8. Where the Spirit is, there is often prm/er, as Christ often prayed ; a perpetual endeavour of doing good, as his Spirit in him stirred him to go from place to place to do good. Where his Spirit is, there is holiness. If we consider what a sweet guest Christ is, where he is there is all beauty, work, comfort, strength, and all. And where he is, he is for ever. He never forsakes his lodging, he never forsakes his house and temple. He had two temples built with stone ; one by Solomon, and another after the captivity. Both lie now in the rubbish, and are demolished for ever, and shall never be repaired again. But his spiritual temples he never leaves wholly ; for whose souls he now dwells in, he will take them by that Spirit that dwells in them, and carry them to heaven, to be where he is. The divine Spirit, that dwells in our souls now, shall quicken our dead bodies, and make them like to his glorious body.
What an excellent honour and happiness is this, to entertain such an one as will rule, govern, and adorn our souls while we live, and carry them to himself and to his Father in heaven, and will quicken our bodies likewise ! An everlasting inhabitant he is. If Christ be in us, therefore, wo may com- fort ourselves. But here must be an objection answered.
Ohj, Christ doth seem oftentimes to be absent from the soul to which he teas present before ; he seems to leave his house and his temple sometiines.
Sol. I answer. He is said to leave that soul into which, shutting the door to his knocks, and resisting the sweet motions of his Holy Spirit^ he
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never actually entered. But he never leaves that soul into which he is once entered to dwell. Indeed, sometimes he conveys himself into a cor- ner of the soul ; for when he does not entertain him and respect him as he should, and preserve the motions, comforts, and graces of his Spirit, but give way to the suggestions and temptations of the devil and ill company, &c,, then he retires himself; but he is still in the soul. For even as God the Father, when he would have his own beloved Son Christ Jesus to be abased on the cross, withdrew not his divinity, but the sense and comforts thereof from Christ's human nature, that he might suffer for us on the cross. Matt, xxvii, 46 — loving him still notwithstanding, so that the divi- nity did not forsake him, but only did rest and cease to support and com- fort him at that time, that he might perform the work of satisfaction for our sins — so it is with us, though ft be a different case, when God humbles us for our rashness, want of reverence, of careful walking before God, and preserving the sweet work of his Holy Spirit : then Christ hides himself only, takes not himself away.
Christ was God on the cross, but the comfort was withdrawn, that he might suffer. So the comfort of Christ's presence is withdrawn, that he may humble us for our former sins ; that we might make more of this guest than we did before ; that we may be stirred up to entertain him better, and might be more careful for the time to come, to cleave closer unto him. So much for the answer of that, that Christ is oftentimes in the soul, when he discovers not himself to be there ; as he was near unto Mary, though her eyes being full of tears, she could not discern him, John xx. 15.
Quest. But how shall I know that he is there by any discovery at all, that he hath any being at all in the soul at such a time ?
Sol. 1. Yes ; a man may know he is there. There will be some pulses, some beating of the soul. Where Christ and the love of God is, they ever go together. Is there any love of God, any love to him ? Again, Is there a longing after Christ's presence ? Is there a grieving, when we feel not the comfort we had before ? Oh this is a sign he hath been there. He hath left somewhat there by his Spirit. Though he be retired into a cor- ner of the soul, yet he hath left somewhat behind him to work a desire of further communion and fellowship with him. As it is Cant, v. 5, when he left knocking at the door, when the spouse would not open, he left some- what behind, the droppings of his fingers, that drew the love of the spouse to him. So that he never leaves us, no, not for to humble and abase us for our bold walking, but he leaves somewhat in the soul, some desires, some sense of his love, that they think their estate is not good till they have recovered their former estate. They linger after him, they are never pleased with earthly contentments in this temper of the soul. In deser- tion they are not themselves, they are not quiet, because they think Christ is lost. As Christ's mother, when she thought he was lost, was full of woe, Luke ii, 48, so a Christian soul, when it conceits that it hath lost Christ, it is never quiet till it have found him again.