Here is the Sword which is an emblem of thy place and here is the Gospel choose the one you must have but one Then his heart gave in and so left the Sword and chose the Gospel The wisdom of God this day hath stood and still stands before you pleading with you crying to you to come in and embrace her to make a happy choice for thy soul folly likewise hath her pleadings and perswasions to draw thee to the lusts of the flesh both make their offers unto thee as they say of Hercules when he was yong he saw vertue and vice in the likeness of two Virgins wooing him vice like a painted Harlot and vertue like a sober chaste Virgin both presenting themselves with wooing offers unto him It is very observable that we finde Prov. 9. concerning wisdom and the foolish woman both pleading to draw the hearts of men to them and they begin in the same maner they both make offers to draw the heart ver 4. Who so is simple let him turn in hither as for him that wanteth understanding she saith to him and verse 16. the foolish woman useth the same words to draw after her and as wisdom is upon the high places of the City ver 3. so is folly ver 15. yet wisdom is above the foolish woman for the Text says of wisdom she is upon the highest places and of the foolish woman it is onely said she is in the high places And observe further Wisdom calls to eat her bread and drink her wine ver 5. and the foolish woman makes her offer her delights are sweet she says but they are but sweet waters and that stoln too and her bread she says is pleasant but it is secret such as she is even ashamed of her self In the choice that wisdom presents and that which folly presents you have life and death set before you as Moses therefore said to the people so I to you I have set before you this day life and death Now what answer will you give to God Will you go on in the ways of the pleasure of the flesh Are your hearts so bold and venturous that you dare venture to go on in these ways Wo unto you for the cursed hardness of your hearts Were it indeed that you never heard the ways of God opened to you it were another matter but in that you have and yet you go on in your choice after this Sermon God may say Be it unto thee as thou hast chosen God may set to his seal thou hast chosen vanities and a lye and base pleasures and vanities and a lye and base pleasures to thy flesh thou shalt have Wherefore that thou mayest be delivered from this seal this night O consider what a mercy of God it is that thou hast yet time to make thy choice How many hath God cast off And now it is too late to choose God hath determined the business O that yet there should be time O that this would move your hearts We are fain thus to labor and strive with mens spirits to take them off from vain pleasures to urge the strength of all arguments we can with all our might were it that mens hearts were not very sensual and hardened in their sensuality it would not be needful thus to strive the very propounding some one argument might be sufficient to prevail It was a speech of Gregory Nyssen who lived almost thirteen hundred years ago He that does but hear of Hell is without any further labor or study taken off from sinful pleasures Mens hearts are grown harder since But what if I should come in now I who have given so much pleasure to the flesh would God accept of me and regard me Be it known unto thee thou that hast given thy self liberty in injoying the pleasures of the flesh to the utmost thou that hast been most wretched if thou hast a heart to come in this day and turn thy choice God is yet ready to embrace thee we have commission to offer grace and mercy to thee upon thy recalling thy self yea we have a promise you shall have abundance of mercy if you have a heart to come in Prov. 1. 22 23. How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge Turn you at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you I will make known my words unto you If any of you have gone so far when we have spoken against the pleasures of the flesh and for the ways of godliness you have scorned the word of the Lord if you have been scorners and contemners yet turn and make your choice better Behold I will pour out my Spirit to you When God pours forth his Spirit he pours forth his grace and mercy and goodness you see the offer of God if you have hearts yet to make choice of his ways And consider the longer you have stayed in the satisfying your selves in the pleasures of the flesh the more unfit will you be to suffer hard things for God O give in your answer and say The Lord forbid I should go on in my former ways I see other things I have to regard peace with God pardon of sin that I have to look after let God reveal to me what his good will and pleasure is and though I should never enjoy good day in the flesh yet I give my self up to that way of God O that there might come this voice up to Heaven this night that your souls may be blessed for ever in this days choice And if God do begin to stir your hearts now take the opportunity choose the things that please him and take hold of the Covenant if you be convinced of the good ways of God now close with them cleave to them let your hearts fasten take such fast hold of the Covenant as you may never let it go Observe how these two are joyned together Isaiah 56. 4. Choose the things that please me and take hold of my Covenant Take hold now for it is your life CHAP. XV. The true pleasantness of all the ways of godliness NOw that you may be further convinced that in the choice of the ways of godliness you shall not lose but change pleasures you shall finde pleasures sweet and satisfying of a higher nature in them then ever before your souls were acquainted with consider what Solomon saith of the ways of wisdom Solomon who had experience of all other pleasures whatsoever yet of them he saith Proverbs 3. 17. Her ways are ways of pleasantness That the yoke of Christ was an easie yoke and the ways of godliness had ease in them we have spoken largely As they have ease so they have pleasantness all the ways of godliness are pleasant to that at this time Ordinarily we cannot expect any dependence in these Proverbs but yet in this you have there is a dependence of these words upon the 13.
things not seen so that the work of faith is there seen Whosoever speaks of the reward that is in heaven if the glory of the world be not darkned in their eyes it argues there is no true saving faith A second difference is a gracious heart looks upon the reward by some experimental sweet and good that he findes in himself as the beginning of that eternal good he expects whereas others look upon the reward as a thing onely to come unto them hereafter He reads in the word and hears Preachers say so and so he can speak of them but it is not from any experimental sweetness that he findes of the beginning of eternal life wrought in him That place is very remarkable for this in Heb. 10. 34. Knowing in your selves that ye have in heaven a better and enduring substance Other men may know in others in books that there is a reward but a gracious heart knows in himself by that experimental sweetness of the beginning of eternal life that he findes in himself A third difference is The eye that a gracious heart hath unto the recompence of reward is a fixed eye a setled constant eye Another man that is an hypocrite may have a flash of lightning even from heaven it self that may discover something unto him of the glorious condition of the people of God as Balaam Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his This was more then natural I may call it a supernatural work that was upon Balaam yet not saving and gracious It appeared not to be saving because it had not a saving power went with it and it was not constant and so many hypocrites that are unfound when they have enlargement in prayer they may have some flashes of lightning let into their hearts they may have some glimmerings of the glorious things of heaven and as the Holy Ghost speaks in Heb. 6. 5. they may have a taste of the powers of the world to come but a gracious heart hath it not as a flash of lightning but as a constant light that is set up in his soul and as that light which does transform his spirit into light and makes him to be a childe of light Fourthly there is a great deal of difference in this the eye that a gracious heart hath is truly spiritual the other is but carnal A spiritual eye what is that that is he looks at the reward as a spiritual thing a carnal heart looks at it carnally O the flashes of joy to have a crown and a kingdom but a spiritual heart looks at the reward spiritually time is coming when I shall be wholly free from the body of sin and death time is coming when as the image of God shall be made perfect in my soul time is coming when I shall behold the blessed face of God and live to the praise of that blessed God without any intermission joyning with those blessed creatures that are eternally blessing God Now the heart that looks at it thus spiritually and looks at the top of it to be a spiritual good such an one sees the reward after another maner then any carnal heart doth The last difference is the eye of the gracious heart is a believing eye such an eye as he looks upon the glorious and blessed things of heaven as the things that his soul hath an interest in as the things wherein his riches and happiness does consist another may look upon them as glorious things that may be desired but for an eye to be fixed upon the promise so as to be content to venture all upon the bare word of God for such great things so as to count his riches to consist in these things that he hath but a bare word for such a believing eye as this is not the eye of a carnal heart CHAP. XLI What is this recompence of reward NOw the third thing that we are to come to is to shew what this reward is we can but give you a little glimpse of it Whatsoever will be said it will rather even darken it then otherwise in regard of the wonderful excellency of it all the stars in heaven if they were all Suns they would be but a dark shadow to set out this reward and therefore it is reserved to eternity to be known but yet because the Lord hath been pleased to let out a beam of light unto us in his word we shall endeavor to give a little glimpse of it to you so that the hearts of Christians may be revived in their way and they may gather up their feet to go on chearfully in their course having respect with a discerning experimental spiritual fixed believing eye unto the glorious recompence of reward First take all the beauty excellency the sweet and good that there is in all the world if there could be a confluence and extract of the quintessence of all good in all creature in this world and all to be communicated to one man yet it were but as a dark shadow of the glory that is to be revealed Secondly this reward certainly it is that which is beyond all the expression that we have in Scripture of it Great things are spoken in the word but there is more to be revealed and to be enjoyed then is yet revealed in all the Book of God Isa 64. 4. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him And therefore in 2 Thess 1. 10. it is said Christ shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe Now the cause of admiration it is the sight of something more then was known before that was not thought of and was not understood even then at the first coming of Christ he shall appear in so much glory as he shall be admired as if the Saints should say We heard much concerning Christ and his glory but we never thought that there was so much glory in Jesus Christ as now we finde and therefore we stand admiring at the glory of Christ Thirdly all those consolations those admirable soul-ravishing comforts that the Saints of God have ever had in this world have all been but the first fruits of those glorious things that are hereafter to to be revealed they are but as the Clusters of grapes that that blessed Land of Canaan is so full of Fourthly then all the expressions that man can give of those things that are to be hereafter must needs be but dark resemblances of what shall be revealed hereafter As the infant in the womb knows not what the light the glory and beauty of the world is so we while we are in this darkness know little of the beauty and glory of heaven St. Augustine speaking concerning what we can say of it says It is
have had of the heighth and depth of the riches of the glory of the grace of God in the face of Jesus Christ That sight of Gods grace that is the cause of security in people is that which is grounded meerly upon a natural light which hath no efficacy to raise and enlarge and to purge the heart But this true spiritual sight of Gods grace it hath a mighty efficacy and nothing more to raise and enlarge and purge the heart In 2 Corinth 3. 18. says the Apostle We beholding the glory of the Lord as in a mirror What then are we secure and presumptuous upon this No We are changed into the same image from glory to glory What was that glory that the Apostle did behold the glory of God in the mirror of the Gospel the glory of God in the riches of his grace towards the Saints Now says he While we behold as in a mirror this glory of God this is the fruit of it We are changed from glory to glory People talk of Gods mercy but how few ever had a spiritual sight of Gods mercy they would have Ministers preach much of Gods mercy but if people had eyes to behold it in the glory of it how would it change their hearts wherefore then I beseech you labor to have more then a natural sight of Gods mercy and goodness towards mankinde A man by a low apprehension of Gods mercy and goodness may think thus So long as I serve God it shall be well with me God will bless me and be merciful to me but that spiritual and supernatural sight of the riches of the glory of Gods mercy is this for a soul though it sees it self a base vile wretched worm a lump of filth and sees it self standing guilty before the Lord and God seems to look with an angry face upon it and conscience within it accuses it and the threats of the fiery Law come out against it yet for a soul to be able to look into the deep bowels of Gods infinite compassion that are in Christ and in them to look upon it self for all this as an heir of glory and eternal life so as to have the soul raised and enlarged and devoted to the magnifying praising and adoring the riches of Gods grace and to venture all upon this this is more then a natural sight of Gods grace and of his mercy towards mankinde You will say We could admire Gods grace and mercy towards mankinde and praise him and bless him for it and our hearts would be enlarged If we were sure these things did belong to us and that we had any interest in them there is enough in them to enlarge and raise our hearts but this is that which hinders We do not know that we have an interest therein To that I answer That this very work of God it self that gives this sight of his grace to raise up the heart to close with it and to make the soul venture all upon it that does bring the soul to devote it self to the praise and honor of it this very work of it self does interest your souls in it therefore do not say If I were interested in these things then I could praise and magnifie God for them If you can do this you are interested in them for this is an immediate work of faith and it is from a divine principle to be able to do this and therefore though you know no good at all in your selves before and you had no arguments to encourage you before and you had no preparation in your own apprehensions before yet if you have but this work of grace it does interest your souls in all that which hath been revealed concerning the recompence of reward of the Saints of God But may we not presume to think that such great things belong to us To that I answer Where ever presumption is it is built upon a natural sight of Gods grace and that is a poor low flat dead thing that hath no such efficacy to raise the heart to such a glorious work as this is and therefore if the heart be raised to such a glorious work as this by the appprehension of the riches of the grace and goodness of God towards mankinde that is not presumption And this is the sixth Use CHAP. LIV. Gods people to be highly honored SEventhly if there be such blessed things reserved for the people of God Hence let us look upon all the servants of God as honorable in our eyes and let them be honored in our thoughts for great are the thoughts of God upon them and towards them and therefore great and honorable should be our thoughts of them though they be never so poor and mean in the world We use to look upon great heirs with admiring thoughts and blessing of them every time we look upon them Do you see one walking in the ways of God whatsoever he be for his outwards let your hearts bless him and say Here is one indeed born to great things other maner of things then any the world affords Did we know what were the things that the people of God should be possessed of within a while we would say in our hearts O blessed that ever they were born blessed is the womb that bare them and blessed are the paps that gave them suck Did we with a spiritual believing eye behold what things they should have and saw them as now possessed of them we would see cause to fall down and kiss the ground upon which they tread The blessed Angels look upon them as great ones as the glory of the world and therefore do joyfully minister unto them because they know they are the great heirs of Heaven for whom such great things are prepared Great things are spoken of thee O thou City of God says the Psalmist Great things are spoken of you O ye Saints of God If Heaven must be so glorious to entertain the Saints how glorious are those for whom heaven is prepared Says Ahasuerus What shall be done to the man whom the King will honor O what shall be done to those whom an infinite God hath set his heart upon to raise to honor and to manifest to Angels and to all the world what his infinite power is able to do in raising of a creature to glory In the Saints there is a meeting as it were of the beams of Gods grace and goodness as in a center and that must needs be very warm and hot indeed The beams of the Sun in the circumference scattered in the ayr are warm but in a glass where they are united together as it were in a center there they warm after another maner there they burn so all the works of Gods grace abroad in the world they are as the beams of the Sun in the circumference that are scattered abroad but in his people there is the center where they are united together and there they burn and
pleased to discover better things to you so as to make you renounce your former ways and to make choice of another way in which your souls have found other maner of comforts and satisfactions and contentments then ever you did before bless God as David did Blessed be the Lord that hath given me counsel and made me to understand aright So may such a soul say for had I been left to the counsels of mine own heart I know what should have become of me I have as vile a heart as any and my heart did take as much delight in the flesh as any and I should have gone on God knows whither and might by this time have plunged my self into the bottomless pit my friends would have given me other counsels to harden me in my ways of sinful pleasure but blessed be God that hath over-powered my heart How many do I see every day whose parts of nature exceed mine and yet they are mistaken in the things that concern their everlasting welfare they minde no other things but the pleasures of the flesh and stumble at the meanness of Gods people and this hides the beauty of godliness from their eyes and what a great mercy is this that God hath taken this stumbling block from me and that he hath opened mine eyes to see pearls though wrapped up in rotten rags and to see the excellency of godliness notwithstanding all afflictions that do attend upon them Certainly it is no other but a beam of Gods own light from Heaven that hath shined into thy heart It is a remarkable passage that we have Esay 44. 20 21. where God shewing the difference between those who forsook the true God and his people who chose him to be their God stirs up his people to remember for ever this mercy of God towards them that they should be delivered from the deceit and vanity whereby others were deluded and guided in a right and safe way to be the servants of the blessed God As for the Idolater he feedeth upon ashes a deceived heart hath turned him aside that he cannot deliver his soul nor say Is there not a lye in my right hand Now mark what follows Remember these O Jacob and Israel for thou art my servant c. As if he should say Do you see how others have left God and God hath left them They feed upon ashes a seduced heart hath deceived them but it is otherwise with you God hath put it into your hearts to be my servants to choose me for your God Remember for ever these things O Jacob here is a mercy indeed never to be forgotten How comes it to pass that your hearts should not be so seduced as theirs it is Gods free grace and rich mercy towards you And his mercy is the greater in that it is in such a weighty thing that the Lord hath given thee counsel to make a right choice in If a man makes an ill choice in a matter that is of moment that will bring him trouble in his life how is he grieved as in marriage when he is to make choice in that one thing upon which he knows the comfort or trouble of his life does much depend if the Lord hath so provided for him that he hath made a good choice onely in that how does he bless God it is that which sweetens all his life If it be such a mercy to be guided to make a good choice in marriage what a mercy is it to be guided to make a good choice for ones soul to be happy to all eternity if the Lord should leave a soul in that choice what a lamentable condition had the soul been in And therefore those that have any savour of godliness if they be to change the condition of their lives they will seek God and be earnest that God would guide them and not leave them to themselves and take advantage to punish their former sins in their choice now If you be to make a choice that concerns the outward comforts of your lives you will earnestly desire God not to leave you there Now you are to make your choice for your eternal condition if God should leave you now what a lamentable condition would you be in as he does leave most in the world As soon as we come to years of discretion we come to make our choice to go on in the ways of God or in the ways of death How many yong ones make a woful choice in the beginning and go on and are hardened in their choice and perish for ever And hath the Lord looked upon you and considered how like you would be to fail in your choice And hath the Lord been pleased to come in with his Spirit and a light from Heaven to shew you the way Have you heard a voyce from heaven saying This is the way walk in it Though God should leave you in all outward things yet you are made for ever and therefore thou mayest say as Judas not Iscariot Lord wherefore is it that thou revealest thy self to us and not to the world Lord wherefore is it that in this great business of my choice that concerns my eternal estate thou art pleased to reveal thy self to me a poor contemptible creature rather then to the world 1. Hence it is because thou art one of the chosen ones of the Lord because the Lord hath made a choice of thee and hath separated thee from all eternity to do good to thy soul hence it is manifest that thou art the chosen one of the Lord when thou seest most in the world to follow the pleasures of the world if God hath given thee a heart to choose his ways upon any terms take this as an argument that thou art a chosen vessel of God Reciprocal signs of Gods grace are the most sweet as if I love God this is an argument God loves me if Gods honor be dear to me then my soul is near to God so if I choose God then God hath chosen me 2. This choice is that for which thousands of Gods people have blessed God upon their death-beds they counted it a blessed time and blessed the means the Word and the Instrument that God was pleased to work by to incline their hearts to such a choice as this 3. Yea this choice of thine though it be suffering affliction it is that thou shalt bless God for to all eternity in the highest Heavens it is such a great mercy as this little poor span-long life of ours is not sufficient to give God glory for it therefore there is an eternity reserved to praise God for it when thou shalt see what good comes of thy choice then thou shalt bless God indeed Certainly God takes it well at thy hands now Jer. 2. 2. I remember the kindeness of thy youth and the love of thine espousals when thou wentest after me in the wilderness God takes it kindely that men will choose him and his
the wood of Lebanon He made the Pillars thereof of silver the bottom thereof of gold the covering of it of purple the midst thereof being paved with love A strange expression that the midst of Chariot should be paved with love the chariot whereby Christ does carry his people up and down in the world and bring them to himself is such a Chariot as the midst thereof is paved with love At the 7. ver he speaks of the bed of Solomon and here of his Chariot Divines interpret these two places his bed to set out the rest and glory that the Saints shall have with Christ eternally and the Chariot of Solomon that is those ways wherein Christ carries his people up and down in the world to himself and the midst thereof is love there must needs then be delight in those ways Eighthly the ways of God are full of pleasantness because they are such as are delightful to God Now they must be pleasant when they are such as God takes delight in they are such as the Church knows Christ takes much delight in What admirable expressions hath that Book of the Canticles of Gods delight in the graces of his people and in the ways of godliness Now there is no man loves a friend but accounts every good thing that his friend loves to be a double good Now that which God himself accounts pleasantness and is his delight must needs be the delight and pleasure of a gracious heart because there is so much nearness between God and a gracious heart Ninthly Yet further there is abundance of pleasantness in the ways of God in regard of the many encouraging delights that God hath provided for his people while they do live here and walk with him in these ways to make their lives to be sweet unto them God provides his Paradise here for them to encourage them they walk in the garden of God God hath his Eden his garden The Covenant of Grace and the glorious things prepared are as the Eden and Paradise of God in which the souls of his people walk wherein they have delightful hills and dales In the Scripture there are the high mysteries of godliness and the plain and easie truths of Religion as valleys and hills to delight them in their way They have the sweet springs and rivers of Ordinances that are appointed as sweet streams to refresh them and the blessed promises delightful trees to behold The tree of life Christ himself and a feast of fat things in the Ordinances wine upon the lees making melody in their hearts they go no further for that and therefore sure their ways are ways of pleasantness there being so many encouraging delightful things that God hath provided for them in their way Tenthly Further ways of pleasantness they are because that Religion does enable them to draw out more delight and pleasure from the creature it self then any other possibly can do there is no principle that can enable to draw out delights from the creature as godliness does enable a man to do for take any other carnal natural man he can draw out nothing from the creature but that which is carnal and natural but Gods people have a principle to draw out more and we are to know this that every creature hath a natural delight in it and there is somewhat more in it to a gracious heart then a natural delight as it was with Manna when Manna fell there was a dew that fell together with it and so with our meat and drink and clothes and estate and delights in the world it is true they are Manna and we feed upon them as the carnal Israelites fed upon Manna but we do not see the dew a carnal heart is not acquainted with the dew that fals with the Manna but those that are godly and religious and walk in these ways of wisdom they have a principle to discern and relish the dew that falls with this Manna a secret blessing of God that their souls are enabled to close with in the enjoyment of the creature in meat and drink and clothes and recreations they finde a secret influence of GOD together with them Take a flower if a flie come to it it cannot get out that good which a Bee can do If we take a flower we can get out the smell but there is a honey dew and if we had that principle a Bee hath we might get out more then the smell So carnal people have many sweet flowers which are pleasant to the smell but there is a honey dew that onely the godly can get out So that he hath not onely the use of all lawful pleasure to the full that any other hath but he can go and take them as his own as those that are purchased by the blood of Christ as those his Father allows him If he see the glory of the creature and delights in it he looks upon it as Gods own delight that he gives him and looks upon all creatures as his Fathers he sees no ground but he says it is his Fathers ground and he sees springs and rivers and delights in the creatures as they are his Fathers A wicked man that takes delight in the creature he travels and walks up and down and sees other creatures but it is as if a man were walking in the Orchard and Garden of his deadly enemy Suppose a man have a deadly enemy and he hath a pleasant garden that hath many fair walks and trees in his garden and he walks in it as others do But where am I now I am walking here and compassed in the garden that is mine enemies and what if he meet me here it may cost me my life And so it is with all carnal men in the world but the people of God enjoy the outward delights of the world and see the sweet walks and delightful pleasures that are here and it is their Fathers garden the garden of him that is their God that they have an interest in so that they have more delight in the creatures then any else Yea not onely so godliness does not only enable to draw more delight from the creatures then others but raises all natural pleasures on high and makes them spiritual it puts a spiritual excellency upon that which is natural it does not rest in having content to the eye or ear or taste in any natural delight but spiritualizeth all there is that vertue in godliness to spiritualize all natural things to raise the excellency of them Yea not onely so but in the last place there is that vertue in godliness to turn all evil into good if it meet with any thing that hath bitterness godliness is like that wood that made the bitter waters sweet it hath that excellency to turn evil and make it not onely profitable but delightful So that all these being put together concerning the commendation of the ways of wisdom we must either put out our eyes or
what difference between Christs heart and thine Christ bids you leap for joy when you meet with such things and you think they take away all joy But we see it in experience contrary when people come into the ways of godliness they do not finde that delight and joy you speak of their spirits are heavy and lumpish and sad For answer to that It may be it is but seriousness and thou thinkest it is sadness Secondly it may be they are not in their element and therefore they do not express chearfulness If the fish be upon the earth it cannot take delight the bird does not sing when it is upon the ground but when it is got up to the air Those that you say are melancholly and lumpish put them to religious and gracious exercises and get up their hearts to God and they will be merry Thirdly it may be it is your company makes them so because they see so much dishonor to God in your company let them be among their own company and they know how to be joyful Fourthly it is not because of Religion but because they are no more religious because they finde so much want of godliness in their hearts Fifthly it is not because they have so much cause of sorrow as you but they come to see more then you not because their hearts are not so pleasant as yours but because God hath discovered the danger of their condition more to them and the things that concern their souls and eternal estates such things as if thou didst but see would sink thy heart into dismal bottomless sorrow and desperation Thou thinkest much to see them so sad as they are If thou didst but see that they see thou wouldst sink down into the gulf of desperation among the damned spirits It is a mighty argument they have some mighty work of God to uphold them and that grace comes from a mighty principle that they have some chearfulness notwithstanding they see such things as if one that were meerly natural should see them he would sink down into hell and yet they can hope in God and sometimes notwithstanding all unbelief do rejoyce in God Alas thy pleasantness and delight is such as every little toy is enough to damp if thou beest crossed in the least thing in the creature thou art damped But what if God should shew thee all his terrors the infinite evil of sin and the infinite danger thou art in in regard of thy eternal estate that would damp thee indeed and therefore acknowledge that that joy that the godly have considering what they see is exceeding strong that upholds them as it doth Sixthly their joy is a secret inward thing which strangers shall not intermeddle withal thou hast no skill in it What was it for Nebuchadnezzar to say No Nobleman had such pleasure as he when he was among the beasts thou hast no principle to judge of it and therefore art no meet Judge For Application Hence we see one special and great reason why Gods people are taken off so much from carnal pleasure as they are they have met with better and the sweet of the world is not so much to them because they have met with that which is abundantly more sweet It is the sweet savor of Christs precious oyntment that draws the hearts of the Saints after him that makes them cry out Draw us and we will run after thee Cant. 1. 3 4. But the savor of base pleasures draws vile hearts after them Trahit sua quemque voluptas The light of the Sun darkens the light of the candle and puts out the light of the fire The light that Gods servants do meet with in the ways of God do darken all and take away the lustre of all carnal delight and this is the reason that Satan does not go that way to work to tempt a gracious heart with sensual pleasures because he is so far above them and therefore he is fain to tempt them with spiritual pride and lusts of a higher nature It were a wonderful dishonour for any that profess godliness to have their hearts taken with any pleasures of the flesh but onely in order to better pleasures that are to be enjoyed in the ways of godliness in the ways of wisdom In the second place What infinite cause have we to bless the Name of God that gives us such pleasant ways unto glory Though his ways were never so full of torment we had cause to bless God but for to pave our way to Heaven with such delights and to afford unto us such soul-satisfying contents here while we live in this our poor pilgrimage this is praise-worthy If we were to ascend to Heaven in a fiery Chariot we were to praise God but this is the Chariot of Solomon the midst whereof is paved with love as you heard How are we to bless God for this Thirdly if it be so here is an aggravation of the wickedness of those that shall take delight in sinful pleasures God sees it is impossible for any of his creatures but they must seek for pleasures some way and that God might take our hearts to himself he hath provided ways wherein we may have pleasure and an infinite aggravation it will be to your wickedness to seek for pleasure in the ways of sin in dishonoring God when thou mayest have pleasure in honoring of God Consider this and let thy soul upbraid it self for abominable wickedness and ingratitude There are ways of delight wherein God may be honored and my soul satisfied there are other ways that have delight but such ways as God will be dishonored in them and my soul endangered Now when as God does give me a cup full of all delicacy to satisfie my thirst with for me to take a cup of poyson to satisfie my thirst with this is folly and this is abominable wickedness of mens hearts God sets his cup of salvation and tenders it in his ways to satisfie your souls withal and the Devil comes with his cup of poyson and do but speak of delight and when you are athirst you rather take the cup of poyson then the cup of Salvation the more delight there is in Gods ways the more abominable is thy wickedness to forsake them Fourthly hence the great scandal of the ways of godliness that the world stumbles at is taken away they call them dumpish ways The Saints of God never knew the minde of God if this be so The world deals with the ways of God in this case as they did with the Christians in the Primitive times they used to put Christians into Bears and Dogs skins or ugly creatures and then bait them and so the men of the world put Religion into ugly conceits and then speak against them and truly that they speak against is only their own conceits and not any thing in themselves they are lovely and excellent and glorious onely they appear
they will esteem of them but when the esteem of the world is taken away their esteem is taken away As it is with the Deer that is hunted when the Huntsman goes into the Park he stirs up all and all run together but if one be shot and they see the blood run down they will all push him out of their company so while Gods people go on and are in credit and esteem with the world others that are slight professors of Religion will esteem them and they shall be welcom into their company till they be shot and they see disgrace put upon them then they look upon them with a lowry countenance If a man be travelling and there be a Sun-dial by the high-way if the Sun shine he will go out of his way to take notice of it but if the Sun do not shine he may go a hundred times by and never regard it and so when the Sun shines upon Gods people they are much made of but if a cloudy day do come and take away the Sunshine they are not esteemed and many people instead of helping them in their affliction will adde to their affliction and say You needed not to have been so forward and to have appeared so much It was your want of wisdom brought you into this trouble and the like If you had a gracious heart if you saw one of Gods Servants go on in the way of God and suffer in that way though he had failed in some particulars you would pass them by and not be ready to take advantage to speak against him for them If a man do plead for the King every circumstance is not taken up and aggravated against him and so for those that are for God every circumstance should not be aggravated against them It is better for one to be forward in Gods cause though he should fail in some circumstances then to be lukewarm If a man be going earnestly and do fall forward there is not so much danger in that as to fall backward so a man that is forward in that which is good though he may carry some things indiscreerly and suffer somewhat that way yet his fall is but forward and there is not so much danger in that as in a time-server and apostate that falls backward he may break his neck And therefore we should not aggravate the afflictions of the Saints if they be right in the main we should countenance them and appear for them though we venture something as Moses here he might have saved himself and yet he had such a high esteem of Gods people as he would venture all for them but of this in the next Point Thirdly If God does move the hearts of any preciously to esteem of his people though afflicted outwardly hearken to a word of encouragement Certainly thou art blessed of God It is a note of a wonderful strong eye-sight that thou hast that thou canst see Spiritual excellency through outward meanness there is more skill in being able to see the preciousness of a thing then to see the glory and lustre of it that which is not true pearl may have as much lustre as the true but the skill of the Lapidary is to know that is not precious but the other although it be fullied with dirt It is a note of sincerity of grace that thou lovest grace for grace It is a note of the power of grace that thou canst pass by that which is a stumbling to so many Certainly God will know thy soul in adversity and will look through all thy infirmities upon thee that canst look with an honorable esteem upon his people through all afflictions And in that time when thou suspectest the work of grace in thee this may be one argument to uphold thee though thou canst not discern the work of grace in thine own heart yet thou canst prize it in another it is an argument it is in thy soul though now thou canst not see it though people want other notes yet this many have Fourthly You that are the Servants of God and God hath so ordered it as you are mean in the world mean in your parts and estates and mean in regard of your friends be not discouraged do not think I am a poor contemptible man or woman no body looks at me or regards me God hath a high esteem of you the Angels have a high esteem of you the Saints have a high esteem of you and therefore be not discouraged As you have it in Isaiah 56. 3 4. Let not the Eunuch say I am a dry tree for if he will take hold of my name and keep my Sabbath I will give him an everlasting name better then of sons and daughters Many because they are outwardly mean do go on discouraged and say of themselves We are dry trees If thou didst but see the thoughts of Gods people and see the thoughts of wicked men as if thou couldst but unfold the consciences of wicked men they do reverence thee and wish they were in thy condition if they were to dye though you have not that respect from the godly which they seem to shew to others that they have more use of and are more serviceable to them to do their business and so there is a shew of more outward familiarity yet do not think but that you are more highly esteemed then they are But suppose no man should regard you it is enough that God does regard you It is a notable speech of Salvian Such as are truly blessed in their own consciences cannot be miserable by the false judgements of other men But I say though that were enough yet you have more you have God and his Angels and Saints and the consciences of wicked men though we should not regard the esteem of the men of the world but go on in our way onely be careful that they may not speak ill of our Religion but the esteem of the Saints is not slightly to be esteemed for it is a blessing of God and therefore St. Paul was earnest with the Romans to pray to God for him that his service might be accepted of by the Saints On the other side for one to be in such a condition as those that are godly wise and humble shall call their estates into question and be suspitious of them such need look to themselves many that are truly godly may be very guilty of censuring and so do much wrong both to those that are godly and to Religion but take those that are wise and humble and I say if such should be jealous of me I should have great cause to be suspitious of my self for such have the Spirit of God and do know the things of God A spiritual man judgeth all things and therefore we should make good use of their opinions of us If they be afraid of us we should fear our selves as Isaiah says There is no peace to the wicked says my God that God that my
therefore when any was converted it is said they were added to the Church And S. Paul Heb. 10. 25. lays a charge upon them though it were at such a time as they hazarded their lives Not to forsake the assembly of the Saints as the maner of some is And Mr. Calvin in a Sermon upon that Text Seek ye my face interpreting it thus The face of God is Gods Ordinances as a man is known by his face so God maketh himself known in his Ordinances and so he urges that place Seek my face that all Christians in conscience are bound to go where Gods Ordinances may be enjoyed if possibly they can And he says further It is better they should scrape the ground with their nails then to be any where else where they should not ioyn with Gods people in the ways of his Ordinances Certainly it is a great blessing to be with them though upon never such hard terms in regard of afflictions That is observable that we read of Jacob blessing his sons Gen. 49. 28. it is said He blessed every one of them How was that for you shall finde he rather seemed to curse three of them Reuben Simeon and Levi he speaks onely of evil to them but because they were not rejected from being amongst Gods people although they were to be under great and sore afflictions yet they are said to be blessed Well but why should we suffer much affliction for the joyning with Gods people What is there in them or amongst them that makes joyning with them to be so desireable First that point we handled before might be enough to shew the reason of this they are the excellent of the earth Isaiah 43. 4. I do not now speak of them particularly though every Saint is honorable but especially they are honorable in a way of Church communion Now we know it is a credit and priviledge to have society with those that are honorable Gods people are so they are the glory of the world as for others God speaks of them as dirt and dross Psal 119. 118 119. but now Gods people are called the glory of God himself Isaiah 4. 5. now it is good being with such as those are Peter when he saw but two of Gods servants together with Christ Moses and Elias says It is good being here let us make three Tabernacles one for thee one for Moses and one for Elias he never thought of himself it is good being here though he should lye in the field and in the rain and so says a gracious heart It is good being here with Gods people for they are precious whatsoever hardship we suffer amongst them Secondly there is no such comfortable communion in the world as with Gods people It is comfortable First in the very beholding of the shining of the graces of Gods Spirit in them says Heathen Seneca The very look of a good man delights me What is the glory of God himself but to see his own glory shining in the world in the works of creation and providence If God delights so much to see the resplendency of that glory that shines in his works surely it must be a great delight to those that have any work of grace to see grace shining in others Besides there is a blessed fragrancy of graces in Gods people as the eye is satisfied in beholding the beauty of them so the heart is satisfied in the sweetness of them Cant. 6. 2. My beloved is gone down into his garden to the beds of spices the Catholike Church is as the garden and every particular Church if it be as it should be is as a bed of spices that gives forth a very fragrant smell It is reported of Alexander his body was of such an exact constitution that it gave a sweet scent where it went and so a Church is of so good a constitution that it gives forth a wonderful sweet fragrant smell to those that have their right senses Again no such comfort as in communion with Gods people in regard of the nearness of their union one with another their hearts joyn and are one if they be truly spiritual other societies are but as the iron and the clay in the toes of Nebuchadnezzars Image they may cleave together but they will not incorporate one into another The more spiritual any thing is the more it does unite with that which is spiritual spiritual things are more unitive then such things as are bodily as if you have a heap of stones they do not joyn so close together but now a thousand beams of the Sun will unite together in one point because they are spiritual things in comparison and this is the reason why there is such a full union between God and a spiritual heart because God is so spiritual and the more spiritual the heart is the more union and so Christians having grace and grace being spiritual the more grace the more spiritual and the more spiritual the more union and the reason why in Church-fellowship there is so little union is because they are so carnal and therefore the Apostle says the contentions that were in the Church of Corinth were because they were carnal If you were more spiritual there would not be such division between you As it is in wicked communion those who are more spiritually wicked for there is a kinde of spiritual wickedness they do more unite together those that are more fleshly wicked do not so closely unite as your drunkards and prophane fellows though they call good fellows yet upon every cross word they are ready to fall out but others that are wicked in a malicious way against the godly and wicked in a way of policy to work to undermine the way of godliness such as those joyn together a great deal more strongly then those that joyn together in an outward fleshly way Now because Gods people are spiritual in a gracious way therefore they have such near union and union causes abundance of comfort We read Exodus 26. of two sorts of Curtains for the Tabernacle the one verse 1. of fine twined linen blew purple and scarlet and the tatches were of gold to couple them the other were of goats hair ver 7. and the tatches to couple them were of brass ver 11. Which may set forth the several sorts of people in the Church some are of a finer make then others more spiritual and the bonds of their union are golden others are more course and the bonds of their union are not so glorious but this is a truth for ever the more spiritual the more union the more pure the souls of men are and of the more excellent temper the more close sweet excellent in their union Again no such comfort as with Gods people because of the suitableness of that disposition that is in their spirits one with another having but one spirit and but one divine nature led by the same principles
the end of things that are but for a season were present they could not satisfie Now a gracious heart makes the end of all things that are but for a season to be really present If grace enables a man to make the things of God and eternal things to be present much more will grace in the heart make the end of all worldly things to be really present Now a gracious heart being wise and considering and looking upon these things that are but for a season as if the end now were hence it is that it hath the same judgement of things that are but for a season now as it shall have when the end of all shall be Now when the end of all things we enjoy for a season is come then every man will see the vanity of them and cry out of them and say they will not satisfie Yea we shall not onely see the vanity of them but in some respect see it a greater misery then if we had never enjoyed them now that thing which will not onely fail us but when it shall fail us it will be a greater vexation to us that we had them then if we had never enjoyed it certainly they which know this cannot be satisfied with it Eighthly a gracious heart makes use of all the experiences that it hath had of the vanity of the creature of all things that are but for a season when God in the way of his providence gives to one that is gracious experience of things he will treasure up his experience vain light hearts though God do give them experience of the vanity of the creature and of things that are but for a season they do not treasure up their experiences but though they cry out of the vanity of the creature at some time yet they run out again as greedily in their desires after it as before but a gracious heart findes when God takes away the creature wherein it had placed a great deal of confidence God hath shewed it how fading it was and the setled condition of it is nothing but vanity and so the experience of the vanity of former things does take off his heart from any thing that it looks upon as abiding for a season Lastly that which is but for a season does want an especial ingredient in it which is required for satisfaction the special ingredient unto satisfaction is security that there may be soul-safe security Augustine says The soul cannot enjoy any thing freely with satisfaction unless it can enjoy it with security Now when the soul enjoys a thing for a season it cannot be satisfied because it must be solicitous to provide something when that is gone which it hath for the present So that these arguments being put together you may see evidently Nothing that is for a season can give satisfaction to a gracious heart Having laid these things in the explication of the point all that we have to do is to apply it Hence we may see the excellency of a true gracious spirit where there is grace in the soul it puts a wonderful excellency upon the soul as in many other respects so this one does wonderfully declare the excellency of a gracious heart that it is so raised so enlarged so greatned that nothing that is for a season can satisfie it but it looks for things beyond a season Let all the world the things that are in Heaven and Earth present themselves to the soul to satisfie it the soul will say What are you temporal or eternal If the answer be given temporal the soul rejects them and puts them off as too mean things to be satisfaction for it If you had brought eternity with you says the soul I could have embraced you and closed with you and have been satisfied in the enjoyment of you but if the inscription of eternity be not in you you are too mean for me my happiness is not here I must look higher I am lost for ever if I do not look higher then these things When Basil was offered money and preferment to tempt him he answers Give money that may last for ever and glory that may eternally flourish CHAP. XXVI Perswasions to take off the heart from temporal things SEcondly hence let us all make use of this Argument to take off our spirits from all earthly things that are here below Let us look upon all things in the world as under this notion that they are but for a season and let us improve this argument to the utmost that possibly we can for the working our hearts off from the things of this world The beauty of all worldly things is but as a fair picture drawn upon the Ice that melts away with it The fashion of this world passeth away When Alexander saw himself wounded and in danger of death he then saw the vanity of those flatterers that would have perswaded him he was a God So when we see those things upon which we set our hearts as if our chief good as if a Deity were in them to be wounded and ready to perish let us learn to alter our thoughts of them to take off our hearts from them Much may be done in the improving of this argument of the fading vanishing nature of creature-comforts the Scripture makes much use of it to take off the hearts of People from them Why wilt thou set thy heart upon that which is not Riches have wings and will fly away It charges them that have riches that they trust not in uncertain riches Man that is made in honor abides not They sing to the Tabret and Harp and make merry and in a moment they go down to hell This Moses argument is the strong Scripture argument there is nothing but uncertainty mutability vanity upon every creature that is here below The fashion of the world passeth away and the lustre of it there is no enduring substance here Those in the Hebrews were content to part with any thing that endured but for a season so they might have an enduring substance and so Abraham looked for a City that had foundations Heb. 11. 10. these cities have no foundations All earthly things are like the earth it self it hangs upon nothing Job 26. 7. and therefore there can be no certainty in them no continuance in the enjoyment of them neither will the things of this world abide they perish in the using of them and that which perishes in the using we must not set our hearts upon It s the expression of Gregory Nyssen The things of the world are as if a man were writing upon the water with his finger as any thing is written the impression vanishes and nothing appears not as one were writing upon the sand or dust which although any little wind blows smooth yet it stays a while till the wind riseth So the creature is not vain onely because it leaves us after a while but the comfort of the creature
appears to be in others prating of him but now when men do not understand any great good in themselves then they account the evil of the world despising them a great evil Many men judge of themselves rather by the esteem other men have of them then by any good they know in themselves and no marvel though these men be so much troubled at other mens despising of them If a Merchant have a Ship come home laden with many thousand pounds worth of rich Commodities though his Servant should do something amiss that day he would not be froward at it but pass it by because he hath such great profit and good coming in so the evils of the world are nothing in comparison to that soul that knows the great things of the Kingdom of God to be its own Thirdly there is a mighty deal of power in it because this respect unto the recompence of reward does so much take up the faculties of the soul the intention of the minde being taken up about so great an object other things are not minded in comparison and this is the reason why those that are in a phrensie are insensible of what you do unto them because their mindes are taken up about that which they apprehend so strongly as nothing else is minded by them and if there was any object made known to take up the minde of man it must be such great things as these made certain and real to the soul by faith It is a property peculiar to God that though he hath many glorious things that he exercises his wisdom about yet he does minde the least thing the least creature in the world as much as if there were nothing else to minde but no creature can do so no creature can minde great things with intention of minde and yet minde inferior things with any strength of intention too but if he mindes great things with intention other things must be lightly minded An Ecclesiastical Historian tells us of the Christians they did so minde the glory of God and the glory of Heaven as that the pains they suffered were as in the bodies of other men and not in their own bodies It is reported of Archimides who was a great Mathematician that when the City was taken wherein he was and the Warlike instruments of death clattering about his ears and all was in a tumult yet he was so busie about drawing his lines that he did not know there was any danger and heard no noise If such objects as these can take up the intention of the minde so as not to minde other things then much more such an object as eternal life and eternal glory and happiness And therefore that place is very observable in 2 Cor. 4. 16. We faint not in our sufferings because we look not at things that are seen but at things that are not seen We are so intense about Heaven and the glory of God that we do not give a look at things that are seen So in Heb. 11. 15 16. They were not so much as mindeful of that Countrey from whence they came because they sought a Countrey that was better and heavenly It is a notable expression that Basil hath concerning the Martyrs says he They do not look at the danger they are in but at the crown And again he says They do not look at the Officers and Executioners that are whipping of them but they look to the Angels that are giving acclamations and that are encouraging of them As a carnal heart a man that mindes earthly things his minde is so taken up about them because they are an object suitable to him as when all the glory of God and of Christ and of Heaven is set before him he lets it pass without any minding so a gracious heart that by faith can see into the reality of the glory of Heaven and eternal life so taken up with them as not to minde earthly things and that is the third particular Fourthly the respect unto the recompence of the reward hath a mighty power to carry on the soul in a way of suffering because the soul by this comes to see how infinitely well pleased God is with it and with that it undertakes for his names sake in suffering any thing in his cause and this does mightily prevail with a gracious heart If God does but give his command to do a thing this might be enough to shew Gods good pleasure in that action but when with command God reveals such infinite glorious things that he will reward that action withal this discovers more of the infinite good pleasure of God so that the soul in this does not onely see its own happiness but sees the infinite good pleasure of God in it and reasons thus How hath God set his heart upon me And what infinite good pleasure is it that he takes in that I poor worm shall suffer for his names sake when he does not onely tell me it is according to his will but he hath such infinite glorious things to reward that I do except his heart were much upon it taken with it there would never such great and glorious things have been for the rewarding of it but in that these things are so revealed and I in some measure see them I cannot but think God takes infinite delight in these sufferings for his names sake God forbid that any thing in the world should take off my heart from that which I see God takes such infinite pleasure in when a gracious heart shall see God holding forth a crown to set on his head in suffering it sets the soul on fire in suffering for God if thou hadst onely given forth thy command it had been enough to make all creatures obedient to thee but that thou shouldest manifest thy self thus to crown them with this glory and to lay up these treasures of the riches of thy glory for them Who would not do and suffer any thing in thy cause O blessed God! The fifth particular wherein the power of this argument consists is the abundance of sweet that there is in the hope of this reward to fill the heart with joy and peace the more joy and peace the heart is filled withal the more certainly it is able to do great things So Nehemiah tells the people when he would have them rejoyce The joy of the Lord is your strength Neh. 8. 10. When as the heart is strengthned with joy it is able to do mighty things now the hope of these glorious things do mightily fill the heart with joy and so strengthens the heart A man that hath his body strong he can endure cold and bear great burthens that a weak body cannot bear and nothing strengthens the heart more then this joy of the Lord where the heart is filled with it Vessels that are empty will soon be broke with the heat of the fire which they will not be if they be full this hope
and Jesus Christ it seeing that the bottom and ground of all this glorious recompence of reward is in the free and eternal love of God in Jesus Christ that did work about this before the foundation of the world was laid this does mightily enflame the heart with love to God and therefore it wishes as that Martyr did O that I had as many lives as I have hairs on my head to lay down for Christ And it is sorry that it hath no other opportunity to testifie its love to God the soul says I have but this little time to testifie my love to God and I can but testifie little in doing O what a happiness is it that that which I want of testifying my love in doing I have it in testifying my love in suffering Shall a dog that hath but a few crums or bones from his Master be willing to venture his life in defence of his Master and shall not a gracious heart that expects not crums and bones but Crowns and unconceiveable glory in Heaven be willing to venture life for God in the cause of God Ninthly there is a great deal of power in having respect to the recompence of reward to carry on a soul in suffering because according to the things that are apprehended there is the like impression left upon the spirit As a gracious heart apprehending holy things is made holy and apprehending spiritual things is made spiritual and apprehending great things is made great thee is a holy gracious magnanimity put into the heart A man that is lift up on high upon a high Tower or a high Mountain he looks upon things below as little things The apprehension of this glory lifts the soul on high and puts an impression of greatness and glory upon the heart and so causeth an heroical spirit in the heart to look upon all things below as small as the Martyrs though they were weak spirits by nature even women and children yet apprehending such great things they had heroical magnanimious spirits and looked upon their sufferings as small things because they had an impression of the object they beheld left upon their spirits and in some measure were made like it Lastly there is a mighty deal of power in looking to the recompence of reward to help in sufferings because it hath much power to cleanse the heart every one that hath this hope purgeth himself 1 Iohn 3. And hence the Christians in the Primitive times fering Those that write the stories of Egypt report that there is no country in which there are more venemous Creatures then in Egypt and also they write there is no Country hath so many Antidotes to help against poyson so godliness brings with it many troubles and sufferings but then godliness hath much in it to help against troubles and sufferings Thirdly hence we come to see the reason why so many are overcome in a way of suffering and do yield and so basely Apostatize rather then they will go on in a way of suffering for God they have not an eye to look up to Heaven and to see all the glory that is revealed they do not know within themselves that there are such things as it is said of those in Heb. 10. 34. They knew within themselves what they had in Heaven they look upon these things as conceits and imaginations In Phil. 3. 18. the Apostle speaks of some that were enemies to the Cross of Christ but what were they They were men that minded earthly things but says the Apostle Our conversation is in Heaven What was the reason that Demas forsook Paul It was for this present world he was not acquainted with the powers of the world to come and therefore he forsook Paul rather then he would suffer in the cause of God with Paul Certainly those that fall off in the time of suffering are such as never had a taste of the powers to come or have lost it this dew of Heaven hath not faln upon their hearts to moisten them and therefore every suffering does scorch up the root If the root be kept moist though scorching heat come it does not dry up the plant but it is green and flouwere so able to suffer because they had their hearts so purged by faith Acts 15. 9. Take a man that was strong if he have many ill humors in his body all his strength is gone but if the Phisitian gives him something to purge out his ill humors though hee have no Cordials given him to strengthen him yet he is strong and he is able to endure and to do more then before So those spirits that are full of distempered humors that are unsound they can bear nothing undergo no difficulty but when there is any thing to purge the heart and make it clean then it is able to do or suffer more sin lies rotting at the heart and by rotting does weaken a rotten rag hath no strength to bear any thing so those that have old sins lie rotting they can bear nothing The spirit of power and of a sound minde is put together 2 Tim. 1. 7. now the hope of this glorious reward purges the heart and makes it sound and so carries it on in power Now put all these together and no marvel that Moses by having an eye to the recompence of reward could suffer so much many are afraid of suffering hard things in the cause of Christ but you see what will enable you to endure all Now I should apply this in many particulars First If there be such power in this to help to suffering then surely there is power in this to help to service you that know what these things mean be ashamed to complain of any difficulty in any service Secondly hence we see cause much to bless God that reveals such things to us to carry us through sufferings though godliness brings much suffering yet it brings that which will strengthen against sufrishing still It is the dew of Heaven the hope of the glory of Heaven that keeps our root moist and so we shall hold out in the time of suffering It is given as the cause of the seed in the stony ground not come to perfection Luke 8. 6. Because it wanted moisture many froward people in Religion prove like the stony ground they have not moisture this dew of Heaven lies not at their hearts And the reason why many do not hold out is because they want the Anchor of hope In a tempest if there be not an Anchor well fastened the ship will be carried upon the rocks or the sands Now Hope is the Anchor that must hold the soul in all affliction if that hold let storms and winds be never so loud yet the heart will be kept from being split upon the rocks and swallowed up in the sands but many have but a paper Anchor a conceited hope not a strong hope fastned upon the infallibility of God in his word and promises and
such a glorious reward such blessed things as these reserved for the people of God hence then let us dwell a little in admiring at the goodness of God at the infinite treasures of the riches of the glory of the grace of God towards the children of men Certainly Brethren great are the thoughts of God towards mankinde wonderful are his ways to this poor creature of his What is man says the Psalmist nay what is man indeed when as we consider what God hath done for him In Rom. 8. 31. after the Apostle had spoke of glorification and of the blessed estate of Gods people hereafter says the Apostle What shall we say to these things So seeing these things are so that are revealed What shall we say to these things O the heighth and length and depth and breadth of the loving kindeness of the Lord how unsearchable are his judgements shall we say How unsearchable are his mercies and his mercies past finding out O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought before the sons of men Psal 31. 19. If ever God wrought about any thing it was about the communication of his goodness to mankinde yea how great is it before the sons of men before us that have but a little made known to us How great is it before Angels then and before God himself In Psal 113. 6. it is said God humbleth to behold things that are done in heaven It is much that God should vouchsafe to behold any thing in heaven but now that God should vouchsafe to behold such a poor wretched creature as man is here upon earth and not to behold him onely but to work thus gloriously for him and that from all eternity to make it his great work to communicate himself to man O how does God humble himself here and how is his mercy and goodness to be admired and adored by the sons of men God is to be praised for the least of his mercies here but he is to be admired in the glory of his rich grace in heaven We read Psal 136. God is praised twenty five times for his mercies but the conclusion of all is Praise the God of Heaven for his mercies endure for ever his mercies as he is the God of heaven they are the glorious mercies indeed When the Scripture would set forth the excellency of a thing it expresseth it by heaven as the excellency of Christ He is the Lord from heaven 1 Cor. 15. 47. The excellency of God the God of heaven Jonah 1. 9. It is made the top of Christs glory that he is made higher then the heavens Heb. 7. 26. When Christ would shew the excellency of the bread of life he says It is bread from heaven the excellency of spiritual blessings is set out in this that they are blessings in heavenly places Eph. 1. Because gold is the most precious mettal therefore we lay it over other things not onely wood and cloth but silver it self so because heaven is so excellent the Lord gilds as it were his choicest blessings with this adjunct and all to shew the wonderful excellency there is in heaven it self Brethren God hath therefore revealed these things to us to that end that the glory of his grace might be great in the world God would have us have high and honorable and glorious thoughts of his goodness God would have the high praises of his grace to be in the hearts and in the mouthes of his Saints it is a great evil to have low and mean apprehensions of the glorious grace of God to mankinde you do not know what dishonor you bring to God in it If your hearts be not raised on high and enlarged in the thoughts of the free and glorious grace of God to mankinde it is an exceeding dishonor to him To see the riches of Gods glorious grace to the children of men it is a mighty work of faith and such a work as the soul is enabled to do onely by a mighty and glorious work of the holy Ghost in it indeed there is in the world a base and poor and mean apprehension of the grace of God in Christ such as does not work at all to raise and enlarge and glorifie the heart of a man but the true sight of the riches of Gods glorious grace it hath a mighty power to raise and enlarge and glorifie the hearts of the children of men while they are here as mark the expressions of the Apostle in his Prayer for the Ephesians 1 Ephes 17. 18. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him The eyes of your understanding being enlightned that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints not the inheritance of the Saints but the inheritance in the Saints and the glory of the inheritance and the riches of the glory and they must not onely have understanding to know this but the eyes of their understanding must be enlightened and this must come from the knowledge of Christ from the Spirit of wisdom and Revelation and from the Father of glory the God of our Lord Jesus Christ The sight of the excellency and riches of Gods grace here it is that that is the work of God shining into the heart 2 Cor. 4. 6. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ The unsearchable truths of the Gospel are in that which hath been revealed so far as we are able to wade into them The sight of Gods rich glory is that which the Princes of the world have not known it is that which requires a work of the Spirit of God Of that Spirit which searcheth the deep things of God O brethren if you had a true spiritual sight of the richness of the goodness of God in the way of his communication of happiness and glory to the children of men then you see into the great design of God into the deep counsels of his wisdom then God hath laid open his heart unto you God hath brought you into the treasures of his riches and given you a view of them the very secrets of Gods soul are imparted to you and blessed are your eyes that have seen these things if the sight of Gods glory in his grace towards mankinde be seen in true beauty and height and glory indeed there is no fear that they should do hurt to any soul it is true the apprehension of the grace of God in a natural way is the cause of security or presumption in many but there was never any in the world that was furthered in a way of security and presumption upon the spiritual sight and view they
for communion with a Church are fit for heaven and therefore the question may be true Who shall dwell in thy holy hill who shall be partakers of these things Blessed are they that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God But who are they It is necessary you should labor to make this sure because it is a matter so great and so glorious and not to lay the weight of that which is of infinite consequence upon poor weak slight and sandy foundations certainly we do not know what the grace of God towards mankinde is if we content our selves with slight hopes but if God hath enlightned your souls to know the reality and glory of them they wil never be at rest till you have got certain and infallible grounds for them In things of small consequence we are content with slight evidences but if a man have to deal in any business upon which his whole estate depends he would not have any man think it ill if he does make sure if he will have bonds and seals so we should make sure of heaven and of glory because it is such a great matter Some I suppose that meerly upon the hearing of the greatness of these things cannot but have some misgiving thoughts If these things be so great surely they concern not me they belong not to me Can I think in my conscience that I am that man or woman that God should have such great thoughts upon and should look upon me so as to make it the greatest design that he hath to glorifie the riches of his mercy upon me What work of Gods grace have I ever had upon me I would not have those that are affected with the greatness of Gods grace to mankinde think that these things do not belong to them because they are great But those that never had their hearts affected with the excellency and glory of Gods grace toward man when they hear of the greatness and glory of those things that are reserved for the Saints they may justly have their consciences misgive them and think surely they do not belong to them Canst thou that art a base drunkard that prizest nothing but a little drink and some outward things think that God should make it the greatest work that he hath in the world for to communicate the riches of his grace and goodness unto thee The greatness of these things may be enough to cast thee off As it is with a Beggar a Beggar comes and asks an alms if a man put his hand in his pocket and take out a peny or two pence he hath hope to have that but if he take out a piece of gold he hath no hope of that because it is so much So when men have but natural thoughts of heaven and happiness hereafter you think you might have that but when you come to have heaven opened to you and you see it is such a great and glorious thing your hearts may justly think it is not for us Cast a bone to a Dog he falls to it presently but set a joynt of meat before him well drest in a large dish and he goes away he dares not venture upon that So for these things in the world the ordinary favors of God these bones that God casts to Dogs you may fall upon them and think these are for you but when you come to the dainties and infinite treasures of God can such a swinish heart such a base filthy unclean spirit as yours is that never minded nothing but the satisfying of your base lusts think that these are for you you cannot but have misgiving thoughts and think either these things are but notions or else I have no part in them CHAP. LV. To whom the Recompence of reward appertains BUt how may any know that they shall have this glorious reward Carnal and sensual hearts because they have no principles of Gods grace to shew them the great things of God and the minde of God they think no man can know we must have hopes and hope well but who can know what God hath in heaven for us Those that are acquainted with the mysteries of God in the Gospel they know what Gods minde hath been from all eternity concerning them and what God will do for them to all eternity How do they know First would you know whether you shall have this Recompence of reward Have you made Moses Choice Certainly those that have made Moses Choice shall have Moses Reward What Moses Choice was you have heard Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Moses might have had honor and esteem enough in Egypt but he accounted afflictions with the people of God in Gods ways a great deal better He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches then all so I may have Christ and communion with his people let me be reproached and contemned and despised I care not Now do you finde this Though there was a time my heart was taken with the glittering shews of things here and I saw no excellency in the ways of God they were but notions to me at length God wrought mightily upon my soul and shewed me the vanity of all things that I accounted for glorious things and shewed me a beauty in Gods people and began to knit my heart to them so as I was willing to part with any thing to have communion with them and to venture all upon the bare word and promise of God for those glorious things that are revealed in it and this choice I have made and my soul is setled in it whatsoever befals me in this world hath there been such a work upon your souls that you have made Moses Choice then you shall have Moses Reward Secondly are you begotten unto the hope of these glorious things Whosoever shall be partaker of this glorious reward must be one that is born to it There are some dignities in the world that are got no way except they be born to them so if you have this reward you must be born to it 1 Pet. 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us unto a lively hope Whosoever hath the true hope of Heaven it is one that is begotten to it that is There must be a mighty work of God upon your hearts a new birth a regeneration in you otherwise there is nothing you have done or can do that can get this reward In Mat. 19. 28. says Christ unto his Disciples after Peter had spoken what they had left for him Ye that have followed me in the Regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory ye shall also sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel As if Christ should say Peter you have forsaken all and followed me but know the bare forsaking is not enough but you who
loth to leave these things because he did not know whither he went but a soul that knows what inheritance it shall have hereafter it is not loth to go hence Many are loth to dye because they have treasures in the world as those ten men said in Isa 41. 8. Slay us not for we have treasures in the field of wheat and of barley and of oyl but a godly man is willing to dye because he hath treasures in Heaven Keep open the eye of faith exercise faith to see God that is now sending for his childe home And look upon Christ as having that prayer granted Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be where I am by faith you shall see Heaven opened and the crown prepared and see God in his glory that you may express chearfulness of heart in going to take possession of that glorious recompence of reward behold the Angels of God coming to take you up into Heaven It was an expression of the honor of one Hugh Bishop of Lincoln that King John and his Nobles would carry him to the grave more honor shall the Saints have for God to send his Angels to convey them to that place of glory And further let you spirits work mightily after Heaven now when they draw near to it as the nearer any thing is to the center the more strongly and swiftly it moves As a stone that falls down from a high place it moves more swiftly when it is nearer the ground then when it was higher so at death the soul is nearer its center grace is changing to glory and when grace and glory is to meet there must need be a mighty working of heart and mighty shouts As it is reported of the Duke of Bulloin and his company when they went to Jerusalem as soon as his company saw the high Turrets they gave a mighty shout that the earth rang and so when the soul sees the turrets of this heavenly Jerusalem and when you see your selves ready to go and possess it what mighty workings and shoutings of your heart will there be And when you are to dye speak well of God and of the ways of godliness to all that are about you Christians should now labor so to live as there may appear a mighty difference between their deaths and the death of others whereas ordinarily such is the vanity and drossiness of the hearts of Christians in their lives as when they come to dye they are so heavy and sad as if no such things were prepared for them In 2 Pet. 1. 11. the Apostle having exhorted them before to adde one grace to another and to give all diligence to make their calling and election sure says he So an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Christians should labor so to live as when they come to dye they may not onely have an entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord administred unto them but that they may have an entrance administred unto them abundantly Many make shift to get to heaven but they have not an entrance administred abundantly As a Ship may make shift to get into harbor but with the Anchors lost and Cables rent and Sayls torn and the Masts broke another Ship comes in with the Sayls up and the Flags up and Trumpets sounding and comes bravely into Haven so much difference is sometime between true Christians some through carelesness and unbelief and sadness and sullenness of Spirit although they make shift with much ado to get into Heaven yet so as their anchor of hope was even gone and they had little or no comfort at all but those that have added one vertue to another and have been diligent to make their calling and election sure they come to Heaven with much glory and joy and that should be our care so to live in adding one grace to another that when we dye our deaths may be glorious Yet further from the consideration of this glory revealed which God hath prepared for his Saints we are to draw this meditation If Heaven be so glorious then we had need fill up the comfort of our lives by doing and getting as much good as we can while we live here that we may as much as possibly we can recompence that which we suffer in the staying from the possession of such glorious things reserved for us when we hear of such things as these are we cannot but think in our selves it were better for us many ways to be in Heaven this life is but a bondage to us while we are absent from such things and therefore we had need have something to recompence this bondage we had need do much good and get much good while we live to pay the charges of our lives what a tedious thing is it to us to live so much to sense as we must necessarily do here when we are heirs of such glorious things if we do not do much good and get much good here what have we to sweeten and recompence this tediousness If a man be from home and by his absence suffers much loss of what he might have had at home he is the more diligent and careful in his journey to get something that may recompence this loss so it should be with us It costs us dear as I may so speak to live in the world for it costs us the forbearance of such glorious things if we fill not up our lives with service for God what have we to pay our charges to countervail this that our lives here cost us CHAP. LVII The great things of eternity to be much sought after THe last Use is an Use of Exhortation to all now to set your hearts to seek after these great and blessed things of eternal life that have been opened O that now the hearts of people that have been wandring after other things might be brought in and set upon eternal life and Heaven Let every soul reason with it self Are there indeed such things to be had hath God such intentions to communicate himself thus to mankinde And am I the man or woman that shall lose all this that shall never be partaker of this O wo unto me that ever I was born In Luke 16. 16. The Law and the Prophets says Christ were till John but since that time the kingdom of God suffereth violence The Law and the Prophets did but darkly reveal the things of the Kingdom of God but St. John he did more clearly reveal the things of that Kingdom and since that time the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence O that it might be said concerning any man or woman that have heard this argument opened since that time that the recompence of reward was opened the kingdom of heaven hath suffered violence Surely there is strength enough in that which hath been said to draw forth the heart with violence after it I remember Plutarch reports in
the life of Camillus of the Gauls that after they had once a taste of the sweet wine of the grapes that grew in Italy they inquired in what Countrey such sweet wine was and after they understood where the grape of that wine grew they would never be at rest till they got to that Countrey where such sweet and pleasant things grew I have endeavored in the opening of this point to bring unto you some of the Clusters of Canaan and some of that wine which is to be drunk in the Kingdom of Heaven now if you account it to be sweet and good let not your hearts be at rest till you come at that Countrey till you come to enjoy the sweet and good of that Countrey It is reported of one Adrianus who seeing the Martyrs suffer such grievous things in the cause of Christ he asked what was that which caused them to suffer such things and one of them named that Text Eye hath not seen nor ear hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what is laid up for those that love God and the naming of that Text converted him and had such an effect as made him to profess Religion and so to profess it as to be a Martyr for it You have not onely one Text named but many have been used about this argument let not all be in vain We read in Mark 10. 17. of a yong man that came running and kneeled before Christ and asked him Good Master what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life O that God would move the hearts now of some yong ones that hearing what eternal life means they may now come running to get part in it that that activity and vigor of their youth may be exercised and spent about this What may I do that I likewise may be partaker of eternal life and of these glorious and blessed truths that are here revealed You that are in a poor condition in the world that have little here here are great things for your hearts to make after here are glorious things that are as obvious for you ac for the greatest in the world you cannot expect to have great matters in the earth but here you may expect to have great matters You that are old likewise though you have not been acquainted with the excellency of the Kingdom of God now bless God that you may yet further know more concerning it If a man come to know more of an inheritance that did befal him or of any outward gain then before he is glad that he lived to that time so bless God that you may know yet more concerning eternal life before this life be at an end What is it that your hearts are set upon There are none but their hearts are set upon some good that they apprehend to be good Now what is that good Certainly there is an eminency of all good contained in this It was a charge of God unto Baruch that we read of in Jer. 45. ult Seekest thou great things for thy self Seek them not for I will bring evil upon all flesh and that which I have planted I will pluck up The argument runs thus Seekest thou great things for thy self in any outward matter do not seek them for I am about to bring evil upon my people the time of publique calamity is coming and doest thou seek great things for thy self But when we are about this argument the glory of the Kingdom of God Doest thou seek great things for thy self We cannot say Seek them not God would have his people seek glorious things for themselves seek them to the utmost that possibly you can So follow these things as not to be satisfied with any thing under these God would have his servants to be of such spirits as though content with the least mercies they do enjoy to acknowledge themselves unworthy of them yet not to be satisfied with the greatest things in the world for their portion What will a reprobates portion serve you Certainly the glory of the world if you had it all it were but the portion of a reprobate What will a Dogs portion satisfie you All the things of the world are but Dogs meat so the Apostle calls them in Phil. 3. I account all things in the world as dross and dung or dogs meat and will this satisfie you Is there nothing else for you to seek after First seek the Kingdom of God says Christ and the righteousness of it let that be your first endeavor Strive to enter into the strait gate though it be never so strait yet if it be the way unto life and unto these things strive to enter We have not spoken more then that is real It is a saying of one Neither Christ nor Heaven can be hyperbolized that is there cannot be more said of the excellency of Christ and of Heaven then it is in its self and therefore do not think any thing that hath been spoken is an hyperbole but a real expression of some little glimpse of the glory of the recompence of reward It may be some of your hearts when you hear much of the wrath of God against sin and the dreadfulness of Gods displeasure your hearts are ready to rise and belk and these are hard things and hard sayings and who can bear them but now you have not heard so much concerning that but you have heard of the goodness of God and of the glory of God and of the riches of the grace of God and of the wonderful thoughts that God hath for the everlasting good of mankinde how do your hearts work now Shall your hearts stir when you hear Gods wrath and when you hear of Gods grace shall not your hearts stir then If God does intend good to any soul he will cause that soul to see into the reality and excellency of these things and that all things should be neglected in comparison in seeking after these Consider that God hath given unto you natures capable of these glorious things God might have made you worms or bruit beasts and there would have been an end of you presently you had not been any way capable of these things but God hath made you of such a nature such creatures as ye are capable of the highest excellency that ever any creature that God made was capable of and therefore being of such a nature of such a large extent it concerns you to seek after those things which might fill it they are not little things that can fill large capacities now mans nature an immortal soul is of a large capacity and when the time shall come that God shall discover to any soul what it was capable of how infinitely will it be confounded in it self when it shall know what poor things it sought after and minded Men live here in the world as though they were capable of no other happiness but meat and drink and clothes and
they bear them hard weather tryes what soundness and health there is in the body so afflictions and troubles what soundness the Spirit hath Wooden or earthen vessels if they be set to the fire empty they are soon riven and break but not when they are filled with liquor so empty hearts when they feel the heat of afflictions they soon break but if filled with grace and the comforts of the holy Ghost they hold sound When a mans cloaths are on the deformities of his body cannot be seen but when he is stripped naked then all appears In Summer time when the trees are covered with leaves you cannot see the knots and rifts and mossiness of the tree but in winter when the leaves are gone then you may see all Hence the Hebrew word that is used for Winter comes from a word that signifies disgrace and shame because winter takes away the glory and beauty of the earth and puts a kinde of shame and disgrace upon it The deformities and distempers of mens hearts are much discovered in the winters of their affliction although there was much glory and beauty on their profession before yet now they appear most vile and base We read Luke 2. 35. That Christ was appointed for the fall of many and for a rock of offence that is in regard of the sufferings that should follow upon the profession of the Gospel and mark what God ayms at in this it is that the thoughts of mens hearts might be revealed there are many secret thoughts secret haunts of evil in mens hearts secret windings and turnings of mens spirits that are not revealed until then when the cause of God and our own ends come in competition when they must part one from the other then is the tryal what we are as when a serving-man follows two Gentlemen you know not whose he is until they part one from the other as we read Ezek. 21. 21. the King of Babylon stood at the parting way at the head of the two ways to use divination the best divining of men is at the parting way although the times of afflictions in regard of the darkness of them one way be called the night of afflictions yet they have light in them and may be called a day in regard of the discovery they make of a man what he is In prosperity a man is apt to judge amiss of himself not onely because ignorance deceiveth the minde but because of the present contentment he hath he is unwilling to be disquieted with any thoughts of disparagement Adversity though it be a hard Tyrant yet it is a true Judge though it speaketh roughly yet it speaketh truly We read Deut. 8. 2. that God led his people through the wilderness to humble them and to prove them and to know what was in their hearts God knew before but he would make themselves and others to know I read of Nazianzen walking by the Sea shore seeing how the sea wrought in a storm that it cast up light and empty things but not things solid and heavy he applies this to afflictions and says that light and empty spirits are tossed up and down by them and keep not their constancy but solid spirits are like the rock that stands firm and abides the same men do not know their own hearts they finde their hearts otherwise when troubles come then ever they thought before they never thought they had had so much pride so much impatience so much unbelief they thought before they could have submitted to the hand of God that they could have born more then is now upon them with patience and meekness but now they finde their wretched hearts murmure repine fret vex now they finde corruptions stir exceedingly they had thought they could have depended upon God in straits but now they finde their hearts sinking they finde they have base shifting hearts When the fire comes to green wood there comes out abundance of watery stuff that was not discerned before so when the fire of affliction comes much evil runs out that you saw not that neither you nor others thought to be in your hearts before When a Pond is empty then appears the mud and the filth and Toads in the bottom so when God empties men when he takes from them his blessings then much filth many crawling lusts appear that did not before sometimes more grace appears in afflictions then did before some of Gods people are low in their own eyes they suspect and fear themselves they think their graces will fail them in trouble that their peace is false yet when it pleases God to bring them into trouble they finde more peace more assurance more strength then ever they did before or then they thought they should have done never such sweet joy never such full assurance never such use of faith and patience and love as in the sorest and strongest afflictions This indeed is very rare there are few that finde more good in their hearts in afflictions then they thought they had before but where this is it may be a sweet seal to the soul of the sincerity of it ever after When Corn stands in the field we may guess what it may yield but we cannot know fully till it come to the flail and then it yields sometime more though often less then we made account of When grapes come to be pressed then is discerned what is in them Fourthly an afflicted condition gives opportunity for much exercise of grace it calls forth whatsoever grace there is in the heart to the exercise of it Rev. 13. 10. St. John speaking of the sufferings of the Saints Here says he is the faith and the patience of the Saints here is matter for their faith and patience to be exercised about this calls for the working of their faith and patience and so for other graces as humility self-denyal love to God Physick stirs up natural heat and makes it active so afflictions the souls Physick What mighty prayers and lively stirrings of spirit are there many times in afflictions Esay 26. 16. They pour out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them our prayers do but drop out before now they are poured out and one work of heart do's so follow another that there is no intermission it is all but one prayer they have poured out not prayers but a prayer and it is observable the word that here is translated prayer is a word that is used for inchantment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because such words were conceived to be full of efficacy containing much in a little room So the prayer now is not an empty thing but full of efficacy containing much in a few words The graces of Gods Spirit are the most lovely things in the world in Gods eyes and therefore God delights much to see the exercise of them When spices are beaten then they send forth their fragrant smell so when Gods servants are in afflictions then their graces send forth their
befal me there save that the holy Ghost witnesseth in every city saying that bonds and afflictions abide me It is our wisdom thus to make an account of afflictions that when they come they may be no other then were expected before As is reported of Anaxagoras that when news came to him of the death of his Son and it was thought he would have been much troubled at it he answered I begat him mortal so when any troubles befal us we should entertain them with these thoughts I knew my condition was to be an afflicted condition I entred upon the ways of godlines upon these terms to be willing to be in an afflicted condition this is Gods ordinary way towards his people it is Gods mercy it is no worse I expect yet greater tryals then these If we make use of the Scriptures foretelling troubles beforehand we cannot for shame complain when we meet with those we acknowledge we were foretold of It is a good expression Augustine hath in one of his Epistles to Victorianus We must not be so contrary to our selves as to believe what we read and yet to complain when the same things are fulfilled If we make account of evils aforehand we may have time to gather together the forces of our mindes which being united are strong otherwise they will come upon us when our strength is scattered and so be very grievous unto us and likely to prevail against us Those evils says Seneca that others overcome by a long time suffering as being used to them the wise man overcomes by thinking before hand Secondly the rule of Christ that we have Matt. 16. 26. is of great use If any will follow me let him deny himself and so take up his cross Where self is renounced the cross is easily born it is self that makes the cross pinch things puft up with wind break when they come to the fire so those who are puft up and filled with self the soul emptied of its self is onely fit to suffer there is a six fold self that must be denyed First self-opinion We must be willing to lie quietly under the truth to be convinced and to be guided by it Secondly self-counsels and self reasonings must be denyed we must take heed of conferring with flesh and blood as it was the care of Saint Paul Gal. 1. 16. immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood if he had begun to do it he had been in danger Thirdly self-excellencies our parts our priviledges our credits and all those things that are great in our own eyes and that make us great in the eyes of the world Fourthly self-will We must not think it so grievous a thing to have our wills crossed we must not expect to have our conditions brought to our wills and therefore it is our wisdom whatsoever our condition be that we bring our wills unto them As it is reported of Socrates that when the Tyrant threatned death unto him he answered He was willing nay then says he You shall live against your will he answers again Nay whatsoever you do with me it shall be my will How much more ought Christians to have their wills bow to the holy and blessed will of God in every thing the providence of God discovers his will as well as his word Fifthly self-comforts Those who give liberty to themselves to satisfie themselves to the utmost although in lawful comforts will be unfit to suffer hardship when God shall call thereunto Tertullian hath such an expression in his Treatise de cultu foeminarum I fear that neck that is used to pearl chains that it will not give it self to the sword Sixthly self-ends must be denied we must aim at God and not at our selves in all our ways and then how easie will it be for us to bear crosses considering that Gods ends do go on though our ends be crossed Thirdly be sure to lay a good foundation in a through work of humiliation the more thou art willing to bear Gods hand in the work of humiliation for sin the lighter will all the burthens of afflictions be unto thee the seed that fell upon the stony ground withered and although for a while it was received with joy yet when tribulation and persecution ariseth by and by he is offended Mat. 13. 21. Mark the expression of the Holy Ghost there by and by he is presently offended and all because there was not depth of earth there was not a through work of humiliation We read Acts 9. 16. that God would shew S. Paul what great things he must suffer for his Names sake and how did God prepare his heart You shal finde in the former part of the Chapter that God smote him down to the ground his heart was smote lower then his body he comes trembling and astonished before the Lord saying Lord what wilt thou have me to do He was three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink this was a great preparation of his heart to those great things he suffered afterwards You think the burthens of afflictions great because you never felt what the weight and burthen of sin meant I dare pawn my life for that soul who constantly exerciseth it self in the work of humiliation for sin who burthens it self with the weight of its sins and is willing to lie under it for the further breaking of spirit that it shall be able to endure crosses and stand under strong afflictions and this must needs be so First because the soul is acquainted with the sense of an evil infinitely greater then any evil it can meet withal in afflictions the sense whereof must needs swallow up the sense of lesser evils as those who are acquainted with the pains of the stone and strangury and other dreadful diseases account lesser pains which yet are very grievous unto others as nothing Secondly a soul exercised in the work of humiliation by it is put under the power of Gods soveraignty dreadful authority and infinite majesty it is not man that can terrifie that soul from duty that lies under the power of these Thirdly this burthen of sin felt in the work of humiliation mortifies those inward lusts puls down the strength of them which are so ready to rise against and withdraw the heart from the truths and ways of God Fourthly this soul knows how dear comfort is if it hath any comfort it cost dear before it was got and therefore it will not easily be parted withal Fiftly where conscience by this is throughly wounded and deeply struck it cannot easily gather any such film upon it as not to remain tender but it soon feels the evil yea it is sensible of the danger of the least sin Sixthly if ever God hath manifested any love in Christ unto it the souls love to God and Christ must needs be exceeding great Fourthly be careful to preserve your inward peace
prepare him for the burning of his whole body A patient bearing of less troubles for the present will prepare the heart for the bearing of greater afterwards Seventhly enjoy all your comforts of prosperity as from God and God in them and them all for God First from God therefore whatsoever he takes away it is but his own and what are we that we must always have comfort and content who are poor beggerly creatures who have nothing of our own Secondly enjoy God in all the enjoyment of God in all is a mystery the world is not acquainted with onely a gracious heart knows what it is it looks at all creatures but as the pipe of conveyance the sweet and comfort and blessing is God in them therefore in any affliction that befals so long as God may be enjoyed the comfort and sweet and blessing of all is not lost although the creature be lost Thirdly all for God Why then should not God have the glory of all his own way We in the general acknowledge God should have glory from all that we are or have but we would have him have it our way so as may stand with our ease with our liberties peace and ends but God must have the honor of all that way that is good in his own eye And againe if all we have be for God then when he is honored by any thing we do enjoy it hath its end and perfection a comfort is then the most perfect comfort when God hath the glory of it when it is resigned to him either in a way of service or suffering as he calls for it And lastly if our comforts be enjoyed for God then our hearts are not let out to any of them further then leads us to God and if so then when God calls for the parting with them in a suffering way the enjoyment of them cannot lead to God any further but would draw off the spirit from God and therefore such a heart is willing now to part with them it is not grievous to it to leave them because the excellency of them is not now in the enjoyment of them but in the parting with them Eighthly be often renewing your resignations of all unto God and your covenant with him to be at his dispose that so when any trouble comes at any time this resignation of heart and renewal of covenant may be fresh upon your spirits the soul will be ready to suffer much if it be called to it when an actual resignation and renewing of covenant hath been a little before and the power of it is now fresh upon the heart sometimes immediately after a day of solemn humiliation where this hath been the soul thinks then it could do or suffer any thing but in a little time except this be renewed again the heart grows drossie and cleaves to present things and mingles it self with them the often renewing of this keeps the heart very loose from the creature a thing that hangs loose from another may soon be taken off from it but if it cleaves to it it is not taken off without difficulty it oftner rends in the taking off thus it is when the heart cleaves to any creature-content Ninthly lay up provision against an evil day There is a threefold provision we should treasure up to prepare us for our afflictions First treasure up the consolations of God that he affords upon occasion that at any time you feel in the performance of duties in the exercises of graces in the use of Ordinances Secondly treasure up the experiences of Gods ways towards you and his gracious dealings with you in former straights Thirdly treasure up soul-supporting soul-quickning soul-reviving soul-comforting promises and that of several kindes sutable to several afflictions for thou knowest not what kinde of afflictions thou mayest meet with Tenthly labor much to strengthen every grace it is strong grace that is suffering grace a strong wing will flye against the wind as it is said of the horse Job 33. because he hath strength he mocketh at fear and is not affrighted neither turneth he back for the sword ver 22. A candle will hold light in the house but if we go abroad in the air there is need of a torch there must be a stronger light there weak grace may serve turn to uphold us now but in time of afflictions it had need be strong a little grace will soon be spent then as a candle is soon spent when it stands in the wind Lastly set much before you the example of Christ and Gods people who have endured very hard things In the example of Christ consider first who it was that suffered the Son of God who was God blessed for ever the glory of the Father when we suffer base worms worthy to be trodden under foot suffer Secondly what he suffered even the wrath of God and the curse of the Law he was made a curse in the abstract as the Scripture speaks which was another maner of thing then any of our afflictions Thirdly for whom he suffered it was for us vile worms wretched sinful creatures who were enemies to him we suffer for God who is infinitely blessed to whom we owe all we are or have Fourthly how freely he suffered it was of his own accord his own free grace moved him to it he laid down his life none could take it from him it is not in our liberty whether we will suffer or no we are under the power of another Fifthly how meekly he suffered he was as a sheep before the shearer his suffering no way disquieted his spirit but it kept in a sweet quiet frame in the middest of all Sixthly consider how his strength is with you in your sufferings And lastly how he is honored in them He strives with us in the combate he joyns with us in the fight of our agony he crowns and is crowned says Cyprian Bernard would have us never to let go out of our mindes the thoughts of a crucified Christ Let these says he be meat and drink unto you let them be your sweetness and consolation your honey and your desire your reading and your meditation your contemplation your life death and resurrection Would you learn obedience would you learn contempt of honors would you see the highest patience set a suffering Christ before you Sureus reports of a noble Earl Elzearius when his wife wondred at his exceeding patience under fore afflictions he answers her thus What good will it be to be angry and impatient certainly none at all but I will open my heart unto you you know sometimes my heart is ready to rise with indignation against such as wrong me but I presently turn me to the thoughts of the wrongs offered to Christ and I say thus to my self desiring to imitate him Although my servants should pull my beard and strike me on the face these were
secrets of all hearts shall be opened of being shy of the ways of Religion because of affliction many when they see they must suffer in those ways although they be convinced of them yet they are ready to say with Augustine as he confesses of himself I do not love to pass through those straits it is too hard and narrow away for them If such thoughts work in thee at any time take these considerations for the rebuking of thy self and the raising of thy heart to a more Christian magnanimity of spirit First at what a low rate doest thou prize the ways of God the glory of God that such and such more low comforts must not be laid down for them that such light afflictions must not be endured for the maintenance of them Secondly consider if Christ had stood upon such terms as to have said I could be content indeed that these poor creatures might be delivered from misery but seeing such grievous evils must be suffered for their deliverance let them perish I am not willing to be their deliverer upon such hard terms What had become of us if Christ had reasoned thus if this argument had prevailed with him against us as it prevails with us against him Thirdly thou who art so shy of suffering mayest be forced to suffer in spight of thy heart and what a sad thing will that be to thee What a sad thing was it to Cranmer after he had recanted for fear of sufferings yet he was forced to suffer what a darkning was it to this spirit his cause and name Mr. Fox relates of a Smith in King Edwards time who was the means of conversion of a friend of his who in Queen Maries time was cast into prison whereupon he sends to this Smith who had been the means of his conversion wondring that he hears not of his apprehending and imprisonment this Smith sends him word again that it was true that he had taught him such and such things and those things were certain truths but for his part he could not burn but a while after the house of this Smith was on fire and he was burnt in it God made him burn whether he would or no and so may he make you suffer whether you will or no who refuse to suffer for his truth Fourthly whatsoever prosperity thou enjoyest when God calls thee to suffer for him is cursed unto thee if thou blessest thy self in thy estate thy liberty thy name thy life that thou enjoyest having avoided the way of suffering that God called thee unto thou deceivest thy self for there is no blessing in them they are all accursed unto thee Fifthly all duties of Religion that now thou performest out of a suffering condition are not now accepted of God thou must not think now having avoided suffering for Gods truth that because thou art willing to perform duties to be diligent in some service for God that God now accepts of thee No it was another work that God called thee unto a work of suffering seeing thou hast refused this do what thou canst God casts it as dung in thy face and regards it not this is a sad condition What joy can such a man have of his life if he hath an enlightned conscience Sixthly what intolerable pride and delicacy is this in thee that thou wilt not venter the loss of any thing the enduring of any thing for God and his truth the least truth of God is worth more then heaven and earth and what is thy ease thy liberty thy name thy life to it Thou art too delicate O Christian says Tertullian who must have pleasure in this world Seventhly How vile is the unbelief of thy heart who darest not trust God with thy name estate liberty How canst thou trust God with thy soul thy eternal estate How lightly doest thou regard all the faithfulness the mercy goodness wisdom power of God working for his people in their suffering conditions Of what little account are all these gracious blessed promises of the Lord for their encouragement herein thy base shyness and cowardise of spirit is such as if there were no God no faithfulness mercy wisdom power to help as if there were no promise to support and relieve thee Eighthly there is a necessity of thy miscarrying in the ways of eternal life for if God hath so ordered things in his providence as that such ways must be in ways of affliction and thy heart cannot bear affliction how is it possible but that thou must needs miscarry in them It is a woeful thing to have a mans heart opposite to Gods order in any thing but much more in things of infinite consequence if afflictions be a block to thee in the way of life you must have this block Ninthly How little love is there in thine heart to God when thou art so shy of any thing to be suffered for God love rejoyces in suffering for the beloved The avoiding hell and the getting Heaven are no great things says Chrysostome where the love of God is then surely the avoiding outward troubles and the enjoyment of outward comforts would be no great matter to us if the love of God were in us Tenthly Did you never suffer affliction in your ways of sin and will you not now be willing to suffer as much in the ways of God Shall your sins have a greater testimony of respect to them from you then God himself Art thou nor confounded at the mention the thought of such a thing as this so unreasonable so vile Eleventhly What honor should God have in the world where would there be any witness to truth against the rage and malice of devil and wicked men if all should do as thou doest If there be any Christian blood left in thee if any spirit worthy of thy profession be ashamed of thy baseness this way and be not so shy of afflictions Secondly when thou art under afflictions let there be an humble contented frame of spirit as beseems a Christian seeing thou art now under an Ordinance of God take heed of the least murmuring repining against God as if he were a hard Master or as if his ways were hard and burthensom because of the afflictions thou meetest withal when thy spirit begins any way to rise in such workings charge thy soul to be silent unto God it is a great shame for a Christian not to be well skilled in that art instructed in that mystery of Christian contentation Say with thy Savior Shall not I drink of that cup my Father hath given me to drink It is Gods appointment that his people should be in an afflicted estate in this world it is the cup of my Father and shall not I quietly and contentedly drink of that cup Now thou hast an opportunity to manifest the power and excellency of thy grace to shew what thy grace can enable thee to do strength of reason
that they have here here is their All. This is as it were their Kingdom They are upon their own dunghil Secondly God hath time enough hereafter to torment them to make sin bitter unto them and therefore he does not care though they have their pleasure and go on for a while in the enjoyment of their delights And God hath time enough to glorifie his Saints to give them everlasting consolation and therefore although here they be cut short of the pleasures of the flesh God does not regard that Thirdly God hereby would shew to all the world his own fulness and how little he esteems of these carnal things they are but bones therefore he gives them to dogs they are but swill even the very cream of them therefore he lets swine have them Luther in his Comment upon Genesis cap. 21. hath a notable vilifying expression of the great things of the world which God gives to wicked men The Turkish Empire says he as great as it is it is but a crust of bread which the rich master of the family casts to dogs When retainers when dogs have such allowance it is a sign of a great deal of plenty in the house Fourthly God grants pleasure and prosperity in just judgement to them to ripen their sin to harden them in it The Sun-shine of prosperity ripens the sins of the wicked apace and so fits them for destruction this hardens them against the ways of God it makes them bless themselves in their way They spend their days in wealth therefore they say to God depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways What is the Almighty that we should serve him There is no truer misery then false joy says Bernard There is a great difference between the prosperity of the wicked and that which the godly have God carries his people when he exalts them as the Eagle her yong upon her wings he exalts them to safety according to that expression that we have Job 5. 11. that those which mourn may be exalted to safety but when God exalts the wicked he lifts them up as the Eagle lifts up her prey in her talons he lifts them up to destroy them It was a speech of Augustine upon the 26 Psalm Many are miserable by loving hurtful things but they are more miserable by having them it is not what men enjoy but the principle from whence it comes that makes them happy Fifthly God is a patient God and in the day of his patience even the wicked are suffered to enjoy their hearts desire Obj. But it may be said God is patient towards his people and yet they are afflicted Answ Those afflictions that come upon Gods people may better stand with the glory of patience then if the same things should be upon the wicked because in the afflictions of the Saints there is no revenge there is no hatred in them but if God should inflict the same things upon the wicked they would come out of revenge against them and hatred of them and so there would not be such manifestation of that glory of patience that God hath to manifest here in this world Hence let Gods people learn not to be greedy in their desires after outward pleasures they are but the portion of dogs and reprobates It is true godly men may have them but never as their portion God hath afforded you better pleasures hath he not reserved better things for you As when we enjoy outward prosperity we must not bless our selves in it because it is that which wicked men have so when we are afflicted our hearts must not be dejected because we are onely deprived of that which God gives most many times to those that he hates most God will keep his people from being prevailed against by this temptation David was in this temptation Psal 73. but he says verse 23. that God held him by his right hand When men see how the world lives in pleasure and the Saints are afflicted they are in danger of stumbling but God holds his own by his right hand that they fall not Secondly let us learn not to envy the men of the world who live in pleasures who wallow in the sensual delights of this life The reason why they take so much delight in such things is because they know no better they seek after no better Ambrose in his first Book de officiis brings in godly men objecting thus Why do the wicked rejoyce why do they riot it out why do not they labor as well as I He answers They have not put in for the crown yea says he if you object thus the wicked may answer you as the spectators in their Olympiack games if those that labor and wrastle in them should call the spectators and say Come you and labor and strive here as well as we the spectators would answer You without us shall get the glory of the crown if you overcome Besides there is little cause we should envy all their jollity they must give an account for it and dear When a Soldier was to dye for taking a bunch of grapes against the Generals command and going to execution he went eating his grapes one of his fellows rebuked him What are you eating your grapes now The poor man answers I pray thee friend do not envy me these grapes for they cost me dear so they did indeed for they cost him his life and so will these vain delights of wicked men they will cost them their lives And yet further consider ere long things will turn Gods people shall have pleasure and the world shall have afflictions Affliction did I say nay Misery with torment time is at hand when it shall be said to every wicked man Son remember in thy life time thou hadst pleasure and my servants who walked faithfully with me had affliction but now thou art tormented and they are comforted Time is at hand when that Scripture shall be fulfilled Esay 65. 13 14. Behold my servants shall eat and ye shall be hungry my servants shall drink and ye shall be thirsty my servants shall rejoyce and ye shall be ashamed my servants shall sing for joy of heart and ye shall cry for sorrow of heart and shall howl for vexation of spirit Thirdly let not wicked men bless themselves in the enjoyment of their pleasures you have no other then thousands have had before you who are now in Hell If that you have were of any great worth you might be sure you should not have it if you knew how the Lord brings about your destruction by your pleasures you would have little cause to rejoyce in them Haman rejoyced when Esther invited him rather then others to the banquet but if he had known that in his banquet there was a snare laid for his life his heart would have faln it would have been but a sad banquet to him certainly there is a
quickly gone Christs sufferings both in himself and in his Church is but drinking of the brook not a spring of water for perpetuity Besides the afflictions of Gods people are in their season it is now the very season to be afflicted and shall we be troubled to have affliction in its season this time of our life is appointed for this end it is our winter time will a man be troubled to see frost and snow in winter time It is better to see frost and snow in winter time then to see the corn blooming or earing in January and February so while we are in the body the winter of affliction is in season it is not the time to be delivered from affliction now that is hereafter and therefore why should we be troubled that we meet with affliction Lastly these afflictions that you say will discourage they will bring forth a gracious end they are but as a dark entry into your Fathers house a dirty lane to a Palace do but shut your eyes and there will be a change and as a Martyr said Though we have an ill breakfast we shall have a good dinner Now put all these together what great matter is there to discourage any from the ways of God But now come to the other part A gracious heart discourses of the ways of sin what if I should choose the pleasure of sin and should go on that way 1. If I go on in those ways I shall be sure to go on in a way of direct opposition against the God of all the world and so treasure up to my self the wrath of an infinite God And is it nothing for a poor creature to go on in a way of opposition and enmity to an infinite Diety how much better were it for me if I had never been born then thus to do 2. I shall be sure to have no peace in those ways in my own spirit in conscience I shall have within me a conscience galling girding and lashing of me the worm gnawing of my heart my conscince continually damping of my soul telling of me Surely I am not in those ways an immortal soul should walk in I shall never have any pleasure but when my conscience shall be stopped and what cursed pleasure is this for a man that he can never have it but onely when he can stop his conscience if his conscience had but the mouth open he could not have pleasure and all the pleasure that he hath he must steal it at that time when his conscience is asleep he can never have it upon other terms if a mans conscience be enlightned and awaked it is impossible to have pleasure in the ways of sin it is poor living when a servant or childe can get no victuals but as they steal it when the master or mistress is asleep or is on the to side and so it is poor pleasure that the world hath when it must be stoln when conscience is asleep What good is it for a man to have a broken leg and a silken stocking and what great content is it for a man to have outward pleasure and inward dampings of spirit 3. Again in these ways of sin as I shall have no peace so do what I can I shall have some trouble in spight of my heart let me go on in the ways of sin as I will and seek for my contentment I shall have some trouble in spight of me and how grievous will that trouble be that shal come with the curse of God and the wrath of God and the hatred of God what shall I have to support me in trouble A little water in a leaden vessel is heavy so a little trouble in an evil conscience 4. And in these ways of sin I shall be sure to be a stranger from God never to know what any communion with God means go up and down in the world as a forlorn forsaken creature of God that when as others of Gods people have communion with God and with Christ and have the light of Heaven and the joy of Angels I shall be set to my swill 5. And as for my eternal estate I shall hazard to miscarry therein and oh my soul dost know what it is to miscarry to eternity Surely there need be some great matter that should procure the least peace to a man in the way of sin much more to procure delight to a man But you will say You take sin at the worst side at first sin hath a delightful side and that will please you and allure you though the other would not therefore let us see the fairest side of sin a gracious heart will look on every side The pleasures that you speak of what are they are they not fleshly onely reach to the sensual part What must God Heaven eternal life be neglected for these What shall that body that must within a while be gnawn on by worms and lie rotting as a filthy carcase now be so regarded now have such content given to it as all that is to be had in God and Jesus Christ must be neglected for it When thou shalt hereafter at the great Day meet with this wretched carcase of thine and see how vile it is what confusion will be upon thee when thou shalt think Was this the vile carcase that must have such content for which God and Heaven and all the good in Christ is now lost for ever Secondly it hath been the care of all Gods dearest servants to keep down their bodies to deny contentment to the flesh and wilt thou give it all the content thou canst Daniel was afraid of taking liberty to his flesh in eating the Kings meat and the time when he had his 〈◊〉 heavenly visions he ate no pleasant bread neither came flesh nor wine in his mouth neither did he anoint himself at all You know the mean provision that Iohn the Baptist the Forerunner of Christ had his fare was locusts and wilde honey and yet there was not a greater born of a woman before him St. Paul was careful to beat down his body to club it down even till it was black and blew so the word signifies Timothy although he was sickly yet would not take liberty to drink a little wine but onely water till Paul wrote to him and in that liberty there was but a little granted and that for his stomacks sake and his often infirmities not for his lusts sake and to maintain riotousness If I should tell you of the mean provision for the flesh that many of the Ancients who were the most worthy instruments of God the most eminent in all true excellency were contented withal and that before the superstition of Popery prevailed it would be even incredible unto you Basil in an Epistle to Iulian mentions the mean fare he and others with him lived withal he ate no flesh they had need of no Cook the leaves of plants and a little bread
if they lived the onely brave lives but 2 Pet. 2. 13. they are called spots and blemishes for they are indeed base the most base spirited men that live These do most vilely lowre mans nature they are infinitely beneath the happiness of an immortal soul The Heathen accounted a life of pleasure a life of beasts What man would not rather dye says Tully cited by Lactantius then to be turned into the form of a beast though he should retain the minde of a man How much more miserable is it for one to be in the form of a man and to have the minde of a beast yea of a wilde beast Guliel Parisiensis calls luxury a scab and says the salt-water of tribulation must purge it and he brings in Augustine giving the same name unto it confessing that he was wont to delight in the scab of his lusts This scab says Parisiensis makes the minde of man ulcerous running with filthy putrified stuff and abominable to God above that that any man would think which no bodily filth does Sixthly The evil of nourishing of all maner of wickedness All sin in Scripture is called flesh and the work of the flesh because the pleasure of the flesh is the cause of so much sin in us When Christ spake of the servant who gave himself to riotousness in his Masters absence he calls him the evil servant There are swarms of all maner of evils in sensual hearts they are the fennish grounds that breed filthy poysonsom creatures so all venemous-lusts are bred and nourished by these Job 40. 21. it is said the Behemoth lieth in the fens which Guliel Parisiensis applies to the Devil in sensual hearts he lies in moist places says he that is in those whose spirits are moistened by their lusts Wherefore it is said of the unclean spirit That he walks in dry places seeking rest and found none But says he men giving themselves to pleasures they seek what they can to give the Devil rest in their hearts and to keep off all that may hinder his quiet Flies and Wasps use to come to honey and sugar and such sweet things The Devil who is called Beelzebub that is the God of flyes loves to be in souls glutted with sensual pleasures yea swarms of Devils love to follow such Hence such as these are most desperate enemies unto godliness contemners and scorners of all Religion That which is honest is vile and contemptible to him who makes too much of his body says a Heathen Where pleasures reign vertue connot be says another When the Jews accuse Christ of the worst their malice could devise they call him a Wine-bibber Seventhly they likewise harden in all maner of evil when men are heat in sensual delights their hearts are so glutted that they never think of their pain It is observed that when the people of Israel had got Aaron to make the Calf and they set down to drink and rose up to play they offered burnt-offerings but no sin-offerings were thought of These beset the heart and make it even uncapable of any spiritual good St. Paul says of the Widows that live in pleasures they are dead while they live 1 Tim. 5. 6. Let us eat and drink to morrow we shall dye Why do you say to morrow says Chrysostom ye are dead already We read Ezek. 47. 11. that when the waters of the sanctuary flowed the miry places could not be healed How seldom does the waters of the Sanctuary heal miry souls Augustine says of such As the earth by too much rain becomes nothing but mire and dirt so as it is made unfit for tillage so these Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart Hos 4. 11. Who are the most desperate enemies to the Cross of Christ but such whose God is their belly Phil. 3. 18 19. Who are they that cannot cease from sin but such as sport themselves with their own deceivings while they feast amongst you having eyes full of adultery 2 Pet. 2. 13 14. Who are those that are wholly void of the Spirit and even uncapable of it such as walk after their own ungodly lusts and sensual Jude 18 19. Who are they that say to God Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways but such as take the Timbrel and Harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ and spend their days in wealth Job 21. 11 12 13. Pleasures do not so much delight the flesh as they endanger the soul therefore better it is a great deal to be preserved in brine then to rot in honey to be fed upon the salt marshes and short commons and to live then to be glutted in rank pastures and so fatted up for destruction And thus you see the evil of them whereupon Chrysostom in one of his Sermons concerning the Martyrs The joys of this present world are to be feared by Christians and certainly so they are rather then to be desired Sixthly if there were not so much evil yet they are vain flashy things there is no reality in them they are all res nihili things of nought The Heathen could say Believe me true joy is no light thing but what windy frothy contents are these pleasures to the flesh do they leave any sweetness behinde them after they are over as it was wont to be said of Plato's feast his discourse of Phylosophy at the table though the chear was mean was sweet divers days after soul-delights leave a sweet relish in the spirit after their acts are past but the day after fleshly pleasures what is left but bitter humors in the body and a sting in conscience what wise man can please his thoughts after his pleasures are over in thinking what pleasures he hath had much less will any man of wisdom glory in what he hath eat or drunk or that he hath filled his sensual appetite with all the delights he could Who can at night after a day of sports and fulness of delights to the flesh bless God from his soul that he hath had a day so full of pleasure in his flesh Plutarch in his Morals hath an excellent discourse upon this argument to prove that according to the Rules of Epicurus No man can live a true pleasurable life not that by his Rules no man can live a vertuous life that perhaps would be granted by many but that no man can have a life of pleasure by those Rules that is the thing that he undertakes to prove and amongst other arguments he hath these First That it is not probable for any modest and temperate men to give way to let their thoughts abide upon any such pleasures he accounts them so vain and slight for the pleasures of the minde men that are wise and sober delight in the thoughts of such A second argument that he useth is That never as he says to this day were known any that would offer sacrifice to
ways in affliction if there were always prosperity in the ways of God it were nothing but when it is with affliction it is so much the more an argument of thy love to God and thy sincerity and therefore he takes it so kindely Bless God for it and bless him the rather because he hath begun with you betimes If the Lord hath given you a heart when you are yong to make this choice what a great mercy is this what abundance of sin does such a one prevent If one that is yong goes on in the ways of Religion though he suffers much in the family wherein he lives his brethren scorn at him and his Parents hate him yet he hath cause to rejoyce and bless himself in the goodness of the Lord. 4. Again thou hast further cause to bless God because he hath given thee such encouragements since thou hast made thy choice thou madest thy choice many years ago I ask thee Hast thou not had encouragement in thy choice Hast any cause to repent thee O no! blessed be God I have found more good then I looked for 5. And know within a while the end of thy choice will be attained and then it shall appear before men and Angels thou madest a good choice and all the world shall bless thee for thy choice Blessed be that man or woman that ever they were born to make such a choice and thou shalt be honored of all those that do despise thee now and they shall wish they had made thy choice It is reported of a yong man who loved his pleasures standing by St. Ambrose and seeing his excellent death he turned to other yong men by him and said O that I might live with you and dye with him Thou hast little cause to envy them that will choose vanities for their portion let them have them though thou hast lost something of thy bravery of thy carnal delight for this choice be content it is made up infinitely here and shall be made up more hereafter And seeing God hath thus enclined your heart to himself be for ever established in your choice seeing God hath shewn to you his ways say as Pilate in another case That I have written I have written so That I have chosen I have chosen If any temptation come to tempt you from your choice as flesh and blood would be ready to mutter and think I might have lived as brave a life as such a one might have had as much pleasure as such a one I have lost so many friends and so much means and brought my self into a great many straights indeed they spake much of Gods Ordinances and I was taken with it and I ventured and I have brought my self into troubles and upon the mutterings of flesh and blood you are beginning to bethink your selves again and examine things again and think whether you did wisely or no O take heed of that first degree of Apostacy namely that suspition of your choice Many in their yong time are very zealous in the ways of Religion while all is well with them and now they meet with other things then they looked for and they begin to think they were too forward and wish they were not so far engaged as they are they begin to repent as chapmen who have out-bid themselves Many go on in a profession and suffer much because they are engaged in that way and they know not how to get off if they could get off they would take heed of repentings of your choice lest God lead you out with the workers of iniquity do not listen to the reasonings of flesh and blood Cassianus reports of a yong man that had given himself up to a Christian life and his Parents misliked that way and they wrote Letters to him to perswade him from it and when he knew they were Letters come from them he would not open them but threw them into the fire and so flesh and blood will come and say Do thus and thus you may do well enough at last throw away these letters these suggestions of flesh and blood and do not answer them but be resolved in thine own heart I know in whom I have believed I know whom I have chosen I did not choose rashly but I felt the power of God upon my heart before I made my choice and I had grounds and arguments of my choice and what shall I by such an argument as this be perswaded to the contrary Therefore go on and be established in your choice and the Lord confirm you in it and give my soul part with you in that choice you have made let flesh and the world and temptations say what they will peace will be in the end You have found some good already that might make you say with David Surely it is good for me to draw near to God and though I do meet with some troubles and temptations that do cry down this way yet let my soul say It is good for me to draw near to God it is good for me that I left such and such things it is good for me that I have these Ordinances though it be with the loss of some outward comforts and my estate be abated and my trading less say as David in the 73. Psalm Truly God is good to Israel however it be yet God is good to Israel though many things seem to the contrary and therefore conclude with thine own heart Though I should never see good day in the world yet that comfort I have received in the ways of God it is enough to make me prize them for ever if now I should dye and be annihilated if God should deprive me of the joys of Heaven and turn me into nothing yet that good that I have had already in Gods ways should be enough to countervail all the troubles that I have met withal in the world or ever shall meet withal though God should withdraw himself in all the course of my life and I should be in darkness and have nothing but trouble yet I have had enough in God already to countervail all Hath God thus spoken peace to thy soul remember that text in Psal 85. 8. Return not again to folly the Lord hath spoken peace already to thy soul in afflictions and therefore God forbid that thou shouldst return to folly but continue in thy way and go on constantly in thy way to the end and the Lord bless thee in thy way And this is for the encouragement of the hearts of Gods people that have with Moses made this choice Rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season CHAP. XIII The evil of an ill choice discovered IN the third place hence those are justly rebuked who have made an ill choice this was a blessed choice of Moses and whosoever makes this choice are blessed of the Lord but how few have we of Moses his minde it
the chief contentment of thy soul Is it possible that the chief contentment of a creature should be in sinning against an infinite God That thy chief contentment should be in departing from God in striking at God So thou doest in the way of sin That thy chief contentment should be in incensing the wrath of an infinite Deity against thy soul That thy chief contentment should be in putting thy self under the everlasting curse that bindes thee over to eternal death That thy chief contentment should be in that which being committed if ever it comes to be pardoned must cost more then Heaven and Earth is worth Thou goest out in the morning and goest into thy company and countest thy self happy that thou hast money to spend and so takest thy pleasure This day thou hast done that which if ever it be pardoned it must cost more then Heaven and Earth is worth There must be a price paid more worth then a thousand worlds to purchase the pardon of it Canst thou choose that for thy chief contentment which was such a dreadful but then to Jesus Christ that made the soul of Christ to be heavy to the very death that squeazed out clods of blood from him What is the chief pleasure and delight of thy soul in that which a true enlightened gracious heart would rather suffer all the torments in the world then do it If so be it were put to him either such a sin must be committed or else all the tortures that can be devised by all the world must be inflicted upon him A gracious heart had rather choose all the tortures that can be inflicted then do that which thou makest the great pleasure of thy soul What an infinite difference is between thy base heart and a gracious heart Thy wretched heart doth choose this deliberately as the great pleasure of thy life which a gracious heart would rather suffer all the torments of the world then be brought to do it To delight in sins against conscience is the most desperate folly in the world No man rejoyces in any error or fault in other things but is rather ashamed onely in the errors in the rule of life and obedience men owe to God they rejoyce in Secondly those come under this reprehension who though they do not choose things for their chief pleasures that are sin yet do choose to themselves pleasures that come in by sin and though this be not so ill as the other yet ill enough that is those that shall strain their consciences to get something in the world to raise their estates and when they have got estates and money and things well about them then they can be merry then their tables are furnished and they can eat and drink and this they delight in O poor deluded heart what is this that can give thee so much content Thou hast cause to look upon thy table and every morsel that thou eatest as having death in it and every draught you drink as having the curse of God in it Little cause thou hast if thou knewest all to rejoyce in these pleasures that come in by sin certainly there can be no good that comes in by sin as sin I know God may turn sin to the good of some but that which sin brings in of it self it is impossible good should come of it that which thou takest pleasure in that which thou art merry and jocund in delighting thy self withal is it may be the calamity and misery of others and how hard is that heart that can make that his mirth and joy that is the sorrow and distress of his brother Chrysostom in a Sermon against luxury and excess cryes out against those who riot in those things that they have got by making others miserable and says It is the most grievous thing that can be Thirdly those who do neither of these they choose not to themselves the pleasures that are sin nor the pleasures that come in by sin but such pleasures in the enjoyment of which they do sin though the pleasures be in themselves lawful they choose to let out their hearts unto them and spend the strength of their spirits on them they think because there is no hurt in them in themselves therefore they may give liberty to themselves there is a great deal of mistake in this we may sin exceedingly in things that are lawful when men shall spend so much time as many that are professors do in giving themselves content in some sports and delights to the flesh as they cut God short of his time that time that should be spent in examining their hearts humbling their souls seeking the face of God is spent in some slight vain idle sport Many are guilty of this especially those that have means and their callings do not require such a necessity of continual attendance How is that time spent wherein you have liberty from your callings Certainly no good account can be given of that time much might be gained to your souls in it and much converse and communion you might have with God and what ill choice do you make when as many poor Christians would bless God if they could have a little liberty from their callings On the one side there is this liberty for you to enjoy communion with God and furnish your souls with heavenly excellencies On the other side there is a little vain delight and carnal content and ease to the flesh and you rather choose this It may be though God hath helped you in the main you chose right yet be convinced this day of the evil of this particular choice in giving such inordinate contentment to your selves in giving that ease to your bodies liberties to the sluggishness of your spirits and reform You have not honored God as you ought and therefore your lives are not so beautiful In the general you continue in the ways of Religion but there is not that convincing lustre and beauty in your lives you do not draw others to that love of godliness because your hearts become so vain and so slight in choosing inordinate liberties to your selves in spending your times and strength in the pleasures of the flesh and therefore when you come to spiritual employment you have no strength but your hearts are dead I appeal to your consciences when you have given your selves leave to have content to the flesh when you come to communion with God what dead flat hearts have you Let me speak to such this day from the Lord this liberty you take to your selves in the pleasures of the flesh hath been the root of the Apostacy of many as 2 Pet. 2. 18. those who fell off were allured through the lusts of the flesh even though they are said to be clean escaped from them who live in error yet through wantonness they were drawn aside Wanton professors seldom prove lasting professors at least in any power of godliness Take this one note
humor in the spittle meeting with a humor in meat and drink suitable to it what pleasure must needs be in the exercising and acting of a creature that is of the highest nature that ever God made creature and these creatures raised with the highest principles for the kinde that any creature is capable of and exercised about the highest objects that it is possible for a creature to be exercised about for the kinde God and Christ and Eternity if we see pleasure in the other that is so low and not in this certainly we must pull out our eyes and willingly besot our own hearts if we yield not that the pleasure herein is abundantly more and more glorious So the pleasure of the eye what is it but the visive spirit that is in the eye meeting with colour abroad it hath pleasure therein If the visive spirit in the eye which is a poor mean thing that brute beasts have as well as our selves meeting with such a poor thing as the colour is becomes such delight what delight must be in exercising the highest faculties about the highest objects And so the smell is nothing but that humor in the nostrils meeting with another humor that is without And so of the ear and of the touch we might instance there the delight comes from nothing but the exercise of the faculty about mean things but if godliness exercises such glorious faculties so elevated about such glorious objects there must needs be a great deal of pleasantness Fourthly the ways of wisdom must needs be ways of pleasantness because they are the life of God himself the soul in the ways of wisdom does live the very life of God The Scripture speaks of the Life of Grace it is the life of God Now all pleasure and comfort is according to the life that a creature lives comfort is nothing else but the feeding of such a kinde of life Sensitive comforts is the feeding of that life rational comforts the feeding of that life and the life of God being a higher life then any other then sense or reason that must have its comforts too and there must be delight and pleasure for the filling up of this now the work of Grace in the hearts of Gods people in their lives it is the life of God and therefore there must needs be a great deal of comfort in the exercise of such a life Fifthly much pleasantness there is in the ways of godliness because in them the people of God do communicate unto God their souls in all that they have or do by a letting out of the soul into God that is the fountain of all good Now there is an infinite delight in this All the delight that there is in God or in the creature is in communication In God himself because God would have delight in himself therefore he would have that that he might communicate himself to and because he would have infinite delight according to his infinite nature therefore he would have that that he might infinitely communicate himself unto and therefore the Son of God the second Person of the Trinity is the infinite delight of his Father because the Father does infinitely communicate himself unto him And now because God would have further delight though there be nothing that he can infinitely communicate himself unto but his Son yet that he may have such delight as his creature may understand he makes a world and the special end why God made the world is that he might have creatures to communicate himself unto in his wisdom and goodness and glory and therefore those creatures that are most capable of Gods communicating himself unto are called Gods delight God rejoyces in the habitable parts of the earth because there are creatures that he can communicate himself unto and especially his pleasure is among his people because there are creatures that are capable of communicating of himself Thus you see that the delight of Gods is communicating himself And so the delight of the creature is in communicating themselves and therefore of all natural delights that of marriage is the most because there is the greatest communication of one creature to another Now when as Gods delight is in communication and our delight is in natural communication then much more when we come to communicate our selves spiritually to God There is a delight in the life of friendship because one friend communicates himself to another but in marriage greater because that communication is greater and according to the degrees of communication the degrees of delight are then the delight in the ways of God must be the greatest because there is the greatest and highest and most glorious communication of a creature it communicates it self and le ts out it self fully into the infinite Ocean of all good If there were nothing but a letting out of it self into an ordinary good it were delight but to let out it self into an infinite Ocean of all delight this is pleasure and this is a mystery this is a ground why no hypocrite hath the delight of the ways of godliness because he does not communicate himself fully unto God but when the heart comes off fully to communicate it self to God there is infinite delight in them The ways of godliness surely are ways of pleasure if this be in them as it is Sixthly the ways of godliness are ways of pleasure because in them the soul hath the presence of God and walks with God walks up and down in the light of his face There is a blessed shine of Gods countenance and of his love upon the soul and influences of his graces unto the soul in those ways as the soul hath delight in the communication of its self unto God so they are ways of pleasantness because in them there is a communication of God unto the soul That place in Psal 89. 19. hath a notable expression of the sweetness of the ways of godliness and the delight that Gods people have in those ways Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound they shall walk O Lord in the light of thy countenance God is in them and le ts out himself unto them now the quintessence of all good put together is in every beam of Gods face and therefore when God shall let out himself and be thus the portion of a soul it must needs be a great deal of delight Seventhly ways of godliness are the ways of pleasure because the principles of them all is love whatsoever comes from love hath much delight and pleasure and the principle of every way of God is love God would have nothing from us but out of love and that may carry us unto love of God himself and that love by which the heart is carried unto God is the chariot of love There is a sweet expression for this that we have in Cant. 3. 9 10. the estate of the Church is set out by Solomons making himself a Chariot of
acknowledge we do not know what the ways of wisdom mean if we do not subscribe to this truth that her ways are ways of pleasantness Ways of pleasantness they are and this pleasantness that is in her ways hath abundance of excellencies in it Very many I thought to have spoken of and enlarged take onely the very mention of them because I must not be too long and then we will answer to some quaeres and apply all and so conclude For the excellent properties of this pleasantness it is that which is the sweetest soul-satisfying pleasantness the very rule it self is sweet sweeter then honey oh how sweet is the souls acting by it it hath the very quintessence of all other delights extracted in it it is the most solid such as hath not vanity and froth in it as other delights have it is such a delight as ennobles the soul it spiritualizeth the heart it is immixt not dangerous as others are it is abiding not vanishing it is continually virid and fresh though there is a fulness in it yet it grows not to satiety by use but grows more and more sweet for it raiseth and enlargeth the faculty it is Heavenly it is divine it is independent in regard of the creature there needs no sharking out to the creature for the upholding it all other delights depend on this there is no pleasure had but in the ways of godliness Una guttula malae conscientiae totum marae mundani gaudii absorbet One drop of an evil conscience swallows up the whole Sea of worldly joy says Luther but one drop of this delight is enough to sweeten all sorrows one drop of gall will imbitter much sweet but one drop of sweet cannot sweeten much gall but here it is otherwise one drop of this sweet sweetens all bitterness of afflictions but all the bitter of afflictions cannot imbitter one drop of this delight Yea this pleasure is the rule of all pleasure and the end of all pleasure whatsoever pleasure is not regulated by this and subordinate to this is evil But how are the ways of wisdom the ways of pleasantness It appears otherwise for the ways of godliness do abridge men of abundance of pleasure and delight in many things in the world What is so great an enemy to the pleasures of men and women as Religion It causeth them to be cut short of abundance of delightful things that others rejoyce in To that I answer first Suppose it were so you heard in the commendation that the pleasantness of the ways of godliness was exceeding great that it hath that excellency in it to make up whatsoever pleasure it wants Though it should cut you short of abundance of pleasure if it shall put a principle that shall enable you to stand in no need of that pleasure it cuts you short of what have you lost As suppose a man that is weak and hath little blood or spirits in him and is chill and cold and puts on many clothes to keep himself warm if these clothes should be al taken away save only his inward garment if there could be put into him spirits and blood and marrow and that which should make him not to be sensible of the want of his clothes it is a great deal better What man that is weak and sickly and is fain to have abundance of clothes to keep him warm would not be willing to part with his clothes if he might have spirits and blood put into him not to feel the want of those clothes So why is it that your hearts are set upon the delight of the creature because you want a principle within to satisfie your souls withal and therefore you are fain to seek the cloathing of the creature and to keep your selves warm with the cloathing of the creature but if Religion take away those things and give you a principle not to feel the want of them but have them made up another way and better you have no cause to complain of the want of pleasantness Secondly I answer that godliness abridges us of no lawful pleasure if it abridges of any it is delightfulness to want those delights that godliness abridges us of What hast thou delight in that which is sinful if it be not sinful Religion does not abridge thee of it onely such delights in which thou dishonorest God and provokest him against thee But secondly How are the ways of God ways of pleasantness when they require abundance of humiliation trouble for sin and is not that bitter and grievous To that I answer First there is more sweetness in that which thou callest bitterness then in all the delightfulness of the world besides those waters Christ does turn into wine And to convince you that these are not bitter waters but that the tears of repentance and humiliation are sweet refreshing waters of life consider from what fountain they come First the work of humiliation if it be right the principle of it is the melting work of the Gospel in the soul the sweetness of the goodness and mercy of God in Jesus Christ melting the heart and causing it to dissolve and fall down under the hand of God certainly that which comes from such a sweet principle cannot have much bitterness in it Secondly the soul in the work of humiliation melting before the Lord eases it self in that melting of abundance of sin and much sweetness there must needs be in those tears that ease the soul of and deliver the soul from much sin Thirdly in the work of humiliation there is much delight because the soul hath much delight in looking back to that sorrow it hath had and if godliness makes mourning to be delightful what does it make rejoycing to be But if it be said in the third place But there are many hardthings that Gods people do meet withal in the ways of godliness and the ways of godliness put them upon such things as cause them to meet with sore temptations and trials here in the world how then can the ways of godliness be so pleasant To that I answer Here is a mighty commendation to the pleasantness of the ways of Religion notwithstanding the hardest and sorest things a godly heart meets with there is that delight in the ways of godliness as upholds the heart under all and carries the heart sweetly on What commendation was it to the grace in the hearts of the Martyrs that did uphold their hearts and carry their hearts sweetly in the enduring of such hard things Secondly these being hard to flesh and blood hinder not the pleasure of a gracious heart it is the highest improvement of all our estates that can be the highest testimony of giving your respect to God whereby the soul enjoys most of God all times The Spirit of God and glory resteth upon the soul while it is enduring such things And how opposite is thy heart and
pleasantly First be sure to keep the heart right within be sure to keep all at peace within thy soul you know according to the temper within so there is the relishing of things without He that hath peace within can easily go through the duties that are required without with joy Further exercise faith in the work and office of the holy Ghost that office that the holy Ghost is designed unto by the Father and the Son to be the Comforter of his people to bring joy and comfort to them look upon the holy Ghost as designed by the Father and the Son to bring joy and delight to the souls of his people What an infinite difference there is between the comforts of a carnal heart and the comforts of the godly The one come from a little meat and drink and the other come from the exercise of faith about the office of the holy Ghost that is designed to this work Thirdly in all that thou doest be sure to be upright Though thou beest able to do but a little in any way of God if thou beest upright God accepts of it and and thou wilt finde comfort Thou sayest thy duties are mean it may be so but if thou beest upright thou mayest have comfort it becomes the upright to be joyful whereas the most glorious performances if they be not in uprightness are but abominable Again sweeten all your duties by spiritual meditation a Christian that treasures up spiritual meditation and every duty that he performs brings it in by meditation and hath a great many meditations to rowl his duty up and down in this is delight To go to duty and to have a barren heart to act there is no delight but to go to a duty and to exercise spiritual meditation this is sweet Again labor to principle thy heart aright in the ways of godliness to understand what they are if thou understoodest what they are they would be delightful and the reason why many do not go on delightfully is because they do not understand what is in the ways of God to cause delight You will say What is there in the ways of God to cause delight First every work of godliness and that ability that grace hath to exercise is a beam of that infinite choice eternal electing love of God upon thy soul if thou lookest upon it so it will be wonderfully delightful Secondly look upon every duty of godliness as having more of the glory of God in it then the whole frame of heaven and earth besides Take all Gods works in the Creation in Providence in the Heavens the Sun Moon and Stars in the Earth and the Seas there is not so much of the glory of God in them all as in one gracious action that a Christian performs and if you looked at it thus it could not but have pleasure in it Thirdly look at that action of grace as that in which God attains his end in creating heaven and earth more then in other things besides as there is more of God in it so God attains more in it the end of God in his counsels is more attained by any gracious act then by any thing else that can be done save of the same nature How delightful should we be in the ways of godliness if we looked thus at them Fourthly look upon every gracious act as the seed of glory and eternal life Every work of grace in the heart and life of Gods people is a seed of glory and eternal life And these four considerations being put upon every gracious act do confirm that which was said in the opening of the point they must needs be full of pleasantness Be not satisfied in doing any thing in the ways of God till you do it pleasantly I hear the ways of God are pleasant I have gone on being haled by conscience but little have I understood of the pleasantness of them there is more to be looked after then I have attained to By this thou shalt come to be mightily strengthened and it wil be a marvellous help to make thee continue in the ways of godliness And as I said in handling that argument of the easiness of the ways of godliness those that are continually thinking of the hardness of Gods ways will fall off but by having them pleasant it will carry thee on against temptations and the current of all arguments The last Use of all is If the ways of wisdom be ways of pleasantness what is the end of wisdom If the neather springs be so sweet what will the upper be If the lower Jerusalem be paved with gold surely that upper Jerusalem is paved with pearls It is an excellent speech of Bernard Good art thou O Lord to the soul that seeks thee what art thou then to the soul that findes thee How sweet and pleasant are the ways of wisdom then How sweet and delightful is the end of wisdom If grace be pleasant how pleasant is glory therefore the Saints dye so pleasantly because there is a meeting of grace and glory Grace is delightful glory more delightful but when these both meet together what delight will there then be It is a speech of Jerome speaking of carnal delights None can go from delight to delight but it is not so spiritually the more delight we have here the more we shall have hereafter and therefore let this be all our prayer Lord give us evermore this pleasure satisfie our souls with this pleasure if the drops be sweet the rivers of pleasure and joy that are at Christs right hand how sweet are they Moses his Choice The second Part. CHAP. XVI A spiritual eye can see an excellency in Gods people though under great affliction THe fourth Doctrinal Conclusion that was raised from the words was That a spiritual eye can see an excellency in Gods people though under never so great affliction Moses chooses rather to suffer affliction with the people of God Who were this people A despised people an afflicted people Yet Moses could see an excellency in them while they were making their brick while they were whipped by their task-masters and contemptible in the eyes of all the Egyptians yet by the eye of faith Moses could look upon them as the most excellent of the earth as the most glorious people that lived in the world and desires rather to joyn with them though in the greatest afflictions then to abide Pharaoh's Court in the enjoyment of all worldly delights let the world cast what dirt they will upon them and darken their glory what they can yet they are precious and honorable in the Saints eyes The excellent of the earth and the glory of the world Job scraping his sores upon the dunghil and Jeremy sinking into the mire in the dungeon are more beautiful and glorious then the great men of the earth when they are crowned upon their Thrones Though you have lien
speak first unto those who yet are not partakers of that good that is to be had with Gods people I mean in nearest communion though we all have the name of God upon us and have some kinde of communion with the people of God yet seeing there is much good to be had in communion with them further it should be the desire of every one to enjoy the nearest communion with them that can be this is a mercy that you should labor to seek after for a good there is here which none know the sweetness and benefit of but onely those that do enjoy it seek to have it for great things are spoken concerning it If there be any realities in the truths that have been opened to you it cannot but make the communion and joyning with Gods people very lovely but certainly that which I have said comes abundantly short of what is in it for the most things that are used for the shewing the excellency of this communion were from some expressions of God to his people under the Law and we come short in the understanding of them but if we could understand them fully they come short of the abundance of priviledges that Gods people have under the Gospel and the reason is not onely because ceremonies were typical but Gods dealing with his Church their way in Church order and government was but a typical thing to typifie the estate of Gods people under the Gospel Now we know there is a great deal more in the antitype then in the type the type is but a shadow of that which is typified now if the excellency of the estate of the Church under the Law was but a type of the estate of the Church under the Gospel then all that is said of the excellency of that condition is but as a shadow of that which is now Heb. 10. 1. The law was a shadow of good things to come and not the very image The estate of the Church now under the Gospel is the image of that glory that is to be revealed but the Law was but a shadow of that image as a Limner first draws a dark shadow of a picture in coal and after makes the Image look what differenne there is in the excellency of that rude draught by a coal and the beauty of the Image such there is between all the excellency of the estate of the Church under the Law and that there is under the Gospel and therefore that which is to be expected now is a great deal more and should enflame the desires of all to seek after such a priviledge Consider that this good which is to be had in communion with Gods people is a special fruit of the loving kindeness of God and would you not all be made partakers of the loving kindeness of the Lord Thriving in your Trades and outward blessings are a fruit of the common kindeness of the Lord but communion with Gods people is a fruit of his specialloving kindeness Psal 36. 7 8. How excellent is thy loving kindeness O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures The satisfaction of the soul with the fatness of Gods house is the fruit of Gods loving kindeness yea the fruit of Gods excellent loving kindeness and his admirable excellent loving kindeness It is worth the seeking after to be satisfied with the fatness of Gods house And thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures While you seek after the comforts of the creature you seek to drink in puddles but here are rivers of pleasures It is the inheritance of Gods elect ones Isaiah 65. 9. I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Iudah an inheritor of my mountains mine elect shall inherit it I do not say whosoever does enjoy communion with Gods people is elected but whosoever does enjoy it enjoys that which is the inheritance of Gods elect such a fruit of Gods loving kindeness as comes to the elect by inheritance though some others do get into it yet none should but onely the elect ones and therefore if you have any hope to be the elect of God desire after this as part of your inheritance A man would be loath to lose part of his inheritance It is an inheritance promised to those who trust in God and opposed to all the vanity of the world Isa 57. 13. Vanity shall take them but he that putteth his trust in me shall inherit my holy mountain Thirdly it hath been the onely desire of gracious hearts heretofore and if God hath wrought any grace in you sure your grace is suitable to the grace of others as David in Psal 27. 24. This one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord as if there were nothing were the object of Davids desires but this one thing And in Psal 84. what abundance of expressions have we to set out his desires this way David was here in his banishment we do not finde him complaining O my Kingdom that I am like to lose my brave Palaces and my brave Chambers Gardens and attendance that I am like to lose but the house of God And in Psal 42. As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God! It was not after the enjoyment of God that he might have in his own soul privately that his heart so panted after but the appearing before the Lord in his house Fourthly this is the especial work of wisdom if God hath let out any beam of wisdom into your souls to shew unto you any thing of the excellency of Christ this will be immediately desired as in that Parable of the wise Merchant as soon as he had found the Pearl he went and sold all to buy the field the meaning is when a soul comes to have any knowledge of Christ that Christ is the onely Pearl then it desires to seek to enjoy him where he is to be enjoyed it is in the field in the Church of God in communion with it and the wise Merchant would part with any thing that he might have the field that is have communion with Gods people in his Ordinances and so come to enjoy the Pearl Yea fifthly the reason why God puts any light or truth into the soul is to put forth the soul to this to joyn with his people in this way of communion Psal 43. 3. What was the reason why the Prophet would have the light and the truth of God but to lead him to the holy hill and to the Tabernacle Sixthly by joyning your self with the Saints and furthering this work of communion you set up the honor of God much God is
dangerous as if you being conscious to your self dare yet joyn with them if you deceive the Church herein God may justly avenge himself of you it may cost you your life Revel 2. 9. I know the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews and are not It is by God accounted blasphemy for any to say they are Jews and are not to make profession of godliness and not to be godly is blasphemy Surely then it is not sufficient to be with Israel but we must be of Israel not to be a Jew outwardly but a Jew inwardly so as God may own you in the last day when there shall be a narrow search who are the true people of God that then you may be found to be such indeed it will be a dreadful thing for any of you that now seem to be of Gods people and that have lived amongst the sheep if you should be found amongst the goats standing at the left hand when you shall see others of Gods people stand at the right hand looking upon you and say Yonder is one who lived with us and we could never discover him to be an hypocrite though sometimes we had jealousies of him there he stands now he is discovered therefore approve your selves to be of the true Israel of God Quest But who is a true Israelite Answ Such a one as can approve to his own heart an inward effectual call of God calling him out of the world as well as an outward call by the Ordinances such a one as hath testimony to his own spirit that he is separated set apart for God that he hath an inward sanctification of the holy Ghost such a one as in whose spirit there is no guile this is a true Israelite indeed Secondly if it be such a great blessing to be joyned in union and communion with the people of God hence labor to bless God for this great blessing that is such an amiable desireable condition it is your heaven upon earth that mercy that should sweeten all other mercies yea that should sweeten your afflictions to you Gods holy mountain Isaiah 57. 13. is promised as an inheritance opposed to vanity and promised as the blessing upon trusting in the Lord Vanity shall take them but he that putteth his trust in me shall inherit my holy mountain Let us not enjoy the world in all their vanity but bless we our selves in our God let us rejoyce in our inheritance the mountain of the Lord. Though we beg our bread says Luther is it not made up with this That we are fed with the bread of Angels with eternal life Christ and the Sacraments c We have cause to bless God that we might be with Gods people though in caves and woods and banished from all we have much more cause to bless God when we can be with them thus publiquely and peaceably and can go from Gods house to our own houses and have communion there this is the rest that the Land of Canaan did typifie for which the name of God is to be mganified God might so have left us that we should have had communion onely with the prophane ones and drunkards yea we might have been cast out from God to have had communion onely with reprobates and that now we may have communion with the godly it is a wonderful mercy Rev. 14. we read of Christ standing upon the Mount Zion and having so many people standing up to joyn with him in Church-fellowship for that is the meaning of that place there they were rejoycing at the mercy of the Lord that they were upon the Mount with the Lamb though there might be time when our Harps hanged upon the Willows yet if we be called to the Lamb upon Mount Zion Let us have our Harps in our hands Is there nothing in the delight that God hath in his people and the presence of God with his people and the great priviledges they have to raise our hearts to praise the Lord and let it not be verbally but really As namely thus Is it that we are Gods delight let him be our delight if we be his treasure let him be our treasure if we be his portion let him be our portion if he communicates choice mercies to us let us give choice endeavors to him if he gives us protection let us protect his truths and name if he honor us let us give him his honor And so I slip into a third particular which is a third branch of this exhortation 3. If there be so much excellency in communion with the people of God you that are such take heed you do not darken that excellency that God hath put in communion with his people there are three ways especially that darkens this excellency First if we rest in any Church-priviledge we have and make that to be our Religion and the strength of our spirits be let out about these things we enjoy more then others so as we begin to decline in the savour and power of godliness if others that knew us before when we had not those priviledges and mercies that we have now shall say What good is to be had there I knew such and me thinks they had more savour and relish in the ways of God then now more sweetness and warmth to be had in their company then now there is Take heed of this of giving occasion to any to say so It is a very evil and a dangerous thing to rest in Church-priviledges to make all our Religion to consist in being in a Church-way we may have this revealed to us and yet little of Heaven revealed There were two vails of the Tabernacle one covered the Holy of Holies the other the place where the Priests entred it may be we have had the first opened to us but yet the second which leads to the Holy of Holies may still be vailed Many whose hearts are very carnal may be much for Church-Ordinances We have in the 24. of Ezekiel ver 21 22. seven several expressions of carnal hearts prising Church-priviledges First they accounted them their strength Secondly the excellency of their strength Thirdly the desire of their eyes Fourthly that which their souls pitied Fifthly their glory Sixthly the joy of their glory Seventhly that whereupon they set their mindes What a noise did they make about the Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord Ier. 7. 4. and yet they were carnal Take heed therefore you rest not in the Church-priviledges by this you will deceive your selves and darken the excellency of this blessed communion Secondly take heed of darkning this by any scandalous way as those do who profess themselves to be the people of God and yet by their wretched ways of sensualities or any other ways are a scandal unto Gods people this is an evil and a bitter thing Christ walks amongst the golden candlesticks Every Church should be a golden candlestick holding forth light in
of the world do envy one another because the good they look upon as their last end is so strait that if one have much room the other is straitned but the godly need not be straitned their good is in God and they have place enough to expatiate themselves and satisfie themselves If men were riding or sailing in a narrow passage they would envy him that were sailing before them that hinders but in the Sea they do not envy them because they have room enough to sail So in Christians that place their happiness in God where there is room enough there should not be envy Fourthly take heed of pettishness and frowardness or passions these do darken communion the meek spirit is fit for communion Moses suffered much for communion with Gods people and indeed he was fit to get good and to do good by communion he was the meekest man upon earth Fifthly take heed of self-ends in communion when men are so politick as to wheel about their own ends and not seem to aym at such things this hinders the sweetness of communion and though such may carry things a while as not to be discerned yet at last they will be discerned to have self-ends and all will be shy of them If you would have sweet communion indeed labor for open hearts to one another that you may trust one another Sixthly labor so to improve your communion now as every time you do enjoy it it may make your hearts to spring putting you in minde of that blessed communion you shall have with God and his people and think thus If we finde so much joy in enjoying communion with Gods people here what will there be in that communion our souls shall have in Heaven when we shall not onely have communion with some few of Gods servants but with all Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets and Patriarchs As Cicero hath a notable speech concerning the happiness of his death O famous day that I shall go to the counsels of those famous men that I shall go from this rout of people and go and converse with those famous men But brethren for us to think that we through Gods mercy here have communion with Gods people and shall hereafter enjoy communion with the Saints of God for ever what is it worth the enduring if it were but the enjoying of communion with Moses alone it were worth all you have endured and therefore comfort your selves for the present in that you have and let your hearts be raised in hope of better things hereafter when you shall have them perfect Now we rejoyce that we are with Gods people if they be conferring about any thing of God and Christ but hereafter we shall see nothing but God in his Saints we shall see the full glory of God shining in them then the very bodies of the Saints shall shine more glorious then the Sun How glorious shall their souls be then There shall then be no more danger of fallings out and frampold carriages no more jealousies and suspitions but we shall see the image of God perfectly in them and we shall have perfect love to rejoyce in the salvation of any as in your own salvation and then we shall be with them in all holy exercises It is good to be with Gods people to trade with them but better to be with them to pray with them to receive Sacraments with them the better the exercise is the better it is to be with them Then what is it to enjoy communion with them and to be always in holy exercises always singing praises to the Lamb and giving glory to him that sitteth on the Throne for evermore blessing God for the great Mystery of the Gospel And therefore improve your communion so here as not onely to put you in minde of your communion hereafter but to prepare and fit your souls for it And thus is this point finished and now we are come to the seventh and last Doctrinal point out of Moses his Choice which is from the last words of the Verse Then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season The Doctrinal Conclusion is this CHAP. XXV Whatsoever is but for a season cannot satisfie a gracious heart THat whatsoever is but for a season cannot satisfie a gracious heart Or Nothing but that which is eternal can satisfie a gracious heart Moses if he would have been satisfied with any thing that abided but for a season he might have had satisfaction enough but his heart was set upon eternity and therefore could have no satisfaction in things that were but for a season St. Paul says in 2 Cor. 4. 18. We look not at things that are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal We do not so much as look at things seen for they are temporal but there are other things that our hearts are upon which are eternal we look not at things that are seen but at things not seen The word notes these two things especially not onely that we believe things that are not seen eternal things but we look at them we minde them we do not much minde things that are temporal but eternal things are minded of us Secondly we do not make things that are seen that are temporal to be our scope and aim that which satisfies the heart is that which is looked at as the end and aim and scope of the spirit so that if a man could look at things seen as his aim and scope they would satisfie him but nothing that is seen can be the scope and aim of a gracious heart but eternal things are his scope and aim and therefore they satisfie him That nothing which is but for a season can satisfie a heart rightly principled appears First because there is no proportion between an immortal soul and fading transitory things indeed the sensitive soul that does depend upon the present temper of the body that is satisfied onely with present things and the reason is because it depends upon that which is present but the rational soul being immortal and not depending upon any such thing whatsoever it be that continues not for ever cannot satisfie it Secondly a gracious heart knows the things of eternity after another maner then any other does God hath revealed eternal things to it and upon the sight of those eternal things it comes to know it is taken off from all temporal things for all temporal things be they never so glorious yet in comparison of eternal they are but as the point of a centre to an infinite circumference Indeed while a man knows no better then temporal things the heart is let out upon them as the greatest good but when it comes to know the things of eternity the heart is greatned and all temporal things are but small to that soul when it comes to
know what an eternal God is and what an eternal crown is and an eternal inheritance when it knows that God does intend to communicate himself eternally to his creature it cannot be satisfied unless it knows it shall live to enjoy those things that God shall communicate eternally Thirdly a gracious spirit hath received an eternal principle within it that does work the heart beyond things for a season that works the heart all to eternity for the work of Grace that is in the soul it is begotten of the immortal seed of the Word and it is an eternal principle that is infused by God into it and therefore it works beyond things that are for a season every creature works according to the nature of its principles as sensitive creatures according unto sensitive principles and rational creatures according unto rational principles but grace is beyond reason and is of an everlasting nature and therefore it works the heart beyond all that is but for a season Fourthly a gracious heart cannot be satisfied with things that are but for a season because God hath loved such a heart with an eternal love and there is the impression of the same love in the soul that carries the soul to God in some measure with that love wherewith it is loved that causes the soul to love God with an eternal love and not to be satisfied with any work of love that it can work in time and therefore grace must have eternity for to manifest the love again that it hath to God or else it hath not a love proportionable in its measure to the love wherewith God hath loved it but that is in every gracious heart Fifthly there is a kinde of image of Gods infiniteness in the souls of men and according to this print of Gods infiniteness the enjoyment of God is desired where the heart is gracious though it is true our souls are not infinite creatures in themselves yet having a print of Gods infiniteness upon them they manifest this in their infinite desires and because they cannot enjoy an actual infinite good in themselves therefore they desire an infinite good in duration at least let there be never so much good yea as much as an infinite power can let out for present good yet this does not satisfie the soul unless it can have it infinitely for duration for an enlightned soul knows that it is not capable to hold that good that an infinite God can and hath a purpose to communicate to his creature if it should come all together therefore it desires to enjoy communication of what good it is capable of to all eternity To receive good from God is not sufficient except it be received in an infinite way now it cannot receive any thing infinite for the present and therefore it must have it in an infinite way in regard of duration Sixthly there is nothing that is but for a season can satisfie a gracious heart but it must be some eternal thing because such a one hath received light from God to understand the infinite consequence of eternity to make any good to be infinite or any evil to be infinite When as one enjoys any good and knows it shall continue infinitely it makes that present good to have a kinde of infiniteness in it and and so for evil if there be any evil upon the heart though the evil should be never so little yet if it be an evil and the soul knows it must continue infinitely it puts a kinde of infiniteness to every moment and that is the principal thing that makes the misery of the damned to be so miserable and the happiness of the godly so happy they are not onely happy and miserable because they shall be happy and miserable for ever but because they know there is continance in happiness and in misery their knowledge of this is that which puts infinite weight upon every moment Suppose a beast should have happiness suitable to its nature for eternity that would come infinitely short of the happiness of a rational creature that knows wherein happiness consists and what eternity is for the beast enjoys nothing but the present happiness but a reasonable creature it hath happiness for the present and it can by the thoughts of the minde fetch in the infiniteness of the duration and put it upon the present content it receives and so have infinite satisfaction every moment And so for misery it were not so much if God by his power should hold a brute beast in the fire eternally as if a man were in misery because though it hath pains yet it hath no thought of future pains but what it now feels But if a rational creature be in misery by the thoughts of his minde he can fetch all the pains that shall be in hundred thousands of years and put them upon that instant and this makes it to be miserable indeed in a kinde of infiniteness beyond that which any other creature is capable of You think to be tortured with fire is miserable and to be so eternally is miserable but there is something more every instant you shall be in misery there shall be a kinde of infiniteness because you shall by your thoughts bring whatsoever is to come and put it upon the present moment and nothing can swallow up a mans spirit so much as this if he understands eternity Now then a gracious heart that knows this that knows what the consequence of eternity is cannot be satisfied except it hath made good provision for eternity whatsoever it enjoys for the present cannot satisfie the soul unless it hath made good provision for that which it understands to be of such infinite consequence as it is A soul that understands the consequence of eternity sees it as an infinite Ocean that it is lanching into and must for ever swim in Now if a man were to go a voyage in the vast Ocean that he must go thousands of miles could he be content that he had made provision of such a Vessel that he could make shift to get over some narrow water with so it is here yea this similitude comes short of the expression of the folly of any that knows any thing concerning eternity to think to satisfie themselves in any thing that is but for a season for any thing that is but for a season let it be for as long a season as you will if it were for Methuselahs season that is but as some small Brook and what is this to the going of many thousand miles in the infinite vast Ocean and therefore a gracious heart knowing the vastness of it except it hath made some provision for it can never be quieted with what it can enjoy for a season Seventhly a gracious heart cannot be satisfied in any thing that is but for a season because there is nothing that is but for a season but it can make the end of it as really present If so be that
leaves us in the using Seneca says We live amongst things that are perishing We hear much of the vanity of the creature and we can speak much of it but how is it improved how if you perish eternally for setting your hearts upon these things and notwithstanding all your talk this dreadful noise shall be heard from you We have lost eternity for setting our hearts upon things that were for a season It is a notable speech that Ambrose hath Why will you make that which cannot be eternal for use eternal for punishment It is fading in regard of the use but it proves to be eternal in regard of the punishment Therefore when any temptation comes to draw your hearts to any thing that gives content to the flesh for a season O that you might improve this Argument to resist the temptation What shall I while away that time I have to improve for eternity to seek after you and take content and pleasure in you you are not onely temporal your selves but you do hazard the loss of eternal things and hazard the bringing of eternal evils And therefore do not think it much that I press this argument because it is ordinary all that perish perish because they set their hearts upon that which is for a season and therefore though the knowledge of this in some general notion be ordinary yet the truth is to know it powerfully indeed and effectually it is a riddle to the world It is a notable place we have in Psalm 49. 3 4. The whole scope of the Psalm is to shew the happy secure estate of the godly in all troubles and the vanishing condition of all ungodly in prosperity now mark how he calls to us in the beginning of this Psalm to hearken to this argument We might say this is an argument we have heard a hundred times and know what it is Why should we hearken so Though you think this is an ordinary Theam yet this is the great wisdom and understanding of a gracious heart to know this is the dark saying that I will open so says the Psalmist My mouth shall speak of wisdom and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding I will open my dark saying So when you hear us speaking of this argument you say This is an ordinary argument but the true knowledge of it is a dark hidden thing to the men of the world and it is the work of the Spirit of God to make men know this truly and when God works any saving work upon the soul he begins in this way to settle upon the soul this truth That all the things that it hath satisfied it self in are fading and what is a year or two to enjoy all the contentments my heart can desire if then I must be gone and bid farewel to all have not I an immortal soul and when shall be the time that I shall provide for eternity And therefore I beseech you look into this argument and ponder it a little more There are three worms that are in every thing of the world to eat out the strength of it and make it fading First the worm that is bred in the natural principles the things that we set our hearts upon are made of fading principles Secondly there is the worm of the general curse that is come upon them by mans sin Thirdly there is another worm and that is the particular curse that we bring upon the creatures by our own proper sins as especially when we set our hearts upon any fading transitory things below all things in the world are subject to vanity by the general curse but the particular curse makes them more vain and shall we think to satisfie our selves in the things of the world that have these three worms feeding upon them continually to eat out the strength of them What are your hearts upon I urge it upon you as in the name of God and answer in your secret thoughts What are your hearts upon either upon things that are for a season or eternal Things that are eternal you look upon them as high notional things that never took up your thoughts much but to go into company and eat and drink and laugh and get money these are the things that are but for a season and these your hearts close with and bless themselves in What are become of all those that have had as great dealings and as many merry meetings as you and have satisfied the flesh as much as you they are gone rotten in their graves and their souls it may be crying under the wrath of an infinite God and all their bravery and delight at an end would you be in their condition It is a good observation of Abulensis to shew to us the vanity of all worldly excellency that those who have been the most glorious in what man accounts glorious and excellent have had inglorious ends by which their glory hath been stained and thereby our hearts might be taken off from such things and set upon those things which are so glorious as they will make us for ever glorious He instances in Sampson for strength and yet what a contemptible end had he So Absolom for beauty Achitophel for policy Asael for swiftness Alexander for great conquests and yet after twelve years poysoned He instances likewise in Kingdoms the Chaldaean Persian Graecian Roman how soon were they gone It is a notable speech Augustine hath Go says he and mark and attend the Sepulchres of rich men and when you see their rotten bones consider who they once were and know they do cry unto you O you men why do you seek so much to satisfie your selves in these fading things and heap upon your selves vexation to attain happiness for your selves in these things Consider our bones here and be struck with astonishment to abhor your luxury and covetousness for says he they cry thus to you You now are and we were and time will be when you shall be what we are And then consider with your selves what a doleful condition that man is in that hath set his heart upon things that are for a season When those are at an end he may say Now the thoughts of my heart and all my hopes are at an end now I must bid an eternal farewel to all my comforts to husband and wife and neighbors and friends and companions I shall never meet with you more and never have mirth and jollity and sporting and gaming any more but I must bid farewel to all the Sun is set and the season is at an end for all my comfort and before me I see an infinite vast Ocean and I must lanch into it Lord what provision have I for it What a dreadful shreek will that soul give that sees an infinite Ocean it must lanch into and sees no provision that it hath made for it Indeed those that dye and are besotted and know nothing of this infinite Ocean that they must lanch into
not hell This is the great complaint of a soul in the time of trouble O how long shall it be for ever But so we cannot say of any afflictions here in this world that they shall be for ever In Dan. 11. 25. speaking of the great affliction of the Church this is brought to alleviate all yet the end shall be at the time appointed so long as a man can look to the end of an evil it is not much it is for a season if he can but see banks he is well Yea and the evils that we do endure here as they are but for a little season so they are but in the due season they are in this season and that is that which should comfort us because there is not so much danger in any thing we suffer here while we suffer it in this season Suppose any of you had your Ship leak if it leaks when it comes into harbor though it be an evil to you and brings trouble yet you comfort your selves in this It is not in the main Ocean though If I had had this leak in the main sea what had become of me and so for troubles and sorrows you may say It is upon me but blessed be God it is upon me here Indeed if it should prove to be upon me eternally hereafter it were a great evil but it is here S. Augustine said Here Lord cut me do what you will with me but spare me hereafter It was the prayer of Fulgentius Lord grant patience here and pardon hereafter though I have never so much affliction here it is no great matter so I shall have pardon hereafter Yea the enduring of affliction in this season shall be that which may deliver us from enduring evils eternally hereafter God ayms at it and he hath no other end but onely to deliver from eternal sorrows We are chastened that we might not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11. And that he does by causing a man or woman when any afflictions are upon them to think thus Lord is this evil and pain so grievous to me that lasts but for a while what will eternal evils be to me Drexelius reports of a yong man that was given to his lust and pleasure and could not endure to be crossed but of all things he could not bear it To be kept from sleep and to awake in the dark and being sick he was kept awake in the night and could not sleep and he began to have these thoughts and think What is it so tedious for to be kept from sleep one night and to lie a few hours here in the dark O what is it to be in torments and darkness everlastingly I am here in my house upon a soft bed in the dark kept from sleep but one night O to lie in flames and in darkness for ever and ever how dreadful will that be And this was the means of the conversion of that yong man that was given to all maner of lusts before O that the Lord would settle this argument upon you so as to work it every way to be useful for your pleasures they are but for a season why should I set my heart upon them And for sorrows if those be grievous if a fit of the Stone or of the Strangury or the Fever be so grievous what will that be to be eternally scalding in the wrath of God Thus you see the consideration That things are but for a season how useful it is for to take our hearts from them and to uphold our hearts in any evils and troubles that we should endure CHAP. XXVII Exhortation to seek after eternal things THe last Use is an Use of Exhortation that seeing nothing that is for a season can satisfie the heart what remains but that we should seek after that which is beyond a season for the satisfaction of our hearts Look at the things that will satisfie an immortal soul let it be of the largest extent that can be these cannot upon this ground because they are but for a season Then let our hearts be after eternal things I am this day to speak to divers hundreds of you here that must every one of you live in eternity one way or other yong and old you must live in a time beyond this season Now having to speak to you that must live eternally this is that which I have to do To get your hearts up to seek after eternal things and O that this might be done if I should never preach more and you should never hear more yet if this should be obtained that you should live eternally that you should have your hearts got up to eternal things you should be blessed and I should think my self happy Philip King of Macedon would have a man come and cry to him every morning You are mortal this is that which I should rather choose that you might daily here a voyce that You are immortal The better part of you must live eternally Were it that eternity were presented to us in the reality of it how mightily would it work to draw our hearts to eternal things Certainly our thoughts are not upon eternity the thoughts of eternity are mighty prevailing thoughts they are over-awing thoughts soul ballacing thoughts that would ballast our hearts they are infinite pertinent thoughts that do infinitely concern us You that have had a company of sleight thoughts and have set the strength of your spirits in thinking of chaffy things O this day here is an object presented to you to help you against sleight thoughts This one word Eternity and the thoughts of this word may be enough for you to banish vain and chaffy thoughts away for ever it concerns us to have the strength of our spirits busied about this There is a request that I have to every one of you and I will put it as fair and easie and low as may be because I would not have it denyed that is That every one that God by his providence hath brought this day here into this Assembly would resolve in their own thoughts and covenant with God to spend but one half quarter of an hour in meditating of eternity every day there is no such great difficulty in it to have such thoughts as these renewed every day This body of mine though frail and mortal it must live for ever and this soul of mine it must live eternally I have spent a great deal of time in seeking after contentment to my flesh for the present but O Lord what have I done to provide for eternity The renewing of this daily and setling of this daily upon the heart what might it do It cannot be imagined what it might do Precious are the thoughts of eternity so precious that there is many a soul that would not for a thousand worlds but have had those thoughts to be setled upon them so precious as many souls are now in Heaven magnifying and blessing of God that they
had such serious thoughts of eternity before they left this world Certainly until you come to have your thoughts setled in some measure upon this you do not understand wherefore you were born nor unto what you were born you never have done any thing to purpose about the great business that God hath sent you into the world for until you come to have serious working thoughts about eternity you have had all this while a seduced heart that hath deceived you and all your life hath been a dream If God should begin to dart thoughts into your hearts and stick them upon your minde about this argument now you begin to live and to awake it were not possible that any lusts should stand before these thoughts you complain often of weakness and that you meet with temptations that are very strong behold here a means to resist strong temptations to strengthen you against the strongest temptations that you can possibly meet withal in the world namely the serious thoughts of things that are beyond this season It is reported of the customs that have been observed amongst the Rites and Ceremonies in making of Bishops they had this speech to them Have eternity in your mindes O that this speech were renewed upon us in all our conditions and businesses that so it may prevail with us to seek after that which is eternal And to that end that what I speak this way may not vanish and come to nothing for it is a serious argument that we are about I am loth that it should come to nothing consider these motives First it is onely the rational creature that knows any thing that is beyond this season this is the excellency of a rational creature that it hath any notion about any thing that is eternal Now that God hath made us of such a nature and no creature else but us and Angels surely there is something in it Mens hearts do naturally desire eternity and think this is good if it might last That is very observable therefore that we have in Hos 14. 5. concerning Gods expression of himself to his people where he would express himself so as to satisfie his people he says I will be as the dew unto Israel he shall grow as the Lilly and cast forth his roots as Lebanon The dew and the Lilly are sweet things but the dew though it be sweet is quickly gone and the Lilly is sweet but it is observed by the Naturalists that the Lilly does not take much root in the earth therefore mark what follows and he shall cast forth his roots as Lebanon you shall have the sweetness of the Lilly but you shall have the roots of Lebanon Lebanon was the place of Cedars and the roots of Cedars are deep They that dwell under his shadow shall return they shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine It might be said the corn lasts but a year therefore God adds and grow as the vine the Vine does not onely bud and send forth his branches and grapes one year but the next year and the next year it continues therefore that God might present his mercies fully to the hearts of his people he does present them in this satisfying way that his mercies shall be abiding mercies Why should we be as Children to run after bubbles Men seek after inheritances and to have things made sure for perpetuity so it should be with us Secondly let us look upon things that are beyond this season that are eternal because that in these times of the Gospel God hath revealed eternity and eternal things abundantly more clearly then ever they were revealed in the Law in the time of the Law there was little made known concerning eternity but the times of the Gospel being renewed now the treasures of eternity are opened Immortality is brought to light by the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10. Now the glorious things of eternity are set before our eyes and we the Ministers of God are commanded to present them to you and you living under the Gospel where you hear so much of eternity revealed it would be dreadful if you should be deceived with things that are but for a season Thirdly every one of you as you are born are born with your backs upon Gods eternity and your faces towards hells eternity and therefore you had need look beyond things that are but for a season and minde the things of your eternal good with all your might Fourthly all your eternal good does depend upon the short uncertain moment of your lives if the thrid be but cut and you have not provided for your eternal good you are lost and undone for ever you do not know but upon every moment depends eternity Fifthly know you may be far nearer to the Ocean of eternity then you are aware and therefore you had need have your thoughts fastened upon eternity Who knows but that before the morning some that are here may understand what eternity means and be lanching into the infinite Ocean of it there is many a man that is in his jollity strength and health that is called forth by God suddenly to lanch into this Ocean If God call you suddenly before you be ready what will become of you now you may be near it You that are old are certainly near it within a few years you must know what eternity means you shall know a great deal of difference between things that are for a season and beyond a season and yong ones may as we have daily examples now you that are yong consider those examples and put the case Suppose I had been called to laâ—â—h into eternity when such a one was called had I been ready what had become of me O consider how near you may be unto it and therefore look not upon things that are temporal but let your hearts be after things that are eternal Again consider how happy those souls would think themselves that are in their eternal estates and are miscarried if they had time to provide for eternity again Many are gone and snatched away from all things that are for a season and are swimming in the infinite Ocean of eternal misery and they look about them and see vastness no limits no end no land If they could but come back again and have their time again how do you think would they carry themselves about things that are but for a season do you think temptations would draw their hearts again If company should come to draw them to drinking and uncleanness would they yield then they would with indignation cast away those temptations and say God forbid I should be drawn with these things that are but for a season I know what eternity means O now you have time improve this argument and labor to provide for eternity now prayers and tears may do you good for eternity within a while if you could let streams of blood issue from you it can do
you no good and if this argument prevail to get off your hearts beyond things that are for a season there will arise these two questions O that I did but know how it should go with me eternally O how shall I get eternal things to be my portion CHAP. XXVIII How we should know how it will be with us for eternity and what we should do that it may be well with us eternally IF you say How shall I know how it shall be with me for eternity shall it be well or not well with my soul when I am beyond things that are for a season You may have some guess by those thoughts you have had upon things for eternity you that have given liberty to your selves to satisfie your selves in the things of the flesh and your hearts have been fully satisfied in the things of the world and this point is a strange point to you you have cause to conclude with your selves that you are in a miserable condition for eternity but if your consciences can testifie that this point the getting of your hearts from things that are but for a season and setting them upon the things that are eternal is that which the Lord hath setled upon your hearts for many years when you wake in the night or in the morning the same thoughts that are presented to me by the Word the Lord hath presented to me by his Spirit the strength and chief of my thoughts have been busied about this argument It is a good sign that God does intend good for that soul to eternity whom he is pleased to possess with the thoughts of it so deeply for the present Again consider could you not wish in your hearts that you might live always and that the content and delight in this world in meat and drink and sports do satisfie you and you think your selves happy in the enjoyment of them certainly God hath not yet savingly made known the things of eternity to you Those that God does prepare for his eternal mercies in Heaven God does take off their hearts from all things in the world that if it were put to your choice though you might have a thousand worlds you would not have them for your portion no there are more glorious more excellent things for my soul to have and therefore God forbid I should have my portion in these things though they were to endure Augustine brings in Plotinus acknowledging it the mercy of God to man that his soul is in a mortal body that the body is not immortal but that after a little time the bodies of men may be dissolved and so their souls be there for ever where the soul of the world is that is his expression 3. A third Argument that it shall be well with you for eternity is this To know what seeds of eternity God hath begun to plant in your hearts This is a certain truth There is no soul that God intends eternal life unto but God begins eternal life in this world You know what St. John says He that hates his brother hath not eternal life abiding in him Eternal life is begun in this world in all that shall be saved therefore think with your selves What seeds of eternity have I put into my soul All common graces and moral vertues are not a seed that will grow up to eternal life but saving grace will though it be under the clods for the present it will grow up eternity Fourthly Examine the Scriptures look into the book of God and see whether the Scripture speaks well on your side because that in this Book in this Scripture there God hath revealed the eternal counsels of his will and the great things about mans eternal estate there is little in all the Book of the Creature the Book of Creation revealed of the counsels of Gods will about bringing man to his eternal estate but in this Book of the Scripture he hath revealed his will concerning this and therefore confider does this speak well of your side Thus by these arguments you may know how it shall be with you for eternity But what shall we do to get a portion in those things that shall be eternal First labor to bring all things in subordination to eternity do not make other things your scope make them an underling and take no further content in them then that they may further your souls to eternity Suppose you have an estate encreasing more then another what will you do with it how will you use it wherein do you count the good of it to consist that by these things I have coming from God I hope to make use of them to fit me for eternal mercies and to treasure up eternal mercies by a sanctified holy use of these things but when temporal things come in and your hearts rest upon them without subordination to eternal things this is infinitely dangerous Secondly make conscience of the little time you have O it is but a little time you have let that be consecrated and devoted to God it is eternal happiness that you look for hereafter why should you not be willing to spend as much of this little time for it as can be Thirdly labor to be exact in all that you do for you are working for eternity As Zeuxis the Painter when he was askt why he was so accurate in his Painting says he I Paint for eternity Let us in our Christian profession be exact in our way because we live for eternity There is nothing that does make men so accurate in their way as this and let the men of the world know that this is the reason of the exactness of the ways of Gods people because they know they live to eternity Hypocrites who in Religious duties aim onely at some present some temporal good they are not exact they rest in outsides but the Saints who make eternity their aym are exact in all things especially those things that have a more immediate influence into eternity Fourthly be sure all you do you do upon divine and eternal grounds take heed of being carnal and earthly in your spiritual services but in all duties in Gods worship look to an eternal God and let your principles aims grounds and intentions be eternal The Temple was called Bethgnolam the house of Eternity do all you do in the house of God in his Ordinances in order to eternity that it may indeed be an house of eternity unto you Lastly be sure you be constant abide constantly to the end do not onely begin and now and then in a good mood have some thoughts of a good life and providing for your souls but abide be constant And if you take these ways by this you shall come to choose Moses Choice O that now in my winding up of all by all that hath been said some soul or other may have cause to bless God in being inclined to choose the same
such a foolish speech out of the mouth of a reasonable creature if there be any thing that should uphold your hearts it should be your innocency therefore let not such a speech be heard out of a man or womans mouth much less out of a Christians mouth if your guilt would encrease the burthen of the reproach as most certainly it would then it would be harder to bear it being guilty then now it is being innocent But this is that which sinks my heart it is a reproach that takes away my Name even from those that are godly and they come by these reproaches to have hard thoughts of me and this is the greatest affliction for an outward affliction under Heaven It is true Zedekiah feared more to be mocked of the Jews then of the Chaldeans it is certainly a sorer affliction to be reproached by the professors of Religion then by any others but yet God is pleased to exercise his people many times with this affliction also and it may be God sees this to be the most seasonable and suitable to exercise you withal because he would wholly take off your hearts from other things and satisfie your souls with himself alone and blessed is that man that can make this use of it to get his heart the more close and fully to God It is the blessing of God upon you that your heart is above the reproaches of other men if God will exercise you with an affliction that you are sensible of it is fit you should yield your self unto him in it Would you have God exercise you in such afflictions as are onely easie to be born of which you should not be sensible it is the bitterness of them that causeth them to work if they were not bitter as to make you sensible it is not like they would be profitable Thirdly some cannot tell how to bear their reproaches because it is not onely a disgrace to their name but it hinders their service in Gods Church by this means they come to have ill esteem and are not like to do so much good in the Church of God which I confess is a great matter Let no man lay so much upon his service he shall do but let God have his work his own way and God expects this humility from us that he may have his work done his own way and if God pleaseth he may make use of us to do so much work for him as if our names were never so clear The Prophets were scorned and reproached and did they never do service and St. Paul never any man in the world that ever did God more service and yet no man that ever was so much reproached as he he was whipped up and down as if he had been a rogue and he was fain to go about in tatters not having wherewithal to cover his nakedness and had not bread to put in his body and was called a seditious fellow and counted the filth of all things and yet this St. Paul was used as the most worthy instrument of Gods service that ever was since the world began next Christ himself Secondly the arguments that may move us to bear reproaches patiently First a Christian is called to do and suffer great things for God and strong and glorious is the grace of God that is in a man where it is true now if Christianity shall not enable to bear reproaches what will it enable you to do Does not the Scripture speak of the excellency and the glory and the power of the grace of God What excellency and power and glory is in it if it cannot do this Now Christians that are called to do and suffer such great things should be above the reproaches of the world Seneca would not have them called miseries but trouble some things concerning which we cannot say a wise man overcomes them but he is so far above them as he is scarce sensible of them if it be not out of stupidity or discontentedness but out of true magnanimity of spirit that one is not sensible of such things this beseems a Christian well Now if a Christian having received the grace of God should not think much of any misery that he is capable of in this world then surely he should not have his heart sink when there is but a troublesome thing befaln him It was the speech of Xenophon when one came and reproached him says he You have learned how to reproach and I have learned how to bear reproach And Aristippus the Philosopher said You are fit to cast reproaches and I am fit to hear reproaches Secondly what are you or what is your names that you should think much to bear reproach when as others that are your betters that are not so vile not so guilty as you not so lyable to reproach as you when as others of Gods servants that have been most eminent in grace and parts have been under exceeding reproach yea others whose names have been far more worth then yours there have been more use of their names and credits and honors then of yours and yet God hath so ordered it in his providence that reproaches and aspersions have been cast upon them and do you think so much to be reproached What do we think of our flesh better then others that we should not endure trouble in it and what do we think of our names that we cannot endure reproaches in them Yea not onely others that are better then you but God and Christ is reproached How is the name of God slighted the basest wretch that will tremble before his Master thinks himself good enough to blaspheme the name of God How is the majesty soveraignty and authority of God contemned in the world How are the dreadful threatnings of God and the revelation of Gods wrath scorned in the world When as we hear out of the word such dreadful manifestations of Gods wrath against sin which calls for trembling hearts yet how are they slighted in the world thus God is reproached and Christ No man is able to bear so much contempt as Christ beares daily says Luther Not to speak of the reproaches that Christ endures in his people but the reproaches that he endured in his person in his preaching how was he contemned in Luke 16. 14. when he preached against covetousness the Pharisees scorned at him the word signifies They blew their noses at him you know how he was called a Devil a Samaritan a wine-bibber a friend of publicans and sinners What worse can be imagined then was cast upon Christ they spit on his face that blessed face of his that the waves of the Sea were afraid of and that the Sun withdrew its light from as not being fit to behold it and yet they put thorns upon his head and bowed to him in reproach yea in his misery how was he reproached when he was upon the Cross they nodded their heads at him
are weak or ignorant or such as are malicious Weak and ignorant for any one that hath wisdom to be troubled at the reproaches of those that are weak it is a wonderful disgrace Will any man care that is a workman to have an unskilful man reproach his work It is a notable speech of Seneca Some are possest with such great folly and madness to think they may be reproached by a woman And for the malicious alas they reproach themselves a great deal more then they reproach you they do but discover their own filth in it and therefore are compared to swine swine will leave other things and continually be rooting in dung and so those that love to be reproaching leave the good that is in any and will always be rooting in their filth here they shew their swinish dispositions One compares a reproacher to the stone that struck down Nebuchadnezzars Image whose head was of gold and the breast and upper parts of silver and the feet of clay the stone came and struck the feet the clay and so struck it down so reproachers do not look at the gold and silver the parts and graces of Gods people but if there be any clay any infirmities or sins they strike at them and so fell them down The godly had need fence their feet of clay and infirmities that they do not lie open to malicious men Erasmus tells of one who collected all the lame and defective verses in Homers Works but passed over all that were excellent So these if they can spy any thing defective and evil they observe it and gather all they can together but will take no notice of that which is good and praise-worthy like the Kite who flies over the fair meadows and flowers and lights onely upon the carrion or like flyes that love onely to be upon the sore galled places of the horses back And what is it you are reproached for it is either good or evil if it be good you have no cause to be troubled if it be evil it is threefold the evil of sin or natural infirmities or outward meanness If it be the evil of sin then either you are guilty or not guilty if you be guilty it is not reproach but right judgement of thy condition and if there be such a great evil for others to speak of it what a great evil is it for thee to be guilty of it and therefore you should turn all the trouble that you have for the notice which is taken of it upon your guiltiness in it and many times although the thing be true they say of you yet it is so poor and mean a thing that you may comfort your self in this that surely they cannot perceive worse in you for if they could they would make use of that Latimer in his last Sermon before K. Edward says He was glad when any objected indiscretion against him in his Sermons for says he by that I knew the matter was good else they would soon have condemned that And if you be not guilty innocency is bulwark enough Says Seneca He is to be ashamed that does unjustly and shall you be ashamed that are innocent Yes others think I am guilty But if you go on in an innocent way whosoever do think so do disgrace themselves for suppose one should say the Sun were dark and another should believe it who is disgraced the Sun or the man that either said it or believed it so if an aspersion be cast upon those that are godly and they walk in a shining conversation before others it will be such a reproach to any that raises the reproach as it will keep others from believing of it But if the evil be some natural infirmity weakness of parts or the like then thou mayest comfort thy self in this that there is no dishonor in natural infirmity it is onely sin that brings shame there is a relation between sin and shame but between nothing else and shame it is a sign also they want other things when they reproach thee for natural infirmities Seventhly consider what honor God hath put upon you and what he intends to put upon you if you be godly he hath put honor enough upon you and that may be enough to uphold the heart under all the reproaches and stains that men and Devils can cast upon you Hath not the Lord been pleased to bring you into the honorable estate of sonship and hath put his glory upon your souls and hath honored you by that near relation you have to Christ he hath honored you by the glorious priviledges of the Gospel he hath honored you by giving himself and Christ to you he hath honored you in the hearts of his Saints men of precious spirits who know much of Gods minde who are able to judge wherein true excellency consists their hearts are with you they bless God for you the esteem of one godly man is more to be regarded then thousands of others your name is precious amongst the Saints and that is enough When Doeg reproached David with devouring words in Sauls Court yet David blessed himself in this Psalm 52. 8. But I am a green Olive-tree in the house of God Doeg flourisheth in the Court and my name may be blasted there but In the house of God there my name is precious I am there as a green olive-tree and that is more to me then flourishing in Sauls Court Now shall the reproach of an evil tongue take away the comfort of a godly heart that hath so great honors We count it a great evil and exceeding was the basenes of the spirit of Haman when he was so honored by the King and his Nobles yet that he should be vexed because Mordecai would not bow to him that all his honor should do him no good so is it not the baseness of the spirits of Gods Servants truly it is to be called by no other name when as God hath raised them to such glory when as God hath made them Members of and Coheirs with his Son and they are invited to the Banquet of the Lord to the great Supper of the Lamb and the Lord hath provided for them all the glory of Heaven and there are such glorious things spoken of them in the word yet for all this if they come into wicked company and have but an evil tongue speak against them they are so discouraged and cast down as if all the honor that God had put upon them were nothing What an evil thing is this And how do you derogate from the goodness of God to walk thus unbeseeming Christians If you had never so much filth upon you for the present being there is so much honor to come what need you to care If a man be going to be crowned and to be glorified and those that do not know him as he goes contemn him what cares he He knows that within a few days he shall be honored by
running up and down from one witness to another but a gracious heart hath other ways to help it self it cryes to God most high and looks for help from Heaven God sends forth his mercy and truth to help and there is help indeed Fifthly another help is this if you can but get your hearts quietly and kindely to lament the condition of your reproachers this will be a marvellous means tosweeten the heart and to help to bear reproaches It was the answer of Socrates to one who wondred at his patience towards one who reviled him If we should meet one says he whose body were more unsound then ours should we be angry with him and not rather pity him why then should we not do the like to him whose soul is more diseased then ours The folly of our reproachers should cause us to pity them to be patient towards them and pass by the wrong they do unto us this was one of the arguments that Abigail brought to David to quiet his spirit that was so stirred against Nabal because of that reproach he cast upon him Nabal saith she is his name and folly is with him it is his folly rather pity him it is too low a thing for such a spirit as Davids is to be stirred with it Instead of being troubled with the reproaches that are upon you your spirits should be most troubled for their sin Now there is infinite cause we have to be troubled for their sin more then for any evil that befals us An evil tongue devours and is an abomination and in Prov. 8. 13. God says The froward mouth he hates Now if you have any love you should think thus This poor man what hath he done he hath brought himself under the hatred of God now this should mightily affect the hearts of the godly As he is an abomination to God so he is an abomination to men Prov. 24. 9. The scorner is an abomination to men scornful spirits love to cast shame and ignominy upon others And in Prov. 18. 7. A fools mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul we should think he hath but ensnared his own soul and so fall a lamenting of his wretched condition And so in Isa 33. 10. Your breath as fire shall devour you If the breath of any man devours him the breath of revilers and reproachers and slanderers does The Heathens called a reproacher A three tongued man because he hurts three at once he hurts him that he reproaches and him that heard the reproach and himself worst of all do but get power over your hearts to bewail this sin and your reproach will not be so troublesom Trilinguis Gallesius a writer upon Exod. 22. ver 28. observes the exceeding patience of those three Emperors Theodosius Honorius Arcadius towards those who spake evil of them they would have them subject to no punishment for they said If it comes from lightness of spirit it is to be contemned if from madness it is worthy of pity if from injury it is to be pardoned wrongs are to be forgiven Again labor to possess your souls with the reality of the sweet of and the honor there is in the ways of God so no reproach will be grievous to you As it is said of the covetous man when some told him Such and such hiss at thee but says he I care not I rejoyce in what I have at home that I have so much money in my chest So it should be with a gracious heart he should say I have sweet enough in my own heart what need I trouble my self with what others think or say Seventhly labor to satisfie your souls in the glory of God and Christ Though my name be cast out as filth yet the name of God and Christ is blessed and glorious and so shall be for ever let Devils and wicked men do what they can against it It was a good speech of Luther writing to his friend Spalatinus bemoaning his condition to him because of the scorn and contempt he suffered yet comforting himself in this that Christ lived and reigned Luther is accounted even a Devil but Christ lives and reigns he addes his Amen to it Thirdly it is not enough to bear reproaches patiently but we must bear them fruitfully a christian should think he hath not done that which belongs to a christian unless he hath got some good by them a christian should not think it enough to free himself from the scorn of the tongue but he must improve it for good by it First consider what ends God aims at by it and labor to work them upon your selves that you may attain to those ends Secondly labor to draw what good instructions you can from the reproaches of others As namely thus when I hear men reproach and revile O what a deal of evil is there secretly in the heart of man that is not discovered till it have occasion I did not think that such and such could ever have been reproachers if they had not been provoked Again do I see another so vigilant over me to finde me out to reproach me how vigilant should I be over my self to finde out what is in me to humble me Again is there so much evil to be under the stroke of mans tongue what a great evil is it to be under the stroke of Gods justice Lastly to be fruitful that is set upon what duty God calls for at the present surely this is one great general duty that the less credit I see I have in the world let me labor to have the more credit in Heaven I see there is a breach of my name here let me seek to make up my name in Heaven 4. And then they must be born joyfully but we shall speak of that afterwards in the third point that a gracious heart is not onely willing to bear reproach when God calls unto it but in the cause of CHRIST to triumph and rejoyce in his reproaches 5. Lastly we should return good for evil then you come to the top of Christianity This is a sign of great progress in Religion If I be weak saith Ambrose perhaps I may pardon one charging me falsly but if I have profited although not altogether perfect though he flows in upon me with reproaches I hold my peace and answer nothing but if I be perfect I then bless him that reviles me according to that of St. Paul Being reviled we bless If you can do thus if you can heartily pray for your reproachers and desire good to them and be willing to take notice of any good in them to clear up their innocency where there is iust cause if you can be ready to offer any offices of love and respect and kindeness to them and so heap coals of fire upon them this is a great sign of grace you have made a good progress indeed in Gods way Mat. 5. 44
lane and such a craggy mountain though he would be glad they were not yet when he comes at them he is glad because they are signs of the way he must go Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life Master Bradford made use of that place when he came to the Stake and looked upon his sufferings as an evidence to him that he was in the right way Secondly they are an evidence to him of that difference that God hath made between others and him there was a time when as other men could close with me and agree with me now see what a difference there is they nothing but contemn me and despiseme I might have gone on and have been a scorner and a mocker as they are O the difference that God hath made between me and them that God should call me from them who was as vile as they and suffer them to be reproachers of godliness and make me a sufferer for godliness Jerome writ to Augustine that it was a great sign of glory to him that all Hereticks did hate him Thirdly it is an evidence of the sincerity and the power of his grace and his love that he bears to Christ and this is great riches for a gracious heart says Lord try me Lord prove me he would fain have an opportunity to manifest the truth of his love to Christ all the while I go on in a way of prosperity and have the desire of my heart wherein appears my love to Christ but now when I am called to suffering and to part with much for Christ here is an opportunity to shew I love Christ for himself that my love to him does not depend upon any thing that I gain by him in the world The Apostle says The tryal of your grace he speaks of faith is more precious then silver and gold and not onely your grace is more precious but the tryal of grace is more precious then gold and silver A gracious heart does rejoyce much in evidencing love to Christ as any dear friend rejoyces much in any opportunity of manifesting his love to another friend and the greater the opportunity is the more does he rejoyce And likewise the power of grace is manifested as David said to the King Achish Thou shalt know what thy servant can do and so a gracious heart thinks here is an opportunity to manifest the strength and power that is in grace Fourthly they are an evidence that much good is done that Satans kingdom is shaken in sufferings we see the rage of the Devil and he rages then most when he sends most opposition to his kingdom wherefore those against whom he rages most may have hereby evidence that they were most instrumental against him I rejoyce says Luther That Satan does so rage and blaspheme as often as I do but touch him he took it as an argument that much good was done otherwise the Devil would not have been so vexed he would not have raged so much Fifthly a gracious heart hath an evidence to it self that God will spare him when others shall suffer from his wrath Certainly the more any one is called to suffer in the cause of God and when he findes his heart ready and willing to yield to God in suffering the more evidence may he have to his soul that when others shall be called to suffer from Gods wrath he shall be spared and this is the bottom of the prayer of the Psalmist Psal 89. 50. Remember Lord the reproach of thy servants how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of the mighty people I read of one Escelus being condemned to be stoned to death and all the people were ready to cast stones at him and his brother came and run in and shewed that he had but one hand and the other hand he had lost for the defence of his countrey and then none would stone him and so the marks of the Lord Jesus are notable marks to safeguard thee in the time of trouble when the Lord goes out in his wrath he will set his mark upon those that he will save and none more notable marks then the reproaches and sufferings they bear for Christ This was Jeremiahs plea before the Lord chap. 15. ver 5. O Lord thou knowest remember me and visit me know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke Lastly it is an evidence of salvation Phil. 1. 28. not that all that suffer shall be saved but a gracious heart that suffers in a gracious Christian maner hath God sealing to him by his spirit in his sufferings his salvation Put these together and we see one cause why we should count the reproaches of Christ great riches yea this is greater riches then the riches of Egypt Secondly the reproaches and sufferings which we endure for Christ are riches of preferment It was a speech of Ignatius when he was to suffer It is better for me to be a Martyr then a Monarch Epist 12. ad Romanos Euseb l. 8. c. 7. To be preferred to honor is counted great riches now there is a preferment of Gods people here these three or four ways Basil upon that famous Martyr Bar-aam says he rejoyced in stripes as in honors he exulted in the severest punishments as if praeclara bravia acceperet First the Saints look upon this as high preferment because it is a testimony that God hath a high esteem of them God does not use to call those that are weak and mean to great sufferings but his servants that are most eminent God will dispose of the conditions of his people suitable to their dispositions therefore he will not call those to the strongest work that are weakest A Captain does not call out his mean Soldiers to a notable enterprize but he calls out his most able couragious Soldiers and the more desperate the enterprize is the more honor the Soldier thinks it to be called out so the greater work God calls one to the more preferment is in it and we have cause to admire that God should deal so with us his poor creatures rather then others as if we were fitter then ' others though we cannot say we are fitter because we are conscious to our selves of so much weakness but God honors us as if it were so Secondly by this we come to be honorable in the eyes of the Churches and the Saints of God nothing makes Gods people more honorable in the eyes of the Saints then when they are called to suffer much for God And so in the Primitive times they esteemed much of the Martyrs even too much Chrysostom speaking of Babylas the Martyr calls him a great man a man to be admired and says if I may call him a man and Tertullian writing to some of the Martyrs says I am not worthy to speak to you he writes that it was a custom of some in those times to creep to the Chains
of grace be to take the hearts of the Saints from the things of the world and to settle them upon higher and better things then certainly there are glorious things to come The last demonstration is this because there are such glorious first fruits of that which is to come that Gods people do finde for the present those blessed rays of heavenly consolations and those beginnings of Heaven that they finde here if there were a thousand worlds filled with that glory that this is filled with they would not take it for one ray one beam that is made known unto them as the first fruits of that glory they shall have hereafter now put all these together and we may conclude Verily there is a reward for the righteous verily there is a glorious condition for Gods servants happy are they that shall be made partakers of these things certainly there are great things to come Before we go any further me thinks the thoughts of these should raise our hearts what do we here minding such poor empty things are these the things that God hath made us for are not the thoughrs of God concerning the children of men higher and more glorious then these outward things surely there is something else that God hath made mans immortal soul for above any thing that it hath seen in the world men do live for the present as if there were no other condition for them no greater good but onely to cat and drink and have money and brave cloathes and the like O know there are better things for us to look after but thus we pass from the first thing that there are blessed things for the children of men hereafter CHAP. XL. How far we may aym at the recompence of reward in what we do IT is true will some say there are glorious things prepared for some of the children of men but whether may we look after them may we have a respect to the reward Is not this a mercenary thing and hypocrisie we are not to serve God for reward but for himself and therefore how is this that Moses had a respect unto the recompence of reward and how is this a thing that should help us on in our way First this is granted that we are bound to serve the Lord and to walk with him and obey him if there were no reward to be expected hereafter God is infinitely worthy of himself of all our services of all that we are able to do in this world and whatsoever we have the Lord hath more interest in it then we have in it our selves and therefore we owe all that we are or have unto him and righteousness it self is sufficient to cause us to perform the works of it In the keeping of thy Commandments there is great reward Psalm 19. 11. Not onely for keeping them but in keeping them there is great reward and the excellency of our work would be sufficient reward for our work though there were no reward that were to come hereafter we are bound to do all we do But yet secondly notwithstanding this God is pleased to give leave unto us his poor creatures to help and encourage our selves in the expectation of that reward that is to come yea to make it our aim though I will not say the highest aim for so the word signifies in 2 Cor. 4. 18. While we look not at things which are seen but at the things which are not seen the word signifies While we make things that are not seen our scope and aym so that God gives us leave to have such respect unto them as to make them our aym and so the people of God have looked at the recompence of reward as a great encouragement to them in their way Psal 119. 112. I have enclined my heart to perform thy statutes alway even to the end the same word that signifies end signifies reward also because reward is to come at the end of all our works and therefore the same word is translated reward in Psal 19. 11. and so the word seems to carry more then to the end as if David should say I have enclined my heart to perform thy Statutes alway looking unto the reward In Heb. 12. 3. it is said of Christ himself That for the joy that was set before him he endured the Cross and despised the shame Now if Christ made use of the joy that was set before him and that was a help to him to endure the Cross and despise the shame much more may we make use of it and it may be a help to us so that we have leave to look at it Yea thirdly we have not onely leave to look at it but it is our duty to seek to help our selves in eying the reward we sin against God if we do it not and the reason is because we are bound to make use of the word in that way that God hath revealed it to us now God hath revealed the glorious things of the recompence of the reward in a way of encouragement and therefore we sin against God if we do not encourage our selves in it Some think why should we look at the reward we must look to the rule and see that our obedience be accordingly but know if you do not look to the reward you do not only hinder your selves of the good you might have but do sin against God in it Here you deceive your selves as Ahaz did deceive himself in Isaiah 7. 11. where God bid him ask a sign he was modest and bashful and would not ask a sign he would not tempt God he would believe the Lord without a sign see how the Lord is angry Is it a small thing to weary man but will you weary God also When as the Lord in favor towards you will vouchsafe you a sign and you refuse it as if you had no need why will you weary God so as when God for the help of our weakness will grant us an argument to help us in our way and we think it is modesty or what you will to leave it in this we sin against the Lord our God Fourthly I never finde that the Scripture does accuse any of Hypocrisie of unsoundness and not to have truth of grace meerly for this because that they did aym at the reward which is in Heaven for that they did you shall finde in Scripture many are discovered for hypocrites for looking at the glory of the world as their aym for seeking of riches and credit but give me an instance where any is accused for unsoundness for seeking of immortallity and eternity and happiness this is that which troubles many Christians that which they do is out of self-love and they aym at themselves God did never discover any to be unsound upon this ground and therefore we should be cautious in accusing our selves of this as many do because for the present they cannot see how they go further then seeking of
the men of the world Gal. 1. 4. It is said that Christ hath given himself to deliver us from this present evil world it is a part of the purchase of Christ to be wholly freed from all the evils of this present world and this purchase of Christ we shall have Under the highest regions are the tempests and storms but above there are none so in this world the Saints meet with tempests and storms but above are none As the Psalmist says In thy light O God we shall see light so in the light of God we shall see nothing but light now when Gods light does shine into us it does discover darkness but time will come though Gods light shall shine never so brightly we shall see no darkness but altogether light We read concerning Moses and Elias in Luke 9. in the transfiguration of Christ the Text says They did confer about his decease that should be accomplished at Jerusalem the Saints of God shall meet together and Moses and Elias and the Patriarchs and shall confer no more about deceases about troubles and sufferings that shall be accomplished all those evils shall be done away We may say of evils all as Moses did to the people of Israel concerning the Egyptians Those your enemies that now you see you shall never see any more So we may say to Gods people that go out of the world to partake of the recompence of reward be quiet be still those evils of sin of sorrow that now you see and feel you shall never see never feel any more that is something though it be negatively Secondly comparatively and herein are three things First to compare the good the happiness that shall be hereafter with all the good and happiness that we have here Secondly compare it with the condition of Adam in the estate of innocency Thirdly compare it with the happiness of the Angels CHAP. XLII The differences between that good we receive here from God and that we shall have hereafter FIrst we will compare that we have here with that we shall have hereafter Brethren though we receive many mercies from God yet look what difference there is between that close place of the womb that the infant is in before it be born and this space of the world that the childe comes into when it is born such difference is between all this world and any good and happiness here and the world that is to come this and much more then this First here we receive good from without First unto our outward senses and by them it comes into the soul but now hereafter God shall first let out good unto the soul unto the rational part and from the redundancy of that good and glory that God shall communicate unto the rational soul there shall flow glory and sweetness and good to the body and outward senses whereas here we see from without and so it comes in there shall be a spring and a fountain of good within the soul the kingdom of heaven shall be within and more good shall be in the heart and flow from thence outwardly then to be received from without and so to come inwardly for us to receive something in our sences and so to convey it to the soul this is but a low way but to have a spring and fountain of all good and happiness to be within the soul and so spread it self and flow out this shews wonderfully the blessedness of Gods people when God shall communicate himself to them in that way Secondly here the excellency and eminency of an object does destroy the faculty if the faculties of our souls be exercised about objects that are very high above us that are full of excellency and glory they destroyed the faculty as now though light be the most pleasing to the eye of all things in the world yet the excellency and glory of light destroys the eye so sound is the proper object of the ear but if the sound be too great it makes one deaf but it is otherwise in heaven the more excellent the object is the more perfect will the faculty be the object shall not onely delight the faculty but perfect and strengthen the faculty nature as in a glass but thus far that as we see good in the creature now then we shall see them by knowing God himself more then by knowing the creature And the reason is because all excellency and good that is in the creature is eminently in God for all the good of the effects must needs be eminently in all the principles and the good of all principles in the first principle If all good in the creature be eminently in God and the souls of the blessed shall come perfectly to know God so far as their created understandings shall be capable of then they must needs see the excellency of the creature in God We shall know as we are known 1 Cor. 13. 12. Upon this a learned man hath this note We shall know as we are known now God knows all his works by knowing himself by knowing his own power and will and nature and so we shall know as we are known because we shall know the creatures by knowing God Fourthly here the mercies and good that we have from God are sweetned unto us by the sense of our wants But hereafter we shall prize them and have the sweetness of them in regard of their own fulness not from such a low relation as our wants and our necessities when God would have us prize any mercy here he first makes us sensible of the want of the mercy and so it comes to be sweet to us and scarce any mercy comes to be sweet unless we feel the want of it first for else we would prize the mercy at any time but in that we do not prize all mercies always alike it appears the great commendation of Gods mercy is from our wants but hereafter the prizings and the relish and the sweet of all shall be from the fulness of the goodness that we finde in God Gods goodness to us here is but the supplying of some defect but hereafter Gods goodness shall be the glorifying of perfect nature Fifthly here when we do enjoy any comfort from God we are much sensible of it at the present enjoyment but after we have had it a little while we grow to be less sensible we begin to be cloyed with it as the most beautiful sight that we did admire at first if we see it every day it does not affect us as who is affected at the sight of the Sun because he sees it every day but suppose we had lived all our days in a dark dungeon and this had been the first day we were brought out of the dungeon and now see the Sun and the Earths and Seas how mightily would we be taken with the sights that we see but now it is not so with us because we have the Sun every day
while their hearts are narrow and they cannot receive much from God but the Saints look for good hereafter when their hearts shall be enlarged when as the wicked when their souls shall be enlarged they shall have nothing but misery There is a twofold love when one shall will onely good to himself by another or will good to another now the love of good will is most glorious in God and it is mutual God shall will his good to the creature and the Saints shall will all good to God What good can they will to God It is true there can be no addition to the essential goodness of God but they can will that this his goodness be honored and praised and this shall be in the blessed communion between God and his Saints in the mutual working of their wills Thirdly in communion there is the communication of what one have unto another where there is right communion there is a communication on both parts if on receive good and the other do not labor to communicate it is not communion Now there is a glorious communication on Gods part First immediate Secondly full Thirdly free Fourthly everlasting First immediate whereas here God communicates himself through creatures or through ordinances there are conduits of conveyance for there is such distance between God and us that we cannot expect that immediate conveyance of Gods goodness and of himself to us here as we shall have in heaven Secondly the fulness of Gods communication Suppose that God should draw out all that beauty sweetness goodness and power that he hath communicated in all creatures in the world and bring the quintessence of all and communicate that unto the soul of one Saint certainly it would not serve the turn for the happiness of one Saint there must be a greater communication But conceive if we see one creature have so much power in it by its influence upon the dunghil as to produce such a glorious creature as life which is the most glorious thing that ever God did make Saint Augustine says There is more glory in the life of a flie then in the Sun in the Firmament Now if the Sun have such power to produce life from a piece of dirt what power shall the influence of an infinite God have upon a glorified soul No marvel though the Scripture says That eye hath not seen neither ear hath heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him Thirdly it is free as free as the Sun lets out its beams It is natural to a good thing to communicate much more for goodness it self certainly God being goodness in the abstract his communication must needs be free Fourthly it is everlasting the letting out of himself to the Saints shall preserve their strength that he may let out himself unto them as if there were that power in some excellent liquor that is let out into a vessel not onely to sweeten it but perpetually to preserve it that it may be letting out it self into it so God does everlastingly in communicating himself unto his people preserve them that he may communicate himself And then the Saints of God do communicate to God in the same way that God does to them They are always worshipping God immediately not through ordinances as they shall not receive any thing of God through ordinances so they shall not worship God through ordinances but as they receive immediately so they shall worship God immediately and their communication shall be full but as they cannot will any essential good to God so they cannot communicate any essential good but they shall communicate themselves and all that they are or have to God or if they were able to make a thousand worlds they would make them all for the glory of God but because that is beyond the power of any creature therefore they communicate themselves and all that they are or have or can do to God as a drop of water is let out into an infinite Ocean so they are let out unto God as into an infinite Ocean And then the communication is free having the divine nature made perfect in them that do flow to God when they see his divine nature and this communication shall be everlasting God letting out himself to them and they letting out themselves to God This is the reward of the Righteous and this is that which Moses had an eye unto and all Gods people that have an eye beyond the vail behold it with infinite soul-satisfaction Fourthly in communion with God there is a familiar converse between God and the Saints And herein are these particulars First God manifesting himself in a suitable way to the conditions of his people so as it were condescending to their condition that though his Majesty be infinite yet it shall no way be a terror unto them Here if a Saint of God sees but an Angel he is amazed but because God would have his people enjoy holy familiarity with himself therefore he will manifest himself so as though there be an infinite glory yet there shall be no amazement but that they shall be able familiarly to converse with him as one friend does with another The Scripture speaks of the familiar converse that God hath with his people here that they are called friends Abraham was called The friend of God and the Disciples were called friends but hereafter the friendship shall be much more full and sweet Job shall have his desire O that the terror of God may not fall upon me Here when God spake by himself many of the dearest of his Saints have been afraid but when we come to be made partakers of this blessed Recompence of reward all such fear shall be done away Again another thing in familiar converse is the mutual opening of themselves one to another much is said of Gods opening of himself to his people here Psal 25. 14. Prov. 3. 32. 1 Cor. 2. 16. John 15. 15. and that is the reason why they are brought into the Chamber spoken of in Cant. 1. 4. because their secrets are discovered as they said to the King of Judah concerning the Prophet The Prophet that is in Israel does reveal whatsoever thou doest in thy bed-chamber because in them Kings reveal their secrets The mysteries of the Kingdom are revealed to the Saints here much more in heaven there are many secret things that God hath to tell his people when they come to have familiarity with him When a man comes to a woman a stranger he does not tell her his secrets but when she is marryed to him then he tells her his secrets so in heaven God will reveal his secrets and they shall not onely see his face but they shall see Gods heart And they shall open their hearts to God for they shall have nothing in their hearts that they shall be ashamed of As the Sun-flower when the
to give all things to us richly to enjoy 1 Tim. 6. 17. There is no creature can give us to enjoy another another may give a man such and such things in which may be comfort but he cannot give him comfort in the thing it must be God that must give to enjoy no creature can properly give the enjoyment of another because though it gives the thing it cannot give the comfort with it but God gives the thing and he gives the comfort with it and so a man is said to enjoy it Fourthly it is such an enjoyment as the having of it does perfect that which does enjoy it and by that we shall understand the difference between other creatures attaining to their end and the rational creature attaining his end the other creatures when they attain their end they perish so as they cannot be said to enjoy their end the plants and beasts that God hath made for the use of man when man comes to have the use of them then they come to have their end but they do not enjoy their end because in having their end they are destroyed but the rational creature when he comes to have his end then he comes to have the highest perfection and so he may be said to enjoy it because when he comes to have his end he is made the more perfect so take these four together and you may know what I mean by fruition of God and that is the fifth particular 6. The sixth particular in having God to be their portion is the Rest that the foul hath in God The term of all motion is rest every thing that moves moves that it may have rest Now here in this world the creature is altogether in motion and especially man because he is not here in his proper place every thing moves to its center till it comes to its place Psal 38. 10. My heart panteth the word in the Original signifies such a kinde of motion running up and down as Merchants run up and down from one Countrey to another and it is observable there is the two last radical letters double and that is to note That it is more then an ordinary stirring and motion of the spirit because it is not come to its rest but when the foul comes to the term unto which it moves then it comes to have rest God hath let out good things to other creatures and they never return back again directly to him but the good that God lets out to mankinde and to his people it returns back again to God The Saints are made by God and they come and return to the first fountain from whence they came whereas other creatures do not As the wicked they come from God but do not return to God again as their rest And therefore it is an expression of Jeremy Those that seek onely after the satisfying of their senses they go out from God like unto rivers that run from the fountain but there is no regress of them they do not return back again but the godly come from God and have their returns back again unto God unto their fountain there to rest and to have their happiness Psal 12. 9. The wicked walk on every side the wicked move up and down in a circle but never unto the center onely keep their round from one creature to another but never have any direct motion unto God to come to him as their center and so to finde true rest in him Return O my soul unto thy rest Psal 116. 7. The word translated Rest is in the plural number Return O my soul unto thy rests God is the rest of the souls of the Saints Rest and glory seldom meets in this world they who are in glory have not the quietest life and they who have most rest are furthest off from being glorious Issachars condition likes some Gen. 49. 14. Rest was good to him though under burthens and if a man will have a name amongst the great ones of the earth farewel rest but in heaven rest and glory do both happily and perfectly meet together The Rabbies have a note from the name Jehovah that all the letters of that name are quiescentes and they say There is a mystery in it to shew that all our rest is in God Some creatures God hath made so as there is no other good they are capable of but to continue in their beings and therefore they onely seek for their place and no more and there they rest as the Fire and Ayr and the Earth these creatures have no other good but to continue in their beings and you shall observe if they be out of their places with what violence will they move to their proper place As if there be fire or ayr got into the earth it causeth earthquakes it moves there with that violence that it shakes the whole earth that it may come to its proper place because it hath no other good but that Then I would reason thus If those creatures that have no other good but onely to be in their proper place if they be out to get that good shall move with such violence then considering what a good mans soul is capable of if he have not obtained that good with what violence should he move how should the kingdom of heaven suffer violence how should we work toward God who is our proper place and center in whom is so much good But there are other creatures that have an higher good then being in their place as the plants have a Vegetative place and therefore they grow to it and if they have attained that there they rest then the sensitive creature hath an higher good and that moves till it hath got its end namely to all things that are agreeable to sense and they go no further The rational creature looks to that which is suitable to reason And where there is grace grace looks to attain that which is the proper perfection of the life of grace and there it rests and never else Therefore it is the expression of an Ancient O Lord thou hast made us for thee and our hearts are unquiet till they come to enjoy thee and when the soul comes to rest in God that is glorious and that is the Saints happiness to attain the end of their motion and the more glorious is the rest when the end is attained and the glory of the end may be discovered much by the glory of the means that tend to it As if a man will bestow a great deal of Cost and Charges to get his Health then he accounts health worth all those charges and the greater charges are laid out for health argues his greater esteem of it and so if a man be at great charge about a Voyage it is because he accounts much of the excellency of the end of his Voyage and if this be so how excellent is the end of Gods people if we consider the most glorious
means that are used to attain this end and rest as namely the work of God in sending the second person in the Trinity to take mans nature upon him and all the works of God in Election in Redemption in Adoption in Justification in Sanctification yea all the works of God in creation in providence the designing the Holy Ghost to that office he is designed to and all the Ordinances of God look what preciousness is in all these works of God and means it sets out unto us the preciousness and excellency and glory that there is in the last end whereunto Gods people shall attain and that rest they shall have The seventh and last thing in having God to be their portion is the enjoyment of themselves in God as they shall enjoy God and God in themselves so they shall enjoy themselves in God living in God continually the fish does not more truly live in the water and move in the water then the souls of the Saints shall live in God and move in God Col. 3. 3. Your life is hid with Christ in God the life of Saints here is an hidden life and it is hidden in God but then it shall be a revealed life and revealed in God and enjoyed in God Hence is that Phrase Enter into your masters joy that enters not into you but you must enter into it it is your masters joy not onely that joy that your master gives but the same joy your master hath that you shall enter into and live in It is said of Saint John in Rev. 1. that he was on the Lords day in the Spirit it is not said that the Spirit was in him but it is said he was in the Spirit that was as a beginning of the glorious condition of the Saints of God that they shall be in the Spirit of God not onely God in them but they in God as a drop of water in the Sea swallowed up in it Put a drop of wine into the Sea it is changed into the nature of the Sea and so though we cannot be changed into the Divine Nature yet we shall be swallowed up in God so as we shal not any further minde our selves our own good as a created thing nor our selves as creatures but altogether God our mindes shall be so wholly upon God as if they were wholly emptyed of any created good and had nothing to do but with an increated good it shall not will any thing to it self nor to any other creature but all to God and so wholly taken upon with God and upon that ground because they have that likeness unto God and partake of the Divine Nature Here we do good to others because of their likeness to our selves But the Saints shall will all good to God not because God is like them but because they are like to God so that they shall love themselves for God There are three degrees of love to God loving of God for our selves and loving God for himself and loving our selves for God the one is but a natural love the second is a gracious love the third is a love of the glorified Saints First to love God for our selves so an hypocrite may love God because he hath gifts and many blessings from God this is but a natural love But grace goes further then nature that is to love God for himself though we should never have any thing yet if we be gracious we love God for himself but the glorified Saints go further then grace and that is to love themselves for God whereas heretofore we did onely love God for our selves or for himself now we come to love our selves for God and in this kinde of love of God and enjoyment of our selves in him the soul shall be ravished with God and be in a kinde of extasie eternally Now there is a twofold extasie one that is through the weakness of the inferior faculties of the soul when the minde of a man is taken up about an high object seriously the other faculties being weak they fail and so men come to be in a trance and extasie many have had great joy that they have even dyed with it the heart hath so dilated it self as the vital spirits have flown out But there is an extasie comes from the excellency of the object that the minde is busied about but without any weariness of any inferior faculty If then we put all together that hath been said about God and the enjoyment of God and having God to be the portion of the Saints you see the principal part of Heaven and the spiritual part of the glory of the Saints Here is faith called for and why should not our faith go beyond reason to rectifie reason as reason rectifies sense these things be high and great mysteries When as reason says How can this be as when Christ was speaking of the new birth says Nicodemus How can this be let but faith get as far above reason as reason hath got above sense and we may easily see how they can be by sense If a man look up to the Firmament and see the Sun shine he would think it were little bigger then a Bushel or the like now reason will tell men otherwise reason that tells men that this creature that appears to be but in this bigness it is many hundred times bigger then the Earth now if reason can rectifie sense so far Why should not faith go beyond reason as far Now reason will tell us of much happiness that may be had We may conceive by reason by understanding that the rational creature is capable of abundance of glory but when you hear things delivered by the word which are more then reason can conceive let us get faith to rectifie reason and we shall not call those truths into question and yet know that our glory will be beyond our faith as our faith is beyond our reason Here you may see that most people in the world mistake Heaven and look at Heaven in a sensual maner when we speak of Heaven where have we a man or woman that looks at Heaven in these spiritual excellencies about enjoying God in this maner As the Jews looked for a carnal Messiah whose Kingdom should be in the earth and whose glory should be external not considering the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ so most in the world look but for a carnal Heaven It is a good evidence of the truth of grace if you can look to Heaven with a right eye in a right maner to look at the spiritual part and spiritual excellency in Heaven But that which makes people to call these things in question is first because they are not acquainted with God but are sensual their hearts are acquainted with nothing but sensual and earthly things and therefore their hearts are not raised to these things but they look at them as notions but that soul that is acquainted with God and the counsels of God and
of the glorious reward fills the heart with precious liquor that you may set it by the fire and put it into troubles it will not break As a Gyant refreshed with wine hath great strength to undertake any thing so the soul that is filled with this comfort of the hope of Heaven and glory can go forth as a Gyant refreshed with wine and make nothing of those things that others make great matters of When the heart is filled with joy hope of believing and so filled with light within whatsoever darkness is abroad it cares not As Oecolampadius when he was to dye and they spoke of the light without says he What is the light without I have light enough within And so a gracious heart says there is enough within to strengthen me let there be without what there will When Alexander gave away great things almost all he had one of his Officers aked him what he would have left for himself says he Hope so says a gracious heart though all things be gone yet it is enough to fill my heart with joy that I have hope of the glory that is to be reveald A natural chearful spirit can be able to undergo great things that one that is naturally timorous cannot the Wise man saith The Spirit of a man shall sustain his infirmities A man that hath a natural chearful spirit is able to sustain many infirmities that others cannot As for melancholy spirits every thing that comes cross to them is ready to sink them and they cannot undergo those troubles which a chearful spirit can because they want the sweetness within What strength is there then in the filling the heart with joy in believing of these things As a man that hath his bones filled with marrow and hath abundance of good blood and fresh spirits in his body he can endure to go with less cloathes then another because he is well lined within so it is with a heart that hath a great deal of fat and marrow joy and peace within though such a one hath not many cloathes and outward comforts to strengthen him he will go through troubles well enough Proverbs 14. 14. A good man is satisfied from himself And it is enough for good men to know within themselves that they have an enduring substance Heb. 10. 34. A tree that hath a great deal of sap within can bear great weights and burthens that others cannot and that is the fifth ground because the hope of these things does fill the heart with joy and so strengthens the heart A sixth thing wherein the power of having respect to the recompence of reward appears is in that it hath a great deal of power to resist any temptation of Satan and to quench the fiery darts of Satan In Ephes 6. where the spiritual armor is spoken of the helmet the armor that is for the head and keeps that from being hurt with any stroke is the hope of salvation and the hope of glory so that whatsoever temptations of the Devil comes by this helmet they are kept off that they do not so much as take the judgement As we might instance in the several temptations that the Devil hath to keep one from sufferings as when he comes and says Why will you undo your selves in such a way as this Presently the hope of salvation is held up and the soul answers It is so far from undoing of me that it is the onely way to provide for my self He that will save his life shall lose it and he that will lose his life for my sake shall save it If the Devil comes with this temptation Surely God does not require such things of his people to be brought into such straits and suffer such hard things The soul that hath the hope of his glory holds it up and makes this answer Why seeing the Lord hath laid up such glorious things hereafter why should I not think that God may require hard things for the present If he comes with this temptation Why will you go on in a singular way from others A gracious heart upon this argument answers I expect choice and singular mercies from God and why should I think much to go on in a way that is singular though others do otherwise it may be they shal never be partakers of such singular things If the Devil comes and say Surely God does not love you if he did he would not suffer such great calamities and sore troubles to befal you and if it were his cause he would assist you in it the soul answers Hath the Lord laid up such glorious things for me hereafter and shall I call Gods love in question because I am deprived of these mean things and undergo such afflictions as these certainly those things that God hath laid up for me shall so uphold my heart as that I shall never call in question Gods love though I suffer never so much here and that is the sixth particular Seventhly there is a great deal of power in this argument to help on the soul in a way of suffering because by looking at this recompence of reward the soul comes to see what glorious things sufferings do prepare for hasten unto and work to the encrease of First what glorious things sufferings prepare for As it is a notable expression Mr. Hawks hath in a Letter he writ to encourage Mr. Philpot being cast into the Bishops Cole-house says he This Bishops Cole-house is but to scour you and make you bright and to fit you to be set up upon the high shelf meaning Heaven as when you would set up vessels of brass or iron you first take cinders or ashes and scour them and by rubbing them with such things they are fit to be set up so all sufferings are but the means that God uses to scour his people to make them bright to set them up on high God will not set up his servants on the high shelf till first he hath made them bright and he uses this way to do it and then they hasten to great things the more one suffers the nearer he comes to glory and to Heaven Let the world do the worst it can it can but take away your estates and meat and drink and put you in the cold and hasten death and the hastening of death is the hastening of glory The greatest sufferings of Gods people are but as the fiery Chariots to carry Gods people home in This was the answer of Basil to the Emperors Lieutenant when he threatned death to him Death is a benefit to me it will send me sooner to God to whom I live to whom I desire to hasten And then they do encrease glory it is but a trade of less things to encrease greater all sufferings are the seeds of glory Eighthly there is a great deal of power in this to carry on the soul in a way of suffering because it does mightily enflame the soul with love to God
can be their consciences cannot but accuse them that they undertake the ways of Religion to employ them for no more then for the attaining such low ends Yea many that are now in Heaven and have this glorious reward did not finde so much difficulty in the ways of Religion as many Hypocrites do There are three Reasons for it First that they do is by their own strength and when one comes to perform the duties of Religion by his own strength they are hard to him a gracious heart hath strength from Heaven and from Christ now when a man hath received strength he can do that with ease that was difficult before A man that hath a base unclean heart the ways of Religion must be tedious to such a one as a mans body being corrupted whatsoever he does is tedious to him if he were sound it would not be so tedious and so the ways of Religion are tedious to an hypocrite because he does all in his own strength and his soul is corrupted Besides the ways of Religion are not suitable to his principles but he is fain to force himself to them and all forced things are tedious but a gracious heart goes on in the ways of Religion as suitable to his principles Besides an Hypocrite hath not those comforts as those that are gracious have in their ways they have the assurance of Gods acceptance and the light of God shining upon them which Hypocrites have not so that the ways of God are more difficult to Hypocrites then to the godly and yet they get nothing by them but some base ends and the godly that do not endure so much difficulty get Heaven and immortality and a Crown of glory and all because their ends are different O be sure your ends be right you see what vast difference mens ends may make As if two should go to sea it may be they go out both together and one endures as much tempest and storm as the other and they are at the like charge perhaps yet the one comes home richly laden and the other brings nothing but Cockle shells and a little gravel when he that brought home the Cockle shells and the gravel shall see the difference between him and the other when as they were at like charge and endured the same difficulty how will he be ashamed This is the difference between a gracious heart and an hypocrite both go out in Religion the one makes as much stir as the other and suffers as much disgrace and contempt as the other the one enjoys all the riches of the Kingdom of God the other what does all his profession come to he gains a little respect from some that this body or that body says He is a man of good parts and here is all O miserable voyage that such as these are have made when all their profession comes but to this Yea it may be they do not so much as gain respect from those that are wise and judicious but onely from a company of pratlers that will speak well of you when you please them and when you do not please them they will speak as ill of you like a great blaze that a little fire will make in straw for the present and when it is past you see nothing but a few black ashes so many Professors make a great blaze and a great noise and shew and all that it comes to is that they get a little esteem in the world or like Kites they will flutter up a little but their eye is upon the carrion so many seem to be above in the ayr in the profession of Religion and yet their eyes are upon the carrion they make things below their aym What dishonor is this unto the ways of godliness those ways that are the most precious things in the world all the world is nothing to the profession of godliness and those ways that God hath appointed to lead to such glorious things as these are how are they vilified and abased you do not onely vilifie your selves but you vilifie Gods ways when as they tend to such a glorious end you put them under your base ends If a man were a Nobleman by birth what greater dishonor could be done to him then to make him serviceable to a drudge So the ways of God that are so glorious to make them serviceable to your base ends what dishonor is put upon the ways of God in this Certainly God cannot take it well at your hands to make the meanest creature of God our own civil actions serviceable to our lusts is a great sin but to make Prayer and the Word and the Sacraments and the ways of godliness to be serviceable to our lusts this is most horrible impiety Again how do you pollute that which is holy The way of God is a holy thing and take heed of polluting of it by having such low ends in it Again consider how you do take the name of God in vain the name of God is in the ways of Religion and for you to have no higher ends in Religion but such base ones you take Gods name in vain and God will not hold you guiltless These two men a gracious heart and a hypocrite may be compared to two men that follow the King one that follows the King for some Dukedom and place of Office to obtain some great thing from the King and a begger that knows not the King but runs after him for an alms and if he may have six pence or a shilling he goes away quieted So in the ways of Religion both seem to follow God a gracious heart follows God and knows what God is he knows that God is a blessed God a glorious God and that there are wonderful great and glorious things to be communicated from God to the souls of his people and therefore he follows God for great things for heaven and eternity and glory and immortality an hypocrite he knows little of God and he follows God that he may have a little credit and content for a while and he looks no higher O base ignoble spirits that have no higher thoughts in the ways of God! though we must take heed of high thoughts of our selves yet in the ways of God we must lift up our selves and have high thoughts and high ayms O what difference is there between an hypocrite and a true gracious heart A gracious heart hath high ends for God in the meanest actions in eating and drinking and an hypocrite hath low ends in his highest actions in the most solemn duties of divine worship Secondly those hypocrites are to be rebuked that go on fairly in the profession of Religion and make conscience of secret sins and not onely in shews but really are escaped many pollutions of the world and yet at last lose all for cleaving to some one sin but there is a great deal of difference between a real escaping and true sanctifying escaping many may really forsake
are glorious indeed and therefore high and honorable thoughts you ought to have of the Saints It is a great argument to shew Gods greatness that all the creatures in the world are his and for him What an argument then is it to set forth the greatness of a Christian that Heaven and God and Christ and all are his and for him and this hath been shewn in this glorious recompence of reward How great and honorable then should they be in our eyes Eighthly if there be such a glorious reward and great things prepared for Gods people then what love is due to Christ and to the Gospel and to the ways of godliness First love to the Lord Christ who is the cause of all this Secondly to the Gospel that reveals these things to us Thirdly to the ways of godliness that leads to all this great and blessed are the things of the Kingdom of Heaven from whence is all this It is the Lord Jesus Christ from whom all this comes another reward was due to us we were wretched guilty creatures fire-brands of hell children of perdition cast out unto an eternal curse but the Lord Christ who was the wisdom of the Father set his heart upon us and spake for us from all eternity and would not satisfie himself in delivering of mankinde from that miserable and lost condition in which they were but so set his heart upon them as he intended to make it his great work for the manifestation of the riches of his grace to raise this poor wretched creature to a height of happiness and glory that it might appear to Angels to the world yea to the blessed Trinity it self what the Son of God is able to do to raise a creature from misery unto glory and so his heart was set upon mankinde that though it must cost him the eclipsing of his own glory though he must come to be made a prey to the world and if a man a man of sorrows yea made a curse it self in the abstract that man might have this glory and happiness and yet he was content with all and at last this is all he prays for as a fruit of his sufferings and merits Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me as if he should say If I can but have this I am well I have enough for all the sufferings that I did endure This indeed is called a reward but it is the reward of another maner of righteousness then our own were it that there were no other righteousness but our own though our own should be true righteousness the reward would never come to this height but this is first the reward of the merit of the death of the blood and of the perfect righteousness of the Son of God and so in him it comes to be our reward therefore it is Christ that is our life and happiness and glory O let us joyn with those blessed Elders in Rev. 5. 8 9. that fell down before the Lamb having all harps in their hands and golden vials full of odours and sung Worthy art thou who wast slain and hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood to receive honor and blessing and glory and that we might joyn in that blessed melody that St. John heard in that Chapter in Verse 13. He heard all creatures in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the Sea saying Blessing honor glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever that we might say Amen to this If any man wish good to us we count it worthy of love but the Lord Christ having wrought such infinite good for us as this how should our hearts be enflamed to him and that none should be dear to us and prized of us in comparison of Christ Let us cry out with that blessed Martyr None but Christ none but Christ Again how should our souls love the Gospel and prize the Gospel that hath revealed all this to us In 2 Tim. 1. 10. it is said Life and immortality is brought to light by the Gospel These are the things that in comparison were kept hid from the beginning of the world before the manifestation of the Gospel but now they are revealed O blessed be God that we had the preaching of the Gospel amongst us to open the treasures of grace to us in this maner What poor low thoughts should we have had of the happiness of mankinde had not God made known these glorious things in the Ministery of the Gospel Many wise men by the light of nature have risen high in the contemplations of happiness that mans nature is capable of but how far beneath these things have their highest thoughts been It is a great part of the glory of the Gospel that it sets out unto us these high and glorious things And then the ways of godliness those we should love because those are the ways that lead and tend to all this godliness hath the promise of the life to come as well as the promise of this life annexed to it Were the ways of godliness never so hard and rough never so difficult yet they are glorious ways and to be loved because of the glorious end they tend unto Great is the gain of godliness if these things be believed You that are Merchants love and prize trading and merchandizing that brings in great gain as some in a way of trading and merchandizing by a bargain in a morning will bring in a hundred pounds when as many other poor people are fain to work hard to get a shilling or eighteen pence a day now you prize that trade that with a few words can get in so much O prize the trade of godliness then there is gain to be had I may compare all the works of morality and common grace to the poor mean trade of the laboring man that is fain to work hard for a shilling or eight pence a day they work and get but some few outward blessings from God but godliness is the trade of merchandising that brings in hundreds together and that our hearts should be upon God would have our hearts to be after great and glorious things It is an expression of Cleopatra to Marcus Antonius It is not for you to be fishing for Gudgeons but for Towns and Forts and Castles And so those that are acquainted with the ways of godliness it is not for them to be trading for poor things but for eternal life glory and immortality The ninth Use is an Use of Examination to know who those are that have interest in these glorious things to the answering of that question in Psalm 15. Who shall abide in thy Tabernable who shall dwell in thy holy hill I confess that Psalm does principally aim at communion with the Church of God such as are fit
have felt the work of God regenerating your souls upon which you have followed me you shall sit upon twelve thrones Some do interpret this place Regeneration the estate of the Gospel and so make it not to be the work of God upon the soul but the work of God upon the world to make a new world as the glorious estate of the Church under the Gospel is called a new heaven and a new earth and so take it Ye that have followed me in this new world ye shall sit upon twelve thrones c. but I rather take it the other way not wholly excluding this they are onely those that follow Christ in the Regeneration that shall have this reward It is called the new birth because there is such a strange change there is a new spirit and a new life put into a man Suppose a rational soul were put into a beast what a change would be in that creature Suppose an Angelical nature were put upon us what a change would there be By the change that is wrought in regeneration there is a greater difference the highest degree of glory in heaven is not so different from the lowest degree of grace here as the lowest degree of grace here is different from the highest excellency of nature because the difference between the highest degree of the glory of heaven from the lowest degree of grace is but a gradual difference but the difference that is between the lowest degree of grace and the highest excellency of nature is a specifical difference Therefore you that hope for glory know there must be a regeneration that work of God upon your souls that must cause a greater difference in you from that you were by nature then there is in the glorified Saints that have the highest degree of glory from the meanest Saint in the world as the reward is a mighty glorious thing so the work of God in preparing a soul for this reward is a mighty glorious work And therefore do not content your selves in every poor slight thought of heaven know heaven lies upon that which is a mighty work of God in you Thirdly if you ever come to Heaven there is a principle of heaven put into your souls here that is a heavenly principle that carries you heavenward I mean the work of God causing you to have heavenly mindes and heavenly hearts Our conversation is in heaven says the Apostle In Cant. 3. 6. the Church is compared to pillars of smoke that ascend upward to heaven Though the Church be black and dark in regard of her infirmities yet it hath a principle to carry it upward to heaven The Saints are compared to Eagles that fly aloft towards heaven though their bodies are not there their hearts and souls are there if our treasures be in heaven our hearts are there already I read of Edward the first who had a mighty desire to go to the holy Land to Ierusalem and because he was hindred and could not get thither he gave his Son a charge upon his death-bed to carry his heart thither and he prepared Two and thirty thousand pound to carry his heart thither So the Saints though they have not their bodies in heaven their hearts are there and they take much pains and are at great charges to get their hearts thither All things in nature have a principle to carry them to their proper place because the place of fire is on high therefore fire hath a principle to carry it on high and because the place of earth is below therefore earth hath a principle to carry it downward So if the place and center of the heart be in Heaven then certainly it hath a principle to move naturally thither to move upward to heaven and therefore that soul that hath nothing but a principle to carry it downward to the earth and to the lusts of it to these things below heaven is not the proper place for such a soul and when the soul goes out of the body it wil not go to Heaven Take earth and close it in a vessel and take fire and put into a vessel open the vessels and let them out and they go both to their places so the souls of men when they are gone out of the body they go to the place whither they had a principle to carry them therefore do not think the principle shall be put into them when you dye but you must have a principle before if your hearts be prest down by earthly things when you dye they will fall down and therefore observe which way your souls work Can you say as in the presence of God My soul works heavenward though I have weights of corruption that would weigh me down yet I have a principle that does work to Heaven But the consciences of many tell them their souls work downward to vanity and sensuality and you have no other principle and therefore when your souls depart they fall downward Fourthly what soul soever hath an interest in heaven heaven is in that soul already The kingdom of God is in them and they have taken hold of eternal life now eternal life abides in them Whom he hath justified he hath glorified already they have the glory of heaven begun you heard what that was In heaven there is the perfection of our natures the image of God shall be renewed now is the image of God begun hath God marked you and set the stamp of his image upon you There is no soul that God does intend to put glory upon but he marks that soul and stamps his image upon it in the work of conversion and says Here is a soul I set the stamp of my image upon because I mark it out to glory if ever you come to Heaven God must see his own Image and Superscription upon you As the Beast set his mark upon men and would suffer none to trade but those that had his mark so God will set his mark upon his people and none shall come into his Kingdom but those that have his mark now a mans Image is upon a thing when by beholding of it I am put in minde of him that it is an Image of so if you have this Image and stamp of God a man that knows God as soon as he looks upon you as soon as he beholds your conversation he is put in minde of God and he says I have heard and read much of God of the holiness and righteousness of God and by this mans conversation I am put in minde of that holiness and righteousness of God the brightness of which I see shining here Again in Heaven you know God himself is the portion of the Saints they have the presence of God What presence of God do you enjoy here Were your souls ever acquainted with the presence of God in the Ordinances What blessed vision have you of God here Those who come to Heaven God gives a sight of himself here
And what union have you with God What union of grace What mystical union between God and your souls And what fruition have you of God Is it God that you enjoy in the creature and God in all things God in the Ordinances and what rest do your souls finde in God though you be tost up and down in regard of the uncertainty of the creature yet is God your rest yea do you enjoy your selves in God the beginning of all these are now for the present And likewise for communion with Jesus Christ what communion and converse is there between your souls and Jesus Christ Is it not a riddle to you Are you delighted in the communion of the Saints Are the Sabbaths your delight as a beginning of the eternal Sabbath you shall keep in Heaven Therefore now do you ask Who shall have Heaven and Who shall ascend into the Mount Those whom the Mount now comes down unto Many hope they shall have God when they dye but surely if God be not so merciful as to give you spiritual mercies for the present he will not be so merciful as to give you eternal mercies hereafter if he do not give you mercies of grace here he will not give you mercies of glory hereafter Fifthly what are the apprehensions that you have of this reward there may be a special note drawn from thence whereby you may see whether this reward shall be yours or no. What is it that you apprehend to be the heighth and excellency of that reward and glory that you expect Is it that spiritual and supernatural good that is in Heaven Do you not apprehend Heaven after a carnal and natural way when you hear speaking of Crowns and dignity and happiness and glory and the like but hath God shewed you that the heighth and top of all consists in those spiritual and supernatural things in the image of God and in communion with God and those things that have been opened are your hearts more after these then after any thing else then it is like that Heaven is for you for these things are kept hid from those that Heaven is not for Sixthly consider what your hopes are for this recompence of reward First where hopes are true they are such as are wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost Secondly they are purging hopes First they are such hopes as are wrought by the power of the holy Ghost Rom. 15. 13. Certainly hopes of such great things as these must be raised by a great power they are hopes that could never be raised by any natural apprehensions by any work of Reason you have hopes of Heaven and of the glorious reward How came you by them What almighty power of the holy Ghost have you felt that hath raised these hopes If you have no other hopes but those that may spring out of nature natural conceits and apprehensions you are far short of this recompence of reward but this recompence of reward being glorious it hath a glorious principle to raise hopes such hopes as can bear down strong difficulties that shall oppose them the holy Ghost does stretch out the hopes of the soul beyond that which nature can do In the Hebrew that word that signifies hope signifies a line because by hope the heart is stretched out as in a line to the thing it hopes for now the hopes that nature raises is but in a short line and they stretch out the heart but a little way but the hopes that are wrought by the power of the holy Ghost are such hopes as the heart is stretched out very far by them and there must be a mighty stretching out of the heart and that by a mighty power to make it hope for such great things as these that God should bring such a poor worm to such high things as these are Ordinary base drossie hopes that have nothing in them they are not stretched out to these things they have some confused apprehensions and slight opinions about heaven they are loth to think they should be damned for ever and cast from God and therefore they will have some conceits it shall be well with them and they hope well but to have their hearts stretched out to expect these blessed things as the happiness of their souls and as the real substantial and onely good this is by the mighty power of the holy Ghost Secondly they are purging hopes 1 John 3. 3. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure It is a lively working hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. Blessed be God who hath begotten us again to a lively hope As a fountain that hath dirt cast into it it being a living fountain it works and works and never leaves till it hath got the dirt out cast dirt into a puddle and it lies there and putrifies And this is the difference between the sin of one that is natural and one that hath hope of eternal life When sin comes into a carnal natural heart it lies there and putrifies but where sin comes into a gracious heart that hath hope of eternal life such a heart by these hopes are as a living fountain that will never leave working till it be pure again Such a soul as apprehends it self a vessel of such rich and glorious mercies as these do labor to cleanse it self to the utmost if you have a vessel that you put ordinary water into you care not though there be some dust in the bottom but if you will put in some precious liquor you will cleanse it again and again and will not suffer any dust to be there So carnal hearts that do not know what great things God hath laid up for his people that are not vessels of mercy but onely look for some common things they can suffer their hearts to filled with noysom lusts but where the soul does apprehend it self a vessel of mercy such a one as God will fill with these glorious things it would not have any filth and corruption abiding in it In 2 Tim. 2. 21. The Apostle speaks of two sorts of vessels that are in Gods House that is in the Church Vessels of honor and Vessels of dishonor But how shall we know we are vessels of honor or of dishonor if therefore a man purge himself from these he shall be a vessel of honor a vessel of dishonor is an unclean vessel a vessel of honor is a clean vessel If therefore your hopes be such as can stand with any beloved sin against knowledge you are vessels of dishonor And here is the liveliness of this hope if thou hast a hope to be a vessel of honor it purges you from filth and by that purging from filth there comes to be a readiness and preparation to every good work here is such a one as shall ascend up into the holy Hill of God This is the sixth note Seventhly examine what thy claim is whether thy
here is an exhortation and in the name of God a charge upon every soul that does expect to have the portion of it in these great things that they would walk worthy of God who hath called them unto his kingdom and glory it is a great charge to walk worthy of God but to walk worthy of God who hath called us to his kingdom and glory this is great but the life of a Christian must be thus Now consider what life have I Is my life such as may be said to be worthy of God and that God that hath called me unto his kingdom and glory Surely great things must be in the lives of Gods people people talk much of strictness and preciseness that they may be too precise what do you think must this life be that must be worthy of God who hath called us to his kingdom and glory It must not be a dead-hearted life go on with a holy and heavenly chearfulness and courage in Gods ways It becomes the children of the Bride-chamber to be joyful see that in any case you rejoyce before the Lord comfort your selves and one another by these sayings We belye the truth of God if we do not walk joyfully Rejoyce in this that your names are written in the Book of life says Christ they rejoyced that the Devils fell down before them If there were any thing in the world to be rejoyced in one would think they might rejoyce in that but Christ would not have them rejoyce in that in comparison of this Caesar when he was sad he said to himself Think thou art Caesar that that might take away his sadness and so say I to a Christian Think of your Crown and glory let your lives be such as may make it appear you have your portion in these things I may say to some as Jonadab said to Amnon Why art thou lean from day to day being the Kings Son So may I say to every childe of God Why is thy heart so troubled and Why walkest thou so dumpishly in the ways of God being the King of Heavens Son Possibilities of heaven is enough to take away the sting of afflictions but having comfortable hope of these things this should take away even the sense of them at least so far as that they be no way disturbing to us Seneca says That vertue does not consider what it suffers but whither it tends It beseems them well enough but not you it beseems Swine to follow the trough but not the heirs of a Kingdom Plutarch tells of Themistocles that he accounted it not to stand with his state to stoop down to take up the spoyls the enemy had scattered in flight but says to one of his followers You may for you are not Themistocles Thus may it be said to worldly spirits You may be greedy of these things for here is your portion your names are written in the earth you are not the heirs of the kingdom Secondly walk above the world above all things that are here below take heed of ensnarling your hearts of too much mixing your selves with them There is a generation whose names are written in the earth Ier. 17. 13. and it beseems them to look after the things of the earth because their portion is there it is their All but Gods people have their names written in heaven and therefore they should not regard the things below as they do Whosoever was free of the city of Rome might not accept of any other freedom in any other city they counted it a dishonor to the freedom of Rome to take freedom any where else So those that are free of the kingdom of Heaven should not seek to be free here but they should be satisfied with a mean condition here and take heed they do not entangle themselves too much in the things below Besides those that have hopes of Heaven they should labor to have their lives like to Heaven It is that we pray for that the will of God may be done in earth as it is done in heaven How is it done in heaven The Saints and Angels there do it fervently universally readily constantly and therefore the Angels are called by the name of Seraphims it notes burning because they burn with zeal for God labor to conform your life to the life of Heaven Again labor to be much trading for heaven in this world let there be much intercourse between you and Heaven let your conversation be in heaven Phil. 3. 20. If a man intend to live in another Countrey he will have much traffique in that Countrey before he goes and if we believe we shall come to Heaven let there be much trading that way Our conversations should be so in Heaven as all the mercies we enjoy here should raise our hearts to heaven We read Exod. 25. that upon the Table of Shew-bread there was set a crown of gold In those provisions that we have here for souls and bodies our hearts must be raised to that Crown of glory reserved for us for the Shew-bread set before the Lord was to signifie Gods provision for us and the dedication of our bread of all our provision to God Again let us labor to encrease heaven in our hearts and to bring as much of heaven into them as possibly we can And keep your selves in a continual readiness whensoever God shall call you to such a glorious recompence of reward as this is It is said of Daniel though he was in Babylon he opened his windows towards Jerusalem he kept his heart in a readiness to go So you should do keep your hearts in a heavenly frame ready for heaven waiting upon the Bridegroom with your lamps burning that when he comes you may open immediately to him There is a difference between a wife that hath been faithful to her husband and waits for his coming home and another that hath been unfaithful to her husband and hath other lovers in the house when her husband knocks if her husband knocks she doth not go immediately but there is shuffling up and down and she delays the time till she have got the other out of the house but a faithful wife she immediately opens it is true though the wife be not unfaithful yet if the house be not handsom and things be not prepared she is loth to open So Christians they have been dallying with their lusts and their hearts are out of frame and they are loth to open to Christ but we should keep our hearts in such a readiness as immediately to open to Christ and to be willing to dye And when we dye to dye as heirs of such things not to respect things below house or lands or any thing here We read of Pope Adrian when he was to dye he laments his condition because he was to leave all his delights and pompous vanities and cryes out O my soul whither goest thou thou shalt never be merry more he was
Recompence of Reward may be attained BUt what is to be done that we may attain to this glorious recompence of reward I answer Are your hearts serious in asking this question Do your souls ask this question indeed in the earnestness of them as they did Men and brethren what shall we do to be saved so as to be willing to yield to whatsoever God shall reveal If you have such a resolution know this comes from Heaven and if it be followed to purpose it will bring you to Heaven But for direction if you would make your selves partakers of this reward First consider the infinite distance that is between you and Heaven naturally That blessed Martyr Mr. Hooper though he was a gracious man yet he cryed out Lord thou art Heaven and I am hell If he cryed out so how much more may many of you whose consciences may accuse you Lord thou art heaven but I am one not onely that deserve hell but that am hell it self What ever wickedness is in hell is in every mans heart naturally when as any are cast into hell certainly hell puts no new sin into them there is but the venting of that sin which was there before and all the wickedness of mens hearts that was restrained is now let open Now look what infinite distance is between hell and all this glory and the glorious thoughts of God for the salvation of a poor creature the same difference is between this glory and that condition a man is in naturally O labor to see this and be convinced of this and work this upon your hearts what is that reward that you do deserve make your hearts truly sensible of that Secondly it concerns us much if we would not miscarry here to acquaint our selves with the mystery of the Covenant of Grace for it is upon that your eternal estate depends more then any thing else onely in the Covenant of Grace is revealed the counsels of God concerning bringing mankinde to eternal happiness and how he will bring about this glory and without some knowledge of the Covenant of Life and Grace in Christ all that can be done in the world can never bring any soul to Heaven and that soul is in a very good forwardness to eternal life that is acquainted with the Covenant of Grace Thirdly consider what is the special sin that your heart is naturally most inclined unto and you finde the corruption of your hearts vent it self most in and look to that take heed that be not your bane in the conclusion let there be a renouncing of that or else all is to no purpose all your serving of God is nothing St. Paul when he spoke concerning his running the race and attaining an incorruptible crown says I therefore so run not as uncertainly and so fight I as not one that beateth the air as if he should say I hope my labors and endeavors after Heaven and this incorruptible Crown shall not be in vain as one that beateth the air How so because I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others my self should be cast away He was afraid of that body of his wherein corruption did stir and his giving way to some bodily fleshly content that he found stirring in him should disappoint him and therefore says he I keep down my body in the Original it is I beat my body black and blew I club it down his conscience was convinced of Gods ways but he felt the flesh and body of his working in some sinful way and his conscience began so far to reflect upon himself as to think if I do not look to this body of mine I shall lose this incorruptible crown and I shall but beat the ayr therefore says he I keep under my body What shall St. Paul such a glorious Apostle so filled with the grace of God as he was have such thoughts for fear he should labor after Heaven and the incorruptible crown as one that beateth the ayr what shall become of a company of wretched creatures that do nothing but satisfie the flesh minde nothing but to give full satisfaction to the desires of the flesh every way their thoughts are after nothing else but to make provision for the flesh If you will not labor after heaven as one that beats the ayr beat down your bodies if you do not beat down your bodies there is little hope of the salvation of your souls it was St. Pauls care let it be yours Again further if you would have this recompence of reward labor to unsnarl your selves from the creature labor to get your hearts loose and untangled from whatsoever is in the world from all earthly engagements It is a speech that I have read of one Demades when the Emperor sent to his Countreymen of Athens to give him Divine honor and they were loth to yield unto it but consulted about it says he Take heed you be not so busie about heavenly matters as to lose your earthly possessions that indeed is the voyce of a carnal heart Let not me look after the high conceits of heavenly matters as to lose my earthly possessions but rather turn it the other way Take heed you be not so busie about earthly matters as to lose your heavenly possessions I have read of Antipater King of Macedonia that when one presented him a Book treating of happiness his answer was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have no leisure you have been presented with Sermons and now with a Book treating of heavens happiness take heed that no earthly entanglements so take your heart that you should put off all with such a thought I must minde and follow my occasions let no other things take up your heads or hearts that you should have no liberty to your spirits to seek after these glorious things or at least not so to seek after them as becomes things of such a high and glorious nature as these are The Apostle in 1 Tim. 6. 19. says They that will be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition they that set their hearts upon the creature they must have so much of the creature they drown themselves in the creature As a man when he is drowning he catcheth hold of any thing that is next him and by fastening upon that which is next him he loses fastening upon that which might save his life So those that have their hearts engaged to the creature and resolve they must have so much of the creature they are drowning in perdition and they catch hold upon that which is next them some present content and pleasure and though something be cast to deliver them they let that go We in the Gospel cast forth a line to you to help you from drowning for every man naturally is sinking in perdition but because
your hearts are set upon the creature and engaged there you falling down to the ground catch hold upon that which is next you some contentment in the creature and that drowns you in perdition and all our preaching is not available to such a soul that hath fastened it self upon any creature contentment here you take not hold on our line that we throw out to you and so you drown in eternal perdition take heed therefore of all creature earthly engagements Again if you will obtain this recompence of reward follow that Scripture and make much use of it in Psalm 73. 24. Guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory Would you be brought to glory Be willing to be guided by the counsels of God What do you think in your consciences are the counsels of God concerning you Take heed it be not said of you as it was of the Pharisees They rejected the counsels of God Never talk of hoping and trusting in Gods mercy if you neglect the counsels of God revealed in his word those counsels of his which were in his heart from all eternity that should be the way of bringing men to happiness It is all one with that of the Psalmist in Psalm 17. 15. As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness as if he should say I look to receive satisfaction from the likeness of God by beholding his face in righteousness Now I appeal to thee Canst thou behold the face of God in righteousness Are they such righteous ways as thou walkest in as thou canst look upon his face and behold him with comfort this is the way to come to this recompence of reward for so the Scripture says God hath called us to glory and vertue if you would come to glory go on in the way of vertue Lastly be willing to endure any difficulty any hardship in the world The stone will fall down to come to its own place though it breaks it self in pieces so we that we may get to our center which is upward though it be to break our souls in pieces that should suffice us It is said of Cyrus one day he set his Soldiers to hew wood and to do hard work the next day he feasted them with a great deal of delight and pleasure then he asked them which day they had rather have they said the latter he says to them If you would always have such days you must be willing for a while to strive with your enemies and then you shall have the spoil and always have such merry days and this he did to put heart into them Shall eating and drinking and a little pleasure here put heart into men to suffer hardships to endure difficulties How much more should the obtaining of this glorious recompence of reward put heart into us to endure any difficulty We read of the Devil he came to Christ and shewed him all the glory of the world and said Fall down and worship me and all this will I give thee but here is another maner of invitation to worship God God says to every man and woman Fall down and worship me and all the glory of heaven will I give thee It was but the glory of the world that the Devil shewed and he could not give it him it was but the Devil that offered it and it was by worshiping of the Devil to get it but it is the God of glory that hath all glory at his dispose that calls to you this day to worship him that is so infinitely worthy of all worship fall down and worship me and not onely the glory of this world but the glory of heaven and of an incorruptible crown will I give unto you I will make it sure to you God does out-bid all the world when sin and temptation comes to offerany thing to you know that God out-bids them they cannot give that which will reach this If a chapman come and bids for a commodity and another man comes and out-bids him he carries it away Hath any temptation come to draw away your hearts from God God comes and out-bids all temptations in the world to that end you may come and fall down and worship the Lord. O do not stick in the dross and mire of your filthiness still I have met with a Text in 1 Chron. 4. 23. which one interprets to be meant of the baseness of people that regard base things rather then joyning in Church-communion with Gods people God speaks of them in away of disgrace These were the potters those that dwelt c. When the people of God should return to Ierusalem they would still dwell with the King of Babylon and live amongst their pots so they might have maintenance rather then return to Ierusalem where the true worship of God was their own country and a type of heaven these are those base spirits It may be applyed to many if they live in places where they may follow their callings make pots so as to get a livelihood for themselves and their families rather then they would venture any thing to joyn with the people of God they would stay there But how much more base is it for people still to stick in the mire and dross rather then to seek after these glorious things Wherefore for conclusion of the Exhortation as St. John preached and so Christ himself Repent repent the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand So say I Repent repent break off sin reform for the kingdom of heaven not onely the kingdom of the Gospel and of grace but the kingdom of glory is at hand And therefore what remains but as we read in Rom. 1. 18. the Apostle speaking of the glory of heaven says There is glory to be revealed in us We have had in the opening of this Point the glory of heaven revealed to us the Lord grant that the glory of heaven may be revealed in us And thus we have finished the Application of the glorious recompence of the reward of Gods people the great argument that encouraged that strengthned that confirmed Moses in this his blessed choice FINIS Plin. lib. 7 c. 41. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Christianus Cructanus Qui non est Crucianus non est Christianus Luther in Gen. c. 29 Ecclesia cst haeres Crucis 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 3. 4. 5. What it is to live godly in Christ 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Contentus est Devs noster ut et pax nostra serviat ut ci immaculatorum actuum puritate et vitae incōtaminabilis sanctitate placeamus plus ei fides devotio nostra debet quia minora a nobis exigit majora concessit ideo cum principes Christiava sint persecutio nulla fit religio non inquietetur qui ad probandam fidem experimentis durioribus non
is a woful choice that many make Most people are offended at the afflictions of Gods people their hearts are set upon pleasure and delight and pleasure they must have pleasure to the flesh is that they choose and that they follow after but as for the afflicted ways of godliness they cannot relish them their carnal sensual hearts do turn aside from them they give themselves up to the pleasures of the flesh and satisfie themselves in the enjoyment of their hearts desires and God does give them up likewise to their own lusts to let them have their choice so that they shall spend their time in mirth and jollity in eating and drinking and gaming and in this they bless themselves as those who have wisely provided for themselves to make their lives so full of comfort and soul-content as they imagine these are set upon carnal frothy sensual things as if the chief good and happiness of man consisted in them and therefore they give themselves liberty in them to the utmost That wherein a mans happiness consists he may desire infinitely and he cannot but do it it is as natural for him to do it as for the fire to burn or the stone to descend and because men put happiness in the pleasures of the flesh therefore their hearts are set infinitely upon them that is to set as they give themselves liberty without any bounds and desire that if it were possible no limits might be set either by God or man If they have means they account the chief good of what they have is in that they may have larger opportunities then others to satisfie the flesh in the sensual pleasures of it and hence is the infinite excess of meats and drinks and carnal delights in those whose means afford them opportunities thereunto Luther speaking of this excess hath this expression If Adam should now rise again and see this madness of all sorts of men I believe he would be so amazed at it that he would stand as a stone A. Gellius tells of Caligula that he made one supper that cost three hundred thousand Crowns I have read also of Vitellius the Emperor that at one supper he was served with Two thousand sorts of fishes and Seven thousand several fowls In such profuse expences for the satisfying of the flesh how many do glory as if it were the highest happiness attainable upon the earth And the baser sort of people seeing the great ones set upon such a kinde of life in satisfying the flesh they think there is no other happiness to be had therefore all their care thoughts endeavors are how they may live jocundly and give satisfaction to their lusts Clemens Alexandrinus tells of a fish that hath the heart in the belly differing from other living Creatures which the Philosophers call the Sea-Ass This is like sensual men whose hearts are onely set upon the things of the belly so as it may be said of many in regard of satisfying the flesh as Aurelianus said of one Bonoses He was born not that he might live but that he might drink So do these seem to be born not that they might live but that they might eat and drink and pamper the flesh the whole world is too strait to some for the pampering their bellies Oh how beneath is this to the true excellency of a rational and immortal soul What pity is it that an immortal reasonable soul should be of no other use then to keep the body alive to taste the sweet of the flesh of beasts and of the fruit of the earth How many draw all their substance thorow their throats and their belly their houses lands yea and devour their posterity like Cannibals when men in company spend their estates their wives and children wanting bread at home what do they but even drink the very blood of their wives and children It was the prophaneness of Esau for which God hath branded him That he sold his birth-right for a mess of pottage yet that was in the time of extreme hunger these men sell God and Heaven and all for drink not to satisfie thirst but their lust But O thou vain man know thou art utterly mistaken in thy choice if thou continuest in this way of thine that thou hast chosen to satisfie thy flesh in thou art undone for ever thou wilt ere long cry out of this thy choice most bitterly and curse thy self for it most fearfully It is a seduced heart that hath deceived thee and thou feedest upon ashes and thou canst not say Is there not a lye in my right hand Esay 44. 20. It is true not onely of Idolators but of all other ways of evil thou feedest upon ashes they are but ashes thou feedest upon and delightest in and it is a seduced heart hath turned thee aside from the ways of God that makes thee offended at them it is the God of this world that hath blinded thy eyes so that thou shouldest not see the glorious excellencies and beautiful pleasures and sweet delights that are in the ways of God but that thou shouldest please thy self in those ways that tend to death What hath the whole course of thy life been but playing with the Devils bait under which is a hook that will snatch thee into the sorrows of eternal death Howsoever those that live in jollity and delight in the flesh may bless themselves yet Gods people whose eyes God hath opened would not be in their condition one quarter of an hour for a thousand worlds There are divers sorts that come under this use of reprehension for that ill and woful choice they have made First such as choose to satisfie themselves in such pleasures as are in themselves sinful such who take pleasure in filthiness and ungodliness these are the dregs of men these are the basest of all that can take delight in the very act of sin it self All that is said concerning the dreadful evils of sin and that venome and curse that there is in sin is so far from making sin to be bitter to them as they account more pleasure to be had in many sinful ways then there is to be had in the enjoyment of all the glory that there is in God and Jesus Christ in Heaven and Eternity O cursed heart and cursed choice is this that when God hath revealed in his Word so much concerning the evil of sin that might make any heart in the world tremble at it that thou shouldst not onely not apprehend the evil of it or not taste any bitterness that is in it but shouldst count it delightful yea shouldst esteem so much pleasure to be had in the act of sin it self more then there is to be had in God in Christ or in the Promises or in Heaven or Eternity Surely a cursed seduced heart hath deceived thee these are infinitely out of the way What is there in sin that is thy pleasure that thou choosest as