse . The Duty and blessing of a Tender Conscience , plainly stated and earnestly recommended to all that regard acceptance with God , and the prosperity of their Souls . By the same Author . Five Sermons on various Occasions . By the same Author . The Mirrour of Divine Love unvail'd , in a Paraphrase on the High and misterious Song of Solomon . By Robert Fleming . V. D. M. The Mourners Memorial , in two Sermons on the death of the truly Pious Mrs. Susannah Some . With some Account of her Life and death . By T. Wright , and Robert Fleming . V. D. M. A new Examination of the Accidence and Grammar , in English and Latin , wherein all the Rules of Properi quae Maribus , Que Genus , As in presenti , Sintax , and Praesodia , are made plain and easie , that the meanest Capacity may speedily learn the Latin Tongue . OF CONVERSING WITH God , &c. Joh. XVI . 32 . Behold , the hour cometh , ye● is come ▪ that ye shall be scattered every Man to his own , and shall leave me alone ▪ And yet I am not alone , because the Father is with me . I Am this day to handle the instance of [ Christ's being forsaken by his Friends and Followers . ] He thought meet to foret●ll them , how they should ▪ manifest their infirmity and untrustiness in this temporary forsaking of him , that so he might fullyer convince them , that he knew what was in Man , and that he knew future contingencies ( or things to come , which seem most dependent on the Will of Man ) and that he voluntarily submitted to his deserted State , and expected no support from Creatures , but that Man should then do least for Christ , when Christ was doing most for Man ; that Man by an unthankful forsaking Christ , should then manifest his forsaken deplorate state , when Christ was to make Atonement for his Reconciliation to God , and was preparing the most costly Remedy for his Recovery . He foretold them of the Fruit which their Infirmity would produce , to humble them that were apt to think too highly of themselves for the late free Confession they had made of Christ , when they had newly said [ Now we are sure that thou knowest all things : by this we are sure , that thou comest forth from God , ver . 30. He answereth them [ Do ye now believe ? Behold , the hour cometh , &c. ] Not that Christ would not have his Servants know his graces in them , but he would also have them know the Corruption that is latent , and the infirmity consistent with their grace . We are very apt to judge of all that is in us , and of all that we shall do hereafter , by what we feel at the present upon our hearts . As when we feel the stirring of some Corruption , we are apt to think that there 〈◊〉 nothing else , and hardly perceive the contrary grace , and are apt to think it will never be better with us : So when we feel the Exercise of Faith , Desire or Love , we are apt to overlook the contrary Corruptions , and to think that we shall never feel them more . But Christ would keep us both humble and vigilant ▪ by acquainting us with the mutability and unconstancy of our minds . When it goes well with us , we forget that the time is coming when it may go worse . As Christ said to his Disciples , he●e in the case of Believing , we may say to our selves in that and other 〈◊〉 ▪ Do we now Believe ? It is well● But the time may be coming in which we may be brought to shake with th● stirrings of our remaining Unbelief , and shrewdly tempted to question the 〈◊〉 of Ch●istianity it self , and of the ●oly Scriptures , and of the Life to come . Do we now rejoyce in the persuasions of the Love of God ? The time may be coming when we may think our selves forsaken and undone , and think he will esteem and use us as his Enemies . Do we now pray with fervour , and pour out our Souls enlargedly to God ? It is well : But the time may be coming when we shall seem to be as dumb and prayerless , and say , we cannot pray , or else we find no audience and acceptance of our Prayers . Christ knoweth that in us which we little know by our selves ; and therefore may foreknow , that we will commit such Sins , or fall into such Dangers , as we little fear . What Christ here prophesieth to them did afterwards all come to pass . As soon as ever Danger and Trouble did appear , they began to flag , and to shew how ill they could adhere unto him or suffer with him , without his special corroborating Grace . In the Garden when he was sweating Blood in Prayer , they were sleeping ; Though the Spirit was willing , the Flesh was weak : They could not ▪ watch with him one hour , Mat. 26.40 , 41. When he was apprehended , they shifted each Man for himself , Mat. 26.56 . [ Then all the Disciples forsook him and fled . And as this is said to be that the Scriptures might be fulfilled , Mat. 26.54 , 56. so it might be said to be , That this prediction of Christ himself might be fulfilled . Not that Scripture Prophesies did cause the Sin by which they were fulfilled , nor that God caused the sin to fulfill his own Predictions , but that God cannot be deceived who foretold in Scriptures long before , that thus it would come to pass : When it is said , That [ thus it must be , that the Scripture may be fulfilled ] the meaning is not that [ thus God 〈…〉 but only Necess●●● 〈…〉 ; a Logical Necessity in 〈…〉 noscendi & dicendi ; nor a 〈…〉 in ordine essendi : 〈…〉 of the Thing it self as caused by 〈◊〉 Prediction or Decree ; but a 〈◊〉 of the Truth of this 〈…〉 ; [ such a thing will b● , 〈…〉 hath decreed , foreknown or foretold 〈◊〉 or [ whatever God foretelleth , must nescessarily come to pass , that is , will certainly come to pass : but this God hath foretold ; therefore this will come to pass . ] Here are three observable points in the Text , that are worthy our distinct Consideration , though for brevity sake I shall handle them together . 1. That Christ was forsaken by his own Disciples , and left alone . 2. When the Disciples left Christ , they were scattered every one to his own . They returned to their old Habitations , and old Acquaintance , and old Employment , as if their hopes and hearts had been almost broken , and they had lost all their labour in following Christ so long : Yet the root of Faith and Love that still remained , caused them to enquire further of the end , and to come together in secret to confer about these Matters . 3. When Christ was forsaken of his Disciples , and left alone , yet was he not forsaken of his Father , nor left so alone as to be separated from him or his love . We 〈◊〉 ●ow ●o consider of this , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a part of Christs Humiliation , 〈…〉 as a Point in which we must 〈◊〉 to be conformed to him . It may possibly seem strange to us , that Christ would suffer all his Disciples to forsake him in his Extremity ; and I doubt it will seem strange to us , when in our extremity , and our suffering for Christ ( and perhaps for them ) we shall find our selves forsaken by those that we most highly valued , and had the greatest familiarity with . But there are many Reasons of this permissive Providence open to our observation . 1. No wonder , if when Christ was suffering for Sin , he would even then permit the Power and odiousness of sin to break forth , that it might be known he suffered not in vain . No wonder , if he permitted his Followers to 〈◊〉 him , and to shew the latent 〈◊〉 and Selfishness , and unthankfulness tha● remained in them , that so they might know , that the death of Christ was as necessary for them as for others ; and the universality of the Disease might shew the need that the Remedy should be Vniversal . And it is none of Christs intent to make his Servants to seem better than they are , to themselves or others , or to honour himself by the hiding of their Faults , but to magnifie his pardoning and healing grace , by the means or occasion of the sins which he pardoneth and healeth . 2. H●reby he will bring his Followers to the fuller knowledge of themselves , and shew them that which all their days should keep them humble , and watchful , and save them from p●●●sumption and trusting in themselves : When we have made any full Confession of Christ , or done him any considerable service , we are apt to say with the Disciples , Mat. 19.27 . [ Behold , we have forsaken all , and followed thee ; VVhat shall we have ? ] As if they had rather been Givers to Christ , than Receivers from him ; and had highly 〈…〉 his hands : But when 〈…〉 him , and the rest shift for them●●lves , and when they come to themselves after such cowardly and ungrateful Dealings , then they will be●ter understand their Weakness , and know on whom they must de●end . 3. Hereby also they shall better understand what they would have been , if God had le●t them to themselves , that so they may be thankful for grace received , and may not boast themselves against the miserable world , as if they had made themselves to differ , and had not received all that grace by which they excel the common sort : when our falls have hu●t us and shamed us , we shall know to whom we must be beholden to support us . 4. Christ would permit his Disciples thus far to forsake him , because he would have no support from man , in his sufferings for man : This was part of his voluntary humiliation , to ●e deprived of all earthly comforts , and to be●r affliction even from those few , that b●t lately were his faithful servants : that men dealing like men , and sinners , while he was doing like God , and as a Saviour , no man might challenge to himself the honour of contributing to the Redemption of the world , so much as by encouraging the Redeemer . 5. Christ did permit the Faith and courage of his Disciples thus far to fail , that their witness to him might be of the greater credit and authority , when his actual Resurrection and the Communication of the Spirit should compel them to believe : when all their doubts were dissipated , they that had doubted themselves , and yet were constrained to believe , wo●ld be received as the most impartial witnesses by the doubting world . 6. Lastly , by the desertion and dissipation of his Disciples , Christ would teach us whenever we are called to follow him in suffering , what to expect from the best of men ; Even to know that of themselves they are untrusty , and may fail us : and therefore not to look for too much assistance or encouragement from them . Paul lived in a time when Christians were more self-denying and stedfast than they are now : And Paul was one that might better expect to be faithfully accompanied in his sufferings for Christ , than any of us : And yet he saith , 2 Tim. 4.16 . [ At my first answer no man stood with me , but all men forsook me : ] and prayeth , that it be not laid to their charge : Thus you have seen some Reasons why Christ consented to be left of all , and permitted his Disciples to desert him in his sufferings . Yet note here , that it is but a partial temporary forsaking that Christ permitteth ▪ and not a total or final forsaking or Apostasie . Though he will let them see that they are yet men , yet will he not leave them to be but as other men : Nor will he quite cast them off , or suffer them to perish . Nor is it all alike that thus forsake him ; Peter doth not do as Iudas : The sincere may manifest their infirmity ; but the Hypocrites will manifest their Hypocrisie . And accordingly in our sufferings our familiars that were fals-hearted ( as being worldlings and carnal at the heart may perhaps betray us , and set against us , or forsake the cause of Christ , and follow the way of gain and honour : when our tempted shrinking friends that yet may have some sincerity , may perhaps look strange at us , and seem not to know us , and may hide their heads , and shew their fears ; and perhaps also begin to study some self-deceiving arguments and distinctions , and to stretch their consciences , and venture on some sin , because they are afraid to venture on affliction ; till Christ shall cast a gracious rebuking quickning aspect on them , and shame them for their sinful shame , & fear them from their sinful fears , and inflame their Love to him by the motions of his Love to them , and destroy the Love that turned them for him : And then the same men that dishonourably failed Christ and us , and began to shrink , will turn back and re-assume their arms , and by patient suffering overcome , and win the Crown as we have done before them . Vse . CHristians , expect to be conformed to your Lord in this part of his Humiliation also : Are your friends yet fast and friendly to you ? For all that expect that many of them at least should prove less friendly : and promise not your selves an unchanged constancy in them : Are they yet useful to you ? expect the time when they cannot help you : Are they your comforters and delight , and is their company much of your solace upon earth ? Be ready for the time when they may become your sharpest scourges , and most heart-peircing grief● , or at least whom you shall say , We have no pleasure in them . Have any of them , or all , already failed you ? what wonder ? Are they not men , and sinners ? To whom were they ever so constant . As not to fail them ? Rebuke your selves for your unwarrantable expectations from them ▪ And learn hereafter to know what man is ; and expect that friends should use you as followeth . 1· Some of them that you thought sincere , shall prove perhaps unfaithful and dissemblers , and upon fallings out , or matters of self-interest may seek your ruine . Are you better than David that had an Achitophel ? or than Paul that had a Domas ? or than Christ that had a Iudas ? Some will forsake God : what wonder then if they forsake you ? Because iniquity shall abound , the love of many shall wax cold , Mat. 24.12 ▪ Where pride and vain glory , and sensuality and worldliness are unmortified at the heart , there is no trustiness in such persons : For their wealth , or honour , or fleshly interest , they will part with God and their Salvation ; much more with their best deserving friends . Why may not you as well as Iob have occasion to complain , [ He hath put my Brethren far from me , and my Acquaintance are very estranged from me : My kin●folk have failed , and my familiar Friends have ●●●actten me : They that dwell in my House , and my Maiden● count me for a Stranger , I am an Alien in their sight : I called my Servant , and he gave me no Answer , I intreated him with my mouth● My breath is strange to my Wife ; though I intreated for the Childrens sake of my own Body : Yea , young Children dispised me : I arose , and they spake ●gainst me : All my inward friends abhorred me : and they whom I loved are turned against me , Job 19.13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 1● , 19. Why may not you as well as David be put to sav , Yea mine own familiar Friend in whom I trusted , which did eat of my Bread , hath lift up his Heel against me ! ] Psal. 41.9 . Those that have been most acquainted with the secrets of your Soul , and privy to your very thoughts , may be the persons that shall betray you , or grow strange to you . Those that you have most obliged by benefits , may prove your greatest Enemies . You may find some of your Friends like Birds of prey , that hover about you for what they can get , and when they have catcht it , fly away . If you have given them all that you have , they will forsake you , and perhaps reproach you , because you have no more to give them . They are your Friends more for what they yet expect from you , than for what they have already received . If you cannot still be helpful to them , or feed their covetous desires , or supply their wants , you are to them but as one that they had never known . Many a faithful Minister of Christ hath studied , and preacht , and prayed , and wept for their Peoples Souls , and after all have been taken for their Enemies , and used as such ; yea even because they have done so much for them . Like the Patient , that being cured of a mortal sickness , sued his Physician at Law for making him sick with the Physick ( But it is indeed our uncured Patients only that are offended with us . ) Paul was accounted an Enemy to the Galathians , because he told them the truth . Ungrateful truth maketh the faithfullest Preachers most ungrateful . It must seem no wonder to a Preacher of the Gospel , when he hath entreated , prayed , and wept night and day for miserable Souls , and laid his hands as it were under their feet in hopes of their Conversion and Salvation , to find them after all , his bitter Enemies , and seeking his Destruction , that could have laid down his Life for their Salvation . Ieremy seemed too impatient under this affliction , when he said [ Give heed to me , O Lord , and hearken to the Voice of them that contend with me : Shall Evil be recompensed for good ? Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them , and to turn away thy Wrath from them : Therefore deliver up their Children to the famine , and pour out their blood by the force of the S●●ond , &c. Jer. 18 , 19 , 20. Thus may Ingratitude afflict you , and kindness be requited with unkindness , and the greatest benefits be forgotten , and requited with the greatest wrongs : Your old Familiars may be your Foes : and you may be put to say as Ieremy [ For I heard the defaming of many : Fear on every side : Report , say they , and we will report it : All my Familiars watched for my halting , saying , Peradventure he will be enticed , and we shall prevail against him , and we shall take our revenge on him . ] Jer. 20.10 . Thus must the Servants of Christ be used , in conformity to their suffering Head. 2. And some that are sincere , and whose hearts are with you , may yet be drawn by temptation to disown you : When malice is slandering you , timerous friendship may perhaps be silent ▪ and afrai● to just●fie you or take your part . When a Peter in such imbecility and fear can disown and deny his suffering Lord , what wonder if faint hearted friends disown you , or me , that may give them too much occasion or pretence ? Why may not you and I be put to say as David did , Psal. 38.11 , 12. [ My lovers and my Friends stand aloof from my sore , and my Kinsmen stand afar off : They that seek after my Life lay Snares for me : And they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things , and imagine deceits all the day long . ] They that in fearfulness will ●ail their Maker and Redeemer , and hazard their Salvation , may by a smaller temptation be drawn to fail such friends as we . 3. Moreover , a hundred things may 〈…〉 action or 〈…〉 may cause passions in 〈…〉 these may grow so high till 〈…〉 seem to one another to be like 〈◊〉 : Paul and Barnabas may grow so hot , as to fall out to a parture . How easily can Satan let fire on the Tinder which he findeth in the best and gentlest natures , if God permit him ? No Friends so near and dear , that passionate weaknesses may not either alienate or make a grief to one another ; how apt are we to take unkindnesses at one another , and to be suspicious of ou● Friends , or offended with them ? And how apt to give occasion of such offence ? How apt are we to censure one another , and to misinterpret the words and actions of our Friends ? And how apt to give occasion of such mistakes and cutting censures ? And the more kindness we have found in , or expected from our Friends , the more their real or supposed injuries will affect us . We are apt to say , [ Had it been a stranger , I could have born it : But to be used thus by my bosom or familiar Friend , goes near my heart . ] And indeed the unkindness of Friends is no small affliction● th● suffering going usually as near the Hea●t , as the person that caused it was near it : Especially when our own weakness causeth us to forget the frailty and infirmities of Man , and with what allowances and expectations we must choose and use our Friends ; and when we forget the Love that remaineth in the midst of passions . 4. Also cross Interests and unsuitableness may exceedingly interrupt the fastest friend●hip . Friendship is very much founded in suitableness , and maintained by it : And among mortals , there is no perfect s●it●bleness to be found ; but much unsuitablen●ss still remaineth . That which pleaseth one , is displeasing to another : One li●eth this place , and the other that : One liketh this habit , and the other that : One is for mirth , and the other fo● sadness : One for talk , and the other for silence : One for a publick , and the other for a private life . And their personallity or individuation having self love as inseparable , will unavoidably ●●use a contrariety of interests . The Creature is insufficient for us : If one have it , perhaps the other must want it : Like a covering too narrow for the bed . Sometimes our ●●puta●ions seem to stand a 〈◊〉 , so that one mans is diminished by anothers : and then how apt is envy to create a grudge , and raise unfriendly jealousies and distastes . Sometimes the Commodity of one is the discommodity of the other : And then [ Mine and Thine ] ( which are contrary to the community of friendship ) may divide and alienate , and make two of those that seemed one . The instances of Abraham and Lot ( upon the differen●e among their Servants ) and of Isaac and Ishmael , and of ●acob and Esau , and of ●ban and Iacob , and of Leah and Rachel● and of Ioseph and his Brethren , and of Saul and David , and of Ziba Mephibosheth and David , with many oth●rs tell us this . It is rare to meet with a Ionathan , that will endearedly love that man to the death , who is appointed to deprive him of a Kingdom . If one can but say [ I suffer by him , or I am a looser by him ] it seemeth enough to excuse unfriendly thoughts and actions . When you can gratifie the desires of all the covetous , ambitious , self-seeking persons in the World , or else cure their diseases , and possess their minds with perfect C●●rity , then ●ll the 〈…〉 hath over and over again given 〈…〉 as full and sad demonstrations of th● 〈◊〉 of Cross opinions , to alienate 〈◊〉 and make divisions , as most ages of the World have ever had . If your Friend 〈◊〉 proud , it 's wonderful how he will ●ligh● you , and withdraw his Love , if you 〈◊〉 not of his mind ▪ If he be zealous , he is easily tempted , to think it a part of his duty to God , to disown you if you differ from him , as taking you for one that disowneth the truth of God , and therefore one that God himself disowneth ; or at least to grow cold in his affection toward you , and to decline from you , as he that thinks you do from God. As agreement in opinions doth strangely reconcile Affections ; so disagreement doth secretly and strangely alienate them ; even before you are well aware , your Friend hath lost possession of your hearts , because of an unavoidable diversity of apprehensions : When all your Friends have the same intellectual complexion and temperature , and measure of understanding with your selves , then you may have hope to escape the ruptures , which unlikeliness and differences of apprehensions might else cause . 6. Moreover , some of your friends may so far overgrow you in wisdom , or wealth , or honour , or worth , in their own conceits , that they may begin to take you to be unsuitable for them , and unmeet for their further special friendship . Alas poor man , they will pity thee that thou art no wiser , and that thou hast no greater light to change thy mind as fast as they , or that thou art so weak and ignorant as not to see what seems to them so clear a truth ; or that thou art so simple to cast away thy self by crossing them that might prefer thee , or to f●ll under the displeasure of those that have power to raise or ruine thee : But if thou be so simple , thou mayest be the object of their lamentation , but art no familiar friend for them . They think it fittest to close and converse with those of their own rank and stature , and not with such shrubs and children , that may prove their trouble and dishonour . 7. And some of your friends will think that by a more through acquaintance with you , they have found out more of your infirmities or faults ; and therefore have found that you are less aimable and valuable than at first they judged you : They will think that by distance , unacquaintedness , and an over-hasty love and judgment , they were mistaken in you ; and that now they see reason to repent of the love which they think was guilty of some errors and excess : when they come nearer you , and have had more tryal of you , they will think they are fitter to judge of you than before : And indeed our defects are so many , and all our infirmities so great , that the more men know us , the more they may see in us that deserveth pity or reproof ; and as Pictures , we appear less beautiful at the nearest view : Though this will not warrant the withdrawing of that Love which is due to friends , and to vertue even in the imperfect : nor will excuse that alienation and decay of friendship that is caused by the pride of such as overlook , perhaps much greater failings and weaknesses in themselves , which need forgiveness . 8. And perhaps some of your Friends will grow weary of their Friendship , having that infirmity of humane nature , not to be much pleased with one thing long . Their love is a flower that quickly withereth : It is a short liv'd thing that soon groweth old . It must be novelty that must feed their love and their delight . 9. And perhaps they may have got some better Friends in their apprehensions , that may have so much interest as to take them up , and leave no room for antient Friends . It may be they have met with those that are more suitable , or can be more useful to them : that have more learning , or wit , or wealth , or power , than you have , and therefore seem more worthy of their Friendship . 10. And some of them may think when you ( are in a low and suffering state , and in danger of worse , that it is part of their duty of self-preservation to be strange to you though in heart they wish you well ) They will think they are not bound to hazard themselves upon the displeasure of superiours , to own or befriend you or any other : Though they must not desert Christ , they think they may desert a man for their own preservation . To avoid both extreams in such a case , men must both study to understand which way is most serviceable to Christ , and to his Church , and withal to be able to deny themselves , and also must study to understand what Christ meaneth in his final sentence [ In as much as you did it ( or did it not ) to one of the least of these my Brethren , you did it ( or did it not ( to me . ] As if it were to visit the Contagious , we must neither cast away our lives to do no good , or for that which in value holdeth no proportion with them ; nor yet must we deny to run any hazard when it is indeed our duty : So is it in our visiting those that suffer for the cause of Christ : ( but that here the owning them being the co●fessing of him , we need more seldom to fear being too forward . ) 11. And some of your friends may cover their faithfulness with the pretence of some fault that you have been guilty of , some errour that you hold , or some unhansom or culpable act that you have done , or some duty that you have left undone or failed in . For they think there is not a better shelter for their unfaithfulness , then to pretend for it the Name and Cause of God , and so to make a duty of their sin . Who would not justifie them , if they can but prove , that God requireth them , and Religion o●ligeth th●m to forsake you f●r your faults ? There are few crimes in the world that by some are not fathered on God ( that most hateth them ) as thinking no name can so much honour them . False friends therefore use this means as well as other Hypocrites : And though God is Love , and condemneth nothing more than uncharitableness & malice , yet these are commonly by falsha●ted Hypocrites , called by pious vertuous names , and God himself is entitled to them : so that few worldlings , ambitious persons or timeservers , but will confidently pretend Religion for all their falshood to their friends , or bloody cruelty to the servants of Christ , that comply not with their carnal interest . 12. Perhaps some of your friends may really mistake your case , and think that you suffer as evil doers , and instead of comforting you , may be your sharpest censurers : This is one of the most notable things set out to our observation in the book of Iob : It was not the smallest part of his affliction , that when the hand of God was heavy upon him , and then if ever was the time for his friends to have been his comforters , and friends indeed , on the contrary they became his scourge , and by unjust accusations , and misinterpretations of the providence of God , did greatly add to his affliction ! when God had taken away his children , wealth and health , his friends would take away the reputation and comfort of his integrity ; and under pretence of bringing him to repentance , did charge him with that which he was never guilty of ; They wounded his good name , and would have wounded his conscience , and deprived him of his inward peace : Censorious false accusing friends do cut deeper then malicious slandring enemies . It is no wonder if strangers or enemies do misjudge and misreport our actions : But when your bosom friends , that should most intimately know you , and be the cheif witness of your innocency against all others , shall in their jealousie , or envy , or peevishness ▪ or falling out , be your chief reproachers and unjust accusers , as it makes it serve more credible to others , so it will come nearest to your selves . And yet this is a thing that must be expected : yea even your most self-denying acts of obedience to God , may be so misunderstood by godly men , and real friends , as by them to be taken for your great miscarriage , and turned to your rebuke : As Davids dancing before the Ark was by his wife ; which yet did but make him resolve to be yet more vile : If you be cast into poverty , or disgrace , or prison , or banishment , for your necessary obedience to Christ , perhaps your friend or wife may become your accuser for this greatest service , and say , This is your own doing : your rashness , or indiscretion , or self-conceitedness , or willfulness hath brought it upon you : what need had you to say such words , or to do this or that ? why could not you have yeilded in so small a matter ? ] Perhaps your costliest and most excellent obedience shall by your nearest friends be called the fruits of pride , or humour , or passion , or some corrupt affection , or at least of folly and inconsiderateness . When flesh and blood hath long been striving in you against your duty , and saying , [ Do not cast away thy self : O serve not God at so dear a rate : God doth not require thee to undo thy self : why shouldest thou not avoid so great inconveniences ? ] When with much ado you have conquered all your carnal reasonings , and denyed your selves and your carnal interest ; you must expect even from some religious friends , to be accused for these very actions , and perhaps their accusations may fasten such a blot upon your names , as shall never be washed out till the day of judgment . By difference of interests , or apprehensions , and b● unacquaintedness with your hearts , and actions , the righteousness of of the righteous may be thus taking from him , and friends may do the work of enemies , yea of Satan himself the accuser of the brethren ; and may prove as thorns in your bed , and gravel in your shoes , yea in your eyes , and wrong you much more than open adversaries could have done . How is it like to go with that mans reputation , you may easily judge , whose friends are like Iobs , and his enemies like Davids , that lay snares before him , and diligently watch for matter of reproach : yet this may befall the best of men . 13. You may be permitted by God to fall into some real crime , and then your friends may possibly think it is their duty to disown you , so far as you have wronged God : When you provoke God to frown upon you , he may cause your friends to frown upon you : If you fall out with him , and grow strange to him , no marvel if your truest friends fall out with you , and grow strange to you . They love you for your godliness , and for the sake of Christ ; and therefore must abate their love if you abate your godliness ; and must for the sake of Christ be displeased with you for your sins . And if in such a case of real guilt , you should be displeased at their displeasure , and should expect that your friend should befriend your sin , or carry himself towards you in your guilt as if you were innocent , you will but shew that you understand not the nature of true friendship , nor the use of a true friend ; and are yet your selves too friendly to your sins . 14. Moreover , those few friends that are truest to you , may be utterly unable to relieve you in your distress , or to give you ease , or do you any good . The case may be such that they can but pity you and lament your sorrows , and weep over you : you may see in them that man is not as God , whose friendship can accomplish all the good that he desireth to his friends . The wisest and greatest and best of men are silly comforters , and uneffectual helps : you may be sick , and pained , and grieved , and distressed , notwithstanding any thing that they can do for you : Nay , perhaps in their ingnorance , they may increase your misery , while they desire your relief ; and by striving indirectly to help and ease you , may tye the knot faster and make you worse . They may provoke those more against you that oppress you , while they think they speak that which would tend to set you free : They may think to ease your troubled minds by such words as shall increase the trouble : or to deliver you as Peter would have delivered Christ , and saved his Saviour , first by carnal counsel , Math. 16.22 . [ Be it far from thee Lord , this shall not be unto thee ] And then by carnal unjust force , ( by drawing his sword against the Officers . ) Love and good meaning will not prevent the mischiefs of ignorance and mistake . If your friend cut your throat while he thought to cut but a vein to cure your disease , it is not his friendly meaning that will save your lives . Many a thousand sick people are killed by their friends , that attend them with an earnest desire of their life ; while they ignorantly give them that which is contrary to their disease , and will not be the ●ess pernicious for the good meaning of the giver . Who have more tender affections than Mothers to their children ? And yet a great part of the calamity of the World of sickness , and the misery of mans life , proceedeth from the ignorant and erroneous indulgence of Mothers to their Children , who to please them , let them eat and drink what they will , and use them to excess and gluttony in their childhood , till nature be abused and ma●tered and clogged with those superfluities and crudities , which are the dunghill matter of most of the following diseases of their lives . I might here also remember you how your friends may themselves be overcome with a temptation , and then become the more dangerous tempters of you , by how much the greater their interest is in your affections . If they be infected with error , they are the likest persons to ensnare you : If they be tainted with Covetousness or Pride , there is none so likely to draw you to the same sin : And so your friends may be in effect your most deadly Enemies , deceivers and destroyers . 15. And if you have friends that are never so firm and constant , they may prove ( not only unable to relieve you ) but very increasing to your grief . If they are afflicted in the participation of your sufferings , as your troubles are become theirs ( without your ease ) so their trouble for you will become yours , and so your stock of sorrow will be encreased And they are mortals , and liable to distress as well as you . And therefore they are like to bear their share in several sorts of sufferings : And so friendship will make their sufferings to be yours : Their sicknesses and pains , their fears and griefs , their wants and dangers will all be yours . And the more they are your hearty Friends , the more they will be yours . And so you will have as many additions to the proper burden of your griefs , as you have suffering Friends : When you do but hear that they are dead , you say as Thomas , Joh. 11.16 . [ Let us also go that we may die with him . ] And having many such friends you will almost always have one or other of them in distress ; and so be seldom free from sorrow ; besides all that which is properly your own . 16. Lastly , if you have a Friend that is both true and useful , yet you may be sure he must stay with you but a little while . The godly men will cease , and the faithful fail from among the Children of men ; while men of lying flattering lips , and double hearts survive , and the wicked walk on every side while the vilest men are exalted , Psal. 12.1 , 2 , 8. while swarms of false malicious men , are left round about you , perhaps God will take away your dearest Friends : If among a multitude of unfaithful ones , you have but one that is your friend indeed , perhaps God will take away that one . He may be separated from you into another Country ; or taken away to God by Death . Not that God doth grudge you the mercy of a faithful Friend ; but that he would be your All , and would not have you hurt your selves with too much affection to any Creature , and for other reasons to be named anon . And to be forsaken of your Friends , is not all your affliction ; but to be so forsaken is a great aggravation of it . 1. For they use to forsake us in our greatest sufferings and streights , when we have the greatest need of them . 2. They fail us most at a dying hour , when all other worldly comfort faileth : As we must leave our houses , lands and wealth , so must we for the present leave our Friends : And as all the rest are silly comforters , when we have once received our citation to appear before the Lord , so also are our Friends but silly Comforters : They can weep over us , but they cannot with all their care , delay the separating stroak of death , one day or hour . Only by their prayers , and holy advice , remembring us of everlasting things , and provoking us in the work of preparation , they may prove to us friends indeed . And therefore we must value a holy , heavenly , faithful friend , as one of the greatest Treasures upon Earth . And while we take notice how as men they may forsake us , we must not deny but that as Saints they are precious , and of singular use to us ; and Christ useth by them to communicate his mercies ; and if any Creatures in the World may be blessings to us , it is holy persons , that have most of God in their hearts and lives . 3. And it is an aggravation of the Cross , that they often fail us , when we are most faithful in our Duty , and stumble most upon the most excellent acts of our obedience . 4. And those are the persons that oft-times fail us , of whom we have deserved best , and from whom we might have expected most . Review the experiences of the choicest Servants that Christ hath had in the World , and you shall find enough to confirm you of the vanity of man , and the instability of the dearest Friends . How highly was Athanasius esteemed ? and yet at last deserted and banished even by the famous Constantine himself ! How excellent a Man was Gregory Nazianzene , and highly valued in the Church ? and yet by reproach and discouragements driven away from his Church at Constantinople whither he was chosen : and envyed by the Bishops round about him . How worthy a man was the eloquent Chrysostom , and highly valued in the Church ! And yet how bitterly was he prosecuted by Hierome and Epiphanius ; and banished , and dyed in a second banishment , by the provocation of Factious contentious Bishops , and an Empress impatient of his plain reproofs ? What person more generally esteemed and honoured for learning , piety and peaceableness then Melanchthon ? and yet by the Contentions of Illyricus and his party , he was made aweary of his life . As highly as Calvin was ( deservedly ) valued at Geneva , yet once in a popular lunacy and displeasure , they drove him out of their City , and in contempt of him some called their Dogs by the name of Calvin ; ( though after they were glad to intreat him to return . ) How much our Grindal and Abbot were esteemed , it appeareth by their advancement to the Archbishoprick of Canterbury : And yet who knoweth not that their eminent piety sufficed not to keep them from dejecting frowns ! And if you say , that it is no wonder if with Princes through interest , and with People through levity , it be thus ; I might keep up instances of the like untrustiness of particular Friends : But all History and the experiences of the most , do so much abound with them , that I think it needless . Which of us must not say with David that [ all men are lyars ] Psal. 116. that is , deceitful and untrusty , either through unfaithfulness , weakness or insufficiency ; that either will forsake us , or cannot help us in the time of need ? Was Christ forsaken in his extremity by his own Disciples , to teach us what to expect , or bear ? Think it not strange then to be conformed to your Lord in this , as well as in other parts of his humiliation . Expect that Men should prove deceitful : Not that you should entertain censorious suspicions of your particular friends : But remember in general that Man is frail , and the best too selfish and uncertain ; and that it is no wonder if those should prove your greatest grief , from whom you had the highest expectations . Are you better then Iob , or David , or Christ ? and are your Friends more firm and unchangeable then theirs ? Consider , 1. That Creatures must be set at a sufficient distance from their Creator . All-sufficiency , Immutability and indefectible fidelity , are proper to Jehovah . As it is no wonder for the Sun to set or be Eclipsed , as glorious a body as it is ; so it is no wonder for a Friend , a pious Friend , to fail us , for a time , in the hour of our distress . There are some that will not : But there is none but may , if God should leave them to their weakness . Man is not your Rock : He hath no stability but what is derived , dependant , and uncertain , and defectible . Learn therefore to rest on God alone , and lean not too hard or confidently upon any mortal might . 2. And God will have the common infirmity of man to be known , that so the weakest may not be utterly discouraged , nor take their weakness to be gracelesness , whilst they see that the strongest also have their infirmities , though not so great as theirs . If any of God's Servants lives in constant holiness and fidelity , without any shakings or stumbling in their way , it would tempt some self-accusing troubled Souls , to think that they were altogether graceless , because they are so far short of others . But when we read of a Peters denying his Master in so horrid a manner , with swearing and cursing that he knew not the man , Mat. 26.74 . And of his dissimulation and not walking uprightly , Gal. 2. and of a Davids unfriendly and unrighteous dealing with Mephibosheth , the seed of Ionathan ; and of his most vile and treacherous dealing with Vriah , a faithful and deserving Subject ; it may both abate our wonder and offence at the unfaithfulness of our Friends , and teach us to compassionate their frailty , when they desert us ; and also somewhat abate our immoderate dejectedness and trouble , when we have failed God or man our selves . 3. Moreover , consider , how the odiousness of that sin , which is the root and cause of such unfaithfulness , is greatly manifested by the failing of our Friends . God will have the odiousness of the Remnants of our Self-love and Carnal mindedness , and Cowardize appear . We should not discern it in the Seed and Root , if we did not see , and taste it in the Fruits . Seeing without Tasting will not sufficiently convince us . A Crab looks as beautiful as an Apple ; but when you taste it , you better know the difference . When you must your selves be unkindly used by your Friends , and forsaken by them in your distress , and you have tasted the Fruits of the Remnants of their Worldliness , Selfishness and Carnal Fears , you will better know the odiousness of these Vices , which thus break forth against all Obligations to God and you , and notwithstanding the Light , the Conscience , and perhaps the Grace , that doth resist them . 4. Are you not prone to overvalue and overlove your Friends ? If so , is not this the meerest Remedy for your Disease ? In the loving of God , we are in no danger of Excess ; and therefore have no need of any thing to quench it . And in the loving of the Godly purely upon the account of Christ , and in loving Saints as Saints , we are not apt to go too far . But yet our Understandings may mistake , and we may think that Saints have more of sanctity than indeed they have ; and we are exceeding apt to mix a Selfish Common Love with that which is Spiritual and Holy ; and at the same time , when we love a Christian as a Christian , we are apt not only to love him ( as we ought ) but to overlove him , because he is our Friend , and loveth us . Those Christians that have no special Love to us , we are apt to undervalue and neglect , and love them below their holiness and worth : But those that we think entirely love us , we love above their proper Worth , as they stand in the esteem of God : Not but that we may love those that love us , and add this love to that which is purely for the sake of Christ ; but we should not let our own Interest prevail and overtop the Interest of Christ , nor love any so much for loving us , as for loving Christ : And if we do so , no wonder if God shall use such Remedies as he seeth meet , to abate our excuse of Selfish Love. O how highly are we apt to think of all that Good which is found in those who are the highest esteemers of us , and most dearly love us ; when perhaps in it self it is but some ordinary Good , or ordinary Degree of Goodness which is in them ! Their Love to us unresistibly procureth our Love to them : And when we love them , it is wonderful to observe , how easily we are brought to think well of almost all they do , and highly to value their Judgments , Graces , Parts and Works : When greater Excellencies in another perhaps are scarce observed , or regarded but as a common thing : And therefore the destruction or want of Love , is apparent in the vilifying Thoughts and Speeches , that most Men have one of another ; and in the low esteem of the Judgments , and Performances , and Lives of other Men ; ( much more in their Contempt , Reproaches , and cruel Persecutions . ) Now though God will have us encrease in our love of Christ in his Members , and in our pure love of Christians as such , and in our common Charity to all , yea , and in our just Fidelity to our Friend ; yet would he have us suspect and moderate our selfish and excessive Love , and inordinate partial esteem of one above another , when it is but for our selves , and on our own account . And therefore as he will make us know , that we our selves are no such excellent Persons , as that it should make another so laudable , or advance his worth , because he loveth us ; so he will make us know , that our Friends , whom we overvalue , are but like other Men : If we exalt them too highly in our esteem , it is a sign that God must cast them down . And as their Love to us was it that made us so exalt them ; so their unkindness or unfaithfulness to us , is the fittest means to bring them lower in our estimation and affection . God is very jealous of our hearts , as to our overvaluing and overloving any of his Creatures . What we give inordinately and excessively to them , is some way or other taken from him , and given them to his Injury , and therefore to his offence . Though I know , that to be void of natural , friendly or social affections , is an odious extreme on the other side ; yet God will rebuke us , if we are guilty of Excess . And it 's the greater and more inexcusable fault to over-love the Creature , because our Love to God is so cold , and hardly kindled and kept alive . He cannot take it well to see us dote upon dust and frailty like our selves , at the same time when all his wondrous kindness , and attractive goodness , do cause but such a faint and languid Love to him , which we ourselves can scarcely feel . If therefore he cures us by permitting our Friends to shew us what they are , and how little they deserve such excessive Love ( when God hath so little ) it is no more wonder , than it is , that he is tender of his Glory , and merciful to his Servants Souls . 5 By the failing and unfaithfulness of our Friends , the wonderful Patience of God will be observed and honoured , as it is shewed both to them and us . When they forsake us in our distress , ( especially when we suffer for the Cause of Christ ) it is God that they injure more than us : And therefore if he bear with them , and forgive their Weakness upon Repentance , why should not we do so , that are much less injured ? The worlds perfideousness should make us think , How great and wonderful is the patience of God , that beareth with , and beareth up so vile , ungrateful , treacherous Men that abuse him , to whom they are infinitely obliged ? And it should make us consider , when Men deal treacherously with us , How great is that mercy that hath born with , and pardoned greater wrongs , which I my self have done to God , than these can be which men have done to me ! It was the remembrance of David's Sin , that had provoked God to raise up his own Son against him ( of whom he had been too fond ) which made him so easily bear the Curses and Reproach of Shimei . It will make us bear abuse from others , to remember how ill we have dealt with God , and how ill we have deserved at his hands our selves . 6. And I have observed another of the Reasons of God's permitting the failing of our Friends , in the season and success . It is , that the Love of our Friends may not hinder us when we are called to suffer or die . When we over-love them , it teareth our very hearts to leave them : And therefore it is a strong temptation to draw us from our Duty , and to be unfaithful to the cause of Christ , lest we should be taken from our too-dear Friends , or lest our suffering cause their too-much Grief . It is so hard a thing to die with willingness and peace , that it must needs be a mercy to be saved from the Impediments which make us backward : And the excessive Love of Friends and Relations , is not the least of these Impediments . O how loth is many a one to die , when they think of parting with Wife , or Husband or Children , or dear and faithful Friends ! Now I have often observed , that a little before their death or sickness , it is ordinary with God to permit some unkindness between such too dear friends to arise , by which he moderated and abated their affections , and made them a great deal the willinger to dye . Then we are ready to say , it is time for me to leave the World , when not only the rest of the World , but my dearest Friends have first forsaken me ! This helpeth us to remember our dearest everlasting Friend , and to be grieved at the heart that we have been no truer our selves to him , who would not have forsaken us in our extremity . And sometimes it makes us ev'n weary of the world , and to say as Elias , Lord take away my Life , &c. 1 King 19.4.10 , 14. When we must say , I thought I had one friend left , and behold even he forsaketh me in my distress . ] As the love of Friends intangleth our affections to this World , so to be weaned by their unkindnesses from our Friends , is a great help to loosen us from the World , and proveth oft a very great mercy to a Soul that is ready to depart . And as the friends that Love us most , and have most interest in your esteem and Love , may do more than others , in tempting us to be unfaithful to our Lord , to to entertain any errour , to commit any sin , or to flinch in suffering ; so when God had permitted them to forsake us , and to lose their too great interest in us , we are fortified against all temptations from them . I have known where a former intimate friend hath grown strange , and broken former friendship , and quickly after turned to such dangerous ways and errours , as convinced the other of the mercifulness of God , in weakning his temptation by his friends desertion ; who might else have drawn him along with him into sin . And I have often observed , that when the husbands have turned from Religion to Infidelity , Familism , or some dangerous heresie , that God hath permitted them to hate and abuse their wives so inhumanly , as that it preserveth the poor women from the temptation of following them in their Apostasie or sin : When as some other women with whom their husbands have dealt more kindly , have been drawn away with them into pernicious paths . Therefore still I must say , we were undone if we had the disposing of our own conditions . It would belong before we should have been willing our selves to be thus unkindly dealt with by our friends : And yet God hath made it to many a soul , a notable me●●s of preserving them from being undone for ever . Yea the unfaithfulness of all our friends , and the malice and cruelty of all our enemies , doth us not usually so much harm , as the love and temptation of some one deluded ●●ring friend , whom we are ready to follow into the gulf . 7. Lastly , consider that it is not desirable or suitable to our state , to have too much of our comfort by any creature : Not only because it is most pure and sweet which is most immediately from God ; but also because we are very prone to over-love the Creature ; and if it should but seem to be very commodious to us , by serving our necessities or desires , it would seem the more amiable , and therefore be the stronger snare : The work of mortification doth much consist in the annihilation or deadness of all the Creatures as to any power to draw away our hearts from God , or to entangle us and detain us from our duty . And the more excellent and lovely the Creature appeareth ●o us , the less it is dead to us , or we to it ; and the more will it be able to hinder or ensnare us . When you have well considered all these things , I suppose you will admire the wisdom of God in leaving you under this kind of tryal , and weaning you from every creature , and teaching you by his Providence as well as by his word , to Cease from man , whose breath is in his nostrils ; for wherein is he to be accounted of ? ] And you will see that it 's no great wonder that corrupted souls , that live in other sins , should be guilty of this unfaithfulness to their friends : And that he that dare unthankfully trample upon the unspeakable kindness of the Lord should deal unkindly with the best of men . You make no great wonder at other kind of sins , when you see the world continually commit them ; why then should you make a greater or a stranger matter of this than of the rest ? Are you better than God ? Must unfaithfulness to you be made more hainous , than that unfaithfulness to him , which yet you daily see and slight ? The least wrong to God is a thousand fold more than the greatest that can be done to you , as such . Have you done that for your nearest friend , which God hath done for him and you , and all men ? Their obligations to you are nothing in comparison of their great and manifold obligations to God. And you know that you have more wronged God , your selves , than any man ever wronged you : And if yet for all that he bear with you , have you not great reasons to bear with others ? Yea , you have not been innocent towards men your selves : Did you never wrong or fail another ? Or rather , are you not apter to see and aggravate the wrong that others do to you , than that which you have done to others ? May you not call to mind your own neglects , and say , as Adonizebeck , Judg. 1.7 . [ Threescore and ten Kings having their thumbs and their great toes cut off , gathered their meat under my table : As I have done , so God hath requited me . ] Many a one have I failed or wronged : and no wonder if others fail and wrong me . ] Nay you have been much more unfaithful and injurious to your selves , than ever any other hath been to you . No friend was so near you , as your selves : None had such a charge of you : None had such helps and advantages to do you good or hurt : And yet all the Enemies you have in the world , even in Earth or Hell , have not wronged and hurt you half so much as you have done your selves . O , methinks the man or woman that knoweth themselves , and knoweth what it is to Repent ; that ever saw the greatness of their sin and folly , should have no great mind or leisure , or aggravate the failings of their friends , to the injuries of their enemies , considering what they have proved to themselves ! Have I forfeited my own salvation , and deserved everlasting wrath , and sold my Saviour and my Soul for so base a thing as sinful pleasure , and shall I ever make a wonder of it , that another man doth me some temporal hurt ? Was any friend so near to me as my self ? Or more obliged to me ? O sinful soul , let thy own , rather then thy friends deceit and treachery , and neglects , be the matter of thy displeasure , wonder and complaints ! And let thy Confirmity herein to Jesus Christ , be thy holy ambition and delight : Not as it is thy suffering , nor as it is caused by mens sin : but as it is thy Confirmity and fellowship in the sufferings of thy Lord , and caused by his Love. I have already shewed you that sufferers for Christ , are in the highest form among his Disciples . The Order of his followers usually is this ; 1. At our entrance , and in the lowest form , we are exercised with the fears of Hell , and Gods displeasure , and in the Works of Repentance for the sin that we have done . 2. In the second form , we come to think more seriously of the Remedy , and to enquire what we shall do to be saved , and to understand better what Christ hath done and suffered , and what he is and will be to us ; and to value him and his love and grace . And here we are much enquiring how we may know our own sincerity , and our interest in Christ , and are labouring for some assurance , and looking after signs of Grace . 3. In the next form or order we are searching after further Knowledge , and labouring better to understand the mysteries of Religion , and to get above the Rudiments and first Principles : And here if we escape turning bare Opinionists or Hereticks by the snare of Controversie or Curiosity , it 's well . 4. In the next form we set our selves to the fuller improvement of all our further degrees of Knowledge ; and to digest it all , and turn it into stronger Faith , and Love , and Hope , and greater Humility , Patience , Self-denial , Mortification , and contempt of Earthly Vanities , and hatred of Sin ; and to walk more watchfully and holily , and to be more in holy Duty . 5. In the next form we grow to be more publick-spirited : To set our Hearts on the Churches welfare , and long more for the progress of the Gospel , and for the good of others : and to do all the good 〈◊〉 the World that we are able , for mens Souls or Bodies , but especially to long and lay out our selves for the Conversion , and Salvation of ignorant , secure , unconverted Souls . The counterfeit of this , is , An eager desire to Proselyte others to our Opinions or that Religion which we have chosen , by the direction of Flesh and Blood , or which is not of God , nor according unto Godliness , but doth subserve our carnal Ends. 6. In the next form we grow to study more the pure and wonderful Love of God in Christ , and to relish and admire that Love , and to be taken up with the goodness and tender mercies of the Lord , and to be kindling the Flames of holy Love to him that hath thus loved us ; and to keep our Souls in the Exercise of that Love : And withal to live in Joy , and Thanks , and Praise to him that hath redeemed us and loved us . And also , by Faith to converse in Heaven , and to live in holy contemplation , beholding the Glory of the Father and the Redeemer in the Glass , which is fitted to our present use , till we come to see him face to face . Those that are the highest in this form , do so walk with God , and burn in Love , and 〈◊〉 so much above inferiour Vanities , and are so conversant by Faith in Heaven , that their hearts even dwell there , and there they long to be forever . 7. And in the highest form in the School of Christ , we are exercising this confirmed Faith and Love , in Sufferings , especially for Christ. In following him with our Cross , and being conformed to him , and glorifying God in the fullest exercise and discovery of his Graces in us , and in an actual trampling upon all that standeth up against him , for our hearts ; and in bearing the fullest witness to his Truth and Cause , by constant enduring , though to the Death . Not but that the weakest that are sincere , must suffer for Christ , if he call them to it . Martyrdom it self is not proper to the strong Believers : Whoever forsaketh not all that he hath for Christ , cannot be his Disciple , Luke 14.33 . But to suffer with that Faith and Love forementioned , and in that manner , is proper to the strong : And usually God doth not try and exercise his young and weak ones with the tryals of the strong ; nor set his Infants on so hard a service , nor put them in the front or hottest of the Battel , as he doth the ripe confirmed Christians . The sufferings of their inward Doubts and Fears doth take up such . It is the strong that ordinarily are called to Sufferings for Christ , at least in any high Degree ; I have digrest thus far to make it plain to you , that our Conformity to Christ , and fellowship with him in his Sufferings , in any notable degree , is the lot of his best confirmed Servants , and the highest form in his School , among his Disciples : And therefore not to be inordinately feared or abhorred , nor to be the matter of impatiency , but of holy joy ; and in such infirmities we may glory . And if it be so of Sufferings in the general ( for Christ ) then is it so of this particular sort of Suffering , even to be forsaken of all our best and nearest , dearest Friends , when we come to be most abused by the Enemies . For my own part , I must confess that as I am much wanting in other parts of my conformity to Christ , so I take my self to be yet much short of what I expect he should advance me to , as long as my Friends no more forsake me ▪ It is not long since I found my self in a low ( if not a doubting ) case , because I had so few Enemies and so little Sufferings for the Cause of Christ ( though I had much of other sorts : ) And now that doubt is removed by the multitude of Furies which God hath let loose against me . But yet , methinks , while my Friends themselves are so friendly to me , I am much short of what I think I must at last attain to . BUT let us look further in the Text , and see what is the Cause of the failing and forsaking Christ in the Disciples ; and what it is that they betake themselves to , when they leave him . [ Ye shall be scattered every Man to his Own. ] Self-Denyal was not perfect in them , selfishness therefore in this hour of temptation did prevail . They had before forsaken all to follow Christ ; they had left their Parents , their Families , their Estates , their Trades , to be his Disciples : But though they believed him to be the Christ , yet they dreamt of a visible Kingdom , and did all this with too carnal Expectations of being great men on Earth , when Christ should begin his Reign . And therefore when they saw his apprehension and ignominious suffering , and thought now they were frustrate of their hopes , they seem to repent that they had followed him ( though not by Apostacy and an habitual or plenary change of mind● yet ) by a sudden passionate , frightful apprehension , which vanished when grace performed its part . They now began to think , that they had lives of their Own to save , and families of their Own to mind , and business of their Own to do . They had before forsaken their private Interests and Affairs , and gathered themselves to Jesus Christ , and lived in Communion with him , and one another . But now they return to their Trades and Callings , and are scattered every Man to his own . Selfishness is the great Enemy of all Societies , of all Fidelity and Friendship . There is no trusting that person in whom it is predominant . And the Remnants of it where it doth not Reign , do make men walk unevenly and unstedfastly towards God and men . They will certainly deny both God and their Friends , in a time of tryal who are not able to deny themselves : Or rather , he never was a real Friend to any , that is predominantly selfish . They have alway some interest of their Own , which their Friend must needs contradict , or is insufficient to satisfie . Their Houses , their Lands , their Moneys , their Children , their Honour , or something which they call their Own , will be frequently the matter of contention ; and are so near them , that they can for the sake of these cast off the nearest Friend . Contract no special friendship with a selfish man : Nor put no confidence in him , whatever Friendship he may profess . He is so confined to himself , that he hath no true love to spare for others : If he seem to love a Friend , it is not as a Friend , but as a Servant , or at best as a Benefactor : He loveth you for himself , as he loveth his Mony , or Horse , or House , because you may be serviceable to him : Or as a Horse or Dog doth love his Keeper , for feeding him . And therefore when your Provender is gone , his Love is gone ; when you have done feeding him , he hath done loving you . When you have no more for him , he hath no more for you . Object . But ( some will say ) it is not the falseness of my Friend that I lament , but the separation , or the loss of one that was most faithful : I have found the deceitfulness of ordinary Friends ; and therefore the more highly pri●e those few that are sincere . I had but one true friend among abundance of self-seekers ; and that one is dead , or taken from me , and I am l●ft as in a Wilderness , having no mortal man that I can trust or take much comfort in . Answ. Is this your case ? I pray you answer these few Questions , and suffer the truth to have its proper work upon your mind . Quest. 1. Who was it that deprived you of your Friend ? Was it not God ? Did not he that gave him you take him from you ? Was it not his Lord and Owner that call'd him home ? And can God do any thing injuriously or amiss ? will you not give him leave to do as he list with his own ? Dare you think that there was wanting either Wisdom or Goodness , Iustice or Mercy in God's disposal of your Friend ? Or will you ever have Rest , if you cannot have Rest in the Will of God ? 2. How know you what sin your Friend might have fallen into , if he had lived as long as you would have him ? You 'll say , that God could have preserved him from sin . It 's true : But God preserveth sapientially , by means , as well as omnipotentially : And sometime he seeth that the temptations to that person are like to be so strong , and his Corruption like to get such advantage , and that no means is so fit as Death it self , for his preservation . And if God had permitted your Friend by temptation to have fallen into some scandalous sin , or course of evil , or into errors , or false ways , would it not have been much worse than Death to him and you ? God might have suffered your Friend that was so faithful , to have been sifted and shaken as Peter was , and to have denied his Lord ; and to have seemed in your own Eyes , as odious as he before seemed amiable . 3. How know you what unkindness to your self , your dearest friend might have been guilty of ? Alas ! there is greater frailty and inconstancy in man , than you are aware of . And there are sadder roots of Corruption unmortified , that may spring up into bitter Fruits , than most of us ever discover in our selves . Many a Mother hath her heart broken by the unnaturalness of such a Child , or the unkindness of such a Husband , as if they had died before , would have been lamented by her , with great impatience and excess . How confident soever you may be of the future Fidelity of your Friend , you little know what tryal might have discovered . Many a one hath failed God and Man that once were as confident of themselves , as ever you were of your Friend . And which of us see not reason to be distrustful of our selves ? And can we know another better than our selves ? or promise more concerning him ? 4. How know you what great calamity might have befallen your Friend , if he had lived as long as you desired ? When the Righteous seem to men to perish , and merciful Men are taken away , it is from the evil to come that they are taken , Isa. 57.1 . How many of my Friends have I lamented as if they had dyed unseasonably , concerning whom some following Providence quickly shewed me , that it would have been a grievous misery to them to have lived longer ! Little know you what Calamities were imminent on his Person , his Family , Kindred , Neighbours , Country , that would have broke his Heart : What if a Friend of yours had died immediately before some calamitous subversion of a Kingdom , some ruines of the Church , &c. And if ignorantly he had done that which brought these things to pass , can you imagin how lamentably sad his life would have been to him , to have seen the Church , the Gospel , and his Country in so sad a case ? especially if it had been long of him ? Many that have unawares done that which hath ruined but a particular Friend , have lived in so much grief and trouble , as made them consent that death should both revenge the injured on them , and conclude their misery . What then would it have been to have seen the publick good subverted , and the faithful overwhelmed in misery , and the Gospel hindred , and holy worship changed for deceit and vanity ; and for Conscience to have been daily saying , [ I had a hand in all this misery : I kindled the fire that hath burned up all . ] What comfort can you think such Friends if they had survived , would have ●ound on Earth ? Unless it were a comfort to hear the Complaints of the afflicted , to see and hear such odious sins as sometimes vexed righteous L●t to see and hear ; or to hear of the scandals of one Friend , and the Apostasie of another , and the sinful compliances and declinings of a third ; and to be under temptations , reproaches ; and afflictions themselves ? Is it a matter to be so much lamented that God hath prevented their greater miseries and wo ? 5. What was the World to your Friends while they did enjoy it ? Or what is it now , or like to be hereafter to your selves ? Was it so good and kind to them , as that you should lament their separation from it ? Was it not to them a place of toil and trouble , of envy and vexation , of enmity and poison ? of successive cares and fears and griefs ? And worst of all , a place of sin ? Did they groan under the burden of a sinful nature , a distempered , tempte● , troubled heart of languishings and weakness of every grace ; of the rebukes of God , the wounds of Conscience , and the malice of a wicked VVorld ? And would you have them under these again ? Or is their deliverance become your grief ? Did you not often joyn in prayer with them , for deliverance from Malice , Calamities , troubles , imperfections , temptations and Sin ? And now those Prayers are answered in their deliverance : And do you now grieve at that which then you prayed for ? Doth the VVorld use your selves so well and kindly , as that you should be sorry that your Friends partake not of the Feast ? Are you not groaning from day to day your selves ? And are you grieved that your Friends are taken from your griefs ? you are not well pleased with your own condition : VVhen you look into your hearts , you are displeased and complain ; when you look into your lives , you are displeased and complain : When you look into your Families , into your Neighbourhoods , unto your Friends , unto the Church , unto the Kingdom , unto the World , you are displeased and complain : And are you also displeased that your Friends are not under the same displeasedness and complaints as you ? Is the World a place of Rest or trouble to you ? And would you have your Friends to be as far from Rest as you ? And if you have some Ease and Peace at present , you little know what storms are near ! You may see the days , you may hear the tydings , you may feel the griping griefs and pains , which may make you call for Death your selves , and make you say that a life on Earth is no felicity , and make you confess that they are Bl●ssed that are dead in the Lord , as resting from their Labours , and being past these troubles , griefs and fears . Many a poor troubled Soul is in so great distress , as that they t●ke their own lives to have some taste of Hell : And yet at the same time , are grieving because their friends are ●aken from them , who would have been grieved for their griefs , and for ought they know might have fallen into as sad a st●te as they themselves are now l●menting . 6. Do you think it is for the Hurt or the go●d of your Friend , that he is removed hence ? It cannot be for his Hurt unless he be in Hell. ( At least , it is uncertain whether to live would have been for his Good , by an increase of Grace , and so for greater Glory ▪ ) And if he be in Hell , he was no fit person for you to take much pleasure in upon Earth : He might be indeed a fit Object for your Compassion , but not for your Complacency . Sure you are not undone for want of such company as God will not endure in his sight , and you must be separated from for ever . But if they be in Heaven , you are scarce their Friends if you would wish them th●nce . Friendship hath as great respect to the good of our Friends as of our selves . And do you pretend to Friendship , and yet lament the removal of your friend to his greatest happiness ! Do you set more by your own enjoying his company , then by enjoying God in perfect blessedness ? This sheweth a very culpable defect either in Faith or Friendship ; and therefore beseemeth not Christians and Friends . If Love teacheth us to mourn with them that mourn , and to rejoyce with them that rejoyce ; can it be an act of rational Love to mourn for them that are possessed of the highest everlasting joyes ? 7. God will not honour himself by one only , but by many : He knoweth best when his work is done : When our Friends have finished all that God intended them for , when he put them into the World , is it not time for them to be gone , and for others to take their places , and finish their Work also in their time ? God will have a succession of his Servants in the World. Would you not come down , and give place to him that is to follow you , when your part is played , and his is to begin ? If David had n●t dyed , there had been no Solomon , no I●hoshaphat , no Hezekiah , no Iosiah , to succeed him and honour God in the same Throne . You may as wisely grudge that one day only takes not up all the Week , and that the clock str●keth not the same hour still , but proceedeth from one to two , from two to three , &c. as to murmur that one man only continueth not to do the work of his place excl●ding his Successors . 8. You must 〈◊〉 have all your Mercies by one Messenger or Hand : God will not have you confine your Love to one only of his Servants : And therefore he will not make one only useful to you : But when one hath delivered his Message and done his part , perhaps God will send you other Mercies by another hand : And it belongeth to him to choose the Messenger who gives the gift . And if you will Childishly dote upon the first Messenger , and say you will have no more , your frowardness more deserveth Correction than Compassion : And if you be kept fasting till you can thankfully take your Food , from any hand that your Father sends it by , it is a Correction very suitable to your sin . 9. Do you so highly value your Friends for God , or for them , or for your selves , in the final consideration ? If it was for God , what reason of trouble have you , that God hath disposed of them , according to his wisdom and unerring Will ? should you not then be more pleased that God hath them , and employeth them in his highest service , than displeased that you want them ? But if you value them and love them for themselves , they are now more lovely when they are more perfect ; and they are now fitter for your content and joy , when they have themselves unchangeable content and joy , than they could be in their sin and sorrows . But if you valued and loved them but for your selves only , it is just with God to take them from you , to teach you to value Men to righter ends , and upon better considerations : And both to prefer God before your selves , and better to understand the nature of true Friendship , and better to know that your own felicity is not in the hands of any Creature , but of God alone . 10. Did you improve your Friends while you had them ? or did you only love them , while you made but little use of them for your Souls ? If you used them not , it was just with God for all your Love to take them from you . They were given you as your Candle , not only to Love it , but to work by the Light of it : And as your Garments ; not only to Love them , but to wear them ; and as your meat , not only to Love it , but to feed upon it . Did you receive their Counsel , and hearken to their Reproofs , and pray with them , and confer with them upon those holy Truths that tended to elevate your minds to God , and to inflame your Breasts with sacred Love ? If not , be it now known to you , that God gave you not such helps and mercies only to talk of , or look upon , and Love , but also to improve for the benefit of your Souls . 11. Do you not seem to forget both where you are your selves , and where you must shortly and for ever live ? Where would you have your Friends , but where you must be your sel●es ? Do you mourn that they are taken hence ? Why , if they had staid here a thousand years , how little of that time should you have had their Company ? When you are almost leaving the World your selves , would you not send your treasure before you to the place where you must abide ? How quickly will you pass from hence to God , where you shall find your Friends that you lamented as if they had been lost , and there shall dwell with them for ever ! O foolish Mourners ! would you not have your Friends at home ! at their home and your home , with their Father , and your Father ; their God , and your God ? Shall you not there enjoy them long enough ! Can you so much miss them for one day , that must live with them to all Eternity ? And is not Eternity long enough for you to enjoy your Friends in ? Obj. But I do not know whether ever I shall there have any distinct knowledge of them , or love to them , and whether God shall not there be so far All in All , as th●t we shall need or fetch no comfort from the Creature . Answ. There is no reason for either of these doubts . For , 1. You cannot justly think that the knowledge of the Glorified shall be more confused or imperfect than the knowledge of natural Men on Earth . We shall know much more , but not so much less . Heaven exceedeth Earth in knowledge , as much as it doth in joy . 2. The Angels in Heaven have now a distinct particular knowledge of the least Believers ; rejoycing particularly in their conversion , and being called by Christ himself [ Their Angels . ] Therefore when we shall be equal to the Angels , we shall certainly know our nearest Friends that there dwell with us , and are employed in the same attendance . 3. Abraham knew the Rich Man in Hell , and the Man knew Abraham and Lazarus : Therefore we shall have as distinct a Knowledge . 4. The two Disciples knew Moses and Elias in the Mount , whom they had never seen before : Though it is possible Christ told them who they were , yet there is no such thing expressed : And therefore it is as probable that they knew them by the Communication of their irradiating glory . Much more shall we be then illuminated to a clearer knowledge . 5. It is said expresly , 1 Cor. 13.10 , 11 , 12. That our present knowledge shall be done away only in regard of its imperfection ; and not of it self , which shall be perfected : [ when that which is perfect is come , then that which is in part shall be done away : ] As we put away childish thoughts and speeches , when we become men : The change will be from [ seeing in a glass ] to [ seeing face to face ] and from [ knowing in part ] to [ knowing even as we are known . ] 2. And that we shall both Know , and Love and rejoyce in creatures even in Heaven , notwithstanding that God is all in all , apeareth further thus . 1. Christ in his glorified humanity is a Creature : and yet there is no doubt but all his members will there Know and Love him in his glorified humanity , without any derogation from the glory of the Deity . 2. The Body of Christ will continue its unity , and every member will be so nearly related , even in Heaven , that they cannot choose but Know and Love each other . Shall we be ignorant of the members of our Body ? and not be concerned in their felicity , with whom we are so nearly one ? 3. The state and felicity of the Church hereafter , is frequently described in Scripture as consistent in Society . It is a Kingdom , the City of God , the Heavenly Ierusalem : and it is mentioned as part of our happiness to be of that society , Heb. 12.22 , 23 , 24 , &c. 4. The Saints are called Kings themselves : and it is said that they shall judge the world , and the Angels ( And Judging in Scripture is frequently put for Governing ) Therefore , ( whether there will be another world of mortals which they shall Govern as Angles now Govern men ; or whether the Misery of damned men and Angels will partly consist in as base a subjection to the glorified Saints , as Dogs now have to men , or wicked reprobates on Earth to Angles ; or whether in respect of both these together , the Saints shall then be Kings , and Rule and Judge ; or whether it be only the participation of the Glory of Christ , that is called a Kingdom , I will not here determine , but ) it is most clear that they will have a distinct particular Knowledge of the world , which they themselves must judge ; and some concernment in that work . 5. It is put into the description of the Happiness of the Saints , that they shall come from the East , and from the West , and shall sit down with Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob , in the Kingdom of God. Therefore they shall know them , and take some comfort in their presence . 6. Love ( even to the Saints as well as unto God ) is one of the graces that shall endure for ever , 1 Cor. 13. It is exercised upon an Immortal object ( the Image , and Children of the Most High ) and therefore must be one of the Immortal Graces . For Grace in the Nature of it dyeth not : and therefore if the Object cease not , how should the Grace cease , unless you will call it's perfecting a ceasing ? It is a state too high for such as we , and I think for any meer Creature to live so Immediately and only upon God , as to have no use for any fellow Creature , nor no comfort in them . God can make use of Glorified Creatures , in such subserviency and subordination to himself , as shall be no diminution to his All-sufficiency or Honour , nor to our glory and felicity . We must take heed of fancying even such a Heaven it self , as is above the capacity of a Creature ; as some very wise Divines think they have ●one , that tell us we shall Immediately see Gods Essence ( his Glory being that which is provided for our intuition and felicity , and is distinct from his Essence ; being not every where as his Essence is ) And as those do that tell us because that God will be All in All , therefore we shall there have none of our comfort by any Creature . Though flesh and blood shall not enter into that Kingdom , but our Bodies will then be Spiritual Bodies ; yet will they be really the same as now , and distinct from our Souls : and therefore must have a felicity suitable to a Body glorified : And if the soul did immediately see God's Essence , yet as no reason can conclude that it can see nothing else , or that it can see even Created Good , and not Love it , so the Body however must have objects and felicity fit for a Body . Obj. But it is said , If we knew Christ after the flesh , henceforth know we him no more . Answ. No doubt but all the carnality in Principles , matter , manner and ends of our knowledge will then cease as it's imperfection : But that a carnal knowledge be turned into a spiritual , is no more a diminution to it , than it is to the glory of our Bodies , to be made like the stars in the Firmament of our Father . Obj. But then I shall have no more comfort in my present friends than in any other . Answ. 1. If you had none in them , it is no diminution to our happiness , if indeed we should have all in God immediately and alone . 2. But if you have as much in others that you never knew before , that will not diminish any of your comfort in your antient Friends . 3. But it is most probable to us , that as there is a twofold Object for our love in the Glorified Saints ; one is their Holiness , and the other is the Relation which they stood in between God and us , being made ▪ his instruments for our conversion and salvation , so that we shall love Saints in Heaven in both respects : And in the first respect ( which is the chiefest ) we shall love those most that have most of God , and the greatest Glory ( though such as we never knew on Earth . ) And in the second respect , we shall love those most that were employed by God for our greatest good . And that we shall not there lay by so much respect to our selves , as to forget or disregard our Benefactors , is manifest , 1. In that we shall forever remember Christ , and love him , and praise him , as one that formerly Redeemed us , and washed us in his Blood , and hath made us Kings and Priests to God : And therefore we may also in just subordination to Christ , remember them with Love and Thankfulness , that were his Inst●uments for the Collation of these benefits . 2. And this kind of Self-love ( to be sensible of Good and Evil to our selves ) is none of the sinful or imperfect selfishness to be renounced or laid by , but part of our very Natures , and as inseparable from us , as we are from our selves . Much more , were it not digress●ve , might be said on this subject ; but I shall only add , that as God doth draw us to every holy Duty , by shewing us the excellency of that duty ; and as perpetu●ty is not the smallest excellency ; so he hath purposely mentioned that Love endureth for ever ( when he had described the Love of one another ) as a principle motive to kindle and encrease this Love. And therefore those that think they shall have no personal Knowledge of one another , nor personal Love to one another ( for we cannot Love person●lly , if we know not personally ) do take a most effectual course to destroy in their souls all holy special Love to Saints , by casting away that principal or very great motive given them by the Holy Ghost , I a● not ●ble to Love mu●h where I f●●eknow that I shall not Love long . I cannot Love a comely Inn , so well as a nearer dwelling of my own , because I must be gone to morrow Therefore must I love my Bible better than my Lawbooks or Physickbooks , &c. Because it leadeth to Eternity . And therefore I must Love Holiness in my self and others , better than meat and drink , and wealth , and honour , and beauty and pleasure ; because it must be Loved for ever , when the Love of these must needs be transitory , as they are transitory . I must profess from the very experience of my soul , that it is the belief that I shall Love my friends in Heaven , that principally kindleth my Love to them on Earth : And if I thought I should never know them after death , and consequently never love them more , when this life is ended , I should in reason number them with temporal things , and Love them comparatively but a little ; even as I Love other transitory things ( allowing for the excellency in the nature of Grace ) But now I converse with some delight with my Godly friends , as believing I shall converse with them for ever , and take comfort in the very Dead and Absent , as believing we shall shortly meet in Heaven : And I Love them , I hope , with a Love that is of a Heavenly Nature , while I Love them as the Heirs of Heaven , with a Love which I expect shall there be perfected , and more fully and for ever exercised , 12. The last Reason that I give you , to move you to bear the Loss or Absence of your friends , is , that it gives you the loudest call to retire from the world , and to converse with God himself , and to long for Heaven , where you shall be seperated from your friends no more . And your forsaken state will somewhat assist you to that solitary converse with God , which it calls you to : But this brings us up to the third part of the Text. AND yet I am not alone , because the Father is with me . ] Doct. When all forsake us and leave us ( as to them ) alone , we are far from being simply alone ; because God is with us . He is not without company , that is with the King ▪ though twenty others have turned him off . He is not without Light that hath the shining Sun , though all his Candles be put out . If God be our God , he is our All , and is enough for us : And if he be our All , we shall not much find the want of creatures while he is with us . For 1. He is with us , who is Every-where , and therefore is never from us ; and knoweth all the ways and projects of our enemies ; being with them in wrath , as he is with us in mercy . 2. He is with us who is Almighty , sufficient to preserve us , conquerable by none ? and therefore while he is with us , we need not fear what man can do unto us : For they can do nothing but what he will : No danger , no sickness , no trouble or want can be so great as to make it any difficulty to God to deliver us when and how he please . 3. He is with us who is Infinitely wise , and therefore we need not fear the subtilty of enemies ; nor shall any of his undertaken works for his Church or us , miscarry for want of foresight , or through any oversight . We shall be preserved even from our own Folly , as well as from our Enemies subtilty : For it is not our own wisdome that our greatest concernments do principally rest upon , nor that our safety and peace are chiefly secured by ; but it is the Wisdome of our great Preserver . He knoweth what to do with us , and what Paths to lead us in , and what is best for us in all conditions : And he hath promised to Teach us , and will be our sure infallible Guide . 4. He is with us who is Infinitely Good , and therefore is only fit to be a continual delight and satisfaction to our souls : That hath nothing in him to disaffect us , or discourage us : whom we may love without fear of over-loving ; and need not set any bounds to our Love , the Object of it being infinite . 5. He is with us , who is most nearly related to us , and most dearly loveth us ; and therefore will never be wanting to us in any thing that is fit for us to have . This is he that is with us , when all have left us , and as to Man we are alone ; and therefore we may well say that we are not alone . Of this I shall say more anon in the application . Quest. But how is he with us ? Answ. 1. He is with us not only in his Essential presence , as he is every where , but as by his Gracious Fatherly presence : We are in his Family , attending on him : Even as the Eye of a Servant is to the hand of his Master : We are always with him , and ( as he phraseth it himself in the Parable ) Luke 15. all that he hath in ours , that is , all that is fit to be communicated to us , and all the Provisions of his bounty for his Children . When we awake , we should be still with him : When we go abroad we should be always as before him : Our life and works should be a Walking with God. 2. He is always with us efficiently to do us good ; Though we have none else that careth for us , yet will he never cast us out of his care , but biddeth us cast our care on him , as promising that he will care for us . Though we have none else to provide for us , he is always with us , and our Father knoweth what we want , and will make the best provision for us , Mat. 6.32 , 33. Though we have none else to defend us against the power of our Enemies , he is always with us to be our sure defence : He is the Rock to which we fly , and upon which we are surely built . He gathereth us to himself as the Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings , Mat. 2.37 , 3. And sure while Love is thus protecting us , we may well say that the Father himself is with us . Though in all our wants we have no other to supply us , yet he is still with us to perform his promise , that no good thing shall be wanting to them that fear him . Though we may have none else to strengthen and help us , and support us in our weakness , yet he is always with us , whose Grace is sufficient for us , to manifest his strength in weakness . Though we have no other to teach us , and to resolve our doubts , yet he is with us that is our chiefest Master , and hath taken us to be his Disciples , and will be our Light and Guide , and will lead us into the Truth . Though we have none else to be our Comforters , in our agony , darkness or distress ; but all forsake us , or are taken from us , and we are exposed as Hagar with Ishmael in a Wilderness ; yet still the Father of all consolations is with us ; his Spirit who is the Comforter is in us : And he that so often speaketh the words of Comfort to us in his Gospel , and saith , [ Be of good chear ; let not your hearts be troubled , neither be afraid , &c. ] will speak them ( in the season and measure which is fittest for them ) unto our hearts . Though all Friends turn Enemies , and would destroy us , or turn false Accusers , as Iob's Friends , in their ignorance or passion ; though all of them should add affliction to our affliction , yet is our Redeemer and Justifier still with us , and will lay his restraining hand upon our Enemies , and say to their proudest fury [ Hitherto and no further shall thou go ] He is angry with Iob's accusing Friends , notwithstanding their friendship and good meaning , and though they seemed to plead for God and Godliness against Iob's sin : And who shall be against us while God is for us ? or who shall condemn us when it is he that justifieth us ? Though we be put to say as David , Psal. 142.4 . [ I looked on my right hand and beheld , but there was no man that would know me ; refuge failed me ; no man cared for my Soul : ] Yet we may say with him , vers . 5. and 7. [ I cryed unto thee , O Lord ; I said , Thou art my refuge and my Portion in the land of the Living : Bring my Soul out of Prison that I may praise thy Name : The Righteous shall compass me about : For thou shalt deal bountifully with me : 2 , 3. I poured out my complaint before him ; I shewed before him my trouble : When my Spirit was overwhelmed within me , then thou knewest my Path : In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a Snare for me . ] Thus [ God is our refuge and strength ; a very present help in trouble . ] Psal. 46.1 . Therefore should we not fear though the Earth were removed , and though the Mountains were carried into the mi●st of the Sea ; though the Waters thereof roar and be troubled , &c. vers . 2.3 . Though a● David saith , Psal. 41.5 , 6 , 7. [ Mine Enemies speak Evil of me : When shall he dye , and his name perish ? And if he come to see me , he speaketh vanity : His Heart gathereth Iniquity to it self ; when he goeth abroad he tell●th it : All that ●●te me whisper t●gether against me : against me do they devise my hurt : An evil Disease , say they , cleaveth fast unto him ; and now that he lyeth , he sh●ll rise up no more : Yea , my own familiar friend in whom I trusted , that did eat of my Bread , hath lift up his heel against me — ] Yet we may add a● he , v. 12. [ And as for me , thou upholdest me in mine integrity , and settest me before thy face forever . ] Though ( as Psal. 35.7 , &c. Without cause they have hid for me their Net in a Pit , which without cause they have digged for my Soul : 11. And false Witnesses did rise up , they laid to my charge things that I knew not ; they rewarded me evil for good : 15 , 16. In my adversity they rejoyced , and gathered themselves together ; the objects gathered themselves together against me , and I knew it not ; they did tear and ceased not ; with hypocritical mockers in Feas●s , they gnashed upon me with their teeth : 20. For they speak not peace , but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the Land. ] Yet verse 9. [ My Soul shall be joyful in the Lord ; it shall rejoyce in his Salvation : 10. All my Bones shal● say , Lord , who is like unto thee , who deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him , yea the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him . ] Though Friends be far off , the Lord is nigh to them that are of a brok●n heart , and saveth such as be of a contrite Spirit : Many are the Afflictions of the Righteous ; but the Lord delivereth him out of them all . ] Psal. 34.18 , 19. The Lord redeemeth the Soul of his Servants ; and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate . ] v. 22. Therefore [ I will be glad and rejoyce in his Mercy , for he hath considered my trouble , and hath known ( and owned ) my Soul in adversity : and hath not shut me in the hand of the Enemy . — When my life was spent with grief , and my years with sighing ; my strength failed because of mine iniquity , and my Bones were consumed ; I was a reproach among all mine Enemies , but especially among my Neighbours , and a fear to mine Acquaintance ; they that did see me without fled from me : I was forgotten , and as a dead man out of mind : I was like a broken Vessel : I heard the slander of many : fear was on every side ; while they took counsel together against me , they devised to take away my life : But I trusted in thee , O Lord : I said , Thou art my God : my times are in thy hand : deliver me from the hand of mine enemies , and from them that persecute me : Make thy face to shine upon thy Servant : Save me for thy mercies sake . — O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee , which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the Sons of Men ! Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the Pride of Man : Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of Tongues , Psal. 31. ] Thus God is with us when men are far from us , or against us : His people find by happy experience , that they are not alone . Because he is nigh them , evil shall not come nigh them , unless as it worketh for their good . He is their hiding place to preserve them from trouble : the great water-floods shall not come nigh them : he will compass them about with Songs of deliverance . ] Psal. 32.6 , 7. 3. And as God is with us thus Relatively and Efficiently , so also Objectively for our holy converse . Wherever our Friends are , God is still at hand to be the most profitable , honourable and delightful Object of our thoughts . There is enough in him to take up all the faculties of my soul. He that is but in a well furnished Library , may find great and excellent employment for his Thoughts many years together : And so may he that liveth in the open World , and hath all the visible Works of God to meditate upon : But all this were nothing , if God were not the sense of Books and Creatures , and the matter of all these noble Studies : He that is alone , and hath only God himself to study , hath the matter and sense of all the Books and Creatures in the World , to employ his thoughts upon . He never need to want matter for his meditation , that hath God to meditate on . He need not want matter of Discourse ( whether mental or vocal ) that hath God to talk of , though he have not the name of any other Friend to mention . All our Affections may have in him the highest and most pleasant work . The Soul of Man cannot have a more sweet and excellent work than to love him : He wanteth neither work nor pleasure , that in his solitude is taken up in the believing contemplations of Eternal Love , and of all his blessed Attributes and Works . O then what happy and delightful converse may a Believer have with God alone ! He is always present , and always at leisure to be spoken with ; and always willing of our access and audience : He hath no interest Cross to our felicity , which should move him to reject us ( as worldly great ones often have ▪ ) He never misunderstandeth us , nor chargeth that upon us which we were never guilty of : If we converse with Men , their Mistakes , and Interests , and Passions , and Insufficiencies , do make the trouble so great , and the benefit so small , that many have become thereby aweary of the World , or of human Society , and have spent the rest of their days alone in desert places . Indeed , so much of God as appears in Men , so much is their converse excellent and delightful ; and theirs is the best that have most of God. But there is so much of vanity , and self ▪ and flesh , and sin in the most or all of of us , as very much darkneth our Light , and dampeth the pleasure , and blasteth the fruit of our Societies and Converse . O how oft have I been solaced in God , when I found nothing but deceit and darkness in the World ! How oft hath he comforted me , when it was past the power of Man ! How oft hath he relieved and delivered me , when all the help of Man was vain ! It hath been my Stay and Rest , to look to him , when the Creature hath been a broken Staff , and deceitful Friend● have been but as a broken Tooth , or a Foot that is out of Joint ( as Solomon speaketh of confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble , Prov. 25.29 . ) Verily , as the World were but an horrid Dungeon without the Sun , so it were a howling wilderness , a place of no considerable Employment or Delight , were it not that in it we may live to God and do him Service , and sometime be refreshed with the light of his countenance , and the communications of his love . But of this more ano● . Vse 1. WE see our Example , and our Encouragements . Let us now as followers of Christ , endeavour to imitate him in this , and to Live upon God , when men forsake us , and to know that while God is with us , we are not alone , nor indeed forsaken while he forsakes us not . I shall , 1. Shew you here Negatively , what you must not do . 2. Affirmatively , what you must do ; for the performance of your duty in this imitation of Christ. 1. You must not make this any pretence for the undervaluing of your useful Friends ; nor for your unthankfulness for so great a Benefit as a Godly Friend : nor for the neglect of your Duty in improving the Company and help of Friends : Two is better then one : The communion of Saints , and help of those that are wise and faithful , is a mercy highly to be esteemed . And the undervaluing of it , is at least a sign of a declining Soul. 2. You must not hence fetch any pretence to slight your Friends , and disoblige them , or neglect any duty that you owe them , or any means therein necessary to the continuation of their Friendship . 3. You must not causelesly withdraw from humane society into Solitude . A weariness of converse with Men , is oft conjunct with a weariness of our Duty : And a retiring voluntarily into Solitude , when God doth not call or drive us thither , is oft but a retiring from the place and work which God hath appointed us : And consequently a retiring rather from God , than to God. Like some idle Servants , that think they should not work so hard , because it is but Worldly business , and think their Masters deal not Religiously by them , unless they let them neglect their labour , that they may spend more time in serving God : as if it were no serving God to be faithful in their Masters Service . I deny not but very holy persons have lived in a state of retirement from humane converse : In such cases as these it may become a Duty , 1. In case of such persecution as at present leaveth us no opportunity of serving or honouring God so much in any other place or state . 2 In case that natural infirmity , or disability , or any other accident shall make one less serviceable to God and his Church in Society than he is in solitude . 3. In case he hath committed a sin so heinous and of indelible scandal and reproach , as that it is not fit for the Servants of Christ any more to receive him into their local Communion , though he repent : ( For as to Local Communion , I think , such a case may be . ) 4. In case a man through custom and ill company be so captivated to some fleshly Lust , as that he is not able to bear the temptations that are found in humane converse ; but falleth by them into frequent heinous sinning : In this case the right hand or eye is rather to be parted with , than their Salvation . And though a meer restraint by distance of temptations and opportunities of sinning , will not prove a man sanctified , nor save the soul that loveth the sin and fain would live in it ; Yet , 1. Grace may sometime appear in the strength and self denyal which is exercised in the very avoiding of temptations , when yet perhaps the person hath not strength enough to have stood against the temptation if it had not been avoided . And 2. The distance of temptations , & opportunity of serious and frequent consideration , may be a mean● to help to sincerity that want it . 5. In case a man by age or sickness find himself so near to death , as that he hath now a more special call to look after his present actual preparation , than to endeavour any more the good of others ; and find withall , that solitude will help him in his preparations , his Society being such as would but hinder him . In these five cases I suppose it lawful to retire from humane converse into solitude . But when there is no such necessity or call , it usually proceedeth from one of these vicious distempers : 1. From Cowardize and fear of suffering , when the souldiers of Christ do hide their heads , instead of confessing him before men . 2. From a laziness of mind and weariness of duty : when slothful unprofitable servants hide their talents , pretending their fear of the austerity of their Lord. It s easier to run away from our work , then do it : and to go out of the reach of ignorance , malice , contradiction and ungodliness , than to encounter them , and conquer them by Truth and Holy lives . So many persons as we converse with , so many are there to whom we owe some duty : And this is not so easie as it is to over run our work , and to hide our selves in some Wilderness or Cell , whilst others are fighting the Battels of the Lord. 3. Or it may proceed from meer impatience : When men cannot bear the frown , and scorns , and violence of the ungodly , they fly from sufferings , which by patience they should overcome . 4. Or it may come from humour and mutability of mind , and discontent with ones condition : Many retire from humane converse to please a discontented passionate mind ; or expecting to find that privacy , which in publick they could not find , nor is any where to be found on Earth . 5. And some do it in Melancholy , meerly to please a sick imagination , which is vexed in company , and a little easeth it self in living as the possessed man among the Tombs . 6. And somtimes it proceedeth from self ignorance , and an unhumbled state of a Soul : When men think much better of themselves than others , they think they can more comfortably converse with themselves than with others : Whereas if they well understood that they are the worst or greatest enemies , or troubles to themselves , they would more fear their own Company than other mens : They would then consider what proud , and fleshly , and worldly , and selfish , and disordered hearts they are like to carry with them into their solitude , and there to be annoyed with from day to day : And that the nearest enemy is the worst , and the nearest trouble is the greatest . These vices or infirmities carry many into solitude ; and if they live where Popish vanity may seduce them , they will perhaps imagine , that they are serving God , and entring in perfection , when they are but sinfully obeying their corruptions : and that they are advanced above others in degrees of grace , while they are pleasing a diseased fancy , and entring into a dangerous course of sin . No doubt but the duties of a publick life are more in number , and greater in weight , and of more excellent consequence and tendency ( even to the most publick good , and greatest honour of God ) than the duties of privacy or retirement . Vir bonus est commune bonum : A good man is a common good . And ( saith Seneca ) Nulla essent communia nisi pars illorum pertineret ad singulos ] If every one have not some share or interest in them , how are they common ? Let me add these few Cons●derations , to shew you the evil of voluntary unnecessary Solitude . 1. You less contribute to the honour of your Redeemer , and less promote his Kingdom in the world , and less subserve his death and office , while you do good but to few , and live but almost to your selves . 2. You live in the poorest exercise of the grace of Charity ; and therefore in a low undesirable condition . 3. You will want the communion of Saints , and benefit of publick ordinances ( for I account not a Colledge life a Solitary life . ) And you will want the help of the Charity , Graces and Gifts of others , by which you might be benefited . 4. It will be a life of smaller comfort , as it is a life of smaller benefit to others . They that do but little good ( according to their ability ) must expect but little comfort . They have usually most peace and comfort to themselves , that are the most profitable to others . [ Non potest quisquam bene degere qui se tantum intuetur : Alteri vivas oportet , si tibi vis vivere : Sen. ] No man can live well , that looketh but to himself : Thou must live to another , if thou wilt live to thy self . ] O the delight that there is in doing good to many ! None knoweth it that hath not tryed it : Not upon any account of Merit ; but as it Pleaseth God , and as Goodness it self is amiable and sweet ; and as we receive by communicating ; and as we are under promise ; and as Charity makes all the good that 's done to another to be to us as our own ! 5. We are dark and partial , and heedless of our selves , and hardly brought or kept in acquaintance with our hearts ; and therefore have the more need of the eye of others : And even an enemies eye may be useful , though malicious ; and may do us good while he intends us evil , saith Bernard [ Malum quod nemo videt nemo arguit : Vbi autem non timetur reprehensor , securus accedit tenat●r ; licentius perpetratur iniquitas ] [ The evil that none seeth , none reproveth : and where the reprover is not feared , the temper cometh more boldly , and the sin is committed the more licentiously . ] It 's hard to know the spots in our own faces , when we have no glass or beholder to accquaint us with them . Saith Chrysostom ' [ Solitude is velamen omnium vitiorum ] the cover of all vices ] In company this cover is laid aside , and vice being more naked , is more ashamed . It is beholders that cause shame ; which Solitude is not acquainted with : And it 's a piece of impenitency not to be shamed of sin . 6. And we are for the most part so weak and sickly , that we are unable to subsist without the help of others . Sen. Nemo est ex imprudentibus qui relinqui sibi debet ] unwise men ( or infants , or sick-like men ) must not be left to themselves . ] And God hath let some impotency , insufficiency and necessity upon all that should keep men sociable , & make them acknowledge their need of others , and be thankful for assistance from them , and be ready to do good to others , as we would have others do to us . He that feeleth not the need of others , is so unhumb●ed as to have the greater need of them . 7. Pride will have great advantage in private , and Repentance great disadvantage , while our sins seem to be all dead , because there is not a temptation to draw them out , or an observer to reprove them . [ Tam diu patiens quisque sibi videtur & humi●is , donec nullius hominum consortio commiscetur ; ad naturam pristinam reversurus quum interpellaverit cujuslibet occasionis commotio , inquit Cassianus ] Many a man seems to himself patient and humble , while he keeps out of company ? who would return to his own nature if the commotion of any occasion did but provoke him . ] It 's hard to know what sin or grace is in us ▪ if we have not such tryals as are not to be found in Solitude . 8. Flying from the observation and judgment of others , is a kind of self-accusation ; as if we confest our selves so bad as that we cannot stand the tryal of the Light. ] Bona conscientia turbam advocat : Mala in solitudine anxia est & sollicita : si honesta sunt que facis omnes sciant : siturpia , quid refert neminem scire : cum tu scias ! O te miserum si contemnis hunc testem : inquit Seneca . ] That is [ A good conscience will call in the croud ( or witnesses , not caring who seeth : ) A bad conscience is anxious and sollicitous even in solitude : If they be things honest which thou doest , let all men know : If the be dishonest , what good doth it thee that no man else knoweth it , when thou knowest it thy self ! O miserable man if thou dispise this witness ! ] Something is suspected to be amiss with those that are always in their Chambers , and are never seen . Tell not men that you cannot bear the light : It is he that doeth evil that hateth the light , lest his deeds should be reproved . 9. Solitude is too like to Death , to be desirable : He liveth that doth good ; and he is dead that is useless . [ Vivit is qui multis usu● est : Vivit is qui sentitur : qui vero latitant & torpent , mortem suam antecesserint , inquit Sen. ] [ He liveth that is profitable to many : He liveth that is observed or perceived : but they that lye hid and drowsie do anticipate their death . ] And it is the most culpable death , and therefore the worst , to have Life , and not to use it . 10. A life of holy Communion is likest unto Heaven , where none shall be solitary , but all as members of the Heavenly Ierusalem , shall in harmony Love and Praise their Maker . These Reasons seem to me sufficient to satifie you that no man should choose a Solitude without a special necessity or call : nor yet should it be taken for a life of greater perfection , then a faithful serving of God ●n publick , and doing good to more . I Shall now come to the Affirmative , and tell you for all this , that [ If God call us into Solitude , or men forsake us , we may rejoice in this , that we are not alone , but the Father is with us . ] Fear not such Solitude , but be ready to improve it , if you be cast upon it . If God be your God , reconciled to you in Christ , and his Spirit be in you , you are provided for Solitude , and need not fear if all the World should cast you off . If you be banished , imprisoned , or left alone , it is but a Relaxation from your greatest labours ; which though you may not cast off your selves , you may lawfully be sensible of your ease , if God take off your Burden . It is but a cessation from your sharpest conflicts , and removal from a multitude of great Temptations . And though you may not cowardly retreat or shift your selves from the Fight and danger , yet if God will dispense with you , and let you live in greater peace and safety , you have no cause to murmur at his dealing . A Fruit Tree that groweth by the high-way side , doth seldom keep its fruit to ripeness , while so many Passengers have each his stone or Cudgel to cast at it : Seneca could say [ Nunquam a turba mores quos extuli refero : Aliquid ex eo quod composu● turbatur ; aliquid ex his quae fugavi redit : Inimica est multorum conversatio ] I never bring home well from a Crowd the manners which I took out with me : Something is disordered of that which I had set in order : Something of that which I had banished doth return : The conversation of many I find an enemy to me . ] O how many vain and foolish words corrupt the minds of those that converse with an ungodly World , when your Ears and Minds who live in Solitude , are free from such Temptations ! You live not in so corrupt an Air as they : You hear not the filthy ribbald Speeches , which fight against modesty and chastity , and are the bellows of Lust : You hear not the discontented complaining words of the impatient ; nor the passionate provoking words of the offended ; nor the wrangling quarrelsom words of the contentious ; nor the censorious , or slanderous , or reproachful words of the malicious , who think it their interest to have their Brethren taken to be bad , and to have others hate them , because they them selves hate them ; and who are as zealous to quench the Charity of others , when it is destroyed in themselves , as holy persons are zealous to provoke others to Love , which dwe●●eth and ruleth in themselves . In your Solitude with God , you shall not hear the lyes and malicious revilings of the ungodly against the generation of the just : Nor the subtile cheating words of Hereticks , who being themselves deceived , would deceive others of their Faith , and corrupt their lives . You shall not there be distracted with the noise and clamours of contending uncharitable professors of Religion , endeavouring to make odious first the Opinions , and then the persons of one another : one saying , here is the Church , and another , there is the Church : One saying , This is the true Church Government , and another saying Nay , but that is it : One saying , God will be worshipped thus , and another , not so , but thus or thus : You shall not there be drawn to side with one against another , nor to joyn with any faction , or be guilty of divisions : You shall not be troubled with the Oaths and Blasphemies of the wicked , nor with the imprudent miscarriages of the Weak ; with the Persecutions of Enemies , or the falling out of Friends . You shall not see the cruelty of proud Oppressors , that set up lyes by armed violence , and care not what they say or do , nor how much other men are injured or suffer , so that themselves may tyrannize , and their wills and words may rule the World , when they do so unhappily rule themselves . In your solitude with God , you shall not see the prosperity of the wicked to move you to envy , nor the adversity of the just to be your grief : You shall see no Worldly pomp and splendor to be fool you ; nor adorned beauty to entice you , nor wasting calamities to afflict you : You shall not hear the laughter of Fools , nor the sick mans groans , nor the wronged mans Complaints , nor the poor mans murmurings , nor the proud mans boastings , nor the angry mans abusive ragings . As you lose the help of your gracious friends , so you are freed from the fruits of their peevishness and passions ; of their differing opinion and ways and tempers ; of their inequality , unsuitableness , and contrariety of minds or interests ; of their levity and unconstancy , and the powerful temptations of their friendship , to draw you to the errors or other sins which they are tainted with themselves . In a word , you are there half delivered from the VANITY and VEXATION of the world ; and were it not that you are yet undelivered from your selves , and that you take distempered corrupted hearts with you , O what a felicity would your solitude be ! But , alas , we cannot overrun our own diseases , we must carry with us the remnants of our corrupted nature ; our deadness , and dulness , our selfishness and earthly minds , our impatience and discontents ; and worst of all ▪ our lamentable weakness of faith and love and heavenly mindedness , and our strangeness to God , and backwardness to the matters of eternal life . O that I could escape these , though I were in the hands of the cruellest enemies ! O that such a heart could be left behind ! How gladly would I overrun both house , and land , and honour , and all sensual delights , that I might but overrun it ! O where is the place where there is none of this darkness , nor disaffection , nor distance , nor estrangedness from God! O that I knew it ! O that I could find it ! O that I might there dwell ! though I should never more see the face of mortals ; nor ever hear a human Voice , nor ever taste of the delights of flesh ! Alas , foolish Soul : such a place there is , that hath all this , and more than this ▪ But it is not in a Wilderness , but in Paradise , not here on Earth , but above with Christ ! And yet am I so loath to die ? yet am I no more desirous of the blessed day , when I shall b● uncloathed of flesh and sin ? O death , what an Enemy art thou even to my Soul ▪ By affrighting me from the presence of my Lord , and hindring my desires and willingness to be gone , thou wrongest me much more , than by laying my flesh to rot in darkness . Fain I would know God , and fain I would more love him and enjoy him : But O this hurtful love of life ! O this unreasonable fear of dying , detaineth my desires from pressing on to the happy place where all this may be had ! O wretched man that I am , who shall deliver me from this body of death ! this carnal unbelieving heart , that sometime can think more delightfully of a Wilderness then of Heaven ; that can go seek after God in desert solitude , among the Birds and Beasts and Trees , and yet is so backward to be loosed from flesh that I may find him and enjoy him in the World of glory : Can I expect that Heaven come down to Earth ! and that the Lord of glory should remove his Court , and either leave the retinue of his Celestial Courtiers , or bring them all down into this drosly World of flesh and sin , and this to satisfie my fleshly foolish mind ! Or can I expect the translation of Henoch or the Chariot of Elias ? Is it not enough that my Lord hath conquered Death , and sanctifyed the passage , and prepared the place of my perpetual abode . Well! for all this , though a Wilderness is not Heaven , it shall be sweet and welcom for the sake of Heaven , if thence I may but have a clearer prospect of it : and if by retiring from the crowd and noise of Folly , I may but be more composed and better disposed to converse above , and to use my Faith ( alas , my too weak languid Faith ) until the beatifical Vision and Fruition come . If there may be but more of God , or readier access to him , or more heart quickning flames of Love , or more heart-comforting intimations of his Favour , in a wilderness than in a City , in a Prison than in a Palace ; let that Wilderness be my City , and let that Prison be my Palace , while I must abide on Earth . If in solitude I may have Henochs walk with God , I shall in due season have such a translation as shall bring me to the same felicity which he enjoyeth : And in the mean time as well as after , it is no incommodity , if by mortal eyes I be seen no more . If the Chariot of contemplation will in solitude raise me to more believing affectionate converse with Heaven , than I could expect in Tumults and Temptations , it shall reconcile me unto solitude , and make it my Paradise on Earth , till Angels instead of the Chariot of Elias , shall convey me to the presence of my glorified Head , in the Celestial Paradise . Object . But it is grievous to one that hath been used to much company , to be alone . Answ. Company may so use you , that it may be more grievous to you not to be alone . The Society of Wasps and Serpents may be spared ; and Bees themselves have such Stings as make some that have felt them think they bought the hony dear . But can you say , you are alone , while you are with God ? Is his presence nothing to you ? Doth it not signifie more than the company of all Men in the world ? Saith Hierom , [ Sapions nunquam solus esse potest : habet enim secum omnes qui sunt , & qui fuerunt boni — & si h●minum sit inopia , loquitur cum Deo ] viz. A wise man cannot be alone : for he hath with him the good men that are or have been — And if there be a want of men , he speaks with God. ] He should rather have said , There can be no want of man , when we may speak with God : And were it not that God is here revealed to us as in a glass , and that we do converse with God in Man , we should think human converse little worth . Object . O but Solitude is disconsolate to a sociable Mind . Answ. But the most desirable Society is no Solitude : Saith Hierom , [ Infinita cremi vas●itas te terret ? sed tu Paradisum mente de ambula : Quotiescunque cogitatione ac mente illuc conscenderi● , toties in eremo non e●is ] that is [ Doth the infinite vastness of the wilderness terrifie thee ? But do thou ( ascend ) in mind and walk in Paradise : As oft as thou ascendest thither in thought and mind , so oft thou shalt not be in the wilderness . ] If God be nothing to thee , thou art not a Christian but an Atheist . If God be God to thee , he is All in all to thee ; and then should not his presence be instead of all ? O that I might get one step nearer unto God , though I receded many from all the world ! O that I could find that place on Earth where a Soul may have nearest access unto him , and fullest knowledge and enjoyment of him , though I never more saw the face of Friends ! I should chearfully say with my blessed Saviour [ I am not alone , for the Father is with me . ] And I should say so for these Reasons following . 1. If God be with me , the Maker , and Ruler , and Disposer of all is with me : So that all things are virtually with me in him . I have that in Gold and Jewels which I seem to want in Silver , Lead , and Dross . I can want no Friend if God vouchsafe to be my Friend ; and I can enjoy no benefit by all my Friends , if God be my Enemy . I need not fear the greatest Enemies , if God be reconciled to me . I shall not miss the light of the Candle , if I have this blessed Sun. The Creature is nothing but what it is from God , and in God : And it is worth nothing , or good for nothing , but what it's worth in order unto God , as it declareth him , and helps the Soul to know him , serve him , or draw nearer to him : As it is Idolatry in the unhappy worldling , to thirst after the Creature with the neglect of God , and so to make the world his God ; so doth it savour of the same hainous sin to lament our loss of Creatures more than the displeasure of God. If God be my Enemy , or I am fallen under his indignation , I have then so much greater matters to lament than the loss , or absence , or frowns of Man , as should almost make me forget that there is such a thing as man to be regarded : But if God be my Father , and my Friend in Christ , I have then so much to think of with delight , and to recreate and content my Soul , as will procl●im it most incongruous and absurd to lament mordinately the absence of a wo●m , while I have his Love and Presence who is All in All. If God cannot content me , and be not enough for me , how is he then my God ? or how shall he be my Heaven and everlasting H●ppiness ? 2. If God be with me , he is with me to whom I am absolutely devoted . I am wholly his , and have acknowledged his interest in me , and long ago disclaimed all Usurpers , and repented of Alienations , and unreservedly resigned my self to him : And where shoul● I dwell but with him that is my owner , and with whom I have made the solemnest Covenant that ever I made ? I never gave my self to any other , but in subordination to him , and with a salvo for his highest inviolable right . Where should my goods be but in my own house ? With whom should a servant dwell but with his Master ? and a Wife , but with her Husband ? and Children but with thei● Father ? I am nearlier related to my God and to my Saviour , than I am to any of my Relations in this world . I owe more to him than to all the World : I have renounced all the World , as they stand in any competition or comparison with him ; and can I want their company then while I am with him ? How shall I hate Father and Mother , and Wife and Children , and Brother and Sister for his sake , if I cannot spare them , or be without them to enjoy him ? To hate them is but to use them as Men do hated things , that is , to cast them away with contempt as they would alienate me from Christ , and to cleave to him , and be satisfied in him alone . I am now married to Christ , and therefore must chearfully leave Father and Mother , and my native place , and all to cleave to him : And with whom should I now delight to dwell , but with him who hath t●ken me into so near relation , to be , as it were , one Flesh with him ! O my dear Lord , hide not thou thy face from an unkind an unworthy sinner ! Let me but dwell with thee and see thy face , and feel the gracious embracements of thy Love , and then let me be cast off by all the world , if thou see it meetest for me ; or let all other friends be where they will , so that my Soul may be with thee : I have agreed for thy sake to forsake all , even the dearest that shall stand against thee ; and I resolve by thy grace to stand to this Agreement . 3. If God be with me , I am not alone , for he is with me that loveth me best . ] The Love of all the Friends on Earth is nothing to his Love. O how plainly hath he declared that he loveth me , in the strange condescention , the Sufferings , Death , and Intercession of his Son ? What Love hath he declared in the communications of his Spirit , and the operations of his Grace , and the near Relations into which he brought me ? What Love hath he declared in the course of his Providences ? In many and wonderful preservations and deliverances ? In the conduct of his Wisdom , and in a Life of Mercies ? What Love appeareth in his precious Promises , and the glorious Provisions he hath made for me with himself to all eternity ? O my Lord , I am ashamed that thy Love is so much lost ; that it hath no better return from an unkind unthankful heart ; that I am not more delighted in thee , and swallowed up in the contemplation of thy Love ; I can contentedly let go the Society and converse of all others , for the converse of some one bosom Friend , that is dearer to me than they all , as Ionathan to David : And can I not much more be sati●fied in thee alone , and let go all if I m●y continue with thee ? My very Dog will gladly forsake all the Town , and all Persons in the world , to follow me alone ! And have I not yet found so much Love and Goo● ness in thee my dear and blessed God , as to be willing to converse alone with thee ? All men delight most in the company of those that love them best : They choose not to converse with the Multitude when they look for solace and content , but with their dearest Friends : And should any be so dear to me as God ? O were not thy Love unworthily neglecte● by an unthankful heart , I should never ●e so unsatisfied in thee , but should take up , or seek my comforts in thee : I should then say , Whom have I in Heaven but thee , and there is none on Earth that I desire besides thee ! Though not only my Friends , but my Flesh and Heart themselves should fail me , it is thou that will still be the strength of my heart , and my portion forever : it is good therefore for me to draw near to thee , how far soever I am from Man : O let me there dwell where thou wilt not be strange , for thy loving kindness is better than life . Instead of the multitude of my ●u●moiling thoughts , let me be taken up in the believing views of thy reconciled Face , and in the glad Attendance upon thy Grace ; or at least in the multitude of my thoughts within me , let thy celestial comforts delight my soul. Let me dwell as in thy Family ; and when I awake , let me be still with thee ! Let me go no whither but where I am still following thee : Let me ●o nothing but thy work , nor serve any other but when I may truly call it a serving thee : Let me hear nothing ●ut thy voice , and let me know thy voice by whatever instrument thou shalt speak : Let me never see a●y thing but thy self and the glass that representeth thee , and the Books in in which I may read thy Name : And let me never play with the out-side , and gaze on Words and Letters as insignificant , and not observe ●hy Name which is the sense . Whether it be in company or in solitude , let me be continually with thee , and do thou vouchs●fe to hold me by my right hand : And guide me with thy counsel , and afterwards receive me unto thy Glory , Psal. 73.23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 28. Psal. 63.3 . 4. If God be with me I am not alone ; for I shall be with him whose Love is of greater use and benefit to me , than the love of all my Friends in the world . Their Love may perhaps be some little comfort , as it floweth from His : But it is His Love by which and upon which I Live. It is His Love that gives me Life and Time , and Health and Food , and Preservation ; that gives me Books , gives me books and giveth me understanding : that giveth me provision , and saveth me from turning it to pernicious fleshliness and excess ; that giveth me even my friends themselves , and saveth me from that abuse which might make them to me worse than enemies . The Sun , the Earth , the Air is not so useful or needful to me as his Love. The Love of all my friends cannot make me well when I am sick : It cannot forgive the smallest of my sins ; nor yet assure me of Gods forgiveness : It cannot heal the maladies of my soul , nor give a solid lasting peace to the conscience which is troubled : If all my friends stand about me when I am dying , they cannot take away the fears of death , nor secure my passage to everlasting life : Death will be Death still , and danger will be danger , when all my friends have done their best . But my Almighty friend is All sufficient : He can prevent my sickness , or rebuke and cure it , or make it so good to me , that I shall thank him for it : He can blot out my transgressions , and forgive all my sin ; and justifie me when the world and my conscience do condemn me : He can teach me to believe , to repent , to pray , to hope , to suffer , and to overcome : He can quiet my soul in the midst of trouble , and give me a well grounded everlasting peace , and a joy which no man can take from me . He can deliver me from all the corruptions and distempers of my froward heart ; and ease me and secure me in the troublesom war which is daily managed in my breast . He can make it as easie a thing to dye , as to lye down and take my rest when I am weary , or to undress me at night and go to bed . He can teach Death to lay by its terrible aspect , and to speak with a mild and comfortable voice , & to bring me the joyfullest tydings that ever came unto my ears ; and to preach to me the last and sweetest Sermon , even the same that our ●aviour preached on the Cross [ Luke 23.43 . Verily I say unto thee , To day shalt thou be with Christ in Paradise . ] And is this the difference between the Love of man and of God ? And yet do I lament the loss of man ! And yet am I so backward to converse with God , and to be satisfied in his Love alone ! Ah my God , how justly mayest thou withhold that Love which I thus undervalue ; and refuse that converse which I have first refused ? and turn me over to man , to silly man , to sinful man , whose converse I so much desire , till I have learnt by dear experience the difference between man and God , and between an Earthly and an Heavenly friend ! Alas , have I not tryed it oft enough , to have known it better before this day ! Have ● not 〈◊〉 enough sound what man is in a time of tryal ! Have I not been tol● it over and over , and told it to the quick , by deceitful friends , by self-seeking friends , by mutable , erroneous , deceived , scandalous , backslding friends , by proud and selfconceited friends ; by passionate , quarrelsom , vexatious friends , by self-grieved , troubled friend● , that have but brought me all their calamities and griefs to be additions to my own ; by tempting friends , that have drawn me to sin more effectually than enemies ; by tender , faithful , but unable friends , that have but fetcht fire from my calamities and sorrows to kindle their own , not equally sharing , but each one taking all my trouble entirely to himself : that have been willing , but insufficient to relieve me ; and therefore the greater was their Love , the greater was their own , and consequently mine affliction , that would have been with me , but could not ; that would fain have eased my pain , and strengthened my languishing body , but could not ; that would fain have removed all my troubles , and comforted my cast down mind , but could not . O how often have I found that humane friendship is a sweet desired addition to our woe ; a beloved calamity , and an affliction which nature will not be without , not because it Loveth evil , nor because it is wholly deceived in its choice ( for there is Good in friendship , and delight in holy Love ) but because the Good which is here accompanied with so much evil , is the beginn●ng of a more high and durable frendship , and pointeth us up to the blessed delightful society and converse which in the heavenly Ierusalem we shall have with Christ. But O how much better have I found the friendship of the All-sufficient God! His Love hath not only pitited me , but relieved me : He hath not only been as it were afflicted with me in my afflictions , but he hath delivered me seasonably , and powerfully , and sweetly hath he delivered me : And when he had once told me that my afflictions were his own , I had no reason to doubt of a deliverance . My burdened mind hath been eased by his Love , which was but more burdened by the fruitless Love of all my friends . Oft have I come to man for help , and ease , and comfort , and gone away as from an empty Cistern , that had no water to cool my thirst ; but God hath been a present help : Could I but get near him , I was sure of Light , how great soever was my former darkness : Could I but get near him , I was sure of warming quickning Life , how dead soever I had been before : But all my misery was , that I could not get near him ! My darkened estranged guilty soul , could not get quiet●ng and satisfying acquaintance : My lumpish heart lay dead on earth , and would not stir , or quickly fall down again , if by any Celestial force it began to be drawn up , and move a little towards him : My carnal mind was entangled in diverting vanities : And thus I have been kept from communion with my God. Kept ! not by force or humane tyranny ; not by bars or bolts , or distance of a place , or by the lowness of my condition ; nor by any misrepresentations o● reproach of man ; but , alas , by my self , by the darkness and deadness , and sluggishness , and earthliness , and fleshliness , and passions of a naughty heart . These have been my bars , and bolts , and jaylors ; These are they that have kept me from my God : Had it not been for these I might have got nearer to him ; I might have walkt with him , and dwelt with him ; yea dwelt in him , and he in me : and then I should not have mist any friends , nor felt mine enemies : And is it my sinful distance from my God that hath been my loss , my wilderness , my woe ! And is it a nearer admittance to the presence of his Love that must be my recovery and my joy , if ever I attain to joy ! O then my soul , lay hold on Christ the Reconciler , and in him and by him draw near to God : And cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils : Love God in his Saints , and delightfully converse with Christ in them , while thou hast opportunity . But Remember thou Livest not upon them , or on their Love , but upon God , and therefore desire their Company but for His : And if thou have His , be content if thou have not theirs . He wants not man that enjoyeth God. Gather up all the Love , and Thoughts , and Desires which have been scattered and lost upon the Creatures , and set them all on God himself , and press into his presence , and converse with him , and thou shalt find the mistake of thy present discontents , and sweet experience shall tell thee thou hast made a happy change . 5. If God be with me , I am not alone , because he is with me with whom my greatest business lyeth : And what company should I desire , but theirs with whom I have my daily necessary work to do ? I have more to do with God , than with all the World : Yea more and greater business with him in one day , than with all the World in all my life . I have business with man about house , or lands , or food , or raiment , or labour , or journying , or Recreations , about society and publick peace : But what are these to my business with God! Indeed with holy men I have holy Business ; but that is but as they are Messengers from God , and come to me on his business , and so they must be dearly welcome : But even then my business is much more with God then with them ; with him that sent them , then with the Messenger . Indeed my business with God is so great , that If I had not a Mediator to encourage and assist me , to do my work and procure me acceptance , the thoughts of it would overwhelm my Soul. O therefore my Soul , let man stand by : It is the Eternal God that I have to do with : And with whom am I to transact in this little time the business of my endless life . I have to deal with God through Christ , for the pardon of my sins , of all my great and grievous sins ; and wo to me if I speed not , that ever I was born : I have some hopes of pardon , but intermixt with many perplexing fears : I have evidences much blotted , and not easily understood : I want assurance that he is indeed my Father , and reconciled to me , and will receive me to himself when the World forsaketh me : I have many languishing graces to be strengthened ; and alas , what radicated , obstinate , vexatious corruptions to be cured ! Can I look into my heart , into such an unbelieving , dead , and earthly heart , into such a proud and peevish and disordered heart , into such a trembling , perplexed , self-accusing heart , and yet not understand how great my business is with God! Can I peruse my sins , or feel my wants , and sink under my weaknesses , and yet not discern how great my business is with God! Can I look back upon all the time that I have lost , and all the grace that I unthankfully resisted , and all the mercies that I trod under foot , or fool'd away , and can I look before me and see how near my time is to an end , and yet not understand how great my business is with God ; Can I think of the malice and diligence of Satan , the number , power and subtilty of mine Enemies , the many snares and dangers that are still before me , the strength and number of temptations , and my ignorance , unwatchfulness and weakness to resist , and yet not know that my greatest business is with God : Can I feel my afflictions and lament them , and think my burden greater than I can bear , and find that man cannot relieve me ; can I go mourning in the heaviness of my soul , and water my Bed with Tears , and fill the air with my groans and lamentations , or feel my soul overwhelmed within me , so that my words are intercepted , and I am readier to break than speak , and yet not perceive that my greatest business is with God ? Can I think of dying ? Can I draw near to judgment ? Can I think of everlasting joys in Heaven ? and of everlasting pains in Hell , and yet not feel that my greatest business is with God ? O then , my soul , the case is easily resolved , with whom it is that thou must most desirously and seriously converse . Where shouldst thou be but where thy business is , and so great business ! Alas , what have I to do with man ! what can it do but make my head ake , to hear a deal of senseless chat , about preferments , lands and dignities , about the words and thoughts of Men , and a thousand toys that are utterly impertinent to my great imployments , and signifie nothing but that the dreaming world is not awake ! What pleasure is it to see the busles of a Bedlam world ? what a stir they make to prove or make themselves unhappy ? How low and of how little weight , are the learned discourses about syllables and words , and names and notions , and mood and figure , yea , or about the highest Planets , when all are not referred unto God ? Were it not that some converse with men , doth further my converse with God ; and that God did transact much of his business by his messengers and servants , it were no matter whether ever I more saw the face of man : were it not that my Master hath placed me in society , and appointed me and much of my work for others , and with others , and much of his mercy is conveyed by others , man might stand by , and solitude were better then the best society , and God alone should take me up . O nothing is so much my misery and shame , as that I am no more willing , nor better skilled in the management of my great important business ! That my work is with God , and my heart is no more with him ! O what might I do in holy meditation or Prayer one hour ; if I were as ready for prayer , and as good at prayer as one that hath so long opportunity and so great necessity to converse with God , should be ! A prayerless heart , a heart that flyeth away from God , is most excusable in such a one as I , that hath so much important business with him : It is work that must be done ; and if well done , will never be repented of : I use not to return from the presence of God ( when indeed I have drawn near him ) as I do from the company of empty men , repenting that I have lost my time , and trembled that my mind is discomposed or depressed by the vanity and earthly savour of their discourse : I oft repent that I have prayed to him so coldly , and conversed with him so negligently , and served him so remisly ; but I never repent of the time , the cares , the afflictions , or the diligence imployed in his holy work . Many a time I have repented that ever I spent so much time with man , and wisht I had never seen the faces of some that are eminent in the world , whose favour and converse others are ambitious of : But it is my greif and shame that so small a part of all my life , hath been spent with God ; and that fervent prayer and heavenly contemplations , have been so seldom and so short . O that I had lived more with God , though I had been less with my dearest of my friends ! How much more blameless , regular and pure ! How much more fruitful , and answerable to my obligations and professions ! How much more comfortable to my review ! How many falls , and hurts , and wounds , and greifs , and groans might I have escaped ! O how much more pleasing is it now to my Remembrance , to think of the hours in which I have lain at the feet of God , though it were in tears and groans , than to think of the time which I have spent in any common converse with the greatest , or the learnedest , or the dearest of my acquaintance ! And as my Greatest business is with God , so my daily-business is also with him : He purposely leaveth me under wants , and suffers necessities daily to return , and enemies to assault me , and affliction to surprize me , that I may be daily driven to him : He loveth to hear from me : He would have me be no stranger with him : I have business with him every hour : I need not want employment for all the faculties of my Soul , if I know what it is to converse in Heaven . Even Prayer , and every holy thought of God , hath an Object so great and excellent , as should wholly take me up . Nothing must be thought or spoken lightly about the Lord. His Name must not be taken in vain : Nothing that is common beseemeth his Worshipers . He will be sanctified of all that shall draw near him : He must be loved with all the Heart and Might . His Servants need not be wearied for want of employment , nor through the lightness or unprofitableness of their employment : If I had Cities to build , or Kingdoms to govern , I might better complain for want of Employment for the Faculties of my Soul , than I can when I am to converse in Heaven . In other Studies the delight abateth , when I have reached my desire , and know all that I can know : But in God there is infinitely more to be known , when I know the most . I am never satiated with the easiness of knowing , nor are my desires abated by any unusefulness or unworthiness in the Object ; but I am drawn to it by it's highest Excellencies , and drawn on to desire more and more by the infiniteness of the Light which I have not yet beheld , and the infiniteness of the Good which yet I have not enjoyed . If I be idle , or seem to want employment , when I am to contemplate all the Attributes , Relations , Mercies , Works , and revealed perfections of the Lord , it 's sure for want of Eyes to see , or a Heart enclined to my business : If God be not enough to employ my Soul , then all the Persons and Things on Earth are not enough . And when I have Infinite Goodness to delight in , where my Soul may freely let out it self , and never need to fear excess of Love ; how sweet should this employment be ? As Knowledge , so love is never stinted here , by the narrowness of the Object : can never love him in any proportion either to his Goodness and amiableness in himself , or to his Love to us . What need have I then of any other company or business , when I have infinite Goodness to delight in , and to Love ( further than they subserve this greatest Work ? ) Come home then , O my Soul , to God : Converse in Heaven : Turn away thine eyes from beholding Vanity : Let not thy affections kindle upon straw or bryars , that go out when they have made a flash or noise , and leave thee to thy cold and darkness : But come and dwell upon celestial beauties , and make it thy daily and most diligent Work , to kindle thy affections on the infinite everlasting Good ; and then they will never be extinguished or decay for want of Fewel ; but the further they go , and the longer they burn , the greater will be the Flame . Though thou find it hard while Love is but a Spark to make it burn , and complain that thy cold and backward heart is hardly warmed with the love of God , yet when the whole pile hath taken fire , and the flame ascendeth , fire will breed fire , Love will cause Love ; and all the malice of Hell it self shall never be able to suppress or quench it unto all Eternity . 6. And it is a great Encouragement to my converse with God , that no misunderstanding , no malice of Enemies , no former sin or present● frailty , no , nor the infinite distance of the most holy glorious God , can hinder my access to him , or turn away his Ear or Love , or interrupt my leave and liberty of converse . If I converse with the poor , their wants afflict me , being greater than I can supply : Their complaints and expectations which I cannot satisfie , are my trouble . If I would converse with Great ones , it is not easie to get access : and less easie to have their Favour , unless I would purchase it at too dear a rate : How strangely and contemptuously do they look at their inferiours ! Great Friends must be made for a word or Smile : And if you be not quickly gone , they are aweary of you : And if you seek any thing of them , or would put them to any cost or trouble , you are as welcom to them as so many Vermin or noisom Creatures . They please them best that drive you away . With how much labour and difficulty must you clime , if you will see the top of one of these Mountains ? And when you are there , you are but in a place of barrenness ; and have nothing to satisfie you for your pains , but a larger prospect and vertiginous despect of the lower grounds which are not your own : It is seldom that these Great Ones are to be spoken with : And perhaps their Speech is but a denyal of your Requests , if not some snappish and contemptuous Rejection , that makes you glad when you are got far enough from them , and makes you the better like and love the accessible calm & fruitful Plains . But , O how much greater encouragements hath my Soul to converse with God! Company never hindereth him from harkning to my Suit : He is Infinite and Omnipotent , and as sufficient for every individual Soul , as if he had no other to look after in the World : When he is taken up with the attendance and praises of his heavenly Host , he is as free and ready to attend and answer the groans and prayers of a contrite Soul , as if he had no nobler Creatures , nor no higher Service to regard . I am oft unready , but God is never unready : I am unready to pray , but he is not unready to hear : I am unready to come to God , to walk with him , and to solace my Soul with him ; but he is never unready to entertain me . Many a time my Conscience would have driven me away , when he hath called me to him , and rebuked my accusing fearful Conscience . Many a time I have called my self a Prodigal , a companion of Swine , a miserable hard-hearted Sinner , unworthy to be called his Son , when he hath called me Child , and chid me for my questioning his Love. He hath readily forgiven the Sins which I thought would have made my Soul fuel of Hell : He hath entertained me with Joy , with Musick and a Feast , when I better deserved to have been among the Dogs without his Doors . He hath embraced me in his sustaining consolatory Arms , when he might have spurned my guilty Soul to Hell , and said , Depart from me , thou worker of Iniquity , I know thee not . O little did I think , that he could ever have forgotten the Vanity and Villany of my Youth ; yea , so easily have forgotten my most aggravated sins . When I had sinned against Light ; when I had resisted Conscience ; when I had frequently and wilfully injured Love , I thought he would never have forgotten it : But the greatness of his Love and Mercy , and the blood and intercession of his Son , hath cancelled all . O how many Mercies have I tasted since I thought I had sinned away all Mercies ! How patiently hath he born with me , since I thought he would never have put up more ? And yet besides my sins and the withdrawings of my own heart , there hath been nothing to interrupt our converse . Though he be God , and I a worm , yet that would not have kept me out : Though he be in Heaven , yet he is near to succour me on Earth , in all that I call upon him for : Though he have the praise of Angels , he disdaineth not my Tears and Groans : Though he have the perfect Love of perfect Souls , he knoweth the little Spark in my Breast , and despiseth not my weak and languid Love : Though I injure and dishonour him by loving him no more ; though I oft forget him , and have been out of the way when he hath come or called me ; though I have disobediently turned away mine ears , and unkindly refused the entertainments of his Love , and unfaithfully plaid with those whose company he forbad me , he hath not divorced me , nor turned me out of doors . O wonderful ! that Heaven will be familiar with Earth ! and God with Man ! the Highest with a Worm ! and the most Holy with an unconstant Sinner ! Man refuseth me , when God will entertain me : Man , that is no wiser or better than my self . Those that I never wronged or deserved ill off , reject me with Reproach : And God whom I have unspeakably injured , doth invite me , and intreat me , and condescendeth to me , as if he were beholden to me to be saved : Men that I have deserved well of , do abhor me : And God that I have deserved Hell of , doth accept me . The best of them are Briars , and as a thorny Hedge , and he is Love , and Rest , and Joy : And yet I can be more welcom to him , tho●gh I have offended h●m , than I can to them whom I have obliged : I have freer leave to cast my slef into my Fathers Arms , than to tumble in those Briars , or wallow in the Dirt. I upbraid my self with my sins , but he doth not upbraid me with them . I condemn my self for them , but he condemns me not : He forgivet● me so●n●r than I can forgive my self : I have peace with him , before I can have peace of Conscience . O therefore my Soul , draw near to him that is so willing of thy company ! That frowneth thee not away , unless it be when thou hast fallen into the dirt , that tho● mayst wash thee from thy filthiness , and the fitter for his converse . Draw near to him that will not wrong thee , by believing misreports of Enemies , or laying to thy charge the things thou knewest not : but will forgive the Wrongs thou hast done to him , and justifie thee from the sin , that Conscience layeth to thy charge . Come to him that by his Word and Spirit , his Ministers and Mercies calleth thee to come ; and hath promised , that those that come to him , he will in no wise shut out . O walk with him that will bear thee up , and lead thee as by the right hand ( Psal. 73.23 . ) and carry his Infants when they cannot go ! O speak to him that teacheth thee to speak , and understandeth and accepts thy Stammering ; and helpeth thine Infirmities when thou knowest not what to pray for as thou oughtest ; and giveth thee Groans when thou hast not words , and knowe●h the meaning of his Spirit in thy Groans : that cannot be contained in the Heaven of Heavens , and yet hath respect to the contrite Soul , that trembleth at his word , and feareth his displeasure : That pityeth the Tears , and despiseth not the sighing of a broken heart , nor the desires of the sorrowful . O walk with him that is never weary of the converse of an up●ight Soul ! That is never angry with thee , but for flying from him , or for drawing back , or being too strange , and refusing the kindness and felicity of his presence . The day is coming when the proudest of the Sons of Men would be glad of a good look from him , that thou hast leave to walk with : Even they that would not look on thee , and they that injured and abused thee , and they that inferiours could have no access to ; O how glad would they be then of a Smile , or a word of hope and mercy from thy Father ! Draw near then to him , on whom the whole Creation doth d●pend ; whose favour at last the proudest and the worst would purchase with the loudest cries , when all their pomp and pleasure is gone , and can purchase nothing . O walk with him that is Love it self , and think him not unwilling-or unlovely ; and let not the Deceiver by hideous misrepresentations drive thee from him : when thou hast felt a while the storms abroad , me thinks thou shouldst say , How good , how safe , how sweet is it to draw near to God! 7. With whom should I so desirously converse , as with him whom I must live with for ever ? If I take pleasure in my House , or Land , or Country , my walks , my books or friends themselves as cloathed with flesh , I must possess this pleasure but a little while ; Henceforth know we no man after the flesh : Had we known Christ himself after the flesh , we must know him so no more for ever . ( Though his Glorified spiritual Body we shall know . ) Do you converse with Father or Mother ? with Wives or Children ? with Pastors and Teachers ? Though you may converse with these as Glorified Saints , when you come to Christ , yet in these Relations that they stand in to you now , you shall converse with them but a little while : For the time is short : It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none ; and they that weep as though they wept not ; and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not ; and they that buy as though they possessed not ; and they that use the World , as not abusing it ( or as though they used it not : ) for the fashion of this World doth pass away . ] 1 Cor. 7.29 , 30 , 31. Why then should I so much regard , a converse of so short continuance ? Why should I be so familiar in my Inn , and so in love with that familiarity , as to grieve when I must but think of leaving it , or talk of going home , and look forward to the place where I must dwell for ever ? shall I be fond of the company of a passenger that I travel with ( yea perhaps one that doth but meet me in the way , and goeth to a contrary place ) and shall I not take more pleasure to remember home ? I will not be so uncivil as to deny those I meet a short salute , or to be friendly with my fellow-Travellers : But remember , O my Soul , that thou dost not dwell but travel here , and that it is thy Fathers House where thou must abide forever : Yea and he is nearer thee than Man ( though invisible ) even in thy way . O see him then that is invisible : Hearken to him when he spea●eth : Obey his voice : Observe his way : Speak to him boldly , though humbly and reverently , a● his Child , about the great concernments of thy State : Tell him what it is that aileth thee : And seeing all thy smart is the fruit of thy own sin , confess thy folly and unkindness , crave his forgiveness , and remember him what his Son hath suffered , and for what : Treat with him about thy future course : Desire his Grace , and give up thy self to his Conduct and his Cure : Weep over in his Ears the History of thy misdoings and unthankful course : Tell it him with penitential tears and groans : But tell him also the advantage that he hath for the honouring of his grace , if it may now abound where sin aboundeth : Tell him that thou art most offended with thy self , for that which he is most offended with : That thou art angry with thy disobedient unthankful heart : That thou art even a weary of that heart that loveth him no more : And that it shall never please thee , till it love him better and be more desirous to please him : Tell him of thy Enemies , and crave the protection of his Love : Tell him of thy frailties , infirmities and passions , and crave not only his tender forbearance , but his help : Tell him that without him thou canst do nothing ; and crave the Grace that is sufficient for thee , that through him that strengtheneth thee thou mayest do all things : When thou fallest , despair not , but crave his helping hand to raise thee . Speak to him especially of the everlasting things , and thank him for his Promises , and for thy Hopes : For what thou shalt be , and have , and do among his Holy ones for ever . Express thy joys in the promise of those joys ; that thou must see his Glory , and love him , and praise him better than thou canst now desire . Begin those praises , and as thou walkest with him , take pleasure in the mention of his perfections ; be thankful to him and speak good of his Name : Solace thy self in remembring what a God , what a defence and portion all believers have : And in considering whither he is now conducting thee , and what he will do with thee , and what use he will make of thee forever : Speak with Rejoycing of the glory of his works , and the righteousness of his judgmen●s , and the holiness and evenness of his ways : Sing forth his praises with a joyfull heart , and pleasant and triumphing voice ; and frown away all slavish fears , all importune malicious suggestions or doubts , all peevish hurtful nipping griefs , that would mar or interrupt the melody ; and would untune or unstring a raised well composed Soul. Thy Father loveth thy very moans and Tears : But how much more doth he love thy Thanks and Praise ? Or if indeed it be a Winter time , a stormy day with thee , and he seem to chide or hide his face because thou hast offended him , let the cloud that is gathered by thy Folly come down in tears , and tell him , Thou hast sinned against Heaven and before him , and art no more worthy to be called his Son ; but yet fly not from him , but beg his pardon and the priviledges of a Servant : And thou wilt find embracements , when thou fearest condemnation : and find that he is merciful and ready to forgive : Only return , and keep closer to him for the time to come . If the breach through thy neglect be gone so far , as that thou seemest to have lost thy God , and to be cast off , and left forsaken ; despair not yet ; for he doth but hide his face till thou repent : He doth not forsake thee , but only tell thee what it is to walk so carelesly as if thou wouldst forsake him : Thou art faster and surer in his Love and Covenant then thou canst believe or apprehend . Thy Lord was as dear as ever to his Father , when he cryed out , My God , why hast thou forsaken me . But yet neglect him not , and be not regardless of his withdrawings and of thy loss : Lift up thy voice and cry but [ Father ; ] in despight of unbelief , cry out [ My Father , my Saviour , my God , ] and thou shalt hear him Answer thee at last [ My Child : ] Cry out [ O why dost thou hide thy face ? and why hast thou forsaken me ! O what shall I do here without thee ! O leave me not , lose me not in this bowling wilderness ! Let me not be a prey to any ravening beast ! to my sin , to Satan , to my foes and thine ! ] Lift up thy voice and weep , and tell him , they are the tears and lamentation of his Child : O beg of him , that thy wanderings and childish folly , may not be taken as acts of enmity , or at least that they may be pardoned ; and though he correct thee , that he will return and not forsake thee , but still take thee and use thee as his child . Or if thou hast not words to pour out before him , at least smite upon thy breast , and though thou be ashamed or afraid to look up toward Heaven , look down and say , [ O Lord , be merciful to me a sinner , ] and he will take it for an acceptable suit , that tendeth to thy pardon and justification , and will number such a sentance with the prayers which he cannot deny . Or if thou cry , and canst not hear of him , and hast long called out upon thy Fathers Name , and hearest not his voice and hast no return ; enquire after him of those thou meetest : Ask for him of them that know him and are acquainted with his way ! Make thy moan unto the watchmen ; and ask them , where thou mayst find thy Lord. And at last he will appear to thee , and find thee first , that thou mayst find him , and shew thee where it was that thou didst lose him , by losing thy self and turning from him ! seek him and thou shalt find him : wait and he will appear in kindness : For he never faileth or forsaketh those that wait upon him . This kind of Converse , O my soul , thou hast to prosecute with thy God. Thou hast also the concernments of all his servants ; his aff●icted ones , his broken hearted ones , his diseased ones , his persecuted ones , to tell him of : Tell him also of the concernments of his Kingdom , the fury of his Enemies , the dishonour they cast upon his Name , the matters of his Gospel , cause and interest in the world : But still let his Righteous Judgment be remembred , and all be terminated in the glorious everlasting Kingdom . Is it not much better thus to converse with him that I must be with for ever , about the place , and the company , and work , and concernments of my perpetual abode , then to be taken up with strangers in my way , and detained by their impertinencies ? I have form'd my self so long in these meditations , that I will but name the rest , and tell you what I had further to have treated on , and leave the enlargement to your own meditations . 8. I have no reason to be weary of converse with God , seeing it is that for which all human converse is regardable . Converse with man is only so far desirable as it tendeth to our Converse with God : And therefore the end must be preferred before the means . 9. It is the Office of Christ , and the work of the Holy Ghost , and the use of all the means of Grace , and of all creatures , mercies and afflictions , to reduce our straying souls to God , that we may converse with him and enjoy him . 10. Converse with God is most suitable to those that are so near to death ; It best prepareth for it : It is likest to the work that we are next to do . We had rather when death comes , be found conversing with God then with Man : It is God that a dying man hath principally to do with : It is his judgment that he is going to ; and his mercy that he hath to trust upon : And therefore it concerneth us to draw near him now , and be no strangers to him , lest strangeness then should be our terrour . 11. How wonderful a condescension is it that God should be willing to converse with me ! with such a worm and sinful wretch : And therefore how unexcusable is my crime , if I refuse his company , and so great a mercy ! 12. Lastly , Heaven it self is but our Converse with God and his Glorified ones , ( though in a more perfect manner then we can here conceive . ) And therefore our holy converse with him here is the state that is likest Heaven , and that prepareth for it , and all the Heaven that is on earth . 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 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 , & 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 , & God with you : In a word , Be but heartily willing to be friends to God , and that God should be your cheifest 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 sin 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 unavoidable abate your boldness and your comforts : When you should be sweetly delighting in his pleased face , and promised Glory , you will be be fooling 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 seperate 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 any wilderness than in a croud ( unless he be there returning from those sins to God ) where-ever he seeth him , God will not own and be familiar with so foul a soul. Seneca could say [ Quid prodest totious 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 human 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 aways as before you , even as at your right hand ; Psal. 16.8 . Be still with him when you awake , Psal. 139.18 . 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 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 freedom to converse with God. Thou wouldst say of human society as Seneca [ Vnus 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 Iohn 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 , Ioh. 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 Martyrdom ? And indeed we Judge not , we Love not , we ●ive 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 concupisence , 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 ways : that Love their prisons 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 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 seldom 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 days 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 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 whether ! 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 soul night seek it out ! But whether 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 ra●her 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 ways 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 journy , 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 on●s 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 malencholly 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 . Books Printed for Iohn Salusbury in Cornhill . 〈…〉 opened , 〈…〉 Supper of the Parable discovered , 〈◊〉 several Sermons . By Ioseph Hussey , Pastor in Cambridge . An Inquiry after Religion , or a Veiw of all Religions and Sects in the World. By a Member of the Royal Society . A Word to poor , ignorant , and careless people , that mind not the Salvation of their precious souls ; containing Directions for a Holy Life ; with a Catechism and Prayers for Families , and Graces before and after Meat .