Caryl - Houston-Packer Collection BS1415 .C37 v6

Chap. 2t. Expojition :tron the i300%of J o a. Verf. 14. 687.. Thirdly: note ; To be rveary of the prefenceof God, W thef#rengeft argument :rata man is wicked. Purely to love and pray for the prefence ofGod, is the fu- r-eft fig ae of a gracious heart ; therefore purely to delire and vifh the abfence or departure of God; mull needs conclude that heart ungracious. One thing ( faith David, Pfal. 27.4. ) have I defired of the Lord, that rr-i. I feek after ( that is, I will earne;ìly purfue, and unweariedly profecute the g ant of this defre) that 1 may dwell in the pouf of thé Lard all the dajes r fmy life, to behold thebeauty of the Lord,and to inquire in his Temple. And agape, he breathes the fameSpirit of holy mptiHae, till he might it joy that favour, (Pfal. 42. I, 2.) a paanteth after the water brookes, fo panteth myfeule after thee, O Cgad, my foule thirtieth forGad, for the livingGod, when fliall I canoe and appeare before God. In thefe ftreines of divineft rheto. ricke Was the foule ofD;vidcarried out after God.He was the One thing, he was theOnely thing he longed for;without God all was nothing with him ; In him he hadall : His prefence was enough for him. All company, multitudes and throngs ofmen, yea of Saints, or good men, was but folitarinefsand widdow- hood to him, without the prefence of God.This was the high. tit afcent of his holinefie. Is it not then the l aweft defcent of unholinefs, to be troubled at the prefence ofGod ? Is it not a full convi&ion ofa carnall miede, and ofa wickedman,to think it long till God be gone, or to deprecate his prefence, & urge his departure ? This frame of heart is the very blackneffe ofhei- lilh darkneffe ;and theexpreff Imageofthe Devilsperfon Such are(thoùgh not poffeffed with, yet) under the poffeffton of the evil) Spirt : The Gofpel (Matth. 8.28, 29.) makes report of two men poffefledwith Devilis comming out of the Tombes ex- ceedingfeirce, fo that no man could pafre by that way, andbehold they cryed out, faying, what have we to doe with thee, thou 7efus the fon ofthe living god ? art thou come hither to torment us be- fore the timt ? It is theDevils torment to be neereChrift, or to have any appearance ofGod : are not they then neer-eil the Devill to whomGod is a torment ? Ot who (like thefe in 70b) doe as thofe dams to'Ural in the.lattverfeafthat Chapter, comb--

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