• Non progrtdi est regredi.
Mat. VI. 6.] the privy key of heaven. 263
thirst and long after communion with Qod. In all your private re-^ tirements, take up in nothing below fellowship with Grod, in nothing, below a sweet and spiritual enjoyment of God, Cant. iii. 1-3, Ps. Ixxiii. 28. Ps; xxviL 4<, 'One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of iny life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.' The temple of the Lord, without communion with the Lord of the temple, will not satisfy David's soul : Ps. xlii. 1, 2, 'As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God ?'
The hart, as Aristotle and others observe, is of all creatures moat hot and dry of itself ; but especially when it is chased and hunted, then it is extreme thirsty. The female is here meant, as the Greek article, ^ iXapoc, doth manifest. Now, in the females the passions of thirst are more strong, as the naturalists observe. By this David discovers what a vehement and inflamed thirst there was in his soul after communion with God ; and as nothing could satisfy the hunted hart but the water brooks, so nothing could satisfy his soul but the enjoyments of God : Ps. xliii. 4t, 'Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceed- ing j,oy.' The altar of God is here put for the worship of God. Now, it is not barely the worship of God, but communion with God in his worship, that was David's exceeding, joy : Ps. Ixiii. 1, 2, 'O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee; my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a d^y and thirsty land, wherein no water is ; to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.' Pavid's soul did not thirst after a crown, a kingdom, or any worldly greatness or glory, but after a choice and sweet enjoyment of God in his wilderness estate. Never did any woman with child long more after this or thaty than Da^vid's soul did long to enjoy sensible communion with God in the midst of all his sorrows and sufferings :: Ps. Ixxxiv. 2, 'My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.' By the ' courts of the Lord; we are to understand the ordinances. Now, these without com- munion with God would never have satisfied David's soul.
I commend that speech of Bernard, Nunquam abs te, absque te recede, * I never come to thee, but by thee y I never come from thee, without thee.''
Whenever you go into your closets, press hard after real and sensible communion with God, that so you may come out of your closets with 9ome shines of God upon your spirits, as Moses came down from the mount with his face shining, Exod. xxxiv. 29-35. Oh do not take up in your closet prayers, or tears, or joys, or enlargements ; but labour and long to enjoy that inward and close fellowship with God in your closets, as may leave such a choice and sweet savour of God, both upon your hearts and lives, as others may be forced to say. Surely these have peen with Jesus, Acts iv. 13. It is sad when Christians return from their closets to their shops, their trades, their families, their commerce, ^c, without the least visible rays of divine glory upon them.
P §ir8 ! closet-prayer will be found to be but a dry, s;ipless, lifeless, ^ Bernard, JKpist. 116.
264 THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN. [MAT. VI. 6.
heartless, comfortless thing, if you do not enjoy communion with God in it. Cornmuniou with God is the very life, soul, and crown of all your closet duties ; and therefore press after it as for life. When you go into your closets, let every thing go that may hinder your fruition of Christ, and let everything be embraced, that makes way for your enjoyment of Christ. Oh let closet-prayer be a golden bridge, a wherry, a -chariot to convey your souls over to God, and to bring you into a more intimate communion with God. Let no closet duty satisfy you or content you, wherein you have not convei"sed with God, as a child converseth with his father, or as a wife converseth with her husband, or as a friend con- verseth with his friend, even face to face. Nothing speaks out more unsoundness, falseness, and baseness of heart than this, when men make duty the end of duty ; prayei* the end of prayer ; than when men can begin a duty, and go on in a duty, and close up a duty, and bless and stroke themselves after a duty, and yet never enjoy the least communion with God in the duty.
Qued. But how shaU a man know when he hath a realoommunion with God in a duty or no?
This is a very noble and necessary question, and accordingly it calls for a clear and satisfactory answer ; and therefore thus :
Sol. [1.] First, A man may have communion with God in sorrow and tears, when he hath not communion with God in joy, delight, Ps. 11. 17. A man may have communion with God in a heart-humbling, a heart-melting, and a heart-abasing way, when he hath not communion with God in a hearfc-reviving, a heart-cheering, and a heart-comforting way. It is a very great mistake among many tender-spirited Christians, to think that they have no communion with God in their closets, except they meet with God embracing and kissing, Cant. ii. 4-6, cheering and comforting up their souls. When they find God raising the springs of joy and comfort in their souls ; when they find God a-speaking peace unto them ; when they find the singular sensible presence of God cheer- ing, refreshing, and enlarging of them in their closets, oh then they are willing to grant that they have had sweet communion with God in their closets. But if God meets with them in their closets, and only breaks their hearts for sin, and from sin, if he meets with them and only makes his power and his presence manifest, in debasing and casting down of their souls, upon the sight and sense of their strong corruptions and many imperfections, how unwilling are they to believe that they have had any communion with God ! Well, friends, remember this once for all, viz., that a Christian may have as real communion with God in a heart- humbling way, as he can have in a heart-comforting way. A Christian may have as choice communion with God when his eyes are full of tears, as he can have when his heart is full of joy, John xx. 11-19. Some- times God meets with a poor Christian in his closet, and exceedingly bieiks him and humbles him, and at other times he meets with the same Christian in his closet, and mightily cheers him, and comforts him ; sometimes God meets with a poor soul in his closet, and there he sweetly quiets him and stills him, and at other times he meets with the same soul in his closet, and then he greatly revives him and quickens him. God doth not always come upon the soul one way, he doth not always come in at one and the same door, John iii. 8. We sometimes look for