7. Besides a spirit of courage, for estabhshing the soul, is required a spirit of constancy, whereby the soul is steeled and preserved immoveable in all conditions, whether present or to come, and is not changed in changes. And why ? but because the spirit knows that God, on whom it rests, is unchangeable. We oiu-selves are as quicksilver, unsettled and moveable, tiU the spu-it of constancy fix us. "W'e see David sets out God in glorious tenns, boiTowed from all that is strong in the creatm'e, to shew that he had great reason to be constant, and cleaving to him. ' He is my rock, my buckler, the horn of my salvation, my strong tower,' &c., Ps. xviii. God is a rock so deep, that no floods can undermine ; so high, that no waves can reach, though they rise never so high, and rage never so much. "When we stand upon this rock that is higher than we, we may overlook
* Tertul[lian] in Apol. — Also Pliny in his famous letter to the Emperor Tiajau. His ' iutiexibilis obstinatio ' has passed into a world's proverb. — G.
282 THE soul's conflict.
all waves, swelling, and foaming, and breaking themselves, but not hurting us. And thereupon may triumphantly conclude with the apostle, that ' neither height, nor depth, shall ever separate us from the love of God,' Rom. \aii. 39. Whatsoever is in the creature he found in his God, and more abundant. The soul cannot with an eye of faith look upon God in Christ, but it will be in its degree, as God is, quiet and constant. The spirit aimeth at such a condition as it beholdeth in God towards itself.
This constancy is upheld by endeavoiu'ing to keep a constant eight of God, for want of which it oft fares with us, like men, that having a city or tower in their eye, passing through uneven gi'ounds, hills, and dales, sometimes get the sight thereof, sometimes lose it, and sometimes recover it again, though the tower be still where it was, and they nearer to it than they were at first. So it is oft v.dth our uneven spirits : v/hen once we have a sight of God, upon any present discouragement, we let fell om- spirits, and lose the sight of him, until by an eye of faith we recover it again, and see him still to be where he was at first. The cherishing of passions take away the sight of God, as clouds take away the sight of the sun ; though the sun be stiil where it was, and shineth as much as ever it did. We use to say, when the body of the moon is betwixt the sun and us, that the sun is eclipsed, when in- deed not the sun but the earth is darkened : the sun loseth not one of its glorious beams. God is oft near us, as he was unto Jacob, and we are ' not aware of it,' Gen. xx\'iii. 17. God was near the holy man Asaph, when he thought him afar off. ' I am continually with thee,' saith he ; ' thou boldest me by my right hand,' Ps. Ixxiii. 27. Mary in her weeping pas- sion could not see Christ before her ; he seemed a stranger unto her. So long as we can keep our eye upon God, we are above the reach of sin or any spiritual danger.
Chapter XXXIV. — Of confirming this trust in God : seek it of God himself. Sins hinder not: nor Satan. Conclusion and Soliloquij.
§ I. But to return to the drawing out of our trust by ivaiting. Our estate in this world is still to wait, and happy it is that we have so great things to wait for ; but our comfort is, that we have not only a * furniture of graces,' 2 Pet. i. 5, one strengthening another as stones in an arch, but likewise God vouchsafeth some drops of the sweetness of the things we wait for, both to increase our desire of those good things, as likewise to enable us more comfortably to v*^ait for them. And though we should die waiting, only cleaving to the promise, with little or no taste of the good promised ; yet this might comfort us, that there is a life to come, that is, a life of sight and sense, and not only of taste but of fulness, and that for ' evermore,' Ps. xvi. 11. Our condition here is to live by faith and not by sight ; only to make om' living by foith more lively, it pleascth God when he sees fit, to increase our earnest of that we look for. Even here God waits ' to be gracious to those that wait for him,' Isa. xxx. 18. And in heaven Christ waits for us, we are part of his ' fulness,' Eph. i. 23 ; it is part of his joy that * we shall be where he is,' John xvii. 24 ; he will not therefore be long with- out us. The blessed angels and saints in heaven wait for us. Therefore lot us be content as strangers to wait a while till we come home, and then we ' shall be for ever with the Lord,' Eev. xxii. 5 ; there is our eternal rest, where we shall enjoy both our God and ourselves in perfect happiness, being, as without need, so without desire, of the least change. When the time of our departure thither comes, then we may say as David, ' Enter