THE Great Commandment.  
A DISCOURSE Upon Psal. 73. 25.  
SHOWING That God is All things to a Religious Soul.  
BEING A further Explication of a short Discourse called, The Angelical Life, formerly Written by the same Author S. S.  
I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me,  1 Cor. 15. 10. 
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,  Gal. 2. 20. 
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart, and with all thy Soul, and with all thy Mind. This is the first and Great Commandment,  Mat. 22. 37; 38. 
LONDON, Printed by R. W. for H. Mortlock, at the White-Hart in Westminster-Hall, and at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1678.   

Imprimatur Hic Liber cui titulus, The Great Commandment, etc.  
Geo. Thorp R more. in Christo P. & D. Domino Gulielmo Archiep. Cant. à Sacris Domesticis. May 17. 1678.   

To the Right Honourable and most Accomplished Lady, the Lady Mary, Daughter to the Right Honourable the Countess Dowager of Huntingdon, and Consort to Mr. William Jolliff of London.  
Madam,  
AMongst the many Excellencies wherewith it hath pleased the Father of Lights to adorn and illustrate you, this is not the least of your Virtues, that you do not love to be told of them: And for my part, such is the Reverend regard that I bear to your sweet modesty, that I fear to write what I suspect your Honour would blush to read. In my judgement I do esteem your Honour to be a Person fit to be addressed to for your Patronage of a Discourse of this nature, and that I in so doing am not far from the same circumstances wherein the great Doctor of the Gentiles stood toward King Agrippa, when he accounted himself happy that he had to do with so competent a Judge. And in ingenuous gratitude I account myself tantum non bound publicly to beg your perusal and owning of this latter Discourse, whose acceptance of the former (when it was only offered you as a private Present) I found so kind and affectionate. I know your Honour is not ashamed of Religion, neither name nor thing, and I hope you will neither be ashamed of, nor offended at him, who out of a sincere desire to promote the happiness of men's Souls, hath adventured to explain and recommend it to the World, though he be but,  
Madam, The meanest of your Honour's Servants, S. S.   

TO THE READER.  
Christian Reader,  
REligion is deservedly esteemed the highest accomplishment of the rational nature, both humane and Angelical, as being the converse which the highest created powers and faculties maintain with the supreme and uncreated good. And it is worth observation, that even amongst the Heathens, who yet had no distinct knowledge of the true God, acquaintance with their gods, and a relation to them, was accounted their greatest glory: which made all Prophetical and Priestly persons of what capacity, yea or sex soever, who pretended to be Secretaries or menial servants to the gods, to be had in so great veneration. Yea the very Princes and Heroes amongst them, though they were otherwise very powerful, wise and valiant, and made no great Conscience of being proud of it neither, were still most ambitious which of them should be accounted nearest of Kin to the gods; and those that pretended nearest Kindred, gloried in that, more than in all their other accomplishments. Thus the great and noble and valiant Hector is brought in by Homer, as being in nothing short of Minerva and Apollo, and failing of divine honour, save only that his extraction was not immediately divine: And there you will find that the same Hector when he could wish for no greater thing, cries out, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. Iliad. v.  
I would I were as sure the son of Jupiter, and that Juno had born me, as I will plague the Grecians this day. Virgil brings in his Aeneas glorying indeed of his Piety, Counsel and Prowess, but of nothing so much nor so often, as of his relation to Venus; Nate Deâ is the salutation that he is most pleased with. Ovid brings in the blustering Ajax not over modest indeed in telling of his Valour and Feats of Arms, but his greatest brag of all is his — A Jove tertius Ajax And yet for the further commendation of Religion, it is as much, if not more observable, that every where it put such a grace upon all the persons who professed it, that they were had in greatest estimation who were the truest to it, and justified the profession of it by the severest conformity. What ever Religion hath been at any time publicly owned amongst any Nations, so far as I can understand, hath been accounted so sacred and venerable, that if any man whatsoever should venture to profane it, or in his Works to deny it, he was accounted the most profligate of all men, and not fit to live. It was ever esteemed an honourable Character of the greatest Princes and Heroes to be devout and pious, according to the professed Religion. If we will believe Homer, Agamemnon, Achilles and Nestor, and all the famed Grecian Heroes were pious Princes, who would seldom either fight, or treat, or con-consult, or undertake any matter of moment, without the preface of a Prayer, or Sacrifice, or both. The despisers of the gods and Religion, were had in common detestation, and nothing could be said worse of any man, than that he was contemptor superûm; or as Horace calls it in his penitential Ode, Cultor Deorum infrequens. God does by his Prophet in a wondering way make an enquiry, whether it was ever known that a people forsook their g●ds, who yet were no gods, Jer 2. 11. which I may well allude to, and with astonishment inquire, whether ever any people reproached and vilified their own Religion, which yet was no Religion, or accounted it their honour to be thought irreligious? And yet alas it is too too obvious, that in a Christian Nation, in this Protestant Nation, many men do really hate that Religion which yet they do profess, and account it a piece of Fanaticisme and madness to be and act according to the Gospel which they own; that is, in short, to be honest men and true to their Words. These are a generation of men whom one may well call profane Hypocrites; and indeed they do not so much dishonour Religion as themselves, who like dishonest men do openly oppose and hate what yet they openly profess. But there are besides these another sort of men, who knavishly and malignantly, but ignorantly and superstitiously reproach Religion. These men would very honestly have all men to live up to their Religion: but then they make Religion to be nothing else, but some Systematical or mechanical thing without them, by which they measure themselves, or unto which they make their outward man to conform. And thus, whilst they maintain such or such Opinions, or are of this or that Persuasion or Party, or are careful to observe such and such Modes and Forms of Worship, they fancy themselves as Religious as needs to be: in the mean time being ignorant of, or little attending to that agreeableness of soul to the nature and perfections of God, which is man's Religion and only Glory. Nay sin and Apostasy is the sinking of his soul from God down into self and the creature; and Religion is the recovery and restitution of this lapsed soul, caused by the Regenerating power of the Divine Spirit: And until the soul be thus raised, and God and his holy Will come to be advanced into a supremacy in the soul, Religion cannot be said to be, much less to be perfect there. It is to be feared that the greatest part of men, even of those men who speak much of God, of His Will and Glory, of His Word and Kingdom, that speak much unto Him as His Suppliants, and from Him as His Ambassadors, yet still fixing upon a Self-center, and moving within a circle of their own, may be too truly said notwithstanding their pretensions to Religion, to live without God in the World: and that there are infinite numbers of men, who scorn to be accounted Covetous, (and indeed in the common acceptation of the word are far from it) that yet in proper speech, mind earthly things. To heal these distempers, and to rectify these mistakes, I have adventured once more to explain and recommend Christian Religion in this short Discourse; which I think, is agreeable to the holy Word of God, and which I humbly pray the same blessed God to make effectual for this end to some soul or other. I dare not say, I have already attained, but through the grace of God I can say, that this thing I do, viz. in my judgement renounce Self-love, Self confidence, Selfseeking, and Self-feeling, and desire that God may be the object of all my Ambition, Covetousness and Voluptuousness, if I may so speak with reverence. As I have not calculated this Discourse for the palate of any one Party of men, so I expect the praise, or dread the censure of none; but to the ever blessed God I humbly commend it for success, and thee for edification, and rest  
Thine in Him and for His sake, S. S. Nou. 26. 1677.   

PSAL. 73. 25. Whom have I in Heaven but Thee; and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides Thee.  

CHAP. I. The Introduction, guessing at the Author of the Psalm, and showing the occasion of it, viz. the observation of the prosperity of wicked men, and the afflicted condition of good men in the World: Wherein also a brief account is given of the misapprehensions of men about that matter. A brief Explication of the Connexion of the Psalm. The words resolved into this Conclusion, That God is the good man's All.  
IT is disputed by some, whether David were not the Pen man of this Psalm, and whether he did not deliver it into the hands of Asaph, as he is said to have done some others, 1 Chron. 16. 7. But I think it is more generally concluded, that it was composed by Asaph, for sundry reasons: the principal whereof seems to be that which Mollerus, that learned Critic in the Hebrew Language, renders, viz. for that the stile and Phrase thereof doth much differ from David's. But about this I list not to contend. The occasion of it was a sharp conflict which the Psalmist had with himself, being tempted to harbour envious thoughts towards the wicked, and hard thoughts of God and Godliness, by observing the prosperity of evil men and the afflicted state of good men in the World. This very thing hath indeed usually been a great offence and occasion of stumbling to good men in all Ages, by reason of that remainder of carnal and corrupt apprehensions which is found even in them, they oftentimes judging of things more by fancy and sense than either by Faith, or right reason. It seemeth to me, that as the promises and the threaten of the Law savoured more of Earth than the Gospel doth, and were calculated for the morning of Religion rather than the Meridian of it, for the minority of men rather than their maturity; so that the minds even of good men under the Law, were generally more affected and influenced with worldly things than under the Gospel. And yet it cannot be denied, but that men of the most refined Gospel minds may sometimes be somewhat surprised, and for the present startled at the consideration of the seeming inequality of God's deal, which yet upon due deliberation may be easily solved, yea, and at length resolved into perfect wisdom, righteousness and goodness too. The Psalmist gins with an elegant kind of abruptness, laying down the conclusion of the whole in the very first Verse, more like a triumphant Conqueror than a wrangling Disputant. It seems his heart was very much upon this, to assert and vindicate the goodness of God towards His people, and having been in some danger to have been depraved in his apprehensions concerning God, he glories in this, that he was resolved to hold the conclusion, however he knew not well how at present to answer the premises. It is said to the great commendation of Job, that he attributed nothing unseemly to God, Job 1. although he seemed to deal so harshly with him. And truly this doth highly concern us, to maintain right and honourable apprehensions of God, yea though we be not able to answer the Arguments brought against him and his deal.  
Having thus briefly and pathetically asserted the Position about the controversy arose, in these words, Truly God is good to Israel (which our English Meter renders very emphatically, However it be, yet God is good, and kind to Israel) he falls presently upon the Narrative; wherein he relates a combat between faith and sense, a victory that faith obtained, and the means by which it obtained it, even by the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. At the 23 Verse you have him come to himself again; and so the residue of the Psalm is the voice of Faith alone, triumphing and glorying in God, and in the consolation, satisfaction, and confirmation received from him.  
We Translate the words of the Text by way of interrogation, implying a vehement negation; others Translate them in the form of a Prayer quis mihi (dabit) in coelo, etc. making them the same in Phrase with 2 Sam 23. 15. and the same in sense with Psal. 4. 6. But which way soever we Translate them, the sense will be much what one, and either translation will indifferently serve for the end for which I pitch upon them. For however you express them in English, the meaning and intendment of them is to declare the dear esteem which the Psalmist had of God above all things in the World. Yet they are somewhat more emphatical to my present purpose, according to our Translation of them, Whom have I in Heaven but Thee; and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides Thee. By Heaven and Earth must needs be meant the whole Creation: If in neither of these the soul of the Psalmist can be matched with a suitable and satisfactory good, then certainly not in the whole World: If God be better and dearer to him than both Earth and Heaven, then certainly we may justly lay down this proposition from the words, that  
God is the good man's All, or that God is All things to a gracious soul.   

CHAP. II. A general Description of the Apostate condition of Souls. The Doctrine of Evangelical Redemption and true Liberty asserted and explained.  
THE Soul of man is naturally debased and depraved; by falling from God it loseth its original and most natural freedom and amplitude, and sinks into the creature, and settles upon a Self-center. Wicked men are sadly pinched and straitened by fixing their minds upon poor fading particularities; they move up and down in a narrow sphere and circle of their own; and therefore are base, low and narrow-spirited persons, whatever greatness of spirit and generousness of mind they vainly pretend to. In this sense, I'm sure, there are none more certainly imprisoned, nor more miserably confined than they that live and converse perpetually at home: For Self, though it be the home, yet is certainly the dungeon of the sensual soul: It is sin alone that contracts the soul of man and cramps and cripples all the powers of it, strangely enfeebling and captivating all its vigorous and generous faculties. But the grace of regeneration redeems the captive soul from this bondage, thaws its congealed affections, knocks off the Chains and Fetters from its hands and feet, and so spirits all the powers thereof by its kind and powerful insinuations, as that they dilate and spread themselves in God, even as the poor charmed Flowers do gladly open their arms wide to entertain and welcome the beams of the Sun, and the precious influences thereof. This is indeed that Redemption which the Almighty Saviour of the World, the true dispenser of life and liberty, came into the World to accomplish for us: This is the true freedom according to the Evangelist, John 8. 36. and he is the only purchaser and dispenser of it, If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed. And this is that, which when it shall be perfected, shall be found to be the glorious liberty of the Children of God, according to the Apostles phrase, Rom. 8. 21. Whatever other liberties and deliverances men may pretend to have by Christ Jesus, certainly this is that releasement and redemption which is so often spoken of and intended by those phrases of Christ's being sent to proclaim liberty to the Captive, and the opening of the Prison to them that are bound, (Isa. 61. 13.) of his bringing out the Prisoners from the Prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the Prisonhouse (Isa. 42. 7.) of his saying to the Prisoners, Go forth, etc. Isa. 49. 9 For so the Apostle interprets this freedom, 2 Cor. 3. 17. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty. The godly soul is free by Christ Jesus, the true Redeemer of souls, and the powerful dispenser of Liberty from that straitness and selfishness, under which it laboured; and endued with a noble largeness and amplitude. Whereas it was formerly pinched and shriveled, and wrapped up in particular created goods; now it spends itself wholly upon the uncreated goodness, and is as it were Universalized: God is All things to the Godly Soul.  
This Doctrine I shall explain and confirm at once in several particulars.   

CHAP. III. The natural understanding is sunk into matter, and the imaginations of carnal men are gross. Unregenerate men neglect God, and ascribe Events to Fate or Chance, or humane Wit and Industry: But the understandings and apprehensions of Regenerate Souls are refined and spiritualised. They apprehend the perfections of God in all things. It is of great importance to have right and proper notions of things, especially of God and of the relation in which the world stands to him.  
1. GOD is All things to a godly man in his Aprrehensions. The natural understanding is sunk into matter, and penned up in poor petty particularities. The imaginations of a carnal and unregenerate heart are gross, and terminated in the outside, or in the particular being of things: He that is of the Earth is Earthly, says the Baptist, Joh. 3. 31. the natural wisdom is Earthly and sensual, says the Apostle, James 3. 15. These fools are ready to say in their hearts, There is no God, Psal. 14. 1. or if they do acknowledge a Deity, yet they make him but a kind of an idle Spectator or Supervisor, that neither does good nor evil, Zeph. 1. 12. phancying to themselves, that all things fall out in the World by a certain kind of fatality, casualty or humane wit and industry. Hence you hear those brags of themselves, that they are some great ones, Acts 8. 9 and of their Works and Achievements, Is not this great Babel that I have built, Dan. 4. 30. I have digged and drunk waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the Rivers of the besieged places, Isa. 37. 25. They apprehend little more in the Creation, than what with their senses they see, or hear, or taste, or handle. One says; mine own Hand hath saved me, Judg. 7. 21. our Lips are our own, and who is Lord over us, say others, Psal. 12. 4. others proclaim their own goodness, Prov. 20. 6. will not cease from their own wisdom, Prov. 23. 4. seek their own glory, Prov. 25. 27. My River is mine own, and I have made it for myself, says another, Ezek. 29. 3. We have taken to us Horns by our own strength, say they in Amos 6. 13. By my wisdom, my understanding, my great traffic have I gotten Gold and Silver, cries he in Ezek. 28. 4, 5. By the strength of my hand, and by my wisdom have I done it, for I am prudent: I have removed the bounds of the people, and I have put down the Inhabitants like a valiant man; thus brags the great Assyrian Atheist, Isa. 10. 13. I have made myself to differ, cries another. And so God is not in all their thoughts, Psal. 10. 4. They consider not the operation of his hands, Isa. 5. 12. they live without the sense or apprehension of God in the World: Ut nemo supra sese ascendere tentat!  
But the understanding and apprehension of the Godly Soul is much refined and spiritualised. He sticks not in the creature, but by every thing that is Good and Perfect, climbs up with the Apostle James unto God himself the Father and Fountain thereof. Though the understandings of all good men are not made learned, yet they are all refined from sensual grossness, and made somewhat Metaphysical or spiritual. The godly man views not himself in the small point of his own being, but in the infinite essence of God: he views not the creature in its own particular and limited existence or goodness, but in the nature and perfections of the Creator: He looks upon the whole World as not subsisting of itself, nor for itself, but in and for God who is above all, through all, and in all, Ephes. 4. 6. in whom the whole Creation standeth, and we all live, move and have our beings, Acts 17. 28. To him the whole World is as the Temple of God, all mankind, and all their several excellencies, an Image and Portraiture of God; yea, to him Monstrat quaelibet herba Deum, the Grass of the Field reads a Divinity Lecture; In a word,  
Huic Deus est quodcunque videt, quodcunque movetur, He apprehends the Power, Wisdom, Perfection and Will of God in all that he sees, does, receives or sustains. Though Religion do not consist in Notions, yet true, proper and spiritual Notions of things, especially of God, and of the relation wherein the whole World, stands to him, are mightily conducing to it, if not a substantial part of it: So thought the Apostle Paul sure, when he corrected the superstitions and false conceits of the Athenians concerning a Deity, Acts 17. And so thought our Blessed Saviour, when he would not suffer the Jewish Ruler to ascribe goodness to him, whom he believed to be no more than a mere man, Luk. 18. 19 Why callest thou me good? none is good save One, that is God.   

CHAP. IU. God is all things to the godly man in his Affections. The Desires of Unregenerate men run out only after Creature good. The Objection of wicked men having good desires, answered: Wherein is showed that all desires of good are not good desires, and an account given of it. Men may be carnal in their desiring of spiritual good. James 4. 3. explained, wherein is showed how many ways men seek their own lusts instead of God, and the carnality which may be found in Prayers that seem spiritual. God is All to the godly man in his desires of things temporal, and in his hopes of Heaven.  
2. GOD is All things to the godly man in his Affections. The wicked man as he views himself in himself, and the several creatures in themselves, so he loves and delights in himself and the creatures, as something distinct from God. But the godly soul endeavours by all means to keep all his affections pure and chaste for God alone. Now in as much as the affections of the soul are many, it will be necessary to explain the matter in some particulars.  
1. God is All to the godly man in his desires and cravings, in his lookings and waitings, in his hopes and expectations. I put all these together under one Head, because they seem to be much what the same, or at least of great affinity one to another. The desires and appetites of the unregenerate soul do run out only after creature good, self accommodations and things that do gratify the mere animal life. Thus the Psalmist describes their temper, Psal. 4. 6. Many say, Who will show us any good: which our English Meter interprets very truly, The greater sort crave worldly goods. That is a short, but yet a very true and full description that the Apostle Paul makes of these men, Phil. 3. 19 They mind Earthly things. It were easy to be large here in demonstrating (in a general way) that there is nothing in the worldly nature, but the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life; according to the distribution which the Apostle makes, 1 Joh. 2. 16. But I shall not further insist upon that general. It seems as if wicked men sometimes had good desires and good wishes; and indeed it cannot be denied but that some of their desires are materially good: who can say but that of Balaam was a good wish, as to the matter of it, Numb. 23. 10. Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his; It was materially a good wish (though a bad bargain) of Simon Magus, that by the imposition of his hands men might receive the holy Ghost, Acts 8. 19 It is not to be doubted but that many wicked men, yea perhaps the most of them, at one time or other, do hearty desire that their sins may be pardoned, and their souls saved, and they go to Heaven; according to that of our Saviour, Luk. 13. 28. Many will seek to enter in and shall not be able. But however these may seem to be good desires, yet they are not really so: All desires of good are not good desires: If men should desire the presence of Christ in glory, and the Kingdom of Heaven, in subordination to self, and subserviency to a fleshly interest, it would be so far from being indeed a good, that it would scarce be a lawful, it may be a blasphemous wish. And it is very clear, that all the seeming good wishes, and prayers, and desires of unsanctified minds are ultimately resolved into a fleshly interest, and self gratification. It is not God, but themselves that they really seek, even then when they desire him to be at peace with them, and that they might be with him in his Kingdom. It is only true of all unregenerate men which the Apostle affirms of all men, Phil. 2. 21. All men seek their own things, and not the things which are Jesus Christ's; and this holds good of them, not only when they are with Saul seeking their Asses, or with Absolom seeking an earthly Kingdom; but even then when they are seeking to enter into the Kingdom of God.  
But God is All in the desires and prayers and hopes of the godly soul. The whole World is too short a bed for such a soul to stretch itself upon. The appetites and cravings of such a soul being excited and awakened by the sense of its own large and excellent capacity, the inadequateness and insufficiency of the creature, the infinite selfsufficiency and sweetness, and suitableness of God the supreme good, cannot possibly fix or rest or terminate themselves in any thing below him, and the enjoyment of him. Thus the desires of the godly are described by the Psalmist in opposition to the lustings of the wicked, Psal. 4. 6. Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us: And so in the words of the Text, if they be understood by way of prayer, Who will give me to be in Heaven with thee?  
The prayers of the wicked although they may be for things good and lawful, yet are ultimately resolved into self-gratification: They may be as fluent in words, as loud in their cries, as hearty and fervent in their requests as other men: If it be for Corn, and Wine, and Oil, they can roar and howl as loud as the best, and yet this is not interpreted as seeking of God, but of themselves, Hos. 7. 17. They have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds; They assemble themselves for Corn and for Wine, etc. That is a very memorable expression of the Apostle James, Jam. 4. 3. Ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Which indeed is the design of unregenerate souls, even when they seem to pray for things in their own nature spiritual. Wicked men are carnal even in praying for spiritual things. But godly men are not so; they are so far from that, that on the contrary, they are spiritual in praying for carnal and earthly things. They wrap up a Prayer in a Prayer; they have a farther reach than the mere enjoyment of the creature, when they pray for creature good; a higher end than the pleasing and serving of themselves, when they pray for themselves, or their own private and personal concernments. Certainly it is not only an absurd, but a monstrous and blasphemous thing for any man to pray to God to fulfil his lusts; the interest of God being so perfectly contrary to the interest of carnal self. And yet I fear there are very many that do thus interpretatively blaspheme God, even in their Prayers, when they pretend to honour him; and these sometimes, perhaps, not of the very worst of men neither. What would it have been else but a prayer of lust, if the two Disciples had been suffered to have prayed for fire from Heaven upon the heads of the poor Samaritans, to revenge their Master's quarrel, as they would have done, Luk. 9 24? What was it else but a prayer of lust when the same two Disciples petitioned their Lord for the chiefest place and preeminence in his Kingdom, Mark 10. 37? Only our gracious Saviour was pleased somewhat to excuse them, by reason of their ignorance, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of; and again, Ye know not what ye ask. I will not dispute how far a devout and well meaning soul may pray upon a mistake, nor how far such a soul may possibly mistake the interest of his lusts, for the interest of Religion, and the Kingdom of Christ: But methinks such mistakes are very dangerous, and much more dangerous and inexcusable now, than they were in the days of the Son of Man. And yet as dangerous as they are, I fear they are too too common even in these days. Charity covereth a multitude of sins indeed, but yet it is the endowment of a rational soul; and so the Charity that is stark blind, is no Charity: Yea, I may add, that it is the part of Charity to discover a multitude of sins before the eyes of those that commit them, as well as to cover them before one's own. It is too evident (if we compare the constant talk and temper of men with their devotions, and if with their prayers you compare their practices which they use in pursuit of them,) that passion, revenge and self-interest do indite the prayers of many that seem to be zealous for the Lord; every thing is Anti-christian, that is contrary to their opinion, ease or interest; and then is the Kingdom of Christ exalted, when they themselves are advanced into a peaceful, honourable and ruling state. What if it should come to pass that some, even of them that seem to be most forward to sit at the right and left hand of Christ in his Kingdom, should be found to stand on his left hand with the impure Goats, in the day of the decision of all things? And what can we say of those animose and furious strive and groan of men in prayer, against all that dissent from themselves; but that their prayers are rather the bubblings and boilings up of interest, than the language of the pure, peaceable and gentle spirit of God. I fear these men's prayers are not put up without wrath, as the Apostle exhorts, 1 Tim. 2. 8. and I wish their hands be found so holy as they should be, if ever they have opportunity to use them. Nay, what if many of our most fervent and affectionate groan after deliverance, liberty and redemption from afflictions and oppressions (as innocent as they seem to be) should be found to be nothing else, but the raging of our own animal passions, and such prayers as an oppressed Beast might put up as well as we, if he could express them so affectionately. I know it is very lawful and warrantable to put up prayers unto God for relief in our troubles, and release from our pressures; but yet it is no more than what is natural unto men, no more than what Jonah's heathenish Mariners did as well as he. Man seeks for deliverance from troubles properly as an animal, not as a Christian. And if this be All we aim at in our prayers, they will be interpreted (if not as a begging for our lusts, yet) as mere breathe of the Animal life, and out-cries of our own sensual affections, no better fruit than may be found upon Publicans; For do not even the Publicans the same? But this is not all that the Godly soul aims at in his prayers and hopes; but God is All in his hopes whether of things in this World, or in another.  
It is not the mere naked abstract enjoyment of prosperity, liberty, or life itself in this World, that the godly soul so vehemently looks, longs, prays and hopes for; but it is some real communication from God, or something that may capacitate him for God in all these. Every man that is wronged and oppressed, would gladly be righted and delivered; But the godly man sets not his heart so much upon his own ease; as upon the honour of God, and the interest of Truth and righteousness, which he desires may take place in the World. Every man would be great; but the good man alone accepts of worldly power merely for this end, that by his authority he may the better serve the honour of his great God; which seems to have been purely David's design, Psal. 75. 2. When I shall receive the Congregation, I will judge uprightly. Victory is sweet and acceptable to all; but that truth should be mighty and prevail, that equity and justice should triumph in the World, this is dear and desirable only to the godly soul, the soul that is purified from earthly and selfish loves. The mere worldly life desires worldly liberty; but that higher principle which is seated in the godly soul, covets a more spiritual and excellent freedom, even the glorious liberty of the Sons of God. Life is sweet to all; but to the godly Soul to be without God, would not be to live, For his loving kindness is better than life, Psal. 63. 3. In a word, it is the interest of God and communion with him, which spirits and impregnates all the hopes and expectations of the renewed soul, which he conceives concerning earthly things.  
And if this be so, it need not be doubted but that God is All to him in his hopes concerning the World to come, the All of Heaven. I fear there are many Christians that are high in their own hopes of Heaven and of their going thither, who little think of God there, and are little acquainted with the spiritual nature of right happiness. But God is All of Heaven itself to a right gracious soul: The great thing which he hopes for in the world to come, is to be perfected in the image of God, and live everlastingly in communion with him. And therefore when the Apostle Paul speaks of his departure out of this world, he gives us to understand what was mostly in his eye and upon his heart, and that was to be with Christ, Phil. 1. 23. And the Apostle John, when he speaks of the glory and blessedness of a future state, describes it by the resemblance that the soul shall bear to God at that time, 1 Joh. 3. 2. When he shall appear, we shall be like unto him. Heaven is but a name and notion without God, God himself is not the happiness of a soul except he be enjoyed, and he can no other way be enjoyed but by a spiritual union with him, and assimilation to him. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text signifies either who or what: Now then there are many that are for ease, many for peace and liberty, many for pomp and preeminence in Heaven; But our Psalmist hath nothing , no not there, but God alone; Whom have I, or what have I in Heaven but thee?   

CHAP. V God is All to the godly man in his delight and pleasure. The pleasures of wicked men are sensual. There are degrees of sensuality amongst carnal men. The delight that an unregenerate man takes in spiritual things is carnal. The godly soul feeds upon God in every thing: He loves and admires his own soul in God. Grace does not overthrow the judgement of sense, but it regulates the senses as to their actings, and enables the soul to delight in things sensual, in a super sensual manner.  
2. GOD is All to the godly man in his Delight and Pleasure. As the appetites of the unregenerate soul are sensual, so are his sentiments and resentments. This must needs follow; as indeed it doth follow in the fourth Psalm: their desire is, Who will show us any good, vers. 6. their delight is in Corn and Wine, and in the increase of them, vers. 7. They know no higher good than peace, plenty, liberty and length of days; know not how to entertain themselves any better than by sitting down to eat and drink, and rising up to play. Thus you find the disport and jovialty of the wicked described, Job 21. 10, 11, 12, 13. Am. 6. 4, 5, 6. Luk. 12. 19 and many other places. But you will say, these are a grosser sort of sensualists; all wicked men sure are not so brutish, so swinish as to wallow in such kind of mire as this is. I confess they do not all welter in the same mire; there are almost as many kind of Idolaters, as there are kinds of creatures to be idolised. There seems to be a greater and lesser brutishness amongst the brutes themselves; a Sheep will not wallow in the mire like a Swine, nor a Pigeon feed upon such stinking Carrion as a Crow, and yet they are brutes as well as they. All wicked souls do not feed upon the same husks, but all feed upon husks that have forsaken the bread of their Father's house. There are several sorts of Dishes whereupon the earthly life feeds. Lust is ofttimes fed by things materially good, as well as by those that are materily evil. A man may be as unchaste and adulterous with his own gifts and parts, as with his neighbour's Wife, and a woman may fall into as unclean dalliances with her own beauty, as with a man that is not her Husband. The Logical life (when men adore their own souls, and feed upon their own perfections) is as truly unholy and unclean, though not altogether so gross, as that which is mere sensual. And thus I doubt not but that many of the Stoical Philosophers, with their Autaesthesie and self-enjoyment, were as unclean and idolatrous, as the Epicurean Atheists with all their meats and drinks and strange flesh.  
Yea though the unregenerate mind should be much delighted with the outward dress and dispensation of Religion, as they were in Ezek. 33. 31, 32. yea though it should be mightily pleased and tickled with the notions of God's Freegrace, Justification by the blood of Jesus, an everlasting inheritance in the Paradise of God, and such spiritual things as these (as I do easily conceive it may) yet were his delight, that he takes in these very things, unclean and earthly: For still it is resolved into this, it is self and not God which he ultimately takes pleasure in.  
But God is All in the delights and complacencies of the truly godly soul. He delights not in himself or any other creature abstractly considered, and in separation from God. It is said of one (I think it is of Austin) that after his conversion he could take no pleasure in Cicero's Orations, because he could not find the name of Christ there: but surely in a good sense the name of Christ may be said to be inscribed, and something of his image drawn upon every creature; for by him all things were made, and he hath copied out something of his own perfections upon them all: And this is that which the holy and wise soul gathers up and feeds upon with delight. I know indeed that Grace doth not destroy natural affections in men, no nor overthrow the judgement of sense; but it doth certainly confer upon men a far more excellent and spiritual faculty of discerning and delighting. What I said before concerning the spirituality of a godly man's desires of Heaven and heavenly things, may be applied to his delights also. But I conceive that the greatest doubt doth not lie there. Therefore as to the pleasurable objects of this World; whereof the chiefest seems to be a man's own soul, The godly man loves, and admires and reuerences his own soul no less, but much more purely, than any other man. He admires the infinite and uncreated wisdom, understanding, love, life, liberty, displaying and discovering itself in the constitution of his own mind, , and Affections, and the excellent capacities and functions of these faculties: and so by giving God the glory of his wonderful making (Psal. 139. 14.) he escapes the brand of a self-admirer. There are many other objects of delight in this World, all which it is the proper work of Divine Grace to spiritualise to the soul; such as food and raiment, Houses and Lands, Friends and Relations, and many the like. It cannot be denied, but that the godly man loves his friends, his Wife and Children and Parents with a natural love; but he loves them also, and all that is lovely in them, with a spiritual love, which is predominant: that by which they are any of them pleasant and amiable, he understands to be a communication of God unto them, and under that notion labours to relish them most of all. Whilst we are in this bodily mixed state, we cannot be freed from a delight that is merely sensual. Meat and drink (no doubt) affected our Saviour's sense, and afforded the same relish to his palate, whilst he had an animal body, as they afforded to other men's, although he was so infinitely pure and spiritual, as that it was his meat and drink to be doing the Will of God. The power of Grace doth not enable any man not to taste a sweetness or bitterness in things that are really sweet or bitter: It does not fall under the power of my reason or will, whether or no I will relish or sensate the sweetness of my morsel; I cannot help that, although I can keep myself from eating it: so than it cannot fall under the power of grace. But although Grace do not destroy the sensation of the senses, yet it regulates and moderates all the senses, as to their actings. Hence Job is said to have made a Covenant with his eyes, Job 31. 1. and David to have kept his mouth as with a bridle, Psal. 39 1. And as it governs the senses as to their actings, so it also bestows a more excellent ability upon the soul to delight itself in things sensual, in a supersensual way and manner. Besides the pleasure of the senses, which is animal and common to all men, yea indeed and beasts also, the gracious soul doth relish something Divine, something of God, his Love, his communications in all delectable objects, which confers upon them a transcendent substantial sweetness. And thus he may be said to taste God in every morsel, to smell the Divinity in every Flower, and to converse with him by a kind of secret feeling in all that he touches, tastes or handles in the World.   

CHAP. VI God is All to the godly man in his Trust and Confidence. The creature-confidence of carnal men is Blasphemy. Good men are afraid of distrust: How great reckoning they have always made of their Faith. The only fear of carnal men is the violation of self interest. God is All in the fears of good men. They fear him only, though they are not afraid of him. God is All to the godly man in his grief and sorrow explained.  
3. GOD is All to the godly man in his Trust and Confidence. The degenerate and unregenerate soul as it is sunk into the creature, so it sticks there; it sticks by love and delight, and sticks fast by confidence. It were endless to give you but the Scripture instances of Selfconfidence and Creature-dependance. In Creature-confidence there is much Atheism, or rather indeed blasphemy: For to ascribe that firmness, faithfulness, sufficiency, which God alone is, to any thing besides him, must needs be blasphemous and idolatrous. And thus do wicked men blaspheme, whilst they lay the stress of their souls upon the Arm of flesh, upon Chariots and Horse men, upon friends and Allies, upon carnal interests or worldly riches: And thus we know they do, Psal. 20. 7. Some trust in Chariots, and some in Horses. Prov. 18. 11. The rich man's wealth is his strong City, and as a high Wall in his own conceit.  
But godly men have God alone for their refuge and confidence, according to that of the wise King, Prov. 18. 10. The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower, the righteous run into it and are safe. I know they may be, and often are surprised with fears and doubts, but yet even then they will not let go their hold of God, Psal. 56. 3. What time I am afraid I will trust in thee. It is as much the part of a godly soul to rely and rest upon God, as to love him and pray unto him; he is afraid of distrust, unbelief, and casting away his confidence, as well as of Drunkenness or Debauchery. I cannot but take notice what great reckoning the Saints have made of their Faith, as if the very life of their souls had been bound up in it. How expressly and pathetically does the Apostle charge us concerning this, Ephes. 6. 16. Above all taking the Shield of Faith; and again, Heb. 10. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith, without wavering; and again, Vers. 35. Cast not away your confidence which hath great recompense of reward. Job when he had lost all, yet resolves not to part with his Faith, whatever became of him, Job 13. 15. Though he slay me yet I will trust in him. And doubtless an ingenuous and steady reliance upon the grace and strength and help of God alone, is an excellent argument of a sound and gracious soul. Good men know how to make use of second causes, and they see commonly as far into all creature-probabilities, as any other men; but it is the virtue and strength of God that they rest upon in all means and instruments.  
4. God is All to the godly soul in his fears. The ungodly are full of worldly fears, slavish fears, scarce ever free from fears about one thing or other; yea though there be nothing visible to make them afraid: But as their interest is bound up in self and this present World, so their great and only fear is concerning the violation of this self-interest. He that hath placed his happiness in the enjoyment of any created good, hath made a miserable choice, for he is in danger of being utterly ruined every hour; all created good being subject to so many spoilers, that a man can never be secure in his possession. And therefore no wonder that his heart is haunted one while with the fears of death, another while with the fears of losses, loss of Friends or Children, loss of Goods or Reputation, fears of wants, fears of disgrace, and many things more which his slavish heart is awed with continually.  
But God is All in the fears of good men; He is their fear and their dread. as the phrase is, Isa. 8. 13. Not that they are properly afraid of God (for they discover nothing in him but what is most amiable and grateful to them, and therefore converse with him as with love itself, serve him as accounting it their happiness and interest to do so, and obey his Commands as those which are most equitable, and suitable, and most perfective of their natures, with all gladness and cheerfulness) but they are afraid of sin, so as wicked men are afraid of sickness and death, viz. as that which is hurtful to them and destructive of their happiness. Sin is all their fear, by reason of the opposition it bears to the pure nature of God; and so it may be said that God is All in their fear. Thus Moses seems to have been more solicitous for the honour of God, than for the preservation of the whole Congregation; and more afraid of the sin of the Egyptians, than of the death of the Israelites, Numb. 14. 13, 14, 15, 16. whereunto many more Instances might be added.  
Lastly, To name no more of the Affections, God is All things to the godly soul in his grief. Concerning the sorrow of the wicked one, I may say partly the same as I said even now concerning their fears; it is a worldly sorrow, derived from, and terminated in the Creature. But the sorrow of the godly soul is a godly sorrow. He is grieved indeed for many things; but still the reason of his grief is derived some way or other from God. He grieves when he is injured or Persecuted; but there is a hidden cause of his grief; he is not so much troubled that himself is injured, or his own personal interest wounded, as that truth and righteousness are violated therein, and God dishonoured. He grieves over the Wars and Fightings, confusions and distractions that are in the Kingdom, as well as other men; but yet not as other men; for he most of all lays to heart the lusts of men, which as the Apostle James speaks, are the occasion and Original of them. He grieves over his Losses, of Goods, Children, Liberty and the like; and yet not so much over his Losses, to speak properly, as over the cause and consequent of them, as he apprehends sin to be the cause of them, or that himself shall be some way or other rendered less serviceable to God by them. I suppose no man in this World is so far refined, perfected and exalted in his nature, as to be altogether free from the affections and passions that are merely natural and animal: A good man's tears are of the same kind of water as other men's are of, though possibly not altogether from the same Fountain; or if from the same Fountain, yet they are purified from much of that mud and acrimony that cleave to other men's. When the Women that attended upon Phineas his Wife in her travail endeavoured to comfort her fainting spirit with the tidings of a Son, she made no answer at all to that, but she does as good in effect as tell them, That they mistook her grief, when she called the Child Icabod, signifying thus much, that the departure of Irael's glory did more affect and oppress her heart, than all her other pangs, 1 Sam. 4. I do not read that ever all David's enemies wrung such plenty of tears from his eyes, as the enemies of God did, Psal. 119. 136. nor that all Paul's Persecutions ever wrung such a groan from him, as the sense of his own sin did, Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am, etc.   

CHAP. VII. The unsanctified man performs all his natural, civil and sacred Actions in, to, and for himself, though there may be some difference in the external grossness. To a godly man, God is the spring and end of all his actions. The notion of designing all things for God and directing them to his glory explained, and how a man may be Religious in the very natural and civil actions of his life. The Sacrilegious selfishness of carnal men in their sacred actions discovered. The contrary temper of the regenerate soul.  
WE have seen that God is All to the godly soul as to his Apprehensions and Affections.  
3. God is All things to the godly soul in his Actions. Actions are either Natural, Civil or Sacred: All which the wicked man performeth in, and to, and for himself: He eats and drinks, and embraces, and performs all other animal actions, as any other Creature doth, for the gratification of his mere animal appetite, and the satisfaction of his own sensual lust. What can be more plain? Whose God is their Belly, says the Apostle, Phil. 3. 19 whose ultimate end is the satisfaction of their senses. By God must needs be understood their ultimate end, and by their Belly must be understood the pleasing and fulfilling their sensual appetites. So it is in his Civil actions: He Ploughs and Sows, Fights and Studies, Plants and Builds, confers and consults, and all to and for himself. It were easy to demonstrate and explain each of these in particular: but in any one we prove all. The ploughing of the wicked, is sin, says Solomon, Prov. 21. 4. which certainly it would not be if it were designed and performed for God, as it ought to be; but it is designed ultimately for self, and that makes it sinful. I know, all wicked men are not so gross as to brag of their Buildings openly with the Chaldean Monarch, Dan. 9 This is Babylon that I have built by the might of my power, and for the honour of my Majesty: All that go out to fight, do not in words boast and magnify themselves against God, as the Assyrian Monarch did, of which you read Isa. 10. but the secret Genius and temper of them all is alike, they have all one heart. It is as proper to say the lust of Ploughing, Planting, Studying, Fight, as of Eating and Drinking. Yea, and thus it is in his sacred actions too; he serves himself when he pretends more especially to serve God in the Acts of Worship. I do not think that all are so gross as Jezabel in proclaiming and celebrating Fasts: but it is most clear that the most solemn Acts, and the most sanctimonious services of wicked men are a mere piece of superstition, terminated in self-accommodation, and resolved into a fleshly interest. Hence it is that you have God flatly denying, and disowning their very prayers, and saying expressly they were not prayers to him, Hos. 7. 4. you have him plainly forbidding such addresses, Isa. 1. 13, etc. upbraiding them and clothing them with reproachful names, Isa. 66. 3. yea abhorring and abominating their prayers, incense and sacrifices, Prov. 28. 9 21. 27. Isa. 1. 13. And no wonder that such Sacrifices should be an abomination unto God; for to speak properly, the things which these superstitious minds do sacrifice, they sacrifice to self, and the interest of flesh, and not to God.  
But God is All to the godly man in all these sorts of actions. God is the spring of them, and the end of them all. He undertakes all in the name and strength of God, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. It is not he that atchieveth aught, but God by him. I laboured, says the Apostle Paul, more abundantly than they all, 1 Cor. 15. 10. but presently he corrects himself, as if he had spoken rashly, Yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. David makes his boast in God at all times, and in all things happily performed: By my God have I leaped over a Wall; and again, By my God have I ran through a Troop, Psal. 18. 29.  
And he designs all his actions sincerely, and as much as may be particularly for God. When I say, that he designs all his actions for God, I do not mean, that he frames a distinct notion of God in his mind, when ever he undertakes any thing; but he doth all things for good, and for the advancement of truth, peace, righteousness, and holiness in the World. He eyes that which is good, just, sober, temperate, chaste, pure and decorous in all the natural and civil actions of his life, in opposition to the appetite and interest of the flesh. If I Plough or Sow, Eat or Drink, Build or Plant, Fight or Study, or consult with reference to the command of God, with reference to the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ in my own soul, or in the World, or to some end higher than the pleasing of my flesh, and the gratification of my animal passions; I may be said to do that for God, although I do not directly meditate upon the Being of God at that time. And so the Religious Christian even in his recreations (which of all civil actions may seem to be most alien from a Religious design) may truly eye and serve God. If we were so abstracted from sense, and purified from flesh-pleasing, as were to be desired, we might consult the health of our bodies, and the exoneration of our minds by recreations, and serve God as truly by them, as by taking either food or Physic: yea though we did receive a satisfaction from those things which are purely sensual (a thing which we cannot hinder) yet might we be said to be supersensual and Religious in those very acts: For it is not the having of animal senses, no nor the pleasing of them as such, that is our fault; but our sacrificing to, and being sunk into the animal life, this is our sin and shame, and misery. He that doth work or play, Marry or give in marriage, sincerely respecting the true good of his soul, cannot be said to be sensual in such actions, although his senses may, and indeed will have their part in the delights thereof. All things cannot be said to be done for flesh-pleasing, in which it falls out that the flesh is pleased. For some of those very actions that are principally designed and calculated for the glory of God and the interest of the soul, may yet indifferently serve for the gratification of the senses, and the entertainment of this animal body; as may eating and drinking, though it be directly to the glory of God; and Marrying, though it be never so much in the Lord.  
In his sacred Actions, there the godly soul is yet more spiritual and refined: Here is indeed no great danger of sensuality, properly so called; and yet here the wicked man can make a shift to be carnally-minded and selfish, as you have already heard. But in these kind of actions God is All to the godly soul: He feels not himself in these, he seeks not himself by them. O how common a thing is it for men to carry an image of themselves before their eyes, even in the things that they pretend to do for God I suppose Jehu was no little fond of himself, and his own valourousness, and thought God was not a little indebted to him for it, when he calls for witnesses and spectators of it, Come see my zeal for the Lord. And truly the Sacrilegious selfishness of other men is as great, though not altogether so gross, who although they do not so loudly proclaim themselves, nor set up such visible Trophies of their own prayers, yet do magnify themselves in their own eyes, and secretly applaud themselves in an unhallowed sense of their own Achievements and attainments. But the truly Religion soul though he cannot but know his own worth and excellencies, yet knows it not, no delights not in it as his own, but as a communication of the Almighty goodness, and infinite perfection of God unto him. When he shines most gloriously in the exercises of gifts and the actings of grace, he does not presently fall in love with his own picture, dote upon his own perfections, nor wantonly dally with his own gifts; but looks upon his lustre only as a poor reflection of the divine light and glory, which hath spread itself upon him. As a rendering nothing to God but what is indeed his own; Of thine own have we given thee, and all this store cometh of thine hand, and is all thine own, 1 Chron. 29. 14, 16. Have ye not read how sharply the Apostle Peter takes up the wondering Jews, that seemed not to acknowledge God in the miraculous cure wrought upon the Crepple, Acts 3. 12. Ye men of Israel, why look ye so earnestly on us, as if by our own power and holiness we had made this man to walk! The godly man feels not himself in his Religious performances: neither does he seek himself by them. He makes not Religion a piece of policy, nor serves himself of God when he pretends to serve him; as that hypocritical Generation did, of whom our Saviour speaks, Matth. 23. 14. who made long prayers in subserviency to oppression; and after him his Apostle James, Jam. 4. 3. who prayed on purpose that they might have to spend upon their lusts. This hath been a very reigning superstition in the world. Did Saul, think ye, properly seek God, or himself and his own safety in those forced burnt-offerings of his which he speaks of in 1 Sam. 13. 12. Therefore I said, the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the Lord; I forced myself therefore and offered a burnt-offering? Did Judas, think ye, properly seek the honour of God, or himself and his own enriching, when he made a motion for giving three hundred pence to the poor? Let the Spirit of God be Judge of this, whose determination you will find in Joh. 12. 6. Some serve their own covetousness, some seek their own safety, some study to advance their own name and reputation, by their Fast, Prayers and Alms: But a godly soul is a stranger to all these low and sorry ends: It is not wealth, nor fame, nor peace, nor victory over his enemies, nor deliverance from distresses, no nor any other external glory, or only reward in another World, which he pursues in his Religious course: But he draws nigh to God, that God may draw nigh to him; he waits upon him in Duties and Ordinances, waiting for communications from him; he knows nothing better than God himself, for which he should serve him; he accounts his end, happiness and honour to resemble him and grow up in him. In a word, he does not only perform the duties of Religion, as being God's Work, which he hath set him about, and promised a reward unto; but indeed as his own work, his own business; he reckons it the true interest of his own soul to be good, and do good; and therefore will spend himself in these endeavours, though no body will pay him, no nor thank him for it. Mark the different temper that was in Christ, and some of his followers: they served God for meat and drink, Joh. 6. 26. but he accounted it his meat and drink to serve him, Joh. 4. 34.   

CHAP. VIII. God is all to the godly man in his Sufferings. An account of Self-sufferers, Papists and others. God is All to the godly man in the Efficient, the Material and Final cause of his sufferings, explained. God is all to the godly man in his manner of fearing Afflictions and Persecutions.  
4. GOD is All to the godly man in his Sufferings. I know that unsound and hypocritical spirits are much more forward to do than suffer; and yet no doubt the power of self-love and affectation of applause, without any higher principle, may prepare and prompt men to endure Persecution: And it need no more be wondered at, that the mere animal and selfish life should expose itself to much smart, and many severities, than that a generous Cock should fight to crow, and expose himself to death itself, to get the victory over his Antagonist. It is well known how much the superstitious Papists will deny, and debase, and degrade, and torment themselves, what Penances and Pilgrimages, and poverty they will undergo: and all this out of a slavish fear of God, and a design to keep their lusts alive: They will half kill their own bodies, rather than crucify their lusts, or mortify the body of sin: These things they do, not for the mortification of lusts, but indeed these things they do rather than they will mortify them, for these things with them supply the place of Mortification: But I fear we have many Self-sufferers in the World, that will not own themselves to be of that Society. I believe it is a malicious reproach that is by some cast upon the generality of Protestant sufferers at this day in the World, viz. that they suffer for humour and self-conceit, out of obstinacy, and a spirit of contradiction, for applause and a greater corroboration of their party: But yet it may reasonably be feared, that there are too many that do so. It seems not at all strange to me, that a man should study Self-advancement by a pretended Self-denial, that he should seem to lose his life, on purpose that he may find it, I mean that he should pretend to crucify the mere animal and selfish life, on purpose to enjoy it the more securely, and hug it the more dearly; that a man should take joyfully the spoiling of his Goods, rather than violate his fleshly interest, or expose his lusts to spoil. Men do sometimes most of all maintain and pamper this dying life of theirs, when they seem to starve it; and drive on the same design with Judas, even when their Persecutions seem to be the same with Paul's. Men may as verily feel themselves, and as passionately please themselves in the seeming constancy, courage and patience of their sufferings, as in the pretended zeal and devotion of their actions; and as truly seek and set up themselves, and a Self-supremacy in their own souls, by the one as by the other.  
But God is All to the truly godly soul in his Persecutions. This I might explain as to the Cause of them, the End of them, and the Manner of sustaining them. As to the efficient cause of them, he does not fret, and storm, and rage at men, whether open Enemies or false Friends, whether Informers, Accusers, Lawgivers, Executioners; but he looks higher, and sees and owns the hand of God in all things that befall him by the ministry of men. David knew that Shimei could not have cursed him, if God had not opened his mouth, 2 Sam. 16. 10. And our Saviour presently replies unto Pilate, when he bragged of his power, Joh. 19 11. Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. As to the material cause, or matter of his Persecutions, God is all in that too: For he suffers for righteousness sake, Mat. 5. 10. and for well doing, 1 Pet. 3. 17. not for toys and trifles, petty persuasions and private opinions, or matters of mere indifferency. His soul is employed about more substantial and important matters; he will not so much as go to Law about such things, much less expose himself to the rigour of a penal Law for them; he will not so much as be in a heat about them, much less will he burn for them. And therefore it is not out of pride, humour, or sullenness (as the Persecutors do slanderously report) but out of conscience towards God that he endures grief, 1 Pet. 2. 19 He knows no interest but that of his soul, which consists in his most exact conformity to truth and holiness; and it is to this interest, and the propagation of it that he is well content to sacrifice whatever else may be reckoned dear or grateful to him.  
As to the End of his sufferings God is All unto the godly soul here too. There are many base, and low, and selfish ends, which a man may propound to himself in suffering for a good cause, which it were too long to insist upon: All which the truly Divine soul abhors. He is not so prodigal of his blood, as to shed one drop of it to purchase a name written in Red Letters; he will not expose his Goods to spoil in order to a more ample restitution; he will not fall on purpose to rebound the higher; nor have his person confined, that so his name may spread, and his credit be enlarged. But he is well content to be reproached, that so God may be honoured; and to be starved that truth may be maintained; he is content to whither in his estate, that so he may flourish in g●ace, to perish in the outward man, that he may be renewed in the inward; to die for the people, if so he may preserve them from perishing. The glory of God and the Salvation of souls, or if you will in plainer terms, the exercise of grace, the defence of truth, the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ in his own soul, and the propagation of it in the souls of others, are the grand designs of the godly soul, when he takes up any cross.  
Lastly, God is All to the godly soul in the manner of his suffering Persecutions. His way of sustaining them is with a pure, peaceable, humble, selfdenying, patiented, constant, cheerful and charitable mind, a mind prepared to wish good, and do good to his very enemies and Persecutors, Mat. 5. 44. In which excellent temper he feels not, he pleases not, he enjoies not himself, or any self-excellency, but glorifies God who gives such power unto men, and admires Divine grace in that Heroical and most Christ-like passive frame which he finds derived into his soul. I shall wave the farther prosecution of this particular, because I foresee it will fall fitly also under another Head.   

CHAP. IX. God is all to the godly man in his Enjoyments. What are the Enjoyments of Mind, of Body, of Estate. The unregenerate mind enjoys all these in a sensual or selfish manner: But the godly man tastes a Divine sweetness in every thing that he enjoies; though there be different degrees of refinement in Souls that are refined. God is All to the godly Soul in his Endowments. The unregenerate mind, gross in admiring his own and other men's excellencies. The godly soul entitles God to all that is good in himself or others. God is the All of a good man's life, and yet he is not satisfied with what he enjoies of him here, but perpetually thirsts for more. The Doctrine to be understood with three cautions, that are briefly laid down  
5. GOD is All to the godly man in his Enjoyments. The enjoyments of men in this World are manifold; it is impossible to run through them all paticularly. They may be reduced according to the old division, unto three kinds, animi, corporis, and fortunae. The enjoyments of the mind are such as these, peace, comfort, experiences of Divine assistance, conquest of temptations and victory over spiritual enemies; besides the gifts and graces of the mind which are rather endowments than enjoyments, and will fall more directly under the next Head.  
Those of the body are such as relate to the maintaining, adorning, feeding, clothing, refreshing of the body. Of the Third sort are riches, honours, peace, victory, flourishing Families, gainful trading, and more of the like nature. All which the unregenerate mind loves and enjoys in a gross and unspiritual manner, viz. either in a way merely sensual and brutish, or else selfish and Idolatrous. These Swine feed upon husks, rest upon the lowest round of the Ladder, and dwell upon the dark side of every creature: They know not the love of God, taste not his sweetness, admire not his perfection and image shining forth and manifesting itself in all created good.  
But the godly man tastes another kind of sweetness, even the Divine goodness in every thing that he enjoys. It is the stamp and impression of God, viz. of his love and image which indeed gives the value to and puts the price upon every creature. Have you not known some men put a high esteem upon a small piece of Silver that bears the image of their Prince, or testifies the love of their friend? Why even so it is here. It is a derivative sweetness, goodness and amiableness, which commends the creature to a judicious palate. There is almost as much difference between man and man, in the way of enjoying of things, as between men eating of the Fruit, and Swine devouring the husks, men picking out the marrow, and Dogs gnawing of the bones. All godly souls are not indeed alike refined, as we may show hereafter. Isaac loves his son Esau too much for his Venison (Gen. 25. 28.) though his father Abraham loved him for the Promise and Covenant sake: And yet all such souls are so far exalted and restored by grace to an understanding of their own dignity and happiness, that they cannot possibly live and feed upon any thing below God himself.  
6. God is All to the godly man in his Endowments, the All of what he is, as well as of what he hath. I have in part shown already how profanely the wicked man magnifieth himself in his wisdom, courage, strength, and all other endowments of body and mind. To which I might add, that he is also very gross in admiring the endowments of other men, and the several excellencies that are in other creatures. The barbarous people of the Island Melita seemed to be more devout in this respect than the incrassated Jews: they when they saw how miraculously Paul was endowed, concluded it was something Divine in him; only they put it into an ill phrase, for they said that he was a God, Act. 28. 6. But these stand staring at Peter, as if they thought that he by his own power or holiness, had wrought such wonders, Act 3. Oh how are the understandings and apprehensions of natural men captivated, confined and terminated in poor particularities!  
But the godly and renewed soul, eyes and loves the excellency of God shining forth in all accomplishments and endowments, whether his own or any other creatures: In all these he sees another kind of beauty than the wicked man takes notice of. As he owns God in all that he doth, performeth, possesseth, so he entitles him to all that he is. He himself is not wise, just, humble, holy in mind, nor strong, beautiful or excellent in body; but God is All this in him. The flattering Ruler looks upon Christ, but as a mere man, and yet ascribes goodness to him, Good Master, etc. But our Saviour leads up his thoughts to the Fountain, None is good but God. The Jews wonder how Christ came by all that learning; but he presently resolves them, Joh. 7. 16. My Doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.  
In a word, God is the All of a good man's life; In whom he enjoies it, in whom alone it is sweet, for whom he spends it, and for whose sake alone he is content to prolong it; reckoning with his Lord and Saviour that he came not into the World to serve himself, or to seek his own glory, but the glory of him that sent him, Joh. 7. 18. God is so All to him, as the soul is to the body, Tota in toto & tota in qualibet parte, wholly in his soul and in all the faculties of it, wholly in his life and in all the passages thereof.  
God is so All to him that he is not satisfied with him neither, except he may enjoy more of him, except he may enjoy all of him that is to be enjoyed by a creature of such a capacity. He aspires after this perfection, to know, nor love, nor enjoy nothing but God in the World: He labours to attain to the very Resurrection of the dead whilst he is yet alive, Phil. 3. 11. that is, to such a pure, perfect and Divine Life, as the Children of the Resurrection shall be advanced to.  
And now understand all that I have said with these Cautions.  
1. This is principally to be understood of Good men, grown up to some perfection of Stature. You see already, and may further see that it is exactly true of Christ Jesus, and and that it is also true of David and Paul, and other eminent servants of God. But we know that there are also babes in Christ, spiritual men that are yet in a great measure carnal, 1 Cor. 3. 1. That mighty Spirit of Jesus that sits as a Refiner of Silver in the souls of men, refines them by degrees; and yet is content that those should be called pure, in whom yet much dross remains.  
2. It only holds of good men when they are themselves, when they are in their right spiritual wits, of good men when they act upon deliberation, when they are free from temptations, dejections, passions, disturbances. For there is a season wherein even the wise Virgins do slumber, Matth. 25. 5. wherein even the Spouse of Christ, who was all fair and spotless, is secure and careless, Cant. 5. There was a season when good Josiah fought his own battle, and not the Lords; when good Hezekiah magnified himself, and gloried in his own Treasures, more than in the magnificence of God; when holy David himself resolved to sacrifice the lives of innocents' to his own lusts, and to avenge a quarrel of his own, 1 Sam. 15. Therefore,  
3. This is only to be understood of regenerate persons, so far as they are regenerate: In Paul himself there remained something that was unregenerate, perverse and rebellious, Rom. 7. though he will not acknowledge that it was he himself, vers. 20. Every regenerate and true Christian soul, so far as he is regenerate and acteth up to the height of Divine principles, doth thus see, taste, enjoy, and design God in all, as I have showed. For the very life and essence of Religion is the dethroning of Self and advancing of God into preeminence. In as much therefore as God being supreme and his interest prevailing in a soul, is the very life and soul of Religion; it will necessarily follow that the Doctrine holds good concerning every truly regenerate soul, and that every such soul hath this temper as to the predominancy of it.   

CHAP. X. The improvement of the Doctrine laid down by way of examination. A general direction what Queries men are to put to themselves, as to the finding out of this matter. Certain instances of a Self-emptied and God-exalting mind. The first instance, When we are concerned in all the wickedness committed in the World as truly as if it were committed by ourselves. The second, when we are more affected with the iniquity of an action, than the injury that is done to ourselves thereby.  
YOU cannot but by this time be somewhat in love with this excellent and Angellike temper, and desirous to find whether you yourselves be thus spirited. It is doubtless a scrutiny and meditation becoming the most serious and generous minds: For all Religion is reduced to this summa Totalis; and Religion is the only concernment of souls. Examine therefore I pray you, and that not only once and generally, but frequently and precisely, and rifle into all the particular, and (if it be possible) into all the individual motions and actions of your hearts and lives to find this Divine temper; Examine yourselves in all the forementioned particulars, whether God be All to you in your Apprehensions, Affections, Actions, Sufferings, Enjoyments, Endowments. Inquire whether the truth of God be dearer to you than your own party or persuasion; whether the interest of God lie nearer to your heart than self-interest, the interest of your own credit and reputation, whether the advancement of the Divine Life be more  to you than Self-accommodation or Self-advancement; whether the love of God, or the naked possession of the creature do most delight you in every enjoyment; whether the Image of God, or your own, do most affect you in your Children; whether the glory of God, or your own, do most spirit you in your Actions; whether you be rend from Self-enjoyment, and centred upon God alone; whether you be emptied of Self-will, and moulded into the Divine Will; whether you abound in your own sense and Self-feeling, or be filled with the fullness of God; In a Word, whether all Self-love, and Self-supremacy be thrown down, and God alone do exercise his Sovereignty over all the powers of your souls. These are very substantial inquiries. For your better discovery, I will therefore propound to you some certain marks or signs of such a Self-emptied and God-exalting mind, as I have been commending; which yet indeed are rather branches and instances of it than signs.  
1. When we take ourselves to be concerned in all the wickedness committed in the World, as truly as if it were committed by ourselves or our relations; I mean so far as to be grieved for it. We are wont to be dejected by reason of any gross sin, that we ourselves fall into; this I do not condemn, nay judge necessary as our Duty; and yet this may possibly arise from a mere superstitious principle, and may be found springing up in the heart of a slave. We are apt to be troubled when our Children or near friends prove ungracious or openly rebellious against God; this I do not simply condemn neither, and yet I must tell you, that this may arise from a mere natural affection and a principle that is carnal. But if the interest of God lay so close and warm to our hearts as it ought to do, and as it does to the Saints and Angels in Heaven, we should mourn over the sins of all men, even our Enemies and Persecutors, as truly as our friends; we should be grieved for the Apostasy of mankind, yea, and of the Devils themselves. The predominancy of Religion in the soul would refine natural affections into spiritual, and exalt particular affections into universals. You have heard of a man who vexed his soul with the ungodly conversations of strangers, 2 Pet. 2. 7. and of another, who when ever he looked abroad and beheld transgressors, was grieved, Psal. 119. 158. And I have known a man, who when he looked upon an Assembly of ignorant and hypocritical and ungodly men, either in a Church or in a Market, would have wept over them, as if they had all been his own Family. It is an argument of God's supremacy in the soul, when we mourn over sin because it is a degeneracy from the pure nature of God, and not because it is found in them whom we love or are related to.  
2. When in the wrongful persecutions committed against us, we can look through our own injury, and be mostly affected with the wickedness of the action. I do not say it is unlawful to be sensible of, or affected with the injury and violence offered to us: But I say it is no more than is common to a Publican or Harlot; no more than what is common to an Elephant, a Lion, or a Dog, as well as to us; and therefore though it be a lawful thing and necessary, yet it is no great thing. But when we can look upon the reproaches cast upon our names, and have our hearts mainly concerned for the Name and Honour of God; when we can forget the burden of our own fetters, and as it were not feel the smart of our own stripes and wounds, because of the greater load and pain which we sustain by the lusts of men that do inflict them, it is certainly an excellent instance of God's supremacy in our souls. But you will say, Is this possible? Is it possible that the soul, whilst it is embodied, should be more concerned for God, than for its own body? I must confess it is somewhat difficult, and very rare: Men complain of the Injuriousness of men, but seldom of their Unrighteousness; of the cruelty of their enemies as it is exercised upon them, but not as it is a departure from the holy and loving nature of God. But yet it is not impossible neither, thus to neglect the smarting of our own flesh and carnal interest, in comparison of the interest of truth and holiness and the glory of God. For thus did our blessed Saviour, who seemed to forget his own pangs upon the Cross, in comparison of the sin of them that Crucified him, praying, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do, Luk. 23. 34. And that I may not seem to over-shoot you with Examples, thus did Stephen a man of like infirmities with us, whose last and loudest voice was, Lord lay not this sin to their Charge, Act. 7. ult. as if his heart were more broken with the sin, than his body bruised with the Stones of them that persecuted him: Thus did Moses, and thus did David, whose zeal and anger against his enemies was principally upon the account of their sin, Psal. 119. 139. My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy Words. Upon which words Mollerus glosses thus, David in suis aerumnis non tam afficitur malorum suorum sensu & privatis injuriis, quàm quòd videt nomen Dei ab hostibus contumeliâ affici.   

CHAP. XI. Three more Instances of a God exalting mind. When in the afflictions that befall us we can overlook all creature comforts and delight in the Will of God. When we repent of sin and hate it for its own sake, and esteem nothing worse than it is. When we take pleasure in the gifts and graces of God shining forth in others as well as in ourselves. Joshua and Jonah taxed. This temper proved to be Angelical.  
3. WHen in the Afflictions that befall us more immediately from the hand of God, we can overlook all the creature-comforts which are taken from us, and kiss the hand of God that takes them. There is all reason that the Will of God should be dearer to us than any created good, however our fond and sensual hearts may contradict and blaspheme. Is not the Will of God to be seen in all our crosses, losses, sicknesses, in all our personal, domestical and national disturbances? And is not even this Will of God, God himself? Is it not infinitely wise, holy and perfect? What are our sorry, scant, mixed enjoyments then in this World, that they should be valued against this Almighty and Sacred pleasure? We magnify the good Will and pleasure of God in our peace, plenty, health, prosperity; and it is good to do so in a right spiritual manner: But possibly it may be the sweetness of the enjoyments themselves that we do so much relish, and not the good Will of God in them. But if in the sharpest and sorest afflictions that do befall us, we find ourselves so mastered and overpowered with the sense of the purity and perfection of the Will of God, that we can adore and reverence it, yea cleave to it and love it more than any of our creature comforts, more than our lives themselves nakedly considered, it is an excellent instance of that sovereignty which God hath obtained in our souls. This was the temper of our blessed Saviour, who seemed scarce to taste the bitterness of the Cup, for the excellency of the hand that reached it to him, Joh. 18. 11. The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it. The affliction which the Lord sendeth, shall I not bear it, says old Eli, 1 Sam. 3. 18. It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good. The Book which was given to the Prophet Ezekiel to eat, was as sweet as Honey to him, because it was given him by the hand of God, although it contained nothing in it but lamentation and mourning, and woe, Ezek. 2. 10. 3. 3. the Will of God was pleasant and delightful to him: for though the contents thereof were grievous, yet he gladly assented to the end and scope of these providences, as the Dutch Annotators gloss upon the words.  
4. When we esteem nothing worse than sin is, for which we should repent of it or hate it. You may fright superstitious minds by telling them of judgements and punishments, and scare hypocrites with everlasting burning: but certainly there is that in the very nature of sin, that is more dreadful to an ingenuous soul, than fire and brimstone can fully represent. Such a soul cannot sin without pain; he esteems sin to be the very same to his soul, which a disease is to the body; and therefore he is not so properly said to be grieved for it (which seems to respect the evil consequences of it) as indeed to be sick of it, as one is of a distemper, or weary of it, as one is of a painful burden. It is well when men will reform their evil ways for fear of the punishments of this World, or the Hell of another (though I fear such reformation is rather superstition than true conversion in God's account:) but it were much better if men would be drawn to God, and not driven to him. Perhaps the fear of wrath and Hell may at length end in a more ingenuous and generous temper; but for the present it seems to me to be nothing else but a spirit of bondage: when Isaac is once grown up in the soul, this Bondwoman and her son must pack; Love when it is perfected will cast out fear, 1 Joh. 4. 18.  
5. When we can rejoice and take pleasure in the gifts and graces of God shining forth in others, as hearty and really as in ourselves. It were to be wished that we could do it as much: but this is a rare attainment, and for aught I know, reserved for the other World. However if we do it as truly and really, it is an argument, that God is greater than self in our souls. Joshuah, though a good man, being transported with zeal for his Master's credit failed in this, when he was offended at the gift of Prophecy conferred upon Eldad and Medad, and cried, My Lord Moses forbidden them, Num. 11. 28. And it lies as a blemish to this day upon Jonah the Prophet, that he valued his own reputation above the kindness of God shown upon the poor Ninevites. We profess to disrelish this temper in Joshuah and Jonah; but (alas) we are apt to indulge it in ourselves. For where shall we find a soul so emptied of itself, and so ravished with the Divine beauty and glory, that can be hearty well pleased with the temporal prosperity of others, when it seems to jar with our own, or the beamings forth of Divine lustre upon the souls of others, when we ourselves come to be eclipsed thereby. If God were so supreme in our souls as he ought to be, we should overlook ourselves; look upon the excellencies of other men without disdain or envy, yea, and admire and delight in the communications of God to our fellow-creatures, as hearty as if our own particular Being's were adorned with them. Certainly there is no such thing as Meum and Tuum amongst the Inhabitants of the upper World, but God is All in All unto them: and we commonly say, that one part of the happiness of Heaven will be, that there will be no place for envy and emulation; From whence I infer, that those souls that are in this World most refined and universalized, have most of Heaven come into them, and do most plentifully taste the First-fruits of Eternal Life. This heavenly temper we find in Moses, made manifest in his answer to Joshuah, Numb. 11. 29. In his Father-in-law Jethro, who rejoiced for all the goodness that the Lord had done to Israel, Exod. 18. 9 In the Apostles who glorified God, and were right glad, because that unto the Gentiles also God had granted Repentance unto Life, Act. 11. 18. And in Mr. Calvin, who is reported to have spoke thus concerning Luther, Lutherus est charus Dei servus, etiamsi me diabolum millies mille vocaverit. It is an excellent sign of Self-debasement, and the exaltation of God in the soul, when propriety ceaseth.   

CHAP. XII. The sixth Instance an Universal Love. The notion of the love of the Brethren examined. Who is our Brother according to the Apostle James. No man can be truly said to love God, who does not love the Image of God. The spirit of some men, even in their pretences to the love of God, is rather Devilish than Divine. To be content that men should go to Hell, implies a contentment that men should be wicked, which is against the Honour of God. The seventh Instance, an holy unsatisfiedness with all the Attainments of this Life. It is an Argument of a mercenary and penurious spirit to be only desirous to know the lowest degree of saving Grace. To take up our rest in Evidences destroys the nature of those Evidences. The Conclusion is an Exhortation to men to endeavour to make God All to themselves, to which they are briefly moved and directed.  
6. AN Universal Love, a Love of the whole Creation; If we love all men, some with a love of delight, others with a love of compassion, it is an excellent argument of God's supremacy, yea of his Allness in our Affections: For it must needs be for God's sake, if our Charity be thus large. Many men do mightily please themselves with this, that they love the Brethren; though in the mean time they can well allow themselves to hate all, whom themselves are pleased to esteem otherwise: But I say unto you (saith Love itself) Love your Enemies, Mat. 5. 44. There is nothing more akin to the nature of God, than a mind thus unbounded in its Charity and Benevolence, vers. 45. Men boast much of their love of God: why no man hath seen God at any time (says the Apostle, 1 Joh. 4. 12.) only he hath copied out himself in the Creation: and if we love not that, it is absurd to talk of loving him: as if a man should brag that he loved an Universal, when in the mean time he hateth all the particulars through which that Universal derives itself. The Apostle John speaks much of loving our Brother: but would you know who is this brother? he describes him in the 1 Joh. 4. 20. His Brother whom he hath seen; which must not be understood, as if our love were to be limited to them only whom we have actually set our eyes upon; but rather it is to be extended to every man that may be seen, q. d. Omne visibile est amabile. All particular loves are capable of being defiled; yea the love of good men may possibly be a bad, that is, a selfish love: But when we find our hearts form into an universal love of mankind, it is a sign that God is principally concerned in our hearts; for all men are not in themselves lovely, nor obliging to us. I cannot but wonder that ever men should imagine that they are then most loving of God, and mightily zealous for him, when they most rage against his enemies, curse them, kill them, and devote them to destruction, and allege David's Prophecies to justify their Imprecations. Shall I say concerning these men, as our Saviour to his Disciples, they know not what spirit they are of? Truly one may much suspect it to be Devilish, because it is envious, bitter, wrongful, censerious and damning; rather than Divine, which is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy, etc. However, sure I am that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God, Jam. 1. 20. God forgive our hasty and rash passions! But to be in cold blood well content that any man should go to Hell, is a sad sign that one's self is not in the way to Heaven, nor spirited according to God: For God is Love, and desires not the death of a sinner, but wills all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth, 1 Tim. 2. 4. God's glory is indeed the communication and beaming forth of himself unto the creature; he is then honoured, when he is imitated; sin and wickedness is only contrary to the honour of God, as darkness alone is contrary to light. Yea to be content that men should go to Hell, implies a contentment that men should be wicked: For it is wickedness alone that brings men to Hell; nay indeed to be wicked is to be in Hell.  
7. An holy unsatisfiedness with all things here below, yea with the very gracious attainments of this life, and an eager panting after a state of perfection in God. It is an argument of a mercenary spirit, and a sign that men look upon Eternal Life rather as a Bargain, than their proper happiness, when they are only desirous to know the lowest degree of saving grace, and would go to Heaven at the cheapest rate. When men do desire to find evidences of grace in themselves, on purpose that they may take up their rest in them and fix there, it is a sign of a penurious, shriveled and parsimonious mind; and in so doing, they do ipso facto destroy the nature of these evidences. The surest evidence of grace is that which springs up in the soul itself, and discovers itself in the growth of true goodness, and in restless motions after God. He that can be content with any measure of holiness that is compatible to man in this earthly mixed state, content to live an eternity in this kind of body, yea though he could do it without sin, hath not such honourable thoughts of God as he ought to have. But when the soul is unsatisfied with all its present acquisitions and attainments, and springs up incessantly into God, and the further and fuller resemblance of him, and into a state of perfect purity (as the Apostle Paul did, Phil. 3.) it is a certain argument and instance of an absolute supremacy that God hath obtained in such a soul. And truly I cannot reckon that God is so great in my eye, nor so high in my heart as he ought to be, till I arrive at this temper.  
To Conclude then, Labour to make God All things to yourselves, according to all the forenamed instances, viz. in your Apprehensions, Affections, Actions, Sufferings, Enjoyments, Endowments, to be abstracted as much as can be from all poor, pinching particularities. And now, shall I need to tell you that this is the most noble and Angelical Life? You yourselves surely know that that which makes the life of Saints and Angels so much happier and more glorious than ours, is, that they are not sunk into any senses nor drowned in any matter, but are perfectly centred upon God and filled with him. Shall I need to tell you, that thus we shall live in that other World, to which we all hope to come; or that this will be to us (not only an infallible evidence, but indeed) a real beginning of that blessed Life? I hope I need not insist upon such motives.  
Be often pressing upon yourselves the vanity, emptiness, insufficiency and unsuitableness of all created good. Self and the creature must be nothing in our eye, before God can be All things in it.  
Consider well the worth of your own Souls. Think of that excellent Angellike capacity which God hath bestowed upon them, which nothing but himself can fill up, and live not below the dignity of your own souls.  
Meditate often upon Christ Jesus, who lived to propound this way of living, and both lived and died to purchase it. Of his example you have heard already; see Joh. 4. 34. 6. 38. 7. 16, 18. 9 4. 12. 27, 28. 14. 24. 17. 4. Luk. 22. 42. and many other places. And that he lived and died to purchase this blessed life for us, is plain, 2 Cor. 5. 19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. The great end for which Christ came into the World and went out of it was, to restore the souls to God, who were fallen from him into self and the creature; to reunite and reconcile us, and make us partakers of Divine fullness.    

THE SPIRITUAL MAN IN A Carnal Fit: OR, The former Doctrine Illustrated by its opposite, in a famous Instance from PSAL. LV. 6.  
LONDON, Printed by M. White, for Henry Mortlock at the Sign of the Phoenix in St. Paul's Churchyard, and at the White-Hart in Westminster-Hall, 1678.   

PSAL. 55. 6. And I said, O that I had wings like a Dove! for than would I flee away and be at rest.  

CHAP. I. The meaning of the Words: The division of the Verse into its parts, with a gloss upon each. The Proposition contained in the Words. That the hearts of good men are sometimes surprised with fearfulness, impatience of troubles, and eager desires of rest from Adversity. This proved by Examples, but most largely by the Example of David in this place, wherein the Emphasis of the several words in the Text are observed.  
THis Psalm contains a Prayer of David relating to himself, and his enemies. The Prayer that he puts up for himself, is for deliverance from his troubles, vers. 1, 2. The occasion of it is laid down, vers. 3, 4, 5. and amplified, vers. 6, 7, 8. It is generally supposed to be Penned by the Psalmist in the time of his being persecuted by Saul, when he was reduced into some eminent strait. But what particular strait it was that he was now in, is not certain. Some refer it to the time of his flight to Nob, which is recorded in 1 Sam. 21. Others refer it to the time when he was conspired against by Saul, and like to be betrayed by the men of Keilah, whom he had a little before so much obliged; mentioned 1 Sam. 23. But whensoever it was, it is very clear that his distress was great, and himself ready to sink under his burden. The words may possibly seem at first hearing to be the cry of a devout mind, and an expression of a raised temper. But if we look narrowly into them, and ponder all the circumstances, we shall find indeed that they are the voice of an impotent and impatient spirit, and do discover a great infirmity in this holy man, and are more elegant than devout, have more of Rhetoric in them than Divinity; like those of Saul to the men of Ziph, Blessed be ye of the Lord, for ye have compassion on me: And what was this compassion, but their administering to his malicious and revengeful lusts?  
In the Words there are Three Parts.  
1. Optandi forma, a form of wishing, Oh that I had: In the Hebrew it is Mi jitten li, who will give me? which is their form of wishing, and not of doubting or despairing, as some through their ignorance of the Hebrew Idiom have imagined. This form of wishing is very usual in Scripture, which we Translate sometimes by Oh that, as in Job 11. 5. 13. 5. Jer. 9 1. Oh that mine head were waters! and Psal. 53. ult. Oh that the Salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! Sometimes we Translate it by Would God, as Deut. 28. 67. In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even, etc. Judg. 9 29. Would to God this people were under mine hand.  
2. Optationis materia, the matter of the wish, a wing like a Dove. Eber cajonah. He first lays down the matter of his wish, a wing; and then illustrates or amplifies it, as of a Dove, or like a Dove. It is ordinary in the Hebrew Idiom to put the singular number for the plural, and so it is here. And yet there may be something more in it too; in wishing for a wing and not wings, possibly he describes the great fear and haste and passion that he was in. What a thirst was that rich man in, when he expected so much relief from a drop of water, Luk. 16. And what a fright was David in when he wishes so earnestly for one single wing? The more inconsiderable and small a thing is which one catches at, the greater argument is it of distress, fear and distraction of mind. If instead of the wing of a Dove, he had cried out for the feather of a Dove, it had been yet a more lively description of his amazedness; and indeed the Word here in the Text does signify a Feather as well as a Wing; and so we Translate it, Psal. 68 13. Her Feathers with yellow Gold. But it is not any kind of Wing that will serve his turn; it must be like the Wing of a Dove, the swiftest that he could think of, as we shall see by and by. Certainly it was a great fright of mind that indicted this strange wish: and indeed so he confesses in the fourth and fifth verses, where he calls it pain, yea pain of heart, terror, yea a terror of death, fearfulness, trembling and horror, yea a deluge of horror. Here's just the heart of a silly Dove, that spies the Hawk and trembles and flies, and therefore it's fit it should be matched with Wings of the same, Oh that I had wings like a Dove.  
3. Optati sinis, the end of a thing wished for; that is twofold, Medius & ultimus, I will fly away and be at rest: he would speedily escape out of the dangers and troubles that he was in, and keep himself out of harms way for the time to come.  
All the Divinity that I can pick up out of this elegant and pathetical wish will be contained under this one Proposition.  
The hearts of good men are sometimes surprised with great fearfulness, impatience of troubles, and eager desire of rest from Adversity.  
Here are three thing to be spoke to, Fearfulness, Impatience of trouble, and eager desire of rest. The first of these is not indeed directly found in the Text, only it seems to be implied in the word Dove, which is Meticulosa avis & imbellis. And therefore I shall not speak much distinctly to that, but to the two last. Only I cannot but intimate, that there is a vast difference between fearing of God and being afraid of him. To fear him is often made the Character of an ingenuous holy, childlike spirit, and is therefore made the sum of all Religion, Eccles. 12. 13. but to be afraid of him, to worship him as a severe numen or a saevus dominus, with a kind of horror and invidiousness of mind, with a secret kind of wrath and jealousy or doubting, does certainly argue a superstitious and legal spirit, a mind that for the present is in bondage; yea if I mistake not the meaning of the Prophet, he makes this the badge of an hypocritical people, Isa. 33. 14. Fearfulness hath surprised the Hypocrites: who amongst us shall dwell with devouring fire; who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burning? As soon as Adam had sinned against God, he becomes afraid of him and flies from him, Gen. 3. And to this day men do secretly hate him whom they fear.  
As for the fear of the creature and fear of trouble in the flesh, it is a predominant principle in carnal minds where self rules, but it is incident to the best of Saints, and is recorded as their infirmity for our caution; as in Isaac, David, Peter, who for fear of men, denied one his Wife, another his reason, a third his Saviour. But it is weariness of troubles, and eager desires of rest from Adversity, that are most plainly found in the Text, and which I am therefore to speak to. I think I need not speak to them singly, for I think they are never found single, but are inseparable Companions.  
And here I shall endeavour to show that good men are subject to these distempers. Secondly, Show the cause of the distemper. Thirdly, Prescribe the cure of it. And lastly improve the Doctrine in some few Inferences.  
That the hearts of good men are sometimes surprised with impatience of troubles and eager desire of rest from Adversity, will appear by the Examples of several eminent Saints. I will not peremptorily determine whether the Prophet Elijah were thus distempered, when he fled from the Persecution raised against him by Jezabel, got him all alone into the Wilderness, and requested for himself that he might die, 1 King. 19 But I doubt not to affirm that holy Job was under this distemper: He sticks not to confess, that he is even tired out, and wearied, and wasted, and exhausted in his spirits with the Afflictions that were upon him; Wearisome nights are appointed to me, Job 7. 3. My soul is weary of my life, it is bitter within me, Job 10. 1. Therefore you have him even cursing the day and night of his birth almost through the Third Chapter; and wishing to be hid in the Grave over and over, and that with a great deal of vehemency, Job 6. 8, 9, 10. O that I might have my request: and that God would grant me the thing that I long for! Even that it would please God to destroy me, that he would let lose his hand and cut me off. And the Prophet Jeremiah was wearied with the Persecution and Oppression of his Countrymen, although the same was light in comparison of what he was to suffer, Jer. 12. 5. he was wearied with running even with the Footmen. At another time you have him also cursing his Birthday through impatience, and the man that brought tidings of his coming into the World, because he slew him not from the Womb, Jer. 20. 14, 15, 16, 17. The same Prophet could be content to live a solitary, unpleasant, unprofitable life, like an Anchoret, so he might but escape the treachery of the people, Jer. 9 2. What a discontentment and passion Jonah was in, and that for a light matter, all know, and how he will needs be gone out of the World in a pet, his History does fully relate. Concerning David and his impatience, disquietness, weariness and perplexity of mind, I have many things to say, and the book of Psalms does afford many pregnant instances: How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, how long shall mine enemies exalt themselves over me, how long shall the Adversary reproach, how long shall the wicked triumph, etc. But I need not go far from my Text to demonstrate the greatness of David's distemper. In the words of this Text, and the two following Verses you will discern the greatness of his weariness, and the eagerness of his desires of deliverance, if we consider the following particulars.  
1. In general, he seems to apprehend his case desperate, out of which there was no escape. Videntur hae voces esse hominis desperati, says Mollerus. The Words of the Text seem to be rather a boiling up of passion, than the putting up of a Prayer, a wise or well grounded Prayer. This is a sad distemper of mind, very dishonourable to God and unbeseeming a godly soul; and yet so diseased in his mind does David here seem to be; as also at other times: as when he forgot all the promises that God had made to him, and cried out, All men are Liars, and I shall perish by the hand of Saul.  
2. More particularly, he is so weary of his Persecution, and so intent upon deliverance, that he puts God upon the working of Miracles for his escape, and such a Miracle as we never read that he wrought for any man, Oh that I had wings! What, must the course of nature, and the order of the Creation be inverted for him? It was a devout and holy zeal in David to envy the Sparrows and the Swallows because they were allowed to come nearer the Altar of God than he, Psal. 84. 3. But to be content to be transformed into a silly Bird, merely to have the benefit of her wings to escape a temporal danger, is certainly a strange distraction in a holy man. Oh how wonderful great is the power of this animal life, which puts men upon such strange contrivances for its own preservation, yea even such men as in whom the reigning power of it is destroyed, and a higher life hath taken place! Certainly the wings of David's Soul, the wings of Faith and hope were sadly moulted away, or he would never have invented such a strange device, as a winged body.  
He is so eager, that any kind of wings will not serve his turn neither, they must be wings of a Dove, the swiftest that he could think of; Oh that I had wings like a Dove. For so I judge that he names the wings of a Dove rather than any other Bird, because of the great speediness of her flight; though I know some men to excuse the Prophet, or rather indeed to show their own wit, have invented other reasons. Naturalists speak much of the swiftness of the Dove in flying, they say she can outfly the Hawk, and need not to fear him, if she would but keep a direct and simple flight, but when she gins to clap with her wings in a certain kind of pride and wantonness, than she becomes a prey.  
4. Yea, so eager is he, that if he had such wings, he would presently fly with them. He does not wish the wings of a Dove for ornament and beauty, but for speed; and if he had them he would not stand picking and dressing, and trimming them, as sometimes Doves do, but he would presently spread his new sails and be gone. We Translate the words, Oh that I had wings like a Dove, for than would I fly away; but in the Hebrew, there is nothing between the wings of a Dove and flying with them: The words run thus, Oh that I had a wing like a Dove, I will fly away and be at rest.  
5. Yea, he would hasten with them. He would not simply fly with his wings, but use them to the utmost expedition: As if the wings of a Dove and flying with them were not enough, he will also hasten with them, he will fly as fast as wings will carry him, Vers. 8. I would hasten my escape from the Storm and Tempest; In which words he seems to continue his Metaphor, and to allude to the manner of Doves, who when they are abroad and presage a Storm, make all possible speed to recover their Coat.  
6. So great is his impatience and eagerness, that he will be content to wander, to have no certain place, not to be fixed any where; so he may but escape; he cares not whither it is, Vers. 7. Lo than would I wander, etc.  
7. He would be content to wander afar off; he cares not how far, as far as wings will carry him, Vers. 7. Lo than would I wander afar off. He that used to be so loving of the Land, and so desirous of the Sanctuary, that he was once ready to wish himself a Swallow or a Sparrow, that he might fly thither, now wishes himself a Dove that he might fly far enough from it, into some of the utmost parts of the earth. It was wont to be his Policy to abide in some of the borders of Judah, and to hover about the skirts of that Land, that so he might be ready to lay hold of any advantage that God should put into his hand for the obtaining of the Kingdom (as it is the manner of most men, to contrive to dwell as near as they can to their hopes:) but now his hopes of a Kingdom are expired, and all his policies are expired with them, he is so eager to be got out of harms way, that he never thinks of being in the way of preferment, Lo then I would wander afar off.  
8. So impatient and eager is he, that he cares not though he rested in a Wilderness, so he might but rest. He that was wont to take so much delight in good company, as you may see in the 14 Vers. of this Psalm, can now be content to sit down in a solitary Wilderness, void of all humane Society. He that used to be so loving of the company of men, can now be content to converse amongst Beasts in the Wilderness, and expose himself to their savage and ravenous temper. This seems indeed to imply that the lusts of his enemies were grown to a great height of sury and fierceness, when he apprehended it safer conversing with the Beasts of the Wilderness than with them. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Antisthenes used to say: But yet it argues the greatness of his distemper, who would be content with a life amongst Beasts, which is a most unprofitable life, scarce worthy to be called life, so he might but live at rest. But may some say, he would have only retired into the Wilderness for a season, he would have returned when the Storm was over. It seems otherwise to me, for,  
9 He will be content not only to escape thither, but even to dwell there, Vers. 6. Eschonah habitabo, and Vers. 7. Alin, I would remain in the Wilderness. He seems as if he would forget the promise of the Kingdom, and bury all the hopes of it in an everlasting Self-banishment. Now put all these together, and you will say with me, That here is an Example of a good man in a very sad distemper of Impatience of trouble, and eager desire of Rest from Adversity.   

CHAP. II. An enquiry into the causes of the foresaid distemper in the minds of men. The first cause assigned, viz. A misapprehension of the Nature of God, and a misinterpretation of his Providences. A correction of these misapprehensions, and a prescription of a cure in reference to this cause of the distemper.  
AND now I will inquire what may be the cause of such a disease as this in holy minds. Here I shall lay down some of the immediate causes as I apprehend, and for brevity sake annex the cure to each, which is by taking away the cause.  
The first Cause of this distemper of Impatience of troubles, and eager desires of rest from Adversity, is, a misapprehension of the nature of God, and a misinterpretation of His Providences. Men are apt to imagine God to be like unto themselves, a peevish, selfwilled, Arbitrary Being, acting merely by prerogative, or carried by passion, after the manner of some great King or Judge upon Earth. It is the misery of these captive and degenerate souls of ours, that they are fain to borrow Notions and Ideas from men and their manner of acting and governing their petty Dominions, whereby to apprehend and conceive of God, and his infinite nature and unsearchable Providences: and by this means we come to attribute those things to God which indeed are utterly inconsistent with his perfect nature, because the same are found in those earthly Potentates from whom we derive those Ideas, and form these resemblances. Now such a God as we fancy to ourselves must needs be burdensome and grievous to us, especially when he afflicteth us. Who would not vex, and fret, and rage under the Sentence of such a Judge, as he supposed did command him to be punished, merely because it was his pleasure, or to show his Authority, when there was no reason in the thing? Who can patiently bear the Yoke of such a God, as does impose his commands only Pro imperio, and inflict his punishments only Pro arbitrio, only to show his Authority?  
But such is not the God whom we serve; All his Laws are the products of his Wisdom and Infinite understanding, and not imposed upon his Creatures till his own goodness and the good of the Creature was first consulted: All his Providences are the result of Infinite Love and Benignity, and carried on by the Eternal Laws of Righteousness. If you would therefore possess your souls in patience, labour to purge your minds from embittering thoughts of God, as if he did seek to get a name and make himself famous by the suffering of his Creatures, or were pleased with the sighs and groans which his Almighty severity can extort from those whom he hath a mind to make miserable. Be ye verily persuaded that the Will of God, however absolute and unlimited it is, doth always proceed according to the Eternal Rules of goodness and righteousness: And this will heal your spirits of all fretfulness, and reconcile your minds not only to those Laws and Institutions of his, which seem to be most Arbitrary, but also to those Providences which seem to be most severe or unequal.  
By a like mistake we are apt to ascribe Passion to God, and to represent him to ourselves as if he were all in a rage and very angry, when he afflicts us. Which Notion destroys all that cheerful acquiescence under his hand, and that quiet and friendly conversing with his Providence which we ought to maintain; and so an imaginary wrath in God begets a real rage in our peevish and inpotent minds. When as indeed the nature of God is as free from Anger, Hatred, Revenge, and all the passions of our minds, as it is from Hands, or Eyes, or Feet, or any of the Members of our Bodies. God is good and doth good, says our Psalmist, Psal. 119. 68 God is Love, says the beloved Apostle again and again, 1 Joh. 4. 8, 16. And there is nothing more certain, than that God would never afflict his Creature, if some greater good were not in view. He envies not his People any of their Ease, Peace, Health, Liberty or other Enjoyments; but he loves them with a strong and Holy and Wise Affection, and therefore will Afflict them in these things whether they will or no, that he may bestow upon them some more substantial good. Labour to converse with God in all his Providences, as with Wisdom, Goodness, Righteousness and Love itself, and then you will not be weary of his Discipline, or peevishly affected towards any of his Dispensations. We are apt to cry out, Oh if we were but sure of the Love of God towards us in all our Afflictions, we could be then content and patiented! Why, go you and possess your souls in patience, and get your Wills reconciled to the Providences of God, Love him and delight in him, and believe in him though he Afflict you never so sore, and then be assured that God loves you: for the Love and good Will of God, is not his giving the Creature, but it is the communication of himself, and his Divine Perfections to your Souls.   

CHAP. III. A Second Cause assigned, viz. A misunderstanding of our true interest. This Explained; Where the true interest of Souls is Stated, and the Cure prescribed in reference to this Cause of the Distemper. A third Cause assigned, viz. The want of a right discerning of Good and Evil. Where the nature of Good and Evil is Explained, and Direction given how to discern them by way of Cure.  
2. ANother Cause of this distemper, is, A misunderstanding of our true interest. Alas how are we sunk into this body! How studious are we, and fond of the accommodations and conveniencies of this animal life! What fears and jealousies, cares and contrivances, what watch, and prayings, and strive, and all for the peace and welfare of the flesh! Certainly we judge our main interest to lie in the preserving, pleasuring, accommodating of the body, and not of the soul: which wicked apprehension, as it destroys all true Religion, so particularly it breeds the distemper that I am speaking of. We are strangely fond of this Life, as miserable as it is, and of this body, as unsuitable as it is, and therefore are we so much offended with all things that are grievous and hurtful to the same; yea we are apt to fret against God himself, if he do not please and pamper them as much as we. It is a woeful degeneracy that hath befallen the soul of man, which makes him mis-judge and mistake his main interest; the like mistake is not to be found in the whole World sure. I will not say with the Prophet, Pass ye over the Isles of Chittim, and send unto Kedar, and see if there be such a thing; but indeed pass ye through the whole Creation, and visit all the particular beings that are therein, and you shall not find such a thing; such a degeneracy as this is: you shall not find any Creature that thus forgets itself, or thus mistakes its main intetest, although the same be no interest, in comparison of the concernment of an immortal soul. Be astonished, O ye Heavens, at this monstrous absurdity! The Figtree in Jonathan's Parable would not leave its sweetness, to go to be promoted over the Trees; but this noble plant of the Lord's planting, the rational soul, hath forsaken its interest and forgotten its proper sweetness, and renounced its own pleasure and felicity, to go serve its own servant, and study the interest of flesh and blood: To the service whereof it is so entirely devoted, that God himself must be quarrelled with, if he use not this Dalilah kindly, if he offer to put it to any pain.  
Be advised, I beseech you, therefore to get a right understanding of your grand interest, and where it lies, in order to the healing of this distemper. Value yourselves by your souls and not by your bodies, by your spiritual and not by your corporal state. Is that man happy, whose body and bodily concernments are all in a peaceful and flourishing state, when in the mean time his soul is defiled, depraved, deformed, impoverished, and become more vile than the Dung upon the earth, and more wretched than the Beasts that perish? How then can that man be judged miserable, whose nobler part is beautiful, healthful, rich, and prosperous, although his corporal and temporal estate be squalid, sordid, contemptible, and much afflicted? Our Saviour hath fully resolved this Question in the persons of Dives and Lazarus, Luk. 16. Live like souls, as much as may be, abstracted from the body, provide, take care for, view and visit your souls, value yourselves happy or unhappy, according as it fares with your souls; and than you will find it more natural and easy for you to bear up patiently and cheerfully under all the Storms that light upon your outward man.  
3. The want of a right discerning of Good and Evil. This is somewhat akin to the former. Our souls are so sadly sunk into matter, and so fond enamoured of our bodies, that we are ready to judge of all things to be good or bad according as they accommodate or incommodate them; and so we come many times to put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter, Isa. 5. 20. This is certainly a proper and immediate cause of our flying from, groaning under, and hastening out of Afflictions and Persecutions, because we judge them hurtful and evil to us. And why evil? Forsooth because they gall our backs, offend our senses, pinch and oppress our flesh. And is this indeed a right rule whereby to judge of the goodness or evilness of things? Nay, but if you would indeed possess your souls in patience in the midst of bodily pressures, then exercise your spiritual senses to discern aright between Good and Evil, as the Apostle's phrase is, Heb. 5. ult. But how shall we thus discern; by what rule shall we judge them? Good is the rule whereby to judge of Evil, Rectum est Index obliqui: and then for created good, the nature of God the supreme good is the rule whereby to judge of that; Perfectum in suo genere est mensur a reliquorum. So then judge of all things by their relation that they bear to the nature of God, and the tendency that they have to make us partakers of it. And if we thus judge sincerely, we shall not be so much offended at those Providences that are forming us into a resemblance of Christ Jesus, nor be so hasty to run out of that Furnace that is refining us to be Vessels of Honour fit for our Master's use. If David had at this time judged as discreetly, and discerned as clearly, as afterwards he did, he would rather have wished for the strength of an Ox to endure, than the wings of a Dove to escape these pressures; for in the up shot of all, when he had viewed and compared all together, and well recollected himself, he professed openly that he accounted it good for him that he met with such usage in the World, Psal. 119. 67, 71, 75. God is the supreme good; that is good for us that brings us nigh and makes us like unto him: and that is not only Prosperity (though indeed that aught to do it, and I hope often doth it) but even Adversity also, Heb. 12. 10. He chasteneth us for our profit, that we might be made partakers of his holiness.   

CHAP. IU. The Fourth and last Cause assigned, viz. Selfishness. Self-love briefly touched upon. Self-will more largely described, with an earnest advice to bend all our powers against this rebellious Giant.  
THese Causes of this Distemper are to be found in the understanding.  
The Fourth and last Cause that I shall name is in the Will, and it is Selfishness. By this I mean two things, Self-love, and Self-will. By Self-love, in this place, I mean sensuality, or a judging of things by sense, which I have touched upon already; and an over high valuation of this mere earthly life, and the conveniencies thereof. Why are we so weary of Sickness, and so impatient under Persecution? Will it not come to this at length, because we are so afraid to die. There can be no farther end of the greatest Afflictions in this World, than the parting of soul and body: Is not this the worst that can come? It seems then that it is an immoderate love of this wretched life that is the root of all these bitter fears and passions.  
Labour therefore to be Crucified to the love of this natural life. There are many inconveniencies and miseries that do arise from this root, which I cannot now name; certainly this distemper which I am speaking of is a very great one: For however you find David here labouring under it, yet elsewhere we find him earnestly labouring to be rid of it, Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me, etc. Psal. 42. 5, 12. 43. 5. He is troubled at his being troubled, and cannot with patience think how impatient he had been. Strike therefore at the root of this Distemper, labour to get your overfond love and over-high valuation of this earthly life mortified. He will be able not only to endure, but even to contemn all Adversity, who hath once well learned to contemn his own life. He cannot be in the power of any who hath death in his own power, says Seneca: which admits of a good sense and agreeable to our Christian Divinity, though he did not mean it so.  
The other branch of selfishness is Self-will: And this also is a pestilent disturber of the mind, and engages the soul in many quarrels against God. The understanding indeed may be mistaken, and the flesh may smart, and the Devil may tempt, but I think the proud, petulant, perverse Self-will is the Achan; the grand troubler of the soul: This is the Sea from whence arise all those Clouds and Storms that trouble the Earth and infested Heaven itself. If this were thoroughly mortified, I dare say all the skill of earth, all the Magic of Hell, all the passions and pangs of the body could not make a clamorous soul. This was the cause of Jonah's heat and rage, and desire of death, viz. because he might not have his own will. Yea, and it seems that Job's will was not moulded into the Will of God, and that that was the cause of his impatience; for his complaint is called a contending with the Almighty, and that by Job himself, Job. 40. 2.  
I do earnestly advise you therefore to bend all your strength against this rebellious Giant, and be daily begging more strength than yet you have. If you can overcome your own Wills, you need not fear being overcome by any Adversity: He that can deny himself, can do any thing. The Will of God is holy, pure and perfect, and indeed it is not only the duty, but the glory of man to comply with it freely and cheerfully. What can be more Divine than a will according to God's Will, an Heart according to God's Heart? It was the commendation of David you know, yea it is the perfection of Angels. I have often observed with great delight the excellent patience, and composure of David's spirit in the time of his flight from Absalon, which you will find recorded in 2 Sam. 15, and 16 Chap. and you may see that he possessed his soul in so much patience by this means, by eyeing the absolute goodness of the Will of God, and resigning himself thereunto, Chap. 15. 26. and Chap. 16. 10. The patience of our Lord and Saviour was much more admirable than his; and he was a person whose will was swallowed up in the Will of God, Luk. 22. 42. Not my will but thy Will be done. The time and matter, and manner, and measure of all your afflictions are all ordered by a Will and Wisdom which is above, that is infinitely pure and perfect: O therefore labour to get your wills reconciled to this Divine Will, and your hearts at all times overpowered and mastered with the sense of the infinite goodness and holiness thereof; and so shall you find all wrath and doubtings, all discontents and jealousies to die and whither away, and you will possess your souls in peace and gladness, in patience and serenity, in the midst of all your Afflictions.  
I know several other causes might be brought of this distemper; but I conceive they are either such as are inferior and less principal; or such as may be reduced to some of these that I have assigned. Therefore I pass on to the Improvement.   

CHAP. V The Improvement, by way of Concession, that there is an averseness in the humane nature from Afflictions which is purely natural: How it becomes sinful. Secondly, It is a greater distemper when unlawful means are used for deliverance out of Adversity. Thirdly, An Exhortation to beware of this Disease, and to labour after a contrary temper. Which temper recommended in three things. First, Patience under the troubles of this life. This pressed with two or three weighty considerations. Secondly, Weariness of the Imperfections of life. Thirdly, Eager desires of Eternal rest. How to turn David's Rhetoric into Divinity.  
AND here I will grant, that there is an averseness in the humane nature from Afflictions, and a desire of release from them, which is purely natural, which is not properly sinful as I conceive, no more than eating, or drinking, or sleeping is. But it easily becomes sinful many ways; when it is not rightly ordered, directed and bounded by our wills, or when our wills do concur with the disorderliness and excess of it: And so it is when the averseness of the nature becomes impatience in the will, and desires in the appetite become turbulent passions in the higher powers of the Soul.  
2. If impatience of troubles, and eager desires of rest from Adversity be a Distemper, then much worse is it when unlawful and indirect means and courses are added thereunto: David indeed was eager, over eager of deliverance; yet we do not find that he used unlawful ways to decline the rage of Saul, and to save his life, but he consulted with God and prayed unto him, and so stood upon his own defence. The wings of a Dove are swift indeed, but they are honest and innocent. But what shall we say to them that take to themselves wings to escape, and that the wings of a Hawk or a Vulture, that deliver themselves by Injustice, Rapine, Murder and Deceit, that break the Snare by breaking Vows, and Oaths, and Promises; that care not if they swim through a Sea of Blood, so they may but get safe to Land; that to redeem their bodies will not stick to sacrifice their souls. David's indeed was a great distemper, but this is a desperate and Devilish madness.  
But that which I do principally infer, and most of all press from the consideration of David's distemper, is, that you would diligently endeavour to beware of the like: The infirmities of Saints are not recorded for our imitation, no nor to afford us a way of excusing ourselves, but indeed for our caution, and they will render us the more inexcusable, if we beware not that whereof we are so warned. Now that you may be safe and sound from this distemper, labour to get a contrary temper. Three things therefore I exhort you to in opposition to this distemper, to wit, Patience under troubles of this life, Impatience of the imperfections of this life, and eager desires of eternal rest.  
1. Labour to be patiented and during of the troubles of this life, and moderate your desires of deliverance and rest from Adversities. Think not much, nor think not long concerning any trial, as if some strange thing, or some unequal thing befell you: Labour to be mortified (as much as may be) to the sense of all bodily Afflictions, and moderated in the expectations of temporal deliverance, in as much as the former is not properly your misery, nor can the latter of itself be your happiness. What an unseemly thing is it to hear Christians venting all their passions, spending all their complaints upon their outward state, Oppressions, Injuries, Persecutions, and spending all their Prayers upon their fleshly interest, as if it were by that that they must live and be happy. Oh that the voice of this weeping might be heard no more amongst us! Was it not a childish thing in the Israelites to weep and whine after a little flesh? Do but read the story in Numb. 11. 4, 5, 6. and you will take it rather to be the puling of Children, than the complaint of men, and especially the men of Israel. Wherein was the cry of the men of Israel after Corn, and other sensual accommodations, better than the howling of Dogs; to which it seems to be compared, Hos. 7. 14. Concerning this impatience of trouble, and eagerness after relief and ease, and rest; I need not say as our Saviour says, Matth. 5. Do not even the Publicans the same; but do not even the Beasts the same? do not they groan under their burden? do not they long to be delivered from their pains and pressures, and restraints? And shall the longing of souls be no higher nor purer than those of a mere animal appetite? Shall the Prayers of the Sons of God be of no higher a strain than the Children of the Raven, which are said to cry unto God for meat, Job 38. ult. Set aside the elegancy of them, and all your groan under Affliction, and lusting after deliverance, are common to the beasts that perish as well as you. And this may well be the first Motive to the duty which I exhort you to.  
2. Consider that if you be thus weary of Affliction, and eager after rest, you do▪ secretly find fault with a chief piece of God's dispensations in the World, and frustrate the ends which God hath in bringing tribulation upon the righteous. The exercise of Graces, such as Patience, Self-denial, Faithfulness, Courage, Constancy is the great end of God in all his afflictive Providences upon his people: and if we be so soon weary of them, and so importunately bend upon deliverance from them, how can this great design of Heaven be fulfilled? For can the Plaster work a Cure except it may be suffered to lie on?  
3. Consider that there is really more valour and true greatness of mind in enduring hardships patiently and constantly, than in all these fightings and contendings for God, which pass with many men for such a noble zeal. To dare to live in an unpleasant and bitter time, is much more magnanimous than to wish to die; and to endure the anguishes of life with an humble patience and submissive spirit, is more Divine than to endeavour to escape them. This passive valour was the mighty courage of the Son of God, whereby he overcame all that was against him. How easy was it for him to have revenged himself upon all his enemies, by Legions of Angels, or Fire from Heaven? How easily could he have frowned them all into their first nothing? But he gave his back to the smiter, and his cheeks to them that pulled off the hair; he was dumb as a Sheep before the Shearers: whereby he gave us an Example of the most admirable longanimity and magnanimity too; and by enduring the Cross did perfectly vanquish all that Crucified him. We do mightily admire the valiant Acts of David's Worthies, when we read how one slew eight hundred at one time; another resisted the whole Army of the Philistines, and slew many of them; another defended a piece of Ground from a whole Troop of Philistines, and slew them; another slew a Lion and two Lion-like men; another went down to an Egyptian Champion only with a Staff, and first spoiled the Egyptian of his Spear, and then slew him with it. I will not disparage this valour of theirs; but I will affirm that David in his flight from Absalon manifested a more excellent courage, than when he slew the great Philistine; and that the valour of these his Worthies in itself considered, is no more to be compared to the admirable Patience, Self-denial and submission of the Redeemer of the World, or to that of Moses, who was but one of his servants, than the passions of a Beast a●e to be compared unto the ingenuous resolution of a rational soul. For such a kind of animal courage, fierceness and kill faculty, many of the Beasts of the Earth have as much, Adino, Eleazar, Shanimah, or Benaiah the son of Jehojadah, so much commended in the 2 Sam. 23. True valour consists not in the greatness of bones, but in the greatness of mind, not in strength of sinews but in strength of Grace, not in the fierceness and sightingness, but in the meekness and patience of disposition. That's not the true generousness of spirit which cannot brook injuries; but indeed that which can: That's not the true valiant mind which is resolved, what ever comes of it, to have its own will; but that which most freely resigns itself to the Will of God. Quo minus quid sibi arrogat homo, eò evadit nobilior & divinior.  
2. Instead of being weary of the Persecutions of life, be ye weary of the imperfections of life: Let the body of death, rather than the troubles of God, be the cause of your weariness and complaint, O wretched man, etc. It is valour to endure patiently the Afflictions of the body; but to mourn under the infirm and imperfect condition of the soul, whilst it is embodied, is also devout and pious: yea to be content to spend an Eternity in such an imperfect state, and such an unsuitable body as this, were an argument of a mind over sluggish and forgetful of its own bliss. And yet I cannot say, but that there is something of Religion in the souls patiented enduring of its imperfect condition in the body, because the Will of God is so.  
3. Convert the animal appetites into Divine long; instead of eagerness of rest from Adversity, be as eager as may be of Eternal Rest, of a state of perfection and glory. Let not the Beast be above the Man, the sensual appetite be stronger than the spiritual, let not David's thirsting after the waters of Bethlehem (2 Sam. 23.) nor the Bond-servant panting after the shadow (Job 7. 2.) condemn your lazy souls that have a more desirable object set before them. It is good to be a Horseleech here; suck in what you can of Eternal Life, and after all yet cry, Give, give. In a word then, to turn David's Rhetoric into Divinity; Instead of, Oh that I had wings like a Dove, cry ye, Oh that I had the Heart of Dove, chastely adhering to God, innocently behaving itself towards men, and patiently enduring injuries! Instead of, Oh that he would give me wings like a Dove, that I might fly away, pray ye, Oh that one would give me the wings of Faith and Hope, that I might soar aloft in a disdain of Worldly Evils! The wings of the Ostrich that lifteth up herself on high, and scorneth the Horse and his Rider! Instead of the wings of a Dove to fly away and be at rest, wish rather, Oh that one would give me the wings of an Eagle, that I might fly away towards Heaven!   
FINIS.