delight in it; and to keep them from it is all one as to keep them from their daily food and refreshment. Now, we can have no delight in any thing but what we have found some sweetness, rest, and com- placency in. Without any such experience we may do or use any thing, but cannot do it with delight. And it ariseth,—[1.] From the approach that is made unto God therein. It is in its own nature an access unto God on a throne of grace, Eph. ii. 18, Heb. x. 19, 20; and when this access is animated by the actings of grace, the soul hath a spiritual experience of a nearness in that approach. Now, God is the fountain and centre of all spiritual refreshment, rest, and complacency; and in such an access unto him there is a refreshing taste of them communicated unto the soul: Ps. xxxvi. 7-9, “ How excellent is thy loving-kindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.” God is proposed in the excellency of his loving-kindness, which is comprehensive of his goodness, grace, and mercy; and so he is also as the spring of life and light, all spiritual powers and joys. Those that believe are described by putting their “trust under the shadow of his wings.” In his worship, the “ fatness of his house,” they make their approaches unto him. And the fruit hereof is, that he makes them to “ drink of the river of his pleasures,’ the satisfying, refreshing streams of his grace and goodness. They approach unto him as unto the “fountain of life,’ so as to drink of that fountain in renewed communications of life and grace, and in the “light of God,” the light of his countenance, to “see light” in satisfying joy. In these things doth consist, and from them doth arise, that spiritual complacency which the souls of believers do find in their duties. [2.] From the due exercise of faith, love, and delight, the graces wherein the life of the new creature doth principally consist. There is a suitableness unto our natural consti- tution, and a secret complacency of our natures, in the proper actings of life natural for its own preservation and increase. There is so in our spiritual constitution, in the proper actings of the powers of our spi- ritual life unto its preservation and increase. These graces, in their due exercise, do compose and refresh the mind, as those which are perfective of its state, and which quell and cast out whatever troubles it. Thence a blessed satisfaction and complacency befall the soul. Herein “he that believeth hath the witness in himself” Besides, faith and love are never really acted on Christ, but they prepare and make meet the soul to receive communications of love and grace from him; which it never faileth of, although it be not always sen- sible thereof. [3.] From the testimony of conscience, bearing witness
294 OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. [PART L
unto our sincerity, both in aims, ends, and performances of the duty. Hence a gracious repose of mind and great satisfactoriness do ensue.
If we have no experience of these things, it is evident that we walk at random in the best of our duties; for they are among the prin- cipal things that we do or ought to pray for. And if we have not experience of the effects of our prayers in our hearts, we neither have advantage by them nor give glory unto God in them.
But yet here, as in most other spiritual things, one of the worst of vices is ready to impose itself in the room and place of the best of our graces; and this is self-pleasing in the performance of the duty. This, instead of a grace steeped in humility, as all true grace is, is a vile effect of spiritual pride, or the offering of a sacrifice unto our own net and drag. It is a glorying in the flesh; for whatever of self any doth glory in, it is but flesh. When men have had enlarge- ments in their expressions, and especially when they apprehend that others are satisfied or affected therewith, they are apt to have a secret self-pleasing in what. they have done; which, before they are aware, turns into pride and a noxious elation of mind. The same may be- fall men in their most secret duties, performed outwardly by the aid of spiritual gifts. But this is most remote from and contrary unto that spiritual complacency in duty which we speak of, which yet it will pretend unto until it be diligently examined. The language of spiritual complacency is, “I will go in the strength of the Lord Gop; I will make mention of thy righteousness, of thine only,” Ps. lxxi, 16;—that of spiritual pride is, “ God, I thank thee that I have done thus and thus;” as it was expressed by the Pharisee. That is in God alone; this is in self That draws forth the savowr of all graces; this immediately covereth and buries them all, if there be any inthe soul. That fills the soul eminently with humility and self-abasement; this with a lifting wp of the mind and proud self- conceit. That casts out all remembrance of what we have done our- selves, retaining only a sense of what we have received from God, of the impressions of his love and grace; this blots out all remembrance of what we have freely received from God, and retains only what we have done ourselves. Wherever it is, there is no due sense either of the greatness or goodness of God.