could not but be from the apprehension of a most excellent nature and kind, whatsoever be the notion that may be most fitly put upon it.

Nor yet is it the mere essence of God which men can be said to enjoy; for that is not communicated nor communicable. Enjoyment supposes possession. But it would be a strange language, to say we possess the essence of God otherwise than relatively; which is not enough for actual enjoyment. His mere essential presence is not enough. That renders him not enjoyed by any, for that is equally with all and every where; but all cannot be said to enjoy him. As therefore it is a real, so there must be some special communication, by which, being received, we are truly said to enjoy him. A special good it must be, not such as is common to all, (for there is a communication from him that is of that extent, in as much as all live and move and have their being in him, and the whole earth is full of his goodness.) This is a good peculiar to them that are born of God, and suited to the apprehension and sense of that divine creature, which is so born.

What this good is, how fully sufficient it is, and how it is communicable, may be the better understood, when we have considered what are the wants and cravings of this creature, or of them in whom it is formed and wrought. For when we have pitched upon the very thing itself, which they most desire, we shall then understand it to be both what will be sufficient to

satisfy, and what may be communicated for that

purpose.

But now, before that new birth take place in the spirit of man, it wants, but knows not what, craves indeterminately (who will shew us any good?), not fixing upon any particular good that is sufficient and finite, and labouring under an ignorance of the infinite, together with a disaffection thereunto. Its wants and cravings are beyond the measure of all finite good; for suppose it to have never so large a share, nay, could it grasp and engross the whole of it, an unsatisfiedness and desire of more would still remain : but that more is somewhat indeterminate and merely imaginary, an infinite nothing, an idol of fancy, a god of its own making. God it must have; but what a one he is, it misapprehends, and, wherein it rightly apprehends him, likes and loves him not, will by no means choose, desire, or take complacency in him. So that an unregenerate soul is, while it is such, necessarily doomed to be miserable. It cannot be happy in any inferior good; and in the supreme, it will not. What the real wants and just cravings of a man's spirit therefore are, is not to be understood by considering it in that state. And if the work of the new creature were perfected in it, it would want and crave no more, but would be satisfied fully, and at perfect rest.

Those wants of the spirit are best to be discerned in the state, wherein that work of the new birth is begun and hitherto unfinished; in

which state it desires rightly, and still continues to desire; a state of intermingled motion and rest, wherein delight is imperfect, and allayed by the continual mixture of yet unsatisfied desire.

Now let it be inquired of such a one, what that thing is. We are generally told there, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord," &c. And it may be, many would more shortly tell you, it is God they desire; whence it would only be concluded, it is God they aim to enjoy or delight in. But because this brings us but where we were, let it be further inquired, "What then is your business with God, or what would you have of him?" It is not, surely, to be God that you expect or seek, or to enjoy God in that sense wherein he possesses and enjoys himself. No, not by any means. It is then some communication from God, different from what all men have, which they desire and crave. And what is that? It is somewhat, as possible to be apprehended, and as distinguishable both from his incommunicable being, and his so generally communicated bounty towards all, as if the inquiry were, What it is that I desire really to enjoy, when I desire to enjoy a friend? It is neither to desire the impossible thing, of possessing his being as my own; nor the unsatisfying thing, the mere partaking some part of his external goods and

a Ps. xxvii. 4.

wealth, whereof, it may be, he daily imparts somewhat to every beggar at his door. But it is to have his intimate acquaintance, his counsel and advice, the advantage of improving myself by his converse, and of conforming myself to his example in his imitable perfections, the assurances of his faithful constant love and friendship in reference to all future emergencies. A friend is really to be enjoyed in such things as these. And in like manner is God to be enjoyed also; but with this difference, that God's communications are more immediate, more constant, more powerful and efficacious, infinitely more delightful and satisfying, in respect both of the good communicated and the way of communication.

In short, then, the wants and desires of a renewed soul, the supply and satisfaction whereof it seeks from God, would be summed up in these things that it may know him more fully, or have clearer apprehensions of him; that it may become like to him, and be framed more perfectly after his own holy image.

The divine communication, or that which is communicated from God to regenerate souls, wherein they are to delight themselves, contains in it an inwardly enlightening revelation of himself to them, that they may know him more distinctly. This is a part of the one thing, which would be so highly satisfying and delightful: "Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us." When

a John xiv. 8.

a

their desires are towards God only, it is with this aim in the first place, that they may know him, "We shall know, if we follow on to know the Lord" as if it had been said, This is a thing not doubted of but taken for granted, that we would fain know the Lord. It is a dictate of pure and primitive nature, to covet the knowledge of our own original, the knowledge of him from whom we and all things sprang. Men are herein become most unnaturally wicked, when they like not to retain God in their knowledge.b

The new and divine nature once imparted, that is, primitive nature renewed and restored to itself, revives the desire of this knowledge, and hath this inclination ingrafted into it, to know him (as he is now only to be comfortably known) in the Mediator. "I determined to know nothing among you (saith St. Paul) but Jesus Christ," &c. i. e. to glory in, to discover myself taken with, no other knowledge than this, or with none so much as this: to which purpose, he elsewhere professes to count all things loss for the excellency of this knowledge,a—so vehemently did desire work this way. And proportionably as it is apprehended desirable, must it be esteemed delightful also. Nor are we here to think, that this desired knowledge was intended finally to terminate in the Mediator; for that the very notion of mediator resists. The name Christ is the proper name of that office, and the