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A51034 A discourse of the glory to which God hath called believers by Jesus Christ delivered in some sermons out of the I Pet. 5 Chap. 10 ver. : together with an annexed letter / both by that eminent and worthy minister of the Gospel, Mr. Jonathan Mitchil, late pastor to the church at Cambridge in New-England. Mitchel, Jonathan, 1624-1668.; Collins, John, 1632?-1687. 1677 (1677) Wing M2289; ESTC R36603 134,741 304

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presently No no God may make you seek and wait many a day but you shall reap in due time if you faint not Gal. 6.9 Diligently therefore and Constantly attend and improve all the Ordinances and Opportunities that God gives In special let me speak a word or two for your better help in them being more private and personal viz. First Meditation a most necessary and effectual thing which few practice Get a little time to meditate dayly laying aside other things and in other occasions too think as much of Spiritual things as you can We do not see nor feel because we do not think of things think of God and of Christ of Sin of Heaven of Hell of Judgment of Eternity how few shall be saved how necessary it is to take the present time What we come into the World for of quickning passages in Scripture of Gods dealings with you of your former life and present Condition c. But you will say my heart is so vain and stupid I cannot think of things I Answer First let this deeply humble you and the vileness of your heart that here discovers it self will be worth the while Secondly bese●ch God to help you Thirdly By use of time you will find it more easie Fourthly take advantage upon all the evil frames that at present you feel to apply and set on some soaking expression in Scripture As in case of hardness blindness vanity see Rom. 9.18 2 Cor. 4.4 Prov. 10.20 Yea hence see and say that God is true and his word is true for the Scripture tells me of this heart I feel and the rest of it will be verified upon me as well as this Fifthly take the advantage of special seasons for Meditation when your heart is in a feeling frame as after Prayer after Sermon if you cannot before and lay up what you get One truth felt in M●ditation is worth a World and it will make way for more Sixthly do something that is equivalent and helping to it at least when you cannot so directly meditate as reading of a good Book writing of your former and present life that is a thing of endless use gathering up Gods mercies and your sins in writing sometimes c. Secondly Prayer this is the blessed means of getting a poor soul to Heaven And what an happiness is it that we may pray to God besides Family-prayer get some time for secret Prayer dayly less or more Be telling God your heart alone I know your occasions and labours the Lord break my heart for you would not afford you that liberty that I wretch have But do what you can love the duty and God will pitty you wherein you are justly and by his providence not your own negligence hindred and this is certain he that hath an heart shall never want time or place to pray Endeavour to order your matters so as you may have time for it And if you could weekly have a piece of an Afternoon as Saturdy in the Afternoon an hour or two or as God guids set a part for secret and close converse with God by Meditation and Prayer thinking writing reading examining mourning before God and do this constantly you would never repent it The business of Salvation is mainly carried on in secret between God and a mans own soul And by all means provide that you may have your Sabbaths as free as possible all the day and the Evening before and after for spiritual work Ply God in such seasons as these be and be very thankful if you get but any little ground of your corruptions and miseries Go about your lawfull occasions not as a liberty to the flesh as to think that now my task of praying is over now I may please my self and refresh my heart in the World c. but as the service of God and as unto him because he bids you be thus imployed As when he bids me pray I will pray with all my might so I will work too when he bids me work and not do it to please my self alas if I consider it what pleasure or Comfort is there in this evil World but to please him I will busie and employ my self in this World because he bids me but my place and my rest shall be only in God or no where As Seamen go to Sea but build their houses at land so I 'le go into the World but lay up my heart and comfort and my whole support in God! I will live in the World but not upon it I will live only upon God and have my Portion in him And do not think that this sorrow and sence of sin and mourning after God stands in a Monkish dooping sullenness and sadness though 't is certain that by the sadness of the Countenance the heart is made better and one should not give himself to unnecessary mirth which is very poysonfull nor purposely choak his spirituall sorrows with temporal delights But when you have seriously spent your time with God and have left your heart with him and he calls you to your occasions go about them with alacrity and chearfullness so as you may dispatch them comfortably and carry amiably and delightfully to those about you And let your sorrows and sense of your Souls miseries lie deep and undermost so as you may recall them in their season when you come to pray or be alone with God again labour to have a constant habituall feeling of your self and get as many good thoughts and affections as you can at all times so as it may be livelily actual especially in your seasons of attending upon God and in them drive on the business of your Soul as if there were no World and as if there were nothinng else to be minded but that And if you find your heart gon when the season of seeking God comes then know that you have in some measure backslidden and forsaken God and never leave till you have recovered it Recall and review often the chief sins of your life that you can remember confess and aggravate them before God in a speciall manner but have your times of confessing and bewailling all the sins that ever you can remember and think of what sins or course it was that caused God to leave you to this wofull impenitency of heart and bewail them bitterly One thing more I must add Do not think it much to have some speciall seasons of seeking God besides those I have named If you had a friend with whom you might now and then spend a little time in conferring together in opening your hearts and presenting your unutterable groanings before God it would be of excellent use Such an one would greatly strengthen bestead and further you in your way to Heaven Spend now and then as occasions will permit an hour or so with such a friend more then ordinary sometimes a piece of a day sometimes a whole day of extraordinary fast in striving and wrestling with God for everlasting mercy And
They shall everlastingly be drinking down and Bathing themselves in those Rivers of Love that have been running down from Everlasting and from the well-spring of Election have issued forth in the whole Dispensation of Christ From the Father they were given to Christ Joh. 17.6 To him they shall then be presented Heb. 2.13 Jude 24. and by Christ brought into the nearest Union and Communion with him that possible can be Joh. 17.21 22 26. The Scripture speaks much of the Fathers Love 2 Cor. 13.13 1 Joh. 16.27 Rom. 8.39 And that often antecedent to the sending of Christ and all benefits by him as the original and fountain thereof Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 4.8 9 10. Ephes 3.3 6. Tit. 3.4 6. This will then be seen and enjoyed in the fullest manner and measure according to the capacity of glorified Saints God the Father will be letting forth and pouring out his love into the souls of the Saints shedding it abroad in greater measures than now Rom. 5.5 and they drinking down the sweetness thereof for evermore beholding and tasting what manner of love that is which here they can see and conceive but a little of 1 Joh. 3.1 2. and as Ephes 3.18 19. They also making returns of love unto him and sweetest ebullitions thereof loving God then actually with all the heart soul strength and mind as is commanded This loving communion with God the Father or communion with him in love shall the Saints enjoy in Heaven in the fullest manner for evermore 2. The Son of God who is incarnate the Lord Jesus Christ who is Man as well as God his face shall be seen and his company enjoyed by the Saints in Heaven in a peculiar and most immediate manner you shall see the man Christ with bodily eyes as Job 19.27 you shall ascend to him then and be with him enjoy his immediate company and communion see him face to face Job 19.25 26 27. Philip. 1.23 2 Cor. 5.8 1 Thes 4.17 1 Joh. 3.2 You shall hear him speak to you and discourse of the great things of God each word of whose lips will be more sweet than ten thousands of Gold and Silver you shall behold him pouring forth himself and his love yea the love of God to you and the discoveries and communications of his grace and goodness through the lips and expressions of a man you shall then have full communion with the man Christ Jesus that everlasting Mediator between God and Man Why the company of a good man a loving friend a gracious Saint here that breaths much of Christ how sweet is it What then is the company of Christ himself who is full of grace and truth and that with the fulness of an head to derive like Grace and so now like Glory to all his members For as he is the meritorious and dispensing cause so also the exemplary cause as of all Grace here so of Glory hereafter as Joh. 1.16 so you shall have Glory for Glory Glory in your measure like unto his Glory the Glory that he shines with in Heaven you must share in it and have you shall have the same Glory for kind and nature though for measure and degree not equal but he will still have the preheminence Joh. 17.22 Rom. 8.29 1 Joh. 3.2 you shall live in the same Heaven with him Joh. 14.3 partake of the same love of the Father Joh. 17.23 drink of the same pleasures live the same life of holiness and happiness reign with him in the same Kingdom Rom. 8.17 Rev. 3.21 Be thrown into the same Ocean of Joy though Vessels of different quantity will take in different measures and so difference in degrees between the Saints themselves much more between the Saints and Christ Yea probably the Saints in Heaven may have Communion with Christ in the Acts of Grace as here in this life they have Communion with him in the habits of Grace i. e. that the same Actings the same Contemplations Tasts Apprehensions Ebullitions of heart the same springing of Love Joy Delight and sweet Affection that the man Christ hath shall run through Heaven and be in their measure communicated to all the Saints there For Glory properly stands in and results from the lively Acting of Grace and therefore Communion in Glory may import Communion in the Acts of Grace c. But however to be sure they shall be like him 1 Joh. 3.2 And bear his Glorious Heavenly Image there 1 Cor. 15.48 49. Like him in Soul Pure Heavenly Holy inlarged in Love to God and to his Glory as he is and like him in body too Phil. 3.21 And enjoy his Blessed Converse and Company What the particular Imployment and manner of Converse of the man Christ with and among the Saints in Heaven will be we cannot now tell you you shall know it when you come there to be sure it will be most Holy excellent and Glorious and full of mutual joy and delight I may suggest this meditation Look what Christ did in Converse with his Disciples after his Resurrection when he was then entred into a Glorified estate he then opened to them the Scriptures so as their hearts burnt within them Luk. 24.27 32 44 45. And spake of things of the Kingdom of God Act. 13. Then indeed but in order to the carrying on of the Kingdom of Grace and in such a measure as suited that end But why may we not think that he will then in Heaven in such a manner and measure as suites the Kingdom of Glory expound the Scriptures lay open the depths of the Book of God and the Mysteries of Divinity those fully and clearly that were here known but in a little part and other points that were not known at all the wonders of Law and Gospel of the Word and Works of God the depths and knowledge of Wisdom But especially the depths of Love and Grace the things that tend to the praise of the Glory of Gods Grace the great end of all his dealings with his people Ephes 1.6 those will he open and lay forth in a glorious manner And oh the burnings and flames and sparkling Impressions of Seraphical Affections that all the Saints about him will then be filled with Never such a Preacher and never such Hearers for Attention and Affection no Sleeping no Dulness no Weariness as there will be In a word Ordinances then shall cease but the quintessence and extract of all Ordinances shall be then enjoyed that power and Glory of God that beauty of the Lord be seen in the Sanctuary of Heaven that here were but glimpses through Glasses Mat. 26.29 Glorious and sweet Communion do the Saints here enjoy with Christ at a Sacrament in that Ordinance of the Lords Supper But in Heaven in the Kingdom of his Father he will as I may say celebrate that Sacrament i. e. give them the quintessence comfort and Communion of it in another manner in new fresh and immediate Communications of his Grace and sweetness There
mans Place and there find the Barnes and Out-houses excellently and Substantially built and much Cost laid out about them ample accommodations therein for every Beast and Creature about the house and liberal Provision for them every thing compleat and excellent you would say what is the Dwelling-house and what is the Furniture thereof Sure that is wonderful Rich and Stately and both the Building and Furniture beyond measure exquisite The application is obvious Even this lower World is a curious and costly piece The Earth which is but the dregs of Nature is full of Gods Riches Psal 104.24 In the Bowels of it is Gold Silver Precious Stones Mettals of all sorts the surface of it is in the Summer-season clothed with a pleasant dress delightful to the sense and profitable for use It is arrayed with more Glory than Solomon had in his greatest Splendor Mat. 6.28 30. Hos 14.5 6 7. Psal 65.12 The Sea is full of Riches and of the admirable Works of God Psal 104.24 25 26. The Air is a Treasury of fruitful showers and other admirable Meteors Deut. 28.12 The Aetherial Heaven is garnished with Stars Job 26.13 Therein is a Tabernacle for the Sun that admirable work of God travelling his dayly and yearly Circuit to give Light and Heat to all things on the Earth Psal 19.4 5 6. In these visible Heavens is such Divine Workmanship as may ravish all beholders Psal 8.3 and 136.4 5 7 8 9. and look upon the entertainment God gives unto all his Creatures here in this lower World all the multitudes that are down-lying and up-rising in this great house of his what Commodious and large Provision he makes for them even Inferior Creatures besides and beneath man Psal 104 27 28. The wild Asse hath the range of the Mountains for his pasture Job 39.6 8. There is enough to spare for him and all other wild Creatures that live upon the Grass in the Wilderness their table lyes alwayes spread and there is enough and to spare by the stately bounty of the large Creator The feeble Conies want not their houses and fortifications Psal 104.18 Nor the Birds their resting places ver 12.17 The young Ravens are not forgotten of God Job 38.41 Psal 147.9 Why is there such work and such Riches filling this lower World Earth and Sea and Water and the Starry Region what then is Heaven And what are the Riches and Glory that are laid up there What is the Entertainment there given to men yea to Saints and Members of Christ Jesus Christ uses that Argument as to this World Mat 6.26 much more may we use it as to the World to come when God shall pour out the fuln●ss of the Riches of his goodness upon the chosen Vessels thereof If such workmanship be laid out upon the Earth and the r●st of this house of time what a curious piece is Heaven that house of Eternity 2 Cor. 5 1. the City and Palace of the King the very Region and place of Heaven the Fathers House where all his Children must be lodged and accomodated and dwell forever it does as far excel and is far above the Earth as the height of it and the ends and uses of it do excel The Pearls and Precious Stones c. that are found in the Earth will scarce serve to make the Walls of that City as appears by these Metaphorical Descriptions of the Heavenly Jerusalem which it meant of the Church on Earth is far excelled by the Glory of Heaven Revel 21.18 21. and if the outside be so Glorious that the best of the things on Earth are scarce worthy or fit to be shadows or resemblancs thereof what then is the outside What is the Furniture within and entertainment there Why it stands not in Carnal outward things and delights as the Mahomitan Paradice and the Heathen Elysian Fields they cannot be raised up to such an height as to make Heaven But Spiritual holy Delights and Joyes in the frution of God and those in their height and fulness compared wherewithal the Glory and Joy of the World is but a trif●le And the External condition of the Body shall in Glory Beauty Vigour Strength Spiritual Activity and Comfort every way unspeakably exceed what it is or can be conceived here Comp. 5. Consider the vast preparation God maketh for the Glorifying his Saints in Heaven The great preparation he maketh both to prepare Glory for them Mat. 25.34 Joh. 14.2 3. Heb. 11. 16 And to prepare them for Glory Rom. 9.23 2 Cor. 5.5 Col. 1.12 Election Redemption Christs Ascennsion and Intercession Vocation Sanctification Christs second coming Joh. 14.3 are all to make way and fit for and bring unto to this Glory When we see great and va●● preparations for a thing much time and cost spent therein as for a Kings Coronation for a Funeral for a Wedding we conclude it will be very magnificent ●n this preparation for Glory there is much time spent all the time of this life the Believer is fitting for it nay from before the foundation of the World from all eternity preparation hath been making Mat. 25.34 and all the time of Christs being in Heaven By his possessing it as our head Intercession c. Joh. 14.3 And great Cost all Ordinances are to this end to fit us for Heaven and all Providences Christs Death Bloodshed Ascention Intercession 1 Pet. 5.10 c. And all the Gracious operations of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5.5 All the promises point thither speak of that Glory and empty themselves there There and then viz. in the Glory of Heaven and not till then they shall be fully accomplished All the great and magnificent things which have so high a sound in all the promises in the Book of God they are fully found and met together there All the great expectations and hopes of the Saints Center and Issue there All which shew that the Glory of Heaven must needs be exceeding great and excellent And so the difficulty of it might be another Argument For difficilia quae pulchrà it cost Christ dear his Pains his Blood Life and it must cost the Christian not a little in Praying waiting watching striving Travelling Suffering the oppositions of Hell Flesh and World and not without great difficulty at last he gets to Heaven 1 Pet. 4.18 Mat. 7.14 Comp. 6. I might mention the Titles that are given to this Heavenly Glory in Scripture It 's called an Inheritance Ephes 1.18 Act. 20.32 that is amongst the best things on Earth A good Inheritance what care to obtain settle make sure of that a Rich Heir is counted happy though he wait long e're he come to Age But this is an Inheritance not Earthly but Heavenly Colos 1.12 1 Pet. 1.4 A Kingdom Mat. 25.34 Luk. 12.32 A Crown Jam. 1.12 1 Pet. 5.4 Crowns and Kingdoms are counted the top of Humane felicity on Earth the highest that mens Hopes Desires Ambitions Climbe what Scuffling and Strugling all the Earth over to be