and be exceeding glad for this Reason because great is their Reward in Heaven At once to prove and paraphrase upon this Subject 1. The Question is not Whether the Rewards of Heaven are matter of Joy and Gladness to those who are already actually possess'd of them who have left this World and exchanged this Life for a better and as they have heard see in the City of our God and see no more darkly as through a glass but face to face There is no Dispute among Christians but that these Rewards are Joy and Gladness to such What! Can they forbear rejoycing that lie at the Fountain drink of the River of God which is full of Water even Water of Life Can they be sorrowful that have the Bridegroom always present with them and are out of all Danger to be deprived of his Company Can they be sad that are united to the bright increated Sun which irradiates the vast Territories of Heaven and are perpetually warmed into Strength and Vigor to praise and adore the Author and Life and Glory of their Being The Question is not concerning these but such as are on this side Heaven in this Land of the Living in this Valley of Misery and are afflicted reviled persecuted abused as if they were forsaken not only of Men but of Heaven too Whether the Rewards of Heaven things invisible and unseen out of their reach and sight and for which they have nothing to shew but a few Lines in a Book call'd the Bible whether such things as these can be just Cause of Joy and Gladness and to Persons who are despicable and miserable and perhaps made the off-scouring of all things This is the Point I am to prove and therefore 2. That these Rewards of Heaven as much out of sight as they are have been and are matter of Joy and Gladness to wise rational and inquisitive Persons is evident from what Experience tells us and when I was upon the Tenth Verse of this Chapter I gave you very considerable Instances of it nor is this Age so barren of Goodness but that several excellent Christians do rejoyce and are exceeding glad at these Rewards and are able to say with the Apostle and the Believers of old We rejoyce in the hope of the Glory of God Rom. V. 2. So that the matter of fact is certain All the Difficulty lies here Whether these Rewards so much talk'd of are Ground sufficient and solid enough to build such Joy and Gladness upon for Men may delude themselves with Fancies as we see People in Bedlam do But even this will soon be made out for if a Man have sufficient ground to believe that there are such Rewards in Heaven and that the Book call'd the Bible contains the Promises and Oracles of the Living God and that God hath certainly promis'd such Rewards and Rewards so great so wonderful as that Book speaks of to Persons duly qualified then such a Man hath sufficient reason to rejoyce in the Hope and Expectation of it And that what the Bible saith of these Rewards is the express Word and Promise of God is evident from hence because the several Writers of that Book and particularly the Assertors of these Rewards whose Prevarication and Aberration from the Truth could never be proved do peremptorily affirm it And that they affirm nothing but the Truth the Miracles they wrought before whole Multitudes in Confirmation of what they say and the Truth of which hath been convey'd and handed down from Age to Age and sealed with a thousand and a thousand Deaths do sufficiently demonstrate And as true Miracles can be nothing but the Effects of an Omnipotent Power so it is absurd to think that God would lend or vouchsafe his Omnipotent Power to confirm a Lye And we may as well question the Publick Acts and Edicts in such a King's Reign who lived two or three hundred years ago attested by publick Authority as the Records of these Miracles for the former we have only the Testimony of a single Nation for the other the Testimony of the whole Christian World even that of Enemies not to mention that the natural Dictates of Reason and the Light of Nature speaks though more darkly to the same purpose So that there is no room left for any rational Doubt that there are such Rewards which may certainly be had and consequently they are just matter of Gladness and Rejoycing And yet 3. We see that these Rewards do not cause this Joy in all the generality rejoycing more in Temporal and External than Spiritual and Eternal Blessings nor indeed do we find this Joy in all Persons who are in Distress for the Sorrow they lie under and their secret Fondness of these outward Enjoyments we see drown their Joy or Rejoycing in these Rewards Tho' I know Heaven at such times is often talk'd of yet it 's evident it moves not the Discourse may be amuses the Party or for the present makes him attentive but being over like a Stone forced up into the Air when that Force is withdrawn it sinks to its Mother Earth again We must suppose therefore that he who can rejoyce in this Reward I mean truly rejoyce must be a Person duly qualified and that which qualifies a Man for it is a lively Belief of it a lively Representation of it to the Mind and Understanding a firm Perswasion of the Certainty and of our Right and Title to it a very high Esteem of it and an actual preferring it before the Satisfactions of this present World and accordingly we find that those who have been thus qualified have rejoyced in these Rewards with joy unspeakable and full of glory as we see 1 Pet. I. 8. But 4. Besides this there are two Qualifications more which very much promote this Joy or help towards it and that 's 1. A blameless Life 2. Suffering in the midst of that blameless Life 1. A blameless Life A Man that lives in Sin or minds little but the World or allows himself in any thing that 's manifestly contrary to the Gospel cannot possibly rejoyce in these Rewards as well may a Beggar rejoyce in such a Nobleman's Estate who is a meer Stranger to him as a Person who is loth to submit to Christ's Yoke rejoyce in the hopes of these Rewards which do not at all belong to him Purity of Life hath the Promise of this Reward and therefore the pure Liver only is the Person that can justly rejoyce in it especially 2. If he suffers notwithstanding his blameless Life for in this case the Rewards of Heaven he takes a View of assure him that the time will shortly come when all this Troubles shall vanish away like Smoak at the glorious Presence of God that it will not be long before he shall be out of the reach of all slanderous and malicious Tongues and that the greater his Sufferings are the greater will his Glory and Triumph and Satisfaction be His Sufferings fix his
And that matter relating to this Bliss and Happiness of the Soul are matters of the greatest moment and consequence will appear from the following Particulars 1. Name me any one Concern in the whole World that is so great or of that Moment The Prosperity of a Kingdom is a great Concern but you cannot reap half the Comfort and satisfaction from that Prosperity which you can do from the Bliss and Happiness of your Souls The welfare of a Family is a great Concern but the bliss of your Souls is much greater for the want of the former may be sweetned by Arguments but the want of the other cannot be excused or qualified by all the Logick in the World Health is a great Concern but the bliss of your Souls is greater the former makes you robust and fit to bear Burthens but the latter enables you to conquer Sin to overcome Temptations and to vanquish Lusts and vain Desires A livelihood or competency in the World is a great Concern but the bliss of your Souls is greater The former indeed may give you credit and reputation among your Neighbours but the other is a motive to God and his holy Angels to respect and honour you A good Name is a great Concern but the bliss of your Souls is greater for if you be deprived of the former you are still in a capacity of being loved of God and enjoying the light of his Favour but wanting the other God can have no kind thoughts no favourable inclinations towards you 2. Matters which concern the bliss and happiness of your Souls relate to Eternity and therefore must needs be the weightiest Concern whatever is in this World fades perishes and dies Nothing is firm or stable or permanent and therefore what lasts but for a few moments cannot be comparable in Excellency to that which lasts for ever The happiness we speak of hath indeed a beginning but knows no ending it is a Bliss which doth not fade with your Death nor expire when the Breath goes out of your Nostrils but a happiness which as the end of your days qualifies you for the embraces of Angels and these deliver you into the Arms and Care and Protection of an Omnipotent God who will love you with an everlasting Love and whereas your Comforts here were in the Nature of dim-burning Candles he 'll increase that shine into a light equal to that of the Sun and the light of that Sun he will multiply seven times and make it as the light of the seven days in the first Creation The things which are seen are all Temporal saith the Apostle 2 Cor. IV. 18. but the things which are not seen and such are our Souls and the Bliss they are design'd for they are Etergal and then it is soon decided which are the weightiest Concerns the Temporal or Eternal 3. The very Heathen have look'd upon the things belonging to the Bliss of their Souls as things of the greatest moment It is enough to astonish the considerate Reader what Pagans and Infidels have done for their Bliss more than they would have done for Father and Mother for Brethren and Sisters for Wife and Children for Women and Concubines It 's granted that with all this they have retain'd their customary Sins and Vices yet the Punishments and Acts of Justice and Revenge or Cruelty rather they have sometimes inflicted upon themselves Punishments they would not have undergone for the dearest Friends they had sufficiently shew in what esteem the things belonging to the Bliss of their Souls were with them Time was when they sacrificed their dearest Children unto Moloch and caus'd their Sons and Daughters to pass through the Fire to the Honour of that God or Devil And at this day in Japan and China some starving themselves to Death others shutting themselves up in Caves and Dens and receiving Air thro' some hollow Canes or Pipes others charging themselves with heavy Iron-Chains others putting themselves to most uneasie and tormenting Postures and continuing in them a considerable time and all this for the Bliss of their Souls is an Argument that they look upon the Concerns relating to the Bliss of their Souls as Concerns of the greatest weight and moment 4. The wisest Men in all Ages have thought so Who wiser than Solomon He hath God's own Testimony that none was so wise before him and none should be so wise after him It 's true in his Old-age be plaid the fool but while his Wisdom was vigorous and in its Prime and Glory he was fully perswaded that these Concerns were of the greatest Importance and made it his business to draw others into the same Belief and what is the Book of Proverbs and the other of Ecclesiastes but a Demonstration of this Truth Nay men of all Conditions have been of this Judgment how different soever in other matters If Divines and Preachers of the Word only had spread this Doctrine the profaner Sort would have imagin'd that it was Interest which made us cry up these Concerns as the weightiest of all but men of divers Callings Employments and Professions have judg'd so David a King Sergius Paulus a Governour of a Province Cornelius a Captain the Souldiers that addressed themselves to John the Baptist Zenas a Lawyer Luke a Physician Lydia a Purple-seller Simon a Tanner Stephanas a Jaylour Aquila and Priscilla Tent-makers Zachaeus a Publican Nicodemus a Ruler Joseph a Rich man Lazarus a Beggar and when Men of various Professions do all concurr in this Assertion their Testimony deserves to be valued 5. Even wicked Men either in some great Affliction or upon their Death-beds do look upon the things belonging to the Bliss of their Souls as the greatest and their Testimony is the more considerable because it is press'd and forc'd out of them as it were Take them in their natural bent and inclination or in their Prosperity they profess nothing less than this but at such times by a secret instinct or strong impulse which they are not able to conquer they are compell'd to acknowledge so much A wicked Man ordinarily is a profess'd Enemy of this Truth viz. that the Concerns relating to the Bliss of his Soul are of any great importance for he labours hard and doth what he can to ruine the Happiness of his Soul but upon a Sick-bed or Death-bed sometimes he is not able to smother this Truth and now you hear him cry out O how have I hated Instruction how hath my Heart despised Reproof O that I had obeyed the Voice of my Teachers O that I had inclined mine Ear to instruction O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Now he would give all he is worth for the Bliss of his Soul This was the Sense of Manasseh when the Iron enter'd into his Soul This was the Judgment of the Prodigal when he was denied so much as the Husks that the Swine did feed on this is the Sentiment of thousands
added to you Matth. VI. 33. It 's this must have your Hunger and Thirst The desires after necessary Comforts of this life must have the other's leavings Nay you will never hunger and thirst after Righteousness as ye should till you mind the World less and moderate and qualifie your greediness after it for your strong desires after the satisfactions of this World will infallibly drown your earnest Desires after Righteousness whatever opinion you may have of your skill to keep the balance even To be strongly carried toward them both is a thing as hard to conceive and as hard to do as to reconcile contradictions There is such an opposition betwixt Heaven and Earth that a Man may as soon serve and please two contrary Masters as be fond of both at the same time Therefore whoever they be of you that are very sharp set upon the Wealth and Honour and greatness of the World your Appetite after Righteousness must be flat and dull and thus it will be to your dying Day except your desires after the Pomp and Vanities of this World be kept under and brought into subjection III. Those who truly hunger and thirst after Righteousness and I must boldly say for my Text warrants me to do so you shall be filled Blessed are ye that c. How you shall be filled I have shewed already and I doubt not but such hungry and thirsty Souls do find by blessed Experience that this very Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness is pleasing that God doth certainly give his Holy Spirit to them that seriously ask it and gives more grace to them that earnestly seek it and greater strength against Temptations to them that importunately beg it and greater support to those that will not be satisfied without it and greater light to them that supplicate for it as they would do for their lives May be some of you find that their Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness is not so strong so lively as formerly it was if so the causes of this decay must be search'd into and if suffering your affections to run out after the World too much hath been the cause of it they must be checkt in their Career and reduced into the right way again if a vanity or secret Lust hath beguiled your Minds that must be dismiss'd without Mercy if want of thinking hath caused it a fresh view must be taken of the Excellency Beauty and glorious Consequences of this Righteousness if melancholy or some other bodily Distemper hath occasion'd it God must be considered as a Father who will not turn a Child that 's weak and sickly out of Doors However in the first Conversion this Hunger and Thirst after Goodness is ever more vehement and brisk than afterward when the surprize of Grace and Mercy is over and the blazing Flame turns into a more gentle Fire but this must not fright you If your present Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness hath the same Effects which the former desire had i. e. if it makes your obedience grow if it both confirms and enlarges your respect to the Commands of your Lord and Master let not the abatement of the former Flame discourage you Look up to that God who hath said Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it Search what Graces what Perfections what spiritual Ornaments you want and quicken your Hunger and Thirst after them and rest confident that God will satisfie the longing Soul and fill the thirsty Soul with goodness But whatever fulness you may want here doubt not but Heaven will complete it Your Souls will there be filled and your Cup will run over there you will be filled with the Rivers of God's pleasure fill'd with Eternal light fill'd with the truest Wisdom fill'd with Universal knowledge the Glory of the Lord will fill the heavenly Tabernacle and you in the midst of it In the Tabernacle of old his Glory that filled it appeared in a Cloud in the Heavenly Sanctuary it will appear in the sweetest Light and Splendour Job complain'd that his misery had filled his Face with wrinkles poor Man but these you need not fear in that place where he that is altogether lovely will present you to his Father blameless without spot or wrinkle or any such thing Here your faces are sometimes filled with shame upon the account of your falls and slips there they will be fill'd with Joy and Gladness There you need not fear that God as rich Men do the poor sometimes on Earth will dismiss you with a Complement Depart in peace be ye filled be ye warmed but you will be filled with all the fulness of God it must needs be so for in his presence there is fulness of joy and pleasure at his Right-hand for ever more SERMON VII St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 7. Blessed are the mercifull for they shall obtain mercy A Mmianus Marcellinus a grave Heathen Writer taking notice of the differences among Christians in matters of Religion and the hatred one Sect bore to another and the Tumults that were caused at the Election of Bishops and the Blood that was spilt upon that account hath a very unlucky Expression concerning it There are saith he no wild Beasts so cruel or so barbarous one to another as some of these Christian Sects are to those that differ from them in opinion a very sad Character this and Pudeat haec de nobis c. It is a shame that Heathens and Infidels should have occasion given them to speak so reproachfully of this Noble Religion But surely this cannot be the fault of Religion but of the proud and cholerick Men who profess it or have the management of it Christ their Master never taught them to do so His Precepts run in another strain they savour of another Genius No command of cruelty or animosity is to be found in all the Gospel so far from a Command that the very appearances of it are forbidden Mercy and Charity is the Soul the Breath of those lively Oracles Mercy is the Language of that Book and to Mercy runs the Promise of the Text Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy For the understanding of which words I shall I. Give you a true description of the mercifull II. Explain to you the reason of the truth implied here that those who are not mercifull cannot be blessed No mercifulness no happiness III. Shew how the mercifull shall obtain mercy I. To give you a true description of the mercifull we must search into the nature of Mercy and in doing so we shall find this vertue to be of a vast extent insomuch that there is none so mean in the world that can justly plead impossibility of practising it upon the account of his circumstances in the world all being capable all able one way or other to exercise it And 1. One principal ingredient of this mercifull temper is a compassionate heart or an inward pity and compunction at the sight or hearing of the