way as thou dreamest of or if there be why yet in that very Lyon thou mayst find Hony The way to Heaven is not so dark and gloomy as most imagine though indeed it be strait and tedious to Flesh and Blood yet there stands a bright Crown of eternal Glory at the end which makes it comfortable Be ashamed then having such encouragement to walk disconsolate in Heavens way There are not so many Thorns to prick you as Roses to refresh you Nor half so much cause of Sorrow â—s there is of Comfort and rejoycing of Spirit Christians walking in Heaven's Way they may meet I confess with a fiery Tryal but then there is some Light for their Comfort as well as Heat to Torment them And let me tell you the more your Hearts are melted and softned in such a Flame the deeper will be the Impression of divine Love Consolation and Sweetness upon them A sight of Glory from Heaven is then most Cordial when we can see nothing but Bonds and Imprisonments and forest Afflictions to abide us on Earth (a) Acts 7.55 How sweetly did Stephen that blessed Proto-martyr fall asleep under a Shower of Stones as if he had gone to Heaven in a Bed of Down The Reason of all was this he saw Heaven open and Jesus standing at the right Hand of God ready to turn every Stone that was thrown at him into an orient Pearl and to Crown him so soon as ever he had passed the Straits of Death with eternal Life Thiâ— made him forget his Sorrow and walk on with Comfort through the Valley of Death that at length he might come to that Glory in Heaven which he found such a Cordial to his Soul when ready to leave her earthly Tabernacle And why is it that we having the same Recompence of Reward set before us cannot endure the like Hardships with the same Comfort Must there be so much ado to make us live upon those Cordials which Heaven it self hath provided for us Are the Consolations of God grown small with us that we resolve thus to walk with sorrowful Hearts whilst he shews us Heaven as in a Glass and sets Glory in our Eye Shall every light Affliction eat â—ut the Heart of our Comfort when we see there lies before us a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory Either Christian let thy Heart feel more or thy Eye see less of Heaven And do not go to bring up an ill Report upon the celestial Canaan by walking disconsolate in the way thither For you that have Heaven before you to come weeping after for you that have Glory in your Eye to be filled with Sorrow for you that may hope to live with God for ever in the Mount to go mourning from day to day like Doves of the Valley how unseemly were this If the World be bitter yet sweet is Paradise If the Earth cast you out yet Heaven will receive you If here you be tossed with Storms like a Ship at Sea yet arriving at the wished Shoar of Eternity you will find rest If in this (b) Mat. World Men Revile you and Persecute you saying all manner of Evil of you falsly for Christ's sake yet still you should walk rejoycing and be exceeding glad because great is your Reward in Heaven And what so great Matters are all our Afflictions on Earth that they should be able to imbitter Heaven Pray you (c) 2 Cor. 4.16 what is Affliction to Glory What is light Affliction to a weight of Glory What is a short momentary Affliction that like a little Cloud will soon be blown over to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory beyond all possible Hyperbole that will never be over That Man sure never looked by Faith so far as Heaven whom any Affliction on earth can make to go weeping â—ike Rachel refusing to be Comforted 11 WALK purely endeavouring to cleanse your selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and to mortifie every Lust â—hat would spoyl you of your Reward It becomes not those that have the Recompence of eternal Life before them to love the Wages of Unrighteousness Nor those that have Glory in their Eye to make themselves by the Polâ—utions that are in the World through Lust like one of the base Fellows The Inheritance of the Saints in Light â—ts a pure and an undefiled Inheritance And therefore beholding it we must labour to be changed into the â—ame undefiled Purity and Holiness with it would we ever come to the full Enjoyment of it The Lord alows us a sight of Heaven in all our Obedience that beholding from day to day we might at length receive a Tincture of Purity and unspotted Holiness from it He gives us a prospect of our future Happiness that be (d) 2 Cor. 3.18 holding with open face the Glory of the Lord we might be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory The difference betwixt Grace and Glory is not as some observe from these words specifical but gradual They differ not in Kind but only in Degree Grace is Glory inchoate and Glory is Grace consummate Grace is Glory Militant and Glory is Grace Triumphant Grace is Glory dawning and Glory is Grace shining forth in its noon-dayâ— brightness And I know no better way to ripen Grace into Glory than for Grace to behold and continually sun it self in the warm Beams of eternal Glory The Hope of future Happiness is the strongest Inducement to present Holiness Every Man (e) 1 John 3.3 that hath this Hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure Hope to be like Christ hereafter Glorious as he is Glorious and Blessed as he is Blessed will work in us a desire to be as like him as we can here Pure as he is Pure and Holy as he is Holy He that hath most hope of being saved will give most diligence of all others to be sanctified We never cleanse our Hands so much as when we have Glory in Hope Nor do we ever Purify our Hearts so throughly as when we have Heaven in our Eye When Moses had been with God upon the Mount he came down with his Face shining Thus if at any time God calls us up into the Mount with himself giving us a sight of that Glory which shall shortly be revealed in us we should be sure to come down having not only our Faces but our Hearts likewise shining with unspotted Purity It were the most unbecoming thing in the World for those to Dâ—file themselves with any Unrighteousness who have their Eye continually fixed upon an undefiled Inheritance expecting as the full Reward of all their Labours a Crown of Righteousness What shall not Heaven's Brightness expel the Darkness of Hell Shall not the Hope of eternal Happiness promote in our Hearts and Lives the Work of Holiness Is there a Crown of Glory at the end of our Christian Course and shall not that make us walk Pure
Bags and Coffers are stored with Gold Because the World dandles you upon her Lap 't is no sure sign that you shall rest for ever in Abraham's bosom You may not think to be Heirs of Heaven because you are the Possessours of the Earth For not getting an Interest in the Recompence of the Reward now you are sure to go without it to all Eternity The good things of this present World you may love but the good things of Heaven and Glory you shall never have You may have a large Portion of earthly Enjoyments But shall never enjoy the Inheritance of Saints in Light †Psal 17.14 'T is no new thing for God to fill their Bellies with his hidden Treasures with the choicest of all earthly Comforts who never take any care to lay up for themselves a Treasure in Heaven But what alas will it profit you to have Earth in Hand if you have not Heaven in hope What though Riches and Honour are the Lot of your Inheritance amongst those whose Lot is Happiness and eternal Glory What relish think you hath Dives now left him of all his Delicacies or Esau of his dear-bought Pottage What pleasure hath the Rich Fool of his full Barns or that young Man of his large Possessions What delight hath Jezabel in her Paint or Ahab in Naboth's Vineyard What comfort can a Man have in the choicest Quintessence of any or in the greatest Confluence of all earthly Enjoyments who must receive them as his Portion and can never expect any other Happiness any other Portion or Reward in God's heavenly Kingdom It may be for the present thy Mony is thy Idol and thou art held in Thraldom under thy own Possessions but what will remain of thy Silver and Gold to carry thy Soul through the Storm of Death save only the (b) Jam. 5.3 rust thereof to joyn in Judgment against thee and torment thee eating thy Flesh like Fire for ever It may be thou art acted now by vain Glory and Desires of popular Applause but what will it then avail thee to be admired by thy fellow Prisoners and condemned by thy Judge It may be thou servest thy own Lust and another's Beauty but what Pleasure will there be in all this when the Fire of Lust shall be turned into the Fire of Hell It may be thy worldly Comforts and Accommodations are now looked upon by thee as thy greatest Happiness but what miserable Comforters will these be when peeping out of thy Grave thou shalt see Heaven and Earth all on a fire and Christ coming in the Flames thereof to take Vengeance upon thee There is a blessed God that could comfort in such an hour but thou must never see him There is a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away there is a Kingdom that cannot be moved there is all fulness of Joy and Soul-satisfying Pleasure but having thy Portion in this present World thou shalt never have these to comfort thee in the World to come Make the best of your Portion here of your Riches Honours and Pleasures on Earth for you must never receive any Portion hereafter you must never look to be Crowned with Life and Eternity of Glory in Heaven Oh then how unhappy are all those who neglect to get an Interest in the Recompence of the Reward have no Heaven but Earth no Glory but what will end in everlasting Shame and perpetual Contempt no Pleasures but what must shortly be changed into Hellish Intolerable and remediless Torments If you love your immortal Souls come away from all worldly Vanities and be sure to get an Interest in this glorious Reward that your Lives and your Happiness your Rejoycing and all your Comfort may not end together The greatest Portion in this Life will afford you but small Comfort of upon good Grounds you cannot look for a better Portion after Death 2 CONSIDER the Recompence of the Reward which God sets before us it 's a thing feasable and that which you may obtain if you will but seek it The Riches Kingdom and Glory of this World may be sought and yet never found But whoever by patient continuance in well-doing shall seek for Glory and Honour * Rom. 2.7 and blessed Immortality God will certainly Crown them with Life everlasting The Lord is willing to bestow Heaven the best of Rewards upon the worst of Sinners will they but embrace it This eternal Recompence of Reward 't is a thing indeed difficult to be obtained that none may despise it But yet it 's possible to be obtained that so none may sit down discouraged as despairing of it This Exhortation would be out of season to the Damned in Hell betwixt whom and eternal Glory there is a great Gulf fixed so that they are now no longer within the Possibilities of Life and Salvation But for you there is still Balm in Gilead to heal all your Wounds there is an all-sufficiency of Merit in Christ to expiate your Sins and there is still a most merciful Propensity of Will in God to Crown all those that diligently seek him with a glorious Reward And why then since Life is before you will you die the Death Why will you choose to be miserable under Tenders of Glory and eternal Happiness Why will you expose your selves to hellish Torments when the Lord himself doth so earnestly invite you to accept of Heaven Shall God be willing to give and yet you so unwilling to receive the Reward of eternal Life Oh why will you be such Enemies to your own Happiness making light of that great Salvation which though difficult is yet possible to be obtained Can you be content to fall short of eternal Glory and for ever to (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alexand. Admonit ad Gentes pag. mihi 6. a. be shut out of Heaven where is fulness of Joy Shall God hold out the Golden Scepter of his Grace and will you not so much as touch it to save your own Lives Must he follow you with daily Importunities of Love intreating you to accept of this glorious Reward to make you happy and will you still with Disdain turn your backs upon him as if the Favour of God in Christ as if Heaven and eternal Glory were not worth the having (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Hier. Praef Cateches pag. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem Cateches 1. pag. 3. The Lord is Bountiful and willing to give But yet he expects that you should be so dutiful as to receive with all thankfulness what he gives The bestowance of this glorious Reward doth indeed belong to God as his part But then the seeking and acceptance thereof doth belong to every one of you as your necessary indispensable Duty Give diligence then since God so freely offers with all thankfulness to embrace the Reward of eternal Life Were the Matter of this Exhortation an Impossibility exciting you to seek for what you could never find and to labour for what
wrote at the end of his Friend's Book upon part of the same Subject What this to know as we are known shou'd be The Author could not tell he 's gon to see We have seen him in his Life let us now see him at his Death in and under the Gripes of his last Sickness which for want â—f the Pen of a ready writer remain only in a few short and broken Sentences but they are of that Weight that if Reader thou hast any Sense of Eternity thou wilt covet to die like him Take a few of them When shall I be unburdened of this Body of Corruption Oh Happy Day and â—onged for Oh when Oh when Methinks it is very grievous to think of being turned back again and put into the Hands of the World again Again Oh lift me up meaning by Prayer to my longed for Rest Again crying May not I pray for dissolution I find no hurt in it good old Simeon cries out Let thy Servant depart in peace Another time being in Pain I could fill my Mouth with Complaints but I will be dumb because thou hast done it Again standing by him desiring him to take something frequently that he might gather strength he replies Away away I look not for it God is able to raise me up but I know my Days are at an end and my Time is accomplished I only wait for my Lord. Oh why linger I so long Come my Dear Lord Come quickly and take me up to thy self Again Oh when will the Day of Redemption come When shall I have past all these wearisome Nights and Days Again When he had been under much Faintings and Sinking he cries out with Eyes lift up to Heaven Oh where are thy wanted loving-kindnesses are thy Bowels shut up One standing by him asked him if he spake it as to his Souls concern He answered Oh no I bless God its state is settled Another time having some ease and refreshment he said This is not Heaven One standing by replies I hope you will be willing to tarry with us Oh yes if God have any more Work for me to do I shall thankfully take the Mercy There were multitudes of these sweet Passages lost by his observing one transcribe them after which he was much silent We have seen him die twice over once morally and now naturally let us accompany him to his Grave and there hear what Character a conforming Minister gave of him one that knew him well and intimately and therefore the rather to be believed His whole Life was a curious delineation of Religion and Learning so Virtuous and Spotless that Malice itself might be angry but had no cause to be so with him His Reputation as invulnerable as the Air his unexampled Goodness might justly stile him a Match for Antiquity in its greatest Purity and Severity I 'll pass by his natural Constitution his solid Judgment his Affections and the Faithful Treasury of his Memory I 'll say nothing of his Quick and Happy Fancy the fruitful Store-house of hallowed and sublime Notions Yet I can't but make mention of his Gravity which was always constant and genuine He did nâ—t deserve this Character that Suidas gave Salust the Philsopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Somtime acting the grave Lecturer sometimes playing the ridiculous Child He was not in the Desk or Pulpit demure and mighty devout and elsewhere Light Vain Frothy and Dissolute But always composed Serious and Reverend beyond his Age. His Presence struck a reverential Awe into the Persons he conversed with and his Deportment was so Graceful and Majestick that I well remember Time was when these words Here comes Mr. Cooper would charm a rude Society into civil order and compose lead Persons into an handsome decorum his Affability was Candid and Generous his Language Free and Eloquent his Charity open-handed and if I may not say he was liberal beyond his measure of the good things of this Life I am sure of the things of another Life he was often liberal beyond his strength his Humility had taught him to speak evil of no Man and his Loyalty to enjoin Subjects to obedience and to hush into Silence whatever did detract from or tend to the defaming of Dignity the contempt of the World was very conspicuous in this holy Man Agar's Prayer found sweet entertainment in his Soul desiring to be a Stranger on the Earth like the kingly Prophet and as a refined Saint always accounted himself to be in a State of Banishment while in a state of Mortality his Studies and Learning were unwearied and venerable and I dare challenge the World to give me the Lye while I assert him to be a general accomplisht Scholar no common Linguist a smart Disputant a judicious Philosopher and an experienced godly Divine If I say nothing his printed Sermons his Legis septimentum his noble attempts in three Works that must now be buried in the same Womb that conceived them and his constant generous designs for the publick good speak more in silence than I can utter with the highest pitch of my invention his singular Piety did disperse its Rays to all that beheld him being like sacred Fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 warming refreshing quickening all about it and kindling in others the like Zeal for God and Goodness he had in himself Witness this Legacy he left to me Study God says he and study your self closely and pursue Holiness more than Learning though both together make an happy Constitution And when I was a Boy be sure whatever Precepts dropt from his sacred Lips I had this for one Disce Christum aut nihil learn Christ or nothing of whom I must needs tell the World that if ever I behold the blissful Face of God in Glory next to the sacred Trinity I think I may say I owe it to his Godly Councel and Society Should I tell you his compassion to Souls his Heroick Spirit his Trust in Providence his Delight in Meditation and Thanksgiving and of all his heavenly endowments I should raise a work to trouble Fame and astonish Praise For his ministerial Labours I appeal to this People how earnest how importunate how instant in season and out of Season he hath been with them to convert them to a state of Grace and to bring them to a saving Knowledge of Jesus Christ Let your Consciences speak what great things he hath done for your Souls You alone my Friends of this place have the greatest loss your Watchman's gone your Glory 's departed How well now may you be termed Desolation Come come with me here paint the Characters of Woe Here pay your Tribute to the dead Here make return of those Sighs and Tears your holy Passion hath abundantly laid out for you Engrave his Doctrin upon your Hearts and though he 's gone be still intimate with his Godly Counsels and hearty Advice and while you have Childrens Children to perpetuate his Memory let not his Name his precious Name be
sufficient Portion though you had not so much as the Crumbs with poor Lazarus which fall from the Rich Man's Table how much more when you are sure of the Barrel of Meal and that Cruse of Oyl for your Viaticum which will never fail till the Famine be over and you come to eat Bread even the Bread of Life in the Kingdom of God Remember Christians you are to ‖ Quaeramus quid optime factum sit non quid usitatissimum Et quid nos in possessione Foelicitatis Aeternae constituat non quid vulgo veritatis pessimo interpreti probatum sit Sen de vit Beat. cap. 2. Seek what most may corduce to the bringing of you to Heaven not what is the common usage of Earthly Minds you must look what may best fit you for your Eternal Inheritance not what is most approved by those who have neither Part nor Lot therein 'T is Storied of Charles the V. That when the Duke of Venice had shewed him his sumptuous Palace and earthly Paradice instead of Admiring it he only gave him this Serious and Christian Memento Haec sunt quae faciunt invitos Mori These are the things that make us so Desirous to Live in the World and so Unwilling to Dye The Lord sees good to break his People in their Estates with Breach upon Breach that they may be more willing and ready to leave the World to get out of their earthly Tabernacles and to be Cloathed upon with their House which is from Heaven They shall have nothing but Hunger and Thirst and fiery Serpents in the Wilderness of this World that they may never take up their Rest till they come to the heavenly Canaan nor be Satisfied till they come to sit down to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb where they shall have a full Meal of Glory So that though it be no Comfort to be Broken in our Estates yet there is much Comfort comes in by Broken Estates Though Lazarus had no Advantage from his Poverty because that brought him to the Rich Man's Gate yet he had great and everlasting Advantage accrewing to him into the sweet Repose of Abraham's Bosome God puts the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost ad Pop. Antioch Hom. Gall and Wormwood of Vanity and Vexation of Trouble and Disappointment upon the Brests of all our Injoyments here that we may not have a Delight to be always Sucking at them He makes them a Broken Reed that fearing to be Pierced by them we may not Lean upon them He sets them on Fire now and then like as Absalom did by Joab's Corn Fields that we may not dare to lye out any longer but may gladly repair to him as our Absalom as the alone Author of Peace Rest and Happiness to our Souls And certainly when we find so much Bitterness in all our Injoyments we yet think it so good to stay here did we find nothing but Delight and Sweetness in them we should never think it good to go hence They that have Feathered their Nests in the World have no mind as One well Observes to be upon the Wing to Fly out of it With you Christians it must not be so Your Emblem should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if Clemens hit right a Ship moving towards Heaven that must no where put in for Harbour till at the Shoar of Blessed Eternity If others will Flag and Flutter here below and be Intangled with the Bird-lime of Wordly Cares let them But be sure that you Soar a-loft getting above the Cares of the World and Flying as with Wings like a Dove to the Windows of the Temple of God in the heavenly Sion It becomes not you that are the Off-spring of Heaven to lye Grovelling upon the Earth You that are the Seed of the Woman it becomes not you to Content yourselves with the Serpent's Food The Heart of every Christian is the place where God and Christ and serious Thoughts of Heaven should lodge Let not therefore the World Usurp upon them set not your Hearts upon those things which God would have you always to keep under your Feet Remember Sirs many might have come into the Harbour of Eternal Rest with full Sails with Top and Top-Gallant of Divine Plerophory had they not run the precious Vessel of their Souls on Ground had they not split themselves upon the Rock of Worldly Cares So hard it is to cut our way through an importunate Croud of Earthly Incumbrances into the Kingdom of God Whenever therefore Christians the World appears to you in a Garment made of Love suspect it for a * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart. Dalilah hired to Betray you into the hands of your Mortal Enemies the cruel Philistines The Champions could not wring an Apple out of Milos's Hand by all their Strength but a Fair Maid by Fair Means got it presently Thus the Beauty and Smile of the World it may Foil us sooner than the Strength of the World this if we look not to ourselves may easily Steal from us all the sweet delicious Fruits of Heaven and Glory Earth-seeking is usually Heaven-losing They that Trade most for the World do seldom Purchase that One Pearl of great Price Sicily is so full of sweet Flowers if Diodorus Siculus may be Credited that Dogs cannot Hunt there Sure I am the sweet Injoyments of this World may easily make us lose the Scent of Heaven How well Satisfied then should we be to be without these things striving to live above them when we find them so often like a strong Remora hindring us in our Course to the Fair Haven of Eternal Happiness Of some Mountains Geographers Write That their Tops are above the middle Region of the Air and out of the reach of Storms Thus Christians they should leave this lower Region of the World and live above would they not be Storm driven in their Voyage towards the Holy-Land ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sic Laert. in ejus vita Anaxagoras being Accus'd as One that Studied not Politicks for his Country's Good I have cry'd he a great Care of my Country pointing at Heaven Let the World Christians Accuse you how it will besure that you Study Heaven that you Meditate Glory that you seek with all Care and Diligence the Kingdom of God OF so great Consequence is a due Respect to Heaven and Glory that * Est enim Deus qui solus potest honorare virtutem cujus merces immortalitas sola est quam qui non appetunt nec Religionem tenent cui aeterna subjacet vita profecto neque virtutis vim sciunt cujus praemium ignorant Lact. Instit Lib. 3. Cap. 27. p. 332. Lactantius denies those to be of the True Religion who seek them not as their Happiness and Reward Nor will he grant That any Man knows the Power of Virtue who remains Ignorant of not desiring that Eternal Recompence wherewith the Lord at length will Crown it However you may Learn
Eternal Reward that God sets before us Heart Purity with a Life of practical Godliness that 's the Regia Via the King of Heaven's High-way which leads to Glory So that whoever hath a due respect to heavenly Glory desiring that as the Reward of all his Labours can no more make liâ—ht Performances than a Man who desires Life can sâ—t Light by Food and Raiment with such like Comforts that are as Oyl to feed that Lamp ¶ Scientia id praestat ut quomodo et quo perveniendum sit noverimus virtus ut perveniamus Alterum sine altero nihil valet ex scientia enim virtus ex virtuâ—e Summum Bonum nascitur Lact. Instit lib. 3. câ—p 12. p. 271. As there is no possibility of arriving at Heaven without Knowledge of the way So neither is it possible that we should ever come to Heaven the way being known without walking therein 'T is not the Jacob's Staff of Speculation but the Jacob's Ladder of a Godly Conversation by which we must Climb the Tree of Life The School-men have large Disputes pro and con about the Nature of Divinity Whether it consist more in Speculation or in Practise Aquinas makes Theologiam Speculativam and Scotus will have it Practicam but indeed 't is the Complication of both these that makes a good Christian whose Gospel Light must be Animated with a Gospel Life and all whose Knowledge must Expatiate into Obedience These things if you know saith the Lord of Life happy are ye if you do them John 13.17 Knowledge may be our Pilot to guide us in our course but Practise is the Ship in which we must Sail to the Shore of eternal Soul-satisfying Happiness Hence the Apostle James 1.25 pronounces the Practical Hearer Blessed though not for his Deed yet in his Deed clearly making Practise the Evidence thô not the Ground of our Happiness the Way that leads to a Crown of Life though not the Price whereby we should think to purchase it As God is a plentiful Rewarder of those that diligently seek him so he will be sought before ever the reward of eternal Glory can be had Having therefore our Eyes upon the Star of True Happiness let us keep our Hands to the Helm of Practical Holiness [†] Qui vult sapiens ac beatus esse audiat Dei vocem discat justitiam humana contemnat divina suscipiat ut Summum illud Bonum ad quod natus est possit adipisci Lact. He that would be Blessed desiring to be Wise to Salvation let him hear the Voice of God let him work Righteousness let him despise humane Vanities let him enterprize divine Offices that he may come at length to the full Enjoyment of that Chiefest Good for which he came into the World We must quit ourselves like Men on Earth or never look to be made glorious like the Angels in Heaven True Happiness is a rich Jewel Lockt up in the Cabinet of Heaven in the Kingdom of God Holiness must turn the Key or the Door of Blessedness the Gates of the Heavenly Jerusalem will never open to us Keep we therefore our Eyes upon Heaven's Glory and then forbear we to do the Work of God upon Earth if we can It 's hope of Gain that makes the diligent Tradesman be up so early and so patient to endure hardship How much more should the Hope of gaining not Earth but Heaven not those Riches which perish in the using but the Riches of eternal Glory make us labour to be Holy Oh let Carking for this World be expelled with our Care for Heaven Let this eat up our Hearts with desire to have the Injoyment of that glorious Inheritance 'T is Fabled of Leobis and Biton that their Father having been imploring the greatest Blessing from the Gods upon these his Two Sons the next morning they were found both Dead in their Beds The greatest Blessing that can befall a Child of God is to dye in the Lord bidding Adieu to this vale of Tears and so entring upon his Master's Joy The Happiness of God's People doth indeed dawn in this Life in the Beauties of Holiness from the womb of the Morning but the Noon-tide of their Happiness the Meridian Light of Glory doth never shine forth upon them till they come to Heaven Most of a Christian's Drink in this Life is Oxymel Heaven alone puts that pure Cup of Consolation into his hand wherein there is no sour Ingredients True Blessedness grows indeed upon the Tree of Godliness which hath indeed some Bloomings and Buds of Comfort here but it comes not to it 's full growth till another Life This World is too Cold a Climate to bring it to Ripeness it must first be transplanted into the heavenly Canaan and have the Sun of Righteousness shining upon it in full strength before the blessed Fruit of this Tree will ever be brought to it's full Maturity So that a Christian doth not Wither when plucked up of Death as it were by the Roots but he changes the place of his growth leaving the Wilderness to be Planted in Canaan where the Fruit of Holiness is now Crowned with Life everlasting COME ¶ Veniant qui esuriunt ut coelesti cibo saturati sempiternam famem ponant Veniant qui sitiunt ut aquam salutarem de perenni Coelestique Fonte plenissimis faucibus trahant Hoc cibatu atque potu Dei et coeci videbunt et surdi audient muti Loquentur claudi ambulabunt stulti sapient aegroti valebunt mortui revivescent Lact. de vit Beat cap. 27. pag. 732. Edit Gal. then come all ye that Hunger that being satisfy'd with this heavenly Food ye may lay aside your Hunger for ever This Meat and Drink which God hath provided in Heaven is of that Sovereign Virtue that it both makes the Blind to See and the Deaf to Hear and the Lame to Leap for Joy and the Foolish to know Understanding and the Sick it restores to Health and the Dead it makes to Live a life of endless Glory Tully would have a Prince fed with Honour and drawn to Heroick Atchievements by the desire of Glory and Renown And I â—â—kewise would have God's People to live upon the Glory to come as that which will draw them to walk worthy of God who hath called them out of Darkness into the Kingdom of his dear Son Can any Man that sees Heaven and knows what it is to be with the Lord for ever go on in a course of sensual brutish living not regarding to prepare himself for the Glory to be revealed in him So sweet is the Pleasure of that eternal Light that if we should enjoy the same no more than one short hour yet for this one hour's Happiness we ought and that deservedly to despise all the Delights and Pleasures that the universal confluence of Worldly enjoyments could afford us TELL me then if God's People be not well advised to study Holiness Tell me
'T is fictioned by the Poets in their Mythology of Prometheus that he did work and fashion the Bodies of Men out of Clay but he was fain to steal Fire from Heaven for the informing and quickning of them with living Souls (a) Psal 139.1 When the Body is curiously formed and admirably organized in the lower Parts of the Earth yet still it would remain a lifeless and unspirited piece of Clay did not God animate and quicken it with a living Soul with a celestial Spark lighted by his own Breath from Heaven THE Body of Man is but a Flower springing out of the Earth that will quickly wither and return to its Dust but his Soul hath Immortality written upon it it s a Bud of Eternity that can never be blasted nor wither away into nothing The Body indeed is nothing but a Compound of Death and Mortality it will quickly crumble away into dust and rottenness but the Soul having no Principles of Death and Corruption bound up in it will run a Line parallel to aâ—l Eternity it can never be confined by time but will for ever be launching forth in the boundless Ocean of an endless Duration †Matth. 10.28 The Body is obnoxious to the stroke of Death and by the Hand of Violence may before its time be matriculated amongst those that sleep in the Dust but the Soul being an immaterial Substance is above that fatal blow and hath from the spirituality of its own Nature everlasting impregnable security against every Hand of Violence written upon it so that Death itself is not able to touch the Life of the Soul THE Soul therefore being thus Divine in its Original and Eternal in its Being and Duration there is no Man unless he will renounce his own Understanding and apostatize from his own essence but must acknowledge it a point of the most important and masculine reason in all the World to consult the Salvation of our Immortal Souls providing above all things for their Eternal Welfare Should we prefer the Casket before the Jewel a frail Mansion of Mortality before an heavenly Inhabitant or the dark Lanthorn of the Body before the Soul that Divine Lamp which if fed by the Oyl of Grace would always shine forth with most radiant dazling beams of Brightness The excellency of our Souls is so transcendently Great and Glorious that it justly lays claim to our principal care and because they will never be raked up with our Bodies in the cold Embers of Death why therefore hath the Lord made it the great end of our Lives to work out Salvation for them giving diligence to make them meet through Grace for everlasting Mansions of Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven But how can we thus take care of them or design their Eternal Happiness as the great end of our Lives in case we may not have respect to the recompence of the reward seeking Life and Eternal Glory by patient continuance in well-doing to Crown them withal Can the Salvation of our Souls be the object of our principal care next to Gods own Glory when out of a pretended Zeal for that we would seem altogether careless and unsolicitous about the saving of our own Souls How can we say we make salvation the great end of our lives endeavouring that our Souls may be happy when we hold it unlawful to bend and level all our desires for the hitting of that fair mark Believe it Christians they that would perswade you 't is unlawful to have respect in our obedience to Heaven and Glory do in effect go about to argue your Souls into the careless neglect of their own everlasting welfare But can you be regardless of your own Salvation Can you sleight the great end of your lives and turn your back upon your own happiness Can you indeed neglect your immortal Souls that must either be happy or miserable either imparadised Souls in Heaven or damned Spirits in Hell to all eternity Do you know what Salvation is how everlastingly blessed those Souls will be that may approach the presence of their God that may see his Face that may rest in his eternal embraces that may enter into the joy of their Lord and drink freely of those Rivers of pleasure which are at his right hand for evermore Oh then make not light of so great Salvation but give all diligence to get an interest therein for your immortal Souls To make sure of eternal happiness was the great errand upon which God sent us into the World oh therefore take heed that you do not leave it upon uncertainties seeking after the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof as if you were loth to find it 10 WE may lawfully have respect in our obedience to the recompence of the reward because the very nature and proper genius of true Grace is to make a blessed divorce betwixt the world and the heart wherein it is resident and so to carry out the heart in strong desires and unsatisfiable breathings after Heaven and Glory True Grace is an Heaven-born Spark and therefore it doth naturally ascend upward aspiring after Heaven and Glory as its proper region As all the Lines meet in the Center and as all the Rivers do run into the Sea uniting themselves in the vast Ocean so all the desires of a gracious Soul they meet in Heaven uniting all their forces in one continued and insatiate anhâ—lation after fulness of Communion with God in Glory The Sun though seen in the Water yet hath his Tabernacle fixed in Heaven (a) Phil. 3.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Hom. 17. so though a Christian hath his commoration upon Earth yet his Conversation his Trade his Commerce is daily in Heaven the place of his Eternal Abode The Men of this World are ever inveloping themselves in thick Clay they are not soaring Eagles but crawling Muck-worms but now all those that are truly gracious they are Men of another Spirit they live in the highest Region and are compared to Eagles in regard of their Heavenly-mindedness (b) Isa 40.31 Life enables Men to lift up their Body from the Earth and to tread upon it with their Feet (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Homil. 16. Thus whoever have the Life of Grace begun in them they tread upon all earthly Enjoyments and are carried upon the Wing of desire quite above all sublunary Comforts into Heaven itself The heart that is seasoned with saving Grace is restless till it come to be fixed in a sure State of Glory and Happiness just like the Needle that is touched with a Load-stone upon which there is nothing but unquiet agitations and tremblings till it be firmly fixed and settle immovably in the North Point We read of Noah's Dove that she found no place whereupon to rest the sole of her Foot but only in the Ark so the People of God they find no place but in Heaven whereupon to rest themselves and therefore all their breathings
will you censure them as perverse zealous Fanatiques and Sons of violence because they willingly spend and are spent in the service of so bountiful a Master when their Eye is continually fixed upon so glorious a Prize The Men of the World how freely do they spend their †Isa 55.2 mony for that which is not Bread and their labour for that which cannot satisfy And will you then wonder at God's people and think it strange that having set before them the Bread of Life together with that Fountain of living Water which yields all fullness of satisfaction to those who drink of it they should proportionate their endeavours to the worth and dignity of such transcendently desirable and beatifical objects Have you never observed with what unweariedness the Husbandman undergoes the labours of his calling in hope of a plentiful Harvest Did you never see with what undaunted courage the Souldier will endure the hostile incursions the fierce onsets the cruel encounter of an Enemy in hope of uncertain victory And what shall I say of those that run in a Race have you not seen them rallying up all their strength putting forth themselves to the utmost of their ability and contending with an ambitious uncontrouled violence towards the Goal for the Crown that was set before them Wonder not then if God's People be unwearied in the work of the Lord will encounter the greatest difficulties and contend with a sacred violence towards the mark of their high Calling when their Eye is always fixed upon a full harvest of Eternal Glory upon an everlasting victorious triumph upon a far more pearly and incorruptible Crown of Life f IF as Tertullian speaks Men purchase Glass the brittle enjoyments of this Life at so dear a rate will you count it an unreasonable nimiety in Religion indescretion and an excess of superfluous Zeal in Gods People that they are willing with the like expense of Time labour and strength to purchase the rich Jewel the enchasing orient Pearl of Eternal Glory What is not Heaven more worthy of our Care and utmost Diligence than Earth Is not a Crown of Righteousness more worth than a Crown of Rose-buds and therefore with a greater proportion of Zeal and Carefulness to be sought after Is it Reason that we should more earnestly pursue the uncertain perishable comforts of this present World from which we must erelong be eternally divorced than Glory Honour Immortality and Eternal Life in the World to come Doubtless Sirs if Life and that Eternal If a Crown and that of Glory if an inheritance and that of a Kingdom incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away be worth seeking after then we need not be much solicitous about vindicating God's People in the zealous Passages severe Endeavours circumspectious Deportments and sanctified Singularities of their Christian course from the Imputations of Indiscretion misguided Zeal and Fanaticism which Men of corrupt Minds carnal Gospellers and such as have nothing but a bare Profession to shew for themselves are apt to lay them under For having that Crown that Kingdom that glorious Inheritance continually in their eye should not their care their diligence their endeavours be in some measure answerable and proportionate thereto You deceive your own Souls and do most sordidly undervalue (a) Tanti vitreum Quanti verum margaritum Tertul. lib. ad Martyr cap. 4o. Si pro terrenis bonis tantos labores tam gravia pericula homines aequo animo patiuntur quare pro fide pro constantia pro integritate pro thesauro aeterno pigri sumus Quare sumus timidi pro illis divitiis quas nec naufragia nobis possunt auferre August Serm. 105. de Temp. the recompence of the reward when you think upon easier terms to have Heaven than Earth and the Meat that will endure to Eternal Life than the Meat which perisheth yielding no satisfaction Oh brutish and unreasonable Sinners what are all your Riches and Honours what are all your Profits and Pleasures but as Weeds to Flowers or as Dross to the purest Gold if compared with that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory which abideth God's People in another World And shall we then think you have reason to censure them as guilty of too great severity superfluous Zeal and unnecessary Preciseness for giving diligence to make sure of such a glorious Reward when you yourselves think no time too long no diligence excessive no pains too great which you are at in pursuance of those fading Vanities Judge all you blessed Saints that stand already possessed of this eternal heavenly Glory yea let those among you that have had but the least foretasts prelibations and gleanings thereof if this be not an unreasonable censure judge freely Shall the covetous Worldling rise early go to bed late eat the Bread of carefulness macerate his own Body and wholly exhaust his strength in pursuit of that which in the judgment of the wisest of Kings (a) Ecclesiast 1.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Depastio animi consumitur enim animus aum in re nihili inani occupatus est Buxt is nothing but vanity and vexation of Spirit like a Moth eating up and consuming it as the original sounds And shall not the People of God having such a glorious Crown in their eye much more lay hold upon all opportunities walk closely with him that hath called them to his Kingdom and Glory and gladly spend and be spent in all holy Exercises that at length they may partake of that fulness of Joy which is in God's presence together with those super-celestial Soul-satisfying Pleasures which are at his right Hand for evermore (b) 2 Pet. 1.5 10. Doth not the Lord in his sacred Oracles of truth require that we should give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure Are we not commanded to work out with greatest †Phil. 2.12 Non dicit Apostolus nude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est accuratè magnoque cum studio operamini cum multa diligentia solicitudine pergite vestram operari salutem A Lapide Labour and Industry as the Original hath it our own Salvation Hath not our blessed Lord commanded that we should earnestly contend striving as in an Agony to * Luke 13.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contendite agonizate quasi in agone agonia contendite extremas summasque vires velut agonizantes exerite quasi pro vita si vincitis vel morte si vincimini luctaturi A Lapide enter in at the strait Gate of Eternal Life And must we not also storm the Kingdom of Heaven assaulting it with a kind of Holy Violence and forcing our way thither through all difficulties would we ever enter into it What then is the Blasphemy of all those who in opposition to the holy Spirit of Truth calling us out thus to spend and be spent in the service of God do take upon them a cursed
them tenders of a Crown of Life But they chose to deck themselves with Rose-buds preferring Earth before Heaven and troubling themselves about many things (c) Luke 10.42 whilst that better part is neglected which if chosen should never be taken from them Like Esau they sell their Birth-right for a mess of Pottage Like Judas they betray the Lord of Life who would save their Souls for thirty pieces of Silver Or like our first Parents to get the forbidden Fruit they let go their Happiness in Paradise preferring one deadly Apple from the Tree of Knowledge before all the delicious Apples on the Tree of Life What pains do we see Men take What hazards do they daily run to satisfie their unsatiate desires after Creature-enjoyments whilst Heaven with all the Glory and Royalties of it are neglected as the pleasing fictions of some devout Fancies rather than matters of reality With what wracking of Brain with what strength of endeavour with what Conflicts of Passions with what vehemency of desire and remorse of Consciences do Men resolving to be rich pursue their Earth-born vanities making that pitiful Religion they have serve turn and Christianity it self become Handmaid to wait upon their gain and secular advantage (d) Boni quippe ad hoc utuntur mundo ut fruantur Deo mali autem contra ut fruantur mundo uti volunt Deo Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 15. cap. 7. Whereas the truly gracious do improve their Earthly Treasures for high and Heavenly ends using them in a subserviency to their Christian devotion that they more freely enjoy God Why on the contrary carnal Hearts they subordinate every thing to their own sordid ends using God his Name his Worship his Ordinances that they may more plausibly prosecute and enjoy the World Doth not daily sad experience let us see how Men will hazard their own lives in desperate undertakings make themselves perpetual Drudges to the Times comply with every prevailing Faction throw away their own Mercies make shipwrack of Faith dissemble conscience and exchange their salvation together with all Hopes of Heaven and Glory for Earth and Earthly enjoyments Oh that I could but speak to the Heart of such amongst you who thus inordinately pursue the World grasping continually with adulterous embraces Was this the end of your being in the World to Idolize the Creature loving prizing and serving that above God your Creator Have you not things of greater consequence and that more nearly concern you to look after than the profits emoluments and perishable comforts of this present Life Is it not an immortal Soul more worthy your care than a sinful Body the Riches of Heaven and Glory than your Earthly Treasure and the recompence of Eternal Life is not that more worthy your care than the confluence of all Creature-enjoyments Your approaching Death your Eternal Judgment before Gods Tribunal your everlasting condition in the world to come should not these things be seriously minded and much rather regarded of you than the husky enjoyments of a dying Life What alass Poor brutish Muck-worm will thy full Garners thy Bags of Gold thy sumptuous Buildings thy long Leases thy gorgeous Apparel or thy dainty Dishes and sweet Morsels avail thee when the great God calls to Judgment when Death as God's inexorable Serjeant shall arrest thee and thou must now breath out thy Life and thy Hope together Will your Deeds and Leases be evidences for Heaven Will your Riches Honours and Pleasurable enjoyments be able to comfort your Hearts when now breaking through the bitter pangs and dying groans that will shortly take hold of you Will your Coffers or your Bags of Gold be accepted as a ransom for your lost Souls or can they purchase your pardon when now tryed for your Lives for your everlasting unchangable State before the righteous Judge of all the World To bring you off from the over eager pursuit of these perishable enjoyments and to beget in your cheeks an holy blush that ever you should neglect Heaven to seek them dwell a little on these things 1 (a) Vacuum quodcunque est si nullam nobis affert utilitatem CONSIDER all Creature-enjoyments they are vain and unprofitable The very choycest of your Worldly comforts they have nothing in them but that which is unprofitable and good for nothing There is always most vanity where there is the least profit And where there is no profit at all there is nothing at all but vanity And yet this is the Character which Solomon hath given us of all our Creature-enjoyments Every Creature in his Diary hath vanity written upon it and (b) Eccles 1.2 therefore since the whole cannot exceed the particulars when added together he gives us in this as the total Sum of all sublunary comforts Vanity of vanities all is vanity Add a thousand Cyphers together and yet without a figure they signify just nothing So though a Man had the whole confluence and universal aggregation of all Creature-comforts yet such is the vanity bound up in them that without the figure of Divine favour they are altogether insignificant and stand for just nothing in the Register of true profit And therefore (c) Prov. 23.5 Solomon endeavouring to call off Men from the too eager pursuit of Riches will not vouchsafe them any station amongst things really existing but thrusting them down into the bottomless Abyss of a non-entity he thus queries with the insatiate Mammonist Wilt thou set thine Eyes upon that which is not and make them to flie as 't is in the original upon a meer nothing The generality of Men they idolize Riches and look upon them as some great matters But the comfort the benefit the profit accrewing to us by them is so small that if you count them any thing at all you do quite over-prize them and do count them a great deal more than what they are ever like to amount unto We can hardly form up a conception of our Creature-enjoyments so diminutive and small as indeed they are Nor can we be able to reach so low in our thoughts as the bottom of that vanity and unprofitableness which is written upon them Most Men look upon their Riches Honours and Worldly accommodations through a Multiplying-glass which doth swell them up far above the proportion of their own magnitude and quite stretcheth them beyond the line of their proper dimensions But would they look upon these things as they are in themselves how would their tall gigantine stature shrink up into a Pygmey-dwarfishness and what a line of unprofitableness and vanity would they find stretched out upon them all * Psal 4.2 How long then ye Sons of Men will ye love vanity and go on to set your Hearts upon that which is not Oh turn not aside from seeking after Glory and Honour after Immortality and Eternal Life (d) 1 Sam. 12.20 21. For why as Samuel said in another case should you go after vain things after
remain ungrateful under such transcendently great and glorious discoveries Doth God allow you to walk at all times with Heaven in your Eye and will you not strive to make melody to the Lord in your Hearts Shall your heavenly Father shew you his back parts and cause all his Glory to pass before you and yet can you be unthankful not endeavouring to glorifie his great Name The God of all Consolation Christians is no niggard of his Cordials to us And shall we then shew our selves niggards in our retribution of thanks to him Shall God's Hand be opened and ours shut Is his Heart enlarged and shall we be straitned in our Bowels Can we make so light of Heaven and Eternal Glory as to think the Lord unworthy our Praises for allowing us a full prospect of them If the Disciples were in such an extasy of admiration when taken up into the Mount with Christ and beholding some obscure glimpses of heavenly Glory How much more cause have we to stand as in an extasy admiring the Goodness of God whom he allows to live every Day upon the mount of transfiguration shewing us all the Beauty and causing us to anticipate the Pleasures Glory and Happiness of the World to come God might have left us under a necessity of obedience without any hope of an Eternal reward in Heaven and yet even in that case all thankful acknowledgments had been done to him How much more when our Work is sweetned with the assured Hope of an Eternal reward so that now going on in the way we may look at Heaven and Glory as that which will be the end of every Duty Oh let us all with enlarged and ravished affections with the utmost vigour and activity of enflamed Hearts recount the wonderful condescention and stupendious love of God in vouchsafing us for our encouragement a prospect of the Land of Promise in the Way thither To admire the Riches of free Grace and to warble out the Praises of God will be a great part of our Work when we come to Heaven (a) Artem nunc aliquam laudandi Dominum addiscamus quam oporteat aliquando infinitis seculis exercere Arrow Tact. Sacr. lib. 3. Sect. 15. pag. 361. let us now therefore begin the employment of Heaven whilst we live on Earth adoring the Lord 's remunerative Goodness whereby we have so great encouragement no less than a Crown of Glory to all Holy Self-denying and upright walking before him When God shews us Heaven and Glory as in a mirrour that by the bright reflections of it our Hearts may be rejoiced 't is but equal that we should strive to become the Monument of his Praise at all times blessing the Lord in our Hearts and with our Mouths speaking good of his Name The Glory of Heaven is so transcendently great that we may sooner lose our selves in the admiration of it than ever return thanks to God proportionate to the least glimpse that proceeds from it Oh be not any longer unwilling to be much in thanksgiving and praise to him who sowillingly allows you the encouragement of so transcendently blessed and glorious a reward in all your obedience What can you bless God for giving you a Crum and not for shewing you a Crown of Life as the certain reward of all holy performances If liberty to use the good things of this World be matter of thankfulness to God how much more shall we thank the Lord admiring his Goodness for the Liberty which in all our obedience he allows us to have respect to all the Good things of Heaven and Glory and the World to come If enjoying the Meat that perisheth we are bound to bless the Lord and speak good of his Name for such a temporal fruition how much more should we adore the Lord whilst eying the Meat that will endure to Life everlasting though but yet in expectation The Queen of Sheba having obtained a sight of Solomon's Glory was so strangely transported that she had almost lost her Soul in an extasy of admiration In what an extasy of admiration should it then put us causing us with all thankfulness to adore the divine remunerative Goodness when the Lord gives us a sight of his own Glory every Day making us to behold in our prospect here on Earth all the Royalties Immunities and Soul-entrancing delights of the heavenly Jerusalem Had God Christians given you the Kingdoms of the World with all the Glory of them they had not been worth so much as the least glimpse of that Glory to which the Lord allows you to have an Eye in all your endeavours Be therefore no longer unthankful to God but admire him rather (b) Psal 63.3 Because thy loving kindness saith the Psalmist is better than Life my lips shall praise thee So my Brethren because the Lord allows you that respect to the recompence of reward that sight of Heaven that prospect of Eternal Glory which is better than Life it self why therefore let your Lips yea and your Lives too praise him The sight of Heavenly Glory puts Life into the Soul and so makes it go on with delight in ways of obedience Oh therefore let that God who thus makes your Hearts chearful be sure to find them thankful and your Mouths running over with his Praises in every condition For remember it he that is not truly thankful to God for Glory in expectation shall never have Heaven and eternal Glory in their full fruition You must now admire the goodness of God in the hope of Eternal Life or you can never taste how good the Lord is in the bestowance of Eternal Life upon you 2 Walk uprightly doing all that you do in the Ways of God not for vain-glory nor from any ambitious desire of popular applause but purely from a principle of love to that God who in all your obedience hath allowed you the strong and everlasting encouragement of having an Eye to the recompence of the reward You need not Christians to look asquint in your obedience nor do any thing that you do to be seen of Men so long as the Lord sets before you the reward of Eternal Glory allowing you to look on that as a Feast wherewith to refresh you as Robes of Righteousness wherewith to adorn you as a consort of Celestial Musick wherewith to delight you and as a Royal Diadem wherewith to crown you after all your labours when once you come to Heaven (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Hom. 19. Let not therefore vain-glory nor any such low and sordid principles act you in the Ways of God but let the Love of God who allows you by way of encouragement a respect to the recompence of Eternal Life be the spring of all holy motions in your Souls Look you may at the recompence of the reward but shall never receive it if in all your obedience you have not God and Eternal Glory but the praise of Man and vain-glory for your end Be
of his Wife what she thought of him truly said she I cannot tell for I did not so much as look on him whom then said he wondring did you then look upon On whom should I replied she but on him that would have redeemed my Life with his own Liberty Thus Christians you should so much be taken up with Love to Christ and the delightful contemplation of that Happiness and glorious Liberty which he by his own preciouâ— Blood hath purchased for you as not to think the whole World with all the Glory thereof worth the looking after much less to spend your Thoughts your Time your Affections your Strength upon it The Reward which God sets before you it 's an heavenly Reward and therefore do not like Men under the curse of the Serpent lie crawling-upon the Ground and licking the dust of the Earth but let all your Thoughts your Desires your insatiate breathings of Soul be continually running Heaven-ward 'T is enough for Heathens who know not God never had any glimpse of his Glory nor any tenders of an eternal Reward made to them to consult of their own Profit Pleasure and Honour in the World suffering all their affections to run out that way But for you that have seen the Back-part of Jehovah that have been upon the Mount with Christ that have Heaven with all its Royalties and Glory lying before you as thâ—â—â—â—ard of all your obedience for you to be Earthly-minded seeking great things in the World for your selves is the most dreadful miscarriage that can be What is Earth to Heaven What are the Riches of the World to the Riches of Glory What is the Mammon of Unrighteousness to that immarcessible Crown of Righteousness which the Lord sets before you for your better encouragement to all holy Self-denying and upright walking before him (c) Confundere igitur quod ita abutaris desideriis tuis adhaerendo foetidis mundi stercoribus cum possis recreari odoriferis rosis coelestibus Stella de contemnendis mundi vanitatibus lib. 1. cap. 31. Oh methinks Christians you should even blush and be ashamed to let the World get possession of your Hearts having no less than an Eternity of Life and heavenly Glory in your Eye 'T is said of the Loadstone that it cannot draw Iron so long as the Diamond is in presence And shall earthly Vanities draw out your affections after them when a Crown of Life all set with sparkling Diamonds of Glory is in presence Are you cloathed with the Sun as with a garmeâ—â— and cannot you now trample the Moon with all the Sublunaries under your Feet Have you Heaven in hope and will not that content you unless you may have the Earth with the fulness thereoâ— in your Hand Do you not know what * Fortunae malè creditur magno viatico breve vitae iter non instruitur sed oneratur Minut. Foel Oct. 122. Enemy the World is to the progress in Heavens way denying Men if once they go about to court it a quiet passage through its Territories as the King of Edom did the Israelites to the promised Canaan Esau by hunting too long after Venison he lost his Fathers Blessing Thus whilst hunting after Honours Riches and Promotions in the World you will lose with out a speedy return the Blessing of an Eternal Life A Man with a Mote in his Eye cannot see clearly nor with any delight behold the Sun Thus if you suffer your Eyes to be filled with the dust of the World you can never clearly see much less look upon with delight that glorious Reward which God sets before you (e) Dulces sunt divitae amantibus sed mors in olla cum et enim reddant hominem insolentem superbum trahunt secum ad mortem aeternam Idem lib. 1. cap. 18. Luke 10.41 The Riches Honours Glory and all the accomodations of his World are but sugared Poysons that will then most certainly destroy us when we delight to be feeding upon them Impossible it is for Men inordinately affecting the World not to be mortally infected by it Whilst Martha was much cumbred about many things she forgot to look after the one thing necessary And so whilst Men are troubled in the World pursuing with eagerness the enjoyments thereof they do easily forget to look after the Reward of Eternal Glory 'T is a rare thing for Men not to lose in Spirituals when they gain much in Temporals not to be impoverished in Grace by their Riches not to starve their Souls when their Bodies prosper and not to fall in their desires after God and Heaven and Glory when raised a few steps higher in this present World Crates Thâ—â—anus was a huge despiser of all worldly enjoyments as judging them prejudicial to the serious study of Philosophy and shall we then drown our selves in worldly cares who pretend to be studying Heaven and Eternal Glory (f) Igitur ut qui viam terit eò felicior quo levior incedit ita beatior in hoc intinere vivendi qui paupertate se sublevat quanòn sub divitiarum onere suspirat Minut. Foel Oct. 118. Qui plus habet minori gaudet libertate nec tam facilè eor suum attollere potest ad Dominum Idem lib. 1. cap. 12. Non potes vel per terram iter facere ferens onus adhuc speras te iturum ad coelum cum sis onustus Idem ibidem Believe it Christians the more you love the World the less Liberty you enjoy for Heaven Neither can you so easily meditate Eternal Glory and lift up your Hearts to God when burdened with the cares of this present Life How many wither in Spirit whilst they flourish in the Flesh growing the more cold in their devotion the more warm they find themselves in their worldly possessions The better some feather their Nests the more unfit they are to soar aloft and fly to God upon the wing of Divine Meditation And to tell you the truth what an holy Divine of our own once thought many might have gotten well to Heaven had not the World gon so well on their side as to make them believe there was no better Heaven to be found Consult then if you love your Souls their Eternal Welfare and do not go about to undo your selves for ever by your Earthly-mindedness Where the Carcase is there let the Eagles be gathered together Your Reward your Treasure your Happiness they are all laid up in Heaven let therefore your Heart and your Affections be there also 'T is not for such Eagles as you to stoop at Flies for those whose Eye should be fixed upon an Eternally glorious Reward in Heaven to be always moving towards the Earth as their proper Center Doth God take you up into the Mount giving you a prospect thence of Heavenly Glory and cannot you think it good to be there but you must be going down in Worldly-mindedness to your earthly Comforts Will you still like
the Prodigal be feeding upon Husks when there is Bread enough to spare in your Fathers House Will you still be building Tabernacles for your selves on Earth when the Lord shews you such Mansions of Glory prepared in Heaven Foolish Children When such an eternally glorious Reward is held out to you by the Hand of your heavenly Father how can you with any patience behold the World or think it worthy that you should spend so much as one thought upon it You should live Christians in the highest Region of an heavenly Conversation leaving those to scramble for the World that have nothing else to live upon (g) Sua sibi habeant regna reges suas divitias divites suam verò prudentiam prudentes relinquant nobis stultitiam nostram Lact. de Just lib. 5. cap. 12. pag. 493. That of Lactantius was a brave heroick Spirit which if throughly imbibed would make you all say with him let the Kings of the Earth have their Kindoms let â—â—e Rich Men have their Riches and the Prudent of this World let them have their Prudence to themselves so that they will only leave us the folly of seeking by patient continuance in well-doing Glory and Honour and Immortality and Eternal Life Get your Hearts fixed upon your Treasure in Heaven and I dare say it will never grudge you to see the Lord filling the Bellies of the Wicked with his hidden Treasure on Earth It matters not much what they have in hand so long as God allows you to have always an immarcessible Crown of Glory in you to Eye Oh this is the Happiness of Gods People even in this present World that having gotten their Hearts once weaned from earthly Comforts they live in the suburbs of the heavenly Jerusalem When once they leave off to feed with delight upon the Garlick and Onions of Aegypt they shall then sit down under the shadow of Gods dearest Love in Canaan and there find his Fruit sweet to their tast When once they turn away their Eyes from beholding worldly Vanities they may behold with delight the promised reward and have their Eyes continually feasted with the bright entrancing beams of Heavenly Glory (h) Quis non illius vitae desiderio praesentem vitum despierat Quis non illius abundantiae delectamento divitias temporis labentis exhorreat Quis non illius regni dilectione omnia terrena Regna contemnat Fulgent ad Theodor. epist 6. pag. 551. Who then for the desire of such a Life would not despise this present World Who for the delight of that abundance would not even fear the Riches of gliding time Who for the Love of that glorious Kingdom would not contemn as things of no value all earthly Kingdoms Oh believe it Christians you will have Meat to eat which the World knows not of living Heavenly-minded The World can never feast her greatest Favourites with those redundancies of Joy and Comfort which you may expect getting weaned affections to things below and living above Let therefore the Price of earthly Commodities fall and the price of heavenly Commodities rise in your thoughts And tho you be absent from your Treasure in Body yet see that you be always present therewith in Spirit In vain doth God afford you a prospect of Glory on Earth if it prove not a spiritual Load-stone to attract and draw up your Hearts as high as Heaven 8 WALK patiently as well satisfied to suffer and bear the worst of Afflictions that at length you may come to Heaven the best of Rewards Their Hearts may well be established with divine Patience in every condition whose Eyes God allows to be fixed in every Duty upon heavenly Glory And truly the condition of God's People in this present World doth evince the great necessity of Divine Patience to all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus Luther makes it the very definition of a Christian to be a Crucian who denying himself must take up his Cross and follow Christ The Lord Jesus hath two Crowns the one of Thorns the other of Glory They that would enjoy the latter and be crowned with Glory they must first undergo the former and be crowned with Thorns What the Holy Ghost said of Christ that it behoved him to suffer and so to enter into his Glory the very same holds true of all his People (i) Acts. 14.22 who through many afflictions must enter into the Kingdom of God The stones in Solomon's Temple were first hewen and polished and then set up into a stately Building So God's People first they must be hewen and carved by sufferings before they can be fit to build the Temple of God in the heavenly Jerusalem To all the People of God this World is a Wilderness not a Canaan an Egypt not a Paradise a troublesome Sea not an Harbour of Rest The day that is without clouds the light that is without Darkness the Joy that hath no sorrow is reserved for Heaven So then the misery of our present condition may well let us see the necessity of Christian Patience to suffer and wait upon God in it Without Patience every burden will seem too heavy every Cup that our heavenly Father puts into our Hand too bitter and every affliction too long But get Patience and that will lighten every burden have Patience and that will sweeten the bitterest potion lengthen Patience and that will make the time of all your afflictions seem short There is â— passive obedience required of all Christians that they may quietly suffer and 't is patience must help them If we bring evil upon our selves then we should afflict our Souls with Godly Sorrow but if the Lord bring evil upon us then we must exercise Patience both quietly hoping (k) Lam 3.26 and waiting for his salvation Christian Patience is not only a comely Grace making misery it self by a pious deportment under it seem amiable but 't is also a necessary Grace making the very worst of Miseries seem tolerable by framing a Mans mind to his present condition when his condition is not to his mind There are many Men professing the Christian Faith who if deliverance come not at their own Time they presently grow impatient of waiting God's time resolving to trade for it in their own way But were their Hearts established with divine Patience they would never thus precipitate their Mercies nor think that deliverance worth the having which only springs up out of the ruines of Faith and a good Conscience 'T is the nature of Christian Patience to make a Man tenacious of his integrity working in him a strong resolution not to purchase the greatest good with the commission of any the least evil This makes a Man the same in Prison as at Liberty the same in Poverty as when abounding with Riches the same when under reproach persecution and sorest calamities in the World as when the Sun of outward prosperity shone bright upon him Let what Storms will bluster abroad in the
with the Terrours of Mount Sinai before he refresheth (b) Isaiah 61.3 them with Mount Sion's Comforts first he brings them to mourn bitterly for Sin before he pours out upon them Oyl of Gladness first in a word he puts into them the Spirit of Heaviness before ever he will Cloath them with the Garments of eternal Salvation So that here we must mourn and humble our Souls for Sin would we ever come safe to Heaven rejoycing with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory And truly whatever some say to the contrary we may as well expect a Crop without Seed as to reap the Reward of eternal Glory without Sowing in Tears There must first a Shower of penitential Tears fall from our Eyes before ever the Sun-shine of true Happiness in the Kingdom of Heaven will break forth upon us Repentance is so necessary a Duty (c) Luke 13.3 5. that no Man could ever yet get to Heaven nor escape Hell without it Sin must and will have Sorrow either on Earth or in Hell either in this World to your Comfort or in the next to your Shame and eternal Confusion If therefore you love your Souls labour by Sorrow to prevent Sorrow by godly Sorrow for Sin here to prevent despairing Sorrow for Sin in Hell What is it not better that we should break off our Sins by Repentance than that wanting Repentance we should be broken in pieces like a Potter's Vessel with the Lion-rod of God's heavy Displeasure Is it not much better that we should fill God's Bottle with our Tears than that for want of such Tears he should empty all the Vials of his Wrath (d) Ezek. 18.32 upon us (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Martyr Apol. 2. pag. 48. 25. The Lord tells you plainly he hath no pleasure in your Death But yet he is resolved that you shall liâ—e upon no other condition than that of breaking off your Sins by Godly Sorrow And who would not rather live Repenting (f) An melius est damnatum latere quam palam absolvi Tertull. de Poenitent cap. 10. pag. 169. than be damned and die despairing Did Esau seek his Father's Blessing with Tears and will not you much more seek the Blessing of eternal Life at the Hands of God with Sorrow in your Hearts and Tears in your Eyes that you ever offended him Oh little do you know the unspeakable â—enefit accrewing to a poor Soul by Godly Sorrow wâ—at Comfort it fills him with here and what Glory at will Crown him with hereafter There are none that live so comfortable on Earth nor any that go more surely to Heaven when they come to die than those whose Life hath been spent in bewailing their Sins (g) Magnum est poenitentiae auxilium magnum solatium Illa est vulnerum peccatorumque sanatio illa spes illa porta salutis Lactant. Epitom cap. 8. pag. mihi 750. Great as Lactantius sweetly saith is the help and great the Comfort of true Repentance This like Balm is for the healing of our Sin-wounded Souls this is the Foundation of our Hope and this is the Gate of Salvation through which we may enter into the Kingdom of God When Hannah had wept before the Lord she went away and her Countenance was no more sad Go you likewise and weep bitterly before the Lord for all your Sins would you ever have your Hearts to be filled with Comfort and your Faces to shine with the Oyl of eternal Gladness They that would build high must lay the Foundation very low Thus godly Sorrow for Sin is that sure Foundation Stone upon which God lays the Superstructure of eternal Happiness Holy Mourning is the Seed out of which the (h) Mat. 5.4 Flower of eternal Glory Springs As the Harvest naturally follows the Seed Sown So if now you shall carefully Sow in Tears do not doubt but the (i) Psal 126.5 Harvest of everlasting Joy will follow after Let not then your Souls be by any means prejudiced against godly Sorrow which though bitter in the Root yet will be sweet in the Fruit working for your Repentance to Salvation (k) 2 Cor. 7.10 never to be Repented of The Pleasures Mirth and carnal Jollity of wicked Men will have a sorrowful end there is never a drop of Honey in Sin but will shortly be turned into a Sea of Gall and as the Pleasures of ungodly Men have abounded in this Life so their Torments in Hell shall much more abound But as for the Tears that drop from the Eye of godly Sorrow they will never grieve you nor give you any just occasion to Repent of them as being sure to end in Joy and be Crowned with an Eternity of heavenly Glory Repentance I confess is a Bochim a place of Weepers and therefore displeasing to a carnal Heart that would always dwell in the House of Mirth But (l) Haec te peccatorum flactibus mersum prolevabit in portum divinae clementiae protelabit Tertul. de Paenitent cap. 4. pag. mihi 166. through this Valley of Tears you will come at length to the Paradise of God where instead of the bitter Waters of Marah your Souls shall be satisfied with the new Wine of eternal Consolation when the Cloud that hid the Sun from us is once dissolved into a Shower then it shines out gloriously Thus when the Cloud of your Sins that now hides from you the Light of God's Countenance dissolves kindly into a Shower of Tears then will you find the Sun of Righteousness shining out upon you with the brightest beams of Love and Glory Shall I then prevail with you to become God's spiritual Seeds-men (m) Gal. 6.8 now sowing in Tears to the Spirit that of the Spirit you may reap Life everlasting Oh neglect not I beseech you this great Salvation deprive not your selves through the hardness and impenitency of your own Hearts of that fulness of Joy and eternal Happiness which the Lord hath provided for all that are Mourners in Sion What though godly Sorrow be displeasing to Flesh and Blood and Repentance bitter (n) Psal 16.11 Yet who for that fulness of Joy and those Pleasures that are at God's right Hand for evermore would not gladly undergo it Possibly you think its a tedious thing to afflict your Souls for Sin turning your Laughter into Mourning and your Joy into Heaviness Oh but remember that Crown that Kingdom that eternal weight of Glory to which your Repentance leads will abundantly make amends for all your Sorrow By a few-hearty Sighs and Groans and Tears you may get to Heaven And oh how sad would it be if for want of these you should fall into Hell irrecoverably and be tormented for ever A (o) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Martyr Dial. câ—m Tryphon pag 207. Man breaking off his Sins by true Repentance is looked upon and Crowned with eternal Glory as if he had never sinned But the least Sin Unrepented of will be sure to
never failing to crown the weakest endeavours when sincere with a glorious Reward But remember those that only make conscience to do the Will of God in part and not wholly they have neither part nor lot in his heavenly Kingdom but must wholly end for ever fall short of Glory 9 TAKE heed that you build not your Hopes for Heaven upon a negative Righteousness but give diligence to live in the constant and faithful practice of all positive Duties (l) 2 Tim. 2.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Vessel of Honour is distinguished from the Vessel of Dishonour not so much because cleansed from what is Evil as because sanctified and prepared for every good Word and Work There are multitudes in the World that think themselves no small Saints because not the worst and most prodigeously Wicked amongst Sinners And many there be who count themselves in a good preparedness for Heaven because they have not the very Botches and Plague-sores of Hell visibly running upon them (m) Luke 18 11. God I thank thee said that proud Pharisee that I am not as other Men are Extortioners Unjust Adulterers or even as this Publican As if so be that because he had not his Hands full of Bribes and Oppression and the like Pollutions he must needs go to Heaven and be crowned with Glory Thus many glory because they are no Drunkards no Lyars no Swearers no Sabbath-breakers no unclean Persons embracing the Bosom of a strange Lover and oh that all our People had so much Righteousness as this to glory of But verily Sirs the fair Way of negative Righteousness leads to Hell and eternal Destruction as well as the foul pochy way of notorious Profaness Did you never hear of a Man dying for hunger as well as by eating Poyson Did you never see a Runner lose the Garland as well for leaving off to run as by catching a fall Did you never observe a Lamp going out as well for want of Oyl as by means of an Extinguisher So may you hear of thousands that die Eternally as well for want of doing good which is the Food of the Soul as by feeding upon the Poyson of their own Hearts Lusts So may you see Men daily losing the Garland of Eternal Glory for leaving off to run the Way of God's Commandments as by falling into wicked Practices So may you observe the Lamp of many professing Christians going out in the unsavoury snuff of sulphureous hellish Misery for want of thâ— Oyl of gracious Performances as well as by the fatal Extinguisher of open Ungodliness Do but look into the Process of Judgment which Christ will be sure to keep to in that great Day and you will find upon due observation made that the dreadful damnatory Sentence then to be pronounced against all the Ungodly it runs most upon Negatives commanding Men therefore to depart accursed into Everlasting Fire not so much for the Commission of Sins forbidden as for the neglect and omission of Duty enjoined (n) Matth. 25.42 43. Ye have not cloathed ye have not fed ye have not visited my poor Brethren saith Christ and therefore go ye cursed 'T is not said ye have robbed ye have reviled ye have persecuted them but their neglect of the forementioned Duties is that which now undoeth them this is that which sinks them to Hell and there works their Everlasting Destruction (o) Isa 1.16 17. What then will be the end of all Prayerless Meditationless Faithless and Irreligious Persons who though they â—â—ase to do Evil yet never learn to do well The Question will shortly be not so much whether you have oppressed as whether you have relieved the Poor not so much whether you have profaned as whether you have sanctified God's holy Sabbath not so much whether you have blasphemed as whether you have called upon the name of God with an upright Heart And this know the allowed total omission of any such Duty will as infallibly damn you as to live in the practise of the most gross and scandalous enormities So that to escape the pollutions that are in the World through Lust will at the best but procure you a cooler place in Hell so long as you walk not in the daily practise of those Duties which lead to Heaven Thou then that art a Man standing much upon thy negative Righteousness boasting thyself to be no covetous no unclean no debauched Person where iâ— thy Faith thy Wisdom thy reason still to go on in the careless neglect of Prayer of Self-examination of Repentance of meditating in God's Word and the like holy Exercises without which thou canst never be saved It is good indeed not to do Evil but yet it is withal a Soul-damning Evil not to do good ¶ Judg. 5.23 Wherefore was Meroz so bitterly cursed Was it because making a Confederacy with the Enemy they fought against God's People Oh no but because they came not out to the help of Israel against the Mighty Wherefore was that unprofitable Servant bound and cast into utter Darkness Was it for embezelling his Lords Talent or for wasting it upon Harlots Oh no but because he had not improved it to his Lords advantage Wherefore do we find that rich Man tormented in Hell Was it because he had taken any thing from poor Lazarus or pulled the Meat from his Mouth Oh no But because he did not cloath and feed him He finds Judgment without Mercy because he had neglected to shew Mercy And because he denyed Lazarus a crumb of Bread to satisfie his hunger now Heaven and Earth will not afford him one drop of Water to cool his Tongue So certainly will the neglect of Duty expose to an eternity of Wrath and unpreventable fiery Torments †Matth. 3.10 For not only the corrupt Tree but the barren Tree also is intended for the Fire not only the Tree which bears ill Fruit but also the Tree which bears no good Fruit must be fuel for the Wrath of God to burn upon without quenching for ever Give diligence then would you ever escape Wrath and obtain Glory not only to forbear the doing of that which is evil but also to be working the thing which is good Leave thâ— Duties of that place wherein God hath set you undone and your Souls are undone for ever But if carefully performing them you shall strive to abound with the Fruits of Righteousness 't is not long but you will have a blessed Transplantation from Earth to Heaven from the Wilderness of this World into the Celestial Canaan Only let every profane ungody Person stand aloof as those for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved for ever If a negative Righteousness will carry no Man to Heaven to be sure then those who allow themselves in a course of all unrighteous practices must fall irrecoverably into Hell and eternal Destruction If the slothful Servant were so punished who only hid his Lords Talent in a Napkin restoring it as good
Eternal Glory which is infinitely to be preferred that Inheritance which is incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away this God hath reserved for his own People Eternal in the Heavens Oh then what infinite cause have God's People to stand admiring their own Happiness Which though they may as Austin saith obtain it yet they can never to it 's worth value and esteem of it There are thousands in the World that have nothing for their Portion but some perishing creature-enjoyment But now the Lord Jehovah he is your portion he is your shield and your exceeding great Reward who is God 〈◊〉 all blessed for ever And doubtless God shews us â—â—re Love in giving us himself for our Reward than if h◠〈◊〉 crowned us with Royal State and sovereign commaâ—◠〈◊〉 â—â—all the Kingdoms in the World God may giâ—◠〈◊〉 Riches and Houses and Lands and yet hate theâ—â—e may cloath them in scarlet Robes here and yet throw them hereafter into scarlet Flames he may advance them to Honour in this World and yet cover them with shame and everlasting confusion in the World to come he may put a golden Scepter into Mens hands now and yet break them in pieces hereafter like a potters Vessel But in giving us himself for our Reward in making over himself to us by a federal transaction as the strength of our Hearts and our Portion for ever now he bestoweth the highest pledge of his special distinguishing Love upon us For to be sure the Lord Jehovah he is the most transcendently great and glorious Reward that the wisdom of God could devise that the Love of God could give or that the Heart 〈◊〉 Man can desire God is Bonum in quo omnia bona a bâ—ing compleatly replenished with whatever is good and desirable a Sun that always shines with a like brightness and is never eclipsed â—â—â—s as an essence that hath all excellencies and divine perfections bound up in himself as in one infinite volume he is a boundless Ocean without either banks or bottom into which all the Rivers of Wisdom Blessing and Goodness do empty â—hemselves (f) Liquet igitur beatitudinem esse statum bonorum omnium congregaâ—â— perfectum Boeth de cons phil lib. 3. pros 2. pag. â—â— So that if blessedness as Boetius defines 〈◊〉 do consist in the enjoyment of all good things then all that are truly Gracious they are blessed and they shall be blessed as having that God for their Portion and Reward in whom whatsoever things are good whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are desirable to make one happy do meet as in the only Center of Life and Blessedness What then is the folly of worldly Men blessing themselves in their havings not having the Lord Jehovah to be their shield and their exceeding great Reward Poor brutish Sinner is thy Rock like a Christian's Rock or thy Reward to compare with a Christians Reward thou thy self being Judge Be it so that thou have Riches Honours and worldly Enjoyments Yet what are these but as Wells without any Water as Trees without Fruit or as Stars without the Sun that may glimmer a little but can never make a Day of Happiness 〈◊〉 thy Soul (g) Qui Deâ—â—â—â—abet omni bono abundat qui verò Deum non habet pauperâ—◠〈◊〉 Extra Deum omnis delectatiâ—â—sta omnis laetitia est vana omnis rerum abundantia est 〈◊〉 indigentia Stella de Cont. mundi lib. 3. cap. 〈…〉 248. He that hath God hath all in point 〈◊〉 â—rue Happiness but he that hath not God for his Râ—â—ard is most wretched and hath nothing at all Have all the Riches in the World without God thou art poor Have all the Honours in the World without God thou art a vile Person Have all the Pleasures in the World wherein to bath thy self like an Epicure every Day yet without God thy condition is miserable there being nothing but fiery Wrath and Indighation that abides thy Soul in the World to come Be ashamed then any longer to count the Creature any thing in comparison of God who is the sure Reward of every believing Soul (h) 1 King 5.12 Do not talk with Naaman as if Abana and Pharpar Rivers of Damascus were better than all the Waters in Israel Do not think thy broken Cisterns to be better than the Fountain of Living Waters What shall Earth compare with Heaven Shall Pebbles compare with this one Pearl of great price Shall a small twinkling Star that uniting all its Beams hath scarce light enough to render itself visible compare with the glorious Sun usurp his Chariot and take upon it to give light to all the World Shall Creature enjoyments that have nothing but Vanity and vexation of Spirit for their very quintessence be compared with a Christian's Reward whose Portion is God over all blessed and blessing him for ever Oh learn to put a difference betwixt Portion and Portion betwixt earthly enjoyments and the Reward of Eternal Life in Heaven The difference is not so great between a Pins-head and the whole Body of the Earth as between all worldly Riches and heavenly Glory (i) Rom. 8.18 For as the sufferings are not so neither are the Comforts of this present time worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us 6 THE Reward whereunto God allows his People a respect in all their obedience it 's a full and satisfactory Reward Every Creature is short and defective a very compound of Vanity Emptiness and guilded Deceit That albeit the Soul should knock as one well observes at every Creatures Door yet she can find no filling entertainment within no Creature can bid her welcome it would quite exhaust Natures Store-house and indeed bankrupts the whole Creation to feast such a Guest as the Soul to her full content and satisfaction But now the Lord Jehovah he being the Reward of his People there is that fulness of all Good in him that they need no more God hath provided such a sumptuous Feast for them that when they come to sit down at his Table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of Heaven (k) Psal 63.5 now their Souls shall be filled as with marrow and fatness now their spiritual appetite shall be so fully satisfied that they shall hunger no more neither shall they thirst any more for ever The Appetite of an immortal is too vast and boundless for any nay for all Creatures in the World to satisfy but in the recompence of Eternal Glory there is that which will answer all her cravings that she shall now have no further to seek but rest fully satisfied This present Life is full of nothing but emptiness and dissatisfaction even in the highest Zenith of all its blessedness the Soul of Man hath a kind of infinite appetite desiring this good thing and that good thing and yet having obtained them like an hydropick Body 't is as thirsty as
Goodness Not but that I think as one Star differs from another in Glory So one Saint may differ from another in the Measure of his Joy (k) 2 Cor. 9.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Hier. Cateches 1. Quanto plus aliquis hic Deo obediens fuerit tanto ampliorem ab eo mercedem sibi recipiet quantoque amplius Deum amabit tanto propius videbit quam ceruere cupit Bern. Med. cap. 14. They shall all of them be thrown as Vessels of Honour into the same River of God's Pleasures But shall not all have the same bore nor be all of the same size though every one of them according to their capacity shall be filled up to the brim Proportionate to our improvements of Grace in this Life shall be our enjoyments of Glory in the next He that makes the best use of his Talent God will give him the best use for his Talent l So that the more we lay out ourselves for God here the more Joy God will lay up for our Souls against hereafter m He that now sows to the Spirit with the most liberal Hand shall then reap of the Spirit the most plentiful crop of Life and Eternal Happiness He that is now most careful and diligent in trimming his Lamp shall shine most brightly in the heavenly Orb. And according to what any Mans preparations of Grace are whilst now militant such shall be his Mansions of Glory when once triumphant Nor is there any just Ground hereby given to the Romanists whereupon to build there Doctrine of condign Merit Neither have they any advantage hence offered them to assert any such thing as a redundancy of Merit in Doctors Virgins and Martyrs intitling them each one to an additional Coronet Mat. 25.14 23. Luke 19.16 19. or surplusage of Glory For the Ground of all this we make to be the remunerative Goodness of God in Christ so that both Glory and the measure of Glory both Joy and the degrees of heavenly Joy must wholly be resolved into the free Grace of God from which they spring And if Gods rewarding his People Secundum opera according to the Works for the kind of them do nothing advantage the Doctrin of Merits why should his rewarding them Secundum opera according to their Works for the degree and eminency of them be thought to do for it If God where Grace may also give Glory without any Merit on the Souls part What reason can be given why where he gives more Grace he may not also give more Glory with the same freeness If any Man be made to sit down upon a more glorious Throne of Happiness in Heaven we do wholly ascribe it to the redundancy of God's Love to such a Soul putting him up into an higher Form of Grace here on Earth and so preparing him as it were for a more honorable Seat when he shall come to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets to the Marriage-supper of the Lamb. However it go there shall be that fulness of Joy and Glory in Heaven that none shall be able to complain of want nor to desire the least degree of Happiness and contentment imaginable more than what he hath (l) Atque id etiam beata civitas illa magnum in se bonum videbit quòd nulli superiori ullus inferior in videbit Aug. de civit Dei lib. 22. cap. 30. pag. 738. Nor shall any amongst the Saints envy the Happiness of each other when they shall every one participate of anothers Joy and count themselves so much the more happy by how much God communicates more of heavenly Glory to any of them So that whether we be Stars of the first or of the Second magnitude we shall all shine bright in the Firmament of heavenly Glory Whether the Vessels of our Souls be little or great they shall all of them if Vessels of Honour be full fraught with the rich Merchandise of Comfort Joy and everlasting delights Let your Hearts be never so sad for the present yet the Reward of Eternal Glory will comfort them Let them now be never so disconsolate and sorrowful yet this Reward will scatter all Clouds of Sorrow turning your Hearts into highest raptures of Joy Delight and everlasting Triumph 13 THE Reward whereunto God allows his People a respect n all their obedience it 's an unfading Reward and such as will never end in loathing and sariety This Reward is a glorious Sun that always shines with the same unspotted brightness 'T is a Tree of Life that always yields Fruit of the same delicious relish and sweetness so that though it satisfie you yet it will never fade you and though it will infinitely delight you yet it will never glut you nor make you weary of it The Manna which God gave his People in the Wilderness though at first they admired it yet afterward they grew to loath it But this heavenly Manna you will as much admire it and be as far from loathing of it after you shall have been feeding upon it for Millions and Millions of Ages as when first you gathered it with extasies of Joy and Delight passing all understanding in the Kingdom of God! What the Philosopher saith of the matter of Caelestial Bodies is nothing but what may be accomodated to the present Truth Though matter in Sublunary things be always burning with lustful appetite like a second Messalina after variety of new shapes yet such is the actuality and perfection of the form in heavenly Bodies that the matter thereof can desire no new form So likewise it is with the Saints of Heaven though whilst on Earth they were easily cloyed and tired out with their Creature-enjoyments yet now they have that fulness of Joy that perfection of Glory that surpassing delight and Soul-ravishing contentment of which they can never be weary and beyond which they can desire no greater Happiness Perpetuity neither takes off from the bitterness of Hell nor the sweetness of Heaven But as that will most exquisitely torment so this will infinitely delight for ever without any abatement The Sinners restless groans shall no less furiously tear his Woful Heart nor the Saints triumphant Hallelujahs any less sweetly rejoice his Soul after infinite Ages than what they did the first moment Long accustomedness whether to Heavens Joys or to Hells Torments will neither make the one less grievous and Wearisome nor the other less pleasant and delightful As the damned must expect the same Wrath the same Flames the same weeping hideous schrieching and gnashing of Teeth through the extremity of their Torments for ever without any mitigation So let the People of God expect when they come to Heaven the same fulness of Joy the same highest degree of Blessedness the same Paradise of sweetest delights Divine contentments and surpassing matchless Pleasures to all Eternity without any the least diminution (m) Qui satietati occurrit satietatem incurrit 'T is not
Hearts and make us walk with a lightsome Countenance in the saddest Condition Whilst Israel marched through the Wilderness their brightest Day had a Pillar of Cloud and their darkest Night a Pillar of Fire So in this Life things never go so ill with God's People but they have some Light nor so well but they have daily occasion of Sorrow and go groaning under some Affliction However an Eye fixed upon future Glory will be sure to mitigate the sense of our present Troubles What need he much be cast down for any loss whose Eye is fixed upon that heavenly Treasure which can never be lost What in all the World need fill his Heart with over-much Sorrow who sees fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore laid up in Heaven for him This eternal Reward Christians did you carefully eye it like the Tree thrown into the Waters of Marah would sweeten all your Afflictions it would make a Prison sweet and Pain easie it will turn a Wilderness into a Paradise give light in darkness and make the Heart merry amidst all worldly Troubles 'T is dogmatized by Naturalists that if a Man were above the second Region of the Air he would then be above all Storms This is true of those blessed Souls who live in Heaven by divine Contemplation they have rest from the day of Trouble no Storm can move them their Hearts are at ease in God let them suffer what they will in the World Let Friends and Goods and Life and all forsake us yet having an Eye to the Reward of eternal Glory that will be sweeter than either Goods or Friends or Life to us 4 A due respect had to this glorious Reward will work in your Hearts a blessed contempt of this present World enabling you to trample with an holy Scorn upon all its Pomps and lying Vanities The World frowning is more terrible but the World smiling is more deadly If Adversity kills its thousand to be sure Prosperity hath killed its ten thousands (a) 2 Sam. 1.19 21. In montibus Gilboae mortui sunt Nobiles Israel sic in honoribus prosperitatibus hujus seculi multi amittunt â—itam Stella Upon the Mountains of Gilboa did the Nobles of Israel fall Thus upon the high towering Mountains of worldly Prosperity do many catch a fall into eternal Misery But now an Eye stedfastly fixed upon the recompence of the Reward that prevents all this Danger enabling a Man to count all things but as loss and dung for the excellency that he sees by Faith to be in Heavens Glory Such is the force of Faith when vigourously exercised about this glorious Reward that it can put bitterness into all that the World counts most sweet and draw a veil of contempt over all the Pageantry of secular enjoyments disgracing them with every believing Soul into Vanity A Man long gazing upon the Sun hath his Eyes so dazled with the Splendour and brightness of it that he cannot discern the Beauty of inferior objects (b) Affectanti caelestia terrena non sapiunt aternis inhianti fastidio sunt transitoria Bern. Thus a Man eying by Faith the Glory and Royalties of this Eternal Reward will afterward find no Form or Comliness or Beauty in any of this World's enjoyments that he should desire them The Earth with all its Jingles must needs be low in our Thoughts when once we look as high as Heaven fixing the Eye of our Faith upon that undefiled Inheritance If God's Kingdom and the Glory thereof be once precious in our Sight and with delight looked after farewell all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them though now they were all transubstantiated into massy Gold yet the Soul is out of Love with them all looking upon them as no better than the serious Trifles of poor carnal Men whose unhappiness it is to have them their Portion in this present Life Excellently to this purpose we find Galeacius the renowned Marquess of Vâ—co bidding defiance to all worldly enjoyments who when offered a vast Sum of Gold upon condition of his Return to Popery makes scorn of that sordid motion saying their Mony perish with them that think all the Gold in the World worth ones Days communion with a precious Christ whom surely he saw by Faith like Stephen standing on the right Hand of God in Glory But I need not go far from my Text for an Instance of this kind we having it given in as the Fruit of Moses his eying the Recompence of the Reward that he esteemed the reproach of Christ Riches greater Riches than the Treasures in Egypt So easily could this holy Man trample upon all the World's Honours Riches Pleasures as nothing worth not worth so much as the reproach of Christ when fixing his Eye upon the Glory to be revealed in him If then Christians you would not love the World get above the World and by Faith live in Heaven (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Hom. 15. â—d pop Antioch Could a Man take a Station in Heaven whatsoever is here below would appear but small in his sight by reason of its distance Thus betwixt heavenly Glory and all earthly enjoyments there is that vast distance that the World 's greatest Comforts will seem but small and almost dwindle away into nothing could you but six the station of your Thoughts upon the pavement of the heavenly Jerusalem Men admire the World's Glory because they never saw a greater as one who had never seen the Sun might well admire a Star But those that by Faith can look within the Vail and take a prospect of Heaven's Glory can never be much taken with the small glimmering Stars of Creature-enjoyments The best way here to avoid stumbling Stones is to look down upon the Earth But if we would not have the World prove a stumbling Stone to us throwing us headlong into destruction we must always walk with our Faces as high as Heaven He that walks continually with Glory in his Eye will be sure to keep the World under his Feet not suffering any worldly enjoyments through his inordinate Love of them to block up his Way to Heaven 5 A due respect had to this glorious Reward will be Life in Duty making you chearful spontaneous always abounding in the work of the Lord. Those may well be out of Heart in Duty who are out of all hope to receive the Reward of Duty But Faith eying the Reward of Eternal Glory must needs be like Wings to the Bird like Oyl to the Chariot wheels of the Soul making a Man diligent and lively in all holy exercises A Prospect of Sion's Glory it 's the whetstone of endeavour it 's an holy bribe put into the Souls Hand to make her serve the Lord with chearfulness delighting greatly in his Commandments (d) Psal 112.1 God's People are never more light-hearted in his service than when that far more exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory is in their Eye There
Fruit. Do you not see multitudes every where forfeiting by Sin their Right to this blessed Reward Mortgaging Paradise for an Apple selling Christ together with all the Riches of this Kingdom and Glory for thirty pieces of Silver Oh 't is a Miracle of discriminating Grace to you that ever you saw so much of Heaven as to make you prize it at an higher rate Well if still you would keep at a distance from all appearance of Evil daily purifying your selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit let the hope of this eternal Reward be abiding in you Oh let your Eye be always upon this Crown and remember if you would not Sin that the least Sin is enough to rob you of it Look within the Veil observe this heavenly Kingdom and the Glory of it and remember that the least Sin is enough to shut you our of it for ever For saith Christ (b) Matth. 5.19 whoever shall break the least of these Commandments and shall teach Men so he shall be called least in the Kingdom of God He that thinks to rhetoricate Sin into current Coyn amongst the Citizens of the new Jerusalem may well please a carnal Heart that loves to bow in the House of Rimmon cum privilegio but will doubtless prove himself if our blessed Lord may be judge such reprobate Silver as without the Philosopher's Stone of true Grace to change him by a spiritual Transmetallation into pure Gold shall never be Treasured up in the Exchequer of Heaven To talk of small Sins that a Man for his own safety may venture upon and not prejudice his Salvation some little Zoar that a Man may live in and his Soul not die is the most damnable Solecism in Christianity that can be There is that Treason against the God of Heaven in the least Sin which none but a Child of Hell and Wrath dare be found in 'T is no less treasonable and Death-worthy to Coyn Pence than to Coyn twenty Shilling-pieces because the Royal (c) Quia Deo nos totos omnia nostra debemus certè in infinitam ejus majestatem injurii sunt aeternam mortem merentur qui vel in mimina re sanctissimam ejus voluntatem transgrediuntur Authority is as much violated by the one as by the other Thus how little soever your Sins be though but as Pence and Farthings yet because committed against the great God they are damnable and such as may for ever deprive you of this glorious Reward It was but one Wedge of Gold that destroyed Achan cleaving him from amongst God's People So if thou suffer thy self to be drawn away by any one Sin it may undo thee to Eternity The Sin which in its own Nature is little may yet be made great by thy Allowance The Money for which Judas sold the Lord of Glory was not much but yet being the Wages of Unrighteousness it quickly kindled in his Conscience the Fire of Hell throwing him down headlong into that place of Torments O then be not found fingering any of Satan's Coyn whether little or great whether more or less For be your Sins never so small in themselves yet when lived in with allowance they are nothing but the earnest of Hell whereby you make sale of all your Interest in Heaven and Glory And who but a Mad-man would sell this one Pearl of great Price for such reprobate Silver Do not think Sirs by falling the Rate and Valuation of your Sins that you shall ever the more escape an Arrest◠from divine Justice which will certainly Commence a Suit against you for the least allowed Iniquity and cast you Prisoners into Hell (d) Mat. 5.26 out of which you shall never come till you have paid the last Farthing Oh then what a dreadful thing were it for any Man to forfeit Heaven and drop into Hell irrecoverably through indulgence to himself in any the least Iniquity Should a Prince sell his Crown and Dignity for a draught of cold Water as Lysimachus did it were a most happy Bargain in comparison of what they make who let go their Right to this glorious Reward for a little sensual Pleasure What for Sin to throw thee out of Heaven to keep thee for ever entring into the Joy of thy Lord to take away thy Crown hiding from thee the Light of God's Countenance that thou shalt never see it more nor be comforted any more with it for ever oh think of this my Soul and think often what a woful bargain is made where thy God thy Portion thy Life thy dearest Lord thy heavenly Treasure are all made away for a Lust that ere-long will be turned into the Fire of Hell Oh would you Christians but observe what a glorious Kingdom what fulness of Joy what Rivers of Pleasure Sin comes to rob you of this would sour all the Pleasures of Sin this would break in pieces the Dagon of every Lust this would make you as fearful to meddle with any Temptation as to burn and lie scorching in Hell for ever The allurements of Hell can never ensnare us where our Hearts are fixed upon Heaven's Glory When therefore you feel Christians Corruption stirring in your Hearts be sure to get Glory in your Eye such motions can never hurt us when struggling against the Temptation we keep our Mind fixed upon the Crown that will follow after (a) Ad portam voluntatis in qua solent manere carnalia desideria statuatur Ostarius qui vocatur recordatio calestis patriae hic enim potest pravum desiderium quasi cuneus cuneum pellere Bernard Let the mindful Sense of our heavenly Country stand as Door-keeper at the Door of the Will wherein carnal Desires are wont to dwell and as one wedge drives out another so this will drive out all carnal and brutish desires If ever we desire to thrust evil Desires out of our Hearts we must plant spiritual ones in their stead (b) Si carnales concupiscentias è cordibus nostris desideramus extrudere spirituales earum locis plantemus voluntates ut his noster animus semper in nixus habeat quibus illecebras carnalium respuat gaudiorum Cassian that our minds being fixed upon them may always dwell upon them and so refuse the Snares of present and sensual delights Keep Heaven Christians still in your Eye steep your Hearts at all Times in the sweet contemplations of heavenly Bliss and then if Temptations come if the Pleasures of Sin be offered as a bait to ensnare you you will certainly shun them with the like abhorrency and godly trembling as you would shun Hell Those allurements of Sin come too late and will never be able to fasten upon the Soul which never assault her till got upon the Mount of Transfiguration and looking by Faith into the heavenly Canaan A sight of God in Heaven makes it impossible for the Saints to sin and a sight of Heaven on Earth this makes it impossible for the Saints to
Job 28.13 14. So if the like Enquiry be made after True Happiness both Sea and Land both the Riches of the Earth and the hidden Treasures of the Deep must needs say It is not in them A Man having Crowns and Scepters and Bags of Gold under his Feet may seem to stand upon a little higher Ground than his Neighbours But for all that if God in Christ be not his Portion he is not one Cubit higher in the Stature of true Blessedness The Truth is we are all ready as Samuel in the case of David to mistake the Blessed Man and to set the Crown of Happiness upon their Heads for whom God never intended it as Samuel over look'd little David and would fain have Anointed Eliab King because so goodly a Personage But we must not Measure Happiness by Worldly Things nor pronounce them Heirs of Heaven and Glory who have the fairest Portion of Earth and Earthly Enjoyments The Pen-Men of Holy Scripture when-ever they go about to Decipher a Blessed Man they never do it by his Outward Condition but by his Inward Qualification not by his Large Purchases but by his Holy Practices not by what he hath in Possession for this Life but by what he hath in Reversion after Death Hence it is that you shall never hear any such Words fall from their Mouthes as to say Blessed are they that are Rich. Blessed are they that are Mighty Blessed are they that are Honoured before Men. Blessed are they that have Gorgeous Apparel and Fare Deliciously every day But Blessed are they whose Sins are Forgiven them Psal 31.1 2. Blessed are they that Walk in the Law of the Lord. Blessed are they that Mourn Mat. 5.3 11. Blessed are they that Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness Sake Blessed are the Pure in Heart for they shall see God A Man may have many Blessings and yet not be Bless'd And again he may lye under many Miseries and yet not be Miserable Have all the Blessings in the World yet without God thy Condition is Miserable Have all the Miseries that the World can inflict yet still if God be thy Portion thou art perfectly Blessed 'T is not what Men have but what they are not what is their Present and Temporal but what shall be their Future and their Eternal Condition that speaks them to be either compleatly Miserable or truly Blessed THIS Ensuing Treatise have I therefore Composed on purpose to beget both in my own and others Hearts more serious fixed Thoughts of our Eternal Condition And as you will find that in it which may be as a flaming fiery Sword turning every way to keep Men from having any thing to do with the Forbidden Fruit of Sin So it may be for a Jacob's Ladder to the Righteous whereby Scaling the Walls of the New Jerusalem as in an Holy Storm they may come to eat at length of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Durst I compare this Treatise with the Ark of the Covenant I might tell you there is laid up in it both an Aaron's Rod and a Pot of Mannah There is something of Hell's Horrour discover'd to Affright Men out of their Ungodly Courses and a Glimpse of Heaven's Glory such as it is to Decoy them into a Life of serious practical Holiness Every Man is either of God by Regeneration living a Life of Faith and going to Heaven Or of Satan by Corruption living a life of Sense and running on in a swift Career to Hell This Discourse have I suited to both Conditions endeavouring to shew you according to the small Talent wherewith the Lord hath entrusted me That if there be any Fire in Hell the Wicked shall Everlastingly be Tormented in it and if there be any Glory in Heaven God's People shall for Ever be Crowned with it When Zuinglius at any time like a Boanerges a Son of Thunder was Rattling proud and hard-hearted Sinners he would often like a Barnabas a Son of Consolation let fall some Beam of Comfort upon the poor trembling Soul Bone Christiane haec nihil ad te Whatever Terrour is here spoken will fall heavy upon none but the Wicked who walk according to their own Hearts Lusts There is a Vein of Comfort laid in to Refresh God's People the whole Discourse is a River of Life sendâ—ng out thô through an Earthen Pipe those Streams which may well make Glad every Gracious Heart Hell I have herein Deciphered to deter from Sin when Men shall fear the Vengeance of Eternal Fire which will follow after Heaven I have also in some measure Described to work Joy in Well doing when God's People shall fix their Eyes upon that far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory to which it leads He that by patient continuance in Well-doing â—eeks for Glory Honour and Immortality may turn and read of Heaven how Blessed he is like to be when God shall Crown him with Life Everlasting He that hardens his Heart in a Course of Ungodliness let him turn and read of Hell how dreadfully Miserable he is sure to be when he shall be Punished both Soul and Body from the Presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power THE * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epigrammatist would have the Silver Axe of Justice carried before the Magistrate to Proclaim If thou be an Offender let not the Silver Flatter thee but if an Innocent let not the Axe Fright thee I testify the same to every one that shall Read the Words of this Book if thou be an Impenitent Ungodly Sinner let not the Glory discoursed of Flatter thee since Wrath and Hell are thy Portion But if thou be a Child of God let not the Flames and Misery that abide Ungodly Men Affright thee for there is a Crown of Righteousness there is a Kingdom of Eternal Glory that will after all present Troubles fall to thy share Truth is what ever Discourses we can make of this kind have neither Thunder enough in them to Awaken us nor yet Glory enough to Attract our Eyes to the due Beholding of those Eternal Concernments which God hath set before us Men are generally as Careless in Religious Affairs as if Hell were but a Melancholick Dream and Heaven a Devout Fancy as if there were no Horrour in the one to Affright them nor any Glory in the other to Engage their Thoughts and Attract their Desires Most Men are so Infatuated with the Painted Beauty of this Earthly Jezabel the World that they can let out their Affections upon nothing else They set up their Rest here building Tabernacles below never caring for that Building which is of God Eternal in the Heavens How many Thousands doth the World carry Captives at her Wheels so strangely Tyranizing over fond Mortals Affections that they can neither Spirare nor Sperare Coelestia no more Hope for than Breath after Eternal Enjoyments 'T is Storied of the Duke of Alva That being ask'd by Henry the
Fourth Whether he had not Observed the Ecclipses He answered the King No I have so much to do upon Earth that I have no leisure to look up to Heaven Thus the Generality of Men have so much to do upon Earth and are so deeply engaged in their Secular Affairs that they have no leisure to spend their Thoughts upon Heaven and it's Glory Lactantius * Hinc utique Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellarunt quod sursum spectet Ipsi ergo sibi renunciant seque Hominum Nomine abdicant qui non Sursum aspiciunt sed deorsum Lact. lib. 2. Instit Cap. 1. p. 140. will have those guilty of Degrading themselves into the Shapes of Brutes and unworthy the Names of Men who lye Grovelling here below never fixing their Thoughts on Eternal Concernments nor setting their Affections on Things above And yet how are Multitudes every where Grovelling in the Dust of Earthly Vanities never sending up a Look a Desire a Thought no nor so much as one Hearty Groan after Heaven Natural Bodies they follow the tendency of that Element which is Predominant in them a Stone moves down-ward it would be at the Center Thus those in whom the Love of the World is Predominant they cannot but move Downward the Earth is their Center and that they will make towards let come of Heaven and Glory what will come Possibly whilst Religion is in Credit and the way to Heaven lyes through the Fortunate Islands the Arabia Foelix or through the Golden Streams of the Lydian Pactolus these Men may have their Faces that way and seem to Steer their Course Heaven-ward But if once Religion be under Hatches in the World if once a Life of serious Scripture Holiness be counted Faction and all things are at such a pass that there is no getting to Canaan but through a Barren Wilderness no coming at the fair Havens of True Happiness but through the Straits of Poverty Reproach and Affliction they have Wit enough such as it is to set Sails for another Wind and will think Heaven it self for a Golden-Mine a very easy Morgage Many there be who whilst Religion walks in Stately Equipage will be Reteiners to her But if at any time the Watch-men Wound her and the Keepers of the Walls take away her Veil you may presently see them very Shy of if not Ashamed to wear so much as her Livery What * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clemens saith of a certain Friend That he was not his but his Riches Kinsman This is true of many Professors who if Religion had not Riches in her Left-hand would never pretend neither Kindness or Kin to her Such Men who thus design their own Profit Honour and Promotion in the World by that pitiful Religion which they have they are just like the Lapis Chelidonius which say Naturalists will retain it's Virtue no longer than whilst you keep it inclos'd in Gold The Upper Springs of Grace and Glory which God always gives in Dowry with his Daughter Achsah True Godliness cannot make a Worldly Heart fall in Love with Her unless God will give him the Nether Springs also such as Riches Honours and earthly Possessions he will never be brought to Match with her nor is the Match ever made so sure upon this Account but if at any time God dry up these Nether Springs now the Stream of this Muck Worm's Affections will wholly fail such a Nabal will God's own Daughter Religion I mean find him that he will be sure to turn her upon her Father not forbearing so much as one Night to thrust her out of Doors When the Ark came into the House of Obed-Edom and they saw that it brought a Blessing upon him and his whole House then every one no doubt could think it worth their Entertainment But when Judgments attended the Ark of God almost every Man thought it a Burden and by all means would turn it off so that in such a time the Ark of God finds no Rest they send it from Gath to Ekron from Ekron to Askalon 1 Sam. 5. counting him the Happy Man that could well rid his hands of it Thus every Man will own Religion Prospering a Blessing Ark But where is he that will own Religion under Worldly Disadvantages that will entertain the Ark of God when Persecuted when Banished when Dangerous and Un-doing to those that meddle with it However the Love of the World do thus eat out the Heart of Religion with those who have their Portion in this World yet certainly it becomes not you Christians whose Treasure is in Heaven thus to have the Wayes of God in Admiration for Advantage sake Thus to Morgage your eternal Inheritance to keep the poor Cottage of an earthly Estate wherein you are but Tenants at Will Their Condition of all Mens is most Miserable who go from Heaven to Hell From the Heaven I mean of Wordly Prosperity to the Hell of Endless Destruction in the World to come The very Life of every Worldling is wrapt up in the Bundle of his outward Enjoyments And therefore not having made sure of Heaven they must needs as it was once said to a great Lord be great Losers when they Dye AND shall such miserable Caitives as these Christians be the Men to Tread out the Way for your Feet to Walk in when every Step alas that they take sinks as low as Hell Have you no other Copy to Write after but that which is Written in Blood Will no other Path serve the turn but that of Men Selling the Riches of Heaven and Glory for a little thick Clay which inevitably leads to Destruction Such an Errour ¶ Versatque nos praecipitat Traditus per manus Error alienisque perimus exemplis Sen. de vit Beat. Cap. 1 pag. mihi 628. though Received by Tradition is enough to throw you head-long into Tophet nor can you chuse but Perish Eternally if you will make the Examples of such Misers the Rule of your Living Why cannot you as †{inverted †}†Sinite sapientes hujus saeculi alia sapientes et terram lingentes sapienter descendere in Infernum Bernard de vit solit Bernard hath it suffer the Wise Men of this World who like the Serpent lick the Dust of the Earth to go Wisely down to Hell Is it not better as a Divine of ours wittily that we choose to Arrive at Heaven with Tatter'd Sails than to Ruffle towards Hell with Cleopatra's Silken Tacklings Let others Admire the Gaudy Tulip which closeth with every approaching Night and cold Blast that comes yet Christians they should be like the Herb Semper-vivum retaining their Verdure and Greeness in the hardest Winter What thô others will not have the Golden Apples of Glory if not placed in the Silver Pictures of Worldly Contentments will you therefore Throw away those Apples of Gold because the Silver Pictures of your Secular Enjoyments may get a Crack and are Broken in pieces Heaven it self is a
a fiery Chariot Thus Holy Meditation it would carry us above the Clouds it would give us Possession of Heaven before we come there and set us in the midst of all the Glory and Royalties of Eternal Life as if they were already present Heavenly thoughts are as so many steps towards our Eternal Rest When by these therefore we Travel every day to the City of God and delightfully walk therein when every day we take as it were a turn or two in Paradise seriously Meditating Heaven together with the glory that shall shortly be revealed in us then we have Respect indeed to the Recompence of the Reward 4. EARNESTLY to desire and long for it When we see so much of the Excellency Worth and Glory of the World to come that we groan within ourselves desiring with all our hearts to get out of these Houses of Clay and to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven then we have respect to the Recompence of the Reward 2. Cor. 5.2 When Paul had once been wrapt up into the Third Heaven and seen the Paradise of God his Note was ever after I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Thus the Soul that hath a respect to the Recompence of the Reward he hath been in the Heavenly Paradise he hath tasted some Clusters of Canaan and therefore he cannot but long for more he can never be soon enough with Christ he can never soon enough get above the World and Sin and Temptations he can never be soon enough with God in Glory Oh! when shall it be They that have the first Fruits of the Spirit cannot chuse but have their eyes always fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward earnestly desiring the time of Harvest when they shall Reap a full Crop of Eternal Happiness and Glory in the Heavenly Canaan AS Noah's Dove was restless finding no place whereupon to set the sole of her foot till she came into the Ark so Christians if your eyes are rightly fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward you will find your selves carried out after Heaven and Glory in a restless manner and will never sit down satisfyed till you come to rest in the Bosome of God's Eternal Love Never Christians did Rachel more long for Children nor David for the Waters of Bethlehem nor Absalom to see the King's Face than your Souls will long for the glorious Liberty of the Children of God to be drinking the Waters of Life in the Heavenly Paradise and to come to the Beatifical Vision of God in Glory where you shall see him Face to Face in case you have an eye rightly fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward THE Language of every Soul whose eye is rightly fixed upon Heaven and Glory it is like unto that of Job speaking forth his desires after God Oh that I knew where to find him that I might come even to his seat Job 23.3 Such a Soul is impregnated with holy desires and longings after God in Glory and with these the Soul travels all the day long crying out with the Church in the Revelations as in pain to be delivered from under the bondage of Sin and Corruption into Heavenly Glory GIVE the Soul Riches give it Honours give it all the Pleasures that can be thought of to ravish the heart of a Carnal Man yet having an eye rightly fixed upon the Recompence of Reward in vain shall you seek by these to bribe it out of its holy desires and longings after God in Glory For scorning and trampling upon them all as unworthy to come in competition with God it even breaketh through desire after him and can truly say of God with holy David Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Psal 73.25 'T IS just with the Soul as with some Women in the time of their Impregnature who if they see any thing when they are with Child that they have a mind to they must have it or else they will long and dye for it Thus the Soul that by Faith hath got a sight of Heavenly Enjoyments now the heart of such a Soul it is set upon Heaven and he must have Heaven upon a Crown of Life and he must have a Crown of Life upon God and Christ and Eternal Glory and he must have them all together or else give him what you can he will long and die unsatisfied THERE is so much of the Beauty Loveliness and Glory of Christ revealed to the Soul in looking upon the Recompence of Reward that now it grows impatient of living any longer without him crying out as she did in another case Why are his Chariots so long in coming and Why tarry the wheels of his Chariots When will my beloved make haste and be like a young Roe upon the Mountains of Spices When will the day break and the shadows fly away that I may see my beloved in his Glory When will he come to put an end to these days of Sin and Sorrow that I may rest for ever in the Bosome of his Eternal Love When will he take me by the hand and lead me out of the Wilderness of this World into the Heavenly Canaan When will he rebuke the Winds and the Seas that will give me no rest in this Troublesome World and set me safe on the Shoar of Eternal Happiness When will he deliver me from this Body of Death and gather my Soul to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect When will he take from me these Rags of Mortality and cause me to be cloathed upon with an House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens When will he make me return and come to Sion with Songs and everlasting Joy upon my head When will he cause me to obtain fulness of Joy and Gladness with him in Eternal Mansions of Glory that Sorrow and Sin and Sighing being done away I may be with the Lord for ever Oh when shall I once see that blessed day NOW What is it I beseech you after which your hearts do thus strongly breathe thus insatiably thirst thus impatiently long If Riches will not satisfy but you must have a Treasure in Heaven if Worldly Honour will not satisfy but you must have a Crown of Righteousness from Christ himself if Carnal Pleasures will not satisfy but you must have that fulness of Joy which is in God's Presence and those Pleasures which are at his Right Hand for evermore if in a word the Life that now is will not satisfy but you must though you dye for it go live for ever with Christ in Glory why then there is no doubt Christians but with Moses you have an eye to the Recompence of Reward For then our eye is rightly fixed upon the Recompence of Reward when our Souls are carried out in strong desires after God and Christ and Eternal Glory as our only Happiness 5. TO be by the consideration of it exceedingly encouraged to diligence and
fear of God's Wrath and Hell to be unbecoming a Gospel Spirit and a thing wholly Inconsistent with the Love of God (f) Deuâ— autem qui unus est quoniam utramque personam sustinet patris Domini amare eum debemus quia filij sumus timere quia servi Lactant. Divinar Institut Lib. 4. cap. 4. pag. 356. Mal. 1.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Martyr Respons ad Orthodox 98. pag. 251. For God is so his Children's Father as that he is their Lord also So that though the name Father speaks Love and Boldness yet the name Lord speaks Fear and Reverence And though the love and hatred of God are inconsistent Yet the fear and the love of God not only may but must dwell together in every gracious Soul FOR as the Consideration of God's Goodness should beget in our hearts towards him Love and Boldness so the greatness of God should beget in us Fear and Reverence As we love God for his Grace and Mercy because he hath out of the abundant Riches of his Goodness prepared Heaven So we are to fear God for his Justice and Almighty Power trembling continually before him because he is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell God hath not only the tender Indulgence of a Father but he hath also the dreadful Countenance of a Judge And as that doth keep us from despairing so this should keep us from Presuming as the thoughts of God's Fatherly Indulgence should work in us an intire Love and Affection to him so the thoughts of his just displeasure against all Unrighteousness must breed in us all Reverence and due Devotion to work out our own Salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 Only you must know there is a two-fold fear the one sinful and the other holy the one servile and slavish proceeding from a root of Enmity and Hatred in the Heart against God the other filial and child-like proceeding from a Principle of Love to God and his Glory Slavish Fear is disingenuous making him that is acted by it more afraid of Wrath and Hell and Eternal Burnings than he is of displeasing the God of Heaven and therefore not becoming a Child of God But now Filial Fear it is wonderful Ingenuous filling the Soul whenever it draws nigh to God with all Reverent and Awful Thoughts of him and causing it to be more afraid of displeasing God and coming under his Frowns than of Hell it self with all the Torments thereof and this is the Fear wherewith the Lord must be Feared and by which we may lawfully be acted in all the ways of our Obedience For though Perfect Love casteth out that Slavish Fear which proceeds from the hatred of God 1 John 4.18 yet it doth not cast out but is the ground of Filial Fear and reverence towards God Though it casteth out Tormenting Fear yet it doth not cast out Obeying Fear Though it cast out the Son of the (g) Timor serviliae est cum per timorem Gehennae continet se homo á peccato quo praesentiam judicis et poenas metuit et timore facit quicquid boni facit non timore amittendi aeternum bonum quod amat sed timore patiendi malum quod formidat Non timet ne peroat amplexus pulcherrimi sponsi sed timet ne mittatur in Gehennam Lombard ex August lib. 3. distinct 34. d. Bond Woman which is nothing but a Servile Affection that makes a Man turn the back many times upon his beloved Corruptions and do something in a way of Obedience not so much for fear of losing the Smiles and Favour of God as for fear of suffering the Vengeance of Eternal Fire Yet doth it never cast out the Son of the (h) Timor castus sive amicabilis est quo timemus ne sponsus tardet ne discedat ne offendamus ne eo cardamus Ibid. Free-Woman which is an Holy Affection of Soul making all that have it Shun Sin and walk in Obedience before God more for fear of displeasing him and losing his Smiles than for fear of Everlastng Burnings in Hell it self So that the Fear of God when not Servile but Filial doth contribute as much to the ingenuity of our Obedience as Love it self making us look in all our Performances not so much at Heaven and Hell as at God himself that he may be pleased with us and smile upon us And therefore though God must be served in Love yet he loves no Service which hath not this Sovereign Ingredient of Filial Fear Heb. 12.28 as well knowing that such fear is nothing else but the Fire of Love breaking forth into a pure flame of Holy Jealousy lest God should be robbed of his Glory whilst looking more in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward than to God himself we take the Crown from him and set it upon the head of our own Happiness God is pleased indeed at first to set before us Heaven and Hell the one in all it's (i) Vult dominus ut a malis per suppliciorum formidinem recedamus et de timore servorum ad gratiam filiorum transeamus Hieron ad Mal cap. 1. Glory and the other in all it's Torments that by the Fear of Hell he may drive us out of Sin and draw us by the Love of Heaven into ways of Holiness But when once we have tasted that the Lord is gracious and found one days Communion with him better than a Thousand elsewhere when once we have been on the top of Pisgah getting a Prospect of that Heavenly Canaan which God hath prepared for us when once we have been taken up into the Mount of Transfiguration with God beholding his matchless Beauty and transcendent Glory why now the Lord will have us acted in all our Obedience not so â—uch by the thoughts of Heaven and Hell as by love to himself doing all that we do in the Service of God for his own sake As the Samaritans said Now we believe not because thou hast said it but because we have heard him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the World John 4.42 So must we say having tasted the goodness of God in ways of Obedience now we serve thee not slavishly as Persons that are meerly acted by a mercenary Spirit by the fear of Hell and the hope of Heaven but ingenuously and out of a Principle of love to the Lord as counting it our Meat and Drink our chiefest Delight our center of Rest our Heaven upon Earth to glorify the God of Heaven and enjoy Communion with him in the Beauties of Holiness Lycurgus would have Virgins to be Married without any Portion that so their Husbands might take them purely for Love and not for any Sordid and By respects Thus (k) Non sine praemio diligitur deus quamvis sine intuitu praemij sit diligendus Bernard Christians though we cannot love nor serve God without a Reward
bear the holy Presence of God to see him face to face and to look fully upon the Brightness of his Glory in the heavenly Paradice where they shall not have the least Fig-leaf to hide the shame of their nakedness Believe it Sinners unless your sore-eyes be healed and your Natures Sanctified you may find as much comfort in Hell as you could in beholding the Face of God in Heaven That Heaven which is a Paradice of all delights to a gracious Soul you that are not Sanctified and made New Creatures you would find it a very Tophet a place of all hellish and intollerable Torments should you enter into it In Ireland they say is a Fountain whose Waters kill all those Beasts that drink of them but is pleasant to the People not hurting them though they usually drink of it Thus though that pure River of Water in the New Jerusalem proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb Rev. 22.1 be more pleasant than life it self to all God's People yet should any brutish Sinner be suffered to drink of those Waters he would find them more bitter than the stroke of death For the Soul must first be made a prepared subject for Heaven and the Joys thereof or Heaven it self would be an Hell to it and the Joys of Heaven they would fill it with the greatest and most exquisite Torments And truly would Ungodly Sinners but set Reason a-work they might easily satisfy themselves of their own unfitness for Heaven and what an hell it would be to them should they come there They that count it a weariness to serve the Lord a few hours together on Earth how can they think themselves fit for Heaven where they must serve him day and night without ceasing to all Eternity If they find it so tedious to be restrained from Vanity by the presence of a faithful Minister or a serious Christian for a little scantling of time How can they think themselves able to bear the presence of an infinitely holy God restraining them from all their Sins and pleasurable Vanities for ever When they cannot endure to spend a short Sabbath with seriousness in the worship of God but are presently tired out longing that the Sabbath were over What fitness have they to spend an Everlasting Sabbath in worshiping the God of Heaven which will never be over Grace dawning in God's People is now their burden their sore eyes cannot look upon the brightness of it Oh then How unable will they be to bear it when all it's imperfections being done away it shall break forth into a bright Sun-shine of eternal dazling glory Oh be convinced that you must first be made holy or you can never be made happy you must first be sanctified or you can never be saved you must first be cleansed from all unrighteousness and made New Creatures or you will never be fit to inhabit the New Jerusalem Esther might not come into the Kings Presence till first she was washed and purified So till first we be throughly washed in the Laver of Regeneration and purified thereby from all Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit we can never enjoy God's Presence in a state of Glory Holiness is that which becomes God's House and therefore except you follow after Holiness and pursue it you must never look to come to Heaven the place of God's holy habitation 'T is fabled of Hercules in the Flames of Oeta that he left the Garment sent him by Deianira which could not be got off without tearing his Flesh and so became Immortal If you have not already prevented me in the accommodation the Moral of the Apologue is this You must put off the Rags of your own Filthiness laying aside every weight Heb. 12.1 and the Sin which doth tenaciously cleave to you would you ever enter upon a state of blessed and glorious Immortality As the rising Sun must needs go before the perfect day So sanctifying Grace must needs go before and is that alone which can fit us for eternal Salvation God hath told you in his holy Word that nothing which defileth shall ever enter into the New Jerusalem And whomsoever the voice of God speaking in the Scriptures shuts out of Heaven in this Life they shall undoubtedly be shut out of Heaven in the Life to come So that in vain shall you look for happiness in the World to come if here you give not diligence to be holy walking in all dutiful Obedience before the God of Heaven Pharnaces being up in Arms against Caesar sent him a Crown thinking by such a Present to appease his Wrath but Caesar sending it back again returned him this answer Faceret imperata prius let him first lay down his Arms and return to his Obedience and then his Crown should be accepted of by way of Recognizance Thus as Caesar would not accept of a Crown so to be sure God will never give a Crown of Glory to those by way of Recompence whom he sees to be up in Rebellion against him not labouring to become holy and to walk in Obedience before him The Kingdom of Heaven is a place prepared for Children and not for Strangers for Friends and not for Enemies for such as are pure and undefiled in their way and not for the wicked and unrighteous 1 Cor. 6.9 who must never continuing such inherit the Kingdom of God The Ark of Noah was a Receptacle for Beasts that were unclean as well as for those that were clean But into Heaven there shall in no wise enter as was said any thing that defileth and is unclean Let then I beseech you the consideration of all this make you careful to seek after Heaven and Glory in a way of Grace and Holiness (x) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Martyr Holiness is the Perspective through which we must see God 'T is as possible to see the Sun without Eyes as to see God and be saved without Holiness For without Holiness no Man can see the Lord Heb. 12.14 There is an (y) Negat quenquam posse deum videre sine Sanctimonia quoniam non aâ—ijs oculis videbimus deum quam qui reformati sunt ad ejus imaginem Calvin Inheritance laid up for Saints in light but in case you walk in darkness not labouring to make yourselves meet for it you must never look to enâ—oy it Colos 1.12 Oh that you would therefore be daily Mortifying your (z) Mutari nos oporet et novas creaturas effici priusquam participes esse possumus coelestium beneficiorum Nam in nobis nihil est aliud quam summa ineptitudo ad bonum spirituale sive intelligendum sive faciendum sive denique capiendum Davenant in Locum Corruptions breaking off your Sins by Repentance perfecting Holiness in the fear of God and so preparing your selves for Heaven that you may be counted meet to be partakers of that glorious Inheritance He that Soweth not his Field hath no hope to Reap it he that
deum ordinata est For God himself is the Centre of all Good and Holiness from which the Lines of all Moral Rectitudes and Divine Virtues are drawn according to which they are regulated in which they are conserved and into which returning they must ultimately resolve themselves SINCE Holiness then is nothing else but an harmonious Conformity with and a Transcript of his righteous Will concerning us Why should we count our having a Respect to eternal Glory any Forfeiture of our Holiness ¶ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Catech. Mystag 5. pag. 244. or go about to censure that Practice as Unlawful for which we have God's own Fiat Were not this to make more Sins than God ever made and to go about by a kind of Interpretative Blasphemy to impeach the infinitely Holy God of giving not only his Imprimator but his Fiat also to unholy Practises commanding Men to seek after Heaven and Glory from the beholding whereof they should according to what some †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Hier. Cat. 6. p. 55. â— Dogmatize turn away their eyes as the greatest Vanity But dare we say That Mens walking in the Light of the Sun is Darkness to them Or That Conformity with God's Righteous Will is the cause of any unrighteous Practise Sirs to question the Legality and Holiness of Duties commanded is to question his Holiness and the Lawfulness of his Authority who commanded them How dare we then say that is Bitter in the Fruit which we know to be Sweet in the Root How can we count that Impure in the Streams which we dare not but confess to be Pure in the Fountain How dare we traduce that as Sinful in the Practise which we know to be Holy and Just and Good in the Precept How dare we to be short look upon Christians as Disingenuous and Transgressing in that which they purely Act in Obedience to God's Commands If God Christian bid thee by patient continuance in well-doing seâ—k for Heaven and Glory do not doubt but his Command will sufficiently secure thee from the Censure of a Legalist or Mercenary in so doing before Men and Angels For Who shall lay any thing to the Charge of God's Elect in those Precepts which are justified by the Holy Precepts and Commandments of God himself injoyning them Rom. 8.33 2. WE may lawfully have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward because the most Eminent of God's faithful Servants have done so before us We have not only Precept but President to warrant our Practise in this case there being none of the People of God but by striving to enter in at the strait Gate by laying up for themselves a Treasure in Heaven by Suffering with Christ that they might be Glorified together with him have clearly Commented and Paraphrased upon those and the like Portions of Holy Scripture that we knowing thus the mind of God therein may go and do likewise Thus David a Man after God's own Heart Psalm 119.112 and therefore surely no Mercenary he inclin'd his Heart to perform God's holy Statutes alway as expecting in the end the Reward of eternal Glory In the Original it is even to the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fructus praemium eò quod fructus postremum et finis laboris est and so our own Translation renders it But yet the same Word doth also signify a Reward which is not usually given before the end of our Works clearly implying That David having an Eye to the Recompence of the Reward did more Cheerfully run the way of God's Commandments David was willing to take pains in God's Vineyard spontaneously inclining his Heart to perform God's holy Statutes all his dayes as expecting at the evening of his Death to receive the Penny of eternal Life and Glory in God's heavenly Kingdom This also we find to be the Practice of holy Paul a man so Ambitiously desirous to promote God's Glory that through an holy Transport of Love thereto he once wished himself suspended and put apart from the Comforts of Christ in the Jews stead that God might but be glorified thereby Rom. 9.3 And yet he hath an Eye in all his Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward putting forth himself with the greatest Intenseness of Zeal and Diligence imaginable for the Price of his High-calling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graece quod magnam habet Emphasim significat enim manus totumque Corpus protendere ad scopum ut eum apprehendas ante quam pedibus eum attigeris A lapide in locum He did not grudge to Spend and be Spent in the Service of but stretching forward and extending himself usque ad extremum virium he pursues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Aim which he had taken the Reward set before him so the Original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth as impatiently desiring to be seized of God's Kingdom and Glory to which he was called And though he was a man daily exposed to Reproach Persecutions and greatest Dificulties in Heaven's way for the cause of Christ 2 Cor. 4.18 yet whilst he looked at the things which are not seen making Heaven and Glory the scope and end of his Life as the Original may well import he was incouraged thereby with cheerfulness and alacrity of Spirit to encounter them all not thinking his Life dear if by any means he might win the Crown and be landed safe at the Haven of eternal Rest So that the Respect which this holy Apostle had to the Recompence of Reward it was instead of a Cordial to comfort him amidst all his Afflictions it was a strong Incentive with him to Obedience putting Life and Vigour into all his Endeavours and from this he took Incouragement most gladly to Spend and be Spent in the Service of God Heb. 10.32 The like we may say of those Primitive Christians mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews who though they were encountred with a whole Army of Afflictions though they were spoiled in their Goods by wicked men as so many Harpies preying upon them at their pleasure though they were Theatriz'd and brought forth upon the Stage not only as Spectacles of Scorn and Reproach but also as Objects of Persecution for wicked men to exercise their Malice and Cruelty upon from whom they received not only bitter Words but also hard Blows Yet they joyfully underwent it all enduring the Cross and despising the Shame as Christ their Redeemer had done before them and all this because they had an Eye to the Recompence of Reward believing themseves to have in Heaven an induring Substance a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory that would abundantly make amends for all their Sufferings So that the grand Reason inducing these Primitive Christians to indure Afflictions and take joyfully the spoyling of their Goods on Earth was their Hope of a better and more induring Substance when they came to Heaven Besides these many pregnant Instances might be given
indeavouring above all things in the world to Gâ—ther them The Happiness of a Christian 't is Grace glorified 't is Holiness arrived at it's highest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and pitch of heavenly Perfection Heb. 12.14 which surely we are all of us bound to follow after pursuing it with all our might as that without which we can never see the Lord. ¶ Gen. 15.1 Ipse Deus est merces promissa fidelibus ergo dum aeternam mercedem expectant et intuentur non aliud a Deo intuentur Dav. in Coloss cap. 1. ver 5. Praemium virtutis erit ipse qui virtutem dedit et qui seipsum quo melius et majus nihil possit esse promisit August de Civit. Dei lib. 22. cap. 30. pag. 738. And as for the Reward of a Christian it is God himself 't is to be with the Lord for ever to see his Face and enjoy his Favour for ever which surely we are also bound to seek after giving all diligence to make God our Portion and the strength of our Heart for ever Psal 73.26 And shall we say that a Christian Sins or is Disingenuous for Obeying with an eye to Holiness and with respect to the God of Heaven who alone is the fixed Centre of Rest and Happiness Or Dare we say That Christians are not to regard Holiness on Earth but to live as they list nor to long for the full injoyment of God in Heaven but to be the centre of their own Happiness Surely God never intended that we should sit down satisfied without Him and be Happy by reflexion upon our own Excellencies as if Life and Happiness could be found where nothing but remorseless Death and Misery keep their walk As God never rested till he had made Man in his own Likeness leaving a Tincture of his own Purity and Holiness upon him so he hath put Emptiness and Dissatisfaction into all our Creature Enjoyments Psalm 17.15 that we may never rest till returning to God that made us we shall behold his Face in Righteousness and be satisfied with his Likeness Whatever Grace whatever Holiness God's people have it 's wholly derivative from him So that whatever Felicity whatever Happiness they may look to enjoy it stands wholly in reduction to God himself as the Original and Fountain-Cause The motion of every gracious Soul it 's like that of Coelestial Bodies purely Circular so that it can never rest but will still be rolling and breathing and panting after God unsatiably till returning back unto him it hath fixed it self in the Sabbatical centre of everlasting Communion with him Such a Soul is touched with the true Loadstone of Grace so that now it sees such an attractive magnetical Beauty in a Deity that it cannot possibly settle upon any thing below God himself That 's the language of every gracious Soul and the proper Idiom of its more sublime and clarified Affections wherein we find the Sweet Singer of Israel make expression of his Love to God saying Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Psal 73.25 As the Moon and Stars those glorious Lamps of heaven are not able to supply the absence of the Sun nor will their united Light amount to so much as to make up one Day or one Moment of a Day though they should knit and concentricate all their Beams So David he knew full well that thô in Heaven there be the Moon-light of glorious Angels and the Star-light of those imparadised Souls the Spirits of â—ust men made Perfect yet without the bright Irradiations of a Deity and the Light of God's Countenance tâ—ey could never make up the least shadow of Glory the least Ray of Soul â—atisfying Happiness which makes him look beyond them all desiring neither Saints nor Angels nor Heaven it self with all its Glory Royalties and Paradisical Pleasures in comparison of the God of Heaven Thus also it is with every one of God's People they look upon him as their Happiness so that Heaven it self would not be Heaven to them this Goshen would prove an Egypt this Canaan would be turned into a Wilderness if the Lord should withdraw his glorious Presence The presence of the King is that we say which makes the Court and as it was told Commodus Ibi Roma ubi Augustus that where the Emperor is there was Rome So that which God's People do count their Heaven that which they look upon as a Garden of Flowry Pleasures as a Paradice of all Delights and spiritual Contentments is the full and immediate Injoyment of God himself 'T is not so much the Society of Saints and Angels in Heaven as the Beatifical Vision as the Downey Bosome of a Deity as eternal Communion with the God of Heaven that they desire and make their Happiness All other Lines meet in this Centre all other Stars borrow their Light from this glorious Sun and all other Comforts do empty themselves into this vast Ocean wherein Rivers of purest Pleasures do meet and everlastingly concentricate themselves to make glad the City of God Et ipsa est beata vita gaudere ad te de te propter te ipsa est et non est altera August Conf. The injoyment of God in Glory this is the Apogaeuâ— of heavenly Joy this is the highest Zenith of true Blessedness this is the coâ—pleat Volumn of perfect Felicity wherein all the Particulars of Happiness are not Epitomized but so amplified inlarged and paraphrased upon that the Heart of Man cannot possibly desire any more For whatever can be desired to mâ—ke one Happy is richly treasured up in God as the indeficient and over-flowing Fountain of all Goodness So that all the Glory and Happiness whereof God's people look to be made partakers when they come to Heaven is reductively and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 summed up in this that they shall be with the Lord for ever 1 Thess 4.17 If then Holiness may be desired or God himself loved by us and sought after why then doubtless we may lawfully have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of Reward as being co-incident therewith and nothing else He may well have Respect in his Obedience to the Recompence of Reward and fix his eye upon heavenly Glory who makes God his Portion and his exceeding great Reward desiring no other Heaven than for ever to be with the Lord beholding his Face in Righteousness loving him without loathing and praising him without ever being weary Deus finis erit desideriorum nostrorum qui sine fine videbitur sine fastidio amabitur sine defatigatione laudabitur Ubi supra 6. WE may lawfully have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward because to such and to such only is the promise of eternal Life made Thô the Promise of eternal Life were conceived in the Womb of Free Grace and brought forth by the auspicious Midwifery of God's riâ—â— Mercy in Christ Jesus and so is eveâ—y
way fâ—â—e and gratuitous in the rise of it as proceeding wholly from the instigation of God's goodness and not depending upon any antecedent Condition in us as the impulsive Cause thereof Yet since the promise of Life eternal doth bear in it the nature of a Reward which hath always relation in the accomplishment of it to some presupposed Performances we must therefore know that it will never be made good to us but with dependance upon Duties in us that may fit and qualify us to receive so glorious a Promise First we must do the Work and then receive the Reward First we must get Grace and then God will give us Glory first we must finish our Course ¶ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Hom. 4. ad pop Ant. and then we shall receive a Crown of Righteousness first we must Sow to the Spirit and then we have the Promise of God for our Security that of the Spirit we shall Reap Life everlasting We must not therefore anticipate and perturb that comely and blessed Order which God hath put in his Promises expecting that God should glorify us in Heaven before we have glorified his Name on Earth For be the promises of Life and Glory never so free and absolute in their Rise yet they are conditionate in their Accomplishment so that unless by the due and faithful performance of the Conditions annexed thereto we be qualified for them we can never receive them Amongst many other Conditions and Provisoes upon which God hath made us the Promise of eternal Life this is not the least that by patient continuance in well-doing we should seek after it For saith the Apostle to them that by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality God will render eternal Life Rom. 7. As God when he bad promised deliverance unto Israel Ezek. 36.37 yet tells them that for this he will be enquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them So though the Lord hath given us a promise of eternal Life and Glory yet he will have us seek it by patient continuance in well-doing before ever he will Crown us with it In vain shall we think to find eternal Life if we seek it not in the first place giving diligence to lay hold upon it For when Promises have the Condition annexed to them we cannot take any Comfort in the Promise till we are sure of the Condition To say then that we may not have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of Reward to Eternal Life and Glory which is one grand condition specified in the Promise thereof is to render this glorious Reward altogether unfeasable and indeed to reflect dishonourable Blasphemy upon God himself as if he had Promised Eternal Glory with such a Promise as may not lawfully be seen unto with such an unrighteous condition as can never be performed without Sin But dare we say that the Infinitely Holy God will make us tenders of Life and Glory upon any other terms than what shall be Holy and Just and Good Hath the Lord threatned that without Holiness we shall never see him and will he then make disingenuity and unholiness the way leading to him Doth this pure indeficient Fountain which is always one and the same send forth such sweet and such sower Water Is the God who hath promised us Life and Glory Holy and dare we think that he would suspend the Promise thereof upon any unholy and Sinful condition Doubtless since the Good and Holy God hath made a respect to the Recompence of the Reward a condition of our receiving the Promise of Life Everlasting we need not fear the doing any thing unlawful but may well have a full Plerophory that what we do must be Holy and Just and Good whilst by Patient continuance in well-doing we seek to make sure of Heaven and Glory 7. WE may Lawfully have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward because otherwise we should not exercise nor have many of our Graces conversant about their proper Objects The Lord doth not only require that we should have an harmonious compages and an universal complexion of all saving Graces in our Souls but also that every Grace should be acted upon and regularly conversant about it's own Object which yet without a due respect had to the Recompence of the Reward cannot possibly be For how can Faith be the Substance of unseen Glory how can desire long after it or hope expect it if it be not a thing lawful for a Christian to look after and to have respect unto it Faith saith the Apostle is the Substance of things hoped for the Evidence of things not seen Betwixt ¶ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecumen Faith and Hope there is a very near affinity and they stand mutually related to one another each of them having respect to the other as the two Cherubims looked one towards the other over the Mercy Seat Faith layes the Foundation of Happiness and Hope builds upon that Foundation a glorious prospect of it Faith leaning upon the Promise of God concerning Eternal Life puts strength into Hope and Hope looking for that Eternal Life which God hath Promised pours the Oyl of gladness into Faith That Good which Faith sees Hope patiently waits for Faith fixeth an Eye upon future Glory and Hope tarrieth for it till it becomes present Faith in believing the Joys of Heaven gives Hope a sight of them and Hope in expecting of them makes Faith to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of Glory Faith believes it shall end in Salvation 1 Pet. 1.9 and Hope bids the Soul be patient and wait to the end that it may be saved Faith discovering a weight of Glory makes strong the hands of Hope and Hope climbing up thereby into the Mount of Transfiguration makes the face of Faith to shine with the reflexions of the same Glory upon it Fides accipit praesentia dei beneficia vel etiam in spe posita repraesentat ac veluti oculis subijcit Polan Syntag. Lib. 9. cap. 9. Pag. 3851. In a word what Hope looks upon as future Faith gives it a present subsistency reallizing those things to the Soul which have now no other being than what is in the Promise so that Faith steadfastly believing Hope cannot but with Patience expect that Crown of Life that Heavenly Kingdom that Eternal Happiness and Glory which God hath Promised Thus whilst we have respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward these Graces of Faith and Hope they are exercised about their proper objects the one believing the Promise of Eternal Life and the other waiting to receive it which otherwise they could never do but must either act irregularly embracing those objects which they ought not so much as to glance upon or else must be perpetually cloystered up in the Soul devoting themselves to an unprofitable Lethargical unactive Life and so antidating a supersedeas from their
desires and longings are carried out that way The Child doth not more naturally breath nor the Fire more naturally contend upward than the Children of Grace do affect those things that are above (a) 2 Cor. 5.2 desiring to be cloathed upon with their House which is from Heaven Oh this is the pure Fountain after whose (b) Psal 42.1 Waters they insatiably thirst and pant like the chased Hind this is the only Centre of rest towards which they are constantly bending their motion this is their choicest Treasure and therefore no wonder if their Hearts be set upon it The Soul that is truly gracious like the several Elements hath a proper principle of motion within it self so that it can never rest below but is still aspiring after things above 'T is Glory and Honour 't is Immortality and Life everlasting in the kingdom of Heaven which true Grace fixeth the heart upon and makes it long after Who ever is truly gracious he hath Heaven in his eye and the World under his feet not labouring for the meat that perisheth but for the meat which will endure to eternal Life An hyprocrite may indeed be possessed with a kind of inefficacious lazy desires after Heaven and Glory there may be some velleities unactive wishings and wouldings in a graceless Soul after eternal Life and Happiness which are broken by the pre-apprehensions of difficulties and so produce no suitable endeavours Desires fly from such a mans Heart like Sparks from a Furnace which though they break forth in heaps yet they suddenly die and so presently quench the Spirit which gave them motion But now a gracious Soul his Hands they second his Heart his inward Affection 't is followed with eager prosecution so that he doth not only desire Glory and Honour and Immortality but he likewise by patient continuance in well doing seeks after them and will not leave off his pursuit of Heaven whatever difficulties may occur in the way His desires are turned heavenward and therefore he digs for heavenly Treasure this is the mark at which he aims this is the prize for which he runs this is the crown for which he so earnestly contends Give him Riches give him Honours give him worldly pleasures give him the very Flower and Quintessence of the whole creation nay give him the universal confluence and aggregation of all creature-injoyments and yet in vain shall you think to satisfy him his Heart is set upon Heaven upon Life and eternal Glory so that you may as well stop the Sun in his course as prevail upon such a man to sit down satisfied with any thing here below As the Sun exhales and draws up the vapours from the earth so true Grace it hath a magnetick virtue in it whereby it draws up the heart from earth in a continued anhelation after Heaven and Glory (a) Luke 9.51 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Obfirmavit faciem Hoc est omnem metum ac honorem mortis deposuit animo suo constituit hanc mortem esse ferendam Leigh Crit. 'T was said of Christ that he set he obfirmed he hardned his Face as the original sounds to go to Jerusalem thus all that are living members of Christ's mystical Body they set their Faces heaven-ward continually directing their course and urging their passage through all difficulties towards the heavenly Jerusalem Such are bound for the Holy Land and therefore they will never put in any where for harbour till they come to appear before their God in Sion (b) Col. 3.1 They are risen with Christ and must needs therefore by virtue of this their spiritual resurrection seek the things which are above where Christ sits on the right hand of God They have layd up for themselves a Treasure in Heaven and therefore a stone doth not more naturally move towards its proper Center than their hearts upon that account do move heavenward For as where the Carcass is there will the Eagles be gathered together so where-ever a Mans Treasure is there will his Heart be also IF then the proper Genius of Grace be thus to make a divorce betwixt the World and the Heart and to carry out the Soul in strong uncontroled and invincible desires after Heaven and Glory how can we once think it unlawful to have respect in our obedience to the recompence of the reward What may not true Grace be allowed to act like it Self and to carry back the Heart to Heaven from whence it came True Grace is a Bird of Paradise and will nothing serve the turn unless we clip her Wings that she may Soar no more aloft in uncurbed desires and panting anhelations after Heaven and Glory There is a native beauty and amiableness in all actions agreeing with and proportionate to the dictates of right reason and shall we then judge it unbecoming a Christian to act suitably to the dictates of true Grace in having respect to Heaven and Glory in his obedience to the seeking whereof Grace so strongly inclines May the Fire contend upward and every Element according to that Principle of motion which it hath within be carried to its proper Center and may not Grace Is the Grace of God shed abroad in the Heart a Creature so badly principled that we may not suffer it to act us according to its proper Genius without forfeiting our ingenuity and becoming mercenary Can we not hold fast our integrity and be filial in all our obedience unless the Grace of God whereby we are become his Children must be banished from its own essence renounce its proper inclination and move excentrical to that heavenly Orb wherein God hath placed it Doubtless the Fire doth not more naturally burn nor the Sparks fly upward than Grace doth carry forth the Soul upon the swift wing of desire after Life and eternal Happiness To be sure then whilst according to the law of Grace you seek after Heaven and Glory in all your obedience you can never be counted ungracious nor do any thing unbeseeming a gracious Soul 11 WE may lawfully have respect in our obedience to the recompence of the reward because otherwise we should undervalue the purchase of Christ's precious Blood ungratefully turning our backs upon that which the Lord Jesus in all that he did and suffered for us did next unto Gods glory aim at The Socinians who are only Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as Salvian said of some in his days in contumeliam Christi they I confess cannot endure to hear that Christ by his Death and Sufferings designed any such thing as the purchasing of life and salvation for us They will allow him to be the Prince of life and a constituted God after his Resurrection but his Blood and Sufferings they will in no case acknowledge them to be the price of our Life and the meritorious cause of our Redemption from the wrath to come That he died for our good leaving us an example that we should follow his steps they
saving of our (f) 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Acts 20.28 Souls but yet they were never said to give their Souls a ransom for their Brethren which is said of Christ nor to purchase the Church of God with their own Blood which is plainly affirmed of Christ to let us know that in his suffering and dying for his people there was something peculiar unto him that could not possibly be communicated to any other (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Martyr Epist ad Diogenet pag. 386. Behold than a miracle of transcendent love Oh sweet exchange oh unsearchable artifice oh benefits surpassing all expectation that the iniquity of many should be hidden in one righteous person and that the obedience of one Christ should make many unjust persons righteous Oh what manner of love was this where the unjust sins and the just is punished the guilty transgresseth and the guiltless is beaten the impious offend and the pious is condemned what the evil deserves the good suffers what the servant perpetrates the Lord payeth and what Man commits the Son of God himself undergoes for our sakes All the Glory of the godly it wholly springs out of the shame of theit Lords sufferings and passion All the Rest of the godly it lies in the wounds of their Saviour by whose * Peccat iniquus punitur justus delinquit reus vapulat innocens offendit impius damnatur pius quod meretur malus patitur bonus quod perpetrat servus exolvit dominus quod committit homo sustinet Deus Aust Medit. 67. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Martyr ubi suprà stripes they are healed Jesus Christ was in a bitter agony sweating clods of Blood that a cold sweat in the agony of Death may not seize upon us He would wrestle with the Powers of Death that in our last conflict with Death our Faith might not fail us He would undergo most grievous anguish and have his Soul exceeding sorrowful unto Death that our Hearts might be filled in Heaven with joy unspeakable and full of Glory He would begin his Passion in the Garden that he might expiate Sin which was first committed in the Garden of Paradise He would be unjustly condemned on Earth that we being absolved in Heaven may at length have admittance into the glorious liberty of the Children of God He would have his Face covered that the Veil of Sin which hinders us from the beatifical Vision of God in Glory might be taken away He walked in heaviness towards Mount Calvary bearing the weight of his Cross that he might remove the burden of Eternal Punishment not suffering us to lie under the stroke of God's heavy displeasure for ever He cryed out in the bitterness of (a) Omnis piorum gloria est in Dominicae passionis ignominia Omnis piorum requies est in vulneribus salvatoris nostri Gerhard Medit. 6. Christus pro nobis sargâ—â—â—neum sudorem fudit ne frigidissimus in mortis agone sudor nos opprimeret Luctari voluit cum morte ne in agone mortis deficeremus Anxieâ—atem gravissimam tristitiam usque ad mortem sustinere voluit ut aeternae laetitiae in Caelis participes redderemur In horto fieri voluit passionis initium ut expiaret peccatum quod in horto Paradisi habuerat principium Condemnatus est in terris ut nos absolveremur in Coelis Facies ipsius tegitur ut a nobis removeret velum peccati quod in nobis aspectum Dei impedit damnabilem ignorantiam inducit Crucis pondus portavit ut onus aeternae poenae à nobis submoveret A Deo se derelictum clamavit ut aeternam Dei cohabitationem nobis pararet Sitivit in cruce ut rorem divinae gratiae nobis promereretur ac ne aeterna sitâ— perire cogeremur Lacrymas profudit ut nostras abstergeret lacrymas Coronâ spineâ coronatus est ut coelestem coronam nobis promereretur Gerhard Medit. 7. his Soul as forsaken of God that we might never be forsaken of God but have eternal Communion with him in Heaven He thirsted upon the Cross and would have Gall to drink that having merited for us the enlivening nectareous Dew of Divine Grace we might not pine with perpetual thirst but be satisfied with the sweet Wine of Eternal Consolation He would often weep and be filled with sorrow that coming to Sion with Songs and everlasting Joy upon our Heads we might obtain Joy and Gladness and have all tears wiped from our Eyes so that sorrow and sighing shall fly away He in a word would be crowned with Thorns that having laid aside the Rags of Mortality we at length might be crowned with Life and Eternal Glory in God's heavenly Kingdom Since then Christ was thus afflicted that we might be comforted since he drank of the Brook in the way that we might lift up our Heads with everlasting Joy since his Soul was sorrowful unto Death that we might receive the reward of Eternal Life since he came into the World for our sakes enduring the Cross and despising the Shame for this very end that we at length might be crowned with eternity of heavenly Glory what incongruity can you think it to have respect in our obedience to the recompence of the reward Had Christ our Redeemer a respect in all that he did and suffered to the meriting of Eternal Glory for us and may not we have respect in our obedience to the enjoyment of that Happiness and Glory which Christ hath so merited Did the beloved Son of God come down from the Bosom of the Father live such a miserable Life and die so painful execrable and ignominious a Death to purchase such a reward as a Christian cannot look at in his obedience but it will make him forfeit his ingenuity and transform him presently into a mercenary Indeed to fall in love with the Gift and forget the Giver highly to prize Redemption and to undervalue our Redeemer to have our Hearts more set upon Heaven and Glory than upon Christ himself who hath purchased it for us with his own Blood this were monstrously sordid and disingenuous but yet the respect which Christ had to the purchasing of Heaven and Glory for us in his Death and Sufferings doth sufficiently evince that we also in our obedience may have some respect thereunto I read of a certain Young Gallant that having received a Wound in the Wars whereof he came halt home his Mother told him Son this Wound will make you remember Virtue every step that you take To be sure Christian since Christ was wounded for our transgressions purchasing Life and Eternal Glory for us by the Price of his own Blood this may well make us think of Heaven every step that we take in the way of Gods Commandments Not frequently to make glad our Hearts with the sweet Meditation of Eternal Life not often to dwell upon it in our Thoughts taking encouragement therefrom to all holy and self-denying and
saving of his own Soul doth thereby advance God's Glory and set the Crown upon his Head For God out of the Riches of his Grace hath so joyned his Glory and our salvation together that he who duely seeks the one must seek the other and he who neglects the one must needs make light of the other also Let Men pretend never such Hyperboles of love to God and Transports of Zeal for his Glory yet if they will go on in a voluntary neglect of life and eternal salvation never seeking after them by patient continuance in welldoing they do certainly make forfeiture of all their pretended Zeal as Men that do even embezel God's Honour and fall short of his Glory For no Man can rightly aim at God's Honour and Glory as his ultimate end who doth not also intend the beatifical vision of God and everlasting communion with him in the Kingdom of Heaven as his greatest Happiness Neither do those rare and almost unparallelable instances of Zeal for God's Glory in Moses and Paul any thing prejudice but rather establish and add strength to this reason whilst ambitious to express an Hyperbole of love to God if such a thing may be and how much they were affected with his Glory they do it by a certain velleity or a kind of incompleat willingness to be divorced from something of their own happiness rather than that the Lord Jehovah should suffer any thing in Point of Honour thereby fully assuring us that next to God's Glory their own welfare and eternal salvation was most precious in their Eyes And truly had they not first made Choice of God as their happiness and reward they would never have been so tender of his Honour desiring with such an holy ambition to promote his Glory For 't is only the hope of everlasting communion with God in Heaven firmly botomed upon our interest in him that can beget a true Zeal for God and make us willing to Sacrifice all our interests on Earth how precious and dear soever to his Glory Men like Jehu may go far and pretend much for God and his Glory till the Lord's interest and their own fall asunder But they only will run the hazard of losing all (k) Acts 20.24 and most zealously contend for God's Glory in this Interim of Mortality who do most earnestly seek after Glory Honour and Blessed immortality in the life to come As no Man can raise up a stately edifice till first he have layed a good foundation so truly unless a care to provide for our own eternal happiness be first laid as a foundation we shall never be able to raise up a sumptuous building of Glory or any monument of due praise to the God of Heaven For though God's essential Glory be independent like himself (l) Job 35.6 7. Psal 16.2 Nec crescit Deus accedente te nec decrescit decedente te Aug. in Psal 145. Totum quod rectè colitur Deus ab homine prodesse homini non Deo idem De Civit. Dei Lib. 10. cap. 5. and so infinitely excellent that being always in the full of Divine splendour and brightness it can neither admit of * Tibi autem qui semper idem es nihil accedit si amando proficimus ad te nihil decedit si non amando deficimus à te Guil. à S. Theodor. de Amor. Dei Cap. 8. waxings nor wanings by any transactions of sinful mortals as we are yet his declarative Glory doth still shine forth and is eclipsed according to our conversation in the world so that God hath then most Glory by us when we walk most Heavenly seeking life and eternal salvation by patient continuance in well-doing whereas his Glory undergoes an eclipse and the Lord always suffers in point of Honour when at any time we seek not the Kingdom of God and his righteousness but begin to make light of our own salvation If then the Lord hath thus inseparably conjoyned knit together his own Glory and our salvation so that whoever turns away his eyes from beholding the one must needs neglect and make light of the other also how can we look upon it as unlawful to have respect in our obedience to the recompence of the reward Is the end our duty and the means our Sin Is God most transcendently glorified in our eternal Salvation and yet may we not lawfully take care for the saving of our immortal Souls Is it the Honour of the God whom we worship and that which sets the Crown of Glory upon his Head that he is a rewarder of all those who diligently seek him and yet is it not lawful but sin in us to have respect whilst here we seek him and walk in obedience before him to that eternal recompence of reward which out of the Riches of his Grace he hath provided for us Believe it Christians since the Glory of God is bound up in the bundle of your life and must needs be eclipsed when ever that is neglected you need doubt no longer but that you may lawfully have an eye to the recompence of the reward seeking life and eternal salvation in all your obedience CHAP. VI. The Doctrin branched forth into several uses and prosecuteth the first by way of Information in Four Particulars 4 AND lastly having hitherto given you to understand in several particulars what it is to have a respect to the recompence of the reward how you are to do so and withall let you know the arguments evincing the lawfulness of such a practice there is now only remaining the practical improvement of the Doctrine by way of use and application which indeed is the life of all Doctrinal discourses bringing every thing home to the Soul in a close and particular accommodation and therefore more longly to be insisted upon For as the Sun in the firmament of Heaven hath a twofold virtue the one of illumination whereby sending forth its beams of light it guides this lower part of the World and the other of influence whereby it communicates itself to inferiour Bodies covering them all over with its * 2 Tim. 3.16 healing wings So in every portion of holy Writ there is an illumination of truth upon the mind and understanding and withall there is an influence of Grace and Goodness upon the Will and Affections As therefore I have hitherto shewed you the light of truth for the irradiating of your minds in the doctrinal part of my Text so in the next place I am to make some use of the words that they may shed forth their influence of Grace upon your Hearts covering them all over with their healing virtue And truly the Doctrine observed from the words is like a box of precious oyntment which in the Application I shall endeavour to break that it may send forth a spiritual fragrancy and a sweet smelling savor to refresh your Souls 'T is not an empty Vine but a Tree of life richly laden with fruits of Paradise
which I shall now in the practical improvement of it endeavour so to shake that unloading all its precious Fruits into your own bosoms it may feed and enrich your Souls to eternal life The Lord having planted a Garden Eastward in Eden for our first Parents he caused a River to go out of Eden to water †Gen. 2.10 the Garden from whence it parted itself and became into four heads Holding resemblance herewith if your Souls be the Garden of God my Doctrine is a River of life proceeding from the Eden of the Text from whence also to Water your Souls and make them fruitful as the Garden of God it divideth it self into four Heads in the use of it yeilding us matter of Information Reprehension Exhortation and Consolation 1 THEN by way of Information since that it is thus lawful for us to have respect in all our obedience to the recompence of the reward this may well satisfy us concerning the truth of these ensuing Corollaries As 1 THIS may give us to understand that it s no argument of insincerity nor any just forfeiture of a Christians uprightness and ingenuity for him to have an eye in his obedience to the recompence of the reward A Christian in seeking after Heaven and Glory in all his obedience he doth nothing but what is holy and just and good which doubtless can never make him unholy nor be any just forfeiture of his uprightness and integrity in the sight of God You may as well extract dross out of the purest Gold and dregs out the most refined Spirits as a Christian may become disingenuous and contract upon himself the guilt of hypocrisy by having an eye in his obedience to the recompence of the reward Indeed I Read of many in holy Writ * 2 Tim. 4.10 censured as mercenaries and stigmatized for gross hypocrites because they were wholly acted in God's service by sinister ends and worldly considerations serving the Lord not for love but for loaves for esteem of Men secular Advantages Honours Preferments earthly Emoluments together with the like external accommodations But that a Man should be impeached of insincerity and branded for a Mercenary a Legalist an Hypocrite because acted in the ways of God by a desire after the full enjoyment of God in Glory seeking Heaven and Happiness seeking Life Immortality and eternal salvation by patient continuance in welldoing this never could I find recorded in God's sacred Oracles Live not then Christian any longer upon self-created Racks let not thy Countenance be sad from day to day suffer not any groundless sorrow to have Dominion over thee as if thou delightest in nothing but to make thy Soul a map of misery neither let thy Heart any longer be filled with fears and jealousies and perplexing thoughts about thy own sincerity censuring thy self for that wherein God did never yet condemn but always justifie thee To be labouring in all our obedience not (b) Joh. 6.27 Mat. 6.20 Luke 12.33 Psal 4.6 2 Cor. 4.18 for the Meat that perisheth but for the Meat which will endure to Eternal Life not for Earth but Heaven not for the favour of Men but for the smiles of God in the Face of Jesus Christ not for things Temporal which are seen but for things Eternal which are not seen not for a Portion in this World (c) Luke 10.42 but for that better part which shall never be taken from us not for the Honour which comes from Men (d) Joh. 5.44 but for the Glory the Felicity and that Eternal Soul-raping Happiness which comes of God only this argues not Hypocrisie and Mercenariness but an Heart that is truly Upright and Sincere in the Sight of God! There is a certain Fish with one Eye called Uranoscopus which they (a) Zach. 7.5 Joh. 6.26 Joh. 5.44 say is always gaâ—ing upwards towards Heaven Thus every true Christian hath his Eye still fixed upon Heaven he looks within the Veil and would always by his good will be on the top of Mount Nebo thence taking for his better encouragement to all holy self-denying and upright walking before the Lord a prospect of the Celestial Canaan Make not that then Christian any sign of Hypocrisie which doth clearly argue thee to be a true Nathaniel (a) Joh. 1.47 an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile Had the Lord by prohibition or otherwise made it unlawful for us to have respect in our obedience to the recompence of the reward and yet still thou wouldst allow thy self in that practise this indeed might have forfeited thy Integrity but since the Lord himself doth approve of it both commanding and commending it as praise-worthy in Holy Writ let not Christian thy Heart reproach thee and smite thee for an Hypocrite whilst by patient continuance in well-doing thou seekest after Glory and Honour and Immortality in the Life to come 'T is of dangerous consequence for a Christian as to make those things evidences of Sincerity so to make those things signs of Hypocrisie which God never intended to be such If the Lord have any where made it the distinctive Character of an Hypocrite to have an Eye in his obedience to Heaven and Glory then indeed you might well make sad inferences against and pass hard censures upon your selves But if otherwise you find the Lord commanding you to do so and have the practice of the most eminently Holy and Upright of all God's People plainly paraphrasing upon that Commandment for your better satisfaction oh then take heed that you be not rash to conclude hard things against your selves because you cannot but have an Eye in all your obedience to the recompence of Eternal Life lest you be found reflecting dishonour thereby upon God himself and blaspheming against the Generation of his Children What shall a Christian bring in an action of disingenuity against himself and conclude himself an Hypocrite for that which all along hath been the laudable practice of Gods true Nathaniels who have received Letters testimonial subscribed by the Hand of Heaven itself that they were Israelites indeed in whom there was no guile What think you Christians of Moses of David and of Paul the Apostle Were â—hey not all of them Men according to God's own Heart Men upright in their lives and conversations and far enough from being mercenaries in the service of God And yet all this notwithstanding they lived upon the Mount of transfiguration their Faces were still Sion-ward they had always an eye to the recompence of the reward seeking always for themselves by patient continuance in well-doing no less than eternity of Life and Glory in God's Heavenly Kingdom If then Christians upon this account you dare not censure them take heed that upon the same account you do not censure your selves as persons that are altogether disingenuous hypocritical and mercenary in the service of God! There is nothing unlawful but what is holy and good in obeying the Lord with respect to
Oh Sirs do you well consider how by such sordid refusals of Mercy you turn that into a favour of Death which breaths out nothing but Life and Happiness you provoke the Lord to rain down Vollies of Wrath and Fury yea Hell it self as the Father said of Sodom's destruction out of Heaven upon you necessitating him to vindicate the reputation of his holiness in your Eternal Misery and Damnation What to blaspheme against the Goodness of God when pursuing you as unwilling to let you without a Blessing To turn your backs upon the gracious condescentions of God when following you with strong importunities of Love and intreating you to provide for your Happiness To make light in a word of Heaven and Glory when offered by the Hand of free Grace upon no harder terms than only that you should cordially accept of them and by patient continuance in well-doing seek after them Oh Sirs such prodigious Ingratitude as this it will destroy you with a double destruction This will heat the Furnace of God's Indignation against you seven times hotter This will set an accent of greatest horrour upon Hell and be the greatest emphasis of your Misery and Eternal Damnation in that place of Torments 3 THIS may give us to understand what a pleasant thing it is to serve the Lord and how unjustly the ways of God are traduced by Men of corrupt minds as if there were no Joy no Comfort no solid grounds of Consolation nor any Cordials to make glad the Heart to be found in them God's People in all the ways of obedience are never suffered to go without the hope of Eternal Life in their Hearts and a fair prospect of Heaven and Glory in their Eye how should they go disconsolate or want matter of delight and comfort to make them rejoice with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory If as Solomon tells us it be such a pleasant thing for a †Prov. 3.17 Mortal Eye to behold the Sun how pleasant then are the wayes of Wisdom wherein the Soul having fixed its Eye upon the reward of Eternal Life is always irradiated with most clarified Beams of Joy and reflexions of Glory from the Sun of Righteousness Goodness is true Naomi that will be turned into a Marah into bitterness as she was but is always a pleasant object as that name sounds yeilding matter of delight and spiritual pleasure to all that embrace her The ways of God are like green Fields full of vernal Flowers the Beauty whereof doth exhilerate the Mind making a Man forget his weariness and so come to his Journeys end before he is well aware God deals with all his People as with Moses in the Wilderness to whom he granted for his comfort and satisfaction a prospect of Canaan though he suffered him not to enter therein so though his People cannot enter into the Heavenly Canaan whilst traveling through the Wilderness of their Earthly Pilgrimage yet he brings them down Heaven upon Earth he brings the Harbor into Sea the Rest into their labour the Glory into their trouble and something of the future * Psal 19.11 reward into their present work allowing them for their comfort a â—rospect of the Heavenly Canaan which doth wonderfully rejoyce and make glad their Hearts Men of carnal Hearts are apt indeed to look upon Religion as a sullen and austere exercise that comes to plunder them of all their Comforts as if embracing that they would never have a merry hour nor see one Summers day of joy after As Christ cast out of the Minstrels when he †Mat. 9.23 25. raised up the Rulers Daughter from Death to Life So Christianity they think banisheth all Joy necessitating them to take their longum vale of all delight and to bid farewell to it for ever A Life of serious practical Holiness transforms Men as they imagin into mopish Monks possessing them with unsociable melancholy and causing them like Rachel weeping for her children to refuse all comfort as persons ambitiously desirous to make themselves perfect emblems of sorrow and discontent But surely that encouragement which God allows his People in a way of Duty setting before them a Kingdom of Eternal Glory a Triumphant Crown of Righteousness together with the reward of Eternal Life as the recompense of all their labours may well satisfie us that all those are intolerably abusive and calumnious bringing a most false Report upon a Christian Conversation who do thus shamefully traduce it as a thing destructive of and wholly inconsistent with all Joy If Abraham could rejoice foreseeing by an Eye of Faith the day of Christs incarnation when he only came to purchase Heaven and Glory for his People How much more may the Children of Abraham lift up their Heads with Joy and everlasting consolation foreseeing by an Eye of Faith that Happy day when Christ should be * 2 Thess 1.10 glorified in his Saints and admired in all those that do believe as coming to put them in full possession of that glorious inheritance which is †1 Pet. 1.4 uncorruptible undefiled and which fadeth not away but is reserved sure in the Heavens for them That Christians which the Bernadine Monks fondly conceited that the Sun shone only in their Cell it holds true of you with reference to the Sun of Righteousness he irradiates none with the pure Beams of comfort he lifts up the light of hâ—s Countenance upon none but such as walk close in Communion with him The outward Sun that shines with promiscuous undistinguishable Beams both upon the Good and upon the Bad both upon Frâ—ends and Enemies but the Light of the Knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ the Sun of Righteousness that shines upon none that communicates its heart-entrancing heavenly influences of joy and gladness to none but those whom God loves with his special dearest and eternal Love (a) Numb 17.8 Amongst all the Rods of the Princes of Israel the Rod of Aaron the high Priest alone brought forth Buds and bloomed Blossoms and yeilded Almonds Thus amongst all the Children of Men they alone that are made spiritual Priests unto God have their Souls like an Aaron's Rod bringing forth the Buds Blooming the Blossoms and yielding the delicious Fruit of inward comfort to make glad their Hearts God will never pour the new Wine of consolation into the old Bottles of ungracious carnal (b) Deus non infundit oleum misericordiae nisi in nos nutritum Est enim gaudium quod non datur impiis sed iis qui te gratis colunt quorum gaudium tu ipse es August Confes lib. 10. cap. 22. Revel 2.17 Hearts Till therefore the Heart be spiritualized it can never relish the Sweetness of God and his ways nor ever meet with any solid comfort to feed upon The people of God are not left comfortless in the World only they feed upon hidden Manna which a carnal Heart is not able to relish they live upon the
compel you to acknowledge that God's people having their eye fixed upon and walking in the way which infallibly leads to all this transcendently blissful and glorious Happiness must needs for the present rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of Glory I dare not indeed affirm of God's people what Tully doth of Syracuse in Sicily and others of Rhodes that there is not one Day throughout the year wherein the Sun shines not clearly upon them This Vally of Tears is full of Clouds 't is the priviledg alone of the Heavenly Jerusalem to be above them The Mirth that hath no Mourning the Joy that hath no Sorrow the Crown that hath no Cross is reserved for Heaven as peculiar to a state of Blessedness and Immortality God's people they may sometimes go disconsolate and be without joy as the Wine failed at the Marriage where Christ was But then their Water was turned into Wine and so the bitter Waters of Marah which at such a time a Christian drinks of shall be turned into the Wine of Eternal consolation They may for a while be under a Cloud but then that very Cloud shall at length be dissolved into a Golden shower of comfort to make glad their Hearts They may be suffered a while to wander in the Wilderness but yet that Wilderness shall become a Canaan affording them many ripe Clusters of Grapes to feed upon They may in a word have a sad and disconsolate Autumm both their Graces and comforts for a time withering But the spring-time of Heavenly joy will again return wherein all their Comforts shall blossom afresh and their Graces shall recover their former vernancy never to decay nor to lose their beauty any more till ripened into the delicious flower of Eternal Glory So then though God's people may be in heaviness for a season yet even then they have the foundation of their comfort remaining sure because the Morning of true joy will again dawn and the Sun of Righteousness arise upon them with healing in his wings After a weary Week will come a Sabbath after a time of trouble will come rest after a sharp conflict they are sure of a glorious triumph after a night of darkness they shall have a morning of joy and after all their storms they are sure to be landed safe at the Port of Eternal comfort (l) Psalm 1. But the ungodly are nothing so their joy like a bubble quickly vanisheth like a flower it soon fadeth like a Jonah's Gourd it presently withereth like a blazing Comet it evapoureth and spends itself in a short time portending their Eternal ruin (m) Gen. 19.23 24. or rather like the morning Sun-shine upon Sodom which ended in a direful storm of Fire and Brimstone from the Lord out of Heaven to destroy them Albeit then that God's own people go mourning like Doves of the Vally now and then whilst the wicked and ungodly drink deep of carnal pleasures faring deliciously like Dives every day Yet because the godly shall have beauty for ashes the oyl of gladness for mourning and the garment of praise for the (a) Isai 61.3 Spirit of heaviness whilst the wicked shall weep and howl for their misery for the wrath the everlasting destruction in Hell that must shortly come upon them why therefore let us not what eyer be the condition of the godly in this Life entertain any hard thoughts of God and his ways as if no solid comfort would be found in them For whether is better that Joy which will end in everlasting hellish torments or that Sorrow which shall be turned into joy that can never be taken from us Certainly as a reverend Divine now with God once said if a Man were crowned with royal State and imperial command of all the Kingdoms upon Earth if his Heart were enlarged to the utmost of all created capacity and filled with all the exquisite and unmixed pleasures that the reach of mortality and most ambitious curiosity could possibly devise and might without interruption and distaste enjoy them the length of the World's duration they were all nothing to the enjoyment of the precious and peerless comforts of the state of Grace but even for one hour Believe it Sirs there is no such joy to be found in the ways of sin There is no such comfort to be met with in carnal delights as God's people are called to partake of in ways of Holiness Can there be a more cordial joy a more entrancing delight a more strong and everlasting consolation than for the Soul to feed upon hidden Manna to have the sweet and delicious Clusters of Canaan to refresh it in the wilderness to dwell continually upon the top of Mount Pisgah thence taking a clear prospect of the Land of promise a Land that floweth with Milk and Hony (a) Gratia non tollit sed attollit non abolet sed defaecat non extirpat sed ordinat naturalem gaudii affectionem quâ ratione docens in proprium collocetur objectum To be sure Sirs Christianity doth not when it comes into the Soul extirpate but only ordinate our joy teaching us to place it upon the right object It doth not take away our joy but only refine it that it may be seraphique spiritual and heavenly It doth not come to pluck up the Tree by the roots but only to prune and water it that abounding with more Paradisical generous Fruit it may yeild you the more sweetness the more delicious full and satisfactory Grapes of Canaan to refresh your Souls Your carnal delights they are satiating but not satisfying glutting yet not filling like some delicious Meats that nauseat the stomack yet fill it not But now that delight which a Christian hath in the serious contemplation of Heaven and Glory it brings in fulness without satiety it satisfies and yet excites fills and yet enlargeth the desires of the Soul after more In carnal delights there is that deceitfulness that when we * Vilescit adeptum quod accendit desideratum want them they are coveted when we have them they are loathed But the delights accrewing to the Soul from a prospect of Heaven are such as are only loathed by those that want them but still desired by those that tast them who can never be glutted but provoked to more insatiate longings after them by their sweetness 4 THIS may give us to understand what small Reason the Men of the World have to exclaim of God's people for their Zeal Circumspection and Diligence in well-doing or to censure them upon that account as Persons guilty of unnecessary preciseness and indiscretion making more ado than they need The Lord hath set before them a Crown of Glory and is that an unnecessary transport of Zeal which maks them contend for it He shews them a Kingdom for their encouragement and must that needs be misguided Zeal Indiscretion and Madnes◠that makes them offer violence to it He hath promised them the reward of Eternal Life and
volens nos amorem non habere nisi vitae aeternae in istis velut innocentibus delectationibus miscet amaritudines ut in his patiamur tribulationes Docetur amare meliora per amaritudinem inferiorum ne viator tendens ad putriam stabulum amet pro domo suâ Aust in Psal 40. 45. For doubtlesâ— Sirs as Manna in the Wilderness when the people distrusting God's daily provision would needs hoard it up bred Worms and stank So when Men inordinately loving the World will needs accumulate Riches they do but store up Worms to gnaw upon their Consciences that will daily vex and disquiet them If therefore you would not multiply your own â—orrows be not too much in love with your worldly enjoyments striving beyond measure to multiply them Therefore hath the Lord rubbed gall and wormwood upon the breasts of all our Creature-comforts thâ—â— we may learn to get weaned affections to them Evâ—â—y Rose hath its Thorn in this present life that we may not to much be delighted with its sweetness 3 Consider all Creature-enjoyments they are uncertain and changable The Riches Honours and enjoyments of this present Life they are called Bona Fortunae the Goods of Fortune Not so much because they are the Largess of that fictitious Goddess as because they are like her inconstant and always obnoxious to variety of changes a As the fashions in the World alter and change every day so doth the fashion of the World with all its enjoyments What we usually call substance is indeed but a glining shadow that hath nothing but mutability written upon it Men may fancy what assurance they will in their earthly enjoyments But indeed they are always like the Moon in her last quarter ever upon the change (b) Ostenduntur istae res non possidentur dum placent transcunt Sen. Our Creature-comforts they are not so properly possessions as Pageants * 1 Cor. 7.31 which whilst they please us in a moment they pass away from us (c) 1 Tim. 6.17 Divitiae hujus seculi incertae sunt quia transitoriae sunt quoniam plerumque amittet illus homo ante mortem ex toto autem in ipsâ morte Haymo in loc Hence Riches have the epithet of uncertain given them by divine Inspiration as most proper for them Because we know not how soon God may sequester us from them or them from us and so leave us to survive our own Happiness The World usually deals with its greatest Favourites those that serve it with most devotion as 〈◊〉 dealt with Jacob his near Kinsman who changed his Wages ten times Day unto day makes report and every Man 's own experieâ—ce may read him a sufficient lectâ—â—â— concerning the manifold sâ—d changes aâ—d various â—â—â—â—â—tions to which we are every Day liâ—ble in our Creatâ—â—â—â—njoymentâ— How many of the Worlds greatest Favourites have we seen honourable and dishonoured in one and the same Day (d) Subito enim laetitia à tristitia absorbetur gaudium in dolorem vertitur sanitas infirmitate laeditur prosperitas adversitate prosternitur juventus ad senectutem vita currit ad mortem Haymo Homil. in Dom. 5. post Pascha pag. mihi 134. In fullnâ—ss of Creature-comforts and yet emptied of them all in a moment Abounding with Riches and yet soon reduced to wants and with Job becoming poor even to a Proverb Compassed about with Friends and Relations in the Morning and yet deserted of them all before the Evening as persons left alone to outlive the choicest of comforts You then that have heard and seen the Providence of God thus ringing the changes of Creature-enjoyments all the World over why will you still proceed in your Love to them and commit Idolatry with them Do you not consider that your Beauty your Riches your Honours your Pleasures and all your Creature-comforts are no better than inconstant fading Vanities that are daily obnoxious to variety of changes What is all your pleasure but as a bitter Pill wrapt up in Sugar which however it be hony in the mouth yet is gall in the stomack What is all your Beauty but as a fading flower which at the first breaking forth of the Sun of Afflictions may be scorched and wither away into the ghastliness of a dead Carcass What are all your Honours but as a blast of idle wind which can neither be kept by all your care nor reduced by all your policy when once gon past you What in a word are all your Riches but as a golden ray from Heaven's Sun-shine which in a moment may be intercepted by every discontented cloud that comes lined with nothing but want and poverty For shame then let the great uncertainty of your Creature-enjoyments and that mutability which you see to be written upon them make you labour no longer for them but rather strive for those better comforts which are above uncertainty and can never change Worldly Prudence when speaking in its proper dialect will bid us hold fast that which is certain (e) Tene certum dimitte incertum and let go that which is uncertain Behold then I set before you Earth and Heaven And which of these two will you now make your choice Will you choose an uncertain Earth before a certain Heaven Will you choose those Earthly enjoyments that are daily subject to variety of changes before those Heavenly Mansions of Glory that are above mutability and can never change Or that the manifold changes to which all our Wordly comforts are daily obnoxious may cause us to change our thoughts of them and no longer to pursue them with a doting observance In all the changes to which our Creature-enjoyments are daily liable (f) 1 John this is the great end which God aims at that we may not love the World nor the things of the World When therefore you find your health changed into sickness your Riches changed into Poverty your Honours changed into Reproaches and all your Creature-enjoyments into so many pregnant instances of the Worlds uncertainty oh see that hereby you be instructed what little reason you have to let out your affections upon them or to fall in love with them Are things of such a changeable nature so much to be prized Shall an uncertain perishing World be preferred before Heaven and Glory which are not obnoxious to any uncertainty but have security against all changes written upon them Here Sirs you can enjoy none of your Creature-comforts with security but whether you have Riches or Honours or Pleasures or any other worldly accomodations you hold all upon the greatest uncertainty and are sure of nothing But now making choice of Heaven and Glory for your portion you will find them to be beyond the reach of change and indeed like the Laws of the Medes and Persians that knew no alteration Why then will you rather choose to be Tenants at will in your Worldly enjoyments than to purchase the Fee-simple of Heaven and unchangable glorious
mortis non est illic Aug. Confes lib. 4. cap. 12. What is this but as the Father saith to seek for Life in the Region of Death to seek for Heaven in the Hell of worldly distractions and for happiness in that that may prove our greatest misery Oh that you would once consult though not your Duty yet at least the real satisfaction of your own Souls no longer seeking after broken Cisterns but now coming to the Fountain of living Waters that you may be filled We cannot conceive so great a confluence of earthly enjoyments but still as more may be added so more will be desired But who ever obtains the enjoyment of God in Heaven Oh what fulness of joy what a Garden of soul-satisfying pleasures what a Paradise of all delights and spiritual contentments doth he find in him Now the Man hath as much joy as much comfort as much satisfaction as Heart can hold now like a stone in the Center he can go no further nor desire * Isai 55.2 any more Happiness than what he hath already now with holy David he can sing his Requiem Return to thy rest oh my (b) Psal 116.7 Soul for lo the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee What enemies are you then that love the World to your own Souls preferring Trouble before Rest the boysterous Ocean before the serene Harbour emptiness before satisfaction and a famine of true contentment before that fulness of delight and Heavenly repast which you might find in God How vain is the shadow if compared with the substance a drop if compared with the vast ocean a broken Cistern if compared with the Fountain of living Water or the confluence of all Creature-enjoyments if compared with the full enjoyment of God himself If then you love your Souls come away from these unsatisfying Vanities and seek now after Heaven and Heavenly objects making God your ultimate end and the full enjoyment of him your only happiness What alas will your Riches avail you without this Pearl of great price Will the Shell without the Kernel will the Cistern without the Fountain will the Stars without the Sun give content and can they make a day of happiness and satisfaction in your immortal Souls When a Man my Brethren can sow Grace in the furrows of his field when he can fill his Barns with Glory when he can get Baggs full of Salvation when he can Plow up Heaven out of the Earth and extract God out of the Creatures then but not till then he may be able to find that in them which will satisfy the unbounded desires of his own Soul Be not then any longer so foolish as to look for satisfaction from your Creature-enjoyments preferring the taste of an Apple with our first Parents before all the happiness of the Celestial Paradise Your creature comforts they are all of them impertinent and must needs upon that account be altogether unsatisfying as having no due commensuration nor sutableness to the wants and exigencies of an immortal Soul What one sin is all the World able to expiate What one misery is it able to deliver you from What one corruption can it mortify for you What one Grace can it enrich your Hearts with What one glimpse from God's favourable countenance can it help you to What one word of comfort can it speak to your troubled Consciences when distressed with the sense of God's wrath and the dreadful pre-occupations of Eternal burnings in Hell Indeed the favour of God and the hope of Heaven An interest in Jesus Christ and assurance through him of Eternal Glory these can give satisfaction as being every way sutable to and commensurate with our spiritual wants But now the impertinency of earthly enjoyments is such that you can never make up a sutable Estate for your Souls out of them nor satisfy their unmeasurable desires at the dry and empty Breasts of any Creature-comfort Oh how foolish then and irrational is every covetous Muck-worm Thou hast possibly Riches and Honours and Lands for thy portion But what will all these avail thee what content and satisfaction can they give thee not having an interest in the Lord Jehovah * Gen. 22.7 Behold the Fire and the Wood but where is the Lamb for sacrifice said Isaac to Abraham Thus may I say to you here you have Houses and Lands here you have Friends and worldly dignities But where is your interest in the Lord Jesus where is the Grace of God to sanctify you where is the mercy of God to Pardon you where is the love of God to comfort you where is the favour of God to make glad your Souls as the strength of your Hearts and your portion for ever You have possibly the good things of this life but where are the good things of a better life And be it so that you should abound and be crowned with all variety of Creature-comforts Yet remember your Souls they will still be restless and for ever unsatisfied till you come to rest your selves in the downy Bosom of God's Eternal love and to have fulness of sweet communion with him in Glory 6 And lastly consider all creature enjoyments they are but moment any and only for a season Like a Jonahs Gourd such are the choicest of all our Earthly Comforts growing up in one Night and withering away into nothing the next night following Had we the longest lease of Worldly enjoyments it would soon be worn out our lives are but short of themselves and therefore such comforts as we only hold for term of Life at the utmost cannot possibly last long What the Apostle saith of miraculous Gifts may truly be said of all our worldly accomodations whether you have Riches they shall fail or Relations after the Flesh they shall cease or whether you have Honors in the World they shall vanish away neither shall any Man's Glory descend after him Men usually call their Riches and Worldly accommodations by the name of Substance when indeed they are but a shadow that will never be seen any more when once the Sun of our lives is gon down Death will seal a Lease of ejectment and turn us out of all our possessions so that though now our Creature comforts attend upon us whilst we live and enjoy prosperity yet when once we come to breath out our Souls into Eternity they will all forsake us (a) Ieus est subitò qui modo Craesus erat You know how the Apostle Paul was accompanied by the Disciples to the Shore but there they took their leave of him Thus your Honours Riches and Earthly enjoyments they may accompany you to the Shore of Eternity but there they will bid you farewel for ever WHY then will you set your Hearts upon such fading Vanities labouring more for the Meat that perisheth than for that which will endure to Eternal Life (b) 2 Cor. 4.17 What we see is Temporal But what we see not is truly Eternal *
a Man walking in communion with God to leave off that holy practise for those pleasures of sin which are but for a season You that are acquainted with God know the sweetness of it and having had a tast cannot but desire more (g) Gen. 28.17 And I tell you Sirs communion with God this is none other but the House of God and this is the very gate of Heaven to use Jacob's words And yet out of this for a little wanton dalliance for a little sensual delights and sugared poyson do all wicked and ungodly Men exclude themselves Whilst we walk in communion with God we get some glimpses of his Glory and though we cannot get up into Heaven yet we find Heaven itself many times let down into our Souls But then this is the childrens bread which those that have pleasure in unrighteousness must not think to feed upon their portion is with Nebuchadnezzar to go a grazing amongst the Beasts of the field and though they count their carnal delights to be an Heaven upon Earth yet indeed they are entred already within the Suburbs of Hell For whoever is shut out from communion with God hath already begun his (h) 2 Thess 1.9 Hell The greatest emphasis of Hell and damnation mainly consisting in the sinners Eternal separation from the God of Heaven Oh then if any thing will make you break off your sins by repentance and abandon all the pleasures of sin which are but for a season let the fear let the misery of losing the happiness of communion with God prevail with you to do it Hast thou sinner any lust that will be instead of communion with an infinitely holy God to thy Soul Or is there any such pleasure in sin as can fully make amends for the loss of Divine favour and the sight of God's blisful countenance to all eternity From thy face shall I be hid so Cain that first-born of Parricides cried out unto God in an agony of black despair But wo and alas from the light of God's countenance in this World shall I be excluded and from Eternal communion with God in the World to come so may every ungodly sinner who hath pleasure in unrighteousness cry out despairing both night and day continually Libertines cannot walk with God and see his smiles who have pleasure in sin never fearing his frowns 3 CONSIDER Men delighting in the pleasures of sin they do walk direstly Antipodes to the Grace of God and turn it into wantonness (i) Titus 2.12 The Grace of God that teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts But such as have pleasure in unrighteousness they deny the grace of God for their worldly lusts and carnal contentments Their profession is Christianity which obligeth them to be holy But their practise is sensual and brutish as if they were ashamed of being suspected for too much holiness They pretend a Freedom from the guilt and imputation of sin But that they abuse for an encouragement to wallow in the Filth and pollution of sin They will confidently lay claim to Christs legal righteousness without them But they chuse to live without his Gospel-righteousness within them It s enough for them to be justified they never seek to be sanctified but let loose the Reins to all licentiousness as if there were not due preparation for Eternal life by inherent righteousness as well as of a Title to eternal life and salvation by imputed righteousness The Lord Jesus as they presume is become their Redeemer and therefore these profuse riotous Sinners they will run in God's debt committing sin with delight and living in it without remorse because Christ hath paid all the score He hath redeemed his people from the curse of the law and therefore these practical Antinomians they resolve to lead really accursed lawless lives as if an open trade in Hells commodities were licenced and sealed by the Blood of Christ The Grace of God in the Gospel hath no other improvement amongst such wicked sensualists but to make them the more ungracious And all the use they make of it is to strengthen their Hands in wickedness that they may sin securely Thus Men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the faith they will therefore take liberty to sin that Grace may abound So that as Zuinglius well said if they were called Satanists in stead of Christians there were no need of other manners O calamity never enough to be deplored (k) Nobile illud vere preciosum Christi nomen tantâ cum infamiâ conspuimu◠perinde ac si instar Mercurii usurae furti omnisque petulantiae Deus ac Patronus sit Zuing. de intemer Virg. pag. 349. We do with such infamy disgrace the noble and truly precious name of Christ as if like Mercury he were the God and Patron of usury theft and all licentiousness But why do you flatter yourselves with the Christian name when this most sacred name instead of expiating doth but aggravate your guilt Can you think that Christianity will be a Sanctuary from the wrath of God to those who by their unmortified lusts and unchristian lives are daily eclipsing his Glory (k) Nobile illud vere preciosum Christi nomen tantâ cum infamiâ conspuimu◠perinde ac si instar Mercurii usurae furti omnisque petulantiae Deus ac Patronus sit Zuing. de intemer Virg. pag. 349. Will it profit you to be called Christians when for blaspheming that holy name you are like to sink deeper in Hell than the worst of Heathens What tho the Gospel be full of Grace and peace and all spiritual Cordials for Heart-broken Sinners so long as you turn that Grace into wantonness not accepting of terms of peace but as carnal delighting to go on in the constant violation of God's holy Commandments Can you think that the willful abusers of Grace will be suffered to hide themselves under the Skirt of free Grace Shall those have the peace of God for their portion who by their brutish lusts make war against Heaven and bid defiance to God himself Will the Lord ever comfort those with Gospel Cordials whose only comfort it is to lead ungospel lives taking pleasure in sin Be no longer deceived neither God nor his Gospel will be mocked by you The Sweetest Wine degenerates into the sharpest Vinegar So the Grace of God in Christ when abused for an occasion to sin doth mingle the Wine of astonishment with most flaming ingredients for all those who thus turn it into wantonness For Men under Gospel-light to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness is a God-provoking sin We never so much displease the (l) Rom. 2.24 Lord as when we most indulge ourselves in carnal pleasures Then is the Grace of God most egregiously abused when Men take encouragement from it to go on in making provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Such cross the great end of God's Grace and walk diametrically opposite to the
enough we have Heaven in our eye and a Crown of Life lies before us What though you have but little in hand yet so long as you have Heaven in hope and a clear prospect of Eternal Glory in your eye why should you not be content and sit down satisfied Whatever Christians your conditions be in this present Life yet you may say with holy David considering that glorious recompence of Reward which God allows you to have an eye to in Heaven's way the lines are fallen to me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly Inheritance If as Solomon saith it be such a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the Sun and that which would give them content if with any thing they could be satisfied how much more should you count it pleasant to behold by the Eye of Faith the Sun of Righteousness to behold an eternal Reward of Glory giving diligence to sit down satisfied with so blessed a sight The poor weather beaten Sea-man how well satisfied is he though yet tossed with Storms and impetuous Tempests when once he discovers Land and comes within â—en of the Harbour And will not you Christians labour to be content when whatever Troubles abide you whatever pelting Storms you are tossed with upon the boysterous Sea of this ungrateful World yet still you may discover the Land of Promise and are always within ken of Heaven that wished Harbour of eternally blessed and glorious Rest That which learned St. Paul the great mystery of contentation enabling him to sit down as well satisfied in every condition was his stedfast fixed beholding of eternal Glory Paul though sadly troubled and perplexed and always delivered unto Death for Jesus sake yet he murmures not but is well content with all this as having fixed the Eye of his Faith not upon Earth but Heaven * 2 Cor. 4.17 not upon things that are seen but upon an eternal weight of unseen Glory And why is it that we having the same Reward set before us and the same Crown of eternal Glory to fix our eyes upon cannot learn of that blessed Man in every condition therewith to be content Oh take heed Christians that you murmure no longer against Heaven but strive that having stedfastly fixed your eye upon heavenly Glory you may well be satisfied in every condition not only when God gives but also when he taketh not only when we receive good from the Hand of the Lord but also when we receive evil not only when you abound with Blessings but with Crosses too not only when you enjoy all things but when you are stript of all Oh Christians how welcome should every thing be where nothing is deserved If we look at our own deserts we may wonder rather at what we have than repine against God for what we want If we want something 't is a Mercy that we want not all If we lie in a Prison 't is a favour that we are not shut up in Hell amongst damned Spirits If we have not so much in hand as many yet here is a miracle of Mercy to satisfie us that we have as much in hope as heart can wish This consideration then Christians like Hagar's Well may make us refrain our weeping and sit down content when our Bottles are empty Though here we should be stript naked yet hereafter we shall be cloathed with the Garments of Salvation Though here we should wander up and down in hunger seeking our Bread from desolate Places yet hereafter we shall feed with delight upon the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God Though here we sit in Darkness and have no Light yet this should make us content in every such disconsolate condition that hereafter we shall partake of the Inheritance of Saints in Light where we shall have a bright Sun-shine of eternal Glory 4 Walk humbly acknowledging your own unworthiness that ever God should give you the encouragement of so glorious a reward When the Lord for your better encouragement to all holy Self-denying and upright walking before himself allows you to look up to Heaven you have then cause if ever to walk humbly and be abased as low as Earth Where the guilt is great and the receiver as in this case altogether unworthy the most sutable return that can be is Humility and self-abasement God's People should never lie lower in Humility than when he raiseth them highest in their Hopes and full assurance of Eternal Glory (a) 2 Sam. 7.18 Thus holy David when God had spoken of establishing his Throne and Kingdom for ever he now as admiring the wonderful condescention of God in his preferment confesseth his own unworthiness saying who am I oh Lord God and what is my House that thou hast brought me hitherto Well! The Lord hath spoken to us of an everlasting Kingdom assuring us of that in the end as the reward of all our labours and shall not this teach us all humility causing every one to acknowledg his own unworthiness of so great Mercy (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. Praecept Coning The Moon doth never shine less than in her nearest approaches to the Sun from whom she borrows her light Thus Christians we should never think our selves to shine less than when God causeth us to approach nearest to himself in the tenders of Heaven and Glory which his Goodness affords us They that know not these Treasures of Love and Sweetness may admire themselves and have big-swelling thoughts of their own Worthiness But let those amongst you that are come to have a prospect of Heavenly Glory fixing their Eye upon an object of the first magnitude be vile in their own apprehensions losing themselves in the fulness of God's free Grace and remunerative Goodness There is nothing that should more humble us than to think how highly the great God is about to exalt us Nor any thing that should more debase us than to consider how Glorious the Lord promises at length to make us We should see our own Poverty in the Riches of God's Bounty to us And be ashamed of our own drop when he makes us thus lanch forth in the fathomless Ocean of his own remunerative Goodness The Stars vanish when the Sun appears and so the small Candle of our own worth should presently disappear and be put out under an everlasting extinguisher when once the Glory of Heaven ariseth in our thoughts (c) 1 King 19.13 Elijah wrapt his face in a Mantle when the Glory of the Lord passed before him Thus when God gives us a prospect of Heaven causing all his Glory for our better encouragement in a way of Duty to pass before us 't is time that we should now wrap our selves in the Mantle of true Humility The greatness of God's Mercy in giving us a sight of Heavenly Glory should make us if any thing can to be little in our own Eyes 'T is then most easy to see our own pollution and vileness when God takes us up
have Heaven with all the Glory and royalties thereof continually in our Eye before us Can any Man having fixed his Eyes upon and expecting an Eternal reward of Glory in Heaven indulge himself in the dead and powerless performance of holy duties not â—â—bouring to be carried on in the Work of the Lord with a mighty violence and holy activity of Spirit That Man is certainly unworthy the Glory of Heaven who thinks it not well worth his utmost diligence and labour of Love on Earth (a) Non enim dormientibus provenit regnum coelorum sed in Dei mandatis laborantibus Leo Serm. 2. de Epiphan pag. 25. The Kingdom of Heaven is prepared not for loyterers but for labourers Not for those that stand idle all the Day in Gods Vineyard but for those that make hast to run the Way of his Commandments * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. This Kingdom though not meritable by the endeavours of any mortal but the free gift of God yet is never to be taken but by an holy Storm Nor must any Man ever think to come there that is not willing to gain it in the sweat of his brows How then should this fill our Hearts with great thoughts and our Hands with all opportunities sending us forth to meet all advantages and engaging us to use all possible diligence in Heavens way And can you be content to lose Heaven rather than Labour for it To be shut our of the Paradise of God for ever rather than force your selves into it by an holy violence through the strait Gate Can you do too much for a Crown of Glory or expend more strength in the service of God than what the recompence of reward will make amends for Oh believe it Christians you can never put your time your strength your diligence to better usury than by laying forth all in the service of God! There is not a prayer not a sigh not a tear not the least struggle of the Spirit against the Flesh herein that shall ever be lost (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Epist ad Polyc. But as your diligence for Christ doth abound in the work of the Lord so the reward of Eternal Life by Christ shall much more abound unto you Your weak â—â—â—eavours shall be crowned with strong consolationâ— For your temporal obedience on earth you shall receive the recompence of Eternal Glory in Heaven And for your labour of love here you shall rest for ever hereafter in the sweet and delicious embraces of your best beloved the dear Lord Jesus whom to see without end will be endless happiness Oh then what diligence in the service of God what labour in the work of the Lord what exactness in all our Duties can be sufficient for that God who hath prepared such transcendently glorious and Soul-raping felicity for those that faithfully serve him Hast thou Christian such a Crown and yet run no faster Hast thou such an eternal Triumph and yet fight the Battels of the Lord with no more courage and activity Hast thou such a blessed and transcendently glorious Reward and yet no more diligent zealous and abounding in the Work of the Lord Oh take a prospect by the Eye of Faith of the Land of Promise view the Glory observe the royalties take notice of the many choyce immunities of that Heavenly Canaan let the recompence of Eternal Life be always in your Eye and then forbear to be fervent in spirit when serving the Lord if you can Their labour their Zeal their diligence for God should never be small to whom he vouchsafes a prospect of so transcendently great and glorious a Reward The endeavours of a Christian for God should always bear some proportion with what encouragements he receives from God Having therefore so clear a sight of what God hath layd up for us with himself in Heaven we should never think we can do enough for God on earth So long as God holds out a Crown of Glory we should never withhold our labour our pains our diligence in a way of duty Thou art unworthy Christian the least glympse of Heavens happiness if such a sight do not presently transform thee into 〈◊〉 incarnate Seraphim making thee burn with Heavenly Zeal in the service of God like Coles of Juniper as willing to undergo the greatest labour for so glorious a recompence Let us therefore with all intention of mind with all vigour of Soul with all due preparation of Heart run the way of God's Commandments remembring it is all for the life of our own Souls and that the recompence of Eternal Glory is still before us as the reward of all our Christian endeavours 7 WALK Heavenly-mindedly not loving the World nor the things of the World but wholy setting your Hearts upon things above In this case if any where your Eye should affect your Hearts so that the sight which God affords you of an eternal Reward in Heaven may attract and draw up your affections thither wholly divorcing them from the Love of all Creature-enjoyments The Lapwing is made an Emblem of infelicity by some because having a little Coronet upon her head she yet feeds upon the worst of excrements Well you that have a Crown of Glory though not already upon your head yet in your Eye take heed that you be not such Enemies to your own Happiness as to feed with delight upon the sordid enjoyments of this present World Themistocles that gallant Athenian Captain bid his Friend take up those Bracelets which he espied on the ground for saith he thou art not †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. Themist Themistocles implying that it was below a Person of his Place and Renown to be affected with such Vanities So Christians let the Worlds Friends stoop down and embrace her Profits Honours and outward Accomodations it 's below you that have Heaven in your Eye to be taken with them 'T is a thing unbecoming all you whose Reward is laid up in the highest Heavens to stoop so far below your selves as to lay out your affections upon Earth and earthly enjoyments If Alexander would not exercise at the Olympicks as thinking such Pedantick recreations too far below him (i) Nos contemnere malumus quà m continere opes innocentiam magis cupimus magis patientiam flagitamus malumus nos bonos esse quà m prodigos Min. Foel Oct. 118. how much more should a Christian scorn having Heaven and Glory in his Eye to be found like one of the base Fellows eagerly pursuing the lying Vanities of a dunghil World 'T is storiâ—â—â—â—â—one Tigranes that coming to redeem his Father and Friends with his Wife who were all taken Prisoners by Cyrus he was asked in particular what ransom he would give for his Wife To which he readily answered that he would purchase her Liberty with his own Life But prevailing upon easier terms as they returned every one commended Cyrus for a goodly Person and Tigranes would needs know
World he enjoys his mind at home by Patience he holds possession of himself (l) Luke 21.19 Possessio imporrat quietum dominium ideo per patientiam dicitur homo suam animam possidere in quantum radicitus evellit passiones adversitatum quibus anima inquietatur Aquinas 22. p 36. 23. of his Wisdom of his Faith of his Integrity Meekness Humility and every other Grace and of these all the Power and Policy of Hell it self can never dispossess him Such is the force of Christian Patience that it derives a kind of invincibility into the Soul giving every Man that hath it the strongest security against all dangers Impoverish him you may but can never undo him Persecute him you may but can never ruin him (m) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrat. Kill him you may but can never conquer him nor take his Crown from him For as Patience keeps us in present possession of our selves and all saving Graces So it will infallibly put us in full possession of Life Happiness and all future Glory Be patient therefore and stablish your Hearts in a quiet dependance upon God under all your sufferings not doubting but after a sorrowful night will come a morning of Joy after a wet seed-time will come a plentiful harvest after a weary Week will come an Eternal Sabbath of rest in the heavenly Canaan n The Vision is for an appointed time but at the end it will speak and not lie Though it tarry wait for it for it will surely come and will not tarry We are apt to antedate the Visions of God and to make them speak deliverance before their appointed time but we must learn by Faith and Patience to wait upon God for their seasonable accomplishment assuring our selves that though they may tarry beyond our Time yet they will never tarry beyond God's time When we are prepared for a Mercy and that Mercy ripened for us then the Vision of Mercy of Comfort of deliverance will be sure to come and will not tarry The Lord usually makes the pressures of his People the prefaces of his Mercy to them taking occasion from their low condition to compass them about with Songs of deliverance When the Morning is at the darkest then comes the gladsome Day So when the condition of God's People is most dark and sad and gloomy then the Day of deliverance will dawn upon them When â—he Sea is at the lowest ebb then in comes the tide So when God's People are in the lowest condition then a tide of all sutable Mercies will come flowing in upon them When in a Word the Wine at the Marriage solemnized at Cana in Galilee was all spent and the Water-pots filled up to the brim with Water then did our Blessed Lord turn that Water into Wine So when the provisions of God's People are all spent and their Souls filled up to the brim with the bitter Waters of Marah then will the Lord turn those Waters into the Wine of Eternal Consolation Be patient therefore Brethren holding fast your integrity and let no Reproach no Persecution no evil entertainment that (m) Habbak 2.3 you meet from the World (o) Defendenda enim religio est non occidendo sed moriendo non saevitiâ sed patientiâ non scelere sed fide Lactant de Justit lib. 5. cap. 19. pag. 520. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Martyr Apol. 2. pag. 49. make any of you grow disloyal and antimagistratical But remember with divine Lactantius your Religion must be defended not by killing but by dying not by inhuman cruelty but by Christian Patience not by the perpetration of any Wickedness but by holding fast the mistery of Faith in a pure conscience 'T is the most unseemly thing that can be for a Christian having assurance that the Rod of the Wicked shall not always rest upon his lot to put our his hand through impatience to any iniquity We dishonour the God of Heaven when we act so far below our selves our engagements our hopes on Earth What should not the hope of a joyful Harvest make you patiently endure the sorrow of a wet Seed-time Should not the expectation of an Eternal Reward make you patiently endure all present sufferings And a prospect of Heavenly Glory should not that make you with all Patience endure whatever Reproaches whatever Afflictions whatever Bonds Persecutions and Imprisonments you shall meet with on Earth Oh remember it Christians therefore doth the Lord allow you to have regard in all your obedience to Heaven and Glory that so you might not regard any suffering Persecution or fiery Tryal that may possibly attend you in a way of obedience but with Patience undergo them all The Lord hath fixed Heaven at the end of Duty that we may learn with more Patience to break through the difficulties of the Way And that we may not give over our diligence for God nor grow impatient through our present Miseries he gives us leave in all that we do and suffer to have an Eye upon our (†) Heb. 10.36 future Happiness And certainly Christians you had need of Patience as the Apostle saith that after you have done the Will of God ye may receive the Promise Without Patience after we have done God's Will there is usually no receiving of the Reward for doing his Will Through Patience the Will of God is fulfilled in us and the Promises inherited Go on therefore suffering his Will and waiting with Patience for the promised Inheritance of eternal Life that will follow after Oh be not impatient of that Sorrow which will end in Joy be not impatient of that Cross which leads to a Crown be not impatient of that Cloud of Disgrace which anon shall be changed into the bright Sun-shine of eternal Glory be not in a word impatient of those Afflictions through which you will shortly enter into the Kingdom of God! Oh labour having Heaven in your Eye with Patience to wade through the big-swelling Waters of all earthly Afflictions 9 WALK fiducially endeavouring that at all times your hearts may be established with a well grounded assurance of your interest in that glorious reward which the Lord hath set before you Let it not suffice that you have Heaven in your Eye but labour also to have the assurance thereof in your own Hearts 'T is good to have a sight of Glory but it is much better to know that we have a right to Glory To have an Interest in eternal Life is the strongest ground of Comfort but till there be some Assurance and Knowledg of our Interest we usually have small sense of Comfort For the fear of coming short of Heaven makes the Soul to live continually in a temporal Hell depriving it of all that Comfort which an Interest in heavenly Glory if known and improved would otherwise have filled it with Hagar's (a) Gen. 21.19 Well did not comfort her though close by her till the Lord opened her Eyes to see it
and with a great deal of Confidence they may speak out such fine Repugnances as if the sparklings of the white Stone would beget a Stone in the Heart of God's Children and the reading of their new Name written therein would make them act contrary to their new Nature But get a well-grounded assurance â—f heavenly Glory labour to have the hope of eternal Life abiding within your selves and you shall easily find by your own Experience what a strong Engagement this will be to all Holy Upright and Circumspect walking before the Lord making you a thousand times more willing than ever to spend and be spent in his Service Dwell therefore no longer in Generals lose not your Comforts in a heap of meer Conjectures and Uncertainties But give diligence now to bottom your Souls upon a sure Foundation labour to read your own Names (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caryl Hier. Cateches 1. pag. 2. written in the Book of life Eternal and let it not suffice you to have a Prospect of Heaven and Glory but be sure to get good Evidence for them Is it not better to lie safe at Anchor than to be left every moment to the Pleasure of a Wave Oh let Faith no longer be put to silence when endeavouring to speak in its own proper Dialect But let your Right be made so clear to the Kingdom of God to Heaven and eternal Glory that you may say this Heaven is my Heaven and this Glory is my Glory and this Kingdom is prepared of God for me as the place of my eternal Abode Oh this will be the strongest Cordial when you come to die to know that your Names are written in the Book of Life and shall never be blotted out Oh how comfortably may you leave the Wilderness of this World when you know you are now going to take Possession of the heavenly Canaan Oh 't is good having an Eye to the Recompâ—nce of eternal Life when we know we shall shortly be Crowned with that glorious Reward A well-grounded Assurance of Heaven this is the Suburbs of the new Jerusalem and oh with what comfort may we live there a while when we know that the Gates thereof shall never be shut against us but we shall have an abundant entrance into that everlasting Kingdom 10 WALK comfortably not desponding under any affliction but rejoycing in the assured hope and expectation of that reward which is set before you They should never allow themselves to go without Joy in their Hearts whom the Lord allows to walk continually with Heaven in their Eye though forest Afflictions should wait upon you though sharpest Persecutions should overtake you whether the days of your Pilgrimage be cloudy or clear shining with Prosperity or lowring with Adversity yet so long as you have before you an immarcescible Crown of Life that can never wither why should you suffer your Comforts to wither and fade and die within you What shall every Northern Blast nip Glory in the Bud Shall the Wilderness of worldly Afflictions which is not so thick set with any Difficulties but by Faith you may see through them all make you hang down your Heads like a Bull-rush and go disconsolate when all the good of the heavenly Canaan lies before you Must the Recompence of eternal Life lose its Power to Comfort when ever the World gets a Power to Afflict you Cannot Heaven it self Minister Sweetness if at any time your earthly Enjoyments should be imbittered to you How is it that you are not ashamed to let the Malice of a few envious Philistines stop up all those fresh Springs of Comfort which God hath opened in Heaven to refresh and make glad your Souls The Sun once appearing in our Hemisphere the Clouds are presently scattered and all the dark Shadows of the Night they fly away Thus when the Lord gives us a sight of Heaven and makes the Reward of eternal Life in all its Royalties and Glory to appear before us all Clouds of Disconsolatenes should then be scattered and all the dark Shadows of worldly Sorrow they should for ever take Wings and fly away (e) Habakkuk 3.17 18. So we find it I am sure with good Habakkuk who having fixed his Eye upon God as one that would Crown him at length with eternal Salvation he resolves come what will come to Feast his Soul continually with the Joy of the Lord he purposes to live and die with his Mouth or rather with his Heart full of hidden Manna he gets him up into the Mount of Transfiguration resolving that whatever Storms are abroad in the World he will never be driven thence And what is it I would fain know that makes you who have the same Encouragement with this holy Prophet to eat all your Comforts with bitter Herbs Why is it that your Hearts are filled with Bitterness and your Mouths running over continually with the Gall of sad Complaints How comes it to pass Christians if one may know that you walk all the day long in the Valley of Tears never labouring to get your selves up into the Mount with God nor to solace your dejected (g) Tristetur et defleat si sibi male sit in seculo cui non potest bene esse post seculum Cypr. contra Demettiam Souls by taking a Prospect of the heavenly Canaan Though such may well hence out of heart as are still without Hope in the World Yet certainly its below the Hopes of God's own People to be daily swallowed up of those worldly (h) John 16.20 Sorrows which will shortly be turned into Joy unspeakable and full of Glory Understand then ye blessed of the Father where your Comfort lies and see that fixing your Eye upon the Recompence of eternal Life you live continually (i) Rom. 5.2 rejoycing in hope of the Glory of God! The Wicked they go rejoycing all the day long though their Portion be only in this present Life And will not you much more walk comfortably to whom belongs the Reversion of eternal Life and whose Reward shall be so great in Heaven The (k) Mat. 5.12 Eyes of ungodly Men are continually beholding Vanity and yet even hence you may find them taking a great deal of sensual Joy and carnal Contentment And is there no Joy to be found in beholding the Glory of Heaven no Comfort flowing in upon your Souls from a prospect of eternal Happiness What are the Waters of Abana and Parphar so much better than the Waters of Jordan Shall a small glance of worldly Felicity afford more Matter of Joy and Gladness than an Eye beholding with open view the Kingdom of Heaven with all its Royalties and surpassing Glory Oh who should walk comfortable and rejoyce on Earth if not the People of God whose Eyes are continually feasted with bright Visions of Happiness and eternal Glory from Heaven Awake then oh sluggish Christian and go forth chearfully to the Work of the Lord There is no such Lyon in the
in Sin he hath made himself a vessel of Wrath fitted for destruction So neither will he crown any Man before through patient continuance in well-doing he hath made himself meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of Saints in light We must first conquer before we can triumph first win the Garland before we can wear it first seek by Patient continuance in Well-doing Glory Honour and Immortality before ever God will crown us with Life Eternal How injurious then are all such to their own Souls that like Orpah take their leave of Christ to decline afflictions forsaking the favour of God for the love of this present World exchanging the Ark for Dagon the Doctrin of Christ for the Traditions of Antichrist the Worship of God in its native Beauty for the pomp and varnish of sordid superstition thus miserably ending in the Flesh though sometimes they seemed to have begun in the Spirit Are there not some amongst us (k) Gal. 5.7 with whom it is thus and of whom we may say as sometime Paul to the Galatians ye did run well who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth At your first setting out in the ways of God you did run to purpose then you were very resolved and sensible and seemed very serious But wo and alass such fatal effascination hath now bewitched you that like Sampson having lost your strength you move not at all in the Zodiack of true Godliness unless with Hezekiah's Sun by way of retrogradation Time was that Jehu-like you seemed to drive on with an holy fury for God in the work of reformation But now alas the Chariot-wheels of your Zeal are taken off and if you build not up Calves with Jeroboam at Dan and Bethel yet you can well sit down in a luke-warm indifferency under them Time was that you could not let a Day pass you without the performance of some Duty nor any duty without some experience of Gods Grace and Love and Goodness to you But now alass you can spend whole Days and Weeks if not some Months and yet never give the Lord a visit at least in such a formal manner that as God hath no Glory so your Souls have no comfort no incomes of Grace from Heaven no spiritual advantage thereby Time was that you spent much time in clearing up your evidences for Eternal Life giving all diligence to make your calling and election sure But now alass you can put Eternity it self to venture you have left off working for Heaven a sad sign that your motion was artificial not natural proceeding from a principle of Life within Time was that you counted it your delight to consecrate the Sabbath as holy unto God waited with joy for the rising of the Sun of Righteousness on that Day and were filled with many vehement pantings anhelations and breathings after God in his Ordinances But now alass there is such an unsavouriness upon your Spirits that you count it a weariness to serve the Lord and are so far from esteeming one Day in God's Courts better than a thousand elsewhere that you think that to be the longest Day in all the week crying when will the Sabbath be over In one word time was that you seemed to have escaped the pollutions that are in the World through Lust to be convinced of the evil of Sin to resolve against all Unrighteousness to bewail bitterly your Drunkeness your Pride your Uncleaness your improvident mispence of Time your horrid Oaths and bloody execrations together with all your Ungodly Practises But wo and alass do you not now turn from the holy Commandment delivered to you and instead of going on to reform your lives do you not return to your former vomit breaking forth into more obscene prodigious and abominable impieties than ever Oh let me my dear Friends out of that tender Love which I bear to your immortal Souls bespeak you in the language of God to his own People (l) Jer. 2.5 What iniquity have your Fathers found in me that they are gone far from me So what iniquity did you ever find in God and the ways of God that you are thus gone away from them and so soon grown weary of them What iniquity have you ever found in the invocation of holy fervent prayer that the wings thereof are now clipt your devotion grown cold and you come like slothful Suitors to God (m) Qui frigidè rogat docet negare as if you would teach the Lord to give you the repulse What Iniquity have you found in God's holy Sabbaths that you are grown weary to bear them and count it no great priviledge thereon to wait upon God and have sweet communion with him in the Beauties of Holiness What Iniquity have you found in Heavenly meditation that you cannot now soar aloft as formerly but like Sisera whose Head was nailed to the Earth have your hearts nailed and fast riveted to Earthly projects In short what iniquity did you ever find in the reformation of your lives abstaining from the many gross infamous and horrid pollutions that are in the World through lust Is there not as much evil in your Drunkeness swearing and the like abominable impieties now as ever Are they not as highly displeasing to the holy Spirit of God as greatly prejudicial to the welfare of your precious Souls as truly meritorious of Eternal Burnings in Hell as ever and is not that God who cut off Herod in his Robes Belshazzar in his Cups Babylon in its Pride Jezabel in her paint and whoredoms as able now to cut off you sinning after the same ensample and to punish you with everlasting destruction from his Presence and from the Glory of his Power Oh then if you love your Immortal Souls beware of recidivation take heed of relapsing again into any of those sinful courses which you formerly had escaped and be sure that you walk perseveringly endeavouring that you may never turn aside from the holy Commandment delivered to you Remember Lot's Wife nay remember Judas that Son of Perdition and take heed that you never look back in your Christian course If having set your hand to the Plough of an holy Profession you should afterward look back if having begun in the Spirit you should afterward end in the Flesh if having escaped the Pollutions that are in the World through lust you should again be intangled therein and overcome thereby your latter end will be worse more dreadful and damnable than your first beginning Your hopes have been raised high by your Christian Profession and therefore should you now miscarry you must needs sink the deeper in Hell and eternal Damnation And oh what Millions of Worlds would you not now give to change places in Hell with a Turk or an Infidel and to have no greater punishment there than an ordinary Damnation * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every evil after the expectation of its opposite good becomes the greater evil What then will
be the Hell the Misery the eternal Heart-rending Reflexions of all Apostates who notwithstanding all their groundless hopes are now like to be swallowed up of black Despair They thought themselves once in an happy condition but now distress and anguish takes hold upon them They promised themselves to drink for ever of the River of God's Pleasures but now whole Vollies of Brimstone and all the Vials of God's Wrath come thundering down upon them They expected to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom †Ascendens ad montem Loth retrò reliquit Sodomit and flagitia quae autem reflexit retrò non potuit ad superiora evadere Ambros Epist 11. ad Irenaeum ¶ 2 Pet. 2.21 of God but now they are shut up irrecoverably amongst damned Spirits in everlasting Chains under Darkness They presumed themselves to be in the ready way to Heaven but now they are inevitably dropping into Hell the rageful Flames of which Infernal Lake are now ready to seize upon them and burn them without quenching for ever And can there possibly be a greater emphasis of Misery than such everlasting dreadful disappointment Look to it then all you that have taken up the practise of Piety and take heed that you never draw back to your own destruction O labour to hold fast your Integrity be not weary of well-doing but look well to your selves †2 John 8. that you lose not the things which you have wrought that you lose not your Prayers your religious performances and all your sufferings but that you may receive a full Reward You have not only Hells horrour behind you to keep you from drawing back but you have also Heaven's Glory before you to keep you stedfast and unmovable always persevering in the work of the Lord. (a) Non taedeat incipere magna nec fastidiat tenere inchoata scientes quod perseverantia remunerat currentem coronat pugnantem ducit ad brabium conducit cunctos ad portum Aug. Serm. 8. ad fratres in eremo And why will you ever have thoughts to leave that way which leads to Glory or grow weary of that Work which will shortly be crowned with an Eternal Reward If Jacob thought not his fourteen years hard service tedious having Rachel a beautiful indeed but yet a fading Flower in his Eye Why then should you look upon the service of God as tedious or ever grow weary of it having Heaven itself in your Eye where you may gather not only Beautiful but unfadable Flowers of Happiness and Joy and Glory for ever What greater reproach can you bring upon your selves than to fall from your own stedfastness making shipwrack of Faith and a good conscience when the Glory of Heaven lies before you as an encouragement to all patient continuance in well-doing Columbus having sailed long without making any discovery his company at last began to grow weary of the Voyage till at length they espied Land and then they went on chearfully Thus though you be all weather-beaten and tossed as with Storms upon the troublesome Sea of this World yet having the Land of Promise the Heavenly Canaan in your Eye you should never grow weary in well-doing but hold on chearfully It 's but a while Christians and in case we hold fast our integrity we shall have done wrestling and weeping and praying and then reap the fruit of all our labours It s but a while and holding Faith and a good Conscience we shall have done suffering and bleeding and dying for the cause of Christ and so be crowned with Life Everlasting It 's but a while and continuing patient in well-doing we shall come amongst all the redeemed of Christ to Sion with * Isa 35.10 Songs and everlasting Joy upon our Heads we shall obtain Joy and Gladness and sorrow and sighing shall fly away Let not therefore your hearts grow faint nor your hands be weakned through any Afflictions Tryals or Difficulties that you meet with in Heavens way but having such everlasting consolation and good hope through Christ let all your Righteousness be like the Morning-light never declining but still shining more and more to the perfect day They should never backslide nor grow weary of serving God on Earth whom the Lord allows for their encouragement to all holy self-denying and upright walking before him a clear prospect of Heavens Glory In vain doth God shew us the reward of Eternal Life if the sight of it makes us not faithful unto the Death CHAP. X. The Doctrine improved by way of Exhortation to poor ungodly Sinners advising them to give all diligence for an Interest in this glorious reward and pressing the necessity thereof upon them by Five weighty Considerations II BY way of exhortation to you that have no interest in this glorious Reward which God sets before us give all diligence that it may be yours What will Heaven and Glory and Eternal Life avail you if you can not look upon Heaven as your Heaven upon Glory as your Glory and upon the recompence of Life Eternal as that which shall be your portion for ever Wealth in the Mine doth no good at all till actually severed and set apart for persons and uses Water in the Fountain is of no service to a Man till conveyed thence into his own cistern So though the recompence of Reward be as a Mine full of excellent and unsearchable Riches as a Fountain overflowing with living Waters yet till it be actually made our own that we come to dig in this Mine and to draw Water with Comfort out of this Fountain of Life we remain as Poor and Miserable as if this recompence of Eternal Life had never been set before us 'T is not a prospect of Heaven but an interest in Heaven not the tender of Eternal Life but the having of Eternal Life that will make us Happy Moses himself had a sight of Canaan and yet died in the Wilderness Thus God may give you a sight of Heavenly Glory in the tenders of the Gospel yet not embracing it by Faith you may die in your Sins fall short of the celestial Canaan and be damned for ever Sit not down therefore satisfied in hearing of this Eternally Glorious Reward but give diligence now to get an interest in it and to make it your own Oh lose not your precious Souls lose not Heaven and Eternal Glory for want of looking after them 1 CONSIDER if you get not an Interest in the Recompence of the Reward which God sets before us you are like to have all your Portion in this present Life You may possibly promise your selves great things hereafter because your Barns are full and your Cup overflows here But in vain shall you look for Glory when you come to die if you seek it not by patient continuance in well-doing all your Life 'T is no good Argument that your Hearts are filled with saving Grace because your
their delight is present but momentany their pain is future but Eternal some do here by the Spirit mortify their beloved corruptions their present Work is difficult but short their Reward is future but Eternal and Glorious Oh therefore above all things see to it that every Lust every Sin every vile Affection in your Souls be subdued mortified and abstained from with the most religious Solicitude If with Jehu you will still have your Calves at Dan and Bethel notwithstanding your pretended Zeal for the Lord if with Herod you must still keep your Herodias notwithstanding your readiness to hear John Baptist to be sure you will lose your Souls and fall short of Glory But if making it your great care to mortify through the Spirit the deeds of the Body you shall keep your selves from your own iniquity hewing in pieces your delicate Agag and giving an Eternal Divorce to every Delilah that pleaseth you then doubt not but Heaven shall bâ—â—our home and the God of Heaven himself your â—â—fe your Portion your exceeding great Reward For a Life of Mortification on Earth is the sure way to a state of Glorification in Heaven 8 BE careful that you have an impartial respect to the whole Law of God endeavouring with Zachary and Elizabeth (a) Luke 1.6 to walk in all the Commandments and ordinances of God blameless A partial respect to Gods Commandments will be sure to expose you to a fatal Destruction from God's blissful Presence But an universal Love and Obedience to Gods holy Will this will set you above the reach of Hell and Misery crowning your Souls with an universal Confluence of all Joy and Happiness and purest Pleasures in the Kingdom of God (b) Psal 119.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Piel ubi geminata litera intendit significationem respondet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graecorum quod actum quasi fixis oculis exacto intuitu aliquid contemplantis denotat Then saith Holy David that spiritual Orpheus shall I never be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commandments When our Obedience is not universal but partial it will end in shame and â—ause us to lie down in Eternal Confusion But when with all Religious Exactness and Godly curiosity as the original Word implies we have a respect to the whole Will of God endeavouring that all our Obedience may be adequate thereto now Glory Honour and Life Everlasting will be your Portion See therefore that you go not about to indent and capitulate with God in matters of Obedience as if the universal Respect of all his Commands were not a Duty incumbent upon you (c) Acts 14.16 But give Diligence now to have a Conscience universally void of offence both towards God and towards Men (d) Heb. 13.18 in all things willing to live honestly Like Moses would you ever enter into the heavenly Canaan you must have both your Handâ—â—â—d with the two Tables of the Law respecting both 〈◊〉 and Man God in each Duty of Piety walking purely before him and Man in each Duty of Equity deporting your selves Righteously towards him To make conscience of one Duty and not of another is indeed to make Conscience neither of one nor other Every Command of the Decalogue hath the same Image the same Superscription the same Divine Authority stamped upon it (e) Jam. 2.10 So that a Man allowing himself in the disobservation of any one quoad vinculum formale doth violate all reflecting contempt upon the Authority of the whole Law though he do not actually violate it in every part And yet how many are there who answer the Lord with an half-obedience just like the Eccho which makes not a Perfect respondence of the Voice but of some part thereof (f) Mark 10.21.22 We read of a certain young Gentleman who came in a sad and serious manner to learn of Christ the Way to Heaven But yet one thing was lacking his desires of Heaven and Glory they were bounded with secret Reservations Proviso's and Conditions of his own upon the discovery whereof by Christ he went away discouraged as not able to accept of Glory upon Terms of universal obedience Thus frequently a deceitful Heart turns Men aside entring Caveats against an universal devotedness to Christ and causing them to stand upon abatements with him in the bargain of Salvation not considering that a due respect to all the Commandments of God is necessary in those that shall be saved albeit that the Covenant of Grace never intended to make the perfect Observation of God's Commandments any Condition of our obtaining Salvation So then if you would not fall short of Glory be sure that the Obedience of your Heart and Life be of equal extent and latitude with the whole Law of God (g) Quando enim servus ex domini jussis ea facit tantummodo quae vult facere jam non dominicam voluntatem implet sed suam Sal. He that stands upon abatements with God keeping only such Commandments as will stand with his carnal Interest his Worldly credit his Safety and his secular Projects doth not serve the Will of God but his own choice The Will of God revealed that 's the grand motive to obedience So that because the whole Law is but a Transcript of Gods holy Will there is the same reason why you should perform obedience to all as to any one of his Commandments (h) Jam. 2.11 Neque enim justa causatio est cur praeferantur aliqua ubi facienda sunt omnia Salvian de Gub. Dei lib. 3. pag. 80. Shame therefore your selves into the universal Obedience of God's Commandments when ever you find your Hearts to make shy of any Duty with this pressing Consideration that he who commanded one hath commanded all Every Christian he must be a through-paced Conformist to the Will of God not speaking both Hebrew and Ashdod not swearing by God and Malchom not taking one step straight and another crooked not keeping a covetous Heart for the World nor a proud Heart for Hell nor a sensual Heart for the Flesh But endeavouring to observe all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded us giving Diligence to walk before the Lord in all holy Conversation and Godliness (i) Numb 32.12 That for which we find Caleb and Joshua so highly renowned was because they fulfilled it after the Lord Thus would you ever have the highest Renown of heavenly Glory you must follow the Lord fully resolving that though you cannot fulfil all Righteousness yet you will neglect none Thy failing in every Duty shall never keep thee out of Heaven if there be no Duty in the careless neglect whereof thou allowest thyâ—elf Where the Eye of a Christian is upon the whole Law of God and his Heart open to do it (k) 2 Cor. 8.12 there the Goodness of God will accept the Desire for the Deed of the Purpose for the Performance and of the Will for the Work
then by his Grace excite it that the Sinner may actually believe and repent to the saving of his Soul No Man did ever yet believe repent or come to God for Mercy but in the strength of God Nor did any ever yet obtain the Reward of Eternal Life but through the Grace of God effectually enabling to work in the Lord's Vineyard and making him faithful unto the Death Go then to God in Prayer you that love your Immortal Souls for Grace for Purity for Holiness but be sure that you pray fervently remembring you can never arrive at the Haven of true Happiness without the gentle gales of God's own Spirit to speed you thither By nature you are dead in Trespasses and Sins and if therefore God quicken you not you are lost for ever By nature you are mortally wounded and this your wound is uncurable you must die of it if God heal it not for you By nature you are a Reprobate to every good Word and Work unless therefore God work in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure you can never work out your own Salvation By nature you are dreadfully polluted all over unclean as a Vessel in which there is no pleasure so that if you beg not the Spirit of God to cleanse you from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit you can never be Vessels of Honour sit for the Masters use Holy Jacob being in danger of his Brother Esau's Fury he wrestled with God all Night resolving not to let him go without a Blessing and his two Arms he used in this holy Wrestle (a) Hos 12.4 they were Prayers and Tears Thus Sirs you are in danger not of Man's Fury but of indignation of Wrath and Hell from the great God and will you not wrestle for a Blessing closing in with God by the Arms of Prayer and Tears Oh seek the Lord while he may be found and see that you call upon him whilst yet he is near Do not oh do not trifle away that Time about the Meat that perisheth which should be spent in labouring for the Meat which will endure to eternal Life What is it to gain Earth and lose Heaven to gain the World and lose your Souls What alass to fare deliciously every Day and at Death to be found despairing to be found dropping into Wrath into Tophet into Hell irrecoverably Oh how much better is it that now you should pray and mourn and weep bitterly before the Lord every Day to get prepared for Heaven for Glory for a Crown of Righteousness for the recompence of eternal Life than that you should then weep and howl without Hope for the Misery the Wrath the unsufferable Hellish Flames that must now seize upon you and burn you for ever torment you for ever Well that you may never forget seeking the Lord nor cease praying before him remember where your Strength where your Hope where all your Comfort lies 'T is the Lord alone that hath the Word of Eternal Life and therefore go to him resolving that you will pray and never give over praying that you will wrestle and never give over wrestling that you will weep and sigh and groan and never give over till you have the Blessing The same God who gives us the Crown when we have overcome he must give us strength whereby to overcome He that will cloath us upon with the Garments of Salvation when we come to Heaven he alone it is that must now give us Grace cloathing us first with the Garments of Righteousness that we may be fit for that glorious Inheritance CHAP. XIII The Doctrin improved by way of strong Consolation to God's People exhorting them to live upon a due respect to this eternal Reward as upon hidden Manna IV AND lastly though we have for a little while been leading you as through the Wilderness yet now we begin to draw nigh to the heavenly Canaan My Text is a Tree of Life and I would not willingly come from it till I have shaken some apples of Love some of its sweet and precious Fruit into your Bosoms 'T is the Mount of Transfiguration and I would not willingly come down till your Faces shine with the Oyl of Gladness 'T is a spiritual Eden a Garden full of all pleasant Flowers and I would not willingly come out of it till I have cropt here and there one and gathered you an heavenly Nosegay to revive and refresh with its Divine Fragancy your Spirits in a fainting Hour You have been with us a little upon the Ocean under all those Storms and rageful Tempests which will beat upon such for ever as have no right to the recompence of the Reward But supposing your claim to this Reward good your right unquestionable and evidences without flaw I shall now endeavour to lodge you in the peaceful and wished Harbour of Divine Consolation And truly here is a River the streams whereof if any thing will make glad the City of our God The Well I confess is deep but yet through the Comforters assistance you lending the Bucket of your Faith I doubt not but we may draw Water Water of Life nay the Wine of Eternal Consolation to refresh you to enliven and comfort your Hearts in every Condition What Wilderness need terrify thee having Canaan so plain before thee What Storms can disturb thy peace being come within Ken of thy Eternal Harbour Oh think with thy self dear Christian what Afflictions need discourage thee having always in thy Eye such a far more exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory This Doctrine drops Balm for the healing of wounded Souls 't is as so much spiritual Manna for God's People to feed upon in the Wilderness of this World till they are come to Canaan a Land that floweth with Milk and Hony Deny not then your selves the Comfort of that Reward which God sets before you The Lord for your better encouragement sets Heaven with all the Happiness and Glory thereof in your Eye and therefore let not your Eye upon a pretence of I know not what Modesty or Self-denial be turned away from the stedfast beholding it Oh see Christians that you dwell much in your thoughts in your serious Musings in your Divine Contemplations upon this Theam endeavouring with Moses in all that you do in all that you suffer for God to have a due respect to the recompence of the Reward Oh let the glimpses of Heavens Glory close up your Eyes when you go to Bed at Night and let the Light the bright irradiations and Heart-warming Sun-shine of the same Glory be sure to feast your Eyes when first you awake every Morning Whilst you live live in the Hope of Heaven and when you die oh strive that you may die in the full assurance of Heaven Get like Moses a prospect of Canaan before you leave this Wilderness and whether you pray whether you wrestle with Temptations whether you resist unto Blood striving against Sin or whatever you
with at the Hands of his Enemies The like we may say of Peter who (p) Mat. 26.33.70 till he fell was so well conceited of himself that he thought himself able to live and die with Christ (q) John 21.15 though all his fellows should deny him But after that soul Miscarriage when Christ came to question him about his love to him you shall hear no such proud Boastings come from him but he speaks with a great deal of Jealousy and godly Trembling which made Augustin conclude it was much better with Peter (r) Salubriùs enim Petrus sibi displicuit quando flevit quam sibi placuit quando praesumpsit Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 14. cap. 13. weeping over his denial of Christ than when pleasing himself with a Presumption that he would not deny him Above all most pregnant to this purpose is the Instance of that Holy Apostle St. Paul who denyeth not but ingenuously confesseth (r) Salubriùs enim Petrus sibi displicuit quando flevit quam sibi placuit quando praesumpsit Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 14. cap. 13. that after he had been wrap't up into Paradise and heard unwordable words such things as it was not possible for a Man to utter there was given him a Thorn in the Flesh to this very end that he might not be exalted above measure nor lifted up higher in Conceit than he was in his Extasy 'T is reckoned I confess amongst the first-born of Absurdities by one Dr. Gell a grand Patron of sinless Perfection that the Lord should suffer Sin to remain in his own People for to keep them humble as if saith he God would have us proud that we might not be proud and Sinful that we might not Sin against him But he that hath learned to drive out one peg with another that hath seen the Diamond Cut with the Diamond or felt the searching of a Wound (s) Sectio dolorem operatur ut dolor dolore tollatur Aug. de nat grat cap. 28. causing Pain that thereby a greater pain might be removed will not much be transported with the Dr's Novel Speculations nor yet easily be perswaded to count it any Absurdity at all that the grand Physician of Souls should extract a sovereign Treacle out of Sins rankest Poyson and use the Blood of this deadly Scorpion to the Cure the stinging of the Scorpion For though Sin be not in itself medium per se nor the cause of any good any more than Venom or Poyson of Health Yet by the Wisdom of the great God it is made conducible to the humbling of his People who might easily if Perfectly cleansed therefrom be exalted to think of themselves above what they ought to think The Truth is it 's not Sin but the Sense of Sin remaining which is a means to humble us And as Grace accidentally causeth the Sin of Pride So our Sins accidently may cause the Grace of Humility Though then the Relicks of indwelling Corruption be evil and to be striven with all earnestness against Yet the due Sense of indwelling Corruption is good and with all diligence to be laboured for as that which if any thing can will be sure to hide Pride from our Eyes and keep us low Nor doth it any thing at all incommodate the point in Hand what is so commonly objected against it by our Adversaries With whom to the Grief of my Spirit I find a reverend Brother too rashly symbolyzing that if we were perfectly sanctified we should be perfectly humble and then there would be no room for Pride For whilst cloathed with Mortality the best of God's People are but in the way not come to their Journeys end not arrived at the secure Harbour of their Eternal Rest where only and not else where they shall so be confirmed in Grace as not to stand in need of those many peculiar helps which now they do 'T is true were we wholly freed from all the Remainders of Sin made perfectly holy and withal confirmed in a state of Grace then there would be no more danger of Pride than now there is amongst glorious Angels and the Spirits of just Men made perfect But were we only perfectly made Holy and not confirmed as the Angels are in such a state there would still be as much danger of Pride and of losing all again by Self-admiration as there was in Adam and the Apostate Angels so easily might we surfeit upon and have our Hearts over-charged with proud over-weaning Thoughts Perfection in Holiness then and a full discharge from all the relicks of Sin would not be sufficient security against Pride and Self-admiration unless the Lord should superadd thereto confirming Grace But this were to destroy order to jumble Heaven and Earth Grace and Glory together this were indeed to confound the State militant of Vicatores with the state triumphant of Comprehensores which this Wisdom of the God of order permitteth not So that Christians in this Life a Sinless perfection is a Nonenity you may as well expect a Garden without any Weeds a Sun-shine without any Cloud a Body without any peccant Humour as a Soul without all reliques of Sin and indwelling Corruption (a) Matth. 6.12 Quam necessariè quam providenter salubriter admonemur quod peccatores sumus qui pro peccatis rogare compellimur ut dum indulgentia de Deo petitur conscientiae suae animus recordetur Nequis sibi quasi innocens placeat cum innocens nemo sit se extollendo plus pereat instruitur docetur peccare se quotidie dum quotidie pro peccatis jubetur orare Cypr. de Orat. Dom. Lib. p. 314. Why else doth Christ direct us to pray daily for Pardon of Sin We renew Sin daily and therefore stand in need of Daily forgiveness So much doth that Petition imply unless we could imagin ourselves bound to mock God imploring what we have no need of If any Man dare be so hardy as to go before God with the Proud Pharisee telling the Lord (b) Nostra justitia potiùs peccatorum remissione constat quam perfectione virtutum Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 19. c. 27. p. 530. Luke 18.10 14. he is so pure so Holy so perfectly free from Sin that he needeth no longer his pardoning Mercy let him go to and see what will come of it But as for me and all the Lord's People I desire we may still be found in the poor (c) In conspectu judicis misericordis justi non est accepta superba jactatio bonorum operum sed humilis confessio peccatorâ—m â—ulgent Epist 3. ad Prob. pag. 510. Publican's posture smiting upon our Breast and praying in the due sense of our own vileness Lord be merciful to us Sinners (d) 2 Cor. 7.1 2 Pet. 3.18 Profectò qui deâ—die in diem renovatur nondum totus est renovatus Aug. Justitia quamdiu augeri potest profectò illud quod minus est quam debet ex
no Thunder nor Storms To be sure all our Thunder-claps do proceed from our own malignant Vapours nor should we be troubled with any Storm of affliction were it not for these Sins and Corruptions that abide in us (l) Cum à nobis amota fuerit omnis iniquitas nulla remanebit infirmitas Fulgent ad Trasimund lib. 3. pag. 370. For when once we are perfectly freed from all the Reliques of indwelling Corruption we shall hear no more of any Affliction But shall quite be past and out of the reach of all suffering so soon as ever we are past a possibility of sinning Rejoice then and lift up your Heads all you that have found Sin an heavy Burden like a Gravel in your Bowels like Fire in your Bones and like Poyson drinking up your Spirits the reward of Eternal Life will infallibly Prove the death of all your Sins There is a fourfol◠state of Man which respecting the point in Hand is vastly different A state of innocency before the Fall a state of Nature in the Fall a state of Grace after the Fall a state of Glory above the Fall In the State of Innocency Man might but would not abstain from Sin in the State of Nature Man neither can nor will forbear sinning in the state of Grace Man would but cannot be wholly free from Sin but in the state of Glory Man neither will nor can have any the least Sin abiding in him And if any thing I am sure this is welcome news to you that know the bitterness of Sin that find whenever you would be good Evil is present with you that groan continually under that Body of Death which you carry about you that complain every Day of Sin as that which hinders your Communion with a precious Christ disturbs the quiet of your minds makes Duty a weariness to you cools the heat damps the vigour and blasteth the Comfort of all your Devotions turning your poor distressed Hearts into a very Dunghil of all unclean and noysom Lusts Sin in the Heart is like the Leprosy in the House that would not out till the House was pulled down Thus though Sin may cleave to you for the whole time of this Life when once your earthly Tabernacles are dissolved now Christ comes to reward you to set the Crown upon your Heads to receive you into Eternal Mansions of Glory so that Sin and your Souls shall be parted never to meet again to all Eternity (m) Jam. 3.2 Here in many things we offend all But in Heaven we shall none of us offend in any thing at all (n) 1 John 1.8 10. Here if we say we have no Sin we deceive our selves if with any Sin we enter into Heaven we must deceive the infinitely wise God who never admits of us there till perfectly cleansed from all our Sins (o) 1 King 8.46 On Earth there is no Man that sinneth not (p) Eccles 7.20 in Heaven there is no Man that either doth or can sin (q) 1 Chron. 6.36 That Sin which is now only so far mortified that it cannot reign over you Shall then be totally abolished that it may not remain in you God's People are now like the Moon-light in the Lord but yet as the Moon so they have their spots and blemishes But then they shall be as the Sun in its Noon-day brightness (r) Ephes 5.27 wholly light and unchangeably Glorious not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing Grace indeed doth weaken Sin in the Soul enabling it to resist the Temptations of Satan But the recompence of Eternal Glory will wholly abolish the former and deliver from the latter (a) Joshua 10.24.25 As Joshua took the five Kings and shut them up in the Cave at Makkedah till the Battel was over (b) Absorptâ ergo morte in victoriâ nulla erit animae carnisve corruptio Fulgent de pass pag. 370. So God restrains and shuts up Sin in the Cave of our Body till our Warfare be finished but then he will utterly destroy them all That Crown of Righteousness which shall now be set upon your Heads it will perfectly ease you of every weight and the Sin that doth so easily beset you dividing like Moses's Rod the Waters of indwelling Corruption and so making a free passage for you into the heavenly Canaan So that having got this Crown upon thy Head now thou shalt never more Christian have cause to complain oh my Pride oh my Hypocrisy oh my outsidedness oh my vile affections oh my carnal earthly deceitful Heart but standing upon the Shore of Blessed Eternity thou shalt see all these Egyptians lie dead on the red Sea of Christ's Blood never any more to perplex thee nor any more to trouble thee nor any more to grieve thy Heart and wound thy Spirit to all Eternity Oh this is the blessed time wherein the Garden of thy Soul shall no more be incumbred with any such noysom Weeds (c) Genus illud peccati quod toties conturbat nos concupiscentias loquor desideria mala reprimi quidem debet potest per gratiam Dei ut non regnet in nobis sed non ejicitur nisi in morte Bern. ser 6. de advent Dom. This is the Funeral of all thy Sins and therefore must needs be to thy Soul the Birth-day of Joy unspeakable and full of Glory What is it Christian that is now thy greatest Sorrow thy daily Burden thy continual Trouble but only the remainders of Sin and indwelling Corruption Well rejoyce Christian and be exceeding glad the time is at hand when all these Achans that trouble thy Peace shall be stoned to death all these Jonah's which cause so many Storms in thy Soul shall be thrown over-board And all those Egyptian Lusts that daily pursue thee as unwilling to let thee go free they shall all of them be drowned and everlastingly overwhelmed as Pharaoh and his Host in the Red-sea One touch of this glorious Reward it will quite dry up every bloody Issue of Sin in thy Soul and as perfectly cleanse thee from all Filthiness and Pollution as thy Heart can desire to be 3 THE Reward whereunto God allows his People a respect in all their Obedience it 's a suitable Reward This Reward doth so punctually hit the Condition of an immortal Soul the Miseries the Wants the Desires of it as nothing in the World besides can do Be your present Troubles never so many your Necessities never so urgent your Desires never so enlarged Yet the Recompence of eternal Glory it affords a proper supply to them all answering every Trouble with a suitable Comfort every Necessity with a suitable Mercy every Desire with a suitable Good to fill up and satisfie it Here is Bread of Life to feed the hungry and sincere Milk to nourish the Weak (a) Isa 55.1 and the Wine of divine Consolation to comfort the Disconsolate and white Robes to adorn the naked and Rivers of living
And oh what a sumptuous Feast what glorious a Kingdom what a blessed Reward must that needs be upon which the infinitely wise God was spending from Eternity his Thoughts and providing for you If the Temple were thought so Glorious and Magnificent because as the Jews told Christ it was forty and six Years a building How glorious then how surpassingly Rich and Magnificent must the heavenly Jerusalem be the Temple of God in Zion that City whose Foundation was laid before Eternity in God's electing Love which was a framing from everlasting and whose builder and maker in time was God over all Blessed for ever Though this stately Building were reared up in time yet it was a Framing before all time yea from all Eternity This Tree of Life thought it only Bud and Blossom and bring forth Fruit in time yet it was planted from all Eternity in the Paradise of God's everlasting good Will towards his People And do not think that the great God would spend his Thoughts from Eternity upon Trifles or the Framing a poor pitiful Cottage from everlasting No you will find it answerable to the Preparations made for it such a City such a Feast such a glorious Reward as the great God will not be ashamed to own for the Fruit as well of his infinite Wisdom as of his eternal Love 11 THE Reward whereunto God allows his People a Respect in all their Obedience it 's a continued and an uninterruptible Reward In this present Life we have nothing constant no Comfort no Enjoyment no Priviledge whereof we can always have the actual Fruition and wherewith we can sensibly delight our selves every day But in the Reward of eternal Life there is no such Inconstancy whatever Glory whatever Joy whatever Comfort Happiness and Soul-satisfying Pleasures that carrieth in it we shall have the actual Perception the sweet tast and the sensible lively Fruition of it every moment without any the least intermission As the damned in Hell have fulness of Misery without one moments Respite one comfortable Divertisement from those hellish Torments under which they lie or one half Minutes ease to all Eternity So the Saints of God in Heaven they have fulness of Joy without any the least moments intermission of it without any interim of Disturbance without any unhappy Divertisement to suspend hinder or discontinue their Joy their Happiness their actual delight in God so much as one moment for ever Our Comforts in this Life are like the Sea that have their Fluxes and Refluxes their Ebbings and Flowings if this hour we have a full Tide yet the next it 's low Water and our Comforts are withdrawn But in Heaven it 's always high Water with God's People they have Rivers of purest Pleasures that will never pass away from them here they have a full spring Tide of Joy and sweetest Comforts that will never be over What the holy Ghost affirms of the four living Creatures praising God which is (f) Rev. 4.8 that they rest not day and night will hold true of all the Saints when they come to Heaven where they shall not rest day and night nor one moment of either rejoycing in God and warbling out his Praises for ever Nor doth this at all incommodate the Nature of the Saints Happiness which is (g) Heb. 4.9 said to be a Rest remaining for them Not yet evacuate that other Scripture where such as die in the Lord are pronounced Blessed (h) Rev. 14.13 because then they rest from their Labours For 't is not from the Exercise of such Graces as a State of Happiness will comport with that God's People rest in Heaven But from that Difficulty and those Weaknesses which attending our Graces here on Earth do keep us that we cannot always be in the actual exercise of them From enjoying God from delighting in him and from glorifying of him they rest not in Heaven But it is from enjoying him from delighting in him and glorifying of him with Perfection Deadness Heart-wounding Distractions and Weariness as now they do that they rest in Heaven For though Happiness be defined to be a perfect State of a reasonable Creature wherein it enjoys all Good that is due to it Yet you must (i) Cum beatitutio consâ—â—at in ultimo hominis actu necesse est ipsam esse aliquam hominis operationem Aq. 1. 2. q. 3. â— 2. not think this throws a Man into a dull unactive Lethargy obstructing like some mortal Apoplexy the Souls Operations Though the Happiness of God s People be called a Rest which is said to be the Perfection of Motion yet sure I am this Rest will never put an end to all Motion nor hinder the Soul from delighting in God from loving and praising him so much as one moment to all Eternity The Truth is the Rest which remains for the Saints in Heaven that eternal Sabbatism of Happiness it lies (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mainly in this that they shall never rest nor be taken off night nor day from beholding and loving from loving and praising from praising and enjoying God for ever without all weariness Whilst here we live in the croud of worldly Business and have our Souls clogged with a Body of Death why alas there are a thousand things step in to divert our Thoughts to damp our Devotion to interrupt our sweet Communion Fellowship and Peace with God But this Reward will no more endure any such Divertisements nor admit of such Soul-sadning Interruptions than the Sun in its noonday Brightness will endure the presence of a darksom Night Though here Christians your Condition be often cloudy and your Joy that shone bright yesterday is eclipsed to day Yet in Heaven your Joy your Comfort your Fellowship with God shall not be thus inconstant but there you shall have an uninterrupted Sun-shine of Glory and Happiness OH then Christians think what is the excellency exceeding greatness and Glory of your Reward in Heaven where you shall have the quick and accurate sense of all fulness of Joy where you shall not meet with any thing to distract you to divert your Thoughts to take you off no not for the least moment from your God your Redeemer your Comforter your Happiness to all Eternity Here you find God like a way-faring Man that turns into your Souls but for a Night and is gone in the Morning But in Heaven he will make his constant abode with you he will ever be letting out of his Love of his Goodness to you and will cause you not now and then but every moment to be drinking of the River of his Pleasures Like the sight of a Star through an Optick Glass when held by a Palsie-hand such is our sight of God and Heaven and Glory in this Life we are long ere we can fix the Eye of our Faith upon them and though the sight be very pleasant yet we soon lose it our Thoughts wavering through our Minds Weakness Sometime from
out of Ecclesiastical History of Christians incouraging themselves by the Recompence of Reward to run the hazard of Reproach Persecution and sorest Afflictions in the World for the sake of Christ and his Cause I shall not lose my Life saith one Martyr being led out to suffer but change it for a better instead of Coals I shall have Pearls And with this Consideration he died comfortably Another Dr. Taylor by name being asked by the Sheriff as he drew nigh to the place of Execution How do you Sir Never better reply'd that holy Man for now I know I am almost at home Meaning Heaven where he should be with the Lord for ever With this also Athanasius incouraged the Christians to perseverance in the Faith under the Arrian Persecution That Affliction was but Nubeculo citò transitura a Storm or rather a little Cloud that being quickly blown over would end in a glorious Sun-shine Like unto him was the Practice of holy Mr. Bradford who taking up a Fagot at the Stake and kissing it turned his Head to the Young Man that suffered with him and said Be of good Comfort Brother for we shall have a merry Supper with the Lord this Night Justin Martyr also tells us of the Christians in his Day That they who before their Conversion had pleasure in Uncleanness did now wholly imbrace Chastity they that had sometimes used Magical Arts did now dedicate themselves to the good and eternal God they that e'er-while set an higher Estimate upon their Money and earthly Possessions than upon any thing else did now bring all into the common Treasury that distribution might be made according to every one's Necessity they who formerly hated each other and betwixt whom there were Heart-burnings and deadly Animosities did now Lovingly live together and familiarly converse with one another praying for their very Enemies and beseeching those that were their most cruel Persecutors to break off their Sins by Repentance and live holy And he gives in this as the reason of all that they together with such as had sometimes despitefully used them living holy might have good Hope and everlasting Consolation thrô Christ receiving from God at length the reward of eternal †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Martyr Apol. 2. pag. 47. 20. 30. Glory Much to the same purpose I find a Speech in ¶ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Catechis 18. pag. 223. A. Cyril who tells us That true Christians did all of them by all holy Conversation and Godliness seek the Kingdom of God not making the empty and unsatisfying Injoyments of the world their End but indeavouring to lay hold upon eternal Life BUT waving these and the like Examples as being not altogether so Cogent and Authentical we shall conclude the Argument with holy Moses from whose Practice the Doctrine it self was deduced Moses though as we said of Paul a man so ambitiously desirous of and passionately zealous for God's Glory that rather than the least Dishonour should reflect upon him he could wish himself blotted out of God's Book of Life in respect of whose Glory he seems careless of his own Salvation Yet thought it no impeachment of his Ingenuity to steal a look from Glory to peep within the Vail to cast an eye upon the Recompence of Reward for his incouragement to all upright self-denying and holy walking before the God of Heaven * Fidei suae oculos attollebat ad bona coelestia quae deus cultoribus suis pro mercede ac praemio piorum laborum se redditurum promisit Estius He had Heaven in his eye expecting a Crown of Glory after all his Sufferings and that made him walk on so cheerfully in Heaven's way Being therefore compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses why should we any longer count it unlawful or think it a forfeiture of our uprightness and ingenuity to have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward If persons so eminently Holy have gone before us without contracting either spot or blemish or any such thing in having an eye to the Recompence of the Reward why should we Hesitate about or scruple the Lawfulness of following after them To be sure Christians if respect to Heaven and Glory did not forfeit the Sincerity of a David of a Moses of Paul it can never prove any forfeiture of your Integrity For where the Pattern it self is Holy and Just and Good conformity therewith will never make any man Disingenuous and Unholy If the Spirit of God record it as Praise worthy in others that in keeping God's Commandments they had Respect to the Recompence of Reward he will never upbraid us as Persons Disingenuous and Mercenary for the like holy Practise For certainly whatever incouragements to Obedience the Lord formerly afforded his People to this day he allows them the same or greater So that whenever we have Respect in our Obedience to Heaven and Glory we do no more forfeit our Integrity nor prove ourselves Mercenary and Disingenuous by so doing than Self-denying Moses Upright David Zealous Paul and all God's Faithful People have done before us 3. WE may lawfully have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward because not only the Children of God but our blessed Lord himself had an eye thereunto We may imitate the People of God so far as their Actions run parallel with and do clearly paraphrase upon his holy Will But now the Life of Christ it 's an authentick Copy of Holiness it 's an ¶ Deus in carne se manifestans exemplar sanctae nobis vitae proposuit ne quis sanctam vitam detrectans ad carnis confugeret excusationem Gerh. Med. 30. unblottable Draught of perfect Piety it 's nothing else but the Wilt of God incarnate and made manifest in our mortal Flesh So that if Christ had Respect in his Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward we need no longer stand Questioning the Lawfulness of such a Practise but are bound to look upon it as Holy and Just and Good For every one will acknowledge the Actions of a Deity to be Indeficient and confess it a thing Praise-worthy in all men to Write after so fair a Copy Now that Christ himself had Respect in his Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward we find written in legible Characters by the unerring Hand of that blessed Apostle where he tells us That for the Joy which was set before him Christ indured the Cross and despised the Shame Heb. 12.2 As Christ in the dayes of his Flesh did truly and properly obey God the Father notwithstanding the Hypostatical Union and the Absolute Perfection of his inward habitual Holiness wholly determing all indifferency and undeterminateness which some Schoolmen would have to be constitutive of Liberty Why so if we consider him as Man He was to have Rational Comforts and Humane Incouragements in all his Obedience that the Frailties of his Humane Nature being relieved with such Spiritual