Sixthly, In all distresses, those that draw near to God wiU JJy to him with confidence; but a guilty conscience is afraid of God, as of a creditor that oweth him punishment, or that intendeth to cast him into perpetual prison. And as a child will in all his wrongs go and complain to his father, Rom. V. 2, seq., so if we have the spirit of sons we have access to God, and peace with God, and can come boldly to the throne of grace, to find help in him at need.
Seventhly, He that is near to God is neither afraid of God nor of any creature, for God and he are in good terms. In the midst of thundering and lightning, Moses hath heart to go near, when the Israelites fly, and stand afar off: Ps. xxvii. 1, ' The Lord is the strength of my salvation, of whom shall I be afraid ?' Ps, cxii. 7, ' He that feareth the Lord will not be afraid of evil tidings;' but, contrarily, on the wicked there are fears, and snares, and pits. They fear where no cause of fear is ; and when God revealeth his terror, indeed then, Isa. xxxiii. 14, ' the sinners in Sion are afraid, and the hypocrites that make show of holiness are surprised with fear- fulness; who amongst us shall dwell with devouring fire, and who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings ? '
Eighthly, The nearer ice are to God, the more in love tee will be with spiri- tual exercises ; the more near to God, the more in love with all means to draw nigh to him; as of books, sermons, good company. My delight
* is in the excellent of the earth,' Ps. xvi. 3; 'Oh how I love thy law,' Ps. cxix. 97; 'How beautiful are thy dwelling-places, 0 Lord of hosts,' Ps. Ixxxiv. 1.
Ninthly, He that is near God is so ivanned with love of him, so that he will stand against opposition, and that out of experience — ' He that delivered me out of the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hands of this un- circumcised Philistine,' 1 Sam. xvii. 37, — and out of his experience he will
78 THE saint's happiness.
be encouraged to use the ordinances of God. He will pray, because he hath foand°the sweetness of it ; he will be in good company, because he finds it preserves him in a better temper for the service of God; he will hear the word spiritually and plainly laid open to him, because he hath found the power of it in renewing and quickening his affections and desires ; and those that do not draw nigh to God, do either loathe, or at least are indifferent, to days, to companies, to exercises. All are aUke to them ; and they wonder at the niceness of Christians that take so much labour and pains, whenas a man may go to heaven at an easier rate by much ; and, on the contrary. Christians do as much wonder at them, that they are so careless, whenas ' few are called;' and of those that are called, some ' hear the word, but receive it not.' Some receive, ' and in time of trial fall off,' Luke viii. 5, so as not the third part of hearers are saved. What then now remaineth but that we should be encouraged nnto this duty of draninrf near unto God. We see how Scripture, reason, and experience proves that it is a thing necessary and profitable ; and those that are far from God shall perish, and those that go a-whoring from him he will destroy, as it is in the foregoing verse. Those that are either of a whorif h judgment, or affections after lust or covetousness, or the like, God will curse, for all sin is but adultery, or defiling of the soul with the creature ; and therefore labour for chaste judgments and affections; love him, and fear him above all, and this is the whole duty of man ; and use other crea- tures in their own place, as creatures should be used. We know not what troubles and difficulties we shall meet with ere long, wherein neither friends nor all the world can do us any good ; and then happy shall we be if, with a comfortable heart, we can go to God with David: Ps. xxii. 11, 'Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.' If God be then far ofi" from us when trouble is near to us, we may go and cry to him; but his answer will be, Prov. i. 31, ' You shall eat "the fruit of your own way ; you have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof.' You would not draw nigh to me ; you shall now call and seek to me, but now you shall not draw nigh to me, you shall not find me. What, then, can our fi-iends do ? What can the whole world then supply to us, when sickness comes as ' an armed man,' and death as a mighty giant, against whom is no resisting; but will we or nill we, away we must be gone ? Then to have a God nigh us, to whom we may go as Peter did in the storm, ' 0 Master, save me, I perish,' Mark iv. 36 ; then to have a friend in heaven, who can for the present guide us by his counsel, and instruct us against Satan's wiles and our deceivable hearts, and be a safe guard to us in the fire and in the water, in the dungeon and when we are in the greatest depths of misery to outward sense ; though in death, in the shadow of death, and in the valley of the shadow of death, yet can send us such cheerful remembrances of his love, as the cloud shall be scattered, the shadow taken away, and death, an enemy, shall be a friend ; nay, a friendly meeting between God and the souf, so as the soul shall triumph in death, and shall delight to die, and desire it: 'Lord, now let thy ser- vant depart in peace, for,' by the eye of faith, I have ' waited for thy sal- vation,' Luke ii. 29 ; I say, then will the sweetness of this estate of drawmg near to God be manifested to us, and then shall we not repent of any labour or travail spent in our lifetime, in the attaining of such a condition.