priviledges from God every one desires to joyn with such societies as have great priviledges now Gods people have such as are very great Psal 87. 3. Glorious things are spoken of thee O City of God! What glorious things They have glorious priviledges What are they To them are committed the Oracles of God as the Apostle reasons for the Church of the Jews So to every Church of God is committed the Oracles and the Ordinances of God and those Offices for the dispensation of the mysteries of God which were the great gift that Christ triumphingly ascending to Heaven gave and surely that gift must needs be great The benefit but of one Ordinance the Ministery of the Word dispensed rightly is made an argument by God himself for the comfort of his people in all their adversities Isaiah 30. 20 21. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction yet shall not thy Teachers be removed any more into a corner but thine eyes shall see thy Teachers The word in the Ministery of it in the the right way is a great blessing When Chrysostom was banished many godly people were so grieved that they professed it were more sufferable for the Sun to withdraw his beams and so be darkned then for the mouth of Chrysostom to be stopped If this one Ordinance be so blessed what a blessing then is the enjoyment of all and that in a right way Every Church-fellowship is as the pillar to hold forth the truth to the world as a light set upon a hill to hold forth the glory of God And they have amongst them the broad seal of Heaven To Gods people that are together in a Church-fellowship the seals are committed now this is a mighty priviledge And besides they have the power of Christ with them 1 Cor. 5. 4. the power of Christ is committed to them And amongst other priviledges this is one of great worth that all the promises of God made to his Church in former ages is the heritage of every present Church Isaiah 54. 17. These are great and high priviledges and worth the enduring of a great deal of hardship to be made partakers of the good of them Tenthly it is a blessed thing to be with them though with some hardship because God is working more and more good for his people every day Now he is about fulfilling the glorious promises that we have in the Prophets to make an end of all the glory that he does intend in the world Now if God be working great things for his people as we hope he is To set up Jerusalem as the praise of the whole earth Is it not good to be with them that we may be partakers of the glory that God intends to them Isa 58. 14. There is a promise that the Church shall ride upon the high places of the earth There is a time a coming that the society of Gods people in this world shall be set above all societies in the world and Isa 2. that The mountain of the Lord shall be raised above all mountains we cannot see how this hath been fulfilled Isaiah 60. 19. The Sun shall be no more thy light by day neither for brightness shall the Moon give light unto thee but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy God thy glory This prophesie is spoken of the estate of the Church of God when was this fulfilled that there should be so much glory in the Church that there need not be any Sun or Moon but God should be in stead of Sun and Moon and all the glory of his people and to be with Gods people when God does such great things for them is worth the enduring much hardship In the former part of Isaiah 60. v. 7. God says He will glorifie the house of his glory and mark what follows ver 8. Who are those that fly as a cloud and as the Doves to their windows Seeing God will glorifie the house of his glory his people should fly to it as a cloud Those who are of heavenly not of drossie sensual spirits will do so and as Doves to their windows those who are of Dove-like spirits loving society and purity they will do so And it was the reason why some desired to live because in a few years they hoped to see some great things for his people And so the 102 Psalm is a prophetical Psalm into what a happy condition the Lord will bring his people and in the latter part of the Psalm the Psalmist brings in a gracious heart living in those times bemoaning the condition of it that it hath a sickly body and weak and like to dye before God would make good those promises made to the Church as if he should say Lord thou art bringing glorious things to pass for thy Church and thou art gathering the Kingdoms to serve thee Lord then take not me away in the midst of my days O God let me live to see all fulfilled Eleventhly It is good to be with Gods people because they are those people we shal live withal in Heaven If there were a company travelling together in a strange countrey and knew when they came to their own countrey they should live together in some great preferment in the Court how would they delight in one another So the godly should look upon one another here we have communion one with another and these are they we must joyn in communion withal hereafter to praise God eternally in the highest Heavens Lastly it is Heaven already to joyn with the people of God in communion The Scripture calls the Church of God and Church communion Heaven And therefore where there is a promise of God to restore his Church and recover it from thraldom and misery Isaiah 65. 17. Behold says God I create new heavens and new earth and so in Rev. 12. where the vision of the restoring of the Church was shewn to John it was shewn that way there was a new heaven and a new earth so that the Church of God is heaven it is not onely a company we shall live withal in Heaven hereafter but it is Heaven now and therefore our Savior says The least in the kingdom of Heaven shall be greater then John the least that lived after John in the Christian Church could speak more of Christ then John could The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man sowing his field with wheat that is the estate of the Church is a field sown with wheat and after the adversary sows tares in it The Church says Chrysostom in one of his Sermons upon the Corinthians is the place of Angels the Palace of Heaven yea Heaven it self And if it be so that communion with Gods people is Heaven already surely it is worth enduring of much affliction to be with them CHAP. XX. Perswasions to draw to the joyning with the people of God in the nearest communion HEnce then let me
have felt the work of God regenerating your souls upon which you have followed me you shall sit upon twelve thrones Some do interpret this place Regeneration the estate of the Gospel and so make it not to be the work of God upon the soul but the work of God upon the world to make a new world as the glorious estate of the Church under the Gospel is called a new heaven and a new earth and so take it Ye that have followed me in this new world ye shall sit upon twelve thrones c. but I rather take it the other way not wholly excluding this they are onely those that follow Christ in the Regeneration that shall have this reward It is called the new birth because there is such a strange change there is a new spirit and a new life put into a man Suppose a rational soul were put into a beast what a change would be in that creature Suppose an Angelical nature were put upon us what a change would there be By the change that is wrought in regeneration there is a greater difference the highest degree of glory in heaven is not so different from the lowest degree of grace here as the lowest degree of grace here is different from the highest excellency of nature because the difference between the highest degree of the glory of heaven from the lowest degree of grace is but a gradual difference but the difference that is between the lowest degree of grace and the highest excellency of nature is a specifical difference Therefore you that hope for glory know there must be a regeneration that work of God upon your souls that must cause a greater difference in you from that you were by nature then there is in the glorified Saints that have the highest degree of glory from the meanest Saint in the world as the reward is a mighty glorious thing so the work of God in preparing a soul for this reward is a mighty glorious work And therefore do not content your selves in every poor slight thought of heaven know heaven lies upon that which is a mighty work of God in you Thirdly if you ever come to Heaven there is a principle of heaven put into your souls here that is a heavenly principle that carries you heavenward I mean the work of God causing you to have heavenly mindes and heavenly hearts Our conversation is in heaven says the Apostle In Cant. 3. 6. the Church is compared to pillars of smoke that ascend upward to heaven Though the Church be black and dark in regard of her infirmities yet it hath a principle to carry it upward to heaven The Saints are compared to Eagles that fly aloft towards heaven though their bodies are not there their hearts and souls are there if our treasures be in heaven our hearts are there already I read of Edward the first who had a mighty desire to go to the holy Land to Ierusalem and because he was hindred and could not get thither he gave his Son a charge upon his death-bed to carry his heart thither and he prepared Two and thirty thousand pound to carry his heart thither So the Saints though they have not their bodies in heaven their hearts are there and they take much pains and are at great charges to get their hearts thither All things in nature have a principle to carry them to their proper place because the place of fire is on high therefore fire hath a principle to carry it on high and because the place of earth is below therefore earth hath a principle to carry it downward So if the place and center of the heart be in Heaven then certainly it hath a principle to move naturally thither to move upward to heaven and therefore that soul that hath nothing but a principle to carry it downward to the earth and to the lusts of it to these things below heaven is not the proper place for such a soul and when the soul goes out of the body it wil not go to Heaven Take earth and close it in a vessel and take fire and put into a vessel open the vessels and let them out and they go both to their places so the souls of men when they are gone out of the body they go to the place whither they had a principle to carry them therefore do not think the principle shall be put into them when you dye but you must have a principle before if your hearts be prest down by earthly things when you dye they will fall down and therefore observe which way your souls work Can you say as in the presence of God My soul works heavenward though I have weights of corruption that would weigh me down yet I have a principle that does work to Heaven But the consciences of many tell them their souls work downward to vanity and sensuality and you have no other principle and therefore when your souls depart they fall downward Fourthly what soul soever hath an interest in heaven heaven is in that soul already The kingdom of God is in them and they have taken hold of eternal life now eternal life abides in them Whom he hath justified he hath glorified already they have the glory of heaven begun you heard what that was In heaven there is the perfection of our natures the image of God shall be renewed now is the image of God begun hath God marked you and set the stamp of his image upon you There is no soul that God does intend to put glory upon but he marks that soul and stamps his image upon it in the work of conversion and says Here is a soul I set the stamp of my image upon because I mark it out to glory if ever you come to Heaven God must see his own Image and Superscription upon you As the Beast set his mark upon men and would suffer none to trade but those that had his mark so God will set his mark upon his people and none shall come into his Kingdom but those that have his mark now a mans Image is upon a thing when by beholding of it I am put in minde of him that it is an Image of so if you have this Image and stamp of God a man that knows God as soon as he looks upon you as soon as he beholds your conversation he is put in minde of God and he says I have heard and read much of God of the holiness and righteousness of God and by this mans conversation I am put in minde of that holiness and righteousness of God the brightness of which I see shining here Again in Heaven you know God himself is the portion of the Saints they have the presence of God What presence of God do you enjoy here Were your souls ever acquainted with the presence of God in the Ordinances What blessed vision have you of God here Those who come to Heaven God gives a sight of himself here
secrets of all hearts shall be opened of being shy of the ways of Religion because of affliction many when they see they must suffer in those ways although they be convinced of them yet they are ready to say with Augustine as he confesses of himself I do not love to pass through those straits it is too hard and narrow away for them If such thoughts work in thee at any time take these considerations for the rebuking of thy self and the raising of thy heart to a more Christian magnanimity of spirit First at what a low rate doest thou prize the ways of God the glory of God that such and such more low comforts must not be laid down for them that such light afflictions must not be endured for the maintenance of them Secondly consider if Christ had stood upon such terms as to have said I could be content indeed that these poor creatures might be delivered from misery but seeing such grievous evils must be suffered for their deliverance let them perish I am not willing to be their deliverer upon such hard terms What had become of us if Christ had reasoned thus if this argument had prevailed with him against us as it prevails with us against him Thirdly thou who art so shy of suffering mayest be forced to suffer in spight of thy heart and what a sad thing will that be to thee What a sad thing was it to Cranmer after he had recanted for fear of sufferings yet he was forced to suffer what a darkning was it to this spirit his cause and name Mr. Fox relates of a Smith in King Edwards time who was the means of conversion of a friend of his who in Queen Maries time was cast into prison whereupon he sends to this Smith who had been the means of his conversion wondring that he hears not of his apprehending and imprisonment this Smith sends him word again that it was true that he had taught him such and such things and those things were certain truths but for his part he could not burn but a while after the house of this Smith was on fire and he was burnt in it God made him burn whether he would or no and so may he make you suffer whether you will or no who refuse to suffer for his truth Fourthly whatsoever prosperity thou enjoyest when God calls thee to suffer for him is cursed unto thee if thou blessest thy self in thy estate thy liberty thy name thy life that thou enjoyest having avoided the way of suffering that God called thee unto thou deceivest thy self for there is no blessing in them they are all accursed unto thee Fifthly all duties of Religion that now thou performest out of a suffering condition are not now accepted of God thou must not think now having avoided suffering for Gods truth that because thou art willing to perform duties to be diligent in some service for God that God now accepts of thee No it was another work that God called thee unto a work of suffering seeing thou hast refused this do what thou canst God casts it as dung in thy face and regards it not this is a sad condition What joy can such a man have of his life if he hath an enlightned conscience Sixthly what intolerable pride and delicacy is this in thee that thou wilt not venter the loss of any thing the enduring of any thing for God and his truth the least truth of God is worth more then heaven and earth and what is thy ease thy liberty thy name thy life to it Thou art too delicate O Christian says Tertullian who must have pleasure in this world Seventhly How vile is the unbelief of thy heart who darest not trust God with thy name estate liberty How canst thou trust God with thy soul thy eternal estate How lightly doest thou regard all the faithfulness the mercy goodness wisdom power of God working for his people in their suffering conditions Of what little account are all these gracious blessed promises of the Lord for their encouragement herein thy base shyness and cowardise of spirit is such as if there were no God no faithfulness mercy wisdom power to help as if there were no promise to support and relieve thee Eighthly there is a necessity of thy miscarrying in the ways of eternal life for if God hath so ordered things in his providence as that such ways must be in ways of affliction and thy heart cannot bear affliction how is it possible but that thou must needs miscarry in them It is a woeful thing to have a mans heart opposite to Gods order in any thing but much more in things of infinite consequence if afflictions be a block to thee in the way of life you must have this block Ninthly How little love is there in thine heart to God when thou art so shy of any thing to be suffered for God love rejoyces in suffering for the beloved The avoiding hell and the getting Heaven are no great things says Chrysostome where the love of God is then surely the avoiding outward troubles and the enjoyment of outward comforts would be no great matter to us if the love of God were in us Tenthly Did you never suffer affliction in your ways of sin and will you not now be willing to suffer as much in the ways of God Shall your sins have a greater testimony of respect to them from you then God himself Art thou nor confounded at the mention the thought of such a thing as this so unreasonable so vile Eleventhly What honor should God have in the world where would there be any witness to truth against the rage and malice of devil and wicked men if all should do as thou doest If there be any Christian blood left in thee if any spirit worthy of thy profession be ashamed of thy baseness this way and be not so shy of afflictions Secondly when thou art under afflictions let there be an humble contented frame of spirit as beseems a Christian seeing thou art now under an Ordinance of God take heed of the least murmuring repining against God as if he were a hard Master or as if his ways were hard and burthensom because of the afflictions thou meetest withal when thy spirit begins any way to rise in such workings charge thy soul to be silent unto God it is a great shame for a Christian not to be well skilled in that art instructed in that mystery of Christian contentation Say with thy Savior Shall not I drink of that cup my Father hath given me to drink It is Gods appointment that his people should be in an afflicted estate in this world it is the cup of my Father and shall not I quietly and contentedly drink of that cup Now thou hast an opportunity to manifest the power and excellency of thy grace to shew what thy grace can enable thee to do strength of reason
the chief contentment of thy soul Is it possible that the chief contentment of a creature should be in sinning against an infinite God That thy chief contentment should be in departing from God in striking at God So thou doest in the way of sin That thy chief contentment should be in incensing the wrath of an infinite Deity against thy soul That thy chief contentment should be in putting thy self under the everlasting curse that bindes thee over to eternal death That thy chief contentment should be in that which being committed if ever it comes to be pardoned must cost more then Heaven and Earth is worth Thou goest out in the morning and goest into thy company and countest thy self happy that thou hast money to spend and so takest thy pleasure This day thou hast done that which if ever it be pardoned it must cost more then Heaven and Earth is worth There must be a price paid more worth then a thousand worlds to purchase the pardon of it Canst thou choose that for thy chief contentment which was such a dreadful but then to Jesus Christ that made the soul of Christ to be heavy to the very death that squeazed out clods of blood from him What is the chief pleasure and delight of thy soul in that which a true enlightened gracious heart would rather suffer all the torments in the world then do it If so be it were put to him either such a sin must be committed or else all the tortures that can be devised by all the world must be inflicted upon him A gracious heart had rather choose all the tortures that can be inflicted then do that which thou makest the great pleasure of thy soul What an infinite difference is between thy base heart and a gracious heart Thy wretched heart doth choose this deliberately as the great pleasure of thy life which a gracious heart would rather suffer all the torments of the world then be brought to do it To delight in sins against conscience is the most desperate folly in the world No man rejoyces in any error or fault in other things but is rather ashamed onely in the errors in the rule of life and obedience men owe to God they rejoyce in Secondly those come under this reprehension who though they do not choose things for their chief pleasures that are sin yet do choose to themselves pleasures that come in by sin and though this be not so ill as the other yet ill enough that is those that shall strain their consciences to get something in the world to raise their estates and when they have got estates and money and things well about them then they can be merry then their tables are furnished and they can eat and drink and this they delight in O poor deluded heart what is this that can give thee so much content Thou hast cause to look upon thy table and every morsel that thou eatest as having death in it and every draught you drink as having the curse of God in it Little cause thou hast if thou knewest all to rejoyce in these pleasures that come in by sin certainly there can be no good that comes in by sin as sin I know God may turn sin to the good of some but that which sin brings in of it self it is impossible good should come of it that which thou takest pleasure in that which thou art merry and jocund in delighting thy self withal is it may be the calamity and misery of others and how hard is that heart that can make that his mirth and joy that is the sorrow and distress of his brother Chrysostom in a Sermon against luxury and excess cryes out against those who riot in those things that they have got by making others miserable and says It is the most grievous thing that can be Thirdly those who do neither of these they choose not to themselves the pleasures that are sin nor the pleasures that come in by sin but such pleasures in the enjoyment of which they do sin though the pleasures be in themselves lawful they choose to let out their hearts unto them and spend the strength of their spirits on them they think because there is no hurt in them in themselves therefore they may give liberty to themselves there is a great deal of mistake in this we may sin exceedingly in things that are lawful when men shall spend so much time as many that are professors do in giving themselves content in some sports and delights to the flesh as they cut God short of his time that time that should be spent in examining their hearts humbling their souls seeking the face of God is spent in some slight vain idle sport Many are guilty of this especially those that have means and their callings do not require such a necessity of continual attendance How is that time spent wherein you have liberty from your callings Certainly no good account can be given of that time much might be gained to your souls in it and much converse and communion you might have with God and what ill choice do you make when as many poor Christians would bless God if they could have a little liberty from their callings On the one side there is this liberty for you to enjoy communion with God and furnish your souls with heavenly excellencies On the other side there is a little vain delight and carnal content and ease to the flesh and you rather choose this It may be though God hath helped you in the main you chose right yet be convinced this day of the evil of this particular choice in giving such inordinate contentment to your selves in giving that ease to your bodies liberties to the sluggishness of your spirits and reform You have not honored God as you ought and therefore your lives are not so beautiful In the general you continue in the ways of Religion but there is not that convincing lustre and beauty in your lives you do not draw others to that love of godliness because your hearts become so vain and so slight in choosing inordinate liberties to your selves in spending your times and strength in the pleasures of the flesh and therefore when you come to spiritual employment you have no strength but your hearts are dead I appeal to your consciences when you have given your selves leave to have content to the flesh when you come to communion with God what dead flat hearts have you Let me speak to such this day from the Lord this liberty you take to your selves in the pleasures of the flesh hath been the root of the Apostacy of many as 2 Pet. 2. 18. those who fell off were allured through the lusts of the flesh even though they are said to be clean escaped from them who live in error yet through wantonness they were drawn aside Wanton professors seldom prove lasting professors at least in any power of godliness Take this one note
as to want none of these pleasures it would make the moderation of them more pleasant then the excess You would finde more pleasure in the very act of self-denial then in all the pleasure of your lives and if there be so much pleasure in the denying false pleasure what then is there in the enjoying true Surely God hath pleasure enough for you if you had a heart to trust him with your pleasure you shall onely lose your sin not your pleasure Bernard hath a notable expression in a declamation of his De bonis deserendis If you be willing says he to sacrifice your Isaac which signifies laughter that is your pleasure your Isaac your pleasure shall not dye it is the Ram that is your stoutness of spirit your self-willedness that shall dye but Isaac shall live you shall have pleasure still Do not harbor ill thoughts of God to think that God is an enemy to your pleasure and delight he does not delight to grieve the spirits of men if you would trust him with your pleasure you should have pleasure it may be in this world but howsoever in the conclusion you shall have pleasure enough my soul for thine You must trust God with your souls and eternal conditions and will you not trust him with your pleasures Do you think Christ came to dye and shed his precious blood to bring men into worser conditions then before O no certainly Christ did not come to take away any pleasure from his people but to bring them the pleasures of Heaven and of earth too so far as they are needful Is it not more like thou shouldst have pleasure when thou art reconciled to God then when thou art an enemy We read of Cajus the Emperor Agrippa having suffered Imprisonment for wishing him to be Emperor that afterward when he came to be Emperor the first thing he did was to prefer Agrippa and gave him a Chain of Gold as heavy as the Chain of Iron that was upon him in Prison And so if any do suffer for God do you think that God will let him lose by him Suppose you have a Servant about your business and he suffers much trouble and opposition will you not recompence him for that which he suffers for your sake Do you think that God will let his people sink in their sufferings for him God forbid we should have any such thoughts of him Do not judge of the ways of God by outward appearance but judge according to the true value and worth of things Shall we in other things judge according to the value and worth of things and onely in the ways of God judge by outward appearance and not according to the worth Do but come near to the ways of godliness you will finde them other things then you imagine As Peter Martyr had a speech in his Sermon that was the means of that Marquess Galeacius his conversion If so be says he one should see a company of Musitians that are playing and dancing according to their art a great way off he would think that they were mad men but if he come nearer and nearer and hear the melodious sound of the musique and observe their art in all they do he will be of another minde And so men of the world look upon Gods people afar off and think them mad men to take such courses but if they would come nearer and observe their ways and see the equity and reason and observe the excellency and beauty that is in them they would be of other mindes You that have hard thoughts of Gods way you have looked upon them as things a great way off come nearer pry into them a little further make tryal of them a little that you may have experience of them you will think otherwise of them if it were possible for you to enter upon Gods ways with the same base hearts that you have Gods ways would indeed be tedious but if you enter into the ways of God your hearts will be changed and you will be other men and when your hearts are changed those things that were grievous to you will be delightful to you St. Augustine in his Confessions hath this notable expression How sweet was it to me of a sudden to be without those sweet vanities And those things which I was afraid to lose with joy I let go for thou who art the true and onely sweetness didst cast out those from me and instead of them didst enter in thy self who art more delightful then all pleasure more clear then all light but it was not thus with me heretofore when I sate in darkness Now if you have any conviction at all tell me Are you willing to enter into the ways of God Do you think them worthy of regard if it were not for trouble and affliction Then so it stands if you were not to suffer affliction you would embrace them and what an ignoble spirit is this unbeseeming a Christian whose spirit should have true Nobility and Magnanimity and you come off thus basely If you should never suffer if have no trouble Truly God is much beholden to you as we may speak with holy reverence you would have God choose you notwithstanding all your sins that are grievous to him Why will not you choose God and his ways notwithstanding the afflictions and sufferings that are grievous to you Do you think the sufferings you are like to meet withal in Gods ways are more grievous to you then your sins are to him Yet notwithstanding your sins he chooses you Why notwithstanding the sufferings you may meet with should not you choose him Suppose Christ had stood upon these terms and said It is true I see poor wretched sinful man ready to perish and must lie under the wrath of an infinite God and it pities me to see his misery and I could be content to redeem him but I must suffer so much be in the form of a servant and be despised and persecuted and suffer a cursed death and therefore let him rather perish If Christ had stood at this what had become of you Yet you stand at this Gods ways are good my ways are evil I could be content to embrace Gods ways but I must suffer If Christ did not make a stand at this when he saw thy misery but was content to redeem thee and brake through all sufferings Why should not you be content to embrace him in his ways through all sufferings Why should not your hearts be convinced by that which hath so much reason in it It is reported of one Marinus a Soldier when it fell to him to be preferred in some place he was like to lose it because he was a Christian and he began to stagger and to have thoughts rather to leave off Religion then to lose his place Then came one Theodistus and brings him into the Temple and laid by him the Sword and the Testament the Gospel and bade him take his choice
to be sad and evil by the conceits thou hast put upon them In the fifth place by that which hath been said let all be drawn to the love of the ways of godliness I have often hinted upon such an argument as this and therefore will pass lightly over it Fear not pleasure trust God with it thou shalt finde enough Wouldst thou never be sad live well says Bernard Tell me wouldst thou embrace the ways of Religion if thou wert sure of pleasure I call Heaven and Earth to record this day that which I have spoken of the ways of wisdom are truths of God they are not notions not conceits but certain realities God hath engaged himself to make this good and abundantly more Oh come and taste how sweet the Lord is do not stand aloof off they may seem to be unpleasant ways a great way off but when you come near you will see delight Wherefore all you that have been acquainted with the ways of wisdom manifest this that God hath brought you into blessed paths that these things are true Religion does mightily suffer by the Professors of it when those that look on see no such things manifested It is our duty to rejoyce in the Lord and to walk in the ways of wisdom as it may appear they are ways of pleasantness to carry ous selves delightfully in these delightful ways Delightfulness in the ways of godliness puts a beauty upon them It is an excellent similitude that Chrysostom hath to express this As says he a beautiful face at all times is pleasing to the eye but then especially when there is joy manifested in the countenance joy in the face puts a new beauty and makes that which before was beautiful to be exceeding beautiful it puts a lustre upon beauty so though the ways of Religion be in themselves beautiful yet when there is spiritual joy added they appear then beautiful with a double beauty We have a sweet promise Isa 65. 18. Oh that we could see it fulfilled I will create Jerusalem a rejoycing and her people a joy a joy even in the abstract not onely joyful but a joy and God will create this it must be Gods work and though to the eye of flesh and blood there be no matter of joy yet God will create her people a joy You know what charges the Prophet lays upon this what a comely thing it is and see that in any case you rejoyce Onely take heed you do not mistake in pleasantness many that are godly may be pleasant in their way upon that ground because Christians must be pleasant but do not mistake natural pleasantness for spiritual pleasantness How shall we know the difference between natural pleasantness in a Christian and spiritual pleasantness There may be a great many of temporal pleasures that God gives forth to Christians in its place but you must rise higher then that and put another maner of lustre upon the ways of Religion then natural pleasantness First if it be a spiritual pleasantness it will be serious such as becomes Christian gravity Yea not onely seriousness and gravity is to be mixed with pleasantness but if it be spiritual pleasantness Secondly it is such as can stand with fear and the work of repentance and humiliation these do not hinder a spiritual pleasantness though it hinders that which is natural You know the Scripture that says Rejoyce with trembling and Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord and greatly delights in his Commandments That is a spiritual pleasantness which hath a gracious mixture of seriousness and other graces of Gods Spirit with it Thirdly Again if it be a gracious pleasantness it is a delight in all the ways of wisdom many can delight in some ways of wisdom the stony ground received some truths with joy but others they cannot close with but when the pleasantness is spiritual there is rejoycing in all Fourthly Again if the pleasantness be spiritual it is our strength it carries on the soul in the ways of God more fully it is oyl that causes the wheels of thy soul to go on more freely in the ways of Religion I appeal to thee Does thy pleasantness carry thee on more sweetly in the ways of Religion Thou hast been merry in company but does this carry thee on more fully in the ways of God If you have had pleasure in natural things and when you come to spiritual things your hearts are dead certainly you went beyond your bounds Fifthly Again if it be spiritual pleasantness it will bear up the heart in the want of all outward pleasantness and though all outward content be taken away Habbak 3. 17 18. Although the fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labor of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation When all is dark abroad in the world the soul does rejoyce in God alone A soul that hath but natural pleasantness of spirit is all amort and down when any affliction befals him You that have the most delightful spirits when you have friends and all that you like you are jocund and merry but when affliction comes how quickly are your spirits down and how are you vext and troubled whereas if there were this spring of pleasantness in the heatt it would bear up the heart joyful in affliction though servants and friends should cross this delightfulness of spirit within would carry the heart on chearfully But those that are delightful when they are well pleased yet every little thing that crosses them makes them dumpish This is another argument it is not spiritual pleasantness their hearts are filled with it is not from the delight they have found in the ways of God that makes them so merry This by way of Caution But if we be sure that our pleasantness is spiritual let us expatiate our selves to the utmost It is a work of grace to moderate all carnal pleasures and to keep them down but it is the special work of grace to expatiate the soul to the utmost in all spiritual pleasure Therefore if God hath given thee this spring of delight and pleasure expatiate it to the glory and praise of God Blessed is the man that greatly delights in the ways of Gods Commandments And if God takes pleasure in thee how much more shouldst thou take pleasure in him God gives out his pleasure to be joyned to our pleasantness and if we should not carry on the ways of Religion pleasantly it will be a dishonor to God and a disgrace to our selves and we cannot expect that acceptance from God of what we do as otherwise we might for as God loves a chearful Giver so a chearful Server How shall we carry on the work of God
pleasantly First be sure to keep the heart right within be sure to keep all at peace within thy soul you know according to the temper within so there is the relishing of things without He that hath peace within can easily go through the duties that are required without with joy Further exercise faith in the work and office of the holy Ghost that office that the holy Ghost is designed unto by the Father and the Son to be the Comforter of his people to bring joy and comfort to them look upon the holy Ghost as designed by the Father and the Son to bring joy and delight to the souls of his people What an infinite difference there is between the comforts of a carnal heart and the comforts of the godly The one come from a little meat and drink and the other come from the exercise of faith about the office of the holy Ghost that is designed to this work Thirdly in all that thou doest be sure to be upright Though thou beest able to do but a little in any way of God if thou beest upright God accepts of it and and thou wilt finde comfort Thou sayest thy duties are mean it may be so but if thou beest upright thou mayest have comfort it becomes the upright to be joyful whereas the most glorious performances if they be not in uprightness are but abominable Again sweeten all your duties by spiritual meditation a Christian that treasures up spiritual meditation and every duty that he performs brings it in by meditation and hath a great many meditations to rowl his duty up and down in this is delight To go to duty and to have a barren heart to act there is no delight but to go to a duty and to exercise spiritual meditation this is sweet Again labor to principle thy heart aright in the ways of godliness to understand what they are if thou understoodest what they are they would be delightful and the reason why many do not go on delightfully is because they do not understand what is in the ways of God to cause delight You will say What is there in the ways of God to cause delight First every work of godliness and that ability that grace hath to exercise is a beam of that infinite choice eternal electing love of God upon thy soul if thou lookest upon it so it will be wonderfully delightful Secondly look upon every duty of godliness as having more of the glory of God in it then the whole frame of heaven and earth besides Take all Gods works in the Creation in Providence in the Heavens the Sun Moon and Stars in the Earth and the Seas there is not so much of the glory of God in them all as in one gracious action that a Christian performs and if you looked at it thus it could not but have pleasure in it Thirdly look at that action of grace as that in which God attains his end in creating heaven and earth more then in other things besides as there is more of God in it so God attains more in it the end of God in his counsels is more attained by any gracious act then by any thing else that can be done save of the same nature How delightful should we be in the ways of godliness if we looked thus at them Fourthly look upon every gracious act as the seed of glory and eternal life Every work of grace in the heart and life of Gods people is a seed of glory and eternal life And these four considerations being put upon every gracious act do confirm that which was said in the opening of the point they must needs be full of pleasantness Be not satisfied in doing any thing in the ways of God till you do it pleasantly I hear the ways of God are pleasant I have gone on being haled by conscience but little have I understood of the pleasantness of them there is more to be looked after then I have attained to By this thou shalt come to be mightily strengthened and it wil be a marvellous help to make thee continue in the ways of godliness And as I said in handling that argument of the easiness of the ways of godliness those that are continually thinking of the hardness of Gods ways will fall off but by having them pleasant it will carry thee on against temptations and the current of all arguments The last Use of all is If the ways of wisdom be ways of pleasantness what is the end of wisdom If the neather springs be so sweet what will the upper be If the lower Jerusalem be paved with gold surely that upper Jerusalem is paved with pearls It is an excellent speech of Bernard Good art thou O Lord to the soul that seeks thee what art thou then to the soul that findes thee How sweet and pleasant are the ways of wisdom then How sweet and delightful is the end of wisdom If grace be pleasant how pleasant is glory therefore the Saints dye so pleasantly because there is a meeting of grace and glory Grace is delightful glory more delightful but when these both meet together what delight will there then be It is a speech of Jerome speaking of carnal delights None can go from delight to delight but it is not so spiritually the more delight we have here the more we shall have hereafter and therefore let this be all our prayer Lord give us evermore this pleasure satisfie our souls with this pleasure if the drops be sweet the rivers of pleasure and joy that are at Christs right hand how sweet are they Moses his Choice The second Part. CHAP. XVI A spiritual eye can see an excellency in Gods people though under great affliction THe fourth Doctrinal Conclusion that was raised from the words was That a spiritual eye can see an excellency in Gods people though under never so great affliction Moses chooses rather to suffer affliction with the people of God Who were this people A despised people an afflicted people Yet Moses could see an excellency in them while they were making their brick while they were whipped by their task-masters and contemptible in the eyes of all the Egyptians yet by the eye of faith Moses could look upon them as the most excellent of the earth as the most glorious people that lived in the world and desires rather to joyn with them though in the greatest afflictions then to abide Pharaoh's Court in the enjoyment of all worldly delights let the world cast what dirt they will upon them and darken their glory what they can yet they are precious and honorable in the Saints eyes The excellent of the earth and the glory of the world Job scraping his sores upon the dunghil and Jeremy sinking into the mire in the dungeon are more beautiful and glorious then the great men of the earth when they are crowned upon their Thrones Though you have lien
Gospel No says he the poor receive the Gospel he knew that John had a gracious heart and would esteem of things as he did and would not be offended Secondly Gods people by a spiritual eye are very highly esteemed because such an eye looks at spiritual excellencies God hath made a gracious heart acquainted with true spiritual excellencies and such a one beholding the beauty and the glory that there is in spiritual excellencies all the outward glittering glory that there is in the world is darkned It is true men and women so long as they know no better things judge onely according to these outward mean things Children that know no better things then a gay coat count it the greatest preferment that can be to be put into such a coat and so a man that knows no better things then the things of the world he counts it the greatest excellency to have them But when a childe comes to have reason and sees higher things he does not prize such things so a soul that comes to see the things of Heaven God and Christ and Grace and sees into the realities of them and not as imaginary he will never admire at any thing below but onely at grace and where there is grace nothing can darken the light of it it is so glorious as the light of the Sun a little smoak cannot darken the light of the Sun when it shines bright a little smoak will darken the light of the candle but cannot darken the light of the Sun And so a little affliction will darken these outward things to those that esteem them at a high rate but spiritual excellencies are of such a nature that afflictions cannot darken them But what spiritual excellencies are those that a spiritual eye sees in Gods people that make them to be so precious in its esteem notwithstanding all their outward meanness First the Image of God Secondly the relation they have to God Thirdly their spiritual priviledges Fourthly the preciousness of that which comes from them Fifthly the great use that they are of here in the world Sixthly their ends First for the work of grace they have the image of God upon them Now the image of a thing is not the representing of a thing in some under excellency or in some mean thing that concerns that which it is made to resemble but it is a resemblance of it in that which is the chief excellency As if I would draw the picture of a man I would not draw it for to resemble flesh meerly that a beast hath as well as man but as near as can be the very countenance and life of man I will not draw the back parts of a man but his face and countenance to life so the image of God is not that which hath some little likeness to God but that which hath a likeness to God in the highest excellency in his holiness and righteousness which is to speak according as we are able to conceive the highest excellency of God so that a gracious heart hath that which makes him like unto that which is the top of Gods excellency that which is the image of GOD himself and therefore it hath these four titles The Image of God The Divine Nature The Life of God and the Glory of God The Image of God Gen. 1. 26. That of the Divine Nature you have in the 2 Pet. 1. 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you may be partakers of the Divine Nature And the Life of God Eph. 4. 18. Being alienated from the life of God that is from his grace And the Glory of God Rom. 3. 23. For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God The work of grace in mens souls hath that excellency in it that there is more of God to be seen in it then in all the works that ever God did make from the beginning of the world not onely if you take one single work onely excepting the hypostatical Union of the humane nature of Christ but take all the creatures that God hath made in heaven and earth they have not so much of the glory of God to be seen in them as there is to be seen in the work of grace so that take the poorest meanest Christian that hath the work of grace though parts be never so weak and outwardly he be never so contemptible there is more to be seen in this poor man or woman then in the whole frame of Heaven and earth then in the Sun Moon and Stars then in all the creatures of the world besides except Angels and therefore surely outward meanness can never take down the esteem that a gracious heart hath of Gods people Yea it is the greatest excellency that ever God did bestow upon or will bestow upon any for the kinde if it were grown up to the greatest degree still excepting that hypostatical Union of the Humane nature of Christ with the Divine and therefore must needs gain a precious esteem It is a principle of eternal happiness it is that which will grow up to an eternal glory Take all moral and natural excellencies let them grow up to the highest height they can they can never grow up to glory but this is that eternal seed if it be let to grow up it wil grow up to the height of glory Now if Grace be thus if it be that principle whereby a creature is raised to such a high condition no marvel though those that have a spiritual eye and can see into the things of God and judge spiritually of things must needs esteem those very precious and honorable that have the work of grace upon them Moral excellencies have been highly esteemed by Heathens as the Fabii and Fabritii that were taken from their dinner and supper of Turnips to rule and govern great armies because they saw such great excellencies under their mean outsides If so be the knowledge of moral excellencies can raise the esteem of men in the world much more then the true and glorious excellencies of grace Secondly in regard of the relation they have to God Gods people have a near relation to God the nearer relation one hath to great ones the more high he is in the esteem of men now Gods people though never so mean have a wonderful near relation to God for First they are the chosen of God they are those which the Lord in his eternal counsels hath set apart for himself the counsels of God from all eternity have wrought for their good and this is manifested unto a gracious heart The Lord hath set apart a godly man for himself says the Psalmist in Psal 4. They are those that are the consecrated ones of God consecrated and devoted things though they were never so mean were exceedingly esteemed of if it were but leather or wood or never so mean a thing that was in the tabernable and consecrated to God
it was highly esteemed Those that are superstitious if there be any thing they think is a holy relique though never so mean what a high esteem they have of it It is reported of Apries a King of Egypt who was of a base birth for which some despised him wherefore of a great Bason of gold in which he and his guests were wont to wash their feet he made an Image and set it up in an eminent place in the City and observing the superstitious devotions of the people thereunto Now says he though the King be of mean birth he is not to be respected the less It is true the Saints of God for their outwards are mean but their consecration puts glory upon them I have read of the people of the East-Indies in the Isle Zeylon who having an Apes tooth got from them which was a consecrated thing by them they offered an incredible mass of treasure to recover it and if so be a consecrated thing though so base in it self be so highly esteemed for the consecration sake how much more an immortal soul that hath so many graces as pearls set glittering in it being consecrated unto God Secondly they are those that are entred into Covenant with God and therefore in nearer relation then others to God therefore they are called The portion of God The treasure of God The peculiar ones of God they are those that God satisfies himself in what higher then such expressions as these They are those that God hath set his heart upon the beloved ones of God They are the children of the high God The spouse of the son that are married to the son In some respect nearer then the Angels themselves for they are not in a mystical Union so married to Christ as Gods people are and Gods people having such relations to God as in these many other respects might be named they are worthy of honorable esteem Thirdly for priviledges they are those that are freed from the evil of sin the evil of punishment They are those that have whatsoever is in God to be theirs working for their good All the Attributes of God and the ways of God in his Providence If there be any thing in God to make a man happy it is theirs And all the good that is spoken of in the Word all the glorious promises are theirs And all that is in the world is theirs the world continues for their sakes says the Apostle All is yours for you are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3. ult It is a great argument to shew Gods greatness that all the creatures in the world are his and for him what an argument then is it to shew the greatness of a Christian that Heaven and Earth and Christ and God and all are his and for him They have free access to the Throne of grace and welcom too They have that priviledge to come and put their hands into Gods treasure and take what they will God gives them the key giving them the spirit of prayer he gives them the key of his spiritual treasure They are the heirs of Heaven and eternal life yea and the heirs of the world too for being the children of God they inherit their Fathers riches now Rom. 4. 13. Abraham is said to be the heir of the world Fourthly consider the precious things that come from them as there are more excellencies in themselves then in all creatures in heaven and earth except Angels so in every gracious action that comes from them there is the greatest excellency the world hath Luther hath many high and excellent expressions of the worth of the acts of grace whereby he shews though he was a mighty advancer of Faith so he was no enemy to good works No man says he can commend good works magnificently enough for one work of a Christian is more prcious then heaven and earth and therefore all the world in this life cannot sufficiently reward one good work And in another place If I might have my desire I would rather choose the meanest work of a Country Christian or poor Maid then all the Victories and Triumphs of Alexander the Great and of Julius Caesar And again Whatsoever the Saints do though never so small and mean it is great and glorious because they do all in faith and by the word And yet further Let our works be small servile womanish yet let this title be added The Word of the Lord and they are all glorious such as shall remain eternally Surely they are precious from whom such precious things do come it is a precious fountain that sends forth such precious streams These the Saints of God send forth plentifully the excellency of them a spiritual eye sees and therefore must needs see those to be the excellent of the earth from whence these come Fifthly the great use that they are of in the world What use is a poor man or woman of that lives in a poor smoak-hole that no man regards Yes many ways these are the onely useful people in the world they are they from whom God hath all his glory in the world God attains his end of making the world by them were it not for a company of poor contemptible people what glory should God have in the world Now for men to be the onely people from whom God hath his glory in the world is to be of great use They are they that are the salt of the earth and the light of the world though by some that be applied onely to those Disciples and Ministers surely it is to be applied to any Disciples of Christ They are they that hold forth the light of the glory of God the world would be as a dungeon of dismal darkness were it not for them They are they that can prevail with God for mighty things as Jacob he prevailed with God as a Prince They are they that are employed about high and honorable things none have such glorious employments as Gods people Turkish History tells us that the very Camels that are used to go to Mahomets Tomb are ever after of high esteem amongst them so as they never after use them in any mean servile way as they did before Though things be never so mean yet by the use they become honorable no use so honorable as that of the Saints where this is seen with a discerning eye they are exceeding honorable They are the great blessing of the world Isa 19. 24. there is a promise that Israel should be a blessing in the midst of the Land Gods people wheresoever they are are a blessing to that Country a blessing to the world howsoever despised of the world put all these together and surely they are precious Lastly a spiritual eye looks upon Gods people as precious notwithstanding all outward meanness because it looks upon them as in their ends though they are now incomparably above all that is in the world besides
Lord is pleased to condescend to our weakness to express his especial presence with his Church and therefore it is good to be with them these are the expressions of it But wherein does the presence of God with his people appear more then with other people In these two things especially First because there God makes himself known reveals himself there and makes his beauty to appear Psal 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that I will 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 and to enquire in his Temple It is the glory of Heaven to see God in his beauty and this is one of the greatest promises of God to his Church that they shall see the King in his majesty We may see some glimmering light of God in the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars but in the Church there God shews his beauty there we may see the face of God and this is that which Moses did desire Lord-shew me thy glory It is much granted to us in the Church in enjoying his Ordinances and there is no way to see Gods face so clearly as this way Every childe of God that is in the Temple shall speak of Gods glory for they see God in his glory in a special maner Secondly the especial presence of God with his people is especially manifested in that he communicates to his people as namely First the choice mercies of God are communicated to his people If you would have any share in Gods choice mercies his peculiar mercies come amongst Gods people joyn with them as that place is observable in Psal 134. 3. The Lord that made Heaven and earth bless thee out of Sion He does not say the Lord that made Heaven and Earth bless thee out of Heaven and Earth but the Lord that made Heaven and Earth bless thee out of Sion as if he should say The blessings that come out of Sion are the choice blessings and the peculiar mercies of God even above any that come out of Heaven and Earth Secondly God communicates his mercies more fully then any where else Isa 25. 6. And in this mountain that is in the Church I will make a feast of fat things a feast of wines on the lees of fat things full of marrow c. and Psal 36. 8. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures In a private way there may be some drops of pleasure from God but there is not that full communication from God as with his people in his Ordinances there is in the world in the creature drops in private communion there are ponds but in a pulique Church-communion there are rivers of pleasure and that is the height of all Thirdly God communicates his mercies more powerfully in the Church then any where else Psal 133. 3. For there the Lord commanded the blessing even life for evermore God did not onely speak and said there should be a blessing but spake in a commanding way There Where is that There in the Church amongst his people there God commanded the blessing even life for evermore Lastly God blesseth more universally with all kinde of blessing and therefore he is more present there and in that respect the Psalmist says Psalm 87. 7. All my springs are in thee This whole Psalm is to set out the excellent condition of the Church and he concludes the Psalm with this All my springs are in thee Now this expression is very emphatical Spring is taken two or three ways in Scripture The Law of God the Doctrine of Gods Law is compared to a spring and heavenly knowledge is compared to a spring and then it is thus All my springs All the truths I have all the knowledge I come to be made partaker of are all in the Church Again All my springs all the comforts of my heart and that good and joy my spirit receives and all the graces of the Spirit that I have and all the quickning and strengthning I have is communicated to me this way And upon this ground the Church is called the very perfection of all beauty Psal 50. 2. Out of Zion the perfection of all beauty God hath shined Out of Zion there is his glory wonderfully apparent The word that is translated the perfection of beauty is translated by some the universality of beauty all kinde of beauty all kinde of excellency as if the Psalmist should say Put all excellencies together that possibly you can imagine to make a thing comely and lovely they are all in the Church Thus you see it is good being with Gods people when as God is thus present with them in a special maner Eighthly it is good being with Gods people because there is Gods special protection others are but as the wilderness the Church is as a garden enclosed Cant. 4. 12. A man regards his garden that he hath enclosed and bestowed cost about more then a wilde field the fields have hedges to keep out the beasts but gardens have brick wals or wood walls Isa 27. 3. I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment lest any hurt it I will keep it night and day How full is this his care over it is such as he threatens those which shall but touch it Jer. 12. 14. to pluck them out of their land Zach. 2. 5. God promiseth he will be a wall of fire round about his people alluding to the custom of travellers in the wilderness who used to make fires round about them in the night for their safety because then none of the wilde beasts durst come near them such a defence is God to his people There is nothing in the Book of God wherein God is so full in his expression as when he comes to this argument to manifest his affection to his Church Christ is the Shepherd and when sheep are together they are under the protection of the Shepherd when the sheep are scattered the Shepherds eye is not so over them And therefore in Hosea 4. 16. God threatens his people he would feed them as a Lamb in a large place as a Lamb getting from the fold goes up and down bleating so when Gods people are scattered they are as a Lamb in a large place and when God would threaten the sorest judgement against his people Ezekiel 34. he says He will scatter them and they shall become to be meat to the beasts of the field And hence it is that the condition of the Church is so stable a condition and therefore in Isaiah 60. 15. the Church is called an eternal excellency because it is under the Lords protection and is it not good being there to be under the wing of God Ninthly to be amongst Gods people is a blessed thing because they have so many
dangerous as if you being conscious to your self dare yet joyn with them if you deceive the Church herein God may justly avenge himself of you it may cost you your life Revel 2. 9. I know the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews and are not It is by God accounted blasphemy for any to say they are Jews and are not to make profession of godliness and not to be godly is blasphemy Surely then it is not sufficient to be with Israel but we must be of Israel not to be a Jew outwardly but a Jew inwardly so as God may own you in the last day when there shall be a narrow search who are the true people of God that then you may be found to be such indeed it will be a dreadful thing for any of you that now seem to be of Gods people and that have lived amongst the sheep if you should be found amongst the goats standing at the left hand when you shall see others of Gods people stand at the right hand looking upon you and say Yonder is one who lived with us and we could never discover him to be an hypocrite though sometimes we had jealousies of him there he stands now he is discovered therefore approve your selves to be of the true Israel of God Quest But who is a true Israelite Answ Such a one as can approve to his own heart an inward effectual call of God calling him out of the world as well as an outward call by the Ordinances such a one as hath testimony to his own spirit that he is separated set apart for God that he hath an inward sanctification of the holy Ghost such a one as in whose spirit there is no guile this is a true Israelite indeed Secondly if it be such a great blessing to be joyned in union and communion with the people of God hence labor to bless God for this great blessing that is such an amiable desireable condition it is your heaven upon earth that mercy that should sweeten all other mercies yea that should sweeten your afflictions to you Gods holy mountain Isaiah 57. 13. is promised as an inheritance opposed to vanity and promised as the blessing upon trusting in the Lord Vanity shall take them but he that putteth his trust in me shall inherit my holy mountain Let us not enjoy the world in all their vanity but bless we our selves in our God let us rejoyce in our inheritance the mountain of the Lord. Though we beg our bread says Luther is it not made up with this That we are fed with the bread of Angels with eternal life Christ and the Sacraments c We have cause to bless God that we might be with Gods people though in caves and woods and banished from all we have much more cause to bless God when we can be with them thus publiquely and peaceably and can go from Gods house to our own houses and have communion there this is the rest that the Land of Canaan did typifie for which the name of God is to be mganified God might so have left us that we should have had communion onely with the prophane ones and drunkards yea we might have been cast out from God to have had communion onely with reprobates and that now we may have communion with the godly it is a wonderful mercy Rev. 14. we read of Christ standing upon the Mount Zion and having so many people standing up to joyn with him in Church-fellowship for that is the meaning of that place there they were rejoycing at the mercy of the Lord that they were upon the Mount with the Lamb though there might be time when our Harps hanged upon the Willows yet if we be called to the Lamb upon Mount Zion Let us have our Harps in our hands Is there nothing in the delight that God hath in his people and the presence of God with his people and the great priviledges they have to raise our hearts to praise the Lord and let it not be verbally but really As namely thus Is it that we are Gods delight let him be our delight if we be his treasure let him be our treasure if we be his portion let him be our portion if he communicates choice mercies to us let us give choice endeavors to him if he gives us protection let us protect his truths and name if he honor us let us give him his honor And so I slip into a third particular which is a third branch of this exhortation 3. If there be so much excellency in communion with the people of God you that are such take heed you do not darken that excellency that God hath put in communion with his people there are three ways especially that darkens this excellency First if we rest in any Church-priviledge we have and make that to be our Religion and the strength of our spirits be let out about these things we enjoy more then others so as we begin to decline in the savour and power of godliness if others that knew us before when we had not those priviledges and mercies that we have now shall say What good is to be had there I knew such and me thinks they had more savour and relish in the ways of God then now more sweetness and warmth to be had in their company then now there is Take heed of this of giving occasion to any to say so It is a very evil and a dangerous thing to rest in Church-priviledges to make all our Religion to consist in being in a Church-way we may have this revealed to us and yet little of Heaven revealed There were two vails of the Tabernacle one covered the Holy of Holies the other the place where the Priests entred it may be we have had the first opened to us but yet the second which leads to the Holy of Holies may still be vailed Many whose hearts are very carnal may be much for Church-Ordinances We have in the 24. of Ezekiel ver 21 22. seven several expressions of carnal hearts prising Church-priviledges First they accounted them their strength Secondly the excellency of their strength Thirdly the desire of their eyes Fourthly that which their souls pitied Fifthly their glory Sixthly the joy of their glory Seventhly that whereupon they set their mindes What a noise did they make about the Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord Ier. 7. 4. and yet they were carnal Take heed therefore you rest not in the Church-priviledges by this you will deceive your selves and darken the excellency of this blessed communion Secondly take heed of darkning this by any scandalous way as those do who profess themselves to be the people of God and yet by their wretched ways of sensualities or any other ways are a scandal unto Gods people this is an evil and a bitter thing Christ walks amongst the golden candlesticks Every Church should be a golden candlestick holding forth light in
the end of things that are but for a season were present they could not satisfie Now a gracious heart makes the end of all things that are but for a season to be really present If grace enables a man to make the things of God and eternal things to be present much more will grace in the heart make the end of all worldly things to be really present Now a gracious heart being wise and considering and looking upon these things that are but for a season as if the end now were hence it is that it hath the same judgement of things that are but for a season now as it shall have when the end of all shall be Now when the end of all things we enjoy for a season is come then every man will see the vanity of them and cry out of them and say they will not satisfie Yea we shall not onely see the vanity of them but in some respect see it a greater misery then if we had never enjoyed them now that thing which will not onely fail us but when it shall fail us it will be a greater vexation to us that we had them then if we had never enjoyed it certainly they which know this cannot be satisfied with it Eighthly a gracious heart makes use of all the experiences that it hath had of the vanity of the creature of all things that are but for a season when God in the way of his providence gives to one that is gracious experience of things he will treasure up his experience vain light hearts though God do give them experience of the vanity of the creature and of things that are but for a season they do not treasure up their experiences but though they cry out of the vanity of the creature at some time yet they run out again as greedily in their desires after it as before but a gracious heart findes when God takes away the creature wherein it had placed a great deal of confidence God hath shewed it how fading it was and the setled condition of it is nothing but vanity and so the experience of the vanity of former things does take off his heart from any thing that it looks upon as abiding for a season Lastly that which is but for a season does want an especial ingredient in it which is required for satisfaction the special ingredient unto satisfaction is security that there may be soul-safe security Augustine says The soul cannot enjoy any thing freely with satisfaction unless it can enjoy it with security Now when the soul enjoys a thing for a season it cannot be satisfied because it must be solicitous to provide something when that is gone which it hath for the present So that these arguments being put together you may see evidently Nothing that is for a season can give satisfaction to a gracious heart Having laid these things in the explication of the point all that we have to do is to apply it Hence we may see the excellency of a true gracious spirit where there is grace in the soul it puts a wonderful excellency upon the soul as in many other respects so this one does wonderfully declare the excellency of a gracious heart that it is so raised so enlarged so greatned that nothing that is for a season can satisfie it but it looks for things beyond a season Let all the world the things that are in Heaven and Earth present themselves to the soul to satisfie it the soul will say What are you temporal or eternal If the answer be given temporal the soul rejects them and puts them off as too mean things to be satisfaction for it If you had brought eternity with you says the soul I could have embraced you and closed with you and have been satisfied in the enjoyment of you but if the inscription of eternity be not in you you are too mean for me my happiness is not here I must look higher I am lost for ever if I do not look higher then these things When Basil was offered money and preferment to tempt him he answers Give money that may last for ever and glory that may eternally flourish CHAP. XXVI Perswasions to take off the heart from temporal things SEcondly hence let us all make use of this Argument to take off our spirits from all earthly things that are here below Let us look upon all things in the world as under this notion that they are but for a season and let us improve this argument to the utmost that possibly we can for the working our hearts off from the things of this world The beauty of all worldly things is but as a fair picture drawn upon the Ice that melts away with it The fashion of this world passeth away When Alexander saw himself wounded and in danger of death he then saw the vanity of those flatterers that would have perswaded him he was a God So when we see those things upon which we set our hearts as if our chief good as if a Deity were in them to be wounded and ready to perish let us learn to alter our thoughts of them to take off our hearts from them Much may be done in the improving of this argument of the fading vanishing nature of creature-comforts the Scripture makes much use of it to take off the hearts of People from them Why wilt thou set thy heart upon that which is not Riches have wings and will fly away It charges them that have riches that they trust not in uncertain riches Man that is made in honor abides not They sing to the Tabret and Harp and make merry and in a moment they go down to hell This Moses argument is the strong Scripture argument there is nothing but uncertainty mutability vanity upon every creature that is here below The fashion of the world passeth away and the lustre of it there is no enduring substance here Those in the Hebrews were content to part with any thing that endured but for a season so they might have an enduring substance and so Abraham looked for a City that had foundations Heb. 11. 10. these cities have no foundations All earthly things are like the earth it self it hangs upon nothing Job 26. 7. and therefore there can be no certainty in them no continuance in the enjoyment of them neither will the things of this world abide they perish in the using of them and that which perishes in the using we must not set our hearts upon It s the expression of Gregory Nyssen The things of the world are as if a man were writing upon the water with his finger as any thing is written the impression vanishes and nothing appears not as one were writing upon the sand or dust which although any little wind blows smooth yet it stays a while till the wind riseth So the creature is not vain onely because it leaves us after a while but the comfort of the creature
the Monarchs and great ones of the earth and so to be honored in the eyes of those that were their enemies and contemned and reproached them and vilified them before and likewise their glory shall be in this to rejoyce in the execution of the sentence that is pronounced upon those that are condemned Lastly their glory shall be in their glorious ascension with Christ into the highest heavens ranked in their comely order with triumph and joy singing Stand open ye gates and be ye open ye everlasting doors that the King of glory and all his redeemed ones may come in Thirdly the possession of heaven the Kingdom of heaven shall be theirs the heaven of heavens great things are spoken of that there are these things considerable in it First it is the third heaven there is the heaven that is the space between the visible firmament and the earth the second heaven is the Orbes wherein the Sun and Moon and Stars are and then there is an heaven above them which is the seat of the blessed which is of an infinite heighth above all now it as a sweet confideration for the people of God when you are going out in the evening and seeing the firmament spangled with the Stars to have such thoughts as these What shall one day this body of mine be lifted up beyond yonder place Though now you lie low in some dark hole there is a time when God shall lift you up to be above that spangled firmament that spangled firmament is but the pavement of your Fathers house it is but the outside and if the outside and footstool of Gods house be so glorious how glorious is it within how glorions is the presence Chamber This world is made for Dogs for the Enemies of God and those that are more vile then any creatures he does not think much to have swine live here but you do not suffer swine to come into the presence Chamber or into the Dining-room now heaven is the presence Chamber and Dining-room for that eternal feast to be solemnized in and that must needs be glorious Secondly it is called our Fathers house This is not our Fathers house though we should be caught up where the Stars are that is not our Father house that is but the out-room Says Christ In my Fathers house there are many Mansions God was from all eternity a heaven to himself before the world was then he created the highest heavens to be the place of his presence not that he is comprehended there but that he would have a place for his glory more fully to shine in Again it is a place prepared from the beginning of the world and Christ is gone to prepare it for us If there were such a building here that all the men of the world had been building from the beginning of the world and they had all the pearls and jewels of the world to set into it and all the inventions and strength of men and Angels to help them to build it would be glorious but in comparison it is but a dungeon to this The brightness of this is exceeding glorious says Chrysostom when you see a sumptuous pallace you look upon it and are taken with it but it is but as a dungeon to your Fathers house The light of that shall be of another nature then the light of the world the light that we have here is a material light but the whole body of heaven is of an higher nature then the body of the Sun and there shal be such a glorious presence of God as there shall need no Sun Moon and Stars to enlighten it and then with the brightness of the body of Christ and the brightness of the bodies of the Saints there shall be a glorious lustre And for the large extent of it the lowest heavens are but as a prick of the center in comparison to the starry heaven and the starry heaven is but as a prick of the center to the highest heaven Men boast here if they have but a few clods of land as Socrates put a scorn upon Alcebiades that boasted of his lands he brought him to the Map of the whole world and prayed him to shew them there and there was not one prick vouchsafed for them in it What is a little land to a countrey and what is a countrey to the world and the world is but as a prick to the lowest heaven and the lowest heaven is but as a prick to the starry heaven and the starry heaven is but as a prick to the highest heaven and the Saints shall possess all that You that have no possessions here know there is a possession hereafter that is more then if you had all the Lands in the world Besides it is of an incorruptible nature it is an inheritance incorruptible The reason why the heavens and so the soul is incorruptible is because it is not made out of pre-existing principles it was made out of nothing and nothing but an infinite power can annihilate a thing as well as make a thing out of nothing Much is said of that place for the description of it Jerusalem was but a Type of it and the Land of Canaan was but a Type of it and Paradise was but a Type of this glorious place that is provided for the Saints of God Let us therefore raise up our hearts to consider of this And as we read in Gen. 13. 14 15. where God shewed to Abraham the Land of Canaan says God look Northward and Southward and Eastward and Westward for all the land which thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy seed So consider the vastness of the Heavens and the exceeding extent of them and consider this is the Inheritance of the Saints We know we have an abiding eternal inheritance our bodies shall abide eternally and the Heavens themselves are eternal this should quiet our hearts when we finde any discontent in our habitations it is no matter in what Countrey we are here there is a glorious Countrey we are going to Christ our elder Brother is already gone and hath taken possession of Heaven for us as if so be there were some great inheritance did befal you here and you cannot go to possess it and if you hear one is there for you who hath taken quiet possession for you and you shall be sent for in time convenient will you not be content So we are not fitted for Heaven but Christ is gone before to take possession and within a while we shall go and live with him The earth is too mean a place for the Saints and yet the world is not worthy of the Saints of God in a mean condition then the world shall not be worthy of the Saints in their glorious condition and therefore there must be a place above the world Yet know Heaven is not enough for the Saints the Saints of God are of such spiritual raised spirits as
that they cannot be satisfied with any thing but God himself Suppose God should cause all the Emperors and Kings of the world to come and cast down their Crowns before the Saints and say All these are yours An heart that is truly raised would say This is not enough this is not God himself Suppose God should bring all the splendors of all the creatures in heaven and earth and they should be cast at the feet of the Saints they would say This is not enough for this is not God Suppose God should cause all the glory of heaven not onely of Sun Moon and Stars but of the highest heaven to be laid before the Saints they would say This is not enough this is not God If all the Angels should come and say We are sent to put all our glory upon you they would say This is not enough this is not God and therefore when God hath given them heaven he must give them himself to or else they are not happy And that is the fourth thing CHAP. XLV The Saints enjoyment of God to be their portion their happiness in having his presence GOd himself will be the portion of the Saints Augustine says of the happiness of the Saints If God gives such good things to wicked men does he keep nothing for the Saints Yes he keeps heaven it self but says he Surely I speak of too low a thing when I speak of heaven he will give himself to them Heaven is beautiful but more beautiful is God himself the God of heaven Therefore God must give himself to them or else their souls are not satisfied It is a sweet and excellent expression that Bernard hath Lord as whatsoever we give unto thee unless we give our selves cannot satisfie thee so Lord Whatsoever thou givest to us unless thou givest thy self we cannot be satisfied The Lord said to Abraham Fear not I am thy exceeding great reward but says Abraham What wilt thou give me seeing I go childeless Surely he had respect to Christ or else it could not but be a fault that Abraham should not be fully satisfied in what God said for as God does make the Saints to be his portion so God is the portion and the inheritance of the Saints The enjoyment of God is Heaven it self and therefore in Scripture God is called heaven I have sinned against heaven In this there are these seven things First the presence of God Secondly the blessed vision of God Thirdly the happy union with God Fourthly the glorious communion with God Fifthly the fruition of God Sixthly the rest that their souls shal have in God Seventhly the enjoyment of themselves in God O beloved for preparation to hear these things that we had spiritual hearts says one It is not for your carnal base sensual voluptuous spirits to hear of those things For those that know no better things then to eat and drink and to be unclean what is it for them to hear of such excellent things As for the pleasures of the flesh they do infect and defile the soul and make it unfit for the hearing of such things we had need of spiritual ears to hear them God says to Abraham in Genes 13. 16. I will make thy seed to be as the dust of the earth afterward in Gen. 15. 5. he says He will make his seed as the stars of heaven The seed of Abraham are of two sorts Some are of the seed of Abraham that are visible members of a Church and yet have earthly hearts but there are others of his seed and they are as the stars of Heaven of spiritual hearts now as we are of the seed of Abraham outwardly in profession let us not be of that seed that are of the dust of the earth onely fit to hear of earthly things but let us shew that we are of the seed of Abraham that are as the stars of Heaven and shall hereafter come to enjoy the God of Heaven For the first the presence of God that glorious presence that the Saints shal have of God in Heaven is a great part of their happiness Heaven it were not Heaven without the presence of God The presence of God in the most miserable place that can be were a greater happiness then the absence of God in the most glorious place that can be David would not be afraid though he walked in the valley of the shadow of death so that God were with him Psal 23. Luther would rather be in Hell with Gods presence then in Heaven God being absent If the presence of God takes away the dread of the shadow of the valley of death and makes Hell to be more desired then Heaven what will the presence of God make Heaven to be The three Children in the fiery furnace with Gods presence were happy how happy then are the Saints with Gods presence in Heaven The Saints desire Gods presence even when he is angry they are loth to be out of his presence then It is very observable that we have recorded of David Psal 51. ver 9. he cryes to God to hide his face from his sins for Gods face was then an angry face against him yet ver 11. he cryes again Cast me not away from thy presence he was not willing to be out of Gods presence howsoever upon which St. Auguhath this expression Whose face he fears even his face he invocates God made rich promises to Moses yet he could not be satisfied without the presence of God If thy presence be not with us bring us not hence And the Apostle when he would set out the misery of those that are damned in 2 Thess 1. 9. says the Text They shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord now the presence of God must needs be the happiness of the Saints First because this must needs draw out all their graces in all the sweet savor of them Cant 1. 12. While the King sitteth at his table my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof As it is with the Sun it draws forth all the vertue that there is in the plant and makes a sweet savor in things so the presence of God must much more draw forth the fragrancy of all the graces of his Spirit in the souls of his Saints Secondly the presence of God must needs quicken all the comforts of the souls of his people and keep them always in vigor and activity for as we know the Sun it does quicken things that lay dead so the presence of God hath a wonderful quickning power it keeps the comforts of Gods people fresh so long as we have the presence of God all our comforts are green and lively The Saints in heaven have always the presence of God and therefore their comforts are always vigorous and lively When they shall be presented faultless before the presence of his glory it shall cause exceeding joy Jude 24. the word there signifies leaping springing exalting joy
shining through a red glass causes a red reflection and the same Sun shining through a blue glass causes a blue reflection and so the same excellency of God shining one way and working after one maner we call by one name and the same excellency of God working another way we call by another name and yet it is all one in God and though we cannot apprehend it now yet we shall see God in his unity afterward Thirdly we shall see God in the Trinity though there be but one God yet there are divers persons to see how the Father begot the Son and how the Spirit did proceed from the Father and the Son and the difference between the procession of the Spirit and the generation of the Son the sight of God in the mystery of the Trinity is a most glorious thing Fourthly we shall see God in his glory in Isa 33. 17. there is a promise They shall see the King in his beauty or in his glory there is a great deal of difference between seeing the King at an ordinary time and seeing of him when he is in his Robes with his Crown upon his head and his Scepter in his hand and set upon his Throne with all his Nobles about him in all his glory so God does manifest himself a little now but this is not all that he does intend and for to see God now as he does manifest himself is somewhat but to see God in his greatest glory that ever he shall manifest himself in that must be a great happiness Fifthly to see God in his eminency that is they shall see how all excellencies that are in the creature are eminently contained in the absolute perfection of the Divine nature all the good that is in the effect is in the causes and the good of those causes in their causes and so at length they come to the first principle so all the good that we can see in all objects that give content we may see all eminently in God and see God in all The latitude of the object of mans understanding is such as it comprehends all beauty all excellency all truth in it and therefore cannot be satisfied till it sees into all in God it findes all united and therefore in him onely it findes blessedness it is eternal life to know him Sixthly they shall see God as he is 1 John 3. 2. now there is a great deal in that to see God as he is and for explication of that there are these five branches That is first not to see him onely negatively that is not to see him as he is the most that we see of God now is by way of negation rather then any positive sight when we say of God he is incomprehensible that is he is such a God as cannot be comprehended that 's but negation when we say of God that he is infinite that is such a God as hath no bounds of his being this is stil a negation to say what God is not and when we say God is a spirit though the expression seem to have an affirmation in it yet it is but the apprehension of God rather by negation that is that God hath no bodily substance in him for to speak properly God is not a Spirit but only that is the most excellent thing that we can conceive of and by way of negation that he is no body and is invisible one that we cannot see and feel and the like when we say he is holy he hath no spot of sin this is by way of negation but now in Heaven we shall not see God onely by negation but we shall see that positive excellency of God we shall see him as he is Secondly we see God much by relation unto other things as when we speak of God and would open the excellency of God we say God is the King of Heaven and Earth and our Father and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and Creator and Governor of all things and these are but relative expressions and a great part of our knowledge of God is by way of relation but hereafter we shall see him as he is Thirdly you shall see God as he is not by framing any representations of him in our mindes there shall be that immediate presence of God to the minde that there shall not need be any representation that we now form in our mindes as in the sense of Seeing the object of the eye being absent from it there must be a species to represent it so there are some kinde of representations of God to our understandings here but there shall be that immediate union with God in the understanding that there shall need no kinde of representation of God but we shall see him as he is Fourthly we shall see him not in his effects in the creature the greatest part that we see of God now is in his effects and not as he is in himself we do not see the face of God but his back parts We look upon the Sun and there we see somewhat of the power of God but it is but the effect of Gods power and not Gods power it self and when we look upon the world we see much of Gods wisdom we see the effect of Gods wisdom and not the wisdom of God it self Fifthly we shall see God as he is distinguished from all creatures here now we see almost nothing of God distinguished from created things Say what you will of God that he is a Spirit that he is a created thing that he is wise or holy or just or merciful there is somewhat of all these in the creature onely he is infinitely above all and that is by way of negation But we do not see him in that positive excellency which does difference him from all created things but now it will be a blessed thing to see God as he is differenced from all created things to see him as he is Sixthly the Saints shall see the counsels of God and all the ways of God what have been and what shall be to all eternity about election what his counsels were about creating of things before they were created and what the workings of his counsels were about the several ways of his providence before there was any manifestation of them in his creature and so all his counsels about rejection of so many thousands of men and Angels It is an expression of S. Augustine We shall see the reason why one is reprobate and one elected why one is rich and one is poor we do not see the reason now but by seeing God we shall see all things that may make for our happiness we shall know all the works that ever God did and that ever he will do to all eternity It is a great thing for a man to know what is done in his generation but to know all the ways of God since the beginning of the world must be a
glorious sight It is not yet Six thousand years since God did any thing out of himself and what is six thousand years to eternity and if God have done such great things in Six thousand years what may God do in the next Six thousand years and so in the next who now can tell A Workman doth his meanest works at first and this world is but the beginning of Gods works and for a creature to see what God shall thus work for ever is an infinite blessed thing The seventh thing wherein this blessed vision of the Saints appears is that they shall look upon all the ways and works of God as to see their happiness consisting in them there is a great deal of difference in seeing an object that is excellent in its self and to see an object that is excellent wherein consists my happiness As in riding over a Land one that is a Stranger rides over it another that is an Heir the Stranger rides over it and takes delight to see the Trees and Fruit to grow but the Heir looks upon it after another maner as the Land for which my Father laid out much and all to enrich me as the Land that is mine Inheritance so were it that we were but admitted to this glorious sight of God meerly to have the view of God it were a great priviledge to the Creature but to see all the shine and all that excellency that is in God is to make me happy and all the counsels and ways of God are working for my happiness and glory this is blessedness indeed There is difference between a Stranger looking upon the King and the Queens looking upon a King A Stranger may see Beauty and Majesty in the King but the Queen looks upon the King and his Beauty and majesty as her own and so the souls of the Saints shall see all in God as their own to make them happy Eighthly the blessedness of the sight of God consists in this that it shall be a transforming sight such a sight of God as shall be a transforming perfecting sight not onely a perfect sight but a perfecting transforming sight The light that shall come from God upon the minde shall perfect the minde and transform the minde into the same likeness with God It shall not be a meer notional sight as men may speak much of God and have a notional vision of God but there is a great deal of difference between the notional vision of God and the Deifical vision of God for it is not only beatifical but Deifical for it does transform a man into the likeness of God A deformed man may see a beautiful object and that sight shall not make him like that beautiful object but the sight of God shall make the soul glorious as God is glorious as you shall have it in 1 Iohn 3. 2. We shall be like him what is the ground We shall see him as he is Ninthly the sight of God will be a full sight a sight whereby the minde shal be raised to that heighth of excellency as it shall be able to see God in his excellency we cannot look upon the Sun now in its excellency if we will see the Sun we must see in its reflection but the understanding of the Saints shal be raised to that heighth that they shall be able to look full upon the face of God and this will be the reward especially of Faith for those that are godly do believe above reason Now because the Saints are willing to fear God so far as to captivate their reason and to believe upon bare testimony above reason therefore hereafter God will give them this rereward to see things fully and the reason of things Again it shall be such a sight of God as shall be without any discourse or labor but there shall be the present vision of God at the opening of the eye We are glad if we can come to understand the creature with labor but to come to understand God the Creator without labor is a great happiness Again to have the sight of God so as never to lose it that addes much to the happiness of the Saints To have but one glimpse of the face of God though it were gone presently it were a great happiness beyond all that the world affords but God shall not onely pass by but stand still so as the soul shall never lose the sight of God but it shall have it to all eternity and the eyes of the soul shall be eternally opened to see God If a man looks upon a delightful object he is loth to have the eye drawn from it you shall never have your eye drawn from God Further in the sight of God you shall see all things that do any way concern your selves in ordering of you to all eternity and this is made by some the ground why it is impossible for the Saints in Heaven in the least degree to fall there because they shall have a continual view of God and in him see fully all circumstances of all actions and all things that any way do or shall concern them to all eternity For there is no falling or declining from God but it comes at first from some error in the theoretical or practical work of the understanding or in some inconsiderateness but there cannot be the least error in the minde or the least inconsiderateness because the soul shall be so fully taken up with the sight of God what an infinite delight must this needs be It was the desire of a Philosopher to see the nature of the Sun though it were to be burnt by it he could be content so if God should grant us this happiness You shall come to see me but the sight of me shall destroy you this were a desireable thing but to have a sight of God that is a perfecting sight and such an excellent and glorious sight in which our happiness shall consist for ever how glorious must this needs be Lastly to see God in our selves It is an happiness to see God in the Creature but much more to see God in our selves the chiefest of the glory of God next to that which appears in Jesus Christ shall appear in the Saints and the chief excellency of God that the Saints shall see shall be within themselves they shall see more of the glory of God within themselves then in all the Heavens besides The Heavens are glorious now the Sun Moon and Stars are glorious but to see the highest Heaven that were more glorious But the meanest Saint of God in Heaven shall see more of God and of his glory in himself then does appear in all the Heavens beside and then much more then does appear in all the World We might make it out there is more of the glory of God in one Saint then in all the Heavens and Earth besides for the Heavens and the Earth are but Gods foot-stool not his image
God and my soul are somewhat united and that God and my soul shall have a glorious union hereafter O that God would raise our hearts to these things that we may know what is the business we have to do in the world If you do not know these things shall be your portion never give satisfaction to your selves in the flesh till your know these things shall be your portion CHAP. XLVIII The blessedness of communion with God NOw we come to the fourth thing Communion with God and this is more then the other three things Union is the ground of communion communion is that which riseth from both parts being united and the Saints shall have a glorious communion with God and the Trinity in this life there is a communion that the Scripture speaks of that we have with God the Father and the Son and the Spirit 1 John 1. 3. Our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and in 1 Cor. 13. 14. The communion of the Holy Ghost be with you says the Apostle so that there is a fellowship with the Father and the Son and communion with the Holy Ghost but certainly it shall be another maner of communion that the Saints shall have with God in the world to come Now this communion it stands either in regard of the work of God upon and towards the Saints or the work of the Saints upon and towards God for communion is on both sides and that in these four things First in the delight they have one in another Secondly in wishing all good to one another Thirdly in the communication of themselves one to another Fourthly in the blessed familiar converse that they have one with another First communion consists in the delight they have in one another There is a full actual mutual everlasting delight between God and the Saints in heaven First there is a delight Secondly full Thirdly actual Fourthly mutual Fifthly everlasting First there is a delight God here rejoyces in them the Scripture says He rejoyces in the habitable parts of the earth and his delight is with the sons of men Prov. 8. 31. why does God delight in the habitable parts of the earth there are other glorious works of God that are not in the habitable parts of the world but God delights in the habitable parts of the world because there are rational creatures there but he hath more delight in his Church in this world then in any other part of the habitable parts of the world as Isa 19. 25. Assyria is the work of Gods hands but Israel is his inheritance but there will be a delight far higher The delight that God hath in heaven it self is in regard of the Saints that are there without which heaven were not heaven First it is delight in their persons God takes infinite delight and content in the persons of the Saints howsoever their persons are mean here yet as they shall be hereafter God will take an infinite delight in them Secondly he delights in conferring blessedness upon his people there is much delight in the communication of good as well as in the enjoyment of it what good hath a man who hath a great estate more then another but that he may communicate more good then another Thirdly he delights in the glory that he hath conferred upon them As those that have true communion one with another delight in any good that one another hath God delights in the glory that is in his Saints and takes much pleasure in it his soul is satisfied in the glory that he sees upon his own people and that because he loves them The former arose from the pleasure in himself in the act of communicating this from the love to his people to see their good Fourthly God delights in their presence to have them with him and by him as the Father delights in the presence of his Children to have them round about him Fifthly God delights in their love that he hath these creatures to love as a man delights to have love from others What pleasure could a man have in all the world if none loved him If he should live in a Family or Town and none loved him he could have no pleasure in his life but if a man live where he is loved it makes up a great many wants so God is not contented in any thing else he hath to delight himself in but that which must make up all in that he hath his people to love him Sixthly God delights the more in his own glory because his Saints are partakers of it it is so much the more sweet unto him because they have a share in it thus it is between entire friends who have intimate communion one with another their own happiness pleases them the more because the other hath a part in it Secondly it is a full delight that God takes in his people It is said of his people in this world in Zeph. 17. 3. he will rejoyce over them with joy and with singing the delight that God hath with his people in Heaven must needs be full First in regard of the near relation that his people have to his Son and because he takes such infinite delight in the Son and they being one with him thence flows that full delight Secondly because he shall see so much of his own Image now that is infinitely delightful that is the reason why the father or mother does delight in their children because they see themselves in them so God shall see himself in his people and that will cause full delight Thirdly because of the glorious works of God upon the souls of his people because he shall see his own handy-work to be so glorious and full in them As a man that makes a work that is very curious and glorious he takes abundance of delight to look upon it and if the work be full and perfect then his delight is full and perfect Now the great work of God is in the glory of the Saints God loves to look back to the creatures therefore when he had made the world he looked upon what he had made and saw it was good As a workman when he hath brought his work to some perfection he will look upon it Now when God shall see what he hath done in raising such a poor worm to such high excellency God will take full delight in viewing this full work he hath done And this is more then all the former for besides the delight in the act of communication and delight because of the love to those to whom good is communicated This is the delight in his own work done in the beholding the beauty and glory of it Fourthly the delight of God must be full because in them God attains his highest end the highest end of his greatest design the highest end of his deepest councels the highest end of his most glorious work It is a great
means that are used to attain this end and rest as namely the work of God in sending the second person in the Trinity to take mans nature upon him and all the works of God in Election in Redemption in Adoption in Justification in Sanctification yea all the works of God in creation in providence the designing the Holy Ghost to that office he is designed to and all the Ordinances of God look what preciousness is in all these works of God and means it sets out unto us the preciousness and excellency and glory that there is in the last end whereunto Gods people shall attain and that rest they shall have The seventh and last thing in having God to be their portion is the enjoyment of themselves in God as they shall enjoy God and God in themselves so they shall enjoy themselves in God living in God continually the fish does not more truly live in the water and move in the water then the souls of the Saints shall live in God and move in God Col. 3. 3. Your life is hid with Christ in God the life of Saints here is an hidden life and it is hidden in God but then it shall be a revealed life and revealed in God and enjoyed in God Hence is that Phrase Enter into your masters joy that enters not into you but you must enter into it it is your masters joy not onely that joy that your master gives but the same joy your master hath that you shall enter into and live in It is said of Saint John in Rev. 1. that he was on the Lords day in the Spirit it is not said that the Spirit was in him but it is said he was in the Spirit that was as a beginning of the glorious condition of the Saints of God that they shall be in the Spirit of God not onely God in them but they in God as a drop of water in the Sea swallowed up in it Put a drop of wine into the Sea it is changed into the nature of the Sea and so though we cannot be changed into the Divine Nature yet we shall be swallowed up in God so as we shal not any further minde our selves our own good as a created thing nor our selves as creatures but altogether God our mindes shall be so wholly upon God as if they were wholly emptyed of any created good and had nothing to do but with an increated good it shall not will any thing to it self nor to any other creature but all to God and so wholly taken upon with God and upon that ground because they have that likeness unto God and partake of the Divine Nature Here we do good to others because of their likeness to our selves But the Saints shall will all good to God not because God is like them but because they are like to God so that they shall love themselves for God There are three degrees of love to God loving of God for our selves and loving God for himself and loving our selves for God the one is but a natural love the second is a gracious love the third is a love of the glorified Saints First to love God for our selves so an hypocrite may love God because he hath gifts and many blessings from God this is but a natural love But grace goes further then nature that is to love God for himself though we should never have any thing yet if we be gracious we love God for himself but the glorified Saints go further then grace and that is to love themselves for God whereas heretofore we did onely love God for our selves or for himself now we come to love our selves for God and in this kinde of love of God and enjoyment of our selves in him the soul shall be ravished with God and be in a kinde of extasie eternally Now there is a twofold extasie one that is through the weakness of the inferior faculties of the soul when the minde of a man is taken up about an high object seriously the other faculties being weak they fail and so men come to be in a trance and extasie many have had great joy that they have even dyed with it the heart hath so dilated it self as the vital spirits have flown out But there is an extasie comes from the excellency of the object that the minde is busied about but without any weariness of any inferior faculty If then we put all together that hath been said about God and the enjoyment of God and having God to be the portion of the Saints you see the principal part of Heaven and the spiritual part of the glory of the Saints Here is faith called for and why should not our faith go beyond reason to rectifie reason as reason rectifies sense these things be high and great mysteries When as reason says How can this be as when Christ was speaking of the new birth says Nicodemus How can this be let but faith get as far above reason as reason hath got above sense and we may easily see how they can be by sense If a man look up to the Firmament and see the Sun shine he would think it were little bigger then a Bushel or the like now reason will tell men otherwise reason that tells men that this creature that appears to be but in this bigness it is many hundred times bigger then the Earth now if reason can rectifie sense so far Why should not faith go beyond reason as far Now reason will tell us of much happiness that may be had We may conceive by reason by understanding that the rational creature is capable of abundance of glory but when you hear things delivered by the word which are more then reason can conceive let us get faith to rectifie reason and we shall not call those truths into question and yet know that our glory will be beyond our faith as our faith is beyond our reason Here you may see that most people in the world mistake Heaven and look at Heaven in a sensual maner when we speak of Heaven where have we a man or woman that looks at Heaven in these spiritual excellencies about enjoying God in this maner As the Jews looked for a carnal Messiah whose Kingdom should be in the earth and whose glory should be external not considering the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ so most in the world look but for a carnal Heaven It is a good evidence of the truth of grace if you can look to Heaven with a right eye in a right maner to look at the spiritual part and spiritual excellency in Heaven But that which makes people to call these things in question is first because they are not acquainted with God but are sensual their hearts are acquainted with nothing but sensual and earthly things and therefore their hearts are not raised to these things but they look at them as notions but that soul that is acquainted with God and the counsels of God and
knows the minde of God that soul can know how to savor these things and know the reality of them Again another reason why these things are above the reach of most people is because they are not acquainted with the mysteries of the Gospel and what in them is revealed concerning mankinde If we were acquainted with the mysteries of the Gospel we would not think these things strange that are revealed Thirdly because mens hearts are not enlarged with Gods image for the present therefore they cannot savor any thing but that which hath some savor of the creature Fourthly because they are not acquainted with the first-fruits of Heaven whereas those that are godly have some beginnings of eternal life wrought in them here and upon that these things are not so strange to them their hearts can close with them and suck out abundance of comfort from them And thus we have finished the fourth thing of the reward namely To have God for their portion CHAP. L. The Saints happiness in Communion with Christ NOw the fifth particular in the reward of the Saints is the communion that they shall have with Jesus Christ God and Man there are divers things in which the happiness of the Saints consists in having communion with Christ God and Man It was one of Saint Augustines three wishes To see Christ in the flesh It would be a great delight to you to see Christ in the flesh Many make much of the Picture of Christ and if they had it right they would make more of it but if Christ should come to any of your houses as he did when he lived upon the Earth in his mean condition would it not greatly delight you but when we come to enjoy communion with Christ in Heaven it will be another maner of communion then that upon Earth We accounted the Apostles blessed men that lived with Christ upon the Earth what a blessed condition will it be to live with Christ in Heaven If there were such vertue in Christ upon Earth that there came such vertue from the hem of his garment what glory will there be in Christ in his full glory If Christ were so glorious when he was in his transfiguration how glorious is he being glorified before men and Angels eternally in Heaven With the glory that he had with his Father before the beginning of the World If there was so much vertue in the Apostles of Christ in regard of the reference they had to Christ as from the shadow of Peter and the Napkins that were taken from Pauls body there was such power as to heal diseases what vertue must needs come from Christ when we shall come to enjoy him when we come to see Christ that was the author of all our good We read of the poor Cripple when he was healed by the two Disciples he ran and catched hold on them and was loth to go from them who had been the instruments of so great good to him but for the Saints to come and be with Christ who hath been the instrument of so great good to them as Christ hath been what an infinite happiness will this be we read of many that would go long journeys to see those men that had any excellency in them as some would go from the utmost parts of Greece to Rome to see Livie Themistocles to see Christ then in whom is so much excellency will be glorious And then to have communion with him it is he in whom God the Father takes full satisfaction surely he must be the full satisfaction of the Saints this is that which Christ prays for First he prays for his own glory and then he prays for the Disciples and all Believers That they might be with him to see his glory O to see the Lord Jesus glorified as he shall be glorified must be a glorious thing As to see his glory in regard of the lustre of his Divinity through his humanity when Christ pleased to let out any lustre of his Divinity through his humanity here men were not able to bear it as those that came to apprehend him when he said I am he they fell down backward now in Heaven the lustre of Christs Divinity shall shine mightily through his humanity so in him our bodily eyes shall come to see God as much as it is possible for any creature to see him because God shall be let out through the humanity of Christ as much as it is possible for the Divinity to appear in any corporeal substance or in any creature We shall see him with these our eyes as Iob says We shall see how the power of an infinite God can convey the lustre of a Deity into a creature Certainly Angels and men will be continually viewing of Christ he shall come to be admired of the Saints he shall be admired at the day of Judgement in the Saints but in Heaven they shall see such excellency in Christ God and Man as they shall be admiring at him to all eternity as much as they did at the first moment here if we see any thing that is excellent we admire at first but after a while we do not so but there will be so much excellency in Christ as we shall so admire at it to all eternity as we did at the first moment for there shall be no abatement of our being taken with the glory of the sight of Christ Blessed are your eyes says Christ that see those things you see and blessed are your ears that hear those things you hear It is a blessed thing to see the things we may see here but to see the Divinity shine through the humanity this will be a great blessing And we shall see him in the glory that the Father will put upon him Certainly God will put an infinite glory upon his Son because the Lord was so infinitely well pleased with the satisfaction of his Son Because he subjected himself to the death of the Cross therefore He hath given him a name above all names And we shall see the glory of Christ when all the Angels shall be worshipping of him and all the Saints shall be singing with Praises and Hallalujahs to him And this shall be the business in Heaven eternally to be admiring Christ and praising God for Christ And then we shall see him in his glory triumphing over all his enemies in bringing them down and in his glory when he shall have brought to perfection that great work that he did undertake Now to see Christ thus glorified and for us to enjoy communion with Christ thus in his glory this will be a glorious reward for Gods people This glory of Christ will be made the glory of the Saints as a Queen that sees the Prince in his glory she delights in it because it is her glory and so the Church when she shall see Christ her husband in his glory she shall rejoyce in it because she looks upon it as her own I
laid in water reserved till we shall come to be planted in Heaven and there to flourish There is much difference between Gods people what they are here and what they shall be in Heaven as there is between a plant that is bound up and laid in water to be kept alive and when it is in the Orchard green and flourishing and bringing forth fruit Fourthly to have communion with them when we shall know one another perfectly It is an opinion of Thomas as you heard That the bodies of the Saints shall be so transparent that they shall be able to see through one anothers bodies as through a glass Howsoever that be yet the souls of one another and the graces and goodness of one another shall be fully made known to one another If now we did converse with a company of people that we knew certainly had all true grace and were all elected from all eternity what an admirable comfort would this be our communion is comfortable because we have some hopes of their election and we see some signs of grace but if we were certain of this if God should speak from Heaven concerning the poorest member of a Church and say This man or woman is the man or woman that I have had thoughts upon from all eternity and have elected to everlasting glory would we not prize such a one and rejoyce to have such a one in our families and houses Now when we come to Heaven we shall certainly know every one was elected from all eternity and so shall live with us to eternity we shall never have any fears or suspitions of them lest they should be hypocrites as there are fears and suspitions given of one another now And then to have communion with them when there shall be perfect love and union of heart to one another that one shall love another as well as himself and rejoyce in the glory and prosperity of one another as well as his own If one have more glory then another he that hath least glory shall rejoyce in him that hath more glory as if it were his own and therefore there shall not be any want of glory to any says Anselm Every Saint shall love God above himself and love one another as himself and God shall love them all more then they either love themselves or one another and he gives the reason of it says he They love both themselves and one another for God and by God and God loves himself and them for himself and by himself and therefore as they shall love God above themselves so they shall love one another like themselves and rejoyce in the happiness of another as in their own happiness Now what an heaven upon earth is it to have brethren live together in unity if it be in family communion or in Church communion to have entire love without any breaches this is a blessing but howsoever while we are in this world there will be breaches yet there is an heavenly Jerusalem coming where we shall live without breaches And then likewise to have communion one with another always in holy exercises To have communion one with another in our civil converse to eat and drink at one anothers tables and in recreating our selves this is sweet but communion in holy ordinances and holy duties that is sweetest Men love communion and society here that they may play together and eat and drink together indeed if it be in a moderate Christian way there may be some delight in it but know it is an evident sign of a carnal heart when as thy chief affections shall be let out in the exercising thy self that way If the chief joy of your hearts be not in exercising your selves in holy duties your hearts are carnal There is a great deal of difference between that day in which a company of gracious men have communion with one another in recreating themselves and that day wherein they shall have communion with one another in exercising themselves in holy ordinances in praying together and hearing the Word together and therefore examine whether you finde a day of communion with Gods people in holy exercises better then a day of communion in outward society Again it is such a communion as we shall never part with such a communion as we shall always enjoy Here we have communion but it is often darkned because we are often in our dumps and many times there is an occasion of sorrow given but to have communion where there shall be always joy continual being at the feast the supper of the Lamb that must needs be sweet Therefore that Text you have of Lazarus in Abrahams bosom sets out the continual feast of the Lamb that the Saints shall have because that was the maner of the Jews feasting to lean in the bosom of one another and therefore John when he sate to eat with Christ he leaned in his bosom noting that the Saints shall be always as the children of the Bride-Chamber There is a question made by some of the knowing of one anoanother in heaven It is reported of Luther the night before he dyed he was reasonable well and sate with his friends at the Table and the matter of their discourse was Whether they should know one another in heaven or no whether the father should know the childe or the childe the father Luther held it affirmatively and this was one reason he gave As it was with Adam as soon as he saw Eve he knew what Eve was not by discourse but by the Spirit of God telling him what she was and so we being filled with the Spirit of God we shall come to know one another we shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob we shall have communion with them not onely as godly men but as with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and if with them why not with others This we have in Scripture that spiritual relations shall adde much to the glory of the people of God in Heaven though natural relations shall be taken away as the Father if he know the childe there shall not be that natural affection to the childe as is now yet the Scripture seems to speak of spiritual relations that they shall continue even in Heaven for the glory of the Saints and therefore St. Paul says to the Philippians You are our crown and our rejoycing in the day of Christ It shall be known who were converted by such a Ministery and it shall be a crown to a Minister that such were converted and edified and built up by him But we need not trouble our selves about this question because we have one thing that will satisfie us about all questions that are not clear Either we shall have all that happiness we do think in our thoughts or can think or else we shall have that we being our own judges and choosers that shall be as good or better so that if a Parent thinks what an happiness were it for me
communication of himself to them and all the glory of one another Look how many Saints shall be in heaven they shall rejoyce in every ones happiness as in their own their own happiness will cause joy but so many Saints as shall be happy so many times shall their joy be double and therefore it must be full joy Comfort proceeds from the suitableness between the faculty and the object now here is the greatest suitableness between the faculty and the object that can be because here is not onely good in the Concreat but goodness in the Abstract and union with goodness it self is more then union with a good thing Surely the joys of heaven must needs be great because a little taste of them here that the Martyrs have had hath made exquisite tortures grievous and dreadful pains not onely tolerable but comfortable And it is Divine joy It may be said to be Divine in three respects First it comes from God Secondly it is in God Thirdly it is with God First it comes from God being caused by the Spirit of God and that is another maner of joy then the men of the world have Secondly it is in God rejoycing in God and that is other maner of joy then rejoycing in meat and drink Look what difference there is between the excellency that is in God and the excellency that there is in meat and drink and idle sports so much difference is between the joy that Gods people have in God and the joy that wicked men have in the creature And it is divine in regard that it is joy with God it is the same joy that God himself hath carnal hearts rejoyce one with another in sensual things but God does not rejoyce in those things you rejoyce in but the Saints in heaven shall be exercised in the same joy that God himself hath and rejoyce in the same things that God shall rejoyce in to have the beams of our joy mingle with the beams of Gods joy and so to have Gods joy and ours put into one that must needs be admirable joy Notwithstanding this joy of the Saints shall be thus glorious yet the utmost happiness of man consists not in it though joy be a necessary concomitant to mans blessedness yet mans blessedness consists not in it We do not seek the enjoyment of God that we might delight in this enjoyment but we seek delight in the enjoyment because the enjoyment is the greatest good And besides all this there are some circumstances that serve to set out all that I have said yet further and to make the happiness of Gods people yet more glorious First it is a prepared happiness that happiness that God hath had his thoughts upon from all eternity and laid the ground of it from all eternity God hath been working from all eternity to provide this Secondly in that it comes to the people of God by such a glorious way as the purchase of Jesus Christ that I have it and that I have it by such a glorious way that will be exceeding comfortable Thirdly that we who are so vile and so wretched and so abominable as we are in our selves that we who by nature are but firebrands of hell and fuel for eternal wrath that we should be raised to such a height of happiness Fourthly that we are so few Not many wise nor rich nor noble but the mean ones of the world that there should be so many of the world and the great ones of the world cast out and a handful of poor contemptible people should be raised to this glory this is a mighty aggravation of the happiness of Gods people Fifthly that this should be a reward for that which we owe in a way of obedience we owe all our services in a way of obedience to God and we may say When we have done all we are unprofitable Servants and that we do we are bound to do as creatures and yet that God should reward that which we owe to him in a way of obedience this aggravates the happiness of the Saints as if a Master should give his Servant all his estate for doing that which he is bound to do We have more then wages here then how much more is that we shall have hereafter Again that which God is pleased to reward it is but poor mixt service take our duties at the best they are such as deserve Hell there is no one act but if God should observe what is amiss you deserve to be cast from God for ever for it now when we rather deserve that God should cast us down to Hell yet that God should reward us with all this glory what a glorious thing is this Again that the Lord is pleased to make this sure to us if God had left it to uncertainty and bidden us work it might be well with us and may be he will think of us this might have been a comfort to us but that God is pleased to binde himself thus and to make all sure As if a King should make his Crown Kingdom sure to a poor wretch in the way of reward for a poor service so does God he makes this glory ours by reward in a way of Covenant and Testament by Covenant such a Covenant as he does not only cause to be written in his word but in our hearts we have witness of this in heaven and earth three bear witness in heaven and three in earth and he gives us seals to confirm this Covenant and he confirms it by an Oath he swears by himself because there is no greater to swear by and he makes it sure by way of Testament Covenant we think we may break but that which is given by Testament and confirmed by the death of the Testator that is sure and thus hath God made it sure unto us Again all things that do befal us in this world and all the ways of Gods providence do but tend to the furtherance of us to our reward and to the encrease of our reward and that is the wonderful happiness of Gods people this should sweeten all conditions If I be in a meaner condition then another yet this is in order to my reward and this is more then if I had a Kingdom in the world if it were not in order to that but whatsoever I have in the world though never so hard to flesh and blood it is in order to this this satisfies Again this reward is near we shall not stay long for it If God required of us to be burning a thousand years and then to have it we had yet cause to rejoyce but it is at hand and nearer at hand to us in this latter age of the world then to our Fore-fathers God hath but a few things to do in the world to gather but a few more of the Gentiles and his own people the Jews and to pull down Antichrist and then all is done
The time is short says the Scripture the word that is translated short in 1 Cor. 7. 29. is a Metaphor taken from a piece of cloth that is rolled up onely a little left at the end so God hath rolled up all his works onely he hath a little left at the end and then all this glory shall appear the frame of Heaven and earth does but stand till that time and if that time were come the frame of Heaven and earth should presently be dissolved and the ways of Gods providence in this world should be at an end the Heavens and earth groan for this time It is said of Doctor Taylor when he was near at the stake he fetch'd a leap and said I have but two stiles to my Fathers house We in our way here are as Travellers some ride it may be a little faster and get to the Inn first and then another comes a quarter or half an hour after but it is but a short time in comparison he hath promised and he will come quickly with the glory of his Father and all the glory of Heaven with him And then this shall be after all our troubles As Painters first draw all black and then the other beautiful colours so all our troubles here are but as the black ground-work to make our glory the more beautiful hereafter To see land after a long and dangerous voyage how joyful is it As the Trojans after they had been wandring a long time in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas as soon as they espied Italy they cryed out with exulting joys Italy Italy how much more the Saints after they have passed this troublesom world and come to Heaven what acclamations of joy will the heavens ring of Heaven Heaven Lastly all these things are eternal this puts an infiniteness of worth upon every particular How was Haman puffed up by Esthers inviting of him to one Banquet How shall the hearts of the Saints be taken with that eternal Supper of the Lamb Obed-Edom was blessed in having the Ark but three moneths in his house how blessed they who shall have Gods not onely gracious but glorious presence eternally And so I come to the fourth particular which was propounded in the handling of this point namely 4. Wherein lies the power of the consideration of the recompence of reward to help a man through sufferings Much hath been said but more may be said to shew that there is a mighty power in it to enable the heart to suffer any thing for God it is that which hath mightily wrought upon the Saints of God heretofore That is an observable place that we have concerning Christs Transfiguration and Christs Agony when he was transfigured upon the Mount and his glory was shewed even a glimpse of the glory of Heaven Christ took with him onely three Disciples Peter James and Iohn afterward when Christ was to come to his Agony when his soul was heavy to death and he sweat clods of blood he onely took those three Disciples that had seen him in his glory to see him in his sufferings to shew that those that know what the glory of Christ means those are the fittest to joyn with Christ in his Agony and to endure the greatest sufferings that they can meet withal See in Dan. 7. there is mention made of a cruel Tyrant that should make War with the Saints and should persecute Gods people that devoured and brake in pieces yet there were some that should bear out all that should have the Kingdom given them and God should reward them gloriously Who are they at the 22 verse The Saints of the most high so you read it or The Saints of the highest not onely of the highest God but of the highest places of the highest things they are those to whom the Kingdom shall be given those Saints that did see the most glorious things of the Kingdom of God they had the reward for they held out in sufferings but others whose hearts were low in the earth they did not hold out So those that should hold out in the time of Antichrist and should not worship the Beast Rev. 13. 6 7 8. were such as dwelt in Heaven He opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his Name and his Tabernacle and them that dwelt in Heaven in many places of the Revelations Heaven is taken for the Church of God and the People of God and so Interpreters take it here And it was given to him to war with the Saints and to overcome them but though he prevailed against the Saints to kill them yet he could not prevail against them that dwelt in Heaven to worship him but all that dwell upon the Earth shall worship him all that know no higher good then the Earth they shall follow Antichrist and worship him Here we see the reason why people will not endure the sufferings inflicted by the Beast but follow the Beast have his mark either upon their foreheads openly or in their hands secretly because they do not apprehend the glory of Heaven but if they can come to see those glorious things of Heaven though Antichrist do persecute them they would not worship him in these latter times of the world Antichrist will prevail to get many to worship him but the sight of these glorious things will keep us we shall not worship him In Rev. 12. the Church who is compared to a Woman that was cloathed with the glory of the Sun she had the Moon and all sublunary things under her feet When the soul is seeking after the glory of Heaven and that is always in its eye this causes it to have the Moon by which is signified all things below that are subject to changes under its feet I read of a Martyr that was whipped and almost scourged to death and then being led to the execution he met with his Mother who being a godly gracious woman did not fall of tearing her hair and rending her cloathes as other women used to do but cryed Son Remember eternal life look up to Heaven and see him that reigns there Hence we see that having an eye to the recompence of reward does make the heart to choose the Choice of Moses To suffer affliction with the people of God and to esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Egypt you see there is a great deal of power and efficacy in it but wherein does this power consist In divers particulars CHAP. LIII Wherein the power and efficacy of eying the recompence of reward consists FIrst there is a great deal of power in looking to this glorious recompence of reward because the glory of this does so much darken all the glory of the things of the world that we are called to part withal when we are called to suffer any thing Now then the argument lies thus That which darkens all the glory of the world and makes it appear to be
therefore they cannot hold out in the time of danger To conclude all we see what will do it what will carry us through sufferings Let us make use of this argument and not look upon the greatness of our sufferings to think my sufferings are greater then others but rather let us look up on high to our God and the greater things that are prepared for us As St. Augustine speaking to a Christian that was to suffer Do not so much attend what punishment thou hast what share thou hast in the whip or in correction but what thou hast in the Testament in Gods Word what is revealed there for tby encouragement And labor to have the light within you or else all will never do though many things have been revealed to your eyes and so you may have light outwardly yet if you have not the inward light this outward light will never strengthen you to hold out And labor for faith to put life in all these arguments that have been spoken of unless faith come and breathe the breath of life upon them they will all lie dead Labor that nothing be between your eye and Heaven and if any thing of the world or vain reasonings shall come between your eye and Heaven labor to remove it keep all clear that upon the turning of your eye you may see beyond the vail and be not onely thinking of these things and make them lively by faith but let your conversation be much in heaven sending up your spirits to heaven and opening your hearts to receive the influence of heaven and then you will be able to endure what God calls you to Who knows what God will call us to God is stirring in the world as if he intended to do some great things in the world and therefore we had need of strong arguments to keep our hearts close to him when many thousand hypocrites shall fall And thus we have finished four things in the opening of this point First that there is a reward for Gods people Secondly how far they may have respect to this reward Thirdly what the reward is Fourthly wherein the power of having respect to this reward lay to undergo any suffering Now the fifth thing that remains is the Application of all that hath been said And if there be such a glorious reward for the people of God then in the first place the offence of the cross is taken away let us be ashamed ever to be hindred in the way of God because of the cross because of any thing we shall suffer in the way of God when as there is such a glorious reward hereafter No storm of the raging Sea should terrifie us considering that everlasting calm that is a coming says Jerome Let no man speak hardly of Gods ways any more I remember I read of St. Augustine before his conversion he said he was convinced of the ways of God but says he I did not like to go through those straits He found the ways of God difficult and that he was like to suffer much and that hindred him and so it does many they see straits they must deny themselves and suffer hard things and upon this they are hindred but let us never be hindred more by this seeing there are such great things revealed of the reward of Gods people hereafter Why should we be so shy of the way afflictions that lead thither is not here enough to pay for all God will not says Lactantius have the path that leads to this immortal blessedness be a delicate path Certainly if any of you should be hindred from the ways of God by any hardship you are like to meet withal how will this confound you when God shall come and say Did not I shew unto you those glorious things I intended for my people and was not all that sufficient to draw your hearts over these difficulties In the Primitive times the offence of the cross was taken away after once they came to be enlightned in such glorious things as these in Heb. 10. 32. Call to remembrance the former days in which after you were illuminated you endured a great fight of afflictions before they were not able to indure that fight of afflictions but after they were illuminated they were so howsoever you might have some hard thoughts of the ways of God before yet now being illuminated having the light of this blessed truth of the reward that is to come revealed to you be willing to endure any fight of afflictions do not look at this stumbling block look up to Heaven and that wil keep you from stumbling When men walk upon the earth if they look upward they may stumble upon stones blocks but it is otherwise in our walking in Religion our looking upwards to heaven does keep us from stumbling Wisdom is on high the way of the righteous is a high way he is lifted above all stumbling blocks by looking at this recompence of reward St. Paul when he had his thoughts about this says he Neither life nor death principalities nor powers nor any thing should be able to separate him from the love of God Secondly if there be such a glorious reward consider that this is a mighty aggravation of the evil of sin that when God hath revealed himself so gracious as to lay up such glorious things for those that walk in the way of obedience for any after this yet to embrace the ways of sin must needs aggravate the horrid and desperate wickedness of mans heart There is evil enough in sin though we should lose nothing by it that it is a disobedience to God a breach of the Law and going against the minde of God but for men to venture upon the ways of sin although they know they shall lose such an infinite good as this is here is not onely desperate wickedness but desperate folly it is a sign that mans heart is desperately set upon sin that he wil go on in sin though it be with the loss of all this glory and these blessed things I remember Ambrose reports of one Theotimus that having a disease upon his body and the Physitian told him Except he did abstain from intemperance drunkenness or uncleanness he was like to lose his eyes his heart was desperately fet upon his sin that he said Farewel sweet light then as if he should say I must have my pleasure in that sin if I must lose my eyes then farewel eyes farewel the light I suppose there is none of you dare reason thus desperately when we come to you in the name of God and speak of some particular sin that your consciences tell you you are guilty of and profess unto you as in the name of God that that way you take cannot stand with eternal life that you must eternally perish and lose all that happiness that God hath prepared for the Saints perhaps none dare say Farewel God and Christ and eternal life and
to have the things of this world for their portion it argues you have low thoughts of an immortal soul you know not what an immortal soul is capable of who can think your selves satisfied in any creature You have but low thoughts of God are there no richer treasures in God then onely a few outward delights meat and drink and sports here Hath God nothing else to communicate to the creature what mean thoughts hast thou of Christ and of all the purchase of the blood of Christ What hath Christ come and laid down his blood to purchase nothing but this to have content in the creature Certainly the God of this world hath blinded thine eyes that thou shouldst not see into the glorious things of eternal life that are in the Gospel and in the Word How many would frame to themselves a kinde of Heaven here an imaginary Heaven As I have read of a King of Persia that he would have an imaginary Heaven and therefore he made a brave Palace and in the top he made the heavens and painted Sun Moon and Stars and underneath Clouds that with Art moved up and down and distilled rain and made thunder and he had a brave Throne glistering above those clouds this might be sufficient for a Heathen and yet how many Christians are guilty of this to imagine Heaven to themselves If they had but this and this that were Heaven Certainly thou wilt finde the loss of these things a hell if there were no pain but know thou canst not lose Heaven but thou must of necessity be plunged into hell you cannot lose all this glory but you must of necessity be under that misery which is contrary to this glory whosoever loses the one though that be ill enough he must be under the misery of the other And know whatsoever thy heart is set upon in this world if it be not in order to this reward it is cursed to thee for the blessing of all comfort does consist in order to this last end O that men were throughly principled in this one principle namely That the good of all things in the world consists in the subordination they have unto the highest and last end for which they were made Now whatsoever a man hath if there be not a subordination of it unto the last end it is all cursed O know thy folly that hast sought to satisfie thy self in the things of the world Know thy folly that thou hast in this like a Swine sought to take contentment in swill and husks when as you hear there is bread enough in your Fathers house Mark what the Psalmist says in Psal 4. 3. How long will you turn my glory into shame how long will you love vanity and seek after lyes By your loving vanity and seeking after lyes you turn the glory of God into shame so all carnal hearts that seek for their portion in this world put a shame upon all that glory that God hath opened to you in this recompence of reward O be not guilty of this when as you have heard of these glorious things in the recompence of reward do not you cast shame and filth upon them as if they were all imaginations Know those things that you esteem to be real and substantial are vanities and imaginations and all substances and realities are in this recompence of reward Fourthly if there be such a glorious recompence of reward for the Saints those also are to be rebuked who seem to go on in those ways that might bring this reward and yet through the wickedness of their hearts do deprive themselves of this reward and these are hypocrites There are three sorts of these First such as though they go on in the hearts same ways that Gods people go in yet there are so base and vile therein as they seek no greater things in them then their own base ends and so lose all Secondly such as go on in the ways that tend to this reward and yet perish at last for some one base lust Thirdly such as go on in those ways and are in a good forwardness and yet prove to be Apostates and so lose all their labor and all their reward First such as go on in the ways that lead to this reward the ways of Religion and godliness they do the same things that Gods people do for this reward but onely this their ends are different they pray as much hear as much and receive Sacraments make a great profession in Religion and their hearts seem to be mightily up in duty yea perhaps they suffer much in the ways of God and are resolute in the ways of godliness and yet lose all in the conclusion upon this ground because though they be in the ways that lead to this reward yet their ends are so base and low they do not look at the glorious reward in these actions but look at some under thing as to give content to men and applause of men and to be accounted some body in the place where they live and to gain some outward respect from such and such and this is the highest pitch their hearts rise unto in the duties of Religion If ever there were any sottish desperate delusion of heart this is it to undertake to do that which others do that come to enjoy all this glorious reward and though you do as much as they and take as much pains as they yet you in the conclusion miss of all and lose all upon your base ends you follow Christ as others do but a gracious heart follows Christ for Christ but you follow him only that your own mindes and wills may be satisfied it may be you know not how to live and this is that you aym at in following Christ and in prayer and in speaking of good things all that you aym at is that you may be accounted those that have parts and gifts and in giving of alms you onely look upon some low and base ends which you shall attain and this is like to be all your reward so says Christ Wo to you hypocrites you have your reward And wo indeed when this shall be said You are forward in Religion to gain to your selves such base things you shall have them says God and this is all the reward you shall have O be ashamed and confounded in your own hearts that you should perform the duties of Religion and take such pains in the ways of God that do lead to such glorious things and yet your ends are so low by having such low ends in religious duties you make Earth your throne and Heaven your footstool whereas God says Heaven is my Throne and Earth is my footstool Why should you be so cross to God in the foolish ways of your vile hearts Some there are that perform these duties to satisfie natural conscience and so they may be unsound and their consciences not accuse them but these hypocrites are the basest that
such a glorious reward such blessed things as these reserved for the people of God hence then let us dwell a little in admiring at the goodness of God at the infinite treasures of the riches of the glory of the grace of God towards the children of men Certainly Brethren great are the thoughts of God towards mankinde wonderful are his ways to this poor creature of his What is man says the Psalmist nay what is man indeed when as we consider what God hath done for him In Rom. 8. 31. after the Apostle had spoke of glorification and of the blessed estate of Gods people hereafter says the Apostle What shall we say to these things So seeing these things are so that are revealed What shall we say to these things O the heighth and length and depth and breadth of the loving kindeness of the Lord how unsearchable are his judgements shall we say How unsearchable are his mercies and his mercies past finding out O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought before the sons of men Psal 31. 19. If ever God wrought about any thing it was about the communication of his goodness to mankinde yea how great is it before the sons of men before us that have but a little made known to us How great is it before Angels then and before God himself In Psal 113. 6. it is said God humbleth to behold things that are done in heaven It is much that God should vouchsafe to behold any thing in heaven but now that God should vouchsafe to behold such a poor wretched creature as man is here upon earth and not to behold him onely but to work thus gloriously for him and that from all eternity to make it his great work to communicate himself to man O how does God humble himself here and how is his mercy and goodness to be admired and adored by the sons of men God is to be praised for the least of his mercies here but he is to be admired in the glory of his rich grace in heaven We read Psal 136. God is praised twenty five times for his mercies but the conclusion of all is Praise the God of Heaven for his mercies endure for ever his mercies as he is the God of heaven they are the glorious mercies indeed When the Scripture would set forth the excellency of a thing it expresseth it by heaven as the excellency of Christ He is the Lord from heaven 1 Cor. 15. 47. The excellency of God the God of heaven Jonah 1. 9. It is made the top of Christs glory that he is made higher then the heavens Heb. 7. 26. When Christ would shew the excellency of the bread of life he says It is bread from heaven the excellency of spiritual blessings is set out in this that they are blessings in heavenly places Eph. 1. Because gold is the most precious mettal therefore we lay it over other things not onely wood and cloth but silver it self so because heaven is so excellent the Lord gilds as it were his choicest blessings with this adjunct and all to shew the wonderful excellency there is in heaven it self Brethren God hath therefore revealed these things to us to that end that the glory of his grace might be great in the world God would have us have high and honorable and glorious thoughts of his goodness God would have the high praises of his grace to be in the hearts and in the mouthes of his Saints it is a great evil to have low and mean apprehensions of the glorious grace of God to mankinde you do not know what dishonor you bring to God in it If your hearts be not raised on high and enlarged in the thoughts of the free and glorious grace of God to mankinde it is an exceeding dishonor to him To see the riches of Gods glorious grace to the children of men it is a mighty work of faith and such a work as the soul is enabled to do onely by a mighty and glorious work of the holy Ghost in it indeed there is in the world a base and poor and mean apprehension of the grace of God in Christ such as does not work at all to raise and enlarge and glorifie the heart of a man but the true sight of the riches of Gods glorious grace it hath a mighty power to raise and enlarge and glorifie the hearts of the children of men while they are here as mark the expressions of the Apostle in his Prayer for the Ephesians 1 Ephes 17. 18. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him The eyes of your understanding being enlightned that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints not the inheritance of the Saints but the inheritance in the Saints and the glory of the inheritance and the riches of the glory and they must not onely have understanding to know this but the eyes of their understanding must be enlightened and this must come from the knowledge of Christ from the Spirit of wisdom and Revelation and from the Father of glory the God of our Lord Jesus Christ The sight of the excellency and riches of Gods grace here it is that that is the work of God shining into the heart 2 Cor. 4. 6. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ The unsearchable truths of the Gospel are in that which hath been revealed so far as we are able to wade into them The sight of Gods rich glory is that which the Princes of the world have not known it is that which requires a work of the Spirit of God Of that Spirit which searcheth the deep things of God O brethren if you had a true spiritual sight of the richness of the goodness of God in the way of his communication of happiness and glory to the children of men then you see into the great design of God into the deep counsels of his wisdom then God hath laid open his heart unto you God hath brought you into the treasures of his riches and given you a view of them the very secrets of Gods soul are imparted to you and blessed are your eyes that have seen these things if the sight of Gods glory in his grace towards mankinde be seen in true beauty and height and glory indeed there is no fear that they should do hurt to any soul it is true the apprehension of the grace of God in a natural way is the cause of security or presumption in many but there was never any in the world that was furthered in a way of security and presumption upon the spiritual sight and view they
are glorious indeed and therefore high and honorable thoughts you ought to have of the Saints It is a great argument to shew Gods greatness that all the creatures in the world are his and for him What an argument then is it to set forth the greatness of a Christian that Heaven and God and Christ and all are his and for him and this hath been shewn in this glorious recompence of reward How great and honorable then should they be in our eyes Eighthly if there be such a glorious reward and great things prepared for Gods people then what love is due to Christ and to the Gospel and to the ways of godliness First love to the Lord Christ who is the cause of all this Secondly to the Gospel that reveals these things to us Thirdly to the ways of godliness that leads to all this great and blessed are the things of the Kingdom of Heaven from whence is all this It is the Lord Jesus Christ from whom all this comes another reward was due to us we were wretched guilty creatures fire-brands of hell children of perdition cast out unto an eternal curse but the Lord Christ who was the wisdom of the Father set his heart upon us and spake for us from all eternity and would not satisfie himself in delivering of mankinde from that miserable and lost condition in which they were but so set his heart upon them as he intended to make it his great work for the manifestation of the riches of his grace to raise this poor wretched creature to a height of happiness and glory that it might appear to Angels to the world yea to the blessed Trinity it self what the Son of God is able to do to raise a creature from misery unto glory and so his heart was set upon mankinde that though it must cost him the eclipsing of his own glory though he must come to be made a prey to the world and if a man a man of sorrows yea made a curse it self in the abstract that man might have this glory and happiness and yet he was content with all and at last this is all he prays for as a fruit of his sufferings and merits Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me as if he should say If I can but have this I am well I have enough for all the sufferings that I did endure This indeed is called a reward but it is the reward of another maner of righteousness then our own were it that there were no other righteousness but our own though our own should be true righteousness the reward would never come to this height but this is first the reward of the merit of the death of the blood and of the perfect righteousness of the Son of God and so in him it comes to be our reward therefore it is Christ that is our life and happiness and glory O let us joyn with those blessed Elders in Rev. 5. 8 9. that fell down before the Lamb having all harps in their hands and golden vials full of odours and sung Worthy art thou who wast slain and hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood to receive honor and blessing and glory and that we might joyn in that blessed melody that St. John heard in that Chapter in Verse 13. He heard all creatures in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the Sea saying Blessing honor glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever that we might say Amen to this If any man wish good to us we count it worthy of love but the Lord Christ having wrought such infinite good for us as this how should our hearts be enflamed to him and that none should be dear to us and prized of us in comparison of Christ Let us cry out with that blessed Martyr None but Christ none but Christ Again how should our souls love the Gospel and prize the Gospel that hath revealed all this to us In 2 Tim. 1. 10. it is said Life and immortality is brought to light by the Gospel These are the things that in comparison were kept hid from the beginning of the world before the manifestation of the Gospel but now they are revealed O blessed be God that we had the preaching of the Gospel amongst us to open the treasures of grace to us in this maner What poor low thoughts should we have had of the happiness of mankinde had not God made known these glorious things in the Ministery of the Gospel Many wise men by the light of nature have risen high in the contemplations of happiness that mans nature is capable of but how far beneath these things have their highest thoughts been It is a great part of the glory of the Gospel that it sets out unto us these high and glorious things And then the ways of godliness those we should love because those are the ways that lead and tend to all this godliness hath the promise of the life to come as well as the promise of this life annexed to it Were the ways of godliness never so hard and rough never so difficult yet they are glorious ways and to be loved because of the glorious end they tend unto Great is the gain of godliness if these things be believed You that are Merchants love and prize trading and merchandizing that brings in great gain as some in a way of trading and merchandizing by a bargain in a morning will bring in a hundred pounds when as many other poor people are fain to work hard to get a shilling or eighteen pence a day now you prize that trade that with a few words can get in so much O prize the trade of godliness then there is gain to be had I may compare all the works of morality and common grace to the poor mean trade of the laboring man that is fain to work hard for a shilling or eight pence a day they work and get but some few outward blessings from God but godliness is the trade of merchandising that brings in hundreds together and that our hearts should be upon God would have our hearts to be after great and glorious things It is an expression of Cleopatra to Marcus Antonius It is not for you to be fishing for Gudgeons but for Towns and Forts and Castles And so those that are acquainted with the ways of godliness it is not for them to be trading for poor things but for eternal life glory and immortality The ninth Use is an Use of Examination to know who those are that have interest in these glorious things to the answering of that question in Psalm 15. Who shall abide in thy Tabernable who shall dwell in thy holy hill I confess that Psalm does principally aim at communion with the Church of God such as are fit
here is an exhortation and in the name of God a charge upon every soul that does expect to have the portion of it in these great things that they would walk worthy of God who hath called them unto his kingdom and glory it is a great charge to walk worthy of God but to walk worthy of God who hath called us to his kingdom and glory this is great but the life of a Christian must be thus Now consider what life have I Is my life such as may be said to be worthy of God and that God that hath called me unto his kingdom and glory Surely great things must be in the lives of Gods people people talk much of strictness and preciseness that they may be too precise what do you think must this life be that must be worthy of God who hath called us to his kingdom and glory It must not be a dead-hearted life go on with a holy and heavenly chearfulness and courage in Gods ways It becomes the children of the Bride-chamber to be joyful see that in any case you rejoyce before the Lord comfort your selves and one another by these sayings We belye the truth of God if we do not walk joyfully Rejoyce in this that your names are written in the Book of life says Christ they rejoyced that the Devils fell down before them If there were any thing in the world to be rejoyced in one would think they might rejoyce in that but Christ would not have them rejoyce in that in comparison of this Caesar when he was sad he said to himself Think thou art Caesar that that might take away his sadness and so say I to a Christian Think of your Crown and glory let your lives be such as may make it appear you have your portion in these things I may say to some as Jonadab said to Amnon Why art thou lean from day to day being the Kings Son So may I say to every childe of God Why is thy heart so troubled and Why walkest thou so dumpishly in the ways of God being the King of Heavens Son Possibilities of heaven is enough to take away the sting of afflictions but having comfortable hope of these things this should take away even the sense of them at least so far as that they be no way disturbing to us Seneca says That vertue does not consider what it suffers but whither it tends It beseems them well enough but not you it beseems Swine to follow the trough but not the heirs of a Kingdom Plutarch tells of Themistocles that he accounted it not to stand with his state to stoop down to take up the spoyls the enemy had scattered in flight but says to one of his followers You may for you are not Themistocles Thus may it be said to worldly spirits You may be greedy of these things for here is your portion your names are written in the earth you are not the heirs of the kingdom Secondly walk above the world above all things that are here below take heed of ensnarling your hearts of too much mixing your selves with them There is a generation whose names are written in the earth Ier. 17. 13. and it beseems them to look after the things of the earth because their portion is there it is their All but Gods people have their names written in heaven and therefore they should not regard the things below as they do Whosoever was free of the city of Rome might not accept of any other freedom in any other city they counted it a dishonor to the freedom of Rome to take freedom any where else So those that are free of the kingdom of Heaven should not seek to be free here but they should be satisfied with a mean condition here and take heed they do not entangle themselves too much in the things below Besides those that have hopes of Heaven they should labor to have their lives like to Heaven It is that we pray for that the will of God may be done in earth as it is done in heaven How is it done in heaven The Saints and Angels there do it fervently universally readily constantly and therefore the Angels are called by the name of Seraphims it notes burning because they burn with zeal for God labor to conform your life to the life of Heaven Again labor to be much trading for heaven in this world let there be much intercourse between you and Heaven let your conversation be in heaven Phil. 3. 20. If a man intend to live in another Countrey he will have much traffique in that Countrey before he goes and if we believe we shall come to Heaven let there be much trading that way Our conversations should be so in Heaven as all the mercies we enjoy here should raise our hearts to heaven We read Exod. 25. that upon the Table of Shew-bread there was set a crown of gold In those provisions that we have here for souls and bodies our hearts must be raised to that Crown of glory reserved for us for the Shew-bread set before the Lord was to signifie Gods provision for us and the dedication of our bread of all our provision to God Again let us labor to encrease heaven in our hearts and to bring as much of heaven into them as possibly we can And keep your selves in a continual readiness whensoever God shall call you to such a glorious recompence of reward as this is It is said of Daniel though he was in Babylon he opened his windows towards Jerusalem he kept his heart in a readiness to go So you should do keep your hearts in a heavenly frame ready for heaven waiting upon the Bridegroom with your lamps burning that when he comes you may open immediately to him There is a difference between a wife that hath been faithful to her husband and waits for his coming home and another that hath been unfaithful to her husband and hath other lovers in the house when her husband knocks if her husband knocks she doth not go immediately but there is shuffling up and down and she delays the time till she have got the other out of the house but a faithful wife she immediately opens it is true though the wife be not unfaithful yet if the house be not handsom and things be not prepared she is loth to open So Christians they have been dallying with their lusts and their hearts are out of frame and they are loth to open to Christ but we should keep our hearts in such a readiness as immediately to open to Christ and to be willing to dye And when we dye to dye as heirs of such things not to respect things below house or lands or any thing here We read of Pope Adrian when he was to dye he laments his condition because he was to leave all his delights and pompous vanities and cryes out O my soul whither goest thou thou shalt never be merry more he was
the life of Camillus of the Gauls that after they had once a taste of the sweet wine of the grapes that grew in Italy they inquired in what Countrey such sweet wine was and after they understood where the grape of that wine grew they would never be at rest till they got to that Countrey where such sweet and pleasant things grew I have endeavored in the opening of this point to bring unto you some of the Clusters of Canaan and some of that wine which is to be drunk in the Kingdom of Heaven now if you account it to be sweet and good let not your hearts be at rest till you come at that Countrey till you come to enjoy the sweet and good of that Countrey It is reported of one Adrianus who seeing the Martyrs suffer such grievous things in the cause of Christ he asked what was that which caused them to suffer such things and one of them named that Text Eye hath not seen nor ear hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what is laid up for those that love God and the naming of that Text converted him and had such an effect as made him to profess Religion and so to profess it as to be a Martyr for it You have not onely one Text named but many have been used about this argument let not all be in vain We read in Mark 10. 17. of a yong man that came running and kneeled before Christ and asked him Good Master what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life O that God would move the hearts now of some yong ones that hearing what eternal life means they may now come running to get part in it that that activity and vigor of their youth may be exercised and spent about this What may I do that I likewise may be partaker of eternal life and of these glorious and blessed truths that are here revealed You that are in a poor condition in the world that have little here here are great things for your hearts to make after here are glorious things that are as obvious for you ac for the greatest in the world you cannot expect to have great matters in the earth but here you may expect to have great matters You that are old likewise though you have not been acquainted with the excellency of the Kingdom of God now bless God that you may yet further know more concerning it If a man come to know more of an inheritance that did befal him or of any outward gain then before he is glad that he lived to that time so bless God that you may know yet more concerning eternal life before this life be at an end What is it that your hearts are set upon There are none but their hearts are set upon some good that they apprehend to be good Now what is that good Certainly there is an eminency of all good contained in this It was a charge of God unto Baruch that we read of in Jer. 45. ult Seekest thou great things for thy self Seek them not for I will bring evil upon all flesh and that which I have planted I will pluck up The argument runs thus Seekest thou great things for thy self in any outward matter do not seek them for I am about to bring evil upon my people the time of publique calamity is coming and doest thou seek great things for thy self But when we are about this argument the glory of the Kingdom of God Doest thou seek great things for thy self We cannot say Seek them not God would have his people seek glorious things for themselves seek them to the utmost that possibly you can So follow these things as not to be satisfied with any thing under these God would have his servants to be of such spirits as though content with the least mercies they do enjoy to acknowledge themselves unworthy of them yet not to be satisfied with the greatest things in the world for their portion What will a reprobates portion serve you Certainly the glory of the world if you had it all it were but the portion of a reprobate What will a Dogs portion satisfie you All the things of the world are but Dogs meat so the Apostle calls them in Phil. 3. I account all things in the world as dross and dung or dogs meat and will this satisfie you Is there nothing else for you to seek after First seek the Kingdom of God says Christ and the righteousness of it let that be your first endeavor Strive to enter into the strait gate though it be never so strait yet if it be the way unto life and unto these things strive to enter We have not spoken more then that is real It is a saying of one Neither Christ nor Heaven can be hyperbolized that is there cannot be more said of the excellency of Christ and of Heaven then it is in its self and therefore do not think any thing that hath been spoken is an hyperbole but a real expression of some little glimpse of the glory of the recompence of reward It may be some of your hearts when you hear much of the wrath of God against sin and the dreadfulness of Gods displeasure your hearts are ready to rise and belk and these are hard things and hard sayings and who can bear them but now you have not heard so much concerning that but you have heard of the goodness of God and of the glory of God and of the riches of the grace of God and of the wonderful thoughts that God hath for the everlasting good of mankinde how do your hearts work now Shall your hearts stir when you hear Gods wrath and when you hear of Gods grace shall not your hearts stir then If God does intend good to any soul he will cause that soul to see into the reality and excellency of these things and that all things should be neglected in comparison in seeking after these Consider that God hath given unto you natures capable of these glorious things God might have made you worms or bruit beasts and there would have been an end of you presently you had not been any way capable of these things but God hath made you of such a nature such creatures as ye are capable of the highest excellency that ever any creature that God made was capable of and therefore being of such a nature of such a large extent it concerns you to seek after those things which might fill it they are not little things that can fill large capacities now mans nature an immortal soul is of a large capacity and when the time shall come that God shall discover to any soul what it was capable of how infinitely will it be confounded in it self when it shall know what poor things it sought after and minded Men live here in the world as though they were capable of no other happiness but meat and drink and clothes and