and use and that 's the best thing which serves the best end and purpose and the more necessary any thing is to such an end the better it is So that the best knowledge is that which is of greatest use and necessity to us in order to our great end which is eternal happiness and the salvation of our Souls Curious speculations and the contemplation of things that are impertinent to us and do not concern us nor serve to promote our happiness are but a more specious and ingenious sort of idleness a more pardonable and creditable kind of Ignorance That Man that doth not know those things which are of use and necessity for him to know is but an ignorant man whatever he may know besides Now the knowledge of God and of Christ and of our duty is of the greatest usefulness and necessity to us in order to our happiness It 's of absolute necessity that we should know God and Christ in order to our being happy This is life eternal that is Joh. 17.3 the onely way to it to know thee the onely true God and him whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ It is necessary also in order to our happiness to know our duty because 't is necessary for us to do it and it is impossible to do it except we know it So that whatsoever other knowledge a man may be endued withall he is but an ignorant person who doth not know God the Author of his being the preserver and protector of his life his Soveraign and his Judge the giver of every good and perfect gift his surest refuge in trouble his best friend or worst enemy the present support of his life his hopes in death his future happiness and his portion for ever who does not know his relation to God the duty that he owes him and the way to please him who can make him happy or miserable for ever who doth not know the Lord Jesus Christ who is the way the truth and the life If a man by a vast and imperious mind and a heart large as the sand upon the Sea-shore as it is said of Solomon could command all the knowledge of Nature and Art of words and things could attain to a mastery in all Languages and sound the depths of all Arts and Sciences measure the earth and the heavens and tell the stars and declare their order and motions could discourse of the interests of all States the intrigues of all Courts the reason of all Civil laws and constitutions and give an account of the History of all ages could speak of trees from the Cedar-tree that is in Lebanon even unto the Hysop that springs out of the wall and of beasts also and of fowls and of creeping things and of fishes and yet should in the mean time be destitute of the knowledge of God and Christ and his duty all this would be but an impertinent vanity and a more glittering kind of Ignorance and such a man like the Philosopher who whilst he was gazing upon the stars fell into the ditch would but sapienter descendere in infernum be undone with all this knowledge and with a great deal of wisdom go down to Hell 2. Secondly That to be religious is the truest wisdom and that likewise upon two accounts 1. Because it is to be wise for our selves 2. It is to be wise as to our main interest and concernment 1. 'T is to be wise for our selves There 's an expression Job 22.21 He that is wise is profitable to himself and Prov. 9.12 If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy self intimating that wisdom regards a man 's own interest and advantage and that he is not a wise man that doth not take care of himself and his own concernments according to that of Old Ennius nequicquam sapere sapientem qui sibi ipsi prodesse non quiret That man hath but an empty title of Wisdom and is not really vvise vvho is not wise for himself As self-preservation is the first principle of Nature so care of our selves and our ovvn interest is the first part of wisdom He that is wise in the affairs and concernments of other men but careless and negligent of his own that man may be said to be busie but he is not wise he is employed indeed but not so as a wise man should be Now this is the Wisdom of Religion that it directs a man to a care of his own proper interest and concernment 2. It is to be wise as to our main interest Our chief end and highest interest is happiness And this is happiness to be freed from all if it may however from the greatest evils and to enjoy if it may be all good however the chiefest To be happy is not onely to be freed from the pains and diseases of the body but from anxiety and vexation of spirit not onely to enjoy the pleasures of sense but peace of Conscience and tranquillity of mind To be happy is not onely to be so for a little while but as long as may be and if it be possible for ever Now Religion designs our greatest and longest happiness it aims at a freedom from the greatest evils and to bring us to the possession and enjoyment of the greatest good For Religion wisely considers that men have immortal spirits which as they are spirits are capable of a pleasure and happiness distinct from that of our bodies and our senses and because they are immortal are capable of an everlasting happiness Now our souls being the best part of our selves and eternity being infinitely the most considerable duration the greatest wisdom is to secure the interest of our souls and of eternity though it be with loss and to the prejudice of our temporal and inferior Interests Therefore Religion directs us rather to secure inward peace than outward ease to be more carefull to avoid everlasting and intolerable torment than short and light afflictions which are but for a moment to court the favour of God more than the friendship of the world and not so much to fear them that can kill the body and after that have no more that they can do as him who after he hath kill'd can destroy both body and soul in hell In a word our main interest is to be as happy as we can and as long as is possible and if we be cast into such circumstances that we must be either in part and for a time or else wholly and always miserable the best wisdom is to chuse the greatest and most lasting happiness but the least and shortest misery Upon this account Religion prefers those pleasures which flow from the presence of God for evermore infinitely before the transitory pleasures of this world and is much more carefull to avoid eternal misery than present sufferings This is the wisdom of Religion that upon consideration of the whole and casting up all things together it does advise and lead us to our best interest
brought upon the publick stage and expos'd to the view of men and Angels There is nothing now hidden which shall not then be reveal'd nor secret which shall not be made known 5. To arm us against the fears of death Death is terrible to nature and the terrour of it is infinitely encreas'd by the fearfull apprehensions of what may follow it But the comfortable hopes of a blessed immortality do strangely relieve the fainting spirits of dying men and are able to reconcile us to death and in a great measure to take away the terrour of it I know that the thoughts of death are dismal even to good men and we have never more need of comfort and encouragement than when we are conflicting with this last Enemy and there is no such comfortable consideration to a dying man as the hopes of a happy eternity He that looks upon death onely as a passage to glory may welcome the messengers of it as bringing him the best and most joyfull news that ever came to him in his whole life and no man can stay behind in this world with half the comfort that this man leaves it And now I have done with the two things implyed in this phrase of having our conversation in heaven viz. the serious thoughts and considerations of heaven and the effect of these thoughts and considerations upon our hearts and lives I crave your patience but a little longer till I make some reflection upon what hath been deliver'd concerning the happiness of good men after this life I have told you that it is incomparably beyond any happiness of this world that it is great in it self and eternal in its duration and far above any thing that we can now conceive or imagine And now after all this I am very sensible how much all that I have said comes short of the greatness and dignity of the thing So that I could almost begin again and make a new attempt upon this subject And indeed who would not be loth to be taken off from so delightfull an argument Methinks 't is good for us to be here and to let our minds dwell upon these considerations We are unworthy of heaven and unfit to partake of so great a glory if we cannot take pleasure in the contemplation of those things now the possession whereof shall be our happiness for ever With what joy then should we think of those great and glorious things which God hath prepar'd for them that love him of that inheritance incorruptible undefil'd which fadeth not away reserv'd for us in the heavens How should we welcome the thoughts of that happy hour when we shall make our escape out of these prisons when we shall pass out of this howling wilderness into the promis'd Land when we shall be remov'd from all the troubles and temptations of a wicked and ill-natured world when we shall be past all storms and secur'd from all further danger of shipwreck and shall be safely landed in the regions of bliss and immortality O blessed time When all tears shall be wip'd from our eyes and death and sorrow shall be no more When mortality shall be swallow'd up of life and we shall enter upon the possession of all that happiness and glory which God hath promis'd and our faith hath believ'd and our hopes have rais'd us to the expectation of when we shall be eas'd of all our pains and resolv'd of all our doubts and be purg'd from all our sins and be free'd from all our fears and be happy beyond all our hopes and have all the happiness secur'd to us beyond the power of time and change When we shall know God and other things without study and love him and one another without measure and serve and praise him without weariness and obey his will without the least reluctancy and shall still be more and more delighted in the knowing and loving and praising and obeying of God to all eternity How should these thoughts affect our hearts and what a mighty influence ought they to have upon our lives The great disadvantage of the arguments fetch'd from another world is this that those things are at a great distance from us and not sensible to us and therefore are not apt to affect us so strongly and to work so powerfully upon us Now to make amends for this disadvantage we should often revive these considerations upon our mind and inculcate upon our selves the reality and certainty of these things together with the infinite weight and importance of them We should reason thus with our selves If good men shall be so unspeakably happy and consequently wicked men so extreamly miserable in another world If these things be true and will one day be found to be so why should they not be to me as if they were already present why should not I be as much afraid to commit any sin as if hell were naked before me and I saw the astonishing miseries of the damned and why should I not be as carefull to serve God and keep his commandments as if heaven were open to my view and I saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God with crowns of glory in his hand ready to be set upon the heads of all those who continue faithfull to him The lively apprehensions of the nearness of death and eternity are apt to make mens thoughts more quick and piercing and according as we think our selves prepar'd for our future state to transport us with joy or to amaze us with horrour For the soul that is fully satisfi'd of his future bliss is already entred into heaven has begun to take possession of glory and has as it were his blessed Saviour in his arms and may say with old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation But the thoughts of death must needs be very terrible to that man who is doubtfull or despairing of his future condition It would daunt the stoutest man that ever breathed to look upon death when he can see nothing but hell beyond it When the Apparition at Endor told Saul to morrow thou and thy Sons shall be with me these words struck him to the heart so that he fell down to the ground and there was no more strength left in him It is as certain that we shall die as if an express messenger should come to every one of us from the other world and tell us so Why should we not then always live as those that must die and as those that hope to be happy after death To have these apprehensions vigorous and lively upon our minds this is to have our conversation in heaven from whence also we look for a Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working of that mighty power whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself FINIS
and activity as much above that of the most knowing persons in this world as the thoughts of the greatest Philosopher and wisest man upon earth are above the thoughts of a child or a fool No man's mind is now so well fram'd to understand any thing in this world as our understandings shall then be fitted for the knowledge of God and of the things that belong to that state In the mean time let us bless God that he hath reveal'd so much of this happiness to us as is necessary to excite and encourage us to seek after it The Second thing to be consider'd concerning our future happiness is the way and means whereby we may come to be made partakers of it And that in short is by the constant and sincere endeavours of a holy life in and through the mercies of God in our Lord Jesus Christ Christ indeed is the author of our salvation but obedience is the condition of it so the Apostle tells us Heb. 5.1 that Christ is the author of eternal salvation to them that obey him It is the grace of God in the Gospel which brings or offers this salvation to us but tâ—en it is by the denying of ungodliness and worldly lusts Tit. 2.11.12 and by living soberly and righteously and godly in this present world that we are to wait for the blessed hope Our Saviour promises this happiness to the pure in heart Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and elsewhere the Scripture doth exclude all others from any share or portion in this blessedness so the Apostle assures us that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Heb. 18.14 And holiness is not onely a condition but a necessary qualisication for the happiness of the next life This is the force of St. John's reasoning we shall be like him for we shall see him To see God is to be happy but unless we be like him we cannot see him The sight and presence of God himself would be no happiness to that man who is not like to God in the temper and disposition of his mind And from hence the Apostle insers in the next verse every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure So that if we live wicked live if we allow our selves in the practice of any known sin we interrupt our hopes of Heaven and render our selves unfit for eternal life By this means we defeat all the designs of God's grace and mercy towards us and salvation it self cannot save us if we make our selves incapable of that happiness which God offers Heaven is in Scripture call'd an inheritance among them that are sanctified and the inheritance of the Saints in light so that it is not enough that this inheritance is promis'd to us but we must be qualifi'd and prepar'd for it and be made meet to be made partakers of it And this life is the time of our preparation for our future state Our souls will continue for ever what we make them in this world Such a temper and disposition of mind as a man carries with him out of this life he shall retain in the next 'T is true indeed heaven perfects those holy and vertuous dispositions which are begun here but the other world alters no man as to his main slate he that is filthy will be filthy still and he that is unrighteous will be unrighteous still If we do not in a good degree mortifie our Iusts and passions here death will not kill them for us but we shall carry them with us into the other world And if God should admit us so qualifi'd into the place of happiness yet we shall bring that along with us which would infallibly hinder us from being happy Our sensual inclinations and desires would meet with nothing there that would be suitable to them and we should be perpetually tormented with those appetites which we brought with us out of this world because we should find nothing there to gratifie them withall For as the Apostle says in another sense The kingdom of God is not meats and drinks but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost The happiness of heaven consists in such things as a wicked man hath no gust and relish for So that if a covetous or ambitious or voluptuous man were in Heaven he would be just like the rich man in Hell tormented with a continual thirst and burnt up in the flames of his own ardent desires and would not be able amidst all the plenty and treasures of that place to find so much as one drop of suitable pleasure and delight to quench and allay that heat So likewise our fierce and unruly passions if we should carry them with us into the other world how inconsistent would they be with happiness They would not onely make us miserable our selves but be a trouble to all those with whom we should converse If a man of an envious and malicious of a peevish and passionate temper were admitted into the mansions of the blessed he would not onely be unhappy himself but would disturb the quiet of others and raise storms even in those calm regions Vain man that dreamest of being happy without any disposition or preparation for it To be happy is to enjoy what we desire and to live with those whom we love But there is nothing in heaven suitable to the desires and appetites of a wicked man All the joys of that place and the delights of that state are purely spiritual and are onely to be relish'd by those who have purified themselves as God is pure But if thou be carnal and sensual what are these things to thee What happiness would it be to thee to see God and to have him always in thy view who was never in all thy thoughts to be tied to live for ever in his company who is of a quite contrary temper and disposition to thy self whose presence thou dreadest and whom whilst thou wast in this world thou couldst never endure to think upon So that the pleasures of Heaven it self could signifie no good or happiness to that man who is not so dispos'd as to take pleasure in them Heaven is too pure an air for corrupt souls to live and breath in and the whole employment and conversation of that place as it would be unsuitable so would it also be unacceptable to a sensual and vicious person From all this it appears how necessary it is for us to prepare our selves for this blessed state by the constant and sincere endeavours of a holy life and by mortifying every lust and inordinate passion in our souls For till this be done we are not meet to be made partakers of the felicities of the other world And thus I have done with the first thing imply'd in this phrase of having our conversation in heaven viz. the serious thoughts and considerations of heaven or the happiness of that state and of the way and