Chapter III (12)

_Direct._ X. Make use of the natural love of quietness, and thy natural weariness of tormenting cares, and fears, and sorrows, to move thee to cast thyself on God, and quiet thy soul in trusting on him.--For God hath purposely made thyself and all things else insufficient, unsatisfactory, and vexatious to thee, that thou mightest be driven to rest on him alone, when nothing else affords thee rest. Cares, and fears, and unquietness of mind are such thorns and briers as nature cannot love or be content with: and you may be sure that you can no way be delivered from them, but by trusting upon God. And will you choose care and torment, when so sure and cheap a way of ease is set before you? Who can endure to have fears torment him, and cares feed daily upon his heart, that may safely be delivered from it? An ulcerated, festered, pained mind, is a greater calamity, than any bodily distress alone. And if you be cast upon your own care, or committed to the trust of any creature, you can never rationally have peace. For your own ease and comfort then betake yourselves to God, and cast all your care and burden on him, who careth for you, and knoweth perfectly what you want, 1 Pet. v. 7; Matt. vi. 32. Read often Matt. vi. from ver. 24. How sweet an ease and quietness is it to the mind that can confidently trust in God! How quiet is he from the storms of trouble, and the sickness of mind, which others are distressed with! Isa. xxvi. 3, 4, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." Psal. cxii. 7, 8, "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established; he shall not be afraid." Psal. xxxi. 19, 20, 24, "Oh 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. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord." Psal. lvi. 3, 4, "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word; in God have I put my trust: I will not fear what flesh can do unto me." How easy and sweet a life is this!

_Direct._ XI. Remember that distrust is a pregnant, multiplying sin, and will carry thee to all iniquity and misery if thou suffer it to prevail.--Distrusting God is but our entrance upon a life of error, sin, and woe. It presently sets us on idolatrous confidence on flesh, and sinful shifts, and stretching conscience; it deludeth our judgments, and maketh every thing seem lawful which seems necessary to our safety and welfare; and every thing seem necessary, without which man cannot accomplish it. All sinful compliances, and temporizings, and man-pleasing, and believing sinful means to be no sin, proceed from this distrust of God.

_Direct._ XII. Suffer not distrustful thoughts and reasonings in thy mind, but cast them out, and command them to be gone.--Cogitations are the instruments of good and evil in the mind of man; they cannot be acted but by thoughts, and the will hath more command of the thoughts than it hath immediately of the passions themselves. If you cannot trust God so quietly as you would, nor keep under every fearful apprehension, yet keep out, or cast out, the thoughts which exercise your sin, and turn your thoughts to something else. If thoughts do not actuate it, your distrustful fears and cares will vanish. What are your cares, but the turmoiling of your thoughts? continually feeding upon difficulties and trouble, and tiring themselves with hunting about for help? Cast away the thoughts, and the cares are gone. You may do much in this if you will, though it be difficult. Matt. vi. 25, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your bodies, what ye shall put on." Ver. 27, 28, "Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit to his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment?"

_Direct._ XIII. When commands will not prevail, rebuke and chide thy unbelieving heart, and reason it out of its distrustful cares, and fears, and sorrows.--Say to it, as David oft, Psal. xlii. and xliii. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou so disquieted within me? Trust in God, for I shall yet give him thanks, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." O foolish soul! hast thou yet learned no better to know thy God? Doth he support the heavens and the earth, and the whole creation? and yet canst not thou rely upon him? Is he not wise enough to be trusted with the conduct and disposal of thee? Is he not good and gracious enough to be trusted with thy life, estate, and name, and welfare? Is he not great and powerful enough to be trusted against the greatest danger, or difficulties, or opposition that ever can befall thee? Is he not true and faithful enough to be trusted, whatever improbabilities may arise before thee? Where dwelt the man, and what was his name, that ever trusted him in vain, or was ever failed or deceived by him? Are not his Son, and Spirit, and covenant, and oath, sufficient pledges of his love for thy security? How oft hath he performed his promises to thee, and heard thy cries, and helped and saved thee in thy distress! How oft hath he confuted thine unbelief, and shamed thy distrustful fears and cares! and then thou couldst resolve to trust him better in the next distress. And shall all his wonders of mercy be forgotten? and all thy confessions, thanksgivings, and promises be now repented of, contradicted, or recanted, by thy renewed distrust and unbelief? Is he not the same God, that hath so frequently and abundantly had mercy on thee? Is he not the same God, that hath saved all that trusted in him, and wrought such wonders for his servants in the earth, and brought so many safe to heaven? "Our fathers trusted in him; they trusted, and he delivered them; they cried to him, and were delivered; they trusted in him, and were not confounded," Psal. xxii. 4, 5. And is he not sufficient for thee, that is sufficient for all the world? Who ever sped ill that trusted in him? or who hath prospered by trusting in themselves or any other, without him, or against him? Unworthy soul! wilt thou atheistically deny the sufficiency, or truth, or goodness of thy God? Shall thy distrust deny him, or blaspheme him? Wilt thou idolatrously set up a worm above him? Is there more in man, or any thing else, to hurt or ruin thee, than in God to save thee? Whom wilt thou trust, if thou trust not God? Darest thou think that any other is fitter for thy confidence? Thou wouldst be quiet and confident if thy dearest friend had thy life or welfare in his hands; and art thou troubled now it is in the hands of God? Is he enough to be our endless happiness in heaven, and not to be thy confidence on earth? Canst thou trust him to raise thy body from the dust, and not raise thy state, or name, or troubled mind? Either take him for thy rock and hope, or never pretend to take him for thy God. If thou trust not in him, thou must despair, or trust against him; and whom wilt thou trust to save thee from him? Hadst thou no more encouragement to trust him but this, that he hath bid thee trust him, thou mightest be sure he never would deceive thee. Lament, therefore, thy disquietment and self-tormenting fears; lament thy injurious distrust of thy most dear Almighty Father. Choose not vexation, when the harbour of his love is open to secure thee. If men or devils are against thee, say as those believers, Dan. iii. 16, 17, "We are not careful to answer thee in this matter; our God whom we serve is able to deliver us." Go on, with Daniel, chap. vi. in praying to thy God, and trust him with the lions' jaws. "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust in him, and he shall bring it to pass," Psal. xxxvii. 5. "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but I will remember the name of the Lord our God," Psal. xx. 7. "Trust in him, for he is thy help and shield," Psal. cxv. 9-11.

_Direct._ XIV. Take not the sayings of the tempter or thy own distrustful heart for the sayings of God, or for any reason against thy confidence in him.--Some take all the malicious suggestions of the devil, for reasons of their disquietness and fears, as if it were the Spirit of God that raised all the terrors and molestations in them, which are raised by the enemy of God and them: and they fear when Satan bids them, thinking it is the Spirit of God; and they dare not trust God when he commandeth them, for fear lest it be the will of Satan. Some are so strongly affected with their own conceits and fancies, that they think God saith all that their hearts or fancies say, and make one fear the reason of another. Thy heart is not so wise or good, as that thou shouldst take all its words for the words of God. Thy "flesh and thy heart" may "fail thee," when God, who is the "rock of thy heart and thy portion," will never fail, Psal. lxxiii. 26. Thy heart may say, I have no grace, no help, no hope, when God never said so, Psal. lxxvii. 7-10. Thy heart may say, I am a reprobate, forsaken of God, he will not hear me, the time of grace is past, when God never said so. Thy heart may say, I am undone, I can find no comfort in any friend, no evidence of grace within me, no comfort in God, in Christ, or in the promises, no comfort in my life, which is but a burden to me; I cannot pray, I cannot believe, I cannot answer the objections of Satan, I can strive no longer against my fears, I cannot bear my wounded conscience. All this is the failing of the heart; but proveth not any failing of God, whose grace is sufficient for thee, and his strength is manifested perfect in thy weakness. The heart hath a thousand sayings and conceits, which God is utterly against.

_Direct._ XV. When you cannot exercise a trust of assurance, exercise the trust of general faith, and hope, and the quiet submission of thyself to the holy will of God.--The common pretence of distrust is, I know not that I am a child of God; and, it beseems the ungodly to fear his wrath. But, as the gospel is tidings of great joy to any people where it cometh, so it is a word of hope and trust. At least trust God so far as Infinite Goodness should be trusted, who will damn none but the finally obstinate refusers of his saving grace.[120] And with Aaron, Lev. x. 3, hold your peace, when he is glorifying himself in his corrections. Remember, that the will of God is never misguided; that it is the beginning and end of all things, Rev. iv. 11; Rom. xi. 36; that it never willeth any thing but good; that it is the centre and end of all our wills. There is no rest or quietness for our wills, but in the will of God: and his will is always for the good of them that truly desire to be conformed to it, by obedience to his commands, and submission to his disposal. Say, therefore, with your Saviour, "Father, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me; but not as I will, but as thou wilt." There is nothing got by struggling against the will of God; nor any thing lost by a quiet submission to it. And, if thou love it, and desire to obey and please it, trust in it, for it will surely save thee.

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[Sidenote: For a delight in God.]

_Grand Direct._ XIII. Diligently labour that God and holiness may be thy chief delight: and this holy delight may be the ordinary temperament of thy religion.

_Directions for Delighting ourselves in God._

_Direct._ I. Rightly understand what delight in God it is that you must seek and exercise.--It is not a mere sensitive delight, which is exercised about the objects of sense or fantasy, and is common to beasts with men: nor is it the delights of immediate intuition of God, such as the blessed have in heaven: nor is it an enthusiastic delight, consisting in irrational raptures and joys, of which we can give no account of the reason.[121] Nor is it a delight inconsistent with sorrow and fear, when they are duties; but it is the solid, rational complacency of the soul in God and holiness, arising from the apprehensions of that in him, which is justly delectable to us. And it is such, as, in estimation of its object, and inward complacency and gladness, though not in passionate joy or mirth, must excel our delight in temporal pleasure; and must be the end of all our humiliations, and other inferior duties.

_Direct._ II. Understand how much of this holy delight may be hoped for on earth.[122]--Though too many christians feel much more fear and sorrow in their religion than delight, yet every true christian doth esteem God more delectable, or fit and worthy of his delights, if he could enjoy him; whereas to the carnal, fleshly things do seem more fit to be their delights. And though most christians reach not very high in their delights in God, yet God hath prescribed us such means, in which, if we faithfully used them, we might reach much higher. And this much we might well expect: 1. So much as might make our lives incomparably more quiet, contented, and pleasant to us, than are the lives of the greatest or happiest worldlings. 2. So much as might make our thoughts of God and the life to come, to be ready, welcome, pleasant thoughts to us. 3. So much as might greatly prevail against our inordinate griefs and fears, and our backwardness to duties, and weariness in them, and might make religion an ordinary pleasure. 4. So much as might take off our hankering desire after unnecessary recreations and unlawful pleasures of the flesh. 5. So much as might sweeten all our mercies to us, with a spiritual perfume or relish. 6. So much as might make some sufferings joyful, and the rest more easy to us. 7. And so much as might make the thoughts of death less terrible to us, and make us desire to be with Christ.

[Sidenote: Psal. lxviii. 3-5; lxix. 30, &c.]

_Direct._ III. Understand what there is in God and holiness, which is fit to be the soul's delight.--As, 1. Behold him in the infinite perfections of his being; his omnipotence, omniscience, and his goodness; his holiness, eternity, immutability, &c. And as your eye delighteth in an excellent picture, or a comely building, or fields, or gardens, not because they are yours, but because they are a delectable object to the eye; so let your minds delight themselves in God, considered in himself, as the only object of highest delight. 2. Delight yourselves also in his relative attributes, in which are expressed his goodness to his creatures: as his all-sufficiency, and faithfulness or truth, his benignity, his mercy, and compassion, and patience to sinners, and his justice unto all. 3. Delight yourselves in him as his glory appeareth in his wondrous works, of creation and daily providence. 4. Delight yourselves in him as he is related to you, as your God and Father, and as all your interest, hope, and happiness are in him alone. 5. Delight yourselves in him as his excellencies shine forth in his blessed Son. 6. And as they appear in the wisdom and goodness of his word, in all the precepts and promises of the gospel, Psal. cxix. 162; Jer. xv. 16. 7. Delight thyself in his image, though but imperfectly printed on thy soul; and also on his holy servants, Gal. ii. 20; 1 Cor. xv. 10; 2 Cor. vii. 18. 8. Delight yourselves in the consideration of the glory which he hath from all his creatures, and the universal fulfilling of his will: as the prosperity and happiness of your friend delighteth you, and the success of any excellent enterprises, and the praise of excellent things and persons, and as you have a special delight in the success of truth, and the flourishing order, and unity, and peace, and prosperity of kingdoms, especially of the church, much more than in your personal prosperity (unless you have selfish, private, base, unmanly dispositions); so much more should you delight in the glory and happiness of God. 9. Delight yourselves in the safety which you have in his favour and defence: and the treasury which you have in his all-sufficiency and love, for your continual supplies in every want, and deliverance in every danger; and the ground of quiet contentedness and confidence which is offered to fearful souls in him. 10. Delight yourselves in the particular discoveries of his common mercies to the world, and his special mercies to his saints; and his personal mercies to yourselves, from your birth to this moment; both upon your souls, and bodies, and friends, and name, and estates, and affairs in all relations. 11. Delight yourselves in the privilege you enjoy of speaking to him, and of him, and hearing from him, and adoring and worshipping him, and singing and publishing his praise, and in the communion which your souls may have with him through Christ, on his days, and at all times, in his sacraments, and in all your lives. And say as Solomon, 1 Kings viii. 27, "And will God indeed dwell on earth? Will he dwell and walk with sinful men? When the heaven of heavens cannot contain him." Psal. xl. 16, "Let those that seek him rejoice and be glad in him;" and cxxii. 1, let us be glad to go to the house of the Lord, and join with his holy assemblies in his worship. Psal. xlvi. 4, "The streams" of his grace "make glad the city of God, the holy tabernacles of the Most High: God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved." 12. Delight yourselves above all in the forethoughts and hope of the glory which you shall see and enjoy for ever. I do but name all these for your memory, because they are before spoken of in the directions for love.

[Sidenote: How much God is for his servants' delights.]

_Direct._ IV. Understand how much these holy delights are pleasing unto God, and how much he is for his people's pleasure.--For it much hindereth the joy of many christians, that they think it is against the will of God, that such as they should so much rejoice; or at least that they apprehend not how much he hath commanded it, and how great a duty it is, and how much pleasing to their God. Consider, 1. It is not for nothing that the nature of man is made capable of higher and larger delights, than the brutish, sensual nature is:[123] and that in this we are made little lower than angels. 2. Nor is it for nothing that God hath made delight and complacency, the most powerful, commanding affection, and the end of all the other passions, which they professedly subserve and seek; and the most natural, inseparable affection of the soul, there being none that desireth not delight. 3. Nor is it in vain that God hath provided and offered such plenty of most excellent objects for our delight, especially himself, in his attributes, love, mercy, Son, Spirit, and kingdom: which brutes were not made to know or to enjoy. 4. Nor hath he given us in vain, such excellent, convenient, and various helps, and inferior preparations which tend to our delight; even for body and mind, to further our delight in God. 5. Nor is it in vain that he maketh us yet more nearly capable by his Spirit; even by affecting humiliations, and mortifying, cleansing, illuminating, and quickening works: and that the kingdom of heaven consisteth in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost: and that the Spirit hath undertaken to be the comforter of believers, who is sent upon no low or needless work. 6. Nor did Christ purchase his people's joys in vain, by the price of his grievous sufferings and sorrows. Having borne our griefs, and being made a man of sorrows, that we that see him not, might rejoice in believing, with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 7. Nor is it in vain that he hath filled his word with such matter of delight and comfort, in the gladdest tidings that could come to man, and in such free, and full, and faithful promises. 8. Nor hath he multiplied his commands for his rejoicing and delight, in vain; again and again commanding us to rejoice, and always to rejoice. 9. Nor is it insignificant that he hath forbidden those worldly cares, and fears, and griefs which would devour their joys: nor that he hath so clearly showed them the way to joy, and blameth them if they walk not in it. 10. He filleth up their lives with mercies, and matter of delight, by his direction, support, provisions, and disposals: and all this in their way of trial, and in the valley of tears. 11. How tender is he of their sufferings and sorrows; not afflicting willingly, nor delighting to grieve the sons of men. 12. He taketh not away their delight and comfort, till they cast it away themselves, by sinning, or self-afflicting, or neglecting his proposed pleasures. 13. He never faileth to meet them with his delights, while they walk in the way prescribed to that end: unless when it tendeth to their greater pleasure, to have some present interruption of the pleasure.[124] 14. In their greatest needs, when themselves and other helps must fail, he giveth them ofttimes the greatest joys. 15. And he taketh their delights and sorrows as if they were his own. In all their afflictions he is afflicted, and he delighteth in their welfare, and rejoiceth over them to do them good. Cannot you see the will of your Father in all this? 16. If you cannot, yet lift up your heads, and foresee the eternal delights which he hath prepared for you, when you shall enter into your Master's joy: and then judge whether God be for your delight?

[Sidenote: Reasons for delight in God.]

_Direct._ V. Take special notice of the reasons why God commandeth you to delight in him, and consequently how much of religion consisteth in these delights.--1. Thou vilifiest and dishonourest him, if thou judge him not the worthiest for thy delights. 2. If thou delight not in him, thy thoughts of God will be seldom, or unwelcome and unpleasant thoughts. 3. And thy speeches of him will be seldom, or heartless, forced speeches. Who knoweth not how readily our thoughts and tongues do follow our delight? Be it house, or land, or books, or friends, or actions, which are our delight, we need no force to bring our thoughts to them. The worldling thinks and tasteth of his wealth and business; the proud man, of his dignities and honour; the voluptuous beast, of his lusts, and sports, and meats, and drinks; because they most delight in these. And so must the christian of his God, and hopes, and holy business, as being his delight.[125] 4. It will keep you away from holy duties, in which you should have communion with God, if you have no delight in God and them. This makes so many neglect both public and secret worship, because they have no delight in it; when those that delight in it are ready in taking all opportunities. 5. It will corrupt your judgments, and draw you to think that a little is enough, and that serious diligence is unnecessary preciseness, and that one quarter of your duty is an excess. A man that hath no delight in God and godliness, is easily drawn to think, that little, and seldom, and cold, and formal, and heartless, lifeless preaching and praying may serve the turn, and any lip-service is acceptable to God, and that more is more ado than needs. And hence, he will be further drawn to reproach those that go beyond him, to quiet his own conscience, and save his own reputation; and at last be a forlorn, Satanical reviler, hater, and persecutor of the serious, holy worshippers of God. Jer. vi. 10, "Behold, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them: they have no delight in it: therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord." 6. If you delight not in it, you will do that which you do, without a heart, with backwardness and weariness: as your ox draweth unwillingly in the yoke, and is glad when you unyoke him: and as your horse that goeth against his will, and will go no longer than he feels the spur, when delight would cause alacrity and unweariedness. 7. It makes men apt to quarrel with the word, and every weakness in the minister offendeth them, as sick stomachs that have some fault or other still to find with their meat. 8. It greatly inclineth men to carnal and forbidden pleasures, because they taste not the higher and more excellent delights. Taverns, and ale-houses, plays, and whores, cards, and dice, and excess of recreation, must be sought out for them, as Saul sought a witch and a musician instead of God. It would be the most effectual answer to all the silly reasonings of the voluptuous, when they are pleading for the lawfulness of their unnecessary, foolish, time-wasting sports, if we could but help them to the heavenly nature and hearts that more delight in God.[126] This better pleasure is an argument that would do more to confute and banish their sinful pleasure, than a twelvemonth's disputing or preaching will do with them, while they are strangers to the soul's delight in God. Then they would rather say to their companions, O come and taste those high delights, which we have found in God! 9. The want of a delight in God and holiness, doth leave the soul as a prey to sorrows: every affliction that assaulteth it may do its worst, and hath its full blow at the naked, unfortified heart: for creature delights will prove but a poor preservative to it. 10. This want of a delight in God and holiness, is the way to apostasy itself. Few men will hold on in a way that they have no delight in, when all other delights must be forsaken for it. The caged hypocrite, while he is cooped up to a stricter life than he himself desires, even while he seemeth to serve him, is loathsome to God; for the body without the will is but a carcass or carrion in his eyes. If you had rather not serve God, you do not serve him while you seem to serve him. If you had rather live in sin, you do live in sin, reputatively, while you forbear the outward act: for in God's account, the heart, or will, is the man: and what a man had rather be (habitually) that he is indeed. And yet, this hypocrite will be still looking for a hole to get out of his cage, and forsake his unbeloved outside of religion: like a beast that is driven in a way that he is loth to go, and will be turning out at every gap. All these mischiefs follow the want of delight in God.

On the contrary, the benefits which follow our delight in God, (besides the sweetness of it,) are unspeakable. Those which are contrary to the forementioned hurts, I leave to your own consideration. 1. Delight in God will prove that thou knowest him, and lovest him, and that thou art prepared for his kingdom; for all that truly delight in him shall enjoy him. 2. Prosperity, which is but the small addition of earthly things, will not easily corrupt thee or transport thee. 3. Adversity, which is the withholding of earthly delights, will not much grieve thee, or easily deject thee. 4. Thou wilt receive more profit by a sermon, or good book, or conference, which thou delightest in, than others, that delight not in them, will do in many. 5. All thy service will be sweet to thyself, and acceptable to God: if thou delight in him, he doth certainly delight in thee, Psal. cxlix. 4; cxlvii. 11; 1 Chron. xxix. 17. 6. Thou hast a continual feast with thee, which may sweeten all the crosses of thy life, and afford thee greater joy than thy sorrow is, in thy saddest case. 7. When you delight in God, your creature delight will be sanctified to you, and warrantable in its proper place; which in others is idolatrous, or corrupt. These, with many other, are the benefits of delight in God.

_Direct._ VI. Consider how suitable God and holiness are to be the matter of thy delight, and take heed of all temptations which would represent him as unsuitable to you.--He is, 1. Most perfect and blessed in himself. 2. And full of all that thou canst need. 3. He hath all the world at his command for thy relief. 4. He is nearest to thee in presence and relation in the world. 5. He hath fitted all things in religion to thy delight, for matter, variety, and benefit. 6. He will be a certain and constant delight to thee: and a durable delight, when all others fail. Thy soul came from him, and therefore naturally should tend to him: it is from him, and for him, and therefore must rest in him, or have no rest. We delight in the house where we were born, and in our native country, and in our parents; and every thing inclineth to its own original: and so should the soul to its Creator.

_Direct._ VII. Corrupt not your minds and appetites with contrary delights.--Addict not yourselves to fleshly pleasures: taste nothing that is forbidden. Sorrow itself is not such an enemy to spiritual delights, as sensual, sinful pleasures are. O leave your beastly and your childish pleasures, and come and feast your souls on God, Isa. lv. 1-3. Away with the delights of lust, and pride, and covetousness, and vain sports, and gluttony, and drunkenness, if ever you would have the solid and durable delights! Think not of joining both together. Bethink yourselves: can it be any thing but the disease and wickedness of thy heart, that can make a play, or a feast, or drunken, wanton company, more pleasant to thee than God? What a heart is that which thinketh it a toil to meditate on God and heaven; and thinks it a pleasure to think of the baits of pride and covetousness! What a heart is that which thinks that sensuality, wantonness, and vanity are the pleasure of their families, which must not be turned out; and that godliness, and heavenly discourse and exercises, would be the sadness and trouble of their families, which must not be brought in, lest it mar their mirth; that thinks it an intolerable toil and slavery to love God, and holiness, and heaven, and to be employed for them; and thinks it a delightful thing to love a whore, or excess of meat, or drink, or sports! Can you say any thing of a man that is more disgraceful, unless you say he is a devil? It were not so vile for a child to delight more in a dog than in his parents, or a husband to delight more in the ugliest harlot than in his wife, as it is for a man to delight more in fleshly vanities than in God. Will you be licking up this dung, when you should be solacing your souls in angelical pleasures, and foretasting the delights of heaven? Oh how justly will God thrust away such wretches from his everlasting presence, who so abhor his ways and him! Can they blame him for denying them the things which they hate, or set so light by, as to prefer a lust before them? If they were not haters of God and holiness, they would never be so averse even to the delights which they should have with him.

_Direct._ VIII. Take heed of a melancholy habit of body; for melancholy people can scarce delight in any thing at all, and therefore not in God. Delight is as hard to them, as it is to a pained member to find pleasure, or a sick stomach to delight in the food which it loathes. They can think of God with trouble, and fear, and horror, and despair; but not with delight.

_Direct._ IX. Take heed of an impatient, peevish, self-tormenting mind, that can bear no cross; and of overvaluing earthly things, which causeth impatience in the want of them. Make not too great a matter of fleshly pain or pleasure.--Otherwise your minds will be called to a continual attendance on the flesh, and taken up with continual desires, or cares, or fears, or griefs, or pleasures; and will not be permitted to solace themselves with God. The soul that would have pure and high delights, must abstract itself from the concernments of the flesh; and look on your body, as if it were the body of another, whose pain or pleasure you can choose whether you will feel. When Paul was rapt up into the third heaven, and saw the things unutterable, he was so far freed from the prison of sense, that he knew not whether he was in the body or out of it. As the separated souls, that see the face of God and the Redeemer, do leave the body to be buried, and to rot in darkness, and feel not all this to the interrupting of their joys; so faith can imitate such a death to the world, and such a neglect of the flesh, and some kind of elevating separation of the mind, to the things above. If in this near conjunction you cannot leave the body to rejoice or suffer alone, yet, as itself is but a servant to the soul, so let not its pain or pleasure be predominant, and control the high operations of the soul. A manly, valiant, believing soul, though it cannot abate the pain at all, nor reconcile the flesh to its calamity, yet it can do more, notwithstanding the pain, to its own delight, than strangers will believe.

Some women, and passionate, weak-spirited men, especially in sickness, are so peevish, and of such impatient minds, that their daily work is to disquiet and torment themselves. One can scarce tell how to speak to them, or look at them, but it offendeth them. And the world is so full of occasions of provocation, that such persons are like to have little quietness. It is unlike that these should delight in God, who keep their minds in a continual, ulcerated, galled state, incapable of any delights at all, and cease not their self-tormenting.

_Direct._ X. It is only a life of faith, that will be a life of holy, heavenly delight: exercise yourselves, therefore, in believing contemplations of the things unseen.--It must not be now and then a glance of the eye of the soul towards God, or a seldom salutation, which you would give a stranger; but a walking with him, and frequent addresses of the soul unto him, which must help you to the delights which believers find in their communion with him.

_Direct._ XI. Especially let faith go frequently to heaven for renewed matter of delight, and frequently think what God will be to you there for ever, and with what full, everlasting delight he will satiate your souls.--As heaven is the place of our full delight, so the foresight and foretaste of it, is the highest delight which on earth is to be attained. And a soul that is strange to the foresight of heaven, will be as strange to the true delights of faith.

_Direct._ XII. It is a great advantage to holy delight, to be much in the more delightful parts of worship; as in thanksgiving and praise, and a due celebration of the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ.--Of which I have spoken in the foregoing directions.

_Direct._ XIII. A skilful, experienced pastor, who is able to open the treasury of the gospel, and publicly and privately to direct his flock in the work of self-examination, and the heavenly exercises of faith, is a great help to christians' spiritual delight.--The experiences of believers teach them this: how oft do they go away refreshed and revived, who came to the assembly, or to their pastors, in great distress, and almost in despair! See Job xxxiii. 23; 2 Cor. i. 3, 4. It is the office and delight of the ministers of Christ, to be "helpers of his people's faith and joy," 2 Cor. i. 24; Phil. i. 4, 25; 1 Thess. ii. 20.

_Direct._ XIV. Make use of all that prosperity, and lawful pleasure, which God giveth you in outward things, for the increase and advantage of your delight in God.--Though corrupted nature is apter to abuse prosperity and earthly delights, than any other state, to the diverting of the heart from God; and almost all the devil's poison is given in sugared or gilded allectives; yet the primitive, natural use of prosperity, of health, and plenty, and honour, and peace, is to lead up the mind to God, and give us a taste of his spiritual delights! That the neighbourhood of the body might be the soul's advantage; and that God, who in this life will be seen by us but in a glass, and will give out his comforts by his appointed means, might make advantage of sensitive delights, for his own reception, and the communications of his love and pleasure unto man: that, as soon as the eye, or ear, or taste, perceiveth the delightfulness of their several objects, the holy soul might presently take the hint and motion, and be carried up to delightful thoughts of him that giveth us all these delights. And, doubtless, so far as we can make use of a delight in friends, or food, or health, or habitations, or any accommodations of our bodies, to further our delight in God, or to remove those melancholy fears or sorrows, which would hinder this spiritual delight, it is not only lawful, but our duty to use them, with that moderation as tendeth to this end.

_Direct._ XV. Make use of affliction, as a great advantage for your purest and unmixed delight in God.--The servants of Christ have usually never so much of the joy in the Holy Ghost, as in their greatest sufferings; especially if they be for his sake. The soul never retireth so readily and delightfully to God, as when it hath no one else that will receive it, or that it can take any comfort from. God comforteth us most, when he hath made us see that none else can or will relieve us. When all friends have forsaken us save only one, that one is sweeter to us then than ever. When all our house is fired down except one room, that room is pleasanter to us than it was before. He that hath lost one eye, will love the other better than before. In prosperity our delights in God are too often corrupted by a mixture of sensual delight; but all that remaineth when the creature is gone, is purely divine.

_Direct._ XVI. Labour by self-examination, deliberately managed under the direction of an able spiritual guide, to settle your souls in the well-grounded persuasion of your special interest in God and heaven; and then suffer not Satan, by his troublesome importunity, to renew your doubts, or molest your peace.--An orderly, well-guided, diligent self-examination, may quickly do much to show you your condition; and if you are convinced that the truth of grace is in you, let not fears and suspicion go for reason, and cause you to deny that which you cannot, without the gainsaying of your consciences, deny. You see not the design of the devil in all this: his business is, by making you fear that you have no interest in God, to destroy your delight in him and in his service: and next that, to make you through weariness forsake him; and either despair, or turn to sensual delights. Foresee and prevent these designs of Satan, and suffer him not at his pleasure to raise new storms of fears and troubles, and draw you to deny your Father's mercies, or to suspect his proved love.

_Direct._ XVII. Damp not your delights by wilful sin.--If you grieve your Comforter he will grieve you, or leave you to grieve yourselves: in that measure that any known sin is cherished, delight in God will certainly decay.

_Direct._ XVIII. Improve your observation of wicked men's sensual delights, to provoke your souls to delight in God.--Think with yourselves: Shall hawks, and hounds, and pride, and filthiness, and cards, and dice, and plays, and sports, and luxury, and idleness, and foolish talk, or worldly honours, be so delightful to these deluded sinners? and shall not my God and Saviour, his love and promises, and the hopes of heaven, be more delightful to me? Is there any comparison between the matter of my delights and theirs?

_Direct._ XIX. Labour to overcome those fears of death, which would damp your joys in the foresight of everlasting joys.--As nothing more feedeth holy delights than the forethoughts of heaven; so there is scarce any thing that more hindereth our delight in those forethoughts, than the fear of interposing death. See what I have written against this fear, in my "Treatise of Self-denial," and "Saints' Rest," and in my "Treatise of Death, as the last Enemy," and in my "Last Work of a Believer."

_Direct._ XX. Pretend not any other religious duties against your delights in God and holiness; but use them all in their proper subservience to this.--Penitent sorrow is only a purge to cast out those corruptions which hinder you from relishing your spiritual delights. Use it therefore as physic, only when there is need; and not for itself, but only to this end; and turn it not into your ordinary food. Delight in God is the health of your souls: say not you cannot have while to be healthful, because you must take physic, or that you take physic against health, or instead of health, but for your health. So take up no sorrow against your delight in God, or instead of it, but for it, and so much as promoteth it. See the directions for love beforegoing.

By this time you may see, that holy delight adjoined to love, is the principal part of our religion, and that they mistake it which place it in any thing else. And therefore how inexcusable are all the ungodly enemies or neglecters of a holy life. If it had been a life of grief and toil, they had had some pretence; but to fly from pleasure, and refuse delight, and such delight, is inexcusable. Be it known to you, sinners, God calleth you not to forsake delight, but to accept it; to change your delight in sin and vanity, for delight in him. You dare not say but this is better: you cannot have your houses and lands for ever, nor your lust and luxury for ever; but you may have God for ever. And do you hope to live for ever with him, and have you no delight in him? Men deal with Christ as the papists with the reformed churches: because we reject their formalities and ceremonious toys, they say we take down all religion. So because we would call men from their brutish pleasures, they say we would let them have no pleasure; for the epicure thinks, when his luxury, lust, and sport is gone, all is gone. Call a sluggard from his bed, or a glutton from his feast, to receive a kingdom, and he will grudge, if he observe only what you would take from him, and not what you give him in its stead. When earthly pleasures end in misery, then who would not wish they had preferred the holy, durable delights?

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[Sidenote: For a life of thankfulness.]

_Grand Direct._ XIV. Let thankfulness to God thy Creator, Redeemer, and Regenerator, be the very temperament of thy soul, and faithfully expressed by thy tongue and life.

Though our thankfulness is no benefit to God, yet he is pleased with it, as that which is suitable to our condition, and showeth the ingenuity and honesty of the heart. An unthankful person is but a devourer of mercies, and a grave to bury them in, and one that hath not the wit and honesty to know and acknowledge the hand that giveth them; but the thankful looketh above himself, and returneth all, as he is able, to him from whom they flow.

True thankfulness to God is discerned from counterfeit, by these qualifications: 1. True thankfulness having a just estimate of mercies comparatively, preferreth spiritual and everlasting mercies before those that are merely corporal and transitory. But carnal thankfulness chiefly valueth carnal mercies, though notionally it may confess that the spiritual are the greater. 2. True thankfulness inclineth the soul to a spiritual rejoicing in God, and to a desire after more of his spiritual mercies: but carnal thankfulness is only a delight in the prosperity of the flesh, or the delusion and carnal security of the mind, inclining men to carnal, empty mirth, and to a desire of more such fleshly pleasure, plenty, or content: as a beast that is full fed, will skip, and play, and show that he is pleased with his state; or if he have ease, he would not be molested. 3. True thankfulness kindleth in the heart a love to the giver above the gift, or at least a love to God above our carnal prosperity and pleasure, and bringeth the heart still nearer unto God, by all his mercies. But carnal thankfulness doth spring from carnal self-love, or love of fleshly prosperity; and is moved by it, and is subservient to it, and loveth God, and thanketh him, but so far as he gratifieth or satisfieth the flesh. A childlike thankfulness maketh us love our Father more than his gift, and desire to be with him in his arms; but a dog doth love you and is thankful to you but for feeding him: he loveth you in subordination to his appetite and his bones. 4. True thankfulness inclineth us to obey and please him, that obligeth us by his benefits. But carnal thankfulness puts God off with the hypocritical, complimental thanks of the lips, and spends the mercy in the pleasing of the flesh, and makes it but the fuel of lust and sin. 5. True thankfulness to God is necessarily transcendent, as his mercies are transcendent. The saving of our souls from hell, and promising us eternal life, besides the giving us our very beings and all that we have, do oblige us to be totally and absolutely his, that is so transcendent a Benefactor to us, and causeth the thankful person to devote and resign himself and all that he hath to God, to answer so great an obligation. But carnal thankfulness falls short of this absolute and total dedication, and still leaveth the sinner in the power of self-love, devoting himself (really) to himself, and using all that he is, or hath, to the pleasing of his fleshly mind, and giving God only the tithes or leavings of the flesh, or so much as it can spare, lest he should stop the streams of his benignity, and bereave the flesh of its prosperity and contents.

_Directions for Thankfulness to God, our Benefactor._

[Sidenote: Gratitude is to the promise, much what obedience is to the law.]

_Direct._ I. Understand well how great this duty is, in the nature of the thing, but especially how the very design and tenor of the gospel, and the way of our salvation by a Redeemer, bespeaketh it as the very complexion of the soul, and of every duty.--A creature that is wholly his Creator's, and is preserved every moment by him, and daily fed and maintained by his bounty, and is put into a capacity of life eternal, must needs be obliged to incessant gratitude. And unthankfulness among men is justly taken for an unnatural, monstrous vice, which forfeiteth the benefits of friendship and society: 2 Tim. iii. 2, the "unthankful" are numbered with the "unholy," &c. as part of the monsters which should come in the last times (and which we have lived to see, exactly answering that large description of them). But the design of God in the work of redemption, is purposely laid for the raising of the highest thankfulness in man: and the covenant of grace containeth such abundant, wondrous mercies, as might compel the souls of men to gratitude, or leave them utterly without excuse. It is a great truth, and much to be considered, that gratitude is that general duty of the gospel, which containeth and animateth all the rest, as being essential to all that is properly evangelical. A law, as a law, requireth obedience as the general duty: and this obedience is to be exercised and found in every particular duty which it requireth. And the covenant with the Jews was called, The Law, because the regulating part was most eminent: and so obedience was the thing that was eminently required by the law, though their measure of mercy obliged them also to thankfulness. But the gospel or new covenant is most eminently a history of mercy, and a tender and promise of the most unmatchable benefits that ever were heard of by the ears of man: so that the gift of mercy is the predominant or eminent part in the gospel or new covenant: and though still God be our Governor, and the new covenant also hath its precepts, and is a law, yet that is, in a sort, but the subservient part. And what obedience is to a law, that thankfulness is to a benefit, even the formal answering of its obligation: so that though we are called to as exact obedience as ever, yet it is now only a thankful obedience that we are called to. And just as law and promises or gifts are conjoined in the new covenant, just so should obedience and thankfulness be conjoined in our hearts and lives; one to God as our Ruler, and the other to him as our Benefactor: and these two must animate every act of heart and life. We must repent of sin; but it must be a thankful repenting, as becometh those that have a free pardon of all their sins procured by the blood of Christ, and offered them in the gospel: leave out this gratitude, and it is no evangelical repentance. And what is our saving faith in Christ, but the assent to the truth of the gospel, with a thankful acceptance of the good which it offereth us, even Christ as our Saviour, with the benefits of his redemption. The love to God that is there required, is the thankful love of his redeemed ones: and the love to our very enemies, and the forgiving of wrongs, and all the love to one another, and all the works of charity there required, are the exercises of gratitude, and are all to be done, on this account, because Christ hath loved us, and forgiven us, and that we may show our thankful love to him. Preaching, and praying, and sacraments, and public praises, and communion of saints, and obedience, are all to be animated with gratitude; and they are no further evangelically performed, than thankfulness is the very life and complexion of them all. The dark and defective opening of this by preachers, gave occasion to the antinomians to run into the contrary extreme, and to derogate too much from God's law and our obedience; but if we obscure the doctrine of evangelical gratitude, we do as bad or worse than they. Obedience to our Ruler, and thankfulness to our Benefactor, conjoined and co-operating as the head and heart in the natural body, do make a christian indeed. Understand this well, and it will much incline your hearts to thankfulness.