Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

is capable,

much as created nature is cap

This is the happy ftate of feeing God, of being with the offe Lord: and it is thy corruptible body, this animal life fe that ter interpofes between us and it, fo that the apostle is confident, and rather willing to depart and be with the Lord, than ftay here and be without him.

2. Whilst we are at home in the body, we are abfent from the Lord, without any reference to the world to come, and fo it may be fitly tranflated diftant from the Lord, eftranged from God: this agrees well with the context, and scope of the apoftle alfo. And thus the words are alfo a good ground of the apoftle's refolution and willingness to die, q. d. I am willing to be abfent from this body; for whilft I am in it, I find myself to be at a great distance from God. And indeed the word fignifies properly to be at a distance, or to be' eftranged: So I find it interpreted by a learned critic, without any myftery, (as he fpeaks of the diftance that even believers themfelves ftand at from God in this life. And in this fenfe I fhall chufe to profecute the words. In which fenfe the apoftle blames this body and animal life, because it keeps us at a distance from God: is a clog, a fnare, a fetter, a pinion to the foul. And fo the words: agree in fenfe with thofe of our Saviour, Matt." xxvi. 41. The Spirit is willing, but the fiefb is weak; where by the Reb muft needs be understood the body, if we confider the context, viz. the occafion upon which the words were fpoken, the fleepiness of the apostles, or if we confider the propriety of fpeech according to the file of the New Tefta ment: true indeed, the corruption of nature is fometimes called flesh; but according to that way

2

of

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

of fpeaking, our Saviour would rather have faid, that the fpirit was willing, but the fleth was ftrong; as he faith elsewhere, that the Atrong man armed kept the house. Now to explain this doctrine a little; That even the godly themselves, whilft they are in this body, are at a distance from the Lord: It must be granted, that the godly foul is nigh unto God, even whilft it fojourns in this mortal body, and tottering flesh. All fouls are involved in the apoftacy of Adam, and are fallen down from God, have alike ftraggled from their God, and are funk into felf and the creature: God opened a way for their return by the blood of Jefus: for we owe it unto Chrift's death, not only that God is reconciled to us pardoning our fins, but that any of our natures become reconciled to God, by accepting of him as our God, and loving him as the chief good. Now there is a double being brought nigh to God by Chrift. The firft is more general, external; and, as I may fay, relational: thus the partition-wall being broken down, the Gen tiles that were converted from their idolatry, to a profeffion of God and Chrift, and admitted to a communion with the visible church, are upon that account faid to be brethren to the reft of God's children, 1 Cor. v. II. and as to the church, they are faid to be within it, verfe 12. though at the fame time they were fornicators, covetous, drunkards: And as to God, they are faid to be made nigh, Eph. ii. 13.A profeffing of Godis faid to be a being nigh to him; and even an external performance is faid to be a drawing nigh to him; and fo Nadah. and Abihu, even in the offering of strange fire, are faid to have drawn nigh to God, Levit. x. 3. And

[ocr errors]

this, though it be a privilege, yet it is not that. honourable privilege of the truly godly fouls, who are by Christ Jefus raised up to God in their hearts, and reconciled to him in their natures, and united to him in their affections; and fo are made nigh unto him in a more efpecial and fpiritual manner. Thus all finful and wicked fouls, notwithstanding all their profeffion and performances, are far from God, eftranged from the life of God. Enmity and diffimilitude are the moft real diftance from God and truly God-like fouls only are nigh unto him they dwell in him, and he dwelleth in them as in his moft proper temple. As to any kind of appofition, no man can draw nigh to God, nor by any local acceffion; for fo all men are alike' nigh to him who is every where, and the worst as well as the best of men live and move in him: but they are really nigh unto God, who enjoy him; and they only enjoy him, whose natures are conformable to him in a way of love, goodness, and god-like perfections We do not enjoy God by any grofs and external conjunction with him, but we enjoy him, and are nigh unto him by an internal union; "when a divine fpirit informeth "and acteth our fouls, and derives a divine life

into them, and through them." And fo a godly foul only is really and happily nigh unto God, Thus the apostle Paul, I believe, was as nigh unto God as any man in the world, who did not only live and move in God, as all men do, though few understand it, but God did even live, and, as it were, breathe in him: the very life that he lived was by faith in the fan of God, Gal. ii, 20. YE.: For,:

For, though he walked in the flesh, yet he did not walk after the flesh, 2 Cor. x. 3. And yet this gracious foul, even as all other believers, was at a diftance from God; and that not fo much by reafon of his creatureship; for of that he doth not fpeak, fo the very angels of God at an infinite diftance from God, but by reason of this mortal body, and animal life, which hindered him from being fo nigh to God, as his foul was capable of being--whilst we are in the body, we are abfent from the Lord, i. e. at a great distance from God.

1. We are diftant from God as to that knowledge which we fhall have of him. Philofophical divines speak of,

1. An effential knowledge of God. This is that unfpeakable light whereby the divine nature comprehends its own effence, wherein God feeth himfelf by fcience. This man is capable of in this life. But this kind of knowing God by fcience, is but a low and dry thing, common to good and bad, men and devils; and is indeed the perfection of the learned more than of the godly. "And "this kind of knowledge of God, the glorified "foul will reckon but like a fable, or a parable, "when it shall be once fwallowed up in God, "feafting upon truth itself, and feeing God in the pure rays of his own divinity.

2. Or by intuition: this man cannot attain to in this life, in its perfection, because it arises from a blissful union with God himself, which is in this animal ftate imperfect. This, in the Platonic phrafe is, a contact of God, and in fcripture language, a beholding of God face to face, which we are not capable of in this animal concrete ftate.

So

So may the antwer of God to Mofes be underfood, when he befought God to thew him his glory, Exod. xxxiii. 18. i. e. to imprint a diftinct

"Watch edine essence upon his mind, ver. 20.

an

101
e and live; i. e. no man in this

corruptible ftate and animal life is capable of fecing me is Tain, to apprehend my divine effence, to mes ee my son he vifion of God is not in this fife, but in the other, fo that a man muft die before He thus know God. This is the expofition of Jewith doctors, and our learned countrymen approve it alfo. This bleffed knowledge of God we are at a diftance from, whilst we are in this body fo fays the apoftle plainly, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. Now we fee through a glafs darkly, but the time will come when we fhall fee as we are feen, and know as we are known. Now our body principally hinders the operation of our minds, when they do exercife themselves about the nature öf God, whilft it prefents its fancies, and grofs imaginations to the foul; fo it becomes as it were

[ocr errors]

veil upon the face of the foul, draws a cloud, and cafts a mift over its eyes, that it cannot difcern diftin&ly, nor judge properly and spiritually. And with allufion to this, that paffage of the apostle is proper and fignificant we fee as through a glafs,. "which glafs is indeed continually fullied and darkened whilft we look into it, by the breathing of our animal fancies and imaginations upon it. Not only thofe ftinking fogs of pride and felf-love, and other finful corruptions that do arife out of the foul itself, do hinder our right perceptions of God, as the earth fends out vapours out of tfelf which arife and interpofe H

between

« AnteriorContinua »