Therefore ask thy afi'ections whither thou wouldst run if there come a confusion of all things. When men are apt to say, Oh what will become of us ! and they think of this and that, a good Christian hath God to rest in. He hath God reconciled in Christ, and in his love he plants him- self in life and death. He makes God his habitation and his castle, as it is Ps. xviii. 2, ' I love the Lord dearly, my rock and my fortress.' And Moses in Ps. xc. 1, seq. (for his psalm it is), ' Thou hast been our habita- tion from everlasting to everlasting,' We dwell in thee. Though in the world we are tossed up and down, and live and die, yet we alway dwell with thee. So a Christian hath his contentment and his habitation in God ; he is his house he dwells in, his rock, his resting-place, his centre in which he rests. ' Come unto me, and ye shall find rest to your souls,' Mat. xi. 28. When a man is beat out of all contentments, he may know by this whether he love God or no. As David when he was beat out of all, and they were ready to stone him ; but ' he trusted in the Lord his God,' Ps. xxvi. 1, et alibi. So in losses and crosses hast thou contentment in God, thou wilt fetch what thou losest out of the love of God, and what thou art crossed in thou wilt fetch out of God's love. Thou wilt say, This and that is taken from me, but God is mine ; I can fetch more good by faith from him than I can lose in the world. A soul that is acquainted with God, when he loseth anything in the world, he can fetch it out of the fountain and spring. He is taught to love God ; he is skilful this way to pitch his hope and affiance in God, where he hath enough for all crosses. Let us labour to bring our souls more and more to this, and then we shall know what it is to love God by this placing of our contentment in him. ' Take all from me,' saith holy Austin, ' so thou leave me thyself (hj. So a Christian can say. Take all from me, so I have God.
Indeed, where shall a man have comfort in many passages of his life, if he find it not in religion ? What will become of a man in this uncertain world, if he have not somewhat where he may place his content ? Oh, he will find before he die that he is a wretched man. He knows not where to find rest and contentment before he dies ; he will be beat out of all his holds here either by sickness or one thing or other.
The fourth and last is, where the true affection of love to God is, it stirs
188 A GLANCE OF HEAVEN.
vp the soul to [five all contentment to God, to do all tliinr/s that man please ''""• This is the nature of love. It stirs up to please the party loved. Isaac's sons saw that their fotlicr loved venison, therefore they provided venison for him, Gen xxv. 28. Those that know wliat God loves will provide what they can that that God may delight in. He loves a humble and a believing heart. * Thou hast wounded me with one of thine eyes,' Cant. iv. 9 — the eyo of faith, when the soul can trust in the word, and humbly go out of itself. His delight is in a broken yielding heart, that hardens not itself against his instructions, but yields. A broken heart that lies low, and hoars all that God saith, Oh ' it is a sacrifice that God is much delighted in,' Ps. li. 17, et alibi. A humble spirit is such a spirit as God dwells in. ' He that dwells in the highest heavens dwells in a humble spirit,' Isa. Ivii. 15. Doth God delight in a meek, broken, humble spirit? Oh then it will be the desire of a Christian to have such a spirit as God may delight in. A meek soul is much esteemed ; ' the hidden man of the heart,' 1 Pet. iii. 4, is much prized. Search in God's word what he delights in, and let us labour to bring ourselves to such a condition as God may delight in us, and we in him. And then it is a sign we love him, when we labour to procure all things that may give him content. You know that love where it is, it stirs up the affections of the party to remove all things that are distasteful to the party it loves. Therefore it is a neat ■'•'• affection ; for it will make those neat that otherwise are not so, because it will not offend ; much more this divine heavenly affection, when it is set on a right object, upon God, it is a neat, cleanly affection. It will purge the soul ; it will work upon the soul a desire to be clean as much as can be, because God is a pure, holy God, and it will ' have no fellowship with the works of darkness,' Eph. v. 11. Therefore as much as human frailty will permit, it will study purity, to keep itself ' unspotted of the world,' James i. 27. It will not willingly cherish any sin that may offend the Spirit. Those there- fore that are careless of their ways and carriage and affections, that make nothing of polluting, and defiling their affections and their ways, there is not the love of God in their hearts. It stirs up shame to be offensive in the eyes of such a one, especially if they be great. There is both love and respect met together. Where it is a reverential love with respect, there is a shame to be in a base, filth}', displeasing condition. God hates pride and idolatry, &c. Therefore a man that loves God will hate idols and all false doctrine and worship that tends this way. His heart will rise against them, because he knows God hates it, and all that take that course. He observes what is most offensive to God, and he will avoid it and seek what is pleasing to him.